Online training manuals for UFO investigators

[isaackoi]

Quite a few training manuals have been published for UFO investigators, including by MUFON and BUFORA.

Unfortunately, some of them aren't made freely available online. I find this regrettable.

If groups such as MUFON and BUFORA truly want to improve ufology, putting those manuals online with free access seems like a fairly basic first step.

However, some other training manuals ARE available free online.

For example, the fairly concise (20 page long) field investigator's manual prepared by APRO is now online at:
www.openminds.tv/pdf/apro-bulletins-searchable/APRO_Field_Investigator_Handbook.pdf

If everyone participating in online discussions about UFOs just read that manual (or the longer book referred to below), the quality of the debate would significantly improve.

For those that want a more detailed (free) education in investigating UFO sightings, I can recommend the revised edition of "UFO Study" by Jenny Randles, the well-known British UFO researcher and author.

"UFO Study" is arguably the best book on the basics facts and issues that need to be known if someone wishes to become a UFO investigator. The book was originally published in 1981 and has been widely recommended by many researchers (including me) to those wishing to know more investigating UFO reports.

The ENTIRE book can be downloaded free of charge from the very bottom of the webpage at the link below:
www.nufonews.co.uk/

Specifically, the book is at this link:
nufonews.co.uk/UFO_Study_P1_V151.pdf

I think everyone participating in discussions about UFO reports on Internet forums should be encouraged to read this single book.

If you haven't read the book (and it hasn't been in print for quite a while, so it hasn't been that easy to get hold of), download it and have a quick look NOW!

Really - it's worth it, particularly at its current price (i.e. zilch, nada, FREE...).

The revised edition is made available by Robert Moore with permission of Jenny Randles, and includes new material by Robert Moore. (Robert Moore is one of those individuals that are all too rare within ufology - he work done for various UFO groups and makes high quality work available on other people's websites without publishing any books of his own or seeking any recognition).

The table of contents below should give an idea of the material covered in the revised edition of "UFO Study":

Chapter 1: Why Ufology? : pages 4 – 8.
Chapter 2: What is Ufology? : pages 9 – 16.
Chapter 3: Classifying the UFO : pages 17 – 19.
Chapter 4: The UFO Report : pages 20 – 23.
Chapter 5: The Source of UFO Reports : pages 24 – 31.
Chapter 6: Basic Investigation : pages 32 – 36.
Chapter 7: The UFO Witness : pages 37 – 46.
Chapter 8: Field Studies : pages 47 – 53.
Chapter 9: Turning UFOs into IFOs : pages 54 –80.
Chapter 10: The Photographic Case : pages 81 – 91.
Chapter 11: Investigating Special Cases : pages 92 – 111.
Chapter 12: Some Example Case Studies : pages 112 –124.

APPENDICES:
Appendix A: UFO Interview Checklist : pages 125-126.
Appendix B: UFO Investigation Checklist : page 127.
Appendix C: Personal Sources Checklist : page 128.
Appendix D: A UFO investigation “toolkit” : pages 129-130.
Appendix E: Laying out a survey grid : page 131.
Appendix F: Code of Practice for UFO Investigators : pages 132 – 136.
Appendix G: Selected Bibliography : page 137.

All the best,

Isaac

[lawsinium]

Well, I believe that in any research, the first tool that an investigator or researcher must have is a questionaire.

These are series of questions that determine one's capacity and ability to be a reliable subject. It must touch topics such as psychological, intellectual, moral, religious, physical, educational and other related aspects of ones totality.

Examples would be:
1. Does the subject read books about ufo, aliens, ghosts and other supernatural phenomena?
2. From 1 to 10, where ten is the widest , how wide is his knowledge about UFOs?
3. At what age did the subject begin to learn about the concept of UFO?
4. Using pictures, the subject can point out what kind of object did he see during the encounter. These pictures are made up of natural phenomena like aura borealis and man-made crafts like dirigibles and blackbird.

With this simple tool, using the idea behind the intelligent konstant, you can at once isolate people who have prior knowledge of ufo from those who just encountered it the first time. By this method, you can determine at once which sighting cases need immediate attention. Your priority would probably be the one who has never heard of the word UFO but has experienced one.

I think MUFON is earning money out of selling this training manual that's why it is not freely available online.

Maybe you can add more on how questionaires must be wisely structured.

joey

[isaackoi]

Sept 25, 2011 11:31:31 GMT -5 lawsinium said:

Maybe you can add more on how questionaires must be wisely structured.

Hi lawsinium,

I'll try to do so soon, but not today.

I'd been planning on addressing that topic at some stage after finishing an item which is dominating my ufological spare time at the moment - "Astronomers and UFOs".

For the moment, I'll just mention that it is important to ask witnesses about things which they can actually report or have measured (e.g. angular speed and angular size rather than estimating size in absolute terms - which depends on a guess as to its distance - or speed in absolute terms).

All the best,

Isaac

[icstars1966]

Thank you Isaac, I'll read it!

[subrosa]

THANKS for the info!

[lawsinium]

Mufon Moderators: I found out that you also did produced an article that discusses the history of UFO. However the link that I stumbled online is a dead link already. Is there a way it can be shared here?

Isaackoi: I think you also have one but it seems the timeline is incomplete. Do you have a new timeline, maybe starting from ancient times to this day?

IF you can provide them here, I will use both of your articles as references on my website. That is if you don't mind.

Thanks

[isaackoi]

Sept 30, 2011 20:24:21 GMT -5 lawsinium said:

Isaackoi: I think you also have one but it seems the timeline is incomplete. Do you have a new timeline, maybe starting from ancient times to this day?

Hi lawsinium,

My timeline is limited to the period from 1877. Even with that limit, the Microsoft Word version of it was about 2,000 pages long. I haven't gone back further than that in my timeline because sources become more and more unreliable. (If there is any particular earlier incident of interest to you, I may have some separate notes.)

A couple of websites have that original version in PDF form, e.g. at:
www.ufoinfo.com/news/ufochronology.shtml

I've been working (as a low priority) on transferring the material to a website at:
www.isaackoi.com/ufo-history.html

All the best,

Isaac

[lawsinium]

Isaac: how abou these ufo events: Nuremberg Germany 1561; Zacatecas Mexico 1883; Maracaibo Venenzuela 1886 and Texas USA 1897.

Maybe you have something here especially 1561 and 1883.

If you analyze the timeline: Ballloon France 1783; Balloon US 1793; glider 1890; First airplane 1903; First Transatlantic 1919. word Spaceship coined in 1894; USSR put space probes in 1957.

If I can prove that 1561/1883 are aircrafts, then the posibilty of UFO encounters did happen even before humans explore earth's atmospheric space. This will be then a good evidence that spaceships do really exist.

Thanks
~joey

[lawsinium]

wow...that's an interesting one....

[kbrennan]

MUFON may make a few dollars on the manual but it can't be much. We have similar large manuals in the Coast Guard AUX which are always free to download but which cost about $40.00 to print. In cost-cutting efforts, the Coast Guard no longer prints these manuals in hard copy. This is irritating because some folks don't like to study from a screen. So, I would rather pay MUFON the $50.00 for the printed manual than have to read from a monitor or print it and bind it myself.

MUFON: Please do not stop offering the print version!

[kbrennan]

Sept 25, 2011 11:31:31 GMT -5 lawsinium said:

Well, I believe that in any research, the first tool that an investigator or researcher must have is a questionaire.

These are series of questions that determine one's capacity and ability to be a reliable subject. It must touch topics such as psychological, intellectual, moral, religious, physical, educational and other related aspects of ones totality.

Examples would be:
1. Does the subject read books about ufo, aliens, ghosts and other supernatural phenomena?
2. From 1 to 10, where ten is the widest , how wide is his knowledge about UFOs?
3. At what age did the subject begin to learn about the concept of UFO?
4. Using pictures, the subject can point out what kind of object did he see during the encounter. These pictures are made up of natural phenomena like aura borealis and man-made crafts like dirigibles and blackbird.

With this simple tool, using the idea behind the intelligent konstant, you can at once isolate people who have prior knowledge of ufo from those who just encountered it the first time. By this method, you can determine at once which sighting cases need immediate attention. Your priority would probably be the one who has never heard of the word UFO but has experienced one.

I think MUFON is earning money out of selling this training manual that's why it is not freely available online.

Maybe you can add more on how questionaires must be wisely structured.

joey

I agree with this 100% but there is more to question. In Europe UFO phenomena overlap with Fairy encounters and these seem to be the same thing. In these cases I always question whether the witness has had encounters of that sort or is familiar with them. I have interviewed many people who did not report "UFO" sightings but rather fairy encounters. The details such as loss of time, paralysis, "little green men" and blazing lights all overlap.

Further, I inquire about the religious and superstitious beliefs.

As a former debunker of ghost phenomena every witness I interviewed, who reported negative experiences from hauntings, were "Christian". Mostly Catholic but also Protestant. This offered a belief disposition to "evil spirits". In contrast, in 20 years I have never received a request for investigation form a Jewish person or an atheist.

The very reason I don't get involved in hauntings anymore is that I have determined the phenomena to be a belief system, a "religion". One can never debunk the belief system of another and every "ghost hunter" I ever met stood firm in their "beliefs", fooling themselves into thinking they had scientific objectivity and methods. It is not that I disregard all paranormal phenomena, only that most folks who experience them are self fulfilling their beliefs.
I think back to "Ghostbusters" when Egon rattles off a long list of potential beliefs that he thinks could sway the judgment of a witness.

As a person that shares UFO sighting experience with many others (who saw the same thing) I only know I saw something that I can not explain. What, exactly, I do not know. If i can not get the same objectivity from a witness I have reason to doubt.

So, in my questioning, I try to determine whether the witness has already decided what they saw or if they are being objective.

In addition I take into account education and social class. Has anyone ever noticed that just about every family interviewed on those cable network "haunting" and "UFO" shows lives below the poverty level in rural areas?

Demographically, these people are more inclined to engage in superstition and folklore. Psychologically, they are more inclined to be "led" by their existing beliefs. In addition, in just about every case of haunting where children were involved I had good reason to suspect an abuse situation in the household.

[teeny]

UFO Online review: www.mmohunter.com/ufo-online.html

[Alien8]

While I don't necessarily agree that MUFON should be offering their manual for free online, I would like to see that maybe the Field investigators are able to obtain a pdf version as well.

[stiver]

Sept 24, 2011 14:31:27 GMT -5 isaackoi said:

For those that want a more detailed (free) education in investigating UFO sightings, I can recommend the revised edition of "UFO Study" by Jenny Randles, the well-known British UFO researcher and author.

"UFO Study" is arguably the best book on the basics facts and issues that need to be known if someone wishes to become a UFO investigator. The book was originally published in 1981 and has been widely recommended by many researchers (including me) to those wishing to know more investigating UFO reports.

The ENTIRE book can be downloaded free of charge from the very bottom of the webpage at the link below:
www.nufonews.co.uk/

Specifically, the book is at this link:
nufonews.co.uk/UFO_Study_P1_V151.pdf

Isaac

Thank you Isaac.

The link above doesn't work now but the book can be downloaded also for free in PDF format from the following link:

UFO STUDY
A Handbook for Enthusiasts
SECOND EDITION (2009: version 2.161).

www.ufo.it/pdf/UFO_study_161.pdf

[isaackoi]

Mar 1, 2012 3:04:59 GMT -5 stiver said:

Sept 24, 2011 14:31:27 GMT -5 isaackoi said:

Thank you Isaac.

The link above doesn't work now but the book can be downloaded also for free in PDF format from the following link:
...
www.ufo.it/pdf/UFO_study_161.pdf

Thanks for updating my link Stiver. I can't keep up with the disappearances of material on the Internet. That's one reason why I've been focusing recently on archiving material on my own hard-drive and learning ways of searching that material more efficiently. I'll post more on those topics very soon.