Issue #33 Lessons From History

I recently finished reading "The Flying Saucers Are Real" by Donald Kehoe again, and it amazed me how much of what was stated in his book is still relevant today. It also reminded me of how important it is review old reports, publications, and books periodically to refresh ones knowledge base.

With a steady stream of cases constantly coming in, it is easy to get caught up in the workload and dismiss already closed cases. However the smart investigator will learn how to cross-reference cases in the database by date, characteristics, description, size, and other details. Just as important is knowing if there were similar sightings or events in the past.

This is why reading is so important. I know I've written about it's importance before, but I can't stress enough how truly important building your knowledge base is in this field. Fortunately we live in a digital age now, which makes it a whole lot easier to find some of the old, and very important works in the field of UFOlogy. I know that a lot of the old books are out of print now, which can make the costs of the hard copy, or book as we old dinosaurs like to call them, prohibitive in many instances. I know that a copy of one of Wendell Stevens books which is out of print now, sold on Amazon for around $1,400...a little more than I like to pay myself. Fortunately though, you can find the eBook version for a significantly lower price.

Another very valuable tool is built right in to the MUFON website, but I bet it is overlooked by a lot of investigators. Under the 'Research' menu, one can find a list of famous UFO cases that can be reviewed, and under the 'Track UFOs' menu, one can search the UFO Database, even if you are not a member of MUFON! Trust me, the database is a gold mine of information if one takes the time to look through it. Not all of the cases reported to MUFON over the years are entered in to it yet, but they are working on it.

It is critical if you want to become the best Field Investigator that you can be, to learn from the people before you. So much hard work has been done over the years by volunteers using their own finances, and I'm pretty sure that they did it with the intent of having the information available for others to use and learn from. It would be a shame not to make use of their valuable contributions.

I hope this issue sparks your desire to read some of the older accounts in the field of UFOlogy, and I hope you all enjoy your research as much as I do! Don't forget to share this issue, and come back next week for the next issue!