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The UFO Investigator Starter Kit document

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The UFO Investigator Starter Kit

INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONTRIBUTING

If you’d like to contribute links or new information to this starter kit, here are the instructions:

  • Clone the repository.
  • Make a branch, make and commit changes to index.md, then submit a pull request.
  • Your pull request will be reviewed and, if accepted, will be merged to the master repository, converted to HTML, and published.
  • If you simply want to contribute a link or two but don’t want to use Github, post the link to Twitter and mention @ufodisclosurewb

PURPOSE

This document is for:

  • people new to the topic who want a solid foundation at the start of their search for answers
  • skeptics who should consider that the answers aren’t as simple as a single Google search or a mere day of topic perusal
  • journalists who want a primer on the history of the phenomenon
  • government leaders, representatives, fact finders, aides, bureaucrats
  • military rank-and-file, leaders, and investigators new to the topic

This is just a beginning with a few major concepts outlined in brief. If you don’t know what something is, search it out to get more detail. Any included links are meant only as starting points and examples, not as the “final word” on anything.

You may count yourself in the camp of the skeptics. That’s fine. Just don’t make the mistake of not questioning your own skepticism as more evidence comes to light. As Herbert Spencer once said,

There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance – that principle is contempt prior to investigation.

The reader is encouraged to do their own investigation and come to their own conclusions.

SECTIONS

UNCLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS

Start here. You’ll see these referenced a lot in both good UFO books and bad. It’s important to know what the documents say and don’t say first so that you can filter author opinions from reality. That also goes for opinions of any skeptics reading this. The documents don’t exist in a vacuum. Indeed, if nothing like the craft that UFOs represent exists, then why do these documents exist at all? There’s a history before, during, and after their creation that is important to pay attention to in order to fully understand what they mean and what they’re saying/not saying.

Note: Just because something is unclassified doesn’t mean there was no good reason to classify it initially. If you read the documents, you’ll find a number of places where the information that justified its classification is either redacted for privacy or defense concerns, or is so outdated as to no longer require classification for the government’s purposes. Also, there’s the problem of deception by omission. We don’t know for sure what is missing from these archives. But there are some context clues if you read between the lines.

PROJECTS AND COMMITTEES

The following projects and committees produced large amounts of classified and unclassified documentation, reports, studies, and other media on UFOs. They are referenced in numerous books and other publications about UFOs. It’s important to know their names, timelines, players, and conclusions when consuming the materials they produced.

CONGRESSIONAL STATEMENTS AND ACTIONS

REPORTS

Key Reports

The Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) was approved by Deputy Secretary of Defense David L. Norquist on August 4, 2020. It is led by the Department of the Navy under the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. The link below is the preliminary assessment report published on June 25, 2021.

Historical Reports

Much of the rest of this list comes from Richard Dolan’s excellent roundup. Read his summaries on them, but also read the documents themselves. Look for the logic in writing and hiding so much on something that was later considered by top brass to be nothing more than “mass hysteria” or “weather phenomena”. But then even later admitted to be real and problematic for pilots.

TESTIMONIES OF HIGHLY CREDIBLE OBSERVERS

MASS SIGHTINGS

TANGIBLE EVIDENCES

BOOKS

VIDEOS AND PODCASTS

DOCUMENTARIES

RESEARCH AND MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS

NEWS COVERAGE AND OPINION ARTICLES SINCE DECEMBER 2017

The demarcation line for these “starter kit” articles is December 2017 onward, from when the New York Times broke the story about AATIP until now, in reverse chronological order. Other articles may be added from earlier for reference, but this is “what matters most”, currently, in terms of legitimizing and destigmatizing the topic. Prior articles were always plausibly deniable given that the government hadn’t yet seen fit to release (or allow to leak) materials with unbroken chains of custody or to acknowledge these craft exist. Older stories are now of much more worth given recent developments. Whenever possible, stories below are linked according to free availability (no paywall).

INDIVIDUAL RESEARCHERS AND INFLUENCERS

DISINFORMATION AGENTS AND CAMPAIGNS

THEORIES OF ORIGINS

Fermi’s Paradox attributed to Enrico Fermi but initially written about by Hart, Michael H. (1975). “Explanation for the Absence of Extraterrestrials on Earth”. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society. 16: 128–135. Bibcode:1975QJRAS..16..128H http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1975QJRAS..16..128H

The “Zoo Hypothesis” by John A. Ball https://www.haystack.mit.edu/hay/staff/jball/etiy.pdf, see also https://arxiv.org/pdf/1608.08770.pdf and https://www.technologyreview.com/2016/09/06/157713/galactic-model-simulates-how-et-civilizations-could-be-deliberately-avoiding-earth/

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS AND ABDUCTIONS

RELIGIONS AND ANCIENT CULTURE

OTHER TIMELINES AND MEGALISTS

MISCELLANEOUS EVIDENCES