SDARI PUBLIC MEETINGS IN THE SPRING Looking for UFOs ---------------- On June 22, 1997, Mr. H. Jeff Hall presented a lecture to our group on the topic of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) or, as he prefers to call them, "Extra-terrestrial Vehicles (ETVs)." Mr. Hall listed the categories of ETV sightings and their natural explanations: formations at sunset or moon rise (light reflection off clouds), white streaks in the sky (jet exhaust, meteors), abrupt disappearance of objects in the stratosphere (obscured by water droplets), random movement of a single ETV (a star, planet or distant light viewed without a fixed reference point, the eyes move rapidly), light spots on the undersides of clouds (light reflecting off still bodies of water), and fraud/trick photography. He explained that despite the fact that such "ETV" sightings can be linked to natural occurrences or fraud, many people persist in believing the ETV explanations and, in fact, resent being confronted with such explanations. Mr. Hall suggested that such persistence arises from people's inability to accept that their senses can make mistakes, from the pervasive distrust of the government which resulted the Cold War when government scientists worked on weapons of mass destruction in complete secrecy, and from the psychological trauma of the events of this century which have weakened people's faith in science and religion and opened the door to replacement belief systems. Indeed, much of science and technology is at odds with our perception of reality, and this undermines society's confidence in science. He ended his lecture with a "Trip down the Extraterrestrial Highway" and a description of the Roswell incident of 1947. Mr. Hall recommended the book, The Billy Meier Story: Spaceships of the Pleiades, an in depth examination of an UFO case that involves claims of humans riding in the space ships and visiting other worlds. The author is Kal K. Korff and the book is available from Prometheus Books, 1-800-421-0351. False Memory ------------ On May 25, 1997, Dr. Stuart M. Zola-Morgan gave a lecture on the topic of memory recall in humans. Based on his research and that of others, Dr. Zola-Morgan clearly spelled out the conditions under which humans form memories and retain them. He demonstrated the infantile amnesia that all people have for early childhood events; in other words, no one can remember anything that happened to them during the first 3-4 years of life because the brain is not mature enough. The brain reconstructs memories from information stored in various parts of it: visual, spatial, auditory, etc. Memories are not video tapes to be accessed entire and complete. The brain appears to represent an activity in the same way regardless of whether the activity is real or imagined; so reconstruction of a memory may include things that we just imagined. As time passes, memory is changed, restructured, and stored in different places. The way the question is asked may determine what you remember about an incident; suggestion is very powerful and can generate memories especially when the person is under hypnosis. These features of the human memory can be and have been demonstrated in scientific experiments and are very important in considering the validity of recovered memories which are often described with emotion, detail and confidence, three features that we often use to evaluate the truthfulness of a person's statements. City of Babylon: An Analysis of Biblical Prophecy ------------------------------------------------- Mr. Tim Callahan presented a detailed look at the genre of End Time Prophecies to our group on April 27, 1997. He presented the historical background to the composition of Revelations and some of the other prophecies in the Bible and explained the parallels that some Fundamentalist Christians see in today's events. Interestingly, this group equates "the enemy from the North" with the Soviet Union, which of course no longer exists. The fourth beast of Daniel has 10 horns each equated with 10 kingdoms that are taken to mean the 10 countries of the European Common Market. The fact that the Common Market contained 10 countries for only few years, and now has 12, does not seem to change any minds. Mr. Callahan asked if the current conspiracy theories and Biblically based predictions of Armageddon are motivated by hidden agendas, such as anti-Semitism or the desire to make money by selling silver and gold. ___________ The editors can be reached by E-mail at "ehemming@san.rr.com".