“Best UFO Cases” by Isaac Koi

PART 4:    Consensus lists : Introduction

Have leading UFO researchers ever reached a consensus as to which UFO cases are the "best"?  What polls have been done of UFO researchers and UFO groups asking them to identify the best cases?  If no real consensus emerges from the various lists of the “best” cases put forward by various ufologists, why should any skeptic pay attention to the lists put forward by any one individual? Have skeptics "evaded" consensus lists of the best cases?

These cases are addressed in a series of articles about lists that actually, or purportedly, reflect the views of various UFO researchers as to the best UFO evidence.

Robert Sheaffer has asserted that “If we were to ask a dozen leading UFOlogists to name the most complex, the most puzzling, the most inexplicable of all reported UFO encounters, the consensus would probably be ‘the Hill UFO abduction’” (see Footnote 4.1 and Footnote 4.2).

That comment by Robert Sheaffer makes at least two incorrect assumptions:

“Best UFO Cases” by Isaac Koi

PART 6:    Consensus lists : Ronald Story’s poll (1979)

In his first book on UFOs, skeptic Philip J Klass wrote “I have yet to meet a UFOrian who is willing to stake his case on one, two, or even ten sightings” (see Footnote 6.01).

Having read over 1,000 UFO books and countless articles, I am aware of only one researcher that has met the implied challenge set by Klass. That researcher is Ronald Story.

Ronald Story has written an interesting book entitled “UFOs and the Limits of Science” (1981), which set out a list of ten “best” cases. Story expressly stated that “If anyone were to ‘debunk’ or explain in prosaic terms – to my satisfaction – all ten of these cases, I personally, would no longer regard the UFO phenomenon as worthy of serious study, except in the realm of the behavioral sciences” (see Footnote 6.02).

Thus, the list set out by Story is to be distinguished from the various other lists of cases set out in PART 3:    Existing lists by various individuals, which were not accompanied by any such clear statement resting the relevant researcher’s case on the sightings listed and were in fact almost universally expressed in slightly vague terms, e.g. as being a list of “good cases” or “important cases”.

Ronald Story’s list of the ten “best” cases has another claim to fame. Brad Sparks has stated that “Us veterans who have been involved in UFO research since the 60's and earlier are quite knowledgeable of the fact that consensus lists of best UFO cases were published in the 60's and 80's based on surveys of UFO researchers worldwide” (see Footnote 6.03). He has alleged that these “consensus lists” are ones that “the skeptics all but ignore” (see Footnote 6.04) and that “skeptics have evaded” (see Footnote 6.05). The first of those lists, based on a survey by Jacques Vallee, was discussed in PART 5:    Consensus lists : Jacques Vallee’s poll (1965). The second list is that published by Ronald Story in “UFOs and the Limits of Science”.

The actual list published by Ronald Story (see Footnote 6.06) is set out below:

“Best UFO Cases” by Isaac Koi

PART 5: Consensus lists : Jacques Vallee’s poll (1965)

As discussed earlier in this series of articles (see PART 1: Top 100 UFO Cases: Introduction and PART 2: Challenges to produce lists of top cases), various skeptics have complained that ufologists have failed to put forward their “best cases”, or to agree amongst themselves which cases are the “best”.

Those complaints have generally not been addressed, or apparently considered, in any depth by most ufologists. However, Brad Sparks has contended that the skeptics are simply wrong and contended that two such “consensus lists” exist.

The earlier of the two lists relied upon by Brad Sparks was published by Jacques Vallee in 1966 (discussed below) and the second is said by Brad Sparks to have been published by Ronald Story and Richard Greenwell in 1981 (this claim in addressed in the next part of this article - see PART 6: Consensus lists : Ronald Story’s poll (1979) ).

This article looks into the first of those polls, i.e. the poll conducted by Jacques Vallee during 1965.

“Best UFO Cases” by Isaac Koi

As discussed in earlier sections of this article, Jacques Vallee and Ronald Story conducted polls of ufologists in an attempt to determine which cases were considered to be the best (see PART 5:    Consensus lists : Jacques Vallee’s poll (1965) and PART 6:    Consensus lists : Ronald Story’s poll (1979) of this article respectively).  Those polls were conducted quite some time ago.  Vallee’s questionnaire was sent to UFO groups between January and March 1965, with the survey being closed in August 1965 (see Footnote 7.01). Ronald Story’s form letter was sent to ufologists in October 1979 (see Footnote 7.02).

Rather more recently, Paul Kimball has conducted a poll which formed the basis of his documentary “Best Evidence”, which was first broadcast on the Canadian “Space” channel on 10 May 2007.

Paul Kimball described the relevant poll in the opening words of his documentary : “In 2005 and 2006, documentary filmmaker Paul Kimball surveyed a select group of the world’s leading UFO researchers. He asked each of them for a list of their ten best UFO cases of all time. The cases were assigned point values, based on their rank, and then averaged together. Over seventy UFO incidents from around the world received votes. At the end of the process, the following ten incidents comprised the best evidence UFO cases of all time” (see Footnote 7.03).

The relevant poll of the relevant “select group of the world’s leading UFO researchers” is discussed in PART 8:    Consensus lists : Paul Kimball’s expert poll (2005/6) (i.e. in the next Part). Further information and relevant multimedia can be found on the blog “Best Evidence : Top Ten UFO Sightings”  (see Footnote 7.10).

As part of that polling process, Paul Kimball also conducted an informal poll on his main blog, “The Other Side of Truth” (see Footnote 7.09). Anyone could vote in that informal poll, which Paul Kimball e has described this poll as his “Vox Populi” poll.  When launching gus “Vox Populi” poll, Paul Kimball indicated that he would factor in the results when determining the “top 10 list” for the documentary, assigning the results of the Vox Populi poll “a weight equivalent to one of our ufological experts” (see Footnote 7.04).