UFOs, Archaeology and the Scientific Method

This is for all of you skeptics out there - you know who you are...Meet me down at the next paragraph...

I'm a rational, tax-paying, realist and I tend to live a fact-based life.  That said, I'm secure enough in my own sanity, that I am willing to entertain, and keep an open mind to, things that have yet to be explained or discovered.

Let me put it this way:  I would have been a fan of Galileo, when Galileo wasn't cool.

As a young child, I was always interested in the paranormal, UFO's, big foot, Nessie, etc. I religiously watched, "In Search Of..."a show that explored the mysteries of the world every Saturday at 7:30pm.  In retrospect, it was a piece of crap.  That said, Leonard Nimoy narrated the series, which in my mind, brought a bit of Vulcan gravitas into the mix.

I was and still am, a sci-fi fan.  I loved archaeology and read dozens of books about Ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica.  I even tracked down an archaeologist and she allowed me to participate in my first archaeological dig at 11.  Ironically, 10 years later, I ended up working for the Field Director on her team, when I was officially getting paid to dig up stuff.

I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing I was one of the few 5th graders that stayed awake all night, strung out with excitement, because my parents were taking me to the King Tut exhibit the next day.

Disneyland be damned!


As I got older, I ended up becoming friends with two people that have, in my estimation,  true psychic abilities.  I have also known others with a strong, unexplainable sixth sense that defies simple explanation and even had my own "strange" experiences on occasion.

I  knew one woman that didn't have natural psychic ability, but developed her remote viewing/psychic capabilities at U.C. Berkley.  At the time I knew her, she had also been working on a paper with a quantum physicist studying energy from a metaphysical perspective.  I don't know about you, but I find the idea of looking into something like that quite intriguing. 

It's also interesting to note that some people lump both quantum physics and metaphysical studies into the  "psuedo-science" category.  But it doesn't stop there, in some dark corners of universities and academic underworlds, archaeology is also considered a "pseudo-science."

Why all the hate you ask?

Because hypotheses that are not absolutely "testable" and "observable" based on the scientific method, are not valid sciences in their view and neither are the people that study them.

Because once an archaeologist painstakingly, extracts, measures, tests, records, charts and reviews the items and data that is found after a dig, a logical assumption needs to be made of what the items were used for, how the people lived, why they died out, etc.  One must extrapolate, conjecture and hypothesize based on actual evidence and...a best guess - which doesn't hold water with the haters. 

Unfortunately, getting first hand information from dead people is always a bit challenging - but no matter, if chemists are held to testable, observable standards, then everyone else should be too.

No exceptions!!


I love good, solid science, but some things we would like to study aren't cut and dried, testable or even observable with current methods of science.  It doesn't mean we won't get there, but we just aren't there yet.
I believe having a healthy respect and understanding for both reality and possibility, is the best way for humans to evolve scientifically, and maybe just to plain evolve.

Would we have gone to the moon if scientists and governments assumed it could never happen?  Did science teams know EXACTLY what they would find when they requested billions of dollars to develop the Super Collider at Cern? Most recently, never before seen, arsenic eating bacteria were found thriving in Mono Lake, which opened an entirely new realm of possibility regarding extra-terrestrial life in the universe.  A possibility that didn't exist in the minds of most scientists a year ago.

My point is, by using both imagination and intelligence, we can allow for the discovery or invention of seemingly, impossible things.

Rigid parameters, the fear of being wrong and the lack of curiosity, will never result in good science.

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Flash back to 1978, it's 114 degrees, I'm in the heart of the Yucatan jungle in Mexico, exploring the Mayan ruins of Chichen-Itza...

I quickly run ahead of my family, down a long causeway and stop at the edge of the sacred cenote well, where dozens of sacrificial maidens had met their fate hundreds of years before.  The massive limestone well was filled with brackish green water, ringed with sedimentary layers and ridges from top to bottom.

I gazed into the pool, longing to know for myself - was Leonard Nimoy right?  Was this the actual landing site of an alien craft, whose rocket exhaust carved out this massive cenote in one, continuous burst as it propelled  back into the universe???



No.....but at least I was open to the possibility.
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