Puthoff on tracking the phenomenon (1989)
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Contents 8
Puthoff on tracking the phenomenon (1989)
| Date | 11 July 1989 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Beings & bodies (topic) |
| People | Harold Puthoff, Jacques Vallée |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 104 |
| Year | 1989 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1989 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 9 |
On 11 July 1989, according to Jacques Vallée's journals, Hal Puthoff told him that "nobody with any brains seems to be tracking this". He meant the UFO phenomenon. Vallée recorded simply: "I disagree with him."[1][9] The exchange appears on page 407 of Forbidden Science Volume Three.[1] It is one of a long series of journal entries, gathered by the researcher Keith Basterfield, in which Vallée and his colleagues went back and forth over whether the U.S. government secretly ran a UFO research program.[1] Michael Shellenberger's 2024 UAP timeline lists the exchange and Vallée's conclusions two months later.[9]
The exchange
- The quotation. Basterfield quotes the entry for 11 July 1989 directly: Puthoff said "No body with any brains seems to be tracking this...", and Vallée added, "I disagree with him."[1]
- The timeline gives the same quotation.[9]
- Background. Vallée's journals were published as the multi-volume Forbidden Science series.[5][6]
Twenty years of back and forth
Basterfield's compilation, drawn from Volumes Two and Three, shows the question changing hands repeatedly from 1972 to 1989.[1]
- 1972–1974. Howell McConnell asked Vallée about a Wright-Patterson group said to analyse confiscated UFO negatives in secret (28 October 1972).[1]
- In October 1973 Puthoff "finally admitted" there was a project with "an official charter" that sometimes asked his psychics to remote-view suspected UFO bases.[1]
- Its manager, "David M.", told Puthoff his unit was being disbanded.[1]
- In February 1974 Kit Green agreed with Vallée that "there must be a secret effort somewhere", and said his group wondered whether it was run within private industry.[1]
- In June 1974 Green relayed word of a "group of 12 highly-placed people". When Vallée met some of its members he found them "space cadets".[1]
- 1975–1978. J. Allen Hynek was told by Donald Rumsfeld at the White House that he did "NOT have a need to know" (13 April 1975).[1]
- In 1978 a caller from McDonnell Douglas told Vallée of a well-funded secret project monitored by the CIA.[1]
- Green was told the Agency had no mission to monitor the subject, which led Vallée to ask: "If these guys actually know nothing, who the hell is in charge?"[1]
- 1980. Over lunch at SRI on 21 May 1980, Vallée told Puthoff he no longer believed the government had an ongoing UFO project, and Puthoff "has reached similar conclusions".[1]
- 1981–1988. Green remained sceptical (1981).[1]
- Richard Haines came back from Vandenberg AFB sure there was a secret project (1982).[1]
- Richard Niemtzow convinced Vallée that a secret project existed (6 July 1985).[1]
- John B. Alexander's group concluded "there must be a secret UFO project, somewhere else!" (24 July 1985).[1]
- A senior CIA official told them no other group was studying UFOs (1986).[1]
- The Army remote viewer Joe McMoneagle said "there must be a higher level of authority that controls UFO data" (1988).[1]
- Alexander's group. Alexander's group was the Advanced Theoretical Physics Project, founded in 1985 as an informal cadre of officials from the armed services, defence industry and intelligence community. It set out to find whether a secret federal UFO project existed.[3]
- Alexander has said the group ultimately concluded "there was no program", and that information collection "was pretty much ad hoc".[3]
- Correction note: the earlier version of this article said Puthoff "was named among the participants" in Alexander's 1985 working group. That is not covered in the sources read here.[3]
Two months later
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- No evidence. On 17 September 1989 Vallée wrote: "If Lundahl is unaware of a black project, if Kit has come up with nothing, if Admiral Houser and General Tommy Johnson strongly deny ever being briefed about any high-level UFO threat that leaves me with no evidence, not even the hint that a black project is active."[1]
- The timeline identifies Lundahl as Art Lundahl of the National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC). It notes that it is unknown whether these men were "obfuscating or unaware".[9]
- Disinformation. On the next page Vallée added: "I am as puzzled as ever: there is evidence of a large disinformation campaign. It must be designed to cover-up something, but when I peer behind the fence I can find no trace of what is supposed to be covering up."[1]
- Vallée's reflection. In the reflections at the end of Volume Two, Vallée had concluded that the intelligence agencies of several countries, notably the U.S., the U.K. and France, encouraged a few private scientists and physicians to conduct "semi-official, deniable" investigations.[1]
Puthoff later
- Bigelow years. Puthoff joined Robert Bigelow's National Institute for Discovery Science in 1995.[2]
- In 2008 he joined Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, the contractor for the Pentagon-funded AAWSAP/AATIP program.[2]
- He wrote one of that program's 38 technical reports, "Advanced Space Propulsion Based on Vacuum (Spacetime Metric) Engineering". His EarthTech colleague Eric Davis wrote another.[4] See AAWSAP DIRD release.
- To The Stars. In 2017 he co-founded To the Stars with Tom DeLonge, where he was tasked with analysing metal fragments alleged to come from UFOs.[2]
- The Black Vault quotes TTSA as describing him as co-founder and vice president of science and technology.[4]
- Correction note: the earlier version of this article said Puthoff's company EarthTech "worked on research for the Pentagon-funded AAWSAP programme from 2008", and that TTSA "helped bring the Navy UAP videos to public attention".
People and topics
- Harold Puthoff — Physicist who co-founded the SRI remote-viewing research and later worked on AAWSAP and To The Stars Academy.
- Jacques Vallée — Computer scientist and astronomer, author of the Forbidden Science journals and a central figure in UFO research.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- AAWSAP — The Defense Intelligence Agency's UAP research program of 2008–2010, carried out by Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.
On the Timeline
- Arthur Exon's Roswell statements (July 1989) — Gen. Arthur Exon says he was told Roswell was an alien craft recovery.
- Vallée on the disinformation campaign (1989) (17 September 1989) — Vallée writes there is a large disinformation campaign around UAP.
See every 1989 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- Jacques Vallée — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
References
- "Was there secret US government research?", UFOs Scientific Research (Oct 2016) · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- Harold E. Puthoff — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- John B. Alexander — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "AAWSAP DIRDs", The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- Forbidden Science — the journals of Jacques Vallée (Anomaly Archives) · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
- Forbidden Science series — Anomalist Books · anomalistbooks.com · archived copy
- Review of Forbidden Science 6 — SFCrowsnest · sfcrowsnest.info · archived copy
- Forbidden Science Dispatches — Tanner Boyle (journal summaries) · tannerfboyle.substack.com · archived copy
- Michael Shellenberger, written testimony to the House Oversight Committee (13 November 2024), p. 104 · oversight.house.gov
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Harold E. Puthoff”, “John B. Alexander”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
Categories: 1989 | Aawsap | Beings bodies | Harold puthoff | Jacques vallée | Timeline event | Unidentified flying object
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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