Henry Dakin's San Francisco building
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Owner | Henry Saltonstall Dakin (died 2010), philanthropist |
|---|---|
| Organisation | Washington Research Institute, a private nonprofit educational foundation |
| Addresses | First on Washington Street; later 3220 Sacramento Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco |
| Tenants | Consciousness, parapsychology, computer-networking, Soviet–American and environmental groups |
| In Vallée's journals | Forbidden Science 5: Pacific Heights (2000–2009), in an entry dated February 2000 |
| Notable tenant | Joe Firmage's International Space Sciences Organization (around 2000) |
| Date | 20 February 2000 |
| Topics | Propulsion & physics (topic), Remote viewing & psi (topic) |
| People | Jacques Vallée |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 142 |
| Year | 2000 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2000 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 10 |
The San Francisco offices of the philanthropist Henry Dakin housed a wide range of unconventional research and activist groups. They appear in the published journals of the computer scientist and UFO researcher Jacques Vallée.[1][3] An entry in Vallée's fifth volume, dated February 2000, describes the building's tenants at the time. They included the International Space Sciences Organization founded by the internet entrepreneur Joe Firmage.[1][2] Over the years Dakin's institute gave space to consciousness researchers, parapsychologists, computer-networking pioneers and groups working on Soviet–American exchanges.[2][4]
Henry Dakin
Henry Saltonstall Dakin, who died in 2010, ran a private, nonprofit educational foundation, the Washington Research Institute.[2][3] Its first offices were on Washington Street. It later moved to 3220 Sacramento Street in Pacific Heights.[3] From the 1970s Dakin supported projects in consciousness research, parapsychology, computer networking, Soviet–American exchanges and the environment. Groups that grew from his support include Internews and the Institute for Global Communications.[2] The SourceWatch profile summarising this refused automated access.[2]
Tributes on his memorial page recall the building:[3]
- Busy. "3220 was alive all day, every day, and often all night with all the projects he supported."
- The work. One former worker had been hired around 1984, in the first Washington Street office, to transcribe the volumes of the Conference on the Fate of the Earth.
- The groups. Others recalled office space for civic projects, UNICEF events and a statewide campus dialogue programme. One remembered a poster showing "all the known frequencies of energy".
- The man. Several remembered his patience in teaching people to use computers.
Research groups
The physicist Nick Herbert's memoir of his friend Saul-Paul Sirag describes the circle around Dakin's institute:[4]
- The Consciousness Theory Group. Sirag was a founding member. The group met first at Arthur Young's Institute for the Study of Consciousness in Berkeley, then in San Francisco when Sirag moved into Dakin's Washington Research Institute, "where both consciousness and the Soviet Union were central topics of concern".
- Parapsychology. At the institute, Sirag served for some years as president of the Parapsychology Research Group, in which the SRI remote-viewing researcher Russell Targ was prominent.
- Hyperspace. There Sirag devised a hyperspace model of consciousness, later described in Jeffrey Mishlove's The Roots of Consciousness.
Sirag also wrote the afterword to Robert Anton Wilson's Cosmic Trigger. He and Herbert later hosted seminars on physics and consciousness at the Esalen Institute.[4]
Joe Firmage
Joe Firmage's career in outline:[5][8]
- USWeb. He co-founded the internet services company USWeb in 1995. It went public in 1998 at a valuation of about $2.5 billion, and Forbes named him one of its "Masters of the New Universe".
- The encounter. In late 1998 he said he had encountered an extraterrestrial being. Amid investor concerns over a merger, he stepped down from his leadership role.
- Later ventures. He then funded science-media and propulsion projects, including work with Ann Druyan, and pursued antigravity technology.
- Legal trouble. From the 2010s investors sued him. A 2023 federal civil suit alleged about $25 million in losses in a Ponzi scheme. That year Utah authorities also charged him with financially exploiting a vulnerable adult.
According to Vallée's journal, Firmage's International Space Sciences Organization was among the building's tenants around 2000.[1]
Vallée's journals
Vallée has published his private journals as the Forbidden Science series:[6][7]
- A Passion for Discovery (1957–1969)
- California Hermetica (1970–1979)
- On the Trail of Hidden Truths (1980–1989)
- The Spring Hill Chronicles (1990–1999)
- Pacific Heights (2000–2009), published in January 2023 and named after the district where the building stood
- Scattered Castles (2010–2019)
A seventh volume followed.[1] Reviewers note that the journals are as much about the people and "scenes" around Vallée as about UFOs.[9][10] The text of the February 2000 entry is not available online, so its details could not be checked against the book.[1]
Significance
Dakin's building is one example of the networks around Vallée that linked Silicon Valley money, the Bay Area counterculture, Cold War "citizen diplomacy", and research into consciousness, the paranormal and UFOs.[1][2][4] Firmage's later legal troubles show how such networks could also draw speculative ventures.[5]
People and topics
- 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.
- NASA — The U.S. civilian space agency, created in 1958.
On the Timeline
- Proposal for a new Project Blue Book (2000) (24 January 2000) — Bigelow tells Vallée of an idea to push Congress for a new Project Blue Book.
- Former TRW employee reverse-engineering claim (8 May 2000) — Vallée, Davis and Puthoff discuss a claim of a secret reverse-engineering project at a contractor.
See every 2000 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- Jacques Vallée — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
References
- Jacques Vallée, *Forbidden Science 5: Pacific Heights* (journals 2000–2009), Amazon · amazon.com · archived copy
- "Henry Saltonstall Dakin", SourceWatch · sourcewatch.org · archived copy
- "Henry Dakin obituary" (2010), San Francisco Chronicle via Legacy.com · legacy.com · archived copy
- Nick Herbert, "Saul-Paul Sirag's new math book", Quantum Tantra (Jul 2016) · quantumtantra.blogspot.com · archived copy
- Joseph Firmage — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Forbidden Science — the journals of Jacques Vallée (Anomaly Archives) · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
- Forbidden Science series — Anomalist Books · anomalistbooks.com · archived copy
- Joe Firmage — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Review of Forbidden Science 6 — SFCrowsnest · sfcrowsnest.info · archived copy
- Forbidden Science Dispatches — Tanner Boyle (journal summaries) · tannerfboyle.substack.com · archived copy
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Joseph Firmage”, “Joe Firmage”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
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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