Wilbert B. Smith
March 31, 1958 Speech
Ottawa Ontario Canada

I have been actively engaged in the investigation of the group of phenomena known as flying saucers for over 7 years. During this period I have read most of the available literature on the subject, interviewed a great many people who have seen unusual things in the sky, examined many pictures and physical objects, made observations with scientific instruments, and carried on a series of communications with intelligences claiming to be extraterrestrial.

I started the investigation out of curiosity, and as an extreme sceptic, fully expecting to find the phenomena to be due to man-made or natural causes. I am 48 years old, hold a Master’s degree in electrical engineering, occupy a responsible position in the Canadian Government, hold a half dozen patents, am author or several technical papers, and in general enjoy a background in technical work and science indicating at least an average competence to study and report on phenomena of a scientific nature.

I have tried as far as possible to use conventional and standard methods and equipment, and to investigate all possible angles before drawing any conclusions. In other words, I have followed the same general procedures which I would have followed if I undertaken to study some more prosaic subject, such as radio wave propagation.

The first phase of the work consisted of reading all available literature, collecting as much observational data as possible, and in general getting a fair perspective of the problem. The second phase involved theoretical and laboratory work, finding openings in our technology and in establishing relevant reference points. And the third phase involved following up the many and varied leads which developed from the first two phases.

I do not intend to dwell on the first phase of the work, as my experience was exactly parallel with other investigators who have provided extensive published reports on their findings. Nor will I dwell on the many dead ends, which were explored, which looked promising at first, but faded out after careful investigation. Nor will I be able to be specific, as I would like to be with respect to material given to me in confidence, or which came through classified channels. Furthermore, it is not my intention to try to convert anyone to my way of thinking, but merely to state what I believe and why I believe it.

Let us take a look at a few facts. First, hundreds of normal, honest people have seen lights in the sky, which behaved like no light seen in the sky would normally behave. Secondly, hundreds of normal, honest people have seen what appeared to be solid, real objects in the sky, which behaved it no object seen in the sky ought to behave. Thirdly, hundreds of people have seen objects in the earth’s atmosphere at sufficiently close range to see enough detail to enable them to say definitely what the object was not, even though they could not identify what it was. Fourthly, descriptions of these objects from observers where circumstances virtually preclude collusion check quite well among themselves, and against the data received from other sources.

It is not reasonable to assume that hundreds of ordinary, normal people, whose word we would readily accept under more mundane circumstances - for instance, as witnesses to an automobile accident - should suddenly becomes liars, fools, neurotics, and otherwise quite incompetent observers.

I have interviewed many of these people myself, and I am convinced that they are sane, sober, honest folk, who are reporting as best they can something that they really did witness. I will concede that some of these people did not do as good as job of observing as someone who is better trained might have done, within their limits. I believe that they did honestly report what they saw.

Let us take a look at a few more facts. First, there have been several close brushes with these objects, and in one case at least the aircraft pilot lost his life as a consequence. Captain Mantell was reported killed as a result of chasing a flying saucer on January 7, 1947. The incident is described in detail in Report on Unidentified Flying Objects by Edward J. Ruppelt, pp.51-60 (American edition)

Secondly, people who have been near these objects have described physical sensations, which are unusual to say the least, but which are quite consistent with what is known of the technology under which they operate. As nearly as we are able to recreate the accident, Mantell was pursuing a UFO and was able to get quite near-in fact, well into its operating field. His aircraft just fell apart was scattered over quite an area. Mantell’s body, when recovered, was not displayed to even his next of kin. Several people, who have found themselves close to these objects have remarked on the insufferable heat, which seemed to pervade the general region. Also there seemed to be a gravitational necessity to lean away from the object to maintain balance. These objects seem rather incredible; nevertheless there exists quite a good record in support of such an occurrence. Furthermore, the technology of which we have been able to get a glimpse-namely, that of manipulation of the three basic fields, electric, magnetic, and tempic-indicates quite a straightforward answer and explanation of the phenomena.

In Mantell’s case, the altered field configurations in the vicinity of the craft reduced binding forces within the structure of the aircraft to a value below that of the load, which the parts were supposed to carry. So it just came apart. Also, there was probably a substantial reduction in tempic field intensity, which would give in effect a rising temperature to the aircraft and contents. I understand that Mantell’s body gave every indication of having been subjected to considerable heat. This rise in temperature have been reported as being quite noticeable at distances of several hundred feet of these crafts when they were making use of certain combinations of field. Also, since gravity involves a tempic-field function., it follows that an alteration in the filed could well be reflected in the direction and magnitude of the nearby gravity field.

There have been quite a number of alleged communications with intelligences claiming to be extra-terrestrial. I have followed up each instance to the best of my ability in an effort a) to establish or disprove the validity of the alleged communication and b) to obtain any information which might be available if the contact should be authentic.

As might be expected, many of these alleged contacts provided little or nothing of value, but a few did pay off. Some of the contacts have been the subject of published material, but by far the majority are confidential, and there are a surprising number of these contacts. The procedure in checking contacts was to ask a number of innocuous but significant questions and compare the answers to the same questions obtained through other contacts. The questions were of the type – do people live on the planet Mars? If so, what is the shape of their houses? –Do people on Mars use money? –If so what does it look like? Altogether, some hundred or more questions were involved.

The results were spectacular, to say the least. Among the contacts that might be classed as authentic, there was almost complete agreement. Among the other alleged contacts there was extremely poor agreement, or not at all. Of course, there was agreement in general, but where one or two points didn’t fit, an effort was made to find out the reason for the discrepancy. In each case it was found that someone had injected a terrestrial idea or comment instead of transmitting faithfully that, which was received.

Now, having located what seemed to be channels of communication between the extraterrestrial intelligences and us, the next and obvious step was to try and get as much information as possible. As may be expected, this effort was at first directed toward science and technology. But soon it became apparent that there was a very real and quite large gap between this alien science and the science in which I had been trained. Certain crucial experiments were suggested and carried out, and in each case the results confirmed the validity of the alien science. Beyond this, the alien science was just incomprehensible.

There followed a period of soul-searching in which many doubts were raised. While we were able to establish that these people from outside all told the same story, was that story true? It may be agreed that there existed some pretty good evidence to support their statements, but maybe there was some other conventional explanation. If the whole thing was a delusion, then quite a number of people were suffering from precisely the same delusion. And furthermore-delusions are not externalized –at least, I never heard of such a case. If, on the other hand, it was a hoax, it was by far the most gigantic hoax the world had ever known, and to what end and by who was it perpetrated?

The inevitable conclusion was that it was all real enough, but that the alien science was definitely alien- and possibly even forever beyond our comprehension. So another approach was tried- the philosophical- and here the answer was found in all its grandeur.

I will not go into details on the many revisions in ideas and basic thinking beyond stating that the people from outside displayed great patience and understanding in overcoming the prejudices and misinformation that I had spent many years in accumulating. I began for the first time in my life to realize the basic oneness of the Universe and all that is in it – science, philosophy, religion, substance and energy are all facets of the same jewel, and before one facet can be appreciated, the form of the jewel itself must be perceived.

One of the most important things that I had to realize is that we are not alone. The human race in the form of man extends throughout the universe, and is incredibly ancient. Also, its appearance in the physical form is but one of the many manifestations along the path of progress. Our civilization here on earth now is only one of many that have come and gone. The planet has been colonized many times by people from elsewhere, and our present human races are blood brothers of these people. Is it any wonder that they are interested in us? To orthodox thinkers this may seem strange, but not nearly so strange as our orthodox ideas on evolution. The question might be asked- “if these people are our brothers, and they are interested in our welfare, who do they remain so aloof?” The answer is available. There is a basic law of the universe, which grants each and every individual independence, and freedom of choice, so that he may experience and learn from his experiences. No one has the right to interfere in the affairs of others –in fact; our ten commandments are directives against interference. If we disregard this law, we must suffer the consequences, and a little thought will show that our present world state is directly attributable to violation of this principle. When we enter this life, we do so to participate in certain events, the sequence of which were established before our birth, and if altered substantially would deprive us of experiences necessary to our development. We have built-in protection against altering substantially the sequences in that we do not consciously know of them. But these people from outside have a much greater knowledge than we have, and have a means of perceiving sequences, which must not be changed. Therefore, while they have every desire in the world to help, and stand by ready willing and able to do so, they are not permitted by cosmic law to interfere. The dividing line between help and interference is very delicate indeed, and sometimes hard to perceive, but it is a demonstration of individual and collective progress as to how well we can be guided by it. I am told that one of our difficulties is that we do not recognize a sufficient number of dimensions and make use of them in our science. Furthermore, we do not recognize the true nature of dimensions, or of their place in our Universe. I am told that, as far as we are concerned there are twelve dimensions of deity, and these provide the entire structure of our Universe. Our conventional concept of dimensions are most inadequate and restrictive, and so long as we persist in them, we can never transcend the world of mechanical processes, which we have built.

In science we have an established procedure always to tie a new discovery or observation to that which we already know, even though to do so requires a patchwork and perturbation factors to be applied to our existing knowledge to make the new knowledge fit. We invariably assume that the new knowledge must somehow be closely related to the old, and we are most zealous in tying the two together. As a consequence we bend and warp our units of knowledge so that we can fasten them together, until we have fabricated quite a structure, which is almost completely closed on itself. Consequently, when we do find knowledge that should, but just won’t, fit our structure, we have no alternative but to reject it.

I am informed that the science is really much more simple than we imagine, and that all the component parts fit together perfectly without any corrections. Possibly we should start over again and reassemble our knowledge in a different pattern, and this time fit the jigsaw puzzle together properly without trimming the pieces. I am sure that if we were to do this and accept the philosophy on which this new approach must of necessity be based; we can enjoy the technology and the way of life, which is demonstrated by the presence of the spacecraft and of our brothers from elsewhere.