Part 1 of 3: Science Was Wrong Interview with Stanton Friedman and Kathleen Marden by Michelle M. Pillow
Science Was Wrong Part 1 of 3
Interview with authors Stanton T. Friedman, MSC and Kathleen Marden
by Michelle M. Pillow, www.michellepillow.com
I have often noticed that there seems to be, at least in recent years, a real focus on approaching paranormal subjects with a scientific mind. The word “science” and “scientific evidence” gets thrown around a lot, as if calling it such will suddenly add validity to what is being said. However, I have to wonder exactly what is going on in the scientific community as far as the paranormal is concerned. Since I’m hardly a scientist, I figured it would be best to seek out some experts on the subject and probe their brains. The most logical place to start was with the authors of Science Was Wrong and try to understand their views on how, historically speaking, science has led us astray in the paranormal fields.
Social scientist and educator, Kathleen Marden, has served as its International Director of Field Investigator Training for ten years, and is highly involved with the Mutual UFO Network (www.mufon.com). She’s lectured extensively on the subjects and is a UFO abduction investigator and researcher. Twenty years ago she quit her job and became a full-time ufologist and writer. She’s written several magazine articles and is the coauthor (along with Stanton Friedman) of the books Science Was Wrong and Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience, the latter of which tells the story of her aunt and uncle.
Nuclear physicist Stanton T. Friedman MSC has lectured all over the US and other countries at more than six-hundred colleges. He has worked at classified R and D programs for such companies as GE, GM, Westinghouse, Aerojet General Nucleonics, McDonnell Douglas and TRW, where the objectives were fission and fusion rockets, nuclear airplanes, nuclear power plants for space and terrestrial applications. Stanton is also a columnist for the MUFON Journal and for UFO magazine.
Kathleen and Stanton’s coauthored book, Science Was Wrong, released in June 2010 and can be purchased at Amazon.com as well as other major bookstores. I would like to thank them for taking the time out of their busy schedules to talk about their latest work.
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In your book, Science Was Wrong, you examine scientific history. What inspired you to write about this?
Kathleen:Stan presented his fabulous idea to me and I, being naturally curious, was intrigued about researching a variety of topics. It would be a great learning experience. I suggested a section called the “Frontiers of Science” in order to demonstrate that, despite the evidence, psi phenomena and UFOs have not gained mainstream scientific acceptance just like so many discoveries in the past. And just as occurred in the past, both topics are misrepresented on a regular basis by a small group of vocal debunkers.
Stanton: I had already found many false claims by credentialed scientists about UFOs, Flight in the atmosphere, Space Flight, supposed absence of evidence re UFOs. It seemed clear that such claims were very common and, upon, examination had serious consequences with regard to people’s health and technological progress.
Why do you think readers, and society in general, are fascinated by the paranormal?
Kathleen: These are areas of study that science has not yet officially accepted as being real, although most of people think they are. I think that the challenge of investigating the evidence is tantalizing.
Stanton: Many know somebody who has had what might be described as a paranormal experience but rarely are taken seriously. Nowhere to turn but to books, movies etc since professional scientists usually just brush the topics off. They want rational answers.
What are your favorite paranormal shows, movies and books?
Kathleen:UFO Hunters, The Conscious Universe by Dean Radin, Ph.D., Firestorm by Ann Druffel, Messages by Stan Romanek, UFOs and Abductions edited by David Jacobs, Ph.D., Encounter at Bluff Ledge by Walter Webb, Intruders by Budd Hopkins and the peer reviewed journals that publish abduction research information. I also think that telepathy is real and that some medical intuitives have an uncanny ability to detect physiological problems inside the human body.
Stanton likes Travis Walton’s Fire in the Sky, Dr. Bruce Maccabee’s UFO books, and Jerry Clark’s encyclopedia.
Do you believe in the supernatural? Or are you a skeptic?
Kathleen:I am a rational skeptic who believes that some UFOs and UFO abductions are real. Stanton is skeptical about many things but refuses to come to a conclusion until having studied relevant data. He maintains a large “Gray basket” for topics about which there is too little solid data to reach a rational conclusion. He believes that Chocolate tastes better than vanilla, that classical music sounds better than rock.
Have you ever had a paranormal experience?
Kathleen:If you categorize a close encounter with a UFO as paranormal, then yes I have. The multiple witness sightings occurred on February 22, 1966 when I was 17. My aunt, Betty Hill, my mother, grandmother, brother and a family friend had a close encounter with a disk-shaped unconventional craft for at least 60 minutes over Country Pond in Newton, NH. It traveled in stair-step and falling leaf patterns, swayed back and forth in a pendulum motion and wobbled before it went down and appeared to land. It then projected a telescoping funnel like spotlight upon my mother. That was just before we hightailed it home. You can read the full account in Captured! Chapter 19.
Stanton has not had any paranormal experiences so far as he can recall.
What kind of paranormal creatures do you wish you could meet?
Kathleen: I’d like to meet a cooperative team of alien scientists (on my own terms) who can explain to me where their home base is; why they are coming to Earth; why they are abducting humans; what they know about Earth’s history; how their religion (if they have one) differs from ours; what their planet’s environment is like; what their cultural, moral and ethical values are; and whatever I can comprehend about their technology; etc, etc. A very tall order! Stanton would like to attend those meetings and also find out about such things as memory suppression; passage through “solid walls” how they have learned to live at peace with their neighbors. If they haven’t they would have been destroyed already
If given the chance, would you leave with an alien spaceship?
Kathleen:Only if it were for a short excursion around the Earth and perhaps to Mars. Of course, I would insist upon retaining full conscious recollection of the event. I have close ties with friends and family here on Earth, along with seven precious grandchildren. I’d never willingly leave for good because I love my life on Earth.
Stanton: Yes, if I could be sure of returning with memory intact and new knowledge about intelligent beings in the local neighborhood.
What does the future hold for your work?
Kathleen: I’m considering the idea of writing either a fiction of non-fiction book on what I know about alien abductions. Also, Stan and I have been talking about collaborating on another book when time permits. Stan and I have also optioned the rights to our book, Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience. We are hoping that it will be made into a motion picture.
Stanton: Rights to my life story and to my book TOP SECRET/MAJIC have been optioned by Stellar Productions for a movie “Majic Men”. I would like to do a book with Kathleen and also a biography about Dr. Donald Menzel an astronomer who led a double life debunking UFOs and being part of a secret group “Operation Majestic 12” knowing a great deal about their reality.
Have you ever been abducted by aliens?
Kathleen: If I have, they wiped out my memory. (grin).
Stanton: Not so far as I know.
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Look for Part 2 of this interview next week!
If you would like to read more about Stanton T. Friedman, MSC and Kathleen Marden, or any of their mentioned titles, please visit them on the web at: www.stantonfriedman.com and www.kathleen-marden.com.
Interview by Michelle M. Pillow, www.michellepillow.com
