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There has been some recent discussion on ParaNet regarding the Philadelphia
Experiment and the Montauk Project. I am convinced that this whole thing is a
hoax based upon some very good research by Jacques Vallee and others. However,
despite the research showing that it is a hoax, the story continues to be
discussed as if it were all true. Jacques Vallee has provided this article to
ParaNet for electronic distribution only via the computer networks, including
Odyssey Network and Fidonet UFO.
ANATOMY OF A HOAX:
The Philadelphia Experiment Fifty Years Later
c Copyright 1993, 1994 by Jacques F. Vallee
1550 California Street, No.6L
San Francisco, CA.94109
Note: This article was first printed in the Journal of Scientific
Exploration, Vol.8 no.1 (1994) pp.47-71.
Distributed on Internet with author's permission. Abstracts of
all JSE articles can now be accessed on the net at:
http://valley.interact.nl/av/KIOSK/SSE/JSE_home.html
Abstract
The "Philadelphia Experiment" concerns the allegedly paranormal
disappearance of a Navy destroyer from the docks of the
Philadelphia Navy yard in the late Summer of 1943, followed by
disclosures of official contact with extraterrestrial powers.
Claims made by purported witnesses of this supposedly secret Navy
test directed by Albert Einstein have been repeatedly found to be
fraudulent. The author has now interviewed a man who served on a
companion ship to the destroyer in question, and who was on the
scene the night of its supposed disappearance, which he is able
to explain in minute detail. Yet the features of the story are
such that it survives in the UFO literature and that it is now
being revived under a novel form for the benefit of a new
generation of readers. Using this incident as a model of a
successful hoax, the present article extracts thirteen parameters
that have been instrumental in its remarkable survival over the
last fifty years; it compares the features of this fabrication to
other questionable episodes of UFO lore; finally, it attempts to
draw up a list of suitable measures for their detection,
challenge and ultimate exposure.
The Prevalence of Hoaxes
One of the remarkable features of the study of the paranormal
is the permanence and pernicious influence of hoaxes. Not only do
spurious stories arise, as they would in any other field, but
they are eagerly seized upon with little effort at initial
verification, even by people who have an established reputation
as objective researchers. Frank criticism of the process
inevitably arises, but it is commonly mistaken for an attack upon
the integrity or the intelligence of the advocates of the case
who naturally feel defensive and harden their position. Those who
continue to question the "evidence" tend to be assimilated with
skeptics and their objections are often misrepresented.
The media contribute to giving such stories an aura of
respectability, to such an extent that tall tales come to
represent the only "knowledge" of the paranormal the public will
eventually cite in everyday conversation.
Even more remarkable is the fact that some hoaxes tend to
acquire a life of their own, and continue to be invested with
believability among the public even when overwhelming negative
data eventually create unanimous agreement among specialists
about their lack of substance. This makes the work of the
researcher vastly complicated, not only because the field becomes
heavily tainted by the unreliability of these stories, but
because one has to spend an inordinate amount of time explaining
the situation to outsiders and dispelling prior misconceptions.
From a sociological point of view, however, hoaxes are quite
interesting. They provide rich insights into the preconceptions
of both believers and skeptics. They illuminate the motivations
of the authors of the plot and the eagerness of the spectators.
For any hoax to succeed it has to be believable and relevant.
Those that endure, resisting even the absolute proof, the
definitive exposure of the culprits and their methods, are
endowed with additional qualities. They resonate with deep-seated
imagery in the minds of the masses and of the educated public.
They never fail to generate high ratings on prime time. They
touch all of us, whether or not we like to admit it. Their
victims are as likely to be found among the highly educated, even
the scientifically trained, as they are among the masses. In the
words of Norman Mailer, "if lying is an art, then fine lying is a
fine art." (Mailer, 1991)
Proven or suspected hoaxes abound in contemporary ufology. The
saga of UMMO in Spain provides an example of a story which is
simply too good and whose implications appear too profound for
believers to be swayed by rational arguments. Even absolute proof
of trickery can always be superseded with the notion that a truly
superior alien civilization might well plant fake photographs or
false prophecies in order to test the faith of its followers on
earth, an argument actually volunteered by the self-described
Aliens themselves in some UMMO documents (Vallee, 1991).
Sociologists have long observed that exposure, in such cases, may
even serve to strengthen the core of a belief system, no matter
how outrageous, although it does tend to scatter away the outer
layer of sympathizers (Festinger, 1956).
In this regard, paranormal hoaxes are no different than their
religious or political counterparts. Exposure of the Protocols of
the Sages of Sion, a fabrication that began as a fake document
concocted by the dreaded Russian Okhrana in 1905 and was
successfully picked up and reframed against the Jews by Nazi
propaganda in the Thirties with terrifying efficacy (Cohn, 1967),
has not permanently dulled its impact. Indeed the Protocols have
now reappeared as "channeled" material from space entities, thus
endowed with that glow of supreme authority that many New Age
believers find harder to question than a "mere" historical
document, and absolving the human medium from any unnecessary
burden of guilt (Ecker, 1992). If specific incentive to study the
structure of hoaxes was necessary, this horrible example from
recent history should be enough motivation for us to work hard at
studying and exposing hoaxes in our own field.
The present article focuses on a particularly resilient
fabrication that exhibits all the important features of a
successful ufological hoax, enabling us to analyze it in detail.
As we proceed with this study we will attempt to point out the
possible parallels among various UFO stories or rumors exhibiting
similar characteristics.
Mention UFOs casually in any cocktail conversation, and
people are likely to bring up a number of "actual cases" they
have heard discuss on television shows such as Sightings or
Unsolved Mysteries. The alleged UFO crash at Roswell, the MJ-12
documents (which purport to emanate from an American Government
agency that knows all about the nature and purpose of UFOs and
their alien occupants) and various sensational abduction
reports will probably be mentioned. Then, almost as an
afterthought, someone may ask, "wasn't there a secret Navy test
in the Forties, in which a whole destroyer actually disappeared?"
Others may volunteer that Einstein had something to do with it,
and that many serious researchers believed the incident to be the
key to the nature of UFOs. You will be confronted once again with
the tall tale of the Philadelphia Experiment.
The story, of which we have just celebrated the fiftieth
birthday, is a good example of a hoax about which everything has
become known, thanks to many years of diligent research by people
who were first fascinated by the tale and gradually grew
skeptical of its extraordinary claims. Its impact on the public
over the fifty years that have elapsed since the initial incident
has been significant: one hardcover book signed by widely-read
author Charles Berlitz and veteran paranormal investigator
William L. Moore has become the standard reference (Berlitz and
Moore, 1979). It is "dedicated to the outriders of science whose
quest for knowledge takes them to the most distant stars and to
the innermost worlds." A feature movie directed by Stewart
Raffill was released in 1984, starring Michael Pare in the role
of a vanishing sailor. The dramatic nature of the story was
enhanced by its impact on several early UFO researchers,
including Morris K. Jessup. It was given an aura of further
credibility by the obvious interest shown by the Office of Naval
Research in the initial stages and by the secrecy surrounding it.
Official secrecy, which often results from purely bureaucratic
procedures, tends to be taken by advocates as evidence of
coverup, making wild speculation seem legitimate. Contributing to
the mystery was the enigmatic personality of the man who claimed
to be the main witness and a direct link to space intelligences,
Carl M. Allen alias Carlos Allende.
Conclusions
Few tasks are as important in the field of paranormal
investigation as the detection and elimination of hoaxes.
An area of research that does not police itself is eventually
policed by others with utterly devastating consequences, as
recent examples of fraud in academic research have shown. Popular
ufology, which thrives on rumors, poorly-investigated reports,
shoddy scholarship and outright fraud to the detriment of those
genuine facts that are potentially relevant to science, provides
a long history of colorful hoaxes that have come to define the
field in the mind of the general public and have tainted it with
a negative image in the view of scientists and educated laymen.
The problem with hoaxes is that they are charming, tantalizing,
entertaining, and often correspond to what we would like to be
true, as opposed to what is actually true. We have seen that the
Philadelphia Experiment had all of these characteristics. This
hoax, which should have died a long time ago under the combined
efforts of several researchers, is an example of a story that
simply refuses to die. It is surrounded with such an aura of
mystery that it continues to be successfully exploited. Like some
of those exhausted gold mines in the hills of Colorado which were
drained of every ounce of metal in the nineteenth century, yet
revive periodically in the offering circulars of unscrupulous
underwriters as penny-stock mining companies with new fancy
names, certain UFO stories always find gullible new investors.
Even in 1993 the tale of the disappearance of the DE173 has lost
none of its peculiar charm.
Hoaxes have been defined as "deliberately concocted untruths
made to masquerade as fact" (MacDougall 1958). In a recent
theoretical article on hoaxes, Marcello Truzzi notes that "there
has been little deductive effort in social science specifically
to describe or explain hoaxes." (Truzzi, 1993). He points out
that according to Curtis MacDougall a hoax's success is the
result of two sets of psychological forces acting within the
victim: under the rubric "why we don't disbelieve" MacDougall
lists ignorance, superstition, suggestion, prestige. Under
"incentives to believe" he lists financial gain, vanity,
chauvinism, prejudice, pet theories, the thirst for thrills, and
cultural climate. We have seen that such factors were indeed at
work in the infrastructure of the present story.
MacDougall also remarked: "When a hoax achieves the longevity
to qualify for classification as either myth or legend, hope of
stopping it almost may be abandoned." After fifty years we may
well have reached that point in the matter of the Philadelphia
Experiment.
Acknowledgments
The author wishes to thank Mr.Edward Dudgeon for his invaluable
help in clarifying the happenings in Philadelphia. The
willingness of VAdm. William D.Houser to review the manuscript of
this article is deeply appreciated. Among numerous correspondents
who have also supplied precious assistance in tracking down
various parts of the story we must acknowledge William Banks,
Gary Edwards, Allen Hovey, M.Troy, Heidi Streetman, David
Edwards, Marshall Philyaw and Keith Sjosten.
References
Allende, Carlos (1967): Letters to the author, personal
communication.
Berlitz, Charles and Moore, William L. (1979): The Philadelphia
Experiment: Project Invisibility. New York: Grosset & Dunlap
1979.
Clark, Jerome (1968) The Invisible Visitors from Outer Space,
in Steiger, Brad and Whritenour, Joan (1968): The Allende
Letters. New York: Award Special, n.d., pp. XX-XX)
Cohn, Norman (1967): Histoire d'un Mythe: La "Conspiration"
Juive et les Protocoles des Sages de Sion. Paris: Gallimard.
French translation by Leon Poliakov of Warrant for Genocide.
Dudgeon, Edward (1992): Letter of 29 November 1992. Private
communication to the author.
Ecker, Don (1992): Hatonn's World: a neo-Nazi E.T.? UFO
Magazine Vol.7, No.4, pp.30-31, July-August.
Festinger, Leon, Riecker, H.W. and Schachter, S. (1956): When
Prophecy Fails: A social and psychological study of a modern
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Goerman, Robert A. (1980): Alias Carlos Allende. FATE Magazine
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Hauser, Robert (1987): letter to the author, 27 March.
Klimo, Jon (1993): UFOs: Billy Meier and the Pleiadian Contact.
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Psychical Study.
MacDougall, Curtis D. (1958): Hoaxes. New York: Dover. (First
published in 1940)
Mailer, Norman (1991): Harlot's Ghost. New York: Random House.
Petit, Jean-Pierre (1991): Enqute sur des Extraterrestres qui
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Pothier, Joseph (1993): The Philadelphia Experiment Revisited.
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Raytheon Corporation (1980): A new electronic shield gives
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Rim Institute (1993): Catalog of Events, pp.14-15. Phoenix,
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Steiger, Brad and Sherry, and Bielek, Alfred (1990): The
Philadelphia Experiment and other UFO Conspiracies. New
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Truzzi, Marcello (1993): The Sociology and Psychology of
Hoaxes. In Gordon Stein, Encyclopedia of Hoaxes. Detroit, MI:
Gale Research, pp.291-297.
Vallee, Jacques F. (1991): Revelations: Alien Contact and Human
Deception. New York: Ballantine.
Velasco, Jean-Jacques (1990): Report on the analysis of
anomalous physical traces: the 1981 Trans-en -Provence UFO case.
JSE 4,1, pp.27-48.
END
PARANET FILENAME: HOAX.TXT