Sunday, January 15, 2023

Searchable PDFs: "Skeptics UFO Newsletters" of Philip Klass - probably the most famous (infamous?) UFO skeptic

Back in 2013, I helped co-ordinate making the "Skeptics UFO Newsletters" of Philip Klass freely available online on CSICOP/CSI website.  That effort was shortly before I started a structured online UFO archive of my own. For ease of access, I have now added the scans to this archive as well.

Philip Klass is probably the best known UFO skeptic. He evokes strong emotions in some people in the UFO field.  He wrote several influential skeptical UFO books and was very involved in debates regarding the MJ-12 documents and various leading cases.

Klass can be seen in action debating UFOs with Stanton Friedman in the videos below of Nightline with Ted Koppel broadcast in June 1987.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLQKKwt8tm8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJM4oL2ZAbY


Klass was one of the founding members (along with various others, including Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, and Paul Kurtz) of the skeptical group formerly known as the "Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal" (CSICOP), which was subsequently renamed "Committee for Skeptical Inquiry" (CSI).

In addition to his various UFO books, Klass wrote numerous issues of a newsletter entitled the "Skeptics UFO Newsletter". He gave CSICOP/CSI permission to put those newsletters online.  


Back in 2013, Luis R. Gonzalez (a Spanish researcher, pictured below) scanned his almost complete run of xerox copies of Klass' Skeptic UFO Newsletter, and filled the gaps with the help of others. I produced searchable PDF copies of those newsletters and provided them to CSICOP/CSI.

Barry Karr of CSICOP/CSI arranged for those searchable scans to be made available on the CSICOP/CSI website and told me he had no problem with my making them available to download from a free file storage website.

So, as part of my effort to make my archive more comprehensive, I've now added the SUN newsletters to it (with thanks to Luis R. Gonzalez for the scan and to CSICOP/CSI for permission, which in turn had previously been granted permission by Phil Klass to make his newsletters available online).




Here's an illustration of search results from that newsletter on Richard Doty:





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