The secret life of J. Allen Hynek?

the professor's apparent transformation from skeptic to UFO proponent was not quite the conversion event that it appeared on the surface. Since his teens Hynek had been an enthusiastic though closeted student of the occult.

Although incomplete (guess you'll have to buy the actual Skeptical Enquirer issue. Jan.) this is an interesting article for me being a fan of Jacques Vallee. Having an interest in Vallee almost assures that you can't go without having an interest in Dr. Hynek. The article suggests something i have never really heard about Hynek. Apparently the good doctor didn't really go into the UFO research field as a complete skeptic.

It's an interesting look into a side the diehard Hynek fans will most likely get ruffled over. Despite that i recommend finding the real issue. It goes on to his life after his ties with the government fizzled and how he dealt with it.

enjoy!

Article here

reply to post by homeskillet


Wow, I had no clue about that. That sheds a whole new light on him for me. Thanks for posting.

I guess though, if anything, that would kind of weaken his credibility wouldn't it?

reply to post by homeskillet


Being interested in the occult in that time period meant a curious nature and probably quite a bit of data which never made any mainstream news. So to have an interest, Hynek was, in part, checking out the information to see what was credible and what wasn't. It gives him more credibility imnho, not less.

reply to post by Aleister


Hynek's credibility is mostly due to the fact that he was a hard scientist and then "converted" to the belief in UFOs. The fact that he was already interested in "esoteric" matters does nothing to strengthen his credibility.

reply to post by wtbengineer


I have a mixed feeling about it. on one hand you can think he put aside his preconceived private beliefs as he was a man of science. the other is that he could have went in it to prove them. now, i get that he was considered a huge debunker for years but you have to consider the environment he was in. being the military backed position. we all can assume that you don't go into those projects without guidelines. now, where his interest comes in with esoteric writings, he may have felt it was a trade off. Be the public debunker in trade for inside "hidden" knowledge. that is until his "handlers" dropped him. then what else did he have to lose?

also, im not sure where they are getting this info. it states Jacques Vallee quotes but from what source? anyone have any idea?

EDIT: not the quote but found something else.

interview

Dr. Jacques Vallee: As a young student, I must have been 18 or 19 when I first became interested. I was really looking for information about traditions and I became aware of the fact that science didn't just come out of the imagination of a few people, that there was a tradition of research that went very far back, and that at some period in history had been actually underground. I was looking for information about that. That's what led me to the Rosicrucian tradition.

Dr. Bob: I was surprised also to learn later on that Dr. Hynek was also a member for a number of years.

Dr. Jacques Vallee: Yes, I think I relate in my diary the time when we came to discussing this and I was delighted to learn that he had, for many years, gotten information from the tradition as well. We both came to the same conclusion, by the way, that we really didn't need an organization to continue this research, as there were many sources around and that kind of research was best done independently. But those organizations were very sincere and gave us a start.

reply to post by homeskillet


This may(or may not) shed some light on the subject for you
Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Rosicrucianism, and UFOs

Originally posted by wtbengineer
reply to post by Aleister

 

Hynek's credibility is mostly due to the fact that he was a hard scientist and then "converted" to the belief in UFOs. The fact that he was already interested in "esoteric" matters does nothing to strengthen his credibility.

How does having an interest in the occult, or anything which should equate to knowledge damage a persons credibility ? If anything it lends reason to him being selected to the task.

reply to post by randyvs


Because the reason he had all that credibility was that he was perceived as a hard scientist with no leanings in that direction in the first place. For someone like that to change their stance leads to the belief that he must have really seen something. For someone who already believes, what would you expect?

By the way, it doesn't hurt his credibility to me personally. At least I mean I still have respect for him and his research.

Originally posted by randyvs
How does having an interest in the occult, or anything which should equate to knowledge damage a persons credibility If anything it lends reason to him being selected to the task.?

in what way? in that you believe he was approved by a secret occult group?

Originally posted by wtbengineer
reply to post by randyvs

 

Because the reason he had all that credibility was that he was perceived as a hard scientist with no leanings in that direction in the first place. For someone like that to change their stance leads to the belief that he must have really seen something. For someone who already believes, what would you expect?

he did actually have some sort of sighting. www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by gortex


ahhh! thank you. you know, seeing the title now, i may have seen that thread before lol

Hynek once told Vallee that he had become an astronomer in order to discover "the very limitations of science, the places where it broke down, the phenomena it didn't explain" (Vallee 1996, 232).

Amen to that. The same here, and let me emphasize 'the phenomena it didn't explain' or let me go further 'the phenomena it didn't want to explain for being out of the scientific understandings or the truth too scary'.

reply to post by homeskillet

n what way? in that you believe he was approved by a secret occult group?

Negative, but you wouldn't try to convince any one the military ( air force ) wasn't aware of his interests before hand.
Would you ?

Interesting thread and I enjoyed reading more about him.
I am very interested in the Lonnie Zamora case and of course how it relates to the Gary Wilcox case and J. Allen Hynek mentioned that he that the Lonnie Zamora case was very special so much in fact he stated :
At the wikipedia:

"Hynek further wrote[18] "I think this case may be the 'Rosetta Stone' ... There's never been a strong case with so unimpeachable a witness." Also noting his growing frustration with Blue Book, Hynek wrote, "The AF doesn't know what science is."

But I further think that that landing were Zamora was a partaker of was actually an error by the aliens (I think martians) of a brief miss in calculation of the actual landing site they were intended to land: Holloman AFB:
Reference: Richard Doty, Linda Moulton Howe 1964 April 26 or 25th. Twilight Zone etc.

reply to post by homeskillet
The 'secret life of J. Allen Hynek' according to published quotes by the man himself? Not very secretive and some 30 years too late to be presented as an expose.

The French-born Jacques Vallee, a computer scientist and UFO author, was one of the few persons who knew Hynek's secret. Hynek once told Vallee that he had become an astronomer in order to discover "the very limitations of science, the places where it broke down, the phenomena it didn't explain" (Vallee 1996, 232).

Although it's presented as a negative, the sentiment reflects the ideals of science; aren't 'unexplained phenomena' at the very heart of science? Should we be forever reinventing the wheel?

Some authors for Skeptical Enquirer appear to conflate 'unexplained phenomena' with fairy hunts and the notorious 'woo-woo.' The article seems to be along those lines and seeks to undermine his efforts with the simple aspersion that he was once interested in the 'esoteric.' If that was a credible argument, we'd be lining up Isaac Newton for believing that the planets were all set in place by God when his calculations couldn't account for the gravitational pull of more than two bodies.

I haven't looked, but are there any Skeptical Enquirer articles throwing out Newtonian Physics because Newton was 'esoteric?'

reply to post by homeskillet


Interesting article, OP. Thanks.

Does anyone know if "Skeptical Enquirer" ever published similar articles on which books Klass or Menzel read when they were teenagers?

reply to post by Kandinsky


I wasn't picking up on the expose vibe. more so, it seemed to bring another aspect of Hynek to those who haven't read everything about him besides him being the "swamp gas" guy. although, i do know the purpose of the Skeptical Inquirer I didn't feel the heavy bias that usually pervades the magazine.

I'm also, not seeing your Newton analogy. Newton was proven right about many things and his esoteric beliefs had nothing to do with what was. Mathematics are much more provable than aliens. Galileo almost died for his "heresy" by people who believed an invisible man.

I did find it amusing you used the term "fairy hunts" to describe the authors. you know, considering Hyneks relation to Vallee( Passport to Magonia).

It's a great subject that raises interesting questions. Maybe the greatest question it raises is why some of our most cherished "scientific" ufologists seemed to move away from the ETH while embracing--through their own personal "fact-finding"--a more esoteric and all-encompassing explanation for who and/or what our alleged "visitors" actually are.

Dr. Hynek's working and longterm personal friendship with Dorothy Izatt imo clarifies much of where his curiosity and research led him. The best information available at the moment, as well as the major source for the Skeptical Enquirer article--both very, very interesting reads--is Jacques Vallee's Forbidden Science I & II. Check 'em out, you'll be glad you did.

reply to post by The GUT


Gut, great to see you posting! I have missed you for some time now. What have you been into?

I'm going to have to research this Dorothy Izatt.