Nick Pope (2017.)
Nick Pope used to run the British Government's UFO project. From 1991 to 1994 he researched and investigated UFOs, alien abductions, crop circles and other strange phenomena, leading the media to call him the real Fox Mulder. His government background and his level-headed views have made him the media, film and TV industry's go-to guy when it comes to UFOs, the unexplained and conspiracy theories.
As the world's leading expert on UFOs, Nick Pope has consulted on, and helped to promote a number of alien-themed movies, TV shows and video games. He has presented, consulted on and contributed to numerous TV shows, has written five best-selling books, and lectures all around the world.
Nick Pope lives in America.
1. Mr. Pope, when and where begins your interest in ufology or what was crucial to direct you into this kind of investigations?
I had worked for the British government since 1985, in the Ministry of Defence. I had already had three different jobs and I was due for another posting. A vacancy arose that involved researching and investigating the UFO phenomenon. I had no prior interest or belief in this subject, but it sounded fascinating, so I accepted the job.
2. Which is, in your opinion, one of the most intriguing and important UFO cases in the United Kingdom and in the world?
I believe the Rendlesham Forest incident is the UK's most important UFO case, and perhaps the most significant case anywhere in the world. I saw this because of the reliability of the witnesses (military personnel such as Charles Halt, John Burroughs and Jim Penniston) and the quality of the evidence, which included radar data, radiation levels assessed by government scientists as being "significantly higher than the average background", and government documents that confirm the story, release by the UK government on its own website. This case was the subject of my book "Encounter in Rendlesham Forest".
3. How far the ufology in the world moved away from the concept of "pseudoscience" towards science?
There has been some progress, but there is still a lot of work to do. The declassification and release of government documents in countries such as the UK and Australia has shown people that there is a lot of good data available in government archives, and this has led to more serious mainstream media coverage in recent years.
But this subject still attracts a lot of hoaxing and fraud, and the UFO community is not very good at policing itself. Closer links with organisations such as the SETI Institute and with the astrobiology community might be a way to make ufology more scientific, but these groups are sometimes regarded as 'fringe' themselves by the scientific community, so they are unlikely to want to further this perception by being associated with ufology. Perhaps some informal liaison and collaboration will be possible.
4. Could you, among others, point out civilian organization that is professionally conducting ufo investigations, while collecting and analyzing witness statements and material evidence?
Organisations such as MUFON (the Mutual UFO Network) and BUFORA (the British UFO Research Association) are engaged in this work, and there are many other such groups all around the world. Unfortunately, such groups can never match the resources that governments can put into this subject. When I was investigating UFOs for the Ministry of Defence I had access to radar data, photo/video analysis capabilities, etc. Civilian groups do not have access to these government, military and intelligence community resources.
5. In Croatia, we have the "Pag Triangle" on the island of Pag. It is an isolated place in the hills where a huge "triangle print" was found in stone, perhaps unique in the world. There are more and more traces/prints in grain in the United Kingdom. Even some forms (orbs) above the fields are "captured" by the camera. What do you think about this topic?
This is a very interesting situation, but I have not investigated it personally, and when I comment on such matters I usually prefer to have made a personal visit to the location concerned, before offering an opinion, as well as consulting independent experts (in fields such as archaeology and cultural anthropology) who may have their own ideas. As for the orbs, such photos and films should be analyzed scientifically, using the same imagery analysis resources and capabilities that the intelligence community uses. Unfortunately, as I mentioned in my previous answer, the UFO community does not generally have access to such resources - though groups such as MUFON do have a degree of expertise in this area.
6. Analyzing investigations of dr. John Mack, dr. KarlTurner and dr. Johannes Fiebag I found some interesting facts about phenomena of alien abductions. What is your opinion regarding their (life time) work and alien abductions in generall?
The alien abduction mystery is fascinating, and I wrote a book on it, called "The Uninvited", although this title is a little out of date now, as I wrote it 20 years ago.
As with the UFO phenomenon, I doubt that there is a single, neat solution to the mystery. I suspect we will find multiple explanations for these abduction reports, and many of these explanations may be disappointing to the UFO community, e.g. fraud, vivid dreams/hallucinations, and even mental illness/delusion. But I keep an open mind about other more exotic explanations. We need more scientific and academic research into this, which is why the work of people like Dr. John Mack (who I knew very well) was so important.
7. And finally, can we expect you soon to be in our region at the conference, where is the next conference and what topic do you plan to handle?
I am involved in a number of television programmes on this subject, and I speak at conferences from time to time. I have no current plans to come to Croatia, but I send a warm greeting to the people of Croatia, and in particular to those of you engaged in research and investigation on this fascinating subject.
By: Society for ufological and astroarheological researches Polaris
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