Forbidden Science

We spent the night and the next day in his white house with the green door, hidden behind luxurious trees, a veritable museum: 35,000 books (most of them in boxes in the garage), hundreds of art objects, the home of a true collector of the strange, magical and esoteric. (1975)

Janine and I went to Charles Musès' house for dinner. An enigmatic figure, Musès is something of a recluse.

She is said to lead a coven associated with spiritualist circles in Philadelphia and with a man who is the inventor of a saucer detector: thus the Delaware Valley is rich in deviltry to this day, even if Dow Chemical and RCA Electronics own increasingly large sections of the land. (1969)

On Friday Janine and I spent the evening with a journalist from Philadelphia who knows the witchcraft traditions of Bucks County. In Upper Black Eddy, he told us, a woman named Mary Manners Hammerstein received witch Sybil Leek in 1964.

Hynek wants to learn about computers: every morning I give him a one-hour programming class. From the conference room in the biomedical department we can see the landfill area where barges are bringing sand from Indiana. (1965)

Around a pot of coffee we discussed Allen and Mimi’s move, and their feelings about Arizona. Allen is thrilled to have such a spacious office and a personal computer. He loaded Astrocalc and demonstrated it to me proudly as we reminisced about the Bright Stars database I once implemented... (1985)

French technology keeps lagging behind, with one of the lowest penetration rates of the Internet in Europe, but in the heart of Paris the flames of history are kept burning, a city so steeped in the emotions of its own past that it embraces you at once in a subtle distress of the heart. (1997)

Richard assures me he was once within one phone call of a doctor who had done an autopsy of an alien. Of course, being within one phone call means nothing: as Kit told me, the doctor in question had not done an autopsy but was only asked to review the alleged results, quite a different thing. (1989)

We just drove up from Austin to the snow-covered top of Mount Locke for a series of observing sessions. My main task is to take a series of galactic spectra, starting with N G C 1741. We are using the prime focus of the 82-inch telescope, a huge monster lodged inside an enormous dome. (1963)

My mother sends me a clipping from Le Matin (29 January 81) entitled “Physicist Costa de Beauregard Crowned King of the Magi.” French rationalists are accusing him of using his position to cover pseudo-scientific fantasies. (1981)

Having heard that the booster of Sputnik had broken up into several pieces I waited for any other object that might follow on a similar orbit. Indeed at 6:10 p.m. I saw a faint luminous trail with the naked eye. (1958)

They asked me if I agreed with their assessment, so I assured them not only that it was a face, but I even knew who it was: none other than Cyrano de Bergerac, whose pointed nose can clearly be seen by the long shadow it throws over the plains of Cydonia. (1986)

On Thursday an anthropologist named Randy Polos invited me to Palo Alto to join Ren Breck, his father, blonde Tina and a group of New Age researchers to discuss planet Mars, and more significantly the face-like mountain they speculate must have been sculpted by an Alien race.

This morning I had a few hours of leisure to roam through Soho, the holography museum and the bookstores of Greenwich Village. Real Estate prices are rising to absurd levels in Manhattan; fortunes made and lost. (15 Feb 1985)

Today I sent a copy of my entire computer catalogue to Jim Wadsworth and Dave Saunders at the University of Colorado. A little voice in my mind called me a poor naive fool, and told me I was stupid to comply with their request. (1967)

I spent part of the afternoon at the side-viewing arm of a large Zeiss microscope, watching an extraordinarily skilled surgeon stitching the aorta of a donor mouse heart to that of a live one, a demonstration of steady hands and precise use of needle and thread. (1992)

The Bay area is pelted by storms. As I write the windows vibrate, thunder rolls, hail falls so thick and hard it triggers car alarms on Van Ness Avenue. (1998)

...whose files he won't release, (ii) Stan has done excellent research on Menzel's life. The man was highly regarded in Intelligence circles, advised several Presidents, and survived loyalty hearings, but does this prove that he was part of a UFO coverup? (13 Feb 1995)

Stan Friedman came over for dinner yesterday and stayed for five hours. It was a relaxed, friendly evening. He reported several things of interest: (i) It is for alledged “malpractice” that John Mack is being sued by Harvard. He is also accused of wrongful billing of his patients...

Aimé's opinion of CE3K is the same as Guérin's, namely that the film is childish. Finally he recommends that I read Ten Problems Concerning Providence by Proclus (De Decem Dubitationibus circa Providentia), just translated into French. (1978)

Framed by our wooden windows, the aircraft carrier Enterprise is steaming into port, escorted by the spray of fireboats that seem a bit incongruous in the rain. It’s a beautiful sight as it passes Alcatraz, punching holes in the grey clouds with the wails of its sirens. (1982)

We disturbed a group of deer who bounded away. In the pasture two rabbits hopped in circles, watching Olivier in surprise. He was just as astonished. I drank from the clear stream. Had we found Magonia? Not quite: we don't have the money to build on this land. (1972)

The Mideast war occupies all minds now, with bloody nightmares and dreams of glory whipped up by the media. I am reading Operators and Things, a striking account by a young schizophrenic woman who was lucky enough to overcome her condition. (1991)

Last night Charles and Christiane Musès came over for dinner. He once met a policeman who had unsuccessfully tried to infiltrate satanic groups. The man was certain they were responsible for cattle mutilations. (1977)

The first phone call today was from Pete McDuff, who spoke urgently of his new assignment: in spite of the science board's recommendation to proceed slowly, Bob Bigelow has “tasked” him to immediately research UFOs in Mexico. He prepared a trip and wanted to know about my contacts. (1996)

I felt sad. Is my interest in the paranormal a distraction from a honorable career, a regrettable flaw to be crushed mercilessly, or one of those bright fantasies that give meaning to life itself, and make me different from my robotic colleagues in business? (1989)

Unfortunately Hynek ends up making ambiguous or contradictory statements that satisfy neither the academic world nor the public he is attempting to enlighten. As usual, none of the major U.S. newspapers has mentioned the current UFO wave. (1967)

Much of the afternoon was spent with microbiologist Dr. Moshe Shifrine, the discoverer of a process that grows cultured truffles, and our colleague Dan Tolkowsky, legendary founder of the Israeli Air Force, now head of the Athena group in Israel. (1990)

"My protagonists are simple researchers coming out of the crowd under pressure from fantastic events. They are 'awakened' to the absurdity of the world in which they have lived until then. They have to conquer it, not only outside but within themselves." (1961)

He spoke about the stress he felt, in part because he shares the abductees' sense of mystery and urgency, and in part because colleagues are critiquing him so vehemently. We went to the Charles Hotel for a drink. He lost his way in the streets of Cambridge in the heat of our discussions. (1993)