Run This by the Psychological Warfare Boys!

One of the surprises in exploring the files of Project Blue Book and other government and private files is discovering the hidden ideas and attitudes.

When PROJECT SIGN was created in 1948 it had a claim it was to investigate these unexplained reports.

It was followed by a more belligerent project, aptly named PROJECT GRUDGE. They lived up to their name in many ways. In a 1949 summary of Project Grudge there was an appendix on "Psychological analysis of reports of Unidentified Aerial Objects (UAO). The focus of the analysis seemed to revolve around the concept that human observation is inaccurate. An important plank in any attempt to debunk the whole topic. It was a bit of a dilemma due to the fact the legal system, the police, the medical field, and the pilots and military themselves all utilized observation to do their work in their varied professions. They identified errors of observation in Precision and in Identification. The explained the first as mistaking speed of altitude of an object. "Mistaking an aircraft for a "flying saucer" is an example of the latter."  

Some statements of note:" It will never be possible...to say with certainty that any given observer would not have seen a spaceship or an uneasy missile, or some other object. It will only be possible to estimate the probability that he could have seen such things. The principal hypothesis to be examined in the following discussion is that reports of unidentified flying objects have the characteristics that would be expected if they were cases of failure, on the part of typical normal individuals, to identify common or familiar phenomena."

The analysis continued by describing three classes of "mistakes":

1. Mistakes in Identifying Real Stimuli. "All normal, intelligent people experience certain errors of observation."  Here, the then popular idea that 'flying discs' were "eye floats" in the eye; this, of course disregarded, the statements of witnesses that did not reflect those "spots, flashes and hazes" of the eye.
2. Mistaking Imaginary for Real Events. "This error of observation is usually made by children, by individuals of low intelligence (people are very suggestible), by people who see visions or by the mentally ill.
3. Deliberate Falsifications. Seen as a standard psychological warfare technique; similar to people who turn in false fire alarms. Strangely, however, the role of the joke or prank is unexplored in this category. 

Most often the Project Sign through Blue Book will identify it is based on three task goals. Later, however, there is a fourth one added - into reports but never into the public statements - of turning information over to the psychological people.  

Given the fact that the CIA in the early 1950's through the 1970's conducted numerous "tests" on people (with and without their knowledge) through MK-ULTRA and other programs, this is - disturbing - and explains the campaigns of ridicule, intimidation, and similar tactics reported by often impeccable witnesses.