DISCOVERING TRUTH — BURDEN OF PROOF

GATHERING AND ACCESSING EVIDENCE

I trust the following article will not be as dry as its title. As both a geophysicist and a lawyer, I have spent my professional life dealing with this subject. Here I will apply what I’ve learned not to science or law, but to the here and now of everyday life.

“Seeing is believing” — not necessarily. Eye witness testimony can be wrong. Memories can be filtered and skewed. To validate testimony, we need more than one witness from more than one perspective.

A good current example of the need for credible evidence is regarding The Phenomenon, the UFO/UAP issue. We all know this subject fairly well. We know the difficulty of fairly and accurately assessing the many reports. Researchers with MUFON are generally thought of as trained and reliable.

The first move in every investigation is for the investigator to do a thorough, objective self search for any bias that might be lurking toward either the subject of the investigation or the witness.

The value of any testimony must be measured against the the background of the witness. A first place to check out is evidence, reputation for objectivity and relative freedom from bias regarding the subject under investigation. Multiple interviews by different investigators is best to evaluate the consistency of the report.

These criteria are not as much necessary to look for fraud as for honest mistakes perhaps growing out of faulty memory.