Thought Experiment: Sean Cahill's B&E Analogy
How to explain your interest in UFOs ...
As you might have gleaned from this newsletter, my research into the 2004 Nimitz Encounters prompted me to watch hundreds of hours of interviews with key witnesses to the event. Spend that much time and you get great insight into what these people believe and all the ways they’ve tried to process what they saw. While watching one of these interviews, I stumbled across a hidden gem in the form of a thought experiment offered by Sean Cahill. Today, I want to take the opportunity to highlight his analogy since it helped me frame my own thinking and open up a conversation with friends and family.
Lightly edited for a print format, here is the exchange with Sean:
Podcast Host: You implied that Luis [Elizondo] thought [the UFO phenomenon] was a threat, right?
Sean Cahill: I believe Luis has implied it’s a threat, yes. I believe that is the crux [of the current conversation]. Not that this is a threat, but [based on] what we understand of it at the moment, how can we not prepare ourselves for that possibility? That’s all.
I’ve had people in casual conversations say to me ‘well, what’s the big deal? They’re not hurting anybody. etc. etc.’ And without getting into the stranger areas like cattle mutilation and abduction and things like that, [here’s a way we might think about it.]
I don’t have cameras in my house. But let’s assume for a minute that I was a really paranoid person and I had a nice home [with] a lot of interior security. And every night I went around the house and I locked all of my doors and [secured] my chains and hooked up my security system and set up my cameras and my DVR and I finally felt the weight come off of my chest and went to sleep... And I wake up in the morning and I find that someone was able to bypass all of my security. They entered my house. They looked through my fridge. They went through my drawers. They watched a little bit of my television set. They sat on my couch. They hurt nothing. Consumed nothing. Didn’t even wake anybody up. And they quietly left in the morning. Is that a threat?
I don’t think any of us wants that. I don’t think any of us wants that no matter how benevolent that thing that’s entering our home is.
July 14, 2019 - Interview Panel on the Whistlin Past the Graveyard Podcast at 42:17
One of the ways I think that this is a powerful thought experiment is that it integrates well with a conversation about the burden of proof. Sometimes in the past I’ve struggled to explain why I seem so interested in a topic that doesn’t have a significant impact on our day to day lives. I also find some people work backward from “this has not impacted me” to a position of “it therefore must not be real.” I’ve found that using this breaking and entering analogy has been the best way to bridge that gap and help people understand the interest held by so many in the UFO Community.
At this point, there’s pretty good reason to believe that something has sat on my couch and gone through my fridge. There are muddy footprints in my living room but no one in sight. If that was your house, would you want to follow-up on that? So far, the answer has been a unanimous “yes” from every person I’ve asked. I’d encourage you to ask a similar question.
P.S. Want to ask that question with me? Reach out to someone you know and: