The live pterosaur investigations have sometimes been criticized, at least by a few critics, as if they lacked objectivity. Well, we’re all human; why not evaluate interviews and eyewitness reports themselves, especially those that are more credible or emphasized as important by the investigators? Avoid bulverism, look to the testimonies.
At the risk of self-approbation, please excuse these examples; I have written more about living pterosaurs than any other writer, so examples are easier to find with my own writings. Consider these and decide for yourself about whether or not I have a special problem with being objective, in particular if my desire to promote the idea of living pterosaurs overshadows reasonable thinking.
Frigate Bird
When one or two Youtube videos of a Frigate Bird became popular (as if evidence for a living pterosaur), I was in the front of objecting to the error. I commented on Youtube and wrote blog pages about those videos. When what looks like a Frigate Bird is seen soaring near a beach in daylight, well, that’s a Frigate Bird.
Strange Thing in a Landscape Photograph
When a new young investigator showed me a photo with something in the sky, I pointed out to the young man that the person taking the photo had noticed nothing unusual when the photo was taken. I felt no hesitancy in deflating that idea of a pterosaur photo, for the image itself does not look like what should be expected of a flying pterosaur.
Sleeping at the Wheel
In the first edition of my book Live Pterosaurs in America (repeated in the second edition, which should be published within the next few weeks), I brought up actual examples of dreams that two persons had after they fell asleep while driving: a giant bat about to collide with the car, in one dream; a herd of dinosaurs crossing the road, in another dream. I know both dreamers; each told me, from their own mouths, of their dreams.
As far as I know, I am the first writer to bring up this possible criticism of literal interpretations of eyewitness encounters with living pterosaurs. I believe it to be potentially one of the stongest possible objections to eyewitness accounts. Yet few of my critics, as far as I am aware (as of late October, 2010) have mentioned this possibility to explain sightings.
So why do I continue to proclaim the validity of eyewitness sightings of living pterosaurs, in the face of this apparent severe criticism? That requires an aside; I’ll be brief. Shocking dreams of strange things like giant bats or dinosaurs, dreams that wake the dreamer—those dreams seem to be contrived especially to awaken the dreamer who is driving (self-preservation through the intelligence of the unconscious mind). The real shock is in awakening to realize one is driving. But those sightings in which a large flying creature, without feathers, flys in front of the windshield of someone’s car (and the drivers later report to me)—those sightings have a notable absence of awakening. And when two eyewitnesses have seen a living pterosaur, it is not because both of the have dreamed the same thing at the same time. Enough said on that.
The point is this: Am I devoid of objectiveness, when I have written like that on those subjects? I don’t think so.
Brian Hennessy