#2990: Jan Harzan

The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) is among the largest UFO-chasing organizations in the USA. Ostensibly committed to “the scientific method”, they have their own interpretation of what that entails: “Data is collected through online reports …” (which is an interesting take on what counts as data), and a “MUFON Field Investigator then interviews the witnesses who made the report”; in short, they collect anecdotes based on credulous witness interviews. Now, they do rule out a few of these reports as hoaxes; according to “MUFON statistician” David C. Korts, MUFON ends up clearing out about half the reports that people submit, so “I work with a highly filtered, highly clean data set.” So there. They also produce TV shows, like Hangar 1: The UFO Files, aired on that classic go-to source for pseudoscience the History Channel.

 

Jan Harzan, colloquially known as “the Indiana Jones of extraterrestrials”, was director of MUFON for a while. His tenure ended abruptly in 2020 as a consequence of this incident), and the current director appears to be one Douglas Wilson. However, since his name still pops up in connection with UFO conspiracies, Harzan remains deserving of an entry here: Not only a promoter of all sorts of UFO nonsense and conspiracy theories, Harzan also had first-hand UFO experiences on his CV, having at one point been “visited by a real UFO, no more than thirty feet from [his brother and him], with no visible means of propulsion other than making a humming noise, before shooting off over the horizon.”

 

Before his fall from grace, Harzan was one of the most central and sought-after figures in UFO conspiracy circles, and he made numerous TV appearances. He was, for instance, a central character in the ‘documentary’ Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind: Contact has Begun (2020), a piece of “fantasy propaganda ... a conspiracy documentary built around the thesis that the ‘national security state’ has concealed it from all of us”, directed and written by Michael Mazzola and which featured a range of prominent UFO conspiracy theorists and pseudoscientists (in addition to Harzan), like Steven M. Greer, Daniel Sheehan, and Russell Targ.

 

As for his relationship with scientific methodology, Harzan’s approach is telling enough. Why, for instance, are so many UFO photos blurry? Well, explains Harzan, “UFOs are basically manipulating space-time. And when they do that, it requires a high electromagnetic field. That distorts the images.” So there. Make no mockery of good adhockery. And how should you go about seeing a UFO yourself? “Just being outdoors, being in a quiet place, and thinking about it tends to be one way you could attract these crafts,” said Harzan. “There appears to be some kind of a consciousness connection.” Yes, Harzan believes in ESP, too, of course, as well as, well, most paranormal phenomena you can dream up, apparently, including near-death experiences and even Bigfoot. (“There’s something out there. What creature it is, I have no idea.”)

 

Diagnosis: Yes, he is out of MUFON and others have taken his place. Still.