50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True

by Harrison, Guy P.

  The Bermuda Triangle, or Devil's Triangle as it is also known, is a classic case of how “nothing unusual” can be embellished and sold as “something very unusual.” In figuring out the Bermuda Triangle, it helps to know something about the origin of the claim. The source is telling. The first use of the name for a specific triangular region that claims ships and planes by some mysterious means is widely believed to be an article in a 1960s pulp magazine. More than anything, Vincent Gaddis's story, “The Deadly Bermuda Triangle,” in the February 1964 issue of Argosy magazine seems to have launched the myth that continues to tread water against all reason. Argosy would never be confused with National Geographic or New Scientist. It was a magazine that published fiction and sensationalized stories meant to appeal to adventure-minded young men. The late Gaddis was also the author of the books Gold Rush Ghosts and Wide World of Magic. He was not a scientist nor was he an expert on marine safety or marine history. None of this is meant to label Gaddis a con man or condemn Argosy for trying to publish interesting and fun stories that were loose with the truth. However, I think it's important to be aware of the original source because I have encountered people who are under the false impression that the Bermuda Triangle claim is somehow rooted in science, supported by scientists, and was/is endorsed by the US Navy and Coast Guard. None of that is true. The Bermuda Triangle myth was born out of imagination and has been kept alive all these years by sloppy reporting, exaggerations, and misrepresentation of facts—also known as lies.

  If Gaddis and his Argosy article created a spark, writer Charles Berlitz fanned the flames to create a bonfire with his 1974 “nonfiction” bestseller, The Bermuda Triangle. It sold millions of copies and probably did more than anything else to entrench this weird claim into popular culture. I believe there is one primary reason the myth continues to appeal to so many people: great stories. The Bermuda Triangle was built not on statistics and evidence but on creepy stories of vanishing planes, missing people, strange sights in the skies, and mysterious ships being found adrift with no crews aboard. We are all suckers for a good tale. Thousands of years before films and novels, there was the campfire. Humans have always enjoyed sharing stories with each other. They are the foundation of religions, cultures, nations, and families. They hook us and set us up to learn and retain information—good or bad. So it should be no surprise that many people find the tale of Flight 19 irresistible.

  THE FATAL JOURNEY OF FLIGHT 19

  December 5, 1945. Flight 19, a group of five US Navy Avenger torpedo bombers based at Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station vanished without a trace in ideal weather during daylight hours while on a routine training exercise. A frantic transmission from the pilots was received by the control tower back in Florida: “Everything is wrong…strange…we can't be sure of any direction…. Even the ocean doesn't look as it should!” Then silence—forever. Their fatal mistake had been to fly into the deadly and unforgiving Bermuda Triangle. Adding to the tragedy, a rescue plane sent to search for them disappeared as well. Despite an intensive search, no trace has ever been found of the planes. After an official investigation, one Navy officer said it was if the planes had “flown off to Mars.”

  Now that's the kind of story that sticks and gives a myth legs. But is it accurate? Fortunately, librarian and Bermuda Triangle skeptic Larry Kusche compiled credible research that suggests far more reasonable explanations for what may have happened to many of the ships and planes that went missing. His book, The Bermuda Triangle Mystery—Solved is fun to read and does a very effective job of dismantling the myth, piece by piece. Kusche conducted a detailed investigation of Flight 19, for example, and found numerous problems with the popular version of this story that has inspired so many Bermuda Triangle believers.

  Kusche believes—just as the US Navy does—that Flight 19 simply got lost and the planes crashed into the sea and sank. The rescue plane that followed, a Martin PBM Mariner, blew up, probably due to a problem with the fuel system, something that model had a notorious reputation for. Kusche reveals that much of the popular version of the Flight 19 story is exaggerated, twisted, or entirely made up out of thin air. For example, there is no record in the transcripts or testimonies by navy personnel of dramatic radio transmissions from the pilots describing strange environmental conditions. In fact, transcripts of the radio transmissions read pretty much like one would expect from a lost group of planes and nothing more. Kusche points out that the flight's leader, Lieutenant Charles C. Taylor, had recently transferred to Florida and was not yet familiar with the area. And while Taylor was experienced, the other four pilots were not.2

  One thing that seems to add to the legend is that five planes vanished rather than just one. This is not as strange or unlikely as it might seem, however. Flight 19 was lost and the pilots would have made every effort to stay together. Therefore they all would have run out of fuel at approximately the same time and ditched in the same general area. Kusche also found that the weather was not as ideal as it is almost always described in Bermuda Triangle lore. “Although [the weather] had been fair when they took off, it rapidly deteriorated,” explains Kusche. “Search planes reported extreme turbulence and unsafe flying conditions, and one ship in the area reported ‘high winds and tremendous seas.’” After flying around lost for some four hours, Kusche says most likely the Avengers ran out of fuel and went down somewhere in the Atlantic. Tragic yes, but nothing so odd given the fact that they were lost. Kusche adds: “Flight 19 was not a group of experienced pilots touching down on a calm sea in the middle of a sunny afternoon—it was one disoriented instructor and four student pilots attempting to ditch at sea on a dark and stormy night. It was a hopeless situation.”3

  Kusche also points out that, contrary to the myth, the US Navy Board of Investigation that looked into the incident was not “baffled” by it as is so often claimed by Triangle believers. The board's opinion after considering all the facts was that Flight 19 “made forced landings in darkness at sea east of the Florida peninsula” and that the conditions were “rough and unfavorable for a water landing.”4 There is nothing about this event that should have led anyone to imagine that paranormal forces are behind it.

  While the story of Flight 19 is the most famous Bermuda Triangle tale, there are many more. Collectively they seem to make the case that something must be happening in the Triangle. Where there's smoke there's fire, right? One that often comes up is the disappearance of Joshua Slocum, one of history's great seamen. I interviewed one of his great grandsons in the early 1990s and became very interested in Slocum's story. The New England captain gained international fame as the first person to sail around the world alone. He did it in the 1890s aboard the thirty-six-foot Spray and wrote, Sailing Alone around the World, an entertaining book about the adventure. In 1909, however, the aging Slocum sailed for the Caribbean and was never heard from again. At the time, it was believed that he most likely had been run down at night by a freighter, or perhaps the Spray capsized in rough seas and he drowned. Only many decades later would his name be attached to the Bermuda Triangle. When Triangle believers tell the Slocum story today, it is sure to include emphasis upon his sailing skill: “He was too smart to have made a mistake at sea,” goes the reasoning. “Something very mysterious must have happened to him.” This is, of course, preposterous. Having elite skill at something does not make one infallible or invulnerable. If it did, Formula One racecar drivers and fighter pilots would never crash. And Tony Hawk would never need to wear a helmet and kneepads when he skateboards. But he does.

  WHERE IS IT?

  By the way, where exactly is the Bermuda Triangle anyway? It's a basic question, but the answer depends on whom you ask. No official Triangle boundaries have ever been designated by any person or organization with relevant credentials. There are no official military or government maps with the Bermuda Triangle marked on them. The most popular version tossed around today is close to the one popularized by the 1964 Argosy article. That triangle is formed by drawing a lin
e from somewhere in south Florida, up to Bermuda, down to Puerto Rico, and then back to Florida. It should be not be surprising that there is ambiguity, however, because the entire claim is made up. Anyone can draw boundaries anywhere they want. Some believers claim that the danger zone extends down to cover the entire Caribbean Sea and west into the Gulf of Mexico. Yikes! According to those boundaries, I lived most of my entire life inside the Bermuda Triangle! I remember losing my car keys once, but apart from that mysterious incident, I guess I was lucky. Still others say the Triangle is nebulous and specific borders can't be drawn. That's convenient; let's just agree that every missing plane and ship anywhere should be considered a victim of the Bermuda Triangle. Don't laugh, that is precisely what Triangle believers have done in many cases. Skeptic Kusche points out that blame for Triangle vanishings has been given broadly and with little restraint. “If all the locations of ‘Bermuda Triangle incidents' were plotted on a globe it would be found that they had taken place in an area that included the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and most of the North Atlantic.”5 He also points out that many missing ships and planes should not be assumed to have been lost in the Triangle just because their course may have taken them through it. They were on long journeys and could have gone down outside the Triangle.

  While working his way through numerous Bermuda Triangle stories, Kusche made a surprising discovery: “My research, which began as an attempt to find as much information as possible about the Bermuda Triangle, had an unexpected result. After examining all the evidence, I have reached the following conclusion: there is no theory that solves the mystery. It is no more logical to try to find a common cause for all the disappearances in the Triangle than, for example, to try to find one cause for all automobile accidents in Arizona. By aban-doning the search for an overall theory and investigating each incident independently, the mystery began to unravel.”6

  For years, Kusche and other skeptics have made clear arguments against the Bermuda Triangle claim. The following is a compilation of key reasons why the myth has managed to thrive all these years:7

  Many of the incidents occurred late in the day or at night, which delayed visual searches and made it more unlikely to find debris.

  Many cases were not mysteries at all in light of known facts. For example, it is not mysterious to find a ship at sea without a crew soon after a hurricane struck the port where that ship had been moored.

  The incidents that are still unsolved remain so because there is insufficient evidence—not surprising considering that debris usually sinks at sea. The absence of evidence, however, does not justify reaching for the most unlikely explanations of all, such as aliens, black holes, and so on.

  Vehicles and people go missing on sea and on land. It happens everywhere in the world.

  Some missing vessel stories that are credited to the Bermuda Triangle did not happen there. Kusche describes the case of the Freya, for example, that left port in western Mexico, had troubles, and was discovered in the Pacific Ocean.

  Some planes and ships that went missing passed through the Triangle, but this does not justify claims that they went down there.

  Many incidents were not considered mysterious at all when they occurred, but many years later were described that way by writers promoting the Triangle myth.

  The weather was bad in many incidents, but often this is omitted or even contradicted in Triangle tales. Kusche also found that key information that points to an obvious likely explanation is often left out.

  It should be clear by now that the Bermuda Triangle “mystery” does not hold up to scrutiny. It relies on exaggerated stories that omit key information and inject outright fabrications. Even if every story was factual—and actually took place inside some agreed-upon area called the Bermuda Triangle—there is still a problem. Pointing to a list of missing ships and planes in a vast expanse of water and then concluding that there must be some sinister paranormal reason behind it all can't be justified. Ships and planes go missing for natural and mostly well-understood reasons. If someone wants to make the claim that supernatural or paranormal forces are behind it, then he is obligated to prove it.

  Still not convinced that there is nothing magical and sinister going down in the big triangle? Then how about the simple fact that the United States Navy—an organization that knows a lot about oceans, ships, and flying over water—thoroughly rejects the Bermuda Triangle claim. The navy does not believe in it or worry about it in the slightest, even as it operates multimillion-dollar ships, aircraft, and submarines, and sends thousands of sailors into the Bermuda Triangle every year.7 But maybe the navy is too concerned with war and national defense to notice paranormal forces working against freight ships and weekend boaters. Therefore, to be thorough, I thought I should check with the people who do spend a lot of time specifically thinking about the safety of cargo ships and weekend boaters. I phoned the Miami, Florida, office of the US Coast Guard and asked if their organization has any concerns about unusual phenomena occurring in the Bermuda Triangle. “No,” was the concise answer provided by a polite lieutenant who also referred me to the official US Coast Guard statement on the matter:

  The Coast Guard does not recognize the existence of the so-called Bermuda Triangle as a geographic area of specific hazard to ships or planes. In a review of many aircraft and vessel losses in the area over the years, there has been nothing discovered that would indicate that casualties were the result of anything other than physical causes. No extraordinary factors have ever been identified.8

  It seems simple enough, if the US Navy and US Coast Guard don't believe in the Bermuda Triangle, why should anyone?

  GO DEEPER…

  Earl, Sylvia, and Linda K. Glover. Ocean: An Illustrated Atlas. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2008.

  Kusche, Larry. The Bermuda Triangle Mystery—Solved. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1995.

  Slocum, Joshua. Sailing Alone around the World. Memphis, TN: General Books, 2010.

  You can't prove that aliens are visiting Earth by pointing to government secrecy. That establishes nothing.

  —Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute

  According to many UFO believers, a large area of land in southern Nevada is home to some very unusual activities involving extraterrestrials and the United States government. Some say debris and bodies from the alleged 1947 crash at Roswell, New Mexico, are kept there. Some believe the US military is reverse engineering alien spacecraft there. Many people claim to have seen alien spacecraft flying in the area. Also known by the names Paradise Ranch and Groom Lake, it is familiar to most by its now-legendary name, “Area 51.” Although it's less than ninety miles from Las Vegas, Area 51 may as well be on far side of the Moon given all the secrecy and weird rumors surrounding it. The base is off-limits to the public and constantly guarded. Nonetheless, the US government has gone on record admitting that it is a facility where the US military and CIA develop and test new aircraft and new weapons systems. But that explanation has not satisfied many people who focus their UFO hopes and fears on this one specific air base.

  Before considering whether or not aliens are on ice and flying saucers are housed in hangers at Area 51, it's important to understand that weird and mysterious flying vehicles made by humans are known to have been developed and flown there. This is well documented and widely known. For example, the U-2, A-12, and SR-71 jets were developed in extreme secrecy at least in part at Area 51. These reconnaissance planes flew at various times in the 1950s through the 1990s and were very different from conventional aircraft in both design and function. The SR-71 Blackbird was capable of Mach 3.3 speed (over 2,000 mph) and could operate at 85,000 feet. Even today, long after retirement, it looks like it belongs more on the set of the TV show Battlestar Galactica than on display in air and space museums as a relic of the Cold War. The F-117 Nighthawk and B-2 Spirit bomber were also secretly developed and test flown at Area 51. These revolutionary stealth planes still have a futuristic look to them mor
e than two decades after their public debut. The F-117 was like nothing seen before in the history of aviation. Its swept wings, weird boxlike structure, tailless body, hybrid rudder-elevator design, and sharp angles could easily lead imaginations astray. The big B-2 bomber with its bat-wing design looks like it was straight out of a Batman comic book—or from another world. I saw one on the ground at an air show and I've seen video of one in flight. At certain angles the B-2 looks exactly like—surprise—the stereotypical flying saucer from outer space. Imagine what someone who happened to see one of these aircraft flying at night in the 1970s might have thought. An untrained and unexpecting person might easily assume that it was an alien spacecraft. The same probably still holds true today. Given the large sums of money poured into military attack and reconnaissance aircraft, it's safe to assume that much of whatever the US Air Force and others are up to out in the Nevada desert would surprise the average person. We, the public, are probably twenty years or more behind when it comes to knowing what's buzzing around above our heads. Unfortunately, however, the reasonable idea that strange sightings near a secret military base are probably nothing more than secret military testing does not satisfy the cravings and suspicions of the more enthusiastic students of Area 51.

  According to believers, Area 51 has secrets that extend far beyond the latest jet from Boeing or Lockheed Martin. One of the more popular claims is that the military took an alien spaceship that crashed at Roswell in 1947 to Area 51 in order to study it. Much of current aviation and space technology, they say, was obtained by reverse engineering that Roswell spacecraft. In addition to that, some people believe that dead extraterrestrials from the crash were taken to Area 51 in order to perform autopsies and store them away in secrecy. Those are big claims, but there's more. Some Area 51 enthusiasts also maintain that the government is developing teleportation and time travel capabilities there as well. The gargantuan, insurmountable, and fatal problem for all of this is that none of these claims are proven or even come with compelling evidence. The best we have to back up these claims are stories, UFO sightings, dubious documents, and, of course, that alien autopsy video that Fox Network made into a television special in 1995. Simply put, none of this is good enough. It doesn't come close to adding up to the sort of high-quality evidence required to back up such extraordinary claims. Stories can be based on lies, mistakes, or inaccurate memories. For these reasons, hard evidence is absolutely necessary to support stories as wild as the ones orbiting Area 51. UFO sightings may be interesting but they too fall short. Streaking lights in the night sky over Nevada are probably the latest bizarre, ultrasecret vehicle the US Air Force is testing that we won't learn about until many years from now. As for that “alien autopsy” film, it's just another silly dead end. The guy who made it confessed to the hoax in 2006.1