Wesley Britton's Blog - Posts Tagged "ufos"

Flying Saucers From Beyond the Earth -- Exploring the History of UFO Research with Gordon Lore

Flying Saucers From Beyond the Earth is Gordon Lores fifteen-year UFO odyssey through the 1960s and 1970s, the most formative research and investigation years of this constantly ongoing phenomenon. It is highlighted by his work with Major Donald E. Keyhoe, known as Mr. UFO because he wrote the first book and article on the subject in 1950, Richard H. Hall, and James E. McDonald, one of the premiere UFO scientists during the 1960s whose tragic death in 1971 left an enduring gap in the early history of UFO research and investigation.

This new book gives the reader both personal and scientific insights into many perplexing flying saucer sightings and the authors investigation and research highlighting their importance. The author has worked with such respected UFO researchers and scientists as Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Dr. Jacques Vallee, Francis Ridge (honcho of the NICAP website), Barry Greenwood, Jan Aldrich, Raymond Fowler, Stanton Friedman, and Paul Cerny. The book also highlights the authors personal investigation of prominent UFO sightings in several states and his leading the NICAP subcommittee work of a number of prominent investigators. He can be seen sitting with Major Donald E. Keyhoe and Richard Hall at a conference table at the National Press Club in 1968 in a segment of NASAs Unexplained FilesSecret Aliens.
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I was fascinated by Gordon Lores account of UFO history and NICAPs ceaseless struggle to uncover and reveal the truth. Working with highly-charged, up-to-the-minute material, the author invokes military and civilian aviators, police officers, trainmen, abductees, scientists, CIA moles, gold miners, FBI bureaucrats and the everyday people whose sightings are the backbone of the UFO phenomenon. If a book dedicated to evidence-based research can be thrilling, Flying Saucers From Beyond the Earth is it.
David J. Hogan, author of UFO FAQ: All Thats Left to Know 
 About Roswell, Aliens, Whirling Discs, and Flying Saucers

Gordon Lore provides us with a marvelous look at the Golden Era of flying saucers and UFOs, giving us an uncommon look at the past from the perspective of one who actually lived it as an official of NICAP in Washington, D.C. This inside look at many classic saucer sightings comes from the time when UFOs made national headlines, were the subject of official Air Force investigations, and were targeted for two Congressional hearings in 1966 and 1968. It is pure nostalgia for those curious about the controversy over life in space.
Barry J. Greenwood, co-author of Clear Intent: 
 The Government Coverup of the UFO Experience

Gordon Lore has given us a careful, comprehensive and honest reportage of the UFO phenomenon based on his many years of investigating the phenomenon. He is neither an alarmist nor a radical in his conclusions. The reader will find this an essential counterweight to distortions that sometimes muddy this ever-timely subject.
Neil Earle, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 
 in American Popular Culture
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Available exclusively from BearManor Media in hardback, paperback, and e-book editions.

Flying Saucers from Beyond the Earth: A UFO Researcher's Odyssey
Gordon Lore
Hardcover: 460 pages
Publisher: BearManor Media (October 1, 2018)
ISBN-10: 1629333441
ISBN-13: 978-1629333441
https://www.amazon.com/Flying-Saucers...

Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton


The bulk of Gordon Lore’s latest book is a compilation of summaries describing apparently every UFO sighting reported to the National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) from 1956 to 1980. During that time, Lore served as Vice President, Assistant Director, Secretary-Treasurer and investigator for NICAP, then the world’s largest UFO organization.

The summaries don’t stop there. While Lore focuses on sightings in the continental U.S. in his first chapters, he also presents sightings and close encounters internationally, at sea, and in the air up to the present day. In fact, just before the appendices begin, Lore closes his journey by providing readers with a website and e-mail address where they can report new sightings in the future.

Lore’s approach is both objective and personal. Objective in that he rarely editorializes on the credibility of UFO spotters other than frequently noting scientists, two presidents, police officers, astronauts, military personnel and many other believable folks claimed to have seen unidentified flying objects near their homes or job sites. Credibility for many such occurrences is underlined when numerous witnesses reported what they saw at the same time and same place. Lore also shows how the U.S. military and government engaged in a long and often silly cover-up of UFO sightings by giving the public usually implausible explanations of how UFO phenomena could be explained away. Lore doesn’t have to add any commentary on any official agency’s lack of professionalism or believability. Instead, he lets the facts stand for themselves.

The odyssey is personal in that Lore was on the inside of UFO explorations for several decades and worked with the most eminent researchers in the field, appeared in Congressional hearings, and advised Stanley Kubrik while 2001: A Space Odyssey was being filmed. So he is able to provide portraits of many of the key figures involved in NICAP during its heyday and afterward.

One perhaps irrelevant question I have is, just how much of this book is new material? In addition to the numerous articles and special reports Lore either wrote, co-wrote, or edited over the years, his past books include Mysteries of the Skies: UFOs in Perspective, Strange Effects from UFOs and UFOs: A New look. Of course, if you’re a reader who’s read none of Lore’s previous work, his Flying Saucers tome will be new to you, just as it was to me. I rather suspect Flying Saucers may well be Lore’s culmination of all his UFO work, pulled together in a grande finale.

I admit, before reading this book, I was willing to accept the possibility that alien visitors had come to our earth. I’m now convinced they have. Many, many times. I’m still amazed how these visitors haven’t made any noticeable effort to communicate with us. Why come all this way just to fly around and check things out? Well, those aren’t the sorts of questions Lore addresses. His purpose is to establish we’ve been getting visits on numerous occasions that defy any explanation other than we are not alone in the universe.

This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Sept. 6, 2018:
https://waa.ai/aB4t