Alien Impact

by Michael Craft

Physical or not, UFO phenomena often appear to display some directing intelligence. Is someone or something pursuing a plan to lead us in a specific direction? Many thousands of people have found their lives altered forever after the shock of an alien abduction, a channeled communication, or an unexplainable sighting. Witnesses have experienced false memories, time distortions, messianic complexes, increased IQ, physiological changes, even newly emerging psychic abilities. Watching this "alien impact," we see the birth of new religions, new arts, sciences, and belief systems.
Investigator Michael Craft makes a comprehensive study of some of humanity's oldest, and newest, encounters with the unbelievable. From the saucer crash at Roswell to alien "pregnancies," from crop circles to alien animals, from ancient civilizations to modern psychedelic research, Alien Impact explores the entire range of human contact with the "alien."

Genres: Paranormal, Nonfiction

302 pages, Hardcover

First published August 31, 1996

About the author

Michael Craft is the author of 20 published novels, four of which have been honored as finalists for Lambda Literary Awards. The first installment of his Dante & Jazz series, "Desert Getaway," was a 2023 MWA Edgars nominee for the Lilian Jackson Braun Award. The second installment, "Desert Deadline," was a Gold Winner of the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award, as was his 2019 mystery, "ChoirMaster." In addition, his prize-winning short fiction has appeared in British as well as American literary journals. Craft grew up in Illinois and spent his middle years in Wisconsin, which inspired the fictitious small-town setting of Dumont, used in many of his earlier books. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles, and now lives in Rancho Mirage, California, near Palm Springs, the setting of his current Dante & Jazz mystery series. In 2017, Michael Craft's professional archives were acquired by the Special Collections Department of the Rivera Library at the University of California, Riverside. Visit the author's website at www.michaelcraft.com.

Reviews

[Erksh]

A repulsive amount of cherry picking

Overly liberal usage of "many", "perhaps", "increasing", and baseless assumptions

Disgusting amount of leading questions asked to the reader

Not a "balanced overview" like the cover claims

Contains some interesting stuff but absolutely no way to know what is actually true, the whole truth, represented accurately, and etc.

Targets audience:
- believer confirmation bias
- casual intrigue a la tabloid
- unfamiliar to subject matter, taking every word at value

Trash

[Willow Redd]

This is the book I've been looking for! Since I really started getting involved in the paranormal field, I've wanted to bring in my childhood interest in UFOs and alien sightings as well, along with cryptozoological investigations. Of course, most modern "ghost hunters" won't go near aliens or cryptids, thinking that they must keep themselves from being influenced by what they deem disparate fields of study. I've always felt there was a connection, and Michael Craft seems to agree.

In Alien Impact, Craft examines the modern UFO and alien abductee scenarios in the shadow of history. Since the beginning of recorded history, man has reported lights in the sky, beings from beyond the stars, and creatures with a habit of abducting humans for some purpose or another. The names have changed, as have their motives, but the facts remain eerily similar regardless of time or place.

Not only is this book a look at the alien phenomena present since the 40s and 50s, but also looks at classic fairy stories, ancient religious tales, crop circles, fairy rings, Bigfoot, and even the use of magic and shamanism in human perception. At its core, this book is a look at all strange, Fortean phenomenon and how it is really a call for a more in-depth look at human nature and human perception. What, in the grand scheme of things, do all these odd happenings mean?