The most authoritative UFO reference book on the planet.
This is the definitive A–Z guide to all things alien, from the first-ever-recorded incidents of close encounters to the latest information on worldwide UFOria. Over 400 fascinating entries cover everything from the incidents and witnesses involved to the concepts at stake and experts' personal position statements.
● Over 300 rare images, eyewitness drawings and classic UFO photographs.
● Fully up-to-date on the events and developments of the last decade.
● Entries from all the top thinkers in the fields of UFO research and SETI (the search for extraterrestrial intelligence), including Jerome Clark, Erich von Däniken, Hilary Evans, Timothy Good, John Mack, Nick Pope, Jenny Randles, Carl Sagan, Whitley Strieber and Jacques Vallée.
Exactly what happened on JAL Flight no. 1628, in the Lakenheath-Bentwaters Episode, or at Roswell? What do people mean by the Fantasy Prone hypothesis, mind control by aliens or the Prison Earth Theory? And what do the top thinkers of our time really think about the question of extraterrestrial encounters? The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters is more than just a history of witnesses and incidents – it is the ultimate source book on the subject.
The truth is out there – how close do you dare get?
Science writer Ronald Story wrote in the Editor’s Preface to this 2001 book, “[This book] is not a mere collection of information about alleged UFOs and ETs. It contains the revelation that whether or not we have visitors from elsewhere, the significance of the UFO/ET phenomenon is that the human species is in big trouble, and if we do not implement the teachings of the Space People---which … match the perennial wisdom of the wisest Earthlings---we really will be doomed… I think it behooves us to INTERPRET the phenomenon---as one would interpret a dream---to understand the sense within the nonsense… it is my intention to present [this book] as an honest and reasonably complete look at the new mythology of the gods from outer space. Are they real or imaginary? Are we being invaded? Are the aliens coming for us? And if they are, are their intentions good or evil?”
He notes that “UFO researcher James W. Moseley… published a damaging exposé of [George] Adamski’s claims… Mosely made the following points: 1. Adamski’s first book misquoted a number of people regarding statements they supposedly made in support of his claims. 2. The six ‘witnesses’ at the … 1962 ‘Desert Contact’ all had backgrounds as UFO believers… and did not see enough detail to vouch for the reality of the incident… 3. The ‘Desert Contact’ was not accidental as claimed, but was PRE-PLANNED… 4. In a letter to a close friend… Adamski wrote: ‘Sometimes you have to use the back door to get the Truth across. On Adamski’s behalf… he was trying to get across certain truths---regardless of whether they were coming from the ‘space brothers’ or … philosophers on Earth.” (Pg. 10-11)
Of the ‘Alien Autopsy’ film, he states, “the strongest argument against authenticity [is that]… the film failed to agree with earlier purported eyewitness testimony about the alleged autopsy… Although the film was supposedly authenticated by Kodak, only the leader tape and a single frame were submitted for examination, not the entire footage… The ‘doctors’ … hooded anticontamination suits… served no purpose except to conceal the doctors’ identities… Houston pathologist Ed Uthman [said]… ‘The most implausible thing… is that the ‘alien’ just had amorphous lumps of tissue in ‘her’ body cavities…’” (Pg. 18-19)
Of Erich von Däniken’s ‘ancient astronaut’ hypothesis, he states, “the theory suffers from a lack of evidence that unambiguously links anything with extraterrestrials… a Mexican sarcophagus lid that supposedly depicts a man piloting a rocket is actually a deceased Mayan ruler … shown against the background of a corn plant… the giant statues on Easter Island … are known to have been carved by the natives…” (Pg. 57-58)
He reports, “[a] characteristic of angels of interest in the UFO field is that angels can apparently materialize and dematerialize… This is similar to the story of Jesus, after his resurrection, entered a locked room to meet his disciples…This is not to say that we have proof that modern UFOs and Biblical angels are connected, or identical. It is clear, however, that the Biblical concept of angels involves many elements which are familiar to students of modern UFO stories.” (Pg. 73)
He says of ‘Animal Mutilations,’ “the vast majority of cattle deaths had resulted from natural causes… the missing parts were those … easiest to chew… However, some of the cattle bore strange mutilations which could not be accounted for in such a mundane manner… Eventually, law enforcement personal … uncovered the working of a bizarre Satanical cult group…” (Pg. 75-76)
He asks, “What is the meaning of UFOs in the Bible? … [One] theory is that UFOs started the Biblical religion, either as a kind of giant interplanetary hoax or because UFOs are in fact a divine reality.” (Pg. 114)
He notes that some ‘Crop Circles’ are in fact “the common fairy ring fungus… These fungi decompose organic matter to the products which first stimulate growth of grass. Then fungus filaments either become so dense that the soil cannot be wetter and grass plants die from lack of moisture.” (Pg. 153)
He explains, “In the 1980s and 1990s, new theoretical thinking advanced the concept of ‘wormholes.’ Such proposed cosmic ‘tunnels’ would make possible space-time shortcuts from one part of a galaxy to another, or even between different galaxies in different parts of the universe… Needless to say, the construction of a wormhole … is currently far beyond the technical capabilities of humans.” (Pg. 178)
Of the so-called ‘Face on Mars’ photos, he reports, “[In 1998] the Mars Global Surveyor returned images of Cydonia taken at more than ten times the resolution of the earlier … pictures of 1976… [which] reveals it to be nothing more than what NASA scientists said it was all along: a natural feature… blown into the dust.” (Pg. 185)
Of Ed Walters’ Gulf Breeze photos, Randall Fitzgerald comments, “The whole [thing] … has been exposed as a hoax perpetrated by Walters for financial gain. A Gulf Breeze youth … and two others, including Walter’s son, had helped to fabricate the photos… Two MUFON investigators … found that [Walters] was ‘adept at trick photography.’” (Pg. 237)
On the use of hypnosis in ‘abduction’ cases, he states, “Without a doubt, inadvertent cueing also plays a role in UFO-abduction fantasies. The hypnotist unintentionally gives away to the person being regressed exactly what response is wanted… Regression subjects take cues as to how they are to respond from the person doing the regressions and asking the question. If the hypnotist is a believer in UFO abductions, the odds are heavily in favor of him eliciting UFO-abductee stories from his volunteers.” (Pg. 256)
He suggests, “[Whitley] Strieber’s ‘Communion’ [book] provides a classic textbook description of a hypnopompic hallucination, complete with the awakening from a sound sleep, the strong sense of reality and of being awake, the paralysis… and the encounter with strange beings… IF he was not convinced of their reality, then the experience would not be hypnopompic or hallucinatory.” (Pg. 259)
Of Dr. John Mack’s ‘abductee’ patients, skeptic Joe Nickell concludes, “Despite John Mack’s denial, the results of my study of his best 13 cases show high fantasy proneness among his selected subjects.” (Pg. 321)
Of Billy Meier, he observes, “The remarkable clarity of the hundreds of … photos…and film segments are unique in all of UFOlogy. Meier also made… sound recordings of the UFOs which could not be duplicated in sound studios…. Semjase also provided him with metal samples that … were determined to be of such quality and composition as to be … not duplicable by current scientific methods.” (Pg. 338) On the other hand, he later cites research by Kal Korff who “unmasks Meier’s criminal background and tracked down former Meier friends and supporters who describe him as a charlatan who began the hoax for financial gain.” (Pg. 560)
Randall Fitzgerald says of Roswell, “A combination of human foibles coalesced to create the modern myth of what happened near Roswell, including a contagion of rumor-mongering, miscommunication, misperception, exaggerations, self-aggrandizing behavior, lies for financial gain, and a psychological condition called false memories.” (Pg. 511)
Of Philip Corso, Fitzgerald argues, “A cursory examination of Corso’s book ['The Day after Roswell'] reveals a host of errors, unsubstantiated claims, and blatant misrepresentations. Corso depicts Major Jesse Marcel as being in charge of the removal of alien bodies from the spacecraft, whereas Marcel always insisted he never saw alien bodies, nor did he know anyone who had… Corso writes that the B-2 stealth bomber was a Lockheed project, when anyone familiar with aviation knows it is a Northrop creation. The list goes on and on.” (Pg. 512-513)
Of the Travis Walton case, he notes, “The [unworried] reaction of the … family when informed that he had been ‘zapped’ away on a UFO provides a valuable measure of whether they had prior knowledge of a planned hoax… When the strengths and weaknesses of the Walton case are evaluated, the indications are that a hoax has been perpetrated.” (Pg. 639-640)
This book is an excellent resource, and includes detailed historical sections on ‘Alien Iconography,’ ‘Photographs of UFOs,’ ‘Shapes of UFOs,’ and much more. It will be of great interest to both ‘believers’ and ‘skeptics.’
Review title: They're out there, all right I decided, on the 10th anniversary of the great events of September 11, to take a break from my recent stretch of "heavy reading" (biographies of TR and Huey Long, for example) with this volume. I'm not sure which is more of a break:
1. That this was in fact published in 2001, the year of those great events, so that in our very recent past this kind of triffle could find a publisher.
2. That it could also be purchased by my local library and put on the shelf under the Dewey number 001.942 (I filed it under "Pop-Culture" in my personal review database, not feeling sufficiently impressed to identify it as "science" or "history").
3. That it should start with an "In Memoriam" to Carl Sagan, Mr. Story's reputed mentor and adviser, wherein Mr. Sagan is clearly misquoted with a typographical error! Just to ensure myself that Sagan, for all his faults wasn't a bumbling doofus, I confirmed the correct quote here:
Instead, the bumbling doofus is Story, who substitutes "would" for "world" to turn a potentially poignant phrase into a nonsense phrase--on second thought, maybe that is the appropriate memorium for this book.
4. that I should even memorialize this item itself with a review on lunch.com.
And after wasting a few hours wading through this combination of wildly speculative believerism, badly-written pseudo-scientific claptrap, and smirking skepticism barbed with insipid insider barbs at other "experts" in the field, I can assure you it is safe to skip this on.
But dude, they are out there. I will only highlight the most egregious: Donald M. Ware assures the reader redundantly (complete with italics and misspellings)
Some of my ideas may seem very strange. However, please keep a large mental hold basket to store those ideas that don't make sense to you. You may reject them later if you choose. I am not tying [sic] to convince anyone of anything, but just with other truthseekers what I have come to accept as real after forty-eight years of study.
Clearly, I am not enough of a "truthseeker" to recognize that "one can have simultaneous local and non-local awareness."--but "I think Pleidaians can do that"! But apparently, I'm not the only one in the dark; because some combination of "U. S. technology" and "world technology" is "being kept out of the 3rd-density society by a world-level organization operating under a galactic prime directive." But who needs government funding? "The reason nations don't spend more money on the ability to go to Mars is because some humans already have the ability to go, either on their own vehicles or perhaps on vehicles of their alien friends."
But not to worry, if your neighbor is an alien attempting to abduct you to Mars against your will (and without borrowing his Mars rover)--I learned (from another "expert") there are "nine specific resistance techniques" to alien abduction, including mental and physical struggle, repellents (iron objects, but apparently not silver bullets, crosses, or stakes to the heart), appeal to spiritual personages (like St. Michael, "which brings about an 'awakening'")--and protective rage, which should be appropriate response to all this nonsense.
But for all the lunacy, I think the pseudo scientific articles are the most bizarre, and might be satirically funny if not so mind-numbingly literal. Yes, I'm talking about you, Martin S. Kottmeyer, and your twenty-page signed articles (with detailed bibliographies) on such topics as "Waves (or flaps), UFO", "Paranoia and UFOs", and "Alien Iconography". I was reminded of the funny send-ups of scientific pretentions published in the Journal of Irreproducible Results which always gave me an excuse to stop by the McKeldin Library at the Unversity of Maryland even when I didn't need to study. Too bad EEE takes itself so seriously. You shouldn't.
Indudablemente el libro más interesante y completo que he encontrado sobre el fenómeno ovni, una guía obligada para todos aquellos que gustan de estudiar el fenómeno. Varios autores se encargan de ofrecernos entradas con información muy completa. Tengo el libro en físico y su versión en electrónico y ambos son excelentes.