The UFO Chronicles

by John Michael Greer

Beyond the familiar opposition between those who believe that UFOs are spacecraft from other planets and those who believe UFOs do not exist at all, lies a landscape of stranger and more rewarding topics. This new edition of The UFO Phenomenon is a discovery of the nature of apparitions, the history of secret American aerospace technologies, the mythology of progress, and the role of popular culture in defining experienced reality.

270 pages, ebook

Published October 31, 2020

About the author

John Michael Greer is an author of over thirty books and the blogger behind The Archdruid Report. He served as Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America. His work addresses a range of subjects, including climate change, peak oil, the future of industrial society, and the occult. He also writes science fiction and fantasy. He lives in Rhode Island with his wife.

Reviews

[Aaron · Rating 1 out of 5]

Any book that purports to "solve" the UFO phenomenon always arouses my interest since I've been researching them for around 25 years, and for entertainment I like to see what sort of deluded, fanciful wishful thinking the author comes up with to explain "everything". Call me cynical, but I view books like these as nothing more than, you guessed it, an intellectually-dishonest cash grab. In this case, Mr. Greer (a self confessed Free Mason, and initiate into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn) offers his opinion that UFOs are a man-made myth whose origins can be traced to science fiction literature of the 40's and 50's, government cover-up of secret military craft, and mistaken astronomical objects such as the planet Venus.

Now, in order to write a successful (not necessarily honest) UFO Debunking book, one that can hoodwink the gullible masses into believing the author is presenting a fair argument, you have to follow a few well known rules, which were established 60 years ago by the likes of the late Donald H. Menzel (noted Princeton Astronomer), and the late Philip J. Klass (editor of Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine). Both of whom are the founders of the modern UFO Debunking movement.

The debunking rules are as follows: 1. In order to disprove all UFO's, take a small sample of easy to explain cases and extrapolate that onto the entire phenomenon. If one UFO report turns out to have been caused by Venus, then surely, most people are ignorant and therefore all cases are Venus. The second rule of debunking is to completely ignore any cases that can't be explained. But make sure that you write an entire book of "explained" cases without ever bothering to inform you readers of any unsolved cases. And there you go. Problem solved.

By picking the low-hanging, easiest to explain cases, you're only showing yourself to be the money grubbing HACK that you are! Anybody who has an honest, real interest in UFOs, not just for making profit and cashing in with another book, would write a more balanced book. Anybody with an honest and real interest in UFO, you'd think they could find one or two unexplained cases (out of thousands) to include in their book. But nope, that wouldn't fit with the authors preconceived notion of what UFOs are. In his mind, it's all fakelore, government aircraft, or venus.

There is nothing scientific or even logical about this book. It's just another in a long line of forgettable UFO debunking works that relies primarily on the research of other writers. Any actual scientific and original research is lacking and non-existent in this book, it's just a synthesis of books by other writers in the UFO Field, who have done much more research than Mr. Greer. One major anti-UFO author cited in this book is Robert Sheaffer, who is constantly misspelled as Scheaffer throughout the book. Geez, didn't anyone proofread this thing? Oh well, it's like I said, this guy doesn't have a clue WHO OR WHAT he's talking about.

He offers several hypotheses, but like I said, it's nothing original, it's stuff that has been around for 30 years, such as the Earth-Light theory, cryptoterrestrial hypothesis (the latest fad), and other tired tropes. Anybody who's read a UFO book in the last, say, 30 years won't find anything new here.

Maybe the author should spend 20 minutes browsing the reports at the National UFO Reporting Center website. There are literally thousands of cases there where people have described Triangular aircraft that just disappear, shape shifting objects, cigar shaped objects, lights that change color, lights that merge together, disc. Not to mention testimony from sailor who've reported craft entering and leaving the water in front of naval vessels.

There are tons of multiple witness sightings that can't be explained, but you'll never hear about them here.

For example, in 1994 at Ariel Elementary School in Zimbabwe, 64 school children witnessed a UFO land in front of them and extraterrestrial creatures approached them. Google it. Are they lying?

There are mountains of cases and evidence that books like this don't even touch.

Any intellectually honest UFO book should at least reference Richard Hall's 2 volumes of the "The UFO Evidence." But unfortunately that resource is conveniently lacking here. I guess it wouldn't fit the authors preconceived views. That book is called "The UFO Evidence" for a reason, it's actually presents evidence to the reader and allows you to decide for yourself. You don't need somebody's regurgitated facts such as the case here, you owe it to yourself to view the evidence for yourself and come to your own conclusion... sadly this book is just opinion, without any facts. Find better sources of information and pass on this money grubbing hatchet job.

[Vasilis St. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the same book published in 2009 as "The UFO Phenomenon: Fact, Fantasy and Disinformation" with a new prologue, a new chapter and the same mistakes. The author writes somewhere that Charles Berlitz wrote Limbo of the Lost in 1968. This book was actually written by John Wallace Spencer in 1969, with a revised and expanded edition in 1973, the same month and year with Berlitz's book. From the preface the author states that this is an improved and expanded edition with new information but if we compare the two books in content, we will find out that there is almost nothing new added in the newly rechearched book. Instead we have a lot of poor and "lazy" revisions. For example, when he discusses the cryptoterrestrial hypothesis, he mentions Mac Tonnies and "his book on the subject -not yet in print as of this writing- will doubtless be worth a look". Mac Tonnies unfinished book was published after his sudden death in 2010. So the author had almost a full decade to study the book and write his impressions. In the new edition instead, we read again "MacTonnies whose book on the subject will doubtless be worth a look" but now omitting the comment on the future release of the book. In conclusion, there are better books out there that describe the psychosocial - secret technology vs extraterrestrial - skeptical hypothesis (and everything between from science fiction social impact to earth lights geophysical phenomena ) as an explanation mechanism for the phenomenon of the Ufo.