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UFOs and the Alien Presence: Six Viewpoints
Taken all together, the evidence for an alien presence on earth is enormous. Few people know that evidence better or have thought about it more carefully than the researchers who speak in the pages of this book. All of them are successful in fields outside of ufology. None of them claims any final truth about UFO’s. Yet they all accept the risks inherent in speaking aloud their uncomfortable thoughts.
233 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1998
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August 9, 2025Every interview begins with some version of “let’s stick to the facts and use the scientific method” and ends up at “I know it doesn’t make sense and there is no proof but I still believe and so should you.”
February 24, 2010
I love the night sky and I love Astronomy so I am always looking up. I have personally seen a few UFO’s. Now don’t get all excited, remember UFO stands for Unidentified Flying Object not flying saucers. It means that I saw something that I don’t know what it was. In addition to Astronomy I love many of the other sciences and I believe that there is life out there in the universe, some of it advanced life; this does not however mean that I positively believe that that life has visited our planet.
Having said that, if there is a possibility of life out there, and there is such a thing as space travel, then I believe that it is possible the alien life could have visited us either now or at some point in our past or maybe in our future. This is why I like to read books on UFO’s and the possibility of alien life. Some of the books I found were not worth the paper that they were printed on, while others were very informative.
I liked the idea of this book because it gave the opinion of a few different people. And that sounded like an interesting way to present a book on such a controversial subject. All of the researchers and witnesses in this book were on the side of “yes it’s real and they are here!”
I think I would have like the book much better if it had a different mix. Maybe some of the contributors could have been scientists that discuss the possibilities of life in the universe and what that life may be like. The book could have also had a few engineers that discussed the concept of space flight and the difficulties involved, they could also review where we are at in our technology and where the aliens’ technology would need to be to make solar system hopping possible.
We could have dialog between the believers and the non-believers and see where that takes us. I would also like to have an Air Force representative give their input on the fact that many UFOs are just military vehicles (both know and still secret.) It is not breaking with National Security to say, “Yes from time to time people see our aircraft and mistake them for ‘other things’ but Air Force is not going to give a press release saying ‘that UFO that everyone saw last night was a test of our new secret plane. Please don’t tell anyone about it!’” Just a simple statement like that treating us with respect would be a breath of fresh air. They would not even need to talk about UFOs, they could just talk about how the US has developed new aircraft and tried to keep it secret, a tough thing to do in an open and free society. That’s a book that I would like to read… Hint, hint to the author!
Getting back to the real book, and not what it could have been, the book was an interesting read. The ideas and topics were at times wild and strange but I have not done any investigating myself and do not know how much is true and how much is not true. I just have to keep reading more on the subject and hope to put all of the pieces together into some plausible and hopefully factual conclusion. My suggestion is to keep reading!
Having said that, if there is a possibility of life out there, and there is such a thing as space travel, then I believe that it is possible the alien life could have visited us either now or at some point in our past or maybe in our future. This is why I like to read books on UFO’s and the possibility of alien life. Some of the books I found were not worth the paper that they were printed on, while others were very informative.
I liked the idea of this book because it gave the opinion of a few different people. And that sounded like an interesting way to present a book on such a controversial subject. All of the researchers and witnesses in this book were on the side of “yes it’s real and they are here!”
I think I would have like the book much better if it had a different mix. Maybe some of the contributors could have been scientists that discuss the possibilities of life in the universe and what that life may be like. The book could have also had a few engineers that discussed the concept of space flight and the difficulties involved, they could also review where we are at in our technology and where the aliens’ technology would need to be to make solar system hopping possible.
We could have dialog between the believers and the non-believers and see where that takes us. I would also like to have an Air Force representative give their input on the fact that many UFOs are just military vehicles (both know and still secret.) It is not breaking with National Security to say, “Yes from time to time people see our aircraft and mistake them for ‘other things’ but Air Force is not going to give a press release saying ‘that UFO that everyone saw last night was a test of our new secret plane. Please don’t tell anyone about it!’” Just a simple statement like that treating us with respect would be a breath of fresh air. They would not even need to talk about UFOs, they could just talk about how the US has developed new aircraft and tried to keep it secret, a tough thing to do in an open and free society. That’s a book that I would like to read… Hint, hint to the author!
Getting back to the real book, and not what it could have been, the book was an interesting read. The ideas and topics were at times wild and strange but I have not done any investigating myself and do not know how much is true and how much is not true. I just have to keep reading more on the subject and hope to put all of the pieces together into some plausible and hopefully factual conclusion. My suggestion is to keep reading!
October 15, 2012
UFOs and the Alien Presence is arranged in symposium format. Four "experts" in the field, one respectable amateur (Budd Hopkins), and one regular person give thought out answers to what appear to be submitted questions.
The crackpot delegation is well represented - which is to be expected and was the reason I picked UFOs out of the dollar bin (for a mean-spirited laugh at others' expense). But surprisingly the three not crackpots made making fun of the crackpots (and the editor and conspiracy theorists and the UFO community) less satisfying. I don't mean the reasonable voices were persuasive... They did however have a defensible, coherent, formulated argument. They don't seem to be right, but they are no more worthy of derision than any other professional sincere about other wrong things. They came across a bit like the socialist candidate for president: the leader of a fringe minority, but one who is genuine, competent, and lucid himself. I was expecting six David Ickes.
This would be great except that a "random guy" with a UFO story and a real loony get the final word. The first four sections make you - dare I say - think (though not seriously). But then the last two confirm your original bias. Had the book been all pleasant surprise or been all crypto nonsense UFOs would have been a lot of fun. As a mixture of both, it probably shows a truer face of the UFO community, but it takes some of the fun out it.
The crackpot delegation is well represented - which is to be expected and was the reason I picked UFOs out of the dollar bin (for a mean-spirited laugh at others' expense). But surprisingly the three not crackpots made making fun of the crackpots (and the editor and conspiracy theorists and the UFO community) less satisfying. I don't mean the reasonable voices were persuasive... They did however have a defensible, coherent, formulated argument. They don't seem to be right, but they are no more worthy of derision than any other professional sincere about other wrong things. They came across a bit like the socialist candidate for president: the leader of a fringe minority, but one who is genuine, competent, and lucid himself. I was expecting six David Ickes.
This would be great except that a "random guy" with a UFO story and a real loony get the final word. The first four sections make you - dare I say - think (though not seriously). But then the last two confirm your original bias. Had the book been all pleasant surprise or been all crypto nonsense UFOs would have been a lot of fun. As a mixture of both, it probably shows a truer face of the UFO community, but it takes some of the fun out it.
July 4, 2008
an older book outlining the viewpoints of 6 of the most credible ufologists. The book is full of information about how they have arrived at their particular outlook and I enjoyed it very much. The four contributers whom I follow try to teach to keep an open mind rather than flat out support of proof. It is just a very hard read as it can get a little dry at times
March 11, 2015
Two (three) of the interviews are quite interesting: Stanton Friedman, Budd Hopkins and Linda Moulton-Howe, and they provide a good overview of what the then current thinking of UFOlogist was then.
I had read this book before (maybe 15 years ago?).
I had read this book before (maybe 15 years ago?).
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews