Passport to Magonia Quotes

“Let us come to the point now. It would be nice to hold on to the common belief that the UFOs are craft from a superior space-civilization, because this is a hypothesis science fiction has made widely acceptable, and because we are not altogether unprepared, scientifically and even, perhaps, militarily, to deal with such visitors. Unfortunately, however, the theory that flying saucers are material objects from outer space manned by a race originating on some other planet is not a complete answer. However strong the current belief in saucers from space, it cannot be stronger than the Celtic faith in the elves and the fairies, or the medieval belief in lutins, or the fear throughout the Christian lands, in the first centuries of our era, of demons and satyrs and fauns. Certainly, it cannot be stronger than the faith that inspired the writers of the Bible—a faith rooted in daily experiences with angelic visitation.”
― Jacques F. Vallée, Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers

“Today there are still students of the phenomenon who reject the notion that the UFO phenomenon was reported before 1947.”
― Jacques F. Vallée, Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers

“One noon in September, 1702, the sun took on a bloody color several days in succession and cottonlike threads fell down, apparently falling from the sun itself—phenomena reminiscent of the 1917 observations in Fatima, Portugal.”
― Jacques F. Vallée, Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers

“contact between mankind and an intelligent race endowed with apparently supernatural powers.”
― Jacques F. Vallée, Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers

“Un fenómeno existe o no existe: ¿creen ustedes en el electrón o en las ecuaciones diferenciales?”
― Jacques F. Vallée, Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers by Vallee, Jacques (November 23, 2014) Paperback

“U fenómeno existe o no existe: ¿creen ustedes en el electrón o en las ecuaciones diferenciales?”
― Jacques F. Vallée, Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers by Vallee, Jacques (November 23, 2014) Paperback

“People would rather believe in a doctor’s hood than in their own eyes. There has been in your native France a memorable proof of this popular mania.”
― Jacques F. Vallée, Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers

“Chaos spread all over Japan on January 2, 1749, when three round objects “like the moon” appeared and were seen for four days. Such a state of social unrest developed, and seemed so clearly linked with the mysterious “celestial objects,” that the government decided to act. Riot participants were executed. But confusion became total when people observed three “moons” aligned in the sky and, several days later, two “suns.”
― Jacques F. Vallée, Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers

“One prominent writer would allow old cases dating back some 200 years “but not before,” because a long-term Alien presence would negate the newest belief in an imminent extraterrestrial invasion, manifested through abductions aboard flying craft.”
― Jacques F. Vallée, Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers

“If human reactions to the vision of a UFO are varied, the opposite holds true for animals: their reaction is unmistakably one of terror.”
― Jacques f. Vallée, Passport to Magonia: On UFOs, Folklore, and Parallel Worlds

“April 21, 1897, by one of the most prominent citizens in Kansas, Alexander Hamilton. In an affidavit quoted in several recent UFO books and journals, Hamilton states that he was awakened by a noise among the cattle and went out with two other men. He then saw an airship descend gently toward the ground and hover within fifty yards of it. It consisted of a great cigar-shaped portion, possibly three hundred feet long, with a carriage underneath. The carriage was made of glass or some other transparent substance alternating with a narrow strip of some material. It was brilliantly lighted within and everything was plainly visible—it was occupied by six of the strangest beings I ever saw. They were jabbering together, but we could not understand a word they said. Upon seeing the witnesses, the pilots of the strange ship turned on some unknown power, and the ship rose about three hundred feet above them: It seemed to pause and hover directly over a two-year-old heifer, which was bawling and jumping, apparently fast in the fence. Going to her, we found a cable about a half-inch in thickness made of some red material, fastened in a slip knot around her neck, one end passing up to the vessel, and the heifer tangled in the wire fence. We tried to get it off but could not, so we cut the wire loose and stood in amazement to see the ship, heifer and all, rise slowly, disappearing in the northwest. Hamilton was so frightened he could not sleep that night: Rising early Tuesday, I started out by horse, hoping to find some trace of my cow. This I failed to do, but coming back in the evening found that Link Thomas, about three or four miles west of Leroy, had found the hide, legs and head in his field that day. He, thinking someone had butchered a stolen beast, had brought the hide to town for identification, but was greatly mystified in not being able to find any tracks in the soft ground. After identifying the hide by my brand, I went home. But every time I would drop to sleep I would see the cursed thing, with its big lights and hideous people. I don’t know whether they are devils or angels, or what; but we all saw them, and my whole family saw the ship, and I don’t want any more to do with them.”
― Jacques F. Vallée, Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers