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Review Essays of Academic, Professional & Technical Books in the Humanities & Sciences

 

UFOlogy

The UFO Evidence edited by Richard H. Hall (Scarecrow) Patterned after the first volume published in 1964, The UFO Evidence is much anticipated by the research community. The book reports 30 years of UFO sightings since 1964 with related data and descriptive features organized by category. In this report, the sightings are arranged by witness categories. Among the topics discussed are the now strongly established patterns of UFO sightings, the growing evidence worldwide that UFOs represent someone's technology, the history of Government sponsored UFO investigations, and political and human responses to UFO sightings. The master chronology is an incredibly complete listing, which also refers the reader to pertinent sections in the book for fuller descriptions.

Richard H. Hall  a most respected names in ufology, but it's just what the title says: EVIDENCE -- more than 650 pages of evidence, compiled over the past 35 years and assembled here in a very easy-to-digest format. Hall compiled the first volume of UFO Evidence for the respected National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) in 1964. The first volume is widely regarded as one of the most useful resources in ufology, and this volume is far superior. It's literally packed with case summaries, drawings, photographs tables and analyses (including 70 pages on the abduction phenomenon). Fifty dollars is a lot of money, but this is easily worth twice the price of any other UFO book that I've purchased over the past few years. The beauty of Hall's approach is that the reader is literally overwhelmed with FACTS, not hypnotically-retrieved recollections or wild-eyed speculations. Hall was associated with the founder of NICAP, Maj. Donald Keyhoe, and is as far from the UFO "lunatic fringe" as you can get. He has been a proponent of the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis, which is supported by a fair percentage of the evidence (indeed, a large percentage of the evidence if you're willing to be flexible as to what "extraterrestrial" may mean), but he doesn't seem to be dogmatic about it. Although this book is clearly his, it includes contributions by others who are equally respected and equally far removed from the lunatic fringe (such as Richard Haines and Eddie Bullard). This volume and the first (which was reprinted in the mid-1990's) are sufficient in themselves to establish a compelling case for UFOs as an intelligently guided, genuinely anomalous phenomenon (or perhaps several such phenomena). I have to believe that this book will be money well spent for anyone who wants to see what a serious piece of work looks like in comparison to the dozens of largely worthless UFO titles published every year by authors without a tenth of Hall's experience or depth of knowledge. Lastly, bear in mind that serious UFO titles such as this typically have limited press runs and tend to be worth considerably more than you paid for them in a few years.

Extraterrestrial Visitations: True Accounts of Contact by Preston Dennett (Llewellyn) pre­sents real accounts of very close contact with UFOs. Told in the witnesses' own words, the stories have imme­diacy, objectivity, and credibility. Revealed in these sto­ries is the full spectrum‑positive and negative‑of the most confounding mystery of modern times. For example there is the account of Pat Brown:  "They went in the top of my head…"

One night, l was lying in bed, and 1 had my back to the wall, when 1 saw these two aliens of towards the back o f my head. I saw them come through the wall. And they came up to me. l didn't try to move. l don't know if there was any sensation. l remember just lying there. And they came over and they went in the top of my head. And it felt very good, so 1 allowed it. I perceived that I allowed it.

And they were slender. They were iridescent, like a whitish color. And that was that.

Pat Brown UFO abductee Pat Brown assumed her experience with extraterrestrials had come to an end. She didn't know that her ordeal had only just begun …