Your main influences and your 2 cents

After reading many threads on this forum, the time has come to finally submit my own thread.

And with that I’d like to make this thread an overview of what your main influences within ufology are, and secondly, what your interpretation (or even conclusions) on these phenomena and their agenda (if there is any) are.

My favorite authors/books
Leslie Kean / UFO’s: Generals, pilots and government officials go on the record
A few years ago this was the book that got my attention and made me dive into this subject. It omitted conclusions and only submitted cases that were highly credible.

Col. John B. Alexander / UFO’s: Myths, conspiracies and realities
Interesting what his ideas are on a lot of topics/events within ufology from a military perspective. I love his down to earth approach.

Knapp & Kelleher / Hunt for the Skinwalker
Mindblowing book about the events and study that has been done on this ranch. This book shows the complexity and variety in which this phenomena seems to appear. I also like the cautious and openminded view of the authors about the possible meanings of this.
Other authors I like are Nick Pope, Jacque Vallée and John Keel (albeit some seems are somewhat romanticized) At this moment I am reading the work of Ray Fowler.

My interpretations so far
As a relatively newcomer to this area, my initial (ontological) shock was after reading Leslie Kean’s book that this phenomena is real! That there is some technology, unbeknownst to us entering our airspace. My second shock was the multitude of interpretations that there are. From the mundane (extraterrestrials) to the outlandish (reptilians that are taking over the world).
All I modestly say so far, is that I lean towards the ultraterrestial approach, and that perhaps parallel dimensions next to us, are responsible for some of the UFOs we see. Maybe ultraterrestrials as well as extraterrestrials (the nuts-and-bolts) do both visit us.

Other seemingly pattern characteristics I see emerge:
• It has a strong psychical component. Seemingly able to manipulate our minds
• In some cases the UFO’s are accompanied by other happenings, like black helicopters, visits of men in black suits, poltergeist activity, cattle mutilations and so on
• Some UFO’s might be our own, but others (also seen before the technological evolution as we know it) seem to be impossible to be manmade

Further than that, I conclude that this phenomenon to me is utterly strange and complex. For that reason I like the cautious approach of investigators by being skeptical, but also keeping an openmind.
I’d love to know what your major influences and works are, and what the hell do you think is going on?! ;-)

I would have to say J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallee, It befuddles me that someone
so intelligent, well researched and educated (as well as charming and smooth as hell)
isn't more renowned. And Yuri Gagarin. The first man in space (to make it back alive )
thought he'd made contact! That should carry more weight than it seems to.

My conclusions... Taking "high strangeness" into account, I think the 'paranormal' field
is directly related to 'ufology', it would seem to suggest some form of interference
from another dimension. Then there's time travel. Time travel is the only way the existence of
the greys makes any sense to me, even though i still doubt there validity as an actual enounter.

As of yet I don't think we have enough information or have done enough research as to ascertain
what motives there are, if any. I sometimes wonder , if we're not just facing the
ultra-dimensional equivalent of teenagers screwing with us out of boredom.

reply to post by LivingUnderGlass


I remember the first UFO book I got when I was a kid, I can't recall the author's name but it was called UFO Encounters. It introduced me to the researchers like Stan Friedman, Don Keyhoe, J Allen Hynek, It was these men that got me interested in UFOs.

LivingUnderGlass
After reading many threads on this forum, the time has come to finally submit my own thread.

And with that I’d like to make this thread an overview of what your main influences within ufology are, and secondly, what your interpretation (or even conclusions) on these phenomena and their agenda (if there is any) are.

It will come as no surprise that my first 2 are not UFO books per-se but they talk about UFOs in them.

Here are mine:

Sagan, Carl: Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

A very good read and one I encourage both skeptics and UFO believer's alike to read. It provides a good introduction to using the tools of the scientific method with regards to subjects such as UFOs, Abductions, the Paranormal, Bigfoot etc. Most importantly he explains WHY we should. It is almost as if the late Sagan predicted the mess that UFOlogy would be in 2013. As of right now the subject could use a lot more in the way of rigorous objectivity with regards to increasingly dubious claims.

Kaku, Michio Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel

Much like Carl Sagan Michio Kaku has become one of the best popularizers of science today. Like Sagan's work this is written for the average person in a conversational style. It is not a technical book aimed at scientists. In Physics of the Impossible he answers the question that often comes up in UFO discussions. "How would aliens get here." It turns out there may be multiple ways and they're mostly just outside our reach but perhaps not 200, 500 or 1,000 years from now. The point is, if you want to be armed with some good information or ammunition in an argument with someone who says "they can't get here from there" this is it. It also goes into a lot of other future technologies being worked on right now as we speak by some very smart people.

Billings, Lee Five Billion Years of Solitude: The Search for Life Among the Stars

If you want a good idea where the scientific search for other life in the universe is at the moment and likely to head in the near and far future this book is for you. It is also written for the average reader. It starts with a visit to Frank Drake of "Drake Equation" fame, discusses the Fermi Paradox, implications of contact, technology which will be used to detect life on other worlds through observations with ground and space based telescopes and so on. A great introduction to Astrobiology and where things stand today.

Dickinson, Terrence The Zeta Reticuli Incident

In the 1960s the Betty and Barney Hill alleged UFO abduction gave us something no other abduction story, contactee, trance channeller, or UFO sighting has given us to date: A piece of scientifically testable evidence. One which has endured to present.

If you want to know where research into the Betty Hill Starmap was in 1976 or how well respected at least SOME UFO research was in the 60s-70s then this is a good read. It is less of a book than a booklet compiling investigation into the Betty Hill / Marjorie Fish star map model from both sides as it played out in the pages of Astronomy magazine. It features work by both Marjorie Fish and Terrence Dickinson as well as rebuttals by Carl Sagan as well as others who weighed in on the map. A must read for anyone interested in this subject or beginning their own research in this staple of UFOlogy.


Kean, Leslie UFO’s: Generals, pilots and government officials go on the record

Probably the most credible pro-UFOs as a subject of worthy of serious investigation going. (That said, it should be read with the full knowledge that at least some of the people and stories put forth may be less than genuine in light of what we've seen in the Mirage Men documentary. You will never look at information coming from government officials or generals the same way again after watching that.) With that caveat does provide a rundown of what are considered some of the most credible cases from someone who is a trained journalist.


I feel that anyone with an interest in this subject should probably give these books a read and prepare to be challenged.

main influence?

my own eyes.

always been interested but in the late 60's, i had a great sighting and i wasn't alone, i was with 5 other friends.

not the usual saucer or lights in the sky, this puppy was on fire! in sight for several minutes.

slow and steady, could see the flames and it dripped fire.

from watertown towards boston.

west to east.

I never went deep into UFO's until I saw one myself about 10 years ago. It didn't make me think that ET's exist though, it just got me interested in UFO's. Jacques Vallée is also a great inspiration to me. Though I've seen more videos of him than I've read his books.

Thecakeisalie
I remember the first UFO book I got when I was a kid, I can't recall the author's name but it was called UFO Encounters. It introduced me to the researchers like Stan Friedman, Don Keyhoe, J Allen Hynek, It was these men that got me interested in UFOs.

Jerome Clark wrote a book entitled UFO Encounters in the early 1990s, could that be the one?


Regarding interpretations and proposed hypotheses, while it's important to keep an open mind, and be receptive to all possibilities, I think we also should try to make the least amount of assumptions when investigating the phenomenon.

As an example, although alien visitation is a very unlikely possibility it still is a more probable possibility than visitors from "other or parallel dimensions", for the simple fact that at the moment we know intelligent life can exist in the known observable universe, but we have absolutely no idea if anything can exist in different/parallel dimensions.

I like to raise this point because frequently I hear people talking about the "high strangeness" and how it "doesn't fit with the ET hypothesis." That makes huge assumptions about what ET would or even should look and behave like. As Arthur C. Clarke insightfully stated "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

This is not to say that the ET hypothesis is correct and the others are wrong because, besides still lacking the evidence to believe one hypothesis over the other, it's also possible that whatever we call UFOs may have multiple and different sources and origins.

In any case, whatever hypothesis or theory each of us gives more credence to, ultimately what we believe is irrelevant, and the scientific investigation of the phenomenon will eventually give us the answers, whatever they may be.

Carl Jung, Jacques Vallee, George Hansen, Richard L. Thompson, Jeffrey Kripal, Dean Radin.

The phenomenon is legit and real, but technology has nothing to do with it.

My own bluish-white/red orange fireball UFO sighting one night in November of 1976, approx. 40 miles west of Washington D.C. My investigation of a UFO fireball landing site in March of 1977, in a grassy field, near Fawn Grove Pennsylvania. My own investigation of a possible ET starbase from 1972 on...located on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay at Calvert Cliffs, Maryland --- along with photographed geoglyph carving's of aliens with a possible photograph of the ET humanoid himself. At the same time an location: a photograph --- also taken by me --- a possible laser holographic image of a dinosauroid humanoid.

I rely on ATS's mod Karl12 for his OP's about other UFO sightings and landings. I'm favor the nuts an bolts theory on ET starships.

My favorite UFO bible: The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, by author Captain Ruppelt

One of my favorites is also The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects by Edward Ruppelt. For those interested an ebook version is available here. The copyright has expired so it's free. Same with The Flying Saucers are Real by Donald Keyhoe, which is available here. These are great classics.

Speaking of classics, I enjoyed every Jacques Vallée book but that goes almost without saying.

The more recent books I've enjoyed include Greg Bishop's Project Beta, Leslie Kean's UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record, Mark Pilkington's Mirage Men, Chris Lambright's X Descending, and Tom Carey's & Don Schmitt's revised and expanded edition of Witness to Roswell and most recently Inside the Real Area 51: The Secret History of Wright Patterson.

An open mind


That and the fact the ET is a mathematical probability. Now, the question of whether they are visiting/studying us is a whole other ball game completely. Ancient ET, Probing, Channeling, constant fakery in videos and claims serves to muddy the water of real scientific research imho.

It's almost as if there may be some sort of 'Agenda' to foil peoples attempts at legitimate research/discussion/investigation

SLAYER69
It's almost as if there may be some sort of 'Agenda' to foil peoples attempts at legitimate research/discussion/investigation

Maybe. But I think the archetype of the trickster is a more likely suspect.

Well.

I did read about it as a kid. My interest was rekindled this summer after reading Nick Redfern's Final Events - I forget how I ended up with it but... Needless to say, I thought that the phenomena might be interesting to examine as not extraterrestrial. Ergo:

1) Nick Redfern. One of the most interesting of the new authors. He seems to have a weird ability to find wierd stuff and write about it.

2) Jerome Clark's UFO Encyclopedia. Awesome reference.

3) John Keel's work. I think he is the real dark horse of UFOlogy, and I think he made a pretty damn honest attempt at figuring it out. Plus he had a background as a magician, and Jadoo is a really revealing look at him as a person in this respect. He lacked a formal scientific background, but he gave it his best shot.

4) Jacque Vallee. Just pure awesome.

5) Mac Tonnies. The Cryptoterrestrials is a nifty read, and I think its probably one of the source tomes for the emerging New Wave researchers.

6) Richard Dolan. Fellow History dude, so thats pretty cool. Dolan is very useful for tracking what the UFOlogical opinion on things changed over time. Now, although I find him to be very useful while looking for source material - I do not reach the same conclusions he does on 'disclosure' and the concept of a breakaway state.

7) John Alexander. Lets assume John and friends as a baseline for what the government thinks on UFOlogy. They seem to have something going on...

8) George Hansen, The Trickster and the Paranormal. Read this book.

My conclusions thus far are...more interesting than I ever thought I'd reach. There does seem to be a phenomena, it would appear to be restricted to our planet, and there could be some kind of intelligence at work. Now I could neatly sum everything up as a very interesting geophysical phenomena - but the government people are talking about space-time distortion (interestingly the electro-gravity black projects and Persinger kinda have a weird association here) and wormholes. On the latter example you have papers from NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics people working for Bigelow talking about wormhole detection and their recorded observations of what they feel are good candidates for them occurring in the field.

Just flat what.

There is something here that everyone, including the skeptics, seem to be overlooking big time. Its not little green men - its something that would appear to be a little stranger then the media narrative/mythology would have people believe. I think we can solve the puzzle. We just have to know what to ask.

And I didn't even have to invoke the occult writing that.

Thanks for all the interesting replies. It seems that mostly everyone agrees that it's a complex matter where conclusions are to be made with great caution and consideration.

I am going to read George Hansens' book "the Trickster and the Paranormal".

Any more books or authors you'd highly recommend, would be welcomed!

2 books I would highly recommend are "Earth An Alien Enterprise" about the ufo cover up by Timothy Cook. A Mr. Don Donderi Ph.D. also has a new book out, where in his opinion SOME of the ufo's we are seeing are not from around here.

Budd Hopkins tops my list. John Mack, Jim Mars. Hyneck for his involvement with the Hudson Valley incidents in Night Seige. Jacques Vallee and the much-maligned David Icke. Jenny Randles for her MIB book. Stanton. And a lot of the books mentioned by others so far.

People whose UFO related work I could do without? Carl Sagan tops that list, he single-handedly set Ufology back a great deal, in my opinion. He was enormously popular and influential at the time, and he was grossly inaccurate. I bet he knew better.

Leslie Kean. Never has someone who knew so little about UFOs hit it so big. I heard her on Fresh Air on NPR, it was laughable. Kean didn't know when she was being lied to, and she comes away from the book believing a song and dance. Shame on her for not knowing anything about the topic going in. I realize her book made some ripples in the mainstream, but what good does that do us if it isn't correct?

If Kean is a journalist, then Art Bell is Edward R. Murrow.

I find it hard to take the late Mack Tonnes seriously, and so did he, it seems. I always got the vibe it was just idle banter to him.

Scdfa

People whose UFO related work I could do without? Carl Sagan tops that list, he single-handedly set Ufology back a great deal, in my opinion. He was enormously popular and influential at the time, and he was grossly inaccurate. I bet he knew better.

Leslie Kean. Never has someone who knew so little about UFOs hit it so big. I heard her on Fresh Air on NPR, it was laughable.

If Kean is a journalist, then Art Bell is Edward R. Murrow.
.

Says a person who takes David "The Queen of England is a Reptillian" Icke seriously.... LMAO.



God forbid anyone use science, logic or reason in this field.

What do you think of Peter Sturrock? Did you even read the Sturrock report?

reply to post by JadeStar

Says a person who takes David "The Queen of England is a Reptillian" Icke seriously.... LMAO.

Icke is no joke, he's done his research and he has a lot to say. He's contributed a great deal to understanding this phenomenon, absolutely, ignore his work at your own risk. He doesn't have all the answers, nor does he claim to, but what he brings to the table is significant. For you to mock David Icke shows how little you understand the scope of the UFO situation.

You and the rest of the "blinded me with science" crowd are almost comical in your belief that the key to figuring out UFOs is to be found in a laboratory at some mainstream university, where professors can enlighten us about the true nature of flying saucers through peer-reviewed scientific journals. So how come seventy years later, mainstream science has added little to nothing to the field.

Your scientists have failed you. Such luminaries as Carl Sagan, Steven Hawkings, even Bill Nye the science guy have added less to our understanding of UFOs than an ex-soccer player like David Icke.

Modern science is too busy genetically modifying our food into poison and turning pesticides into carcinogenic artificial sweeteners to look into UFOs.

It's up to the rest of us, I'm afraid.

edit on 15-1-2014 by Scdfa because: (no reason given)

reply to post by JadeStar




Icke is no joke, he's done his research and he has a lot to say. He's contributed a great deal to understanding this phenomenon, absolutely, ignore his work at your own risk. He doesn't have all the answers, nor does he claim to, but what he brings to the table is significant. For you to mock David Icke shows how little you understand the scope of the UFO situation.

You and the rest of the "blinded me with science" crowd are almost comical in your belief that the key to figuring out UFOs is to be found in a laboratory at some mainstream university, where professors can enlighten us about the true nature of flying saucers through peer-reviewed scientific journals. So how come seventy years later, mainstream science has added little to nothing to the field.

Your scientists have failed you. Such luminaries as Carl Sagan, Steven Hawkings, even Bill Nye the science guy have added less to our understanding of UFOs than an ex-soccer player like David Icke.

Modern science is too busy genetically modifying our food into poison and turning pesticides into carcinogenic artificial sweeteners to look into UFOs.

It's up to the rest of us, I'm afraid.

another book I am currently reading is "Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind" by a Mr. Bryan. It is primarily about abduction experiences, and some M.I.T conferences, but also has quite a bit of ufo sightings mentioned and commented on.