Author: Richard H. Hall
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 1461673763
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 698
Book Description
Patterned after the first volume published in 1964, The UFO Evidence, Volume II 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. 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.
The UFO Evidence
Author: Richard H. Hall
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 1461673763
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 698
Book Description
Patterned after the first volume published in 1964, The UFO Evidence, Volume II 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. 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.
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 1461673763
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 698
Book Description
Patterned after the first volume published in 1964, The UFO Evidence, Volume II 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. 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.
The CIA UFO Papers
Author: Dan Wright
Publisher: Red Wheel
ISBN: 1633411524
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 373
Book Description
The secret CIA papers that prove that the government has been tracking UFOs and extraterrestrials for over fifty years. In autumn 2016, the CIA sent to its website a cache of electronic files previously released under the Freedom of Information Act but housed at the National Archives. Among a variety of subjects were “unidentified flying objects.” Finally, a stockpile of reports and correspondences were available for serious UFO researchers to examine at home. This book consists of selections from those secret files. Dan Wright spent eighteen months selecting, editing, and organizing the 550 files that are relevant to UFO research and has produced a chronological collection of CIA documents spanning 1949 to 2000. Each chapter focuses on a particular year. The summary of documents for each year is followed by a section called “While You Were Away from Your Desk,” which provides historical and cultural context for the document summaries and examines other sightings and contacts that are not mentioned in the CIA files. Among the fascinating tidbits are: A memo to J. Edgar Hoover about flying saucer reports The 1949 conference at Los Alamos that include Edward Teller, upper atmosphere physicist Dr. Joseph Kaplan, and other renowned scientists in which the participants debated whether recent incidents were natural phenomena or UFO sightings This is a must-have book for those fascinated by the history of UFO sightings and those interested in government secrets and cover-ups.
Publisher: Red Wheel
ISBN: 1633411524
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 373
Book Description
The secret CIA papers that prove that the government has been tracking UFOs and extraterrestrials for over fifty years. In autumn 2016, the CIA sent to its website a cache of electronic files previously released under the Freedom of Information Act but housed at the National Archives. Among a variety of subjects were “unidentified flying objects.” Finally, a stockpile of reports and correspondences were available for serious UFO researchers to examine at home. This book consists of selections from those secret files. Dan Wright spent eighteen months selecting, editing, and organizing the 550 files that are relevant to UFO research and has produced a chronological collection of CIA documents spanning 1949 to 2000. Each chapter focuses on a particular year. The summary of documents for each year is followed by a section called “While You Were Away from Your Desk,” which provides historical and cultural context for the document summaries and examines other sightings and contacts that are not mentioned in the CIA files. Among the fascinating tidbits are: A memo to J. Edgar Hoover about flying saucer reports The 1949 conference at Los Alamos that include Edward Teller, upper atmosphere physicist Dr. Joseph Kaplan, and other renowned scientists in which the participants debated whether recent incidents were natural phenomena or UFO sightings This is a must-have book for those fascinated by the history of UFO sightings and those interested in government secrets and cover-ups.
UFOs and Government
Author: Michael D. Swords
Publisher: Anomalist Books, LLC
ISBN: 1933665580
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 594
Book Description
Governments around the world have had to deal with the UFO phenomenon for a good part of a century. How and why they did so is the subject of UFOs and Government, a history that for the first time tells the story from the perspective of the governments themselves. It's a perspective that reveals a great deal about what we citizens have seen, and puzzled over, from the "outside" for so many years. The story, which is unmasked by the governments' own documents, explains much that is new, or at least not commonly known, about the seriousness with which the military and intelligence communities approached the UFO problem internally. Those approaches were not taken lightly. In fact, they were considered matters of national security. At the same time, the story reveals how a subject with such apparent depth of experience and interest became treated as if it were a triviality. And it explains why one government, the United States government, deemed it wise, and perhaps even necessary, to treat it so. Though the book focuses primarily on the U. S. government's response to the UFO phenomenon, also included is the treatment of the subject by the governments of Sweden, Australia, France, Spain, and other countries. This large-format, fully illustrated book is the result of a team effort that called itself "The UFO History Group," a collection of veteran UFO historians and researchers who spent more than four years researching, consulting, writing, and editing to present a work of historical scholarship on government response to the UFO phenomenon. Michael Swords was the primary author of the United States chapters. The work was coordinated and edited by Robert Powell. Clas Svahn, Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, Bill Chalker, and Robert Powell contributed country chapters. Jan Aldrich was the primary content consultant, with additional content consultation and writing coming from Barry Greenwood and Richard Thieme. Steve Purcell was the primary photo illustration editor. From the foreword by Jerome Clark: "While UFOs and Government revisits an often unhappy history, the reading of it is far from an unhappy experience. The authors, eloquent, intelligent, sophisticated, and conscientious, provide us with the first credible, comprehensive overview of official UFO history in many years... Most of the current volume deals with U.S. military and intelligence responses to the UFO phenomenon, but it also features richly informative chapters that expand the story across the international arena. If you're looking for an example of a nation that dealt productively with the UFO reports that came its official way, you will take heart in the chapter on the French projects... From here on, every responsible treatment of UFOs and government will have to cite UFOs and Government prominently among its sources... this is the real story as accurately as it can be reconstructed in the second decade of the new century. I expect to keep my copy close at hand and to return to it often. While it cannot be said of many books, UFO-themed or otherwise, this is among the essential ones. Stray from it at your peril."
Publisher: Anomalist Books, LLC
ISBN: 1933665580
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 594
Book Description
Governments around the world have had to deal with the UFO phenomenon for a good part of a century. How and why they did so is the subject of UFOs and Government, a history that for the first time tells the story from the perspective of the governments themselves. It's a perspective that reveals a great deal about what we citizens have seen, and puzzled over, from the "outside" for so many years. The story, which is unmasked by the governments' own documents, explains much that is new, or at least not commonly known, about the seriousness with which the military and intelligence communities approached the UFO problem internally. Those approaches were not taken lightly. In fact, they were considered matters of national security. At the same time, the story reveals how a subject with such apparent depth of experience and interest became treated as if it were a triviality. And it explains why one government, the United States government, deemed it wise, and perhaps even necessary, to treat it so. Though the book focuses primarily on the U. S. government's response to the UFO phenomenon, also included is the treatment of the subject by the governments of Sweden, Australia, France, Spain, and other countries. This large-format, fully illustrated book is the result of a team effort that called itself "The UFO History Group," a collection of veteran UFO historians and researchers who spent more than four years researching, consulting, writing, and editing to present a work of historical scholarship on government response to the UFO phenomenon. Michael Swords was the primary author of the United States chapters. The work was coordinated and edited by Robert Powell. Clas Svahn, Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, Bill Chalker, and Robert Powell contributed country chapters. Jan Aldrich was the primary content consultant, with additional content consultation and writing coming from Barry Greenwood and Richard Thieme. Steve Purcell was the primary photo illustration editor. From the foreword by Jerome Clark: "While UFOs and Government revisits an often unhappy history, the reading of it is far from an unhappy experience. The authors, eloquent, intelligent, sophisticated, and conscientious, provide us with the first credible, comprehensive overview of official UFO history in many years... Most of the current volume deals with U.S. military and intelligence responses to the UFO phenomenon, but it also features richly informative chapters that expand the story across the international arena. If you're looking for an example of a nation that dealt productively with the UFO reports that came its official way, you will take heart in the chapter on the French projects... From here on, every responsible treatment of UFOs and government will have to cite UFOs and Government prominently among its sources... this is the real story as accurately as it can be reconstructed in the second decade of the new century. I expect to keep my copy close at hand and to return to it often. While it cannot be said of many books, UFO-themed or otherwise, this is among the essential ones. Stray from it at your peril."
UFOs and Abductions
Author: David Michael Jacobs
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 400
Book Description
Examining the nature of UFO "evidence", the authors present a primer for scholars, skeptics, and others uneasy about investigating the field of UFOs. The volume also brings together three bestselling authors--David M. Jacobs, Budd Hopkins, and Pulitzer Prize winner John Mack--widely known for their writings on the controversial "alien abduction" phenomenon.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 400
Book Description
Examining the nature of UFO "evidence", the authors present a primer for scholars, skeptics, and others uneasy about investigating the field of UFOs. The volume also brings together three bestselling authors--David M. Jacobs, Budd Hopkins, and Pulitzer Prize winner John Mack--widely known for their writings on the controversial "alien abduction" phenomenon.
Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens
Author: Mack
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 143919002X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 464
Book Description
A Harvard psychiatrist, the author of A Prince of Our Disorder, presents accounts of alien abduction taken from the more than sixty cases he has investigated and examines the implications for our identity as a species. These mesmerizing and thought-provoking stories of alien encounters from a Harvard professor take you through actual case studies of people from all walks of life and ages who have had challenging, sometimes disturbing, and in every case, life changing experiences of alien abduction. “John Mack explores evidence of nonhuman intelligence like an attorney preparing for the ‘trial of the century’—interviewing witnesses, examining physical evidence, consulting with experts in related fields, constantly questioning his own assumptions…As a story of one man’s determination to bear witness to cosmic mysteries with extraordinary implications for the human future, Abduction is bound to become a modern classic” (Keith Thompson, author of Angels and Aliens)
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 143919002X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 464
Book Description
A Harvard psychiatrist, the author of A Prince of Our Disorder, presents accounts of alien abduction taken from the more than sixty cases he has investigated and examines the implications for our identity as a species. These mesmerizing and thought-provoking stories of alien encounters from a Harvard professor take you through actual case studies of people from all walks of life and ages who have had challenging, sometimes disturbing, and in every case, life changing experiences of alien abduction. “John Mack explores evidence of nonhuman intelligence like an attorney preparing for the ‘trial of the century’—interviewing witnesses, examining physical evidence, consulting with experts in related fields, constantly questioning his own assumptions…As a story of one man’s determination to bear witness to cosmic mysteries with extraordinary implications for the human future, Abduction is bound to become a modern classic” (Keith Thompson, author of Angels and Aliens)
The Myth and Mystery of UFOs
Author: Thomas E. Bullard
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700623388
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 442
Book Description
When United Airlines workers reported a UFO at O'Hare Airport in November 2006, it was met with the typical denials and hush-up that usually accompany such sightings. But when a related story broke the record for hits at the Chicago Tribune's website, it was clear that such unexplained objects continued to occupy the minds of fascinated readers. Why, wonders Thomas Bullard, don't such persistent sightings command more urgent attention from scientists, scholars, and mainstream journalists? The answer, in part, lies in Bullard's wide-ranging magisterial survey of the mysterious, frustrating, and ever-evolving phenomenon that refuses to go away and our collective efforts to understand it. In his trailblazing book, Bullard views those efforts through the lens of mythmaking, discovering what UFO accounts tell us about ourselves, our beliefs, and the possibility of visitors from beyond. Bullard shows how ongoing grassroots interest in UFOs stems both from actual personal experiences and from a cultural mythology that defines such encounters as somehow "alien"-and how it views relentless official denial as a part of conspiracy to hide the truth. He also describes how UFOs have catalyzed the evolution of a new but highly fractured belief system that borrows heavily from the human past and mythic themes and which UFO witnesses and researchers use to make sense of such phenomena and our place in the cosmos. Bullard's book takes in the whole spectrum of speculations on alien visitations and abductions, magically advanced technologies, governmental conspiracies, varieties of religious salvation, apocalyptic fears, and other paranormal experiences. Along the way, Bullard investigates how UFOs have inspired books, movies, and television series; blurred the boundaries between science, science fiction, and religion; and crowded the Internet with websites and discussion groups. From the patches of this crazy quilt, he posits evidence that a genuine phenomenon seems to exist outside the myth. Enormously erudite and endlessly engaging, Bullard's study is a sky watcher's guide to the studies, stories, and debates that this elusive subject has inspired. It shows that, despite all the competing interests and errors clouding the subject, there is substance beneath the clutter, a genuinely mysterious phenomenon that deserves attention as more than a myth.
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700623388
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 442
Book Description
When United Airlines workers reported a UFO at O'Hare Airport in November 2006, it was met with the typical denials and hush-up that usually accompany such sightings. But when a related story broke the record for hits at the Chicago Tribune's website, it was clear that such unexplained objects continued to occupy the minds of fascinated readers. Why, wonders Thomas Bullard, don't such persistent sightings command more urgent attention from scientists, scholars, and mainstream journalists? The answer, in part, lies in Bullard's wide-ranging magisterial survey of the mysterious, frustrating, and ever-evolving phenomenon that refuses to go away and our collective efforts to understand it. In his trailblazing book, Bullard views those efforts through the lens of mythmaking, discovering what UFO accounts tell us about ourselves, our beliefs, and the possibility of visitors from beyond. Bullard shows how ongoing grassroots interest in UFOs stems both from actual personal experiences and from a cultural mythology that defines such encounters as somehow "alien"-and how it views relentless official denial as a part of conspiracy to hide the truth. He also describes how UFOs have catalyzed the evolution of a new but highly fractured belief system that borrows heavily from the human past and mythic themes and which UFO witnesses and researchers use to make sense of such phenomena and our place in the cosmos. Bullard's book takes in the whole spectrum of speculations on alien visitations and abductions, magically advanced technologies, governmental conspiracies, varieties of religious salvation, apocalyptic fears, and other paranormal experiences. Along the way, Bullard investigates how UFOs have inspired books, movies, and television series; blurred the boundaries between science, science fiction, and religion; and crowded the Internet with websites and discussion groups. From the patches of this crazy quilt, he posits evidence that a genuine phenomenon seems to exist outside the myth. Enormously erudite and endlessly engaging, Bullard's study is a sky watcher's guide to the studies, stories, and debates that this elusive subject has inspired. It shows that, despite all the competing interests and errors clouding the subject, there is substance beneath the clutter, a genuinely mysterious phenomenon that deserves attention as more than a myth.
At the Threshold
Author: Charles F. Emmons
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Theater
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
The author answers such questions as: "How did the study of Unidentified Flying Objects become labeled as 'deviant' and unworthy? Why is there no funding for researchers who seek to do valid, scientific study on the subject? Why are the Sacred Halls of Science beginning to crumble? Who are the players, and who do they persist?"--Cover.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Theater
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
The author answers such questions as: "How did the study of Unidentified Flying Objects become labeled as 'deviant' and unworthy? Why is there no funding for researchers who seek to do valid, scientific study on the subject? Why are the Sacred Halls of Science beginning to crumble? Who are the players, and who do they persist?"--Cover.
The Trickster and the Paranormal
Author: George P. Hansen
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1462812899
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 566
Book Description
Paranormal and supernatural events have been reported for millennia. They have fostered history’s most important cultural transformations (e.g., via the miracles of Moses, Jesus, Mohammed). Paranormal phenomena are frequently portrayed in the world’s greatest art and literature, as well as in popular TV shows and movies. Most adults in the U.S. believe in them. Yet they have a marginal place in modern culture. No university departments are devoted to studying psychic phenomena. In fact, a panoply of scientists now aggressively denounces them. These facts present a deeply puzzling situation. But they become coherent after pondering the trickster figure, an archaic being found worldwide in mythology and folklore. The trickster governs paradox and the irrational, but his messages are concealed. This book draws upon theories of the trickster from anthropology, folklore, sociology, semiotics, and literary criticism. It examines psychic phenomena and UFOs and explains why they are so problematical for science.
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1462812899
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 566
Book Description
Paranormal and supernatural events have been reported for millennia. They have fostered history’s most important cultural transformations (e.g., via the miracles of Moses, Jesus, Mohammed). Paranormal phenomena are frequently portrayed in the world’s greatest art and literature, as well as in popular TV shows and movies. Most adults in the U.S. believe in them. Yet they have a marginal place in modern culture. No university departments are devoted to studying psychic phenomena. In fact, a panoply of scientists now aggressively denounces them. These facts present a deeply puzzling situation. But they become coherent after pondering the trickster figure, an archaic being found worldwide in mythology and folklore. The trickster governs paradox and the irrational, but his messages are concealed. This book draws upon theories of the trickster from anthropology, folklore, sociology, semiotics, and literary criticism. It examines psychic phenomena and UFOs and explains why they are so problematical for science.
Close Encounters Of The Fourth Kind
Author: C.D.B. Bryan
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 0307803163
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 720
Book Description
Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: cases in which personal contact between an individual or individuals is initiated by the “occupants” of the spacecraft. Such contact may involve the transportation of the individual from his or her terrestrial surroundings into the spacecraft, where the individual is communicated with and/or subjected to an examination before being returned. One might expect that a “scientific conference” devoted to people who have reported being kidnapped by “little green men” would be dismissed out of hand. But C.D.B. Bryan, the greatly admired journalist and author of Friendly Fire, did not dismiss it: the conference was to be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and would have as its chairmen a Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard psychiatry professor and a professor of physics from M.I.T. Bryan attended the conference throughout its five days. He approached the subject with no prior stand, no agenda, and an open (if slightly skeptical) mind. As the conference progressed, he was astonished by the quality of the stories told by the hundreds of men and women who came forward hesitantly and reluctantly with their utterly amazing—and utterly convincing—accounts of having been abducted and then examined aboard extraterrestrial spacecraft by spindly limbed, telepathic gray creatures with outsized foreheads dominated by huge, compelling, tear-shaped black eyes. What most astonished Bryan were the similarities found again and again in these accounts and the consistency of their details. It is here that the heart of the mystery lies: as the Harvard professor John E. Mack asked at the conference, “If what the abductees are saying isn’t happening to them, then what is?” This question—and the possible answers—are at the center of this richly explicit, serious, and riveting book. Bryan recreates the conference. He interviews ufology’s most prominent psychiatrists, psychologists, hypnotherapists, researchers, physicists, physicians, and folklorists. He interweaves throughout the testimony of the abductees themselves, who tell us their stories in chilling detail. He presents, in depth, the Close Encounter experiences of two women whose stories he tells on the basis of both their spontaneous recollections of the events and their memories that were retrieved through sessions of hypnosis of which Bryan himself was a witness. Finally, Bryan examines the current theories—psychological, psychiatric, medical, parapsychological—that have been put forward by the unconvinced to explain the abduction phenomenon. Are the abductees suffering from some sort of false memory syndrome? . . . a multiple or dissociative personality disorder? . . . Are they fantasy-prone? Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind is a detailed, objective exploration—the most concrete to date—of one of the enduring and amazing mysteries of our time. It is a book that will equally fascinate believers and nonbelievers.
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 0307803163
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 720
Book Description
Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: cases in which personal contact between an individual or individuals is initiated by the “occupants” of the spacecraft. Such contact may involve the transportation of the individual from his or her terrestrial surroundings into the spacecraft, where the individual is communicated with and/or subjected to an examination before being returned. One might expect that a “scientific conference” devoted to people who have reported being kidnapped by “little green men” would be dismissed out of hand. But C.D.B. Bryan, the greatly admired journalist and author of Friendly Fire, did not dismiss it: the conference was to be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and would have as its chairmen a Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard psychiatry professor and a professor of physics from M.I.T. Bryan attended the conference throughout its five days. He approached the subject with no prior stand, no agenda, and an open (if slightly skeptical) mind. As the conference progressed, he was astonished by the quality of the stories told by the hundreds of men and women who came forward hesitantly and reluctantly with their utterly amazing—and utterly convincing—accounts of having been abducted and then examined aboard extraterrestrial spacecraft by spindly limbed, telepathic gray creatures with outsized foreheads dominated by huge, compelling, tear-shaped black eyes. What most astonished Bryan were the similarities found again and again in these accounts and the consistency of their details. It is here that the heart of the mystery lies: as the Harvard professor John E. Mack asked at the conference, “If what the abductees are saying isn’t happening to them, then what is?” This question—and the possible answers—are at the center of this richly explicit, serious, and riveting book. Bryan recreates the conference. He interviews ufology’s most prominent psychiatrists, psychologists, hypnotherapists, researchers, physicists, physicians, and folklorists. He interweaves throughout the testimony of the abductees themselves, who tell us their stories in chilling detail. He presents, in depth, the Close Encounter experiences of two women whose stories he tells on the basis of both their spontaneous recollections of the events and their memories that were retrieved through sessions of hypnosis of which Bryan himself was a witness. Finally, Bryan examines the current theories—psychological, psychiatric, medical, parapsychological—that have been put forward by the unconvinced to explain the abduction phenomenon. Are the abductees suffering from some sort of false memory syndrome? . . . a multiple or dissociative personality disorder? . . . Are they fantasy-prone? Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind is a detailed, objective exploration—the most concrete to date—of one of the enduring and amazing mysteries of our time. It is a book that will equally fascinate believers and nonbelievers.
The Lure of the Edge
Author: Brenda Denzler
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520930274
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 315
Book Description
UFO phenomena entered American consciousness at the beginning of the Cold War, when reports from astonished witnesses of encounters with unknown aerial objects captured the attention of the United States military and the imagination of the press and the public. But when UFOs appeared not to be hostile, and when some scientists pronounced the sightings to be of natural meteorological phenomena misidentified due to "Cold War jitters," military interest declined sharply and, with it, further overt scientific interest. Yet sighting reports didn't stop and UFOs entered the public imagination as a cultural myth of the twentieth century. Brenda Denzler's comprehensive, clearly written, and compelling narrative provides the first sustained overview and valuation of the UFO/alien abduction movement as a social phenomenon positioned between scientific and religious perspectives. Demonstrating the unique place ufology occupies in the twentieth-century nexus between science and religion, Denzler surveys the sociological contours of its community, assesses its persistent attempt to achieve scientific legitimacy, and concludes with an examination of the movement's metaphysical or spiritual outlook. Her book is a substantial contribution to our understanding of American popular culture and the boundaries of American religion and to the debate about the nature of science and religion. Denzler presents a thorough and fascinating history of the UFO/abduction movement and traces the tensions between those who are deeply ambivalent about abduction narratives that seemingly erode their quest for scientific credibility, and the growing cultural power of those who claim to have been abducted. She locates the phenomenon within the context of American religious history and, using data gathered in surveys, sheds new light on the social profile of these UFO communities. The Lure of the Edge succeeds brilliantly in repositioning a cultural phenomenon considered by many to be bizarre and marginal into a central debate about the nature of science, technology, and the production of a modern myth.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520930274
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 315
Book Description
UFO phenomena entered American consciousness at the beginning of the Cold War, when reports from astonished witnesses of encounters with unknown aerial objects captured the attention of the United States military and the imagination of the press and the public. But when UFOs appeared not to be hostile, and when some scientists pronounced the sightings to be of natural meteorological phenomena misidentified due to "Cold War jitters," military interest declined sharply and, with it, further overt scientific interest. Yet sighting reports didn't stop and UFOs entered the public imagination as a cultural myth of the twentieth century. Brenda Denzler's comprehensive, clearly written, and compelling narrative provides the first sustained overview and valuation of the UFO/alien abduction movement as a social phenomenon positioned between scientific and religious perspectives. Demonstrating the unique place ufology occupies in the twentieth-century nexus between science and religion, Denzler surveys the sociological contours of its community, assesses its persistent attempt to achieve scientific legitimacy, and concludes with an examination of the movement's metaphysical or spiritual outlook. Her book is a substantial contribution to our understanding of American popular culture and the boundaries of American religion and to the debate about the nature of science and religion. Denzler presents a thorough and fascinating history of the UFO/abduction movement and traces the tensions between those who are deeply ambivalent about abduction narratives that seemingly erode their quest for scientific credibility, and the growing cultural power of those who claim to have been abducted. She locates the phenomenon within the context of American religious history and, using data gathered in surveys, sheds new light on the social profile of these UFO communities. The Lure of the Edge succeeds brilliantly in repositioning a cultural phenomenon considered by many to be bizarre and marginal into a central debate about the nature of science, technology, and the production of a modern myth.