The book covers 42 UFO cases reported by American military personnel during the Korean War. All are presented in a conservative manner, as is Haines' hallmark. Of particular interest is an excellent report of a UFO being fired upon at close range by a US artillery group, and the rather unpleasant after affects experienced by the soldiers in the group.

I stumbled upon this one after watching the movie "Fire In The Sky", which's based from Travis Walton's book "The TRAVIS Experience" (I'd Bill Barry's account of Travis' story titled "Ultimate Encounter" published by Corgi books), which narrates his alledged abduction by a UFO; and one of those prominent 'UFOlogist' who've studied the case was the late J. Allen Hynek - who is Jacques Vallee's close associate. In my personal little correspondent with the man himself, he mentions about his theory that UFO's are eventually 'light-entities' which aren't much presented in this third and final installment to his trilogy, but Vallee's journalistic and objective approach in REVELATIONS about so-called UFO cover-ups, crashes, sightings, abductions and the whole phenomenon in general gives light to all of these subjects in this book. If there ever was one book about UFO's that you should read- this might just be the one.

After a long hiatus (about 23 years), this was the first book I read on the UFO phenomenon. And I don't think I could have picked a better one start with. Here was a researcher who shared my reservations over the fascination with conspiracies and hypnotic regression and who openly doubted the extraterrestrial hypothesis.

This book presents an unsparing view of ufology in the '90's, Bill Cooper, John Lear, Linda Moulton Howe, Bob Lazar, William Moore, and Paul Bennewitz all make appearances. The ruling obsessions of the "ufo community", MJ-12, Philadelphia Experiment, Roswell, Implants, are examined and found to be red herrings on their best days.

I can't imagine the amount of rubbish I avoided by reading this book first. Thanks Dr. Vallee!

Valle's finale to the UFO trilogy includes many incidents which have become household words. In the process, he shows how the unwary have frequently been made pawns in the ongoing controversy of UFOs and the holy grail of proof that so many are seeking or denying. As many have come to learn, the UFO controversy is a story that is true one day and false the next. The manipulations that go on inside the controversy are at once blatant and subtle; no "smoking gun" emerges, yet the magic show goes on. Why are so many lies used in refuting and denying this topic?

Written with penetrating insight, and at times wry humor. The insitence of this author that the reader think for himself may irritate some people while delighting others. Interesting and thought-provoking light is shed on the disinformation activities of those who continue to claim that UFOs officially do not exist. This book can be read as a stand alone, or as the conclusion to the observations made in the first two books in the trilogy (Confrontations and Dimensions).

Jacques Vallee is a respected scientist and an entertaining writer who just happens to be interested in UFO's. His concepts of the 'why' are illuminating, as is his frustration at the handling of the issue by those on all sides.

If you are interested in whats "out there" read and learn. If you on the other hand scoff at all mentions of aliens and such, and consider man to be the center and grandest part of the universe, read this man's books with an open mind and you might begin to doubt some long held beliefs. Vallee is quick to dismiss frauds and charlatians, and focus on the real issues. Arresting stuff.

This is my favorite journal since reading "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau.

Jacques Vallee is a legend in Ufology (study of unidentified flying objects). More than that, he's a true scientist, which is a rarity in "the field". This book takes you through some pivotal moments in UFO history.

You'll learn a lot in this book, not just UFOs, but the meaning of science itself.

Certainly an essential book for anyone studying UFOs... or the possibility of alien life. (Are we alone in the universe?)

On a side note, this books is pricless for all the little tidbits and reflections on Allen Hynek, "The Galileo of Ufology".

What picture of the author emerges? I find that the qualities that come through most clearly are Vallee's love of people, his intense curiosity, and his willingness to march to his own drum... Vallee's book will be a valuable resource in providing first-hand insight into the early development of the UFO controversy.

Another peoples champion with partial insider knowledge trying to work out why the establishment are covering up/avoiding the UFO issue. This ordered thesis is a slice of UFO investigation from 30 years ago - have we moved on? not really. Very much along the lines of Donald Keyhoe and his crusade to highlight the circus that was called the Condon Report. This is someone who sounds credible, more so than our governments. Another essential for Ufoligists

Anyone interested in learning about UFOs must read this book. It is a primary starting point for understanding ufology. If you have already read a few other books on UFOs, you still need to read this book to gain a grounded foundation in the study of UFOs.

Everyone in the world should read this book at least once in his or her lifetime.

It isn't often that any book can be considered the "most important" or "most influential" in the field that it studies, but Dr. J. Allen Hynek's "UFO Experience" probably does qualify as the most important study of the UFO phenonmenon ever written. Why? Unlike most UFO books which are written by "true believers" who look uncritically at UFOs and whose authors have little or no scientific expertise, Hynek's "UFO Experience" has both the credentials and the objectivity to be taken seriously. Hynek was a respected astronomer at Northwestern University and spent twenty years (1949-1969) as the chief scientific analyst for the US Air Force's Project Blue Book, the government's official study of the UFO phenomenon. What makes Hynek especially believable is that he started out as a skeptic - he thought UFO's were "nonsense" and helped the Air Force to debunk most sightings. But as the years passed Hynek gradually became convinced that some UFO reports were not hoaxes or weather balloons or stars or some other "normal" phenonmena and that they might represent something extraordinary - even ET visitation from other planets. In the late 1960's he became openly critical of Blue Book's handling of the UFO sightings it was receiving. When the Condon Report was published in 1969 and stated that science had nothing to gain from taking UFO reports seriously, Hynek decided to set up his own organization - with as many credible scientists as possible - to continue to study UFO reports in a serious and scientific way. In 1972 he published the "UFO Experience" in part as a rebuttal to the Condon Report's dismissal of the UFO phenomenon. He points out that although the Condon Report claimed that UFO sightings were "useless" to science, the Report couldn't find "normal" explanations for one-third of the sightings it examined, and had to list them as "unexplained". The "UFO Experience" still makes what many people believe to be the strongest scientific argument that UFOs deserve serious study by qualified scientists. Much of the book discusses the "Close Encounter" UFO sightings which clearly fascinated Hynek. A "Close Encounter of the First Kind" was a UFO observed at extremely close range - within 500 feet. Hynek notes that the closeness of the object helps eliminate the possibility that the witness saw an "ordinary" object - an airplane or a star, for example. A "Close Encounter of the Second Kind" is one in which the UFO physically interacts with the witness - their car shuts off, the UFO leaves burn marks on the ground, etc. And a "Close Encounter of the Third Kind" is one in which the witness actually sees "UFOnauts" either inside or outside the UFO. This last category was used as the title of Steven Spielberg's famous 1978 movie - Spielberg was an admirer of Hynek and gave him a cameo role in the movie. The book is well-written, but it is a "scientific" work and the reader should know that it sometimes contains technical and scientific language and theories. Dr. Hynek pulls no punches in his criticism of the Condon Report or other scientists who choose to ignore the evidence he cites. In short, although nearly 30 years have passed since it was published, Hynek's "UFO Experience" remains one of the best-argued scientific examinations of the UFO phenomenon. If you're interested in learning about UFOs, then this book is a good place to start. (A good "companion" volume to this book is the "Hynek UFO Report", published five years after the "UFO Experience" and which discusses actual UFO cases taken directly from the files of Project Blue Book).

I have long admired Mr. Vallee, as I have read several of his books and have found him to be rational, thorough in his investigations, and very balanced in his conclusions. Until this book, I never realized the connection between the fairy and other unusual sightings of years ago and the UFO phenomena of today. Mr. Vallee's basic premise is that as man has evolved and become more technologically advanced, so too do the strange phenomena. They seem to parallel our advancements. It is a most interesting theory, and while it does not give answers as to why these things happen in the first place, it makes for an interesting and intelligent read. I am fortunate enough to have a copy of this book, and if you can get your hands on one, do so. You'll be glad you did.

A reprisal (and slight revisal) of an older review of mine from a while back (April 2000). Hopefully books like this will get reprinted if enough attention is brought to them...

I find Jacques Vallee's comparative essays (as I call them, finding each chapter stylized as an essay) are very intriguing. The entire book as a collective goes a long way to explaining that the UFO phenomenon (which, according to popular culture "started" in 1947 with the "Roswell Incident") has been with us a lot longer than most realize.

I agree with Monsieur Vallee that civilizations all over the world have had these experiences/contacts in many different forms throughtout the millennia. As a species, we would prove to be completely ignorant if we absolutely believed that we were superior to all other life forms, to the point of ignoring "specters" that are probably with us everywhere, in everything we see, everyday of our lives. And only those who haven't been totally conditioned away from their childhood insight by society have been able to see the fleeting images of fairies, elves, leprechauns, etc., or at least even feel their presence.

A definite must-read for anyone wishing to find out more about the history of UFO's & mythology, and their connection, or for anyone looking for answers as to why they have had a lifetime of unwanted supernatural experiences.

I can be harsh in reviews of books I find silly, but this one I found excellent and I'm glad to say so in a review. Yes, it is dated, but that is part of the interest because it lets you see how things have developed over the past 30 or so years. It is also intelligent and discerning and is not in a rush to leap to conclusions or explain everything. It trusts you to be smart and form your own judgements. No book in this subject should be read alone, no one book can begin to cover the many aspects and issues, but this should be one of the books you read.

"Comparing the bandwagon-joining, daytrading-frenzied investors of today to the medieval alchemists who searched for a secret substance rumored to transform base metals into gold, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Jacques Vallee structures a less magical (but presumably more effective) framework for financial success in this brief primer on investment strategy."

The Four Elements of Financial Alchemy is a unique and comprehensive introduction to the field of personal financial planning. Lucid and insightful - it should be required reading for all first-time investors.

For years official culture has too often "missed the point" about most things even vaguely mysterious -the mafia, the secret government, religion, history- so it is not suprising that the ufo situation has been laughed off and misunderstood also: And we must remember that the seemingly illogical ufo phenomena itself along with the simple-mindedness of the public at large has aided greatly in this state of affairs...sigh...I guess we're not ready, whatever THAT means.

Ufo's and related phenomena are weighty and highly significant; like an iceberg that barely peeks its head above water. But unlike an iceberg we can accuse it of actively manipulating its presence in a quasi-intelligente fashion.

I especially enjoyed this book's excursion into artificial intelligence and the technological singularity -the point beyond which our human/ape brains can neither comprehend nor predict what our technology will "want" to do.

What do the ufonauts desire of humanity? I can't say. But whatever it is they'll certainly get it. I can only assume this book is a small part of that process...

Buy it. It's the most important book for sale at Amazon.com

I found Richard's book to be without doubt an absolute classic!
For the 1st time a book that draws on the parallel's of the UFO
phenomenon and the rise in intelligence/military department's
activity's . Written in a responsible fact presentation type ,it
nonetheless is still quite alarming .
Richard also provide's generous note's & recommendation's to further explore - if you wish - in your quest for knowledge on this truly amazing & at times quite confusing phenomena .
I recommend it highly , in my opinion it is in the top 5 book's of all time on this subject .
GO OUT AND GET IT RIGHT NOW!

For those who purport that the UFO phenomenon is byproduct of over-active imaginations or quasi-religious fantasies, here is a book that offers enough soft evidence to show that the military and governmental authorities have, been, and are, involved in a coverup of massive proportions. Yes, there have been other "history" books written on the UFO problem, yet, Richard Dolan squarely hits the nail on the head, with this comprehensive, clearly articulated volume on the prehistory of UFOs in our skies. His refreshing ability to refrain from subjective arguments for or against propels him to the top of the list for unbiased argument. He simply reports.. And the reports are in, by the hundreds, nationally and globally. Classified documents, military and government voices and clearcut unambiguous sightings both on radar and physical traces, add to the overwhelming conclusion that something of great magnitude has been happening in the earth's skies for at least over half a century, probably more. If you enjoy an open mind, free from dogmatic restraints, then open this book, and read it with fresh eye. Then decide for yourself if "hallucinations" can cover all the bases. A superb and scholarly work!

Linda Moulton Howe was SW America-area reporter when the cattle-mutilation craze hit. Occurring over the period of 10 years beginning with the end of the war in Vietnam and petering out by Reagan's 2nd term, the cattle-mutilation epidemic filled the news media with reports of mysteriously killed and mutilated cattle. Not only was the prairies dotted with dead cows, but certain parts had been removed with allegedly artificial preceision, while the blood was either gone or mysteriously diluted. Who (or what) was behind the killing/mutilations, and just why they were dotting the SW with cut-up carcasses (and whether these deaths and the mutilations themselves weren't really the work of normal predators whose handiwork was distorted by mass media and mass hysteria) are just a the basic mysteries underlying the craze. The three prime suspects for the epidemic (again, assuming that there was an epidemic to be caused) were the government (your friendly military-industrial complex, working day and night on cutting-edge bio-warfare technology; today we'd say it was corporate-level conspiracy), satanists (they're devious and dark, but can't afford their own cattle) and aliens (they've come 10 billion light years to experiment on us, but always forget to clean up their trash!). Linda Moulton Howe falls into that group that's chosen the latter. Now I'm not going to try and debunk the idea of intelligent extra-terrestrial life visiting Earth, or even joke about how oxymoronic it is for intelligent life to visit Earth, but I can never get past the cheat that underlies any ties between UFO theory and just about anything else here on Earth - it's a cheat because it's too easy! Since aliens are, by definition, unknown to us, they're vague, amorphous, and can suit any theory. (They're experimenting on cows to prepare bio-waepons against us; they're preparing new technology to help us; they're conspiring with the government; they work in secret to avoid the government.) UFO's are easy culprits once the process of elimination has removed any plausible motive or opportunity that links the offense to humans. UFO's may sell more papers, but most of those are tabloids; if somebody could tie the phenomenon to a big corporate perp like Dow, and especially in these post-ENRon days, that would totally beat anything the UFO-conspiracy theorists could think up. The usual explanations seem a tad to convenient: cows are being experimented on because their physiologies are so close to our own - but the same could be said for rodents and other small animals used in testing everything from pharmaceuticals and cosmetics to bio-warfare. Also, there's no explanation for why the animals are left out in the open by these advanced aliens. That's not only sloppy but - should the aliens decide to remove other animals form the same herd - a guarantee that the newer harvested cows could be contaminated by exposure to cows already experimented on.

There's nothing particularly wrong "Alien Harvest" that isn't wrong with similar work - it's compelling, but again relies on that same willingness to summarily accept theories that aren't solidly established and then jump to aliens as the only reasonable cause. The story conspicuously lacks objectivity, with the authors having little question of their beliefs. Instead of "Harvest", I'd recommend "Mute Evidence" by Kagan & Summer, a comprehensive survey and investigation of both the mutilation craze and the sub-culture it spawned. "Evidence" actually details Moulton Howe's ascension to the UFO community, and manages to avoid the expected condescension when detailing why it remains on the fringe.

Linda Moulton Howe has courageously persisted in a topic that has been ignored by the mainstream press. Her personal interviews, documentation, photographs, and personal experiences all qualify her as one of the premier UFO investigators in the world. Like her co-author, Jaques Vallee, she is a visonary in a field dominated by crackpots and willfully ignorant skeptics.

Read this book and you'll never feel quite the same driving in the American West by night. If even one percent of her allegations are true (and her witnesses in the main seem pretty reliable) we have something very troubling happening right beneath our noses.

After ordering and reading ALL of Linda's books, I have to say that anyone who reads, and really READS, and discounts all of the accounts of other realities happening all around us, has their head in the sand.

I find her books informative, very scientifically researched, and well written.

Like Linda, I had my 'grounding' in physical sciences, UNTIL my eyes were opened. It seems that now, I tend to read all I can get my hands on, about things NOT neven mentioned on the 'news'. I have tossed out newspaper and television news, because of their narrow point of view, and perhaps, control by God only knows who.

I recommend any or ALL of her work , as being at the very least VERY thought provoking !

Vallee is a rarity in the world - an open-minded scientist who takes UFOs seriously and can write about them with wit and style. In all of his books, one senses a serious man who has no time for either the true believers who think that UFOs are all extraterrestrial craft nor the mindless skpetics who think the thousands of eyewitness accounts are likely the result of indigestion, like Scrooge's sightings of a ghost. His theory, that these are interdimensional beings who are toying with us is original and provocative.

And he has a number of great lines which I have highlighted in my copy of the book. Such as: "There is a strange urge in my mind. I would like to stop behaving as a rat pressing levers-even if I have to go hungry for a while. I would like to step outside the conditioning maze and see what makes it tick. I wonder what I would find. Perhaps a terrible superhuman monstrosity the very contemplation of which would make a man insane? Perhaps a solemn gathering of wise men? Or the maddening simplicity of unattended clockwork?"

Of all his books, I would recommend this as well as Passport to Magonia, although there is some overlap between them. Vallee has been studying UFOs since the 1960s and there is no better authority today.

This book deals with the concept of alternate realities and other dimensions. It also shows how this seems to explain the simularity between the reports of "gods" and faery folk in the past, with reports of UFO's and their occupants in the present. It is interesting that Vallee (who was the model for the French scientist in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind") doesn't see UFO's as extraterrestrial visitors. He maintains that they have always been here with us.

Here we have the idea that our everyday conception of space and time is merely an illusion. The universe is a much stranger and more complicated place than we assume. Space and time are illusionary constructs for a limited consciousness. The truth appears to be closer to a holographic universe. As Vallee states it, the synchronicity and coincidence that abound in our lives suggest that the world may be organised like a randomized data base (the multiverse) rather than a sequential library (the four dimensional world of convensional physics.) Occationally human beings see beyond the illusory curtain of space-time, but it seems to take a major "shake-up" of the individual's mind and habitual way of seeing things. Sometimes this "shake up" seems to come from without- from the "visitors." But this is not an "invasion", it is instead a spiritual system that acts on humans and uses humans.

A book that further explores this theme is _Daimonic Reality_ by Patrick Harpur.

This book displays some excellent research done by Vallee. Not only does he illustrate the UFO phenomena in contemporary times, but he provides information from other continents, in other ages for comparison. These vignettes from the past have been culled from ancient library texts and are not simply conjecture, but are confirmed by the ancient witnesses.
He consistently provides definitive descriptions that have been documented, some over 1000 years ago. He correlates these descriptions with contemporary data in a manner that makes an extremely interesting and enjoyable book.
This book is not at all of the sensationalist variety. The cover of the paperback appears to project that impression, as if it were a Van Daniken type scenario. This book is nothing like that. Vallee has done such excellent research that it seems as if you are reading something that he wrote for his own reference. His comparisons of The Lady of Fatima to Rev. Kirk of Aberfoyle's Secret Commonwealth to Paracelsus' visitors to Jerome Cardan's experiences are well worth reading. Not reminiscent of any fiction, this book will give the curious mind a warehouse of information to dwell on for a considerable period of time.

Jacques Vallee has produced another thought-provoking book on the U.F.O. phenomena. This is the second book of his "Alien trilogy", and it focuses on research methodology. He is especially concerned about the lax methods being used to investigate claims of UFO encounters, where few investigators bother to visit the actual site or interview the witnesses firsthand.

Mr. Vallee again questions the extraterrestrial hypothesis, and takes fellow ufologists to task for only listing or collecting evidence that supports their hypothesis. He is especially concerned about the use of hypnosis in "abduction" cases, where the hypnotist may be leading the abductee to report activities that easily fall into the extraterrestrial survey camp.

Mr. Vallee offers no conclusive proof or definitive answers, just data and information for the reader to peruse and decide for themselves. This book is a wake-up call to ufologists to strengthen their research methods, and improve the current state of ufology. Perhaps, they should even re-think the questions being asked.

While I may not personally agree with all of Mr. Vallee's opinions, I think that he presents a very needed voice of caution and reason in a field fraught with high emotions. This book would make a terrific text for a class on studying paranormal phenomenon, or gather witness reports.