Unexplained Aerial Objects

A review of the UFO books, written by Dr. Jacques Vallee

I have recently read four books, written by Dr. Jacques Vallee.  Dr. Vallee has spent approximately fifty years researching what he terms “Unexplained Aerial Objects”.  The first three books, a trilogy (Dimensions, Confrontations, Revelations), were published in 1988, 1990, and 1991.  The last book, entitled “Wonders In The Sky” was published in 2009.  Each book contains many “occurrences”, and some opinions, although Dr. Vallee is very careful to not make any assumptions that are not supported by fact.  The subject, to me, is fascinating, but at the same time, it is also frustrating.  Why is it frustrating?  In spite of fifty years of careful research in which he and his colleagues investigated thousands of incidents, there is no conclusion: Unexplained Aerial Objects truly exist, and evidently have been around for thousands of years, but we still do not know the real source of the phenomenon and the reason they show up unexpectedly from time to time.

Dr. Vallee’s research has been severely hampered by two factors: the UFO cultists and the Air Forces of several countries.  The Air Forces are extremely interested in the technology involved – these mysterious objects in the sky can hover, change direction at will, zoom off at supersonic speeds, and disappear from sight in an instant.  They can also kill people and/or create severe health problems in observers.

The UFO cultists are another problem.  They are totally committed to the opinion that the UFOs are the result of visits of aliens from other planets in the Universe.  Dozens of UFO cults have been organized.  As soon as an individual reports seeing a UFO, he/she is very apt to be besieged by the cultists and reporters, most of whom are not interested in scientific facts, but the “story”.  The cult enthusiasts very often bring amateur hypnotists with them and usually have pre-conceived notions of what happened and often ask leading questions so that they will get the answers they want.  The final “story” is very apt to be exaggerated, contain untrue ‘facts’, or be a complete hoax.  Sometimes the subject enjoys all the attention, but very often the cultists leave the subject very angry and/or frightened and as a result, reluctant to cooperate with a true scientist doing research.  Either that, or the subject is very reluctant to tell anyone of the contact because of ridicule and/or the fuss, so the researcher does not hear of the event until years later, if at all.

So, stories from the past indicate that UFOs have been with mankind for thousands of years.  A most powerful biblical story is that of Ezekiel, who called them ‘Cherubim’ and described them: “Their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures, and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.”  There are hundreds of petroglyphs in many places that are pictures of beings that answer to the description of the beings in modern UFOs.  We can only guess what influence these beings had on civilization, religion, and mankind in general.

‘DIMENSIONS’ is the first volume of the trilogy (1988).  In it Dr. Vallee reexamines the historical record that led to the modern UFO phenomenon and to the belief in alien contact.  He than tackles the enigma of abduction reports, which come from various times and various countries, as well as the psychic and spiritual components of the contact experience.  In the last portion of the book, he notes the factors that inhibit research into the phenomenon – the triple coverup and political motivations – and concludes that the extraterrestrial theory is simply not strange enough to explain the facts.

‘CONFRONTATIONS’ is the second volume of the trilogy (1990).  Dr. Vallee personally investigates forty astonishing UFO cases from around the world.  He finds it shocking that professional scientists have never seriously examined this material.  This book is about the hopes, experiences, and the frustrations of a scientist who has gone into the field to investigate a bizarre, seductive, and often terrifying phenomenon reported by many witnesses as a contact with an alien form of intelligence.

‘REVELATIONS’ is the final volume of the trilogy (1991). It presents startling evidence that well constructed hoaxes and media manipulations have misled UFO researchers, diverting them from the UFO phenomenon itself.  Dr. Vallee takes readers step by step into the tangled web of UFOlogy’s dark side, in an effort to clear the ever-thickening underbrush that has obscured the real nature of the UFO phenomenon.

‘WONDERS IN THE SKY’, published in 2009, is an unprecedented compendium of pre-twentieth-century accounts of mysterious aerial objects by two leading investigators of unexplained phenomena.  Using vivid and engaging case studies, and more than seventy-five illustrations, Dr. Vallee and his colleague Chris Aubeck, elucidate that unexplained aerial objects had a major impact not only on popular culture but on our history, on our religion, and on the models of the world humanity has formed from deepest antiquity.

Personally, I find all of this fascinating.  Tomorrow, March 22^nd, 2011, I will be eight months into my 85^th orbit of the Sun.  That means that it will not be very long before I find out what is on the other side (maybe).  IMHO I believe mankind has an exaggerated opinion of its intelligence and knowledge.  The older I get, the more I realize that we actually know very little about this world we live in, and, how to get along with each other.  Our main personality factor is hubris, when it should be Unconditional Love.

There is an old adage: The larger the sea of knowledge, the longer is the shoreline of ignorance.

So, where do we go from here?  I am almost half way through my 85^th orbit of the sun.  Most of the time, like the majority of my colleagues and relatives, I don’t look beyond the end of my nose unless I am almost forced to do so. 

I have no reason to complain.  I chose some excellent parents, lived through the 30s depression without missing a meal, survived the South Pacific in World War II, got a college degree and was always gainfully employed until I really retired.  I also have been able to volunteer for more than 5,000 hours at the local homeless shelter during the past 14 years.  I have been married to my best friend for more than 60 years and we have a wonderful extended family who love us and are a true blessing in many ways.

This past election particularly bothered me and, actually, I have been discouraged by the political actions of both the state and national legislatures and the individuals who waste millions or billions of dollars getting elected and then waste millions and/or billions of taxpayer dollars after they get the positions they fought so hard to get.  And now, after both parties have ignored the national debt for years and years, it has suddenly become the primary political issue.

I am registered as an “Independent” voter, which means, in Oregon, that I cannot vote for any of the party candidates in the primaries.  In spite of this, I have not missed voting in an election since I voted for Eisenhower for President, way back when (was it really 1948?).  I have always tried to be a good citizen, a good parent, a good husband, and a reliable employee.  I am far from perfect, but my wife and I survived our mistakes without any major catastrophes and ended up with a wonderful family.

In spite of this, I am discouraged.  It seems to me that this country, this society, this culture is going downhill like a runaway toboggan.  Is this just because I am an old fogey?  What are the facts?

1. The real God that we worship in this country is “Mammon” (money)!
2. Materialism is a rampant disease that has completely engulfed today’s society.
3. Church leaders avoid preaching the true philosophy of Jesus because they do not want to be labeled as “socialists”.  The majority of the congregations are “capitalists” who prefer security and materialism to wasteful generosity.
4. The state legislature is little more than a “social” club; the lobbyists write the bills and the voters make the hard decisions.  The budget is their only real chore.
5. The national legislature is primarily concerned with getting re-elected, protecting the corporations and the wealthy, and denigrating the ideological opposition.
6. As noted previously, this nation is supporting a huge illegal drug market that has enabled the drug cartels to paralyze the Mexican government and practically disenfranchise the Border Patrol.
7. We seem to be reverting to the “Old West” philosophy, that is: “I’ve got mine and I’ll share it only if I want to – to hell with paying taxes – and if you haven’t got yours, tough tits.  Let the devil take the hindmost.”
8. That means: “Let someone else take care of infrastructure, education, health care, the environment, the homeless, and the mentally ill.”
9. As soon as the “grass heads” get marijuana legalized the streets and highways will not only have drivers impaired by alcohol, meth and cell phones, but there will be a large influx of  “grassers” impaired by the legal weed to watch out for.

Are we just standing on the shore, swatting mosquitoes, while the bank under our feet is collapsing?

Illegal Immigrants?

Immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America come in all different categories; that is, some are laborers, some are educated, some are athletes AND some are criminals.  Now, we can put up with the workers, the students, and the athletes, but we do not want the criminal element in any way shape or form.

Who is responsible for the large influx of the Hispanic criminal element?  We are!!!!

The population of the United States, its citizens and residents, provide that undesirable element with a huge, and very profitable, illegal drug market.  The manufacturers of firearms in the United States also provide the drug cartels with an almost unlimited supply of late model firearms, to the extent that the cartels have fought the Mexican government almost to a standstill.

Our U.S. Border Patrol is also overwhelmed.  The Border Patrol can stop many of the innocents, but the drug cartel manpower goes back and forth across the border like it did not even exist.

As long as the citizens and residents of the United States provide a hugely profitable drug market, there will be a large, mostly illegal, Hispanic criminal element in our midst.  How long are we going to ignore this very expensive nuisance?  IMHO this is a crisis of gigantic proportion, more important than war, terrorism, and/or illegal citizenship.  Are we so busy swatting mosquitoes that we haven’t noticed the bank crumbling under our feet?