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Fortean Library Bookshelf

The Essential Fortean Booklist – Aliens, UFOs and ETs

Late last year our good friend Matt Staggs posted a link to the “Nervous Breakdown Reading List: Occult and High Weirdness“. This got me to thinking that once the Christmas craziness had settled down, a fun project might be to compile a list of books that any Fortean should definitely have on their bookshelf. But how to approach the compilation?

My thought was that the process could be done in two-steps. Firstly, I’ll put out a general call (first one below) for NOMINATIONS of books to a certain Fortean category (to simplify things a bit). From that list of nominations, a short-list will be compiled based on the number of nominations, which will then be PUT TO A VOTE to determine the order of importance. I’m thinking some parts of the process may end up being a little organic, but this should provide us with a reasonably fair end result.

So, to kick things off, I’m going to start with the ‘Alien’ category, which at the moment comprises everything from UFOs and abductions to astrobiology and SETI. Given the broadness of this category (with some elements likely even mutually exclusive), I may have to separate the nominations into sub-categories – but I might wait to see what kind of numbers we have first:


The Essential Fortean Booklist

Category: ALIEN (UFOS, SETI, alien contact etc)

Please list a maximum of ten books that you think are required reading/reference material for a Fortean, in the comments section below. This may be for a number of reasons, from historical through to scientific importance. Note: this means it does not necessarily have to be the *best* or most *scientifically valid* book on a topic – the criteria is that it deserves to be on the bookshelf.

Note that the number of nominations may be crucial in making the short-list, so you shouldn’t decide to not post a certain book just because it has already been mentioned.

A one or two line blurb accompanying the nomination describing the reason for its importance is encouraged and appreciated (and may end up being used in the final presentation of books)!

(You will need to be registered as a Daily Grail user to nominate and vote, to avoid spammers/self-promotion/poll-crashing by external sites.)

I look forward to seeing your recommendations!

Update: Nominations are now closed, but please feel free to add your suggestions in the comments for those who read this thread in future.

Editor
  1. My noms
    * Passport to Magonia – Jacques Vallee

    Portions of Vallee’s 1969 classic may be now be seen as incorrect or incomplete, but the historical importance of this book in the history of ufology is profound.

    * Abduction – John Mack

    No matter what your thoughts on ‘alien abduction’, Mack’s book (and involvement with the field) brought new attention to it.

    * The Roswell Incident – Charles Berlitz and William Moore

    The beginning of something big, though perhaps largely filled with hot air…

    * Roswell – Karl Pflock

    A fine tonic to follow Berlitz and Moore’s book with.

    * UFOs and the National Security State (multi-volume) – Richard Dolan

    I don’t agree with all of Dolan’s take on the UFO phenomenon, but this encyclopaedic history is a necessity all the same.

    * Project Beta – Greg Bishop

    For anybody that swallows every story they hear about UFOs, Bishop’s telling of the Paul Bennewitz saga should set you straight on how deep the disinformation rabbit hole goes.

    * Messengers of Deception – Jacques Vallee

    Vallee wasn’t afraid to explore the darker side of the UFO phenomenon, and Messengers was one of the first to point out the dangers in uncritical belief in alien contact – he saw Heaven’s Gate coming two decades in advance.

    * Lonely Planets – David Grinspoon

    Grinspoon, a NASA astrobiologist who grew up close to both Carl Sagan and John Mack, presents a fun history of humanity’s infatuation with the idea of life beyond our planet.

    * UFOs – Leslie Kean

    Brought some respectability back to the field by presenting sightings from “generals, pilots and government officials”.

    1. “Cancer Planet Mission” aka
      “Cancer Planet Mission” aka “UFO Contact from Itibi-Ra”
      The book is out of print but can be found used. There is a downloadable version at the link below. For awhile Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters promoted the book as cult hit.

      http://www.ufotv.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=UFOTV&Product_Code=U824

      “Ludwig F. Pallmann, a health food processing equipment salesman, working in Peru heard about a giant Arrowroot species growing in the upper Peruvian Amazon and set out to find it.

      He departed from a town called Leticia in an Indian canoe and was taken by a guide up a tributary of the Mari River where he met with a tribe of villagers who led him deeper into the jungle interior and to an encampment of Alien extraterrestrials and saucer shaped space craft.

      According to the visitors they come from a planet called Itibi-Ra and they are here to conduct hybrid-plant experiments, and to see if plant life from Itibi-Ra can be combined with plant life from Earth to create new plant hybrids.

      This incredible story and the trail of scientific discovery that followed are presented here for the first time in an amazing investigation of contact with Aliens from another world. Includes details about the visitors, their home world, their technology and where they come from.”

      ***************************************************

      “Self-styled Alternative Nation shaman Perry Farrell has had a lot to do with the mainstreaming of modern rock, fronting the short-lived but beloved band Jane’s Addiction and founding the annual Lollapalooza tour in 1991.

      This year’s temporary reunion of Jane’s Addiction — Farrell calls it a “relapse” — has been a smash hit, selling out shows from coast to coast in little time. The band plays Saturday at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, where Farrell will conduct the year’s only installment of another of his neopagan extravaganzas, the ENIT Festival.

      Why San Francisco? “To me, that’s the easiest question on the whole test,” Farrell said by phone from a tour stop in Miami. “The answer would be this: Energy runs in these weird circular patterns. They eddy. And San Francisco has this fantastically hot eddy of intelligence.”

      To Farrell — a cosmic sort who advocates tantric sex and the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms — every undertaking is a “test.” His repeated use of the term recalls the Merry Pranksters’ Acid Tests of the 1960s. Oddly, Farrell said he has never met Ken Kesey, orchestrator of those infamous Acid Tests. He’ll have his chance Saturday when Kesey and crew bring their carnivalesque shenanigans to ENIT. (The name comes from an obscure 1960s book, “The Cancer Planet Mission,” by Ludwig Pallmann.)

      Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Perry-Farrell-s-Neopagan-Revel-Puts-S-F-to-Test-2822480.php#ixzz2HxqHZtRp

    2. Spreading the sauce
      Out of the hundreds published down the decades it’s hard to squeeze out the essential ones without leaving many good ones out. I’ve taken the approach of including the books that give the reader the broadest view of the subject and are affordable; classics by Clark and Dolan are way beyond the means of most folk.

      For starters, Swords et al with ‘UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry’ to establish to our Forteans that there was indeed a physical reality to the UFO phenomena and that serious people took it seriously. I guess that would partner-up pretty well with Hall’s UFO Evidence and Ruppelt’s ‘The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects’ so folk realise the context of good and bad reports. Hansen’s ‘The Missing Times’ could underscore the reporting biases in the media and the implied control from afar. Confusion rules!

      From a different perspective, Swords’ ‘Grassroots UFO’ book shines a light on how complicated the reports can be, how intriguing and especially how bloody hard it is to judge their veracity. This could go with Fuller’s ‘Interrupted Journey’ to raise doubts about how quick we should be to dismiss the weirder reports. Maybe Redfern’s ‘Final Events’ could play a part here to remind the reader that ufology is rife with anonymous sources whose motivations we cannot be sure of. Likewise Vallee’s ‘Revelations’ is a useful counter-point to taking reports at face value and Moseley’s ‘Shockingly Close to the Truth’ because even the smartest researchers screw up and the field needs humour.

      Druffel’s ‘Firestorm: Dr. James E. McDonald’s Fight for UFO Science’ reaffirms the political forces that once were obviously in play and how they can affect researchers. It reminds the reader that immersion in the unknown can be driven by psychological issues and that we go swimming at our peril. After all, the decades of pursuit have left many researchers undergoing periods of crisis.

      Not my poison, but it’s unfair to list ufology and ET books without mentioning the abduction phenomenon. In that light of openness, Fowler’s ‘Allagash Abductions’ could run hand-in-hand with Hopkins’ ‘Missing Time.’ Bullard’s ‘The Myth and Mystery of UFOs’ would add salt to all this and so would K. Randle’s ‘The Abduction Enigma.’

      A fence-sitting, judgement suspending fair-ride into the unknown and hopefully an accelerant to the fires of curiosity. Pressing ‘save’ before I start adding 20 more…

  2. ALIEN
    * UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record – Leslie Keen

    A list of the most evidential, high-profile, public facing UFO encounters that have been seen to date.

    Leslie Keen, an investigative journalist, has single handedly generated a knockout blow to skeptics and doubter’s everywhere. While at the same time, giving references for journalist, scientist, poloticians, and the public to ‘verify for themselves’. This book is THE trail of crumbs that ultimately leads readers to opens their minds to the ET reality and it’s massive implications.

    If there was a time when there were no books with ‘real & credible’ evidence, that time has now passed with the publication of Officals Go on the Record.

    1. 2nd the books by Dolan,
      2nd the books by Dolan, Corso, Disclosure by Greer and UFOs by Keen.

      Also:

      Majic Eyes Only, Ryan S. Wood (2005) for descriptions of claimed crashes and their recoveries. Analytical and skeptical.

      Wonders in the Sky – Unexplained Aerial Objects from Antiquity to Modern Times, Jacques F. Vallée for esp. the early history cases and their evidence.

      Penetration, Ingo Swann for the ESP-RV link between UFOlogy and having a different POV. Ingo was also a superb remote viewer and even with the risk of AOL stuff in there, it is highly fascinating.

        1. AOL = Analytical Overlay (thing filled in by imagination or mem)
          Off topic: I don’t think that any remote viewer ever has been 100% accurate and without tainting the data with Analytical Overlay (AOL), Ingo’s term. No, not even Ingo. I think that’s just the nature of larger consciousness-to-physical-mind mapping. It just happens. So, it is meant as a caveat. That’s all.

    2. Memory = jogged
      [quote=MasterCJ]* UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record – Leslie Keen
      [/quote]

      Doh, left this one off my list! The reason? I forgot about it because I have it as an eBook, so didn’t cross my mind as I was contemplating the books I’ve read…

  3. Passport to Magonia – Jacques
    Passport to Magonia – Jacques Vallee

    Operation Trojan Horse – John Keel

    Daimonic Reality – Patrick Harpur

    Everything is Under Control – Robert Anton Wilson

  4. ALIEN
    * The Day After Roswell – Col Philip J Corso

    One of the most credible accounts from a Whitehat insider, having been handed the Roswell files at the Pentagon’s Foreign Technology Desk where he worked, and being asked ‘To sort this mess out’ 10 or so years after it was compiled. Philip was instrumental in seeding Roswell technologies, such as night vision, fiber optics, and the all-mighty intergrated circuit chip, into a handful of trusted private companies such as Texas Instruments.

    * Disclosure – Steven M Greer

    Love him or hate him, Steven Greer has done more to facilitate public discussion between insiders/whistle blowers, and the press than anyone that I know of. This book contains over 500 pages of Grade A testiminoials from many high-level public & private sector workers, famous astronauts, and military officers.

    In addition, and almost as important as the testimonials, Dislosure is an attempt to explain why so many insiders are now coming forward, in our post-cold war world.

    * And Still They Fly – Guido Moosbrugger

    Billy Meier, a simple Swiss farmer, is the subject of this consise book detailing the how/why/when/where of Billy’s contact with human-looking extra-terrestrial’s. The book contain’s over 40 pages of color photo’s which really help bring Billy’s story to life, and reinvigorate this incredible case of contact.

    * Hidden Truth Forbidden Knowledge – Steven M Greer

    A detailed origin story of Steven M Greer, which includes his greatest achievement – the development of the Remote Vectoring CSETI protocol – which is detailed in this book.

    The Remote Vectoring protocol teaches readers how they can become ambassador’s to alien beings within their own private, trusted group of family and friends. The protocol is designed to alert extra terrestrial’s to your groups location, at which point they may choose reveal & physically interact with your group.

    Calling the CSETI protocol, and it’s implications to off-world communication profound, doesn’t do it justice.

  5. ALIEN
    * Penetration – Ingo Swann

    This now out of print, rare book, is part autobiography, part examination of the structure we call the Moon, and part hypothesis as to why preventing the world’s population from achieving psi functioning en masse would be equally important to earth-side power structures and space-side non-terrestrial power structures. His speculations as to why a cooporative effort to supress the human population from gaining psi functioning is fascinating.

    The autobiography explains Ingo’s shocking extra-terrestrial encounter’s while working for an unnammed governement agency, and hints at the level of infiltration within our civilation by non-terrestrials.

    A must read for anyone attempting to consolidate the ET and Psi realities from the Father of Remote Viewing.

  6. 2 booky books
    Greg, you have hogged the recomendations glory in your initial list! 😀

    THE THREAT by Dr David Jacobs – I feel Jacobs ( and Hopkins) have done mostly excellent groundwork and that some of the controversy about methodology is as much to obscure and cast doubt on their theories and findings as it is about raising bonafide concerns. Hypnosis is a crap shoot but in comparison to all the other data collection methods (available to the ants who are trying to figure out their piece of the backyard) I’ll take it with a bit of filtering. Jacobs’ analysis makes scientific common sense of the abduction phenomenon in the ‘nuts and bolts’ of a long term alien agenda.

    I hate to add, but feel I must, COMMUNION by Whitley Strieber. After Betty and Barney Hill it did put the ‘Greys’ on the map of public consciousness and bring our bug eyed cousins to the forefront of conversation for a while. Certainly his background as a fiction writer raises an eyebrow, but it also doesn’t exclude him from theoretically telling a true story. (Although I recall a podcast interview many years back around one of his sequel books wherein he states the aliens are monitoring his book sales to determine how receptive the public is to the concept of them… so large grain of salt is only common sense.)

    1. Give me ALL your nominations!
      [quote=Dimitri]Greg, you have hogged the recomendations glory in your initial list! :-D[/quote]

      No, no! As I mentioned in the post, everyone should post *all* of their recommendations/nominations, as a countback of the number of nominations a book has received may be necessary to finalise the list.

      [quote]I hate to add, but feel I must, COMMUNION by Whitley Strieber. [/quote]

      Good call – that probably should have been on my list too (I also contemplated ‘The Interrupted Journey’). Again, as I say in the post – it’s not about which books are the most valid etc. It’s about which books should be on your shelf as must reads, in order to understand the phenomenon…whether scientifically, historically, or socially. ‘Communion’ certainly is an important book under at least one of those criteria.

  7. The Well-Dressed Bookshelf – Ufology
    My nominations for *required reading*, in no particular order.

    * Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky – Carl Jung (an on-the-shoulders-of-giants thing, OK?)

    * Passport to Magonia – Jacques Vallée (for its historical significance)

    * Messengers of Deception – Jacques Vallée (for its early appeal for discernment)

    * The Trickster and the Paranormal – George Hansen (yes, essential to the study of ufology)

    * UFOs and the National Security State (vols 1 and 2) – Richard Dolan (for the encyclopedic scope)

    * Abduction – John Mack (for its historical significance)

    * UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record – Leslie Kean (for its mainstreaming worth)

    * Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will to Believe – Karl Pflock (for its scholarship and sanity on *the* case)

    * Communion – Whitley Strieber (for its stunning bio-psycho-socio wonderment)

    * Project Beta – Greg Bishop (because … one needs to know this, yes?)

    _________
    et cetera

  8. Passport to Magonia, Jacques
    Passport to Magonia, Jacques Vallee

    The Trickster and the Paranormal, George P. Hansen

    Daimonic Reality, Patrick Harpur

    The three above, very well written and intenstive, classics, really in my opinion.

    Bigfoot Case Files, Peter Guittilla
    Now, not the tops in terms of well written or scholarly, and you might ask “Bigfoot? I thought this was aliens.” But within that book are some very strange accounts of both!

    Also, Really Mysterious Pennsylvania
    UFOs, Bigfoot & Other Weird Encounters, Stan Gordon.
    A bit “deeper” than Guitsilla’s but equally interesting, more so, because Gordon really gets into the UFO -alien-Bigfoot thing.

    Looking for Orthon; The story of George Adamski, the first flying saucer contactee and how he changed the world, Colin Bennett
    Bennett’s great, and this book is an excellent look into probably the most “famous” contactee.

    The Great Apparitions of Mary: An Examination of the Twenty-Two Supernormal Appearances, Ingo Swann

  9. Suggested books
    1) George Balanos : Enigmas in Grey Background (Locus-7 Editions)
    2) Jacques Vallee : Messengers of Deception
    3) John Keel : The Cosmic Question
    4) Jacques Vallee : Passport to Magonia
    5) Ian Watson : Miracle Visitors
    6) Colin Wilson : Alien Dawn
    7) Robert Anton Wilson : The Cosmic Trigger
    8) Jacques Vallee : Revelations
    9) Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman : The Unidentified
    10) Jacques Vallee : Stratagem

    1. Balanos book is ‘Enigmas Against a Gray Background’
      Correct title is “Enigmas Against a Gray Background” and his name is Georgios Balanos (yes, sometimes spelled George).

      Not meant as nit-picking. just helping fellow googler’s with keywords.

      Thanks to the original poster!

  10. Invisible Residents: The
    Invisible Residents: The Reality of Underwater UFOs, Ivan Sanderson

    World traveller, naturalist and former naval intelligence man locates UFOs in the maritime realm. Although full of innovative ideas and interesting information, this keenly argued and entertaining essay is possibly best placed in the ‘Misinformation’ section. Sanderson once worked for the NYC-based British WW2 propaganda outfit set up to get the USA into the war. It’s not too much of a leap to think that someone had the grand idea of tasking a free-booting investigator to write an account of UFOs, adding to the very earthly UFO propaganda campaign pursued by all sides in the Cold War.

    Secret Places of the Lion, George Hunt Williamson

    A sweeping account of ancient alien influences on Earth.

    The Intelligent Universe, Fred Hoyle

    An account of panspermia, among other matters, which Hoyle investigated for many years with Chandra Wickramasinghe.

    1. Secret Places of the Lion, George Hunt Williamson
      Secret Places of the Lion, George Hunt Williamson

      I was gonna post that too, but wasn’t sure it fit the bill. Glad someone else knows that one!

  11. At the bottom of 6 feet or so
    of books I have to read rather immediately, I add Sanderson’s and Jung’s books.

    Or when I take a vacation from serious reading to keep up my comprehension skills, or when copies happen to show up.

    Thanks for the suggestions. I am sorry that I can not be more specific in my suggested reads on the topic.

  12. My adds
    I always enjoy reading Kevin Randle’s books.

    I am sorry I do not have the title at hand, but there was one scientist involved with Blue Book, who sorted out a few very reliable eye-witness reports, and then went on to speculate as to a propulsion mechanism….

    Of course, Jim Oberg is useful in sorting out the wheat from the chaff, and there are writers on reconnaissance aircraft such as Bill Sweetman who also increase the signal to noise ratio…

    If say Bigelow would care to pick up the entire bill, transportation food, lodging, first class only, no McDonald’s, there are some archives…

    But I am very busy right now with some fairly serious work, and will not be available until next year.

  13. Communion – Whitley Streiber.
    Communion – Whitley Streiber. Nobody did more to popularize the grays and alien abduction than Whitley with this book. This was I think my first book I read on abduction and thrilled me at the time. Even Johnny Carson had Whitley on as a guest to discuss the book at the time – I remember watching it live. Would be wrong to leave it off the list.

    The Day After Roswell – Phillip Corso. Another book that was a first of it’s kind in that a former reputable government soldier/employee turned “whistleblower” creating a media frenzy with his allegations of seeding alien technology to industry.

    There may be better books but these two are icons within the field.

    1. This will be out of left
      This will be out of left field, but Supernatural by Graham Hancock. Not a UFO book per se, at least he didn’t start it out that way. It begins as an investigation into DMT, altered states of mind and the origins of knowledge. But his investigation leads him into fairy lore and ultimately into UFOs. His final conclusions are that all the phenomenah may be related due to the remarkable parallels in phonenomenah between Fairy lore and UFO abduction experiences.

      For fans of Supernatural the television series this was incorporated into their fairy episode where fairies were revealed to be ET’s or vice versa, whether taken form Graham’s work at the time or elsewhere…

  14. My list

    • Vallee’s trilogy (Dimensions, Confrontations, Revelations): Together they form a very tight corpus showing just how inadequate the ETH is to explain the UFO phenomenon.
    • Messengers of Deception (Vallee): The most important part of the book for me was his dabbling in the realm of synchronicities, and what that might entail.
    • The Mothman Prophecies (Keel): Even though many researchers have blamed Keel for embellishing his investigations, the fact remains that he was the first one willing to see a connection between the UFO phenomenon and other realms of the Fortean mysteries (Poltergeists, Bigfoot, etc).
    • Hunt for the Skinwalker (Kelleher & Knapp): The events that unfolded on the Sherman ranch in Utah, and Robert Bigelow’s subsequent involvement, shows how little we understand of the phenomenon, and maybe even the contempt the phenomenon itself shows in our involvement with it.
    • Project Beta (Bishop): Greg’s investigation shows how the US government and its intelligence branches will never run away from the opportunity of exploiting the UFO phenomenon (and the gullibility of UFOlogists) to push their particular agendas –regardless of their lack of control of the UFO phenomenon itself.
    • Communion (Strieber): Strieber’s gripping & often terrifying account of his interactions with the Visitors show that they do seem to want something from us, and that our involvement with them goes back as far as the dawn of mankind. He also shows just how inadequate our old & modern mythologies are in trying to understand their true nature.
    • Heavenly Lights (Fernandes & D’Armada): The UFO phenomenon has shaped many aspects of our religion, as shown by the events unfolded at Cova da Iria (Portugal) in 1917.
    • Los Ovni y la Arqueología de México [UFOs & Mexico’s Archeology] (Ferriz & Siruguet): This book will not be mentioned in any other list, and that’s a shame for this is a fine book that showed many of the questions & problems that UFOlogy in general faces, along with the possible links to our ancient past.
    • La Quinta Columna [The Fifth Column] (J.J. Benítez): Another great book in Spanish, penned by the globetrotter Benítez, who traveled along many miles of the Spanish landscape in search of tales of encounters with aliens. His investigation shows just how common these encounters really are among simple working people, despite the mockings of the short-sighted intellectuals.
    • Captured! (Marden & Friedman): The definitive study of the most famous abduction case in history: that of Betty & Barney Hill.
    • UFOs & the National Security State, vol. 1, 2 & 3 coming soon (Dolan): The most comprehensive history of the modern UFO era to the present day.
    1. ufo list…..
      01. The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
      by Edward J. Ruppelt (in print 1956)

      the story goes this guy was the first military official to spill the beans on UFOS. he wrote/published this book and died of a heart attack a few years after at the age of 37. did he really die of a heart attack at 37?

      02. Hidden Truth: Forbidden Knowledge
      by Steven M. Greer

      like some other people on this site, i think some of Steven Greers information is awesome! and the fact meditation plays a roll in contact i believe in this even more!!!!

      03. Alien Impact
      by Michael Craft

      i heard of this book through Blair Blake -(the guy who writes the TOOL newsletters that usually dont make any sense 😉 i found this book pretty interesting and well done! so thanx blair!

      happy new year all!

      1. Good ol BMB
        [quote=bobcat]i heard of this book through Blair Blake -(the guy who writes the TOOL newsletters that usually dont make any sense 😉 i found this book pretty interesting and well done! so thanx blair!
        [/quote]

        Good ol BMB

  15. Now this is a great topic!
    On my list I will recommend only the must reads that are in my own library. I’d love to see all the crazy rarities and first editions that Grailers have hidden away on all kinds of subjects. : )

    Must Read UFO Books:

    * Alien Agenda, by Jim Marrs.

    I love how many sources Marrs uses and how he backs up his information. Huge list or Sources.

    * Hunt for the Skinwalker, by Kelleher and Knapp.

    This book has what so many other books lack, entertainment value! (as well as amazing information)

    * The UFO Experience; A Scientific Journey, by J. Allen Hynek

    “A critical appraisal of the UFO problem…” the description says it all haha.

    * Revelations; Alien contact and Human Deception, by Jacques Vallee

    * Messengers of Deception; UFO Contacts and Cults, by Jaques Vallee

    These two books blew my mind.

    * Incident at Exeter; Unidentified Flying Objects over America Now, by John. G Fuller.

    A great full length case study of the infamous incident in NH, and a lot more.

    * Wonders in the Sky, by Jaques Vallee

    Yep, he made the list 3 times. This is a great resource for anything pre modern age.

    * Crash in Corona, by Stanton Friedman, and Don Berliner.

    “The Definitive study of the Roswell Incident.” Yes. So Classic.

    * UFOs; Generals, Pilots… by Leslie Kean

    If I had to pick one book to try and convince a hard nose skeptic, I would use this one. It seems strange that a book like this didn’t come out sooner.

    take it from The Cancer Man ya’ll! lol

    1. Geez, look at the used copy
      Geez, look at the used copy prices on Amazon for Ingo Swann’s “Penetration.” Anyone have any ideas on where to locate copies not so stratospherically priced?

  16. Just saying
    Quoting from a tweet by Greg: “At the moment there’s a lot of love for Vallee …”

    Uhm, recognizing impact and/or quality is not at all the same, necessarily, as loving.

    But I do know what you meant by that. Just speaking for myself 🙂

    __________
    et cetera

  17. Flying Saucer Vision
    From the British cultural perspective, I have to put a word in for Flying Saucer Vision by John Michell. Contemporary with Vallee’s Anatomy of a Phenomenon, it was instrumental in injecting the UFO meme into into the hippy scene and popularising the spiritual interpretation of the phenomenon as an alternative to the ‘nuts and bolts’ approach. Andy Roberts has written an excellent account of its influence on the British scene over at FT.

  18. Essential Fortean (UFO, Alien) Books
    Great idea. For your consideration. (Some might not fit the requirements but they are all Fortean.)

    ANGELUCCI, Orfeo M.
    The Secret Of The Saucers: How UFOs Work
    [“Weep, Orfeo.”]

    BARKER, Gray
    They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers

    D’AMIENS, Thibaut
    The Invisibles: A Dialectic
    [JFK assassination meets Extra/Ultra-terrestrials.]

    JUNG, C.G.
    Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies

    KEEL, John A.
    The Eighth Tower

    KEEL, John A.
    The Mothman Prophecies

    KEITH, Jim
    Casebook on Alternative 3: UFOs, Secret Societies and World Control

    TONNIES, Mac
    The Cryptoterrestrials: A Meditation on Indigenous Humanoids and the Aliens Among Us

    VALLEE, Jacques F.
    Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults

    VALLEE, Jacques F.
    Passport to Magonia: On UFOs, Folklore, and Parallel Worlds

    ***

    1. http://www.scribd.com/doc/180
      http://www.scribd.com/doc/18023776/Penetration-The-Question-of-Extraterrestrial-and-Human-Telepathy-by-Ingo-Swann-text-format

      Access (above) to the PDF of Ingo Swann’s “Penetration.” I paid the $9.00 per month fee to get it and will probably start downloading other titles from the master site before my month is out.

      Some other submissions for the library:
      The 4 volume “The Andreasson Affair” which has also spawned the “UFO Propulsion” web site based on Andreasson’s many drawings:
      http://www.linux-host.org/energy/ufogravity.htm

      “Silent Invasion” by Ellen Crystall about the famous Pine Bush UFO flap:
      http://www.pinebushufo.com/tributetoEC.htm

      1. Glad to see…
        …someone include “The Andreasson Affair”–for me, an important work (I’m thinking especially of the first volume) in the way it touches on the potential archetypal dimensions of contactee encounters. Decades ago I saw Raymond Fowler and J. Allen Hynek deliver a lecture at one of our local colleges about the story and its implications–it changed the way I looked at UFO accounts.

  19. How about 2 categories?
    Hi Greg – Try one category for sightings, crashes, and another for contacts and other explanations?

    So instead of a top ten you have a top twenty?

    1. Ingo Swann’s “Penetration”
      Ingo Swann’s “Penetration” book is quite charming and fascinating. Chiefly it mulls over the question of why telepathy is so assiduously discredited and discouraged by the cryptocracy, and Swann finally arrives at the realization that telepathy not only endangers what he calls “earthside” secrets and secret organization but also “spaceside” interests, ie ET interests. The latter may be the chief reason for trying to supress the public development of telepathy because such powers can potentially get us into trouble especially with some of the more malevolent ET races. It would be like us crashing their communcations systems. Swann did just that apparently when he was tasked by a beyond black organization to remote view the backside of the moon whereupon he discovered ET moon bases but was also recognized by the ET’s as being an interloper.
      Swann writes like a Sci_Fi writer at times with perfect recall of conversations that may be a bit too perfect. there is reason to suspect he may be confabulating here and there in order to spice the book up, but he is still a charming intellect and an imaginative thinker. He is probably very much right about the reasons that shills like the Amazing Randi and Michael Schermer are such indefatigable debunkers who constantly cherry pick their battles without the slightest interest in doing any real science with regard to extrasensory powers.
      I won’t spoil the ending, but here is a slice of the final concept – “telepathy plus.”

      “The fact that telepathy plus IS possible for Earthsiders is the
      fundamental fact that has caused me to write this book.
      Although my knowledge about telepathy has a good way yet to go, I now
      know much more about it – about both what it must consist of, and what it
      doesn’t consist of.
      In accumulating this information package, it became possible for me to
      make the following and quite basic observation, an observation that is easy
      enough to substantiate.
      Telepathy is the most forbidden element of Earthside consciousness.
      Indeed, so forbidden that Science would rather accept reincarnation, the
      existence of the soul, and life after death – PROVIDED those situations DID
      NOT include any telepathic possibility.
      WHY this is the case is but a small tip of a gigantic iceberg.”

  20. Nominations
    1. Mothman Prophecies – John Keel
    Includes information on UFOs and Men In Black phenomena. Effective at destabilising the reader’s conception of reality.

    2. Communion – Whitley Strieber
    Fascinating and horrifying exploration of the phenomenology of the visitor/abduction phenomenon. Also effective at destabilising the reader’s conception of reality.

    3. Abduction – John Mack
    The classic work on the visitor/abduction phonomenon. I haven’t actually read it yet but I know that I must, and that it should on any Fortean’s bookshelf, if only for its historical stature.

  21. The Essential Fortean Booklist Category: ALIEN (UFOS, SETI)
    These (in no particular order) should cover some gaps and provide some essential depth to the backstory.

    The UFO Encyclopedia (2nd edition, 1998, 3 vols)
    Compiled by Jerome Clark. Invaluable, erudite and based upon informed and thorough research.

    Charles Fort, The Fortean Society & Unidentified Objects (1976)
    By Loren Gross, one of the best of the unsung historians of this subject. He also self-published a series of more than 100 booklets – beginning with UFOs, a History, 1896 – spanning the years 1896-1963.

    Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects (1968, University of Boulder, Colorado)
    Compiled by Dr. Edward U. Condon; the raw material for many subsequent discussions, theories and conspiricy theories.

    Electric UFOs (1998)
    By Albert Budden. An analysis of UFO-related “fireballs, electromagnetics and abnormal states”.

    UFOs from Behind the Iron Curtain (1972, Eng.trans 1974)
    By the late Romanian philosopher Ion Hobana & Julien Weverbergh.
    Quite a different cultural perspective from the ‘usual.

    The NZ Files (1998)
    By Peter Hassall. Thorough investigations of historical cases from New Zealand.

    UFO Phenomena and the Behavioral Scientist (1979)
    By Richard F. Haines. The considered opinions of a NASA scientist who studied over 3,000 cases.

    Dark White (1994)
    By Jim Schnabel, who gives “a wicked debunking” of UFO-related tales of alien abductions and crop-circles from inside British investigation and activist groups.

    UFOs and Related Subjects: A Bibliography (1978)
    Compiled by Lynn Catoe for the Library of Congress (1969), with a supplement by Kay Rodgers (1976) and introduction by the folklorist and encyclopedist Leslie Shepard.

    Proceedings of the First International UFO Congress (1980)
    By Curtis G. Fuller (and the editors of FATE magazine), being a real snapshot of the full spectrum of contemporary UFO beliefs, theories, experiments, and investigations.

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