UFO Roundup

                

Desmond Bragg and Paul Joslin. Science Meets the UFO Enigma. Kroshka Books, 2000.



This is a curious book, it is published by an academic publisher, and looks the part: no dust jacket, austere covers and the like. The contents have a superficial academic look, but are in fact something quite different; A warning might be given by the absence of any biographies or academic backgrounds for the authors. The main contents are certainly strange. They are largely devoted to rather uncritical reviews of a random collection of UFO books, good, bad and indifferent, and uncritical endorsement of a number of UFO reports. Among these are the tale of 'Mr. Ed' Walters, and the Linda Cortile/Neapolitano abduction. The former is rated as excellent. The authors also appear to believe that 80% of crop circles are unexplained. Need I say more? A Google search showed that these authors are/were both emeritus professors (of course) of Education at Drake University at Des Moines, Iowa (from which the popular author Bill Bryson dropped out in 1972), which actually offers or offered courses based on this book in their adult education program. Co-author Bragg was a member of MUFON, which explains all.

Preston Dennett. UFOs over New York. Schiffer, 2008.
The typical largely uncritical and rather careless collection of UFO stories, one after the other which adds nothing substantial to the literature.

Jesse Marcel Jr. and Linda Marcel. Roswell Legacy: The Untold Story of the First Military Officer at the 1947 Crash Site. New Page Books, 2009.

With a forward by Stanton Friedman, this book by Jesse Marcel’s son and daughter-in-law presents the general Friedmanite pro-ETH line much of the time. However there is the interesting revelation that both Jesse Snr. and his wife were at very least borderline alcoholics, and it would appear that Jesse Snr. ended up a bitter old lush.

Robert L. Mason. The UFO Experience Reconsidered: Science and Speculation. Schooner Moon Books, 2007.

This is a self-published attempt at a scientific ufology. While Mason is quite cautious and critical of ufologists wilder claims, he clearly lacks any in-depth background knowledge of the subject. His own favourite explanations of UFOs as particle beams either of a natural origin, or the products of terrestrial or extraterrestrial technology do not seem at all likely, to put it mildly. He does however recognize that if any UFO reports were generated by an extraterrestrial 'intelligence' it would involve something much more sophisticated than a 'craft' and a 'crew'. The book also includes an explanation of the Father Gill case in terms of a complex mirage, which does not seem any more plausible than other proffered explanations.

Mike Oram. Does it Rain In Other Dimensions? A True Story of Alien Encounters. O books, 2007.

First person accounts of a variety of anomalous personal experiences by an abductee/contactee. Scientifically worthless, but earlier portions of the book have human interest and could be read with profit by psychologists, historians of religion and popular culture and general social historians. An example of how APEs lead people to adopt or create self serving and often self aggrandizing ideological systems. Later parts, a mixture of hypnotic regression transcripts and banal new age preaching are largely unreadable. -- All reviews by Peter Rogerson, transferered from Magonia Blog, 24/3/11


No comments: