On the Wrong Track

David Coomer. The UFO Investigator's Guide, Blandford, 1999.
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As ufology is an interdisciplinary and somewhat ill-defined field of study, anyone who sets out to produce a text on how to investigate UFO reports faces a daunting task. Some UFO organisations have their own investigator's manuals and training courses and the author has attempted to produce a handbook for interested individuals who are fairly new to the subject.

Although there are snippets of useful or interesting information here and there, the general impression is one of a general lack of clear aims and a preoccupation with bizarre and incoherent theories about UFOs. For example, when investigating an alleged landing site you should carry out the "time anomaly test". Some ufologists believe that UFO propulsion systems distort space and time, basing their ideas on the theories of some mad professor. So you should synchronise some watches and bury them around the landing site, then dig them up and see if there are any differences.

If you actually encounter a landed UFO: "Do not try to be a hero and attempt contact with any extraterrestrials you witness". So don't say you weren't warned!

You will need to undertake some background research to make you an expert UFO investigator. Some sound advice is given, but one unexpected source of information suggested is the Freemasons - "There are a lot of fingers in a lot of pies . . . " Well, well. I didn't know they were into ufology. One lives and learns.

In a book on UFO investigation (as opposed to "literary criticism") one might expect that the author would give some examples of his own investigations to show us how it should be done. But if he has actually investigated any reports himself he gives no indication of this.

If you seriously want to know how to investigate UFO reports, don't waste your money on this book but try to get a copy of Allan Hendry's The UFO Handbook. -- Peter Rogerso. Orioginally published in Magonia Supplement 22, December 1999.

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