I was asked why I was not looking in greater detail at old UK CE3K/AE cases. The answer to that is quite simply that from the mid 1970s on when "New Ufologists" (as they were to be called a few years later) came into the subject we had hoaxing. These people were so hypocritical in that if someone else slightly fumbled a case or were considered to have even slightly embellished a report then they were hounded. They were totally discredited by these people.
At the very same time these “New Ufologists” were, themselves, faking reports and incidents. As noted before, this was admitted and there was a firm refusal to declare which cases had been deliberately faked and as for an explanation as to why they did this -it was no one's business. Not only does this totally discredit the entire New Ufology movement and those involved in it (because unless we know who did what everyone involved is tarnished) but it rendered serious UFO research dead. How could you carry out a report analysis or look for trends if you might be including anywhere from 3, 4, 5 or goodness knows how many fake reports amongst the data?
If you read the articles or books published by these ”New Ufologists” you began to see how details in one varied from another –it was almost chopping and changing details to suit what theory they were pushing. In one noted 1970s report details changed no fewer than three times in summaries written by the same person.
In one “major case” it was noted how details changed so much that at times accounts had to be re-read to make sure one was not skipping past the start of another report summary.
There were reports that appeared genuine yet these were being explained away. Ripperston Farm in Wales and the events going on there had one lie after another added to summaries –often emphasising hoaxers to shut down interest. Hoaxers that, it appears, over 40 years later have not been found to have existed.
Seeding themselves in UFO organisations and publications these people literally controlled what was being published and what was being published tended to come from people connected to them. Interesting research into infra red photography and UFOs had any publicity given to it stopped and articles blocked.
It was this major concern from people with a serious interest in UFOs that led to the AOP Bureau opening up a file that looked at specific “New Ufologists” and groups. Attempts at organising investigation and research were infiltrated and disrupted by people acting on behalf of noted “New Ufologists”. There was an attempt to stage a Men-In-Black style silencing operation against myself badly back-fired. Not once but twice and on the second occasion those involved were somewhat cowered when they found themselves surrounded by police officers who were visiting my home and had heard the threats and used a rear door to position themselves behind the ‘MIB’.
For this reason any report featuring the names of certain people are often given the lowest classification possible since they make it impossible to contact alleged witnesses to confirm details. Certain alleged percipients no trace could be found of leading to the suspicion that even they were fictional. As people pointed out there seemed to be no logical sense in denying access to witnesses in these cases when it came to someone specialising in the subject and who never breached confidentiality (since 1973 some names have never been revealed in reports I looked into). Why would “New Ufologists” be afraid to have their reports authenticated?
One thing that is very noticeable is how cases that could be put down to “psychological” explanations were promoted heavily. Just what type of “psychological effect” was involved did not seem to matter if a few mumbo-jumbo phrases were used. Or the “paranormal connection” was brought in and the amount some reports dedicated to “I heard an unexplained bump noise” or “something fell in the kitchen” is ludicrous.
Reports featured far more speculation about “paranormal activity” and the investigators’ own theories than what they should have contained: factual recording and reporting of the facts in a report and assessment of the observer”.
The amount of time and space dedicated to the alleged encounters of Joyce Bowles (who was either hoaxing or a “Ruth Syndrome” case) and Ted Pratt (who tended to let Mrs Bowles do all the talking) was terrible. But it kept Ufologists arguing and at odds with each other and this might have been the whole point.
As someone from the Ministry of Defence once put it –and I paraphrase here: “Why would the Ministry try to silence Ufology –it’ doing a far better job by itself than we ever could!”
Old reports untainted by “New Ufology” really ought to be looked at and John Hanson from the Haunted Skies Project has done this to a certain extent and even found some cases not previously recorded or investigated. Unless witnesses/percipients can be spoken to first hand and details confirmed then the lowest ratings are applied.
I have bulky UK files and I know a quarter of the reports have to be considered fake.
I have now looked at three books -two dealing with alleged alien abductions and one looking at life on Earth and (possibly) in space. To be honest the two abduction books were a disappointment to me as I would like to hear of confirmation of incidents from a third party -say a farmer in his field observing "A goddang weird light" above and following a car (with claimed abductees within).
Confessions was a major disappointment in that the authors are firmly embedded within Ufology and yet their accounts can be easily dismissed with just a cursory read. There is absolutely nothing that backs up anything they claim and although I have no doubt that they believe (one has doubts) what they are saying it does not make it actually real life real and in one case the incidents are recounted as dreams. What the book does is seem to discredit the men's work within Ufology as we cannot 100% guarantee that all they claim is real.
Incident At Devil's Den was another disappointment. From his interviews as well as writing I quite like Terry Lovelace. However, there is absolutely not one shred of evidence (even anecdotal) that supports what he says -please read the review.
When you hear the "tell-tale signs" of alien abduction you realise that almost anyone can be an abductee. Doesn't sleep much, wakes at specific times (that is a well known phenomena and nothing to do with aliens), misplaces things, has a scar or similar they cannot recall and has seen UFOs, keeps the light on at night etc.. Right, even as a baby I was infamous for not sleeping and it is a habit I carry on with to this day. I have seen "UFOs" on 5 occasions and there was no missing time and the "UFOs" were what I term UNP (a natural phenomenon -if the 1984 UFO Report is ever published it will explain a lot).
Here was one incident from the late 1970s. I was packing late on a hot summers evening. It was in fact about 2300 hrs. The windows were open as it was warm. I then saw a large, golden coloured object pass over the gardens of the houses opposite (ie that block's gardens area surrounded by houses) and I had my camera on the desk next to me so keeping my eye on this object (20 feet 6m) above the ground I reached back to feel my camera BUT I knocked it over so took my eyes off the object as I tried to stop my camera hitting the floor. Looking back this large object was gone.
Years later an associate was discussing photographing UFOs and I told him my story. "Oh my god -that could have been a time loss incident!" he gasped (its what we called Missing Time events in those days). I looked back at him and told him it was not. So he asked how I could be sure as "they mess with your memory". My reply was simple and got the weirdest stare in response: "Because the fella dodged the bazooka" -I had been watching a movie when the object was first seen and a fella was loading a bazooka and looking at the intended target and I saw what the time was by the clock atop the TV. As I tried to grab my camera then look back the object was gone and the bazooka was being fired. So I know the sighting lasted about 60 seconds.
On every occasion that I have observed a phenomenon I check the time and observe other things so unless it was 2300hrs when I saw an object and then looked at my watch and it was 0200hrs then I could account for every second. Unlike what Dr Jacobs says "If you see a UFO you WERE abducted!!" the opposite is true. Discredited researchers should be paid no heed.
There is something else that is common if you start to look into CE3K/AE reports the dream. Back in the 1970s I was typing up or handwriting out every CE3K/AE report I could find and one night I had a dream that I was in an old brick building in a field with only one window looking out -possibly an old changing room or other park facility that were common back then. I saw a UFO land and short humanoids emerge and move around. Very vivid dream. Someone wanted to get involved in the work so I warned him that he would be reading some weird stuff but he was enthusiastic. A couple weeks later he opted out because he had the dream. "It's too weird for me" was his final remark.
Let me put that into perspective. At one point after leaving school I worked at Frost and Reed print makers and it involved 0800-1700 hrs (with an hour long break) rolling art prints and inserting them into card tubes then wrapping. Monotonous. One night I had a dream of having to do this same work over and over again and next day in work a young fella who had started the same time as me blurted out that he had the same dream. He stared as I laughed out loud.
When I took on another job it involved packing, sealing then binding up cardboard boxes of all sizes and weights 0830-1800 hrs daily and I had a vivid dream of doing this and then told a co-worker about this and he laughed and told me "We all get that. Its the job, mate. You do this 7-8 hours a day it's in your head!" One thing to note is that time often passed very quickly with these jobs; one day I started after lunch at 1300hrs and I looked up -1600 hrs. Now, missing time? Was I abducted by boxes? Were all the people I worked with cardboard box abductees?
One thing I noted is that the monotonous work was carried out almost on automatic and one day I asked the woman packing next to me about a label and got no response. Her eyes were staring straight ahead and glazed so I tapped her on the shoulder and she almost jumped the exaggerated mile. "Oh my god I was gone then. I was back on my holiday in Truro!" A great many Entity cases involve people carrying out monotonous tasks around the house or at work and ....they fall into an altered state. They swear blind they have no idea how time passed yet they are seen throughout the "missing time" by co-workers.
Gaynor Sunderland is a text book example of altered state encounters.
At one point I began to question myself as to whether I was debunking. Of course I was not. I followed the evidence even if anecdotal and if you have read any of my books you will know I am not a debunker: I am a sceptic who follows the evidence and, shockingly for me, my attempts to show these accounts were all hog-wash failed. Many cases do not make it past scrutiny but others did.
"I did some psychology" does not make you a psychologist. "Hey -that's the Moon up there!" does NOT make you an astronomer. I have packed so much into this subject for over four decades because I believe that the study of these cases will tell us far more than any UFO report or UFO photo.
But you have to push the imaginary and hoaxes as well as misindentified to one side to get to the truth.
Terry Lovelace has an undergraduate degree in psychology and a juris doctor from Western Michigan University. He worked in private practice, mostly in civil litigation and criminal defense. He entered public service as an assistant attorney general for the United States Territory of American Samoa. He later retired as an assistant attorney general from the State of Vermont in 2012. He lives in Dallas Texas with his wife of 44 years and family. He served on active duty in the USAF from 1973 to 1979. He was trained as a medic/EMT and drove an ambulance at Whiteman Air Force Base for his entire enlistment.
In 1977 he and a coworker named Tobias went to Devils Den State Park in Northwestern Arkansas to photograph wildlife. Eagles in particular. Rather than stay in the designated campground they opted to drive deep into the wilderness to find an area of high ground better suited for eagles. They came to a small summit, a plateau with a carpet of late blooming wildflowers and a treeline almost halfway around. It was perfect. They set up camp with the meadow in front of them and the treeline to their back. Exhausted from the day's travel they were sitting around what was left of a campfire. Terry noted that all of the wildlife sounds they had heard just an hour earlier were now silent. He found it unnerving. He asked Toby, "It's so quiet ... is that normal?" Toby assured him it was and said their laughter had quieted them. "Just wait, they'll be back," Toby said with confidence. At that moment something on the western horizon caught Toby's attention. It was a triangle of three bright stars. "Hey, were those there before," he asked? "No," Terry replied, "not that I recall."
They were discussing what they could be when they suddenly moved. They were both amazed! The three stars rotated as if on an axis. A few minutes later they began a slow ascent straight up. As it climbed higher in the night sky it grew larger, with its three points of light spreading further apart as it climbed. It was obvious this was a single solid object and not three objects moving in unison. Toby noted the area inside the triangle was deep black, much darker than the night sky.
They both noted that as it moved past a field of stars they would bling-out for a moment until it had past, and then blink back on. Terry noted the uneasiness he felt earlier when the forest fell silent had left him. He felt a calm wash over him. Later, Toby would admit to feeling almost sedated. They watched ...
I also saw Lovelace in a live chat on You Tube and various other recorded videos. Having seen all of this I decided that it was worth reading more about the account and so purchased his book.
Firstly, I noticed in the live video there were slight variations in his account. However, this is to be expected as he has repeated the account so many times that you expect something to be slightly added or changed -often it is the mind filling in a gap so recalling something or making what is being said more logical. This is why you always interview people to incidents (whether crimes or observations) as soon as possible.
The "monkeys in the bedroom" can be explained easily as can the flying saucer he saw as a child. Waking dreams are vivid and believe me when your father is being told at 0200hrs by your older brother that he can't go back to bed as he is talking to a star fish at the top of the stars you understand how vivid. There were other incidents but none of them (including the star fish conversation) was recalled by him. The mind is a strange thing.
We have the the Sheryl story of UFOs and aliens on her property and photos she took showing teens with backpacks on rail lines -oh, and a blurred night time photo that could have been anything. I have met a few "Sheryls" in my time and Lovelace does admit that she probably had some mental health issues. If you are shown your own photo of human teenagers and insist that "if you look closely you can see they are aliens" then best thing to do is pass that person on to MUFON -I'm sure they will find the aliens in the photo.
When it comes to the incidents surrounding Lovelace and Toby's camping trip and forgetting things at home and getting lost and being very tired after hiking all over the place there is no need to pull in phenomenon of any type. That happens to normal people.
I knew an avid photographer who went on a holiday to Wales and intended photographing wildlife and the scenery. He drove to Wales in a camper van and set things up. Food all stored correctly even after bumpy roads. Water tap connected to the water container. He sat outside the camper and watched a bird of prey flying in his direction so he turned to get his camera and...he then realised that he had left it on the stairs at home (200 miles away): "I was in an isolated area and I could hear the obscenities I was hurling at myself being echoed back at me for good measure!" I have known naturalists go out on day hikes to specifically look for tracks to photograph and plaster cast and...found they left the plaster or camera at home. Not one of these people ever claimed alien abduction so for me all the account given does is show two men out camping and like normal men they fecked up. End of story.
We then come to the actual UFO sighting while they are camping and that rings so true of many other observations and even the account of looking out of the tent and seeing the small entities move about. It is classic CE3K and I've files full of these reports. Then we come to the boots and socks -socks put on sideways, boots partially laced up rather than fully laced up as before they went to sleep. All the aspects can be found in other cases but were Lovelace and Toby abducted?
That is something you have to decide because for me personally there are major problems. For one thing; did Toby exist? I have seen no photographs of him -Lovelace was a keen photographer and he never took photos of his best friend or his wife and Toby's who were best friends, too? No documents showing Toby existed, no photos and, basically, Toby might as well have been described as a 6ft tall white rabbit named Harvey.
Another problem was that there is absolutely no documentary evidence or back-up to support his post abduction condition which was severe and also involved extreme thirst (something else those familiar with CE3K reports will be familiar with). Nothing. When you read about the objects in his knee/thigh area you think "proof" but looking at what Lovelace writes you find that he claims the VA Hospital altered or changed the doctor's report. The x-ray itself can be altered using photoshop and then -the implants were gone...except a tiny wire was left
When he found that there was still something present in his leg that was it. We have that "wire" x-ray. I recall how Budd Hopkins raised funds to have an "implant" surgically removed from an abductee and also some MRIs to be taken of implants. Every single alleged implant had vanished (if they were ever present). Of course, "the aliens removed them before the procedures) which was frightfully awkward, wasn't it? Then how come Robert Leir managed to find and retrieve so many alleged "alien implants" -that in itself could take up a book looking at the scammery involved.
And that is that. Without a medical examination report (just a few pseudonyms to protect medical reputations -do not buy that in this day and age) to back up what he claims Lovelace has just his credibility to fall back on. Is he prone to altered states followed by memory loss -after 'missing' on a motorcycle ride (and his wife's OTT reaction to him getting back later than usual) where he admits his mind had wandered off and he had no idea why he was off-road on a dirt track his wife later asks him if it was possible that "what happened to Betty and Barney Hill" might have happened to him? He then read the account of the Hills case and we see from things he is writing that he is fed one suggestion after another at different times feeding into his narrative and as I got to the end of the book (I received it yesterday morning and read it through by 2200 hrs the same day) I drew conclusions.
1) Lovelace appears to be a laid-back, polite and straight forward person and quite likeable. He gives his account in a straight forward manner and if the actual incident he refers to takes up just one minute of time you will get 5 before and after explaining the circumstances, etc.
That is the plus point.
2) People prone to altered states see and feel and KNOW that what they have been involved with is real. Or they may just have partial recall which leads to paranoia and stress -one medical professional suggested that he had post traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Lovelace admits he had been in dangerous situations as a military EMT (Emergency Medical Technician -paramedic) and so it is possible that an incident or series of incidents could have caused this.
That is a minus point.
3) There is absolutely no medical documentation of what he claims or newer x-rays of his legs.
That is a minus point.
4) We have absolutely no evidence that Toby existed let alone that he fell into alcoholism and died.
That is another minus point.
5) We have Lovelace's account of being hypnotised by a senior medical officer, presumably from his account, sodium pentothal was used to relax him prior to the hypnosis. I have strong doubts that Lovelace thought the drug and hypnotism during chunks of the session "feeding" the officer and two OSI men what they wanted to hear. He states that on two occasions the officer checked his blood pressure and still believed Lovelace was "under". Recollection of a group of humans being in line, naked and awaiting some form of examination, the humans working with the aliens -which he was ordered to forget because that was secret- and other aspects all have the familiar Hopkins/Jacobs scenario and I suspect that this is false memory right down to the "Greys" being basically drones -which was not in any other accounts of abductees until the late 1990s/early 2000s when Hopkins and Jacobs "created" this. There are so many aspects to this alleged hypnosis session that it gave me serious doubts.
That is another big minus point.
6) Lovelace was almost paranoid about "something" having happened and this gave him panic attacks and nightmares and he refused to go to counselling to find ways of stopping the panic attacks and nightmares and all the way along his wife had concerns about the "possibilities".
Another minus point.
7) There was an incident in his child hood when his family sat motionless at the dinner table yet no one could recall that happening later. At the end of the book, Lovelace refers to "Betty, the Lady MIB"(alien) and a conversation with her:
"I performed my usual nighttime ritual of locking things up and setting the alarm. I made it to bed a little before midnight and fell soundly asleep for what felt like just an instant.
"When I opened my eyes, I found myself in our family room! I was seated upright in my chair and sweating profusely. I could see the alarm panel from my chair. The alarm was set and had not been triggered. Never in my life have I walked in my sleep. Not once."
Lovelace then sees the "Lady MIB" and feels "mildly sedated" and they have a conversation (she via telepathy). Firstly, there are many number of people who have no idea that they sleepwalk -my older brother when a teen for one. Only when someone moves into a shared tenancy or enters a relationship/gets married do they find out they do sleepwalk as other people have seen them do so. The feeling slightly sedated adds to this scenario and could be indicative of sleepwalking OR being in a dream state in bed and sleepwalking seems likely as this account he ends by writing: "I woke up in the living room chair at dawn"
This is a massive minus point.
Is Lovelace lying and just writing 'real life' fiction to earn money -the book sold well apparently. I give the benefit of doubt because watching Lovelace and his body language and facial expressions (and his eyes) he appears to be truthful. This is where we hit the major problem: as much as he may feel the events actually happened it is likely that he is perfectly normal but these are altered state recollections intermixed with real life events and fed by various sources -Ufological and his own wife.
In this case he is genuine but not a UFO abductee.
I have spent over four decades listening to and reading this type of report and I would very much like to think that something happened to Lovelace at Devil's Den that set in motion his PTSD and that would be anything but unusual in these events. The biggest problem here is that we have a single person claiming this and adding things that he has learnt from Ufological sources over the years. This is why I prefer reports with two or more percipients as well as some non-involved party back-up (see UFO Contact? for instance).
In this case there is absolutely no supporting evidence that the event took place. I note people rushing to proclaim the "bravery" for publicising the events but my guess is that those are UFO enthusiasts who really require no evidence and still believe that the decades ago revealed UFO hoaxes are real because "Why would someone hoax that?!"
There is a follow-up book, Devil's Den: The Reckoning which it is claimed offers previously unrevealed information. Will I buy it? Yes, because I want to see where this goes and I hope this does not turn out to be another Whitley Streiber.
"Two well-known figures in Ufology—UFOs and Nukes researcher Robert Hastings and military whistleblower Dr. Bob Jacobs—divulge their long-hidden status as experiencers. Although Hastings’ well-respected work involves investigating still-classified UFO incursions at American nuclear weapons sites and Jacobs is best known for participating in one of the key cases, each has privately endured a number of strange encounters with paranormal, UFO-related phenomena. Concerned that an open admission of this fact would negatively impact their reputations as reliable sources for military-related UFO information, both remained silent about their sometimes terrifying experiences for decades. Now, however, they believe that they must go public with the truth.
Over time, Hastings and Jacobs have focused on securing and publicizing UFO data kept secret by the U.S. Air Force. But when the bizarre and disturbing incidents began to occur years ago, seemingly involving interactions with non-human entities, they were forced to confront the UFO subject on a much more personal level. Apparent abductions, bedroom visitations, and other, related events have taken place on an ongoing basis. While the authors do not pretend to understand the situation or the reasons for their involvement in it, they are convinced of the physical reality of their encounters.
Just as they have diligently striven to inform the public in the past, regarding the extremely sensitive and perhaps ominous nuclear weapons-related UFO incidents, Hastings and Jacobs now feel obligated to divulge “the rest of the story.” Although the subject of alien abduction is widely considered to be taboo, even among many UFO proponents, in this book the authors nevertheless acquaint the reader with their travels through a very strange and startling landscape.
Following the December 16, 2017 exposé in The New York Times that revealed the existence of a secret Pentagon UFO study known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), three persons associated with the project have publicly discussed the link between UFOs and nuclear weapons—former U.S. Senator Harry Reid, former program director Luis Elizondo, and physicist Dr. Hal Puthoff.
Consequently, the public now knows that the UFO-Nukes Connection, researched and publicized by Robert Hastings since the 1970s, actually exists and is considered to be a U.S. national security matter. Co-author Dr. Bob Jacobs was involved in the still-Top Secret Big Sur Incident of September 1964, when a UFO was inadvertently captured on motion picture film as it maneuvered near a dummy nuclear warhead in flight, before shooting it down with beams of light! Debunkers have unsuccessfully attempted to discredit this amazing case by misstating the evidence and ignoring the testimony of another former U.S. Air Force officer who confirms that it occurred. This book presents the facts, not only about the Big Sur event but other documented incidents of UFOs intercepting missiles in flight.
But the essence of CONFESSION concerns the unexpected and unsought appearance of alien-related phenomena in the authors’ lives. These encounters with the unknown have been an integral part of Hastings’ and Jacobs’ overall UFO experience and have perhaps acted as the principal catalyst for their longstanding compulsion to investigate and publicize the reality of UFOs and the entities who operate them."
In fact I would argue that this book only reveals what has been written about AEs and UFOs for the last 30+ years and there is much of the book taken up with biographical chapters on and by each author and even more about the Big Sur "UYFO-shot-down-a-missile" incident which we have one man's word on.
In fact, if you bought this book to read about abduction experiences of both men then you were probably disappointed. I was. When the late Dr Leir and his "alien implant" work (discredited) and Budd Hopkins and his work (mostly discredited) and Jacobs abduction work (now mostly become discredited) and so on you realise that there are going to be problems. Yes, I was a big supporter of Hopkins and Jacobs with their early work but unlike most "pop UFO abduction" folk I checked and then withdrew support.
I was really (obviously) interested in their abduction accounts. Robert Hastings' account was a classic text book piece. Paranoia, having lucid dreams/altered state when younger and scrambling and grabbing at every little thing to find a connection and in one case when recounting a possible missing time event the other person in the car stated "your interpretation" re the event. In fact, this goes on throughout and he even tries to suggest possible generational abduction. "Something odd" stopped him taking a photo of a UFO and yet others in the area took video footage, etc. It just does not make logical sense.
Another text book feature of these reports is that he read Hopkins then Streiber and "the penny dropped" -he was an abductee! In fact he was so sure that he underwent regression hypnosis in 1992. Left it then underwent hypnosis again with another hypnotherapist in 1995. Then, in 2003 he was put under by Dr R. Leo Sprinkle and yet we learn not a lot. In fact, I was struggling to keep interested as everything was connected and even dreams proved that he was an abductee and the only confirmation -not really- was what might have been someone else's dream (they actually stated it was a dream and that they had to stop hanging about "with you UFO kooks").
I have explained Ruth Syndrome in my books (particularly UFO Contact?) and Hasting's does appear to be prone to this. It has been known under various names for decades. It is not a mental disorder and in fact we do not really know how the human mind does this but, to the percipient, it is as real as being punched in the face and I have investigated such cases over the last 40+ years.
Hastings is an abductee but NOT an abductee.
When it comes to Jacobs there may be a lesser form of Ruth Syndrome. Everything comes down to there being so many "significant" events and dreams that amount to nothing. No evidence. In fact he states that he is still unsure in his own mind about things.
These are two classic cases and I think the first where someone got into a subject and suddenly realised that they were an abductee was Dr Karla Turner. Her case matches every aspect of Ruth Syndrome and to her the events WERE real but they were not in our reality and this is why so many abduction reports have led to nothing but more fantasy -the Greys are in charge no the Mantis folk but really the reptileans or....
The one case I wanted to read about was that of Mario Wood who was allegedly abducted near a nuclear missile silo in 1977 and watching him recount his story you can see that he is shaken up. The memory still affects him. However, there is not one corroborating piece of evidence or testimony even after all of these years. There are aspects that interest me in that Woods may have initiated events that night via light signalling a UFO. However, the fact remains we have a one person account and that means Wood may well be genuine but have Ruth Syndrome -all the features are again present (I give examples as well as full an explanation as possible in UFO Contact? and it would take up too much time here).
For me the book is added to the classic UFO abduction syndrome list along with Karla Turners books.
For me the book was disappointing in one sense but in another it confirmed everything I have written about before. It shows why, even if they seem genuine, single person UFO abductions can only be noted if no form of corroboration is found.
This book by Dr Kershenbaum was a disappointment in a number of ways. Let me make it clear that I did not buy this expecting to see analyses of CE3K reports and what the descriptions tell us about possible alien entities. In fact the subject of UFOs is not even touched on as, I presume, that would tarnish the academic reputation.
The book is long (368pp) and I have to say that the disappointment comes in the poorly reproduced images -some blurry and so small it took a lot of figuring out what was being shown. That is a major problem if you are trying to demonstrate something. The premise of the book is simple (Wikipedia):
"Although the field of astrobiology usually investigates possibilities of simple lifeforms that may exist on alien planets, The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy considers the possibilities of complex life, and in particular, life that might be considered as animal life. The book begins by laying out the argument that evolution by natural selection is the only mechanism by which complex life can evolve. It then examines the implications of natural selection for life on other planets. The book ends by examining the question of whether humanity is a parochial Earth-centric concept, or whether intelligent alien life should also be considered human."
So it is nothing new but it is always interesting to see someone else's slant on a subject. The problem comes when you ask who exactly the book is aimed at? I do not think for one second that Kershenbaum thought of Ufologists. In fact it seems to be aimed at other zoologists or trainee zoologists and I always feel that is a big mistake.
Yes, it is good that these books are out there but are zoologists going to spend their time considering hypothetical life in the galaxy (let alone universe)? For those training in astronomy and with the ultimate aim of a job-for-life free meal ticket in SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) where all they'll really need preparation for is the statement "It is NEVER aliens. Then signals came from a microwave cooker" (some of you may get that joke).
It does not need dumbing down but made to be understandable by the average educated reader who needs to know about this type of thing because knowledge is for everyone not just members of the "Secret order of Science Wizards" (try getting a hold of even the most basic free to academics papers and see how much they charge IF they allow you onto their "sacred sites").
In his epilogue Kershenbaum notes that the book is more about life on Earth than alien life and that if we apply the rules of life on Earth and how it developed then we may see that life in the Galaxy would not necessarily be unique to Earth. He also notes that he has simplified explanations to make it easier for people to understand. My criticism on that point may be down to me failing to appreciating that "not all people be dumb".
The big debate is whether the way life developed on Earth is unique and not the norm -maybe life develops in other ways? The truth is that the real SETI work could be done by looking into CE3K reports that pass all the tests and even if cannot be proved 100% (we are never present so we have to go by what we discover while investigating -not a unique approach in science) then it gives us the start of a data base in which we can ask "Why would an entity be built that way?" "What does that feature tell us about a species" and so on.
It's 32 degrees at the moment so excuse me if I am being a pain and hyper critical but if asked whether I would recommend this book I would say "yes" -some of the topics are featured in my own books so the more people pushing books that educate on a topic the better.
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