Confrontations: A Scientist's Search for Alien Contact

by Jacques Vallee

Overview

In CONFRONTATIONS, the second volume of a trilogy, Dr. Jacques 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781933665290
Publisher:	Anomalist Books
Publication date:	01/02/2008
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	194,410
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 9.06(h) x 0.61(d)

About the Author

Dr. Jacques Vallee was born in France, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the Sorbonne and a Master of Science in astrophysics from the University of Lille. He began his professional life as an astronomer at the Paris Observatory in 1961. While on the staff of the French Space Committee, he witnessed the destruction of the tracking tapes of unknown objects orbiting the earth, initiating a lifelong interest in the UFO phenomenon. Vallee arrived in the U.S. in 1962, worked in astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin, and wrote two highly respected scientific examinations arguing for the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (ETH) of UFO origins. In 1967, he received a Ph.D. in computer science from Northwestern University, where he became a close associate of J. Allen Hynek, then scientific consultant for the U.S. Air Force on Project Blue Book. Eventually concluding that the ETH was too narrow to encompass the burgeoning UFO data, he conducted his own extensive global research, resulting in the "Alien Contact Trilogy." Dr. Vallee is presently a venture capitalist living in San Francisco. His website is www.jacquesvallee.com.

Editorial Reviews

"Absolutely fascinating...By far the most interesting and scientific commentator on the UFO phenomenon." - Colin Wilson

"With this book, Jacques Vallee has added another important and reasoned analysis to his earlier and now classic considerations of the UFO conundrum...No serious student of UFOs (pro or con) should ignore this addition to the debate." - Marcello Truzzi

"Jacques Vallee has again shown why he should be regarded as perhaps our foremost contemporary UFO researcher. In this dark but deeply absorbing book, he has made the strongest case yet for his position that the reality of UFOs is far stranger, and even more omninous, than popular theories of extraterrestrial visitation would have us believe." - Kenneth Ring

"Vallee has written another thoughtful and stimulating UFO book...Highly recommended." - Booklist

From the Publisher

Vallee, a California astrophysicist, here analyzes UFO sightings that he has investigated personally and concludes that UFOs are real, but that, far from being the emissaries of extraterrestrial civilizations, they represent ``a yet unrecognized level of consciousness, independent of man but closely linked to the earth.'' He argues that we will understand the UFO phenomenon only when we expand our view of the physical universe beyond four dimensions, and he urges scientists to take a greater interest in the subject because certain sightings that he has researched, particularly in Brazil, show that UFOs offer both a complex technology (probably microwave) and a hostile potential. Vallee's ( Dimensions ) theories will doubtless upset conventional ufologists, while nonbelievers will preserve their skepticism. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The audience for books on Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) remains strong--the 1989-90 edition of Books in Print lists over 100 adult titles. Vallee's Anatomy of a Phenomenon ( LJ 6/1/65) helped provide scientific respectability to the study of UFOs. While Vallee stresses the need to maintain scientific objectivity and a critical attitude, he is not afraid to offer theories which go beyond traditional extraterrestrial hypotheses. Among the 100 cases reported here are some in which observers were harmed or died as a result of viewing a UFO. For each case, Vallee visited the actual site, spoke to witnesses, and concludes that ``something happened.'' The Walters' book is a frightening account of 20 UFO encounters occurring near their Florida home. Their position in the community, the collaboration of over 100 other area witnesses, and the authenticated photographs and videotape they took make this account more trustworthy than most. The phenomenon of missing time, described in Budd Hopkins's Intruders ( LJ 6/1/87), is part of this story as well. While neither of the books under review provides firm answers about the reality or intent of UFOs, both can be recommended as above-average entries in the genre. Academic libraries should have the Vallee book, while public libraries will want both.-- Gary D. Barber, SUNY at Fredonia Lib.

Library Journal