Title | : | Revelations |
Author | : | |
Rating | : | |
ISBN | : | 0345375661 |
ISBN-10 | : | 9780345375667 |
Language | : | English |
Format Type | : | Mass Market Paperback |
Number of Pages | : | 310 |
Publication | : | First published January 1, 1991 |
Revelations Reviews
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Lots of interesting cases of crock, crap,
(and maybe even crack),psychical illness, fraud and gullibility all turning into alien brouhaha.
I totally loved some of the dialogues the author's quoting here. Lovely skepticism. -
This is the concluding book in Jacques Vallee's 'Alien Trilogy'. The first two books, Dimensions & Confrontations are for me, more rewarding and informative. However, this is a very good book and contains some important observations made by Vallee about some of the most well known ufo cases and subject matter. He raises some very valid doubts about the authenticity of some of the most documented and popular 'ET' events. With this book, Vallee has indeed caused me to question the validity or rather, to think more critically about certain events. Because of that reason, I can not give this any less than 4 stars. I was going to award it 3 but because it has genuinely made me 'think' more about certain aspects and raise questions I'd never considered before, it has to be a 4 star rating. Vallee does indeed insist that there is a very real UFO phenomenon but the phenomenon is something more than 'ET' from space. I think his Alien trilogy books do indeed prove that the phenomenon is real and my take on the subject is that it is likely inter - dimensional or, if it is ET from space, they are manipulating space time in some manner of extreme advanced physics. As for Dr Vallee himself, I think he is a standout figure in the world of Ufology and a genuine researcher who wants nothing more than genuine true and honest scientific study of this important subject matter.
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After watching History's series Unidentified, I thought it might be a good idea to go back and reread the final volume of Jacques Vallee's "Alien Contact Trilogy," Revelations.
I was initially impressed by Unidentified, but less so as I realized the producers had about enough material for a two hour documentary and padded like mad by reshowing the so-called "go fast" and "gimble" videos that had been released by the military a few years ago (Navy gun camera film that reputedly showed UFOs that were shadowing our carrier task forces) over and over and over, diving back into the Rendlesham Forest case (mysterious but done to death), and running endless scenes of Luis Elizondo for some reason shot in a mirror (why?!). Initially impressive, a lot of it was a mess.
And most interesting is the presence of Chris Mellon in the middle of this. Mellon, after all, a very calm, level headed, well-educated man, is also a professional spook, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, among other positions. What made his presence even more interesting are the pervasive rumors that Luis Elizondo is not what he claimed to be - the former head of a very shadowy Pentagon program called AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program). Whoever Elizondo is, and he seems to have been a special ops operator of some kind, Mellon was clearly in a position to blow his cover and did not.
That's a lot of typing to say, I suspect that what we have here is a government attempt to, once again, influence the discussion on UFOs and possibly at the same time boost defense spending. It's been done before, as Vallee argued in 1991 in this book.
Revelations is good reading, and useful because a lot of the material Vallee discusses in detail here - the UMMO case, the Majestic 12 documents, the shrieking about underground bases full of aliens and vats of human body parts (!), the odd case of Kirk Allen, Carlos Allende and his "revelations," etc., are largely forgotten or have never been heard of by younger people following the UFO question today. Vallee himself is not a believer in the extraterrestrial hypothesis; he believes UFOs are largely some kind of interdimensional phenomena. He has a wonderful talent for defusing true believers (one of the funniest scenes in the book is where Vallee dryly asks a True Believer in the "underground alien bases" theory, "Who takes out the trash?"), and as a scientist and computer expert his view is detached: he didn't have to make a living on UFOs, he had the ability to most of the time make it a hobby. In Revelations, Vallee argues that a lot of "mysterious" cases may have been entirely the creation of intelligence agencies, or the interpretation and reception of them may have been nudged by same to push serious researchers either out of the field in disgust or towards truly insane speculations that basically discredited the entire field.
There's a lot to digest here. The book is a little disorganized but it's packed with interest. Almost 30 years ago, Dr Vallee wrote "The time has come to restore some sanity to this field of research. It may prove to be a difficult task." It didn't happen then, and how hard it will be, in a time of steeply deepening public irrationality, to do it now. There is a genuine UFO mystery of some kind. But right now I suspect we're being force-fed another pile of crap and a historical look back might prove very useful. -
Food for thought.
If Vallee wasn't so honest and willing to look at the whole spectrum of consciousness he would have made a great Sagan type debunker. Which would be our loss. Instead he turns a critical eye to the nuts and bolts just so stories without the snarky just so stories of debunkers. There are times when I could do without the account after account after account scenarios. My eyes glaze over but in all this is highly recommended. -
3.5 stars. Intriguingly argued. I'll pick up the other two books in Vallee's trilogy if I can find them.
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People who know Jacque Vallee's work in the field of Unidentified Fly Objects are already aware of the paradigm shifting thought he brought to a generally stale and tired area of study. One of the first researchers (and despite what people say, he is a researcher: he has actually left his seat to follow leads, interview witnesses, and take samples, something few in this field ever bother to do) to eschew the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis which reigns the field (if it can be called as such), and suggest that the phenomenon, while physically real, is not aliens from another world, but something very much a part of us, if not rising from us, as a collective animal. In this book, [Revelations: Alien Contact and Human Deception], Vallee does something unique again, challenging many accepted and revered sitings as complete hoaxes, by examining the evidence, poking holes in the narratives, and exposing the chicanery and downright lies of those who claim to be in contact with alien space brothers here to deliver an important message, a message often dripping with fascistic overtones and filled with intolerant, controlling language. Vallee discovers loose, or sometimes, overt, connections to local cults, government agencies, and other outside organizations, in the spread of these duplicitous sightings and encounters. Vallee asks different questions in this book, and gives a fresher, more mature eye to the odd phenomenon of UFO encounters, yet, like many of his books, the reader only has more question marks then periods at the end of each chapter. In genre full of sensationalism, hype, and deception, his willingness to accept there can often times be few obvious answers, Vallee should be forgiven for these question marks, and in fact, should be praised for using them for liberally.
I recommend this book for anyone who, for whatever reason, wants to begin diving into the often wild and insane world of aerial and close encounters, for it will inoculate the reader with a healthy dose of skepticism, while at the same time, denounce the part of the reader who wishes to outright ignore the reality of the phenomenon, comforting themselves in a knee jerk "bullshit" reaction, which is not science, either, but dogma. -
This volume caps Vallee's summary trilogy about his decades of UFO research with the conclusion that the phenomenon represents some kind of control mechanism. This conclusion is not neat. While he gives much evidence that agencies of the government of the USA have been involved in employing the phenomenon, he also leaves open the possibility of other, even more occult, agencies at work.
I have not done the kind of hands-on research that Jacques Vallee has conducted, nor have I had the kinds of experiences he had which led me to become personally concerned about the matter. I have, however, read scores of books and countless articles on the subject, ranging from governmental publications to first person accounts to theories, summaries and allegations of all sorts and, so, am pretty much on top of the literature. From this, it is clear that many governments, including our own, have a demonstrably bad record serving their publics as regards UFO reports. There is no question that we have been and probably still are being lied to, that events are being covered-up or intentionally misinterpreted. There is also evidence that there have been outright fabrications, that agencies of our government have attempted to use the phenomenon and the popular thinking about it in order, presumably, to study the means by which public consciousness may be manipulated. Beyond this, however, I am not prepared to go quite so far as Vallee.
It is also clear that what is covered by the UFO rubric is a complex phenomenon involving much more than governmental control mechanisms. Vallee is on the right track when he relates current UFO experiences with past reports of angels and demons, of visits to heavens and hells and notes that such experiences run throughout human experience however much the interpretations of them vary. -
Like the author, I find the subject of UFOs fascinating. Also, like the author, I’m skeptical that UFOs are spacecraft flown by ETs. Although the IDH hypothesis is even wilder, the interdimensional hypothesis seems to be the more likely answer to the puzzling phenomena. In this third book of a trilogy, the author continues investigating UFO sightings. Trying to get at the truth is often rather frustrating. The “Truth” is often just beyond one’s grasp. Getting in the way are the true believers of the ET hypothesis, shadowy government/intelligence agencies with agendas all their own, and individual witnesses who run the full range of down to Earth respectable people to wild eyed crazies. Despite the frustrations, Vallee believes the scientific community should seriously examine this strange phenomenon. I agree. I recommend this book to those interested in UFOs, the Philosophy of Science, and human psychology.
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Excellent look at the UFO phenomenon without the standard Extraterrestrial Hypothesis. Jacques Vallee is one of the great thinkers of our time. An incredibly courageous man.