The Invisible College by Jacques F. Vallée

The Invisible College Reviews

• 
  Erik Graff

  Jacques Vallee was associated with J. A. Hynek at Northwestern University, both of them being portrayed in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind', Vallee by Trufault, Hynek, briefly, by himself. I had the fortune of meeting the latter when, serving as the head of the astronomy department's new observatory on the shore of Lake Michigan, he led a tour Father brought me to. At the time, back in elementary school, I was very interested in UFOs and planetary science and had heard of Hynek as the scientific consultant to Project Blue Book, the Air Force's public investigation of the mysterious phenomena until it was discontinued in 1969. As it happens, I now live near Hynek's old home in the East Roger's Park neighborhood on Chicago's far north side, friends of mine having attended school with his daughters. Northwestern's observatory, alas, is no more.
  
  Hynek I started reading on my own. Vallee was introduced to me, many years later, by Michael Miley, then a writer for a UFO magazine out of California. While Hynek was primarily an academic, as reflected by his rather dry, but scrupulous, texts, Vallee, whose background was in information theory and cybernetics, plays a more broadly speculative game. Unlike most 'ufologists', Vallee rejects the nuts-and-bolts notion that we're being visited by representatives of advanced civilizations somewhere out there in space. Indeed, he ridicules it, his books, including this one, giving case after case wherein supposed aliens of various kinds perform absurd actions and convey crazy messages to hapless human contactees. Further, he goes to great lengths to show how well current contacts of all kinds correspond to accounts from previous ages, all the way back to antiquity, our aliens being their gods, or angels, or demons, or imps. Given the great, and inconsistent, varieties of observations and encounters, few of them leaving physical traces for subsequent study, Vallee adopts instead a focus on the effects of such experiences on the experiencers and on their culture, hypothesizing that the UFOs et alia manifest what may be heuristically considered a control mechanism intended to bring about cultural change.
  
  This book was written in the early to mid-seventies, a period during which Vallee hoped that UFO reports and parapsychological studies were tending toward a cultural paradigm shift. The 'invisible college' of the title, beyond being an historical reference to early modern science, refers to the network of students of the phenomena, academic, scientific and governmental, with which he was, at the time of writing, involved. The paradigm shift, now, forty years later?
• 
  Karl

  By the end, this has to be one of the more compelling books on the UFO problem. I'm surprised that more amateur and mainstream researchers don't cite this one as frequently as Magonia (though I suppose I can understand why). On the whole, this book reads less as a sweeping overview of the phenomena, with case study specifics throughout that build in momentum and strangeness as most UFO books do. Here, the book is more of a short argument toward Vallee's primary thesis (which brings together each section to play on the whole in the final chapter): namely that the gaps and absurdities in witness accounts are forming a pattern of conditioning of the human race over time.
  
  What I find compelling (as did Vallee, if you read the third volume of Forbidden Science) is how he and another famous UFO researcher of the time, John Keel, came to many similar conclusions as to the nature of the phenomena despite forging separate research paths (Keel was not a member of Vallee's Invisible College), particularly in the range of credible absurdity and nature of consciousness/psychic phenomena/hallucinations in regard to most witness sightings. Vallee, however, in my opinion, does a far better job distilling these observations into a more academic/scientific hypothesis, whereas Keel's are a bit scattered. Where Passport to Magonia blew readers' minds with its revolutionary perspective on ancient legends of folklore paralleling many modern day UFO experiences, here Vallee levels up the game by providing further insights into the parallels in religious experiences (the fascinating standout chapter being the Fatima Miracle) with ultimately a deeper understanding of the machinations at work -- or, as Vallee would likely argue, the effects of said machinations at least.
  
  As always, the reader is left wanting more; whether that be more data, more primary sources, more stories, or if it's, like me, wanting more perspective now forty years later. That said, this amounts to an almost mandatory read for all UFO buffs looking for a far deeper and wiser dive than the surface-level "do you think extraterrestrials could be visiting us?" hypothesis.
• 
  Finny

  ''A phenomenon that denies itself, than annihilates evidence of itself, cannot be mastered by engineering brute-force.''
  
  Passport to Magonia was Vallée making the strongest possible case for UFOs as a metamythological phenomenon. Taking the reader on an odyssey into the surreal heart of comparative mythology, it made the claim that, rather than beings from outer space, the UFO phenomenon represents something old, something very powerful, and something curiously mythological—rather than being alien spaceships, UFOs are just the modern manifestation of a mysterious set of seemingly (at least somewhat) sentient phenomena that structure themselves around our own existing religious and social frameworks; what manifested in the age of Pagan Earth worship as fairies and selkies manifests now as spaceships and alien races.
  
  The Invisible College, a perfect sequel, takes Passport to Magonia's premise as read and makes the case that: not only do these phenomena manifest themselves according to dominant social and religious trends, but they also seem to have some degree of influence over these dominant social and religious trends, altering them slightly with each manifestation, and seemingly trying to push human psychology down certain paths.
  
  Vallée's arguments are strong. He never gets lost in wild speculation—though, sometimes I wish he did...—and it's difficult to disagree with the overall analysis, especially when said analysis manages to pull in and synthesise the more out there and peculiar cases that are all too often ignored.
  
  When it comes to actually positing hypotheses, Vallée is careful never to say what he thinks the UFOs actually represent, what they are, and where they come from. Still, he does posit a few broad hypotheticals:
  • Outside energy is being tapped into unconsciously by the collective mass of human psychology, because we're on the cusp of a new evolutionary leap into the psychic age—Colin Wilson's Faculty X comes to mind. Vallée ends up writing this one off, at least as the root cause, since the phenomenon is so clearly directed.
  • Some cosmic lifeform lives on a reality beneath ours while occupying the same space as us, and acts simultaneously as an amplifier for humanity's latent psychic power and a guilding hand pushing us down a path toward either something new, something better, or total destruction—it's impossible to know which, and even more impossible to know whether this (these) entity(ies) is (are) malevolent or benevolent, or even if such a judgement could be applied to such an alien consciousness. A good point of reference here would be Michael Crichton's Sphere... in fact, I wonder if Crichton took the idea for that novel from Vallée, as the way Vallée describes the Geller/Puharich research in this book is pretty much 1:1 the first two acts of Sphere.
  • A purely reactive control system—either mechanical and built by someone to guide us, or a natural part of the universe's immune system—is working to keep human consciousness going down specific paths, toward specific ends. This is the most compelling theory, but it's also the thinnest, being the most difficult to discuss without knowing what this control system is, where it came from, and what happens when it gets us to where it wants us.
  
  Whichever theory happens to be true—and it may well be none of these—the one thing that's undeniable is that there are eerie structural similarities between the mythologies of old and the new mythology of the UFO. But not in a way where one could seriously claim that the reason for this is less rational civilisations mistaking aliens for gods. While elements persist—the evil snake gods of virtually every religion, and the sinister reptillian race of the UFO mythology being an obvious example—it would be difficult to make the claim that medieval contactees misremembered short grey-skinned aliens as immense red-skinned devils with bone horns and leather wings. While the structure of the interactions remains the same, the more specific imagery clearly does not.
  
  As for why the imagery has changed so radically in the last century, Vallée hypothesises—in what is easily my favourite part of the book—that modern humans no longer have any gods for the phenomenon to manifest as—our modern superstructure is rationality, progress, and technology. We have deconstructed and murdered myth, spirituality, and irrationality—we are a completely materialistic species now—and therefore the phenomenon has to manifest as the only thing we can possibly conceptualise within our anti-irrational framework: aliens from other planets zipping about in impossibly advanced ships and visiting us as part of some interstellar scientific research program.
  And the problem with this is: while the Christian superstructure of the past meant people faced with The Devil knew he was not to be trusted, our atheistic, materialistic, rationalist superstructure permits no concept of innate irredeemable evil, no assumption that these 'aliens' might be lying, no consideration that these things we now call aliens might be one and the same with the demons of old.
  We have put ourselves in a position of extreme weakness, on the razor thin assumption that lights in the sky can only possibly (only logically) represent benevolent visitors from space—or, at least, visitors too strong for us to fight. But what if logic, reason, and rationality aren't all they're cracked up to be?
  
  Faust called up a demon and sold his soul for knowledge, but at least he knew he had a soul to sell.
• 
  Joe

  Perhaps most notable passage is about a Vatican official describing "Lucy's Fatima letter" opened by the Pope in 1960 and re-sealed. Allegedly contained a prophecy of the shooting of the Pope by Commie bastards followed by a nuclear holocaust. Let's hope Lucy's final batting average is .500 in the prediction business.
  
  More highly recommended is THE EDGE OF REALITY co-authored by Dr. Vallee and Dr. J. Allen Hynek, also published in 1975 (Henry Regnery Co, Chicago). Most of the reports analyzed involve folks who were reluctant witnesses and whose names are never identified. Transcripts of interviews stem in some notable cases from government agents themselves, who passed the reports sub rosa to Hynek in the 1960s when Hykek was the USAF consultant on UFOs. These accounts read better than a lot of science fiction short stories. "Edge of reality" indeed.
• 
  Zemmi

  A must-read for any amateur Ufologist, this book lays out the foundations for researching and understanding the flying saucer phenomenon.
• 
  Joshua Pierson

  Rather appreciative of Jaques Vallee's work with this book. It was seminal when published in the 1970s. Reading works such as this through the backdrop of research now occurring on the complex issue that is understanding UAP, Vallee's work and final hypothesis is close to prophetic. The efficacy Vallee's hypothesis regarding a possible control system that is conditioning homo sapiens is supported by multiple research initiatives addressing conditioning behavior and the effects of the environment on social and cultural development. Applying current understanding of psychopathology and UAP relationships, I would offer a change in lexicon of Vallee's hypothesis. I'd offer that there is a complex array of systems that are interdependent that may be shaping homo sapiens and that the technological signatures may indicate a higher capability, I would postulate that instead of a 'higher' capability, it is a 'different' capability.
• 
  Richard

  I chose to read this book after reading after reading author Jacque Vallee's amazing Passport to Magonia.
  
  In this book, Vallee explores the idea that UFOs and the UAP phenomena may not be extraterrestrial visitors, but might be something else entirely.
  
  While this book made for compelling reading, it felt dated since its original publishing in the 1970s. Vallee spends a lot of time writing about Uri Geller, who at the time was causing widespread amazement, but has since been mostly dismissed by experts as a conjuror.
  
  The book also lost me a little during the middle when Vallee goes deep into some theories that were beyond my understanding.
  
  Despite these issues, I'd still highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject.
• 
  Anthony O'Connor

  a bit scattered
  
  Starts off nicely with some keen sober analysis. Credentials claimed. Promises made, never to be realised. But quickly degenerates into a scattered meandering collection of anecdotes straining the limits of credulity. To put it politely. And this is precisely what he said he wasn’t going to do. He does eventually get back to his main stated theme. And states it again. And I suppose the stuff in the middle was meant to have been collaborating ‘evidence’. Yeah, no.
• 
  Giorgio

  As an "experiencer" myself, I support Valle´s main hypothesis: it is a "control system".
  For what? Done by who? How is it done?
  We can only speculate... and not properly.
  Even when we are 100% sure of something on this topic, we have no idea what it really means...
  Personally, I think it is a "device", an "experiment", to see where the human mind-soul can go... but, I feel that whoever is doing this wants to control the result... we are just lab rats.
• 
  Cynthia S. McCain

  A new perspective on an ancient phenomena
  
  Fresh and unique approach rather than the same old little grey men from planet X. I have long felt that there is an effort by some powerful force to condition humanity to accept the alien scenario. Mr. Vallee gives us a new area of investigation .
• 
  andrew mills

  Wake up.
  
  I thought I should read this as a lead up to Mr vallees next book, I wasn't disappointed,offers a number of reasons as to why we need to take this subject seriously.
• 
  Bryan

  I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would. I recommend this book to anybody who enjoys the subject or knows anything about the invisible college or wants to learn more.
• 
  Art

  Dr. Jacques Vallee, an astronomer, has studied UFOs for decades and believes the subject to be worthy of scientific investigation. Unlike many researchers of UFOs, Vallee does not believe the extraterrestrial hypothesis concerning the source of UFOs. He advocates an interdimensional hypothesis, believing UFOs come from a different dimension, The phenomena appears to be designed to try and shape and/or alter mankind's belief systems. He believes this control mechanism has occurred throughout human history and manifested itself in various ways, (i.e. gods, angels, demons, fairies, etc.). He relates a number of UFO encounters where the witnesses experienced psychic phenomena occurring during and/or after the encounters (i.e. healings, spiritual messages, etc.). He compares these experiences with some well-known religious experiences such as the Marian apparitions at Fatima, Portugal and at Guadalupe, Mexico and with some experiences of the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith. A fascinating, unique take on a mysterious subject.
• 
  Omar Caccia

  Pensavo fosse il libro più interessante di Vallée, e per certi versi lo è, in quanto spiega il nocciolo duro dell'ipotesi parafisica e del suo punto di vista. Alcuni capitoli li ho trovati "saltabili" e un po' ripetitivi. Il titolo è intrigante ma alla fine non viene descritto nei dettagli in cosa consiste questo "collegio invisibile" (ad esempio sarebbe stato bello un confronto più approfondito tra i lavori dei vari membri di questo gruppo di studio). Comunque un'ottima lettura, forse nel 75, quando uscì, fu una novità pressoché assoluta.
• 
  Joshua

  Vallee is so ahead of his time. He’s had this hypothesis since the 1970’s or even earlier. Spoiler alert, it ain’t aliens. It’s a little tedious at times because the book is a data driven analysis from a computer scientist. But his conclusion just makes sense. Worth your time.
• 
  Jim

  Interesting, if a bit dated. If you've read Vallee's later books, there isn't much new here. There were some interesting case studies. Sadly, the one that blew my mind turns out to not be real, the UMMO stuff from Spain.
• 
  Annelies Rios

  Would be nice to believe in all this. Sometimes good scientific approach, other times a bit clumsy.