The UFO Phenomenon (Mysteries of the Unknown) by Time-Life Books

The UFO Phenomenon (Mysteries of the Unknown) Reviews

• 
  Gary Beauregard Bottomley

  Tediously presented anecdotal story telling unconvincingly presented with no overarching purpose.
  
  There’s a book which I should have given five stars to but only gave three for reasons that escape me today American Cosmic by Diana Pulsuka. She gets that it’s not the UFO experience itself that matters but the meaning that lies behind it for the people who believe in them. The truth of the interpretations is not as important as the meaning or the false world-view that is created by the believers in myths (conspiracies) which give them purpose beyond the quotidian.
  
  The most wasteful position in the world is to refute nuts who say things like ‘Osama bin Laden wasn’t killed by an American SWAT team’ as President Trump implied in one of his tweets and defended in a Presidential Debate, since when you refute rubbish, you are taking yourself away from a coherent world-view and are learning rubbish while one should always strive to learn that which is worthwhile and deserving of one’s time. White supremist make up a large part of the UFO movement today since they believe that it was not possible for the Egyptians to have built the pyramids without outer-of-this-world help since Egyptians aren’t white (except for Jesus who did live in Egypt and all the paintings depict him as white at least that’s what the white supremist sincerely believe without facts).
  
  This book gives a lot of one-of-a-kind self-reported experiences that are almost all refutable today through a quick google search but to refute them only distracts us from the real world and what is most deserving. Conspiracists and UFO believers, live in a world with a world-view out of this world and they must force their goofiness upon us who have a world-view of this world. Vaccines work and masks work and are part of the background of the real world and those with an out-of-this-world belief will confuse you with anecdotes and just move on to the next set of out-of-this-world fact free assertions while you waste your time refuting their previous substance free assertions.
  
  I’m open to UFOs being real if the right set of facts are presented. I’m more concerned with Qanon, hateful MAGA hat wearing conspiracy nuts, and alternate reality creating fascist who feel a need to force their out-of-this-worldview point on to me since they have to convince me of their truths since they are not part of the background of common world-views. Have you ever noticed that right-wing people will quickly segue the conversation into their weird world-view since they are not part of the normal world since they believe nutty things like ancient astronauts built the pyramids, Tom Hanks is a pedophile, mask don’t work, vaccines are dangerous, or Osama bin Laden is still alive while in the course of a normal day my thoughts would never go there? They believe in out-of-this-world absurdities and need to convince you that their lies are truth.
  
  This book missed an opportunity to go beyond mere anecdote and inadvertently lays a ground work for nuts to pretend to have a world-view out of this world and gives them more credence than they deserve.
  
• 
  Max Maxwell

  As a kid I was fascinated by aliens and UFOs. One night, my mom let me stay up and watched the Unsolved Mysteries abduction episodes. The light at the end of our long driveway terrified me from then on. And then I went and found some books on the subject (see my
  review on
  Frank Edwards's
  Stranger Than Science for the more detailed story). Needless to say, the lavish, metallic-ink pictures in this staple of every used bookstore's "Paranormal" shelf only fueled the fire. It has some strange factual errors (I believe it claims that Billy Meier's photos and films are the best-supported evidence for the phenom, and these have been
  completely debunked), but the wonder is all there. This rates five stars for nostalgia alone.
• 
  Dania

  My dad owns this book and it has been there in our house library since I was very little. I believe he bought it before I was even born. He used to read the book to me frequently and I remember how I was so amazed of everything! I used to bring this book to my primary school and my friends would take turn to borrow it. Because who doesn't love UFOs, right?
  
  This book uncovered famous sightings that people claimed to witness which turned to be plain hoaxes and also a few real ones. It also told everything about UFOs and aliens scientifically. I also learned from this book that there was this one sighting that took place in my home country, Malaysia.
  
  All in all this book is a good read. I love it.
• 
  Rob

  Though it's a decent overview of "the UFO phenomenon"†, the prose isn't terribly compelling. The layout and the typeface doesn't help -- the way the words are put down on the page seems to make the eyes wander. There are plenty of fun little historical and anecdotal nuggets about UFO sightings and alleged alien abductions and the author(s) have tried to keep it nice and even keeled -- plenty of room for this stuff to be true but plenty of room for it all to be hoaxes and misunderstandings.
  
  But the pictures make it fun.
  
  ★★★★ for the pictures. ★★ for the writing.
  
  
  
  
  † = Well, I thought it was a bit "U.S.-centric" but some might argue that there is something a bit U.S.-centric about modern UFOlogy anyway.
• 
  Kathleen

  "Do we have neighbors in the cosmos? Or is their existence no more than a mirror of our fantasies? Perhaps in the infancy of our species we are like children in the dark. We peer into the blackness, fearing it yet seeking within it some reassurance that we are not alone. We cling to the notion that somewhere in the void are beings not unlike us, but maybe wiser, better--creatures who can tell us secrets that will save us from ourselves."
• 
  P.S. Winn

  I recently 'inherited' boxes of time life books. I am slowly working my way through them. I have found each of them well written with beautiful pictures and illustrations. I am fascinated by UFO's and found this book informative and intriguing. So much great information going back years. I'd say this is a great one to pick up.
• 
  Sean McNulty

  A classic for the field especially for younger generations of ufo enthusiasts, the book provides a wide breath of classic encounters as well as a basic history of the field and its prominent figures. While the book doesn’t have the benefit of being updated with additional material, it’s an superb (if not long winded at times) beginner book for anyone interested in the field of ufology.
• 
  Gabriel

  Recently found this in my garage. I used to read it all the time as a kid. UFOs have always been fascinating to me. Of course, I know now it's all weird conspiracy stuff, but this book instilled a great sense of wonder in little me.
• 
  Coleman Wigger

  Plenty of facts here.
• 
  Rick Vickers

  Excellent book on UFO's from the Time life series
• 
  Ashleigh

  3 and 1/2 stars
• 
  Brennan Harvey

  An honest, non-partisan look at the UFO phenomenon.
• 
  Erik Graff

  I bought a bunch of the books from this series at once, planning to give them all away to Mike Miley when I next visited him. This one, however, I kept to show to my stepbrother, Erik Badger, who had recently moved in with me after some years living in Haiti. He hadn't done a UFO book before and this was an attractive survey of the field for someone unfamiliar with it. As intended, he went on to read several more books--all more serious than this craven piece of rank sensationalism.
• 
  Roopkumar Balachandran

  I firmly believe we are not alone.
  
  This book had given me some information about Allen Hynek and Keyhoe. Which I am trying to obtain the books written by them.
  
  The Air force/Project Blue Book always denied the UFO sighting phenomenon as some kind of natural occurrence. When a couple of patrolman tried to follow the oval light for over an hour, they (Project Blue book) made a ridiculous statement that they chased the morning star!
• 
  Amy

  i have had this book in my "coffee table book" collection for years. It is interesting and has great photos. A must for all people interested in UFO's!
• 
  Steve Mitchell

  Put together as an encyclopaedia that deals with the subject from the starting point that UFOs are alien spacecraft that actually do exist rather than showing the evidence impartially
• 
  Kenneth Sarmiento

  its ok
  
• 
  Dominik

  Wie so vieles zum Thema UFOs ist der Inhalt wahrscheinlich größtenteils Unfug, aber immerhin ist es unterhaltsamer Unfug.
• 
  Art

  Good overview of the controversial subject.