Culture and science
The books that shaped how the public sees UFOs. 176 events, newest first.
Close encountersJan 2007
Chris Bledsoe of Hope Mills, North Carolina, says that on a fishing trip on the Cape Fear River he saw glowing orbs and lost several hours. He later self-published a book about this and later experiences; his account has not been independently verified.
Close encounters2005
Harvard psychologist Susan Clancy published Abducted with Harvard University Press, based on her interviews with people who believed aliens had taken them. She argued that sleep paralysis, cultural ideas and memories shaped under hypnosis can explain how such beliefs form.
Media2005
Paradise Valley physician Lynne Kitei, author of a book on the 1997 Phoenix Lights, premiered her documentary on the sightings at a Phoenix-area cinema in 2005. She has said she witnessed the lights herself.
WhistleblowersMay 2004
Jean-Jacques Velasco, who had led the French space agency's UFO office SEPRA since 1987, published a book arguing that UFOs exist and probably have an extraterrestrial origin. CNES said the view was his alone, as SEPRA disappeared from its organization chart.
Government2004
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson wrote the foreword to The Roswell Dig Diaries, a book on a Sci Fi Channel-funded 2002 dig at the alleged crash site, saying the mystery had never been adequately explained. In 2007, as a presidential candidate, he said he would consider releasing Roswell files.
Photo: U. S. Department of Energy, Public domain
Sightings2004
Italian astrophysicist Massimo Teodorani published 'A Long-Term Scientific Survey of the Hessdalen Phenomenon' in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, reviewing instrumented observations of the Norwegian valley lights. Later papers cite it as an early proposal of a geological origin.
Photo: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 4.0
Media25 Jan 2002
Screen Gems released a thriller starring Richard Gere loosely adapted from John Keel's 1975 book about strange sightings around Point Pleasant, West Virginia. It renewed public interest in the Mothman reports and the 1967 Silver Bridge collapse.
Photo: Jacket design by Peter Parnell, Public domain
Whistleblowers2002
Walter Haut, who issued the 1947 Roswell 'flying disc' press release, signed an affidavit to be opened after his death claiming he saw alien-like bodies at the base. It was first published in a 2007 book. The claim is uncorroborated, and a 1993 Haut affidavit mentioned no bodies.
Photo: US Govt (Roswell Army Air Field staff), Public domain
WhistleblowersAug 2000
Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper's memoir Leap of Faith, written with Bruce Henderson, says that in 1957 at Edwards AFB camera crew filmed a saucer-shaped craft landing, and that the film was sent to the Pentagon on orders and never heard of again. No official record of it has been confirmed.
Photo: NASA, Public domain
Media1 Apr 2000
Historian Richard Dolan published the first volume of 'UFOs and the National Security State', a history of U.S. government handling of UFOs from 1941 to 1973 built on declassified records, which argues the government hid what it knew.
Photo: David Maluenda, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sightings2000
Former NASA research scientist Richard Haines wrote NARCAP's first technical report, 'Aviation Safety in America: A Previously Neglected Factor', arguing that pilot encounters with unidentified aerial phenomena are under-reported and can affect flight safety.
MediaNov 1999
Stanford astrophysicist Peter Sturrock published 'The UFO Enigma: A New Review of the Physical Evidence', built on the 1997 Pocantico review in which scientists heard case evidence. It concluded some cases merit study and called for systematic data collection.
Close encountersNov 1999
Psychiatrist John Mack's book, first published by Crown, drew on a decade of interviews with experiencers and argued their encounters were about spiritual change and ecological warning more than physical aliens. It reports experiencers' claims, not verified events.
Photo: Becket01, CC BY-SA 4.0
Close encounters1998
Temple University historian David M. Jacobs published The Threat with Simon and Schuster, arguing from hypnosis sessions with abductees that aliens were running a breeding program to produce human-alien hybrids. Kirkus Reviews received the claims skeptically.
Photo: Hinata47d, CC BY-SA 4.0
Close encounters1998
Cornell University Press published political scientist Jodi Dean's study of UFO and abduction culture, which treated aliens as cultural icons of distrust and conspiracy in late-1990s America. The New York Review of Books gave it a sharply critical cover review.
Photo: Institute of Network Cultures from the Netherlands, CC BY-SA 2.0
WhistleblowersJul 1997
Retired Army Lt. Col. Philip Corso claimed in a Pocket Books memoir that Roswell debris seeded technologies such as lasers and fiber optics. Sen. Strom Thurmond, who wrote the foreword, said he had been told it was a memoir and knew of no cover-up; the claims are unverified.
Photo: US Army, Public domain
Government1997
Historian Gerald K. Haines's study in the CIA journal Studies in Intelligence said agency officials estimated that U-2 and later OXCART flights accounted for over half of UFO reports from the late 1950s through the 1960s, and that the Air Force made misleading statements to protect them.
Photo: NASA Glenn Research Center, Public domain
Media1996
Astronomer Carl Sagan's book on scientific skepticism used UFO and alien abduction claims as central case studies, attributing reported encounters to hallucination, misidentification, hoaxes and therapists' influence, and comparing abduction stories with older demon lore.
Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY-SA 4.0
Media1996
Nuclear physicist and ufologist Stanton Friedman published 'Top Secret/Majic', defending the authenticity of the disputed Majestic-12 papers, which describe a secret Truman-era group handling a recovered saucer. The papers' authenticity is widely disputed, and skeptics call them fakes.
Photo: AllenS, Public domain
Whistleblowers1996
Nick Pope, who handled UFO reports for a Ministry of Defence division from 1991 to 1994, published a nonfiction account of official reactions to UFO reports drawn from that posting. The MoD's position was that it looked at reports only for defence significance.
Photo: David Howard, CC BY 2.0
GovernmentJun 1995
USAF Fact Sheet 95-03 set out the Air Force's standing answer on UFOs: Blue Book logged 12,618 sightings, 701 stayed unidentified, none showed a threat or evidence of extraterrestrial craft, and nothing since 1969 justified resuming investigations. Af.mil still carries the text.
Photo: U.S. Air Force, Public domain
MediaApr 1994
Aerospace historian Curtis Peebles published 'Watch the Skies! A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth' with the Smithsonian Institution Press, a skeptical history arguing UFO reports stem from misidentifications, hoaxes and an evolving cultural myth.
Close encounters1994
Harvard Medical School psychiatrist John E. Mack published Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens, drawn from his work with people who said they had been taken by aliens. Harvard reviewed his methods and in 1995 decided not to censure him, affirming his academic freedom.
Photo: Becket01, CC BY-SA 4.0
Close encounters12 Mar 1992
Temple University historian David M. Jacobs published Secret Life with Simon and Schuster, drawing on hypnotic-regression sessions with more than 60 people who said they were abducted. He argued abductions were real and widespread; critics questioned his reliance on hypnosis.
Photo: Hinata47d, CC BY-SA 4.0
MediaMar 1992
Ballantine Books published Jacques Vallee's account of his 1990 trip to the Soviet Union, where under glasnost he met Soviet scientists and researchers and interviewed people reporting UFO encounters.
Photo: Christopher Michel, CC BY-SA 4.0
