Skeptical blog Neurologica has posted some thoughts on the latest release of ‘UFO files’ by the British Ministry of Defence:
The documents do provide further evidence for what I call the psychocultural hypothesis. UFO sightings and encounters are certainly an interesting group of phenomena – but are they evidence of anything alien? Many people I talk to (including a documentary producer just recently) are left with the sense that there must be something going on. No explanation seems satisfactory to explain all the accounts, and there is a residue of unexplained reports.
This is the “where there is smoke there is fire” argument. But I think it misses an important question – there may be fire (a phenomenon) but what kind of fire? I think the fire is a multifaceted psychocultural phenomenon.
What I find most fascinating is that we are living through the formation of a modern mythology. We can see the mythology evolve, and there is ample documentation of the process.
That’s certainly a fascinating side of the UFO phenomenon, although it’s hardly new to investigators. In fact, that facet of ufology was one of the driving factors in Daily Grail Publishing’s re-release of Jacques Vallee’s 1979 UFO classic Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults (which you can pick up from Amazon US or Amazon UK). Messengers of Deception documents the growing effect of UFO mythology and memes on all our lives, and also many people’s core belief systems. It really is required reading for anyone interested in the topic of UFOs and extraterrestrial contact.
Speaking of Jacques, I also noticed that (official) video of his talk on the importance of UFO research and analysis at the Global Competitiveness Forum (GCF) earlier this year has been posted online:
Jacques mentions his most recent book, Wonders in the Sky, during the talk – you can pick it up from Amazon US & UK as well. And note that more videos from the GCF are available on the Forum’s official YouTube page, including talks by Michio Kaku, Stanton Friedman and Nick Pope.
