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Forbidden Sketches: Hand-Drawn Artwork Inspired by the Published Journals of Jacques Vallée (Vol. 5)

By red pill junkieon

One of the greatest pleasures in my life is drawing. The other one is reading. These may seem like separate unrelated pastimes, but for several years I’ve been indulging in mixing the two by way of copying quotes—or even whole paragraphs—of books I find useful to remember in my personal journal/sketchbook, and oftentimes I accompany these paragraphs with quick sketches inspired by these texts. It is both a mnemonic exercise as well as the sort of practice an artist is fond of engaging on a regular basis to improve one’s skills.

Once I stumbled upon Jacques Vallée’s Forbidden Science journals, I found them to be an excellent source to engage in this sort of ‘marginalia manuscripting’ hobby of mine. Vallée is not only the most dedicated researcher of the UFO phenomenon—the last of his generation of truth seekers, equipped with the tools of science to better understand the complexity of the phenomenon, and also with a rare disposition to perform in situ fieldwork and interview witnesses from all over the world—but he’s also an outstanding chronicler of moments affecting his life; both on the private sphere, as well as on the ‘Big Picture’ level he’s always been perceptive of.

To me he’s become not only a portal to periods of history I didn’t get to live, but also—in the last decades covered by the journals—a reminder of the events shaping the course of the late XXth and early XXIst century… for better or worse.

Reading the journals have earned me a whole new level of appreciation for Jacques, in ways I’m regretfully unable to properly convey, since I’m not endowed with the same literary skills as he has. His wittiness, satire, lyricism, and overall passion to devote his life to so many endeavors—some more fruitful than others: The first organized mapping of Mars, a computerized analysis of the Blue Book files, collaboration with scientists exploring the edges of science in the controversial Stargate program, laying the foundations of our modern interconnected society with the creation of Arpanet and the monetary funding of many startups. And, as a subrosa of it all, trying to come to grips with what is perhaps the biggest mystery our species has ever faced, outside of our fate after death (which are probably one and the same).

To read the Forbidden Knowledge volumes does not only offer the reader a rare glimpse to the less-known inner workings of how the UFO sociological sausage is made and consumed, but more importantly than that, they are a testament of a life well lived.

Getting back to my quirky pastime, I would regularly find myself stopping my lecture of Forbidden Science to grab my little black sketching journal and copy some noteworthy passages—for the really quotable ones I keep a couple of nice Lamy Joy fountain pens which allow you to make a cool broad calligraphy— followed by my own personal commentary and (if I felt like it) illustrated by a quick sketch (mostly done with the same pen I was writing in, or other drawing tools I kept at hand) for my own personal edification.

More than once, I’ve found myself in the middle of this thinking Carlos Allende would have done just the same, if he had had a penchant for doodling…

Understand then, that these doodles were never originally meant to be shown to anyone (which is why some of them ended up looking like crap, while others are not that bad).I would, however, occasionally share a few selected ones over my social media, borne out of the modern necessity to seek ‘exposure’, but the overall goal was first and foremost my own selfish enjoyment.

This little hobby of mine I would indulge with during my so-called ‘free time’, in-between regular office jobs and commissions, once I attempted to become a full-time free-lance designer. Unfortunately, as many peers are woefully aware, commissions became scarcer and scarcer as the 2020s progressed. To the point that, in this year of our Lord 2025, the commissions have completely dried out.

And so, as the weeks progressed and now new emails arrived into my inbox, my ‘free time’ became my ‘full time’. And instead of wasting my hours in despair either playing videogames, binge-watching Netflix, or drinking myself to death, I decided to keep on reading Jacques’s journals and sketching. Now more than ever, drawing switched from being a pastime into becoming something more: a lifeline, a cry for help, an act of defiance, a magical spell even, and also a big FUCK YOU to all the people seeking to deprive the world from human artists, while robbing our creativity to feed their digital golems.

Fast forward to the end of January when Chrissy Newton, a researcher from Canada who’s involved in many UFO-related projects and is now collaborating with Jacques, offered me a chance to review Forbidden Science (vol. 6) which had been recently released. I obviously accepted and while I waited for the paperback to arrive I resumed my effort to finish reading Volume 5, which I had just recently bought. In one of our email exchanges, I showed Chrissy one of my doodles inspired by the book, and she consequently showed it to Jacques himself, who was very pleased with it and showed an interest in seeing more.

Boom. The light bulb turned on inside my noggin. I now had found a purpose and knew exactly what I needed to do.

What you will see next are then a few of the sketches inspired by Forbidden Science (hence their name, the Forbidden Sketches). Emphasis on ‘sketches’, because almost all of them were drawn in 10 minutes or less, with a few exceptions that might have taken about 90 minutes tops. Some were done with no previous pencil guidelines and with a very free type of pen strokes in order to capture the raw’ essence of the subject, while others did merit more premeditation and the use of more refined drawing techniques.

The primary goal was always to quickly capture the first thing that popped into my head when I read the text, or the resemblance of one of the many individuals mentioned by the journal’s entries. One of the things I loved the most about my time devoted to this artwork is that I allowed myself the chance to fail—this may seem weird to the non-artists reading these lines, but when your livelihood is tied to your artistic skills, pursuing the dragon of perfection can become a dangerous (and stressful) obsession.

In this instance I will strict myself with the sketches related to Volume 5 (Pacific Heights) which ended up being my favorite one of the whole series. The reason it’s my favorite one is because, aside from the many comings and goings Jacques experienced with his UFO research during a very critical historic moment in the field—the creation of BAASS by Robert Bigelow under the sponsorship of the US government—it also goes over the last years of Janine, Jacques’s beloved wife, who sadly died of a very aggressive brain tumor. The way he captures the anguish, sadness, eventual acceptance and the unbreakable love he had for his indefatigable companion in many adventures for over 40 years, shows Vallée as a devoted husband and a scientist with the heart of a poet. Even if someone doesn’t give a damn about flying saucers, reading Volume 5 would still be highly recommended just for those parts of the book alone.

I guess it goes without saying that this is in no way sponsored by anyone, and it is not meant to reflect anyone’s opinion other than my own. While I hope Vallée will be amused or maybe even touched by some of the artworks I created, I suspect that my take on some of the people he interacted with, and/or events he narrated in his memoir, may not coincide with his own for any number of reasons.

So, without further ado, here are my sketches inspired by Vallée’s amazing prose. I hope you enjoy watching them as much as I did while creating them.

Col. John Alexander, an expert in non-lethal weaponry. Before joining NIDS Alexander had his own secret UFO group with other government officers interested in the phenomenon (Vallée calls them “the Secret Onion” in his journals) but they never got too far, and he concluded the US government really didn’t know anything about the phenomenon. In a particular passage of the journal, Alexander mentions to the NIDS group a very mysterious type of secret government access called “Blue Border,” which he claimed “can get people killed” (“Blue Border” is never mentioned again).
The Forbidden Science journals (particularly 4-6) deal a lot with the controversial subject of cattle mutilations, since NIDS investigated them extensively, and even dealt with several inexplicable deaths of cattle in the infamous Utah property known as the Skinwalker ranch. As the journals progressed, it becomes more and more clear that NIDS were convinced many of these mutilations were performed by some human agency, for reasons which were never fully clear (hence my own personal speculation that perhaps these gory crimes had some obscure ritualistic purpose).
Colm Kelleher, a biochemical scientist who collaborated with Bigelow since the NIDS days, had a theory that cattle mutilations were connected with a clandestine program to track mad cow disease. Mad Cow disease was a big concern in the 90s but because it has such a long gestation period (30 years or so) the public has largely forgotten about it (all I’m saying is that Donald Trump’s favorite food is cheeseburgers, ok?)
…But of course, for every theory you throw into these mysteries, you will always find a case or two that refutes it. Case in point: Vallée finds a mutilation report from 1938, in which a hog was found freshly slaughtered next to a large burned ring on the grass.
Joe Firmage, a peculiar figure in the UFO world who emerged in the early 2000s. Lauded as a ‘computer whiz’ ,he then devoted his fortune into the UFO mystery after he had a close encounter experience strikingly similar to the ‘angelic visitation’ Joseph Smith (the founder of the Mormon church) claimed. He lost all his money vainly pursuing anti-gravity technology designed using the scientific theories of Hal Puthoff. Last I heard of him, he had run into legal problems for defrauding old ladies.
Dick Haines is a respected researcher who has focused mainly on pilot sightings and is concerned with aviation safety. I know the topic merits attention, but I for one have never understood why ‘advanced aliens’ would be dumb enough to crash with our own primitive aircraft, which is why I couldn’t resist making a joke about it—I prefer to imagine the UFOs that buzz airliners are sentient beings trying to engage the planes in some sort of mating ritual 😉
FS5 deals with the thorny post-9/11 years, a dark period of history the public seems to have largely forgotten,; seeing how we now take for granted being under constant surveillance, and compared to Trump George W. Bush seems almost like a reasonable, highly intelligent leader! But Vallée’s entries transmit the sadness he and his wife felt, when witnessing the quick erosion of many of the things they have come to admire in American society.
Pretty self-explanatory IMO…
Every time Jacques went to an airport after 9/11 he was acutely aware of the changes caused by the “War on Terror.”
One of the many shady Ufological characters Vallée has dealt with during his lifetime was Bill Cooper, who should remain a cautionary tale to anyone who thinks military credentials are sufficient to believe the claims of ‘whistleblowers’. Unfortunately, Cooper’s influence in the field has not disappeared, and his mixing of UFO mythologies and right-wing conspiracies was a precursor to the MAGA and Q-Anon movements.
…But of course, not all the Ufological figures Jacques have crossed paths with were complete a-holes. One of them was John Keel, who is one of my favorite authors in the field (Rest in Peace, dear Hermit).
Throughout his career Jacques felt the need to take ‘breaks’ from the Ufological world, being disgusted by the incessant fighting, and uncritical consumption of whatever new story came into the spotlight (the Internet only made things worse in many ways). Since Vallée’s income has never been directly tied to his UFO-related activities, he has had the liberty to say ‘No’ whenever a producer or director knocks on his door inviting him to be part of some new media project.
…One of those people knocking at Jacques’s door with proposals for TV shows was none other than… Leslie Kean, who was yet to write her seminal book UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record (here is also a good example of when the caricature resemblance fails on the first attempt…).
Larry Landsman was a producer at the Sci-Fi channel (later rebranded as SyFy) who wanted to turn Vallée into some unofficial ‘leader of Ufology’. Jacques’s answer to him was the perfect ‘drop mic’ moment IMO 😉
Vallée has an endearing fondness for the figure of Bishop Agobard of Lyon; which is all the funnier since the church prelate was a skeptic that scoffed at the ‘Magonia myths’ of the peasants in Medieval France, who firmly believed ‘sky sorcerers’ from the aerial land of Magonia flew on ‘cloudships’ to wreck their crops.
Agobard was also the subject for Vallée’s first forays into one of his passions: stained glass making.
I know there are artists out there who can flawlessly draw beautiful portraits on their first attempt. Sadly, I am not one of those artists, so I was really angry with myself for botching the caricature of Radin, a researcher I have the deepest admiration for. The second attempt was a C- (my sketchbook journal is 14 x 21.6cm in size, in case anyone’s wondering. I find it a convenient size for regular doodling, although since the entries I copy from the books I read take some space, these drawings are almost always kind of small).
The last two FS volumes deal a lot with the topic of Secret Access Programs (SAPs) and how they shadily circumvent federal oversight in ways that are downright illegal. Even if you don’t believe the US government (or one of their private contractors) are keeping a flying saucer hidden somewhere in some secret hangar, these sort of activities should be stopped.
Admiral Wilson is mentioned by name on page 202 of FS5 (prior to it he is referred as “the General” during Vallée’s discussions with his colleagues). Will he ever give sworn testimony before a Congressional hearing about what he may or may not know of the alleged secret UFO programs? Time will tell I guess…
Throughout the decades, there seems to have been several officials who found traces of the secret UFO program, by way of following the money trail.
The way Vallée’s associates have conducted themselves trying to find the whereabouts of the ‘secret UFO program’ made me think of this popular meme.
The last 20 years may be boiled down to the secret infighting between different factions for control of the ‘UFO hardware’. Like children who don’t know how to play nice and share their expensive toys with others…
I like this “garage door opener” analogy because, if there’s a garage opener, that means there might be a garage somewhere, right?
In page 212, Vallée relates a conversation with researcher Brad Sparks, who was intrigued by the coincidence of dates between Roswell (July 1947) and the secret decision to begin stockpiling atomic weapons in the US. According to Vallée, the little town of Hopkinsville, Ky (of bullet-proof goblins fame) was one of the four locations picked for the stockpiling project (!). The mention was a great excuse to polish myself and make some decent goblin sketches using my Sakura Koi graytone brush markers (they are not that great, but for my purposes they get the job done).
In December 2003 Saddam Hussein is captured, looking like a fearful werewolf
Dr. Christopher ‘Kit’ Green, who was in charge of the CIA’s ‘Weird desk’ and supervised the beginning of the Stargate program. He later joined NIDS, BAASS and an informal group called the LoneStars. Maybe it’s just his ‘spooky’ background, but I’ve always found him kinda suspicious, particularly when he disagreed with Vallée’s research on the Brazilian cases which involved injuries caused by UFOs (hence my conspiranoid comment next to his caricature).
Sketch inspired by a weird humanoid encounter case from 1952. Extra points if you figure out the reference I used 😉
In 2004, Vallée was invited to the first suborbital flight of Virgin Galactic’s Spaceship One. Remember when we thought space tourism was just around the corner? Those were the days…
In the 2000s Vallée visited China for business purposes and was able to witness the many changes the nation has gone through ever since they changed their economic model—all thanks to Deng Zhao Ping.
A friend of Jacques’s, who is psychically gifted, had a vision of him as the captain of a future spacecraft traversing the cosmos under the impulse of zero-point energy. Maybe we all are onboard that ship in a future timeline?
Oberon Zell Ravenheart, one of Jacques’s oldest friends and a practicing pagan magus.
Image inspired by an UFO event which allegedly took place during a battle in the Vietnam war.
Thanks to people like Vallée, we can move from the stereotypes of The Day the Earth Stood Still, to concepts like Arrival.
Say what you will, I still like Indiana Jones 4 despite the “jumping the fridge” scene (Hey, Indy drank from the Holy Grail so of course he could survive a nuclear blast!), and I like it even more so since I learned it was partially inspired by Jacques’s book.
…And speaking of movies I like, this quote from a former security officer at Area 51 was the perfect opportunity to draw a doodle based on one of the coolest scenes in Independence Day.
In FS5 Vallée provides an account of the deal arranged between Bob Bigelow and MUFON, which resulted in the creation of the so-called ‘Star team’ of first respondents. I imagine MUFON and the people who led the organization at the time might have a different opinion of how things went down…
Despite the vast resources at their disposal, and the informatic tools Vallée created for them, BAASS was unable to ‘syphon in’ the answer to the UFO problem.
In FS5 research into ‘blue orbs’ and the health hazards they may cause to witnesses was started.
One of the most interesting aspects of FS5 (from a ufological POV) was how Vallée started to look into the similarities of reports of strange creatures between the Skinwalker ranch and other hotspots. These sort of cases throw a big wrench into the classical ETH model still defended by most Ufologists.
…And of course, no account of the BAASS/AAWSAP days could be complete without… Dino-Beaver! (Srsly, of all the interdimensional critters that could lurk into the ranch…)
One of the most delightful aspects of FS5 was reading about the special relationship between Vallée and his first grandson, Maxim. Using his literary skills, Jacques would write (and even draw) short stories about dragons for the young child. Thinking about the dragon as an allegory for the phenomenon, that in return inspired me to imagine the both of them as characters on a fairytale, in which the old dragon hunter seeks to impart his vast knowledge to his young descendant.
…That fairytale concept began to expand even more so in my head, once Janine’s terminal tumor was sadly discovered —I know there’s a children’s book hidden in here, I just need the right tools (and allies) to find it…
One of the many things I learned by reading Jacques’s memoirs is the great interest and respect he has for the ancient art of Alchemy. He and Janine named their summer home near the coast Athanor as a homage to the furnace used by alchemists to conduct their experiments. Sadly, in 2008 they decided to get rid of the property.
Jacques’s way of dealing with the pain of facing the inevitable death of his beloved wife translates in some of the most beautiful prose I’ve ever read. Using Alchemy as a metaphor, this part of his life is awfully reminiscent of the ‘Nigredo’ stage of the Great Work, which is a required step before the culmination of the Philosopher’s Stone.
Another ancient tradition Vallée taught me to appreciate was the Labyrinth as a spiritual tool. There is a power reason why labyrinths were created (and still exist) in some of the most revered pilgrimage areas in Europe. As he coped with Janine’s illness, Jacques would often walk the labyrinth at Grace cathedral (which is an exact copy of the one in Chartres, France) in San Francisco, as a meditative practice and a way to find solace.
On page 511, Jacques wrote: “The medical team spoke to us carefully of the few remaining treatments we might try. They made it clear we’ve reached where Knowledge ends.” For some strange reason, this somber passage made me realize why both Jacques and Janine had such a deep love for San Francisco and Northern California, and why he has spent so much time both enjoying in real life, but also describing with his wonderful prose, the beauty of locations like Tomales Point (which I tried to capture with my rudimentary skills): These are liminal places that remind us that sometimes there’s beauty to be found in uncertainty. I think it is the reason why Jacques and his mentor Allen devoted both their lives into charting the Edges of Science, and why they titled the book they cowrote, The Edge of Reality.
“Close to the center of the labyrinth we huddle, unable to hide or disguise our fears anymore, sheltering in a love that becomes essential as everything around it seems to fracture away.” It felt very appropriate that not only was this the last image I drew inspired by Forbidden Science 5, but that it was also drawn in the very last page of my sketch journal. I feel very fortunate that I had the chance to read this book, and that it kept me inspired at a time when I needed it the most.

Next week, I’ll continue with the sketches inspired by Forbidden Science, Volume 6 (Scattered Castles). Thanks for reading! 🙂

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