From: dona@bilver.uucp (Don Allen)
Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors,alt.conspiracy,misc.misc
Subject: INFO: CONFRONTATIONS/Book Review - Don Ecker on Jacques Vallee
Keywords: Followups to alt.alien.visitors
Date: 29 Apr 91 20:41:47 GMT
Organization: W. J. Vermillion - Winter Park, FL

Here's a book review that Don Ecker of UFO MAGAZINE did on 
Jacques Vallee's book, CONFRONTATIONS. This came off the
ParaNet UFO echo.

-------Begin Included Text ----------------------------------



Message #2772 - ASK_UFO 
   Date : 18-Apr-91  9:42
   From : Don Ecker
     To : All
Subject : CONFRONTATIONS/Book Review
This file is provided to the ParaNet<sm> Information Service by
UFO Magazine. All rights are reserved. You may distribute this file
freely as long as this header remains intact.

Date prepared: 4/18/91
Contributed by: Staff UFO Magazine

=================================================================
UFO Magazine Vol. 5 No. 3 < Atomic Perspectives >


CONFRONTATIONS
 A Scientist's Search for
Alien Contact

 New York: Ballantine Books, 1990..
 252 pp. $19.95

  Almost a legendary figure, Jacques Vallee has done it once more
in the UFO field. Confrontations is, as Vallee said it on the
cover, "A scientist's search for alien contact.  "
   Known for his previous best selling works such as Anatomy of a
Phenomenon, Passport to Magonia and Dimensions, Vallee has written
a book that will not be well received by the  "space-brother "
faction in UFOlogy. On the other hand, he is an equal opportunity
author; the nuts-and-bolts crowd will not like it either.
  With Confrontations, Vallee continues to be controversial in the
mainstream UFO Field. In past best selling works such as Messengers
of Deception and Passport to Magonia, Vallee stirred the field with
his unorthodox approach, and the conclusions he alluded to if not
made outright. Having researched in previous works the folklore of
past generations, and delivering the more contemporary warnings of
cult manipulations and intelligence infiltration into the UFO
field, Vallee now explores the UFO riddle via painful and sometimes
lethal encounters.
  This book is not to be confused with the wide-eyed wonder of
Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind, " in which a
Vallee-like  character was portrayed by French actor Francois
Truffaut. On the  other hand, this is also not quite a
 "War of the Worlds" scenario that  would fit into so many
purveyors of  misinformation. It falls into the middle, and while
not saying that all UFOs are bad, it does say that witnesses should
be damned careful!
   Vallee manages to take the reader on a journey to never-never
land, in Central and South America. It is a journey worth
experiencing in print, as most of us will never make it
there in fact, and after assimilating what Vallee offers, I dare
say that we would not want to. Vallee's UFOs are not the comforting
symbols of the Billy Meier crowd, and they also fail the test of
the Leo Sprinkle or Budd Hopkins variety. Here is a brief sample:

"In most cases the witnesses reported rectangular objects
(sometimes compared to ice boxes) flying over the treetops and
shining a beam toward the earth.  The chupas (UFOs) are said to
make a humming sound like a refrigerator or a transformer, and this
sound does not change when the object accelerates.  The object does
not seem large enough to contain a human pilot. It has a light on
the bottom and a light at one end, giving a sealed beam like a car
headlight.
   "The victims were Abel Boro, who died on October 17, 1981, while
hunting with Ribamar Ferreira; Raimundo Souza, who died on October
19, 1981, while hunting with Anastacio Barbosa; Jose Vitorio and
Dionizio General, who died on an undetermined date, the latter
three days after the UFO encounter; and a man named Ramon, who
lived in Parnarama.
  "Muldoon and Richman quoted the mayor of Parnarama as confirming
the cases, and the chief of police, Geraldo dos Santos Magela, as
stating that he had examined two of the bodies, finding that the
blood had been sucked from them."

  Not the kind of information that either the "New Age" crowd or
the "Nuts and Bolts " bunch may want to hear, but this book should
be on the must read list of any serious UFO researcher or devotee.
 However, there still are a couple of "caveat emptors." I totally
disagree with Vallee on his conclusion with reference to the
abduction question, as many undoubtedly will. The evidence is
overwhelming that this mystery has affected possibly thousands of
individuals, in a manner that far exceeds any possible psychosis.
Vallee does not acknowledge the overwhelming physical evidence or
the wide range of various  "victims " which encompasses all
different social, economic, and ethnic groupings. The enigma is
real, Jacques, and the clock may be ticking. Another area dismissed
is the idea that what we MAY be dealing with is an extraterrestrial
phenomenon. Even with all the information developed in connection
with the alleged Roswell case and the testimony from over a hundred
witnesses, not one word is mentioned by Vallee. The evidence from
this case is persuasive that POSSIBLY hardware from off world
visited here in 1947. Could it be that this information makes the
author very uncomfortable, since his stand is very anti-ET? Neither
this magazine nor this writer is stating that the hypothesis of ET
coming for a visit is the only explanation. There are many theories
of what may be occurring. But Vallee may miss the boat if he closes
his mind to this possibility.   One thing to remember about this
work is the extensive travels and research the author carried out.
Vallee's research skills and scholarship have been sorely missed in
the ufological community; I for one am glad to see him back in the
active research arena.    I think that this account will end up as
a yardstick to judge future efforts. Confrontations is a book that
will open your eyes to what a truly mysterious world the UFO
inhabits, no matter where you stand.
                       -Don Ecker-


PS Vallee replied to the above, his reply follows.


--- ZMailQ 1.10 @9:1012/3.0
 * Origin: ParaNet Alpha Delta <sm> The Data Base (9:1012/3)



Message #2773 - ASK_UFO 
   Date : 18-Apr-91 10:44
   From : Don Ecker
     To : All
Subject : Vallee responds
This file was provided to the ParaNet<sm> Information Service by
UFO Magazine. All rights are reserved. You may distribute this file
freely as long as this header remains intact.

Date prepared: 4/18/91
Contributed by: Staff UFO Magazine

=================================================================
UFO Magazine Vol. 5 No. 4 (Coping with ABDUCTION)

In our last issue, writer Don Ecker reviewed the new
book by scientist and UFO researcher Jacques Vallee,
Confrontations.  Vallee took exception to some facets of
the review. Because of its length, we are running his
response as a Forum article.

            ******************************************
THE REALITY OF ABDUCTION
                                by Jacques Vallee


  The review of Confrontations (Vol. 5, No. 3) calls for a response
and a few comments.
   On the topic of abductions, Don states that "the evidence is
overwhelming that this mystery has affected possibly thousands of
individuals in a manner that far exceeds any possible psychosis."
I totally agree with that statement. Where did I ever say that
abductees were victims of psychosis?
  On the contrary, Confrontations gives several examples of
abduction cases that I have personally researched: the episode with
Mrs. Victor in Chapter 6 fits a classic pattern, I have said that,
in such reports, "I cannot agree with Philip Klass'conclusion that
the witness is making up the whole episode. The abduction
experience is real." Why is there such confusion, then, about my
position on this issue? Simply because I do not believe that
everything retrieved under hypnosis should be taken at face value.
  I have stated (and will continue to state) that much of what
passes for abduction research today is unscientific, unethical
garbage that reeks of standard cult recruitment techniques. My
appeals to more caution have infuriated some abduction researchers,
who have made up the story that "Vallee rejects all abduction
cases." Nothing could be further from the truth. Not only do I
accept these cases, but I believe their evidence is much too
important to be treated in the superficial way evidenced in the
work of many "abductionists." I refer the reader to the ten-page
discussion of the issue in Confrontations, starting on page 170.
On the extraterrestrial origin of UFOs, my position is clear, too.
If the witnesses are telling the truth about the behavior of the
phenomenon, then it could be from anywhere at anytime. This
naturally includes other planets in outer space, and I have not
rejected this hypothesis; I only think it is insufficient. And
there are many other, possibly more promising hypotheses that have
not been seriously considered.
  How could I "close my mind" to the possibility of
extraterrestrial intervention? It is an hypothesis I defended
vigorously 25 years ago. But we cannot be dogmatic in front of the
data that has been accumulating during that period, much of which
now contradicts the first level ETH (extraterrestrial hypothesis)
to which most of American ufology is still clinging. It is time to
open our minds to other possibilities.
   Don rightly notices that I have not treated the issue of
"saucer crashes," notably Roswell, in Confrontations. This may seem
to be an important omission, but it was the result of a conscious
decision, which was clearly disclosed at the very beginning. In the
introduction, I took pains to state that I regarded three impor-
tant topics to lie outside the scope of the book. They were the
possible relevance of cult movements to the UFO phenomenon, cattle
mutilations and government intervention and "cover-up." There is
much to say, as everyone knows, about all three subjects, but a
scientist learns to focus on a single issue at a time. The
central theme in Confrontations was field research methodology and
physical evidence. I may develop the other topics in a future work,
and the Roswell crash (and other crashes) will then be treated
under the rubric of "Government intervention and cover-up " where
it rightly belongs.
  In the meantime I did describe in great detail the analysis of
physical samples reported to have come from UFOs, several of which
I have in my possession and can supply to colleagues who would like
to analyze them. I cannot make the same statement about the Roswell
material, and I do not know anyone who can. It would have been
inappropriate to mention Roswell in a book on the analysis of UFO
evidence, no matter how many people have become fascinated with
this particular story, because there is no Roswell material
available to be analyzed. Again it is a case of individual readers
projecting their own expectations into a very complicated topic,
and expressing their frustration when conclusions are presented
which differ from their own. There is very little I can do, as a
scientist, to alleviate this problem. But I am grateful to Don
Ecker for having set the framework for a useful and timely
debate.

                                 -Jacques Vallee-




=================================================================

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---EOF ---

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