Sheaffer, Robert. "New X-Files Renews Cover-Up Conspiracy Claims." Skeptical Inquirer, vol. 40, no. 3 (May 2016): 14–15. (subscription required). That’s it. That’s the whole story. No “to be continued”, no additional text. In the whole world. Not even kidding : the word Magonia appears only one time in Agobard’s text. And in the whole medieval literature !

A common feature in fairy stories is a parallel world, and an element of missing time. Vallee very convincingly suggests that an experience such as this is always viewed within the framework of the current cultural context. wants to prove that UFO aren’t merely exploring. The thing is that number doesn’t tell anything about intent here. The same arguments that can be used against Neil DeGrasse Tyson on why ETs wouldn’t be interested in us can be used here : ever heard of entomology (the study of ants) ? And guessing intent from beings from which we know nothing, not even their culture, is a logically jump.

The book offers some intriguing thoughts on the phenomena, and how, throughout human history, what we now refer to as UFOs have also been called Fairies, Elves, Pixies and a variety of other fantastic legendary creatures. Could they be one and the same phenomenon, adjusting to our perceptions? It would be tempting and reassuring to believe that these are purely psychological phenomena (hallucinations and the like), but the physical traces, radar data, and corroboration of independent witnesses rules this out. tried to explained crop circles by micro wave radiations (source : Jacques Vallée, Crop Circle : 'Signs' From Above or Human Artifact - Some personal speculations on a fractal theme, New Age, sep 1991 ; Jacques Vallée, In Search of Alien Glyphs (or are they microwave blasters?), Boing Boing, 2010) when it can be explained by kids doing a joke during the night with wooden planks :

Vallée served as the real-life model for Lacombe, the researcher portrayed by François Truffaut in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. [8] He also attempted to interest Spielberg in an alternative explanation for the phenomenon. In an interview on Conspire.com, Vallée said, "I argued with him that the subject was even more interesting if it wasn't extraterrestrials. If it was real, physical, but not ET. So he said, 'You're probably right, but that's not what the public is expecting— this is Hollywood and I want to give people something that's close to what they expect.'" [9] Filmography [ edit ] In conclusion, his own conclusion is a confused mix of fallacies : argument from ignorance, confusing correlation and causality. Plerosque autem vidimus et audivimus tanta dementia obrutos, tanta stultitia alienatos, ut credant et dicant quamdam esse regionem, quae dicatur Magonia, ex qua naves veniant in nubibus,... The Edge of Reality: A Progress Report on Unidentified Flying Objects – Jacques Vallée and Dr. J. Allen Hynek (Quality Books, 1975)Six Cases of Unexplained Aerial Objects with Defined Luminosity Characteristics." Journal of Scientific Exploration, vol. 12, no. 3 (Autumn 1998) pp.345–358. ISSN 0892-3310. This was my first Jaques Vallee book I have read and it did not dissapoint. In this book Jaques compares many modern day (for the time as this was written in 1969) UFO sightings to folklore, religious lore and myths of the past. He presents the argument that many similarities can be drawn between the UFO phenomenon and stories of old from flying objects, similar entities, gases, food and interactions. He paints this canvas with no attempt to come to a conclusion that will settle your mind, instead he leaves you thirsty to explore more that this narrow section of ufology has to offer. Jaques does state many of the cases are hard to substantiate due to time that has past or the credibility of oral tradition, but he is frank about this fact and wishes to more so look at the bigger picture of similarities. The book ends with a vast account of UFO reports from 1864-1968. There were many cases I was not aware of within this book. I could not put this book down just due to the sheer curiosity of what the next case will be. An Automatic Question-answering System for Stellar Astronomy," with J. Allen Hynek. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, vol. 78, no. 463 (August 1966): 315-323. ISSN 0004-6280. JSTOR 40674368. Dutton, Paul Edward (2004). Carolingian civilization: a reader (2nded.). Peterborough, Ont.: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 1551114925. Regardless of how that turns out, this shows that it’s older than the 40s at the advent of the atomic age and nuclear power fear-mongering. There were widespread sightings of flying contraptions decades before the Wright Brothers were even considering building planes, and from all over the world, well before mass culture.

Supported by National Science Foundation Grant GJ-35 326X and Advanced Resesrch Projects Agency Contract No. DAHC 15 72 C 0165." Other materials [ edit ] The people believed what their good father Agobard said rather than their own eyes, were pacified, set at liberty the four Ambassadors of the Sylphs, and recieved with wonder the book which Agobard wrote to confirm the judgement which he had pronounced. Thus the testimony of these four witnesses was rendered vain.” Jacques F. Vallee was one of the first scientists to closely study UFO phenomenon. He goes beyond a simple examination and compares it to the fairy religions and mythologies from the past. Passport to Magonia is one of his most well-known works. People would rather believe in a doctor’s hood than in their own eyes. There has been in your native France a memorable proof of this popular mania.” Group Communication Through Computers, Vol. 1: Design and Use of the FORUM System, with Hubert M. Lipinski and Richard H. Miller. Menlo Park, Calif.: Institute for the Future (July 1974).

Vallee studied mathematics at the Sorbonne and received an MS in astrophysics at Lille University, then began his professional life as an astronomer for the French Space Committee, working at Paris Observatory. In 1962 he began working as an astronomer at the University of Texas at Austin, where he co-developed the first computer-based detailed map of Mars for NASA. He then moved to Northwestern University where he earned a PhD in artificial intelligence and served as a close associate of Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the U.S. Air Force’s top scientific consultant on UFOs under Project Blue Book. He went on to work for Hynek and Project Blue Book to create the first interactive computer data base of UFO observations. Charles Godfrey Leland, in his book Etruscan Roman Remains, relates certain stories about Magonia's origins and slaves. [2] The Heart of the Internet: An Insider's View of the Origin and Promise of the On-line Revolution. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Pub. Co. (2003). ISBN 978-1571743695.

This man was the Bishop of Lyon, one of the biggest towns of France (it was the case in antiquity, it was the case in Agobard’s time and it’s still the case today). Agobard made the center of his career out of critcising superstitions and fighting remainders of paganism, considering that in too many cases, the christianisation that the church started a few centuries before him was too superficial. Vallée's opposition to the popular ETH was not well received by prominent U.S. ufologists, hence he was viewed as something of an outcast. Indeed, Vallée refers to himself as a " heretic among heretics". In the 70’s, Vallee served as one of the Principal investigators of DARPA and led the team which built the world's first software collaboration system, running on Arpanet, the prototype for the Internet. Joining Stanford Research Institute and the Institute for the Future in Silicon Valley, Vallee formed friendships with Hal Puthoff, Russell Targ, and Kit Green and consulted on SRI’s classified remote viewing programs (including the Stargate Project), which were supported by several government agencies. In 1978, Vallee was part of a panel of experts (which included NASA Astronaut Gordon Cooper, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, military and government officials) that presented a plan for UFO research at the United Nations. With the recent cultural spotlight on unidentified phenomena and the government’s alleged covering up this seemed like a perfect time to read deeper into UFOs beyond my childhood fascination with aliens. Given that I haven’t heard any followup from the congressional hearing (not that I am seeking it out) I’m assuming nothing came of it. Vallee uses the first half of his book to expound on his theories and the second half to present an annotated chronicle of a century of UFO sightings (1868-1968). These sightings come from all over the world, but key similarities emerge. While most of the stories are too short and leave us hankering to learn much more about them, there is enough specific detail in each to make them and their experiencers seem convincing. Today, the Internet provides us with instant access to information about key UFO sightings. I marvel at the meticulous chronicling Vallee amassed without the benefit of modern-day data access. He dug up the info dirt the hard way. Even today, we should be most grateful for his efforts.This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. ( June 2022) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) This was my first Jaques Vallee book I have read and it did not dissapoint. In this book Jaques compares many modern day (for the time as this was written in 1969) UFO sightings to folklore, religious lore and myths of the past. He presents the argument that many similarities can be drawn between the UFO phenomenon and stories of old from flying objects, similar entities, gases, food and interactions. He paints this canvas with no attempt to come to a conclusion that will settle your mind, instead he leaves you thirsty to explore more that this narrow section of ufology has to offer. Jaques does state many of the cases a Forbidden Science 4: The Spring Hill Chronicles, The Journals of Jacques Vallee 1990-1999 (self-published with Lulu Press, 2019) Are UFO Events related to Sidereal Time? Arguments against a proposed correlation." jacquesvallee.com. But those who know the career of Vallée shouldn’t be surprised one bit ; what to expect from a man that