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    An alternative way to explore and explain the mysteries of our world. "Published since 1985, online since 2001."

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New Book Reviews



By Brent Raynes




Military Response to UFO Activity
By Dr. Stephen Cox

Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
4880 Lower Valley Road
Atglen, PA 19310
2012, 160 pages, US $16.99
ISBN: 978-0-7643-4062-8

Reviewed by Brent Raynes

The author is a former federal law enforcement officer with the U.S. Coast Guard, is an ordained minister, and is a Vietnam vet who served in the U.S. Navy. A Chief Investigator for the New York MUFON organization, Dr. Cox has assembled a factual looking evidence review of cases where military bases and military pilots underwent episodes of dramatic UFO visitation involving our interactions with alien technology that appeared to be vastly superior to ours, able to out maneuver us, interfere with communications and shut down our weapons systems. In case after case, our military technology appears disturbingly inferior to the UFO technology perceived in these reports.

Something else I noticed, but that really doesn’t get mentioned in these cases as the emphasis is on the technology part, and that is what I believe is sometimes a psychic component that can be inferred as well. For example, in a Peruvian Air Force case in April 1980, a pilot reported: “When the SU-22 was in range of the UFO, I tried on three different occasions to lock on to the target with my missiles; all three times the object made a sudden stop, violating the laws of inertia.”

Was it a mere coincidence that the UFO pilot(s) knew what the Air Force pilot was able to try doing, all three times? From an Iranian Air Force case in 1976, we read: “One of the objects headed toward him and Lieutenant Jafari thought it was a missile. He immediately tried to launch a heat-seeking missile to counteract it, but the missile panel went out (malfunction).”

Whether telepathy or superior technology, the case details are impressive and strongly suggest that some UFO technology systems are sufficiently beyond our own wherein they can easily foil our countermeasure efforts. In another Peruvian case we read, “The UFO had the capability to change the course of bullets traveling at a rate of 2,880 feet per second. The bullets that did hit the target caused no damage; they were absorbed into the craft.” The author also writes of another incident: “Robert Salas, a former missile launch officer at Malmstrom Air Force Base, said that ten nuclear missiles were suddenly and inexplicably disabled in March 1967, at the Montana installation after members of his flight security team saw a ‘large glowing, pulsating red oval-shaped object’ about thirty to forty feet in diameter hovering over the front gate.”

How common are such incidents? Dr. Cox notes: “Over past years, there have been nearly 200 reports by pilots who said their planes experienced electromagnetic disturbances when strange objects flew near, but that everything in the plane reported to normal when the strange objects flew off.” There was even speculation that electromagnetic pulse weaponry had been used against one military aircraft. Near Paris in 1994, the pilot, co-pilot and steward on Air France flight 3532 observed a UFO that “became transparent and disappeared in about 10 to 20 seconds.” Interestingly, “transparent” UFOs and their disappearing acts have been reported many times before. Even Kenneth Arnold observed a UFO that was transparent in the middle flying over Susanville, California in 1952. Arnold was convinced that UFOs could become completely invisible.


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The Secret History of Poltergeists and Haunted Houses:
From Pagan Folklore to Modern Manifestations
By Claude Lecouteux

Inner Traditions
One Park Street
Rochester, Vermont 05767
www.InnerTraditions.com
2012, 246 pages, US $18.95
ISBN: 978-1-59477-465-2

Reviewed by Brent Raynes

Originally published in French (la maison hantee: Histoire des Poltergeists) this is a scholarly, comprehensive and historical review of poltgergiest case histories from a global perspective. The author, Claude Lecouteux, is a former professor of medieval literature and civilization at the Sorbonne, a resident of Paris, and the author of numerous other books on afterlife beliefs, including The Return of the Dead and The Secret History of Vampires.

This book on poltergeists shows us how the “noisy ghost” was demonized by the medieval Christian church and how exorcisms were held to expel them from homes where they were reported. Then with the arrival of the Age of Enlightenment they were simply dismissed as clever hoaxes by many self-styled debunkers who considered themselves too educated to fall for such obvious superstitious nonsense.

From ancient times to present times poltergeists make knocking sounds, throw stones, speak, physically assault people, cause fires, move furniture around, and occasionally reveal themselves, partially or completely, in apparitional form. Even the apparition of just a hand itself, a frightful specter that has been dramatized in several sci fi films. Victims of such manifestations often describe themselves as feeling persecuted by such phenomena.


Friday, March 29, 2024