ALIENS and UFOs: Physical Psychic or Social Reality?

2014 EDITION - REVISED AND EXPANDED

The author has a degree in psychology, has worked in mental hospitals, has a PhD in sociology with academic credentials (teaching, publishing papers in peer reviewed journals, conducting research using various methods, e.g. administering psychological tests, participant observation, small groups experiments, content analysis and, predominantly, designing, administering, and performing the statistical analysis of large surveys). His credibility testing skills derive from conducting countless interviews for his social science courses, theses, consulting and government research studies in the 1970’s and eighties, and then from working for over 8 years for the federal government testing the credibility of refugee claimants, and then five years as a prosecutor testing the appeals of people being deported for crimes or having their immigration sponsorships of relatives rejected. His current career is that of family law attorney, which still involves trying to discover the truth, as he hears two different versions of the same events from divorcing spouses, and he also tests credibility in “discoveries” and the court room. He brings these credibility testing skills and social research experience to bear on the UFO and space alien phenomenon.

This book will appeal to many readers, from those who know nothing about UFOs to sceptical researchers to fanatical believers, as well as something for students of psychology, sociology, history, science-fiction, and parapsychology, especially persons interested in psychic experiences.

Issues include:
• the "nuts and bolts" (spaceship) angle on flying saucers (author is an aviation enthusiast)
• the sociology of science, sociology of collective behavior (including mass hysteria), and sociology of popular culture (emphasis on science fiction and superheroes from radio, TV, movies and comic books)
• the clinical and social psychological aspects
• the religion aspect (UFOs function as a new mythology/belief system for many)
• witches (yesteryear's aliens?)

The author is the first to apply pioneer sociologist Emile Durkheim’s concepts of social facts and the collective consciousness to the UFO phenomenon. The author is the first to compare abductees with the classical Greeks by applying famous psychologist Julian Jaynes' concept of the Bicameral Mind to explain how abductees can perhaps be understood as throwbacks to that bicameral, hallucinatory era.

Chapters are:

1. Introduction
2. Angels v. Aliens
3. The Nazi-Roswell-Avro-CIA Connections
4. The Sociology of UFO Believers and Skeptics
5. Popular Culture in the USA (Science Fiction)
6. The Psyche: Jung, Hysterical Contagion, VooDoo, Kugelblitzs, Earth Lights, Rendlesham Forest
7. Religion and UFOs
8. Other Famous UFO Events as Social Facts and Frauds
9. Witchcraft and Self-Hypnosis
10. Abductions - A Historical-Psychological Analysis
11. Summary of Findings from sixty years of UFOlogy
12. Conclusions and Recommendations for future research