Anatomy Of A Phenomenon

l I . \. ANATOMY OF A PHENOMENON As this exciting book goes to press, a flock of new reports on sightings of unidentified flying objects has been noted in such divers areas as Michigan, Texas, Massachusetts, Louisiana and Connecticut. At the moment the most widely observed and authenticated reports come from the Michigan area where, according to metropolitan newspapers, 11SOme 30 persons, including an off-duty deputy, phoned the Washtenaw County sheriff's office, and police agencies in Bad Axe, some 150 miles north, were also swamped with calls • . • 11 Indicative of the importance of these sightings is the fact that Maj. Donald E. Kehoe, Ret. U.S.A.F., publicly accused our Air Force of suppressing evi­ dence concerning the UFOs and, in a recent news­ paper article, it was stated that "In Washington, meanwhile, House Republican leader Gerald Ford, Mich., called for a Congressional investigation of unidentified flying object sightings.11 ANATOMY OF A PHENOMENON is the most � l • f;,1 I rational and scientifically oriented examination of the UFO question yet produced. It is the updated, comprehensive, authoritative report on unidentified flying objects-as immediate and factual as today's newspaper • About the author: Jacques Vallee, born and educated in France, holds degrees in mathematics and astronomy. He is a consultant on the Mars Map Project, and a math­ ematician-analyst connected with Northwestern University. Formerly he was a research associate at the MacDonald Observatory of the University of Texas. Before coming to the United States he was a 'government scientist at the Paris Observatory associated with the artificial satellites project, and participated in the theoretical study of a radar alert system, a classified french defense project. Anatomy of a Phenomenon The detailed and unbiased report of UFOs by JACQUES VALLEE ACE BOOKS, I N C . 1 1 20 Avenue o f the Americas New York, N.Y. 10036 Copyright, 1965, Henry Regnery Company Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 65-19161 No portion of this book may be reprinted without per­ mission of the publisher. An ACE STAR BOOK by arrangement with Henry Regnery Co. Printed in U.S.A. I I. CONTENTS T H E LEGEND OF "FlY I N G SAU C ERS" 15 L I F E AND I N TELLIGENCE IN TH E U N IVERSE 56 MODERN UFO REPORTS AND TH E I R RELIABI LITY 78 THE SCIENT I F I C PROBLEM 116 FLYING SAUCERS AND H UMAN REASON 153 TYPICAL P HASES OF U FO B EHAVIOR 185 THEO R I ES AND HYPOTH ESES 220 REFERENCES 246 PREFACE TO THE REVISED ACE EDITION THE APPEARANCE of this book's original edition in June 1965 has coincided with two remarkable events: the success of the Mariner IV mission, which has given us the first objec­ tive view of the Martian landscape and a sudden burst of sightings of unidentified flying objects over all five conti­ nents of the world. For the months of July and August alone, the United States Air Force received more reports than in the previous three years combined. At the same time, the Air Force estimated the number of objects it had been unable to identify since inception of its Project Blue Book at close to seven hundred. Taking into account these two events, whi