A.D. After Disclosure: The People's Guide to Life After Contact [Hardcover]

Richard M. Dolan (Author), Bryce Zabel (Author), Jim Marrs (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 2010

What if UFO secrecy ended tomorrow? That is the premise behind A.D. After Disclosure: The People's Guide to Life After Contact.

This work of speculative non-fiction confronts all the disturbing challenges facing government, science, religion, media, culture, law, education, and politics once the denials end. How do we cope with the reality that we are not alone?

A.D. After Disclosure combines meticulous fact-finding from historian/researcher Richard M. Dolan and journalist/screenwriter Bryce Zabel to confront seven decades of secrecy on the world's most revolutionary subject. The authors predict a radically changed worldview after official acknowledgment that at least some UFOs are intelligently controlled physical craft from somewhere besides Earth. Will Disclosure lead to social panic? Undermine religion? Destroy the stock market? Or will it lead to revolutionary new technologies, extended life spans, and world peace? If other civilizations have sent their own explorers across space, time, or dimensions to visit us, who are they? What do they want? And why would some of our own people have kept the news of their arrival from the rest of us? What will unmasking a truth of this magnitude do to our society, our way of life, our very reality?

In hundreds of specific ways, A.D. After Disclosure argues that answering the simple yes-or-no question about the existence of strange visitors will begin the ultimate "what if?" scenario where the clock is re-set and history begins again. Life will go on, but it will never be the same.

Richard M. Dolan is the author of the ground-breaking historical series, UFOs and the National Security State, in addition to being a popular conference speaker and an acknowledged UFO expert on multiple TV investigations.

Bryce Zabel created five primetime network series including the UFO drama Dark Skies, won the 2008 Writers Guild screenwriting award, served as chairman of the TV Academy and reported news for CNN.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 321 pages
• Publisher: Keyhole Publishing; 1st edition (October 25, 2010)
• ISBN-10: 0967799538
• ISBN-13: 978-0967799537
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #342,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 67 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The first hard look at an important subject October 26, 2010

By Alejandro Rojas

Format:Hardcover

I am an editor for Open Minds Magazine, and I was lucky enough to get a preview copy of this book. I know and like both of the authors and their work, so I was very excited to read it.

UFO researchers often express the desire for the government to disclose UFO secrets. But if and when that happens, who will disclose the information and how? What will the public find out? If it is something awful, do we want to know? What are the possible ramifications of disclosure, and how will our world change? These are the questions authors Richard Dolan and Bryce Zabel tackle in their new thought provoking book, A.D. After Disclosure.

The book sets the ground rules right off the bat; it is about speculation, it isn't about debating the reality of UFOs, nor is it about presenting evidence. Normally, I wouldn't be interested in a book based purely on speculation, if it not for the subject of the speculation in this case and the people doing the speculating. Speculation alone, of which this field has no shortage, can turn into chasing your tail, but in this case we have very educated and thorough speculation. At times the book reads more like a report prepared by a think tank.

The word "disclosure" is thrown around and taken in vain in the UFO research community, often, dare I say, in an irresponsible way. The longing for disclosure is like demanding that the police reveal the facts of a crime scene when we don't know the details ourselves, and thus cannot fathom the repercussions, or the effects it may have on solving the crime. It is easy to demand, but it seems incumbent upon us as responsible researchers to examine in detail what we want, and prepare for what might happen when or if we get it.

A.D. After Disclosure is Dolan and Zabel's first collaboration, and they make an interesting pairing. Dolan is a historian, who has been documenting the history of the UFO phenomenon from 1941 to 1991 in two volumes, and will bring us up to present day in his third installment, which he plans to have finished by 2012. I have always found refreshing his open-mindedness and devotion to unbiased, accurate observation. Given the task of researching the ins and outs of this phenomenon over the decades makes him ideal for the task of recognizing patterns from the past and making educated guesses about the future.

As for Dolan's coauthor of A.D. After Disclosure, who is better at speculation than a Hollywood writer, producer, director, and actor? The entertainment culture is all about observation and speculation, and in true sci-fi fashion, Bryce Zabel has produced his speculation regarding this phenomenon in the form of Hollywood scripts. He created the NBC television series, Dark Skies, a science-fiction thriller based on UFO research. He also wrote the SyFy channel's first original film, Official Denial, and worked with Steven Spielberg on his alien abduction miniseries, Taken.

In a creative mixture of historical examination and science fiction, the chapters of A.D. After Disclosure are punctuated by fictional vignettes. For example, one of my favorites was a letter petitioning for Thomas Mantell to get a medal of honor. Mantell was a pilot in 1948, who while in pursuit of a supposed UFO, crashed his jet and died. However, the speculation here is that perhaps in a world after UFO disclosure, we will be giving medals to those who died in UFO-related incidents, rather than suggesting, as the U.S. Air Force has done, that Mantell mistook Venus for a UFO, flew too high, blacked out due to a lack of oxygen, and then crashed--a conclusion that seems rather disrespectful.

The book is organized in a fashion that is friendly to any level of UFO education. Those who pick this book as their first venture into UFO research will probably need to follow up on some of the references cited. The first few chapters, however, do a good job of giving a quick and dirty synopsis of the history of this research as a base for the speculation that follows.

After the initial education section, the book moves on to presenting several scenarios of how each level of disclosure may play out or affect many different areas in society. For example, what does the president really know about the UFO topic, how would he go about disclosing, and why would he choose to do so in the first place? How would he get educated on the issue, and who would give him this education? This is just one example of the in-depth treatment given to each topic. The book moves on to examine effects of disclosure on the economy, science, law, education, anthropology, biology, archeology, philosophy, religion, media, and much more.

Of course, there is the big "who are they?" question, a hotly debated topic in the UFO research community. Are UFOs friend, foe, neither, or all of the above? Whichever it is will have a large effect on what is disclosed, and how the public will respond. Dolan and Zabel try to examine this as thoroughly as possible, looking at the abduction phenomenon and popular theories by other researchers.

Finally, there is an examination of a new trend that may become even more important in a post-disclosure scenario--"exopolitics," or the political relations with extraterrestrials. How might we interact with these beings? What does it mean if they choose not to communicate with society as a whole? Several very interesting possibilities are proposed in the book.

There are many factors to keep in mind about disclosure. I thought I had given thought to most situations in a post-disclosure world and how things might come about. However, reading this book sent my mind whizzing with new and different possibilities, and while this is a book about what might be, it helps one think about what the government and the public can do right now to either assist in shaping this bold future, or how to brace for it.

It is difficult to cover everything on such a broad subject. For instance, I thought that the examinations of the abduction scenarios lacked the incorporation of research performed by psychologists and therapists. As Dolan and Zabel identify in the book, this sort of discussion can never be complete, and with as much educated speculation that occurs about the future, so far no one has been able to predict it with one hundred percent accuracy. Endeavors such as the one these authors have taken on help to shine some light on an important path on which we will inevitably venture. It is the path to a world where it is no longer a secret that we are not alone in this universe, and we are indeed being observed and engaged by civilizations that are truly extraterrestrial.

All in all, I believe this book is an important benchmark, and I hope it brings the internal discussions of UFO researchers to a higher level; one in which we are not just asking the powers that be to make disclosure happen, but where we take an active role in helping to shape an atmosphere that is conducive for UFO disclosure. In a world plagued with heightened emotional knee-jerk reactions, stepping back and using some critical thinking always turns out to be more fruitful.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Like no other UFO book you've read November 10, 2010

By Eric Wargo

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

When I first heard Richard Dolan was working on a project called "A.D.: After Disclosure," I was in shock and disbelief. How could he put off completing Volume III of UFOs and the National Security State?? The first two volumes in that trilogy are indeed pretty much the definitive books on the evidence for UFOs, and I've been waiting with bated breath for the third, which promises to be just as earthshattering. But A.D. arrived from Amazon two days ago, and well, okay, I forgive him. With the other reviewers here, I think this is the best -- and honestly the most thrilling -- book on the subject I've yet read.

I have been waiting for a serious book about UFOs that just goes ahead and takes for granted the reality of the phenomenon and moves forward from there. Once you've looked at the evidence compiled and presented by serious UFO researchers -- and there are now plenty of sources for this evidence (not just Dolan's previous works, also Leslie Kean's new book, James Fox's documentaries, Jacques Vallee's many great books, etc.) -- there's no longer any doubt that UFOs are real, so why not just proceed on that assumption? This is, to my knowledge, the first book by serious researchers that does that.

Reading A.D., I realized how basically defensive most books and documentaries on UFOs have been -- and really, have had to be -- up until now. They have had to try and convince you by showing you evidence, or at least persuade you to maintain an open mind. The confidence Dolan and his coauthor Bryce Zabel project is a refreshing step forward. They no longer need to persuade. They are able, at this point, to address their readers as a community of intelligent people whose minds are already well open to the reality and significance of the subject, and are ready, as I said, to proceed. Proceed to where? That's what this book is about. Read it.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A serious and much needed look at disclosure October 26, 2010

By Lesley Gunter

Format:Hardcover

Some day disclosure is going to happen. Maybe not in my lifetime, but who knows?

Ever wonder what it would be like? Richard Dolan and Bryce Zabel probably have your answer. I have thought about it quite a lot over the years and believed that I had it all figured out; well, until I read this book. There are many details of disclosure that just hadn't crossed my mind.

This is not just a book for those who are knowledgeable about UFOlogy or familiar with the Disclosure Movement. It also includes background on many prominent cases and other important aspects of UFOlogical History. I think that someone who has very little or no knowledge of UFOlogy would just as easily be able to comprehend the information in this book as someone well acquainted with the subject.

The type of disclosure discussed in this book is the real thing: not some government releasing a few sightings reports and not some fictional television show that certain people in UFOlogy may claim is factual and therefore disclosure. This disclosure is the governments of the world coming out and admitting that there are visitors to earth from elsewhere. Maybe it isn't (or won't be) full disclosure of everything the government may know about these visitors, but certainly just the admission that they exist and have been visiting earth would be enough to send shock-waves throughout the world.

One of the things I had never thought of in my own disclosure scenario was runs on the grocery stores and hoarding of food and other essentials. At first, that strikes me as far too extreme a reaction, but then again, to those of us inside the UFOlogy bubble it is simply confirmation of what we already know. Most other people may catch a UFO show on The History Channel or something like that every once in a while, but their lives are too full of daily concerns to have taken UFOs very seriously. So to them the news would be shocking and frightening. As I have thought about it more, that is a standard reaction to any type of fear and therefore is probably a legitimate scenario. Even I tend to hoard food in the winter because I live outside town and if it snows and they close the roads, I am stuck. So if a bit of snow can cause that much worry for me, how much worry do beings from elsewhere (we don't know where) cause the "normal folks?"

Probably quite a lot. The most likely scenario is that the government has only admitted that they are "visiting," and we probably don't know exactly where they are from or what they want. For those who don't realize they have probably been visiting since the beginning of time, this would be very worrisome information. Frankly, even for those of us who do think they have always visited, not knowing for certain what they want is at times worrying.

This book covers not only how the average person may react to the news, but also the reactions of various institutions and religions. Obviously, people who belong to religions that only believe in life outside of earth as either angels or demons would react quite differently than people belonging to religions that don't have that belief.

For myself, it is fun to consider how Michael Shermer and other fundamentalist skeptics would react. Maybe more so, though, is how the media would react. What will happen with the media when disclosure happens? After all, they had every clue, but they refused to follow the story in a serious way. Do they lose the trust of the people along with the governments that have kept it secret for so long? Seriously, what possible excuse do they offer for ignoring things like the events at Malmstrom AFB? Even if they didn't believe in UFOs, isn't that a story worth investigating?

Yes, it will be a bitter pill for the world to swallow, but especially the Western world. They have been systematically lied to for probably at least 60 years, and the people they trust to dig out the truth (the news media) have either gone along with the cover-up or not cared enough to actually investigate what was going on; probably both. Who can they trust after that initial disclosure to answer their questions and ease their concerns?

How long would it take for the human race to become somewhat comfortable with the idea of these visitors? Weeks, months, years?

Yes, I have left a lot of open questions here because I want you to think about them and I want you to read the book. It is easy for those of us who feel we already know the truth (or at least some of it) to push for and want disclosure, but most people on the planet are not like us. That is not in any way meant to imply that disclosure should not take place. It is moral and right; only to us it may seem as if it would be less complicated and less world changing than it actually would be.

Although, isn't it about time we had some earth-changing news and a paradigm shift? Given the way things are going, I can't think of a better time. Of course, if you read this book you will know what to expect and it will be easier to sit back and enjoy the bumpy ride.