Customer Reviews

At the Threshold : Ufos, Science, and the New Age (The New Millennium Library, V. 2)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mention of UFOs can be risky, even though the majority of Americans think the phenomenon is real. Why is that so? A sociologist who's studied polka dancers and Chinese ghosts investigated the subject and got some startling answers. Attending conferences and joining groups, Emmons examined the heart and soul of ufology to uncover control mechanisms. He found that threats, classification of information and financial interests in keeping secrets have all contributed to labeling of the subject as deviant. I attended events discussed in the book and was impressed with the author's accurate and thorough reports. This informative, easy-to-read book with an extensive bibliography and glossy cover is well worth the money. I'm giving it as a gift to a family member who, like myself, is a journalist. But unlike me, she thinks the media can't be controlled. She also experiences some of the soiciological effects Emmons mentioned. Yes, the laughter curtain is real and exists in newsrooms throughout this country. Too bad journalists don't do their research. Reading this book would be a good starting point.

I found this book library and almost didn't take it out because the publisher (Wild Flower Press) sounded too airy-fairy, New Age-y for me. How wrong I was. This is an excellent treatment of the sociology of ufology. It is a well-researched, heavily-footnoted survey of the ufology: its luminaries, it's debunkers, and it's internal controversies. This is required reading for anyone who is interested in this field. Don't read this book seeking an answer to the question "are UFOs real?" Rather, read it to understand th field of ufology, and how similar, and dissimilar, it is to other areas of research. The large bibliography alone is worth the price of the book. Congratulations to Gettysburg College for supporting Dr. Emmons in this work. After finishing the book, I bought my own copy - the ultimate compliment.

Dr. Emmons provides an accurate, though-provoking study of the evolution of the study of the phenomenon, focusing on the many obstacles to serious study, i.e. resistance by 'mainstream science' via groups like CSICOPs,
academic myopia, sensationalism of the subject by the media, impediments to disclosure by the government (including disinformation) and infighting among the various 'schools' of ufology.
It is heartening to see a serious, empirically based work coming from outside the "ufo community". The fact that the author embraces the legitimacy of many hypotheses advanced by researchers in the field helps to peel away layers of obfuscation and denial. Dr. Emmons is to be commended for this important contribution

Take off your blinders, pull your head out of the sand, we are probably not alone! Think what you will, but read this book before you decide. Three things: First, "At the Threshold" is genuinely entertaining. Second, the facts on this highly controversial subject are presented in a clear, concise manner. Third, Dr. Emmons isn't afraid to discuss this subject in public, you needn't be afraid to read it in private! In a nutshell, "At The Threshold" is a veritable banquet of food for thought. Enjoy!

No one has ever taken such an objective and open-minded look at the people who study UFOs and their interaction with mainstream science. The decision to write this book from such an honest perspective was very ballsy, and Emmons should be commended for his integrity. Here is one man who understands and will not bend to the "peer pressures" of mainstream Academics. Very refreshing (and surprising)

C.F.Emmons book shows for the first time the diverse factors that undermine a objetive appraisal of ufo related phenomena limiting prematurely the big universe of discourse that this subject demand. This as the author says transform ufology in a "extreme deviant" subject much more that in parapsychology where similar "noise" has hindered its aceptance by normal science. A carefull sifting of this type of noise is done in the book's appendix through the selection of biographies/Ufologist Case Studies where only researchers(believers, skeptics and debunkers) with recognized academic credentials in traditional scientific disciplines are disclosed(I found only a marginal error when the author refer to John E.Mack as the Pulitzer winner for a biography of Lawrence of Arabia (p.231) instead of refering to having that prize for the life of D.H.Lawrence). Putting aside literary references the author shows a real effort in a multidisciplinary approach to a theme that cry doing so. Without doubt the final chapter is the more speculative and at some time the more balanced in weighting near all of the more popular theories about the "Larger Reality" that the study of this phenomena demmand of our methodological, epistemological and ontological assumptions behind our institutionalized blessed conceptions about our universe. A view in my opinion is lacking when he refers to "implicate order", "hyperspace" and other concepts borrowed from the new physics, this view is "multiverse" and "quantum parallelism" and "time loops" in alternative interpretations to the Bohm interpretation of QM. The explanatory potential for the UFO phenomena of this latter concepts are left for the interesed reader.

No one has ever taken such an objective and open-minded look at the people who study UFOs and their interaction with mainstream science. The decision to write this book from such an honest perspective was very ballsy, and Emmons should be commended for his integrity. Here is one man who understands and will not bend to the "peer pressures" of mainstream Academics. Very refreshing (and surprising)

I have not read the book but intend to read/scan it ASAP- MY QUESTION is the redundancy of the "reviews" written just above this (if this one makes it). Sure gets my antennae a'quivering (or else, too many people are regurgitating the same phrases without having the same experience---and methinks that AIN'T synchronicity...)