Forbidden Science: Journals 1957-1969 [Hardcover]

Jacques Vallee (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1556431252 | ISBN-13: 978-1556431258 | Publication Date: January 12, 1993 | Edition: Second edition

Known principally as an investigator of the UFO phenomenon and a science fiction novelist, the French-born Vallee (now a resident of the U.S.) has also worked as a computer scientist in both academia and industry. UFOlogists will not find the answers to all of their questions here, for although Vallee believes that UFOs exist, he has no idea just what they are. Therein lies the excellence of his dazzling diary: it offers a glimpse into the mind of a scientist who seems to challenge every preconception and established piety. To his academic training as a mathematician and scientist, which stressed rational approaches to problems, Vallee has brought an interest in the mystical, the psychical, and the paranormal. He has been a Rosicrucian and has studied the works of ancient scientists like Paracelsus. His diary is replete with profoundly insightful, often devastating observations about the strengths and weaknesses of France and the U.S., their academics and their researchers in industry.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Known principally as an investigator of the UFO phenomenon ( Dimensions ) and a science fiction novelist, the French-born Vallee (now a resident of the U.S.) has also worked as a computer scientist in both academia and industry. Ufologists will not find the answers to all of their questions here, for although Vallee believes that UFOs exist, he has no idea just what they are. Therein lies the excellence of his dazzling diary: it offers a glimpse into the mind of a scientist who seems to challenge every preconception and established piety. To his academic training as a mathematician and scientist, which stressed rational approaches to problems, Vallee has brought an interest in the mystical, the psychical, the paranormal. He has been a Rosicrucian and has studied the works of ancient scientists like Paracelsus. His diary is replete with profoundly insightful, often devastating observations about the strengths and weaknesses of France and the U.S., their academics and their researchers in industry. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Vallee's Anatomy of a Phenomenon ( LJ 6/1/65) was one of the first popular studies of UFOs written by a scientist. A computer specialist, Vallee became interested in UFOs after seeing an unidentified flying object near his home in France. His journals encompass a major portion of his professional life: his initial training in astronomy, his emigration to the United States, and his close association with J. Allen Hynek, noted adviser to the U.S. Air Force on UFOs. Vallee admits that he is no closer to an explanation now than he was 25 years ago as to what these objects represent. His research, however, points toward a paranormal answer, a theme he explored in Passport to Magonia ( LJ 9/15/69). Vallee characterizes the scientific community's lack of attention to UFO research as "one of the great intellectual failures of this century" and argues that U.S. government agencies have kept the best UFO data hidden and have shamelessly manipulated the public record. Vallee's journals comprise a fascinating intellectual odyssey that will be enjoyed by anyone interested in open inquiry tempered by rational thought. Recommended for most libraries.
- Gary D. Barber, SUNY at Fredonia Lib.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books; Second edition edition (January 12, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556431252
• ISBN-13: 978-1556431258
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 2.7 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,336,063 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jacques VALLEE holds a master's degree in astrophysics from France and a PhD in computer science from Northwestern University, where he served as an associate of Dr. J. Allen Hynek. He is the author of several books about high technology and unidentified phenomena, a subject that first attracted his attention as an astronomer in Paris. While analyzing observations from many parts of the world, Jacques became intrigued by the similarities in patterns between moderrn sightings and historical reports of encounters with flying objects and their occupants in every culture. The result was the seminal book Passport to Magonia, published in 1969.

After a career as an information scientist with Stanford Research Institute and the Institute for the Future, where he served as a principal investigator for the groupware project on the Arpanet, the prototype of the Internet, Jacques Vallée co-founded a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. He lives in San Francisco.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vallee proves to be a true scientist, August 23, 1998

By 

Anthony J. Bybell (Carrboro, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Forbidden Science: Journals 1957-1969 (Paperback)

A most impressive book. Jacques Vallee outdoes himself again in this collection of 12 years of journals starting from when he was age 19. What makes this book most interesting is that one can see firsthand the innards of a scientist's mind. And those innards are something that set Dr. Vallee apart from other researchers: he wishes to study UFOs *scientifically* and not emotionally, unlike other researchers. The time period of this book sets everything at the beginning of the computer revolution and he wishes to use his beloved machines to help him sort out the facts in the UFO phenomenon. Unfortunately, he is often blocked from doing so because of colleagues who think with their hearts instead of their heads. All in all, this is an excellent book. If you've read Vallee before, get this. It puts all of his other works into perspective.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Long, Strange Journey to "Magonia", July 18, 2003

By 

Begreadone "begreadone" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Forbidden Science: Journals 1957-1969 (Paperback)

Forgive me if I gush, but Jacques Vallee is my all time favorite "ufologist." His book REVELATIONS helped to see that there was a real mystery to the phenomenon and that there were those like himself who deplored the abuse of hypnosis in the service of "abduction research" and the fascination with "crashed saucer" tales and government conspiracies.

This book takes us to his beginnings. Starting in the late 1950s, just before the ascendancy of De Gaulle and the establishment of the Fifth Republic, when he is an astronomy student and aspiring Science Fiction writer and ends in the immediate aftermath of the publication of PASSPORT TO MAGONIA. Along the way we have a first hand account of the "ufo controversy in america" and elsewhere. Additionally, there are reflections on a convention-bound France, where Vallee has to struggle against senior astronomers serene indifference to computers. Reflection on the US: like de Tocqueville, young Vallee looks upon this country with a mixture of admiration and horror. Here and there, there are insights into the looming computer revolution that would explode in the 1970's and 1980's. Vallee is in France in 1968 and records his take on the student uprising of May and June.

And then of course, there are the accounts of love. Like the entry where Vallee writes that he and his lover have just torn the bed and now he lies in the full flush of "jouissance" thinking "why do i need a vow, when I can still taste in on my lips" (DAMN! Those french know how to live!)

Yes there's a lot to get out of this book than just UFO's. But that is the main topic. We see the defining moment for Vallee when he tracks an anomalous object only to have the senior astronomer summarily tear up the print out. We see Vallee's burgeoning fascination with the subject and his passion that science find an explanation, first corresponding with Aime Michel, then making contact with J.Allen Hynek, Project Blue Book's consultant and at the time still a "skeptic."

The insight into Hynek is probably the most important part of the book. We see the role that Vallee plays in encouraging Hynek to admit that there are unexplained cases. Vallee is there when Hynek gets new of the "Soccoro landing" and sees Hynek in the aftermath of the "marsh gas" fiasco. Vallee's admiration for Hynek is obviousk, but there are also other detail. Hynek's love of the limelight and his pride at having little fringe benefits from the air force like his own jeep and driver. We find out that Hynek was an Anthroposophist (a disciple of Rudolf Steiner) and we see him at his most gullible when he brings back "film proof" of psychic surgery (Vallee & Co. are less than impressed).

Besides Hynek, there is correspondence with John Keel in the full grip of paranoia while dealing with strange happenings in the Ohio River Valley, a brief in encounter with Al Bielek (he of future "montauk project" fame) trying to pass himself off as a government spook, an account of origin, trouble history, and anticlimatic ending of the Condon Committee. But most importantly is the "paradigm shift" that Vallee undergoes as a result of studying the phenomenon from a cautious advocate of the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (EHT) to a proponent of thinking in terms of Extra-Dimensional Entities and paying close attention to Psycho-Social factors and parallels with folklore and mythology and the backlash he suffers (and continues to suffer) from the "believers" who make up the rank and file of the UFO subculture.

As an added bonus the paperback edition includes the text of the "Pentacle Memorandum" written at the time of the Robertson Committee.

In sum, a first hand history of the UFO phenomenon in the 1960's. When read in conjunction with Jim Moseley's SHOCKINGLY CLOSE TO THE TRUTH and Patrick Huyghe's SWAMP GAS TIMES one can get a very full picture of "UFO history" of the last 50 years.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Serious stuff, December 9, 2002

By 

James Mann (Decatur, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Forbidden Science: Journals 1957-1969 (Hardcover)

Jacques Vallee is a respected scientist and an entertaining writer who just happens to be interested in UFO's. His concepts of the 'why' are illuminating, as is his frustration at the handling of the issue by those on all sides.

If you are interested in whats "out there" read and learn. If you on the other hand scoff at all mentions of aliens and such, and consider man to be the center and grandest part of the universe, read this man's books with an open mind and you might begin to doubt some long held beliefs. Vallee is quick to dismiss frauds and charlatians, and focus on the real issues. Arresting stuff.