Customer Reviews

Mirage Men: An Adventure into Paranoia, Espionage, Psychological Warfare, and UFOs

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I thought that this book would be an entertaining read, with anecdotes about CI Ops, UFO buffs, and perhaps the craft of disinformation...my personal interest. I love the eccentricities of buffs of all kinds, and admire their willingness to go total immersion into whatever private world intrigues them. That said, I found little pleasure in this book. I have been reading all day, and I am on the verge of a migraine.

There are two themes in this book that may be of interest to the general reader: first, a history of ufology in America, with lots of inside information, and secondly, an interesting discussion of the use of disinformation by institutions such as - but not limited to - government.

This treatment of ufo lore is thorough, but unfortunately focused upon the characters rather than the events. The ever widening spiral of skeptics and believers becomes too complex to follow unless you are an insider in the ufo world. The events - sightings - could have been the focus to create some narrative timeline stability. The reader feels like an outsider at the spouses Holiday Party, unaware of the complex hierarchies and relationships at play, unappreciative of the subtle dynamics at work, and unable to judge where the center lies. There are too many players, and they wear too many masks, for those of us who have never heard of them to make informed judgements. For the insiders, that's OK, for me, it was frustrating.

By far the better aspect of the book is the treatment of disinformation. Although I dispair of making any sense of MJ-12 and related documents, the authors focus on the possible uses of disinformation in shaping a public perception of almost any issue, including ufos. I would have liked to read of Edward Bernays creation of "public relations" in the context of disinformation. The authors explore disinformation as a means to hide a truth by extrapolating the truth into such a distortion that dismissing the lie successfully disposes of the truth.

The weakness of the book lies in the fact that the authors are players in the game, rather than outsiders looking in. As a confessed crop circle hoaxster, the author enjoys playing with perceptions of truth; as readers, we are never sure whether we are being pranked for the amusement of the authors, or actually let inside the intrigues of the buffs, whistleblowers, and mysterious informants. As the informants come and go, discrediting and validating one another, and the authors provide vague hints of black projects, dead aliens, and secret US craft, I am reminded of the chaff dropped by fighter aircraft to confuse radar with false returns to obscure the truth. By the final pages, we know where they stand on ufos...or do we?

I'd recommend this book to anyone who is an insider wannabe in the ufo world, and wants the purported inside scoop on fellow buffs, or anyone who wants to explore some rather bizarre disinformation theory and practice. For others, be prepared for a wilderness of mirrors.

Let me begin by explaining that I am skeptical of most UFO claims. I am not looking for what "I want to believe." I have been researching the UFO subject for over 30 years, some of which involves a close association with subject matter and persons in this book. And I have concluded that "Mirage Men" is a very important book to read, with a note of caution. It involves people and events that most Ufologist carefully avoid at all costs. Sure the Government Covers-Up UFOs and Alien Visitations, but "Disinformation" is what the other guy believes and I do not! No need to look further.

Mark Pilkington was willing to look. Not without considerable bias as a self confessed Crop Circle Hoaxer. Where he wants to lead the reader becomes self evident in the first few chapters in the book. And that is his privilege as the author. My contention is that one can learn a great deal from this book without confusing an important part of the picture with the whole. This is an important read for Ufologists who wish to deal with the historical and government involvement with the subject.

The first flaw in the book are factual errors. If I am aware of quite a few upon casual reading no doubt it has many more. Not entirely the authors fault, because they tend to be repeated and spread in Ufology without question as long as they fit a certain viewpoints. For example, a single altered AFOSI document that Bill Moore was encouraged to pass on to Paul Bennewitz becomes "false documents." There were a number of documents, but they did not involve the activities against Bennewitz. Later the same document is said to have been "retouched" by Moore and given to Bennewitz. Moore did not alter this document as given to Bennewitz, and only passed it along after much hesitation and a note of caution that it might be fake. To his credit Bennewitz kept it to himself. Such false remarks might seem innocent enough, until they are repeated and spread to form conclusions about activities and people that fit certain agendas. Another example is when the author speculates that Bill Moore was "inclined" to take the NASA involvement Bait because of the astronaut sighting in the original Roswell Book. Those were added by co-author Berlitz as filler. But the misconception has it's real origin in a 1987 MUFON paper that reveals more about a certain individuals 20 year vendetta against Bill Moore personally than it does about the truth of the MJ-12 matter. A paper filled with absurd speculations based on very limited and often second hand information. And while pointing so many fingers at US Intelligence Pilkington parrots the CIA's 1997 Historical UFO explanations. Well researched Critiques of this article are not mentioned or sighted. Considerable research on the MJ-12 Documents is also missing.

Then there is the speculation in order to get you hooked on the authors way of thinking about the UFO and Roswell "Myth." The book would have been better if the author stuck to what he was told in his investigation rather than drift in order to fit so much UFO history in a neat little box. The author confuses what is sometimes the intelligence communities ability at subtle manipulation of belief in place, into incredible powers of deception! And yet the governments ability to deceive in some important instances is well know. Researchers take Note!

Why am I telling you to buy this book? Because this rather dark area of UFO research needs to be discussed. People with strong held beliefs are indeed easily manipulated. And characters like Rick Doty do have something important to say, even if you don't believe much of what they are telling you. We also have Dr. Christopher Green who has some very remarkable insights. He also knows his way around the Intelligence Community and how Government operates. In the end the Author and his research companion begin to have some serious doubts about their own skepticism.

Perhaps the author is correct, and there is little to cover-up than the government own high tech toys. But if they did have something outside of their control with very serious implications to hide, you can bet they would take active counter-intelligence measures to protect it! They might also manipulate belief in what they can't control to test the Public's Reaction. Good enough reason to give this book some serious consideration. You can put information aside until something else comes along to confirm or refute it. And study that with caution as well.

More than anything else this book gives the reader some perspective on the extent of the intelligence community's involvement with the subject of UFOs. One may well wonder why they would even bother. The usual proposed rational is that they have something to hide concerning the extraterrestrial (ET) hypothesis, a crashed ET space craft, or clandestine contact of some sort with ETs. But this book suggests an entirely different rational and one that seems quite plausible.

A number of different agencies are implicated but the main player, and the one the author deals with to the greatest extent, is the US Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI). It is suggested that many of the vast inventory of black budget projects under development are by their very nature quite visible if one happens to be in the right place at the right time. Sometimes their visibility is the whole point, as with radar and other kinds of decoys. Not wanting to be in the business of constantly having to explain their development tests, the AFOSI has a need for some kind of disinformation cover. UFOs, and especially the ET hypothesis, fits their need quite nicely.

The author lays out a scenario backed by a significant amount of research, showing how the AFOSI keeps the UFO fervor jacked up by constantly feeding it disinformational tidbits undercover, and then denying the validity of ET hypothesis up front. It's the best of both worlds for them. Of course, full blown UFO/ET believers will not accept this scenario as sufficient, but others of a more agnostic nature may begin to wonder to what extent the whole UFO/ET phenomenon is simply a false front.

The book is well written, engaging and informative but in the final analysis does it also become a conduit for disinformation? You be the judge. I highly recommend Mirage Men by Mark Pilkington.

I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the topic. The book addresses the issue of the governments involvement in spreading and controlling disinformation to the UFO community and one finds that it is not insignificant. To be sure it is not the first book to do so but the approach is, in my opinion, refreshing. The topic is handled as part general backround and part documentation of the authors journey to find some truth about disinformation. The approach is skeptical but reasonably evenhanded (my opinion, others will certainly disagree).

If you are looking for a good general review of the subject of UFO's, this isn't it. For that read Hynek or Vallee. If you are interested in how the various intelligence agencies have involved themselves in controlling beliefs about the phenomenon, then this is an excellent source. The author took considerable time and effort to travel and speak directly to some of the key players of the UFO story and puts them on record. What they have to say will enhance one's understanding of the subject.

Not the kind of book I would normally consider reading, but I was swayed by a starred review in Booklist, and the following quote from Jon Ronson: "An incredible, complex, fascinating story...I loved it." I may now have to retract my recommendation of Ronson's "The Psychopath Test".

I think Ronson and Booklist must have received a different book in this jacket, because this is the kind of rambling, formless drivel that I would normally expect to hear from somebody wearing a tin foil hat and whom I am stuck next to while waiting for the bus. I should have known I was in deep trouble when the following text appeared on page 6: "Were they an unusual phenomenon like ball lightning?". A natural phenomenon like ball lightning?!? He might as well have written "a natural phenomenon like Yeti/the Loch Ness Monster/Joan Rivers." Or how about this doozy on page 137: "Around this same time, the National Enquirer became perhaps the most outspoken and reliable source of information about UFO's". Yes, folks, that pinnacle of journalistic excellence that is The National Enquirer.

Then there's the hyperactive, (mis)information dump of the text. The author jumps erratically from one time, place and subject to another, and very rarely with any sort of transition. Dates, names and places (especially seemingly every Air Force base in the U.S.) eventually melt into a blur. It took me forever to read this, because the experience was actually like trudging waist-deep through a very viscous liquid. The book often had me feeling so groggy and dizzy that I felt like I had a touch of flu.

The author's head must be hell to live in, because it was a very sad place to visit. Everything to the author is either a UFO conspiracy or a government conspiracy. Basically, in his world, there has to be a conspiracy somewhere, or maybe the conspiracies are a hoax? Or maybe the hoaxes are intentional smokescreens to prevent us from learning the truth that there are UFOs? Or maybe the hoaxes are so ridiculous that it confirms there are no UFOs? Or maybe the hoaxes are so ridiculous that it confirms there really are UFOs? Pilkington spends so much time chasing his own tail that it's no wonder he's dizzy.

This book is so bad that it will not only fail to convert any skeptics, but it just might put some UFO and government conspiracy buffs back on the straight and narrow. Somebody at Booklist should be spanked for their starred review.

This material is not best served in bound book form. No, the ideal delivery mechanism for this would have been about three decades prior, as badly mimeographed pages stapled together.

All I know from reading this book is that the truth may not be out there, but Mark Pilkington definitely is. Waaaaaaay out there. Remember to firmly affix your tin foil hat to your head at all times, Mark.

Rather than repeat a lot of the comments made by other 3-star to 5-star reviewers, I tend to agree with a lot of their comments. Read their reviews for a good assessment of this book. For example, it does give you the impression that it's written for someone who is very familiar with UFO lore, or at the very least can get up to speed very quickly. I did feel like I was reading a handbook meant for someone who knows a lot more about the people and events in UFO history than I. I think this is simply a matter of structure, and is the only reason I gave it four instead of five stars.

The problem with the book is that it's target audience is really anyone who is open to the idea that there are conspiracies, but has not settled on exactly who is conspiring and why they are doing it. Unfortunately the book answers neither question, in fact the author asks himself the questions repeatedly while presenting evidence that definitely qualifies as psychological deception. So the audience is niche.

The author is not attempting to tell us that our government is hiding evidence of extraterrestrials. In fact, the author seems to believe that our government is hiding evidence of our own advanced technologies and attempting to use UFO stories as a way of smoke-screening the truth. Therefore, people who believe that most UFO sightings and stories are valid evidence of extraterrestrial activity (which I think is very incorrect) will dismiss this book once they realize that agenda. However, I think the author has gotten himself caught up in the very whirlpool of deception that he has pointed out. While I think he is correct on a number of points (that there are black organizations within several governmental agencies who are purposely deceiving not only the public but other branches of government, and that they are trying to conceal black projects so that they can escape governmental oversight), I think he is wrong to assume that all of the sightings of unexplainable objects, that cannot be dismissed as natural or hoax, are secret advanced technologies. I think there are legitimate non-man-made technologies flying around in our skies. They are much more rare than the UFO culture would have us believe, but I think these black organizations indoctrinate these sightings with false positives (such as government communication with E.T.s and so forth) in order to push any legitimate sighting far into a realm that is too hard to believe for the common person and too easy to believe for the UFO-alien enthusiast (who embraces a much larger and highly dubious paradigm that includes alien abductions, cattle mutilations, crop circles, and ancient aliens jump-starting human civilization theories).

In other words, by adding more UFO lore to a particular sighting, the sighting becomes "overqualified" and less apt to be taken seriously. The added information may also be purposely contradictory to other, more legitimate testimony. This creates doubt.

Simultaneously, they have an opposite-facing stand. They deny any knowledge, offer ridiculously mundane explanations that sound plausible only to those who weren't witnesses and who did not study all the details of the incident, and may even set off flairs, launch planes, and play other tricks to give themselves a reason to say, "it was our own training activity." Take the Phoenix lights for example. Many people saw what appeared to be a very strange pattern of lights fly overhead into Phoenix, then past it, and head out of Phoenix. The lights were in a boomerang shape, although witnesses differ as to speculation on whether it was a single object or a group of objects flying in formation, but it flew over controlled air space and looked extremely unusual. Several hours after the sighting, the US military base launched high altitude, high intensity flairs that formed a similar arch pattern in the sky. As people were already excited by the early sighting, the second one was caught on video. It has been debunked. The military response was originally that they had no flairs that night, then they changed their story and said that they did, and the video of the second formation of lights were definitely flairs. So what were the first groups of lights? As very few people had their video cameras ready for it, there is only one compelling video of the first set of lights, and it looks quite a bit different from the flairs seen later on, which was debunked. Like most UFO videos, it's dim and shaky. It can be seen in James Fox's documentary "I KNOW WHAT I SAW."Again, people who weren't there, who didn't see the object(s) that caused all the stir, know that the video of the military flairs later that night were not what they saw. This includes the Governor of Arizona.

Mirage Men is, I think, the best book of its kind. The author has very wisely lifted the UFO culture's hood and gave us a full description of what can be seen underneath. It is rare that someone should do this who is not predisposed to believing that either extraterrestrials are everywhere, or that witnesses are just being fools and making something out of nothing (the latter being the position of hardcore skeptics). Because, in the author's view, neither is the truth -- rather, people are the unwitting victims of high tech magic tricks and psychological deception experiments perpetrated by members of the Air Force, the CIA, and probably other communities (who are deceiving each other as much as the public, and certainly deceiving elected officials). The burning question is why. I don't think there's a single answer, but rather a myriad of answers, depending on the case, the time period in our history, and the place the incident occurred.

It is a highly recommended book. But I would advise getting a companion book: Leslie Kean's UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record. This way a reader has both the top and bottom slice of bread for the UFO sandwich. The next question is: what's in between? Without full disclosure and exposure of what these black ops are doing, which I tend to find unlikely, that answer will be left to perpetual speculation.

Now that I've read this book.. I remember being fascinated by the authors articles printed in Fortean Times magazine leading up to it's publication. (You should be able to search on the authors name and find them on the Fortean Times website)

I "Guess" that I'm lucky as UFO's are not that interesting to me. What does interest me is the "Trade-craft" of how our US government manipulates us. This can be a very slow process taking years BTW. "WHY" we think the way we do. How we came to believe simple basic facts that we "Think" everybody else knows and understands. The typical American.

A lot of Mirage Men goes into the process of how the US Government creates/forms public opinion. This includes what we believe and what we Don't believe.

In case you missed it.. Stephen Hawking turned heads when he publicly CAME OUT and declared he believed in intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. I'm like Duh.. of course there is intelligent life out there.

Even though using "Science" I'm not able to PROVE this to be a fact.. but simple math should. In our typical life here on earth.. we accept many technologies based on anecdotal observation that science still can't explain. If we lived our life within the realm of what science recognizes as fact... We wouldn't be driving cars or flying airplanes. Probably not using telephones either!

Remember we only know 5% of how the universe works. Maybe as much as 5%. The facts don't change.. only our perception of the facts.

Our Telescopes are finally getting good enough (even for the amateur)to find Earth type worlds in the cosmos. Funny how new discoveries happen when Joe Blow Amateur can see it for himself? Nobody would be suppressing technology would they? Or maybe even basic discoveries.. like the fact the moon has an Atmosphere? (The Apollo moon flag had a Poll inserted so it wouldn't blow in the breeze BTW) National Secrets you know.. NASA knew about this for years and never thought WE needed to know. (Remember we paid for it)

In fact I own a strangely supplied pamphlet that came with a telescope I bought. It very much states that the MOON has no Atmosphere! Of course written pre discovery of ice on the moon. Probably so I wouldn't waste my time watching the Seasons on the moon. (Yes there are seasons up there you can track with a good scope)

This kind of thing should make everybody wonder what else we are not told as a society? Why our collective beliefs are so important to governments, corporations, etc.

I was totally blown away as Hawking's "Coming Out" was such a big deal. A REAL BIG DEAL!! Then several of the other publicly known - famous physicists HAD to follow suit. "Come out" in support of Hawking. Why? Because they didn't want the general public to think them morons / "Fundamentalist Church" idiots that still don't believe in Evolution or that sun and planets revolve around the Earth.

As an avid observer I am fascinated how far folks will go to reinforce their own beliefs! Be it UFO's, ET's, or Jesus Christ! Heak just check out the other reviews found here.

The author gives the reader much material to research. I ended up buying several newly found books because of reading Mirage Men. And I spent a great deal of time running down facts via the Internet.

Strange (maybe typical) how a UFO book written by a British Citizen answers so many questions a simple US citizen needs to know. Or provides a venue for asking questions we should be asking ourselves everyday.

If you are ready to "Challenge" what you believe.. get this book.

Oh and one last factoid. I read (and further challenged) a Review Journal reporter about his story about the "Test Site" 100 or so miles North of where I live. Las Vegas.

The RJ reported that the Test Site (it has a new name BTW) budget is in the neighborhood of 400 million a year. What our little towny rag doesn't report is that in 2009 over 65 BILLION dollars was spent up there. I don't have the figures for 2010.. But I'm sure they are just as high if not higher.

Classic case of Mis Dis Information at work.

Thanks for reading,

GENE

I thought this was one of the best UFO books that I have read in a long time, even though the book tells very few UFO stories. This book discusses various government rolls in releasing false UFO material, creating cold war psychological warfare, coving up military test of top secret (real) aircraft, and possibly suppressing legitimate UFO data. The book questions everything and everyone. I am still not sure of the author's creditability and what kinds of connections he has! Any way, the book makes you think and that is what research is all about!

When I was 12 years old, on April 30, 1966 my cousin and I saw and photographed a "flying saucer" that made a "high pitched sound and was in view two minutes." This happened in New Windsor, NY. We sent the photograph to the USAF. They sent us back a lengthy questionaire and asked that we send them the negative. My cousin and I were afraid of what we might be getting into, so did not send the negative. Later that summer we would spot very sleek and officious looking cars cruising about the relatively rural vicinity in which we lived, wondering if government agents were tracking us down for whatever purpose connected to our mutual sighting of the UFO. In 1967 - close to a year later - my cousin called me all excited and eager to show me something. He came down to where I lived. It was a magazine by the publishers of TRUE entitled THE NEW REPORT ON FLYING SAUCERS. And there, on page 29, was our photo of the saucer with a brief description captioned below! In the subsequent weeks, I received half a dozen letters from people around the country who wanted to know more of our experience, as they had seen the identical object we had been fortunate enough to capture on film. Well, truth be told, probably everyone in the world had seen what we had captured on film at one time or another in their lives. Car hub-caps are ubiquitous.

Oh, the hubris of youth! Now MIRAGE MEN veritably begins with author Mark Pilkington proclaiming that he and one John Lundberg had been creating crop circles since the early 1990s and still were doing so. "Yes," writes Pilkington, "people make crop circles - all of them - and have done since the mid-70s." The hubris of youth: how can our author emphatically declare that ALL crop circles (a world-wide phenomenon, by-the-way) were ALL done by human hands - and feet? By his own admittance, Lundberg did not begin his circle-making until the early '90s. So how can Pilkington possibly declare ALL those that proceeded Lundberg's circles as made by human hands? That is like my saying every photograph ever taken of a UFO is a hub-cap - because I created my own fake saucer pic that was printed in a national publication. Oh, the hubris of youth. What our author does NOT say about Lundberg - but Wikipedia does - is that Lundberg owns and operates a group called Circlemakers and does so for commercial clients! So right off we have an author claiming he knows more than he can possibly know about the crop circle mystery - and he admits to being a hoaxster himself - so...why should we believe anything he writes in his book? Perhaps his book is one literary "crop circle" of B.S.

Also, on page 46, our author makes a blanket statement about people having their photos taken. He writes: "Lets be honest, nobody likes having their photo taken." Well, the first picture in the book's photo section is of none other than Pilkington and his friend John. But the statement above - the supposed all-knowing nature of its implications - is pure rubbish! There are hundreds, no, thousands, no again, millions of people who just LOVE to be photographed. Actors, models, Abraham Lincoln, General Custer, Lady Ga Ga, Paris Hilton, Jersey Shore's crazy cast that live in a world of perpetual 'high strangeness' - the list is endless! How can anyone make such a proclamation that "Let's be honest,nobody likes having their photo taken." If you couple this silly statement with the declaration that ALL crop circles are man-made just because his friend and he have faked many throughout the years, then you end up with an author who cannot be entirely believed as he guides you through the pages of his book. Troubling. Very.

Despite the above, MIRAGE MEN is, however, a most interesting read. It is never dull and extremely illuminating in evoking a world of mysteries and secrets and how many of those mysteries and secrets are used to manipulate the mind-set of the world we live in. It exposes the games our government has played with the public when it comes to the "flying saucer" phenomenon since the mid-twentieth century until today. Are they man-made - or alien-made? Are they all secret government technologies or hub-caps - or are some, indeed, extraterrestrial in origin? By the end of the book, we do not know. Our author is like Thompson, the reporter in CITIZEN KANE, seeking the meaning of 'Rosebud' - and he never does, even though 'Rosebud' does exist. Do aliens? Do crashed saucers in hidden hangers? Or has it all been secret technology using the alien angle as a cover against other countries bent on stealing our secrets?

Given all of the topics the book covers - from cattle mutilations to Area 51 to Roswell and black budgeted operations - Mark Pilkington has written a highly enjoyable, edifying, eye-opening, sometimes eye-popping account of UFOlogy from the perspective of those in-the-know...or those we think-are-in-the-know. Some stumbles along the way: the arrogant claim regarding crop circles for one. Another is...we never get the feeling that Pilkington and Lundberg are actually filming a documentary (even though it seems they are). But as to the status of the documentary, we learn nothing. Near the book's end, the author sees and films a UFO he spots in Alamogordo and has an epiphany - as does Lundberg (although it is clear in the text that he never actually saw it himself!) The point is, Pilkington never offers the results of any subsequent analysis of the film. Maybe the black dot was just a hub-cap tossed in the sky? A still from his film would have been nice, as would a photo of the much-discussed Paul Bennewitz and the likewise much-discussed "world's first photograph of a UFO" taken in 1947. Also, on page 288, Pilkington describes his own viewing of a "colossal flying saucer hovering over the city of Austin,Texas" that "must have been thousands of feet across." When this happened, we aren't informed. And if it happened, why didn't Pilkington research the sighting? Austin isn't exactly a backwater town. How many others saw it? Was it photographed? Did it appear on radar? It seems Pilkington wasn't so curious to find out. Instead of downing so many beers throughout the pages of the book, why didn't he delve more deeply into this alleged incident? Unless, alas, the crop-circle hoaxster is also a UFO-seeing fake.

One other thing: this review is of the hardcover edition. The cover design is absolutely beautiful and even the comfortable size of the book is wonderful. This is an eye-catching and - as I've said - an extremely eye-opening book. Despite its several flaws, it is still well worth the reading-ride - even if we don't get to Venus or Mars or the interior of the Hollow Earth - and even though we cannot entirely trust our crop-circle hoaxster/author in all that he writes of.

The Mirage Men offers for the first time in my 45 years with the subject a down to earth, well researched, input into the subject loosely called UFO's.

Given the authors age I am surprised at the overview of sophistication he brings to the discussion and recommend Mirage Men as an excellent choice to balance the subject, bringing a crisp and at times matter of fact affront to the what others so cavalierly state as must be.