Customer Reviews

Open Skies, Closed Minds

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Despite what some people would like you to believe, Nick Pope's book, Open Skies, Closed Minds is obviously one of the best UFO and paranormal activity books ever written. It presents his years of research in a clear and analytical way that is easy to understand and use. Though it is not a story book or a "conspiracy thriller, it reads just as well if not better than most novels I have read. If you're into UFOs and want a good resource book that you will be able to read the whole way through, then Open Skies, Closed Minds if definitely the best book to buy.

This book should be required reading for anyone even mildly interested in UFOs. In this book, Pope tells us the story of what he himself calls his three year "voyage of discovery" during which he came to the conclusion that the "Extraterrestrial Hypothesis" was the best (and, possibly, the only) explanation for the twenty percent or so of cases that could not be explained otherwise.

To come to this conclusion, however, Pope had to start with an "open mind." Given the title, the reader should be instantly aware that this is not the way most of officialdom approaches this topic. But, Pope does something most Civil Servants would never do: he takes his new responsibility as the Ministry of Defense's (MoD's) UFO Desk Officer SERIOUSLY! He reads into the topic (which shows up clearly in his knowledge of the history of the phenomenon). To extend his capability to investigate sightings, He develops good relations with civilian UFO investigation groups like the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA) and QUEST International, and actually shares data with them. Not only that, but Pope actually tries to help and comfort witnesses and abductees. When he says "I'm with the Ministry and I'm here to help you," he actually means it!

So, what we have thus far is an MoD Civil Servant who, after three years of dealing with civilian and military close encounters, has come to the conclusion that some significant percentage of these events involve extraterrestrial craft piloted by some form of extraterrestrial intelligence. I cannot stress how important this publically stated conclusion is. It has, insofar as I can tell, happened only once before and that was in the first edition of Edward Ruppelt's book "The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects." In that case, though, so much pressure was placed on Ruppelt's employer that he was forced very quickly to write a second edition with a new chapter that contradicted the conclusion of the previous edition. So far, at least, no such pressure has been placed on Nick Pope. And, that, too, is also extraordinary.

Also like Ruppelt, Pope seems unaware that there may be a UFO cover-up going on in the UK. As we finally learned in America, the best cases never went to Blue Book. Instead, they went directly to Air Intelligence Service Squadrons. And, there is evidence that the best cases in the U.K. did not go to Mr. Pope's office at Whitehall but, instead, went to a secret group at RAF Rudloe Manor in Wiltshire. Yet, despite the evidence, Mr. Pope insists that there is no cover-up in Britain. I am certain that Mr. Pope is not party to one and is not knowingly telling a lie. But, I cannot bring myself to believe that there is none - especially given the close relationship between the U.S. (which seems to follow a strict code of secrecy) and the UK, which would have to agree to follow the same policy if it expected U.S. cooperation and support.

Finally, being objective, Pope broaches the issue no one seems willing to confront. Being a defense analyst, Pope cannot fall in with the "Space Brothers" view of extraterrestrials. He views their deeds objectively, and doesn't like what he sees. They violate our airspace (including restricted military airspace) without our permission. They can, at least at times, completely evade detection by our air defense radar systems. They land on our sovereign territory and proceed to kidnap our citizens and subject them to "medical examinations" that only Dr. Mengele could appreciate. And, last but not least, they kill and mutilate our farm animals and pets in an especially gruesome manner. If people from another nation on earth did all this, we would treat it as an act of war. And so, being logical (another extraordinary trait in a Civil Servant), Pope draws the appropriate conclusion: we are at war right now. According to Pope, it's currently a very secret and quite one-sided war. It's one-sided because we don't seem to know that we are at war. Pope advocates the development of appropriate military contingency plans for use if and when we can't make the Aliens stop these practices by any other means. What's extraordinary about this is that Pope is, again, the first high-ranking Civil Servant I have ever heard draw the logical conclusion regarding the objective implications of Alien activities on this planet, and do so publicly. This conclusion will come as a shock to those who have heard nothing but the apologists for the Aliens, but it's about time they woke up.

Mr. Pope is one of the extremelly well-informed ufologists who spent years on researching, cataloging and assessing extraterrestrial phoenomena.
While working for the British Crown at the Ministry of Defense in England, Mr. Pope examined a considerable number of extraterrestrial occurances that froze the world of ufology. His guest appearences on world television enlightened viewers around the globe.

His candor, honesty and open mind shed lights on areas that were totally ignored by the media and mainstream ufology. Although, Mr. Pope is cautious in his statements and press releases, Mr. Pope always told the truth to the best of his abilities.


This book is a strong example. American readers should look at the UFO phenomena from an European perspective. Sometimes it is quite different and even astonishing.

This book is written to serve this purpose. It is an open invitation to the serious Ufology authors and inquisitive minds. I highly recommend Mr. Pope's present work, a man you can really trust.

Nick Pope's only claim to fame was that he was the civil servant at the MOD charged with the investigation of UFO reports there. A book that reviewed that time, with a look at the processes and in-depth coverage of one or two cases that happened during his time could have been quite entertaining and quaintly British. Unfortunately Pope believes he was not only the best person EVER in his job, but that it also gave him the authority to pronounce sagely on UFO cases through the ages, from Ezekiel to the Roswell film footage. Littered with inaccuracies of all kinds this book is badly written and a huge missed opportunity. In his desire to be sensational he ignores the lure of the mundane, a subject that, as a low ranking civil servant, he is surely most knowledgeable about.

This is a great book if you want to practice speed reading. I scanned through the book looking for something exciting, interesting. No luck. The first part of his book Nick talks about the theory of UFOs and of a few who have encountered them. The book eventually tells of his experience with UFO reports, and his vague investigations. He adds throughout the book quick blurbs about other theories and random information. This must have been his way of spicing it up, but I found it irritating. There are no exciting stories of his days as a UFO investigator. Instead we are led along page after page, hoping to read something exciting and enlightening and never finding it. I'm sure there's a plethora of information and activity going on but you wont find it here.

This is by far the worst book on the UFO craze I have ever read. I'm up to page 100 and have yet to learn anything about this phenomina that I don't already know. It is poorly written and I have fallen asleep twice while reading it. I'm not going to go any further with this one. I feel like I was cheated out of 5 bucks.

First published in 1996 shortly after Nick Pope left his three-year posting as head of the UFO desk but whilst still employed by the Ministry of Defence, "Open Skies, Closed Minds" is a thoughtful, literate and occasionally amusing summary of the author's tenure as a full-time, government-paid researcher into the UFO phenomenon. He turns out to be a good writer, and although there may be few new revelations here for the serious student of the subject, Nick's unique official position and his fair-minded, diligent approach make for an original and valuable contribution to the field. It's the impartiality, the outsider parachuted into the job with no previous interest and no preconceptions who then undergoes gradual conversion to realise there is real substance to the UFO issue that makes for a compelling read. The level of commercial success and subsequent publicity for the UFO phenomenon gained by this book in the UK has only to date been equalled by the best work of Tim Good.

This review is of the original hardback edition, which has a good 8-page monochrome photo section in the middle and a comprehensive index.

Quote from the author: "One of the first things I did on taking up the UFO post was to read into the subject...there were also things called `close encounters'...where people saw a UFO and then arrived home much later than expected unable to account for a lost period...I had responsibilities both to the MOD and to the public as a whole to investigate all sightings and experiences in a totally impartial way, irrespective of my own views about a witness...

...many in the world of UFOlogy regarded me as just `the man from the ministry' as likely as not up to my eyeballs in crashed UFOs, dead aliens and cosmic cover-ups. But as I began to deal on a daily basis with people who had experienced events which appeared to go beyond human understanding, I formed working relationships with UFO researchers and a mutual trust developed." Has this trust been maintained and built on by Nick's successors? Alas, no.

The book is written with a broadly chronological narrative which proves to be a more engaging style than the fragmented listing of sighting reports. The author shares his discoveries opening up the MOD's existing UFO files and his own evolving conversion from admitted ignorance and skepticism to an appreciation of the reality of a mysterious, multi-faceted phenomenon of some complexity. He comes to the conclusion that the ETH best fits the facts, and that the evidence is that the ETs in the main do not appear to have humanity's best interests at heart. This is a remarkable public admission from someone working at a high level in the MOD, and in the absence of any official denial or disclaimer represents the nearest thing we're likely to get for the moment to a government acknowledgement that there is an ET presence and that it ain't friendly.

A whole chapter on attitudes to the subject begins: "There can be few subjects other than ufology for which government policy is dictated so much by attitudes and so little by facts or hard evidence. Many of these attitudes have been created by the media." Indeed. Nick writes about the main UFO groups and researchers in the UK and his personal investigations into multi-witness sightings, crop circles, cattle mutilations, the Rendlesham Forest incident (all given their own chapters), the notorious Santilli "autopsy" film and many other well-known cases. He expands the content to a more global perspective in the final chapters. His reputation for taking reports from the public about UFO encounters and other paranormal happenings seriously, and investigating them thoroughly and openly led to "maverick" status inside the MOD and thus to the media's term "The UK's own Fox Mulder."

So in summary, a good introduction to the subject for the casually interested reader, and even for the avid UFOlogist an interesting excursion into the workings of government and how the subject was managed during this period. Above all the author comes across as balanced, intelligent, grounded, sensible and good-humoured - and that alone, many would admit, is something of a rarity in this field.

A fortuitous career move inside the MOD led eventually to Nick carving out a whole new life in the UFO field outside government service in the real world, and achieving minor celebrity status as a recognisable face on TV. He's a professional, and has proved to be consistently effective at bringing the UFO subject more respectability and serious treatment by the mass media. Good for him, and good for the field.

Luckily I was given a copy of this book. I have read the top 100 books in this UFO/Alien genre and this is not one of them. Suggest you try 'Alien Rapture' by Brad Steiger (Project Blue Book), 'Alien Agenda' by Jim Marrs (Crossfire), and 'Unconventional Flying Objects' by Dr. Paul Hill (NASA UFO Scientist) which are the TOP 3 books in this genre with more information in any chapter than Nick Pope's book. The conspiracy thriller, 'Alien Rapture' with an 'insider' black projects co-author is my favorite of the Top 100. I find it hard to believe this rambling, poorly edited, and disjointed book of Popes is a best-seller in the UK.

but I find too many references to Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind (and I understand that Mr. Spielberg is in the process of returning to this forum for a new movie regarding the 'Majestic 12' papers but I haven't seen anything on it recently, does anyone know anything about this)? This book I do not think is as good as "Alien Agenda" by Jim Marrs (which was facinating).