Customer Reviews

Silent Invasion: The Shocking Discoveries of a Ufo Researcher

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

 

 

... well she was a little odd. I found the book to be a little too far-fetched, even for someone as open-minded as myself. She attended one or two of our weekly UFO meetings in Pine Bush, NY back in the early 90s (when we used to have them) - in fact, she and her book were the reason for the meetings being formed! She brought with her videotapes which she claimed were of an alien craft flying over Pine Bush. Sadly it was actually a C5A Galaxy Aircraft used by the military to transport cargo. If you've never seen or heard one fly over, you WOULD think it was something weird. But we see them all the time in this area. Regardless, she is the person who got me interested in "looking up" to see what might be there. Because of that, I have witnessed some very strange things in the sky. So I thank her for peaking my interest in UFOs. So for curiosity sake, I would give the book a read through.

While writing this note, I did a search for her on the Internet and discovered that she passed away on 12/16/2002 from a long battle with pancreatic cancer. My sympathy goes to her and her family.

The late Ellen Crystall deserves a lot of credit for her stalwart efforts in uncovering the strange activities that became fairly common in this little corner of New York back in the 1980's and 90's. If you do some research you'll find it still occurs to a small degree. Even now in 2008 her efforts are viable and this book is definitely a recommended read.

I recognize a nonfiction author on the terms of their qualifications, truthfulness (that I evaluate intuitively as well as through more research) and journalistic aptitude. By these standards I give this book and Ellen Crystall four solid stars. No, I never met her, nor do I live in that geographical area. So I have no first hand anecdotes to apply here, as other reviewers apparently can. Reviewers call her claims `wacko', `looney', `far-fetched' and so on. It would be easy to address each one of those, but why? Ms. Crystall is reporting about her own experiences and, in her own words, "speculating" on what this far-fetched phenomenon is. She explains throughout the book why her photographs of these "ships" are not discernible, why what she saw is not what the photograph shows. And she tells us up front that she is not a scientist. When her experiences began she was not even a professional photographer; just a young woman caught up in something strange that compelled her to investigate further. I never got a sense of pretense or sensationalism in the telling of her story.

Very strange things occurred, and are still occurring. The government puts a tight lid on it, and the media acquiesces to the government. It is because of gutsy investigators like Ellen Crystall, Jim Marrs, and Preston Dennett (just to name a few) that we can learn about these strange goings-on.
An overt government misinformation campaign is being waged against the public regarding UFOs and ridicule is the number one weapon used to shush people up. Nobody wants to be scorned, mocked and used as the punch line for jokes. Though most of us are too darn busy these days to worry and care enough to do the research regarding the area of discussion in this book, I promise that if you do, you will come away more enlightened and open-minded to this "far-fetched" business.

Silent Invasion was originally published in 1991. Plenty has happened since then; some of Crystall's findings can be disputed or even debunked now. But she blazed a trail in Pine Bush and came to some honest conclusions that cannot be denied. I found the information regarding possible underground mining or tunneling very compelling. Today we know there is an abundance of jurisprudential quality documentation to support this. All you have to do is investigate. Ellen Crystall DID investigate. If YOU won't take the time to investigate, your critisism just doesn't hold any weight.

very disappointing photos, despite the claim of thousands of photos offering ufo's best evidence. possibly they are poorly reproduced, which would be a real shame. why bother printing the book?some day i'd like to see her photos properly presented.

This is a very well written and researched book. The author, who unfortunately has since passed away, did her own hands-on investigation of the Hudson Valley UFO's people were seeing. The book is very convincing.

This book is obviously a labor of love by a true believer. However, either because Ms. Crystall wasn't a great photographer or perhaps because the publisher chose to issue the book with poor quality b/w versions of her photos, there isn't much that you can do with this book. I don't doubt that Ms. Crystall meant every word she typed in this book, but her pictures, as they appear in this book, are extremely disappointing. Some of the other things Ms. Crystall asserts in this book seem odd. I've never heard, from any source, that the Rolling Stones Altamont concert was visited by UFOs and that the Stones were staring at them during the entire show. Why weren't they captured in "Gimmie Shelter"? The whole show was filmed! It is a shame that a person with such strong opinions was unable to produce a book that backed them up. In the end, this book is interesting but doesn't provide proof of anything that the author claims to have witnessed.

One of the other reviewers points out, in Crystall's defense, that a complete lack of proof, strange conclusions and a general air of fantasy hovers around most books concerning UFOs. That's a good point, but it doesn't strengthen the case for the ETH or the idea that aliens exist and have visited earth.

(4/15/99) A little late, but better late... Ms Crystall claims we're being invaded and she's part of it. She claims that aliens are noisily constructing underground installations in Pine Bush, NY. She pursues alien craft. The book is full of questionable assertions. 27 photos and sketches that should have been the strongest part of the book turn out to be its weakest. She claims that she was a prof'l photographer by the time she wrote the book and that she had taken photos of "...crafts, visitors, and related phenomena depicting a technology far beyond the limits of human science." Yet we don't see a single one of those photos! The 27 photos are in B&W yet she used color film! No photos by the other witnesses. "...clear photos of the crafts and/or the visitors are virtually impossible to take with glass-lensed cameras."! Because some rock music groups wrote songs about UFOs Ms Crystall believes that they REALLY saw UFOs also. She gives a couple of examples of large-crowd events in which UFOs were (supposedly) seen by everyone yet this never made the news! Playing "sky-games", indeed! She theorizes that the aliens may be a dying race and they're mutilating cattle for their blood! She includes Barney & Betty Hill, MJ-12 documents, auras, spirit guides, Kirlian photography, channeling, abduction-hypnosis, Roswell, etc. You name it, it's in the book.... Edward Lopez, NYC.

People write about abductions and the military. This book covers what most people who have seen UFOs have had to deal with--sightings of things in the sky while driving and while taking garbage out at night to find a large something-or-other hovering near the house.

If this book is true we are all in trouble. Why hasn't this author been on Oprah showing the photographs and video? I want to see this video she has taken.

Though the author of this book does make inferences without much evidence, most of ufology does the very same thing. After all, ufologists have not been able to produce any substantial physical evidence of the existance of extraterrestrial life, yet many people unquestioningly believe that such beings not only exist but visit our planet and abduct people with which to experiment. I feel that this book is valuable, despite its lack of scientific method. SILENT INVASION is more of a "what if?" scenario than cold hard factual evidence, but this has value as well. If a book does nothing more than cause its readers to question "truth" and "reality", what a valuable contribution that book has made! Read SILENT INVASION if only for entertainment purposes...it's quite interesting.

She brings up the old looney canards about the Trilateral Commission and the Bildebergs ( read Jews} who control the world.She claims there are aliens in her photos. See for yourself and strain your imagination. I truly beleive thet strange things are happening in Pine Bush but Ms. Crystall offers nary a solid piece 0f documentation in her book.