Customer Reviews

UFOs--identified,

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Philip Klass (1919-2005) was the "archest" of UFO skeptics until the time of his death; he was also was a senior editor of Aviation Week & Space Technology for thirty-four years, and was a founding member of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP).

This 1968 book was his first effort. He begins by stating, "If anyone had suggested to me in June 1966 that within six months I would have become so intrigued by the UFO mystery that I would journey nearly two thousand miles to the town of Socorro, New Mexico, the scene of a famous UFO sighting, I would have thought he must be joking." John Fuller's 1966 book, Incident at Exeter: The Story of Unidentified Objects Over America Now stimulated his interest ("if I had procrastinated in buying 'Incident at Exeter' until much later, I would never have entered the mysterious land of UFOs"), and he admits, "In the language of drug addiction, and I fear there is some similarity, I was hooked."

In this book, he advances for the first time his theories that some UFOs reports are generated by atmospheric phenomena such as ball lightning or plasma caused by nearby electrical power lines. He writes, "If, however, UFOs are really plasmas, it would be quite easy for them to 'stop on a dime.'" He concludes the book on the note, "Perhaps large segments of the public will be disappointed to learn that UFOs may be no more than a family of freak electrical phenomena." He candidly admits, however, that "The plasma theory encounters some difficulty, however, in explaining the very loud roar which Zamora said he heard over the sound of his speeding car," although he added, "UFOs are almost invariably described as being noiseless."

But Klass does not rely on these explanations alone; he mentions hoaxes, as well. Interestingly, when he listened to purported "abductee" Barney Hill tell his story, he said, "I could agree completely with the doctor that Barney had indeed seem 'something,' and it had been a terrifying experience."

Klass developed his theories much more in later books, of course. But his first "outing" in the field is still not without interest to those of us interested in UFOs.