Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact

I was so impressed with this book I bought several copies to give to friends. The author is a world-renowned scientist with the most experience with the subject of any other individual. His research goes back from thousands of years to the current era and using rational reasoning provides what we are realistically dealing with. Anyone with a genuine interest in the UFO phenomenon should read this book. It is subtitled A Casebook of Alien Contact and the cases discussed are all documented and thoroughly investigated. His conclusions are rational and provide a realistic determination of the issue, without basing findings on any mythology or nebulous fictional tales. I've found it to be one of the most interesting books I've read.

Fantastic read for those interested in NHI and/or The Phenomena. This book is for those who are ready to confront the phenomena as a whole. The book approaches the history of human interaction with said phenomena. This is how you graduate from "little green men" to the higher-end thinking happening around the phenomena. Highly Recommend.

Hard book to review only because it doesn't support the current established scientific mind. He is no friend of closed minded scientists, but is very thorough in developing his arguments, and Vallee really stretched my mind in this book by including mythology and religion in an interpretation of unexplained aerial phenomenon. The idea of information as another aspects of physics, rather than energy, might be less heretical today than when he published this book. Such an original thinker. His subject is UFOs but, really, he questions some fundamental thought patterns embedded in our culture that can be applied to any revision of dogma in any discipline. I am constantly amazed at the people who don't get recognition but whose vision cuts across all out blind spots. Very readable, despite being rather dated in some parts. One of those books from the last 30 years you really need to read, perhaps now more than ever.

I am not sure how much this is a reprint versus an update of the original work, but either way, it remains an outstanding presentation of a - to me - immediately convincing perspective on the whole subject. He starts from the fact that many aspects of UFO encounters are basically absurd - statements are made by the "aliens" that are either nonsensical or oddly mundane (and how do they speak to us?)or the whole thing is just bizarre in some way, or physically implausible. And yet, something did happen: there are visible after-effects, both physical on the ground and biological and mental, even spiritual, for those involved. From this springs his fundamental insight: he rejects the common concept that "if" they exist, they are interstellar travelers, and posits that instead, they are manifestations of some other reality or dimension, or the multiverse. That enables him to bring together all the historic appearance of strange creatures, inexplicable sights in the heavens, and so forth, as manifestations of the same - what? Energy, entities, forces....But whatever the source, the key and insightful statement he makes is that "the shapes of the objects, the appearances of their occupants, and their reported statements vary as a function of the cultural environment into which they are projected." (The last part is italicized for emphasis). Thus in 1897 in the Midwest, the visitors are bearded characters from an "airship" that "corresponded to the popular concept of a flying machine: it had wheels, turbines, powerful lights." As described, it could not possibly fly...but what matters is that in the imaginations of that time, it was appropriate. He gives much discussion of all the legends of "little people" and notes many fascinating resonances with our UFO occurrences - time dilation, for instance. In other words, I find this the best and most convincing insight into the nature of these events, but also a disturbing one, since the ability to manifest in such sly and clever ways must raise the question - "why?" Vallée sees us as being prodded or manipulated in a slow, long-term way towards some kind of change in our basic nature - but what that is, is unclear. I suppose we will find out, or our descendants will.

Jacques completed this trilogy with two other books, Revelations and Confrontations. After this he turned to fiction and the re-examination of old cases. For whatever reason he stopped looking for answers amid the miles of confusing and at times absurd event details. He has not commented on any new cases such as Medjugoje. Instead he has turned his attention to questionable UFO related groups. This is my favorite of his works for a reason. That reason is the comparison of "miraculous" events such as Fatima, Lourdes and the Mormon angel to the physics of UFO encounters. That one chapter, The Spiritual Component: The Morphology of Miracles, is worth the price of the book. He gives more details than you are likely to have encountered on these evens and then compares the physical events to UFO encounters. If you are a truth seeker these events will suggest areas for further research. One thing I found interesting is that while the apparitions seemed to know something about the future and give dire warnings, aside from their antics with light and ability to paralyze (and hypnotize?) they do not seem capable of effecting any changes in this world. They instruct their chosen to do simple things they seem incapable of doing themselves, such as dig for a spring of water as in the case of Fatima or seek golden tablets as in the case of the Mormon angel. And they don't seem to care much for the feelings of the people they choose, nor do they have the ability to protect them. How powerful is that?? Having a mentally challenged girl "wash herself in mud" from a spring she just dug and "eat dirt and grass" while people laugh seems to be the work of a cruel sociopath rather than a being of light and love. While he doesn't mention her, Joan of Arc is good example of a similar lack of concern for the messenger. Whoever these apparitions are, while they often encourage people to embrace a particular dogma, they seem to lack the love, kindness and compassion that is supposed to be the mainstay of the organized religions they promote.

There is nothing new presented in this book. Every theory has been articulated by authors well before this volume came out - that said, there are a number of interesting stories to be found between the rather dry analysis of these mysteries. I find it interesting that the author was an astrophysicist that was "pulled" into the UFO phenomenon after watching a group of people destroy evidence of unexplained tracks from an observatory. Really though, I cannot buy into the theory that the Celtic legends of "little people" and modern day extra-terrestrials are one in the same. The descriptions and behaviors do not match. I think the author goes too far in the assumption and draws conclusions that are not valid. This is not a book for my book shelf, but I will donate it to the local library.

Very well written and very brave to dive head first into the woo woo subject of religious experiences, telepathic contact with other beings, and the question of why are we here? what is the meaning of life? why do humans always have this attraction to spirituality? i have long believed that there really is something to the phenomenon of seeing unexplainable things in the sky and ESP and our consciousness being something tangible and detachable from our flesh body but this book really has opened my mind to even more possibilities. great book, well written and well researched, hard to deny that something is happening with so much evidence available throughout history up to present day

As always, Jacques Vallee gives us a lot of well-considered information and provocative ideas about UFOs and their occupants—and the species in which they show so much interest. Us!