The Age of Flying Saucers: Notes on the History of Unidentified Flying Objects

Book excerpt: Translated from the original French edition, this is a comprehensive history of the first 25 years of the UFO phenomenon in the United States, containing many actual case histories accompanied by the author's close analysis. Given the limited state of knowledge at the time of publication, the author's conclusions are startling. (Fans of John A. Keel's four-dimensional thesis will find much to chew on in these pages.)According to the author, Paris Flammonde, the Age of UFOs began on June 24, 1947 with Kenneth Arnold's famous sighting. It reached its peak in the late 1950s, when thousands of people came down with sauceritis and began meeting the space people face-to-face. Why? The author's theory is that it was partly mass psychosis, stemming from the demise of religion and the death of God. People were ripe for new and otherworldly messiahs, leading to the rapturous ""contactee"" reports about higher civilizations benignly watching over us - and guiding us. But that is just part of the puzzle, because the sightings and contacts were often accompanied by documented physical evidence. This comprehensive book is more than just a list of interesting sightings and encounters, however. It also provides a social history of the flying saucer culture that resulted from those incidents. Topics covered include saucer cults and religions, the evolution of government handling of the matter, conspiracies, and contactees. Flammonde also proposes a framework that sets the stage for the phenomenon to grow and propagate. This classic book is a must-have for all serious ufologists and UFO buffs.