I wanted to post this for two reasons, one being to try to drive this community's engagement up a little, and the other to grow my collection of books on the topic.
As much as I'd love to see this community as active as its Reddit counterpart, I would also like if it wasn't as hostile as r/UFOs. So far on Lemmy, it's been great to see that for the most part we are not all at each other's throats.
Let's talk about some books, y'all. What should I be reading?
In Plain Sight by Ross Coulthart is a must read on the history of not just the phenomenon, but how various governments around the world have worked to keep it secret, despite leaking like a sieve.
If you've got Spotify premium, it's free on there and read by the man himself. It's also got the new chapters that the updated version comes with.
I have a hard time seeing many people reading it and not thinking something is going on, even without naming it as aLiEnS.
I love hearing that man talk. Thank you for the recommendation. I have it on my kindle but found out I really like reading on paper quite a bit more. Had no idea it was an audiobook already and that it's on Spotify. Will absolutely be checking this out in the car omw to work throughout this week.
Heh, I originally got it on Kindle, made it halfway through, then when Spotify released their audiobooks immediately started listening to it. It's so much better with his wonderful soothing voice. Then my wife got me the updated book for Christmas right after I finished it haha. I'll add it to my small, but growing, collection of books.
After David Grusch's claims about the UAP crash near Magenta, Italy I decided to do a little research. This lead me to Roberto Pinotti's books "UFO Contacts in Italy". They're a chronological collection of UAP sightings and encounters in Italy that he has researched. Most of the entries are written as just the facts and recountings of witnesses, but he occasionally brings in his own thoughts on the events and ties stories together. I often gravitate to collections of encounters or stories, so I really enjoyed these.
Along those lines, "The Field Guide to Extraterrestrials" and "The Field Guide To UFOs" by Patrick Huyghe and Dennis W. Stacy were my go to as a kid. They're not the most substantial, but they're nice illustrated guides to encounters/sightings with descriptions and a brief few pages per event. I believe they're out of print, but I had to plug them just for getting me started on researching the subject.
On the edge of UAP/Non Human Intelligence is John Keel, best known for "The Mothman Prophecies". His book "The Eighth Tower: On Ultraterrestrials and the Superspectrum" is an interesting take on the phenomenon. It suggests potential ways NHI have shaped human culture throughout history. The concept revolves around existence of beings on different spectrums/wavelengths. While not technically extradimensional, it shares a lot of the same ideas. It's a little out there, but there is good research behind his ideas.
And, if you want to focus on science that could lend to the phenomenon, Michio Kaku has some great books on theoretical physics. "Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension" covered space travel, time travel, interdimensional travel, etc. At times I felt a little out of my league reading it, but as a whole it did a great job of making the subject and science accessible.
Thanks! Always love seeing your posts here and this isn't an exception. I will add these to the list! I think I find the encounters the most fascinating as well because they hint toward potential motive. I personally believe we are past the point is it real or not, but still trying to understand why/how.
Appreciate it. Yeah, there's clearly enough substance to the phenomenon to know it's real. Hopefully this year will be fruitful with the release of government documents as a result of what passed of the UAPDA. While I don't expect targeted groups to fully comply, I do think we'll see the release of enough cases to start confirming current theories.
In the meantime, there is a ton of history for the public to sift through and countless theories on why. I try not to get too invested in any one line of thought and make sure to not discount anything for not matching my expectation of reality. When examining the unknown, it's important to remember how little we know about the universe. In the end, I think it'll come down to pieces of a range of different theories proving correct and forming the truth behind the phenomenon.
I recommend an old and obscure book by a prolific contactee and psychic Ted Owens, called "How to contact space people." It's on the internet. If you have trouble locating it you can dm me (I've never used dm on Lemmy, but I assume it works fine).