OPERATION TROJAN HORSE: The Classic Breakthrough Study of UFOs

by John A. Keel

OUR SKIES ARE FILLED WITH TROJAN HORSES.... "The real UFO story must encompass all of the many manifestations being observed. It is a story of ghosts and phantoms and strange mental aberrations; of an invisible world that surrounds us and occasionally engulfs us; of prophets and prophecies, and gods and demons. It is a world of illusion and hallucination where the unreal seems very real, and where reality itself is distorted by strange forces which can seemingly manipulate space, time, and physical matter-forces that are almost entirely beyond our powers of comprehension."

John A. Keel (March 25, 1930 - July 3, 2009) was an American journalist and influential UFOlogist best known as the author of "The Mothman Prophecies." In the 1950s, he spent time in Egypt, India, and the Himalayas investigating snake charming cults, the Indian rope trick, and the legendary Yeti, an adventure that culminated in the publication of his first book, "Jadoo." In the mid-1960s, he took up investigating UFOs and assorted forteana and published his first knockout UFO book, "UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse," in 1970. The book shredded the then trendy nuts-and-bolts extraterrestrial hypothesis for UFOs in favor of one that linked UFOs to a variety of paranormal and supernatural phenomena that have taken place throughout history. Keel was one of the first to note that the UFO phenomenon appears in different disguises-and that one could not begin to decipher this great mystery without first taking into account its many and varied deliberate deceptions. Other than a few corrections, this Anomalist Books edition essentially follows the original 1970 edition of "UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse."

Genres: Paranormal, Nonfiction, Science, Aliens, Occult, Mystery, History

355 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

John Alva Keel (born Alva John Kiehle) was a Fortean author and professional journalist.

Keel wrote professionally from the age of 12, and was best known for his writings on unidentified flying objects, the "Mothman" of West Virginia, and other paranormal subjects. Keel was arguably one of the most widely read and influential ufologists since the early 1970s. Although his own thoughts about UFOs and associated anomalous phenomena gradually evolved since the mid 1960s, Keel remained one of ufology's most original and controversial researchers. It was Keel's second book, UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse (1970), that popularized the idea that many aspects of contemporary UFO reports, including humanoid encounters, often paralleled ancient folklore and religious encounters. Keel coined the term "men in black" to describe the mysterious figures alleged to harass UFO witnesses and he also argued that there is a direct relationship between UFOs and psychic phenomena. He did not call himself a ufologist and preferred the term Fortean, which encompasses a wide range of paranormal subjects.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

UFOs freak me out. They're right up there with demonic possession in the Creep-Out-Zone, which, if you follow Keel (Mothman Prophecies), sort of makes sense. Operation Trojan Horse is actually better than the zany (but fun) Mothman. Oh, Mothman is also creepy, but goes in a million directions. OTH is more focused, at least initially, though Keel, once he's established his foundation, does branch out into areas involving hauntings, demons, little people and myths. To some extent he's following UFO investigator Jaques Vallee, but in a more readable presentation. Vallee, a respected scientist, is one of THE senior UFO investigators. He's also part of a significant minority of UFO investigators that believe that UFOs ARE NOT from another planet. Instead, Vallee, and Keel, think UFOs are a homegrown problem, and one that has been with Mankind since the beginning. If that's the case, what are they? That's where things can get a bit slippery. Vallee, as far I can now follow, suggests some hazy government(s?) conspiracy. Keel's more down to earth (sorry), suggesting the answers are found in myth and religion. Call them Legion. In a short review, it's hard to do this theory justice, but it's still the best explanation for UFOs that I've ever read. Keel (without computers), did a remarkable amount of historical research. Some of the questions he poses are impossible for the E.T. followers to answer. For example, why so many types of ships (nearly as many as there are sightings)? Why so many visits? Why so many breakdowns of ships? Basically, what Keel is saying here is that UFOs, on surface, are absurd, deliberate performances meant to confuse. What's more important, in Keel's mind, is that UFOs are, as a whole, meant to change our points of reference, our patterns of belief. At that point, the hair starts to lift up on the back of my neck. Without question the best book on UFOs I've ever read. Sadly, it's hard to get print. You can find it free at various locations on the internet.

[Donald · Rating 5 out of 5]

The amount of work that John has put into Operation Trojan Horse is amazing. He doesn't merely utilize another person's findings through quotes and paraphrasing, but goes right to the source to get the information first hand whenever possible.

Some of the supposed UFO visitations are truly bizarre, like the farmer who was left with four pancakes. But the thing that strikes me as even more odd is that apparently no two UFO descriptions are completely alike. Oh sure, they are either cigar shaped or saucer shaped. But some have legs and some have wheels; some have propellers and some shoot flames; some have antennae and some have multicolored lights; some, when opened, have stairs and some have ramps. For as many sightings as there have been, there are that many different space ships. You'd think They would have figured out a simple design and stuck with it by now.

John Keel also brings up the idea that other unexplained occurrences in our culture such as poltergeist activity, historic religious interactions, and spiritualism might play into this equation as well. That perhaps this is a case of several peoples looking at different parts of 'an elephant' and describing what they see based on the particular part of the elephant they are standing next to. Interesting.

All these phenomena seem to occur during particular times: on Wednesdays or Saturdays, between the end of March and the beginning of April or between July and August or between October and December. And they also seem to happen around areas which have higher than normal natural magnetic activity.

Perhaps, as John points out, the United States Air Force through Project Blue Book found that these events are not only unexplained, but unexplainable. And perhaps the government shut down the project because the resources necessary to investigate these unexplainable things only lends credence to something which is unlikely. The distance from any habitable planet to this planet is such that visiting here from there willy-nilly is pretty slim.

Could the visitors be coming from another where—another reality—another plane of existence?

Could they be manifestations derived from the mind of the person or persons being visited? It would have to include mass-manifestations...

Could the whole thing be of divine provenance?

Some day we might know. But I ask: would that be a good thing?

[Hunter Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

The more John Keel books I read, the more I realize he may have figured out the origin of the UFO mystery over 50 years ago. By simply piecing the evidence of UFOs, ghosts, demons, even cryptids, he found a pattern that just may have one origin for all. The problem is the answer is even stranger than the questions. A must read for anyone interested in the paranormal.

[Chy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imbrogno mentions Keel a lot as a guy who advocated this theory combining sci-fi type UFOs, fairies, demons, angels, ghosts, and everything else besides Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. (Add in Bigfoot, and you Kelleher and his crew (Hunt for the Skinwalker).

I think it's interesting, and it's scary because Keel kept breaking my mimesis--my mimesis being that of one doing research for the world-building of her series. But every once in a while, he'd get through to me and I'd break out of my "I'm reading something interesting for ficitonal inspiration" to go, "Whoa!"

And, oh, some great inspiration for certain things in my series. And a couple of scary coincidences; that is, things I've already written adn didn't know existed in this kind of stuff.

What I'll remember most, though, are the anchors. The stories behind them sound like complete yarns, but I love them! (Like...as stories. That, and I'm still in my nautical phase.)

The best anchor story, to me, in the book: You have a seafaring vessel in the sky, over a church on a feast day around 1200 AD. The people didn't actually notice it until an anchor attached to a rope fell out of the sky. It got caught on some ropes and as the folks were gathering around going, "WTF?" a dude came down the the rope as if he were underwater. Dude, as if he were underwater. The church celebrators grabbed him and pushed him and back and forth until it seemed he "suffocated by the mist of our moist atmosphere and expired."

The other sailors cut the rope and sailed away and the murdering feasters made the anchor into the church door's grille.

Can you just imagine? "Hey! We got your anchor, here! Why don't you send someone else down for us mermen to drown!"

Like I said, I can't see it as anything but a yarn (but Keel has an interesting theory on such outlandish reports that, while it certainly makes sense, even if it's true, I still think there are a helluva lot of yarns out there.) But the point is, Cool story, bro. And there are many other interesting things in this book.

And you can almost read it like a horror story. Like one of those involve-the-reader, break-down-the-fourth-wall horror stories, since he talks about how most people who get involved in any kind of research on the supernatural wind up having all kinds of experiences of their own. So you're sitting there having him tell you that, while you're reading a book that's about the supernatural. It's enough to make you squeak a bit when one of the cats jumps on your shoulder from behind.

True story.

[Rinstinkt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Operation Trojan Horse by John A. Keel. First ed. 1970. My ed. 1996 by IllumiNet Press.
Like Keel I've always been a sceptic, and still am to a large degree, but now my scepticism is directed mostly towards the dominating narratives. And the dominating narrative is that the UFOs, or better, the UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) are of extraterrestrial origin, meaning from other planets (as it was believed when in ignorance we thought there was advanced life on Venus and/or Mars), other star systems, or other galaxies. After reading a few books of astronomy I'm more or less of the idea that Earth and life on it, particularly advanced lifeforms, is pretty rare. (An excellent scientific book that gives arguments that support this pov is "The Privileged Planet".)

Lets start with a few quotes:

Cunning techniques of deception and psychological warfare have been employed by the UFO source to keep us confused and skeptical. Man’s tendency to create a deep and inflexible belief on the basis of little or no evidence has been exploited. These beliefs have created tunnel vision and blinded many to the real nature of the phenomenon, making it necessary for me to examine and analyze many of these beliefs in this text.

-
The first photograph of an unidentified flying object was taken back in 1883 by a Mexican astronomer named Jose Bonilla. He had been observing the sun from his observatory at Zacatecas on August 12 of that year when he was taken aback by the sudden appearance of a long parade of circular objects that slowly flitted across the solar disk. Altogether he counted 143 of the things, and because his telescope was equipped with a newfangled gadget called a camera, he shot some pictures of them. When developed, the film showed a series of cigar- and spindle-shaped objects which were obviously solid and noncelestial. Professor Bonilla dutifully wrote up a scholarly report of the event filled with mathematical calculations (he estimated that the objects had actually passed over the earth at an altitude of about 200,000 miles), attached copies of his pictures and sent the whole thing off to the French journal L’Astronomie. His colleagues no doubt read it with chagrin, and because they could not explain what he had seen, they forgot about the whole business and turned to more fruitful pursuits —such as counting the rings of Saturn.

While writting these notes, I wanted to see if google and wikipedia has anything on this event. Wikipedia has at least 2 entries. The curious, funny, and absurd thing is that in the article/page "Bonilla observation" it reads "The objects were likely flocks of high flying geese" but in the "José Bonilla (astronomer)" article/page it reads "The identity of the objects he observed remained unknown until 2011 when they were identified as comet fragments".

Anyhow, Keel's main argument is that UAPs are not of extraterrestrial origin, born and bred on some other planet, solar system, or gallaxy, that visit us by going through vast distances of space with supposedly very advanced technology that makes them defy the known laws of physics, just so they can controll or guide our species. And the funny thing, is that this theory is so absurd, that it holds at least 2 incongruous beliefs about these ET... First, that despite having such an advanced technology, these poor suckers still manage to crash land on our minuscule and primitive planet (according to the ET origin theory of the UFO/UAP phenomenon). And second, that there would need to be hundreds if not thousands of different species of ET that have visited or still visit Earth on the regular, considering that people throughout the ages have described UAP of different sizes, shapes, colors, lights etc etc... Why all this heterogeneity?

If they [the hard objects] are the product of a superior intelligence with an advanced technology, they seem to be suffering from faulty workmanship. Since 1896 there have been hundreds of reports in which lone witnesses have stumbled onto grounded hard objects being repaired by their pilots. In flight, they have an astounding habit of losing pieces of metal. They seem to be ill-made, always falling apart, frequently exploding in midair. There are so many of these incidents that we must wonder if they aren’t really deliberate. Maybe they are meant to foster the belief that the objects are real and mechanical.

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Thousands of UFO photos have been taken since 1882. Many of these are of indistinct blobs and streaks of light, but many are of apparently solid machines of some sort, with windows, fins, and other clearly discernible features. There’s just one problem. With very few exceptions, no two UFO photographs are alike. [...] During these past three years I have conducted thousands of investigations in person, by telephone, and by mail, and while many of the descriptions of the luminous, flexible “soft” objects are exactly the same, I have rarely heard two independent witnesses describe separate seemingly solid “hard” objects in the same terms. [...] Because the witnesses seem to be telling the truth, we must assume that UFOs come in myriad sizes and shapes. Or no real shapes at all. This leads us to the old psychological warfare gambit once more. If the phenomenon has built-in discrepancies, then no one will take it seriously. If people in Brazil, Iowa, and Australia all gave exactly the same descriptions, then the scientific and military establishments would have to take the subject far more seriously.

Hence Keel, and others (e.g. Jacques Valle) argue that the UFO/UAP phenomenon is produced by something else entirely, probably not physical and/or material as we understand these terms, but probably something energetic, paraphysical, paranormal, even spiritual and/or demonological in lots and lots of cases. If you compare the modus of manifestation of these phenomena, as described in hundreds of cases, unrelated spatially and temporally to each other, it emerges a clear pattern.
According to Keel, there is a source behind the UFO/UAP phenomenon, and the source chooses intentionally to currently manifest itself in a certain way. 200 years ago it manifested in a different way. 2000 years ago in another different maner, as fairies, demons, and other supernatural entities.

The thousands of sightings of phantom dirigibles and mysterious airplanes from 1896 to 1938 provide us with a substantial body of evidence which indicates that the phenomenon is actually flexible and that it tailors itself to adopt acceptable forms for the time periods in which it operates.

Keel suggests that these beings - he calles them "untraterrestrials" - have a hostile intent and use UFOs as a "Trojan horse" to deceive and influence humanity.


In Chapter 1 Keel outlines twenty-two typical reports, from which emerge some constant commonalities:

Most of these were of luminous objects that behaved in peculiar, unnatural ways. The great majority of all sightings throughout history have been of “soft” luminous objects, or objects that were transparent, translucent, changed size and shape, or appeared and disappeared suddenly. Sightings of seemingly solid metallic objects have always been quite rare. The “soft” sightings, being more numerous, comprise the real phenomenon and deserve the most study. The scope, frequency and distribution of the sightings make the popular extraterrestrial (interplanetary) hypothesis completely untenable.

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What had these people seen? The general behavior of the objects clearly indicated that they were paraphysical (i.e., not composed of solid matter). They were clocked at incredible speeds within the atmosphere but did not produce sonic booms. They performed impossible maneuvers that defied the laws of inertia. They appeared and disappeared suddenly, like ghosts.

Furthermore, UFOs/UAPs involve physical effects such as radio interference, electromagnetic radiation, sound waves, heat, light, etc., and are also related to altered states of consciousness, psychic abilities, synchronicities, and other aspects of the human mind that are not fully understood by mainstream science.

We are surrounded by energies we cannot see. It is possible that some of these energies form objects, entities and even worlds that we can’t see, either. But just because we can’t see, hear, feel or taste them doesn’t mean that they aren’t there.

-
I think that some “hard” objects definitely exist as Temporary Transmogrifications. They are disk-shaped and cigar-shaped. They leave indentations in the ground when they land. Witnesses have touched them and have even been inside of them. These hard objects are decoys, just as the dirigibles and ghost planes of yesteryear may have been decoys to cover the activities of the multitudinous soft objects. My real concern is with these soft objects. They hold one of the keys to the mystery.

Keel supports his arguments with many more examples of UAP sightings, humanoid encounters, poltergeist activity, and other paranormal events that are related to the ultraterrestrial phenomenon.

-

Some more quotes:

The phenomenon is constantly reaching down to us, creating frames of reference that we can understand and accept. Then, whenever we see something unusual in the sky, we accept it within that frame of reference and call it a meteor, an airplane, an angel, or a visitor from outer space. The first step to understanding UFOs is to discard all frames of reference and try to view the phenomenon as a whole.

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Until 1848, the religious frame of reference was constantly used by the phenomenon. But as man’s technology improved and many of our old beliefs were discarded, the phenomenon was obliged to update its manifestations and establish new frames of reference. The phantom armies and angels so frequently reported in the past were replaced by transmogrifications that appeared to match man’s own technological achievements. If huge, multi-engined airplanes of the 1934 Scandinavian type had appeared over San Francisco in 1896, they would have created a far greater stir than the clumsy dirigibles which were used in that flap. By 1909, man had learned to build and fly crude machines, so the new transmogrifications of Operation Trojan Horse took the form of biplanes and carefully flew over the areas where the many “soft” objects were busily engaged in their mysterious enterprises.

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Beginning in 1947, the great “flying saucer” frame of reference was carefully built up by a long series of spectacular incidents and contacts. The whole structure of these events carefully follows the psychological patterns inherent in the earlier flaps. We were seeing no more—and no fewer—anomalous aerial objects in 1947 than had been seen in 1847. We were simply seeing them in a new way. A new game was being played with us.

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Small groups of believers quickly sprang up, even though no one bothered to collect and study the hundreds of UFO reports from June-July 1947 to search objectively for the hidden patterns. These believers immediately accepted the extraterrestrial hypothesis, and they spent the next twenty years advocating the idea. Their research followed a singular line: They labored to prove the reliability of witnesses. This meant that if a police officer or pilot observed an unusual object from a great distance, his report was given precedence over the report of a housewife who saw one land in her own backyard. Some of these cults became obsessed with the search for physical evidence. But their criteria for evidence was very strict. Such evidence had to be nonterrestrial. But this was a vicious circle. If a piece of metal fell from a UFO and proved to be ordinary aluminum, it was discarded. If it proved to be made of a puzzling, unidentifiable alloy, it still proved nothing unless the source could also be proven.
A new game emerged: the artifact or hardware game. This game is well known in the Irish fairy lore. The phenomenon has always obliged us by planting false evidence all over the landscape.

-
In the Forgotten Books of Eden, an apocryphal book allegedly translated from ancient Egyptian in the nineteenth century, we are told that Satan and his hosts were fallen angels who populated the earth before Adam was brought into being, and Satan used lights, fire, and water in his efforts to rid the planet of this troublesome creature. He even disguised himself as an angel from time to time and appeared as a beautiful young woman in his efforts to lead Adam to his doom. UFO-type lights were one of the Devil’s devices described in the Forgotten Books of Eden. Subtle variations on this same theme can be found in the Bible and in the numerous scriptures of the Oriental cultures. Religious man has always been so enthralled with the main (and probably allegorical) story line that the hidden point has been missed. That point is that the earth was occupied before man arrived or was created. The original occupants or forces were paraphysical and possessed the power of transmogrification. Man was the interloper, and the earth’s original occupants or owners were not very happy over the intrusion. The inevitable conflict arose between physical man and the paraphysical owners of the planet. Man accepted the interpretation that this conflict raged between his creator and the Devil. The religious viewpoint has always been that the Devil has been attacking man (trying to get rid of him) by foisting disasters, wars, and sundry evils upon him.
There is historical and modern proof that this may be so.
A major, but little-explored, aspect of the UFO phenomenon is therefore theological and philosophical rather than purely scientific. The UFO problem can never be untangled by physicists and scientists unless they are men who have also been schooled in liberal arts, theology, and philosophy. Unfortunately, most scientific disciplines are so demanding that their practitioners have little time or inclination to study complicated subjects outside their own immediate fields of interest.
Satan and his demons are part of the folklore of all races, no matter how isolated they have been from one another. The Indians of North America have many legends and stories about a devil-like entity who appeared as a man and was known as the trickster because he pulled off so many vile stunts. Tribes in Africa, South America, and the remote Pacific islands have similar stories.
Mystery men with strange persuasive powers, sometimes good but more often evil, are described and discussed in many books with no UFO or religious orientation. A dark gentleman in a cloak and hood is supposed to have handed Thomas Jefferson the design for the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States (you will find this on a dollar bill). Julius Caesar, Napoleon, and many others are supposed to have had enigmatic meetings with these odd personages. These stories turn up in such unexpected places as Madame Du Barry’s memoirs. She claimed repeated encounters with a strange young man who would approach her suddenly on the street and give her startling prophecies about herself. He pointedly told her that the last time she would see him would serve as an omen for a sudden reversal of her fortunes. Sure enough, on April 27, 1774, as she and her ailing lover, King Louis XV, were heading for the palace of Versailles, the youthful mystery man appeared one final time.
“I mechanically directed my eyes toward the iron gate leading to the garden,” she wrote. “I felt my face drained of blood as a cry of horror escaped my lips. For, leaning against the gate was that singular being.”
The coach was halted, and three men searched the area thoroughly but could find no trace of him. He had vanished into thin air. Soon afterward Madame Du Barry’s illustrious career in the royal courts ended, and she went into exile.
Malcolm X, the late leader of a black militant group, reported a classic experience with a paraphysical “man in black” in his autobiography. He was serving a prison sentence at the time, and the entity materialized in his prison cell:
As I lay on my bed, I suddenly became aware of a man sitting beside me in my chair. He had on a dark suit, I remember. I could see him as plainly as I see anyone I look at. He wasn’t black, and he wasn’t white. He was light-brown-skinned, an Asiatic cast of countenance, and he had oily black hair. I looked right into his face. I didn’t get frightened. I knew I wasn’t dreaming. I couldn’t move, I didn’t speak, and he didn’t. I couldn’t place him racially—other than I knew he was a non-European. I had no idea whatsoever who he was. He just sat there. Then, as suddenly as he had come, he was gone.

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Thousands of mediums, psychics, and UFO contactees have been receiving mountains of messages from “Ashtar” in recent years. Mr. Ashtar represents himself as a leader in the great intergalactic councils that hold regular meetings on Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, and many planets unknown to us. But Ashtar is not a new arrival. Variations of this name, such as Ashtaroth, Ashar, Asharoth, etc., appear in demonological literature throughout history, both in the Orient and the Occident. Mr. Ashtar has been around a very long time, posing as assorted gods and demons and now, in the modern phase, as another glorious spaceman.

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There is no reason to think that the four children of Garabandal [Spain - Sunday, June 18, 1961] had ever seen, or even knew about, the eye symbol on the Great Seal of the United States. Nor is it remotely possible that the children, or any of the elders of Garabandal, could have known of the importance that this symbol plays in the silent contactee situation. In fact, very few ufologists are aware of it. Those mysterious “men in black” who travel around in unlicensed Cadillacs have reportedly been seen wearing lapel pins bearing the symbol. They have also identified themselves directly as being from “the Nation of the Third Eye.” So we call the symbol the Third Eye. It would be interesting to find out why some cultures regarded it as evil, while others used it to symbolize the Deity. Why did the Third Eye appear beside the vision at Garabandal? Was it a symbol of identification? Or was it a warning?

[Max Nemtsov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ну вот наконец-то то, что нужно. Прекрасное мозгоебское исследование фортеанца, в котором видны корни и Фроста с Линчем, и Пинчона, поскольку спектр прикладной уфологии широк, а вот последовательных гипотез кот наплакал. Фантасты, сочиняющие что-то на ту же тему (или заимствующие что-либо у фортеанцев), выглядят крайне бледно, потому что в своем коммерческом рвении неубедительны, и им не хватает безумия. Тут же все по-честному - и очень, очень увлекательно. В общем, "к черту ответы - что был за вопрос?"
Из удивительного. Наш автор пересказывает случай на границе Швеции и Норвегии в 1933 году, идентичный пропаже группы Дятлова на Урале в 59-м. Про Дятлова он знать явно не мог и на этот случай не ссылается. Шведского летчика-лыжника тогда отправили исследовать район т.н. флэпа - массовых наблюдений неопознанных летающих самолетов.
Еще одно замечательное что-то - о культе асексуальных людей в Советском Союзе, которые будут править миром. Возглавлял его якобы бесполый Георгий Маленков, а мальчиков в нем кастрировали.
Но в целом его гипотеза о том, что уфологические явления и явления оккультного свойства суть проявления одного, скажем, гм, энергетического поля, которое, если к нему приглядеться, очень похоже на дхармакаю, не лишена смысла и красоты. Ну и тут сердце мое осталось покорено чудесным спецпропагандистским трюком автора - посвящением этой книжки Лаокоону.

[Williwaw · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been curious about John Keel ever since I read "Mutants & Mystics," by Jeffrey Kripal. Recently, I discovered that "Operation Trojan Horse" is available online in a pdf (type "John Keel pdf" in your web browser's search window, and you can get several of Keel's books).

I'm at least halfway through this book. It has involved a fair amount of skimming, because there are many tedious accounts of UFO sightings. (The UFO phenomenon interests me, but reading endless eyewitness narrative after eyewitness narrative does not.)

What I'm more interested in is Keel's theory of UFO's. He rejects the popular theory that UFO's are extraterrestrial spaceships. That's clear. And his reasons for rejecting that theory are quite compelling.

From what I gather so far, Keel believes that UFO's are living beings that can move in and out of the "visible" electromagnetic spectrum. And they are not a "new" phenomenon.

The creepy thing about Keel's theory is that he believes that these beings are up to no good. Is Keel just a paranoid conspiracy theorist? Not quite; but close, I think.

I just wish he'd get to the punchline! Too many teasers and too many personal accounts. Here's a full-length book that should have been a 30-page pamphlet.

/////UPDATE////

Ultimately, Keel wore me out. This book was one of many that came out in the 1970's, when there was a high tide of interest in what is sometimes called "paranormal phenomena." Keel's book evokes memories of my frequent childhood trips to the drug store book racks (yeah, imagine that -- they used to sell lots of books and magazines at pharmacies!). The pharmacy shelves back then were full of Erich von Daniken's tracts on ancient encounters with alien civilizations, books on "the secret life" of plants, or the mysterious power of pyramids, or Edgar Cayce's spiritualism, or ESP, or reincarnation etc., etc. All these subjects were tremendously popular in the 1970's.

"Operation Trojan Horse" (OTH) would have fit in nicely with those books. I read most of it, but frequently found myself skimming. As I mentioned before, you'll find a superabundance of UFO stories by purported witnesses and abductees, as well as long discussions of the 19th century spiritualists, and related paranormal phenomena.

Keel did a good job of convincing me that, despite the fact that some accounts are purely fraudulent, there are genuine instances of unusual and unexplained phenomena. Keel doesn't come across as an unsophisticated or gullible person. He even claims to be the first person who has ever taken a statistical approach to the long-term frequency and locus of UFO sitings.

I find it interesting that Keel started out as a total skeptic. In fact, his first book, Jadoo (which I have not read), was apparently a debunking of Far East anecdotes of paranormal phenomena, such as the Indian Rope Trick. Keel even specifically states, toward the end of OTH, that he began his investigation of UFO's as a total skeptic, and then ended up being plagued by mysterious experiences, including his own sitings of UFO's. He even claims to have had long telephone conversations with what he calls "ufonauts!" (aka Men in Black).

The first half of OTH held my interest and was convincing enough to spook me a bit. I found the second half fairly frustrating. I kept thinking that Keel was going to cap it all off with a grand theory. Occasionally, he dabbles in theory, but then he retreats to his endless forests of third-party anecdotes. Because I was reading online, I was able to quickly check up on the status of some of these anecdotes. (For example, the "Bell Witch" legend of Tennessee turns out to be a legend spun by people who had no first-hand experience of the purported events. Yet Keel takes this legend at face value! That's analogous to believing in the absolute truth of the New Testament: there are no extant, contemporaneous accounts of Jesus).

Ultimately, Keel doesn't have a well-developed theory of UFO's. He believes that UFO's and "ufonauts" are manifestations of a form of intelligent energy that inhabits the earth. He believes that these manifestations have been observed by humans throughout recorded history. He does not believe that the "ufonauts" are from other planets. He believes that poltergeists, angels, demons, and all types of spirit visitations are just another aspect of UFO energy.

Keel suggests that this intelligent energy is not benign, yet it's unclear what the "ufonauts" intend to accomplish by haunting us. Keel seems to believe that UFO energy is the source of religion, as well, so it would be interesting to know his opinions on religion and religious belief.

OTH was interesting, but ultimately too long and too unsatisfying to earn more than 2 stars from me.

[Mark Tallen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is undoubtedly worthy of its classic status within the subject of ufology. The book is compelling. It is very effective in the way that it outlines the fact that the phenomenon is very much linked to basically, all other supernatural phenomena. Keel sets out a compelling argument for this in these pages. His prose is engaging and he skillfully sets out the complexities in dare I say, Laymans terms. I for one, appreciated that. For me, this book has some parallels with Passport To Magonia, written by Jacques Vallee. Magonia is another essential classic that I highly recommend. I'm sure that the two men have their differences of opinion, but there is no denying some parallels. What I also find very interesting about Operation Trojan Horse, is how some of the cases that are talked about, are basically mirrored in recent times at The Skinwalker ranch. In a sense, this in itself isn't that surprising because as this book states, this phenomenon has been happening for thousands of years. Along with the books by Vallee, this is another book that that has made me review my thoughts about this fascinating, and important subject.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very, very close to being a three star book. I'd read Keel's The Mothman Prophecies, so I was aware of his general theories regarding UFOs and the paranormal, and found them rather interesting. And I'll say this much, those theories were interesting here as well, and the last several chapters were actually quite good. However, I almost gave up on this book because Keel's recounting of various UFO sightings and related phenomena just kept going and going and going, and it wore me out. I much prefer his other book, since it was better structured and had more interesting and strange stories recounted in it.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than "Our Haunted Planet", which struck me as a sloppily thrown together grab bag of unintentionally comical 1970's hippie New Age cliches that'd make perfect lyrical themes for a progressive rock concept album of the era but not what I would call a convincing work of ufology.

Once again I am not sold on Keel's conclusions here, which are different than his "isolated high tech civilisation older than humanity" in "Our Haunted Planet". The difference is that Keel has done an admirable job in "Operation Trojan Horse" at compiling some of the strangest and most obscure UFO sightings and alien encounters that more respectable ufologists (whatever that means to the general public) would ignore. Examples include aliens that are not much bigger than Peyo's Smurfs and even act very much like them or human aliens that gift contactees with home baked pancakes.

The most impressive part of "Operation Trojan Horse" might be how many stories Keel has compiled and preserved here from the late 19th/early 20th mystery airship wave, when UFOs and their pilots took the form of elaborate steampunk dirigibles straight out of Hayao Miyazaki's "Castle in the Sky" piloted by Captain Nemo-style adventurous eccentric inventor. Keel has not just found stories here from the UK and US but countries as far away as New Zealand and South Africa! Most importantly, Keel has done much to fact-check these stories and found that while some were deliberate hoaxes, just as many mystery airship stories were reported by people who were completely honest that they had experienced something out of the ordinary.

Keel also describes an aspect of ufology that I remained oblivious to until now, the so-called "ghost planes": unmarked aircraft seen across the world between the two World Wars that are always a level bigger and more advanced than any production aircraft of the era but sound old-fashioned in description to audiences 20 years later. One might notice that quite a few aircraft exactly like that show up in another Miyazaki film, that is "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds", to the point I'd be surprised if the veteran animator does not have a worn-out Japanese translation of "UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse" on his shelves!

The new theory-of-everything behind the supernatural here draws on both Vincent Gaddis' Mysterious Fires and Lights, that suggested UFOs were in fact an unknown clade of lifeforms adapted to life in the upper atmosphere, and then cutting edge discoveries that human senses only perceive a very narrow spectrum of the physical universe. Keel ends up at the conclusion that aliens, angels, demons, elves, mystery airship inventor pilots, Men In Black and whatnot are manifestations of immaterial energy beings normally invisible to humans who take different forms when interacting with us depending on how the human cultures in question perceive superhuman intelligences.

Contactee Whitley Strieber of Communion: A True Story fame would later arrive at this exact theory, the difference being that Strieber considers the "visitors" less hostile than Keel does! The difference, though, is that Strieber can look and sound respectable enough to mainstream audiences in a way Keel never was.

I'm not on board with that theory myself, since it dispenses with the need for hard physical evidence in a way I find a bit too convenient. To say nothing of the fact that Keel accepts as truth here several stories that since have been proven hoaxes or misconceptions. Nonetheless I still find "Operation Trojan Horse" worth reading because of how many "high strangeness" UFO cases Keel described in depth here, that most other ufologists of his generation would have ignored.

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of a slog, but only because Keel is attempting to be rigorous and exhaustive about an insanely broad swath of the history of paranormal science. His thesis, that essentially every weird thing that's ever happened are just different facets of the same phenomena, requires that he take such a big bite out of the field.

Part of me feels sorry for him for having to find ways to support such a crazy claim. Part of me respects his commitment to defend what must seem to him the harder but more true story. And that's what kind of makes me start to be swayed, just a little, by his argument.

There are hundreds of books on the paranormal, and I've read them all, and all of them except this one try to temper the unreality of their subjects with explanations that fit into some kind of rational framework, even if they have to construct the framework themselves. But Keel is saying that it is the fact that we *can* (or think we can) fit these phenomena into frameworks *proves* that all such frameworks must be incomplete. *AND* that the phenomena are *aware* of these frameworks.

Since the 5th grade, when my interest in the paranormal began, I have always been troubled by the limits of my own tolerance for the supernatural. Why do I accept flying saucers but reject blond Pleiadians? Why do I believe in ghosts but not in werewolves? What is the precise nature of my hidden criteria for bullshit? "Plausibility"? What the fuck does that even mean when we tread in such deep waters? It's *all* implausible; that's why we're talking about it! That's why it's cool!

"Operation Trojan Horse" is an attempt to construct a "grammar" with which to have such "metaparanormal" discussions, and though the material is now outdated and much rehashed, I solute Mr. Keel for his audacity and the strength of his prose, and I recommend this book to any serious student of the field.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read three of Keel's books, one right after the other, while visiting Mike Miley in Sonoma, California: The Mothman Prophecies, Disneyland of the Gods and Operation Trojan Horse. Generally, his thesis about the odd events and experiences he describes is comparable to that of Jacques Vallee: Some unknown agency or agencies cause people to have outlandish experiences and have been doing so throughout all of human history. The ways in which humans interpret these experiences vary greatly depending upon the cultural set of the experiencer. Thus what was a fairy, an angel or demon in one setting might be interpreted as a alien from a UFO in another.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots (and lots) of unorganized abduction and flying saucer examples, most of which I’ve already read, except for the few about steampunkesque dirigibles dropping anchors on medieval churches. The gist of this is unclear but basically that UFOs are energetic manipulations of our brains and/OR manifestations from some other reality thinly related to our own. These UFO thingamajigs are somehow related to ghosts and mediums and possessions and fairies and Lourdes and Our Lady of Fatima and basically everything in some grand plot to twist all of humanity’s minds in a weird game with sometimes nefarious, sometimes positive ends, complete with men in black. Hrm.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Synopsis: Keel presents many cases of the paranormal, many of which he has studied firsthand. Through this presentation Keel makes a very bold assertion, that the entirety of paranormal activity, from UFO’s and their occupants to poltergeist and psychic visitors are presenting a false narrative, a trojan horse to society. He begins this tale with his own studies with data and connections to show which are fascinating. He then moves into other ufologists works to find connections, moving from the classicals, including biblical, to the 1800’s and finally to the contemporary cases, contemporary being the 1960’s. He also spans the globe with the cases he uses as examples. He speculates possible explanations for all of the cases, settling on beings made of energy waves.
Keel then goes on to speak of psychic phenomenon, seances and poltergeist. None of these accounts are really first hand and he does not provide sources as to their validity. He states much of the communicated information in these cases correspond with UFO contactees. Much of the information is good, some of it is outdated, but overall it is an interesting read.

The Best: Keel makes many connections between stories I have not noticed and firsthand stories I had never heard. The idea of UFO’s being

The Worst: his constant speculation gets in the way of really njoying this book in the new millennium, many of his assertions do not make sense with the way technology, astronomy and our understanding of physics has progressed. His citation free style also leaves parts of the book questionable in truthfulness. And Finally he waits until the last ten pages to tell you off handedly he used to write psychological propaganda for the Army, this would have been nice to know from the start

[Yorgos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keel made quite a job in this book. Firstly, he did an amazing amount of research, considering he wrote this much before the computer age. Secondly, he dealt with the issue in a scientific, strict way, with logic and systematic analysis of events. Thirdly, and most importantly, his thesis that UFOs represent a phenomenon more psychical and "etheric" than materialistic, is well founded and supported. He does not preclude the possibility a small minority of the phenomenon to be of an extraterrestrial, materialistic explanation. But he shows that the bulk of the phenomenon is less materialistic, and touching more on the subjects having been studied by metaphysics and occult philosophy, also by modern advanced physics.
Recommended to all interested in this subject.

[Michael Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting set of anecdotes contributing to Keel's larger thesis. His ideas are a lot of fun to play with and he scores serious points for having expressed them as early as he did, but at many times I found myself wishing for more detail about this or that incident, or a bibliography, or footnotes, or *something*. Keel's ability to walk the line between conversation and reportage is well-used here but sometimes I wanted less of the former and more of the latter.

Excellent fodder for anyone looking for content to remix in fiction or gaming.

[Steven H · Rating 1 out of 5]

ARE UFOS REALLY AN ELECTROMAGNETIC FORCE CONTROLLING US?

John Alva Keel (1930-2009) was an American journalist and UFOlogist. He wrote in the Introduction to this 1996 book, “It took four years to research and write this book back in the 1960s. I had to travel all over the United States, interview hundreds of people in person and thousands of others by mail and telephone. It was necessary to locate and study countless books, old magazines and obscure newsletters in a massive and very expensive effort to find out what was really going on. Twenty years of controversy and nonsense generated ty science fiction writers and Hollywood scenarists had yielded no results at all. The whole subject had, in fact, been totally misrepresented by both the untrained and uninformed UFO advocates and the various governmental agencies that had been sucked unwillingly into the fray. The hard facts were buried in a sea of insane polemics. Sorting it all out drove me to the brink of bankruptcy… When you read this book keep in mind the simple fact that American ufology is based upon psychological factors that have been well understood for thousands of years and which have led the human race into many dreary Dark Ages. As this shell-shocked century draws to a close we are not confronting some splendid extraterrestrial civilization. We are facing ourselves.”

He argues, “I now believe that the UFO phenomenon is primarily electromagnetic in origin and that it possesses the ability to adjust beams of electromagnetic energy to any given frequency, ranging from ultrahigh frequencies (UHF) radio signals like those of the astronauts, to very low frequencies (VLF) which can be picked up only by special equipment, to very, very low frequencies identical to the magnetic fields surrounding telephone wires or the outputs of public address systems in schools and churches. I also believe that this same phenomenon is flexible to an unbelievable degree. It can create and manipulate matter through electromagnetic fields above and below the range of our perceptions and our own technical equipment. The phenomenon is mostly invisible to us because it consists of energy rather than solid earthly matter. It is guided by a great intelligence and has concentrated itself in the areas of magnetic faults throughout history. It makes itself visible to us from time to time by manipulating patterns of frequency. It can take any form it desires, ranging from the shapes of airplanes to gigantic cylindrical spaceships. It can manifest itself into seemingly living entities ranging from little green men to awesome one-eyed giants. But none of these configurations is its true form. The UFO sighting data confirm this theory, but we lack the necessary technology to prove it conclusively.” (Pg. 45)

He suggests, “we have thousands upon thousands of UFO sightings that force two unacceptable answers upon us: 1. All the witnesses were mistaken or lying. 2. Some tremendous unknown civilization is exerting an all-out effort to manufacture thousands of different types of UFOs and is sending them to our planet. The governments of the world have seized upon variations of the first explanation. The UFO enthusiasts accept the second. I do not accept either one. Instead, I propose a third alternative. I think that some ‘hard’ objects definitely exist as Temporary Transmogrifications They are disk-shaped and cigar-shaped. They leave indentations in the ground when they land. Witnesses have touched them and have even been inside them. These hard objects are decoys, just as the dirigibles and ghost planes of yesteryear may have been decoys to cover the activities of the multitudinous soft objects. My reason concern is with these soft objects. They hold one of the keys to the mystery.” (Pg. 127)

He states, “The amusing little mystery of flying saucers slowly evolved into a complicated series of coincidences and paradoxes as we plunge deeper and deeper into the data, excluding nothing, and considering everything as objectively as possible. Our skies have been filled with ‘Trojan horses’ throughout history, and like the original Trojan horse, they seem to conceal hostile intent… We (the ufologists) have really only paid attention to the eccentrics. The objects of unusual configurations. They undoubted constitute a minority, and probably a deceptive minority, of all the paraphysical objects flitting about in our atmosphere. In other words, flying saucers are not at all that we have hoped they were. They are a part of something else. I call that something else Operation Trojan Horse.” (Pg. 149)

He asserts, “The ‘superior technology’ of Operation Trojan Horse has apparently produced a line of faulty flying machines that constantly break down. Pieces of the damned things are always falling off where they can be grabbed up by eager UFO investigators. If the UFOs were real, it would be logical for a saucer in trouble to seek out a very isolated hilltop to make repairs. Instead, they prefer to land in the fields of occupied farms and on major highways close to big cities.” (Pg. 159)

He summarizes: “Throughout this book I have tried to explain that UFOs seem to be transmogrifications: seemingly material apparitions that might actually be composed of energies from the high reaches of the electromagnetic spectrum. If this is so, then one additional factor is necessary: order or intelligence. The UFO phenomenon does seem to be controlled. It does follow intelligent patterns. If the objects themselves are manifestations of higher energies, then something has to manipulate those energies somehow and reduce them to visible frequencies, but they take forms that seem physical and real to us, and they carry out actions which seem intelligent. Thus we arrive at the source. The source has to be a form of intelligent energy operating at the very highest possible point of the frequency spectrum. If such an energy exists at all, it might permeate the universe and maintain equal control over each component part. Because of its very high frequency… the source has no need to replenish itself in any way that would be acceptable to our environmental sciences. It could actually create and destroy matter by manipulating the lower energies. It would be timeless, because it exists beyond all time fields. It would be infinite because it is not confined by three-dimensional space… It could surround you completely at this very moment and be totally aware of all the feeble pulses of low energy passing through your brain. If is so desired, it could control your thoughts. Man has always been aware of this intelligent energy or force. He has always worshipped it.” (Pg. 170-172)

He states, “March and April have always produced many of our principal UFO sightings. These religious manifestations are clearly a variation on the UFO manifestations (or vice versa). The same methods of communication are being employed in both phenomena, and the UFO entities bear a marked resemblance to the religious entities. Our awareness of these correlations presents us with a small dilemma. Are the religious miracles really a manifestation of some extraterrestrial intelligence? Or are the UFOs really some manifestation of God?” (Pg. 239-240)

He summarizes, “What all this really means is that someone or something actually has the power to completely possess and control the human mind. Human beings can be manipulated through this power and used for both good and evil purposes. We have no way of knowing how many human beings throughout the world may have been processed in this manner, because they would have absolutely no memory of undergoing this experience, and so we have no way of determining who among us has strange and sinister ‘programs’ lying dormant in the dark corners of his mind. Suppose the plan is to process millions of people and then at some future date trigger all of those minds at one time? Would we suddenly have a world of saints? Or would we have a world of armed maniacs shooting at one another from bell towers?” (Pg. 258)

He concludes, “We all seem to be embarked on some new adventure. Our little planet seems to be experiencing the interpretation of forces or entities from some other space-time continuum. Perhaps they are trying to lead us into a new Dark Age of fear and superstition. Or perhaps they will be guiding us upward to some unexpected destiny. I am not a scientist, theologian or philosopher. I am only a reporter. My business is asking questions, not answering them…” (Pg. 273)

This book will mostly appeal to those looking for 'different' or creative interpretations of UFOs, etc.

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because I am familiar with 2 or 3 of the things he says, and they are not accurate, I am not sure how accurate his reporting is on the many things I don't know.

For example, he says the men who went to Herod (we call them the wisemen, but he doesn't) went there weeks before Jesus was born, and they were "3 dark-skinned men with Oriental features." He made this up. We only know they came from east of the area where Jesus was born. We don't know how many there were, their skin color, etc. Also, the star appeared when Jesus was born, and it took time for them to follow it to the right country. The scriptures plainly say that the men saw the "child" (not baby) in a "house" (not stable). He points out they didn't go back to Herod, but ignores the fact that it was because God warned them not to. He seems to be trying to say they were part of the UFO phenomena (it will make sense if you read the book).

Another example is that he talks about Joseph Smith (of Book of Mormon fame) seeing a being (angel) in his room. The author claims the angel was faceless. He was not. Joseph described his clothing, but not his face. I expect that was because his face looked rather ordinary, because if the being had no face, I expect Josrph would have been horrified enough to note that in his description.

Whether or not you believe the Bible or Joseph Smith is beside the point. The point is that what the Bible says and what Joseph said is available for anyone to read, and this author got it wrong. So is he trustworthy when it come to his other countless reports?

And now for the real spoiler. It's demons and devils, also known as tricksters, and in the old days they were called fairies and such. Surprisingly, he makes a believable case for this toward the end of the book.

I don't agree with all of his conclusions about unidentified flying objects, nor do I believe he actually talked to aliens/demons on the phone (contactees sometimes called him on the phone, then would hand the phone to the "alien" they were talking to).

I gave this 4 stars because it is very readable, and has some unique ideas and conclusions (including: the demons don't like that humans were put here, because they were here first, and it is *their* planet and *their* home).

[Jose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Empieza a lo Libro De Los Condenados de Fort y en una clara postura escéptica y te mete dentrísimo de una creencia medio lo de Buñuel con el Misterio medio lo que enarbola William Peter Blatty en la excepcional secuela de El Exorcista, esa obra maestra de la metafísica titulada Legión.

Y encima, como ocurre en todos estos registros de hechos inexplicables y personas más allá de lo excéntrico, nutre al lector de un buen número de personas sobre las que investigar sus biografías, entre ellas Dino Kraspedon tcc Aladino Félix.

[Todd Billeci · Rating 2 out of 5]

Where is the argument?

Meticulous and dated, the book spends a lot of time in the 1800s—producing, for example, graphs of poltergeist activity versus ufo reports—as part of a hand-waving argument that ufos=demons and bad guys from another dimension are coming. Unfortunately, materials & methods are missing or vague; detailed tables showing numbers are absent. It seems unlikely that the author undertook the extensive travel and expenses required, pre-internet, to translate mountains of international archives necessary for a representative sample of accounts. The odd stories make enjoyable reading, but unfortunately, objective support for his thesis never appears and data cannot be validated. Sadly, Keel becomes increasingly dull and hubristic. Whatever the nature of reality may be, it wasn't settled here.

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic analysis of UFO experiences pre-1970. Loved Keel's presentation of unseen consistencies (or lack thereof) in contactee's experiences. This book throws the doors (or windows) open on a phenomena that's been with us for some time. Well-cited, extremely deeply researched. I only faltered at some of his conclusions. While they may be true, I'd like to have seen a bit more depth in the building of his arguments and extrapolations of the data gathered. Overall, I'd recommend to absolutely anyone. Another study that shows the remarkable depth of genuine interaction of a field of study taken for granted or completely pushed aside by most of the general public.

[Christopher Carpenter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kept waiting...

and waiting for the meat to chew on. It never came. Selected examples and a theory that could be summarized in a few sentences rather than a book. Decades in the making? Yeah right.

[Little Miss Esoteric · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars.

My review of 'The Mothman Prophecies' pretty much covers my feelings about this book too: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Bill FromPA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why UFOs (1976 re-titled reprint of Operation Trojan Horse, 1970) by John A. Keel

The thing about John Keel as a UFO investigator is that he doesn’t reject any witness testimony out-of-hand. Nothing is too weird for him to accept; rather than looking for evidence to suit his hypothesis, he tries to gather as much evidence as he can, then develop a hypothesis to fit it. Since a lot of his evidence is far out, so, in the end, is his hypothesis. Skeptics may now sit back and relax, reassured that “Garbage In = Garbage Out”.

The credibility of Keel’s evidence depends on a combination of how much you are willing to credit his reportorial skills and how impressed you will be by the similarities he points out between publicized, but not necessarily well-known, incidents of strange testimony across large gaps of time and geographic space. For the purposes of talking about his book, I’m willing to grant that he is an accurate reporter of his own experiences and the testimony of his interviewees. Outside of his direct reporting, I found independent support for his claims about those incidents I researched that derive from other sources.

Keel takes a basic knowledge of UFOology circa 1970 for granted; he alludes to famous cases like Kenneth Arnold, George Adamski, and Barney and Betty Hill without elaborating on their details. Unlike many writers on the subject, he accepts the testimony of most contactees as part of his data set. He wrote the book after traveling across the US for three years in the late 1960s visiting places where UFO “flaps” (a great number of sightings in a limited time and area) had occurred or were occurring and interviewing witnesses and reporters. Among the witnesses he found a number of “silent contactees”, people who had spoken to supposed extraterrestrials and in many cases had multiple contacts with them; these people wanted no publicity and spoke to Keel on the condition of anonymity. Keel was impressed that their experiences, shared only with him and perhaps a few close acquaintances, had so many similarities to each other, including similar wording of messages, harassing and enigmatic phone calls, and visits from the now well-known “men in black”.

Other than contemporary American cases, Keel includes incidents from around the world and throughout history. He spends a great deal of time on the “phantom airship” flaps in late 19th century America, finding that many of the airship cases were reported in the same small Midwestern communities that were the sites of contemporary UFO flaps. In the end, Keel tries to come up with what I would call a Unified Field Theorem of Weird Shit, accounting not only for UFOs, but also fairies, spirit possession, angels, visions of the Virgin Mary, and much else that comes under the general heading of Fortean phenomena.

Keel ultimately rejects the idea of extraterrestrial origin for UFOs, but thinks them an “ultraterrestrial” phenomenon, a manifestation by intelligences who co-exist with humans on earth, but whose existence is of a nature that is not accounted for by current human concepts of what constitutes material reality; they are mostly invisible and intangible, and perhaps existing outside of time as we experience it. Keel presents this argument with lengthy exposition, including fairly basic scientific discussions of electromagnetism and the atomic structure of matter, as well as some well-chosen metaphors illustrating different levels of perception and awareness. Even if one doesn't find his conclusions persuasive (I though the theory could do with a visit to Occam's Barber Shop), this theorizing at least provides the kind of mind-expanding contemplation offered in the best SF.

Another of Keel's unusual UFOological practices is to consider hoaxes and witness recantations as part of the signal rather than noise. His ultraterrestrials have much in common with mythological trickster gods; they make big promises or prophecies that are fulfilled and follow them with even bigger ones that never materialize, they give totally impossible or self-contradictory accounts of their origins and natures, they encourage their contacts in behaviors and pursuits that begin promisingly but ultimately bring failure and ridicule. In short, the words and actions of these beings both assert their existence and throw doubt on it. Eerily it reminds me of much of the present day internet, where the sowing of confusion and the destruction of the ability to tell the false from the real is the goal of so many online entities.

[Christopher Waller · Rating 4 out of 5]

We live in an age of technical progress yielded to us by the advancements of scientific reason, and yet our world is still filled with mysteries. The UFO phenomenon is one such of those mysteries, one that has personally fascinated me since I was child. People often don't believe me when I tell them I saw a flying saucer gliding above my school back in sixth grade, but it's true. Of course, I have no real way to prove it, and neither does anyone who tries to study the phenomenon seriously. Paranormal research is one of those rabbit holes that people purposely step out of their way to avoid, most preferring the calm and normalcy of day to day life backed by always reliable "common sense". However, if we are to follow the thread that John A. Keel sets before us, we may quickly find out that the world we inhabit is nothing but an illusion. The main point here presented is that ghosts, poltergeists, demon possessions, psychic powers and even religious events all share a common source with the UFO phenomenon. According to the author, these are all in fact manifestations of a reality invisible to our eyes, a reality that's been only made aware to us through myth and folktales. These "inhabitants" of the astral realm have presented themselves to us in a variety of shapes, the "extraterrestrial" aspect being simply the one most apt to our scientific and incredulous era. Oftentimes, these entities seem to be playing games with us, deliberately relaying messages strewn with riddles, as if simply revealing their existence wasn't enough. In many occasions those "contacted" by these beings report experiencing bizarre events and an awareness of events to come, events that "they" seem to know when and how will happen. In some cases, entities may seem to "help" those they come across, but in others, the contactees end up falling down a spiral of self delusions often ending in tragedy. But many also become prophets and even start their own religions (the book offers the Mormon religion as an example). Whether benign or ill intentioned, we now know these beings exist and have been alongside us since our earliest days. Now I myself I'm not a religious person, I was raised catholic but became an unbeliever in my teenage years. But thanks to my growing interest in the paranormal, I've become more open to the possibility of being existing beyond our immediate intuitions. It's been a constant philosophical belief throughout the ages that we somehow aren't experiencing the "true" reality, be it the realm of Platonic Ideas, the Kantian Noumenon, or even the so called "higher dimensions" that sometimes get totted around in physics. Is there really a wizard of Oz hiding behind the curtain? Who knows. I myself don't particularly wish to be visited by aliens or interdimensional creatures any time soon.

[Hank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Keel was a very thorough researcher of the paranormal. This is perhaps the most Charles Fort-like book I've read since an actual Charles Fort book (he pays respect to Fort more than once in the book). While he makes a lot of compelling comparisons between modern UFO encounters and various religious incidents throughout history, specifically judeo christian history, as well as old folk legends and fairy tales, I think he suffers from confirmation bias, and rejects too many explanations which might be even more likely than his own. That is one area where he differs sharply from Fort.

The most interesting part of his book is his discussion of his experiences revolving around the UFO flap leading up to the Silver Bridge collapse, which turns out to be a highly condensed version of his other, more popular book, The Mothman Prophecies. Keel evidently allows his limited experience with the Mothman situation to convince him of his central thesis regarding all UFO and paranormal phenomena, and rejects the theories of other researchers, insisting that because the phenomena have similar features, they therefore must all originate from the same cause, and any explanation to the contrary must be incredibly naive. Based on this unnecessary constraint, he constructs his theory, and rejects any theory that doesn't abide by it.

I can't fault Keel too much, however. After the book was written, more UFO and abduction incidents took place which might have altered his ideas considerably, had he written the book after them. But he seems to have remained convinced of his ideas up to the end of his life decades later, and I suspect it's because he had already devoted himself to a conclusion.

At any rate, the book is filled with interesting records of old paranormal incidents which might very well have been UFO encounters, misinterpreted as spiritual ones, based on how similar they are to modern UFO encounters, and for that it makes a good book for UFOlogists who are interested in research. If you just want to take a mind-bending and entertaining trip into a real life Twilight Zone however, I say skip this book, and check out The Mothman Prophecies.

[Bill Weaver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keel really sells this material in a campfire-ghost-story kind of way: “Dabbling with UFOs can be as dangerous as dabbling with black magic.” (p. 238) I admit, as a ‘dabbler’ in ufology, this part of the book scared me. Some famous ufological research has ended badly for the investigators, this we know for sure. There is something profoundly Lovecraftian about all this. Check for San loss. Rinse. Repeat. Oddly enough, Lovecraft was an atheist. Perhaps so long as I keep this within the boundaries of ‘sociology’ and ‘folklore’, I will be okay. Humans want to believe in the esoteric it seems to me, because the esoteric is more entertaining than the mundane. Oddly enough, Keel claims that the “mundane explanation” is that we are dealing with extraterrestrials. He is talking about a more “fantastic concept”. (p. 325) Which is more entertaining- that some ‘ultraterrestrial’ phenomenon caused “blood and frogs and slag” to rain from the sky in 1846 (p. 271) or that it could have been the result of a tornado? Aside from an abundance of historical research, it seems much of Keel’s real time data was gathered during his famous Mothman fact-finding of 1966-69 or thereabouts. There are a couple of mentions of Mothman / Point Pleasant herein. Though this book offers more of a history of ufology, the contemporary events cover much of the same time period, close to and after the collapse of the Silver Bridge. Reading just the Mothman book first, for me Keel came across as sincere if somewhat overblown in his conjecture at times. This first book too feels so real, so palpable, that I want to embrace all of it. Some of the personal tales in here, about “mysterious strangers calling day and night to deliver messages ‘from the space people’”, about finding “a dark apparition standing over [him] in the middle of the night [and being] unable to move”, about questioning his own sanity (p. 297) - such personal confessions are utterly believable and terrifying, and appear beyond dispute. There is no question that Keel’s thesis about the UFO phenomenon being all about ‘ultraterrestrials’ perpetrating a “cosmic hoax” (p. 324) upon mankind is truly mind-shattering. “If flying saucers are a cosmic hoax, then it follows naturally that many of man’s basic beliefs may be based on similar hoaxes.” (Id.) However, the weakness of this book, which is common to most books in the genre, even other classics such as this, is that much of the mystery may depend upon incomplete data, or an observer’s lack of knowledge or perspective. For example, Keel tells the story of a mysterious death in Sweden of an army officer who wandered away from his tent and equipment to die. “What impelled an experienced skier and outdoorsman to abandon his equipment and head into the mountains on foot?” This might seem rather mysterious. Indeed, Keel answers his own question in the next sentence with an ominous “We'll never know”, as if to suggest something sinister or even unnatural occurred. (pp. 137-38) This unfortunately appears to be a statement made largely in ignorance on Keel’s part. Having read a couple of solid books on the subject of survival under extreme circumstances, I can say that this is not at all mysterious and that I have read of victims in such cases who often are known to exhibit strange behavior, such as wandering away from shelter or even tearing off breathing masks underwater with air still in their tanks! This is of course the difficulty with all of these ufology books - the ‘unexplained’ often depends upon incomplete information. There are no experts in the field of ufology! It demands a generalist’s sensibility but also a specialist's knowledge. Keel admits he is “not a scientist, theologian, or philosopher [but] only a reporter.” (p. 334) Similarly, I won’t claim I have the right combination to unlock the key to every single unexplained item within these pages, yet one can extrapolate from this one example to point out the difficulty with much of this material, which may not be mysterious at all, but as I said, merely incomplete. This is a problem common to conspiracy books as well. I found Keel’s description of the Rev. Arthur Ford’s solution to Harry Houdini’s spiritualism challenge to be oversimplified and essentially disproven by multiple sources available online. Keel offers many newspaper accounts of events witnessed by ‘thousands’ of ordinary people, yet isn’t it strange that there do not seem to be many ordinary private records offered up from history about any of these major sightings? Are there no independently verified diaries or letters that can be offered to corroborate these news items of the period? Certainly occultists and other seekers have left such documents, but how much of this is hyperbole? Keel admits that at least some of the newspaper items concerning the airship sightings of 1897 were hoaxes yet he seems compelled to suggest that we must account for “all” of the data, including the airship sightings. It seems possible that not all of the data is from a single source here. As Keel admits that some of the data is the result of hoaxes, how can he claim that “all” of the data must be included? If Keel includes credulous accounts of events which are now known to be hoaxes or have likely natural explanation, doesn’t this throw at least some of his ‘ultraterrestrial’ thesis into disrepute? At least to be scientific we must entertain the possibility that UFO data can come from a variety of sources, some explainable and yes, some inexplicable. It is this letter category that troubles the ufologist. Scientists are perhaps content to merely say “we don’t know enough” or “there is some missing information”. Ufologists are inclined at this point to offer wild conjecture about all manner of unnatural or extraterrestrial phenomena. Scientists offer conjecture too, but they call it a theory, and until consistent observable data backs up the theory, that is all it will remain. Sociological or historical data certainly has value but what does it prove about this “unseen world”? (p. 212) When Keel discusses “the puzzle of the anomalous anchors” he acts as if it is inconceivable that people across history could imagine such sky ships dropping anchor onto terra firma. Such speculation is central to the human imagination. The idea that we have stumbled across a pattern that proves the existence of such sky ships appears far fetched to me. Keel admits the distinction is one of ‘poppycock/mystery’. (pp. 183-86) Indeed one of his central points seems to be “that the absurd cases are the most important”. (p. 276) Keel accepts “much of this evidence as purely circumstantial.” (p. 277) Inevitability this becomes nearly a religious question. Keel speculates about both God as “a pure energy state” (pp. 208-09) and the Devil as a Lovecraftian creature that may have dwelt on earth “before man arrived or was created”. (p. 235) Whether you accept all of Keel’s data as credulous or not, if you are at all religious like me, this book may resonate. Scientists will not be convinced.

[Clay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I learned about some interesting historical events like the mystery airship sightings of the 1890s and weird lights over Nuremburg in 1561. So that's cool. I love stuff like that. There's also one or two recounts of genuinely eerie UFO encounters. The "ultraterrestrial" hypothesis--that it's not aliens we're seeing but rather beings that don't quite share our plane of reality--is very appealing and I'm down with it, though I suspect it's much better explicated elsewhere.

Unfortunately Keel is so full of shit, tediously prone to hyperbole and exaggeration. Too many things happen in "innumerable," "numerous," and "countless" amounts. He has mountains of documents on this and that, he knows everyone, he's inundated with evidence, everybody is calling him at all hours. All the numbers are big, folks, believe him. By the way, what is regrettably NOT innumerable is the number of citations in the book. More than once I'd read an intriguing claim, go on the internet to research it, and then find it's kinda bullshit, like his claim that General MacArthur "repeatedly" made public statements expressing concern about a soon-coming interplanetary war, which turns out to be misleading at best. I realize I'm reading a book about UFOs. I don't need scientific rigor, but this kind of sloppiness ruins the fun. In Keel's defense, this book was probably a lot better in 1970 before Snopes and Wikipedia editors were appointed by Them to grind all magic and mystery into dust.

Also Keel is absurdly credulous of any paranormal claim. We're talking Colin Wilson levels. We get a defense of the Fox sisters of all people.

[Tinylittlewars · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unexpectedly brilliant.. despite being written decades ago and therefore regrettably lacking in coverage of more recent "ultra terrestrial" events, this book remains one of the best I've read on the subject. Keel displays rare insight into these unexplained occurrences, due in part to his patience and the exhaustive efforts of accumulation, research and analysis devoted to this truly comprehensive, detailed study of the subject. Because he refused to fall into the usual traps of paradigmatic stricture that typically lead one to define events within the limited parameters of predetermined acceptability, he was able to retain a high degree of investigational integrity and avoid forming premature conclusions. Taking this wider view paid off-- quite well in my opinion-- leading to an incredibly astute and rational, albeit unconventional, explanation of this highly misunderstood phenomenon that is far more convincing than the more traditional conclusions reached by others. Although the material may be dated, Keel's theories remains remarkably salient and arguably unchallenged even today. Few have equaled his incisive intellect or deep understanding of the issue, and sadly, it seems no one has been up to the task of carrying on in his footsteps either. At least until that time comes (if ever), this one will continue to top the list of must reads for all seekers of ultra terrestrial knowledge. Trust me, it won't disappoint!

[Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Operation Trojan Horse by John Keel is an exceptional exploration of UFO phenomena, diving into the intricacies of sightings, encounters, and the broader implications of extraterrestrial contact. Keel weaves together a vast array of cases, building a compelling narrative that stretches beyond simple anecdotal evidence. His theorizing about the nature of UFOs, their potential connections to the paranormal, and the role of human consciousness in these experiences makes the book not only a product of its time but still profoundly relevant today. Keel’s ability to navigate through the fog of myth, folklore, and speculative science, while proposing bold and often unsettling ideas, offers an intellectually stimulating read that has stood the test of time.

While the book occasionally veers into an overload of case studies that may overwhelm the reader, Keel’s insights into the psychological and metaphysical dimensions of the UFO phenomenon remain its most powerful element. His approach, which blends skepticism with an open-minded inquiry into the unknown, sets the stage for much of the contemporary discourse around UFOs and related phenomena. Despite being over five decades old, Operation Trojan Horse offers timeless value for anyone interested in the intersection of human experience, unexplained phenomena, and the boundaries of our understanding. This book earns a solid 5 out of 5 for its unique contributions and enduring relevance.