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ABOVE BLACK - Project Preserve Destiny - An Insider's Account of Alien Contact and Government Coverup

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ABOVE BLACK documents the true life experience of a USAF member, while working for the National Security Agency (NSA) as an electronic intelligence specialist. The book relates, in the first person, his experience as an integral part of a project called Preserve Destiny... a project deeply involved with alien contact.

121 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1997

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248 people want to read

About the author

Dan Sherman

48 books9 followers
Dan Sherman is author of 14 internationally published novels, including The Traitor, The White Mandarin and the Man Who Loved Mata Hari – all of which have been recently republished in both paperbook and ebook form. Dan's first published novel was The Glory Trap, co-written with poet and musician Robin Williamson of The Incredible String Band, set in Morocco and loosely based on the escapades of Rolling Stones' Brian Jones. The Mole was Dan Sherman's first breakaway novel, reviewed in the New York Times and considered the first "hip" American novel of espionage.

Dan continues to write novels, short stories and poetry. He makes his home in Los Angeles.

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5 stars
89 (35%)
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72 (28%)
3 stars
63 (25%)
2 stars
19 (7%)
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7 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
Profile Image for Montzalee Wittmann.
5,303 reviews2,357 followers
December 22, 2025
Above Black
by Dan Sherman
I watched him on a documentary and then saw this book so I had to pick it up. It is very interesting and he certainly didn't seem crazy on the show. Makes me think 🤔. I believe him more than the people in the White House right now.
Profile Image for Angela.
783 reviews32 followers
May 1, 2024
Believable to me. A straightforward no-frills statement of his experience. Believable in that it seems very compartmentalized and isolating - learning intuitive communication skills by himself in an isolated bunker via a hidden instructor, trying to move ever more complex sine waves solely with his mind over 6 weeks. Then receiving short mentally transmitted blips of numbered code as his sole “gray” communication and occasionally “jumping up” to ask totally random, unorganized questions, like do aliens poop or do they believe in god, just like an isolated militarized paranoid person would, and receiving answers from a probably equally isolated and militarized individual.

He gets himself booted from the military because he keeps receiving short strings of code indicating ongoing abductions and the pain levels of said abductees, and he can’t stand it. Who could? Sounds likely to me, if there are aliens coordinating with our military to do completely unknown things.
52 reviews2 followers
September 28, 2014
Required reading for any conspiracy theorist.
The shortest book on alien-human contact you will ever read.
As the author mentions, the book does not provide any evidence, and does not reference any evidence that aliens have contacted humans.
For some, this book may be a piece of a puzzle. For others, it could be seen as interesting speculation on how communication might actually occur between aliens and humans, and possible motives for such "cooperation".
Profile Image for Levi.
11 reviews
November 25, 2025
I really sped through this thing! I finished it in about 3 days. My thoughts below.

Above Black is the type of UFO book that, for a long time, I felt I could summarily write off. It tells Dan Sherman's story of (allegedly) being an "intuitive communicator" with grey aliens as part of an NSA program called Project Preserve Destiny. (Translation: he received alien communications in his mind and reported them to the NSA.) It's the kind of story that immediately seems made up, and I had no intention of ever engaging with it when I first heard about it years ago.

Since that time, however, I've come to realize that stories like this are among my favorite in UFOlogy. As much as I appreciate more data-driven material (there's a litany of it in this field) none of it is this enjoyable. Sure, it's suspect. But it's fun to put away my critical thinking for a while and enjoy a tall tale.

Dan Sherman is a bad writer. He's just not good at it. Oddly enough, that makes me believe his story more; thank god that the story itself is interesting, because there's almost no satisfaction to be had by reading this. He had a 2 year experience doing an odd side job for the NSA while he was an ELINT specialist for the Air Force. Once he got sick of the job, he left. He never found out any broader contextual program information, let alone what the coded communications he received were even about. He doesn't pretend to have the answers, and I can appreciate that. I don't know if I buy the story he's selling, but it's fun to think about.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Rian Nejar.
Author 1 book34 followers
March 21, 2019
A strange little book

Dan Sherman, a decorated US Air Force veteran, has written an intriguing work that is spare on details and clarity. His description of the training required to become what he calls an "intuitive communicator" is laughably inexplicable - until you realize that Sherman worked as an electronics intelligence technician. That is really as much as he knows and describes, spinning a fantastical tale of "levels" and a "tapestry" of communication with alien beings.

One cannot but help think that Sherman was simply practicing to become a fiction writer.

Not recommended.
128 reviews2 followers
February 5, 2020
After reading it, I was left unchanged in my opinion on aliens. First off, the writing is very good, as was the story. But for me, that's all it was - a story. ***SPOILER WARNING*** - throughout the book, author claims to communicate with an alien race, and at the end of the book has some interesting questions answered by the alien he is communicating with. My issus is that there is NO PROOF to substantiate the claims, except his word. He never MEETS an alien, or for that matter, even SEES one. So like I said, I will not use this book as proof of any coverup. All in all, I'm glad that I read this book, but saddened by the lack of hard evidencee.
4 reviews
September 24, 2020
A good overview of his life but not a lot of detail

I really appreciate this authors honesty and transparency throughout the book. I really enjoyed hearing the first person point of view and account of his interactions in black and top-secret projects. It takes a while to get going and there is a lot of detail about things that don’t end up mattering much to the overall account. Still worth a good read though.
Profile Image for Matt.
1,040 reviews
November 2, 2016
Vague enough to be believable
Profile Image for Greg Abandoned.
96 reviews7 followers
January 27, 2026
“Did my mother conceive me or was I implanted? Captain White responded in a reassuring tone, “Everyone I’ve had to tell this to has had the same concern at some point in the conversation. Rest assured, you are 100% human. Your conception was as normal as any other person’s.” I distinctly remember being greatly relieved to find out I wasn’t part alien. “ - Sherman

Oh boy oh boy. Let’s gray through this.

The book follows Sherman’s experience as an “Intuitive Communicator” aka alien-meditation-virtuoso in a highly classified government program, where he interacts with aliens through non-verbal signals and mysterious procedures. From the beginning, the book immerses you in the same disorientation that Sherman feels: training exercises like flattening sine waves, pills of unknown purpose, and supervisors who offer reassurance without explanation. Nothing is explained fully, and even when questions arise—about the aliens, the purpose of his work, or the meaning of the program—he is told they are irrelevant. This deliberate vagueness mirrors the real function of the work: he isn’t there to understand or to solve mysteries; he is there to perform, to be a controlled human interface, and to keep the channel open.

What Sherman is doing in Above Black sits in a strange middle ground between Severance and Project Hail Mary, but it ultimately lands much closer to a Fallout-style experiment than either of them. Like Severance, the work is abstract, procedural, and deliberately stripped of meaning. He stares at screens, flattens waves, follows protocols, and is repeatedly told not to ask certain questions. The task itself is less important than the fact that he performs it correctly and without resistance. In Severance, the macrodata refiners don’t know what the numbers mean, only that some “feel wrong” and must be sorted. In Above Black, Sherman doesn’t know what the sine waves mean either; he just knows to “flatten them”.

Guess what!? He is able to flatten about 20 of them simultaneously! Are you impressed? I wouldn’t be either since no one knows what this means.

When you compare this to work of fiction ‘Project Hail Mary’, the contrast is even starker. Andy Weir’s story treats first contact as a puzzle: communication is hard, but it is solvable through patience, curiosity, and science. The alien relationship is reciprocal, and understanding is the ultimate goal. In Above Black, communication exists without reciprocity. There’s no shared project, no clear exchange of knowledge (OK, yes he found out aliens take dumps as we humans do but he failed to ask them where they come from??? Seriously!? Come on…). And the COMs don’t lead anywhere, their purpose is what exactly? Conclusion: it is fiction

This is where your Fallout 4 comparison becomes especially convincing. Sherman’s Code 118 doesn’t feel like a mission identifier so much as an experiment label. Like Vault 118, the environment is sealed, hierarchical, and framed as necessary for a higher purpose, while the subject inside it never fully understands what’s being tested. The pills, the unknown training, the lack of debriefing, and the absence of any meaningful outcome all suggest that Sherman himself is the subject of an experiment.

Books / stories like this will never be treated seriously. The book it’s best approached as speculative memoir/psychological absurdity sci-fi. At least it’s short.

Some quotes that stood out for me: “I’m sure it’s not so much the specific knowledge that aliens exist that is the problem, it’s more like the information that we have gained from communicating with them that would create havoc if released.”

“Black missions, which we call Level 2, are what the alien projects are effectively hidden behind. The existence of black missions is only known by a handful of Congressmen and the President. These black missions are the last line of defense for the alien projects.”

“How have they been communicating with us since 1947 if you’ve only recently been able to get people who can communicate with them? I’m a little confused about that. That’s a good question, Sergeant Sherman. Unfortunately, I don’t know the answer. I can only venture to guess that we only have the ability to communicate with them now through traditional electromagnetic means. I’m not sure.”

“When you get down here, come straight to the table and take two of these pills using this water then sit down at your workstation […]
Why do I have to take these pills? What are they for?” I asked, somewhat defensively.
“They are to facilitate your abilities — they’re quite harmless,” the captain said nonchalantly.
“But what are they?”
“To tell you the truth, I’m not sure. But you will have to take them to help you with your schooling,” he said.”

“I asked a few questions in the beginning, but most of my questions were summarily disregarded as irrelevant and I was audibly notified to continue my lesson. Most of the questions he disregarded as irrelevant were questions about the project and who I’d be talking to. He would only answer questions directly related to my learning.”
Profile Image for Frank.
Author 36 books129 followers
November 10, 2025
Dan Sherman's ABOVE BLACK is the intriguing story of one man's experience in black and/or gray ops programs hidden within the military industrial complex. Is it to be believed? Thats for each individual reader to decide.

Former USAF Cpl. Dan Sherman recounts the story of his service, being trained and working in a black ops program, the nature of which was mysterious, even to Sherman. He is trained to communicate intuitively with supposed extra terrestrial beings. Its a bold claim backed up with lots of evidence.

I approach the subject with an open mind and a skeptical intrigue. Is Sherman's account fact or fiction? Its a story unlike most discussed on the subject. The story is compelling. I believe it lacks a basic verifiable truth at its core yet I believe Sherman believes. And that's enough to say read this book and come to your own conclusions. At minimum, you'll be entertained.

The truth is out there.
3 reviews
February 10, 2025
One of the original UFO/UAP Whistleblowers

The book is a credible account by a former USAF Sgt who describes his selection training and operations as an "intuitive communicator" with non human intelligence/ "aliens". I found his description of what he experienced to be believable. It fills in some elements of the hidden interactions between the US Military & aliens. The fact that he keeps his description fairly mundane and did not try to inflate his impact is one reason I tend to believe him.
1 review
July 9, 2024
We know it exists but what is it?

This is a story of a soldier who demonstrated courage from within a box. To experience years of silence and loneliness and never knowing who was watching you is stress unequaled. If you have wondered about the MJ12, Black Ops, the Grey Aliens, and how we are dealing with any of these topics. Sgt. Sherman shares his journey and explains the global Black Ops program that blankets the planet without anyone knowing.
454 reviews2 followers
February 19, 2025
A guy in the Air Force is sent to training. While there, he is pulled aside and told he actually will have a second, secret training on how to communicate telepathically with aliens as part of Project Preserve Destiny. He is told that, before he was born, his mother was genetically modified by aliens to allow her children “intuitively communicate “, also called telepathy. The officer tells him the military has some other folks similar to him and the ability is dormant unless trained.

He then does his normal training during the day and at night he goes through telepathy training. This involves him staring at a computer with a wavy line on the screen. He has to flatten the line using only his mind. After several days he manages to do it. The training continues with more difficult but similar tasks.

He then gets assigned to a different base and has to sit at a computer with a blank screen and enter series of numbers he receives telepathically. Most don’t know what he is doing and everything is very secretive and compartmentalized. He never meets who is talking to or what the numbers mean. He goes to another base and does similar work. He accidentally *pops* to a different band/wavelength/plane where he can communicate more freely with them. He learns how to do this intentionally and the aliens are surprised he can do this and they chat about non-work related topics. They say they age but are not bound by time like us, they have souls and implied there is a God, aliens have been here a long time, they have male and female sexes, there are lots of types of intelligent life, and there are alien human hybrids.

Sherman eventually leaves the military and so ends his interactions with the aliens. The book is very short and straightforward. It sounds believable, in that his accounts are not glamorous or exciting, but make it seem the US military made communicating with aliens to be somewhat tedious. He also has unanswered questions about his family and experiences.
Profile Image for Bruce Patin.
7 reviews
Read
June 26, 2023
I understand him and it explains a few things

After the Roswell incident, it has been stated that the US government made an agreement with aliens that included allowing US citizens to be regularly abducted. Dan Sherman's experiences indicate to me that the US would be notified every time an abduction happened and he was one of many who received the reports telepathically.
12 reviews
June 21, 2025
interesting for sure

What intrigues me most is the level of consciousness that is not within the realm of known biological senses and is of electromagnetic nature on multi-levels. How can we tap into this consciousness?
37 reviews5 followers
February 12, 2021
Chilling!

I just loved this book, despite the controversial topic, it's believable to me. See what you think...I bet you'll agree
Profile Image for Allan Wind.
Author 10 books238 followers
August 27, 2025
Interesting and fast read

A dated tale from the mid 1990s, and with few details. Still I found there to be informative elements. Flawed but worthwhile
Profile Image for Hannah.
42 reviews
April 26, 2024
Good books are the ones you think about long after reading them, and make you question things.
36 reviews1 follower
October 23, 2021
A fascinating book that opens up vistas
not generally known to the public but
appearing to be part of the official
disclosure of paranormal reality
mastered by E.T.s. The book is
well worth reading.
Profile Image for Becka Burgess.
26 reviews8 followers
April 30, 2016
I don't know. I finished this book feeling somehow, bereft.
Sergeant Sherman is in the military and is approached to join a grey program (PPD) which is hidden behind the cloak of a Black Project. He's told that he possesses unique qualities that makes him a perfect candidate to communicate with aliens.
This story was intriguing but for a relatively short book (128 pgs) it takes three quarters of it for him to lead into the part everyone is keen to hear about... His interaction with ET's!
And even then you realise it's not even face-to-face communication.
Look, I'm not saying I don't believe the guy, and I imagine it would've been a terrifying ordeal, especially when he finally realises he is relaying 'Comms' about abductions. It's just, I don't know, I somehow was expecting more...
There's a part where he says, 'Why the abduction data? Why had everything been passed in code, mostly, until now? '
I'm thinking;
Cos ur just a rat in a maze, mate, part of an alleged top secret project which is really a front for psychological experiment. Maybe the greys in the grey project were never really aliens to begin with? How will we ever know who Sergeant Sherman was communicating to or what we're in those pills?

Good book if your interested in scratching the surface of the ET phenomenon.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
9 reviews
June 11, 2014
Wow!

This book was a real eye opener and so fascinating that I read it straight through. Dan Sherman's story eerily rings true. It is fascinating in the extreme to say the least. There are more unanswered questions than not; however, with Mr. Sherman courageously coming forward to tell his USAF experience, perhaps others will be inspired to do so as well. Read this book! I guarantee you have NEVER read anything like it in your life!
Profile Image for Cristian Speranta.
17 reviews1 follower
September 5, 2015
Not the Rosetta Stone

Interesting and quick read. Definitely an interesting story but not far out there by any means. In a lot of ways it's overly sober and uneventful. But definitely adds to the body of knowledge for those of us who believe.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews

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