They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers

by Sarah Scoles

More than half a century since Roswell, UFOs have been making headlines once again. On December 17, 2017, the New York Times ran a front-page story about an approximately five-year Pentagon program called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. The article hinted, and its sources clearly said in subsequent television interviews, that some of the ships in question couldn’t be linked to any country. The implication, of course, was that they might be linked to other solar systems.

The UFO community—those who had been thinking about, seeing, and analyzing supposed flying saucers (or triangles or chevrons) for years—was surprisingly skeptical of the revelation. Their incredulity and doubt rippled across the internet. Many of the people most invested in UFO reality weren’t really buying it. And as author Sarah Scoles did her own digging, she ventured to dark, conspiracy-filled corners of the internet, to a former paranormal research center in Utah, and to the hallways of the Pentagon.

In They Are Already Here we meet the bigwigs, the scrappy upstarts, the field investigators, the rational people, and the unhinged kooks of this sprawling community. How do they interact with each other? How do they interact with “anomalous phenomena”? And how do they (as any group must) reflect the politics and culture of the larger world around them?

We will travel along the Extraterrestrial Highway (next to Area 51) and visit the UFO Watchtower, where seeking lights in the sky is more of a spiritual quest than a “gotcha” one. We meet someone who, for a while, believes they may have communicated with aliens. Where do these alleged encounters stem from? What are the emotional effects on the experiencers?

By turns funny and compassionate, colorful and thought-provoking-- and told in a way that doesn’t require one to believe--Scoles brings humanity to an often derided and misunderstood community. After all, the truth is out there...

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Aliens, Space, History, Paranormal, Audiobook

228 pages, Hardcover

Published March 3, 2020

About the author

Sarah Scoles is a Colorado-based science journalist, a contributing writer at Popular Science, and a senior contributor at Undark. Her work has appeared in publications like the New York Times, Wired, Scientific American, and others. She is also the author of the books ​Making Contact: Jill Tarter and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers, and Astronomical Mindfulness. Her forthcoming book is called Countdown: The Blinding Future of Nuclear Weapons. Her articles have won the American Geophysical Union's David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Writing (2021) and the American Astronomical Society Solar Physics Division's Popular Media Award (2019, 2020).

Previously, she was an associate editor at Astronomy and a public education officer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia.

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 1 out of 5]

(Full disclosure: Book abandoned on page 74, out of 228 pages.)

Considering the universe is infinite and that Earth is teeming with life, it makes sense that other planets--a countless number--with their own kind of life, exist. It also makes sense that these planets could be home to some life that’s significantly more intelligent than human beings and with bodies that function totally differently. If one accepts this, it’s not a leap to accept that this other life could build and travel in crafts that can move at the speed of light. In 2017, The New York Times reported on its front page that the Pentagon suspects this: It's acknowledged a secret program to investigate UFOs and alien sightings. Fascinating footage of unexplainable phenomena was later released. Surprisingly, the bombshell revelation attracted minimal attention from the public, despite being the most incredible, life-changing piece of news ever reported.

Wanting to know more, I was eager to read They Are Already Here. Author Sarah Scoles delivered--a little. Among some other tidbits, I learned that “there were more than 121,000 sightings reported in the US from 2001-2015” (a low number, as most sightings don’t get reported). Smokers and dog-owners report the most because they’re outside a lot. And importantly, to keep the masses calm, the government’s ethos in general is “Publicly de-bunk and treat the matter lightly, and privately investigate and take the matter seriously.”

Scoles opened with a hook: a recounting of her own night-time encounter with a mysterious object. But sadly, her book is largely unsatisfying. She pretty much presented a dry chronicle of the government’s program to investigate UFOs, sprinkled with civilian efforts from two UFO enthusiasts (one coincidentally being Blink-182’s former guitarist and songwriter, Tom DeLonge).

I was hoping for more personal accounts like Scoles’s, along with some profiles of reliable witnesses encountering the unexplainable. I also wanted to read educated theories about which galaxy these UFOs could be traveling from and what they may be looking for (many have been sighted hovering near nuclear testing sites, with visits increasing after detonations). I wanted to read description of how the alien crafts operate and what they look like and of any alien material that’s been recovered. Basically, I wanted far fewer dull government specifics and many more compelling extraterrestrial specifics. Maybe Scoles went in this direction later, but my skimming of the rest of the book seems to indicate otherwise, and even so, it would be too little too late. Scoles is an intelligent person who’s written for many reputable publications, so she does know how to report. She just didn’t present extraordinary subject matter in the compulsively readable way it deserves.

With that said, I’m happy to report that the captivating 2020 documentary "The Phenomenon" offers everything Scoles’s book does not, enough that I probably didn’t need to read They Are Already Here anyway. This is a must-watch for those curious to find out more about various sightings the Pentagon has been investigating for decades. Skip this. Watch that.

[Leo Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always been bemused by the UFO cult and people who watch ANCIENT ALIENS. It goes back to when we were children in the late 70s and early 80s, watching Leonard Nimoy's IN SEARCH OF. Even then, my father laughed and said it was bunk, yet we watched it nearly every Saturday night during our cold, snowy Ohio winters.

So I was expecting Wired writer Sarah Scoles's THEY ARE ALREADY HERE to be dismissive, maybe t laugh at the culture and pseudoscientific nonsense that clings to "Ufology" like ticks to a dog's underbelly. Instead, the portrait here, while quite skeptical, is humane. She cuts these people slack, trying to understand their world while trying to remain objective.

All told, a remarkable look at a human sub-culture of the lunatic, conspiracist fringe of American society. But told with compassion, gentle humor and unexpected understanding. Four-stars.

[Emma Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit scattered, especially in the first half. This book is very much focused on people and their stories, not so much on presenting lots of research. That’s fine, but I think the book might have benefitted from choosing two or three people to follow and use as a jumping-off point.

[Caitlin Kunkel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Granted, as someone who grew up obsessed with The X-Files, I was biased toward this book in a positive way to begin with. But Sarah Scoles surpassed my expectations with her lovely, clear writing, openness to presenting people's views/experiences, and ultimate reflections on faith and belief and how they manifest in these particular people and communities. Extremely well-researched and written, I'll definitely be recommending this one to people in 2020. And yes, The X-Files comes up :)

[Kara Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors “voice” kind of annoyed me for no reason but it was interested and I loved all the New Mexico stories 😍

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Opinions on the existence of UFOs vary, but what's known about the people who investigate them? In They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers, science writer Sarah Scoles (Making Contact) breezily marries journalism and sociological study to introduce professionals and hobbyists who make up the misunderstood UFO community.

Scoles is intrigued by those obsessed with UFOs, wondering why people "spent so much time on a phenomenon that they weren't even sure was a phenomenon." Beyond the expected scientists and military personnel, she discovers people like Tom DeLonge, former member of the rock band Blink-182, whose focus on studying UFOs has been at odds with his music career. His goal was to acquire funding to "reverse-engineer UFO type technology." Nevada businessman Robert Bigelow bought a Utah ranch consisting of almost 500 acres, then hired scientists and engineers to study all sorts of "phenomena," including UFOs, spending tens of millions of his own dollars.

What makes a person believe they've seen a UFO? One reason, says political theorist Jodi Dean, is that "raw information that feeds into our sensory organs has to be processed by our brain's algorithms, which were forged by our unique social, economic, geographic, political, historical, cultural circumstances." Scoles acknowledges unanswered questions about UFOs, and affirms the sincerity of believers. A skeptic to the end, she thinks, "Maybe our own world... is just stranger than we are ready to believe." This engrossing and well-sourced investigation will leave readers contemplating the human condition of "universal uncertainty."

-reviewed for Shelf Awareness 3/31/20

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I was a kid, just one look at the cover of Whitley Strieber's Communion was enough to throw me into little baby panic attacks and sometimes I would watch movies (ahem, Fire in the Sky) about aliens and then not be able to sleep for a week. As an adult, I'm a total skeptic, but I still love a good UFO story. I was ready to hunker down with some kooks and read about their fantastical theories, but this book is not that. The author mostly talks with people in the UFO community who are fairly down-to-Earth in their beliefs, and where is the fun in that?

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did not tell me where to find aliens.

[no elle]

i hoped this would be unhinged like everything else i've been reading but it is not :(

[India]

this was good but there was an aura of snide-ness towards ppl who believe in aliens that i did not love

[Nancy Atkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading about Sarah's adventures, and her thoughts on why humans have a tendency to interpret "unknowns" into things like UFOs. Sarah travels across the country – to places like a tourist attraction in Colorado called the UFO Watchtower, Area 51 and the International UFO Congress -- talking with hardcore UFO believers as well as skeptics. She delves into why some people subscribe to conspiracy theories, or dismiss science, or consider logical evidence in illogical ways. But she does so with understanding and even empathy, with the realization that people are usually motivated by various factors or events from their personal experiences. She doesn’t dismiss the deeply held beliefs by those she encounters, even though she didn’t always agree with them. As Sarah writes near the end of the book:

“That, I think, is the one thing I know, feel, and believe in: universal uncertainty. Humans are so far from understanding the what, where, when, why, how and who of our swatch of spacetime. And the truth of the future is likely much stranger than the fictions of the present.”

[Christian Corwel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book reads like a collection of different stories that the author can’t quite gather under one overarching thesis. Much of the information is regurgitated from other books that have been around for a long time. The points of the book where the author did their own investigation were interesting, but accounted for maybe 1/3 of the overall material. The personal opinions of the author also gave off a condescending and know it all vibe at some points as well. Overall
A rather disjointed and not very fun read.

[Gabe · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wonderful little book about what people want to see when they see ufos.

[Sam Horowitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still don’t know what to believe!! 👽

[Brady Dale · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s a nicely written book and I’m glad I made myself read it. She has some of the same myopia of a lot of skeptics, but she makes a pretty fair tour of the space.

[Alien Supersoldier · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review is also available on my blog, Living Memory


Okay, I’ll say it: I loved this book. First of all, it’s beautifully written. Perhaps it’s my own damage from my time in academia that’s speaking, but before reading this book I didn’t really think that nonfiction could - or even should have the ambition to be beautifully written.

Now, to the subject matter itself: when reading about a topic like the UFOs and the people who believe in them we expect the literature to be scathingly critical, with the author debunking every claim with the glee of a sadistic child that’s pulling wings off of a fly (or of a scientist dispassionately and “objectively” stripping the theory in question of its validity by using FACTS AND LOGIC). On the other end of the spectrum we expect sincere accounts of true believers or not-so-sincere accounts of crafty grifters whose objective it is to make money off of the true believers.

Scoles’ aim with her book is neither to debunk nor to prove the existence of extraterrestrials and claims of their visitations to our lonely homeworld. They Are Already Here isn’t about UFOs or ufology - it’s about people. It’s about people who believe in flying saucers, and people who are active in the UFO-adjacent communities. It’s about the believers, the skeptics, and everyone in between. It’s about the people who make up the UFO subculture. “UFO” is a belief system, not unlike the traditional religions. It’s also a political belief system, a way of life, and a source of community. This book exposes the “why” from the perspectives of people who are active in this community.

A science journalist and a contributing editor at the Scientific American, Scoles approaches the topic of her book from a social scientific perspective. To put it very crudely, They Are Already Here is a work of social anthropology.

“Objectivity” is a term that I am wary of using in any context, because it’s often used to hide a darker motive, like perpetuating harmful stereotypes, pushing outdated scientific practices, or excusing lack of curiosity and empathy. “Objectivity” as a normative term has no meaning. The question we need to ask in the case of this book is whether or not it’s honest and transparent. And that is exactly what Scoles’ research is. This is a very personal book, and Scoles is honest about her own beliefs and her interest in the subject matter. And she’s transparent about her own biases as well as her findings.

The US government is shady. The cases explored in this book invite a conclusion that the people had and still have reason to mistrust the government’s explanations (or lack thereof) of strange phenomena. It is in this mistrust in an opaque power structure that this adversarial relationship between the state and its citizens is created.

The schism between “ufology” as a research field and academia is explored in this book too. Scoles seeks to explain why conventional science and scientists dismiss people who look for lights in the sky, and how this dismissal furthers this schism, and what conventional science misses out on in this relationship.

There are unavoidable references to The X-Files. Yes, it’s because The X-Files is perhaps the most popular piece of popular culture about UFOs and people who believe in them. But it’s also because The X-Files, better than any other movie or show about flying saucers and government cover-ups, depicts the people who believe in UFOs, the subculture in general, and our innate desire to believe that there is something more to the Universe than what we can see, measure, and explain. Like The X-Files, They Are Already Here treats the people whose beliefs it explores with empathy and open-mindedness - qualities that are so often absent from newspaper headlines and serious scientific publications.

Why people believe, or want to believe that we are not alone in the Universe, that visitors from space are one cosmic pit stop away from changing our world and our future is a question that can be answered by studying the society in which these beliefs are developed. But it’s also a question that can be very personal for each and every one of us. It’s not the little grey men that are the center of this question, but our own place in the Universe, and our relationship with this boundless dark void that we call home. What it comes down to is that “are we alone?” is an existential question.

[Raughley Nuzzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part pop psychology/history, part travelogue, They Are Already Here explores the human reasons behind UFO sightings. As a series of case studies, it's a great little anthology, but as a journalistic deep-dive, it was a bit disappointing.

Scoles is an entertaining writer and the characters she meets on her adventures come to life, from the researcher who'd claimed to have been harassed by Area 51 guards to the young woman who had found a home at the UFO Watchtower, the personal stories really help this book shine. Some of Scoles' own experiences and observations also provide fascinating insights into UFO culture in the US. The chapter in which she attends a UFO conference in the south west stands out as a particularly interesting one, to me, as it's where she first answers the question of "Why We See Saucers."

Unfortunately, Scoles leaves a lot of interesting avenues for investigation relatively unexplored. The answer to the titular question is extremely straightforward and, while interesting, could have been condensed into an excellent article for Vice or The Atlantic, rather than a full-length book. It would have been interesting to explore more rigorously what about certain people's psychology makes them want to believe in extra terrestrials. Additionally, I don't recall much time being spent on discussing the cases where people have claimed to have been abducted. At least, not from a psychological phenomenological perspective.

Another untouched upon topic is the idea of seeing UFOs symbolically in historical events or artifacts. While this is different in substance from a modern UFO sighting, it's not different in kind. And it puts an interesting and negative spin on the "There must be something more" narrative that absorbs so many believers in extraterrestrial visitors.

Overall, I found this book to be an extremely entertaining trip through circles of the UFO community. Its simple answer to "Why we see saucers" rings true and offers a compelling explanation for the strange lights and shapes we see in the sky and the deep meaning we import to them. I do recommend this book, though it's not as rigorous as it could be.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not so much about UFOs themselves but rather the people who have seen them and the cultures surrounding these sightings, Sarah Scoles leads the reader on a journey of discovery with the people who’ve dedicated their lives to these phenomena.

UFOs have a powerful hold on the human psyche, a constant presence in pop culture, not because they appear but because they disappear - they don’t always come back. But they could. And so a person spends their lives seeking answers. Scoles meets with many of these people who seek the truth about flying saucers and as we journey with her, we realise that even now in our modern technological society, we are so far far away from understanding our universe.

Scoles doesn’t diminish or look down on the people she met for this book. They are on a journey to discover the truth of the future just as she is, in her own way. Instead she uses this journey to explore the various groups and organisations who coalesce around UFOs and she seeks to examine what exactly they are and how UFOs often are just the excuse for community and social contact.

This is a search for truth. It is out there. Scoles might not agree with these people as to the alien nature of it but her quest for answers is the same as theirs.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author is no Jill Tarter or George Knapp, as Sarah Scoles is a self described reporter. The author clearly has disdain for UFO fanatics/believers /culture in the beginning. She compares her experiences to Christian fanatics and those who cover their problems up with lies and scifi. She realises her smugness and tries to imagine if the followers were actually right- that's the opening.

The book is about the culture surrounding these topics as she bounces around. One section was about how UFO‑focused belief groups claim that humans are equal in status or importance to the extraterrestrial beings that they consider their saviors, creating a religion of sorts. Then focuses on certain authors or interesting people. She devoted a long section to hating DeLonge, she should have a wider net and focus on the history of the topic instead of focusing on who's hot right now and who got divorced. no really sometimes she’ll go on a slight tangent and just talk about a kid that was standing there while she interviews someone.

The book didn’t touch the historical classics like Betty and Barny Hill’s UFO incident nor the known racist Erich von Däniken’s influence on the culture. She did talk about Kenneth Arnold but said he “made it all up” which wasn't true, his story was blown out of proportion and sensationalized, he didn't “lie” about seeing things he struggled to describe. She touched on The Marshall Plan (1948–1951) and Project Sign/Grudge (1948). The book gets into a history lesson with The Robertson Panel/Condon Committee and how a government coverup of a coverup to now sew distrust, in turn sews distrust.

We move onto discussing rich men funding “alien research” and then to boots on the ground journalism of Area 51. Then onto Colorado, last of Nevada, and New Mexico. This book was a fun ride and I’m glad the author seemed to actually enjoy it towards the end. I honestly don’t think the book had any real direction but it was still pleasant to read.

I would recommend “Life on Other Worlds” by Steven Dick and ‘Abducted” by Susan Clancy for those looking for more information on the culture/topic.

Note Worthy Parts:

“…a mystery, yes. But one courtesy of our own government, whose power and technology are sometimes so unimaginable, so invasive, and so pervasive that humans attribute that might to other beings. In some ways, that attribution feels less scary and terrain-shaking than the truth.”

“Science, after all, can’t prove those beings aren’t out there. It can’t prove they’re not on Earth. It can’t even prove they’re not on the other side of that gate. That’s not how science works. And so you can keep believing, selecting evidence in favor of your own hypothesis.”

“You do not completely determine your own experience of the world. To Americans, that’s deeply unsettling (if you dislike that your actions can be modeled mathematically, you’ll hate that some entity might literally lord over you). Scholar Timothy Melley calls this feeling “agency panic.”-”

“If you think your government is controlling your experience of the world, other authorities can fall from their pedestals more easily. While many ufologists hold science in high esteem, seeking to emulate its methods, most think that mainstream scientists just don’t get it…There’s nothing inherently wrong with doubting authority, not taking conclusions on faith just because someone smart said them, and collecting your own data. In fact, that is what scientists also do. The problems arise when the evidence is shoddy or the conclusions don’t follow—which can be hard to see when you’re already committed to one side of an issue.”

“Elon Musk researches telepathy, Jeff Bezos wants a moon colony, Paul Allen sponsored a telescope to search for aliens, and Clive Palmer may want to clone dinosaurs. When you have a high enough bank balance, and have succeeded in being a CEO rather than a guy ranting on the street, people mostly shrug and write colorful magazine profiles about you. The ufologists Bigelow supported could let a little of his stature rub off on them.”

“Racism and white supremacy… are also philosophically inconsistent with the ethos of an organization that thinks … beyond our species and planet.”

“… many ufologists still congregate around MUFON, despite knowing of its problems, in the same way that Catholics who don't like the church's expenditures, pedophilia, or stance on abortion nevertheless attend mass. Because of belief, connection, tradition, compartmentalization, dissociation. Because humans.”

“the planet feels the most familiar kind of strange, the strangest kind of familiar.”
“there’s something more here. Or something more out there.”
“See the lack of proof IS the proof.”
“I am incapable of thinking that unless I know it.”
“Nothing that exists can be impossible.”
“Is the government hiding aliens? Doubtful. Are they hiding SOMETHING? Definitely.”
“Terrestrial not extra”
“KGRA paranormal radio”
“Area 2000”
“A human flaw—to think, “That doesn’t belong here,” when we have never seen something before.”
“You have to be willing to let go of all your expectations, all your prejudices. The human mind is filled with such barriers, beliefs and expectations about the way the universe is. You want to know about extraterrestrials—then you have to be open to it.”
“It’s consciousness. You can look at evolution as being a steady increase in consciousness.”
“And the truth of the future is likely much stranger than the fictions of the present.”

Arecibo Observatory / Project Defender
Telescope Towns. Green Bank Telescope
Sunspot Observatory incident
The Ufo Controversy in America, by David M. Jacobs
The Coming of the Saucers, by Kenneth Arnold and Raymond A. Palmer
The Greys Have Been Framed by Jack Brewer

[Bill Holmes · Rating 4 out of 5]

“They Are Already Here” is a witty exploration of ufology culture, with discussions of the iconic stories like Arnold’s siting of flying “saucers” in 1947, the Roswell “crash,” Project Bluebook, AATIP and other government investigations, the Nimitz videos, and Area 51. Part folklore study, part travelogue, part journalistic inquiry into tale tales and snake charmers, the book is a rumination by a skeptic who sympathizes with those who want to believe but is not convinced herself. The government probably is hiding something, Scoles agrees—it’s just not alien bodies or extraterrestrial technology. The style is a little breezy for my tastes, but the book is still an enjoyable and worthwhile contribution to the study of Ufology.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would describe this book as the UFO primer. If you only know about UFOs from popular culture and want to know more this is where to start. The author covers the topics from deniers, fanatics, scientists, psychics and is honestly very objective. It realy is more of a history than most books on this topic that start with forgone conclusions about aliens. It also left me looking up alot of the interesting examples she highlights. Even the examples that can be explained are fascinating in their own right due to the breadth of natural phenomenon that's so rarely observed. There's also always one example we just can't quite explain yet.

[Matt Sprung · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is well written and what is researched is done well. That needs to be stated.
The author admits that if she saw a UFO and it was close enough to see the windows and texture of the craft, she would discredit herself.
So... what then should I take away from this book?

The rest of this review is a poorly worded rant, for me. But read if you need

There are massive holes in the book. Massive holes in the types of UFO study and the period of time the book covers. For instance, UFOs have been documented throughout the ages, but we only see the last 50ish years here. Which the reader is led to believe the opposite as there is no mention. While there are some important stories being covered, it would be like someone writing the history of baseball and covering Barry Bonds steroid use and the Astros cheating scandal and forgetting the other 100 years of stories.
This is not a book about the Kardashians. It’s a book about a person interested in the idea of who actually watches the Kardashians. And rather than watch their shows, read their tweets, and engage in the culture, the author weighs the pros and cons of if she Comments on a few articles that were in the tabloids.

The other issue is the Author is completely agnostic to the possibility that UFOs or Aliens exist. This is not agnostic in the sense of an open mind coming to the space and scientifically looking at all angles, as pretended. This is agnostic like, it just doesn’t effect me either way so I have no opinion or reason to dig deeper. This is a person who doesn’t want to believe or is scared to believe, covering the easy stories. Any atheist or agnostic can rip apart the Bible using the verses they like, and any scientist can show evidence of historic places in the Bible on earth, but that still evades the question of ‘what if’? And is it true?

In a time where we would scoff at a victim of sexual assault telling there storyand not being empathized with, this book scoffs at people’s ideas saying they are crazy, the brain plays tricks, ptsd makes you see things...

Whether witnesses are true or not is always going to be difficult to know or understand, but if you flat out are not trying to empathize, why write a book?

If you have no passion, why enter the conversation just to vomit other people’s stories. It’s not like you are putting the full body of UFO/Alien coverage into view for other people to make their own opinion of the stories.

I guess what I’m saying is, you don’t need to have an opinion. You can stay agnostic and find interest in the topic. But if that’s the route you take, you have to cover the subject much more in depth. The journalistic approach is a nice change, but In the era we live, we know how damning it is to only get part of the whole.

Now I am ranting because I am upset that I wasted time on this book. I should have known that when a book about a subject like this is covered by mainstream media, it’s because it is watered down BS that carries little weight.

This tops the list of books I am upset that I read. And the reason for one of the only book reviews I have ever written, however poor it is.

[Josh Liller · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little context: I was really interested in UFOs as a kid (also cryptozoology), although I never saw one myself. As an adult, I drifted away from the subject. Reading lots of history books and becoming a professional Historian has really hurt my interest because I've come to understand how much of the field is based on bad history and unreliable sources, and plagued with strong bias.

The author is a professional freelance journalist, mostly writing for science magazines, and her writing style felt very reflective of that. She's a character in the narrative, often describing her experiences talking to people and going to places and events. It's a style I find very hit-or-miss (it usually works for Bill Bryson), especially here. I read through some chapters quickly. Other parts I skimmed over because they weren't really catching my interest. It felt fairly unbiased, leaning toward the skeptical side of things. The author has a strong science background so is inclined to seek out rational, mundane explanations but didn't come across to me as dismissive.

What I enjoyed most about this book was that it provided something of a recap of the last two decades of UFOlology culture which I've been largely out of touch with (I'd at least heard about the Navy intercept videos). What's MUFON been up to? What's the latest on Roswell? What's a modern UFO convention like? That guy from Blink-182 who got obsessed with aliens. Meet guy who has been running a UFO-related website since the 1990s and a guy who gives Area 51 tours. I had never heard of the UFO Watchtower in Colorado and will probably visit someday when I get to Colorado (especially since there's a national park nearby).

My final verdict: a resounding "meh." It's not terrible and some parts are pretty interesting, but if anything is going to reel me back into UFOlogy this wasn't it. Maybe I'm just permanently over it.

[Victor Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gem of a book. I'd never heard of this author, just stumbled upon her in a bookstore, and I'm a fan! I'll definitely be buying & reading Making Contact next.

This book delved much more deeply into the psychology of UFO culture than books I've read in the past. This being a slim volume, I'd happily dive even deeper. It's a map of the landscape, a cast of players, a brief history, and an introspection-based analysis of how the human mind connects uncertainty to a larger alien narrative. My favorite part is when the author is traveling down "Extraterrestrial Highway" toward Area 51 in New Mexico and she and her carmates see their first UFO. A few interviews later, she finally unpacks the explanation of what she saw, but more importantly than the explanation itself is her exploration of her own reaction to it. First, she felt a sense of wonder and excitement and specialness that was a painful bubble to have burst by mundane physical explanation. But these are exactly the cognitive and emotional pathways that deserve exploration and connection to the broader issues of society in order to understand the "why" of the UFO phenomenon.

You do not completely determine your own experience of the world. To Americans, that's deeply unsettling (if you dislike that your actions can be modeled mathematically, you'll hate that some entity might literally lord over you). Scholar Timothy Melley called this feeling "agency panic." But while it may unsettle, it is also perhaps a necessary characteristic of a me-me free society. "Conspiracy theory, paranoia, and anxiety about human agency," Melley writes, "...are all part of the paradox in which a supposedly individualist culture conserves its individualism by continually imagining it to be in imminent peril." Put simply: If you imagine you might lose something, you'll fight to keep it, whether you should or not, and whether you're actually losing it or not, and whether you had it to begin with. Or not.

[jedioffsidetrap · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m not sure what I’d hoped to get out of this book, but I didn’t get it. I’m not sure what the author wanted to accomplish either.

The book ends up being a loosely linked series of stories about UFO stuff, in loose, hip journo style with autobiographical touches that aren’t sooo relevant— a superficial first-person survey of the current UFO ecosystem? Having read a couple of Annie Jacobson’s books, Scoles’ looks pretty thin in comparison.

She makes field trips (some with girlfriends) to UFO conferences, to Area 51, to an observatory shut down by the FBI, the UFO Watchtower. She touches on Bob Lazar, Robert Bigelow, the Blink-182 guy, Project Blue Book...

She starts at the 2017 NYT story about a UFO project and goes back from there. She ends up saying she still doesn’t believe in UFOs but she believes in “universal uncertainty”: that we humans don’t & can’t know everything. But we’ll keep trying to fill in the blanks. Even with fantasies of ET visits & alien abductions. Huh... That’s a... good thing? Seems like a long way to go to make such a simple & obvious epistemological point.

So I guess she’s defending UFO nuts’ right to believe whatever they want? She certainly points out the very good reasons why we shouldn’t trust everything our govt tells us, and that the reasons aren’t necessarily nefarious. She got caught up in “seeing things” on her field trips so she doesn’t put herself above the believers.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave it three stars for good writing but the title is totally misleading. Scoles goes on an adventure to many hot spots and talks to a number of people who don't believe in UFOs. The jest of the book is that while people do see strange things they is no reason to believe that they were created by aliens. If you see some videos by craft that exhibit anti gravity, extreme acceleration, ability to operate in multiple environments (water, air, space) and extreme performance (right angle turns at high speed or dropping 60,000 ft in altitude in one second) then that is not of terrestrial design.

Even if our govern or any other government had captured UFOs the technology could be thousands of years beyond ours. If we could reverse engineer that tech we would use it. We use our most advanced technology now for the military. The title is correct that Aliens are already here and have been for a long time. We have overwhelming evidence in eye witness reports, video and photos. This is not to say that all are legitimate since there are people who think that creating hoaxes is something good, it isn't. But neither is claiming that the only truth is if you can walk aboard a UFO to see for yourself.
Steve Barone takes videos around Las Vegas using night a vision camera. https://www.youtube.com/c/UFOsOverVeg...

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a big fan of Sarah’s and loved her first book, Making Contact. This was much less about Aliens, and more the people who believe, and their personal stories.

So much of this book dives into memory, and the best content I have learned from on this subject is Malcom Gladwell’s great podcast Free Brian Williams (http://revisionisthistory.com/episode...)

Also was hoping for more call outs to the fact that there were tons of sightings with “evidence” dating up until the 2010s and then suddenly we all have HD cameras and the evidence is much easier to disprove, especially with time stamps and location data for any photo of video, combined with historical records tracking this satellite or that aircraft at that time/place.

Also no mention of first alien story, Barney and Betty Hill from 1961? (Great Imaginary Worlds podcast: https://www.imaginaryworldspodcast.or...)

I finished the book and general enjoyed it as a vacation read, but enjoyed Making Contact much more. That said, as someone who has been pretty into all aspect of aliens, i learned a ton from this book.

I don't mean this to be harsh, but maybe the name of this book should have been “They MIGHT Already Be Here"?

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked it well enough. I learned some of the history of UFO sightings and I appreciated Scoles' attempt to portray the people involved in a balanced, positive light. I wish she had spent more time on her subtitle - the why we see saucers part. I wanted to hear from UFO believers about what they actually saw, what it meant to them, and what convinced them that it had mysterious origins. There is very little of this. If you want to understand why we see saucers, shouldn't you talk to the people who say that they have seen them? What are the cultural and psychological aspects of this belief? She doesn't address that much.

As a personal peeve, Scoles' use of language bothered me, with frequent confusing descriptions. What does a "mouth like a cigar" look like? How does a photo of an atomic blast look like "one of those indoor tennis bubbles?" I had to google that one. I also got impatient with the chapter endings that tried for profundity but usually did not pull it off.

[S. Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is of the HighBridge audiobook version, narrated by Suzie Althens.

This is a nonfiction journalistic work on the U.F.O. phenomenon, past and present. Rather than focusing on IF alien life exists (although it touches on that as well), it delves deeply into WHY so many want to believe that alien life exists. The author recounts her interviews with well known ufologists, sitting in on U.F.O. conferences, her own "Unidentified Flying Object" experiences, her thoughts on the subject, and her personal journey to Area 51.

The narrator captures the author's voice perfectly, making it sound almost like more of a memoir than a nonfiction narrative. It was very hard to tear myself away, as the content was quite intriguing. However, I disliked that the author was quite vocal about her religious beliefs, calling the fundamentals of Christianity "absurd" as well as criticizing other religions. It was unnecessary. I would still give the book a hearty four stars.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author Sarah Scoles delves into the UFO phenomena, giving some historical background and interviewing well known and not-so-well-known UFO-ologists.


In the average US population, some people believe in visits by extraterrestrials but others are skeptics. Many people (as high as 1 out of 6) have seen unexplained things in the sky. Others want to believe so badly , that they begin to see phenomena. Many believe there is information hidden by the government.

It’s amusing enough to keep my interest, but even if you’re like me and have read only a very small bit on UFO’s, you won’t find much new in this book.


This is the sort of nonfiction audiobook that badly needs a list of chapters or better yet, an index. If you would like to compare something in the audio to something else you have read, you will be quite frustrated finding the sequence you would like to compare. Everything about this book points it toward listening casually once through for entertainment.

Disappointing.