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Night Siege: The Hudson Valley Ufo Sightings
Examines reports of sightings of a boomerang-shaped UFO in the Hudson Valley region of New York and nearby western Connecticut
263 pages, Paperback
First published September 12, 1987
22 people are currently reading
394 people want to read
About the author
J. Allen Hynek
32 books71 followersUnited States astronomer, professor, and ufologist
He is perhaps best remembered for his UFO research. Hynek acted as scientific adviser to UFO studies undertaken by the U.S. Air Force under three consecutive projects:
Project Sign (1947–1949),
Project Grudge (1949–1952), and
Project Blue Book (1952 to 1969).
For decades afterwards, he conducted his own independent UFO research, developing the Close Encounter classification system, and is widely considered the father of the concept of scientific analysis of both reports and, especially, trace evidence purportedly left by UFOs.
He is perhaps best remembered for his UFO research. Hynek acted as scientific adviser to UFO studies undertaken by the U.S. Air Force under three consecutive projects:
Project Sign (1947–1949),
Project Grudge (1949–1952), and
Project Blue Book (1952 to 1969).
For decades afterwards, he conducted his own independent UFO research, developing the Close Encounter classification system, and is widely considered the father of the concept of scientific analysis of both reports and, especially, trace evidence purportedly left by UFOs.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 9, 2014
Dr. J. Allen Hynek was a noted scientist used by the US Air Force to de-bunk the "ufo myth". However, a funny thing happened on the way to the Project Blue Book Report: Dr. Hynek had to dissent from the majority insistence on dismissing the evidence of UFO sightings by credible witnesses like…the Air Force's own pilots. After the publication of the Condon Report Dr. Hynek spoke openly about the roughly 30% of UFO reports that could not be explained as misperception of planets, comets, stars or "weather balloons". Dr. Hynek was that rare breed of scientist in this age of self-censoring scientists who refuse to look at the evidence on the basis that "it simply can't be true". Science is about finding an explanation for the un-explained and Hynek greatly advanced the cause of opening scientific minds by carefully examining the evidence and drawing attention to credible cases.
November 10, 2014
I guess I was a bit thrown by the title - expecting a bit more high drama. This book, and I have read many on this subject - is more of a well documented scientific report rather than the collection of anecdotal verbal accounts I was expecting. It was put together well, but does come off repetitive. Still, being an accurate account of these strange events, it has no other choice. Worth the read if you're a diehard UFO buff. If just curious about the subject , I would recommend others.
July 8, 2013
My parents observed UFOs during this time period, reading about more witnesses talking of the same craft is exceptionally amazing. Good read for someone who has had this experience. You are not alone in it. I have observed UFO activity a couple times in my life as well but after this wave of sightings.
May 30, 2011
This is not a fun book. If you want fun books about unidentified flying objects, they are easy to find. Many have much more outrageous stories to tell than one will ever hear from J. Allen Hynek. Many of them are better writers than he and his colleagues. But if you want the facts, just the facts, without fanfare, understated if anything, then check out Hynek's publications in the field.
Hynek's old house is just a few blocks from mine, near Lake Michigan. A local friend who went to school in the area says his kids were teased as "the space aliens" after he broke his decades long association with the U. S. Air Force as their scientific consultant. He claimed that his work for them was to give credibility to their official dismissals of UFO sightings, that these dismissals too often ignored or distorted the facts. He proceeded on his own, writing several books on the subject himself, doing some writing with his French colleague at Northwestern University, Jacques Vallee. Vallee is portrayed by Truffaut in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Hynek's terminology), Hynek, in a bit part, plays himself. Wishful thinking. He did not live to see the solution to the mystery.
I "met" Hynek once. He was Northwestern's Astronomy Department's host when they first opened their observatory on the lakefront to the public back in the sixties. I was an elementary schooler taken in tow by my father. Although I had a lot of familiarity already with some of the popularizers of UFO stories like Adamski and Ruplett, I don't think I knew yet of Hynek's association with the USAF's Project Blue Book, their public office dealing with the sightings of unaccountable things in the skies. He was just a little man with dark horn rimmed glasses and a goatee, the very stereotype of the scientist I hoped someday to become. The observatory is gone now. I still read a lot of literature related to unaccountable things. The government, our government, still studies them with imperfect secrecy while lying to the public.
This particular book, released in its latest edition(s), after Hynek's death, details literally thousands of sightings over more than a decade in the Hudson Valley area. Most are not very exciting, though some of them are suggestively similar to the thousands of accounts of the Phoenix Lights (including two sightings now admitted by their Republican governor of the time, Fife Symington) of the nineties. All of them together, all of the evidences of Hynek's many books and articles together, will convince virtually any reader that there is, in fact, something to the "UFO phenomenon."
Hynek's old house is just a few blocks from mine, near Lake Michigan. A local friend who went to school in the area says his kids were teased as "the space aliens" after he broke his decades long association with the U. S. Air Force as their scientific consultant. He claimed that his work for them was to give credibility to their official dismissals of UFO sightings, that these dismissals too often ignored or distorted the facts. He proceeded on his own, writing several books on the subject himself, doing some writing with his French colleague at Northwestern University, Jacques Vallee. Vallee is portrayed by Truffaut in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Hynek's terminology), Hynek, in a bit part, plays himself. Wishful thinking. He did not live to see the solution to the mystery.
I "met" Hynek once. He was Northwestern's Astronomy Department's host when they first opened their observatory on the lakefront to the public back in the sixties. I was an elementary schooler taken in tow by my father. Although I had a lot of familiarity already with some of the popularizers of UFO stories like Adamski and Ruplett, I don't think I knew yet of Hynek's association with the USAF's Project Blue Book, their public office dealing with the sightings of unaccountable things in the skies. He was just a little man with dark horn rimmed glasses and a goatee, the very stereotype of the scientist I hoped someday to become. The observatory is gone now. I still read a lot of literature related to unaccountable things. The government, our government, still studies them with imperfect secrecy while lying to the public.
This particular book, released in its latest edition(s), after Hynek's death, details literally thousands of sightings over more than a decade in the Hudson Valley area. Most are not very exciting, though some of them are suggestively similar to the thousands of accounts of the Phoenix Lights (including two sightings now admitted by their Republican governor of the time, Fife Symington) of the nineties. All of them together, all of the evidences of Hynek's many books and articles together, will convince virtually any reader that there is, in fact, something to the "UFO phenomenon."
May 21, 2024
AN INTERESTING PRESENTATION OF A PROMINENT UFO CASE
Josef Allen Hynek (1910–1986) was an American astronomer, professor, and ufologist, who acted as scientific advisor to the UFO studies by the U.S. Air Force under Project Sign and Project Blue Book. Initially a skeptic, he later became a ‘believer,’ and in 1973 founded the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), to conduct scientific analysis of UFO cases. (He also invented the distinction between ‘Close Encounters’ of the First Kind, Second Kind, and Third Kind.) [Bob Pratt is/was a journalist; Philip Imbrogno’s claimed academic and military background has been questioned, by UFO researchers such as Kevin Randle.)
The ‘Acknowledgements’ to this 1987 book explains, “We note with sadness that our coauthor, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, died as the book was being written. He was, without question, the dean of the world’s UFO researchers. He helped set the guidelines for the investigation and took an active part in it. We also wish to thank his wife, Mimi, for reading the manuscript and offering many helpful comments and suggestions.”
The Preface states, “Something truly extraordinary happened not long ago in the Hudson River Valley… Hundreds, and probably thousands, of astonished people looked up in the sky and saw something they had never seen before… It moved slowly and silently and was easily as big as a football field… the mysterious … UFO, was also very close to the ground… and many people were able to get a good, long look at it… It may be that the UFOs pose a question that science cannot answer. However, we don’t believe this is the case. We---two scientists and an investigative reported---believe there IS an answer. But we will never know what it is until scientists accept the phenomenon of UFOs… and begin to study it.”
They interviewed one witness (a policewoman), who told them, “The entire sighting lasted about eight minutes, she said, and she never thought to use the hand-held radar gun on the seat beside her. ‘I was so startled by what I saw that it didn’t even cross my mind,’ she said. That was unfortunate, but not surprising. Many times, witnesses have cameras handy during UFO sightings but ever think of trying to take a photo. A definite radar return from the gun would have indicate a solid object and its speed.” (Pg. 40)
They observe, “The [UFO] phenomenon is such a puzzling one that no researchers, not even scientists studying it, are certain which discipline ‘owns’ it… Most UFO researchers, even those who are the most experienced, with hundreds of cases behind them spanning several decades, will readily admit that neither they nor anyone they know of is a UFO expert. The reason is that we have never had a UFO that could be put in a laboratory and studied to determine exactly what it is and what makes it tick.” (Pg. 54-55)
They note, “We must stress that in none of the hundreds of cases we investigated did we receive any reports of ‘occupants’ or ‘creatures.’ Whether [John] Wright and the others actually encountered ‘occupants,’ or were somehow led to believe they had, probably will never be known.” (Pg. 61)
After one sighting, “As before, police in a number of towns were dispatched to investigate reports. In some instances, the officers spotted the UFO but would not talk to us about what they had seen. The reason, we discovered later, was that it had become official policy in most towns for police to remain silent about the sightings.” (Pg. 70)
They spoke to three guards who were witnesses to a sighting at Indian Point: “We were asked not to tape these interviews, but our notes show the following additional points: 1. As the object approached the east gate … the nuclear plant’s security system shut down… and the entire alarm system failed. 2. Inside the security console, the computer that controls all security and communications systems shut down. 3. … the commander contacted… [a] National Guard base … requesting identification of the object. No answer was given. A request was then made for an armed helicopter to shoot the object down. Before the command was given to launch the helicopter, the UFO moved away. 4. The next day, the commander .. informed them that ‘nothing happened’ and the event was to be forgotten. 5. The event was witnessed by several plant workers as well as the security guards. 6. A number of area residents saw the object at the same time the plant guards did… 7. A videotape of the object may exist, since all the security cameras automatically record everything … However, authorities say no such tape exists. 8. All radio communications that night were also routinely recorded, but the tapes no longer exist. 9. In the days following the incident, officials of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission visited the plant, and the entire security setup underwent a shakeup.” (Pg. 147-148)
They point out, “During the three years the sightings took place, they were followed fairly closely by the local media. Many skeptics have tried to explain away the sightings, but no one has come up with a rational explanation. Even longtime UFO skeptic Philip Klass was puzzled by the Hudson Valley sightings. Commenting on them in the August, 1983, issue of Omni magazine, he said, ‘I’ve been investigating UFO reports for seventeen years and have yet to find an indication of unknown or extraterrestrial phenomenon. It would take a lot to convince me, but it could be that for the first time in seventeen years this is an unexplainable case.’” (Pg. 183)
They conclude, “The UFO is still a mystery… Sightings also took place throughout much of the Northeast, although in far fewer numbers, and there were recent reports of occasional sightings elsewhere in the country… Our investigation continues, but we feel we have presented an overwhelming amount of evidence that something strange and inexplicable is in our midst; something alien to the world as we know it. We do not know what it is. We can only speculate… We invite the scientists of the world to take an open-minded, objective look at this phenomenon and help solve the mystery.” (Pg. 197)
This book will be of great interest to those studying UFOs and related topics.
Josef Allen Hynek (1910–1986) was an American astronomer, professor, and ufologist, who acted as scientific advisor to the UFO studies by the U.S. Air Force under Project Sign and Project Blue Book. Initially a skeptic, he later became a ‘believer,’ and in 1973 founded the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), to conduct scientific analysis of UFO cases. (He also invented the distinction between ‘Close Encounters’ of the First Kind, Second Kind, and Third Kind.) [Bob Pratt is/was a journalist; Philip Imbrogno’s claimed academic and military background has been questioned, by UFO researchers such as Kevin Randle.)
The ‘Acknowledgements’ to this 1987 book explains, “We note with sadness that our coauthor, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, died as the book was being written. He was, without question, the dean of the world’s UFO researchers. He helped set the guidelines for the investigation and took an active part in it. We also wish to thank his wife, Mimi, for reading the manuscript and offering many helpful comments and suggestions.”
The Preface states, “Something truly extraordinary happened not long ago in the Hudson River Valley… Hundreds, and probably thousands, of astonished people looked up in the sky and saw something they had never seen before… It moved slowly and silently and was easily as big as a football field… the mysterious … UFO, was also very close to the ground… and many people were able to get a good, long look at it… It may be that the UFOs pose a question that science cannot answer. However, we don’t believe this is the case. We---two scientists and an investigative reported---believe there IS an answer. But we will never know what it is until scientists accept the phenomenon of UFOs… and begin to study it.”
They interviewed one witness (a policewoman), who told them, “The entire sighting lasted about eight minutes, she said, and she never thought to use the hand-held radar gun on the seat beside her. ‘I was so startled by what I saw that it didn’t even cross my mind,’ she said. That was unfortunate, but not surprising. Many times, witnesses have cameras handy during UFO sightings but ever think of trying to take a photo. A definite radar return from the gun would have indicate a solid object and its speed.” (Pg. 40)
They observe, “The [UFO] phenomenon is such a puzzling one that no researchers, not even scientists studying it, are certain which discipline ‘owns’ it… Most UFO researchers, even those who are the most experienced, with hundreds of cases behind them spanning several decades, will readily admit that neither they nor anyone they know of is a UFO expert. The reason is that we have never had a UFO that could be put in a laboratory and studied to determine exactly what it is and what makes it tick.” (Pg. 54-55)
They note, “We must stress that in none of the hundreds of cases we investigated did we receive any reports of ‘occupants’ or ‘creatures.’ Whether [John] Wright and the others actually encountered ‘occupants,’ or were somehow led to believe they had, probably will never be known.” (Pg. 61)
After one sighting, “As before, police in a number of towns were dispatched to investigate reports. In some instances, the officers spotted the UFO but would not talk to us about what they had seen. The reason, we discovered later, was that it had become official policy in most towns for police to remain silent about the sightings.” (Pg. 70)
They spoke to three guards who were witnesses to a sighting at Indian Point: “We were asked not to tape these interviews, but our notes show the following additional points: 1. As the object approached the east gate … the nuclear plant’s security system shut down… and the entire alarm system failed. 2. Inside the security console, the computer that controls all security and communications systems shut down. 3. … the commander contacted… [a] National Guard base … requesting identification of the object. No answer was given. A request was then made for an armed helicopter to shoot the object down. Before the command was given to launch the helicopter, the UFO moved away. 4. The next day, the commander .. informed them that ‘nothing happened’ and the event was to be forgotten. 5. The event was witnessed by several plant workers as well as the security guards. 6. A number of area residents saw the object at the same time the plant guards did… 7. A videotape of the object may exist, since all the security cameras automatically record everything … However, authorities say no such tape exists. 8. All radio communications that night were also routinely recorded, but the tapes no longer exist. 9. In the days following the incident, officials of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission visited the plant, and the entire security setup underwent a shakeup.” (Pg. 147-148)
They point out, “During the three years the sightings took place, they were followed fairly closely by the local media. Many skeptics have tried to explain away the sightings, but no one has come up with a rational explanation. Even longtime UFO skeptic Philip Klass was puzzled by the Hudson Valley sightings. Commenting on them in the August, 1983, issue of Omni magazine, he said, ‘I’ve been investigating UFO reports for seventeen years and have yet to find an indication of unknown or extraterrestrial phenomenon. It would take a lot to convince me, but it could be that for the first time in seventeen years this is an unexplainable case.’” (Pg. 183)
They conclude, “The UFO is still a mystery… Sightings also took place throughout much of the Northeast, although in far fewer numbers, and there were recent reports of occasional sightings elsewhere in the country… Our investigation continues, but we feel we have presented an overwhelming amount of evidence that something strange and inexplicable is in our midst; something alien to the world as we know it. We do not know what it is. We can only speculate… We invite the scientists of the world to take an open-minded, objective look at this phenomenon and help solve the mystery.” (Pg. 197)
This book will be of great interest to those studying UFOs and related topics.
July 11, 2012
I can't remember when I read this anymore. A month ago? Two months ago? Don't know how I managed not to add it, and really don't know how it dawned on me, today, that, "Hey, did I ever add that one?"
Anyway, tedious as hell. Okay, I think it's cool to have all these stories from different walks of life about the Hudson Valley UFO thing, but after about the third one, it seemed like the only real difference from story to story was the occupation of the witness.
On one hand, it's great that here are all these accounts, and it's great that they're published and all together like this. On the other, it's not set up so that it's interesting to read all the way through. Seems it's more for the UFO-dedicated, the UFO-researching, than the UFO-curious like myself.
Anyway, tedious as hell. Okay, I think it's cool to have all these stories from different walks of life about the Hudson Valley UFO thing, but after about the third one, it seemed like the only real difference from story to story was the occupation of the witness.
On one hand, it's great that here are all these accounts, and it's great that they're published and all together like this. On the other, it's not set up so that it's interesting to read all the way through. Seems it's more for the UFO-dedicated, the UFO-researching, than the UFO-curious like myself.
April 30, 2017
Wish I'd known about them at the time they were happening-- I would have whipped over there to see if I could spot them myself.
October 5, 2010
I loved this book. I grew up in Brewster NY and as a young lad I remember this rash of sightings. It was quite enjoyable reading about events which took place minutes from my home.
December 3, 2022
Night Siege is a book I’ve known about for years, largely because of its association with J. Allen Hynek. Although Hynek died before the book was published, it reflects his openness to listening to people who’d seen strange things. With the new openness in the press regarding such things, and an interest in the Hudson Valley region, this seemed like a good time to take a look.
The years 1983 and ’84 saw multiple aerial anomalies in the Hudson Valley in New York, and beyond. Hynek, and Philip Imbrogno, who did much of the writing, investigated this in real time. The sightings took place over several months and the phenomenon witnessed by hundreds of people. To this day no reasonable explanation exists for what these people saw.
The book is essentially a gathering of data, recounting the perceptions of many witnesses. There’s a little narrative from the perspective of those who were trying to gather the information as the situation unfolded. It would’ve been useful to have a bit more information about how the investigators came to know this was happening, where they were based, and how they came to have access to the resources at hand. Overall, it is an interesting account. I wrote a bit more about it here: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.
The years 1983 and ’84 saw multiple aerial anomalies in the Hudson Valley in New York, and beyond. Hynek, and Philip Imbrogno, who did much of the writing, investigated this in real time. The sightings took place over several months and the phenomenon witnessed by hundreds of people. To this day no reasonable explanation exists for what these people saw.
The book is essentially a gathering of data, recounting the perceptions of many witnesses. There’s a little narrative from the perspective of those who were trying to gather the information as the situation unfolded. It would’ve been useful to have a bit more information about how the investigators came to know this was happening, where they were based, and how they came to have access to the resources at hand. Overall, it is an interesting account. I wrote a bit more about it here: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.
July 3, 2019
Pretty good for this type of book - largely a “just-the-facts-ma’am” account of several years worth of UFO sightings in the Tri-State Area. One really endearing aspect of the book is how the authors don’t really seem to be into the alien encounter aspect of the sightings - definitely try to avoid the pure hysteria of other contemporary works.
If you didn’t realize what book I was talking about in the last sentence I was talking about Communion lol.
If you didn’t realize what book I was talking about in the last sentence I was talking about Communion lol.
December 15, 2023
Possibly the best researched, documented, and published account ever written about hundreds of extraordinary sightings of the "black triangle" craft in Hudson NY in the early 1980's. Imbrogno adds in the portions from late 80's - early 90's that are about close encounters of the third and fourth kind.
Not needed.
Not needed.
December 31, 2023
This book is very important as it documented one of the most important UFO flaps ever, unfortunately, the researchers were biased against high strangeness cases.
March 25, 2024
Useful (and repetitive, which is useful) until one gets to the part that are obviously written by Imbrogno, who wants to wretch it away from anything grounded.
December 10, 2025
Great Read
Overall a very good read. I just wish the authors were able to include updated reports of UFO activity to the present time
I recommend!
Migs 2025
Overall a very good read. I just wish the authors were able to include updated reports of UFO activity to the present time
I recommend!
Migs 2025
December 19, 2014
The book’s straightforward “just the fact ma’am” style is refreshing in a field clouded with bended facts and wild assumptions. If there is any understanding of this phenomena to be found then the research method provided here can serve as a useful foundational template going forward.
Since the book was written in a manner that lends itself to further analysis of the facts I couldn’t help but come up with the following observations and thoughts from the source material:
Interaction w/objects:
The objects frequently interact with the observers. They respond in kind to signalling such as performed by switching a flashlight on and off. This suggests an awareness of being observed, an understanding that communication was attempted and ability/desire to respond. As such interaction between the observer and object at a basic level achieves a request/response paradigm.
The objects are reported to exhibit the following behavior:
Shape changing (see below)
change lighting patterns within object’s shape
change color of lights
Slowly dimming lights
Rapidly switch lights on and off
flash lights randomly
flash lights to mimic a request/response from the observer
"Blink out," become invisible (possible crypsis)
Shape changing:
The objects frequently are reported to change shape. Specifically in a manner which changes the configuration of the light patterns. The patterns were reported to take the form of:
Circle - frequently with one solitary red light following behind it
V shape
Triangle
“Boomerang”
Oblong or “football” shape
Putting aside the technology required to change shape in this manner, while hovering or on the move at various low altitudes, my speculation of this aspect of the sightings focused on this possibly being a form of communication of symbology.
Indeed, when you factor in the attributes of changing shape, on/off lights of different colors and intensities, request/response interactions and flight behaviors it may be reasonable to assume the objects engage in a form of language using a syntax that isn’t common to spoken language.
Other reported characteristics:
“Piping” as part of the structure
“Grey” or “flat” metal surface
Witness reporting of “presence,” “intelligence” and a feeling the object is engaging in mutual observation
All of this points to a fairly complex number of observed attributes of the makeup and behavior of these objects which should be coupled with the additional observations based on eyewitness accounts supplied in the book’s appendix such as the time of day, object type, color of lights, flight behavior, etc.
When events such as these meet a criteria that can categorize them as unexplainable and they occur for an extended period of time I think it would behoove investigators to treat them as data events comprising of many different attributes of observational data in their proper context, scrubbed of faulty points to the best of our ability and assigned a central repository for a larger cohesive study.
My understanding is that the revised edition added the “high strangeness” chapter which centered on a small percentage of reported contact/abduction scenarios. Many of these are expanded on in co-author Philip Imbrogno’s following book, Contact of the 5th Kind. I’m curious as to whether or not this was added to the 2nd edition after Mr. J. Allen Hynek, PHD had passed away. My own personal feeling toward abductions is one straddling agnosticism/skepticism for reasons that are beyond the scope of this review.
While I find the “contact/abduction” aspect of the book perhaps not useful for immediate consideration, I decided to add some further observations. I offer no speculation or conclusions regarding this aspect of the phenomena.
Occupant attributes:
Occupant sightings comprise less than 1% of reported sightings
Speech of occupant to observer in English
Occupant speaks “telepathically”
Wears suits associated with technical or flight/space-flight activities i.e. designed to guard against hostile environmental elements
Refer to pie charts in the book appendix for more Occupant types and attributes
Conversations reportedly focuses on ideas of friendship, assistance to human species, pending global catastrophe, childbirth and motherhood
Overall, I recommend the book if you have interest in the subject and I think its contribution to mainly centers on straightforward reporting of the eyewitness accounts, light analysis and summarization of the collected data and avoidance of wild speculation on the part of the authors.
Since the book was written in a manner that lends itself to further analysis of the facts I couldn’t help but come up with the following observations and thoughts from the source material:
Interaction w/objects:
The objects frequently interact with the observers. They respond in kind to signalling such as performed by switching a flashlight on and off. This suggests an awareness of being observed, an understanding that communication was attempted and ability/desire to respond. As such interaction between the observer and object at a basic level achieves a request/response paradigm.
The objects are reported to exhibit the following behavior:
Shape changing (see below)
change lighting patterns within object’s shape
change color of lights
Slowly dimming lights
Rapidly switch lights on and off
flash lights randomly
flash lights to mimic a request/response from the observer
"Blink out," become invisible (possible crypsis)
Shape changing:
The objects frequently are reported to change shape. Specifically in a manner which changes the configuration of the light patterns. The patterns were reported to take the form of:
Circle - frequently with one solitary red light following behind it
V shape
Triangle
“Boomerang”
Oblong or “football” shape
Putting aside the technology required to change shape in this manner, while hovering or on the move at various low altitudes, my speculation of this aspect of the sightings focused on this possibly being a form of communication of symbology.
Indeed, when you factor in the attributes of changing shape, on/off lights of different colors and intensities, request/response interactions and flight behaviors it may be reasonable to assume the objects engage in a form of language using a syntax that isn’t common to spoken language.
Other reported characteristics:
“Piping” as part of the structure
“Grey” or “flat” metal surface
Witness reporting of “presence,” “intelligence” and a feeling the object is engaging in mutual observation
All of this points to a fairly complex number of observed attributes of the makeup and behavior of these objects which should be coupled with the additional observations based on eyewitness accounts supplied in the book’s appendix such as the time of day, object type, color of lights, flight behavior, etc.
When events such as these meet a criteria that can categorize them as unexplainable and they occur for an extended period of time I think it would behoove investigators to treat them as data events comprising of many different attributes of observational data in their proper context, scrubbed of faulty points to the best of our ability and assigned a central repository for a larger cohesive study.
My understanding is that the revised edition added the “high strangeness” chapter which centered on a small percentage of reported contact/abduction scenarios. Many of these are expanded on in co-author Philip Imbrogno’s following book, Contact of the 5th Kind. I’m curious as to whether or not this was added to the 2nd edition after Mr. J. Allen Hynek, PHD had passed away. My own personal feeling toward abductions is one straddling agnosticism/skepticism for reasons that are beyond the scope of this review.
While I find the “contact/abduction” aspect of the book perhaps not useful for immediate consideration, I decided to add some further observations. I offer no speculation or conclusions regarding this aspect of the phenomena.
Occupant attributes:
Occupant sightings comprise less than 1% of reported sightings
Speech of occupant to observer in English
Occupant speaks “telepathically”
Wears suits associated with technical or flight/space-flight activities i.e. designed to guard against hostile environmental elements
Refer to pie charts in the book appendix for more Occupant types and attributes
Conversations reportedly focuses on ideas of friendship, assistance to human species, pending global catastrophe, childbirth and motherhood
Overall, I recommend the book if you have interest in the subject and I think its contribution to mainly centers on straightforward reporting of the eyewitness accounts, light analysis and summarization of the collected data and avoidance of wild speculation on the part of the authors.
May 20, 2015
If you're interested in UFOs, and especially if you have any connection to the Westchester County, NY area, this book is a great compilation of sightings from the mid-1980s until the mid-1990s. However, it reads more like a series of newspaper clippings and research paper excerpts rather than a formal book. It is a very factually-based compilation of observations and reports of those who witnessed the UFO phenomenon during that time.
April 14, 2010
Tedious collection of anecdotal evidence.
I would like to take a look at the updated version, but it is not in the local library system.
I would like to take a look at the updated version, but it is not in the local library system.
December 14, 2015
Scientific and fastidious yet unexciting and passive. Informative but ultimately just not that compellingly
Written
Written
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews