Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers Paperback – November 23, 2014

I finished this book not knowing exactly what Mr. Valle actually believes himself - if indeed one can have a single belief about this phenomena. He doesn't, if I didn't misinterpret, believe the traditional view of the scientific/materialist UFO community that holds that these are 'metallic' craft constructed on alien world(s) in some nearby star-system piloted by biological or android creatures, that have come to the vicinity of earth for any number of different purposes: Scientific inquiry, trade, military conquest, missionary work, etc. The sheer number of such visitations and their incoherent behavior casts this interpretation in the light of the extremely myopic, even absurd and a makes a mockery of actual experiences.I appreciate that Mr. Valle took the time and had the interest to describe by way of comparison, the historic context as recorded in world-wide folklore: Fairies, gremlins. dwarfs, angels, sprites, daemons, (skinwalkers) , etc. and their reported appearances and behavior respecting humans over the course of perhaps thousands of years.My personal view is closest to that of Jung, i.e., that these sightings, craft, inhabitants, ,human interactions, are on balance physically real 'psychic projections' or products emanating from the unconscious, i.e., actual materializations, the origins of which lies within the realm of the esoteric, the paranormal, the mystical , the magical, the impossible.Years ago Jeffrey Mishlove's "Thinking Allowed" featured an interview with Terrence McKenna entitled (I believe) Aliens and Archetypes. It is worth watching.

Vallee is careful to state at the outset that Passport to Magonia “is not a scientific book.” (p. 11) Be forewarned, that is a bit of a shell game on his part, and I would say this is one of the most sophisticated and in fact one of the most scientific of all the books I’ve read so far on UFOs. It might also be one of the most misleading. I see on the back of the book that Vallee is now living as a “venture capitalist” in San Francisco. The author is also fairly familiar it seems with the workings of defense and intelligence agencies. There are numerous suggestions of sinister connections here I would say. For all of the foregoing reasons, it is important to read this book with caution. There is much here to disturb the modern (differentiated, ‘dissociated’?) consensus reality, even some rather repulsive references to demonology reminiscent of that fave 70s horror film and book The Exorcist, which was written (or so I’ve read) in part as an attempt to ‘prove’ the existence of the supernatural and hence the existence of God. I have seen 1 documentary (UFOs the Secret History) that suggests Vallee’s intention here is to debunk rather than to support the ‘reality’ of the UFO phenomenon. From a certain angle this is correct I now see, as Vallee ultimately states in his conclusion that the type of wild speculation popular in the ufology mythos (and which perhaps to a degree Vallee had a hand in popularizing!) does not have “a scientific leg to stand upon!” (p. 161) Certainly we “could . . . imagine that for centuries some superior intelligence has been projecting into our environment . . . various artificial objects whose creation is a pure form of art.” (p. 161) We could also fantasize that UFOs are “a natural phenomenon whose manifestations border on both the physical and the mental.” In this context, Vallee even speculates that “human dreams can be implemented, and this is the mechanism by which UFO events are generated, needing no superior intelligence to trigger them . . . [but] it would stop short of explaining the traces left by such phenomenon.” (p. 161) I’m not sure in this context what “traces” he means exactly and it is interesting that the word here is ‘traces’ rather than ‘evidence’. After offering up many accounts (some of which you can Google online and discover have already been debunked), Vallee as I said admits that none of his own wild speculations are “scientific” in the least. He describes this work as “philosophical” but perhaps, given his description of UFOs as “objects . . . of art”, a better way to frame it would be as ‘artistic’. You can see why Spielberg included a fictionalized version of Vallee’s character in the blockbuster film ‘Close Encounters’ - with the famous director Truffaut cast in the role you get artistic credibility atop the scientific. In our modern differentiated society this kind of stacking has some social relevance perhaps. Piling up the social subsystems within which you have some weight is no easy feat. Maybe Alan Dershowitz too approaches this type of status, with legal credibility alongside filmic portrayals, not to mention the scandalous allegations. Carl Sagan had pop culture credentials but was rejected by both Harvard for tenure and the National Academy of Sciences for membership. Like much of the mythos, the material here stumbles about in the twilight realm between a generalist’s sensibility and the specialist’s knowledge. This is perhaps why Vallee’s appeal for “sociologists” to “tackle the problem” (p. 136) speaks to me. Still one may get the (social) impression of Vallee (from a variety of sources) that he lends a certain and nearly scientific credibility to the endeavor, even though technically he is located outside of the academy (in the strictest sense of his professional role in society as opposed to his credentials). I began reading this book with a credulous frame of mind, and I was surprised to find credulous accounts within, which have been debunked as I said. I now see that Vallee correctly indicates his primary concern as the ‘reports’ themselves rather than the underlying veracity. This is a sociological view (and a scientific one) that any communication about UFOs has meaning in society even if it is a hoax or otherwise explainable in mundane terms. For this reason I will not detail the multiple examples of possible hoaxes or explainable encounters within these pages. Perhaps some of these Vallee included innocently enough (especially in these pre-Internet days of yore) but the way this book is written feels somewhat deceptive by its conclusion. Why include a case as ‘fact’ if you know (or even reasonably suspect) it to be a hoax? One possible reason I can imagine to include obvious hoaxes in a credulous manner would be to serve as disinformation, which is a definite risk in this field. Circa 1968 to write such a detailed book about UFOs for purposes of disinformation would have been quite cutting edge. Then again this book is one of the foundational texts for any review of the ufology literature, so it was by that measure quite cutting edge regardless of the intentions of its author. A bit of research into the mythos indicates there is much in common between ufology, ‘misinformation’ and counterintelligence. Any time I hear of a ‘venture capitalist’ with connections to the defense or intelligence communities, it makes me nervous. Vallee himself suddenly appears a bit of a mystery. However, the sociological (scientific) question I have is different. Simply put, will ufology ever entirely cross the line into the realm of scientific respectability? Despite a handful of PhDs who fall into the ‘ufologist’ bucket, and Avi Loeb’s latest project notwithstanding, I would say that ufology as a ‘scientific’ endeavor stubbornly refuses to achieve escape velocity from the orbit of folklore or religious studies. What exactly does that say about ufology or folklore or even our modern differentiated society? Having read a few of these books now, I can say (as any ufologist would) that the sheer volume of encounters commands attention and I would agree that, from the perspective of sociology at the very least, the jury is still out. Despite my inherent mistrust of anyone of Vallee’s status (stature) within society, I remain fascinated by this book. The seductive quality of Vallee’s narrative is simply the power of re-enchantment, which I find to be a common desire of modern man. Modern re-enchantment comes in a variety of forms, in every type of media from the old print format of supermarket tabloids to classic horror films to the retelling of various ‘urban legends’ and yes - in the form of credulous UFO books. Vallee here has written a book that pretends to be credulous but is ultimately highly skeptical, and I find that this approach makes it highly susceptible to misinterpretation. We all inherently want to believe. Within the frame of folklore then, this is one of the better books on ufology, and whether you trust Vallee’s motives or not, a classic in the genre.

This book is a lot! It is scientific and well researched, it requires someone who wants to get into the sciencey aspect, but it also gets into some very weird aspects of the paranormal and shows how over the years, demons, fairies, UFO and alien encounters share similar things and how over the years things may have evolved with understanding of humans from ancient times into the more modern times.It's good, but it isn't for everyone. I admit, I didn't get too far into it cuz it has a lot to go through!