UFOs: The Definitive Guide to Unidentified Flying Objects and Related Phenomena

📖 The UFO Encyclopedia: Mysteries and Exploration from a Contemporary Perspective

This book gathers the latest reports, research findings, and theoretical speculation on unidentified flying objects (UFOs), including claimed physical evidence of spacecraft and cases in which UFOs showed clearly hostile behavior—especially in Latin America. It describes several related scientific research projects in detail and fully explores the UFO as a psychological and spiritual phenomenon. The volume collects a wide range of investigations and theories around the UFO controversy and also exposes famous UFO hoaxes. It further examines certain links between New Age religious phenomena and UFO investigation, for example the former Soviet Union’s use of “biolocation”—a “psychic” procedure similar to dowsing—to identify alleged UFO landing sites.

Library Journal review
Although this book may not be the “definitive work” its subtitle claims, its emphasis on the supernatural side of UFOs does set it apart. The author, Ritchie, openly prefers supernatural explanations, which he finds a better fit for reports of sightings, abductions, and related phenomena. To a large extent Ritchie chooses artists’ conceptions rather than photographs, because he believes no convincing photograph of a UFO has ever been taken. Each page holds two or three entries, covering people, places, events, science-fiction films, and topics such as belief systems, New Age movements, and religion. Extensive cross-references help the reader follow related entries. The book also includes a highly selective bibliography of works published in the 1980s and 1990s. It will help every reader, from high-school students to adults, explore this eternally fascinating mystery. John Spencer’s The UFO Encyclopedia (Avon, 1993) is a similar A-Z guide with a British perspective and can serve as a complement. Highly recommended. —Gary D. Barber, State University of New York at Fredonia Library

Booklist review
In the foreword to this guide to the UFO phenomenon, Ritchie rejects the idea that extraterrestrials have visited Earth. What is known of the neighboring planets shows that none of them could support life even slightly similar to Earth’s; other solar systems are too distant for visitors to arrive; and no solid evidence has ever been found for life beyond Earth. He does believe UFOs are real, but he relies on supernatural or spiritual explanations. He cites similarities between descriptions of UFO pilots and accounts of demons appearing. Entries are arranged alphabetically by topic and include UFO sighting reports, both unsolved cases and hoaxes. The book also takes in other phenomena, such as the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima and accounts of encounters with demons recorded by early Church writers. Ritchie also rejects the theories of Erich von Däniken, who supposed that the ancient “gods” were in fact space travelers. Ritchie holds that the Nazca Lines of Peru—patterns that can be made out only from the air—were drawn by primitive people using hot-air balloons. He gives no source for this information. He also covers the “crop circles” that troubled Europe for decades, but he does not mention the two elderly men who claimed responsibility for the crop circles in Britain. A selective bibliography of 36 entries appears at the end. The book contains more than 50 black-and-white illustrations. Most articles include cross-references to related topics, and the book also provides an index. Jerome Clark’s three-volume The UFO Encyclopedia (Omnigraphics, 1990-1993) covers the subject comprehensively, from the earliest sightings to the present day.

📚 Source:UFO Evidence Bookstore