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A Reframing of Unidentified Phenomena
As the world entered the 21st century, unresolved mysteries from earlier times were reframed with new clarity. While civilization had matured in technical depth and global cooperation, research on frontier phenomena expanded across the globe. The early pioneers of the scientific study of UFOs (Allen Hynek, Donald Keyhoe, Aimé Michel, James McDonald) had passed away, but their enthusiasm inspired a growing number of researchers. For that second generation, Vallée's contributions, based in hard science and the discipline of innovation capital, helped build a path to "disclosure"-the realization, as business and technology brought knowledge, power, and freedom everywhere, that the universe was wide open and that unidentified sightings could be studied in novel ways.
The events of 9/11 and their aftermath in conflict and complexity set humanity back and delayed such hopes. Suddenly, a world at war had other preoccupations than unexplained phenomena, yet a few teams of scientists and physicians continued the effort. Here, in ten years of carefully curated journal entries, partly drawn from classified research, Vallée shows how they brought a remarkable new reality to the light of day.
About the author
Dr. Jacques Vallee was born in France, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the Sorbonne and a Master of Science in astrophysics from the University of Lille. He began his professional life as an astronomer at the Paris Observatory in 1961. While on the staff of the French Space Committee, he witnessed the destruction of the tracking tapes of unknown objects orbiting the earth, initiating a lifelong interest in the UFO phenomenon. Vallee arrived in the U.S. in 1962, worked in astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin, and wrote two highly respected scientific examinations arguing for the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (ETH) of UFO origins. In 1967, he received a Ph.D. in computer science from Northwestern University, where he became a close associate of J. Allen Hynek, then scientific consultant for the U.S. Air Force on Project Blue Book. Eventually concluding that the ETH was too narrow to encompass the burgeoning UFO data, he conducted his own extensive global research, resulting in the "Alien Contact Trilogy." Dr. Vallee is presently a venture capitalist living in San Francisco. His website is www.jacquesvallee.com.
