GRASSROOTS UFOS

Michael D. Swords. Grassroots UFOs: Case Reports from the Centre for UFO Studies, (compiled from original interviews by John P Timmerman). Anomalist Books, 2011.

Between 1980 and 1992 John P. Timmerman of the Centre for UFO Studies held UFO-related displays at several locations in the United States and Canada, at which he was approached by numerous people who related their own 'UFO experiences', many of which Timmerman taped.
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TALKING TO THE ALIENS

Douglas A. Vakoch (ed.). Communicating with Extraterrestrial Intelligence, State University of New York Press, 2011

The idea of communicating with extraterrestrial intelligences through radio, optic or other processes continues to fascinate both sections of the scientific community and the general public, despite 50 years of failure to detect an unambiguous extraterrestrial signal. This is evident from the collection of papers published here which "arose from" the April 2010 astrobiology science conference organised by NASA.
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TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO: MAGONIA 22, MAY 1986

The May 1986 Magonia was a bit of a mixture with no overarching theme like some previous issues. Lead article was Michael Goss's description of 'phantom-hitchhiker' stories on public transport (including rickshaws!); although as Mike readily admitted in the case of public transport we are probably dealing with phantom fare-dodgers rather than true hitchhikers
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BEASTS AND RUMOURS OF BEASTS

Jay M. Smith. Monsters of the Gevaudan: The Making of a Beast. Harvard University Press, 2011

It is the aftermath of a world war and a strange rumour is abroad that preternatural forces are at work in the land. This is not, however the USA after the 'Second World War' and we are not dealing with flying saucers. This is France in the aftermath of its defeat in the Seven Years War of 1756-1763, and the rumour is a much more concrete and deadly one.
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THE GREAT OOM

Robert Love. The Great Oom: The Mysterious origins of America’s First Yogi. Penguin Books, 2011. 

A while ago I read a piece in the papers about a vicar who turned a yoga exercise group out of his church hall because he said it was un-Christian. At the time I mentally filed this along with the “political correctness gone mad” type of story. This book puts the vicar’s action into a historical context, and a remarkable one it is too. 
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WHY THE PENTAGON PANTRY IS EMPTY

John B Alexander. UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies and Realities. Thomas Dunne Books/St Martin's Press, 2011

John Alexander is someone with a background in the wilder and weirder aspects of the US military, including those parts studied by the likes of Jim Schnabel and Jon Ronson, and in post military life was associated with the semi mysterious National Institute for Discovery Science.
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THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

Donald S. Lopez, Jr., The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Biography, Princeton University Press. 2011.

The four-hundredth anniversary of the King James Bible has given rise to a large number of articles, along with radio and television programmes, about its origins and influence. Now Princeton University Press has begun to issue a series of 'Lives of Great Religious Books', beginning with 'The Tibetan Book of the Dead', which, in the Evans-Wentz edition, was one of the 'bibles' of the hippie movement, and has sold more than a million copies.
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LIFE ON MARS?

Dirk Schulze-Makuch and David Darling, We Are Not Alone: Why We Have Already Found Extraterrestrial Life. Oneworld, 2011

The title is somewhat misleading, as we have not (yet) found extraterrestrial life but only some, hotly disputed, evidence suggestive of the existence of microorganisms on the planet Mars. The search for life on Mars began in August 1960 when NASA authorised the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California to work on a plan to land a capsule equipped with instruments and experiments for detecting signs of life in the soil of the planet. 

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MAN, MYTH AND SCIENCE

Mary Midgley. The Myths we Live By. Routledge Classics, 2011

This is a reprint, with a new introduction by the author, of a book first published in 2004, collecting together pieces written between 1992 and 2002. The unifying theme among the various articles is the role of myth in science. Midgley argues that myths old and new lie behind many ‘scientific’ claims and speculations. Of particular interest is her analysis of various scientistic visions which she sees as reinventing ancient dualism in new clothes, and projecting dramatic visions of transcending the human condition.
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BUDD HOPKINS AND THE MYSTERIOUS SYMBOLS

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The clip by Carol Rainey on Budd Hopkins alleged secret UFO symbols raises a number of interesting points. One is the reaction of the American UFO Updates message board which was not only to ban Ms Rainey from its board, but also to ban any further comment on the issue of the alien scripts, though that did not seem to apply to Hopkins associate and abductee John Velez. As we in Magonia do not believe in censorship I will indeed discuss the clip on the alien script.

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PARANORMALITY

Richard Wiseman. Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There, Macmillan, London, 2011

Professor Wiseman was a professional magician before he began to study psychology and became interested in the investigation of what many believe to be paranormal phenomena. Thus, unlike some psychologists, he is unlikely to be deceived by even the cleverest and most skilful of fake mediums, fortune tellers or spoon benders.
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THE POLITICS OF THE VAMPIRE

Sara Libby Robinson. Blood Will Tell: Vampires as Political Metaphors Before World War I. Academic Studies Press, 2011.

Sara Libby Robinson here shows how the image of the vampire emerged into Western Europe in the 18th century and how during the period around 1870 to 1914 the image of the vampire was used by a variety of political and social groups to stigmatise their enemies, and how that image acted as a symbol to express a variety of social fears and moral panics.
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