The 100 Most Influential People in Ufology Today

By FATE Magazine
FATE Magazine - 2005 UFO Special

Dan Akroyd , actor, has a long-held fascination with UFO phenomena, and was named as MUFON’s official Hollywood Consultant in 2004. In a recent interview about his newly bestowed title, Akroyd commented, “There’s footage (on MUFONs website) of some of the stuff that we’re getting out of California, some objects that are very credible.” His fame, influence, and public pro-UFO comments easily land him a spot on Fate’s 100 Most Important People in Ufology list.

Jan Aldrich is the coordinator of PROJECT 1947, a worldwide effort to document the origins of the modern UFO phenomenon. Aldrich’s project has compiled a massive amount of data ranging from government documents, newspaper stories, magazine clippings, and other documents. Much of the material gathered by PROJECT 1947 is on display at their website www.project1947.com .

Stephen Bassett is the United States’ only congressional UFO lobbyist. He is the founder of the Paradigm Research Group and Executive Director of the Extraterrestrial Phenomena Political Action Committee (X-PPAC). Bassett also runs the popular Paradigm Clock website and is a frequent guest on radio talk shows around the country. In 2002, he ran as an independent in the congressional campaign for the 8 th District of Maryland. Bassett’s annual X-Conference in Washington, D.C., is widely regarded as one of the most important annual gatherings of ufologists in the United States.

Timothy Green Beckley , “Mr. UFO,” is a prolific author and publisher of UFO books, and the force behind the popular website www.conspiracyjournal.com . Beckley’s take on UFOs? “Some UFOs may be interplanetary craft, but the majority have to be placed in some other category. During radio and TV interviews the host always asks about my opinion on UFOs. I always tell him it doesn’t matter what my opinion is, UFOs act independently of my beliefs or anyone else’s!”

Art Bell . When it comes to influential people in contemporary ufology, this late-night talk show host finds himself near the top of the heap. From his one-man broadcasting center in Pahrump, Nevada, Bell hosts the weekend edition of Coast to Coast AM, one of the most successful overnight talk radio shows in history. The creator and original weeknight host of Coast to Coast AM, Art Bell made the show wildly popular around the world, exploring such topics as UFOs, remote viewing, crop circles, cattle mutilations, conspiracy theories, and more. Bell retired from the show he made famous in 2000, but eventually returned in 2003 to become Coast’s weekend host.

Don Berliner serves as chairman of the Fund for UFO Research and is co-author of the recent book Crash at Corona, along with fellow ufologist Stanton Friedman. He is the author of numerous books and articles on aviation.

William Birnes is a best-selling author (The Day After Roswell), a New York literary publishing agent who has written and edited more than 25 books and encyclopedias, and publisher of UFO Magazine.

Greg Bishop is the editor of The Excluded Middle, a quarterly publication that brings readers articles on UFOs and general Fortean topics. His work has also appeared in UFO Magazine, Magical Blend, and Fortean Times. Bishop’s latest book is Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth.

Errol Bruce-Knapp has worked in broadcast media for over 45 years and is the host of Strange Days Indeed, a Toronto, Ontario, UFO radio show. He’s been intrigued by UFOs for many years and got involved, on an almost full-time basis, in 1993 when he got his first computer and joined the Ontario chapter of MUFON. His website, www.virtuallystrange.com , is the online meeting place of choice for many of today’s top ufologists.

Larry Bryant operates the Washington, D.C., office of the UFO group Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS). Recently retired after a 36-year career in writing and editing for U. S. Army publications, Bryant says, “My government career paralleled my ufological pursuits; not always amicably. That certainly related to my having filed more UFO-related lawsuits in federal court than has anyone else in the entire universe.” Bryant’s UFO beliefs fall into the traditional “UFOs as mechanical craft created by extraterrestrial biological entities” category. He says, “If the hard-core evidence of UFO reality (i.e., ‘some UFOs represent somebody else’s spaceships’) were to be weighed by a grand jury, I have little doubt that an indictment would be handed down, an indictment shaming and rebuking the high priests of Scientism.”

Grant Cameron is one of Canada’s leading ufologists. He has studied and written extensively about Wilbert Smith, head of the Canadian government’s UFO investigation, Project Magnet. His most recent research involves U.S. presidents and UFOs. Cameron is, perhaps, most famous for a question he posed to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney about UFOs on a live radio show in 2001: “Have you ever been briefed on the subject of UFOs, and if you have, when was it and what were you told?” Cheney replied, jokingly, and semi-mysteriously, “Well, if I had been briefed on it, I’m sure it was probably classified and I couldn’t talk about it.”

Mark Carlotto , professional imaging expert, is one of the foremost investigators of Martian anomalies, having written numerous books, articles, analyses, and peer-reviewed papers on the subject. Carlotto currently serves as editor-in-chief of New Frontiers in Science, an online journal that examines unexplained and controversial phenomena.

Jerome Clark is a former editor-in-chief of Fate, former vice-president and current board member of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies, editor of the quarterly publication The International UFO Reporter, and author of reams of UFO articles, papers, reviews, and books. His three-volume UFO Encyclopedia encompasses nearly every conceivable aspect of the UFO phenomena and is widely considered a classic.

Dwight Connelly has been editor of theMUFON UFO Journal since 1997 and is the editor of The World’s Best UFO Cases, one of the best UFO titles in print.

Scott Corrales is the editor of Inexplicata: The Journal of Hispanic Ufology, and of course, a frequent contributor to Fate. Corrales’ work in illuminating UFO reports out of Latin America has been invaluable to the field of ufology. Many of today’s best UFO reports are coming from this corner of the globe, and without his important reporting, many of these sightings would likely go unnoticed in the English-speaking world of North American ufology.

Peter Davenport is among the most important people in ufology today. Since 1994, he has been director of the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC), which takes daily UFO reports from across North America. Davenport reports on many of the UFO sightings NUFORC receives as a regular guest on Sightings with Jeff Rense and Coast to Coast AM, as well as during lectures and presentations at annual UFO conferences. In addition to being the director of NUFORC, Davenport has served as the director of investigations for the Washington Chapter of MUFON. Davenport has a lengthy and impressive resumé, including work experience as a college instructor, a commercial fisherman, a Russian translator in the Soviet Union, a fisheries observer, and a flight instructor, and political experience as a candidate for the Washington State legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives. Davenport’s recent work involving passive-radar techniques to detect UFOs may take ufology in an important new direction in coming years.

Paul Davids is a major Hollywood player when it comes to extraterrestrial phenomena. He was executive producer and co-writer of the Showtime film Roswell, starring Martin Sheen and Kyle MacLachlan, which was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Television Motion Picture of 1994. Davids is a frequent speaker at many annual UFO events and has been an active proponent of ufology since his own UFO sighting in 1987.

Lisa Davis has succeeded Jim Moseley as chair of the annual National UFO Conference (NUFOC). Davis has been researching UFO and abduction phenomena for nearly a decade. In 2003, she formed The Foundation For Abduction Research And Support (FFARS) to educate, support, and empower individuals unwillingly involved in the abduction experience.  

Preston Dennett is a California-based field investigator for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). He has had more than 70 articles published in most of the major UFO publications, including Fate and the MUFON UFO Journal. He is the author of UFO Healings, One in Forty: The UFO Epidemic, Extraterrestrial Visitations, and UFOs Over Topanga Canyon.  

Richard Dolan , a relative newcomer to ufology, has made a major mark with his first book UFOs and the National Security State, hailed as one of the best UFO titles to hit the market in years when it was released in 2000. Dolan became interested in the UFO problem in 1994, approaching it from the standpoint of his academic training in history and politics. He was intrigued by the fact that mainstream and academic culture continued to treat UFOs as amusement, but that so many intelligent people privately had taken it seriously. Dolan is currently working on the much anticipated follow-up to his first book. 

Ann Druffel began investigating UFO reports in southern California in 1957 as a member of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). In 1970, she joined MUFON and the then newly-formed Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS). Druffel has personally researched over 2,000 Los Angeles Basin UFO reports through the years. As a writer, she has contributed over 180 articles on various aspects of the UFO enigma to numerous UFO journals and magazines and she has also written books, including How to Defend Yourself Against Alien Abuctions, and her latest, Firestorm, a biography of scientist and UFO researcher Dr. James McDonald.

Don and Vicki Ecker are the husband and wife team behind UFO Magazine, a bi-monthly publication dedicated to bring readers the best in all things UFO-related. Don has been the director of research for UFO Magazine since 1988. Vicki is the magazine’s editor-in-chief. A retired law enforcement officer, Don Ecker broke the STS-48 space shuttle UFO encounter on NBC and CNN. During the 1990’s he wrote the “Whistleblower” series for UFO Magazine detailing the stories of John Lear, Bob Lazar, and Bill Cooper. Together, Don and Vicki Ecker have put a skeptical but honest eye on the UFO subject through their magazine. Both appear at UFO conferences around the world on a regular basis.

Lou Farish runs the UFO Newsclipping Service, which produces a monthly newsletter of UFO stories that have appeared in newspapers around the world. Farish’s newsletter is an invaluable source of credible UFO reports. In addition, he is the organizer of the annual Ozark UFO Conference, held in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

George Filer , East Coast director of MUFON, is the man behind “Filer’s Files,” a weekly roundup of UFO reports from around the world. “Filer’s Files” appears in the MUFON UFO Journal as well as on the Internet and is required reading for anyone interested in the subject.

Raymond Fowler has worked for decades on the UFO phenomenon, and his contributions to ufology are respected by researchers throughout the world. Fowler’s background includes a tour with the U.S. Air Force Security Service and 25 years with GTE Government Systems. His UFO investigation reports have been published in congressional hearings, military publications, newspapers, magazines, and professional journals in the United States and abroad. Fowler has served as chairman of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) Massachusetts Subcommittee, as an early warning coordinator for the USAF-contracted UFO Study at the University of Colorado, as a scientific associate for the Center for UFO Study, and as director of investigations on the MUFON board of directors. His books include, UFOs: Interplanetary Visitors, The Andreasson Affair, Casebook of a UFO Investigator, The Watchers, The Allagash Abductions, and The Andreasson Legacy.

Stanton Friedman , longtime UFO researcher, author, and lecturer, is in the upper echelon of today’s UFO field. Friedman was employed for 14 years as a nuclear physicist for companies such as GE, GM, Westinghouse, TRW Systems, Aerojet General Nucleonics, and McDonnell Douglas. Since 1967, he has lectured on the topic “Flying Saucers ARE Real!” more than 600 times in 50 states, 9 provinces, and 13 other countries. He is the author of Crash at Corona and Top Secret/MAJIC, and has published more than 80 UFO papers and articles. He has provided written testimony to the U.S. Congress and has appeared twice at the United Nations. In 2002, Friedman was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Leeds, England, by UFO Magazine (UK).  Friedman believes that UFOs are alien spacecraft, that the subject of flying saucers represents a “Cosmic Watergate,” and that none of the anti-UFO arguments made by skeptics stand up to careful scrutiny. “We are dealing with the biggest story of the past millennium: visits to Earth by alien spacecraft and the successful cover-up by our governments.”
www.v-j-enterprises.com

Lou Gentile is the host of The Lou Gentile Show, a nighttime paranormal talk radio show based in Philadelphia and heard on 36 stations across the country. Gentile has been featured on TV’s Sightings, In Search Of, Unsolved Mysteries, The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, and others. Frequent guests on his show include many of ufology’s best and brightest: Whitley Strieber, Stanton Friedman, Brian Vike, Kevin Randle, and more.

AJ Gevaerd is the Editor of Revista UFO magazine, founder and director of the Brazilian Center for Flying Saucer Research (CBPDV), and Brazilian director for MUFON. He has been a UFO field investigator for three decades, personally carrying out close to 1,000 investigations. Respected as a national and international lecturer, Gevaerd has spoken in dozens of cities in his country and in other 29 countries around the world.

Timothy Good , author of the UFO classic Above Top Secret, has conducted worldwide research on the UFO phenomenon spanning more than 20 years. He has lectured at universities, schools, and many other organizations, and has even been invited for discussions at the Pentagon in 1998, and at the headquarters of the French Air Force in 2002. He has also acted as a consultant for several congressional investigations. After years of research, Good has concluded that UFOs are piloted by extraterrestrial entities and that there is a worldwide cover-up of UFO evidence underway by the intelligence communities of virtually every government on Earth. Timothy Good has written a large number of books on the UFO phenomenon, including the aforementioned Above Top Secret as well as Unearthly Disclosure, Alien Base, and Alien Liaisons.

Stan Gordon has been conducting on-scene investigations of mysterious phenomena in Pennsylvania since 1965. Gordon was the founder and director of the Pennsylvania Association for the Study of the Unexplained (PASU) and founder of the Westmoreland County UFO Study Group, which later became the Pennsylvania Center for UFO Research. Gordon also served as the Pennsylvania state director of MUFON for many years and in 1978, he became the first recipient of the annual MUFON Meritorious Achievement in a UFO Investigation award. He has written numerous articles on the unexplained covering topics from UFOs to cryptozoology in such publications as Skylook, the MUFON UFO Journal, Pursuit, and The Gate. Gordon’s most prominent UFO research involves the Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, UFO case. In 1998, he released a video documentary on the case called, “Kecksburg: The Untold Story.” His work on the Kecksburg UFO case was also featured in the Sci-Fi Channel’s recent documentaries, “The New Roswell: Kecksburg Exposed” and “The Kecksburg UFO: New Evidence.”

John Greenewald broke into the UFO scene as a child prodigy when he was featured in Whitley Strieber’s primetime NBC special “Confirmation” in 1998. Now a seasoned UFO researcher, Greenewald runs the website www.blackvault.com , which is among the most popular UFO sites in the world. Within its pages, visitors can find thousands of previously classified government documents relating to UFOs which Greenewald has obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. He has written a regular column for UFO Magazine, as well as articles for Fate and the book Beyond UFO Secrecy. Greenewald is a presenter and lecturer at many annual UFO events around the United States.

Steven Greer is the founder and international director of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI). Dr. Greer is also an emergency physician and former chairman of emergency medicine at Caldwell Memorial Hospital. As director of CSETI, he has met with and provided briefings for senior members of government, military and intelligence operations in the United States, including senior CIA officials, joint chiefs of staff, White House staff, senior members of congress and congressional committees, senior United Nations leadership and diplomats, senior military officials in the United Kingdom and Europe, and cabinet-level members of the Japanese government. On May 9, 2001, Greer’s Disclosure Project held a press briefing at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., at which more than 20 military, intelligence, government, corporate, and scientific witnesses came forward to establish the reality of UFOs, extraterrestrial life forms, and resulting advanced energy and propulsion technologies. www.disclosureproject.org

Richard Haines , co-founder of the new UFO organization National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP), worked at NASA for 37 years as a research scientist in numerous projects, including Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and the Space Station. His interest in UFO phenomena spans over 30 years, with special focus on sightings by pilots. He has catalogued more than 3,400 aviation-related cases of unidentified aerial phenomena. Unlike many of today’s ufologists, Haines has not yet settled on the extraterrestrial hypothesis as the most likely explanation for the UFO mystery. The disclaimer on NARCAP’s website makes this point clear: “NARCAP is aware of an intense debate regarding the existence, nature and source of so-called ‘UFOs.’ NARCAP Technical Reports and documentation have been used by various ‘UFO’ groups to promote their theories and opinions regarding the existence of ‘alien spacecraft’ and ‘extraterrestrials.’ NARCAP does not endorse any of these claims nor does it encourage this use of its material.”

Leah Haley is among the most credible of all abductees. She is the author of Lost Was The Key, a first-person account of her memories of abductions by what appeared to be both alien beings and military and government personnel. She has been featured on both television and radio across the country, and frequently gives presentations at annual UFO events. Leah is also the author of Ceto’s New Friends (1994), In Heaven (1997), Unlocking Alien Closets (2003), and numerous magazine articles.

Richard Hall is a U.S. Air Force veteran and one of the earliest members of the famed UFO group NICAP. Hall also served as chairman of the Fund for UFO Research from 1993 to 1998. He is the author of several books, including the all-time classics The UFO Evidence and The UFO Evidence, Vol. II. In recent years, Hall has been an outspoken critic of the current state of ufology, resigning from MUFON in protest in 2001. Hall once summed up his feelings during a Computer UFO Network interview: “Ufology mainly is a bunch of amateurs working in their spare time on a problem that would baffle senior scientists (if they ever paid attention) and require tremendous resources if we ever hope to learn what is going on. Our goals should be to increase our professionalism, focus on careful documentation of evidence, educate the public, and promote serious interest among scientists and other important persons whose skills or resources are necessary for a resolution of the problem. (That includes weeding out nonsense from the field.)”

Terry Hansen is a former magazine editor and now an independent journalist with a special interest in scientific controversies and the politics of knowledge. He has followed the UFO controversy for much of his life and has written about it for a variety of media. He is author of the book The Missing Times: News Media Complicity in the UFO Cover-up. He also organized and moderated two symposiums on “The Science and Politics of UFO Research” for the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul.

Larry Hatch runs one of the Internet’s largest and most important UFO databases at his website www.larryhatch.net . His “U Database” contains dozens of maps highlighting UFO sightings throughout the years. Hatch’s years of hard work on the database have produced an invaluable resource for ufologists.

Michael Heiser , a Ph.D. scholar in the field of the Hebrew Bible and ancient Semitic languages, has done translation work in over a dozen ancient languages and dialects, including biblical Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Ugaritic, Akkadian, Egyptian, and Syriac. Since publishing The Facade, a work of UFO fiction, Heiser has spoken at the Bay Area UFO Conference, the Ancient of Days Conference, and the X-Conference. Heiser is a frequent guest on Coast to Coast AM and other radio programs. His website is www.michaelsheiser.com .

Michael Hesemann is a historian, an internationally published author, an award-winning documentarist, and an investigative journalist. A German resident, he published and edited Magazine 2000, Europe’s largest circulation magazine on mysteries of the past and present, for two decades. He is an associate member of the Society for Scientific Exploration and has been honored with the Hungarian Colman von Keviczky Medal for his research on the UFO phenomenon. Hesemann was among the first Western researchers to publish and write about the KGB files on anomalous aerial phenomena. He is a regular guest on several radio shows in the United States and Mexico, including Dreamland and 21 st Century Radio. Hesemann’s books include The Cosmic Connections, Beyond Roswell, and UFOs: The Secret History.

Bob Hieronimus is an award-winning artist and host of 21 st Century Radio, a syndicated talk radio show based in Baltimore, Maryland, which covers UFO-related topics on a regular basis.

Richard Hoagland is a former NASA consultant and former science advisor to Walter Cronkite and CBS News. For over two decades, he has been leading a scientific team in an independent analysis of possible intelligently-designed artifacts on the surface of Mars. He is the author of The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever and gives frequent lectures at universities and UFO events across the country. www.enterprisemission.com

Budd Hopkins is the founder of the Intruders Foundation, an organization devoted to research and public education concerning the UFO abduction phenomenon. To date, Hopkins has investigated nearly 1,000 abduction cases. His books include the groundbreaking Missing Time, as well as Intruders and Witnessed.

Linda Moulton Howe is an investigative reporter for the talk radio shows Coast to Coast AM and Dreamland and editor of the website www.earthfiles.com . She has traveled worldwide researching and reporting on strange phenomena. Her books include An Alien Harvest, Glimpses of Other Realities, and Mysterious Lights and Crop Circles. She is a regular speaker at national and international conferences and symposiums concerning UFOs and related phenomena.

J. Antonio Huneeus , a Chilean-American science journalist, is considered one of the world’s top experts on UFOs. He served for many years as international coordinator for MUFON. Huneeus was selected by Laurance S. Rockefeller to co-author a report on the best available UFO evidence that was later sent to members of the United States Congress. He has covered the UFO field for more than a quarter century, his articles having appeared in a variety of newspapers, magazines and journals throughout the world, including Mundo Desconocido in Spain, Phenomena in France, Magazine 2000 in Germany, Planeta in Brazil, Borderland and Super Science in Japan, Anomalia in Russia, and Fate in the United States. He received the Ufologist of the Year award at the National UFO Conference in Miami Beach in 1990, the 1991 annual award of the New York Fortean Society, and the Colman von Keviczky medal in 2000, awarded by UFO Magazine in Budapest, Hungary.

Patrick Huyghe is editor-in-chief of Paraview Pocket Books and editor of The Anomalist, a popular website dealing with all things strange and unknown in the news. Huyghe has written for dozens of magazines, including The New York Times Magazine, Discover, Psychology Today, and Reader’s Digest. His books include The Field Guide to Extraterrestrials and Swamp Gas Times.

David Jacobs is an associate professor of history at Temple University, specializing in 20 th -century American history and culture. Dr. Jacobs began researching unidentified flying objects in America in the mid-1960s and has amassed over 35 years of primary research data and analytical hypotheses on the subject. He has written and delivered many articles, papers, and addresses on the subject of UFO abductions, his primary area of research. Jacobs’ books include Secret Life and The Threat.

Leslie Kean is an investigative journalist and director of investigations for the Coalition for Freedom of Information www.freedomofinfo.org , a newly-formed UFO organization working toward achieving scientific, congressional, and media credibility for the study of unexplained aerial phenomena. Along with director Ed Rothschild, Kean is keeping the heat on government officials to secure the release of official information and physical evidence currently being withheld from the public.

John Keel , perhaps best known by the general public for his connection to The Mothman Prophecies, has been a researcher into strange phenomena for many years. He is the author of numerous books on the unexplained, including Our Haunted Planet, The Eighth Tower, and Disneyland of the Gods. He appears to believe that UFOs are not extraterrestrial and has half-playfully advanced the theory of “ultraterrestrials”—unknown beings who share this planet with us and continually baffle us for their own amusement.

Colm Kelleher is a biochemist with a 20-year research career in cell and molecular biology. He is best known in the UFO community for his work with the National Institute of Discovery Science (NIDS), a private research institute using forensic science methodology to unravel scientific anomalies. Dr. Kelleher has authored 38 peer-reviewed publications, as well as articles in popular magazines such as Omni.

Lynn Kitei . During the evening hours of March 13, 1997, thousands of Arizona residents witnessed a mile-long, V-shaped formation of lights in the skies overhead. The UFO sightings garnered headline news across the entire media spectrum. Dr. Lynne Kitei had been witnessing and documenting the Phoenix Lights for months before this mass sighting occurred, taking hours worth of video and dozens of pictures. Her recent book, The Phoenix Lights, is an exhaustively researched look at the phenomenon, including dozens of astonishing photographs and Kitei’s own take on the wider implications of this still unexplained UFO event.

Phil Klass is the original UFO skeptic. There were others before him, but Klass defined the role. He is thought of by some as a close-minded debunker (and perhaps rightly so), but his influence on ufology cannot be understated. Originally an aerospace journalist, Philip J. Klass went on to found the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). He has served on its board since the outset, and often contributes to its official publication The Skeptical Inquirer. In addition, Klass has written six books on UFOs, including UFOs: The Public Deceived, and UFO Abductions: A Dangerous Game.

George Knapp is an investigative journalist and video producer for KLAS-TV in Las Vegas. In 1990, he received Best Individual Achievement honors from United Press International for his series about UFOs. Knapp broke the story of Bob Lazar, a self-professed government scientist who claims to have back-engineered UFO technology at Area 51. Knapp has also traveled to the former Soviet Union where he interviewed Russian scientists about UFO research there. Most recently, Knapp filed an in-depth report on Utah’s UFO Ranch.

Kal Korff : Say his name in the presence of any ufologist and you’re bound to get a reaction. Love him or hate him, Korff is a presence in contemporary ufology. He is best known for his book The Billy Meier Story: Spaceship of the Pleiades, an in-depth examination of the now infamous Meier UFO case.

Loy Lawhon is the man behind the plethora of information found on About.com’s UFO Forum. Lawhon has been seeking the truth about UFOs since he read Frank Edwards’ book Stranger Than Science at the age of 12. He is a former MUFON field investigator and state section director. Regarding his website, Lawhon says, “I come to the study of UFOs with a healthy skepticism born of a scientific background and years of work in a technical field. I hope to bring a balance between skepticism and belief to the online study of UFOs and related topics.”

Don Ledger worked as a civil servant, sound engineer, and TV producer-director for the provincial government of Nova Scotia for 34 years. He is the author of The Maritime UFO Files and co-author of Dark Object, an investigation into the Shag Harbor, Nova Scotia UFO incident. He is a regular contributor to the Toronto-based radio show Strange Days Indeed, hosted by Errol Bruce-Knapp, and has been an active UFO investigator for over 10 years.

Roger Leir , podiatric surgeon, has performed nine surgeries on alleged alien abductees in order to remove foreign objects suspected of being alien implants. Dr. Leir is a frequent guest on talk radio shows and has made numerous television appearances. His book The Aliens and the Scalpel helped open an entirely new avenue for abduction researchers to explore.
 
Michael and Deborah Lindemann : Michael Lindemann is the founding editor of CNI News, one-time senior editor for Future Studies at One Cosmos Network, the San Francisco-based media company founded by Joseph Firmage, and owner of Chancellor Publishing. He is one of America’s most active and well-known lecturers on the subject of UFOs and human-alien contact. In 1994, he co-founded the Institute for the Study of Contact with Non-human Intelligence (ISCNI, Inc.), the first on-line institute devoted exclusively to studying claims of human contact with other intelligent life. ISCNI offers public lectures and private classes with top researchers, plus library archives, a bookstore, news center and public discussion areas. Deborah Lindemann is a certified, registered clinical hypnotherapist. She has a dedicated interest in unusual and mystical experiences, including the UFO abduction phenomenon. Although she says reincarnation/past life therapy and altered states of consciousness originally motivated her studies in hypnotherapy, alien contact cases soon became an unexpected part of her practice. In her opinion, “When you are confronted with these profound experiences, or those who have them, you cannot ignore the reality or the sincerity of those who have traveled this road.”

Bruce Maccabee is, by most accounts, a very capable piano player. He is also one of the most respected UFO researchers in the field today. Maccabee holds a Ph.D. in physics and began work at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in 1972. He has been active in UFO research since the late 1960s when he joined NICAP. He became a member of MUFON in 1975 and was subsequently appointed to the position of state director for Maryland, a post he still holds. In 1979, he was instrumental in establishing the Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR) and was the chairman for 13 years. He presently serves on the FUFOR National Board. Maccabee is the author of The UFO/FBI Connection, and author or coauthor of about three dozen technical articles and more than 100 UFO articles over the last 25 years, including many that have appeared in the MUFON UFO Journal and MUFON symposium proceedings.

Jim Marrs is an award-winning author and journalist whose books include Rule by Secrecy, Crossfire, and Alien Agenda, which is considered by many to be a modern UFO classic.

Jaime Maussan is host of the popular Mexican radio program Extraterrestrials: An Intelligent Phenomenon, heard on 15 affiliates in the 25 largest cities of Mexico and Guatemala. Maussan also works as an investigative journalist for the television show Tercer Milenio that is broadcast via the Televisa Network to all Latin American countries. Maussan’s investigations into the on-going Mexico UFO wave have garnered worldwide attention, and he has been invited to speak at UFO conferences and gatherings around the world.

Billy Meier was born in Bülach, Switzerland, in 1937. For over 56 years, he claims, he has maintained a series of physical and telepathic contacts with extraterrestrial beings who say they come from the Plejares star cluster. Acting as a mediator and spokesperson for the Pleiadians/ Plejarens from planet Erra, Meier imparts their esoteric teachings and wisdom to us. He has taken more than 1,000 of the clearest UFO photos ever seen. Naturally, many people have come forward to claim that the entire phenomenon is a hoax. Underground Video, Inc., for example states that one of Meiers’ alleged Pleiadian beamships, taken in 1981, is really a miniature model made out of an upside-down cake pan, disconnected copper hose fitting, a bracelet, carpet tacks, and various other identifiable objects. The Meier photograph of the beautiful Pleiadian alien, Semjase, turned out to be a photocopy of a model from a Sears catalog. www.figu.org

Edgar Mitchell , Apollo astronaut and sixth man to walk on the moon, is one of contemporary ufology’s most honored and distinguished members. He is the founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), an organization that sponsors research into the nature of consciousness. He is co-founder of the Association of Space Explorers, an international organization founded in 1984 for all who share the experience of space travel. Mitchell is the author of Psychic Exploration: A Challenge for Science and The Way of the Explorer, as well as dozens of articles in both professional and popular periodicals. Mitchell believes governments around the world have concealed evidence of UFO contact. In a recent interview with Soul Travel Magazine, he stated that it is time for officialdom to end the cover-up: “I think it is time (now) to release the constraints on UFOs and extraterrestrial information that has been avoided or hidden by most nations, and/or in agreement with extraterrestrials themselves. The evidence for [their] existence and visitation is now widespread enough that enormous upheaval of earthly institutions is unlikely.”

Jim Moseley is known as the Court Jester of Ufology by many, El Supremo by some, R. E. Straith by a select few, and far worse by others. He is the founder of NUFOC and editor of the long-running Saucer Smear newsletter, a semi-regular ’zine that covers the personalities that make up ufology. Along with Stanton Friedman, Moseley was one of the original UFO lecturers in the United States, and has given presentations to hundreds of colleges since the 1960s. He has also discussed saucerdom on hundreds of radio and television programs through the years. Moseley is a “skeptical believer” when it comes to UFOs, and doesn’t stridently hold to any one theory to explain their existence. “UFOs as machines piloted by ETs” is far too narrow a theory for his taste. Instead, he has settled on an explanation for UFOs he has termed the “4-D theory.” You can read more about it, and all of his ufological escapades in his book Shockingly Close to the Truth.

Royce Myers , the “UFO Watchdog,” has been on the lookout for frauds and con artists within the field of ufology since 1997. Through his popular website www.ufowatchdog.com , Myers has exposed a number of high-profile UFO cases, including most famously the Jonathan Reed case. Myers was sued, unsuccessfully, by Sean David Morton in 2003 over a series of highly critical investigative articles. Fresh from his victory, Myers went back to work, this time confronting the claims of Ed Dames. “Don’t trip on your open mind” is the UFO Watchdog creed, and to this end, Royce Myers does his best to make sure that all aspects of popular modern UFO cases and the personalities that report on them are uncovered.

George Noory hosts the most popular overnight talk radio show in the world, Coast to Coast AM. Noory took over the weeknight Coast to Coast reins from Art Bell in 2003. As a teenager, Noory joined NICAP and immersed himself in ufology, “so much so that I decided I wanted to go into broadcasting in order to do unusual stories in the paranormal and stories that the mainstream media didn’t want to touch,” he told After Dark magazine. Indeed, his very first broadcast interview, while a young radio reporter for Detroit’s WCAR-AM, was with Roswell expert/physicist Stanton Friedman, with whom he has maintained a lifelong friendship. At age 28, Noory was the youngest major market news director in the country when he was at KMSP-TV in Minneapolis. Years later, his late-night radio program on KTRS in St. Louis, The Nighthawk, garnered the attention of Premiere Radio Networks executives, who were searching for a replacement for the retiring Art Bell. Noory’s penchant for covering paranormal topics with enthusiasm and skill impressed Premiere, and he was brought on board. “Coast to Coast AM may just be the most unusual show I have ever witnessed or been a part of. You really almost have to be born into that arena, I think, in order to handle it. I was very lucky, that’s the way I was guiding my own career. It was this thirst to really get to the bottom of some of these stories that kept pushing me.”

James Oberg is a prominent UFO skeptic, having been involved in a number of heated debates with some of ufology’s biggest proponents, including Don Ecker, Stanton Friedman, and astronaut Gordon Cooper. Oberg worked for 22 years as a space engineer in Houston, where he specialized in NASA space shuttle operations for orbital rendezvous. Oberg has written ten books and more than 1,000 magazine and newspaper articles on all aspects of space flight.

Karl Pflock is an author, consultant, and UFO researcher. He is a contributing editor for Reason, science columnist for Eternity Science Fiction, and contributing editor for Jim Moseley’s Saucer Smear. His articles on UFOs have appeared in Fate, the Fortean Times, Omni, International UFO Reporter, The Anomalist, MUFON UFO Journal, and other U.S. and foreign publications. A popular speaker at UFO gatherings, he was named 1998’s Ufologist of the Year by the National UFO Conference. He has appeared frequently on radio and television and has served as an advisor to the producers of Unsolved Mysteries and Sightings. His latest book is Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will to Believe.

John Podesta served as chief of staff to President Bill Clinton from 1998 until 2001, and is currently a visiting professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center and a senior fellow at the National Resources Defense Council. As part of the Coalition for Freedom of Information group, Podesta has lent his credibility and power within official Washington circles to the cause of ufology. Podesta has been an outspoken critic of government secrecy, telling reporters at 2002 press conference, “It is time for the government to declassify records that are more than 25 years old and to provide scientists with data that will assist in determining the true nature of the [UFO] phenomena.”

Nick Pope is a British Ministry of Defense official who headed up the ministry’s office for research and investigation of the UFO phenomenon from 1991 to 1994. Although most of the cases could be explained as misidentifications of known objects and phenomena, a core of sightings defied any conventional explanation. Strong evidence emerged suggesting the presence of structured craft capable of speeds and maneuvers beyond the capability of even the most advanced prototype craft operated by the British or American air forces. Pope found numerous instances where UFOs had been tracked on radar, leading to jets being scrambled. There were also cases where there had been terrifying near-misses between UFOs and civilian aircraft. Pope acknowledges the existence of extensive classified British government files on the UFO phenomenon and believes that there should be a full disclosure of all information on UFOs held by governments around the world. “I believe that governments and the military, and indeed private researchers, politicians — whoever — should place everything in the public domain on this issue. Governments can’t, I think, have it both ways. You cannot say on the one hand, as the party line often goes, that UFOs are of no defense significance, and then on the other keep back some of the data. You simply can’t do that. You have to have it one way or the other. And if, as governments consistently say when the politicians probe on this issue or when the media inquire, that there’s really nothing to worry about, then okay, let’s see all the data.”

Harold Puthoff is the director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Austin, Texas. He is considered one of the premier theoretical physicists in the field of zero point energy and has published several seminal papers in the subject area. He is co-author of the textbook Fundamentals of Quantum Electronics. Puthoff’s latest work involving UFOs appeared in the prestigious Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, in the form of a co-authored paper entitled “Inflation-Theory Implications for Extraterrestrial Visitation.”

Kevin Randle is a former army helicopter pilot and air force intelligence officer, an active national guard member, and a UFO researcher who has been writing about the phenomenon for three decades. He has written or co-written numerous books on the subject, including UFO Crash at Roswell, The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell, and A History of UFO Crashes. He has made numerous appearances on television and radio, including Good Morning America Sunday, the Larry King UFO special, and Unsolved Mysteries. Randle’s research has taken him throughout the United States, interviewing witnesses, investigating sightings, and searching for the answers that have eluded so many.

Jenny Randles is a British ufologist, columnist for the MUFON UFO Journal, and author of Alien Abductions, The Complete Book of Aliens & Abductions, The Little Giant Encyclopedia of UFOs, Mind Monsters: Invaders from Inner Space? and Beyond Explanation. Randles had her first UFO sighting as a small child. She became a BUFORA field investigator in 1973 and was promoted to director of investigations in l981, a post she held until 1993. Her articles have appeared in the London Times, The Guardian, New Scientist, and OMNI. She has given lectures and presentations to groups all over the world, including the British Houses of Parliament.

Nick Redfern traces his interest in UFOs back to the late 1970s, when his father related to him an incident he was involved with while serving in the British Royal Air Force. He began writing on the UFO subject in a freelance capacity in the mid-1980s. Since then, Redfern has become one of the world’s best UFO writers, responsible for books such as A Covert Agenda: The British Government’s UFO Top Secrets Exposed, The FBI Files: The FBI’s UFO Top Secrets Exposed, and Cosmic Crashes: The Incredible Story Of The UFOs That Fell To Earth. He also writes for numerous magazines, journals, and newspapers, including Fate.

Jeff Rense hosts the popular late night talk show The Jeff Rense Program, a nationally syndicated radio show that deals with all aspects of the paranormal and UFO related phenomena. Frequent guests include Peter Davenport, George Filer, Brad Steiger, Jim Marrs, Brian Vike, and more.

Peter Robbins has been involved in UFO studies for nearly 30 years as a researcher, investigator, writer, and lecturer. He serves as head of the UFO Media Group of Central Park Media Corporation and is editor-in-chief of the well-known website www.UFOcity.com . In 1978, Robbins served as a research assistant on the United Nations report for the establishment of a UFO department. From 1980 to 1985 he was an investigator for the Scientific Bureau of Investigation, a New York City-based civilian/police UFO research and investigative organization. From 1992 to present, he has served as executive assistant to Budd Hopkins; Intruders Foundation. Robbins is a columnist for UFO Magazine and co-author of Left at East Gate.

Mark Rodeghier has served as President and Scientific Director of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) since 1986. He holds a B.S. in Astrophysics from Indiana University and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Sociology. Rodeghier has been active in the UFO field since 1974 and has done research and investigation in a variety of areas, including vehicle interference cases, abduction cases, and physical evidence cases. He has written numerous articles for the Internationl UFO Reporter and the Journal of UFO Studies and was featured prominently on the ABC-TV program “UFOs — Seeing Is Believing.”

Hilly Rose has been examining the paranormal world through radio broadcasts, books, magazines, and the Internet for many years. A seasoned broadcaster, respected by peers and fans alike, Rose honed his talk show skills in California in both the Los Angeles and San Francisco markets where he was one of the first in the United States to pursue paranormal programming on the radio. As the Internet and streaming audio developed, Rose broke new ground by creating a series of daily shows related to the world of paranormal occurrences for Imagine Radio called The I-Files. Currently, he is the host of The Hilly Rose Show, heard exclusively online at www.fatemag.com , and fill-in host for George Noory and Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM.

David Rudiak has a scientific background that includes a doctoral degree in optometry. In the field of ufology, Dr. Rudiak’s main area of expertise is the Roswell saucer crash of 1947, which he has been studying since 1994. He is best known for his work with the Ramey Memo. Using computer enhancements, Rudiak has been working to establish what information the telex photographed in Gen. Roger Ramey’s hand at a press conference held, as Ramey tried to explain away the Roswell crash as a weather balloon. This work on Ramey’s memo was presented publicly for the first time at the Ozark UFO Conference in 2001 and was featured on the 2002 Sci-Fi Channel special on Roswell.

Michael Salla is the author of Exopolitics: Political Implications of the Extraterrestrial Presence. Salla is an internationally recognized scholar in international politics, conflict resolution and United States foreign policy, and is currently a researcher in residence at American University’s Center for Global Peace. Salla launched the web site www.exopolitics.org in January 2003. It has quickly become one the most popular UFO sites on the Internet, attracting interest from those seeking to understand the big picture about the undisclosed extraterrestrial presence and its political implications.

John Schuessler serves as the International Director of MUFON. He was involved in the United States manned space program from 1962 until 1998, working in executive positions for NASA and several private aerospace companies. Aside from his MUFON duties, he is a member of the UFO Research Coalition Board of Directors and an Associate of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies. He has authored more than 100 technical papers and articles and is the author of two books: UFO-Related Human Physiological Effects and The Cash-Landrum UFO Incident.

Esen Sekerkarar is a leading Turkish ufologist. She became involved in the UFO field in 1998 with the opening of the Sirius UFO Space Sciences Research Center (SUSSRC) where she worked until 2002. SUSSRC is the first such center in Turkey and it has organized three International UFO Symposiums in Istanbul, where many of the world’s leading authorities have participated as speakers. The Center also created a weekly TV documentary called UFO Reality, co-produced by Sekerkarar, which was broadcast on a national TV channel in Turkey. She is also one of the three founders of the International UFO Museum, which was opened in January 2002 in Istanbul. Esen Sekerkarar has lectured at the San Marino World UFO Congress and the MUFON UFO Symposium. She is also the International MUFON Representative for Turkey. Her reports have appeared on websites and publications around the world, including FATE.

David Sereda has had a lifelong interest in UFOs since experiencing the phenomena firsthand as a child. Between 1995 and 2001, he conducted an investigation of over 400 hours of NASA space shuttle mission video footage.  The results of that investigation led to the development of his book and documentary film Evidence: The Case For NASA UFOs.

Seth Shostak is a senior astronomer with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). For much of his career, he has conducted radio astronomy research on galaxies, and has published approximately 50 papers in professional journals on this and other subjects. He has also written several hundred popular articles on various topics in astronomy, technology, film, and television. His book Sharing the Universe appeared in 1998. Shostak is a skeptic when it comes to UFOs, “I personally don’t think they are here. If aliens have been visiting the Earth for 50 years, you would think that it would not be so hard to convince a lot of people that that was true. It’s convinced 50 percent of the American public, but it’s convinced very few academics. As an astronomer friend said to me, if I thought there was a one percent chance any of that was true, I’d spend 100 percent of my time on it. In other words, if the evidence were the least bit compelling, you’d have lots of academics working on it because it’s very interesting. To me that says that the evidence is weak from the scientist’s perspective.”

Rob Simone is a UFO researcher, former assistant to the director of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy, and host of the popular talk radio show The Headroom. Frequent guests on his show include Jim Marrs, David Sereda, and Nick Pope.

Derrel Sims , the “Alien Hunter,” has pursued the UFO subject with a passion since his first alien encounter at the age of four. Those first memories are not pleasant ones, and Sims now hunts the entities who once hunted him, his son, and, perhaps, someone you know and love. Sims is a certified hypnotherapist, an international speaker, a licensed private investigator, and a researcher of alleged human/alien encounters. He has made presentations to medical and scientific conferences that provide compelling approaches to alleged human/alien contact events.

Zecharia Sitchin Considered by many to be the father of alternative archeology, Zecharia Sitchin has a deep knowledge of modern and ancient Hebrew and many other Semitic and European languages. He has done years of research on the ancient cultures of Sumer, Egypt, and Mesoamerica. One of approximately 200 scholars on the planet who can read and understand ancient Sumerian, Sitchin has written a series of intriguing books about the history of ancient human cultures and their possible interaction with UFOs and alien beings, including the classic The 12 th Planet, The Wars of Gods and Men, When Time Began, Stairway to Heaven, and The Lost Realms. Born in Russia, raised in Palestine, educated in England, and a leading journalist and editor in Israel for many years, he now lives in New York.

Brad Sparks is a UFO researcher and co-founder of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS), the UFO organization that successfully forced the CIA to release 900 pages of government UFO documents in 1978 by using the Freedom of Information Act. Ultimately, CAUS would be responsible for the release of between 7,000 and 8,000 UFO-related documents from a who’s who of official entities, including the Air Force, Coast Guard, Navy, Defense Intelligence Agency, North American Aerospace Defense Command, Federal Aviation Administration, and others.

Steven Spielberg is certainly one of the most influential personalities in the history of film. He is perhaps Hollywood’s best known director and one of the world’s wealthiest filmmakers. He has numerous money-making, critically acclaimed credits to his name, as producer, director, and writer. He is best known within the UFO community for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, as well as the TV miniseries Taken.

Leo Sprinkle began pioneering research into the UFO abduction phenomenon in the mid-1960s and set the standard for research in this controversial field of study. He founded the Rocky Mountain UFO Conference. As a professor at the University of Wyoming and a therapist, Dr. Sprinkle has conducted over 500 hypnotic regression sessions with individuals looking to explore their possible UFO contact experiences. Among these were many of the most sensational and well-documented cases of our times.

Dennis Stacy was editor of the MUFON UFO Journal from 1985 to 1997. He received the 1995 Donald E. Keyhoe Journalism Award for a six-part series on UFOs that appeared in Omni magazine. He is also the author of The Marfa Lights: A Viewer’s Guide, and, most recently, he co-edited UFOs 1947-1997: Fifty Years of Flying Saucers with Hilary Evans.

Paul Stonehill is a Soviet-born researcher of anomalous phenomena and director of the Russian Ufology Research Center. He has written several books about anomalous phenomena, including The Soviet UFO Files, as well as numerous articles and papers for publications across the globe, including regular contributions to Fate. He been a consultant to the Sightings and Encounters TV shows and has made numerous radio appearances.

Whitley Strieber is the author of Confirmation, The Secret School, The Key, The Wolfen, and The Hunger. He is most famous, however, for his book Communion, a first-person account of his own experiences with the “visitors.” He is the host of Dreamland, a popular online talk show once hosted by Art Bell, and with his wife Anne, is the co-editor of www.unknowncountry.com .

Peter Sturrock , emeritus professor of physics at Stanford University has served as president of the Society for Scientific Exploration since 1981. In 1997, Sturrock headed a panel of nine scientists commissioned by Laurance Rockefeller that sought to determine whether UFOs were worthy of serious scientific analysis. The group concluded that, indeed, the UFO mystery has merit as a serious subject for science. Out of this panel’s discussions came The UFO Engima, a must for every ufologist’s shelf.

Curt Sutherly is a professional journalist with nearly 30 years of experience investigating UFOs and other paranormal phenomena. He is the author of two books, UFO Mysteries and Strange Encounters, and has written more than 100 magazine articles on the subject for such venerable publications as Fate, Psychic World, and Strange Magazine. A Vietnam-era veteran, Sutherly served as a maintenance crew chief on fighter aircraft and was eventually promoted to the rank of sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. He is currently employed by the Department of Air Force in a civil service capacity. Curt Sutherly has been the recipient of numerous awards and decorations for his service, including the Award for Exemplary Civilian Service, presented by the Air Force for his superior performance from 1992–94 and the Civilian of the Year Award, presented by the 360 th Air Force Recruiting Group in 1995.

Rob Swiatek joined the Fund for UFO Research in 1986. He currently serves as secretary-treasurer on the organization’s board of directors. He is also director of the UFO Research Coalition and a business board member of MUFON. He has appeared in several UFO television documentaries over the years and has spoken before numerous UFO conferences. He has undergraduate degrees in both physics and earth science and has been employed for over 25 years with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Arlington, Virginia, where he works with aeronautics patent applications.

Michael Swords is a professor of natural science at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. His teaching centers around human biology, the history and philosophy of science, scientific methodology, and the parasciences, including ufology. His writings have concentrated mainly on topics in ufology, parapsychology, and cryptozoology, and several have been published in the MUFON UFO Journal. Dr. Swords serves as a MUFON consultant, and was in the same capacity for the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, the International Fortean Organization, and as a member of the advisory panel for the Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained. He is also a board member of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies.

Kenn Thomas is the founder of Steamshovel Press, one of the most influential “conspiracy” publishing houses in existence. He is editor of Steamshovel Press magazine and author of The Octopus: The Secret Government and Death of Danny Casolaro, Inside the Gemstone File, Maury Island UFO: The Crisman Conspiracy, and Flying Saucers Over Los Angleles. He has been featured on many radio and television programs including Fox News, The X-Zone, The Jeff Rense Program, and Coast to Coast AM.

Joseph Trainor compiles and edits UFO Roundup, a weekly compilation of UFO related events, sightings, and stories from around the world. You can find UFO Roundup on the Internet at www.ufoinfo.com/roundup .

Robert Trundle is a professor of philosophy at Northern Kentucky University. He has written numerous books on the history of philosophy and the philosophy of science. In addition to having published an article on the extraterrestrial issue in Science and Method in the Netherlands, his book, Is ET Here? No Politically, But Yes Scientifically and Theologically is set for release in May 2005. On the existence of UFOs and extraterrestrial life, Trundle says, “I believe contact was made 50 years ago, and I believe beings from other planets are here now, mainly to study us. There are benign scenarios in which they might be seen as anthropologists coming here out of curiosity. Then there is a more threatening scenario, which is that they’re studying to see if the earth is habitable. An even more worrisome possibility is that they have a hybrid program of sexually mating with humans to strengthen their species. Does ET exist from a political perspective? No, because the government is afraid of the culture shock and public panic. For the government to acknowledge the existence of extraterrestrials here would be to admit it can’t protect us from them.”

Tom Van Flandern is a professional research astronomer who has taught astronomy at the University of South Florida and to Navy Department employees. He has also been a consultant to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and done several spots for the Project Universe series on public TV. Dr. Van Flandern is the founder and President of Meta Research, Inc., whose goal is astronomical research wherever promising avenues of advancement are blocked by funding authorities solely because the research results might conflict with an accepted paradigm. He has appeared on PAX-TV’s Encounters with the Unexplained to discuss Mars anomalies and his given numerous presentations on the possibility of artificial structures on the surface of Mars. Van Flandern is the author of the book Dark Matter, Missing Planets and New Comets.

Jacques Vallée has written numerous books on UFOs, several of them bestsellers, analyzing a notoriously ethereal subject as a hard-headed physical scientist, folklorist, and sociologist. He believes there is more than enough solid evidence to make a compelling case for the existence of UFOs. Vallée’s views about UFOs are more exotic and far stranger than what he calls the reigning “nuts and bolts” approach to the subject. Consequently, he’s been attacked by believers so often that he jokingly refers to himself a “heretic among heretics.” As Vallée puts it, “I will be disappointed if UFOs turn out to be nothing more than spaceships.”
 
Jean-Jacques Velasco has been the Director of SEPRA, the official French government program to study UFOs, since the early 1980s. The program is one of the only ongoing, government-sanctioned UFO investigations in the world. Velasco believes beyond a shadow of a doubt that the SEPRA program has uncovered evidence of the physical reality of UFOs.

Brian Vike is a Canadian UFO investigator and founder and director of HBCC UFO Research. The organization receives hundreds of UFO reports and sightings from across Canada every year. Their website is www.hbccufo.com

Travis Walton is perhaps the best-known abductee in ufology, at least as far as the general public is concerned. His story is recounted in his book, Fire in the Sky, and in the film of the same name (1993). On November 5, 1975, a group of loggers in the mountains of northeastern Arizona saw a strange, bright light in the sky. Walton, one of the logging party, got out of the truck—an act which he regrets to this day—and was blasted by a mysterious bolt of energy. The others fled in terror, and Walton was missing for five days. No one who has heard Walton speak can doubt his sincerity or the traumatic nature of his experience.

Larry Warren is the co-author of Left at East Gate, a firsthand account of the Rendlesham Forest UFO incident. Warren worked as an Air Force Security Specialist at Bentwaters Royal Air Force Base during the time of the December 1980 UFO sightings and was a direct eyewitness to the events that took place there.

Robert and Ryan Wood are a father and son team investigating the so-called MJ-12 documents. Robert Wood had a 43-year career at McDonnell Douglas managing research and development projects and is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, American Physical Society, and American Society for Psychical Research, the Fund for UFO Research, MUFON, and the Society for Scientific Exploration. Ryan Wood has had a successful career in marketing for 25 years, including jobs with technology giants Intel and Toshiba. Together, the Woods have restored credibility to the MJ-12 UFO documents as an avenue worthy of serious study. Their website is www.majesticdocuments.com