Jacques F.Vallee (1939– ) A ufologist, astronomer, and computer scientist, Jacques F. Vallee is one of the most respected UFO experts in the world and has written several books on the subject, including Anatomy of a Phenomenon: Unidentified Objects in Space—a Scientific Appraisal (1965), Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma (1966), Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers (1969), Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults (1979), Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contacts (1988), Confrontations: A Scientist’s Search for Alien Contact (1990), Revelations: Alien Contact and Human Deception (1991), and Forbidden Science: Journals, 1957–1969 (1992).

Vallee began his career as a ufologist in the 1950s, believing that UFOs were the spacecraft of extraterrestrials visiting Earth, but he eventually decided that there was no convincing evidence to support this theory. During the 1970s he explored various other possibilities, and he noted that stories of UFO and alien sightings were similar to stories of encounters with ghosts, angels, and mysterious creatures—all terrestrial rather than extraterrestrial entities. He further noted that aliens have traditionally been described as humanoid, whereas a true extraterrestrial would probably look nothing like a human being.

Vallee therefore postulated, in what has been called the interdimensional hypothesis, that the beings responsible for UFO sightings and alien encounters are not from another planet but from someplace connected to Earth, perhaps another dimension, realm, or time. As such, they might be only a consciousness, without any form other than what someone’s mind creates upon viewing them.

SEE ALSO:

• UFOs

SOURCE:

The Greenhaven Encyclopedia of Paranormal Phenomena – written by Patricia D. Netzley © 2006 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning