Progress in any research field requires the opportunity to draw upon
the thoughts and the support of many people. This is especially true
when the research topic lies beyond the recognized boundary of conventional
science. In this work I have benefitted from a rich network of friends
and colleagues who have generously agreed to exchange ideas and data
with me over many years. They are too numerous for all their names
to be mentioned here; many of them wish to remain anonymous for personal
or professional reasons. Among those I can publicly acknowledge, I
owe a special debt of gratitude to the following persons and groups:
- To my colleagues in scientific and business circles who have
encouraged me in this research, notably Dr. Peter Sturrock at Stanford
University, Dr. Harold Puthoff at the Institute for Advanced Studies
at Austin, Dr. Richard Haines at NASA and San Jose State University,
Dr. Ed May and Dr. Charles Kosen at SRI International, Steve Millard
at METRICOM, Dr. Douglas Price-Williams at UCLA, Dr. Keith Harary
at the Institute for Advanced Psychology, Dr. Claude Poher and Jean
Jacques Velasco at CNES, Dr. Pierre Guerin at Institut l'Astrophysique,
Dr. Arthur Hastings at the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology,
Professor Flavio Lago in Rio de Janeiro, Professor Agobar Oliveira
at the University of Fortaleza, Dr. Richard Niemtzow at Brooks Air
Force Base, William T. Powers at Northwestern University, and Fred
Beckman at the University of Chicago; to members of the International
Forensic Association in the United States and in Brazil; and to other
specialists, notably in the law enforcement field and in the medical
sciences, who understandably prefer to keep their names away from
the UFO controversy.
- To those members of the UFO research community who have worked
tirelessly to elucidate this phenomenon and have encouraged me to
express my views, even when those opinions contradicted some of their
favorite theories. I especially treasure warm and informative exchanges
with Mimi Hynek, Gordon Creighton, John Keel, Jenny Randles, Pierre
Lagrange, Bertrand Meheust, Whitley Strieber, Hilary Evans, Antoni
Ribera, Salvatore Freixedo, Carlos Ortiz de la Huerta, Fabic Zerpa,
Michel Figuet, Alexander Kazantsev, Dennis Stacy, Linda Strand, Robert
Girard, Monica Williams, and Sir John Whitmore.
- To those who have helped me directly or indirectly in specific
problems of case investigations and in my research on the wider documentation
of the phenomenon, notably Richard Sigismond, Bill Murphy, Stanley
Ferguson, Tom Adams, Bruce Scott, Ted Phillips, Tom Gates, Tina Choate,
Brian Myers Jean-Francois Boedec, Eve Berni, Bill Calvert, Enrique
Castillo, Jim McCampbell, the late Ed and Jeanie Mills, Carlos and
Ricardo Vilchez, Irene Granchi, Linda Howe, Adalbert Ujvari, Mark
Uriarte, John Williams, and Daniel Rebissc Giese.
- To all the witnesses of the phenomena described in this volume
who have had the courage to come forward with their observations and
have trusted me with the details of their experience.
- To the memory of pioneers of UFO research who are no longer
with us: Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Dr. Olavo Fontes, Jim and Coral Lorenzen,
Dr. James McDonald, Donald Keyhoe, and Charles Bowen, whose steps
we are endlessly retracing.
- To Ned Leavitt at William Morris and to my editor, Joe Blades,
at Ballantine, whose guidance made the publication of this work possible.
- To Emery Reiff, who had the patience to decipher and process
the manuscript for this book.
- And, of course, to Janine, to my mother, and to my children
who have valiantly survived the vagaries of life with an investigator
of the elusive and bizarre phenomena described here.