ONE MAN………the USAF….and UFOs. Who is that man? His name is Donald E. Keyhoe. And he is the subject of our first biography: Against The Odds: Major Donald E. Keyhoe and His Battle to End UFO Secrecy, by Linda Powell. You may be wondering: who is Donald Keyhoe and why is he so important? Keyhoe is largely responsible for the twin pillars of current UFO belief: that UFOs represent extraterrestrial technology and that the government is hiding this truth from us. If you have been following the news recently, you’ll know that the government, despite denials, has continued its lack of transparency with regard to UFOs. Leslie Kean, who has spent 23 years herself advocating for government transparency on the subject, says about the book: “Against the Odds is a fascinating, in-depth biography about an extraordinary human being and courageous pioneer who could not be deterred. An inspiring work.” This work takes its rightful place next to the acclaimed biographies of J. Allen Hynek and James McDonald, the other two towering figures of the golden years of UFOlogy.

We wholeheartedly agree with John Rimmer, who in a review in Magonia entitled “A Rather Fishy Business,” calls Merbeings: The True Story of Mermaids, Mermen, and Lizardfolk by Mark A. Hall, Loren Coleman, and David Goudsward, “a very strange book.” Justin Mullis, in AIPT Comics, explains why: “Undoubtedly among the boldest of cryptozoology’s speculative creature creators was the late Mark A. Hall (1946-2016), whose talent for cryptid conjecture is on full display in his posthumously published Merbeings…[The book] represents the culmination of Hall’s lifelong interest in the possibility of amphibious primates…Hall offers readers the cryptozoologist’s equivalent of Pascal’s Wager: believe in monsters and lose nothing if they turn out to not exist, OR doubt their existence and end up looking foolish when physical evidence for them eventually turns up…Observations such as these—supported by copious endnotes and a healthy bibliography of primary and secondary scholarly sources—makes Merbeings a worthwhile addition to any folklorist’s library, irrespective of if you agree with Hall’s wilder contentions about a supposed biological reality behind the mermaid myth.. but as an exercise in speculative creature-building, I’d propose that the mermaid—more than the Sasquatch, Nessie, or even Mothman—embodies the ultimate litmus test for cryptozoologists.”

The reviews are in for Forbidden Science 5: Pacific Heights, The Journals of Jacques Vallee 2000-2009 and they are, as expected, glowing. Clive Prince, reviewing the book for Magonia, writes that Jacques Vallee has “a fine scientific and creative intellect, who manages to adroitly straddle the scientific, academic and fringe. All of which makes his journals invaluable documents for UFO researchers and enthusiasts…Forbidden Science really brings home the bewildering and frustrating complexity of the UFO enigma…[But] It’s not all UFOs and Aliens. Vallée keeps up his parapsychological interests, such as in remote viewing—including a project to track down Osama bin Laden—and taking a close interest in experimental evidence for precognition…All in all, Forbidden Science is crucial reading for anyone with an interest in the UFO phenomenon…” Bill Chalker of The Oz Files agrees: “There is much to fascinate and intrigue, and even frustrate the reader, as the journal describes the complexities of Vallee’s interactions with the phenomenon, the folklore and the impact of it, as well as the many twists and turns of the various participations and descriptions of the more secretive approaches to researching and investigating it…Thank you Jacques Vallee for your courage and persistence…I recommend Forbidden Science 5…” And lastly, Jeffrey Kripal, writing in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, says: “This is an astonishing book, and on a number of levels… Allow me to explain why this book moved me so, why I think it is so important to what is going on today in the American public media and the U.S. political, military, and intelligence communities, and why you should, yes, really read these pages…like right now.”

We have long been fascinated by poltergeist cases, but we don’t recall any cases where the young girl at the center of the outbreak later went on to wield her psychokinetic powers consciously—and do so in the presence of doctors and scientists studying her abilities. Such is the case of Joasia Gajewski, whose story is told by a pair of Polish journalists, Anna Ostrzycka and Marek Rymuszko. The book, The Elusive Force: A Remarkable Case of Poltergeist Activity and Psychokinetic Power, is now available for the first time in English thanks to a translation by Joel Stern. When the case was first brought to the attention of parapsychologists, Dr. Richard S. Broughton said: “Joasia’s case may be one of the most interesting in decades… this book is a valuable addition to the database.”

A work that cyptozoologist and fortean Mark A. Hall started 18 years ago is now complete, thanks to the help of Loren Coleman, director of the International Cryptozoology Museum, and historian and author David Goudsward. That book, Merbeings: The True Story of Mermaids, Mermen, and Lizardfolk, is now available from Anomalist Books. We know what you’re thinking, but it’s not what you think. Put aside your notions of beings half-human and half-fish, for there are no such things. Also put aside your fears of things wet and strange, said to be reptilian in nature, which emerge from swamps and rivers and oceans to walk among us. But there are mysteries with an ancient ancestry here and what they are will surprise you.

The fifth volume of the journals of Jacques Vallee has now been published: Forbidden Science 5, Pacific Heights: The Journals of Jacques Vallee 2000-2009. This volume continues Vallee’s insider view into UFO research and the government’s often reluctant efforts to to deal with the issue. Set in the midst of global financial and political upheaval, as well as heartbreaking person losses, Vallee explains how during this decade UFOs could be studied in novel ways and how the government came to seriously revisit the issue in the face of possible threats to national security. Of great interest is how Vallee was drawn into the Defense Intelligence Agency’s secret UFO program known as the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP); for the first time we see how it developed, as well as its problems and promise. Here, in ten years of carefully curated journal entries, partly drawn from classified research, Vallée shows how a few teams of scientists and physicians have brought about a remarkable reframing of unidentified phenomena.

Authors Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, “both specialists in researching anomalous historical aerial phenomena—continue their project of honouring the pioneering work of Charles Fort by re-investigating some of his important cases,” writes Bob Rickard, in the Fortean Times review of their new book, Redemption of the Damned Vol. 2: Sea and Space Phenomena. “Where Fort is shown to have made some errors in reporting or lacked crucial data that was published elsewhere or later…there are many more cases in which Fort is shown to have correctly reported the data on which he offers his distinctive (and often sardonic) conclusions. With these, the authors have been able to consolidate Fort’s discovery with new information from later investigations or publications; we can now have greater trust in these cases. Shough and van Utrecht deserve to be applauded for their diligent labour among dusty archives, the fruits of which serve to underline both the value of research into anomalous phenomena and of re-examining the data … probably the closest forteans can come to being ‘scientific’ about their work.” Bill Chalker, writing in the blog The Oz Files, sums it up saying: “Redemption of the Damned provides seasoned Forteans and new players a wonderful resource that resonates powerfully with contemporary manifestations of the ‘damned.’  Highly recommended.”

The idea of trying to acquire a specimen of Sasquatch to prove its existence is a hugely controversial subject. But that’s what the North American Wood Ape Conservancy has tried to do for a decade in order to obtain governmental protections for the species. Valley of the Apes: The Search for Sasquatch in Area X recounts the determined effort of dozens of academics, wildlife professionals, scientists, among others: their work, challenges, and findings. Obviously they didn’t succeed, or their effort would have made headlines around the world. But as Matt Pruitt says in the Foreword, “The events detailed in this book provide some of the best reasons to be hopeful that a resolution to the Sasquatch mystery is close at hand.” Find out why in this new book by Michael Mayes, the author of Shadow Cats: The Black Panthers of North America.

James McClenon has earned near universal praised for his latest book, The Entity Letters: A Sociologist on the Trail of a Supernatural Mystery, on a mediumistic sitter group (SORRAT) that witnessed a host of table movements, table levitations, poltergeist phenomena, earthquake effects, and other startling physical events. Gerhard Mayer of the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health in Freiburg, Germany, is of the opinion that “James McClenon has written a courageous book which reflects his scientific curiosity, openness, and commitment to a ‘high-risk’ research topic. The kind of field study the author has described in detail is of great importance because it touches the core of paranormal macro-phenomena in the Western world. And it covers all the accompanying emotions, such as astonishment, doubt, skepticism, but also the excitement of having extraordinary experiences and getting in touch with something unexplainable. An important book.” Robin Carlile in Magonia gets to the heart of the matter when he writes “It seems the author reaches the conclusion that there is almost a need for some element of fraud to ‘prime the pump’ so that rapport can be built with the entities. The essential ingredient appears to be an unconditional belief in the entities, and when this is harnessed in a group, very powerful emanations can follow. The question then is whether such entities actually exist, or have been conjured up from the dark recesses of the human mind, collective or individual…I found the subject matter and content of this book highly illuminating,” Charles Emmons, a fellow sociologist at Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania, put it succinctly: “This is truly a ‘supernatural mystery’ bedeviled by the ‘trickster.’ A classic.”

Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht have produced the first detailed study of Charles Fort’s groundbreaking book, The Book of the Damned, a century after its first publication. In Redemption Of The Damned: Vol. 1 Aerial Phenomena, the first of two volumes, both in full color, the authors have tackled all 82 of Fort’s anomalous observations in the fields of astronomy, meteorology, and atmospheric optics and subjected them to detailed critical scrutiny against period maps, investigation reports, and additional first-hand testimony. Kim Møller Hansen of Scandinavian UFO Information calls it “an insanely thorough and admirable detective work documented on more than 400 closely packed pages, over 800 notes and, not least, very interesting photos, drawings, maps, tables, etc.” Jerome Clark, writing in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, agrees: “The research that has gone into Redemption is nothing short of staggering…Redemption is a worthy and necessary addition to the small library of scientifically and informationally weighty UFO volumes.”  And John Rimmer nails it in his review in Magnolia : “Damned fine research . . . Each case is a model of how historical Fortean investigation should be done. . . . This is a remarkable achievement of not just Fortean study, but more general historical study…”