Alan Watts (3) (1925–)

A thoughtful, serious examination of unidentified flying objects, and one of the very few books that I would recommend to readers unfamiliar with the topic. UFO researcher/physics instructor Alan Watts entitles a key chapter "Grappling with George Adamski," and in many ways this would serve as an appropriate title for the entire book. I won't go into the convoluted, mostly embarrassing saga of California UFO contactee Adamski in this review, but Watts's central thesis is that the famous show more bell-shaped flying saucers photographed by Adamski during the early 1950s were genuine. Despite the kookier aspects of Adamski's story (telepathic communication with Venusian beings, etc.), Watts concludes that the photos themselves show actual flying craft. He notes that virtually identical craft were photographed in other parts of the world, by witnesses who had no connection to Adamski (like young Stephen Darbishire of Coniston, England in 1954), and offers a wealth of scientific data to support his theory that the bell-shaped UFOs flew by means of an alternating magnetic field. "Because it is the only type of which we have detailed knowledge," the author explains, "we must take Adamski's saucer as our example."

Watts drifts into metaphysical territory here and there (particularly in the second half of the text), but that doesn't diminish the larger value of UFO Quest. If you're looking for a solid technical overview of how these craft may operate, written in understandable terms, this is the book for you. show less

This book deeply, truly, madly SUCKS! One from the hard-core gee-whiz credulous school of writing on the supernatural. The author believes it all, from Uri Geller’s psychic powers (giggle) to Roswell (scream). It comes wrapped in a thick coating of earnest pseudo-science, the piling on of unnecessarily precise mundane facts to shore up the implausible (At 2.37pm on the afternoon of Thursday 19 November, 1.7 miles north of Jake’s gas station etc etc….) and the academic patina of show more cross–references and footnotes.

According to the blurb, Watts “explores the theory of a universal ‘superhighway’ of communication channels that allows minds to communicate without using any of the five senses.” Well, he has certainly had a lot of practice not using his!

I wondered whether I should release this one at all, but suffering should be shared. If you find it, keep your scepticism handy and don’t inhale. show less

A very technical reference. Probably its most useful part for the layman is the central portion where verso is a consist tabular set of details and inferences to make with the recto, full-page photograph of common cloud formations.

There's some interesting information in here, but some caveats as well. For one, the book seemed a bit disorganized -- I found that some of the same facts were repeated at times in different places, as if the book were a collection of separate essays that had been written at different times. Also, some things were explained in ways that I found confusing...for example, the explanation of why a red sky at morning means bad weather seemed to me considerably more confusing than other show more explanations I've read elsewhere.
These caveats aside, this is one of the few books I'm aware of that has much information on how to "read the sky" and make your own weather predictions based purely on that. For that reason, I'd recommend it to anyone who has an interest in doing this -- though not all of the book is dedicated just to this. show less