Ufologist, Astronomer, Computer Scientist
Lately, I have been listening to a number of podcasts featuring my favorite ufologist, Dr. Jacques Vallée. Dr. Vallée has been making the rounds promoting the new, expanded edition of his latest UFO book, Trinity: The Best Kept Secret (2021, 2022), which he co-authored with journalist and fellow ufologist, Paola L. Harris.
For those who may not know, the book deals with their investigation into what is doubtless an epochal event–surely for ufology, and perhaps for humanity as a whole–namely, the “crash” (or was it, as Vallée suggests, a deliberately offered “gift”?) of an avocado-shaped UFO in 1945. This event occurred only several weeks following the “test” detonation of the first atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert, and very close to the detonation site itself. This was two years before Kenneth Arnold’s famous flight near Mount Rainier, his (or his newspaper interviewer’s) coining of the term “flying saucer,” and the mysterious, still highly controversial events that took place in Roswell, New Mexico. In other words, Vallée is rewriting UFO history, once again!
I will have much more to say in a future post about some of the remarks Vallée made in another interview. Here I just wish to encourage anyone following these developments to watch the interview that Jeffrey Mishlove recently did with Vallée on his New Thinking Allowed YouTube channel. Here is the link:
Mishlove is among the best of interviewers. He knows how to ask a question, which questions to ask, and he knows ufology, just as Vallée knows parapsychology. Plus they know each other a long time, dating from their respective days, in decades past, when each researcher was associated with SRI. That history and mutual respect is a large part of what makes this interview outstanding.
Also, it becomes quite clear at several critical junctures in the conversation that Mishlove has actually read the book! And grasps its significance, to boot! The importance of these two factors should not be underestimated.
As someone who has occasionally sat in the interviewee’s chair, I can testify to the validity of the suspicion that some, if not most, interviewers often possess, at best, a vague familiarity with the subject-matter, and probably have NOT read your book.
Mishlove, however, has obviously done his homework, and has done it exceedingly well. This makes for an interview that is not merely fascinating, but also highly impactful and revelatory.
There’s something else. All the other interviews I listened to as Apple podcasts. For some reason, New Thinking Allowed has not posted a new podcast since July (2022). So I watched this interview on YouTube. And it was a revelation. If you watch Vallée–his gestures and expressions–very closely, and listen as carefully to what he says (and doesn’t say) as he is in saying (and not saying) it, you may notice the coming into being of a brand new reality.