Confrontations: A Scientist's Search for Alien Contact

«Over the years, I confess—and indeed I take pride in the fact—that I have changed my mind about the meaning of UFO data.» — declara el cambio de posición en la introducción.

«In my earlier works, most notably in Dimensions» — remite al libro de 1988 para el argumento contra la hipótesis extraterrestre y declara que no lo repetirá aquí; en la fuente la palabra lleva pegada la llamada de nota.

«I believe that life and consciousness are manifested on distant worlds.» — sostiene la vida extraterrestre a la vez que niega que los ovnis lo sean.

«Some witnesses react to the phenomenon with a feeling of awe and fulfillment: for Whitley Strieber the outcome was communion and transformation. Yet for many others I have interviewed the experience is better described as confrontation.» — la glosa del título, construida por contraste con el prologuista de su libro anterior.

«For reasons that will become clear, I do not believe any more that UFOs are simply the spacecraft of some race of extraterrestrial visitors.» — el adverbio *simply* está en la fuente.

«My own private conjecture, which deviates considerably from the accepted dogma among UFO believers, is that we are dealing with a yet unrecognized level of consciousness, independent of man but closely linked to the earth.» — la enuncia como conjetura privada y declara que se aparta del consenso del campo.

«As an alternative to the extraterrestrial hypothesis, I propose to regard the UFO phenomenon as a physical manifestation of a form of consciousness that is alien to humans but is able to coexist with us on the earth.» — la formulación nueva de 1990.

«I think it constitutes both a physical entity with mass, inertia, volume, and energy, and a window toward another mode of reality.» — sostiene las dos cosas a la vez.

«Purists will point out that this form of consciousness might very well be extraterrestrial.» — Añade que si la realidad no se restringe a tres ejes de espacio y uno de tiempo, «the Visitors could be from anywhere and any time»; es una concesión que en 1988 no hay.

«The fact remains that a strong symbolic relationship seems to have existed since the dawn of history between these Aliens and humans on the earth itself.» — el límite que pone a esa concesión.

«It is time to acknowledge that the extraterrestrial theory (which assumes that UFOs are spacecraft piloted by beings from another planet who conduct a survey of the earth), a hypothesis that seemed the best avenue of research in the years following World War II, contradicts at least five major facts» — enumera los cinco de corrido en las pp. 116–117.

«The appearance of the UFO operators is overwhelmingly humanoid; they breathe our air and display recognizable emotions.» — segundo de los cinco hechos.

«it is difficult to find a culture that does not have a tradition of little people that fly through the sky and abduct humans» — cuarto de los cinco hechos, y añade: «Sexual or genetic interaction is a common theme in this body of folklore».

«Both the UFOs and their operators are able to materialize and dematerialize on the spot and to penetrate physical obstacles.» — quinto de los cinco hechos.

«It is time to restate the argument in its simplest terms: the UFO beings of today belong to the same class of manifestation as the entities that were described in centuries past, abducting humans and flying through the sky.» — la reafirmación del continuo folclórico, ahora como clase y no como identidad.

«I had shown in Passport to Magonia that contact with ufonauts was only a modern extension of the age-old tradition of contact with nonhuman consciousness in the form of angels, demons, elves, and sylphs.» — remite a su propio libro de 1970 en vez de a las fuentes eruditas.

«I pointed out in Invisible College that the structure of abduction stories was identical to that of occult initiation rituals.» — adjudica la equiparación a su propio libro anterior.

«Archbishop Agobard of Lyons, France, in the ninth century, has left a very clear description of the four individuals who were about to be stoned to death as sorcerers because they came out of a "cloudship" from Magonia.» — Agobardo y Magonia son lo único del aparato de 1988 que sobrevive con nombre.

«The abduction stories began with Ezekiel on the shores of the river Chebar in 593 B.C. and never stopped.» — la frase arranca al pie de la p. 155 y cierra en la 156.

«The belief pattern that has been created around the UFO abductions is reminiscent of medieval theories of abduction by demons, pacts with Satan, and flights to the Sabbat, complete with the Mark of the Devil on the body of the witch.» — el mismo par que en 1988, repetido casi palabra por palabra.

«the only missing element is the familiar—the black cat or the owl that used to accompany the witches!» — lo adjudica al sociólogo francés Pierre Lagrange, que se lo señaló.

«There is a legend in the Acarau valley about a small being similar to the elves of Celtic folklore. This being is about four feet tall, and is called a Caipora.» — recoge la comparación en el trabajo de campo brasileño.

«Caipora is humanoid in shape and can go from one point to another instantly, without using his legs, in the manner of modern UFO entities.» — cierra la comparación con el rasgo del desplazamiento.

«the UFO experience is a very real trigger that releases powerful imagery we are all carrying in our "collective unconscious" (in Jungian terms)» — el vocabulario junguiano es el único resto explícito de Jung en el libro.

«As Bertrand Meheust has brilliantly proven, the symbolic display seen by the abductees is identical to the type of initiation ritual or astral voyage that is embedded in the traditions of every culture.» — adjudica a Meheust la equiparación con el ritual de iniciación.

«At close range, the UFO phenomenon acts as a reality transformer (or, in Bertrand Meheust's words, a reality exchanger), triggering for the witness a series of symbolic displays that are indistinguishable from reality.» — la fórmula *reality exchanger* la atribuye a Meheust.

«Like the technology of the cinema, the UFO technology is a meta-system.» — el símil del proyector, versión 1990; añade que «It generates whatever phenomena are appropriate at our level, at a given epoch».

«Meheust has thrown an extraordinary new light (along with buckets of cold water) on the entire question of abduction cases and his analysis should not be ignored.» — el único apoyo sin reservas del libro.

«The most interesting fact about the Belans abduction case is that it is a» — la frase cierra en la página siguiente: el caso resultó ser un relato de ciencia ficción escrito en 1930 por Ege Tilms.

«science fiction story written in 1930 by Ege Tilms. Entitled "Hodomur, Man of Infinity," it was first published four years later.» — el desenlace del caso Belans, tomado del material de Meheust.

«Abduction by alien beings constitutes a central theme of the science fiction literature of the early twentieth century.» — el anclaje nuevo de 1990: la historia de la literatura popular en lugar de la etnografía céltica.

«In Europe, to my amazement, Passport to Magonia had the opposite result. Some researchers embraced the idea that ufology was modern folklore and carried it to an extreme: everything was folklore and there was no physical reality behind the sightings at all.» — el adversario nuevo de 1990, que en *Dimensions* no existe.

«As late as 1988 Budd Hopkins summarily rejected the Magonia data as "folklore of obviously uncertain authenticity."» — objeta a Hopkins por el flanco contrario.

«Even the excellent and scholarly analysis of UFO abductions compiled by Thomas Bullard under the aegis of the Fund for UFO Research falls into the same trap with its very first sentence» — la frase objetada es que las abducciones sean «a recent phenomenon».

«that has never been considered seriously by American ufology, obsessed as it is with immediate facts and first-order explanations» — objeción al campo estadounidense; la frase arranca al pie de la p. 154 y cierra aquí.

«Hypnosis, which could be a very useful exploratory technique, unfortunately has become a fanatical obsession with American UFO researchers today. In the process, investigators untrained in clinical hypnosis have undoubtedly created false memories in their subjects» — objeción al método, mantenida desde 1988.

«A skeptic is entitled to the opinion that all of these people were lying or hallucinating, but I do not believe this explanation. Neither do I believe the literal interpretation of the UFO enthusiasts» — rechaza las dos lecturas a la vez.

«"You're not Condon!" he cried» — el sargento Herbert Schirmer ante un impostor que se hizo pasar por Edward Condon; la anécdota con que objeta al comité.

«The skeptics, who flatly deny the existence of any unexplained phenomenon in the name of "rationalism," are among the primary contributors to the rejection of science by the public.»

«Cults are driven by irrational beliefs, and they serve a psychological purpose in their members by providing a release from the confrontation with the unknown.» — Añade, remitiendo a su *Messengers of Deception* de diez años antes, que la ciencia, al negarse a estudiar el fenómeno abiertamente, empuja a los testigos sinceros hacia esos cultos.

«The belief in extraterrestrials, like any other strong belief, is an attractive vehicle for some mind control and psychological warfare activities.» — el argumento que en 1979 desarrolló en *Messengers of Deception*, aquí en una línea.

«Even if we disagree with skeptics like Mr. Klass, we must acknowledge the fact that after recording more than a thousand abduction reports … may have accumulated countless pages of very fascinating material but not be any closer to an understanding of the precise nature of UFOs» — concesión declarada a Philip Klass.

«Neither theory is completely satisfactory» — abstención entre las dos lecturas posibles del relato de abducción.

«What distinguishes this book from much of the UFO literature is that essential information was obtained (1) by the author himself, (2) from firsthand sources, and (3) at the site» — declara el criterio metodológico del libro.

«I have selected from my research files one hundred UFO events … Forty-seven of them are firsthand cases in which I met and interviewed the witnesses myself, generally at the site.» — Añade doce casos de heridas mortales en que la víctima sobrevivió menos de veinticuatro horas.

«I can unequivocally state three things about these cases: I was there; the witnesses exist; something happened.» — el alcance exacto de lo que afirma.

«1. Do the witnesses exist? 2. Is the actual site known? 3. Did an abnormal event happen?» — las tres preguntas con que ordena la casuística.

«There are no Vidals. The incident never happened.» — desenlace del caso Vidal, que fichó como falso.

«Occam must have had a beard.» — cierre del pasaje sobre «the uselessness of Occam's razor» en este campo.

«I have borrowed my own methods from the tools of technical intelligence, which are different from those of ordinary science.» — Añade: «Here we must assume that some of the data is misleading».

«All the medical data we gathered during our trip seems to be consistent with the conclusion that UFOs are able to focus on selected human subjects a beam of radiation that contains, among other things, pulsed microwaves that interfere with the central nervous system.» — la conclusión médica del libro, enunciada como compatibilidad con los datos.

«It is the entire phenomenology of UFO contact claims that will now have to be revised.»

«hostility, as manifested in Korea in 1951, or in Parnarama in more recent years, involves direct hits against people, injuries to the nervous system, and occasional deaths. Yet the beam does not seem effective as a weapon.» — la hostilidad de primer orden; la frase arranca al pie de la p. 192 con las palabras «First-order».

«Dr. J. Allen Hynek compared the effects suffered by Floyd and Michalak to what happens when a child puts two fingers into an electrical socket: one should not infer from the result, alarming as it is, that the utility company is hostile.» — adjudica a Hynek la lectura accidental de las heridas.

«These days of innocence and rationalization are gone; the witnesses of Parnarama and Colares were deliberately zapped by a superb, advanced technology that did not care whether its effects were lethal or not.» — Es con lo que marca distancia de Hynek.

«At least five people are said to have died near Parnarama following close encounters with what were described as boxlike UFOs equipped with powerful light beams.» — los *chupas* del Maranhão, en discurso referido.

«By the time the wave of sightings subsided in November 1977, Dr. Carvalho had seen no fewer than thirty-five patients claiming injuries related to the chupas.» — el dato clínico que recoge de la doctora de Colares.

«the chupas are "American prototypes" that take the blood of the victims to send it to the United States» — consigna el rumor local como rumor.

«if UFOs are spacecraft piloted by beings from another planet, why should the witnesses find themselves under unprovoked physical attacks by invisible entities?» — el argumento que le da el material médico contra la hipótesis extraterrestre.

«it is the careful documentation of the physical effects and their medical consequences that can provide new breakthroughs rather than the abduction cases that have become fashionable because of their sensational nature» — Conclusión: declara dónde pone la prioridad de investigación.

«Here are human beings who obviously need assistance; they present consistent symptoms that could not be self-inflicted or simulated.» — desliga la asistencia al testigo de la creencia en el fenómeno.

«Somebody in the United States owns a collection of records that contains the proof of the reality of the phenomenon.»

«Future progress will have to come from a few individuals with enough courage to go into the field themselves, to meet the unknown face-to-face.» — última línea del cuerpo.

«Her testimony indicated that the two victims were members of a "spiritualist" group, an occult society with unknown objectives. It was rumored that the group attempted to communicate with other planets.» — caso Morro do Vintém, Niterói; el testimonio es de la viuda de una de las víctimas.

«Meet at the designated spot at 4:30 P.M. At 6:30 P.M. ingest the capsules. After the effect is produced, protect half of the face with lead masks. Wait for the prearranged signal.» — la nota hallada junto a los cuerpos, reproducida.

«Or were they, more prosaically, taking part in a spiritualist experiment that went wrong?» — plantea las dos lecturas del caso sin elegir.

«an office worker and former engineering student with an interest in Rosicrucian traditions» — así presenta a Wellington Barros Wanderley, una de las víctimas.

«Accidental death of occultists attempting to contact "higher-level entities" is not rare. The English magician Dion Fortune, for instance, had a friend named Netta Fornario who died in 1930 under bizarre circumstances.» — el precedente ocultista que invoca, vía el biógrafo Alan Richardson.

«She was half-Italian and half-English, of unusual intellectual calibre, and was especially interested in the Green Ray elemental contacts» — cita a Dion Fortune en *Psychic Self-Defense* sobre Fornario.

«beatings by invisible agents; some of these incidents were witnessed by her superiors in the Church» — el caso de la religiosa Marie-Therese Noblet, en Papúa, tomado del Dr. Pierre Giscard.

«I feel privileged to have touched them, but I do not know what they mean yet.» — abstención con que cierra el capítulo del linaje folclórico.

«Because I cannot yet prove this relationship, I have decided not to burden the reader» — declara así por qué deja fuera las mutilaciones de ganado; el libro excluye además los cultos y la intervención gubernamental.

«We came away from this case without the key pieces of evidence that would have enabled us to resolve the issue» — sobre el caso Souza.

«the entire sequence suggests control and purpose» — dicho de un solo caso, no del fenómeno: es lo más cercano al sistema de control de 1988 que hay en este libro.

«In his thoughtful book The UFO Experience, J. Allen Hynek took a more careful approach, insisting that we should be interested only in those cases that remain unexplained after study by competent scientists» — toma de Hynek la definición operativa de ovni.

«Confrontations: A Scientist's Search for Alien Contact Copyright © 1990, 2008 by Jacques Vallee» — la página de derechos de nuestro ejemplar: reimpresión de Anomalist Books sobre el copyright de 1990, con portada de Sven Geier y diseño de Seale Studios.

«This book is dedicated to Aimé Michel, who thirty years ago inspired me to search beyond the superficial appearances of reality and who taught me to "shake the pear tree" of science.» — dedicatoria.

«To Ned Leavitt at William Morris and to my editor, Joe Blades, at Ballantine, whose guidance made the publication of this work possible.» — el aparato editorial que nombran los agradecimientos es el de la edición Ballantine de 1990, aunque el ejemplar procesado sea la reimpresión de 2008.

«To Emery Reiff, who had the patience to decipher and process the manuscript for this book.»

«Professor Agobar Oliveira at the University of Fortaleza» — figura entre los colaboradores agradecidos; no es el arzobispo Agobardo de Lyon, que aparece en la p. 155.

«I especially treasure warm and informative exchanges with Mimi Hynek, Gordon Creighton, John Keel, Jenny Randles, Pierre Lagrange, Bertrand Meheust, Whitley Strieber, Hilary Evans, Antonio Ribera, Salvatore Freixedo» — los agradecimientos nombran, entre otros, a los dos que el cuerpo del libro trata como interlocutores teóricos.

«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»

«PART THREE: THE PRICE OF CONTACT 7. Botanical Data 8. Clinical Data 9. Lethal Impact» — el índice declara el eje médico del libro; las otras partes son «A PARADE OF PARAMETERS», «LESSONS IN HUMILITY», «STALKING THE INTRUDERS» y «THE HEART OF THE MATTER».

«Pierre Giscard, Mystique ou Hysterie? (Paris: La Colombe, 1953).» — pie de imprenta tal como lo trae la sección de notas, sin acento en el título.

«Bertrand Meheust has summarized his extensive work on UFOs, folklore, and science fiction in two well-researched books, both published in Paris by Mercure de France» — la nota que da la referencia bibliográfica del único linaje desarrollado del libro.