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.

«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.

«This is especially true when the research topic lies beyond the recognized boundary of conventional science.» — los agradecimientos declaran la condición del trabajo: el tema queda fuera de la frontera reconocida de la ciencia convencional, y por eso depende de una red de colegas.

«They are too numerous for all their names to be mentioned here; many of them wish to remain anonymous for personal or professional reasons.» — consigna que buena parte de la red de colaboradores queda sin nombrar por decisión de ellos; es un límite declarado de la trazabilidad del libro.

«To protect the privacy of the witnesses, most of the names have been changed, even when the individuals had been quoted in the press at the time. UFO witnesses have been subjected to so much harassment and vandalism that such a procedure seems to be the only ethical way to deal with the cases.» — la nota que declara el criterio de anonimato del libro y su motivo: el acoso y el vandalismo sufridos por los testigos.

«The Aurora case was first described in the literature by Hanlon and Vallee in “Airships over Texas,” Flying Saucer Review 13,» — la nota que adjudica la primera publicación del caso Aurora, con su propia firma junto a la de Hanlon.

«The Dr. X episode was first published by Aimé Michel in Flying Saucer Review (Special Issue no. 3, September 1969): 3, with a follow-up in FSR 17, no. 6» — la nota que sitúa la publicación original del caso del Dr. X en la revista de Aimé Michel.

«The camera type was RMK 15/23, the film was Kodak Plus X, ASA 80, the exposure time was 1/500 second and the f-stop was 5.6.» — el detalle técnico que las notas dan de una de las fotografías analizadas.

«Jacques Vallee and Janine Vallee, Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1966; New York: Ballantine).» — pie de imprenta de su propio libro de 1966, escrito con Janine Vallée.

«Allen J. Hynek, The UFO Experience (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1972), page 10.» — pie de imprenta de la obra de Hynek de la que toma la definición operativa de ovni.

«The report concluded: “The fibers are straight and of uniform diameter (9-10 microns) and cross-section.» — el dictamen del laboratorio forense sobre las fibras de Happy Camp, citado en las notas.

«V. J. Ballester and M. Guasp, “Standards in the Evaluation of UFO» — la referencia del índice de calidad español que declara demasiado detallado para usarlo; el título de la contribución se corta con la plana y sigue en la 214, en *The Spectrum of UFO Research*, editado por Mimi Hynek.