Bibliography of the Bizarre:Books on the Unexplained |
Books discussed: Abduction by Dr. John Mack (1994), Communion by Whitley Strieber (1987), Intruders by Budd Hopkins (1987), The Interrupted Journey by John Fuller (1975)
Nonfiction can be stranger than fiction. Sometimes a jaunt down the "can this be real?" avenue is good for us, because it challenges our assumptions. Just when we think we have a good hold on reality, we get a jostle. For instance, before the 1970s, scientists were pretty convinced that life required sunlight. And then life was discovered at the bottom of the ocean, thriving in complete darkness. Old assumptions about the nature of reality were turned upside down.
Reality is strange. Take natural history. A gigantic part of vertebrate history on Planet Earth was dominated by dinosaurs. For perspective, the dinosaurs were around for so long that Tyrannosaurus Rex never battled Stegosaurus, because the two species did not live at the same time. In fact, Tyrannosaurus is closer to our time than he is to the time of Stegosaurus. Okay, you might be wondering, haven't I slated books about UFOs for this discussion? Yes, I have. I just had to preface this topic with some examples that illustrate the importance of keeping an open mind. The titles included in this discussion are classics of the paranormal. Once a year, typically in October (to go along with the spirit of Halloween), I enjoy wandering from the straight and narrow history, archaeology, natural history, biography, anthropology, and language learning circuit. October is a good time to take on something truly different. Something that challenges, something that begs the reader to think outside the box. So here we are. This ride is meant to be enjoyed. Let's open a big can of UFO.
The book Abduction could be easily dismissed as crackpot drivel. But there's a catch. It was written by a psychiatrist... who taught at Harvard medical school... who also won the Pulitzer Prize. Dr. John Mack is likely the most credentialed person to investigate this subject, at least in a public manner. He makes the case that, as a psychiatrist, he found no mental illness among his patients who claimed to have close encounters with UFOs. There simply was no diagnosis that satisfied the phenomenon. He makes the case that these patients all experienced something that differs from the delusions of a mentally ill person. Rather, the experiences here share a consistent narrative, and the emotions extracted have the properties of real experience. Abduction includes the narratives derived from several of his patients. He begins the book by discussing that the content within does not follow a neat Einsteinian/Newtonian model of reality. It is important to note that Dr. Mack risked his tenure at Harvard for his work in this field. Dr. Mack was tragically killed by a drunk driver in 2004. Communion is likely the most famous of the titles in this bibliography. The book's original cover featured a rather stark image of a large-eyed creature, which likely helped the book's success. The author, Strieber, was himself already a bestselling author before his UFO experience. His 1970s novel Wolfen was a big hit, but Communion is what has come to define his career, largely because he claims that Communion is a true story. To be honest, Communion is a mixed bag of a book. The first half of the book really is worth a read. Strieber talks about having the need to walk around his upstate New York home at night, almost like he senses prowlers. There is something rather unsettling about a man walking around his home, checking the windows and making sure nobody is on the porch. It includes conversations that would upset any family: a husband asking his wife at breakfast if she had a party the night before, or a child asking his father about the little doctors who came to the house the previous night. The second half of the book is less interesting than the first half, because it turns from Strieber's experiences to his interpretations, and those interpretations seem dated now (for instance, I usually get lost when people start talking about crystals and pyramids). Some of the book's important scenes were translated into the 1989 film starring Christopher Walken as Strieber. The movie, like the book, is a mixed bag, sometimes silly, sometimes enchanting, sometimes corny, sometimes spooky. Budd Hopkins likely gets the credit for convincing many people that alien encounters were real. Hopkins, who passed away in 2011, was--like Dr. John Mack and Whitley Strieber--a man who had already established himself professionally before stumbling into the strange world of UFOs. Hopkins was a successful New York artist whose work had appeared in top-class galleries. Yet, some years after seeing something in the sky, something that did not fit, he wrote a piece in the Village Voice about a UFO case. Then the mail starting to come to his residence. Lots of mail. He began talking to other people about their experiences, and he became convinced that something was happening. Hopkins pioneered the notion of "missing time," an episode when a person feels as if hours were whisked away in the flash of a second. Intruders features the story of a family in Indiana. Hopkins includes picture evidence of burn traces in the background and physical marks on the skin of the subjects to compliment their testimony. Hopkins had a warmth about the people he talked with, and his candor and gentle spirit made people comfortable to discuss things with him that they would never discuss with others. It should be noted that he is the one who convinced Dr. John Mack that close encounters were real. Finally, The Interrupted Journey documents the first American case of a UFO close encounter. Betty and Barney Hill had a strange night in 1961. Their "missing time" was illuminated by Dr. Benjamin Simon, a psychiatrist who had extensive experience working with shell-shocked veterans. Fuller's book documents the content of Betty and Barney's therapy sessions. What is particularly interesting is that both subjects gave eerily similar specifics, despite the fact that Dr. Simon met with them separately. It's a fast, intense read on an early and classic UFO case. So take a break from biography or history or science or art. Give something truly different a try. Something in this bibliography of the bizarre might have you wonder, "Can that really happen?" Updated July 2019 Back to the top of the page Return to Front Page