Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults Paperback – Illustrated, June 1, 2008

Jacques Vallee is a talented intellectual entrepreneur. He has selected the mysterious topic of UFOs and applied the scientific method to offer a range of hypotheses to offer possible explantations of the phenomena. Messengers of Deceit: UFO Contacts and Cults explores the experience of contactees and looks at the implications of the spread of UFO cults for social order. This book was published in the seventies and dealt with the infamous cult of Heaven's Gate and a variety of other cults including the Raelians.Vallee looks at how the beliefs of contactees are affected by their alleged contacts and how these beliefs are associated with UFOs and cattle mutilation, etc. The belief in salvation from the sky as well as terror from sky have a way of undermining rationality. Vallee speculates that the overall effect of the UFOs and their cults appear to be to undermine a science that disregards the phenomena because of the ludicrous nature of the beliefs espoused by the contactees. He points out how respectable people have distanced themselves from absurd beliefs in the past, but these absurd beliefs ultimately became socially effective in the form of religious movements and political ideologies.Working from this vantage point, Vallee posits that the phenomena of UFOs and their cults undermine the idea of human self-mastery, pushes toward planetary unification, lays the foundation for high demand religions, spreads irrational thought and motivations, and even support an odd variant of racism. Is there a relationship between the spread of irrational belief systems and totalitarian political movements? A good deal of research has been done about occult movements and their role in the rise of National Socialism. There are similar traces of irrationality in the rise of Soviet Communism.Vallee's sociological look at the rise of UFO cults uses the genius of an accomplished Aikido master to take the weight of a person's fascination with fantastic mysteries to bring them into the realm of rational speculation. Vallee views the atmosphere created by the cults to appear as if a human or perhaps other intelligence was trying to manipulate human beings toward irrationalism and away from reason. He does so while also being able to tap into the hype and create a successful series of books.Vallee reminds me a bit of the political scientist, Eric Voegelin, who studied politics through the lens of religious symbolism while trying to maintain the objective status of the scientist. It is very difficult to explore the symbols of order lodged inside the human consciousness without becoming entangled with the symbols themselves. Vallee and Voegelin appear to be able to keep their balance as they explore symbolisms that cause so many others to lose their balance.

What to say...Vallee believes that there are both physical and psychological dimensions to the phenomena of UFO's. Yet if one subscribes to the extraterrestrial and conspiricist explanations for UFO's, one runs the risk of falling prey to an even larger conspiracy in which UFO's (or their interpretations) are being used to manipulate the populace and incline them in certain directions. So yeah, you have to be able to think on multiple levels because any solution could just be what someone wants you to think or know. As such we never get an explanation of what UFO's are, where they come from, or who's using them and to what end. But the book remains a sophisticated, if ultimately self-defeating, and circular work that collapses in infinite regress. I give it five stars not so much in response to its theories on UFO's as its exercise in persistent thought, which could have been about something else. It's sort of a case study on the paranoid pattern of thought. Thank you.

This book is a good summary of Jacques Vallee's unconventional and thought-provoking (often disturbing) theories of the UFO Phenomenon. Namely, that a strong, measurable, and perhaps intended sociological reaction can be observed in response to said phenomena; that the phenomena may behave as an algorithm and are thus difficult to understand in linear terms; that these phenomena have manifested in various ways throughout history and their true nature is still veiled from us.The chapters appear more as a collection of essays at first glance and the book ends somewhat abruptly. Jacques Vallee is a good writer and has written a novel or two in the past, but this book is not written as a novel nor does it flow as one. You the reader must follow the theories to a deeper, darker place in your mind to get the most from this work. A simple quick read will leave a lot information out.The ideas presented here are multi-tiered and valuable, with great depth. It is an excellent discussion piece for a philosophical or academic debate. Messengers of Deception is a unique contribution to the literature of not just UFO's, but also of Sociology. The book is somewhat short on eye-witness accounts and 'alien' encounters. If you prefer to read on those, may I recommend Dr. Vallee's fine book 'Confrontations' which is rich with anecdotal evidence...I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Vallee once and I consider him a treasure to this field of paranormal research. His books are a must have for anyone with a serious inclination towards the UFO subject. Messengers of Deception is a book which stands apart in many ways like the writer himself.

Still a highly relevant book . The book is hugely thought provoking and easy to read. It has not aged at all and seems to me to be a basic foundational text for a grounded, open investigative approach to a fascinating and potentially world altering enigma. Does not disappoint.

Yes it was very good I would tell others about the book

I'll keep this review short and just say that even though this book was originally released over 40 yrs ago it is still relevant today. Anyone interested in UfOs needs to read this book.One criticism though, like most Vallee books I find some of the material in this book is reused, or has been used before in other books of his

Mah..this book I was a little disappointed.. By Vallè, I would have expected more..Here this theories are not confirmed, too forced..

I was very intrigued reading the pages of this book. It is well structured and not difficult to read. If this is your genre, then you'll really like this book.