Wednesday, May 17, 2023

An Impressive New Book on UFO Witness Testimony

The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony is a new book edited by Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos and Richard W. Heiden, "the first major book to comprehensively focus on the discussion and current views on problems and challenges posed by the reliability of UFO testimonies."

A portion of table of contents.

"This is a cross-disciplinary compendium of papers by 60 authors from 14 different countries. They are specialists in social, physical, and biological sciences, including psychology (predominantly) as well as psychiatry, sociology, anthropology, history, philosophy, folklore, religion, journalism, engineering, computing, medicine, education, analysts with experience in the critical study of UFO perceivers, and other professionals. This volume shares thematically convergent ideas about the plausibility of alternate explanations for an alleged close-range UFO phenomenon. 

The 57 chapters in this book are divided into seven section headings: Case Studies, Psychological Perspectives, On Witness Testimony, Empirical Research, Anthropological Approach, Metrics and Scaling, and Epistemological Issues. " 

Of particular interest to readers here: Chapter 12 by Dr. Gary P. Posner, "The Legendary Cash-Landrum Case: Radiation Sickness from a Close Encounter?" Dr. Posner became interested in the medical aspects of the Cash-Landrum case in late 1981 and conducted his own research from a skeptical point of view. His 14-page examination focuses on the case from the book's perspective, witness reliability.

This 711-page book has been released online in the Academia.edu portal, from where it can be downloaded for free as a PDF: The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony

Simultaneously, UPIAR Publishing House (Turin, Italy) has published two softcover, A4 format print editions, one in black & white, another in full color (ISBN: 9791281441002). The book can be purchased through this link: UPIAR Store