Open Skies, Closed Minds: Official Reactions to the UFO Phenomenon [Brossura]

From 1991 to 1994 Nick Pope was posted as the British MOD investigator of UFOs. That means he worked for the Ministry Of Defense. Pope believes that UFOs are real and explains what he discovered while working for the MOD. Although a lot of the information here is known to most UFO researchers he does uncover some new UK material. This is a good book about UFOs from an MOD insider. A worthy addition to any UFO book collection.

First published in 1996 shortly after Nick Pope left his three-year posting as head of the UFO desk but whilst still employed by the Ministry of Defence, "Open Skies, Closed Minds" is a thoughtful, literate and occasionally amusing summary of the author's tenure as a full-time, government-paid researcher into the UFO phenomenon. He turns out to be a good writer, and although there may be few new revelations here for the serious student of the subject, Nick's unique official position and his fair-minded, diligent approach make for an original and valuable contribution to the field. It's the impartiality, the outsider parachuted into the job with no previous interest and no preconceptions who then undergoes gradual conversion to realize there is real substance to the UFO issue that makes for a compelling read. The level of commercial success and subsequent publicity for the UFO phenomenon gained by this book in the UK has only to date been equaled by the best work of Tim Good.

This review is of the original hardback edition, which has a good 8-page monochrome photo section in the middle and a comprehensive index.

Quote from the author: "One of the first things I did on taking up the UFO post was to read into the subject...there were also things called `close encounters'...where people saw a UFO and then arrived home much later than expected unable to account for a lost period...I had responsibilities both to the MOD and to the public as a whole to investigate all sightings and experiences in a totally impartial way, irrespective of my own views about a witness...

...many in the world of UFOlogy regarded me as just `the man from the ministry' as likely as not up to my eyeballs in crashed UFOs, dead aliens and cosmic cover-ups. But as I began to deal on a daily basis with people who had experienced events which appeared to go beyond human understanding, I formed working relationships with UFO researchers and a mutual trust developed." Has this trust been maintained and built on by Nick's successors? Alas, no.

The book is written with a broadly chronological narrative which proves to be a more engaging style than the fragmented listing of sighting reports. The author shares his discoveries opening up the MOD's existing UFO files and his own evolving conversion from admitted ignorance and skepticism to an appreciation of the reality of a mysterious, multi-faceted phenomenon of some complexity. He comes to the conclusion that the ETH best fits the facts, and that the evidence is that the ETs in the main do not appear to have humanity's best interests at heart. This is a remarkable public admission from someone working at a high level in the MOD, and in the absence of any official denial or disclaimer represents the nearest thing we're likely to get for the moment to a government acknowledgement that there is an ET presence and that it ain't friendly.

A whole chapter on attitudes to the subject begins: "There can be few subjects other than ufology for which government policy is dictated so much by attitudes and so little by facts or hard evidence. Many of these attitudes have been created by the media." Indeed. Nick writes about the main UFO groups and researchers in the UK and his personal investigations into multi-witness sightings, crop circles, cattle mutilations, the Rendlesham Forest incident (all given their own chapters), the notorious Santilli "autopsy" film and many other well-known cases. He expands the content to a more global perspective in the final chapters. His reputation for taking reports from the public about UFO encounters and other paranormal happenings seriously, and investigating them thoroughly and openly led to "maverick" status inside the MOD and thus to the media's term "The UK's own Fox Mulder."

So in summary, a good introduction to the subject for the casually interested reader, and even for the avid UFOlogist an interesting excursion into the workings of government and how the subject was managed during this period. Above all the author comes across as balanced, intelligent, grounded, sensible and good-humored - and that alone, many would admit, is something of a rarity in this field.

A fortuitous career move inside the MOD led eventually to Nick carving out a whole new life in the UFO field outside government service in the real world, and achieving minor celebrity status as a recognizable face on TV. He's a professional, and has proved to be consistently effective at bringing the UFO subject more respectability and serious treatment by the mass media. Good for him, and good for the field.

For all of us who understand the looming confrontation that is building between alien, space-based, and human, earth-based, species, Nick Pope comes to our rescue. I mean do we really know what this trauma will bring to a society that is still split in every way imaginable? We can't even pull together politically on a national-level let alone internationally to face these close encounters with courage and wisdom! So I shutter once this convergence of consciousness, this melding of minds, begins in a undeniable way in era-2012 as we enter into Solar Cycle 24. Indeed, the closest we come to this new paradigm, model of reality, is the shaman where extraordinary reality ultimately becomes ordinary to those who have mastered the seemingly miraculous third-eye open skills of shapeshifting, self-healing, as well as telepathy. The larger truth is you simply cannot open your third eye and stay the same. Whether you become a mystic, prophet, or shaman, afterwards is your business but, as I discovered and spent 15-years of my life researching and writing and speaking about, you will never ever be the same person again. Thus, do not overlook this book for it is a master-reference on this phenomenon and the sensational case histories and their impact on fragile egos. Personally, I doubt that we have time to bridge-the-gap between science and religion on this topic to circumvent the mass suicides I envison, due to misunderstanding that the cosmos itself is a living being that co-creates an infinite set of life forms to carry its very own consciousness both in time and eternity, but I salute my public-servant colleague for making every attempt to do so. Our people are so closed-minded to the catastrophic Earth Changes to come this year alone that they still look to our elected-leaders to save them from natural disasters, when these myopic folks have about as much collective foresight as FEMA in 2005. Nonetheless, I also highly-recommend his OUTSTANDING new DVD NICK POPE -The Man Who Left the MOD

Dr. John Jay Harper is author of the international bestseller Tranceformers: Shamans of the 21st Century