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Life and Career Dr. Vallée was born in Pontoise, France. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the Sorbonne, followed by his Master of Science in astrophysics from the University of Lille. He began his professional life as an astronomer at the Paris Observatory in 1961. He came to the United States in 1962 and began working in astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin. He worked at MacDonald Observatory on NASA's first project making a detailed informational map of Mars. In 1967, Vallée received a Ph.D. in computer science from Northwestern University. He was a principal investigator on the large NSF project for computer networking, which developed the first conferencing system on the ARPANET many years before the Internet was formed. He has also served on the National Advisory Committee of the University of Michigan College of Engineering and was involved in early work on artificial intelligence. Dr. Vallée has authored four books on high technology, including Computer Message Systems, Electronic Meetings, The Network Revolution, and The Heart of the Internet. Along with his mentor, astronomer J. Allen Hynek, Dr. Vallée carefully studied the problem of UFOs for many years and served as the real-life model for the character portrayed by François Truffaut in Steven Spielberg’s film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. His research has taken him to countries all over the world. Considered one of the leading experts in UFO phenomena, Vallée has written several well-respected scientific books on the subject. UFO Research and Academic Work In May 1955, Vallée first sighted a flying saucer over his Pontoise home. Six years later in 1961, while working on the staff of the French Space Committee, Vallee witnessed the destruction of the tracking tapes of unknown objects orbiting the earth. These events contributed to Vallee's long-standing interest in the UFO phenomenon. In the mid-1960s, like many other UFO researchers, Vallée initially attempted to validate the popular Exterrestrial Hypothesis (or ETH). However, by 1969, his conclusions had changed, and he publicly stated that this hypothesis was untenable. Dr. Vallée began exploring the commonalities between UFOs, cults, religious movements, angels, ghosts, cryptid sightings, and psychic phenomena. These links were first detailed in Vallee's third UFO book, Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers. As an alternative to the extraterrestrial visitation hypothesis, Vallée has suggested a multidimensional visitation hypothesis. This hypothesis represents an extension of the ETH where the alleged extraterrestrials could be potentially from anywhere. The entities could be multidimensional beyond space-time, and thus could coexist with humans, yet remain undetected. Vallée's opposition to the popular ETI hypothesis was not well received by mainstream U.S. ufologists, hence he was viewed as something of an outcast. Indeed, Vallee refers to himself as a "heretic among heretics". Vallée's opposition to the ETH theory is summarised in his paper, "Five Arguments Against the Extraterrestrial Origin of Unidentified Flying Objects," Journal of Scientific Exploration, 1990: "Scientific opinion has generally followed public opinion in the belief that unidentified flying objects either do not exist (the "natural phenomena hypothesis") or, if they do, must represent evidence of a visitation by some advanced race of space travellers (the extraterrestrial hypothesis or "ETH"). It is the view of the author that research on UFOs need not be restricted to these two alternatives. On the contrary, the accumulated data base exhibits several patterns tending to indicate that UFOs are real, represent a previously unrecognized phenomenon, and that the facts do not support the common concept of "space visitors." Five specific arguments articulated here contradict the ETH: In 1988, Jacques and Janine Vallée went to South America to investigate the numerous reports of UFO-related fatalities and injuries. The results of their field investigations are documented in Vallee's book Confrontations: A Scientist's Search for Alien Contact. For example, in central Brazil, Vallée reports that at least five people are reported to have died "following close encounters with what were described as boxlike UFOs equipped with powerful light beams." Many victims were hunters who had climbed into jungle trees at night in order to wait for passing animals that they could shoot. Instead, the hunters had themselves been hunted by "Chupas" (UFOs), which either injured or killed them using intense concentrated light beams. As Vallée reports, these chupas "are said to make a humming sound like a refrigerator or a transformer." * Film Appearance Vallée served as a consultant for the Steven Spielberg film Close Encounters of the Third Kind and served as the model for the UFO researcher character, Lacombe (François Truffaut). In 1979, Robert Emenegger and Alan Sandler updated their 1974 UFOs, Past, Present and Future documentary with new footage narrated by Jacques Vallee. The updated version is entitled "UFOs: It Has Begun". Vallees Interpretation of the UFO Evidence Dr. Vallée proposes that there is a genuine UFO phenomenon, which is associated with a form of nonhuman consciousness that manipulates space and time. The phenomenon has been active throughout human history, and seems to masquerade in various forms to different cultures. In his opinion, this group has a highly militaristic organizational hierarchy, which attempts to influence and guide human societal views, by often relaying erroneous information to humans with whom they interact . Vallee mentions in his books that many of the activities fit descriptions of demonic spirits and their activities in religious books such as the Bible, but he takes no position on whether the UFO entities are the same as biblical demons. Vallees View of UFO Investigative Efforts Vallée is often highly critical of UFO investigators overall, both believers and sceptics, asserting that what often passes for an acceptable level of investigation in a UFO context would be considered sloppy and seriously inadequate investigation in other fields. He has written pointing out logical flaws and methodological flaws common in such research. Unlike many critics of UFO investigative efforts, his critiques are not condescending and dismissive and he indicates that he is simply interested in good science. Some of Vallée's critics, however, contend that he is guilty of relying on the same inadequate methodologies that he accuses other UFO investigators of using . Concerns Regarding the UFO Subculture Vallée's Messengers of Deception is recognised as an important sociological work in its own right, since the subject of its study is UFO contactees and cults as opposed to the UFO phenomenon itself. In the course of the study Vallée expresses concern about the often authoritarian political and religious views expressed by many contactees. Amongst the groups profiled are the nascent Raelian movement and an early form of the Heaven's Gate suicide cult. Books authored
Finance Novel Jacques Vallée has also written three science fiction novels, two under the pseudonym of Jérôme Sériel: Technical books UFO books Reissue: A Cosmic Samizdat(1992) Research papers Film Appearances See also | |||||||||||
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