The Invisible College

Book excerpt: What is the nature of unidentified aerial phenomena? Forty years agoa small cadre of dedicated researchers began actively investigatingcases, interviewing witnesses, and exchanging data through a small, informal network of international contacts. Today this low profilenetwork, or "invisible college," has grown into a larger, multi-nationvolunteer research effort joined by many individuals. But the questionsfirst raised 40 years ago remain current-and unanswered. "I believe that a powerful force has influenced the human race in thepast and is again influencing it now. Does this force represent alienintervention, or does it originate entirely within human consciousness?This is the question that forms the basis of the work of the InvisibleCollege of UFO researchers." - Jacques Vallee Dr. Jacques Vallee began his professional life as an astronomer at the Paris Observatory in 1961. While on the staff of the French Space Committee, he witnessed the destruction of the tracking tapes of unknown objects orbiting the earth, initiating a lifelong interest in the UFO phenomenon. Vallee arrived in the U.S. in 1962 and worked in astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin before receiving a Ph.D. in computer science from Northwestern University in 1967. There he became a close associate of J. Allen Hynek, then scientific consultant for the U.S. Air Force on Project Blue Book-the result wasThe Invisible College. Other works by Vallee include Dimensions, Confrontations, and Revelations. Dr. Vallee is presently a venture capitalist living in San Francisco."