Proximity: Life Changing UFO Experiences. Volume 1 The Early Years

John Hanson and Shirley Edwards

 236pp

Paperback

Black and White/ colour images profusely illustrated

£18.22

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/157276331175?itmmeta=01K4JFAY8FVJV4HYBHAM14FVM4&hash=item249e665ca7:g:XsQAAeSwl7hory8f&pfm=0

The UFO books by John Hanson delves into the historical and paranormal aspects of the topic, published by Haunted Skies. The paperback books offer an intriguing narrative in English, focusing on real-life stories and encounters related to UFO sightings and alien phenomena. Perfect for those interested in the mysteries of the unknown, this book series explores the fascinating world of non-fiction storytelling in the genre of the paranormal.

Very few UFO books impress me these days as they are usually the same old-same old and usually leave me asking why I spent my valuable money on them.  There are the exceptions such as John Hanson's Haunted Skies UFO Encyclopedia series which is not as boring as "encyclopedia" may make it seem. Those are thoroughly researched books and many cases often left "hanging" have been looked into revealing factors that previous Ufologists never asked about or bothered with.

It cost me a fair amount but I at least have a full set of HS and every single volume is full of post-it notes and the more post-it notes shows how valuable a reference a book can be.  Having specialised in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Alien Entity reports since 1974 I have to admit that Haunted Skies as a series turned up a good few UK reports that I had never heard of -because they were reported to and investigated by Hanson.

HS as a series does not just focus on the UK as anyone who has ever read a volume will know. The in depth work on the Rendlesham Forest Incident  -The Halt Perspective for instance are valuable sources for serious researchers.

So what does Proximity Volume 1 have going for it?  Firstly, it brings together some of the best cases from the HS series (which are hard to come by volumes now).  There is a look at some of the personalities involved in Ufology from J Allen Hynek, Trevor James Constable, Dr Condon, the now sadly forgotten Arthur Constance and many others including astronauts.  There is a look at UFO Disclosure but the main "meat" of the bookare the actual witness/percipient accounts.

There are reports beginning in 1870, through the early 1900s and 1920s through to the 1960s; everything from missing time incidents to recalled abductions and close proximity sightings that caused physiological effects in the observers. There are the claims of sightings and then threats and intimidation of observers to keep them quiet. Enough is presented here to make you ask "What is going on?"

But there is more. There are features within the book such as a large section on the Betty and Barney Hill case and one asking whether Morris K Jessup was murdered for getting too close to the truth.  There is a look at the claims of George Adamski and correlations from other UFO reports. One thing that stands out are the stories of the people who became involved in Ufology and how they set up groups or investigated personally reports as they came in (such as Gavin Gibbons who looked into the 1954 Jessie Roestenberg CE3).

The volume is not just a boring citation of report after report but fills in many things that people want to know such as "Who was this person? Were they a loony?" or even "Has anyone else ever reported what that person saw or says happened to them?" You will find those questions answered where ever possible in this book -Shirley Edwards adding notes where necessary.  And on top of everything else the book is full of photographs and illustrations many of which have not seen print before -some in colour and some in black and white. The last chapter of the book looks at some cases from the 1970s on that will no doubt get fuller treatment in the next volume.

If you are looking for a book that genuinely looks at the phenomena involved then this has to be it whether you are just curious or trying to learn more to become active in Ufology. The book is highly recommended.

Note: John is also interviewed and looks at his work on the Haunted Skies Project here: https://terryhooper.blogspot.com/2024/09/john-hanson-haunted-skies-and-british.html

A Comet? An Alien Space Probe -or overpaid Scientists Looking For The Next Grant Cheque?

 

Four Telescopes Confirm There's Something Deeply Strange About the Mysterious Object Headed Into the Solar System

Victor Tangermann

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/four-telescopes-confirm-theres-something-100023490.html

see also

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/mysterious-object-headed-toward-mars-180524354.html

(c)2025 respective copyright owner

By definition, scientists don't know what to expect as they inspect the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, since it's only the third object detected from beyond the solar system in human history.

But the surprises just keep coming. The mysterious entity, which was first spotted hurtling towards the Sun from far beyond in early July, has fascinated researchers ever since. As Science Alert points out, a quartet of powerful telescopes — NASA's Hubble, SPHEREx,  Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), and James Webb Space Telescope — have now turned their powerful gazes to observe 3I/ATLAS.

And while there's a broad consensus among experts that the object is a comet — a small, icy body that releases gases as it passes by the Sun — the data tells a strikingly more nuanced story, making clear that the object is deeply strange in ways that will make it a topic of study and comparison for many years.

For one, SPHEREx and James Webb observations have both shown that its coma, which a large atmosphere of gas and dust that surrounds a comet's nucleus, bears a much higher proportion of carbon dioxide gas than expected. In fact, scientists found it to have the highest carbon dioxide to water ratio ever observed in a comet.

TESS, which had technically already spotted the object months ahead of its July discovery that were later found in its archived observations, showed the object was already bright and active when it was six astronomical units from the Sun, well past the orbit of Jupiter, far more distant to be showing activity than most comets.

NASA's Hubble revealed a "teardrop-shaped cocoon of dust coming off of the comet's solid, icy nucleus," yet it "does not feature a distinct cometary tail," according to Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb (who has colorfully suggested that the object could have been sent to us by an extraterrestrial civilization.)

The object's origins remain as elusive as ever. In a preprint paper, an international team of researchers posited that 3I/ATLAS may contain "ices exposed to higher levels of radiation than Solar System comets," or it could've "formed close to the CO2 ice line in its parent protoplanetary disk."

For now, we'll have to be patient until the findings — as well as any future observations before it screams back out of the solar system's other side — undergo further analysis and peer review.

By the time the object makes its departure, it will have made relatively close flybys of Jupiter, Mars, and Venus. Loeb has proposed that NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter should have a closer look, as the object comes within less than two million miles of the Red Planet.

And roughly five months later, NASA's Juno probe could intercept it as it approaches Jupiter. Perhaps then, we could finally get a better sense of its peculiar nature.