The book was initially ignored by the major papers like The New York Times which pride themselves on assuming that any phenomena unexplainable to Midwestern peasants would be easily within the rational understanding of the superior minds in Manhattan. (1965)

The Board of EarthData, Peter Banks’ fledgling remote sensing company, met this morning to discuss satellite strategy with John Egan, from the same branch of Coopers & Lybrand where Rod Frederickson went to work. Casually, I asked how he was. “Rod Frederickson is dead,” said Egan drily.

After my talk, a woman named Barbara asked if I believed that certains individuals had a special role to play. She went on to ask whether contact with the phenomenon was always a good thing. I told her that for some people it was disastrous. What about her?

As the climbing got tougher the Volvo started coughing, the transmission gave up; a stench of burning oil replaced the scents of the mountain. The car reluctantly took us to a paradise, a blue lake in the forest, deer grazing among log cabins. (1975)

A reader sends me “Greetings from the Exterior Circle of the New Flesh Palladium,” in the tradition of Randolph, Crowley, and Maria de Nagloska. The convergence of abduction stories with sex magic is obvious in the sado-masochistic stories told by Hopkins and Jacobs. (1997)

Keith and Darlene have just left us after a day filled with discussions of parapsychology and abductions, a walk in the forest and many cups of good coffee.

We are awaiting Hynek's answer to my suggestion of a meeting in Evanston. In the meantime I am printing out our entire catalogue. I miss the good long talks I had in Paris with Aimé Michel, that extraordinary mind, and with Pierre Guerin. (1963)

Another notion introduced at this meeting was that of The Day After: “What would happen if the government was to announce Alien intrusions? Has there been a 50-year program of indoctrination of earthlings?” asked Bob.

When people see us they cluster around and volunteer their stories, looking for answers, hoping for explanations. Brazil is a country where witnesses have never been ridiculed by the likes of Carl Sagan or Philip Klass, so people talk freely about what they have seen. (1988)

This morning I finished punching 1963 and I spent the afternoon screening 1948, where I found yet another series of remarkable, forgotten cases. Now I can say without fear of contradiction that I know the Air Force files better than Quintanilla.

The augmentation of human intelligence bores me to death. Engelbart has put the project through what he called an “Arcathon,” another weird word to patch over our problems. He rented an old Franciscan convent for a lengthy seminar that turned into a poorly-managed encounter group.

Over lunch, Poher talked on and on about Ummo, which continues to fascinate him, and about his research. He had no doubt about his funding.

Yesterday Adam Rostoker came over for dinner and spent the night in the guest room. Adam has served as a green beret and a Special Forces fighter with a high-security clearance from NATO, where he served as a courier. A member of the OTO, he now devotes most of his time to Crowley’s “magick.” (1993)

Tina and Brian are engaged into a successful program of art exhibits with a “Contact” flavor that meets with good public response. The change may come from George H. Bush’s decision to push Nasa towards a Moon base and a Mars expedition over the next 25 years. (1989)

Normandy is cold, it rained the whole way. Fortunately the house is full of toys and laughter. In the attic we found a bull's head made of wicker; my nephew Eric wore it while I teased him with Janine's red raincoat for a wild and joyous corrida around the backyard, then I went back to work. (1966)

Local media resonate with Bob Bigelow's space tourism plans and Joe Firmage's launching of ISSO, his “International Space Science Organization.” Dick Haines senses Joe Firmage going the way of Steven Greer, towards a form of cultism. (1999)

"I simply cannot conceive of a universe where communication among remote planets is made impossible by a theoretical limitation. Everything man can imagine, he can realize sooner or later. Well, dammit, I really want to know what's going on in Andromeda. Nothing will convince me that's impossible."

Our children are a delight. It is my great pleasure, the privilege of my life, to watch them grow up, to shelter them from an absurd world, and to play with them for those luminous hours that go away so fast. Olivier and I have become Lego experts. (1970)

“There might just be a very few real occurrences,” he says, “That Brazilian stuff sounds like rumor amplification, sheer mythology.” “What about the unexplained cases? Thousands of them,” I insisted. “Natural effects we haven't encountered yet. And clever hoaxes.” (1990)

Rocard himself, perhaps the most powerful physicist in France, cultivating the look of a schoolmaster in a nineteenth-century provincial college. He looks short and gray, with a sad little moustache. But he is a brilliant man under this unassuming appearance...

Going to lunch at my favorite Chinese restaurant in Menlo Park on El Camino, I found Ed May there with remote viewer Nevin Lantz, soon to leave for Pennsylvania where he has a 14-acre farm and will open a practice in clinical psychology. (1989)

Hynek is back on campus, too. I met him in the hallway of the computation center. He seemed tired, ill at ease, disoriented. When I showed him how his files had been reorganized into the three shiny new cabinets, he was amazed at the progress made in a short time. (1967)

From the Guide of Mysterious France, under the heading "Jasseron": In Tharlet Wood some spirits called Senegouges used to gather around an oak tree. One day a farmer fired at them with his hunting gun, and he heard a human cry. The Senegouges have seldom been seen since 1815. (1964)

The other day Sarfatti assured me Ira Einhorn had been caught in Ireland and would soon be returned to the United States to face trial. Sarfatti also believes that Charlie Rose has intervened in Ira’s favor and stated he had worked for him.

I am surprised to see Peter Sturrock ready to take the MJ-12 papers seriously. He even wonders about the U.S. government seeking an alliance with Aliens. Peter, like McCampbell, doesn’t see the contradiction in these scenarios.

Bill told us about his work in Brazil as an architect, and about his years at Taliesin with Frank Lloyd Wright. Taliesin was first a Gurdjieff center and only secondarily a school for architects, said Bill. (1988)

Olivier, on a visit from Paris, came with me to the “Object World” show on Friday. Now my son is back with us at the ranch, surveying the boxes he’d left in storage, sorting out his books, records, pots and pans, shirts and pants, and generally having a good time. (1994)

I mentioned Cardan's De Subtilitate, in which he says his magician father once saw seven Sylphs who came dressed in silver garments. Cardan asked them about the nature of the universe.

Columbia Pictures, which is hosting a two-day party at the Beverly Wilshire for the release of the new version of Close Encounters, has invited me to Hollywood. I just saw Allen on TV, more charismatic than ever, solid behind his white goatee. (1980)

Today I had lunch with Matt, a young computer programmer who witnessed two UFOs ten years ago in Honolulu. A curious detail came up in our discussion: two weeks after he spoke to the SRI folks (who sent him to me)...