Newly published: A new book in the form of a unique compendium in which 60 authors from 14 countries focus on the eyewitness as an authoritative source of information on extraordinary observations. Both scientists and experienced UFO researchers have contributed articles to this book, which also addresses current issues and discussions and also takes a look at known UFO incidents. The extensive collection of essays also shows that scientists from various fields have been studying and publishing on the subject for a long time.

A little teaser: there will be a spin-off to this book in a few months, in the form of a preliminary bibliography on the subject, which I am working on together with the editor Vicente Juan Ballester-Olmos and Ulrich Magin. This was originally intended to be part of the book, but due to the growing size of both the book and the bibliography itself, we will be publishing it separately this fall.

The book is available as a free download exclusively on Academia (PDF) (registration required), but can also be purchased as a print version (softcover, A4 format, 711 pages) in both black and white (€60) and color (€69) from the Italian publisher UPIAR.

» Download at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/101922617/The_Reliability_of_UFO_Witness_Testimony

» Purchase at UPIAR Publishing House: http://www.upiar.com/index.cfm?artID=201

Below we quote from the official announcement followed by the table of contents::

ANNOUNCEMENT - NEW BOOK RELEASE (May 2023)
The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony
V.J. Ballester-Olmos & Richard W. Heiden (Eds.)

For 76 years, casual observers around the world have reported sightings of aerial phenomena unexplainable to them. More elaborate personal experiences have been reported by others whose testimony speak of close interactions with fantastic flying machines that land, from which strange beings descend, and even kidnap the onlookers. In the absence of compelling physical evidence of the reality of these narrations, how should science study immaterial observations and test these claims? The very standard of reputable witness reliability is at stake here.

The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony is the first major book to comprehensively focus on the discussion and current views on problems and challenges posed by the reliability of UFO testimonies.

This is a cross-disciplinary compendium of papers by 60 authors from 14 different countries. They are specialists in social, physical, and biological sciences, including psychology (predominantly) as well as psychiatry, sociology, anthropology, history, philosophy, folklore, religion, journalism, engineering, computing, medicine, education, analysts with experience in the critical study of UFO perceivers, and other professionals. This volume shares thematically convergent ideas about the plausibility of alternate explanations for an alleged close-range UFO phenomenon.

The 57 chapters in this book are divided into seven section headings: Case Studies, Psychological Perspectives, On Witness Testimony, Empirical Research, Anthropological Approach, Metrics and Scaling, and Epistemological Issues. There, the subject matter is analyzed from statistical work to clinical assessment, psychometrics, comparative and evaluation inquiry, and other topic perspectives.

Some extracts from the Foreword, written by Dr. Leonard S. Newman, Professor of Psychology at Syracuse University:

The contributors to this book include some very smart people. There are all sorts of issues to which they could be devoting their intellectual energy, and all sorts of scholarly and research contributions they could make. They don’t have to write thoughtful and rigorous chapters for a book called The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony, but this is what they have done. And so, the work continues, as attested to by the papers in this volume. I’m not sure if there exists any collection of papers on any topic that can claim to comprehensively summarize everything that is currently known about it. But this one comes pretty close.

Four outstanding academics have provided praise notes to this volume. They wrote: 

Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Irvine, USA

When ordinary citizens claim to have extraterrestrial encounters, such as seeing UFOs or meeting with alien beings, what should we think? Did the alien abduction really happen or was it a hoax? Is someone deliberately lying? Are they false memories? Readers will be enthralled by the fascinating case histories that are presented in The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony, a volume where sixty experts examine these issues with depth and insight. These cases teach us a great deal about how humans come to believe they have experienced bizarre events that may have never occurred at all.

Steven Jay Lynn, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Binghamton University (SUNY), USA

This captivating book will appeal to anyone interested in UFOs (and who isn’t?), the vagaries of memory, eyewitness perception and misperception, critical analysis of puzzling phenomena, and evaluating scientific vs. pseudoscientific claims. This volume ranks in the elite category of essential reading for students, scientists, and the seriously curious among us, and therefore has my highest recommendation. Bravo!

Henry Otgaar, Ph.D., Professor of Legal Psychology, Maastricht University, the Netherlands, and Leuven Catholic University, Belgium

Claims of UFO sightings and experiences continue to fascinate us. This book has collected a unique and diverse set of case studies and critical articles on how such experiences unfold and what the authenticity of these claims is. The collection of these different articles is truly groundbreaking and is the first-ever complete assemblage concerning the validity of UFO testimony.

Benjamin E. Zeller, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Religion, Lake Forest College, Illinois, USA

In referring to extraterrestrial contact, Carl Sagan said that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. This fine book seeks to contextualize what such evidence entails. Its contributors analyze UFO sightings and cases both famous and obscure, recent and historical, and quite international in scope. They draw from an impressive range of methodological, academic, and scientific perspectives, and consider such topics as the nature of cognition, memory, types of belief and testimony, psychology, and the rationality of belief. Skeptics, believers, and scholars of ufology will all find this book fascinating!

Table of contents:

 So far our information about this recommendable book. A worth knowing reading for every researcher who deals with the UFO phenomenon and the evaluation of testimonies. Don't miss it!