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    An alternative way to explore and explain the mysteries of our world. "Published since 1985, online since 2001."

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Book Reviews Perceptions Magazine, October 2015




by: Brent Raynes



Astonishing Encounters:
Pennsylvania’s Unknown Creatures
By Stan Gordon

Cover & layout by Michael Coe, Bulldog Design
2015, 144 pages, US 14.95 (Paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-9666108-4-0

Review by Brent Raynes

Since 1965, a serious, dedicated investigator of UFO and so-called Cryptid events, author Stan Gordon has investigated literally hundreds of these inexplicable, anomalous situations. Even birdman type activity around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, back in 1966, before anyone there even knew about the perplexing Mothman reports of West Virginia.

This is a collection of some of the most fascinating creature cases out there. Besides many credible and documented appearing cases of Bigfoot, there are some other truly high-strangeness incidents described in this thought-provoking book, including huge Thunderbirds, a pterodactyl looking creature, water monsters (one in Lake Erie named “Bessie” that resembles Loch Ness’s Nessie), even a fairy, a werewolf, an account of what can only be described as a dragon (complete with sketch), and much, much more.

As the author wrote as he autographed my copy, “Maybe there really are monsters!” Maybe there are.



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Encounters with Flying Humanoids:
Mothman, Manbirds, Gargoyles & Other Winged Beasts
By Ken Gerhard
Foreword by Dr. Karl P.N. Shuker

Llewellyn Worldwide
2143Wooddale Drive
Woodbury, MN 55125-2989
2013, 227 pages, US $14.99/CAN $17.50
ISBN: 978-0-7387-3720-1

Review by Brent Raynes

At age 15, this author had visited the famous Loch Ness in Scotland. He’s personally investigated and researched hundreds of cryptozoological cases. This book focuses on the flying humanoids, like the famous West Virginia Mothman, but as you pour through page after fascinating page, it doesn’t take you long to realize that this is an enormous enigmatic phenomenon of global and historic proportions.

Gerhard has assembled a compelling collection of thought-provoking accounts from eyewitnesses considered sane, sober, and highly credible. From folklore, mythology, and modern eyewitness encounters, the author tackles this highly complex and perplexing mystery with a serious-minded, rational, and objective orientation.



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The Book of Mothman:
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Reality Distortion But Were Afraid to Ask
By John A. Keel
Edited by Andrew B. Colvin

New Saucerian Books
Point Pleasant, West Virginia
2015, 278 pages,
ISBN: 978-1-5076-1738-0

Review by Brent Raynes

Andy Colvin is doing his best to keep the considerable pioneering contributions, insights, and works of the late and most extraordinary journalist/Fortean/UFO author/investigator John Keel fresh and alive in the consciousness of this generation and the next. This book contains a large and thought-provoking collection of some of Keel’s best works on UFOs, Mothman, MIB, the contactee syndrome, animal mutilations, etc. Keel was a rare investigative writer who could penetrate to the core of an enigma and come up with many significant details and insights that had been ignored and neglected by most everyone else.



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GENESIS For the Space Race:
The Inner Earth and the Extra Terrestrials
By John B. Leith (1920-1998)
Via Robyn C. Andrews, owner

Timestream Pictures & Books
4412 Wild Horse Court
Ooltewah, Tennessee 37363
2014, 357 pages, US $17.95, S&H $5.95
ISBN-13: 978-0692449660
www.TimestreamPictures.com

Reviewed by Brent Raynes

Not a regular UFO book, but allegedly an insiders perspective on a wide variety of government secrets, American as well as German, back to Hitler and earlier, with references to Admiral Byrd, the Inner Earth (the late Ray Palmer would be proud), as well as the lost continent of Atlantis, claiming that the original Atlantis began as a Venusian colony some 33,000 years ago, with loads of, allegedly once again, insider government secrets, like how a “Western U.S. military air station” back in July 1977 was visited by a UFO containing green six legged men from a planet NASA calls Eeti.
It seems we’ve been infiltrated, with it seems 18 known aliens living in Tampa Bay area of Florida, and twice that number in Los Angeles (that could be right). Most of the lingering visitors it seems come from Venus, Pluto and Mars. One alien known as Mr. Estes Plateu, a friendly Venusian, coordinates the alien presence on earth. He was born in 1228, just a few days after the Magna Carta was signed.
The back cover of the book has this statement from Donald M. Ware, a well-known ufologist who is also described as a retired Lt. Col. of the U.S. Air Force: “This CIA-assisted book is closer to official disclosure than the general public will see before the return of Christ.”
In this field, one has to weigh and consider carefully and objectively all available evidence. This book seems filled with inflated evidential and historical claims that require very critical, cautious scrutiny.


Tuesday, March 19, 2024