Paranormal Perspectives: Portraits of Alien Encounters Revisited
High Strangeness British UFO Cases
By Nigel Watson
First published by: Sixth Books, 2025
Sixth Books is an Imprint of Collective Ink, Ltd.
Unit 11, Shepperton House, 89 Shepperton Road, London, N1 3D1
www.collectiveInkBooks.com
www.6th-books.com
2025, 289 pages, Paperback, Amazon US $22.95
ISBN-13: 978-1803418766
Review by Brent Raynes
Previous readers of Portraits have already noted how Nigel Watson objectively reports on the UFO situation, covering not only unexplained UFO case histories but known hoaxes and misidentifications of natural phenomena along with things like drones, balloons, regular aircraft, and such. He’s not a dismissive armchair skeptic of such accounts. In fact, he’s done his fair share of grassroots and boots on the ground field work.
He covers the historical UFO matter quite extensively, and while acknowledging how a noteworthy portion of the UFO scene includes psycho-social underpinnings, he acknowledges too that many times we simply don’t know and are unable to satisfactorily arrive at a solid explanation for many reports. Noted British author Jenny Randles of the Northern UFO News points out how Watson “is never one to shirk a challenge and simply thrives upon situations which would make less broad-minded imaginations warp, creek and eventually collapse in utter despair!”
“Whatever theory you support there is no simple and all-embracing answer to the UFO phenomenon,” Watson sagely notes, explaining how his book was originally written back during the time movies like Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind stirred our collective imaginations.
Portraits originally was released in 1990, providing a snapshot of ufology back during that period, mainly from the perspective of one in northern England. He adds: “Now many decades later this is an extensively revised version and some of the chapters have been deleted and replaced with newer and more relevant cases and reports that supplement the older ones.”
Watson writes how for him the 1970s was the “Golden Age of ufology.” I confess that for me as well, in my own journey, there was a strong sense of high excitement along with what J. Allen Hynek called high strange, along with an anticipation that promising new developments and changes were unfolding. In fact, I had become deeply obsessed with ufology.
At the mere age 17, in 1969, I was on the board of directors of Saucer Scoop magazine out of St. Petersburg, Florida, edited by Joan Whritenour. The legendary journalist John Keel, author of The Mothman Prophecies and Operation Trojan Horse, was submitting a series of thought-provoking articles for us. His articles presented a more complex perspective regarding the phenomenon that included overlaps with “paranormal” aspects and reports of cryptids like Bigfoot and Mothman.
It became clear to me as it did for Watson back then, and many others, that Keel was reporting on things that the mainstream UFO community was largely ignoring and that a “new ufology” was potentially looming. Watson began investigating and collecting both “paranormal” and UFO reports as did I. I even began corresponding with Keel in October 1969. Furthermore, I sought Keel’s advice on how to research and investigate these high strange anomalous cases, and I eventually hit the road in the ‘70s, traveling through more than a dozen states checking out all sorts of weird tales, driving from Maine to Florida.
It wasn’t unusual for me to spend about a week or two traveling, while I practically spent much of the summer of 1975 on the road. I was even lucky enough to have the help of noted psychiatrist Dr. Berthold E. Schwarz, who had been long known for his interest in and work within the field of parapsychology, to review and comment on cases I was looking into, and at times even directing me to homes of researchers and experiencers who had interesting things to share. And, alas, how could I have gone wrong since the good doctor had been introduced into the UFO field by none other than John Keel himself.
This book covers a comprehensive overview of many thought-provoking accounts, opinions, insights, and theories, detailing Watson’s long and fascinating journey in ufology and his determined personal efforts to pin down these challenging mysteries, document case after case, and hopefully make some kind of revealing and meaningful sense out of it all.
This book belongs on the bookshelves of newcomers and old-timers alike.
