Grassroots UFOs
Case Reports from the Center for UFO Studies

by Michael D. Swords

Trade Paperback, 270 Pages, 100 Illustrations

$17.95, ISBN: 193366553X

Genre(s): UFOs

Over a period of a dozen years, John Timmerman ran a traveling UFO exhibit for the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) that appeared in malls from Seattle to Dallas to Nova Scotia, and from Guam to Puerto Rico. In the process he spoke to hundreds of people from around the world who came in off the street and described their own UFO sightings and experiences. Timmerman ended up with nearly 1,200 taped interviews, firsthand testimony with the lingering taste of truth. 

Their stories present the UFO phenomenon in all its raw glory, describing lights, disks, cigars, boomerangs, and objects where the structure was… well… indescribable; close encounters of all kinds, landing traces, physiological effects, vehicle interference, entities, radar cases, jet scrambles, crashed disks, morphing objects; and cases of such concentrated weirdness they’ll just make you shake your head, leaving you puzzled and uncomfortable — if not totally floored. A mighty strange universe is providing this entertainment. 

JOHN TIMMERMAN graduated from Cornell University in Sociology and had a long and successful career in business. He was intrigued almost immediately by the UFO phenomenon when sightings began, and in the 1950s he was one of the volunteers for Project A at Ohio Northern University in a long-forgotten chapter in UFO history. In 1978, after attending a lecture by astronomer J. Allen Hynek, he volunteered with CUFOS, taking on a variety of responsibilities, ranging from case investigation to Treasurer. He was editor of the CUFOS Associate Newsletter and developed and manned the CUFOS display, allowing him to record the many reports detailed in this book.

About the Author:

MICHAEL D. SWORDS graduated from the University of Notre Dame in Chemistry, Iowa State University in Biochemistry, and Case Western Reserve in the History of Science and Technology. He was a professor of Natural Science at Western Michigan University for 30 years and spent 20 years of scholarship and service with CUFOS, including editing the peer-reviewed Journal of UFO Studies. He now writes a blog called The Big Study. 

CONTENTS

Preface by John P. Timmerman

 1: Introduction to the material (what it is and what it is not)

 2: The Timmerman file cases as-a-whole

 3: The temporal pattern of the cases

 4: Lights with unusual motions (10 mini-case histories)

 5: Balls-of-light, up close (10)

 6: Even more unusual lights (17)

 7: Cases where the structure wasn’t describable (10)

 8: Good ol’ disks (11).

 9: Cigars, and variations on the disk theme (10)

 10: Disk cases with a difference (11)

 11: Triangles and boomerangs (13)

 12: Odd shapes (14)

 13: Close Encounters (16)

 14: Close Encounters with different shapes (10)

 15: A few stories with disks up close (7)

 16: UFOs which leave their mark & marks with no UFO (15) (17)

 17: Close Encounters involving physiological effects (10)

 18: Close Encounters involving vehicle interference (9)

 19: Close Encounters and a mixed bag of effects (15)

 20: Old-fashioned CE IIIs (10)

 21: New-fashioned CE IVs (abductions) (6)

 22: Entities in the vicinity of a UFO, maybe (7)

 23: Entities in search of a UFO (13)

 24: Something in search of a UFO (8)

 25: Radar cases (15)

 26: Send in the clowns, er, planes (12)

 27: Just leave it to us. We’re the government. (13)

 28: Crashed disks (12)

 29: Pre–1947 reports (29)

 30: Echoes of the Classics (19)

 31: Langenberg, Saskatchewan: the Edwin Fuhr interview

 32: Pint–sized UFOs (12)

 33: Really weird light (12)

 34: Now you see me (18)

 35: Magick-in-Space (7)

 36: Magick shape (7)

 37: Magickal miscellany (10)

 38: Entities from the edge (10)

 39: Something in the air (9)

 40: Consciousness in Wonderland (9)

 41: Grounded in unreality (10)

 42: Love it or leave it (10)

 43: Anticlimax (13)

 44: Sighting locations (alphabetic listing of cities, towns, and locations)

 45: Photo exhibit locations (locations the exhibit was displayed)

 46: Bibliography (recommended reading and contact information)

What they're saying:

"To anyone who seriously would like to get an in-depth concept of the incredible range of phenomena reportedly associated with UFOs, this extraordinary book is a must...Immerse yourself in the most diverse, refreshing, and just plain wonderful UFO book to come along in decades... The book simply demands I recommend it." — Ray D. Stanford

"This is raw, unmediated ufology, and what strikes me is how unlike the sanitized product this often is...What Timmerman has assembled is not some set of scientific or quasiscientific documents, and it would be a fools errand for someone to try and treat them as such, but a great, and very important, collection of late 20th century North American folklore...Much of what is reported here would in past times be interpreted in terms of religious experience, folk spiritualism, fairy lore or witchcraft. Only a minority really have a technological feel to them; many more are haunting stories which tell of the mysterious otherness of wild nature." — Peter Rogerson, Magonia

"Let us make clear that these sorts of narratives are not 'folklore.' mere rumors, legends, fables...These are individuals' direct experiences of what appear to be otherworldly forces. Usually assuming they happened more or less as told, they are beyond ordinary understanding...Grassroots UFOs is one of a kind, unlike any other UFO book you're going to find out there. It's definitely worth your time and attention. However you interpret its contents., it makes for thrilling reading and generates renewed wonder at exactly what's out there and, yet more unsettlingly, what it's doing to us." — Jerome Clark, Fate

"...one of the best presentments of the UFO phenomenon in print, and maybe one of the best offerings in media that is available about the enigma...This is a complete capsule of every kind of UFO report extant. But the problem is this: once you peruse the listings Professor Swords has gathered for this little tome, you come away astounded by the exquisite variety of UFO accounts formally reported, and on the record. The content tells us that the UFO phenomenon is something truly extraordinary and unique in its varieties of expressions, something so weird and unique that it needs the full attention of someone or some group that has been, up to now, rather slipshod with research or sensible theorizing." —  Rich Reynolds, UFO Conjectures