(b: 1939 – )
French computer scientist and UFO researcher.
Masters in astrophysics, Ph.D. in computer science. Served as Manager of Information Systems at Stanford University.
The French scientist in the movie Close Encounters is based on him.
His books on UFOs include: Anatomy of a Phenomenon (1965), Challenge to Science (1966), Passport to Magonia (1969), Messengers of Deception (1979), Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact (1988);. Confrontations: A Scientist’s Search for Alien Contact (1990), Revelations: Alien Contact and Human Deception (1991).
Vallée feels that the UFO and alien phenomena are not mis-perception but are in fact a crisis of epistemology wearing a mystical mask. He writes:
I believe there is a very real UFO problem. I have also come to believe that it is being manipulated for political ends. And the data suggest that the manipulators may be human beings with a plan for social control. Such plans have been made before, and have succeeded. History shows that having a cosmic mythology as part of such a plan is not always necessary. But it certainly helps.”
– Messengers of Deception, 157
Thinking Allowed – Implications of UFO Phenomena
“What the UFO phenomenon is teaching us is that we don’t understand time and space.”