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Genuine Question: Why Is John Keel So Revered?

Good discussion. It interests me:
1. That Keel and Vallee, although working in a totally different way when approaching the UFO problem, ended up considering very similar possibilities -- other dimensional beings, the ETH as a type of disinformation, anti-physical phenomena.
2. That many aspects of the phenomenon emphasized by Keel in the late 60s were already evident when Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer published The Coming of the Saucers 15 years previously.
3. That Keel expressly repeats that he is not involved in creating a belief system or theory about UFOs. I often find myself quoting his excellent maxim "Belief is the enemy." Likewise, Vallee's approach is to focus on different theories and approaches in each of his books.
It's a pity that the ETH has now come to totally dominate American ufology. There is no doubt that the disinformation campaigns that we know about are all focussed on the idea of "aliens" and alleged disclosures, and that other possibilities, e.g. UFOs as a good cover story for black projects, are being downplayed.
 
So the ETH is what They want you to believe!! Ooh that sounds like conspiracy swallowing its own tail. Interesting points.
 
Some of the more interesting things I find in Vallee's work are his acceptance, back in the 60s, of the reality of the visitors (that can be found in the excellent Forbidden Science), and his open mindedness about what they might be. He never, to my knowledge at least, ruled out the idea that "they" might be from some other planet. He just does not buy the idea that such a thing is possible only if "they" have figured out how to get in metal craft and pilot them across the "unimaginable distances" so often invoked, only to perform trivial or even absurd tasks. He's way too smart for those mental traps. That is what I admire most about Vallee. I realize this thread is about Keel. I admire him too, but for different reasons.
 
I have not subjected either Keel or Vallee as authors to much scrutiny, though I have enjoyed their works - when I'm in the mood for them.

Impressionistically - and without revisiting them - it seems to me that Vallee was attempting to bring the UFO phenomena into focus, as part of an on-going dialogue we have had with the supernatural, throughout the ages. His works contain many startling accounts of supposedly-impossible things but always within their constraints as quotations.

Keel is a much more excited, present-tense writer, much less concerned with categories. He thrusts us into odd situations and challenges us to explain things he cannot. It is hard to condemn the man as a charlatan, when there is no masquerade. He seems on much more dangerous ground. Reading his works will remind some readers of times when their own minds seemed about to explode with amazing revelations that would connect everything. Only they didn't and we couldn't get even so far in writing them . . . :atom:
 
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