Dr. Massimo Teodorani is a
northern Italian astrophysicist, and obtained his “Laurea” degree in Astronomy and his Ph.D. in
Stellar Physics at the University of Bologna.
As a researcher at the
Astronomical Observatories of Bologna and Naples, and later at the INAF
Radiotelescope of Medicina he has been involved in research on many types of
explosive stellar phenomena – such as supernovae, novae, eruptive protostars
and high-mass close binary stars – and, more recently, in the search for
extrasolar planets and extraterrestrial intelligence within the SETI Project.
Dr Teodorani subsequently
taught physics as a lecturer at the Universities of Bologna, Rome and Torino.
Among his varied research
interests there is an active involvement in the study of anomalous aerial
phenomena.
He is also an expert in
military aeronautics.
In addition to many technical
papers in all of the above mentioned subjects, he is the author of 18 bestselling
books , which have been translated into multiple languages.
Dr Teodorani has published
several informative articles on quantum physics, atomic, and nuclear physics,
astronomy, astrophysics, bioastronomy, physics of anomalous atmospheric
phenomena and aerospace subjects.
Fully fluent in both Italian
and English he has had many interviews in various media about his researches,
and he is a highly acclaimed public speaker.
Dr Teodorani is a composer of
electronic music under the pseudonym “Totemtag”.
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During the
last 30 years I have been collecting many books dealing with the controversial
issue of UFOs. Out of about a thousand of them only 19 (or so) remained
memorable. All the others… well they conveyed information like music (and very
often cacophony) that entered inside one ear and went out from the other. Apart
from those 19 exceptions, I found all the other books boring, simply
collections of stories (which doesn’t mean facts), unscientific or
pseudoscientific, dogmatic, disinformative, hoaxed, confused and even cult-like
or skeptical in a counter-dogmatic way. As a physical scientist I have tried to
search for (in this kind of literature) some signs of scientific methodology
and/or of deep reasoning, critical thinking or reflections. I found only very
faint signals of that, so far. Much to my pleasure my very strict selection of
UFO books rose from 19 to 20, after seeing a flat diagram during the last 15
years.
I must say
that “UFOs: Reframing the
Debate”
was able to awaken my interest again in a phenomenology that deserves an
in-depth interdisciplinary study. Due to my profession I am mostly interested
in an approach to the phenomenon where it is possible to acquire true physical
data coming from measurement instruments, which is partially achievable at
geographic hotspots where the phenomenon is most recurrent.
In a
parallel way I have also been reflecting a lot on the typical high strangeness
that characterizes the UFO phenomenon and that lets some of us think that a
probable “consciousness-driven factor” almost always comes out when true
witness cases are professionally analyzed in detail, and far from any possible
belief system. The book, written by 14 different authors, which shows very
interesting heterogeneous alternative approaches (some of which are totally new
to me) is able to focus much the attention on this. In particular it is able to
examine in depth the complexity of the phenomenon, out of any classic ETH or
nihilistic preconceived dogmatism, and, above all, it is able to stimulate the
correct interrogatives in the intent and attempt to approach, at least
asymptotically, a still totally enigmatic territory instead of a very comfortable
and anthropomorphic map of the phenomenon.
Therefore to
me this book shows to be a strong intellectual stimulation, which is useful to
everyone who really wants to try to understand this subject beyond wishful
thinking, ranging from the physical and biological scientist to the
psychologist or sociologist, or even philosopher.
In fact this
phenomenon deserves a scholarly and even academic approach. The door to new
possible true discoveries can be opened only if the correct questions are asked
(even with courage and disenchantment) and only if the problem is first
understood in its complexity and completeness before trying to solve it. The
book succeeds very well in this.
In the book,
several interpretations of the UFO phenomenon are exposed and critically
discussed and, although being often different from each other, they are tied by
a common thread, which aims against the classic “nuts and bolt”-like ETH
hypothesis, although not denying it a-priori, but rather denying it as a
consolidated belief system and only too often as a cult too.
I must say
that has been very able
to collect together excellent and thought provoking essays, which are also
harmonized together even if in their diversity. Several essays, and the depth
with which they are written, remind me a lot the famous Vallee’s “Magonia
interpretation”.
Then I am
particularly intrigued to see by very skilled scholars inside this anthology
how the UFO phenomenon’s true behavior resembles more a “paranormal” and/or
consciousness manifestation than a simple and plain aerial anomalous phenomenon
or nonsensical abduction event.
I personally
have studied witness cases only statistically in order to see if some pattern
was coming out from them, but after reading this book in detail I realize that
much, if not all of it, of the phenomenon is focused on the intrinsic nature of
the witness itself, whose psychology manifests at times transient anomalies
where it seems that the experiencer collaborates in the creation of a
phenomenon that is only apparently all out of him. This makes me think of
something very big that is related to human consciousness and (maybe) its
possible interaction with an “external intelligence” or, like Jacques Vallee
likes to call it, a “control system” that might like to stimulate human
consciousness due to reasons that we don’t know yet.
It is just
this phenomenology that shows maybe something of ourselves that we didn’t know
we had. This is of great interest to neurosciences too, not only to psychology
and sociology, but also to neurophisiology in cases in which some particular
electromagnetic field is able to induce hallucinatory states in the human
brain.
I really
love the “skeptical” essays inside this book too: this, not being driven
at all by an uncritical dogmatism, is extremely helpful as an irreplaceable
guide for those who approach the UFO issue for the first time. In fact it is
fundamental to know before all the characteristics of the “noise” (including
many hoaxes and fakes that have been perpetrated during at least 70 years, and
misinterpretations of IFOs) before expecting to concentrate the attention on
the true “signal”. A fuzzy signal anyway, which reminds me a lot the
probability function of a quantum event before the wave function collapses
after the observation process occurs.
All 14
essays, although being different from each other, are gently aimed against, not
just the ETH theory per se (which is not excluded at all), any belief system
(or even religion or cult) that has been arbitrarily built around the UFO
phenomenon in all of its aspects.
Such essays
open new intellectual doors to an alternative methodology of studying the
phenomenon’s complexity, which necessarily involves a true scientific
investigation of all that which is measurable coupled with a more
interdisciplinary approach where the witness seems to be the center of gravity
of such high-strangeness events.
This –
countered to any “spiritual” approach – is aimed at studying human
consciousness, and maybe at verifying how and if human consciousness (maybe
coupled with a superior one of which we are not normally aware) is able to
interact with the material world. The book has raised very crucial questions,
which if they will be answered in some not too far future, might really
radically expand the knowledge of the world and of what we call “reality”, and
most of all, of ourselves.
Every
chapter is well written and harmonized with all the rest. The book is very well
structured inside a coherent framework even within diversities. The provided
documentation is rich, pertinent and well chosen.
I recommend
this book to people of whatever competence and profession, but most of all to
serious scholars and students who are sufficiently mature not to believe any more
in the tales of an alien Santa Claus and at the same time are critical thinkers
with healthy open minds.
Article reproduced with authorization of the author.
