Books

The 150+ Essential Books for Exo Studies

In preparation for teaching the second master course on exo studies (September 2020 to June 2021) I spent several months going through my extensive personal library of 6000+ books and identifying the core 40 topics (plus introduction and wrap up sections) I believe are essential for developing a comprehensive approach to UFOs (see weekly topics listed below).

Once I settled on this structure, I began identifying the best three to four contemporary books published in this area as well as a secondary list of background books. This resulted in a list of the top 650 books for exo studies in general with over 150 volumes (165 to be exact) being selected as the discussion drivers for the online master course (the rest serve as context or background reading).

The 150+ books listed below represent the crème de la crème of the UFO+ literature – the best books on planet earth for supporting us in developing a metaview of living in a multidimensional multiverse! These books contain some of the best scientific, academic, philosophical, and experiential thinking and writing on these bizarre mind-bending and heart-pounding topics. Furthermore, they directly address aspects of the UFO phenomena in thoughtful provocative ways and they provide us with the tools, frameworks, maps, and distinctions to better understand this enigmatic and ambiguous domain.

Together these books help establish the new epistemological-methodological-ontological horizons needed to make sense of the UFO/UAP phenomena in all of its paranormal and physical manifestations. Obviously, there is no expectation that one reads all or most of these or does so in any particular order – so go where your interest lies and see where it takes you.

For crazy people like me, you can download the full list of 650 books (all 38 pages!) here: The 650 Essential Books for Exo Studies

Introduction

1. Our Galactic Context & Exo Studies

• Richard Dolan UFOs for the 21st Century Mind: A Fresh Guide to an Ancient Mystery (2014)
• Robbie Graham UFOs: Reframing the Debate (2017)
• Jim Al-Khalili Aliens: The World’s Leading Scientists on the Search for Extraterrestrial Life (2016)

Part 1: Multidimensional Realities and Self-Transformation

2. The Paranormal: Doubleness and Ontological Indeterminacy

• Whitley Strieber and Jeffery Kripal The Super Natural: A New Vision of the Unexplained (2016)
• George Hansen The Trickster and the Paranormal (2001)
• Paul Eno Dancing Past the Graveyard: Poltergeists, Parasites, Parallel Worlds, and God (2019)

3. Consciousness: Psychic Realities, Siddhis & Remote Viewing

• Dean Radin Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in Quantum Reality (2006) & Supernormal: Science, Yoga, and the Evidence for Extraordinary Psychic Abilities (2013)
• Courtney Brown Remote Viewing: The Science and Theory of Nonphysical Perception (Rev. Ed. 2006)
• Eric Wargo Time Loops: Precognition, Retrocausation, and the Unconscious (2018)
• Kurt Leland The Multidimensional Human: Practices for Psychic Development and Astral Projection (2nd Ed. 2020)

4. Mind – Meaning – Matter: Synchronicity & Enactment

• Mike Clelland The Messengers: Owls, Synchronicity and the UFO (2015)
• Karen Barad Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning (2007)
• Alex Wendt Quantum Mind and Social Science: Unifying Physical and Social Ontology (2015)
• Carl Jung Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle (1960)

5. Contact Modalities: Subtle Bodies & Astral Travel

• Rick Strassman and Slawek Wojtowicz Inner Paths to Outerspace: Journeys to Alien Worlds through Psychedelics and Other Spiritual Technologies (2008)
• Kurt Leland Otherwhere: A Field Guide for Astral Travelers (2nd Ed. 2018)
• Barbara Hand Clow with Gerry Clow Alchemy of Nine Dimensions (2nd Ed. 2010)

6. Encounters with NHIs: Contactees, Abductees, & Experiencers

• John Mack Passport to the Cosmos: Human Transformation and Alien Encounters (2000)
• Reinerio Hernandez and Rudy Schild Beyond UFOs: The Science of Consciousness and Contact with Non Human Intelligence (2018)
• Ardy Sixkiller Clarke Space Age Indians: Their Encounters with the Blue Men, Reptilians, and other Star People (2019)
• Ryan Sprague Somewhere in the Skies: A Human Approach to an Alien Phenomenon (2016)

7. Galactic Ambassadors: Interplanetary Souls, Wanderers, & Hybrids

• Miguel Mendonca and Barbara Lamb Meet the Hybrids: The Lives and Missions of ET Ambassadors on Earth (2015)
• Linda Backman Souls on Earth: Exploring Interplanetary Past Lives (2018)
• Mary Rodwell The New Human: Awakening to our Cosmic Heritage (2016)
• Denise Le Fay A Lightworker’s Mission: The Journey Through Polarity Resolution (2010)

8. Exolinguistics: Light Languages & Alien Scripts

• Diana Slattery Xenolinguistics: Psychedelics, Language, and the Evolution of Consciousness(2015) & The Maze Game (2003)
• Jamye Price Opening to Light Language: Humanities Evolution into Multidimensional Communication (2015)
• Nancy du Tertre How To Talk To An Alien: Can They Speak Our Languages? Can They Read Our Minds? What Are They Trying to Tell Us? (2016)

9. The Imaginal Realm: The Objective Status of the Subtle Realms

• Gary Lachman Lost Knowledge of the Imagination (2018)
• Patrick Harpur Daimonic Reality (1994) & The Philosophers Secret Fire (2002)
• Tom Cheetham All the World an Icon: Henry Corbin and the Angelic Function of Beings (2012)
• Henri Bortoft Taking Appearance Serious: The Dynamic Way of Seeing in Goethe and European Thought (2012)

10. Exophilosophy: New Realisms + New Materialisms = Many Worlds & Metaobjects

• Graham Harman Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philosophy (2012) & Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything (2018)
• Catherine Keller & Mary-Jane Rubenstein (Eds.) Entangled Worlds: Religion, Science, and New Materialisms (2017)
• Martin Holbraad and Morten Axel Pedersen The Ontological Turn: An Anthropological Exposition(2017)

11. Posthumanism and Panpsychism: Sentience in the Anthropocene

• Donna J. Haraway Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene (2016)
• Richard Grusin (Ed.) The Nonhuman Turn (2015)
• Rosi Braidotti Posthuman Knowledge (2019)
• Arne Johan Vetlesen Cosmologies of the Anthropocene: Panpsychism, Animism, and the Limits of Posthumanism (2020)

12. Exopsychology: Anomalist Experience, Cognitive Biases, & Philosophy of Mind

• Steven Lynn & Stanley Kripper (Eds.) Varieties of Anomalous Experience (2nd Ed. 2013)
• Christopher French & Anna Stone Anomalistic Psychology: Exploring Paranormal Belief & Experience (2013)
• Theodore Schick, Jr. and Lewis Vaughn How to Think about Weird Things (7th Ed. 2014)

13. Dark Psychology: MK Ultra & MILABs

• Jasun Horsley Prisoner of Infinity: UFOs, Social Engineering, and the Psychology of Fragmentation (2018)
• Niara Terela Isley Facing the Shadow, Embracing the Light: A Journey of Spirit Retrieval and Awakening (2013)
• Helmut Lammer and Marion Lammer MILABS: Military Mind Control and Alien Abductions (2000)

14. Skeptical Minds & Conspiratorial Psychology

• Joseph Uscinski Conspiracy Theories and the People who Believe Them (2018) & Conspiracy Theories: A Primer (2020)
• Lance deHaven-Smith Conspiracy Theory in America (2013)
• Michael Shermer Skeptic: Viewing the World with a Rational Eye (2016)
• Steven Novella The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe: How to Know What’s Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake (2018)

Part 2: The Social Taboo of The Alien Alterity

15. Social Denial, Media Derision & Government Disinformation

• Terry Hansen The Missing Times: News Media Complicity in the UFO Cover-Up (2000)
• Simeon Hein Black Swan Ghosts: A Sociologist Encounters Witnesses to Unexplained Aerial Craft, Their Occupants, and Other Elements of the Multiverse (2017)
• Nick Schou Spooked: How the CIA Manipulates the Media and Hoodwinks Hollywood (2016)

16. Art, Literature, Film & Music that is Out of this World

• Christopher White Other Worlds: Spirituality and the Search for Invisible Dimensions (2018)
• Adam Allsuch Boardman An Illustrated History of UFOs (2020)
• ART: Farah Yurdozu Love in an Alien Purgatory: The Life and Fantastic Art of David Huggins (2009)
• LITERATURE: Erik Davis High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies (2019)
• MUSIC: Michael Luckman Alien Rock: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Extraterrestrial Connection (2005)
• MOVIES: Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers: Sorting Fact From Fantasy in Hollywood’s UFO Movies (2015)
• COMICS: Jeffry Kripal Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal (2015)

17. Saucer People on the Cultural Fringe

• MJ Banias The UFO People: A Curious Culture (2019)
• Sarah Scoles They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers (2020)
• Brenda Denzler The Lure of the Edge: Scientific Passions, Religious Beliefs, and the Pursuit of UFOs (2001)

18. ET Religions & UFO Cults

• W. Pasulka American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology (2019)
• Christopher Partridge (Ed.) UFO Religions (2003)
• Jacques Vallee Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults (1979)

19. Exotheology and the World Religions Post Contact

• Ted Peters and Martinez Hewlett Astrotheology: Science and Theology Meet Extraterrestrial Life (2018)
• Ted Peters UFOs: God’s Chariots? (2nd Ed. 2014)
• David Weintraub Religions and Extraterrestrials: How Will We Deal With it? (2014)

20. The National Security State, Government Secrecy, & Disclosure

• Richard Dolan UFOs and the National Security State (Vol 1-2) Chronology of a Cover Up, 1941 – 1973 (2002) & The Cover-Up Exposed, 1973 – 1991 (2013)
• Dana Priest and William Arkin Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State (2011)
• Steven Greer Disclosure: Military and Government Witnesses Reveal the Greatest Secrets in Modern History (2001)
• John Greenewald Jr. Inside the Black Vault: The Government’s UFO Secrets Revealed (2019)

21. Exopolitics, Black Budgets, & Political Action in Uncertain Times

• Larry Holcombe The Presidents and UFOs: A Secret History from FDR to Obama (2016)
• Michael Salla Exposing US Government Policies on Extraterrestrial Life: The Challenge of Exopolitics (2009)

Also check out the exopolitical work of Daniel Sheehan and Stephen Bassett:

• Daniel Sheehan’s New Paradigm Institute (https://newparadigminstitute.org)
• Stephen Bassett’s Paradigm Research Group (https://paradigmresearchgroup.org)

And the financial analysis work of Catherine Austin Fitts:

• The Missing Money (https://missingmoney.solari.com)

• Solari Report(https://home.solari.com)

22. Secret Space Programs & Breakaway Civilizations

• David Wilcock The Ascension Mysteries: Revealing the Cosmic Battle Between Good and Evil (2017)
• Richard Dolan The Secret Space Program and Breakaway Civilization (2016)
• Michael Salla Antarctica’s Hidden History: Corporate Foundations of Secret Space Programs(2018)
• William Tompkins Selected by Extraterrestrials: My life in the Top Secret World of UFOs, Think-tanks and Nordic Secretaries (2015)

23. Exosociology: Humans Living Off-Planet & ET Civilizations

• Sheldan Nidle Your Galactic Neighbors (2005)
• Michael Salla Galactic Diplomacy Getting to Yes with ET (2013)
• Douglas Vakoch & Albert Harrison (Eds.) Civilizations Beyond Earth: Extraterrestrial Life and Society (2011)
• Douglas Vakoch Extraterrestrial Altruism: Evolution and Ethics in the Cosmos (2014)

24. Xenophopia: Encountering the Incomprehensible Other

• Michael Michaud Contact with Alien Civilizations: Our Hopes and Fears about Encountering Extraterrestrials (2007)
• Anthony Duncan To Think without Fear: The Challenge of the Exta-Terrestrial (2015)
• Bernhard Waldenfels Phenomenology of the Alien: Basic Concepts (2011)
• Paris Tosen Hollywood Aliens (2015)

25. The New World Order: UFOs & the Occult

• David Icke Children of the Matrix: How an Interdimensional Race has Controlled the World for Thousands of Years-and Still Does (2001)
• Jim Marrs The Illuminati (2017)
• Robert Sepehr Occult Secrets of Vril: Goddess Energy and the Human Potential (2015)

26. Ancient Aliens & Galactic History

• Lyssa Royal The Prism of Lyra: An Exploration of Human Galactic Heritage (Rev. Edition 2011)
• Carla Rueckert Living The Law of One (2009)
• Philip Coppens The Ancient Alien Question: A New Inquiry into the Existence, Evidence, and Influence of Ancient Visitors (2011)
• Michael Cremo Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race (1998)

27. Indigenous Cosmologies: Star Beings & Animism

• Nancy Red Star Legends of the Star Ancestors (2002) Star Ancestors (2000)
• Philippe Descola Beyond Nature and Culture (2013)
• Graham Harvey The Handbook of Contemporary Animism (2014)
• Eduardo Viveiros de Castro The Relative Native: Essays on Indigenous Conceptual Worlds (2016) and Cannibal Metaphysics (2017)

28. UFOs and Aliens in Folklore & History: Fairies and Jinn and Angels Oh my!

• Chris Aubeck & Martinn Shough Return to Magonia (2015)
• Joshua Cutchin Thieves in the Night (2018) & A Trojan Feast: The Food and Drink Offerings of Aliens, Faeries, and Sasquatch (2015) & Brimstone Deceit: An In-Depth Examination of Supernatural Scents, Otherworldly Odors, and Monstrous Miasmas (2016)
• Jack Hunter (Ed.) Damned Facts: Fortean Essays on Religion, Folklore and the Paranormal (2016)
• Paul Reeve and Michael Scott van Wagenen (Eds.) Between Pulpit and Pew: The Supernatural World in Mormon History and Folklore (2011)

29. Psychosocial Hypothesis: Collective Archetypes and the Feminine

• David Clarke How UFOs Conquered the World: The History of a Modern Myth (2015)
• Thomas Bullard The Myth and Mystery of UFOs (2010)
• Gary Bobroff Crop Circles, Jung, and the Reemergence of the Archetypal Feminine (2014)

Part 3: Evidence and Postdisciplinary Methods for Investigating the Extraordinary

30. 4000+ Exoplanets and Living on Mars

• Michael Summers and James Trefil Exoplanets: Diamond Worlds, Super Earths, Pulsar Planets, and The New Search for Life Beyond our Solar System (2018)
• Dirk Schulze-Makuch and William Bains The Cosmic Zoo: Complex Life on Many Worlds (2017)
• Robert Zubrin The Case for Space: How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens up a Future of Limitless Possibility (2019)

31. Exobiology: The Flora and Fauna of Other Worlds

• James Trefil & Michael Summers Imagined Life: A Speculative Scientific Journey Among the Exoplanets in Search of Intelligent Aliens, Ice Creatures, and Supergravity Animals (2019)
• Robert Lanza and Bob Berman Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe (2009) & Beyond Biocentrism: Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of Death (2016)
• Johnjoe McFadden & Jim Al-Khalili Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology (2015)
• Charles Cockell The Equations of Life: How Physics Shapes Evolution (2018)

32. Exophysics: Parallel worlds, Multiverses, & Time Travel

• Michio Kaku Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos (2006) and Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel (2008)
• Brian Greene The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos (2011)
• Vernon M. Neppe and Edward Close Reality Begins with Consciousness: A Paradigm Shift that Works (5th Ed. 2014)
• Claude Swanson The Synchronized Universe (3 vols.) (2003-2018)

33. SETI, CETI, METI & Fermi’s Paradox

• Stephen Webb If the Universe is Teeming with Aliens… Where is Everybody? Seventy-Five Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life (2nd Ed. 2015)
• Keith Cooper Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (2019)
• Daniel Oberhaus Extraterrestrial Languages (2019)
• Sarah Scoles Making Contact: Jill Tarter and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (2017)

34. Antigravity & Reverse Engineering Alien Technology

• Paul A Laviolette Secrets of Antigravity Propulsion (2008)
• Nick Cook The Hunt for Zero Gravity: Inside the Classified World of Antigravity Technology (2002)
• Bob Lazar Dreamland: An Autobiography (2019)
• Paul Hill Unconventional Flying Objects: A Scientific Analysis (Rev. Ed. 2014)

35. Nuts & Bolts: The Physical Evidence for UFO & USO Sightings

• Leslie Kean’s UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record (2011)
• Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle Russia’s USO Secrets: Unidentified Submersible Objects in Russian and International Waters (2016)
• Peter Sturrock The UFO Enigma: A New Review of the Physical Evidence (2000)
• Stanton Friedman Flying Saucers and Science: A Scientist Investigates the Mysteries of UFOs: Interstellar Travel, Crashes, and Government Cover-Ups (2008)

36. Famous UFO Crashes: The Retrieval of Technology, Bodies, & Metamaterials

• Thomas J. Carey & Donald Schmitt UFO Secrets Inside Wright-Patterson: Eyewitness Accounts. From the Real Area 51 (2019)
• Michael Schratt Retrievals of the Third Kind: Cosmic Crashed, Corpses and Cover-ups (2013)
• Grant Cameron & T. Scott Crain UFOs, Area 51, and Government Informants: A Report on Government Involvement in UFO Crash Retrievals (2nd Ed. 2013)

37. Skinwalker Ranch: Portals, Window Areas, & the Limits of Science

• Colm Kelleher and George Knapp Hunt for the Skinwalker: Science Confronts the Unexplained at a Remote Ranch in Utah (2005)
• Erick Rhetts Lost on Skinwalker Ranch: The True Story of a Property Guard and his Encounter with the Paranormal (2014) & Skinwalker Ranch: In the Shadow of the Ridge (2015)
• Frank Salisbury The Utah UFO Display: A Scientist Brings Reason and Logic to Over 400 UFO Sightings in Utah’s Uintah Basin (Rev. Ed. 2010)
• Adrian Lee Ghosts and UFOs: Connecting Paranormal phenomena through quantum physics(2019)

38. Fatal Encounters: Animal Mutilations, 411 Missing, and Bizarre Deaths

• Christopher O’Brien Stalking the Heard: Unraveling the Cattle Mutilation Mystery (2014)
• David Paulides Missing 411 Series (2011 – Present)
• Nick Redfern Close Encounters of the Fatal Kind: Suspicious Deaths, Mysterious Murders, and Bizarre Disappearances in UFO History (2014)

39. Bigfoot, Cryptids & Giants: Their Hairy Relationship to UFOs

• Stan Gordon Silent Invasion: The Pennsylvania UFO-Bigfoot Casebook (2010)
• Kewaunee Lapseritis The Psychic Sasquatch and their UFO Connection (2005) and The Sasquatch People and their Interdimensional Connection (2011)
• Linda Godfrey Monsters Among Us: An Exploration of Otherworldly Bigfoots, Wolfmen, Portals, Phantoms, and Odd Phenomena (2016)
• Richard Dewhurst The Ancient Giants Who Ruled America: The Missing Skeletons and the Great Smithsonian Cover-Up (2013)

40. Earth Energies, Intelligent Balls of Light, & the Cosmic Geometry of Crop Circles

• Maarshall Lefferts Cosmometry: Exploring the HoloFractal Nature of the Cosmos (2019)
• Freddy Silva Secrets in the Fields: The Science and Mysticism of Crop Circles (2002)
• Paul Devereux Earth Lights: Towards an Understanding of the UFO Enigma (1982) & Earthlights Revelation: UFOs and Mystery Lightform Phenomena: The Earth’s Secret Energy Force (1989)
• Wade Edward Speer The Brown Mountain Lights: History, Science and Human Nature Explain an Appalachian Mystery (2017)

41. Artificial Intelligence, Transhumanism, & Living UFOs

• Nick Bostrom Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2016)
• Max Tegmark Life 3.0 (2017)
• David Spangler Techno-Elementals (2nd Ed. 2018)
• Rizwan Virk The Simulation Hypothesis: An MIT Computer Scientist Shows Why AI, Quantum Physics and Eastern Mystics all Agree we are in a Video Game (2019)

Wrap up: Final Reflections and Unanswered Questions 

42. A Metaview of Exo Studies: Living in a Post-Disclosure World as Galactic Citizens on Multiple Planets

• Richard M. Dolan and Bryce Zabel D. After Disclosure: When the Government Finally Reveals the Truth About Alien Contact (2012)
• Michio Kaku – The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Intersteller Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth (2018)
• Whitley Strieber The New World (2019)
• Jeffery Kripal The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge (2019)