“UFOs are a myth, says David J. Halperin–but myths are real. The power and fascination of the UFO has nothing to do with space travel or life on other planets. It’s about us, our longings and terrors, especially the greatest terror of all: the end of our existence. This is a book about UFOs that goes beyond believing in them or debunking them to a fresh understanding of what they tell us about ourselves as individuals, as a culture, as a species.”
–“Intimate Alien,” front cover flap
“In his emphasis on the gravity of myth, on the force of its claim to our attention and respect, Jung marks out the path I’ve chosen to travel. As ‘myth,’ UFOs aren’t nonsense. They’re about the furthest thing from ‘bunk’ that can be imagined. They’re a creation of the space age and yet as real, as vital, as universal as any myth that has spoken from our unconscious since the dawn of prehistory.”
–“Intimate Alien,” introduction.
“David Halperin doesn’t believe in the literal reality of flying saucers, but he understands that they needn’t physically exist to teach us lessons about a culture that sees them. Part folklorist and part psychologist, Halperin reads our UFO mythos like an alienist analyzing an extended collective dream.”
–Jesse Walker, author of “The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory.”