Publication Date:January 1998 Shipping:Eligible for Super Saver Shipping Availability:In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.
Ufology as SociologySeptember 13, 2004 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I found this book library and almost didn't take it out because the publisher (Wild Flower Press) sounded too airy-fairy, New Age-y for me. How wrong I was. This is an excellent treatment of the sociology of ufology. It is a well-researched, heavily-footnoted survey of the ufology: its luminaries, it's debunkers, and it's internal controversies. This is required reading for anyone who is interested in this field. Don't read this book seeking an answer to the question "are UFOs real?" Rather, read it to understand th field of ufology, and how similar, and dissimilar, it is to other areas of research. The large bibliography alone is worth the price of the book. Congratulations to Gettysburg College for supporting Dr. Emmons in this work. After finishing the book, I bought my own copy - the ultimate compliment.
the best academic introduction to a very complex subject.October 30, 2000 C.F.Emmons book shows for the first time the diverse factors that undermine a objetive appraisal of ufo related phenomena limiting prematurely the big universe of discourse that this subject demand. This as the author says transform ufology in a "extreme deviant" subject much more that in parapsychology where similar "noise" has hindered its aceptance by normal science. A carefull sifting of this type of noise is done in the book's appendix through the selection of biographies/Ufologist Case Studies where only researchers(believers, skeptics and debunkers) with recognized academic credentials in traditional scientific disciplines are disclosed(I found only a marginal error when the author refer to John E.Mack as the Pulitzer winner for a biography of Lawrence of Arabia (p.231) instead of refering to having that prize for the life of D.H.Lawrence). Putting aside literary references the author shows a real effort in a multidisciplinary approach to a theme that cry doing so. Without doubt the final chapter is the more speculative and at some time the more balanced in weighting near all of the more popular theories about the "Larger Reality" that the study of this phenomena demmand of our methodological, epistemological and ontological assumptions behind our institutionalized blessed conceptions about our universe. A view in my opinion is lacking when he refers to "implicate order", "hyperspace" and other concepts borrowed from the new physics, this view is "multiverse" and "quantum parallelism" and "time loops" in alternative interpretations to the Bohm interpretation of QM. The explanatory potential for the UFO phenomena of this latter concepts are left for the interesed reader.
A veritable banquet of food for thought!March 19, 1999 3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Take off your blinders, pull your head out of the sand, we are probably not alone! Think what you will, but read this book before you decide. Three things: First, "At the Threshold" is genuinely entertaining. Second, the facts on this highly controversial subject are presented in a clear, concise manner. Third, Dr. Emmons isn't afraid to discuss this subject in public, you needn't be afraid to read it in private! In a nutshell, "At The Threshold" is a veritable banquet of food for thought. Enjoy!
Eyebrows Up~~~~~~~~~~Alert!March 15, 1999 I have not read the book but intend to read/scan it ASAP- MY QUESTION is the redundancy of the "reviews" written just above this (if this one makes it). Sure gets my antennae a'quivering (or else, too many people are regurgitating the same phrases without having the same experience---and methinks that AIN'T synchronicity...)
A remarkable book.December 28, 1998 No one has ever taken such an objective and open-minded look at the people who study UFOs and their interaction with mainstream science. The decision to write this book from such an honest perspective was very ballsy, and Emmons should be commended for his integrity. Here is one man who understands and will not bend to the "peer pressures" of mainstream Academics. Very refreshing (and surprising)
