They're Not Called "Little Green Men" Anymore

interview with C.D.B. Bryan, author of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE FOURTH KIND
by Lise Rehanek

A Book of the Month selection like no other, C.D.B. Bryan's "CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE FOURTH KIND: Alien Abduction, UFOs, and the Conference at M.I.T." takes the no-nonsense journalist approach to expose some of the startling similarities and conformities in the abductees accounts, as well as the inconsistencies that plague this often incendiary topic. The individual tales of the abductees run the gamut from the terrifying to the eerily comical, but the author maintains his integrity while exploring the controversial phenomena, highlighting the people whom he considers to be the most sincere and uncontaminated sources, abductees who have no hidden agenda. Bryan gives us sincere reporting, covers all the hypotheses - which run the gamut from breeding programs to interdimensions - and asks, "What the hell if it's true?"



C.D.B. Bryan: Well, we're supposed to be talking about UFOs and I've never seen one, have you?

FAD: No, but you said you thought you saw one and it turned out to be a balloon.

C.D.B. Bryan: It is so typical of this phenomenon, how elusive it is. Just when you think you have something solid, it pops like a bubble. You were disappointed by the lack of empirical proof. What kind of proof would you need to believe? Take the Roswell incident, which is the most interesting of the conspiracy theories or saucer crashes. If the general in charge of the Air Force investigation were on his death bed to say, "I can't keep a secret any longer, the world has a right to know that we have been contacted by aliens," I would accept that, but I've never seen a UFO. I've never had a paranormal experience.

FAD: You said you were jealous of some of the abductee's experiences...

C.D.B. Bryan: I am. Not all of them. Removals of sperm and eggs I could skip.



FAD: The book mentioned that a bar on one of the military bases was covered in UFO paraphernalia.

C.D.B. Bryan: When I was in the Army, I was in Intelligence and it was always true that if you wanted to find out what was going on you went to the bar. My job was not to check these stories out so much as to assemble the data. I think television is tiresome in their insisting that we interpret what they're saying is true. I present the anecdotal data, because there is no hard data, there is no cigarette lighter, no taillight... Let the reader make up his or her mind!


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