The Three Faces Of UFOlogy: The Alien Hypothesis Conspiracy

Rating:
Summary: Twilight On The Frozen Lake
Review: "The Three Faces of Ufology" is a true masterwork of serious contemplation of the UFO phenomenon and other related paranormal subjects. The DVD brings together, as the title implies, three of the biggest names in the UFO community for a summit meeting of kinds in which many of the weightiest issues and controveries that spring from the admittedly strange subject matter are examined by means of very personal interviews with well-known writer Brad Steiger, New Age prophetess Diane Tessman, and Mr. UFO himself, Timothy Green Beckley.

The format is kept very simple, consisting mostly of talking head-type interviews with the three experts. Steiger, Tessman and Beckley provide a wealth of reminiscences about the early days of UFO investigation when the field was new and still a virgin territory. But far from being boring war stories from the paranormal front, the DVD instead offers a superb oral history of what life was like as they struggled to keep their balance on a tightrope between the actual alien presence and the government's shadowy manipulation of what was considered to be the genuine "truth," a constantly shifting morass of lies and leaks that continues to this day.

There are many stories to marvel at here, such as the time Beckley was able to take a photo of a genuine Man-In-Black. The photo is included in the DVD, and Beckley tells the fascinating and utterly believable tale of how he obtained it. Tessman, meanwhile, describes in detail her meeting with a person onboard a UFO at age seven and the lifelong friendship she developed with the being, a human from Earth's future whose name is Tibus. And Steiger displays his celebrated expertise as a scholar of ancient cultures and world religions and their relationship to many so-called "modern" paranormal happenings.

Even as members of the tightly knit UFO community, the three interviewees also do a good job of enjoying their native surroundings. The interviews for the DVD were conducted in Clear Lake, Iowa, over the Christmas holidays in 2003. Accompanied by Brad's wife Sherry, the group piles into a car in the freezing cold and goes off in search of a plaque memorializing the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, which happened over Clear Lake in 1959. They never did find the fabled plaque, but the footage of their search is inter-cut with the more serious interviews to lend the DVD a decidely human touch. The camaraderie they all share is readily apparent and provides some small moments of comic relief.

While it is probably impossible to produce a definitive DVD on the many subjects discussed here, which include things like the possibility of an underground race of serpent creatures working to cover up the truth of many current paranormal beliefs and to rein in man's inquisitive nature, "The Three Faces of Ufology" must at least be said to provide an overview of some of the most important ideas currently afloat in the sea of mystery and uncertainty that is the field of paranormal research. No one at this point can provide the "facts," but the wealth of fascinating questions and the fun one has in contemplating those questions make this DVD a must-have for anyone with an inclination toward the strange and bizarre and a curiosity about how certain mysteries manifest themselves here in our Earthly dimension. In those terms, Steiger, Tessman and Beckley spin many tales worth listening to and provide a short course on the universe's darkest secrets that you're not likely to find anywhere else.