Rating: 
Summary: The Sirius mystery:Please give us a break!!!
Review: Contrary to what the title might suggest, this book is not
entirely about scientific evidence on an ancient Alien Contact
as the other reviewers might make you believe, but it also
focuses on Greek Mythology and Egyptian Theology, both of which,
he shamelessly cannibalizes.The author begins by citing events, which supposedly prove how
at least two NASA(?!?) employees pursued something of a vendetta
against him, allegedly attempting to prevent him of enlightening
the rest of mankind with his "forbidden" theories. He proceeds
later on to claim, that when NASA got tired of hunting him, they
enlisted the likes of CIA(!) agents to dicourage him further. After having satisfied himself on giving away the US services,
he focuses on a formerly obscure African tribe by the name
of "Dogon" who hail from African Mali. He then proceeds to
make an in depth analysis of the unique heritage of those people
which seems to contain a lot of details on the star-system of the constellation Sirius, like the rate-of-revolution of Sirius-
B around Sirius-A, the knowledge that Sirius B is a "heavy
star", etc. He even claims that the Dogon were in possession of
information on that Star-system, which scientists have only
recently come to discover, and that they could never have
possibly beeen able to acquire this information by themselves-
therefore they must have obtained it from somewhere. The author suggests that the Dogon obtained this heritage from
Ancient Egypt, and he later claims that the Dogon were the
descendants of the "Guardians" of the desert oracle of Amon Ra. That's where the book starts to get paranoid. The author in a desperate attempt to attach some credibility
to his theory, draws heavily upon parts of Egyptian Theology,
Greek Mythology,& Sumerian Cosmogony which he boldly
transfigures to suit his theories. He thus is proved to be
wrong, by reaching unthinkable and absurd conclusions. We thus learn, that the African Dogon are in fact the descendants
of the Greek Argonauts(!), that the Greek and Hebrew
civilizations & people are related to each other(!) and that our
Ancient Goddess Athena/Minerva is the same with Isis, and that
she was actually "Negro". (One of my Israeli pals nearly jumped
out of the window when I told him of Mr. Temple's conclusions.) I wonder how Temple would explain the fact that Athena's Greek
statues (older than the Roman copies) feature Athena having
perfect Nordic features, and traces of paint found on a few
of her statues prove that she was thought to have blond hair and
blue eyes.(Ancient Greek & Roman statues where painted) His absurd conclusions and obsessions aside, this is a moderately
interesting book, which could have even bordered upon the limits
of "scientfic & serious" (his study of the Dogon is not bad)
had he been subtle enough to restrict himself to citing mere
facts in the manner of, John J. Robinson for instance. Three stars for his study of the Dogon alone.
Rating: 
Summary: Agree or not, Dr. Temple puts fourth an honest hypothesis
Review: I had become aware of this book in graduate school where I studied ancient history, and in fact had thumbed through it and dismissed it as so much silliness. However, recently one of my own readers had said she found the book fascinating. As she is an archeologist herself, I thought perhaps I had made a quick and unfair judgment. I immediately ordered a copy of the new edition titled "The Sirius Mystery: New Scientific Evidence for Alien Contact 5,000 Years Ago." To begin with, let me state that I have written at length on the topic of alien life, of ancient contacts, and I have appeared on numerous radio programs where I have defended and discussed my ideas and beliefs in a cosmos filled with life. Now, I opened my new copy of Temple's book ready to be convinced of ancient contacts, which many of my colleagues would consider an easy task as it would buttress my own ideas, but alas, after a few short chapters I was disappointed. Dr. Temple does make some excellent points, as well as raising some interesting questions. Yet many historical and archaeological points he has made would bring about very different opinions when examined by those not so willing to leap to the ancient alien contact hypothesis. I would also add that quoting science fiction writers, albeit remarkably brilliant ones and filling the book with the unfounded opinions of writers such as Zachariah Stichin will not convince anyone seriously considering the historical argument of alien contact. It will however, shore up those whose only reason for purchasing this book is to reaffirm that which they are already convinced. I was once asked if it would surprise me to learn that Earth had been visited many times by advanced beings? My answer was absolutely not. I almost expect it. However, despite my own ideas and beliefs, has it happened in fact? There is absolutely no proof beyond a few anecdotal stories, which can easily be understood in other ways, for example, a global flood to explain fossils. In the end, the author, a distinguished member of several scientific organizations make a good basic argument for his belief, yet it remains, at least to the critical mind, unconvincing. It is, nonetheless a worthy read by anyone interested in subjects like ancient civilizations, and is far more logical than many books of this type. Why any of the agencies purported to have harassed Dr. Temple would do so is anyone's guess. However, I would certainly not deny such events have and do occur. The structure and clearly honest research demand at least 4 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Temple is a Master
Review: I wont get into the question of the Sirius Mystery here, as you can read many decent reviews on this page about that. What I want to share with you is my experience reading this book. And what I got out of it.
There is no doubt in my mind that this book is one of the heaviest books I have ever read. The amount of linguistics covered throughout the chapters is sometimes overwhelming but so worth it. I wondered why we were trudging along various seemingly unrelated topics all the time. Not that they weren't interesting, I just wanted to know about the mystery. To my amazement, it all ties in. And you get a massive amount of incite into many other items that will definitely interest you.
The highlight of the book to me was not the `answer' to the question, but ideas put forward along the way. Wait until you read about the `Goddess Isis' and the Jason and the Serpents Teeth reference.
Although this book is a tomb, and very heavy; read it - you won't regret it.
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of money and time
Review: Temple is a writer, but not an "author" in my view. He lacks craftsmanship in this volume. His first chapter vents his spleen against those who have opposed, betrayed, or disagreed with him. The chapter is titled "The Sirius Mystery Today". The second chapter finally gets to "What is the Mystery?". At best, the first chapter belongs in an annex. His priorities are evident. The rest of the volume lacks organization and objectivity as well, there being no logical stream of delivery. The subject is fascinating, but is better treated by Zecharia Sitchin, Lloyd Pye, Andy Lloyd, and others.
Save your money and time.
Rating:
Summary: Waste of money and time
Review: Temple is a writer, but not an "author" in my view. He lacks craftsmanship in this volume. His first chapter vents his spleen against those who have opposed, betrayed, or disagreed with him. The chapter is titled "The Sirius Mystery Today". The second chapter finally gets to "What is the Mystery?". At best, the first chapter belongs in an annex. His priorities are evident. The rest of the volume lacks organization and objectivity as well, there being no logical stream of delivery. The subject is fascinating, but is better treated by Zecharia Sitchin, Lloyd Pye, Andy Lloyd, and others.
Save your money and time.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting read. Unconclusive.
Review: Temple's theory that an intelligent civilization from a planet orbiting Sirius visited a primitive Africian tribe makes for an interesting read. He presents his information well. His arguments are intelligent, but not easily verified. The book would have been better enhanced by independent research (not under his control) and an objective presentation of the counter-arguments to his theory (Temple does not acknowledge the possiblity that he could be wrong). Another problem: Temple presents his theory and the supporting evidence during the first (interesting) part of the book, and after that he launches into his other ideas such as the long ago discounted idea of a Mars mountain carved to look like a human face or the idea that the hind quarters of the Sphinx represents a dog not a lion. (In reality, the hind quarters of the Sphinx, if not leonine, are probably that of a bull such that the four key quarters of the zodiac are represented: lion (Leo), man (Aquarius), bull (Tauras); wings now missing (Scorpio). One thing that helps support Temple's theory is that the Dogon themselves appear to believe it, and they maintain that they have passed the wisdom of this visitation from space down from the ages. The book does not explore verifying to what extent we can ascertain that the Dogon are telling us the truth about this visitation and trying to answer why, after a visitation from space, the Dogon don't have other advanced knowledge besides that of the star Sirius. Those criticisms aside, I think Temple may be onto something here and for that, this book is worth the read. Don't expect the kind of depth and research you'd get from Graham Hancock, but you can expect not to have to deal with anything as easy to refute as Sitchen. (For example, Sitchen postulates the existence of a civilization on a 12th planet with a 3600 year orbital period, but doesn't acknowledge that such a planet would cause orbital irregularities--not found--in the other planets or explain how life could exist on a planet with no external heat source or photosynthesis).
Rating:
Summary: say hello to mr tangent
Review: This book has some great information and interesting theories but the author gets sidetracked so often it becomes tedious. I felt like I was being punished and made to sift through way too many side stories to enjoy the book. About 100 of the 400 pages of writing were genuinely interesting and told the story of the dogon tribe and their encounters with amphibious aliens from sirius. The rest was a treatise on greek mythology which I could have done without. The blurbs on sumerian mythology are better covered by zecharia sitchin in his earth chronicles series. All in all some good info but a pain in the arse to get to.
Rating:
Summary: A very well written book on EBE's, UFO's and History.
Review: This is a very well written book that links the EBE and ET contact information toward the historical abnormalities. This book serves as a fine introduction for those who are not aware of the Zecharia Sitchin, series of writings. The writer makes some good points and ties some interesing information together in ways not done elsewhere. If you believe that human civilization began 5000 years ago, and did not involve ET intervention, then this book will not be for you. But if you believe that our universe is teeming with life, then read this book. It will answer many questions and open your mind into areas worthy of investigation.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting if True¿or True if Interesting?
Review: This updated version of Temple's book begins with a statement that his original theory has been vindicated by newly discovered facts about the Sirius star system showing it be a three-star system. He goes on to a tirade against his detractors, including people from NASA, and the intriguing information that the CIA kept tabs on him after he first published his theories about long-ago alien contact with our planet. The Sirius Mystery is based on studies of the Dogon, an African tribe that seems to have detailed knowledge of the Sirius star system, including astronomical information only recently discovered. The author builds this into a story about amphibious visitors from a watery planet orbiting Sirius. He finds evidence in ancient stories from Sumer and Egypt, recounting the legend of Oannes, who came from the sea and seemed to be half fish. What I find interesting about Temple's material is how much of it is familiar from other books of this genre (which I enjoy reading), but how he manages to put a completely different spin on it. Was Oannes actually half fish, or did his space ship land in water and the emerging being reminded those who saw him of a "fish-man" (as other writers have suggested)? Temple makes no mention of Zecariah Sitchen who writes of many of the same ancient events from Sumerian history. To Sitchen, the Annunaki were the astronauts from the planet Nibiru (in our own solar system), but in Temple's book they become anonymous Sirian gods who are mainly there so the number 50 can be worked into the story. This number has significance for the Sirius star system and ancient legends, he says, incorporated this number to emphasize its significance. In much the same way, Graham Hancock (in Fingerprints of the Gods) shows how ancient stories worked in the numbers that signify the precession, the 25,000 year cycle of the zodiak around the horizon. Another book I've read discussed the use of the magic number 7 (7 wonders of the world, 7 deadly sins, etc.). It seems like a good working theory that ancient stories do incorporate numbers that are important and need to be remembered, but in this case, it's a stretch to associate the number 50 used in ancient legends with the movements of distant stars, the whole thing held together by the beliefs of an obscure African tribe. Temple provides some interesting material on the ancient oracle centers, the best known being the Oracle of Delphi, and the associated omphalos stones. while this made fascinating reading, I found his logic sometimes hard to follow and kept waiting for a better connection between these means of ancient communication and the knowledge of the Dogon. The book wanders around a lot and is full of opinionated rants that decrease its credibility. But the heart of the matter is really whether it is true that the Dogon somehow acquired knowledge of Sirius and associated stars and whether the method of acquiring this knowledge was visitation from ancient astronauts. Many other writers have picked up on Temple's main theme and restate his thesis that the Dogon, an unsophisticated people, know all about Sirius. But the whole thing is based on the work of two anthropologists who gained the trust of informants among the Dogon and related tribes. They described the belief system that involved Sirius, and it is all rather curious. But I find it difficult to feel as positive as Temple does that what he has laid bare is evidence of visitation by intelligent amphibians from a distant planet. The picture section in the book is great, and the complete work by the two anthropologists (translated from French) is in an Appendix. If you can stand to wade through all the material in this book, you may be able to form an opinion. Or you may be just as confused as I am. It's interesting, but is it true?
Rating:
Summary: Did not address the subject matter
Review: To be perfectly honest, this book was a big disappointment. The book never addressed the issue of what was the NEW scientific evidence? After forcing myself to finish the book, I still didn't learn anything new. This book is a big waste of money and an even bigger waste of time.
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