David Jacobs – 2013 MUFON Symposium
SCIENCE, UFOs, AND THE SEARCH FOR ET HYBRIDS
DAVID MICHAEL JACOBS is a recently retired professor of history at Temple University in Philadelphia. Dr. Jacobs has been a UFO researcher for 47 years. In 1973, he completed his doctoral dissertation in field of intellectual history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison on the controversy over unidentified flying objects in America. This was only the second Ph.D. degree granted involving a UFO-related theme.
He has written and delivered many articles, papers, and addresses on the subject of UFOs and abductions. His first MUFON conference paper was in 1975. He has been a consultant to the major UFO organizations. From 1977 to 2011 he taught the country’s only regular curriculum university course on UFOs and abductions: “UFOs and American Society.” Since the early 1980s, he has specialized in the UFO abduction phenomenon. He has conducted over 1,000 hypnotic regressions with over 150 individuals.
He has lectured widely on the subject both internationally and at colleges and universities across the United States. Dr. Jacobs delivered the first abduction phenomenon paper to a scientific organization at Cornell University in 1989. In 1992 he participated in the History of Science Society’s first session on UFOs. In 1991, Dr. Jacobs and colleague Budd Hopkins conducted the nationally publicized Roper Organization poll of the abduction phenomenon. This was the first scientifically random poll to ascertain the potential number of abductees in the U.S. The results of that influential survey were published in the 1992 booklet, Unusual Personal Experiences. With abduction researcher colleagues, he then gave a series of workshops for members of the mental health community in the methods of abduction hypnosis, research, and therapy.
He has published four books on UFOs and abductions. In 1975, Indiana University Press published a revised version of his dissertation by Indiana University Press as The UFO Controversy in America. It was the first positive book toward UFOs to be published by an academic press. Dr. Jacobs was an assistant editor for Time-Life’s best-selling The UFO Phenomenon, published in 1989. This book was one of the most widely read books on the phenomenon ever published. Simon & Schuster published his second book, Secret Life: Firsthand Accounts of UFO Abductions, in 1992. The book was the most complete exposition of the structure and meaning of the abduction phenomenon yet published. Based on over 300 accounts of abduction events, Dr. Jacobs developed the first scientific typology of the abduction experience and outlined a typical abduction experience using the most complete and current information available. This was the first analytical UFO book published by Simon & Schuster.
