World Atlas Of UFOs

by John Spencer

Smithmark Publishers, NY, 1992

192 pages - hardback

This is a large coffee-table size, illustrated book dealing with UFO sightings around the world.  Each chapter covers UFO sightings in a specific continent in chronological order.  The book is therefore interesting to readers unfamiliar with UFO cases in Africa and Australia.  UFO sightings can only be known about if they are sighted and reported to investigators.  Thus, in rural or sparsely populated areas in many parts of Africa or Australia, the local populace doesn't know who to go to when they see a UFO.  Primitive peoples such as African tribesmen may interpret a UFO sighting as ancestral spirits or ghosts and not as some product of extraterrestrial technology.  Of course, we don't know what UFOs are.  British ufologist John Spencer has done an excellent job in relating many diverse cases from around the world.
Spencer does not subscribe to the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis of UFO origins but he doesn't rule it out either.  European ufologists tend to look for psychological, sociological, or natural phenomena explanations for UFOs whereas American ufologists tend to subscribe to the "nuts and bolts" theory that UFOs are an advanced product of extraterrestrial technology.  Other ufologists subscribe to the multi-dimension of parallel universe theory of UFO origins.

This book is written for the beginner reader of UFO books.  It is an excellent introduction to the wide variety of UFO cases throughout the world.