Book review--After Disclosure

A.D. :AFTER DISCLOSURE
by Richard Dolan and Bryce Zabel

The book After Disclosure has one of the more thought-provoking premises for a non-fiction book that I have seen in a long while.  If by chance our government were forced to admit that Earth is indeed being visited by non-human intelligence, what would be the ramifications?  How would people react?  How would it all play out? 

I only knew Zabel from his work as a producer on the UFO-themed show, Dark Skies from the 1990s.  Richard Dolan, however, is one of the most respectable UFO researchers around these days.  When he is involved with something, I sit up and take notice.  So what do the authors believe will happen in a post-disclosure world?  Since no one can say for certain, nearly every possible outcome is examined from the sublime to the ridiculous.

One postulated result is almost a foregone conclusion.  It would be the "cosmic Watergate" scenario that UFO researcher Stanton Friedman always spoke of.  There would be congressional hearings demanding that the White House...and whatever other aspects of the government that were involved...tell us what they know, when they first knew it, and why it was kept a secret.  Indeed, how long have they known about this?  Will the few World War II aircraft crews still alive be able to say, "See!  I'm not crazy!" in regard to their foo fighter sightings?  Perhaps even more unsettling, what if the Ancient Aliens crowd really is right?

There would be radical social change with people representing the full spectrum of reactions.  You'd have the "doomsday prepper" contingent who in true paranoid fashion would await an alien attack.  At the same time, you'd have those hopeful sorts who would believe our "space brothers" were here to usher in a New Age of peace and prosperity.  Then there would be a massive clump of folks in the middle, uneasy at the thought of humanity no longer being at the top of the pyramid and never being able to look at the night sky quite the same way again.

The book also has its share of silliness.  Would abductees be able to sue the aliens?  More likely, would they be able to sue anyone who ever mocked them about the "anal probe?" (Note to self: delete that cartoon on the lower right.)  Would UFO visitors be secretly filming us for their own reality TV shows?  Worse than the silly factor, the book does have its share of egregious oversights.  Mainly, the prime focus of the book is that UFO occupants are alien in nature, meaning from another planet.  There is only the barest mention of them possibly being from other dimensions or parallel universes and absolutely no examination of the work of Jacques Vallee.  Yes, what if the "Others" as they are called in the book, are ethereal beings related to our subconscious?  Would not governmental knowledge of such realities or even theurgy be just as earth-shattering as what the book proposes?  Again, seems that the ET hypothesis is the only game in town.

On the plus side, Dolan and Zabel devote a fair amount of space to transhumanism.  They openly acknowledge that the Others have likely already reached their own Singularity.  Therefore, the beings that people have purportedly encountered are likely (but not certainly) biological/technological constructs.  Even more interesting still, might the presence of the Others' technology help bring about our Singularity at an even more advanced rate of speed?

This book is definitely worth a read.  As I said earlier, nobody does it better than Richard Dolan when it comes to thorough research communicated in a solid writing style.  Yes, detractors to the book will say it's all speculation.  Then again, what else could it be?  The authors do, however, have one outcome solidly predicted: after disclosure, nothing about human life will ever be the same.


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