BUT–much of his theorizing on the nature of things paranormal have stuck me as true in a way that is “hit you in your gut” visceral.

Vallee is much less shrill and more careful to get his facts correct–what do we expect from a scientist, but what he often lacks in his writings is direct experience with the–numinous, shall we say.

Keel on the other hand, has had experiences with the otherworldly phenomena of which he speaks, and so much of his writing is informed by his own personal experiences.

I value both Keel and Vallee and agree with much of what they have to say, in large part because it not only makes sense from a historical perspective, but also because it dovetails with my own personal experiences, which I suppose some day I should actually write about.

However, I am not surprised to see a lot of cryptozoologist sorts dismissing Keel. He isn’t a cryptozoologist–he is something else altogether. While scientifically minded crytozoologists will dismiss any paraphysical and paranormal phenomena surrounding Bigfoot sightings or the like, Keel refuses to ignore witness accounts that include such oddities. I agree with him that it is unscientific to discount some data while elevating other data, but then, again, what do we expect from nuts and bolts, or rather, plaster cast and bones researchers?

That is not to say I think that all the folks who seek a physical Gigantopithicus/Bigfoot/Yeti are wrong–some of these sightings and experiences do point to an unknown primate.

However, I, like Keel, cannot ignore the fact that there are folks out there experiencing hairy hominids in conjunction with electronic buzzing, beeps, UFO’s poltergeist activity and other weird happenings.

So, yeah–Keel, Vallee and, believe it or not, Katherine Briggs (British folklorist known for her work on fairy lore), have been my greatest influences when it comes to my own worldview surrounding UFOs and the paranormal in general.

Watch out for us Keelians. haha. Seriously though — compare Jadoo to say Gavin Young’s travel books. I like Young but he’s mired down in historical detail — even though he worked for MI6 on the side. Keel creates what he studies to a much greater effect.

Just to brag a bit, I have a first edition of Jadoo signed by Keel himself in 2000.

Having said that, I was pleased to see several Cryptomundians defending Keel’s views and opinions, if nothing as a way to understand that we need to study “the whole package” of the phenomenon, not leave the bits and pieces which we may find “distasteful”.

I would have written something in that regard myself, but unfortunately Cryptomundo has been experiencing some server problems lately, although there seemed to be fixed by now.

Keel must be right because mass hypnosis would take some serious juju, on the other hand — how many people have interviewed a levitating man before?

Ah Jadoo….the fact that it remains out of print enables me to disown the whole publishing industry in one “final” blog comment.