Introduction
David Michael Jacobs is an American historian and recently retired Associate Professor of History at Temple University specializing in 20th century American history, sexual and mental abuse. Jacobs is particularly well known in the field of Ufology for his research and authoring of books on the subject of alleged alien abductions.
Career
Jacobs obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1973, in the field of intellectual history. He wrote his dissertation on the controversy over unidentified flying objects in America. A revised edition of his dissertation was published as The UFO Controversy in America by Indiana University Press in 1975, and sold out (very unusual for an academic work).
As a faculty member of the Department of History at Temple University, Jacobs specialized in history of 20th-century American popular culture. He stated that his current research interests "involve a delineation of the role of anomalous experiences in personal and cultural life." For over 25 years Jacobs taught a course on "UFOs in American Society."
Ufology
Jacobs has a high profile in the field of Ufology. He has lectured widely, been interviewed, and participated in numerous television and radio shows on the subject of alien abductions.
David Jacobs has written five books on the topic of UFOs and alleged alien abductions. In recent years Jacobs has argued publicly that the evidence from his research, which sometimes includes utilizing hypnotic regression with alleged alien abductees along with traditional interview techniques, shows that alien-human hybrids are engaged in a covert program of infiltration into human society with possibly the final goal of taking over Earth. He asserts that some of his research subjects are teaching these hybrids how to blend into human society so that they cannot be differentiated from humans, and that this is occurring worldwide.
Criticism
Jacobs's hypotheses have been criticised as unsupportably dire by those who take a more positive view of the alien abduction experience such as John E. Mack; Jacobs labels these critics as "positivists" in his writings. Details of alien abductions reported by Jacobs and so-called "positivist" researchers may not differ to any great extent; criticism of Jacobs by such peers therefore focuses on Jacobs's interpretations - e.g., where Jacobs sees "infiltration" (a negative), others may see "integration" (a positive). Where differences in reports are more substantial (extending beyond the interpretive to actual distinctions between the alleged events reported by those who Jacobs interviews versus those interviewed by others), Jacobs has explained that elements not matching his own perspective are what he terms "confabulations."
Carl Sagan and Susan Clancy have criticized the methods used by Jacobs and other abduction researchers. Sagan asserted that sightings and experiences could be attributed to mistaken identity and faulty memory. Clancy has highlighted problems associated with abduction research, such as faulty memory retrieval when hypnotists "lead" the patient, and sleep paralysis.
Jacobs has argued that Clancy's methodology was flawed, stating that in numerous cases people report they were abducted when fully awake and conscious, and that therefore sleep paralysis is not a tenable hypothesis. Moreover, he has stated that her book was factually incorrect.
Major publications
- Jacobs, David Michael (1975). The UFO Controversy in America. Foreword by J. Allen Hynek. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-19006-1. LCCN 74011886. OCLC 1120938.
- Jacobs, David M. (1992). Secret Life: Firsthand Accounts of UFO Abductions. Foreword by John E. Mack. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-74857-2. LCCN 91045662. OCLC 25130658.
- —— (1998). The Threat. The Secret Alien Agenda: What the Aliens Really Want...And How They Plan to Get It. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-81484-6. LCCN 97027040. OCLC 37315300.
- Jacobs, David M., ed. (2000). 'UFOs and Abductions: Challenging the Borders of Knowledge. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0-7006-1032-4. LCCN 00028970. OCLC 43615835.
- Jacobs, David M. (2015). Walking Among Us: The Alien Plan to Control Humanity. San Francisco, CA: Disinformation Books. ISBN 1-9388-7514-1.
Translation
- Secret Life: Firsthand Accounts of UFO Abductions (1992) was translated into French under the title Les kidnappeurs d'un autre monde, présenté par Jimmy Guieu (literally: Kidnappers of Another World), 1995, Paris, Presses de la Cité. ISBN 978-2258038721.