John A. Keel (born 1930) is a ufologist, parapsychologist and journalist currently residing in New York, USA.

John Keel is arguably one of the most widely read, and influential ufologists since the early 1970s. Although his own thoughts about UFOs and associated paranormal anomalous phenomena have gradually evolved since the mid 1960s, Keel remains one of Ufologies most original researchers. It was Keel's second book, UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse (1970), that alerted the general public to the fact that many aspects of contemporary UFO reports, including humanoid encounters, often paralleled certain ancient folklore and religious encounters. Moreover, Keel argues that there is a direct relationship between UFOs and psychic phenomena/demonology.

Influenced by writers such as Charles Fort, and Aimé Michel, in early 1966, John Keel commenced a full-time investigation of UFOs and paranormal phenomena. Over a four year period, Keel interviewed thousands of people in over twenty states. More than 2,000 books were reviewed in the course of this investigation, in addition to thousands of magazines, newsletters, and newspapers. Keel also subscribed to several newspaper-clipping services, which often generated up to 150 clippings for a single day during the 1966/67 flap years.

Like fellow 1960s researchers such as Dr. J. Allen Hynek, and Dr. Jacques Vallee, Keel was initially hopeful that he could somehow validate the popular extraterrestrial visitation hypothesis. However, after only one year of investigations, Keel realised that the extraterrestrial hypothesis was untenable. Indeed, both Hynek and Vallee eventually arrived at a similar conclusion.

Keel argues that a non-human (spiritual) intelligence source has staged whole events over a long period of time in order to propagate and reinforce certain erroneous belief systems. For example, the fairy faith in Middle Europe, vampire legends, mysterious airships in 1897, mystery aeroplanes of the 1930's, mystery helicopters, anomalous creature sightings, poltergeist phenomena, balls of light, and UFOs. But ultimately all of these anomalies are nothing but a cover for the real phenomenon.

John Keel's book The Mothman Prophecies detailed his 1967 investigation of sightings of the so-called Mothman—a strange winged creature with luminous eyes—reported in and around Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The book was loosely adapted into a movie, starring Richard Gere.

Many of Keel's books are out-of-print, and sometimes sell for rather high prices among collectors.

Books

• Jadoo (1957)
• UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse (1970)
• Strange Creatures From Time and Space (1970)
• Our Haunted Planet (1971)
• The Flying Saucer Subculture (1973)
• The Mothman Prophecies, by John Keel, Saturday Review Press, 1975 and Tor Books, (paperback) 2002 ISBN 0765341972
• The Eighth Tower (1975)
• Disneyland of the Gods (1988)
• The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings (1994) - Revised Version of Strange Creatures from Time and Space

External links

• Mothman Central
• SciFi Online Interview with Keel
• The Great UFO Wave of '73: Interview with John A. Keel
• John A. Keel articles