UFOs are Real? A Review of Mirage Men by Mark Pilkington

I have just finished reading Mirage Men: An Adventure into Paranoia, Espionage, Psychological Warfare, and UFOs.

I’m a UFO fan from way back, though I haven’t been any kind of true believer since I was 16.

The UFO movement is alive and well these days, though somewhat diminished since the days of X-files. Mirage Men purports to be a modern re-evaluation of the UFO legend. It’s a fine read full of both fascinating factual information and spectacular tall tales. Its primary goal is to chronicle the role that official disinformation, psyops, showmanship, and credulity have played in advancing the UFO legend–but with a shocking punch line.

Mirage Men offers a new narrative by which to read the UFO phenomenon. The central premise of the book is that various government agencies have at various times used the UFO community to disseminate disinformation in order to misdirect foreign and domestic eyes from black operations (like the B2 stealth bomber), while simultaneously priming and cultivating that community as a channel for disinformation. But Mirage Men ends with a fabulous disclosure, told in the best traditions of UFO inquiry, that a small group of dedicated individuals inside the System may be secretly priming the world for a true disclosure–one that is less fantastic than the tallest of UFO tales, but nevertheless something we are Not Yet Ready to Know.

Incidental to being a font of interesting stories, many of which I had never encountered before, Mirage Men could be a great sourcebook for a UFO-hunting story or RPG adventure. There is plenty of fuel here for a Men in Black style action adventure, an X-files exploration, or investigative spy game.