Customer Reviews
Fascinating but problematic - By: Daniel Jolley, 28 Nov 2002 
This second book about the abduction experiences of Betty Andreasson Luca & her husband Bob Luca proves much more fascinating than the initial book. In a sense, this book is a prequel to its predecessor because it deals with alleged abductions experienced during Betty's childhood. What continues to set the Andreasson Affair apart from other abduction stories is the pervasive religious connotation placed by Betty on her experiences. Her story remains rather uniquein this respectin the abduction literaturein general. It is perhaps for this reason that her story is rarely mentioned by other researchers. One cannot say whether the events Betty recalls actually happened, although the bulk of evidence indicates that something indeed happened, & it remains virtually impossible to determine if her own feelings that the UFO occupants are angelic emissaries from God are correct or whether her own fundamentalist faith has worked its way into her mental processes as a way of making the unbelievable more acceptable & easier for her to deal with.
I am rather ambivalent when it comes to Andreasson's experiences, largely because this book betrays to me several weaknessesin the case. For example, the author only personally attended one hypnotic regression session described here, relying mainly on tapes & videos along with the information provided by his associate investigator. Distance accounts for his inability to attend the sessions, but it presents a problem to me. Most importantly, the hypnotist, while a learned behavioral psychologist, had no experience with the hypnosis of alien abductees; many times, I felt he did ask leading questions & sometimes raced ahead of his subject, leaving his own trail of information for her to follow. The absence of Fowler at the sessions left the hypnotist out on his own too often, & this accounted for most of the problems I have with the regression sessions.
Fowler also seems to be of two minds when making his points. He stresses the unique importance of this case of high strangeness, but he often rushes through other UFO materials to find anything at all that sounds similar to something Betty reported. He does attempt to place the Andreasson Affairin the context of abduction literaturein general toward the end of the book, but he seems to go off on tangents that have little to do with the case at hand. He also cites sources that are questionable at best (such as an article from the Weekly World News tabloid). This does not mean the story is not true, of course. If Andreasson's revelations are accurate, this is an extraordinarily important case. For now, all of this information is greatly intriguing & invokes more questions than it answers, but there is just not enough evidence for the reader to come to a definite conclusion as to the truth of this matter.
Nothing as strange as reality - By: , 20 Oct 2002 
Having read this fourth volume about the Andreasson Affair I can't wait to get hold of book five. The story, as previously, is so incredible, & getting more so as each book is written, that it just has to be true. It works on so many levels - you can read as a story of fiction (if you like), you can read as an extensive piece of research, you can read it as a prediction for the future - something that we will all take for granted,in years to come. It stretches the mind to incredible lengths, rating alongside the complexity of physicists trying to fathom the origins of the universe through the Big Bang theories. Its not that heavy - just enjoy
