Biography:

David Michael Jacobs is a retired professor of history at Temple University in Philadelphia.

He has also been a UFO researcher since 1966. In 1973, he completed his doctoral dissertation in field of intellectual history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on the controversy over unidentified flying objects in America. This was only the second Ph.D. degree granted with a dissertation involving a UFO-related theme (since then there have been many others).

He has written and delivered many articles, papers, and addresses on the subject of UFOs and abductions.   He has been a consultant to the major UFO organizations. From 1977 to 2011 he taught the country’s only regular curriculum university course on UFOs and abductions: “UFOs and American Society.”   Since the early 1980s, he has specialized in the UFO abduction phenomenon. He has investigated over 1,150 abductions with 150 individuals.

He has lectured widely on the subject both internationally and at colleges and universities across the United States. His first MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) conference paper was in 1975. delivered the first abduction phenomenon paper to a scientific organization at Cornell University in 1989. In 1992 he participated in the History of Science Society’s first session on UFOs. In 2013 he was the first person to deliver a talk about UFO abductions at Oxford University. Since 1972 he has discussed UFOs and abductions on hundreds of radio, television, and internet shows both nationally and internationally.

In 1991, Dr. Jacobs and colleague Budd Hopkins conducted the nationally publicized Roper Organization poll of the abduction phenomenon. This was the first scientifically random poll to ascertain the potential number of abductees in the U.S. The results of that influential survey were published in the 1992 booklet, Unusual Personal Experiences.   With abduction researcher colleagues, he then gave a series of workshops for members of the mental health community in the methodology of abduction hypnosis, research, and therapy.

Dr. Jacobs was an assistant editor for Time-Life’s bestselling The UFO Phenomenon (1989). This book was one of the most widely read books on the phenomenon ever published.

He has published five books on UFOs and abductions. In 1975, Indiana University Press published a revised version of his dissertation as The UFO Controversy in America. It was the first positive book toward UFOs to be published by an academic press.

Simon & Schuster published his second book, Secret Life: Firsthand Accounts of UFO Abductions, in 1992. The book was the most complete exposition of the structure and meaning of the abduction phenomenon yet published. In it Dr. Jacobs developed the first scientific typology of the abduction experience and outlined a typical abduction experience using the most complete and current information available. This was the first analytical UFO book published by Simon & Schuster.

Dr. Jacobs’s third book, The Threat, came out in 1998. The book addressed important questions about abductions and clarified issues that have been the subject of much speculation for the past fifty years.   The Threat presented the first evidence-driven hypothesis that provided a comprehensive solution to the UFO and abduction mystery.

UFOs and Abductions: Challenging the Borders of Knowledge was Dr. Jacobs’s first edited volume. Published by the University Press of Kansas in 2000, it contains ten distinguished authors who contributed original articles. It is only the second academic press book ever published that takes a predominately positive viewpoint towards the phenomenon.

His new book, Walking Among Us, is about the processes and bureaucracy involved with placing hybrids into human society with the help of abductees. It addresses questions about what the alien goals are, the role of abductees, and the ultimate reasons why they are moving in.

Future projects include a book on the methodology of abduction hypnosis, and a book about a single abductee and her experiences with hybrids.

His books are available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other booksellers. His website address is www.ufoabduction.com (singular, no “S” on ufoabduction).