The Curious Skeptic

J. Allen Danelek isn’t a ghost hunter or a UFO conspiracy theorist or a hypnotist specializing in past life regressions, but he has written the book on the subject. All of them, in fact.

Several years ago, around the age of 40, Danelek started asking himself what he wanted to be when he grew up. The answer that came back to him was that he wanted to be a paranormal writer. But Danelek wasn’t interested in writing run-of-the-mill conspiracy theory books.

“I wanted something that was a little bit more objective for people who weren’t entirely decided,” he said. “I try to present the topics from different perspectives, and that is a niche that hasn’t really been done that well. You have ardent supporters and debunkers and not much in between.”

His first books about the city of Atlantis and reincarnation were well-received and garnered support from the paranormal community, but his most recent works, UFOs: The Great Debate and Messages: The World’s Most Documented Extraterrestrial Contact Story, which he co-authored with widely known abductee Stan Romaneck, have not been as well received as he would have hoped.

“Sometimes when you do niche books, you have to be careful not to alienate both sides,” he laughed.

That’s because Danelek takes a very open-minded approach to writing his books: not starting with the premise that UFOs (or ghosts, or reincarnation) exist or that they don’t but following the Socratic method and asking question upon question until he hits on a conclusion or a kernel of truth.

Our conversation turned to the real question: Does he believe aliens exist?

“Considering the vastness of space and the staggering size not only of our own galaxy but of the universe itself, I should be astonished (and not a little disappointed) if we were the only advanced life in the universe. Even the majority of scientists agree with me on this one,” he said.

But does he believe that they are visiting Earth and abducting human subjects? That’s where things tend to become a lot more difficult to say. Danelek tries to answer these questions from a logical standpoint as often as possible.

“It’s not that I don’t believe,” he insisted, “it’s just that I don’t take people’s word for it automatically. I like to have them show me something solid, or at least present a rational argument. And just because I put forth an idea in my books, doesn’t mean I necessarily believe it myself.”

J. Allen Danelek’s next book, 2012: Extinction or Utopia is available for pre-order at his website, ourcuriousworld.com.