Speaking of elves and whatnot, Ran had links to a couple websites on fairy-UFO connections. One of them talks about a book by Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia, and makes the worthwhile point:

Passport to Magonia is probably the most controversial book on social anthropology that has been published for a long time. It throws out some of the accepted notions of modern folkloric studies. When attempting explanations for fairy, monster and other traditional entities, folklore students have thought in terms of historical traditions, literary analogues and tribal ritual. they have all but ignored the possibility that people did, and often still do, actually see these things.

That’s definitely one of my number one complaints in the areas that I study. For the people who are studying this stuff academically, they are usually too distant from their subject matter, regarding it as an intellectual curiosity and not recognizing the potential for these and other experiences to be actually real. Conversely, the people who generally believe this stuff is real have an extremely big problem getting enough distance from it to realize that maybe there are psychological and other elements at play. I’m definitely going to have to get some Vallee books, as he seems to sit right in the middle of these extremes, rather like myself.