Magonia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Magonia is also a genus of plants in the family Sapindaceae and a skeptical website in El Correo newspaper (see Magonia).

Magonia is a British magazine focused on the UFO phenomena. Its name comes from Passport to Magonia, a book by Ufologist Jacques Vallée—Vallée in turn had borrowed the term from a magical land described in French folktales.^[1]

The magazine also explores related areas of belief and unusual behaviour, focusing on the sociology and social history of UFO believers and other adherents to fringe belief systems. The writers, columnists, and editors of Magonia do not support the Extraterrestrial hypothesis, which theorizes that UFOs are vehicles from an advanced extraterrestrial civilization. Instead, Magonia promotes the Psychosocial Hypothesis to explain UFO sightings and incidents. According to this theory, UFOs are not "real vehicles" in a physical sense, but can instead be explained as a product of psychological and/or social factors acting upon both individuals and large groups of people.

Contributors to Magonia have often been critical of ufologists (particularly American ufologists) who promote the extraterrestrial hypothesis. They have also criticized^[2] Jerome Clark, a prominent American Ufologist and historian, but have praised his work on several occasions^[3] ^[4] ^[5] ^[6]

[edit] References

^ Magonia is also the name of the cloud realm whence felonious aerial sailors were said to have come in the treatise on weather magic composed by Carolingian bishop Agobard of Lyons in 815. The Magonians were said to travel the skies in "cloud ships" (storm clouds) and worked with Frankish tempestarii, "tempest-raisers" or weather-magi, to steal grain from the fields during magically raised storms.
^ The UFO Encyclopedia 2nd Edition: The Phenomenon from the Beginning from Magonia 65, November 1998 URL accessed March 06, 2007
^ "If You Go Down to the Woods Tonight: another look at the Travis Walton case" by John Harney, 2001; URL accessed March 6, 2007
^ see the brief introduction to INVASION OF THE BARBARIAN MONSTERS FROM HEAVEN AND HELL by Nigel Watson, 1995; URL accessed March 6, 2007
^ The UFO Encyclopedia 2nd Edition: The Phenomenon from the Beginning from Magonia 65, November 1998 URL accessed March 06, 2007
^ [http://www.magonia.demon.co.uk/arc/90/plague.html "A Plague of Aliens Visionary Rumour As Contemporary And Costume Drama"] by Peter Brookesmith, From Magonia 60, Summer 1997; URL accessed March 06, 2007