Dreamland

Dreamland: An Autobiography
By Bob Lazar
Published in 2019
243 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 3/5

Bob Lazar is a failed whistleblower who attempted to expose the US government’s role in covering up extra terrestrials. Unlike more successful whistleblowers, like Edward Snowden, his revelations failed to raise significant public awareness. Instead, they succeeded in destroying his life.

There are two versions of Bob Lazar’s life story. The first version is the one that you will find on Wikipedia. This version goes that Bob Lazar never studied at MIT, never worked for Los Alamos, and never worked for the air force and naval intelligence. He is just a crackpot with a long criminal history.

The second version of Bob Lazar’s life story is that he graduated from MIT. Later, he got a job working on nuclear plants in the Los Alamos Lab. He eventually ended up working at Area 51 as a subcontractor for EG&G doing work for both the Air Force and Naval Intelligence.

While at Area 51, he allegedly handled anomalous materials that defied the laws of physics. He also saw strange craft that were either US military experimental space ship style aircraft or alien aircraft (in his account he is unclear which it is).

After a dispute with his employer, he blew the whistle, and claimed that he had seen evidence that the US was covering up extra terrestrial technology. Shortly after his dispute he found himself in a world of trouble which took the form of legal harassment, lawsuits, stalking, etc…

I personally find Bob Lazar to be credible. Bob Lazar’s account reads a lot like other whistleblowers like Snowden’s book. Unlike Snowden, Lazar has absolutely no interest in informing the public or being a hero. He is purely interested in the scientific implications of what he witnesses. He acknowledges he had no idea that his revelations would have a significant impact on society.

Later discrepancies and disputes about his career can be very easily explained by sheepdipping. Sheepdipping is a well known US intelligence tactic where the army colludes with universities, former employers, and financial institutions to erase the career history of a victim. This makes the victim look like a liar, and casts everything the victim says into disrepute.

Because Lazar was whistleblowing about an unacknowledged program, the government couldn’t sue him. Suing him would force the government to acknowledge that, at the very least, he had actually worked on a secret program (even if it disputed the details). They also couldn’t assassinate him, because that would increase his credibility. Sheepdipping and destroying his reputation was tactically the best move for the government.

Lazar was not a careful whistleblower. The stress of working in a classified facility got to him, and he carelessly started telling his family and friends about his work. Later, when he was caught and started panicking, he spoke to the media without any real plan out of self preservation.

Lazar’s unflattering self description of his career; his admission of carelessly blowing the whistle; and focus on scientific rather than the social implications of his work all makes me think he comes off as credible.

I don’t know if Lazar saw alien materials and technology. But I am sure that he believes that he saw something anomalous. What exactly he saw is unclear.

This is a fascinating little book. It is a real page turner. Lazar’s own tragic life and failures show how in the real world, the good guys don’t always win.

I wouldn’t recommend this book to most people. If you are first getting into the topic of extra-terrestrials I definitely don’t recommend it because there are far more credible and recent whistleblowers than Bob Lazar. I would recommend this book to someone who is already very interested and well read about the topic.

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