In Plain Sight

In Plain Sight: A fascinating investigation into UFOs and alien encounters
By Ross Coulthart
Published in July 2021
430 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 3/5

The information contained within this book is fascinating, but I am not a fan of the writing style. This is not a book that I would give to your average normie.

After the release of the 2021 tic tac UFO video by the US Navy, and the 2023 release of the Customs and Border Patrol footage of UFOs, I was very confused.

Prior to my discovery of some shocking official US government released footage, I have always been extremely skeptical about claims of extraterrestrial life. However, as someone who knows a lot about the organization of deep-states both present and historical, I am not surprised at all by cover-ups. When I saw the footage, I didn’t know what to believe anymore, so I picked up this book.

This book documents many eyewitness testimonies, mainly by various former military officials, of encounters with literal “unidentified flying objects” as well as encounters with supposed recovered alien technology. All of the encounters described are fascinating, although I am not sure that all are credible.

Some accounts seem extremely credible. For example, US pilot David Fravor who saw several UFOs in 2004 has a history of good behavior, and was able to film what he saw. At worst, he is honestly mistaken. Some of the people whose story he relates, such as former CIA agent Gordon Novel, were known compulsive liars. Others, such as retired rock star Tom DeLonge are plain weird.

I wish that Coulthart had more carefully vetted which incidents he chose to cover. Instead of covering as many recent UFO incidents as possible, he should have sorted out all of the ones which are possible scams. 

His style of writing was a little bit annoying. He doesn’t come off as someone who is trying his best to be clinical or objective. Instead, he is opinionated. He tries to be just objective enough to pass off as unbiased enough, while still clearly promoting the notion that various governments are hiding information about extra-terrestrials.

The thing that struck me the most is how credible many of the encounters are. Many of these accounts involve data collection from radar and other devices, multiple credible witnesses, and sometimes even (blurry) footage. Although there is no fire; there is clearly smoke.

Another thing that struck me is that the witnesses that seemed credible to me were very consistent. They detected via instrumentation or saw orbs of light moving in very strange ways, sometimes going to the atmosphere or into water. The less credible witnesses seemed less consistent, seeing black helicopters, flying saucers, and little green men.

I am not convinced that there are aliens. But I am 100% convinced that there are currently unexplainable orbs of light moving around in unusual patterns that are getting filmed, detected on radar, and seen. To me, Ockham's razor suggests the simple explanation that they are aliens. But maybe there are less plausible but more naturalistic explanations, such as ball lightning or some other phenomenon. What is clear is that most of the events described in this book are not hoaxes.

This book is too fringe for your average reader. It requires a lot of mental effort to toss out the crap, and keep the treasure. I am always disheartened to learn that even readers will read books that I recommend with the mindset that either all information within the books is good or all of the information is bad. 

If you do choose to read this book, then listen to it as an audiobook. The book is read by the author, which is always by far the best. This makes it very easy and pleasant to listen to.

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