Artur Homs is an Andorran ufologist, dedicated to spreading the subject of UFOs on the radio and internet. In 2023, his name became much better known with the publication of his first book: "Distorcion o paraufologia? Historia de un reset fallido" (Distortion or paraufology? A Failed Reset), Signo Comunicación Consultores, Andorra, 245 pages.
It is an essentially critical work about Spanish ufologist José Antonio Caravaca. Let us recall that Caravaca has proposed the so-called "Distortion Theory" in three of his books:
- "Encuentros cercanos con ovnis. ¿Una arquitectura psíquica desconocida?" (Close Encounters with UFOs: An Unknown Psychic Architecture?, 2018)
- "Distorciòn ¿una teoría explicativa?" (Distortion: An Explanatory Theory?, 2019)
- "En la mente de los Ovnis" (In the Mind of UFOs, 2022).
These three volumes were published by Guante Blanco publishing house. Through various means, Caravaca has presented his work as a revolutionary, hit her to unpublished contribution, challenging the parameters accepted by ufologists and shaking the field of ufology.
This claim by Caravaca, by the way, was quite strange and disconcerting for those of us who have been reading UFO literature for decades. On the contrary, it seemed to us that "distortion theory" ("TD", hereafter) was a variant of para-ufology and paraufological contents (especially from French ufology of the seventies) and that it was far from being a novel and revolutionary perspective. However, many of us opted for silence, with the illusory expectation of not getting involved in sterile polemics (what could be more sterile than a ufological polemic about the "novelty" of certain ideas?)
That silence was broken by Homs' book, clearly and unequivocally. It should be noted that it had an important scoop in the comments of the researcher Moisés Garrido, perhaps the first Spanish ufologist to publicly question the supposed originality (but not the plausibility) of Caravaca's thesis. It must be said that Garrido is an outstanding exponent of para-ufology in Spain, a position he explained in his book "Ovnis, del espacio exterior al espacio interior" (UFOs from outer space to inner space) (Diversa Ediciones, Alicante, 2016), which enables him to pronounce himself when paraufological theses are deployed, as he writes in his foreword to Homs: "I have been introduced since the late 80s to this heterodox side of the UFO phenomenon (paraufology) and I do not find the slightest difference with what Caravaca presents to us" (p. 16).
Now Homs is breaking the editorial silence on TD. He makes it clear, however, that his book is much more than a denunciation or an invective against Caravaca; it is, above all, a tribute to various authors who influenced so many people (including Homs himself) and who, in his opinion, forged many of the ideas that have been captured and co-opted by TD. The Andorran author assumes that his work is, to a large extent, one of vindication: "These illustrious characters managed, with a clean machete, to open a path in a thick jungle of ignorance and ignorance about paranormal phenomena that did not allow even a ray of sunshine to pass through" (p. 47).
The book begins by explaining what TD consists of and the pillars on which it rests, namely: a) The External Agent (EA), b) projected distortion and c) the witness as co-creator and interpreter of unusual experiences. Incidentally, the first of these pillars (AE) is the one that gives cohesion to the whole, and is aptly defined by Homs (no doubt paraphrasing Caravaca): "Something that is capable of connecting with the psyche of the witness or witnesses, extracting mental material from it, with the purpose of fabricating a fictitious alien visitation consisting broadly of the landing of a flying vehicle and the exit to the outside of its occupants, among other elements" (p. 49). As highlighted elsewhere in the book, the resonances of distortion theory with issues raised much earlier (decades earlier) by authors such as Pierre Guérin, Hilary Evans and Bertrand Méheust are stentorian and unavoidable.
Then, Homs analyzes several authors that he considers "the original sources", dedicating a chapter to each of them. Josep-María Casas Huguet: author of New Universe, the "other reality", in 1994; therefore, in his own right, one of the pioneers of para-ufology in Spain. Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos: heterodox thinker of ufology, exhaustive compiler of explanatory hypotheses, iconoclastic theorist of mimicry and camouflage. Hilary Evans: an author who moved comfortably between the psychosocial hypothesis and para-ufology; with his studies on entities and non-ordinary states of consciousness, everything points to him as one of the main sources of Caravaca. Salvador Freixedo: former Jesuit priest and prolific writer, who emphasized for much of his career the "paraphysical" implications of the UFO phenomenon. Moisés Garrido: paraphysical theorist, whom we have already mentioned.
Homs, among other issues, emphasizes his approach of the "transient mimicry", inherent to Caravaca's theorization, but defended before and independently of him. John Keel: the famous author of UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse, one of the main defenders of the notion of an extra-human intelligence that controls the appearance of the UFO phenomenon, with the purpose of manipulation and deception. Bertrand Méheust: the French writer and socio-anthropologist, historian of the "psychic sciences", proponent of the idea of an "Agent X" in the late 1970s; interviewed directly by Homs. Antonio Ribera: supporter of the extraterrestrial hypothesis and firm opponent of para-ufology; then, why does Homs summon him? Well, as a criticism of Caravaca's insistence on the novelty of the relationship he establishes between UFOs and Marian apparitions, a speculation to which Ribera had already been devoted since the seventies. Sergio Sánchez Rodríguez: the undersigned and author of the second foreword to Homs' book; the Andorran did not include me as an exponent of para-ufology, but as one of the few disseminators of the thought of the French astronomer Pierre Guérin in the Spanish language. Remember that Guérin was a supporter of the extraterrestrial hypothesis, but not of the traditional one, because to his version he added numerous para-ufological elements, whose resemblance with the TD becomes overwhelming. Dennis Stillings: founder of the "Archaeus Project", is one of the authors who has delved most deeply into the symbolic and archetypal aspects of the UFO phenomenon, following more or less heterodox sources, such as Carl Gustav Jung, who was always in an unusual zone where psychiatric discourse and a certain confessed esoterism intersected. Stillings was also interviewed in person by Homs. Jacques Vallée: the famous French astronomer and computer scientist, author of Passport to Magonia and undisputed herald of parapsychology (six years before the term was coined). Pablo Vergel: Spanish sociologist, director of the editorial project "Reediciones anómalas", author of Más allá de la incógnita OVNI, a meritorious essay that deserved more diffusion and readers (Guante Blanco, 2018).
The review of the for ementioned authors constitutes for Homs a thick dossier with elements of proof, in order to show that Caravaca's pretensions of originality are unjustified and grandiloquent. Towards the end of the book, our author refers to his "personal vision" of the exposed problem (in chapter 14, entitled "The Frankenstein Theory"), reaffirming what he has been arguing since chapter 1: distortion theory is a jumble of already known ideas, which a great propaganda apparatus has presented as unpublished proposals and surprising novelties. If many have believed that they were shown something really new, it is due to a very deficient knowledge of the available literature on the elucidation of the nature of the "UFO experience" (to use J. Allen Hynek's expression).
Of course, we can disagree on certain aspects and details of Homs' work. But what remains is the overall impression. And what do we see? A meritorious work that has dared to question the proclaimed novelty of certain ideas, without fear of repercussions or controversy. The worst mistake that a reviewer can make, in this case, is to take the path of personal sympathies or antipathies. The only valid thing, that will survive the gossip of the UFO backroom, is reading, i.e. returning to the texts. Artur Homs' book is an excellent occasion to resume the bibliographic adventure and pay tribute to the UFO library.
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This book was commented in the video program "La Biblioteca Ufológica", episode 16 of the second season, in the Youtube channel of Coliseo Sentosa publishing house, with the participation of the journalist and writer Diego Zúñiga and the author of this review. These programs are dedicated to reviewing a UFO book each time, and can be watched at www.youtube.com/@coliseoosentosa.
Coliseo Sentosa has published about twenty titles by different authors since 2018, including both original works and translations.
