David M. Jacobs, Ph.D. is retired Associate Professor of History at Temple University specializing in twentieth century American history and culture. Dr. Jacobs began researching the controversy over unidentified flying objects in America in the mid 1960's, and has amassed over 38 years of primary research data and analytical hypotheses on the subject.

 

In 1973 Dr. Jacobs completed his doctoral dissertation in field of intellectual history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on the controversy over unidentified flying objects in America. This was only the second Ph.D. degree granted involving a UFO-related theme. A revised version of his dissertation was published by Indiana University Press as The UFO Controversy in America (1975). It remains the first sympathetic book on the subject of the existence UFOs to be published by an academic press. Since then, he has published Secret Life: Firsthand Accounts of UFO Abductions (1992), The Threat (1998), and UFOs and Abductions: Challenging the Borders of Knowledge (2000). 

 

Since 1973 Dr. Jacobs has continued to devote most of his professional and personal energies to researching the UFO phenomenon in general, and the abduction phenomenon in particular. Having conducted nearly 900 hypnotic regressions with over 140 abductees, Dr. Jacobs is one of the foremost UFO abduction researchers worldwide. As a result of his extensive primary research, he has developed the first scientific typology of the abduction experience.

 

In addition, Dr. Jacobs has lectured on the subject of UFO abduction at universities and colleges across the country. In 1989 he delivered the first paper to a scientific organization about the abduction phenomenon at Cornell University. In 1992 Dr. Jacobs participated in the first session on UFOs at the History of Science Society, Washington D.C. In conjunction with colleague Budd Hopkins, Dr. Jacobs conducted the widely discussed Roper Organization poll of the abduction phenomenon. The results of that highly influential survey were published in 1992 in the booklet, Unusual Personal Experiences. For over twenty-five years Dr. Jacobs offered the only regular curriculum university course on UFOs: "UFOs and American Society" at Temple University.

 

Dr. Jacobs is a strong advocate of strict scientific and ethical research methodology. With colleagues Budd Hopkins and John Carpenter, he has given a series of workshops for members of the mental health community in the methods of abduction hypnosis, research, and therapy. In recent years he has concentrated on ascertaining the proper methodological techniques for the hypnosis and therapy of abductees. Hopkins' and Jacobs' revised "Suggestions for Hypnosis and Therapy of Abductees" was originally published in 1994. At present Dr. Jacobs is currently working on a book about the methodology of hypnosis of abductees.