Nigel Watson is a British writer and researcher, specializing in ufology.

Watson became interested in UFOs and alien contact in the early 1970s. He helped found the Scunthorpe UFO Research Society and has since contributed articles to Magonia, Fortean Times and Flying Saucer Review, as well as many other magazines.

In the 1970s, he investigated several UFO encounters that took place in Northern England. These investigations were published in Magonia magazine and included in his book, Portraits of Alien Encounters (VALIS Books, 1990).

Watson has concluded that many men in black reports may be due to witnesses being in stress-induced altered states of consciousness. Citing Watson's work, Mike Dash writes that many Men In Black witnesses "are often undergoing some sort of mental upheaval at the time of their

In collaboration with Granville Oldroyd and David Clarke, he researched newspaper reports of mystery airships seen over Britain in 1909 and 1912-1913. This culminated in a catalog of the latter airship scare for the Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR) and a book about the worldwide airship scares of the early 1900s, The Scareship Mystery (DOMRA, 2000).

He has also written two e-books. The first is titled The Flying Saucer Cinema. This looks at how the images and stories of spaceships and aliens have evolved on our cinema screens over the past 100 years. From the earliest days of movie making they were the ideal material for 'trick photography' and exotic adventures. After these innocent beginnings aliens were shown to be more sinister and threatening in the space operas of the 1930s and 1940s. It was not until the landmark year of

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The second e-book is titled The Origin of UFOs: Phantom Airships 1807 to 1917. Phantom airships mark the transition between fears and superstitions about Gods and spirits in the sky to the UFOs of today. From the 19th century began seeing what they thought were manned aerial vehiclesflying in the sky. Sometimes only lights in the sky were seen, many witnesses said they saw the craft and in some instances actually met the crew of these craft. The most exceptional Phantom Airship 'panic' took place in the USA from 1896 to 1897. There were thousands ofwitnesses and newspaper stories including many accounts of meetings with the secret inventor of this fabulous craft. Later, throughout Europe sightings of similar Phantom Airships sparked off rumours of foreign spies and potential invaders. This booklet surveys this material and provides internet and bibliographic references.

For more details: ]Both booklets are in PDF format.

In 2006, his comprehensive and critical review of the alien abduction phenomenon will appear in the Full Spectrum series, published by Windstorm Press. It is titled UFOs: An Exploration of the Phenomenon.

Sources

• Mike Dash, Borderlands: The Ultimate Exploration of the Unknown; Overlook Press, 2000; ISBN 0879517247