Evans, Hilary (1929-)

British pictorial archivist and writer on paranormal and anomalous subjects. He was born in Shrewsbury, England, March 6, 1929, and attended Cambridge University (B.A.) and Birmingham University (M.A., English literature). He worked for 12 years as an advertising copywriter, first in agencies, then freelance. In 1964, with his wife, he founded the Mary Evans Picture Library, a historical illustration archive near London, and Evans now serves as the library curator. He has written several books about illustration and picture research. Evans's interest in anomaly research began during his student years, but he became actively involved in the late 1960s. He has been a council member of the Society for Psychical Research as well as a committee member. In 1981 he helped to found ASSAP (Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena). He lectures frequently in Europe and the United States.

Evans has taken a special interest in UFOs, largely for what science can learn from observing and investigating a widespread and ongoing anomaly. He has become a major exponent of the psychosocial hypothesis that explains UFO reports primarily as culturally shaped visionary experiences. He is a council member of BUFORA (British UFO Research Association) and has written widely on the subject of UFOs. His re-search has been one aspect of a larger concern with alleged visions of, and encounters with, otherworldly beings, which he has explored in several comparative studies.

He regards himself as rather skeptical but believes that many claims of the paranormal are based on fact and that scientific anomaly research may dramatically extend our knowledge of ourselves and the universe we inhabit.

Sources:

Clark, Jerry. UFOs in the 1980s. Vol. 1 of The UFO Encyclopedia. Detroit: Apogee Books, 1990.

Evans, Hilary. Alternate States of Consciousness: Unself, Other-self, and Superself. Wellingborough, Northampton, England: Aquarian Press, 1989.

——. Gods, Spirits, Cosmic Guardians. Wellingborough, Northampton, England: Aquarian Press, 1987.

——. Intrusions: Society and the Paranormal. London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982.

——. UFO's 1947-1987: The 40-year Search for an Explanation. London: Fortean Times, 1987.

——. Visions, Apparitions, Alien Visitors. Wellingborough, Northampton, England: Aquarian Press, 1984.

Evans, Hilary, and John Spencer, eds. Phenomena: Forty Years of Flying Saucers. New York: Avon Books, 1989.