American-born, UK-based author and historian of science best known for 'The Sirius Mystery' (1976). His 2022 book 'A New Science of Heaven' argues that plasma physics can illuminate mystical and spiritual experience, and discusses some UFO sightings as one of several phenomena he interprets through that lens.
Robert Temple is an American-born author and historian of science based in the United Kingdom, and a former visiting professor of the history and philosophy of science at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He earned a degree in Oriental studies and Sanskrit from the University of Pennsylvania and built a career as a science writer for outlets including the Sunday Times, the Guardian and Time-Life, alongside a dozen books, starting with the bestselling and widely disputed 'The Sirius Mystery' (1976). In 'A New Science of Heaven' (2022), Temple draws on decades following plasma physics, and his personal acquaintance with scientists including Paul Dirac and David Bohm, to argue that plasma can exhibit organized, potentially intelligence-like structures. The book is primarily a study of plasma cosmology and its bearing on spiritual and mystical experience; UFO sightings and other 'luminous being' encounters are discussed as one interpretive strand among several, rather than the book's central subject.