Reality-warping Asian science fiction that just happens to be nonfiction.

In 11th-century China, pilgrims would journey to Pishe Lake to witness objects that flew up nightly, shot out dazzling beams of light, then vanished at impossible speeds.

In the 18th century, a high-ranking Chinese official was led by two luminous orbs away from the mountains, where female beings transported him inside one—beginning an odyssey that maps precisely onto modern alien abduction accounts.

In December 1994, twenty-five witnesses near Taiwan's Presidential Office observed five UFOs: a luminous saucer accompanied by four oval objects that looked like they were made of black iron.

These are not isolated incidents.

For 2,000 years, Asia has preserved accounts of glowing egg shapes, armored wheels, and Uzumaki-style spirals zigzagging across the sky, emerging from lakes, and hovering over cities. In the testimonies of ancient witnesses, we find the same details appearing in contemporary reports: objects emitting powerful lights, maneuvering in ways that defy physics, accounts of missing time, sudden silences, and encounters that transform or destroy those who experience them.

Drawing on declassified documents, imperial archives, classical texts, and contemporary cross-disciplinary research, award-winning writers and translators Yi Izzy Yu and John Yu Branscum expand UAP research beyond Western frameworks and open new pathways for understanding humanity's long relationship with unexplained phenomena.

STARS THAT PAUSE delivers:

• New translations of ancient Chinese encounters

• Modern cases proving the phenomenon never left Asia

• Striking connections between Eastern philosophy and current UAP conversations

• 19 provocative deep dives into related subjects, including:

*Chinese UFO theories rooted in qi and yin-yang dynamics

*A cross-cultural history of sexual encounters with non-human entities, from ancient Asian immortals to modern aliens and spirits

*The influence of Taoism on Carl Jung’s psychology and his UFO hypothesis

*The twinned histories of Asian shamanism and UAP encounters

*Profound similarities between Asian “strange lands” tales and today’s theories about portals and parallel dimensions

*Cross-cultural connections between Asian immortals, Western fairies, and modern alien and ultraterrestrial reports

*How Eastern philosophy, from Buddhism to Taoism, anticipated modern insights into consciousness, the nature of reality, and simulation theory

*Global cosmic egg mythology and its reflection in modern encounter reports

*Related explorations in narrative psychology, symbolic thought, and mythological engineering

As the Chinese scholar Ji Yun observed in 1800: “Those who insist all principles of existence have been discovered are simply being ridiculous.” Two centuries later, as governments worldwide begin to seriously investigate UAPs, and the world comes to terms with the fact that something is happening, his words prove prophetic. With investigative rigor and literary flair, Yu and Branscum reveal how Asia’s rich documentation holds crucial insights into humanity’s relationship with unidentified anomalous phenomena—whatever they are, and whatever we might be.

Essential reading for anyone fascinated by UAPs, Asian culture, or global mysteries. Stars That Pause is a must for fans of Cixin Liu, Ted Chiang, Passport to Magonia, American Cosmic, Hunt for the Skinwalker, and The Mothman Prophecies. A history truly stranger than fiction, it opens new avenues for understanding one of humanity’s most persistent mysteries—through the lens of one of its oldest continuous civilizations.