User:Razr Nation/sandbox/J. J. Benítez

Juan José Benítez (born September 6, 1946) -best know simply as J. J. Benítez- is a spanish author, journalist and OVNI investigator. He received a degree in Journalism from the University of Navarra in 1965 and, in 1966 he started working on spanish newspaper La Verdad.

Over the next few years he became increasingly interested in the UFO phenomena, initiating his extensive investigation on such topics. After holding jobs at several other newspapers, he eventually left journalism in the late 1970s in order to fully immerse himself in the study of UFOs. In 1984, he published Jerusalén, the first volume in the Caballo de Troya series, the works that had garnered him worldwide attention and criticism.

During his three decades as an author, he has published more than 50 books, including investigative reports, essays, novels and poetry, and sold more than nine million copies worldwide, over five million of which belong to the Caballo de Troya series. He has also directed a TV documentary series called Planeta Encantado, in which he travels to 17 different countries in order to render his interpretation of some of the great unsolved mysteries of past history.

Personal life
Juan José Benítez was born on Pamplona, Navarra, on September 6, 1946. With 15 years he achieved his first salary working on a ceramic manufacturer. He received a degree in Journalism from the University of Navarra in 1965 and, in 1966 he started working on spanish newspaper La Verdad. After that, he did the militar duty on Zaragoza, when he stars to work on local newspaper Heraldo from Aragón.

Caballo de Troya series
Benítez became renowned and famous worldwide when he released Jerusalén, the first volume of a series named Caballo de Troya related to the life and death of Jesus Christ. Ar early as 2000, he was aware that the entire series would be nine volumes. As of May 2007, 7 million copies has been sold from the first 8 books in the series. To write the entire series, Benítez travelled to more than 15 countries and searched through about 14.000 sources. When asked about the material and sources he got to make the series, and the reason why he hasn't made them public, he commented that if he reveals such information, "people will get distracted, and that's not the intention", also saying he doesn't know if he'll ever reveal such information. He also comments that when investigating through the information, he found "a new Jesus, a divine and human creature" and "very different of what has been told".

Masada, the second book in the series, tells the story of Jesus Christ's childhood and appearances after his death. It also talks about a supposed russian-american setup called "European Rapture". In 2011, Benítez finished the series with Caná, the ninth book in the series. Benítez commented that he needed 218 days to write Caná, being the one that took the longest to write, and that it was a "very labourious" process, with the final draw having more than 1.100 pages.

Other works
Benítez begun his carrer in 1975, when he published his first book, named Existió Otra Humanidad.

In 2007, Benítez reached the mark of 50 books published with El Hombre que susurraba a los Ummitas. In this book, the author talks about "the strange case of a group of civilians that, from 1966, started to receive dozens of letters and messages coming from, apparently, an alien civilization." In 2008, he published De La Mano con Frasquito, a book about "reflections and mysteries of life". The book was publised by Granica, after Planeta rejected it. Benítez commented that "life is something to which one arrives for some time, we didn't came to be bad or good", and also said that it is a book he would've liked to read when he was young.

In 1997, he published Ricky B.

In 2000, he published an essay called Al Fin Libre.

In 2001 he published an UFO investigation named Mis Ovnis Favoritos.

In 2002, he published an essay called Mi Dios Favorito.

In 2004, he published an essay called Cartas a un Idiota.

Criticism
Benítez' works, mainly the Caballo de Troya series, has been heavily criticized. Miguel Rivilla, a churh father, criticized him on an open letter, saying that Benítez "confuses the faith with his 'rational' deductions", and "debunks all that [for him] does not seem to be logic or humanly explicable." He went as fas as to say that Benítez is the author of "some pseudo-scientific diversions." Also, some have accused him of plagiarism when writing the series, for which Benítez had considered to be a "slander". Javier Garduño, an escepticist of Benítez works wrote an article citing the many plagiarisms he tought Benítez made on some of his works. He commented that the spanish author had copied works from Javier Esteban's Bases de Ovnis en la Tierra, Carlos Salinas and Manuel de la Mora's Descubrimiento de un busto humano en los ojos de la Virgen de Guadalupe, Aste Tonsman's Los ojos de la Virgen de Guadalupe, among others. He also criticized The Urantia Book, and how Benítez literally plagiarized pages from it to make his book La Rebelión de Lucifer.

Publications

 * Caballo de Troya series


 * 1: Jerusalén (1984)
 * 2: Masada (1986)
 * 3: Saidán (1987)
 * 4: Nazaret (1989)
 * 5: Cesarea (1996)


 * 6: Hermón (1999)
 * 7: Nahum (2005)
 * 8: Jordán (2006)
 * 9: Caná (2011)


 * 25 años de Investigación series


 * 1. Encuentro en Sudáfrica (1999)
 * 2. Franco: censura ovni (1999)
 * 3. El árbol y la serpiente (1999)
 * 4. La noche más larga (1999)
 * 5. Alto secreto (1999)
 * 6. La era ovni (1999)
 * 7. Confidencial: ¡Abatidlos! (1999)


 * 8. El Mundo Nunca Sabrá (1999)
 * 9. El Gran Apagón (1999)
 * 10. UMMO (1999)
 * 11. Apolo 11: Ustedes No Lo Creerán (1999)
 * 12. Luz Negra (1999)
 * 13. Operación 23 (1999)

Docummentary

 * Planeta Encantado series
 * 1) La huella de los dioses. La isla del fin del mundo (2003)
 * 2) Los señores del agua. El mensaje enterrado (2004)
 * 3) El secreto de Colón. Un as en la manga de Dios (2004)
 * 4) El anillo de plata. Tassili (2004)
 * 5) Astronautas en la edad de piedra. Escribamos de nuevo la historia (2004)
 * 6) Una caja de madera y oro. Las esferas de nadie (2004)