I\u2019m neither a believer nor a skeptic, but I have zero tolerance for pseudoscience. I’ve been studying UFOs since the 1980s; for a couple of decades, I immersed myself in an email list associated with the then-preeminent UFO research and enthusiast community. My interest was reignited recently due to happenings in New Jersey, and I was genuinely excited. However, it\u2019s disheartening to see prominent voices in this field so confidently claim scientific proof of ESP while discussing the phenomena in spiritual terms and framing it as part of some grand awakening.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s talk about the “egg.” <\/p>\n
Sigh.<\/em><\/p>\n And then there\u2019s the defense of the egg. <\/p>\n Jacques Vallee, in one of his books, recounts being contacted by the Pentagon, inviting him to examine alien bodies supposedly recovered from crash sites\u2014but only “off the record.” He decided against participating in what he perceived as a theatrical charade unless there was a way to study these claims openly and scientifically. Even the prospect of a trip to the Pentagon to view such evidence was outweighed by his fear of being involved in a psychological operation, regardless of the impact on his speaking engagements.<\/p>\n I\u2019m starting to suspect that these operations are designed to undermine those who genuinely believe in them, potentially prompting insiders to leak documents only after others dismiss them as nonsense. The truth may be less mysterious: a tangible phenomenon that consistently eludes scientific verification and a formidable institution, the US military, that struggles to address UAPs while attempting to paint discussions about them as fringe or insane.<\/p>\n Interestingly, UAPs seem to perpetuate this narrative as well.<\/p>\n UAPs represent the modern iteration of myths that have existed since civilization began, often featuring mischievous entities that toy with our perceptions. Flying saucers and the early sci-fi imagery of the 1940s and 50s predate the phenomenon we now associate with them, vividly brought to life by figures like Kenneth Arnold.<\/p>\n We have the contactees who spoke of space brothers and idyllic planets inhabited solely by white, blonde beings\u2014an idea that hasn\u2019t aged well. Vallee, Keel, and I believe there is something significant underpinning all this, possibly connected to consciousness itself, though its motives are utterly alien to human understanding. Vallee once stated that they are akin to demons that don\u2019t originate from space but have always been with us, which sounds a lot like pseudoscience.<\/p>\n Much of what I observe in this discourse\u2014including the promise of imminent disclosure that has been perpetually just out of reach since the 1970s\u2014feels like d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu. For instance, did you know that \u201cClose Encounters of the Third Kind\u201d was a government-sponsored attempt to make us feel positive about the idea of aliens under the guise that disclosure was forthcoming? You might not be aware because it never happened, and the UFO community\u2019s repeated failures to predict this so-called secular rapture have become a pattern.<\/p>\n \u201cClose Encounters\u201d had a unique allure; it seemed intent on transforming the horrifying monsters of prior decades back into the benevolent Space Brothers of early UFO lore. Why, though?<\/p>\n Vallee spoke with Spielberg about it, suggesting, \u201cThis is bigger and stranger than the ET hypothesis,\u201d to which Spielberg replied, \u201cSure, but no one would get the movie if we did that; this is Hollywood.\u201d<\/p>\n It was, at the end of the day, just a movie.<\/p>\n I desperately want to believe and have engaged with both proponents and debunkers. Remember Whitley Strieber and Communion<\/em>? A mainstream publisher legitimized an otherwise typical narrative from a Hollywood writer as a \u201ctrue story,\u201d birthing an entire industry and a specific, often flawed, conception of what extraterrestrial life entails\u2014an idea steeped in bad 1940s science fiction (think dying ancient races needing human DNA to create changelings).<\/p>\n But we\u2019ve been here before, encountering variations of the same themes across myths throughout history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"