Alejandro Rojas

Credibility of UFO Witnesses at Mock-Hearing Impresses Former Congress Members

2013-05-13T08:52:37-04:00

While not all of the former Congress members at the Citizen Hearing on Disclosure last week were convinced that we are being visited by aliens, they all did say they were impressed by the high level of credibility of some of the witnesses they heard from.

Critics have pointed out that the committee members received $20,000 for their participation, so they would have been impressed by anything they had seen. However, their only requirement was to show up and participate. I think it would have been much easier for them to collect their checks and agree with reporters that it was a silly event. Instead, they are expressing their surprise that the credibility of witnesses is much higher than expected, and some are going so far as to say they are convinced that ET is visiting earth and the United Nations needs to investigate it.

Among the witnesses were 10 retired U.S. Air Force servicemen, including pilots and officers. Most of them testified to being personally involved with UFO encounters. Two of the witnesses that riled the committee members to action were John Burroughs and Jim Penniston. In 1980, these two men were sent out into the forest surrounding an air base in the UK that was on lease by the USAF from the British government to investigate mysterious lights. They say they came upon a strange triangular craft. Penniston took notes on the details of the object, and even touched it, before the mysterious craft lifted up above the tree tops and took off at a tremendous speed.

These men have requested their service and medical records from this time period, and have been denied. Nick Pope, a former official with the British Ministry of Defence who was in charge of their UFO investigations, also testified. He says that in their investigation, the British MoD did find high levels of radiation in the area after Penniston and Burroughs had their encounter, and feels this may be the root of some of their medical problems. He is very concerned with the problems they are having retrieving their records.

The former Congress members agreed with Pope and vowed to aid the men in receiving their records. They even volunteered to draft and sign a letter to the White House demanding their records be released.

Other credible witnesses included a Peruvian Air Force pilot, a colonel from the Uruguayan Air Force, and a professor from China, all discussing UFO events that have taken place in their respective countries. A UFO researcher from Brazil discussed his group's cooperation with the Brazilian government in investigating the phenomenon. They were even recently invited to the Brazilian Ministry of Defense to meet with military heads.

It was not only the former Congress members who were impressed. Among the attendees was Edgar Cahn, a professor at the University of the District of Columbia School of Law, founder and co-chairperson of TimeBanks USA, a former special counsel and speechwriter for Attorney General Robert Kennedy under President John Kennedy's administration, and the author of a number of books including No More Throwaway People.

Cahn told me that he found the testimony "very compelling and very exciting." He went so far as to say he is concerned that if the military has recovered a crashed flying saucer that they are not sharing this information and the technology they may have obtained. Cahn seems to have been convinced by testimony given regarding the famous alleged UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico. One of the witnesses that spoke to this event is Dr. Edgar Mitchell, a former Apollo astronaut. He grew up in the town of Roswell, and says some of the townsfolk who were around at the time have told him it really happened, and he believes them.

Former senator Mike Gravel has been the most out spoken about his feelings on what he heard at the hearing. He says, "There is no doubt in my mind that there is an extraterrestrial presence that is affecting the planet."

He told the ABC News program Top Line that the conspiracy to keep this information secret, "goes right to the White House, and of course, once the White House takes a position, 'well, there's nothing going on'... it just goes down the chain of command, everyone stands toe."

Four of the six former Congress members have pledged support for a proposal that has been drafted to the United Nations suggesting that they hold "a world conference addressing the possible evidence for an extraterrestrial presence engaging this planet."

Stephen Bassett, the organizer of the event, says that they were not able to get this information while they were in Congress because they are told there is nothing to it, so they don't spend the time to get to know more. It would be interesting to find out if current Congress members would find this testimony as compelling, and what actions they may be prompted to take.

You can find more coverage of the Citizen Hearing on Disclosure at OpenmInds.tv.

Has UFO Disclosure Already Happened? (VIDEO)

2013-04-25T17:32:37-04:00

A lot of UFO researchers talk about disclosure, but who do we want to make this disclosure, and what are we looking for them to disclose? There are those that believe disclosure has already happened, and depending on your answers to these two questions, you may think so too.

The most common idea people have of disclosure is the President making a special announcement that they have discovered some UFOs are flown by extraterrestrials. This is the sort of disclosure that the Citizen Hearing on Disclosure is seeking this weekend in Washington D.C. at the National Press Club. There will be a panel of former congress members reviewing five days of testimony from witnesses and UFO researchers. The idea is to inspire real congressional hearings that will prompt the President to announce that they knew it all the time.

This sort of disclosure sounds simple. However, a lot of these people feel the government is currently lying about the subject. How would we know what we were being told is now the truth? If proponents of this type of disclosure already believe the government cannot be trusted, why would they trust any announcement?

That is a point that is often made by retired Army Colonel, Dr. John Alexander. He is convinced the UFO phenomena is real and is likely of an extraterrestrial nature. However, he feels government disclosure has already happened. The FBI and the Air Force are two examples of government agencies that currently have thousands of files available on their investigations into UFOs. Alexander says they have released all of their research, but they haven't discovered much and are as baffled as the rest of us.

Much ado has been made of an unofficial group of friends inside intelligence circles Alexander helped to organize that looked into government UFO secrecy. He thought maybe they would find a group of secret keepers. What he found is that the topic is a bit of a hot potato. No one wants to deal with it, because it is too weird and they fear ridicule. He thinks the real lack of serious investigation by the government is due more to incompetence than anything else. However, he does feel official investigation is needed and advocates for organized research into the topic.

Another UFO investigator who often says disclosure has been accomplished is Dr. Steven Greer. Greer has been in the news a lot these past few weeks for his new documentary, Sirius. He was the first to bring credible witnesses to the National Press Club in Washington D.C. to address the media in 2001. It was an impressive group that included retired military officers, an FAA official, and credentialed people in the private sector. They testified to their knowledge or involvement with UFO research or sightings. To many, the credentials of these people were sufficient enough to be a sort of disclosure. In fact, this event prompted me to not only sit up and pay attention, but to get involved with reporting and researching the topic.

Others feel that the secrets are locked up so tight that getting answers is a much more difficult and complicated task. Richard Dolan, a UFO historian, thinks that the answers are probably locked up in deep black projects. Even the President may not have the need to know, giving him plausible deniability, and making it true that the White House doesn't know anything about UFOs because they are not in the loop. If we don't know where the secrets are, how do we, or the President or even congress get to them?

Of course there is also Jaden Smith. He says President Obama has already disclosed to him the truth about ETs. Jaden is the 14 year-old son of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith. In an interview with Wonderland magazine last week he says he asked Obama about ETs when he got to visit the White House with his family. He told Wonderland:

I talked to President Obama about extraterrestrials. He said he could neither confirm nor deny the existence of aliens, which means they're real. If people think we're the only people that live in this universe, then something is wrong with them.

The point is that there are many ideas about what disclosure really means, and whether it has already happened, or if it is even necessary. Of course, all of this would be moot if extraterrestrials decide to park a spaceship over the White House, and disclose themselves.

Social Media Mayhem: Online Vigilantism and the Ethics of Tweeting a Scoop

2013-04-22T03:35:48-04:00

It wasn't the news outlets with the scoops Friday in Boston; it was Boston area police scanners being streamed over the Internet, and the Twitter feeds that were following them. This is just one example of how the events of last week were made more chaotic by social media. Even the FBI fell prey to the social media monster.

Friday afternoon I popped onto HuffPost Live to get the latest on the pursuit of the bombing suspect. It was about an hour before they got suspect #2. He was still in the boat. The host, Alyona Minkovski, was interviewing experts on a subject related to the bombing, but the topic in the live comments was the action that was unfolding with the capture.

Just as I had entered the site, someone posted a Ustream link of a Boston area police scanner. Someone had set up a video stream with a camera on their scanner and we could hear the audio. The person who posted the link to the scanner sent me a note saying that only a few minutes after they posted the link there were over 2 million people viewing the scanner video stream. As we listened, we were posting what we were hearing and commenting about it.

Even though we were posting what we were hearing, Minkovski was not referring to our comments, probably a responsible decision on her part. However, as soon as we heard news on the scanner, the Boston Globe, or someone else would tweet it. We heard a comment regarding a possible fire on the boat, and sure enough, within minutes, NBC tweeted it. We still have no information on whether there really was a fire on the boat.

Minkovski then announced that authorities asked people not to post information they heard on the police scanners online. Although she added, under her breath, that there is some controversy over this. I felt compelled to comply with the authorities' wishes. I asked people participating in the comments how they felt about it. I got no answer, but they continued tweeting updates from the scanner. We heard the police discuss pulling back the cover on the boat, throwing in the flash bombs, and requesting a hostage negotiator. The whole time news outlets were tweeting this information.

Finally, we heard the words we were waiting for, "suspect in custody." Immediately, NBC tweeted it and Brian Williams went on TV to announce it to the world. We didn't know for sure whom the suspect mentioned on the scanner really was. However, NBC rolled the dice, and assumed it was Dzhohkar Tsarnaev. Unlike with the boat fire, the dice fell in their favor this time, and now they are receiving accolades for being the first to announce the capture.

It was surreal to hear the police on the scanner, see several people post what we heard in the comments, and then see NBC tweet it, while HuffPost Live had still not yet reported it. I am sure the Huffington Post monitors the comments, and saw the postings of the link to the scanner.

Should Huffington Post Live have gone to the video stream and had the scoop like the other news outlets? Or perhaps it is more responsible for a news outlet to hold off posting what is heard on a police scanner before it is confirmed? By praising NBC are we reinforcing behavior other news outlets are being criticized for?

I think these questions are important because as social networking becomes more of an innate part of our lives, we will continue to share outlets of information, good or bad. Our posts traverse the planet at near light speed, and the next time a similar event happens, we will be right back here asking the same questions.

The FBI has now told us that social networking also played a large part in their decision-making last week. Users in a Reddit.com forum were essentially crowd sourcing vigilante crime fighting. They were coordinating amongst themselves to share pictures from the marathon of people they thought looked suspicious so that others could scour more pictures in an attempt to catch the bad guys in the act.

Law enforcement told The Washington Post that their decision to release pictures of the two suspects was partly influenced by concerns that efforts such as this would cause the wrong people to be targeted. An example of their fears being realized was the front-page picture on The New York Post of two innocent bystanders who they wrongly alleged were suspects.

It is wild to think that online vigilantism and news outlets with ravenous appetites for a scoop helped force the hand of the FBI. Especially given that the FBI now believes their release of the pictures of the suspects most likely caused the spree of violence that included shootouts, a car jacking, and culminated in the raid of the boat that some of us got to hear live from police scanners streamed over the Internet.

I am a social media junky, and I was floored to be able to listen to the scanner and comment with other HuffPost Live viewers, but as exciting as it was, it is also a bit scary. It is the wild west of the web, and things are moving so fast none of us can keep up.

James Fox to Announce $100,000 UFO Reward for Proof of an ET Spacecraft (EXCLUSIVE)

2013-02-21T19:07:13-05:00

Nearly every day, videos, photos and eyewitness accounts of UFOs pop up on the Internet.

Some are hoaxes. Some are quirks in the weather. Some sightings are never explained and forevermore remain UFOs.

The photo above, taken by Hannah McRoberts on Vancouver Island in British Columbia in 1981, is considered one of the most credible UFO pictures.

Still, never has there been widely accepted positive proof of an extraterrestrial spacecraft, though there are those who believe various government agencies around the world have conspired to hide the truth.

Now, however, if someone can prove otherwise, they will be $100,000 richer.

Filmmaker James Fox will make this announcement as part of the promotion for his upcoming movie The 701, inspired by the Air Force's two-decade UFO study, Project Blue Book.

The massive study into 12,618 UFO sightings, which ended in 1969, was able to explain away all but 701 of these sightings.

Fox, who previously directed Out of the Blue (2002) and I Know What I Saw (2009), will reveal the $100K challenge at the 22nd International UFO Congress (IUFOC), which begins Feb. 27, in Fountain Hills, Ariz.

"One of the aspects that sets our film apart is the producers' commitment to bringing forth never-before-seen evidence. As part of this effort, we're offering a $100,000 reward for the best proof that some UFOs are alien spacecraft," Fox told The Huffington Post exclusively.

"This material can be in the form of a photograph, video or film footage or debris from an alleged crash site. But it must be able to withstand scientific scrutiny by our chosen panel.

"Our intent is not to create another television UFO documentary, but to produce a feature film for worldwide theatrical release -- 'The 701' -- the most compelling film ever produced on UFOs," Fox said.

"701 is the number the government doesn't want you to know about. The U.S. Air Force had a serious problem, starting in the late 1940s. Technological devices were invading our airspace with total impunity. Glinting, metallic discs, which could accelerate and maneuver in ways hard to imagine, were being seen in incredible numbers by reliable witnesses. Many of them were pilots."

Fox, one of the co-stars of National Geographic's Chasing UFOs, will be sharing the IUFOC podium over the five-day event with former nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman; ex-FBI Special Agent (and host of the Syfy Channel's Fact, or Faked) Ben Hansen; skeptical research scientist Ben McGee; former UK Ministry of Defense officer Nick Pope; and regression therapist Barbara Lamb, among others, presenting a compelling variety of topics, including:

Ancient Astronauts and Technologies

Physics of Space Travel

A New Look At The Cosmos

ET/Human Hybrids

Close Encounters of The 4th Kind: ET Contact

Watch IUFOC's Jason McClellan and Syfy Channel's Ben Hansen talk about a planned night vision skywatch at the upcoming International UFO Congress:

Congress co-organizers Jason McClellan and Maureen Elsberry host "Spacing Out," a weekly web series that explores UFOs, outer space and the search for extraterrestrial life.

McClellan says the IUFOC, now in its 22nd year, fights to maintain credibility, a not-so-easy task given how many people regard the search for extraterrestrial life.

"Putting aside the giggle factor often associated with UFOs, people can come here and share their stories, experiences and personal viewpoints without being ridiculed," McClellan told HuffPost.

An interesting daily conference activity invites people to attend special experiencer sessions, led by licensed therapists, and which is closed to all press and media.

"It's a place where people can go and share their experiences," said Elsberry. "If they think they've had an experience, whether it be an abduction or any type of close encounter, they can tell it to a professional and share it with other people -- anybody can go and share their story. People can try and find some answers to what they're experiencing. Honestly, for many people, that's the main reason they come to the conference."

Once the $100,000 UFO challenge is announced, it's expected that many people will submit items they feel are credible contenders for the reward. On the other hand, the ease by which UFO photos can be made these days may account for many of the entries.

The image above is an enlargement from the main picture at the top of the story. Could this be a candidate for a $100,000 payoff? Let the contest begin.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Lee Speigel is the master of ceremonies at this event.

With so many UFOs reported, photographed and videotaped, most can be easily explained.

New Book Chronicles Official Government UFO Investigations (VIDEO)

2012-09-05T11:21:12-04:00

Many do not realize that for several decades the United States took UFO reports very seriously. In fact, it was the Air Force that coined the term UFO in the first place. Furthermore, there are several governments around the world who still take UFO reports very seriously and continue to investigate them in an official capacity. All of these government-sponsored UFO investigations have been documented like never before in the new book UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry.

The cover of the book says it is a history of government UFO investigations "from the perspectives of the governments themselves." That is because the authors have undergone years of painstaking research, unearthing hundreds of official government documents from government and university archives chronicling the manner in which government agencies went about tackling the UFO phenomenon and why they even bothered.

The book begins during World War II when many Allied pilots in the European campaign reported witnessing balls of light following their aircraft and eventually flying off at great speeds. They were dubbed "Foo Fighters." After the war the military inquired of the Germans and Russians as to what these Foo Fighters were. Their response was that they had also witnessed the mysterious balls of light, and had assumed them to be secret weapons of the United States. Thus began over two decades of investigation as to what these unidentified flying objects were and whether or not they posed a threat.

Reports of UFOs of varying shapes and sizes increased steadily into the 50s. After sightings over Washington, D.C., President Truman tasked the CIA to look into the matter. They convened the Robertson Panel, which determined that the phenomenon did not pose a direct threat; however, they did worry that it could pose a psychological threat that could be exploited by the Russians.

Over half of the humongous 600 page, 8 1/2 by 11" book reviews hundreds of files demonstrating the serious nature in which every branch of the United States military, the CIA and the FBI took into investigating the flood of UFO reports coming in from the public, the military and even law enforcement personnel.

Eventually, due to the conclusions of an independent panel of investigators in 1969 with the University of Colorado, commissioned by the Air Force, official UFO investigations in the United States ended. The panel concluded that there was no scientific benefit to the study of UFOs. However, the authors dedicate a chapter to UFO investigation that took place post-1969, demonstrating that there have been a number of important sightings that the Air Force could not ignore.

One of these incredible events took place over two days at Loring Air Force base in Maine in October 1975. The first day's event was in the evening when security police saw a craft with red blinking lights fly in and then began circling the base. It came within 300 yards of a nuclear storage area and was tracked on radar before disappearing. It was thought at the time that it could have been a wayward helicopter. However, it apparently returned the next night. This time the crew of a B-52 bomber reported seeing a large football shaped object the length of four cars.

Although the United States ended its official investigations, other countries have continued to research the issue. News of the British Ministry of Defence's official UFO Desk closing has made headlines recently. However, the best example of a strong scientific effort has been France's GEIPAN, an organization that works with the National Center of Space Sciences (CNES), the French version of NASA. They post their findings on their website. A couple of their landmark cases include alleged UFO landings in which they felt the evidence supported witness testimony. In one of these cases laboratories found strange effects to the chlorophyll in plants removed from a circular depression where the alleged UFO had reportedly landed. They theorized the effect was a result of an electromagnetic field.

I asked co-author Robert Powell why he felt this book is important. He told me:

Several of the authors, I would say, have spent 30 to 40 years of their life thoroughly investigating this phenomenon. These aren't people who are jumping to conclusions. We don't talk about aliens; we don't talk about necessarily what's the cause. We talk about how the government reacted to the phenomenon, and it's a real reaction. It's a serious reaction, and this reaction probably still goes on today, but not in an open forum as it used to do.

This book is a hallmark piece of work that people curious about the UFO phenomenon, whether they be skeptics or convinced that UFOs pose a real mystery, need to read. It documents the government's involvement in UFO research in a way that has never been done before.

Werewolves in the USA

2012-08-31T16:06:37-04:00

In the movies werewolves enjoy much of the same mystique and magnetism as their archenemy... the vampire. Both are seductive bad boys, although romantic encounters with the prior are portrayed as carnal and wild, as opposed to the mesmerizing sophistication of vampiric liaisons. It is no wonder young heroines have a hard time making up their minds. Lucky for the parents of teenage girls, werewolves are only mythological creatures brewed up in the imaginations of creative storytellers. At least that was what I thought until I flipped through the pages of Linda Godfrey's new book, Real Wolfmen: True Encounters in Modern America.

Godfrey had not thought much of the issue either until late 1991. As a writer for a newspaper in Walworth County, Wisconsin, she had decided to write a story on local reports they had received of a large hairy animal described as a dog that walked on its hind legs. Her story sparked a nationwide fascination with what was being dubbed the "Beast of Bray Road." The events apparently not only pique the interest of Godfrey, but of people throughout the United States.

Since then Godfrey told me in an interview via email that she has received over 100 similar reports, and like the witnesses in Wisconsin, she believes many of them to be credible. She points out in her book that the History Channel's MonsterQuest television show put several witnesses with similar accounts to the test using a polygraph. They all passed.

As for the nature of these creatures, she has not found that the reports fit the traditional ideas of werewolves that we see in films. Godfrey wrote me:

I do not believe the upright canines are shapeshifting humans, but rather: 1. Some type of wolf or wolf/dog that has adapted to walk bipedally when it wants. 2. As explained to me by some Native Americans, a "spirit" creature that can move between worlds (dimensions?) but is fully corporeal when here with us.

Godfrey's book does not only focus on cases here in America; she also gives a history of the phenomena stemming back for centuries throughout the world. She notes that many of the historic reports are similar to those she has collected in the United States. They also often consist of an upright canid that runs off into the night on two legs. Fortunately, wolfman reports globally usually result in the creature trying to elude detection as opposed to vicious attacks.

Godfrey says it is important that people are informed of these credible reports so they can feel comfortable to report their own sightings. Although she concedes that, "Many people report their sightings to local authorities but are often disbelieved or ridiculed I don't know of any law enforcement or conservation entity that recognizes these creatures as existing." Still she believes the more reports that are received; the more we can begin to understand the nature of the phenomena.

However, if you are seeking to have your encounter, Godfrey advises:

"These creatures are very elusive, and seem to travel. Therefore you shouldn't expect to see one for sure if you travel to a sightings area, especially if the sighting occurred years ago. But keep a camera close at hand -- you simply never know where these beasts will turn up next!"

It is hard to believe that such a creature could exist. However, the witness accounts in Real Wolfmen are often very compelling. Pick up a copy and see for yourself. The book is hitting the shelves this week, and can be purchased on Amazon.com.

Paranormal Files of the Navajo Rangers

2012-08-16T09:32:20-04:00

For the most part, law enforcement does not give much credence to reports of paranormal activity. However, if you live on the Navajo Indian reservation and you call the Navajo Rangers they'll take your call just as serious as any other. Retired Ranger John Dover says paranormal cases only accounted for less than 1 percent of their investigations, but he considers them to be very significant.

Dover made it to the rank of Lieutenant before retiring and was in charge of supervising the Arizona and Utah side of the reservation. Dover says, "Our officers are all trained at the federal law enforcement training center, so they are recognized by the federal government as federal officers." Dover also completed criminal investigation training at the federal law enforcement training center in Glynco, Ga.

However, this training did not completely prepare them for some of the paranormal cases they investigated. Dover and his partner Stan Milford say they have rolled on reports of the usual paranormal suspects, such as ghosts, Bigfoot and UFOs, and they have also investigated sightings of creatures of Navajo lore, such as Skinwalkers who are believed to be witches that have learned to shape shift into animals.

Even though some may scoff at these reports, Dover says, "When you go into it as an investigator, you can't have your mind made up about anything. What you're looking for is evidence, and as the evidence collects you let the evidence speak for itself." He says they look for witness testimony to line up with the physical evidence, but they are careful not to immediately assume the witness is right or wrong. He also says that often a lot of these paranormal cases turn out to be very strong and if they were criminal cases the evidence would be enough to put someone in jail.

When I asked Dover if the Navajo people generally believe in things such as UFOs, he says he doesn't like the term "belief", because it is akin to saying you believe something without evidence. "In these cases people have seen enough [UFOs], [UFOs] that have landed, [UFOs] that have flown over, so often that it is just a fact of life." Dover and Milford have had enough UFO cases that they have often sought the help of the Arizona chapter of the Mutual UFO Network, the largest civilian UFO investigation organization in the U.S.

Some of these cases have been quite startling. Dover and Milford say that in one case a young woman said she was followed by a glowing orb while driving home at night. When she arrived home she saw what appeared to be a large rabbit where she usually parks. She ran inside and went to sleep, only to awaken with a headache. Upon examination of the car, the Rangers found electromagnetic effects which ran through the car right where the driver would have been sitting.

Even more exciting was the case of an old man who lives way out in the desert by himself. He saw what appeared to be a strange craft land and several entities come out of it. These beings came over and examined his house. The Rangers found him to be very credible, and they found strange circular pits in the ground around his house. The witness said the holes were not there before the incident.

Not all of these events have been UFO-related. Milford went on a ghost investigation where he witnessed coins drop from the air, a common occurrence in this location which is believed to be haunted. He says several of these coins fell on him. There were no indications that there were vents or holes in the roof where the coins could have come from. They just seemed to manifest out of nowhere.

Milford says he feels it is their duty as law enforcement officers to take all reports seriously. He says:

"In many of these cases people are frightened by what they have seen and that is really the bottom-line of why we investigate these cases. Because of the fact that my chief has basically told us that we will investigate a case when somebody comes forward asking for help and that is the bottom-line. They are asking for help and they are needing someone to turn to and someone to listen to them, and that is what we do."

Milford and Dover are like the Scully and Mulder of the Navajo nation, which is especially exciting for me. I was a big fan of the Tony Hillerman mystery novels whose protagonist was a Navajo tribal police officer, so I get extra giddy when the mysteries are real-life and paranormal. I say hats-off to Dover and Milford for their matter of fact approach to investigating these extraordinary cases and their courage in spite of the ridicule they say law enforcement personal often face when they investigate the paranormal.

For more Navajo X-Files, you can listen to my interviews with Milford and Dover on UFO Think Tank Radio.

Movie Star Thomas Jane Tweets About UFO Conference

2012-07-21T13:30:31-04:00

Another celebrity UFO tweet has hit the twittersphere. Last October several stars tweeted about UFO sightings, however this paranormal tweet comes from Thomas Jane and is regarding an upcoming UFO conference in Las Vegas. I am particularly excited about this tweet because I am hosting the conference.

Tom tweets:

Space Geeks! : A conference on Science and #UFOs, check it out: cosmic-exploration.com

I met Tom last summer at the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) Symposium in Irvine, California. Of course we were all excited to have a movie star in our midst. I was even more flattered to find that the friend accompanying Tom was a fan of my radio show, which at the time I was hosting with my friend Jason McClellan. Tom and his friend asked us a lot of questions on our opinions regarding various UFO topics and notable cases. Throughout the conference Tom mentioned how he thought there should be a UFO conference with more scientists and academics. I let him know I was thinking about doing just that so he asked me to keep him updated, which I have.

Tom isn't the only celebrity interested in the topic of UFOs. Among the celebrities that tweeted UFOs last October was Demi Lovato who apparently had her own anomalous sighting in LA . She tweeted:

Did anyone else see a UFO or weird thing in the sky tonight in LA???

Besides tweeting about UFO sightings, Ridley Scott has been saying that the idea extraterrestrials lent a hand in the advancement of humankind was a major inspiration for his latest movie.

Scott told the Hollywood Reporter:

NASA and the Vatican agree that it's almost mathematically impossible that we can be where we are today without there being a little help along the way... That's what we're looking at (in the film), at some of Eric von Daniken's ideas of how did we humans come about.

Erich von Daniken's work was made famous in the 70s, when he introduced the idea that many mysterious ancient earthworks around the world must have been developed using advanced extraterrestrial technologies. He calls this the "Ancient Astronauts Theory."

Read about other celebrity UFO stories from 2011 here.

Science, UFOs and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Video)

2012-07-02T15:49:42-04:00

Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, recently wrote in a The Huffington Post blog that UFOs are "a phenomenon worthy of attention," and I agree. SETI is in the business of searching for signals from intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations, and although Shostak's story continued to highlight some of the wild email correspondence he receives from people convinced that ET is already visiting us, SETI was once viewed as fringe itself. However, devoted scientists worked hard to make their case and in the process have gathered other scientists from multiple disciplines to join in the discussion and research topics related to SETI. Now their work is accepted by the mainstream, so much so that it seems hardly a week goes by without some major media outlet writing about what SETI is up to lately.

I think this is a great model for what needs to happen in the UFO research community, so I am working to make that happen. Just like the brilliant, forward-thinking scientists that helped develop the field of scientific study we now refer to as SETI, there are brilliant, forward-thinking scientists from multiple disciplines who are interested in looking deeper into the UFO mystery. I am gathering some of these academics and members of the mainstream media to take a serious hard look at the phenomena in relation to other space mysteries. This event is called the Cosmic Exploration Conference: Science, UFOs and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life and is being held in Las Vegas in October. I have also launched a Kickstarter project to seek funding to video tape the lectures and post them on YouTube.

The conference includes speakers in the field of astronomy and aerospace to talk about the state of the search for life on other planets, including the current boom in the discovery of planets outside of our solar system possibly capable of harboring life. There will also be professors of psychology, sociology and theology who are experts in examining the effects on society should we find evidence of life on another planet, whether that be microbial or an advanced civilization.

Members of the mainstream media who have taken a serious look at these topics and retired military officers that can speak to how governments have or have not reacted to these topics will also be on hand. This includes retired Major General Wilfried De Brouwer, who, while in the Belgian Air Force, was in charge of the investigation of multiple sightings of strange triangular craft throughout the 1990s.

The Huffington Post blogger Lee Speigel will also be presenting on hearings held at the United Nations in the 1970s on UFOs. Speigel created an audio visual presentation for the U.N. delegates as part of an initiative championed by Sir Eric Gairy of Grenada that resulted in the passing of an official U.N. UFO decision.

Recently U.S News and World Report released a special issue titled "The Mysteries of Space," which among the topics of solar storms and the arms race in space, included a serious look at the UFO phenomenon. I think this is another example that mainstream science and media are ready and willing to pay attention to a sober examination of the UFO question. Famous theoretical physicist Michio Kaku put it well in an ABC special on UFOs when he said, "90 percent of the UFO sightings are probably misidentified and prosaic, however, the other 10 percent beckons further exploration and serious attention from the scientific community, so let their investigations begin."

Link to the Conference Exploration Conference

Link to the Conference Kickstarter project

SpaceX Plans Flights to Private Space Station

2012-05-22T11:27:37-04:00

A new partnership between leaders in the commercial space race seeks to develop a space station that can be leased for private research, allowing national space agencies, companies, and universities access to a "microgravity" environment. The companies involved will be SpaceX and Bigelow Aerospace, both run by visionaries who draw their inspiration from personal goals that are so far advanced that they sound right out of science fiction movies.

SpaceX will make history this week when it becomes the first company to dock a privately developed spacecraft with the International Space Station (ISS). However, the ISS is not open to the public. This is where Bigelow Aerospace steps in. They have developed the BA 330 habitat, an inflatable space station that runs on solar and battery power. The concept for the unit stems from a NASA project that was canceled. Bigelow Aerospace picked it up and has launched two successful prototypes to demonstrate the feasibility of the technology.

The 330 in BA 330 reflects the number of cubic meters of volume the inflatable habitat provides. It is enough room to house six space-farers. Several of these units can be connected in orbit to provide enough space to serve multiple sets of guests for extended periods of time.

With SpaceX's prowess at launching vehicles into space and a promising space station technology developed by Bigelow, the possibility of leasing a space station, no matter how fantastic it sounds, may become reality.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell says:

SpaceX and BA have a lot in common. Both companies were founded to help create a new era in space enterprise. Together we will provide unique opportunities to entities -- whether nations or corporations -- wishing to have crewed access to the space environment for extended periods. I'm looking forward to working with Bigelow Aerospace and engaging with international customers.

Such fantastic plans can only come from two true visionaries who think more than outside the box, but outside the planet. Recently, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told 60 Minutes that the reason he seeks to develop spacecraft is to save humanity itself. He says:

I think it's important that humanity become a multiplanet species. I think most people would agree that a future where we are a space-faring civilization is inspiring and exciting compared with one where we are forever confined to Earth until some eventual extinction event. That's really why I started SpaceX.

Robert Bigelow, the founder of Bigelow Aerospace, also has some lofty ideas inspiring his ventures into space. In the '90s, Bigelow started the National Institute for Discovery Science, which scientifically investigated paranormal phenomena, including UFOs. Recently Bigelow Aerospace funded investigations conducted by the Mutual UFO Network, and they currently receive UFO reports from the FAA.

"I've been a researcher and student of U.F.O.'s for many, many years," Bigelow told The New York Times. "Anybody that does research, if people bother to do quality research, come away absolutely convinced. You don't have to have personal encounters."

The two companies plan to meet in Japan to discuss their marketing plans for the space station project soon after the launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft.

Private space stations, humanity colonizing other planets for survival, researching UFOs to develop space craft: These are themes found in some of my favorite sci-fi movies, and are now manifesting in real life. It feels like this commercial space race has snuck up on us and is all of a sudden in full swing. Pretty dang exciting if you ask me. I guess I will need to move aside my Star Trek and Star Wars movie posters, and make room for some SpaceX and Bigelow Aerospace paraphernalia.

Government Psychic Spies and Extraterrestrials

2012-05-07T16:34:13-04:00

In April, SRI International announced it will be taking over the management of the Allen Telescope Array, whose primary purpose is listening for signals from extraterrestrial civilizations. The array was built by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) and the University of California, with the majority of funding coming from its namesake, computer magnate, Paul Allen. SRI is no stranger to controversial projects. In the '70s SRI developed a method of psychic spying called "Remote Viewing," which quickly caught the attention of the CIA, and eventually culminated into a formal project ran by U.S. Army intelligence. Founding members of this clandestine organization claim they even used their skills to remote view UFOs and extraterrestrials.

SRI was originally the Stanford Research Institute, however, in 1970 it severed its ties with Stanford to become an independent non-profit organization and settled on the name SRI International in 1977. Founded in 1946, SRI is a research institute responsible for many important inventions including the computer mouse you are using to scroll through this story right now.

In the early '70s, SRI physicist, Dr. Harold Puthoff, began looking into psychic phenomena. According to the book, Psi Spies, by Jim Marrs, Puthoff's interests were piqued after reading a book on Russian psychic experiments. His colleague, Clive Backster, had been working on psychic experiments and one of the men he worked with, Ingo Swann, seemed to exhibit real psychic abilities. One of these skills being what Swann called "Remote Viewing," which was visualizing objects or places at a distance.

The same book that had piqued Puthoff's interest in psychic phenomena, Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain, had prompted the CIA to begin monitoring the Russian's psychic research and inspired them to begin their own. They contacted SRI in 1972, and convinced by Swann's ability, the CIA funded Project Scanate. This eventually turned into the Army intelligence project Stargate, in which the remote viewing protocols SRI had developed were taught to a group of soldiers who would use the skill to remote view for various intelligence agencies. Stargate was headquartered at Fort Meade in Maryland.

Army intelligence officer Joe McMoneagle was the first man taught by SRI to remote view for project Stargate. In an interview, McMonegale told me, "If someone would have told me we think you are psychic and we want you in this program, I would have told them, 'What, are out of your gourd?'" McMoneagle was more than a little reluctant when he was first invited to discuss the project. He says a bunch of men were brought into a room and asked about paranormal topics. McMoneagle recalls that his reaction was that he felt the Army needed to be on top of paranormal research due to the possible implications. This answer must have been what they were looking for because he soon found himself undergoing psychic testing, something he surprisingly showed a great aptitude for.

The original group for Stargate consisted of six remote viewers, and the program ran for nearly 20 years. McMoneagle says the program was very successful. They were tasked by nearly every known intelligence organization to retrieve data on items such as missing fighter bombers, terrorists, enemy bases, and even a kidnapped general. He says often the projects brought to them were cold cases that were over a year old, but within hours their group was able to provide new information which was accurate 22 percent of the time.

McMoneagle said that throughout the program there was also an interest in UFOs, and that he had remote viewed extraterrestrials himself. He shares many of these experiences in his books documenting his career as a psychic spy. Swann also wrote about his remote viewing of extraterrestrials in his autobiography, Penetration: The Question of Extraterrestrial and Human Telepathy. In the book he claims he remote viewed alien bases on the far side of the moon.

McMoneagle says most of the remote viewing of ETs and UFOs was done independently of requests by governmental agencies. However, he did recall being asked about an object he sensed while remote viewing a base in the eastern bloc for the Air Force. He described a saucer shaped object at 13,000 feet moving at 4,000 miles per hour that had made a hard 90-degree turn. He later found that at that target, the Air Force had gotten pictures of an unknown object travelling at 3,900 miles per hour at 11,000 feet that had made a hard right turn just as McMoneagle had described.

Project Stargate was shut down in 1995 after two independent studies on the validity of SRI's work. One of the studies, done by Dr. Jessica Utts at the University of California, concluded, "It is clear to this author that anomalous cognition is possible and has been demonstrated. This conclusion is not based on belief, but rather on commonly accepted scientific criteria." Another study, done by Dr. Ray Hyman at the University of Oregon, disagreed. Either way, the government did not feel that the expense of the program could be justified and the government's foray into psychic spying ended.

For more on this topic, visit UFODailyNews.com.

A Catholic's Guide to Living In a Haunted House

2012-04-25T13:43:46-04:00

When confronted with the paranormal, many people go through an internal process of questioning and reexamining of their perspectives on the world and themselves: questions such as whether or not they are going crazy, what prosaic answers there could be for the unusual experience or experiences, how people will view them if they dare to share their story, and other more existential quandaries. In his book, Holy Ghost, author Gary Jansen takes the reader though this process as he tells the story of how he came to believe his house was haunted and how he dealt with it.

Jansen is an editor and author specializing in books on religion and spirituality. Growing up in Long Island, his mother would occasionally talk about the ghost she believed haunted his childhood home. Jansen didn't think much of it until many years later when he and his wife purchased that very home.

After moving into the house, Jansen and his family began experiencing many strange occurrences which led him to suspect that perhaps his mother was right. Among other things, he felt strange electrical sensations in certain parts of the home, he saw shadows moving around the house, he and his wife heard weird sounds, and reminiscent of the movie Poltergeist, his son's toys would turn on and off on their own.

Jansen struggled with the preposterous idea that ghosts may actually exist, but as the supernatural experiences piled up, he also could not accept any conclusion to the contrary. He wondered, "Why was I resisting both belief and non-belief?" Often people who feel they have come face to face with the paranormal, especially those who didn't believe in its existence prior to their experience, describe similar feelings.

Another issue Jansen faced when he began seriously suspecting he was living with ghosts was whether or not as a Catholic he was supposed to believe in ghosts. Don't get the wrong impression; Jansen is not someone you would consider a "bible thumper," as indicated by the subtitle of his book, How a (Not-So) Good Catholic Boy Became a Believer in Things That Go Bump in the Night. Instead Jansen comes across as a regular guy who takes his religion seriously, but like many, has to work at reconciling it with everyday life.

Jansen found that Catholicism does incorporate the belief in ghosts. In fact, his research began to open his eyes to the vast amount of supernatural material in the church's history and doctrine. He found that there are actually protocols developed by the church for dealing with paranormal phenomena.

In his journey for answers and solutions to his problem, Jansen was not afraid to push the limits of acceptable church methods. This included getting in contact with Mary Ann Winkowski, a consultant and one of the inspirations for the TV show Ghost Whisperer. Winkowski claims to be able to communicate with ghosts and help entities "cross over into the White Light." Although hesitant at first, Jansen was amazed by the information she shared, and appreciative of the help she gave him.

Jansen's experiences and the confusion he felt are common among those who come to believe they are living in a haunted house. He is just a rational regular guy, experiencing something so strange that it threatens to shove him, kicking and screaming, out of the comfortable pocket of societal normalcy.

Skeptics will be able to appreciate the way he approaches the anomalous phenomena and get some insight into how seemingly well-grounded people, in an attempt to be honest with themselves and others, end up believing in the paranormal. His experiences made him consider that perhaps his own skepticism served "as a mask to cynicism." And that "maybe we need extraordinary things to happen to us to shake us from the sleep of doubt?"

Whether you are a believer, a skeptic, or an atheist, Jansen's journey is one that anyone can appreciate. Holy Ghost and can be found on Amazon, and a blog entry on his experiences can be found here on the Huffington Post.

UFO Video Baffles Chilean Government

2012-03-12T13:20:03-04:00

At the 2012 International UFO Congress in Phoenix, Arizona, retired Chilean General Ricardo Bermudez discussed the results of a remarkable multiple-witness UFO case. The UFO was spotted on the morning of November 4, 2010, during an air parade at the Air Force Academy in El Bosque, Santiago. Although no one noticed anything unusual during the parade, seven witnesses came forward afterward with different videos all showing a strange metallic object moving at extremely high speeds.

The parade was part of a ceremony that takes place every four years to celebrate the changing of the Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Air Force. The president, the heads of the all of the Chilean armed forces, and many other officials were present. During the parade a group of Chilean Air Force aerobatic flyers, called the Halcones, a group of F5s, and a formation of F16s flew over the spectators. The videos show different stages of these various flybys.

At first glance the videos do not look unusual, but if you look closely on each, there is a slight flicker as if something small moved across the screen very quickly. Upon closer examination, Bermudez says each video shows what appears to be a round metallic object with a dome moving across the screen.

Bermudez is the director of the Committee of Studies of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena (CEFAA), which is an arm of Chile's version of the FAA. During their analysis, Bermudez says CEFAA first went to skeptical astronomers. Despite their disbelief in UFOs, the astronomers estimated the speed of one of the objects at 10,000 KM (6213 miles) per hour.

According to OpenMinds.tv:

Gen. Bermúdez showed the analysis done by the astronomers from CEFAA's External Committee of Advisors, which established that the object was not a meteoroid, a comet, reentry of space junk, a bird or an airplane. Furthermore, the scientists' report stated the UFO undertook "a risky maneuver in front of the Halcones from west to east" and that it did "a flight maneuver at low altitude and high speed." The report also established that "the object shows light and shadow effects of metallic like reflections and shows ellipsoidal shape" and that "the land observers do not detect the object in spite that it passes over their heads, thereby it is not accompanied by a sound wave."

Screen captures from the videos:

I was the emcee of this conference, and while preparing for his talk behind the stage, the general told me that he had actually been skeptical of UFOs, but this case had finally convinced him there was something mysterious to the phenomenon. He told the audience at the UFO Congress he is convinced it is very important that the study of UFOs continue. Furthermore, he believes that an agency should be established to investigate the issue on a global scale, preferably within the United Nations.

Chile is one of the few countries around the world that has a government-backed UFO research organization. Although this case is the most impressive, they have investigated several cases they have found to be anomalous.

Witchcraft-Related Violence Rampant Worldwide

2012-03-05T16:29:00-05:00

British headlines buzzed last week with the conviction of a London couple for the death of a 15-year-old boy whom they violently abused because they believed him to be a witch. However, as shocking as it may sound, this is not a secluded incident. Violence against people accused of being witches is a growing problem in the U.K., spilling over from a major, ongoing problem in other parts of the world, especially India and Africa.

Mid-day on Christmas 2010 authorities in London responded to a call about a child who had drowned in a bathtub. What they found indicated foul play. The child, Kristy Bamu, had lacerations, bruises, and was missing teeth. He was under the care of his older sister, Magalie Bamu, and her boyfriend, Eric Bikubi. In testimony given in court by family members, the victim had wet himself, causing a fight with his older sister. She and her boyfriend Bikubi assumed he had been possessed by demons and began an exorcism ritual.

Bukubi was familiar with exorcism, a practice popular in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he and the Bamus were from. Bukubi had previously accused a roommate of being possessed by demons. The ritual calls on fasting, praying, and the beating of the "possessed witch" in order to drive out the evil. After days of torture and fasting, Kristy was put into a bathtub, where authorities say he was too weak to raise his head above water, causing him to drown.

Magalie and Bikubi's convictions for the murder of Kristy brought the issue of growing violence against alleged witches in the U.K. to the forefront. Scotland yard told the BBC that they have investigated over 80 faith-based child-abuse cases in the last decade.

African studies expert Dr. Richard Hoskins says the subject of faith-based abuse has been regarded as taboo because "when it comes to fundamentalist religious belief affecting child protection, we don't seem to want to talk about it." John Azah, chairman of the British Federation of Race Equality Councils, agrees, telling the BBC, "[Politicians] are too scared of being accused of racism."

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the problem is much worse. UNICEF reported that in 2010, 20,000 children accused of witchcraft were living on the streets in the capital city of Kinshasa.

However, the problem persists throughout Africa. Just last week a couple accused of witchcraft was lynched by a mob in Kenya. By the time the police were made aware of the situation, it was too late. The brother of one of the victims told the Nairobi Star he believed a rival in a land dispute accused the couple of witchcraft, inciting local villagers.

Witchcraft is also said to be responsible for the maiming and deaths of albinos in Africa. In this case it is the witch doctors who seek the limbs of albino people. They sell for thousands of dollars on the black market. According to a recent ABC News story, 64 albinos have been murdered in Tanzania alone for their body parts.

Africa is not alone when it comes to witchcraft-related violence. According to the National Crime Bureau in India, over 2500 women have been killed for being suspected of practicing witchcraft. In December 2010, the Jharkhand State Women's Commission in India held a daylong national conference titled "Atrocities faced by women labeling them as witches -- problems and solutions."

In the U.S., modern views on witches seem to be trending more positively. Television shows and movies often feature witches as young heroines, like Samantha in the popular television show Bewitched. The popularity of the Wicca religion has also helped. Many people who practice Wicca identify themselves as witches. However, Wicca is largely focused on worshiping nature and caring for others.

The Salem witch trials are regarded as ancient history in the U.S. It is difficult to fathom that such atrocities continue to affect thousands of innocent men, women, and children throughout the world.

Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Recovering From Economic Downturn

2012-01-31T20:11:43-05:00

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program has not gone unscathed from the recent economic turmoil. In fact, in April of last year, their flagship radar field went dark. However, renewed funding has brought the radars back online and their hunt will soon be aided by the largest telescope the earth has ever seen.

The Allen Telescope Array is named after its main donor, Steve Allen. Run by the University of California Berkeley's Radio Astronomy Laboratory, its day to day operations have relied on funds from the National Science Foundation and the state of California. In April of 2011 those funds ran dry, causing the humongous 42-dish field to turn off the lights. Many feared that this heralded the end of SETI.

Meanwhile, alongside the headlines regarding SETI's demise, were stories of planets being discovered that could potentially harbor life and signs that Mars and even the moon could have been more hospitable to life in the past than previously thought. One SETI scientist, Dr. Paul Davies of the University of Arizona, even suggested that we review high-definition images of the moon to look for signs of ancient alien civilizations.

The excitement for the potential discovery of life beyond our planet, just beyond our grasp and right around the corner, almost seems palpable. In such an environment, how can SETI be left for dead? It appears this disparity has not gone unnoticed, for funding has recently come forth allowing the Allen Array to come back online. In December 2011, the weeds were pulled back off of the massive radar dishes, and once again they began listening for stray extraterrestrial radio signals.

More good news for SETI has come from overseas. The Netherlands has brought online the largest radiotelescope in the world. Dubbed LOFAR (LOw Frequency Array), when completed, it will consist of 20,000 antennas spread across Europe and linked together with fiber optics. The data they collect is sent to a supercomputer at the University of Groningen and then transmitted to the Netherlands Radioastronomy Institute. According to the Daily Galaxy, when completed, "LOFAR will have a resolution equivalent to a telescope 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) in diameter." 16,000 antennas are currently online with plans for the project to be completed in mid-2012.

This massive radiotelescope will serve many purposes, one being to listen to signals for SETI. With all of this power you would think it is only a matter of time before we will be able to tune in on some extraterrestrial talk radio. That is, of course, if aliens even use radio. They could use other types of technology for communication, or they may have transcended the need for talk radio at all. Either way, at least for now, SETI has overcome its most recent economic hurdle to ensure we can continue listening to the stars.