The consciousness aspect of the UFO phenomenon. II.

Introduction

This is a second post on the consciousness aspect of the UFO phenomenon. The first post on the consciousness aspect you can find here.  As I wrote in that first post, I think it is a good idea to have some basic knowledge of what science and philosophy (in the West) says about human consciousness, so we at least have some starting point from where to continue our exploration of the connection between consciousness and the UFO phenomenon. 

It is not certain that modern neuroscience (or quantum physics) can help us further understand the UFO phenomenon´s effects on human consciousness (i.e., altered experiences of space-time and profound psychological and emotional changes). Instead, a greater degree of clarity will perhaps be found in religious and spiritual traditions from around the world? Or, more likely, both science and spirituality will be sources of progress and insights on this issue.

Before we go to the main point of this post, I want to repeat that the main purpose of this post, the previous post, and the coming posts on the consciousness aspect of the UFO phenomenon, is to, hopefully, elicit new thoughts and discussions about what the consciousness aspect can teach us about the nature and origin of the UFO phenomenon, and vice versa. 

Or, more specifically: what a person´s altered perception/experience of reality in connection to an encounter with the UFO phenomenon can teach us about the nature and intent of the UFO phenomenon (the nature and intent of at least some part of the UFO phenomenon), and the capabilities of human consciousness. 

The consciousness aspect of the UFO phenomenon. I.

 

Background

Beginning with this blog post, I will focus more on the consciousness aspect of the UFO phenomenon. Why? There are several important reasons, but I think to suffice to mention in this initial post are these two reasons:

1. Throughout UFO history, people claiming contact with the UFO phenomenon (sightings, encounters, communication) have more often than not testified profound changes in their worldview and values of what matters in life.
2.  Individuals, or experiencers, also talk about telepathic communication and manipulation of the experiencers´ perception/experience of space and time during an encounter with the UFO phenomenon.

So the first (1.) point should indicate that these experiencers genuinely believe that something extraordinary happened to them. Something that had a profound and lifelong effect on them as human beings. It would be dishonest of me to claim that I know for a fact what happened to these experiencers or who or what caused the profound changes. I do not know that. 

But I know that profound changes in one´s worldview and values, as seen and documented in some of the experiencers, are not typical and do not usually occur quickly. These kinds of profound changes are generally related to traumatic events (war, violence, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse), or some sort of sudden insight, or expanded awareness, often in connection to mystical and spiritual experiences, meditation, euphoric states, etc. 

Therefore, I think there are cases of contact between humans and something unknown, which are difficult to explain in any conventional way (i.e., the profound psychological and emotional changes). More importantly, I think there are some cases of contact where the human genuinely believes his or her experience and candidly tells his or her story. For me, that is reason enough to take their stories seriously and respect the people telling them. 

How will official transparency progress?

 

Introduction

What are the plausible developments of what seems to be a genuine openness about UFOs/UAP from, particularly, the U.S. Government (USG)?

In the following, I am going to give some plausible answers to that question. Or speculate on the question, if you will, because I do not have any facts to argue with certainty for any of the scenarios presented below.

The reader should note that my presupposition is that a disclosure process, or greater official transparency, about the physical and technological aspect of UFOs/UAP, is, in fact, ongoing since late 2017. I also think the disclosure, or whatever the right term, is benign at this point in time. Not everyone in the ufo community agrees with my assessment. But I have chosen not to go into the different views and arguments on the question "disclosure or not?" or "disclosure or Psyop?" in this text. 

For now, I can say that even if the disclosure/transparency is benign and genuine, it does not mean that official channels and authorities will not control the flow of information to the public. That is neither surprising nor necessarily suspicious. There are, of course, limits to the extent of control that government officials can exert. 

I started to write this text before ufo historian and author Mr Richard Dolan made his show "The End of UFO Disclosure?" on his YouTube channel (live-streamed on August 19, 2020). Even though I disagree with Mr Dolan's pessimistic or realistic outlook on the future of disclosure, I think he raises some relevant points and questions in his analysis from August 19, 2020. 

I will come back to Mr Dolan's video further down, but now to my thoughts on plausible scenarios to the question mentioned at the beginning of this text. 

Political scientist Alexander Wendt on UFOs

 The link at the end of this text takes you to an interview with professor of international relations, Alexander Wendt, done by Sean Illing for Vox. The article was updated on July 24, 2020, due to the New York Times (NYT) article about the Pentagon´s Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force (there is a link to the NYT article in Illing´s article). 

My main point with this text is to highlight the fact that most people who study credible data on the UFO phenomenon will end up with the conclusion that there is a real phenomenon worthy of a scientific investigation. Most people reaching that conclusion can separate the issue of UFOs being real from the issue of what they are. Unfortunately, unsound sceptics like Seth Shostak and Neil deGrasse Tyson tries to make it the case that everyone interested in, or all believers of the reality of, the UFO phenomenon cannot differentiate between those two issues. 

For sure, some UFO believers have a hard time understanding the difference between saying that UFOs are real and what/who is behind UFOs. But Sean Illing and Alexander Wendt do not fit into that category. I think both Illing´s and Wendt´s approach to the UFO phenomenon, and their conversation in the interview, can serve as a model of how to be and stay, both open-minded and sceptical. 

Beware of the so called "skeptics"

 

"Whatever you do ... don't go West." Uploaded on YouTube channel 1967sander on the 11 August 2020. Duration: 5:15 minutes.

Among UFO skeptics he is considered as a main source of information and many debunkers see in him a real image guru but is he really that professional as they say? We are of a different opinion!

Licens
Creative Commons-licens – attribution (återanvändning tillåten)

 The reason I post this video is that I agree with what the representative of the imagery analysis team, 1967sander, says about the self-proclaimed "sceptics" of the UFO phenomenon. In this case, the "sceptic", or debunker, is Mike West. I do not know Mike West personally so I cannot judge his character, values, etc. Neither am I agreeing with 1967sander on the "Area 51 UFOs" mentioned in the video above. 

More specifically, I agree with 1967sander (the representative of the team) when he in the video says that criticism and scepticism are important and welcome if done professionally. My experience with most of the so-called sceptics, or what I call unsound sceptics, is that they seem to have gone to the same course in "unsound scepticism 101." It seems like that course is teaching people to become cognitively rigid, close-minded, and to repeat the same sceptical-sounding phrases. Also, to have an extremely stubborn attitude, and at no cost change an opinion. 

Of course, you have the same rigid thinking and stubbornness among the halleluja-believers in UFOs (referring to people believing all ETs are about peace, love, and understanding).

Scientists think UFOs deserve scientific investigation

**This text is copied from my article on Medium. Therefore, most of the links will not open in a new window.** /Janne 

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In an opinion piece in Scientific American, two scientists write that UFOs are a scientifically interesting problem and deserve objective scientific analysis.

The two scientists and authors of the article in Scientific American, Ravi Kopparapu, a planetary scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and Jacob Haqq-Misra, an astrobiologist at the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, suggest that interdisciplinary teams of scientists should study UFOs, or UAP (UAP, referring to “Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon”, is the preferred term by the U.S. Department of Defense).

Why should scientists spend their time and energy, and risk their reputation, on studying UFOs, according to the authors? Their answer in the article published on July 27, 2020, is partly based on the released videos by the Department of Defense (DoD) showing UFOs/UAP, the recent confirmation by the DoD that the videos are in fact genuine, and that the flying objects are still classified as “unidentified”, or “unexplained.”

But the authors' main answer to the question of why study the UFO phenomenon is also the most pertinent one:

Progress in the status of the UFO phenomenon as a legitimate subject to study

  

"UFO News Update: 8/2/2020." Uploaded by YouTube channel UFO News Network Sunday, 2 August, 2020. Duration: 34:04 minutes. 

Frank discusses even more NY Times article fallout and their follow up article, the Mellon CNN interview where he confirms crash retrievals were brought up in Congressional briefings, the Scientific American article calling for more scientific study of UFOs and a review of Episode 4 of Unidentified.

Host Frank Stalter comments on the latest UFO news from the past week, for example, Blumenthal´s and Kean´s New York Times article "Do we believe in U.F.O.s. That´s the wrong question." (see first link below), CNN´s interview with Chris Mellon (see second link below), and Scientific American´s article about UFOs deserving scientific investigation (see the third link below). 

• https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/insider/UFO-reporting.html

• https://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2020/08/01/pentagons-ufo-unit-will-make-some-findings-public.cnn

• https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/unidentified-aerial-phenomena-better-known-as-ufos-deserve-scientific-investigation/

Enjoy the progress in the status of the UFO phenomenon as a legitimate subject to study. 

Take care!

/Janne

Fox News on the latest New York Times UFO article + Senator Mark Warner

"Fox News | New York Times Latest Article." Uploaded by YouTube channel Project Unity on July 24, 2020. Duration: 1:16 minutes.

Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/us...

The New York Times story has hit the wire and I will be speaking about this in more detail very soon, I am happy to announce I will be conducting the first interview with both Ralph Blumenthal & Leslie Kean.

The creator and manager of Project Unity, Jay, is speaking more about his involvement with Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean in this video. Congratulations to and well done by Project Unity. I also raise my hat to other UFO researchers who have played a part in the New York Times investigating this aspect (the Pentagon´s UAP Task Force, possible "off-world vehicles", etc.) of the UFO phenomenon.

Both the video above with Tucker Carlson on Fox News, and the video below from Mystery Wire with Senator Mark Warner, is mainly directed at people who are unfamiliar with the transformation of the status of the UFO subject. The public has to understand that the UFO phenomenon is no longer a tin foil hat subject. That it never has been in some parts of the US Armed Forces is another story. 

New UFO-article by the New York Times

Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean have written another good - and this one is quite controversial -  article about the US Government´s study of the UFO phenomenon. The article was published in the New York Times (NYT) on July 23, 2020, with the headline "No Longer in Shadows, Pentagon´s U.F.O. Unit Will Make Some Findings Public." Note the important correction (at the end of the NYT article) made on July 24, 2020, on some of former Senator Harry Reid´s statements. You can read the article at the following link: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/us/politics/pentagon-ufo-harry-reid-navy.html?referringSource=articleShare

My comments on some parts of the article

The main theme, or question, in the article is: Does the US Government (USG), together with some private defence contractors, know about or have in its possession "materials, not from this earth", or "objects or vehicles not from this earth and not made by humans"? 

The article does not explicitly mention the "Wilson document" (or the "EWD notes" as it is sometimes referred to), but it is obvious that Blumenthal and Kean are following the content and the leads of that document. If you are not aware of the "Wilson document," I suggest you read it.  

I have personally a hard time believing that the USG (or specific parts of it) has had in its possession some kind of extraterrestrial material or technology, and kept it hidden for the world for decades. How would it be possible to keep such a thing secret for 5-7 decades? I find it very unlikely.

At the same time, I think I have to at least listen when credible people with more insight than me into the workings of government structures and who have actually been in the centre of the decade-old Pentagon UFO program, claims that "objects of undetermined origin have crashed on earth with materials retrieved for study." However, "objects of undetermined origin" do not necessarily mean or imply an intact "ET" vehicle.

US Senator Marco Rubio Speaks Out About UFOs

"NEW INTERVIEW: US Senator Marco Rubio Speaks Out About UFOs." Posted on brian hanley´s YouTube channel on July 17, 2020. Duration: 2:12 minutes.

This interview was conducted by investigative reporter Jim DeFede.

A short, but what may very well turn out to be a historical, interview with Senator Marco Rubio for CBS Miami. Even though the interview is short, and Mr. Rubio mainly repeats his main premise ("national security") as to why the US government needs to study UFOs, Mr Rubio also says some highly interesting things.

The following is what I think are the most noteworthy statements from Mr. Rubio, and how I interpret those statements to fit in the bigger picture of the ongoing careful and selective disclosure process:

The data on UFOs is very compelling, says former manager of US government´s UFO program.

"Luis Elizondo | US Senate & UFOs | 2020-06-26." Posted by Project Unity on June 27, 2020. Duration: 3:11 minutes.

Word has hit the mainstream media regarding the United States Senate Intelligence Committee’s interest in dislodging hidden / classified information pertaining to UFOs / UAPs, as well as bridging the communication gap between USG - Interagency relations relating to UFO data collection, past, present and future.

The video clip shows an interview with Luis Elizondo (former manager of the U.S. government´s UFO program, AATIP) on Fox News. I believe the interview took place on June 26, 2020. In the interview, Elizondo gives his view on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence´s proposal to the U.S. government to put together an unclassified report on UFOs (or, UAPs, which is the term preferred by the Pentagon). I have in previous posts written about this proposal or directive from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence here and here.

I think the most interesting thing that Elizondo says in this interview comes toward the end: from the 2:48 minute mark to the 2:58 minute mark. Listen and contemplate. 

Take care!

Janne

The U.S. government´s UFO program worked on the assumption that UFOs are real

"BONUS EPISODE | The Basement Office | Tim McMillan on UFOs, Roswell and Department of Energy." New York Post´s Youtube Channel. June 24, 2020. Duration: 10:35 minutes.

In February 2020, investigative reporter Tim McMillan released an in-depth article in Popular Mechanics about AATIP, the Pentagon's secret UFO program. In this exclusive interview with Steven Greenstreet, McMillan shares some shocking revelations about the alleged Roswell UFO crash and how the Department of Energy might play a big role in the government's ongoing quest to identify unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP).

Tim McMillan talks to New York Post´s Steven Greenstreet about the most intriguing thing he learned while investigating the U.S. government´s UFO program (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, AATIP). If you have not read the article by McMillan in Popular Mechanics (February of 2020), then I highly recommend you to do so here.

I am not going to comment on the conversation between McMillan and Greenstreet, more than to say that I think McMillan´s scenario on how the U.S. government would handle the UFO issue sounds reasonable and plausible. Also intriguing, is what McMillan says about the Atomic Energy Commission (starting at the 7:30 min. mark), which in 1979 became the Department of Energy. But this is not the "most intriguing" thing McMillan learned. He talks about that at the beginning of the interview.

Enjoy, and take care!

Janne

 

TTSA podcast about the Intelligence Authorization Act for 2021

In this fourth episode of "TTSA TALKS," Tom DeLonge, Chris Mellon (former United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence) and Lue Elizondo (former manager of Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, AATIP, a UFO/UAP program in the Pentagon) engage in a conversation about the Intelligence Authorization Act for 2021 that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) recently introduced and that includes an official and public request for a UFO/UAP Task Force and an unclassified UFO/UAP report.

The following link takes you to the fourth episode of TTSA TALKS: https://open.spotify.com/episode/74noR8ViZUCeAgvNv5oAjC. The episode is from July 1, 2020. Duration: 45:26 minutes.

My comments on some of the content of episode four.

As I understand the conversation about the difference between AATIP and the SSCI´s recent request for a UFO/UAP Task Force, is that the latter will be able to access data from different military departments and intelligence agencies. That is, the UFO/UAP Task Force (if adopted) will be able to cut through the bureaucracy and the "stovepipes" (vertical structure/organization) in the U. S. government (USG), and access more sensitive data. 

The Select Committee on Intelligence wants public analysis of UFO reports

A significant development in the wish for more public information on UFOs from the U.S. government may be on the horizon. Senator Marco Rubio, leader of the Select Committee on Intelligence, has taken a big step towards more transparency concerning military UFO data by directing the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to produce an unclassified report on "Advanced Aerial Threats." In the third link below, you can read the report adjoined to a draft of the 2020-2021 Senate Intelligence Authorization act.

In that report, on page 11, you can read under the subtitle Advanced Aerial Threats that:

Scepticism, David Hume, and UFOs

"Perceiving Necessity". Legg, C & Franklin, J (2015).

Background

What does a Scottish philosopher from the 1800th century have to do with the UFO phenomenon? As far as I know, David Hume (1711 - 1776) was not a believer in UFOs, nor did he in any of his books or essays discuss the UFO phenomenon.

So, what is my point in bringing up one of the most influential philosophers to write in English? Bear with me for a moment.

David Hume is famous for many contributions to philosophy (also to, for example, history and politics). Still, among philosophers and scientists, he is probably most known for his thoughts on causation and "the problem of induction." Hume´s thesis about knowledge and if we ever can justify something as certain knowledge made his contemporaries call his epistemological standpoint "radical scepticism."

Hume himself was quite shaken by his discovery and conclusions about the limits of our five senses and cognitive abilities to acquire certain knowledge about the world.

Some readers may by now have an idea about where I am going with this. Or not. Okay, so I better clarify the purpose of this text before I continue to describe Hume´s radical scepticism (which is debated if he actually was a "radical sceptic") and what it has to do with the UFO phenomenon.

What I am going to say about Hume´s thoughts about knowledge and truth has not so much to do with the UFO phenomenon per se, but rather the point of bringing up Hume´s scepticism has to do with everyone interested in the UFO phenomenon (both proponents and debunkers), and who would like to see the UFO subject getting more serious attention outside the UFO community.

We want to know the truth about the UFO phenomenon, right? Knowledge. Truth. Reasons and justification. Before we move on, let us do a thought experiment.

Ask yourself the following question: What do I know with certainty is true about the UFO phenomenon? Seriously, think about it for a moment before you continue reading. Be brutally honest in your answer.

Disclosure or Psyop: Richard Dolan on skeptiko

"Richard Dolan, UFO Disclosure, Toothpaste Out of the Tube? |438|." Premiered on skeptiko Youtube channel on January 21, 2020. Duration: 2:10:09.

Richard Dolan on UFO disclosure, good versus bad ET, and the consciousness question. For more visit: https://skeptiko.com/richard-dolan-uf...

Introduction

This is a great conversation between host Alex Tsakiris and Richard Dolan. Since some of the most interesting and thoughtful topics in the interview are not always on the UFO subject, I highly recommend everyone to listen to the conversation in its entirety. You can find a transcript of the conversation on the following link: https://skeptiko.com/richard-dolan-ufo-disclosure-toothpaste-out-of-the-tube-438/.

Even though Tsakiris and Dolan cover many different issues with the UFO phenomena, the conversation`s main focus is the nature and purpose of what started in October of 2017 with To The Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences´ (TTSA) press conference. Was it the beginning of a benign disclosure of the truth of the UFO phenomena, or was it a rollout of a psyop? Or is something else going on? And what are the arguments for or against those different points of view?

So in the following,  I will reflect upon the main topic of disclosure or psyop. Hopefully, I can add something new to Dolan´s and Tsakiris´conversation on the main topic. My comments and reflections come in part 2  and part 3.

What is the lesson of prof. Diana W Pasulka´s Twitter-"controversy"?

In the following, I am presuming that the reader is familiar with the professor in religious studies, Diana Walsh Pasulka, her first and latest book on the UFO phenomena, American Cosmic, and how the content of that book has reverberated through the ufo community. In case you are not familiar with prof. Pasulka or her book, you can go to her American Cosmic website here.

So, what is the "Twitter controversy" the title of this post refers to? Again, I will presume that most of the readers of this post are familiar with the tweets that prof. Pasulka shared on January 11, 2020. My purpose with this post is neither to reproduce those tweets nor analyse their content verbatim.

Amendment, 2020-01-12: Today, on January 12, 2020,  several of prof. Pasulka's trusted friends reported that her Twitter account was hacked. Not any of the tweets which caused "controversy" on January 11, 2020, were neither written nor published by prof. Pasulka. I believe that to be the case, and I hope she is alright. Back to the main text. /Janne