High Strangeness and Metaphysics

The False Mirror, 1928 - René Magritte.

Introduction

The idea of this post came from a comment on #ufotwitter. The gist of the comment, or reflection, was something to the effect: How can we study such an elusive and strange phenomenon as UFOs/UAP with the scientific method? My interpretation of the comment is that the person implicitly referred to the high strangeness aspect of the UFO phenomenon (-na). The person wondered how the metaphysical assumptions (for instance, "physicalism") of contemporary science can even take seriously phenomena that seem to contradict our concepts of what is real or not, possible or impossible. (The term "physicalism" is defined in sections 1 and 2 after this introduction).

 I use the term "high strangeness" in J. Allen Hynek´s (1910 - 1986) meaning as a qualitative measure of the plausibility of a UFO sighting (roughly, "the more bizarre and absurd, the more plausible"). But I am using the term high strangeness in a broader sense, including phenomena manifesting at Skinwalker Ranch, Marley Woods, and similar places worldwide. Thus, high strangeness experiences and events can occur independently of a UFO presence (which does not rule out the possibility that high strangeness events (paranormal phenomena) and UFOs are connected).

The ODNI UAP report: lies or truths?

The unclassified ODNI UAP report.

On Friday, June 25, 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) delivered the report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) or UFOs. The title of the unclassified report is "Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena." A classified report or annex was issued as well, as confirmed by the ODNI to the Black Vault. 

In the following, I will comment on the parts in the unclassified report that I find most intriguing. Those parts are mainly covered under the headline Specific points in the UAP report. But more importantly, I will highlight parts of the report that, in my view, justify criticism. That criticism is mainly found under the headline The Executive Summary: lies or truths?

But before all that, I will in general terms explain why I think the ODNI UAP report (henceforth "the UAP report") is, despite its shortcomings, historical in a positive sense. 

If you are unfamiliar with the "origin" story of the UAP report, you can catch up on my post from June 27, 2020. Furthermore, I highly recommend you to read this detailed analysis of the UAP report by Tim McMillan for the Debrief. For instance, in McMillan´s analysis, you can learn more about what method or process the UAP report is based on, namely the "Intelligence Cycle", and how it differs from the traditional scientific method. That is important to keep in mind when studying the language of the UAP report. 

Now to the main two reasons as to why the UAP report is historical.

 General comments on the UAP report

Why do I claim that the unclassified UAP report is historical? Because for the first time in history, as far as I am aware of, the U.S. Government (USG) officially confirms: 

• That (some) UAP/UFOs are physical objects — UFOs are real.
• That the USG cannot explain what (some) UAP/UFOs are. 

Now, pause for a while and think about those statements by the USG (I say "the USG" because that is ultimately the authority behind the UAP report). Those statements are an official 180-degree turnaround from the Condon Report, The Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects (1969). The Condon Report "concluded that there was no evidence of anything other than commonplace phenomena in the reports and that UFOs did not warrant further investigation." (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Condon-Report). 

The obstacle to greater transparency

M. C. Escher: "Band of Union".

 In this post, I will outline what I believe is the greatest obstacle to greater official transparency on the UFO phenomenon. I will also suggest a plausible solution to circumvent the obstacle. 

The obstacle

What is the greatest obstacle to official transparency regarding the UFO issue? My claim is that the most significant barrier is fear in the minds of some high-ranking officials in the Pentagon and the Intelligence Community (IC). My suggestion to a solution is to moderate that fear—I will return to "how" further down.

In the following, let us use common sense and introductory human psychology. First, what is behind these high-ranking officials’ fear? If you are familiar with UFO history, you know that the documented evidence of denial and ridicule of the significance of UFOs/UAP by the U.S. government (USG) is abundant and clear. The reason for the high-ranking officials´ fear is that the official stance of denial and ridicule, held over many decades, will be made aware to the public.

Is past behaviour the best predictor of future behaviour?

The purpose of this post is to look back at UFO history to explore whether "past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour" concerning the forthcoming UAP report by the UAP Task Force (UAPTF). Can the US government's past behaviour regarding the UFO issue (for example, "Project Blue Book") help us predict the content and the outcome of the report by the UAPTF?

Further down, I will explore that question with the help of two declassified National Security Agency documents (see the links at the very end of this post). But first, some background to the purpose of this post.

Background

Most people who have studied the literature on the UFO phenomenon, or subject, know that the current interest in and serious concern over the UFO issue by the US government (USG) is nothing new. Neither is the more serious attention on UFOs/UAP from the mainstream media. One of many examples is the Washington Post article from 19 January 1979. 

Some in the ufo community see the record of how the USG has dealt with the UFO issue in the past (again, think "Project Blue Book" or the "Condon Report") as an almost certain predictor of how current events will end. Others in the ufo community are more optimistic and perhaps, in some cases, naive about how the recent UFO "revival" will evolve ("full Disclosure!"). 

Will the forthcoming report by the UAPTF turn out to be a "Project Blue Book, 2.0", or will its outcome be more desirable from a transparency perspective? In my opinion, that question remains open. At the same time, I believe we have reasons for cautious optimism, which I will expand on in a moment.

Professor Kevin Knuth on why the USS Nimitz "Tic Tac" encounter was not a secret military test

"Kevin Knuth on UFOs, Nimitz / Tic Tac video, and a new kind of Theory of Everything" Published on the YouTube channel Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal on April 13, 2021. Duration: 2:30:57.

Kevin Knuth is a Professor of physics at the University of Albany, a former NASA scientist, and the Editor-In-Chief of the Entropy journal. He has a unique Theory of Everything called Influence Theory.

First, I recommend you to look at the links in the video description of this episode on Mr. Jaimungal's YouTube channel. You can find a few of those interesting and useful links to Professor Knuth's research on the UFO phenomenon and work in physics below: 

Papers:

• Estimating Flight Characteristics of Anomalous Unidentified Aerial Vehicles: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/21/10/939
• An Introduction to Influence Theory: Kinematics and Dynamics: https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.09618

Presentation:

• Knuth's presentation delineating interstellar space travel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXswO... (In the conversation with Mr. Jaimungal, Professor Knuth summarizes his fascinating hypothesis on "nomadic" space travelling civilisations, starting around the 52 min mark).

Also, in the video description of this interview, or conversation, with guest Kevin Knuth, you can find timestamps of what and when topics are covered during the conversation. Roughly speaking, the first half of the 2 hours and 30 minutes is about Professor Knuth's interest in and research of the UFO phenomenon. The second half is about his scientific work and career as a physicist. Even for a non-scientist like myself, the second half is highly interesting and is, as I understand it, relevant to better understand the UFO phenomenon.

Why post this conversation between Mr Jaimungal and Professor Knuth? There are several reasons, but my main reason is that I think what Professor Knuth says about the USS Nimitz "Tic Tac" encounter in 2004 is important to keep in my mind, especially since the recent video release of a "pyramid-shaped" flying object (actually, several objects, if objects at all). In the latter case, we do not have any or very little data on what is going on (some argue that the video has significant data to reveal if you know what to look for, and they may be right). In the former case, Knuth and his colleagues at the Scientific Coalition of UAP Studies (SCU) have analysed and published a paper on (see above: the first link under "Papers"). 

Strange US Navy UAP incidents in July of 2019 raises pressing questions

 An excellent UAP investigation and article by Adam Kehoe and Marc Cecotti for The Drive/The War Zone. Their article is from March 23, 2021, and you can read it at this link: 

• https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/39913/multiple-destroyers-were-swarmed-by-mysterious-drones-off-california-over-numerous-nights

In the article´s first paragraph, the authors write what the article is about:

[I]n July of 2019, a truly bizarre series of events unfolded around California’s Channel Islands. Over a number of days, groups of unidentified aircraft, which the U.S. Navy simply refers to as ‘drones’ or 'UAVs,' pursued that service's vessels, prompting a high-level investigation.

Then what follows, is Kehoe´s and Cecotti´s own investigation into the details of the bizarre series of "UAV" incidents in July of 2019. The details come largely from the authors' Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

My purpose with this post is mainly to share the excellent article in question, and also to make a few and short comments about the "UAV" incidents as described in the article.

Former Director of National Intelligence wants more transparency on the UFO/UAP issue

 

"Former Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, on UFOs". Uploaded on The Black Vault Originals' Youtube channel, March 21 2021. Duration: 14:47 minutes.

SHOW NOTES 

----------------------- 

o Full FoxNews Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIe3j...​ 

o Marco Rubio on UFOs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhtRY...​ 

o Former CIA Director John Brennan on UFOs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEjNO...

​
Another former high ranking US governmental official recently made some interesting statements about the UFO/UAP issue on Fox News. In general, I'm not a fan of Fox News. At the same time, when it comes to serious coverage of the UFO/UAP subject, the channel has (unfortunately) been one of the best these last couple of three years or so.

In the video above, John Greenewald Jr. at The Black Vault shares his thoughts about the former Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe's, recent statements about the UFO/UAP issue in an interview by Fox News. I agree with most of Greenewald's observations and comments on the most pertinent things to be aware of in Ratcliffe's quite generous and, probably, honest statements about what the US military and Intelligence Community (IC) knows about UFOs/UAPs. Or perhaps more correctly, what they do not know about UFOs/UAPs? Further below, I'll say more about Greenewald's comments and share my thoughts on some of Ratcliffe's statements.

The consciousness aspect of the UFO phenomenon. III.

Introduction  

This is the third post on the connection between consciousness and the UFO phenomenon. However, this post has a somewhat different purpose than the two previous ones. I`ll come to the point of this post further down.

 My personal belief is that a deeper understanding of consciousness can help us better understand the UFO phenomenon and vice versa. How? My best guess at the moment is that the common factor that will explain the intimate connection between consciousness (i.e., altered perception/experience of reality as reported by experiencers) and the UFO phenomenon is some kind of quantum process. Perhaps consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe, and every one of us is a specific manifestation, or expression, of the fundamental consciousness? 

That is, of course, highly speculative. Still, even prominent people like Sir Roger Penrose endorse the view of consciousness as a fundamental property of the universe (but not in a panpsychism-manner, as my last question in the paragraph above is, perhaps, implying). That is, consciousness is not an emergent phenomenon or epiphenomenal. You can read about the philosophical underpinnings and problems of emergent properties in this entry on plato.standford.edu.  

Want to help UAP disclosure?

 The link below takes you to an article on the website the-unidentified.net. If you want to help to raise the public´s awareness of the validity of the UAP (UFO) issue, then the article will explain what and how you can do that. Also, the article provides you with some material (a Google drive link) you can use on social media and/or in other contexts. Here is the link to the article:

https://www.the-unidentified.net/want-to-help-uap-disclosure-heres-how-to-help-the-enduapsecrecy-campaign/

The article is a part of a bigger campaign - #EndUAPSecrecy - which is mostly taking place on "UFO Twitter". If you are unfamiliar with the campaign, the article explains its purpose and goals. I have not been on Twitter for the last year or year and a half, so I am not updated on the details of the current nature or status of the campaign. 

However, I am aware that people like Luis Elizondo (the former manager of Pentagon´s UFO program "Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program" (AATIP)), acknowledge the #EndUAPSecrecy-campaign, and other efforts by the ufo-community to inform the public about the UFO phenomenon and to push for more governmental transparency. For example, you can hear Elizondo express his gratitude for the efforts of the ufo-community (perhaps currently mostly on Twitter) on this podcast. (The link takes you to one of my previous posts). 

Back to the article. It mentions an upcoming initiative, which I find promising:

There is an upcoming initiative, ‘The Big Phone Home’ which is going to take place 24/04/2021, the idea is people from mainstream Ufology and some in UFOTwitter are contacting congressional representatives to request UAP transparency. We in EndUAPSecrecy could use this data to do a global social media push into the mainstream. A few hundred or even thousand people all demanding UAP transparency across the internet should make waves.

Overall, I stand behind the purpose and goals of #EndUAPSecrecy. I think it is an important campaign and I believe it has had some positive effects of mainly reaching outside the ufo-community with credible information on the UFO issue. In other words, I think the campaign has contributed to raise the status of the UFO phenomenon as a serious subject to discuss, and to reduce the social stigma. In my book, that is more than something. 

I also think these kinds of campaigns should remind us of what people can accomplish when they come together, find a common purpose, and coordinate their efforts to reach a meaningful goal. What if humans could use this "power and energy of the collective" for good and something constructive more often?

Take care!

Janne

The Aguadilla UFO Incident: Data for scientists to examine

"Aguadilla UFO Incident - George Knapp - Mystery Wire." Published on Mystery Wire´s Youtube channel on February 12 2021. Duration: 22:02 minutes.

https://www.mysterywire.com/ufo/aguad...​ Aguadilla UFO Incident - George Knapp talks with UFOlogist Rich Hoffman about this sighting and the video recorded by the U.S. government.

The video clip/interview summarises a longer interview with Mr Rich Hoffman about the Aguadilla UFO case. You can find part one of that longer interview here. If you are not familiar with the Aguadilla UFO case, then you should look into it. I find it more compelling regarding data/evidence than the Tic Tac UFO case. The full report on the Aguadilla UFO case, which Mr George Knapp och Mr Hoffman refers to in the interview, can be found on Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU) website. (Click on the link and scroll down to the second full report).

You can read more about Mr Hoffman´s background and credentials on SCU´s website (or listen to part one of the longer interview), so I will not say more about that here. Neither am I going to comment on what is said in the video clip above about the Aguadilla UFO incident, except for the following: