As somebody who has seen UFOs on multiple occasions with other witnesses, the nuts and bolts conversation has always been a frustrating dynamic to observe on both social and conventional media. The arguments over camera glare, seagulls, or whatever the convenient prosaic explanation of the day is, seem petty and at times counterproductive.
Some may say it’s a luxury to have had a sighting, and that is true when it comes to having confidence in my ability to make certain statements about the phenomenon.
To be honest, I would most likely be a skeptic as well if this subject hadn’t affected me personally, so I do have sympathy for those who want more data before they can say definitively that this is a real issue in which they should invest their time.
But the skeptical takes aren’t actually what make the discussion hard for me to watch day in and day out as someone who knows this is real. It’s the substance of the conversation itself.
I appreciate immensely the efforts of experts in military equipment such as FLIR and radar who are trying to find answers. Even more so the ability of our pilots to identify basically any aircraft from any distance, as much as some would like to dismiss their testimony.
These are all extremely important data points that are essential in convincing members of Congress and academia to take this issue seriously, and to create incentive for more transparency when it comes to UAP.
I will always advocate for as much scientific study of the phenomenon possible, and for the Pentagon to come clean with the American people on what they have captured on the sensors that taxpayers have provided them.
Beyond that advocacy, however, a burning question remains.
What can someone like me do to help?
I am far from resembling anything close to an academic or expert on military equipment. How do I engage in the public nuts and bolts conversation constructively? Or, frankly, without making a complete fool of myself? As someone who knows this is real, my understanding of my own experiences should allow me to provide some sort of assistance to the disclosure movement.
A few months ago, I was listening to an episode of TTS Talks with Jim Semivan. He interviewed Peter Levenda, a professor of religious studies and the author of the non-fiction trilogy of the Sekret Machines series.
Levenda made some very important points in this interview and I would urge anyone reading to listen in its entirety. However, the most impactful part of the interview to me was when he seemingly addressed my concerns outlined above rather directly.
He explained how a multidisciplinary approach to the phenomenon is needed and that the UFO problem will not be solved in its entirety by science alone.
Even within science, it’s not multi-disciplinary yet when it comes to an approach to the phenomenon. But then we have a bigger problem ahead of us. It’s one we’ve been struggling with — I think at least for the last 70 years that I can account for in my life but probably much longer — and that is the cultural aspect of it.
It’s not enough for the scientists to say, “Well, we kind of understand the propulsion aspect of the phenomenon. We kind of understand how a UAP flies around, or seems to fly around space.” That’s not going to help most of us who are going to want to know what the cultural impact of this is going to be.
The religions are struggling with the idea [that] there might be alien contact. Everybody has their own point of view on this, and we discussed last time the fact that even within the military industrial complex there’s a lot of religious concern over the meaning of an alien intelligence, and contact with an alien intelligence. Are we talking about demonic forces? You know, powers from the skies as it says in the Bible? What are we really discussing then?
So we need to address those things, and that’s not going to be addressed purely by science. That’s not going to help us. We need anthropologists to be involved. We need people like me, people who have a religious studies background involved. We need artists. We need musicians. We need people who have something to bring to the table.
Because as I’ve said, I think in Sekret Machines: Man, do aliens sing? We don’t really know that. Maybe there’s a reason why. Maybe a musician can help us understand that better than a scientist at the moment.
Also, the problem with science is we don’t understand science anyway, not anymore. We need so much math to understand science, and the scientists are not that comfortable talking about what they know with us because it’s this highly specialized language. So all of these reasons are why we need a multi-disciplinary approach.
Understandably, a question like “Do aliens sing?” may seem flippant or fantastical at first. But to truly and objectively contemplate what the phenomenon’s intentions or overall reason for sharing this planet with us might be, all possibilities must be considered both with and without the human tendency to anthropomorphize everything we come across.
Levenda also asks what might be the biggest question of all: what would disclosure of a higher intelligence mean for society? Once we understand the means of propulsion behind these craft, who will be able to answer the even more complex mystery of how this knowledge affects the foundation of what it means to be human?
That is not a question I would ask a chemist or a radar operator, nor one that could ever be answered by handful of people in lab coats. This is a much more profound paradigm shift than anything that could be explained in an academic journal.
But here we are.
We are at the first step of a once seemingly impossible process to wrestle even the most basic truth of this phenomenon from the grip of those in Department of Defense, intelligence community, and military industrial complex. It has taken over 75 years to get here in and of itself.
Someone like me — a non-academic, non-expert in anything remotely relevant to the current nuts and bolts conversation — is left grasping at straws, trying to figure out a way to help get this new reality into the consciousness of others that are understandably focused on day to day matters.
As frustrating as the current conversation has been to me, there are clear signs of movement on this issue every single day. NASA has announced a UFO study. Major editorial boards such as the Washington Post are applauding these efforts.
The Intelligence Authorization Act has now highlighted the need for transparency on UAP for two years in a row, even incorporating the transmedium aspect of the phenomenon into the language of the legislation. Harvard’s Galileo Project appears to be acquiring the tools they need to start their research on schedule.
And, perhaps most importantly, the first public Congressional hearing on the subject in over 50 years was held just over a month ago.
The time will come for the discussion to shift focus, past the physics and classification issues, to the massive challenge of communicating what this all means to the public.
Stanford professor Dr. Garry Nolan knows this, and explained what will be needed once all the academic structural specifics are worked out and the stigma has lessened to the point where the subject can be studied by the mainstream.
I think what’s interesting about this community is how deeply involved they are, which shows you that it’s doing something deep. About their consciousness, about their view of the world. We know it’s important to understand this.
I would compare it to the work I do in cancer, where we’ll have a board of scientists, et cetera. But then we bring in what are called patient advocates, which are not scientists but they’re aware of the area.
They’re there to continually keep us on track. To tell us [to] stop being high-ended intellectuals talking only to yourselves and/or talking down to us, but here’s how it is that you can help us talk to the rest of the world. Here are our concerns. Just reading these comments as they flash by is the same thing.
You know, when all of this is formally set up we’ll have to have patient advocates, public advocates who are there. Who can help make sure that we’re not fooling ourselves. We think we’re telling people what they want to hear, and they tell us no you’re not. Sorry, that’s not right. This is what you need to do, right?
I don’t mean a PR campaign. I mean real people who want to understand and talk at the right level, and that’s not talking down. That’s using the right words to explain something. Scientists always say, if you can’t explain it to your grandmother then you probably don’t understand it.
To me, this is one of the most important statements made by a scientist about the phenomenon. This demonstrates Dr. Nolan actually cares about how this will affect everyone in the world, not just the next paper he publishes or invention he patents. He understands the enormity of what this means. Perhaps it’s because he is an experiencer himself, or maybe he’s just a good human. My guess is it’s probably both.
So for now, what can someone not well versed in quantum physics or the defense world do besides sit and scroll through arguments we don’t feel confident enough to participate in? I guess that is up to each individual to decide for themselves.
Battling trolls and debunkers can be an entertaining way to pass the time and may provide some sense of accomplishment, as fleeting as it may be.
I, however, would encourage people to create.
Write something. Paint something.
Construct an extension of yourself that allows you to connect with and contribute to the conversation.
That contribution may be needed sooner than you think.
