I'm an astronomer and I think aliens may be out there—but UFO sightings aren't persuasive

By  Chris Impey

If intelligent aliens visit the Earth, it would be one of the most profound events in human history.

Surveys show that nearly half of Americans believe that aliens have visited the Earth, either in the ancient past or recently. That percentage has been increasing. Belief in alien visitation is greater than belief that Bigfoot is a real creature, but less than belief that places can be haunted by spirits.

Scientists dismiss these beliefs as not representing real physical phenomena. They don't deny the existence of intelligent aliens. But they set a high bar for proof that we've been visited by creatures from another star system. As Carl Sagan said, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

I'm a professor of astronomy who has written extensively on the search for life in the universe. I also teach a free online class on astrobiology. Full disclosure: I have not personally seen a UFO.

Unidentified flying objects

UFO means unidentified flying object. Nothing more, nothing less.

There's a long history of UFO sightings. Air Force studies of UFOs have been going on since the 1940s. In the United States, "ground zero" for UFOs occurred in 1947 in Roswell, New Mexico. The fact that the Roswell incident was soon explained as the crash landing of a military high-altitude balloon didn't stem a tide of new sightings. The majority of UFOs appear to people in the United States. It's curious that Asia and Africa have so few sightings despite their large populations, and even more surprising that the sightings stop at the Canadian and Mexican borders.

Most UFOs have mundane explanations. Over half can be attributed to meteors, fireballs and the planet Venus. Such bright objects are familiar to astronomers but are often not recognized by members of the public. Reports of visits from UFOs inexplicably peaked about six years ago.

Many people who say they have seen UFOs are either dog walkers or smokers. Why? Because they're outside the most. Sightings concentrate in evening hours, particularly on Fridays, when many people are relaxing with one or more drinks.

A few people, like former NASA employee James Oberg, have the fortitude to track down and find conventional explanations for decades of UFO sightings. Most astronomers find the hypothesis of alien visits implausible, so they concentrate their energy on the exciting scientific search for life beyond the Earth.

Are we alone?

While UFOs continue to swirl in the popular culture, scientists are trying to answer the big question that is raised by UFOs: Are we alone?

Astronomers have discovered over 4,000 exoplanets, or planets orbiting other stars, a number that doubles every two years. Some of these exoplanets are considered habitable, since they are close to the Earth's mass and at the right distance from their stars to have water on their surfaces. The nearest of these habitable planets are less than 20 light years away, in our cosmic "back yard." Extrapolating from these results leads to a projection of 300 million habitable worlds in our galaxy. Each of these Earth-like planets is a potential biological experiment, and there have been billions of years since they formed for life to develop and for intelligence and technology to emerge.

Astronomers are very confident there is life beyond the Earth. As astronomer and ace exoplanet-hunter Geoff Marcy, puts it, "The universe is apparently bulging at the seams with the ingredients of biology." There are many steps in the progression from Earths with suitable conditions for life to intelligent aliens hopping from star to star. Astronomers use the Drake Equation to estimate the number of technological alien civilizations in our galaxy. There are many uncertainties in the Drake Equation, but interpreting it in the light of recent exoplanet discoveries makes it very unlikely that we are the only, or the first, advanced civilization.

This confidence has fueled an active search for intelligent life, which has been unsuccessful so far. So researchers have recast the question "Are we alone?" to "Where are they?"

The absence of evidence for intelligent aliens is called the Fermi Paradox. Even if intelligent aliens do exist, there are a number of reasons why we might not have found them and they might not have found us. Scientists do not discount the idea of aliens. But they aren't convinced by the evidence to date because it is unreliable, or because there are so many other more mundane explanations.

Modern myth and religion

UFOs are part of the landscape of conspiracy theories, including accounts of abduction by aliens and crop circles created by aliens. I remain skeptical that intelligent beings with vastly superior technology would travel trillion of miles just to press down our wheat.

It's useful to consider UFOs as a cultural phenomenon. Diana Pasulka, a professor at the University of North Carolina, notes that myths and religions are both means for dealing with unimaginable experiences. To my mind, UFOs have become a kind of new American religion.

So no, I don't think belief in UFOs is crazy, because some flying objects are unidentified, and the existence of intelligent aliens is scientifically plausible.

But a study of young adults did find that UFO belief is associated with schizotypal personality, a tendency toward social anxiety, paranoid ideas and transient psychosis. If you believe in UFOs, you might look at what other unconventional beliefs you have.

I'm not signing on to the UFO "religion," so call me an agnostic. I recall the aphorism popularized by Carl Sagan, "It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out."

Pentagon UFO task force discuss 'non-human technology,' mysterious objects

By Chris Ciaccia

Two classified reports from the Pentagon's task force used to "detect, analyze and catalog" UFOs have been leaked, both of which include photos of unidentified objects.

Defense news website TheDebrief.org has published the reports, including an Oct. 16, 2019, email exchange between former Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Robert Burke and current Vice Chief of Staff for the Air Force Gen. Stephen Wilson. This exchange was obtained by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from The Debrief.

“Recommend you take the brief I just received from our Director of Naval Intelligence VADM Matt Kohler, on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP),” Burke told Wilson in the email. Burke added that "SECNAV will get the same brief tomorrow at 1000," likely referring to then-Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer.

The leaked photo, taken off the East Coast of the U.S. by a "pilot’s personal cell phone," was a part of the 2018 position report, one source told the news outlet. This report discussed what the unidentified silver “cube-shaped” object could be, with a list of possible explanations discussed, including the fact it could be “alien” or “non-human” technology.

The 2020 photo, which has been leaked but is not widely available yet, is described as a triangle with white lights in each corner. This may be the more interesting photo, Nick Pope, a former employee and UFO investigator for Britain's Ministry of Defense, told Fox News.

"I'm more interested in the fact that this first photo has been leaked, and in the related leaking of information about the Pentagon's Unidentified Aerial Task Force, where serving intelligence community personnel have shared insights from two intelligence position reports," Pope said via email. "With my own defense background in this subject, three things stand out. Firstly, the description by one insider of the reports as 'shocking' — a word that begs the question what about UAP do these people find shocking. Secondly, the fact that the intelligence reports seem to have been given a surprisingly wide distribution in various intelligence agencies, and thirdly, the fact that the extraterrestrial hypothesis seems genuinely not to have been taken off the table."

Pope added he expects further leaks, noting he believes there is "a faction within government clearly wants this information to be released to the public."

The two position reports from 2018 and 2020 were widely circulated among the defense community, The Debrief added, citing interviews with multiple sources.

The Pentagon has not yet responded to a request for comment from Fox News. 

In August, the Pentagon created a task force to investigate UFOs, or UAPs, following several unexplained incidents that have been observed by the U.S. military.

The creation of the task force follows inquiries from lawmakers about the subject. In June, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, instructed the director of national intelligence, the secretary of defense and other agency heads to compile data on “unidentified aerial phenomenon."

"The Committee remains concerned that there is no unified, comprehensive process within the federal government for collecting and analyzing intelligence on unidentified aerial phenomena, despite the potential threat,” lawmakers wrote in a report.

In July, the New York Times reported that a small group of government officials, including Reid, and scientists believe objects of “undetermined origin” have crashed to Earth and been retrieved. The publication cited Eric W. Davis, an astrophysicist who worked as a subcontractor and a consultant for the Pentagon UFO program. Davis, who now works for defense contractor Aerospace Corporation, said he gave briefings on the recovery of unexplained objects to staff members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Oct. 21 and Oct. 23, 2019.

In April, the Pentagon officially released videos of "unidentified aerial phenomena," known as "FLIR1,” “Gimbal” and “GoFast,” previously captured by Navy aircraft. The footage had circulated in the public for years. They were originally released to the New York Times and to The Stars Academy of Arts & Science, headed by Blink-182 co-founder Tom DeLonge.

After the videos were released publicly, DeLonge said "UFOs are real" in a since-deleted tweet.

UFO believer sensationally claims Jesus was an alien and Star of Bethlehem a spaceship

The story of the Three Wise Men had more to it than we thought, a UFO expert has claimed (Image: Getty Images)

By Charlie Lawrence Jones and Seamus Duff

UFO expert Richard Lawrence has made the sensationaly suggestion that everything the Bible has taught about the birth of Christ is inaccurate – and that even the true date of Christmas is wrong.

A UFO believer has challenged the central pillar of the Christian faith by bizarrely declaring that the son of God was an alien and the story of the birth of Christ involved an alien spaceship.

Richard Lawrence is the author of 11 books about aliens and is considered a "Guru of UFOs" by contemporaries in his field.

He is the Executive Secretary of The Aetherius Society – a relatively new religious movement founded by late British spiritualist George King in the 1950s which aims to spread "teaching on extraterrestrial intelligences".

Mr Lawrence claims that extraterrestrial life goes to the very core of the Christian faith – suggesting the star described in the nativity story hovering above Bethlehem was in fact a spaceship and that Christ himself came from outer space.

UFO expert Richard Lawrence has claimed Jesus himself was an 'alien' from outer space (Image: MyLondon)

In an eyebrow-raising interview with My London, Mr Lawrence said of Jesus: “I wouldn’t call him an alien, I’d call him a great cosmic intelligence. But yes alien if you’d like."

He added: “I believe he came from Venus.”

Mr Lawrence and The Aetherius Society claim that Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi and Sophocles were all extraterrestrial beings sent to Earth to help humanity over the course of history.

The London-based UFO expert even went as far as to claim the Bible itself backs up his wild theory.

He said: “Based on the Bible, the Star of Bethlehem was witnessed by three wise men whom one would take to be very credible witnesses”

“It guided them to a specific place. It couldn’t have been a star, they don’t move.

Mr Lawrence – whose published books include UFOs and the Extraterrestrial Message, and Unlock Your Psychic Powers – also says Christmas should be marked in March, not December 25.

He claims Aetherius Society founder George King “was told” this was the case, while the fact that shepherds are referenced in the bible as “watching their flocks by night couldn’t have been doing that on December 25. It would be a spring thing.”

Aliens Don’t Want Us to Know They’re Here, Says Ex-Head of Israeli Space Program

By Elena Gorgan

Because 2020 isn’t strange or bad enough as it is, here’s something that should make it twice so: aliens exist and have already made contact. In fact, they’re on Earth as we speak but have asked that their presence is not made public.

A new interview by Professor Haim Eshed is making the rounds with ufologists and conspiracy theorists worldwide, since he claims to be blowing off the lid on a long-kept secret. His credentials and accumulated experience should add weight to his argument because he is none other than the former head of Israel’s security space program, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics, a vet pilot and flight instructor.

According to Jewish Press, Prof. Eshed’s recent comments stem from an interview with 7 Days, the largest circulation for-pay publication in Israel. They all revolve around the idea that aliens have been living on Earth for quite some time, but no one knows about it because the aliens themselves have asked that they be kept a secret until humanity is ready.

“The UFOs have asked not to publish that they are here, humanity is not ready yet. Trump was on the verge of revealing, but the aliens in the Galactic Federation are saying: Wait, let people calm down first. They don’t want to start mass hysteria. They want to first make us sane and understanding,” Prof. Eshed said.

Until people are ready for the aliens, the aliens and select governments have been working together, studying each other.

“They have been waiting for humanity to evolve and reach a stage where we will generally understand what space and spaceships are," the Professor continues. "There’s an agreement between the U.S. government and the aliens. They signed a contract with us to do experiments here. They, too, are researching and trying to understand the whole fabric of the universe, and they want us as helpers. There’s an underground base in the depths of Mars, where their representatives are, and also our American astronauts.”

Prof. Eshed admits that saying these things will undoubtedly make some question his sanity and stresses that he would have been labeled a head-case if he’d gone on the record with them five years ago. But the times are changing, and people are starting to warm up to the idea of UFOs, which is why he’s speaking out now, he says. “I have nothing to lose,” he adds as the final argument.

Whether you choose to believe Prof. Eshed or not, do note that this narrative, with the aliens living among us with approval from the U.S. government, isn’t a new one. It’s actually been around for years, and claims that certain authorities and the aliens have struck an understanding to use this time to study each other. The secret location on Mars isn’t new, either.

Jung, Flying Saucers, and the Anxieties of Our Time

By Kelly Bulkeley Ph.D,

How archetypal dreams, visions, and art respond to a collective crisis.

One of the last books he ever wrote, C.G. Jung’s Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies (1957) shows how psychology can shed new light on social anxieties and cultural conflicts. This slender text offers Jung’s perspective on the controversial phenomenon of “unidentified flying objects” (UFOs). Writing at a time when UFO sightings were a public craze, Jung saw an opportunity for psychology to make a valuable contribution to collective understanding and self-reflection.  The resulting book remains an excellent model for the psychological interpretation of culture, with potentially helpful implications for our troubled times today.

Jung examined several kinds of texts with the UFO theme: dreams, art from both old and new sources, waking visions, and science fiction, along with media stories and governmental reports. This itself is interesting, as it shows how Jung treated all these different kinds of texts as arenas in which symbols from the collective unconscious (“archetypes”) can emerge. When treating an individual patient, Jung looked for the emergence of special symbols or archetypes that respond directly to the patient’s waking life problems. With the UFO phenomenon, he expanded this approach to the whole of Western society. Why are so many people dreaming, thinking, and envisioning UFOs at this particular moment? What is happening in society right now that elicits this kind of collective visionary experience?

Here as in many of his later writings, Jung highlighted the psychological strains of living during the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The division of the world into two hostile, nuclear-armed camps, separated by an “Iron Curtain,” suggested that global humanity was in a gravely unhealthy condition. Jung also emphasized here as elsewhere how the modern world can threaten individuality with mass movements, both politically (communism) and economically (consumer capitalism). People everywhere were in danger of being subsumed into mindless, undifferentiated groups where true psychological development was impossible.

The sudden surge of UFO sightings at this specific moment in history made sense, Jung said, as a response to these acute social anxieties. With the conscious mind in such an embattled condition, the collective unconscious provided what Jung called a compensatory or balancing archetypal symbol: the mandala, an image of wholeness and integration. Mandala symbols are best known from Buddhism, Hinduism, and other Asian religions, but in their archetypal essence they appear in all cultures, usually as round figures with a variety of geometric, chromatic, and symbolic complexities. Jung said that UFOs, whatever their reality as visitors from alien planets, have the psychological meaning of mandalas, projected into the sky above us, giving us a vision of transcendent union and wholeness. The integration we have failed to achieve in this world is reflected back to us as a living potential arriving from the greater realm of the cosmos (itself a symbol of the collective unconscious). Because people of our time are struggling in this essential psychological task of becoming an integrated, fully actualized individual (the process of “individuation”), the archetype of wholeness cannot be directly recognized in its traditional forms. Thus, it “is forced to manifest itself indirectly in the form of spontaneous projections. The projected image then appears as an ostensibly physical fact independent of the individual psyche and its nature. In other words, the rounded wholeness of the mandala becomes a space ship controlled by an intelligent being.”

Thinking of Jung’s book and its methods as applied to our world today, we can ask the following questions: What is the great anxiety of our age? What is the greatest threat to collective health and well-being? What are the compensating dreams and visions pointing us beyond our current problems?

Since Jung’s time, the Cold War has ended, and Westerners have little to fear from global communism. The threat of civilization-ending nuclear war remains, but it no longer worries people the way it did some decades ago. Instead, a multitude of other apocalyptic scenarios haunt people’s waking hours. These include environmental catastrophe, civil war, economic collapse, pharmacological mind-control, robotic takeover, and political tyranny under an evil dictatorship (e.g. by fascists, socialists, racists, theocrats, and/or neoliberals), not to mention a global pandemic. We have reached Boschian extremes in our capacity to conjure vividly variegated scenarios of doom and ruin.

Following the logic of Jung’s method, and given our present context, perhaps we should be on the lookout for dreams, visions, and works of art that provide a creative response from the unconscious depths to these overwhelming apocalyptic horrors.

For instance, we might expect the compensatory emergence of archetypal symbols of renewal and rebirth, of growth and revitalization, of a future collective renaissance.

We might expect to see more dreams of empathetic reconnection with others, stimulating greater awareness of multiple perspectives on the world, breaking free from the solipsism of the digitized self to reconnect with other people, with nature, and with one’s own body.

We might expect to see more expressions of the archetype of the trickster, the playful agent of chaos and disorder who disrupts established traditions and yet also inspires new creativity and cultural dynamism.

We might see more forceful and perhaps even threatening appearances of the anima archetype, challenging narrowly androcentric thinking and stubbornly enduring patriarchal biases in all aspects of personal and collective life.

It seems a near-certainty that the apocalyptic anxieties of the present age are already calling forth unconscious responses of archetypal energy and symbolism in all of our lives. The big question is whether our conscious minds can recognize these archetypal expressions when they do occur, and integrate them into a broader, more balanced sense of self—a stronger self that can act more effectively in the world, fueled by the energy of psychological wholeness.

Film Review: The Gulf Of Silence

By Jazz Shaw

This is a review of the recently released film The Gulf of Silence, directed by M.K. Rhodes. It’s the tale of a fictional (?) professor who experiences something remarkable, suggesting the possibility of an alien intelligence visiting the Earth. Her life then goes completely to pieces until she winds up being recruited to come work for a “three-letter agency” deep within the black-budget world of the United States government, investigating the UFO phenomenon.

Considering the limitations of both budget and restrictions caused by the pandemic, both of which Rhodes told Hot Air were factors in how she was able to proceed, this is a truly remarkable film. Nearly the entire film is shot in the form of an interview with the professor, Dr. Laura Gale, in a variety of backgrounds. These segments are interspersed with wild and creative CGI imagery, historical footage and other imagery to flesh out the film. It’s visually a beautiful piece telling a highly intriguing story and the score is hauntingly beautiful.

 

Upon its release, the movie became the subject of considerable speculation in online forums, with some viewers seeing it as strictly a work of narrative fiction, while others claimed that it was a “documentary in disguise” revealing information about the United States government and UFOs. We asked Ms. Rhodes to clear that up for us. Here is her answer.

It is, in truth, both. The framework of the film is fiction, but it contains more hard facts than virtually any UFO documentary bar James Fox’s excellent “The Phenomenon”. This is less a reflection of my film’s truthfulness than it is a reflection on the average UFO documentary. In actuality, you cannot make a proper “documentary” about the UFO phenomenon because ultimately you are either making a documentary founded on, at best, speculation or hedged bets, or you are simply interviewing witnesses, and that is not a documentary about UFOs, that is simply a documentary about people who claim they have seen UFOs. A fictional framework allows me the luxury of speculating without the risk of being wrong and then having the film become dated; it also allows me to say things that the more neutral tone of something like “The Phenomenon” cannot.

Ms. Rhodes informed us that she’s long been a fan of the genre, describing herself as “a child of the X-Files,” and her love of the subject comes through clearly. The December 2017 release of that blockbuster New York Times article on AATIP was what prompted her to begin work on the project. I, for one, am very glad that she did.

The Gulf of Silence is now streaming on Amazon along with other platforms. Visit the film’s website for additional details.

Despite thoroughly enjoying this film from beginning to end, I vacillated a bit on a final rating because of the rather ambiguous nature of the presentation in terms of fact versus fantasy. But in the end, on the Hot Air scale for subscription-service films, The Gulf of Silence gets a 3.5:

4 – Subscribe to the service to watch this

3 – Make time to watch it if you already subscribe

2 – Worth a watch if nothing else appeals

1 – Avoid at all costs

The Gulf of Silence is rated TV-MA (18+) though I’m not entirely sure why. It’s not sexual in nature, nor does it contain much in the way of offensive language. I would say this movie is fine at least for older teens, though it deals with some complicated subjects, potential conspiracy theories, and other matters that may require a bit of explanation for younger viewers.

Ex space security head announces aliens exist but ‘humanity not ready’

Retired Israeli General Professor Haim Eshed thinks the evidence of aliens has been kept a secret (Image: Getty)

By Tom Fish

A UFO hunter has announced an apparent "Galactic Federation" has been in contact with Earth for years, but have kept themselves a secret to prevent mass hysteria until humanity is prepared.

Retired Israeli General Professor Haim Eshed thinks the evidence of aliens has been kept a secret because "humanity isn't ready." And the former head of Israel's space security program Professor Eshed suspects both Israel and the US have both been colluding with aliens for years.

The 87-year-old former space security chief insists agreements have already been made between the aliens and the US.

He thinks these have been made because aliens wish to research and understand "the fabric of the Universe".

This cooperation includes a secret underground base on Mars, where humans and alien representatives are already working together.

His highly-dubious claims coincide with US President Donald Trump's recent creation of the Space Force.

"If I had come up with what I’m saying today five years ago, I would have been hospitalised"

Professor Haim Eshed.

Professor Eshed suspects both Israel and the US have both been colluding with aliens for years (Image: Getty)

But Professor Eshed insists Mr Trump is aware of of the existence of the aliens, and he was "on the verge" of disclosing their existence.

However, what he describes as the “Galactic Federation” supposedly prevented him from doing so.

Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot has quoted him saying they wished to prevent mass hysteria since they felt humanity needed to "evolve and reach a stage where we will … understand what space and spaceships are.”

He added how he he only revealing the information hewn because the academic landscape has changed.

Professor Eshed said: ”If I had come up with what I’m saying today five years ago, I would have been hospitalised.

“Today, they’re already talking differently. I have nothing to lose.

“I’ve received my degrees and awards; I am respected in universities abroad, where the trend is also changing."

The revelations appear in his latest book, The Universe Beyond the Horizon: Conversations with Professor Haim Eshed.

The former space security chief insists agreements have already been made between the aliens and the US (Image: Express)

Other bombshell details in the book include how aliens have prevented nuclear apocalypses and "when we can jump in and visit the Men In Black."

However, no evidence has been provided to substantiate Professor Eshed's highly-controversial claims.

But the bizarre news does coincide with a leaked report from a secretive UFO task force at the Pentagon.

This revealed a startling photograph of a mysterious 'silver cube' object.

His highly-dubious claims coincide with US President Donald Trump's recent creation of the Space Force (Image: Express)

Two reports from the Defense Department’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, previously circulated in the US intelligence community, were shared by The Debrief last week.

The 2018 classified report included a photograph from the cockpit of a military fighter jet after its pilot spotted an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP).

The supposed UFO photograph was taken “from within the cockpit of an F/A-18 fighter jet with a pilot’s personal cell phone” on the East Coast of the US.

The object appeared to be “hovering” at 35,000ft over the Atlantic Ocean when the military pilot apparently spotted it.