As someone who is an author, I am often asked to write reviews of other people’s books. The vast majority of all the books I review are focused upon the adventures and exploits of other people. Island of Paradise by Jonathan Downes, however, is very different, in the sense that it’s a book in which I play a central role. Nevertheless, I hope this has not influenced my opinion of the book! It’s a highly entertaining, warts and all study of what occurs during the course of an expedition of the Chupacabra kind…

It was in the summer of 2004 that Jon and I headed off to the rain-forests of Puerto Rico, courtesy of the SyFy Channel, who wanted to film us chasing the Chupacabra and UFOs for its now-defunct show Proof Positive – which was a pretty well executed combination of The X-Files meets CSI, albeit in a non-fiction format. For seven days we rampaged and roamed around the island in search of the vampire-like beast, and heard tale after tale of crashed UFOs, dead aliens, bizarre conspiracies linking the Chupacabra with extra-terrestrial experimentation, secret military operations, black Flying Triangles, and much more.

The best way I can describe Island of Paradise is as a Fortean version of Hunter S. Thompson’s fabulous The Rum Diary that told of the master’s own journalistic adventures on Puerto Rico back in the 1950s. Jon skilfully captures the essence of what makes Puerto Rico so magical, in terms of its history, its culture, its people – and its overwhelming weirdness, too. Truly, as Jon demonstrates, Puerto Rico is a locale that attracts the adventurer and the thrill-seeker like no other.

And given that it was a veritable hot-bed of activity of the ufological, vampiric and downright uncanny kind, what else could I, or indeed we, do but welcome the aforementioned weirdness with wide-open arms. If Jon and I were going to spend a week hunting vampires and/or aliens courtesy of the SyFy Channel, then, as he reveals, there was no better place to do it than deep within the heart of the island of paradise, and while regularly fuelled by the finest of local cuisine and a plentiful supply of ever-present chilled margaritas and imported beer. Onward!

I was pleased to see that Jon included in the pages of his book a description of our time spent at our base of operations: the Wind Chimes hotel in downtown San Juan. For those who weren’t there, it might seem superfluous; but for Jon and me it was a time to rekindle a friendship that had been separated by the Atlantic for a couple of years; and it was a time to make new friendships with the SyFy Channel’s Proof Positive crew.

There is something unique about the camaraderie that comes with hanging out alongside fellow thrill-seekers and adventurers – all from different corners of the globe, most not even knowing each other, yet all thrust into a strange and surreal quest to seek out the truth about a diabolical beast said to roam a real-life paradise. But, Jon demonstrates, it was without doubt the day we go our hands on a shining, silver jeep that things really took off…

Driving around in an open-top jeep in a place like Puerto Rico with one of your best friends, with the wind in your hair (for those who don’t shave it off every morning…), and in hot pursuit of the unknown, while ear-splitting punk rock reverberates out of the CD player is all good fun. But, barely one hour into our expedition, as Jon records, everything got a bit surreal.

No expedition of this type would be complete without an excursion into the darkened depths of a shadowy old cave. That a bat decided to piss on my head while we were in there only made things more memorable.

With much humor, Jon records how I decided not to bother with rabies injections of a type that Ozzy Osbourne was forced to undergo after his own legendary encounter with a bat; and instead I hoped that the little pisser wasn’t rabid, and that I wouldn’t wake up the next day like one of the frenzied souls from 28 Days Later or the spectacular 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. Needless to say, I didn’t.

Of course, I knew that all of this would serve as good fodder for Jon’s planned book on our trip around the island, and so I merely wiped my head with my bandana, swore at the offending beast and his or her brethren and continued roaming and filming. And a crew of a dozen, led by the good Mr. Downes himself, laughed heartily!

Of particular interest is what Jon has to say about an alleged UFO crash deep in the El Yunque rain-forest of Puerto Rico back in 1957. Jon tells the reader of our fascinating encounter with a woman named Norka who was able to fill in some of the gaps suggesting that at least something had genuinely crashed on Puerto Rico back in the 1950s, and who was also a veritable fountain of knowledge on all-things monstrous too.

As long as I live, I will never forget that moment when Norka told us of her own personal encounter with the Chupacabra late one night in 1975, and Jon and I turned to each other and realised that the beast Norka had seen was practically identical to the notorious Owlman of England – a creature that Jon had hunted, and been haunted by, for years. It was truly a pivotal moment in that memorable week.

As we sat on the balcony of Norka’s beautiful home high in the hills of El Yunque, sipping cold drinks, listening to her stories, and with the sun bathing down on us, I knew that we were experiencing something very special, and that beneath its beautiful exterior, something – or some things – dark, ominous, dangerous and bizarre dwelled on the island. And Jon’s chapter on this particular encounter most certainly does not disappoint.

One of the things that stood out for me upon reading Island of Paradise was how the initial quest quickly became something very different – and particularly so when new, and unforeseen, factors came into play. We had flown to Puerto Rico with the intention of trying to determine, for the benefit of the SyFy Channel, if we could find, examine and identify any evidence for the existence of the Chupacabra – such as undeniable DNA. Yet, by the end of the week we were deeply immersed in stories of crashed UFOs, genetic mutation, bizarre changes in the island’s ecology and much more.

I will never forget that week in the summer of 2004 when Jon and I roamed Puerto Rico’s rain-forest, its lowlands and its little villages in search of monsters, UFOs and aliens. It was an experience that will stay with me for all my life, and one that (as the book records) was as much about friendship, adventures and good times as it was about hunting for the Chupacara and for the remains of wrecked alien spacecraft. And at the end of the day, that was good enough for me. As for Jon: well, Island of Paradise tells it all, just as it was – the good, the bad and the plain strange.

If you’re looking for an excellent study of the Chupacabra phenomenon, its potential links with the UFO controversy in general (and crashed UFOs in particular), and what goes on behind the scenes of an on-site, week-long investigation in an exotic and mysterious world, then Island of Paradise is most definitely the one for you.

Just a few days ago, I was chatting with a colleague in the field of Cryptozoology about what the creatures of Loch Ness, Scotland really are – presuming they do exist, of course! I found it pretty enlightening that he got quite defensive over my remark that maybe the beasts are not still-surviving plesiosaurs - as so many, including pretty much the entire Scottish tourist industry, want or hope them to be. When I suggested the possibility of giant-eels roaming the deep waters of the old loch, a distinctly frosty atmosphere developed.

Why? I’ll tell you why: because I had dared to question his carefully developed and nurtured belief system. And, for him, the image of giant eels swimming around was nowhere near as exciting and as engaging as a colony of plesiosaurs on the loose.

As we’ll now see, belief – whether relative to Nessie, UFOs, ghosts and the rest of the world’s many and varied paranormal puzzles – is a very dangerous thing.

So many people in Forteana profess to being open-minded on whatever happened at Roswell, New Mexico in the summer of 1947, the true nature of Bigfoot, whether or not life after death is a reality and…well, the list goes on and on. But, that’s actually not so – unfortunately. Time and time again I have seen researchers – in pretty much all aspects of Forteana – take that arms-folded, barriers-up approach when their cherished theory is questioned or doubted.

Are these people for real? Indeed, they are. I’m not saying I’m anything special, because I’m most certainly not. But, correct me if I’m wrong, the reason why Mysterious Universe exists, the reason why books are published every year on a mountain of mysteries, and the reason why paranormal-themed radio and TV shows exist is specifically because we don’t have the answers. If we did, I wouldn’t be writing these words right now, because I wouldn’t need to! Instead of having answers, we have beliefs.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with belief – it does, after all, fuel every single religion on the face of the planet. But belief – in a deity, in a Heaven or Hell, in aliens, in Bigfoot or in anything else of a potentially supernatural nature – should be recognized, and more importantly admitted, for what it is: an acceptance that something exists without hard, definitive proof of that existence or its nature.

Now, of course people see UFOs, encounter lake-monsters and giant hairy ape-man, and have profound near-death experiences. But, this is all very and vastly different from having proof that UFOs are specifically alien spacecraft, Bigfoot is without doubt an unknown/unclassified ape, or that there really is a God and a Devil. The former are unusual events and experiences that require explanations. The latter are beliefs constructed to try and explain and rationalize those same experiences and events.

Is that a problem? Well, again, not if there’s an admittance that any explanation is theoretical and belief-driven. The problem, however, surfaces when a demand is made (consciously, deliberately or otherwise) that belief equals fact. It doesn’t. Or, it shouldn’t. But, for so many, it sadly does.

I very well remember the fury that erupted in 2005 when my book Body Snatchers in the Desert was published, and which suggested the events that occurred in the desert outside of Roswell, New Mexico in the summer of 1947 had far less to do with careless aliens in need of a few good lessons in flying, and far more to do with dark and dubious military experimentation.

While debating the book at a conference in Roswell itself in the summer of 2007, it became very clear to me – and very quickly, too – that whole swathes of people didn’t just disagree with the data contained in my book. They clearly – from an emotional and an “I want to believe” perspective – just plain did not want the alien theory threatened. Why? Because the ET angle was exciting, reinforced their hope that there’s more to life than just birth, school, work and death, and made them feel that researching Roswell, and the bigger UFO issue, hadn’t been a big waste of time.

But, here’s my point: if we solved Roswell and it was proved to have been an alien event, well that’s great. Ufology is vindicated. But, if it’s one day proved not to have been an ET encounter, then why is that a problem? For me it isn’t. Research should be about finding answers, no matter whether we like those answers or not, and no matter if they utterly shatter our preconceived beliefs or add significant weight to them.

I don’t know with 100 percent certainty what happened at Roswell. Neither does anyone else in Ufology. Maybe the number of people at an official level who know the full story is incredibly small. I don’t know if the people I interviewed for Body Snatchers were telling the truth or were a bunch of manipulative liars. But, I do know that denying the validity of this or that simply because it doesn’t sit comfortably with what someone wants to so desperately wants to hear is utterly ridiculous.

It’s the same with Bigfoot. Most researchers of the phenomenon support the “unknown ape” theory to explain the many sightings that have been reported for so long. But, the fact is that there is barely a Bigfoot enthusiast out there who has not come across at least one case of Bigfoot high-strangeness in the course of their research. That’s to say where the witness has reported the creature vanishing in the blink of an eye, when the beast has been seen at the same time – and even at the same location – as a UFO, or when something else, but equally mystifying, occurs.

But, so often, these rogue cases are dismissed as mistakes and hoaxes. Or, worse still, they are just outright ignored. Why? Because they threaten the orderly belief-system that Bigfoot is just an unidentified large ape and nothing else.

And, here’s the danger: by ignoring or dismissing certain data that does not fall comfortably into an accepted zone of belief, the field of research (Cryptozoology, Ufology, the whole bloody lot) is doing itself a huge disservice by limiting its ability to finding the answers.

When it comes to the unknown, a mind already made up is a mind deceiving itself.

As we know it, the modern UFO era began first with the famous “Foo Fighters” seen by both Allied and Axis pilots amidst the heat of conflict during the Second World War. Shortly after the conflict had ended, reports of strange, “saucer like” objects skipping like stones through the open sky were being reported by the likes of Kenneth Arnold and others; within a month of the Arnold sighting, what became an infamous incident, where exotic wreckage was recovered from a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico, left little question in the minds of many Americans: the Saucers, it seemed, were about to land.

More than half a century later, we still have a surprising lack of information about the origins of UFOs, though it is widely believed by many in both the civilian and even the higher academic circles that the enigma might be attributed to strange encounters with extraterrestrial visitors. This idea, however, is a theory that is surprisingly void of a lot of hard evidence; though many in the UFO camp are angered by this sort of sentiment, I should be clear: while UFOs may be aircraft from other parts of the universe, scientific processes have little to base such determinations on, with regard to collected evidence. And yet, for many, the ET hypothesis still manages to comprise nearly the entire basis of the UFO mystery, when taken at face value.

Whether or not alien beings are visiting Earth–and for all we know, this may indeed be the case–we can still speculate about what kinds of life might exist elsewhere out there… the problem, however, is determining whether aliens would even be recognizable as such!

Universe Today recently featured an article on the varieties of life that may exist in other parts of the deep regions of space, and in what manner such “life” might differ greatly from that which we know on Earth. “Truly new ‘alternative life’ would be life of a different biology,” says Gerald Joyce, a Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the Scripps Research Institute. “It would not have the information in it that is part of the same heritage of our life form.”

If such were indeed the case, might we posit that there could exist life in other parts of the universe that we would be virtually unable to recognize entirely as life at all? This notion has prompted my use of the expression “life (not) as we know it” for such beings, which could possibly stretch the very boundaries of physical formation as we might conceive. Dr. Joyce’s paper, “Bit by Bit: the Darwinian Basis for Life,” discusses the differences between what he calls “true” biology, versus simple chemistry, and how things like DNA are capable of taking chemical functions and “remembering” them, thus capable of passing this stored information along to an organism’s eventual progeny.

At the heart of the matter here is the notion that alien beings, while perhaps capable of evolving through similar DNA/RNA processes known to us on Earth, might still differ greatly from life we would easily recognize. When it comes to bringing various sorts of intelligent life into the equation, I’ve often considered what kinds of evolutionary processes might lead to beings of strange form and variety in other parts of the universe, and whether an advanced civilization might conform to any presupposed laws or condition the human mind could envision.

For instance, consider the famous Drake Equation, which originated during early talks about what would become the SETI program among colleagues such as Frank Drake (for whom the equation is named), and later Carl Sagan, among others hoping to utilize radio signals to receive messages from distant star systems. For Drake, the obvious and looming potential that humanity might destroy itself (remember, this was during the height of the Cold War era) cast doubt on the likelihood that an advanced civilization elsewhere could even survive long enough to harness technology advanced enough to propel them through the vast expanses of our galaxy. This assumption, however, is painfully anthropic, at best, in the sense that what humans tend to envision with regard to “other” varieties of life that may exist reflect our own values and, as this instance shows, our fears as well.

Conversely, I’ve always wondered if alien beings on a distant planet, based on environmental influences, might evolve in ways that would cause them to evolve in ways that would lead to advanced forms resembling different varieties of genus known on Earth. Think, for instance, how an intelligent race of insect-like beings might behave. What if a truly hive-like mentality prevailed among such beings; would this be more conducive to having a society that functioned together as one, if all were somehow connected on a mental level, and focused (even subconsciously) on working toward common societal goals? On the other hand, could this also work to the detriment of a neighboring civilization, in the event that such an “Insectoid” race would do anything necessary to secure their own necessities… even if that meant the destruction of another advanced race?

This line of thought, of course, still manages to project a lot of our inherent “human” concerns into the equation, and fundamentally still works off the notion that physical, anthropomorphic beings of our same relative size and stature might constitute our alien neighbors. In truth, the alternatives are quite vast, in that here may be an entire host of odd forms, shapes, or for lack of a better expression, simply different “manifestations” that could occur in a cosmic sense. It seems entirely plausible that any existent life forms elsewhere in our universe might elude us (and have continued to do so) based on their exotic nature. While we may even have the science needed to perceive such entities, it may not be the case that the proper methodology is understood or has yet been applied in order to do so (this would especially be the case if we were dealing with various kinds of interdimensional life forms).

Engaging in a bit of mind-stretching, what kinds of strange and exotic forms and manifestations have you considered regarding the potentitals for alien life that may exist?

Well, I was kind of expecting to see a bit of a fanfare this month about the infamous MJ12 documents. Why? Simple: this month marks exactly twenty-five years since they surfaced into the public domain in the pages of Tim Good’s acclaimed book of May 1987: Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-Up. That there hasn’t seemingly been much in the way of commentary on the 25th anniversary of what are, without doubt, one of the most controversial “things” ever to have surfaced within the ufological arena, suggests a few possibilities…

First, maybe whole swathes of Ufology have simply forgotten about MJ12. Second, perhaps the fact that – for many in Ufology – the documents continue to frustratingly languish in that murky stalemate-driven realm of “genuine, disinformation, or hoax?” has led the research community to focus its attentions on what it sees as far more profitable and likely ways to secure the truth behind the UFO phenomenon. And, third,  maybe people just don’t care anymore about the debate surrounding the papers, their content, the way they surfaced, and the attendant analysis of their content.

Whatever the answer(s), the papers did – and, for some, still do – play a significant role in Ufology for many a year. I still very well remember how, when Tim Good’s book surfaced in the U.K. in May 1987, they provoked widespread debate, excitement, fury and skepticism in the British UFO arena of the day. And, hot on the heels of Good’s book was the release – in the United States - of the same documents team from the team of Bill Moore, Stanton Friedman and Jaime Shandera. And, in no time at all, the world of Ufology was faced with its biggest piece of news in a long, long time.

For those not fully conversant with the papers in question, they actually appeared under mysterious circumstances in the mailbox of the aforementioned Shandera back in December 1984, and were carefully and quietly studied for years – not surprising, given that they appeared to be official, highly-classified documents concerning the establishment, in 1947, by President Harry Truman, of a highly classified group of people in government, the military, the intelligence world, and the scientific community, who, collectively, became known as MJ12 or Majestic 12.

And, so the papers made it clear, the group was sitting on just about the biggest secret of all: the recovery of a crashed UFO and dead alien bodies from the New Mexico desert in the summer of 1947. That’s right: Roswell. But, that quiet study came to an end when Above Top Secret was published. The cosmic cat was now out of the bag and everyone knew the story and was on the trail.

For those people reading this who weren’t on the ufological scene back in 1987 – or, maybe, weren’t even born – it’s probably hard to understand the near-hysteria and huge excitement that accompanied the MJ12 papers when they first hit the headlines. There really was a deep sense of “This is it!” And a feeling that “the truth is coming.”

Of course, and as is always the case in Ufology, it wasn’t quite that simple. While some in Ufology championed the documents – and their content – as being utterly genuine, others soon cried “Hoax!” And some claimed this was all a case of government-created disinformation to further cloud the already murky waters of stories relative to Roswell, dead aliens and crashed UFOs. There was forensic analysis of the typeface in the documents, Truman’s signature on the papers became a hugely controversial matter, and extensive research was undertaken into the names, lives and activities of the alleged MJ12 members. In some cases, this all went on for years. And such was the controversy, even the FBI got involved in the MJ12 affair at one point.

But, for all the studies, papers, books, lectures, analyses and more, the MJ12 papers did not resolve Roswell. Nor did they open the floodgates to a revelation that, yes, UFOs are real and the government has secretly had proof ever since aliens had the misfortune to crash in the wilds of Lincoln County, New Mexico in the summer of 1947. What the documents did do, however, was to keep many significant figures in the UFO research community busy – and arguing – for years. And the outcome was pretty much as I expected it to be.

If there is one thing that can be said about the ufological research arena (and this also goes for Cryptozoology, ghost-hunting, and every other aspect of Fortean-based studies, too), it’s that everyone has an opinion. Everyone has a favorite case. And there’s never-ending debate on what’s genuine and what isn’t.

Whether it’s George Adamski’s 60-something-year-old photos, the Gulf Breeze affair, the Bob Lazar-Area 51 controversy, or the truth behind the Men in Black puzzle, the reality is that such issues – and countless more – polarize people into different camps. Some believe, some disbelieve, others doubt, far more than a few don’t know what to think, and many end up exasperated, exhausted and frustrated by their quest for the truth – which always remains a tantalizing step or several ahead of them. And the very same thing can be said about the MJ12 documents.

So, twenty-five years later, where are we at with those pesky papers? If you’re a believer, you’ll say the truth is in, even if we can’t fully prove it. The skeptic would say it’s all a big fuss about nothing, a hoax, a joke, a distraction. Many – certainly me – might say that, as interesting and as exciting as that period was in the summer of 1987, neither the documents nor the era have changed anything at all. But, isn’t that what Ufology is all about: new controversy layered upon new controversy, but never a straight answer that we can nail to the ground and finally say “Gotcha!”?

Of course that’s what Ufology is all about!

So, as much as I find the whole MJ12 controversy as frustrating as it is sometimes intriguing, today I raise a glass of something chilled and potent to those papers of the purloined, leaked, faked or whatever else nature might spring to mind. And, I have no doubt that in another 25 years people will still be asking questions about MJ12, about the Truman signature, about whether or not the brand of typewriter used to prepare the documents was actually in use in 1947, and about…well, the list will go on and on, as will the definitively unanswered questions.

A 50th anniversary for MJ12? I don’t know whether to laugh or cry…

In 1977, Mark A. Stull with the SETI Program Office at Ames Research Center wrote that, “The next stage in the evolution of hominids could be stimulated by our entry into space, including a search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Our past success has been due to our breaking of new ground–to our acceptance of the challenge inherent in exploring new ways of life.” In other words, our growth as a species may not simply depend on our advancement, but on the act of exploration itself.

As explorers, our species will inevitably come to discover new lands, new resources, and new possibilities. Hence, in a rather cosmic sense, our very survival and proliferation is intricately connected with our urge to discover the vast new possibilities that only alien worlds might afford us. And of course, with the search for new lands and these exciting–perhaps even frightening possibilities, there also comes the potential for contact with not just alien worlds… but the inhabitants of those worlds.

But how likely is it, in truth, that we may stand a chance at finding extraterrestrial civilizations? How likely is it that we would want to meet the inhabitants of an alien world, should we managed to cross the cosmic gap and find that proverbial needle in a celestial haystack? Indeed, these strange non-human entities may in fact be quite unlike you or me… and thus, with a wholly different set of beliefs, standards, and values, these “people,” depending on their level of advancement, may even pose a serious threat to humankind.

Then again, there may not be any serious concerns to have to wrestle with just yet. After all, it seems to be a growing consensus among the scientific community today that humans, if anything have been going about our attempts at contact entirely wrong in the first place. John D. Mathews, professor of electrical engineering at Penn State, recently made news for sharing his own ideas about the matter, in an article that was featured in the popular online Kurzweil Newsletter:

“Only by developing and deploying self-replicating robotic spacecraft — and the incumbent communications systems — can the human race efficiently explore even the asteroid belt” (says Mathews), “let alone the vast reaches of the Kuiper Belt, Oort Cloud, and beyond.”

Mathews assumes that any extraterrestrial would need to follow a similar path to the stars, sending robots rather than living beings, which would explain why SETI has not succeeded to date.

Indeed, it seems quite obvious to us now that existing SETI programs, which attempt to start up a cosmic dialog between humankind and aliens, have largely failed. Both cosmologists and ufologists alike have expressed discontent with utilizing methods of long-distance communication that, in all likelihood, would simply be far too primitive for use in reaching a highly-advanced civilization elsewhere. On the other hand, as Mathews correctly assumes here, perhaps the use of robots is indeed a more logical approach.

And for all we know, this could even be the basis underlying the existent UFO phenomenon (think of Richard Dolan’s suppositions that UFOs may represent some kind of “robotic intelligence,” rather than flesh-and-blood aliens from another star system). UFO craft that have been witnessed and observed over the years may just as likely be autonomous drones as they could be anything physical. And as for reports of alien beings… well, let’s keep in mind the potential for the creation of artificial intelligence that exceeds the abilities of humans. While such a technology might take on (or to word things more appropriately, choose to take on) many different shapes, if there is truly anything special about our anthropomorphism (hence the way humans have evolved to think and conceptualize the way we do), then it seems at least plausible that our “alien” brethren out there may very well be some variety of artificial intelligence; thus, many of the potential issues associated with living bodies traveling through space might be negated somewhat.

Could it be that, while we’re so hell-bent on the notion of making contact, humankind may already be in the presence of various kinds of extraterrestrial drones… designed for efficiency, rather than for friendliness? Perhaps so… and if this were indeed the case, we might as well also forget about these things ever landing on the White House lawn to stop in and say “howdy.” After all, if an extraterrestrial race were ever like us at any time in the progression of their advancement, just as surely as our own minds may conceptualize such reasons for more efficient space exploration, those beings likely have put them into effect.

Maybe there are other intelligent species out there who utilize technology to their benefit in exploring and mapping the cosmos. If so, then perhaps the further our own technologies begin to take us down that proverbial road to truth and universal knowledge, the sooner we will likely come into contact with an intelligence elsewhere–perhaps not unlike our own–who had been attempting the same thing for far longer than ourselves. If we’re lucky, we may also be advanced enough to recognize such a profound and fascinating technology, should it happen to drift along before us.

Just a few days ago, an irate emailer asked me why I was so sure that the data presented in my 2005 book, Body Snatchers in the Desert (which suggested the Roswell, New Mexico affair of July 1947 had more to do with secret, controversial human experimentation of a Japanese nature undertaken by military personnel than it did with aliens from some far away world) was correct. Well, as I pointed out to Mr. Irate, I have always been brutally honest and added that I specifically cannot deny the possibility that the people I interviewed for the book were lying to me, specifically to further confuse the possibility that aliens really did crash at Roswell!

Now, certain people in Ufology get confused by people like me who suggest the truth could go one way or the other. Rather, they want their believers and they want their skeptics, and they want nicely delineated lines between the two, because it makes things easier for them. Well, too bad. I’m neither a believer or a disbeliever in any theory pertaining to Roswell. Nor am I out to make things easy – or easier – for anyone. Rather, I’m someone who came across a controversial story of disturbing and dark proportions and published it.

Why? Because I feel it’s important to share data, to get it into the public domain, and not to get caught up – 100 percent – in any particular belief system that lacks hard evidence. And, publishing data hopefully helps determine its validity or otherwise. Keeping it locked away in a filing-cabinet serves no purpose at all.

And, as I further explained to Mr. Irate, to have an understanding of why I do not dismiss the possibility that Roswell was an event borne out of classified military experimentation involving high-altitude balloons, Japanese individuals and more, it’s vital to see what was afoot – secrecy-wise - before, during and after Roswell occurred. Let’s take a look…

During the latter stages of the Second World War, the Japanese military is working to perfect highly advanced balloons as a weapon of war – to the extent that on 4 June 1945, a Japanese military spokesman states that the launches of its “Balloon Bombs” of the previous few months are merely precursors for something far more dangerous, including large-scale attacks with death-defying Japanese manning the balloons.

The new balloons, American experts estimate, will be at least sixty feet in diameter and will be able to carry a pressurized gondola containing four relatively small men to a height of around 30,000 feet as the balloons travel upon their stratospheric, four-day flights across the Pacific to the United States. Similarly, declassified FBI, CIA, Air Force and British Government memoranda reveals that in the same time frame, the Germans are actively pursuing several new and novel aviation-based projects, including the construction of circular and elliptical shaped aircraft – a number of which are based upon the groundbreaking and revolutionary work of the Horten brothers.

In addition, extensive wartime research is conducted by the Japanese Government’s Unit 731 and by Nazi scientists into the extremely controversial area of human medical experimentation. A large body of that same experimentation is devoted to better understanding the effects of high-altitude exposure on human beings.

At the close of hostilities, scientific, aviation and medical experts from Japan and Germany are secretly brought to the United States – via Operation Paperclip and its Japanese equivalent – where human experimentation and advanced aircraft research continues unabated and under the strictest security. As President Clinton’s Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments notes: At least 1,600 scientists and their dependents were recruited and brought to the United States by Paperclip and its successor projects through the early 1970s.

The ACHRE also notes with respect to the time period in question that a number of potentially important collections could not be located and were evidently lost or destroyed. Similarly, the Committee reveals, a number of those same document collections related to experiments undertaken in the fields of biomedicine, defense and space exploration; and in the great majority of these cases only fragmentary data remained. Where programs were legitimately kept secret for national security reasons, states the Committee, the government often did not create or maintain adequate records, thereby preventing the public, and those most at risk, from learning the facts in a timely and complete fashion.

In the aftermath of the War, a number of military research sites recruit Paperclip scientists with backgrounds in aero-medicine, radiobiology and ophthalmology, including the Air Force’s School of Aviation Medicine, from where experiments into total-body irradiation, space medicine, space biology and flash-blindness are undertaken; and the White Sands Proving Ground becomes home to the V2 rockets developed by – and captured from – Nazi Germany during the War.

In addition, at the same time that the Paperclip personnel are actively being brought to the United States, the Air Force’s Aero Medical Center gives its top priority to the translation of manuscripts providing a complete picture of German aviation medicine.

Further advances are made in the field of aviation in post-war America: on 26 May 1946, the Air Force awards to the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation a contract that establishes Fairchild as the responsible agency of the NEPA nuclear aircraft project; and the Holloman Balloon Branch, Holloman AFB, New Mexico, eventually goes on to become a recognized component of the space-race, via its involvement in the Discoverer program.

Crucially, the National Archives and Records Administration at Maryland makes available a document concerning the early years of research at White Sands and Holloman: Little information is available on specific events with regard to range safety during this period, it reveals. And on 1 July 1947, Major Curtis E. LeMay, Major General, U.S. Army, Deputy Chief of Air Staff for Research and Development, orders that research into the biological effects of radiation on Japanese individuals should begin.

In the summer of 1947 and against this backdrop of (a) nuclear and biological tests on human subjects; (b) revolutionary aircraft programs; and (c) an influx of senior scientific, medical and aviation experts into the United States from Japan and Germany, a series of events and accidents occur in New Mexico that collectively become known as The Roswell Incident. Witnesses at several crash sites report seeing the remains of unusual-looking aircraft and small bodies, some with enlarged, bald heads and Asian or Oriental-like features.

On 19 August 1947, FBI Special Agent S. W. Reynolds informs Bureau director, J. Edgar Hoover, that in a meeting with an Air Force colonel, the colonel expresses his firm belief that, the flying discs originate with a highly classified experiment of the Army or Navy.

In the immediate wake of the Roswell affair, Dr. Lincoln La Paz of the University of New Mexico – and a wartime expert on Japanese balloons – becomes deeply embroiled in the Roswell controversy; the ramifications of the Nuremberg Code begin to reverberate and rumble within the United States; and, as the 3 November 1947 issue of the Biology Division Bulletin of the Clinton National Laboratory reveals, staff at Oak Ridge (home of the nuclear aircraft program) take an active interest in experimentation undertaken to determine the effect of radioactive iodine on dwarfs and those afflicted with Progeria – a syndrome that results in a small stature, an enlarged, bald head and on occasion extra fingers and toes.

In official FBI memoranda, Colonel Clyde D. Gasser, Air Material Command, U.S. Army and the principal army technician at the NEPA project at Oak Ridge, discusses with the FBI his theories linking flying saucers with nuclear aircraft research. And on 4 October 1949, the NEPA Medical Advisory Committee concludes that, with regard to the nuclear aircraft program, live, human experimentation is the number one priority.

During the same time, an official report of the Air Force’s UFO investigative unit, Project Grudge, recommends that the military’s psychological warfare personnel should be apprised of the results of the Grudge study. Notable is the Department of Defense’s official definition of psychological warfare: “The planned use of propaganda and other psychological actions having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national objectives.”

In the same time frame that the military, the Psychological Strategy Board and the CIA are looking at the ways in which the flying saucer mystery can be used as a tool of psychological warfare, Brigadier General W.M. Garland, USAF, informs General John Samford, Air Force Director of Intelligence, that it is logical to assume that some reported flying saucer sightings could conceivably be related to the development of aircraft borne out of the work of the Horten brothers.

Operation Klondike is initiated and employs the use of a crashed UFO cover story for the transfer of Hungarian treasures, including the crown of St. Stephen; and in 1955 Dr. Willard Libby of the Atomic Energy Committee’s Project Sunshine states that accessing human samples is of prime importance and if anyone knows how to do a good job of body-snatching, they will really be serving their country.

Does any of this prove that Roswell was the result of a classified military test? Of course not! But, in my view, the sheer level of secret activity demonstrated above – much of a high-altitude nature, and a great deal relative to controversial experimentation undertaken on human individuals in the 1940s – leads me to conclude we should not rush to dismiss the possibility that aliens did not crash at Roswell.

Something strange certainly happened at Roswell. But, if you get all bent out of shape just because someone like me suggests aliens didn’t meet their deaths on the fateful day in the wilds of New Mexico, that is simply because you are caught up in the dreaded “I Want To Believe” mindset. Belief is the bane of everything – and particularly so when it comes to UFOs. No-one in Ufology should be belief-driven. But, unfortunately, so many are, were, and always will be.

(The images used in this post are for illustration purposes only)

One of those longstanding questions relative to UFOs that consistently and constantly pops up is: If aliens and UFOs are indeed visiting us, then why don’t they land on the White House lawn and announce their presence to one and all?

Okay, I know it’s a question that is often asked in a light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek, or skeptical fashion. But, for some, it’s a question posed with utter and deadly seriousness. And so, keeping that in mind, just why might it be that “the aliens” – if they are among us - don’t land in full view of the President and his staff? Let’s take a look…

For many, the aliens should land on that green and pleasant piece of grass for one specific, and massively important, reason: To say “Hello” to the great Human Race. Pleeeez! The sheer level of never-ending human arrogance and ego-driven nonsense that populates our world never ceases to amaze me. In the bigger scheme of things, and as a species that has actually achieved anything significant (aside from finding better and bigger ways to destroy each other), we have been around for barely a millisecond.

Even compared to the dinosaurs, we are still definitive non-starters. Those beasts reigned for millions of years. The way things are going, we will be lucky to make it through the next couple of centuries! So, why should E.T. even bother to land and finally hang out in wide open fashion with a bunch of screw-ups like us who are likely not to last anyway? So, if we are being visited, announcing themselves to whoever might be hanging out in the Oval Office on the fateful day is probably the last thing ‘they” will have on their minds.

What about landing for Obama, right now, and warning us of our warlike ways, in the fashion that the Space-Brothers supposedly did back in the 1950s – albeit largely in the desert and just to a few handfuls of Contactees, back then? I say: Why bother even warning us? If, pretty soon, we’re likely to become the cosmic equivalent of the school-bully, why not just wipe us out? Ah, but, Ufology has an answer to this matter.

Such a question inevitably provokes a certain response from whole swathes of the UFO research community who chime in that the desire of the aliens to try and help us onto a better path – rather than exterminate us – demonstrates their kindness and benevolence. And, that rather than land at the presidential office, they prefer to work and weave their magic from afar. Really? Seriously? What, exactly, has E.T. ever done for us? Cured cancer? Saved the rain-forests? Found a solution to over-population, obesity, and our reliance on oil? Prevented a few Tsunamis, earthquakes and hurricanes here and there? The answer to all those questions is: NOPE!

Maybe, then, the visitors from beyond are just waiting for the right time to set down at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. And when, exactly, might the right time be? Hell, with everything going belly-up, now would surely be as good a time as ever! They failed to show their strength and curb our warlike instincts after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As far as I’m aware, no alien took a worried and concerned walk into the White House on the eve of the Cuban Missile Crisis. And where were they when 9-11 went down? Certainly not offering wise words to the administration about how to respond, and what the ramifications might be more than a decade later, that’s for certain.

The fact of the matter is that if our world is experiencing visitations from other-world entities, then hanging out with us, curing our ills, and making the future cool and fun – and doing so by making that historic landing at the White House – is simply not a part of their agenda. Let’s look at the evidence: if there is one thing we know for sure about the UFO phenomenon, it’s that it acts in distinct stealth. And, seemingly, always has done.

Alien Abductions, face-to-face encounters with long-haired characters in the deserts of California, cattle-mutilations, Crop Circles – all of them, in various ways, and in varying degrees of credibility, have been linked to the presumed presence of extraterrestrials on our world. But all of these phenomena have one thing in common: A distinctly clandestine approach. The collective body of UFO-themed data in-hand clearly shows that if E.T. is here, then it most definitely prefers to distance itself from the masses.

If certain factions of the UFO research community are correct, E.T. roams the skies in the dead of night, in search of the next poor soul to prod, poke and steal their DNA. It does likewise with our cows in darkened fields. And, even if there is a degree of positive alien-human contact, ensuring it often occurs to a solitary, and often already-eccentric, character in the desert, serves no major, meaningful purpose whatsoever.

So, with that all said, why don’t the aliens land on the White House lawn and finally, once and for all, announce themselves?

My answer – if aliens really are coming here - is very simple: E.T. is as self-serving, selfish, and as “in it for Number One” as we are. For so long, we have been assured that the aliens are going to make things right for us, that there’s a bigger picture we just aren’t quite seeing yet, that Disclosure is on the way (maybe even with the aliens’ help), and that one day, soon, that historic landing really will happen.

The reality, however, is that the White House has been standing for plenty enough years for the aliens to come and hang out in D.C. for a few days. But they don’t – ever. When it comes to the matter of that always-present and pesky question that is the subject of this article, what we find is that asking the question tells us far more about ourselves than it does about E.T. We assume the aliens want to hang and chat. After all, we’re the great Human Race, right? No, actually.

If life exists elsewhere in the Universe – and there’s probably a very good chance it does – then those races that have managed to steer themselves away from the extinction or collapse that threatens to engulf us may well have a distinct “seen it all before” attitude towards us. To us, we are Numero Uno. To them, we’re no big deal. A White House, a Blue House, a Purple-With-Yellow-Spots House, they evidently could not care less.

It can be argued with a high degree of credibility and solid data that there certainly is a genuine UFO presence among us, but it cannot be argued in the slightest that the phenomenon is anything but secretive, crafty, stealthy, manipulative, guarded, indifferent and unapproachable – unless it’s on their terms and their terms alone. And their terms clearly don’t involve dropping in for a bit of friendly, hostile, or indifferent chit-chat with the Prez.

“The Man Who Takes Us to the Future” is the blurb across the front cover of this month’s edition of Wired Magazine, featuring an article on Marc Andreessen, described as “the most influential venture capitalist in silicon valley.” Andreesson, who is credited with inventing the web browser, is featured in the piece lending his own ideas about where future technology will lead us.

No doubt, these sorts of predictions, and especially the accurate manifestations of such technologies that will later ensue, could be described as “eye opening.” And yet, we probably take for granted to a great degree just how true this may be in a literal sense. If anything, the proliferation of advanced new technologies may literally begin to “allow” humans to perceive into new depths of Forteana, just as well. There is, in fact, some empirical data to back up this premise, especially if we consider a unique possibility: that are obvious reasons the UFO era really began to take hold during and immediately after World War II.

The “Foo Fighters” being reported by both the Allies and the Axis powers during the Second World War seemed, quite obviously, to be an alarming new “enemy” technology at the outset. During the War, the pilots who had been flying what were then the most advanced aircraft on Earth had reported being dogged by strange lights and other objects; it wasn’t until after the conflict that it became certain, with little room for doubt, that these “objects” hadn’t belonged to any of the major superpowers. But if not something of apparent human design and origin, what then?

To answer this great question would require an almost countless number of potentials to be thoroughly considered, despite the fact that, even today, the tried and true “extraterrestrial” hypothesis still remains the most prevalent stereotype theory about UFO origins. But let’s suppose for a moment that UFO craft–whatever they may actually be–had actually been present alongside humankind for much longer? Jacques Vallee and several others have supposed such scenarios might explain various early reports of strange aerial phenomenon over the centuries, in addition to drawing parallels to a variety of different elements involving faerie tales and folklore from various traditions around the globe.

If we are indeed dealing with a technological presence that could have been running parallel to humankind for much longer than most realize, It seems very likely that World War II would have served a pivotal role of presenting great necessity for wartime innovation, which thus led to the creation of technologies that allowed us to begin to better perceive and study UFOs.

Chief among such technologies are radar systems and radiation detection apparatus. While devices used for the detection of radiation had existed

already for a couple of decades by the time the Second World War broke out, Geiger counters along the lines of what we use today weren’t perfected until around 1947; coincidentally, this was the same year Kenneth Arnold claimed to witness UFOs over the Northwest as he flew over Mount Rainier, a well as the year the infamous Roswell UFO crash took place. Within the subsequent released Project Bluebook files, we certainly see mention of strange objects capable of producing large amounts of radiation. Throughout the UFO literature that would persist over the next few decades, we would often find this to be a measurable, and even dangerous quantity.

Another technology that might have allowed limited ability to “detect,” and therefore observe UFOs to some degree, would be the aforementioned radar systems. While major world superpowers had been developing radar in secret prior to WWII, again, the practical use of such systems would only be perfected during the years of conflict. History shows, as many of you have probably already surmised, that radar systems would eventually

prove quite beneficial in detecting strange objects (or entire fleets of objects) that appeared to be flying overhead nearby… and yet which, rather strangely, appeared to be invisible to the naked eye! Strange though it sounds, UFO literature is rife with these very sorts of stories, which quite obviously detail an advanced technology which, as a result of our own advancing intelligence, had slowly began to move into our range of perception.

So considering that our own technological advancement over time may have literally contributed to the otherwise “timed” appearance of UFOs as a cultural phenomenon after WWII, can we expect to see technology over the next few years molding and shaping our ability to perceive other things about reality itself, and perhaps the “hidden” aspects of this existence that may already be hovering all around us? I’m often asked these sorts of questions in interviews, and the short answer is “yes.” If anything, the advanced technologies that begin to emerge over the next two decades may render it all but impossible for the existence of such things as UFOs to be denied much longer… and when that happens, what kinds of innovations could we expect to stem from the potential for interaction with an intelligence even greater than our own? Food for thought, perhaps…

Many people unacquainted with the complexities of the UFO puzzle assume that all talk of attempts by “the government” to silence certain players in the field is nothing but outright paranoia and lies. Even within Ufology there are those who dismiss such stories as X-Files-like nonsense. How wrong they all are. Published in 2005, Greg Bishop’s book, Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth, provided the field of UFO research with what was without doubt one if its most important contributions in years.

The subject matter of Project Beta was an unusual one; and while seasoned researchers were already aware of certain aspects of this dark and ultimately tragic affair, those unaccustomed to the events in question might have been forgiven for thinking that they had stumbled upon a high-tech, X-Files-meets-Robert Ludlum-style thriller. But Project Beta told a very real story – one that was as harrowing as it was informative.

In essence, the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction book related the saga of physicist Paul Bennewitz, who, after digging into Air Force and National Security Agency secret projects at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico in the late 1970s that he believed were connected to the activities of sinister extraterrestrials and UFOs, was put under deep surveillance by the US military and intelligence services, and was bombarded by the murky world of officialdom with a mass of disinformation, faked stories and outright lies in order to divert him from his research – which worked. In fact, it worked rather too well, and led to the mental and psychological disintegration of Bennewitz.

While everyone with an interest in UFOs should read Greg Bishop’s book, it will not please all – particularly those who are of the opinion that aliens inhabit underground bases in the United States, that cattle mutilations are the work of sinister extraterrestrials, or that the rumors of government-alien collusion have a firm basis in reality. As Greg skillfully demonstrated, many of the cornerstones upon which today’s ufological lore are built, had their origins in the fertile minds of military intelligence and the behind-the-scenes, spook-brigade.

Much of the UFO “truth” fed to the research community by purported and sympathetic insiders and whistleblowers might not be “out there” after all. It may all be one big con behind which a veritable plethora of classified, military projects have been hidden – and, in the Bennewitz caper, projects specifically focused upon NSA communications systems, test flights (and possibly crashes) of early, prototype Stealth aircraft, and Air Force technologies designed to track the orbital movements of space satellites launched by the former Soviet Union.

As Project Beta skillfully revealed, Bennewitz had come to the conclusion that the collective operations described above were related to the activities of extraterrestrials, when in reality the truth was far more down to earth, although most certainly not in a mundane fashion. The book demonstrated that the Intelligence community cared not a bit that Bennewitz thought that their secret operations were UFO-related – precisely because the UFO connection was one of Bennewitz’s own making.

However, there was deep concern on the part of the world of officialdom that by digging into classified activities at Kirtland in search of UFOs, Bennewitz would inadvertently reveal – to the Soviets, in a worst-case scenario – information and technology that had to be kept secret at all costs, even if those costs included Bennewitz’s own sanity.

And so a plan was initiated: Having learned the essential parts of Bennewitz’s theories – very ironically from the man himself, by actually breaking into his home while he was out and checking his files and research notes – that aliens were mutilating cattle as part of some weird medical experiment; that they were abducting American citizens and implanting them with devices for purposes unknown; that those same aliens were living deep underground in a secure fortress at Dulce, New Mexico; and that we were all very soon going to be in deep and dire trouble as a direct result of the presence of this brewing, intergalactic threat, the Air Force gave Bennewitz precisely what he was looking for – confirmation that his theories were all true, and more.

Of course, this was all just a carefully-planned ruse to bombard Bennewitz with so much faked UFO data in the hope that it would steer him away from the classified military projects of a non-UFO nature that he had uncovered. And, indeed, it worked.

When Bennewitz received conformation (albeit carefully controlled and utterly fabricated confirmation) that, yes, he had stumbled upon the horrible truth and that, yes, there really was an alien base deep below Dulce, the actions of the Intelligence community had the desired effect: Bennewitz became increasingly paranoid and unstable, and he began looking away from Kirtland (the hub of the secrets that had to be kept) and harmlessly towards the vicinity of Dulce, where his actions, research, and theories could be carefully controlled and manipulated by the Government.

As long-time watchers of the ufological research scene will be aware, American Intelligence even brought Bill Moore (co-author with Charles Berlitz of the 1980 book, The Roswell Incident) into the scheme and asked him to keep them informed of how their disinformation operations against Bennewitz were working. In return, Moore was promised – and provided with – data and documents on super-secret, official UFO projects, crashed saucers, dead aliens, and more.

After informing a shocked and outraged audience at the 1989 Symposium of the Mutual UFO Network with the details of his involvement in keeping the Intelligence community informed of how their disinformation campaign against Bennewitz was working, Moore largely retired from the UFO scene. Similarly, the official disinformation operation that targeted Bennewitz resulted in his hospitalization, after he was driven to a near-complete mental collapse. This may have been the full intent all along: to crush Bennewitz, and to keep Moore busy chasing similar officially created lies and half-truths about UFOs.

You think officialdom won’t do whatever may be deemed necessary in the name of national security? Read Project Beta and you’ll almost certainly find yourself changing your mind – drastically so, too…

(The images used in this post are for illustration purposes only)

Every so often, those of us who are invested in the serious study of alleged UFO craft hear some incredible stories, which variously involve the testimony of trained pilots and other witnesses to unusual things seen in the skies. Countless numbers of stories that involve this sort of interaction between airmen and exotic-looking aircraft can be found by performing online searches, with the occasional appearance of flight audio that recounts such events.

Recently, a story along these lines was shared with me by one of my listeners, who had recently heard this subject being discussed on the The Gralien Report Podcast. Thus, she felt compelled to share the following account with me, in hopes that somebody else may have heard about what may have been going on recently in the skies over Indiana. Was it a UFO, or something else?

Here’s the message that appeared in my inbox only a few days ago:

I heard something today and thought that with your contacts in the ufo field you might be able to find something out. My sister called me today and told me that her husbands best friend (who is a pilot) was flying in Indiana airspace last night. He received a call over his radio redirecting him from his original flight plan. He said everyone was being redirected out of the area. At the time he said he was close enough to look into this no fly zone and he saw a very bright light. He also said that F18′s were in the air. He said that the chatter over the radio from the other pilots was all about this bright light, the F18′s, and the fact that they had orders to shoot!

I did a google search to see if I could find any news reports of ufo sightings in Indiana last night but was unsuccessful.

In truth, this was indeed the very first I had heard of such an incident, and a subsequent online search seemed to turn up few further details.

In the past, various incidents that involved the appearance of UFOs in midst of Fighter Pilots have occasionally resulted in disaster. Perhaps the most infamous, taken directly from the files of Project Blue Book, dealt with the death of 25-year-old pilot named Captain Thomas F. Mantell, on January 7, 1948. Mantell, of the Kentucky Air National Guard, had been pursuing what was believed to be a “flying saucer” at a high altitude, and in attempting to reach it himself, likely passed out due to loss of oxygen or similar circumstances, thus resulting in the crash of his jet. Rather tragically, Edward Ruppelt would later surmise that the entire Mantell incident may have involved nothing more than a high-altitude weather balloon, which, from Mantell’s perspective, could certainly have resembled a huge, silvery flying disc.

So far as the more recent incident over Indiana goes, few details have been made available with regard to just what may have been going on… and fortunately, there have been no reports of ill-fated pursuits of strange UFO craft on part of the U.S. Airforce this time around, either.