From Project Blue Beam to Abductions, Cattle Mutilations, and Fraudulent Conspiracy Theories

I had the pleasure of recently appearing on the Kidd and Friends Podcast, talking to host Christopher Perry about the double-edged fascination with conspiracy theories, especially UFO conspiracy theories. Check out the episode right here. With the government’s release of more UFO files (6 batches as of this writing), we have an ongoing appetite for information, speculations, and debates about the meaning of the phenomenon. This, of course, is understandable. If this phenomenon turns out to be something extraordinary—incontrovertible proof of extraterrestrial visitations, or contact with some form of interdimensional life forms—then it would be the greatest story in all of human history. I am actually baffled by those who have no interest in the topic at all, if they simply don’t care what might be behind the phenomenon.

So, in this discussion we dive into questions about conspiracy theories surrounding UFOs. And these are not merely theories about the Men In Black and retrieved flying saucers and extraterrestrial bodies. We talk about conspiracy theories alleging that quite contrary to the fear of suppressed UFO information, maybe the real conspiracy involves the creation of fake alien-contact stories. Instead of hiding aliens from the world, perhaps the conspirators are trying to make the world believe in nonexistent aliens. This is the crux of the Blue Beam conspiracy theory.

Then for an even more colorful dive into the realm where UFO sightings and conspiracy theories intersect, we look at fake conspiracies created by the U.S. Air Force that once drove a UFO investigator to a nervous breakdown. And have you ever wondered why the two major theories behind the cattle-mutilation mystery don’t make sense? Give us a listen right now and find out.

You can thank me later!

The Fascination With Aliens is Not Fading, and it Shouldn’t

It’s quite fascinating how much attention the issue of the U.S. government’s knowledge UFOs/UAPs is still garnering from serious media outlets and thoughtful pundits, and it is all taken seriously and presented as an issue worth studying and making the effort to understand. Certainly, some outlets are more interested in the story more than others. The cable new station News Nation has been taking almost daily deep dives into the issue, especially with the six batches of government UFO files that have been released since May. I am glad for this and I recently got the chance to have a couple of great conversations about the subject on two podcasts.

I first discuss the UFO issues and the way it is intertwined with conspiracism with Kevin Carney and Emanuel Petrescu on their Curious Pundits Podcast, and you can see it on YouTube at this link right here.

We also go into the history of the phenomenon, including the question of whether or not it is something much, much older than 1947 when pilot Kenneth Arnold made the first UFO report and the year when the infamous Roswell crash is alleged to have taken place. And certainly, this often crosses into the ancient astronaut theory and whether or not religions had been inspired by the misinterpretations of extraterrestrial contact by ancient man. Since the ancient astronaut theory gets very little respect by the community of historians—the theory essentially accepts a literal translation of ancient texts and offers no way of testing its claims and falsifying them—we do wonder about its plausibility. If there is something anomalous flying around in our skies today, can it stand to reason that the same phenomenon was present hundreds or even thousands of years ago? Sure it can. Although it is not something that can be tested in any way. Swearing an unequivocal belief in ancient aliens, therefore, is not a prudent move. 

However, do check out our discussion about the mystery airship phenomenon of the late 1890s, the peculiarities of the case, and why otherworldly craft might have looked like propeller driven oddities straight out of a steampunk novel.