1 00:00:02,042 --> 00:00:03,625 NARRATOR: Jacques Vallée. 2 00:00:03,750 --> 00:00:07,167 Astronomer. Computer scientist. 3 00:00:07,292 --> 00:00:11,292 Best-selling author. Internet pioneer. 4 00:00:11,458 --> 00:00:15,458 And world-renowned UFO researcher. 5 00:00:15,625 --> 00:00:17,000 GEORGE KNAPP: I think he's the most important thinker 6 00:00:17,208 --> 00:00:19,042 the topic has ever had. 7 00:00:19,208 --> 00:00:22,250 NARRATOR: Jacques Vallée was one of the first to suggest 8 00:00:22,458 --> 00:00:26,625 the UFO phenomenon dates back thousands of years. 9 00:00:26,750 --> 00:00:30,292 GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: Jacques Vallée asked the question, 10 00:00:30,417 --> 00:00:32,458 these ancient stories that we have, 11 00:00:32,625 --> 00:00:37,583 are they identical to modern-day UFO phenomenon? 12 00:00:37,750 --> 00:00:40,458 NARRATOR: And his bold theories dare to challenge 13 00:00:40,625 --> 00:00:43,583 not only our notions of extraterrestrial life, 14 00:00:43,750 --> 00:00:46,958 but of the universe itself. 15 00:00:47,125 --> 00:00:50,333 There are very few concepts that are standard 16 00:00:50,500 --> 00:00:52,958 in every part of human civilization. 17 00:00:53,125 --> 00:00:56,125 UFOs are, and they are across time. 18 00:00:56,250 --> 00:00:58,417 This is real, and it's important. 19 00:01:01,333 --> 00:01:05,042 NARRATOR: There is a doorway in the universe. 20 00:01:05,958 --> 00:01:09,167 Beyond it is the promise of truth. 21 00:01:10,333 --> 00:01:12,750 It demands we question everything 22 00:01:12,917 --> 00:01:15,167 we have ever been taught. 23 00:01:15,375 --> 00:01:18,958 The evidence is all around us. 24 00:01:19,167 --> 00:01:22,750 The future is right before our eyes. 25 00:01:22,958 --> 00:01:25,625 We are not alone. 26 00:01:25,792 --> 00:01:28,667 We have never been alone. 27 00:01:37,542 --> 00:01:42,167 NARRATOR: In 1952, the United States government launched its first 28 00:01:42,333 --> 00:01:45,792 major investigation into the UFO phenomenon, 29 00:01:45,917 --> 00:01:47,958 called Project Blue Book. 30 00:01:48,125 --> 00:01:52,000 More than five decades later, in 2007, 31 00:01:52,167 --> 00:01:53,833 the government initiated 32 00:01:54,042 --> 00:01:57,917 its second serious UFO project called "The Advanced Aviation 33 00:01:58,042 --> 00:02:01,458 Threat Identification Program," or AATIP. 34 00:02:02,667 --> 00:02:05,708 There is only one man who was a key contributor 35 00:02:05,875 --> 00:02:07,250 to both of these efforts, 36 00:02:07,417 --> 00:02:09,750 and he remains at the forefront 37 00:02:09,958 --> 00:02:13,000 of UFO research, even today: 38 00:02:13,167 --> 00:02:15,292 Dr. Jacques Vallée. 39 00:02:15,417 --> 00:02:18,667 PAUL HYNEK: I don't know of anybody else like Jacques Vallée 40 00:02:18,833 --> 00:02:20,625 in the UFO field. 41 00:02:20,792 --> 00:02:23,708 He brings scientific background, 42 00:02:23,875 --> 00:02:27,167 artificial intelligence, computer engineering training, 43 00:02:27,375 --> 00:02:30,708 and insatiable curiosity to the phenomenon. 44 00:02:30,875 --> 00:02:36,167 He has degrees in mathematics and astrophysics, 45 00:02:36,375 --> 00:02:38,333 and a PhD in computer science. 46 00:02:39,375 --> 00:02:44,208 And his ideas have had such a tremendous impact 47 00:02:44,375 --> 00:02:48,167 on ufology as a serious subject. 48 00:02:48,292 --> 00:02:52,542 It validates its study among academics. 49 00:02:53,583 --> 00:02:56,333 Jacques Vallée is, in my estimation, 50 00:02:56,500 --> 00:02:58,417 not only the deepest thinker, 51 00:02:58,542 --> 00:03:01,792 but the best writer to ever tackle the UFO mystery. 52 00:03:03,375 --> 00:03:06,167 He's the author of several seminal books, 53 00:03:06,333 --> 00:03:08,333 deeply influential in the field. 54 00:03:08,542 --> 00:03:11,875 He's helped to sort of expand what we think of 55 00:03:12,042 --> 00:03:14,417 as the UFO world. 56 00:03:15,542 --> 00:03:18,500 TSOUKALOS: He's one of the first people that asked the question 57 00:03:18,708 --> 00:03:22,833 is it possible that these ancient stories that we have, 58 00:03:22,958 --> 00:03:25,458 are they identical to what we see 59 00:03:25,625 --> 00:03:28,000 with the modern-day UFO phenomenon? 60 00:03:29,042 --> 00:03:31,458 RICHARD DOLAN: I honestly believe if you look at the whole history of just 61 00:03:31,625 --> 00:03:33,958 UFO researchers, you could really say that Jacques Vallée 62 00:03:34,125 --> 00:03:35,667 is the most brilliant of them all. 63 00:03:36,708 --> 00:03:39,333 JACQUES VALLÉE: Still, people ask me, "Do you believe in UFOs?" 64 00:03:39,500 --> 00:03:42,667 Well, you shouldn't wonder if you want to be 65 00:03:42,875 --> 00:03:44,375 a believer or a non-believer. 66 00:03:44,542 --> 00:03:47,458 As a scientist, I mean, there are reports of UFOs, 67 00:03:47,625 --> 00:03:49,792 and I want to study those reports 68 00:03:49,958 --> 00:03:53,667 to see if there is a pattern, and what that pattern 69 00:03:53,792 --> 00:03:57,333 would tell me about what is happening, 70 00:03:57,500 --> 00:04:01,333 and how we could design a methodology to study it. 71 00:04:01,500 --> 00:04:04,292 This is pure science. 72 00:04:05,333 --> 00:04:07,167 NARRATOR: As one of the first people to suggest 73 00:04:07,333 --> 00:04:10,833 that UFOs are not only a modern-day phenomenon, 74 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:16,250 Jacques Vallée is considered a pioneer by both ufologists 75 00:04:16,375 --> 00:04:18,667 and ancient astronaut theorists alike. 76 00:04:18,875 --> 00:04:23,667 For Vallée, UFOs have been a lifelong passion. 77 00:04:23,833 --> 00:04:28,375 One that was sparked by his very own close encounter. 78 00:04:34,375 --> 00:04:37,208 On a bright afternoon in this small town 79 00:04:37,417 --> 00:04:40,417 30 miles northwest of Paris, 80 00:04:40,583 --> 00:04:43,708 15-year-old Jacques Vallée comes running out of his house 81 00:04:43,875 --> 00:04:47,375 when he hears his mother calling out from the garden. 82 00:04:48,458 --> 00:04:51,958 I saw an object that, to this day, you know, 83 00:04:52,083 --> 00:04:56,875 I have to say was a UFO. It was a very clear disc. 84 00:04:58,042 --> 00:05:01,875 It was in the direction of the church of the city. 85 00:05:02,042 --> 00:05:06,375 This was not any airplane that you could imagine. 86 00:05:06,542 --> 00:05:11,042 So the next day, I spoke to a friend of mine from, uh, 87 00:05:11,208 --> 00:05:14,333 the college, and he had seen it, too. 88 00:05:14,542 --> 00:05:18,167 His house was about half a mile up the hill from us, 89 00:05:18,375 --> 00:05:21,917 and he had looked at it with binoculars, 90 00:05:22,083 --> 00:05:24,583 and I asked him to draw it. 91 00:05:24,750 --> 00:05:27,667 And what he drew was exactly the same thing I saw. 92 00:05:29,125 --> 00:05:32,083 DOLAN: What was interesting is that Jacques Vallée has his friend 93 00:05:32,208 --> 00:05:34,833 draw what he sees. 94 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:37,333 Very, you know, good investigative technique there. 95 00:05:37,500 --> 00:05:40,167 So you could really see, even as a young man, 96 00:05:40,333 --> 00:05:42,500 he was approaching this as rationally 97 00:05:42,667 --> 00:05:44,500 and scientifically as you're able to do. 98 00:05:44,625 --> 00:05:47,667 And that's a path that he has always followed. 99 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:52,833 NARRATOR: The encounter had a profound effect on young Jacques Vallée, 100 00:05:53,042 --> 00:05:55,917 who went on to study mathematics and astrophysics 101 00:05:56,083 --> 00:05:59,000 before being hired to work as an astronomer 102 00:05:59,167 --> 00:06:01,583 at the Paris Observatory in 1961. 103 00:06:03,542 --> 00:06:07,042 While there, he took advantage of the observatory's computer 104 00:06:07,250 --> 00:06:08,833 to advance his UFO research, 105 00:06:09,042 --> 00:06:13,542 comparing data from reports all over the world. 106 00:06:14,583 --> 00:06:18,292 VALLÉE: I started using the computer to find out 107 00:06:18,375 --> 00:06:21,458 about patterns among UFOs. 108 00:06:22,417 --> 00:06:24,917 And that's when I really became interested 109 00:06:25,083 --> 00:06:28,125 and felt that I could make a contribution. 110 00:06:28,292 --> 00:06:32,833 And after that, I was recruited by the University of Texas. 111 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:37,292 They knew exactly what I had been doing with the computer, 112 00:06:37,458 --> 00:06:40,750 and that, uh, they said, you know, that I could use 113 00:06:40,875 --> 00:06:45,292 the computer in Austin to work, to look for UFO patterns. 114 00:06:45,458 --> 00:06:48,417 So this was, uh, very exciting after that. 115 00:06:49,542 --> 00:06:53,250 NARRATOR: In 1962, Vallée moved to Austin, Texas 116 00:06:53,375 --> 00:06:56,750 to work with astronomers mapping the planet Mars. 117 00:06:56,958 --> 00:06:59,917 But his plans soon changed when he got 118 00:07:00,083 --> 00:07:03,917 an opportunity to meet Dr. J. Allen Hynek. 119 00:07:05,042 --> 00:07:08,042 Dr. Hynek was the chairman of the astronomy department 120 00:07:08,167 --> 00:07:10,458 at Northwestern University. 121 00:07:10,667 --> 00:07:13,417 But more importantly to Jacques Vallée, 122 00:07:13,625 --> 00:07:15,833 he was also the scientific advisor 123 00:07:16,042 --> 00:07:18,542 for one of the first government task forces 124 00:07:18,708 --> 00:07:22,875 to investigate the UFO phenomenon: "Project Blue Book." 125 00:07:23,875 --> 00:07:27,125 Begun in March of 1952, the classified 126 00:07:27,292 --> 00:07:31,875 U.S. Air Force project studied UFO reports and sightings 127 00:07:32,042 --> 00:07:35,667 to determine whether they were a threat to national security. 128 00:07:36,750 --> 00:07:41,708 My wife and I flew from Austin to Chicago and met with Hynek. 129 00:07:41,917 --> 00:07:46,500 And I had brought some of my database records 130 00:07:46,667 --> 00:07:49,292 of close encounter cases in Europe, 131 00:07:49,458 --> 00:07:51,292 and especially in France. 132 00:07:51,458 --> 00:07:54,500 And the statistics I had done from the database 133 00:07:54,625 --> 00:07:56,500 on the computer from Austin. 134 00:07:56,625 --> 00:07:59,500 And Dr. Hynek was very interested 135 00:07:59,667 --> 00:08:01,917 because, of course, the Air Force was 136 00:08:02,083 --> 00:08:05,833 accumulating records, under Project Blue Book. 137 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:10,250 NARRATOR: At the age of 24, Jacques Vallée began working 138 00:08:10,417 --> 00:08:12,750 as an aide for Hynek on Project Blue Book, 139 00:08:12,917 --> 00:08:15,167 and spent four years going through 140 00:08:15,292 --> 00:08:18,792 the 20,000 UFO cases on file. 141 00:08:19,708 --> 00:08:22,292 Dr. Hynek said as an astronomer, 142 00:08:22,417 --> 00:08:23,667 you're supposed to be curious. 143 00:08:23,833 --> 00:08:25,708 You are not there just to explain things 144 00:08:25,875 --> 00:08:27,000 to the public. 145 00:08:27,167 --> 00:08:30,083 You are there to... to look at the mysteries. 146 00:08:31,208 --> 00:08:32,458 And if there is a mystery, 147 00:08:32,583 --> 00:08:34,667 that's your job, to document it, 148 00:08:34,833 --> 00:08:37,583 to try to do the work for it. 149 00:08:37,750 --> 00:08:43,500 NICK POPE: Hynek became Vallée's mentor, and clearly Hynek 150 00:08:43,625 --> 00:08:46,458 recognized something in Jacques Vallée. 151 00:08:46,583 --> 00:08:48,917 He said, wow, you know, here's a smart person, 152 00:08:49,083 --> 00:08:52,417 a scientist, fellow scientist interested in, 153 00:08:52,583 --> 00:08:57,792 knowledgeable about, and passionate about UFOs, 154 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:00,833 but wanting to apply exactly the sort of scientific 155 00:09:01,042 --> 00:09:04,833 methodology that Hynek was, of course, interested in. 156 00:09:05,042 --> 00:09:09,792 So the two men became colleagues, and indeed friends. 157 00:09:11,750 --> 00:09:14,750 NARRATOR: According to J. Allen Hynek's son Paul, 158 00:09:14,875 --> 00:09:18,500 Vallée became his father's most trusted ally. 159 00:09:18,708 --> 00:09:21,542 PAUL HYNEK: There were a parade of graduate students 160 00:09:21,708 --> 00:09:25,500 and fellow professors at our house all the time. 161 00:09:25,625 --> 00:09:28,292 And yet I could see this special fondness 162 00:09:28,500 --> 00:09:30,208 and reverence my father had for Jacques. 163 00:09:31,542 --> 00:09:35,292 Jacques became an invaluable friend 164 00:09:35,458 --> 00:09:39,583 and colleague of my father, somebody who my father deeply 165 00:09:39,750 --> 00:09:44,667 respected, who was unflinchingly honest about the phenomena. 166 00:09:44,833 --> 00:09:49,583 And I would say courageous about pushing the boundaries 167 00:09:49,708 --> 00:09:53,208 of mainstream science out just a little bit further. 168 00:09:54,458 --> 00:09:56,833 AUBEK: The collaboration of two men 169 00:09:56,958 --> 00:09:59,875 of such impeccable scientific qualifications 170 00:10:00,042 --> 00:10:02,542 enriched the field beyond belief. 171 00:10:02,708 --> 00:10:06,625 This was a defining moment in the history of ufology. 172 00:10:07,875 --> 00:10:11,458 NARRATOR: Together, Jacques Vallée and J. Allen Hynek 173 00:10:11,583 --> 00:10:14,667 not only helped to legitimize the study of UFOs, 174 00:10:14,833 --> 00:10:17,875 but they also became convinced that the objects 175 00:10:18,083 --> 00:10:21,375 being witnessed are not of man-made origin. 176 00:10:21,542 --> 00:10:24,167 And one case that made a bigger impression 177 00:10:24,333 --> 00:10:28,208 than all the rest involved an enormous craft, 178 00:10:28,375 --> 00:10:32,000 a landing, and even alien beings. 179 00:10:43,500 --> 00:10:45,792 NARRATOR: While working towards PhDs 180 00:10:45,958 --> 00:10:49,208 in both industrial engineering and computer science, 181 00:10:49,417 --> 00:10:53,458 Jacques Vallée encourages his mentor J. Allen Hynek 182 00:10:53,583 --> 00:10:56,667 to consider investigating not only reports 183 00:10:56,833 --> 00:10:59,542 of objects in the sky 184 00:10:59,708 --> 00:11:02,875 but also evidence on the ground. 185 00:11:04,708 --> 00:11:07,833 VALLÉE: I kept talking to him about landings, 186 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:10,667 which, he called it "close encounters," 187 00:11:10,833 --> 00:11:13,458 and the term stuck, of course. 188 00:11:13,625 --> 00:11:16,167 I just called it "landings," 189 00:11:16,333 --> 00:11:19,458 where there were traces in-- on-on the ground and so on 190 00:11:19,625 --> 00:11:22,125 that could be looked at physically. 191 00:11:22,292 --> 00:11:25,958 And then he said, "But you go through the Air Force files, 192 00:11:26,042 --> 00:11:29,667 and you're going to see very, very few landings." 193 00:11:29,875 --> 00:11:33,958 And I said, "Well, let me go through the files 194 00:11:34,125 --> 00:11:37,000 and I'll show you some landings." 195 00:11:37,125 --> 00:11:40,708 The reason they didn't show up was they were all explained 196 00:11:40,875 --> 00:11:44,542 as aberrations or hallucinations. 197 00:11:44,667 --> 00:11:47,417 But you would find very credible witnesses, 198 00:11:47,542 --> 00:11:49,250 and you would find traces. 199 00:11:49,375 --> 00:11:52,667 And the thing that clinched it was the case 200 00:11:52,875 --> 00:11:55,625 in Socorro, New Mexico. 201 00:11:55,833 --> 00:11:57,208 In Socorro, 202 00:11:57,375 --> 00:12:00,500 not only was there a landing, there were beings. 203 00:12:00,708 --> 00:12:03,458 NARRATOR: Socorro, New Mexico, 204 00:12:03,667 --> 00:12:07,292 April 24, 1964, 205 00:12:07,458 --> 00:12:10,583 5:45 p.m. 206 00:12:10,750 --> 00:12:12,708 While chasing a speeding car, 207 00:12:12,875 --> 00:12:16,708 police sergeant Lonnie Zamora hears a thunderous roar 208 00:12:16,875 --> 00:12:21,083 and sees a flame in the sky to the southwest. 209 00:12:21,292 --> 00:12:24,500 Thinking a local dynamite shack might have exploded, 210 00:12:24,667 --> 00:12:27,375 Zamora leaves the chase to investigate. 211 00:12:38,208 --> 00:12:39,667 (insects chirping) 212 00:12:39,875 --> 00:12:42,000 POPE: Lonnie Zamora sees something. 213 00:12:42,167 --> 00:12:44,500 A landed craft, 214 00:12:44,708 --> 00:12:48,000 essentially egg-shaped. 215 00:12:48,917 --> 00:12:52,625 He sees some figures, 216 00:12:52,792 --> 00:12:55,625 and he says afterwards they were either 217 00:12:55,792 --> 00:12:57,917 big children or small adults, 218 00:12:58,083 --> 00:12:59,875 which, again, raises the question, 219 00:13:00,042 --> 00:13:02,667 were these extraterrestrials, as many believe? 220 00:13:02,833 --> 00:13:05,667 Suddenly, when he got reasonably close, 221 00:13:05,833 --> 00:13:09,417 they got back in and this thing took off. 222 00:13:11,542 --> 00:13:13,250 NARRATOR: Zamora examined the area 223 00:13:13,375 --> 00:13:16,167 with fellow police sergeant Sam Chavez. 224 00:13:16,333 --> 00:13:18,750 Both officers documented 225 00:13:18,958 --> 00:13:21,458 that the brush was burning in several places 226 00:13:21,583 --> 00:13:24,667 and the object had left four perpendicular impressions 227 00:13:24,833 --> 00:13:27,125 on the ground. 228 00:13:27,250 --> 00:13:30,292 Dozens of other investigators arrived on the scene 229 00:13:30,458 --> 00:13:35,167 shortly after the incident and in the days that followed. 230 00:13:35,375 --> 00:13:38,792 VALLÉE: You had, actually, four levels of investigation. 231 00:13:38,917 --> 00:13:41,667 You had the Socorro cops, 232 00:13:41,833 --> 00:13:45,000 you had the FBI happened to be there, 233 00:13:45,208 --> 00:13:49,167 you had the security detail from the airfield 234 00:13:49,333 --> 00:13:52,167 and you had special investigations 235 00:13:52,333 --> 00:13:56,667 with the Air Force, sending Dr. Hynek. 236 00:13:56,833 --> 00:13:59,833 And that became part of Project Blue Book 237 00:14:00,042 --> 00:14:03,958 as an "unidentified" by all the investigators 238 00:14:04,125 --> 00:14:05,917 who had been there. 239 00:14:33,708 --> 00:14:36,500 Jacques told me that it was this case 240 00:14:36,708 --> 00:14:40,750 that was more or less the straw that broke the camel's back 241 00:14:40,958 --> 00:14:43,333 that made my father feel comfortable 242 00:14:43,542 --> 00:14:46,167 speaking about beings 243 00:14:46,333 --> 00:14:49,833 as opposed to just crafts in public. 244 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:52,792 VALLÉE: It was a difficult transition 245 00:14:52,958 --> 00:14:56,833 for Dr. Hynek to admit that, yes, 246 00:14:56,958 --> 00:14:58,917 not only were landings important 247 00:14:59,083 --> 00:15:00,958 but they were the greatest source 248 00:15:01,125 --> 00:15:05,708 of actual physical data that you could take to the lab. 249 00:15:05,875 --> 00:15:08,083 NARRATOR: For Jacques Vallée, 250 00:15:08,250 --> 00:15:12,167 collecting data is the key to solving the UFO mystery. 251 00:15:12,375 --> 00:15:16,167 As part of his effort to create a global UFO database, 252 00:15:16,375 --> 00:15:19,500 Vallée, with the help from Dr. Hynek, 253 00:15:19,667 --> 00:15:22,833 began building an international network of scientists 254 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:25,250 investigating the phenomenon. 255 00:15:25,417 --> 00:15:28,792 They called themselves the Invisible College, 256 00:15:28,958 --> 00:15:30,250 taking the name from a group 257 00:15:30,375 --> 00:15:33,167 of 18th-century European scholars. 258 00:15:33,375 --> 00:15:36,125 VALLÉE: This was similar to what happened 259 00:15:36,292 --> 00:15:40,000 in the 18th century, uh, with the Invisible College. 260 00:15:40,208 --> 00:15:43,208 And they did a lot of early astronomy, 261 00:15:43,417 --> 00:15:47,667 early physics, chemistry, biology and so on. 262 00:15:47,875 --> 00:15:52,500 And the only reason they were not hung or killed as witches 263 00:15:52,583 --> 00:15:55,417 was because they were protected by the king. 264 00:15:55,542 --> 00:15:58,500 Dr. Hynek thought we were sort of the, uh, 265 00:15:58,667 --> 00:16:02,042 the new iteration of the Invisible College. 266 00:16:02,208 --> 00:16:05,750 People like Costa de Beauregard in France, 267 00:16:05,958 --> 00:16:08,167 like Professor Chauvin in France, 268 00:16:08,292 --> 00:16:11,167 were internationally known in their fields, 269 00:16:11,375 --> 00:16:14,792 uh, biology, relativity and so on. 270 00:16:14,917 --> 00:16:20,083 But they were very interested in talking about UFOs with us. 271 00:16:20,250 --> 00:16:23,667 Of course, this was very secret. 272 00:16:23,792 --> 00:16:26,375 The Invisible College began in Dr. Hynek's home, 273 00:16:26,542 --> 00:16:29,833 where, weekly or monthly, he would have scientists 274 00:16:29,917 --> 00:16:32,792 from all around the world visit his house, 275 00:16:32,958 --> 00:16:37,167 and there, they would discuss the UFO topic. 276 00:16:37,375 --> 00:16:42,208 But they all were sworn to secrecy, because at the time, 277 00:16:42,375 --> 00:16:45,125 you couldn't talk about it in seriousness, 278 00:16:45,292 --> 00:16:48,375 especially in the world of academia. 279 00:16:48,542 --> 00:16:51,833 NARRATOR: Although most members of the Invisible College 280 00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:55,583 remained anonymous, Jacques Vallée did not, 281 00:16:55,750 --> 00:17:00,625 and in 1965, he published Anatomy of a Phenomenon, 282 00:17:00,792 --> 00:17:04,250 one of the earliest books written about the UFO subject 283 00:17:04,417 --> 00:17:05,875 by a scientist. 284 00:17:06,042 --> 00:17:08,333 DOLAN: Anatomy of a Phenomenon 285 00:17:08,458 --> 00:17:11,250 was a very, very strong compilation 286 00:17:11,417 --> 00:17:14,875 of these UFO reports at that time. 287 00:17:15,042 --> 00:17:18,292 He's looking at the data, organizing it. 288 00:17:18,458 --> 00:17:21,542 It really made his name in the UFO field. 289 00:17:22,708 --> 00:17:24,167 NARRATOR: But as Vallée 290 00:17:24,333 --> 00:17:27,417 was forging his reputation in the field of ufology, 291 00:17:27,583 --> 00:17:30,333 the U.S. government was looking for a way 292 00:17:30,500 --> 00:17:33,875 to end its UFO investigations. 293 00:17:34,042 --> 00:17:38,750 In 1966, the so-called Condon Committee, 294 00:17:38,917 --> 00:17:41,000 led by physicist Edward Condon, 295 00:17:41,208 --> 00:17:43,375 was commissioned by the U.S. Air Force 296 00:17:43,583 --> 00:17:46,125 to assess whether to continue funding studies 297 00:17:46,292 --> 00:17:48,958 like Project Blue Book. 298 00:17:49,042 --> 00:17:50,667 DOLAN: Their job, supposedly, was to make 299 00:17:50,792 --> 00:17:54,042 a determination, scientifically, is this real, 300 00:17:54,208 --> 00:17:56,458 is this not real, what should the Air Force do, 301 00:17:56,583 --> 00:17:58,708 should the Air Force drop Project Blue Book? 302 00:17:58,875 --> 00:18:00,583 And the answer is, "Nothing to it." 303 00:18:00,708 --> 00:18:03,708 It's not worthy of further scientific investigation. 304 00:18:05,333 --> 00:18:07,792 VALLÉE: When the Condon study began, 305 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:11,625 it became obvious that it was rigged 306 00:18:11,750 --> 00:18:13,458 to give a negative conclusion. 307 00:18:13,625 --> 00:18:16,000 I didn't want to stay in the U.S. 308 00:18:16,167 --> 00:18:18,167 under those conditions. 309 00:18:18,333 --> 00:18:22,292 I thought, "If that's what science is in America, 310 00:18:22,500 --> 00:18:25,333 we don't belong in America." 311 00:18:25,542 --> 00:18:30,125 NARRATOR: After a disappointing end to his time at Project Blue Book, 312 00:18:30,250 --> 00:18:34,250 Jacques Vallée moved back to Paris with his wife and son. 313 00:18:34,417 --> 00:18:37,167 But as backlash against UFO research 314 00:18:37,375 --> 00:18:40,750 spread in the public sphere of science and academics, 315 00:18:40,875 --> 00:18:42,417 Jacques Vallée would develop 316 00:18:42,542 --> 00:18:45,500 his most profound UFO theory yet: 317 00:18:45,625 --> 00:18:50,875 that aliens have always been among us. 318 00:19:00,250 --> 00:19:02,208 NARRATOR: 30-year-old Jacques Vallée 319 00:19:02,375 --> 00:19:04,333 is working as an engineer 320 00:19:04,542 --> 00:19:07,208 for the Royal Dutch Shell oil and gas company 321 00:19:07,375 --> 00:19:11,417 when civil unrest erupts throughout France. 322 00:19:11,583 --> 00:19:14,375 Triggered by a series of student protests 323 00:19:14,542 --> 00:19:16,833 against capitalism and consumerism, 324 00:19:17,042 --> 00:19:20,750 the unrest leads to a nationwide strike. 325 00:19:23,208 --> 00:19:24,333 Essentially, there were three months 326 00:19:24,500 --> 00:19:26,542 during which no work was done. 327 00:19:26,708 --> 00:19:31,500 So, I could go back to my own research interests, 328 00:19:31,708 --> 00:19:33,083 uh, full-time. 329 00:19:33,250 --> 00:19:36,333 I collected a number of books 330 00:19:36,458 --> 00:19:39,833 in areas that I had wanted to look at for a-a long time. 331 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:43,250 And the question, which is really a scientific question, 332 00:19:43,417 --> 00:19:47,833 is-- so, we have UFOs, you know, and UFO waves-- 333 00:19:47,958 --> 00:19:50,417 when did that really start? 334 00:19:50,625 --> 00:19:54,833 NARRATOR: Vallée discovered that accounts of mysterious objects in the sky 335 00:19:55,042 --> 00:19:58,333 weren't limited to contemporary reports. 336 00:19:58,500 --> 00:20:01,542 In fact, the more he dug into the origins 337 00:20:01,708 --> 00:20:03,292 of the UFO phenomenon, 338 00:20:03,458 --> 00:20:06,167 the further back in time he went. 339 00:20:06,333 --> 00:20:09,167 VALLÉE: There is a lot of literature 340 00:20:09,333 --> 00:20:12,167 from the Muslim world about, uh, jinn 341 00:20:12,375 --> 00:20:14,625 and about other creatures 342 00:20:14,792 --> 00:20:19,375 created by God, but... a-along with men and animals. 343 00:20:19,542 --> 00:20:24,083 So, I started l-looking at this, and what dawned on me 344 00:20:24,208 --> 00:20:26,875 was that you could go back in history, 345 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:30,167 and people will interpret it in religious terms 346 00:20:30,375 --> 00:20:33,917 as either evil or... 347 00:20:34,042 --> 00:20:37,667 angels or religious apparitions. 348 00:20:37,792 --> 00:20:41,458 POPE: Jacques Vallée noticed some connections 349 00:20:41,625 --> 00:20:44,667 between modern-day UFO sightings 350 00:20:44,792 --> 00:20:49,417 and ancient folkloric tales of strange lights 351 00:20:49,542 --> 00:20:52,792 and even entity encounters. 352 00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:57,292 And he said, look, this could be the same phenomenon, 353 00:20:57,458 --> 00:21:00,667 but just people use different words 354 00:21:00,875 --> 00:21:02,125 according to their language, 355 00:21:02,250 --> 00:21:04,833 according to their belief systems. 356 00:21:06,792 --> 00:21:08,958 VALLÉE: I looked especially in Europe. 357 00:21:09,083 --> 00:21:13,458 So many of those were fairy tales that I had heard as a kid. 358 00:21:13,583 --> 00:21:17,333 It turns out they come from real observations. 359 00:21:18,333 --> 00:21:22,083 A few folklore experts in the 19th century 360 00:21:22,292 --> 00:21:24,375 and early 20th century, 361 00:21:24,542 --> 00:21:28,167 in Ireland and, uh, Wales and Scotland, 362 00:21:28,375 --> 00:21:32,292 had gone around collecting actual reports 363 00:21:32,458 --> 00:21:36,625 of people encountering, not just little people, 364 00:21:36,792 --> 00:21:40,583 but little people with strange contraptions. 365 00:21:40,708 --> 00:21:45,333 Strange houses where you would lose your sense of time. 366 00:21:45,500 --> 00:21:48,292 You would come out and years would've passed. 367 00:21:48,458 --> 00:21:50,667 And so you are beginning to see 368 00:21:50,875 --> 00:21:52,708 that these people were confronted 369 00:21:52,875 --> 00:21:55,500 with another race, 370 00:21:55,667 --> 00:21:57,833 that there was communication with it. 371 00:21:57,958 --> 00:22:01,667 TSOUKALOS: Jacques Vallée realized that many of the stories 372 00:22:01,833 --> 00:22:03,750 that we have of in the Middle Ages 373 00:22:03,917 --> 00:22:06,667 of trolls and fairy folk and things like that, 374 00:22:06,792 --> 00:22:10,292 it reminded him of similar stories 375 00:22:10,458 --> 00:22:13,583 that we have today in the UFO world. 376 00:22:13,750 --> 00:22:16,375 So, he asked the question, is it possible 377 00:22:16,500 --> 00:22:19,333 that these ancient stories that we have, 378 00:22:19,458 --> 00:22:22,333 are they identical to what we see 379 00:22:22,458 --> 00:22:24,458 with the modern-day UFO phenomenon? 380 00:22:24,625 --> 00:22:28,917 NARRATOR: In 1969, Jacques Vallée published 381 00:22:29,083 --> 00:22:30,542 the culmination of this research 382 00:22:30,708 --> 00:22:33,708 in a book titled Passport to Magonia, 383 00:22:33,875 --> 00:22:36,833 named for the fabled cloud realm detailed 384 00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:39,667 in medieval French folklore. 385 00:22:39,833 --> 00:22:42,625 TSOUKALOS: In that book, he describes that perhaps 386 00:22:42,792 --> 00:22:47,250 some of those old stories and legends of fairy folk 387 00:22:47,375 --> 00:22:49,167 are not necessarily made up, 388 00:22:49,375 --> 00:22:51,500 but that they may be descriptions 389 00:22:51,625 --> 00:22:54,250 of visiting extraterrestrials 390 00:22:54,417 --> 00:22:57,958 that our ancestors then interpreted as fairy folk. 391 00:22:59,500 --> 00:23:01,833 KNAPP: Passport to Magonia was a game changer. 392 00:23:02,042 --> 00:23:04,458 To suggest that these things, whatever they are, 393 00:23:04,625 --> 00:23:06,167 interact with humans 394 00:23:06,250 --> 00:23:07,458 throughout human history, 395 00:23:07,625 --> 00:23:09,583 on every continent, in every culture. 396 00:23:09,792 --> 00:23:12,167 WILLIAM HENRY: At this time, the primary thought 397 00:23:12,292 --> 00:23:13,792 about extraterrestrials 398 00:23:13,917 --> 00:23:16,625 was UFOs only started showing up in 1947 399 00:23:16,792 --> 00:23:18,583 with the Kenneth Arnold sighting. 400 00:23:18,750 --> 00:23:21,667 But Vallée is starting to see that they've always been here, 401 00:23:21,833 --> 00:23:24,042 that they've shown up in culture after culture, 402 00:23:24,208 --> 00:23:27,583 and saying that this phenomena has always been with us. 403 00:23:28,792 --> 00:23:30,583 NARRATOR: With Passport to Magonia, 404 00:23:30,708 --> 00:23:33,167 Jacques Vallée became a seminal figure 405 00:23:33,333 --> 00:23:35,208 to not only ufologists, 406 00:23:35,375 --> 00:23:38,458 but also ancient astronaut theorists. 407 00:23:38,583 --> 00:23:41,458 And his book came out within just a few months 408 00:23:41,625 --> 00:23:43,833 of Swiss author Erich von Danikën's 409 00:23:44,042 --> 00:23:45,625 Chariots of the Gods?, 410 00:23:45,833 --> 00:23:49,208 which also posed the possibility that extraterrestrials 411 00:23:49,375 --> 00:23:52,292 had visited Earth in the distant past. 412 00:23:52,458 --> 00:23:55,083 When you read the words of Jacques Vallée, 413 00:23:55,250 --> 00:23:56,750 you can't help but be thinking 414 00:23:56,917 --> 00:23:58,792 of the work of Erich Von Däniken. 415 00:23:59,917 --> 00:24:02,167 Chariots of the Gods? and Passport to Magonia 416 00:24:02,375 --> 00:24:05,792 come to the same conclusion: this is an ancient phenomenon. 417 00:24:07,083 --> 00:24:09,500 ERICH VON DÄNIKEN: I adore some of the writings of Jacques Vallée. 418 00:24:09,625 --> 00:24:10,833 He's a brilliant man. 419 00:24:11,042 --> 00:24:13,000 And of course, out there in the universe, 420 00:24:13,208 --> 00:24:15,500 there might be different forms of extraterrestrial, 421 00:24:15,667 --> 00:24:17,167 not only a human form. 422 00:24:17,333 --> 00:24:19,833 They might be small beings, 423 00:24:20,042 --> 00:24:23,958 bigger beings, giants. 424 00:24:25,042 --> 00:24:25,333 We have no idea. 425 00:24:25,542 --> 00:24:26,083 We have no idea. 426 00:24:27,667 --> 00:24:30,250 NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut theorists cite Magonia 427 00:24:30,375 --> 00:24:33,333 as one of many instances when Jacques Vallée 428 00:24:33,542 --> 00:24:35,958 found himself at the forefront of UFO research 429 00:24:36,083 --> 00:24:39,833 pushing the boundaries of what many deemed possible. 430 00:24:40,833 --> 00:24:45,000 But his most groundbreaking theories were still to come. 431 00:24:45,167 --> 00:24:48,167 Theories that would challenge our understanding 432 00:24:48,375 --> 00:24:52,500 of not just UFOs, but the entire cosmos. 433 00:25:02,958 --> 00:25:06,583 NARRATOR: Jacques Vallée is recruited by the National Science Foundation 434 00:25:06,750 --> 00:25:08,625 to work as a principal investigator 435 00:25:08,833 --> 00:25:11,375 on a project known as ARPANET. 436 00:25:11,542 --> 00:25:14,042 It was here where he helped build 437 00:25:14,208 --> 00:25:17,250 the first public computer network ever developed. 438 00:25:17,417 --> 00:25:19,667 And it is considered by many 439 00:25:19,833 --> 00:25:21,750 to be the forerunner of the Internet. 440 00:25:23,042 --> 00:25:28,500 ARPA was the Advanced Research Project Agency of the Pentagon. 441 00:25:28,625 --> 00:25:32,792 There were 15 computing centers at universities. 442 00:25:32,875 --> 00:25:36,333 At Stanford Research Institute, we had site number two, 443 00:25:36,458 --> 00:25:39,250 the second computer on the Internet. 444 00:25:39,417 --> 00:25:43,833 I ran one of the projects of many 445 00:25:44,042 --> 00:25:49,083 and we implemented the first computer conferencing systems 446 00:25:49,250 --> 00:25:52,667 when the ARPANET was going to turn into the Internet. 447 00:25:52,875 --> 00:25:55,667 This is an incredible part of-of Vallée's story. 448 00:25:55,875 --> 00:25:59,042 He goes to Silicon Valley and becomes amazingly successful 449 00:25:59,208 --> 00:26:01,000 in the early days of ARPANET. 450 00:26:03,125 --> 00:26:06,167 NARRATOR: While working as a senior research engineer at Stanford, 451 00:26:06,375 --> 00:26:10,167 on his own time, Vallée continued to compile reports 452 00:26:10,375 --> 00:26:12,750 on unidentified aerial phenomena. 453 00:26:12,875 --> 00:26:14,917 And the more information he gathered, 454 00:26:15,083 --> 00:26:19,292 the more he began to question the very nature of UFOs. 455 00:26:19,458 --> 00:26:22,500 What I found was that the ufologists 456 00:26:22,708 --> 00:26:25,250 were still talking about UFOs 457 00:26:25,375 --> 00:26:27,667 like they were advanced airplanes. 458 00:26:27,833 --> 00:26:31,667 Well, that ignores pretty much everything that UFOs do. 459 00:26:32,750 --> 00:26:34,375 Whatever propulsion there is, 460 00:26:34,542 --> 00:26:36,750 is certainly not anything 461 00:26:36,917 --> 00:26:40,167 that we account for in our equations. 462 00:26:40,333 --> 00:26:44,667 And you ask the witnesses, how fast did it go off? 463 00:26:44,833 --> 00:26:49,500 And they say, it lifted and then it disappeared. 464 00:26:49,708 --> 00:26:52,667 And the interpretation is, they turn on, you know, 465 00:26:52,792 --> 00:26:55,000 the afterburners and they go boom. 466 00:26:55,167 --> 00:26:57,167 You know, and you don't see them anymore. 467 00:26:57,375 --> 00:26:58,708 That's not true. 468 00:27:00,042 --> 00:27:03,542 HENRY: Vallée came to believe, based on the evidence 469 00:27:03,708 --> 00:27:05,167 that he saw in the literary tradition, 470 00:27:05,333 --> 00:27:06,500 and as well as what he's seeing in the sightings 471 00:27:06,667 --> 00:27:08,083 and the documentation, 472 00:27:08,250 --> 00:27:10,000 that perhaps what we're actually dealing with 473 00:27:10,167 --> 00:27:12,292 is an interdimensional phenomenon, 474 00:27:12,458 --> 00:27:14,542 and that extraterrestrials 475 00:27:14,708 --> 00:27:17,083 are in fact coming from other dimensions. 476 00:27:17,250 --> 00:27:20,083 CHRISSY NEWTON: Jacques Vallée was one of the first scientists 477 00:27:20,208 --> 00:27:23,167 to ever bring in a multi-dimensional theory 478 00:27:23,292 --> 00:27:25,500 in context with the UFO topic. 479 00:27:25,708 --> 00:27:27,167 Jacques was ahead of his time, 480 00:27:27,375 --> 00:27:29,167 and he's open-minded enough as a scientist 481 00:27:29,292 --> 00:27:31,167 to be able to go there 482 00:27:31,333 --> 00:27:32,750 and be very passionate about it. 483 00:27:33,833 --> 00:27:35,917 TSOUKALOS: Jacques Vallée changed his opinion 484 00:27:36,083 --> 00:27:39,167 from nuts-and-bolts spacecraft 485 00:27:39,375 --> 00:27:42,167 to it being that we live in a multiverse. 486 00:27:42,292 --> 00:27:46,667 And that multiple existences are happening all at the same time. 487 00:27:46,875 --> 00:27:49,000 And some of the UFO sightings 488 00:27:49,125 --> 00:27:53,500 might be these blips of these civilizations 489 00:27:53,625 --> 00:27:56,750 being able to move between dimensions. 490 00:27:58,083 --> 00:28:00,792 VALLÉE: The idea that we are in a universe 491 00:28:00,917 --> 00:28:05,083 that has more than three or four dimensions with time, 492 00:28:05,208 --> 00:28:10,500 that's passé for physics going back to, you know, 50 years ago. 493 00:28:10,708 --> 00:28:13,583 I talk to scientists and to physicists, 494 00:28:13,708 --> 00:28:17,000 and they tell me that essentially 495 00:28:17,208 --> 00:28:21,667 space and time are human perceptions. 496 00:28:21,833 --> 00:28:25,542 That's where physics stands now. 497 00:28:25,708 --> 00:28:28,250 This doesn't come from the UFO people, 498 00:28:28,417 --> 00:28:29,792 it comes from hard physics. 499 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:32,833 And I think part of my job, 500 00:28:33,042 --> 00:28:36,333 I'm not a good enough physicist 501 00:28:36,500 --> 00:28:39,083 to contribute to those ideas, 502 00:28:39,208 --> 00:28:43,667 but I can bring fuel to the... to the discussion. 503 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:47,083 NARRATOR: Jacques Vallée shared his idea 504 00:28:47,250 --> 00:28:50,042 of interdimensional travelers with his former colleague 505 00:28:50,208 --> 00:28:52,875 and longtime friend, J. Allen Hynek. 506 00:28:53,042 --> 00:28:57,333 And together, they published the theory in the 1975 book, 507 00:28:57,542 --> 00:28:59,917 The Edge of Reality. 508 00:29:00,917 --> 00:29:02,542 MICHIO KAKU: Mr. Vallée opened the door 509 00:29:02,708 --> 00:29:06,125 to a new kind of ufology, 510 00:29:06,292 --> 00:29:09,333 not just little green men with flying saucers 511 00:29:09,500 --> 00:29:10,833 landing on the White House lawn, 512 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:14,125 but creatures from another dimension. 513 00:29:14,292 --> 00:29:16,292 Creatures that can go through doorways 514 00:29:16,458 --> 00:29:18,167 and go between universes. 515 00:29:19,375 --> 00:29:21,958 NARRATOR: Vallée and Hynek's controversial ideas 516 00:29:22,083 --> 00:29:24,583 captured the imagination of the public. 517 00:29:24,708 --> 00:29:27,458 And not long after the book was released, 518 00:29:27,583 --> 00:29:29,083 they also caught the attention 519 00:29:29,250 --> 00:29:32,250 of Hollywood's most celebrated new filmmaker: 520 00:29:32,417 --> 00:29:34,000 Steven Spielberg. 521 00:29:34,167 --> 00:29:36,000 I'm convinced that there's something going on, 522 00:29:36,208 --> 00:29:38,208 but no one really knows what it is. 523 00:29:38,417 --> 00:29:40,833 Uh, Dr. Hynek certainly d-doesn't know what it is. 524 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:42,667 I have theories, he has theories. 525 00:29:42,875 --> 00:29:44,667 No one really can put their finger on it. 526 00:29:44,833 --> 00:29:47,125 If-if they could, the mystery would be solved. 527 00:29:48,708 --> 00:29:52,458 Jacques Vallée's influence was so profound 528 00:29:52,583 --> 00:29:56,000 that he came to the attention of director Steven Spielberg. 529 00:29:56,167 --> 00:29:58,750 Vallée is the model for the character 530 00:29:58,958 --> 00:30:01,167 of Claude Lacombe, the French scientist 531 00:30:01,333 --> 00:30:04,125 that we see in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 532 00:30:04,250 --> 00:30:07,333 VALLÉE: I heard of it through Dr. Hynek 533 00:30:07,542 --> 00:30:10,917 that one of the characters was based on me. 534 00:30:11,042 --> 00:30:15,167 And then there was a-a reporter in-in Hollywood, 535 00:30:15,375 --> 00:30:20,125 they invited Steven Spielberg to lunch with us. 536 00:30:20,250 --> 00:30:25,333 And t-the three of us had a conversation about the movie 537 00:30:25,500 --> 00:30:28,792 and he confirmed that they wanted a scientist 538 00:30:28,917 --> 00:30:31,792 who would be from another culture, and not American, 539 00:30:31,917 --> 00:30:34,333 but from another culture, and would think about it 540 00:30:34,500 --> 00:30:36,125 in different ways. 541 00:30:36,250 --> 00:30:40,667 And Steven Spielberg told me he had read my first books, 542 00:30:40,833 --> 00:30:44,375 Anatomy of a Phenomenon, was published in '65, 543 00:30:44,542 --> 00:30:49,083 which meant he was studying the subject way back. 544 00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:52,333 It was wonderful because 545 00:30:52,500 --> 00:30:54,500 usually in Hollywood, you know, 546 00:30:54,708 --> 00:30:56,833 the aliens come down and they start shooting. 547 00:30:57,042 --> 00:30:58,833 And-and that's not what he wanted to do. 548 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,250 He wanted to show the interaction, 549 00:31:01,417 --> 00:31:03,958 the human contact. 550 00:31:05,375 --> 00:31:09,000 NARRATOR: Grossing over $300 million worldwide, 551 00:31:09,208 --> 00:31:12,542 Close Encounters became a blockbuster hit 552 00:31:12,708 --> 00:31:14,375 and sparked greater public interest 553 00:31:14,542 --> 00:31:17,792 in both the UFO mystery and Jacques Vallée. 554 00:31:17,958 --> 00:31:21,500 And in the decades to come, Vallée would once again 555 00:31:21,667 --> 00:31:26,000 find himself at the center of a secret UFO investigation 556 00:31:26,167 --> 00:31:29,208 run by the U.S. government. 557 00:31:38,167 --> 00:31:41,375 NARRATOR: As the end of the 20th century approaches, 558 00:31:41,542 --> 00:31:45,625 French scientist and astronomer Jacques Vallée turns his focus 559 00:31:45,792 --> 00:31:47,875 to funding emerging technologies, 560 00:31:48,042 --> 00:31:50,625 spearheading advancements 561 00:31:50,750 --> 00:31:52,667 in everything from wireless networks 562 00:31:52,792 --> 00:31:55,583 to biotech and nanotechnology. 563 00:31:55,750 --> 00:31:58,167 Vallée is also interested 564 00:31:58,375 --> 00:32:02,083 in bringing ufology into a new technological age 565 00:32:02,208 --> 00:32:06,083 and in 1995, he gets his opportunity 566 00:32:06,250 --> 00:32:10,375 when he meets aerospace entrepreneur Robert Bigelow. 567 00:32:12,125 --> 00:32:14,000 In the mid-1990s, 568 00:32:14,167 --> 00:32:18,333 billionaire Robert Bigelow enters the UFO scene 569 00:32:18,458 --> 00:32:21,708 and he is funding a civilian scientific effort-- 570 00:32:21,875 --> 00:32:23,833 the National Institute for Discovery Science-- 571 00:32:23,958 --> 00:32:25,792 that's looking into the phenomena 572 00:32:25,917 --> 00:32:27,500 and other related phenomena. 573 00:32:27,667 --> 00:32:28,833 And he brings together 574 00:32:29,042 --> 00:32:31,000 some of the very best in the field. 575 00:32:31,208 --> 00:32:33,292 And of course, naturally, this brings him to Jacques Vallée. 576 00:32:34,542 --> 00:32:37,833 VALLÉE: The research that Mr. Bigelow funded was 577 00:32:38,042 --> 00:32:39,667 absolutely remarkable. 578 00:32:39,875 --> 00:32:41,792 You know, in science you have 579 00:32:41,917 --> 00:32:44,250 lots of good scientists with good ideas. 580 00:32:45,250 --> 00:32:48,292 But you need somebody who has a vision 581 00:32:48,458 --> 00:32:51,375 of where the enterprise is going to go. 582 00:32:51,542 --> 00:32:55,833 Mr. Bigelow is just a remarkable business leader. 583 00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:58,625 KNAPP: Bigelow created his own UFO organization 584 00:32:58,750 --> 00:33:01,667 devoted to figuring out the UFO mystery and he had 585 00:33:01,833 --> 00:33:03,083 this amazing group of people, 586 00:33:03,250 --> 00:33:04,625 and Jacques Vallée was one of them. 587 00:33:06,042 --> 00:33:09,292 Those relationships became seminal to the development 588 00:33:09,458 --> 00:33:12,333 of the UFO topic in the decade since. 589 00:33:15,333 --> 00:33:16,833 NARRATOR: Working with Bigelow, 590 00:33:16,958 --> 00:33:18,792 Vallée created the most comprehensive 591 00:33:18,917 --> 00:33:21,750 UFO database in modern history. 592 00:33:21,917 --> 00:33:25,833 Called the Capella program, it uses artificial intelligence 593 00:33:26,042 --> 00:33:30,083 to investigate patterns behind the UFO phenomenon. 594 00:33:31,458 --> 00:33:34,292 TSOUKALOS: Dr. Vallée has amassed a database 595 00:33:34,458 --> 00:33:38,667 consisting of over 260,000 documents 596 00:33:38,833 --> 00:33:41,125 all UAP-related. 597 00:33:42,167 --> 00:33:45,542 Now, it took him 60 years almost to amass this. 598 00:33:45,708 --> 00:33:47,458 Perhaps we can use 599 00:33:47,625 --> 00:33:50,917 the new tools of AI, for example, to crunch 600 00:33:51,042 --> 00:33:54,375 those 260,000 documents once again. 601 00:33:55,417 --> 00:33:58,750 And maybe AI will recognize some pattern. 602 00:33:59,792 --> 00:34:03,000 VALLÉE: If you tell me about something you've seen in the sky, 603 00:34:03,208 --> 00:34:06,000 there are some possibilities that will come to me. 604 00:34:06,208 --> 00:34:08,458 Maybe it's an airplane, maybe it's a cloud. 605 00:34:08,625 --> 00:34:10,875 Maybe it's-it's a reflection of the Moon. 606 00:34:11,042 --> 00:34:14,500 And there are another 200 possibilities 607 00:34:14,667 --> 00:34:17,208 my brain isn't capable of thinking of. 608 00:34:18,375 --> 00:34:20,000 AI can help. 609 00:34:20,875 --> 00:34:22,167 I'm a physicist, 610 00:34:22,292 --> 00:34:25,125 and step one of being a physicist is 611 00:34:25,250 --> 00:34:26,958 to collect the data. 612 00:34:27,083 --> 00:34:29,500 That's the first thing you do. 613 00:34:29,667 --> 00:34:32,292 And that's what Vallée has done here. 614 00:34:33,333 --> 00:34:35,292 HENRY: Vallée is the very first to apply computer science 615 00:34:35,458 --> 00:34:39,417 to the study of UFO sightings. 616 00:34:39,583 --> 00:34:40,917 And in every way is, 617 00:34:41,083 --> 00:34:45,125 is finding a-a way to apply modern technology 618 00:34:45,292 --> 00:34:46,458 to the UFO phenomenon. 619 00:34:47,750 --> 00:34:50,333 NARRATOR: In December 2017, 620 00:34:50,542 --> 00:34:54,542 nearly a decade after Vallée created the Capella database, 621 00:34:54,708 --> 00:34:57,500 a bombshell New York Times article revealed 622 00:34:57,667 --> 00:35:01,333 that Robert Bigelow was part of a secret military project 623 00:35:01,500 --> 00:35:04,917 known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, 624 00:35:05,083 --> 00:35:06,750 or AATIP. 625 00:35:07,750 --> 00:35:12,500 The program was conducted from 2007 to 2012, 626 00:35:12,667 --> 00:35:17,125 receiving $22 million in Congressional funding. 627 00:35:17,292 --> 00:35:19,083 DOLAN: This turned the whole UFO world upside down. 628 00:35:19,208 --> 00:35:20,833 And people were kind of blown away 629 00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:22,542 because the U.S. government had always said, "Uh, we don't, 630 00:35:22,708 --> 00:35:25,375 we have no interest in UFOs. This is not a thing." 631 00:35:25,542 --> 00:35:27,667 What we have learned, subsequently, is 632 00:35:27,833 --> 00:35:31,042 the AATIP program clearly was using the Capella database, 633 00:35:31,208 --> 00:35:34,667 putting more money into it and working to build it. 634 00:35:35,792 --> 00:35:40,167 So Vallée ended up having a tremendous impact 635 00:35:40,292 --> 00:35:45,417 on this secret UFO program that now we all know about. 636 00:35:46,708 --> 00:35:49,958 NARRATOR: To many ufologists across the world, 637 00:35:50,042 --> 00:35:52,042 the unmasking of AATIP 638 00:35:52,208 --> 00:35:54,333 and its use of Vallée's Capella database 639 00:35:54,500 --> 00:35:56,958 marked the beginning of a new era. 640 00:35:57,125 --> 00:35:59,333 It was the first time 641 00:35:59,500 --> 00:36:01,583 that the U.S. government openly acknowledged 642 00:36:01,708 --> 00:36:04,750 the UFO issue since the end of Project Blue Book 643 00:36:04,917 --> 00:36:06,542 more than 50 years earlier 644 00:36:06,708 --> 00:36:11,000 for which Jacques Vallée was also a key contributor. 645 00:36:11,167 --> 00:36:14,333 HENRY: And this is an incredible part of Vallée's story, 646 00:36:14,417 --> 00:36:17,333 that beginning in the 1950s, he's starting to create 647 00:36:17,500 --> 00:36:20,000 databases of UFO sightings. 648 00:36:20,208 --> 00:36:24,042 2017 comes this blockbuster report. 649 00:36:24,167 --> 00:36:25,667 He's almost like 650 00:36:25,875 --> 00:36:28,208 a passing-through character, but yet here he is. 651 00:36:28,375 --> 00:36:31,083 And what's he doing? Building a database. 652 00:36:31,250 --> 00:36:32,667 Database, database, database. 653 00:36:32,833 --> 00:36:35,250 It's all about the accumulation of these stories 654 00:36:35,417 --> 00:36:37,333 and the insights that are contained within. 655 00:36:38,583 --> 00:36:41,458 VALLÉE: Most contemporary data we have, 656 00:36:41,583 --> 00:36:43,708 unfortunately, it's still classified. 657 00:36:44,875 --> 00:36:48,208 But we can already see a lot from what we've done 658 00:36:48,375 --> 00:36:51,542 with smaller databases that were public. 659 00:36:51,708 --> 00:36:54,083 I trust that the people are doing a good job 660 00:36:54,250 --> 00:36:55,667 of working with it. 661 00:36:56,667 --> 00:37:00,625 So we should have some better answers in, in time. 662 00:37:02,125 --> 00:37:06,500 NARRATOR: As ufology enters a new chapter in the 21st century, 663 00:37:06,708 --> 00:37:10,000 Jacques Vallée remains as relevant as ever. 664 00:37:10,167 --> 00:37:12,667 And he is now lending his expertise 665 00:37:12,875 --> 00:37:14,500 to a groundbreaking effort 666 00:37:14,667 --> 00:37:18,375 to identify objects in space that might be harboring... 667 00:37:18,542 --> 00:37:21,750 extraterrestrial technology. 668 00:37:32,208 --> 00:37:36,000 NARRATOR: Harvard astronomer and astrophysicist Avi Loeb launches 669 00:37:36,167 --> 00:37:40,250 a new scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence 670 00:37:40,417 --> 00:37:42,625 called the Galileo Project. 671 00:37:42,792 --> 00:37:45,667 KAKU: Avi Loeb of Harvard is a reputable scientist 672 00:37:45,875 --> 00:37:49,667 who made lots of waves by talking about investigating 673 00:37:49,875 --> 00:37:52,792 extraterrestrial civilizations' technology. 674 00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:55,500 Professor Loeb says, 675 00:37:55,708 --> 00:37:58,958 "Why not monitor meteors and things in outer space?" 676 00:37:59,125 --> 00:38:02,917 Perhaps one of them is remnants of an advanced civilization. 677 00:38:03,042 --> 00:38:05,458 That's the Galileo Project. 678 00:38:06,500 --> 00:38:08,708 NARRATOR: Among the many experts who are contributing 679 00:38:08,875 --> 00:38:11,750 to the Galileo Project is Jacques Vallée. 680 00:38:12,750 --> 00:38:15,542 VALLÉE: We know what equipment we can deploy 681 00:38:15,708 --> 00:38:18,458 about objects that are in the atmosphere. 682 00:38:18,542 --> 00:38:20,500 We want to know if they are coming in 683 00:38:20,708 --> 00:38:23,333 and out of the atmosphere, and where do they go? 684 00:38:23,500 --> 00:38:26,833 Astronomers have been asking those questions for a long time. 685 00:38:26,958 --> 00:38:30,417 With the Galileo Project, I'm very thankful 686 00:38:30,542 --> 00:38:33,792 that I was able to work with people who were 687 00:38:33,958 --> 00:38:38,167 just giving their-their time and their life to this. 688 00:38:38,375 --> 00:38:40,833 It's just pure, pure science. 689 00:38:42,500 --> 00:38:44,125 NARRATOR: After nearly 70 years 690 00:38:44,292 --> 00:38:47,500 of investigating and documenting UFOs... 691 00:38:48,542 --> 00:38:51,500 ...from assisting J. Allen Hynek on Project Blue Book 692 00:38:51,667 --> 00:38:54,333 to publishing groundbreaking books 693 00:38:54,500 --> 00:38:58,375 and creating the world's largest UFO database... 694 00:38:59,458 --> 00:39:01,750 ...Vallée is hopeful that his work has brought 695 00:39:01,958 --> 00:39:05,667 humanity closer to solving an age-old mystery, 696 00:39:05,833 --> 00:39:10,458 one that dates to the dawn of recorded history. 697 00:39:10,583 --> 00:39:13,250 Jacques Vallée's contributions 698 00:39:13,417 --> 00:39:17,958 to the UFO field are immeasurably valuable. 699 00:39:19,042 --> 00:39:22,500 He has been one of the people to change the paradigm, 700 00:39:22,708 --> 00:39:26,000 and it has taken him decades to do this. 701 00:39:27,042 --> 00:39:30,167 He's one of the first people that looked at the data 702 00:39:30,375 --> 00:39:32,833 and said, "There's something going on here 703 00:39:33,042 --> 00:39:36,750 and it certainly merits more investigation." 704 00:39:38,125 --> 00:39:39,542 CHILDRESS: What makes Vallée 705 00:39:39,708 --> 00:39:44,458 a unique figure in the whole ufology scene is that 706 00:39:44,625 --> 00:39:47,375 he's a person whom everyone, 707 00:39:47,542 --> 00:39:52,000 the skeptics and the believers, all take very seriously. 708 00:39:52,208 --> 00:39:54,500 KNAPP: Jacques Vallée made an impact on the world 709 00:39:54,708 --> 00:39:56,083 in so many different ways. 710 00:39:56,250 --> 00:39:57,625 He's a talented science fiction writer. 711 00:39:57,792 --> 00:39:59,625 He's a talented novelist. 712 00:39:59,792 --> 00:40:01,333 He's a talented computer scientist. 713 00:40:01,500 --> 00:40:03,333 He was one of the earliest folks 714 00:40:03,500 --> 00:40:06,167 to apply computer technology to UFO world 715 00:40:06,375 --> 00:40:07,917 to figure out how to organize data. 716 00:40:08,083 --> 00:40:11,000 Any conversation you have with Jacques Vallée, 717 00:40:11,125 --> 00:40:12,750 any interview you do with him, 718 00:40:12,917 --> 00:40:14,625 he talks about the need for more data. 719 00:40:14,708 --> 00:40:16,667 There's never enough data. 720 00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:22,375 My father made a lot of people feel more comfortable accepting 721 00:40:22,542 --> 00:40:24,875 the idea that UFOs could be real. 722 00:40:25,917 --> 00:40:29,333 I think Jacques has taken people even further 723 00:40:29,500 --> 00:40:31,542 in getting them to question 724 00:40:31,750 --> 00:40:34,792 the very origin of the phenomena. 725 00:40:35,833 --> 00:40:39,167 POPE: Jacques Vallée is a hugely intelligent man. 726 00:40:39,250 --> 00:40:42,333 He's a-a true out-of-the-box thinker. 727 00:40:42,542 --> 00:40:44,167 When he started, 728 00:40:44,375 --> 00:40:47,458 a lot of the things that he was saying were very fringe. 729 00:40:47,625 --> 00:40:48,958 They've now become mainstream. 730 00:40:50,042 --> 00:40:52,792 When the history of this subject is written, 731 00:40:52,917 --> 00:40:56,333 Jacques Vallée's name will be writ large, 732 00:40:56,500 --> 00:40:58,042 and rightly so. 733 00:40:59,042 --> 00:41:00,833 NARRATOR: For more than six decades, 734 00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:04,125 Jacques Vallée has made invaluable contributions 735 00:41:04,292 --> 00:41:06,625 to help solve the UFO mystery, 736 00:41:06,792 --> 00:41:10,500 and continues to even today. 737 00:41:10,667 --> 00:41:13,250 Will his lifetime of incredible research 738 00:41:13,375 --> 00:41:15,167 and scientific exploration 739 00:41:15,292 --> 00:41:18,875 soon lead to real answers about what has been happening 740 00:41:19,042 --> 00:41:22,125 in our skies for thousands of years? 741 00:41:23,333 --> 00:41:25,125 Only time will tell. 742 00:41:26,375 --> 00:41:28,500 But one thing is certain: 743 00:41:28,708 --> 00:41:30,958 whenever we arrive at the truth, 744 00:41:31,125 --> 00:41:35,083 it will be largely due to the work of Jacques Vallée. 745 00:41:35,250 --> 00:41:36,917 I still haven't solved it. 746 00:41:37,083 --> 00:41:38,375 (laughs) 747 00:41:38,542 --> 00:41:40,750 Uh, but I felt that 748 00:41:40,917 --> 00:41:43,375 in my life, I would not be able 749 00:41:43,542 --> 00:41:46,292 to make a contribution at the right level 750 00:41:46,458 --> 00:41:50,167 to influence finding the answer. 751 00:41:50,333 --> 00:41:52,667 I've made a contribution 752 00:41:52,875 --> 00:41:57,000 alongside with a number of very, very bright people, 753 00:41:57,208 --> 00:41:59,000 um, 754 00:41:59,167 --> 00:42:02,750 and all you can hope in science is to make one contribution. 755 00:42:04,292 --> 00:42:08,167 CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY A+E NETWORKS