1 00:04:19,813 --> 00:04:22,757 I grew up in Hot Springs, Arkansas 2 00:04:23,354 --> 00:04:26,938 with my younger brother, Kyle, and my mother and father. 3 00:04:31,029 --> 00:04:34,029 My father died when I was four in a car accident. 4 00:04:34,104 --> 00:04:36,904 He was hit by a drunk driver. T-boned. 5 00:04:37,213 --> 00:04:39,213 It was a closed casket funeral. 6 00:04:45,338 --> 00:04:51,338 My mother was undiagnosed bipolar and 7 00:04:53,396 --> 00:04:55,396 self-medicated with alcohol. 8 00:04:56,438 --> 00:05:03,438 After my father died, it was challenging for her to manage Kyle and I. 9 00:05:04,879 --> 00:05:10,879 And one day when I was 12, I came home and found her 10 00:05:11,354 --> 00:05:14,354 what I thought was passed out on her bedroom floor. 11 00:05:17,729 --> 00:05:23,729 I grabbed her by the hair and pulled her out and she was actually not breathing. 12 00:05:27,713 --> 00:05:29,913 After that, we moved around even more. 13 00:05:30,313 --> 00:05:35,329 Kyle and I were kept together for a little while and then separated. 14 00:05:36,338 --> 00:05:40,338 And we just took it out on each other. 15 00:05:41,838 --> 00:05:43,838 So we didn't want to stay in touch. 16 00:05:45,446 --> 00:05:46,746 I did very well in high school. 17 00:05:47,479 --> 00:05:49,646 I enjoyed science immensely. 18 00:05:51,713 --> 00:05:59,713 I knew in the 11th grade that I was destined to become a marine biologist. 19 00:06:01,088 --> 00:06:02,688 And I took my studies very seriously. 20 00:06:04,188 --> 00:06:06,254 I didn't have a lot of friends. 21 00:06:06,979 --> 00:06:09,987 Because I didn't know how to be a girl, really. 22 00:06:13,046 --> 00:06:17,546 I graduated with honors and received a full ride scholarship to UCLA. 23 00:06:20,254 --> 00:06:23,754 Which was amazing because I knew I was going to get to see the ocean. 24 00:06:24,779 --> 00:06:29,079 And I was able to lead an expedition off the coast of Mexico 25 00:06:29,854 --> 00:06:33,854 to study the communication methods of the Humboldt squid. 26 00:06:35,838 --> 00:06:38,338 They change color through bioluminescence. 27 00:06:38,479 --> 00:06:41,146 They flash, they communicate with light. 28 00:06:42,563 --> 00:06:45,635 The Mexican fisherman called them “Diablo rojo” 29 00:06:45,938 --> 00:06:48,271 because of how aggressive they are. 30 00:06:48,979 --> 00:06:51,046 My diver had to wear chainmail. 31 00:06:53,879 --> 00:06:55,279 I did not go into the water. 32 00:06:57,504 --> 00:06:59,504 My diver’s name was Scott. 33 00:07:05,713 --> 00:07:06,913 Well, we'll call him Scott. 34 00:07:08,421 --> 00:07:11,421 Scott and I developed a very close friendship 35 00:07:11,896 --> 00:07:14,496 spending so much time together on the boat 36 00:07:14,563 --> 00:07:16,163 and we fell in love. 37 00:07:18,754 --> 00:07:20,754 He was my knight in shining armor. 38 00:07:21,854 --> 00:07:22,854 Literally. 39 00:07:23,646 --> 00:07:27,158 Although if he was too shiny, that's when he got attacked. 40 00:07:27,213 --> 00:07:30,513 He proposed on the boat with his grandmother's ring 41 00:07:32,146 --> 00:07:36,050 stuck in a squid that he knew I was going to be cutting open. 42 00:07:37,688 --> 00:07:39,721 It was disgusting, but sweet. 43 00:07:42,188 --> 00:07:47,688 We were perfectly matched. 44 00:07:56,104 --> 00:08:01,304 But that doesn't always mean that it's meant to last forever. 45 00:08:15,313 --> 00:08:18,769 In 2002 I was flying from Heathrow to JFK. 46 00:08:19,171 --> 00:08:20,371 Sunday, March 10th. 47 00:08:21,613 --> 00:08:24,613 I was seated in the rear of the plane. 48 00:08:25,754 --> 00:08:29,154 K57. In economy 49 00:08:32,754 --> 00:08:37,054 I was seated next to a man who was trying to get my attention. 50 00:08:38,796 --> 00:08:40,796 And I just was not in the mood. 51 00:08:41,354 --> 00:08:45,354 So I tried to display my engagement ring. 52 00:08:46,104 --> 00:08:50,404 He didn't seem to be affected by that. 53 00:08:50,438 --> 00:08:53,502 So I thought I would just pretend to sleep instead. 54 00:08:56,421 --> 00:09:01,421 As I was drifting off it suddenly got very quiet. 55 00:09:02,313 --> 00:09:08,013 There was this light on my face. 56 00:09:09,438 --> 00:09:13,854 It wasn't a cabin light, though, because it was coming from one side. 57 00:09:16,046 --> 00:09:18,046 I heard a little bit of nervous laughter 58 00:09:18,463 --> 00:09:21,496 and then the man beside me 59 00:09:23,921 --> 00:09:26,021 He said “What the fuck is that?” 60 00:09:31,529 --> 00:09:37,329 I opened my eyes and the entire cabin was illuminated 61 00:09:37,396 --> 00:09:41,496 by a yellow glow. 62 00:09:46,946 --> 00:09:49,246 I wanted to get up to see what it was. 63 00:09:49,713 --> 00:09:52,713 The man beside me was frozen so I had to climb over him 64 00:09:53,754 --> 00:09:56,754 and I found myself an empty seat. 65 00:10:01,671 --> 00:10:04,371 When I looked out the window, what I saw was 66 00:10:04,438 --> 00:10:08,938 two massive, glowing yellow disks. 67 00:10:10,546 --> 00:10:13,546 Hovering somewhere between the plane and the horizon. 68 00:10:19,754 --> 00:10:21,754 They were so bright. 69 00:10:36,796 --> 00:10:38,796 Now, keep in mind, it was 2002. 70 00:10:38,963 --> 00:10:41,963 So even though we all had cell phones, they were pieces of crap 71 00:10:42,021 --> 00:10:44,021 and the cameras were garbage. 72 00:10:44,229 --> 00:10:47,229 Not that anyone had the presence of mind to use them anyway. 73 00:10:47,521 --> 00:10:50,321 When you see something like that, you just 74 00:10:51,313 --> 00:10:52,513 you're stunned. 75 00:10:53,438 --> 00:10:55,438 All you can do is stare at it. 76 00:11:08,196 --> 00:11:11,196 And then suddenly, they just disappeared. 77 00:11:29,304 --> 00:11:31,304 And it was completely black again. 78 00:11:34,554 --> 00:11:37,554 I don't think I heard anyone even make a joke about it after that. 79 00:11:37,604 --> 00:11:40,904 It was just totally silent on the plane. 80 00:11:44,654 --> 00:11:46,054 I got up and went back to my seat 81 00:11:46,079 --> 00:11:48,879 and the guy didn't bother me for the rest of the flight. 82 00:11:49,063 --> 00:11:51,763 But my mind was spinning. 83 00:11:53,196 --> 00:11:56,296 I was trying to process what the possibilities were. 84 00:11:56,438 --> 00:11:58,571 What that could have possibly been. 85 00:11:59,063 --> 00:12:02,463 Was it some sort of weather phenomenon? 86 00:12:06,646 --> 00:12:09,654 Now something like that, with that kind of size 87 00:12:10,021 --> 00:12:13,541 could not enter the atmosphere without going unnoticed. 88 00:12:14,613 --> 00:12:18,513 Something of that mass, pushing its way from outer space 89 00:12:18,604 --> 00:12:21,471 into the earth would ignite the atmosphere. 90 00:12:22,988 --> 00:12:24,988 The sky would be on fire. 91 00:12:26,113 --> 00:12:29,113 So it had to be one of a few possibilities. 92 00:12:33,654 --> 00:12:36,554 Either it was something from the earth. 93 00:12:38,863 --> 00:12:41,863 Some sort of natural phenomena. 94 00:12:41,888 --> 00:12:47,688 Or if it was, in fact, a solid object 95 00:12:47,771 --> 00:12:50,671 it had to either have been made on the earth 96 00:12:51,313 --> 00:12:55,413 or it was created by a technology so 97 00:12:57,363 --> 00:13:01,363 enormously advanced that it could completely sidestep 98 00:13:01,479 --> 00:13:04,046 all the laws of physics as we know them. 99 00:13:04,054 --> 00:13:07,654 And although I didn't get confirmation for many years 100 00:13:08,113 --> 00:13:10,113 that was in fact what it was. 101 00:13:13,721 --> 00:13:17,221 Disembarkment was just normal. 102 00:13:17,271 --> 00:13:20,004 I thought about talking to the pilot, but 103 00:13:21,713 --> 00:13:23,213 decided against it. 104 00:13:25,896 --> 00:13:27,096 So I went home. 105 00:13:28,029 --> 00:13:29,929 Scott and I were living in New York at the time 106 00:13:32,321 --> 00:13:34,121 and I told Scott what happened. 107 00:13:35,421 --> 00:13:36,921 What I had seen. 108 00:13:40,629 --> 00:13:44,929 And he just looked at me like he was disappointed. 109 00:13:47,929 --> 00:13:49,929 So I just didn't bring it up again... 110 00:13:52,721 --> 00:13:53,921 Until later. 111 00:13:58,988 --> 00:14:00,988 Despite the subject being taboo at home 112 00:14:01,146 --> 00:14:02,713 I could not stop thinking about it 113 00:14:02,729 --> 00:14:06,313 almost to the point of obsession for a number of months. 114 00:14:06,963 --> 00:14:10,963 Then one day I was online and I saw an article from the Post. 115 00:14:18,654 --> 00:14:21,654 The pilot, Ray Thompson, was fired 116 00:14:24,288 --> 00:14:27,680 for quote unquote, making the airline look ridiculous 117 00:14:28,396 --> 00:14:31,863 with his quote unquote, unbelievable story. 118 00:14:34,338 --> 00:14:36,138 That was my pilot. 119 00:14:40,896 --> 00:14:41,896 I was... 120 00:14:44,646 --> 00:14:46,146 I was pissed. 121 00:14:46,913 --> 00:14:48,913 So I immediately wrote a letter to the Post 122 00:14:50,396 --> 00:14:52,076 backing up his claims. 123 00:14:52,079 --> 00:14:59,579 I felt like my having a solid scientific reputation would somehow support him 124 00:14:59,729 --> 00:15:02,563 and maybe have him not end his career. 125 00:15:02,921 --> 00:15:07,121 I signed my own name and I gave them permission to publish it. 126 00:15:07,229 --> 00:15:11,221 I did not think anyone would read it, nevermind care. 127 00:15:14,021 --> 00:15:15,301 But I was wrong. 128 00:15:15,396 --> 00:15:21,896 And it was possibly the worst decision I ever made. 129 00:15:22,563 --> 00:15:25,563 Scott found out from a colleague of his who sent him the letter. 130 00:15:26,288 --> 00:15:28,288 "Is this your Laura?" 131 00:15:32,604 --> 00:15:35,604 He printed it off, brought it home and confronted me with it. 132 00:15:39,771 --> 00:15:42,771 I honestly didn't feel like there was anything wrong with it. 133 00:15:44,121 --> 00:15:46,621 We disagreed. It was our first fight. 134 00:15:46,688 --> 00:15:52,588 The fallout from my acquaintances and colleagues was very swift. 135 00:15:54,029 --> 00:15:59,529 Even at work, I felt like I was being dismissed, questioned. 136 00:16:00,888 --> 00:16:02,288 My authority was gone. 137 00:16:04,546 --> 00:16:07,146 I heard people referring to me as a UFO nut. 138 00:16:08,513 --> 00:16:13,613 I was invited to a dinner party with Scott shortly after. 139 00:16:14,754 --> 00:16:18,254 I thought maybe it was a sign that things were dying down. 140 00:16:18,288 --> 00:16:20,421 It was a very prestigious party. 141 00:16:21,054 --> 00:16:22,654 I won't name names, but... 142 00:16:25,721 --> 00:16:29,121 It very quickly devolved into a round robin of people taking 143 00:16:29,246 --> 00:16:31,646 passive aggressive potshots at me. 144 00:16:32,113 --> 00:16:34,113 Making jokes about little green men. 145 00:16:34,938 --> 00:16:36,538 In the car ride home... 146 00:16:40,763 --> 00:16:44,663 Scott was... absent. 147 00:16:45,863 --> 00:16:48,863 Just shut me out, really, from that point forward. 148 00:16:53,521 --> 00:16:57,521 I think it was in the car that I knew that things would never be the same again. 149 00:17:02,871 --> 00:17:05,871 It didn't take very long before he ended the engagement. 150 00:17:07,204 --> 00:17:09,204 His career was in trouble. 151 00:17:10,179 --> 00:17:13,179 People were questioning him because they were questioning me. 152 00:17:13,388 --> 00:17:16,388 He had no choice, as far as he could tell. 153 00:17:16,454 --> 00:17:20,974 My career was taking a nosedive, and he felt like his career would be following. 154 00:17:21,021 --> 00:17:26,521 So... I understand. 155 00:17:28,779 --> 00:17:32,683 It wasn't very long after that, that I received a form letter 156 00:17:32,704 --> 00:17:35,304 telling me that my grants had been cancelled. 157 00:17:41,679 --> 00:17:44,679 I suppose I could have recanted the story. 158 00:17:47,829 --> 00:17:49,829 I thought about it. 159 00:17:59,513 --> 00:18:00,713 After the engagement ended 160 00:18:00,721 --> 00:18:04,821 I was without a job in New York, which is not possible. 161 00:18:04,938 --> 00:18:08,438 So I decided to move back to LA 162 00:18:08,679 --> 00:18:12,679 which was the last place I could remember feeling happy. 163 00:18:13,038 --> 00:18:19,738 I didn't think that my new reputation would follow me 164 00:18:19,813 --> 00:18:22,180 all the way to the west coast, but it did. 165 00:18:22,188 --> 00:18:24,321 And I had trouble getting a job. 166 00:18:26,279 --> 00:18:30,879 The only job I could secure was teaching high school biology 167 00:18:31,188 --> 00:18:32,868 at Hollywood High School. 168 00:18:35,513 --> 00:18:38,613 I was there from 2004 until 2006. 169 00:18:46,779 --> 00:18:48,779 One day in June of 2006 170 00:18:49,246 --> 00:18:54,546 I was grading finals in my classroom and two men entered. 171 00:18:54,579 --> 00:18:57,579 They were like G-men out of a movie. 172 00:18:58,321 --> 00:19:01,321 They started asking me about my UFO experience. 173 00:19:01,738 --> 00:19:03,738 So I immediately got my back up. 174 00:19:04,479 --> 00:19:07,679 I assumed that they were either tabloid reporters 175 00:19:07,738 --> 00:19:10,771 or some sort of kooky UFO researchers 176 00:19:10,796 --> 00:19:13,196 and I threatened to call the police. 177 00:19:15,221 --> 00:19:21,521 They informed me at that point that they belonged to a three letter agency. 178 00:19:22,763 --> 00:19:25,063 They said they were there to potentially offer me a job. 179 00:19:26,213 --> 00:19:29,605 They handed me a white card with a phone number on it 180 00:19:30,738 --> 00:19:34,178 and said that the phone number would be good for three days. 181 00:19:34,271 --> 00:19:35,271 Then they left. 182 00:19:37,054 --> 00:19:38,054 So I thought about it. 183 00:19:39,321 --> 00:19:41,721 I had nothing left to lose. So... 184 00:19:44,013 --> 00:19:45,880 On day three, I called them. 185 00:19:47,071 --> 00:19:50,071 The voice that answered asked me if I would consent to an interview. 186 00:19:50,771 --> 00:19:51,971 I said yes. 187 00:19:53,671 --> 00:19:54,671 That was it. 188 00:19:55,538 --> 00:19:59,738 And the next morning another G-man shows up 189 00:19:59,796 --> 00:20:01,076 in a black sedan 190 00:20:01,321 --> 00:20:05,437 knocks on my door and tells me he's there to take me to my interview. 191 00:20:05,929 --> 00:20:09,793 We drive to an abandoned parking lot in downtown LA 192 00:20:09,813 --> 00:20:12,813 where I'm transferred to a bus with blacked out windows. 193 00:20:13,229 --> 00:20:17,081 I'm the only person on the bus and the driver does not speak to me. 194 00:20:17,171 --> 00:20:19,771 We drive for what feels like about two hours. 195 00:20:19,779 --> 00:20:21,779 I have no idea where we're going. 196 00:20:23,079 --> 00:20:24,979 Then when we arrive at the destination 197 00:20:25,004 --> 00:20:29,044 two more G-men get on the bus, fit me with blackout goggles. 198 00:20:30,138 --> 00:20:33,538 Very dramatic, vey annoying. 199 00:20:35,138 --> 00:20:36,818 And lead me off the bus. 200 00:20:38,554 --> 00:20:43,098 When the goggles are removed, I am in a white room with a table, a chair 201 00:20:43,854 --> 00:20:45,787 a very obvious two way mirror 202 00:20:47,154 --> 00:20:49,021 and a mountain of paperwork. 203 00:20:50,613 --> 00:20:54,761 There's a speaker above me, and a woman's voice comes on 204 00:20:54,896 --> 00:21:00,396 and asks me to please go through the paperwork in order. 205 00:21:01,104 --> 00:21:05,204 First thing is a ridiculous personality questionnaire 206 00:21:05,771 --> 00:21:07,451 easily 500 questions. 207 00:21:07,538 --> 00:21:11,838 The next thing is a bunch of legal texts outlining 208 00:21:12,188 --> 00:21:18,588 how classified and confidential the information that I may receive would be. 209 00:21:21,704 --> 00:21:23,384 which I read thoroughly. 210 00:21:24,871 --> 00:21:28,971 After that, I am asked to make a list of everyone. 211 00:21:29,663 --> 00:21:33,563 All of my close friends, relatives, acquaintances 212 00:21:33,688 --> 00:21:36,952 Their contact information, their known whereabouts. 213 00:21:39,471 --> 00:21:40,751 Very short list. 214 00:21:46,096 --> 00:21:48,096 I didn't really have anyone in my life at the time 215 00:21:48,104 --> 00:21:50,404 so I wrote that down. 216 00:21:52,329 --> 00:21:56,113 After that, I was asked to write down my UFO experience. 217 00:21:58,638 --> 00:22:02,542 Then I started to get an inkling of what this might be about. 218 00:22:04,721 --> 00:22:08,921 So I was taken back to the bus with the goggles. 219 00:22:09,954 --> 00:22:14,358 two hour drive back to downtown LA, into the sedan, and home. 220 00:22:21,929 --> 00:22:24,029 I felt buzzed on the way home. 221 00:22:24,413 --> 00:22:26,280 I couldn't sleep that night. 222 00:22:29,746 --> 00:22:33,166 Like maybe something good would come of this after all. 223 00:22:33,663 --> 00:22:35,963 A couple of days later, I got a call 224 00:22:36,479 --> 00:22:39,813 asking me if I would accept the position. 225 00:22:41,013 --> 00:22:43,346 I had no idea what the position was 226 00:22:43,729 --> 00:22:46,029 but I just said yes. 227 00:22:48,571 --> 00:22:56,071 The next day, new guy shows up at the door and a black sedan. Same outfit. 228 00:22:58,554 --> 00:23:04,554 I'm taken to downtown LA again, onto the bus, driven for two hours. 229 00:23:06,263 --> 00:23:07,883 Goggles, whole nine. 230 00:23:09,179 --> 00:23:10,859 Back in the white room. 231 00:23:11,188 --> 00:23:14,324 Only this time instead of a mountain of paperwork 232 00:23:14,938 --> 00:23:18,938 there's an NDA and a book. 233 00:23:20,888 --> 00:23:22,568 The book is blue, bound. 234 00:23:24,104 --> 00:23:25,784 Nothing on the cover. 235 00:23:26,404 --> 00:23:31,204 The voice tells me to sign the NDA 236 00:23:31,271 --> 00:23:33,804 and then read the book cover to cover. 237 00:23:36,238 --> 00:23:39,418 At this point, I'm starting to get the vibe of what it must feel like 238 00:23:39,463 --> 00:23:42,103 for Scientologists when they're pulled into the little room 239 00:23:42,104 --> 00:23:44,838 and given the documents about Lord Xenu. 240 00:23:45,263 --> 00:23:48,847 Turns out it was something quite similar to that anyway. 241 00:23:50,121 --> 00:23:52,654 The book, "The Assessment" 242 00:23:52,854 --> 00:23:57,654 was compiled from over half a century of covert research. 243 00:23:57,988 --> 00:24:00,724 Everything that the United States government knew 244 00:24:00,771 --> 00:24:04,803 or at least this small cell within the Defense Department knew 245 00:24:05,021 --> 00:24:06,701 about the UFO phenomenon. 246 00:24:10,429 --> 00:24:11,429 So... 247 00:24:13,279 --> 00:24:17,311 If you want to know the truth about unidentified flying objects 248 00:24:17,688 --> 00:24:21,516 and the non-human intelligence that operates them... 249 00:24:26,021 --> 00:24:27,021 Here it is. 250 00:24:33,429 --> 00:24:36,653 The universe is nearly 18 billion years old. 251 00:24:37,154 --> 00:24:39,774 The milky way galaxy, in which our solar system resides 252 00:24:39,921 --> 00:24:44,293 is aged about 13 billion years, and contains as many as 400 billion stars 253 00:24:44,379 --> 00:24:46,779 and just as many individual planets. 254 00:24:46,821 --> 00:24:52,129 These are spans of time so vast that it’s beyond the comprehension of the individual human brain. 255 00:24:52,179 --> 00:24:57,903 Our Earth was formed around 4.5 billion years ago, and life evolved relatively soon after. 256 00:24:57,921 --> 00:25:05,121 Electricity arced through the early seas and certain molecules, over a couple billion more years, coalesced into organized forms. 257 00:25:05,196 --> 00:25:12,496 They became the same mindlessly-replicating nucleic acids that still comprise your own genetic code, as well as that of all other life on Earth. 258 00:25:12,563 --> 00:25:17,323 This process still took another two billion years before it produced anything interesting. 259 00:25:17,729 --> 00:25:24,725 The first sea creatures to shape their fins into feet and drag themselves ashore only did so 370 million years ago 260 00:25:24,788 --> 00:25:28,488 while early humans finally appeared as recently as just 3-million years ago. 261 00:25:28,538 --> 00:25:33,882 And even then we only arrived at a point of real technological ability within the last century. 262 00:25:34,229 --> 00:25:38,509 Human beings took their first powered flight only as recent as 1903... 263 00:25:38,563 --> 00:25:43,679 But something much more sophisticated has been flying around our skies since long before then. 264 00:25:43,979 --> 00:25:47,879 The first real UFO report dates from 1878. 265 00:25:47,938 --> 00:25:52,930 A farmer in Texas watched as a strange, apparently silent object flew overhead 266 00:25:53,146 --> 00:25:57,590 which when viewed from below resembled, as he put it, “a large saucer”. 267 00:25:57,646 --> 00:26:01,166 The object shot away into the far horizon and vanished. 268 00:26:01,271 --> 00:26:06,223 The paper which reported his story opined that it “deserves the attention of our scientists”. 269 00:26:06,313 --> 00:26:10,013 Then, as now, it publicly received none. 270 00:26:15,371 --> 00:26:17,438 More visitations soon followed. 271 00:26:17,896 --> 00:26:25,096 Over the next few decades came waves of reports of bright lights with dark bodies attached racing about the night skies of America. 272 00:26:25,104 --> 00:26:30,100 The quaint minds of the time interpreted these as airships created by some hidden genius. 273 00:26:30,104 --> 00:26:35,376 As the wave wore on reports became more dubious and obviously the products of limited imaginations 274 00:26:35,438 --> 00:26:41,374 but many of the sightings as described line up neatly with types of objects still being seen today. 275 00:26:42,488 --> 00:26:49,476 Over the first few decades of the 20th century, the intelligences piloting the UFOs made only infrequent appearances. 276 00:26:49,563 --> 00:26:56,123 Even the first World War, with its nascent aerial battles, was apparently not worthy of more thorough observation. 277 00:26:56,146 --> 00:26:57,746 That would soon change. 278 00:26:58,304 --> 00:27:02,504 World War II marks the emergence of the UFO phenomenon in its current form. 279 00:27:02,521 --> 00:27:05,529 In both European and Pacific theaters of combat 280 00:27:05,646 --> 00:27:11,306 pilots reported being tailed or paced by mysterious lights and wingless crafts that completely outmaneuvered them. 281 00:27:11,379 --> 00:27:19,379 Despite these objects never acting in a hostile fashion, they were assumed by the militaries of the world to be a new weapon developed by one of the various enemy nations. 282 00:27:19,646 --> 00:27:25,686 American pilots over Germany dubbed them “Kraut fireballs”, believing them to be some sinister Nazi innovation 283 00:27:25,771 --> 00:27:29,455 while their counterparts stationed in England took to calling them “Foo Fighters” 284 00:27:29,688 --> 00:27:36,288 which was originally “Fuckin’ Foo Fighters”, but this more colorful variant of the term was sanitized by the press of the time. 285 00:27:36,379 --> 00:27:43,311 UFOs were now a subject of private concern to the military, but awareness would soon spread to the public in 1947 286 00:27:43,379 --> 00:27:51,179 when pilot Kenneth Arnold and others reported seeing a fleet of saucer-like objects racing through the skies at supersonic speeds above Washington state. 287 00:27:51,229 --> 00:27:58,429 Newspapers picked up the story and reported it without mockery or ridicule, and a tide of open curiosity and interest spread across the globe. 288 00:27:58,563 --> 00:28:00,296 The public wanted answers. 289 00:28:00,688 --> 00:28:04,044 The problem, however, was that the military had none-- 290 00:28:04,063 --> 00:28:07,603 a frightening scenario for the world’s most powerful nation. 291 00:28:07,688 --> 00:28:13,904 Thus began a policy of denial and ridicule that would forever poison the topic in the minds of the scientific community 292 00:28:13,938 --> 00:28:17,890 and make them unpaid stooges for the military’s campaign of secrecy. 293 00:28:22,013 --> 00:28:25,809 But why were these advanced beings suddenly so interested in us? 294 00:28:25,813 --> 00:28:28,079 That answer was obvious even then. 295 00:28:29,221 --> 00:28:33,677 The Air Force has officially analyzed the motives of possible visitors from space. 296 00:28:33,688 --> 00:28:36,780 Here is a direct quotation from the official report. 297 00:28:36,854 --> 00:28:42,802 "Such a civilization might observe that on earth we now have atomic bombs and are fast developing rockets. 298 00:28:42,854 --> 00:28:46,274 In the past history of mankind, they should be alarmed. 299 00:28:46,354 --> 00:28:51,146 We should therefore expect at this time above all to behold such visitations." 300 00:29:40,554 --> 00:29:42,702 The start of the Anthropocene epoch 301 00:29:42,771 --> 00:29:48,703 a proposed geological time scale that marks the era when human technology began to significantly impact the Earth 302 00:29:48,729 --> 00:29:53,849 has been proposed to start in 1945 with the detonation of the first atomic bomb. 303 00:29:53,854 --> 00:29:59,370 It is not coincidence that our visitors turned out in droves at this exact same point in time. 304 00:29:59,454 --> 00:30:05,346 Their increased observation of our planet runs precisely parallel with our increased destruction of it. 305 00:30:05,438 --> 00:30:09,102 Carl Sagan, the patron saint of armchair scientists 306 00:30:09,313 --> 00:30:15,013 once opined that it was absurd to entertain the idea that beings from another planet would be such regular visitors to our own 307 00:30:15,021 --> 00:30:22,121 likening such a scenario to every anthropologist on Earth running to go see the natives on some remote island develop a new fishing net. 308 00:30:22,154 --> 00:30:29,554 His apparent prejudice against the worth of native cultures aside, this argument has always seemed to me to be both stupid and in bad faith 309 00:30:29,604 --> 00:30:36,204 considering this view is commonly espoused by the same type of scientist who will also try to instill you with a schmaltzy sense of awe 310 00:30:36,271 --> 00:30:38,538 about the wondrous nature of life on Earth. 311 00:30:38,588 --> 00:30:46,588 Either this planet is a backwater dump unworthy of cosmic study, or it’s a glowing jewel of beauty unique amongst the vast emptiness of space. 312 00:30:47,138 --> 00:30:49,271 I wish they’d make up their minds. 313 00:30:50,888 --> 00:30:52,568 But we are not alone. 314 00:30:53,146 --> 00:30:58,894 The question of the origin and purpose of the UFO craft visiting the Earth has spawned competing hypotheses 315 00:30:58,979 --> 00:31:00,846 some more valid than others. 316 00:31:01,188 --> 00:31:05,876 The most popular, and most obvious, is that they are extraterrestrial vehicles or technology 317 00:31:05,938 --> 00:31:11,090 operated by intelligences that evolved in another solar system, possibly even another galaxy. 318 00:31:11,146 --> 00:31:18,046 After all, they have been tracked on radar entering the atmosphere from outer space, and have been quietly observed by astronauts in orbit. 319 00:31:18,104 --> 00:31:23,300 Though it is not the sexiest or most exotic explanation, it is the one that fits the data 320 00:31:23,396 --> 00:31:29,964 and is the one subscribed to by myself personally, by the majority of CEU personnel and by most of the military. 321 00:31:29,979 --> 00:31:34,259 Those more exotic explanations include the Interdimensional hypothesis 322 00:31:34,271 --> 00:31:42,771 which argues that the craft originate from another dimension or plane of reality, which sounds exciting and dangerous, but is completely untestable scientifically 323 00:31:42,854 --> 00:31:45,818 and basically tantamount to saying they are magic. 324 00:31:45,913 --> 00:31:54,613 Then there is the Cryptoterrestrial hypothesis, in which the UFOs are explained as technology developed by an even more advanced species endemic to the Earth 325 00:31:54,938 --> 00:31:59,766 who have somehow never been discovered and have also left no trace of themselves in the fossil record. 326 00:31:59,779 --> 00:32:05,171 In a similar vein is another explanation, which every few years gets trotted out by some new researcher 327 00:32:05,229 --> 00:32:11,045 who thinks it’s bold and novel and not something that has occurred to every stoned undergrad in their dorm room at 3am. 328 00:32:11,104 --> 00:32:17,680 I am of course referring to the idea that UFOs are simply time travel devices used by humans from the future, 329 00:32:17,688 --> 00:32:22,676 an idea so silly and far fetched that it was once even used as the plot of a Godzilla movie. 330 00:32:22,721 --> 00:32:29,421 Finally, there is a hypothesis that has a depressing but unsurprising number of adherents at both the Pentagon and in government 331 00:32:29,438 --> 00:32:36,838 which is the belief that UFOs are demonic in origin and emissaries of Satan meant to test the faith of our god fearing Christian nation. 332 00:32:36,904 --> 00:32:44,520 The term “UFO”--unidentified flying object--as well as the fashionable, newer term “UAP”--unidentified aerial phenomena 333 00:32:44,671 --> 00:32:46,871 are both something of a misnomer. 334 00:32:46,979 --> 00:32:50,567 While the craft are often viewed in the sky, they are not "flying", 335 00:32:50,663 --> 00:32:57,079 which describes a solid object moving atop the gasses that make up our atmosphere by some means of physical propulsion. 336 00:32:57,104 --> 00:32:59,104 UFOs do not do this. 337 00:32:59,479 --> 00:33:07,479 While they move at often hypersonic speed, they do not create sonic booms, or any sound at all, which indicates there is no displacement of the air around them. 338 00:33:07,504 --> 00:33:11,276 They give off no exhaust plume or indications of conventional propulsion. 339 00:33:11,371 --> 00:33:16,127 In fact, one of the fastest ways to send a UFO report into the trash at the CEU 340 00:33:16,146 --> 00:33:21,886 was to say that it made loud noises, gave off exhaust or any other indicators of conventional jet propulsion. 341 00:33:21,938 --> 00:33:27,134 Such cases can almost always be comfortably written off as hoaxes or misidentifications. 342 00:33:27,146 --> 00:33:32,142 Not only do the craft not create sonic booms, they also sidestep the concept of inertia. 343 00:33:32,188 --> 00:33:37,756 They regularly make hard right angle turns going at speeds of over 14,000 miles an hour 344 00:33:37,813 --> 00:33:42,553 so fast that they can lap the entire circumference of the Earth in less than an hour. 345 00:33:42,563 --> 00:33:48,759 Theoretically, anything with mass that occupies physical space should be subject to inertia, gravity, the whole lot 346 00:33:48,771 --> 00:33:55,971 but UFOs, which occasionally show up on radar and therefore have a concrete, physical presence in conjunction with their visible appearance 347 00:33:56,021 --> 00:34:00,969 have apparently never heard of any of these human concepts of physics, because they disregard all of them. 348 00:34:00,979 --> 00:34:08,979 Not only do they merrily zip through space completely unimpeded, they plunge into the depths of the ocean without so much as a splash or a ripple. 349 00:34:09,271 --> 00:34:16,515 They seem to be both here and not here at the same time, phasing through space, or simply bending it around them somehow. 350 00:34:16,604 --> 00:34:22,804 They don’t really move in and of themselves--what they actually seem to do is move the immediate universe around them. 351 00:34:22,888 --> 00:34:26,092 In addition to this, they have advanced cloaking capabilities. 352 00:34:26,146 --> 00:34:34,846 UFOs will commonly show up on radar or sonar while being completely invisible to the naked eye, only becoming so when viewed through infrared or the ultraviolet spectrum. 353 00:34:34,938 --> 00:34:40,914 Conversely, they will often show up plain as day for all to see, but remain completely undetectable by radar. 354 00:34:40,938 --> 00:34:50,638 If they are detected or seen, it seems to be either an intentional display, such as their frequent appearances above nuclear weapons sites in both the United States and former Soviet Union 355 00:34:50,638 --> 00:34:54,878 or simply a rare instance of them letting their guard down and apparently not caring. 356 00:34:54,896 --> 00:34:59,524 After all, even if they are seen there is nothing we can really do about it. 357 00:34:59,588 --> 00:35:03,668 Their favored method of concealment, however, is also the most simple. 358 00:35:03,713 --> 00:35:06,013 They are not really hanging out in our skies. 359 00:35:06,063 --> 00:35:13,463 Their preferred habitat on Earth is at the bottom of the ocean, where they can conduct their business with almost no interference or detection by humanity. 360 00:35:13,479 --> 00:35:21,079 One of the jokes commonly told among CEU staff was the idea that someday we will finally crack the language of the dolphins and the whales 361 00:35:21,171 --> 00:35:26,299 whereupon they will tell us that space aliens have been visiting and communicating with them for aeons 362 00:35:26,313 --> 00:35:30,493 but did not want to talk to us stupid, primative landwalkers on shore. 363 00:35:31,804 --> 00:35:34,704 We know they are here--but why are they here? 364 00:35:35,021 --> 00:35:36,888 The CEU still does not know. 365 00:35:37,438 --> 00:35:40,890 Neither do the various other top secret research groups, I’d wager, 366 00:35:40,979 --> 00:35:45,955 many of which are housed and protected at private corporations so as to be off limits to government auditors. 367 00:35:46,021 --> 00:35:48,621 And neither do the civilian investigators. 368 00:35:48,646 --> 00:35:51,910 Modern ufology is not a science, it is a subculture 369 00:35:52,229 --> 00:35:56,193 and it attracts mainly either New Age post-hippies or paranoid right-wingers 370 00:35:56,213 --> 00:36:02,033 who add UFOs to their list of fringe hobbies next to the Illuminati and various antisemitic conspiracies. 371 00:36:02,046 --> 00:36:09,846 And it is also no coincidence that the Alien abduction craze reached its zenith in parallel with the Satanic panic of the late 1980s and early 90s 372 00:36:09,896 --> 00:36:18,396 when quack investigators used the supremely unreliable technique of regressive hypnosis to make their victims believe that they had been anally probed by space beings 373 00:36:18,438 --> 00:36:21,914 or forced to participate in suburban basement blood orgies. 374 00:36:24,329 --> 00:36:33,329 What I do know is that there are over 9 million species of life on Earth, which means over 9 million points of potential study for hypothetical scientists from elsewhere. 375 00:36:33,688 --> 00:36:41,288 That number, however, is rapidly shrinking thanks to just one species on Earth, which will probably soon include itself among the number of the vanished. 376 00:36:41,563 --> 00:36:47,947 I often think of the intelligences visiting us as being akin to our own scientists stationed in Antarctica 377 00:36:48,004 --> 00:36:53,864 who occasionally cross paths with a disoriented penguin heading away from shore and into the endless frozen wastes. 378 00:36:54,021 --> 00:37:02,521 The scientists follow a strict code of non-intervention; and so they must watch as the poor creature waddles out into the white horizon to die alone 379 00:37:02,563 --> 00:37:06,915 unable to save it with merely a simple nudge in the other direction. 380 00:37:20,996 --> 00:37:23,996 So after reading all of this, I was given two choices: 381 00:37:24,771 --> 00:37:28,771 Either join the Counter-Espionage Unit, the CEU 382 00:37:29,021 --> 00:37:34,909 or rot in mediocrity for the rest of my life in complete fear of all the NDAs I just signed. 383 00:37:37,321 --> 00:37:39,588 Needless to say, I joined the CEU. 384 00:37:40,946 --> 00:37:48,946 The CEU was so named because the UFO phenomenon is so elusive that it's nearly impossible to gather data on them in the first place. 385 00:37:49,021 --> 00:37:52,917 So we can either do it by chance, or through purposeful spying. 386 00:37:52,921 --> 00:37:55,754 However, whenever, wherever we can. 387 00:37:55,854 --> 00:38:01,054 The UFO intelligences observe us, so we do our best to observe them. 388 00:38:02,229 --> 00:38:07,329 The CEU was formed in 1972 by the Nixon administration. 389 00:38:07,563 --> 00:38:10,763 Now, Nixon was a paranoid psychopath 390 00:38:10,896 --> 00:38:20,896 so it must come of no surprise that he would be spooked by the UFO phenomenon and want to do anything possible to get as much information as he could. 391 00:38:21,363 --> 00:38:26,119 Although there were several other organizations that existed prior to the CEU, 392 00:38:26,146 --> 00:38:31,394 the CEU was the first one that was actually beginning from a point of acceptance. 393 00:38:31,521 --> 00:38:41,021 All of the other organizations from prior administrations began with the idea that we need to investigate this phenomenon, to see if it actually exists. 394 00:38:41,129 --> 00:38:48,325 Whereas we said, we know that this exists, we know that there are alien craft or alien intelligence of some sort. 395 00:38:48,463 --> 00:38:53,967 And we're going to start from that as our benchmark, and then investigate from there. 396 00:38:53,979 --> 00:38:58,979 The woman who ran the CEU during my tenure was--we'll call her Rachel. 397 00:38:59,854 --> 00:39:03,822 She managed to hold on to her position for more than 20 years. 398 00:39:03,854 --> 00:39:06,562 She was appointed by Ronald Reagan in the 80s. 399 00:39:06,646 --> 00:39:11,446 I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide 400 00:39:11,813 --> 00:39:17,513 would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world. 401 00:39:18,229 --> 00:39:23,329 And yet, I ask you, is not an alien force already among us? 402 00:39:24,238 --> 00:39:30,238 She had wonderful stories about her time in the CEU when Reagan was in charge. 403 00:39:31,113 --> 00:39:36,813 He used to come by the office and demand to see the "dead space aliens". 404 00:39:38,113 --> 00:39:42,473 At which point she would tell him there are no dead space aliens... 405 00:39:42,563 --> 00:39:44,296 That we know of, on earth. 406 00:39:46,079 --> 00:39:48,979 And he would say "Oh, okay", and then leave. 407 00:39:49,429 --> 00:39:54,845 And then he would come back a couple of months later demanding to see the space aliens again. 408 00:39:54,863 --> 00:39:56,543 Because he was senile. 409 00:39:56,813 --> 00:40:01,157 At which point she would again tell him there are no dead space aliens. 410 00:40:01,163 --> 00:40:05,763 Until finally he came back and threw a complete temper tantrum. 411 00:40:05,871 --> 00:40:13,103 She told him "Okay, give me a week, Ronnie, I'm going to show you the dead space aliens, but they're top secret." 412 00:40:14,979 --> 00:40:17,795 She thought that maybe just telling him that would make him go away 413 00:40:17,854 --> 00:40:23,450 but then he told her "If I don't see those those dead space aliens in a week, I'm cutting the funding to the CEU". 414 00:40:24,679 --> 00:40:31,911 So her top secret location where she was holding the dead space aliens was actually a Halloween store in Burbank. 415 00:40:32,188 --> 00:40:40,988 She went and found two foam prop space aliens, covered them with green slime and stuck them in a freezer 416 00:40:41,354 --> 00:40:45,802 and then called Ronnie to come in the middle of the night and take a look at them. 417 00:40:46,154 --> 00:40:50,826 After he saw them, he was so impressed he doubled the budget for the CEU. 418 00:40:51,804 --> 00:40:55,260 In terms of staff at the CEU, there are several tiers. 419 00:40:55,521 --> 00:41:01,021 There are approximately 10 to 15 high level staff who have read the Assessment 420 00:41:01,054 --> 00:41:08,054 and who are in charge of interpreting data, either in part or in full. 421 00:41:08,271 --> 00:41:14,271 And then there are approximately 30 to 50 low level staff who have not read the Assessment 422 00:41:14,329 --> 00:41:20,921 but who do mostly field work, and they're in charge of collecting data or they're mainly functionaries. 423 00:41:21,271 --> 00:41:27,271 Most of our time was spent either analyzing data that we stole from other countries 424 00:41:27,271 --> 00:41:30,071 or that was given to us by , 425 00:41:31,021 --> 00:41:39,021 a billionaire who was obsessed with UFOs, and who proved to be a useful idiot for funding and other resources. 426 00:41:39,729 --> 00:41:48,729 When I was at the CEU, we were understaffed. So Rachel and I included, there were only seven high level staff who actually got to analyze data as it came in. 427 00:41:48,938 --> 00:41:59,938 Forming any kind of close relationship with any of my colleagues at the CEU was forbidden, because of the sensitive nature of what we were studying. 428 00:42:00,788 --> 00:42:06,788 I did however get buddy-buddy with a colleague, who we'll call Paul. 429 00:42:07,854 --> 00:42:18,854 Paul was in his late 50s, early 60s. Balding, paunchy, glasses. Typical science nerd. 430 00:42:19,404 --> 00:42:26,404 And Paul and I bonded over the fact that we had both been essentially laughed out of our respective fields. 431 00:42:27,396 --> 00:42:31,396 Paul was an astronomer, and very well respected. 432 00:42:32,996 --> 00:42:37,092 He had actually no interest in UFOs until he was at a conference 433 00:42:37,688 --> 00:42:44,152 a high level conference actually, and he went outside to have a cigarette during the keynote speech. 434 00:42:44,646 --> 00:42:48,134 Like most people of this generation, he was a pretty heavy smoker. 435 00:42:48,163 --> 00:42:50,896 While Paul was outside he had a sighting. 436 00:42:51,479 --> 00:42:59,279 A UFO descended from the clouds and hovered above the building where he was having a cigarette. 437 00:42:59,904 --> 00:43:04,384 He ran inside the conference, interrupted the keynote speech and yelled at the top of his lungs: 438 00:43:04,479 --> 00:43:07,615 "There is a UFO outside, everyone come and look!" 439 00:43:09,813 --> 00:43:15,813 350 astronomers, and nobody moved. 440 00:43:16,354 --> 00:43:22,354 He said, "No, I'm, I'm serious! There's a UFO outside!" 441 00:43:24,413 --> 00:43:29,613 He said people turned away from him. Literally turned their backs to him. 442 00:43:32,954 --> 00:43:34,554 Nobody went outside. 443 00:43:36,413 --> 00:43:39,997 In that moment, he knew his career was over. And it was. 444 00:43:40,971 --> 00:43:45,023 Until Rachel came and scooped him up, and brought him in to the CEU. 445 00:43:46,763 --> 00:43:51,763 When I was at the CEU, the main focus of our work was codenamed "Deep One". 446 00:43:52,688 --> 00:44:02,188 And this was the investigation of a deep sea base off the coast of Mexico that appeared to be some sort of waystation for the UFO craft visiting our planet. 447 00:44:02,229 --> 00:44:13,629 The craft would descend somewhere north of Catalina Island, just off the coast of Los Angeles, then cruise along the coast to Guadalupe Island 448 00:44:13,688 --> 00:44:15,128 and then submerge. 449 00:44:15,563 --> 00:44:19,763 Now what they were doing underwater, we still don't know. 450 00:44:20,771 --> 00:44:26,323 We took several trips out to the installation in order to ascertain what was going on there. 451 00:44:26,404 --> 00:44:31,844 By the time I left, the only things that we knew for sure were, one: the coordinates 452 00:44:31,929 --> 00:44:36,177 the approximate size of the base, which was about three miles by three miles. 453 00:44:36,263 --> 00:44:40,871 And three: that it was guarded by some very sophisticated sonic weaponry. 454 00:44:40,913 --> 00:44:46,913 Anything that you send down there: cameras, submersibles, divers... 455 00:44:47,921 --> 00:44:54,621 doesn't come back, at least not in one piece. 456 00:44:56,338 --> 00:45:09,338 The CEU learned this the hard way in the 70s when they attempted to send down a submersible, piloted by divers, that was capable of reaching the deep sea. 457 00:45:10,096 --> 00:45:17,456 At a certain point, the crew topside received frantic messages from the divers that was quickly replaced by static. 458 00:45:19,329 --> 00:45:22,196 When they tried to reel them back up, well, 459 00:45:22,354 --> 00:45:28,354 they found the submersible had been crushed, like a tin can. 460 00:45:28,363 --> 00:45:30,896 There were no survivors, obviously. 461 00:45:31,804 --> 00:45:35,804 After that, the CEU's work at the site was mostly indirect. 462 00:45:35,854 --> 00:45:45,054 No one wanted to be responsible for instigating an interstellar war, so we were forbidden from on high from trying to make any contact. 463 00:45:45,729 --> 00:45:52,729 Which was much to Rachel's dismay, because her sole purpose in life was to make contact. 464 00:45:58,054 --> 00:46:07,254 We had videos of lights deep down under the sea, which was a potential glimpse of Deep One from far away. 465 00:46:12,829 --> 00:46:19,429 We had sonar readings, we had videos of the craft entering and exiting the sea. 466 00:46:21,896 --> 00:46:23,896 Always filmed from far away. 467 00:46:35,704 --> 00:46:40,760 But whatever it was that was going on down there, we just weren't meant to know. 468 00:46:45,354 --> 00:46:50,218 We've talked about things that are. Now let's talk about things that are not. 469 00:46:50,329 --> 00:46:56,329 Majestic-12? Complete bullshit. Project Serpo? Forgot it. 470 00:46:56,604 --> 00:47:03,336 Anything that tells you that there are aliens running around or having dinner with the President? Complete crap. 471 00:47:03,479 --> 00:47:10,455 No, there can't be any real government alien conspiracies because they're too stupid to actually create them. 472 00:47:10,729 --> 00:47:21,729 It's incredible to me that the general public thinks that the government is capable of concealing a secret for 50 years over multiple administrations. 473 00:47:22,396 --> 00:47:25,744 They can't even keep a secret through one administration. 474 00:47:25,813 --> 00:47:34,813 And if one government can't keep it together to keep it a secret, how in the hell could the entire world's governments keep it together to keep it a secret 475 00:47:34,879 --> 00:47:36,746 over the course of 50 years? 476 00:47:37,354 --> 00:47:39,354 There is no conspiracy. 477 00:47:40,404 --> 00:47:46,404 Headline news, July 8 1947. 478 00:47:46,771 --> 00:47:52,283 The Army Air Force has announced that a flying disc has been found and is now in the possession of the Army. 479 00:47:52,371 --> 00:47:58,107 Army officers say the missile, found sometime last week, has been inspected at Roswell, New Mexico 480 00:47:58,129 --> 00:48:01,285 and sent to Wright Field, Ohio for further inspection. 481 00:48:01,338 --> 00:48:05,398 No, a flying saucer did not crash at Roswell in 1947. 482 00:48:05,838 --> 00:48:10,850 It was exactly what they said it was when they revealed the documents in the 1990s. 483 00:48:10,921 --> 00:48:16,921 It was a balloon, an espionage balloon that was part of Project Mogul. 484 00:48:17,963 --> 00:48:26,963 Now, for some reason the first story that was created was that it was a UFO because UFOs were popular at the time. 485 00:48:27,271 --> 00:48:29,971 And it was an idiotic story, 486 00:48:29,971 --> 00:48:35,083 and they realized very quickly that it just made people more curious about what they were in fact doing. 487 00:48:36,521 --> 00:48:41,345 So they wheeled back on that story and they told a new story, that it was a weather balloon 488 00:48:41,438 --> 00:48:44,538 which was closer to the truth but not actually the truth. 489 00:48:44,954 --> 00:48:55,554 And then continued to just create stories about crash test dummies and other other stories that would convolute the actual truth, 490 00:48:55,604 --> 00:49:02,704 which of course, when it came out in the 90s wasn't believed by that point because they'd been lying for so long and creating false information 491 00:49:02,796 --> 00:49:06,576 that why should you believe them when they actually do tell the truth? 492 00:49:07,146 --> 00:49:13,218 This has been a constant pattern with the military and their relationship with UFOs since day one. 493 00:49:13,229 --> 00:49:20,929 We operate from a designated base in the United States. It's in the state of Nevada in an area called 494 00:49:21,313 --> 00:49:22,993 Area 51 or "Dreamland". 495 00:49:23,021 --> 00:49:32,021 The extraterrestrials have complete control of this base, which is located in Nevada. 496 00:49:32,271 --> 00:49:35,243 No, there are no aliens at Area 51. 497 00:49:35,296 --> 00:49:49,196 The reason we think there are aliens at Area 51 is because the government has hired disinformation agents in order to propagate interesting tales about aliens and UFOs operating from that site. 498 00:49:49,671 --> 00:49:57,031 The reason they've done that is because it is a site of testing of defense weapons, dumping of illegal chemicals... 499 00:49:57,563 --> 00:50:08,563 All sorts of games that the government plays that wastes money, and they would rather not have people witnessing. 500 00:50:08,613 --> 00:50:13,413 The mythmaking was started when the government hired these disinformation agents. 501 00:50:13,504 --> 00:50:19,204 Gave them basically, you know, free rein to create whatever types of stories they wanted to create. 502 00:50:19,246 --> 00:50:24,614 It doesn't seem like they had a lot of oversight in terms of what was coming out of the mouths of these people. 503 00:50:25,046 --> 00:50:34,346 It began with Richard Doty. In 1988, he made an appearance on a show called "UFO Cover Up? Live!" 504 00:50:37,929 --> 00:50:42,437 He appeared as a secret government informant under the codename Falcon. 505 00:50:57,821 --> 00:51:06,021 He revealed such top secret information as aliens have big black eyes, and gray skin... 506 00:51:14,354 --> 00:51:16,754 ...and like to eat strawberry ice cream. 507 00:51:28,196 --> 00:51:33,896 From there, he created all sorts of incredible science fiction stories. 508 00:51:33,979 --> 00:51:44,079 As a matter of fact, I think he would rival L. Ron Hubbard for the sheer volume of sci-fi that he's created over the course of his career. 509 00:51:44,771 --> 00:51:49,871 MJ-12 was a group of people within the government. 510 00:51:50,229 --> 00:51:54,629 MJ-12 was created by President Truman in the early 50s. 511 00:51:55,146 --> 00:52:00,846 So after Richard Doty came Bob Lazar. Very quickly after, actually. 512 00:52:09,846 --> 00:52:11,286 Hi, I'm Bob Lazar. 513 00:52:11,438 --> 00:52:19,438 During late 1988 and early 89, I worked on the propulsion systems of extraterrestrial vehicles for the United States government. 514 00:52:21,971 --> 00:52:23,971 Bob Lazar is a complete fraud. 515 00:52:25,363 --> 00:52:28,163 Nothing he says should be taken seriously. 516 00:52:28,388 --> 00:52:31,988 Now, the CEU is a government agency. 517 00:52:32,104 --> 00:52:42,104 We're a small unit buried under layers of bureaucracy, that of course no one within the government even knows exists for the most part 518 00:52:42,396 --> 00:52:44,340 and definitely didn't know what we were doing. 519 00:52:44,404 --> 00:52:55,804 So when you think about people like Richard Doty being financed by completely other arms of the government that are not focused on science at all 520 00:52:56,146 --> 00:53:01,302 but are focused on the military and covering up whatever the military is up to, 521 00:53:01,604 --> 00:53:08,580 "aliens" is just a convenient side story that they can use in order to distract from what's really going on. 522 00:53:08,729 --> 00:53:14,425 Now unfortunately, when you're funded by the military you have a lot more at your disposal 523 00:53:14,904 --> 00:53:19,364 as opposed to our funding which was trickling down on a good day. 524 00:53:20,013 --> 00:53:23,521 The CEU actually has one UFO in its possession. 525 00:53:23,813 --> 00:53:33,713 It was found in the 60s. It is about the size of a camper van and shaped vaguely like a popcorn kernel. 526 00:53:35,138 --> 00:53:40,506 Despite all the rumors about Area 51, nothing has ever been reverse engineered from this. 527 00:53:40,896 --> 00:53:47,104 It is extremely old. We know that from carbon dating of the stones that it was found embedded in. 528 00:53:48,054 --> 00:53:50,587 It's made of a beautiful silver alloy. 529 00:53:51,238 --> 00:53:54,238 The fuselage is impenetrable. 530 00:53:57,696 --> 00:54:01,096 Because it's impenetrable, we've never been able to get in in any way. 531 00:54:02,063 --> 00:54:07,063 It's just sitting in a top secret hangar in storage, gathering dust. 532 00:54:25,729 --> 00:54:28,673 We never studied alien abductions at the CEU 533 00:54:30,454 --> 00:54:35,094 mostly because there was no scientific evidence to support that they actually exist. 534 00:54:35,529 --> 00:54:42,581 Now the main reason for this is that every single explanation of an alien abduction always begins with the same story, 535 00:54:42,604 --> 00:54:49,604 and that story is exactly in alignment with stories that come with sleep paralysis. 536 00:54:52,321 --> 00:54:57,569 The second reason is that the narrative of alien abductions has changed over time. 537 00:54:59,179 --> 00:55:07,579 If in fact the same thing was happening to everyone, we would see very, very similar 538 00:55:08,088 --> 00:55:11,155 specifications in terms of the story. 539 00:55:11,179 --> 00:55:18,067 I'm not talking about, you know, I was probed and my eggs were stolen, and they made me ejaculate and stole my sperm. 540 00:55:18,554 --> 00:55:23,098 I'm talking about the narrative surrounding what the beings look like. 541 00:55:23,863 --> 00:55:31,863 So even the typical greys that have permeated pop culture, every person who describes them has a slightly different interpretation. 542 00:55:31,871 --> 00:55:38,203 The eyes are positioned differently, they're bigger or smaller, and then that has even changed over time as well. 543 00:55:38,738 --> 00:55:44,938 They've wrapped around the head, or there's a nose or there's no nose, or there's ears or no ears, and the skin is different. 544 00:55:44,996 --> 00:55:48,996 The height is different. The noises they make are different. 545 00:55:50,288 --> 00:55:58,988 I just don't give much credence to reports of aliens because the odds of something like that adapting on another planet that looks humanoid 546 00:55:58,988 --> 00:56:00,508 are extremely rare. 547 00:56:00,554 --> 00:56:05,766 The other thing is, how are they running around with the ability to breathe our air? 548 00:56:05,854 --> 00:56:11,890 If they did evolve on another planet, chances are, you know, they would need some sort of spacesuit 549 00:56:11,938 --> 00:56:16,930 or clothing at the very least in order to be able to deal with our atmosphere. 550 00:56:17,096 --> 00:56:26,596 Now people who report alien abduction stories shouldn't be mocked or made fun of. 551 00:56:27,388 --> 00:56:29,821 Sleep paralysis feels very real. 552 00:56:30,871 --> 00:56:38,571 As you know, anything that happens between the waking and asleep state, it's very difficult to discern what is real and what isn't. 553 00:56:38,596 --> 00:56:47,596 And for many people, these alien abduction stories become part of a recurring, waking nightmare. 554 00:56:48,513 --> 00:56:51,413 And I have a lot of empathy for those people. 555 00:56:51,454 --> 00:57:01,754 But it just seems as though the popular culture narrative has permeated these sleep paralysis experiences, nothing more. 556 00:57:03,138 --> 00:57:08,338 I had a coworker at the CEU. We'll call him Joe. 557 00:57:08,646 --> 00:57:10,713 He was an excellent researcher. 558 00:57:11,754 --> 00:57:13,434 Seemed like a decent guy. 559 00:57:16,163 --> 00:57:19,619 One day, he just completely disappeared from his desk. 560 00:57:22,121 --> 00:57:24,054 I asked Rachel what happened. 561 00:57:26,479 --> 00:57:30,895 She didn't want to tell me at first, but eventually she revealed that 562 00:57:32,221 --> 00:57:38,221 Joe believed he had made direct contact with the aliens. 563 00:57:40,721 --> 00:57:49,621 He'd been camping and a grey alien with black eyes had come into the tent and brought him aboard the spaceship. 564 00:57:50,746 --> 00:57:55,994 It's a very typical sleep paralysis story. And frankly, I was kind of disappointed 565 00:57:56,829 --> 00:57:57,829 in Joe. 566 00:58:02,013 --> 00:58:08,013 I mean, regardless of what happened, because who am I to say at this point, really 567 00:58:10,596 --> 00:58:13,668 that story compromised the security of our unit. 568 00:58:17,179 --> 00:58:20,527 It undermined the integrity of what we were trying to do. 569 00:58:21,204 --> 00:58:26,132 We're never going to be taken seriously with gray beings with big black eyes. 570 00:58:29,629 --> 00:58:30,909 So he had to go. 571 00:58:35,063 --> 00:58:42,063 I have very mixed feelings about Rachel in retrospect. 572 00:58:42,971 --> 00:58:48,971 She sought me out to work there, and she was very kind 573 00:58:50,679 --> 00:58:55,943 and gave me a lot more leeway than I probably should have been allowed in that type of organization. 574 00:58:56,013 --> 00:59:00,293 She had built something truly extraordinary, but then had leveled off. 575 00:59:00,313 --> 00:59:06,313 In a way, it felt like at a point that she was just humoring me professionally. 576 00:59:07,313 --> 00:59:11,693 And the whole system, the way it's set up, really is quite ridiculous. 577 00:59:11,738 --> 00:59:15,618 You know, to have a scientific organization reporting to a government. 578 00:59:15,646 --> 00:59:19,646 It's like toddlers running a daycare center. 579 00:59:22,788 --> 00:59:26,288 There were moments in, you know... 580 00:59:26,346 --> 00:59:29,213 We spent a lot of time working together and 581 00:59:29,671 --> 00:59:33,671 Rachel, I think was attracted to me from the beginning. 582 00:59:36,804 --> 00:59:42,804 And when I started to realize that, a bitterness grew inside me. 583 00:59:43,571 --> 00:59:55,471 Just for all the years of feeling like I was being promoted or paid attention to because of my looks and not because of my ability. 584 00:59:55,971 --> 01:00:04,371 It's hard to articulate what the reason was for my departure. 585 01:00:07,038 --> 01:00:08,718 But I just had had enough. 586 01:00:37,163 --> 01:00:43,315 In 2009, Rachel received communication from the Coast Guard off the Bering Strait. 587 01:00:44,763 --> 01:00:51,763 There had been several counts of first, contact on sonar and on radar, 588 01:00:53,413 --> 01:00:58,313 and then sightings of a large, boxcar shaped object. 589 01:00:59,504 --> 01:01:05,604 We immediately charted a flight and went to Alaska. Myself, Rachel and Paul. 590 01:01:07,729 --> 01:01:14,929 We arrived in Alaska and boarded a ship with a skeleton crew, and went out into the Bering Sea. 591 01:01:14,954 --> 01:01:19,114 Into the spot where all of the the observations had taken place. 592 01:01:20,246 --> 01:01:23,490 On the first day, about 2:30 in the afternoon, 593 01:01:26,479 --> 01:01:38,579 we saw a large, boxcar shaped craft emerge from the sea. 594 01:01:40,971 --> 01:01:56,171 It was two rectangular objects tethered in the center that ascended from the sea to the sky. 595 01:01:57,288 --> 01:01:59,621 Almost like an amusement park ride. 596 01:02:10,896 --> 01:02:18,896 It almost looked like some sort of conveyor belt, in a way, that wasn't attached to anything by the way that it moved on top of itself 597 01:02:18,979 --> 01:02:20,179 as it ascended. 598 01:02:20,438 --> 01:02:24,002 We estimate that they were about 200 feet in length. 599 01:02:24,579 --> 01:02:31,479 The vessel moved from the sea to the sky without displacing any water, any air... 600 01:02:31,479 --> 01:02:37,675 ...and took about a minute to travel from the sea to the clouds, to the point where we couldn't see them anymore. 601 01:02:38,229 --> 01:02:44,829 According to the Coast Guard, this was the same spot that it was occurring in over and over again, so we were pretty sure we were going to see more. 602 01:02:44,921 --> 01:02:49,337 Although on the way out there, I didn't actually think that we were going to witness anything. 603 01:02:51,013 --> 01:02:58,813 Because what typically happens is that there's a sighting in a spot, and even multiple sightings. And then once people start to show up in anticipation 604 01:02:58,838 --> 01:03:01,294 it's almost like they know and they don't come back. 605 01:03:01,538 --> 01:03:07,138 So I was really floored that we saw anything at all. 606 01:03:08,754 --> 01:03:12,466 On the second day, there was very poor visibility. Storms. 607 01:03:14,471 --> 01:03:16,151 We didn't see anything. 608 01:03:20,688 --> 01:03:23,288 The third day, in the morning, 609 01:03:24,604 --> 01:03:28,604 we saw another craft, and then again in the afternoon. 610 01:03:29,871 --> 01:03:37,271 At this point, Rachel hypothesized that they were transport vehicles of some sort. 611 01:03:38,038 --> 01:03:42,774 That they were mining something in the ocean and taking it up into the sky. 612 01:03:43,638 --> 01:03:45,638 Paul was disturbed. 613 01:03:47,246 --> 01:03:51,790 You know, it's one thing to study but it's another thing to experience. 614 01:03:53,929 --> 01:03:56,062 The next night, we were sleeping 615 01:03:57,729 --> 01:04:03,557 and one of the Coast Guard staff came down and woke us up, and told us to get to the deck immediately. 616 01:04:03,638 --> 01:04:06,738 And we did, and what we saw was... 617 01:04:07,679 --> 01:04:13,679 a green glow coming from beneath the surface of the sea 618 01:04:14,546 --> 01:04:18,046 with a very distinctive, spherical shape. 619 01:04:18,721 --> 01:04:22,945 We tracked it on sonar. It was in fact a solid object, and it moved 620 01:04:24,404 --> 01:04:29,604 from where it was to directly underneath our ship. 621 01:04:37,846 --> 01:04:42,246 Now the craft was about three times the size of our ship. 622 01:04:44,721 --> 01:04:47,188 And our ship was nearly 80 feet long. 623 01:04:48,038 --> 01:04:51,046 Nothing about the movement of our ship changed. 624 01:04:53,688 --> 01:04:57,488 I didn't feel any vibrations. Nothing. 625 01:05:06,354 --> 01:05:08,034 But I did feel afraid. 626 01:05:10,554 --> 01:05:19,954 If it were to ascend, it would have toppled our ship in an instant. 627 01:05:21,413 --> 01:05:24,413 Then all of a sudden it was gone. 628 01:05:25,746 --> 01:05:29,650 It was no longer on the sonar, and the light had disappeared. 629 01:05:35,921 --> 01:05:46,121 The next day, Paul and I had a long discussion about the very strong feeling that we both had that we should leave. 630 01:05:48,604 --> 01:05:51,104 But Rachel was hearing none of it 631 01:05:53,354 --> 01:05:56,221 and became obsessed with making contact. 632 01:05:59,704 --> 01:06:07,304 That night, she started by shining a very, very bright spotlight onto the surface of the sea. 633 01:06:08,488 --> 01:06:17,088 And she decided to use Morse code, because she figured that since they've been able to disrupt our technology that they would be able to decipher Morse code. 634 01:06:17,871 --> 01:06:25,171 That night, she started to fire Morse code with a giant spotlight onto the surface of the sea. 635 01:06:26,846 --> 01:06:30,846 "We want to make contact", over and over again, for hours. 636 01:06:34,688 --> 01:06:35,688 Nothing. 637 01:06:37,888 --> 01:06:44,080 The next day, she decided to emit audio signals through the water through a very high powered speaker. 638 01:06:44,146 --> 01:06:51,634 She continuously, for hours, said: "We want to make contact, we are representatives of the United States government." 639 01:06:56,263 --> 01:06:57,263 Nothing. 640 01:06:59,021 --> 01:07:03,121 Until Rachel decided to shoot a laser 641 01:07:06,946 --> 01:07:08,946 at the transportation vehicle. 642 01:07:12,871 --> 01:07:22,871 But this time instead of, I don't know, her long ass Morse code message, she just shot "contact". 643 01:07:23,554 --> 01:07:26,554 C-O-N-T-A-C-T. 644 01:07:26,879 --> 01:07:30,079 For the entire time from emergence to ascendance. 645 01:07:34,121 --> 01:07:35,121 No response. 646 01:07:38,538 --> 01:07:41,205 Until the craft ascended into the clouds 647 01:07:42,646 --> 01:07:46,746 and then every system on our ship shut down. 648 01:07:50,671 --> 01:07:58,971 The engines turned off. All of the communication devices, our cell phones, our camera equipment, everything dead. 649 01:07:59,521 --> 01:08:04,705 For 20 minutes, the crew was running around trying to get everything back online. 650 01:08:04,996 --> 01:08:07,163 Paul was completely frantic. 651 01:08:09,271 --> 01:08:10,271 Then... 652 01:08:12,696 --> 01:08:14,376 along the horizon line... 653 01:08:17,696 --> 01:08:25,296 I saw a massive object start to ascend out of the water. 654 01:08:25,571 --> 01:08:30,771 It looked like a landmass was rising out of the sea. 655 01:08:37,996 --> 01:08:45,296 As it ascended out of the water, bone dry, not a drop coming off of it 656 01:08:46,571 --> 01:08:52,287 it was easily the largest thing I've ever seen, and I've never seen anything that size moving. 657 01:08:53,263 --> 01:08:56,591 As it cleared the water it started to move toward us 658 01:09:09,746 --> 01:09:13,310 and positioned itself right over top of our vessel. 659 01:09:16,071 --> 01:09:18,204 Completely blocking out the sun. 660 01:09:26,938 --> 01:09:32,438 It was so close we could have thrown a rock off the bow and hit it. 661 01:09:34,038 --> 01:09:35,078 Paul fainted. 662 01:09:38,904 --> 01:09:40,504 I felt like, just... 663 01:09:41,113 --> 01:09:43,013 incapable of moving. 664 01:09:45,471 --> 01:09:46,471 And then... 665 01:09:48,804 --> 01:09:51,904 a noise started to come out of Paul's throat. 666 01:09:56,663 --> 01:10:02,463 It was like nothing I'd ever heard before. 667 01:10:05,179 --> 01:10:06,859 It did not sound human. 668 01:10:09,313 --> 01:10:12,313 And the noise became words. 669 01:10:17,471 --> 01:10:18,471 And it said, 670 01:10:19,304 --> 01:10:20,344 "No contact". 671 01:10:23,188 --> 01:10:24,228 "No contact". 672 01:10:24,496 --> 01:10:25,536 "No contact". 673 01:10:26,938 --> 01:10:27,978 "No contact". 674 01:10:29,096 --> 01:10:30,096 Four times. 675 01:10:37,246 --> 01:10:38,926 And then it was gone. 676 01:10:39,888 --> 01:10:41,088 It disappeared. 677 01:10:42,846 --> 01:10:49,846 It was like it went from night to day, because when it disappeared the sun blinded us. 678 01:10:55,279 --> 01:10:57,179 Paul came to... 679 01:10:58,696 --> 01:11:00,696 and was just out of his mind. 680 01:11:01,654 --> 01:11:09,198 He needed medical attention, so we rested back at the Coast Guard facilities for a couple of days and then returned home. 681 01:11:14,654 --> 01:11:22,154 When we got back to the office, I filled out my reports, my observations, and the whole time 682 01:11:23,396 --> 01:11:32,196 I kept thinking about how momentous this experience was, and how important it was to share this information with the world. 683 01:11:33,821 --> 01:11:38,821 Rachel didn't want to talk about it. 684 01:11:42,063 --> 01:11:45,391 Eventually, I just felt like I had to say something. 685 01:11:45,413 --> 01:11:46,613 I cornered her. 686 01:11:50,279 --> 01:11:54,967 And I asked her if this was the first recorded incident of contact? 687 01:11:58,013 --> 01:11:59,373 And she said yes. 688 01:12:06,054 --> 01:12:08,387 She said yes but it meant nothing. 689 01:12:10,346 --> 01:12:14,746 She felt that if they didn't want to make contact with us, then what was the point? 690 01:12:14,829 --> 01:12:20,829 She felt like all of the work that she had done at the CEU was for nothing. 691 01:12:22,763 --> 01:12:23,763 So myopic. 692 01:12:25,288 --> 01:12:36,288 Like, if this was the first known contact, recorded contact, then this is the most significant thing to happen to mankind in all of recorded history. 693 01:12:38,104 --> 01:12:40,104 And the public needs to know. 694 01:12:40,988 --> 01:12:44,588 And she said, "No". 695 01:12:51,146 --> 01:12:55,874 And I said, "I don't think that you get to be the one to make that decision." 696 01:12:57,029 --> 01:13:00,029 She said, "Yes, I am." 697 01:13:01,304 --> 01:13:08,604 So I went back to my desk, and I memorized as many of the data points as I could. 698 01:13:09,938 --> 01:13:12,138 And I left. 699 01:13:19,254 --> 01:13:21,654 I knew I was never going to be back. 700 01:13:25,913 --> 01:13:33,913 As soon as I got home, I wrote down everything that I could remember from that incident and every incident that had taken place over the course of my time there. 701 01:13:35,529 --> 01:13:37,529 And I started writing my book. 702 01:13:38,454 --> 01:13:46,654 I wrote for three days straight, completely lost track of time, but I didn't want it to get away. I didn't want to forget anything. 703 01:13:49,221 --> 01:13:53,189 And after three days is when Rachel showed up at my apartment. 704 01:13:56,613 --> 01:14:02,213 She found my address through the personnel files. The same way she had hunted me down and recruited me. 705 01:14:03,004 --> 01:14:06,972 When she came, she told me she knew what I was planning to do. 706 01:14:07,221 --> 01:14:09,421 That I was planning to go public. 707 01:14:10,604 --> 01:14:12,804 I don't know how she knew, but... 708 01:14:16,396 --> 01:14:21,388 She tried to reason with me, to tell me that she was once like me. Idealistic. 709 01:14:22,371 --> 01:14:24,238 Wanting to change the world. 710 01:14:27,496 --> 01:14:31,604 There was a very slight chance that I would ever be able to pull it off. 711 01:14:32,646 --> 01:14:35,313 Something about having her in my home... 712 01:14:39,888 --> 01:14:42,888 I felt violated. 713 01:14:42,946 --> 01:14:45,413 And it colored all of my memories of her. 714 01:14:47,488 --> 01:14:52,544 All the times she brushed my hand accidentally or stood a little bit too close. 715 01:14:52,613 --> 01:14:56,113 She told me she cared. And I just freaked 716 01:14:59,196 --> 01:15:00,636 Called her a dyke. 717 01:15:01,471 --> 01:15:03,404 Slammed the door in her face. 718 01:15:08,688 --> 01:15:09,808 That was mean. 719 01:15:12,138 --> 01:15:13,258 I regret that. 720 01:15:20,088 --> 01:15:23,876 Well, what are they really? I mean, we don't even know. 721 01:15:23,938 --> 01:15:26,138 We sort of know what they're not. 722 01:15:27,971 --> 01:15:32,239 It's not human technology. It definitely doesn't belong to us. 723 01:15:32,746 --> 01:15:39,546 And if it belonged to Russia, or China or North Korea, we would know. 724 01:15:39,979 --> 01:15:45,419 But if they are aliens from outer space hanging out in our oceans to avoid detection, 725 01:15:46,488 --> 01:15:50,712 whatever they're doing, they certainly don't give a shit about us. 726 01:15:53,113 --> 01:16:08,413 I mean, they've been visiting for probably millennia, and only started making themselves seen or interacting with us in any way in World War Two. 727 01:16:10,663 --> 01:16:14,247 They didn't intervene during the Holocaust or Hiroshima. 728 01:16:15,738 --> 01:16:20,794 Which leads me to believe that they probably only give a shit about the planet. 729 01:16:22,138 --> 01:16:29,690 As a matter of fact, it's been said many times that we should count ourselves as lucky that they're not talking to us. 730 01:16:30,288 --> 01:16:47,588 Because even according to our own history, when someone more technologically advanced invades a primitive culture, no matter what their intentions, the primitive culture does not come out on the other side better. 731 01:16:48,154 --> 01:16:54,654 They come out with diabetes, or smallpox, or dead or enslaved. 732 01:16:57,229 --> 01:17:05,097 If they are aliens, their technology demonstrates such immense power and sophistication 733 01:17:05,138 --> 01:17:09,194 that if they wanted to make contact with us, they would have done it aeons ago. 734 01:17:11,929 --> 01:17:13,609 But we'll never know. 735 01:17:14,804 --> 01:17:19,604 Because the subject is a heretical taboo to academia. 736 01:17:24,288 --> 01:17:32,788 We will never have the financial resources in order to properly study them, even if it is just counterespionage. 737 01:17:34,871 --> 01:17:41,871 Because the government, administration after administration, has turned it into a joke. 738 01:17:42,429 --> 01:17:45,029 I mean, it's turned itself into a joke. 739 01:17:49,821 --> 01:17:52,154 I think it's a tragedy, personally. 740 01:17:56,138 --> 01:17:57,658 What have I gained? 741 01:17:59,529 --> 01:18:03,369 A slightly more comprehensive understanding of the universe. 742 01:18:06,521 --> 01:18:15,221 It may seem insignificant, but I think what I've lost has impacted me more. 743 01:18:20,813 --> 01:18:24,013 I lost my career. Twice. 744 01:18:28,279 --> 01:18:30,279 I lost respect. 745 01:18:33,304 --> 01:18:36,404 And I lost the love of my life. 746 01:18:38,154 --> 01:18:42,154 I heard that Scott married a hyperaccredited AI researcher. 747 01:18:44,179 --> 01:18:55,179 Apparently, studying artificial intelligence is more respectable than studying extraterrestrial intelligence. 748 01:19:02,771 --> 01:19:07,771 My life isn't exactly how I thought it would be. 749 01:19:10,038 --> 01:19:13,666 I wrote a book called "The Gulf of Silence" in 2012 750 01:19:17,946 --> 01:19:25,954 which contained most of the information from the Assessment and new information that I learned while working with the CEU. 751 01:19:30,363 --> 01:19:33,563 The title actually came from something Rachel said. 752 01:19:35,071 --> 01:19:45,471 She said the philosophy behind the CEU was to try and bridge the gulf of silence between us and whatever's out there. 753 01:19:48,263 --> 01:19:49,943 I thought it was poetic. 754 01:19:53,646 --> 01:19:57,438 Turns out books don't actually sell themselves, so... 755 01:19:59,188 --> 01:20:02,588 I tour UFO conventions. 756 01:20:03,929 --> 01:20:07,329 Answering questions, sometimes speaking. 757 01:20:07,871 --> 01:20:12,371 Mostly just signing books. 758 01:20:14,271 --> 01:20:25,271 You know, it's incredible. My book is every ounce of truth that exists as we know it concerning UFOs. 759 01:20:26,171 --> 01:20:34,159 And I'm seated next to a guy who's written a book that he perceives to be every ounce of truth about the frog people. 760 01:20:35,313 --> 01:20:39,077 If I think about it too much, it feels humiliating. 761 01:20:41,079 --> 01:20:50,079 I suppose that's one of the reasons why I wrote my book. To like, drop a pebble into the ocean of disinformation. 762 01:20:50,329 --> 01:20:56,729 So hopefully, at some point, someone will be able to pick up the gauntlet and run with it. 763 01:20:59,163 --> 01:21:02,383 It's not going to be in my generation, that's for sure. 764 01:21:03,329 --> 01:21:07,425 I actually saw Rachel at the last convention I was at in Nevada. 765 01:21:09,013 --> 01:21:12,981 I guess she knew I was speaking and I saw her in the audience. 766 01:21:14,763 --> 01:21:18,475 And then she came up to my table afterward with a book and 767 01:21:19,779 --> 01:21:21,379 asked me to sign it. 768 01:21:30,346 --> 01:21:32,079 I was grateful to see her. 769 01:21:42,513 --> 01:21:46,597 I signed the book and just said thank you for the title. 770 01:21:51,413 --> 01:21:55,317 I imagine that's probably the last time we'll see each other. 771 01:21:58,388 --> 01:22:00,521 She just smiled and walked away. 772 01:22:18,663 --> 01:22:21,799 I don't think I'll see anyone from the CEU again. 773 01:22:26,713 --> 01:22:28,393 Unless Joe writes a book.