Christopher Bledsoe and the UFO Cult of Intelligence, Pt. 5

Forty Yards to the Burning Bush / A Shuttle Darkly

Read Pt. 1 here.

Significant religious experiences remained a constant in Christopher Bledsoe’s life, often loaded with Christian symbolism but existing within a ufological or close encounter framework. The burning tree—a sign from the heavens reminiscent of Moses’ burning bush—had become an important touchstone in Bledsoe’s life, materializing after he requested a sign from above informing him whether he should meet with screenwriters Chad and Carey Hayes at D.W. Pasulka’s recommendation. “The beings seemed to be making themselves more and more visible,” Bledsoe wrote. “That fiery gash in the wood on an otherwise normal night was unforgettable. It was as plainly urgent as any of the other phenomena I had experienced.”¹ While this specific film never came to be, the burned tree husk—which reignited several additional times after being extinguished yet continued to sprout “small green shoots”²—was highly significant to Bledsoe’s religious cosmology. In continued interactions with Timothy Taylor, a NASA engineer and newfound paranormal acolyte, the extent of Chris Bledsoe’s experiences broadened into other areas of weirdness. For instance, a strange silver snake emerged from the burning tree as Bledsoe and Taylor were surveying it. Already an intriguing coincidence, Taylor adds on to the spiritual significance of the snake appearing in the husk of the tree. Bledsoe writes: “Tim told me that his grandmother was full-blooded Native American, and that he had attended college on a full scholarship because of it. Something his grandmother had always told him was that the appearance of a silver snake was always a sign from God.”³ I can find no reference to “silver snakes” within Cherokee spiritual beliefs, although I am no expert. However, while “signs”—including snakes—are no doubt important to the Cherokee people, they would not typically come from “God” but the spirit world more generally. Additionally, Taylor’s Native American ancestry goes unmentioned in his book Launch Fever despite the memoir covering his college years, an odd omission. Regardless, Bledsoe certainly saw the appearance of a snake as significant within his own unique religious model—a spirituality that seemed eager to take on other forms of high strangeness.

Bledsoe was informed of a compelling combination of UFO and ghost sightings at a nearby location in North Carolina by MUFON investigator Chase Kloetzke, herself yet another former employee at the DoD “where she trained active duty and civilian anti-terrorist groups.”⁴ She would later become a self-described UFO lobbyist around 2018. When Bledsoe told Kloetzke that he had seen “dancing orbs” that flew off in the direction of St. Pauls, she advised him that these sightings occurred almost simultaneously with strange events witnessed by a group of ghost hunters at a farmhouse in the area—including humanoid figures and nearly two hours of missing time.⁵ Kloetzke invited Bledsoe to the follow-up investigation who in turn invited Tim Taylor, though Taylor requested that identity be kept “as secret as possible because he needed to keep a low profile.”⁶ Their visit to the farm was mostly uneventful save for “several snakes slithering their way toward the house and the road” recalling the strange silver snake seen within the burning tree.⁷ The remainder of the ghost hunt was unremarkable, but Taylor gave Bledsoe further odd advice as he was driven back to the airport from the spooky farmhouse:

(Tim) said I needed to know about an important strategy when dealing with the beings. It was crucial that I keep them from getting into my head. They had the ability to read your thoughts and fill you with fear even if nothing scary or unusual was happening. He said I had to find a song that was at least four minutes long and that I knew all the lyrics of. Whenever I thought the beings could be near, I was supposed to sing the song to myself, whether out loud or just in my head. I hadn’t been truly afraid for a long time, especially since meeting the lady, but I was grateful for the tactic nonetheless.⁸

Taylor’s advice to Bledsoe is strange—especially given the generally positive communications Taylor would later describe with non-human intelligence—but this technique would come into play very soon as Bledsoe revisited the haunted farmhouse.

On another ghost hunt with Chase Kloetzke and others, Bledsoe had chosen his anti-bad mojo song—“The Battle of Evermore” by Led Zeppelin. He sang the appropriately mystical lyrics in his head as he wandered around in the dark wilderness surrounding the haunted homestead. This venture was more lively than the prior one: After Bledsoe “felt something in the air shift,” he noticed that one of his armed companions reached for his gun as if he too felt something change.⁹ The group then became lost following a brief encounter with a pair of glowing green eyes—evidently 15 minutes had been wiped from the ghost hunting team’s collective memory. Singing Led Zeppelin did not prevent the manifestation of missing time, but perhaps it kept Bledsoe from being affected more negatively by the shadowy beings. Whatever the case, Bledsoe was clearly a magnet for the “phenomenon”—whatever form it took.

Even more bizarre scenarios arose in the life of Chris Bledsoe while under Taylor’s wing, situations that presented Taylor as an impressive, highly credentialed individual with NASA and/or the intelligence community. After their friendship blossomed over the course of a few years, Bledsoe was invited to Cape Canaveral to witness a rocket launch. “I had to gain an adequate security clearance before they would allow me into the facilities that Tim wanted to show me,” Bledsoe writes. “The forms took me weeks to fill out, and afterward I had to go through several interviews with Tim. (…) I had to account for virtually every moment of my life.”¹⁰ After this intrusive background check, the necessary clearance was granted and Bledsoe drove all the way to the Kennedy Space Center. In-depth tours of the facilities and even a rocket launch were on the docket. But this exciting visit to a unique center of science and technology did not come without mysterious comments from Bledsoe’s unique benefactor. When he asked Taylor why his presence was necessary for this occasion, Taylor gave a weird response. From UFO of God:

He trained his dark, focused eyes on me and his face went blank. In his efficient, deliberate manner of speaking, he said, “We see them, but they don’t seem to want anything to do with us. For some reason, they like you. They let you see them and experience them. We need to learn why.”¹¹

Stranger answers came when Bledsoe pushed for further explanation as to why Taylor took such a deep interest in him. In the historic astronaut quarters from the Apollo missions at the NASA facility, Taylor told Bledsoe: “Chris, (…) everyone who has ever been in those rooms has been to space. They brought something back with them, and it’s still there. Now, you have felt it too, and it has felt you. Everything will be different now.”¹² He was again reminded by Taylor to sing the special song in his head as he went through security on the day of the launch to prevent his mind from being read, presumably by the unnamed non-human intelligence.

Despite the priming Bledsoe received from Taylor about the phenomena possibly making an appearance during liftoff, the rocket payload (the historic first test flight of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle) took off without a hitch. Strangely, Bledsoe says this launch occurred on a Wednesday even though its recorded date was a Friday, but he might have mixed up the day in question or even the details of the launch he witnessed. Photos verifying the visit to Cape Canaveral were posted to the Bledsoe family’s social media and reprinted elsewhere. Regardless, like many incidents involving Taylor, Bledsoe’s NASA visit was key to solidifying his personal spirituality—he “could feel” himself “being guided according to the lady’s plan.”¹³ He expresses being constantly reminded of advice and knowledge Taylor graced him with during this visit as his “relationship with the phenomena” continued to grow “richer and fuller.”¹⁴

This cementing of phenomenal belief by more “official” figures following the extraordinary encounters of ordinary witnesses is a recurring feature of events covered by this publication. Even NASA—or at least people claiming to be from NASA—crop up in several specific instances. Keen Getting Spooked readers might find themselves being reminded of a NASA visit alleged by contactee Woodrow Derenberger wherein the reality of his experience was reinforced by ostensible NASA personnel throughout five days of interrogation. A similar incident popped up in the aftermath of the Antonio Villas-Boas encounter with the abductee’s family claiming that he was shown evidence of ET visitation and a crashed saucer by uniformed individuals they assumed were from NASA. With all the incredible information that Tim Taylor unveiled to Chris Bledsoe—including showing off extraterrestrial metamaterials and repeatedly validating the humble North Carolina man’s strange story—one wonders if this is the continuation of a trend that’s existed since the mid-1900s.

Chris Bledsoe during his visit to the Kennedy Space Center in 2014 pictured with Tim Taylor and others from a post on Chris’ son Ryan’s Instagram page.

In a later interview with The Danny Jones Podcast, Bledsoe would expand upon his relationship with the unconventional NASA engineer. Noting that he was “an amazing guy” and “a genius,” Bledsoe remarks that Taylor has been at NASA for over 40 years and has his own special observation room to watch rocket tests. “He runs all the launches. He’s the man.”¹⁵  He elaborated:

He’s an NRO guy, National Reconnaissance Office. (…) He was a part the Air Force, part of NASA, and the CIA. (…) He holds the credentials for all three. What they do, these guys, they are the top ranks, they have the highest security clearances. They're so high they can't even travel he can't go in the hospital and have surgery unless somebody's escorting him because he might talk.¹⁶

Tales of this nature would continue to unfold. With each meeting that Bledsoe had with Taylor, the more he was convinced that Taylor was a powerful, influential figure in the DoD. Perhaps this is true, but there are odd inconsistencies that make one scratch their head. Throughout his interactions with Bledsoe—at ghost hunts, at casual get-togethers, at a NASA rocket launch, and even at his daughter’s crowning as homecoming queen—there is the lurk of the idea that Taylor is playing a role. And this performance was not limited to Chris Bledsoe, Taylor left a palpable mark on ufology after the resurgence in the field from the (increasingly sketchy) New York Times AATIP story, an era we still very much exist in.

Not long after his visit to Cape Canaveral, Bledsoe recalls his continued friendship with D.W. Pasulka, still relaying his seemingly endless paranormal experiences to her despite “the possibilities of a book or movie deal” with the Hayes brothers now seeming unlikely.¹⁷ While Bledsoe was happy to hear more about the religious context of his encounters with the unknown, another individual had an ominous interest in Pasulka and her work: “Tim wanted to meet Diana ever since I told him about her. Diana, however, was wary of interacting with powerful government officials.”¹⁸ Bledsoe’s trip to the Kennedy Space Center, however, made Pasulka change her tune. After hearing of this experience, she felt confident enough to start initiating contact with Taylor and, as Bledsoe himself says, “their relationship would eventually change the course of Diana’s research and career.”¹⁹ But, after months of growing closer with Bledsoe and gaining his trust, was Taylor trying to insinuate himself even further into a developing tendril of UFO mythology?

Thank you for reading Getting Spooked. If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read, consider becoming a regular subscriber to get posts directly to your inbox. Become a paid subscriber to read over a dozen archived posts and support the continuation of this publication. I also started a referral program that rewards archive access to those who share the newsletter with others, so be sure to tell any friends who might find this work interesting. The leaderboard tab is now public if you want the bragging rights of your referral numbers. Thanks to The Anomalist for linking to the prior article “Holes, Caverns, and Hell Itself” soon after its publication. Email me at gettingspooked@protonmail.com with any questions, comments, recommendations, leads, or paranormal stories. You can find me on Twitter at @TannerFBoyle1, on Bluesky at @tannerfboyle.bsky.social, or on Instagram at @gettingspooked. Until next time, stay spooked.

1. Bledsoe, Chris. UFO of God: The Extraordinary True Story of Chris Bledsoe. Self-published, 2023. Page 180-181.

2. Ibid., page 213.

3. Ibid., page 224.

4. Lord, Isabel. “Looking to the Stars: D.C.’s Only UFO Investigator.” The Georgetown Voice. 2018 October 12. https://georgetownvoice.com/2018/10/12/looking-to-the-stars-d-c-s-only-ufo-investigator/.

5. Bledsoe, Chris. UFO of God: The Extraordinary True Story of Chris Bledsoe. Self-published, 2023. Page 220-222.

6. Ibid., page 224.

7. Ibid., page 225.

8. Ibid., page 226.

9. Ibid., page 229.

10. Ibid., page 261.

11. Ibid., page 264-265.

12. Ibid., page 267.

13. Ibid., page 265.

14. Ibid., page 267.

15. “NASA's Forbidden Alien Study Finds Proof of Spiritual Beings | Chris & Emily Bledsoe.” YouTube, uploaded by Danny Jones, 4 December 2023. (Timestamp 1:48:50)

16. Ibid.

17. Bledsoe, Chris. UFO of God: The Extraordinary True Story of Chris Bledsoe. Self-published, 2023. Page 271.

18. Ibid.

19. Ibid., page 272.