Close Encounters with the Far-Right in Paranormal Spaces

Jason Reza Jorjani’s Closer Encounters, speculative sources, alt-right sensibilities, & intelligence vulnerabilities

i.

If one is to search for the recent work of Jason Reza Jorjani, they may come across one of many appearances on the livestream/podcast show Break the Rules with animator Lev Polyakov. I was previously unfamiliar with this channel but was immediately caught off guard by seeing controversial YouTuber Styxhexenhammer666 in a thumbnail for a video entitled “Is School Communist Propaganda?” In this clip, he argues that communism is taught in school by virtue of it being a component of Critical Race Theory.¹ I vaguely remembered this figure coming up when he “dabbled in Holocaust revisionism” and it broke the containment of his typical far-right libertarian audience to a disdainful general one.² I thought he had faded into the backdrop after this public outing before seeing him reappear on Break The Rules. Rest assured, schools are not teaching that communism is good. If taught in schools, it is usually in a detached historical way or, conversely, communism is taught to be an evil that needs to be combated at home and abroad.³ But the point of the video, as I see it, is not to make sense. Instead, it is telling its audience what they want to hear, giving them a reason for fear and action, and promoting a specific grand worldview of traditionalist society and laisse faire capitalism through incendiary claims and dialogue. Throughout the collection of similarly provocative videos—such as one entitled “Does Andrew Tate Protect Women?”—there is a broad trend to promote traditionalism and so-called Western values. This is then bundled together with a hovering esotericism and hefty serving of chronic online vernacular. It is couched as rational, even philosophical, before hitting the viewer with ahistorical assertions that praise anything the Western world has done by virtue of it being the West.

Jorjani has taken a similar approach in his writing and the media he produces, which is apparent in his own appearances on the same channel’s streams. Within one of these interviews, Jorjani fear-mongers about “what’s going on domestically and geopolitically.” He complains that “retards who are subscribing to traditionalist regressive ideologies in the world today or to forms of leftism that are so nihilistic that they’re actually dialectically empowering the various forms of retardation” will prevent most of society from participating in the upcoming AI singularity—only a couple of decades away in his view.⁴ He warns the audience about the spread of Islam and proposes an inane theory that the religion is being propped up by China, Russia, and American pro-Palestine activists. He whines about “retards” and “SJWs” on both sides of the political spectrum, none of whom “support our continued advancement toward the technological singularity or avail themselves of the opportunity to use this technology to become Übermensch.”⁵ The movement being promoted throughout this guest spot, Prometheism, is based heavily on the philosophies of Nietzsche and Heidegger, both thinkers with fraught histories whose writings are frequently adopted by the “intellectual” far-right fringe. Unsurprisingly, the logo for this movement is suspiciously windmill-shaped—though I suppose adherents would claim it represents a more ancient notion of spirituality. Within the stream, he talks about his “American Colossus” project, wherein an enormous statue of Prometheus would be built on Alcatraz Island as a monument to the Prometheist technological vision of the future. If you’re picking up on certain fascist vibes, you would be on the right path—a very techno-optimistic version of fascism.⁶

While Jorjani has claimed at various times to be “feminist” or a “progressive,” his current trajectory and choice of community differs very little from his controversial earlier days.⁷ And those earlier days were loaded with controversy. While a humanities professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in the early 2010s, Jorjani had grander goals that were less easy to swallow. Radical right scholar Benjamin Teitelbaum recounts in his 2020 book War for Eternity: Inside Bannon’s Far-Right Circle of Global Power Brokers:

Jason had a vision, and he was willing to sacrifice for it. You could call it an Iranian nationalist vision, but that wouldn’t capture its fervor or eccentricity. He dreamed of a unified Aryan world where societies with Indo-European spiritual roots would mobilize as one to assume leadership in a new global order. This would include Buddhists in Japan; Hindus in India in the East; Europe and its satellites in North America; and Iranians—the fount of Zoroastrianism and its Shia Islamic incarnations—at the center.⁸

Jorjani shared with a reporter for The Intercept that “his father (wa)s from a branch of the Qajar dynasty, which ruled Iran before the last ruling family, Pahlavi, prior to the 1979 revolution,” perhaps explaining his constant insistence on overthrowing the current Iranian government.⁹ Curiously, Jorjani says that “his father had” only “’incidental communications’ with the shah,” but the wording of this statement and his family’s apparent prestige are enough make one second guess this assertion.¹⁰ Nevertheless, this unconventional yet rabidly nationalistic vision led him to participate in a variety of Iranian nationalist groups (such as Iranian Renaissance) which in turn bred further unsavory connections.

He eventually became editor-in-chief of Arktos Media, “a publishing imprint for some of the most canonical texts of the far right,” including works by Julius Evola, Aleksandr Dugin, and much of Jorjani’s own bibliography.¹¹ This was followed by an “effort to mainstream the alt-right” by combining Arktos Media’s forces with neo-Nazi Richard Spencer’s National Policy Institute—"joining forces to brand themselves as the intellectual leaders of the alt-right.”¹² Spencer, Jorjani, and another Arktos editor named Daniel Friberg cofounded the short-lived AltRight Corporation in 2017 to try and draw in a wide array of hard-right individuals to influence the policies of the recently elected Donald Trump. If this were not enough to sully Jorjani’s reputation, Richard Spencer’s involvement in the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally spawned (rightly deserved) substantial negative media attention for the AltRight Corporation. Jorjani himself received his just desserts in a New York Times piece reporting the findings of an activist who had gone undercover in the American far-right and secretly recorded him: “The baby-faced Mr. Jorjani imagined a near future in which, thanks to liberal complacency over the migration crisis, Europe re-embraces fascism.”¹³ While he would disparage being caught red-handed as a smear attempt, the damage was nevertheless done. Another profile of Jorjani from The Intercept depicted him in an even less flattering light:

He insisted he wasn’t racist and pointed to what he said was his admiration for European Jews’ place in the “Indo-European tradition,” as well as his tolerance for black Iranians who were brought from Africa as slaves during the Persian Empire. As proof that he is not a “neo-Nazi genocidal maniac,” he handed me his second book, with chapter titles like “The Third World War,” “The Neo-Eugenic World State,” and “Aryan Imperium (Iran-Shahr).” He insisted that his vision of an Indo-European world was vastly divorced from Spencer’s atomizing white nationalism. “I am a globalist!” he exclaimed — merely one whose vision of the world is cleansed of Islam.¹⁴

Beyond this unconvincing defense of his political views, reporter Carol Schaeffer noted concerning pieces of artwork in a Facebook album he presented to her: “Paintings by Franz von Stuck, Hitler’s beloved painter; and several suggestive photographs of prepubescent girls taken by Jock Sturges, whose equipment and negatives were confiscated by the FBI.”¹⁵ Assumedly trying to find some escape route, Jorjani would write a post about leaving the alt-right, expressing disappointment in his inability to “extricate(…) the Alt-Right from the ghetto of ‘White Nationalism’” and steer it towards his Iranian nationalist, Indo-European supremacist vision.¹⁶ He takes less umbrage with the explicit policy positions of the alt-right than one would expect in an apology, being more upset about philosophical guiding principles and financial matters. Jorjani was soon placed on administrative leave from his job at NJIT and made a pariah in academia.¹⁷ But one specific facet of his alleged character assassination struck a tender chord with Jorjani: “The community of rebel scientists who had embraced me just months earlier (…) turned on me with a vengeance.”¹⁸

Indeed, only one year prior to the founding of the AltRight Corporation, Jorjani was a newfound darling of the metaphysical/paranormal community, his first book Prometheus and Atlas (2016) won an award from the Parapsychological Association—an organization founded upon the research and legacy of J.B. Rhine.¹⁹ The book received high praise from Thinking Allowed host and parapsychology advocate Jeffrey Mishlove, who called it “the most brilliant treatise relating to parapsychological material that” he had “ever encountered” and “a very serious exploration of (…) psychology and mythology.”²⁰ The book is even dedicated Mishlove, illustrating how close the pair’s relationship was at time of publication. Jorjani appeared on dozens of episodes of Mishlove’s public access TV turned YouTube livestream show, though many have been unlisted on YouTube itself. The book also received printed praise from distinguished religious scholar Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of some of the most well-regarded academic works in the paranormal field, such as Mutants & Mystics, Authors of the Impossible, and Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion. He wrote that Jorjani’s treatise is “what profound philosophical writing used to be but has long refused to be: visionary in its method and content, sweeping in its scope, literally mythical, and above all, positive.”²¹ There were even more accolades: “Jorjani’s book is not casual reading, but it’s not a swamp of philosophical jargon and word games either,” parapsychologist and OBE researcher Charles Tart gushed. “If you’re interested in the roots of both Eastern and Western cultures, and the conceptual systems driving so much of modern culture, including spiritual culture, it’s an excellent book.”²² In addition to this high praise from titans in the field, Jorjani has spoken in a more recent interview about meetings with Hal Putoff, Russell Targ, and Jacques Vallee during the same timeframe. He also states that he was an active participant in the Society for Scientific Exploration milieu—an organization he’s still a dues-paying member of.²³ However, retrospective reviews of Prometheus and Atlas were much harsher, seeing clear parallels between the text and Jorjani’s personal life, including the questionable attempts to wrangle neo-Nazis to serve his ultimate goals. Michael Barker at CounterPunch wrote that Jorjani’s debut publication is:

A book which was first and foremost an assault on science and the Enlightenment, drawing upon familiar anti-Semite tropes, rehearsing the Atlantean days of old, and topped off by the UFOlogy of writers like Jacques Vallee. Yet contrary to his other Aryan-obsessed buddies, Jorjani placed Iran at the world center of his future Aryan utopia, which predictably led to his parting of ways with the Alt-right (sic) Corporation.²⁴

Many of the relationships with the highbrow paranormal crowd seem to have been disrupted by the thorough media coverage on Jorjani’s more fringe right-wing ventures, although relatively few have spoken against their past association with him to my knowledge.²⁵ Jeffrey Mishlove instead gave Jorjani a whole episode of New Thinking Allowed to defend himself in the wake of the neo-Nazi allegations, going so far as to call it “libel.” However, the video is currently unlisted.²⁶ Mishlove perhaps thought better of attempting to rehabilitate Jorjani’s reputation, later acknowledging in a 2020 solo video that although he “resisted taking a hard look at the sorts of things that Jason posts elsewhere,” there were some fundamental differences in their worldviews.²⁷ While this realization was several years after Jorjani’s abhorrent views were given public attention, Mishlove adds:

I think Jason has been very careful (…) not to offend my sensibilities. Amongst other things, Jason knows I'm a pacifist. I'm a conscientious objector. I think war is evil. (…) As I look more carefully at Jason's writings, writings that we have not discussed, (…) and I look at his posts elsewhere, his interviews elsewhere, I am now left with the impression that my dear friend is a warmonger. (…) Jason believes we've already entered the Third World War and that our only hope of victory at this point is to finish it off quickly. Like in the next 30 years, to use the nuclear armaments of the United States and Russia and other western nations to pretty much completely annihilate the Chinese and the Islamic world and to establish Indo-European hegemony over the entire planet. (…) I think he's a wonderful human being, but I couldn't disagree more strongly with his politics.²⁸

Jorjani is careful with his words, seemingly hyperconscious of his audience as he traverses different arenas of fringe culture. Comparing his appearances with Mishlove with those on Break The Rules is particularly telling—one being very calm and philosophical, and the other being literate in internet microcultures and abrasive—but his overarching message and ideals have stayed relatively consistent (and hideous) throughout the past decade. His ability to blend in to different environments with this set of beliefs is a move straight from the cryptofascist playbook that he has consistently used to his advantage, specifically in the paranormal sphere. Regardless, Jorjani’s exposure after his parapsychology wunderkind fall from grace was limited to fringe right wing circles like Arktos Media and a smattering of smaller online platforms—but he never stopped publishing and never truly left the paranormal field.

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ii.

Jorjani’s 2021 book, Closer Encounters, suffers from many of the same problems as Prometheus and Atlas, interested more in its grandiose thesis about human development in the wake of a paranormal reality than vetting the dubious sources used to promote the thesis. The core of the book is Jorjani’s argument against “mutually exclusive” explanations for UFOs and other phenomena related to the subject. These arguments, laid out in the introduction to the book, consist of six alternatives to the extraterrestrial hypothesis of UFOs. These are: 1) UFOs are technology from a breakaway civilization, 2) UFOs are inter-dimensional craft, 3) UFOs are time machines piloted by humans from the future, 4) UFOs come from a subterranean ancient human civilization, 5) UFOs are psychic projections of the collective unconscious, and 6) UFOs are avatars of the programmers of our computer-simulated environment.²⁹ Jorjani’s contention is that alternative three is correct, that UFOs are time-traveling humans from the future, but he also believes that the other alternatives are applicable to this particular race of future humans. They can time travel, slip across dimensions, utilize psi abilities, and interact with our planet through a matrix control system. Additionally, they are both an ancient civilization and a breakaway civilization, capable of traveling off planet. It is likely no mistake that Jorjani puts his main UFO belief third in a list of six alternatives as opposed to first, the more obvious choice. Perhaps this decision is a reference to Alternative 3, a mockumentary and its tie-in novel released in 1977 and 1978 respectively, that was thoroughly unpacked and debunked by Weird Reads with Emily Louise. This film spawned numerous conspiracy theories related to secret space programs and ufonaut interaction with humans on earth, some of which—as we will see—Jorjani believes wholeheartedly.

While the basic thrust of the book, that many proposed theories about UFOs are all correct to varying degrees, would be fun if done by a speculative fiction author or a pulpy paranormal writer, in Jorjani’s hands the concept is turned into an unfortunate philosophical mess. His writing style is lofty and bold, but anyone who dares to glance at his citations will realize that—in addition to right-wing philosophers—he is mostly referencing sources that would make anyone familiar with paranormal literature sweat. Among the most egregious missteps is the fact that Jorjani believes in the reality of the mythical Vril Society and the idea that they were a key facet of the Nordic breakaway civilization and the Nazi factions that made an escape to Antarctica with technology of baffling capabilities. Emily Louise, in her research for the Alternative 3 mockumentary, tracked the complex lineage of the Vril myth: The tale began in fiction, was molded into false paranormal non-fiction, and was subsequently solidified as neo-Nazi propaganda that has remained a cancer in the broad cosmology of UFO culture.³⁰ That Jorjani would continue to imply the reality of Nazi myth is unsurprising. While he sets himself up as an adversary of this false Aryan race/Nordic breakaway civilization, he assigns powers to them that make the Nazis seem like supreme wizards of technology and spirituality. Further, he wants a small subset of humans to make similar transhumanistic, “Promethean” strides—to become the true Aryans to defeat the Aryans, in a sense. Far-right sensibilities aside, it is a vision of society and culture that is completely disconnected from any historical basis.

Whether or not one is to believe in the reality of psi or other seemingly magical paranormal feats or occurrences, Jorjani’s sources would be considered unreliable by most. For instance, he cites journalist and UFO researcher Linda Moulton Howe on several areas of high strangeness, primarily cattle mutilations and whistleblower testimony:

Linda Moulton Howe (…) has spoken to several (…) sources. One was an airman who routinely flew scientific research personnel and cargo from McMurdo Station to other locations over the Trans-Antarctic Mountains. He claimed that silvery flying discs would often be sighted performing acrobatic maneuvers, and that they seemed to always remain within certain territorial boundaries, never crossing an invisible line that would have brought them close to the Antarctic research bases of the United States and other nations.

Howe also spoke to a Navy Seal Commander who in 2003 entered a black octagonal structure protruding 18 feet from out of the ice and snow, not far from McMurdo, near the Beardmore Glacier. The structure was made of a very finely polished, black basalt stone. There was an outline of a door on its surface, 23 feet high and 18 feet wide, that would rapidly slide open in response to the pressure of even a single finger. Inscribed with laser precision on this door was what appeared to be a star map together with a very precisely incised 12-spoked Black Sun (Schwarze Sonne). This was the most sacred symbol of the SS, which had been inscribed into the floor of the meeting chamber of Heinrich Himmler’s round table knights at Wewelsburg Castle.³¹

The inclusion of these fantastic stories adds a readability factor to Closer Encounters, and the book benefits from the fun, campfire-type tales that are strewn throughout. What Jorjani does not mention, however, is that Linda Moulton Howe believes nearly everything placed in front of her with very few exceptions. She platforms Nazis (so long as they’re starseeds) and continues to peddle the same fake neo-Nazi propaganda that is so key to Jorjani’s conception of the UFO solution. She was also an active target of a disinformation campaign run by the Air Force Office of Special Investigation and still finds credence in much of what was told to her, even while fully aware that it was a psychological operation.³² One would think that this fact would disqualify her from being a reliable source, especially in a book that is attempting to be philosophical and scholarly, but her testimony is perfect for the argument that Jorjani wants to formulate.

The questionable references become even more extreme. He cites remote viewing sessions from figures like Ingo Swann and Joe McMoneagle as another person would cite a reputable history book.³³ The same happens with psychics like Edgar Cayce³⁴ or heavily criticized researchers Graham Hancock.³⁵ Jorjani even utilizes pulpy paranormal non-fiction authors like John Keel³⁶ and Brad Steiger³⁷—as if both weren’t primarily crafting wild stories that would sell. Relying on the work of a variety of fringe literature that no academic would take seriously, including William Bramley, Richard Hoagland, and Joseph P. Farrell among many others, Jorjani comes to a variety of outlandish suppositions that back up his grand thesis. These assumptions include: The moon is a hollowed-out space station, many of the world’s major religions were psychological operations by a Nordic breakaway civilization, a bulk of fringe archeology is fact and evidence of time travel, the contactees were telling the truth and talking to future humans, Mars used to be inhabited by humans, Atlantis is real, and octopi came here from a future earth. Are you still with me?

I am only a former academic—as is Jorjani, but I left of my own volition and was not placed on leave for having neo-Nazi friends and political opinions that concerned the administration. Nevertheless, I have retained the ability to recognize scholarly writing. While Jorjani does have a scholarly writing style, it is covering up a horde of non-credible sources. He takes a philosophical approach as a means to defend himself against questions regarding the reality of the topics he uses to form his thesis—topics which are mostly considered unproven, unprovable, pseudoscientific, or crank by the academic and scientific communities. At the same time, this approach sets him up as a trailblazer in paranormal thought, taking on an establishment unwilling to change with the times, a position he no doubt longs for. As an additional benefit, the broad array of phenomena and paranormal theories covered in the book make it near impossible to discredit piece by piece. Whole books have been written questioning each tidbit of Fortean phenomena and fringe science that Jorjani accepts without hesitation, adding to his haphazard pile of evidence for a godlike Nordic breakaway civilization.

By the end of the book, Jorjani gestures toward advocating for some stripe of Prometheus or general trickster reverence, signaling that he might be attempting to employ the hijinks of the trickster archetype in his own actions and writing. His conclusion is sweeping, grand, and reads like an esoteric manifesto:

Man had cities on Mars 250 million years ago. It is not a question of progressive enlightenment but of fundamental ideological conflict — a Cosmic War — between different visions of the meaning and purpose of life. If the Nordic “Master Race” wants to employ various machinations in order to reduce the population of this planet by 80% so that the sheep that are left can be more easily controlled, we are willing to reduce the population by 99% if it is the only way that the 1% of free-thinking goats who are left can become the nucleus of a new Promethean world society.

Humanity never appreciated the sacrifice of Prometheus, and Prometheus is not a ninny who will remain chained to that rock forever, waiting for most people to recognize his intercession on their behalf. We recognize that sacrifice, but we are not humanity — not anymore. If there are aliens involved in Close Encounters, it is because the meta-narrative function of the phenomenon produces aliens. We are the aliens. We are the Wings of an Other World — the World of Tomorrow.³⁸

Readers can see the similarities between this conclusion and Jorjani’s own Prometheism movement, but key in this excerpt are the depths Jorjani thinks a small subset of “Übermensch” humans should be willing to go in order to supplant the false Nordic Übermensch. Like Prometheus before him, Jorjani wants to start a new transhumanistic civilization via trickster-like means. A key mistake made is that the reader has to accept a bevy of ludicrous groundwork beforehand: Time travel, breakaway civilizations, remote viewing, civilization on Mars, an artificial moon, and a primordial trickster entity among other things. It is a bit like a classic scam, a process set up to draw in only the people willing to take much on faith and filter out those who ask too many questions. I suppose it is a trickster-ish message in this way.

However, he has illustrated in previous misadventures that he is not capable of recognizing the threat of a real and consequential trickster when one is staring him in the face: The intelligence community. During his effort to reorient the goals of the alt-right media sphere, Jorjani “attempted a daring campaign that would bring him into partnership with parapsychological terrorists and international money launderers.”³⁹ This collaboration began with a strange email about his book from a mysterious source. Teitelbaum writes of Jorjani’s connection:

He eventually showed himself to be a person of considerable resources. “Who is this guy?” I asked. Jason replied only that he is a man from London, a regular reader of Arktos’s books, and that he has moved in Traditionalist circles surrounding the late Martin Lings. (…) Jason eventually learned that this man—let’s call him the Londoner—was involved in Satanism, occultism, and Nazism and was known throughout European radical right circles as productive, charismatic, and shockingly well connected. His network had somehow expanded to include wealthy Iranians and possibly members of the British government. My first thought upon hearing all this was that this figure sounded like a law enforcement plant. Governments in Britain and Germany are particularly aggressive about sending undercover spies into far-right circles, sometimes with tragic results.⁴⁰

Teitelbaum’s suspicion that “the Londoner” might be law enforcement or some kind of asset is the correct speculation for such a scenario. The initial email saw the Londoner claiming he was a member of the “British branch of the Vril Society” (an organization based on a myth if it exists at all) in an attempt to attract the attention of the Aryan supremacist, but other lures would ensure Jorjani’s involvement in his plans.⁴¹ This approach is definitely reminiscent of other attempts to gain an intel source or asset, but Jorjani would soldier on. On the advice of this Londoner—now referred to as “Jonathan”—Jorjani took advantage of a rift at Arktos and became the editor-in-chief. He also gained further contacts in the private intelligence world, this time with former Blackwater employees.⁴² The group was called Jellyfish, “an all-purpose ‘private-sector intelligence’ firm” with apparently ample resources that strove for “corporate-information dominance” while “leaving all the spy-world baggage behind.”⁴³ Jorjani’s contact with this group was a man named Michael Bagley, a figure who Teitelbaum writes was “once a legislative aide for Democratic senator Patty Murray,” but “was tapped to be CEO after having in 2009 founded a nearly identical firm (…) staffed by individuals with a background in covert, legally dubious intelligence work.”⁴⁴ Jorjani was strung along by Bagley and Jellyfish for years, promises of money, connections to the Trump administration, and geopolitical change never coming to total fruition.

They encouraged him to become the co-leader of the official AltRight Corporation to attract Steve Bannon’s full attention. As Jorjani nuked his reputation to follow his misguided ideals, Bagley told him more of what he wanted to hear, such as his “pursui(t of) a project to create a series of ‘micro-cities’ in North Africa.” According to Teitelbaum: “These ‘micro-cities’ were designed to contain migrants headed north. They supposedly weren’t refugee camps but ‘resettlement towns,’ which in North Africa would be outfitted with job opportunities in the oil industry.”⁴⁵ The Londoner also informed Jorjani of attempts to overthrow the government of Venezuela and privatize its oil industry. There were signs of turbulence shortly after, but Venezuela did not experience a successful coup. As the alt-right fell apart over the course of 2017, Jorjani was left with broken promises, and he would later accuse these intelligence personnel of being directly responsible for his negative coverage in the press.⁴⁶ It is a situation that has all the hallmarks of Jorjani being used as an asset in a right-wing intelligence operation. Indeed, Jorjani would later report that one of his associates in Mossad confessed that the Londoner was an MI6 operative.⁴⁷ Readers of Getting Spooked have seen suspected similar events occur in the world of UFOs, the grooming of a possible asset through UFO-related intel ops—certainly Jorjani would not fall for one of those too.

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iii.

While drafting this article, Jorjani appeared on The Danny Jones Podcast, a platform with nearly one million viewers/listeners, perhaps indicating some kind of rehabilitation attempt. Readers will note that numerous Bledsoe family members made appearances on the same show, along with more academic people in this sphere of research like D.W. Pasulka and Jeffrey Kripal, and all manner of other personalities in the various paranormal fields. Curiously, as noted in a comment by Thoughts Thought While Walks Walked on a previous article, Jorjani accused Pasulka’s American Cosmic of appropriating his research after it was divulged to mutual acquaintances Vallee and Kripal. Perhaps Danny Jones was unaware of the niche beef between guests. Regardless, I call this appearance a rehabilitation attempt because it tries to label his downfall post-AltRight Corporation as a “smear campaign” with the host going along with this interpretation of events exactly. Yet when Jorjani alleges that the video given to The New York Times was taken out of context, the additional context he provides does not stray from right wing nationalist thought:

The two hours of audio is spliced down to two minutes with sentences and half sentences of mine stitched together to make it sound like I said things that I didn't. (…) I'll give you an example: At one point I talk about how I think that if the current migration policies continue remember this was 2017 so starting in 2014, 2015 we had seen Angela Merkel in Germany allowing these millions of migrants to come in through Turkey from Syria (…) and so forth. Europe was being overrun by migrants both from the Middle East and from North Africa (…) and they were raping women all across Germany, there were horrendous social problems that were ensuing as a result of this (…) and so I said: (…) Look, if these policies continue like this we're going to see a horrendous backlash a right wing reaction and by 2050 you're going to have Alexander, Napoleon, and Hitler on European currency which is a rather (…) melodramatic (…) statement, right? But it's making a point that if this kind of policy continues for another 20-30 years right there's going to be a very extreme right-wing reaction.⁴⁸

To add this context—that he was speaking of an extreme reaction by the right while being an active participant in right wing circles—is splitting hairs on a bald man. Jorjani’s cohort has always been on the right, so when he speaks of an “extreme right-wing reaction,” he’s speaking of—if not himself—figures he has interacted with and even plotted with throughout his career. Bear in mind, the covert footage was taken while he thought he was speaking to someone on the far-right, only later revealed to be an undercover operative with the “anti-racist watchdog group Hope Not Hate.”⁴⁹ Additionally, he continues to express concerns about uncontrolled migration, a favorite tactic of white nationalists like Steve Bannon, who Jorjani attempted to court heavily, even requesting he be given a copy of Prometheus and Atlas.⁵⁰ His attempt to explain away his “smearing” by the press is basically arguing that he was alt-right in a subtly different way than the media portrayed.

Despite this poor attempt at casting aside his past egregious actions, the rest of Jorjani’s conversation with Danny Jones covers much of the same territory trod in Closer Encounters. While he is an excellent public speaker, still retaining a professorial demeanor, the issues that arise within the message of Closer Encounters go unquestioned and are dutifully exposed by Jones to a broader audience. Even more concerning, he expresses in this interview that he still has connections with intelligence figures despite blaming all his problems on prior engagement with both private and military intelligence during his attempts to bring the alt-right mainstream. He probably believes he is at a level where he is smart enough to tell when he is being lied to by these people. I can guarantee that he is not.

Jorjani admits to interacting with someone in “high-level military intelligence” who told him that incredible technology is hidden in a nondescript warehouse in California, technology possessed by Lockheed that could get someone to Mars “in a couple of hours.”⁵¹ “You go into this warehouse and the whole floor of the warehouse is an elevator and it drops lord knows how many hundreds of feet and you're inside of a (…) facility carved out of rock deep underground,” Jorjani reports. “What this guy said is that they are not only reverse engineering craft from retrieved debris in this facility but they're actually training pilots to fly them.”⁵² This story is a tale as old as time—the world saw it recently with the military intelligence whistleblower David Grusch, a narrative that has nearly faded out of the zeitgeist entirely. There is an endless parade of shocking allegations about reverse engineering programs that have no tangible evidence. However, a very specific type of person is told this information—usually by someone in military intelligence—and the recipient of these earth-shattering revelations will indubitably spread it along to others. For someone who was an intelligence stooge during the AltRight Corporation debacle, Jorjani is surprisingly willing to latch on to information about UFOs from the same kind of shadowy figure. I cannot help but to emphasize that this is not a wise choice. Even more baffling, Jorjani is asked about the Chris Bledsoe case and declares:

He's found some way to try to integrate what he experienced with the belief system that he was raised in and the more disturbing thing is that (…) there's a group of people who've surrounded him who are trying to manipulate that for their own purposes. (…) They would like to develop a narrative that's going to somehow shore up Christianity in the face of any potential disclosure. A UFO of God packaging for Chris Bledsoe’s experience is very useful in that regard.⁵³

Military intelligence sources for me but not for thee it seems. While Jorjani is on the right path when analyzing the oddness surrounding Chris Bledsoe’s encounter, he is simply unable to assess the motivations of intel networks within the UFO community outside of a “the UFO reality is being hidden from the masses” framework. This remains the case even though Jorjani’s conception of “the UFO reality” is markedly different from the norm. Indeed, this limited view makes him much more susceptible to being a target, his fringe right wing politics rendering the threat twofold. He has had prior engagement with supposed Mossad and MI6 agents along with domestic intelligence organizations. All the while, Jorjani is aware of the Bennewitz affair and various other UFO disinformation campaigns, but the implications do not stick. Despite his academic posturing, he is stuck in a dogmatic prison of total paranormal belief.

After inevitably finding problems with key facets of ufology and the wider paranormal community, I always feel the need to reiterate that I do not dislike this field. However, there should be no tolerance for individuals like Jorjani muddying the waters of an already dark, murky subject area. His recent appearances have already resulted in (I’m assuming) UFO enthusiasts who don’t know any better repeating his claims—claims that are grounded in a twisted, esoteric, far-right, and Iranian nationalist belief system, most of these qualities that exist in the text of Closer Encounters as well. Regardless of his waffling throughout the past decade, his basic philosophies are repugnant and unpopular, and he knows this. His set of beliefs is made clear throughout the entirety of his online presence, but it is never stated too outright because that would be bad for business. He wants to sell himself as an intellectual—one of the few philosophers following in the Platonic tradition. It is for this reason that the paranormal field is so useful to him: Bold claims get the most clicks and attention. When Jorjani says that ufonauts caused the Black Death or that Christianity was a psychological operation by a Nordic breakaway civilization pretending to be gods, it gets the notice of anyone with a casual interest in the fringe. However, and I know Jorjani is a big fan of the Greeks, these fascinating assertions are a Trojan Horse full of tiny alt-right intellectuals just itching to convert someone to their repressive views on society.

I have been asked by many to talk about Jorjani and I have always been wary of doing so. Not only is there little value to be found, there’s also some inherent spookiness (non-paranormal) to speaking about networks of far-right individuals and their writings. A fellow researcher was approached by a dubious individual who was insistent that they interview Jorjani and proceeded to cease contact when it was made clear that they would not conduct such an interview. This same researcher views Jorjani as a modern-day Francis Parker Yockey, and I must agree. In the foreword to Kevin Coogan’s Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke writes that Yockey inhabited:

The obscure corners of the far-right support system, their shifting alliances and mysterious undercover operatives, show(ing) not only how the network functions but how it interacts with intelligence services, state interests, and diplomatic “gray areas” in order to foster its ideological growth and identity.⁵⁴

Jorjani inhabits a similar niche in the present, also sharing an ideologically driven interest in the occult with Yockey. Flashing back to his disastrous profile with The Intercept, the author notes that Jorjani presented one of his books to her and she saw a chapter with “Aryan Imperium” as a title.⁵⁵ Other sources have called Jorjani “the self-appointed spokesperson for ‘Aryan Imperium.’”⁵⁶ The adoption of this phrasing, of course, recalls Francis Parker Yockey’s antisemitic, Holocaust-denying, alternative history book, Imperium: The Philosophy of History and Politics. Jorjani might relish such a comparison. Regardless, this whole subset of an already niche field is rife with wars of political worldviews, intelligence vulnerabilities, and ongoing intel ops. I am writing this piece to offer my final word on the subject matter: Do not give this man attention. Even if his paranormal claims are (on their face) enticing, the baggage of far-right political ideology that comes with it is enough to sink anyone deep into the mire of dangerous esoteric philosophies that are—at their core—anti-human. Even in paranormal and ufological communities, where mysterious beings, cryptids, and aliens abound, humanity should always take precedence. Reject anything that does not understand the value of all of humanity, warts and all, philosophical blathering notwithstanding. Besides, in this field, we have enough far-right nonsense to deal with already.

For further information on Jorjani and his clique, some of the best articles and books cited in this piece were:

• Benjamin R. Teitelbaum - War for Eternity: Inside Bannon’s Far-Right Circle of Global Powerbrokers

• Harrison Fluss & Landon Frim - “Aliens, Antisemitism, and Academia”

• Carol Schaeffer - “Alt Fight: Jason Jorjani Fancied Himself an Intellectual Leader of a White Supremacist Movement — Then It Came Crashing Down”

• Michael Barker - “Unidentified Flying Nazis”

Thank you for reading Getting Spooked. If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read, consider becoming a regular subscriber to get posts sent to your inbox. Become a paid subscriber to read dozens of archived posts, listen to members-only podcast episodes, or ask questions to be answered in Q&As. It is the best way to directly 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 featuring the newest installment of the Chris Bledsoe series and the “TGSP Q&A 1” episode of the podcast on their homepage. 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. “Is School Communist Propaganda? Ft. Styxhexenhammer666.” YouTube, uploaded by Break The Rules, 13 July 2023. (Link.)

2. Daro, Ishmael N. and Jane Lytvynenko. “Right-Wing YouTubers Think It’s Only A Matter Of Time Before They Get Kicked Off The Site.” BuzzFeed News. 18 April 2018. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ishmaeldaro/right-wing-youtube-alternative-platforms. (Source video here.)

3. Dailey, Ryan. “DeSantis signs a bill that requires the teaching of communism in schools.” 17 April 2024. https://www.wusf.org/education/2024-04-17/desantis-signs-anti-communism-education-history-bill-schools.

4. “Jason Jorjani | Philosophy of the Future.” YouTube, uploaded by Break The Rules, 23 May 2024. (Link.)

5. Ibid.

6. Jorjani has also appeared on programming from Red Ice TV, “a notorious hub for white supremacist content,” as recently as 2020. This specific alt-right outlet came up recently for me because they hosted Stephen E. Flowers, yet another individual in the occult/paranormal sphere with far-right tendencies. Curiously, Mitch Horowitz, the person citing Flowers that made the issue come up, also recommended Jorjani’s Prometheus and Atlas long after Jorjani’s far-right views had become well known. (Ramirez, Nikki McCann. “White nationalist Red Ice TV is promoting a backup channel to skirt its YouTube ban.” Media Matters. 18 October 2019. https://www.mediamatters.org/white-nationalism/how-white-nationalist-red-ice-tv-working-around-its-youtube-ban.)

7. “Who is Jason Reza Jorjani? Rebuttal to a Libel.” YouTube, uploaded by Jeffrey Mishlove, 24 October 2017. (Link.)

8. Teitelbaum, Benjamin R. War for Eternity: Inside Bannon's Far-Right Circle of Global Power Brokers. New York: Dey Street Books, 2020. eBook. Page 159.

9. Schaeffer, Carol. “Alt Fight: Jason Jorjani Fancied Himself an Intellectual Leader of a White Supremacist Movement — Then It Came Crashing Down.” The Intercept, 18 March 2018. https://theintercept.com/2018/03/18/alt-right-jason-jorjani/.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid.

12. Gray, Rosie. “A ‘One-Stop Shop’ for the Alt-Right: The white nationalist leader Richard Spencer is setting up a headquarters in the Washington area.” The Atlantic. 12 January 2017. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/a-one-stop-shop-for-the-alt-right/512921/.

13. Singal, Jesse. “Undercover With the Alt-Right.” The New York Times. 19 September 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/19/opinion/alt-right-white-supremacy-undercover.html.

14. Schaeffer, Carol. “Alt Fight: Jason Jorjani Fancied Himself an Intellectual Leader of a White Supremacist Movement — Then It Came Crashing Down.” The Intercept, 18 March 2018. https://theintercept.com/2018/03/18/alt-right-jason-jorjani/.

15. Ibid.

16. Jorjani, Jason Reza. “Why I Left the Alt-Right.” Jason Reza Jorjani. 20 September 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171107113543/https://jasonrezajorjani.com/blog/2017/9/20/why-i-left-the-alt-right.

17. Mazzola, Jessica. “I'm a leftist, not a Nazi, says N.J. professor at center of Hitler video controversy.” NJ.com. 27 September 2017. https://www.nj.com/essex/2017/09/who_is_new_jerseys_alt-right_professor.html.

18. Jorjani, Jason Reza. “Why I Left the Alt-Right.” Jason Reza Jorjani. 20 September 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171107113543/https://jasonrezajorjani.com/blog/2017/9/20/why-i-left-the-alt-right.

19. Parapsychological Association. “2016 PA Book Award Winner: Prometheus and Atlas.”  18 July 2016. https://www.parapsych.org/articles/51/404/2016_pa_book_award_winner.aspx.

20. Jorjani, Jason Reza. Prometheus and Atlas. London: Arktos, 2016. eBook. Page 7.

21. Mishlove, Jeffrey. “Book Review: Prometheus and Atlas by Jason Reza Jorjani.” Journal of Scientific Exploration 31, no. 2. 2017. Page 338. https://www.scientificexploration.org/docs/31/jse_31_2_Mishlove.pdf.

22. Tart, Charles T. “Prometheus and Atlas – Great Book Number 1.” Charles T. Tart. 26 August 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161208114609/http://blog.paradigm-sys.com/prometheus-and-atlas-great-book-number-1/.

23. “God, Aliens & the Secret Behind All World Religions | Jason Jorjani.” YouTube, uploaded by Danny Jones, 8 July 2024. (Link.)

24. Barker, Michael. “Unidentified Flying Nazis.” CounterPunch. 1 February 2022. https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/02/01/unidentified-flying-nazis/.

25. Society for Psychical Research (SPR) member Robert McLuhan did write a piece regarding the danger of Jorjani’s mashup of psi and esoteric right ideology in 2017. (McLuhan, Robert. “Psi and the Far-Right.” Paranormalia. 24 October 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171006060426/http://monkeywah.typepad.com/paranormalia/2016/10/psi-and-the-far-right.html.)

26. “Who is Jason Reza Jorjani? Rebuttal to a Libel.” YouTube, uploaded by Jeffrey Mishlove, 24 October 2017. (Link.)

27. “InPresence 0194: Further Reflections on My Friend Jason Reza Jorjani.” YouTube, uploaded by New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove, 1 October 2020. (Link.)

28. Ibid.

29. Jorjani, Jason Reza. Closer Encounters. London: Arktos, 2021. Page xii-xiii.

30. “Alternative 3 : How a Hoax Documentary Created a Conspiracy Cult.” YouTube, uploaded by Weird Reads with Emily Louise, 30 March 2023. (Link.)

31. Jorjani, Jason Reza. Closer Encounters. London: Arktos, 2021. Page 200.

32. Pilkington, Mark. Mirage Men: A Journey in Disinformation, Paranoia and UFOs. London: Constable, 2010. Page 205-206.

33. Jorjani, Jason Reza. Closer Encounters. London: Arktos, 2021. Page 207-213.

34. Ibid., page 181.

35. Ibid., page 191.

36. Ibid., page 349-350.

37. Ibid., page 193.

38. Ibid., page 454-455.

39. Teitelbaum, Benjamin R. War for Eternity: Inside Bannon's Far-Right Circle of Global Power Brokers. New York: Dey Street Books, 2020. eBook. Page 160.

40. Ibid., page 161.

41. “God, Aliens & the Secret Behind All World Religions | Jason Jorjani.” YouTube, uploaded by Danny Jones, 8 July 2024. (Link.)

42. Teitelbaum, Benjamin R. War for Eternity: Inside Bannon's Far-Right Circle of Global Power Brokers. New York: Dey Street Books, 2020. eBook. Page 161.

43. Ackerman, Spencer. “Sons of Blackwater Open Corporate Spying Shop.” Wired. 12 May 2011. https://www.wired.com/2011/05/blackwater-datamining-vets-want-to-save-big-business/.

44. Teitelbaum, Benjamin R. War for Eternity: Inside Bannon's Far-Right Circle of Global Power Brokers. New York: Dey Street Books, 2020. eBook. Page 162-163.

45. Ibid., page 171.

46. “God, Aliens & the Secret Behind All World Religions | Jason Jorjani.” YouTube, uploaded by Danny Jones, 8 July 2024. (Link.)

47. Teitelbaum, Benjamin R. War for Eternity: Inside Bannon's Far-Right Circle of Global Power Brokers. New York: Dey Street Books, 2020. eBook. Page 161.

48. “God, Aliens & the Secret Behind All World Religions | Jason Jorjani.” YouTube, uploaded by Danny Jones, 8 July 2024. (Link.)

49. Singal, Jesse. “Undercover With the Alt-Right.” The New York Times. 19 September 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/19/opinion/alt-right-white-supremacy-undercover.html.

50. Teitelbaum, Benjamin R. War for Eternity: Inside Bannon's Far-Right Circle of Global Power Brokers. New York: Dey Street Books, 2020. eBook. Page 21-22.

51. “God, Aliens & the Secret Behind All World Religions | Jason Jorjani.” YouTube, uploaded by Danny Jones, 8 July 2024. (Link.)

52. Ibid.

53. Ibid.

54. Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. Foreword. Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International, by Kevin Coogan. Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 1999. Page 11-12.

55. Schaeffer, Carol. “Alt Fight: Jason Jorjani Fancied Himself an Intellectual Leader of a White Supremacist Movement — Then It Came Crashing Down.” The Intercept, 18 March 2018. https://theintercept.com/2018/03/18/alt-right-jason-jorjani/.

56. Fluss, Harrison and Landon Firm. “Aliens, Antisemitism, and Academia.” Jacobin. 11 March 2017. https://jacobin.com/2017/03/jason-reza-jorjani-stony-brook-alt-right-arktos-continental-philosophy-modernity-enlightenment/.