Manifest(uf)o III
The Interminable Utility of the UFO to the Western Defense Blob, or: Seven Examples of How the MID Benefits from Playing the Same Old UFO Tune
You can find other “diatribes” in the Table of Discontents.
Preamble
Very little changes in ufology, sometimes making it a comfortable topic. At other times, it’s less pleasant. Like an old friend, it stays largely the same throughout your entire life, repeating the same stories and becoming uncomfortably fixated on specific topics or ventures that have run their course. “We’ll get them next time,” you say when “disclosure” gets delayed yet again, as if your old friend is having deathbed hallucinations. They murmur the same thing like a verbal tick. You’ve read the literature, you know it’s a bad sign. You try to hide your concern, but you’re worried about them. You grew up together, and they were foundational to your development as a human being. But something’s changed. The tenor of the conversations has shifted, even nearly imperceptible elements in the aura around them have become somehow perverse or overwrought. Try as you might, you can’t get around the devolution of your relationship, the sense that you are no longer speaking quite the same language.
We’ve had no fewer than 4000 (rough estimate) whistleblowers since the last diatribe. In a continuing trend, nearly all of them are current or former military or intelligence personnel. They are considered the crème de la crème of UFO eyewitnesses, though there are, obviously, issues with this, as well as countless conflicts of interest. And while this conga line has resulted in the UFO “reality” being more generally accepted—even by congress1 and the president2—casual observers might be shocked at the regularity of the coverage, more seasoned enthusiasts at how little these purported revelations have changed everyday life. I believe this is a result of the cold, calculated attempt to slide the subject into the mainstream. Gone are the days of whacky humanoid encounters and dorky hobbyist investigators, we’ve entered the realm of technological and militaristic nightmares—AI entities verging on godhood3, future humans retrocausally or extradimensionally asserting their dominance4, calls for immense outer space surveillance systems to track science-fictional threats5, and continually stoked fears of foreign adversaries gaining access to tech beyond America’s wildest fever dreams.6 Various undercurrents have become a raging river, dwarfing all previous tributaries. In the process, many integral steps to solving the UFO mystery are skipped—namely the fun ones.
There is the in-built assumption that a UFO truth is (at least partially) already known, and congressional or executive action can force it to light. Wonder has become an extinct animal. And with the death of wonder comes a slavish devotion to the entities that can bring about disclosure—glorious disclosure—leaving all naysayers eating their words. A glaring issue at hand is that only a few decades ago, the very same governmental bodies relied upon for disclosure were viewed as liars, obfuscators, and collaborationists in the great societal debunkering of the pre-2017 UFO era. This tendency was not entirely without merit. A brief overview of American history from the latter half of the 20th century onward will contain countless examples government overreach, coup d’états around the globe, unethical human experimentation, and widespread surveillance of subcultural groups. Any regular reader of this publication knows that it is unlikely UFO culture was untouched by these developments, especially given its continual proximity to military issues.
As I attempt to wrangle a main thrust to the book project I’ve decided to pursue, I thought it might be worthwhile to expand upon the general Getting Spooked ethos. I am loathe to repeat myself, so I will instead reorient the publication’s philosophy and explain it in a way that new readers can understand—we’ve grown quite a bit in the past year! The listicle format is a scourge upon this site, but it is sometimes useful organizationally. Manifest(uf)o I explored the tendency to leave military-industrial complex interests unacknowledged or redirected within ufology. Manifest(uf)o II looked at the deficiency in skepticism within the subject, critics normally sticking with strait-laced, argument from authority debunking instead of dissecting the usefulness of ufology to larger guiding forces. Now, with Manifest(uf)o III, I have decided to get more granular: What are the direct reasons for the pervasion of UFOs/UAP in mass media—not only in the present day but going back to its origins? Why does the military stand out as a suitable explanation in so many cases? Why would mystification via UFOs benefit the various arms of the U.S. DoD? With ample references to previous articles and explorations, UFOs are revealed to be, for the most part, a no-lose scenario for the MID and Western intelligence apparatuses.
1. Messengers of Distraction
UFOs have also become one of many go-to distractions for Washington. Especially in the age of perpetual redirections from the Epstein debacle or general political unfavourability, UFOs—like the JFK or MLK assassination records—are trotted out at seemingly opportune moments. Constituents are increasingly underserved by their elected leaders, but those on the UFO caucus get easy brownie points from researchers and enthusiasts who would otherwise not align with them politically or are generally politically inactive. With consistent and broadly popular calls for government “transparency,” UFOs and similar topics can have information slowly eked out in a way that feels groundbreaking but really goes nowhere. Because of the aforementioned assumption that the government knows more bout the UFO topic than publicly stated, the political class benefits from the continuation of an endless discussion comfortably removed from more immediately pressing issues.
Whether it be underwater bases aficionado Tim Burchett, AI-generated UFO t-shirt hawker Nancy Mace, or “UFOs are angels” promoter Eric Burlison, it’s all easy political capital on a topic the public has a moderate interest in but no deeper understanding. Even my district representative, Summer Lee, participated in the most recent hearing, comparing the ill treatment of the relevant UFO “whistleblowers” to that of more down-to-earth whistleblowers who are more earnestly targeted by government officials—the unspoken distinctions being abundantly clear as far as public image and financial opportunity go. Jasmine Crockett compared the ducking of UFO disclosure to hiding the full truth about the FBI’s COINTELPRO program: “We all know that from the assassinations of MLK and Malcolm to the COINTELPRO and torture programs to now UAPs, the federal government has kept the American public in the dark about issues of immense public interest.”7 While this is giving the “UAP issue” perhaps too much credit as far as public interest goes, comparing it to COINTELPRO might be sneakily insightful as illustrated in later examples of utility. Given that UFOs have become, to some extent, a broadly unifying political issue, many assume its constant reappearance as harmless at best. But the UFO meme is more than a simple distraction redirecting political consciousness, it seeks to affix the American psyche to a realm of predetermined systems that render constituents compliant.
More on UFOs as distractions of political expediency can be found here:
2. Spiritual Warfare
In recent years, the topic has also proven to be a big draw for evangelicals or other Christian denominations. This tendency was seen most prominently in my series on the life and experiences of Chris Bledsoe, a modern UFO contactee who arrived on the scene dual-wielding a unique Christian mysticism and military intelligence supporters. While he has a more positive view on the phenomena, (the Lady is far more angelic than demonic in his view,) he is one of the most prominent experiencers to give credence to the idea that what we think of as UFOs are the supernatural beings of Christian cosmology. Many previous researchers have posited that several examples of the phenomenon have analogues in a variety of religions—a view that I find more compelling—but some of the more recent media personalities stop right after things get biblical.
This reading was given its biggest boost by political commentator Tucker Carlson, who hinted at his belief that UFOs are demonic on The Joe Rogan Experience, i.e. one of the biggest platforms around. He later reaffirmed this spiritual warfare sentiment in several episodes of his own podcast/talk show. Shawn Ryan, another big booster to ufology in pop culture, shares a similar view. Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist who is obsessed with the antichrist, also has an affinity for discussing UFOs and is rumored to have a bigger hand in proceedings than publicly shown.8 He also speaks on the angels/demons view of ufology in a Joe Rogan apppearance. Put simply, there is nothing wrong with holding this opinion, it’s a valid reading of a supernatural mystery. Where it becomes sketchy is when one considers the other goals and political objectives of these individuals—often contiguous with the many militaristic guiding forces of the surveillance state and cultural realignment. Much as the evangelical Christians have sought to influence conservative policy for decades, it is likely they view UFOs as an entry point for broader acceptance in subcultural spaces. In other words: Come for the UFOs, stay for the proselytizing. Again, it helps that fundamentalists (in general) have objectives in lockstep with the military and assorted Cold Warriors—a broad cultural envelopment.
More on the evangelical wing of ufology can be found here:
3. Military & IC Reverence
Increasingly indistinct from the religious elements of ufology, the subject also promotes military authority and coolness, a tendency seen most prominently with a direct admission from Tom DeLonge in one of his many To the Stars Academy cultural products. DeLonge writes in the foreword to the novel Sekret Machines: Book One – Chasing Shadows that he approached a major defense contractor (dubbed “the Boss Man”) with this precise notion: “I pitched him an idea, mostly about a benign idea I had for a project that could help the youth lose their cynical views of the Government and the Department of Defense.”9 Going off later leaked emails between DeLonge and John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager in 2016, this “Boss Man” was General William N. (Neil) McCasland, a former head of the Air Force Research Laboratory.10 DeLonge, either in over his head or genuinely a willing asset, was handing himself over as a major spokesperson for political and military powers.
Of course, there was major opportunity here. TTSA promptly gathered a collection of new and old UFO characters, personalities ranging from pencil neck administrators to beefy special operators. It was a combination of entertainment venture and hopeful defense contractor, hellbent on making military science, strategy, and covert operations look cool and approachable. With all branches of the armed forces struggling to recruit after the end of the draft, TTSA must have presented a tantalizing (if not always hip) mechanism for attracting potential personnel. Western militaries have been using video games11 and VR12 for recruitment and propaganda purposes. As an ambitious multimedia company staffed primarily by former DoD officials and military contractors, the possibility persists that To the Stars’ goals were or are largely the same.13
In addition to organizations like TTSA, the adoption of ufology and related issues by the special operator community has resulted in further overlap. Like the preaching in example #2, it’s a bit of a “come for the UFOs, but stay for the propaganda” scenario. Rogan-imitator podcasts like that of former Navy Seal Shawn Ryan, Thiel Capital employee Jesse Michels, and naïve strivers like Danny Jones or Julian Dorey all host a collection of spies, spooks, military contractors, and SpecOps personnel alongside more UFO- or paranormal-centric fare—often being one and the same. The consistent interplay will make many ask the chicken or the egg question, undoubtedly relevant line of inquiry. Is there a predisposition for UFO belief within the military? Or is it instilled and/or orchestrated? It seems likely that there is a mixture of chickens and eggs—an entire factory farming operation, in fact, a program that keeps the military support meter well-fed regardless.
One of the most straightforward examples of this reverential attitude comes from Tim Taylor, a figure seen in the writings of religious scholar D.W. Pasulka and experiencer Chris Bledsoe. In his religious cosmology, Taylor views the universe as being subject to a “hierarchy of beings” that places factions of the intelligence community above the average human.14 Colonel Karl Nell, an aerospace executive and former intelligence and SpecOps officer, was quick to allude this hierarchy as well.15 Why wouldn’t he? When the military has a popularity problem and the American public has a hole in its spiritual life, it is a no-brainer to put oneself on that pedestal.
More about UFOs as military recruitment or reverence can be found here:
4. Crafting & Monitoring Subversive Groups
Like other elements of fringe culture, UFOs are repeatedly used as an entry point to sketchier extremist beliefs, sometimes using ufological “ghost skins” of a sort. This tendency has been commonplace since the earliest stages of flying saucer culture. Many of the early contactees, like George Adamski and George Hunt Williamson, can trace their lineage back to the notorious metaphysical fascist William Dudley Pelley. The blonde, blue-eyed Nordic ETs of their “brotherly” belief systems were “quickly seized upon as evidence of both fraud and racism.”16 Of course, skeptics were right to assume this. Pelley was, according to researcher Kevin Coogan, “a popular spiritualist turned far-right agitator” who sought alliances American political groups supporting the “New Germany” and thought Jews demon-possessed.17 The reverberations of Pelley’s influence, combined with the fascistic I AM activity, are felt throughout the fringe to this day. With the added flavor of Nazi UFO myths directly perpetuated by far-right hopefuls, the UFO and conspiracy culture from the contactees onward was awash with straight up fascists, a fact documented heavily by researcher Martin Cannon.
I AM, UFO conspiracies, and Pelley-esque fascist metaphysics continue to attract followers, some of the elements were even incorporated into QAnon or its many offshoots.18 Once again, a useful subset of individuals is curated through these developments, a utility only amplified in the aftermath of Q’s rise to stardom. After all, Ron Watkins, who used the anonymous Q persona as a mouthpiece, attempted to transition to UFO leaks after QAnon began to decline.19 Not only are UFOs (and, again, all the standard accoutrements) turned into a mechanism of political motivation, the resulting subversive community leaves ample room for intelligence activity or embedded agents. This practice should not be downplayed, nor assumed to be completely altruistic on the part of law enforcement or the IC.20
More on the sketchy beliefs fostered in ufology can be found here:
5. A Robust Intelligence Multi-tool
Because ufology is a prominent subculture with subversive groups folded into it, the community continually presents a unique intelligence opportunity where one can spread disinfo, track leaks, and gain intel on what’s in the skies from the people who obsessively watch it. Seen most prominently in the Air Force Office of Special Investigation targeting UFO researcher Paul Bennewitz with complex psychological operations, it is nevertheless unlikely that the whole debacle was simply intending to get him off the trail of advanced aircraft. Researcher Martin Cannon, again, has done deeper digging which shows hints of a more complex intelligence network at play.21 In the years since, despite hoaxes, misdirection, disinformation, lies, and abuse, the UFO community’s attitude towards government representatives and intelligence figures was not altered. If anything, the binding became tighter.
Getting Spooked attempts to emphasize with some regularity the fact that the UFO subculture is a rare intelligence playground because the participants fancy themselves homemade special agents of sorts. Eyes are kept on the skies and ears are kept on the ground, rumors of sightings or UFO secrets circulate like hot gossip. Many are eager for any “scoop” to raise their profile. For an embedded intelligence officer, this presents an opening for easy access to HUMINT, but also a means through which disinformation can be seeded, whether targeting the community itself, the broader public, or foreign nations. Coded information could also be laundered through UFO rumors, bearing similarity to my suspicions about the often adjacent remote viewing program. Likewise, many prominent instances of secret information leaking about the subject could simply be infosec tests failed by susceptible individuals—the hyped up cases of Matthew Brown and Gary McKinnon come to mind. UFOs are an illusory subject, verification is notoriously difficult to come by, and much is taken on faith. This faith is integral for assets, witting and unwitting, to serve as vessels for games in the background, whether related to the flying saucers themselves or other intelligence aims.
More on UFOs as an intel ploy can be found here:
6. Secret Tests of Earthly Devices
The phenomenon (and all its requisite baggage) presents itself as an easy way to obscure military testing through promotion of UFO rumors. Most obvious among these camouflaged activities are the trials and implementation of novel aircraft, from the initial testing of the U-2 spyplane, to the Lockheed Blackbird and beyond.22 But UFOs are not limited to the skies, their presence seeps into other areas of pop culture consciousness. As such, this concealment system conceivably extends to tests of non-lethal weapons, nuclear weapons or aircraft, chemical and biological warfare, and even MKUltra-esque techniques of coercion or interrogation.
Getting Spooked began by looking into the claims of Bosco Nedelcovic, a translator at the Inter-American Defense College who was an alleged witness to the abduction and psychological testing of Antonio Villas-Boas by the CIA. He stated that other incidents were CIA-related, such as the abduction of Betty and Barney Hill—also assumed to be victims of abduction by UFO.23 Other early examples of ostensible alien abduction, like the strange disappearance of Army solider Gerry Irwin, are again marked by experimental drugs, memory lapses, and odd behavior. The very notion of alien abduction was brought about via several cases that could easily be attributed to human experimentation by notoriously unscrupulous intelligence agencies. If so, why would the defense establishment seek to dissuade the UFO-oriented reading of events?
In other lines of inquiry, figures interested in non-lethal weaponry like John B. Alexander crop up, backed by other investigators who see human interactions with UFOs bearing the hallmarks of directed energy weapons. There are allegations of obfuscation in the cattle mutilation mystery—again a phenomenon often attributed to UFOs—by an MKUltra-adjacent CIA scientist who focused on chemical and biological weapons. A decent portion of the most vocal UFO authorities are engaged in some type of novel military research that needs to be kept secret or, at the very least, obscured. To trust their answers to the UFO question without reservations is folly. Directly related to example #5, the subculture can not only obfuscate brief glimpses into hidden operations, it can poison the well completely and offer mysterious, albeit obliquely satisfying, answers to an inquisitive public. All the while, research and development can continue largely unabated, even in instances where the public need to know is more urgent and impactful than supernatural flying discs or tic-tacs.
More on the concealed testing angle can be found in various Getting Spooked articles, more prominently here:
7. Warhawk Dreams
Because it rarely leaves the purview of national security wonks these days, ufology also presents a not-so subtle way to ramp up Cold War paranoia. This fact was recognized as far back as the 1953 Robertson Panel, which found that UFO reports and the subsequent hysteria were more of a danger to national security than the mysterious objects themselves.24 While some factions likely sought to avoid this panic, the decades that followed 1953 saw the military-industrial complex receive direct capital gains from a state of perpetual war, something that has only intensified into the present.
Directly connected to example #3, it is important for ufology to inspire trust or reverence of the military establishment if it intends to use this trust to see out its goals. UFOs, then, are a possible mechanism to instill Cold Warrior sentiments in an American populace that has been repeatedly hoodwinked by imagined threats and the “inevitability” of unpopular wars. Figures ranging from purported journalist Ross Coulthart25, AATIP head Lue Elizondo26, and civil servant Nick Pope27, all argue that the UAP issue is key to national security because of ongoing threats from China and Russia. Subtly implied are competing UFO reverse-engineering programs—an argument of a “UFO gap” not unlike the Cold War missile gap or the space race. Even Project Blue Book astronomer J. Allen Hynek, a largely uncontroversial character in the topic, decried the possibility of Soviet dominance in the UFO field in a 1967 Playboy article.28
Embedded in this stoked paranoia are calls for further funding and technological experimentation that is not limited to the skies. Most of the technology that would ostensibly benefit a wide-ranging UFO investigation have very earthly uses ranging from surveillance, offensive capabilities, and a variety of complex sensors. One of the most codified elements of American life is the military-industrial complex, so for it to evoke almost religious devotion covertly through the UFO meme is a development worthy of scrutiny, but these issues have largely been sidestepped because very few researchers take an outsider perspective. We shouldn’t be pushing the metaphorical red button for earthly threats, let alone threats of otherworldly intelligence we do not yet fully understand.
More about UFOs as tools of national security paranoia can be found here:
Conclusion
It is worth stating that ufology is but one loud and noisy element of a continuous subcultural ambient hum. The many cicadas adding to this buzz may have similar utility—conspiracy culture, fringe archeology, and the broader paranormal all contribute their monotonous tones. Overlap between these fields is extensive and necessary for the perpetuation of the overall ecosystem. With the most notable establishment entities, like To the Stars and the Sol Foundation, both giving platforms to military intelligence figures, it becomes more concerning when intermixing with defense contractors like Peter Thiel and all the recurring military scientist characters. I have said this before, but ufology is a largely captured subject, a subculture with figureheads and big money, no longer the purview of hobbyists. Other subjects have shared this same fate, being discussed within curated arenas of acceptance, arenas where participants profess to being perpetually victimized by the structures of knowledge and power even when they have the clear advantages in the culture war. But this turn of events belies, at least among some elements, a deeper understanding of how smaller communities engage with or affect the thinking of the larger whole.
Anthropological research was weaponized throughout the Cold War as a means “to meet the needs of, or answer specific questions of, military and intelligence agencies,” and the discipline wound up “supporting neo colonialism, militarism, and an expanding American empire,” helping to “transform American anthropologists’ attitudes to align with collaborations with military and intelligence agencies.”29 An unsettling possibility lingers underneath the chaotic and multifaceted surface of ufology and the American fringe: Was “Cold War anthropology” turned inward as a means to create a specific cultural system of power in the West?
When these topics are allowed to flower, seeping out of DoD circles in whispers and rumors, into the halls of Congress and on the TVs and social media feeds of millions of citizens, a useful political bloc is created: A broad entity intending to subsume the military, the national security advisors, the evangelicals and the politically-motivated Christians, and even the more aggressive religious and ideological crusaders. UFOs and fringe culture have wound up semi-unifying communities that explicitly used to be at odds. Many were once considered subversives who quickly assimilated into the previously existing power structures. Look no further than conspiratorial firebrands like Alex Jones quickly taking a knee to government overreach in the modern age to get a sample of this inclination.
Nearly everyone within this broad subset supports the military against forces domestic, foreign, and interstellar. They trust the military figureheads with the conclusions that DoD tests or activities are not the party most responsible for UFO activity. Whether the phenomenon is a product of another nation or another form of intelligence, the spokespeople are merely the messengers, hopeful for additional funding or resources directed at the problem. Indeed, the fact that it is considered a “problem” to be solved feels loaded on its own, taking ufology away from the realm of mystery-solving and into the world of military logistics and security. This modern-day subset of UFO-obsessed individuals are parrots of militaristic neoliberal hegemony, a largely bipartisan movement aiming to solidify Western dominance at all costs. The UFO folks strive for these same goals even when their key reasons for doing so are intangible aerial phantoms, ghosts of a Cold War that never really ended. The salesmen, promoters, and higher ups all reap the benefits, regardless of a UFO “truth.” Whether they are genuine believers or not is immaterial when militaries get funded, foreign policy sentiments become popular appeal, and the American order is firmly established.
The intentionality of this development does not have to be carefully guided by sinister forces. If anything, it might be an innate tendency in a grouping of the U.S. populace that can be nurtured or subtly directed—never outright controlled. It’s anthropology, not of cargo cults in the undeveloped world or the inhabitants of a territory in the midst of a proxy war, but of American psychology and spiritual development. Perhaps the UFO obsession has been monitored by disparate factions for decades, sometimes utilizing it for quick fix to an intel leak or political scandal. There could conceivably be a general understanding of UFO utility that is not reflected in policy but in the actions of various DoD-connected organizations. Along the way, discussion rarely takes a bird’s eye view of the cultural phenomenon: The two major groups in this ecosystem are all out seekers and believers or dogmatic skeptics and debunkers. No one takes a beat to question whether the endless arguments are directed at the right people. The different organizations who benefit from UFO fervor do not have to be homogenous. They only need to become cognizant about one simple trick: The UFO meme as it currently exists helps to further realize the entrenchment of militaristic American hegemony in culture, business, academia, and media.
I leave you with one modest entreaty: UFOs are real. But this fact must be severed from systems that seek to abuse it.
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Loehrke, Janet. “Congress holds hearing on UAPs (or UFOs). What are they?” USA Today. 9 September 2025. https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2025/09/09/what-are-uap-congress-hearing-ufo-sighting-map/86058021007/.
Hanks, Micah. “Donald Trump Reveals He Interviewed U.S. Military Pilots Who Encountered Round UFO ‘They Cannot Explain.’” The Debrief. 20 September 2024. https://thedebrief.org/donald-trump-reveals-he-interviewed-u-s-military-pilots-who-encountered-round-ufo-they-cannot-explain/.
Rees, Martin and Mario Livio. “Most Aliens May Be Artificial Intelligence, Not Life as We Know It.” Scientific American. 1 June 2023. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/most-aliens-may-be-artificial-intelligence-not-life-as-we-know-it/.
“’Aliens Invented Religion To Control Humanity!’ -Top Philosopher Jason Jorjani.” YouTube, uploaded by Jesse Michels, 27 September 2025. Link.
Loeb, Avi. “A Vision for a UAP-Manhattan Project.” Medium. 4 May 2025. https://avi-loeb.medium.com/a-vision-for-a-uap-manhattan-project-9408819b6127.
von Rennenkampff, Marik. “‘Technology surprise’: Are China, Russia ahead of us in UFO retrieval, research?” The Hill. 27 October 2023. https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/4277128-technology-surprise-are-china-and-russia-ahead-of-us-in-ufo-retrieval-research/.
“Restoring Public Trust Through UAP Transparency and Whistleblower Protection.” YouTube, uploaded by GOP Oversight, 9 September 2025. Link.
Hernbroth, Megan. “Peter Thiel’s venture fund just announced Hereticon, a conference for ‘troublemakers’ to discuss immortality, doomsday prepping, and UFOs.” Business Insider. 1 October 2019. https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-thiel-vc-firm-founders-fund-hereticon-conference-immortality-ufo-2019-10.
DeLonge, Tom and A.J. Hartley. Sekret Machines, Book 1: Chasing Shadows. San Diego: To the Stars, 2016. Ebook. Page 6.
Blistein, John. “Read Tom DeLonge’s Leaked Email to Hillary Clinton Campaign About UFOs.” Rolling Stone. 11 October 2016. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/read-tom-delonges-leaked-email-to-hillary-clinton-campaign-about-ufos-103832/.
Schwartzburg, Rosa. “The US military is embedded in the gaming world. Its target: teen recruits.” The Guardian. 14 February 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/14/us-military-recruiting-video-games-targeting-teenagers.
Chandler, Simon. “Western Militaries Are Using Virtual Reality for Propaganda and Recruitment.” Truthout. 23 August 2019. https://truthout.org/articles/western-militaries-are-using-virtual-reality-for-propaganda-and-recruitment/.
A future investigation I have in mind tracks DoD interest in ARGs (alternate reality games) and how it may relate to ufology, conspiracy theory, and more subtle propagandizing ala QAnon, Serpo, the Montauk Project, and other reality-shifting play that can turn obfuscatory. For instance, the MJ-12 hoax was turned into a groundbreaking multimedia ARG, 2001’s Majestic. Dave Szulborski, a beta tester for Majestic and an ARG creator in his own right, went on to create a game for Raytheon’s BBN Technologies that was “the first evaluation of an ARG as a tool for training military personnel.” How common are implementations like this and does an ARG to DoD pipeline exist? (“US Military runs first alternate reality game.” EMS1. 7 February 2008. https://www.ems1.com/ems-products/training-tools/press-releases/us-military-runs-first-alternate-reality-game-nohr7DA96OwfR4EK/.)
Pasulka, Diana Walsh. Encounters: Experiences with Nonhuman Intelligences. New York: St. Martin’s Essentials, 2023. Page 180.
“The Biblical Truth of UFOs & Angels (Ft. Karl Nell & Diana Pasulka).” YouTube, uploaded by Jesse Michels, 19 December 2024. Link.
Beekman, Scott. William Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2005. Page 154-155.
Coogan, Kevin. Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International. New York: Autonomedia, 1999. Page 92.
Conner, Christopher T. “QAnon, authoritarianism, and conspiracy within American alternative spiritual spaces.” Frontiers in Sociology. 21 June 2023. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10325789/.
Gault, Matthew. “Major QAnon Promoter Ron Watkins Is Starting a WikiLeaks for Aliens.” VICE. 26 May 2021. https://www.vice.com/en/article/major-qanon-promoter-ron-watkins-is-starting-a-wikileaks-for-aliens/.
See: Painting, Wendy S. Aberration in the Heartland of the Real: The Secret Lives of Tim McVeigh. Walterville: TrineDay, 2016.
“Aliens and espionage with Martin Cannon | Weird Reads with Emily Louise LIVE.” YouTube, uploaded by Weird Reads with Emily Louise, 27 April 2024. Link.
See: Patton, Phil. Dreamland: Travels Inside the Secret World of Roswell and Area 51. New York: Villard Books, 1998.
Booty, Boltzmann. “The Hill abduction as counter-insurgency (Pt. 1).” Nuts & Boltzmann. 21 August 2023. Link.
Pilkington, Mark. “MIRAGE MEN 2023.” Mirage Men. 8 December 2023. https://miragemen.wordpress.com/2023/12/08/mirage-men-afterword-2023/.
“War in space? Top generals sound alarm on ‘menace’ US faces from Russia, China | Reality Check.” YouTube, uploaded by NewsNation, 1 May 2024. Link.
“Lue Elizondo: War with China and the future of UAP international relations.” YouTube, uploaded by The Debrief, 19 October 2019. Link.
Lavelle, Daniel. “UFO expert not ruling out Russia or China links to drones seen at RAF bases.” The Guardian. 30 November 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/30/ufo-expert-not-ruling-out-russia-or-china-links-to-drones-seen-at-raf-bases.
Hynek, J. Allen. “The UFO Gap.” Playboy. December 1967. Reprinted here: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010006-5.pdf.
Price, David H. Cold War Anthropology: The CIA, the Pentagon, and the Growth of Dual Use Anthropology. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2016. Page xi, 349.
This ought to be read by everyone involved in mondo ufologico. It won't be. Or else it will be ignored. Thanks for a superb analysis.
God damn, what a brilliant article. I whole heartedly agree with Michael, this should be read by everyone.