“What Ifs”: UAPs are worth studying
Ever since I started looking into the evidence available and realised that on the balance of probabilities, even if we aren’t being visited by extraterrestrial craft, something very strange is happening in our skies all around the world and this strange thing seems to often display the characteristics of a highly technologically advanced craft under intelligent control, I have wondered why more people weren’t fascinated by the marvelous thought-experiments and (realistic) hypothesis-building exercises offered by this subject of research. Granted, I do understand that this subject is still, unfortunately, considered somewhat taboo, especially around scientific circles, ultimately, whose validation will be necessary for the ultimate ascension of this topic out of the ‘conspiracy’ fringes and into a mainstream understanding of its reality and relevance. In an attempt to break through the existing stigma associated with UFOs/UAPs, I’ve decided to skip over outlining all the evidence that is presently available and go right through to some of the presently available hypotheses, ranging from the most sceptical all the way through to the most exotic, in my opinion. With each possible scenario, I will outline why, even with the mutual-exclusivity of that conclusion in mind, it is worth our effort to research UAPs.
‘CONVENTIONAL’ HYPOTHESES
These are the most generally agreed-upon ‘normal’ explanations for unidentified aerial phenomena arranged in, what I believe to be, ascending order of ‘exoticity’. Even out of these, should the last one prove to be, even in part, an explanation for some UAP sightings, then we have broken through to the next technological/scientific paradigm.
ALL UFOs ARE MISIDENTIFICATIONS OF NATURAL PHENOMENA
In my opinion, this is a very reasonable assumption to have. There really are some strange looking natural phenomena out there: flying spiderwebs reflecting light, ball lightning that looks like glowing orbs, and planets appearing very bright in the skies. Indeed, a lot of early what-we-would-consider-now UAP reports mentioned ‘stationary comets’, ‘comets where the tail is actually a beam aimed at the ground’, and, generally, ‘celestial phenomena’. Not only that but the natural phenomena explanation also neatly dismisses any potential problems with the existence of descriptions from the ancient world that seem to be consistent with UAP sightings, because unlike other ‘conventional’ explanations, entirely ‘natural’ phenomena could have just as easily happened in the past, too. However, even if we are able to dismiss all the ancient, historical, and modern UAP sightings as misidentifications of natural phenomena, then, surely, we should still be studying and trying to understand said phenomena. Even if they are caused by different factors, some of these events seem to display characteristics consistent with advanced technological engineering. WHY? HOW? What natural phenomenon looks like ‘flying shields’ or ‘silver wine jugs’, which were reported flying and descending to the ground, respectively, in Roman times? Or what about giant black triangles that are seemingly able to hover, silently, in the air before accelerating to immense speeds in an unbelievably short time span and the silvery and smooth cigar-shaped objects, both of which have been seen around the world since 1561? If all of these sightings can be attributed to natural phenomena, then these are some truly exotic natural phenomena and surely it would be worth our while trying to understand what causes them to occur. Perhaps, we’d even be able to predict them and report on them meteorologically as we would with the weather.
ALL UFO SIGHTINGS ARE MADE UP
Once more, this is a reasonable assumption to come to. Even though it is easy to dismiss due to the existence of radar footage and video from some of the sightings, let’s assume that the majority of UAP sightings are made up for infamy and/or popularity and/or money. So that means that there are thousands of people around the world a lot of whom have come up with similar-sounding stories for their claim to fame, including people who knew that it would damage their credibility and potentially get them ridiculed or maybe even fired. Not only that, a majority of these people didn’t manage to monetize their fictionalized encounters, acquiring the stigma associated with the subject without any of the apparent benefits, and yet more people continue to come up with these stories. Additionally, most of these people stick to their story until they die, often passing it on to their family members as fact. Are all of these people, including presidents, astronauts, pilots, office workers, farmers, and groups of children life-long liars? If the vast majority of UAP sightings are made up, then we need to raise serious questions about human psychology and story-telling because it must be something that is engrained into our consciousness irrespective of culture, age, or prior knowledge of the subject. Granted, this would transform the subject area into a study of why the human mind makes these stories and these objects up and why is there so much international and transtemporal consistency, but that wouldn’t be any less fascinating.
ALL UFO SIGHTINGS ARE HALLUCINATIONS
As with the previous scenario, while this would initially seem logical, it can quickly be disproved with the fact that these phenomena have also shown up on radar tracking data and on video, but, discounting those, let’s imagine for a second that the vast majority of UAP sightings are just hallucinations induced chemically, electrically, or simply endogenously. In truth, parallels have been drawn between abductions, consuming the psychedelic dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) as all have produced experiences of being somewhere ‘’other’ entirely, often with bright lights and often featuring contact with non-human intelligent entities. Because DMT is a highly potent psychedelic compound that is found to be endogenously produced by mammals, it is possible to conceive of situations where it is released in large enough amounts to produce a profound experience. However, no serious research linking the three has yet to be done, and, as with the previous scenario, if this is truly a psychological phenomenon, then it too should be studied and understood due to its apparent ability to transcend cultural boundaries while still maintaining consistency. Not only that, but it then also means that some pilots in charge of flying our planes, military pilots out on missions, airmen stationed at bases with nuclear capabilities, seamen and fishermen out at sea, and at times groups of people thousands in size are hallucinating something. Surely, we should try and understand these phenomena more, then, to prevent an accident from happening due to, say, a pilot ‘hallucinating’ a UAP in front of the airplane? And, how do we explain it that otherwise entirely sane people are reporting seeing very strangely looking and behaving objects? Certainly, that’d be a fascinating area of research.
ALL UFOs ARE MISIDENTIFIED SECRET MILITARY CRAFT
Cool, so we’ve moved on from claiming that UFOs aren’t real, or that they’re strange, but explainable, natural phenomena and are dipping our toes in the warm waters of “they’re physical crafts”…at least for a bit. This is the apathetic argument I have personally heard from people I’ve attempted to introduce to the topic. Yes, okay, there are some strange sightings of something technological, but it’s just classified terrestrial technology from some country. That’s entirely understandable, let’s not reach for exotic conclusions just yet, it’s significantly more likely somebody somewhere here on Earth (in our universe, in this dimension, at this time, etc.) made these things and is now experimenting with them. In that case, why hasn’t whoever has possessed this technology made it public yet? Why haven’t they utilised it in combat (or otherwise) when witness testimony would suggest that it would offer an unimaginable advantage. If, as has been calculated, these objects are able to accelerate at over 12,000 g’s, at, the highest estimates and between 2,200 and 4,500 g’s at conservative estimates, without being ripped apart, then who developed them? How did they manage to essentially quantum-leap our mainstream understanding of astronautics? Are they occupied or are they just drones? How long have they had them? Can these technologies account for the Foo Fighters of the Second World War? How about the event that happened in Fatima, Portugal in 1917? Or, indeed, the celestial event that happened over Nuremberg in 1561? If so, are these objects capable of time travel (granted, that’s an exotic question in this scenario, but one which would have to be raised)? As you see, hypothesizing that UFOs are secret technologies developed in black budget projects opens up a lot of questions worth investigating anyway, including how somebody managed to achieve the next scientific revolution without the majority of people noticing and without integrating these technologies into other domains. Even this level can be rife with conspiracy as evidenced by the lore concerning Nazi-built flying saucers. Even if we concluded there to be zero non-human involvement, a lot of serious questions would remain.
‘EXOTIC’ HYPOTHESES
These theories are such that if any are true, they would flip our entire anthropocentric paradigm on its head. Often any and all of these theories, if true, would influence our understanding of science, philosophy, psychology, history, and spirituality, as well as many other domains. While all are essentially reality-shattering, I’ve arranged them, again, in my, subjectively biased, ascending order of ‘exoticitiy’.
UFOs ARE JUST REVERSE ENGINEERED CRAFT
Okay, I can see how this is an extension of the previous scenario, but the origins do matter. So what if, as Bob Lazar claims, the US government/military possesses flying saucers that they retrieved from archaeological digs and have since managed to power-up enough to test and reverse-engineer? Essentially, let’s imagine that some highly advanced vehicles were recovered, the maker of which has long since not been around and what witnesses are seeing nowadays are just these recovered vehicles being piloted by humans and human-made objects that were created using technologies reverse-engineered from this original find. While this is, admittedly, the least exotic of the exotic explanations, even it would force us to review our own history and set us off on a journey to find out where these objects originate from, as well as asking all the questions outlined in our previous scenario.
UFOs ARE EXTRATERRESTRIAL DRONES AND/OR VEHICLES
While some will likely argue that this explanation may be more exotic than their personal consciousness-based theory (which, in some ways, I’d probably agree with), we have been conditioned by mass media and entertainment, either correctly or incorrectly, to associated UAPs with extraterrestrials and therefore, short of not existing, being dismissable as human-made technology, or being dismissed as natural occurrences, it is, within the majority of people’s minds the next least-exotic explanation. Often discussed as the ‘nuts & bolts’ theory of UFOs, surely this conclusion, if proved correct, would completely change our understanding. Not only will we have answered the age-old question “Are we alone?”, but we’d also have evidence of the fact that we’re being visited by some non-human civilization from elsewhere. Following a similar line of questioning as in the scenarios above, we’d have to ask how they function, who has known, have we been able to adapt the technology, how long have they been here, have they been involved in our history, in our development, in our evolution? We’d have to ask why they haven’t communicated openly with us, if abductions are real and if they’re their doing, and where their other interests lie. It would fundamentally shake our understanding of the human story and our place in the universe. It’d test the foundations of our spiritual traditions and rock our cultures and economies. It would be a revolution beyond what our species has ever seen.
UFOs ARE ‘HYPER-TERRESTRIAL’ IN ORIGIN
What could be stranger than some creatures arriving in our planet’s airspace from another star system in an advanced starship of some sort? What if some beings, human or not, have existed on this planet with us, somehow hidden from us, while developing this technology for themselves? But where, and how would they hide? Well, UAP history is full of reports of unidentified submersible objects (USOs) and UAPs disappearing into mountain ranges and being hidden in deep underground military bases (DUMBs) and we know that the bottom of the oceans has barely been explored and there are plenty of gigantic caverns yet to be found, and that world mythologies are full of advanced civilizations disappearing under the waters, or, after cataclysm, emerging from underground to re-populate the Earth, so maybe the idea of covert civilizations isn’t so outlandish. However, in that case, how have they managed to remain hidden? Why have they chosen to do so? What is their agenda? Have they been here longer than us? Have they participated in our development? Do they travel off-planet? Once more, this hypothesis, if proven true, opens avenues to so many more questions.
UFOs ARE TIME TRAVELLERS
Okay, what if we assume, like in the last scenario, that UAPs are made on Earth, but instead of the distant past or hidden from us in the present, their creators live in the future. This one, perhaps even more so than any of the previous scenarios, sounds like the plot of a science fiction novel or movie. However, there does exist witness testimony, including from some well-known and well-researched sightings, that would suggest that the occupants of UAPs are actually humans, or beings that have evolved from humans, from thousands of years in the future who are observing us for our benefit. Not only that, but it should also be mentioned that a lot of alleged experiencers who have had contact with the occupants of UAPs have claimed that they are humanoid or even near-human in form. So, there does exist some evidence suggestive of this conclusion. If this were the case, though, I’d imagine it, too, would generate the same questions as we would be asking in the scenarios above. What technology are they using? Have they influenced our history? When are they from? How long have they been observing? Do we have their technologies today? (And so on…)
UFOs ARE INTERDIMENSIONAL
This one’s a bit difficult to pin down and has a significant amount of potential ‘breadth’ of definitions. It could be used to encompass everything from humans from other universes/dimensions of reality to extraterrestrials from other universes/dimensions of reality right through to ‘spiritual entities’ like demons or angels or faeries, trolls, elves, and so on. However, for this particular “what if” scenario, it doesn’t really matter what type of interdimensional creature-type UAPs (or their pilots) are. Either possibility would shake our understanding of reality to the core. How many realities/universes are there? Are we capable of traveling between them? Is there a link with world mythologies/religions? How about the esoteric/occult? Once more, what are their intentions in visiting us? It would have us re-examine our place within the ecosystem of the (uni/multi)verse.
MANIFESTATIONS OF (HUMAN) MASS (UN)CONSCIOUSNESS
What if UAPs are ‘real’, but in a different sense. What if the material-reductionism that we have built the foundations of our scientific theory and reasoning on is wrong? What if we exist in a consciousness-first pandeist universe and these things are simply the conscious manifestations of our collective unconsciousness, or that of some non-corporeal entity, perhaps an ‘ascended’ or further evolved extraterrestrial species, or perhaps, akin to “Interstellar”, our own evolved form, or indeed the manifestations of Godhead itself. Such a conclusion would definitely raise a lot of questions pertaining to the phenomena’s link to esoteric traditions, to its involvement in our affairs, if, indeed, it can be classed, in any way, as ‘other’. In any case, it would force us to flip our understood scientific paradigm on its head.
Conclusion
While I may have missed out some specific hypotheses, I believe that I have demonstrated that this subject is worthy of investigation because any of the potential origins, ranging from the most mundane through to the most exotic, if observed, studied, and understood, have the ability to change our understanding, even if it is only of nature’s capabilities. Whatever these unidentified aerial phenomena may be, and they may easily have more than one point of origin, we should be paying attention.