Statistiche
Friday, January 29, 2021
Declassified documents reveal Project Horizon 1959: Plans of the United States Army to build a manned lunar outpost
“The establishment of a manned base of operations on the moon has tremendous military and scientific potential. Because invaluable scientific, military, and political prestige will come to the nation that first establishes a lunar base, it is imperative that the United States be first.“ (Source)
It isn’t a secret that Earth’s moon has been considered as a critical strategic celestial body. Looking back at history, we will find that numerous countries had planned ‘scientific’ outposts on its surface. However, there are certain documents that have only recently revealed militarization projects of the moon. There is a requirement for a manned military outpost on the moon. The lunar outpost is required to develop and protect potential United States interests on the moon; to develop techniques in moon-based surveillance of the earth and space, in communications relay, and in operations on the surface of the moon; to serve as a base for exploration of the moon, for further exploration into space and for military operations on the moon if required; and to support scientific investigations on the moon. (Source)On June 9, 1959, the United States Government decided that the construction of a lunar outpost is of great importance to the country. Project Horizon: The establishment of a Lunar Outpost was created in response to growing interest of other nations, like the Soviet Union in the militarization and exploration of the moon. However, its primary goal was to protect potential United States interests on the lunar surface.
During 1959, the Space Race was adopting a whole new level. Two years after the initial proposal of Project Horizon, the first Apollo mission would launch, on October 27, 1961, creating a new chapter in the history of mankind. However, countries around the globe –primarly the US and the Soviet Union—werent only planning traveling to the moon and placing astronauts into orbit around the planet, their plans were way ahead of time, and they had numerous projects already lined up that would have kickstarted the militarization of our solar system.
The rapid advances in propulsion, electronics and space medicine and other astronautical sciences in the 1950’s would have allowed the successful construction of a military outpost on the moon.„To be second to the Soviet Union in establishing an outpost on the moon would be disastrous to our nation’s prestige and in turn to our democratic philosophy. Although it is contrary to United States policy, the Soviet Union in establishing the first permanent base may claim the moon or critical areas thereof for its own.“ (Source)
The outpost was planned to be of sufficient size in order to contain sufficient equipment that would later be used in the militarization and exploration of the moon. The military outpost was designed in order to allow the survival and moderate, constructive activity of ONE person, and 10-20 on a sustained basis.
During planning, researchers considered that the outpost needed to be designed for expansion facilities, supply and operation of personnel in order to maintain the maximum extension of sustained occupancy. The futuristic project of 1959 was planned to be self-sufficient for as long as possible without any additional support from Earth.
However, not only was Project Horizon the first step of lunar militarization, the base was designed so it could sever as a permanent manned installation on the moon, which eventually would allow the investigation of scientific, commercial and military potential on the lunar surface.
The lunar outpost was intended to serve as an observation post which would facilitate –in the near future—travel between Earth, the moon and eventual exploration of our solar system and outer space.
Purpose of the Lunar Outpost (Source)
The establishment of a manned US outpost on the moon will:
- Demonstrate the United States scientific leadership in outer space
- Support scientific explorations and investigations.
- Extend and improve space reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities and control of space.
- Extend and improve communications and serve as a communications relay station.
- Provide a basic and supporting research laboratory for space research and development activity.
- Develop a stable, low-gravity outpost for use as a launch site for deep space exploration.
- Provide an opportunity for scientific exploration and development of a space mapping and survey system.
- Provide an emergency staging area, rescue capability or navigational aid for other space activity.
Project Horizon included a ‘sophisticated’ defense system that would be incorporated into the lunar outpost. The base would be defended against Soviet overland attack by man-fired weapons:
- Unguided Davy Crockett rockets with low-yield nuclear warheads
- Conventional Claymore mines modified to puncture pressure suits
Take in count that all of this was possible in 1959. Over half a century
later, with the numerous technological advancements, just imagine what
we are capable of. - Source News
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An interstellar accident — or a piece of alien technology?
So when a bizarre object from interstellar space hurtled through our solar system in 2017, Loeb readily admits that he was primed to see it as a glimpse of alien technology — an extraterrestrial lightsail — rather than some errant space rock.
In his book “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth,” Loeb lays out his case that the unusual traveler, named ‘Oumuamua after the Hawaiian word for “scout,” was an artificial relic crafted by savvy aliens. While this exotic explanation of the object serves as the backbone of the book, Loeb’s broader argument grows out of his bewilderment with the blowback to his hypothesis; he regards it as an omen of imaginative decay and anti-alien bias in the scientific community. “The search for extraterrestrial life has never been more than an oddity to the vast majority of scientists,” he writes. “To them, it is a subject worthy of, at best, glancing interest and at worst, outright derision.”
Skeptics who fit that description should take seriously the meticulous defense of the alien origin story offered in “Extraterrestrial.” To bolster his case, Loeb points to the unexplained properties of the first known interstellar visitor: its extreme dimensions, its perplexing brightness and the dramatic speed boost that sent it careening out of our telescopic sights.
Proponents of a natural origin for ‘Oumuamua have suggested that it was an elongated planetary splinter or a loose cloud of dust grains. Loeb questions whether an alien origin is any more far-fetched than these explanations, given that scientists have never seen splinters or clouds of this nature inside the solar system. Scientists have also speculated that ‘Oumuamua’s sudden acceleration in the outer solar system was caused by bursts of evaporating ice, a phenomenon known as outgassing. As a counterpoint, Loeb points to the lack of evidence picked up by telescopes of an outgassing event.Like an astronomical Sherlock Holmes, a character often invoked in the book, Loeb concludes that “the simplest explanation for these peculiarities is that the object was created by an intelligent civilization not of this Earth.” You don’t have to share his conviction to be impressed by the breadth of his argument.
Loeb is less successful in casting the controversy he has sparked as a sign of myoptic reluctance, within academic circles, to concede that humans might not be the only sentient, spacefaring beings in the universe. Throughout “Extraterrestrial,” he returns to the refrain “and yet it deviated” to describe ‘Oumuamua: a nod to the legend that Galileo muttered “and yet it moves,” referring to Earth, in response to his coerced recantation of the sun-centric model of the solar system.
Loeb makes clear that he does not consider himself to be a neo-Galileo. And yet he sees parallels between Galileo’s critics and his own. “Recall the clerics who refused to look through Galileo’s telescope,” he writes. “The scientific community’s prejudice or closed-mindedness — however you want to describe it — is particularly pervasive and powerful when it comes to the search for alien life, especially intelligent life. Many researchers refuse to even consider the possibility that a bizarre object or phenomenon might be evidence of an advanced civilization.”The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) spent decades on the fringes of science, in part because of the relative lack of empirical methods available to constrain doubts about aliens during the 20th century. Over the past two decades, however, an explosion of observational techniques and discoveries — many of which Loeb describes — has revolutionized astrobiology and SETI.
Thousands of exoplanets (worlds that orbit other stars) have been detected since the 1990s; some telescopes are now explicitly tasked with assessing their habitability. A central mission of NASA’s Perseverance rover, due to land on Mars in February, is to look for signs of Martian life. China has built the world’s largest single-dish telescope to scan the skies for evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence.
On Venus, the possible detection of a chemical associated with life has evoked visions of aerial microbes in the Venusian skies. In the star system Alpha Centauri — the target of Breakthrough Starshot — a recently discovered exoplanet is sloughing off radio signals, stoking speculation about alien “technosignatures.”These advances and observations have practicalized the search for alien life in the minds of strict empiricists, which blunts Loeb’s charge that “the conservative scientific community” considers the field to be “a waste of time.” It’s not that his claim is to some degree inaccurate but rather that the energy in emerging research about aliens is overshadowing the grumbling of doubters.
Loeb has been at the center of media storms and peer backlash about his hypothesis for years, feeding his concerns that institutional groupthink is limiting the scope of scientific inquiry and leaving society ill-prepared to cope should an unambiguous detection of E.T. take place.
The cosmic wonder and contrarian streak that inspired “Extraterrestrials” took root in Loeb’s youth. Raised on his family’s farm in Beit Hanan, Israel, a village south of Tel Aviv, Loeb had an idyllic childhood. He lovingly recalls his father double-checking the rooftop TV antenna to ensure that the family could watch the Apollo 11 moon landing, and credits his mother for gifting him with the “life of the mind.” He describes a formative boyhood memory, in which he deliberates about conforming with other kids and hints at a lifelong instinct to buck convention. “The science I do is connected by a direct line to my childhood,” Loeb writes. “It was an innocent time of wondering about the big questions of life, enjoying the beauty of nature, and, among the orchards and the close neighbors of Beit Hanan, not caring about my status or standing.”With a passion for philosophy and an interdisciplinary background, Loeb describes himself as “a somewhat accidental astrophysicist.” He bubbles over with so many ideas he scribbles them down in the shower on a waterproof whiteboard.While it’s tantalizing to imagine that ‘Oumuamua was our first brush with aliens, Loeb writes most memorably about collecting shells on the beach with his daughters, brainstorming trippy new studies with his many proteges and seeking comfort in the view of the night sky from our lonely planet. In the end, “Extraterrestrial” is at its best when it is down to earth.
Becky Ferreira
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Navy "UFO Patent" Documents Talk Of "Spacetime Modification Weapon," Detail Experimental Testing
The War Zone's most recent report on the strange circumstances surrounding these patents underlined that there were indeed some type of physical experiments conducted related to them, even if very limited. Now, new Freedom of Information Act releases provide unprecedented insights not just into how seriously the Navy took Dr. Pais's work, but also exactly how elements of it were actually tested at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars and where the program may have ended up. The materials even include mention of a "Spacetime Modification Weapon (SMW- a weapon that can make the Hydrogen bomb seem more like a firecracker, in comparison)."
The releases, which are all related to a Naval Innovative Science and Engineering – Basic & Applied Research Program under the project name “The High Energy Electromagnetic Field Generator (HEEMFG),” contain hundreds of pages containing detailed technical drawings, photographs, and data related to actual tests of the HEEMFG. The system was meant to evaluate the feasibility of Dr. Salvatore Pais’s claimed “Pais Effect.” If you haven’t yet read about the ongoing saga of the enigmatic Dr. Pais and the science-fiction-like inventions he made on behalf of the Navy, be sure to get caught up on our previous reporting linked in order from the first to most recent here, here, here, here and here.
Each one of Dr. Pais's inventions is stated to be enabled through what he himself described to The War Zone as "the Pais Effect," a theoretical physics concept that is claimed to be enabled through the “controlled motion of electrically charged matter (from solid to plasma) via accelerated spin and/or accelerated vibration under rapid (yet smooth) acceleration-deceleration-acceleration transients.” This effect, the inventor claims, can lead to incredibly powerful electromagnetic energy fields that can “engineer the fabric of our reality at the most fundamental level” leading to incredible revolutions in power and propulsion, quantum communications, energy production, and even weaponry.
These latest internal documents, which The War Zone obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), show that NAWCAD felt this technology has “National Security importance in leading to the generation of thermonuclear Fusion Ignition Energy with commercial as well as military application potential, in ensuring National Energy Dominance.”
In addition, the documents contain the Basic and Applied Research (BAR) proposal that was submitted to secure funding and resources for the test of Pais’s High Energy Electromagnetic Field Generator concept. In all, it appears at least $466,810 was devoted to the project between Fiscal Years 2017 and 2019 — far more than what was previously thought.
Many of the documents also state that the HEEMFG project could be further continued by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), NASA, or even the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). At this time, it is unknown if the HEEMFG transitioned to other DoD agencies, but The War Zone is pursuing FOIA requests related to any possible collaborative transition. Another slide (below) indicates ONR, NRL, and DARPA as likely candidates for transition or collaboration.
The documents also show that a team of at least 10 technicians and engineers were assigned to design and test an experimental demonstrator and that testing was being conducted as recently as September 2019.
Over 1,600 hours of work were conducted in 2018 and 2019 on the project between design, procurement, manufacture, testing, and assembling final reports and technical papers.
Many of the documents describe the tests of the High Energy
Electromagnetic Field Generator (HEEMFG) and the data that resulted.
Some of these documents describe specific “Identified Technical
Obstacles” and proposed solutions for developing a working HEEMFG
device. One test asset used in experiments appears to have been a “coin
cell capacitor” with a 0.276-inch diameter, which was connected to a
vertical drive spindle and spun up to 100,000 rotations-per-minute (RPM)
with a 2-inch air motor. Other experiments describe spinning a 12-inch
disk featuring piezoelectric elements arranged in a cruciform (cross- or
x-shaped) arrangement. These larger discs were charged with much larger
capacitors.
The devices tested appear to have been benchtop versions of Pais’s HEEMFG concept, or perhaps even multiple versions of the same idea. The devices used spinning capacitors to “demonstrate the experimental feasibility of achieving high electromagnetic field-energy flux values toward the design of advanced high energy density / high power propulsion systems.”
In one strange section describing test results, investigators reported that technicians felt a strange sensation on their skin as they approached the test article, although they note that there are plenty of prosaic explanations for such sensations.
One of the most bizarre documents in these releases, a slide deck marked For Official Use Only (FOUO), describes how Pais’ Plasma Compression Fusion Device patent could be used to design a terrifying-sounding new form of weapon known as a “Spacetime Modification Weapon:”
Under uniquely defined conditions, the Plasma Compression Fusion Device can lead to development of a Spacetime Modification Weapon (SMW- a weapon that can make the Hydrogen bomb seem more like a firecracker, in comparison). Extremely high energy levels can be achieved with this invention, under pulsed ultrahigh current (I) / ultrahigh magnetic flux density (B) conditions (Z-pinch with a Fusion twist).
In one of the final test results sections, investigators note that the “Principle Investigator [sic] also desired vibratory excitation of the charged test disk” but noted that “the tested configuration does not have a method for providing spindle vibration.” It is unknown whether further test articles were designed that were capable of the high levels of vibration cited as a requisite for enabling the radical emerging physics Pais claims his HEEMFG to be capable of producing.
It is curious that a test article was not designed that incorporated vibration since the inventor always cites the coupling of accelerated spin and accelerated vibration as key components of the "Pais Effect," but it may be simply that the restraints of existing test facilities and equipment were to blame. Often when new experimental systems are tested, subsequent experiments work toward mastering different aspects of a particular design before bringing everything together once the separate components are proven to be feasible. It's unclear whether or not the HEEMFG test article was designed to focus on maturing just one part of the complete system.
Ultimately, these documents show that while the experimental test articles constructed by NAWCAD "performed well," they neither observed nor disproved the Pais Effect.
As usual, our investigation into the Dr. Salvatore Pais patents assigned to the Navy has generated more questions and lines of investigation. It is unknown if any of these concepts or technologies were, in fact, transferred to other entities, including elsewhere within the Department of Defense outside of the Navy, or whether further test articles were created and experimented on that might have included mechanisms to induce high-frequency vibrations. As with all of the documentation we have gathered related to these patents so far, it appears even NAWCAD's testing could not confirm experimental validation of the claimed "Pais Effect." Despite the lack of experimental confirmation, a Naval Aviation Enterprise (NAVAIR) quad chart published in September 2018 states that NAVAIR was aiming to transition the technology in 2019.
An August 2019 NAVAIR Science & Technology Alignment and Investment Reporting System (STAIRS) report states that "the spin test to evaluate the HEEMFG effect took place in late September 2018" and that while the tests "did not measure any anomalous electromagnetic effects that would satisfy the theory," investigators believe "the reason for this is that the capacitor confined the electrons to its center, rather than the surface, which is necessary for generation of the effect." The report concludes its in its future outlook by noting that "planning has been in progress to compensate for the effect seen on the capacitor in the end of FY2018, with [a] new experimental setup to be completed by July 2019."
The further our investigation continues, the more it seems like the patents of Dr. Salvatore Pais are exactly what they appear to be: hypothetical applications of theoretical physics the Navy thinks are viable enough to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on, and possibly much more, to someday be able to master. Yet considering there have been all types of theories, ranging from a government disinformation campaign to alien emulation technology, behind these patents, we still can't say conclusively what is going on here.
Still, taken at face value, these new documents seem to prove even further that these inventions were not solely the product of an enigmatic maverick inventor, but instead received support from the highest levels of NAWCAD and led to DoD-funded research projects and experiments with an eye on producing exotic new forms of propulsion and weaponry. Whether these experiments were the start of a looming energy revolution or a dead-end is yet to be understood, but by the looks of the documentation we have studied, it seems like these experiments were more of a beginning than an end. This is all fascinating as no physicist we have discussed Pais's patents with sees how they are feasible, yet the Navy seems to have thought otherwise and spent considerable funds to explore the ideas in the form of physical experiments.
In light of these new documents, we have already reached out to NAWCAD in hopes of establishing a dialogue about the High Energy Electromagnetic Field Generator and the other Salvatore Pais patents. In the past, they have been unwilling to do so.
We at The War Zone have just begun combing through this huge batch of new documents and we will report more once we have concluded our review of them.
Contact the author: Brett@TheDrive.com
String of lights seen in sky near Charlotte sparks UFO debate. What was it?
Multiple people have reported seeing an odd string of lights at night near Charlotte, igniting talk of UFOs on social media.
Photos shared Saturday on Facebook show what appears to be a string of lights floating over North Carolina’s Indian Trail community. The area is in Union County, just southeast of Charlotte.
“Anyone know what these lights were tonight?” Alisa Homewood asked on the “What’s Up Indian Trail?” community Facebook page. “No sound at all. They flickered like lanterns, but followed the same exact path up until they disappeared which was odd.“
Homewood told the Charlotte Observer the lights “resembled how a flame would look, flickering in the dark.”
“My initial thought when I saw the lights was it was the helicopters in the distance, but as the lights got closer there was no sound. Then they went straight up into the sky and disappeared. No smoke, no debris,” she said.
“I couldn’t see anything around the light to suggest they were or were not lanterns, but the light flickered like you’d imagine a lantern would look.”
Stranger still, a trio of lights that glowed blue also showed up in her photos. Homewood, who lives in Monroe, has no explanation for that, though it’s possibly a trick of light.
“The blue light I didn’t notice until after I took the pictures. In the sky it did not look blue, it looked like a group of bright lights,” she said. “I thought it was odd though, that a few people have seen and photographed that same blue-ish grouping of lights.”
The Facebook group has more than 20,000 members, and a few hundred people have reacted to Homewood’s post. Several have mentioned UFOs, while others say it could have been flares, lanterns, drones or a SpaceX rocket.
A growing number say they, too, have seen odd lights at night in Union County, including one person who shared a shaky video of her experience.
“Yea we saw them too and couldn’t figure out what they were,” a Charlotte woman posted. “They did flicker, but like how big were those lanterns then for us to see it so bright and so clear from so far away.”
“I’ve seen something like this recently too,” another commenter wrote. “It was 5:00 am so no, not lanterns. The string of lights wasn’t there, only the triangle shape lights. It hovered, moved slowly and zero sound.”
“I’m officially creeped out,” a Matthews woman added. “Same weird lights happened (at) my friend’s home last night!”
North Carolina ranks high among states with the most reports of UFO sightings, many of them off the Outer Banks. The Mutual UFO Network reported this month that the state had 15 UFO sightings in December, ranking it No. 7 among the 50 states.
As for other possibilities, Union is among the counties included in ”unconventional warfare exercises” staged by the special forces based out of Fort Bragg. Flares are part of the exercises, the Army says.
But the most recent exercises ended Dec. 18, according to the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center.
Homewood says she braced herself to be criticized for sharing the photos. But most commenters have seemed to be genuinely interested in the puzzle — after posting a few jokes about aliens not finding intelligent life here.
“As far as the reaction on social media, I anticipated people commenting being annoyed. Union County group sites tend to be brutal,” Homewood said.
“But I posted anyway because that same morning I saw several military style helicopters fly over in almost the same location.”
Mark Price
UFO spotted by Pakistani pilot in Punjab province
UFO spotted by Pakistani pilot in Punjab province
Islamabad [Pakistan], January 27 (ANI): A Pakistani pilot has claimed
that he spotted a very shiny, unidentified flying object (UFO) in the
sky during a domestic flight, Geo News reported.
According to
sources, the Pakistan International Airlines' pilot saw the UFO near
Rahim Yar Khan while operating a regular flight (Airbus A-320) to Lahore
from Karachi. He captured a video of the UFO. "The UFO was
extremely bright despite the presence of sunlight," the pilot said,
according to sources, adding that spotting such a bright object at
daytime is very rare.
According to the pilot, the thing he spotted in
the sky was not a planet but could be a "space station" or an
"artificial planet" near the Earth.
Aside from the pilot, many residents of Rahim Yar Khan also spotted the shiny UFO and made videos of it.
A
PIA spokesperson said that the UFO was spotted on January 23 by the
pilot during a Lahore-bound flight from Karachi. It was seen at around 4
pm near Rahim Yar Khan.
It cannot be said for certain whether it was
a UFO or something else, the spokesperson said, adding that the captain
of the flight had immediately reported the sighting back to the control
room.
"It is too early to say what that object was. In fact, we
might no be able to tell what the object was at all," said the
spokesperson. "However, something was spotted and it was reported in
accordance with the required protocol." (ANI)
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Su TV8 si parla di alieni, tra gli esperti anche l’ufologo savonese Angelo Maggioni
Ha raccontato la storia del forte della Madonna degli Angeli e ripercorso i presunti avvistamenti
Savona. Nella giornata di venerdì è andato in onda su TV8 una puntata di “Ogni mattina” dedicata al fenomeno UFO incentrata sulla domanda “Esistono gli alieni?”. Tra gli esperti del settore intervenuti anche l’ufologo savonese Angelo Maggioni di A.R.I.A (Associazione Ricerca Italiana Aliena) che ha esposto i racconti del passato che avvolgono Savona e in particolare l’area della Madonna degli Angeli.
Angelo Maggioni
L’ufologo ha spiegato la storia del forte costruito nel 1881 dai Savoia, rimasto in attività fino alla fine della seconda guerra mondiale. Nei racconti Maggioni spiega che “residenti dell’epoca e anche recenti hanno avvistato nel tempo molti oggetti volanti non identificati, da sfere luminose ai sigariformi. La parte più eccitante però è stata quella di svelare anche eventuali presenze aliene proprio nel fortino, dove alcuni avrebbero affermato di aver visto persino alieni all’interno dei cunicoli. Certo – spiega l’ufologo – sono segnalazioni del passato prive di riscontri oggettivi, come quella del 1974 mese imprecisato tra gennaio/febbraio, M.Pian dei Corsi presunta caduta ufo: secondo fonti dell’US Army gli occupanti dell’UFO sarebbero stati fatti prigionieri nella base segreta, gli alieni si sarebbero ridotti in polvere (causa sconosciuta). Nella zona c’era il 509th Signal Battalion, unità del genio trasmissioni dell’US ARMY (base oggi smantellata ex base 046)”.
Forte Madonna degli Angeli
L’ufologo ha spiegato che “probabilmente il punto del forte Madonna degli Angeli potrebbe essere un punto decisivo per le ‘missioni’ di questi oggetti volanti non identificati che si troverebbero come ad un bivio e in base all’operazione scegliere se dirigersi verso il Melogno, dove si trova la ex base Torriglia dove sono avvenuti i rapimenti ai danni del metronotte Piero Zanfretta, o verso Musinè, monte famoso per eventi ufologici, e la Valmalenco teatro di veri e propri inseguimenti alieni. Nei tracciati storici – spiega Maggioni – anche a largo di Portofino potrebbe esserci anche una ‘base’ aliena marina, come anche nella zona dell’isola di Bergeggi dove nel 1974 (anno dove si presume ci sia stato l’ufo crash ai Pian dei Corsi, coincidenza?) un anziano vide un oggetto luminoso come infuocato inabissarsi in mare, ma le ricerche non portarono a nessun ritrovamento”.
Maggioni ha anche spiegato da dove nasceva la sua curiosità sulla tematica ufo e ha evocato un episodio avvenuto in campeggio da bambino, dove ebbe “un incontro con tre sfere luminose che si allungarono con sembianze umane ma trasparenti”. Lo stesso ufologo (seppur non venga evidenziato nell’intervista) precisa che è fortemente convinto di aver assistito “a qualcosa di strano e particolare a riscontro di eventi similari (Caso Valerio Lonzi) ma che è altrettanto sicuro che vi sia anche una forte componente suggestiva”.
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Experimental Tests of Theology
It's understandable why some people prefer not to test their beliefs, but evidence-based science teaches us that reality does not go away when you ignore it
Can we test the claims of theology with experiments? In science, theories are routinely subjected to the guillotine of experiments. The same could apply to any theory that puts “skin in the game” and makes testable predictions, even if those are in the realm of theology. This was already recognized by Isaac Newton, as discussed in Michael Strevens’ new book The Knowledge Machine. “I feign no hypotheses,” wrote Newton in 1713 for the second edition of his book Principia.
Recently, in the course of my routine duties at Harvard University I had no choice but to echo Newton’s viewpoint. During a Ph.D. exam, a committee member asked a student: “Do you know why Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake?” After pausing for a while, the student replied hesitantly: “Because he had a blunt personality and was disliked by many people.” The examiner stated forcefully: “No! It was because Bruno proposed that stars were distant suns surrounded by planets which might foster life. And if extraterrestrials sinned, then multiple Christs should have appeared on these exoplanets to save them, a possibility resented by the Church.” Indeed, this is the latest interpretation of Bruno's heresy. In an attempt to add a scientific tone to the discussion, I noted that astronomers now know that a major fraction of all sunlike stars host habitable Earth-size planets. We can therefore test this theology by asking extraterrestrial civilizations that had sinned whether they witnessed Christ.
The idea of testing theology is not new. According to an apocryphal story told by Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, the philosopher Martin Buber noted that the biggest dispute between Christianity and Judaism stems from Christianity’s claim that the Messiah had arrived and will return, whereas Judaism maintains that the Messiah will come in the future for the first time. Why argue? asked Buber; since both sides agree that the Messiah will arrive in the future, let’s wait until that moment and then simply ask the Messiah: have you been here before?
And here is a third example. My colleague Stephen Greenblatt recently wrote an insightful review about Maggie O’Farrell’s novel Hamnet. The review describes how Shakespeare’s dedication to his work in London may have prevented him from assisting his wife to save the life of his son, Hamnet, during the bubonic plague. In a conversation with Stephen, I noted the similarity to the biblical story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice the life of his son Isaac for a higher purpose, but Stephen argued correctly that Abraham’s action involved “the teleological suspension of the ethical,” as explained by the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. “If you know that it is your imagination that is speaking to you, you are less likely to hold a knife against your son’s throat—though in Shakespeare’s case, his imagination evidently spoke loudly enough to induce him to leave his family and move to London,” Stephen reasoned.
I concurred; there is no doubt that Abraham was convinced he heard the voice of God. With a modern recording device on a cell phone, he could have convinced all of humanity that God spoke to him. But since he did not own a voice memo app, we need to rely on testimonial evidence which does not stand up to the standards of scientific scrutiny.
Is there a theology that is undoubtedly consistent with the scientific method? Such a framework was, in fact, proposed by the philosopher Baruch Spinoza, who identified God with nature. As Albert Einstein noted, this definition of God is in line with modern science. But as in Bruno’s case, Spinoza’s ideas were denounced by the religious establishment.
It is understandable why some people prefer not to test their beliefs, but evidence-based science teaches us that reality does not go away when you ignore it. The Earth continued to revolve around the sun even after philosophers refused to look through Galileo Galilei’s telescope and he was put in house arrest. Following that experience, one would naively expect physicists to pursue only theories that are guided by testable predictions. Unfortunately, that is not always the case—for example, when unfalsifiable ideas like “the existence of the multiverse” and “we live in a simulation” are celebrated by mainstream scientists. This trend receives moral justification from some philosophers who argue that empirical evidence should not be a prerequisite for theories in physics. Apparently, history repeats itself. Untestable ideas appeal to the human mind because they are unconstrained and could be more beautiful than reality, irrespective of whether we engage in theology or science.
Quoting Spinoza from his 17th-century book Ethics:
“… these imaginations of the mind, regarded by themselves, contain no
error.... For if the mind, when it imagines non-existent things to be
present, could at the same time know that those things did not really
exist, it would think its power of imagination to be a virtue of its
nature and not a defect….”
Eliminating what Strevens attributes to Newton as an “iron rule” for evidence-based reasoning in science is equivalent to lifting the legal prohibition on hallucinogens. Only actual evidence can improve our perception of reality. For more on this theme, check my new book Extraterrestrial.
AVI LOEB
Comment by Oliviero Mannucci: Dear Avi Loeb, allow me to add to your article a consideration that the scientific world in general should take into consideration when speaking inappropriately of the scientific method. The scientific method is not synonymous with absolute truth. I'll explain why. First: when we observe a phenomenon, whatever it is, we are not observing it in its entirety. We are observing an aspect of the phenomenon which is what our senses allow us to perceive, and what our intelligence and culture allow us to understand. So we are partially observing a phenomenon, an aspect, often very small. This is already enough to invalidate the scientific method itself. Second: believe it or not, there is a Supreme Being that limits our perception of the phenomenon. We live in a world that is far from objective. It is what the Supreme Scientist allows us to see. Read more please, thank you! Third: Consequently that from the observation of the phenomenon and its repeatability one can then enunciate a law is by no means a guarantee of scientificity. Fourth: There are things that are not observable by our senses, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Fifth: Do you scientifically demonstrate how much he loves his wife, mother, father, or his children? Can you produce an algorithm that can prove this? Can you reproduce all this with an experiment? True science goes beyond these purely material considerations, therefore, although I agree with most of what you wrote, I invite you to reflect on the objectivity of the scientific method. Greetings from Italy!
Saturday, January 23, 2021
Shocking Documents Show Government Paid Millions to Chase UFOs and Werewolves
In 2008, the United States Defense Intelligence Agency gave $22 million to the exotic science division of Las Vegas billionaire Robert Bigelow’s space startup — Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, or BAASS — to study “breakthrough technologies” and UFOs. A Debrief investigation, including new unredacted internal documents, illuminates some of the odd history of this secretive program and reveals that some of the government’s money was directed to even stranger things than they had in mind.
Bigelow Aerospace Building (Image Source: NBC News)
The Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program
In 2008, at the behest of Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, then the majority leader, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) funded the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP). According to the solicitation bid, the purpose was to explore “potential breakthrough technology applications employed in future aerospace weapon systems.” Though the Pentagon told The Debrief earlier this year that the DIA was not investigating UFOs, significant evidence exists that seems to contradict their position. The confusion may stem from the fact that the project’s solicitation document purposefully left out mention of the controversial topic altogether.
“The people putting out the bid thought it would be better that it didn’t say flying saucers or unidentified flying objects,” former Sen. Reid told The Debrief in an interview. “It was thought by many that it would just draw too much attention, and by it being phrased the way it was, we had somebody from the Defense Intelligence Agency draw out the specs of it. It covered that anyway.”
Reid told The Debrief that Bigelow Aerospace applied for the $22 million contract and won because the company had facilities that met the requirements for the project. When asked if Bigelow had been pre-selected for the contract due to his connection to Reid, as well as his preexisting public interest in UFOs, Mr. Reid stated flatly, “No. It was like any other government contract.”
“It was put out for bid. And he did the best. He was willing to do more than others. He supplied, for example, a facility… So we put out the bid, but his response to it was the best, and that’s how he got it,” Reid explained. “He was not pre-selected.”
Senator Harry Reid (Image Source: Sen Reid’s Official Facebook Page).
After winning the contract, BAASS was tasked with studying and generating reports on exotic science that could lead to “potential breakthrough technology.” BAASS, alongside a team of scientists, generated 38 such reports. Redacted copies of internal BAASS security reports that have been posted online indicate that, before the AAWSAP program was defunded in 2010, the company had assembled an in-house team of investigators not only to write those 38 reports, but also to travel around and look into sightings of monsters, the paranormal, and other bizarre UFO-related phenomena in Utah.
Indeed, a leaked collection of unredacted internal BAASS documents examined by The Debrief now confirms that the DIA-sponsored organization was not only investigating “foreign advanced aerospace weapon threats from the present out to the next forty years,” but also UFOs — and a lot of other anomalous things even more unaccustomed to attention from the government.
The Front Gate of Skinwalker Ranch (Image: MJ Banias)
Skinwalker Ranch
Among other tasks, BAASS sent its investigators to Utah to investigate sightings of strange phenomena at the infamous Skinwalker Ranch and in the greater Uinta Basin that surrounds it. Skinwalker Ranch is currently owned by real estate mogul Brandon Fugal; prior to his purchase of the property in 2016, the 512-acre ranch was owned by Robert Bigelow himself.
According to the BAASS documents, investigators were told to pose as researchers from the plentiful oil fields nearby and never to reveal the names of “BAASS, Robert Bigelow, Bigelow Aerospace…and most certainly [the] sponsors’ identity should NEVER be released or discussed in public.” The ultimate sponsor, in this case, was the DIA, the intelligence arm of the Department of Defense. Ryan Skinner, who runs a popular website dedicated to Skinwalker Ranch, was specifically mentioned in the document as a possible nuisance to their investigation. The researchers were told to “maintain a low profile.”
Mr. Skinner admitted that he would indeed often visit the ranch and attempt to sneak onto the property. While he personally thinks the ranch is home to strange phenomena, he believes that Bigelow and his personnel were attempting to unlock secrets to novel propulsion systems.
“It is clear to me Mr. Bigelow was not looking for little green men. He was looking for ways to significantly advance his aerospace company’s aspirations by discovering a novel means of propulsion,” Skinner told The Debrief in an interview. “My impression is that he believed the key to unlocking that corporate advantage was by investing in a team of scientists to study the exotic propulsion demonstrated by the UAPs commonly witnessed at Skinwalker Ranch.”
It is unclear if Bigelow was in fact attempting to glean information from UFOs on “breakthrough technology applications employed in future aerospace weapon systems,” as per the DIA mandate for the AAWSAP program. What is clear is that his team was also chasing werewolves and goblins at the same time.
Chasing Werewolves and Goblins
Documents examined by The Debrief show that BAASS investigators interviewed multiple witnesses in Utah’s Uinta Basin who had claimed to see a “dog-like creature” that allegedly “stood on two legs,” was “over 6 feet tall,” and smelled of sulfur. In another document, those same witnesses reported sightings of “little people” that resembled goblins, standing roughly “three to four feet tall” and with “arms that hang down to the ground.” A third report discusses a ghostly human figure standing on a mesa overlooking Skinwalker Ranch.
A member of the now-defunct BAASS team who asked to keep their comments anonymous told The Debrief that the investigators were never convinced monsters and aliens were running around Utah.
“If it was weird, the team looked into it. It was our job, but, to be honest, a lot of those stories were crazy and probably bullshit. Like if there was a dead animal and a trail of blood, no one thought it was a werewolf or anything like that,” the source told The Debrief over the telephone. “Probably just coyotes.”
The former employee explained that their actual job was to collect as much information as possible that might provide a better understanding of how these supposed far-out phenomena worked and “how it could lead to new technology.” They added that the team was tasked with investigating every bizarre claim, no matter how ridiculous.
And Utah was not the only destination that got BAASS’ attention. Though the former team member did not provide specific details, they stated that the company also sent a team to Mount Shasta, in Northern California. Mount Shasta has a long history in paranormal and ufological lore as being a purported site of UFO events and a diverse array of other weird activity, including supposed interdimensional portals.
Mount Shasta (Image Source: Pixabay)
The source explained that their role was to investigate claims of anomalous activity and collect evidence that could be used to “develop new propulsion systems.” How stories of goblins, bipedal dogs, and even transdimensional portals fit into that, they are unsure.
Regardless of the scope of the DIA mandate to research “potential breakthrough technology applications employed in future aerospace weapon systems,” there is clear evidence that Bigelow was exploring some incredibly speculative topics.According to a Popular Mechanics article by The Debrief’s Tim McMillan and an internal BAASS progress report he obtained, BAASS was seeking access to U.S. government files regarding UAP and still-classified files from the Air Force’s old UFO investigation, Project Blue Book — as might be expected given the AAWSAP contract’s focus on breakthrough aerospace technologies. But the progress report also explicitly stated that BAASS was attempting to establish communication with a non-human entity they believed was occupying Skinwalker Ranch, seemingly much further afield from the terms of the program’s funding. And the data collected at the ranch was corrupted by the fact that some guards would reportedly exaggerate incidents in order to keep the boss happy and receive a potential bonus.
“When I first got up to the ranch, the guy who was training me up mentioned that there was a possibility of a bonus if we ever found solid evidence of what was going on,” Chris Bartel, a former guard employed by Bigelow Aerospace, told The Debrief. “This of course caused some guys to embellish experiences that normally could be easily explained. The guys who did that eventually got fired. This of course muddied the waters, because there was strange stuff that would happen from time to time, but documenting it was always a problem.”
(A collection of Mr. Bartel’s photographs from his years at Skinwalker Ranch is being exhibited by the University of Maryland Art Gallery.)
“Casting a Wide Net”
The BAASS team pursued UAP data from a variety of sources. Researchers Keith Basterfield and Marc Cecotti confirmed with a former BAASS data analyst that the company collected UFO reporting data from the French government via GEIPAN, a unit of the French national space agency that collects and shares such information. Canadian UFO researcher Chris Rutkowski told The Debrief that he too was contacted by BAASS in 2009, asking for UFO cases previously sent to him by the Canadian government. The former BAASS employee who spoke to The Debrief on condition of anonymity said that several investigators traveled to Brazil “around 2009 or maybe early 2010,” where they were “investigating a recent UAP event and collecting evidence.” Other researchers have also been able to independently verify that a BAASS team was in Brazil in 2009, asking for UFO reports and alleged material evidence from UFO events.
The documents examined by The Debrief also included contracts and internal emails detailing the tumultuous relationship between BAASS and the Mutual UFO Network, or MUFON. BAASS provided funding to MUFON, the largest non-profit UFO research organization, in 2009. The deal included the sale of all witness reports, witness information, collected evidence, and the organization’s entire reporting database. James Carrion, who oversaw the deal as MUFON’s international director at the time, told The Debrief that all “physical evidence that needed to be analyzed went to BAASS.” Having left the organization years ago, he presumes that material is still with Bigelow Aerospace and is unaware if anything was returned to its original owners.
Mr. Carrion also explained that any individuals filing UFO sighting reports had to agree before submitting their information that it could be released to a “third party.” The public “had no clue [that] the third party was BAASS,” however, and that their data may have been funneled to the Defense Intelligence Agency, Carrion explained. He stated that even he was unaware the DIA was sponsoring BAASS when MUFON entered into a contractual agreement with them. BAASS ended its relationship with MUFON in 2010.
A second former BAASS employee who spoke to The Debrief on the condition on anonymity stated that several company employees and analysts were required to have government-issued Secret security clearances and were in the process of having their clearances raised to Top Secret before their employment was terminated in late 2010, most likely due to the DIA’s decision not to renew its funding for the project.
Endgame
When the DIA cancelled the AAWSAP program in 2010, Bigelow Aerospace fired the investigative team.
“I woke up one day and didn’t have a job,” the ex-BAASS source told The Debrief. They received a phone call and were told that the investigation team had been disbanded. They, along with many others associated with the project, were let go.
In 2011, the Department of Defense apparently bootstrapped the defunded AAWSAP program into the counterintelligence portfolio held by Pentagon staffer and career defense intelligence official Luis Elizondo and named it AATIP, the Advanced Aerospace Threat and Identification Program. Elizondo told The Debrief that AATIP’s task was to focus on encounters with unknown aerial phenomena reported by military personnel. There was no attempt to explore the more bizarre paranormal events that occupied the time of BAASS investigators during the AAWSAP years.
“The individuals that were a part of that [AAWSAP], I know personally,” Luis Elizondo told George Knapp on the late night radio show Coast to Coast on December 20th. “They are outstanding and they are no-nonsense individuals, and for their reasons, they decided to cast a very wide net, and that’s probably out of due diligence… We really didn’t have a very good understanding what we’re dealing with… and so typically you want to cast a wide beam of light, so to speak, so you can first see what it is you’re looking for, and then of course you can focus it later on…”
It is unclear why the DIA scrapped BAASS’ funding, however, AAWSAP’s mandate never mentioned UFOs and werewolves. It is reasonable to suspect that investigating reports of goblins in Utah or attempting to communicate with interdimensional entities may have played a role in the DIA’s decision to no longer fund the project. It is also unknown precisely how taxpayer money was used in the program, though the unnamed BAASS source related that much of the funding for Bigelow’s UFO research was paid for by his personal wealth and not with government funds. AATIP’s Elizondo told The Debrief that while he was in no way involved with BAASS and didn’t feel qualified to elaborate, “Bigelow was known to use his own money for portions of this endeavor.”
We reached out to Bigelow Aerospace, but they did not respond to requests for comment on any of this. It is clear, though, from the teams, facilities, and travel known to be involved that the entire BAASS project would have cost a fortune.
In an exclusive feature, The Debrief recently shed new light on the current Task Force investigating UAP out of the Office of Naval Intelligence. The Debrief also broke the story concerning the recent omnibus bill that will force the Task Force to provide an intelligence report concerning UAP to Congress. It is clear that the U.S. government has a continued interest in the subject of breakthrough technology in our skies and is willing to continue funding programs into its investigation. We don’t know why the DIA officially scrapped the AAWSAP project, but our reporting indicates BAASS was doing more than simply researching exotic technology. It was chasing things that go bump in the night.
MJ BANIAS
The Debrief’s Jed Holtzman contributed to this report.