Those familiar with ufological lore, and especially how it ties into our deep religious history, will tell you that UFOs have been around for as long as we have, and perhaps even longer. Indeed, it has long been acknowledged that the assumed non-human intelligences behind these manifestations may be responsible not only for the inspiration and direction of our most foundational meaning-making models – that is to say, our religious traditions – but also for our very origin as a species.

That being the case, some might find it a stretch to believe that the times we find ourselves in now are somehow unique when it comes to this enigmatic topic: Yes, they’re here, but they always have been, directing affairs mostly in shadow – à la something like Jacques Vallee’s control system hypothesis – so what would be different about now? – or so the thinking goes.

While that’s an understandable perspective to have, and while we should always be on the lookout for bias in our contemporary reading of history, there is indeed compelling evidence to suggest that what we’re seeing with this Phenomenon since the turn of the millennium – and especially over the last few years or so – is indeed worthy of note, suggesting that we may very well be heading towards some crescendo point, where our very relationship to this Phenomenon, and, for that matter, to reality itself, fundamentally changes.

The evidence for this notion arises not just in the increased activity of alien intelligences in our midst – though we have indeed seen a rise in reported accounts of sightings and engagements with the craft apparently piloted by these so-called NHI of late – but also via reports from experiencers, those uniquely tuned into these various alien groups, who have seen visions of imminent changes that speak to the coming of a foundationally different world.

While even these two data points – the increased sightings/interactions and sense from experiencers that something is coming – might not be enough to convince many, these are not the only elements we need to reckon with here. Just as important in this equation is the rising tide of challenges our civilization is presently facing; challenges so daunting that they threaten our very existence.

These matters include climate change, geopolitical conflict rife with ever more catastrophic weapons of mass destruction, and the sudden rise of artificial intelligence. All three of these are particularly troublesome because they are being met by a center of gravity of consciousness still driven by fear, scarcity and what our most ancient and enduring spiritual traditions – not to mention many of these Others – call “the illusion of separation”.

Those familiar with ufological lore will also know that the trajectory we’re presently on as a human, earth-based civilization, is precisely the one that these various non-human (and non-conventionally-human) intelligences have long warned us about. Their historic concern about our ever more technological focus, unmoored from an accompanying increase in our level of consciousness, is central to the messages delivered to humankind via the experiencers we’ve already discussed. Suddenly those warnings and prognostications, going back decades, seem strikingly prescient.

That said, we know that timing is particularly challenging to predict and parse out when it comes to these otherworldly admonitions. And thus, the question still remains: just how pressing are these issues, and just how close are we to some fundamental transformation of life as we have thus far known it? Furthermore, how might the very real march towards official disclosure we’ve seen of late be informed by all of this? These are the very thorny – yet crucial – matters we’ll seek to gain clarity around in this, the 98th episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.

In 2017 the New York Times dropped a bombshell article detailing a secret government UFO program that included footage of newly categorized “UAP” – unidentified aerial phenomena. That article, published by a mainstream, industry-leading publication like the Times inspired other publications and news outlets all over the world to follow suit. The ensuing drama resulted in a new wave of public and political interest in the topic of UFOs that has vaulted this field to new heights in the public sphere.

Still, as groundbreaking as that article and its contents were, it turns out that numerous errors also squeaked through. In addition, the article opened up many intriguing questions that were never fully answered. At least, until now. This past week saw the publication of a trailblazing new book titled Skinwalkers at the Pentagon that is garnering considerable attention – for numerous reasons, not the least of which is because it sets the record straight on many of the details that the Times article ultimately got wrong.

But serving as much more than a correction of the historical record, this new book, penned by James Lacatski, Colm Kelleher, & George Knapp, sheds wholly new light on a secret program, titled the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (or AAWSAP), whose paradigm-changing findings were ultimately delivered to the DIA – the Defense Intelligence Agency, at the culmination of its research.

As it turns out, the program Lacatski and Kelleher spearheaded between 2008 and 2010 covered a broad swath of phenomena that included, but went well beyond sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena – aka UFOs. Other matters investigated included psychic effects, the colloquially deemed “hitchhiker phenomenon”, poltergeist activity, and the documented physiological effects on human beings of contact with these various mysterious phenomena.

No doubt the contents of this book will shock many. And without question, many from the mainstream – both scientists and journalists alike – will balk at much of this material, because it brings the question of the primacy of consciousness and controversial matters such as sophisticated, non-human intelligence into the fore.

But of course, this kind of material is perfectly suited to a podcast such as this one. And so this is precisely the terrain we plan to traverse in this, the 43rd episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.