While modern ufology has been a component of our cultural zeitgeist for decades and decades now, during much of that time it has generally been seen as a matter for astrophysicists and aviation experts. While ground-breaking researchers such as Jacques Vallee, John Keel and J. Allen Hynek, as early as the 1970s, suggested the anomalous and highly strange nature of the data takes us well beyond that kind of conventional inquiry, even today, the mainstream still tends to think of UFOs (now monikered as UAP) and NHI – the fancy new name for what we use to call “aliens”, as involving interstellar travelers arriving at Earth in sophisticated spacecraft.

For many, especially in still physicalist-centric Western civilization, this kind of enterprise represents, at least in potentia, a new kind of contact, and a new possibility for communication that takes us beyond what we’ve been limited to amongst our own species over the milenia. But, here again, the data – when one actually looks squarely into them – take us well beyond that notion. And that’s because – contact – and specifically contact with apparently non-human and non-conventionally human intelligences – has supposedly already been happening. The varieties of contact technologies or modalities that have meditated this non-ordinary kind of communication include mediumship/channeling, shamanic journeying, CE-5/HICE, dreams, psychedelics, and even fever states.

In other words, the issue seems to be not one of needing to wait for interstellar travelers to arrive to finally give us this opportunity, for it’s been available to us all along, with some cultures and people groups being more privy to this fact than others. Interestingly, these various modalities of contact and communication also seem to be possible regardless of what would seem to be the expected language and even species-specific differences. And that’s because mind-to-mind communication, known in parapsychological circles as telepathy, seems to be the general rule rather than the exception in these endeavors, thus bypassing the need for translation of written and spoken languages altogether.

But of course, these startling revelations raise further questions: if the issue is not one of needing to wait for interstellar travelers to arrive via superliminal (that is, faster than light) travel, then how exactly is this contact and communication happening? Have they been here – in our so-called “physical” space – all along? Or does the nature of this contact suggest space, and for that matter, time, is simply not what we’ve long assumed? How is it that these various contact technologies are able to connect us with alternative forms of sophisticated sentience, and what do they have in common that makes them effective? These are the captivating and consequential matters we’ll seek to engage with in this, the 105th episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.

Over the course of 90+ episodes of Point of Convergence, save for one episode with James Iandoli, on the topic of CE-5, or HICE: human initiated contact events, this show has not followed the common podcast interview format. The reason for that is that there are already plenty of shows that follow the common interview pattern. My goal here has generally been to offer solo deep dives on various aspects of the UFO Phenomenon and associated topics that include, among others, NDEs, OBEs, and psi phenomena.

That said, as in the case of my interview with James Iandoli – who represents a wealth of wisdom on so-called “contact work” – I do find it helpful to include the thoughts of others when that person represents what I would deem a paragon in their field. This is true in today’s episode, which features my recent conversation with philosopher Bernardo Kastrup.

Bernardo’s work has been featured prominently in this podcast. His analytic idealism framework has been influential in my own aim to make sense of the dizzying and sometimes discombobulating array of phenomena associated with anomalous encounters with UFOs/UAP and apparent aliens. His book Meaning in Absurdity: What Bizarre Phenomena Can Tell Us About the Nature of Reality is especially pertinent to our overarching subject of interest, and I highly recommend it.

As an idealist, Bernardo’s view is that base reality is ultimately mental in nature; like a dream held in what he calls “Mind at Large”, or that others might call Source consciousness, or Original Mind. I have found that seeing not just the UFO Phenomenon and related paranormal encounters, but reality itself, in this light, is extremely helpful in making headway in these tricky, murky waters. With that introduction aside, let’s move to part 1 of my 2 part discussion with philosopher Bernardo Kastrup, in this, the 91st episode of the Point of Convergence podcast. 

The modern so-called UFO Phenomenon stretches back to the mid-20th century. That means we have 75+ years of lore to draw from when reflecting on the subject matter in question. Of course, for the vast majority of that time this topic, colloquially referred to as “ufology”, has remained a somewhat “fringe” enterprise, discussed ad nauseam by enthusiasts of the notion of extraterrestrial intelligences visiting earth in sophisticated machines, but never gaining a truly legitimate foothold amongst the mainstream.

That is, of course, up until recently. Since the advent of the revelations/allegations brought forward by a former insider named David Grusch, this topic has gained traction in the mainstream; at least, it has begun to. At this point, while decades-long ufologists have been shocked to see the kind of attention this topic has recently garnered in political circles, it’s still not truly penetrated the formidable iron gates of legacy mainstream media.

Nevertheless, there are signs that this wall of impenetrability is perhaps beginning to crack and crumble. And without doubt, as more hearings are held, and more evidence is presented, along with a secondary wave of whistleblowers prepared to follow in David Grusch’s wake, that traction in the mainstream will eventually prove undeniable. And that will mark an inflection point for our civilization, as the conversation around this new reality we are collectively grappling with turns from “could it be?” to “how now shall we respond?”

All that said, as we’ve watched this topic, and the questions it inevitably begs, begin to become a noticeable “something” for those who’ve long ignored it, there is an aspect of the conversation that is still largely missing from the society-wide dialogue. Here I speak of the aims/intentions/agendas of the beings in question. It’s as if we’re talking about them either in the past tense, or as a force that is unconscious, like water running down a mountain towards the ocean.

But, of course, they are not just another aspect of nature running its course like water returning to the ocean via the impartial force of gravity. They are a parallel intelligence; walking beside us, with their own history, species-specific norms, and collective aims to bring to the mix. And only a much, much smaller subset of the community are asking the relevant questions that arise from this aspect of the situation. Questions such as: who are they, and what are their aims?

Some throw their hands in the air here, assuming that the intentions and, for that matter, even basic nature of a non-human intelligence would be impenetrable to homo sapien sapiens. But of course, a long history of interaction between these others and a subset of humanity known as experiencers casts serious doubt on such assumptions. That history suggests not only that we can engage in open contact with these other beings, but that that communication often involves very specific details about their aims amongst us, and their intentions towards us. How consistent are these messages? And to what degree should we trust them? Many see these as waters too murky to navigate. But that’s precisely what we’ll endeavor to do in this, the 88th episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.

The enigma known as the UFO Phenomenon is compelling for numerous reasons. One of those reasons is that this phenomenon has been attested to by witnesses and experiencers over long periods of modern history. And, furthermore, once you get past the surface veneer of the way people have categorized/interpreted these phenomena differently over time because of different cultural expectations, one can make a convincing argument – as Jacques Vallee and others have in fact done – that this phenomenon has been with us since the beginning of time; sometimes interpreted as gods come down from the heavens to parade in front of we mere mortals, and more recently as advanced technological civilizations visiting us far from far flung destinations such as Zeta Reticuli and Alpha Centauri on scientific expeditions and the like.

Another of the key elements of data lending credence to the notion that this Phenomenon is as real as green grass in the spring and plasma erupting from the sun is that it is attested to across the world, even in cultures significantly divorced from the typical modernist and physicalist conceptions found in Western civilization. And whenever we can show cross-cultural support for this phenomenon we can more confidently conclude that this is not simply a construct based on the expectations of any particular people group. Indeed, the fact that the interpretation of sightings and interactions with “the Others” have differed somewhat in different parts of the world over time actually lends credence to the notion that, underlyingly, beyond that surface veneer of categorization/interpretation, something is really there; legitimately being encountered and interacted with.

Armchair skeptics will at times argue that this is simply a North American and European phenomenon; implying it really is merely a cultural construct after all; the imaginative fruit of the consumption of too many x-files episodes and the like. Now, while it is statistically true that we have more data from these locations, it’s important to point out that much of this can likely be attributed to the fact that the some data-gathering efforts haven’t happened to the same degree in other places, and that even the cultural expectations of some of those other continents are such that what is a paradigm-shaking moment for a modern North American or European might not be for someone from an indigenous population. After all, why make a big deal of an event that has been normalized in a particular culture for generations? And one can make the argument that this is indeed the case in various indigenous populations.

As I mentioned, some of the discrepancy in the regularity of reports from different parts of the globe can be reduced to the fact that the search simply hasn’t been conducted with equal dedication around the world. Furthermore, cultural differences and language issues have added to this challenge. Thankfully, we do have pioneering researchers working to address this challenge. Ardy Sixkiller Clarke is one such pioneer. As a Professor Emeritus at Montana State University and former Director of the Center for Bilingual/Multicultural Education, Clarke, who is Cherokee/Choctaw herself, has dedicated decades of her life to investigating sightings of UFOs and interactions with various forms of alien and non-conventionally human beings in parts of the globe long neglected.

In today’s episode we’re going to consider the astounding reports Clarke was able to gather during her trips through Mesoamerica; a region comprising the modern day countries of northern Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, and central to southern Mexico. Not only do the accounts Clarke gathered make clear the fact that UFO sightings and interactions with actual beings are every much as common – perhaps even more so – there, as compared to here, but they also raise very interesting possibilities regarding the very origins of some of these people groups, and specifically the Maya. Could the Maya themselves not only be the recipients of the traditions of a so-called “ancient alien” civilization, but perhaps even their very descendants? These are the fascinating matters we’ll endeavor to engage with, head on, in this, the 82nd episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.

When people are first introduced to the enigmatic topic known as the UFO Phenomenon, the working assumption is that this is a matter of determining whether or not aliens, i.e. extraterrestrials from some likely extrasolar source, have traversed the immense distances of outer space, to arrive at our blue pearl planet either to, A.) from a more positive view, study us, as in a scientific expedition, or, B.) from a less positive view, scope out our capabilities prior to some kind of invasion.

Perhaps it should not be surprising that this is where the conversation begins for people; including those who’ve flocked to this topic since 2017, when the revelations of a now famous New York Times article first entered the public sphere, suggesting to many that, despite decades of scoff and ridicule and X-Files jokes, perhaps there really was a there there.

Speaking of decades of scoff and ridicule, the decades leading up to the present one filled people’s minds with the very scenarios I just mentioned: that either these visitors from beyond are here as part of a scientific expedition, as in Star Trek, or as a prelude to a full-on invasion of our planet, as in War of the Worlds or Independence Day. These are familiar tropes in science fiction, and so it should not surprise us that this has worked its way into our cultural zeitgeist.

But those initial, rather tame and predictable questions about what the so-called UFO Phenomenon represents are quickly supplanted by much more profound, far-reaching, and, for some, disturbing questions, once newcomers really begin to start poking around and considering the plethora of reports made by credible witnesses, going back decades and decades – and perhaps even millennia – discussing in-person encounters with the intelligences supposedly responsible for the piloting of these sophisticated aerial vehicles known as UFOs or UAP.

Because, as I just mentioned, these encounters trace back deep into human history, and likely even pre-history, one could argue that these more recent “sci-fi” encounters are really in the same overarching category as what we might deem “religious” encounters from yester-millennia, the questions around what this all means suddenly become much more broadly sweeping and all-encompassing.

Many of the people who regularly tune into this podcast know that the UFO Phenomenon, general paranormality, and other so-called contact modalities such as NDEs, OBEs and psi phenomena are addictively fascinating matters. One could draw the conclusion that this is the case simply because the nature of the subject matter is seductive, and helps to distract people from the mundanity of their everyday existence.

While the subject matter does indeed draw one deeper and deeper into the proverbial rabbit hole the longer one pays attention with a keen, discerning eye, I think there’s more than meets the eye going on here. I think partly what’s going on is a kind of “remembering the future”. What I mean by that is that our collective fascination with this subject matter reflects a kind of mental bookmark to what becomes a key inflection point in our civilization’s history. You could describe it as the experience of living through the arising of an interference pattern, where the present is equally impacted by events from our past AND our future. Particularly significant points in time can tend to feel like this, even if it is confusing to those living through it.

Particularly thoughtful researchers, like the preeminent Jacques Vallee, have noted that what we are seeing take place with the modern UFO Phenomenon is simply the latest wrinkle in time of a larger phenomenon that has been manifesting since time immemorial. Here I speak of the interaction between human beings and other, sophisticated, bewitching non-human intelligences; intelligences so capable both in matters of the external AND internal sciences (manifesting in both the world and the mind) that they have undoubtedly played a key role in shaping the very meaning models that we currently shape our collective existence with and through.

Former rock star and later founder of TTSA, Tom DeLonge, ended up uttering what I have found – in retrospect – to be apt words in describing the nature and origin of many of the Others of which we speak. In one interview DeLonge said “The evidence doesn’t suggest it’s interplanetary, so, people need to understand religion, ancient texts…the occult…esoteric stuff…they need to understand that time is not linear – it’s parallel – & once you understand that all things – past, present, future – exist at one moment, which is what quantum mechanics is kinda figuring out, then they’ll realize there can be parallel realities right here, with advanced civilizations that are popping over with frequency. Not linear… not coming from Alpha Centauri here. And I’m not even suggesting that that can’t happen, too. But what *is* happening here is a little bit different.”

Indeed it is. And I would add to this insightful analysis – that I at first didn’t pay close enough attention to when I began this journey years ago – that it’s not that some of them are NOT extraterrestrial. In some very real ways some of the groups are. But, importantly, that’s only PART of the story. They are also interdimensional, but in a way that diverges from some of the ways that term has conventionally been used by astrophysicists, and is more inline with the way the term is applied, as DeLonge hints at, by enthusiasts of the occult and other forms of esotericism.

Notice there that I said “groups” – plural. And I stand by this. I am more convinced than ever that the evidence suggests more than one group is involved; and that these groups cover the gamut in terms of their developmental consciousness. I speak in terms of degrees of evolution because I have found this is both a more helpful and a more accurate way of describing the situation than painting in polarities of black and white – i.e. good vs evil.

Now, while Delonge has seemed particularly concerned with the ways some of the less mature groups have been working their will in our collective lives, I personally have experienced what it’s like to be in contact with, and be inspired by, groups who are typical of the more evolved, highly conscious end of the spectrum. And it’s a discussion of that particular interaction, and the way that it’s impacted my ongoing journey, that is the topic of this, the 75th edition, of the Point of Convergence podcast.

As many of you may know, I recently had the opportunity to make a presentation at a very unique and powerful conference event held in the heart of Manhattan, titled “An Inquiry into Anomalous Experiences and the Phenomenon”. The event turned out to be a smashing success, both in terms of the inspiring quality of the presentations being made by a group of speakers that included yours truly, Garry Nolan, Mitch Horowitz, Tim Grieve-Calrson, and Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, but also – just as, if not more importantly – in terms of linking together a group of passionate researchers, experiencers and enthusiasts from all around the world. That feeling of a cosmic family coming together was palpable throughout.

The organizers of the event, James Iandoli of Engaging the Phenomenon, and Jay Christopher King of the Experiences Group – both good friends of mine – did a wonderful job in planning for and executing this unique event. In the end, I would say the event came off without a hitch. A great time was had by all, and – even more inspiringly – there is already a second event planned for December, and rumblings of other events of a similar nature to be held in places all across the country, and indeed overseas as well. I think this is exactly what many of us involved in the conference were hoping would happen- that this would be the catalyst for a movement, rather than just the hosting of a one-off event.

Speaking of my presentation at last weekend’s event in New York City, the event organizers have been kind enough to make the audio content of my presentation available so I can now share it with all of you, my regular audience on Point of Convergence. Much of the material will be familiar to many of you – based on previous podcast episodes. That said, this probably marks the occasion when I put it all together in the most comprehensive, overarching way yet, in terms of the implications for the ultimate nature of reality.

And with that said, let’s get to it: Here is the audio from my presentation at the “An Inquiry Into Anomalous Experiences and the Phenomenon” conference held last week in Manhattan, for this, the 73rd episode, of the Point of Convergence podcast.

For those who’ve spent decades searching for answers to the elusive yet seemingly ever-present enigma colloquially known as the UFO Phenomenon, the last several years have been a whirlwind of activity and revelations. It is well understood by those veteran to this field that elements within the U.S. government spent decades not only covering up details that made it abundantly clear that there really was a there there – that we were being visited by non-human intelligences operating craft of the most sophisticated nature – but they simultaneously sought to silence those who sought to proclaim this very fact to the masses.

Using a combination of scorn and ridicule, at minimum, and personal and professional tacks and even violence when necessary, at maximum, the U.S. government’s general approach to the matter of the UFO Phenomenon was to squelch public interest in this topic, while simultaneously doing it’s darnedest to understand it. Of course part of the reason why that approach remained static for so long is that the secret-keepers didn’t make much headway in terms of really getting to the bottom of the enigma.

Yes, there have been crashes and crash retrievals along the way, including of craft that evidence now seemingly suggests we did manage to bring down on occasion, and there apparently have been some major technological breakthroughs as a result. But the real root of this issue still remains elusive. And here I speak of the identity of the beings who are parading around our skies with impunity, and who are interacting with, and sometimes taking aboard their craft and into what appear to be other apparent domains of existence, civilians who the military is powerless to protect.

This is not to say that these so-called abductions are purely malevolent in intent, but merely to point out that, when you get down to it, part of the reason the government has kept this under wraps for so long is that they have zero ability to police the skies within our nation state borders, and thus they are failing in one of the core tenets of what makes a nation-state viable to begin with. In other words, why should a populace ascribe authority to a government when it is simply unable to ensure the smooth running of a society, with even the most basic guarantee as to citizen safety?

Not only is the notion of so-called “protected air space” rendered meaningless by these Others as they buzz in and around our skies, but so too are physical boundaries like locks, doors, walls and the like. When they want, these Others can appear in your room, in the middle of the night, and there’s nothing the government can do to prevent it. And here I really do mean literally nothing.

And this is because these Others have demonstrated the ability to control consciousness itself. Thus even if you stationed an entire military brigade outside a known abductee’s house, these alien beings would make child’s play of getting around these safeguards, including by putting the entire troop into a deep sleep, or simply putting them into a temporary state of suspended animation until they are done with their business.

As I mentioned at the outset, the government’s about-face in recent years really has taken long term ufologists by surprise. These veteran researchers spent so many decades trying to get the government to open up about what it knows about UFOs and the beings operating them, that many of them have been shocked by how quickly things have been changing of late.

For the first time in history, we really do seem to be on the verge of full-blown disclosure. And by that I mean, not only the acknowledgement that some of the craft and phenomena being spotted regularly in our skies are not the property of the U.S. military of any other known nation-state operator, but also that we are being visited by non-human entities, of a sophisticated nature, who seem to rank higher on the proverbial food chain than do we human beings.

Heady days indeed. And again, everything I’m hearing from my sources suggests this really is happening. We really are on the cusp of a civilization-changing series of disclosures. Announcements that will unquestionably and irreversibly change the way we human beings think about ourselves within the larger context of an immense, ancient and multi-dimensional cosmos.

But we again come to the real question at hand: who are these Others? Where are they coming from? How long have they been here? What are their intentions? How many of them are there? Are they one group, or many? These are the fascinating, yet daunting, matters we’ll seek to engage with, from the vantage point of a towering 30,000 foot view, overlooking the multidimensional landscape, if you will, in this, the 70th episode, of the Point of Convergence podcast.

2017 was the year that saw a sudden uptick of mainstream interest in the notion of UFOs following revelations arising from a groundbreaking article in the New York Times. This article described so-called “unidentified aerial phenomena” – modern nomenclature for what had traditionally been referred to as “unidentified flying objects” – UFOs. These revelations suggested these objects and/or phenomena had been documented and studied as part of an official Department of Defense program. This tacit acknowledgment of an official UFO program marked a sharp right turn when compared with the historical trend, where the government had traditionally sought to suppress, dismiss and even ridicule the notion of UFOs, as a part of official policy.

Ever since that trailblazing article was first published the interest in this topic has grown by leaps and bounds in the mainstream – even if it still feels painfully slow and incremental to those more familiar with the wealth of data suggesting there really is a there there, and that there has been for a long time. But nevertheless, the presence of these apparent vehicles, that appear to be under intelligence control, has led to inevitable questions around who might be behind them – either at the wheel – so to speak, or piloting them remotely from somewhere else. Industry insiders attest to the beyond next-gen capabilities of these craft, suggesting – startlingly – that they couldn’t possibly belong to any contemporary nation-state player.

And of course, in people’s minds that leaves open one enticing possibility: the notion that these may be the property of an extraterrestrial intelligence; a biological exo-planetary species who’ve come here to study us for reasons thus far largely unclear. For some people in our civilization this notion is most welcome, because the thinking is that these more sophisticated others may be able to help us address some of our most intractable problems. For others, it prompts feelings of fear, forcing a reckoning around the notion that we may not be the apex species on the block after all.

Of course, for those of us much more intimately familiar with the breadth and depth of the historical literature on this topic, these questions – while certainly profound – are just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. And that’s because a deep dive into the actual data gathered over the decades suggests the presence of one or more extraterrestrial species in our midst may not be sufficient to explain the bizarreness of what has been observed and encountered by human beings around the world and across time.

In the 1970s trailblazing figures like Jacques Vallee and John Keel emerged, provocatively suggesting that the traditional nuts and bolts ET hypothesis was not the best fit for the events described in the literature. Vallee surprised many by drawing parallels between modern UFO encounters with supposed space aliens and encounters with the so-called faerie folk of deep human lore. By comparing and contrasting the nature of these various entities, Vallee forced a 20th century populace to wrestle with the notion that what we might be seeing is just a modern-day manifestation of a presence that had been with us since the very beginning.

While Vallee’s postulation is certainly a compelling one – after all, these striking parallels do exist – it’s also important not to prematurely leap to that conclusion based solely on fairly superficial similarities. And of course, this begs the question: how much overlap really exists between ancient faerie and even religious tradition, and the modern-day UFO Phenomenon? And how might we distinguish between a single intelligence with multiple manifestations, and the presence of multiple intelligences perhaps arising from very different source points? These are the very matters we’ll seek to engage with in this, the 63rd episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.

In recent years numerous accounts involving the UFO Phenomenon have been made public that contain a broad assortment of bizarre, paradigm-stretching, and, for many, credibility-challenging, elements of so-called High Strangeness – i.e. elements that seem to contradict our consensus understanding of the possible. Recent books such as Skinwalkers at the Pentagon have helped to turn the spotlight on these co-arising elements of paranormality that tend to emerge alongside standard UFO sightings.

Some might look at these recent revelations and wonder if perhaps these elements are only now being presented because paranormality has become “in vogue”, so to speak. In other words, skeptics might look at these recent revelations and suggest ufology has become corrupted by the imagination of the time – as if people’s reports have become sprinkled with elements they internalized while watching too much Netflix, or something of the sort.

But the truth is, these elements of High Strangeness are not new. Not in the slightest. The truth is that the reason we see more reporting of these elements today is because there is less repression of these elements and these particular encounters by the ufological gatekeepers who, historically, wanted to present a cohesive nuts and bolts narrative so as to garner the attention and, they hoped, respect, of the scientific mainstream. In other words, historically, ufologists themselves often censored elements of high strangeness in the data that was collated.

But again, these reports have always existed. Paranormality and UFOs go together like the ocean and sand; in other words, not only do they simply co-exist together, but they seem to be directly linked in some kind of causal chain – even if the specifics have long eluded the grasp of researchers and theorists alike.

The curious encounters of a French man who, in order to maintain his privacy, came to be referred to simply as Dr. X, is a perfect case in point. This case is from the late 1960s, long before the current era’s focus on ufological high strangeness, and yet, it has it all: physical healing, the spontaneous appearance of triangular skin marks, memory manipulation, future-casting, poltergeist & hitchhiker effects, multi-generational impacts, etcetera.

What are we to make of this bizarre menu of elements that seem to – effectively – turn on their head almost all of our modern notions as to how reality is supposed to unfold? Do these elements merely demonstrate the impressive capabilities of a more sophisticated extraterrestrial intelligence, or do they perhaps provide hints regarding an origin for some of these mysterious others that flies in the face of the standard hypotheses put forth to make sense of this Phenomenon? These are the very matters we’ll seek to explore in this, the 61st episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.