Following revelations in 2017 of a secret government program studying UFOs buried deep within the Pentagon, many scientists, academics, and government officials stopped wondering whether UFOs were real and started asking: "what are they?" This journey led them far beyond machines in the sky, taking them down a rabbit hole of alien encounters, near-death experiences, remote viewing, and other seemingly unrelated paranormal phenomena.
The docuseries aims to dive deep into the UFO phenomenon after a shocking government revelation in 2017 that skyrocketed the conversation.
Exploring the Unexplained
Episode 3, for example, follows Rice University Professor of Religious Thought and Philosophy Jeff Kripal, who runs a UFO conference for those studying or interested in the topic.
He used history and the religious experience to shape how the UFO interest came about, like bringing up a group of Protestants who created an “Invisible College” where they studied stuff they weren’t allowed to question. The episode doesn’t give many answers, but rather brings up events that are unexplainable and studies done that don’t have a full result.
Jacquee Vallee and Garry Nolan discuss the materials Vallee collected from these UFO events that came back with peculiar results. Overall, the third episode stresses the importance of bringing the topic into academia and those scholars studying it.
Read also: Details on the UFO crash retrieval whistleblower's claims.
Episode 4 deals with secret government programs, specifically Stargate by the Defense Intelligence Agency and SRI International, to investigate the potential for psychic phenomena in intelligence applications. It was interesting to see this conversation about remote viewing and clairvoyants because it was something I had no clue about, at least to this extent.
The episode then shifts into a broader conversation about the dimensions of the universe and what we don’t know. I gravitated towards a point made that the UFOs biggest secret isn’t about the craft or technology, but rather the interest in human potential, consciousness, extraphysical experiences, and the psyche.
Throughout the two episodes, the personal stories shared by some of the subjects are most captivating. A standout was the story of Jay Christopher King, founder of The Experiencer Group.
His story deals with an incident with his ex-wife as they encountered a glowing orb traveling towards them, which resulted in her going unconscious and his experience seeing two E.T. like creatures, laying down, and receiving a medical procedure. King gets very emotional during the story because he couldn’t live in denial like his ex-wife wanted to after the event had ended and wanted to deal with what he had been through head-on.
The Science Behind the Unknown
The science of it all is also fascinating to look at since the results can’t be fully explained. The docuseries brings in a lot of subjects of all different backgrounds and walks of life, podcasters, scientists, professors, or authors, they all take the topic very seriously and are well versed.
Read also: Extraterrestrial Life Theories
Some topics can seem a bit complicated to follow, but they do a great job throughout the series of threading them together and it also helps that a lot of these subjects know one another very well.
Most people think that UFOs are just machines in the sky. Academics and scientists are finally able to study UFOs and alien encounters without risking their careers.
Also featured are Tim Gallaudet (Rear Admiral, US Navy, Retired), Greg Eghigian (Professor of History and Bioethics at Penn State), Mitch Horowitz (Author, Modern Occultism), Jeffrey J. Paul Crowder directed the first and third episodes, and Mark Monroe directed the second and fourth episodes. The series is co-executive produced by Kevin Lincoln.
Mark Monroe, Lyn Lear, Rachel Rusch Rich, Sean Stuart, Glen Zipper, and J.J. Abrams are the executive producers.
Revelations of a secret Pentagon program, as well as eyewitness testimony from fighter pilots, force the world to take UFOs seriously for the first time in years.
Read also: Government Secrets and UFOs
NASA's Role in UAP Studies
For NASA to even form a UAP panel - it lent credibility to the field was a big deal for the scientific community and the public. It was apparent that the panel process was intended to make a positive impact in the field and within our scientific and national community.
The panel was tasked with understanding the landscape of UAPs, what they look like and how often UAPs were reported. What kind of resources could NASA and other government agencies offer? What kind of industry partnerships could be beneficial?
The NASA UAP panel boasted a diverse membership, including oceanographers, astrophysicists, government agencies and industry experts. One of our leading recommendations was to fix this and to have better inter-agency communication.
The panel explored the use of cell phones and metadata on cell phones. If someone did record something, what metadata would be associated with it? For instance, in what direction was the phone pointing? What were the conditions? Was the data manipulated?
The panel also looked at earth-observing satellites and the type of data we have today and will have in the future for scientific investigations.
In the context of UAPs, I think it would be really surprising if we ever found a marker that alien life was here on planet Earth. Simply because of the energy resources needed to travel between stars, the time it would take - it really is unfathomably large.
But I do think that in our lifetime we will find something. Maybe a biosignature in a distant planet's atmosphere. It could even be what we call an “artificial signal” in another atmosphere that showed the presence of some technology.
And what shocks me most is that we barely try to answer it. That’s why I’m interested in this field.
Though some of the information shared in the docuseries may not be new to those who are deep into the topic, it is a great start for those who want to learn more or just a casual enthusiast. The personal stories are incredibly engaging to listen to because of its unknown nature, which will leave you pondering about what that could’ve been.
UFO's: Investigating the Unknown MEGA EPISODE | Secret Programs and Close Encounters | Nat Geo
Episodes
- Episode 1: October 27, 2024
- Episode 2: November 3, 2024
- Episode 3: November 10, 2024