Somewhere in the Skies - BONUS EPISODE: The 2020 Virtual UFO Congress

Episode Date: September 5, 2020

On this special bonus episode of SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES, we are joined by UFO journalist, owner of OpenMinds, and Master of Ceremonies of the UFO Congress, Alejandro Rojas. He runs us through some of the highlighted guests of this years Virtual UFO Congress. Like many conferences around the world, the Congress was forced to go virtual this year. Owner of the Congress, Karen Brard, stepped up to the plate and created one of the most comprehensive and interactive online events for the growing attendees. Rojas gives a glimpse in to what will be discussed in these online presentations, panels, workshops, and even the EBE Film Festival. Get ready for an online UFO conference for the ages, and I'll see you there... digitally! The 29th Annual UFO Congress runs September 9th-13th completely online. Be sure to head on over to the website to register at discounted rates right now at: www.UFOCongress.com Join the Rojas Report for exclusive interviews and the most current UFO news by CLICKING HERE Patreon: www.patreon.com/somewhereskies Website: www.somewhereintheskies.com YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE Official Store: CLICK HERE Order Ryan's Book by CLICKING HERE Twitter: @SomewhereSkies Instagram: @SomewhereSkiesPod Watch Mysteries Decoded for free at www.CWseed.com Episode edited by Jane Palomera Moore Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES is part of the eOne podcast network. To learn more, CLICK HERE Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UFOs seem to be invading both our skies and our news outlets like never before, and more people are starting to look up and are wondering who or what might be out there. In 2016, Ryan Sprague introduced the world to countless UFO encounters that had never been made public before. And now, in the second edition of his book, he revisits these events and introduces brand new UFO cases, in somewhere in the skies, a human approach to the UFO phenomenon. How have these events change the lives of those involved? And what might it tell us about the phenomenon? With in-depth follow-ups, brand-new chapters,

and detailed testimony from credible witnesses and insight from those in the psychological, academic, and scientific fields, somewhere in the skies, a human approach to the UFO phenomenon, weaves together a story of stories, attempting to get to the heart of these mysteries one experience at a time.

Available now on Amazon in both paperback and ebook. To learn more, visit somewhere in the skies.com. This is Somewhere in the Skies with Ryan Sprague. Alejandro, thank you so much for joining me once again on Somewhere in the Skies. My pleasure. I always love it. Yeah, man. It's always an honor having you here. And we know that when you're on the show, it's got to have something to do with the UFO Congress. And I'm so excited for this. I just registered over on the site. So I can't wait for this. But before we even talk about the UFO Congress running September 9th through the 13th,

I have to get your opinions on this because you're like at the forefront of getting this out to the media and you've spoken to a lot of the individuals involved with this sort of thing. But the UAP task force, this is the big, big thing in the news as of late. So I wanted to get your opinions on this. Maybe if you want to run us through what this is a little bit, A lot of our listeners probably know by now, but for those who are new to everything going on with the Pentagon and Naval Intelligence, what is the UAP task force? And what do you think is going to come of all this? All right. I think that, you know, it's something I've been examining very closely, mostly, mostly looking at kind of the perspective of the insider.

So the perspective of, you know, the Senate, intelligence, who is asked for information from the military on UAPs, and kind of trying to understand, I wrote a piece on, you know, how the DOD's been changing their story, but trying to get a feel for where this is all headed. And I think that the UFO community is in for a pretty big disappointment for the most part. And I think that there's a lot of misperception out there. So essentially, you know, when it comes to mixed messages, where did this UAP task force come from? Just recently, Roger Glassell, you know, Swedish researcher, he's been communicating with Susan Goh, who's one of the press officers, who has been sending out some of these weird messages. But more recently, he asked specifically, you know, is this, why on August 4th, did you announce that this UAP task force is new when you told me it existed prior to this? And what she said is because it wasn't formal before.

It was kind of an informal kind of discussions of these people in the background headed by the Navy to talk about UAPs and the topic. He asked specifically if this was, you know, an extension of the program that Lou Elizondo was part of. And she said no. but I doubtful of that answer because we have, from what I understand, there are the same players. The people who were working with ATIP are also the people working on the task force. Hopefully more specific information about that will come out. And the reason being to show that, yes, indeed, this was, I think, part of what they were working on. But we keep hearing about drones.

We keep talking about drones. And I think that's a much bigger deal than to the military and this topic, then especially the UFO community, wants to understand. And that if you're looking at what are the major threats and kind of what has transpired around the creation of this, is that the Chris Mellon, So your audience probably knows who he is. He used to work for SSCI, the Intelligence Committee and everything.

Mellon is kind of the guy who engineered all this. I mean, it was a plan to come out with Elizondo to demonstrate that the government indeed has investigated UFOs and taken it seriously to get them on the record. Once they're on the record saying that, you then can go to the Senate and say, look, here's evidence. They're looking into it. And that gives the Senate the ability to say, hey, you say you've been looking into UAPs, yet you're supposed to be briefing us on everything you're doing. You've never told us about this. Now we want to hear more.

So that's how this all came about. But Chris Mellons, and we've heard this from the DOD, their major concern is the blind spot. So this UFO taboo that's been created means that they haven't been paying attention to a lot of things they should have. For example, you know, even when I did my first like move on investigator as a field investigator, this was a guy who just got back for my rack. He saw an object. He, you know, he's used to, you know, raising an alarm when when they see something that could be potentially dangerous or a safety concern. nobody wanted to listen but they should have wanted to listen

they should be paying attention to that sort of thing but if you invoke the word UFO then they don't want anything to do with it and that's kind of the argument that Chris has been making is that look these could be Chinese these could be Russian if they are we're in big trouble

another piece that came out you know is this report about the drone incursions over nuclear facilities. Right, right. And supposedly there's been like 50 investigations, only five of which have been resolved. That's a big deal. I mean, if any of those objects had weapons on them, that would be a problem. So they're looking at kind of these real world, more tangible sort of issues. And then there's, of course, what we're all interested, the unidentified. What about those?

What about the truly anomalous? Like the Nimitz situation, which the Navy has insisted. That is unidentified. We don't know what it is. We don't think it's Chinese or Russian. We don't know what to make of that. Well, Roger Gassel asked about that specifically to Susan Goh. And essentially, she said that would be classified.

Any investigation we do in that. So we're not seeing what the development of kind of an opaque or a transparent group. it seems like they are going to be attempting to do their work in the classified realm. Now, Chris Mellon, when he suggested the Senate look into this, he suggested he, I guess he understood that it would likely need to be classified. It was unexpected by him, and I could say this because I've interviewed him recently, that, you know, Marco Rubio and the Senate Intelligence Committee would ask for a public fair. facing report. And I think that's all important. And it's important for us to kind of be grounded and realize this.

Because a lot of people are out there, oh, this is the beginning of them telling us about Roswell and Area 51 and Aliens in the Hangar. It's absolutely none of that. In fact, it may be a Blue Book too, but a much more secretive Blue Book than the original. So if we do want data on the unidentified, the one piece of leverage we have is that politicians are involved and kind of taking a bit of control. And so through that, we can try to solicit our politicians to make sure that there is regular public information available. and hopefully data that is shared with scientists to study this. But I don't think that's a major priority whatsoever.

I would imagine the military will fight that. And I think that's a more realistic place where we're at right now. But looking at the silver lining, what we have achieved. And I think this is what maybe a lot of people in this field don't appreciate or aren't as excited about. But I'm extremely excited about it because it's, been my goal the whole time. And I think, you know, you probably would agree that it's important is that what has transpired, though, is that we do now have this admission that the military takes UFO seriously. They have been investigating them, just like a lot of us researchers have

been saying, but being ignored or being, you know, thinking, oh, we're just making this up. No, we're right. You know, they have been taking it seriously. They have been investigating it. And then now the mainstream is comfortable talking about this. So you've got politicians in Washington. You have people in the Pentagon in the halls of the Pentagon more openly talking about UAPs. And we have media, which I think is slower to catch up, but we have a lot of media, some media talking about it. We've got some mainstream media people, but we also have some media outlets relying on people who have already been researching this topic. to kind of write articles and share information.

So I think that shift, that change, where UFOs now legit, that is something we need to foster. It is a big step that could lead to more, but that's going to be, I think, about all we're going to get out of this. And unless we really focus on, I think more people focus on trying to support this legitimate kind of view of the topic, you know, that could slide through our fingers as well. Absolutely, man. And I think you made some really good points in that this could be our disclosure. This could be it. And that's okay. Like, that's the fact that the U.S. government

who's denied this topic for so long is admitting, yeah, UFOs are real. That's huge. Now, the, you know, the tougher questions arise. Who are they? What do they want? Where do they come from? we might not figure those things out ever ever ever but look like you said i think it's great that there's passionate UFO people out there advocating contacting their local officials and government and uh like you said putting the pressure on them whether it's through the media or uh you know through twitter or bombarding these people and departments with uh you know tell us the truth uh that could work it might scare them away as it often does from broaching this topic too, but I think you're right. I think this is a good thing no matter what. It could be

all we get is what we have now, but who knows? We live in uncertain times. Right. And we're at a stage where, you know, if we look at the scientific exploration or the, I'm sorry, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence institute, the SETI Institute, and those people and how they made that, they changed the public opinion from seeing it as a fringe sort of thing to now a mainstream thing where NASA, it's mostly what they're doing. Now we need to enforce that it is something we need to continue to pay attention to and research just like SETI did. So we do need to foster more of these mainstream, more of these scientists looking at it, talking about it. Hopefully, you know, more organizations or institutes will start to have projects looking at it. That's what we have to foster and grow in order, I think, to get to where a lot of people would like to get.

I would like to get where there is more resources put towards investigation. Because when you mentioned, you know, now who are they? What are they? We're still in this realm where we've got to legitimize or at least to demonstrate that some of these things are not foreign technology. I think that the media is certainly in a place like, well, they could be because they're not techies. They're not listening and hearing, you know, these jet fighter pilots and the technical reasons as to why these objects are exhibiting technology that cannot be ours. And we need to really delve into that and really examine that to the degree where people understand, wow, there's more to this even than possibly some extraordinary Chinese and Russian technology. And to give Rubio credit, you know, he's, I'm not necessarily a fan of everything that Marco Rubio does, but that statement that he made, you know, that, hey, I would rather these be from elsewhere, because if they're Chinese or Russian, that's really scary.

I think that's a good perspective, because then it makes us really scrutinize are these Chinese or Russian, and we really need to scrutinize that to determine. But again, you know, when it comes to the military, they're in a tough spot because let's, you know, because let's, you know, say they do know that their Chinese are Russian. They're not going to want to tip their hand and let the Chinese know that we know they got this. So it's really complicated. It is. It's complex. It's complicated.

Everyone is in this for their own reasons when we're talking politics or military, narratives, everything. So I think you're right. Yeah, I think we just have to take it one day at a time, see what happens. But Alej, you mentioned there's more to all this. And I think that's really important to focus on is you've got to the Stars Academy. You've got the things going on in government. And those are just one aspect of this entire UFO mystery in question. And that's no more true than with the UFO Congress.

So sort of pivoting here, I have to talk to you about some of these speakers you guys have this year because it's probably one of the best lineups I've seen in a really long time, to be honest. And yeah, the owner, Karen. She pivoted, you guys pivoted to what a lot of conferences are doing, you know, in these uncertain times, and that's a virtual conference. So I was wondering, can you tell us a little about how the Congress is running virtually this year? Yeah, and this is definitely a plea to or a recommendation to get your tickets early because what's really cool about it is that Karen was able to find this tool that creates this kind of virtual. environment where you go in there and it's kind of like a forum a community tab where you can discuss on a lot of different topics there's also another tab for exhibitors so the vendors

kind of a virtual vendor room where you could look at this list of vendors and see information about their products and then they can also post videos about their products and they can do like live conference calls like they could say hey come join me at 1 p.m. tomorrow and I'm going to do a live you know, demonstration of my stuff. So there's some of that going on where people are doing these virtual meetups to face-to-face over like Zoom or or other conference call products to see each other. So it's this kind of entire world. It's this community that's built. And that's what's fun because if you jump, if you get your tickets, you get access to this community and you can get in there and start to talk with other attendees, start to talk and interact with the vendors, even the speakers,

You can send them messages. And that's the beauty of it because a lot of times people don't have access to these speakers. But through this tool, you can ask them questions. And they might not get back to you real soon, but certainly during the event, they'll be getting back to people quite a bit. So it creates this community, which is really cool before we even get to the presentations. So it's a really cool tool. It was a difficult situation because, like everybody, we're waiting for things to open up. up. People are thinking they're going to open up. And Arizona, especially, I would argue they weren't as savvy around, you know, doing what they should have done. I mean, Doug Ducey made some news regarding all of this. And Arizona kept thinking, oh, things are going to open up. Things are going to open up. And that kind of makes it difficult for us because we're working with the hotel saying, you know, at least it was our point of view that the science isn't saying that, you know. And so we had to wait until, you know,

the hotel would let us out and say, okay, fine, you know, you can't do this physically. And so then we had to wait until that moment to then begin to entertain doing it in this manner. So then Karen had to do research, okay, if we're going to do this, how are we going to do it? And she found this tool. We had to get that online. And then there's all the time to learn it and understand how to use it. So it's all been kind of last minute, it feels like. And even now we're still learning some of the nuances of how all of this works.

But the community is up and online, and that's really great. I think it's a little more intimate, you know, in that it's one thing to see someone up on a stage, which is nice and fun. But in this case, we're going to be in people's living rooms. We're going to be in their personal working spaces and seeing them doing their talks from there and then being able to interact with them and ask questions. So all of that's pretty exciting. I think it's going to be a lot of fun for everyone. So I would just implore people if you're considering it and you're thinking,

yeah, I'm going to get my tickets. Get them now and get in there and start interacting with people because it's a lot of fun. Yeah, I think it's so cool that you're able to, you know, meet up with people even before the thing happens. And who would have thought, you know, a virtual conference would actually bring you closer than a flesh and blood conference, but I do agree with you. I think this offers people the opportunity to speak to everyone and, you know, sit on their couch or lay in bed and have a, you know, have a Mai Tai and just enjoy the show.

I think it's a great thing. It's the future. It's what we have to deal with now in this new world we're living in. And I think you guys have adapted amazing. And that really comes too with the speakers. you have. So I'd love to run through some of these people with the Alejandro. Give us a little taste of what they might be talking about and what we can expect. Sure. The first person I saw who really stood out was Brian Bender. He's going to be talking about is government transparency happening. This has a lot to do with what we just spoke about, the UAP Task Force. So yeah, how did you get Brian? And yeah, what do you think he's going to be talking about? Yeah, this is fun because Brian, I think it'll probably be me doing a one-on-one interview with him.

And I've done quite a few in the past, or at least a couple. I guess I stayed quite a few because we talk quite a bit. Luckily, we've become friends because he's out here in Arizona, which is where the UFO Congress is headquartered. And, you know, he has had an interest. I mean, he, while he was the defense and space editor for Politico, you know, he was asking questions about this stuff, which is shocking to me of, you know, these high-level officials. What's great with Brian is that he hobnobbs with all of these people. You know, he goes to these defense conferences. He goes to these government conferences, some of the biggest ones.

He hobnobbs with the generals, with the politicians. he's in D.C. So he knows what the buzz is. And not only that, he's got a huge amount of sources where he can kind of ask, what do you guys think of this Harry Reid thing, you know, his UFO thing, which is kind of, of course, the attitude they have. Harry Reid and his UFO thing. And, you know, get people's opinions and get some background.

And that makes it invaluable. and his reporting particularly important because when he's reporting, he's not just reporting what he's discovered, but it's also the buzz. This is a buzz on the hill. This is what or in the Pentagon. This is what, how they see what's happening here. And so that's kind of what we'll be talking about and his impressions about things. Because, you know, he has a more holistic perspective, I think, and how this actually. actually fits into government policy and the industrial, you know, military complex. And I think that's

really important. I think a lot of people blow it off and think, ah, that can't be the case. But, you know, I think you do so at your own peril because then you're not going to really understand, you know, the inner mechanisms behind all of this. And what kind of becomes difficult, and it's kind of my job, or, you know, our job as interviewers to interpret, they also use different. verbage. So, for example, Lou Elizondo, from his perspective, is like, you know, A-Tip was a big project.

We did a lot of stuff. But Bender's perspective is it was just a little portfolio that he worked on part of the time. Both are true. Those don't have to be opposing opinions or views. It's just a matter of perspective.

Brian's looking at the big picture and the big picture, you know, it's not like NORAD or something where they had a headquarters with a dozen people that are hard at work, working with multiple agencies. No, it was kind of essentially like Nick Pope. It's one guy at a desk, making phone calls. Sure, he's coordinating when working with a lot of people throughout the military, but, you know, it's one person coordinating all this and working with these others who are just working with him as opposed to being part of the project. So from my perspective, what Lou describes is a big deal.

And even what Bender describes is a big deal. But it's just, you know, in the grand scheme of things, it's a fairly, you know, kind of small thing as far as projects go. So that's the sort of advantage, I think, someone like Brian brings in some of this in order to understand all of this. And, of course, to understand a mainstream perspective because Politico is won't, it's policy. it is very and this is a type of area where credibility is really important so you really get I think a strong idea of

kind of how mainstream media is kind of working with this too. Brian's more open than most but his experience in trying to research all of this is also really interesting. So yeah I think that it's really important

I think these are the perspectives we need because again in the UFO community, there's these echo chambers and people saying, oh, my gosh, you're going to be talking about, you know, Roswell and crashed UFOs. And, you know, we're hearing none of that out of, you know, actually from Washington. So I think we get a more realistic perspective. And yeah, I'm excited about it. It's always really excited. And that's another thing that's really cool with the conference, like I talked about with the interaction, people like Brian Bender, who may be hard to get to, if you're a person in the public and you have a question,

you know, they'll have the opportunity to pose questions to him at the conference. Absolutely. And I think it's amazing that he took this invitation and he's willing to speak to the public and to the UFO community too, who, you know, it's hard. It's hard when all they want to talk about is crash saucers and alien abductions. But then there's the cold, hard truth that there is an extremely militarized and politicized version of the UFO topic. So I'm really excited for that too, man.

And just to add, because this will come up later, too, I think, is that there's also, he's not even opposed to those things being a possibility. It's just how that would work, you know, in the real world. That's what we really need to understand. And how one may gain access or information and how willing is the military or the government or how close, what are any clues that they may be ready to reveal more? I think those are all the things that we need to look at closely. Unfortunately, as we talked about earlier, we don't see those sort of things.

But at least, you know, you can ask someone like Brian who's open-minded to say, well, if that sort of thing exists, which it may, here's how that might work, which gives us, you know, makes us smarter at what we do. Well, let's talk about smart people. This next guy, a lot of people might remember him. He was on an episode of Unidentified on the History Channel. And we know him as the triangular UFO guy. But he's actually going to be talking about something completely different, which is really cool. That's David Marler. And he's going to be talking about a UFO burn victim from 1964. Now, do you know anything about this case, Alejandro? And yeah, are you excited to see what David's bringing to the table? I'm always excited for David's talks because David's talks are some of my absolute favorite. And what's great about David is that if he's doing a talk on a topic, you know that he's done a deep dive to really get to information that you won't see anywhere else. and that he's going to really substantiate his argument.

For instance, if you see his talk on the Battle of L.A., I mean, he really demonstrates how this was a Nimitz-type case. You know, jet scrambled, radar, all of this stuff, and I never knew any of that. You know, I never knew how solid of a case that was. I don't think anybody did until David did this research. So Burns, if it was any, anybody else, I would be like burn. If someone getting burned from a UFO, yeah, right. You know, I would be pretty skeptical. But I'm extremely excited with David because I'm confident that he's going to convince me that, you know, he's going to have some really strong evidence to support this. So

that's, of course, I'm super excited about it. I know very little about the case. And I'm trying to stay away from looking into it because I want to watch David go through it and share. and so I can experience it, you know, through his work. And he's so good. I'm really, really excited about that. Yeah, and what I would give to see that dude's library in his home. Yeah. Well, you know, and the other thing, just to wrap up David Marler, this idea of biological effects.

This is now, like, the official sixth observable, according to Luis Alizando and the work of ATIP and to the Stars Academy. And look, I went in a deep dive after I saw that David was going to be talking about this. And there are hundreds of cases where there have been physiological effects on the human observing the UFO or experiencing the close encounter. So this is just one of many and one I'm sure is going to really perk some ears and open some eyes. Right. I mean, we, George Knapp leaked and not many people have looked at this or even seen it. But it was a report by a Bass executive anonymous. They didn't say who. And this is someone who worked with ATIP.

And they talk a lot about physical effects. So obviously that was something that they were doing with this Pentagon investigation at Bigelow and Bass was contracted to do. And then there's this project Condine, which is a report from the UK where they also go over physical effects. Yeah, there are a lot of people looking into this. So it's going to be great for David to demonstrate, you know, the credibility behind it. How convinced are we that there have been physical effects? And that's what's going to be great about his presentation. What's up, guys, Ryan Sprag here.

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somewhere skies. Thank you and keep looking up. All right. Well, here's another one, a gentleman who hasn't spoken at many conferences, but he's kind of a big deal right now in the UFO community, and that's Deep Prasad. and he's going to be talking about the complexities of understanding alien intelligences. So, yeah, tell us a little about Deep Alejandro and if you're looking forward to this one too. This is really interesting.

Yeah, Deep is a controversial figure. He's a young guy who speaks his mind and, you know, there have been people questioning his background. And I don't know, people have said he's kind of over-exaggerated or something. And perhaps in some arenas. I don't know. But we vetted him. And, you know, he was a superstar at school. He was, you know, they wrote an article on him in his school. It seems like people have always been really excited about him and felt that he's a intelligent, you know, deep thinker. And I think that's what we appreciate about him and that others do. You know, he is, he's got his own kind of tech startup. He's trying to start up. And that's just it. I think deep is, hey, as his first name is appropriate, he's a deep art intellectual speakers. So I think that he's got interesting perspectives.

And so, yeah, I'm excited to see him bringing up how would we communicate with aliens. It's kind of a topic that I've been interested in. I've got an article. It comes up a lot. There was this, there was this, the signal course. is essentially there are people getting trained on. I think it was the NSA. I'm pretty sure it was the NSA.

Where they train each other on kind of cracking codes, right? And there's this document out there about cracking alien code. And a lot of people use this and say, look, they got an alien signal and they were trying to crack the code. No, that's not what it was at all. But I think what it really was is interesting because there was this professor teaching cracking code. And he said, you know, what if we get a...

signal? What if SETI gets a signal and they come to us and they ask us to crack it? How are we going to go about that? And that was the idea, which was kind of interesting. They were seriously considering these possibilities. And so he created exercises for students around cracking these alien codes. So I think that that's really interesting, the idea of if we do get a signal, how are we going to deal with that? And it's a topic that has penetrated mainstream science. You know, there are scientists that you could read their papers on this very topic. So it's going to be, I think, really interesting and eye-opening to people to kind of consider how would we do that? If we do receive a message, how are we even going to understand it?

So I think it's a great topic. Kind of bleeding into that is another individual who's going to be talking about something somewhat similar, and that's Diana Pesulka. and she's going to be talking about protocols for contacts. So right there, man. You've got these two heavy hitters out there, not necessarily, you know, that well known in the UFO community, tackling these hypotheticals. So, yeah, tell us a little about Diana and what we can expect from that.

I think this is going to be really interesting because she's another interesting person. And her thoughts are more along the sociological minds, I guess I would say. into religion and how kind of belief systems affect culture and everything. So I think that that will be an interesting take from her because, you know, really, if you are going to, if you were, let's say, part of the UAP task force, and you're like, okay, we are going to have to, as a, you know, we've got this close encounter situation. They want to land and they want to talk to us,

and it's going to be a public thing. You know, you would want to rely on someone like a Diana Posulka in that how is this going to affect people? Are they going to freak? Are they, what are they going to do? Especially because, you know, considering worldviews and deeply held worldviews, like religious views.

You know, is this going to cause some emotional kind of problems? How do we do this in a manner in which, you know, it's not effective and not impactive. And so, yeah, I think that she's in a good spot to be someone to offer up some suggestions on how that might happen. And, of course, a lot of us when we, at least myself, other sci-fi people or people into this, you know, think how. would that happen? You know, I always think about first contact Star Trek and how the Vulcans came and, you know, after we flew this, this new spacecraft out, you know, and what if that's the sort of thing that happens? When it happens, how is it going to happen? And will it happen? And I think probably it will at some point. So, yeah, it's a topic that I'm really into. So it ought to be a

great one. I think so, yeah. And, you know, a lot of people may have read Diana's book, American Cosmic. And in that book, she featured a guy named Chris Bledso in his experiences. So you guys also have Chris Bledso coming. He's going to be talking about angels and aliens. So right there, man, mixing UFOs with religion again. Yeah, what do you make of Chris Bledso and his entire story? And yeah, should we be excited about this one? I think so in that Chris Bledsoe is a case that a lot of people believe in. I've been friends with John Alexander, formal colonel and Army intelligence and everything for quite a while. And John is always talking about Bledsoe and that he had his own personal signing with Chris Bledsoe. It's kind of interesting because when his story first came out, it was kind of a big deal.

and then he went quiet. He wasn't talking to anyone. And I guess because they were working on a movie deal or something, and it never came to fruition, I guess. I'm not sure, but he was, like, out of the public. And now all of a sudden he's back, and he's working very closely with a friend of mine, Lori, a friend of ours, Karen and mine.

And so luckily, you know, we were able to get him at the conference because I think people really into this topic have been dying to get to know what this guy's like for maybe a decade that, you know, his name has kind of been out there. So, yeah, so that's really exciting. We'll finally get to, the public will finally get to do some more interacting and getting to know Chris Bloodsoe. And his case, and I think what's interesting about this is, you know,

Jacques Valet talks about this a lot. And, in fact, we'll have another speaker kind of talking about this, too, is kind of these archetypes. When we experience the paranormal, how do we interpret it? And in the past, it's been interpreted through mythology, through religion, you know, angels and demons sort of thing. And this case seems to be kind of a mixture of that. Aliens and angels. So they have an interesting, I think, a unique perspective of what's going on with him.

And so it'll be interesting to hear from him on this. Yeah. And, you know, I always tell people, the UFO topic can be seen. So through so many different lenses and how you perceive your experience and interpret that. So I think that's fascinating. I can't wait to hear because I know very little about Chris Bletsow's entire string of events. So I'm really looking forward to finally sitting down and consuming everything he has to say. And that goes for this person too.

Now, we know kind of the key players in the Rendezum Forest incident. and the gentleman who touched the craft and the base commander, deputy base commander, Holt and everyone in between. But a lot of people don't know about Lori Rayfelt and her incredible stories of what happened while she was working at RAF Bentwater. So yeah, tell us a little about what Lori's going to be talking about. Yeah, Lori had an experience, I think something like a month or a year, but it was prior to the famous Rendell's.

some force stuff that we're aware of in the 1980s that involved Colonel Halt, the deputy base commander, and made that all a big deal. Laurie's experience was prior to that when she was stationed at the base. And, you know, I always, because, as you know, there's been some people who have made claims about being involved with that, that were not accurate. I'm well aware. I was writing a play about this person you're speaking about.

That play will never see the light of day. That's another story, though. Yeah, yeah. A lot of people were affected by that. But I did confirm with Hulk, you know, that she was really there, or at least working on the base. They didn't know each other. But she had worked there. The first time I saw her was with the disclosure project.

She was one of those witnesses. So she did this video with Stephen Greer years ago talking about her experience. And then, of course, all of those interviews that he did have become, you know, big on the internet. And she kind of disappeared. And we actually were really fortunate. She sought us out. She sent an email saying, hey, I'm really ready to talk about my experiences. And we said we were flattered.

We were like, well, of course we'd be, you know, we'd be honored to have you part of the conference. And so, yeah, so she's going to come talk about her experience. and how it's affected her life. And she's a very thoughtful, intelligent person, retired now. And so it's going to, yeah, it's another great one. And, you know, someone who looked into the Rendlesham incidents pretty thoroughly is this next gentleman. A lot of people will know this name Nick Pope. He was the former UFO desk guy for the MOD.

And look, we've got all the news going on in America. about atyp and pentagon programs, UOP task force. But a lot of people didn't know that while those stories were sort of breaking back in 2017, the UK released tons of their UFO files. So that's what Nick Pope's going to be talking about here. So yeah, what can we expect from our British correspondent over there?

Well, you know, I've relied on Nick Pope a lot over the last few years to help us understand ATIP and Elizond. Rondo's role and all this stuff going on. And, you know, I think people have underestimated his, the importance of his input and insights on this because he was doing the same thing. As time goes on and as we understand this more, there are more and more parallels between what Elizondo was doing and what Nick Pope was doing. However, the other helpful insight we get from Nick Pope is that he had some public interface, whereas Elizondo did not. They were more secretive.

The public didn't even know it was going on. We in the field who knew these people, a lot of people involved didn't even know it was going on. But with Nick, the public is aware. And so Nick employed these spin and dirty tricks to get people off the trail, you know, to trick the media into thinking there was nothing to these things. And what's interesting about those insights is that we've seen the DOD using the same type of tricks that Nick Pope has described. Beyond that, though, as far as his similarities with Elizondo, he was that guy working the UFO desk. Over the years, people have said, oh, Nick Pope is making his job looking into UFOs bigger than it was. And I don't think that's necessarily a fair argument.

I think it's impossible for Nick to try to accurately describe what he did and people not, you know, criticize the way he frames it, just like what is happening to Lou Elizondo. You know, they try to describe what they did. And some people are saying, oh, you're making it a bigger deal than it was or, you know, sort of thing. And it's kind of interesting because I think they're both in a tough spot because you're just, trying to explain and how do you try to tell someone, well, it's a project, but it's not like a funded program, like something huge like you would think of. And I think especially these guys boyying A-Tip and stuff, A-Tip was very informal. You're not going to get this sort of

information you would get from a more formal kind of project or program. Remember, this was kind of a Harry Reid pet project. This isn't something the Pentagon created on their own. It was kind of shoehorned in, ATIP, I mean. And the UFO desk was not like this big thing either. So the parallels are really interesting. Even the ways they went about investigation, I think, were really similar. So that's why I think right now, Nick Pope, there's no person on the planet who is more like an Elizondo than Nick Pope was in the UK. So I think if you're interested in knowing about that and governments and how they work. And I think, you know, there's practically no better person than Nick Pope to talk to about

all these things. So he's invaluable to lend insight, especially right now. Absolutely. I mean, like you said, there are almost mirror images of one another when it comes to this. So I'm really excited for that. And then, oh, man, here's the one I'm really looking forward to. For those who listen to the show, we've covered this case in the past, the Ruiz and Bobway aerial school encounter. And, you know, tons of kids were witnessed to this UFO landing on

their school yard. They saw entities. It was a crazy case that was investigated and all the kids were interviewed by Harvard psychiatrist John Mack at one point. A stunning, stunning case. And you were able to get one of the children that was there back when this happened. And that's Selma Sadiq. So, yeah, tell us a little about this and what we can. expect from Selma. You're probably saying it right, Siddi Khan. I say Cidic, which is probably wrong. Who, hey, hey, we'll ask her in the chat, right?

Yeah, this is an exciting one. Were you there when we had Emily Trim at the Congress? Yes, I was there that year. I thought so. You're there most of the time, but you can attest to the atmosphere in the room when Emily Trim was talking about her experience was unique and it was a rare moment. It was a special moment. Everybody's on pins and needles listening to her account.

And that's what makes me excited for Salma, because they're both very articulate. These encounters have affected their lives. And, you know, and the encounter itself, the Rua

encounter, is an extraordinary situation, you know, with all of these kids. None of the teachers saw, but the kids saw, you know, this craft land, this being come out of it. And, you know, the kids all tell the adults at first that are blowing them off. And then all the kids are like, no, this really happened. So they start to take them seriously.

And the way the kids describe the experience and the feelings they got from looking at this, this, what they allegedly be, you know, alien or at least this creature, is pretty incredible. I mean, it's not the type of thing you would expect children to say. So you can tell from talking to these witnesses, you know, this experience was very impactful. And so that's what's going to be wonderful about talking to Sama as an adult, a professional today, to get her impressions of what it was like back then and how it affected her life. And, you know, it is one of these wow moments. A lot of people love hearing from Travis Walton.

And I think it's kind of a similar reason, you know, someone who apparently had an extraordinary encounter that really shook them to their core. And so to have them express the emotional impact and is, it's moving. And so, yeah, so like you, I'm really excited for this as well. It's something we've been trying to arrange for a while. And then I was going to try to get an interview. And then I decided to kind of hold off because we've been trying to get her for the Congress. And so thankfully, very excited that she'll be involved this year. Yeah.

And I'm sure it'll be well worth the way because, I mean, you know me, man. I'm all about the human behind the experience. So these things affect people in many different ways. Some of those kids were traumatized and their lives didn't go. so well after that event, but someone like Selma has become, you know, a shining light for the world and the stuff she's done since that experience. And she admits that a lot of what she does today was directly influenced by what she experienced as a kid. So I'm really excited about that. Oh, here's the last one I really want to talk to you about specifically.

And that's Travis Taylor, Bryant, Dragon, Arnold, and Tom Winterton, the guy's over at Skinwalker Ranch. No Congress or no conference is anything without Skinwalker Ranch. So, yeah, tell us a little about what we can expect with this. Yeah, how can you be into A-TIP and all this stuff and Bigelow without being into Skinwalker also? Skinwalker's been such a big deal to us in the UFO community. General public is just kind of starting to understand it or at least get some insight. So yeah, to hear these guys in their experience working at Skinwalker and doing the History Channel show, have you heard officially about a season two? Yes, yeah.

It was announced on the Skinwalker podcast, I think, over at Rogue Planet at one point with the executive producer. They have confirmed there is a second season and they're halfway done with filming it. Yeah, so we'll talk more about that. In fact, yeah, because exactly. So this is going to be a lot of fun hearing about season two, hearing about, you know, their personal experiences with some weirdness. Yeah, I'm excited for that, man. Well, hey, I'm just going to run through the remaining names so people can seek these people out.

We got Linda Zimmerman, Rebecca Hardcastle, Kate Thorvalson. I hope I'm saying that correct. Oh, you did it well. M. J. Benayas, Kevin Neuth, Gwen Farrell, Chad Lewis, Timothy Brigham, and of course, like you mentioned, Travis Walton. So huge lineup. This is so awesome. There's going to be panel discussions. But the last thing I really want to talk to you about here, Alejandro, is the EBE Film Festival. This is something I was a huge part of when I volunteered for the Congress for many years. And yeah, can you tell us a little about this film festival? Do, uh, do, uh, Who was nominated and, yeah, how members can take part in this? This will be fun. So essentially, if you register for the conference at whatever level, you're going to have access to watch the movies. So Tuesday, we're trying to do it just like we do at the conference.

So Tuesday, the day before the conference, anybody who wants to join in can join in and watch the movies. And be a judge. If you want to be a judge, we do require that you watch all the movies. because you need to judge, you know, between them. But otherwise, yeah, you can pop in and watch the films. We don't have a whole lot, and it's probably because of this weird format. But we do have quite, we're going to have about six movies that will be showing. Some of them from UFO TV, and some of, like, for instance,

we've got some shorts that are actually animated, but extremely well-produced. and those are from UFO TV. We've got this short that I think is really cool about this guy, this old man who says he had an experience and figured and was kind of communicated to him how to build a UFO, like Howard Menger or something. So it's a great little documentary. And then we also have a movie from Louis Turi about his alleged alien contact

And then we have another one called the Cahokee Lights about this case there. And the filmmaker for this one has won awards in the past. Of course, so is UFO TV. So you know they're produced really well. So the films are going to be a lot of fun. So we'll show them all on Tuesday. We've got two categories. And then everybody who watches them during the conference can vote and let us know.

and that person will win a people's choice award. So there's three awards that are given out the long form, short form, and people's choice. And so it ought to be fun. I mean, I don't know that we're going to have three films in each category more than that. So they might all get shown, which is great, you know. More than Marriott, that's even better because it's great to get these movies in front of audiences. And then Saturday, we're planning on and it'll be interesting. saying how we pull this off, but Karen wants to try to mirror the award ceremony as good as possible.

We'll have some of the speakers, including Brian Bender and Travis Walton, so far, here at the house, outside, we're going to have a food and kind of try to do a banquet and dress up and then do like an award ceremony. So that ought to be kind of funny. That'll be awesome. Hey, no award ceremony is worth it if everyone's not dressed to the nine. So that'll be cool. I'm really looking forward to the film festival. I always do.

It's near and dear to my heart. But before we wrap things up here, Alejandro, with the Congress, tell us a little about the Rojas report and some of the amazing guests you've had on this. This is like Alejandro rebooted 2.0. So, yeah, tell us a little about this. Yeah, exactly. you know, I kind of felt what you wrote for Open Minds and so has, you know, Maureen and Jason, who you work with, have, we're also part of the staff and Hute contributed to a lot of what we've done at Open Mind.

So we've always turned this perspective of trying to be as journalistic as possible, just like we all continue to do to this day. And it's a unique niche, I think. And to be honest, I got a little bummed with the UFO community, because all this A-Tip stuff comes out, you know, UFOs are becoming legit. And it seemed like a lot of the UFO community doubled down on the crazy, if I can put it so fine. But instead of kind of embracing this new world and trying to help, I think, you know, people new to this, like credible mainstream and science ease into the topic and try to foster these relationships, a lot just went like, hey, this is ours. and I'm just going to roll all this into my worldview.

And a lot of the UFO community have this idea that this is kind of a trickle disclosure and this is leading to, you know, Roswell aliens and everything being exposed, none of which we have one iota, I think of, well, I shouldn't say one iota. I should say we don't really have any strong evidence towards that. We do have some very fringe perspectives from people like Tom DeLong and Eric Davis who are part of this group. But, you know, just because they believe something doesn't mean that this is something that the government is actively working towards. And we don't have any indication of any of that stuff. So I kind of got disappointed.

But then when I stopped doing stuff, and I also was potentially going to get hired by two of the start. So I didn't want to, like, write about two the stars. Meanwhile, you know, I could possibly be getting hired by them. In fact, if it wasn't, supposedly, if it wasn't for the pandemic, I'd be working there. But I don't know. I'm sorry, man. Hey, we would all kill for that opportunity. But you know what?

I know. You know, the future is bright. There's a reason we're all still here. So I'm still pulling for you, brother. Yeah. So, but I saw that, you know, this credible arena had been left open. somewhat, specifically on this area of the more, you know, credible mainstream. So I came back and I also, you know, it was hard to afford.

As you know, it's hard to afford to do all of this stuff. There's, you know, equipment, tech. I've got to pay, you know, $50 a month just to keep the website up, which is a good thing in a way because it's a very popular website. So I came back and I decided I'm going to put my interviews and analysis and behind a wall, which is very cheap. It costs very little. And I've been fortunate of when I did come back, there were a lot of people who I interacted with who wanted to talk with me and get some information out. And so I have been really fortunate with my relationships, you know, with people like

Brian Bender, Chris Mellon, I was able to get an interview with. And I don't think the UFO community, anybody has gotten an interview with Chris Mellon in a long time. Lou Elizondo, luckily I have contact with and I got to do an interview with him recently. And I am in fairly regular contact. I can't always get information on the record for him. Well, actually, these days I can more. But, you know, sometimes it, depending on what's going on at the time, information is more readily available than others. Yeah. So luckily, I've got access to a lot of these main players. and, you know, we're tackling this at the level of, you know, hopefully what you would see, you know, Washington insider type of perspective. What's really going on? What's the buzz? This stuff is so complicated when it comes to policy and regulations and laws.

And some of the other people I interview like John Alexander or Adam Kehoe, a guy who's now blocking about this, who's, you know, focused. on policy and government policy. Steve McDaniel from Skyhub, who has a background in naval intelligence. Tim McMillan, who's got a background in intelligence. MJ Benayas, a lot of people you're talking to, too, you know, but really focusing on all of these topics and kind of putting our heads together to figure all of this out. So, yeah, so that's what the Rojas report is about. I'm still doing my podcast.

In fact, oh, in like an hour here, I'll be recording it live on, on, YouTube. But that's much shorter where I just kind of review the news of the week and then tell them about the Rojas reports I've got out there. So yeah, that's the new world. I've kind of working in. And I had a lot of friends like Richard Dolan and even Lou and some others who are like, you've got to keep doing this. You've got to keep doing this. And that felt really good. And a lot of my audience, you know, like, where are you got to come back? And so that felt really good to have that. And I did notice. And, you know, I think this is something that we all need to remember. All of us, and I know for a fact you experience this, we've got a lot of people coming out.

It's really negative. They want us to believe what they believe. And if we don't, then we're evil and awful and they express that in the worst ways that they could. And that can affect you. But the reality is there are, and we know this by the numbers, your show, my show, you know, you look at the numbers. There are thousands of people out there who are just quietly observing who really appreciate the type of thing we do. Right. And it's hard to remember that when they're quiet, but they're there. And they're there every week, every day. You know, they're always there enjoying that, what we're putting out there.

And that's, that's really inspiring. And it's something I think we always have to remember. Absolutely. And, you know, you make a good point. It is the ones who don't reach out and who are listening every week that truly support you, whether it's through, you know, your, your patrons or things like that. And it's the most vocal ones who are usually the mean people. So I think that's a really good point.

But for every one of them, there's a hundred amazing supportive people. I am a member of your Patreon. I love everything you do. I love getting the updates every week on the UFO news. And look, man, I don't bring people on to promote things that often. And the reason I do it with you is because I truly believe in the work that you and Karen do. I believe in everything you've done for the UFO journalism world. And I can't wait to see what comes next.

But tell us, give us the links. Where can we register for the Congress? And where can we find everything you're up to personally as well? And I do want to thank you. I'm a Patreon follower of yours as well. Yeah. I'm having one. Thank you.

But, yeah, at Patreon, you can find me on Patreon, of course, by looking for Alejandro Rojas, because really I put up everything I put up there because I haven't done a Den of Geek in a while. I was doing a lot of UFO stuff for Den of Geek not too long ago, and those went really well. But I should have some pieces again, which is something I love on space, on like NASA, and some other types of things. that way. But really, if you want to find all my stuff, you open minds TV, open minds. TV is where you find my UFO stuff. And you can find the Congress there and at UFOCongress.com. So UFOCongris.com is everything about the international UFO Congress. Go there now. Check our

social media for discount codes. If I could remember one, I would tell you. But we've got them posted on our social media. And we've been doing, you know, rolling discount code. on social media. So definitely go check those out. And join us at the UFO Congress. It's going to be a lot of fun. And like I said, get your tickets as soon as possible. And so that's a lot of fun.

And then, of course, I am writing for Den of Geek. And I've got some other exciting projects, writing projects, that I'm working on. So I should have some really cool bylines coming up here. And I'm excited about that. I guess I should explain that. Bylines mean a credit. So I should be writing for an outline. outlet or two that's going to be, I'm excited about. Yeah, so that's everything going on. It's

fast and furious. And then at the same time, I'm also doing mortgages. If anybody needs to refinance, get a hold of me. You are a man on the move. You wear a million hats. I love it, man. I don't know when you sleep, but I know you're not going to be sleeping at all this upcoming week with the Congress. So again, Alejandro, I have to thank you for coming on. Everyone go register right now. and thank you so much for joining me again on Somewhere in the Skies. My pleasure. Thank you so much. Somewhere in the Skies is produced by Third Kind Productions in association with the Entertainment One Podcast Network.