Somewhere in the Skies - LIVE from AlienCon Baltimore

Episode Date: November 19, 2018

On episode 83 of SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES, we drop you smack dab in the center of AlienCon Baltimore! When Ryan wasn't speaking, moderating panels, and facilitating UFO witness sessions, he was invading the vendor hall and green room to bring a collection of interviews from some of the most notable speakers at this three-day event. You'll hear from many UFO researchers, Ancient Aliens contributors, and even some audio from exclusive panel discussions, including a Q&A with Paul Hynek, son of the acclaimed astronomer, J. Allen Hynek. Guests also include Richard Dolan, Nick Pope, Ramy Romany, Travis Walton, Alejandro Rojas, Karen Brard, Stephen Bassett, Jason McClellan, Dr. David Floyd, and Patrick Harnett. With attendance growing at this event every outing, it is clear that the UFO and alien topics are inching ever closer to the mainstream, and Ryan was fortunate enough to be in the middle of it all. And now, you will too. This is one for the books, so sit back, strap in, and remember, we're not saying it's aliens... but... you know the rest! 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 Opening and Closing Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES is produced by Third Kind Productions, in association with eOne Entertainment SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES is sponsored by HelloFresh. To receive 50% off your first order, use promo code: SOMEWHERE50 at checkout by visiting www.HelloFresh.ca 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

Hey y'all, Ryan Sprague here. As you all know, the Somewhere in the Sky's podcast is always free to consume. But it isn't free to create. That's why I've started the Somewhere in the Sky's Patreon campaign. On a monthly basis, you give what you think the show is worth. You'll be helping the show continue, grow, and to be something truly communal. And remember, there are rewards for each level of contribution, and the list is only growing. So please, help Somewhere in the Skies now by becoming a page.

To contribute and to learn more, visit www.patriot.com backslash SomewhereSkies. Thank you for your support. And now on with the show. Today on the show, AlienCon invades Somewhere in the Skies. This is Somewhere in the Skies with Ryan Sprague. Welcome to Somewhere in the Skies. I'm your host Ryan Sprague, and today is a very special post-Alian episode. AlienCon ran November. 9th through the 11th in Baltimore, Maryland. And it was a huge success for this convention's first East Coast outing. From what I'm told, the numbers far exceeded their expectations, so much so that they've already announced their next stop in Los Angeles, California, in mid-June of 2019. It was a fun, insightful, and busy weekend full of panels,

lectures, special events, and of course, ancient aliens. Which is the main focus of this convention? And no matter your thoughts on the ancient alien theory, the convention has opened the doors to the UFO research community, like never before. Hard hitters like Richard Dolan, Alejandro Rojas, Jason McClellan, Stephen Bassett, Linda Moulton Howe, Nick Pope, and many others were there all week, providing insight on their latest research. Popular experiencer and lecturer Travis Walton was also an attendant.

and so, so many contributors to the ancient aliens TV show that I can't even keep track. You'll hear from one of them in a little while. While I was there to give talks, moderate panels, and spread the word about someone in the skies, I was also there to meet new people and hear their stories. So for any new listeners who may have been at AlienCon, thank you for joining us, and thank you for your support. Jason McClellan and I were in full, full. representing our company, Roke Planet. We recorded a live podcast recording with an audience,

and you'll hear that entire episode in the very near future. We also gave a talk on UFOs in pop culture, and I personally facilitated an experiencer session where people shared their UFO and contact encounters. I was told it was one of the highest attended events outside of the main hall. If you're listening, thank you to everyone who should. shared their stories that day. But today, I have probably the most epic list of guests you could possibly imagine joining

me from Alien Khan. When I had a few moments free, I was able to hop on with many of the guests to record brief interviews, all about their time there, what they'd be talking about, and what comes next in terms of UFOs, aliens, and their personal research. I have to thank all of them for taking the time to do this in such a crazy atmosphere. And just a warning, the audio is going to be a little different for a bunch of these because I literally used whatever I had on hand at the moment. But rest assured, it's worth it. So, first up, I had the amazing opportunity to hear from loyal listener and attendee Patrick about his experiences at his first ever AlienCon and UFO themed convention.

All right, so we are here at AlienCon, Baltimore, 2018, and it is in, It is Saturday, the second day of the event, and we didn't even have time to do any interviews yesterday. But today, we are going to be bringing you a lot of content. And first and foremost, we have one of our loyal listeners and Baltimore, Alien Khan attendees, Patrick, with us. Patrick, how you doing, man? I'm doing good. How you doing? Good. Good. So we have connected through social networks. We've been chatting for months and months and months now about UFOs and cryptids and everything. And correct me if I'm wrong, you connected with me through Shannon Legreau of Into the Fray, right?

Yes, I did indeed, the show Into the Frey. And I loved it, and I heard about you and Sam and everything, so I follow you guys, and then you did your show as Summer in the Skies. Right, so you found me through another show, which is kind of how these things work. We have interests, you know, I'm a UFO guy, someone else is a cryptid guy, someone's this, that. What really brought you into the world of UFOs and got you to?

actually come to an alien con? I've always been fascinated by the paranormal. UFOs, Bigfoot, ghosts, everything. I love mystery. I love the idea that there's something more out there. And I've always been into it. And since the internet and podcast came along,

there's more outlets to listen to what I love, you know. And I become obsessed now with Bigfoot. But I do love UFOs and the idea that is there something out there. Okay, so I have to ask you this question on the spot. A lot of people have been talking. recently that all these things could be connected, ghosts, UFOs, Bigfoot. Do you put any stock into that whole theory that all these things could be somehow intrinsically linked? Or are they completely separate, in your opinion? Well, I guess it's life. Everything is linked in life somehow,

but I don't think so. There's theories, there's experiences out there of Bigfoot and UFOs and all that. It's certainly worth to look into it, but I don't feel it's connected. It could be. I mean, knows. Who knows? That's kind of the basis of our whole existence here. So, this is the second day. I know you've attended some events so far. We've gone to a few panels ourselves. What so far has been your most memorable experience here at AlienCon? Was it at talk? Was it meeting someone? What do you think? I think so far it's somewhere in the sky's presentation because I just walked in. you just started and I think there's people standing up and talking about their experiences and then I realized there's people here that have experiences and they're up there putting themselves

out and telling them and they could be short it could be long experiences but it's a big deal for them and it's a big deal to have this event here for people because you know I have a lot of friends I told them I was coming they were like kind of looking at me and laughing me you know but it's good to see that there's people interested in this and that I'm not alone you know on this you know and it's even even as a as a person who's just interested in the subject it's still people mock you you know and say why are you into that for you know it's an interest it's a curiosity and if you're curious about life you've got to be curious about this you know couldn't put it better myself there's people here in all walks of life and all different belief systems but

they have this one thing in common it's to find answers is there life out there in the universe I have to thank you for saying someone in the skies your check is in the mail for that anything else uh what else What else exciting have you done here? Well, I got to see Michael Dorn. I'm going to hopefully get an autograph for him, but I'm a big Star Trek fan, and it's great to have access to him and to hear his point of view about life, his work on Star Trek and all that, because Star Trek is a big influence to me.

And the good thing about Star Trek is it makes you use your imagination about what's out there, what's the possibilities, you know? And I think that's connected to UFOs because, you know, when you see a UFO, hear about UFOs, you think what's out there, what other alien civilizations are there. So I love the connection of Star Trek and UFOs and all that. Yeah, it's a very interesting mix at this convention of actual legitimate UFO research and science fiction. And the two always seem to be connected somehow, influence one another, which Jason and I are going to be talking about at our UFOs and pop culture talk.

So are there any sort of alien-themed TV shows or movies besides Star Trek that really resonant? with you that could give us some information about the actual UFO phenomenon? I can't think of any offhand but again I go back to Star Trek it just sparks the imagination it is the preeminent show that what could happen

and what could be I always love that about Star Trek I was a Star Wars guy so we'll have to have that debate you can be both that's true why does there have to be black or white I agree so just one observation there's all kinds of people here and yesterday There's like a lot of older people more than an average. So it's not just young people coming in dressing up.

It's all walks of life coming here. And I found that very impressive. Absolutely. That's a really good point. You see a diversity here unlike any other sort of UFO convention or paranormal convention. You see. And I think it's the one thing that can sort of bring everyone together. You know, our country seems to be divided right now in many ways.

But you come here and that's all brushed aside for at least three days. And I think people are coming here looking to, for the idea that there's another planet they can escape to at the moment, you know. I think people just want to get off now with all the craziness going on, you know, and just, you know. Could it be a rogue planet? It could be. You like that one? There you go.

Patrick, thank you so much for joining us on Unknown and Somewhere in the Skies. And we hope you have a good time the rest of the convention. I will and I know I will. Yeah, thanks. It was such a pleasure meeting Patrick, hearing about what compelled him to attend, and just the pure excitement he had, gaining insight on the mystery. presented at the event. Thanks to Patrick, and remember, live long and prosper, my friend.

Next up was Karen Bird and Alejandro Rojas of Open Minds and co-partners and owners of the International UFO Congress. They were super busy throughout the week, introducing alien con attendees to their endeavors, and they had some of the most amazing merchandise I've ever seen on sale. They had this anti-gravity flying saucer that was spinning and was actually blasting rock music, muse to be specific.

I have no idea how it worked, but it was awesome. But I digress. Let's hear about their experiences at AlienCon and about some of the talks and panels Alejandro took part in throughout the weekend. I am here with Karen, the head of the International UFO Congress. Karen, how is AlienCon going? I'm having a great time.

The energy is really great. A lot of people here. Yesterday, I had a big crowd, but today is I think it's twice as big. Everybody's very friendly. They're very interested. I ask everybody if this is their first time to a UFO or alien conference. And about 75% of them saying, yes, it is.

And they're very excited. So it's a really good thing to get people more into this field by having it on mainstream television and people feel more comfortable coming to something like that. And hopefully they'll get interested enough to try some other conferences and get more into the subject. Absolutely. And I mean, we just met a guy who,

who was like 13 years old here, came up to Jason McClellan and said, I love your work. So that, that to me proves that there is a younger generation interested in this topic. Are you seeing like an influx of younger people getting involved in UFO research

or even just coming to AlienCon? What do you make of that whole thing? I would say maybe not so much in research, but in just an interest. Yes, they are very interested. They get a lot of their information online as opposed to, you know, how we do. so they might not be at conferences as much if they have to travel or something like that.

But local conferences, they really have been coming out, like the other Alien Con in Pasadena. Yes, young people are very excited about it. And they like the whole fun idea about it, too, similar to a Comic-Con or something like that. So they really love the energy and getting out amongst, you know, fellow alien interest people. And I mean, your booth here is apparent that, like, this is mainstream. People love this stuff. You have endless amounts of alien merchandise here. Can we find this stuff online?

Is this available just to AlienCon? Or how does that work? Well, AlienConn has its own website, and they sell products. We sell our own products on UFOCongris.com. And you can get our T-shirts, our hoodies, our beanies, our drawstring bags, jewelry. We have a lot of different things. And so you can get it online. We just sold out of about 100 stocking caps with aliens on it,

So we'll be getting some more of those if they want to go online and find that. So, yeah, we've really been selling a lot. And people are really excited to buy some things and buying gifts for their friends and family. And not only that, I mean, you're getting the word out about the UFO Congress at another big event. So I have to ask you, I know it was recently announced when and where the UFO Congress is going to be next year. So is there any info you can give us on that right now? Just that it is next September, September 4th through 8th, downtown Phoenix and Sheraton. You can go there on our website, UFOcongress.com, find the link, and you can reserve your room now.

And other than that, in about a month, we'll be able to buy tickets and find out all the prices for the tickets. So about a month. And also, if you would like to be a vendor and to sell things, you can also find that out in about a month on our website. Awesome. I'm so excited. I hope to be there, even if I'm backstage, you know, volunteering. I love the event. And this has been great.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. So Alejandro, tell us what you've done so far here at AlienCon, what you got coming up. All of it. You are a busy man. Yeah. So the first day on Friday, I had a couple talks. The first one was ETs and celebrities.

The second one was astronomers and UFOs. And then today I was with Jason, your our buddy, on a panel with Richard Dolan and Stephen Bassett about post-disclosure. And then tomorrow I have a talk on Spilberg, which is a lot of fun. It's called Spilberg Uphologist. It's about the cases, they're really cool, real cases that inspired a lot of his movies. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to that one. We're going to be doing a panel on UFOs and pop culture, which bleeds a lot into what you're doing. We have Project Blue Book, the new History Channel show here as well.

So it's really cool to see Heinek, Blue Book, all these things that we know a lot about getting out to the mainstream. So I have to ask you, what is your perception of AlienCon, what it's done to get this topic out there. What are your thoughts on all that? I really love, first of all, I love to see the big history channel presence, because I'm very excited about the project Blue Book. I've been wearing my Ryan Sprague Hynek

T-shirt. It's my favorite new t-shirt. I love it. Thanks for the plug. So I'm excited about awareness coming to the show because I think that show is going to bring awareness that the U.S. Air Force really did real UFO investigations, and that people like Heinek and others involved with the project

did not come to the same conclusion that the mystery was nothing to be paid attention to. So when it comes to Alien Con, though, I think it's great that it brings awareness. I mean, some people have gotten upset with me for speaking. Why are you doing AlienCon? You know it's ancient aliens. But I love it when we have a crowd full of people. And I've had this experience several times this year and last year. And you remember this. We were on a panel together and I asked how many of you were aware of the New York Times article and very few people raise their hand. So at least then we're able to educate them about all of these other things that they're not aware of.

In fact, Steve Bassett asked at the beginning of this panel we were in, that was packed, how many of you have been to an alien con or convention before? And almost everybody raised their hand. So it just shows you how much awareness, you know, this is all bringing out to the public, which I think is a very good thing. Absolutely. That was one of the best panels I've seen today on a post-disclosure world. Some amazing questions and very insightful questions as well.

You know, Q&As can be deadly. We both know that. But that was an amazing presentation. I can't wait to see what you're doing tomorrow. And we have the UFO Congress coming when? September. So, yeah, everybody go to UFO Congress.com, and you can see more information. And we'll be getting a lot more information out in the coming weeks, but extremely excited about it.

It's going to be downtown near the convention center in Phoenix. And the lineup that we're going to have is I think people are really going to enjoy it. It's something unique and different. And we're living in, I feel, for this topic really incredible times. I couldn't agree more. Thank you so much for your time, Alejandra. Thank you.

It was so cool hearing Alejandra's talk on Stephen Spielberg and also his contributions to a panel discussion featuring Stephen Bassett, Richard Dolan, and Jason McClellan. I was able to get a little raw audio from that discussion. This starts after a question about the recent activity involving the Omuamua Mua object that recently entered and left our solar system. system and how it could tie in to some sort of disclosure of alien life.

Yeah, I'm interested in that asteroid or that object as much as probably anybody else, and I think that my expertise is about as much as anybody else's as well. I mean, you have one very prominent astrophysicist who said this looks artificial, and that's quite significant. Then you have an entire community of astronomers and other colleagues who say, no, it's not at all that's crazy talk. So I don't know, I think it's interesting. As anyone who's looked at this asteroid, it's very physically interesting.

It doesn't seem to look like an asteroid. So my approach as a complete layperson in this area is to say maybe, and that's about the best I can say. I wouldn't consider a disclosure in any other genuine sense, unless with this proviso, if there are other scientists who really have some expertise in this and are willing to put themselves out on the line in a public discourse and actually have it out and just say, no, I agree with this other individual and there is at least reason to conclude that it's artificial. But that's the most I could say. I do think that we're moving, this is just segueing, but I think our civilization, our society is moving at a faster and faster pace in terms of disclosure. And when I,

I wrote a book after disclosure eight years ago now. And at that point, history was moving even then a lot slower, it seemed to me. Things are just speeding up, and I would not be surprised if something is forced in terms of a truly open admission of some sort. It doesn't mean it'll be truthful, but it doesn't mean that the subject will be at least somewhat out on the table

for a public discussion, and that's a good start. Go ahead, Alejandro. Yeah, I wanted to comment, and it's called Omuamua, so you're pretty close. But what's interesting about it is the idea that it could be extra-tri-tri- Correstrial was offered by a Harvard scientist in a paper that's coming out on the 16th. And that's what I think is really significant, is that there's kind of this trend where these guys aren't afraid to, like I think, say, pull a Georgio and say it might be aliens.

And we see this in this instance, and there's another situation. It's called Tabby Star, where they've seen this star that's dimming in a strange pattern. And again, in a scientific paper, the scientists themselves who did the analysis offered up, this could be due to extraterrestrial technology. So it's kind of, I don't know if it's Giorgio having influence or, you know, all of us in our work having influence. But luckily, scientists are willing to go there. And I would say also that, you know, scientists these days are coming out of college are pretty young. But the younger people, by far, when you look at the statistics, are open to this idea. It's not a big deal, not like older people where, you know, they're a little bit more hesitant to even talk about the topic.

Jason McClellan was then asked about his thoughts on how younger people would react to the indisputable announcement of alien life. His response was rather interesting. I have a question. I'm going to interject. I have one for Jason. Well, Jason, you've got podcasts, you've got blogs, YouTube, and a direct pipeline into the geek world. So my question is this, amongst the millennials, what are you getting from them in terms of how they think about disclosure, what they think might be coming, and so forth? Well, we talk to a lot of people at events, UFO events, but also a pop culture events, like Comic-Con. And more and more, and it always surprises me how, like Alejandro mentioned, the view of the younger audience is one of, duh, like it's already accepted.

It's in their minds already that, yes, intelligent extraterrestrials exist. Yeah, they're probably here. Why are we talking about it? Move on. It's not a question of if or, you know, does that actually exist. They assume that and don't see it as a topic of conversation that we need to have. So you think that the president were announced, say, a month from now or two months from now, that yes, there's extraterrestrials here.

They would go, yeah, I do. knew that and just go about their business or they get really excited? They get excited for two weeks. They give a nice thumbs up on Facebook. Move on. Fair enough. Next question, sir. The topic of disclosure is perhaps one of the most interesting sociological and philosophical hypotheticals we have within UFO discourse. And it's panels like this that really get the mind turning.

What would you do in a post-disclosure world? I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'll put a tweet up asking this very question, and feel free to follow At Somewhere Skies on Twitter to share your response. Or also on our active Facebook group. If you're not a member, ask for an invite, and I'll let you in. Just search Facebook for Somewhere in the Sky's podcast. Staying on the topic of disclosure, I sat down with Stephen Bassett, head of the paradigm research group, UFO activist and lobbyist, and the organizer of the highly publicized citizens hearing on disclosure.

Here's what he had to say about his talks and where we are headed in terms of the UFO question and beyond. Stephen, thank you for joining me. Happy to be here. This is my second alien con. I was at Pasadena. I missed the first one, the massive one in San Francisco, but that's cool. And the reason I'm here is because after 13 years, I finally got on the show. You know, you beg long enough and eventually somebody tries to help you out.

But I was very proud to be on the first opening dual episode of season 13 this year. And they focused on the politics a lot and disclosure. In other words, modern aliens. And I got a substantial amount of presence on that. And so they made me an alumnus. And so I get to come to AlienCon. And it's, I know about ComicCon. and how huge that is and everything else.

You couldn't have done this 10 to 12 years ago, 50 years ago, no way. The ET issue is moving completely out of the UFO era and into the disclosure era or the exopolitical era. What people are interested in now is not, are there UFOs or real or not, but rather when's the government going to confirm it? When's it going to go? We're past that. Yeah, we were into it.

And so whereas 40, 50 years ago, people, some researcher might get a group together in a basement of a library, and talk about a sighting or something, and then people upstairs would think it's all pretty funny. Now we're getting together in major convention centers with 10, 15,000 people, talking about disclosure, talking about the witnesses and what have you.

This is, of course, thanks to A&E and Kevin Burns, and this most successful of all shows on this subject matter, and History Channel as well. And then, of course, History Channel is following up with another series on January 8, the Project Blue Book series, backed up by Robert Zemeckis. Which is a big presence here at AlienCon as well. It is. I think the mural for it is about 100 feet long.

And this is not happening because these, I mean, guys like Zemeckis. They can do movies. They can do anything they want. I mean, they could shoot for stuff that could be $100 million, $200 million. He's not doing a show on Jay Allen Heineck because he just felt like doing it. they know that something big is coming. They have a lot of contacts. They're very powerful people, very well.

They have a lot of contacts. And they know something is coming, and they realize that, boy, this would be the time to get a show out about Jay Allen Hining and Project Blue Book. And there's another show in the works on Area 51 that I just heard about. I don't know if it's history. And there's a couple of others behind that.

So things are approaching the breakpoint when something is going to happen that's going to force a government, could be U.S., could be another government, to make the formal announcement, which confirms it, and then let's go around the world. So for me, being here,

I'll be in front of an audience of about 1,500, I think, 3 o'clock today, and getting the feedback and feeling the energy is great. It's what keeps me going. I've been at this for 22 years, and it wasn't exactly a high-paid deal, okay? It's an activist thing for me.

I'm an activist. So I'm basically trying to represent the people's interest. So this is what energizes me, and I'm just thrilled to be here, and I'm looking forward to my next maybe slot on an ancient alien episode. Absolutely. And I'm sure we're going to see it at the UFO Congress as well, right? Almost certainly. And I'm already slated for contact in the desert.

I think I've already got ten conferences up listed for next year in terms of my listings. I list all the conferences on my website, Paradigm Research. group.org. I've already got 10. A couple of them are brand new. Next year could be huge. I mean huge in terms of turnout and so forth if what I think is going to happen happens. Well, I have to ask you, we heard recently that there are some people who are going to be speaking to congressional members. Now you put on the citizens hearing. So the fact that this could be happening again, that we're actually getting someone in there to talk. What do you make of all that? There's very major developments going on behind the scenes.

All right. Your listeners need to go to To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science, their website. It's easy to find to the Stars Academy and review everything there. This is a major development. It involves former high-level intel insiders who are backed up by others inside. They've formed an organization and they've done some, they've released some on camera footage. They've done some pretty powerful things. However, the political situation now is so chaotic that it, it's, it's, they've done some, they've done some, they've done some, they've done some pretty powerful things. However, the political situation now is so chaotic that it, it's, it's, it's, just wasn't getting the reception it needed. So they sort of slowed things down and they're just kind of slow walking it while they wait to see how things are going to resolve. And what I have, has been confirmed to me is that one of the key people, Louis Alizando, has been going up on the hill for private meetings. Now, they're not saying who they're meeting with and they're not really saying anything much about that. It's, it's not intended to be public really. It's quiet because, and none of the members are going to be talking about it. But they're basically, they're just, you know, I try to get to meet with these members too, but I don't have the, I don't have the ends that these people have.

I mean, these are high-level career, D-I-A-A-A-C-I people. So they're getting those meetings, and where that's going to lead, I don't know, but it's another sign that something is in the works. So if the political situation resolves by January, early January, I intend to go back to Washington and get back into full-time lobbying. In other words, I'm going to get up on the hill as well. Now, I'm not going to be getting probably the excess that they are. However, I do have some insights and some knowledge. And I need to make some contacts because eventually there's going to be a lot of people dealing with this. And I want to represent the people's interest.

So I'm looking forward to that. But it all depends on the political situation now, which is, you know, is one of the most bizarre I've ever seen in my lot of time. And I need to hopefully get, you know, settled down. Things are moving fast and there's no time to wait any longer. So I really, I respect the work that you do. I'm wishing you all the best of luck. And we're in there, we're in your corner, man. And I'm wishing Prometheus and A&A, the best of luck as well.

And I'm thinking that this is the alien archaeological equivalent of the Simpsons or South Park. Technically, it can go on forever. Yep. Thanks, Stephen. All right. Wrapping up our thread on disclosure, I also got to speak with former Ministry of Defense employee and head of their UFO investigation unit, Nick Pope, all about the recent developments with the Secret Pentagon UFO program to the Stars Academy and Nick's role as a media consultant and journalist in the ever-expanding mainstream coverage of UFOs. Nick, thanks so much for taking the time. Thank you. It's good to be here.

How is Alien Khan Baltimore been for you so far, man? It's full on. It's the great mix of fascinating information and fun too. There's been presentations and panels, but also the cosplay, and it's a great mix. It's a lot different from most UFO conferences, would you say? Absolutely. This is a hybrid, if you'll excuse the pun, between the conventional UFO conference, which is organized, I guess, along the lines of a scientific or academic conference, and basically a fan convention like Comic-Con. So what they've done is they've blended the two,

and they've mixed UFOs with science fiction. So we've got actors here from Doctor Who and Star Trek, as well as the contributors to ancient aliens. Yeah, and I mean, you have been running around. I can't believe I got the time to actually talk to you, doing so many panels and solo presentations. So could you maybe tell us, a little about what you've spoken about so far and what you got planned for the last day here?

Yesterday I gave a presentation on government UFO secrecy, and I went into the reasons why governments are secretive about this, and I talked specifically, of course, about the British government, the Ministry of Defense, where I worked on this issue for many years, and I talked also about the Pentagon's UFO program, ATIP, Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. It's a bit of a mouthful, and, of course, people debate whether it is advanced aerospace or advanced aviation. And when you can't even be certain what the project was called, you know that you're in some pretty spooky territory.

And another big thing that people have been talking about at AlienCon here is your new movie, Aliens at the Pentagon. Now, I know this sort of ties into A-TIP as well, so can you tell us a little about that? Yes, Aliens at the Pentagon is my take on the A-Tip story, the story of how for many years the US government said, we no longer investigate UFOs, we're not interested, and it turned out they did.

So actually this is one of these great occasions where if the skeptics and the debunkers were saying, oh, all you people are crazy for thinking that the government's doing this, well, turns out they were right, and the government was doing this, and indeed is. Lou Alizondo, the DIA official who ran the program, says, and he's got contacts, of course, still in the system, the program is still active. So aliens at the Pentagon is my kind of insider's take, having run a similar

program in the UK, of how and why the US government is still investigating, what they might have concluded, what they were working on, and how, I contextualize it in looking at the broader picture of governmental interest in UFOs, the threats and the opportunities, which is how government looks at this. Right. I think that word threat is extremely. important in getting funding for a project such as that as well. So with your experience with working for a governmental agency in terms of UFOs, where do you see the future of To the Stars going? Well, I think To the Stars Academy have done some great work. Clearly they are pushing behind the scenes for things like congressional hearings. I am doing the same

thing. I had the opportunity to write a piece on this for one of the UK's National Daily Newspapers, The Guardian, and I went on to Tucker Carlson tonight on Fox and talked about how the Senate Armed Services Committee and the House Armed Services Committee are looking at ATIP. They are looking at the 2004 USS Nimitz incident where, of course, we've seen the videos of the F-18 Super Hornets and chasing the UFOs. So all this is going on to the stars are involved in this. I'm doing some work with my media contacts and a few governmental contacts that I still have, even though I'm retired, but no, not entirely, I guess.

Never entirely. Yeah, you never really leave, as they say. But, yeah, interesting times. And what we've seen with the A-TIP story is how this subject has come out of the fringe into the mainstream. Who would have thought a year ago that we would be reading about this on the front page of the New York Times? It would be in the post, Politico, CNN, Fox, NBC, ABC, etc. It's become more mainstream and widely accepted more than ever. So I have to ask you, what is next for you? And where do you think we stand in terms of possible disclosure? I know those

are very big questions to ask of you, but what do you think? Well, first of all, on disclosure, I always like to say that there's a difference between disclosure with a big D and disclosure with a little D. Disclosure with a big D is this kind of ladies and gentlemen, you know, my fellow Americans, people of the world, we are not alone. And that's the kind of UFO community fantasy. I don't think that will happen. I think what we will see is disclosure with a little D and one could argue that that is occurring, has occurred. I think the declassification and release of the UK. government's UFO files, and I've played a part in that, both behind the scenes and as a spokesperson,

that's part of it. The revelations about ATIP are also a part of that. And of course, there is more to come on all of these stories. I mean, as to what's next for me personally, I've taken a step away from the UFO subject for my latest project, which is an action thriller called Blood Brothers. I just, you know, I worked for the Ministry of Defence, for 21 years. Only three of those years were actually on the UFO program. So I did, for example, my last job was much more to do with counterterrorism, intelligence, that sort of thing.

So I have, as I say, taken a new step, written some fiction, and Blood Brothers is out. I think this actual coming week is the publication date. And of course, there is already interest in film and TV rights for that because it's an action thriller but also it's a I don't want to give too much away but it's a buddy movie too

so um and I enjoyed stepping away from the UFO subject but of course you can never really get away from it as the old saying goes just when I thought I was out they pull me back in every time absolutely so I'm not

I'm not going to stop working to try and continue the process of keeping this subject in the public eye. I'm lucky enough to have mainstream media contacts. I will use that media access to keep this subject in the spotlight, to push for congressional hearings. We have congressional interests,

but I'd like to see formal congressional hearings. And it's never a cut-and-dried issue. It's a process. It's an ongoing process. That was very inspiring, Nick. I hope that happens, and I look forward to the future of everything you're doing. and the future of this topic that we all are intrinsically linked with. So thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you. Considering AlienCon is sponsored in part by the Ancient Aliens television show. I couldn't not interview one of the most popular individuals on the show. In my personal opinion, this guy is probably the most insightful and grounded researchers to be featured in countless seasons and episodes. And that is Rami Rmani. Rami is an Egyptologist, filmmaker, and just all-around nice dude to chat with. So, here's a little bit about what he talked about at his lectures,

and a sneak peek at his new book, Conspired. Thank you so much for joining me, man. Thank you so much for having me, Ryan. To finally meet you, it's a huge honor. So I have to ask you, you are giving a talk today. Today is Saturday and Sunday, two different talks, one on the history of Egypt, one on Mummy. So could you tell us a little bit about books? of those for the people who aren't going to make it here?

Well, the first one is not just about the history of Egypt, it's about the biased history of Egypt. I am obsessed with archaeology and Egyptology, but in a different way, I am obsessed with the unexplained. I've studied all my life explanations that could make sense to big world mysteries in ancient Egypt, and the problem is that it's the explanations

that everyone comes together and agrees on with no facts. And that's the problem. For me, the unexplained is what matters most. And I think it's a group effort by everyone that listens, by everyone that looks into it, because everyone comes up with their own theory, and one of them could be correct. But the unexplained is my passion. And ancient Egypt has a lot of unexplained history. We have so much, we have so much archaeology from ancient Egypt that we have found. But even though that's the case, it's only 10% of ancient Egypt. 90% of ancient Egypt is still under the sands of Egypt.

So having a lot of mysteries still unexplained is the reason I do this. And it's fine if it's unexplained. 90% of ancient Egypt has not been found. It's fine if it's unexplained. And that's what I do. I love them. And a lot of the misconceptions with the whole, ancient alien theory as well is I remember someone asked you this when you had like one minute

left answer at a Q&A, did aliens build the pyramids in Egypt? And I loved your answer. It was, you're going to ask me that when I have one minute left? It's a huge contention and a misconception that ancient aliens is just about aliens came here and they built all of these amazing things that cultures get no credit for. So I have to ask you, what do you make of all these these ideas and your role that you play in bringing that to the ancient aliens theory, to that audience. What do you make of all that? It's the biggest criticism I have as an Egyptologist from the scientific world, just the fact that I appear on ancient aliens.

And the problem with that is that I think the scientific world is just as ignorant about what they criticize as the rest of the world is. They probably have never watched ancient aliens, and just by looking at the title, they probably think ancient aliens is all about green people coming to the earth, coming to Earth hundreds of thousands years ago and building structures with technology for us.

And that is not the case. Ancient aliens is literally a place where people ask questions and have unexplained theories. And ancient aliens can sound deceiving. But the ancient Egyptian mythology with the gods and every... job of every god, just the gods of ancient Egypt is the definition of ancient aliens. An alien is a

being that doesn't come from this earth, whatever it is. And if people believe in gods of ancient Egypt, what is a god? A god is a being that doesn't come from this earth. So that is technically an alien. But just saying ancient aliens sound so bad when scientifically and theoretically, when you think about it, ancient Egyptian mythology is full of ancient aliens. That's a really good point. Do your research, look into the history of a place, and then come to those conclusions. I love that. I love that. So your next talk is going to be about mummies. Can you give us a little cap on what that's going to be about? My next talk is going to be about mummies, not just because I'm obsessed with my... I have a mummy fetish. Maybe I shouldn't be saying that.

That's an exclusive. But mummies are... The one thing we actually have from ancient Egypt that is real. Everything else could be anything, but the mummies is the bodies of these ancient Egyptians. And sometimes we don't realize that mummy is a scary thing in a movie, but those mummies are human bodies. Those mummies are dead people that are still here a thousand years later. Those mummies are literally a time capsule that can tell us so much about the history of our ancestors when the technology is right.

And when will this air? Because I can tell you a secret. Oh, I can't tell you that secret then. But I'll give you a hint about the secret. Keep watching for me on TV for some announcement coming up. and it mummies is the hint. You've heard it first here, guys. All right, so we're going to cap this off with. You recently came out with a book.

I was so excited when I saw this coming out, Conspired. Can you tell us a little bit about this, where we can find it and what to expect from it? Conspired is a book that is also about an unexplained mystery that strikes me as an archaeologist. I went inside a tomb in ancient Egypt that no one is allowed into. It's called KV-55, and when I went to it, inside it was unlike any other tomb, bare walls, no drawings, all the way inside, there's a sarcophagus

with a mummy, and around the mummy there is the magical blocks. Those magical blocks exist in every tomb. They are the ones that protect the mummy from the outer world because that's where people think the mummy occurs. They have inscriptions on them that says anyone that comes close to this mummy will be choked to death. But in that tomb specifically, those magical blocks were turned inwards instead of outwards, which tells you that whoever did this wanted to not protect this mummy from the outer world,

but to protect the outer world from this mummy. On the way out of the tomb, there were inscriptions on the wall by ancient Egyptian priest's language, the heretics, and it says, The evil one shall not live again. That took me on a journey to try to solve this mystery and find the unexplained.

Who could this be, and why did they treat him so bad? what could he have done? And that's the book. Wow. Where can we find it? You can find it at AlienCon Store or Amazon.com. Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for me. Cheers. Another really interesting individual I met and have been corresponding with for years now is Dr. David Floyd.

I was so honored to hear that he has been a listener of Somewhere in the Skies since the very beginning. And has even featured some of my past articles in his name. his classroom as a professor of English at Charleston Southern University. He gave perhaps one of the more unique talks at AlienCon, focused on the cultural history of gothic science fiction and its connections to the UFO in Alien Question. I have with me right now, David. David spoke recently today, right?

Or was it yesterday? Yesterday you spoke. All right. And we connected through Facebook, social network, the glory of the internet. And leading up to this event, we were hashing out ideas on how to attack these things. And I was so excited for your presentation. But what happens, as these things often do, my presentation was the same time as yours. So I didn't get to see it. So for those who didn't get to see it and for the listeners, can you tell us a little about what you spoke of here at AlienCon? Absolutely.

And first of all, it's great to be here and finally meet you face to face. Like you said, we've been in touch with each other for really two years or so. And poor Ryan, I would send these questions to him. What does he think about this case? Or what does this mean? And that type of thing. Because this whole world is a little new to me. And my talk had to do with the title of it was a cultural history of Gothic science fiction.

Wow. It was kind of a mouthful, right? And to sort of unpack that, my area of specialization, I teach English at a, at Charleston Southern University. And my area of specialization is 19th century literature, mostly stuff like proto-science fiction, gothic fiction, this type of stuff. And for people that don't know what that is,

it's Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jackal and Mr. Hodge, early science fiction, that type of thing. And so my focus has always been this sort of gothic literature and that type of thing. And I started to look into science fiction a little more and realized that science fiction sort of grew out of gothic fiction in a way that I was not even aware of. And so for the last little bit, I've been researching that,

and that's really what my talk was, sort of the Gothic roots of what we today consider to be science fiction, which, again, was a little surprising to me as a researcher to discover that. But I think the audience seemed to enjoy those connections that we made and I told them, you know, next time you see a science fiction film, remember this particular thing that might have come from 1818, you know. Now, I have to ask you, when I think of Gothic, sci-fi or fiction, Lovecraft comes to mind for me as well.

Is that something you've looked into? I did read Lovecraft quite a bit when I was in college. But because my focus is British literature, and he, in 19th century, and he was writing in 1920s or so in America. That shows how much I know about the history. What's interesting is one of my favorite writers from the 19th century is Arthur Mackin, who's a little less known, but he was actually Lovecraft's favorite writer. So if you read Arthur Macon, you can see how he influenced Lovecraft that comes along 30, 40, 50 years later. So all these things are connected.

That's one of the fun things about researching literature and history is seeing those connections and sort of how cultures, produce things that tell us a lot about them, you know? So we are at AlienCon, so I have to ask you, in terms of your talk, what do you think was the impetus for Alien Khan to be like, wow, this sounds really cool. We have to include this in our itinerary. What is the connection you sort of made with this presentation and the whole alien question or UFO phenomenon? Are there any?

Right. So I will go to a lot of conferences having to do with literature and that kind of thing. And in the last few years or so, I went to a couple of Bigfoot conferences. And I did a couple of talks having to do with stuff like ogres and goblins or trolls and these types of large humanoid-type creatures, you know, and throughout literature and folklore and all. And that seemed to appeal to that audience because it was sort of big. foot enough, you know, to sort of qualify as that type of creature. And I enjoyed those a lot

and got to know a lot of good people in that world. But I sort of, you know, I did some presentations and I wrote an article that was published in a magazine about it. And that was about as far as I wanted to go with that. And so I started sort of looking around to something else in this sort of world to write about and to discuss and research. And science fiction seemed a logical sort of way to go because I do study literature and that type of thing. And so I found out about Alien Khan and contacted them and they seemed interested in what I had had to say and that type of thing. So, and again, the audience, you never know, if you go, if I go to a literary conference, I know who my audience is, you know, but if you go to a Bigfoot conference or a UFO conference,

you're not quite sure who's in the audience necessarily. So I was pleasantly surprised at the reaction I got from the crowd and the questions they got, they were really into it, and it seemed to resonate with them to, I think, make those sort of cultural and literary connections to something that I think we tend to think started in 1947 or so, you know, and that there's this sort of history behind it, you know. That's really interesting you bring that up.

I mean, we are at an event hosted by ancient aliens, of all things. And a lot of us UFO researchers, we do look to 47 is the year that UFOs really occurred. Kenneth Arnold's citing, Roswell, you know, so many others that Thomas Mantell case where the guy died trying to pursue a UFO. That's the modern UFO era for us. But then you come to an event like this, and they're saying, no, these things have been going on for a lot longer than people think. and they might have been influencing our history. So I'm going to put you on the spot here. Ancient Alien Theory.

Are you for? Are you against? Somewhere in the middle. I tend to be very conservative in my belief, very orthodox, in my religious beliefs. However, I would never put God in a box and assume that he only had one project going on. And why can't those two projects necessarily mingle with one another?

So I'm very open to that. It doesn't compromise my religious beliefs to think that, you know, we could have contact with another species or whatever. Are there any events here looking forward to seeing at the remainder here at Alien Khan, Baltimore? I see you've got your itinerary schedule right here. A planner, if anything. I'm looking forward to seeing Rich Dolan speak. And by the name of Jason McClellan will be speaking later. whom I will look forward to see.

Hugh Newman is another guy whose workout just recently discovered like a week ago, and he studies megalistic structures and that type of thing. So I'm looking forward to seeing him speak. And in fact, there's another one by Dolan I'm looking forward to. So, yeah, the cool thing is with a conference like this, you listen to people's podcasts, or you see them on YouTube, or you read their books,

and to actually be standing next to them or in front of them speaking to them and finally putting a face with the name and the voice and all is it's a I'm very much a fanboy when I when I come to something like this you know so so it's that's been a great experience you know I completely I'm with you on that man when you listen to these people see them on TV or listen to their shows you always imagine what they look like then you see them in the flesh and it is it's surreal and I that actually for me uh when I hear stories of UFO sightings or abduction experience It's the same thing. I'm like, I'm trying to picture these people.

And then it's when I meet them face to face, where the story truly comes alive for me. And I think it's genuine and authentic. So I think there's something to be said about human contact, being face-to-face, and having a communication with another human being. I think that's very important. And I think that's one thing about your book, number one, is it looks into the people and not just the phenomenon. And it's nuts and bolts are important, but human beings and feelings are important, too.

And you tap into that in a way that I haven't seen done before that I really admire, you know. And another thing, when you come to a conference like this, so many of the personalities, you know, in our world or, you know, the famous, the rock stars or whatever are typically really approachable and just interested in talking to you in a nice inviting atmosphere. You know, just last week I took my son to an anime convention convention in Columbia. and, you know, it's just one of those things where there's no judgment whatsoever, you know, people are in costumes and all this type of thing. And it was just a great experience for him, particularly, several times he looked at me and said, this is best day of my life kind of thing, you know, it was just great. And just as a dad, you know, but I enjoyed it too, because it was just this open-minded place

where you could ask questions and just see what other people thought about things and all. So that was sort of the warm-up to AlienCon this week and, you know, to go to an anime conference. as it were. I know that feeling. I remember when my father came with me to a fish concert, the band fish back of the day, and that was an eye-opener for him. But again, one of those moments, he'll never forget, I'll never forget. And I know Alien Khan Baltimore is an experience. Neither of us will forget either. So I got to thank you for joining us on somewhere in the skies and unknown today, my friend. Well, it's an honor. I've been listening for since you began. And it's a honor to be here. Honor's all mine.

Thank you so much. an entire chapter in UFO's reframing the debate. Shameless plug. Connecting Frankenstein to the UFO phenomenon, it was amazing to hear all about the parallels between gothic science fiction, its evolution, and its connections with the topic of aliens.

It was an honor and pleasure to meet David, and I know his lectures have only begun. Staying on the alien theme, no convention dealing with these topics is complete, without the inclusion of Travis Walton. Crash course on Travis Walton's experience. In 1975, Walton and six other loggers were being driven home from their logging site in Sitgreaves National Forest by their employer, Mike Rogers,

when what appeared to be a saucer-shaped object was seen in the forest. Walton jumped out of the truck and ran toward the object, which reportedly zapped him with a beam of light. Rogers sped away, leaving Walton. Five days later, Walton reappeared at a local gas station, saying that he'd been held aboard a UFO by aliens. The cult classic film, Fire in the Sky, was based on Walton's story. Since the film, many revelations have come to Walton about what happened that night,

and we talk about some of them right now. Travis, thank you for taking the time to talk to me. Hi, well, thanks for having me. So, this is AlienCon, your first time at this event. What do you make of this? You've been to so many countries and states doing these events for years now. How is this event specifically stood out to you? Well, you know, your typical UFO convention has a certain traditional style.

It's been around for years. You know, I've been doing this for decades. This is unique. The specialization of this organization, It comes from a different orientation, so it's a little bit different, but it's certainly working quite well. I've had a great time here, and a very enthusiastic crowd. I'm sure that the deeper they get into the subject and learn more about it, that they'll become more adept at the peculiarities of the topic of the field. But I think they're doing a great job.

I think so as well. And Jason and I are going to be doing a panel today on UFOs and pop culture. And your filmed version of your experience comes up a lot when it comes to that. We spoke to a gentleman yesterday, came up to us to talk at our table, and he said, have you guys ever seen fire in the sky? And, you know, you were right across there from us. And we told him we not only have seed fire in the sky, but look over there, you know, and when you pointed to you, and we're like, that's the guy that happened to.

And he just turned white as a ghost and he couldn't believe it. So the fact that a random stranger had seen a film based on your experience, that really shows that a lot of these topics have gone mainstream. Everyday people are talking about it now. So I have to ask you, where do you stand now on the people who have seen the film as opposed to hearing your actual story? Well, you know, probably the most common question is how accurate is the film compared to what really has? happened. And so how do you answer that question? So I'd come up with a kind of smart reply, about 83.4%, you know, because how do you quantify that? But, you know, what I try to say is, you know, I start listing a few things that were changed in the film, you know. There were seven of

us out there. The film had us at five. When I was returned, it was not raining, and I was not naked. And, you know, most of the stuff aboard the craft was fiction, but that was hidden from me. When I was initially given a copy of the script, that portion of the movie was not in it. And the excuse being that it was a work in progress, but I think they knew I wasn't going to like the fictionalizations. But I've been in discussion with a number of filmmakers about doing a remake who favor the idea of making it a miniseries rather than a feature film. and I'm in favor of that idea myself because it gives me the opportunity to include a lot more of the associated science

that comes with it without having too big a dose or alarming people that they're being educated. Right, right. And I mean, another big thing that's come out in the last couple years was the documentary based on you, which I had the pleasure of going to a screening in New York City with Jennifer Stein and other members who worked with you on that film.

So how was that experience finally getting getting inaccurate portrayal of what occurred that night to you? I think it's really helped people a lot. And the documentary is relatively new and has not been aired yet, although it's been entered and won awards in dozens of film festivals. At one, the daughter of the actor who played the sheriff in the movie, James Garner's daughter, his only offspring, Gigi, made a point of attending so that she could

sort of apologize on behalf of her father that she wanted me to know that he, you know, regretted playing the skeptic because he believed us. And I think that's kind of ironic because kind of a similar situation existed with the real life sheriff. His friends and family were saying, well, privately, he believes,

you guys, but, you know, publicly, he's playing the, you know, he identified with, you know, and really was flattered by being portrayed by a Western icon like James Garner. So he, he postured to the public like he was much more of a skeptic. But the film you're talking about, the Travis documentary, the sheriff actually finally concedes, well, they were trying to tell the truth. That's a good point. And I mean, other people have also come forward. You know, the polygraph examiner that did the lie detector tests with the other gentleman.

And all these people are, you know, still, what's always fascinated all of us in the UFO research community is none of your stories have ever really swayed. And that to us means, you know, not only legitimacy, but that this is real. You know, there's so many cases out there that are sensationalized and, you know, that we, we, we, we, take with a grain of salt, but the one case we always come back to is yours. So what do you make of that? What about all these other thousands of people who have claimed to have been taken or had an experience? What do you make of that? Well, it certainly prepares me to be much more open to what's being claimed. I personally don't believe everything that's being claimed out there, but I think, you know, probably lying is far less frequent than people there who are just mistaken. They

experienced an extremely vivid dream of some sort or mistaken some other sort of event as being what they experienced. But still, this is a very real phenomenon. And far from being this astonishing thing, you know, that's a shock and awe kind of a thing, when you get right down to it, if there was no other life, that's what would be amazing. You know, when you do the calculations based on the science, you know, the number of possibly life-supporting planets in our own galaxy, that's what would be amazing, is if, you know, being millions of years older than us, they had not found some way to venture forth. I mean, virtually everything technological we have is a few hundred years old. and so give a civilization a few thousand, a hundred thousand or a few million years to progress. Certainly there's zipping around out there.

Now the last question I want to ask you, Travis, is I've heard recently you've been giving lectures on sort of an update to your case, a revelation you've made of possibly why the craft was there and why it did what it did to you. Would you mind maybe briefly going into that with us about what their motives may have been? Well, sure. You know, we looked into what they might have been there for. Some of the other guys on the crew said, oh, they were laying for us. They knew we were coming and they were going to, you know, you were the target. I always favored the idea that it was a random accident,

and I guess partly because my biased hope that it was not likely to repeat. but we looked into underground water that might be there, magnetic lines of force, mineral deposits, maps, that sort of thing. But recently I did a show with Rob Lowe and his sons. It's called Lolo Files. And my episode was first, and the second half was this lady that deals with the properties of certain crystals. and she sells and deals with these crystals at gym shows, but they're reputed as having various properties. But the one thing that Rob Lowe said really struck me is he said, Travis said that the aliens were possibly in the area mining for folgerite,

which totally astonished me because I'd never heard of folgerite before. But that tied right in with the fact that that area, there has the second highest frequency of lightning strikes in the United States. I discovered that fulgurite is a mineral that's formed. It's a crystal that's formed when lightning strikes the ground. You've got millions of degrees, millions of volts combined, creating substances that cannot be formed geologically. So although I didn't say that, I thought, wow, serendipani. That is probably the most plausible explanation of what they might have been doing there.

And further, might have even explained the blast of energy that hit me as being something that was generated by this high propensity for lightning strikes in the area. If the craft itself was generating some kind of a electromagnetic field, it may have triggered some kind of a discharge of lightning with a secondary discharge that struck me. And so all that tied together with the effect of the craft, the presence of the craft itself on the growth rate of the trees surrounding the clearing there. And so you got hit, you know, everyone left. They eventually come back to look for you. And then we have your story about what happened on the craft. And now you think there was a reason they brought you on the craft. Am I correct?

Sort of something you've come to think about lately? Yeah, so, you know, the final comment there about the discharge, the lightning blast, that could have been fatal or nearly fatal, and very likely they possessing the only technology that could rescue me at that point, nearest hospital being over an hour away. So my theory went from abduction to sort of an ambulance call, and that mean why they would. have found it necessary to take me aboard. My last question for you, Travis, before we wrap things up, do you think they're ever going to come back?

Is that something you've ever really questioned or thought about or not want to happen? I think they've never left. That is a perfect way to end it. Travis, thank you so much for taking the time. A rescue operation makes so much sense when you look at this case. It's good to know that Travis Walton still is searching for answers. to what happened to him, and we'll be listening every step of the way.

No matter your thoughts on alien abduction or even the claims by Travis Walton and his crew, there is no doubt that something happened in the forest that night, and it remains one of the most credible and documented multi-witness events in UFO history. Another very interesting panel that I got to listen to was that of Paul Heineck. Paul is the son of J. Allen Heineck, an astronomer who was hired by the U.S. Air Force to investigate UFOs under Project Blue Book. He went from a staunch skeptic to open-minded believer in the course of his time working on the project. And with immense pressure to debunk the cases he investigated, he rebelled against the government. And at the end of Project Blue Book, he subsequently began his own UFO investigation organization.

known as the Center for UFO Studies. Recently, it was announced that the History Channel was working on a television series all about Heineck and Project Blue Book. Attendees at AlienCon were treated to a special sneak peek of the show, and I was lucky enough to attend the Q&A with Paul Heineck. Here's a small soundbite of Paul talking about the Condon Committee,

in which his father was a member, but was brushed aside in his determinations of certain UFO investigations. The Conner Report further concluded that UFO study cannot be justified, but what your dad did was he took quotes from the own Conner report to wreck its credibility. He cited passages from the report like the probability that at least one genuine UFO was involved appears fairly high. He quoted it again saying this is the most puzzling radar case on record. He quoted it saying a great mass of these reports are a challenge to this analyst. And lastly, he said the reports, the reports

says, this unusual sighting should therefore be assigned to the category of some almost certainly natural phenomenon, one that is so rare that it apparently has never happened before or since to explain a UFO site. That's what they're report. So talk a little bit about the Condomin Committee and why your dad felt Project Blue Book was shut down. Yeah, I think there's probably no worst practice in science than having a report whose conclusion doesn't jive with its own internal death. I mean, that's just keystone cops. So the Condon committee,

I don't think it really shut down to the book. They were going to shut it down and they just needed something so they concocted this shambles of a study to do that. There is correspondence between the secretary of Condon and my father

where she's decrying the whole process and saying, you know, This is a Canaanoo court. They're not looking, to be honest. This is just a PR stunt to shut it down. And it was sort of an echo of the earlier Robertson panel, just a government effort to trump something out in the public to say, hey, because of this, we're going to shut it.

So it's just a, this is not unexpected, but sort of galling in the magnitude of its ridiculousness. This was a very rare treat. And I'm so happy I got to hear Paul talk all about his father in an honest light. And it was even more special to hear him talk about being a kid and his father coming home and over dinner talking about some of the cases he was investigating. It was a glimpse into the life and career of a man we highly respect in the UFO field. And in January, we'll go mainstream on the history channel. Be sure to check out the show and stay tuned.

for an exclusive interview with creative team members of Project Blue Book coming soon. The final interview here is with my publisher and UFO historian Richard Dolan. Stepping out of his usual lecture topics, Dolan decided to cover something very different. We are moving into a strange new world of enhanced humans or even post-humans. In other words, a transhuman world. science is now on the verge of redefining the human species, which could happen within our lifetimes. Some people think it's good.

Dolan thinks different. Hey, Ryan, I'm glad to be here with you. Cool, man. So I just came from a panel that you were a part of with Steve Bassett, Jason McClellan, Alejandro Rojas. That was post-disclosure. Can you tell us a little about how that went? I thought it was actually really fun.

It was interesting. Steve Bassett ran it. He sort of moderated and sort of directed it. And it was primarily people from the audience asking questions. So it was interesting. We didn't really get into the idea of a post-disclosure world because it was essentially answering questions from the audience. But most of the questions were pretty on point and interesting in their own way.

So I had fun. It was a really interesting structure he did, where the audience asked all the questions. Right. And those were some of the most concise questions I've heard on the topic of disclosure at any, like, UFO conference I've been to. So I thought it was great. Some very highly discerning questions.

One of the last ones I thought stood out with me, which was the gentleman who said, look, how do we really know what the intentions of these other beings are, even if we're told they're good or how does the government know what their intentions are and how do we ever get to a point where we can understand one way or the other? And, you know, I think there was a lot of very thoughtful people on this whole issue. and some of the issues about one was on Antarctica. And I haven't, it's interesting, I didn't actually address that one directly, but Antarctica is one of those things that I did not give a lot of time and thought to over the years,

but recently have come to think maybe there's something to some of these leaks about Antarctica. And so there was just a lot of interesting questions that came up and I enjoyed being on. In fact, I should remember them all because I did the majority of the talking. Well, you know what I thought was really cool, too, was that it kind of led into a lot of the topics you're going to be talking about at your actual presentation as well in terms of AI and all that. Could you tell us maybe a little about what you're going to be talking about with that? Absolutely. Well, you just made me realize one of the questions was, you know, if we're thinking of UFO disclosure, it's not like that occurs in a vacuum. There are other important things going on in this world in relating to the global environment, in relating relation to technology changes, in relation to our.

transformation of the global political and economic and financial situation. All of these things are happening very, very powerfully right now. And any kind of disclosure on the UFO reality occurs within that context. That does lead me to the talk that I'm going to be giving in about 20 minutes on, it's not related to the UFO issue directly. It's on artificial intelligence and transhumanism, which has been one of the issues that I've gotten into. I've been interested in for a while, but particularly this year.

year. And I simply want to talk about how there's a definite utopian element to a lot of the transhumanist ideology. These individuals who, you know, they're looking at not just artificial intelligence, but genetic modifications, gene therapy, and talking like, you're going to be able to live forever, or you'll be able to live, at least not, if not forever, then for many hundreds of years without getting sick or in very excellent health and so forth. That's all very seductive and very nice, but transhumanism doesn't stop there. It's really about the creation of a superhuman species in the future, and transhumanists absolutely believe this. I mean, many of them strongly believe us, and the utopianism is something that I'm familiar with in the UFO community,

because there's a very strong utopian element there. You know, if we only have disclosure, then we'll solve all the world's problems, or if the galactic brotherhood or federation were to bring us into the next spiritual awakening, then our society will be better. And, you know, these are, let's fix all of humanity's problems type ideologies. And in transhumanism, there's a similar utopian strain going on here. It says if we only were to make ourselves smarter and stronger and live longer, we'll, you know, we'll all be happy and we'll solve all of our problems. And the computers will fix all the problems that we're not able to solve.

And something tells me that there's this little thing. I think about called the law of unintended consequences. I think of Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park, and he said, what was it, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. And one of the great lines in any movie. And I believe that that's what we're looking at with this transhumanism. I think that we're transforming ourselves so radically that there's going to be some very disruptive and probably dangerous unintended consequences.

And I can't pretend that I know them all. I think I'm very much not one of the immortalists. I don't believe that people should live forever. I think that we really have genuine change in our world because we have new generations that come along and think differently. I'm not a believer that most people really think differently once they hit a certain age. I think it's very rare. But it's new generations coming on board that do think differently.

That's a really fascinating topic. Like unlike anything I've heard you talk about before. Oh, yeah. Well, and also just the thing is that we are transforming ourselves, even without trying to go pedal to the metal with gene therapy or cognitive implants or whatever else, we have been transforming ourselves in the past 10,000 years, simply due to sedentary agriculture, and we're not the same version of the species that even our forebears were 10,000 years ago. But even now, our current state of civilization is ramping things up to a much greater degree. So we're changing. And it's a kind of not self-directed evolution, but it is an evolutionary process that is driven by our civilization. And what we're doing with transhumanism is simply taking that and really going with great focus and direction. One thing that I think we can definitely say that is going to be a problem is the total loss of privacy.

I think in the near future what we're dealing with is the end. I mean, we think privacy is done now, but compared even with 10, 20 years from now, we'll look back on this time as an era of great relative privacy. Because in an era of coming 5G technology, Internet of Things, where everything can talk to each other, and where all data is being cyprivacy. and out of your refrigerator, your stove, your toaster, your car, and everything else, there is no place where you'll ever be able to go, where you will have any semblance of privacy. And where the data about your entire life will be siphoned and used for the benefit of organizations

that know how to make use of it. They'll be able to put together a better personality profile of you than you can, and much, much more. So there's, privacy is going to be so completely gone. And what that will do to our society, what that will do to our personalities is a good question to ask. Because in an era of no privacy, it seems to me that we're in danger of developing almost a hive mentality to a far greater degree than we've ever imagined. Because if there's no privacy, people are going to be less and less inclined to speak up, speak up their own mind. And I think we're moving toward a culture of a very great conformity.

which is terrifying but extremely fascinating and we can only sort of approach it with knowledge of it, right? Yeah, but a lot of people I think will be perfectly cool with it because they'll be able to live in their total immersive virtual reality environments where they can be celebrity millionaires and have that whole thing happening. So even in a world where there's nothing genuinely, nothing deep to offer a lot of people, I mean, what are you going to do if you live for 500 years? You're going to go to the same job, punch-d-one?

clock at some office. I wouldn't think so. I don't know what people will do, but one thing is you can just see this happening where there would be a kind of increasingly greater and greater development on crazed virtual reality environments to stimulate people and to keep them happy. And I can only, it can't even begin to imagine how crazy it could be. Me either. Well, I look forward to going to the talk. I know you've got to get going in there pretty soon. So thank you so much for taking the time to do this, Rich. Where can we find everything you're doing? I mean, you are talking about all different things here at AlienCon on your website and everything. So where can we find that? Yeah, I love all the things I talk about. They all engage me.

Probably believe my main site, Richard Olinembers.com. I have a YouTube channel, which is Richard Olin. It's a lot of the information I have goes out there. But basically, the member site is probably what it's about. I do have a newsletter. I would say, look, go to Richard Olin members, subscribe to the newsletter and it tells people what I'm up to every single week. Great. Thank you so much, Rich. Thanks, Ryan. The prospect of all of this is both exciting, interesting, and downright terrifying. If trends support these observations, then we really have to be careful moving forward.

Either way, it was great hearing from Rich, as always, even if it's on a topic as controversial as this. But he's pretty well known for that anyways. Well, that just about does it for this epic Alien Con episode of Somewhere in the Skies. This event is unlike anything I've ever experienced. And as it grows, I only see a brighter platform for serious UFO researchers to share their work with one another and with the public. The UFO topic is going mainstream like never before. And the number of people attending these events is only growing.

I hope you enjoyed these exclusive interviews, and I hope you'll check out the work being done by all of these individuals. And I have no doubt you're going to be hearing at them at the upcoming AlienCon, which invades Los Angeles June 21st, 22nd, and 23rd in 2019. To keep up to date when tickets are available and to see their growing guest list, be sure to visit thealiencon.com. Be sure also to follow somewhere in the skies on top. Twitter at SomewhereSkies and Instagram at SomewhereSkies pod. Visit the official store at T-public.com. That's T-E-E-E-E-Public.com and search for the Somewhere in the Skies store. For past episodes, articles, news, and to contact me personally, visit the official website,

somewhere in the skies.com. Thank you so much to all of the individuals I interviewed. To the entire staff at misdrift management and AlienCon, to Pursuing X, the E1 Podcast Network, and most importantly, thank you to you, the listeners. I'll see you here next week, and remember, keep your feet on the ground, but never stop searching, somewhere in the skies. And I'm not saying it's aliens, but it's aliens. Somewhere in the Skies is produced by Third Kind Productions, in association with the Entertainment One Podcast Network. To learn more, visit Entertainment One Podcast.com.