It seems like everyone is talking about the extraterrestrial question these days. Humanity has always wondered, “are we alone?” and a new study seeks to answer that question scientifically, arguing that, not only are we not alone, but we never have been, and there are most likely a number of different intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations out there right now.

The study, published in Astrobiology and written by Adam Frank and Woodruff Sullivan from the Universities of Rochester and Washington, respectively, used the recent discovery of dozens of exoplanets to hypothesize on the likelihood of other technologically advanced civilizations existing. The study emphasizes that, unless the odds of advanced life evolving on a habitable planet are astonishingly low, then “human kind is not the universe’s first technological, or advanced, civilization.”

According to Frank:

The question of whether advanced civilizations exist elsewhere in the universe has always been vexed with three large uncertainties in the Drake equation. We’ve known for a long time approximately how many stars exist. We didn’t know how many of those stars had planets that could potentially harbor life, how often life might evolve and lead to intelligent beings, and how long any civilizations might last before becoming extinct.

Astrophysicist Frank Drake developed an equation in 1961 to estimate the number of advanced civilizations likely to exist in the Milky Way galaxy. The Drake equation (top row) has proven to be a valuable framework for research, though it is impossible to do anything more than guess at variables such as L, the probable longevity of other advanced civilizations. The equation is as you see below.

These researchers applied new exoplanet data to the universe’s 2 x 10 to the 22nd power stars, and found that human civilization is likely to be unique in the cosmos only if the odds of a civilization developing on a habitable planet are less than approximately one in 10 billion trillion, or one part in the 10th to the 22th power.

Frank went on to explain the implications of this discovery:

One in 10 billion trillion is incredibly small. To me, this implies that other intelligent, technology producing species very likely have evolved before us. Think of it this way. Before our result you’d be considered a pessimist if you imagined the probability of evolving a civilization on a habitable planet were, say, one in a trillion. But even that guess, one chance in a trillion, implies that what has happened here on Earth with humanity has in fact happened about a 10 billion other times over cosmic history!

Other scientists have also been weighing in for some time now. A couple of years ago, two top astronomers from the SETI Institute (Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence)  appeared in front of the congressional House Science and Technology Committee for a hearing regarding the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. They told the committee that extraterrestrial life most certainly exists, and that discovering life on other planets is not only inevitable, but will most likely occur within the next 20 years:

In the last 50 years, evidence has steadily mounted that the components and conditions we believe necessary for life are common and perhaps ubiquitous in our galaxy. The possibility that life has arisen elsewhere, and perhaps evolved intelligence, is plausible and warrants scientific inquiry. . . . If you extrapolate on the planets they discovered, there are a trillion planets in the galaxy. That’s a lot of places for life. We know that the majority of stars have planets . . . [but what] fraction of stars has planets that are more like the earth? It might be one in five.

Scientists have already discovered billions of Earth-like planets in our Milky Way galaxy alone, and we would be foolish to think that planets must be just like our own in order to harbour life. Who knows what other kinds of lifeforms have developed, or what their essential conditions for life consist of? We cannot assume that other species will be just like ours.

Below is a great clip of Dr. Brian O’Leary, a NASA astronaut and Princeton Physics Professor, speaking in the Thrive  documentary about extraterrestrials.

Just as the notion that aliens exist is gaining mainstream traction, so too is the idea that we have already been visited by them. We can attribute this shift largely to the recent official disclosure of the UFO phenomenon, which revealed that objects performing impossible maneuvers at impossible speeds that defy our known understanding of physics are commonly seen by trained observers (military personnel).

“There is another way, whether it’s wormholes, or warping space, there’s got to be a way to generate energy so that you can pull it out of the vacuum, and the fact that [extraterrestrials are] here shows us that they found a way.”

– Jack Kasher, Ph.D, Professor Emeritus of Physics, University of Nebraska (source)

A declassified defence intelligence agency report details a classic encounter. Like many other encounters of this kind, the object is tracked on air and ground radar, and is confirmed visually by the pilots who are sent to investigate:

As the F-4 approached a range of 25 NM he lost all instrumentation and communications (UHF and intercom). He broke off the intercept and headed back to Shahrokhi. When the F-4 turned away from the object and apparently was no longer a threat to it the aircraft regained all instrumentation and communications. .  . . 

Another classic example comes from the Chilean Air Force:

Two pilots on a training mission, each flying an F5 fighter aircraft, tracked the object on their airborne radar. It gave a return equal to ten or more aircraft carriers-except this object was in the air, not floating on the water. Each pilot assumed his radar equipment was faulty, until he learned that the other pilot was also getting the same return. Not only this, but ground radar from a nearby airport also picked up the object and confirmed its huge size. The pilots also saw the object with their own eyes. One pilot later said that at a distance of twenty miles, it looked “like a plantain banana swathed in smoke.” The pilots were frightened, having no missiles or weapons. As they approached the massive object, which had been motionless all this while, it took off at an unimaginable speed. All at once, it vanished from the three radar screens. (Huneeus, J, Antonio, “A Chilean Overview,” MUFON UFO Journal, 6/86; Huneeus, J. Antonio, “A Historical Survey of UFO Cases in Chilie,” MUFON 1987 International Symposium Proceedings (MUFON, 1987.)

On May 19, 1986, a large portion of Brazilian airspace was occupied by UFOs. The Brazilian airforce kept sending their jets to get a closer look at what they were picking up on radar. Here is a quote from the Brazilian Minister of Aeronautics, Brigadier General Otavio Moreira Lima:

At least 20 objects were detected by Brazilian radars. They saturated the radars and interrupted traffic in the area. Each time that radar detected unidentified objects, fighters took off for intercept. Radar detects only solid metallic bodies and heavy (mass) clouds. There were no clouds nor conventional aircraft in the region. The sky was clear. Radar doesn’t have optical illusions. We can only give technical explanations and we don’t have them. It would be very difficult for us to talk about the hypothesis of an electronic war. It’s very remote and it’s not the case here in Brazil. It’s fantastic. The signals on the radar were quite clear.(source)(Department of Defense JCS Message Center, Subject: B6/BAF Has a Close Encounter of the First Kind. Date: 20 May 86. Subject: Numerous Unidentified Objects Were Cited in the Skies over Brazil. But BAF Fighters Were Unable to Intercept Them. Berliner, Don, The UFO Briefing Document, p. 121-127. Huneeus, J. Antonio, “UFO Alert in Brazil,” MUFON UFO Journal, 11/86. Andrus, Walt, “UFOs Over Brazil,” MUFON UFO Journal, 9/86. Smith, Dr Willy, “The Brazillian Incident,” International UFO Reporter, 7-8/86. Smith, Dr. Willy, “More on Brazilian OVNIs,” MUFON UFO Journal, 9/86. )

These objects also cause equipment in the jets to malfunction. Many have reported this happening, including Dr. Jacques Vallee, notable for co-developing the first computerized mapping of Mars for NASA, and for his work at SRI International on the network information center for ARPANET, a precursor to the modern Internet. He published a paper in the Journal of Scientific Exploration titled “Estimates of Optical Power Output in Six Cases Of Unexplained Aeriel Objects With Defined Luminosity Characteristics” which examines these occurrences.

“Behind the scenes, high ranking air force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe that the unknown flying objects are nonsense.”

– Former Head of CIA, Roscoe Hillenkoetter, 1960 (source) 

Below is a great clip from author and researcher Richard Dolan, taken from The Citizens Hearing On Disclosure, where he summarizes these points.

UFO Does Not Mean Extraterrestrial. But…

“Yes there have been crashed craft, and bodies recovered. We are not alone in the universe, they have been coming here for a long time.”

– Apollo 14 Astronaut, Air Force Captain, and Founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Dr. Edgar Mitchell (source) (source)

While these files only describe unidentified objects, the question of where these objects came from and who is flying them must inevitably arise. And indeed, defence intelligence agencies have also kept files on supposed extraterrestrial matters, a practice which demonstrates their interest in keeping tabs on this issue.

For example, here is an FBI document addressed to “certain scientists of distinction,” to “aeronautical and military authorities,” and to “a number of public officials.”

The document is a letter that was sent to the director of FBI in Washington from the San Fransisco office on a matter pertaining to UFOs & extraterrestrials:

“Lt. Colonel (name redacted) of G2 [G2 means army intelligence], San Francisco advised today he has no further information, and that our Seattle office is in  possession of all information known by him and is handling the matter at Tacoma, Washington.”

The document goes on to provide a copy of a letter written by someone with “several university degrees” and a former “university department head.”

The memorandum also states that “the mere fact that the data herein were obtained by so-called  ‘supernormal’ means is probably sufficient to insure its disregard by nearly all persons addressed.”

Key words to take note of: the fact that they would like to “insure its disregard” by “nearly” everyone addressed.  Does this mean that ‘some’ of the people addressed should not disregard it?

The letter goes on to outline the following: (pages 21 & 22)

• Part of the disks carry crews, others are under remote control.
• Their mission is peaceful, the visitors contemplate settling on this planet.
• These visitors are human-like but much larger in size.
• They are not excarnate Earth people, but come from their own world
• The disks posses some type of radiant energy.
• They do not come from any “planet” as we use the word, but from an etheric planet which interpenetrates with our own and is not perceptible to us.
• The bodies of the visitors, and the craft also, automatically materialize on entering the vibratory rate of our dense matter.
• They re-enter the etheric at will, and so simply disappear from our vision, without trace.
• The region they come from is NOT the astral plane, but corresponds to the Lakas or Talas. Students of esoteric matters will understand these terms.

Then we have cases like what happened in Zimbabwe many years ago, when more than 60 school children witnessed a craft landing and what appeared to be non-humanoid beings exit it. The event led a Harvard professor to conclude that extraterrestrial contact is indeed happening. It’s quite an amazing story and you can read more about it HERE. To this day, these children, now adults, maintain that they were telling the truth.

“Decades ago, visitors from other planets warned us about the direction we were heading and offered to help. Instead, some of us interpreted their visits as a threat, and decided to shoot first and ask questions after.”

– Former Canadian Defense Minister, Paul Hellyer (source)

These are just a few out of many reasons why so many people believe extraterrestrials exist.