Over the weekend, a number of tabloids were discussing a lie detector test which purportedly confirms astronaut Buzz Aldrin saw a UFO on his way to the moon in July 1969.

On Sunday, the UK’s Daily Star reported on the story, borrowing from earlier reports in which the Apollo 11 astronaut addressed something unusual he and fellow astronauts Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins observed while en route to the moon.

“There was something out there that was close enough to be observed, sort of L-shaped,” Aldrin was quoted saying. The story was quickly picked up and re-written by other news outlets, some of which elaborated on sightings of unusual things seen by Aldrin, and other astronauts over the years.

The focus of the story had not been UFOs, however, so much as a study which purportedly “confirmed” what Aldrin and other astronauts had claimed to see. According to The Star, an Albany, Ohio-based company called The Institute of BioAcoustic Biology “carried out complex computer analyses of the astronauts’ voice patterns as they told of their close encounters.”

“Although the technology is still top-secret,” The Star reported, “these studies are claimed to be more reliable than current lie detector tests, and could soon replace those used by the FBI and police.”

Aldrin on the job.

Little else was said about the Albany-based company where the study was carried out, apart from the fact that astronauts Al Worden, as well as Edgar Mitchell and Gordon Cooper, participated. It is noteworthy that Mitchell passed away in February 2016, and Cooper in October 2004, indicating that the lie detector tests in question must have occurred at least 14 years ago; strangely, the tabloids are only now picking up on this story (Update: Newsweek commented on the story shortly after publication of this article, referring to voice recordings which were tested, rather than the actual voices of the astronauts; if nothing else, this would allow for a more recent, posthumous testing of Cooper and Mitchell’s voices to have been possible).

Looking for further details about the Institute of BioAcoustic Biology online first brings up a Facebook page associated with the company, which describes its endeavors as follows:

“The research being conducted by the Institute of BioAcoustic Biology is on the forefront of energy medicine; creating the doorway to our next dimension of health revolution. In addition, the techniques hold promise in answering questions about how our universe was formed, and how our aging and perception of time can be monitored using frequency.” 

Admittedly, I share an interest in subjects like cosmology and human perception of time too, although the wording of the company’s mission statement above seems a little odd (pseudoscientific is another way of putting it). From the Facebook page, a link to the company’s website leads to a page where URL links to everything from aura-color readers, to Mike Adam’s “Health Ranger” website can be found. Needless to say, links and associations like these would be enough to cause many to reconsider whether the studies involving Buzz Aldrin and others were indeed “more reliable than current lie detector test,” as The Star reported, let alone whether they might “soon replace those used by the FBI and police.” It might also explain why there hasn’t been much said about them until now.

Our intent isn’t to pass judgment here, so all discussion of the veracity of “top-secret” studies in acoustic biology aside, Aldrin has claimed many times that he and the Apollo 11 crew observed something while en route to the moon. The question remains as to what, precisely, that was.

In 2012, I wrote about the claims which appeared in writer Jay Barbree’s book Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight, where the author said he was told by a confidential source that what the astronauts saw was sunlight reflecting off “a top-secret spy satellite” as it tumbled out of control.

Buzz Aldrin in space, with the Earth visible in the background.

According to Barbree’s account, “The only UFO Apollo 11’s astronauts were seeing as Neil had suspected had been built here on Earth — one they could not identify… and when I told him, he laughed and said, ‘Well, what the hell, isn’t that what a UFO is — an unidentified flying object?’”

The only issue with this explanation is that apparently neither Barbree, nor his “secret” source, bothered to validate the information. As pointed out to me in 2012 by space journalist and historian Jim Oberg, “Barbree’s story is way off base, he relied on an old memory of Armstrong’s instead of checking with actual mission records that show the encounter was 212,000 miles out, nowhere near the geosynchronous arc (24,000 miles) where the spy satellites lurked. He wanted to tie in an unrelated juicy rumor (a correct one) with his Armstrong biography, and didn’t take basic validation steps.”

In other words, while the spy satellite explanation is both juicier, and seems more down-to-earth than the alien spacecraft theory, it remains equally unlikely on further inquiry.

At the end of the day, we still don’t know exactly what it was Aldrin and his crew observed, although Aldrin himself has suggested in the past that it may have been a discarded rocket panel from their own vessel, and that “it was not an alien.” We also have no confirmation as to whether experimental bio-acoustic technologies are really any better than a standard polygraph test at validating his experiences. Hence, Buzz Aldrin’s UFO encounter remains an interesting case, but certainly not conclusive evidence of aliens.

Aliens may someday take the place of the gods in the human collective consciousness. At least, that’s according to new research presented by Dr. Diana Pasulka at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Pasulka conducted a six-year study in which she travelled around the country speaking with scientists, Silicon Valley tech gurus, professionals, entrepreneurs, and other Very Important People who admit to believing in extraterrestrial intelligence. Pasulka’s study reveals that not only is belief in extraterrestrial intelligence widespread and found in nearly all strata of society, but it has also approached levels rivaling modern rates of belief in deities.

There’s a reason heaven is usually depicted as being in the sky.

According to a recent presentation Pasulka gave under the title The Incarnational Technological Self: The Case of the Crashed UFO Artifact, this widespread belief in aliens stems from a variety of cultural factors and scientific endeavors:

Widespread belief in aliens is due to a number of factors including their ubiquity in modern media like The X-Files, which can influence memory, and the realist effect produced by the search for planets that might support life, as well as alleged alien artifacts that have recently made news in outlets such as the New York Times.

In her new book American Cosmic, Pasulka claims that science fiction and other pop culture texts have become a means of answering questions formerly answered by religion. Through her research, Pasulka found that more than half of U.S. adults and more than 75% of young Americans believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life. Compare that to recent surveys by the Pew Research Center which have found that only around 68% of Americans are absolutely certain in their belief in God, and it’s clear to see that something is happening here. But we don’t know what it is yet, do we?

More importantly, will the symbol be a big-eyed grey alien head, or a flying saucer?

It makes total sense that advanced extraterrestrial aliens could take the place of gods in our mythologies. The similarities are many: both are omniscient beings who (mostly) live in the cosmic heavens and who are capable of near-magical abilities. Couple those with the mounting evidence that life likely began in space, and it’s safe to say that perhaps Scientology is only the beginning of what could be a wave of new religions which venerate alien beings as opposed to flying spaghetti monsters. Any potential discoveries of alien life will certainly lead to the creation of alien-worshipping religions, an idea which pops up in science fiction regularly. Is Earth ready for discovery, or will it lead to renewed clashes between and among the religious?

A video posted on April 5, 2018 from Brazil appears to show a weird “humanoid” shape floating in the skies over the city of Goania. Taken from a cell phone in a car, the video shows this strange UFO floating completely stationary while trees and other objects come in and out of frame, briefly obscuring the bizarre shape. Curiously, the object (or whatever it is) filmed bears an eerie similarity to footage of odd floating humanoidshapes taken in Sydney, Australia, and Abu Dhabi, UAE in October of 2017.

The Brazilian video was originally posted on Facebook and then uploaded to YouTube by the channel secureteam10, where you can watch it for yourself. If it’s a fake, it’s a very good fake. That’s not to say it is, in fact, a floating alien, returned messiah, more ghost planes, or any of the other speculative explanations, of course. It could very well be a trick of the light or an oddly shaped cloud (probably not a weather balloon, swamp gas, or ball lightning, though). What’s strange is that very similar things have been photographed or videoed in wildly different parts of the world under different atmospheric conditions.

As Ian Fleming wrote, “Once is coincidence, twice is happenstance, three times is enemy action.” That’s a good line and metaphor, not a suggestion to go throw rocks at floating humanoids, which would be horrible, horrible advice.

In October of 2017, the Sydney humanoid was filmed. This sighting happened on a apparently clearer day, and earlier in the day than the Brazil video. Once again, this video shows a dark UFO with what look to be arms hanging by its sides. In contrast to the Brazil humanoid, this object does appear to move, and the “arms” are far less pronounced in the Sydney video. It’s hard to tell, but the object does look like it’s slowly moving through the sky, parallel to the ground. Also, the Sydney humanoid apparently disappeared and reappeared several times over the course of the sighting.

What if it’s just some guy minding his own business, just trying to float around for a while?

The Abu Dhabi sighting was also in October, 2017. From the very limited documentation on this sighting, it looks closer to the Sydney video than the Brazilian video. Which is interesting, considering that they happened around the same time.  The Dubai Astronomy Group stated that the object photographed in the sky over Abu Dhabi was likely pieces of a Russian refueling rocket breaking up in the atmosphere. While that explanation may make sense in the case of the Abu Dhabi event, specifically, it does not explain the sighting in Sydney, where the object appears to be moving perpendicular to gravity, and it certainly doesn’t explain the humanoid UFO in Brazil, where the object appears to be completely motionless, let alone falling and breaking apart.

It’s hard to say with any certainty at all that these events are connected. It’s easy to look at a shape and see what you want to see, and especially if that shape has the vaguest resemblance to something human. At this point it’s merely curious, but it will certainly be interesting to see if any more floating humanoids show up in the coming months.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Rich Reynolds has a new post at his UFO Conjectures blog titled “Ufologists vs Paranormalists.” Rich begins as follows: “I’ve written about the drive of some in the UFO community to insert UFOs among the weird litany that encompasses the paranormal category, all things outside the normal scheme of things: ghosts, Big Footed creatures, ‘sea monsters,’ men who dress in black, mystical visions (of angels, Holy Mary, saints, and sinners), et cetera.” Rich adds: “…the persistent attempts to lump UFOs among the queer phenomena that pops up in situ to a few humans have to be thwarted by real UFO aficionados. UFOs are a phenomenon worthy of its own, singular attention, not a mystery to be hawked like a carnival ride or sideshow.” You can find Rich’s article at this link.

Me and Rich are good mates, but we certainly don’t agree on everything – and his new article is a perfect example of that! It’s important – as I see it anyway – to note that Rich’s interest in UFOs dates back decades. We’re talking about the period in time when UFOs were known as Flying Saucers, and when the aliens referred to us as “earthlings” and as the “people of planet Earth” (or was that just in old B&W sci-fi movies? Maybe…). We’re also talking about times when thieving aliens stole soil by the bucketful, when strange tripod-landing marks were found in the fields of irate farmers, and when long-haired, know-it-all aliens tried to save us from atomic destruction. But, those days are – largely – gone. Today’s Ufology, in many respects, is very different. And much stranger. Which brings us back to Rich.

As I have always said, the most important people in the field of Ufology are the witnesses. Not the radio-hosts, not the bloggers, not the authors, and not the researchers. Without witness testimony, we have very little to go on, in terms of what the UFO phenomenon is or might be, and what it’s up to. And, like it or like it not, there are far more than a few cases on record which do suggest a connection between the UFO issue and what we might call paranormal phenomena. To ignore the weird shit side of Ufology is, in essence, self-censorship. Of course, there is nothing new about this paranormal connection. Check, out – as just one example of many – John Keel’s 1970 book, UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse. Keel made it very clear that there are crossovers between Ufology and other supernatural phenomena.

Rich refers to “men who dress in black.” Rich may not like it (in fact, I’m sure he doesn’t) but the vast majority of all MIB encounters have nothing to do with visits from the likes of “government agents.” Things would be much simpler if they were from the NSA, the CIA or the FBI! The real MIB are often pale and cadaverous. They don’t seem to be fully self-aware. There are reports of UFO witnesses falling sick after encountering the MIB – sometimes seriously so, too. Other witnesses tell of violent poltergeist activity in the home, after the MIB have left. People feel mind-controlled and hypnotized by the Men in Black.

Rich also makes mention of “Big Footed creatures.” Yes, the Bigfoot-UFO phenomenon is without any doubt at all a highly controversial one. Indeed, I know for sure that the vast majority of Bigfoot seekers in the field of Cryptozoology absolutely cringe when the “Sasquatch and Saucers” issue rears its problematic head. But, the truth of the matter is that there are a lot of Bigfoot/UFO cases on record. Stan Gordon wrote an entire book on the subject: Silent Invasion. It’s essential reading for those who want to learn more about the paranormal links to the Bigfoot issue.

I could go on and on (and I will for a while): there are cases in which alien abductees have seen dead friends and relatives on-board UFOs. Abductees talk of their soul or life-force being ripped from their bodies. Strange synchronicities abound in Ufology. It’s possible to interact with entities that many perceive as alien via the likes of DMT. There is no need for our strange visitors to land on the lawns of the White House: they have far weirder ways of interacting with us at a personal level. Disturbing cases of paranormal “possession” have been reported by UFO witnesses. All of this is far removed from what I think Rich prefers Ufology to be – which is, I suspect, the days when the likes of Donald Keyhoe, Ed Ruppelt, Harold T. Wilkins, and APRO were flying high. Back then, it was all nuts-and-bolts spaceships (rocket-ships, even). Not now, though.

But, like I said, the witnesses are the people  who we need to listen to, as they are the ones who had the experiences. And even though it might not sit well with many, the reality of the situation is that there really is far more to Ufology than just us “earthlings” being visited by an extraterrestrial equivalent of NASA. The situation is way, way weirder.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }