Influential pastors are claiming that they have been told to prepare their followers for shocking revelations about UFOs which may upend belief in the Bible.

Perry Stone, a well-known evangelist, author and Bible teacher from Tennessee, warned that fellow pastors were recently invited to a secret meeting with US intelligence officials to prepare for the release of secret files on extraterrestrials.

According to Stone, the officials warned a small group of pastors with a large reach in the Christian community that the government was about to release reports and possibly videos of aliens and spacecraft which were not from this planet.

In the April 27 video posted to his YouTube channel, the evangelist claimed that pastors were told about the existence of 'reptilian' creatures, UFOs and materials from a non-human origin and 'other things that almost sound like something out of a sci-fi movie.'

On February 19, President Trump ordered the Pentagon and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to release all information the government possesses regarding UFOs and alien life.

Last week, Trump said that the first files would be released 'very, very soon' and would contain some 'very interesting' things for the public.

However, officials in this secret meeting allegedly said the information on its way may cause some Christians to question how the universe was created and even lose faith in religion.

Stone said: 'You're going to have people who are going to say if there are galaxies and there are allegedly other creations in the galaxies, then the whole creation story is a myth, and you're going to have people that's going to apostatize and turn from the Christian faith because they have no answer for what they're about to hear.'

Pastor Perry Stone (Pictured) revealed that fellow religious leaders were allegedly invited to a meeting with government officials to discuss UFO disclosure

The November 2025 documentary 'The Age of Disclosure' alleged that there's been an 80-year cover-up on UFOs and alien technology

Stone also claimed in the April 27 video government officials warned these religious leaders that non-Christians might panic and turn to churches for answers.

'They're going to freak out and they're going to come to pastors, ministers, and teachers and say, "What is this? Is this really real?"'

This reported meeting involved approximately six Christian leaders, including Bishop Alan DiDio of the Revival Nation Church, who confirmed that he was a part of the extraordinary gathering.

DiDio said: 'It seems like a half a dozen people were gathered in an Airbnb in the mountains of Tennessee discussing an investigation that's going on in the United States government against crimes they have committed in the process of retrieving and reverse engineering um technology from non-human intelligence.'

'The meeting also went forward to discuss the propaganda plan that was in place leading up to disclosure,' the pastor added in a March 7 livestream on YouTube.

Another reported attendee, American evangelist and podcaster Tony Merkel, added that the government officials who held the meeting expressed concerns about the impact of UFO disclosure on organized religion.

Merkel said: 'I came in contact with these guys more than a year ago now, and I've been in touch with them, communicating with them, and their heart is to prepare the body of Christ for what's coming.

'These guys are part of, let's just say they're Christians in intelligence operations and they are specifically geared towards, initially, it was to gather evidence and data on what's actually going on behind the scenes within the disclosure community.'

Videos of orbs taken by the US Air Force (Pictured) are among dozens of recordings which may be part of the Trump Administration's UFO disclosure releases

The three pastors also warned that when the US government finally releases the historic report about UFOs and extraterrestrials, it will not just be surprising news, they believe it will be part of a plot designed to pull people away from faith in Jesus.

The men compared it to what the Bible calls the 'great deception' in end times prophecies.

Stone explained that supposed revelations about aliens could make the Bible’s creation account look like a myth, causing believers to 'fall away' from the teachings of Christianity.

Merkel and DiDio went further, saying the disclosure had already been set up to paint Christians as the 'bad guys' who were holding humanity back, with people being told: 'You were close, Christians. You were close. That's right. But no cigar. And here's what it actually is.'

All three men urged churches to get ready now so believers would not be shocked or deceived, but instead stay grounded in the Bible and their belief in Jesus when this 'great deception' arrives.

While religious leaders have allegedly been warned about the coming UFO files, multiple government officials have also tied the alleged existence of alien life directly to events and beings written about in the Bible.

Vice President JD Vance said in March: 'I don’t think they’re aliens. I think they’re demons.'

He previously declared himself a 'UFO lunatic' and was committed to 'get to the bottom' of answering whether aliens exist or not.

Congressman Eric Burlison of Missouri revealed video of a US military drone striking an orb-shaped UFO with a missile, which bounced off and did not stop the craft

Meanwhile, Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna of Florida has repeatedly urged the public to read the Book of Enoch, an ancient Jewish religious text, written in stages between 300 and 100 BC.

Luna, who is chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee tasked with declassifying government secrets, has repeatedly claimed that alien encounters disclosed to her in classified briefings appeared to have a stunning similarity to events in biblical times.

Instead of aliens, the congresswoman has called these alleged creatures 'interdimensional beings,' noting that the Book of Enoch tells of 200 angels, known as Watchers, who descended to Earth and mated with human women.

Last year, Luna told podcast host Joe Rogan: 'Have I seen a spaceship personally? No. Have I seen evidence of this? Yes. Have I seen photo documentation of aircraft that I believe were not made by mankind? Yes. Is there historical significance to this? Yes.'

'Is there multiple events that go back to, I would argue, maybe even before the time of Christ, that have been documented in text? Yes,' she continued during the August 2025 episode.

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{ https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/index.html }

The first batch of secret files on UFOs has been submitted for release as the public disclosure of alien life may only be days away.

FBI Director Kash Patel revealed on Tuesday that the first wave of documents the US government has been keeping on alleged UFO encounters was already sent to the interagency committee assembled by the White House.

According to Patel, those files will be released to the public 'in the very near future.'

The FBI director said on the Hang Out with Sean Hannity podcast: 'We already delivered our first tranche of information to that committee and they’re going to be publicly releasing this information very soon.'

'We are all for it. There’s nothing in this subject that we’re talking about that we don’t want released.'

Patel, 46, noted that the process was being led by the US Department of War and Secretary Pete Hegseth after the February 19 order by President Trump to disclose what the intelligence community has discovered about extraterrestrials.

Although Patel said his bureau had delivered a portion of these files to the team at the Pentagon handling alien disclosure, the FBI director said he personally did not have any information on whether the US had ever recovered alien bodies from crashed UFOs.

Speaking about the message President Trump sent to his agency, Patel said: 'The American public wants the documents. We've already delivered the documents. They're coming out. That's it.'

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FBI Director Kash Patel (Pictured) has confirmed that the first batch of UFO files has been delivered to the committee handling their release to the public

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The Pentagon has been placed in charge of releasing decades of files regarding UFO encounters to the public

As America creeps closer to the apparent disclosure of alien life, famed UFO whistleblower and Air Force veteran David Grusch claimed that forces within the US government were still working to cover up the files before their release.

While speaking with Chris Farrell on Judicial Watch, Grusch said: 'I see a lot of power plays, a lot of games, a lot of positioning. Certain agencies are moving people into positions to kind of control the information release.'

The Pentagon has already been slammed by Congress for missing a strict deadline to release nearly four dozen videos allegedly containing recordings of UFOs.

Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna penned a letter to Secretary Hegseth on April 1, ordering the Pentagon to deliver 46 specific clips no later than April 14, 2026.

Lawmakers had said the videos could reveal patterns of activity near sensitive military sites and help determine whether the objects pose a potential national security threat. It is not known if those videos have been delivered.

Despite the actions he referred to as 'shenanigans,' Grusch said on Tuesday that he believed UFO disclosure would reach a tipping point within the next 60 to 90 days. 

'I certainly know what Congress is doing, and I won't reveal that here, but I do see a lot of pressure to get the substantiative empirical holdings that I've talked about, not videos or anything like that, out in the ether,' the whistleblower detailed.

Grusch, who is now an advisor to Congressman Eric Burlison, spent 14 years in the Air Force before working as an intelligence officer for the National Reconnaissance Office, which builds and launches surveillance satellites for the Pentagon.

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The Pentagon has missed its deadline set my Luna to release 46 videos believed to show UFOs flying over war zones 

He eventually became a whistleblower, testifying before Congress in 2023, after allegedly learning that elements of the US government had been hiding UFO retrieval and reverse-engineering programs for decades.

The widespread speculation about what information may be coming in the first batch of files has already caused concern among influential faith leaders, including a group of Christian pastors who claimed they were contacted by elements of the US government.

Bishop Alan DiDio of the Revival Nation Church revealed during a March 7 podcast with other faith leaders that he was one of six Christian pastors invited to a secret meeting with US intelligence officials to prepare for UFO disclosure.

According to DiDio, fellow attendee and American evangelist Tony Merkel, and Tennessee pastor Perry Stone, who did not go to the reported meeting, officials believed the coming release would cause many Christians to lose faith in religion.

Stone said in an April 27 video on YouTube: 'They're going to freak out and they're going to come to pastors, ministers, and teachers and say, "What is this? Is this really real?"'

Stone's claims about the meeting, which went viral online, were later confirmed by DiDio, who said the meeting recently took place in 'an Airbnb in the mountains of Tennessee.'

On Tuesday, Congresswoman Luna publicly requested that the Christian bishop reveal which intelligence officials held this meeting.

Lawmakers want to know which intelligence officials took part in an alleged meeting with Christian pastors which discussed UFO disclosure

Luna has been put in charge of the House Oversight committee tasked with declassifying government secrets, including what US agencies know about extraterrestrial intelligence.

Although President Trump has publicly remained skeptical about the existence of alien life, he recently revealed that the UFO files would contain some 'very interesting' things for the public, echoing Patel's claim that the files would emerge 'very, very soon.'

During a meeting with the crew of NASA's Artemis II moon mission, the president also noted that he had spoken with military pilots who revealed incidents involving what they believed were non-human craft.

'I interviewed some pilots. Very solid people, and they said they saw things that you wouldn't believe,' Trump said.

To this point, the US government and the Pentagon have maintained for decades that there has never been physical evidence that UFOs and alien life exists.

{ https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/index.html }

Archaeologists reveal wooden secret beneath ancient stone island

An ancient artificial island in a loch on the Isle of Lewis was built entirely on a wooden platform, archaeologists have discovered.

From above, the Neolithic island - or crannog - in Loch Bhorgastail appears to be made of stone, though it was known that there was some timber underneath it.

Ground control points used for UAS and underwater surveys at Loch Bhorgastail, showing the distribution of terrestrial, underwater, and rope-mounted control points across the land–water interface.

Credit: Blankshein et al., Advances in Archaeological Practice (2026)

The crannog at Loch Bhorgastail.

Credit: University of Southampton

However, researchers from the University of Southampton carried out an excavation and have revealed that wood was used to support the whole structure.

The group dated their findings between 3500 and 3300 BC - around the early Bronze Age - and said the technique would have been used at other nearby sites throughout the Outer Hebrides.

Plan view of stone and timber elements above and below the waterline, digitized from multiple integrated photogrammetry survey datasets.

Credit: Blankshein et al., Advances in Archaeological Practice (2026)

University of Southampton archaeologist, Dr Stephanie Blankshein, said: "When we actually started excavating is when we realised that it was actually this coherent, quite large timber structure that was under what you would see as the stone island today.

"While we still don't know exactly why these islands were built, the resources and labour required to construct them suggests not only complex communities capable of such feats, but also the great significance of these sites."

As well as the layered wood and brushwood construction under the stone, archaeologists found hundreds of pieces of Neolithic pottery in the surrounding water.

Crannogs are small artificial islands that are typically thousands of years old, and hundreds of them exist in Scotland's lochs.

The site in Loch Bhorgastail was first discovered in 2009.

Through fieldwork carried out since 2021, the archaeologists have revealed the different stages of development of the crannog.

They discovered that it was first established more than 5,000 years ago and started out as a circular wooden platform, around 23m (75ft) across, topped with brushwood.

Around 2,000 years later in the Middle Bronze Age, another layer of brushwood and stone were added, with more activity around 1,000 years after that during the Iron Age.

A stone causeway, now underwater, leads from the loch shore to the island.

PA Media

Archaeologists found that the whole island was built on a wooden platform

As part of the fieldwork, the researchers created images of how the island looks above and below the water line using the science of photogrammetry.

{ https://www.bbc.com/news }

Burchett: Here's What the Government Knows About UFOs

What Is Disclosure

UFOs-Disclosure

Bellingham, Northumberland, United Kingdom

UFO ET DISCLOSURE "Disclosure" is the name given to the announcement by various world governmental leaders that we are not alone in the universe and that, in fact, many races of galactic human beings are here around this planet and have been for some time. They are here on peaceful missions, a fact which governments have generally kept hidden from their people until very recently.

Disclosure ends the period of secrecy that extends back to at least 1947 and probably much earlier. The practice of denying that ET UFOs or spacecraft exist has been a policy followed by most governments for varying reasons, some laudable, most unfortunately not. The era in which the existence of other civilizations technologically and spiritually more evolved than ours has been denied is now ending and a new era of galactic contact and cooperation is beginning.

Sean Spicer:

Will we ever get the truth about UFOs/UAPs?

Featuring:
Rep. Tim Burchett
U.S. Congressman | Tennessee, District 2


YouTube link:

• https://youtu.be/H0MeWWbtgbg?si=t4GhI6eMXN7EHw4v

{ https://ufos-disclosure.blogspot.com }

The global industrial robot market has reached a record high of $16.7 billion. This isn’t just a rise in sales—the industry is undergoing structural changes that will shape the future of manufacturing in the coming years.

Infographic showing the five key industry trends according to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). Source: ifr.org

1. Intelligence instead of rules

In its annual report, the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) identified five key trends for 2026. First and foremost is the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence. Analytical AI enables machines to predict breakdowns before they occur and to autonomously plan routes within warehouses. 

Generative AI has taken a step further: instead of rigidly defined algorithms, it now learns new tasks through simulations and understands commands in natural language. The combination of both approaches—known as agent-based AI—is designed to enable machines to act independently in truly unpredictable conditions.

2. Digital and physical worlds are converging

Another trend is the convergence of information technology and operational technology. Put simply: data processing systems and systems for managing physical processes used to exist in parallel and had almost no interaction. Now these barriers are breaking down. 

The actual exchange of data between the digital and physical layers gives robots greater context and flexibility—and forms the foundation of what is known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

3. Humanoids are coming out of the labs

The third area is humanoid robotics. Companies and research teams are moving from prototypes to actual deployments in manufacturing facilities and warehouses. The automotive industry has taken the lead in this field. 

However, in order for humanoids to compete with conventional automation, they have to meet strict industrial requirements: keep up with the pace of the production cycle, not consume too much energy, and not require excessive maintenance. The IFR notes that the key criterion for success is achieving human-level agility and productivity.

4. Safety and New Risks

The increasing autonomy of machines makes it more difficult to monitor and verify their behavior. Connecting robots to cloud platforms creates new vulnerabilities: experts are noting an increase in attempts to hack controllers and gain unauthorized access to systems. 

Privacy is also a concern—devices collect video, audio, and sensor data streams. Deep learning models are often unable to explain their own decisions even to their developers, and the legal framework for determining liability for AI actions is still taking shape.

5. A partner, not a replacement

The fifth trend concerns the labor market. Robots are increasingly viewed not as a threat to employment, but as a solution to the shortage of skilled workers. IFR emphasizes that the successful implementation of automation depends on whether employees themselves are involved in the process. 

Governments and companies are investing in reskilling programs so that people can compete in an economy where automation is becoming the norm.

• According to ifr.org 

• Posted in News, Tech

Top 5 New Humanoid Robots Ranked at CES 2026 (AI NEWS)

{ https://universemagazine.com/en/news-en/science-en/ }

Benjamin Zuckerman, a researcher at the University of California, has proposed a new approach to the search for extraterrestrial civilizations. He believes that aliens will not transmit signals in all directions, but rather in a narrow, directed beam.

Where should we look for extraterrestrial life? Source: www.nbcnews.com

A new approach to the search for extraterrestrial civilizations

When searching for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence, it’s helpful to know exactly what you’re looking for and to do so in the most effective way possible. However, as Benjamin Zuckerman, an astrophysicist and professor emeritus in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), writes, this has generally not been done until now.

Zuckerman suggests examining an approach to the search using the electromagnetic spectrum, drawing on astronomical surveys conducted independently of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), and proposes an improved search methodology developed based on his research.

Since, by all accounts, there are no alien probes in our Solar System, his methodology leads to the conclusion that “no alien civilization has passed within 100 light-years of Earth over the past few billion years.” His work was published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Limited capabilities for detecting isotropic signals

Most published works (at least those written by humans) have been based on the assumption that extraterrestrial intelligence (ET) would have limited energy resources—the electricity available to extraterrestrials would become increasingly difficult to generate, and its supply would ultimately be limited. It was believed that, to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio on the receiving end, ET would use very narrow bandwidths for both transmission and reception.

That is why people searching for radio signals use algorithms that analyze very narrow frequency bands, spanning just a few hertz. “Even with the use of modern equipment and software, the total bandwidth that has been achieved today amounts to only ‘a tiny fraction of the entire radio and microwave frequency spectrum,’” writes Zuckerman.

In 1964, Soviet astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev, known for his Kardashev scale—which classifies civilizations based on their energy consumption—proposed the hypothesis that any signal transmitted by extraterrestrials would be isotropic, meaning it would have the same intensity in all directions rather than being directional. In any given direction, an isotropic signal would be weak, which limits its power, and this view has since influenced scientific research within the SETI program.

Why directed signals change everything

Zuckerman puts forward the exact opposite hypothesis—that any extraterrestrial civilizations would choose to send highly directional signals, so limited power would not be a serious problem. In this case, he writes, the most uncertain factor for us will be the signal’s wavelength (or, alternatively, its frequency), so we should investigate a much broader range of the electromagnetic spectrum—not only radio waves, but at least infrared and visible light as well. But this is “very difficult” to do using existing SETI radio search programs.

As Zuckerman writes, for neighboring technological civilizations that engage in targeted communication and make “every technological effort to establish contact,” power limitations—and consequently, filtering through very narrow bandwidths on Earth—are “irrelevant.” 

This scenario allows civilizations conducting searches and receiving signals to “accidentally discover an alien transmitter during electromagnetic surveys of the sky conducted for reasons unrelated to SETI.” Any such signals would be calling out to us—if we were looking in the right direction—simply by conducting routine astronomical observations with modest telescopes.

Narrowing the search to stars similar to the Sun

Zuckerman took into account five relevant observational parameters: distance, direction, sensitivity (power received per square meter per hertz), wavelength (or frequency), and time.

He suggested that any extraterrestrial life discovered would, like ours, be based on water; therefore, their planet must be located in the habitable zone around its star, where liquid water exists on at least part of its surface. The planet’s star must be similar to the Sun; only stars with a mass less than 1.25 times that of the Sun live long enough (4.5 billion years) for such a technological civilization to evolve on the planet.

According to Zuckerman’s estimates, a targeted SETI search program would likely need to observe 300,000 stars within a radius of 200 parsecs (650 light-years) to cover all the old stars—those that have existed in the Earth’s atmosphere over the past two billion years, during which oxygen has existed in Earth’s atmosphere as a result of the Great Oxidation Event—about two million such stars have passed within 100 light-years of our solar system.

Based on many such astronomical, astrophysical, and SETI considerations, and given that many other all-sky surveys of stars in the radio and optical spectrum could detect continuous, strong signals deliberately transmitted (via highly directional transmissions) with the aim of attracting attention, Zuckerman arrives at the aforementioned limit: “No alien civilization has passed within 100 light-years of Earth over the past few billion years.”

Need for further research

Although some parts of the radio and infrared bands have not yet been explored, according to Zuckerman, a broad-band study of old, Sun-like stars—from radio frequencies to the visible spectrum—is needed. This will allow us to expand the scope of the search and, for the first time, obtain a numerical estimate of the number of extraterrestrial civilizations capable of communication. 100,000, or perhaps even 10,000.

Zuckerman said he had spoken with some of SETI’s leading astronomers, and none of them had criticized him. The same applies to other astronomers who are not SETI experts but are sufficiently qualified to evaluate its work and claims. But, he adds, “although the jury has not yet reached a decision, various pieces of evidence suggest that the verdict will be this: we are alone in our little corner of the Milky Way galaxy.”

• According to phys.org 

• Posted in News, Science

{ https://universemagazine.com/en/articles-en/ }

Meta has acquired a startup that develops artificial intelligence for humanoid robots. The company aims to create an open software platform for the industry—similar to how Google once built Android for smartphones. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Illustrative image. Humanoid robots are the main focus for tech giants in 2026.

What is ARI?

Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI) is a startup that developed so-called foundational models—basic artificial intelligence algorithms that enable machines to understand human behavior and adapt to unpredictable situations in real-world environments. 

Precisely this inability to generalize—to understand new situations without prior programming—is the key problem that no company in the field of humanoid robotics has yet solved. The entire team, including co-founders Xiaolong Wang and Lerrel Pinto, will join the Meta Superintelligence Labs division.

Why now?

Wang wrote on X that they understood from the start that achieving the company’s goals meant training a “truly versatile physical agent.” He is now convinced that such an agent must be a humanoid, and that its training will be based directly on human experience. According to him, Meta has access to “the key components needed to realize this vision.”

The deal comes amid a fierce race among tech giants. Amazon acquired the startup Fauna Robotics—where Pinto previously worked—for its own humanoid robot project. Tesla is promoting the Optimus line and is already converting part of its Fremont factory to produce them. 

According to forecasts by the research firm Kaiso Research, the global market for humanoid robotics is expected to grow from $2.64 billion in 2024 to $38.4 billion by 2035. Software—the very segment that ARI is strengthening—is already the fastest-growing sector.

Software as a priority

Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth explained the company’s strategy back in 2025: “Software is the bottleneck.” The idea is to develop licensed software for the entire industry—just as Android has become the operating system for thousands of different devices. 

The acquisition of ARI fits into this logic: instead of investing in expensive hardware, we are acquiring scalable software expertise.

• According to engadget.com 

• Posted in News, Science, Tech

{ https://universemagazine.com/en/articles-en/ }

TikTok, The Conversation

Hollow‑Earth myths and Nazi UFOs on TikTok are bringing white supremacism into the mainstream

Eighty-one years after Adolf Hitler died by his own hand in a Berlin bunker, a viral video on TikTok shows an AI-generated vision of the Nazi dictator standing in Antarctica, shoulders broad and face smiling, sipping a White Monster Energy drink while Men at Work’s iconic song Down Under plays.

It’s an absurd image, but one that makes sense in the context of the “Agartha” trend on TikTok, which is quietly bringing white supremacist narratives into the mainstream to be seen by millions of users.

The modern myth of Agartha, a supposed utopia hidden inside the hollow Earth, was constructed from older pieces by esoteric authors after the second world war. It blends “Aryan” white supremacist themes with ideas of an occult SS and Third Reich spaceships.

Literal belief in hollow-Earth myths or Nazi UFOs is not the point. Instead, it’s an aesthetic – one that can host both coded far-right messages and explicit ones, fused with pop-cultural references such as the White Monster Energy meme.

Mainstreaming through borderline content

Agartha videos on social media are “awful but lawful”: the content is objectionable but legal. It allows extremists to embed their narratives into mainstream social media spaces, without triggering moderation or outright rejection by the audience. As a result, they can reach large, young audiences.

To understand how the underlying esoteric myths are used, we analysed a network of more than 43,000 Agartha-related TikTok videos and closely studied selected examples. This analysis is part of an ongoing project led by researchers at Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences in Germany. The goal is to understand how extremists abuse platform features to carry radical narratives into the mainstream.

We identified four key mechanisms which far-right actors use to push radical narratives to unsuspecting audiences: aesthetic camouflage, dog-whistles and split-second glimpses, network building, and weaponised irony. Let’s unpack each of these terms.

Aesthetic camouflage

Moderation systems on social media platforms aim to remove overt extremist propaganda. These systems work imperfectly, but overt propaganda is unlikely to reach mass audiences before being removed.

Instead, far-right actors often use generative AI to mask racial ideology behind seemingly benign tropes from science fiction and fantasy. This allows a “de-demonising” of their ideas. Elf-like depictions of the “Aryan” inhabitants of Agartha, or footage of an underground utopia, make the idea of a white ethnostate seem palatable.

The engaging aesthetic keeps people watching longer. In turn, this triggers the algorithm to push the video to wider audiences.

Dog whistles and split-second provocations

Far-right actors infuse their content with dog whistles that communicate to a certain audience without triggering moderation.

Our research identified recurring visual symbols in Agartha videos. “Raw milk” signals white supremacy. The number 271, which appears in hundreds of the videos, is a code for Holocaust denial.

Agartha videos also sometimes include overt extremist markers such as the Hakenkreuz (the Nazi symbol of the “hooked cross” or swastika). They are often flashed for only fractions of a second.

This is a calculated provocation. It tests and pushes platform boundaries, normalising the presence of far-right markers and slowly desensitising viewers. At the same time, successful inclusion of forbidden symbols in videos with viral reach serves as a badge of honour within the in-group.

Building network bridges

The Agartha community is not an isolated echo chamber. Our analysis shows the Agartha network connects to others on TikTok. Around 87% of these connections come via the inclusion of mundane, mainstream hashtags on Agartha videos.

Extremists may deliberately “hijack” benign, high-traffic hashtags, such as #roblox or #loganpaul, to push their content into everyday feeds. Agartha is also strongly connected to gym and fitness content. Hashtags such as #gymtok serve as a bridge, potentially funnelling users towards radical narratives.

Here, we also observed targeted appeals. Agartha videos would commonly include hashtags associated with “looksmaxxing” – a trend for extreme physical self-optimisation – to push their videos towards audiences seen as potentially susceptible, such as insecure young men. Well-known looksmaxxers were also sometimes depicted in Agartha videos.

Weaponised irony

As the example of Adolf Hitler drinking a Monster Energy illustrates, Agartha videos rely heavily on absurd situations, frequently co-opting mainstream social media trends.

Because White Monster Energy is a popular meme within non-extremist spaces, users familiar with the trend are particularly likely to get algorithmic recommendations fused with extremist narratives.

Similarly, actors superimpose mainstream figures into Agartha to force association, such as YouTuber Logan Paul or actor Mads Mikkelsen.

Such co-opting is also done through music, with many hollow-Earth edits set to Men at Work’s 1980s hit Down Under. The track serves as a darkly ironic nod to the subterranean utopia.

This increases the chances for algorithmic amplification while providing creators with plausible deniability. Criticisms can be dismissed as a misunderstanding of dark humour or current trends.

Recognising the threat

Agartha is more than just a digital resurfacing of fringe occultism. It is a blueprint for how to design extremist content for algorithmically curated short-video platforms.

It’s also a reminder that extremist content on social media does not exist in isolation. Instead, it lives in what researchers call “hybridised spaces”, where users move in and out of extremist discourse. In such spaces, borderline content, outright extremism, mundane trends and humour blend seamlessly – and participants may find their mainstream interests lead them to radical narratives.

{ https://theconversation.com/europe }

UFO-linked scientist claimed a top secret energy weapon blasted her before her death... now the Pentagon admits they are real

By CHRIS MELORE, DEPUTY SCIENCE EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

A futuristic weapon often dismissed as a conspiracy theory has been publicly acknowledged as being part of the US military's vast arsenal. 

The US Department of War chose 'Star Wars Day' on May 4 to state that 'directed energy weapons are a fine addition to our arsenal.'

Directed energy weapons are devices capable of firing rays of energy, such as microwaves, at a target. Simply put, they fire lasers at the enemy, often to scramble and physically damage electronic equipment.

In the Pentagon's post on social media, they confirmed that DEWs produced 'beams of concentrated electromagnetic energy or atomic or subatomic particles.'

Monday's post cemented decades of rumors that the military has been working on futuristic weaponry that was once thought of as science fiction or unrealistic experiments by Pentagon researchers.

However, the revelation comes as stunning claims from a dead scientist were recently unearthed, alleging that she was the target and victim of a DEW attack in her own home in 2022.

Amy Eskridge, who reportedly took her own life on June 11, 2022 at age 34, shared shocking images that allegedly showed the damage these weapons could cause to the human body.

Pictures and text messages shared with the Daily Mail by a former British intelligence officer revealed burned skin, lesions and painful blisters Eskridge allegedly suffered after a beam from a DEW was fired into her home by an unknown assailant.

The Pentagon's Chief Technology Officer revealed on May 4 that laser weapons are 'a fine addition' to the US military

Amy Eskridge (Pictured) was a scientist researching anti-gravity technology before her death in 2022 at age 34

Franc Milburn, a retired paratrooper, investigated the Eskridge case and concluded she was 'murdered by a "private aerospace company"' to stop her research on futuristic propulsion technology and national security threats.

The images shared by Milburn also revealed how a microwave from an alleged DEW scorched the window of Eskridge's Huntsville, Alabama home as the beam passed through the glass.

Eskridge's death was reportedly ruled a suicide from a gunshot wound to the head, but the scientist allegedly consulted a former CIA weapons expert about the DEW attack in early 2022.

On May 19, 2022, Milburn said Eskridge messaged him to say: 'My ex-CIA weapons guy on my team saw my hands when they were burned really badly a couple months ago, and he saw that window pane in person,' she wrote.

'He said he had built things like that, and that it was most likely an RF k-band emitter run by five car batteries strung together from inside an SUV.'

While there has been no physical evidence to confirm Eskridge and Milburn's claims regarding a DEW attack, the theory that such a weapon uses a k-band emitter does match what the military is currently using in its laser weapon tests.

The k-band is a specific range of invisible radio waves, or microwaves, that military directed energy weapons can use to send out powerful beams at enemy targets.

These beams can travel well, focus tightly on a target and are especially good at damaging electronics inside drones, missiles or vehicles from a distance.

Eskridge's death was reportedly ruled a suicide from a gunshot wound to the head, but the scientist allegedly consulted a former CIA weapons expert about the DEW attack in early 2022

Directed energy weapons fire concentrated beams of microwaves or other particles at a target to disable electronics

Franc Milburn shared a picture, which he claims shows Eskridge's hands burned and discolored after allegedly being struck by a 'directed energy weapon'

Monday's statement came from the X account of the Department of War's Chief Technology Officer, Emil Michael, who oversees the Pentagon's entire research, development and prototyping operations.

Michael's profile on the Department of War website states that his mission is to 'accelerate the transition of breakthrough technologies from prototype to operational reality, ensuring that the US military maintains its technological edge.'

Although DEW technology was first mentioned in the 1960s and first deployed in 2014 by the Navy, there has not been any public mention by the US government or the Pentagon about using these weapons against people.

Over the last decade, the Pentagon's 'idea factory,' known as DARPA, has worked on multiple projects aimed at creating a new wave of directed energy devices for use against enemy drones, missiles, rockets, vehicles and computers.

A Pentagon official told the Daily Mail that the military's current focus is on six 'new critical technology areas,' including Scaled Directed Energy, or SCADE.

'The Department is continuing to scale and integrate these high-energy solutions to make our arsenal more lethal, precise, and cost-effective,' the officials said in a statement on Tuesday.

Large DEW have been used by the military to shoot down enemy missiles and drones

The technology is thought to be more cost effective than using bullets because each beam costs only a few dollars to emit

The official website of Congress even has a detailed section acknowledging the existence, uses and funding for the government's research and development of these futuristic weapons.

According to that report, the Pentagon requested $789.7 million for directed energy weapons programs during the 2025 fiscal year.

However, some of the research has also been handled by outside companies, including those in the aerospace field, with deep ties to national defense.

That includes defense technologies company AeroVironment, which developed the laser weapon shown in the Pentagon's social media post - the Locust X3.

The Locust is a truck or ship-mountable system that shoots a powerful, invisible beam at the speed of light to quickly destroy or disable enemy drones, especially small and medium-sized threats.

According to the military, these weapons have also become a more cost-effective solution to shooting down enemy drones, as each beam only costs a few dollars to fire and does not require bullets or bombs, which have limited supplies.

The Pentagon official added: 'By scaling and delivering on the priorities driven under the SCADE CTA, the Joint Force will be able to neutralize adversarial threats with unparalleled precision at a low cost-per-shot.' 

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“Without a body or analogous internal physiology, AI systems may approximate, simulate, or even convincingly reproduce the expression of understanding,” said Akila Kadambi, the study’s first author and a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. “But Simulation is not the same as experience.”

“On that view, an AI could be highly intelligent, or even sentient in some abstract sense, yet still lack the embodied grounding that characterizes human understanding,” Kadambi said in an email to The Debrief.

At its core, human cognition is shaped by connection, not isolation. The researchers point to even simple actions—like passing the salt across a table—as examples of how behavior is informed by more than the task itself. Such actions draw on a lifetime of sensorimotor experience: how objects feel, how distances are judged, and the social context or intent behind the interaction. In other words, human behavior is deeply contextual. The brain continuously integrates this external input with internal bodily signals, creating a feedback loop that influences attention, memory, and decision-making. According to the UCLA researchers, AI systems lack this internal layer.

“While there is a current focus in world modeling on external embodiment, such as our outward interactions with the world, far less attention is given to internal dynamics, or what we term ‘internal embodiment,’” Kadambi said. “In humans, the body acts as our experiential regulator of the world, as a kind of built-in safety system.”

“If you’re uncertain, if you’re depleted, if something conflicts with your survival, your body registers that,” she added. “AI systems right now have no equivalent. They can sound experiential, whether they should be or not, and that’s a real problem for many reasons, especially when these systems are being deployed in consequential settings.”

Kadambi explains that current AI models can produce human-like language without having any lived experience to match what those words really mean. 

The study also highlights experiments involving point-light displays, in which several advanced AI systems failed to recognize patterns that humans readily identify as human movement. Instead, the systems interpreted them as unrelated shapes or even astronomical phenomena. When the displays were altered, the systems’ performance deteriorated further, suggesting a fragile and unrealistic mode of perception—one that contrasts sharply with the stability provided by embodied human experience.

The researchers argue that this limitation could have implications for human safety as AI systems are deployed more broadly in everyday settings.

“By contrast, current AI systems have no equivalent mechanism. They process inputs and generate outputs without any persistent internal state that regulates how they behave over time,” said Dr. Marco Iacoboni, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine and a senior author on the recent paper.

“This is not just a performance limitation, but also a safety limitation. Without internal costs or constraints, an AI system has no intrinsic reason to avoid overconfident errors, resist manipulation, or behave consistently.”

To address this issue, the paper proposes a “dual-embodiment framework.” The idea would be to enable AI systems to connect more directly with the external world while also incorporating internal “check-in” processes—loosely analogous to an inner voice—that could help regulate behavior.

The authors also call for the development of new evaluation benchmarks. Rather than focusing solely on whether AI can identify objects or complete tasks, future assessments should examine whether systems can maintain stability under uncertainty and demonstrate self-regulation.

• Chrissy Newton is a PR professional and the founder of VOCAB Communications. She currently appears on The Discovery Channel and Max and hosts the Rebelliously Curious podcast, which can be found on YouTube and on all audio podcast streaming platforms. Follow her on X: @ChrissyNewton, Instagram: @BeingChrissyNewton, and chrissynewton.com. To contact Chrissy with a story, please email chrissy @ thedebrief.org.

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