ETs and Religion: How the belief in extraterrestrial life has influenced religions and inspired new ones.

It is often said that if we found intelligent extraterrestrial life, religions would be devastated. However, most religions already discuss extraterrestrial life, and have for hundreds of years. In this presentation we discuss the many ways alien life has been addressed by the world’s major religions, and how they are currently dealing with this issue. We also look at studies which reveal insight into how religious leaders, those who participate in religion, and those who do not, might react when it is finally confirmed that intelligent extraterrestrial life exists. Finally, we look to the future and how the belief in extraterrestrial intelligence is inspiring the creation of new religions.

This is a presentation by Alejandro Rojas.

In 1988, a recently retired U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) Agent claimed on live television that the government was working with aliens at a secret base in the Nevada desert called Area 51 and that the “extraterrestrials have complete control of this base.” In the program, the producers blacked out the OSI agent’s face, and he went by the codename “Falcon.” The agent’s actual name is Richard Doty. It’s listed on the IMDB page for the show. Doty has admitted that during his career as an OSI agent, beginning in 1980, he had been sharing disinformation about aliens and UFOs with the UFO community. Within weeks of the airing of the live UFO program, a man in Nevada named Bob Lazar approached reporters in Las Vegas claiming he had worked on alien spacecraft at Area 51. Despite lacking evidence, Lazar’s claims made headlines, and Area 51, then one of our most secret military bases, quickly became the most famous.

Stories like this leave me wondering how much of the UFO mythos is disinformation created by the U.S. government and why. It sounds like another UFO conspiracy theory, but Congress is interested in this question also. They require that the Pentagon’s current UAP investigation program, the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), produce a report that includes “the key historical record of the involvement of the intelligence community with unidentified anomalous phenomena, including…any efforts to obfuscate, manipulate public opinion, hide, or otherwise provide incorrect unclassified or classified information about unidentified anomalous phenomena or related activities.”

Is there any reason to believe the U.S. government has deceived the public about UFOs? Mr. Doty’s story is not well known, but the CIA has admitted to deceiving the public about UFOs in a study published by the CIA  journal Studies in Intelligence titled “A Die-hard Issue: CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–1990.”

According to the study, much like today, credible UFO sightings in the late 1940s and early 1950s brought media attention to the topic. This pressured the U.S. Air Forces into creating UFO investigation programs  and the CIA to discreetly monitor the situation. The CIA didn’t want attention to the fact that it was monitoring UFO reports and interfacing with the U.S. Air Force on the matter, so both organizations chose to lie about it.

The report states, “This concealment of CIA interest contributed greatly to later charges of a CIA conspiracy and cover-up.”

The problem worsened in the late 50s when testing of U-2 spy planes began. The aircraft flew much higher than any others at the time, and the prototypes were highly reflective, causing a spike in reports to the USAF UFO research program at the time, Project Blue Book. The CIA later estimated half of the UFO reports during this time were due to U-2 aircraft. The report claims, “This led the Air Force to make misleading and deceptive statements to the public in order to allay public fears and to protect an extraordinarily sensitive national security project.”

The report also covers the CIA’s involvement with a University of Colorado review of UFO information in the late 60s, which led to the USAF closing Project Blue Book and exiting public UFO research completely. Both agencies decided to keep the CIA’s involvement in the report hidden.

Even Roswell was a cover-up, albeit not of the extraterrestrial kind. Unfortunately, the first volume of the AARO report whitewashes this event. According to the AARO report, in the 1990s, “USAF’s research did not locate or develop any information that indicated the ‘Roswell Incident’ was a UFO event, nor was there any ‘cover-up’ by the USG.”

It goes on to explain how the USAF found that the debris collected in the desert in 1947 was part of a classified project to listen for Russian nuclear testing called Project Mogul. It does not include the fact that the USAF’s research also found that the person in charge of researching the material, General Roger Ramey, had taken it upon himself to hide that the debris was part of a classified project. Instead, he told the press they had found an ordinary weather balloon and switched out the actual debris before taking press photos.

According to the 1995 USAF Roswell report, “the Air Force did not find documented evidence that Gen. Ramey was directed to espouse a weather balloon in his press conference, he may have done so because he was either aware of Project MOGUL and was trying to deflect interest from it, or he really perceived the material to be a weather balloon based on the identification from his weather officer, Irving Newton.”

Ramey’s Chief of Staff, Colonel Thomas DuBose, who can be seen in one of the photos, claimed in an affidavit, “the material shown in the photographs taken in Gen. Ramey’s office was a weather balloon. The weather balloon explanation for the material was a cover story to divert the attention of the press.”

Photo: Ramey, left, holding letter, and DuBose looking over wind-forecasting device at Fort Worth Army Airfield brought from Roswell, New Mexico. Credit: University of Arlington

DuBose does not claim to have seen or known anything about the material that the USAF found. Still, Ramey’s switching out of the material and DuBose’s statement help fuel Roswell’s conspiracy theories to this day.

This brings us back to Doty, who is the first source of the claim that the USAF took alien bodies to Area 51. He did so in a document claiming a cabal of influential people inside and outside of the government controls UFOs and alien secrets. If this sounds like the X-Files, it’s because the show was allegedly based on Doty’s stories.

In late 1980, Doty worked at Kirtland Air Force base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Only months after beginning his position as an OSI agent, a local technical equipment vendor and paranormal enthusiast, Paul Bennewitz, claimed to be getting images and signals from UFOs over the base. According to documents I and others have received via FOIA, Doty and another agent looked at what Bennewitz had found but didn’t see anything worth researching.

Doty claims that someone in the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) approached him soon after meeting with Bennewitz. Doty refers to the DIA agent with the codename “Falcon”—the same name he later used on the TV show mentioned earlier. According to Doty, Falcon wanted Doty to feed disinformation to Bennewitz and make Bennewitz believe what he saw was aliens. Falcon said Bennewitz was capturing signals and videos of top-secret activity at the base, and the disinformation was intended to throw off Bennewitz and any Russian spies that might be monitoring him.

There is no evidence that Falcon exists or that Doty was ordered to conduct his disinformation program against Bennewitz, but it was effective and drove Bennewitz into a dangerous mental state. Even worse, the disinformation Doty spread and its amplification by the X-Files has created mythos that may even fool government insiders.

The FBI investigated some of Doty’s documents and asked the U.S. Air Force what they knew. The documents were returned with the word “BOGUS” written on them in thick black marker. But the question isn’t whether they are bogus. The question is why they came from an active OSI agent—a question still unanswered.

In an op-ed for Scientific American earlier this year, former AARO Chief Sean Kirkpatrick wrote: “…our efforts were ultimately overwhelmed by sensational but unsupported claims that ignored contradictory evidence yet captured the attention of policy makers and the public, driving legislative battles and dominating the public narrative.”

I agree with Kirkpatrick regarding the negative effect “sensational but unsupported claims” are having on moving UAP research forward. However, the government has to be open and cooperative as well and needs to investigate and take responsibility for its role in UAP disinformation.

• A version of this article was originally posted on Den of Geek.

There has been much confusion about the alleged secret Pentagon UFO program the New York Times exposed in 2017, and the problems stem from factual errors and omissions in the article.

According to the contract solicitation, the Pentagon created the Advanced Aerospace Weapon Systems Applications Program (AAWSAP) under the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to research “advanced aerospace weapon system applications” to understand “the foreign threat out to the far term.”

In 2009, then-Nevada Senator Harry Reid tried to get Special Access Program (SAP) status for AAWSAP. In the request, he used the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) as a nickname. James Lacatski, the DIA program manager for AAWSAP, confirmed this in his book Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, co-written by Las Vegas journalist George Knapp and AAWSAP lead scientist Colm Kelleher. 

Regarding Reid’s SAP request, the book states: “A new unclassified nickname, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), was created for use within the unclassified letter because it was decided for security reasons not to use the AAWSAP acronym.”

The Pentagon denied the SAP request.

Despite selling the program to the Pentagon as a future aerospace tech analysis program, Reid, Lacatski, and Nevada real estate tycoon Robert Bigelow intended to conduct paranormal investigations. Lacatski outlined AAWSAP’s work in his book. It does not align with the objectives outlined in the contract, nor do his tales of the alleged paranormal adventures AAWSAP engaged in. From the Pentagon’s perspective, AAWSAP was delivering on the non-paranormal research they were tasked to do.

I received the official AAWSAP files delivered to the Department of Defense in this FOIA request. All of them are within the scope of the contract. 

For those of us who followed UFOs before the 2017 New York Times article, it was shocking to see that the Pentagon awarded the AAWSAP contract to Bigelow’s fledgling company, Bigelow Aerospace. The surprise was not only due to Bigelow’s involvement with AAWSAP’s inception but also because we knew what Bigelow had been up to, and UFO research was not the whole story.

At the time, Bigelow also owned Skinwalker Ranch, where a group of scientists investigated alleged paranormal activity. In 2005, Knapp (a close associate of Bigelow’s) and Kelleher wrote a book on this investigation called Hunt for the Skinwalker. The ranch now has a new owner and is the subject of a TV show on the History Channel.

We also knew that around 2008, Bigelow had changed the name of his Skinwaler and paranormal research group from the National Institute of Discovery Sciences (NIDS) to a department in his new Bigelow Aerospace company called Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS). At this time, I was in a leadership position with a non-profit called the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). We had created a partnership with BAASS. They provided us with resources for our UAP investigations. I handled public relations and was the only one in a leadership position who did not sign an NDA with BAASS. I didn’t want the liability.

I don’t know who knew what at MUFON, but Knapp later reported that Bigelow created BAASS solely to win and manage the AAWSAP contract. The MUFON partnership was short-lived and ended in less than a year.

Another thing many of us UFO enthusiasts knew was that despite their claims the numerous paranormal phenomena they investigate are real, Bigelow’s researchers have never been able to prove any of it.

In December 2017, the infamous NYT article claimed that a program called AATIP, run by an agent in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security named Lue Elizondo, received $22M to investigate UFOs. This conclusion has not aged well.

We know now:

• AAWSAP got the contract, AATIP was a nickname for AAWSAP
• Lacatksi and one of the lead scientists for BAASS deny Elizondo was involved with AAWSAP/AATIP – the program that was budgeted the $22M
• The Pentagon did not create AAWSAP to investigate UFOs – Although AAWSAP did investigate UFOs, it was one of the least fringy things they took it upon themselves to look into, which is an important context the authors of the New York Times article left out.
• Elizondo has claimed he was both part of AAWSAP and that he had nothing to do with AAWSAP

In 2018, a senior manager of BAASS, potentially wanting to set the record straight, gave a strange statement to KLAS, the news outlet Knapp works for, claiming “the [UFO] phenomenon also involved a whole panoply of diverse activity that included bizarre creatures, poltergeist activity, invisible entities, orbs of light, animal and human injuries and much more.”

The NYT article seemed to confuse the Pentagon, and its initial messaging was muddled. However, after further investigation, the Pentagon acknowledges the history I just covered. Volume 1 of the historical report created by the current Pentagon UAP program, the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), states, “The primary purpose of AAWSAP/AATIP was to investigate potential next generation aerospace technologies in 12 specific areas—such as advanced lift, propulsion, the use of unconventional materials and controls, and signature reduction.” 

“Although investigating UFO/UAP was not specifically outlined in the contract’s statement of work,” the report continues. “The selected private sector organization conducted UFO research with the support of the DIA program manager [Lacatski].”

The report also clarifies that the “DIA did not seek, nor specifically authorize, this work though a DIA employee set up and managed the contract with the private sector organization.”

In 2019, I asked one of the authors of the NYT article most familiar with the UFO topic, Leskie Kean, about the omission of AAWSAP. She said, “at the time, our focus was AATIP. This was the name on the documents that we had, and this is what Lue Elizondo had talked to us about in interviews with him, as did others associated with the program.” 

Elizondo told me his involvement was primarily with AATIP and the UFO side of things, he did not feel at liberty to share AAWSAP information with the New York Times.

So what did Elizondo do? These details are less clear. I say this despite having interviewed him several times here on OpenMinds.tv. It appears he started a group of interested parties inside the intelligence community to look at the most interesting military UFO cases collected by AAWSAP. An effort I appreciate. Elizondo and his associates adopted the AATIP name to conduct this non-funded and apparent non-official work. Department of Defense spokesperson Susan Gough recently told News Nation, “Luis Elizondo had no assigned responsibilities for the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) while assigned to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security.”

The successor to AAWSAP, the UAP Task Force (UAPTF), was set up in 2020 and included AAWSAP personnel in leadership roles. Like Bigelow’s previous efforts, members of the UAPTF continue to make extraordinary yet unsupported claims. These claims come after a 2021 UAPTF report concluding that “the limited amount of high-quality reporting on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) hampers our ability to draw firm conclusions about the nature or intent of UAP.” UAPTF was short-lived and ultimately replaced by AARO. Some former UAPTF members now appear on the The Secrets of Skinwalker Ranch TV show.

For a more comprehensive analysis of this topic, I recommend you read: “On the AAWSAP-AATIP Confusion” by V.J. Ballester-Olmos and Luis Cayetano.

UPDATE: On May 28, 2025, John Greenewald posted Department of Defense correspondence he received via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request which supports my reporting on the nature of the “AATIP” Elizondo refers to as an unofficial, unfunded effort. In an email from June 5, 2019, a press official writes:

There is confusion — probably as a result of semantics/terminology
— over whether the program “ended” or was “transitioned.” By the best information we’ve received, the formal AATIP program last received funding in the FY2010 NDAA, and those funds ran out, with the completion of the final 12 of 38 technical studies, in 2012. From the overall DoD perspective, that was the end of AATIP as a program. However, I’m beginning to think what happened is that some office in either OSD and/or Navy (e.g., N2N6) continued to track/monitor UAP incidents — but not as an official program, just as a mission/function/duty of an office, with no funding line, and certainly not as “AATIP.” I think that is what Elizondo is referring to when he claims that he continued to work with/in AATIP until 2017.

Read Greenewald’s article and download the documents here: 

• Defense Department Emails Confirm 2017 UAP Briefings, Further Clarify Luis Elizondo’s Role in AATIP

“It was like a giant light bar,” reports a witness who recorded a video of a large luminous object floating across the night sky over Spokane Valley and submitted it via the Enigma UFO reporting app.

“This thing flew right over top of us the best way that I can describe,” the witness continued. “The lights looked like big square lights going all the way across it in a cigar shape, and if you look at all the stars behind it the constellation is Orion‘s belt And all the stars are flashing in sequence as it passes by.”

Clip from Enigma #311157 – Spokane Valley, Washington – Sept. 5, 2022

The video shows what appears to be a long luminous object very high up in the sky. The object appears to be very large. Although the video was captured in 2022, it was only recently submitted to the Enigma app.

When SpaceX deploys Starlink satellites, they are very close together at first. There have been several videos and photos of these satellite trains where they look like one long object when it is a string of many small objects.

SpaceX deployed 51 Starlink satellites on Sept 4, 2022.

When it comes to the “flashing,” this is due to scintillation, the same phenomenon that causes stars to twinkle.

Open Minds UAP News podcast version: 

• https://www.spreaker.com/episode/uap-where-do-we-go-from-here–65617481

Check out Alejandro’s articles on Den of Geek:

•  https://www.denofgeek.com/author/alejandro-rojas/

JOIN Alejandro on PATREON and help sponsor the show:

• https://patreon.com/alejandrotrojas?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink 

UFO Articles covered in this episode:

Exploring expert figures in alien-related UFO conspiracy theories – Nature: 

• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-025-04799-8

NBC News covers the new Tic-Tac video captured off the coast of San Diego: 

• https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1jv3pvz/nbc_news_covers_the_new_tictac_video_captured_off/

Infrared AI Camera Proposed to Scan Earth’s Skies For Signs of Alien Visitors – Science Alert: 

• https://www.sciencealert.com/infrared-ai-camera-proposed-to-scan-earths-skies-for-signs-of-alien-visitors

UFOs in space? Is it possible to launch a flying saucer into space and return it to Earth? – Universe Magazine: 

• https://universemagazine.com/en/ufos-in-space-is-it-possible-to-launch-a-flying-saucer-into-space-and-return-it-to-earth/

Scientists hail ‘strongest evidence’ so far for life beyond our solar system – The Guardian: 

• https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/apr/17/scientists-hail-strongest-evidence-so-far-for-life-beyond-our-solar-system

Is this a hint of life on another world, or just a lot of hot air? – NPR: 

• https://www.npr.org/2025/04/16/nx-s1-5364805/signs-life-alien-planet-biosignatures-exoplanet

Enigma Reports reviewed on this episode:

• Download the FREE Enigma app here
• Report your sighting to Enigma here
• Enigma #312247
  2025 Apr 16 • 4:15:00 AM CDT
  Arlington, Texas, United States
  Link to report and UFO video: https://enigmalabs.io/sighting/312247
• Enigma #288405
  2022 Jul 3 • 10:16:00 PM EDT
  Ellwood, Pennsylvania
  Link to report and UFO video: https://enigmalabs.io/sighting/288405
• Enigma #307482
  2025 Jan 11 • 6:50:00 PM EST
  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
  Link to report and UFO video: https://enigmalabs.io/sighting/307482
• Enigma #311849
  2025 Apr 8 • 12:06:40 AM CDT
  Jones, Oklahoma, United States
  Link to report and UFO video: https://enigmalabs.io/sighting/311849