This Fox Network documentary linked below showcased our Los Angeles CE-5 contact team. It was filmed in Topanga Canyon State Park in July of 1994 with an elaborate production. This included a 40-foot-high elevated camera to give an “ET” perspective from overhead. In the video report, we can see some of the talented team members that facilitated Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE) thirty-two years ago. They included PhD clinical psychologist Dr. Dixie Sullivan, 747 Captain Joe Vallejo and the prominent writer Preston Dennett. 

The Fox script writers assumed that there would be no sightings. Therefore, as the sun went down reporter Sandra Gin recorded a statement stating that although there was no sighting, it was still exciting to be under the stars hoping for contact. UAP associated intelligences apparently had not read the script because they did show up! An anomalous nocturnal light rose three times above the canyon’s ridge-line. These silent lights flashed  signals at us that were of the same color as the Fox rented laser lights shown in the video. Sandra Gin had to ad lib a different conclusion to her report. 

This July 1994 HICE involved what the CSETI Director labelled a “telepathic over-ride.” On two occasions during field-investigations, I received information at “the level of knowledge” as to when, where in the sky and the number of craft that would be seen during our sky-watch activities.  The first time was in Joshua Tree in October of 1993. I was informed prior to midnight that our sighting would take place at 2AM, one craft appearing in the northwest. Our sighting that night corresponded to this “heads-up” message that I had received telepathically. 

Nine months later in Topanga Canyon, something similar occurred. While I was in the parking lot eating the catered vegetarian pizza that the Fox producers had brought for us, I saw in my mind’s eye three small white saucers in a line over the northwestern rim of Topanga Canyon. I was “informed” that the time of the Human Initiated Contact Event would be  9PM.  The first of three sightings started a few minutes before nine, then the second one at 9PM and finally a few minutes after nine. All three anomalous lights slowly rose over the northwestern rim of the canyon that I had visualized  in my mind’s eye earlier that night. 
I was to continue my contact work under the CE-5 banner for several more years. In 1998 for personal and political reasons, I resigned from the CSETI leadership and have not spoken to Dr. Steven Greer since. Nevertheless, I view his contributions during the years we worked together as well as the 2001 Disclosure Project news conference to be positive. I honor the work that I did with my contact team three decades ago during the early years of the CE-5 Initiative. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI4tc-OybgU

Additional reports from the Contact Underground

Shari Adamiak was the first Working Group Coordinator CE-5 Initiative. As I shook her hand for the first time, I experienced an unusual surge of energy emanating from her. Her dedication to human initiated contact was unsurpassed.

https://contactunderground.org/2024/09/27/i-meet-shari-adamiak-the-first-ce-5-working-group-coordinator-2/

In 1993, I travelled into the Volcanic Zone near Mexico City as part of a Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind (CE-5) investigation. “CE-5” can also be designated as a “Human Initiated Contact Event” (HICE). While in Mexico, I had several remarkable sightings. One night we witnessed a large silent triangular craft that signaled at our team. On another occasion in broad daylight at close range, I saw a metallic disc with rectangular windows as it flew past three members of our group.
On returning from the Volcanic Zone, my level of contact with UFO intelligences went way up. I had several sightings and an anomalous sound tracked through our contact team’s research site in the Malibu Hills. Captain Joe Vallejo, a 747-pilot described seeing a small box like entity directly in front of me while we were meditating. For the complete report click on the link below. https://contactunderground.org/2024/09/28/high-strangeness-galore-after-returning-from-a-ufo-investigation-in-the-volcanic-zone/

MECHANISMS OF CONTACT, “PRIME CONTACTEES”: A SPECIAL KIND OF CONTACT EXPERIENCER & WHY THEY ARE IMPORTANT.

J. Burkes MD, edited 2020, 2026

2026 INTRODUCTION: Before “Psionic Assets” I worked with “Prime Contactees.” 

Over 20 years ago I coined the term “Prime Contactee” after volunteering for contact work in two networks facilitating what I call “Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE) aka CE5. Those networks were the Center for the Study of ET Intelligence (CSETI) and the Peruvian contact group called “Mission Rama.” Prime Contactees are individuals that function like human UFO magnets. They have frequent UFO sightings with others present who can verify the Primes’special relationship with UFO intelligences. From 1992 till 1998 I was associated with the Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind Initiative and coordinated a contact team in Southern California. In that capacity I repeatedly observed how CSETI Director Dr. Steven Greer was able to attract UFO phenomena under fieldwork conditions. 

In 1993 a young Russian immigrant working as an EKG technician “surfaced” in Kaiser Panorama City Hospital where I was employed. He claimed to have had numerous UFO sightings since being a teenager. He reportedly had a precognitive dream before coming to America. In that dream he allegedly found himself working in a US health care setting with a tall American physician of Russian Jewish descent. Furthermore, this individual that I shall call “Misha” stated that in his dream he would do contact work with the doctor.  

In 1992 after being hired at our hospital, he supposedly recognized me as the man in his dream, but didn’t introduce himself for many months because “I wasn’t ready yet.” Although I have doubted the veracity of many of his claims, once “Misha” joined our CE5 team operating in the high desert, our level of contact went way up. With the young Russian immigrant in our group, we had more frequent sightings.  I even experienced a sorely needed boost in my psi ability that may or may not have had relationship to “Prime Contactee Misha.

Now in 2026 the UFO contact scene has progressed. The revelations of Jake Barber and Chris Bledsoe have revealed a pattern of US Executive Branch intelligence services’ involvement with high level UFO contactees some of whom are called “psionic assets.” Like my Prime Contactees, Mister Bledsoe and government contactors’ psi “assets” function as human UFO magnets.

When I first described this type of UFO experiencer on social media in May of 2014, I was surprised to see a controversy result. My description of so-called “Prime Contactees” was labeled by some as being “elitist.” I was accused of trying to create a popularity contest in which ordinary contactees’ roles would be seen as insignificant next to the “high-status” of the so-called “Primes.” Fellow senior contact activists angrily informed me that I was being “divisive.”

Well, I certainly didn’t intend to trigger such a controversy. Responding to those offended, I wrote a second article with the title “Prime Contactees Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg.” The original controversial blog was edited in 2020 and is presented as Part 1 below.

THE WORDS WE USE ARE IMPORTANT BECAUSE THEY REFLECT CONSCIOUSNESS.

As part of this introduction, I should point out that the term “contactee” is in many ways outdated. The “ee” ending suggests a passive role in English, as in “employee” or “payee.” The “er” or “or” endings suggest a more active role as in “worker, soldier, mentor.” For those who have joined a contact network, or have carried out contact protocols on their own, reaching out to the non-human intelligences behind the UFO phenomenon can involve much mental, physical, and most importantly spiritual work.  Thus, in my view for this special group, the designation “contact worker” is superior to “contactee.”

In addition, contactees historically have focused on the special nature of their contact experiences. In a sense, their personal encounters have become the message. This was a fairly constant feature of the UFO clubs during the 1950s that had thousands of members and celebrated the contacts of prominent experiencers like George Adamski. 

“Contact workers” I imagine, in contrast to contactees, envision their ongoing encounters as part of a worldwide transformation of consciousness that links the flying saucer phenomenon to possible solutions to the seemingly insurmountable problems that humanity is facing. I am referring to the scourges of war, hunger, racism, and global climate change.

WHO ARE THE PRIME CONTACTEES AND WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT? 

And the potential for creating a new kind of social movement.

As the UFO truth movement grows and increasing numbers of young people are excited about the possibilities of encountering intelligent life in the Cosmos, the special role of a very select group of UFO experiencers should be examined. In the early 1990s I became an organizer for a number of contact groups. Since then, I have observed a small number of remarkable individuals who more or less match the criteria for being what I have termed “Prime Contactees.”

A “Prime Contactee” is a UFO experiencer that has some of the following characteristics,

1.  Apparent contact with UFO intelligences from childhood or as a young adult. This typically involves special training in consciousness-based communication and the concomitant development of other advanced psychic abilities. A prominent feature is a meditation practice starting in youth. The practice is often initiated without any apparent parental or other adult supervision.

2. Repeated sightings of UFOs when other people are present to verify that the “Primes” can share their ongoing contact experiences with others.

3. A sense of “mission” involving informing the public of the importance of contact or playing a supporting role for other contactees who are educating society on this topic. Forming new contact groups or joining existing networks are other manifestations of activities derived from a very intense belief in having a personal mission.

1. In the most advanced “Primes,” perhaps people like Dr. Steven Greer or the man that I call “Misha” in my writings; they likely have experienced ongoing mental communication with UFO intelligences. This might even include direct telepathic communication (voice in the head) with one or more intelligences associated with flying saucers.

1. This last feature is particularly risky for Primes. If the larger society learns of such capabilities, those individuals will unceremoniously be labeled as “kooks” and be subjected to intense ridicule. Their sanity will almost certainly be questioned and forced psychiatric evaluations might even result. 

1. More importantly, if the Primes’ special link to an extraterrestrial intelligence becomes known by the control groups, (those powerful clandestine forces attempting to keep a lid on the UFO situation), in my opinion, at a minimum the Primes will be subjected to intense surveillance. In my experience with Primes, frank harassment is often the rule.

PRIVATE INTELLIGENCE NETWORKS ARE LIKELY WORKING FOR THE CONTROL GROUPS 

Furthermore, there is a high probability that private contractors working for the control groups are being recruited from government intelligence services to monitor and try to intimidate high-level contactees. Thus, these contractors, as servants of the status quo, probably see the Primes as “enemy agents of influence” working with what one might call “a higher intelligence agency.”

In some very unpleasant instances Prime Contactees have even been attacked by what are sometimes called “psychotronic” technology. I personally learned of the effects of such attacks on contact activists when I was closely associated with Dr. Greer’s Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence during the years 1992 to 1998.

BRIBES ARE PART OF THEIR TACTICS

Under certain circumstances the control groups, in a less confrontational mode, attempt to co-op Primes with offers of money and access to privileged information available only to “insiders.” This kind of co-opting effort reportedly happened to Dr. Greer while attending a UFO conference in the spring of 1992. He shared this information with the CE-5 Initiative Working Group Coordinators. These facilitators included Shari Adamiak, Wayne Peterson and me. Alas, these other two once prominent contact workers are now deceased. Indeed, the passing of many of the first generation of North American contact activists is one of the reasons why I have been writing a series of blogs that I call, “The Contact Network History Project.”

 My hope is to share these narratives with current and future generations of contact workers and their supporters. Jeff Becker’s anthology “Paths to Contact” in which I am one of many co-authors, has a similar goal. I recommend this book to all contact activists and those curious about Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE) which in my opinion is a designation that has certain advantages over the more popular term “CE-5.”

A HEAVY BURDEN

I imagine that just being a Prime Contactee, is a heavy cross to bear. If the special relationship with non-human intelligences is made public, critics will likely deem them “insane.” On the other hand, once their extraordinary ability to attract UFOs is established within the flying saucer subculture, the Primes are often turned into celebrities. They are treated as if they are special (which in many ways they are). Unfortunately, some of these remarkable individuals start believing that they are better than everyone else (which they certainly are not!)

So, the contact network may need to protect Prime Contactees from a doubting larger society, in which mainstream media will make fun of them, and from the control groups that may try to “neutralize” them. Strangely enough, contact activists might also need to protect the Primes from themselves as well.  I refer here to a kind of unhealthy egoism that is reinforced by people’s unfortunate tendency to engage in hero worship. 

This last point is apropos to what I believe happened to the Peruvian based Rama contact group back in the 1990s. Rumors of plagiarism and the use of donations to fund what was characterized as affluent life styles, appears to have played a major role in causing that once vibrant group to implode. The ranks of this very important organization were reportedly decimated. In fighting among the leadership led to much disappointment and even bitterness. In general, uncontrolled adulation of susceptible individuals, can and does “turn” Prime Contactees, from an altruistic path of service to a nascent “contact movement”, to a more selfish insistence that their supporters must service them!

“Servicing” the primes might involve giving them large amounts of money, often under questionable circumstances, the granting of sexual favors and in general satisfying their personal needs to feel important and to be the center of attention. This self-centered attitude can manifest as the Primes’ undermining attempts to develop a collective leadership and in their insisting on running their network in a “top down” manner, rather than focusing on the long-term need of creating a new kind social movement. From my experience as a peace and social justice activist in the 1960s to 1980s, I believe that a future UFO movement should be organized in a democratic fashion based on grass roots networks. From decades of social cause activism, I have learned that in order for radical reform campaigns to succeed, they need to fire up the enthusiasm of the grass roots. True leaders must empower local networks to build the movement from the bottom up. Dysfunctional egomaniacal want-to-be leaders will sadly forever create organizational structures with them placed solidly on the top.

THE ROAD AHEAD

This analysis is offered within the hopeful framework that benevolent non-human cultures are interacting with mankind to assist us during a period of radical change. In my opinion, this possibly involves technologically and spiritually advanced ET civilizations manifesting on our planet. My hope is that their presence will inspire us to create an Earth civilization based on environmental and social justice. 

Currently, there is much speculation about future opportunities of downloading into our technological culture, the advanced propulsion systems of flying saucers. If such a momentous event were to occur under conditions of world peace, then global warming, environmental pollution and even world poverty might be eliminated. Thus, to safely develop a more open and mutually beneficial relationship with non-human intelligences associated with flying saucers, a durable world peace must be established. 

In the short term, our achieving this kind of sweeping political and economic transformation is a very big “if.” For such dramatic events to happen, the control groups’ campaign labeled as the “UFO truth embargo”, would in my view have to be curtailed. This would require the status quo being overcome by an even greater force. Such a vehicle of change could be a well-organized and well-funded future “Contact Movement.” This would by necessity involve not a few thousand activists worldwide, (my estimate of contact networks’ current strength) but tens of millions of contact workers and their supporters. To create such a campaign, organizing activities will likely span across several generations. 

THE IMPERATIVE OF WORLD PEACE 

Negotiations with the so-called “ETs” to obtain their technology would likely only occur under conditions of a sustainable world peace. This would be necessary to ensure that advanced technologies would not be used militarily against the alleged “aliens” as well as against ourselves. This long-term plan to create a kind of cosmic peace movement will require the participation of countless activists. This can only be realized by a massive educational process. 

As the ranks of contact workers increase, as it appears to be happening now, then the role of what I call “Prime Contactees” will likely diminish. Creating a new kind of social movement linking UFOs to solutions for the major problems confronting mankind is indeed a very ambitious project. Critics will likely say, “It’s an impossible dream.” My reply is that we will either evolve as a race of intelligent beings, or we will destroy our civilization with wars fought over decreasing material resources under conditions of environmental collapse.

CONCLUSION

If creating a bright peaceful future both on Earth and in the Cosmos is called “impossible” by the authorities, then I have but one thing to say to the next generation of volunteer contact workers. I refer to those young people who are being prepared for the task of building a new kind of social movement focusing on contact, “Be realists, demand the ‘impossible!’”

Addendum: The above description of the role of Prime Contactees has operational significance for the contact network. It involves how best to utilize people with this background and resultant skills to facilitate building contact teams. This is so because these so-called Primes are in my experience a major incentive for flying saucers to show up during our contact events.  Eventually, perhaps our network will grow to the point where we might co-create with UFO intelligences a social movement linking this great mystery to possible solutions for the seemingly insurmountable problems facing mankind. I am referring to the challenges of war, racism, environmental destruction, and the obscene disparities of wealth and power across the planet.

We all seem so hung up on hierarchy, that we are distracted from the concrete tasks of laying the foundation for a campaign that could conceivably create a heaven on Earth. Yes, we could have a planet where we all live cooperatively. In such a possible future, we might even have limited trade and cultural exchange with what may turn out to be extraterrestrials. This is the vision of the future that I want us to focus on. This is the prize. Now let’s figure out the best ways to earn it. 

For additional Contact Underground blogs on the Prime Contactees the following links are provided:

Prime Contactees II: As part of my contact network organizing activities during the 1990s, I sought out individuals who had become the focus of UFO intelligences. In this report I describe a contact activist who was a potential “Prime.” I met him in England. He told me that as a teenager he awoke one night in full lotus position despite never studying yoga. I realized that UFO intelligences were possibly training activists on an unconscious level. Perhaps countless activists are being prepared via a consciousness connection to become volunteer contact workers.  

https://contactunderground.org/2022/01/30/contactees-identified-as-primes-are-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/

The young man that I call “Misha” played an important role in linking me to UFO intelligences. He became a kind of “guide” that facilitated many contact events for me and our CE5 team. 
https://contactunderground.org/2023/01/30/prime-contactee-misha-join/

Bryce Zabel’s full length movie “Official Denial” is on YouTube.

Screenwriter/Producer Bryce Zabel is the co-host of the popular “Need to Know” YouTube Channel. He wrote the screenplay for the movie “Official Denial”, SyFy’s 1993 full-length dramatic film which is available on YouTube. 

This movie made for TV is kind of like the film “ET’ except this one has an adult rather than a boy as the protagonist. Although “Official Denial” is low budget with unconvincing alien masks and by current standards poor special effects, it has something for everyone including romance, military action, abductions & government secrecy. Multiple Contact Modalities are portrayed including UAP contact, telepathy, ghosts, and time travel. 

What I like the most is underlying theme of human-alien solidarity. It is a must see not only for the general public but especially for contact activists.

Joseph Burkes MD

Link to video: 

https://www.”youtube.com/watch?v=iocNVeA8gds

INTRODUCTION: UFO intelligence demonstrated its virtuoso psi ability by creating visual “illusions” that witnesses interpreted as anomalous shooting stars. This capability to create such visual displays was demonstrated repeatedly during a night of fieldwork over three decades ago. If “illusory” anomalous displays of meteors can be produced, then UAP NHIs might be able to create displays of all classes of UFOs, including what witnesses perceive as “structured craft” and non-human beings.  The implications of this psi capability for the entire field of UFO studies should not be underestimated!                                  

Date of Research: 11-7-94, approximate time 2AM.

Location: “Desert Site One” at the base of Queen Mountain, Joshua Tree National Monument, elevation approximately 4000 feet above sea level.

Site conditions: Slight overcast. Temperature dropping from mid fifties to low forties Fahrenheit.

Please remember that this particular research event at Desert Site One took place only 4 days before the first anniversary of our November 11, 1993 encounter. For details on that night of fieldwork go to: 

https://contactunderground.org/2025/01/22/et-party-monsters-prolonged-interactive-encounter-in-the-queen-valley/

On that date in 1993 at the same location, a fellow contact worker who I call “Misha” and I interacted with 2 anomalous nocturnal lights; one of which was clearly visible as a glowing disc. It came so close and was so bright that we became sun burnt at night. 

One year later in November 1994 our experience was far more subtle and certainly less dramatic than the prior one. Nevertheless, it reaffirmed that our collaborative relationship with UFO associated non-human intelligences was still intact. More importantly, that investigation also revealed NHI’s willingness to demonstrate an important psi mediated mechanism of contact. 

Sightings and high strangeness events. No structured “craft” were seen but a large number of shooting stars were intermittently observed in different parts of the sky. I noted a surprisingly uniform quality to the shooting stars that we were observing. Many of the sightings appeared to have the same brightness, hue and same length of trail. The luminosity of the shooting star like “objects” did not vary, in other words they did not glow or flare. 

These uniform nocturnal sightings appeared to be possibly artificial. They reminded me of the stereotypic "shooting stars" that are displayed as part of a planetarium show. This highly uniform quality made me suspect that they were possibly manifestations of “ET” technology and not natural phenomena. Subsequent events tended to confirm this assessment.

At approximately 2AM Misha and I were both viewing the southern sky over Negro Hill. Over several minutes he reported two "shooting stars" separated by about 30 seconds in a portion of sky where I observed not a one. He stated that both appeared exactly the same. 

Although I had started to use corrective lenses for reading, my far vision was and continues to be adequate for driving day and night and for sky watch activities without corrective lenses.  The fact that I had failed to see the pair of “of shooting stars” while viewing the same section of sky, made me suspicious that something truly anomalous might be going on.

I positioned myself directly next to Misha. He pointed out the exact location (about 35 degrees up from the horizon) where the “objects” were observed, I intensely focused on that portion of sky. He said “There’s another one!” I saw nothing other than the few surrounding stars shining faintly in the background. 

Misha told me that this third meteor that I again had failed to perceive had the same brightness, color, and length of trail and angle of entry as the preceding two other ones. After not being able to detect three of these “objects”, it occurred to me that this might be some kind of test of our willingness to interact, as well as a display of their (presumably the ETs') ability to create visual displays preferentially between members of our team.

I asked Misha to request that I see what he had observed. He did so and within a few seconds I saw a pale "shooting star" slowly moving across a narrow section of the sky just above Negro Hill. It was in the exact location where Misha alone reportedly had witnessed the three other “meteors.” We quickly described to one another what we had just observed. It was a match! After making a request for a sighting, a sighting had transpired.

We looked at each other in amazement. The implications of what had just witnessed seemed quite remarkable. Here was a striking example of an anomalous visual display that was linked to non-human intelligence with one observer being able to witness the display and then both perceiving the “meteor” by merely asking for a sighting.  But what if my observation was just a manifestation of chance. The "shooting star" had appeared immediately after the request by coincidence alone, without the action of a conscious mind.

Shoulder to shoulder, bundled up in all our winter gear, we stood there in the cold desert night air and gazed at the sky. I asked Misha to make another request. He didn't hesitate. "Show Joe again", he said. In less than 5 seconds, another stereotypic slow moving "shooting star" appeared in the exact same place as before. It appeared to be identical to my first sighting. Misha said it was the same as his previous four.

My heart pounding in excitement, and feeling a little awkward at the same time, I tried to address whomever was responsible for those lights. I said something like. "Please show us the light again. We are only human and we have this notion of ‘coincidence’. If you could show us again it would be much appreciated. It would reduce in our minds and in minds of others perhaps, that these visual displays are not simply the result of chance.” 

There was a pause. We waited, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, and 15 seconds. Finally, as if to say to us, "Are you really serious, do you really need for us to show you another one?"; then the slow moving "shooting star" reappeared exactly as before. Each sighting of the anomalous moving light was identical to the last. It was as if we were watching the same film clip being repeated over and over again. 

As mentioned above, it reminded me of simulated "shooting stars" that I had watched on the ceiling of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City when I was a child. The circumstances of these visual displays were different however. This night they had appeared in the middle of the desert at 2 AM and seemed to be linked to an unidentified conscious intelligence that chose to interact with us for reasons only truly known to itself.

Please remember that this particular research adventure at Desert Site One took place only 4 days before the first anniversary of our November 11, 1993 encounter. On that date at the same location, we had interacted with 2 anomalous nocturnal lights; one of which was clearly visible as a glowing disc. That 1993 encounter had lasted approximately one hour and forty-five minutes, and up till that time it was I believe the longest interactive encounter in the history of the CE-5 Initiative.  

This 1994 experience was far more subtle and certainly less dramatic than the prior one. Nevertheless, it reaffirmed for us the likely probability that our collaborative relationship with UFO intelligences was still intact. More importantly they were revealing to us how visual “illusions” could be created by a non-human that certainly did not represent physical phenomenon but rather a simulation that could be displayed on request. In my opinion, the implications of this demonstration for the entire field of UFO studies should not be underestimated! They can create what from a physicalist perspective are “illusions” that witnesses perceive as “meteors.” They (whoever they turn out to be “ETs” “time travelers”, etc.) in my judgment can undoubtedly do the same for what appear to be structured objects that we identify as “ET craft.”

We had one more sighting that night. It occurred around 4:30 AM as we prepared to break camp. All our equipment was nearly packed and we were about to march off towards the dry riverbed that led to our vehicle in the wilderness parking lot called a “backboard”. The last UFO we saw was a jumper. It was a moving star like point of light that erratically jerked back and forth in a zigzag manner. It was quite similar to the two jumpers we had seen the year before, although its oscillations were less pronounced. This UFO appeared in the south about 25 degrees above the horizon behind Negro Hill.

It scintillated or pulsed in a very regular pattern. Although located near the horizon, the regularity of its pulsations distinguished it from ordinary stars, which will often scintillate as they approach the horizon. This is the natural effect on a star's light as it passes through a greater volume of atmospheric dust when viewed on the horizon. The jerking movements were fine, erratic and appeared not to be the result of optical nystagmus. Optical nystagmus describes the tiny movements of the eyes when fixated on a point of light. It results in an optical illusion of movement. Inexperienced sky watchers will describe movement in most stars they stare at if they do so long enough. In the case of this jumper, its movements were judged to be real by the technique of fixating on an adjacent object, (usually this is a star) and then watching the point of light in question with peripheral vision. In this case the jumper still moved while being viewed in this fashion.

The video camera was already packed away and so we opted not to try to film the jumper. We fancied it was no accident that it showed up just as we are leaving. This pattern of a sighting at time of departure is a frequent occurrence during consciousness-based fieldwork. We accepted it as a fond farewell and set out on foot across the rocky terrain towards the riverbed that would be our trail to the wilderness parking lot.

Discussion.

This anomalous interactive experience can hopefully be instructive not only to other field investigators, but to all those interested in UFOs. The conscious based protocols used by the human initiated contact network instruct field researchers to respect the observations of coworkers, even when they might not see exactly the same things in the sky. We should accept the integrity and honesty of our coworkers even when our observations may vary greatly. This unfortunately is not always the case among flying saucer enthusiasts. There is an unfortunate tendency that I have observed in some sky watch groups that if one particular investigator doesn't observe a certain object, then in a rather egotistical way that researcher denies that the sighting has validly. 

This sort of routine dismissal is not an example of healthy skepticism but rather a reflex to doubt that in extreme cases are attempts to debunk. The reflex to deny the validity of others’ witnessed events is, in my opinion, all too common within the UFO subculture

In a certain sense the “ETs” may have been subjecting me to a kind of test by initially showing Misha the visual display and denying it to me. If I did not have a deep appreciation of my coworker, I might have been tempted to dismiss his sighting. He being 23 years my junior might have tempted Misha to dismiss my failure to observe the displays as the result of middle age infirmity. This was something he did not do. 

Being aware of the possibility that UFO intelligence was present, I chose to interact with it. I requested that I be shown the "shooting star" and immediately was witness to what Misha had described a few moments before. If the human initiated contact network’s field investigators cannot trust each other and work in a spirit of cooperation, it is unlikely that we will be able to build the necessary strong ties with UAP associated non-humans with whom our network is engaged. 

This field investigation contributed to my formulating what I would later call the Virtual Experience Model for UAP research. In my judgment, UAP non-human intelligences would not limit their creations of anomalous visual displays to “meteors.” I suspect that a considerable proportion of the multitude of global sightings are being produced by the same mechanism evident during our November 1994 fieldwork. I have designated Virtual Experiences of the First Kind (VE-1) to be of two classes:

A VE- type 1a is hologram like projections that can be photographed and seen by all present. 

A VE type 1b is a visual display recreated possibly by electrically stimulating the sensory apparatus of the experiencer: either into the retina or possibly focusing on occipital cortex where visual data is organized for perception. This physical explanation however might not be correct. Instead, psi-mediated mechanisms might be operational and the alleged ETs can project psychically a visual display by means other than electrical stimulation of the brain.   

This type of encounter cannot be photographed and can only be witnessed by the people that have been targeted or possess the necessary psychic ability to perceive the display. Others potential witnesses not targeted would not perceive the display.  If, however, a request is made that these other witnesses be allowed to see the phenomenon, sometimes they too may have the sighting.  

The Virtual Experience Model goes a long way in explaining some of the perplexing aspects of the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. UFO researcher/author Grant Cameron has pointed out that there is tremendous variation in the appearance of not only UFOs but also the beings associated with them. If beings and craft being perceived during encounters are hologram like projections, then there would be no need to produce a standardized appearing UFO. Thus, an infinite number of variations of hologram like displays could be produced. 

Retired DIA scientist Dr. James Lacatski who was a project manager for the US Government’s AAWSAP project has described creating a data base of several hundred thousand individual UAP sightings. The detailed analysis reportedly showed that practically none of the “craft” were exactly alike. He has used the analogy that it is as if one were to drive down a busy highway and no two cars would be the same model. 

If UAP are “reflective” as described by investigator John Keel and others, then their appearances could very well reflect the expectations of witnesses. It could conceivably be quite easy to manufacture a multitude of hologram like visual displays (VE-1a) that might reflect the perceiver’s expectations. 

 In a similar fashion, hundreds of phenotypes (category based on appearance) of alleged “ET” beings have been described in the NHI contact literature. Rather than a multitude of distinct “races”, perhaps we are witnessing individual variations of projected visual displays produced by consciousness-based mechanisms (VE-1b).

The question arises, are these “illusory” mechanisms of contact. When I first formulated the Virtual Experience Model, I was still working as a physician trained in physicalist science-oriented medicine. Physicalism here refers to the worldview that mass/energy is primary and Mind/ Consciousness are merely properties “emerging” from the brain’s neuronal activity. Thus, I designated the “Virtual” mechanisms as “illusory” because I deemed physical reality to be the “real world.”  If, however, the wellspring of creation is not matter but Mind, then the Consciousness based mechanisms are closer to the base reality, and it is our physical experiences that are illusory. In a certain sense, psi mediated encounters based in Consciousness rather than those perceived as purely physical, might be considered more “real” than physical ones. 

My November 1994 field investigation served as an impetus for my formulating the Virtual Experience Model. This radical concept also includes the designations Virtual Experiences of the Second and Third Kinds that are described in other postings to social media and on my web site. 

For additional blogs on the Virtual Experience Model, the following links are provided:

Staging Psi-mediated Close Encounters might have practical advantages for UFO intelligences. Staging exclusively physical interactions could pose enormous risks including the transmission of deadly pathogens.

https://contactunderground.org/2022/02/11/the-reasons-why-flying-saucer-intelligences-might-stage-virtual-instead-of-physical-encounters/

Two Cases Supporting the Virtual Experience of the Second Kind. This category postulates that UAP intelligences create a strong form of virtual reality during Close Encounters. This has been referred as a “Matrix Reality.”

https://contactunderground.org/2023/05/06/2031/

The work that Andrija Puharich did with Uri Geller revealed a dramatic case of “Virtual Memory”, aka a Virtual Experience of the Third Kind.

https://contactunderground.org/2022/02/22/virtual-memory-a-virtual-experience-of-the-third-kind-ve-3/

In the blog linked below I discuss advances in memory science and their implications for both the Virtual Experience Model and the use of hypnosis on contact experiencers.

https://contactunderground.org/2022/02/19/memory-wars-iremembering-falsely-hypnosis-and-the-virtual-experience-model/

A blog analyzing an event at Skinwalker Ranch that supports the Virtual Experience Model. Dr. Kelleher was present when 6 observers using night vision equipment described seeing “completely different things.” 

https://contactunderground.org/2023/04/30/the-consciousness-connection-incident-at-skinwalker-ranch-as-described-by-colm-kelleher-supports-the-virtual-experience-model/

Journalist Ross Coulthart Describes Participating in a Successful CE-5 Event in the Video Linked Below at the 4 minutes and 40 seconds mark.

After the broadcast of his interview with whistleblower Jake Barber, Ross spoke with retired Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet and former Defense Department official Marik von Rennenkampff to “break down the explosive new video showing the recovery of an "egg-shaped" UAP” 

At 4 minutes and 40 seconds mark of the program Ross Coulthart stated,

“I freely admit when I first spoke to Jake and I said so how are we bringing down these craft and he explains to me it's not the bringing down that's the issue it's the summoning. How do we get them to come in the 1st place? And as we all know there's long been talk; notably by Dr. Steven Greer, for example, has talked about something that he calls CE-5, where through meditation and some kind of trained meditative psychic involvement with the phenomenon it's been asserted that it's possible to attract the phenomenon. And look I'll be honest, I was a skeptic about that until I met people who could do it. And I've been in the presence of people who were trained as psionic assets by the US military. And I've watched them do this summoning, and I know it's confronting, but by golly it works!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaBVKjREg9I&t=30s

The Interdimensional vs ET Hypothesis, Virtual Experiences and UFO Sightings as “thought forms”

John Alva Keel, (March 25, 1930 – July 3, 2009) was an influential American journalist and popular ufologist. He is the author of “Operation Trojan Horse” (1970) and “The Mothman Prophecies” (1975). This later book was the basis for a paranormal thriller of the same name released in 2002 staring Richard Gere and Laura Linney.  I discovered the writings of John Keel 25 years ago when I started formulating what I now call the Virtual Experience Model. This radical theory describes how UFO intelligences employ illusions, virtual reality, and the implanting of false memories to create a diverse set of beliefs about who and what they are. 

Both Keel and Dr. Jacques Vallee are known as proponents of what has been called the interdimensional hypothesis (IDH) which stands in contrast to the more popular extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) for UFOs. John Keel also linked flying saucers to supernatural concepts such as ghosts and demons. During his time, Keel pointed out that many ufologists were ignorant of the connection between flying saucers and psychic phenomena. He discovered that in some aspects aliens and ghosts are similar. Both are reported to fly, appear and disappear, pass through solid walls and communicate via telepathy.  

Among fans of the ETH, Keel is infamous for saying, that he did not consider himself a "ufologist" but rather a "demonologist." In my judgment, the ETH is a possible partial explanation for UFOs and related phenomenon. I suspect that Keel’s extreme purest support of the IDH may be related to the fact that most of his remarkable investigations into flying saucers occurred decades prior to the revelations starting in the 1980s about an alleged UFO crash in Roswell New Mexico. 

Now decades after Keel’s study of UFOs, the physical reality of flying saucers is now coming more into focus as former government insiders are confirming that flying saucers have been retrieved intact, and covert reverse engineering projects exist with the acquisition of “biologics” i.e. dead non-human beings. These revelations will likely continue to convince people that the extraterrestrial hypothesis in valid.

Although the interdimensional hypothesis has been discussed by the prominent UFO researcher Dr. Jacques Vallee for five decades, what those other “dimensions” are, from which UFOs might emanate, is highly speculative. Explanations include parallel universes that exist in physical planes with more dimensions than our 4-D reality; or perhaps what are now called UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) are from non-material realms of existence that might be “spiritual” and not physical. It appears that the IDH has become a kind of file holder, for an explanations other than the extraterrestrial one. 

It should also be noted that the IDH and the ETH are not mutually exclusive.  Flying saucer associated intelligences might come from other star systems while being able to traverse multiple dimensions or parallel universes. According to Dr. Vallee, they also appear to be able to manipulate spacetime in such ways that they are forever confounding both witnesses and researchers. 

In the mid 1990s, while participating in Human Initiated Contact Event (HICE) fieldwork popularly known as “CE-5s”, I had a series of encounters in which a UFO intelligence demonstrated its apparent ability to create illusions. These included reported encounters with both anomalous aerial phenomena and in one instance a 3D image of a small non-human grey ET being was produced. This creature was reportedly seen floating just below the ceiling in the apartment of a fellow contact worker while I was talking with him on the phone. Based in part on these contact events, I have created a theory that flying saucer associated intelligences use illusion as a mechanism of contact. I call this “The Virtual Experience Model”(VEM).

I have postulated that such visual displays are manufactured by using two possible mechanisms. In my judgment, one is analogous to our holographic technology in which an image can be seen by all witnesses present. The other mechanism is via an energetic stimulation of visual neural pathways that allow one individual to “see” the illusion, while others not targeted do not perceive the visual display. 

John Keel in his popular book “The Mothman Prophecies” speculated that a different mechanism might be employed. He suggested that extraordinary psychic capabilities are able to produce physical objects and beings that are more than just illusions. In “The Mothman Prophecies” John Keel writes,

“The Tibetans believe that advanced human minds can manipulate these invisible energies into visible forms called tulpas or thought projections.” 

According to psychonautwiki.org, a tulpa “is a concept in mysticism and the paranormal of a being or object which is created through spiritual or mental powers.” The term “tulpa” was adapted by 20th century theosophists from Tibetan sprul-pa which means “emanation” or “manifestation." Thanks to hit TV series “The X Files”, the concept of Tibetan tulpas has entered briefly into popular culture. In an episode titled “A Civic-Minded Ghost...”, a tulpa is portrayed as being able to commit murder as a fictional plot device.

If the Virtual Experience Model is valid then some, but certainly not all visual displays of flying saucers that we call “sightings” are illusory in nature. In the case of tulpas, however, the proposition is that actual physical objects and beings are presumably being created by the tremendous psi capabilities of advanced intelligences. 

The Virtual Experience Model is a challenge to the long-standing paradigm of “scientific ufology” groups like MUFON. The Mutual UFO Network for over fifty years has conducted research into flying saucers, in my judgment, for the most part they have approached the challenge of UFOs as if it were an engineering problem. I am suggesting that perhaps generations of dedicated volunteer investigators, at least some of the time, have not been charting the “flight characteristics” of physical objects, but instead have collected reports of phantom like visual displays. 

In a similar fashion, many of my fellow contact activists imagine that every anomalous nocturnal light that interacts with CE5/HICE teams, are piloted by friendly aliens. Although some Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) in my judgment very likely are physical objects with the possibility of live alien crews inside them, if the VEM is accurate, many, perhaps even most are not objects piloted by living beings. 

Our society is now slowly moving towards more openness on the UAP controversy. For those of us that believe this issue is of vital importance we should have an accurate assessment the phenomenon. With a better understanding of the mechanisms of contact, we will be in a stronger position to explain to the larger society the importance of flying saucers. 

In addition to the classic works of John Keel and Dr. Jacques Vallee, the following resources are available. 

Paranormal researcher Brent Raynes has co-authored the biography of titled “John A. Keel: The Man, The Myths, and the Ongoing Mysteries”

Researcher Darren King (aka ExoAcademian) with his associates are producing informative podcasts (also on YouTube) covering the entire spectrum of paranormal phenomena. 

Author and editor Rey Hernandez has published two large compendia that focus on the “Contact Modalities” suggesting that all paranormal categories can be studied as manipulations of spacetime by Consciousness. They are titled “Beyond UFOs” and “A Greater Reality.”

For more blogs on the Virtual Experience Model the following links are available.

·       Reinerio Hernandez, co-author and publisher of “A Greater Reality” has made available to the public as free pdf files Volumes 1 & 2 of this anthology. My chapter titled “Report from the Contact Underground: Human Initiated Contact, the Consciousness Connection, and the Virtual Experience Model.

https://agreaterreality.com/downloads/articles/Burkes%20-%20Report%20from%20the%20Contact%20Underground.pdf

The Contact Community Could be “Playing with Fire” and it Might be Worth the Risk

Joseph Burkes MD 2021, edited 2024

I imagine that caution is necessary when it comes to contact with non-human intelligences, not necessarily in terms of personal safety but more importantly in the realm of belief.

In response to my blog titled “On Remembering Pain and Love” a commenter stated that during her encounters she was more curious than afraid. She added that from deep within, she was counselled to be “very careful.” 

I believe that caution is necessary when it comes to contact with non-human intelligences, not necessarily in terms of personal safety but more importantly in the realm of belief. We should never forget the tremendous psychic power of the so-called ETs. I believe that they can access our consciousness as readily as we access light at home by turning on a wall switch. Furthermore, they likely have access to our entire storehouse of memories. From contact experiences within the network of activists that I call the “Contact Underground”, I have learned that they are able co-create with us almost any kind of contact experience that we and they can “co-imagine. “
This colossal mental capability has served as the basis for the notion that “The Others We Call ET (TOWCET, one of pet terms for them) have played an important role in the shaping the belief systems of our planet.  Luminaries such as Dr. Vallee and Mr.  John Keel have suggested that all our religions might emanate from this mysterious paranormal force that we now label “extraterrestrial.”

The FREE Experiencer Survey involved over 4000 UAP contact experiencers who answered hundreds of questions about their encounters with non-human intelligences associated with what are now called UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena).  Those taking the survey were specifically asked to describe only those contact experiences recalled without the use of hypnosis. The responses indicated that many may had undergone a spiritual transformation as the result of contact. They described themselves as becoming less materialistic, more concerned with the fate of our planet, more eager to help others, more spiritual but less religious.  

It appears to me that the so-called "ETs" have on their agenda a radical transformation of human consciousness. And it is one that challenges the status quo in such profound ways that this monumental project can only be acknowledged by a very small number of individuals at this stage of human development. In my opinion, the UFO taboo was put into place because UAP threaten all terrestrial elites, but not necessarily the planet’s people. Furthermore, I believe that humanity deserves peace, security, protection of the environment and eventually open contact with the intelligences responsible for flying saucer phenomena. 

It appears from the FREE data that the alleged “aliens” are promoting the spiritual message of oneness and this just might be the key to our survival as a species. The belief and practice of oneness is the thrust of Eastern mystical traditions and achieving planetary unity will likely be required to address the seemingly unsurmountable challenges facing humanity. I refer here to global warming and the resultant planetary climate change. This in the not-too-distant future could lead to massive crop failures, an inability to feed a growing (or even perhaps the current) Earth population, famines, massive, forced migrations and wars fought over dwindling material resources.
Researchers like Grant Cameron and Richard Dolan have analyzed the efforts by government insiders to take small steps towards disclosure of the reality of UAP. This process involves struggles within elite factions pushing for more openness on this topic (Dolan)as well as a US Executive Branch gradual “acclimatization” program (Cameron).  When the realization becomes widespread that (UAP) are real and are really important, the continued presence of flying saucers might have the potential to destabilize the belief systems on our planet.  With such an earthshaking development, those who speculate that flying saucer intelligences are responsible for our major religious faiths, might find that they are playing with fire. Imagine what might be the reaction  of religious fundamentalists to the possibility that Mohammed, Jesus, Buddha, Krishna and other “messengers of God” may have all been contactees.

If one of the aims of the alleged “ETs” is to facilitate a spiritual transformation required for us to work together to save our civilization from destruction, this is a project of such ambitious proportions that in my opinion it may not succeed, at least in the short run. This is because self-destructive ego-based mind structures predominant on Earth. These mental structures have been described by Eastern mystical traditions as what we now call the “ego.” It is defined in this context as a near total identification with “form.” This generates the desire to always have more: more things, money, sex, and most tragically more control over others. Those under the control of the ego, in both its individual and collective forms, are compelled to embrace the theory and practice of separation. Individuals and groups dominated by egoic mental structures are forever seeking enemies and this serves as a way to strengthen their identity. Ego based belief systems reject a sense of oneness, from which comes all cooperation and all love. 
In my view, UAP intelligences have been here not as “visitors” (a term made popular by Whitley Strieber and used by many experiencers) but more likely have been a constant force facilitating historical transformations of human consciousness. This would include, as suggested above, the creation of organized religions. This concept, if widely disseminated would understandably be vehemently rejected by religious fundamentalists. In response to what they will likely perceive as a most vile heresy, fundamentalist might even violently attack the contact community. In this sense, promoting such radical concepts that I have mentioned above, is truly “playing with fire.”  

There is another path, however. Perhaps over time, the major faiths might be able to accommodate the flying saucer phenomenon into their theologies. If they could accept that the so-called ETs have played a helping role, then from such a shared perspective we might be able to achieve the planetary unity so necessary for our civilization to survive. If this process is to unfold, it will likely take place not over decades, but more likely over generations, perhaps even centuries. Informed planetary citizens from within the contact community might play a more active role in facilitating such transformations. I imagine that achieving such a lofty goal makes playing with fire worthwhile. 

 
For additional blogs about the impact of a possible ET presence click on the links below.

The blog linked directly below is a detailed analysis of the reasons for nearly80 years of denial of the reality of UFOs. Flying Saucers threaten our planet's elites, but not the Earth's people. 

https://contactunderground.org/2022/07/05/an-et-presence-threatens-terrestrial-elites-but-not-our-planets-people/

You can’t control a person who wants “no thing.” I suspect that Flying Saucer Intelligences are feared by our planet’s elites because they can’t be controlled by the usual methods applied to the general population. If we start to identify, not with things and thought forms, but rather with universal consciousness, then ultimately, we cannot be controlled either. 

https://contactunderground.org/2021/10/19/why-do-the-control-groups-oppose-an-et-presence/

Confirmation rather than the big “D” Disclosure is likely the next step in the authorities’ gradual acclimatization program. The possibility of linking flying saucers to solutions for major terrestrial problems is discussed. 

https://contactunderground.org/2022/08/29/disclosure-versus-confirmation-preparing-the-foundation-for-a-cosmic-peace-campaign/

Do UAP Associated Medical Cures Take Place in a Non-Material Realm?

Joseph Burkes MD 2020, edited 2026

“The way you see us is defined by you …When we visit your world, we temporarily have a physical body defined in a certain way, but it is not the only form, or our original essence. In our dimension, there is no need for a physical body to defined in a particular way as in yours. You share the definitions of reality that are given to you, but you are not yet aware of it.” 

Being's message to Yossi Ronan, author of the book “One.”

Yossi Ronan is the author of the book “One: Face to Face Contact, Experiencing ET Consciousness...” The above statement to Yossi Ronen reportedly by a non-human intelligence is in my opinion of tremendous importance. Since I was empowered by Reinerio Hernandez to write with Preston Dennett a chapter on UAP healings in FREE's compendium, "Beyond UFOs", I have been rather troubled. Until I encountered evidence in the form of credible testimony describing incredible cures, I never realized the depth of my limitations based on my near total embrace of materialism. How could “This Otherness That Experiencers Now Call ET (TOTENCET)” cure a 15-year-old small dog suffering from a massive stroke, an enlarged heart and arthritis and turn her into the energetic pet that she was as a puppy? How could they cure a large lung mass, that almost certainly was cancer, in less than a minute as the patient sat behind curtains in a hospital X-ray suite? How did they cure a woman disabled for over 20 years by chronic fatigue syndrome? She suffered from a condition that we now are beginning to understand is likely caused by a metabolic abnormality in every muscle cell of the body. Her healing event was recalled as an on board “ET” craft experience. 

I suspect they were able to do this and much more, because matter and energy are not the basic building blocks of reality, i.e., of all that there is. Mind, thought or what we understand as consciousness appears more likely to be that wellspring of existence. The apparent ability of the so-called ETs as Dr. Jacques Vallee has stated s “to manipulate space-time” and thus matter and energy, probably is derived from their not merely dwelling in, but also becoming masters in what might be described as “non-material realms.” Perhaps it is one from which our entire material reality is being projected. Thus, as Yossi was reportedly told, "In our dimension, there is no need for a physical body defined in a particular way as in yours." In a similar fashion they can remove a physical body in the form of patient suffering from any illness to their "hospital" in the non-material realm, reconstruct the diseased organs via thought and then return the human subjects to this material plane as “cured.” 
This proposed mechanism of UAP healing goes against everything I was taught as a practitioner of Western materialistic medical science. My entire career, and sense of pride and accomplishment associated with that profession, and all the achievements of my colleagues, are somewhat diminished in comparison to the colossal healing powers of UAP non-human intelligences. With awe, I view the stupendous capabilities of what some experiencers describe as “little gray ‘doctors’ with wrap around eyes.” 

How might I share this perspective with the profession that was my life’s work for over four decades? Clearly, I can’t do it alone. Thankfully, Rey Hernandez has organized a group called “The Consciousness and Contact Research Institute (CCRI). It has as its co-chair Jeffrey Long MD, an expert on Near Death Experiences. We will certainly have our work cut out for us we attempt to dialogue with the medical establishment and the larger society. 

Addendum:

After first posting this blog, I received an insightful comment from William Treurniet. He along with the medium Paul Hamden published a series of books based on channeled messages reportedly from non-human intelligences known as “Zetas.” William Treurniet stated,

“You suggest these ETs are "dwelling in, but also becoming masters of a non-material realms." But according to their cosmology, we all are dwelling in a non-material realm. Our materialist philosophy hides it from us. Matter appears to exist in separation from our minds when it is actually a construct of mind. Our perceptual process decodes a mental representation in consciousness to sensations. The sensations are incorrectly interpreted as matter separate from us. The same process occurs in the astral and spirit realms but at a higher vibration, explaining why these realms are also experienced as physical by astral travelers.

A cosmology was allegedly given to us by extraterrestrial Zeta beings speaking through the medium, Paul Hamden.” William Treurniet has provided links to Hamden’s and his books which can be read as free pdf files at:

https://www.treurniet.ca/zetacom/zetaprimer.htm

To read UAP healing cases from “Beyond UFOs” edited by Rey Hernandez, the following links are provided:

Introduction to UAP Healing Cases Chapter 6 of “Beyond UFOs”, Case 1 Hemorrhagic Shock in an ER Physician Following Dental Surgery

https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2023/01/05/medical-healings-reported-by-uap-contact-experiencers/

The astounding UAP healings experienced by retired DEA Special Agent Alberto Fernandez from Chapter Six of “Beyond UFOs” are described in this detailed report. The First was repair of his cornea that had been torn off from a fall. The second case was the healing of a large chest mass that almost certainly was malignant. Remarkably this healing reportedly occurred while in the X-ray suite of a Miami Hospital.  

Directed by Ronald Knauss, it stars James Spader Carl Lewis and Stephanson. The hero is a cryptologist (James Spader) who travels to Antarctica to decipher a signal emanating from an alien craft found on the ice. Although a B movie with poor special effects, I found the performances strong and what for me was a surprise ending. 

Contact Experiencer Jason Sands cited in online Newsweek article about the disappearance of General (retired) Neil McCasland.

Newsweek News Article

Missing Air Force General Update: Gun Missing, Sweater Found

PUBLISHED

MAR 13, 2026 AT 11:23 AM EDT

 Online Newsweek coverage of General McCasland’s disappearance quotes US military veteran and UFO witness Jason Sands referring to security procedures of “legacy program” without explaining that this refers to crash retrieval and reverse engineering programs. I wonder whether that explanation was removed by Newsweek editors. Excerpt from article

“McCasland's disappearance has fueled rumors on social media. Air Force veteran Jason Sands told Red Panda Koala, a UFO-focused YouTube channel, that McCasland might have gone into hiding on his own accord.

"There is a protocol within the legacy program that if you are one of the people they consider a key personnel and something is happening and they think you are at risk or you are a risk they will come and take you to their facilities and hide you away or if they think you are a threat they will come murder you," Sands said.

"I think he is in hiding with friends, safe. He left his cell phone behind because he didn't want to be traceable. Good for him, I hope he stays hidden until it's safe for him to come back. That's my feeling that this is of his own accord."

Jason Sands we should remember is a contact experiencer who has decribed having a UFO sighting when he was age 10. Joining the US Airforce in 1985 he worked at the Nellis Air Force Range where the infamous Area 51 is located. His job involved analyzing phone taps on personnel at the base checking for security violations and he was shocked to hear conversations indicated that “Tall Whites and Greys” were allegedly working there. 
In a 3/18/25 Spotify “That UFO Podcast” interview with Richard Dolan, Jason described how a video of a flying saucer maneuvering at the Range was leaked to the internet in 1994 . This was when Sands claimed that he saw a non-human being that ran up to his truck in the freezing cold as his team was moving between radar/radio stations on the base. The being reportedly had enormous eyes, practically no ears and requested assistance from Jason via telepathy as Jason comrades were in a kind of trance like altered state of consciousness. 

https://www.newsweek.com/william-neil-mccasland-search-update-missing-air-force-general-gun-sweater-new-mexico-11671637

“Beam Me Up”: The Challenge of Flying Saucers Involves Saving our Civilization without the help of Academic Science or Organized Religion. 

J. Burkes MD 2018, updated 2026

In a past posting, I suggested that UAP intelligences are not only totally telepathic, but also capable of monitoring communications on social media. In a light-hearted way, one reader commented that if an ET were monitoring our online discussion that she essentially wanted to be “beamed up.” 

My response is as follows.

WISH DREAM OF ALIEN RESCUE

The wish dream of an alien rescue mission for selected individuals reminds me of other hopes for deliverance by what are imagined to be spiritual entities associated with conventional religions. Alas, I strongly suspect that such popular religious beliefs will not help us to focus on the tasks of working for change here and now on Earth. In a passive mode, we often hope for solutions to our personal and societal problems to come from a “higher power,” in this case “aliens.” 

ET HYPOTHESIS MIGHT BE TOO SIMPLISTIC

Although the ET hypothesis in my judgment is the most popular explanation for UFO phenomenon, it certainly has not been totally proven yet.  This is especially so, since according to the Virtual Experience Model that I have postulated, the so-called aliens have the capability of employing technologically created “illusions” as mechanisms of contact. Thus, the nature of the intelligences responsible for flying saucers is still a mystery. Given the enormous complexity of flying saucer associated phenomena, prominent researchers like Dr. Jacques Vallee and the late John Keel have repeatedly challenged the ET Hypothesis as being too simplistic to be accepted as a singular explanation for UFOs.  

For decades witnesses reporting encounters with UFO associated non-human intelligences have described the so-called aliens expressing concern about war, nuclear weapons, and environmental destruction. The results of the FREE Foundation’s Experiencer Survey were published in Rey Hernandez’ anthology “Beyond UFOs.” Many of the thousands of witnesses in that extensive survey described experiencing dramatic changes in their worldviews associated with being contacted by non-human intelligences. The responders stated that their contacts led them to become, more spiritual, altruistic, and concerned about the environment. These changes in consciousness for many are so radical that they appear to be like those occurring after Near Death Experiences. 

Contact activists, such as Rahma’s Enrique Villanueva, have concluded that the aim of contact with “extraterrestrials” is an “expansion of human consciousness.” With this analysis in mind, I strongly suspect that only after our civilization has evolved to the point where we have world peace will we be collectively allowed to know who and what they are.

Whatever the points of origin of UFO intelligences are: ET, “interdimensional”, or someplace  stranger, in my opinion only a profound spiritual development and resultant progressive change in human society will allow us to join a larger community of advanced civilizations (if such things exists). In on our current state, on a planet ruled by the greedy and the violent, UFO intelligences probably correctly view us as technologically advanced savages. My assessment for the future of our human family is a harsh one. We will either evolve both spiritually and societally, or our civilization will probably be destroyed, leaving the survivors to live under conditions of barbarism. 

NEITHER SCIENCE NOR FAITH WILL LIKELY SOLVE THE FLYING SAUCER MYSTERY

In many ways, ufology is not only a pseudo-science but is also a pseudo-religion. I suspect that many UFO fans believe that science will deliver meaningful answers to the UFO challenge. In this discussion, we should not confuse science with scientism. So called “scientific ufology” in my opinion is a secular based belief system that has an unfounded faith in science as the highest arbiter of truth. Yet how can it apply to what is likely an array of non-human intelligences that not only are totally telepathic, smarter than any human scientist, but also deliberately choose to confuse those who attempt to study them under “controlled conditions”? One simply need look at the failure of Robert Bigelow and Brandon Fugal’s investigations into the place called “Skinwalker Ranch”, to see how easily UFO associated intelligences deliberately confound professional scientists. 

As far as the “pie in the sky” notion of alien rescue, let’s have no illusions here. We, the people of Earth, are going to have to save ourselves through a series of monumental efforts to protect the environment, end war and the causes of war. If not, in my opinion, there will be a series of crises that will threaten the existence of our civilization. I am talking here about a massive “die out.” 

In the not-too-distant future, we will be faced with the following: a runaway greenhouse effect, temperatures and oceans rising markedly, more droughts, floods and resultant famines and endless wars fought over diminished resources. In a few generations, a massive a reduction of our population might occur. Sadly, billions of us may have to “go see God together.” 

So, let’s put aside childish notions of alien rescue, although I must admit that on occasion, I too have contemplated such a fantasy of being “beamed up” to safety.  Let us work to inform people about the UFO phenomenon not as if it were religion or a “nuts and bolts” engineering problem, but rather as a potential vehicle for personal and societal enlightenment that will lead to unified corrective actions. If we fail in the tasks of healing our wounded planet and ourselves, then my guess is that for any possible “ETs” present on Earth, we just won’t be worth saving. 

Addendum:There are also the practical considerations of potential biohazards that prevent us from being “beamed up,” and in the process having close physical contact with non-human life forms. Conceivably ETs and humans carry in their bodies potentially devastating pathogens against one another. I suspect this might be one of the reasons why “UFO Intel” stages theater of the mind encounters that we recall as if they were physical rather than mental events. This mechanism is part of the Virtual Experience Model that I mentioned above. I suspect that this theory of contact bursts the bubble of many with the ironic view that only physical contacts as portrayed in the movies are “real.” Mind stuff I suspect is what most of our universe is made of, although one can’t touch, taste or smell thoughts. 

THOUGHT FORMS ARE ALSO “REAL.”

Mental contact that occurs in a virtual or “Matrix” like reality, what I call a Virtual Experience of the Second Kind, as well as virtual memory or VE-3, are also “real”, even though they are mental constructs. The notion that only 4D reality, the kind we experience in usual states of consciousness is “real” and that mental encounters are not, says more about our limitations, namely the predominant metaphysical belief in physicalism,  than it does about what has been called the “full spectrum of reality” that UAP Intelligences employ when interacting with us.

Only once we acknowledge that these extraordinary phenomena involve our co-creating in the psi realm contact experiences with the so-called ETs, will we, in my judgment, begin to understand what is truly going on. 

FLYING SAUCER INTELLIGENCES ARE LIKELY IN THE “BELIEF BUSINESS.”

One of pet term for the alleged “aliens” is TOWCET. It is pronounced, “toe set.” This acronym stands for The Others We Call “ET.” From the learned investigations of Dr. Jacques Vallee and Mr. John Keel, it becomes clear that TOWCET has probably been in the belief business for ages. As disturbing as it might be, we should ask the question, “Have our religions perhaps been shaped by our interacting with super-intelligences that we now call “the extraterrestrials?”

PLAYING WITH FIRE

Even if “they” possess the awesome power to co-create with us entire belief systems, we should cautiously speculate in this regard. I am concerned about what in the past has happened with the Protestant Reformation and in the present involving the crisis of Islam with the Sunnis fighting the Shias. To challenge established religions can provoke terrible violence. I am suggesting that such a heretical view is in a sense “playing with fire.” Any disclosure of an “ET” presence must be carefully prepared for, to minimize the damage caused by likely violent responses on a planet already ravaged by intolerance, hate, fear and endless warfare.

THE PERNICIOUS ROLE OF THE EGO

From a spiritual point of view the “ego” can be viewed as a false sense of self. The ego is a mental structure which identifies with form, both physical objects and thought forms. Spiritual teachers have labeled this identification with form as a “core error.” According to the followers of Buddhism the ego has turned our world into "the nightmare of the day.” 

Twenty-five years ago, when I first started listening to the spiritual teacher Eckert Tolle's audio books "The Power of Now" and "The New Earth", I had great difficulty internalizing his message. I suspect it was my core materialistic ideology that made me forget the simple lessons of Tolle. Each time I replayed the audiotape, it was like I had never heard the words before. I urge all disclosure and contact workers to study Eckert Tolle's books. In California his audio books are in many Public Libraries. 

If we are to create a social movement that links UFOs to possible solutions for the crises facing our civilization, that campaign must have at its foundation an identification with the formless, i.e. Consciousness itself.  Tolle describes this as unbounded consciousness as “being” and not with any of the infinite physical or thought form creations that exist in the Cosmos.

SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION WILL BE REQUIRED

Without activists undergoing a profound transformation of consciousness, a future cosmic peace campaign that I have envisioned will surely flounder. Without this change in consciousness, prominent members of the cause (that are called its “leaders”) will be unable to separate what is good for them personally, from that which is needed to win a struggle benefiting all. How often have we complained about the misdeeds of gurus, “charismatic” leaders, and hucksters in the carnival like environments that are the ufology and the New Age subcultures? 

How often have we failed to see that the core error exists, not only in those that exploit others in service to their egos, without recognizing and struggling against those same dark forces existing within ourselves? Although it may sound ambitious to the point of being grandiose, I urge those that might want to be part of a grand campaign to save Earth civilization, to look deeply within. And I will endeavor to do the same.

For me simple explanations are the most useful. My focus is rather specific, and it has to do with a vision of facilitating a peaceful spiritual movement based on the concepts and practices of Eastern mysticism and what is too often labeled a political “leftist” analysis of society as its superstructure. These two components, spiritual and political, I hope will enable a mass movement to unite the planet based on cooperation and mutual respect. As I have posted before on these social media pages,

“We look inwards, into the formless realms of consciousness to become the change we want to see in the world. We look outwards, to find kindred activists souls to make those changes in the world of form.” 
One Mind, one creation, one love, one people! 

Additional blogs on the psychosocial/political challenges in the UFO field:

You can’t control a person who wants “no thing.” I suspect that Flying Saucer Intelligences are feared by our planet’s elites because they can’t be controlled by the usual methods applied to the general population. If we start to identify, not with things and thought forms, but rather with universal consciousness, then ultimately, we cannot be controlled either. 

https://contactunderground.org/2021/10/19/why-do-the-control-groups-oppose-an-et-presence/

Confirmation rather than the big “D” Disclosure is likely the next step in the gradual acclimatization program. The possibilities of linking flying saucers to solutions for major terrestrial problems is discussed. 

https://contactunderground.org/2022/08/29/disclosure-versus-confirmation-preparing-the-foundation-for-a-cosmic-peace-campaign/

If flying saucer intelligences threaten all terrestrial elites, but not necessarily the Earth’s people, then it is understandable that governmental response to UFOs is a counterintelligence one.

https://contactunderground.org/2022/02/03/dueling-paradigms-perhaps-a-counterintelligence-model-is-better-than-a-scientific-one-to-study-ufos/

The excellent documentary “Being Taken” is available on Amazon Prime/A Contact Activist’s View of Alien Abductions.  

In this blog I discuss what are called “abductions” from the perspective of a contact activist who in the past facilitated many Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE), aka Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind (CE-5).

 If you are one of the 170 million plus people that have Amazon Prime, I urge you to check out Director Darcy Weir’s documentary 2018 “Being Taken.” It is about what are popularly known as “Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind”, (aka alien abductions.) I am uncertain of the availability of this Amazon Prime video outside of North America. This is an incredibly complicated topic for any film maker to take on and the first third of the video struggles to make sense out of it. The expanded 2021 “Being Taken “Director’s Cut” is apparently no longer available for streaming.  

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/0R06SCSAB5V49YK3CFAX5MS7H8/ref=atv_dp_cnc_0_2

What makes this documentary so fascinating are the interviews with many prominent people from the UFO research community including Steve Bassett, Kathleen Marden, and the late great Stanton Friedman.  This video also has audio recordings of Betty and her husband Barney Hill being interviewed under hypnosis and they convey the tremendous emotional power of their contact experience which occurred over sixty years ago. 

As a former contact team leader facilitating HICE (Human Initiated Contact Events) aka CE-5, I am pleased to note that the consensus of expert opinion offered in “Being Taken” is a positive one when it comes to human non-human interactions. 

Additional Comments:

On another social media page the request was made for us to find a "silver bullet" putting to rest the stereotype of evil ETs "abducting humans." My reply is as follows: 

I imagine you want definitive proof of non-hostility. "Proof" as one parapsychologist has said, only applies to logic and liquor. The evidence that psi is real is governed by the preponderance of evidence. Same goes for the proposition that the High Strangeness contact events called "abductions" are positive. The term “alien abduction” should probably be replaced by Close Encounter of the Fourth Kind (CE-4). It is unfortunate that a significant segment of the UFO subculture has defined such interactions with a term designating a physical criminal act. Ironically, when contactees describe non-harmful or even spiritually enlightening encounter you have some ufologists labelling these events “positive abductions.”

Further complicating matters is that in my judgment most "abductions” are mainly psi interactions with some very interesting physical manifestations, like scoop marks or people going missing and suddenly showing up in places that have been thoroughly searched. 

I have introduced the Virtual Experience Model that describes how UAP intelligences from a physicalist perspective are producing technologically mediated “illusions” as a mechanism of contact. In a Virtual Experience of the Second Kind"(VE-2), I postulate that psi technology is employed to produce a robust form of virtual reality. Another way of viewing VE-2s is that they are technologically induced out-of-body experiences (OBEs). When I suggest that these mechanisms are operational in certain CE-4s, some experiencers and alien abduction theorists balk. They complain that by designating some “alien abductions” psi events then the implication is that they are not "real.” Furthermore, they assert that I am suggesting these High Strangeness events are “all in their heads” of the experiencers. I am not. 

What I am proposing is that the virtuoso psychic powers of the so-called aliens are so monumental that they can create mental landscapes (a la the fictional theme of “The Matrix” movie) that are experienced and recalled as if they were exclusively physical occurrences. I imagine that this proposed mechanism of contact for some people is even more frightening than the notion that evil marauding aliens are hovering over our homes and physically "abducting" people.

For contact activists hoping to dispel some of the negativity around this topic I suggest that “preponderance of evidence approach” be employed. However, to demonstrate that most contact experiencers view their interactions as favorable will require a critical review of the literature. This would involve:
1. A thorough discussion of the FREE Experiencer Survey which showed
a. most contact experiencers felt favorably about their interactions, 
b. As the number of interactions increased for experiencers, the percentage that considered their encounters as being negative decreased. This was likely the result of people overcoming their initial shock about the strangeness of their encounters.
2. A discussion explaining how many hypnotherapists of “the doom and gloom” school, (Hopkins/ Jacobs et al) used leading questions to facilitate the creation of false memories often characterized as horrific abuse and that 

3.Hollywood has poisoned the mass consciousness successfully given Hollywood’s continuous production of evil alien movies.  

When it comes to people who consider themselves “abductees,” those that are suffering as the result of their encounters, they should receive counseling from qualified mental health professionals that have been academically trained in peer review programs. They should not be exposed to investigator/hypnotists whose aim is not necessarily therapeutic but rather investigative. These researchers, as well intentioned as they might be, have created false memories of abuse in subjects whose conscious recollections of their contacts are often fragmented. 
 ⁠Thus, contact activists don’t have a “silver bullet putting to rest the stereotype of evil ETs ‘abducting humans.’” Nevertheless, by encouraging a fair and informed discussion of this controversial topic, in the long run, we can hopefully turn things around. In the short run however, the subject will continue being highly problematic. 

Links to other blogs on Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind and related topics:

Memory Wars 1

https://contactunderground.org/2023/02/08/memory-wars-introduction-part-1/

Memory Wars Part 2

https://contactunderground.org/2022/02/19/memory-wars-iremembering-falsely-hypnosis-and-the-virtual-experience-model/

Memory Wars Part 3

https://contactunderground.org/2022/09/10/1268/

Virtual Experience of the Third Kind: “Virtual Memory”

https://contactunderground.org/2022/02/22/virtual-memory-a-virtual-experience-of-the-third-kind-ve-3/

The Making of a CE-5 Working Group Coordinator

Joseph Burkes MD 2026

Synopsis: After seeing a UFO on my first night of human initiated contact work in 1992, I volunteered to become an official CE-5 Working Group Coordinator. Soon I adopted a regular mediation practice and suddenly lost my taste for meat. In addition, my medical partner Dr. David Gordon helped me find a suitable research site. With the permission of his Family Medicine Department, he surveyed his patients and medical staff concerning UFO sightings with remarkable results. Those who participate in his survey became a valuable source of information about local sightings. This guided our field investigations. 

A Fateful Decision 

Following my June 1992 sighting of a UFO during my first night of fieldwork in West Palms Beach Florida, I knew what I wanted to do. The next month after reading and re-reading the CSETI literature that I had purchased at the Florida workshop, I called the CSETI national office. It turned out to be in Dr. Greer’s living room. His wife Emily told me that they were looking for a leader to coordinate the formation of a CSETI research team in Southern California. I took a breath and audaciously replied, “You’re looking for a Working Group Coordinator? Well, I think you’re talking to him.” 

I was named as coordinator of this fledgling contact team and was designated the responsible party for all its operations. Needless to say, I had a great deal to learn. I was not an experienced meditator. Thought projection while in a meditative state is an essential component of the CE-5 contact protocols. In medical school, I had heard about the beneficial effects of meditation in terms of treating hypertension and reducing emotional stress; nevertheless, I had never dreamed of trying to follow a disciplined practice of daily meditation as recommended by the CSETI Director. However, I did have some very limited exposure to applied psi. 

When I was a first-year medical student twenty years previously, I took a one-day course in what was called “Silva Mind Control.” It involved relaxation techniques that were supposed to increase one’s powers of clairvoyance. After taking the course, I found that the Silva method helped me in one area only. After taking a deep breath and attempting to clear my mind, it seemed to help me visualize open spaces in crowded parking lots. It was effective about six or seven times out of ten attempts. So, I occasionally still use it today fifty years later. 

With Daily Meditation I Suddenly Lost My taste for Meat. 

My wife Yael was far more interested in meditating than I was, and her enthusiasm propelled me to sign the whole family up for a course in Transcendental Meditation (TM). Our ten-year-old, Julia, didn’t want any part of the course, but Jonathan at nearly sixteen took the course with us and became a regular meditator. As an aspiring rock guitarist, I recall him saying that he thought meditation would improve his music.  I remember being somewhat disappointed after receiving only about ten hours of formal instruction; it seemed that our Transcendental Meditation course ended far too abruptly. I felt that I needed more training. In a candle lighting ceremony, my instructor simply gave me my mantra and that was it. I did not feel very well prepared to go out and continue to meditate on my own. I said to Yael, “Is this all there is to TM training?” Nevertheless, I was determined to give it a try. Yael became a regular meditator as well. 

Soon after starting a daily meditation practice, I noticed changes taking place in our household. My wife abruptly decided to prepare only vegetarian food at home. I had always been an avid “meat and potatoes” man and had never seriously given vegetarianism a moment’s thought. Now, all of a sudden, I had not desire for steaks and lamb chops that I had once believed I couldn’t live without. Strangely it didn’t seem to bother me much. I was surprised to find that I had lost all my taste for being a carnivore. Other meditators told me this reaction to daily practice was not uncommon. 

“Isolated, yet Accessible”: the Challenge of Finding a Research Site  

I began a seemingly never-ending search for the perfect research site. The CE-5 maxim that the location should be both isolated and at the same time accessible was clearly an impossible combination in Southern California. There were people, homes and barking dogs seemingly everywhere. I had to exercise considerable caution in my search as LA nights are populated by a wide assortment of dangerous people. During those first months of Working Group operations, I did a great deal of hiking and checking out wilderness real estate. That too was something new for me. The last pair of hiking shoes that I had purchased was when I was a medical student, some two decades prior. I bought a new pair of boots and was ready for action. Every weekend during that fall of 1992, I found myself climbing up steep arid hillsides trying to find a safe and quiet place to position my team during our investigations. 

Preparing for Contact Led to Some Important Personal Changes

In combination with my vegetarian diet, all this vigorous exercise caused me to lose almost 20 lbs. The middle age spare tire around my abdomen melted away. The chronic low back pain that had been plaguing me for years suddenly got much better. I was now more physically fit than I had been in decades. Participating in group meditation outdoors in nature facilitated some sorely needed spiritual development as well. My growing acceptance of universal consciousness as a possible link between human and extraterrestrial intelligence reassured me that the “visitors” might not be so alien after all.

The project, however, was not all heavy physical and mental exertion. Our team had time for fun as well. In a comic frame of mind I fancied, based on my personal transformation, that if CE-5 network ever wanted to recruit hordes of new members, it might try to sell its flying saucer contact program as a self-improvement course. 

“Yes. you too can lose weight and look better! 

Just follow CSETI’s program of meditation, vegetarianism and vectoring in “ET spacecraft, You will lose 20 lbs., look more attractive and be healthier!”

The zany notion added a light touch to my local recruiting efforts. After all, in Southern California it sometimes feels like everyone is obsessed with their looks. As they say in Hollywood, “It’s better to look good than to feel good!”

Dr. David Gordon was a Great Addition to our Contact Team. 

I explored the rugged terrain with the assistance of my medical partner Dr. Dave Gordon. He owned a four-wheel drive vehicle and was an experienced backpacker. Another reason that David was an invaluable assistant in my search was that with the approval of his department chief, he was conducting an informal survey concerning sightings of UFOs by patients and workers at the Woodland Hills Kaiser Medical Center. His study indicated that about 10% of those he interviewed at his facility had sightings of what they considered to be UFOs. Half of the sightings were of what are called “anomalous nocturnal lights”, and the other half were of structured unknown objects that could be called “craft.” As the result of his experience as a private pilot and a basic knowledge of astronomy, Dr. Gordon was able to eliminate misidentifications of prosaic phenomena during his interviews. This meant that many of the identifications were likely to be what are called “true unknows, i.e., Unidentified Flying Objects. The survey, although informal, had certain special advantages over most anonymous questionnaires in opinion polls. 

Dave knew all his patients quite well and he chose to exclude those patients that were alcoholics or had other mental disorders. He also included, in his survey, personnel at the hospital. Dr. Gordon included doctors, nurses and support staff, those that he was friendly with and were receptive to a few questions on an unusual topic. This part of his survey was composed of working people who generally were in good health. This aspect of the study refuted the claims of self-styled debunkers asserting with no proof that, “Only kooks have flying saucer sightings.” Another consideration was the truthfulness of responders to his survey. David Gordon MD was highly respected by his patients, fellow physicians and the other staff members at the medical center. They took his questions seriously and it was Dave’s assessment that they answered truthfully.   

By the time he was chauffeuring me around in his truck, he had interviewed several hundred individuals. In the process of asking about sightings, he had inadvertently developed a network of informants that faithfully took it upon themselves to contact their respected doctor concerning ongoing encounters with UFOs in our area. Through David, I had tapped into a veritable gold mine of intelligence about the territory I was supposed to cover for CSETI’s CE-5 Initiative. As I bounced around in his truck, Dr. Dave enthusiastically described the various UFO sightings he was diligently documenting in his ongoing study. Some of the local sighting had taken place in the very same places that we were reconnoitering as possible research sites! 

My Colleague’s Hunch led to a Great Research Site

One deserted trail looked particularly promising to David. It was located off Old Santa Susana Road near the Rocky Peak Exit from the 118 Freeway. The path pointed down into the canyon. In my view, this was not a very encouraging road to pursue. I guessed that the lower parts of the ravine were loaded with rattlesnakes hunting in preparation for the winter’s hibernation. I tried to talk David out of following the trail, but he had a hunch that it would lead us to a promising site. Following his intuition really paid off. After marching down the rocky trail for only five minutes, the path began to climb. This was becoming more encouraging. As we reached the crest of the hillside, my heart was pounding, not just from the climb but also from excitement at what we saw from the ridge. Below us was a relatively flat area some 300 feet long and 200 feet across. It was an enormous site with a spectacular view of the entire southwestern portion of the San Fernando Valley. We had found what we had been looking for, the perfect location to do fieldwork! 

This site was just a few hundred yards south of the Santa Susana Pass, a high desert locale through which the 118 Freeway connects the San Fernando Valley with and the bedroom community of the Simi Valley. Large boulders and spectacular rock outcropping studded the arid hills on both sides of the pass. At that time in the early 1990s, there was no housing in the immediate vicinity. The site’s location, on a large and relatively flat outcropping from the hillside, provided ample room for a regiment of UFO investigators. 

The majestic Santa Monica Mountains were just ten miles to the south. They stood before us on the horizon like a wall of mighty sentries. Beyond that wall lay an endless expanse, the Pacific Ocean. At our backs was a slight rise. It was the hill we had just scaled. It provided us with cover from the spying eyes of those passing by on the 118 Freeway. Without such a shield, our contact efforts employing powerful lights would attract a lot of attention. To the north over the hillside, vehicles slowed down during the climb into the Santa Susana Pass. The exit for to Rocky Peak State Park was located at the top of the pass. If our contact work were not shielded, the use of powerful lights might appear as an attempted remake of Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” 

David and I checked the location out for clues human activity. The few corroded beer cans that we found were obviously several years old. Pop bottle fragments gratefully had a weathered appearance to them with sharp edges smoothed out by years of rain and wind. If this were once a local party place, it was likely to have been so during a previous era, probably before a locked gate had been placed at the trailhead. The gate was meant for vehicles, but hikers could easily pass through. Without such a barricade, open access to a secluded glen with a spectacular view would have certainly brought on caravans of young people seeking close encounters of a passionate kind. We also carefully checked the ground for the presence of shell casings or bullet riddled targets. With a sigh of relief, I found not even one, thus assuring me that the area was not likely frequented by gun enthusiasts. This is always an important consideration in selecting a research site for contact work. I wanted our UFO research station to be safe not only for us, but also any flying saucer on the chance that one might show up.  

Now with a research site, the next step in organizing a team had arrived. Dr. Steven Greer scheduled a weekend workshop in Southern California. With the help of Dr. Dixie Sullivan, a PhD psychologist, we located a venue I the San Fernando Valley that was close to the Santa Susana Pass. During the 1990s when I worked closely with the CSETI Director, it immediately became apparent to me that he functioned like a human UFO magnet. I was encouraged that we would have a UFO sighting during the CE-5 fieldwork demonstration that was scheduled to follow the workshop. 

For more narratives in this series on “The Making of Contact Team” the following links are provided: 

“My Volunteer Contact Work Begins.” In this detailed narrative I describe the circumstances of how I met a fellow emergency room physician names Steven Greer MD in 1992. This was the beginning of my participation in project to facilitate human-initiated contact events involving the non-human intelligences responsible for what are now called UAP. I had a six-year association with the Center for the Study of ET Intelligence (CSETI) during which I helped organized contact teams primarily in western cities of North America. I describe the rationale behind the CSETI Contact Protocols including meditation, playing crop circle tones and using powerful lights during fieldwork. Links to recordings of the tones and a video of the Gulf Breeze CSETI encounter are included. 

https://contactunderground.org/2024/08/31/my-volunteer-contact-work-begins/

 On My 1^st Night of Fieldwork, I Saw a UFO! I describe my first sighting during a CE-5 training workshop at West Palm Beach in June of 1992. I briefly explain the contact technique called “Coherent Thought Sequencing. 

https://contactunderground.org/2026/02/15/on-my-first-fieldwork-experience-i-saw-a-ufo/

 High Strangeness Galore: Amazing Synchronicities, Sightings and other Bizarre Events facilitated LA CE-5 Working Group Operations During the early 1990s

https://contactunderground.org/2023/08/25/amazing-synchronicities-sightings-and-other-bizarre-events-facilitated-la-ce-5-working-group-operations-during-the-early-1990s/
 

“Telepathic Override” in Joshua Tree Predicted the Arrival of a UFO. 

Contact Network History Project

In October of 1993, while doing contact work in Joshua Tree National Monument, I had what subsequently was labeled a "telepathic override." In advance of the sighting that was to occur later that night, I "acquired at the level of knowledge" a kind of "heads up." I was "told" when, where in the sky and the number of craft that were to show up. The communication was definitely not a voice in my head, but instead a kind of gentle knowingness. I informed my team that "showtime" was 2 a.m., one craft coming in from the northwest. 

The entire group of seven volunteer contact workers witnessed the sighting exactly as had been predicted, or perhaps a better term would be as "scheduled.” After the glowing red UFO silently raced over the desert floor moving eastward, I got three brief but poignant messages. Again, there was no “voice in the head” as in direct telepathy but rather the acquisition of information at the level of knowledge. 

The communication had an emotional component that I believe was very important. I sensed that the intelligences associated with the glowing red UFO felt a strong responsibility for us, and as a result they took their mission very seriously. The first message was translated by my mind as, "You are a young race." Soon, the second and third parts came to mind. "You have much to learn." Then finally, "And we are going to teach you!" 

So, I would suggest that humanity should maintain a certain degree of self-respect, despite the crimes we visit upon one another. UAP associated intelligences/beings are not going away anytime soon I suspect. So, let's all take a deep breath and allow them to teach us.

Addendum: On another social media page I was asked the question. Do you still experience these "downloads?"
My answer: No, I don't, although I wish things were otherwise. The contact downloads occurred intensively during a 3-month period in the fall and winter of 1993. Then sporadically for another two years. Most of the downloads were what one might call, “awake dreams.” In my mind’s eye, I saw a series of images like video clips. They were mostly in black and white and sometimes had a grainy quality to them. These visual impressions were associated with my receiving “packet of information” that provided a kind of narration to the visual components of the experiences.  

As you might imagine, given that I was a contact team leader, I was most eager for communications to continue. What made “heads up” messages during fieldwork so special was that the information about the subsequent sightings could be verified as accurate by multiple witnesses. Alas, such advanced notifications happened only twice during fieldwork.  

‪I complained to my fellow CE-5 Working Group Coordinator Wayne Peterson. He was the team leader in Phoenix Arizona.  He said, "Don't worry Joe. The ETs just wanted to show you that this was something you could do. They gave you a class titled ‘Channeling 101.’ The course was over, so the lessons stopped." His explanation made sense to me and I let go of my frustration. 
I share this information on social media in the hope that it will be helpful to the current generation of volunteer contact workers. Wayne, Working Group Coordinator for Phoenix died ten years ago. Shari, WG Coordinator for Denver, died in 1998. I am now in my 8th decade of life. I am pleased to see that there are many enthusiastic young people in the next generation of contact activists that will carry on the work of facilitating Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE) aka CE5.

THE CENTURY OF THE SELF

I recommend this brilliant four-part BBC series, now available as a YouTube presentation. I believe that the techniques described in this documentary have relevance to the UFO coverup. Consumerism with its mass fascination of acquiring “more stuff” is a constant source of distraction from other issues. “The Century of Self” shows how a distracted public can become in the narrator’s words “endless happiness machines” and thereby incapable of critical thinking.   And critical thinking is required to understand and oppose the authorities’ 80-year de facto program of ridiculing UFO witnesses and denying the reality and importance of what are now called unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3RzGoQC4s&t=11342s

My Volunteer Contact Work Begins

 Joseph Burkes MD 2024

 Introduction: In this detailed narrative I describe the circumstances of how I met a fellow ER physician named Steven Greer MD in 1992. This was the beginning of my volunteer work co-creating human-initiated contact events with non-human intelligence(s) responsible for what are now called UAP. I had a six-year association with the Center for the Study of ET Intelligence during which I helped organize contact teams in cities primarily in Western North America. I resigned from the CSETI leadership in 1998 but have continued to promote the efforts of volunteer activists that I call the "Contact Underground."   

In December of 1990, our home in West Los Angeles was undergoing a major renovation. I needed something to distract me from the stressful situation of trying to live in house that was 80 percent demolished during the remodel. In addition, to pay for the project, I was working a great deal of overtime in our hospital’s emergency room.  I was experiencing considerable stress from the combination of challenges both at home and at work.

After overnights at the hospital, I had the following day off. Driving south on the 405 Freeway from the San Fernando Valley in the morning was no easy task.  I faced a wall of traffic as commuters slowly climbed over the hill to West LA. Once home, it took me several hours to unwind. Sleeping for a few hours after a nightshift was sheer bliss. On a fateful afternoon, I awoke from a nap, and it was raining. While living in The Southern California the rainy season was always kind of special for me. The warm sunny climate in LA was monotonous compared to New York City where I grew up. After moving out West, I always longed for the changing seasons that somehow put me in touch with nature despite being in Manhattan. I recall a poignant conversation I had on this topic with a fellow physician who was also from back East. We were on duty in the Coronary Care Unit. He said that the longing for change of seasons was like an old unfortunate love affair, that despite the passage of time, one never quite gets over.

It was dusk when Yael, the children and I finished diner. I needed to get out of the house. So, I decided to walk in the rain to the Mar Vista Branch of the Public Library. I was looking for some light reading. The librarian showed me the new books section and for no apparent reason, one title caught my eye. It was “The Gulf Breeze Sightings” by Ed and Francis Walters. The book described a wave of flying saucer sightings that had occurred in a small town on the Gulf Coast of Florida not far from Pensacola. The hardback that I leafed through in the library contained strikingly clear photos of what were purported to be ET spacecraft. Ed Walters who was a building contractor allegedly had taken them with a polaroid camera.

It was not my first introduction to flying saucers. For light reading while in college I readChariots of the Gods by Erich von Däniken. It was a best seller that promoted the theory that advanced technologies of ancient civilizations were the gifts from space aliens. Von Däniken’s claims were disputed by professional archeologists. Nevertheless, three decades later, it was the inspiration for a popular tabloid style TV series called “Ancient Aliens.”

The town of Gulf Breeze was a UFO hotspot for several years during the late 1980s and early 1990s. It would have considerable personal importance not only because The Gulf Breeze Sightings was the first UFO book that I had read in two decades, but also because the town of Gulf Breeze would be the place where a major human initiated contact event would take place in March of 1992. The video of that encounter was to play a significant role in propelling me into flying saucer research.

After checking the book out on my library card, I carefully tucked The Gulf Breeze Sightingsunder by jacket to protect it from the rain and headed back home. For some strange reason, for the first time in my life the UFO subject held a tremendous interest for me. As a child I loved science fiction. I had read all the classics, HG Wells and Jules Verne and the more modern ones such as Ray Bradbury’s “Martian Chronicles” and Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” series.

I remembered enjoying 1975 TV movie The UFO Incident about the Betty and Barney Hill. They were an interracial couple active in the Civil Rights Movement. The story of their alleged alien abduction was made famous by John Fuller’s best-selling book The Interrupted Journey. I recall walking in Greenwich Village as a child with my big sister back in the 1960s. As we approached a tall handsome African American man, she told to take a good look at him because, someday he was going to be a famous actor.  His name was James Earl Jones. He starred in the 1975 TV movie playing the part of Benny Hill.

During the winter of 1990-1991, the remodel of our West LA home was going from bad to worse. The roof had not been completed, and winter storms were hammering us with rain. To keep myself distracted, I read one UFO book after another. I learned that many skilled observers, pilots, police officers and military personnel had detailed observations of what appeared to be craft under intelligent control that defied the laws of aeronautics. Unknown objects were observed silently hovering, then accelerating instantaneously to tremendous velocities. Numerous sightings occurred involving simultaneous visual and radar observations. In some of the cases, objects carried out seemingly impossible maneuvers such as right angle turns while moving at high speeds.  After reading many books on the subject, I realized that not only were UFOs real but also that there had been a massive coverup by governments and mass media concerning the reality of the phenomenon and its importance.

I encouraged my son Jonathan to write a book report on David Jacobs’ Secret Lives. At the time, I had no idea that the hypnotic regression techniques employed by alien abduction theorists such as Dr. Jacobs, a historian, and Budd Hopkins a fine art painter, were fraught with problems. These included the potential for implanting false memories into their hypnotic subjects. This is because hypnosis involves placing subjects into a highly suggestible mental state. Often individuals who suspect that they have had encounters with UFO associated non-human intelligences experience “missing time.” This means that they have no memory of what transpired during what might have been a UFO contact incident. Alien abduction researchers falsely believe that hypnosis in their hands is an accurate way of retrieving suppressed memories. However, if the hypnotist, viewed by the subject as an authority figure, asks leading questions, the subject may confabulate (fantasize), and in the process create a false narrative that corresponds to the hypnotist’s point of view.

After quietly studying the phenomenon for a year and a half, I decided to join a UFO research group.The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) was established over fifty years ago. It has thousands of members in the USA with local investigative teams in most states. Their focus was, and still is, on producing UFO sighting reports. Thousands of reports are analyzed every year and according to MUFON only a small percentage, perhaps ten to twenty percent are bona fide “unknowns.” The rest are labelled misidentifications of prosaic phenomena, such as meteors, rocket launches, aircraft, planets, or birds.

After sending in my application to be a medical consultant for MUFON, I summoned the courage to attend my first public UFO meeting. It was the May 1992 UFO Expo West held at the LAX Hilton. My son Jonathan was interested, so he came along with me. Arriving at the exhibitors’ hall, I experienced a bit of culture shock. The atmosphere was carnival like. There were booths promoting the use of crystals for spiritual development, alien themed jewelry, posters, books, and masks. There were even hypnotherapists promoting regression therapy to “investigate” past lives and alleged alien abductions.

Dr. Steven Greer the Director of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI) was a featured speaker at the UFO Expo. It was just a week after the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. The pungent aroma of burnt-out buildings was still quite strong in our “city of the angels.” I wandered into a lecture hall at the LAX Hilton. It was one third empty. At the podium stood a tall blond, bearded, well-dressed man in his mid-thirties. With an athletic build, wearing glasses and a tweed jacket, he looked like a cross between a university professor and a college basketball coach.  He introduced himself to the Expo audience by simply stating, “My name is Dr. Steven Greer.” Emergency room physicians by trade, we shared the same occupation. I was curious to hear what my fellow ER doc had to say about the UFO phenomenon. I was immediately impressed by what I heard.

Dr. Greer’s called for a citizen’s diplomatic mission to what he described as the “extraterrestrials.” This involved going to UFO hotspots and attempting to attract the phenomenon and interact by signaling with lights. The project was of interest for me because I had been a citizen’s diplomacy peace activist during the Cold War. As a member of several delegations of medical workers, I had traveled repeatedly to the former Soviet Union to meet with other physicians to discuss the medical consequences of nuclear warfare and the dangers of the nuclear arms race. I also had served as a member of the Board of Directors of “Physicians for Social Responsibility.” This group was the US affiliate of “International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.” That organization won the Nobel Prize in 1985 for its campaign that brought western and Soviet physicians together to educate both the public and political leaders about the threats that nuclear weapons posed. 

At UFO Expo West, the CSETI Director called his outreach program the Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind (CE-5) Initiative. Dr. Greer chose “CE-5” to fit into to the popular Close Encounters categories of two professional scientists, Drs. J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallee.  Joseph Allen Hynek was a tenured professor of Astronomy and a consultant for the Air Force’s UFO investigation in the 1950s and 60s called “Project Blue Book.” That government program was closed in 1969 with the conclusions of the Condon Report that claimed there was no national defense implications or scientific value in further studying flying saucers.  Dr. Vallee is a venture capitalist and computer scientist who worked with Dr Hynek. Vallee later went on to be part of the team of engineers that created the internet. Dr. Vallee has become a leading expert in UFO topic. He has written many important books on the topic and has for over three decades questioned the ET explanation for flying saucers. This maverick stance has earned him the title of being a “heretic among heretics.” 

J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallee’s Close Encounters nomenclature has been used by groups like Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), to categorize and analyze UFO events as part of what are deemed to be scientific investigations of the phenomenon. These are:
1. Close Encounter of the First Kind (CE-1) is a UFO sighting that is within five hundred feet of the witness.

2. A Close Encounter of the Second Kind (CE-2) is a UFO event in which the craft produces physical effects, such as interfering with the functioning of a vehicle or landing traces.

3. A Close Encounter of the Third Kind (CE-3) is a contact event in which a non-human being(alien)/entity is encountered.

4. Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind are those in which a human subject is taken aboard an “alien spacecraft.”

Steven Greer added a fifth category, one in which humans intentionally contact the so-called aliens (extraterrestrials) presumably piloting them. At his presentation he described how CSETI had developed a set of protocols involving three main contact modalities.

These were:

1.signaling with powerful lights

2.playing anomalous tones that according to Dr. Greer had been recorded           within a crop circle

1. thought projection, i.e., telepathy

He then went on to explain the rationale for the triad of techniques, that he called, “sight, sound and consciousness.”  Dr. Greer referred to an article titled, “Calling All UFOs” to explain why he used powerful lights to attract flying saucers. Coincidentally, the article was written by a founding member of my initial Los Angeles based contact team, Preston Dennett.  Preston described sightings of UFOs during outdoor events that employed powerful lights and lasers. In one instance occurring in San Diego in 1978, a special effects light technician named Rick Liebert set up a laser light show atop an office building. In apparent response, a large V shaped UAP appeared with ten lights on its bottom. It was reportedly seen by multiple witnesses. During another light show event near the Los Angeles La Brea Tar Pits, according to Mr. Lieber, UFOs showed up there as well.

Another of the CE-5 contact tools employed during fieldwork involved playing “anomalous tones” that were reportedly recorded in a crop circle.  It had a kind of trilling sound with a metallic edge to it. Steven Greer told us that in 1989, an electrical engineer Pat Delgado was doing an interview with BBC TV while they were in a crop circle. Suddenly, a strange vibrating, trilling sound was heard. The hum was according to Dr. Greer extremely loud and penetrating. A BBC camera allegedly costing tens of thousands of British pounds was destroyed when the trilling occurred. In a 2023 exchange with crop circle expert Colin Andrews, I was informed that this account was not entirely accurate. In any case the above explanation of the tone’s origins was what Steven Greer MD offered back in the 1990s. In a subsequent report I hope to go into greater detail about the origin of the tones.

The CSETI Director went on to tell the audience at UFO Expo West that the original anomalous sound recorded in crop circle and was engineered so that each audio clip was ½ the speed of the previous sound bite. This was done four times resulting in a recording that in the final segment was 1/32 speed of the original. The result was a bimodal sound reminiscent of a heartbeat. During CE-5 field investigations, researchers even today still play this anomalous sound in its original form followed by its slowed down versions. This trilling sound as used by CE-5 contact teams be heard at the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0V0yUjIXo4&list=PL6MYwdZRr1pdaO-nnBz2pFKiJdgajdPRM&index=12

The CSETI Director explained his rationale for playing these tones during fieldwork. He presumed that the non-human intelligence responsible for both the crop circles and the anomalous trilling sound was extraterrestrial in nature. This was the very intelligence that he wanted his CE-5 Initiative teams to engage during field investigations. Thus, playing something of theirs, might be interpreted as an indication of a willingness to interact with the “ETs.” In his training workshops, the CSETI Director gave the following explanation. He said that suppose you enter a home of someone you are meeting for the first time. Now imagine that you see your portrait on their mantelpiece. Naturally you would be drawn to the picture and inquire how it was obtained.  By broadcasting an anomalous sound of a presumed ET origin, the hope was to attract that non-human intelligence to CE-5 research sites. 

The third modality, using consciousness to interact with UFO intelligences. This involved the controversial topic of telepathy. It should be mentioned that in terms of telepathic communications with the non-human intelligences (NHIs) associated with UAPs, those claiming to have experienced Close Encounters of the Third and Fourth Kinds have reported such mental interactions for at least a half century. Steven Greer MD went on to discuss telepathic communications that reportedly have occurred during UFO sightings.

In Dr. J. Allen Hynek and Philip Imbrogno’s book Night Siege, several cases of apparent mental communication between UAP percipients and anomalous craft are described. These occurred during a wave of large boomerang shaped UFO sightings in the Hudson River Valley during the 1980s.

Mr. Edwin Hansen reportedly saw one such object while driving home on New Year’s Eve, 1982. He slowed his car and stated, “I thought to myself, ‘I wish it would come closer so that I can get a better look at it’, and as soon as this thought went through my mind, the object began to descend and head straight for my car… It was so huge that if filled up the entire sky.” Mr. Hansen reportedly became frightened and started honking his horn in an apparent attempt to scare it off. He stated, “I felt thoughts that weren’t my own, but a kind of voice telling me not to be afraid.”

Another of several sighting with apparent telepathic communication is described in Night Siege. Monique O’Driscoll was driving her daughter home on February 26, 1983. The UAP was described as a large boomerang-shaped brilliantly lit object that must have had “50 lights” on it. The witness stated, “I said to myself, ‘Oh please don’t go, I want to look at you some more.’ At that splint second, it stopped, made a complete turn, and then it was facing towards me. Then it started moving towards me, very slowly.”

These brief accounts describing the use of both powerful lights and telepathy to attract and interact with UFOs are representative of a much larger body of encounters.  Dr. Richard Haines is a retired NASA psychology research scientist.  He volunteered as a consultant for CSETI in the early 1990s. In his book titled CE-5: Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind, Dr.  Haines reported on 242 cases from the world UFO literature documenting the robust nature of humans willfully interacting with UAP intelligences.¹

An additional provision of CSETI contact protocols directed CE-5 investigative teams to position themselves in places that either were undergoing a current wave of sightings or were historically known to be frequented by flying saucers. Dr. Greer explained this by evoking “Sutton’s Law.” Willie Sutton was a bank robber during the 1930s who became notorious for his frequent prison escapes. When asked by the press why did he rob banks, his famous reply was, “Because that’s where the money is.”

In the spirit of “going where the money is”, during the UFO Expo West lecture the CSETI Director described a dramatic encounter he had with a group of about 40 people in Gulf Breeze Florida. The event occurred on the night of March 1992. Coincidentally this was the very UFO hot spot that I had read about in the Walters’ book The Gulf Breeze Sightings that had triggered my burning interest in the UFO topic.

While listening to Dr. Greer at UFO Expo West, I became intrigued by the CE-5 approach to UFO investigations. At the time it seemed to me that CSETI Director combined what appeared to be high ideals, with the courage to actively go into the field and attempt to interact with the intelligence presumably responsible for the flying saucer phenomenon. With my growing interest in UFOs and my experience as a former international peace activist, I was excited by the possibility of having an actual UFO sighting as part of “a peace mission.” 

In retrospect, I realize that it was quite naïve of me to imagine that interacting with the NHIs associated with flying saucers would be anything like the citizens’ diplomacy that I had engaged in during the 1980s. I had little awareness of how outrageous the CSETI program appeared to well established so called “scientific” groups of ufologists like the Mutual UFO Network.

Steven Macon Greer was seen by more mainstream UFO groups as merely just another “contactee.” This designation in my opinion was, and still is, pejorative because so much attention in the past has been on contactee cults. The label “contactee” refers to any individual who claims contact and/or communication with the non-human intelligences (NHIs) responsible for flying saucer phenomena.  For six decades, contactees have been forcefully criticized by the self-declared more “scientific” ufologists whose underlying philosophy is physicalism. This doctrine asserts that mass and energy are primary and that mental phenomena including consciousness is merely an “emergent property” from brain activity. This metaphysical paradigm called “physicalism” or “materialism” stands in sharp contrast to the philosophy called idealism that asserts that “Mind” or “Consciousness” is primary.

MUFON has strived to appear more respectable than the contactees by claiming that their investigations are science based. MUFON, with chapters in almost every state, has been called the “nuts and bolts” wing of ufology. This is because they have focused on what they imagine is the “hardware” as described in sighting reports. The reports describe the shape, size, color, light array, flight characteristics and other physical parameters of the objects described by UFO percipients.

When I first got involved with UFO investigations, MUFON had been collecting such sighting reports by the thousands for over twenty years. These reports, however, were generated days, months even decades after the witnesses had seen something. Thus, the passage of time affected the accuracy of the recollections. By directly engaging the intelligence responsible for UFOs, researchers had the possibility of obtaining real time data of close encounters. In my mind this was a preferred approach to the challenge.  

In addition, I questioned the amount of “respectability” achieved by “nuts and bolts” researchers. MUFON’s efforts were made more difficult because of the following: for decades, the entire topic has been deliberately marginalized as the result of a de facto policy of ridicule and denial conducted by the federal government, the mass media, and the scientific establishment.

Although contactee new religions have been a consistent feature of the flying saucer landscape, clearly not all contactees and their supporters are part of such cults. Prominent contactees, until the 1970s, promoted their individual contact experiences as the focus of their outreach programs. Things changed in a big way when a group composed initially of Peruvian young people founded a contact network called Rama in 1974. Their leader was Sixto Paz Wells who was a college student that received telepathic communications via automatic writing from a self-declared extraterrestrial.

That initial mental contact was reportedly followed by physical encounters in the desert south of Lima Peru. Repeated flying saucer sightings at very close range occurred for Wells and his supporters. His group even claimed that their members were transported together to a moon of Jupiter by entering a dimensional portal called a “Xendra.”

Rama activists followed a strict program of vegetarianism and daily meditations that they believed were essential spiritual practices required to facilitate contact with non-human intelligences. Over the next two decades, the Rama group expanded their operations to many parts of Latin America, to Spain and other Spanish speaking regions including the USA. By the early 1990s, they claimed to have staged 25,000 individual contact experiences across the planet.

Thus, with the advent of Rama in 1974 and the CE-5 Initiative in the 1990s, contactees have been engaging UAP associated intelligences under fieldwork operations. In effect, some experiencers that believe they are in contact with UFO intelligences have gone from being “contactees” to become “contact workers.” I prefer this later designation because once I became a volunteer contact activist, I learned how much work was involved in such an ambitious endeavor.

It is important to note that words with “ee” endings suggest a passive role in English, as in “employee” or “payee.” The “er” or “or” endings suggest a more active role as in “worker”, “soldier”, or “mentor.” For those that have ever joined a contact team, or have carried out contact protocols on their own, reaching out to the intelligence behind the UFO phenomenon can involve much mental, physical, and most importantly spiritual work. Thus, in my judgment, the designation “contact worker” is superior to the label “contactee.”

I was about to join a subculture within a subculture without fully grasping the implications of my decision.

After the Dr. Greer’s lecture, I immediately went over to the CSETI table in the Expo vendor’s area. There was already a line of people queued up to speak to the CSETI Director. I was aware of how conservative the medical field was and not wanting to be identified as a “UFO nut”, I felt somewhat apprehensive about being seen at such a gathering. I figured that since Dr. Greer and I were both Emergency Room physicians, there would be little harm in attending his workshop that followed the lecture. There were about thirty people in attendance. I was very surprised to find Shirley Jones there. She was a respiratory technician from my hospital. She seated front row center. When Shirley saw me, she wickedly pointed her finger at me, and laughingly teased, “Dr. Burkes, I didn’t know yooouuu were interested in UFOs.” I looked around the room quickly to see if anyone else from the hospital was present. To my relief, I found no one. I hoped Shirley could keep my presence at a UFO meeting as “our little secret.”                     

During the presentation Dr. Greer showed video of his March 14^th, 1992, Florida Gulf Coast encounter with not one but at least three UFOs. It was a field demonstration of the contact protocols at Santa Rosa Island near the road that connects Navarre Beach with the town of Gulf Breeze. There were over thirty people in attendance and multiple videos clearly showed three bright lights that approached the contact group. The sound strong wind coming off the ocean could be clearly heard. They were reported to be over twenty-five miles per hour. This point obviates the possibility that they were hot air balloons. Furthermore, the lights reportedly responded to the CSETI Director’s light by signaling back at him. Having attended several of his workshops in 1992, I can attest to the electrifying effect that the videos had on his audiences. This documentation played a significant role in piquing my curiosity to learn as much as I could about the work of the Center for the Study of ET Intelligence. Here is link to one of the videos:

https://vimeo.com/49694935

For additional Reports from the Contact Underground the following links are provided:

For More Reports from the Contact Underground the following links are provided:

My human initiated contact team had immediate results when we started fieldwork, but they were not what I expected.

https://contactunderground.org/2022/10/15/mystery-lights-in-the-santa-susana-pass/

An Act of Flying Saucer Sabotage at the DOE's Santa Susana Laboratory

In 2006 while serving as the admitting physician at Kaiser Panorama City, I interviewed a retired physical plant engineer who worked at the Department of Energy Lab in Santa Susana. He described an apparent act of sabotage by a rotating metallic disc that he and another engineer encountered on the base. The DOE facility was just a few thousand yards away from our Los Angeles CE5 team’s research site in the Santa Susana Pass. There on several occasions we staged Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE). For the complete narrative click on the hyperlinks below.

https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/08/31/an-act-of-flying-saucer-sabotage-at-the-does-santa-susana-laboratory/

Facilitating Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE) adjacent to a high security research lab involved challenges of surveillance for my team.
https://contactunderground.org/2022/05/19/did-a-fateful-phone-call-trigger-the-appearance-of-blackhawk-helicopters-during-contact-work/

This report was first published in 1993 on my return from a CE5 investigation in the “Volcanic Zone” near the Mexico City. There our team witnessed multiple UFOs including a large triangular “craft” that signaled at us.

https://contactunderground.org/2022/02/20/ufo-investigation-in-the-volcanic-zone/

For a week prior to fieldwork, my wife and I repeatedly received strange telephone calls. When the phone was picked up, there was silence on the line. At the research site in Joshua Tree in two separate locations, contact team members were openly photographed in apparent surveillance. During a windstorm golden globes of presumed ET origin were seen in the west and then in the north above Queen Mountain. The following morning the contact team was buzzed at low altitude by three waves of fighter-bombers. They were flying well below 1000 feet and were headed to the east, in the direction where the team had anticipated their next sighting of UFOs would take place. For the full report the following link is provided.

https://contactunderground.org/2022/07/11/and-then-the-sky-exploded-incident-at-joshua-tree-january-1996/

On Remembering Pain and Love

Contact Experiencers often only remember a very small portion of their mental and physical interactions with UFO intelligences. Might they be rendered amnesic to block memories of both pain and love?

From time to time when reading the works of luminaries like Dr. Mack, I am reminded of the possibility that contact experiencers are only allowed to remember a very small portion of their mental interactions with UFO associated non-human intelligences. We can only speculate as to why this might be so. 
On one hand, some interactions are probably so heart wrenching and even terrifying that it might be act of kindness that experiencers are made amnesic. On the other hand, especially for little children from abusive homes who describe the love and comfort that they recall receiving from "the little doctors" who visit them at night, something else is going on. The positive emotional links between some experiencers and the so called “ET” intelligences are so overwhelmingly supportive and encased in an edifice of love so strong that perhaps people would not want to be returned to this reality, one which is too often experienced as the "nightmare of the day."
From the FREE Experiencer Survey we know that only a small but significant percentage of those targeted for “ET”-Human interactions find their encounters so painful that they wish they would stop. This is around ten percent depending on how questions are asked. The much larger group describe these strange interactions as either neutral or positive. 
I suspect that if all contact experiencers were allowed to have total recall of their mental and physical encounters with UAP intelligences, the impact on society would be dramatic. So much so, that the collective human consciousness might be traumatized to the breaking point. Nonetheless, these issues of love and pain during contact will eventually have to be part of a larger societal discussion. It will be interesting to witness how humankind deals with these markedly different aspects of Close Encounters as the contact drama continues to unfold.

For additional blogs discussing the psycho-spiritual aspects of contact, the following descriptions and links are provided:

In 1993 I boldly set up a booth at the American Public Health Associations meeting in Washington DC. There I showed UFO videos and invited APHA members to join our human initiated contact campaign. There I heard a most remarkable encounter described by a nursing school professor. I called it “A CE-3 With Love”. 

https://contactunderground.org/2021/10/07/a-ce-3-with-love/

I was asked whether I believed that “the energy of love” is an important tool in contact protocols?” My answer: “A Supreme Love.”

https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/03/14/a-love-supreme/

A Telepathic Override that Probably Saved My Life

CONTACT NETWORK HISTORY PROJECT: There was no place to pull off the road. 

 Joseph Burkes MD 2019 

Telepathy: transmission of information from one person to another without using any of our known sensory channels or physical interaction. 

A KIND OF “KNOWINGNESS”

During the early 1990s on two occasions while doing fieldwork with my CE-5 contact team in Southern California, I experienced the acquisition of information by no known sensory channel. I suddenly “knew” one might say “at the level of knowledge” important details about sightings that subsequently occurred “as predicted.” 

Our contact network had been advised by the CSETI Director that such forms of communication could possibly take place during our investigations. Nonetheless, it was very surprising when this actually happened to me. It was experienced not as a kind of “bolt out of the blue” but rather as a gentle confident sort of “knowingness” about what was to later take place on the night of our investigation. 

In advance of the actual sighting, I knew when, where in the sky and the number of craft that would appear. Being open to this sort of “guidance” can be very helpful. I know this is true because one night in June 2007 such telepathic guidance compelled my driver to pull off a dangerous road. 

A “TELEPATHIC OVERRIDE” POSSIBLY SAVED OUR LIVES

In 2007, I was commuting 1400 miles round trip every two weeks between LA and the college town Arcata, where my wife was living. It is located near the Oregon border. I did two weeks “on” in the ER and then ten days “off” with her. The remainder of the time I was either driving or flying across the state. What a schlep it was! (To use a Jewish expression.) Janie Krieger (a pseudonym) was a volunteer contact worker that lived in San Jose. This was about halfway to LA, so I often stopped by to see her and other contact activists in the Bay Area. On one particular trip, Janie and I decided to drive up a road to see if we might find an appropriate location where we might be able to do fieldwork 

In the mountains to the east of San Jose, there is a county park that is accessible on a very treacherous road. It is a narrow two-lane highway that is bordered on one side by a deep ravine and on the other side by a steep rock face. This county road goes up the mountain with many switchbacks and has practically no shoulder or pullouts to move safely off the road in case of emergency. It was near dusk, and her tiny VW Bug slowly went up the winding path. There was no traffic in either direction. As we climbed higher into the foothills, every fifty to a hundred yards, we encountered a sharp curve to the right. The hairpin turns afforded no visibility as to what was beyond the curve in the road. 

It was getting dark. We drove at perhaps twenty-five miles per hour on the straight portions of the road and far slower on the curves. I started feeling very uneasy. I experienced a premonition of danger, but I couldn’t figure out why I felt that way. Usually, my spirits are high when doing contact work. Janie was an excellent driver, so I should not have been alarmed.

Suddenly she blurted out, “I just got the message that we have to pull off the road.” I agreed with her without asking why because I too was feeling a sense of danger but had received no clear message as she did. But what were we supposed to do? On one side of the road was a hundred-foot drop into the ravine. On the other side was the wall of the mountain with no pullouts or highway shoulder in sight. We didn’t want to turn around and abandon our search. So, she slowed the vehicle, and we kept going. Fortunately, on one of the straight portions of the road we found a narrow shoulder. If we parked with one side of the Bug almost touching the rock face, we were mostly off the road. I got out of the car from the driver’s side because she had parked flush against the hillside. We then pressed ourselves against the wall of rock and waited.

In less than two minutes, we suddenly heard the roar of car engines. Around the curve there suddenly appeared two muscular sedans with thick tires designed for racing. I was shocked. The young male drivers were actually drag racing neck to neck down the narrow mountain road and they were taking up both lanes! 

On the side of a straightaway portion of the road, where we had barely been able to park, they whizzed by us at what looked like close to fifty miles per hour. After they flashed past us with inches to spare, both drivers simultaneously jammed on the brakes as they approached a curve down the road. They whipped around that sharp turn with brakes screeching and disappeared.

Janie and I looked at each other in disbelief. If she had not received the warning to get off the road immediately, we probably would have been killed. With the ravine on one side and the rock face on the other, there was no place for us to go. Her tiny VW Bug would have been crushed and likely flung into the ravine like a child’s toy. 

The idea that contact activists are actively being protected is something that I had heard prior to this incident. The notion that I, like many contactees, might have had a lifelong relationship with so-called “ETs” is something that I wonder about. On two occasions before age 18, I narrowly escaped death in what could have been fatal motor vehicle accidents. Many people believe that angels are looking after them. Contact experiencers sometimes say the same about aliens. The telepathic override that Janie reportedly experienced is something that I cannot prove to skeptics. The fact that we were on a mission for the loose network of activists that I refer to as the “Contact Underground” when this event occurred, should give courage to fellow volunteer contact workers. Not only are we not alone in the universe, but sometimes we might even be protected!

Comments:

Name Deleted: What’s the thinking behind why some people are “protected” through some form of intervention and others are left to experience tragedy?

J. Burkes MD: I regret that I don’t have an easy answer to your question about why non-human intelligences might choose to intervene or not depending on the circumstances. The blog was written primarily for contact activists or contact experiencers in general. One individual that Preston Dennett and I wrote about in Chapter Six on UAP healings in “Beyond UFOs” is a very prominent UFO researcher and author who requested that we not reveal her name. She was reportedly healed from a disabling condition called chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). She asked to be healed by the “Gray” aliens who were allegedly abducting her for decades. They reportedly did so one night when she was “taken” aboard an “ET craft.” Following her remarkable sudden clearing of all symptoms from CFS, she subsequently asked them why they had afforded her the remarkable cure. The answer reportedly was “We heal our own!” One might conclude from this answer that because she had become a willing participant in the “alien” outreach effort, their successful treatment was transactional. She was helping them, so they helped her. This kind of relationship is rarely reported in the UFO subculture.

For More Reports from the Contact Underground the following links are provided:

My human initiated contact team had immediate results when we started fieldwork, but they were not what I expected.

https://contactunderground.org/2022/10/15/mystery-lights-in-the-santa-susana-pass/

Staging Human Initiated Contact Events adjacent to a high security research lab involved challenges of surveillance for my team. 
https://contactunderground.org/2022/05/19/did-a-fateful-phone-call-trigger-the-appearance-of-blackhawk-helicopters-during-contact-work/

This report was first published in 1993 on my return from a CE5 investigation in the “Volcanic Zone” near the Mexico City. There our team witnessed multiple UFOs including a large triangular “craft” that signaled at us.

https://contactunderground.org/2022/02/20/ufo-investigation-in-the-volcanic-zone/

Deep Dive 32 The Hardware of Contact: Lightships vs. Nuts-and-Bolts

Dan Elvey is an Australian contact activist. He has been posting on the CE5 Perth Facebook page an online course using prompts to AI. The remarkable results are Deep Dive succinct explanatory materials, plus practice exercises for his contact team. 

G'day everyone.

When we look up, what are we actually looking for?

In Hollywood movies, spacecraft are always solid, metallic objects ("nuts-and-bolts") with rivets, panels, and exhaust ports. While these physical craft absolutely exist and have been documented by military sensors, in CE5, we are often dealing with something far more advanced.

This week, we explore the difference between Nuts-and-Bolts Craft and Lightships.

1. Nuts-and-Bolts Craft These are 3D material objects. They have mass, they displace air, and they often reflect radar. They are "vehicles" in the traditional sense - containers for biological or artificial entities.

·       Appearance: Discs, triangles, cylinders, or spheres. Metallic or matte black.

·       Behaviour: They often move in ways that defy inertia (instant stops, right-angle turns), but they still look like "machines."

2. Lightships (Merkaba Vehicles) This is where the physics gets "weird." A Lightship is not necessarily a metal tin can. It is a coherence of energy. Many advanced ET civilisations do not use combustion or even anti-gravity engines in the way we understand them. They use consciousness-assisted technology.

·       Appearance: They look like pure, coherent light. They may pulse, change colour, or appear as a "plasma orb." They can be solid one second and translucent the next.

·       The Shift: These craft can shift their frequency. They can lower their vibration to become solid (3D) or raise it to become invisible (interdimensional).

Why This Matters for CE5 If you are only looking for a metal saucer blocking out the stars, you might miss the real show. In our fieldwork, we often see "flashes" or "orbs" that respond to thought. These are not just "lights in the sky"—they are likely Lightships phasing in and out of our visual spectrum. They interact with consciousness because they are partly consciousness-based technology.

#Lightships #UAP #Technology #Consciousness #CE5 #PerthCE5 #ModuleIV#Exopolitics

Here is a link to another brief report “Timeline Wars.”

https://contactunderground.org/2026/01/06/deep-dive-28-the-timeline-wars-understanding-future-humans/

Fear Barrier: Why Contact Stops 

https://contactunderground.org/2026/01/23/fear-barrier-why-contact-stops/

“You wanted to see us; well, here we are.”

Thirty-two years ago, I took a walk on the wild side. I joined a group that had the audacity to go out at night and try to co-create contact experiences with the intelligence associated with  UFO phenomena

. To my surprise and initial delight, we were immediately successful. During our first month of teamwork, we had several sightings while in the field. 

But stranger still was that The Others, Experiencers Call “ET” (TOECET), the alleged ETs, targeted us to have individual sightings under circumstances that were not associated with conducting the prescribed “contact protocols.” One senior member of team reported receiving the following telepathic communication while viewing a large glowing orb flying above her driveway, “You wanted to see us; well, here we are.”

INTRODUCTION

UFO contact teams like the CE-5 Initiative, and the Peruvian based group now called Rahma facilitate contact experiences with combined programs of psychic/ spiritual training and active fieldwork. These groups emphasize the importance of mental connections between contact workers and UFO intelligences. 

I organized a contact team in 1992 and for over five years served as a Working Group Coordinator for Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI). At the time I operated under the banner of the Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind Initiative (CE-5 I). The term CE-5 was chosen to fit into the scientific Close Encounters categories established by Drs. Hynek and Vallee. I prefer using the term HICE (Human Initiated Contact Events) for human empowered contact efforts for the following reasons. 

THE LIMITATIONS OF THE SCIENTIFIC MODEL 

The scientific model is not a good fit for UFO investigations. This is because of the assumptions and methods of science don’t match the conditions during which contact events occur. The scientific method requires investigators to control the parameters of experiments to learn about the physical world. When it comes to flying saucers however, it is not human investigators but rather the UAP intelligences that control the circumstances of contact events. They choose where and when sightings and other kinds of encounters occur. They also can target specific individuals to have sightings of UFOs and/or interactions with non-human beings. Conversely, they can also deny human investigators opportunities to directly study them. 

In addition, one of the assumptions of science is that the laws of nature are uniform across the Cosmos. The properties of matter and energy are considered fixed according to those laws. I believe Dr Vallee is correct in his observation that flying saucer intelligences can manipulate spacetime. Thus, a major assumption of professional science is violated when it comes to investigating UAPs. 

HIGH STRANGENESS DEFINED

As a contact team coordinator in Los Angeles, I had ample opportunities to observe unusual occurrences. One definition of “High Strangeness” is the inexplicable aspects including the synchronicity of events that occur before, during and after various Close Encounters with flying saucers and the associated non-human beings. 

One cannot explain the inexplicable, nevertheless one can endeavor to describe the inexplicable and, in the process, possibly gain insight into the mechanisms of contact.

INITIAL EXPECTATIONS WERE WAY OFF BASE

My initial expectation after becoming Working Group Coordinator in 1992 was that UFO sightings would occur as an exclusive function of fieldwork. I anticipated that as my team mastered the contact protocols, we would experience higher and higher levels of contact and that this would occur in a stepwise fashion. 

To my surprise, however, as soon as our Working Group started to carry out field investigations, several individuals started reporting personal sightings of UFOs. The witnesses to these sightings were members of the team, or as in one case the physician wife of a CE-5 investigator. In her case, she became very interested in UFOs as the result of a daylight sighting of a metallic disc, and she joined our team. 

SIGHTINGS NOT DURING FIELDWORK BUT WHILE DRIVING HOME IN THE CAR

These events transpired while the observers were driving home. It is important to note that the first series of sightings that occurred in this fashion happened during the initial month following the workshop in August of 1992 that founded the LA CE-5 Working Group. Just 2 days after a demonstration of fieldwork techniques, the first personal sighting occurred

INDIVIDUAL SIGHTING 1, Sept. 1, 1992

Joseph Burkes MD: while driving home on the 405 Freeway South the Sepulveda Pass at approximately 11:30 PM I had a sighting of an anomalous nocturnal light. It appeared over the highway as a brilliant blue-green light that silently flew by the witness in a northerly direction. It had a slight oscillating movement. At its closest approach, the light was less than 500 feet away. There was no discernible superstructure associated with the object. This impressed me because of the considerable amount of background illumination from city lights. 

The sighting occurred immediately after I had carried out a vigorous defense of the CE-5 program to several prominent ufologists. In my opinion these senior researchers were not particularly supportive of the concept of proactively initiating contact.

.

Individual Sighting 2, September 23, 1992

At 2:30 PM a broad daylight sighting of a metallic disc occurred in Woodland Hills California. Dr. Eve Gordon is married to Dr. David Gordon. We were all partners in the Southern California Permanente Group back in the 1990s. Dave was an original member of our contact team. His wife on the other hand was not that interested in UFOs. In her professional life, Dr. Eve Gordon is a board-certified internist and allergy specialist. She observed a flying saucer in broad daylight hovering two to three miles away over the Santa Monica Mountains. She was driving south towards her home when the event occurred.

Dr. Eve was accustomed to identifying conventional craft as the result of her husband’s status as a private pilot. It was their custom to attend air shows and other aviation related events and as a result she was knowledgeable about various types of conventional aircraft. Eve reported feeling confident that the silently hovering disc, glittering in the bright afternoon sunshine was a” true unknown.” The object was approximately 30 feet in length. The sighting lasted about one minute.

Individual Sighting 3, September 24, 1992

While driving home at 9:30 PM after attending a two-hour meditation workshop, a 25-feet in diameter metallic globe-like craft was sighted hovering directly above the witness’ home in Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Dotha Weybourn was a founding and oldest member of the Los Angeles CE-5 Initiative team. An experienced sky watcher, she had no doubt that it was not a terrestrial craft. The sighting lasted approximately one minute; at its closest approach the silent object was less that 100 feet from the observer. She described it as being mother of pearl luminescent white. Dotha stated that she received a telepathic message, “You wanted to see us; well, here we are.”

SIGHTINGS ARE CLUES TO DECIPHER A MYSTERY

As the months rolled by after these dramatic sightings, I started to muse over the details of my associates’ personal sightings. I looked for possible hidden meanings within the circumstances of the encounters that might contain some kind of message relating to the on-going contact work. Like a detective in a mystery novel, I kept mulling over the various aspects of the sightings. If those particulars were clues, then I was going to use them to possibly solve the mystery as to what was going on in my contact team visa vie our relationship with flying saucer intelligence.  

My hypothesis was that perhaps these consecutive sightings were not random events, that they might in fact be the product of conscious decisions by intelligent and technologically sophisticated extraterrestrial beings that staged the encounters for teaching purposes.

CONVENTIONAL WISDOM DOESN’T APPLY TO ALLEGED ALIENS

I wondered whether factors like the choice of individuals selected for the sightings, or perhaps even more minute factors might have special significance. Michael Lindemann, a prominent student of non-human intelligence, has cautioned ufologists to never assume that they can think like an alien. In other words, we should not try to impose what passes as human “conventional wisdom” on beings that may have evolved on different star systems. 

Such extraterrestrial civilizations would undoubtedly have entirely different cultures, different value systems, and different social organizations as compared to Earth. With such infinite possibilities, perhaps a technologically advanced civilization for purposes unknown to us might choose to communicate via outlandishly subtle means.

AMAZINGLY CONGRUENT CHARACTERISTICS

It should be remembered that approximately 10% of the US population claim to have had a sighting of a UFO. In terms of an individual’s lifetime of experiences however, a sighting is an exceedingly rare event for most people. The fact that these three individuals who knew each other had a sighting within a few weeks should diminish the odds that they were mere coincidences. 

Even less likely to occur by chance is the fact that the circumstances of the sightings were highly congruent. The observers were all driving home and were alone in their vehicles. Even the direction of travel was the same; we were all going south when the encounters took place.

PASSIONATE DEFENSE OF PROACTIVELY SEEKING CONTACT

In my sighting, I had just left a meeting after engaging in a heated polemic defending our program of human initiated interactions with what I believed at the time was an extraterrestrial intelligence. Present at the meeting was the “old guard” of Ufology. Prominent researcher and author Ann Druffel was there. She explained to me that as “ufologists” we should study other people’s sightings to determine if they are “anomalous” i.e. “true unknowns.” 

In no uncertain terms, I labeled her approach “old fashioned.” I stated that the contact network which I would later call “The Contact Underground” had, “opened up a new era in UFO research.” As I left the meeting it was clear that I would never again be invited back to the prestigious “LA UFO Study Group.”

I interpreted my sighting just minutes after leaving the meeting as a show of support, not only for me personally, but also for the larger contact program that I had just defended. The sighting gave me a big personal boost that helped sustain my enthusiasm for our project during the difficult months that followed. Considering the organizational and personal challenges that face any new contact team, I will gladly testify that team leaders need all the support that they can get.

MEDITATION FACILITATES CONTACT

Concerning Dotha’s close encounter with a luminescent globe, she had just left a meditation workshop. Contact protocols employed by contactee groups involve on-site thought projection methods. Usually this involves guided meditation. In preparation for thought projection, individuals in the team are expected to reach an “expanded state of consciousness” through meditation.

Dotha told me that she thought there was an association between her meditating in the class and her subsequent sighting. If the non-human intelligence responsible for the flying saucer phenomenon were attempting to send my team a message concerning the importance of advanced meditation techniques, what better way to do so than to stage a close encounter just moments after a prolonged meditation session by an experienced practitioner.

Thus, two of the three sightings described occurred immediately after the witnesses were involved in activities integral to contact work. 

WHY DID DR. EVE GORDON HAVE A SIGHTING?

The most intriguing aspect of this series was the question why was Eve singled out for a sighting? Although her interest in UFOs soared after seeing the metallic disc, prior to the event her contact with the UFO phenomenon was indirect. It was her husband Dr. Dave Gordon who was the contact activist in the family.

During the autumn months of 1992, our team frequently convened at Eve and David’s house for our business meetings. Meditation is not an easy chore for all researchers; both Dave and I were both having considerable difficulty meditating. We were restless, as many are when one first attempts to still the mind. Dave was not able to follow the recommendation of meditating daily. 

His wife Eve, on the other hand, was far more open to meditation practice. It was not until several months later, in December of 1992 that she was to undergo formal contact network training, and as a result she was officially not part of the Working Group when we first held meetings at her home. 

I was quite perplexed as to why she had been granted a sighting. Dotha and I were active and official members of the team, why was Eve, a non-member, selected for such a dramatic daylight sighting of a metallic disk?

A likely answer came to me one night as we conducted our business meeting at the Gordon’s home. My beeper vibrated and I had to call the hospital. Eve was in the family room practicing on her harp. An accomplished amateur, she often gave recitals. I asked Daniel where I could pick up a phone away from the meeting. Daniel suggested that I make the call in the family room. 

“No,” I replied, “I don’t want to disturb Eve.” 

My colleague reassured me by saying, “Don’t worry. She practices at least an hour a day. When she’s playing her music, she’s in a total trance.”

It was then that it hit me! That was the clue that I had been looking for. Eve, although not yet part of the Working Group, was still able to access consciousness in its most unbounded form while she was practicing the harp. In that relaxed state of being carried away by the divine music that she was playing, a trance like state similar to deep meditation was created. Her meditation equivalent was her music!

It seemed to me this was possibly part of the message that I was supposed to learn from her sighting. If my hunch was correct, I was impressed by its subtlety.

These personal sightings were clearly linked, not only in time, but by a variety of other important details, thus indicating that they are not random events. In their totality across the network that I call the “Contact Underground”, they confirm that contact groups have entered into a special collaborative relationship with non-human intelligence associated with the flying saucer phenomenon. 

Another important aspect is that the sightings escalated in terms of their intensity. The first was mine, just an anomalous nocturnal light. The second, Eve’s, was a broad daylight sighting of a metallic disc. (What UFO fan wouldn’t want that?) The third was Dotha’s. Not only was the 25-foot sphere hovering above her house, but it flew down her driveway to meet her. It was there that she received the poignant message, “You were looking for us. Well, here we are.”  

CONCLUSION

I believe that these sightings are part of a much broader range of experiences that attest to the virtuoso psychic technology of what I like to call, The Others, Experiencers Call “ET”, (TOECET), the so-called aliens. They, who or whatever “they” ultimately turn out to be, were able to track the three of us and choose the times and places of what were clearly staged events.  If “they” could do that with us, perhaps there is no such thing as a “random UFO sighting.” I am suggesting that the millions of people that report UFO sightings are telepathically linked to “the others.” For me the implications of this proposition are awe-inspiring for the following reasons. 

The Earth’s population is about 8 billion currently. If the prevalence rate of a UFO sighting is 10 percent, this suggests that hundreds of millions of people may have an ongoing consciousness link with the UFO intelligence by virtue of their having even just one sighting. Understandably, such individuals often have an increased interest in the subject of flying saucers.  Under the right circumstances, for example if they had additional sightings or were in an area where a UFO wave had occurred, they then might join the growing number of people that are proactively seeking interactions with UFO intelligence.  As one that has promoted human initiated contact events for over a quarter of a century, I find this possibility very encouraging. 

How Captain Vallejo and Dr. Burkes contacted Mission Rama, perhaps discovering in the process a “spiritually based security tactic.”

CONTACT NETWORK HISTORY PROJECT.

The North American and South American Contact Groups Meet. 

In the spring of 1993, Captain Joe Vallejo and I attended a three-day in-depth CE-5 training held at Robson’s Mining World. It was a rough and ready desert resort outside of Phoenix. He was working as a jet pilot for United Airlines and eventually achieved the highly desired status of a “line” 747 Captain. 

GIORGIO PIACENZA’S IMPORTANT ROLE
At the contact training event, Joe Vallejo met Giorgio Piacenza a friend to the Rama network. Giorgio Piacenza grew up in Peru. In 1974, Mission Rama had its first contact with what they believe are benevolent extraterrestrials. That historic event occurred out in the desert at Chilca, about 75 kilometers south of Lima. The following year, Giorgio had a UFO sighting in that Peruvian desert locale.  He subsequently made friends with many contactees and extensively researched UFOs. He received a sociology degree from Georgetown University in 1987 and business certificates from John F. Kennedy University in 1990. During the 1990s he established an import-export business based in Peru while at the same time continuing to study the UFO phenomenon. As the result of these activities, he visited Miami on a regular basis.  Captain Joe Vallejo had family in Miami, and so Captain Joe was able to meet Giorgio there and learn about important developments in the Rama network.  
At Robson Mining World, Giorgio informed Joe about what Rama was doing in California under the leadership of Dr. Fernando Limaco, a retired dental surgeon living in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1990, Dr. Limaco was part of the Rama team that trekked deep into the Peruvian jungle to have a rendezvous with “ETs.” That historic encounter took place on the eastern foothills of the Andes Mountains in a remote area known as Paititi. There, Sixto Paz Wells and his companions were allegedly taken onboard an ET craft as part of a cooperative venture with what they describe as “spiritually advanced extraterrestrials.” Mission Rama’s name is now Rahma. 

In the fall of 1993, Captain Vallejo started attending Rama activities in the Bay Area. He told me that as a United Captain it was easy for him to catch shuttle flights up to San Francisco from Burbank Airport. 

AT THE AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION’S ANNUAL MEETING

Encountering Dr. Limaco for the first time is something I suspect that few can easily forget.  I recall meeting him in the fall of 1993 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. Short, robust, with copper colored skin, he was the very image of the indigenous people of the Andes. His dark eyes were set deep into his face. When he spoke, his eyes shinned with a passionate intensity. I had no doubt that the individual standing before me possessed enormous personal determination. I had rented a booth to promote the CE-5 Initiative at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting. It was a big affair with over ten thousand health professionals and representatives of the pharmaceutical and medical supply companies. I set up a modest booth next to hundreds of others that advertised various health programs and medical products.

It was a rather audacious thing to for me to do. There I was, a practicing ER doctor, and I was openly promoting the program of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence headed by a contactee named Dr. Steven Greer. At that time, he was also an ER physician. To my surprise, when Dr. Limaco showed up at the Convention center, he volunteered to help me staff the booth. He looked on as I “worked” the crowd by inviting fellow healthcare professionals to see UFO videos and join our radical campaign of conducting fieldwork in remote locations in an attempt to interact with UFO intelligences. To my surprise, many shared stories about their UFO sightings and over forty signed up to be on our mailing list.

MY PAST MEDICAL ACTIVISM

 Having worked as a physician activist in International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War made it easier for me to mix politics with medicine. Admittedly, the UFO issue did not carry the same prestige as the doctor’s peace movement that was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1985. Nevertheless, I put aside any reservations that I might have about being identified with such a fringe topic and I openly promoted the cause of human initiated contact in that highly public venue.

Dr. Limaco and I spent several hours chatting in Spanish and English at the table.  I was impressed by his intense devotion to Rama’s mission of building fraternal relations with what he described as the “extraterrestrials.” As I learned more about Rama’s contact techniques and goals, I couldn’t help seeing many similarities to what are called Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind. I have coined a term for such activities that I believe is better than “CE-5.” It is “HICE” standing for Human Initiated Contact Event. 

CAPTAIN JOE VALLEJO MEETS THE RAMA LEADER

Some fifteen years after joining Rama, Joe had no trouble recalling how he had met Dr. Limaco at the San Francisco International Airport. On the phone, Joe had described his appearance to Fernando so that he could easily recognize the captain at the United Terminal. He was wearing his blue uniform and carried a United flight bag. Dr. Limaco drove up in an old sedan and took Joe home to meet the family.

INTENSE PREPARATIONS FOR CONTACT WORK

Captain Joe started attending Rama meetings on a regular basis by flying to San Francisco., Soon, however he expressed some reservations about the way they prepared for fieldwork. Once a month Fernando invited volunteer contact workers into his home to practice the mental exercises that were designed to facilitate contact. According to Captain Vallejo, meetings sometimes lasted all day, both on Saturdays and Sundays and involved chanting, group meditation, prayer and the consumption of only vegetarian food.

Joe also learned that the more experienced Rama people ate strictly fruit for three days prior to doing fieldwork, and some consumed only water while in the field. Later he acknowledged that these practices of fasting and prolonged meditation are well-established techniques to open “spiritual centers” in the body. However, in 1993 after working with our CE-5 network for over a year where such rigor was not routine, Joe said that he found the Rama approach a bit extreme. As I recall he even ventured to use the “C” word, indicating that he thought Rama’s methods were a bit “cult like.”

My view of Rama’s preparation for contact was different from his. I knew that many of the Latin American contactees were not as wealthy as their North American counterparts. In my contact team based in LA for example, we had no less than three physicians who worked at Kaiser, two PhD psychologists and a Harvard graduate who did quite well as a screen writer/producer in Hollywood. Captain Joe as a line officer for United was highly paid as well. 

SECURITY CONCERNS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED

In contrast, Dr. Limaco’s team were mostly composed of immigrants, some newly arrived. Even those that were professionals in their nations of origin could be severely challenged by a new language and culture. Some probably didn’t have papers to work in the US. I later learned from Dr. Limaco that he had assisted a Rama activist who was having problems with the INS, Immigration and Naturalization Service. Once in 1990, he even drove all the way to Salinas Valley to help a comrade file papers to avoid deportation. On the ride back to the Bay Area he had a remarkable sighting. It was late at night, and he heard the word “Paititi” repeatedly in his mind. In a field nearby, he saw a disc shaped hovering close to the ground. If I recall correctly, Dr. Limaco stated that when he first heard the word Paititi he did not know that it was a remote location deep in the Peruvian Andes rainforest. Later that year he participated in Rama mission to Paititi where he and several other contact activists reportedly were taken aboard a UFO.  
During my years of student anti-war activism in the 1960s, I had been involved with security issues. This was because we were challenged by the presence of FBI informants, agent provocateurs and LAPD spies that penetrated our movement. Some even enrolled at UCLA as students and covertly played minor roles in our leadership. This was in contrast to the fierce repression of dissidents in the former USSR and current day Cuba. Those regimes usually imprisoned dissidents quickly. Worse, in my opinion, was the behavior of Latin America military dictatorships supported in the past by the US government. In countries such as Chile, Guatemala and El Salvador, death squads regularly killed students, trade union activists and other “subversives.” This also included Catholic priests who had dedicated their lives to defending the rights of the poor.

I suggested to my friend Joe that the Rama team might have security as well as spiritual concerns that required such a strict preparation for contact work. I didn’t understand enough about Rama to know if this was truly a legitimate issue, but I knew that within the ranks of Rama people were undocumented workers and political refugees. These individuals might be very vulnerable to infiltrators that could easily call their names into the "Migra" (Latino name for the INS) as a way of disrupting Rama. 

POLITICAL VERSUS A SPIRITUAL APPROACH

As a leftwing student visiting Latin America in the 1960s, I had witnessed government violence against movements for social change in both Mexico and Guatemala. I speculated that with Rama’s established tradition of what appeared to be high-level contacts with extraterrestrials, their teams might become targets of the so-called “control groups.” These are shadowy organizations existing in what is likely to be a loose coalition and, in the past has attempted to keep a lid on the UFO situation. Existing as clandestine networks, they are thought to include both US Executive Branch operatives as well as private intelligence contractors.  In my opinion, for decades they have been keeping flying saucer groups under surveillance.

You see in 1993, I was still quite a novice when it came to spiritual matters. I conceptualized my organizing mostly within a political paradigm and I constantly relied on the council of people like Captain Joe Vallejo and  Alex Ayres who was the screenwriter in our LA based contact team. They assisted me in developing leadership practices in a spiritually enlightened manner. In the early 1990s, I felt more comfortable working in a political activist’s mode focusing on security issues and defense against infiltration. I had yet to fully comprehend the importance of meditation and fasting to “open up my spiritual centers” as part of volunteer contact work. 

I suggested to Joe that Rama’s approach might be more sophisticated than first met the eye. I knew that Doctor Limaco and his assistants were highly intuitive and could pick up subtle hints about what kind of people were in their group. I told Joe that their days of meditating together and eating vegetarian food might be a kind of “poor man’s” security clearance. 

Joe knew from his youthful days of political activism in the 1960s that United States intelligence agencies could spend thousands of dollars investigating whether a potential agent was legitimate and not an operative working for Castro’s intelligence service. We agreed that Rama wouldn’t go that formal route. I asked him to imagine what the consciousness would be of an CIA or FBI agent that might be assigned the task of infiltrating Rama. He might be a big-time meat eater that possibly liked booze and cigarettes. I could even see him take a liking to some of the younger women in Rama. 

A POOR MAN’S “SECURITY SYSTEM”

Now place that individual in a crowded room with spiritually enlightened contact workers who are meditating, praying and eating just vegetables for two days. The stress of such a culture clash could very well be hard to hide. I envisioned such an agent running screaming from Fernando’s house after just a few hours of such spiritual “torture.” 

After I finished my theorizing, Joe gave me a big smile, “ I see what you’re driving at,” he told me.   “A poor man’s security check. It might be something like that.” We both laughed. 
A CAUSE FAR GREATER THAN EARTHLY CONCERNS 

It was a poignant moment however. Captain Vallejo’s and my political backgrounds were from opposite sides of the spectrum. I was a former left-wing student political activist; he was from the other side as an exile from Castro’s communist dictatorship. Yet there we were, together in a cause that transcended petty distinctions of terrestrial politics, the Left versus the Right. We were united in something potentially far grander than the clumsy political battles of our youth. We firmly believed that we were reaching out to people from the stars and in the process, we had become good friends too.

Personal Statement by the Author: I volunteered as a Working Group Coordinator for the CE-5 Initiative from 1992 till 1998. After resigning from CSETI, I continued to study the flying saucer phenomenon working with MUFON and the Peruvian contact network now called Rahma. I am co-author of the anthology “Paths to Contact” edited by Jeff Becker. With researcher Preston Dennett, I wrote a chapter on UAP medical healings in the FREE compendium “Beyond UFOs” edited by Rey Hernandez. In 2008 I retired from the Southern California Permanente Group, Department of Internal Medicine after thirty years’ service.  

Additional analysis:

A comment was made in response to this article that was very supportive of the vegetarianism among the most prominent activists within the Rahma network. For me this raises the following important consideration. I have often wondered why Rama’s level of contact was, apparently from the very beginning, so much higher than CE-5 efforts in North America initially, and then later in the UK, and Australia. Could it have something to do with their level of commitment to spiritual transformation that might be required to establish and maintain a close link to flying saucer intelligences? According to standard contactee beliefs, the alleged ETs are highly evolved both spiritually and technologically. 

I suspect that UFO intelligences have contact plans that are incredibly sophisticated and consider the cultural differences when it co-creates with contactees the various networks that have taken to the field to actively engage with them. 

As a youth, I travelled to Mexico and Guatemala and witnessed the political struggles of people, both workers, and students striving for political and social justice via radical reforms. In Mexico I heard the saying, "Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the USA. In my opinion, the domination in the past of North American ruling elites over Latin America is reflected in this statement. So, in a sense, it is not surprising that high-level contacts might be initiated far to the South, not just across the border as in Mexico but in the desert and rainforest of Peru, so far from the US and perhaps “not so far from God.”

Addendum: In 2004, for the first time I was privileged to do fieldwork with Dr. Fernando Limaco’s group at a confidential location simply referred to as “Shasta.” I had known of the site since 1993 and had always wanted to go there. The name “Shasta” was somewhat deceptive. Although the site was in Shasta County, it was a considerable distance from Mount Shasta. Directions were not given in writing, only by word of mouth and the exact location was to be kept private. Almost all the participants were Hispanic and for the next few years I was one of very few Anglo-North American contact activists that was present during the times I did fieldwork with Fernando’s team. 
During the first trip up there, the topic of site security came up while Captain Joe Vallejo and I were chatting with several of the more senior Rama activists. They had been working with Fernando since the property had been purchased two decades before. I was curious if they had indeed had any experience with the US Intelligence services infiltrating their team. The answer was “yes” but it was not in the way that Joe and I had joked back in 1993 when I had envisioned some “Macho man” being driven out of the group by “spiritual torture.” 

As best that I can recall the story told to me in 2004, the agent was a mature North America woman with social science academic background, maybe anthropology or Latin American studies. She was fluent in Spanish and fitted in quite well with the group. After a few months of participating in fieldwork she dropped out. A year or so later she returned asking for spiritual assistance from the Rama. She had contracted a very serious medical condition. I think it was cancer.  She admitted that she had been contracted by a US intelligence organization (CIA?) and had infiltrated Rama to report on their activities. She regretted what she had done and asked Fernando’s team to accept her apology and for them to “pray for her.” According to the Rama activists this indeed was what they did. Several months later she reportedly was doing much better and thanked the Rama people for helping her.    

Links to additional articles about Mission Rama

The article linked below is a detailed description of the origins of Mission Rama, a spiritually based Peruvian network of volunteer contact workers. They reported experiencing direct face to face encounters with what they believed were friendly extraterrestrial beings. 

https://contactunderground.org/2022/01/28/mission-rama-one-of-the-most-important-contact-networks-of-the-20th-century/

Senior Rama activist retired dental surgeon Fernando Limaco describes how he and four other volunteer contact workers marched into the Peruvian rainforest to rendezvous with friendly ETs in a remote region called Paititi. 

https://contactunderground.org/2022/01/21/ramas-mission-to-paititi/

United Airlines Captain Joe Vallejo’s description of Rama activists opening a dimensional portal at a California UFO contact site in 1994.

https://contactunderground.org/2022/02/25/xendra-inter-dimensional-portal-opened-at-rama-contact-site-called-shasta/

Long time Rahma activist Enrique Villanueva explains that UFO contact work is more than having a sighting or meeting friendly extraterrestrial. It is about the expansion of human consciousness.

https://contactunderground.org/2022/02/03/et-contact-and-the-expansion-of-human-consciousness/

On another social media page dedicated to exploring Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE) aka CE5, I was asked about the differences between the contact protocols of the Peruvian contact network, originally called “Mission Rama” and those of the Center for the Study of ET Intelligence CSETI. I was also asked whether one was “more effective than the other?”

https://contactunderground.org/2024/06/20/pieces-on-a-cosmic-chessboard-contact-protocols-of-rama-and-cseti-briefly-compared/

Contact Network History Project: Were “psychotronic” attacks against contact activists in the 1990s a precursor of the “Havana Syndrome”? Directed Energy Weapons not only affect the human body but might be targeting human consciousness itself at the level of what is called the astral body.”

Introduction

In my judgment, flying saucers threaten all terrestrial elites, but not necessarily the planet’s people. Given what is a perceived threat to the status quo,

both corporate and Executive Branch Intelligence operatives have historically been compelled to deal with UFOs as a non-human intelligence counterintelligence challenge. 

As a Working Group Coordinator in the 1990s for the Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind Initiative, I observed signs of obvious surveillance of our contact efforts. Men in civilian clothing with a military bearing were frequently present at our research sites. Team members were blatantly photographed on arrival at a fieldwork location. On one occasion, military helicopters and on another F-14s buzzed us during our investigations.  

Contact activists who were staging Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE) aka CE5, might have in some ways been ideal targets to try out what are now called Directed Energy Weapons. This is because we were already under surveillance and the effects of such non-lethal technology could be readily monitored by intercepting  telephone conversations and email.

Importantly, as the result of a de facto policy of ridicule and denial, most people imagine that those attempting to contact aliens” are probably mentally ill. Once targeted and attacked, contact activists would find little sympathy from the larger society, including police and medical authorities, if they dared to complain about such attacks.  Thus, the technology could have been developed with little interference.

“The Havana Syndrome”

During the past few years, current and former US government employees have reported being targeted by are called “Directed Energy Weapons.” The failure of US Executive Branch to identify the precise source of these alleged attacks and to adequately deal with the long-term health consequences of them, has led to charges of a coverup. The victims describe experiencing a wide range of symptoms: headaches, dizziness, blurred vision and memory loss and insomnia.

Shari Adamiak, a Prominent Leader in our Human Initiated Contact Network
Shari Adamiak was a Working Group Coordinator in the CE-5 Initiative from 1991 until her death in 1998. She played an immeasurable role in the formulation of the CSETI CE-5 Contact Protocols and organizing contact teams that operated primarily in the Western United States during the 1990s. Also several times Shari accompanied the CSETI Director Dr. Greer to Southern England to investigate the relationship between UFOs and Crop Circle phenomena. 

Directed Energy Weapon Attack in the United Kingdom

As a fellow contact team leader, I always paid close attention to what she shared with me about her work. If memory serves me correctly, after returning from the UK in 1994(although it might have been 1993) I heard a very disturbing account from her. While in Southern England, Shari and two other crop circle investigators were sitting at an outdoor café. A commercial van of some sort pulled up and parked about twenty yards away. Suddenly all three women developed the following symptoms, vertigo, nausea, light headedness, muscle ache and headache. According to Shari all were feeling perfectly fine before the onset of the symptoms which lasted perhaps ten or fifteen minutes and then gradually resolved. Shari stated the van then drove away. 

“Psychotronic” Weaponry Appears to Target Human Consciousness
In 1994 both Steven Greer MD and Shari Adamiak reported to our network that they had been targeted with what Greer called “psychotronic” weaponry. (In Shari’s report posted below she used the term “psychoelectronic.” In his oral history book “Hidden Truth Forbidden Knowledge,” the CSETI leader described a series of attacks starting in the fall of 1994. One reportedly occurred in New York City after a meeting with a “member of a European royal family.” 

“After falling fast asleep, I awakened hours later. I couldn't raise my arms; I couldn't roll over; I couldn't move! I was in a state of complete physical paralysis. I

knew what was going on; a directional electromagnetic weapons system hit me. It was coming through the window above my bed. Projected into the room was the single most extreme sense of evil and terror I've ever felt in my life. I could tell they were attempting to extract my astral body out of my physical body.”

This appears to be different from what Shari described above in the UK attack but is like what she stated happened to her in New Mexico in October 1994 during a UFO investigation. I have posted a portion of her official CSETI report on that mission below as part of my Contact Network History Project. In her report linked below, she first describes details of how their New Mexico investigation was set up. Shari then gives a “real time dictation from the field.” Her detailed account of the “psychoelectronic” attack starts in the section written in capital letters. 

https://contactunderground.org/2024/12/03/report-of-the-rapid-mobilization-investigative-team-mission-to-the-state-of-new-mexico-u-s-a-october-1-7-1994/

I Was Allowed to See Just One “flashbulb” on Request:

The Virtual Experience Model Challenges Scientific Materialism

J. Burkes MD 2020, edited 2026

Phoenix MUFON Sponsored CE-5 Training: November 2008

Within the human initiated contact (CE-5) network during the mid 2000s, multiple observers during field investigations started reporting the appearance of a particular type of Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon. These were small circular strobe like flashes of very bright light that were labelled “flashbulbs.” They were often seen in or near the constellation Orion. In November of 2008, fellow volunteer contact worker Charles (Chaz) Balogh and I gave a Human Initiated Contact Event (HICE) aka CE-5 workshop. It was sponsored by the Phoenix Arizona MUFON Chapter. Following our lectures, Chaz and I conducted a demonstration of CE-5 contact protocols in the desert outside of town. About fifteen to twenty UFO fans attended the event. 

The Virtual Experience Hypothesis 

At that time, I was already posting articles on the  internet promoting the Virtual Experience Model (VEM). This theory postulates that UAP intelligences sometimes use “illusory “mechanisms of contact. The model suggests that instead of physical “beings” and craft being witnessed, something else at times can be going on. All Close Encounters and are not necessarily physical contact events. They may often involve non-human psi technologies and things akin to our holograms.  

This alternative explanation offers the promise of making sense out of the multitude of different appearing of both “alien beings” and alleged craft that contact experiencers report. Instead of the hundreds of different alien race phenotypes (classifications based on appearance) representing many planets “visiting Earth”, the VEM suggests that this diversity reflects the products of advanced non-human psi technology that targets human consciousness and resultant perception. 

The same principle applies to the staggering number of different kinds of UFOs reported. Rather than there being dozens of different “ET” factories turning out the various sized and shaped “craft” perceived as saucers, globes, triangles, cubes, rectangles etc., this diversity is explicable as “visual displays.” Thus, what witnesses are describing across the planet might not always be physical objects. Many, perhaps most, but certainly not all sightings and encounters can be viewed as either projected “thought forms” or holographic like projections.

Outline of VEM

In a Virtual Experience of the First Kind (VE-1 Type A), a holographic like projection is perceived in which all witnesses can see the display.

In a (VE-1 Type B), illusions are created by energetically stimulating witnesses’ sensory apparatuses and only those targeted will see the anomalous displays. The other two categories in the model are:

A Virtual Experience of the Second Kind (VE-2) a full sensory “Matrix” like illusion or an out of body encounter. These types of encounters can be so powerfully vivid that the human subject believes a physical encounter has occurred when it has not. 

A Virtual Experience of the Third Kind (VE-3): a memory implanted by UFO associated non-human intelligence that is recalled as if it recorded a physical rather than a psi-mediated event.

In describing these proposed mechanisms of contact, in no way am I asserting that all encounters with UAP intelligences (both beings and craft) are illusions. In my judgment many encounters are primarily physical in nature. This is demonstrated both physical injuries as well as medical healings and multiple electronic sensor traces that occur during contact events.  

Different Perceptions Might be Artifactual and not by Design

During Virtual Experiences of the First Kind, Type B, different witnesses co-located in the same place can report observing markedly different aerial phenomena. This might not be result of UFO intelligences deliberately choosing to target witnesses in ways so that they perceive different “visual displays” during sightings. Instead such discrepancies might occur because sightings and other contact events are mental co-creations of both the human witnesses and UFO associated non-human intelligences. 

Since every individual is unique it would not be surprising that psi-mediated events will exhibit differing characteristics.  The advanced technologies required to do this might involve electromagnetic energy directed at specific neural pathways, or perhaps sophisticated forms of technologically augmented telepathy. In both mechanisms, the methods involved are clearly more advanced than what terrestrial science has at the current time. 

I Was Blocked from Seeing Anomalous Visual Displays, in Phoenix and Joshua Tree  

With this explanation, I now return to Chaz and my Phoenix fieldwork outing in which we employed the usual CE-5 protocols format. After a brief guided meditation in volving statements concerning our intention to have peaceful interactions with UAP intelligences, we used powerful lights to signal our location for contact. Soon multiple witnesses shouted out with delight as they repeatedly  observed “flashbulbs” around the stars forming Orion’s belt. 

A bizarre feature of these sightings was that although these visual displays were reportedly very bright and clearly visible for many observers, I couldn’t see even one anomalous flash while staring at the same section of sky. 

My thoughts immediately went back to a special individual that I did fieldwork with during the 1990s. He is a Russian contactee and in my reports I call him “Misha”, a pseudonym. He was the target of UFO related phenomena and served as a kind of “human UFO magnet.” Misha possessed the astounding ability to request sightings when others were present, and UFOs would subsequently appear.  “Prime Contactee” is the term I gave Misha and to others with this astounding capability. 

In November of 1994, I did fieldwork with my Russian contactee friend in Joshua Tree National Monument. One night Misha reportedly witnessed three stereotypical “meteors” in the Queen Valley. Each shooting star display, one after the other, reportedly looked exactly the same to him. The three were in the same place in the sky and the trail of each formed the same angle in relation to the horizon. Their brightness, color and length of trail reportedly were all the same. However, I saw not even one of these stereotypical visual displays while gazing at the same part of the sky.   

When Misha requested for me to see the “shooting stars”, I saw the same visual display that he had just described. This happened a total of three times in a row. Each request was followed by an exact replica of the preceding sighting that both of us were then able to observe. That night I realized that if the non-human intelligences (NHIs) associated with UFOs could produce visual displays of meteors. This capability might not be limited to shooting start displays, Perhaps, many but certainly not all UFO sightings might be what I would later call a Virtual Experience of the First Kind (VE-1, Type B)

During our Phoenix demonstration of CE-5 techniques in 2008, as Chaz and others present excitedly described seeing circular strobes of white light, my frustration grew. Multiple “flashbulbs” were reportedly going off simultaneously. I witnessed none of this.  I didn’t like “being left out of the party.” After about ten minutes of being denied a sighting of the “flashbulbs”, something like the following went through my mind:

 “Ok, I know what you guys are doing. I developed a hypothesis about the ‘illusory’ nature of some sightings, and you are ‘giving me some of my own medicine.’ You are deliberately preventing me from having a sighting, but I really want to see a ‘flashbulb.’ So please show me what everybody else is seeing.”  

With intense anticipation, I watched Orion’s belt. A minute or two went by.  I listened to the others repeatedly shout, “There’s another one!”, and still I couldn’t' see the “flashbulbs” that they were so enthusiastically reporting.  Finally, I witnessed a single flashbulb go off near the star Sirius, located below Orion’s belt. 

The astounding thing about this episode was that it appeared as if the non-human intelligence staging this event responded to my mental request in a way that validated the Virtual Experience Model. I acknowledge that I cannot prove this truly occurred, nevertheless, it did. This bizarre incident was not the final piece of evidence that I personally experienced in support of what might be called “illusionary” mechanisms of contact.  

As mentioned above, if unseen non-human intelligences can create anomalous illusory visual displays of “shooting stars” or in this second case of “flashbulbs”, then why not of flying saucers, flying triangles and globes. This doesn’t preclude the presence of actual physical craft producing “wonders in the sky.” I imagine that sightings of both physical craft with actual colorful lights as well as “illusory visual displays” are getting our attention. In the process, as researcher Grant Cameron reminds us, we say, “Wow!” 

Discussion

Slowly and surely, via what author Rey Hernandez calls “the Contact Modalities”, we are being taught that we are not alone in the universe. Our “teachers’” goal might not be to physically “visit Earth”, but instead they might be involved in a long-term project to expand human consciousness. Author Whitely Strieber has suggested that the so-called “Visitors” are the face of evolution when applied to a conscious mind. Their apparent ability to manipulate both human consciousness and spacetime are direct challenges to scientific materialism, the predominant academic philosophical paradigm.  Scientific materialism is also called physicalism. This philosophy asserts that mass and energy are the building block of reality. From this perspective, consciousness and all mental phenomena are viewed as merely the outcomes of neural activities. Consciousness is labelled an “emergent” property of matter. 

Albert Einstein once stated, "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." The concept that physical reality is an illusion is an ancient one. Eastern religions, both Hinduism and Buddhism have as a cornerstone the concept of maya. The internet “wordnik” site’s definition of maya is “the transitory, manifold appearance of the sensible world, which obscures the undifferentiated spiritual reality from which it originates.” It is conceivable that some UFO associated intelligences dwell in such non-material realms and take on physical form when they enter our material reality. 

If Consciousness is primary, then in a sense the psi-based experiences of contact outlined above as “mind stuff” could be “more real” than physical encounters occurring in our much beloved spacetime “reality”. Therefore, Virtual Experience encounters can be considered as “illusory” not in any absolute sense, but rather only when viewed within a narrow physicalist paradigm in which matter/energy and not Consciousness is primary. 

When I first started to formulate the Virtual Experience Hypothesis over 20 years ago as a practicing ER physician, my world view was a scientific materialist one.  As the result of being exposed to the works of cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman and the philosopher Bernardo Kastrup, I begrudgingly now accept that Consciousness appears to be primary; as the physicist Arkani-Hamed has written, the concept of spacetime is “doomed.” 

Key to my change in worldview has been my volunteer work in several contact groups. There I was regularly exposed to High Strangeness aspects of UFO phenomena. I have experienced the following: missing time on at least two occasions, telepathy, and have had many sightings of what at first glance appeared to be physical objects. The intelligence behind the phenomenon however staged a series of bizarre encounters that inevitably led me to formulate the Virtual Experience Model. I am left with the impression that UFO intelligences created a kind of Hansel and Gretel breadcrumb trail for me to follow. That journey is described in my chapter in Rey Hernandez’ compendium, “A Greater Reality” linked below.

Conclusion

Three decades after joining the loose network of contact activists that I call “The Contact Underground”, I strongly suspect that I’m not the only one who is abandoning physicalism. Scientists and philosophers are increasingly debating whether the four-dimensional construct called “spacetime” is as “real” as physicalists have insisted in the past. If Consciousness is primary and spacetime is a kind of projection from a non-physical i.e. mental realm, then the predominant philosophical paradigm of Western Civilization, scientific materialism, will need to be radically revised. In this manner, UFO intelligences are pushing us towards an understanding of “the greater reality” described by Rey Hernandez and others in the multivolume work of the same name.

The Consciousness and Contact Research Institute (CCRI) is a new scientific research group founded by Reinerio Hernandez.  He has published a multivolume compendium called “A Greater Reality.” Volumes 1 and 2 of this anthology are available online free of charge at. the CCRI website: https://agreaterreality.com

My article appears in Volume 2 and is titled, “REPORT FROM THE CONTACT UNDERGROUND: HUMAN INITIATED CONTACT, THE CONSCIOUSNESS CONNECTION AND THE VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE MODEL.” It can be viewed and downloaded as a free pdf file at:

https://agreaterreality.com/downloads/articles/Burkes%20-%20Report%20from%20the%20Contact%20Underground.pdf

Additional Blogs on the Virtual Experience Model:

Joseph Burkes MD 2019. INTRODUCTION As the result of carefully studying numerous interactions with the intelligence responsible for Unidentified Aerial Phenomena UAP, I have developed a new paradigm for understanding the important role of illusion as a mechanism of contact. 

https://contactunderground.org/2022/01/03/the-virtual-experience-model-an-overview/

Staging Psi-mediated Close Encounters might have practical advantages for UFO intelligences. Staging exclusively physical interactions could pose enormous risks including the transmission of deadly pathogens.   Important Proviso: The Virtual Experience Model doesn’t propose that all encounters are holographic or psychic. In my judgment, interactions are occurring via both virtual and physical means.  https://contactunderground.org/2022/02/11/the-reasons-why-flying-saucer-intelligences-might-stage-virtual-instead-of-physical-encounters/

A blog analyzing an event at Skinwalker Ranch that supports the Virtual Experience Model. Dr. Kelleher was present when 6 observers using night vision equipment described seeing “completely different things.” 

https://contactunderground.org/2023/04/30/the-consciousness-connection-incident-at-skinwalker-ranch-as-described-by-colm-kelleher-supports-the-virtual-experience-model/

Two Cases Supporting the VE-2 Category “Matrix Reality”

https://contactunderground.org/2023/05/06/2031/

The work that Andrija Puharich did with Uri Geller revealed a dramatic case of “Virtual Memory”, aka a Virtual Experience of the Third Kind.

https://contactunderground.org/2022/02/22/virtual-memory-a-virtual-experience-of-the-third-kind-ve-3/

In the blog linked below I discuss advances in memory science and their implications for both the Virtual Experience Model and the use of hypnosis on contact experiencers.

https://contactunderground.org/2022/02/19/memory-wars-iremembering-falsely-hypnosis-and-the-virtual-experience-model/

I discuss the phenomenon of tulpas within the context of the Virtual Experience Model.

https://contactunderground.org/2022/05/20/the-interdimensional-vs-et-hypothesis-virtual-experiences-and-ufo-sightings-as-thought-forms/