From UFOs to UAPs

How Robert Bigelow used his own and tax-payer's money to change opinions about aliens, by guest columnist Mark D. West

In the spring of 1999, I appeared on the NPR affiliate radio station KPCC with the author of an immodestly titled book, The Truth, by Joe Firmage, the founding CEO of the Internet giant USWeb, then valued at over $3 billion. In the early morning hours of a fall day in 1997, Firmage says he was awakened to see “a remarkable being, clothed in brilliant white light hovering over my bed.” This alien being asked Firmage: “Why have you called me here?” Firmage replied: “I want to travel in space.” The alien wondered why such a wish should be granted. “Because I’m willing to die for it.” At this point, Firmage says, emerging out of the alien was “an electric blue sphere, just smaller than a basketball…. It left his body, floated down and entered me. Instantly I was overcome by the most unimaginable ecstasy I have ever experienced, a pleasure vastly beyond orgasm…. Something had been given to me.”

Firmage promptly announced his resignation from his billion-dollar company and went out and founded the International Space Sciences Organization (ISSO), which according to its web page seeks “to advance human understanding of the fundamental nature and functions of matter and energy, yielding breakthroughs in propulsion, energy generation, and likely a deeper appreciation for the physical processes underlying consciousness.”

Firmage’s book sets out to convince the “scientific establishment” of the reality of UFOs and such advanced technologies as Zero Point Energy from the vacuum of space, “propellantless propulsion” and “gravitational propulsion” for “greater-than-light” travel, “vacuum fluctuations” to alter “gravitational and inertial masses,” and other forms of alternative space propulsion systems. To encourage further alien contact and technological development, Firmage invested $3 million into the founding of Project Kairos to prepare humanity for future contacts. “Why would a young, successful CEO risk his reputation on something this fantastic?,” Firmage asked a reporter rhetorically. “Because I believe so much in this theory. And I am in a unique position to communicate an extremely important message. I have the money, credibility, scientific grounding and faith.”

I wrote about Firmage in my 2011 book, The Believing Brain, when he was known as “the Fox Mulder of Silicon Valley.” Since then he’s had a fall from grace, now accused of elder abuse and Ponzi schemes. According to Bloomberg, Firmage “allegedly defrauded investors of $25 million” to fund “a new aerospace propulsion technology concept” that appears to never have come to fruition. It is not the last time a wealthy entrepreneur used his money to change the conversation about aliens. In this week’s Skeptic, guest columnist Mark West follows the money trail from UFOs to UAPs.

—Michael Shermer

Mark West is a retired college professor who lives in Asheville, NC. He has published in Skeptical Inquirer, Social Epistemology, Lifespan, Journalism Quarterly, and other journals. He is at work on a book about the ten people who founded the New Age.

From UFOs to UAPs

Mark D. West

When F. Scott Fitzgerald said that the rich were not like you and I, he was right, although Hemingway’s snippy retort, “Yes, they have more money” was incomplete. The problem these days is that the uber-wealthy are so rich that they and their corporations are driving scientific and cultural discourse, potentially reshaping our collective future—think Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin.[1] One of the most interesting examples of how the rich can drive science involves Robert Bigelow (below), a man who has used his millions to influence the study of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) at the very highest levels of government, and almost single-handedly move the once-fringe field into the mainstream search for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs). There is no more evidence for the latter than the former, but congressional hearings and media coverage would have the public believe otherwise.

AATIP

In 2007, at the direction of then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (below), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was given $22 million over the fiscal years 2008 and 2010 to assess long-term and over-the-horizon foreign aerospace threats to the United States. In collaboration with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, the DIA established the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Application Program (AAWSAP) in 2009. This program, also known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), was contracted out to private sector organizations.

According to the New York Times, much of that money went to Reid’s billionaire friend, aerospace contractor Robert Bigelow; the project was managed by a military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo (below), who has more recently been a frequent guest on the television show Ancient Aliens. A former senior intelligence official expressed concern about the contract, saying: “I was concerned the money was being funneled through it to somebody else who was an associate of Harry Reid's. The whole circle was kind of a bizarre piece.”[2] Suspicions were furthered by the fact that Bigelow Aerospace was the sole bidder for the AAWSAP contract, which later became known as AATIP, and that Bigelow was a regular contributor to Reid's reelection campaigns, donating at least $10,000 between 1998 and 2008.[3]

As Salon reported, Bigelow Aerospace, as a recipient of much of the Pentagon money for the program, had a “clear interest in perpetuating the idea that this is a worthy project to study and fund.”[4] But the project soon veered far afield from its stated purpose.

The primary goal of AATIP was to investigate potential next-generation aerospace technologies in 12 specific areas, including advanced lift, propulsion, unconventional materials, and signature reduction.[5] While the contract did not explicitly mention UFOs/UAPs, Bigelow, with the support of the DIA program manager, conducted research into the phenomenon; page 22 of the report explicitly states that “Although investigating UFO/UAP was not specifically outlined in the contract's statement of work, the selected private sector organization conducted UFO research with the support of the DIA program manager.”[6] This research involved reviewing new and old UAP cases, conducting debriefings and investigations, and proposing the establishment of laboratories to examine recovered UAP materials.

Interestingly, AATIP also delved into investigating alleged paranormal activity at a property in Utah owned by Bigelow. This included examining reports of “shadow figures” and “creatures,” and exploring “remote viewing” and “human consciousness anomalies.” There were even plans to hire psychics to study “inter-dimensional phenomena” believed to be present at the location, expenditures a government whistleblower described as “inappropriate.”[7] All this, however, was concealed from scrutiny; Reid is quoted as saying a DIA representative told him they would “prepare something for you that anyone can look at it that wants to, it's strictly science” to avoid revealing the UFO focus.[8]

In 2009, Senator Reid requested that AATIP be designated as a DoD Special Access Program, but this was declined due to a lack of justification. Before the program's cancellation in 2012, the private contractor proposed a public relations campaign to influence public opinion on UAPs, assuming “E.T. visitations are true” and aiming to increase public interest in government disclosure.[9] The AATIP contract resulted in exploratory papers addressing the 12 scientific areas outlined in the contract, but these papers were never thoroughly peer-reviewed, and the UFO data proprietary to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies became protected under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996, making it a federal crime to disclose. This effectively made the data immune to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.[10] The program was terminated in 2012 due to concerns from the DIA and DoD about the project's merit and the utility of its deliverables.[11]

Some Conclusions of All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO)

One worthwhile outcome of the AATIP report was that, in re-examining older unidentified flying saucer sightings, the report made clear the lack of reliable data upon which these highly-publicized sightings relied. One of the earliest and most well-known UFO sightings was reported by private pilot Kenneth Arnold (below) on June 23, 1947, near Mount Rainier, Washington. Arnold described observing nine large, circular objects flying in formation at an estimated speed of 1,200 miles per hour. He likened their movement to “the tail of a Chinese kite” and described their shape as “saucer-like,” leading to the popularization of the term “flying saucer.” This sighting, investigated by Project Saucer, marked a pivotal moment in the public's fascination with UFOs.

There is no physical evidence associated with Arnold's sighting, such as radar data, photographs, or recovered materials. This absence of corroborating evidence makes it difficult to verify his claims or determine the nature of the objects he observed. Further, the sighting relies heavily on Arnold's eyewitness testimony, which, as the report points out, can be subject to misinterpretation and recall errors. Human perception is fallible, and factors like lighting conditions, distance, and the observer's state of mind can influence the accuracy of their account. As the astronomer turned UFO investigator Donald Menzel suggests,[12] Arnold's UFO sighting was likely a mirage or possibly wave clouds, rather than physical craft. He proposes that Arnold probably observed a mirage in which mountain peaks appeared to float above the mountain chain, fitting Arnold's description of flat, shiny objects. Later research has suggested that Mount Ranier has generated spectacular and mysterious displays of lenticular clouds since there were newspapers to report on the phenomenon.[13] In essence, the Kenneth Arnold sighting, while historically significant, lacks the kind of concrete, verifiable data that would be necessary to meet modern scientific standards for UFO investigation.

In a similar manner, the AARO report discussed the 1949 “Green Fireballs” sightings in Nevada and New Mexico, in which fireballs were described as moving in unusual patterns, and in at least one instance, a fireball (below) was observed navigating near an aircraft. The sightings caused enough alarm that the government established “Project Twinkle” in the summer of 1949 to investigate the sightings, with the goal of capturing images of these fireballs using high-powered cameras near White Sands, hoping to determine their speed, altitude, and time. However, due to resource constraints, only one camera could be secured, and it was frequently moved between locations based on fireball reports. Ultimately, no photographs of the fireballs were ever taken, leaving the AARO project without the ability to draw definitive conclusions, just as Edward Ruppelt suggested was the case with Project Grudge.[14] A likely solution to the “green fireball” phenomenon may have been found, though, involving unusual ionization processes associated with ball lightning.[15] Eyewitness testimony has been found to be significantly unreliable in cases of fireball swarms, which may occur as satellites break up upon re-entry.[16]

A third incident with insufficient data was a set of reports describing disruptions to ICBM operations submitted to the Air Force by soldiers who served at various intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) sites between 1966 and 1977. These individuals reported UFO sightings near the silos and claimed that they disrupted ICBM operations, causing launch control facilities to go offline or experience power failures. One interviewee even claimed to have witnessed a UFO destroying an ICBM mid-flight. The missile was reportedly loaded with a “dummy” warhead.[17] Even so, the Department of Defense did not conclude that there was any threat to weapons systems.

The AARO report also highlights several instances where authentic national security programs were misidentified as UAP-related activities. One such example is the VZ-9AV Avrocar (below), a circular-shaped aircraft developed in the 1950s. Its unique design, resembling a “flying saucer,” led some observers to believe it was an extraterrestrial craft. Similarly, the U-2 Dragon Lady, a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, was often mistaken for a UAP due to its unusual flight characteristics and the secrecy surrounding its missions.

The report also mentions Project Mogul, a classified program involving high-altitude balloons designed to detect acoustic signatures from Soviet atmospheric nuclear tests. The crash of one of these balloons near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947, in the highly-publicized “Roswell incident,” sparked conspiracy theories and claims of a government cover-up of alien activity.[18]

In sum, AARO's investigation yielded no evidence to corroborate claims of extraterrestrial technology or classified programs concealed from congressional oversight. When rigorous analysis and scientific scrutiny is employed in the study of UAPs, the sightings seem to fall into two categories (1) man-made or natural phenomena, (2) insufficient evidence to continue with a scientific investigation of the sighting. And that is why every governmental investigation is shut down—not because there’s some grand conspiracy, but because the investigations are seen to be a waste of money: “To date, AARO has not discovered any empirical evidence that any sighting of a UAP represented off-world technology or the existence [of] a classified program that had not been properly reported to Congress.”[19]

Bigelow’s Involvement

While the AATIP report does not explicitly mention Robert Bigelow by name, the report discusses the involvement of a private sector organization contracted to run AATIP, which news organizations determined was almost certainly Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS), founded by Bigelow. And the report indicates that the government, specifically the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the Department of Defense (DoD), was not entirely satisfied with the project as conducted by BAASS. The report notes that while the official purpose of AATIP was to research cutting-edge aerospace technologies, the contractor also researched UFOs and paranormal activity at a property owned by the head of the private sector organization. The DIA did not specifically authorize this work, even though a DIA employee managed the contract.

Furthermore, the report mentions that the private sector organization proposed a public relations campaign to influence public opinion on UAPs, assuming “E.T. visitations are true” and aiming to increase public interest in government disclosure.[20] This proposal, along with concerns about the project's merit and the utility of its deliverables, led to the termination of the AATIP contract in 2012.[21] Thus, despite the public assertions regarding what AATIP found and what their report says, an actual study of the report itself shows that the government itself had sought a study of cutting-edge aerospace technology; what they got instead included a good deal of UFO material, which was not what they had wanted.

Regarding Bigelow's commercial interests in the UFO realm, the report does not explicitly mention any. However, it is publicly known that Robert Bigelow is the founder of Bigelow Aerospace, a company focused on developing expandable space habitats. Bigelow has also been open about his interest in UFOs and has funded research into the phenomenon. While the report does not delve into the specifics of Bigelow's commercial interests, it is plausible that his involvement in AATIP and his aerospace company could be seen as interconnected.

As detailed in Keith Kloor's article “How Wealthy UFO Fans Helped Fuel Fringe Beliefs” in Scientific American, Robert Bigelow is also a Las Vegas-based real estate mogul and a central figure in the modern discourse surrounding UFOs and related fringe science.[22] His belief in extraterrestrial life is unequivocal, as evidenced by his 2017 interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, where he confidently affirmed the presence of extraterrestrial beings on Earth. His conviction is backed by substantial financial investment, which he claims surpasses that of any other individual in the United States. This financial backing has been directed towards a wide array of investigations, from crop circles and cattle mutilations to alien abductions and UFO crashes.

Bigelow amassed his fortune through his real estate business, starting in the late 1960s and continuing through the 1990s. In 1987, he founded Budget Suites of America, and in 1999 started Bigelow Aerospace with the goal of developing commercial space habitats and stations at a lower cost than NASA. The company launched two experimental space modules, Genesis I in 2006 and Genesis II in 2007. Additionally, Bigelow Aerospace developed the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), which was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2016, and ownership of which was later transferred to NASA.[23] In March 2020, the company was forced to lay off its entire workforce of 88 employees and cease operations after more than two decades in the space industry. The decision to shut down was attributed to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and insufficient funding from NASA.[24]

Bigelow later filed a lawsuit against NASA, seeking $1.05 million in damages. He alleged that NASA had failed to fulfill its contractual obligations by not paying him for product testing and development services given by Bigelow Aerospace.[25] Bigelow has also been politically active; his $10 million donation to Ron DeSantis was the largest of the Florida governor’s re-election campaign, and Bigelow said he has promised former president Donald J. Trump $20 million for his political action committee.[26]

Bigelow’s use of his money to fund pseudoscience has been criticized for potentially fueling speculation and blurring the lines between serious scientific inquiry and fringe theories. The controversial alien abduction conference he funded at MIT in the early 1990s is a prime example. The event was viewed with skepticism by the scientific community, who questioned the rigor and validity of some of the presented claims, which involved a variety of lurid alien-abductee stories. By crediting anecdotal accounts and unverified theories, the conference may have inadvertently contributed to sensationalizing the alien abduction phenomenon, hindering rather than advancing scientific understanding. Similarly, the establishment of the Bigelow Chair of Consciousness Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, along with contests for essays proving life after death, have also been met with some reservations.[27]

Bigelow’s apparent contact in the Pentagon, Lue Elizondo, claims to have led the program from 2010 until his resignation in 2017. The Pentagon, however, has disputed his role, saying that he “had no responsibilities” within AATIP.[28] Elizondo says he was recruited into AATIP in 2008 due to his counterintelligence, which included a stint at Guantanamo Bay’s notorious Camp Seven, where Khalid Sheik Mohammad was housed.[29] He says that when the DIA cut funding for AATIP in 2010, he was asked to continue the project from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (OUSDI). Elizondo claims that this post-2012 AATIP was a legitimate government effort, with the knowledge of the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

After resigning from the Department of Defense in 2017, Elizondo joined “To the Stars Academy of Arts & Science,” a company co-founded by Tom DeLonge, the former frontman of Blink-182. Elizondo became the Director of Global Security and Special Programs at this company, which says its goal is to research and develop advanced technologies, including those related to UFOs.[30] Elizondo has made numerous appearances on television programs and popular podcasts to discuss his views on UAPs, including Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight, upon which Elizondo has been a frequent guest. He has also appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience multiple times, engaging in lengthy discussions about UFOs, government secrecy, and the potential for advanced extraterrestrial technology. In addition, Elizondo has appeared on several episodes of History Channel's Ancient Aliens, discussing the potential connections between UAPs and ancient civilizations.

Beyond his connections to Elizondo, Bigelow is linked to Skinwalker Ranch, one of the most infamous pieces of real estate in the American Southwest; this is due to a television show on the History Channel about the reputed esoteric events that take place there. Located in Utah's Uinta Basin, this 512-acre property has been the subject of paranormal investigations and alleged UFO sightings since the 1990s. The ranch's name originates from Navajo legend, where “skin-walkers” are shapeshifting witches believed to stalk the land.

The Sherman family, who purchased the ranch in 1994, reported bizarre occurrences during their short stay, including a large wolf that seemed impervious to bullets, mysterious lights in the sky, strange circles in their fields, and cattle mutilations. Unable to cope with the unexplained events, the Shermans sold the property to Bigelow in 1996.

Bigelow's National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDSci) made Skinwalker Ranch a research hub for studying the paranormal. NIDSci researchers reported similar experiences to the Shermans, including mysterious creatures and cattle mutilations. However, despite years of research and substantial funding, no definitive evidence of UFOs or alien life was revealed to the public, and their advanced equipment often failed to capture the anomalies witnessed by multiple people. The most dramatic tangible mystery was the repeated failure of the complex sensors installed by the group.

In 2016, the ranch was sold to Brandon Fugal, a Utah real estate mogul who later partnered with the History Channel to create a TV show, The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, about the site.[31] The area itself is one of the most environmentally threatened in the US; the Uinta Basin, where Skinwalker Ranch is located, faces significant environmental challenges due to extensive oil and gas drilling activities. The area has over 8,000 gas wells and 2,000 oil wells, and fracking has been prevalent since the 1960s. This has led to toxic levels of ozone and particulate matter in the air, posing health risks to residents and potentially contributing to stillbirths, birth defects, and livestock illnesses. Additionally, the region suffers from lingering radiation fallout from nuclear weapons testing conducted in nearby Nevada between 1951 and 1962. Soil samples collected across Utah have shown detectable amounts of Cesium 137, a byproduct of nuclear fission.[32]

Given this, the idea that strangely mutated animals, odd animal deaths, and equipment failures might occur seems likely. But suggesting that doesn’t make for good television compared to narratives about a rogue governmental research program, a mysterious ranch with a vague connection to a Native American myth, and a credulous, if misnamed, television network. As Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican whose anger at the History Channel’s lack of historical programming has become the stuff of legend, recently said, “Just tuned to History channel. Once again, no history.”[33]

Conclusion

Robert Bigelow is the man primarily behind turning UFOs into UAPs. His friendship with Harry Reid appears to have influenced the creation of the AATIP program, and his firm’s part in the project appears to have influenced the government’s interest in sightings of unidentified aerial phenomenon, and we might at this point remember that, despite the AARO reports official denial of any evidence to support the findings of alien activity, Lue Elizondo has been making numerous media appearances regarding his purported time in AATIP, and his book promises to reveal “shocking details” that include “profound implications for humanity.”[34] Bigelow himself, with Skinwalker Ranch and other concerns, has gained a much larger influence in the world of public opinion concerning UAPs.

Bigelow's impact is particularly evident in the Congressional hearings and proposed legislation addressing UFO phenomena, reflecting a shift towards mainstream acceptance, a change that can be traced back to the efforts and investments of Bigelow and his contemporaries. This movement has been bolstered by sensationalist media coverage and political figures calling for “transparency” about these phenomena. But when the official studies show, time after time, that the vast majority of cases can readily be shown to be misunderstood natural or known terrestrial phenomena, the media focus on the few that have insufficient data and argue that the government’s disclination to spend more on UFO research is proof they’re hiding something—an argument from ignorance if ever there were one.

“I have heard many readers of the saucer books upbraid the government in no uncertain terms for its stubborn refusal to release the ‘truth’ about the elusive platters,” Martin Gardner wrote 67 years ago. “The administration’s 'hush hush policy' is angrily cited as proof that our military and political leaders have lost all faith in the wisdom of the American people.”[35] Things are not so different now. But what has changed from the past is that, in the 1950s, the UFO advocates ran mom-and-pop organizations, like Jim and Carol Lorenzen, whose APRO was headquartered in their Tucson home.[36] Today’s UAP leaders are multimillionaires with the ears of important politicians.

References

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[1] Goss, K. A. (2016). Policy plutocrats: How America’s wealthy seek to influence governance. PS: Political Science & Politics, 49(3), 442-448. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096516000676. See also Legg, T., Hatchard, J., & Gilmore, A. B. (2021). The science for profit model—How and why corporations influence science and the use of science in policy and practice. PLoS ONE, 16(6), e0253272. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253272

[2] Cooper, H., Blumenthal, R., & Kean, L. (2017, December 16). Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program. The New York Times.

[3] Geraghty, J. (2017, December 18). How Your Tax Dollars Went to Harry Reid's Friend to Research UFOs. National Review.

[4] Farley, T. (2017, December 23). Is the truth really out there? A deep dive into the New York Times' UFO report. Salon.

[5] U.S. Department of Defense. (2023). All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office - Historical UAP Report, (henceforth AARO UAP Report) p. 22. https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3351297/all-domain-anomaly-resolution-office-releases-historical-uap-report/

[6] AARO UAP Report, p. 18.

[7] Kirkpatrick, S. (2024, January 19). Here's What I Learned as the U.S. Government's UFO Hunter. Scientific American.

[8] McMillan, T. (2020). Inside the Pentagon's Secret UFO Program. Popular Mechanics. https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/a30916275/government-secret-ufo-program-investigation/

[9] AARO UAP Report, p. 19, 23.

[10] McMillan, 2020.

[11] Benson, E. (2018, March 21). Harry Reid on what the government knows about UFOs. New York Magazine. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/03/harry-reid-on-what-the-government-knows-about-ufos.html

[12] Menzel, D. H., & Boyd, L. G. (1963). The world of flying saucers: A scientific examination of a major myth of the space age. Doubleday & Company, Inc.

[13] McGaha, J., & Nickell, J. (2014). Mount Rainier: ‘Saucer Magnet’. Skeptical Inquirer, 38(3). https://skepticalinquirer.org/2014/05/mount-rainier-saucer-magnet/

[14] Ruppelt, Edward. 1956. The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects. New York: Doubleday, p. 58.

[15] Hughes, S. (2011). Green fireballs and ball lightning. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 467(2128), 1427–1448. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2010.0409

[16] Oberg, James. (2023). Misinterpretations of Fireball Swarms from Satellite Reentries. In V.J. Ballester-Olmos & R.W. Heiden (Eds.), The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony (pp. 141-152). UPIAR.

[17] AARO UAP Report, p 33.

[18] AARO UAP Report, p 22, 40.

[19] AARO UAP Report, p 45.

[20] AARO UAP Report, p 23.

[21] AARO UAP Report, p 24.

[22] Kloor, K. (2023, August 25). How wealthy UFO fans helped fuel fringe beliefs. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-wealthy-ufo-fans-helped-fuel-fringe-beliefs/

[23] Foust, J. (2021, January 25). Bigelow Aerospace transfers BEAM space station module to NASA. SpaceNews. https://spacenews.com/bigelow-aerospace-transfers-beam-space-station-module-to-nasa/

[24] Foust, J. (2020, March 23). Bigelow Aerospace lays off entire workforce. SpaceNews. https://spacenews.com/bigelow-aerospace-lays-off-entire-workforce/

[25] Ng, J. (2021, March 26). North Las Vegas tech firm sues NASA for $1M. Las Vegas Review-Journal. https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/north-las-vegas-tech-firm-sues-nasa-for-1m/

[26] Paybarah, A. (2023, November 8). Largest donor to DeSantis presidential bid considering switch to Trump. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/08/desantis-largest-donor-switch-trump

[27] Mayer, G. (2021). Bigelow, BIAL, and the Funding of Parapsychological Research. Journal of Anomalistics, 21, 354–366.

[28] McMillan, 2020.

[29] Rosenberg, C. (2020, March 14). Inside the most secret place at Guantánamo Bay. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/us/politics/guantanamo-bay-camp-7-911.html

[30] Stewart, E. (2017, December 16). A bizarre effort to find UFOs involved Harry Reid and the lead singer of Blink-182. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2017/12/16/16785122/ufos-harry-reid-pentagon-delonge

[31] Walter, M. (2022, August 9). ‘The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch’: The mysterious man behind the show. Deseret News.

[32] Griffin, E. (2020, June 19). Why a millionaire real estate mogul bought Skinwalker Ranch. Utah Business. https://www.utahbusiness.com/why-a-millionaire-real-estate-mogul-bought-skinwalker-ranch/

[33] Malone, N. (2012). A brief history of Chuck Grassley’s history with the History Channel. New York Magazine. Retrieved from https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2012/03/brief-history-of-chuck-grassley

[34] Hibberd, J. (2021, September 13). Former Pentagon UFO official to reveal “shocking details” in new book. The Hollywood Reporter. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/arts/luis-elizondo-ufo-book-1235011288/

[35]Gardner, M. (1957). Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. Ballantine Books, p. 13.

[36] Hintz, C. (2024, June 21). Coral Lorenzen: The Flying Saucer Lady Who Pioneered UFO Research. Cult of Weird. https://www.cultofweird.com/ufo-sightings/coral-lorenzen/