UFOLOGY

Everyone feels something when they’re in a really good starry place on a really good starry night and they look up and see this:

Some people stick with the traditional—feeling struck by the epic beauty or blown away by the insane scale of the universe. Personally, I go for the old “existential meltdown followed by acting weird for the next half hour.” But everyone feels something.

Physicist Enrico Fermi felt something too—“Where is everybody?”

A really starry sky seems vast—but all we’re looking at is our very local neighborhood. On the very best nights, we can see up to about 2,500 stars (roughly one hundred-millionth of the stars in our galaxy), and almost all of them are less than 1,000 light years away from us (or 1% of the diameter of the Milky Way). So what we’re really looking at is this:

When confronted with the topic of stars and galaxies, a question that tantalizes most humans is, “Is there other intelligent life out there?” Let’s put some numbers to it:

As many stars as there are in our galaxy (100 to 400 billion), there are roughly an equal number of galaxies in the observable universe—so for every star in the colossal Milky Way, there’s a whole galaxy out there. All together, that comes out to the typically quoted range of between 10^22 and 10^24 total stars, which means that for every grain of sand on every beach on Earth, there are 10,000 stars out there.

The science world isn’t in total agreement about what percentage of those stars are “sun-like” (similar in size, temperature, and luminosity)—opinions typically range from 5% to 20%. Going with the most conservative side of that (5%), and the lower end for the number of total stars (10^22), gives us 500 quintillion, or 500 billion billion sun-like stars.

There’s also a debate over what percentage of those sun-like stars might be orbited by an Earth-like planet (one with similar temperature conditions that could have liquid water and potentially support life similar to that on Earth). Some say it’s as high as 50%, but let’s go with the more conservative 22% that came out of a recent Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) study. That suggests that there’s a potentially-habitable Earth-like planet orbiting at least 1% of the total stars in the universe—a total of 100 billion billion Earth-like planets.

So there are 100 Earth-like planets for every grain of sand in the world. Think about that next time you’re on the beach.

Moving forward, we have no choice but to get completely speculative. Let’s imagine that after billions of years in existence, 1% of Earth-like planets develop life (if that’s true, every grain of sand would represent one planet with life on it). And imagine that on 1% of those planets, the life advances to an intelligent level like it did here on Earth. That would mean there were 10 quadrillion, or 10 million billion intelligent civilizations in the observable universe.

Moving back to just our galaxy, and doing the same math on the lowest estimate for stars in the Milky Way (100 billion), we’d estimate that there are 1 billion Earth-like planets and 100,000 intelligent civilizations in our galaxy.[1]

SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is an organization dedicated to listening for signals from other intelligent life. If we’re right that there are 100,000 or more intelligent civilizations in our galaxy, and even a fraction of them are sending out radio waves or laser beams or other modes of attempting to contact others, shouldn’t SETI’s satellite array pick up all kinds of signals?

But it hasn’t. Not one. Ever.

Where is everybody?

It gets stranger. Our sun is relatively young in the lifespan of the universe. There are far older stars with far older Earth-like planets, which should in theory mean civilizations far more advanced than our own. As an example, let’s compare our 4.54 billion-year-old Earth to a hypothetical 8 billion-year-old Planet X.

If Planet X has a similar story to Earth, let’s look at where their civilization would be today (using the orange timespan as a reference to show how huge the green timespan is):

The technology and knowledge of a civilization only 1,000 years ahead of us could be as shocking to us as our world would be to a medieval person. A civilization 1 million years ahead of us might be as incomprehensible to us as human culture is to chimpanzees. And Planet X is 3.4 billion years ahead of us…

There’s something called the Kardashev Scale, which helps us group intelligent civilizations into three broad categories by the amount of energy they use:

A Type I Civilization has the ability to use all of the energy on their planet. We’re not quite a Type I Civilization, but we’re close. (Carl Sagan created a formula for this scale which puts us at a Type 0.7 Civilization.)

A Type II Civilization can harness all of the energy of their host star. Our feeble Type I brains can hardly imagine how someone would do this, but we’ve tried our best, imagining things like a Dyson Sphere.

A Type III Civilization blows the other two away, accessing power comparable to that of the entire Milky Way galaxy.

If this level of advancement sounds hard to believe, remember Planet X above and their 3.4 billion years of further development. If a civilization on Planet X were similar to ours and were able to survive all the way to Type III level, the natural thought is that they’d probably have mastered inter-stellar travel by now, possibly even colonizing the entire galaxy.

One hypothesis as to how galactic colonization could happen is by creating machinery that can travel to other planets, spend 500 years or so self-replicating using the raw materials on their new planet, and then send two replicas off to do the same thing. Even without traveling anywhere near the speed of light, this process would colonize the whole galaxy in 3.75 million years, a relative blink of an eye when talking in the scale of billions of years:

Continuing to speculate, if 1% of intelligent life survives long enough to become a potentially galaxy-colonizing Type III Civilization, our calculations above suggest that there should be at least 1,000 Type III Civilizations in our galaxy alone—and given the power of such a civilization, their presence would likely be pretty noticeable. And yet, we see nothing, hear nothing, and we’re visited by no one.

So where is everybody?

Welcome to the Fermi Paradox.

We have no answer to the Fermi Paradox—the best we can do is “possible explanations.” And if you ask ten different scientists what their hunch is about the correct one, you’ll get ten different answers. You know when you hear about humans of the past debating whether the Earth was round or if the sun revolved around the Earth or thinking that lightning happened because of Zeus, and they seem so primitive and in the dark? That’s about where we are with this topic.

In taking a look at some of the most-discussed possible explanations for the Fermi Paradox, let’s divide them into two broad categories—those explanations which assume that there’s no sign of Type II and Type III Civilizations because there are none of them out there, and those which assume they’re out there and we’re not seeing or hearing anything for other reasons:

Explanation Group 1: There are no signs of higher (Type II and III) civilizations because there are no higher civilizations in existence.

Those who subscribe to Group 1 explanations point to something called the non-exclusivity problem, which rebuffs any theory that says, “There are higher civilizations, but none of them have made any kind of contact with us because they all _____.” Group 1 people look at the math, which says there should be so many thousands (or millions) of higher civilizations, that at least one of them would be an exception to the rule. Even if a theory held for 99.99% of higher civilizations, the other .01% would behave differently and we’d become aware of their existence.

Therefore, say Group 1 explanations, it must be that there are no super-advanced civilizations. And since the math suggests that there are thousands of them just in our own galaxy, something else must be going on.

This something else is called the Great Filter.

The Great Filter theory says that at some point from pre-life to Type III intelligence, there’s a wall that all or nearly all attempts at life hit. There’s some stage in that long evolutionary process that is extremely unlikely or impossible for life to get beyond. That stage is the Great Filter.

If this theory is true, the big question is, Where in the timeline does the Great Filter occur?

It turns out that when it comes to the fate of humankind, this question is very important. Depending on where the Great Filter occurs, we’re left with three possible realities: We’re rare, we’re first, or we’re fucked.

1. We’re rare (the Great Filter is behind us)

One hope we have is that the Great Filter is behind us—we managed to surpass it, which would mean it’s extremely rare for life to make it to our level of intelligence. The diagram below shows only two species making it past, and we’re one of them.

This scenario would explain why there are no Type III Civilizations… but it would also mean that we could be one of the few exceptions now that we’ve made it this far. It would mean we have hope. On the surface, this sounds a bit like people 500 years ago suggesting that the Earth is the center of the universe—it implies that we’re special. However, something scientists call “observation selection effect” suggests that anyone who is pondering their own rarity is inherently part of an intelligent life “success story”—and whether they’re actually rare or quite common, the thoughts they ponder and conclusions they draw will be identical. This forces us to admit that being special is at least a possibility.

And if we are special, when exactly did we become special—i.e. which step did we surpass that almost everyone else gets stuck on?

One possibility: The Great Filter could be at the very beginning—it might be incredibly unusual for life to begin at all. This is a candidate because it took about a billion years of Earth’s existence to finally happen, and because we have tried extensively to replicate that event in labs and have never been able to do it. If this is indeed the Great Filter, it would mean that not only is there no intelligent life out there, there may be no other life at all.

Another possibility: The Great Filter could be the jump from the simple prokaryote cell to the complex eukaryote cell. After prokaryotes came into being, they remained that way for almost two billion years before making the evolutionary jump to being complex and having a nucleus. If this is the Great Filter, it would mean the universe is teeming with simple prokaryote cells and almost nothing beyond that.

There are a number of other possibilities—some even think the most recent leap we’ve made to our current intelligence is a Great Filter candidate. While the leap from semi-intelligent life (chimps) to intelligent life (humans) doesn’t at first seem like a miraculous step, Steven Pinker rejects the idea of an inevitable “climb upward” of evolution: “Since evolution does not strive for a goal but just happens, it uses the adaptation most useful for a given ecological niche, and the fact that, on Earth, this led to technological intelligence only once so far may suggest that this outcome of natural selection is rare and hence by no means a certain development of the evolution of a tree of life.”

Most leaps do not qualify as Great Filter candidates. Any possible Great Filter must be one-in-a-billion type thing where one or more total freak occurrences need to happen to provide a crazy exception—for that reason, something like the jump from single-cell to multi-cellular life is ruled out, because it has occurred as many as 46 times, in isolated incidents, just on this planet alone. For the same reason, if we were to find a fossilized eukaryote cell on Mars, it would rule the above “simple-to-complex cell” leap out as a possible Great Filter (as well as anything before that point on the evolutionary chain)—because if it happened on both Earth and Mars, it’s almost definitely not a one-in-a-billion freak occurrence.

If we are indeed rare, it could be because of a fluky biological event, but it also could be attributed to what is called the Rare Earth Hypothesis, which suggests that though there may be many Earth-like planets, the particular conditions on Earth—whether related to the specifics of this solar system, its relationship with the moon (a moon that large is unusual for such a small planet and contributes to our particular weather and ocean conditions), or something about the planet itself—are exceptionally friendly to life.

2. We’re the first

For Group 1 Thinkers, if the Great Filter is not behind us, the one hope we have is that conditions in the universe are just recently, for the first time since the Big Bang, reaching a place that would allow intelligent life to develop. In that case, we and many other species may be on our way to super-intelligence, and it simply hasn’t happened yet. We happen to be here at the right time to become one of the first super-intelligent civilizations.

One example of a phenomenon that could make this realistic is the prevalence of gamma-ray bursts, insanely huge explosions that we’ve observed in distant galaxies. In the same way that it took the early Earth a few hundred million years before the asteroids and volcanoes died down and life became possible, it could be that the first chunk of the universe’s existence was full of cataclysmic events like gamma-ray bursts that would incinerate everything nearby from time to time and prevent any life from developing past a certain stage. Now, perhaps, we’re in the midst of an astrobiological phase transition and this is the first time any life has been able to evolve for this long, uninterrupted.

3. We’re fucked (the Great Filter is ahead of us)

If we’re neither rare nor early, Group 1 thinkers conclude that the Great Filter must be in our future. This would suggest that life regularly evolves to where we are, but that something prevents life from going much further and reaching high intelligence in almost all cases—and we’re unlikely to be an exception.

One possible future Great Filter is a regularly-occurring cataclysmic natural event, like the above-mentioned gamma-ray bursts, except they’re unfortunately not done yet and it’s just a matter of time before all life on Earth is suddenly wiped out by one. Another candidate is the possible inevitability that nearly all intelligent civilizations end up destroying themselves once a certain level of technology is reached.

This is why Oxford University philosopher Nick Bostrom says that “no news is good news.” The discovery of even simple life on Mars would be devastating, because it would cut out a number of potential Great Filters behind us. And if we were to find fossilized complex life on Mars, Bostrom says “it would be by far the worst news ever printed on a newspaper cover,” because it would mean The Great Filter is almost definitely ahead of us—ultimately dooming the species. Bostrom believes that when it comes to the Fermi Paradox, “the silence of the night sky is golden.”

Explanation Group 2: Type II and III intelligent civilizations are out there—and there are logical reasons why we might not have heard from them.

Group 2 explanations get rid of any notion that we’re rare or special or the first at anything—on the contrary, they believe in the Mediocrity Principle, whose starting point is that there is nothing unusual or rare about our galaxy, solar system, planet, or level of intelligence, until evidence proves otherwise. They’re also much less quick to assume that the lack of evidence of higher intelligence beings is evidence of their nonexistence—emphasizing the fact that our search for signals stretches only about 100 light years away from us (0.1% across the galaxy) and suggesting a number of possible explanations. Here are 10:

Possibility 1) Super-intelligent life could very well have already visited Earth, but before we were here. In the scheme of things, sentient humans have only been around for about 50,000 years, a little blip of time. If contact happened before then, it might have made some ducks flip out and run into the water and that’s it. Further, recorded history only goes back 5,500 years—a group of ancient hunter-gatherer tribes may have experienced some crazy alien shit, but they had no good way to tell anyone in the future about it.

Possibility 2) The galaxy has been colonized, but we just live in some desolate rural area of the galaxy. The Americas may have been colonized by Europeans long before anyone in a small Inuit tribe in far northern Canada realized it had happened. There could be an urbanization component to the interstellar dwellings of higher species, in which all the neighboring solar systems in a certain area are colonized and in communication, and it would be impractical and purposeless for anyone to deal with coming all the way out to the random part of the spiral where we live.

Possibility 3) The entire concept of physical colonization is a hilariously backward concept to a more advanced species. Remember the picture of the Type II Civilization above with the sphere around their star? With all that energy, they might have created a perfect environment for themselves that satisfies their every need. They might have crazy-advanced ways of reducing their need for resources and zero interest in leaving their happy utopia to explore the cold, empty, undeveloped universe.

An even more advanced civilization might view the entire physical world as a horribly primitive place, having long ago conquered their own biology and uploaded their brains to a virtual reality, eternal-life paradise. Living in the physical world of biology, mortality, wants, and needs might seem to them the way we view primitive ocean species living in the frigid, dark sea. FYI, thinking about another life form having bested mortality makes me incredibly jealous and upset.

Possibility 4) There are scary predator civilizations out there, and most intelligent life knows better than to broadcast any outgoing signals and advertise their location. This is an unpleasant concept and would help explain the lack of any signals being received by the SETI satellites. It also means that we might be the super naive newbies who are being unbelievably stupid and risky by ever broadcasting outward signals. There’s a debate going on currently about whether we should engage in METI (Messaging to Extraterrestrial Intelligence—the reverse of SETI) or not, and most people say we should not. Stephen Hawking warns, “If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans.” Even Carl Sagan (a general believer that any civilization advanced enough for interstellar travel would be altruistic, not hostile) called the practice of METI “deeply unwise and immature,” and recommended that “the newest children in a strange and uncertain cosmos should listen quietly for a long time, patiently learning about the universe and comparing notes, before shouting into an unknown jungle that we do not understand.” Scary.

Possibility 5) There’s only one instance of higher-intelligent life—a “superpredator” civilization (like humans are here on Earth)—who is far more advanced than everyone else and keeps it that way by exterminating any intelligent civilization once they get past a certain level. This would suck. The way it might work is that it’s an inefficient use of resources to exterminate all emerging intelligences, maybe because most die out on their own. But past a certain point, the super beings make their move—because to them, an emerging intelligent species becomes like a virus as it starts to grow and spread. This theory suggests that whoever was the first in the galaxy to reach intelligence won, and now no one else has a chance. This would explain the lack of activity out there because it would keep the number of super-intelligent civilizations to just one.

Possibility 6) There’s plenty of activity and noise out there, but our technology is too primitive and we’re listening for the wrong things. Like walking into a modern-day office building, turning on a walkie-talkie, and when you hear no activity (which of course you wouldn’t hear because everyone’s texting, not using walkie-talkies), determining that the building must be empty. Or maybe, as Carl Sagan has pointed out, it could be that our minds work exponentially faster or slower than another form of intelligence out there—e.g. it takes them 12 years to say “Hello,” and when we hear that communication, it just sounds like white noise to us.

Possibility 7) We are receiving contact from other intelligent life, but the government is hiding it.The more I learn about the topic, the more this seems like an idiotic theory, but I had to mention it because it’s talked about so much.

Possibility 8) Higher civilizations are aware of us and observing us (AKA the “Zoo Hypothesis”). As far as we know, super-intelligent civilizations exist in a tightly-regulated galaxy, and our Earth is treated like part of a vast and protected national park, with a strict “Look but don’t touch” rule for planets like ours. We wouldn’t notice them, because if a far smarter species wanted to observe us, it would know how to easily do so without us realizing it. Maybe there’s a rule similar to the Star Trek’s “Prime Directive” which prohibits super-intelligent beings from making any open contact with lesser species like us or revealing themselves in any way, until the lesser species has reached a certain level of intelligence.

Possibility 9) Higher civilizations are here, all around us. But we’re too primitive to perceive them. Michio Kaku sums it up like this:

Lets say we have an ant hill in the middle of the forest. And right next to the ant hill, they’re building a ten-lane super-highway. And the question is “Would the ants be able to understand what a ten-lane super-highway is? Would the ants be able to understand the technology and the intentions of the beings building the highway next to them?

So it’s not that we can’t pick up the signals from Planet X using our technology, it’s that we can’t even comprehend what the beings from Planet X are or what they’re trying to do. It’s so beyond us that even if they really wanted to enlighten us, it would be like trying to teach ants about the internet.

Along those lines, this may also be an answer to “Well if there are so many fancy Type III Civilizations, why haven’t they contacted us yet?” To answer that, let’s ask ourselves—when Pizarro made his way into Peru, did he stop for a while at an anthill to try to communicate? Was he magnanimous, trying to help the ants in the anthill? Did he become hostile and slow his original mission down in order to smash the anthill apart? Or was the anthill of complete and utter and eternal irrelevance to Pizarro? That might be our situation here.

Possibility 10) We’re completely wrong about our reality. There are a lot of ways we could just betotally off with everything we think. The universe might appear one way and be something else entirely, like a hologram. Or maybe we’re the aliens and we were planted here as an experiment or as a form of fertilizer. There’s even a chance that we’re all part of a computer simulation by some researcher from another world, and other forms of life simply weren’t programmed into the simulation.

As we continue along with our possibly-futile search for extraterrestrial intelligence, I’m not really sure what I’m rooting for. Frankly, learning either that we’re officially alone in the universe or that we’re officially joined by others would be creepy, which is a theme with all of the surreal storylines listed above—whatever the truth actually is, it’s mindblowing.

Beyond its shocking science fiction component, The Fermi Paradox also leaves me with a deep humbling. Not just the normal “Oh yeah, I’m microscopic and my existence lasts for three seconds” humbling that the universe always triggers. The Fermi Paradox brings out a sharper, more personal humbling, one that can only happen after spending hours of research hearing your species’ most renowned scientists present insane theories, change their minds again and again, and wildly contradict each other—reminding us that future generations will look at us the same way we see the ancient people who were sure that the stars were the underside of the dome of heaven, and they’ll think “Wow they really had no idea what was going on.”

Compounding all of this is the blow to our species’ self-esteem that comes with all of this talk about Type II and III Civilizations. Here on Earth, we’re the king of our little castle, proud ruler of the huge group of imbeciles who share the planet with us. And in this bubble with no competition and no one to judge us, it’s rare that we’re ever confronted with the concept of being a dramatically inferior species to anyone. But after spending a lot of time with Type II and III Civilizations over the past week, our power and pride are seeming a bit David Brent-esque.

That said, given that my normal outlook is that humanity is a lonely orphan on a tiny rock in the middle of a desolate universe, the humbling fact that we’re probably not as smart as we think we are, and the possibility that a lot of what we’re sure about might be wrong, sounds wonderful. It opens the door just a crack that maybe, just maybe, there might be more to the story than we realize.

Wait But Why posts regularly. We send each post out by email to over 170,000 people—enter your email here and we’ll put you on the list (we only send a few emails each month). You can also follow Wait But Why on Facebook and Twitter. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.

UFO AND OTHER STRANGE WEBSITES TO CHECK OUT COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSAL ZULU NATION:

Evidence of Children’s UFO and Extraterrestrial Encounters to be Presented at a United Nations Affiliated Conference in Montreal
Download this press release as an Adobe PDF document.

After being involved with over 1000 experiencers (alien abductees), a former registered nurse, who is now a professional counselor and clinical hypnotherapist, has concluded that alien “abductions” are not only real encounters, but that they are about spiritual awakening and galactic contact. Mary Rodwell is not alone, as a growing number of academics, scientists and politicians, such as the former Canadian Minister of Defense Hon. Paul Hellyer, are starting to support the core of her paradigm shifting views about life in the Universe and that some UFOs are extraterrestrial spaceships.

Perth, Australia (PRWEB) February 22, 2006 — A former registered nurse who has worked with hundreds of clients, including many children, will be revealing evidence of their encounters with extraterrestrial beings at an upcoming conference in Montreal, Canada.

After a decade of research as a professional counselor and clinical hypnotherapist, Australia’s Mary Rodwell says that there is now enough evidence to conclude that these “beings” appear to come from other planets and other dimensions parallel to our own.

She will be making her presentation at the 31st annual conference of the International Institute of Integral Human Sciences (IIIHS) taking place in Montreal May 5th to 14th, 2006.

The IIIHS is a non-profit organization affiliated with the United Nations Department of Public Information. It serves over 10,000 general members and students from many nations towards the convergence of new sciences with spirituality and universal human values, creating inter-religious and inter-cultural understanding for world peace.

Rodwell will be one of more than 60 speakers to address the IIIHS, with other distinguished professionals such as medical doctors, psychiatrists, physicists, scientists, psychologists, spiritual leaders, and even a former NASA astronaut ( www.iiihs.org).

She is a co-founder of the Australian Close Encounter Resource Network (ACERN), vice-President of Star Kids Project Ltd., founded by Dr. Richard Boylan, and the author of “Awakening: How Extraterrestrial Contact can Transform Your Life”.

Rodwell says that after being involved with over 1,000 “experiencers” (alien abductees) nothing had prepared her for what she discovered.

“My clients include both adults and children who exhibit transformative changes such as telepathy, clairvoyance and healing as they become more spiritually aware and begin to operate on a multi-dimensional band of reality”, says Rodwell. “In the last 10 years, clients have come to me from the U.K, North America, Europe, Russia, Japan and South America”.

Rodwell also explains that part of her client’s contact experiences seems to inspire them to draw complex artwork, scripts, symbols and sometimes speaking strange languages.

“An eight year old has called her downloading of information ‘knowledge bombs’, as complex data conveyed through mental images and concepts seem to create a heightened consciousness level”, says Rodwell. “These ‘Star Children’ exhibit a maturity and wisdom beyond their years and often describe their connection to spirit and angelic realms”.

This former registered nurse is not the only one to have noticed a change with today’s children. A May 2005 USA Today article quotes James Twyman, producer of films on “Indigo Children”, as saying that a new generation of special children are among us who have increased telepathic abilities and are spiritually awakened.

The name “Indigo Children” comes from a blue indigo colored aura that some people say they can see around these children, as per a January 2006 New York Times article.

ABC News’ Diane Sawyers has also explored the issue of these extraordinary children in a November 2005 interview with an entire family of “Indigo Children”. Sawyers said that this phenomenon was “fascinating” and was “across the country”.

Rodwell explains that while many “Star Children” and “Indigo Children” have telepathic abilities, are spiritually awakened and often describe seeing “Beings of Light” (angels), the main difference is that “Star Children” have recollections of having had encounters with extraterrestrial beings and of sometimes having been on alien spaceships.

Though many medical professionals are still skeptical, in November 2003, Rodwell’s work was featured in the Australian Doctor Focus Magazine, a prestigious Australian medical journal.

Rodwell is not alone with her views as a growing number of professionals in the medical community share her conclusions and have spoken publicly.

Such people include the late world-renowned Harvard Medical School professor of psychiatry, Dr. John E. Mack, author of “Passport to the Cosmos”. and Dr. Janet Colli, author of “Sacred Encounters – Spiritual Awakenings During Close Encounters”. Dr. Colli will also speak at Montreal’s IIIHS conference.

Rodwell’s work continues to raise serious questions that were raised in February 2005 on ABC News by the late Peter Jennings in his two hour Primetime Special: “UFOs – Seeing is Believing”.

Jennings’ millions of viewers were presented with a small portion of the 150 interviews conducted by ABC in regards to the controversial and enigmatic issue of UFOs and extraterrestrial encounters. Jennings concluded that many UFOs were indeed unidentified and that questions about their origin remained unanswered.

To Rodwell, the answer is that we are being visited by extraterrestrial civilizations. Her conclusion is echoed by the former Canadian Minister of National Defense Hon. Paul Hellyer, who, in September of 2005, went public saying that UFOs were as real as the airplanes that fly over our heads, and were indeed extraterrestrial vehicles.

During a December 2005 NBC News interview with Tucker Carlson, Hellyer quoted former high level Pentagon officials as the source of his information. One of his sources includes an unnamed retired US Air Force General who spoke with him directly and confirmed that some UFOs were indeed “identified” and were piloted by extraterrestrial intelligences.

Hellyer is not the only politician who has raised the issue of UFOs A CNN November 2002 article quoted President Clinton’s former White House Chief of Staff, John Podesta, asking for the Pentagon to come clean and to declassify their UFO files.

Podesta currently supports a Coalition for Freedom of Information lawsuit against NASA asking for the declassification of their top secret files in relations to the 1965 UFO crash in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania.

Though her evidence does not include an actual UFO, Rodwell says that she has evidence from a scientific, medical, psychological, and historical perspective to support her paradigm shifting conclusion that children are being evolved and transformed on many levels through extraterrestrial encounters.

This evidence will be presented in her first Canadian presentation in Montreal May 5th-14th, 2006 at the IIIHS conference. Rodwell is available for media interviews.

CONTACTS FOR MEDIA INTERVIEWS:

Australian Close Encounter Resource Network (ACERN)
Perth, Australia
Contact: Mary Rodwell
Tel: 001-618-9454 3702
http://www.maryrodwell.com

Front Page

Email: starline (at) iinet.net.au

The International Institute of Integral Human Sciences (IIIHS)
Montreal, Canada
Contact: Dr. Marilyn Rossner, Father John Rossner
Tel: (514) 937-8359
http://www.iiihs.org
Email: info (at) iiihs.org

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Have you bought your copy of
“Who Shot Ya?” yet?

Stop this illegal war-Now!

THE HOLLOW EARTH

New Meier Info Confirmation
New Radio Appearances
New Lectures
Proactive Approach

For those of you waiting for your “And Yet They Fly!” book orders please don’t despair! The publisher told us that, due to printing delays, we should now have the soft cover version around the 24th with the hardcover a week or so later. We’ll ship as soon as we have them.

This is now an automated list so if you got this in error, or weren’t removed as per your request, this time you can successfully unsubscribe (see below).

Two more of the predictions were apparently fulfilled recently, i.e. the discovery of another planet beyond Pluto (that Meier originally wrote about in his book “Existing Life In The Universe” (1978) and the attacks in Spain, foretold in the Henoch Prophecies in 1987 (concerning Islamic terrorism spreading across Europe). The entire Henoch Prophecies are included in the new edition of “And Yet They Fly!”

My appearance on the Art Bell show resulted in just under 900,000 hits to www.theyfly.com and an unbelievable number of emails. Most were positive, a few had the typical hostility, claims that I and/or the material was anti-American, etc. I then got a call to appear on Alex Merklinger’s radio show at www.mysteriesofthemind.com Alex said that he’d received a ton of emails requesting me on his show because the listeners thought Art had been too hard on me! I thought Art was really being a good devil’s advocate and I didn’t mind in the least that his questioning was rigorous.

Upcoming Radio Appearances:

Thursday, March 25, 5:00PM – 6:00PM (PST) KNWZ in Palm Springs, CA with host Marshall GIlbert.
Friday, March 26, 7:00PM – 9:00PM (PST) Lou Gentile Show http://lougentile.com/
Saturday, April 24, 2:30 PM (GMT) The Headroom with Rob Simone http://theheadroom.rolo.net

Live Appearances:

Saturday, April 24, New Living Expo, San Francisco http://newlivingexpo.com/
Saturday, August 28, Bay Area UFO Expo, Santa Clara, CA http://www.thebayareaufoexpo.com/

Fall tour: Please stay tuned for information about a possible Fall tour of colleges and universities.
Barnes & Noble, Scottsdale, AZ requested a book and DVD signing, date to be announced.

Proactive Approach:

The article on my website (www.theyfly.com) titled “How You Can Help Change Things Now” has several important steps, one of which is for you to simply contact any media (radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, online sources, etc.) and encourage them to investigate the Meier Contacts. Give them my website and name and just let me know who you contacted so that I can also follow up. The media regard one contact as representing many interested parties, just like politicians do. So rather than bemoan the fact that too many people still don’t know about the contacts, send them my way and I’ll do the rest. Of course, we all still have the other work, regarding our personal and collective responsibility for what goes on here on Earth, to accomplish.

All the best,

Michael Horn
Authorized American Media Representative
The Billy Meier Contacts
www.theyfly.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Amazing” Randi Now Retracts Claim Meier UFO Case Hoaxed! Will Have to Pay $1,000,000!

www.theyfly.com

LOS ANGELES, CA – In an absolutely stunning reversal of position, one that is sure to leave his skeptical cohorts in disarray and focus new international attention on the case, noted children’s magician and professional skeptic the “Amazing” Randi, today effectively withdrew his unsubstantiated, defamatory claims (made on Tuesday, April 15, 2003) that the Billy Meier UFO contact case is a hoax.

In correspondence received by Michael Horn, the Authorized American Media Representative for the Billy Meier Contacts, on Sunday, March 28, 2004, Randi clearly states, “… Now, Michael has divined that I called the Meier case a “hoax.” His powers of perception are REMARKABLE; he finds things where they don’t exist! Wonderful!”

The staggering implications to his credibility, and that of a whole extended team of professional skeptics and debunkers, who have been publicly defaming Mr. Meier for years, is astounding. At stake, in addition to their reputations, is an award by Randi of $1,000,000 for proof of the paranormal. Since Randi now withdraws his claim that the Meier case isn’t paranormal, it logically (and legally) follows that the award is now due Meier.

While conceding the truthfulness of the Meier case, and thereby obligating himself to a rather substantial pay out, Randi may also be attempting to avoid having even more public attention directed to the failure of his associates at CFI-West, the Los Angeles branch of the international professional skeptics’ organization, to duplicate the Meier photographic evidence, a challenge accepted by CFI-West in February 2001.

Undoubtedly concerned by the international criticism generated by CFI-West representative Mr. Vaughn Rees’ public refusal, in front of millions of listeners on the Art Bell radio show (March 7, 2004), to submit recently produced photos from CFI-West to the same scientific standards and testing Mr. Meier’s were, Randi has effectively ended the challenge to Mr. Meier.

It is clear now that after failing to sully Mr. Meier’s reputation Randi has no other means of redeeming his own except by forwarding the $1,000,000 award to Mr. Meier. There is also a $5,000 award due Mr. Meier by CFI West since they have failed to duplicate Mr. Meier’s photos, which they called “easily duplicated hoaxes”.

More importantly, this remarkable development is sure to open the eyes of scientists and other interested people around the world to the authenticity, and actual content, of the Billy Meier contacts.

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Application for $1,000,000 Award from James Randi
(And $5,000 from CFI-West)

I, Michael Horn, known to countless millions everywhere as the unwavering (t)horn-in-the-side of pseudo-scientists, poseurs,
charlatans and frauds everywhere, do hereby make the following predictions and submit them as proof of my paranormal abilities. In so doing, I am applying for all financial awards offered by the James Randi Foundation, CFI-West and any and all other affiliated or
non-affiliated individuals, groups and organizations offering such awards for proof of paranormal abilities:

1. I PREDICT that CFI-West will not submit their photographs, that attempt to duplicate Mr. Billy Meier’s UFO photos, to the same known, specified, rigorous, scientific standards and protocols Mr. Meier’s were.
2. I PREDICT that James Randi will not demand that CFI-West have their pictures thusly tested in order to fulfill the challenge that CFI-West accepted (February 2001), i.e. to duplicate Mr. Meier’s “easily duplicated hoaxes”, as any objective, principled scientist would emphatically demand.
3. I PREDICT that James Randi and CFI-West will continue to attempt to shift the focus of the original challenge away from CFI-West’s failure to meet the challenge.
4. I PREDICT that these predictions will be fulfilled up to and including April 15, 2004, a very taxing day in itself.

The odds against these predictions being fulfilled is actually astronomical since no professional, reputable, credible, scientific,
honest and genuinely objective entities would ever allow, encourage or promote such dishonest, slimy and despicable conduct, (i.e. avoidance of fulfillment of the terms, and misdirection and obfuscation, of the challenge they accepted), as a means to avoid meeting its obligations to pay these awards to any parties who have demonstrated paranormal evidence or abilities. Since there is an objective, scientific standard for the paranormal, and since James Randi and CFI-West, among others have offered awards for proof of such, failing to meet the challenge that they accepted in regards to such evidence would constitute proof in and of itself.

I will also, at my own expense, voluntarily promote, publicize and announce the results of my challenge, unlikely as it may be that such predictions could, or would, be fulfilled.

But, unimaginable as it may seem, should the above occur as I have predicted, I would expect the promised sums and awards to be made payable to me, Michael Horn, within 10 days of April 15, 2004.
Signed,

Michael Horn

Accepted for CFI-West by:__________________________________

Accepted for the James Randi Foundation:________________________________

March 29, 2004

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UFO Prophet Right Again?

www.theyfly.com

LOS ANGELES, CA: Just days after Michael Horn, the Authorized American Media Representative for the Billy Meier Contacts, appeared on the internationally broadcast Coast To Coast radio show with Art Bell, relating the uncannily accurate prophecies and predictions preemptively published by Swiss UFO contactee Billy Meier, it appears that Meier has been proven right again, unfortunately so in one case.

While millions of listeners heard Art Bell play the role of devil’s advocate to perfection, challenging Horn about almost every detail of the proof that he claims authenticates the Meier case, Horn read from prophecies allegedly given to Meier by his extraterrestrial visitors in 1987. In addition to highly disturbing information foretelling enormous destruction to America, if its military policies and governmental leaders are not immediately changed, Horn read the following excerpt from a much more lengthy, and equally ominous, section dealing with massive destruction in Europe:

“And it will be that the fanatics of Islam will rise up and cover the lands of Europe with war, all will shake and quiver.”

Three days later, Spain was struck by terrorists who are now believed to be linked to Osama bin Ladin’s Al-Qaeda Islamic terrorist group.

Another New Confirmation

Contrasting the gloomy forecast of worldwide turmoil, should people everywhere not heed the warnings in time, an announcement first made on February 24, 2004, and recently reported again on March 15, regarding the discovery of a new planet beyond Pluto, was shown to have been again preempted by Meier’s own foretelling, published in 1978, of the ultimate discovery of not one but two such planets.

Bell Confirms Meier’s Amazing Accuracy

While Art Bell maintained a healthy skepticism regarding Meier’s prophetic accuracy, he readily admitted that not only were the renowned scientific experts who confirmed the authenticity of Meier’s physical evidence beyond reproach in their credibility but Horn was right when he stated that Meier’s prophetic warnings about a half-dozen specific events, including the U.S. attack on Iraq, the increase in Islamic terrorism, the appearance of SARS, the spread of Mad Cow Disease, the renewed public concern over chemical warfare and the near accident at the nuclear power plant near Lyon, France (all predicted by Meier in 1995) were all in Bell’s own possession in a book published in 2001…also years before they occurred!

Skeptic Shot Down On Air

The show had a moment of unexpected light comedy when Mr. Vaughn Rees, Case Investigator for the professional skeptics’ organization CFI-West, who has the dubious distinction of accepting and subsequently failing Horn’s challenge to duplicate Meier’s photo and film evidence, tried to claim that the photos of UFO models CFI-West finally published (after three years) should be exempted from being subjected to the same scientific scrutiny as Meier’s were! Bell himself made short work of Rees and any credibility he’d hoped to establish with his attempt at redefining scientific standards of proof.

Anti-American Rhetoric or Wake-up Call?

While Bell, and some of his listeners, were clearly upset by the critical tone regarding American policies in Meier’s information, Horn tried to point out that, while these were warnings designed to wake us up to take corrective action and, as such, are not couched in pleasant, flattering terms inappropriate to the situation, an equally harsh tone was also directed at numerous other nations and leaders. During this unprecedented, four-hour, in-depth exploration of the Meier information it was noted that, for his troubles, Meier has been the target of unsuccessful assassins a documented 19 times, which, while it may be consistent with the time-honored human idiocy of “shooting the messenger”, certainly contradicts the idea that any kind of “hoaxer” would warrant such negative attention.

Full Prophecies Now Available

In addition to the new, comprehensive, two-hour long DVD “The Meier Contacts – The Key To Our Future Survival”, Horn also announced that the full English translation of the Henoch Prophecies from 1987, from which the information regarding the Islamic attacks in Europe, the forewarning of the World Trade Center destruction by terrorists and the American-led wars to follow were culled, is now available in the new book “And Still They Fly!” from www.theyfly.com