Last week, the U.S. Department of War released new, never-before-seen files on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), formerly known as Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO). The White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Department of Energy (DOE), the DOW’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and additional components of U.S. intelligence agencies were all involved in the release of documents.
“The Department of War is in lockstep with President Trump to bring unprecedented transparency regarding our government’s understanding of UAP,” said Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in a news release. “These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it’s time the American people see it for themselves. This release of declassified documents demonstrates the Trump Administration’s earnest commitment to unprecedented transparency.”
The “justified speculation” mentioned by Hegseth covers a broad swath of conspiracy culture from the 1940s to today. UAP, UFOs, flying saucers have long captured the public’s imagination, and media like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “X-Files” have shaped the perception of UAPs and the government’s relationship to the phenomena. The New York Times’ 2017 reporting on the U.S. Navy’s encounters with “Tic-Tac” like objects reignited interest in the subject, leading groups like the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) to hire a lobbying firm to bring their concerns to congress. Among the more outspoken elected officials on the subject has been U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), who addressed MUFON’s 2022 Symposium in Denver.
Following last week’s release, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) discussed her “justified speculation” on the UAP phenomenon during an appearance on the Breakthrough Hour podcast. “God is the creator of the universe,” she said in a video filmed inside a car. “He’s never not going to create, so it’s always been something in my mind to say, ‘Well, how can we be the only ones?’ Like, God’s not going to stop creating just with us. But the more I look into this the more I see the Old Testament and what was told to us there of fallen angels and Nephilim. I mean, this is in the Bible. There’s nothing that says that fallen angels, that Nephilim just disappeared. I believe that this could be an aspect of it. You know, there there are things that we have seen that could resemble portals and, you know, I mean, this is — we serve an infinite god, a god of the universe, and to say that this is the only realm is ignorant.”
This isn’t Boebert’s first time weighing in on the subject. During the House Oversight hearing on “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP): Exposing the Truth” in 2024, Boebert asked about other theories surrounding UAPs.
“There are rumors that have come up to the hill of a secretive project within the Department of Defense involving the manipulation of human genetics with what is described as ‘non-human genetic material,’ potentially for the enhancement of human capabilities — hybrids,” said Boebert. “Are any of you familiar with that?”
Boebert’s questions at the 2024 hearing were informed by CIA pilot and frequent Coast to Coast AM guest John Lear’s 1980s theories that suggested that UFOs were abducting human women for genetic experimentation as part of a far-reaching government conspiracy. Much of Lear’s — and others’ — theories about UFOs would go on to be adapted into Chris Carter’s hit television series “X-Files.” Boebert’s differing stances represent the spectrum of theories about the nature of UAP — spiritual, paranormal, angels, demons, or djinn on the one hand, and nuts and bolts physical space craft from extraterrestrial biological entities on the other.
Colorado is something of a hotspot for UAP sightings. In the 1970s, Colorado’s eastern plains were subject to cattle mutilations and sightings of unmarked helicopters. In 2020 there were widespread reports, many by local sheriff’s departments, of mysterious drones flying over fields in Northeastern Colorado, including near Senator Cory Gardner’s home in Yuma, Colorado, and Nebraska. The sightings prompted an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration and the Air Force. A report from Dec. 31, 2019, obtained via Freedom of Information Act request by Douglas D. Johnson, a volunteer researcher affiliated with the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies and published by aviation blog The War Zone, read, “Chase County, Nebraska sheriff’s deputy reported observing 30 to 50 [drones] flying independently of each other with a larger “mothership” hovering for hours. The deputy stated the larger drone appeared to be way over 55 pounds. All at one time the smaller drones returned to the larger drone and departed the area to the west.” Aside from ruling out military involvement, the investigation has yielded no answers about the origin, nature, or mission of the drones, and public sightings of the drones have ceased, at least in Colorado. In 2024 a similar wave of drone sightings was reported in New Jersey.
Vice President J.D. Vance has weighed in with his theory on the phenomenon in March during an appearance on Benny Johnson’s podcast. “I don’t think they’re aliens, I think they’re demons anyway, but that’s a longer discussion,” he said.
According to reporting from the Guardian, Johnson asked him to expand. “Well, look, I think that celestial beings who fly around, who do weird things to people. I think that the desire to describe everything celestial, everything is otherworldly, to describe it as aliens,” Vance said. “Every great world religion, including Christianity, the one that I believe in, has understood that there are weird things out there, and there are things that are very difficult to explain. And I naturally go, when I hear about sort of extra-natural phenomenon, that’s where I go, is the Christian understanding that, you know, there’s a lot of good out there, but there’s also some evil out there … I think that one of the devil’s great tricks is to convince people he never existed.”
Vance and Boebert’s ideas aren’t that far-out by the standards of evangelical Christianity. Colorado Springs megachurch, Church for All Nations, hosted a candidate forum last month just down the hall from a room used for a session called “UFO Nephilim and the Coming Deception.” Orthodox Christian monk and author Seraphim Rose also addressed the intersection of UAP and spirituality in his 1975 work “Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future,” in which Rose critiques modern spiritual movements such as like Eastern religions, the New Age movement, the Charismatic revival, UFO phenomena, the Jonestown tragedy, and ecumenism. He interprets these movements as elements of a broader “spiritual deception” to lead people away from Christianity.
UAP researchers and influencers have worked to connect unexplained phenomena to world religions since the beginning of the phenomenon. In the 1940s and 50s George Adamski gained fame for photos — widely accepted as a hoax — depicting flying saucers and claims of contact with a “space brother” named Orthon. Adamski fused elements of theosophy and concepts of “ascended masters,” particularly Maitreya, in a quasi-religious UFO movement currently operating as Share International.
Even secular researchers like John Keel, famous for his reporting on the 1960s Mothman sightings in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and author Jacques Vallee, have leaned away from the concept of extraterrestrials and more towards an idea of “ultraterrestrials,” or entities from other dimensions or realities. Many researchers have noted connections between UAP sightings and the Bigfoot phenomenon — which is currently having a moment in Northeastern Ohio — suggesting that perhaps the cryptid is not an unknown ape, but rather an inter-dimensional traveler. A popular Mormon belief posits that Bigfoot is actually the biblical figure Cain, cursed to walk the Earth.
There are a lot of theories, but many UFO enthusiasts were underwhelmed by last week’s releases. While there were many videos of orb-like objects similar to the 2017 “Tic-Tacs,” there was very little in the way of any kind of smoking gun evidence of extraterrestrial life. One video that depicted an eight-pointed “chandelier” UAP has been potentially explained as a flare. Also of interest were images and transcripts from NASA’s Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 missions. One photo taken from the lunar surface appears to show three unexplained dots hovering in the dark sky above the moon. An Apollo 17 transcript included discussion mysterious objects drifting near the spacecraft during flight.
“At NASA, our job is to bring the brightest minds and most advanced scientific instruments to bear, follow the data, and share what we learn,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman in a news release. “We will remain candid about what we know to be true, what we have yet to understand, and all that remains to be discovered. Exploration and the pursuit of knowledge are core to NASA’s mission as we endeavor to unlock the secrets of the universe.”
