8/17/17: SANCTUARY
As I was browsing the internet the other day, I was watching various movie previews for future release and I again saw the new trailer for Spielberg’s movie from 1977: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a movie that brought the enigma of aliens and alien abduction front and center in the popular culture.
Although the movie belongs in the popular sci-fi genre, there are voices in some parts of the movie which are more fact than fiction. In particular, the landing and the contact scenes are believed to depict actual events that took place near Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico in April of 1964.
Preparing to make the movie Steven Spielberg did his homework. To ensure the film was as accurate as possible to the reported cases of UFO sightings, Spielberg hired Dr. J. Allen Hynek – an astronomer who had been hired by the US Air Force to examine the growing number of the UFO sightings in the late 40’s.
Dr. Hynek is also known to have served as a scientific advisor to the infamous Blue Book group of UFO investigators created by the US government in order to determine whether or not the UFOs posed a threat to the security of the United States. His role was to examine the truly inexplicable cases and try to find an explanation to them. But the more cases he looked at, the more Hynek’s position changed from firm skeptic to a believer in the unexplained.
In Project Blue Book’s seventeen-year history, he oversaw the investigation of over 12,000 reported sightings from all over the United States.
Is it possible that Dr. Allen Hynek gave Steven Spielberg an insight into actual events that took place in 1964 in New Mexico where alien craft landed in the desert? And that a team of 12 human officers boarded the ship and took off on a trip into space to visit distant alien world?
If you look carefully at the boarding scene towards the end of the film, you can actually count the number of astronauts going into the ship. The number is 12. It so happens that this is the same number that pops up in 2005 when “former military insiders” came forward to testify (anonymously) that the exchange did actually take place in 1965 as part of DIA’s Operation Crystal Night an operation where scientists were taken aboard d a ship in exchange for other abductees.
I am beginning to think that the reason for the re-release of this film is to start the process of once again looking in the sky for anomalies and quite possibly proof of something remarkable that will appear, creating wonder about life out in space.
As you may or may not know, I have been re-reading or at least speed reading William Cooper’s “Behold a Pale Horse.” This book has inspired many people and has sparked discussions about the agenda of extra terrestrials and other conspiracies and cover-ups.
The book has also been a foundation of sorts for a lot of topic that have been exposed on the television series, The X-Files.
I have been focusing a lot on some of the more outrageous theories presented and of course many that are chillingly sound.
If Cooper was a mad man as most thought he was, he certainly had his hand on the pulse of what a lot of people have speculated about; namely, the secret space programs, the cover ups about aliens and the exploitation of various UFO stories and encounters.
Bill Cooper warned us as did Werner Von Braun the master rocket scientist imported from Nazi Germany. When all of our enemies become “spent” Von Braun had stated that the next threat would be from the skies. Threats would first come from the Sun, and then comets and asteroids.
Von Braun had said that the alien threat would be discovered soon after we run out lies about terrorists and rogue states.
The aliens would be seen at a time where mankind is forced to look up, and there would have to be procedures and protocols devised to welcome the aliens to earth. That is of course the aliens are real.
The other night when we were talking about the feasibility study of the Lucifer Project with Anthony Patch – there were discussions about the distance between Saturn and its moons and whether or not they would vaporize if by some weird anomaly happened like Cassini igniting Saturn when it blows up inside the planet.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget how massive the universe is. I don’t mean purely in terms of the distances involved sometimes it’s easy to forget how massive the universe is. I don’t mean purely in terms of the distances involved.
There are around 100-400 billion stars in our galaxy and around the same number of galaxies in the universe, meaning we’re possibly looking at upwards of one sextillion stars. Try and imagine every grain of sand on Earth. Well, there are more than 100 stars out there for every one of those grains.
Put it in perspective and there has to be a planet in a star system somewhere where there is intelligent life – either like ours or in some other form.
Of course, not all of those will be similar to our sun, but even if you go with scientists’ conservative estimates, you’re looking at around 500 quintillion suns that are a bit like ours. Some of these will have planets orbiting them, and some of those may have a position in what is called the Goldilocks Zone, where conditions are just right for life.
Forty years ago, there was a project where scientists not only wanted to gather information about space, they were sending information out. It was sort of a cosmic message in a bottle.
We sent a map from Earth sailing deep into the cosmos. Copies of this map are etched into each of the twin Voyager spacecraft, which launched in the late 1970s and are now the farthest spacecraft from home. One of the probes has already slipped into interstellar space, and the other is skirting the fringes of our sun’s immediate neighborhood.
If it’s ever intercepted and decoded by extra-terrestrials, the map will not only reveal where to find our world, but also it will tell them when the space probe that delivered it to alien hands left home.
The maps are also accompanied by a phonograph record made of gold with instructions on how to play it. The records have pictures and samples of the sounds of earth. There are also greetings from all over the world as we reach out to our possible alien brothers and sisters in hopes of getting an answer.
When the Voyager spacecraft launched, astronomers had no evidence that other planets even existed outside our solar system, much less worlds capable of hosting alien life.
Now, thanks to missions like NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler endeavor, we know that planets are common in the galaxy, and that a sizable percentage of those worlds could be like Earth. The revelation has spawned efforts to send directed radio messages toward promising stars systems.
In the wake of these discoveries, a debate has emerged over the ethics of intentionally announcing our presence to the stars. Some think the endeavour is foolish and dangerous, given how little we know about what might be out there. Others would rather prioritize listening to the stars over talking to them.
For the Voyager spacecraft, the truth is already out there, as the maps they carry hurtle deeper into the void and as Carl Sagan once said, “They are most certainly destined to find intelligent life out there in space.
The more we learn about the cosmos, the more it seems possible that we are not alone. The entire galaxy is teeming with worlds, and we’re getting better at listening.”
In 2008, NASA broadcast the Beatles tune “Across the Universe” toward Polaris, the North Star, commemorating the space agency’s 50th birthday, the 45th anniversary of the Deep Space Network, and the 40th anniversary of that song.
Later that year, a tech startup working with Ukraine’s space agency beamed pictures and messages to the exoplanet Gliese 581 c. Other, sillier messages to the stars have included a Doritos commercial and a bunch of Craigslist ads.
Last October, the European Space Agency broadcast 3,775 text messages toward Polaris. It’s not known to harbor any exoplanets, and even if it did, those messages would take some 425 years to arrive; yet the exercise, conceived by an artist, raised alarm among astronomers.
In fact, if you read the memos that were produced, you could speculate that scientists were showing some genuine alarm about these contacts issuing a dire warning that we shouldn’t be bothering extra-terrestrials by sending out innocuous messages.
I want to present the memo, so that you can see just how nervous some scientists are about first contact:
REGARDING MESSAGING TO EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE (METI) / ACTIVE SEARCHES FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE (ACTIVE SETI):
Messaging to Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI), also called Active Searches for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Active SETI), refers to the act of using high power communications equipment on Earth to transmit various messages to unknown extraterrestrial intelligences.
METI has been conducted sporadically in the past, but recently a surge of individuals and organizations have initiated or suggested new METI programs, both academic and commercial in nature. METI programs carry unknown and potentially enormous implications and consequences. We feel the decision whether or not to transmit must be based upon a worldwide consensus, and not a decision based upon the wishes of a few individuals with access to powerful communications equipment. We strongly encourage vigorous international debate by a broadly representative body prior to engaging further in this activity. We also note the following:
– ETI’s reaction to a message from Earth cannot presently be known. We know nothing of ETI’s intentions and capabilities, and it is impossible to predict whether ETI will be benign or hostile.
– Because we have just recently (in cosmic terms) attained an interstellar communications capability, it is likely that other communicative civilizations we encounter will be millions of years more advanced than us.
– The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, the scientific effort to determine whether or not other advanced life exists in the universe, is still in its infancy. Even though SETI experiments have been ongoing for more than 50 years, scientists are still decades away from completing a comprehensive search for radio signals similar to those produced by our own technology. As a newly emerging technological species, it is prudent to listen before we shout.
– Although a nearby advanced ETI may have already picked up earth’s omni-directional radio leakage, e.g., early television transmissions, or the presence of industrial wastes in the atmosphere of the earth, such detections are far more difficult than detecting a focused radio or optical signal sent from a large telescope.
– It is not necessary to actually transmit powerful electromagnetic signals in order to study interstellar communication from the perspective of the transmitter, or to develop transmission techniques that might one day be used to respond to a message received from an ETI.
– Opponents of METI would vocally condemn METI transmissions, confusing the public about, and imperiling funding for, bona fide scientific endeavors related to extraterrestrial life.
Intentionally signaling other civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy raises concerns from all the people of Earth, about both the message and the consequences of contact. A worldwide scientific, political and humanitarian discussion must occur before any message is sent.
Needless to say, the memo shows that scientists are cautious, which indicates that perhaps there is something out there worth observing, but not worth talking to.
Meanwhile, the secret space program continues to push forward and the people who are caught up in the politics of Earth are paying no mind to the secret payloads that are being sent into space and secret missions that really have no oversight transparency.
The United States Air Force’s X-37B program is readying its next robotic mini-shuttle for launch, this time atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The liftoff is scheduled to take place in early September, according to media reports.
The X-37B program is managed by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office to perform risk reduction, experimentation and concept of operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies.
There has been some speculation that the space plane has been set for a rendezvous with and alien artifact that is scheduled to pass by earth in September.
Talk of alien artifacts, interstellar probes parked in near-earth orbits, and dead spacecraft floating like ghost ships occupies a gray area between science fiction and hypothetical fields of social and physical science.
But that’s true only from our particular temporal vantage point. We haven’t yet found artifacts from an alien civilization in orbit around the Earth, or on nearby planets and moons, but we are creating them. In the short term (ten to fifteen years or so), a communications satellite allows us to watch television stations, and make phone calls. In the longer term (fifteen years to five billion years), it’s a time capsule.
It is a fragment of culture frozen in time, a future alien artifact.
In the future, we will be the ancient aliens.
