Scientific and Speculative Perspectives on UAPs
Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena
For as long as we have looked upward at the sky humans have wondered what makes up this magnificent universe. We named the planets after our gods and divided the stars into the signs of the Zodiac to find some meaning in it all.
Given our understanding of science today, we have a decent idea of what most of the objects in the sky are. Stars, comets, galaxies, other planets and or course our nearest neighbor, the moon.
All these known objects appear to behave according to the laws of physics as we know them. We can use those laws to put 200-ton airplanes in the air, send humans to the moon and understand the movements of the heavenly bodies.
However, there is still much we don’t yet understand and one thing that reflects this quite clearly are UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena), previously called UFOs. People have been seeing mysterious objects in the sky, at sea and on land since the beginning of human history.
What makes these anomalous objects stand out is that they do not behave like the objects we are used to such as the stars and planets and our own aircraft. In fact, they most often violate the laws of physics as we understand them in the most extreme ways.
While these phenomena have long benn denied by authorities and even ridiculed by the media, times have changed. The US government appears to be more open about UAPs after much pressure from the public and key lawmakers. A few years ago, the Pentagon confirmed the footage below taken from US Navy Fighters off the coast of California in 2004 was real.
Since then, the government has revealed several DOD programs to look seriously into these phenomena and whistleblowers have even come forward saying we are already in contact with and in possession of extra-terrestrial technology.
Whether the government knows more than it is admitting or not, the question is just what are these UAPs?
In this article (the first in a series on UAP), I will break down the prevailing hypotheses considering what may explain these strange but fascinating objects. Personally, I feel we should approach them with wonder and curiosity with the intent of unraveling yet another mystery of our universe.
I will break down the various perspectives into three main groups. The first are the terrestrial hypotheses, explanations that involve known processes native to this planet. The second are the extra-terrestrial hypotheses, explanations that involve beings or intelligences not from this planet but from some other world in our observable universe. Finally, the ultra-terrestrial hypotheses, explanations that involve things outside our usual understanding of the universe.
The Terrestrial Hypotheses
These hypotheses involve explanations for UAP that are earth based. Let’s consider several conventional possibilities here.
The most popular one is that UAP are caused by natural processes of the planet, atmosphere or near-earth environment. Things like ball lightning, sun dogs, dust from wildfires and volcanic eruptions, reflections of lights off clouds and other optical and perceptual illusions. As well as other phenomena we have not yet discovered.
Another terrestrial explanation is that UAP are really classified highly advanced technology from one or more countries. Just as people reported seeing UFOs in the Nevada desert where stealth aircraft were being produced in the 80s and 90s, it is at least possible that these objects are secretmilitary technology. If so the government is not going to admit it and could be painting a UFO smokescreen to conceal their work.
Then there is the psychosocial hypothesis which looks at psychological factors in explaining UAP. This includes things like psychosis, mass hysteria and hallucinations brought about by stress. It also includes perceptual illusions where the mind misperceives objects in the environment due to optical illusion or cognitive distortion (when our thought patterns or state of mind interfere with or distort perception).
The 2021 report from the office of the Director of National Intelligence concluded in a preliminary assessment of UAP evidence that these conventional terrestrial explanations are most likely and that they have no evidence of it being anything else although nothing can be ruled out yet. That remains the case in subsequent reports from the government.
A more ominous explanation from the psychosocial viewpoint is mind manipulation or conditioning. Are we being subjectively conditioned to see these phenomena for some unknown reason? It would be at least theoretically possible to do this on a large scale with the technology we have today. People are highly susceptible to manipulation through digital platforms as has been shown in studies of social media (Consilience Project, 2021).
Finally, there is the simulation explanation which would suggest we see anomalous phenomena because we live in a virtual reality. That is, our world and our place in it is part of an elaborate simulated reality created by much more advanced humans from the future or a non-human intelligence. This view suggests that the laws of physics are just the programming of the simulation and so can be changed by its creators. I discuss this and its connection with spirituality in a previous article.
The Extra-terrestrial hypotheses
The next category of explanations involves a cause for UAPs being from another world beyond the earth. Aside from terrestrial explanations this is the next most popular perspective.
Humans have been searching for extraterrestrial life for some time now but officially there has been no sign of it despite our efforts.
Or has there?
This explanation regards UAPs as being spacecraft, technology or some unknown type of device that is of alien origin. These could be craft piloted by non-human biological entities or they could be probes or AI systems created by a more advanced alien race.
There are several variations on this perspective. One is that alien beings have only recently been visiting earth. There have been an enormous number of UFO/UAP sightings from the mid-twentieth century onwards beginning in the mid 1940s (Medina et al, 2023). This period saw three major events: the detonation of the first atomic bomb in 1945 (UAPs have been known to frequent nuclear facilities); a highly documented UFO sighting by a pilot near Mt. Rainier Washington; and the infamous Roswell crash in 1947. UAP sightings have skyrocketed in the years since.
It is theorized that if visitation is recent, it may be due to our technological advancement such as developing nuclear technology, computer technology and most recently AI. If other beings are out there it could be that they decide to monitor and contact civilizations that reach a certain point of technological maturity.
When you consider the incredible size of the universe and the number of likely habitable planets (Coughlin et al, 2020) even in this galaxy alone it is at least possible that an alien civilization may have solved the problem of traversing cosmic distances. The difficulty we perceive in traveling to other star systems is considered an argument against alien visitation but probably a very short sighted one because with thousands of years of advancement in science we have no idea what is possible (Lomas 2023a).
Another variation on the extra-terrestrial hypothesis is the idea that alien visitation on this planet is not new but has been happening for many thousands or even millions of years. So, while UAP may be extra-terrestrial in origin it is possible they could be based here on earth perhaps in some hidden form. In this case you have UAP of alien design but that originate from somewhere on this planet (Lomas et al, 2024).
The Ultra-terrestrial hypotheses
This brings us to our third category of explanations for UAP phenomena — the Ultra terrestrial hypotheses which encompasses an array of possibilities most would consider far-fetched but nevertheless cannot be ruled out and could be considered from a scientific perspective.
We must consider the degree to which repeatedly observed UAP phenomena consistently defy the laws of physics as we know them. The speeds at which they are observed traveling, the maneuvers they are capable of and the fact that they seem to travel through air, space and water with no difficulty suggest that whatever the explanation is it is extraordinary.
Further, the way in which these objects can seem to disappear and reappear as well as the fact that they can appear to be at the edges of our perceptual capacity would suggest explanations that can account for these inexplicable experiences (Lomas, 2023b).
Let’s consider some of the explanations included in this category.
The first is what is called the Crypto-terrestrial hypothesis (Lomas et al, 2024). This explanation considers UAP originating from this planet but not from current humanity rather from a highly advanced civilization on earth that is hidden and unknown to us.
If we consider the age of the planet at over 4 billion years, it is entirely possible that an advanced civilization has evolved on this planet before us. If that were the case, then the question is why have we not found any evidence of such a civilization?
Well one reason could be that they existed so long ago that the fossil record has deteriorated beyond our ability to identify any relics. The earth’s crust recycles itself at the upper layers every 400–500 million years and so if a civilization existed before that we might not find any evidence of it (Schmidt & Frank, 2019). However, that does not mean some elements of their technology might not remain.
Another possibility is that a past civilization did exist, and we cannot find any evidence because they are still here in some form and have chosen to remain hidden. There are many legends of underground cities as well as underwater locations where sitings of unknown objects are common (Lomas et al, 2024). Could an advanced civilization of humanoids have existed before and given rise to the legends of lost civilizations such as Lemuria and Atlantis?
If so, perhaps these beings are still here in some form but are so highly advanced they can cloak themselves and remain hidden. There are many stories of beings residing in certain “hotspots” in different locations such as Mt. Shasta, California. There have been many reports there over the years of people gone missing, strange beings sighted near the mountain and various UAPs moving in and around the mountain.
There is also the Silurian hypothesis (Schmidt & Frank, 2019) that brings up the possibility that a race of intelligent non-humans such as reptilians could have developed an advanced civilization in the distant past and still have a presence in the world today in a hidden form. There have been reports from former government officers of a reptilian race here on earth.
This brings us to the Extratempestrial hypothesis (Masters, 2022). This explanation looks at UFO/UAP phenomena in the context of time travel. The idea being that UAP could be explained as technology from the future. Humans from our future having developed the technology to move through time could be responsible for the phenomena we see. It could be their way of studying their past or trying to influence or alter it.
Next, we turn to the Extra or Inter Dimensional hypothesis (Lomas, 2023b). Could UAP not be objects from earth either past, present or future or from another planet but rather from another dimension or another reality? We know scientifically that there are other dimensions beyond our own three-dimensional world, but we do not know much about them much less if they contain other life forms and if it is possible to travel between them.
Perhaps alternatively there are other levels of reality where non-human intelligences may exist and be able to access our reality. There could be alternate realities such as quantum theory suggests may be possible. If other alternative realities overlap, coexist or are accessible to our own it could offer an explanation as to the origin of UAP.
This would offer a potential explanation of how UAP are able to defy the laws of physics. Perhaps their dimension or reality has different laws, or they don’t fully exist in our space-time/universe.
Finally in this category we get to the more fringe ideas but ones which deserve some consideration if only because of their high frequency of reports and historical persistence. These would include paranormal or spiritual explanations (Lomas, 2023b).
This group of possibilities includes things like non-physical entities, angels, demons, gods, nature spirits, fairies and similar things from religion, folklore and collective experience.
In our scientific age we tend to write these off as ignorant fantasies of uneducated people. However, what if those uneducated people did experience something real but they simply didn’t have the understanding to define it in any other way but the mythology of their time (Lomas & Case, 2023).
People have been reporting anomalous experiences like this throughout history. Perhaps it is no different today but instead of calling them angels, demons or spirits in our modern terminology and understanding we call them anomalous phenomena or aliens or time travelers.
It is at least possible that what we consider UFO/UAP phenomena today and what people in the past considered supernatural could be inherent to nature or the universe. After all it is incredibly arrogant and immature of us to imagine we know so much about the universe when our science is merely a few centuries old.
To conclude this section, it is worth mentioning a spiritual explanation of these phenomena. In many eastern spiritual traditions, the universe we know with thoughts and senses is considered Maya (illusion) in that it is created by the mind much like a dream.
In that sense, the world we experience is a reflection of what is in our minds, mostly the unconscious mind. When we consider the mental state of most people today and then compare that to the state of the world it is hard not to see a correlation.
UAP could then be reflections of the collective subconscious or sort of a mass shared dream experience. If so it would suggest looking at these phenomena from a psycho-spiritual perspective in order to decode their meaning and use them to expand and evolve our experience.
Conclusion
To conclude, I want to acknowledge that many of these explanations are a bit out of the ordinary especially in the context of mainstream science. I don’t mean to suggest that any of these are necessary true or that you should believe them.
However they represent the variety of perspectives which demonstrate that we are in a real sense baffled by these phenomena and reaching for some way to explain them as conventional explanations fall short.
When dealing with anomalous phenomena and acknowledging the limits of our science and understanding of the universe I feel it is critical to be open minded.
Given the intensity of these critical times in which we live, UAP phenomena may have something to teach us about ourselves, how we see the world and what we believe to be possible.
References
Beckett, S. (2023, July 26). UFO hearing key takeaways: What a whistleblower told Congress about UAP. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ufo-hearing-congress-uap-takeaways-whistleblower-conference-david-grusch-2023/
CNN. (2021, April 15). Defense Department confirms leaked video of unidentified aerial phenomena is real. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/15/politics/unidentified-aerial-phenomena-defense-department/index.html
Consilience Project. (2021). Social media enables undue influence. The Consilience Project. Retrieved from https://consilienceproject.org/social-media-enables-undue-influence/
Coughlin, J., Bryson, S., Kunimoto, M., & Marcy, G. (2020). About half of sun-like stars could host rocky, potentially habitable planets. NASA. Retrieved from https://www.nasa.gov/feature/about-half-of-sun-like-stars-could-host-rocky-potentially-habitable-planets.
The Debrief. (2023). U.S. Department of Energy UAP Documents Reveal Puzzling Aerial Incursions Near American Nuclear Sites. Retrieved from https://thedebrief.org/u-s-department-of-energy-uap-documents-reveal-puzzling-aerial-incursions-near-american-nuclear-sites/
History.com Editors. (n.d.). What Really Happened at Roswell? HISTORY. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/news/roswell-ufo-aliens-what-happened.
Lomas, T. (2023a). The Extraterrestrial Hypothesis: A Case for Scientific Openness to an Interstellar Explanation for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377889838
Lomas, T. (2023b). The Ultraterrestrial Hypothesis. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/375553282
Lomas, Tim & Case, Brendan. (2023). From angels to aliens: Humankind’s ongoing encounters with, and evolving interpretations of, the genuine celestial unknown. Retreived from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370113821.
Lomas, T., Case, B., & Masters, M. P. (2024). The cryptoterrestrial hypothesis: A case for scientific openness to a concealed earthly explanation for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. Philosophy and Cosmology, 33. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381405238
Masters, M. P. (2022). The Extratempestrial Model. Full Circle Publishing.
Medina, R. M., Brewer, S. C., & Kirkpatrick, S. M. (2023). An environmental analysis of public UAP sightings and sky view potential. Scientific Reports, 13, 22213. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-49527-x
Office of the Director of National Intelligence. (2021). Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. Retrieved from https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Prelimary-Assessment-UAP-20210625.pdf.
Schmidt, G. A., & Frank, A. (2019). The Silurian hypothesis: Would it be possible to detect an industrial civilization in the geological record? International Journal of Astrobiology, 18(2), 142–150. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1473550418000095
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