MUFON's Stunning Vision of ETs is Consistent with a New Space Age

An intriguing multi-century trend in popular culture is the resurgence of broad interest in all things related to intelligent extraterrestrials — including potentially UFOs and the search for Earth-like planets — as we approach a new Maslow WIndow.

See: “The Klaatu Effect Signals an Accelerating Cultural Focus on Space.”

This weekend's 2011 MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) Symposium in Irvine, California provided an irresistible opportunity to become immersed in the early 21st century world of UFOlogy and ascertain its long-term status.

Instead of its usual focus on examining UFO sightings, the theme of the 2011 MUFON Symposium is: ET Contact: The Implications for Science and Society.
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At the tony Hyatt Regency hotel just across the famous 405 freeway (“Carmageddon”) from the John Wayne Airport, the cost of attendance probably held the crowd down somewhat. For example, the main lecture room held an estimated 800 seats, and during the main presentation of the day (Richard Dolan), it was only about 2/3 full. But given the state of the economy that's still not bad.

In addition to the main lectures which began Friday evening with astronaut Story Musgrave, the MUFON event featured 50 interesting vendors — including the celebrated abductee Travis Walton offering autographs — with many tempting books and other ET-related treasures, a concise but enjoyable UFO/ET art show, and a small, semi-secret-but-fun UFO/ET film festival. Definitely an impressive cultural event!

Dolan's a well-known UFO historian and theorist who previously was a Rhodes Scholar finalist. His books come highly recommended so I expected a good show — and wasn't disappointed.

Dolan's stunning belief is that there exists a “secret space program” that he's convinced will eventually become known to the public. He sees evidence for anomalous activities in space, including unidentified objects in Earth orbit (recorded during Shuttle missions), images of unknown bases on the Moon, and seemingly artificial structures on Mars (Cydonia). This, plus an estimated annual federal black budget of $ ~50 B (about 1/3 of the total cost of the Apollo Moon program), suggests to him the real possibility of a momentous program that may already include humans on Mars and routine interactions with ETs!

Regardless of its merits, Dolan's story meets the criterion of an extraordinary vision of intelligent ETs as we approach within only a few years of the 2015 Maslow Window and the new International Space Age.

The afternoon session began with a puzzling presentation by John Alexander, Ph.D. who was expected to chat about “The Federal Government and Military Response to ET Contact,” but seemed more intent on offering counterpoints to most of Dolan's talk. Alexander is a former Army colonel with apparently extensive government contacts.

After Alexander's presentation, it would have been more satisfying to the audience to bring back Rich Dolan for a 2-person panel discussion with Alexander, including audience participation.

But more importantly, MUFON seems to have adopted the basic philosophy of the Vatican and the UK's Royal Society toward ETs, — i.e., ETs probably exist and may be coming here, so the question is: How do we accommodate them?