Even the most physical aspects of this topic, like craft, propulsion systems, or radar data, lead us back to the same place: consciousness.

Every encounter raises deeper questions. Not just what people saw, but how they saw it. Who is doing the perceiving? What is perception, really? Could consciousness itself be the missing piece?

Many experiencers describe telepathy, missing time, altered states, and emotional or psychic impressions that stay with them for life. These aren’t rare. During the Cold War, the CIA declassified programs like MK-ULTRA, which explored the use of drugs and hypnosis to alter consciousness, and Project Stargate, which trained operatives in remote viewing. In 1983, the Gateway Process report described ways to shift awareness and potentially transcend time and space. Other declassified files examined telepathic behavior modification and Soviet parapsychology. These documents are no longer fringe—they are archived evidence that intelligence agencies took consciousness research seriously.

Quantum physics has also brought new insight. The idea that the observer influences the observed, or that time and space may not work the way we expect, echoes many experiencers’ descriptions. People report timeless states, downloads of information, and shifts in reality that challenge traditional scientific assumptions.

Institutions like the Institute of Noetic Sciences, founded by astronaut Edgar Mitchell, are exploring these questions scientifically. Researchers like Dean Radin have spent decades investigating remote viewing, telepathy, and precognition. At the University of Virginia, the Division of Perceptual Studies has published peer-reviewed research on near-death experiences, children’s memories of past lives, and more.

The topic of telepathy is gaining new attention. Military programs like Stargate trained individuals to view distant or unseen targets using extrasensory perception. More recently, the podcast The Telepathy Tapes has drawn interest for its accounts of nonverbal autistic children who appear to communicate telepathically with caregivers. These stories challenge traditional ideas about language, empathy, and consciousness.

This may not just be about unidentified craft or visitors from elsewhere. It could be pointing us inward. What if these encounters aren’t just technological, but relational? What if the real mystery isn’t out in the sky, but in our own minds? To understand what we’re dealing with, we may need to rethink what it means to perceive, to connect, and to be conscious at all.