Disclosure day tomorrow?

The United States National Defense Authorization Act, passed late last year, stipulates that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence presents a report to Congress no later than October 31, 2022, about what the ODNI has learned about unidentified aerial phenomena. Previously known as unidentified flying objects, these terms (UAP and UFO) were created by the military to obfuscate the popularly used phrase 'flying saucer' in common use around the world.

So - tomorrow's the day. What will we learn? There are many scenarios. One is that the day will come and go without any announcement. [If there is one, it will appear on this site.] After all, the New York Times ran a story on Friday that 'many military UFO reports' are just aerial trash, foreign reconnaissance drones, or misidentifications of prosaic phenomena. Fair enough. Many - but all? We'd be worried if an unfriendly foreign power had drones that could fly at hypersonic speeds without visible means of propulsion, silently, without leaving vapour trails, do 90-degree turns imposing G-forces that would break apart any known earthly craft, and move effortlessly from space through air and into water. And cloak themselves effectively.

The New York Times story is not the ODNI's report that ufologists are waiting for. This seems to be a planted piece (it's not behind a paywall) that has a deeper purpose - the timing is not accidental. We shall see tomorrow if there will be some new disclosure coming from the US Government - though I doubt that there will be much. It's likely that there will be a few more revelations, maybe a video or two, some photos of craft of unknown origin, some hints of 'other worldly provenance' but nothing more.

The process of 'acclimation' - being accustomed, adapted or hardened to some new environment - will take decades longer. Current conditions - Russia's war in Ukraine, accelerating climate change, economic and political turmoil around the world - might make a bolder step toward disclosure a useful psy-ops play on the part of the US Government...

And so another scenario - a big announcement. Yes, there are craft, we have no idea where they come from, who pilots them, why they are here or what they want. But they have been reported by US military since the 1940s, and recorded on film, on radar and on multiple digital sensor platforms. The bigger one would be the above, plus "and we have in our possession crashed craft that we have unsuccessfully being trying to reverse engineer." The long-standing stories about the 1947 Roswell, New Mexico, would be acknowledged as true.

Being told from no less an authority than the US Government that mankind is not the only sentient and technological species of life form on this planet has the potential to freak people out. Are they friendly? Do they abduct humans? If so, why? Is there one species of alien on our planet or several? The 'who they are, why they are here, what they want - and how they got here' questions will not go away. Science, in particular will be keen to learn about anti-gravitic propulsion, zero-point energy, superluminal interstellar travel or indeed interdimensional travel. Religions will be keen to learn how their theology fits into a new understanding of the cosmos necessary to accommodate non-human technological sentience.

But hang on a second. Step back and apply Occam's Razor.

Individual cases of UFO sightings can be debunked, one by one, with rational explanations that sound way more plausible than the idea of craft piloted by intelligent beings from other worlds. But taken en mass, as a body of phenomena that has occurred worldwide over the past 80 years, phenomena displaying a large degree of commonality as to the characteristics of the craft - and in some cases their occupants - is impossible to dismiss lightly. When you hear hundreds of testimonies of eye witnesses speaking plausibly about what they have experienced, you begin to see the UFO issue differently. What do make of this, for example? Warminster, Wiltshire, 1965...

Are we reaching a tipping point in human history in which a new paradigm will open to us? We shall find out tomorrow. Personally - I don't think we'll get there tomorrow. Maybe a few new bits of information, but no bombshell. More tomorrow.

UPDATE 31 OCTOBER.

Here's the news; the Daily Mail runs this exclusive. A classified report was delivered to Congress. Rumours are that a redacted version will appear later this week.

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