The “New” Modern Era, UAPs and NHI, Part One
This early draft chapter from our forthcoming book Heaven and Earth still carries its share of rough edges, but we hope it offers a glimpse into our overall exploration of conscious intelligence. By Michael and James Hall, this draft pre-copywritten Library of Congress. 2025.
AI generated artistic reconstruction of USS Nimitz “Tic Tac” encounter.
The modern era of UFOs—at least in terms of widespread media attention—began with Kenneth Arnold’s famous sighting on June 24, 1947. Reports of unexplained aerial phenomena long predate that day, but Arnold’s account of nine disk‑shaped objects speeding over Washington State seized the public imagination and cemented the phrase “flying saucer” in the lexicon. In time, flying saucers became UFOs. Yet, a new phase or “new modern era” began quietly, and at first unwittingly, on November 14, 2004. That day, an extraordinary encounter set in motion a chain of events which, over the next two decades, would see UFOs reclassified as UAP and, more recently, reframed within discussions of NHI (non‑human intelligence). The 2004 incident propelled the subject into the mainstream as never before.
We are now living in that “new” modern era—one defined by greater transparency, direct government engagement, and an expanding scientific effort to probe the phenomenon.
2004, November 14
The new era unknowingly began on November 14, 2004, when a striking encounter off Southern California set in motion a chain of events that would, over the next two decades, shift the conversation from rumor to hearings, from stigma to policy briefings, and from folklore to structured intelligence products. Although the public would not learn of it until 2017, the USS Nimitz “Tic Tac” case—corroborated by radar, advanced sensor systems, and trained aviators—became a touchstone for modern UAP studies, a case sturdy enough to anchor scrutiny across agencies and eras. The incident occurred off the coast of Southern California, where naval aviators observed and recorded a smooth, white, tic tac-shaped object executing seemingly impossible maneuvers. The sighting, backed by radar data, sophisticated military sensor technology, digital filming, and pilot testimony based on visual confirmation, set in motion a series of government investigations and public inquiries that continue to shape disclosure efforts today.
2007-2011
While the Nimitz data sat largely within military channels, another thread was gathering force in Utah. Skinwalker Ranch, purchased by aerospace entrepreneur Robert Bigelow in 1996, was already notorious for reports of metallic craft, cryptid‑like creatures, electromagnetic disturbances, and glowing aerial “portals.” In 2007, Defense Intelligence Agency officer and engineer Dr. James T. Lacatski visited the property.
The lore surrounding the ranch is tangled with conflicting accounts. While it is steeped in sensational stories of paranormal incidents and sightings of strange animals, it also has a long‑documented history of unexplained aerial phenomena—some so disorienting they seem to blur the very boundaries of perception and reality.
For decades, many UFO researchers focused exclusively on so‑called “nuts and bolts” cases—solid craft, measurable traces, and tangible evidence. Yet the picture emerging from the ranch suggested something far more intricate: a phenomenon potentially interwoven with the nature of consciousness itself. This, we believe as authors, is the future to understanding the subject as a whole.
What Lacatski witnessed—and what he had absorbed through years of prior research—convinced him that the United States required a formal, well-funded inquiry into advanced aerospace threats, with UAPs squarely within scope. He briefed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who, along with Senators Ted Stevens of Alaska and Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, was acutely aware of the potential national security stakes. (Stevens had even reported encountering a “foo fighter” during World War II.) These political figures helped marshal resources for a pilot program.
As authors, drawing on personal interactions with Reid and his congressional aide, we can attest to his longstanding concern about the defense implications of UAPs. We never heard talk of “aliens,” but we did hear pointed analyses of incidents like the Nimitz case. It was said: “This is precisely the kind of operational reconnaissance the Chinese or Russians would conduct—if they had the capability.” While it was doubted they did, the national security threat could not be dismissed.
The question was raised: how many times in eighty years must UAP fly over nuclear or military assets to satisfy their curiosity?
As one observer put it, “These things are not just doing operational reconnaissance. They are flying training sorties!
The collaboration between James Lacatski and key Senate liaisons culminated in the creation of the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP)—a 2008 Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) initiative, “effectively” sole-sourced to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) under a two-year, $22 million contract. Lacatski served as the DIA program manager, while biochemist Dr. Colm A. Kelleher directed daily operations at BAASS. Dr. Lacatski and Dr. Kelleher in a recent interview, summed up the mission of AAWSAP quite concisely. They stated that there were two parallel objective tracks. One was to study the propulsion characteristics of UAP. The second was to exam the effects UAP have on human beings. AAWSAP was described as a “closed program, operating like a SAP.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow7FqiegixQ.)
Its deliverables, however, proved strikingly ambitious: “Identify and map potentially disruptive technologies; analyze aerial incursions and performance characteristics; evaluate air-safety risks; document physiological and psychological effects on witnesses; and, where feasible, conduct testing on anomalous materials.” This fusion of technical intelligence, human-effects research, and “edge-of-science” inquiry drew early skepticism—but it reflected the complex, often contradictory realities emerging from field investigations and case files. (James T. Lacatski, Colm A. Kelleher, and George Knapp, Inside the U.S. Government Covert UFO Program: Initial Revelations (Las Vegas: RTMA, 2023); and James T. Lacatski, Colm A. Kelleher, and George Knapp, Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insider’s Account of the Secret Government UFO Program (Charlottesville, VA: RTMA, 2021).
From the moment the contract was signed, Skinwalker Ranch became more than a backdrop—it was the catalyst and first proving ground for AAWSAP’s methods. The site offered a concentrated mix of phenomena: airborne objects performing beyond known aeronautical limits, electromagnetic surges interfering with equipment, and incidents that left physiological or psychological traces on witnesses. Dr. Kelleher emphasized that the Skinwalker Ranch investigation represented only a small component of the broader research program. Even so, it yielded distinctive human‑interest observations that enriched the overall understanding of the phenomena under study.
But AAWSAP’s scope was never meant to stop at one location. Drawing from the investigative model tested at the ranch, BAASS teams began to deploy across the United States and, when possible, abroad. Field units were equipped to collect everything from radar data and ground traces to medical baselines and post‑encounter assessments. Case files from rural airstrips, military training ranges, and civilian air corridors flowed back to the Las Vegas, Nevada hub, where analysts worked alongside aerospace engineers and medical experts to search for patterns.
In these first months, it became clear that the peculiar blend of “hard” technical signatures and “soft” human‑effect data observed at the ranch was surfacing elsewhere. This realization cemented a central AAWSAP premise: to understand UAP, one had to track both their physical performance and their impact on human perception, cognition, and health. The ranch had shown that these threads were intertwined; the program would now try to follow them wherever they appeared.
Dr. Lacatski and Dr. Kelleher stated in a recent interview that over fifty personnel were involved with the BAASS contract and included some of the most experienced figures in the field. This included Dr. Jacques Vallée, a veteran researcher and early protégé of Project Blue Book’s scientific consultant J. Allen Hynek (and partial inspiration for Claude Lacombe in Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind). Vallée advised on materials and databases. (A noteworthy fact, Blue Book was never a highly classified project however AAWSAP and later ATTIP, in comparison, were.)
Dr. Hal Puthoff, a physicist renowned for his work on quantum vacuum energy and advanced propulsion concepts, served as a consultant on AAWSAP’s theoretical frameworks. He later clarified that the AAWSAP units he supported had no direct access to any alleged recovered materials, limiting his role to modeling and hypothesis development.
Dr. Eric W. Davis, affiliated with BAASS, contributed to propulsion studies and high-level briefings. While the exact contractual pathway—whether directly under the DIA or via BAASS subtasking—remains unclear, his influence within the program was substantial.
Within government, senior Naval Intelligence official Jay Stratton maintained a direct interface with AAWSAP and later headed the Pentagon’s UAP Task Force. He has since emphasized that AAWSAP’s broader mission centered on identifying “disruptive aerospace capabilities.”
By contrast, Luis Elizondo operated from a separate office within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security (OUSD[I&S]), leading efforts commonly referred to as AATIP in the years following AAWSAP. Elizondo was not originally part of the DIA-run AAWSAP or BAASS operations—a distinction often blurred in public accounts—though his work largely continued the military related side of investigative trajectories initiated by AAWSAP. That portion of the program’s history still remains incompletely understood.
The data ambitions were equally bold. Vallée has described an aggregated, filtered database surpassing 240,000 cases assembled from multiple sources accessible to BAASS, with an eye toward future AI‑assisted analysis. (Jacques Vallée, Forbidden Science 6: Scattered Castles, The Journals of Jacques Vallée 2010–2019 (Bend, OR: Anomalist Books, 2025). (He has since stated in interviews that certain materials purportedly associated with crash/retrieval cases were examined within tightly compartmented channels.)
Even so, the AAWSAP components Puthoff advised on were not permitted direct access to any such samples, underscoring the program’s compartmentalized landscape. Dr. Kelleher has said the BAASS team studied anomalous physical samples and biological effects where they could, trying to correlate human physiology and material properties with observed performance. Hopes voiced by some architects that any legacy “hardware” held elsewhere might eventually be funneled into a broader analytic environment remained aspirational; there is no public evidence that such transfers occurred.
The core AAWSAP contract ran from 2008 through roughly late 2010, with some analytic threads continuing afterward in other compartments. For years, the public only glimpsed hints of Pentagon interest. That changed in 2017, when major media revealed a contemporary UAP effort inside the Department of Defense and published sensor footage tied to Navy encounters, including the Nimitz case. In 2021, the book Skinwalkers at the Pentagon detailed AAWSAP’s broader scope, including its excursions into human effects and consciousness‑adjacent questions—domains that, whether one embraces them or not, have long been reported at the margins of UAP events.
Part of what makes this period so complex is the precedent that preceded it. The National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), founded by Robert Bigelow in 1995, was a privately funded initiative that explored UFOs, paranormal phenomena, and consciousness studies—conducting extensive investigations at Skinwalker Ranch well before AAWSAP came into being.
Several key figures bridged both efforts: Bigelow himself; Dr. Colm Kelleher, who led fieldwork at the ranch; Dr. Eric Davis; Dr. Jacques Vallée; and Dr. John B. Alexander, a retired U.S. Army colonel and non-lethal weapons expert who consulted on paranormal research. NIDS formally wound down in October 2004, citing a lull in UFO activity. Years later, the center of gravity shifted to BAASS under contract to the DIA’s AAWSAP program.
Recapping
Viewed together, the 2004 Nimitz encounter and the 2007–2011 AAWSAP arc resemble converging lines. The Navy incident offered a high-credibility, multimodal dataset that would later galvanize official scrutiny. Lacatski’s 2007 visit to Skinwalker Ranch and the subsequent DIA initiative established a formal architecture capable of ingesting such cases, testing hypotheses, and scoping potential threats.
That convergence helped transition the discourse from “UFOs” to “UAP” in official terminology—and, in some circles, toward the more charged notion of non-human intelligence, Today, we inhabit that emergent modern era: a phase marked by increasing transparency, sustained government engagement, and a broader scientific curiosity that, however cautiously, is willing to follow the data wherever it leads.
Continuing the AAWSAP narrative, the program’s paper trail is every bit as compelling as its field investigations. Over its two‑year DIA contract, BAASS and its network of consultants produced research spanning the openly published to the still‑classified. Some outputs remain locked away; others have surfaced through investigative journalism, FOIA disclosures, or insider testimony.
Of particular and long‑standing interest is a reported chart of UAP shapes compiled under the DIA’s Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program. The original has never been formally released by the US government. What has emerged instead are fragmentary glimpses and reconstructed versions. A handful of journalists and researchers who have viewed the chart under controlled conditions describe it as a visual taxonomy of reported craft types—discs, spheres, triangles, cylinders, and more exotic outlines—drawn from AAWSAP case files. In some instances, stylized recreations from memory have been circulated in presentations or online forums, but these remain derivative interpretations rather than declassified originals.
Other surviving documents detail BAASS’s collaboration with the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), revealing how civilian case reports were ingested, filtered, and analyzed alongside government data. In 2018, KLAS‑TV journalists George Knapp and Matt Adams published a list of 38 “Defense Intelligence Reference Documents” (DIRDs) commissioned under AAWSAP. These were essentially deep‑dive technical papers on advanced aerospace concepts, contracted out to subject‑matter experts—often without telling the authors their work was being gathered under a UAP‑related program.
By 2025, Dr. Hal Puthoff confirmed he had overseen the commissioning of these studies, approaching leaders in fields like propulsion, materials science, and exotic physics to forecast where their disciplines might be decades into the future. Luis Elizondo later confirmed the authenticity of the list:
1. Inertial Electrostatics Confinement Fusion, Dr George Miley, Univ. of
Illinois.
2. Advanced Nuclear Propulsion for Manned Deep Space Missions, Dr F
Winterberg, Univ of Nevada-Reno.
3. Pulsed High-Power Microwave Technology, Dr James Wells, Northrop
Grumman.
4. Space Access, Dr P Czysz, HyperTech.
5. Advanced Space Propulsion Based on Vacuum (Spacetime Metrics)
Engineering, Dr Hal Puthoff, EarthTech International.
6. Biosensors and BioMEMS, Dr Bruce Towe, Unic of Arizona.
7. Invisibility Cloaking, Dr Ulf Leonhardt, Univ of St Andrews.
8. Wormholes in Space Time, Dr Eric Davis, EarthTech International.
9. Gravity Wave Communication, Dr Robert Baker, GravWave.
10. Superconductors in Gravity Research, Dr George Hathaway, Hathaway
Consulting.
11. Antigravity Studies, Dr Eric Davis, EarthTech International.
12. Field Effects on Biological Tissues, Dr Kit Green, Wayne State Univ.
13. Positron Aerospace Propulsion, Dr Gerald Smith, Positronics Research.
14. Vacuum Energy Applications, Dr Eric Davis, EarthTech International.
15. Improved Statistical Approach to Drake Equation, Dr Claudio Maccone,
International Academy of Astronautics.
16. Maverick vs Corporate Research Cultures, Dr George Hathaway,
Hathaway Consulting.
17. Biomaterials, Dr Bruce Towe, Univ of Arizona.
18. Metamaterials, Dr G Shvets, Univ of Texas-Austin.
19. Warp Drives, Dark Energy, and Dimensions, Dr R Obousy, Obousy
Consultants.
20. Brain-Machine Interfaces, Dr R Genik, Wayne State Univ.
21. Material for Advanced Aerospace Platforms, Dr J Williams, Ohio State
Univ.
22. Metallic Glasses, Dr T Hufnagel, John Hopkins Univ.
23. Programmable Matter, Dr W McCarthy, Programmable Matter
Corporation.
24. Metallic Spintronics, Dr M Tsoi, Univ of Texas-Austin.
25. Laser Weapons, J Albertine, M.S., Directed Technologies.
26. Quantum Entanglement Communication, Dr J Cramer, Univ of
Washington.
27. Aneutronic Fusion Propulsion, Dr V Teofilo, Lockheed Martin.
28. Cockpits in the Era of breakthrough Flight, Dr G Millis, Tau Zero.
29. Cognitive Limits on Simultaneous Control of Multiple Unmanned
Spacecraft, Dr R Genik, Wayne State Univ.
30. Detection and High Resolution Tracking of Vehicles at Hypersonic
Velocities, Dr W Culbreth, Univ of Nevada-Las Vegas.
31. Aneutronic Fusion, Dr W Culbreth, Univ of Nevada-Las Vegas.
32. Laser Lightcraft Nanosatellites, Dr E Davis, Earthtech.
33. MHD Air Breathing Propulsion and Power for Aerospace Applications,
Dr S Macheret, Lockheed Martin.
34. Quantum Computing and Utilizing Organic Molecules in Automation
Technology, Dr R Genik, Wayne State Univ.
35. Quantum Tomography of Negative Energy States in the Vacuum, Dr Eric
Davis, Earthtech.
36. Ultracapacitors as Energy and Power Storage Devices, Dr J Golightly,
Lockheed Martin.
37. Negative Mass Propulsion, Dr F Winterberg, Univ of Nevada, Reno.
38. Redacted. (https://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com/2019/01/back-to-those-38-defense-intelligence.html.)
The DIRDs covered an extraordinary range: inertial electrostatic confinement fusion, advanced nuclear propulsion, pulsed high‑power microwave systems, spacetime metric engineering, invisibility cloaking, traversable wormholes, gravity‑wave communication, superconductors in gravity research, antigravity studies, field effects on biological tissues, positron propulsion, vacuum energy applications, refinements to the Drake Equation, metamaterials, warp drives, brain–machine interfaces, metallic glasses, programmable matter, spintronics, quantum entanglement communication, aneutronic fusion, hypersonic tracking, magnetohydrodynamic air‑breathing propulsion, quantum computing with organic molecules, quantum tomography of negative‑energy states, ultracapacitors, and negative‑mass propulsion. One entry—number 38—remains redacted.
In a recent 2025 interview, Dr. Hal Puthoff confirmed that these technical papers were originally posted to a secure government server for interdepartmental review, with several later released under FOIA. He described authoring one himself, in which he attempted to correlate reported UAP performance characteristics with Einstein’s field equations, and then explored whether Maxwell’s equations might yield applied science analogues. His conclusion was measured but provocative: while the physics may be consistent with the observed phenomena, the energy requirements remain far beyond anything achievable with current engineering capabilities.
In that same 2025 conversation, Puthoff spoke more broadly about Special Access Programs (SAPs) that may have touched on such topics. He referred to “legacy” SAPs tied to the retrieval of non‑human intelligence (NHI) material, claiming that at least ten such recoveries had occurred in the United States, with perhaps a similar number in Russia and China. Some, he suggested, were not crashes at all but instances where craft were abandoned—or even “gifted.” He stressed that he had never personally taken part in a retrieval, though he was familiar with some of the subsequent analyses. He also remains close to Dr. Eric Davis, whose own accounts push the boundaries of the extraordinary.
Building on decades of clandestine inquiry, Dr. Eric Davis’s 2002 Wilson–Davis Memorandum recounts a classified briefing by Admiral Thomas Wilson in which intact non-human vehicles and associated biological materials were confirmed recovered—at least 57 craft worldwide, many of which were transported to a secure Department of Defense facility for detailed forensic and propulsion-system analysis. Davis explains that these recoveries prompted the creation of a Defense Intelligence Agency Special Access Program, informally dubbed “Project Seg,” tasked with reverse-engineering exotic drive principles hypothesized to involve inertial dampening and zero-point energy coupling. He also references covert remote-viewing trials designed to “map” recovered vehicles without direct physical access. While no practical engineering blueprint has yet emerged, Davis concludes that the underlying physics, though unconventional, does not violate established laws—it simply outstrips our current manufacturing capabilities.
Sidebar
(All of this history has its side branches, so another “rabbit hole” is worth following—though we’ll try to keep the main thread intact. Tom DeLonge, guitarist for Blink‑182, was deeply involved in UFO‑themed research and advocacy during the mid‑2010s. While he was not involved with AAWSAP, 2008–2010, he later co‑founded To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science (TTSA) in 2017 alongside former CIA senior intelligence officer Jim Semivan and physicist Dr. Hal Puthoff, an AAWSAP alumnus. Steve Justice, recently retired from Lockheed Martin’s famed Skunk Works, joined as TTSA’s Aerospace Division Director. Former Pentagon AATIP director Luis Elizondo also became publicly affiliated with TTSA after leaving government service in late 2017.
Another notable sidebar predates TTSA’s launch: In January 2015, Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell emailed John Podesta—then counselor to President Obama—requesting an urgent meeting “to discuss Disclosure and zero-point energy.” In that email, sent via colleague Terri Mansfield, Mitchell referenced Vatican‑hosted seminars on extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) and conveyed his belief that non‑violent “beings from a contiguous universe” wished to help humanity develop zero‑point energy, freeing us from fossil fuels. An August 2015 follow‑up repeated these themes and asserted that such beings would not tolerate military violence on Earth or in space.
Both emails surfaced publicly in 2016 via WikiLeaks’ publication of Podesta’s inbox. Mainstream outlets—from Rolling Stone to NBC and VICE—highlighted the unusual intersection of a moonwalker, a senior political figure, and UFO‑energy claims.
The leaked cache also included correspondence from DeLonge to Podesta. In October 2015, DeLonge proposed a Washington meeting, bringing “two very important people” with leadership experience in classified science and Department of Defense projects. In January 2016, he followed up with an email titled “General McCasland,” referencing Maj. Gen. William McCasland’s past leadership of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright‑Patterson AFB. DeLonge claimed—his words, not an established fact—that McCasland had been “in charge” of a lab which, decades earlier, allegedly received material from the 1947 Roswell incident. He further wrote that McCasland was “very, very aware” of ongoing UAP technology investigations and had helped assemble DeLonge’s advisory team.
In the closing months of the 2016 campaign, these odd juxtapositions of pop‑culture figures, military insiders (current or former), and political operatives briefly pulled UFO/UAP themes into mainstream political coverage. While the media moment was short‑lived, it marked a visible crossover: UAP discussions once relegated to fringe forums were, if only for a news cycle, part of presidential‑election conversation—laying cultural groundwork for the more formal congressional inquiries that followed in the next decade.)
Concluding the AAWSAP Story
One of the most valuable clarifications comes from the paper “On the AAWSAP–AATIP Confusion,” which clearly outlines the differences between the DIA‑funded AAWSAP contract to BASS and the later, smaller Pentagon‑based office known as AATIP that continued after AAWSAP ended. The former had a broad mandate encompassing paranormal investigations and physiological effects research, while the latter focused narrowly on military UAP encounters. In a recent interview, Dr. Lacatski and Dr. Kelleher explained that part of the confusion stemmed from “AATIP” often being used informally as a nickname for the broader AAWSAP effort. However, they stressed that this “AATIP” was unrelated to the later successor program led by Louis Elizondo, which he advanced through his own initiative. That successor AATIP never had the funding, staffing, or scope that AAWSAP commanded. And AATIP was “apparently” even more classified than AAWSAP but much of this history is not fully detailed.
In September 2010, funding for AAWSAP began to wind down, signaling the program’s impending closure. A no‑cost 90‑day extension carried operations through December 2010, after which the program officially ended. Program manager Dr. James Lacatski sought to secure continued funding but was unsuccessful. With its budget exhausted, AAWSAP was formally terminated. Certain projects persisted briefly through select extensions, and those overlapping with Department of Homeland Security funding continued for a time. However, the threat‑assessment component of AAWSAP’s mission did not disappear entirely—investigations continued within a smaller Pentagon‑based sub‑office known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP).
In reflecting on AAWSAP’s mission, Dr. James Lacatski and Dr. Colm Kelleher, speaking in a recent interview, distilled its mission into two interwoven tracks. One followed the enigmatic mechanics of UAP propulsion, seeking to understand how such craft might defy conventional aerodynamics. The other traced their human dimension, probing the physiological and psychological effects these encounters could leave behind. Together, they form the twin pillars of a program that straddled the boundaries between hard engineering inquiry and the mysteries of human experience.
Part Two will take up with ATTIP.
This early draft chapter from our forthcoming book Heaven and Earth still carries its share of rough edges, but we hope it offers a glimpse into our overall exploration of conscious intelligence. By Michael and James Hall, this draft pre-copywritten Library of Congress, 2025.