Recent reports of Unknowns are led by this extremely well-documented thermographic camera image of an aircraft appearing like nothing save silhouettes taken a dozen years before. While it's almost certainly "one of ours," The Aviationist Founder and Editor David Cenciotti reports some speculations about what the thing could be. A continent away, was a Flying Saucer Photographed in Chile? Tim Binnall says several folks in Curarrehue in the Araucania Region of southern Chile were puzzled and the nation's social media set afire. The image almost looks like the "Dorito" craft might from a different angle! Probably too much to suggest the same airframe had Aussie Miners Baffled After Spotting Bizarre Object in the Sky Above the Pilbara: 'Genuine UFO' being the photographer's diagnosis. The Solomon Mine location lies in the remote northwest part of Western Australia. We end our four-continent UFO tour as Mystery Lights Over Sri Lanka Spark UFO Debate. The North Western Province seacoast town of Iranawila, about 55 miles north of Colombo, featured a Voice of America transmission center that ceased operations and was handed over to the Sri Lankan government in 2017. So reports of the location being a "strategic site" seem overblown, save maybe to the shrimp farmer who unfortunately recently pointed a flashlight at it hovering in the sky at 3am, panicking when it later on "moved rapidly in his direction." (WM)

The journalistic duo responsible for some of the most earth-shaking news in recent UFO history shares impressions about a restricted meeting held in Washington five days before James Fox' January 20th National Press Club conference presenting new information on the 1996 UFO crash/entity events, featured in Fox' current film Moment of Contact: New Revelations of Alien Encounters. As one would expect from Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal, it's an excellent summary of the main points made by the Brazilian witnesses and informed US notables. "There is no question that the Varginha case lacks hard data," Kean and Blumenthal write, listing what would constitute such, but they vigorously argue the strong points behind the witness testimony. A rather different tone about another recent documentary comes in Jason Colavito's post Bill Maher Claims Aliens Visiting Earth, "Want Us to Know That They're Here". As usual, Jason provides the actual Maher interview with Age of Disclosure director Dan Farah for reader comparison with Jason's takeaways. All of the preceding does bear upon the relationship/tussle between "Evidence–grounded in empirical data, rigorous analysis, and theoretical insight," and "Encounters–based on personal experiences that challenge conventional scientific paradigms." This is the theme of the Society for Scientific Exploration's upcoming 2026 Conference Evidence & Encounters: Two Paths to Exploring the Unexplained, June 17-21, in Westminster, Colorado. (WM)

People will pay to be frightened, as demonstrated by the success of the horror film industry. And they will pay more than the price of a movie ticket for the right spooky experience, notes Isela Madriz.. Referred to as Dark Tourism, this niche industry is essentially tourism to “sites associated with death, suffering and the seemingly macabre”. As bizarre and off-putting as this may sound, treated with the right level of respect and understanding, dark tourism boosts economies with jobs and injects money into local businesses. The next topic, by Sharon Hill, falls under this same umbrella. Pop Cryptid Sightings – the Cryptid Cup and Abominable Ball, both examples of how the acceptance of The Other has created a "new social space for cryptids to flourish." Team mascots that represent monsters, and cosplay dances where attendees dress as their favorite cryptids, are just examples of how this trend is becoming more mainstream, and more palatable in general. (CM)

Anthony Bragalia tells us all to forget, had we entertained it, the thought that the POTUS will come forth with UFO "Disclosure." Anthony has assembled a cornucopia of considerations behind his thesis. More good reason to doubt UFO/UAP transparency may come from Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp's Russia vs. USA - The Race to Crack UFO Technology. Jeremy and George discuss George's "haul" of Soviet documents and information from the first of two trips he made to 1990s' Russia, which George is now making publicly available via Mysterywire. The Soviets may have known more about US governmental UFO interest than do American citizens today. At podcast conclusion, George and Jeremy unveil another government UAP video: New Military Footage Shows UAPs Flying in Perfect Triangular Formation. Whitley Strieber is interested in a possibly-explosive aspect of the UFO/Government pairing, so offers Whistleblower Jeff Nuccetelli on UAPs and Nukes. Jeff's careful explanation why "whistleblower" is not legally correct illustrates his care for accuracy and how he's integrated previous and post-Congressional testimony experiences in his life. But Douglas Simpson has a story about three whole towns who've not come to terms with "Stranger Things," in We Live Near Secret UK Lab Claimed To Hide ‘Alien Bodies’ – Locals See UFOs But Our Biggest Fear Is More Down To Earth. Porton Down in Wiltshire, England, has a truly exotic secret history. But while locals are irked they don't really know what's going on there, they have unquestionably mundane problems caused by the facility. (WM)

In Michael Tymn’s view, psychical research had amassed “overwhelming” evidence and essentially “proved” for post‑mortem survival by about 1920. The real problem, he claims, is not data but a materialist culture with a severe attention deficit. Tymn thinks the classic mediumistic cases and early SPR research settled the matter. He is skeptical of the value future research on the topic may add. It seems the value he is after is moving the dial in popular culture. Even if we accept the veracity of the historical evidence, Tymn fails to engage properly with rival explanations such as living‑agent psi, super‑psi, or hybrid models, nor with the well‑rehearsed philosophical worries about what “survival” would have to mean in relation to brains, memory, and personality. A balanced review of an evidential record would surely conclude that the matter remains underdetermined. In a related extract for White Crow Books, Tricia J. Robertson recounts a wealth of evidence relating to mediumship: Excerpt From It’s Life And Death, But Not As You Know It! From The Unbelievable To The Bizarre. Robertson insists that consciousness is far stranger (and less local) than the usual brain-bound story allows. To illustrate, she focusses on the case of Gerard Croiset, a Dutch grocer turned clairvoyant who helped police find missing people, sketched future sitters in unassigned chairs weeks in advance, and seemed to challenge conventional notions of time, space, and probability. Meticulous experiments, double and triple blind, undermine the “cold reading” explanation, leaving us with a phenomenon that behaves more like a weird non-local mind than a Victorian survival fantasy. (JS)

In 2005, in Quantico, Virginia, a pair of Marines were participating in a field training exercise when they were ordered to exit the area and pick up a military vehicle less than a kilometer away. What they encountered in that wooded area frightened them more than anything they had run up against in their years as Marines, making them run for their lives with something very large in hot pursuit. More recently, a Thermal Video Captures Bigfoot Figure in Washington State. The images captured are from the chest up, and the figure captured appears to be swaying back and forth, perhaps aware of the presence of the couple recording. A footprint was later cast from the same area. (CM)

Closing the workweek with UFO/UAP-related opinion pieces such as Crisnel Longino explaining why podcaster celebrity extraordinaire Joe Rogan believes we're at "a turning point for the UFO conversation," as "without evidence, the mystery of UFOs risks becoming just another forgotten curiosity." Even were mainstream media to reverse its current dismissive stance, Rogan thinks mistrust of the Fourth Estate exacerbates the situation so much so that even "scientific pronouncements" won't on their own rectify the situation. Longtime skeptic Michael Shermer opines I’ve Reported on UFO Sightings for Decades—and Come to This Conclusion. Shermer gives some recent historical context and his personal assessment, while invoking the old "'They' can't get here from 'There'" distance-based argument for dismissing the ET hypothesis. He discounts or fails to mention reams of instrumented data; the June 25, 2021, Office of the Director of National Intelligence "Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" that reversed nearly 70 years of official US government denials; and the fact that UFO/UAP reporting is increasingly being recognized as a worldwide phenomenon, whose numbers are in part negatively impacted by cultural factors and awareness of where to report. One example of religious impediments may be expressed in Steven M. Bell's Crisis Magazine piece The Pentagon Is Rebranding Miracles as Threats. (H/T Dr. Mark Rodeghier for this reference.) And Luis Cayetano views The UFO/Free Energy Narrative as Libertarian Fantasy, suggesting a quasi-religious/political stance behind some UFO-interested thinking. (WM)

"Human suffering leaves a mark, and some places remember," says Gregory Cain, the author of this first-person account. And no place perhaps remembers as clearly as the walls of California's San Quentin state prison. Shadows move just on the periphery of the guards' vision. Phone calls originate from long empty wings. A priest called in to pray with death-row inmates sees demons perched on the roof as he enters the building. But while suffering leaves its mark on the structures housing it, the end result is not always frightening. Exorcist Enlisted by British Hospice Chaplain Following 'Paranormal Incidents', where staff encountered a little girl in a red dress. Faced with an impending move to a new location, staff called in the chaplain to ensure the spirit moved on and was not left behind, all alone in the empty building. (CM)

Dark corners in the ufological firmament, beginning with Dr. Vallée expanding upon the comments he had furnished for filmmaker James Fox' January 20th National Press Club update on the 1996 Varghina, Brazil UFO and "alien" crash retrieval. Vallée explains to researcher Joe Murgia (and Psicoactivo's Pavel Ibarra) that he suspects the entities involved were artificial intelligence-supplied biological robots. Murgia suggests the UFO phenomenon has not and perhaps will never reveal itself fully. But while the UFO-ET hypothesis doesn't explain all the data, a "paraphysical hypothesis" does. (See John Keel's Operation Trojan Horse, published by Anomalist Books, which Pavel and Joe Murgia laud.) Jason Samosa offers The CIA Puppet-Master Playing Both Sides of the UFO Psyop (Vallée Was Right). Launching from reading Jacques Vallée's Forbidden Science Volumes 3 through 6 (Anomalist Books), Samosa navigates through decades of intrigue, misinformation, use of duped ufologists, and apparent double-dealing ascribed to Dr. Ron Pandolfi—all with the goal of relentlessly trying to block UFO Disclosure and keep UFO research under certain government agency wraps. Samosa freely admits he may be wrong here, but he does illustrate how insanely complicated UFO Disclosure may be. Red Pill Junkie focuses on one such horrifying case, opening with "This is a tale of how ‘Once Upon a Time’ the US government drove an innocent citizen mad with stories of UFOs, malevolent aliens, secret underground bases—and how they slowly dragged the rest of the world into the madness. ... This is the tale of Paul Bennewitz." RPJ explains with Rotten Candy and Its Lasting Aftertaste: Saucers, Spooks & Kooks Film Review. (WM)

Martin Willis chats with former APRO investigator and Coral and Jim Lorenzen confidante Allan Lavigne. The dialogue opens with a stunning artistic rendering of a UFO sighting at sea by the talented Lavigne, who's illustrating the three-part series on the history of USOs by Richard Dolan. The interest never wanes as Willis and Lavigne consider some of the major cases and controversies Lavigne has covered. UFO Talker Michael Ryan has the Director of MUFON Canada Talks About Their New UFO Tool A.I. Assistant and the Mystery Lights Off Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia. Linda Rafuse describes MUFON's advancements in education and state-of-the art support of field investigators, while her descriptions of generations-old "doings" off Nova Scotia's coast are fascinating and, as Rafuse notes, a great candidate for future investigations. The "chief USO-Studies advocate" stars in A New Pathway Toward Disclosure with Admiral (ret.) Tim Gallaudet, PhD. Gallaudet, in his talk at the October 25-27 Sol Symposium, expressed doubts that the current US administration would advance D/disclosure, citing the concerns of power so well-articulated in 2008 by Alexander Wendt and Raymond Duvall in Sovereignty and the UFO. Tim presented "Where We Stand With UAP Disclosure" focusing on the United States but also conducts a world survey of UAP research and policy activity by governments, non-governmental activities (like the Sol Foundation, CUFOS, SCU, and National UFO Historical Records Center), and Academic organizations; and makes a final case for establishing something like the International Astronomical Union, not beholden to any State or United Nations control, "to Advance UAP Research, Education & Disclosure." Tim Gallaudet thinks the Sol Foundation could be The Answer. (WM)

There's a castle in England, in a village aptly named Chillingham, that has been the scene of more than 100 ghost sightings over the years. A medieval fortress dating back to the 12th century, Chillingham Castle was once infamous for its torture chamber, while now it's the site of paying guests wanting a spooky experience. Other than restless spirits who departed this mortal coil in horrible ways, What Accounts for Ghost Encounters? Many times it's a camera issue—lighting, a lens that needs cleaning, or a flash reflected back in an inopportune way, says Brian Dunning of Skeptoid. But it could also be a matter of our own sleep cycles playing havoc with our peace, such as with sleep paralysis. Sometimes we just fool ourselves, mistaking another living person for something less corporeal. Then there are the outright hoaxes, which spoil it for everyone. The possibilities are endless, and to quote Dunning, "Brains are wild and crazy things." (CM)

"American archaeology is a discipline in constant flux." Micah Hanks reminds us of this truism before going back (slightly) in time to the story of the developing demise of the "Clovis First" theory of the populating of the Americas. The video of Dr. Albert Goodyear discussing the finds and findings is particularly good. A discovery from a site only about a tenth as old still holds a surprise, for Kristina Killgrove writes that a 5,500-Year-Old Human Skeleton Discovered In Colombia Holds The Oldest Evidence Yet That Syphilis Came From The Americas. And both the co-authors of this study and scholars not involved with it see modern benefits from this detection. Mark Milligan has another head-turner as the concept of Ancient Mega-site “Cities” Challenges Long-held Perceptions of Urban Origins. Perhaps Eastern Europe, rather than Mesopotamia, was the home of citification. The site's layout, first noted from aerial photography, looks quite a bit like "urban planning." But while certainty in these cases is elusive, Jason Colavito has a strong textual retort when Graham Hancock Claims Ancient Secret Society “Is Involved in Making Civilizations.” (WM)

The International Business Times has apparently latched on to the potential financial promise—and perils—from postulated UFO technology. Here Crisnel Longino contemplates a possible competition between major powers to "reengineer" captured Non-Human Intelligence technology, as "The idea of a hidden UFO arms race is no longer confined to fringe circles." With a bit finer focus, Longino writes of Dr. Eric Davis Scientist Says Congress Was Briefed on UFO Crash Retrieval and NHI Programs in Secret Rooms. Longino explicitly lists cogent reasons why Davis (and the Government) do not want to get specific. Though Crisnel's article is highly informative, she errs on Anna Paulina Luna's name and, as far as what Erik Davis actually did say in "Secure Rooms," we may never know! Longino then takes us Inside America's Hidden 'MAJESTIC' War Plan Built for UFO Disclosure and Mass Deception. She seems impressed by Geoffrey P. Cruickshank's January 25th Substack piece U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Emergency War Plan "MAJESTIC" For a War Starting July 1, 1952: PSYOPs, Unconventional Warfare and Deception Operations That Line Up with the "Burned Memo" Directives of 1961. And lastly, we have Longino's piece about Ron Pandolfi, CIA Puppet Master Accused of Running Both Sides of the UFO Psyop, about which she concludes: "His story challenges assumptions about who truly controls what the world knows about UFOs and demonstrates that in the hidden world of government secrecy, truth is often layered, manipulated, and selective." (WM)

Assuming the video footage and witness claims are genuine, then Down-Under the "oceans are doing something that seems apocalyptic or magical." According to body-boarders Chris White and Ben Allen, who conveniently filmed the phenomena, the ocean suddenly parts, exposing the sea-bed and then closes creating "a massive explosion that propels a thick column of seawater hundreds of feet into the air." That description, however, doesn't quite match the footage. Boffins are baffled, but then again "the only people in the world who seem to physically noticing it are a group of bodyboarding documentarians." And across the globe, a Huge Wave Leaves One Dead at Argentinian Beach. Local news reports claim that a meteotsunami swept away a man to his death, caused a heart attack in another ,and left 35 folks injured. The video taken at the time, however, shows nothing that matches the drama of these reports. For a historic mega wave event in the US, check out "The Daytona Beach Mystery Wave" which appeared in the first issue of The Anomalist Journal (pdf). (LP)

Anyone with a dog in their family knows Rover can be pretty smart at times. But a new study has demonstrated that some dogs are Gifted Word Learners, and can learn the names of objects just by overhearing us talk about them. This characteristic is giving scientists a model to explore how humans' cognitive abilities allowed them to develop language. In even more astounding news, Austrian Cow Shows First Case Of Flexible, Multi-Purpose Tool Use In Cattle. A long lived cow named Veronika, kept as a family pet essentially, has been witnessed picking up sticks and scratching herself. "This was a meaningful example of tool use in a species that is rarely considered from a cognitive perspective," said Alice Auersperg, a cognitive biologist at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna. Researchers are now looking into what factors enable livestock to develop the skills demonstrated by Veronika, and how many cases may have gone unreported because no one was aware this behavior even existed. (CM)

What if someone told you "The public no longer needs radar tapes from the Pentagon or satellite images from classified programs" to track anomalously fast-moving objects? And what if that person added that there's decades of such information ready to hand? Well, that's basically what David Freeman does, claiming "The Earth is a sensor," and explaining why we needn't merely look for "transparency" from the military. But Maria Leticia Gomes calls UFO Disclosure 'Unstoppable' As Whistleblowers Force 2026 Revelations. Gomes reiterates points sources we saw made to Daily Mail's Rob Waugh last week supporting these contentions and adds other information. And be that as it may, the recent James Fox event has potential to move minds and hearts, as Martin Willis has A Quick Chat with Leslie Kean at the UFO (UAP) Press Conference on January 20th. Martin's "Description" of the conversation points is very good. That National Press Club event forms most of the content of the therefore rather inappropriately-named Ross Coulthart Q&A: President Trump on 'Weapons Nobody Knows About'. Additional points the Varghina, Brazil, witnesses made are highlighted; plus mainstream media's gross inattention to what really was a compelling presentation, and one that should elevate this case's significance greatly. (WM)

Katie Bo Lillis reports on a CNN investigation into the US Defense Department’s covert acquisition and testing of a pulsed radio‑wave device that some officials think might be linked to Havana Syndrome. This adds a twist to years of official skepticism that such a weapon, or indeed the syndrome, actually exists. Homeland Security Investigations reportedly used Pentagon funds to pay an eight‑figure sum for a “backpack‑sized system." The purchase has revived arguments, offered a degree of moral victory to some afflicted officers, and prompted worries about what it would mean if such technology had quietly proliferated worldwide. At the same time, the case raises questions about the level of incredulity surrounding the syndrome in both official and scientific circles. Turning from a mystery that may yet prove to be a conspiracy, Ellsworth Toohey at Boing Boing discusses a classic scare story that turned out to be nothing more than social panic: The 1990s Panic Over "Phantom Social Workers" Trying to Abduct Children. The article revisits the 1990s UK panic over so‑called “phantom social workers,” strangers posing as officials who supposedly tried to inspect or abduct children from family homes. A large police operation, involving 23 forces and hundreds of reports, failed to uncover solid evidence of an organized network, feeding later interpretations of the affair as a moral panic rather than a real abduction conspiracy, rooted in wider late‑20th‑century anxieties about child abuse, stranger danger, and a sensationalist media climate. (JS)

In this recent episode of Mystical Underground, we are treated to an interview with Charlie Hall, a paranormal writer and researcher, a short filmmaker, a horror writer, and a spiritual medium. She shares how her experiences with psychic sensitivity, haunted places, and synchronicities influenced the person she is today. Next we have a review of Ghosted: A History of Ghost Hunting, and Why We Keep Looking, by Alice Vernon. Dr. Vernon does not believe in ghosts, but she'd like to, maintaining "nothing consumes our curiosity quite like experiencing something we cannot explain.” This review ends with a recommendation for Ghosted, stating that while Vernon remains skeptical, it doesn't ruin the story. (CM)