April 14, 2026
The subject of UFOs and aliens is vast and complex, making it impossible to summarize in one article. Flying saucers/UFOs made headline news throughout the world in 1947, sparked by two major, highly publicized events in the U.S., which generated a wave of “flying saucer” hysteria.
Since then, UFOs have captured imaginations worldwide. It has been a subject of ridicule as well as fear and has spawned over a thousand books, apart from an array of articles, humor, and poems. The phenomenon of UFOs has deeply permeated popular culture, resulting in a vast, enduring market for books, films, and merchandise. The surge in interest, beginning in the late 1940s following the Roswell incident, spawned a fascination that grew from a niche interest into a major commercial industry.
If you think Part 2 fiction of this 3-part series is far-fetched, there are countless real UFO and alien incidents around the world which make it difficult to separate fiction from reality. Outlandish stories of encounters with the occupants of UFOs are invariably greeted with a barrage of ridicule. Yet, when some of the witnesses were subjected to scientific examination and hypnotic regression, they were found to be telling the truth. Experts in the field say, “Even if you discount 70% as weather balloons, clouds, aircraft, etc., still there are 30% that cannot be rejected as illusion or the product of wild imagination.”
As I embarked on writing Part 3, I watched the film Project Hail Mary (adapted from Andy Weir’s sci-fi bestseller), which centers on science teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) teaming up with a benevolent alien, Rocky, in a desperate effort to save planet Earth, which is dying because a string of alien microbes are snuffing out the sun. This film was released on 20 March 2026, a month after former U.S. President Barack Obama commented that “aliens are real, but I haven’t seen them.” Soon, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to make public the files that have been kept secret for decades on UFOs and aliens. Being a UFO enthusiast myself, I greeted the news with great excitement.
Suddenly, everyone is talking about aliens. Trump said people want to know the truth. For decades, ufologists, scientists, and researchers have been accusing some governments of a cover-up. An amazing book entitled Beyond Top Secret (The Worldwide UFO Security Threat) by Timothy Good incorporates powerful new evidence drawn from hundreds of declassified reports he has acquired from the world’s intelligence agencies to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that there has been an extensive cover-up and that much material continues to be classified at a level beyond top secret.
Another wonderful book, Out of the Shadows (UFOs, The Establishment & the Official Cover-Up) by Dr. David Clarke and Andy Roberts, exposes the truth about official investigations into the UFO phenomenon. They say that the evidence proves that the Ministry of Defence, politicians, high-ranking scientists, and even the British aristocracy believed in UFOs, investigated them, and found baffling and inexplicable evidence for their existence.
I found these two books most interesting regarding world governments’ cover-up on UFOs, as they are a treasure trove of well-researched information. Experts believe the reason for world governments’ concealment, by adopting a policy of silence, is their fear that the public might panic. If the truth comes out and humans know of aliens’ existence, they fear the possible collapse of our power structures, our legal systems, and our religious beliefs. They point to the mass hysteria that gripped the USA following Orson Welles’ infamous War of the Worlds radio broadcast in October 1938, when hundreds of people became convinced that Martians were attacking New York.
There have been many cases where authorities were going to great lengths to hide the truth about mysterious incidents: UFO sightings, alien encounters and abductions, and even UFO crashes. Those who witnessed UFOs alleged that they had been warned, with serious consequences, not to speak about their encounters, not even to family members. Decades of cover-up and official silence have bothered ufologists and UFO connoisseurs, who time and again urged the government to tell the truth.
Extreme variants of the conspiracy have it that some governments are in possession of crashed UFOs and “biologics,” and that they have well-preserved alien cadavers at Patterson Air Force Base. The military initially said the recovered material was from a flying disc, only to reverse course and tell the public it was from a weather balloon.
It is alleged that the U.S. government operated a secret, “multi-decade” reverse-engineering program of recovered crashed UFOs. If alien technology is duplicated, it would help the U.S. win military conflicts.
Belief in aliens has grown to the point where hundreds of thousands of people believe that the Earth is being visited by beings from space. This belief has been reinforced by numerous books, films, and television programs that have documented, in great detail, the stories of those who claim contact with UFOs and their occupants. These experiences encompass everything from sightings of unexplained lights in the sky to full-blown “close encounters of the third kind,” while more sinister are the experiences of those who claim they have been visited by aliens, often since childhood, and abducted for as yet unfathomable reasons.
Flying saucers, unidentified flying objects (UFOs), unidentified anomalous objects (UAP), Foo Fighters, ghost rockets, phantom airships, chariots of the gods—whatever you call them—strange things have haunted our skies since the dawn of time. Signs and omens in the sky have always formed part of human belief and tradition. Sightings of mysterious lights and strange objects are recorded in the history of every society, particularly at times of social tension and war.
St. Alban (3rd Century) wrote: “In serene sky and clear air, with stars shining and the moon eight days old, there suddenly appeared in the sky a kind of large ship, elegantly shaped, well equipped, and of marvelous color.” St. Padre Pio believed in the existence of other non-fallen beings on other planets. Some Christians believe that the revelation of extraterrestrial life would likely cause significant theological, philosophical, and social challenges for religions, but it is unlikely to lead to the total collapse of religious beliefs.
In 1974, I had read the first Konkani sci-fi novel (revolving around UFOs and aliens) entitled Te Aiylyaath (They Have Come), written by the renowned author, the late Edwin J. F. D’Souza. The novel was fast-paced and the plot captivating, and I was immediately hooked on the subject of UFOs and aliens. Ever since then, I have read numerous works on the subject, and even today, the subject of UFOs and aliens never ceases to amaze me.
Whilst UFOs are being sighted sporadically even today, the historical UFO wave years include 1947, 1952, 1967, 1973, 1983–1986, 1989–1990, and 1997, with people from around the world having sighted and reported them.
Many of the stories might seem like science fiction or the very stuff of nightmares, yet they are told by people of different age groups, social backgrounds, and locations—people with dignity—making it difficult to discard them as hoaxes. UFOs are sighted during the night as well as in broad daylight. Witnesses include policemen on patrol, people returning from late-night film shows or night work shifts, people working on farms or in remote areas or mountains, and, rarely, in crowded cities.
For generations, human beings have wondered what alien life from another planet would be like. While sci-fi novels and films have created their own versions, from witnesses’ accounts, aliens have been observed in different forms: (a) 3-foot-tall with dreadful looks; (b) 7–8-foot-tall with Nordic looks and long golden hair; (c) similar to humans. There have been countless alien encounters wherein witnesses have described such physical attributes. While some witnesses said they were friendly, others said they were hostile. Witnesses have been harassed, fought with, paralyzed, abducted, and sexually molested by aliens.
UFO sightings often include reports of metallic, saucer-shaped, triangular, spherical, or cigar-shaped spacecraft exhibiting stupendous speeds, sharp turns in every direction, gravity-defying feats, and the ability to operate in both air and water. UFOs have been observed to come to a dead stop from cruising horizontally at incredible speeds of over 1,800 miles per hour and remain stationary in the air. These have been observed by military aircraft during WWII, a technologically backward time for humans to develop such mind-boggling technologies. Even when they are hovering at low altitudes, they make a constant low humming or droning sound, with many witnesses reporting no sound at all. UFOs emanate a wide array of lights, often described as intense, color-shifting, pulsating, or dazzling white light, causing temporary blindness and fear.
There are numerous incidents of WWII military aircraft chasing UFOs, not once being successful, and instead crashing or disappearing, as if the large UFOs swallowed and took them.
In 1989, Bob Lazar made a sensational claim that UFOs move by bending space instead of flying normally in the way conventional aircraft do. According to him, this propulsion method allows craft to defy gravity, move at incredible speeds, and perform maneuvers impossible for human technology.
A 2021 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center showed that about two-thirds of Americans said their best guess is that intelligent life exists on other planets.
Many theories have been espoused by scientists and researchers about UFOs, ranging from terrestrial military technology to extraterrestrial visitation and more esoteric, speculative ideas. These theories address both the nature of the objects and their potential points of origin, such as: (a) they are from other planets in our solar system or other galaxies; (b) they are interdimensional beings visiting Earth; (c) they are infraterrestrial beings who live deep underground within the Earth’s crust; (d) they come from deep oceans where they live; (e) it is “massive demonic deception.” Some Christian priests and authors, in their books and writings, argue that UFO sightings and alien abductions are spiritual deceptions aimed at destroying Christian faith, with demons masquerading as advanced extraterrestrials.
If aliens do exist, why no open contact? The number one reason could be that humans are seen as too aggressive, savage, or dangerous to be safely contacted, particularly given our history of warfare and nuclear weapons. “If I were looking at Earth from a distance, I would be pretty disappointed,” theoretical physicist Avi Loeb says. “Most of our investing is dealing with conflicts to prevent other people from killing us or us killing others. Look at the Ukraine war over a little bit of territory. That is not a sign of intelligence.”
We are probably expressing fear for nothing. Maybe aliens are carrying out their own space exploration the same way humans on planet Earth are doing. Or perhaps they have been visiting our planet for thousands of years, totally familiar with our world, knowing us fully, and watching how we are gravitating toward our own destruction, and maybe they will save mankind from a catastrophic, global-scale devastation through intervention when the situation demands it.
UFOs were frequently sighted by Allied air crews during WWII. There have been instances of UFOs hovering over weapons storage facilities and nuclear sites in the UK, USA, and elsewhere. When that happened, missiles became inoperative. Given the documented cases of intrusion by UFOs over missile sites, will there be a possibility of ballistic missiles being rendered impotent by UFOs during major conflicts, saving the Earth from widespread destruction? In the novel Rapture’s Witness (The Earth’s Last Days Are Upon Us) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles explode midway, high up in the sky, before reaching their targets in Israel by mysterious intervention.
The age of the universe is about 13.8 billion years. The age of our solar system is about 5.4 billion years. The observable universe is estimated to contain at least 2 trillion galaxies, according to recent studies. The Milky Way galaxy, which contains our Earth, is estimated to contain between 100 billion and 400 billion stars and likely hundreds of billions of planets. Improved modeling of space observation indicates that 90% of the galaxies are too faint or distant for current technology to detect, increasing the estimate tenfold.
In fact, the chances of discovering extraterrestrial life have been increasing exponentially, driven by technological advancements in AI, space telescopes, and a massive influx of data identifying billions of habitable-zone planets. As of March 2026, NASA has officially confirmed the discovery of over 6,000 exoplanets—planets orbiting stars outside the solar system—with the help of telescopes like Kepler and TESS. Exoplanets are rocky worlds similar in composition to Earth. These are planets that, like Earth, are primarily made of rock, could potentially host surface water, and are potentially suited for life.
Physicists argue that a rocket using conventional means and traveling at 25,000 miles per hour would take 70,000 years to reach us from the nearest star. But aliens, who are thousands of years more advanced than us, might have found an option to undertake such travel. “Shortcuts” in space, known as wormholes or Einstein–Rosen bridges, are theoretically possible according to Einstein’s theory of general relativity. These hypothetical tunnels could connect two distant points in space and time, potentially allowing travel across vast distances much faster than conventional light-speed travel.
Despite our advancement in science and technology, scientists and NASA have yet to deliver conclusive proof of life outside Earth. That, however, should not extinguish our hopes and dreams of finding life elsewhere in the universe. “We don’t want to think this is the only place in this extraordinarily and incomprehensibly large universe where life and intelligence and even technology have emerged,” says Bill Diamond, president and chief executive of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.
Trump is not the first president to ask for classified files to be released. President Jimmy Carter promised in the 1976 election campaign to release government information on UFOs to the public and scientists. However, after taking office, he backed away from his pledge, citing national security concerns.
World UFO Day 2026 will be celebrated on July 2. This date marks the anniversary of the Roswell incident in 1947 and the alleged government cover-up. The day is about raising awareness of UFOs, encouraging people to learn more about sightings, space exploration, and the possibility of life beyond Earth. Many celebrations include sky-watching, festivals, documentaries, and discussions about what might exist beyond our universe.
Do you believe there is life somewhere else in the universe?
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