With ever-increasing news reports about Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), the public is gradually getting more and more used to the idea that, perhaps, our planet Earth has been visited by extraterrestrial intelligent beings that have traversed vast interstellar distances to do so.
What many people do not know is that the vast majority of astrophysicists and astronomers consider such alien visitations highly improbable, if not impossible, for sound scientific reasons.
Einstein’s 1905 theory of Special Relativity (SR) maintains that it is absolutely impossible to travel faster than the speed of light. Star Trek and other science fiction stories make claims about using wormholes and warp drives and inter-dimensional travel and other exotic methods to travel the vast distances for interstellar voyages—not telling gullible audiences that this is merely the stuff of fiction mixed with some actual science, not genuine science.
Here are a few of the problems actual science poses to interstellar travel.
First and foremost, just the visible universe alone is estimated to be about ninety-three billion light years across with distances so vast between stars that it would take thousands of years to cross one-way from one star to another using conventional space ship speeds, such as 36,000 mph, the speed of the New Horizons space probe, the fastest one to date, launched toward Pluto in 2006. At that rate, it would take approximately 78,000 years to go the 4.3 light years from Earth to Proxima Centauri, the closest star!
One could use “generation” or “century” ships allowing multi-generations to reproduce in order to have some distant descendants reach the targeted star—but then this is hardly a method suitable for practical vacationing. The ships would have to be huge to hold the colony—hardly the tiny craft we see claimed to be darting about the skies of our planet.
Given the actual time it would take to reach the nearest star at 36,000 mph—which would be about 78,000 years, better to call them “millennia” ships!
Another method might be “cryosleep”—freezing the crews for many thousands of years so as to wake them upon arrival at some distant star system. Unfortunately, the biology of this process does not work for higher animals.
A more workable solution might be the use of “seeder” ships—space ships filled with frozen human embryos that could remain that way over vast distances and enormous periods of time. When the ships get within twenty or thirty years of the target planet, Artificial Intelligence programming could then govern the development and education of the young human “seedlings” in preparation for successful landing and potential colonization. But this is clearly a one-way trip, since no one who goes would ever be one of those coming back!
Then there is the possibility of light sails, propelled by ground-based lasers that might achieve speeds nearer to the speed of light. Unfortunately, this also requires ground based lasers at the destination to stop the sail craft again. How do we get such lasers installed at the destination before we even start the trip?
We also have the much-heralded possibility of wormhole travel through a space-time tunnel in which space is folded to join widely separated regions of space. This possibility is provided for by Einstein’s 1915 theory of General Relativity (GR). Unfortunately, these tunnels are very unstable and instantly snap shut the moment they form. The hypothesis is that “exotic matter” could hold them open. This is stuff that has true antigravity properties that can literally push space apart. Unfortunately, such “exotic matter” is not known to exist!
Then there is the hypothesis of the warp drive (so dear to the hearts of Star Trek fans). This again is derived from elements of GR. Such assumed technology would form bubbles of space around a ship allowing it to travel through space at any speed desired, since, while light cannot exceed its established limit, space itself does not entail any such limit. Unfortunately, this speculation also presumes the reality of that same “exotic matter,” which does not appear to exist as far as is presently known to the science of physics.
Worse yet, warp drive may cause any space craft using it to create huge shock waves of high energy gamma rays that would burn up anything in its path including the surface of any target planet as you drop out of warp. Needless to say, this would annihilate any civilization existing on the planet so “fortunate” as to receive such a visit from space aliens.
Some speculate that somehow Quantum Mechanics (QM) can solve this riddle for space travelers, but such hopes presently reside in the same realm as the ubiquitous Elvis Presley.
Most of the above alternatives are merely a summary of observations made by astrophysicist Adam Frank, writing in 2023. These practical objections to the scientific possibility of space aliens visiting earth may not be exhaustive, but are typical of the kinds of substantive scientific objections, which cause most astronomers to reject the practical scientific possibility of such visits.
Despite the scientific objections listed above to its very possibility, some 37 percent of Americans recently polled believe that space aliens have visited planet Earth.
This question is not to be confused with belief in the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life forms. That same poll indicates that some 55 percent of Americans think intelligent life exists on other planets. The latter result is not surprising, since Darwinian naturalistic evolution is widely accepted. Darwinism maintains that life can arise naturally from non-life, if planetary conditions permit. Given the incredible number of planets in the universe, a sizable percentage of them might be expected to meet the conditions needed to permit the evolution of life forms. Again, following Darwinian thinking—given enough time—a certain percentage of planets with life would be expected to give rise to sentient and even intelligent organisms.
Unfortunately for the Darwinians, thus far, life has never been created from scratch in a laboratory. “In short, no life has been created, there is no artificial life, there are no artificial cells” (Luis Franco). Moreover, philosophically speaking, since intelligent life forms require a spiritual intellectual soul, God must intervene to create such a spiritual soul each and every time a new rational animal (human being) begins to exist. This means that every time an animal population is claimed to evolve into true human beings with rational intellectual souls, God must directly intervene in its assumed “evolution” to create the first true human being or any intellectual life form. It cannot happen by pure chance or random mutations, since matter alone cannot produce true spirit under any possible circumstances.
Therefore, if any true animal species exist “out there” on distant planets, they cannot become true intellectual spiritual life forms without the direct intervention of God himself. Hence, all Darwinian naturalistic models utterly fail to explain intelligent life on other planets. It is simply not an automatic process. Moreover, there would be no way to know that any of them exist at all except through directly encountering them.
A priori Darwinian models simply cannot establish the existence of life and of intellectual organisms in other planetary systems.
There are other essential philosophical flaws in this scientific theory that assumes that progressively more perfect life forms and, eventually, intelligent ones would naturally evolve without divine intervention. I have treated that subject matter in an earlier article in The Postil, entitled “The philosophical impossibility of Darwinian naturalistic evolution.”
Humans Traveling to Other Planets vs. Space Aliens Visiting Planet Earth
Note that the first three methods of space travel listed above, 1) generation or century ships, 2) cryosleep ships, and 3) seeder ships, all constitute methods for possibly allowing the human race to “slowly” limp from one planetary system to another so as to spread ever further into space. I say, “slowly,” because the methods employed allow ship speeds of “only” about 36,000 miles per hour. Anything faster would entail too much damage to the ship and death to the crew from space particles—even though they may be exceedingly rare.
But these three methods pertain to humans moving away from planet Earth without a realistic method for return flight. That is not what we are talking about when we speak of space aliens visiting the Earth!
Claims about space aliens visiting Earth do not appear to refer to them making merely one way trips from their distant planets. Rather, these aliens are thought of as intelligent life forms coming from distant planets to which they are expected to be able to return fairly rapidly at a later date. That is, they are true interplanetary voyagers able to travel back and forth from star system to star system any time they so desire—just like Captain Kirk and the rest of the citizens of the Galactic Federation are depicted to be on the TV series Star Trek!
It is the rest of the methods of such interplanetary travel—the ones that would actually apply to space aliens visiting earth—that offer no realistic scientific foundation. Such methods are represented by those specifically listed above: warp drive, light sails, wormhole travel, and the hoped-for fantasies of Quantum Mechanics.
Why People Believe in Space Alien Visits
Why, then, do we have so many people believing that space aliens have visited this planet, when scientific reasoning indicates that such visits, not only have not happened, but also simply cannot happen?
This result is understandable, given the widespread belief in life on other planets and the many stories reporting alien earthly visitations, for example, the famous Roswell incident. Careful documentation of what actually happened at Roswell in 1947 shows that no space alien craft was ever encountered and that the truth was that a U.S. military project named Project Mogul was actually the basis for the reports.
It is interesting to ponder how space aliens so advanced in technology that they could transverse the unimaginable distances from other stars could still be so inept as to crash their spacecraft during low altitude maneuvers on this tiny planet!
According to a 2022 Reuters report about the government investigation of possible alien-earth encounters, “The Pentagon’s new push to investigate reports of UFOs has so far not yielded any evidence to suggest that aliens have visited Earth or crash-landed here, senior military leaders said on Friday.”
The Roswell “incident” is the most famous case of alleged space aliens visiting earth, but there are many others as well. Nonetheless, the major claims appear to dissolve when placed under the same scrutiny applied to the Roswell one above. The most famous such claims have already been debunked, including cattle mutilations, signs of ancient alien architects, the face on Mars, crop circles, the “alien autopsy,” and several others. Also to be included among the debunked is the well-known Rendlesham Forest UFO case.
If AUPs or UFOs are not actually alien visitations from distant solar systems, then how we explain the many reports alleging to document such events?
Certainly, some of these reports of space aliens could be the result of hallucinations, deliberately-intended exaggeration or lying, misinterpreted natural phenomena, outright hoaxes and so forth.
One source of belief in extraterrestrial space alien visitation is the claim that materials from the wreckage of alien space ships have been recovered and are being used to reverse-engineer the technology found in it. This claim has been directly rejected by the U.S. government in an official Pentagon report to Congress of date 8 March 2024. The report explicitly denies any reverse-engineering and states, “It is critical to note that no extraterrestrial craft or bodies were ever collected.”
This means that no biological or non-living physical parts have ever been recovered from extraterrestrial alien space ships or from alleged crash sites. This very thorough investigative Pentagon report also notes “…the lack of evidence of the extraterrestrial origin of even one UAP report….” (page 37) This report also says that it “…found no empirical evidence for claims that the USG and private companies have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology” (page 7).
Project Blue Beam
One widely-discussed possible futuristic nightmare hoax is something like Project Blue Beam as proposed by Canadian writer Serge Monast. This science fantasy proposes a false invasion by alleged space aliens designed to deceive the people of the Earth. The proposed fake attack would employ holograms so convincing that people would believe that they see the Second Coming appearing the heavens or, alternatively, an immense flotilla of space ships threatening to wipe out humanity.
The latter fake space invasion could be used to scare the world’s population into accepting a one world government, supposedly to defend against this alleged “threat.” This new global government would then be used to impose tyranny on the entire human race, while including a program of depopulation.
Present technology is not believed able to produce such frightening holographic prodigies. Still, there is the possibility that actual technology advances far exceed present public awareness.
Indeed, one might look up in the sky and see a fleet of “alien space craft”—even complemented by terrifyingly-actual bombing of the ground beneath them. How could such phenomena be produced by mere “holograms?” Simple. The bombing could easily be accomplished by conventional aircraft launching missiles from outside the field of vision, but landing beneath the “space alien flotilla”—so as to give the appearance that they are being launched by the illusory space craft themselves!
How many human beings would doubt what they see and hear through their own senses? Deception of an entire population is very feasible.
Drone Hysteria—and now Orbs, too
We are today in the midst of videoed and eye-witnessed sightings of many large aerial drones appearing over many states. They are not holographic fakes, but rather, appear to be conventional man-made aircraft or drones—even though possibly with some novel features. While the majority of sightings may be dismissed as misidentified aircraft, stars, or reflections off objects, like towers, thousands of shocked eye-witnesses insist that what they have seen are nothing normal, but rather are clearly large automobile-sized objects with extended structures between colored lights that go on and off at times.
Various reports claim that these strange drones are trying to detect radiological sources, while official government spokesmen adamantly deny these claims. Many have been observed disturbingly close to military sites.
The fact that videos show these drones repeatedly following discernable pathways and that some drones constantly appear to follow one another along those paths also gives credence to something very unusual and deliberate going on.
At present, it is difficult to discern the true motivations behind this activity as well as whether government, government contractors, or private agencies are behind this disturbing activity. Whether these particular drones turn out to be malevolent or benign, what is most important for the purposes of our present enquiry, though, is that they are not examples of extraterrestrial space aliens, but simply man-made objects.
Now we are also getting reports that luminous orbs are being seen flying in the sky, sometimes around these drones or even following the paths of commercial airliners. Many are also seen hovering or darting, seemingly on their own or in some formation—apart from any other objects. These luminous orbs sometimes appear to exhibit both internal and external movements within and about themselves. Some argue that sighted orbs are simply natural objects. If so, they are not extraterrestrial physical visitors. Even the news media seem mystified by some of them.
The drones and orbs appear to be very distinct from each other. While the large drones appear clearly to be man-made objects, the luminous and very active orbs do not so clearly fall into that category. In fact, they are often referred to as being “interdimensional” entities—a type of reality whose nature I shall discuss in detail in the section below entitled, “The Interdimensional Alterative.”
The “Visitors’” Gallery
Another way to calculate the odds of extraterrestrial aliens visiting Earth is by considering the realistic chances of diverse planetary civilizations actually getting close enough to each other in time and space to allow such visitation.
Given that the cosmos is some 13.7 billion years old, a given planet—assuming the Darwinian model—might evolve and sustain intelligent life forms for, perhaps, a maximum of a few million years before going extinct. Various mechanisms, such as nuclear self-annihilation or being hit by another astral object, would likely end intelligent life. This means that only a very tiny part of the planet’s evolutionary history would have intelligent animals able to engage in space communication and/or travel. Moreover, planets truly capable of such life forms would be extremely rare, since they must not only be in the habitable zone of their sun, but also must possess such earthly special conditions as a stable atmosphere, adequate oceans, a large moon, and many other very specific properties without which life is really not sustainable.
Given the necessity of finding two such “perfect” planets as well as both of them developing intelligent life forms at virtually the same relatively “tiny moment” in their long evolutionary history, the likelihood of actual planet to planet communication, much less physical visitation, is probably next to none at all! And all that is just to have visits from a single alien species!
But, what are we today being told about space aliens visiting planet Earth? Not one, but multiple species are said to be constantly coming to this planet! We see them faithfully paraded out by UFO enthusiasts with species names, like Reptilians, Grays, Arcturians, and Pleiadians—in fact so many that we are told they belong to some sort of Galactic Federation!
Needless to say, if the odds of a single alien species making contact with Earth are vanishingly small and if sound science indicates that no visits from them are possible at all, the mere suggestion that multiple alien species are constantly making such visits becomes absurd on its very face!
We might need to explain why reports of encounters with alleged space aliens still appear to occur, but not because they are authentically from physical space aliens. Rather, we may need yet another alternative explanation for some phenomena that humans have actually encountered—even though such explanations will not include such false inferences as those claiming that actual alien visitations have occurred—at least not in the form of intelligent physical life forms from other planets.
The “Interdimensional” Alternative
Yes, intelligent alien life forms do exist. But they are not from other planets. Sometimes they are said to be explained by the appearance of what are called “interdimensional” beings. Such may well be the nature of the orbs that are suddenly being seen everywhere, since, if 1) they sometimes seem to exhibit behaviors unlike normal physical objects and 2) natural scientific laws do not permit visits from extraterrestrial space aliens to planet Earth, as noted earlier.
Lest one think of “interdimensional beings” as somehow based on some recent discovery in natural science, such as string theory, it turns out that the concept of “interdimensional beings” is actually just a warmed-over occultist byproduct of the long history of Spiritism—enlisted in a new campaign to explain things that natural science cannot explain.
For those who already accept the existence of spiritual entities, angels, or demons, much of the rest of this paper entails merely explaining why signs of extraterrestrial visitations that clearly contradict sound science should be understood as coming from such spiritual sources, rather than by abandoning sound science. The bias of atheistic materialists against such spiritual entities will, instead, force them to embrace science fiction.
In 1947, UFO enthusiast and occultist Meade Layne claimed that flying saucers were from another dimension—a claim he got from consulting a medium. Thus was born the term, “interdimensional hypostasis,” which began a history of recent claims about interdimensional beings. This is nothing new, but simply the result of various forms of Spiritism and occultism—operating as an “interdimensional UFO hypothesis” for alien visitations that serious science does not sustain.
While scientific materialists may be uncomfortable basing their beliefs in UFOs on material derived from the occult, it is a tempting alternative for occultists when natural science alone indicates no basis for remarkable UFO claims.
Even from a more traditional philosophical and theological perspective, the existence of “interdimensional” beings is well understood and documented in human experience. The framework for such beings arises in terms of the gap between the God of classical theism and the physical world in which we human beings exist. That gap is filled by finite spiritual beings that have no material bodies, but are pure spirits: the angels. Demons or devils are simply angels who fell from grace when they rebelled against God.
Given its historical origins in the occult and given the association of the occult with demons, it is understandable that the discussion about interdimensional beings quickly becomes focused on, not angels, but fallen angels or demons.
Such demons are dogmatically defined to exist in Catholic teaching and fully accepted by all Christians as real, but evil, pure spirits. Roles for demons are also found in other major religions, such as those of the Persians, Babylonians, Chaldeans, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists.
The history of Christian saints is filled with reports of such demons appearing in physical forms as various evil-looking animals and even monsters—seen, not only by the subject being attacked, but also in many instances by onlookers. In many reports, these demons or devils are able to inflict real and sometimes damaging physical attacks upon their victims. Yet, they vanish instantly when the victim or others make religious gestures, like prayers or the sign of the cross. Holy water is especially effective in making such demonic appearances instantly cease, sometimes with screams of anguish from the devils themselves! For example, see Angels and Devils (Joan Carroll Cruz, 1999), pp. 169-183.
Since these demons are seen to appear as physically-present animals, such as snakes, birds, lions, bears, leopards, and bulls, they clearly can manifest as large physical objects at will.
Given the ability of demons to manifest as animals with bodies clearly extended in space like all other physical things, it requires little imagination to realize that greater extension and deceptive design are fully within their powers.
UFOs that manifest as physical bodies at a distance, defying all laws of motion—such as making instant sharp turns at incredible speeds—are well within demonic abilities. Moreover, appearing in the form of a flying saucer—just as we expect them to look—is also no great feat for these fallen angels. The Father of Lies is also the “Father of Deception” for the purpose of misleading the human race into thinking that alien extraterrestrials are here on planet Earth.
Still, what of the “extraterrestrial species,” like the Grays and Reptilians? If devils can manifest themselves as bulls or human beings in appearance, they can also easily manifest as any “comic book” species they wish. But, hundreds or thousands of them? Scripture tells us that their “name is Legion” (Mark 5: 9)—for they are many! All they need do is to “recruit” a host of fellow demons.
That said, it is also speculatively conceivable that fallen angels, with intellects naturally superior to our own, might somehow aid human scientists in developing forms of technology superior to unaided human capabilities. In that sense, some advances that are generally unknown to the public might be used against mankind and even deceive many into thinking that they were the product of advanced alien civilizations. This would simply be another way that the Father of Lies could mislead and deceive mankind.
Still, it must not be forgotten that even human beings—whether aided by demons or not—may attain the ability to make spacecraft-shaped flying discs that are propelled by such amazing new technologies as anti-gravity devices inspired by Nicola Tesla—thereby giving the appearance of being what we presently think extraterrestrial space ships might look and act like.
The key distinction here is that they would still be merely man-made objects and not genuine alien ships from other planets. In fact, they may be merely some form of advanced hologram. The challenge may always be to decide whether to fire a missile at an attacking “space craft”, ignore it, or merely say a prayer against it and try to sprinkle it with holy water!
Regarding the many reports of “alien abduction,” Christian astronomer Hugh Ross says that authentic abduction experiences happen only rarely and to people deeply into the occult or witchcraft—highlighting again a connection with demons.
Ross also says that real, but demonic, UFOs violate the laws of physics, such as moving at 5000 miles an hour through the atmosphere, but leaving no heat trail, no sonic boom, and no debris upon impacting earth, while yet leaving a shallow physical impression at the impact site (much like the physical wounds caused by demons to victims). Again, the mysterious luminous orbs recently getting attention may fit this category well—for the simple reason that they may not be physical entities at all, but rather manifestations of evil spirits.
Conclusion
The point of all of the above is not to insist that any given physical phenomenon is necessarily demonic in origin. Rather, it is merely to reaffirm that natural science is correct in denying that genuine space aliens can visit us from planets in other star systems.
If certain UAP phenomena appear to violate known scientific laws, this does not mean that the science is wrong. It merely means that either 1) we are failing to discern what is really happening because of mistaken judgments, based upon hallucinations, illusions, deliberate human deception, inadequate scientific observations and so forth, or, 2) we are being deceived by demons that are intruding into our physical dimensions so as to mislead us into thinking extraterrestrial visitations by physical space aliens are real.
Put another way, since natural science does not provide an evidence-based model for interplanetary visits from interstellar space aliens, it is more reasonable to attribute totally anomalous phenomena to activities of demonic spirits—for which we do have much historical evidence—than it is to deny established natural science.
The feasibility of visits to planet Earth by genuine physical space aliens remains what it always was, namely, scientifically impossible, which means, not possible at all by any purely physical natural means.
Featured: Film poster, The Devil Girl from Mars (1954).
