Recap
The first article concerned my earliest interactions with the UFO topic. I outlined my confusion about why so much data existed, and my intrigue with the most famous cases, such as the Socorro incident.
The second article discussed my return to the topic, after a break. Pulled away for a time, eventually I was brought back by Luis Elizondo. I provided my assessment of him — and the ways I found him credible.
The third article regarded the US Navy encounters with UFOs, popularized in 2017. I was captivated by the Nimitz case. From a rational frame of mind, it was challenging to dismiss — especially alongside the Roosevelt encounters. And increasingly, I felt Elizondo’s engagement with the topic was grounded: he used such cases to outline his work with AATIP.
To The Stars
As I dug deeper, I noticed that Elizondo was employed by a company called To The Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences, or TTSA. It wasn’t much of a secret: Tom DeLonge, the former front-man for Blink-182, was his hyper-expressive boss. DeLonge was now running a company dedicated to unveiling the reality of UFOs, using a variety of methods: music, story, media, material analysis, data-collection — even building one!
Even wilder: DeLonge had assembled an army of high-level officials, whom he referred to as his “advisors”. These were men with decades of experience, having departed the upper echelons of military, government, intelligence, engineering and physics for UFOs. Elizondo being one. They were working with Tom to — apparently — fix the conversation.
Huh?
All this certainly confused me — and everybody else. Anyone initially intrigued by the New York Times UFO article was now reconsidering. In fact, for many, this was enough to stifle their journey entirely.
I didn’t have this experience. I found it perplexing — but simply assumed there was a reasonable explanation for the cabal. I was curious.
I watched DeLonge on the Joe Rogan Experience. While he was saying all kinds of far-fetched things (for the time), I came away feeling TTSA wasn’t as bizarre after all. DeLonge was just a life-long enthusiast of all things paranormal. And through his opportunities with music, he managed to secure meetings with “insiders” that knew a lot about UFOs. He made a deal: in exchange for inside information, he would provide communication to the younger generation — fixing a stigmatized national security issue.
Perhaps I’m gullible, but this seemed like a realistic sequence of events. Like anyone, however, I initially found this hard to believe. I had questions. For starters, was there really such a thing as a UFO insider in government? A coverup? And if there was one, why would they share anything with this guy? Tom claimed they wanted to share their information in a more positive light, correcting their mistakes in generations past. But why did they need him? They were the government! Couldn’t they just release this themselves?
Importantly — Tom sounded slightly insane. Just listing all the things he talked about would be an ordeal, let alone repeating his ideas. A short list: souls, consciousness, frequency, God, Atlantis, aliens, spooks.
He also talked about a man he called “The General”.
This man, he claimed, was the key gatekeeper of the UFO coverup.
But he had something going for him. Something more valuable than all of this: he actually worked with these people. TTSA couldn’t be denied. They were making serious waves.
They were the ones that got the now-famous UFO videos released from the Pentagon.
They were the ones leading the dance — making it seem not only realistic to the layperson, but to the scientific community.
They were the ones making deals with the US army to analyze “exotic materials”.
They were the ones hunting UFOs and collecting testimonies on “Unidentified”.
It was just difficult to deny them. Each of the members carried considerable authority. They were all intelligent. They were all successful. They all communicated well, and to the level of the average person. Two of them appeared on Joe Rogan. Across other major media, their colleagues were everywhere. Really, they just seemed legit. Lue also held them in exceptionally high regard. Years later, these gentleman are the same. It would seem they are just fighting the good fight. Not all of them remain with TTSA, but have continued the same mission, and are still friends.
But there’s a simpler perspective, one that’s easy to lose sight of: people are pretty normal. We’re all similar at the end of the day. When a bunch of otherwise typical people say the same thing over and over again, we’d probably be correct to simply believe them. That’s what we do in every other situation. TTSA, DeLonge, Mellon, Elizondo, Justice, Semivan, Puthoff — we’re all human.
They’re a business interested in UFOs. Cool. Next.
I say this because sometimes imaginations run wild. We fill in details with creative narrative when we lack the less interesting facts. It doesn’t take us long to imagine TTSA as psyop unit, rubbing their hands like evil and/or deluded agents. The reality: they just believe in other life, and want the world to review the evidence. Yeah, there a few big claims and beliefs in the mix. But these ideas aren’t detached from possibility. They’re not even detached from reality, certainly not for countless experiencers.
It’s just hard for our human mind to accept things this grand.
But this has no relationship with the truth.
Moving Forward
I’ll be honest: DeLonge hasn’t built a UFO (yet?!). The topic hasn’t moved beyond bad videos and huge claims. Undeniably, it has evolved from where it was years ago. But it feels a little stuck.
UFOs are still just “UFOs” — a light entertainment topic. This isn’t true for everyone — especially experiencers. But for most, it isn’t paying bills or improving health. Here’s the thing though:
I still believe.
More, I think it’s the most important topic on Earth.
It’s certainly worth chasing.
Why?
Because buried in the TTSA narrative was a shocking revelation.
The Podesta Emails.
Part of Wikileaks, these leaked messages proved that, for all the wacky things DeLonge said to Joe Rogan, he actually was in contact with a slew of people you might call UFO insiders. He was actually using terminology like “The General” in these conversations. He was actually talking to someone who clearly matched the description of the person he told Joe about.
And just like that, DeLonge’s outlandish claims felt… different.
Real.
Places you can find me!