The year 2017 saw what appeared at the time to be a sea change in ufology when a key piece published in the New York Times made clear that the U.S. military had footage of aerial vehicles of unknown origin. In other words, not only were UFOs - now referred to as UAP - a “thing”, something those intimately familiar with the topic had long known to be the case, but the U.S. government, to some degree or another, was now publicly acknowledging this fact. Many within ufology assumed this was...

Ever since the dawn of the modern UFO Phenomenon, a wide variety of terms have been used to describe people’s reactions to it. People have been fascinated, frustrated, shocked, perplexed, bewildered, frightened and inspired. And, because of the enigmatic nature of encounters with the beings associated with this Phenomenon, often several of these descriptors can and do apply for any given situation. As has been pointed out numerous times on this podcast and elsewhere, when one widens the...

Within the vast historical literature associated with the UFO Phenomenon there are references to numerous kinds of craft sighted and numerous kinds of entities encountered. Interestingly, even within a subset of a certain group of entities, distinct patterns sometimes emerge, suggesting specific enterprises have been undertaken at various points in history by these various groups. One such unique pattern took place between sometime in the late 20th century, stretching up until around the turn...

The enigma known as the UFO Phenomenon is compelling for numerous reasons. One of those reasons is that this phenomenon has been attested to by witnesses and experiencers over long periods of modern history. And, furthermore, once you get past the surface veneer of the way people have categorized/interpreted these phenomena differently over time because of different cultural expectations, one can make a convincing argument - as Jacques Vallee and others have in fact done - that this...

When people are first introduced to the enigmatic topic known as the UFO Phenomenon, the working assumption is that this is a matter of determining whether or not aliens, i.e. extraterrestrials from some likely extrasolar source, have traversed the immense distances of outer space, to arrive at our blue pearl planet either to, A.) from a more positive view, study us, as in a scientific expedition, or, B.) from a less positive view, scope out our capabilities prior to some kind of...

Generally speaking, with this podcast, each episode takes a different topic pertaining to the UFO Phenomenon and general paranormality and does a deep dive into it. That being the case, for the most part, Point of Convergence is not a current affairs kind of show. My aim is to make each episode relevant, regardless of when and where any particular listener happens to access and consume it. That said, recent events are such that I think that, on this particular occasion, it makes sense to...

Within the enigma known as the UFO Phenomenon, a few particularly troubling aspects have long existed as part of the experiencer literature. One specific aspect that has long been particularly concerning involves the knowledge of and cooperation in what are often deemed negative abduction encounters, by apparently human, terrestrial powers. In other words, our very own governments, or particular elements of them, willingly signing off on the abduction of and experimentation with innocent...

While the modern UFO era may have begun with the emergence of saucer sightings in the early to mid 20th century, that picture eventually grew to include not only those initial sightings, but also reported interactions with the supposed beings piloting these sophisticated, non-conventional craft. Yes, indeed “aliens” - or as they’re often called in modern ufology circles - non-human intelligences, often to clarify that we don’t actually know where they’re from, just that they’re not human - at...

While the push towards government disclosure around its knowledge of UFOs – and even its knowledge of the attempted reverse engineering of apparently recovered craft of anomalous origin – really is kicking into a high gear of late, it’s still a far cry from the kinds of matters that the people known as experiencers are concerned with. Experiencers, those who have witnessed and interacted with anomalous phenomena personally, including those who’ve had actual encounters with beings of a...

The so-called UFO Phenomenon is a tricky affair because, no matter when and from where you enter the discussion, you’ve inevitably going to face having your assumptions and expectations stretched. Indeed, to those really paying close attention to, for instance, the wealth of experiencer data that’s been amassed over decades, it’s clear that a discourse around the nature of potential UFOs and aliens in our midst eventually leads to a much deeper rabbit hole where our place in the universe and...

Many of the people who regularly tune into this podcast know that the UFO Phenomenon, general paranormality, and other so-called contact modalities such as NDEs, OBEs and psi phenomena are addictively fascinating matters. One could draw the conclusion that this is the case simply because the nature of the subject matter is seductive, and helps to distract people from the mundanity of their everyday existence. While the subject matter does indeed draw one deeper and deeper into the proverbial...

For those of us intimately familiar with the nuances of the so-called UFO Phenomenon, the question of if there is a “there” there or not is long settled. Those of us who’ve looked closely at the data gathered over the last 100 years or so - not to mention more ancient accounts that bear a striking resemblance to the descriptions of more modern encounters - have concluded that humanity is indeed being interacted with by intelligences that seem to arise from “elsewhere”. Now, whether the nature...

As many of you may know, I recently had the opportunity to make a presentation at a very unique and powerful conference event held in the heart of Manhattan, titled “An Inquiry into Anomalous Experiences and the Phenomenon”. The event turned out to be a smashing success, both in terms of the inspiring quality of the presentations being made by a group of speakers that included yours truly, Garry Nolan, Mitch Horowitz, Tim Grieve-Calrson, and Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, but also - just as, if not...

If there’s one thing that becomes abundantly clear to those who endeavor to study the so-called UFO Phenomenon closely, it’s that it defies easy categorization. When you come across a researcher or enthusiast who claims they’ve made quick work of what’s actually going on – i.e. who’s involved, where they’re from, what their agenda is, etc, you can be sure that their conclusions have more to do with their own wish-fulfillment than with the data at hand. That isn’t to say there aren’t...

Ever since human beings have had some sense of the immensity of the Cosmos, when we look up to the starry array above their heads in the dark of night, an enduring question emerges: How many other planets with sophisticated civilizations like ours are out there? With a thousand pinpricks of light coming through that black tapestry of the night sky, many of us logically assume the cosmos is likely teeming with life. Of course, that initial impression, based more on a hunch perhaps than solid...

For those who’ve spent decades searching for answers to the elusive yet seemingly ever-present enigma colloquially known as the UFO Phenomenon, the last several years have been a whirlwind of activity and revelations. It is well understood by those veteran to this field that elements within the U.S. government spent decades not only covering up details that made it abundantly clear that there really was a there there - that we were being visited by non-human intelligences operating craft of...

Over the course of the history of this podcast, I have taken several opportunities to publish a special edition of the podcast, where I answer audience questions, in a feature I call The Inquiring Mind. This week’s episode mark’s the occasion where I do this for a 4th time. Now, since the 3rd edition of the Inquiring Mind, which launched several months ago, you could say a few things have changed. Perhaps the most significant change came recently, when I posted an actual photo of myself to...

For those who look at the UFO Phenomenon as a primarily “nuts and bolts” enterprise, elements of this enigma that veer into the domains of the spiritual and the paranormal are often seen as superfluous to the main point of the exercise. From the point of view of traditional ufologists like this, the central point is that some kind of biologically-based alien intelligence is here, in our midst, buzzing in and around our skies - and apparently our most supposedly secure air space, for that...

When we think back to the dawn of the modern UFO era in the 1940s, and the subsequent reports of sightings and interactions ever since - whether they be of the quintessential flying saucers, black triangles, tic tabs, or orbs, the focus has largely been on how these strange and sophisticated craft and/or phenomena seem to suddenly appear in our skies. Where are they coming from? Who are they? What is their agenda? All of these questions inevitably arise as we perceive them entering our...

In the long history of strange events occurring in the lives of human beings, the drive for understanding has been, not surprisingly, shaped by the model of reality prevalent at the time. Thus, while our distant ancestors saw the appearance of strange, awe-inspiring non-human intelligences as a manifestation of angels and demons: entities normally bound to the spiritual domain beyond this mortal coil, modern westerners have tended to see more recent appearances of these non-human entities as...

In the long history of the modern UFO Phenomenon, a key and iconic moment stands out as of particular import. I speak of a rumored crash of a sophisticated aerial vehicle in the desert terrain near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. The event prompted an initial acknowledgement by the government that this was indeed a moment of the greatest significance: the crash of an actual alien craft, apparently not of this world, and piloted by beings of a decidedly non-human nature. Of course, as many of us...

When strange and sophisticated aerial vehicles were first spotted buzzing in and around our skies in a series of flaps during the period of the 1940s, many assumed these represented the visitation of an extraterrestrial species. The beyond next-gen characteristics of these advanced craft – where they could travel at incredible rates of speed, hover in place, and make 90 degree turns on a dime – suggested to most that these could not logically be the property of any known nation-state actor....

2017 was the year that saw a sudden uptick of mainstream interest in the notion of UFOs following revelations arising from a groundbreaking article in the New York Times. This article described so-called “unidentified aerial phenomena” - modern nomenclature for what had traditionally been referred to as “unidentified flying objects” - UFOs. These revelations suggested these objects and/or phenomena had been documented and studied as part of an official Department of Defense program. This...

Over the course of the history of this podcast, we’ve covered events and experiences that are so bizarre, seemingly irrational and even absurd, that one can’t help but come away from an exhaustive examination of this data wondering how on Earth it fits into our notion of reality at all. Put simply, I don’t think it does. But not because the data is somehow in error.  After all, at this point, there’s simply too much of it, with too much cross-cultural, cross-temporal consistency for that to...

In recent years numerous accounts involving the UFO Phenomenon have been made public that contain a broad assortment of bizarre, paradigm-stretching, and, for many, credibility-challenging, elements of so-called High Strangeness - i.e. elements that seem to contradict our consensus understanding of the possible. Recent books such as Skinwalkers at the Pentagon have helped to turn the spotlight on these co-arising elements of paranormality that tend to emerge alongside standard UFO...