Perhaps instead of the actual title of this chapter, the author might have instead called it “The times they are a changing,” for that is the main message of the first half of the chapter. Here, Aartsen lists multiple examples of rather recent conferences, events, and public discussions regarding the reality of UFOs and alien encounters.

Whereas contactees in the recent past may have been written off as “tinfoil hat fruitcakes,” multiple respected government, scientific, and military personnel have recently gone on record to discuss their experiences and proclaim that UFOs are real. One such example is a press conference held in September of 2010, where seven former air force personnel testified ” to the existence of UFOs and their ability to neutralize or disengage nuclear weapons.”

While I have no closely held belief concerning aliens and UFOs one way or another as of yet, the author does present a solid case that governments and the scientific community are at least becoming more willing to entertain the possibility of extraterrestrial life and UFO encounters. I have no problem affirming this argument. I do, however, take some issue with the second half of the chapter.

Here, the author unequivocally states that anyone that doesn’t believe in UFOs is

“clearly a victim of the criminal cover-up that the governments and military have perpetrated on behalf of major political and economic interests since the subject first gained worldwide attention in the 1940s and 1950s. Alternatively, they suffer from the blinkered predjudice of mainstream science, which, aided by the corporate-beholden media, prefers to ignore any facts which do not fit its particular template of reality…”

And at this point, this is where I have some concerns, as the author doubles down and states his book is different from many other books because he candidly tells the reader that the book is written from “the understanding that UFOs are real and testify to the fact of the universality of life as the Cause, rather than the haphazard result of a chemical accident in the backwaters of the cosmos…”

So that is the price of admission to the rest of the book. You must accept at face value that UFOs are real, and that apparently life didn’t come about from the accepted evolutionary theory. Oh, and, for good measure, you should also believe that UFOs have always visited our planet, and the rate of visitations has only increased since the dawn of the nuclear age.

Having gotten all those prerequisites of belief down, the author then states the thesis of the rest of the book. Namely, what is the purpose of this extraterrestrial presence and what are their intentions? He spends the remaining pages of the chapter explaining that extraterrestrials are bringing a message of hope and that this message will have profound impacts on our social and economic structures. He also states that the rest of the book will show “the many important connections and parallels that exist between the UFO phenomenon and the Ageless Wisdom teaching as handed down to humanity throughout the ages by the Men of Wisdom, both in terms of spiritual philosophy and its practical application in our daily lives.”

Stay tuned for the review of the next chapter: From Cover-up to Conspiracy.