With recent Pentagon video documentation showing military encounters with UFOs, combined with all the compelling evidence (both tangible and experiencer-related) accumulated over the last 80 years regarding UFOs, alien abductions and more benevolent forms of extraterrestrial contact, the one question that keeps creeping into my head is this: Is the SETI Institute wasting its time looking “out there” for extraterrestrial radio signals when they have been “here,” interacting with us in various ways, for decades … and possibly even millennia?

The SETI Institute, which stands for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is a non-profit research organization incorporated in 1984 whose mission is to explore, understand, and explain the origin and nature of life in the universe, and to apply the knowledge gained to inspire and guide present and future generations. Scientists doing SETI experiments are looking for proof – not merely of life elsewhere – but of intelligent beings in other star systems.

SETI relies on radio telescopes – massive antennas outfitted with highly sensitive and specialized receivers. Apparently radio is a great way to send information over the large distances between the stars, as it easily passes through the dust and gas that spread through space, and it does so at the speed of light. In fact, most of the “searching” for ET intelligence over the last 60 or so years has involved using large antennas to receive signals aliens may be transmitting.

So here’s the paradox … SETI, for all its efforts, has experienced “a great silence” in regards to receiving any signals from intelligent life in the universe. Nothing. Not a peep. SETI researchers admit that, thus far, their experiments have simply not examined enough of the sky … or perhaps the antennas don’t have enough sensitivity … or maybe they haven’t been tuned to the right frequency. And this would make sense if not for the abundance of evidence that suggests extraterrestrials have skipped the “transmitting” and gone straight to direct, and often invasive, contact.

On its website, SETI attempts to explain away evidence of UFOs as sketchy and inconclusive, even suggesting the recently released Navy “tic-tac” video isn’t showing extraterrestrial craft but the exhausts of a twin-engine jet flying in front of the Navy F-18 Hornet. The analysis stops short of calling these objects swamp gas or light reflections, but it does say that the “disclosure” argument – there’s compelling evidence, but someone has conspired to keep it from us – is an “argument from ignorance,” having no rationale behind it. 

What to make of this? Either of these explanations keeps the SETI Institute above the fray:

1)   Intelligent transmissions from extraterrestrials have yet to reach us because of the vastness of space, and SETI simply needs to be patient and continue to press its search.

Or …

2)   Extraterrestrials have been “visiting us” for decades, even millennia, but they don’t want to make themselves known to the masses and have blocked any signals that could be picked up by the SETI Institute or any other SETI-related endeavors.

There’s another explanation that doesn't keep the SETI Institute above the fray: SETI has either received one or more intelligent transmissions from ETs and hasn’t shared that information with the general public, or it is simply a misinformation asset for the government, reinforcing the belief that “any intelligent life that might exist in the universe is so far away it would be impossible for them to travel here, and even attempted transmissions sent 100s or even 1,000s of years ago haven’t gotten here yet.”

Meanwhile, here on Earth, military pilots have been chasing (since the 1940s) unidentified aerial phenomena that move at incredible speeds, exhibit highly advanced technological capabilities by performing “impossible” maneuvers, and easily render our nuclear missiles inoperable. Additionally, thousands of citizens across this planet have reported close encounters (some good and some bad) with extraterrestrials since the early 1960s. And let’s not forget the courageous military and government personnel who have come out in recent years and admitted their involvement in top-secret programs involving communication with extraterrestrials, which will be addressed in our next documentary.

A paradox indeed.