It is impossible to talk about aliens and UFOs without someone laughing at you and thinking that you’ve lost your marbles. And it’s not just me.
Talk about extraterrestrials was never conversations that serious scientists and intelligent people of high standing would ever engage in publicly.
Over the last few years, as more and more reports started coming in from trusted military officers, things have slowly started to change.
So much so, that America’s Department of Defence alongside its intelligence community decided that they would formally investigate some of the ongoing reported sightings of what they call Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.
I suppose part of the reason is that it’s much easier to dismiss the account of an old, rural farmer with poor eyesight and a vivid imagination than it is a highly-trained, young fighter pilot whose senses are firing on all cylinders.
The report was finally released on Friday, and while it raises a lot more questions than it answers, it still makes for fascinating reading.
They investigated 144 sightings reported from 2004 onwards, and were only able to confidently explain one of them.
They say a few dozen of them could potentially be strange weather phenomena, optical illusions or experimental aircraft.
But enough of them are so strange, so completely inexplicable so as to raise all the hairs on the back of humanity’s neck.
I’m talking about objects that are able to effortlessly go from flying to submerging, or suddenly changing direction at impossible angles, or accelerating from zero to extreme speeds within seconds and without a sonic boom.
And all this without any obvious propulsion system.
There are a few other interesting things that have been happening in the last year or so.
The American military usually remains notoriously silent about video footage of UFOs, but recently they openly confirmed the legitimacy of some taken by fighter pilots and that had been circulating online for years.
The whole thing gained even more credibility when two former fighter pilots recently shared their close encounters with 60 Minutes, the hard-hitting, investigative show that would normally not bother with such “drivel.”
Both Donald Trump and Barack Obama have commented about UFOs recently, something no current or former American leader would previously have done.
And a high-ranking Israeli military official recently said that Trump very nearly revealed some compelling facts about aliens, but changed his mind at the last minute, fearing mass panic and hysteria.
Apparently he was going to reveal that global leaders have contact with aliens to secretly carry out experiments on earth.
I don’t know how true that is, but there are some curious things to take note of.
Friday’s report, which one can call the first real X-File, made it clear that further investigations are needed, because not enough is known.
But while it was sceptical that the UFOs are of alien origin, it also didn’t want to rule it out completely.
In fact, even NASA’s new chief is looking into the matter and has already said that he doesn’t want to rule out the possibility that it’s an alien craft visiting earth.
Now I know all of this is hard to digest and may be a little overwhelming.
But movies and TV shows have been feeding us a steady diet of alien life forms for decades already.
So the possibility shouldn’t shock us too much.
Look at it this way, if the aliens have been visiting us for decades, without invading and eating us, then no problem.
And if they are indeed hostile and plan to enslave us, then at least humanity will finally have one common adversary to fight.
And maybe that is what we need to end all the division and suspicion we share at the moment.