Walking toward the International UFO Museum and Research Center (IUMRC) downtown on Friday morning, North Main Street was busy. Not in a car-traffic-busy way, but because vendors were putting up their tents and stalls for the annual MainStreet Roswell AlienFest, which is part of the UFO Festival. “Where’s the screwdriver?” one woman shouted across the street to her partner, who was unloading his van.
Amid the organized chaos, speakers for the UFOlogist Invasion event were finding their way to the International UFO Museum and Research Center. As it is tradition, the museum’s event, UFOlogist Invasion, kicks off on the day of the UFO Festival with an invite-only breakfast and a meet-and-greet of the speakers — all renowned researchers with focus on UFOs, UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena) and even the paranormal field.
This year, most of the speakers know each other, having participated as speakers at Roswell’s UFO Festival for several years. One of those speakers, freelance journalist Alejandro Rojas, has been speaking at the festival for many years. “I’ve been to the museum many times,” he said. “But every year they update and it looks better and better. And right now, it’s looking incredible. … It’s also fun and exciting to see a lot of my friends and colleagues, because some of them, you know, we only see each other at this event once a year.”
Rojas said that he finished his talks the night before and that he changes and updates them to “make them fresh and new every time we talk.” Asked about this year’s themes, he said that he’d be talking about the latest developments. “I work for a company called Enigma Labs, where we are collecting UFO reports, and most of them have videos with them. So I’m sharing some exciting videos and also correlating that with some of the mysterious findings that the Pentagon has (been) researching. … And I think I’m putting more of a positive spin on this — that we can all work together to figure this out. And those answers are within our ability to get, so I’m very excited about this year,” he said.
Rojas emphasized the importance of verifiable evidence in UFO research. And, true to his journalistic background, he said that the collection of evidence to form a complete picture is the goal without being biased. He said that sometimes audience members are disappointed with him when he doesn’t tell them that there are aliens who visited Earth.
When asked about the recent report by the Department of Defense’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office about extraterrestrials, Rojas pointed out that the wording is important. It stated that “AARO has found no verifiable evidence. …” But they don’t say there is no possibility that there may be evidence out there, he said. That is why it is so important to collect data and proof.
“And with apps like the Enigma app and other efforts out there, we can, as citizen scientists, collect that data, get it analyzed, get it researched, get research papers out there to move beyond just belief and speculation into verified facts. And that’s what I’m really focused on. I think it’s a high bar. I think it’s a little bit aggressive and optimistic,” Rojas said.
He is also an advisor to the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU). In two separate positions, Rojas has spent more than 10 years in full-time positions researching UAP. He has appeared on national and international television and his articles are found in major newspapers in the country.
With a fresh cup of coffee in her hands, Yvonne Smith said that she appreciates being at the museum. “We get a lot of tourists, which is not typical of a UFO conference, you know. I’m seeing people that come here every year, all the regulars,” she said. Smith offers something unique in her session, which this year falls on Sunday afternoon. Having worked with clients suffering from PTSD since the 1980s, it occurred to her that there is no safe place for those who have encountered or had an experience that may have extraterrestrial origins. “It was pre-COVID, several years ago, when I started the experiencing session here,” Smith said. Ever since, she said, she usually has a full house in the museum’s north library. One thing to point out is that she requests not to take videos or record the event because of privacy issues. She wants to have the ones stepping forward and sharing their story feel completely safe.
Smith has a hypnotherapist certification from the California Hypnosis Motivation Institute, the only such accredited institution in the U.S. During her work with PTSD victims, she observed that many of her subjects were describing a pattern of alien abduction and other close encounter experiences, which inspired Smith to found CERO (Close Encounter Research Organization, later renamed Close Encounter Resource Organization), which provides personal attention and maintains active monthly support group meetings.
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