R T Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies - BICS

Robert T. Bigelow

From about a year ago, rumors were circulating that Las Vegas businessman Robert T. Bigelow was about to launch a new venture. Some people thought he was going to announce a new UAP project; while others wondered if it would concern some other area of his diverse interests. Now, thanks to Las Vegas investigative journalist George Knapp , and the New York Times, we know exactly what it is about. 

Back on 18 May 2020, Bigelow's agent, Rickie L. Golightly, registered a business entity with the Secretary of State for Nevada, named " R T Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies LLC." The business entity (Nevada ID NV20201782540) "officer" was listed as Robert T. Bigelow.

https://esos.nv.gov/EntitySearch/BusinessInformation

Recently, George Knapp conducted, then published, a lengthy interview with Robert Bigelow, which may be viewed on the website "Mystery Wire.

BICS

During the interview with George Knapp, Robert Bigelow announced the existence of a new organization, named "Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies" - BICS for short. He mentioned that a website for the organization would soon be available. Shortly, afterwards I found the website online. I quote from that site:

"BICS was founded in June 2020 by aerospace entrepreneur Robert T. Bigelow to support research into both the survival of human consciousness after physical death and, based on data from such studies, the nature of the afterlife. Robert Bigelow is the founder of Bigelow Aerospace. For decades he has also supported serious investigations into consciousness and manifestations of unusual phenomena that are not yet understood by science.

Despite intriguing evidence, the number of research groups and funding devoted to investigating the survival of human consciousness beyond death is shockingly small in the Western world. Even though all 7.8 billion humans on planet Earth will eventually die, very little high quality research is being conducted on perhaps the most important and fundamental question facing our species. 

There are almost no significant conferences or symposia on this question which could appeal to scientists, academics and others with advanced training. This is partly because such research is not taken seriously by the current scientific paradigm. It is probably time to end this close-minded approach. We at BICS believe that the only way to do so is to appeal to qualified professionals who have the power to create change.

The purpose of BICS is to raise awareness among the public and within the scientific community of the importance and relevance of such an investigation. BICS hopes to provide a public service by drawing increasing attention to, and encouraging research into, this fundamental and timeless topic. We are seeking hard evidence "beyond a reasonable doubt" that takes us beyond religion or philosophy and provides a body of knowledge to be brought widely into the public arena that could be unifying in its impact on human awareness and culture."

BICS Board of Directors

Apart from Robert T. Bigelow the Board of Directors is:

Leslie Kean, journalist and author.

Christopher C. Green, MD, PhD.

Harold Puthoff, PhD, theoretical physicist.

Brian Weiss, MD.

Jeffrey Kripal, Rice University Professor of Philosophy and Religious Thought.

Jessica Utts, PhD, University of California Irvine Professor of Statistics.

Colm A. Kelleher, PhD, molecular biologist.

A number of the above individuals were on the Science Advisory Board of Robert Bigelow's National Institute for Discovery Science (1996-2004) namely, Green, Puthoff, and  Utts. Kelleher was an employee of NIDS.  

Essay Competition

The first announced project from the Institute is an essay competition, with prize monies. Again, from the BICS website:

"The purpose  of the BICS essay awards is to raise the public awareness for the Survival of Human Consciousness topic and to stimulate research. The goal of the essay contest is to award  contestants for writing papers that summarize the best evidence available for the survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death."

One can submit  a paper, of up to 25,000 words excluding references and footnotes, to the competition only if you meet certain criteria. Registration of accepted individuals closes 28 February 2021. Papers need to be submitted by 1 August 2021 and then  "five renowned experts," acting as competition judges will announce the result on 1 November 2021.  

What has consciousness research got to do with UAP?

Bigelow's long term research has suggested to him, that there is a link between the two topics. In the early 1990's the Bigelow Foundation studied both UAP and the question of survival of human consciousness after physical death. In the 1996-2004 timeframe, the NIDS Science Advisory Board had a number of researchers on it who investigated the area of consciousness and near-death experiences; as well as others clearly interested in UAP; e.g. Jacques Vallee. 

Bigelow's interest in the Skinwalker ranch in Utah (1996-2016) saw him attempting to communicate with what he called either disincarnate, non-human entities; or extraterrestrials. The methods he employed in this communication, were similar to the methods used by paranormal researchers attempting to communicate with those in the afterlife.

Blog readers may recall that when first formed, one of the original aims of the To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science (TTSA) involved research into consciousness. I wondered what had happened to this aspect of TTSA in an August 2019 blog post. 

Notes on the Knapp/Biglow interview

The following are my rough notes taken down while listening to the so far released five video segments of the  Knapp/Bigelow interview.

The question “Are we alone” came first as I considered the experience of my grandparents. At age 12 I committed that as an adult when I got money I would look in to it.

The UFO experience which my grandparents had. I was 10 when my mother told me about what happened to my grandparents, around May 1947. They had a super close encounter. They were good candidates for an abduction. The UFO they saw filled their vehicle’s windscreen. Then it shot off. They got home later than they expected. Shook them up for the rest of their lives. My father began to be interested and bought a few books about the subject.

I had a series of repeated dreams at age 7-8 around 1952. Same dream. Was before TV. I’m in bed on my side – it was a small bedroom. Three “somethings” in monk’s clothing – couldn’t see faces – they were at eye level with me – so they were small. Same dream – half a dozen times. Chalked it up to dreams – still think that.

When I was 18, my father was killed in a plane crash – when I was in college. Plane exploded. Took me ten years to stop having dreams about him – so the seed is planted about survival after death. People need proof. I really want to know. Then got deeply into UFO field. 1980 wife and I lost a son – researching the topic helped me cope. I had visitations with three mediums. My wife saw him as well. I was not very sophisticated about it. Wondered what the other side was about? One medium was dubious. Black lady probably legitimate. Third medium named George. Grandson died – research comforted me. We have horror movies about zombies – excellent to make us scared of death.

BICS – Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies – founded to try and conduct research and facilitate research into the possibility of survival of human consciousness beyond death, and explain what the afterlife is about. What should we be preparing for? If consciousness survives, is there a connection between what we do here and the other side?

Dichotomy between brain and mind. Thinking brain ceases – mind no longer exists. How is out consciousness conserved? I believe both time and space are infinite. If brain dies what is out container tor the kind? Leslie Kean has a book and TV series exploring this.

My goal? Curiosity – my own personal curiosity. Then desire to make a difference. Desire has overtaken curiosity. I believe the other side does exist. If people get better information then they are better prepared. I believe there is a connection between the two sides.

[Speaking of evidence for an afterlife.] NDE’s are a very profound experience. Reincarnation cases are evidence. Evidence of apparitions. Poltergeist effects (I’ve had it happen.) Experiences within my family. EVP evidence. Things caught on camera. Efforts to have electronic connection. I have an open mind about physical apparitions where you can touch an apparition.

In the 1830’s to 1930’s there were world class scientists involved in this research. Today, only a few. They fear for their career.

BICS – what can we do to create some energy? Contest prizes $500,000 first - $300,000 second; $150,000 – third. Essays to be produced. Best evidence for establishing the other side is real. Can’t just quote scriptures – that’s not appropriate evidence. Use standard of a court system for evidence. Beyond a reasonable doubt – can’t be 100 % certain. 25,000 words or less. What have you done to prove your case? Entrants could be a priest, rabbi etc. Or a journalist Series of rules and regulations is on our website. Need to have researched the topic. There are five judges. One is a statistician; female who was on the NIDS Science Advisory Board. One fellow is a physicist. Three others very involved in the topic. One fellow is a neurologist and medical doctor. Deadline to apply is 28 February. Papers in by 1 August and the judges have three months to decided winners. Not a field which attracts a massive number of researchers. Papers to go on the website and winners willing to go on interviews and talk about their papers. Honourable mentions to runners up.

Like to get our feet wet. What can we do to help?

Role is facilitating, like at Skinwalker Ranch – government people. I never felt threatened but other people did with what they encountered. I was a caretaker. Had great night’s sleep there. Read lots of books on topic – after w while you will get a consensus of the views expressed in books. Since formed BICS in June, people around us have started to have things happen. Myself, family and staff. Our intention was first to get up to speed with the topic of survival been out of it for years. Didn’t expect anything to happen.

On the face of it communication with something, sounds great. People have tried this for years. All kinds of levels of communications.  Perhaps awareness that there is something there but no message.

Around 1989. Started reading books. Crash retrievals. UFO cases from overseas.  Need to go through the literature first. Still in this mode form consciousness research – read and network with folks. I look at myself as a researcher and facilitator.

I sought out the best of the best researchers. Didn’t want to be a one man band. Going alone is a slower path. Budd [Hopkins] was a great guy, self-made researcher and author. Lots of research topics – specific people. Linda Howe for cattle mutilations to see if high heat or possibly lasers were at work. She pioneered that kind of work. Budd and abductions.  We were involved in two crash retrieval cases – both in New Mexico. Too our satisfaction we verified them. One was in the 60’s. John Mack on abductions. I sponsored a number of free lectures which would engage the audience and challenge them to come up with causes. Why these people were making claims? The audience would run out of gas as to cause.

Note: On 22 Jan 2021 Joe Murgia tweeted a quote from the interview: “We were involved in…a crash retrieval incident and to our satisfaction we verified that that did occur. Stanton Friedman, another crash retrieval incident, we verified that that occurred and both of these were in New Mexico. And the first one wasn’t the Roswell incident.”

[Re funding UFO groups.] I did personally as opposed to NIDS funding them. MUFON, FUFOR and CUFOS. Always territorial and protecting their turf. Handcuffs a lot of people to explore their curiosity. [Was this why you created NIDS?] Could have been. Don’t really remember. NIDS had two pillars, survival after death and UFOs. Tackled both. Bit off more than we could chew. On the consciousness side there were world class people but survival was the more difficult question. It went.

[1996.] I spent time talking to Terry Sherman owner of the ranch. Then bought it. Phenomenal diversity of encounters. I believed the guy – he was a straight shooter. These encounters were real. Cost his wife her job. Terry and I made a deal.

I didn’t know with whom we were communicating. Either disincarnate non-human beings, or ETs. Can’t be 500 miles away and make a request and have that request happen at ranch. They describe it and it is exactly what you requested.

We had spontaneous events – pictures where photons only travelled five feet, background dark. Instance where on a night stand something took off. Looked mechanical – little blurry –wasn’t bird of butterfly. Or taking pictures of tubular rods. Or picture of many orbs around an ill person and then they got better. Things blocking out ambient light.

It’s all about messaging and games. We never had anyone hurt on the property.

Finally, got to – one personally – got little tired or bored – no progress. Could have gone on and on but distracted by something else.

Weren’t having craft materializing on ranch like terry. Two of our people saw something in a tree. Tunnel episode - one saw it one didn’t. Where is it heading? What is the point? Talk to us so that we can understand. We might have been too impatient or not creative enough.

It affected some government people – off the ranch. Next thing I know this buyer comes along.

Lots of similar things happened throughout the area. We interviewed a lot of people in the area. Police had encounters. Neighbors – had lots of incredible stuff happen.

It was rare to have something repeat itself.

[Why there?] Is it people, geology, no-one knows.

[Events at home] Events did happen. To me and my wife. Poltergeist event before we had the ranch. Wife had a full manifestation of a bedroom human form apparition. Torso up. Felt mattress being depressed. Bar of light between pillows. She went to sleep. Heard similar things from other people. 

The TRIAD Research Conference Foundation, and the Bigelow Foundation

Is there more information available on the Bigelow Foundation? 

After publishing my last post, in my series, about the Bigelow Foundation, I thought I had written all I could about that Foundation. However, I just came across yet another aspect of the Foundation's work. This aspect, was drawn to my attention by coming across a 2018 comment by long-time United Kingdom Researcher Isaac Koi. He mentioned an entity named the TRIAD Research Conference Foundation, linked to the Bigelow Foundation.

https://bsd.sos.mo.gov/e-commerce/company/search/1494023

In the August 1993 edition of the MUFON Journal, page 20, the following appeared:

"TRIAD FOUNDATION

UFO researchers and enthusiasts now have an organization dedicated to providing forums for the professional presentation of information and ideas about UFOs and related subjects. The Triad Research Conference Foundation, in partnership with the Bigelow Foundation has begun organizing conferences across the United States in an effort to bring researchers, professionals, and the general public together for educational exchanges regarding the UFO phenomenon.

"The emphasis is on quality," says Denise Carpenter, a Triad founding member." This is a serious subject that deserves a serious and professional setting for discussion," she adds.

Susan Bedell, another founding member of Triad agrees. "We're not interested in presenting an off-the-wall circus. You can look at the credentials of our speakers and see that. Triad can bring it all to the area in which you live.

Conference information is available by calling (417) 882-6847 or by writing to:

Triad Research Conference Foundation

4033 South Belvedere Court

Springfield, MO 65807."

Susan Bedell 

I recently reached out to Susan Bedell, who graciously answered my questions and gave me permission to publish her responses. Here are the questions and answers.

Q1. How did the idea of the TRIAD Research Conference Foundation come about, and what did it wish to achieve?

A1. Robert Bigelow, Denise Carpenter and myself formed Triad to present quality research conferences around the country with the goal of giving people the highest form of information available. It could not be just nuts and bolts due to the high rate of abductions taking place in the mid 1990's. Of course since then we have had to recognize the paranormal occurrences that seem to attach themselves to experiences. Anyway it only lasted 1 year due to the fact that Denise, who was married to the MUFON head of abduction research John Carpenter divorced her husband who also MCed our conferences. Mr. Bigelow moved on to much bigger projects."

Q2. Hoe many conferences were held?

A2. I think there were 7 conferences in 1996.

Q3. How the link between the Foundations occurred? Who approached who?

A3. I don't remember exactly how Triad came about except we had been putting on very successful UFO conferences in Springfield, MO since 1992. We always had between 400 and 600 people in attendance. At that time I facilitated an investigators group and abductee support group in my home and John held a public meeting every month. We were inundated with abductions, cattle mutilations and very close encounters with UFOs. Carpenter may have spoken to him first. Anyway we all talked and came up with a plan and a name. Bigelow's people created a contract and Denise and I started putting it all together. Denise was in charge of finances and travel and I made all arrangements for speakers and facilities. It was a good arrangement until the Carpenter's marriage went bad."

Who is Susan Bedell?

I found a 2018 advice of a public meeting where Susan was speaking. The blurb for the meeting read:

"Special Guest Speaker Susan Bedell will be discussing Cattle Mutilations and Alien Abductions. Susan has been a ufologist for many years and is an expert in Cattle Mutilation and has assisted many victims of Alien Abduction. Susan is former State Section Director and Certified Field Investigator with the state of Missouri MUFON. Susan has investigated many cases of cattle mutilation that occurred in the State of Missouri."

The TRIAD conferences

Susan Bedell recalled that the TRIAD conferences had been in 1996; but the fact that the MUFON Journal article about them was dated August 1993; and the fact that Susan recalled they lasted about a year, made me think that her recollection of the year 1996 might be in error. Which is easy enough to do when looking back to the mid 90's from the year 2021.  I also found an email dated 27 July 2000 from John Carpenter to John Velez. In part, Carpenter, speaking about various research projects funded by Robert Bigelow, says:

"He helped fund the MIT conference in 1992 and other events as well such as the TRIAD conferences in 1993-1994."

I checked the Internet, looking for information about any of the conferences. I found details of seven in all; by browsing digital copies of UFO magazines, held by the Swedish Archives For the Unexplained, and thanks to the dedicated scanning work of individuals such as Barry Greenwood, and Isaac Koi. 

July 1993. The June 1993 issue of the MUFON Journal, page 22, reports that the "Seattle UFO Research Conference" is to be held between 17-18 July 1993. Speakers shown, were John Mack, George Knapp, John Carpenter and Linda Howe, among others. Inquiries were directed to 4033 S. Belvedere Court, Springfield, MO; the same address as TRIAD.

Interestingly, I also located an Associated Press wire story dated 19 July 1993 about the conference. Part of the story read:

"The two day conference organized by TRIAD, a Missouri based research group presented UFO enthusiasts and skeptics with a chance to learn more about a subject that goes far beyond the outer limits...Denise Carpenter, one TRIAD's three partners, said 10 to 12 more UFO conferences were planned within the next year. She said the group would like to overcome common stereotypes associated with unexplained phenomena. "We think it is important to bring the scientific community together with the public," she said. "This is not a Trekkie convention. These are intelligent people asking intelligent questions."

September 1993. The next conference was held between 17-18 September 1993 in Springfield, Missouri, the home of TRIAD. Titled "Midwest Conference on UFO Research," it featured speakers including Budd Hopkins, George Knapp, Linda Howe, Jesse Marcel Jnr., and Colin Andrews. 

October 1993. "Is there Evidence of Contact From Our Universe?" was to be held 16-17 October 1993 in Houston, Texas, according to page 22 of the September 1993 issue of the MUFON Journal. Scheduled speakers included Budd Hopkins, Richard Haines, John Carpenter and Leah Haley.

November 1993.  Volume 14 number 2, October 1993 issue of "The UFO Enigma" published by the UFO Study Group of Greater St. Louis, page 4, states that there was a TRIAD Research Conference titled "Are We Alone?" to be held in Indianapolis, Indiana, between 20-21 November 1993.  

January 1994. In addition, another TRIAD Conference was to be held in Phoenix, Arizona between 22-23 January 1994 according to Volume 1, Issue 11 of the MUFON Arizona Chapter's Newsletter. Featured speakers included John Mack; Yvonne Smith and John Carpenter. The title of the conference was "Are There Intelligent Life Forms Out There?"

February 1994. The October 1993 issue of the MUFON Journal advised that "Do We Have Visitors From the Unknown?" was to be the tile of a conference to be held in Tampa, Florida, between 19-20 February 1994. Featured speakers were Linda Howe, John Mack, George Knapp, John Carpenter and Yvonne Smith.

March 1994.  Another was held 26-27th March 1994 at the Del Coronado Hotel, Coronado Island, San Diego, California. Among the speakers were Budd Hopkins; Yvonne Smith; and John Carpenter. Several hundred people attended. The title of the conference was "Is There Hard Evidence for Extraterrestrial Visitations?"

In addition to these seven conferences, I also found, in the March 1994 issue of the MUFON Journal, the following advert:

"TRIAD Research Foundation. We invite you to join our 11 day expedition to the crop circle area of England and to current UFO sites and Findhorn community in Scotland, departing July 18th. Price of $1999.00 includes RT airfare from most cities, lodgings, transportation, guide and some meals. Call 1-800-572-1576 now."

Formal documentation 

https://bsd.sos.mo.gov/e-commerce/company/search/1494023

I went looking for any available official documentation, about the TRIAD Research Conference Foundation and found a website.  This revealed that the "TRIAD  Research Conference Foundation Limited Partnership" was incorporated with the State of Missouri on 20 May 1993, and dissolved 4 June 2018. Its registered address was given as Springfield 65807 Missouri, USA. The Inactive Director/Officer was shown as Denise Carpenter. I also checked the website for the Missouri Secretary of State and found the same information listed there. For comparison, according to the records of the Secretary of State for Nevada, the Bigelow Foundation Inc. came into existence on 4 December 1992, and is still active.

In conclusion

Understanding this aspect of the work of the Bigelow Foundation has added to our knowledge of how diverse Robert Bigelow's early interests, and funding, really were. Although there is no dollar figure publicly available of how much went to the TRIAD Research Conference Foundation, it adds to the millions he had spent, or planned to spend; in pursuing his interests.

Update: 13 January 2021

After having a chance to read the above post, Susan Bedell wrote me:

I agree with all you said except when Triad was dissolved .I have our original agreement and our signed dissolution (April 1, 1994) and I know Denise was gone before that. If Triad was still in existence until 2018, I have no knowledge what it was used for. Good article.

What was Bigelow's "Center for Advanced Cognitive Science."

 Elaine Douglass

Earlier today, I was looking through a 700+ page PDF of documents originating with the late U.S. researcher, Elaine Douglass.  One of the sets of documents in her papers was a list of companies registered by Las Vegas entrepreneur Robert T. Bigelow. While I was familiar with almost all of his non-budget suite businesses; such as the Bigelow Foundation; Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS); and the Mt. Wilson Ranch; there was one name I hadn't come across before, namely, the "Center for Advanced Cognitive Science, LLC." Now, cognitive science is "the interdisciplinary scientific method of the mind and intelligence."

Official Nevada records

I therefore went to the Nevada Secretary of State website and looked up business entity information.  The following are snapshots of what I found.

The Center for Advanced Cognitive Science LLC, was registered in Nevada on 14 May 2009. The business is listed as "Domestic-Limited-Liability-Company." The current operating status is "revoked." The commercial agent who registered it was Rickie L. Golightly, the same agent who has registered all of Bigelow's companies since the 1980's. Subsequent papers were lodged, up until 29 May 2013, with nothing shown beyond that date.

Under "Officer Information" where you normally expect to see the names of individuals behind the company,  appears "Mortgage Menu Realty, LLC." Mortgage Menu Realty was registered 14 January 2009; has officer information of "Mortgage Menu Service Corp", registered 9 April 1982, which lists Robert T Bigelow as "President" of that Corporation. Meaning the Center for Advanced Cognitive Science LLC was a Bigelow company.

As with many of the non-budget suite Bigelow business companies, there is nothing else shown on the Nevada State documents which tells us what the Center did.

What was going on in May 2009 to cause Robert Bigelow to register such a company?

BAASS was registered in January 2008, and later that year, was successful in winning the Defense Intelligence Agency's (DIA) contract for the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications program (AAWSAP.) By May 2009, many of the employees to be hired by BAASS, had been engaged, and were busy at work. 

Now, one of the 11 aspects of the DIA AAWSAP contract was to study what was referred to as the "human interface." In fact, one of the 38 DIA Defense Reference Documents (DIRDs) commissioned by BAASS employee Hal Puthoff, was titled "Cognitive limits on simultaneous control of multiple unmanned spacecraft" written by Dr. R. Genik of Wayne State University.

In addition, if we go back to September 2008, and the time of the commencement of BAASS' work on AAWSAP, and taker a look at what jobs were being offered at BAASS, we find:

"Several positions are also available for research scientists in the disciplines of: Biological Cognitive Interaction, Psychology, Social Psychology; Sociology."

Further research 

Is there anything about the Center to be found on the Internet? A search for "Center for Advanced Cognitive Science" only leads us back to the Nevada business entity.

A search for "Center for Advanced Cognitive Science" + "University of Nevada" located a 1993 paper titled "Environmental Modulation And Statistical Equilibrium in Mind-Matter Interaction," by Dean I Radin, cited as from the Center for Advanced Cognitive Science, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The Central Intelligence Agency commissioned a 1994 report titled "Phenomenological Research and Analysis" Radin is mentioned in the report as at the Center for Advanced Cognitive Science, University of Nevada.

Radin worked for the Bigelow Foundation between 1993-1996; and between 1993 and 1997 he was Director Consciousness Research Division of the Harry Reid Center  for Environmental Studies at University of Nevada-Las Vegas. 

If there was a Center for Advanced Cognitive Science at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, around 1993, why was Robert Bigelow registering a company with he same name in 2009? For what purpose was this company created? Did it have a relationship with BAASS?

BAASS wanted to analyse physical evidence

By Marc Cecotti and Keith Basterfield

Introduction

During our previous research into the activities of Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) in South America, we kept hearing accounts of their interest, amongst other things, in physical evidence.

MUFON

We first looked into one aspect of the BAASS interest, namely the commercial agreement between BAASS and MUFON, specifically that BAASS was engaging MUFON to:

"c...purchase from seller field investigation services and all information and material derived from those services, including but not limited to: Physical evidence...and other material including effects on humans, foliage, trees, soil..."

The MUFON Strike Team for Area Research (STAR) screened all the raw, incoming sighting reports entering the MUFON Case Management System (CMS) database, for cases defined by MUFON as category 2 or 3, for the STAR Impact Project (SIP) to investigate.

An internal MUFON document advised the persons screening these reports, that they were specifically interested in two categories of reports, namely:

Catgory 2, which equates to the Vallee classification system types AN2, FB2, and MA2, CE1. Here, MUFON field investigators were to "...gather physical evidence and send to designated labs for testing."

Source: http://www.cufos.org/pdfs/Vallee_UFO_Classification_Systems.pdf

Category 3, which equates to the Vallee classification system types AN3, AN4, AN5, FB3, FB4, FB5, MA3, MA4 and MA5. Here, MUFON field investigators were to "Gather...physical evidence and send it to designated labs for testing."

So, in summary, in specified cases, physical evidence was to be collected and sent off to designated labs for testing. Nowhere does it state where, or who, the labs were.

Quantity

How many such STAR physical evidence case were there, where this procedure was followed, and samples sent off to labs? One of the pieces of work undertaken by Keith Basterfield, was to go through the relevant issues of the MUFON Journals, and create an Excel spreadsheet which listed 71 cases designated as STAR reports under the BAASS agreement. Only two such cases mentioned the collection of samples. These cases were:

1. MUFON CMS case number 17780 from Fort Wayne, Indiana. The August 2009 MUFON Journal gave the following information. At 0430 hours on 28 June 2009 a woman reported seeing multiple white orbs and one large red orb in trees around her house. These lights approached her. Small amounts of an unknown liquid fell from the orbs and collected on the glass of her front door. Samples of this unknown liquid were taken by the MUFON investigator next day.

2. MUFON CMS case number 18601 from Mavlverne, New York, dated 8 August 2009. The bedroom of the witness lit up as if by a high powered spotlight. There was no noise. Every leaf on a tree was found to have been "burnt to a crisp." "Waiting lab analysis."

Results?

What were the results of the lab analyses in these two case? In short, MUFON did not receive the reasults of any case lab analyses. A reminder here, is that, to be fair to BAASS,  the BAASS/MUFON contract did not state that any feedback would be given back to MUFON.

Phyllis Budinger

One of the cases listed on the Excel spreadsheet was MUFON CMS case number 17125 from Buffalo, Oklahoma, dated 18 May 2009. Scant details in the MUFON Journal only speak of a close encounter with blue/white lights.

It was therefore a surprise to us, when looking through The Black Vault collection of technical analysis reports undertaken by analytical chemist Phyllis Budinger, to find a very detailed report on the Buffalo case.

Technical Service Response Report number UT068 dated 20 January 2010, written by Phyllis Budinger, Frontier Analysis Ltd., revealed that the analysis of soil and grass samples was requested by C J Modlin, MUFON Chief of Investigations; Vicki LeBlanc MUFON, and David MacDonald, Field Investigator MUFON.

Why the samples were sent by MUFON to Frontier Analysis Ltd., independent to both MUFON and BAASS, remains to be ascertained. However, the technical report is a very useful guide to just what analysis, this type of sighting was being subjected to.

What was reported?

At 0030 hours on 18 May 2009, a witness described seeing an object with blue, red and white strobe lights, moving very low near Buffalo. Within 10-15 seconds, the lights seemed to be near a dirt road in front of the witness and slowed down there. The female witness got into a pick-up truck and drove it; and  at this point she felt that the lights were only 150 feet away, and stationary. She believed the lights were on a single object. After a short time driving, she looked back but couldn't see the lights anymore.

At the location where the the lights had been seen, was "...a large portion of grass laid down" which the witness photographed. The MUFON field investigator was on scene on 29 May 2009, when more photographs and measurements were taken. An area of apparent dead grass had three areas where the grass seemed to have been crushed in a swirled pattern. There was no evidence of radiation. Next day, the investigator took some samples of the affected grass and soil, and control samples.

The Budinger report includes photographs of the samples she received on 23 October 2009. A spectrometer was used to obtain infrared spectra. The results were as follows:

Soil - tests by Budinger

* "Infrared analyses detects no difference that can be considered significant between the site soil and control soil."

* "The test shows the magnetic materials at the site soil amount to 14mg/g in the site soil and 11mg/g in the control soil, this analysts feels the values are within statistical error of the test."

* "A test for radiactivity showed none above background."

* "There was also no u/v florescing material."

Grass - tests by Dr. Charles Leitzau

* "No visual abnormalities."

* "Infrared examination of the site grass sample detect no unusual anomalies."

End comment

It would be interesting to know, if there were indeed other case physical evidence analyses among the 71 listed STAR events. A look through the MUFON CMS, by typing in the case number, and reading the long description which the witness provided, failed to find other such cases. However, we do not have access to the full, edited versions of the case files, which mean we cannot be sure, that other such cases were not missed by us. Naturally, it would also be of great value to have access to copies of the full set of 71 STAR SIP final edited case files; copies of the BAASS analyses, and any further investigations undertaken by BAASS.

BAASS Program managers held meetings in Brazil

An investigation by Marc Cecotti and Keith Basterfield

In our previous articles we reported that investigators and translators from Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) visited Fortaleza and Sobral in the State of Ceará, Brazil, at least on one occasion in May 2009. Thanks to additional witnesses and documents, we have learned that the history of UFO events in Brazil was deemed important enough to send BAASS upper management to Saõ Paulo to meet with several UFO researchers. The purpose of those meetings was to gain more information about the UFO phenomenon in Brazil, to create possible cooperation with research organization, but also, according to those witnesses, to try and discover any technology associated with UFOs for possible spin-offs to Bigelow Aerospace projects.

BAASS managers in Saõ Paulo

Marc Cecotti reached out to Brazilian UFO researcher Edison Boaventura Jr. from Guarujá Ufological Group (GUG). He confirmed that he met two BAASS employees for a few hours in Sao Paulo in May 2009. “I talked to them in a hotel here in the state of São Paulo...” Boaventura recalled. The hotel was later identified as The Holiday Inn Express,  located Rua Doutor Homem de Melo, 1206 in Saõ Paulo. When he was asked who he met, Edison Boaventura Jr. could easily remember the names “They were two representatives of Bigelow Aerospace. Douglas Kurth and James A. Johnson.”

Holiday Inn Express where the meeting with BAASS took place

Douglas Kurth is a retired US Marine Corps F-18 pilot and Squadron Commander, who was a witness to part of the Tic Tac UFO event in November 2004. He was one of the first individuals to join BAASS in December 2007, according to his LinkedIn profile. His position is described as "Program manager." Note that BAASS was registered as a Limited Liability Company in January 2008, and was awarded the contract for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) - sponsored Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) in September 2008.

Source: Kurth's LinkedIn profile

Little is known about James A Johnson, but we had already come across this name. Thanks to Blue Blurry Lines February 2020 article, "The Pentagons UFO Program's Secret Partner" by Curt Collins and Roger Glassel, about the MUFON/BAASS contract, we knew that James Johnson was in a managerial position at BAASS. "A formal slide presentation to the MUFON Board explained the relationships and responsibilitie and named both organizations management teams as of April 2009. For MUFON they were Richard Lang, James Carrion, Jan Harzan and Chuck Modlin. For BAASS they were Colm Kelleher, Douglas Kurth and James Johnson."

  

Boaventura met Kurth and Johnson at the Holiday Inn Express hotel on May 29th, 2009 along with UFO researcher Josef Prado, who translated the discussions. Two other researchers, Milton Dino Frank Jr. and Mário César Mancinelli, also met both Americans on the same evening. This was on the exact same day that the BAASS four-people team led by Loran Huffman was attending the CSPU monthly meeting more than 3000 kilometers away in Sobral, State of Ceará, as we reported in our previous article. The purpose of the meeting in Saõ Paulo was then described by Boaventura “They were interested in UFO cases, metamaterials and wanted me to supply them. I later learned they also went in the northeast of Brazil doing research with people who saw UFOs and were also attacked. They went for example in the state of Ceará.”

BAASS program manager Douglas Kurth, Josef Prado, Edison Boaventura Jr. and BAASS manager James A Johnson. Credit Edison Boaventura

Regarding the physical evidence BAASS was trying to obtain, Boaventura said : “[They were interested in] the fragments of any UFO... We had several cases of crashes with fragments... For example, the case of the UFO explosion in Ubatuba, state of Saõ Paulo in 1957, among other cases.” Edison Boaventura had those alleged UFO crash fragments tested in 2017. (http://www.portalburn.com.br/explosao-de-ovni-em-ubatuba-1957-analise-qualitativa-dos-fragmentos/). Most of the discussions regarding metamaterial happened during subsequent phone calls, which we’ll expose later in the article.

Boaventura did not know about the US government-sponsored operation. “They didn't tell [they were working on a government contract]... Just said they were BAASS employees.” The other Brazilian ufologist concurred; none were aware of the BAASS ties with the US government.

Regarding any another contact with BAASS, Boaventura said “I never saw them again... They only called me from the United States a couple of times and then never contacted me again.”

Josef Prado, who attended the meeting along Edison Boaventura, gave a similar statement “Basically they were interested in photographic evidence or footage that could give clues about the UFO propulsion system. According to them, BAASS was developing space propulsion technologies and were trying to understand what kind of technology UFOs used to exploit it.”

According to Prado, they explained how they could use pictures to gain information. “Example: if in the photo or footage they could observe halos of a specific color, they could then speculate on the possibility of ionized fields, electromagnetism, etc… But we can sum up the conversation like this: to try and find information about the propulsion systems. How to do reverse engineering without having the technology in hand, but exploring the evidence. But I remember well that they were very interested in the photos where it was possible to see the halos around the UFOs.”

Both Kurth and Johnson didn’t share much information, and they didn’t give any much indication about their next destination. “The meeting was in a simple, discreet hotel, and they booked a meeting room to welcome us. They were very objective and didn't stay in conversation beyond what they were looking for. They gave us a card and said that if we had more information or evidence, we could contact them.”

Asked about the overall impression Kurth and Johnson left on him, and if both men had any knowledge about ufology in general, Prado said “Honestly, with all those questions about the propulsion systems, it looked to me that they were just representing Bigelow’s interest. But it seemed to me that they were a little afraid to tie Bigelow to this visit with ufologists in Brazil. You know how that can turn out to be easy sensationalism.”

It is noteworthy that Jãnder Torres already mentioned BAASS' great interest in propulsion system when he met the 4-people team in Sobral on the same day, as we reported in our last article. “The only thing they really wanted to know was about the propulsion systems” Jãnder Tôrres recalled.

Marc Cecotti was able to have an online conversation with the other ufologist who also attended the meeting, Milton Dino Frank Jr. He confirmed meeting Kurth and Johnson at the Holiday Inn Express in Saõ Paulo, on May 29th 2009. He explained “I talked to them for an hour and thirty minutes and that was it. At the time I had a big ufology website. They reached out to me through the site. I didn't pay much attention to them. And I don't have any contact with them either. I never talked to them again, much less followed what they did here.” 

BAASS program manager James A Johnson, Milton Dino Frank, Mario Cesar Mancinelli, and BAASS program manager Douglas Kurth. Credit Edison Boaventura

Then, he explained how the meeting went “They asked me about the Varginha UFO case, Operation Prato, Official UFO night and other cases that I can't remember. Edison Boaventura was with me at the hotel the same day. […] After I talked to them about these cases, I took a plane and went to my home in Rio de Janeiro. It was no big deal. I explained what I had read about these cases since I had not personally researched any of them. Edison Boaventura also gave his opinion about these cases. So it was just an informal conversation, where nothing was recorded and much less documented. It was a bar conversation.”

Mário César Mancinelli, of the Centro de Ufologia Brasileiro(CUB) came at the meeting with Milton Frank. Here are his recollections “There was me, Milton, two guys from another organization [Boaventura and Prado] and the guys from Bigelow. And we were talking about Brazilian UFO cases. Then, when the guys from the other organization left, I asked them what exactly they were looking for. What they wanted with us. And the answer was Extreme technology. I said we don't have it. If we had, we would have called the press and proved once and for all that ETs visit us, since a scientific proof of that doesn't exist yet. Then I told them what I used to say to the craziest people in the old CUB group, that to do that, they'd have to take one down !”

Marc Cecotti then asked Boaventura how they reached out him for the meeting in Saõ Paulo “[They reached out to me] by telephone and email” Boaventura said and he added “I still have their business cards, some pictures and email correspondence.” Thanks to this we were able to have more insight into BAASS operations in Brazil. And what was written in those emails brought additional evidence regarding BAASS intentions.

BAASS business cards for Douglas Kurth and James A. Johnson. Credit Edison Boaventura Jr. 

The emails

Edison Boaventura retrieved email conversations he had with BAASS managers before and after their meeting in Saõ Paulo on May 29th, 2009.

The first email written by Douglas Kurth reads: "Sr. Edison Boaventura Juniuor, BAASS would like to come to Brazil and meet face-to-face with you to discuss information about this very important topic of Ufology. We are arranging this trip to meet with yourself and a few other prominent Ufologists in Brazil. We would like to inform you of the missions and goals of BAASS. And we would like to learn about your organization - whatever you are comfortable discussing. The intent is for a very informal meeting and informal discussion. We would like you to get to know us and set the foundation for information flow between our organizations, where necessary in the future [...] BAASS is planning to bring three people:

Douglas Kurth - Program manager

Jim Johnson - Chief Investigator

Luke Gornichec - Portuguese-English translator.

Travel and meeting arrangements are discussed, including a delay due to visa considerations. "We have had to delay our trip because of Brazilian visa considerations. We will now be in Sao Paulo and available to meet from May 26th through May 30th.

Boaventura agrees to meet with BAASS officials and offers to show BAASS some interesting files. "If you are interested, we intend to send and show you some original Brazilian Air Force Documents, related to the UFO research they made in our country in the past among other materials." Kurth replies that "We are confirmed at the Holiday Inn Express [...] We will have two people from BAASS, myself and Mr Jim Johnson, Chief Investigator. I believe Mr. Milton Dino Frank Jr will also meet with us that evening. It should be a great opportunity to get to know each other."

The two-man team, Kurth and Johnson, is consistent with the evidence we gathered. Gornichec who was initially supposed to be in Sao Paulo, was instead attending the CSPU meeting in Sobral, 3000 km away with the other BAASS team on the same day. 

Following up

After this informal meeting in Sao Paulo in May 2009, Douglas Kurth sent a follow-up email to Edison Boaventura on August 14th, 2009. Of the four people who met the BAASS represntatives at the Holiday Inn, only he was contacted again.

The email, written by Douglas Kurth on August 12th 2009, reads "Edison, when we had our face-to-face meeting in Sao Paulo, you stated that you had several pieces of physical evidence associated with UFO cases that you have investigated. In fact, you showed us some pictures of various pieces of evidence. We at BAASS are very interestd in cases that involve physical evidence. If you are available, we would like to call you this Friday, August 14 to listen to the stories of your physical evidence cases."

Edison Boaventura remembered this phone call. "Yes, we talked twice over the phone and talked about cases of metamaterials, 3 fragments of UFOs, such as the Ubatuba UFO explosion, the case at Campinas, among other cases involving physical materials. They were interested in scientific reports on these materials and fragments of UFOs."

Then he added “I did not give any material that I had, because they did not want to pay any amount for them... I told them to help our research with financial sponsorship, but they did not accept the proposal... I knew that they already helped MUFON in the United States with a value in cash and monthly. They were looking for UFO materials in Brazil to use in experiments at Bigelow Aerospace. They said they would study these materials for use in space travel and in the future construction of hotels on the Moon to make space tourism ... They were interested to use the UFO materials on their Bigelow Aerospace spaceship.”

But Boaventura explained that those few phone calls in 2009 were the last time he heard of BAASS, and he never provided them with metamaterials or UFO-related documents. All the other people from South America we interviewed during this investigation stopped receiving emails from BAASS in the Fall of 2009.

Conclusion

All those testimonies and available evidence show a consistency of BAASS objectives, to create some kind of cooperation with research organizations; to acquire as much information as possible about UFO cases; to obtain physical evidence (metamaterial or implants are mentioned in correspondence), but discover possible UFO-related technology. This last point sounds somewhat naïve, and we asked ourselves in the course of this investigation if this wasn’t just a way to justify Bigelow Aerospace involvement in UFO investigation and to better conceal the US government-sponsored program.

Either Robert Bigelow was using BAASS to do his own private study of the UFO phenomenon, and the AAWSAP contract only funded the 38 DIRDs, or the secret purpose of this contract was to investigate UFO on behalf of the Federal Government, on US soil and overseas. If the latter hypothesis is true, and this is what Senator Harry Reid affirmed on several occasions, the correspondence and testimonies we and other researchers were able to obtain make it hard to deny that this whole US government-sponsored program was nothing but a large-scale UFO research and evidence collection program, despite repeated official statements of Pentagon spokespeople. In any case, Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, with 50 employees and a 22-million dollar budget over a 3-year period, must have produced large amounts of records. We know only about the 38 DIRDs and the famous, but undisclosed 494-page “10-month report,” that means a lot remain to be discovered.

BAASS in Brazil - emails and more

Marc Cecotti and Keith Basterfield

In our last article about BAASS and Brazil, we revealed that a team of four investigators came to Fortaleza and Sobral, in the Ceará region, to meet local UFO research groups; collect information, and records.

Since that last article, Jãnder Tôrres, a member of CSPU in Sobral, Ceará reached out to Marc Cecotti. His testimony and the evidence he supplied give us a valuable insight, about the objectives and interest, of BAASS in Brazil and South America.

A meeting in Sobral, Ceará, Brazil

Asked how BAASS reached out to CSPU, a member of the group previously told us: “A friend received a call from these people and they just asked to attend one of our monthly meetings and they wanted to know if we already had any information about the UFO propulsion system.”

Shortly before our last article was published, Jãnder Tôrres contacted Marc Cecotti to offer additional information. Tôrres is a 45-year old college professor and researcher with a PhD in Public Health. He has always been interested in the UFO phenomenon, and mysteries, and has been a member of CSPU for more than 20 years.

He recalls that the group had been informed that a team of Americans were coming to Sobral to attend the CSPU monthly meeting. The team was composed of Melissa Godoy, Loran Huffman, Lucas Gornichec and Timothy Koonce. They introduced themselves as member of Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Systems. Huffman said he was a former Federal Agent.

BAASS investigators at CSPU monthly meeting, May 2009.

Credit : Hélio Loyola

“They came here, and they asked questions about the [UFO] propulsion systems. The only thing they really wanted to know was about the propulsion systems.” Jãnder Tôrres recalls. “At that time, Sobral and the Ceará region had a lot of UFO sightings cases and we wrote a lot of case files about those sightings. We talked and told them about all those cases, about the sightings reports and witness testimonies. At that time, we had about 12 to 13 cases at that time in the area. But once again, they really wanted to know about the propulsion systems. The reports we had were of UFOs close to watery area, lakes, rivers.”

After the meeting, a short video interview was recorded. Then, CSPU and BAASS went to a local restaurant for dinner. They didn’t say anything about their next destination.

Exchanging emails

In the following months, an online correspondence started between Jãnder Tôrres and Melissa Godoy. His recollection is that a total of 4 or 5 emails were exchanged over a couple of months. Each email is shown as two images, which means there is some duplication in words shown. 

Here is the English translation:

“Hey, Jander,

Thanks for the compliment! I confess I had help, but I am learning more and more Portuguese by corresponding with you. Your English is impressive. Next time, we'll write in Spanish.

1. I think it's interesting that you're holding the National Seminar. Besides Dr Choy, you're going to invite but someone? What did you mean by "join recourse"? When will this happen? Please send me news of your progress.

2. Have you thought about taking an x-ray of the boy? This might be cheaper than an MRI, maybe more limited, but it's enough to figure out an implant chip. You can do the expensive tests after the CSPU has conditions.

3. That's a very interesting case. Right now we're very interested in any case, new or historic, that has physical evidence. (like spacecraft fragments) Any information of this nature would be of great help to us.

4. Do you have any knowledge of Operation Prato? We are doing our own research and any information (witnesses, documents, etc.) that you can give us would be very useful for us.

Jander, don't worry your English is very good! Please say hello to Jacinto and everyone at the CSPU for us! I told Tim and Loran about your Jiu-Jitsu training, and your desire to watch "spider" silva. Let us know when you intend to visit! I'd like to take a little walk with you. A hug from all of us!

Talk to you soon!”

Then, another email. Jãnder’s replies to the initial mail are in red, and new comments by Godoy in black. There is some confusion in numbering in the original email. 

Hi, Jander,

Same with you, always a pleasure! I share your philosophy of languages because for me it has always been a very important subject, where you always learn something. But let me tell you that your Spanish is also impressive!

1. Today, Friday, 28/08/2009, we have a CSPU meeting, where we are going to make a strategy plan for the seminar. "Join recourse" means that we still do not have financial resources, "money", but there is an idea to ask for support from institutions. Other information, only after today's meeting.

Please let me know if there are any new developments in relation to this seminar. Any information about this event interests me. When will this event take place? Where? Who will be invited?

2. In all honesty, it wasn't something we thought. I'm going to talk to Jacinto and the group about the idea of making an X-Ray.

Well, there's only one thing to consider if you're afraid to look into it.

4. We are also interested in cases like this. With physical evidence, we have only one case in Mulungu, which I had already spoken about, but without any fragility, only plants that were burned.

Well, these seem to be the most difficult cases to find, even if it is a region with that big UFO flap. Let me know the results when you conduct your investigation. This case gives me a lot of information about the case of Itatira at the beginning of this year.

5. Every good Brazilian ufologist has to know about Operation Prato, with Colonel Urangê. In 2003, I was in Rio de Janeiro, where I was doing my post-graduation, and was introduced to a man who spoke that I claim to have known Colonel Urange, shortly before his death, who some say was a murderer, not a suicide. He said that the Colonel had concrete evidence of the existence of ships, such as photos and videos, but they were all from the Brazilian army. A lot of other things this case has. I have access to documents and if you are interested I can send you a DVD.

How do you know who the people were in Rio de Janeiro? Yes, I would very much like to receive any information you can send me about this case, especially if you have the contact information of any of the military who were involved in this case. You can send the dvd to the following address:

ATTN : Melissa Godoy

BAASS

4640 S. Eastern Avenue

Las Vegas, NV 89119.

Messages to Argentina and Australia

In December 2019, Andrea Simondini from Vision OVNI, a UFO research group based in Victoria, Argentina, had reached out to Keith Basterfield to offer new information. "I don't remember the year, but on behalf of BAASS we contacted our team, Mrs Melissa Godoy. She wanted that from Argentina, we would inform about objects falling from the sky, cases of UAPs and power plants and nuclear power plants.

In return we were offered to train our researchers and finance the work. After that, he never communicated again and we received an email from BAASS that she now longer worked. I think it was in that year."

Marc Cecotti contacted Andrea Simondini a few weeks ago regarding this email. Andrea explained “[…] The one [email] we received was for presentation first, that is, it was Bigelow and what they did.  They asked us about a particular case that we had investigated in the province of Salta, the "Anta Case".  After that, when I explained to them about the case and our team and investigations, they sent us another email, it was always Melisa Godoy, who offered us to train our investigators, finance investigations, analyzes and research instruments.”

Australian researcher Bill Chalker recently posted a blog about the email he received from BAASS’s Colm Kelleher in March 2010. Kelleher was requesting information about UFO research in Australia, especially access to public databases and copies of case files. He also mentioned “Finally we would love to hear of any cases in Australia or China that have physical evidence (including trace evidence) associated with them.”

The tale of the 38 DIRDs

Thanks to the great work of many researchers, BAASS interest in UFOs is now indisputable. It is obvious that this organization, sponsored by the DIA, was after any kind of information it could obtain. The MUFON-BAASS contract was only a part of a much wider effort to find witnesses and documents, but also physical evidence like “spacecraft fragments” or even “implants”. In some cases, financial support and training were offered to UFO research groups. Despite an official statement by the DIA that “all products produced under the AATIP contract” were the 38 Defense Intelligence Reference Documents, our recent investigation proves with undeniable evidence that the sole contractor for the 22-million dollars AAWSAP/AATIP program was definitely doing more than subcontracting technical reports. We will provide additional evidence in our next article.

Source : https://silvarecord.com/2019/01/17/38th-dird-title-surfaces-with-letter-addressed-to-mccain-armed-services-committee/