What about the Russians? What about the Aliens?

Joseph Burkes MD 2017, edited 2026

A decade ago, I was privileged to dialog with the prominent researcher Richard Dolan on a few Contact Underground blogs. Here is my response to the concerns that he and others have raised about the wisdom of going out into the field and attempting to make contact with non-human intelligences associated with “flying saucers.”

WHAT ABOUT THE RUSSIANS?

Forty years ago, I was in the doctors’ peace movement during the height of the cold war. Those that were opposed to nuclear arms control and God forbid nuclear disarmament were forever saying, “what about the Russians?” It was understood” that we Americans wanted peace, but according to many political conservatives in the 1980s, how could the USA negotiate with a system like the former USSR that was a “closed society, so undemocratic and expansionistic”? Many claim Russia today is not much different.

During the Cold War, a popular notion among the right wing was that the Soviet Union would have to change before we could give concessions as part of any negotiations. In my opinion those hawks ignored the fact that the Soviets knew the ravages of war, twenty million dead in WWII. In addition, during the Cold War their weaker civilian economy suffered more than the burden the US carried by military programs that consumed vast resources. That wealth could have been used to improve the standard of living of the Soviet peoples. In contrast the more powerful and vibrant US economy could afford both “guns and butter” without having to dramatically lower the standard of living of the American people.

WHAT ABOUT THE ALIEN “ABDUCTIONS?”

Now we have an unknown entity called “ETs.” A notion is being put forward by prominent researchers that so-called “aliens” might be evil, or perhaps some good and some evil. Indeed, they are forcibly interacting with many people at the psychic level. According to the now deceased Harvard professor John Mack MD, we don’t truly understand exactly what is an “abduction.” Is it primarily a psychic event? Is it primarily physical with important psychic components? No one knows for sure. An outspoken section of the UFO community has decided that these strange interactions are essentially physical events and therefore “criminal” in nature. 

A NEW KIND OF COLD WAR

Conflict appears to be major part of our relationship with the so-called “aliens” and there is a kind of cold war going on with them. What appear to be ET craft have been repeatedly fired upon for violating terrestrial “air space.” Governments lie about the UFO presence and defense contractors reportedly have been back engineering ET technology to prepare for what many observers fear will be a new arms race in space. 

HERE COME THE CONTACTEES

Using rudimentary psi techniques, a multitude of limited interactions have occurred between flying saucers and networks of ordinary citizens. I for one have been part of this effort since 1992. We go out at night and on occasion have opportunities to signal at anomalous structured objects that fit the definition of true UFOs. In 1974 Peruvians in the group then called “Rama” initiated a campaign of human empowered outreach to the intelligence behind the flying saucer phenomenon. Their presence has been primarily in the Spanish speaking countries. During the 1990s In North America, and then later in the UK and Australia the group CSETI has spawned the CE-5 network of contact activists. Now they too are engaging UFO intelligences.

While dialoging with others in the UAP community, contact activists are sometimes advised that they should not directly engage the “aliens” because some might be “bad,” but contact networks have already been doing exactly that for over fifty years with no ill effects. Some leaders like Sixto Paz Wells of Rama and several dozen of his present and former associates claim to have had face-to-face encounters with aliens. These experiences have reportedly transpired during encounters that humans have initiated themselves! 

The peaceful and cooperative nature of these interactions are viewed with suspicion because some people say, “we don’t know what the UFOs’ true agenda is.” But how in heavens are we going to know what their agenda is unless we engage them, not as children that wake up with dreams of good or bad aliens, but rather as conscious intelligent adults that put aside some of our fears and go out to meet them. 

FEAR SHOULD NOT PREVENT US FROM BEING PROACTIVE

In my opinion this is truly all about fear. Fear of the Russians, fear of the aliens, fear of what I like to call TOTENCET (pronounced,” toe ten set”) an acronym for This Otherness That Experiencers Now Call ET. By going out into the field with the support of our fellow humans and given the history of safe interactions described above, we can become empowered to advance human knowledge in this important arena. Thus, it is my firm conviction that we will never get a grip on this phenomenon unless we directly engage the so-called aliens, at least initially on their terms. 

THE POPULARITY OF NEW AGE BELIEFS SHOULD NOT BE A DETERRENT. 

But what about all the “New Age” type of beliefs so prevalent in contactee networks? Well, if my fellow contact activists sing sweet songs of alien friendship and that offends skeptical investigators, I can understand their discomfort. I was trained in western materialist science and consider myself rather agnostic towards religious beliefs. I consider an uncritical acceptance of the ET hypothesis to be fertile grounds for the creation of new religious belief systems about the so-called “aliens.” 

Despite the mysterious nature of the phenomenon, during the three decades when I willfully went, neither I nor my fellow volunteers were ever deliberately frightened or hurt by the non-human intelligences/beings that we encountered. At times our teams were able to signal back and forth with what we identified as “craft.” Thus, I am confident that methods being employed are truly working and are safe.

Conducting real time research by initiating contact protocols is so important to me that it is worth the price of feeling uncomfortable among fellow contact activists strongly influenced by new age beliefs. The passionate expression of solidarity with these mysterious intelligences is something I experience as well, although I truly do not know who and what they are. I suspect humanity is just beginning to comprehend the nature of the phenomenon and it is wise to be open to the many possibilities without rigid belief systems or new religions that are labeled as “cults.”

MAKING HISTORY

In summary, I invite all seekers of UFO truth to be open to the possibility of our learning more about this amazing phenomenon by directly engaging UFO intelligences on their terms. In my view, the role of all previous flying saucer researchers has been to study UFO history. The point is to change it!

About the author: Dr Burkes volunteered as a Working Group Coordinator for the CE-5 Initiative from 1992 till 1998. He has continued to study the flying saucer phenomenon working with MUFON and the Peruvian contact network now called Rahma. Dr Burkes retired from the Southern California Permanente Medical Group after thirty-years-service in 2008. He is a board-certified internal medicine physician and is licensed to practice in California