When I was just a kid way back there in the '60s, there was a show on TV that I would find both compelling and scary at the same time. That show was the Quinn Martin production of The Invaders. Every week actor Roy Thinnes would portray David Vincent, who on a lonely desert road one night witnessed the landing of a UFO. He spent the next two seasons trying to warn the people of Earth that "they" were here.
There is some small part of me that feels like that fictional TV character David Vincent. I think this all stems from my mother and I seeing a UFO at very close range when I was just 8 years old. If you would like to find out more about that experience, you can listen to it on my podcast, UFO Talker (Season 1 Episode 2). Now that I think of it, this is probably why I started my podcast last year. Not so much to warn people that "they" are here, but to share some of the knowledge and some of the insights I have gained on my multi-decade UFO journey and make no mistake, it's been a journey.
That journey now brings me to Robert Hastings. First off, I have to tell you that I believe that Robert Hastings is one of the giants of ufology and when I say giants, I'm talking about Mount Rushmore size. In 1973, when nobody knew who he was, he began interviewing military personnel about UFOs and ICBM missile bases. I can't even comprehend all the leads that went nowhere, the tips that led to people who didn't want to talk. The phone calls, snail mail, emails and face to face meetings over a long, long period of time. Year by year putting that giant puzzle together that led him to believe that there was something way beyond normal happening at multiple missile silos across the United States. Because of his life's work, we now have a vast knowledge and understanding of what really went on behind all those chain link fences. His book, UFO and Nukes, stands as one of the very best books on UFOs. On September 27, 2010, Robert Hastings co-sponsored the UFO and Nukes press conference in Washington, D.C. This was a very pivotal moment. I think the attitudes of the public really began to shift. It just wasn't possible that so many military personnel (keep in mind these men literally had their finger on the nuclear button) could be making all of this stuff up. Robert Hastings' work has been significant and profoundly important.
I reached out to Mr. Hastings in early November, 2023. He agreed to answer my questions and have them published in my blog. Over several weeks of emails he was finally able to answer my questions and he sent me those in February, 2024. I have not altered one word of Mr. Hastings' answers. I tried to ask questions that would give us some insight into the man behind the words. At the time I really liked my first question. However, it does seem to be a little pretentious on second read, but, dear reader, I never said I was perfect.
Michael Ryan: Tell us, from your own experience, what it is to be human?
Robert Hastings: Hmmm. Well, I think we are only one of countless races of physical entities existing in the universe/multiverse. Our strengths and positive attributes, such as compassion and kindness, are unfortunately balanced by the utter foolishness we routinely engage in and the despicable cruelty and horror we are capable of creating on the planet. The constant wars and environmental destruction that we are responsible for come to mind. In any case, we as a species have clearly drawn the interest of outside groups-multiple species IMO-for whatever reason. Perhaps they have been monitoring things, and even interacting with us, since the beginning of the human race. My opinion is that we will have much more information available to the public in the relatively near future.
Michael Ryan: Now that a few years have passed, what impact do you think your book, Confession has had on the outside world and has your book's release changed you?
Robert Hastings: Well, based on book sales, it appears that the book has been largely ignored, relative to sales of my first book, UFOs and Nukes. Only a few thousand have been sold since 2019. But most of the reader reviews at Amazon are very positive, so it seems to have made a generally favorable impression.
I have also received perhaps a hundred emails from persons all over the world who thanked me for coming forward with my personal accounts of alien abduction. Many of those individuals also said that they, too, were "experiencers" and were glad that someone such as myself - a nuts and bolts researcher who writes in a journalistic style - was willing to publicly acknowledge that I had had such weird and nearly unbelievable encounters.
It felt good, and necessary, to publicly talk about my encounters before I passed. I am rather certain that millions of humans have had these experiences and we as a species are going to have to accept that fact at some point, and begin to figure out what they represent. Who are the entities involved? Why do they engage in that kind of behavior? What does this phenomenon mean to humankind as a whole?
Michael Ryan: Why is capturing the history of unidentified flying objects so important to you?
Robert Hastings: If one really studies the available data, not only relating to the abduction phenomenon, but the cases involving UFOs monitoring and even tampering with our nukes, it becomes clear that we are confronting something quite extraordinary and obviously non-human in origin.
The technology involved is simply orders of magnitude beyond anything we have in 2024. And the claim that the Americans, or Russians or Chinese had such technology in the 1940s - when the modern era UFO sightings really took off - is patently absurd. The skeptics will grasp at any number of straws to avoid confronting the fact that something is occurring that doesn't fit into their world view.
So, if UFOs and the abductions phenomenon do indeed involve NHI (non-human intelligences) then that is self-evidently important and worthy of study and documentation. Therefore, decades ago I decided to investigate one small component of the overall situation - UFO activity at nuclear weapons sites - to try to add some credible information to the database.
Michael Ryan: Since you published Confession in 2019 have you had any more abductions or sightings of UFOs?
Robert Hastings: No, my last remembered encounter - involving an entity in my presence - took place on December 31, 2014. I was sleeping at my home in Colorado and had awoken at perhaps 11 p.m. to find a short, humanoid entity standing at the foot of my bed. In the darkened room I couldn't see its facial features but its entire form - large, bulbous head on a skinny body - was clearly visible in silhouette from the nightlight in an adjacent bathroom. I had just lifted my head and, once I realized what I was seeing, was about to scream when - in what seemed like the next moment - I was lying back on the bed with sunlight streaming through the windows. Several hours had obviously passed, about which I have no memory, so I had had a missing time experience. If any subsequent encounter of that kind has occurred, I have no memory of it.
However, entities aside, I have had a couple of strange sightings since the book came out. I live in the San Luis Valley, which has the reputation of being a paranormal hotspot, UFO and Bigfoot sightings, cattle mutilations, poltergeist reports and had already had an orb sighting in October 2014, which I described in the book.
However, following its publication, one night in February of 2021, I saw out my window an intensely bright green light. In the moonlight, I could see that it was near or on the ground, at the base of a mountain range located five miles east of my house. But it was surrounded by a hemispheric-shaped glow of green light which had a diameter of some 2-3 miles. Strangely, the boundary of the glow seemed hard-edged, and did not have a fading-with-distance appearance. I could see geographic features at its boundaries in the moonlight that allowed me to estimate its width. After a few seconds, the light slowly went out. I can't think of any human manufactured light source that would have accounted for what I saw.
The second sighting occurred on November 10, 2023, and involved two very bright, shimmering, golden-colored lights that I saw above the mountains south of my house. As an amateur astronomer, I know that they weren't stars or planets. They were hovering side-by-side. Unfortunately, I was in a car and driving in a direction that soon took them out of my view. I could kick myself for not stopping and looking at them longer.
Michael Ryan: For those of us who are writing and talking about extraterrestrials, are we really agents doing their work for them?
Robert Hastings: Good question. In Confession I speculate about that. Given that I have apparently had entity encounters since childhood, did they implant in me the impulse to investigate and publicize the nuclear-related UFO cases? Or on the other hand, was my work my own idea and just something that I thought worth pursuing? If the former, I'll never be able to prove it.
But the mental communication aspect of alien encounters is well known and I have experienced it firsthand, so I guess the potential exists for the entities to be able to influence, perhaps subconsciously, those humans with whom they interact.
Michael Ryan: Some have said the most powerful weapon in the world would be mind control. Because if you can control a person's mind you don't need guns, an army or nuclear weapons. Have you seen evidence that these extraterrestrials can control a person's thoughts?
Robert Hastings: Well, from personal experience, I can assert that the Gray entities do indeed engage in telepathic communication. I experienced that during one of my abduction experiences.
And, on another occasion, when no entity was visibly present, it appeared that I was being directed in my actions by what was presumably their influence. I won't go into a great deal of detail, except to say that when I saw an orb hovering low over my house, I immediately reached for my camera. At that moment, I suddenly had the thought, "No, you don't need a picture," and put the camera back in my pocket.
After staring in wonder at the orb for perhaps five minutes, I again had the strong thought that I absolutely needed to photograph it. Once again, moments after I pulled the camera out and aimed it at the object, the same thought came into my mind, more firmly and intense, "no, you don't need a picture," so I again put the camera away. Now, that still baffles me! Of course, I needed and badly wanted to have a picture of the orb. And yet, I never shot one. Very strange.
Michael Ryan: Why do you think that most abduction cases begin when a person is a child?
Robert Hastings: Well, numerous abduction accounts suggest this fact, and further indicate that some families are prone to abductions generation after generation. Presumably, the Gray entities are engaged in what our scientists would call a "longitudinal" study or program in which the genetic make-up of the humans involved, as carried over from parent to child, is somehow important to their work. In my case, I have information, presented in my book, which suggests that my mother was abducted in the 1930s, at least once. My own experiences began when I was two, based on certain facts that I have uncovered. I have no children myself, so I don't know whether the pattern would have continued into the next generation.
Michael Ryan: Do you think the Mario Woods case is the most important encounter that you have written about?
Robert Hastings: Mario's abduction occurred when he was a USAF Security Policeman at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, in 1977. He and his partner were investigating tripped alarms at a nuclear missile site when they observed a huge spherical object hovering over it. As described in my book, they were then immobilized and confronted by several small beings who took them aboard the craft. I won't go into detail here but, yes, as far as military personnel being involved in the abduction phenomenon, Mario's case is the most dramatic one I have investigated.
Michael Ryan: Have you ever seen any evidence or heard anyone discuss the possibility that the U.S. government or any government has made contact with extraterrestrials? (I define contact as face to face talks.)
Robert Hastings: I have several former, high-level U.S. Government contacts who have confided in me, to one degree or another. Nothing classified, of course. But they have filled in a few blanks for me over the years. One of them has referred to credible rumours of actual contact between the entities and representatives of America's leadership group. That's all I'm going to say and, obviously, I can't confirm that such a thing has actually happened.
Michael Ryan: Do you think the U.S. OSI (Air Force Office of Special Investigations) is the group that could be most closely associated with the many "Men in Black" stories? If not, what group do you think is most likely responsible for keeping knowledge of extraterrestrials away from the public?
Robert Hastings: Virtually all of the USAF veterans who I've interviewed have stated that they were debriefed by an OSI agent. So, as regards to military UFO witnesses at the nuclear sites, yes, OSI seems to be the primary group involved. That said, I think there is indication that the CIA has engaged in witness intimidation in some cases and, further, on credible account of such a confrontation seems to have involved the Department of Homeland Security.
Michael Ryan: Over the years extraterrestrials have shown interest in nuclear weapons, water and electricity. What do you think we can learn from those observations?
Robert Hastings: I can only knowledgeably address the nuclear cases, which I have done elsewhere here.
Michael Ryan: Do you think we will ever know the answer to the mystery of UFOs?
Robert Hastings: Things might unfold any number of ways. The entities themselves might decide to "up the ante" and suddenly reveal themselves worldwide, in a manner that is utterly irrefutable. They might perform some public demonstration of their reality and presence that will force governments everywhere to confirm their longstanding participation in a cover-up.
Or, a series of smaller, less dramatic events might occur, such as the recent revelations by whistleblower David Grusch, that will eventually tip the balance toward Disclosure and final public acceptance of the alien reality.
And it's not out of the question that some future U.S. President might decide that the time has come to reveal the facts. World leaders everywhere would immediately be obligated to follow suit. For better or worse, it does seem that the Western governments seem to take their cue from the U.S. and fall in line with our approach to Disclosure, or non-Disclosure. But, of course, Russia or China might suddenly decide to take the lead and let their citizens in on the secret. At that point, everybody on the planet knows. In any case, no matter what happens in the future, it's just a question of time before the paradigm shift crashes upon us all.
There you have it. A small glimpse of the man behind the words. If you read Confession, you can understand the struggle that Mr. Hastings had to face. Would those military personnel still trust him and think of him the same way once it was known that he had been abducted by extraterrestrials? Or was the knowledge of extraterrestrial abduction a bridge too far? Since the publication of Confession there has been no rush to abandon the man who wrote UFOs and Nukes. In the end, Robert Hastings was true to himself. And when all is said and done, maybe that is the best kind of truth.