Bryce Zabel's Blog, page 21
September 3, 2020
On the Trail of the Saucers
How I searched for the truth about UFOs by writing fiction, and learned the world really is stranger than you imagine.
August 27, 2020
I've read both versions of this book. It just keeps getting better!
I've read both versions of this book. It just keeps getting better!
Somewhere Man
The content created for “On the Trail of the Saucers” comes from an expanding collective of writers, researchers and activists with unique perspectives on the issue of UFO/UAP reality. We’re proud to welcome Ryan Sprague with this interview, conducted by editor Bryce Zabel.
Welcome Ryan. You wouldn’t be writing books and essays unless you had something you need to say about the UFO topic. Give us a preview. Why do you write about this?
I write about UFOs because it is the most complex, mystifying, beautiful, terrifying, frustrating, and exciting topic I can possibly think of. It defies logic and it scoffs at complacency. It’s rebellious and it simply refuses to play by our rules. And I love anything that questions authority and shatters reality. I also love a good mystery just like any other writer and reader. But more than any of that, I love hearing and telling stories.
When I’m not writing about UFOs, I am a professional playwright, having racked up some prominent credits in the Off-Broadway world in New York City and in independent theater companies across the United States. I was taught early on two major lessons by my playwriting mentor: The play must center on one of the most important moments of your character’s life. It’s why we’re being dropped in at that moment to glimpse the drama before us.
Second, I was taught that your main character, or characters, must change in some way by the play’s end. As I began researching UFOs and started interviewing witnesses and experiencers, I noticed that it was quite the same for these actual people. They were living, breathing characters on a global stage, their lives both being changed by a UFO event and for most, an extremely profound and pivotal moment in their lives. That’s when I knew I wanted to focus on the aftermath and implications of having a UFO encounter rather that the encounter itself, and what might it tell us about the phenomena itself? That, I hope, is my contribution to the UFO conversation.
What is your own personal experience with the subject?
My interest in UFOs began in 1995 when I was twelve years old and I had a triangular UFO sighting over the Saint Lawrence River in New York. It was a perfect equilateral triangular formation of lights, whitish/yellow in color on each point, and a hazy ball of orange at the center. I didn’t see any structure or machine of any sort. Just the formation of lights. I yelled for my father to come look, and he and I both watched as the formation slowly coasted over the water and headed North to the Canadian border across the river. I was terrified after that, and had nightmares almost every night about it.
Ryan Sprague, Somewhere ManI started taking out books at my local library on UFOs, and even interviewed my first UFO witness a year later when I was thirteen. He was a Navy veteran who had a spectacular UFO sighting over the Pacific Ocean during the Vietnam war. I was the first and last person he ever told about the sighting. He died months later, but his story was preserved. I ended up transcribing the phone conversation I had with him as best I could and submitted it as a school report. I was deeply humbled and honored that he trusted me with his story as a thirteen year old, and I knew that interviewing witnesses of UFO events was going to play a large role in my life as I moved forward in my research.
For the past seventy years, UFO researchers and activists have been predicting imminent Disclosure. Why should we think that 2020 is any different than 1950?
There are clear distinctions between then and now. The U.S. Air Force, for one, was able to contain, curate, and narrate their own landscape of how the UFO issue was perceived by the public. Whether through Project Blue Book, and the conclusions by the Condon Committee or Robertson Panel, UFOs posed no true threat to US national security, and most reports could be explained in conventional terms. The military and government were in control of our skies and that was that.
Fast-forward to now, with decades under our belt with instant technological communication across the world and now the public has access like never before. The narrative becomes much more malleable and proliferates like never before. It’s not as easy to stay quiet when our top military pilots are experiencing exotic craft displaying vasty superior sophistication in our skies and putting our pilots and sometimes even citizens in harm’s way, simply because they don’t know how to deal with the growing phenomena.
In many instances, the various intelligence agencies and departments are having their respective hand’s forced to acknowledge the issue and admit it’s going on. This is a huge step from when they flat-out denied it. UFOs exist. Our government acknowledges it. Now we ask the much tougher questions of who’s controlling these craft or anomalous phenomena, what does it want, and where does it come from? My hope is that we can build trust with our government and work together to find those answers.
Your book is called Somewhere in the Skies: A Human Approach to the UFO Phenomenon . What other approach is there, and what do you mean by that subtitle?
The human approach for me is where the heart of these mysteries truly lay. We would have no UFO reports, nothing to investigate or research, and no context for a given case without the witness. They are the key to all of this. And while many may argue that it’s just stories, sometimes it’s all we have to rely on.
The more witnesses that come forward, the less stigma and ridicule there will be on this topic. If we spent a little more time listening to witnesses and less time arguing about if an unknown craft caught on camera actually rotated-mid flight or if the camera itself rotated, then maybe we could truly begin to narrow in on what we are dealing with.
Noted author and researcher, John Keel once said, “If you could look far enough into the empty sky, you would be able to see the back of your own head.” I love this analogy and I truly feel that the more we search for in our skies and beyond, the more we will recognize a mirror shining back on us. Our hopes, our ambitions. Our fears. And our place in this mystery.
We are the UFO. We are the other. And we are a reflection of everything UFOs were, are, and could be. That’s exciting for me, personally.
You’re out now with a second edition . What motivated you to do that, to say, well, that was good, but there’s more to say?
We often hear of UFO incidents, a couple quotes from a witness, and then we never hear about it again. But I always wanted to know what came next? Was there still UFO activity in that area? Is this the first time a witness saw something? What did they believe it to be, and how did it affect them moving forward? These events can fundamentally change both a witness’ belief system and even their lives overall in countless ways.
So with the second edition, I wanted to follow up with every witness and see if the experiences continued, if their thoughts and feelings had evolved or changed, and had they embraced it more now post-New York Times articles, UAP Task Forces, and DoD admissions of authentic unidentified aerial phenomena in our skies. The answers truly surprise me, on a case-to-case basis, and was fuel to also bring forward new UFO cases that have never been made public before.
The second edition is about 70,000 new words. It’s basically a brand new book, with an intimate look at one of the men involved with the now-famous “Tic Tac UFO” incident, and how it changed his life forever. It’s a much more powerful scope and empathetic look at those who experience both UFOs and possible close encounters and beyond.
Speaking of more to say, can you give us a preview of some of the things readers may find you writing about on On the Trail of the Saucers?
On the Trail of the Saucers is an exciting endeavor that I’m truly honored to be a part of. It’s a growing collection of writers reporting on what they find more interesting about the UFO phenomenon. It also gives me the opportunity to not only bring new UFO cases to the public, but really dig deep in to historical cases and re-analyze them in a whole new light.
I think with the growing body of work being displayed by yourself, Bryce, and the other contributors, we have a chance to build something truly special and credible with a topic that, throughout the years, has so desperately needed it. I can’t wait to explore this and much more with On the Trail of the Saucers.
Let’s try one of those so-called “Lightning Rounds.”
I’ll give it a shot.
Fast and brief. We’ll start with… Tom DeLonge.
A passionate, hungry, complex guy who banged on doors, stepped on toes, put his money where his mouth was, and made shit happen. No matter your personal thoughts on him as a musician, or now, UFO researcher, there’s no denying he has made significant progress in his endeavors to legitimize the UFO topic, obtain information from high-level individuals, and hopefully make some anti-gravity space ships in the process!
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
I’m cautiously optimistic. The classified nature of the proposed bill is probably the stuff we really want to know, but honestly, if we even get a few more new UFO cases to look at from an unclassified level, it shows a willingness to be even slightly more transparent than the government has been in the past here in the United States.
Marco Rubio Doubles Down on UFOs
The role of The New York Times.
The willingness of The New York Times to cover this topic in such a serious manner gives me hope that the authors of these articles, Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean, will establish a set of standards for how mainstream media handles this topic and issue moving forward. I thank them for their diligent work and inspiration, and we can only hope it continues.
The New York Times Says Crashed UFOs May Exist
Donald Trump and Disclosure.
No matter your politics, there’s no denying that Donald Trump says what he wants when he wants and it wouldn’t surprise me if he used any knowledge he had on the issue as a wildcard or something to brag about. He is just as unpredictable as the phenomenon, so we’ll have to see.
Joe Biden and Disclosure.
One of the things we need to keep in mind is that Biden was in office during the now-famous “Tic Tac UFO” event so it’s very possible that he was briefed on some elements of this incident during that time. And lest we forget that his Vice President nominee, Kamala Harris, is part of the Senate Intelligence Committee that is responsible for the UFO bill and subsequent task force currently in development, so we may see some movement on that front if they see a reason to make anything public.
Biden/Harris Know All About the UAP Issue
Okay, enough lightning. Time for one more question. We all admit the last three years have been shocking and unexpected. What do you think is going to happen in the next three years? If you can be specific, please do.
I think we are going to reach a fever pitch where something truly monumental and historic will happen in terms of the acknowledgement of the UFO issue. As we rapidly move forward with space exploration and technology, we may have irrefutable evidence of extraterrestrial life, in some form, out there among the stars. The real question then would be, has this life or some sort of non-human intelligence ever visited our planet? I tend to lean on the notion that it has at some point in our young planet’s life.
But until that day comes, and until we can all come together as a species and look past our differences, we don’t deserve grand disclosure. We don’t deserve confirmation. And we certainly don’t deserve a place at the intergalactic table. But I have hope that we will someday. And I just hope it happens in my lifetime.
Here are Ryan’s first two articles that have appeared on On the Trail of the Saucers.UFO Hackers Pay the PriceSurviving a Mid-Air UFO Collision
Somewhere Man was originally published in Trail of the Saucers on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
August 24, 2020
Inside 2020's Virtual Emmys
What viewers can expect to see and what’s really going on behind the scenes in the strangest Emmy awards ever.
August 22, 2020
Our family vacationed (?)
Our family vacationed (?) in Australia for nearly the entire month of December 2019. Catastrophic fires. We live in a fire zone in California and have been evacuated twice and expect to be evacuated again this season.
August 21, 2020
I wrote Official Denial, Syfy's first original film back in 1993, and the twist ending was that it…
I wrote Official Denial, Syfy's first original film back in 1993, and the twist ending was that it wasn't where they were from but when. It's easy to speculate, we just don't have enough solid facts to say.
The Night John Lennon Saw a UFO
On August 23, 1974, the former Beatle and May Pang claimed they saw a UFO in New York City. Did they?
Did John Lennon Really See a UFO?
On August 23, 1974, the former Beatle and May Pang claimed they saw a UFO in New York City. Did they?
August 16, 2020
Caitlin, I'd like to publish this piece on our Medium magazine, "On the Trail of the Saucers."
Caitlin, I'd like to publish this piece on our Medium magazine, "On the Trail of the Saucers." I think you're a compelling writer and your opinion seems like it needs a place at the table. I will grant a temporary "writer" designation so you could share it with us. If it's not a good fit for this piece for you, I'll remove the designation. Thank you for considering.
August 15, 2020
Adam, another great piece of writing.
Adam, another great piece of writing. I've built and started editing a publication on Medium that is a collective of UFO/UAP writers, and would like to know if you could see being a part of it. Nothing would change in these articles you've written, but they would also be featured and cross-promoted. The name of this magazine is "On the Trail of the Saucers." I would love to feature material like this article and others. You can write me at BryceZabel @ StellarProductions-dot-today. Just extended you an invitation but will withdraw it if you aren't interested. Thanks for considering it.
