Attending the ‘World’s Biggest UFO Conference’ Showed Me It’s a Golden Age for Believers
by Nick Rose June 5, 2019 (vice.com)
• Over the weekend of June 1st, 3,000 people (at least) attended the seventh annual ‘Contact in the Desert’ (CITD), which bills itself as the world’s largest UFO conference. It was again held at the Renaissance Indian Wells Resort & Spa, a four-star hotel in Indian Wells, California (east of Los Angeles). The tinfoil hat and tie-dye shirt wearing ‘conspiracy theorists’ seem to have been replaced by droves of serious truth-seekers, many of whom traveled thousands of miles to deepen their search and knowledge of scientific, personal, and spiritual truths about UFOs.
• CITD is described as a “gateway through which attendees can gain knowledge and the most up-to-date research on UFOs, ancient aliens, human origins, crop circles, government disclosure, extraterrestrial visitation, interplanetary living, contact and abduction experiences. Hosting 50 lectures and 36 workshops by scientists, abductees, ex-military, the guy from Ancient Aliens, and many other stalwarts of the UFO circuit, the CITD conference is like stepping into a YouTube UFO rabbit hole.
• While the US Navy’s recent acknowledgment of flying “tic-tacs” has renewed mainstream interest surrounding UFOs, many of those at CITD considered this to be only a “soft disclosure” by the US military of a larger UFO presence – a small chapter in a quest to identify the source of UFOs that stretches back decades, even millennia.
• We spoke to some of the attendees at Contact in the Desert. (Below are their paraphrased expressions):
o Autumn, 24: UFOs are a combination of military technology, interplanetary visitors, and inter-dimensional beings traveling through wormholes. Knowing about UFOs is better than not knowing. The people that gather at UFO conferences compare it to being at church. Everyone holds a common belief system that other people might not agree with. Everyone is at a different level of discovering the truth. By becoming more informed they’re becoming better people.
o Adam, 28: We seek connection, understanding, purpose, and ancestry – where do we come from? What are we? Why are we? We are part of something much greater than ourselves. I’m here to explore myself, which is an extension of all this. There are so many lies around the subject of UFOs. In the past, information was heavily controlled. Now, in an age of readily available information, the truth is out there.
o Marc, 51: I’m really into ancient archaeology and history in general. Add in the alien flavor here and it’s actually quite a blast. No one is judged here. A couple of times in my life, I’ve seen the white orbs and once saw a mysterious black object in the sky. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that UFOs are here. They’ve been saying the same thing for the last 30 years, but I think disclosure is coming.
o Carolyn: Some say UFOs are us from the future. Others say they’re from an underground civilization. I don’t know. I’m just looking for everybody’s input,what they’ve experienced and learned. Most people are locked into what they’ve been taught. If it is outside of their paradigm they can’t cope. But the way things are going, the government is going to have to give up playing stupid and admit what they know. Disclosure has got to come soon.
o Lara: The Navy’s recent acknowledgment of UFO sightings is a “soft disclosure”, e.g.: revealing information but never getting to the truth, and controlling what the truth is going to be. The government doesn’t want to freak people out. I’ve seen shiny disks, glowing orbs, a cylinder over Burbank, a cube morphing out of a cloud. I’ve been to ECETI Ranch and seen UFOs come up over the mountains there. They may be aliens from this this dimension, or inter-dimensional beings from a multiverse. I don’t know. I wanted to be among people where I could speak the truth and be myself. People accuse us of dreaming or hallucinating, or being on drugs. I don’t take drugs. I feel like I’m coming into my own being, hopefully a more evolved being.
With the US Navy’s recent acknowledgement of a pesky and persistent flying “tic-tac” problem has come a renewed mainstream interest (and suspicion) surrounding UFOs.
But for the 3,000 attendees of last weekend’s Contact in the Desert, which bills itself as the world’s largest UFO conference, this “soft disclosure” by the US military is just a small chapter in a story that stretches back decades, even millennia, in a quest to identify the unidentified vessels that apparently fill the sky.
The conference website describes it as a “gateway through which attendees can gain knowledge and the most up-to-date research on UFOs, ancient aliens, human origins, crop circles, government disclosure, extraterrestrial visitation, interplanetary living, contact and abduction experiences, and the ‘need to know’”—a hotel buffet of the paranormal.
Walking into the lobby of the Renaissance Indian Wells Resort & Spa was like physically stepping into a late-night YouTube UFO rabbit hole, but with the welcome presence of human interaction, and a programme of 50 lectures and 36 workshops by scientists, alleged abductees, ex-military, the guy from Ancient Aliens, and many other stalwarts of the UFO circuit.
The phenomenon of unidentified flying objects may, by definition, always be at the edge of human knowledge, but the tinfoil hats and tie-dye shirts of yore seem to be long gone. We spoke to some of the truth-seekers at Contact in the Desert, many of whom drove or flew thousands of miles to deepen their knowledge of the unknowable, about their search for scientific, personal, and spiritual truths about UFOs.
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