WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 — A religious studies scholar is pushing back on a recurring assumption inside the Pentagon files debate: that the public would be traumatised if the US government ever confirmed the existence of non-human intelligence. Dr Diana Pasulka of the University of North Carolina Wilmington told the That UFO Podcast, in an episode released 4 September, that the reaction to genuine disclosure would depend heavily on people’s existing beliefs about spirituality and reality. “It’s not necessarily disturbing,” she said.
“It’s disturbing if you’ve never thought about these things before, but it’s not disturbing for those who give it some thought.” Pasulka floated a scenario in which a sitting US president confirms non-human intelligence exists overnight. Her assessment: the shockwaves would not be destructive, and would instead push people toward deeper existential questions.
“I think that this kind of a, if disclosure happened and the president, you know, talked about it tomorrow, this would actually cause a lot of people to ask that question, like what’s it all about? And that’s probably good,” she said.
The fear-of-panic argument
The remarks counter a long-standing theory that authorities are holding back information because they fear public reaction. Speculation about staged or gradual disclosure has circulated for years, running alongside congressional hearings, Pentagon briefings, and US government releases of UAP-related videos and records. Pasulka’s research into scientists, technologists, and others interested in extraterrestrial intelligence spans roughly six years and formed part of the basis for her 2019 book American Cosmic.
Her latest work, The Others, UFOs, AI, and the Secret Forces Guiding Human Destiny, was published by St. Martin’s Essentials on 28 July.
Faith and the disclosure question
Pasulka, whose childhood was shaped by Christianity, has spoken elsewhere about being genuinely shaken by parts of her research. She has described experiences that unsettled her own understanding of the world and led her to revisit her faith, after concluding that some people reported encounters with something beyond the human. She suggested disclosure could push people who otherwise coast through life to reflect on why they exist and where humanity fits — potentially leading some to revisit religious beliefs or traditions.
Whether any such announcement is imminent remains, as ever, an open question.
