Advanced Theoretical Physics group
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Date | 20 May 1985 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Beings & bodies (topic), Nuclear & missile sites (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| People | John B. Alexander, Jacques Vallée |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 98 |
| Year | 1985 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1985 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 9 |
The Advanced Theoretical Physics (ATP) group was an informal working group of U.S. government officials, scientists and defence contractors organised in 1985 by Army Col. John B. Alexander to examine whether evidence about UFOs justified a research program, and whether a secret federal UFO program already existed. Jacques Vallée, who heard about it from participants, nicknamed it the "Secret Onion".[1][2][3]
Organisation
.JPG)
Alexander, a former Special Forces officer, then headed the Advanced Systems Concepts office at the U.S. Army Laboratory Command; he later managed non-lethal weapons work at Los Alamos. In his 2011 book UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies and Realities, he described efforts to fund the project and placed its key meetings on 20–25 May 1985 at the defence contractor BDM's secure facility in McLean, Virginia. A booking slip for the "BDM McLean Secure Facility" for those dates survives among engineer Jack Houck's papers.[1][2][3]
Participants
Lists compiled from Vallée's journals and other sources — not all confirmed — include Los Alamos scientists James "Oke" Shannon and John Kink; officials from the CIA, the National Security Agency and Army intelligence; Hal Puthoff and Jack Houck; Bill Souder and Bob Wood of McDonnell Douglas; Ron Blackburn and others from Lockheed; and retired Maj. Gen. Albert Stubblebine, then at BDM. Handwritten notes also mention Vallée, Peter Sturrock, James McDonald and Carl Sagan as people to consider.[2][3]
Agenda
Notes from the meetings list goals such as collecting new data with sensors and overflights, attempting physical or psychic contact, obtaining technology spin-offs, assessing classified data, using remote viewing, building an abduction database and countering a perceived Soviet threat. A later proposal suggested a small research team.[2][4]
Fate
Vallée's journals record that the group's existence leaked early, that Houck was dropped in late 1985, and that in 1986 Puthoff told him the project was dead after someone higher up had disrupted it; efforts to revive it with other sponsors continued into 1988 without success. Alexander has said the group concluded "there was no program" and that information collection across agencies was "pretty much ad hoc". Supporters of a hidden program argue that such work would have been kept away from people like Alexander.[1][3]
Later attention
In 2022 researcher Grant Cameron released Shannon's handwritten notes from the 1985 meetings, renewing interest in the group and in apparent links with the disputed 2002 Wilson–Davis notes.[4]
People and topics
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- John B. Alexander — Retired Army colonel who organized the 1985 Advanced Theoretical Physics group and wrote UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies and Realities.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Department of Energy — The U.S. department that runs the nuclear weapons laboratories.
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- National Security Agency — The U.S. signals intelligence agency, which holds UFO-related intercepts.
- Los Alamos National Laboratory — The New Mexico laboratory where the atomic bomb was designed.
- Lockheed Martin — The aerospace company whose Skunk Works built the U-2, SR-71 and F-117.
- McDonnell Douglas — The aerospace company that ran several quiet studies of UFOs and propulsion.
- Alien abduction — The claimed taking of people by non-human beings.
- Jacques Vallée — Computer scientist and astronomer, author of the Forbidden Science journals and a central figure in UFO research.
On the Timeline
- John Mills and the Vandenberg warhead films (1984/1985) — An Air Force technician says he saw film of UAP interacting with test warheads.
- Puthoff leaves SRI (1985) (Summer 1985) — Hal Puthoff leaves SRI to explore alternative energy sources.
See every 1985 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- John B. Alexander — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "The Advanced Theoretical Physics project", UFOs Scientific Research (Jun 2019) · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- "ATP aka Secret Onion", Anomaly Archives · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
- Daniel Elizondo and The Hermetic Penetrator, "Loose Threads" (PDF), Anomaly Archives · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
- John Alexander, 'UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities' — Internet Archive · archive.org · archived copy
- Forbidden Science — journals of Jacques Vallée (Anomaly Archives) · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
- Review of Forbidden Science 6 — SFCrowsnest · sfcrowsnest.info · archived copy
- Forbidden Science Dispatches — Tanner Boyle (journal summaries) · tannerfboyle.substack.com · archived copy
- blueblurrylines.com · blueblurrylines.com · archived copy
Further reading
- Jacques Vallée — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Skunk Works — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- UFO documents — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
- UFO documents — NSA · nsa.gov · archived copy
- Steven Schiff — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Los Alamos National Laboratory — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
No discussion yet.