Dan Sherman's July 1994 communication
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Claimant | Dan Sherman, former USAF ELINT specialist |
|---|---|
| Book | Above Black: Project Preserve Destiny (1997) |
| Contact | "Bones", his second "Grey" contact |
| Turning point | He asked Bones about the program itself; conversations stopped |
| Afterwards | "Abduction data": dates, locations, "recall" potential, 1–100 pain scale |
| Outcome | He sought to leave and was discharged in 1994 |
| Status | Uncorroborated |
| Date | July 1994 |
| Topics | Beings & bodies (topic) |
| People | Dan Sherman |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 120 |
| Year | 1994 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1994 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 11 |
In Above Black, Dan Sherman says that late in his time in what he calls Project Preserve Destiny, the telepathic messages he received changed. They went from conversation with an alien contact to what he calls "abduction data", and this led him to want out of the program.[1][3] The change followed months of informal exchanges with a being he called "Bones", which ended when he asked about the program itself.[1] He left the Air Force in 1994. There is no independent confirmation of any of this.[1][2]
Conversations with Bones
After his first contact, "Spock", stopped appearing, Sherman says he was transferred to a second program base. There his new counterpart, Bones, was "more conversational and forthcoming".[1] The Anomaly Archives summary says he received more than 75 messages from Bones over a ten-month period.[4] In informal exchanges Sherman asked how the beings age, reproduce and travel, and whether they have souls.[1] The answers he reports, as summarized by the military writer Blake Stilwell, included:[1]
- God. The being replied that the question "answers itself".
- Time. They travel not through time but "around time and from time to time".
- Souls. "Any entity that realizes its existence has intellect and therefore must have a soul."
- Earlier visits. They had visited Earth for "a very long time" and had contributed to the culture and technology of some civilizations.
- Interbreeding. Sherman came to believe they had interbred with humans, whom they called "water vessels". He suggested the Basque people of the Pyrenees as a likely example.
- Lifespan. They live about as long as humans, though they experience time differently.
- Energy. Earth's sun is unique, and humans will one day use the same energy on a smaller scale.
Sherman said Bones told him there are many extraterrestrial cultures, that more than one country ran a similar communication project, and that "substantial Earth changes were pending".[4] He said he never learned where the beings came from. He assumed, from what he read in the papers, that it was "Zeta or some far-off place".[10]
Abduction data
When Sherman asked Bones about Project Preserve Destiny itself, the being "abruptly ended their ongoing discussions". Shortly afterward the nature of the communications changed.[1] He says the new messages included:[1]
- dates
- geographic information
- an assessment of the potential for "recall", or re-abduction
- a pain scale from 1 to 100
He says he remembered some of the coordinates and later traced them to sites in the Florida panhandle, upstate New York and rural Wisconsin.[1] He later said he had been reluctant to ask why the abductions were happening, because "I didn't want to know more".[10]
Leaving
Sherman says he became isolated and frustrated, and asked to return to ordinary electronic intelligence work or to leave the service. His command told him he could never go back and could never separate from the Air Force while part of the program.[1] He says he obtained his discharge anyway, and that the reason is on his record.[1] He told the Colorado Daily in 1997 that after his commander "told me I wouldn't be able to get out, period", nothing could have salvaged the situation. He said he received an honorable discharge.[10] He believed he was the only intuitive communicator to have left the military.[10] A 1997 critic, Mark Louttit, said Sherman had earlier described a claim of homosexual conduct as the means of his discharge, which Sherman denied.[11] He left the Air Force in 1994.[1][2]
Dates
The month of July 1994 sometimes attached to this item does not come from the summaries of the book, which give no month for the change.[1] Since Sherman says the abduction data came at the end of his program work and led to his discharge in 1994, the change most likely happened in 1993 or 1994, but no exact date is given.[1][2]
The book
The self-published Above Black runs to about 147 pages.[5][7][9] Sherman discussed it on Art Bell's Coast to Coast AM on 10 November 1997, and more recently on the podcast American Alchemy.[6][8] He has written: "I only wish I could have continued an otherwise wonderful career of which I was extremely proud."[1]
Assessment
There is no independent confirmation of any of this, and Sherman remains the only source.[1][2] Reports of people being taken by aliens have never been shown to be physically real.[1][2]
People and topics
- Dan Sherman — Former Air Force sergeant who claimed in Above Black that he was trained to communicate with aliens.
- Non-human intelligence — A term for intelligent beings of non-human origin, used in UAP legislation.
- Above Black — Dan Sherman's 1997 book.
- Alien abduction — The claimed taking of people by non-human beings.
On the Timeline
- Muskegon radar sightings (1994) (8 March 1994) — Weather radar in Muskegon, Michigan tracks three objects that residents also see.
- Dan Sherman's September 1994 exchange (September 1994) — Sherman describes another exchange with the non-human source.
See every 1994 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Blake Stilwell, "This airman claims his top secret official duty was to talk to aliens", We Are The Mighty (updated Apr 2021) · wearethemighty.com · archived copy
- Michael Salla, "NSA document supports whistleblower claim of alien UFO communication program", Exo News (Oct 2014) · exonews.org · archived copy
- This airman claims his secret duty was to talk to aliens — We Are The Mighty · wearethemighty.com · archived copy
- Dan Sherman collection — Anomaly Archives · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
- Dan Sherman, Above Black: Project Preserve Destiny (1997) · barnesandnoble.com · archived copy
- Dan Sherman on Coast to Coast AM, Nov 1997 · artbellarchive-org.pages.dev · archived copy
- Above Black: Project Preserve Destiny (Dan Sherman) — Goodreads · goodreads.com · archived copy
- 'The NSA hired me to speak to aliens': Sgt. Dan Sherman — American Alchemy · podcastrex.com · archived copy
- amazon.com · amazon.com · archived copy
- David Kirby, "Dan Sherman interview and book review", Colorado Daily (18 Dec 1997), via Rense · rense.com
- Mark Louttit, "Louttit rebuttal to Sherman on PPD" (1 Dec 1997), Area 51 mailing list, Ufomind (archived) · web.archive.org
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.
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