Sarfatti's slow-light Tic Tac theory
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7

| Date | 20 March 2020 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Propulsion & physics (topic) |
| People | Jack Sarfatti, Harold Puthoff |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 196 |
| Year | 2020 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2020 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 6 |
In March 2020 physicist Jack Sarfatti said on The Hidden Truth Show that the "Tic Tac" object reported by Navy pilots off San Diego in 2004 could be explained by a metamaterial hull that slows light inside it, producing a low-energy "warp drive", and suggested the craft came from humans in the future.[1]
The theory
As reported at the time, Sarfatti argued that pumping electromagnetic energy into a suitable metamaterial could create a resonance that squeezes space in front of a craft and stretches it behind, lowering the speed of light inside the material to a very small value. He said this would explain how the object moved without visible propulsion, and that the technology came from future humans travelling back in time.[1] In his own words, as quoted by researcher Keith Basterfield, the evidence pointed to a low-power warp drive with time-travel capability, in a metamaterial fuselage controlled by a conscious AI computer.[2]
Sarfatti

Sarfatti was born in 1939, studied physics at Cornell, and earned a doctorate at the University of California, Riverside. He taught at San Diego State and has written on consciousness, quantum physics and "metric engineering". He has said that as a teenager in the early 1950s he received phone calls from a mechanical voice claiming to be a computer aboard a flying saucer, which he credits with shaping his later ideas; Jacques Vallée recorded the story in his journals.[2]
Reception
Sarfatti's ideas have not been published in mainstream physics journals as an explanation for UAP, and no evidence supports the slow-light or time-travel explanation. The Pentagon has not identified the Tic Tac.[1][2]
People and topics
- Jack Sarfatti — Physicist known for unconventional theories about UFO propulsion.
- Nimitz Tic Tac encounter — The November 2004 encounter between Navy pilots and a white Tic Tac-shaped object off California.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- U.S. Navy — The U.S. naval service, whose pilots reported the UAP encounters revealed in 2017.
- Harold Puthoff — Physicist who co-founded the SRI remote-viewing research and later worked on AAWSAP and To The Stars Academy.
On the Timeline
- Paul Murad's energy device (29 February 2020) — A retired Pentagon analyst says a company helped him build an electromagnetic energy device.
- Atomic Energy Commission UFO materials claim (29 April 2020) — A journalist's source says the Atomic Energy Commission had UAP materials as early as 1947.
See every 2020 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- "Top physicist claims Nimitz UFO 'time travelled' to reach 19,000mph" (from Daily Star, March 2020), Exo News · exonews.org · archived copy
- Keith Basterfield, "Jack Sarfatti – his ideas about the Tic Tac came from 'a phone call from an alien'", UFOs – scientific research (March 2021) · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- Jack Sarfatti's blog · destinymatrix.blogspot.com · 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
Further reading
- USS Nimitz UFO incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Jacques Vallée — 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.
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