Bigelow recruits consciousness experts (1996)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | 7 January 1996 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Remote viewing & psi (topic) |
| People | Robert Bigelow, Jacques Vallée, Colm Kelleher, Edgar Mitchell, Christopher "Kit" Green, Harold Puthoff |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 124 |
| Year | 1996 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1996 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 7 |
According to Jacques Vallée's journals, on 7 January 1996 Las Vegas businessman Robert Bigelow told him he was recruiting staff for his new research organisation, the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), including two experts on consciousness and one on aerial phenomena.[1]
Founding NIDS
Bigelow, a real-estate developer who later founded Bigelow Aerospace, told Vallée in July 1995 that he would stop funding the UFO research coalition he had been supporting and form a new institute. Vallée declined the director's post in August 1995 but agreed to consider a seat on the science board, and in November Bigelow reported that former CIA scientist Kit Green was proposed as the board's chair. NIDS was founded in Las Vegas in 1995.[1][2]
The January 1996 call
Bigelow told Vallée he had "applied the brakes" because the right management was not yet in place. He said he was filling three positions, two in consciousness research and one in aerial phenomena. Candidates contacted reportedly included Lockheed's Ron Blackburn, a scientist at SAIC and Larry Lemke of NASA's Ames Research Center, while John Alexander spoke with the parapsychologist Robert Morris and near-death researcher Kenneth Ring. The journals do not say whether any were hired.[1]
NIDS
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NIDS studied cattle mutilations, black triangle reports and other anomalies; its deputy administrator Colm Kelleher said it studied anomalies rather than aliens. In 1996 Bigelow bought Skinwalker Ranch in Utah, which NIDS investigated, and a hotline launched in 1999 drew more than 5,000 reports. NIDS was disbanded in October 2004. Many of its people later worked on the Pentagon-funded AAWSAP program, carried out from 2008 by Bigelow's company BAASS.[2][3]
People and topics
- Robert Bigelow — Businessman who founded NIDS and Bigelow Aerospace and ran the AAWSAP contract.
- Jacques Vallée — Computer scientist and astronomer, author of the Forbidden Science journals and a central figure in UFO research.
- NIDS — Robert Bigelow's research institute (1995–2004) that studied UFOs and other anomalies.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- NASA — The U.S. civilian space agency, created in 1958.
- Colm Kelleher — Biochemist who helped run NIDS and BAASS and co-wrote Skinwalkers at the Pentagon.
- Edgar Mitchell — Apollo 14 astronaut who spoke about UFOs and whose estate held the Wilson–Davis notes.
- Christopher "Kit" Green — CIA physician and analyst who became a long-time contact of Jacques Vallée and studied UAP-related injuries.
- Harold Puthoff — Physicist who co-founded the SRI remote-viewing research and later worked on AAWSAP and To The Stars Academy.
- Skinwalker Ranch — A Utah ranch known for reports of strange events, studied by NIDS and AAWSAP.
- AAWSAP — The Defense Intelligence Agency's UAP research program of 2008–2010, carried out by Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.
On the Timeline
- Army manual and high-technology devices (1996) (1996) — An Army manual lists a unit that responds to incidents involving 'high technology devices'.
- Las Vegas data-gathering meeting (1996) (28 January 1996) — Military, scientific and corporate figures meet in Las Vegas about gathering UAP data.
See every 1996 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- "Jacques Vallée on the National Institute for Discovery Science", UFOs Scientific Research (May 2019) · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- National Institute for Discovery Science — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Forbidden Science — the journals of Jacques Vallée (Anomaly Archives) · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
- Forbidden Science series — Anomalist Books · anomalistbooks.com · 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
- AATIP / AAWSAP — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Robert Bigelow — 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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