Las Vegas data-gathering meeting (1996)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 28 January 1996 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Nuclear & missile sites (topic), Military encounters (topic), Congress & law (topic) |
| People | Jacques Vallée, Harold Puthoff, John Petersen, Robert Bigelow |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 124 |
| Year | 1996 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1996 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 6 |
On 28 January 1996, the Science Advisory Board of Robert Bigelow's new National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) held its second meeting, in Las Vegas, to discuss the institute's goals and its dual focus on UFOs and survival after death. Jacques Vallée recorded the meeting in his journals.[1]
Who attended
According to Vallée's account, as summarised by researcher Keith Basterfield, those present included Hal Puthoff, Air Force Lt. Col. Peter McDuff, neuroscientist Kenneth Klivington, Sandia engineer Marty Pilch, futurist John Petersen, former senator and astronaut Harrison Schmitt, physicist John Dale Solem, Dean Judd, statistician Jessica Utts, Air Force Brig. Gen. Jim Whinnery, Emily Williams Cook, Ted Rockwell and John Alexander. Diane Arcangel was assembling a library. Las Vegas journalist George Knapp presented on his research trip to the Soviet Union.[1]
Setting up NIDS
Bigelow had asked Vallée to direct the project in 1995; Vallée declined on 11 August 1995 but agreed to sit on the science board, which Kit Green was to chair. The board first met in December 1995 for an organisational meeting. At the January meeting Vallée learned that Bigelow's interest in survival research followed the death of his son, and his interest in UFOs came from unusual experiences in childhood.[1]
What followed
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Further meetings that year heard presentations on abduction cases, alleged implants and Philip Corso's claims. By August 1996 NIDS had hired physicist Eric Davis, and Senator Harry Reid had attended a presentation by Vallée.[1]
Significance
Many of the people at the meeting later shaped the official UFO story, through the Pentagon-funded AAWSAP study run by Bigelow's company from 2008 and through To The Stars Academy.[2]
People and topics
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Jacques Vallée — Computer scientist and astronomer, author of the Forbidden Science journals and a central figure in UFO research.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Harold Puthoff — Physicist who co-founded the SRI remote-viewing research and later worked on AAWSAP and To The Stars Academy.
- John Petersen — Futurist who founded the Arlington Institute.
- Sandia National Laboratories — A U.S. nuclear weapons laboratory in Albuquerque.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Robert Bigelow — Businessman who founded NIDS and Bigelow Aerospace and ran the AAWSAP contract.
- NIDS — Robert Bigelow's research institute (1995–2004) that studied UFOs and other anomalies.
- AAWSAP — The Defense Intelligence Agency's UAP research program of 2008–2010, carried out by Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.
- To The Stars Academy — The company founded by Tom DeLonge in 2017 that released the Navy UAP videos.
On the Timeline
- Bigelow recruits consciousness experts (1996) (7 January 1996) — Bigelow tells Vallée he is hiring experts on consciousness.
- Air Force 2025 (May 1996) — An Air Force research paper imagines future air and space capabilities by 2025.
See every 1996 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Keith Basterfield, "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
- Forbidden Science — the journals of Jacques Vallée (Anomaly Archives) · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
- Forbidden Science series — Anomalist Books · anomalistbooks.com · archived copy
- Harold E. Puthoff — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- blog.adamkehoe.com · blog.adamkehoe.com · archived copy
Further reading
- Los Alamos National Laboratory — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Sandia National Laboratories — 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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