Is the Government Hiding Aliens? Harvard Expert Claims 'We Are Being Spun' on Unacknowledged UFO Data

A member of a scientific council advising US government agencies on UFO and UAP matters says the United States has a preparedness plan in place should the existence of non-human intelligence ever be confirmed.

Dr Jennice Vilhauer, a clinical psychologist on the UAP Science Advisory Council, said officials informed the panel about the 'preparedness plan' during an in-person meeting at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in Washington on 31 August.

The advisory council was announced in June under the leadership of Harvard astrophysicist Professor Avi Loeb, who has urged caution around UAP and warned against shooting at unidentified 'orbs' for fear of provoking a response.

The panel brings together data analysts, statisticians, oceanographers, biologists and anthropologists to examine Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena from a scientific angle, and last week's session marked its first face-to-face consultation.

UFO Disclosure and the US Government's First Contact Planning

Dr Vilhauer wrote in a Substack post that officials did not share details of the plan but said the United States was ready to assume an international leadership role and co-ordinate with other countries in the event of an extraterrestrial disclosure.

'It does mean that the possibility of confirming NHI has been taken seriously enough to warrant advance planning,' she said. 'That alone is significant because it means that the United States government has considered the possibility that such a confirmation could occur and it has determined that the consequences would be substantial enough to require a coordinated response.'

She stressed that a preparedness plan is not evidence that non-human intelligence exists. 'It is evidence that the United States government considers that if it were to be confirmed, the impact would be consequential enough to prepare for,' Dr Vilhauer wrote.

The claim has not been independently confirmed by the ODNI or another federal agency in a publicly available statement, and details about which agencies developed the plan, what it contains and what would trigger it remain undisclosed.

None of these claims has been independently verified. IBTimes UK has not seen documentation confirming the existence or contents of the reported preparedness plan.

Harvard Expert Says 'We Are Being Spun' on UFO Data

Public reaction to the panel has ranged from scepticism to belief that humanity may be on the verge of a major discovery. Eric Weinstein, who holds a PhD from Harvard University, wrote on X: 'We are being spun on UFOs by the US Government. I don't know about aliens. Or craft. I believe what we can say is that there are 'Waived Unacknowledged Special Access Programs' related to UAP that are behaving very very very strangely.'

Peter H Diamandis, founder and chairman of the XPrize, added in an essay posted on X: 'I am not asking you to believe. I am asking you to look... The question is not whether this is real. The question is whether we are ready to take it seriously.'

There is little public information outside science fiction that has seriously examined the societal impact of first contact with an extraterrestrial species. In 1989, the International Academy of Astronautics adopted a declaration of principles on 'activities following the detection of extraterrestrial intelligence,' suggesting that any signal should first be shared with the UN secretary-general and international astronomical bodies.

'No response to a signal or other evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence should be sent until appropriate international consultations have taken place,' the declaration reads. Those guidelines were updated in 2010, with a further 2026 update approved by the IAA SETI Committee earlier this year.

In July, Dr Vilhauer and two members of a separate Disclosure Foundation board wrote a paper urging the creation of a US National Disclosure Preparedness Task Force, to be created by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.

That panel would assess the psychological preparedness of society for first contact and collaborate with an existing ODNI panel governing UAP disclosure.

'The potential implications of UAP disclosure involving NHI are, by definition, civilizational,' they wrote. 'They have the potential to affect national security, international diplomacy, economics, anthropology, religion, education, and public health simultaneously.'

They argued a national disclosure plan should address planned disclosures, mass UAP sightings and 'information suggesting benign, unknown, or threatening intent.'

The language reflects how seriously some researchers and policymakers are treating the possibility of UAP disclosure. However, the central question remains unanswered: is there anything out there to contact in the first place?