“We assume that there exists in the galaxy a loosely integrated community of diverse civilizations, cooperating in the exploration and sampling of astronomical objects and their inhabitants....

It follows that there is the statistical likelihood that Earth was visited by an advanced extraterrestrial civilization at least once during historical times.”

—Carl Sagan, Direct Contact Among Galactic Civilizations by Relativistic Interstellar Spaceflight

But how many Carl Sagan fans know that while the renowned scientist was at Stanford University, he produced a controversial paper, funded by a NASA research grant, that concludes ancient alien intervention may have sparked human civilization?

Author Donald Zygutis lays out a compelling case that points to a cover-up by the Pentagon and NASA, who may have buried it soon after it was written.

How significant is the Stanford Paper? The answer may lie in another question: How would a science-backed theory and search strategy to guide the discovery of alien artifacts among our own ancient civilizations impact the worldwide institutions of government, religion, and culture?

From the author: The Sagan Conspiracy is an explosive and information-rich story about the Carl Sagan no one knows, the man who became the world’s first ancient alien theorist a decade before Erich von Daniken wrote Chariots of the Gods. It is also an unauthorized expose’ of a long-running government cover-up of the legitimate science behind ancient alienism that, tragically, continues to this day. It is a searing indictment of deception and abuse of power inside NASA, SETI, and the Pentagon.

The Sagan Conspiracy will be available through your favorite book outlet in November, 2016.  My wish is for an informative and enlightening experience for all who read this book. Contact information will be posted on this site upon release, and comments and critical feedback will be welcomed.

Throughout his career, Carl Sagan was committed to full scientific transparency. I believe that The Sagan Conspiracy honors that commitment by informing you what the government does not want you to know about ancient aliens. In the process, Sagan’s ancient alien research is elevated above the tabloids and popular television documentaries to the level where he felt it belongs.

Finally, as a bonus feature, I’m thrilled and honored that The Sagan Conspiracy includes the complete and unabridged text of the breakthrough scientific paper on ancient alienism that Carl wrote at Stanford University in 1962, that the United States government has gone to extreme lengths to suppress. For all who have an interest in ETI, to have this incredible document in your personal library is, itself alone, well worth the price of the book.

11/13/16 – MY RESPONSE TO PROFESSIONAL SKEPTIC JASON COLAVITO’S REVIEW OF THE SAGAN CONSPIRACY

As far as professional skeptic Jason Colavito’s critical review of my book, I think it best to begin with opposing perspectives. I see The Sagan Conspiracy as primarily a treatise about profound questions and lofty possibilities, which is what Carl Sagan was all about, and of a government conspiracy to suppress and cover-up his groundbreaking ancient alien research. Just as a dendrologist might study giant redwood trees, in The Sagan Conspiracy I take the reader on a journey with NASA’s most famous astronomer to examine, in depth and from a mainline scientific perspective, two of the greatest questions any human can ask: Are we alone, and, if we have cosmic company, have we been visited?

Mr. Colavito, unfortunately, seems more intent on studying the weeds that surround the giant redwoods. He takes pride in referencing sources of which I was not aware, and perhaps should have been. My retort is that, if he were honest (and I think he is), he would admit that I reference material related to Carl Sagan’s belief in ancient aliens of which he was not aware. In fact, based on his review, I have to wonder if he had ever previously read Sagan’s Stanford Paper on ancient aliens or was even aware that it existed. That said, there are no new references that Mr. Colavito cites that negate my thesis, although from his strained interpretations he would like to believe otherwise. I suggest that we call it a draw and both celebrate the fact that, going forward, those who want to investigate the subject of Carl Sagan’s belief in ancient aliens now have a more complete resource bibliography to work from.

One thing is certain: It is clear from his caustic analysis that Mr. Colavito does not want the name of Carl Sagan associated in any meaningful way with ancient aliens, and I understand why - Carl Sagan is considered an icon among professional skeptics. For that reason, I am fully expecting the same knee-jerk group-think mentality exhibited by Mr. Colavito to raise its ugly head in the reviews of other ancient alien debunkers who may weigh in. I hope I am proven wrong.

But these are not my biggest concerns with Mr. Colavito’s review, not even close. By far, his most egregious lapse is that he completely fails to mention my key piece of evidence, and the linchpin that holds my conspiracy theory and, indeed, the entire book, together - which is that NASA is largely under the control of secret elements within the Pentagon, and that it was pressure from agencies like DARPA and Jason that forced NASA to bury Carl Sagan’s research on ancient aliens. He fails to mention that these agencies are currently using NASA and private businesses like Elan Musk’s SpaceX to develop and build a working prototype of an interstellar spacecraft by the end of this century. He fails to mention that the Pentagon’s goal in building a fleet of starships is to weaponized deep space, which Carl Sagan was firmly against.

Essentially, what Mr. Colavito produced was a review of half a book, leaving the other half, the most important half, completely unmentioned. It goes without saying that no author of any book ever written would let a reviewer get away with such nonsense. And the most troublesome fact of all is that it could not have been an oversight. So, Mr. Colavito, please tell me and all your followers - What in the hell is going on?

Based on what is in half of my book, Mr. Colavito concludes that I have not proven my allegation of a NASA conspiracy and cover-up, and, based on that half alone, I would have to agree with him. Fortunately, those who read my book will get the whole story, and I am confident that a vast majority of thoughtful and intelligent people will come down on my side.

Finally, I think Mr. Colavito’s low opinion of Sagan’s Stanford Paper (in his original blog, he called it “unexceptional for its day”) should be weighed against the opinion of Nobel Laureate Joshua Lederberg, the unknown scientist(s) who peer reviewed the paper and recommended it for publication, and the editorial board of Space and Planetary Science who decided to publish it in their esteemed journal, all who deemed it substantive and relevant. Mr. Colavito , who is no more a space scientist than I am, surely knows that the vast majority of academic and scientific papers that are written never get published because they fail to rise to the required standard. So, sorry Jason, nothing personal, but I think I’ll side with the scientists on this one.

While I’m sure that Mr. Colavito means well, I am saddened and disappointed that a man who largely owes his career as a professional skeptic to Carl Sagan, who was both a pioneer and a leading practitioner of the discipline, has the hubris to dismiss the value of a scientifically legitimate document that met the highest standards of the academy. It is my opinion that the paper that Mr. Colavito so cavalierly criticizes is, by far, the most complete and in-depth treatise on the subject of ancient alienism ever written, and that it proves that, as an ancient alien theorist, Carl Sagan had no equal and was at least fifty years ahead of his time.

Conclusion: Explaining and Analyzing the Process

An important goal for this website is to teach folks how the scientific method works in its larger context. What has occurred to this point is

1. An advocate writes a book on a controversial topic.
2. A skeptic reviews the book and writes a critical analysis.
3. The advocate then responds to the review.

Thanks to the internet, this back and forth can go on for several rounds until one side or both sides feel there is nothing more to be said.

What have we learned to this point?

As the advocate, I can only speak for myself. What I have learned from Mr. Colavitos’ review is:

A. In the future, I need to be more thorough in my research, trying to make sure that I have tracked down all possible sources. In my defense, however, I would point out to Mr. Colavito that The Sagan Conspiracy is popular science, not a doctoral thesis. Yet, because I name people whose lives and careers could be negatively impacted by my book, I accept Mr. Colavito’s criticisms and promise to do better in the future.

B. In evaluating Carl Sagan’s Stanford Paper, Mr. Colavito suggests that the reason why NASA chose not to act on it was because of its low probative value, not because of conspiratorial intent. A scientific principle popularly known as Occam’s razor (named after medieval Franciscan monk William of Occam) states that when there are multiple explanations of an observation, it’s best to choose the one that is simpler and more obvious than the more complex. In this case, because I have chosen a more controversial explanation, I have to meet a higher evidentiary bar than Mr. Colavito. I believe that I met that bar when I implicated secret agencies within the Pentagon of suppressing Carl Sagan’s ancient alien research. Why Mr. Colavito failed to acknowledge the existence of this critical material in his review is a question only he can answer.

C. The Sagan Conspiracy covers a lot of issues, and it is Mr. Colavitos’ right as an honest skeptic to pick and choose which ones to address and which to leave alone. I have to assume the issues he leaves alone, he has no problem with – and that, it turns out, is a problem, because the ones he leaves out, notably the Pentagon’s influence on NASA and current Pentagon/NASA plans to build an interstellar spacecraft by the end of this century, is key evidence in my conspiracy theory. This supports my charge that Mr. Colavito has sifted through my arguments and picked only the lowest-hanging fruit. At the very least, this undermines the credibility of Mr. Colavito’s review.

D. Much of Mr. Colavito’s review is about Carl Sagan’s belief in ancient aliens. What exactly did Carl believe, and, equally important, when did he believe it? Mr. Colavito is convinced that Sagan, over the course of his career, changed his position, perhaps several times, and that, overall, there was an evolution in his thinking from a high probability that Earth has been visited when he was young, to a gradual lower probability as he got older and wiser.

Mr. Colavito makes a strong argument, and my only defense may seem like a cop-out, but it’s the truth. In writing the book, I was up against a hard word count that was made even more severe when the publisher and I decided to add the full text of the Stanford Paper in the appendix. Though I believe The Sagan Conspiracy has enough fact-based evidence to prove my point, I have additional research that doesn’t appear in the book that adds to my contention that Sagan was a life-long believer in ancient aliens. My plan is to introduce this material in the next book that I am currently working on.

Conclusion

I could go on with my analysis, but you get the idea. The advocate and the skeptic go back and forth, each challenging the other, defending their respective positions until the process plays itself out. While it is highly unlikely that Mr. Colavito and I will ever see eye to eye, we are both honoring the scientific process, and that is no small achievement.

Note also how Mr. Colavito and I, though we are opponents, are not exchanging personal insults. An advocate/skeptic relationship that devolves to the point where both sides are throwing insults at one another only contributes to public cynicism while eroding confidence in the scientific method. Like millions of others, both of us passionately want to know if there are advanced extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy and, if so, have they been to Earth. Each in our own way is helping to kick the can down the road.

When I sent a copy of my book to Mr. Colavito, my only request was that he try to be fair and objective. I believe, with a single exception, that he has honored that request. My reservation is what compelled him to leave some of my key arguments out of his review. That said, advocate/skeptic exchanges, even when they are amicable, are known for their heated rhetoric. It is always a challenge for both sides, while unleashing their respective passions, not to step over the line and descend into ad hominin attacks and personal vitriol.

The truth is that I need skeptics like Mr. Colavito to engage my arguments and critically evaluate my work. But a book needs to be judged on its entirety, not piecemeal, so I am hoping that Mr. Colavito will consider writing a new review, one that doesn’t leave out my central arguments.

The ball is now once again in Mr. Colavito’s court, and I invite him to see our exchanges as a teachable moment, an opportunity to inform those who may not understand how science works when science is at its best. Unfortunately, I can’t believe that Mr. Colavito was at his best when he wrote his highly compartmentalized review.  Perhaps he rushed to get it out before it was ready. I encourage him, for the sake of his own integrity and for the benefit of those who follow him, to produce a critical analysis of The Sagan Conspiracy that is worthy of his person and his profession.

11/16/16 – REQUEST: I WOULD LIKE MORE BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE AUTHOR’S RESEARCH

I am not an investigative journalist and I didn’t start out studying the life and writings of Carl Sagan thinking that I would end up writing a book about a Pentagon/NASA conspiracy against him. So, in many respects, this book wrote itself and I simply went along for the ride, following the evidentiary trail. It was around 2005 when it began to dawn on me that Carl Sagan had been exploited and his work on ancient alienism suppressed and covered up by the government, and it was around that time when I began to hone in on the subject addressed in the book.

As I mentioned in the previous essay, this is a book on popular science, written for the masses. It is not an academic product directed at or limited to Carl Sagan scholars. That said, whether as critics or contributors, I welcome the participation of all individuals who are interested in Carl Sagan. One can get a good idea about my research methodology by looking at my bibliography, where you will find an eclectic mixture of both popular and scientific literature. As I pointed out in the previous essay, there was more material available that, unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of and didn’t tap into, although I’m confident that there is nothing out there that would have altered or changed any of the positions I express in my book.

I am not a long-time, die-hard believer in ancient aliens. It was only through Carl Sagan that I came to believe that Earth is a visited planet, and I believe that the time is fast approaching when ancient alien research can go mainstream. My hope is that The Sagan Conspiracy will hasten that day.