Across Languages and Landscapes: Reflections on SOL 2025

Edoardo Russo, head of Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici, and its chief archivist, pointed to the distant, snowcapped peaks of the Italian alps. “This is the Piemonte Region,” he said, “The name means ‘foot of the mountains.’” Russo is also a board member of the Society for UAP Studies, reflecting an international outlook. We were driving from his hometown of Torino (Turin), where the headquarters of the Lavazza coffee corporation dominates, and the miraculous Turin Shroud remains as a continuing enigma, to the elegant Hotel Dino, located in the picturesque lakeside town of Baveno, on the shores of Lake Maggiore near the Swiss border of Northern Italy. 

In an effort to recognize the efforts and accomplishments of the international community, the U.S. based study and policy group known as SOL chose this classy European venue to convene their third annual symposium on all things related to the subject of UAP (formerly known as UFOs.) Judging by languages heard during frequent breaks, about half the attendees traveled from the United States. Others arrived from Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK, Spain, Portugal and the Ukraine (among others) to share their views and information about the UAP enigma, which has always been international.

When we arrived, it was brisk out, but an informal group of about 100 gathered in the topiary-bedecked garden on the lake shore to meet and greet, reconnect, and share experiences. Iconic author and longtime chronicler of the abduction phenomenon Whitley Strieber greeted friends and colleagues warmly and shared travel woes as well as his hopes for the convo. We also bantered about Mesoamerican history and recent cryptid sightings. 

With the sunset, real cold set in and all repaired to local restaurants and bars. Russo set up a “dinner of the poors,” as he called it, for those who could not afford the expensive donors’ dinner organized by the SOL leadership. Eager and convivial UAP researchers from around the world shared tables in a cozy local osteria, including Renate Erdal, president of UFO Norge, who described the history of UAP research in Norway, and the wealth of reports and data that her group had collected over decades, which were equally rich and strange as in any other country. Our table also included US researcher Thom Hastings who discussed the work of Trevor Paglen, a US-based artist whose artistic “medium” is the lore of black ops intelligence.

Most attendees seemed to retire relatively early for the next morning’s opening lectures, although some lingered in the bar until the wee hours - the typical scene.

At 8:45 sharp, opening remarks by SOL co-founders Peter Skafish and Garry Nolan set the tone. Nolan asked a question that is currently a topic of discussion: “How do we turn anecdotes into data?” Nolan also echoed a hopeful theme that resonated with the crowd, when he quipped, “It’s not up to the government [to solve the UFO puzzle], it’s up to us.” SUAPS board member Dr. Beatriz Villaroel from Sweden was honored with delivering the opening talk, and described the genesis and progress on her work with transient light phenomena in pre-space age star-mapping images. Villaroel answered skeptics who argued that the photos could be objects or debris in the high atmosphere with the observation that the images were obtained at night, where sunlight would not be a factor.

Next up was retired US Army Col. Karl Nell, a recent champion of government openness and who devised a now-famous timeline of UAP disclosure and its implications. Nell used ideas from classical antiquity to illustrate some current conundrums. Paraphrasing Stoic philosopher Epictetus, Nell cautioned those who would learn or lecture others about the phenomenon that “it is impossible to for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.” Joined by Dr. Villaroel during the Q&A he added that “non-discolsure has been a feature of societies through history.”

Chairman of the The Association Aéronautique et Astronautique de France, Luc Dini, reported on “physical observables” his group and the longstanding French government UAP study called GEIPAN (Groupe d'Études et d'Informations sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés) have done with decades of data, stating “UAP is a matter of physical presence,” and not simply illusory.

Two half-hour breaks were provided each day, suffused with sweet pastries and espressos and cappuccinos provided at breakneck speed on demand by the expert hotel staff. During one of these, I spoke with aerospace psychologist Dr. Iya Whiteley about her latest work, which she was to present on the final day of the conference. “What I’m interested in,” she began, “how we can start to learn to communicate things that break our conceptual framework.” She said that this would be difficult without first calming the minds of both the one trying to communicate, as well as the recipient. She believes the key lies in concentrated breath work, an ancient idea expressed in many cultures, and suggested that the use of this technique would yield a less biased and more nuanced dataset from witnesses to extraordinary events, as well as as providing a pathway to personal integration of these experiences.

Dr. Diana Pasulka, religious studies scholar speaking from her home in North Carolina, compared the history of Marian apparitions and miracles as “an excellent source of data to compare with UAP,” since they involve generally startled witnesses who must integrate the uncanny as part of their psychological well-being. She guessed that an advanced intelligence “may meet us halfway, using culturally adaptive interfaces” such as the Virgin Mary or flying saucers. 

To emphasize his commitment to well-documented cases with impeccable witness testimony, SOL stalwart and legendary scientist Jacques Vallee recounted a case from Haynesville, Louisiana in 1966 which featured an excellent scientific witness and careful collection of biological samples (burned tree bark) from the area of the sighting. Vallee made the interesting comment that, after the 1970s, UFO sightings were “Often used as explanations to [cover for secret] military projects,” whereas beforehand, the data gathered by Project Blue Book was more neutral in nature.

In the evening, Nolan sat down for a chat with Jake Barber from the Skywatcher group, an organization of ex-military personnel who are claiming continued interactions and recordings of apparent UAP at undisclosed locations in the Southwestern United States. Barber said that they had recently tracked an object traveling “at 8000 mph” according to their instrumentation. One of their goals is to allow anyone to have a firsthand experience of the phenomenon through techniques they are developing. Asked about the science behind their method of research and reporting, Barber said “If we can get to a place where we have a meaningful impact, then we don’t care about peer review.”

So ended “Sol 1” at SOL. Along with SUAPS advisory board member Dr. Peters, we slinked into a screening of Valensole 1965, directed by Dominique Filhol, which was a sympathetic and poignant portrait of lavender farmer Maurice Masse, who observed a landed UAP and apparent beings in one of his fields. The film featured an appearance of a mysterious UFO investigator who gets through to Masse and helps him to integrate his experience. The investigator was portrayed as an obvious reference to Vallee. 

After a glorious sunrise behind the mountains, Dr. Peters led off Sunday’s events with his take on “UAP Secrecy, Disclosure, and Political Realism.” Showing rare insight, Peters decried the binary nature of UAP study, saying this dichotomy “impedes progress” on understanding the phenomenon, although “there may be a sort of intellectual ‘superposition’ that we aren’t capable of sustaining yet.” Peters added that, “as a social scientist, I am an experiencer of [UAP] experiencers.” Continuing his 1000-foot view of the ontology of UAP study, Peters warned that admitting to the existence of these objects on a societal level might lead to a “serenity crisis,” because no one wants their peace disturbed by pesky challenges to the status quo.

The parade of SUAPS colleagues continued after another espresso break. Dr. Michael Bollander, retired bench judge from Germany, asked “Is the abduction scenario prosecutable?” Hollander compared various reported aspects of anomalous abductions to legal definitions of “crimes against humanity” and demonstrated that, despite sweetness and light assessments of many experiencer scenarios, that if provable, there should be serious questions about consent and even activities that would normally fall under the definition of war crimes.

Was the leadup to UAP disclosure by the US Government botched? After Sunday lunch, retired US Navy Rear Admiral Dr. Tim Gallaudet discussed a “do-over” focusing on an international effort. Gallaudet expressed his view that the Trump administration is “obsessed with control,” which was not a conducive atmosphere for any sort of openness on previously sequestered issues.

SUAPS board and former GEIPAN member Dr. Michael Valliant developed software to assist the French Government in assessing UAP reports by winnowing out clues that placed some in the category of the mundane. The software also aimed to “protect against investigator biases,” with the goal of “making reasoning auditable.” Echoing Nolan’s keynote comment, the talk was entitled “Uniting Experience and Science: Lessons From Two Decades of UAP Investigations at GEIPAN.” Valliant emphasized the primary position of the witness: “We don't study only what is seen in the sky, but what is the one who sees it and what are the environmental conditions,” adding that “Ignoring the human side means ignoring witnesses and their concerns.”

In a special Saturday evening session, famous and controversial Italian UFO researcher Roberto Pinotti went into detail on a case supposedly involving a crashed UAP from June 13 of 1933 which he claimed was investigated and covered up by the fascist government of Benito Mussolini. Pinotti presented documents concerning the case which were mailed to him by anonymous source, and is convinced they are authentic. These actions echo similar leaks of UAP documents in the US and elsewhere, which may be attempts to reveal hidden history, or are part of some unknown attempts to shape public opinion.

Bar conversations evolved late into the evening. At one table, we met with Psi Games founder Hakim Isler and Simulation Hypothesis author Rizwan Virk and mulled the future of UAP and the psychic realm.

Monday’s half-day saw Dr. Iya Whiteley describing the research she revealed with me on Saturday. “My work intends to reveal what people already know, but they can’t articulate,” she began, acknowledging that the human instrument is what gathers most of the data from UAP events, and that it is subject to factors which can be ameliorated with clarity of thought and memory gained through traditional breath work techniques. This research study grows directly out of Dr. Whiteley’s success in extracting more accurate data on aerospace incidents from the pilots themselves, who were traditionally bound by unspoken taboos about admitting to mistakes or guilt.

Immediately after, James Fowler, another figure from the Skywatcher group, articulated problems with identifying objects which are being tracked by their instruments and the naked eye. The group claims they have developed a “dog whistle” technique to attract various UAPs, which Fowler comments has generated “huge amounts of data,’ adding that the interactions are often so intimate and detailed that they have dismissed the idea that at least some of the objects are man made. An interesting aspect which tracks with the enigmatic and possible consciousness-connected nature of the phenomenon is a strange conundrum of airborne objects tracked by Skywatcher instrumentation on the ground which remain apparently invisible to observers and instruments tasked to rendezvous with the objects in the air. Fowler reported that the anomalous objects they have seen and recorded always appear in daylight.

Many attendees scrambled to leave and make flights out of Milan, about an hour away, and the exits were staggered. At a nearby restaurant, I joined Russo, a Roman filmmaker and a shy Ukrainian antigravity researcher for lunch. The main takeaway was a few restaurant recommendations in Rome, where I would return in a week. At another table, I recognized UK author, researcher, filmmaker and old friend Nick Cook commiserating with Skafish. Cook was glowing in his opinions on the weekend’s proceedings.

Russo carted us back to Turin, where we were treated to another dinner with Dr. Peters and some Italian colleagues, and then presented with a private tour of the archives, where volunteers were at work digitizing the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of documents, periodicals, books, and other ephemera such as slides, film and video and audio recordings gathered over five decades and spanning the entire period of the modern and postmodern era of UAP research. The organized and hospitable Russo provided a welcome bookend to the weekend.

International UAP studies, such as the type championed by SUAPS, was on full display at SOL 2025, and luckily (for those from the UK and USA) delivered in the “lingua franca” of English, and illustrated how American UAP study is (thankfully) not the 900 pound gorilla it has been for most of the history of the subject, seemingly insulated from the rest of the world.