Disclosure and the Ontological Shock: UAP's and Spiritual Awakenings

I’ve just returned from a UAP conference — the first of its kind in Europe, organised by the Sol Foundation — bringing together a group of scientists, academics, former military personnel, and technology innovators. A UAP is an Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon. It is the modern, formal term used by governments, military organisations, scientists, and researchers to describe any aerial event that cannot be immediately identified through conventional means. The term replaces “UFO,” which carries decades of cultural baggage and assumptions about extraterrestrial craft. However, for those familiar with the field, 'the phenomenon' has become the preferred descriptor for the broad range of experiences and encounters reported around the world. It reflects a growing consensus that the phenomenon may not be exclusively extraterrestrial in nature, and could encompass forms of intelligence or reality that extend beyond the traditional extraterrestrial hypothesis.

Since The New York Times revealed the Pentagon’s secret UAP research program in 2017, the issue has moved from the cultural fringe closer to the center of U.S. national-security policy Today, the U.S. government occupies an uneasy middle ground: it openly acknowledges UAP, admits it cannot explain many incidents, briefs Congress behind closed doors, and faces a public caught between official uncertainty and mounting testimony from pilots, scientists, and whistleblowers in public Congressional hearings —leaving the sky, for the first time in modern history, formally understood as an unresolved question. This is one of the reasons why the subject is gaining more traction within the mainstream.

Since returning from the conference, three themes stand out as clear points of overlap with the spiritual awakening and consciousness movements. A fourth theme highlights how much our communities can learn from the organisational structures that are now emerging within the UAP field.

1. Ontological Shock

A core thread running through the conference was the idea of ‘ontological shock’ — a term first popularised by Harvard psychiatrist John E. Mack in his Pulitzer prize winning book 'Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens'. Ontological shock refers to the deep rupture that occurs when a person’s core understanding of reality is challenged or overturned. It destabilises the frameworks through which we interpret the world — including identity, meaning, time, consciousness, and what is considered possible. Mack used it to describe the deep rupture that occurs when UAP experiencers encounter something that does not fit within their existing worldview. He argued that these shocks can become spiritually transformative when they are understood and integrated. They expand a person’s sense of self and reality in ways that traditional psychology still struggles to describe.

Mack’s language, once seen as fringe, now appears across the UAP landscape. Researchers, clinicians, scientists, and policymakers are beginning to recognise ontological shock as a central feature of the phenomenon. The parallels with spiritual awakening are unmistakable: both involve the collapse of familiar beliefs, a confrontation with a reality that feels larger and stranger than expected, and a gradual process of reorganisation as meaning rebuilds itself on new foundations.

This naturally led to discussions about 'UAP disclosure', because disclosure is not the simple release of information. 'Disclosure' in this sense, is the gradual, multi-layered process through which governments, scientists, and society acknowledge the reality of UAP and the possibility of non-human intelligence, and learn to integrate the implications. It is an event that reshapes a civilisation’s understanding of itself. Any acknowledgment of non-human intelligence challenges the core structures of modern society — science, philosophy, religion, politics, and humanity’s collective sense of identity. It forces a reconsideration of consciousness, the nature of reality, and the limits of the human being.

In this sense, ontological shock becomes a cultural challenge. It changes how people understand meaning, authority, and the structure of existence. This is why disclosure may need to unfold gradually — through leaks, testimony, policy shifts, scientific engagement, and slow cultural acclimatisation. The pace reflects the need for society to absorb the implications in stages rather than be overwhelmed all at once.

Seen through this lens, disclosure becomes the collective counterpart to an individual awakening. It is a civilisation-wide initiation. It requires integration rather than belief, adaptation rather than denial. The phenomenon pushes humanity to expand its frame of reality, and the response determines whether the shock becomes destabilising or transformative.

Those of us who work in the field of spiritual awakening have lived through our own versions of ontological shock. We know the way an encounter with a deeper reality can upend the self, unravel old identities, and initiate long cycles of healing and integration. We understand how transformation depends not on the experience itself but on the meaning we are able to build around it.

As the number of people reporting awakening experiences increases — and as our understanding of consciousness deepens — a question inevitably emerges:

Is the spiritual awakening movement itself part of a wider cultural disclosure, preparing society for a larger and more collective recognition of reality?

2. Consciousness as Fundamental

A second major theme at the conference centred on the idea that consciousness (or perhaps 'information' depending on which perspective we are coming from) is not a byproduct of matter but a fundamental feature of reality itself. Many speakers approached the UAP phenomenon from this standpoint. Their work suggests that encounters cannot be understood solely through physics, engineering, or material science. They involve shifts in perception, meaning, identity, and reality itself. The phenomenon appears to reach into the structure of mind before it enters the structure of matter.

This perspective aligns with the research of Professor Diana Walsh Pasulka, whose book 'American Cosmic' has become essential reading for anyone interested in the overlap between religion and the UAP mystery.

At the conference Pasulka presented the striking parallels between modern UAP encounters and historical visionary experiences, particularly Marian apparitions. Witnesses across radically different eras report experiences that share the same architecture:

• a radiant, overwhelming presence

• communication through images, intuition, or non-verbal transmission

• distortions of time and space as well as gravitational anomalies.

• a collapse of the boundary between inner and outer reality

• a marked shift in identity and purpose

• long-term transformative effects

There is a suggestion here that these similarities arise because the encounters emerge from a common underlying structure of human consciousness. The phenomenon expresses itself through symbols shaped by culture, language, and expectation, yet its core remains stable. The vision of a glowing woman in a rural village in 1917 and the sighting of a luminous craft in 2024 may be two expressions of the same deeper event.

Her work echoes Jacques Vallée, probably the most distinguished academic and researcher in this field, who has long suggested that the phenomenon adapts itself to the era in which it appears. Vallée proposed in his 1969 book ‘Passport to Magonia’ that the intelligence behind these encounters interacts with humans through symbols we are prepared to understand. The form changes, but the encounter remains consistent across centuries. Angels, deities, fairies, orbs, lights, UAPs - all may be one phenomenon - shaped by cultural narratives. The conference back stage discussions repeatedly returned to this idea, treating it not as speculation but as a serious framework for understanding the data.

Do some UAP encounters begin in the mind’s interior space and then bleed outward into the physical world? Do mystical and awakening experiences follow the same pattern? The boundary between the subjective and the objective becomes porous. Consciousness reveals itself as a field rather than a private, brain-bound phenomenon.

The growing body of research suggests that encounters, mystical or otherwise, reveal the same truth: consciousness is the medium through which reality is perceived and possibly the medium from which reality arises. This reframes the entire disclosure conversation. Any attempt to understand the phenomenon must address consciousness directly. The topic does not belong solely to physics or defence. It also belongs to psychology, spirituality, and the human experience of meaning.

This raises an important question for anyone working in the world of awakening and transformation. The spiritual communities, meditation traditions, and consciousness researchers have been exploring altered states, expanded identities, and the non-local qualities of mind for decades. These communities are developing languages, practices, and frameworks for navigating such experiences.

Have we developed narratives to explain encounters within expanded states of consciousness? Can we move past these narratives and move to a level deeper?

3. The Growing Movement to Support Experiencers

Another theme emerging across the UAP community is a deepening recognition that experiencers need structured, compassionate, and informed support. This idea took root decades ago with John E. Mack’s book 'Passport to the Cosmos', where he proposed that encounters — when integrated rather than dismissed — can function as profoundly transformative events, often resembling spiritual awakenings. Mack understood that the experience itself is only the beginning. The true challenge lies in the integration: the process of understanding, metabolising, and finding meaning in what has happened.

Today, this insight is becoming foundational within the UAP movement. New organisations are forming to help people navigate ontological shock and explore their experiences responsibly. In the UK, for example, Unhidden has emerged as a pioneering support network. Their mission speaks directly to the psychological and emotional challenges experiencers face:

“We are working on a range of tools and resources to make it easier for people to talk about their anxieties to do with non-human intelligence (NHI).

We are also working with medical and other professionals to develop strategies to understand and better respond to ontological shock.”

This represents a significant shift: the phenomenon is no longer approached solely through the lenses of defence, science, or speculation, but also through mental health, trauma-informed care, and human wellbeing.

A similar development is underway with the E3 Alliance, a U.S.-based organisation dedicated to bringing extraordinary experiences into mainstream awareness. Their mission centres on public education, expert engagement, and the recognition that anomalous experiences play a meaningful role in the evolution of consciousness:

“Our mission is to contribute to the revolutionary change taking place in mental health care paradigms to deepen and embrace understanding of extraordinary experiences. We strive to provide educational opportunities that cultivate a global network of professionals who deliver innovative services to experiencers. Our dedication extends to promoting an enlightened and affirmative discourse on the transformative power of extraordinary experiences as a catalyst for a more empathetic world..”

These groups mirror the work that many of us in the spiritual awakening communities have been doing for years. We, too, have seen that non-ordinary states — whether mystical, psychological, or anomalous — can destabilise the self before becoming catalysts for healing, meaning-making, and transformation. The creation of these experiencer-focused organisations within the UAP movement suggests a growing cultural maturity. It acknowledges that contact, in whatever form it takes, is as much a human issue as it is a scientific one.

This convergence reveals a deeper truth:

When understood and supported, non-ordinary experiences become non-ordinary transformative experiences — NOTEs — capable of reshaping lives and expanding consciousness.

The UAP research world is now building the structures needed to help people integrate these events. In doing so, it is joining a much larger movement toward recognising the transformative potential of human encounters with the unknown.

4. What We Can Learn From the Sol Foundation and the Organisational Structures Emerging Around the UAP Field

The final theme that stood out to me at the conference was the impressive level of organisation developing within the UAP community. Over the past few years, groups such as the Sol Foundation have introduced a degree of structure, professionalism, and strategic coherence that is rarely seen in fields concerned with non-ordinary or anomalous experiences. Their work signals a shift in mindset. The phenomenon is no longer regarded solely as a curiosity or a fringe interest. It is now treated as a legitimate subject for scientific, philosophical, and policy-focused exploration.

The Sol Foundation brings together academics, intelligence professionals, physicists, theologians, philosophers, technologists, and government advisors. Their aim is to build comprehensive frameworks for research, public communication, ethics, experiencer engagement, and cultural integration. This multidisciplinary approach acknowledges the complexity of the phenomenon and recognises the need for a coordinated cultural response rather than a collection of isolated investigations.

This level of organisation demonstrates the importance of structure in building credibility. The UAP community is evolving because it has adopted clear governance, defined missions, communication strategies, academic partnerships, and sustainable funding pathways. These elements create stability, continuity, and a shared sense of purpose. They also enable the field to be taken seriously by mainstream institutions.

This stands in contrast to many spiritual awakening and consciousness communities, which often remain decentralised and informal. These communities possess deep insight and rich experiential knowledge, yet they frequently struggle to form coherent structures that allow their work to reach broader society. As a result, transformative ideas remain contained within small circles, even when they have significant relevance to cultural, psychological, and scientific conversations.

The Sol Foundation provides a model for what becomes possible when a field invests in organisation. It demonstrates how a movement can grow beyond individual experiences and scattered voices. Through structure, the UAP field is becoming a legitimate cultural force capable of influencing public discourse, academic research, and government policy.

For those of us working in awakening, trauma integration, and consciousness studies, this raises an important question. What would our work look like if we embraced a similar level of organisation? How might our insights be received if we developed platforms capable of engaging policymakers, scientists, mental health professionals, and the wider public? The emerging experiencer-support networks and the frameworks developed by groups like Sol suggest that such an evolution is possible.

The phenomenon is now understood as a subject that spans multiple disciplines. It requires ethical guidelines, public education, long-term planning, and clear communication. Some in the UAP community are building these structures, and their efforts show that genuine cultural impact arises from organisation as much as insight.

The lesson is clear. Structure enables a movement to grow, mature, and enter the public arena with credibility. As the boundaries between UAP research, consciousness studies, and spiritual awakening continue to soften, the models pioneered by groups like Sol may offer a blueprint for how all of these fields can approach the phenomenon with coherence, care, and collective intelligence.

There is, however, an important caveat as these structures continue to grow. Increased organisation often attracts increased funding, and the UAP field is no exception. As more private capital flows into research institutes, think tanks, and foundations, new dynamics inevitably emerge. It is worth asking whether the longstanding vested interests that shaped government secrecy might gradually shift into the hands of corporations, private donors, and technology leaders. The potential influence of private funding introduces its own form of opacity, and it remains to be seen how this will shape the direction and accessibility of the research. These questions do not diminish the value of what is being built, but they serve as a reminder that transparency, ethics, and public accountability will become increasingly important as the field matures. Time will reveal how these forces balance themselves.

Conclusion

As awareness of non-ordinary states grows and as more people encounter expanded forms of consciousness, the boundary between spiritual awakening and the UAP phenomenon becomes increasingly permeable. Both phenomena reveal untapped capacities of mind. Both ask us to reconsider what it means to be human. Both involve a shift in worldview that alters the trajectory of a person’s life.

The convergence of these fields suggests a deeper possibility:

the exploration of consciousness may be part of a broader cultural movement preparing society to understand the phenomenon itself.

This idea resonated throughout the conference, and it continues to shape the way many of us now interpret both awakening and contact.