The government failed to properly investigate unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) in the Nineties over fears they were caused by ‘demonic forces’, the UK’s leading expert has claimed.
Nick Pope, who led the Ministry of Defence’s UFO desk between 1991 and 1994, has said the then chief of defence staff Lord Hill-Norton stopped investigating sightings after being influenced by a controversial priest.
There are also similar beliefs in the US government, he added, with politicians and officials frequently deferring to the Bible when the issue of UFOs, now officially known as UAP, arises.
‘It’s counter-intuitive that some official resistance to taking UAP seriously comes not from hard-nosed science-minded sceptics who think studying the subject is a waste of government time and money, but from a faction that believes UAP are real – but demonic,’ said Mr Pope, speaking to Metro.co.uk.
‘This stems in part from a biblical description of Satan as being “the prince of the power of the air” – a quotation from the book of Ephesians.’
The notion that flying objects in the sky may have a religious origin is a longstanding theory among UFO enthusiasts – one explored in a new documentary, God Vs UFOs – but not one that has been openly acknowledged at government level.
However, the secretly-held belief that UFOs are neither classified military operations, hostile nations nor even visitors from another planet, but demonic forces, is stifling adequate research into the issue, said Mr Pope.
‘The thinking seems to be that if UFOs are some sort of demonic manifestation, engaging with it feeds them, by giving them energy, and should therefore be avoided,’ he said.
‘This was likely to have been a factor in something reported by Pentagon UFO investigator Luis Elizondo. He said that when trying to get a senior defence official engaged on the subject, he was rebuffed by the officer, who told him to go and read his bible.’
This thinking, Mr Pope added, made its way across the Atlantic and into Downing Street.
‘I saw a similar thing in the UK, when the former Chief of the Defence Staff Lord Hill-Norton – who I briefed on several occasions – fell increasingly under the influence of a maverick priest, Paul Inglesby, who believed the phenomenon was demonic,’ said Mr Pope.
Reverend Inglesby began his career in the military, joining the Navy and fighting in World War Two.
While serving, he was struck down with a severe illness, and suffered extreme hallucinations, which would later go on to inform his views on UAP. He also claimed to have had an ‘out-of-body journey to Mars’.
After leaving the Navy and joining the church he garnered significant influence over a number of high-profile public figures, including the then Earl Mountbatten, Prince Philip’s uncle.
‘This was particularly unfortunate because Lord Hill-Norton was arguably the leader of what might be called a “believer faction” in the establishment,’ said Mr Pope.
‘He’d tabled numerous questions in Parliament about UAP, and was pressuring defence ministers to release information on UFO cases such as the Rendlesham Forest incident.
‘Inglesby’s steering him away from a defence and national security focus and towards a religious interpretation of UAP was an unwelcome distraction and something I fought hard to counter.’
The Rendlesham Forest incident is the UK’s most infamous UAP sighting.
Over three days, starting on Boxing Day 1980, military personnel and police witnessed lights, scorch marks and an alleged ‘craft of unknown origin’ in the forest around the military bases of Bentwaters and Woodbridge in Suffolk.
The case has never been solved, and is often referred to as ‘Britain’s Roswell’.
It appears it was not only Lord Hill-Norton under the influence of religious views around UAP.
‘There were other clues that suggested some MoD officials with responsibility for UAP were at least influenced by a sort of fundamentalist Christian view,’ said Mr Pope.
‘One deputy head of division who thought we should scale back our UAP work belonged to a rather austere church. During a Nato wargame we were participating in, he was issued with a pager over the weekend and I made a friendly and lighthearted comment about how he wouldn’t be popular if it went off in church while they were singing All Things Bright and Beautiful.
‘He stared at me and defensively retorted that they didn’t sing “that sort of hymn” in his church.’
The Ministry of Defence closed down its UFO desk in 2009, stating nothing reported to it in 50 years had been deemed a military threat.
However, the subject has generated significant public and political interest this year after a former US intelligence officer claimed the government had evidence of ‘intact and partially intact’ alien vehicles.
Speaking under oath during a congressional hearing on the matter, he added that people had ‘been harmed or injured’ in an effort to cover up the information.
Reflecting on the attitudes in British government, Mr Pope added: ‘It makes one wonder what other government scepticism and pushback on UAP is motivated by extreme religious views and belief in the reality of demons.’
Here Nick Pope talk more about UFOs in a new documentary, God Vs UFOs, out now on Amazon Prime and Tubi
MORE : Nasa unveils findings of study into UFOs
MORE : UK’s top UFO expert gives his verdict on the ‘ten aliens’ found by US government
MORE : US government ‘hiding evidence of UFOs’, congressman warns
Follow Metro across our social channels, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Share your views in the comments below
Get your need-to-know
latest news, feel-good stories, analysis and more
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
