The aliens are here, and may have wiped out ancient civilisations for disobeying them.
That’s one theory mulled by Blink-182 star Tom DeLonge, and it’s not quite as out there as it may seem.
A caveat. There is no evidence to suggest the Mayans, Indus or Easter Islanders met a particularly grisly ending at the hands (or equivalent) of extraterrestrials.
However, when it comes to all things alien, DeLonge is not some armchair expert.
In fact, in 2017 he founded the To The Stars Academy Of Arts & Sciences, one particular focus of which is the study of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), the preferred name in 2023 for UFOs.
The academy has enjoyed notable prominence in the field, working with the New York Times to publish three now infamous UFO videos, and was even cited in evidence during July’s US congressional hearing, during which three witnesses shared testimony regarding their own experiences of UAP.
On the day, DeLonge wrote on X, then Twitter: ‘I am so proud of the three witnesses today that blew the lid off the UFO secrecy that has been intact for decades.’
Interestingly however, while calling for greater transparency on one hand, on the other he believes decades of government silence may stem from a need to protect the public.
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‘I think in the beginning, it was probably a lot of fear,’ he said, in an interview with Newsweek. ‘You’re dealing with World War II barely [being] over… We started having crashes. We had fighting through the war, but things started crashing and they’re finding vehicles and they’re finding occupants, and they don’t know what it is. They’re like, “Where are these coming from?”
‘Then they start digging into people’s encounters, and people are having contact and then not all the stories are good and people are getting hurt, and things are changing.’
It is no secret that the discovery of an advanced form of extraterrestrial intelligence would have profound effects on humanity – the discovery that our species is neither special nor alone in the vastness of the universe.
However, when it comes to UFOs within our own atmosphere, skeptics frequently point out that they would have a hard time arriving undetected, given that teams across the globe are specifically – and constantly – looking out for them.
DeLonge has an answer for that too.
‘They’re looking into our mind and into our DNA, and then finding out over time, maybe these things aren’t coming from other planets, these crafts seem to be doing things in the air, that has to do with frequency,’ he said, speaking to Newsweek.
‘And then there’s understanding, you know, the universe, the world around us over decades, and we go, “Oh, my God, these things might be coming through time.”
‘It’s just like, every time we find something out, it’s so much bigger and more complex, and potentially damaging to us in various ways.’
That damage includes the destruction of those who resist their presence on Earth.
‘I think the one hand is not knowing how to defend against it, because we don’t totally understand it,’ he said. ‘There’s also the side that the other side could be [reluctant to] want us to know they’re here because what they’re doing is not good.
‘And if we were to just come out and say, “Hey, it’s all here”, we don’t know what kind of response it’s going to provoke. Are they going to do something horrible?
‘I had one person tell me, they wonder are extinct civilisations evidence of those who didn’t obey? You don’t know.’
The relationship between ancient civilisations and aliens is a turbulent one – and, let’s be clear, entirely hypothetical.
From building the pyramids and Stonehenge to driving the dinosaurs to extinction, whenever something in history has no clear-cut explanation, aliens are always ready to step in and fill the void.
And even today, DeLonge argues aliens could be our secret puppet masters, keeping humanity in a state of perpetual turmoil to prevent us reaching our full potential.
‘I think people have to prepare for the real hard truth that some of this is really bad. What they’re doing is bad, but some of this is good,’ he said.
‘And some of this will create a better situation for humanity. I think once we learn about it, we’re going to learn that all of our [beliefs] are totally superficial and perhaps planned to keep us kind of divided.
‘So if the world comes together and accepts nature the way it is, and we learn our varying capacities… and what we’re able to do as humanity and human beings, things are going to really change. And we’ll come together, and we’ll have breakthroughs once we understand the universe. I think that’s the real benefit.’
The utopian dream of humanity rising up as one to fight a common enemy is far from a new theory – see many Hollywood movies, including Independence Day – but for believers, it can put a comforting spin on a situation way beyond their control.
Many were heartened to see the government taking the situation so seriously in holding the summer’s hearing, finally shining a legitimate spotlight on an issue for so long the domain of conspiracy theorists and loose cannons.
What it revealed however varies on your viewpoint. Few now deny the existence of UAP, but are they aliens, or classified military operations? Is the government playing a huge double-bluff by giving more airtime to Team UFO to distract from advanced weapons development? Is it even possible to discuss UAP without sounding a little paranoid about one thing or another?
Less so these days perhaps, and clearly DeLonge has never concerned himself with such appearances, only his own work in the field. But post-hearing, his position has enjoyed a significant boost in legitimacy – and a surprising détente with officials.
‘The US government spearheaded, with all of our allies across the world, to disinform the public for over 70 years, to make people feel like it’s stupid, and that it’s not real,’ he said.
‘But they actually had good reasons for that. They needed time to understand it, and they needed time to come up with a plan on how to deal with it.
‘So it’s partially their fault, but partially for good reason.’
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