American Cosmic
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his experiments on days that were ritual y significant to him,
such as Halloween, and his prelaunch rituals paid homage
to the intelligences with whom he believed himself to be in
contact. His life ended tragical y. He was thirty- seven when
one of his rockets exploded as he was experimenting in his
garage, and he perished with it. A few months after his death,
there was a very public sighting of UFOs over the White
House. Parsons’s widow and friends attributed this sighting
to his death.4
In keeping with the code of silence that permeates
the industry, most of the astronauts and NASA employees
I interviewed didn’t know about this history, or if they did,
they didn’t want to talk about it. The mere mention of it
embarrassed them. When I asked Tyler what he thought of
Jack Parsons and Tsiolkovsky, he expressed admiration for
their genius but was genuinely shocked and surprised when
I described what they believed and their rituals. I had begun
to understand Tyler as being part of a lineage of people like
Tsiolkovsky and Parsons— people who believed that they
were in contact with nonhuman intelligences and believed
that those intelligences were directing their paths and
seeding them with information that directly led to the cre-
ation of innovative technologies. Whereas the former men
focused on aeronautics, Tyler had a dual focus— aeronautics
and biotechnologies. I also began to understand Tyler as a
contemporary version of the famed Colonel Philip Corso.
Colonel Corso was a military man who claimed to be an
agent whose task was to seed private industry with crashed
extraterrestrial craft under the guise of Russian or Chinese
technology. The hope was that private industry would
reverse- engineer the technology and provide Americans
3 8 | A M E R IC A N C O SM IC
with an edge in the global marketplace. His book, The Day
After Roswel (1997), appeared on the New York Times best-
seller list. The book fueled a modern version of the myth
of Prometheus—
the notion that nonhuman, advanced
intelligences (gods, even) provided humans with advanced
technology. But it also fueled a conspiracy theory that si-
multaneously explained the origins of modern technology
and accused the government of covering up the secret of
extraterrestrial life.
Significantly, technology has often been described using
the language of the supernatural. Computer programmers are
“wizards,” and “devils” in computers assist users with techno-
logical tasks. Social media can and will “read your mind.”5
A much- quoted statement by Arthur C. Clarke, that “any
sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from
magic,” solidifies a division between technology and magic
while also establishing their connection.6 The assumption is
that if we were sufficiently advanced, we would understand
that something that appears magical, such as an advanced
propulsion spacecraft, is not magical at all but technological.
But something far stranger and more complex was at work
here, as reflected in the lives of the founders of the space
programs and in the work of the new, contemporary version
of Colonel Corso, Tyler D. It was a fusion of magic, or the
supernatural, and the technological. And somehow silence
was the key to understanding this connection. Whereas
the original Colonel Corso functioned as a contemporary
Prometheus and was punished in the public court of ridicule,
the contemporary Corso, Tyler D., worked silently, invisibly.
His invisibility ensured his success and was somehow a key
to it.7
T H E I N V I S I B L E T Y L E R D . | 3 9
M E E T I N G T Y L E R : I N P E R S O N
At this point, my expectations of Tyler were running very
high, and he did not disappoint me. We arranged to meet
in Atlanta at the annual conference for my discipline, the
American Academy of Religion. Even though I was sold on
Tyler’s legitimate place in the space program, I was still sus-
picious of him, mostly because I knew he would be outfitted
with cameras, but also because I was still unsure exactly
what he did and why he was interested in meeting me. I con-
vinced one of my colleagues, Jeff Kripal, to accompany me
to the meeting. Jeff’s work on religion had helped me un-
derstand the research direction upon which I had embarked,
and I hoped to rely on his input and assessment of Tyler and
his occupations. I had primed Jeff for the meeting, telling
him of my concerns. I also knew an experiencer who knew
Tyler. His interpretation of Tyler was informed by his belief
in extraterrestrials and his Christian beliefs, so I wasn’t that
surprised when he told me that Tyler was probably an angel,
which to him meant that he was a person who is part human
and part extraterrestrial.
“You are just about to meet someone who is not human,”
he said. “He is older than both of us, but he looks twenty
years younger. I don’t know what he is.”
We were to meet at a restaurant near the conference,
but it was jam- packed with scholars of religion. The wait for
a table was over an hour. Jeff and I decided to wait at the
bar for Tyler. I was nervous, and Jeff picked up on my un-
ease. We laughed. Soon a tal , thin man with thick brown
hair appeared at the restaurant window and peered in. It was
Tyler. The window was mirrored glass on the outside, and
4 0 | A M E R IC A N C O SM IC
as I turned I looked directly into his eyes as he combed his
hair and checked his appearance. He couldn’t see me. He
then walked in and recognized us immediately. I noticed
the details of his clothes. He was extremely well dressed in a
classic suit and a dress shirt with cuff links. Gucci. His attire
and demeanor distinguished him from the scholars of reli-
gion, who were mostly disheveled and were milling about
and eating lunch. He introduced himself, and we shook
hands. I couldn’t tell how old he was, maybe in his late forties
or early fifties, but he did look extremely fit and youthful, just
as the experiencer had said. Upon learning about the wait for
lunch, he immediately called his hotel, the Ritz, and secured
a table for us there.
Tyler turned out to be very charismatic in person, just as
he was virtual y. He laughed easily and was as comfortable
talking about his family as he was talking about science. His
natural charm impressed Jeff, who invited him to his house
in Houston for dinner to meet his wife and family. I had
hoped Jeff would be a little reserved and keep Tyler at arm’s
distance, but Tyler’s charisma proved too powerful and was
no match for my suggestion that perhaps Tyler was using it
for a purpose. None of my warnings were heeded. This would
be just the first case where Tyler’s charm and social abilities
were in evidence. Every pers
on or group of people to whom
I introduced him was taken by his demeanor. He was some
kind of rock star, and that just added to my suspicion of him.
T Y L E R’ S P R O TO C O L
At lunch Tyler explained that he had a specific protocol for
connecting with off- planet intelligence. It was a physical and
T H E I N V I S I B L E T Y L E R D . | 4 1
mental protocol, and as Tyler explained the details of it, Jeff
and I nodded in recognition. Many religious traditions advo-
cate a physical protocol, like yoga, meditation, or contempla-
tion, that involves the body and the mind. These traditions, it
is believed, help practitioners connect with the sacred. Tyler’s
description of his own protocol reminded us of religious
practitioners and these traditions.
“I basically believe, and there is evidence for this, that
our DNA is a receptor and transmitter. It works at a cer-
tain frequency— the same frequency, in fact, that we use
to communicate with our satellites in deep space. Humans
are a type of satellite, in fact. So, in order to receive the sig-
nals and to transmit the signals, we have to tune our phys-
ical bodies and DNA. Because of this, I make sure I sleep
really well. I use the eight plus one rule. That is, I sleep for
eight hours, wake up, and then make myself go back to
bed for an hour. That one hour, the top- off, really makes or
breaks my day. I barely drink alcohol, as it interferes with
sleep, and I never drink coffee. Coffee really messes up the
signal.”
I listened to Tyler as I sipped from my coffee cup, trying
to fight the exhaustion that comes from cramming too many
activities into a three- day conference. Jeff and I took turns
asking Tyler more questions about his protocol and his
connection to the off- planet intelligence.
“How does this help with your connection, and what
does that connection feel like?” I asked.
“I also have to be in the sun. So I wake up, and the
previous night I will have gone to bed a little dehydrated.
Then, I get my extra hour of sleep and go out into the sun.
While I bask in the light of vitamin D, I drink a tall glass of
water, which flushes my cel s and rehydrates them. This is
4 2 | A M E R IC A N C O SM IC
better than coffee. It is at this point that I can usual y feel
the connection. I know I’ve established connection when
the thoughts that show up in my mind don’t seem like my
own. They are unfamiliar. With practice you can feel the
difference.”
“So, you recognize these thoughts as different from your
own?” Jeff asked.
“Yes, but you also have to understand that the environ-
ment also ‘wakes up’ and validates that they are speaking
to you. See? I can explain it this way. I get a thought, and it
comes out of nowhere. It comes with a certain feeling, like a
hit. Then, usual y within a few hours, something will happen
that will validate that it was them, and that I should act on it.
Here’s an example.
“A key event of my life happened because of an errant
email. I was sending a note to a friend and accidently sent it
to the wrong ‘John,’ who was a former neighbor from years
ago. The wrong John read my email thinking I was asking
him to work with me to fly an experiment on the NASA KC-
135 vomit comet about capacitors, so he developed a one-
page concept and sent it back to me. I was like, who is this and
why is he sending this to me? I didn’t know anything about
pacemakers or capacitors, nor did I email him my thoughts,
which I had had earlier that day. Wel , long story short, he
emailed me back and said it must have been an errant email
from me and from there we kicked off a new project and flew
it, and he used that data and knowledge at his company to
develop a longer- lasting capacitor for pacemakers! What’s
more, what I learned from him about pacemaker capacitors
in that process helped me understand and connect some dots
on how some OP [Off Planet] craft operate, given they use
T H E I N V I S I B L E T Y L E R D . | 4 3
a highly charged capacitor of sorts in their electrogravitic
machine.”
“So you’re talking about synchronicities or coincidences?”
I asked.
“Maybe. In order to make the right cal , you have to be in
tune with your environment, and tune your DNA to receive
the signal, and then pay attention. Be on the lookout for the
confirmations, and then act on it.”
The “accidental” aspect of Tyler’s protocol brought to
my mind the biochemist Kary Mullis, who had discovered
the highly influential polymerase chain reaction and won
the Nobel Prize for the discovery in 1993. He also had an
anomalous experience that he referred to as a UFO en-
counter, although he was very careful not to “conclude”
that was what it was. I was struck by Mullis’s description
of his own process of creativity and its similarity to what
Tyler was telling us:
Creativity is when you are trying to figure something out and
something else keeps intruding. You final y give in to it, and it
turns out to be the answer you were looking for. Perhaps some-
thing is lost and instead of looking for it, you let your hands
lead you to it with your eyes closed. You might be looking
something up and find the wrong subject and it turns out not
only to be related, but to be exactly what you were after. It’s not
an accident. It was inevitable and it all makes perfect sense after
the moment, but it’s unexpected. That’s how creativity happens.
The focused beam of your consciousness is very narrow, but
you have a creepy sense of what is right behind you.8
Tyler’s protocol was similar to what I knew from several
researchers within the UFO community. Within many of
4 4 | A M E R IC A N C O SM IC
these communities, the name for this contact is the “down-
load.” It describes the process of connection with off- planet
entities. Researcher Grant Cameron writes about the down-
load experience and suggests that creativity does not nec-
essarily stem from a high IQ or special talent, but instead
comes from the ability to tap into “nonlocal intelligence.” He
said that he original y intended to write a book about what
he called “the disclosure by an alien force that humans are
not alone,” but instead the focus of the book turned to the
process of “the download”:
Many modern musicians are very interested in UFOs and ex-
traterrestrial life. . . . As that book neared a final first draft,
the whole focus changed. It became apparent that it was more
important to talk about downloads and inspirations. What was
happening to musicians became only a small part of the story.
Following a lecture on the alien- music connection in Boulder,
Colorado, some in the audience maintained that it was the
devil and evil forces that were influ
encing modern music.
Somewhat taken aback by this criticism, and the old idea of
a battle for men’s minds by forces of good and evil, I had to
sit back and re- examine my world view. I grew up in a home
where my mother was a church organist for four decades. That
inspired me to see if the composers of the church hymns ex-
perienced the same downloads and inspirations as modern
musicians. It turned out that they had. That meant that if the
devil was behind downloads and inspirations in rock and rol ,
it appeared that he had also composed all the church music
as wel .9
Like Tyler, Cameron believes that the intelligence behind
the download is nonhuman. He also utilizes the language of
quantum mechanics; the theme of nonlocality permeates
T H E I N V I S I B L E T Y L E R D . | 4 5
many discussions of the download and processes of extreme
creativity. Heather Berlin, a neurologist at the Icahn School
of Medicine at Mount Sinai, offers an analysis of the creative
mind that supports the idea that creative individuals expe-
rience their innovative ideas as external to themselves, or as
supplied by external agents:
So I think that a lot of what’s happening in the brain is
happening outside awareness and we— when we have our
sort of conscious brain highly active— it’s kind, it’s kind
of suppressing a lot of what’s going on outside of oneself.
Sometimes when people are being creative they say it almost
feels like things are coming from outside of them when they
are in this sort of flow state. We’re starting to understand a
little bit more about that state and it seems to be that when
people are being creative in the moment that the part of their
brain that has to do with their sense of self, self- awareness,
self- consciousness is turned down. It’s called the dorso-
lateral prefrontal cortex. . . . If you think about it a similar
pattern of brain activation happens during dreams or during
daydreaming or some types of meditation or hypnosis where
you lose your sense of self and time and place. It allows the
filter to come off so that novel associations are okay, you
know. Dreams don’t all make sense. That’s where the crea-
tivity comes in.10
Significantly, Berlin’s research might suggest that crea-
tivity does not originate from an external source, although