Death often signifies the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. It often provokes more questions, many of which are left improperly answered. This is true of all deaths. The chasm between the eternal and the temporal is unimaginably immense, metaphysically speaking.

The recent death of American paranormal author and researcher David Wilcock (1973-2026), on April 20, 2026, may serve as a gateway for the uninitiated into an unknown world. Wilcock was shaped by an interesting mélange of New Age spirituality, reinterpretative frameworks of ancient civilizations, and highly speculative metaphysical conjectures alongside a series of ufological claims. His theories connected the spiritual, inter-dimensional beings and the depths of human consciousness. He explored what is known as the “Source Field” (an intelligent energy source believed to be the foundation of reality) and claims that were pushed forward by psychic Edgar Cayce on reincarnation.

Law enforcement described Wilcock’s death as a suicide, referring to a mental health crisis. This, however, has been an unsatisfying narrative, given some of the background information—such as Wilcock’s previous public statements about his beliefs and the circumstances leading up to his death. These and other surrounding information, which we will explore below, suggest a more complex situation. This reflection will differ significantly from my usual theological obituaries in that I raise more peculiar and less explored questions and events, at least within my corpus.

To some, it may seem a tragic but familiar story of a man burdened with personal trauma, health concerns, financial concerns, and, in his case, , his particular beliefs concerning things beyond the physical world. It may also reveal something quite unsettling. We may question whether it was suicide or whether it was something more ambiguous, something perhaps darker or more sinister? Does it invite the question of being “suicided”? These questions linger and do not readily disappear.

Just days before his death, Wilcock spoke publicly in a lengthy livestream and offered a reflection on life. What struck me was that it was marked as much by gratitude as by anxiety and uncertainty. He remarked,

I’m excited to be here, you know, every day that I have on earth is a gift and a blessing, and I’m very grateful for that, because frankly, people are disappearing. Scientists are going missing. It’s a little bit scary.

He also offered some of his Gnostic beliefs that the Creator is within and that the universe is fundamentally loving. The video also revealed some unease and anxiety when he posed the following existential questions facing humanity: “Are we going to be okay? Are we all in a big psy-op?” The tension in his video was clear between what he affirmed and the uncertainty of the future and the structure of reality. Inevitably, the picture that emanates is not one with full clarity but one with opacity showered with unease and the merging of competing explanations. To begin to understand the case of Wilcock, it should not be viewed in isolation or reduced to mere coincidence or the ordinary complications of life.

Extending beyond Wilcock’s death, there have been the strange recurring reports of scientists, engineers, and officials connected to sensitive fields whose deaths or disappearances have raised further questions. Some reports have identified at least 10 to 12 scientists and researchers who have died or gone missing between 2022 and early 2026, many of whom were connected to nuclear or aerospace research, or other related fields. These would include figures such as Amy Eskridge (d. June 11, 2022), an anti-gravity researcher, and William Neil McCasland (who has been missing since February 27, 2026), alongside other cases such as NASA and defense-linked personnel such as Michael David Hicks (d. July 30, 2023).

These cases are often discussed within a broader pattern that has drawn the attention of investigators and public officials. The accumulation of such cases, spanning roughly 2022 to 2026 and reportedly under federal investigation, including by the FBI, has contributed to a growing unease and perplexity. Some lawmakers, including House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, have suggested that the recurring pattern warrants serious scrutiny and could pose broader national security concerns.

At the same time, public officials have urged caution. Donald Trump has rejected the notion of any meaningful connection, framing these incidents as statistically inevitable given the sheer size of the scientific community. Nevertheless, when taken together, explaining these away as mere coincidences lacks explanatory power and scope. The accumulation of such incidents raises deeper questions that remain unresolved.

This is precisely where interpretations begin to diverge sharply. In a recent interview, Steven Greer, retired physician and ufologist and founder of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI) and the Disclosure Project, offered a more dire view of recent events. He implied that the deaths and disappearances of scientists are connected to sensitive research. He went on to suggest that they are far from random cases and that, contrary to Trump’s claims, they should not be viewed in isolation. Greer understands these occurrences as a larger story of censorship and cover-up.

He discussed how these missing and dead persons worked in fields such as anti-gravity propulsion, advanced energy systems, and classified aerospace programs. What he implied was that certain forms of knowledge, especially those capable of challenging existing paradigms—whether economic, scientific, or technological—have always been guarded with a strange ferocity, though many observers are inclined to dismiss such patterns as mere coincidence without further reflection. Such resistance would not be entirely surprising if existing financial, political, and technological systems are deeply bound to the preservation of power, stability, and economic control.

The reason for this extends far beyond mere scientific discovery because control over the financial world and these sorts of technologies could fundamentally alter humanity’s relationship to energy, power, and modern world economic structures. Regardless of whether one accepts this narrative, the logic is evident: if such deep knowledge exists, and if it enters into mainstream popular human consciousness and is not dismissed as conspiratorial, it would undoubtedly destabilize entrenched systems; thus, the incentive to contain it is immense.

However, this is far from settled. Alongside this narrative, there is an alternative interpretive framework that must be taken into consideration. It is one that shifts the question from merely technological to metaphysical. In recent remarks, Vice President J.D. Vance suggested that phenomena usually described as UFOs or anomalous objects should not be viewed as extraterrestrial but rather spiritual in nature. Drawing from a Christian perspective, he has stated that what some have interpreted as nonhuman intelligence is better understood as manifestations of the preternatural or even of a demonic order.

Such claims demonstrate the further complexities of the issue at hand. This brings us to a return to categories long embedded within a theological tradition. What is described as “nonhuman intelligence” seems to resemble, at least conceptually, intermediary beings—ones that are not divine or human but are capable of influencing and interacting with the physical world.

This interpretive framework has also surfaced in certain religious and cultural circles increasingly concerned with the implications of so-called disclosure. Some commentators and pastors have suggested that future revelations concerning “nonhuman intelligence” may be presented not merely in technological terms but in ways that challenge and are aimed to raise doubts about traditional theological understandings of creation, spiritual reality, and the human person, even prompting religious confusion or crises of faith among some believers.

Figures such as David Icke, despite advancing highly controversial and often speculative claims, have likewise interpreted these phenomena through interdimensional or spiritual categories rather than strictly extraterrestrial ones. From a Catholic perspective, however, such matters require caution, prudence, and clear discernment. Fundamental to the Christian tradition is the existence of preternatural realities; however, we must remain guarded against deception and sensationalism, as Scripture itself warns that “even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). We must also be vigilant toward the uncritical pursuit of hidden knowledge detached from divine revelation.

Could it be that what we have been told in popular culture are not extra-terrestrial aliens but perhaps angels and demons? Could the two coexist? My sense is that the debate will rage on in theological, philosophical, and paranormal discussions.

What is being hidden from us?

A question once mocked as conspiratorial and unnecessary, or paranoid speculation, now finds new life and enters more forcefully into the public square. These questions emanate from the convergence of unexplained deaths, narratives that were once dismissed, series of incongruent interpretations, and the growing awareness of what is publicly known. One may view these revelations from a scientific, political, or theological perspective; but one cannot deny the enduring fascination and questions surrounding them. The issues seem to extend beyond what is known into what is misunderstood, but more interestingly withheld and obscured.

For better or for worse, these are not questions that can continue to be suppressed or confined to fringe discourses. They have increasingly surfaced in popular discussions, whether on Joe Rogan’s podcast over the years, discussions among American presidents, or in the mainstream culture. The anticipated release of Disclosure Day, on June 12, 2026, directed by Steven Spielberg, is indicative of a deep public fascination with the notion of disclosure itself, which suggests that what was once dismissed is penetrating more into our cultural and societal consciousness than many would like to admit.

We are at the stage at which it is difficult to ignore the enduring influence of figures such as Stanley Kubrick, who directed futuristic and prophetic movies amid the rise of AI, such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, and whose final film, Eyes Wide Shut, explored themes of secrecy, elite networks, and hidden structures of power. His sudden death—six days after presenting the final cut of the film—has, for some, remained a point of lingering curiosity, particularly given the nature of the subject matter he chose to depict.

Interestingly, Spielberg himself, who now directed a film centered on disclosure, paid tribute to Kubrick in a speech at the Academy Awards the year Kubrick died, a coincidence that invites reflection rather than conclusion. Both filmmakers, in different ways, have demonstrated a willingness to probe the darker and more concealed dimensions of the human psyche, where power, secrecy, and knowledge intersect in unsettling ways.

In recent years, amid the rising interest in the connection between extraterrestrial beings or inter-dimensional and spiritual ones, whether angelic or demonic, ancient texts have gained renewed relevance. The Book of Enoch, even though not included in the Catholic canon or broader Western biblical canon but preserved as canonical within the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo tradition—and referenced in canonical Scripture, as seen explicitly in the Epistle of Jude—speaks of the Watchers, beings who descend and impart knowledge that is enlightening and disruptive, giving rise to the Nephilim described in Genesis.

In a different but related register, even figures such as the 19th-century naturalist and co-discoverer of natural selection Alfred Russel Wallace, who later advanced a form of “intelligent evolution,” entertained the idea of “higher intelligences” or “watchers” guiding aspects of human development, suggesting that the intersection of science and unseen agency has long occupied the margins of serious thought. Wallace also tried to make scientific accounts of paranormal activity, including within séances.

A colleague of mine, Stephen J. Latham, an academic whose work engages biblical prophecy and contemporary disclosure narratives, situates modern discussions of UFO phenomena within a broader historical and theological framework. Drawing on sources such as Maximillien de Lafayette, whom he cites, Latham highlights claims attributed to early aerospace pioneer Dr. Hermann Oberth, who reportedly had access to so-called “alien transcripts” and stated: “We cannot take credit for our record advancement in certain scientific fields alone; we have been helped [by] ‘people of other worlds.’”

In a similar vein, Latham also draws attention to figures such as Nikola Tesla, who was said to have received unusual or “otherworldly” signals and communications, further blurring the boundary between scientific discovery and nonhuman sources of knowledge. Latham’s interpretation  of extra-terrestrial phenomena is indicative of what he understands to be interdimensional or spiritual intelligences. He elsewhere associates these beings with fallen angelic or demonic categories.

He further points to figures such as Maria Orsic—an occult medium who claimed to receive technical data for advanced craft in ancient, unknown scripts—as another example of knowledge transmission attributed to nonhuman sources. Within this framework, modern accounts of extraterrestrial or nonhuman intelligence are not entirely novel but resonate with earlier traditions involving the Nephilim, occult mediation, and the transmission of hidden knowledge. What may appear as something novel is best understood as a shift in understanding but is still related to longstanding metaphysical and deeply theological concerns that are recast within scientific and modern technological vocabulary.

So, what can we say about the tragic death of David Wilcock? We can start by acknowledging that this is not merely an isolated event to be explained away or sensationalized and that it would be more prudent to view it as being connected to a much larger story, a story that invites deeper questions—questions that resist simple, much less dismissive, answers. Undoubtedly, it brings to the fore various different tensions, such as events and the existence of persons who are in between knowledge and secrecy, between science and metaphysics, and also amid mere fascination and hope and actual reality. Much of this is not new, since it’s been with humanity ever since human beings first became capable of reflecting upon such questions. The search for ultimate reality and meaning, whether in an ancient or in a modern sense, is closely tied to our humanity.

In this sense, even the cultural and intellectual currents that now seem novel may prove more prescient than they first appear. This is not because they reveal something entirely new but because they echo mysteries that have been present with us and among us, though often misunderstood or misnamed.

Christianity and its deep theological tradition bring these truths into coherence. We should be mindful of the possibility that not all that is hidden is meant to be uncovered—and not all that presents itself as revelation is truth. We should always be cautious not to be governed by fascination. Our desire for certainty and knowledge of the occult and spiritual mysteries can distract and mislead us. What is being hidden from us in plain sight may not ultimately be a matter of secret technologies and metaphysical beings, or suppressed knowledge, but a deeper question of perspicacity—of recognizing the difference between truth and deception.

The most profound of truths is not one distorted by elites and confused “influencers,” or cryptic transmissions, or even esoteric writings and images; it is the truth revealed in the person of Christ. It is within Him that the eternal and the temporal meet, something that can never be bridged by human speculation or technological advancement but only through divine revelation and a relationship with Him. And while the questions surrounding Wilcock’s tragic death and the broader narrative discussed here will continue on, the most pressing of tasks is not to merely uncover what has been hidden from us but to accept the truth that has been made evident to us by the One who cannot—and does not—lie.