UFO Experts Race to Witch Mountain

In Race to Witch Mountain, Dwayne Johnson plays a cab driver who ends up helping two aliens locate their crashed spaceship. And though it may sound like a plot born of pure fantasy, UFO experts say that the film’s portrayal of extraterrestrials might be spot on. In honor of yesterday’s DVD release of the movie, we got to sit down with two of the countries leading UFO authorities Bill Birnes, publisher of UFO Magazine and host of History’s UFO Hunters, and Giorgio Tsoukalos, the world’s leading Ancient Astronaut expert. Here’s what they had to say about aliens, spaceships and a real-life Witch Mountain.

Did you talk to the film crew about your work? What do Dwayne Johnson or Andy Fickman or others think about extraterrestrial life and UFOs?

Bill Birnes: Andy told me a very funny story. He said that at first, the case, and especially Dwayne and Carla interested in UFOs, but not especially passionate. It was a distant kind of interest. In fact, there was no immediacy to the presence of UFOs. So to give some background, Andy played for the cast the first season DVDs of UFO Hunters. As the reality of UFOs sunk in, Andy told me that Dwayne and the rest of the cast had become so enthusiastic that they said, “why isn’t everyone talking about this?” So the answer is that by the time Giorgio got to the set, cast and crew were very enthusiastic. Moreover, the UFO expo scene was so realistic that members of the crew and the cast of extras kept walking over to our table to tell us about their UFO experiences and browse through the magazines. After a few hours, we thought we really were at a UFO expo.

In the movie, the UFO expert Dr Friedman (played by Carla Gugino) is not taken seriously as a scientist. Is it hard being in this field, knowing you have to face a hefty amount of cynicism and speculation?

Giorgio Tsoukalos: It goes with the territory. I’m VERY aware of the fact that what Bill and I do for a living isn’t quite what people would consider “normal.” But then again, WHAT is normal? Look, it all depends how you present it. Besides Bill Birnes and me you’d be hard-pressed to find any “normal” looking UFO experts in our field. It seems that many of our co-researchers have just stepped off the set of a Lord of the Rings movie in which they played some type of troll. Their appearance does NOT help the cause as a whole. It doesn’t take much to put on a nice suit and wash up. In Race, Dr. Friedman was quite presentable and thus, just by her appearance alone, she lent credence to the work she tried to accomplish. It is my firm belief that the same counts to the real-life UFOlogy / Alternative History fields. (Now any UFO researcher who reads this and gets upset, you KNOW I’m right, now go get a haircut!)

What are your thoughts about extra-terrestrials like Seth and Sara really existing here on Earth?

Bill Birnes: I think that ETs in human form live on Earth, placed here by whomever landed them here, and they are a part of our government and businesses. Folks have told me about people like “alien Ron,” a researcher who worked for the Navy and had very strange abilities. Never ate, never slept, and could do complicated math problems in minutes without a calculator. He could leave speed readers in the dust, and would laugh a silent chuckle when his friends said he was an ET. But he never denied it.

Giorgio, you traveled to the remote corners of the planet in search of the mysterious. Did you find anything during those trips that has cleared out all your doubts about the existence of Extraterrestrials?

Giorgio Tsoukalos: Yes. There is this one place in South America called PUMA PUNKU, in the Highlands of Bolivia. There, at an altitude of almost 14,000ft we have a field of ruins. The remnants we find there defy logic. Not only are the stone blocks humongous, but also the rock cutting techniques are beyond what we could achieve today with the help of modern technology. What we have there is granite and diorite. The only stone harder on the Mohs scale is diamond. What does that mean? The only conclusion how any of this could’ve been doe is if the tools they used were tipped with diamonds… fascinating, ey? Mainstream archaeology claims that this was accomplished by using copper tools, obsidian, and chicken bones. Uh-huh, suuuure. I’ve spoken to structural engineers and people involved with construction and they unanimously agree that none of this would’ve been possible without the use of sophisticated technology.

Bill, what’s the weirdest UFO sighting you’ve ever heard of or seen?

Bill Birnes: It has to be RAF Bentwaters back in 1980. A diamond shaped object hovers over a USAF base on the North Sea in he UK. It travels through the forest and lands in wet sand, leaving tracks. When a USAF security team approaches, they can see life forms inside the craft. One of the sergeants touches the craft and makes rubbings of the strange designs on the side of the craft. The craft takes off, leaving impressions in the sand. It moves through the trees and into a clearing. When the USAF team approaches, the object breaks into five lights and takes off. The entire event is recorded on audio tape. We have the plaster impressions of the landing gear and we have the lettering on the side of the craft. Even the British refer to it as a UFO. The Air Force has never responded, and the USAF Lt. Col. says it is definitely a UFO.

SF movies have been predicting a take over by aliens for years now. Do you think that’s possible?

Giorgio Tsoukalos: I would venture to say that we’re not under any direct threat by any truly benevolent race because – truth be told – if the aliens wanted to eat us for dessert, they would’ve done that already a long, long time ago. So no, I do not subscribe to the idea that we are nothing but a slave race for the extraterrestrials and that we’re about to be exterminated. I think such scenarios merely feed into the whole gloom-and-doom worldview which mankind seems to have a penchant for… and it is unfortunate, because we live in very exciting times and I very much look forward of what the future has to offer. And no, the world will not come to an end in 2012. No Apocalypse, no End of Days, no Judgment Day. It’s all unsubstantiated fear-mongering garbage. We’ll all be there on December 22, 2012, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed! Don’t let 2012 become the Y2K of this generation. Let’s embrace it for what it is: the beginning of a new period of time. Nothing more, nothing less.

Race to Witch Mountain is available now on DVD and Blu-ray.

Photos: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment