When UFO enthusiasts think back to the origins of the modern UFO Phenomenon, the decade of the 1940s certainly stands out. Of course this was the decade that saw the Roswell event reportedly happen: when a craft, apparently piloted by beings who were decidedly non-human, crashed into the desert of New Mexico. Rumors of crash retrievals, attempts at reverse-engineered technologies, and the recovery of alien bodies of course swirl around the historical account of this famous event; an event now seared into the collective memory of our entire culture.

The 1940s also birthed the first mention of the term “flying saucer”, when private pilot Kenneth Arnold reportedly saw shiny unidentified flying objects flying past Mount Rainier at remarkable velocity. This sighting created an uproar in the media and in American popular culture. And Arnold’s description of these UFOs subsequently led the press to coin the terms “flying saucer” and “flying disc” as popular descriptors.

According to a new book by ufology legend Jacques Vallee, and his co-author Paola Harris, the popular historical record as it pertains to the UFO Phenomenon is missing a major milestone from that remarkable decade. Here they refer to an event that predates both of the afore-mentioned famous events.

In 1945, two years previous to Roswell, there was another crash in the desert of New Mexico. And this event had witnesses; witnesses still alive today. Witnesses that were interviewed at length by both Vallee and Harris. And in addition to extensive interviews with the living witnesses of that remarkable event, Vallee and Harris spent much time in the very location of the reported crash, examining the land and circumstances that surround the event in painstaking, scientific detail.

Of course, that particular location is famous for more than the crash of a sophisticated craft piloted by non-human beings. It is also the very same location of the detonation of the very first atomic bomb. And as if that coincidence doesn’t already grab your attention, the two events happened within weeks of each other. These historical details – to Vallee and Harris – are too striking to be explained away as mere coincidence. No, in fact, the authors postulate that there is a profound meaning needing to be dusted off and considered here, along with the artifacts of the event itself.

And Jacques Vallee and Paola Harris go further, openly questioning the idea that this was an accident at all. To them it has all the hallmarks of a staged event; one that was meant to send a clear message to humankind, at the very dawn of the Atomic Age, a dark era that erupted onto the canvas of human history with the light of a thousand suns, as the now infamous description goes.

Was this a warning? An attempt at the opening of a dialog? Or something else? Many profound questions arise as one learns about the details of this remarkable event: an event that involved not just an apparently alien vehicle piloted by potentially off-world visitors, but telepathic communication between these Others and the witnesses that Vallee and Harris interviewed; even communication offering glimpses into the future of our civilization; including some events that have already come to pass in the time since.

The stellar, dedicated investigatory work done by Jacques Vallee and Paola Harris is catalogued in their excellent, thorough, and highly readable new book TRINITY: THE BEST-KEPT SECRET. This book offers, they suggest, evidence that rewrites this modern history of ufology. And it shines light on an event that raises profound questions as to the intentions of these Others who have been interacting with us in equally profound yet mysterious ways, ever since.

A discussion around these thought-provoking questions, that stem from that remarkable and uncannily timed event in 1945, are the topic of this, the 22nd episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.