Being a fan of science, and especially of the astonishing possibilities that science promises, theoretical physics is right up my alley. The superstar of many documentaries related to future technologies and cosmology is physicist Michio Kaku.
Kaku is a graduate of Harvard and received his PhD at Berkley. He teaches at City University of New York. His biggest claim to fame is string theory. I would try to describe it, but admittedly it is way over my head. It has something to do with multiple dimensions. Believing to have found such an abstract truth about reality, it's no wonder he should open his mind up to other possibilities.
I was already a big fan of his work when he was featured along with the Mutual UFO Network on a recent ABC Primetime special called “Seeing is Believing”. In my position as MUFON's Director of Public Education, I also handle media relations, helping the media with their stories. I worked with ABC on this special, they filmed at our Symposium last summer. The crew seemed great. However, I was still hesitant. Primetime had made a special a few years earlier that we had helped them with. It was a terrible example of journalism and left out a lot of facts, and although MUFON spent a lot of time helping them, they did not even acknowledge us.
I was happy to see that this special turned out better. They didn't use a lot of what we gave them and for some reason used a lot of old footage from the earlier special. I was happy that they used footage from a press conference that I had put together, and they had our Director of Research talking about one of our best cases. However, my favorite part of the special was the end. After covering an amazing UFO sighting by pilots, Michio Kaku made the closing comments. He said, sure 90% of the UFO sightings are probably misidentified and prosaic. However, the other 10%, he continued, beckons further exploration and serious attention from the scientist community, so let their investigations begin.
Kaku's ending statement was great. So I was very excited to hear that he was coming to Denver for a book signing at the Tattered Cover downtown. The title of his new book is “Physics of the Unknown”. The title sounded intriguing. I had decided to wait until the signing to purchase the book. Little did I know that this event would turn out to be one of the best paranormal lectures I have attended.
I attend a lot of paranormal lectures, and most of my favorites are from PhD's. I just wasn't expecting it this time. I knew I would hear fascinating things about quantum physics and black holes, and I was hoping he would touch on the possibility of traveling faster than light. But it was much better than expected. He did cover faster than light travel, and he also included extraterrestrial civilizations, the probability that they exist and the possibility of their presence here right now. He reiterated the importance of conventional scientific institutions to take it serious.
He didn't stop there, he also covered telepathy and psychokinesis. He even gave examples of their integration into modern technology. You'll have to read his book to find out more.
I was shocked and ecstatic about his talk. I don't really get excited about celebrities, but I was certainly a little star struck when I got to the his book signing table. I mentioned my association with MUFON and our goal of scientific investigation and I mentioned a symposium we want to have with physicists. I told him that the big issue we want to tackle is an assertion by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. They are the guys with all of the big satellite dish antennas and were featured on the movie “Contact”. SETI scientists say that the distances are so vast between solar systems that there is no way another civilization could have traveled so far.
Michio Kaku's response when I told him our goal to counter that argument was great. He told me that he is no friend to SETI, and that they are a bunch of astronomers so what do they know about physics.
Exactly!
For more info:
Michio's website: http://mkaku.org/
Michio's book on Amazon
