A newly released batch of FBI files includes documents with alarming warnings for humanity that allegedly contain messages from “visitors from outer space.”
What the 1955 FBI memo claims
One document — an FBI memorandum dated January 12, 1955 — records claims by members of the Detroit Flying Saucer Club, one of the oldest U.S. organizations focused on UFOs.
According to the memo, club member Rendall Cox told agents that the group had repeatedly received “messages from space” that supposedly warned humanity about its place in . The record says these beings reportedly claimed that all planets except Earth had already mastered space. Cox also said the extraterrestrials regarded humans as “the lowest form of universal existence.”
“He believes that the current purpose of the contacts with is limited to preparing people for future landings by extraterrestrial craft,” the memo quotes.
The memo notes that during an interview with Cox on January 11, 1955, in an FBI car, he told agents that he and another club member, John Hoffman, planned to travel to Washington to “present their data to the Pentagon” and had attempted to meet “someone from Air Force intelligence.”
The document also mentions a technician, John Fry, from the Sandia Air Force Base in New Mexico, who allegedly claimed he had flown on a “disc” from the base to New York in 30 minutes.
The backstory: Dorothy Martin’s prophecy and why people cling to belief
The FBI points out that Cox’s testimony resembled public claims made by Dorothy Martin, a housewife from Illinois who in 1954 said she received telepathic messages from “the Guardians,” extraterrestrial beings. Martin led a small group of followers and predicted that catastrophic floods on December 21, 1954 would wipe out much of the Earth, while believers would be rescued by flying saucers.
Martin’s prophecy caused a major stir: followers quit their jobs, left property behind, and gathered at her house waiting for the arrival of a spacecraft. One supporter, Dr. Charles Logghed, lost his hospital job because he backed those claims. When the catastrophe did not occur, Martin told followers that their faith had saved the Earth — a classic example psychologists use to study cognitive dissonance and why people keep believing after a disconfirmed prophecy.
Other files in the release — Moon photos, infrared clips, and military MISREPs
Besides 1950s archives, the package includes modern materials: photos and transcripts related to NASA’s Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 missions. One photo from , taken during the Apollo 12 mission in 1969, appears to show three unexplained points hanging in the dark lunar sky above the landing site.
The release also includes a 2013 infrared video shot by U.S. military forces showing a luminous object that looks like an “eight-pointed star” with uneven rays, moving through the night sky and apparently changing shape. The documents contain images from New Year’s Eve 1999 that allegedly show unknown objects near military aircraft, along with photos taken by pilots who recorded fast-moving objects streaking past their planes.
Among the military paperwork is a declassified mission report (MISREP) describing one service member who observed “several bright objects maneuvering rapidly from west to east-northeast” and tracked one of them with an onboard targeting module for about 20 seconds. The report says the object suddenly began to dim and then disappeared. The document stresses that the account reflects witness observations and should not be interpreted as confirmation of the nature or capabilities of these objects.
Fact, faith, or vivid imagination?
Releases like this spark both interest and skepticism. FBI files and military reports document messages, testimony, and observations — but they do not necessarily confirm an extraterrestrial origin for these phenomena. Some of the materials are historically tied to episodes of mass irrational belief, as in Dorothy Martin’s case, which psychologists study to understand why people keep their convictions despite contradictory evidence.
Based on reporting by Daily Mail
Photo: Unsplash, NASA
