Joe Rogan and Bob Lazar -- A Tale of Parallel Universes?

By Douglas D. Johnson

December 13, 2020

@ddeanjohnson on Twitter

Having long since internalized the admonition of pop-culture-UFO promoter Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell to "weaponize your curiosity," I must ask: Does Joe Rogan inhabit parallel universes simultaneously -- one universe in which Bob Lazar's story is absolutely true, and another universe in which Joe Rogan never heard of Bob Lazar?

This question troubles me because, on December 4, 2020, Joe Rogan broadcast a 3.25 hour interview with Jacques Vallee. Vallee, a computer scientist, is (among many other things) one of the world's most knowledgeable persons on claims of physical samples purportedly associated with UFO events, including "UFO crashes." Indeed, Vallee himself has acquired a number of such samples over the decades, one or more of which are now said to be undergoing analysis at Stanford University under the auspices of Dr. Garry Nolan.

Of course, Joe Rogan previously has also enthusiastically promoted, to his audiences of millions, selected tales of Bob Lazar. A Lazar appearance on Rogan's show in June, 2019, was viewed over 13 million times on YouTube.

Beginning in 1989, Bob Lazar claimed to have worked briefly in a secret federal government program that possessed nine (9) intact alien spacecraft (intact, except that one craft had a hole in it, in one version)-- at least one of which was being used in test flights in 1988.

According to Lazar's original tales as told in 1989 and for some years thereafter, this program had existed long before they hired Lazar. The program had previously involved a contingent of resident aliens, until a breach of protocol in 1979 caused the aliens to slaughter 44 humans. The aliens then departed, but the nine spacecraft remained.

So, to summarize, Rogan has enthusiastically, uncritically promoted to millions of viewers, a universe in which the federal government has possessed at least nine intact alien spacecraft, at least one operational, since at least 1979 -- i.e., for more than 40 years.

Yet on December 4, 2020, with a world expert on reported UFO crashes and UFO-related physical samples sitting in front of him for 3.25 hours -- much of their conversation devoted to stories of purported UFO crashes and metallic samples said to be associated with such events -- Joe Rogan never once asked Vallee about that secret federal program or the nine alien craft in federal custody. Indeed, Rogan referred to Bob Lazar only once, in a passing 10-second observation, noting that Lazar had said researchers in the secret program were compartmentalized from each other -- but no questions.

Also, as they sat there for over 3 hours, discussing at length various bits of perhaps-UFO-associated debris that may or may not prove to have unusual physical characteristics (stay tuned), Rogan also never asked about Lazar's 31-year-old claim that he (Lazar) had pilfered from the secret program and retained a sample of an "stable isotope" of Element 115, used to power the alien craft.

No such isotope exists naturally on earth, and no such substance can be manufactured by humans, so confirmation of this Lazar claim would be physical proof of alien visitation. Moreover, Lazar has claimed that this undeniably alien isotope has multiple extraordinary properties -- it defeats gravity, creates force fields, and also churns out power "equivalent to what our sun possesses."

These core Lazar claims about "Element 115" have been embraced and promoted by Corbell and by George Knapp, a prolific broadcaster and writer on anomalous topics; he is the man who originally brought Lazar's story to public attention. Both Corbell and Knapp have given credence not only to the core story of the alien isotope, but to various imaginative elaborations. For example, Knapp has repeatedly described how Lazar once had the capacity to blow up much of Las Vegas with a small sample of Element 115 in a "particle accelerator" that Lazar possessed. Knapp has also stated that he knows where the alien isotope is hidden. Element 115 played a major part in a highly profitable 2018 pseudo-documentary about Lazar that was directed by Corbell and produced by Knapp.

For anyone who takes seriously what Lazar, Knapp, and Corbell have said, this Element 115 isotope sample certainly sounds a lot more important and exciting than, say, scraps of magnesium from something that exploded in Brazil in 1957 -- yet, Rogan never asked Vallee about Lazar's Element 115 sample, or about the multiple astonishing properties attributed by Lazar to this alien isotope. Why do you suppose Joe Rogan passed up such an opportunity?

Why also, do you suppose, have Lazar and his promoters never in 31 years done anything like called a televised press conference, at which samples of the alien isotope would be turned over to multiple independent analysts (at least one foreign, none connected to the U.S. government)? The federal government would be powerless to prevent it, or to prevent the analyses from proceeding and the results being widely disseminated -- bringing world acclaim to Lazar and his promoters, if their unsubstantiated story was true. The "explanations" by the Lazar promoters of why nothing like has been done are so illogical and evasive as to provoke mirth and incredulity in anyone not already prone to suspend all critical faculties when Lazar, Knapp, or Corbell speak.

Curiously, both Knapp and Corbell often advocate loudly for "disclosure" of purported UFO secrets by the government -- yet, they do not cry out for disclosure by their golden boy, Bob Lazar, of purported physical proof of alien visitation. Why do you think that is?

But getting back to Joe Rogan: In the Lazar universe, which Joe Rogan has promoted as reality, Lazar controls a physical sample of an isotope that would provide undeniable proof of alien technology. So I ask again: Why did Joe Rogan not ask Jacques Vallee, the UFO-materials expert, about Lazar's claims about the superpowered alien isotope, or about the nine intact alien spacecraft?

I think that Rogan's ringing silence suggests that Rogan really has no interest in bringing any manner of critical scrutiny to bear on Lazar's 31 years of stories. After all, if Rogan had pressed Vallee about Lazar's claims about captive spacecraft and a superpowered alien isotope sample, Rogan very well might have received answers that undermined, contradicted, or otherwise cast shade on Lazar's claims. Any failure to receive affirmations regarding Lazar might have induced cognitive dissonance among some portion of Rogan's audience -- even, perhaps, doubts here and there about Rogan's powers of discernment.

Certainly, Rogan's 2019 interview with Lazar betrayed no evidence of any serious vetting of Lazar's claims -- even though information publicly available since the 1990s (thanks in large part to the early work of researchers such as Tom Mahood and Stanton Friedman) has demonstrated that Lazar is a credential-fabricating serial prevaricator.

Lazar is not a scientist – his claims to possess two advanced degrees were brazen fabrications (he has only a B.S. from a mail order mill, later shut down by the State of California). He is a somewhat bright tech nerd, but also a lazy liar who doesn't make much effort to keep his stories straight. There is hardly any significant event or claim among the Lazar tales on which he has not offered contradictory versions and/or made assertions that conflict harshly with public records. Lazar's UFO-related stories contained little that was truly original to Lazar, and key elements (such as the exact appearance of the "sports model" Lazar claimed he'd seen fly) were swiped from UFO literature (mostly hoax stuff) popular at the time. Recent claims that Lazar successfully described one or another unlikely thing, back in 1989, that later proved to be true, each collapse under critical scrutiny.

Lazar has intermittently cashed in on his ramshackle collection of UFO tales, including running a bidding war for movie rights to his story. New Line Cinema won the prize in 1993 and projected an $8 to $10 million production, but the movie was never made.

Lazar's UFO stories are merely one sideline among his many enterprises – some that have been legitimate, some that have been bullshit, and some that have brought him into conflict with the law. Lazar is a convicted felon (Nevada). His firm was federally convicted criminally on a different matter.

But hey – it doesn't pay to ask too many questions. The show must go on – right, Joe Rogan?

-- Douglas Dean Johnson

December 13, 2020

@ddeanjohnson on Twitter

My gmail address is my full name, with periods on each side of my middle name.