Sources

Diana Pasulka on The Why Files 'Basement' (Aug 2026): Vatican archives, 'Tyler', the desert site, The Others

Religious-studies professor D.W. Pasulka (UNC Wilmington; American Cosmic 2019, Encounters 2023, The Others Jul 2026, an NYT bestseller) in a 3.5-hour interview covering Vatican archive research on levitating/bilocating saints, her pseudonymous source 'Tyler' (widely identified as ex-NASA/Cape Canaveral figure Tim Taylor), a blindfolded trip to an alleged New Mexico crash site with Garry Nolan, Teilhard de Chardin's noosphere, Peter Thiel/Rene Girard, Fatima/Zeitoun/Neda apparitions, and her thesis that a new religion is forming around UFOs and AI.

Claims in this source

Each claim is graded on its own; this source is not graded.

ClaimVerdictAtRelation
Pasulka is a UNC Wilmington religious studies professorDocumented · occurred00:00:01asserts
Tyler (pseudonym) is identified by outside researchers as ex-NASA figure Tim Taylor, a Cape Canaveral mission controller nicknamed 'the Dragon'Unproven00:00:08asserts
The Others (2026) is an NYT bestsellerDocumented · occurred00:00:39asserts
Pasulka researched in the Vatican Apostolic Archive and Vatican ObservatoryUnproven00:04:10asserts
Pasulka's first publication concerned 19th-century child near-death experiencesUnproven00:05:08asserts
Pasulka co-chaired the Death, Dying and Beyond session of the American Academy of ReligionUnproven00:05:47asserts
Plato's Republic (Myth of Er) contains an early recorded near-death-experience accountDocumented · occurred00:06:25asserts
Near-death experiences show cross-cultural pattern similaritiesConcept00:07:01asserts
Vatican II (1962-65) was an internal Catholic reform councilDocumented · occurred00:09:13asserts
Reincarnation is doctrinally incompatible with Catholicism; other Christian traditions differConcept00:23:26asserts
The University of Virginia holds a near-death-experience research archiveDocumented · occurred00:26:09asserts
Pasulka translated Latin for the 2011 film The ConjuringUnproven00:31:58asserts
Pasulka's book Encounters shares a title with, and she consulted on, the Netflix UFO docuseries EncountersUnproven00:34:16asserts
Russian Cosmism grew from Nikolai Fedorov's ideas, and rocket pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was among those he influencedDocumented · occurred00:35:07asserts
Russian billionaires have set 2040 as a target year for immortality/singularityUnproven00:36:35asserts
Vatican Apostolic Archive access requires advanced credentials and need-to-knowUnproven00:47:56asserts
Tyler gained Vatican Archive access after his credentials/face were checked on a screenUnproven00:49:47asserts
Pasulka wrote about Maria de Agreda ('the Lady in Blue') in American CosmicDocumented · said00:53:06asserts
Maria de Agreda's diary describes a specific encounter (a person blind in one eye) later corroborated by a Spanish missionary accountUnproven00:55:17asserts
A CIA-affiliated person Pasulka met owns a book by/about Maria de AgredaUnproven00:56:27asserts
Carlos Eire (Yale historian) wrote They Flew without access to Joseph of Cupertino's original trial record, which Pasulka says she obtained and had translatedUnproven01:00:50asserts
Joseph of Cupertino's canonization trial record contains many witness signatures attesting to levitationUnproven01:02:26asserts
Teresa of Avila also reportedly levitated, with witnesses trying to hold her downUnproven01:05:07asserts
A Marian apparition at Garabandal, Spain (1961-1965) involved four girls reportedly experiencing group levitation-like trancesUnproven01:06:38asserts
Pasulka's father served on a ship (the Bittersweet) in Alaskan waters c.1957 searching for Russian submarines, and reported a sonar/radar encounter that disabled the ship for hoursUnproven01:15:22asserts
UAP researcher Tim Gallardo/Galardet contacted Pasulka about her father's at-sea encounterUnproven01:17:47asserts
Pasulka's grandfather reported seeing UFOs from a mountain in Northern California redwoods; a missing minor was allegedly on a UFO-photography mission in the same areaUnproven01:19:24asserts
Pasulka received unsolicited emails from government/aerospace personnel to her university account in 2015-2016, then met 'Tyler' c.2013-2014Unproven01:23:18asserts
Tyler invited Pasulka to Cape Canaveral multiple times for rocket launches; NRO/launch-related patches use Roman-god imagery and Latin, including on Tyler's own mission patchesUnproven01:28:05asserts
Jacques Vallee, whom Pasulka had read extensively, warned her not to credit extraordinary claims of physical UFO evidenceUnproven01:32:20asserts
Pasulka and Garry Nolan were driven blindfolded to an alleged 1940s UFO crash site in the New Mexico desert, excavated by Tyler over years, near a location later featured in an X-Files seasonUnproven01:33:02asserts
Recovered material at the site was explained by Tyler as disintegrated 1950s government storage cans meant to defeat metal detectors; Pasulka's OUP editor questioned this explanationUnproven01:40:07asserts
The recovered material appeared shiny, iridescent, and pebbly ('frog skin'-textured); Nolan found its isotope ratios highly unusual and once said it 'could not have been made in this universe', a view he has since qualifiedUnproven01:43:46asserts
At the airport returning from the site, Nolan's bag (carrying the material) triggered an unusual security alarm; Tyler avoided the metal detectorUnproven01:49:21asserts
Richard Doty is now transparent that his decades-long disinformation campaign (including with Paul Bennewitz) has muddied UFO discourse for 50-60 yearsUnproven01:54:18asserts
After American Cosmic's publication, a group tied to government-disclosure efforts asked Pasulka to name the two scientists ('Tyler' and 'James'/Nolan) from her then-unpublished bookUnproven01:56:08asserts
William Cooper (Behold a Pale Horse) was shot dead by Apache County deputies in 2001Documented · occurred02:02:50asserts
Gen Z shows increased interest in religion (survey-documented trend)Unproven02:08:10asserts
Thiel is a founder/major funder of large social-media and data platforms (irony given his Antichrist/surveillance argument)Documented · occurred02:11:02asserts
Peter Thiel has argued an overregulated, surveillance-total system is a candidate for 'the Antichrist'Documented · occurred02:11:44asserts
Pasulka and Peter Thiel were both students of Rene Girard at StanfordUnproven02:13:23asserts
Pasulka said 'Tar Desardon' matches Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Jesuit paleontologist (1881-1955), noosphere/Omega Point, Vatican-censured, died Easter Sunday 1955Documented · said02:18:00asserts
Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End and Ray Kurzweil's singularity writing were influenced by Teilhard's Omega PointUnproven02:24:00asserts
The Catholic Church has since eased its formal warning on Teilhard's writingsUnproven02:25:20asserts
Marshall McLuhan was influenced by Teilhard de ChardinUnproven02:27:14asserts
Clarke did not credit Teilhard in Childhood's End but engaged Teilhard's ideas in later workUnproven02:31:50asserts
Pasulka said Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End (1953) depicts alien 'Overlords' who conceal their demonic appearance, end war/disease via propaganda-like influence, and absorb human children into a unified overmind, ending humanityDocumented · said02:33:41asserts
Skellig Michael (Star Wars filming site) is a 6th-century Christian monastic islandDocumented · occurred02:40:48asserts
René Girard developed scapegoat-mechanism theory and converted to Catholicism after years as a self-declared agnosticDocumented · occurred02:45:34asserts
Perpetua of Carthage (executed 203 CE) refused to dress as a priestess before martyrdom; her prison account is one of the earliest texts by a Christian womanDocumented · occurred02:50:25asserts
Chris Bledsoe can allegedly 'summon orbs'; Pasulka's brother reportedly witnessed thisUnproven02:57:35asserts
Pasulka has discussed UAP/anomalous phenomena with John Alexander and Travis Taylor, and describes John Alexander's wife reporting unexplained objects at their residenceUnproven03:00:01asserts
Pasulka connects Steven Dick's 'post-biological entities' framework to angelic visitations in EzekielConcept03:02:24asserts
Physicist/historian Steven J. Dick's essay 'The Postbiological Universe Revisited' argues advanced intelligence trends toward AI, offered as a resolution to the Fermi paradoxDocumented · said03:03:10asserts
Eric Wargo's books cite examples of future events (e.g. 9/11) appearing pre-figured in past artUnproven03:08:46asserts
A medieval theologian argued Mary's Immaculate Conception was pre-ordained across time, offered by Pasulka as an early non-linear-time argumentConcept03:11:54asserts
Pasulka said the 1917 Fatima apparitions (Portugal) culminated in the 13 Oct 'Miracle of the Sun' witnessed by roughly 70,000 people, including skeptical press photographers, with reports of a spinning/color-shifting sun and instantly-dried clothingDocumented · said03:13:05asserts
The two younger Fatima visionaries (Francisco, Jacinta) died young as reportedly foretold; Lucia became a nun and Fatima is a major pilgrimage siteDocumented · occurred03:17:54asserts
The Fatima 'third secret' was withheld past its 1960-planned release by Pius XII/John XXIII and John Paul II, released in 2000 by Benedict XVI (then CDF prefect) and linked to the 1981 JPII assassination attemptDocumented · occurred03:19:04asserts
The Zeitoun, Egypt Marian apparitions (1968-71) were witnessed by hundreds of thousands across faiths and were investigated (and accepted) by the Egyptian governmentUnproven03:20:43asserts
The Neda and Bayside apparition cases (1950s and 1990s respectively) that Pasulka's research team studied include witness reports of 'men in black' in dark cars without headlightsUnproven03:21:28asserts
Juan Diego's account of Our Lady of Guadalupe shares phenomenological similarities with other apparition accounts despite no prior contact between traditionsConcept03:24:58asserts
Pasulka's thesis: UFO phenomena are re-enchanting the modern secular world and relegitimizing transcendence, but what is behind them may not be benevolentConcept03:25:52asserts
A Church-condemned 1950s Wisconsin apparition case (the same Necedah/Van Hoof case) describes men in dark clothes/cars with no headlights telling the visionary to stop; UFO witnesses began describing similar figures in the same decadeUnproven03:30:15asserts
René Girard was raised non-religiousUnprovenreports

Ties

ToRoleYearsVerdictSource
Richard DotySubject of Pasulka's disinformation remarksongoing—
Vatican UAP archivePasulka's claimed Vatican archive/Observatory access; Tyler's priest 'insider'2010s—
Garry Nolan'James' in American Cosmic; accompanied Pasulka to the alleged site and analyzed material2017-2026—en.wikipedia.org
Jacques ValleeWarned Pasulka against physical-evidence claims; possible site overlap with his Trinity book2017-2021—

Tied from

FromRoleYearsVerdictSource
Roswell incident (1947)a later NM crash-site narrative (Trinity/Tyler)1945/2010sConcept
Book of Enoch and the Watchers (Hultin 2024)religious-studies framing of 'others' and angels2026Concept

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