Lear describes the multi-tiered classification system beyond top secret, revealing 28 levels of crypto clearances plus additional tiers such as Umbra, Ultra, and Majestic. He explains how MJ-12, established by President Truman in 1947 and empowered by Eisenhower, operates as a shadow government controlling extraterrestrial information. The discussion covers cattle mutilations, including Lear's account of discovering 35 dead cows on a remote New Mexico road while traveling with researcher Linda Moulton Howe. Art Bell presses Lear on alien abductions, and Lear references Bob Lazar's claims that classified documents describe humans as genetically engineered "containers" modified through 65 corrections over hundreds of thousands of years. The pair examine how extraterrestrials travel by manipulating gravity to fold space rather than exceeding the speed of light. Lear also addresses accusations that he serves as a CIA disinformation agent and explains why the government tolerates his public statements.
A wide-ranging conversation that crystallizes the core themes Art Bell and Lear explored across years of broadcasts together.
Key Moments
Bentwaters AFB landing and Lear fired: Lear traces his UFO research origin to a 1985 conversation with a Raven friend who said the December 1980 saucer landing at RAF Bentwaters was real, naming Gen. Gordon Williams, Maj. Ted Conrad, and Lt. Col. Chuck Halt, and recounts being fired in 20 minutes by a major Midwest charter airline after he confirmed he believed in flying saucers.
28 levels of crypto clearance and a hidden government: Lear lays out his now-famous claim that above Top Secret there are 28 levels of Top Secret Crypto plus 10 named clearances (Umbra, Ultra, Majestic), that the President sits around TS Crypto 17 and gets only filtered CIA/NSA/DIA summaries, and that MJ-12 is a secret government created by Truman in 1947.
Lazar's element 115, S4, and the witnessed disc test flight: Lear describes meeting Bob Lazar in 1988, walks through Lazar's MIT/Caltech credentials being scrubbed from records, his work back-engineering the propulsion of nine extraterrestrial craft at S4 near Papoose Lake, and the March 21 evening when Lear, Lazar, and Gene drove out and Lear watched a glowing orange disc rise out of Groom Lake on schedule through a Celestron 8 telescope.
Humans as 'containers' - the experiment claim: Lear summarizes what he says Lazar read at the test site: mankind is a long-running experiment, with 65 separate genetic corrections made to early Earth life over hundreds of thousands of years to engineer present-day humans as 'containers' that hold not just blood and hormones but possibly the soul itself.
Element 115, antimatter, and FTL travel: Lear explains that element 115 is the power source: pumping protons into 115 produces 116, which decays into antimatter; mixing antimatter with matter gives a hundred-percent matter-to-energy conversion that the craft control to generate heat and pull off a gravity wave for travel hundreds of times faster than light, and that he and Lazar had a 115 sample stolen from Lazar's house.