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From the High Desert book cover

From the High Desert

A Cultural History of Art Bell

Thumbnail for November 2, 2003: Aerial Revelations - John Lear

November 2, 2003: Aerial Revelations - John Lear

Nov 2, 2003
2h 50m
0:00 / 0:00
Art Bell interviews legendary pilot John Lear, son of Learjet inventor Bill Lear, who breaks a decade of silence to discuss UFOs, government cover-ups, and the nature of reality. Art reads Lear's extraordinary biography detailing over 19,000 flight hours, CIA missions, and his friendship with Bob Lazar, who claimed to have worked on extraterrestrial craft at Area S4 near Area 51.

Lear recounts witnessing a glowing disc rise from behind the mountains near Groom Lake at precisely the time Lazar predicted, and describes the night their group was caught by security forces. He shares his controversial analysis of the September 11th attacks, arguing from his professional aviation experience that the pilots required hundreds of hours of Boeing 757 simulator training to hit their targets at 600 miles per hour. Lear also discusses NASA airbrushing structures from lunar photographs and close-up images of pyramids on Mars that Lazar reportedly viewed at the test site.

In the most provocative segment, Lear delivers a mock government briefing to Art, outlining alleged recoveries of crashed craft, 18 alien species monitoring Earth, a secret arrangement allowing abductions in exchange for technology, and the claim that humans are referred to as containers. Art ultimately agrees that if such information were true, the public could not handle its release.

Key Moments

  1. Phil Klass at his apartment in 1987: Lear recounts visiting UFO debunker Philip Klass at his apartment in 1987 and being told to his face that the entire UFO field 'never happened' - and that Klass also warned him off Bentwaters witness Larry by calling him 'a druggie.'

  2. Bob Lazar appears at Lear's house: Lear describes Lazar showing up at his desk in December 1988 and saying flatly, 'I saw a disc today,' confirming what Lear had been struggling to prove for years - and reveals Lazar's stated motive was simply that he had seen Lear take so much ridicule.

  3. Watching a disc fly at the black mailbox: Lear walks through the three Wednesday-night vigils outside Groom Lake in March 1989 - setting up his 8-inch Celestron, watching a glowing yellowish disc rise from behind the mountains, and the night they were surrounded at gunpoint by base security with parabolic mics.

  4. Humans as containers, an experiment with the soul: Lear delivers his most provocative thesis: per the Lazar briefings, the aliens refer to humans as 'containers,' we are their experiment, the experiment is with the soul, and Jesus and two other religious figures were sent by the aliens to keep us controlled while it runs.

  5. Jesus, the missing 18 pages, and disclosure danger: Lear claims Lazar saw 18 pages in the briefing about the aliens' frantic search after one of the three religious emissaries they had sent - Jesus - was killed by mankind, and explains why he personally opposes UFO disclosure even though it would mean the government keeps lying.