uNHIdden one year on

Founder and Chairman, John Priestland, marks uNHIdden’s first anniversary

It is a year to the day I first shared the idea of uNHIdden with three friends. I said we needed to make it easier for people to have conversations about Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs).

I am not an “experiencer” but I felt the bewilderment of wanting to talk about UAPs, only to find others found the subject risible. People told me that I had gone “a bit funny” and would I please stop? They gave me that “look” – the one that says you are letting yourself down.

They would not have had the same disapproval had I expressed curiosity about the mysterious and equally strange Higgs Boson particle, or gravitational waves. Yet all I wanted to do as a responsible physicist was to follow the data and ask questions. That apparently makes you a conspiracy theorist.

Microexpressions of disapproval were shaming me into silence. As US Professor Brene Brown says: “If you put shame in a Petri dish, it needs three things to grow exponentially: secrecy, silence and judgement.” There are all of those in and around UAPs. But she also says that if you douse shame with empathy it cannot survive.

“So how about creating an organisation showing empathy to those who have seen UAPs?” I thought. “Or anyone worried about them.” My expectations were modest: even if just a few people were helped to have better conversations about UAPs, then it would be worthwhile. We have already achieved far more.

We set up uNHIdden up to be medically led. At its heart is a Medical Advisory Board of doctors and clinical psychologists. This includes a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, a General Practitioner and two Clinical Psychologists. This means we can speak authoritatively about the demands clinicians face in assessing and treating patients who have had “exceptional experiences”. We think everyone should be assessed and treated non-judgmentally and what matters is not what they have seen, but the care they need.

In April, we published a White Paper on the Impact of Exceptional Experiences and Disclosure on Mental Health and Wellbeing, which we sent to more than 50 MPs. In July, we convened a meeting at the Royal Society of Medicine to which we invited health providers, professional bodies and other mental health charities to discuss strategies for preventing and managing ontological shock, when people’s world view crumbles.

A protocol is being developed to support “experiencers” through self-help, therapy, and community groups. We produced a “fact reel” – a short video setting out six unimpeachable and fully referenced facts about UAPs that we can rely on when we try to make sense of and talk about the topic.

We live in extraordinary times, where our mission may be becoming increasingly relevant. Last week saw the publication of Luis Elizondo’s book, Imminent. It contains extraordinary assertions about the existence of non-human intelligence – claims that may reasonably cause some people concern or anxiety. Where is the care for them? Where is the trusted UK Government narrative about what is going on? It remains resolutely silent on UAPs, noting only that the Ministry of Defence does not regard them as a military threat. What about the possible health impact of UAPs? Who will tell us about that?

Most doctors are very good at “disclosure”. Medical ethics requires them to tell patients test results, even when they are distressing. Moreover, doctors are trained on how to share this information compassionately with all the helo and support – physiological, pharmacological and psychological – possible. It is not for nothing that a 2021 IPSOS MORI survey found doctors the most trusted profession on the planet. So it may be that UNHIdden’s team will be able not only to comfort those adversely affected by UAPs, but also to help society cope in this most challenging of arenas.

Over the next year, we have a demanding agenda of both research and education. We want to understand who is most likely to be troubled by the news of possible disclosure, so resources can be efficiently directed to those needing it. We want to start deploying our protocol for care for experiencers, including running pilot community groups and encouraging the creation of a network of non-judgmental therapists. We want to bring together the best information about the symptoms and treatment for patients harmed by encounters with UAPs – to make it easier for first responders and doctors to provide optimum care.

Like most one-year-olds, we are still taking baby steps, and UNHIdden has much learning and growing to do. But that first conversation a year ago has led to many more, with each one playing its part in increasing empathy and reducing shame. We need every “experiencer” to know that it is okay to have a conversation about what they have seen. It is only through conversations that we know that we are not alone.

John Priestland
Founder and Chairman, uNHIdden

26th August 2024