National Institute for Discovery Science

“Recognising that the UAP mystery merited ongoing investigation, in 1995, Bigelow self-funded the creation of the National Institute for Discovery Science, better known as NIDS.”

“Robert Bigelow is a shrewd and successful billionaire businessman, and most of what his NIDS team discovered across the US from 1995 to 2004 remains confidential.”

“In 1996, Bigelow created his own research organization, the National Institute for Discovery Science”

“with a science advisory board made up of PhD-level academics, two of the former astronauts who had walked on the moon, and several scientists who had worked for or consulted with the U.S. military and intelligence agencies”

“Bigelow founded the National Institute for Discovery Science and once owned Skinwalker Ranch, the site of multiple UAP sightings.”

“Dr. Colm Kelleher, a biochemist and administrator of the National Institute for Discovery Science, agreed to look into the case.”

“After NIDS began its own investigations and projects, I informed Senator Reid about the organization and arranged an introduction.”

“Reid attended one of the first board meetings of NIDS and was impressed by the professionalism he witnessed and the pedigrees of the world class Science Advisory Board.”

“One of the topics that was of interest to Reid, Bigelow, and NIDS was Russia's ongoing interest in UFOs.”

“That was why billionaire UAP investigator Robert Bigelow invited Mitchell to serve on the advisory board of his National Institute for Discovery Science research organisation.”

“The paperwork also offered insights into the still-secret research undertaken by billionaire aerospace businessman Robert Bigelow and his National Institute of Discovery Science, while Ed Mitchell sat on the NIDS science advisory board.”

“Mitchell, long a proponent of research into UAPs, served on the science advisory board of NIDS and he retained some of the confidential NIDS research reports from Skinwalker and other areas visited by the Bigelow-funded investigation team.”

“Because Mitchell was on the NIDS science advisory board he was sent a copy by Dr Hal Puthoff”

“Bigelow funded full-time surveillance of Skinwalker Ranch as part of NIDS, ordering an investigation into the extraordinary paranormal claims.”

“Another intriguing character involved with the NIDS Skinwalker Ranch investigations was a now retired former US Army special forces and military intelligence Colonel John Alexander, who worked on a notorious US Defence Department remote viewing program in the 1970s and 1980s.”

“Alexander was one of the first NIDS employees to go on watch at the ranch in the 1990s and, he claimed, 'many extraordinary events would happen with our highly skilled scientists observing'.”

“At 2.30 am one night in August 1997, two NIDS scientists, watching from an escarpment, spotted a dim light that appeared in the vicinity of the road below them. It grew slightly in size and intensity until it was about four feet in diameter. It hovered about three feet above the ground and a third dimension was noted, giving it the appearance of a tunnel.”

“Alexander recounted how 'the researchers were able to see the events that unfolded quite clearly. A moving dark shape appeared in the tunnel and came to the surface. Then the humanoid-like creature of considerable size – an estimated six-foot tall and four hundred pounds – using arms pulled itself out of the tunnel of light and landed on the road. Shortly thereafter the creature walked off into the darkness . . .'.”

“Perhaps the most astounding claim in the book was that NIDS investigators witnessed a 'faceless black creature' emerging from a glowing yellow light tunnel that winked into existence from nowhere, as if from another dimension.”

“From what was publicly revealed about the research, the enormous amount of data known to have been collected by NIDS, such as video, electromagnetic radiation measurements, analysis of soil and cattle mutilation samples, expert reports and blood tests, did not support these extraordinary claims.”

“But the scope of Bigelow's private NIDS investigations went beyond the Skinwalker Ranch and much of what NIDS uncovered remains confidential.”

“They shed more light on the extensive early work done in the late 1990s by Bigelow's NIDS investigators into both UFOs and cattle mutilations.”

“Intriguingly, the documents show that NIDS was investigating suspected UAP-related cattle mutilations right across Utah, Nevada and New Mexico in August 1997, including a dead cow with strange haemorrhaging on its back.”

“The NIDS report ventured this was caused by 'being dropped from a height'.”

“Another report, in September 1997, detailed interviews with UFO eyewitnesses in Dulce, New Mexico, and the investigation of a five-day-old cow mutilation in Los Brasos.”

“NIDS investigators recorded that the poor animal's teats were missing, and its anus and tongue had been excised. They found no aberrant electromagnetic readings.”

“Curiously, there were multiple overturned cow pats in a straight line stretching 76 metres south-west of the animal that had clearly been blown up to six metres from where they had originally been anchored to the grass.”

“The report reads, 'We also experimentally kicked cow pats and showed that it is difficult to move them 20 feet from their original place. We concluded that some strong wind velocit”

“another local, Merl Elote, the director of the Game and Fish Department of Dulce, told the NIDS team how he witnessed a craft 75 feet (23 metres) in diameter with a single bright light; it was hovering and rotating.”

“One of the NIDS investigators working with Colm Kelleher during this 1997 New Mexico NIDS investigation was Gabe Valdez, a New Mexico State policeman who had strong links with the Jicarilla Apache tribe in Dulce.”

“After reading the NIDS’ files, it became clear Bigelow’s investigators suspected the government was up to something in the Dulce hills.”

“Kelleher’s NIDS report contains interviews with multiple members of the Jicarilla Apache community who claimed in September 1997 to have witnessed not only hovering UAPs but even to have stumbled across a mysterious ventilation shaft dug into Mount Archuleta.”

“The previously undisclosed 1997 NIDS documents detail how Velarde also witnessed an egg-shaped craft while working on his father’s farm many years earlier in 1964.”

“The NIDS team investigated another 1997 incident where Velarde came across a small area of burning brush on his ranch.”

“The NIDS team went to the site and confirmed the mutilation to the three dead cows; curiously, the carcasses, shrivelled and dried out, were apparently untouched by scavengers.”

“NIDS supported the work and eventually the APEG biochemists received a part of the claw to examine.”

“The full report and data can be accessed on the NIDS website: www.nidsci.org.”

“The National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), which supported Leir’s work, was able to conduct physical analyses of the implants through a laboratory at New Mexico Tech, an engineering university located in Socorro, New Mexico, including X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction work.”

“Davis started working for Bob Bigelow's National Institute for Discovery Science in July 1996.”

“National Institute for Discovery Science documents found in the newly discovered Edgar Mitchell archive files show that, while Davis was with the NIDS, he investigated a supposed alien attack and landing in Montana; he concluded it was a hoax.”

“Bigelow hired several of the same scientists who had served on his private decade-long National Institute for Discovery Science investigations.”

“In an interview with George Knapp, former National Institute for Discovery Science scientist Dr Eric Davis was one of those brought into the Bigelow investigation team working on the AATIP.”

“Will served as a medical advisor to AAWSAP/AATIP and Bigelow's NIDS.”

“The National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), his research organization, had studied UAP and the paranormal back in the 1990s.”