VERNAL, UTAH (ABC4) – Whether you’re a believer in extraterrestrial life or a hardened skeptic, you won’t want to miss this upcoming UFO event this May.
The UFO Disclosure Symposium will be held in Vernal on May 28. Organizers say it will be a “three-day event that will unveil new footage and UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) analysis from some of the top scientists and experts in the field.”
The press release also mentions the events will include four videos of UAP/UFO encounters that have “been vetted and assessed by many third-party analysts.”
In addition to the unreleased footage, the event will include live digital, and in-person press conferences and speakers from a variety of “experts” including Dr. Travis Taylor, Michael Boyd, L.A. Marzulli, Dr. Jim Segala, and more.
The UFO Disclosure Symposium is part of the UFO Mega Conference and is designed to get information “to the people, by the people.” UFO Mega is a non-profit “coordinator of scientists, researchers, and experiencers” founded by Bob Brown, who has been working on UFO-related conferences for over 35 years.
According to the release, the event is also designed as a follow-up to the government confirmed footage of UAP sightings released by the U.S. government and Department of Defense. Founder Bob Brown says “the truth about UFOs, UAPs, and these types of experiences is coming out all around us. Just this past week the Pentagon released over 1,500 shocking UFO documents proving that many organizations have proof of such things and it’s about time an event like this can give their insights and share proven science and facts around this topic.”
ABC4 spoke with David Schooley, one of the producers of the UFO Disclosure Symposium.
Schooley describes his work with the symposium as “amazingly challenging work” that is “trying to pull together a multitude of really high-level scientists, speakers, and Ufologists, and anyone within the industry that has a drive to tell the truth.”
“Disclosure is inevitable. It is a beautiful time for the truth to come out,” says Schooley, describing the upcoming Vernal event as “historic.” “It’s the first of its kind to bring together scientists, analysts, experts and the media to openly discuss everything that’s going on.”
Schooley says the event was planned and scheduled far before the national government began releasing confirmed footage and information of UFOs and UAPs in 2021 and earlier.
Schooley says the event is for “anyone who is interested” in UFOs and UAPs. “This is about truth. Period,” emphasizes Schooley. He says it’s all about analyzing what’s true and what’s not, and what has an impact on “society as a whole.”
When asked what the selection process for speakers and experts was like, Schooley says a tremendous amount of work goes into screening participants. “We don’t want the conversation to be anything other than real conversation from experts,” he continues. Schooley’s experts “won’t pull any punches” about the way they see things and will speak on “exactly how they believe things are.”
Schooley comments that Vernal is “like a supernatural highway of paranormal occurrences,” making it an excellent location for this event. “There are phenomenal investigations going on in Vernal,” says Schooley, who describes Utah’s history with UFOs as “tremendous.”
“I’ve been around a lot of people who will tell you their story of experiencing the unexplained, and whether you’re a believer or not, you can tell these people believe what they are telling you,” says Schooler. Furthermore, he says that many firsthand experiences of UFOs and UAPs can be backed up by “facts and grounded science.”
Utah, along with most of the American Southwest, is well known for UFO sightings and general UFO activity. Utah’s proximity to New Mexico and the Nevada Testing Site has made it the subject of pop-culture UFO depictions as well.
Perhaps the most notable location in Utah related to UFO sightings is Skinwalker (or Sherman) Ranch, located southeast of Ballard in Uintah County. UFO sightings around the area of Uintah County date back as early as 1978. Claims about Skinwalker Ranch started later in the 1990s according to Newsweek.
Skinwalker Ranch was also dubbed “UFO Ranch” colloquially and has a history of paranormal and unexplainable events dating back over 50 years, according to Newsweek. Deseret News has compiled reported events including vanishing and mutilated cattle, UFO sightings, floating orbs, invisible objects, and strange animals with red eyes.
Skinwalker Ranch has been featured in a variety of media, including a feature-length film titled “Skinwalker Ranch” released in 2013. The film is loosely based on the folklore surrounding the ranch and is a fictional documentary-style horror movie.
History Channel also produced a full series dedicated to the ranch titled, “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch” which is currently in its third season. According to the first episode, the series is the first time video cameras were allowed onto the property. It has the usual History Channel alien-related fanfare, including Geiger counters and other similar devices tasked with observing the unexplainable. The series features Dr. Travis Taylor — scheduled to speak at the Vernal event on May 28 — and various other members of the ranch’s management including ranch owner Brandon Fugal and the ranch’s mysterious, gun-toting head of security Bryant “Dragon” Arnold.
Schooley says their event is related to Skinwalker Ranch, but that the ranch isn’t really the purpose of the symposium. According to Schooley, the event is designed to focus on “UFO and UAP activities related to science.
In 2021, ABC4 reported on UFO sightings in Utah. These UFOs ended up being perfectly identifiable as Elon Musk’s Starlink Satellites, despite shocking many Utahns.
When asked whether he’s afraid of extraterrestrial life and events, Schooler says he is more afraid of “not knowing the truth and being sideswiped by truth later in the game.” “This is just exciting for me. And we genuinely want to share with as many people as want to participate. That is my passion,” says Schooler.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism