John Hart’s UAP Experiences

Are we alone?

May 22, 2026

Substack SR 1220. John Hart’s UAP Experiences. Are we alone? No.

If you like what’s going on in fields such as astrotheology and astroethics, you need to meet John Hart. John Hart is Professor Emeritus of Christian Ethics at Boston University’s School of Theology. Upon retiring, he and his wife have taken up residence in Montana, where they daily commune with the glories of nature instead of Boston’s traffic jams.

Here is one aspect of John’s scholarship I especially commend: his notion of a cosmic common good. John put forth the notion of a cosmic commons in a 2010 article, “Cosmic Commons: Contact and Community,” for Theology and Science. This was followed by his 2013 book, Cosmic Commons: Spirit, Science, and Space, which buttresses his case for associating the common good with more than just Planet Earth. The common good applies to the welfare and flourishing of the entire cosmos, the universe as a whole. John professes a holistic ethic applied to the biggest whole we can think of, namely, the whole universe. This implies, among other things, that we terrestrials should welcome extraterrestrials to our summer barbecues.

Has Professor John Hart witnessed space aliens visiting Earth?

John Hart is a UAP experiencer. Multiple times. His first experience was with a fly-by-night light. While a sophomore at Marist College near the Hudson River in 1964, John and two friends watched what initially looked like a meteor against the backdrop of a starlit night sky. John describes it as…

…the brightest, largest, lowest, and fastest meteor that I’d ever seen. It came abreast of us up in the sky and then, without stopping or banking, it went up at a right angle to its original trajectory. Startled, I blinked my eyes and said in my mind, “That’s impossible! I’ve studied physics. If an object traveling that fast rapidly change direction at that angle it would have shattered!”

So, it was not a meteor. It flew rapidly horizontally. Then, suddenly, the unidentified object made a 90-degree turn and flew up and up until it disappeared among the stars. After the three boys mumbled something about seeing a “UFO,” they laughed and congratulated themselves on being witnesses.

Numerous additional experiences — perhaps eight in total — of a similar character occurred over the decades since. What prompts this particular Substack post is what happened to John on March 31 of this year, 2026. To that UAP experience, we now turn. We will ask John for a first-hand account.

Did two species of space aliens visit John Hart on March 31, 2026?

John Hart writes (texts used with permission). On March 31, 2026, as I was strolling home after a short walk around my neighborhood in Helena, Montana. I was almost at my driveway, walking east on University Street, when I saw ahead of me, in front of my neighbors’ driveway, what appeared to be a cluster of people standing on the sidewalk, facing in my direction.

Actually, at first they appeared as mere silhouettes. Then, they gradually morphed into physical beings, looking much like us.

They seemed to hesitate, then walked toward me. The five adults moved into the street; a blonde-curls-headed girl on a child’s bicycle, without balance wheels attached, rode toward me on the sidewalk. When they were almost next to me, I greeted them: the girl on the bike, a couple in their late sixties who appeared to be her grandparents, and three other women, about the same age, who possibly were aunts.

The little girl looked into my eyes, unafraid. I commented on her riding ability and mentioned that my six-year-old grandson was learning to ride a bike; her grandfather arrogantly interjected a comment that she was only three. I nodded and said nothing to avoid a “bragging grandparents” verbal conflict.

The grandmother then said that there was an object in the sky behind me. She said that they’d told the little girl that it was a star so that she wouldn’t be frightened by it. I turned my head and saw the white cloud bank across the western sky, and a dark object just below the clouds at an altitude of about four hundred feet. She told me that the group had seen the object fly upwards and then stop.

The grandfather addressed me directly, saying, “Don’t worry. We will protect you.”

Ted Peters’ questions John Hart. Let me get clear here, John. Do you think Grandfather was telling you this group would protect you from whoever is in the hovering craft?

John Hart responds. “Yes. I think this indicates there are two separate alien species, one hostile and one protective.”

John Hart continues to write. The little girl kept looking at me without fear. The group bade me goodbye and continued walking west. For some unknown reason, I felt uncomfortable about the encounter, possibly because I had seen them initially hesitate about walking toward me; I was a bit taller than each of them. But then I wondered if they were concerned that I had seen and met them: perhaps they had come from the spacecraft.

John Hart reflects. As I reflected further, I think that I understood events better. It seemed that we were three intelligent species; then the comments of the grandmother were clarified. It seemed that the craft in the sky might contain a species that was dangerous to me and to the beings with whom I was talking. The latter had intervened and appeared to me to protect me from the species in the sky. That seemed to imply that the beings with whom I was walking were the most powerful of the three species.

I have wondered periodically why I was a subject of interest to the species in the sky, and why it was important to the species walking with me to save me from the others. There must be something else at play. I do not know what will happen next.

After I walked up my driveway and was back home, I reflected further on my unusual experience. I was now more nervous. I wondered if I had almost been an abduction victim. I regretted, too, that I had not photographed the object, nor looked at it through my Celestron binoculars when I was in my home.

Might space aliens be our celestial saviors?

Ted Peters writes. On May 8, 2026, Pentagon Pete added a UFO page to the US Department of War website that discloses what the government knows about UAP and the extraterrestrial hypothesis. Might there be any connection with John Hart’s experience?

Brother Guy Consolmagno, planetary scientist and former director of the Vatican Observatory, is skeptical that the US information dump will provide any decisive knowledge about aliens. But the question of ETI’s existence is still exciting to the public. The prospect of sharing our cosmos with space neighbors stimulates religious sensibilities. “There are very few religious believers who are UFO believers,” Brother Guy told Catholic News Service. “It turns out to be a religion substitute for a lot of people.”

My own surmises over the decades have included the hypothesis that UAP elicit within the human psyche a hope for technoscience descending from the heavens to redeem a fallen humanity on Earth.

Interpretation within John Hart’s Experience

Ted Peters writes. In my years of UFO investigation — including serving for a period as Louisiana State Director of investigations for MUFON — I’ve insisted that we start by listening to what UFO experiencers say in their own words. Once we are clear on what is being said, then we can begin our third-party interpretation. It seems to me that Professor Hart wants to report what happened and then let the listener draw implications.

Nevertheless, the field of philosophical hermeneutics would remind us that there is no raw empirical experience that precedes all interpretation. Some level of John’s own interpretation is embedded within the experience itself. The objective sighting and the subjective meaning of this sighting are already intertwined.

With this in mind, I’d like to ponder out loud some of my speculative observations and questions. First, one species of visiting space aliens seems capable of shape-shifting so they can look like Montana’s version of Homo Sapiens. This adaptive disguise is quite a remarkable accomplishment. Might this fit into the category of the paranormal? Or should we think of the space visitors as more technologically advanced than we are on Earth?

The visiting aliens even spoke “perfect English,” John told me. In my book, UFOs—God’s Chariots?, I cite the contactee experience of Dick Jackson in Fort Myers, Florida, who emphasized that his visiting ufonaut spoke “perfect English.” Should we emphasize “perfect” here as an attribute of the extraterrestrials visiting us? Are more highly evolved space aliens so advanced that they appear “perfect” to our perception?

A second observation: two different alien species, one on the sidewalk and the other in a hovering spacecraft. John, the earthling, belongs to the third species present in the moment. More. These two alien species seem to be at odds with one another. John Hart accidentally finds himself caught between the two in a tussle of some sort.

Here is something John says that could be very important. “It seemed that the craft in the sky might contain a species that was dangerous to me and to the beings with whom I was talking. The latter had intervened and appeared to me to protect me from the species in the sky.”

To describe one alien species as good and the other as evil would be premature. Not enough evidence here. We do not learn enough from what John reports to describe with any detail the traits of each of these two species. Yet, John gains a sense that he is being protected from harm by those closest to him. Just how deeply does this celestial guardian identity for the space aliens go?

Thirdly, it appears that the interaction about the little girl's age is important to John. Why? Frankly, I don’t even know where to start on interpreting this element. Perhaps we need to learn more about the context of John and his family.

Fourthly, note how personally John Hart treats the encounter. The process of incarnation from ambiguous silhouettes into flesh and blood Homo sapiens seems to John to give evidence that the aliens want to appear non-alien. The aliens want to appear natural, familiar, and unthreatening. Why?

Shockingly, John heard directly that this group of visitors intends to protect him. What could be more welcome to John than this? Now I ask: does this apply only to John? Or, do these celestial guardians plan to protect all human beings if not all living creatures on Earth?

As you can see, I’m asking these questions to discern whether or to what degree John Hart’s UAP experience fits the celestial savior model I outline in my book, UFOs—God’s Chariots? I won’t feel hurt if his experience does not fit this model neatly, to be sure. Like trying on a new shoe, I certainly want to avoid shoehorning it in when it does not fit snugly.

John Hart is a theologian. This UAP experience is still quite fresh. Perhaps in time, he will add reflection upon reflection and tell us whether he has met technological angels visiting Earth from an exoplanet.

Conclusion

Most ufologists ask the question: Are UFOs real? By this, ufologists, along with media reporters, frequently mean, do UFOs represent spacecraft ferrying extraterrestrial intelligences from exoplanets to Earth? These questions are just fine. But, they are not my questions.

I ask: what do UAP experiences and our interpretation of these experiences mean? For John Hart, what he experienced is, like a volcano spewing lava, overflowing with molten meaning. Perhaps we need some cooling time before that meaning takes final shape.

Substack SR 1220. John Hart’s UAP Experiences. Are we alone?

▓

Meet Ted Peters. Ted Peters is Research Professor Emeritus at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and California Lutheran University. Today he pursues Public Theology at the intersection of science, religion, ethics, and public policy at the Graduate Theological Union, where he co-edits the journal Theology and Science, on behalf of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences. His book, God in Cosmic History, traces the rise of the Axial religions 2500 years ago. He tackled the implications of genetic innovation for the future of humanity in Playing God? Genetic Determinism and Human Freedom? (Routledge, 2^nd ed., 2002) as well as For the Love of Children: Genetic Technology and the Future of the Family (Westminster/John Knox 1997). His own essays are collected in Science, Theology, and Ethics (Ashgate 2003) and The Voice of Public Theology (ATF 2023). More recently, he has published an edited volume, Promise and Peril of AI and IA: New Technology Meets Religion, Theology, and Ethics (ATF 2025), and, along with Arvin Gouw, an edited collection, The CRISPR Revolution in Science, Religion, and Ethics (Bloomsbury 2025).

Relevant to this post is the second edition of Ted’s book, UFOs—God’s Chariots? Flying Saucers in Politics, Science and Religion (New Page 2014). Soon to be released is a collection of essays, A Handbook on Astrobiology, Astrotheology, and Astroanthropology, co-edited with Carolina Azucena Sanz de la Fuente and Arvin Gouw, with ATF.

Visit Ted Peters’ website, TedsTimelyTake.com.

▓