Et tu, E.T.?: Paranormal museum's Kadel shines light on alien claims in D.C.

Aug. 3—Normally, the news to come out of Washington is little more than politics as usual. Recently, however, there was a newsmaking congressional hearing that was, one might say, out of this world.

And Somerset plays host to one of the best sources in the Bluegrass to shine a spotlight on the matter.

Kyle Kadel operates the International Paranormal Museum and Research Center, currently located in the basement of the John Sherman Cooper Community Arts Center. While the "paranormal" tends to refer to less to the arena of extraterrestrials and more the realm of ghosts and psychics, UFOs — unidentified flying objects — are also of interest to Kadel's museum, which features one right on its sign, abducting the Loch Ness Monster.

Among the most popular bits of Kentucky lore to be included in the local attraction is the commonwealth's own notable entry into of the UFO discussion — the incident from Kelly, Ky., near Hopkinsville, from 1955 that essentially introduced the world to the concept of "little green men" after reports that a swarm of them came out of a spaceship and attacked a farmhouse were made to local police.

Those claims have been examined with great interest over the years by UFO believers, and dismissed as anything from hysteria to a hoax by skeptics. But in recent days, allegations have been made about the existence of alien life on earth from a much more relevant source.

Retired Air Force Major and intelligence officer David Grusch testified last week in front of a U.S. House of Representatives Oversight subcommittee that the United States has been concealing a program to retrieve and reverse engineer UFOs — unidentified flying objects — for a substantial amount of time, as reported by the Associated Press. Moreover, he stated that officials have likely been aware of "non-human" activity since the 1930s — almost a century ago at this point.

According to the AP report, Grusch said he was asked in 2019 by the head of a government task force on UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena) to identify all highly classified programs relating to the task force's mission. At the time, Grusch was detailed to the National Reconnaissance Office, the agency that operates U.S. spy satellites.

"I was informed in the course of my official duties of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program to which I was denied access," he said.

Grusch said that he was compelled to "expose" what he considered a "grave congressional oversight issue and a potential abuse of executive branch authorities." He also said it was his hope that the results of investigations into the claims of reverse-engineering program would act as a "catalyst for a global reassessment of our priorities," looking to a future of "extraordinary technological progress." He said he had "suffered retaliation" for his decision to "become a whistleblower."

The subject of extraterrestrial life has been pondered by residents of the planet earth for millennia, with no firm proof ever being found and widely accepted, and has in particular inspired a smorgasbord of pop culture speculation. Human imaginings of what alien beings might resemble include everything from the famous "grey" species common to UFO encounter reports to the likes of Vulcans, Wookies, Xenomorphs and Melmacians from the worlds of film, television, and literature.

The aberrancy of these ideas, paired with the lack of available evidence, has led to notions of government cover-ups about UFOs being taken less than seriously much of the time, and the Pentagon responded to Grusch's testimony by denying any such conspiracy. Defense Department spokesperson Sue Gough said investigators have not discovered "any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently." The statement did not address UFOs that are not suspected of being extraterrestrial objects.

But in recent years, the government has been disclosing more and more information with the public about UAP incidents, such as a report released in 2021 that attracted substantial public attention. And the recent congressional hearing was notable for the bipartisan interest in the matter — often a rarity in a politically polarized Washington.

So what does Kadel make of the news that might stand to make the attractions in his museum dedicated to the paranormal a little more — well, normal?

"It's really exciting that the government is acknowledging this stuff finally after years," said Kadel. "It was pretty enlightening that (Grusch) did say we have bodies (of extratrerrestrials). The government owns them already.

"But to a further extent, where does this leave the conspiracy theorists, that already say don't trust the government and that there's aliens — but now the government is saying we do have aliens?" he added. "Should we believe that? ... Even if the government comes out fully and says, 'Yeah, we absolutely have these creatures,' there are so many weird stories that surround alien encounters. Like, do they constantly ask for pancakes, or sugar water? There's so much more weird stuff (in alien encounter lore) then them saying, 'Yeah, we have nuts-and-bolts aircraft in our possession.'"

Interestingly, for such a long-debated subject, Grusch's testimony hasn't made a Death Star-sized impact on media coverage and social media buzz, but one more similar to a small flying saucer. While the hearings were reported on by mainstream news outlets, it seems that most public chatter outside of UFO interest communities online remains on subjects a little more down-to-earth.

Is that the result of desensitization to the idea of extraterrestrials through years of science fiction frivolity? Or are these issues really just not that relevant to the average American?

"What's really strange — and we figured this out when we were doing research for Penny Royal (a locally-produced podcast on the paranormal) — is that the narrative in mainstream media, starting about 2017, is that there's this new, renewed interest in UFOs," he said. "Even a few years ago when the Air Force released those videos (of UAP encounters), the mainstream media picked it up a lot and was like, 'Everyone is crazy about this.'

"Well, we actually looked through Google trends and search trends, and no one, except the people that were already interested in it, are responding to it," he continued. "So it is an increase in Google searches, but it's by the same people (in the UFO interest community). It's not reaching any new demographic."

Kadel compared the oversaturation of alien media portrayals to something like "The Amityville Horror," a hit 1977 book and 1979 film, which he said "at one point was the craziest haunting that anyone had ever heard of."

He added, "Now, every episode of ever ghost hunting show has crazier stuff than that. We've already been so primed for the idea that there are these aliens and that the government knows and it's a cover-up that we've known forever that it's not the bombshell that it would have been 20 years ago."

While Kadel is interested in the most recent news, he said that it doesn't affect his personal life — except, perhaps, as a business operator.

"If aliens become the norm, they no longer fit in my museum," he said with a laugh. "I do think of it that way, but it's still such a rich ground of fact and fiction that even if the idea comes (that extraterrestrial life truly exists), we still have a lot of way to go before it's all explained."