John Alexander
John Alexander (1937–2023) was a U.S. Army Colonel, non-lethal weapons researcher, and UFO advocate who participated in classified remote viewing programs and co-founded Robert Bigelow's National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS). He maintained that the UFO phenomenon is real, while publicly arguing — controversially within the research community — that no centralized government cover-up controls UFO information.
Background
Alexander served in the U.S. Army through a career spanning Vietnam-era special operations and later senior roles at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM), where he worked alongside figures such as Albert Stubblebine. He became a leading advocate for military development of non-lethal weapons technology in the 1980s and 1990s, authoring The Warrior's Edge and later UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities.
NIDS and Skinwalker Ranch
In 1996 Alexander accompanied Robert Bigelow to Skinwalker Ranch in Utah, where Bigelow's National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) had just acquired the property after the Sherman family reported sustained anomalous activity. NIDS installed three observation towers with animal-baited pens as biological sensors and launched a multi-year scientific investigation of the phenomena reported on the property. Steven Greer has repeatedly identified Alexander as a key counterintelligence operative within the UFO secrecy apparatus, stating in a 2025 interview that Alexander was Bigelow's consultant and allegedly "helped get" the Pentagon's $22 million Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program funding channeled to Bigelow Aerospace, characterizing the operation as a setup: "You might as well have opened the toilet lid, flush $22 million down to the sewer, because that was a setup." Greer further alleged that Alexander "has been key to covering this up for decades" and identified him as a consultant to Luis Elizondo, connecting both to what Greer characterizes as a counterintelligence disinformation operation surrounding UAP disclosure.
UFO research and Chris Bledsoe
Alexander became closely associated with Chris Bledsoe, whose encounters with non-human intelligences attracted sustained government interest. He introduced Bledsoe to remote viewing techniques and contributed an introduction to Bledsoe's memoir alongside former CIA Director of Operations Jim Semivan. Bledsoe recounted first meeting Alexander at Alexander's home in 2015, after transmitting an anomalous audio message that allegedly warned of a terrorist threat to the Pope; Alexander then coordinated with the Secret Service, which reportedly intercepted communications and arrested a suspect.
Joe Rogan noted on The Joe Rogan Experience that Alexander had devoted decades to studying paranormal government programs, from Vietnam through NIDS.