Humans have long sought contact with something beyond themselves. For some, that search now takes the form of reaching out to UAP. Known as human-initiated contact, the practice has attracted a following over several decades, with people describing sightings they believe followed a deliberate request for contact.

The effort to classify these encounters took shape in 1972, when astronomer J. Allen Hynek introduced the Close Encounter scale. It provided a framework for organizing reported UAP experiences by proximity and detail:

• First Kind: seeing an object at close range, within about 150 meters.
• Second Kind: an object appears to leave a physical trace, such as scorched ground.
• Third Kind: seeing beings associated with an object.
• Fourth Kind: abduction, a category added by other researchers in the 1980s.

The scale classified what people reported experiencing, but left out the possibility that a person might try to initiate an encounter.

That idea gained a name in 1990, when emergency room physician Steven Greer founded the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence and introduced “Close Encounter of the Fifth Kind,” or CE-5, to describe attempts to initiate contact with nonhuman intelligence.

Today, CE-5 often takes the form of group outings based on Greer’s protocol. Participants gather at night in a remote location, meditate and direct their attention toward the sky. Through a practice called “coherent thought sequencing,” they visualize extending their awareness into space and send a telepathic invitation for an intelligence to approach. Some groups use laser pointers, tones or flashing lights, and Geiger counters to monitor radiation. A flash, moving light or sudden physical sensation may be interpreted as a reply. Ultimately, the premise is that UAP contact can be actively sought.

CE-5 has also grown beyond a method for attempting UAP contact into a practice shaped by shared beliefs about communicating with nonhuman intelligence. University of Calgary anthropologist Shayne Dahl describes it as “techno-shamanism, ” combining technology and ritual with altered states of consciousness. Practitioners often frame their efforts as peaceful outreach to another form of intelligence.

Many reports submitted to Enigma describe attempts to contact UAP, though only a few mention CE-5 by name. Most simply made a request to the sky, out of curiosity, frustration, grief or even as a joke. Some asked aloud. Others made the request silently: come closer, get brighter, show me what you are.

The reports highlighted in this collection cannot establish whether the requests to UAP prompt the responses that followed. Few include footage clear enough to identify the object or determine its movement, so the sequence of events rests largely on the person’s account. Still, recurring patterns emerge across otherwise independent accounts, raising questions about whether these experiences share something more than the circumstances in which they occurred.

What Enigma's Data Shows

We reviewed ~100 Enigma reports describing witness attempts to summon a UAP or communicate with one, selecting 30 of the most compelling for this collection.

The reports describe two scenarios. In just over half, witnesses say nothing was visible until they made their request, after which a UAP appeared. In the others, they were already watching an object when they decided to attempt contact.

More than three-quarters of witnesses describe making their request silently, in their minds. The others asked aloud, and a few did both.

UAP responses varied. Some describe a light flashing, brightening, pulsing or changing color. Others report objects moving closer, stopped, changed position or disappeared after the request.

Witness emotions were not unsurprising. About a third of people described feeling curious or awestruck, while a quarter reported fear. Others were overcome with shock. A smaller number described more profound feelings of love, peace, or connection, while some interpreted the encounter as a matter of fate or destiny.

Spheres, orbs and lights dominate the shape data at 57% of reports, with triangles a distant second at 13%. Geographically, the United States accounts for most reports; Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Mexico make up the rest.

The Stories

Asking for a Sign

Some witnesses describe asking aloud for a sign, while others say they made the request silently, through their thoughts or focused intention. In both cases, they describe an apparent response from the object.

A high school teacher in New South Wales had spent a day at his desk reading coverage of the 2023 Chinese weather balloon. Feeling low, he muttered a request for a sign, from God or from anyone at all, then went outside and sat in a camp chair facing his driveway. Under a hazy, cloudless sky, a dark, round object came down the street at treetop height, moving slowly and steadily. As it passed closest to him, its front lit up for three or four seconds, revealing a metallic surface. Then it went dark and floated over his neighbors’ backyards toward the river. He did not call his children out to see it, and says he felt he was meant to see it alone, as an answer to his request. (Enigma #283947 )

In Arizona, a woman returning from a walk at twilight stood in front of her house looking at the first two stars of the evening. She began silently speaking to the beings she believes are out there, feeling love and appreciation, and said she would love a sign. Then she added, half-jokingly, that it was fine if they were busy. Seconds later, a bright, clear flash lit up high in the cloudless sky beside the star she was watching, then went out. She felt surprised, peaceful and happy, as if they were telling her they weren’t too busy after all. She thanked them, went inside and told her housemate and her sister. ( Enigma #311813 )

In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a man who walks his dogs along the river had watched strange lights over the nearby nuclear plant for months, but had never seen one clearly. One afternoon, following the CE-5 contact method, he tried to raise his consciousness and kept asking in his head to see a sign. He scanned the sky and saw nothing. He was looking down at his phone when he felt a sudden urge to look up, and there was a light in the daytime sky. He quickly realized it was shaped like a triangle with a large light at each point. When he stopped recording to switch to photo mode, it was gone. (Enigma #283167 )

Come Closer

These witnesses had already spotted an object in the sky when they made the request for it to come closer.

Camping alone in northern Michigan, a man was lying on the hood of his truck watching satellites when one bright point stopped, flashed and turned 90 degrees. He silently asked it to stop again and come to him. It stopped, then descended behind a lone tree about 50 yards away and emerged as a silent white orb, the brightest light he had ever seen. It drifted into the woods, lighting the trees around it, and he silently thanked it. When it circled behind his truck, every hair on his body stood up and he felt a vibration through his body. He asked it to go away, and it retraced its exact path, shot up over the field and shrank to a star. (Enigma #295609 )

In California, a man watched six white spheres twirling above the clouds. One sped off east; the rest held position for three minutes, then disappeared one at a time. Sensing intelligence in the last one, he mentally asked it to come closer. It dropped to roughly 2,000 feet, big enough to make out a tic-tac shape, and seemed to be coming straight at him. Nervous, he said hi, and it answered with a sequence of rapid and slow flashes. When he jokingly asked it to take him, it stopped moving and flashing entirely. They stared at each other for at least a minute before it shot up and faded out. (Enigma #288450 )

In Texas, a witness filmed a silent, shape- and color-shifting object as it drifted toward their balcony. It stopped partway, and the witness said, “come closer guys.” It immediately resumed, turned, and came right up to them. Stunned, they briefly dropped the phone at the object’s closest point; when they raised the camera again, it scurried off. Stepping outside, they found it hovering over the neighboring building, still shifting colors. (Enigma #337609 )

Multiple Sightings, Multiple Responses

Some witnesses report making requests on multiple occasions and seeing responses each time.

In Wyoming, a witness noticed what looked like a slowly moving constellation and, over the following weeks, began documenting it nightly, first on an iPhone and then with a wildlife camera and zoom lenses. The orbs formed formations, changed colors and came down close. When she communicated that she was afraid, they would back off. When she politely asked to film them, they would slow down. (Enigma #308205 )

In New York City, a man sat on a bench near a reservoir and finished an audiobook that ended with simple instructions for calling a UFO: look up, pick a spot and say “I am here.” He tried it, repeating the phrase while birds, a butterfly and a plane passed. Just as he was about to give up, a bright object made of three dots appeared exactly where he was looking. He asked if he could film it, and it began moving east. He says he repeated the experience five more times that year, recording all but one, before it suddenly stopped. (Enigma #320138 )

In New York, one witness treats contact as a nightly routine. He meditates, imagines looking down on Earth from space, then zooms in to show any willing beings exactly how to find him. He asks them to appear, and warns them that militaries may not welcome it; he stresses that he asks rather than summons. He says a response comes anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours later, almost every day. (Enigma #310060 )

What the Stories Have in Common

• Witness communication is specific. Witnesses rarely report a vague message. They ask for a sign, a closer approach, a brighter light, a ship instead of a point of light. The response they describe matches the request.
• The object response is a behavior, not a message. Objects appear, descend, flash, brighten or change color.
• Witnesses already believed contact was possible before the experience began. Their requests came from an existing expectation that something might answer.

The connection between the request and what followed is difficult to interpret. Did the object respond, or did witnesses connect an unexpected event to the wish that preceded it? Whatever the explanation, these accounts offer a record of people who asked for contact and believed something in the sky answered.

Explore the sightings in this collection below. If you've asked the sky for something and believe it answered, submit your sighting . If you're interested, explore a similar collection: The Observer Effect. The more people share their accounts, the easier it becomes to compare them.