Añjali and her Aliens - Another Black Eye for UFOOL-ogy

Every time UFOlogy seems to be succeeding in promoting itself as a serious field of study, it then proves that it isn't. It seems that from time to time UFOlogy cannot help but make major blunders, getting tremendously excited over claims that later turn out to be totally bogus:

• George Adamski, and other Contactee, hoaxes
• Billy Meier hoaxes
• Gulf Breeze hoaxes
• credulous acceptance of various crashed saucer claims
• repeated claims of 'disclosure' happening very soon
  
• The Roswell Slides, etc. etc.
  

Añjali's Linkedin Profile, Retrieved in September, 2021 by Charlie Wiser.

And now UFOlogy has another major blunder to acknowledge, the story of Angelia Schultz, a.k.a. Añjali, who caused great excitement in UFOlogy by claiming that very soon she will lead a team of researchers to a cave in the Mojave Desert to meet aliens. And not just any aliens - they are "Higher Beings of Light." Several people well-connected to the pulse of UFOlogy told me that this Añjali story was currently the biggest thing happening  (this was a few months back), bigger even than the excitement over Pentagon UFOs. As reported on Mystery Wire on August 23,

Somewhere deep in the Mojave Desert in the southwest of the United States is a hidden base inside a mountain where extraterrestrials live. This is the claim from a self-described retired defense intelligence officer who now goes by the alias Añjali.

Wednesday morning the woman, whose original name is Angelia Lynn Johnston, held a news conference in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Here she announced she will be bringing an astronaut and scientists to the secret base and to meet with the “higher beings”. Añjali said she met the beings on January 21, 2018.

There is not a date for the event yet but Añjali said it will happen before the end of 2021.

Añjali's stories are so bizarre as to defy belief, even if you leave out the aliens. She sees dead people. But for some reason so many found her to be credible. I only have time to give you a summary of the whole crazy Añjali story. Charlie Wiser has the details for those wanting to dig deeper:

Añjali claims to be an elevated consciousness from the planet Orion who chose to be reincarnated on Earth in order to be a mouthpiece for higher beings who want us to urgently transcend into the 4th density. Those who don't transcend will respawn on Orion where they'll be more comfortable.

Now this is so obviously typical New Age garbage that any sensible person should immediately reject it as such. And yet Añjali seemed to many to be unique and credible. Why? A few years ago, she ran for state office as a Democrat while living in South Dakota, and while she didn't win, she did well enough to be considered "the future" of the Democratic party in South Dakota. More to the point, she had worked as an intelligence analyst in Washington, DC. To some people, this suggests that she knows 'secrets about saucers'. Añjali underwent hypnotic regression by Barbara Lamb, who is well known in UFOOLogy for her work with supposed alien abductees and alien hybrids. Añjali said things like, 

To help prepare humanity for contact and movement into a higher density and to help bring awareness to humanity so that it will elevate its consciousness and vibrate into the 4th density. Only those with elevated conscious awareness of their oneness with the source will transcend into the 4th density and the others won't be here anymore. 

I trust that is perfectly clear!

Añjali on "Fade to Black" with UFO Bad-ass Jimmy Church (who can't spell)

What was unique about the Añjali story was A), it claimed that the aliens could be found in a specific, known place in the desert, and B) before the year was out, she was going to lead a distinguished team of investigators to that very spot to meet them! "The higher beings want disclosure. They are pushing disclosure, guiding it. They want soft disclosure, in the form of the team who will bring evidence to the general public. Following this, the higher beings will initiate public contact."

Añjali's story is summarized in Whitley Strieber's Unknown Country as follows:

In her August 17 press conference, held at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, Schultz reported that on January 21, 2018, she was approached by two individuals that she refers to as Wayne and Trisha while sitting in a coffee shop in Southern California. The trio discussed the nature of consciousness and Schultz’s illness, when Wayne told her about a tunnel he had excavated under his property after encountering what he referred to as aliens that told him they had a base in a nearby mountain. Wayne invited her to his home so that she could visit the tunnel; she took him up on the offer, and entered the tunnel with Wayne, Trisha and two other individuals.

After rounding a corner in the tunnel, the group encountered two different types of beings: a Gray, accompanied by a number of very tall human-like beings with fine, white hair and what Schultz describes as “radiant” and “nearly alabaster” complexions. The beings greeted her by name, and said that they had been waiting to talk to her. They took Schultz into their base, and to a room where she met numerous other beings, including an 8-foot-tall lavender-colored praying mantis-type being that Schultz recognized from earlier encounters.

The visit was said to be terminated when she and Wayne were "teleported" back to his house. If that statement alone is not enough to establish that this entire story is either a hallucination, or else deliberate fiction, I can't imagine what more one requires.

Then Añjali began to talk about the "expedition" that she was going to organize to go back to Wayne's mountain, and select qualified experts to accompany her. She promised that

This will be "one of the most scientifically-esteemed teams ever assembled" with "highly reputable peer-reviewed professionals representing specialized scientific and social industry". Anjali has confirmed the following members:

Roderick Martin, MUFON investigator and podcaster [Reddit, Aug 3]
"a 'community representative-at-large' who is millennial, a veteran, just 'a guy' who is putting in the effort to understand himself and his relationship with the world. He is kind young man, gentle, humble, quiet. I have grown to love him very much, and it will be such a joy to give him this opportunity." [Reddit, Aug 11]
a director/producer (with film crew) [Reddit, Aug 11)
an astronaut [presser, Aug 17]
a well-known documentarian [presser, Aug 17]
a well-known chief investigative reporter [presser, Aug 17]

She is looking for academics, physicists, and astronomers. There will be an A team and a back-up B team in case anyone from the A team can't make it.... Twitter randos for Team A and Team B will be nominated by the public via a Twitter poll - "trusted figures from within the #UFO community". Undesirable team members are Joe Rogan, Mick West.

Añjali's 8-foot tall lavender being
(from Charlie Wiser)

But, who is Wayne? Or, for that matter, is this "Wayne" a real person, a pseudonym, or even a fictional character? Of late Añjali has been waffling about all of this. But based on a number of Añjali's earlier statements and affirmations, several investigators claimed to have independently identified this Wayne, and contacted him. One told me that Wayne "is very aggressive, rude and only cares about money," which somehow is not surprising. What is surprising, however, is the location the aliens seem to have chosen for their desert hideout. I had expected that this expedition into the desert would involve 4-wheel drive vehicles with large containers of water and gasoline. Well, not exactly. Assuming that this is the correct Wayne (which it appears to be), the aliens' tunnel (if it existed) would be in a small mountain tucked between two suburban housing developments less than a thirty-minute drive from downtown San Bernardino, California. Forget the 4-wheel drive vehicles - you could park your little subcompact car on a nearby paved street, then easily walk in. At least Adamski and Van Tassell had the wisdom to choose a properly impressive desert location to encounter extraterrestrials!

But it was not at all clear that Wayne had approved (or even knew about!) this proposed expedition to his property. She said she hadn't talked to him in a long time. Añjali was asked directly about this several times, and waffled. She hinted that the Higher Beings had approved the expedition, so Wayne's approval wasn't important. It soon became clear that Añjali had announced this expedition to Wayne's property before even informing him about it, let alone getting his approval! Then, on November 2, Añjali finally stated the obvious: the expedition was being "postponed" because "Wayne has now said that no one may enter his property." Oops! This has got to be one of the stupidest blunders one could possibly make. Further evidence that UFOlogy and UFOOLogy are joined at the hip.