Image Credentials: Image Title: Under the Radar: Close Encounters and Open Minds: UFO Symposium to Take Off in Strathcona County Source: (sora.chatgpt) Date: May 2025 Attribution: Created by AI-generated imagery (sora.chatgpt), and it does not depict a real-world scene.
By Staff Writer With Agencies
Strathcona County, Alberta, Canada — If you catch unusual lights streaking across the night sky this weekend, don’t panic, it might just be an invitation. The “Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind” (CE-5) UFO symposium is set to take place near Cooking Lake, about 42 kilometers southeast of Edmonton, drawing believers, skeptics, and the curious alike.
Spearheaded by Derryn Donaghey, a former military police officer turned extraterrestrial researcher, the event is built around a controversial idea: that humans can initiate contact with alien life through focused intention, sound frequencies, and group meditation.
“I’ve never seen little green men,” Donaghey admitted, “but I have seen things I can’t explain.”
A Gathering Under the Stars
This isn’t Donaghey’s first venture into the world of organized sky-watching. A similar event years ago involved participants forming a circle under the night sky, playing audio signals purportedly meant to attract alien attention, which he likens to an “interstellar bus stop.” During that night, Donaghey claims the group observed 52 “ships” in just 10 minutes.
“No one was scared,” he said. “They were euphoric. If there is truly life out there, I think they are more active now because they’ve seen what a gong show is happening here.”
With recent U.S. government disclosures on UFO sightings, including declassified military videos and congressional hearings, events like this have found new resonance. For Donaghey, that mainstream shift has made it easier to talk publicly about an experience that haunted him since 1987.
The Memory That Wouldn’t Fade
While training near Redwater with a group of fellow soldiers, Donaghey said their compasses failed, flashlights went dark, and in a remote clearing, they saw something unexplainable: a massive ship unlike anything terrestrial. But only three people remembered the event afterward. The rest, he says, seemed to have forgotten entirely.
“When we returned to base, it was like it never happened,” he recalled. “I tried to report it. I was told to shut up.”
He kept his silence for decades, wary of ridicule. “You don’t want to talk about it because you sound crazy,” Donaghey said.
Seeking Truth, Not Fiction
Also speaking at the symposium is Nathan Zieber, known in UFO circles as the “Paranormal Pastor.” A dual American-Canadian citizen and former investigator with MUFON (Mutual UFO Network), Zieber brings a scientific skepticism to the table. His goal? Rule out the explainable.
“98 per cent of sightings turn out to be aircraft, drones, balloons, even comets,” Zieber said. “My job isn’t to prove what it is, but what it isn’t.”
But that still leaves the 2 per cent, the unsolved cases. For Zieber, the most memorable involved a bizarre cattle mutilation near the hamlet of Madden, Alberta. A group of cows was found bloodless, with eyes removed and radioactive traces left behind. Nearby trees appeared charred, but no cause was ever determined.
Open Dialogue, No Easy Answers
The CE-5 gathering isn’t just about flashing lights or government secrets — it’s about creating space for open dialogue on the unexplained.
“Even in this community, there are no easy answers,” said Donaghey. “We’ve heard everything: alien contact, government cover-ups, even signs of the Rapture. But anyone who claims to have all the answers is someone to avoid.”
Despite skepticism from outsiders, Donaghey insists that many attendees are professionals — police officers, nurses, even doctors.
“We’re not a bunch of wackos,” he said. “We’re people who’ve seen things, or who are willing to ask the questions.”
The Strathcona symposium hopes to provide a forum where belief and reason can coexist, and maybe, just maybe, something else will show up, too.
References
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Interviews and public statements from Derryn Donaghey
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Public remarks by Nathan Zieber, MUFON
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U.S. Department of Defense declassified UFO footage
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Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) case archives
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Civilian reports of CE-5 events in North America
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Canadian UFO Survey annual reports
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Local accounts and press coverage of Alberta cattle mutilation cases