Back To Egging It
A sharp critique of evidentiary shortcuts, citizen-science optics, psionics claims, and the need for shared methodological baselines in UAP research.
Read post →Building the collaborative scholarly infrastructure for studying phenomena that mainstream science has been structurally prevented from taking seriously — and asking what that prevention reveals about the politics of knowledge.
A concise account of Cifone's work across philosophy of science, institution-building, and the emerging scholarly study of UAP.
Michael Christian Cifone is a philosopher of science, editor, and academic organizer. His work began in the conceptual foundations of theoretical physics and now centers on the methodological, institutional, and philosophical conditions under which UAP and the broader empirical weird can become serious objects of scholarly inquiry.
Philosophy of science, quantum foundations, spacetime ontology, and scientific explanation.
Founder of the Society for UAP Studies and founding editor of Limina.
Develops the empirical weird, existential empiricism, and the conditions for a future science of UAP.
Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at St. John's University, with prior appointments across the U.S.
In 2022, he founded SUAPS and launched Limina: The Journal of UAP Studies, treating academic infrastructure itself as part of the research problem: journals, conferences, standards, methods, and spaces of cross-disciplinary collaboration.
His early publications appeared in Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, Foundations of Physics, and Physics Essays, focusing on the relational blockworld interpretation, spacetime ontology, and the philosophy of scientific explanation.
His current work is organized around the empirical weird: phenomena that resist simple placement within established categories of the physical, psychological, cultural, and religious. This anchors the research program Prolegomena to Any Future Science of UAP.
From October 2025 to February 2026, he served as a CAS-E Visiting Fellow at Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. He is concurrently pursuing a D.Phil. in Religious Studies at the University of Hamburg, developing an account of religion in relation to the sacred understood as empirical.
Spanning institution-building, editorial leadership, doctoral research, and teaching.
Society for UAP Studies (SUAPS) — directing research programs, conferences, publications, and the Society's three Strategic Institutional Research Initiatives across philosophy, forensic science, and physical instrumentation.
Limina: The Journal of UAP Studies — currently the only peer-reviewed academic journal devoted to the scholarly study of UAP. Draws together scholars from the physical and social sciences, humanities, and philosophy of science.
Center for Advanced Studies "Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices in Global Perspective," Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. Began work on a monograph on foundational ideas in UAP Studies, with focus on the thought of Jacques Vallée. CAS-E II fellowship application in progress.
Religious Studies, University of Hamburg. Dissertation developing a new theoretical account of religion in relation to the sacred conceived as empirical — extending earlier work in philosophy of science into the phenomenology of religious experience.
St. John's University, Queens, New York (2017–present). Prior appointments at CUNY Bronx Community College, Gwynedd-Mercy University, Manhattan College, University of San Francisco, Drexel University, and others across the U.S.
Invited to present his emerging UAP research program at the University of Copenhagen (humanities faculty, hosted by the Danish Network for UAP Studies) and at Lund University's Anomalous Agenda Advanced Study Group.
A systematic philosophical, methodological, and formal inquiry into the conditions under which an adequate science of UAP could be constituted.
Prolegomena to Any Future Science of UAP begins from a simple claim: the UAP problem is not one problem. It is at least three problems operating at different levels of analysis, and the field's failure to produce cumulative knowledge reflects not merely a lack of data, but the absence of the institutional conditions, methodological frameworks, and conceptual tools required to gather and interpret that data adequately.
Maps the governance of UAP inquiry: the emerging nexus of defense offices, private contractors, and defense-adjacent academic actors, together with the forensic loop, evidentiary regimes, and forms of privatized legitimacy that prevent serious inquiry from becoming institutionally stable.
Develops a standpoint grounded in William James's radical empiricism and extended through contemporary philosophy of mind, asking what a science adequate to the full range of UAP phenomena — including extreme experiential cases — would actually have to look like.
Draws on Harald Atmanspacher's generalized quantum theory and dual-aspect monism to characterize cases where neither purely physical nor purely psychological descriptions are sufficient, and where physical-experiential correlations resist decomposition into independent components.
The program distinguishes between the Plane of Affect, where UAP appears as an administered cultural and political object, and the Plane of Empiricism, where it appears as a candidate object of a science not yet made. Its central claim is that an adequate research order must hold both planes at once.
The Research Triangle maps the literature across three primary zones — governance, empirical study, and formal theory — while locating Zone D along a liminal axis that cuts across, and stands at a right angle to, that triangular plane. Cifone's distinctive contribution is the explicit naming and theorizing of this liminal interior.
Zone D as a liminal axis above the A–B–C research plane
Socio-historical, political, and STS-inflected work on how anomalous objects are administered, authorized, denied, or absorbed by institutions.
Scientific, observational, forensic, and instrumentation-centered work directed toward the phenomena as objects of investigation.
Methodological and theoretical work on evidence, ontology, explanation, mind-matter relations, and the formal representation of anomalous correlations.
Work that refuses to settle fully onto either plane, exemplified by Pasulka, Kripal, and Vallée, and by the unresolved interior where event, experience, symbol, and institution remain entangled.
Level Two gives this taxonomy empirical bite through six developing postulates drawn from the structure of the evidence, including the rejection of classical separability assumptions, the semiotic character of anomalous phenomena, and the observer-transformation effect. Level Three then asks what formal architecture would be required for cases in which the physical and experiential dimensions cannot be cleanly separated.
Five current research fronts give the program its next phase: experimental design, genealogy, religious experience, the excessive remainder, and the artifact interpretation problem.
The governing stance is disciplined suspension: holding the field's deepest questions genuinely open while actively building the institutional and conceptual conditions under which they might eventually be answered. SUAPS and Limina are not merely platforms for this program; they are part of the argument itself — an attempt to build, in practice, the independent scholarly infrastructure that the program's Level One analysis identifies as a precondition for an adequate science.
A sustained presence in national and international coverage of UAP Studies as an emerging scholarly discipline.
Cifone is hoping the study of UAPs can become the subject of serious, rigorous academic study, with the same scientific objectivity of any discipline. The Society for UAP Studies knows it's a tall order that requires an open mind and an unusual amount of collaboration.
USA Today · "Time To Get Real On UFOs" · Front Page · December 9, 2025
The handling of UAP within government — ultimately driven by national security priorities — operates on principles at odds with the inner operating directives of the sciences: free, open, and democratic exploration of self and world.
Space.com · Congressional UAP Hearing Coverage · September 2025
His catch-all phrase — the empirical weird — encompasses things that blur the lines between the real and the possible: phenomena that defy easy explanation, including the spiritual, the paranormal, the parapsychological, and UAPs.
USA Today · December 9, 2025
The UAP problem is not a mystery with one answer, but rather a somewhat unstable and chaotic amalgam of many overlapping realities, complicated by the unfortunate facts of the modern bureaucratic national security state.
Space.com · September 2025
Selected entries from ENTAUS, where Cifone pursues sustained critical interrogations of UAP, anomalous experience, scientific possibility, and the politics of knowledge.
A sharp critique of evidentiary shortcuts, citizen-science optics, psionics claims, and the need for shared methodological baselines in UAP research.
Read post →A programmatic statement on case reports, witness testimony, the limits of disclosure politics, and the need for independent empirical research.
Read post →Reflections on the Sol Foundation's inaugural symposium, the entanglement of celebrity and knowledge, and the politics of legitimacy in the field.
Read post →Spanning foundations of physics, philosophy of science, critical theory, and the emerging science of UAP.
Articles & Editorials
Excessive Remainder: Scientific Possibility, Epistemic Limits, and the UFO Experience
Mindfield: Bulletin of the Parapsychological Association 17(1). June 13, 2025.
The New Science of Unidentified Aerospace-Undersea Phenomena (UAP) Featured
Progress in Aerospace Sciences 156 (2025): 101097. DOI: 10.1016/j.paerosci.2025.101097
With Kevin H. Knuth, Philippe Ailleris, Garry P. Nolan, Wesley A. Watters, et al.
Limina — The Journal of UAP Studies 2(1): 6–11.
Limina — The Journal of UAP Studies 1(1): 3–7.
Transcendental Skepticism
The SCU Review, No. 11. October 27, 2022.
Axioms in Z — Notes on a Scandalous Appropriation of Philosophy out of the Sublimity of the Thing (Parts I & II)
International Journal of Žižek Studies 10(1) and subsequent issue.
Nothingness and Science (A Propaedeutic)
Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy 10(1): 253–274.
Why Quantum Mechanics Favors Adynamical and Acausal Interpretations such as Relational Blockworld over Backwardly Causal and Time-Symmetric Rivals
Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 39(4): 736–751.
With Michael Silberstein and W.M. Stuckey.
Reconciling Spacetime and the Quantum: Relational Blockworld and the Quantum Liar Paradox
Foundations of Physics 38(4): 348–383.
With W.M. Stuckey and Michael Silberstein.
Forthcoming in Print
Fire In The Sky: UAP, Climate Change and the Political Economic Future of Human Society Forthcoming
For an edited volume. Stanford University Press, anticipated 2027.
It's All About the Evidence — But What Is the Evidence? A Philosophical Inquiry Into the Problem of UFO Evidence Forthcoming
For UFOs in Academia: 21st Century Perspectives. Syracuse University Press.
Rational Responses To Extraordinary Hypotheses
In preparation.
With Kevin Knuth and Wesley Watters.
Working Papers & Critical Essays
Into the 'Workshop' of Being: The Place and Necessity of Theology and the Religious in the UFO Experience Working Paper
Draft essay on religious studies, theology, and the UFO experience.
The Emerging UAP Nexus: National Security, Privatized Legitimacy, and the Reorganization of the Unknown Working Paper Critical Essay
The Affect of the Impossible: UAP and the Deterritorialization of Knowledge Working Paper
Existential Empiricism: A Proposed Framework for the Science of Mind, Matter, and Anomalous Phenomena Working Paper
Three interlinked programs that Cifone initiated and spearheads under the Society for UAP Studies, each addressing a distinct foundational problem in the field.
Anchored in Cifone's concept of the "empirical weird," Phase 1 launched at the Prolegomena Retreat in Porto, Portugal, May 28–June 1, 2026. Fifteen researchers across philosophy, cognitive science, and physical science met to lay the groundwork for a new methodological framework addressing the ontological-interface problem at the heart of anomalous phenomena. Initiated and directed by Cifone; conducted under the auspices of SUAPS.
Phase 1 Complete · Phase 2 in Development
Visit EWI Site →Addresses the chain-of-evidence problem in UAP research through rigorous application of forensic scientific standards. Led by PI Joshua Pierson and co-lead Dr. Eric Halford under SUAPS's Department of Research, the initiative is conducting a systematic Freedom of Information campaign targeting approximately 100 organizations across 30+ countries. Conceived and initiated by Cifone as part of the Society's research portfolio.
Phase 2 Active · FOI Campaign Underway
Visit Initiative Site →Modeled on the astrobiology community's biosignature standards of evidence framework, this initiative convenes approximately 55 researchers across astrophysics, data science, philosophy of science, sociology, and information science to develop a rigorous, community-grounded evidentiary framework for UAP science. Organizing team includes Dr. Gretchen Stahlman (FSU), Dr. Laura Dominé (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), Dr. Tim Spuck (AUI), and Dr. Giovanna Pugliese (UvA). Coordinated by Cifone through SUAPS. Next milestone: AstroAccel Innovation Summit, Lisbon, August 2026.
Organizing Phase · AstroAccel 2026 Ahead
Visit SOE Site →Invited lectures and conference presentations across four continents, spanning philosophy of science, UAP studies, and critical theory.
Prolegomena to Any Future Science of UAP: An Exposition Forthcoming
Invited Lecture · University of Copenhagen, Humanities Faculty · September 1–2, 2026. Hosted by the Danish Network for UAP Studies (DNUS) and Aaron French. Organized by Frederik Uldall.
Prolegomena to Any Future Science of UAP: An Exposition Forthcoming
Invited Lecture · Anomalous Agenda Advanced Study Group, Lund University · September 3–4, 2026. Invited by Dr. Anders Warell and Dr. Melina (Lund University).
The Future of UAP Science: Challenges and Prospects Forthcoming
Invited Panelist · SCU Annual Conference, Toronto, Canada · July 27, 2026.
UAP Disclosure Forum Special Invited Guest
U.S. Capitol Building (Kennedy Caucus Room), Washington D.C. · June 25, 2026. Full-day event convening congressional leaders, former intelligence officials, scientists, and policy analysts.
It's All About the Evidence. But What's the Evidence?
IFEX SETI & UAP Conference · Universität Würzburg, Germany · September 2025.
It's All About the Evidence. But What's the Evidence?
Flash talk · UAP Data Workshop hosted by AUI with support from AARO (U.S. Dept. of Defense) · Vienna, Virginia · August 4–6, 2025.
Actuality Implies Possibility: The Possibilities and Impossibilities of a New Science of UAP
The UFO and the Impossible: Archives of the Impossible Conference 2025 · Rice University, Houston, Texas · April 3–5, 2025.
Down To Earth: Characterizing the Landscape of (Scientific) UAP Studies
Grounding the SETI and UAP Debate: Law, Evidence and Anticipated Futures · Durham University Law School · April 24–25, 2025.
Beyond Cold Cases: Bringing the Science of UAP Down To Earth
Social and Ethical Frontiers in Space 2024, EAI/SSoCIA · Kiruna, Sweden · September 22–26, 2024. With Wesley Watters, Wellesley College.
Anomalous Trajectories: Charting A Course from the New Science of UAP to Anomalistics
IGPP Colloquia Series · Freiburg, Germany · October 2024 (online).
Fire In the Sky: UFOs, Climate Change and the Political-Economic Future of Human Society
Bringing SETI Home: National Security and the Politics of UFO Disclosure · Mershon Center, Ohio State University · March 13–14, 2023.
Being and Becoming: A Dialogue Between Relational Blockworld and the Implicate Order Invited · Honorarium
Toward An Algebra of Process: A Symposium in Honor of Basil J. Hiley · Helsinki, Finland.
Minkowski Meets Hilbert in a Relational Blockworld Invited · Honorarium
Time Symmetric Approaches to Quantum Mechanics · Centre for Time, University of Sydney. Keynote: Nobel Laureate Sir Anthony Leggett.
CAS-E Visiting Fellowship (October 2025 – February 2026)
Center for Advanced Studies "Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices in Global Perspective," FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
Department of Philosophy Summer Research Scholarship
University of Maryland
Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award
Center for Teaching Excellence, University of Maryland
Brian Hull Fellowship for Best First Year Graduate Student
Dept. of Philosophy, University of Maryland
Jacob K. Goldhaber Travel Grant
University of Maryland
National Science Foundation Young Researcher's Grant
Travel and Presentation Award
Selected podcast appearances, radio segments, and video interviews on the foundations, politics, and future of UAP Studies.
Skepticism and the New Science of UAP
SUAPS UAP Studies Seminar Series · Society for UAP Studies · April 16, 2026. Livestreamed lecture on the epistemological challenges confronting the emerging science of UAP.
The New Science of Non-Human Intelligence (Parts 1 & 2)
EMERGENT podcast · November 2025. Extended conversation on the methodological, philosophical, and institutional challenges involved in building a rigorous science of non-human intelligence.
Dr. Michael Cifone — Society for UAP Studies Co-Founder
WTUFO S2E9 · October 18, 2024. Long-form interview on philosophy of science, SUAPS, Limina, and the challenges of developing UAP as a legitimate subject for contemporary research.
UAP Research / Historical Alien Beliefs
Coast to Coast AM · hosted by George Knapp · January 15, 2023. Cifone joined in the first half to discuss academic debate and dialogue in the UFO field; Chris Aubeck followed in the latter half on historical alien beliefs.
Toward A Science of Nonhuman Intelligence
Inaugural Lecture (online) · The Human Institute · 2025.
Speaking invitations, editorial and research collaborations, fellowship enquiries, and press contacts are all welcome.
Institutional enquiries, research collaborations, editorial correspondence, and speaking invitations should be directed to the Society for UAP Studies address.
director@societyforuapstudies.orgPersonal correspondence, media requests, and academic networking through the personal address.
cifonemc@gmail.comProfessional Affiliations