In Malta's countryside, a group meditates to make contact with aliens

On a beautiful, balmy evening, around 40 people gather atop the cliffs at Miġra l-Ferħa. They’re here to spend the night gazing up at the sky, hoping to see more than just stars. 

The event in question is an attempt to carry out what is known as a close encounter of the fifth kind, or CE-5 – a term popularised by American ufologist Steven Greer. It refers to human-initiated contact with extraterrestrials through meditation.

The theory behind the practice is that advanced extraterrestrial beings can be contacted through focused human consciousness, with participants using meditation and collective intention to initiate peaceful, telepathic communication.

The gatherings are organised by Keith Ellul, a self-proclaimed researcher who runs the Facebook page Kuntatt – UFO Malta, which currently has around 3,500 followers. 

“I was very sceptical about the idea of CE-5 in the beginning, but it was an opportunity to meet the followers of the page in person,” he says. 

A healthy scepticism

Since January, Ellul has organised seven such events in various places around Malta where the sky is not too obscured by light pollution. In four of the previous ones, he says, at least one attendee saw something they could not explain.

“By that I don’t just mean a light in the sky. We’re trained to spot things like planes, drones, satellites and Chinese lanterns. But when you see something that is performing manoeuvres that defy the laws of physics, you have to concede that something strange is going on.”

Ellul insists that scepticism is healthy and is not convinced the unidentified objects are extraterrestrial in origin.

“All we have are theories. We don’t jump to conclusions. We don’t know what the unidentified objects are and we probably never will. Until something lands and a creature comes out and shakes my hand, I’ll keep questioning.”

Nevertheless, he says that during a gathering in April, the group was treated to a “show”.

“Most people had already left because it was cold. But around midnight, I counted 11 things in the viewfinder of my night-vision camera that I couldn’t explain. Things moving forwards, backwards, fading in and out, stationary objects.”

Ellul also recalls another sighting during a fishing trip with friends in 2007, when they saw a strange light.

“At first it was far away, then it flew on top of us. It was like a spinning glass sphere, like a soap bubble with iridescent colours, with smoke inside it.”

Ellul emphasises that, aside from the hope of seeing something unusual, a big part of the events is the sense of community they foster. 

“There’s a lot of stigma surrounding this subject, so it’s important to create a safe space where people, who come from all walks of life, can come and share their stories.”

Event organiser Keith Ellul (right) and first-timer Earl Mallia

For Earl Mallia, this was his first time attending an event of this kind. 

“I’ve been curious about outer space since I was young. I used to watch [renowned astronomer] Carl Sagan’s show. Nowadays I’m an astrophotographer. The heavens contain an abundance of wonders.”

Despite taking hundreds of photographs of the night sky, Mallia admits that he has never seen something that he could not explain.

“I’ve seen things that looked odd at first but then did my research and realised they were things like Starlink and Dragon,” he says, referring to satellites and spacecraft launched by billionaire Elon Musks’s company, SpaceX. 

While many in the group share Ellul and Mallia’s more grounded beliefs, some have wild theories about the nature of the universe and humanity’s place in it.

“We are prisoners of a galactic war. Our souls are trapped here on earth and our mission is to escape and join the resistance against the draco-lizards,” says one attendee. 

Audio, then meditation

Once night falls, the group forms a circle, in the middle of which Ellul places a speaker. When everyone has settled down, a series of beeps and clicks begins playing. Later, Ellul explains that the sounds are a “set of tones produced by decoding frequency-based audio from crop circles in Wilton Windmill, Wiltshire UK in 2010.”

After 10 minutes of this, the track switches to a run-of-the-mill guided meditation. Or rather, almost run of the mill. While the standard instructions on breathing and being aware of your thoughts are in there, the American male voice also tells listeners what to do if a being from another world enters their consciousness.

“Convey your sense of oneness with them. Invite them to come to the place where you are located and to interact with your team if it is safe and appropriate for them to do so,” he says.

As the meditation comes to a close, the group confers about what they saw in the sky over the previous 30 minutes or so. 

While many noted the many satellites they spotted, several of those who were looking northwards said they saw a strange green light. 

The group sits down in a circle to begin the CE-5 meditation.

While proponents of CE-5 believe that focused human intention can establish contact with extraterrestrial intelligence, the practice is not supported by the scientific community. No empirical evidence has been presented to verify such encounters, and mainstream scientists widely regard claims of telepathic alien communication as pseudoscientific. 

Researchers also caution that sightings during such events may be subject to suggestion, confirmation bias, or misidentification of conventional aerial phenomena.

A UFO enthusiast uses a laser to point at something he saw in the sky.