NIDS and the "Day After" scenarios

This document, authored by Keith Basterfield on December 29, 2019, provides a historical overview of the 'Day After' scenarios explored by the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) between 1995 and 2004. The core subject is the investigation into how society, government, and religious institutions would react to an official announcement confirming the existence of extraterrestrial life. The author draws heavily from the diaries of Jacques Vallee, a member of the NIDS Science Advisory Board, to illustrate the internal discussions held by NIDS founder Bob Bigelow and others regarding the potential for a 'dramatic development' or 'striking announcement' by the government. The document details several specific research initiatives, most notably a 1999 nationwide survey conducted by the Roper organization for NIDS, which sought to gauge public opinion on extraterrestrial contact. This survey was compared against an online questionnaire distributed to NIDS website visitors. The results indicated a widespread lack of trust in the U.S. government's willingness to disclose information, with a majority of respondents believing the government would classify or suppress such evidence. Furthermore, the document references the 'Alexander UFO Religious Crisis Survey' and subsequent academic work by Ted Peters and Julie Froehlig, which investigated the potential impact of contact on organized religion. The author concludes by noting that while these 'Day After' scenarios were a significant area of interest for NIDS, they were not a primary focus for the author until this research compilation. The document serves as a synthesis of NIDS's efforts to model the social and consciousness-related impacts of a potential disclosure event.