Imminent: A Review

In the Fall of 2019, I was in Encinitas, north of San Diego, en route to Hawaii for work. I stopped by the storefront for To The Stars where I ran into the author of this new book, Imminent, Luis Elizondo. This was just after several articles had been published in the media containing amplifying information regarding three videos of UFOs, or as Luis had called them, Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UAP). The release of these videos, the articles, and Tom’s team’s work with To The Stars excited me. I make no secret of my love and admiration for all things related to both blink-182 and Angels & Airwaves. I also make no secret of my fascination with the spiritual and the paranormal. So the events surrounding the beginnings of the UAP discussion, and the involvement of Tom Delonge and his government partners, were something I followed extremely closely from the beginning.

Fast forward to 2024. Luis no longer works with To The Stars but still works closely with his team members and government members to push toward open dialogue and disclosure of facts surrounding UAP. This work has culminated in several measures put forward by governments around the world to establish programs and reporting mechanisms to handle incidents involving UAP. For Luis, it seems this work also culminates in this book, Imminent. It serves as both a memoir and a documentation of the events that took place throughout his lifetime, from work as an enlisted counterintelligence soldier in the Army to working with 3-letter agencies in various programs to work in the Pentagon on several high-level programs, most notably Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP).

When Luis joined To The Stars, a few of the Sekret Machines books, in both the fiction and non-fiction series, had already been released, and I had enthusiastically digested them. Each series was well-written, with thorough explanations of the background and history of the UAP phenomenon, weaving in explanations and relations to religion, politics, and human nature. The third book in the non-fiction series, War, is due in a matter of weeks, and I’ll be eager to see what it contains. I was excited to learn about Luis, his background in the military, and everything he had to say about UAPs and AATIP.

Imminent comes across as an honest portrayal of Luis’ side of the story of UAPs. While Tom Delonge and To The Stars have taken the approach of selling merch that read “Tom Was Right: Aliens Fucking Exist” in celebration of congressional recognition and legitimization of the issue, Luis takes a different approach. This book not only celebrates the progress made in removing the stigma around UAP and government recognition of the issue, but it also serves as a well-crafted retort to detractors and nay-sayers. Not that one approach is better than the other. The victory is worth celebrating, after all. And indeed, aliens do fucking exist.

I have heard people refer to this book, and others like it, as psyops publications. That is to say, their publication is endorsed by the government to further sway people into believing one thing or another as part of a larger agenda. I’m hesitant to buy into this theory since every person who has been writing about this topic and fighting for dialogue and disclosure, from Bob Lazar to George Knapp, Tom Delonge to Senator Harry Reid, Brandon Fugal to Christopher Mellon, to the countless witnesses and researchers over the past hundred years that have come forward with their stories, have put their reputations on the line, have all been met with immense resistance, backlash, and public scrutiny, have undergone person attacks on character, and have sacrificed a part of themselves to move the needle a little further. Imminent serves as just another example of someone putting themselves and their reputation on the line to bring forth truth and dialogue. It’s easy to forget that these are real people with real motives for coming forward and discussing these issues. We should be embracing their stories with compassion and open-mindedness rather than dismissing them with religious fervor.

That’s not to say that the book is perfect. There are plenty of instances where, through the government’s approval process for public release, vital information has been redacted. Some of the information, like people’s names, is understandable. Other redactions simply leave room for the mind to wonder. There are also fantastical stories about a variety of other paranormal phenomena ranging from strange orbs floating through Luis’ house to government remote viewing programs. In reality, I believe that all things and events, normal and paranormal, are interconnected through energy. So I’m inclined to also believe that these stories have their grounding in the truth.

This book is loaded with military and intelligence community jargon that may be more difficult for someone without that background to understand. I think in that regard, I have the advantage of familiarity. But I would be curious to see how this is interpreted by someone less familiar. It’s often very difficult to describe in a meaningful way the thick systems of bureaucracy surrounding the government, especially in the fields of military and intelligence. I think Luis does of decent job of translating, but for the unfamiliar, it may still come across as dense.

There are a few key facts to take away from this book that I think are really important.

UAPs are real and are most likely from non-human or off-world intelligence.
Luis indeed ran the Pentagon’s UAP program and is still heavily involved in the disclosure effort.
Luis’ perspective on the topic is inherently military. That being the case, his angle for approaching this topic is from a concerned perspective regarding what threat these objects pose to humans, specifically Americans. How real of a threat they are remains to be seen.
Real taxpayer money is being spent on programs to investigate these incidents more seriously. Real laws are being created to address the issue. And real people with real families and real livelihoods are involved. It’s no longer acceptable to remain passive or dismissive about this topic.

I doubt this is the last we will hear of Luis. I have nothing but respect for him and the entire AATIP and TTS teams, as they’ve made significant contributions in rectifying historical wrongs concerning UAP incidents. I’m hoping that the other topics covered in this book, and that the paranormal in general, are given the same consideration for legitimate study by scientific and academic communities that UAPs are beginning to see. This could include topics such as near-death experiences, ghosts, and other paranormal phenomena. I believe that more research is needed to understand these phenomena and to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the world we find ourselves in. Remaining fundamentalist, dogmatic, and close-minded is no longer the appropriate approach.

Adam Hinds is a retired Navy Chief Operations Specialist with 21 years of service and nearly a decade in the nonprofit sector. He is also an active US Coast Guard Auxiliarist and a volunteer firefighter. Holding leadership certifications, a Master’s in Christian Practice and Conflict Management, and a Bachelor’s in International Relations, Adam is currently pursuing a PhD in Public Policy/National Security. Passionate about problem-solving and societal betterment, he enjoys creating content with purpose and meaning, including his work with in.pencil (https://inpencil.live).

You can learn more about his projects and endeavors at his personal website: adamhinds.net

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