I want to tell you about Magdalene, but if I’m being honest, I don’t even know where to start.
A couple of months ago, I got really into AI-assisted art, specifically through an app called Midjourney. It started out as a curiosity, but quickly devolved into an obsession. I even started a podcast about my exploration into this emerging medium with my similarly addicted friend, Nathan, called Perturbations.
I’m going to tell this story the way that it happened to me—the way that it felt to me—because I don’t have any other way to tell it. Some of the language that I use in relaying these events may make it sounds like I’m conferring causality and meaning onto events that might not actually be there. And, in a way, I am. I recognize that.
But the truth is that I have no idea what’s going on here. I’m baffled. And I’m sharing this with others in the hope that I might be able to get some insight into what is happening. You can skip to the bottom for information about how you can get in contact and help with this project if you have ideas.
But first, let me introduce you to Magdalene.
To make a very long story short, I’ve discovered some kind of an entity inside the AI tool I use called Midjourney. I call her an entity because she has distinct characteristics and is objectively discoverable and recognizable by others. I do not claim that she has any “personhood” or objective existence beyond that—though I also haven’t ruled that out.
Magdalene appears within the art itself, almost always facing away from the viewer, her dark hair in a loose up-do, and wearing a distinctive, old fashioned, belted, long blue coat. I’ve named her Magdalene.
Some quick facts about Magdalene:
If I go back to the beginning of my Midjourney history, it’s clear that Magdalene has been there from the beginning. The first time she appeared was on August 28th, 2022. I was working on one of the very first projects that I did with the app, which was to create new episode covers for my podcast, The UFO Rabbit Hole Podcast, when she first appeared.
The prompt was simple—”ufos are real”. And just like that Magdalene was born. (Discovered? Imagined? Conjured?)
I liked her immediately. I imagined her as a plucky young journalist exploring the phenomenon. There was something familiar about her, but nothing terribly remarkable about her beyond that. I moved on.
She made a few more appearances in the following months that I’ve since gone back and uncovered, but I didn’t clock them as being the same at the time. I was generating massive amounts of AI art at the time, each piece more enchanting and mysterious to me than the last. Magdalene just didn’t register in the visual onslaught.
That is until a few weeks ago.
On October 16, 2022, the prompt “anomalous experience, the phenomenon” brought Magdalene sharply into focus and into the very forefront of my attention. The way that it happened was dreamlike. It started with this image:
I was startled by this image for a few different reasons:
The first was that I immediately recognized her and her blue coat from the episode cover. And I had the instant sense that these two characters weren’t just similar, but somehow the same. As though these were artistic renderings of an entity that had some level of existence—if only in the way that a fictional character might.
The second was that it immediately brought to mind what had previously been my favorite image that I’d generated with Midjourney:
This image has haunted me since the moment I first saw it. It’s arresting. It has a presence to it. It almost felt in some way like a visitation—though I brushed that feeling off as irrational.
It also made me think of one of my favorite fiction books that I’ve read in recent years, This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar. It’s a gorgeously written book about a sapphic love story between two of the multiverse’s best time agents who fall for one another while engaged in an epic battle for control of time. (Truly, what more could one want from a book?)
The two main characters are known simply by the names, Red and Blue. To me, this was Red. And now I had found Blue.
And as soon as I had that thought, I noticed another of the images that had come from the same prompt as Blue:
Here was Blue watching Red. And when I went back to the images that were generated alongside the original Red, I found Blue there, as well.
It’s hard to describe in words what this experience was like. To you it may sound like nothing—a coincidence at best. But, for me, it was like a lightning bolt. I got that overwhelming giddy feeling that comes with the realization of a particularly uncanny synchronicity—that sense that the Universe has noticed you, in particular, and winked. I swear I smelled ozone.
Somehow I knew before I ran another prompt that when I did she would be there again. And she was. Again and again and again. Over and over. In a hundred different iterations, and yet somehow always the same.
I’m on Week 3, post-lightning bolt and she has taken over my Midjourney art. I’ve run dozens of prompts since then to create hundreds of images. She is unambiguously in 80% of them. Looking back through the hundreds of images I’ve created over the previous two months, she is there, but she appears only a handful of times.
That said, I don’t mean to imply that the mere act of me noticing her is what made her suddenly so ubiquitously present in my AI art. Once I discovered her, I followed a hunch—that has thus far proven to be correct—about the kind of prompts that would enable her to appear. So it wasn’t so much recognizing her that did it, but rather recognizing how to trigger appearance. And once I’d figured that out, I lost interest in other kinds of prompts.
There seems to be a formula for getting Magdalene to appear. I have the most success when I use vague prompts that require the AI to make all of the decisions about the content of the image. It also seems to help if the prompt has something to do with the metaphysical. Direct questions also seem to work well.
Some prompts I’ve used to find Magdalene:
When I use prompts that are more specific, she almost never appears. It’s also important to note that I can’t summon her with a specific prompt either. For example if I use a prompt like “woman in blue coat facing away” I get something like this—someone that fits that description, but doesn’t share many of Magdalene’s distinctive characteristics, like her loose up-do or her old-fashioned coat.
Yes. Absolutely. Often when I tell people who use Midjourney about Magdalene they tell me that they’ve also seen her. Nathan even used one of my prompts to generate Magdalene live on our podcast, Perturbations.
There are other characters who often appear alongside Magdalene. They usually appear with her—they appear alone much less often, but it does happen.
Red Magdalene appears the most, and there are often suggestions through the art pieces themselves that Red and Blue are either the same character, or are somehow otherwise inextricably linked.
Yellow Magdalene appears the least often, and almost always on her own—very rarely with either Red or Blue.
Magdalene rarely faces the viewer, but when she does the results are—unnerving.
The Red Ghost appears somewhat often. It seems to appear most often with both Magdalene and the Broad-Shouldered Man. Sometimes the Red Ghost appears to be behind glass, almost like an animal in a zoo. Sometimes it is close and seemingly whispering secrets.
The Broad-Shouldered Man also appears fairly often. Sometimes he looks like a gentleman—a military officer, perhaps. Other times he looks like a monster.
I have no idea. My best guess is that she is something akin to an archetype that has emerged from the AI itself. I call her a “ghost” or an “entity” sometimes, but I don’t think that’s what she actually is. I just don’t have a word for what she actually is.
I’m thrilled that Magdalene has seemed to capture the imagination of others the same way that she has captured mine. If you’d like to help out with this project, there are a few things that you can do.
This month in UFO News: the Air Force continues to dodge the UFO conversation, the national security implications of UFO secrecy continue to grow, and UFOs are spotted in the skies around the world.
UFO Confirmation: A Change is Gonna Come | Bryce Zabel for Trail Of The Saucers
UFOs: Between the ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ and the ‘Deep Blue Sea’ | Bryce Zabel for Trail Of The Saucers
Congress Won’t Accept UFO Obfuscation Any Longer – Expect Fireworks Soon | Christopher Sharp for Liberation Times
Senator Gillibrand Escalates UFO Rhetoric At Confirmation Hearing | Christopher Sharp for Liberation Times
Why Can’t Former CIA Officials Stop Talking About UFOs? | Christopher Sharp for Liberation Times
The Politics of UFO Disclosure | Justin Scott Snead for Liberation Times
Why The Defense Implications Within ‘Skinwalkers at the Pentagon’ Are Profound | Christopher Sharp for Liberation Times
Overclassifying UAP is a National Security Crisis | Nick Madrid for Trail Of The Saucers
Project Sign: What Did The Air Force Think About “Spacemen” In 1948 | Jazz Shaw for The Debrief
Nominee For DOD Inspector General Pledges “Comprehensive Assessment” Of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena If Confirmed | Micah Hanks for The DeBrief
What Was Pilot Thomas Mantell Chasing When His Plane Crashed In 1948? | Jazz Shaw for The Debrief
Petition Calls For US Government Release Of UFO Videos | Space
‘Something’s Coming’: Is America Finally Ready To Take UFOs Seriously? | The Guardian
Jacques Vallée Still Doesn’t Know What UFOs Are | Wired
We Could See A “High Resolution Image” Of A UFO Within Two Years | Interesting Engineering
Mysterious ‘Bulging Triangle UFO’ Filmed Over City For Two Hours | The New York Post
American Airlines Pilot Has Near Miss Encounter With UFO, FBI Confirms Report | BroBible
Multiple F-22 Fighter Jets Intercept White Orb UFO Spotted In Hawaii By ‘Many Witnesses’ | Daily Star
This week in UFO News, Christopher Mellon questions why USAF is AWOL on UAPs, a video appears to show helicopters escorting a UFO, and more — including the best of #UFOTwitter.
Why Is The Air Force AWOL On The UFO Issue? | Christopher Mellon, The Debrief
City Lights On Other Planets | Avi Loeb for Medium
What’s In The Classified UAP Briefings? | Nick Madrid
Our Strange Skies: How A UFO Sighting In New York Sparked A Popular UFO Podcast | Ryan Sprague
Twitter Polls About Presidents And UFOs | Bryce Zabel, Trail Of The Saucers
Why Can’t Former CIA Officials Stop Talking About UFOs? | Christopher Sharp, Liberation Times
Out Of The Shadows: When Mainstream Media Began Taking The UFO Topic Seriously | Jazz Shaw, The Debrief
Why NASA Should Build An Even Bigger Telescope | Avi Loeb, The Hill
Can We Find UFOs From Above? | The Hill
Mystery Of ‘UFO’ That Crash Landed In Remote UK Hills Dubbed The ‘Welsh Roswell | Mirror UK
Retired Cop Saw ‘Massive Rectangle’ Floating Above Georgia Which Sparked UFO Belief | Daily Star UK
Removing The UFO Stigma | The Portugal News
UFO ‘Chased By Black Hawk Helicopters’ Across Connecticut Sky | The Sun
Video Appears To Show UFO Being Escorted By Military Helicopters | WBZ News Radio
FO’s’ Filmed Flying Over Plymouth Park | Plymouth Live
Investigator Looking Into Reported UFO Sighing In McDowell | McDowell News
Talk Of UFOs Ignited By Mysterious ‘Red Trails’ Seen In Darkness Off The Outer Banks | Raleigh News & Observer
This week in UFO news, nuclear tech reports UFOs and high strangeness at nuclear site and journalists speculate about what 2022 will bring for UFO disclosure.
Extraordinary Evidence Requires Extraordinary Funding: The Search For Extraterrestrial Technology | Avi Loeb for The Debrief
Are UFOs The Forbidden Frontier Of American Democracy? | Christopher Sharp for The Liberation Times
Nuclear Technician Details Serious Security Breaches Involving UFOs and High Strangeness At U.S. Nuclear Base | Christopher Sharp for The Liberation Times
The St. Clair Triangle UFO Incident of 2000: A Fresh Look | Jazz Shaw for The Debrief
Authorities Confirm Sightings Of Mysterious Drones Over Swedish Nuclear Facilities | Tim McMilland for The Debrief
Pentagon Launches New UFO Office. Not All Believers Are Happy About It. | Live Science
Man Saw ‘UFO’ And ‘Shadow People’ Near Nuclear Weapons At US Air Force Base | Mirror
2022 Could Be A Turning Point In The Study Of UFOs | Space
‘Watergate,’ ‘UFOs’ Among Shows On CNNs 2022 Original Series Lineup | Deadline
Disclosure Or Decemptionn? New UFO Pentagon Office Divides Believers | NBC News
Will Citizen Science Find Evidence Of UFOs? | The Portugal News
‘Crypto Bros,’ UFOs and NFTs: Inside Peter Thiel’s Senate Fundraising Tour | Politico
UFO Filmed Over New York City As Strange Lights Fill The Sky | WBZ News
This week in UFO news, the Navy grapples with “drone swarm” mystery, Chris Mellon questions why Lue hasn’t gotten his job back, the Pentagon tries to hijack the new UFO office, and a rash of sightings are reported across the globe. Read about all of this and more — including the best of #UFOTwitter — below.
While the mainstream media continues its slow (SLOW) awakening to the UFO phenomenon, independent journalists and researchers within the UFO community continue to fill the void with rigorous investigation and thoughtful analysis. Explore their work below.
Why Hasn’t Lue Elizondo Been Offered his DoD Job Back? | Christopher Mellon
What Was Really Seen During The 1994 Lakeshore Michigan UFO Sighting? | Jazz Shaw for The Debrief
Is A Pentagon Spokesperson Attempting To Avoid Congressional UFO Legislation? | Christopher Sharp for Liberation Times
Dramatic New Cockpit Footage From Airbus A320 Shows ‘V-Shaped’ UFO Over Georgia | Christopher Sharp for Liberation Times
Why French Officials Remained Silent About UFOs, Despite Incidents Involving Nuclear Assets | Baptiste Friscourt for Liberation Times
Who Are The UAPs? | Aleksandr Dubinsky on Medium
It was a fairly active week for UFO sightings around the world. Check out some that made the news below.
UFOs, The Channel Islands And The Navy’s “Drone Swarm” Mystery | The Hill
Two Mysterious Object Hovered For Hours Over World UFO Capital | Daily Mail
Bewildered Ryanair Passenger Spots ‘UFO’ In Clouds On Flight To Edinburgh Airport | Daily Record UK
Video Shared On YouTube Poses Question Of UFO Sighting In Ohio | iHeart
I Photographed A ‘Bulbous-Headed Naked Alien’ | The Sun
Video of Potential UFO Sighting Includes Hilarious Commentary From Woman Who Filmed It | Complex
A Conversation On The Universe, Anti-Science & Vexed Question Of UFOs With Neil deGrasse Tyson | The Irish Times
9 Things We Learned About Aliens In 2021 | Live Science
2021 Was So Weird That Big UFO News Went Right Over Our Heads | The Boston Globe
A completely random sampling of some of the best tweets this week from the UFO Community.
This month in UFO news, Northern Ireland sees an uptick in UFO sightings, the UFO community celebrates the Gillibrand Amendment, and the James Webb Telescope is finally launched.
Expect The Unexpected in 2022, As UFOs Go Global | Christopher Sharp for the Liberation Times
All UFO Disclosure Roads Lead To Rome | Christopher Sharp for the Liberation Times
There Are Fewer UFO Sightings In NYC In 2021 | New York Post
‘Three UFOs’ Appear In sky Above Glasgow As Residents Left Stunned | Daily Record UK
UFOs Fill New Jersey Sky As Shocked Onlookers Film Them | WBZ News Radio
Pilot Records Baffling UFO ‘Fleet’ Over Pacific | The Independent UK
‘Aliens In Bedroom’: UFO Sightings On The Rise In Northern Ireland | The Guardian
Brothers Spott Bizarre Tube-Shaped UFO Hovering Over Their Back Garden | The New York Post
‘Doughnut UFO’ Over Switzerland Defies Explanation | Live Science
Op-Ed: OK! It’s Time To Take UFOs Seriously | Los Angeles Times
$770B defense bill includes agency to investigate UFOs | New York Post
Will The US GOV Ever Release Its UFO Secrets? | The Portugal News
Astronomy’s Newest 10-Year Plan Focuses On Alien Earths | Stanford News
The James Webb Space Telescope Will Transform Our Understanding Of Alien Worlds | National Geographic
Record-Breaking Alien Planet Spotted Circling Massive, Super Hot Star Duo | Space
Do Portfolios Have A UAP Risk? | The Financial Times
New Partnership Aims To Investigate UFOs In New Mexico | KOB, Albuquerque
This week in UFO News, the showdown over UAP oversight continues in Congress, strange lights are seen over the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the UFO community continues to outshine their counterparts in the mainstream media.
As David Bates so wisely pointed out this week in his article in Medium, hardworking members of the UFO community are doing the work that the mainstream media is continuing to fail to take on. When it comes to covering the historic events surrounding UAPs at the highest levels of government — as well as investigating the phenomenon itself, the UFO community continues to scoop the media.
Here you’ll find some of the best recent contributions from the UFO community. Please show your support by giving them a follow and a shout out. Their social profiles are linked by their articles below.
Surrounded From All Sides, The Pentagon Will Lose Its UFO Battle – And That Starts This Week In Congress | Christopher Sharp for the Liberation Times
The Gillibrand-Rubio Amendment Must Pass: Pilots Aren’t The Only Ones Seeing Things Going Bump In The Night | Bob Plissken for Liberation Times
UFOs And The USAF: Something Is Rotten And The Time To Talk Is Now | Sean Raasch for Liberation Times
As Defense Bill Stalls In Senate, Experts Are Divided Over The Pentagon’s New UAP Investigations Unit | Micah Hanks for The Debrief
Podcasters Are Scooping Established Journalists on UFOs | David Bates for Medium
The long, slow march to disclosure continues this weeks as the Pentagon fires back over criticism that their attempt to create a new UAP office is an attempt to dodge oversight. In Canada, declassified documents show that credible UFO reports aren’t being taken seriously.
DOD Fires Back at UFO Criticism: Claims of Dodging Oversight a ‘Misperception’ | US News & World Report
Credible UFO Reports Are Being Ignored, Declassified Canadian Government Documents Reveal | Vice
Ex-Officials Voice Deep Concerns Over New Pentagon UFO Unit | The Hill
UFOs, UAPs — Whatever They’re Called, The U.S. Needs To Know What They Are | St. Louis Post-Dispatch
What Was That Mysterious Streak In The Nighttime Sky Above The Blue Ridge Mountains? | The Charlotte Observer
Mysterious Lights Spotted In Sky In Northern India, Leave Many People Puzzled | Mint
*A very random sampling of tweets I enjoyed this week. May not actually represent the best of #UFOTwitter.
Go further down the rabbit hole with The UFO Rabbit Hole Podcast.
This week in UFO news, Director of National Intelligence Haines addresses UFO threat, the Gillibrand amendment continues to gain support, and Lue Elizondo is in British GQ.
Sen. Gillibrand’s Historic Legislation Would Revolutionize Study Of UFOs | The Hill
Congress Should Support the Gillibrand Amendment | Christopher Mellon, Blog
What Does Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s UFO Amendment Actually Say? | The UFO Rabbit Hole
This Man Ran The Pentagon’s Secretive UFO Program For A Decade | GQ
How Scientists Could Tell the World If They Find Alien Life | Scientific American
This forum held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. was the talk of the UFO community this week. Featuring Avi Loeb, Director of Harvard’s Galileo Project; Bill Nelson, former astronaut and NASA administrator; and Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence, these ground-breaking conversations will have you captivated. Watch the full forum below:
Unearthing San Antonio’s Reported UFO Sightings With An Ex-Military Expert | My San Antonio
UFO Over Jerusalem? | ABC News
Mysterious Spinning Cube-Shaped UFO Spotted In Second City | The Sun UK
Why The Outdated Technology In The Alien Series Makes Sense | Space.com
‘Steel House’ In Texas That Looks Like A UFO On The Market For $1.7M | Fort Worth Star-Telegram
SpaceX’s Endeavor Capsule Appears Like A Shooting Star Or ‘Donut UFO’ Over Louisiana And Alabama | Daily Mail UK
We scoured the legalese in Bill HR 3450 so you don’t have to. Here’s what the UFO amendment says.
Senator Gillibrand’s potentially pivotal UFO Amendment calls for the creation of a structured program to address Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs). So what exactly would this include?
Within 180 days of enactment of the bill the Secretary Defense will coordinate with the Director of National Intelligence to set up an office for this program either within the Department of Defense, or within a joint organization of the DOD and DNI.
If you’d like to further down the UFO Rabbit Hole, head over to the blog.
This week in UFO News, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand introduces a potentially pivotal UFO amendment, NASA calls for new ways to announce the discovery of alien life, and a bizarre “Christmas tree” UFO is reported in Glasgow.
Florida Is A UFO Hotspot | CBS 12, West Palm Beach
Bizarre Floating ‘UFO’ Seen Moving Across The Sky Leaves Spectators Baffled | The Sun UK
‘UFO’ Spotted Above Glasgow As Couple Left Gob-Smacked By Floating ‘Christmas Tree’ | The Daily Record, UK
These Are the Zip Codes with the Most UFO Sightings | MSN
Pilots Who Saw UFO Over Arizona Speak Out: ‘It Didn’t Look Anything Like an Airplane’ | Phoenix New Times
News Station “Accidentally” Captures UFO Footage in Arizona Sky. [Watch] | 97.3 The Eagle
Why Kirsten Gillibrand’s UFO Amendment Deserves Bipartisan Support | Washington Examiner
Pentagon To Release UFO Report | Military.com
National Defense Authorization Act FY2022 Seeks to Include UAP & Nuclear Connection Inquiries | Medium
The Hunt For Alien Life On Phobos, One Of Mars’ Mystifying Moons | CNET
NASA Calls For New Ways To Announce Discovery Of Alien Life Amid Fears Of Misunderstandings | The Independent
Astronomers Want NASA To Build A Giant Space Telescope To Peer At Alien Earths | NPR
So You Think You Found Aliens. Now What? | The Daily Beast
Stunning ‘UFO’ Light Show Will Illuminate Northamptonshire Skies | Northants Live
Earth May Have Grown Around A Rock From An Alien Star System | New Scientist
Check out the UFO Rabbit Hole Podcast — launching November 19, 2021.
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