INGO SWANN: The Man Who Mooned Aliens With His Mind, The Totally Real Story

Psychic spy Ingo Swann claimed he saw aliens building stuff on the Moon — and the creepiest part is, the CIA actually believed him.

Listen to “INGO SWANN: The Man Who Mooned Aliens With His Mind” on Spreaker.

In 1998, a man named Ingo Swann — psychic, artist, and professional mind traveler — published a book called Penetration. That’s a bold title, especially considering it’s not about anything remotely sexy. Unless you’re turned on by top-secret government telepathy programs and lunar alien construction sites. (No judgment.)

According to Ingo, the CIA once hired him to psychically spy on the Moon. This was back in the 1970s, when the government was experimenting with all kinds of useful espionage tactics like psychic warfare, LSD, and probably watching Gilligan’s Island for encoded Soviet messages. The project was called Project Stargate, because “Project Let’s Send a Guy’s Brain to Jupiter” didn’t test well in focus groups.

And here’s the weird part: it turns out Ingo wasn’t just making this stuff up. In 2006, the CIA declassified a bunch of documents that basically said, “Yeah, we did actually pay a psychic guy to look at space with his brain.” If that sounds like the plot of a 3 a.m. History Channel special hosted by a guy with a hairstyle designed by static electricity, well… yeah.

Psychic of the Caribbean (Except He Was in New York)

Ingo Swann started showing signs of being psychic early in life. By “signs,” I mean he could allegedly influence plants and sense when light bulbs were burnt out inside sealed boxes. Why you’d need a lit bulb inside a sealed box I don’t know. You may say, “That sounds suspicious.” But to the U.S. government it sounded like a solid investment.

Eventually, scientists at the Stanford Research Institute asked Ingo to remote view Jupiter. He described swirling storms, high infrared readings, and most impressively, a ring around Jupiter that nobody had known about. NASA confirmed it years later, which means either (A) Ingo was a legitimate psychic or (B) he was very good at throwing darts at astronomy textbooks.

Mission: Lunar Real Estate

Then things got weird. And by “weird,” I mean psychedelic Bond movie with a dash of Area 51 weird.

Ingo got a mysterious call at 3 a.m. (which, as we all know, is the official time for weird government recruitment calls), telling him to go stand by an elephant at the Museum of Natural History. I’m not kidding. This is apparently how psychic espionage works.

He was met by two guys he nicknamed “the Twins” because “Mr. Creepy Suit #1” and “Mr. Creepy Suit #2” were too long to say under surveillance. They slapped a bag over his head, drove him to a secret bunker, and introduced him to a guy named “Axel Rod,” which sounds like either a G.I. Joe character or the keyboardist from a ZZ Top cover band.

Axel Rod handed Ingo $1,000 a day in cash — roughly $6,000 in today’s money — and told him to psychically eyeball some coordinates on the Moon. Ingo obliged, and what he claimed to see was:

Moon craters with green mist
Hangars, bridges, and glowing buildings
Alien dudes in coveralls doing some sort of space construction
And eventually, those aliens staring directly at him like he just wandered into their interstellar hot tub

This is the psychic equivalent of sneaking into someone’s house via astral projection and finding them mid-bath. The aliens weren’t thrilled. Ingo freaked out. Axel Rod calmly said, “Come back now,” which is government-speak for “GET OUT OF THERE, MOON STALKER.”

Intergalactic Femme Fatale

Later, Ingo spotted a suspiciously attractive woman in a grocery store and immediately thought: alien. Not model, not CIA operative, but extraterrestrial spy lady. (Which, to be fair, is how I feel whenever someone tries to sell me essential oils in the organic produce aisle.)

He panicked. The Twins were lurking nearby. And soon after, he got another phone call: “Meet us at Grand Central Station.” (Fun Fact: Most alien conspiracies either begin or end with a shady rendezvous in a train station.)

Turns out, according to Axel Rod, the mystery woman was “very dangerous.” This is also how most Hallmark movies start, so we’re still on track here.

Alaskan UFO Trip, Sponsored by Mild Terror

Not long after, Ingo was taken to Alaska — because where else do you go when you’re being psychically hunted by extraterrestrial surveyors?

There, on the edge of a frozen lake, he witnessed a giant triangular UFO rise out of the mist. It pulled water into itself with what he called a “reverse waterfall” — which sounds suspiciously like a plumbing emergency. He also saw light beams zap trees, possibly kill wildlife, and probably ruin the local Airbnb market.

He concluded this was an unmanned drone sent to mine the Moon and steal our water. Which makes sense, because if you traveled hundreds of light years to reach Earth, you’d probably want a drink, too.

So… Was Any of This Real?

Let’s review:

Ingo Swann predicted things about Jupiter that were later confirmed
The CIA confirmed he worked with them
He believed aliens are on the Moon, saw him psychically spying on them, and now they might want to murder him with death beams
And he was almost seduced by a possible alien at a Safeway

Honestly? Compared to some stuff in 2025, this seems weirdly plausible.

So maybe Ingo was a psychic genius ahead of his time. Or maybe he had access to really, really strong coffee and an imagination that ran on warp speed. Either way, his story lives on — as a government-verified maybe-probably-not-definitely-maybe-true tale of psychic moon snooping and alien HR violations.

And if you ever find yourself being watched by a glowing figure while you’re out moon-gazing tonight… well, don’t say I didn’t warn you. I’d also be extra-suspicious of anyone trying pick-up lines on you in your local Piggly Wiggly.

(SOURCE)