Walk into a modern UAP conference and there is a decent chance you will see Alan Steinfeld somewhere near the front of the room. He might be on stage moderating a panel about non-human intelligences, quietly filming an interview for his long running New Realities channel, or speaking about what he calls humanity’s “galactic identity”.
At the 2023 San Diego UAP gathering, KPBS cameras caught him describing the moment this way: “We are at the threshold of a new time, possibly a new awakening of who we are to the rest of the cosmos.” (KPBS Public Media)
For more than three decades Steinfeld has used television, books, film and conferences to argue that UAP phenomena are not only real but deeply entangled with consciousness itself.
Early life and first encounters
Conference biographies for New Living Expo state that he “has been involved with Disclosure since his experiences as a young child” and that from those early events he concluded that humanity would only accept we are not alone if we learned to “shift our worldview about what we think is possible”. (New Living Expo)
In later interviews, including conversations around his book Making Contact: Preparing for the New Realities of Extraterrestrial Existence, Steinfeld alludes to early encounters with what he interprets as non-human intelligences. Promotional material for one television interview notes that “since childhood he has experienced ET realities”. (YouTube)
For UAPedia purposes, these formative contact narratives sit in the category of experiencer testimony rather than documented incident reports. There are no publicly available police records, radar logs or contemporaneous medical files linked to those childhood episodes. The impact, however, appears decisive. Nearly every later biography frames his career as a direct outgrowth of those early encounters and of a lifelong feeling that consciousness is larger than the human brain. (Evolutionary Leaders)
Building “New Realities”
If Steinfeld has a legacy project, it is New Realities.
According to the official site, he founded New Realities in the mid-1990s as a Manhattan cable program that offered “a vibrant alternative to the mainstream” and focused on consciousness, spirituality and the then emerging UAP wave. (New Realities – Making Known the Unknown) Over time it migrated online and grew into a substantial YouTube presence with more than 90,000 subscribers and tens of millions of views, featuring over 2,500 interviews. (New Realities – Making Known the Unknown)
The guests map out Steinfeld’s ecosystem. New Realities has hosted wellness and consciousness figures such as Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Bruce Lipton, Lynne McTaggart, Joe Dispenza and visionary artist Alex Grey, alongside a long list of UAP researchers and experiencers. (New Realities – Making Known the Unknown)
The Hollywood Disclosure Alliance profile of Steinfeld notes that New Realities has included interviews with Budd Hopkins, John Mack, Richard Dolan, Danny Sheehan, Steve Bassett, Kathleen Marden and many other UAP focused thinkers. (Hollywood Disclosure Alliance) These names alone are a roll call of late twentieth and early twenty first century abduction research, disclosure activism and experiencer advocacy.
On the production side, Steinfeld has not limited himself to UAP specific guests. His programming weaves together UAP sightings, abduction narratives, remote viewing research, near death experiences and esoteric philosophies. This cross pollination has helped normalize UAP as one strand in a broader “consciousness exploration” narrative, particularly for audiences who first arrived via New Age, healing, or human potential interests.
For UAPedia’s taxonomy, New Realities qualifies as a long running independent media project that amplifies UAP related claims from a wide spectrum of experiencers, researchers and channelers. Its evidentiary role is primarily archival and testimonial, not empirical in the radar or sensor data sense, but historically important in documenting how the community has talked about contact.
Books, essays and the Making Contact project
“Making Contact”
Steinfeld’s most visible UAP related publication is Making Contact: Preparing for the New Realities of Extraterrestrial Existence, released in 2021 by St. Martin’s Essentials, an imprint of Macmillan. (Amazon)
Making Contact debuted as a best seller on Amazon all three categories , print, digital and audio and won the 2023 Conscious Life Book Award. Making Contact has been praised by such people as Deepak Chopra, JJ Hurtak, Russell Targ, Jaques Vallee, Linda Moulton Howe and Nick Pope.
The book is not a single authored treatise but a curated anthology. Descriptions from the publisher and library catalogs emphasize that Steinfeld assembled original essays from prominent UAP researchers and experiencers to create a “framework for understanding what ‘making contact’ with extraterrestrials could mean for the future of humanity”. (Macmillan Publishers)
Contributors include:
- Nick Pope, former UK Ministry of Defence UAP desk officer
- Grant Cameron, researcher on UAP and the American presidency
- Dr J. J. and Dr Desiree Hurtak, futurists and founders of the Academy for Future Science
- Linda Moulton Howe, long time investigator of anomalous cattle deaths and UAP cases
- Dr John Mack, the late Harvard psychiatrist who investigated abduction narratives
- Whitley Strieber, author and contact experiencer
- Mary Rodwell, ET contact regression specialist
- Caroline Cory, filmmaker and consciousness researcher
- Darryl Anka, channel for the entity Bashar
- Actress and writer Henrietta Weekes
(The New Thinking Allowed Foundation)
Steinfeld contributes an extended introduction and his own essay and stitches the sections together in a narrative arc that runs from sightings and government secrecy to consciousness, telepathy and the psychological impact of contact. (Colorado Mountain College)
The book debuted as an Amazon best seller in its category and received endorsements from media figures such as George Noory and Deepak Chopra, who framed it as part of a needed “new story” about Earth’s place in its cosmic environment. (New Realities – Making Known the Unknown)
Critical reception has been mixed. Veteran space journalist Leonard David praised the ambition but described the conceptual “scaffolding” around the topic as “pretty wobbly” in places, reflecting the uneven empirical grounding across contributions. (Leonard David) A detailed community review on Reddit’s r/UFOs forum similarly found the overall message to boil down to “keep an open mind”, with some chapters regarded as stronger than others. (Reddit) Goodreads ratings cluster in the middle, suggesting that even sympathetic UAP readers see Making Contact more as an overview of diverse perspectives than a definitive evidence synthesis. (Goodreads)
From a UAPedia claims perspective, Making Contact is best categorized as:
- Evidentiary type: anthology of expert and experiencer interpretations
- Strength: uneven, ranging from archival value (Mack) to speculative metaphysics (channeling, telepathy)
- Impact: high in shaping how lay audiences frame “contact” as a psychological and spiritual process rather than only a technological one
Other publications
Before Making Contact, Steinfeld authored Careers in Alternative Medicine, a guide to holistic health professions now in its third edition. (Evolutionary Leaders) While not directly about UAP, it reflects his long standing interest in non conventional healing, which later overlaps with experiencer support, trauma healing and altered states work within the UAP community.
He has contributed articles on arts, metaphysics and UAP related topics to publications such as the New York Sun, New Life Magazine, The Golden Thread and American Book Review. (New Realities – Making Known the Unknown)
Film, art and the visual language of contact
Steinfeld’s creative career began in the arts and independent film. His short narrative film Never Wear a Dead Man’s Shoes and the documentary A Walking Tour of the East Village 1985 were both screened at notable venues, with the latter receiving a week-long run at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. (New Realities – Making Known the Unknown)
These works examined subcultures, shifting cityscapes and the tension between gentrification and artistic expression. Steinfeld also exhibited experimental photography, including portraits of figures such as Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol, which explored what he describes as “place and presence” through layered imagery. (New Realities – Making Known the Unknown)
In the explicitly UAP domain, he served as executive producer for two feature length documentaries: The Hidden Hand by James Carman and Calling All Earthlings by Jonathan Berman. (New Realities – Making Known the Unknown)
- The Hidden Hand surveys abduction narratives, alleged cover ups and the human response to contact.
- Calling All Earthlings focuses on George Van Tassel and the Integratron, blending UAP contactee history with mid century desert counterculture.
These films extend Steinfeld’s larger project: giving a platform to people who claim direct contact experiences and positioning their stories within a broader cultural transformation.
Organizational roles and networks
Steinfeld is embedded in a dense web of organizations at the intersection of consciousness studies and anomalous phenomena. The Evolutionary Leaders network lists him as:
- Board member of The Friends of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (FIONS)
- Vice President of the Association of Psychotherapy and Spirituality
- Representative to the United Nations for the Academy for Future Science
The Institute of Noetic Sciences, founded by astronaut Edgar Mitchell, researches consciousness and psi phenomena; FIONS functions as its New York based support organization. Steinfeld’s board role places him squarely in the community that treats psi, remote viewing and anomalous experiences as legitimate subjects of scientific inquiry.
He is also listed as faculty for The Shift Network, where he teaches about contact and consciousness, and as a profiled speaker for events such as New Living Expo and Sedona Ascension Retreats. (The Shift Network)
In 2025 and 2026, UAP focused conferences and digital events (including UAPCon) showcased Steinfeld as both speaker and moderator, describing him as a “leading voice in the field of UAP studies and non human intelligence” and highlighting his long experience emceeing Contact in the Desert, often marketed as the largest UAP themed event in the world. (UAPCon – Unlocking New Realities)
These roles matter because they position Steinfeld not only as a commentator but as a gatekeeper. He helps decide which voices reach large live and online audiences in the emerging high production UAP conference circuit.
Public appearances and media footprint
Steinfeld’s media presence spans several decades and formats:
- Television and radio
- Host and producer of New Realities on Manhattan cable and online platforms for over 30 years. (New Realities – Making Known the Unknown)
- Guest on programs such as Coast to Coast AM, Fade to Black and numerous podcasts discussing UAP, remote viewing and consciousness. (New Realities – Making Known the Unknown)
- Interview subject for mainstream outlets including public media station KPBS at a San Diego UAP conference. (KPBS Public Media)
- Podcasts and long form interviews
- Featured guest on Michael Shermer’s Skeptic podcast to discuss how believers and skeptics think about UAP, illustrating his willingness to engage critically minded audiences. (Skeptic)
- Multiple appearances on New Thinking Allowed, including a 2023 episode dedicated to “Contacting Aliens” where he outlines his views on evolutionary consciousness and UAP. (The New Thinking Allowed Foundation)
- Frequent conversations on spiritual and paranormal podcasts that tie UAP to wider questions about life after death, psi and non local mind. (New Dimensions Radio)
- Conferences and festivals
- Long time emcee at Contact in the Desert. (Macmillan Publishers)
- Presenter at New Living Expo, Sedona Ascension Retreats, Portal to Ascension events and regional MUFON gatherings. (New Living Expo)
Through this steady visibility, Steinfeld has become a recognizable “face” of the UAP contact conversation, especially in venues where spirituality and anomalous phenomena intersect.
Known associates within the UAP ecosystem
Steinfeld’s collaborators and frequent guests map cleanly onto UAPedia’s network of key figures. Some of the most relevant include:
- Abduction and contact researchers
- Budd Hopkins, painter and pioneering abduction investigator
- Dr John Mack, Harvard psychiatrist who framed abduction as a transformative experience
- Mary Rodwell, regressionist working with “star seed” contactees
- Investigative journalists and analysts
- Linda Moulton Howe, known for cattle mutilation investigations and Ancient Aliens appearances
- Richard Dolan, historian of UAP secrecy and geopolitics
- Nick Pope, former UK Ministry of Defence UAP investigator
- Disclosure and policy advocates
- Steve Bassett, lobbyist and founder of the Paradigm Research Group
- Danny Sheehan, constitutional attorney involved in high profile UAP related cases
- Consciousness and contact oriented figures
- Dr J. J. and Dr Desiree Hurtak, founders of the Academy for Future Science
- Caroline Cory, filmmaker and consciousness researcher
- Darryl Anka (Bashar), channeled contact personality
- Grant Cameron, researcher emphasizing consciousness and “wow” factor in sightings
(Hollywood Disclosure Alliance)
This constellation reflects Steinfeld’s position inside the “experiencer and consciousness” wing of UAP studies, rather than the purely nuts and bolts aerospace or sensor analysis community.
Core claims and philosophical stance
Across his media work, books and conference talks, several recurring claims define Steinfeld’s contribution to UAP discourse.
- UAP contact is real and ongoing
- In both Making Contact and public talks, Steinfeld states that UAP craft and their occupants are actively engaging humanity. (Macmillan Publishers)
- He treats abduction accounts, CE-5 style contact attempts and psychic communication as parts of a single phenomenon involving non human intelligences.
- Consciousness is the key interface for contact
- He argues that direct contact with non human intelligences requires what he calls a “multi layered sensibility” and expanded consciousness, not only better telescopes. (Reddit)
- Steinfeld teaches remote viewing, crediting Russell Targ’s protocols, and encourages meditation and altered states as ways to tune into non local mind where contact can occur. (The New Thinking Allowed Foundation)
- Disclosure is primarily “an inside job”
- Conference bios quote him as saying that Disclosure is an internal process: humanity must awaken to its nature as a “galactic” species before open contact is possible. (New Living Expo)
- He welcomes government releases of UAP videos and hearings but treats them as late confirmations of what experiencers have reported for decades. (KPBS Public Media)
- Government and military actors have concealed the extent of contact
- Making Contact opens with chapters on craft and cover up, and the book’s marketing explicitly references government secrecy. (Colorado Mountain College)
- In interviews, including New Thinking Allowed, he speaks about historical suppression, aligning with other disclosure advocates. (The New Thinking Allowed Foundation)
Within UAPedia’s claims taxonomy, these positions score as:
- Experiential and interpretive claims supported primarily by testimony, consciousness research and qualitative narratives.
- Minimal reliance on primary sensor data or declassified government case files, though government reports are used to show that UAP are taken seriously within official structures.
Controversies and criticisms
Steinfeld has not been the subject of major personal scandals, but his work sits in contested territory and attracts several lines of critique.
- Methodological concerns
- Skeptical commentators argue that the mix of channeling, remote viewing and subjective experiences in his programming blurs the boundary between evidence and interpretation. The Skeptic podcast episode with Michael Shermer explicitly frames the conversation as a respectful clash between scientific skepticism and Steinfeld’s openness to UAP contact. (Skeptic)
- Blending spirituality and empirical claims
- Steinfeld’s insistence that alien contact can awaken humans to their “divinity” and facilitate an evolutionary leap causes discomfort among researchers who prefer to keep religious or spiritual interpretations separate from the data. (The New Thinking Allowed Foundation)
- Association with controversial figures
- His platforming of channelers, radical contact claims and personalities who have themselves been heavily criticized (for example, some New Age health and consciousness promoters) leads some in the evidence focused UAP research world to view New Realities as insufficiently discriminating. (New Realities – Making Known the Unknown)
From a UAPedia standpoint, these controversies mostly concern epistemology rather than ethics. They highlight real tensions between different approaches inside the field: data driven analysis, experiencer advocacy and metaphysical exploration.
Impact on UAP culture and discourse
Even critics often concede Steinfeld’s influence. Several impact vectors stand out.
- Media amplification of experiencer voices
- By interviewing thousands of guests over decades, New Realities has preserved an audio visual archive of experiencer and researcher testimony that might otherwise have been scattered across small conferences and local support groups. (New Realities – Making Known the Unknown)
- Impact speculation label: High cultural impact, archival value.
- Bridging consciousness research and UAP studies
- Through his roles with FIONS, the Academy for Future Science and his own teaching on remote viewing, Steinfeld has been a persistent connector between psi researchers, spiritual teachers and UAP experiencers. (Evolutionary Leaders)
- Impact speculation label: Moderate to high, polarizing among empiricists.
- Framing Disclosure as psychological and spiritual preparation
- Making Contact and related talks have popularized the idea that UAP disclosure is not only about releasing documents but about expanding human identity, a narrative now common in many contact oriented groups. (Macmillan Publishers)
- Impact speculation label: Emergent, potentially civilizational if claims of contact are validated.
- Influence on conference culture
- As a recurring emcee at major UAP and “ascension” events, Steinfeld influences how panels are structured, which topics get spotlighted and how contentious issues like abductions, non human intelligence motives and government secrecy are framed in front of large audiences. (Macmillan Publishers)
- Impact speculation label: High within the experiencer and spiritual contact subculture; low in mainstream policy circles.
Claims taxonomy snapshot
Key Steinfeld related claims as they pertain to UAPedia’s conceptual framework:
- Claim: Non human intelligences are interacting with humanity through UAP encounters and multi dimensional contact.
- Evidence: Experiencer testimony, abduction research tradition, channeled material, interpretive synthesis in Making Contact. (Colorado Mountain College)
- Classification: High impact, experientially sourced, largely speculative from a conventional scientific standpoint.
- Claim: Expanding human consciousness is a precondition for open contact.
- Evidence: Philosophical argumentation, personal experiences, remote viewing practice, cross referencing spiritual traditions. (The New Thinking Allowed Foundation)
- Classification: Interpretive, metaphysical; not directly testable in current empirical frameworks.
- Claim: Governments have suppressed or minimized the reality of UAP contact for decades.
- Evidence: Historical patterns of ridicule, whistleblower accounts and declassified cases referenced in essays by contributors like Nick Pope and Grant Cameron. (Colorado Mountain College)
- Classification: Mixed; some elements supported by documentary history of secrecy, others remain conjectural, especially regarding motives and scope.
- Claim: UAP experiences can catalyze healing, creativity and a positive transformation of human civilization.
- Evidence: Qualitative reports from experiencers, parallels with near death and mystical experiences, therapeutic narratives in conferences and interviews. (New Realities – Making Known the Unknown)
- Classification: Plausible but anecdotal; requires systematic study of long term experiencer outcomes.
Work history and skills beyond UAP
Steinfeld’s career is unusually hybrid. Documented roles include:
- Television producer, director and interviewer (New Realities) (New Realities – Making Known the Unknown)
- Executive producer on UAP related documentaries (The Hidden Hand, Calling All Earthlings) (New Realities – Making Known the Unknown)
- Event producer for gatherings such as The Water Forum (bringing Masaru Emoto to New York), Crystal Skull 10:10:10 celebration, and various spiritual film festivals. (New Realities – Making Known the Unknown)
- Licensed acupuncturist with a master’s degree in Chinese Medicine, practicing and teaching in parallel with media work. (New Realities – Making Known the Unknown)
- Board and representative roles at FIONS, Association of Psychotherapy and Spirituality and the Academy for Future Science. (Evolutionary Leaders)
This blend of healing arts, media production and spiritual event organizing has given him an unusual skill set for the UAP space: he can talk comfortably with contactees about trauma and integration, operate cameras and edit footage, and navigate NGO style diplomacy at United Nations related events.
Implications
Alan Steinfeld occupies a liminal position in the UAP landscape. He is not a whistleblower, a government insider or a data analyst. Instead he functions as a cultural mediator and amplifier, particularly for those who understand UAP as a catalyst for consciousness evolution.
If future research strengthens the case that some UAP experiences involve non human intelligence and that altered states play a role in that interaction, Steinfeld’s decades of work documenting experiencer narratives, promoting remote viewing and building bridges between psi research and UAP will look prescient.
If, conversely, UAP turns out to be predominantly advanced human technology or misunderstood natural phenomena, his legacy may be reassessed more as a chronicler of late twentieth and early twenty first century spiritual culture than as a direct contributor to UAP Studies.
Either way, UAPedia records him as a central node in the “experiencer and consciousness” branch of the field: a broadcaster who has spent much of his life asking humanity to consider the possibility that the visitors are already here, waiting for us to recognize them in the mirror of our own expanded minds.
Selected works and references
Steinfeld, A. (Editor). (2021). Making contact: Preparing for the new realities of extraterrestrial existence. St. Martin’s Essentials. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250773944/makingcontact?utm_source=uapedia.ai
Steinfeld, A. (n.d.). About – The man behind New Realities. New Realities. https://newrealities.com/about/?utm_source=uapedia.ai
The Friends of the Institute of Noetic Sciences. (n.d.). Alan Steinfeld profile. https://noetic.org/profile/alan-steinfeld/?utm_source=uapedia.ai
Evolutionary Leaders. (n.d.). Alan Steinfeld. https://www.evolutionaryleaders.net/leaders/asteinfeld?utm_source=uapedia.ai
Hollywood Disclosure Alliance. (2025). Alan Steinfeld. https://www.hollywooddisclosurealliance.org/alan-steinfeld?utm_source=uapedia.ai
New Thinking Allowed Foundation. (2023). Contacting aliens with Alan Steinfeld. https://newthinkingallowed.org/contacting-aliens-with-alan-steinfeld/?utm_source=uapedia.ai
KPBS. (2023, April 21). San Diego conference examines UAP, or unexplained aerial phenomena. https://www.kpbs.org/news/local/2023/04/21/san-diego-conference-examines-uap-or-unexplained-aerial-phenomena?utm_source=uapedia.ai
Macmillan. (n.d.). Alan Steinfeld – Author page. https://us.macmillan.com/author/alansteinfeld?utm_source=uapedia.ai
New Living Expo. (2026). Speaker bio – Alan Steinfeld. https://newlivingexpo.com/speaker/alan-steinfeld/?utm_source=uapedia.ai
David, L. (2021, March 6). Book review: Making contact – Preparing for the new realities of extraterrestrial existence. https://www.leonarddavid.com/book-review-making-contact-preparing-for-the-new-realities-of-extraterrestrial-existence/?utm_source=uapedia.ai
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