Steven Macon Greer (born 1955) is an American researcher who studies UFOs and a retired doctor. He started the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI) and the Disclosure Project, which aims to reveal information about UFOs that is said to be kept secret by the government.

Early life and education

Greer was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1955. He says he saw a UFO very close to him when he was eight years old and saw another UFO when he was 18 years old.

He was trained as a Transcendental Meditation teacher and worked as the director of a meditation organization during the early 1970s.

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Appalachian State University in 1982 and a Doctor of Medicine degree from the James H. Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University in 1987.

Medical career

In 1989, Greer earned his medical license in Virginia and worked in the emergency room. In 1998, he chose to retire from his medical career to focus on studying unidentified flying objects.

Ufology career

In 1990, Greer created the Center for the Study of Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (CSETI) to develop a program focused on communication and research with extraterrestrial civilizations. CSETI introduced the term CE-5, or "close encounters of the fifth kind," to describe human-initiated contact with extraterrestrial life. The organization reports having over 3,000 confirmed UFO sightings by pilots and more than 4,000 accounts of what they call landing traces. CSETI uses teams called RAMITs, or "Rapid Mobilisation Investigative Teams," to reach UFO landing sites quickly. The group has also established a psychic protocol for human-initiated contact with UFOs.

In 1993, Greer started the Disclosure Project, which aims to publicly share information about the government's alleged knowledge of UFOs, extraterrestrial intelligence, and advanced energy and propulsion systems. Greer describes the Disclosure Project as an effort to provide protection to government employees who agree to break their security oaths by revealing classified UFO-related information.

In October 1994, Greer participated in a TV special titled The UFO Coverup? hosted by Larry King. In May 2001, Greer held a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., where 20 retired Air Force, Federal Aviation Administration, and intelligence officers spoke.

Documentaries

In 2013, Greer co-produced Sirius, a documentary that describes his work and ideas about extraterrestrial life, government secrets, and close encounters of the fifth kind. The film was directed by Amardeep Kaleka and narrated by Thomas Jane. It covers Greer's 2006 book Hidden Truth, Forbidden Knowledge. The movie premiered on April 22, 2013, in Los Angeles, California, and includes interviews with former government and military officials. Sirius shows a six-inch (15 cm) human skeleton called the Atacama skeleton, which was said to be an alien skeleton. However, genetic testing showed it was human, with genetic markers found in indigenous women from South America. The director of the center that did the genetic analysis said, "It's an interesting medical mystery of an unfortunate human with a series of birth defects."

In 2017, Unacknowledged, a crowdfunded documentary featuring Greer, was released. It was directed by Michael Mazzola and narrated by Giancarlo Esposito. After debuting on iTunes and digital platforms on May 9, Unacknowledged became the top documentary on those platforms internationally and number two in the U.S.

Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind: Contact has Begun was released in April 2020. The documentary was directed and written by Michael Mazzola and includes Greer, Daniel Sheehan, Jan Harzan, and Russell Targ. A film critic from Variety wrote that the movie is "fantasy propaganda…a conspiracy documentary built around the idea that the 'national security state' has hidden information from the public." The critic also said, "[Greer is] like a '70s computer nerd played by John Waters with a touch of Guy Pearce." A critic from the Los Angeles Times noted that the film is "overlong and rambling – more focused on unrelated stories than making a strong argument or telling an engaging story." A writer from The Hollywood Reporter stated that the film "is too passionate in its strange ideas to be purely a cynical, Scientology-style deception," and that it "strangely places recent UFO-related news into a misleading context, suggesting that journalists, experts, and the government are working together to create fear that could support the creation of a 'one-world government' capable of starting an 'interplanetary war.'" The writer also mentioned that "though [Greer has] talked about UFOs for decades, he has never managed to get an alien ship to move closer for a clear photograph."