Day of Revelation: What Has Always Been Here

Science, history, and consciousness converge on a disturbing idea, we don’t see all of reality and we may never have been alone… From Ezekiel to Spielberg, one intuition endures, the unknown is not far away, but beyond what we can perceive.

Spielberg, Once Again

In his new and highly anticipated film Disclosure Day, filmmaker Steven Spielberg once again places us face to face with one of humanity’s most enduring questions: are we truly alone? Yet, true to his style, he does not approach this question through the spectacle of invasion or the simple arrival of the unknown. Instead, he ventures into something far more unsettling: the possibility that the great revelation will not come from others appearing, but from our realization —perhaps too late— that they have always been here, just beyond the reach of our perception. From this premise, cinema transcends entertainment and becomes a mirror reflecting our own cognitive limitations, opening the door to a deeper reflection on the nature of these phenomena through the lens of reality and human consciousness. Especially when Spielberg himself has stated what motivated this film: “I have a strong suspicion that we are not alone here on Earth right now…”

The Psychological Shift: From Outside to Within

The hypothesis —one we believe will be central to this film— introduces a profoundly unsettling narrative: What if non-human intelligences do not come from outer space, but have coexisted with us here on Earth? This is not merely a narrative device. It represents a profound psychological shift. The distant evokes fascination. The unknown that is near triggers existential destabilization. Because it forces an uncomfortable —and difficult to ignore— question: What else is here… that we have not perceived, or perhaps never realized?

The “Invisible Places” of Reality: Between Science and Perception

We can tentatively identify three such domains. Fiction—and at times scientific speculation—has explored these recurring scenarios.

1. The Ocean Depths

A world still largely unexplored. Dark, vast, silent. More than 80% of the ocean remains insufficiently mapped, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The deep sea especially the abyssal and hadal zones— presents extreme conditions: crushing pressure, total absence of sunlight, and near-freezing temperatures. And yet, biology has demonstrated something essential: life not only exists there, but it also thrives in astonishing diversity. Extremophiles —organisms that survive in extreme environments— have been widely studied (Rothschild & Mancinelli, 2001, Nature), revealing that life can adapt to conditions once thought impossible.

From a cognitive standpoint, this leads to a powerful insight: biological reality extends far beyond what human experience can easily imagine. Which raises a question: Could intelligent life exist in the depths of our oceans?

2. The Earth’s Subsurface

Hidden caverns, unseen systems, invisible geographies. Recent research has revealed the existence of a deep subsurface biosphere. Studies by the Deep Carbon Observatory (2018) estimate that a significant portion of Earth’s biomass lies kilometers beneath the surface, primarily composed of microbial life. This confirms the possibility of biological life in extreme underground environments. Speleological explorations have also uncovered vast cave systems with their own ecosystems, isolated for millions of years. As various authors in the field of geobiology point out: “one of the least understood frontiers of life on Earth.” This raises an epistemological challenge: We not only do not know what exists there, our tools and senses are insufficient to perceive it directly. Which leads to another question: Could intelligent life exist beneath our feet?

3. “Layers” of Reality Beyond Our Senses

From the perspective of modern physics, the idea of “layers of reality” takes on a technical meaning. Theoretical frameworks such as string theory suggest the possible existence of additional dimensions beyond the three of space and one of time (Greene, 1999; Kaku, 2005). While these dimensions have not been directly observed, they form part of mathematically consistent models seeking to unify the fundamental laws of the universe. Quantum physics further reveals that a significant portion of reality is not directly accessible to perception. What we experience is only a fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum, and phenomena such as quantum entanglement challenge our classical understanding of space, time, and causality. Neuroscience adds yet another layer. Researchers such as Anil Seth (2021, Being You) argue that perception is a “controlled hallucination”, a simulation continuously generated by the brain, shaped by predictions and corrected by sensory input. In other words, we do not perceive reality as it is, but as our nervous system is capable of interpreting it. This idea, supported by cognitive neuroscience and theories such as predictive processing, suggests that perceived reality is not a faithful copy of the external world, but a functional construction that allows us to navigate and survive. From this perspective, the question shifts: What part of reality lies beyond that construction? Who —or what— were those entities that different cultures have called angels, spirits, ghosts, or presences?

Time and Parallel Realities: Another dimension worth considering is time itself—still debated within the scientific community—as a possible medium through which interactions with other realities might occur. While many physicists argue that travel between dimensions or universes remains highly speculative and unsupported by empirical evidence (Carroll, 2016), others —drawing from inflationary cosmology and the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics— have proposed the potential existence of multiple coexisting realities (Tegmark, 2003; Everett, 1957). Even within rigorous physics, the idea of a broader reality is not foreign. Albert Einstein showed that space and time form a dynamic structure capable of curvature and, in theoretical models, connections through Einstein-Rosen bridges. Later, Stephen Hawking explored the extreme properties of spacetime and considered the possibility of multiple dimensions and life in the universe (Hawking & Hertog, 2018; Hawking & Mlodinow, 2010), while warning about the risks of contact with advanced intelligences. Neither claimed evidence of encounters with beings from other spacetime domains. Yet their theories leave open a profound possibility: that reality is far more complex —and far less accessible— than our perception and common sense allow us to imagine.

In this context —and always within the realm of hypothesis— authors have suggested that certain encounters reported throughout history may not necessarily be interpreted as visits from other planets, but rather as possible interactions with entities originating from other domains of spacetime, belonging to civilizations whose technological capabilities exceed our current framework of understanding. What remains clear is that none of these scenarios is supported by empirical evidence of hidden civilizations. Yet they all share a fundamental trait: they point to domains where human perception can no longer be considered a reliable guide to reality.

4. Coexistence Since the Beginning

Human history, strictly speaking, has never been the story of a single species. For thousands of years, Homo sapiens coexisted with other intelligent hominins such as the Neanderthal, sharing territory, culture, and even genetic exchange. This introduces a key idea, coexistence with “others” is not foreign to our history… it is part of it.

Parallel to this, ancient texts —from the Bible to the Book of Enoch and beyond— describe beings that do not fully fit the category of human: gods, demigods, Nephilim —who had children with the daughters of men— angels and powerful figures like Samson. Other traditions speak of cherubim, seraphim. In The Book of Enoch, we read about the Watchers. In Mesopotamian tradition, Anunnaki, are described as beings who descend from the firmament and participate in the organization of the human world. In the Hindu tradition, texts such as the Mahabharata describe the devas and asuras —entities with superior capabilities— involved in cosmic conflicts and interacting with humans.

In Greek mythology, the Olympian gods —though clearly symbolic— interact directly with humans, giving rise to hybrid lineages—semidivine heroes such as Heracles—and in various indigenous traditions of the Americas there are accounts of celestial beings or “sky people” who descend to teach, warn, or intervene in human life.

Across cultures, a common intuition emerges, humanity may not have been entirely alone at its origins. Which leads us to a modern formulation of an ancient question:

Could that coexistence have taken other, less visible forms… persisting unnoticed throughout time?... In this light, a line from Disclosure Day becomes suggestive: the idea that “7 billion people” should know the truth. Not as a statistic but as a hint.

Because humanity now exceeds 8 billion. The implication is not numerical, but conceptual. Perhaps coexistence has not been obvious… but hidden within the limits of our perception.

Cinema as a Laboratory of Possibility

From Close Encounters of the Third Kind to today, cinema has served as a space where humanity rehearses its deepest uncertainties. The shift is clear: Before: beings arrived from space. Now: they may already be here. Before: contact was external. Now: revelation is internal. Before: exploration focused on the cosmos. Now: it also turns inward, toward perception itself. This shift reflects a broader cultural transformation. Perhaps “the others” are not only external beings, but representations of what lies beyond our cognitive framework.

Why Now?

This is no coincidence. We live in an era in which: physics questions the nature of reality, artificial intelligence redefines intelligence itself, consciousness is becoming a subject of scientific inquiry. In this context, the traditional extraterrestrial narrative becomes insufficient. The question evolves: What if the unknown is not far away… but beyond our perceptual reach?

In the End…

For centuries, humanity looked to the sky in search of answers. We believed the mystery lived among the stars. That revelation would arrive from afar, visible and undeniable. Perhaps we were looking in the wrong direction. Perhaps the great revelation —if it exists— will not come from something appearing, but from our acceptance, with both awe and unease, that we may never have been entirely alone. Not necessarily in a physical sense, as imagination would suggest, but in a deeper, subtler way: that reality has always been broader than our capacity to perceive it.

Because seeing is not simply opening our eyes. It is understanding. And understanding requires recognizing the limits of what we think we know. We have built civilizations, science, technology, and extraordinary systems of thought. We have decoded the genome, explored the cosmos, and penetrated matter to its deepest levels. And yet, we still inhabit only a narrow band of reality, a filtered, interpreted version shaped by our brains. A “sufficient truth”… but not a complete one. Perhaps ancient cultures were not describing the impossible, but the incomprehensible. The names have changed—angels, gods, spirits—but the intuition remains: that there is something more. Something we do not fully see. Something we cannot fully name. Something we nonetheless sense. And perhaps that recurring intuition—across millennia, cultures, and languages—is not an error. But a clue. Not proof… but a signal.

Because every great transformation in human history has begun with a suspicion: that what we took as truth was only part of it. And perhaps we are once again standing at that threshold. Not before the arrival of others… but before the expansion of our own consciousness. Not before an external discovery… but an internal revelation.

One that will not come with thunder, as in the visions of Ezekiel… nor with lights in the sky, as in the Mahabharata… nor through presidential declarations claiming “they are real.” But through something quieter… and far more powerful: the gradual realization that the world —and perhaps we ourselves— have always been more vast, more complex, and more mysterious than we have been willing to accept. And so the final question is no longer whether others exist. It becomes this: Are we ready to recognize that there are truths we do not yet understand… realities we do not yet perceive… and presences —or dimensions of existence— that may have always been here, waiting not to be discovered… but to be understood?... Because perhaps the revelation is not that something appears. Perhaps it is that, at last, we learn to see...

Please send your comments to: psicologosgessen@hotmail.com. May the Divine Providence of the Universe be with us all.

María Mercedes & Vladimir Gessen

Psychologists

(Authors of “What or Who Is the Universe?”)

You may publish this article, or parts thereof, provided that you cite the authors as the source and include the corresponding link. © Photos and Images: Gessen&Gessen