The Basement: John B. Alexander | Roswell, MJ-12, Skinwalker: The Colonel Who Was There

**The Why Files: Operation Podcast** (0:00)
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**John B. Alexander** (0:20)
Today we're sitting down with Colonel John Alexander. He commanded Green Berets in Vietnam, ran advanced weapons concepts at Los Alamos, and pioneered the military's non-lethal weapons program. He also threw spoon-bending parties for army generals, sponsored a scientist whose lab levitated scrap metal, and was the first investigator to spend a night on Skinwalker Ranch. And none of it was a hobby. It was work. A night at Skinwalker Ranch?
You couldn't get me to spend a lunch there. That place has demons that make the crab cat look cuddly. Today we're…

**The Why Files: Operation Podcast** (0:51)
Feel it, crab cat!

**John B. Alexander** (0:52)
Today we're covering the army's psychic warfare years, the voodoo fire ceremony he filmed in West Africa, and why a man with a file full of things that can't happen isn't worried about dying. And at one point he mentions that he could beat a polygraph, but he couldn't fool his own white blood cells. That one's going to bug me for a while. Yeah, they can never polygraph me. No pulse points, no fingers, no sweat glands. I'm untestable, baby. You confessed to things nobody asked about. Yeah, allegedly.
Once we wrap up, I'll pop back in and break down our conversation. Let's go down to The Basement.
Colonel John Alexander, welcome to The Basement.

**The Why Files: Operation Podcast** (1:34)
Great to be here, I think. I didn't do it, I wasn't there, I don't know what they mean about it.

**John B. Alexander** (1:40)
We're going to have fun. I want to start somewhere no one does.
You're in a village in West Africa in the middle of a voodoo ceremony. Cameras are rolling and the shaman takes a fire to his face. What happened?

**The Why Files: Operation Podcast** (1:52)
Oh, no, it's much more than that. This was, we were attending a voodoo ceremony and in this particular case, the shaman himself came out. Now, he picks up a flaming torch and puts it in his mouth and you know, now, what's really interesting was when it was my camera, by the way, that was rolling and at distance, like we're sitting right now, this is not a long ways away. And yes, it's hot. I mean, there's definitely heat. Got long ching whiskers that don't singe.
Now, this also went on and they brought out two young boys, probably about 10 or so.
And the shaman goes, this and passing the power and say, well, they can't, you know, they haven't got the full range yet, but they would stand in the fire, sit in the fire, eat the fire. Yeah, it defies everything, you know, about thermodynamics. I also, they say, well, they have some magical, you know, asbestos substance or something. Gotta understand, these are people who look up to dirt and poverty.

**John B. Alexander** (3:05)
Right.

**The Why Files: Operation Podcast** (3:06)
Yeah, that they have some exotic materials or something. They did have a long history as to how that came about, but it, yeah, just defies the rules. There's no doubt about that.

**John B. Alexander** (3:19)
What was the ceremony for? They're lighting fire.

**The Why Files: Operation Podcast** (3:22)
Us. No, this was the...
We were with a small group and they were doing it for us, but this is something they do all the time.

**John B. Alexander** (3:32)
Only the shaman can do that? Or what I'm getting at is can we all learn that power?

**The Why Files: Operation Podcast** (3:39)
That is a question that's hard to say.
There's obviously a period of training and introductions. Like I said, with the boys, he was passing the power and said, they've only got so much. We saw a number of them do this. The back story is that... This goes back to the days of slavery. And these were people that we were in Benin at the time. Or we were in both Togo and Benin, but in that area in West Africa. And most of the slaves were actually captured by Africans and that.
And one of the things that had happened is that they had been captured. Most of the people were put in one of these corrals, which was then set on fire and burned alive. After that, there were a few survivors who had been outside and said, they made a deal with the fire gods, that if they would honor them in return for protection. Now, we're in an area where, if you believe, the physical evidence we saw is, they definitely could do these things. I might mention that I had taken those to a local magician, and the guys who deal with fire and say, okay, how do you do this? And the answer was, you don't. He had showed me the tricks of people, how they do fire things on stage and that. And part of it, frankly, is just how much pain can you stand? How far do you go before it kicks in?