Physicist Says UFO Encounters Trigger Immune Attacks
Physicist Dr. Jim Segala, former chief scientist on the first season of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, believes the human body responds to a UFO encounter before the mind understands what it saw. In a new interview on the Freeman Files podcast, Segala argued that the immune system is behind many of the health effects experiencers report.
According to Segala, when a person sees a UFO, some form of external energy appears to enter the body. The immune system does not recognize it and starts attacking. He describes the result as autoimmune responses rather than autoimmune diseases, meaning the body attacks something it cannot identify, and the reaction slowly fades over time. He believes this explains why so many experiencers report getting sick in the days and weeks after a sighting.
Segala’s view goes beyond the conscious mind. He argues the subconscious picks up on these encounters first, raising immune activity and causing physical reactions like the hair standing up on the back of the neck, often before a person is aware anything is happening. In his words, the human body is the most sensitive scientific instrument available. People are simply poor at explaining what it detects.
His medical work began with cases he reviewed with forensic neurologist Dr. Kit Green while working under Hal Puthoff at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin. According to Segala, some patients developed lesions, radiation-type burns and rare blood disorders, and some spent weeks in the hospital. His own speculation is that a craft’s energy may distort the space around it, pushing ordinary microwave signals up into higher-energy radiation that can damage skin and DNA.
The immune theory also shapes how Segala reads the hitchhiker effect. He referenced a study by Dr. Green finding that family and friends of people returning from Utah’s Uinta Basin had higher rates of illness than expected. According to Segala, the data looks as if an energy attaches to a person, then moves on to someone else once they return home. The new person’s immune system then starts reacting. He framed this as what the data shows, not a proven cause, and ruled out a virus or fungus.
Segala also compares experiencer symptoms to Havana Syndrome, pointing to tiny brain bleeds he links to both groups. That claim faces a strong counterpoint. In reference to two 2024 studies of more than 80 federal employees, the National Institutes of Health found no brain injury visible on MRI. The researchers did stress that the symptoms are real, and the lead author noted the results do not rule out a harmful event at the time of the incident.
To test these ideas, Segala runs MUPAS, the Modular Unidentified Phenomena Alert System. It pairs home sensors with biometric watches that track heart rate and other body responses alongside environmental readings. According to Segala, close to 400 devices are active in 28 countries, and a sponsor has agreed to fund up to 10,000. The anonymized data is headed to the Archives of the Impossible at Rice University, where outside scientists will be able to check whether the body’s reaction to UFOs holds up.
Sources
JFree906 — The Freeman Files. (2026, October 15). Crazy as it sounds, a UAP encounter can affect you — the data strongly suggests it! [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_2-syJ3uHo
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