I had always somewhat suspected this, that it was a hoax perpetrated by humans in order to manipulate other humans into believing something. I&#x27;m surprised more religions don&#x27;t pull off these kind of stunts, they&#x27;d certainly receive a huge influx in believers. ;) Watching &quot;Mirage Men&quot; was enlightening as I never really thought about how maybe the government recognized they made a mistake, they unleashed something into the &quot;hive mind&quot; of the American populace that they couldn&#x27;t regain control of. From what Doty implies, it seems like they were just trying to convince a handful of people to look somewhere else, and he just kept telling lies until it had spun so far out of his control that he just had to basically drop out and abandon the whole thing. It felt very similar to when undercover cops get really close to the top of some large drug cartel, only to be thwarted at the last minute by someone figuring out who they really are...