(NewsNation) —  Sean Stone has heard every version of “that’s nuts.” The filmmaker, author and son of Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone has spent two decades chasing the stories mainstream media won’t touch — from his days co-hosting “Conspiracy Theory” with Jesse Ventura to his new book on life’s spiritual “gates.” And when it comes to UFOs, he’s not speculating from the sidelines, as he says he’s had encounters of his own.

Sean Stone: We can’t all be crazy

Stone believes we’re living through what he calls a great awakening — a cultural shift where conversations that once got you labeled the talk of the town are all coming to life because of social media and the podcast explosion.

“Every one of us is a host, every one of us can host our platform, can host our information, can offer the insights and the news that we think is relevant and important,” Stone explained. “That shift took place and it started really right before COVID, but COVID made it explode.”

He argues that multiple witnesses coming forward transformed the conversation entirely: “Having multiple people describing their encounters makes it more palatable than just one guy. … Now it sounds more viable.”

The night at Skinwalker Ranch

Stone’s most chilling story comes from a visit to Utah’s infamous Skinwalker Ranch, filmed during his “Conspiracy Theory” days with Jesse Ventura’s son, Tyrell.

“Skinwalker is a notorious ranch in Utah,” Stone said, describing “the paranormal and supernatural sightings and activity that’s going on there,” which he says “goes back to the Native American lore before the white man came. … There’s been long history of the idea this is like a portal.”

The lore includes “horrifying stories of massive wolves and shapeshifters and scary creatures.”

When Stone hopped the fence to look around, something stopped him cold.

“I felt something almost like an energy weapon,” he recalled. “It was like a hot, buzzing, tingling feeling on my leg. And I was like, what the hell is going on? So I just ran back and jumped back over the fence.”

But the night wasn’t over. When the pair returned after dark, Stone froze at the sound of a strange thudding.

“I just kind of froze … it didn’t occur to me to look up,” he said. When the noise stopped, he turned to find Tyrell staring at the sky, mouth agape.

“He goes, did you see that? And I was like, no, I heard it.”

According to Stone, Tyrell described what happened next: “This thing appeared in the sky like a diamond shape. And it was just floating there. And then it turned on its side and emitted light… and then it just shifted back and zipped off really fast.

“That’s the kind of stuff I would say is more extra-dimensional,” Stone said. “I don’t think that’s necessarily our government craft.”

‘I’ve seen spacecraft but no aliens’

Asked directly whether he’s seen a UFO himself, Stone said: “I’ve seen craft (but) I’ve never seen an alien in physical form.”

One sighting happened right over Los Angeles: “I was driving in Beverly Hills at like two a.m. driving home, and this thing flies really low over the city,” he recalled. “It’s quiet, and it doesn’t have — I couldn’t see a propulsion system. … It was not designed like any plane.”

“It was just moving quietly and fast. And I was like, that could be a UFO. It could be our government.”

Sean Stone says Roswell was real and we reverse-engineered it

“I think what happened in Roswell was an actual crash — something extraterrestrial,” he said. “I believe that we started to basically reverse engineer the craft.”

He points to the late Army intelligence officer Philip Corso, whose son Stone has met personally: “Corso, who was a high level in the Pentagon for many years, talked about the idea that a lot of the technology that we got in the fifties and sixties was basically reverse engineered from crashes like Roswell.”

As for how the craft actually work, Stone offered a mind-bending theory: “My understanding of how these things work, it’s almost as if there is an interface between consciousness and the machine.”

He also believes the government has its own advanced fleet, referencing hacker Gary McKinnon’s claims of “cigar-shaped craft” and the rumored triangle-shaped “TR-3s,” which he compares to “very advanced stealth bomber types.”

“Remember in the seventies, eighties, if you saw a stealth bomber you’d say that’s a UFO,” he noted.

The trillion-dollar reason for the cover-up

So why the decades of secrecy? Stone says follow the money.

“Once you get to that level — if we’re working with anti-gravity propulsion, say goodbye to oil and gas. That whole industry is gone,” he said. “That’s the big reason why some people speculate that the UFO thing has been so suppressed.”

“How much of your world economy just got destroyed? … You’re talking about trillions of dollars globally.”

What’s next: The documentary Stone says will make people talk

Stone is now finishing a documentary called “Greystone” that he predicts will divide audiences down the middle.

“That’s going to be the place where people are going to say like, oh, he made that up — or, no, I’ve had experiences, or I’ve seen things,” he said. “People will have to decide for themselves what they believe.

“It’s my testament to what I lived through at that time.”

Stone’s new book, “10 Things to Learn: Ancient Wisdom for the Modern Soul,” is out in September.

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