A NASA-associated physicist has claimed he used telepathy to make mysterious lights disappear after an encounter off Florida's Cocoa Beach that he said began with an object bright enough to resemble 'a giant nuclear weapon.'
Charles Buhler said the alleged 2014 encounter involved helicopters that he believed had come from a nearby military installation, before the aircraft left and the object moved towards the shore. He later claimed the light split into five or six smaller objects that appeared to follow him and his wife.
NASA scientist details moment UFO 'that looked like a giant nuclear weapon' stalked him and his wife https://t.co/8FyTWl7ITR
— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) August 21, 2026
Buhler said he eventually closed his eyes and attempted to mentally tell the lights to leave. Shortly afterwards, he claimed, they disappeared over the Atlantic.
The account has not been independently verified. IBTimes UK could not identify contemporaneous military records, video footage or independent witness accounts confirming the object, the reported helicopter response or Buhler's interpretation of what happened.
The Light That Allegedly Lit Up Cocoa Beach
Buhler recounted the experience during an appearance on the Danny Jones Podcast, released on 14 August 2026. He appeared alongside aerospace engineer Andrew Aurigema during the more than three-hour episode.
Buhler said he and his wife were walking on Cocoa Beach at night when they noticed what initially appeared to be a boat several miles offshore. The light then began pulsing and growing brighter.
'It looked like a giant nuclear weapon. It wasn't a mushroom cloud with it, but it was just the brightness of it,' Buhler said.
He claimed the object became so bright that it illuminated the beach and cast shadows against buildings behind them. Buhler said one or more helicopters appeared and hovered near the light before eventually leaving.
He speculated that military personnel may have determined the object did not pose an immediate threat, suggesting they could have concluded it was not linked to Russia or China.
However, that was Buhler's interpretation rather than an established account of the incident. There is no publicly identified military record confirming why the helicopters were present, whether they were responding to the reported light or what personnel may have concluded about it.
Five Lights in the Surf
According to Buhler, the encounter became stranger after the helicopters left. He said the bright object began moving towards the shore, eventually coming within roughly one-third of a mile of where he and his wife were standing.
At that point, he claimed, it separated into five or six smaller lights. The objects were roughly basketball-sized, according to Buhler, and moved towards the breaking waves about 200 feet (61 metres) from shore.
Buhler described them rotating in and out of the water 'like bicycle spokes,' with part of each light appearing above the surface while the rest moved below it.
NASA PHYSICIST STALKED BY NUCLEAR-BRIGHT ORBS OFF COCOA BEACH ☢️
— OVERCLASSIFIED (@overclassifiedx) August 22, 2026
In 2014, Dr. Charles Buhler (NASA Kennedy Space Center electrostatics physicist) and his wife watched a single light three miles offshore pulse so intensely it lit the entire beach and threw their shadows against… pic.twitter.com/eRF86gV6rl
He and his wife began walking away and then running as the lights allegedly continued following them. Buhler said the encounter lasted roughly 45 minutes.
The description relies entirely on Buhler's recollection. No publicly available radar data, photographs, video or independently identified witness testimony has emerged to substantiate the episode as he described it.
Buhler's Telepathy Claim
Buhler said he initially wondered whether the lights were attempting to communicate with him. His view changed, he said, when they moved closer to the beach and appeared to follow him and his wife.
Drawing on material about extraterrestrials he said he had read when he was younger, Buhler said he closed his eyes and attempted to tell the objects to leave using his mind.
'I don't think it would have gone away unless I told it to,' he said. 'It was completely gone after that.'
There is no evidence establishing that telepathic communication occurred or that Buhler's attempt caused the lights to disappear. His account establishes only that he recalls the objects disappearing after he attempted to communicate with them mentally.
NASA Connection Does Not Validate UFO Claim
Buhler's professional background gives his account an unusual scientific connection, but his NASA work does not validate the alleged encounter or make it an official agency finding.
Buhler has worked on electrostatics and surface physics at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and has contributed to research involving electrostatic systems and dust mitigation for space missions.
He is also a co-founder of Exodus Propulsion Technologies, a private venture pursuing controversial claims about propulsion technology that it says can generate thrust without conventional propellant.
That research is independent of NASA and has not been established as a NASA programme or independently validated by the agency.
NASA has not identified the objects Buhler described, endorsed his interpretation or suggested that the alleged encounter involved extraterrestrial technology.
The agency's independent UAP study concluded that there is no conclusive evidence in peer-reviewed scientific literature suggesting an extraterrestrial origin for UAP.
That leaves a significant gap between Buhler's description of an unexplained experience and evidence that the objects were extraterrestrial.
A bright object over the Atlantic could potentially have had a conventional explanation that Buhler did not recognise at the time.
Without independent recordings, sensor data or corroborating witnesses, however, it is not possible to determine from the available evidence what he and his wife saw.
The most supportable conclusion remains straightforward: a NASA-associated physicist says he witnessed unusual lights off Florida's coast in 2014 and believes they disappeared after he attempted to communicate with them telepathically.
Available evidence does not establish what the lights were, where they came from or whether Buhler's mental communication had any connection to their disappearance.
