The Collins Elite is an alleged informal group of U.S. military and intelligence figures who regard UFOs and related phenomena as demonic deception rather than visitors from other worlds. The name entered UFO literature through British author Nick Redfern's 2010 book Final Events and the Secret Government Group on Demonic UFOs and the Afterlife, which relied on anonymous sources. No government agency has confirmed that the group exists, but the label has become shorthand for a real current of religious interpretation within the UAP debate.

Redfern's account drew mainly on an elderly man using the name "Richard Duke," who described himself as a former CIA member of the group, and on priest and researcher Ray Boeche, who said two Christian Defense Department physicists approached him in 1991 about a program contacting entities they believed were demonic. Boeche had never heard the name Collins Elite. Redfern said he did not vouch for the story, though in 2021 he wrote that a secret group studying demonic phenomena had existed; one account traces the name to a member from Collins, New York. Theologian Michael Heiser suggested any such members might simply have been dupes, and writer Jason Colavito criticized Lue Elizondo for presenting the group as real in his 2024 book Imminent.

The idea returned in 2026. The New York Times reported that in February two unnamed men described as former intelligence operators gave a slideshow on UAP to about a dozen pastors and podcasters in Nashville. A pastor's claim that Rep. Eric Burlison had told the group aliens were demons was retracted after Burlison disputed it, though Burlison later described a "very clandestine" network of former special forces and military-intelligence figures interested in the subject. Commentators linked the briefings to the Collins Elite, but no reliable source has established that connection.

Other 2026 statements are attributed and largely unsourced. Filmmaker Jeremy Corbell said the people who pushed the aliens-are-demons view on him were mainly from the CIA. A quote attributed to former CIA scientist Kit Green described the group as about a dozen senior military and intelligence men, all born-again fundamentalists, though its original source is unclear. Former CIA officer John Kiriakou said he never encountered such a group, and speculation tying the missing Air Force general Neil McCasland to it has no supporting evidence.

The Collins Elite's significance lies less in any confirmed membership than in what the story represents: the possibility that religious conviction among some officials has shaped how UAP information is handled and framed. That question gained new urgency in 2026, as public figures including Vice President JD Vance described UFOs as demons and Catholic exorcist Stephen Rossetti was removed from his post after saying much the same.