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The Others: UFOs, AI, and the Secret Forces Guiding Human Destiny
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A mind-bending investigation into the link between UFOs and AI―from the acclaimed author of American Cosmic and Encounters―revealing how non-human intelligence may be shaping our future.
Acclaimed author and religious studies scholar D. W. Pasulka uncovers a hidden history of alleged contact between human and nonhuman intelligences―some framed as angels, others as UFOs/UAP―interwoven with the rise of artificial intelligence and the dream of immortality. Pasulka examines the science of life extension and the beliefs of people who have experiences of UFOs. She unveils a hidden architecture of belief and influence―one in which human consciousness is being reimagined and extended.
Pasulka begins the book with a fascinating and unexpected historical origin story. In the early twentieth century, a censured Catholic visionary predicted that humanity would soon encounter a new form of intelligence―one that would appear alien but was something far stranger. By the mid-twentieth century, other Catholic mystics and science fiction visionaries, like Arthur C. Clarke, echoed similar prophecies, naming the twenty-first century as the critical threshold . . . and we are now at that unparalleled point in human history. It’s time for The Others.
Drawing on first-person interviews, suppressed histories, and access to insiders in science and tech, The Others explores a startling new where the sacred meets the synthetic, and where the next phase of human evolution may already be underway.
A mind-bending investigation into the link between UFOs and AI―from the acclaimed author of American Cosmic and Encounters―revealing how non-human intelligence may be shaping our future.
Acclaimed author and religious studies scholar D. W. Pasulka uncovers a hidden history of alleged contact between human and nonhuman intelligences―some framed as angels, others as UFOs/UAP―interwoven with the rise of artificial intelligence and the dream of immortality. Pasulka examines the science of life extension and the beliefs of people who have experiences of UFOs. She unveils a hidden architecture of belief and influence―one in which human consciousness is being reimagined and extended.
Pasulka begins the book with a fascinating and unexpected historical origin story. In the early twentieth century, a censured Catholic visionary predicted that humanity would soon encounter a new form of intelligence―one that would appear alien but was something far stranger. By the mid-twentieth century, other Catholic mystics and science fiction visionaries, like Arthur C. Clarke, echoed similar prophecies, naming the twenty-first century as the critical threshold . . . and we are now at that unparalleled point in human history. It’s time for The Others.
Drawing on first-person interviews, suppressed histories, and access to insiders in science and tech, The Others explores a startling new where the sacred meets the synthetic, and where the next phase of human evolution may already be underway.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published July 28, 2026
About the author
D. W. Pasulka
6 books291 followersDiana Walsh Pasulka is a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, and the author of Encounters, American Cosmic, and Heaven Can Wait. Her research bridges Catholic history, religious practice and emerging technologies, and emerging reports of UFOs and supraterrestrial intelligence.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
August 5, 2026
“Visionaries and prophets are rarely the people we would choose as reliable guides. Yet, like Jonah, they carry messages that change history.”
“Each of these thinkers, in different ways, reveals an era that inaugurates a new evolutionary step for humanity—one that brings the current form of the human to an end.”
D.W. Pasulka is a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, focusing on religion, technology, and culture. Though her bio doesn’t mention unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), of the four books she has published, three of them are about non-human intelligence and UAPs. Though this field seems unorthodox, Pasulka studies anomalous experiences as a new form of secular religion, among other reasons. As for me, the UAP chase holds no interest. But, this book is also about the implications of technology, and that is something with which most of us can relate. For that reason, it is an important read.
Pasulka first encountered a pattern of UAP images when researching the Vatican archives for her book about purgatory. She was a skeptic at the time but later revisited the data and presented her findings as an example of a religious ascent narrative. Aerospace scientists and researchers found her presentation on the internet and reached out to her. She will eventually come to their view that UAPs are real and, apparently, able to offer technology to humans as the book cover states. Those interested in this area can find plenty of information in this book.
In discussing the future of humanity, Pasulka leans heavily on the work of various men she says “produced insights that now appear unmistakably prophetic” and whose work describes the “emergence of a new human being, one inseparable from technology.” She describes such persons as heretics, which is likely how they would appear in their time. In hindsight, their research and viewpoints could seem prescient. Marshall McLulan, the father of media theory, is an example. He envisioned the internet decades before it was fully realized.
Knitting Pasulka’s interest in religion with a sci-fi element, she introduces Peter Thiel, “the epitome of a heretic.” Pasulka attended an invitation-only Hereticon themed “Apocalypse,” wherein Theil’s keynote was about the Antichrist. It will be a person, he said, who “is not generally described as an obvious tyrant, but a leader who promises comfort and safety.” In truth, this person would be “insidious, and would endeavor to build a civilization built not on coercion, but on a collective surrender.” While not intentional one assumes, Pasulka points Thiel back to himself when she states, “Thiel nonetheless exerts a subterranean, strategic influence, quietly setting the coordinates for the future others are still trying to predict.” Pasulka includes a discussion about Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 sci-fi novel Childhood’s End, which includes a peaceful alien invasion that leads to the end of human individuality and children evolving into a cosmic mind. The Overlords are in charge.
The book includes discussions of other heretics all of whom, “point to a time in which intelligence transcends the human, structures reality in ways that we dimly perceive, and suggests a form of propaganda or control.” This is accomplished through technology, and René Girard offers the foundation of understanding how this is accomplished. Equipped with Girhard’s arguments, Pasulka states that social media companies digitized, modeled, and predicted mimetic desire, then endlessly looped it “back into the system, ensuring that the most imitable and often the most polarizing content was rewarded with maximum visibility. This transformed a behavior pattern into a physical infrastructure. The result was a cultural engine in which the algorithms themselves became mimetic actors, learning from and intensifying the very conflicts they provoke. The worst of the platforms enact a kind of algorithmic violence.”
Is humanity skipping toward is own slaughter? The staggering potential of technology and a ready willingness to hand over the most private details of one’s life, finances, and even blueprint in exchange for “free” entertainment and convenience should give us all pause.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing this e-galley.
“Each of these thinkers, in different ways, reveals an era that inaugurates a new evolutionary step for humanity—one that brings the current form of the human to an end.”
D.W. Pasulka is a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, focusing on religion, technology, and culture. Though her bio doesn’t mention unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), of the four books she has published, three of them are about non-human intelligence and UAPs. Though this field seems unorthodox, Pasulka studies anomalous experiences as a new form of secular religion, among other reasons. As for me, the UAP chase holds no interest. But, this book is also about the implications of technology, and that is something with which most of us can relate. For that reason, it is an important read.
Pasulka first encountered a pattern of UAP images when researching the Vatican archives for her book about purgatory. She was a skeptic at the time but later revisited the data and presented her findings as an example of a religious ascent narrative. Aerospace scientists and researchers found her presentation on the internet and reached out to her. She will eventually come to their view that UAPs are real and, apparently, able to offer technology to humans as the book cover states. Those interested in this area can find plenty of information in this book.
In discussing the future of humanity, Pasulka leans heavily on the work of various men she says “produced insights that now appear unmistakably prophetic” and whose work describes the “emergence of a new human being, one inseparable from technology.” She describes such persons as heretics, which is likely how they would appear in their time. In hindsight, their research and viewpoints could seem prescient. Marshall McLulan, the father of media theory, is an example. He envisioned the internet decades before it was fully realized.
Knitting Pasulka’s interest in religion with a sci-fi element, she introduces Peter Thiel, “the epitome of a heretic.” Pasulka attended an invitation-only Hereticon themed “Apocalypse,” wherein Theil’s keynote was about the Antichrist. It will be a person, he said, who “is not generally described as an obvious tyrant, but a leader who promises comfort and safety.” In truth, this person would be “insidious, and would endeavor to build a civilization built not on coercion, but on a collective surrender.” While not intentional one assumes, Pasulka points Thiel back to himself when she states, “Thiel nonetheless exerts a subterranean, strategic influence, quietly setting the coordinates for the future others are still trying to predict.” Pasulka includes a discussion about Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 sci-fi novel Childhood’s End, which includes a peaceful alien invasion that leads to the end of human individuality and children evolving into a cosmic mind. The Overlords are in charge.
The book includes discussions of other heretics all of whom, “point to a time in which intelligence transcends the human, structures reality in ways that we dimly perceive, and suggests a form of propaganda or control.” This is accomplished through technology, and René Girard offers the foundation of understanding how this is accomplished. Equipped with Girhard’s arguments, Pasulka states that social media companies digitized, modeled, and predicted mimetic desire, then endlessly looped it “back into the system, ensuring that the most imitable and often the most polarizing content was rewarded with maximum visibility. This transformed a behavior pattern into a physical infrastructure. The result was a cultural engine in which the algorithms themselves became mimetic actors, learning from and intensifying the very conflicts they provoke. The worst of the platforms enact a kind of algorithmic violence.”
Is humanity skipping toward is own slaughter? The staggering potential of technology and a ready willingness to hand over the most private details of one’s life, finances, and even blueprint in exchange for “free” entertainment and convenience should give us all pause.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing this e-galley.
August 4, 2026
[1.5/5] Non-scientific ramblings with strong lack of structure.
Topics are just thrown around and are mostly retellings (sometimes even thrice) of other authors' works, curious anecdotes and "he/she said". Plus obvious fallacies (like, "religion is prohibited in PRC"). Literary references are thin and echo-chambered, which means supplanting with "references" to YouTube and Wikipedia.
Topics are just thrown around and are mostly retellings (sometimes even thrice) of other authors' works, curious anecdotes and "he/she said". Plus obvious fallacies (like, "religion is prohibited in PRC"). Literary references are thin and echo-chambered, which means supplanting with "references" to YouTube and Wikipedia.
Read
August 7, 2026This was crazier than the title made it seem, which I did not think was possible. Cannot recommend, but also kind of a bop
July 6, 2026
Many thanks to Macmillan Audio for an advanced audio copy in exchange for an honest review
★ 3 stars ★
Half of the time, this book felt like an interesting dive into the nature of reality itself...
the other half felt like this meme:
Pasulka strikes me as incredibly thoughtful and smart. This book will be incredibly enlightening and enjoyable for the right audience.
Unfortunately, that audience was not me. Additionally, I think this books marketing does it a disservice. The title, cover, and description all make this seem more like a science-oriented exploration of the topics listed in the subtitle.
It is absolutely not. This book is heavily existential, speculative, and theological. Again, this isn't a bad thing. Pasulka does it exceptionally well, even with the more out-there ideas. But it wasn't what I signed up for (and I worry many readers may make the same mistake) which decreased my enjoyment.
All in all, if you're looking for a very deep, heady, and intellectual (rather than empirical) exploration of these topics, you'll probably enjoy this.
If you're looking for empiricism, science, and history, like I was, this might not scratch that itch.
★ 3 stars ★
Half of the time, this book felt like an interesting dive into the nature of reality itself...
the other half felt like this meme:
Pasulka strikes me as incredibly thoughtful and smart. This book will be incredibly enlightening and enjoyable for the right audience.
Unfortunately, that audience was not me. Additionally, I think this books marketing does it a disservice. The title, cover, and description all make this seem more like a science-oriented exploration of the topics listed in the subtitle.
It is absolutely not. This book is heavily existential, speculative, and theological. Again, this isn't a bad thing. Pasulka does it exceptionally well, even with the more out-there ideas. But it wasn't what I signed up for (and I worry many readers may make the same mistake) which decreased my enjoyment.
All in all, if you're looking for a very deep, heady, and intellectual (rather than empirical) exploration of these topics, you'll probably enjoy this.
If you're looking for empiricism, science, and history, like I was, this might not scratch that itch.
March 13, 2026
*MY STAR RATING OF THIS BOOK ONLY REFLECTS MY ENJOYMENT OF THE MATERIAL AND DOES NOT SHOW MY ENDORSEMENT OR BELIEF IN THE CONTENTS OF THE BOOK*
Okay, hear me out.
I had ulterior motives for requesting this book for Netgalley. I saw the title and thought “This is going to be pure and utter insanity. I must read it.”
I love this book. This book is amazingly well written and persuasive. I mean don’t get me wrong I don’t believe a single thing written in here but oh man is the author convincing. I can see how someone can read this and believe every word.
It is somehow deeply persuasive and incomprehensible at the same time and I have no idea how it pulled this off. I was deeply confused and fascinated by this at the same time and could not put it down. I at once don’t think anyone should to read this and also think everyone needs to see this with their own eyes. Call it Schrodinger’s book recommendation.
Am I glad I read this? Yes. Am I recommending to anyone else? No, not really.
Okay, hear me out.
I had ulterior motives for requesting this book for Netgalley. I saw the title and thought “This is going to be pure and utter insanity. I must read it.”
I love this book. This book is amazingly well written and persuasive. I mean don’t get me wrong I don’t believe a single thing written in here but oh man is the author convincing. I can see how someone can read this and believe every word.
It is somehow deeply persuasive and incomprehensible at the same time and I have no idea how it pulled this off. I was deeply confused and fascinated by this at the same time and could not put it down. I at once don’t think anyone should to read this and also think everyone needs to see this with their own eyes. Call it Schrodinger’s book recommendation.
Am I glad I read this? Yes. Am I recommending to anyone else? No, not really.
August 4, 2026
All I can say, folks, is don't judge a book by the cover.
September 22, 2026
Very interesting subject matter, biased at times and nothing like her previous work. Just fizzles out in the last chapter but well worth a read.
August 23, 2026
This is mostly a recitation of what others believe, in excruciating detail, which I wonder how the author knows. It doesn’t reach any conclusion about the intersection of the forces in the title. A LOT of religion. For example, the Marian apparitions in Garabandal are described in great detail; but dont tie to the rest of the varied chapters. At all.
And it’s a very tough read.
And it’s a very tough read.
August 22, 2026
The title is very misleading.
There is also a lot of repetition in the book, where many paragraphs say the same thing over and over, almost verbatim.
There is also a lot of repetition in the book, where many paragraphs say the same thing over and over, almost verbatim.
October 13, 2026
I’ve read D.W. Pasulka’s work before, and this is another super interesting book from her. There are so many great topics in here involving UFOs, AI, technology, religion, human consciousness, and the strange experiences people have that we still don’t completely understand. Sometimes, though, I think Pasulka has a difficult time combining all of those ideas into one overall narrative. There were points where I was fascinated by an individual topic but wasn’t always sure how everything was supposed to connect.
The overarching theme I took away from the book is really human consciousness and how we experience reality. We’re living at a fascinating time. We’re interacting with AI more and more every day, while at the same time we’re having serious discussions about UFOs, UAP, and potentially non-human intelligence that have now reached government officials, scientists, and the mainstream.
Pasulka brings a really unique perspective because of her background in religious studies. Her earlier experiences researching UFO imagery connected to the Vatican helped bring her into this subject, but she also spends a lot of time around people in technology. That combination becomes especially interesting now with the rapid development of AI.
One of the things I kept thinking about while reading this is whether religion, technology, UFO experiences, AI, and consciousness are all different ways of dealing with the same basic human question: What exactly are we interacting with, and how much of reality do we actually understand?
Pasulka gets into ideas surrounding information, consciousness, technology, experiences with non-human intelligence, and how human beings interpret encounters with things outside our normal understanding. Religion keeps coming back into the discussion because religion has always been one of the primary ways humans have interpreted extraordinary experiences and tried to understand what it means to be human.
I don’t know that the book completely succeeds in threading every one of these ideas together. At times I wanted a little more structure connecting everything. But maybe that’s also part of the point. We’re dealing with subjects where nobody really knows yet exactly how everything fits together.
A very compelling read with a lot to think about. If you’re interested in UFOs, AI, religion, consciousness, and the possibility that some of these subjects may overlap in ways we don’t fully understand yet, there’s a lot here that will have you asking more questions about what’s going on in the world around us.
The overarching theme I took away from the book is really human consciousness and how we experience reality. We’re living at a fascinating time. We’re interacting with AI more and more every day, while at the same time we’re having serious discussions about UFOs, UAP, and potentially non-human intelligence that have now reached government officials, scientists, and the mainstream.
Pasulka brings a really unique perspective because of her background in religious studies. Her earlier experiences researching UFO imagery connected to the Vatican helped bring her into this subject, but she also spends a lot of time around people in technology. That combination becomes especially interesting now with the rapid development of AI.
One of the things I kept thinking about while reading this is whether religion, technology, UFO experiences, AI, and consciousness are all different ways of dealing with the same basic human question: What exactly are we interacting with, and how much of reality do we actually understand?
Pasulka gets into ideas surrounding information, consciousness, technology, experiences with non-human intelligence, and how human beings interpret encounters with things outside our normal understanding. Religion keeps coming back into the discussion because religion has always been one of the primary ways humans have interpreted extraordinary experiences and tried to understand what it means to be human.
I don’t know that the book completely succeeds in threading every one of these ideas together. At times I wanted a little more structure connecting everything. But maybe that’s also part of the point. We’re dealing with subjects where nobody really knows yet exactly how everything fits together.
A very compelling read with a lot to think about. If you’re interested in UFOs, AI, religion, consciousness, and the possibility that some of these subjects may overlap in ways we don’t fully understand yet, there’s a lot here that will have you asking more questions about what’s going on in the world around us.
July 29, 2026
Thank you to the publisher for a gifted copy; all thoughts are my own
📖 Book Review 📖 As a mom and a volunteer at our church, I spend a lot of my summer with kids. Sometimes our conversations take some interesting turns. One day while driving to our volunteer site, one of my middle school passengers shared that she just started watching The X-Files and the whole car had a conversation about UFO’s and aliens. While I wish I had read D.W. Pasulka’s book already, next summer I will be more prepared to talk about all of the ways our world works in so many mysterious and beautifully interconnected ways.
The Others: UFO, AI, and the Secret Forces Guiding Human Destinies brings a fascinating fusion of Catholic teaching and realms of existence that push us to new ideological spaces in a digital world. These are not easy concepts to grasp but this book is easily digestible with some theological foundational knowledge and provides so much food for thought. Honestly, I think this one gave me more questions and a thirst for knowledge than resolve but sometimes that’s the best kind of book…
📖 Book Review 📖 As a mom and a volunteer at our church, I spend a lot of my summer with kids. Sometimes our conversations take some interesting turns. One day while driving to our volunteer site, one of my middle school passengers shared that she just started watching The X-Files and the whole car had a conversation about UFO’s and aliens. While I wish I had read D.W. Pasulka’s book already, next summer I will be more prepared to talk about all of the ways our world works in so many mysterious and beautifully interconnected ways.
The Others: UFO, AI, and the Secret Forces Guiding Human Destinies brings a fascinating fusion of Catholic teaching and realms of existence that push us to new ideological spaces in a digital world. These are not easy concepts to grasp but this book is easily digestible with some theological foundational knowledge and provides so much food for thought. Honestly, I think this one gave me more questions and a thirst for knowledge than resolve but sometimes that’s the best kind of book…
October 12, 2026
Those who’ve read D. W. Pasulka’s last two books might be disappointed that there aren’t as many UFOs in this one. Instead, this usual book takes readers into some uncanny territory that includes AI and Marian apparitions. Science fiction novels and Catholic theologians. Those following her research trajectory will see the connections with her other books.
This one is very difficult to summarize. It’s about “the others,” but they aren’t really identified. As I muse in my blog post (Sects and Violence in the Ancient World), it seems to be about consciousness. A future-oriented book, this looks toward the global mind, and perhaps thinks AI has something to do with it.
No fan of AI, I’m reluctant to say it’s conscious. Others disagree. To me, consciousness comes from biology. We’re aware of ourselves and our surroundings because we evolved to survive. I’ve read all of Pasulka’s books, and I enjoyed this one as well. I’m just not sure I agree on all points here.
This one is very difficult to summarize. It’s about “the others,” but they aren’t really identified. As I muse in my blog post (Sects and Violence in the Ancient World), it seems to be about consciousness. A future-oriented book, this looks toward the global mind, and perhaps thinks AI has something to do with it.
No fan of AI, I’m reluctant to say it’s conscious. Others disagree. To me, consciousness comes from biology. We’re aware of ourselves and our surroundings because we evolved to survive. I’ve read all of Pasulka’s books, and I enjoyed this one as well. I’m just not sure I agree on all points here.
July 28, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley for the ALC.
The concept of this book was more interesting than in its execution. I did like the references to different literature throughout time that both intentionally and unintentionally predict elements of the future with the advancements of science and technology, especially with AI. I wasn’t expecting such a theological focused approach in the narrative, especially focusing on harmful religious sects. A majority of this felt like the book was quoting others and breaking the ideas down rather than creating unknown connections.
The concept of this book was more interesting than in its execution. I did like the references to different literature throughout time that both intentionally and unintentionally predict elements of the future with the advancements of science and technology, especially with AI. I wasn’t expecting such a theological focused approach in the narrative, especially focusing on harmful religious sects. A majority of this felt like the book was quoting others and breaking the ideas down rather than creating unknown connections.
October 1, 2026
- Pasulka connects various structures and motifs across ancient religion, modern UFO culture, transhumanism and AI. She explicitly entertains the idea that religions evolved structures for negotiating contact with apparently omniscient or superhuman intelligences, and that those structures may become newly relevant as machine intelligence develops
- Religious problems relate to dealing with AI & NHI because the power asymmetry may be similar
- Religious traditions contain accumulated cultural technologies for negotiating perceived contact with transcendent authority, revelation, temptation, obedience, discernment and asymmetric agency
- Immortality → life extension; resurrection → mind uploading; omniscience → AI; heaven → virtual worlds; transcendence of flesh → posthumanism; apocalypse → singularity
- once an intelligence appears capable of knowing vastly more than you, predicting you, advising you and perhaps improving itself beyond your comprehension, humans will have to decide whether to treat it as: tool, peer, oracle, authority, or god
- Phenomenology vs ontology - What are people experiencing and believing versus what actually caused the experience?
- Why do technological futures so often reproduce older religious narratives of transcendence?
- AI may be more interesting as an environment that transforms human cognition than merely as software.
- UFOs communicating through consciousness (mental impressions, visions, sudden floods of info, etc) versus conventional means
- Computer networking and the study of anomalous phenomena being related/connected
- Distributed intelligence - the internet/machine intelligence/neural networks as crafts (wholes). Each node capable without a central point of control. UFO’s behavior suggest a similar system, an information system vs individual operators which adapt to and change based on cultural, philosophical, religious etc expectations of observer/interactor
- A time in which intelligence transcends the human, aka the present
- Media technologies as control mechanisms/social control (Plato’s the republic). These mechanisms are now inseparable from technology itself. These mechanisms can be coded for control and persuasion, for better or for worse
- A technologically saturated environment
- Encounters with intelligences that challenge the boundaries of the human.
- Intelligence erupting from within our own tools and from beyond.
- Challenging the assumption that humanity is the sole measure of Mind.
- New categories of discernment
- The sense of soul/psyche. The knowledge of how to access, train, harness, expand, etc passed down through traditional religion and practices
- The human being is oriented towards the transcendent, that it’s why makes them human
- Indispensable on the inside, yet discredited on the outside
- If they are truly misguided, why would the us government fund invest in, fund, and encourage them?
- Our machines will scale our impulses, same with biological and fusion (biological and technological) creations?
- Hopeful about technological possibility, horrified by its destructive capacity
- Vacillation between enthusiasm and dread - typical emotion felt went confronting, experiencing, and understanding frontier/novel/asymmetrically effective tech
- Machines designed to scale our impulses, whether intentionally or not
- Technology reshaping and redefining the faculty of human senses
- Once one recognizes the structure of human violence and injustice and its causes, one has an obligation to fight against it
- The most effective deceptions are the ones that feel like progress
- The Supra terrestrial as an evolutionary intensification of spiritual consciousness
- Supra terrestrial- a new human being, shaped by global media system, disembodied perception, collapse of traditional spatial intellectual and temporal boundaries. The body and mind becomes extended and abstracted. The prospect being hopeful, exhilarating, and potentially troublesome/catastrophic
- Integration of consciousness across the globe creating a planetary nervous system.
- The dissolution of self via the seduction of progress
- The arrival of something radically nonhuman leading to the dissolution of the current form of humanity.
- The overmind
- A desire for technological innovation fused with a spiritual quest
- Supraterrestrial - a space where media, mind, and metaphysical converge
- Retrocausality
- Mysticism is tomorrow’s science dreamed today. New technology breeds new man
- Cybernetics as a system of adaptive control
- The ethics of how we design machines that make decisions
- Technology as the electrical extension of our own nervous system
- The digital sphere not as a new type of civilization but as an autonomous Psychotechnological entity whose sovereignty supersedes nation states and globalism
- The question is not whether we are being formed, but how and to what end
- Ai systems weave together distributed human insight into a higher order of cognitive structure
- The glorified/resurrected body being built instead of given
- The three imperatives: space migration, intelligence increase, and life extension
- Uncanny frontier
- The darkness of mystical insight
- Various phenomena as forms of propaganda from alternative intelligence to influence shape direct etc humanity
- Cultural and intelligence evolution overtaking biological evolution
- Not bound by linear time but woven through it
- Religious problems relate to dealing with AI & NHI because the power asymmetry may be similar
- Religious traditions contain accumulated cultural technologies for negotiating perceived contact with transcendent authority, revelation, temptation, obedience, discernment and asymmetric agency
- Immortality → life extension; resurrection → mind uploading; omniscience → AI; heaven → virtual worlds; transcendence of flesh → posthumanism; apocalypse → singularity
- once an intelligence appears capable of knowing vastly more than you, predicting you, advising you and perhaps improving itself beyond your comprehension, humans will have to decide whether to treat it as: tool, peer, oracle, authority, or god
- Phenomenology vs ontology - What are people experiencing and believing versus what actually caused the experience?
- Why do technological futures so often reproduce older religious narratives of transcendence?
- AI may be more interesting as an environment that transforms human cognition than merely as software.
- UFOs communicating through consciousness (mental impressions, visions, sudden floods of info, etc) versus conventional means
- Computer networking and the study of anomalous phenomena being related/connected
- Distributed intelligence - the internet/machine intelligence/neural networks as crafts (wholes). Each node capable without a central point of control. UFO’s behavior suggest a similar system, an information system vs individual operators which adapt to and change based on cultural, philosophical, religious etc expectations of observer/interactor
- A time in which intelligence transcends the human, aka the present
- Media technologies as control mechanisms/social control (Plato’s the republic). These mechanisms are now inseparable from technology itself. These mechanisms can be coded for control and persuasion, for better or for worse
- A technologically saturated environment
- Encounters with intelligences that challenge the boundaries of the human.
- Intelligence erupting from within our own tools and from beyond.
- Challenging the assumption that humanity is the sole measure of Mind.
- New categories of discernment
- The sense of soul/psyche. The knowledge of how to access, train, harness, expand, etc passed down through traditional religion and practices
- The human being is oriented towards the transcendent, that it’s why makes them human
- Indispensable on the inside, yet discredited on the outside
- If they are truly misguided, why would the us government fund invest in, fund, and encourage them?
- Our machines will scale our impulses, same with biological and fusion (biological and technological) creations?
- Hopeful about technological possibility, horrified by its destructive capacity
- Vacillation between enthusiasm and dread - typical emotion felt went confronting, experiencing, and understanding frontier/novel/asymmetrically effective tech
- Machines designed to scale our impulses, whether intentionally or not
- Technology reshaping and redefining the faculty of human senses
- Once one recognizes the structure of human violence and injustice and its causes, one has an obligation to fight against it
- The most effective deceptions are the ones that feel like progress
- The Supra terrestrial as an evolutionary intensification of spiritual consciousness
- Supra terrestrial- a new human being, shaped by global media system, disembodied perception, collapse of traditional spatial intellectual and temporal boundaries. The body and mind becomes extended and abstracted. The prospect being hopeful, exhilarating, and potentially troublesome/catastrophic
- Integration of consciousness across the globe creating a planetary nervous system.
- The dissolution of self via the seduction of progress
- The arrival of something radically nonhuman leading to the dissolution of the current form of humanity.
- The overmind
- A desire for technological innovation fused with a spiritual quest
- Supraterrestrial - a space where media, mind, and metaphysical converge
- Retrocausality
- Mysticism is tomorrow’s science dreamed today. New technology breeds new man
- Cybernetics as a system of adaptive control
- The ethics of how we design machines that make decisions
- Technology as the electrical extension of our own nervous system
- The digital sphere not as a new type of civilization but as an autonomous Psychotechnological entity whose sovereignty supersedes nation states and globalism
- The question is not whether we are being formed, but how and to what end
- Ai systems weave together distributed human insight into a higher order of cognitive structure
- The glorified/resurrected body being built instead of given
- The three imperatives: space migration, intelligence increase, and life extension
- Uncanny frontier
- The darkness of mystical insight
- Various phenomena as forms of propaganda from alternative intelligence to influence shape direct etc humanity
- Cultural and intelligence evolution overtaking biological evolution
- Not bound by linear time but woven through it
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy of this book that deals with the possible future of the human race, one in which AI, artificial and alien intelligence might play a large role in our futures, the prophets from the past who warned us about what is coming, and what this might mean for all of us.
To believe in something is hard . Belief takes a lot of work, a lot of thinking, reading, learning, listening, even arguing. Does not matter what the belief might be, religious, esoteric, even Star Wars. One has to weed out the chaff, the background noise that surrounds many things, to get to the heart of understanding. This can lead to interesting places, interesting people, interesting times. Even challenges. Especially when one is looking at the future, in a time that is changing so fast, that even those bringing it seem amazed. The idea that something is coming, something might change the way we view humanity is not a new one, but the signs in many ways are more obvious than they have ever been. In this book the author attempts to be a tour guide, educator and even a predictor of a future, full of AI, alien presence, and other things we will be surprised by. The Others: UFOs, AI, and the Secret Forces Guiding Human Destiny by D. W. Pasulka looks at the future, the forgotten past, and those who saw what might be coming, those ahead of their times, those ignored, and those helping to change the world.
After a brief introduction the book moves to a convention/conference/rave about the future, the coming apocalypse and a Peter Thiel speech about the Antichrist. These meeting is invitation only, there is a costume ball with apocalypse fashions. The crowd is made up of young tech people, confused by the presence of a religious scholar, though the main speech is about the Antichrist. From there the book travels, looking to the past, at those who saw the intersection of change in humans and technology. The meeting of religious and esoteric knowledge. Catholic thinkers who wondered about the path of violence that humans were one, and where it might be leading. All leading to a future where technology, mainly artifical, or alien intelligence are coming together.
For a big book there are a lot of ideas. Many ideas. Much of it is interesting, some is a little odd, but that is to be expected. The Peter Thiel love is odd, as well as mentions of being flashed at this convention by a woman. Another pass in editing might have helped fix some of this. Ideas are presented, that go off on tangents, before returning. While interesting it does slow down the narrative, and spend a lot of time looking at source notes.
Not a book for casual readers, and not for those who want a little bit of an X-Files rush. There is much to ponder on in this book, much to question, and much to learn. Though the work might be a little much for many readers. An interesting work, one to think about, and makes the future even more interesting, and scary at the same time.
To believe in something is hard . Belief takes a lot of work, a lot of thinking, reading, learning, listening, even arguing. Does not matter what the belief might be, religious, esoteric, even Star Wars. One has to weed out the chaff, the background noise that surrounds many things, to get to the heart of understanding. This can lead to interesting places, interesting people, interesting times. Even challenges. Especially when one is looking at the future, in a time that is changing so fast, that even those bringing it seem amazed. The idea that something is coming, something might change the way we view humanity is not a new one, but the signs in many ways are more obvious than they have ever been. In this book the author attempts to be a tour guide, educator and even a predictor of a future, full of AI, alien presence, and other things we will be surprised by. The Others: UFOs, AI, and the Secret Forces Guiding Human Destiny by D. W. Pasulka looks at the future, the forgotten past, and those who saw what might be coming, those ahead of their times, those ignored, and those helping to change the world.
After a brief introduction the book moves to a convention/conference/rave about the future, the coming apocalypse and a Peter Thiel speech about the Antichrist. These meeting is invitation only, there is a costume ball with apocalypse fashions. The crowd is made up of young tech people, confused by the presence of a religious scholar, though the main speech is about the Antichrist. From there the book travels, looking to the past, at those who saw the intersection of change in humans and technology. The meeting of religious and esoteric knowledge. Catholic thinkers who wondered about the path of violence that humans were one, and where it might be leading. All leading to a future where technology, mainly artifical, or alien intelligence are coming together.
For a big book there are a lot of ideas. Many ideas. Much of it is interesting, some is a little odd, but that is to be expected. The Peter Thiel love is odd, as well as mentions of being flashed at this convention by a woman. Another pass in editing might have helped fix some of this. Ideas are presented, that go off on tangents, before returning. While interesting it does slow down the narrative, and spend a lot of time looking at source notes.
Not a book for casual readers, and not for those who want a little bit of an X-Files rush. There is much to ponder on in this book, much to question, and much to learn. Though the work might be a little much for many readers. An interesting work, one to think about, and makes the future even more interesting, and scary at the same time.
July 31, 2026
This book is easy to read and can be finished in one sitting. It covers a very diverse set of topics including UAP, religious practice, soul creation, AI, psi phenomena, alien intelligence, etc. As a teenager in the 1970s I read "Gods Of Aquarius--UFOs and the Transformation of Man" by Brad Steiger, which is very similar, as it also covered UAP, the noosphere, psi, apparitions, alien contact, etc.
The major issue with authoring a book like this is choosing which of the hundreds of possible threads to explore in the book. Pasulka chose to include some religious figures and scholars as well as unconventional scientists and conventional scientists studying unconventional things. I certainly recommend this book but for me it could have been a better book with different choices.
Re the noosphere or global psi field: Oliver Reiser, Aleksandr Dubrov, and Michael Persinger describe such a field functioning through the Earth's geomagnetic field and Schumann resonances. Ervin Laszlo and Lynne McTaggart describe a universal psi field operating through the quantum vacuum zero point field. The book would have profited from including them.
Re spiritual body development: many traditions describe this in addition to Christian. I knew the English translator of Henry Corbin's work. Corbin wrote of the Iranian concept, Islamic and pre-Islamic, of a subtle, spiritual body that develops within a person, distinct from the physical carcass, allowing a person to perceive celestial realities. Corbin coined the term imaginal to describe an objective, non-physical world of subtle realities and true images that exists between pure intellect and sensory matter. In "Religion after Religion: Gershom Scholem, Mircea Eliade, and Henry Corbin at Eranos" Steven Wasserstrom describes Corbin's participation at the Eranos conferences, which included Carl Jung and overlapped in time with the Macy conferences on cybernetics; Pasulka referenced cybernetics and Norbert Wiener in her book.
Since I am a skeptic of strong AI, I was not as interested in discussions of machine intelligence. I believe the major impact of our current massive investment in generative AI will most likely be a major financial bubble collapse and massive job losses. While I am very interested in Marshall McLuhan's ideas and believe he is underappreciated, I did not see him as particularly relevant to the topics in this book; it seems a bit of a stretch. I remember reading about his son Eric McLuhan's experiments with "pyramid power" in the mid-1970s. The discussion about McLuhan could have been replaced with some of the other people I mentioned.
The major issue with authoring a book like this is choosing which of the hundreds of possible threads to explore in the book. Pasulka chose to include some religious figures and scholars as well as unconventional scientists and conventional scientists studying unconventional things. I certainly recommend this book but for me it could have been a better book with different choices.
Re the noosphere or global psi field: Oliver Reiser, Aleksandr Dubrov, and Michael Persinger describe such a field functioning through the Earth's geomagnetic field and Schumann resonances. Ervin Laszlo and Lynne McTaggart describe a universal psi field operating through the quantum vacuum zero point field. The book would have profited from including them.
Re spiritual body development: many traditions describe this in addition to Christian. I knew the English translator of Henry Corbin's work. Corbin wrote of the Iranian concept, Islamic and pre-Islamic, of a subtle, spiritual body that develops within a person, distinct from the physical carcass, allowing a person to perceive celestial realities. Corbin coined the term imaginal to describe an objective, non-physical world of subtle realities and true images that exists between pure intellect and sensory matter. In "Religion after Religion: Gershom Scholem, Mircea Eliade, and Henry Corbin at Eranos" Steven Wasserstrom describes Corbin's participation at the Eranos conferences, which included Carl Jung and overlapped in time with the Macy conferences on cybernetics; Pasulka referenced cybernetics and Norbert Wiener in her book.
Since I am a skeptic of strong AI, I was not as interested in discussions of machine intelligence. I believe the major impact of our current massive investment in generative AI will most likely be a major financial bubble collapse and massive job losses. While I am very interested in Marshall McLuhan's ideas and believe he is underappreciated, I did not see him as particularly relevant to the topics in this book; it seems a bit of a stretch. I remember reading about his son Eric McLuhan's experiments with "pyramid power" in the mid-1970s. The discussion about McLuhan could have been replaced with some of the other people I mentioned.
March 1, 2026
ARC from St. Martin’s Press of The Others: UFOs, AI, and the Secret Forces Guiding Human Destiny by D.W. Pasulka.
This is a great companion to Dr. Pasulka’s portfolio of work as it pertains to UFO/UAP and its relationship with historic religious practices.
In Dr. Pasulka’s prior two works regarding UFO/UAP, titled American Cosmic and Encounters, the author sets up the groundwork for the type of theoretical work that is asked of the reader by the author in The Others. I highly suggest for those who may struggle with the thinking introduced in this work to first read Dr. Pasulka’s prior two books cited above.
The only reason I recommend the prior works of Dr. Pasulka first is because this current book, the Others, dives even deeper into the capabilities of extraterrestrial life as it relates to consciousness and inter dimensional phenomena. A normal reader is not always ready to jump straight into consciousness and dimensions, when they do not have a fundamental base of the history and understanding of UFO/UAP, globally.
Often, while reading the Others, Dr. Pasulka would begin her many theoretical ideas and I would internally start to discount what she was saying before even finishing the thought! However, each and every time, by the end of each idea I truly had a different understanding of the possible capabilities that nonbiological/extraterrestrial organisms can have on the human mind and body by using modern technology not as a crutch, but as a communication tool.
It is not often I am surprised by new theories in our day and age, however, Dr. Pasulka truly introduces new ways of thinking. Specifically, about how technology has ALREADY impacted the world around us and how higher life forms might have been in conjunction with the evolution of technology the entire time humans have been evolving along side it.
I also think this writing will provide a very interesting look into how the elites, specifically those who have been in circles with many tech-nazis such as Theil and Epstein, and how the top 1% may attempt to moralize their over-obsession with immortality and “transhumanism”. Interestingly enough, transhumanism comes up multiple times in the Epstein files.
This is a great companion to Dr. Pasulka’s portfolio of work as it pertains to UFO/UAP and its relationship with historic religious practices.
In Dr. Pasulka’s prior two works regarding UFO/UAP, titled American Cosmic and Encounters, the author sets up the groundwork for the type of theoretical work that is asked of the reader by the author in The Others. I highly suggest for those who may struggle with the thinking introduced in this work to first read Dr. Pasulka’s prior two books cited above.
The only reason I recommend the prior works of Dr. Pasulka first is because this current book, the Others, dives even deeper into the capabilities of extraterrestrial life as it relates to consciousness and inter dimensional phenomena. A normal reader is not always ready to jump straight into consciousness and dimensions, when they do not have a fundamental base of the history and understanding of UFO/UAP, globally.
Often, while reading the Others, Dr. Pasulka would begin her many theoretical ideas and I would internally start to discount what she was saying before even finishing the thought! However, each and every time, by the end of each idea I truly had a different understanding of the possible capabilities that nonbiological/extraterrestrial organisms can have on the human mind and body by using modern technology not as a crutch, but as a communication tool.
It is not often I am surprised by new theories in our day and age, however, Dr. Pasulka truly introduces new ways of thinking. Specifically, about how technology has ALREADY impacted the world around us and how higher life forms might have been in conjunction with the evolution of technology the entire time humans have been evolving along side it.
I also think this writing will provide a very interesting look into how the elites, specifically those who have been in circles with many tech-nazis such as Theil and Epstein, and how the top 1% may attempt to moralize their over-obsession with immortality and “transhumanism”. Interestingly enough, transhumanism comes up multiple times in the Epstein files.
August 2, 2026
This book is heavily AI-generated, hich is unbelievably ironic and tragic considering that the subject matter inside warns us repeatedly not to lose the things that make us most human to advancing technologies.
Like - an academic in the humanities outsourcing their writing (of all things) to AI, for example? We should all not do that? Noted.
If nothing else, the poor writing in this book was all the evidence needed to support one of the book's leading arguments (against the reckless rush to world-altering technological adoption at the expense of our humanity).
If you read American Cosmic and/or Encounters, you will find the change in voice glaring and grating to the point of distraction. It was nearly impossible to focus on the arguments she was trying to make when every third line was the stereotypical "not x, but y" AI construct (or a similar obvious tell). How did no one on her editing team or any of the brilliant people she had write positive blurbs for the jacket catch any of this?
Pasulka is typically most noteworthy for her unique ideas and novel takes, in my opinion. For the first time, though, I'm reconsidering whether she deserves that recognition - if you're willing to outsource your writing, your unique voice, I now wonder how many of the ideas contained therein were actually original (or were they AI-generated as well?).
I'm so disappointed. I'm so tired of the hypocrisy of people using their platforms to rail against AI and technology (capitalizing on the current cultural moment) while 'secretly' using it to get an easy paycheck from those who haven't learned to identify it well yet.
Also for those of you expecting a book like American Cosmic or Encounters, this subject matter is only loosely related. I'm fine with that because the topics she set out to discuss here are even more inline with my interests than those books were anyways, but many of you may be left disappointed.
And many more of you will be left disappointed that intellectuals are now outsourcing their creative (potentially intellectual) output to the AI-slop machine.
(*After crafting a draft of this review, I happened upon a recent podcast that Pasulka participated in to market this book; in it, she very quickly referenced that she uses AI "as a tool", but that she would never let it do her work/thinking for her like most of her "young" students do. I could not believe what I was hearing. Never meet your heroes and whatnot...)
(**The author is now bragging on social media about how well this book is doing...Still no regret nor thanks given to her AI co-author, however.)
Like - an academic in the humanities outsourcing their writing (of all things) to AI, for example? We should all not do that? Noted.
If nothing else, the poor writing in this book was all the evidence needed to support one of the book's leading arguments (against the reckless rush to world-altering technological adoption at the expense of our humanity).
If you read American Cosmic and/or Encounters, you will find the change in voice glaring and grating to the point of distraction. It was nearly impossible to focus on the arguments she was trying to make when every third line was the stereotypical "not x, but y" AI construct (or a similar obvious tell). How did no one on her editing team or any of the brilliant people she had write positive blurbs for the jacket catch any of this?
Pasulka is typically most noteworthy for her unique ideas and novel takes, in my opinion. For the first time, though, I'm reconsidering whether she deserves that recognition - if you're willing to outsource your writing, your unique voice, I now wonder how many of the ideas contained therein were actually original (or were they AI-generated as well?).
I'm so disappointed. I'm so tired of the hypocrisy of people using their platforms to rail against AI and technology (capitalizing on the current cultural moment) while 'secretly' using it to get an easy paycheck from those who haven't learned to identify it well yet.
Also for those of you expecting a book like American Cosmic or Encounters, this subject matter is only loosely related. I'm fine with that because the topics she set out to discuss here are even more inline with my interests than those books were anyways, but many of you may be left disappointed.
And many more of you will be left disappointed that intellectuals are now outsourcing their creative (potentially intellectual) output to the AI-slop machine.
(*After crafting a draft of this review, I happened upon a recent podcast that Pasulka participated in to market this book; in it, she very quickly referenced that she uses AI "as a tool", but that she would never let it do her work/thinking for her like most of her "young" students do. I could not believe what I was hearing. Never meet your heroes and whatnot...)
(**The author is now bragging on social media about how well this book is doing...Still no regret nor thanks given to her AI co-author, however.)
August 15, 2026
imaginal frontier
Pasulka doesn't spend a lot of time with the UFO topic here, because she's sketching the field of vision, all the pieces that are being ignored, the cornerstones that frame up our ability to see at all. Her research probes many insights from many people, from many backgrounds, charting how an emerging background presence or field or forces are moving. The human person in its wholeness cannot be ignored in this, and is essential to it. The rise of AI points to a bleak technocratic, dehumanized future, but she's not so sure.
Even without the unending anecdotes, testimony, and witness of sacred visions, abductions, and appearances of beings that don't fit our categories, we are porous to something that is using our soul and psyche as a forcing mechanism. We are being worked on not as a use to some other end. We are being worked with, cultivated, toward some end that we help bring about. As a Catholic, I value her awareness of the fields of devotion and religious framing, and as a scientist, her engagement with data wherever it comes from.
This book leaves you with more than the eerie sense we're that we're not alone. I hear the sense that AI is a tool we do not fully understand because it is made by technologists who are eyeing a greater horizon, and they're not in lockstep. More importantly, these builders and their convictions emerge from the centuries of background radiation emitted from mystic contact, charted by religions.
It is a fascinating and eerie time to be taking a stethoscope, mammogram, and EKG to a visitor from beyond, such as the Blessed Mother, and be stunned that she shows signs of life.
We are not alone, and heaven has not abandoned us, and a book like this shows how tilting your head sideways means you can see unexpected ways that we are being prodded and prompted to deepen ourselves as a species.
While she may not drag the secret forces into the spotlight and name them, we are left staring at a pile of convincing coincidences that frame a silhouette, something with a definite shape, something that clearly beckons to us as more vital that we are prepared to admit.
Pasulka doesn't spend a lot of time with the UFO topic here, because she's sketching the field of vision, all the pieces that are being ignored, the cornerstones that frame up our ability to see at all. Her research probes many insights from many people, from many backgrounds, charting how an emerging background presence or field or forces are moving. The human person in its wholeness cannot be ignored in this, and is essential to it. The rise of AI points to a bleak technocratic, dehumanized future, but she's not so sure.
Even without the unending anecdotes, testimony, and witness of sacred visions, abductions, and appearances of beings that don't fit our categories, we are porous to something that is using our soul and psyche as a forcing mechanism. We are being worked on not as a use to some other end. We are being worked with, cultivated, toward some end that we help bring about. As a Catholic, I value her awareness of the fields of devotion and religious framing, and as a scientist, her engagement with data wherever it comes from.
This book leaves you with more than the eerie sense we're that we're not alone. I hear the sense that AI is a tool we do not fully understand because it is made by technologists who are eyeing a greater horizon, and they're not in lockstep. More importantly, these builders and their convictions emerge from the centuries of background radiation emitted from mystic contact, charted by religions.
It is a fascinating and eerie time to be taking a stethoscope, mammogram, and EKG to a visitor from beyond, such as the Blessed Mother, and be stunned that she shows signs of life.
We are not alone, and heaven has not abandoned us, and a book like this shows how tilting your head sideways means you can see unexpected ways that we are being prodded and prompted to deepen ourselves as a species.
While she may not drag the secret forces into the spotlight and name them, we are left staring at a pile of convincing coincidences that frame a silhouette, something with a definite shape, something that clearly beckons to us as more vital that we are prepared to admit.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC—my honest thoughts, as always, are my own. Now let’s descend into the shadows…
Some truths don’t feel like fiction… they feel like something we were never meant to fully understand.
The Others isn’t just a book—it’s an experience. One that blurs the line between science, belief, and something far more unsettling. D. W. Pasulka explores UFO phenomena, artificial intelligence, and the possibility that unseen forces may be shaping human destiny in ways we can’t quite comprehend—and that’s where this book truly gets under your skin.
I’ve always been drawn to the unknown—the things that exist just beyond explanation—and this book thrives in that space. It doesn’t try to give you all the answers. Instead, it leaves you sitting in that eerie in-between, where curiosity and unease coexist. The deeper you go, the more it feels like you’re brushing up against something vast… something watching… something "other".
There’s a quiet, creeping realization woven throughout these pages: what if we’re not as alone—or as in control—as we think we are? And once that thought takes hold, it’s nearly impossible to shake.
This isn’t horror in the traditional sense—but it lingers like one. Subtle. Expansive. Just unsettling enough to make you look at the world a little differently when you’re done.
**Content Warning:** Existential themes, discussions of UFO phenomena, AI, and concepts that may feel unsettling or reality-shifting.
If you’re fascinated by the unknown, the unexplained, and the possibility that something is quietly shaping the course of humanity… this is a journey you won’t forget.
🕸️ I’m that weird girl who seeks the shadows—and you’ll follow willingly. 🕸️
Some truths don’t feel like fiction… they feel like something we were never meant to fully understand.
The Others isn’t just a book—it’s an experience. One that blurs the line between science, belief, and something far more unsettling. D. W. Pasulka explores UFO phenomena, artificial intelligence, and the possibility that unseen forces may be shaping human destiny in ways we can’t quite comprehend—and that’s where this book truly gets under your skin.
I’ve always been drawn to the unknown—the things that exist just beyond explanation—and this book thrives in that space. It doesn’t try to give you all the answers. Instead, it leaves you sitting in that eerie in-between, where curiosity and unease coexist. The deeper you go, the more it feels like you’re brushing up against something vast… something watching… something "other".
There’s a quiet, creeping realization woven throughout these pages: what if we’re not as alone—or as in control—as we think we are? And once that thought takes hold, it’s nearly impossible to shake.
This isn’t horror in the traditional sense—but it lingers like one. Subtle. Expansive. Just unsettling enough to make you look at the world a little differently when you’re done.
**Content Warning:** Existential themes, discussions of UFO phenomena, AI, and concepts that may feel unsettling or reality-shifting.
If you’re fascinated by the unknown, the unexplained, and the possibility that something is quietly shaping the course of humanity… this is a journey you won’t forget.
🕸️ I’m that weird girl who seeks the shadows—and you’ll follow willingly. 🕸️
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Fascinating read! I A religious studies scholar attempts, persuasively I might add, to show “a hidden history of alleged contacts between human and nonhuman intelligences.”
The book begins with the author discussing a censored Catholic visionary who in the early 20th C predicted a new form of intelligence would appear - this “would appear alien but be far stranger.” By the mid-20th C other mystics and even science fiction writers like Arthur C. Clarke were saying the same thing. The book goes on to explore how UFO phenomena intersect with the rise of AI. The author links the UFO phenomena to “angelic encounters” and argues it’s becoming a new form of spirituality as well as positing that AI and scientific attempts to advance life with the age—old quest for immortality. In doing all of this, the author applies an historical lens and complex reasoning in her assertions on how we believe but never says this is the literal truth - just a “maybe.”
In order to read this book, one has to keep an open mind. A “what if” is not the same as saying “it is.” While a lot of what is written seems like pure conjecture, the research and logic behind it is compelling. If you keep an open mind, this is a fun read.
I’m not supporting any of the speculations or conclusions in the book, I’m only commenting on my experience reading this most unique book. My enjoyment in reading comes from experiences like reading something so uniquely different that it challenges or educates me. If you enjoy books like that, you may find this one is for you.
My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for granting me access to this ARC.
The book begins with the author discussing a censored Catholic visionary who in the early 20th C predicted a new form of intelligence would appear - this “would appear alien but be far stranger.” By the mid-20th C other mystics and even science fiction writers like Arthur C. Clarke were saying the same thing. The book goes on to explore how UFO phenomena intersect with the rise of AI. The author links the UFO phenomena to “angelic encounters” and argues it’s becoming a new form of spirituality as well as positing that AI and scientific attempts to advance life with the age—old quest for immortality. In doing all of this, the author applies an historical lens and complex reasoning in her assertions on how we believe but never says this is the literal truth - just a “maybe.”
In order to read this book, one has to keep an open mind. A “what if” is not the same as saying “it is.” While a lot of what is written seems like pure conjecture, the research and logic behind it is compelling. If you keep an open mind, this is a fun read.
I’m not supporting any of the speculations or conclusions in the book, I’m only commenting on my experience reading this most unique book. My enjoyment in reading comes from experiences like reading something so uniquely different that it challenges or educates me. If you enjoy books like that, you may find this one is for you.
My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for granting me access to this ARC.
September 14, 2026
did not care for this book at all. each chapter was basically the author's opinion's about other books most of us have already read (Childhood's End, . It was very confusing with the juxtaposition of her very catholic beliefs and the amount of transhumanism and pro-ai intertwined. I kept feeling like I missed some transition as we went from a transcendent spiritual experience to leap into a techno-futurist tech conference from Peter Thiel's Hereticon.
Does the author not see how she's simply star-struck at every celebrity she meets? I kept hoping she would use her experience, access and proximity to speak up and help balance some of these contradictory ideas but she never "rocks the boat" in any environment.
very frustrating to read. hardly any discussion about ufos even though its in the title.
American Cosmic was interesting, however this book felt like a money grab to talk about all the star power she's had access to and little interpretation or relevancy as we fly from subject to subject.
honestly it felt like in college when your professor keeps putting outrageous, contradictory sources in front of you and you're super confused and they keep asking "but what do YOU think about this?". I felt like any of these chapters could have been their own book with some depth and research and analysis. instead we got a buffet of foods that didn't really mix flavors very well.
Does the author not see how she's simply star-struck at every celebrity she meets? I kept hoping she would use her experience, access and proximity to speak up and help balance some of these contradictory ideas but she never "rocks the boat" in any environment.
very frustrating to read. hardly any discussion about ufos even though its in the title.
American Cosmic was interesting, however this book felt like a money grab to talk about all the star power she's had access to and little interpretation or relevancy as we fly from subject to subject.
honestly it felt like in college when your professor keeps putting outrageous, contradictory sources in front of you and you're super confused and they keep asking "but what do YOU think about this?". I felt like any of these chapters could have been their own book with some depth and research and analysis. instead we got a buffet of foods that didn't really mix flavors very well.
October 6, 2026
What was normal is now weird, and what was weird is now normal.
That’s kind of been the vibe I’ve been noticing for a little while, and in a very real way, D.W. Pasulka’s The Others: UFOs, AI, and the Secret Forces Guiding Human Destiny (galley received as part of early review program) exemplifies it.
I’ve always had an interest in the paranormal. I was mad when Fox started airing some new drama called The X-Files because it superseded the show Sightings. But that kind of interest was fringe and weird.
And yet these days…it really isn’t. In the work, the author has interviews and conversations with all sorts of people, including many who have quite a lot of power and prominence in the world today. The author explores how many well regarded authors have fantasized about human destiny as it might relate to alien and/or technological powers. None of those imagined futures seem great. And now, with the rise of AI, those imagined futures seem a bit more real, although no less menacing.
And so this book goes from being something which might have been seen as niche or fringe a quarter of a century ago into something quite compelling for a lot of people in terms of considering our present and future…because a lot of the people who have influence and power have been quite strongly influenced by these kinds of stories and experiences, and it shows.
That’s kind of been the vibe I’ve been noticing for a little while, and in a very real way, D.W. Pasulka’s The Others: UFOs, AI, and the Secret Forces Guiding Human Destiny (galley received as part of early review program) exemplifies it.
I’ve always had an interest in the paranormal. I was mad when Fox started airing some new drama called The X-Files because it superseded the show Sightings. But that kind of interest was fringe and weird.
And yet these days…it really isn’t. In the work, the author has interviews and conversations with all sorts of people, including many who have quite a lot of power and prominence in the world today. The author explores how many well regarded authors have fantasized about human destiny as it might relate to alien and/or technological powers. None of those imagined futures seem great. And now, with the rise of AI, those imagined futures seem a bit more real, although no less menacing.
And so this book goes from being something which might have been seen as niche or fringe a quarter of a century ago into something quite compelling for a lot of people in terms of considering our present and future…because a lot of the people who have influence and power have been quite strongly influenced by these kinds of stories and experiences, and it shows.
August 21, 2026
Given the author's proximity to the world of "UAP Disclosure" podcasts and radio shows, I had assumed this book would be at least somewhat about things like deep underground military research laboratories, rumors of advanced interdimensional AIs piloting UFOs, black budget classified future-prediction algorithms developed by the CIA, and so on. But instead of anything like that, this book was a light but academic discussion of the role and meaning of technology in the cultural and spiritual evolution of humanity.
The author touches on the works of scientific and cultural luminaries from the 20th century and some still alive today, with a big focus on Marshall McLuhan, Teilhard de Chardin, and Rene Girard; but also Timothy Leary, Robert A. Wilson, Richard Stallman and other counter-cultural and esoteric thinkers. The second half focuses more on the subject of Transhumanism, and the unsettling novel "Childhood's End" by Arthur C. Clarke proves to be an especially deep well she draws from many times to build connections and further the discussion. I thought it was all very interesting and presents much to think about. The author's recounting of her experiences attending the Hereticon in 2024 was a fascinating little glimpse into the Peter Thiel/Paypal Mafia world as well.
The author touches on the works of scientific and cultural luminaries from the 20th century and some still alive today, with a big focus on Marshall McLuhan, Teilhard de Chardin, and Rene Girard; but also Timothy Leary, Robert A. Wilson, Richard Stallman and other counter-cultural and esoteric thinkers. The second half focuses more on the subject of Transhumanism, and the unsettling novel "Childhood's End" by Arthur C. Clarke proves to be an especially deep well she draws from many times to build connections and further the discussion. I thought it was all very interesting and presents much to think about. The author's recounting of her experiences attending the Hereticon in 2024 was a fascinating little glimpse into the Peter Thiel/Paypal Mafia world as well.
October 31, 2026
I was thoroughly engaged with this book, and devoured it in only a few days once I finally had the free time to devote my attention to it in full. I love Pasulka, and I’ll enthusiastically follow her future publications with zeal. As a fan of “American Cosmic” and “Encounters,” I opened this book expecting a product perfectly catered to my interests in the intersection of ufology and theology, and this book did not disappoint. Her analysis was insightful and eye-opening, her themes were captivating and assiduous, her prose was academic yet parsable for the layperson, and her research left me eager to read even more. I savored this book like a sweet candy, and would recommend it with delight.
I am endlessly fascinated by the eclectic spheres of personality that Pasulka orbits; her world is bizarre and riveting. I envy the breadth of her experience and the eccentric connections she utilizes to fill her pages. Half a star was removed for the Peter Thiel jumpscare- I feel obliged to watch his lectures on the Antichrist in order to truly appreciate her references, but I really…don’t want to do that. I did decide to pick up the works of Pierre de Chardin, though, as I think his writings on the noosphere will be enthralling.
I am endlessly fascinated by the eclectic spheres of personality that Pasulka orbits; her world is bizarre and riveting. I envy the breadth of her experience and the eccentric connections she utilizes to fill her pages. Half a star was removed for the Peter Thiel jumpscare- I feel obliged to watch his lectures on the Antichrist in order to truly appreciate her references, but I really…don’t want to do that. I did decide to pick up the works of Pierre de Chardin, though, as I think his writings on the noosphere will be enthralling.
October 20, 2026
The Others: UFOs, AI, and the Secret Forces Guiding Human Destiny by D. W. Pasulka
Not what I expected at all. This was simultaneously more interesting than I expected and yet so far off from what the title suggested? Also FAR more Catholic than I would've thought this could be.
I'm not sure how I feel about it! But this is a provocative book.
Looking forward to reading more of Pasulka.
Reading history:
Normally I keep this in my private notes section, but I'm moving it. Yay!
Reading history was not added on Goodreads, but was instead kept on a small piece of paper with the book.
Started October 14th, 2026.
Finished October 17th, 2026.
Page numbers refer to hardcover first edition.
October 14th, 2026: listened to intro + chapters 1-5 (pp. 1-86) via Audible with physical copy nearby, plus twoish minutes of chapter 6.
October 16th, 2026: listened to chapters 6-12 (pp. 87-222) via Audible with physical copy nearby.
October 17th, 2026 (after midnight): listened to chapter 13 (pp. 223-238) via Audible with physical copy nearby.
October 17th, 2026 (daytime): listened to chapter 14-postscript (pp. 239-255) via Audible with physical copy nearby.
Not what I expected at all. This was simultaneously more interesting than I expected and yet so far off from what the title suggested? Also FAR more Catholic than I would've thought this could be.
I'm not sure how I feel about it! But this is a provocative book.
Looking forward to reading more of Pasulka.
Reading history:
Normally I keep this in my private notes section, but I'm moving it. Yay!
Reading history was not added on Goodreads, but was instead kept on a small piece of paper with the book.
Started October 14th, 2026.
Finished October 17th, 2026.
Page numbers refer to hardcover first edition.
October 14th, 2026: listened to intro + chapters 1-5 (pp. 1-86) via Audible with physical copy nearby, plus twoish minutes of chapter 6.
October 16th, 2026: listened to chapters 6-12 (pp. 87-222) via Audible with physical copy nearby.
October 17th, 2026 (after midnight): listened to chapter 13 (pp. 223-238) via Audible with physical copy nearby.
October 17th, 2026 (daytime): listened to chapter 14-postscript (pp. 239-255) via Audible with physical copy nearby.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
The Others; UFOs AI and the secret force is guiding human destiny by DW pasulka, I usually enjoy the author‘s books on UFOs I find them to be well researched told in depth but this book was just too academic heavy for me everything was a quote from a speech or a book in although the research is really awe inspiring it’s dizzying to have to read it’s hard to keep track because she goes from one to another to another there’s some really good chapters in the book but not enough that I would recommend this to anyone it’s just too dependent on other sources I mean I get some books quote other books or speeches essays etc but they have a whole book based on other authors books and the like to me was just too much. #NetGalley, #TheBlindReviewer, #MyHonestReview,
Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
Recieved this as a free Arc..
Wish I could have said I enjoyed it more, but I want to be honest, I didn't... it was a very dry, repetitive, and boring read. The theory the author was trying to prove could have been easily explained in a much shorter format. It felt like when reading it , the same concept was explained over and over, just in different ways by different sources. The theory was not new in any way. It just didn't work for me. I have not read any other books by this author, so I couldn't compare if it was this one book I didn't enjoy or just the authors books in general. However, at this point, I don't have any interest in exploring any more of her books at this point.
Wish I could have said I enjoyed it more, but I want to be honest, I didn't... it was a very dry, repetitive, and boring read. The theory the author was trying to prove could have been easily explained in a much shorter format. It felt like when reading it , the same concept was explained over and over, just in different ways by different sources. The theory was not new in any way. It just didn't work for me. I have not read any other books by this author, so I couldn't compare if it was this one book I didn't enjoy or just the authors books in general. However, at this point, I don't have any interest in exploring any more of her books at this point.
August 5, 2026
A thoughtful and unusual exploration of UFOs, spiritualism, and human evolution.
The author weaves together Bible verses, spiritual texts, and references to works like Childhood’s End to build a broad, speculative picture of humanity’s development. At times the writing can be challenging to follow, but there are genuinely interesting ideas throughout, and several points made me stop and think. Readers who enjoy spiritually focused interpretations of UFO phenomena will likely find this book worthwhile. I recommend it for anyone interested in the intersection of spirituality and human evolution.
The author weaves together Bible verses, spiritual texts, and references to works like Childhood’s End to build a broad, speculative picture of humanity’s development. At times the writing can be challenging to follow, but there are genuinely interesting ideas throughout, and several points made me stop and think. Readers who enjoy spiritually focused interpretations of UFO phenomena will likely find this book worthwhile. I recommend it for anyone interested in the intersection of spirituality and human evolution.
October 4, 2026
This was an odd book. I enjoyed Pasulka's book Encounters much more than this one. This book felt more rambling, and less cohesive, and I'm still not really sure what exactly she wants the reader to take from this. I did enjoy learning about the ideas of some of the philosophers she discussed, enough that I decided to finish the book rather than abandon it. And I'm very intrigued by the idea of some connection between emerging info about UFOs, AI, and the spiritual ream. In the end though, I can barely review it because I'm just not sure what the point was. That could be on me as the reader, but based on other reviews I've seen, I don't think I'm totally alone.
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