From Aliens to Bigfoot: A Philosopher's Guide to the Strange

by Frank Cabrera, Megan Fritts, The Great Courses

What can Bigfoot teach us about seeking the truth? How do theories of extraterrestrial life help us understand our place in the universe? Can near-death experiences help us better understand human consciousness?

We live in a weird and wonderful world full of strange phenomena, unexplained events, and unanswered questions.

For thousands of years, philosophers have sought out the answers to the great mysteries of the human experience, exploring consciousness, morality, free will, and even existence itself. The philosophical search for truth and meaning is an immense undertaking that has been underway for millennia. On a smaller scale, paranormal investigators, cryptid hunters, and alien enthusiasts have been searching for answers to rather different questions, exploring everything from the existence of Bigfoot to demon possession. But are they really so different?

Whether you’re looking for proof of alien life or seeking the meaning of life here on Earth, you’ll find that the domain of philosophy and the realm of the weird converge in surprising ways via the six lectures of From Aliens to A Philosopher’s Guide to the Strange. Guided by Dr. Frank Cabrera and Dr. Megan Fritts, you’ll dive into some of the most bizarre—and most philosophically fascinating—wonders of the world.

Whether you’re a skeptic, a true believer, or somewhere in between, you’ll find that the questions explored in this course seek truth in astonishing places.

Genres: Nonfiction, Audiobook, Philosophy, Psychology

Audible Audio

Published May 21, 2026

Reviews

[Anthony Thompson]

I do not recognize TTC anymore. These people host a podcast? The flattest presentation ever.

I once read Harry Potter and Philosophy as a child. This is more of that.

As a back door primer for philosophy it's not good. As a lens to view weird things, it's also not good.

[George Robert]

This book begins with Bigfoot and UFOs but gradually reveals itself to be about something much deeper: consciousness. The early chapters use strange phenomena as a training ground for philosophical reasoning, demonstrating how to weigh evidence, examine assumptions, and think carefully even when evidence is sparse or absent. From there, the discussion naturally progresses through hypnosis, out-of-body experiences, artificial intelligence, and ultimately the enduring question of what it means to be conscious.

I appreciated the authors' attempt to remain intellectually open-minded and to reason carefully through contentious topics. Their thought experiments—particularly the gradual replacement of neurons and its implications for consciousness—were engaging and thought-provoking. Even when I disagreed, I found myself stopping to think.

Where I remained unconvinced was in the scope of the discussion itself. The book largely approaches consciousness through the tools of philosophy and reason, which is entirely appropriate for its purpose, but I couldn't help feeling that the religious conception of the soul remains the elephant in the room. If consciousness is not wholly reducible to physical processes, then many of the book's conclusions about AI and personhood become far less certain. Likewise, while future AI may become extraordinarily convincing in its appearance of consciousness, I am not persuaded that appearing conscious and truly possessing consciousness are necessarily the same thing.

Overall, this is an accessible and enjoyable introduction to some of philosophy's strangest questions. It doesn't provide definitive answers, but it succeeds in encouraging careful thought and intellectual humility while inviting readers to continue exploring the mystery for themselves.

[Sierra 🌸]

I listened to this as an audiobook. None of these are topics I'm interested in, but I picked this up because I needed to read a book about philosophy for a reading challenge. I think they did a good job of making these topics interesting and I am interested in this idea that even though these are things that everybody has heard of and has likely already formed an opinion on, there are different ways of thinking about them and different ways of discussing these fantastical concepts. Even though I do think they did a good job of making this interesting, this is still far from the kind of thing I typically prefer to read and I was still fairly bored by this. I don’t have a super strong opinion on most of the topics discussed in this book, but the one thing I do have to say about aliens is that I think it’s awfully egotistical and arrogant of us to think we’re the only intelligent life in the universe considering how massive we believe space to be. How can we ever be sure? And even in this book, they kept talking about how unlikely it would be for another planet out there to have the conditions necessary to sustain life, but why are we so certain that any other life that may be out there would need what we need to live? Who’s to say that there aren’t aliens out there who breathe nitrogen instead of oxygen or swim around on a gaseous planet? I’m not saying that I believe in aliens, I'm just saying that there’s no way to know for sure, so I will never understand anyone who definitively says they don’t exist. I am against this new idea of audio only books. It doesn’t make much sense to me and it annoys me, because it messes up my stats. I think this was pretty good for what it was, but it’s not something I will think about again in the future.

[Toni]

3.5 rounded up for the variety of speculation and explanations. This might have to be a reread for the 3rd person perspective & cases (which I didn't remember hearing about before) in L5.

L1 - Big Foot & the Philosophy of the Strange
L2 - The Extraterrestrial Life Debate
L3 - What Explains Near-Death Experience
L4 - Demonic Possession & Human Agency
L5 - Hypnosis, Consciousness, & Identity
L6 - Virtual Minds & Moral Rights

[Pam]

This book is one of Audible‘s great courses. I enjoy the great courses very much and I have listened to many of them. This one was full of interesting facts and ideas about the weird and unusual. Personally, I am undecided on lots of the topics that were covered. Such as Bigfoot, the abominable snowman aliens visiting our planet. All in all it was fun to think about.

[Hunter Ross]

I could easily see this being rated 2-3 stars but it was interesting. Not exactly mind expanding and at times was more of an internal dialectic between the two authors and often degenerated into a priori arguments. Not the greatest but not the worst either and super quick.

[Ty Meeks]

Just a small nonfiction to get me to 70 books this year!

Really interesting, honestly I love these audiobooks. I found how much research they put into creating arguments and counter arguments for various odd phenomenon to be quite enjoyable and entertaining!

[Natalie McCray]

The book should be called “how to keep an open mind about stuff”. I thought it was going to list evidence and give opinions based on that idea, but no. It’s just about how to keep an open mind. Meh

[AttackGirl]

and yet another great course!!!

tell me just think do you know what happens outside when you go to sleep? how about where the birds or bugs go right before the bats come out?

[Chelsey]

This was really, really well done. I liked it a lot.

[Steve Stivaktis]

Cool premise, kind of flat presentation.