American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology

by D.W. Pasulka, Norah Tocci (Narrator)

More than half of American adults and more than seventy-five percent of young Americans believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life. This level of belief rivals that of belief in God. American Cosmic examines the mechanisms at work behind the thriving belief system in extraterrestrial life, a system that is changing and even supplanting traditional religions.

Over the course of a six-year ethnographic study, D.W. Pasulka interviewed successful and influential scientists, professionals, and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who believe in extraterrestrial intelligence, thereby disproving the common misconception that only fringe members of society believe in UFOs. She argues that widespread belief in aliens is due to a number of factors including their ubiquity in modern media like The X-Files, which can influence memory, and the believability lent to that media by the search for planets that might support life. American Cosmic explores the intriguing question of how people interpret unexplainable experiences, and argues that media is replacing religion as a cultural authority that offers believers answers about non-human intelligent life.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion, Paranormal, Science, History, Aliens, Spirituality

Audible Audio

First published February 20, 2019

About the author

Dr. Diana Walsh Pasulka is a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She writes and teaches about the history of the Catholic tradition and new religious movements, particularly as they intersect with digital technologies.

Reviews

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could have been so much better though...

It was like there were avenues the author began to go down that seemed both interesting and promising but then decided not to go all the way down leaving me frustrated....

[Stuart · Rating 1 out of 5]

While there's an occasional good idea in American Cosmic, D.W. Pasulka can't seem to string together a single paragraph without resorting to hagiography, pointless academic authoritarian posturing or contextless dogma. In short, this book is a mess and is so trite as to require a belief in the reader that every anecdote is self-serving fiction. Not a good look. There are far better books about UFOlogy and far better books about modern belief systems and the emergence of mysticism in response to rapid technological change/existential anxiety. Read those instead and save yourself some time.

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is a religious expert who studies the religious and has branched into studying UFOlogists since there is a real crossover between both sets of people. Both sets of people want to believe in unseen (or at least unverified) things hoped for and want to believe that the truth is out there in some form thus placing meaning not within the person but outside of them.

The author frames our meaning by how we interpret our world through our experience, physical evidence and the social milieu we find ourselves currently dwelling in, thereby laying the ontological (it’s a word she uses multiple times) foundation for our being.

The author mentions St. Teresa of Avila in the text. She tells a story from St. Teresa’s diary to illustrate her point, but I’ll tell another story to make a similar point the author was making. St. Teresa saw a mystical entity and knew it was blue, but wasn’t sure if it was of the Devil or Holy, but ultimately decided it must be from Jesus. She had a false dichotomous framing ‘either of God or the devil’, never quite realizing that there were other just as real and probable alternatives available (it could have been Ahura Mazda, Buddha, an alien from a another galaxy, a psychotic break from reality, a time traveler, or maybe just something she ate the night before such as an ‘undigested piece of meat’). The point is she simplistically interpreted the meaning of the experience within the social milieu of her world’s ontological paradigm.

UFOlogist do the exact same thing. They’ll connect the dots in such a way that they will quarantine off any data (physical, or experiential) in such a way that they won’t admit to a cognitive dissonance when conflicting data might come in. The author points out something I didn’t know, to many UFOlogist the UFO itself is not what is important itself, but they (the UFO) could just be a phenomenon that is a portal to or for something else as would be angels to believers in angels.

How we understand the world goes into how we give meaning to the perceptions we have from the world and that gets filtered through our culture (our social milieu).

The author made one slight error that I want to point out. She said ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ the movie was based on a book. The screenplay and the book were written concurrently and the movie and the book were based on an elaboration of a short story by Clark on AI (check Wiki for more elaboration). I know that is a picayune error, but it relates to how the author describes the world of UFOs since she is saying that UFOs are a phenomenon that exist not in and of themselves but are a thing beyond themselves (at least some of the people she quotes in the book would tend to agree with that). It would be analogous to St. Thomas Aquinas viz a viz Duns Scotus and the belief in Angels and whether or not if they are sui generis (unique) and if they act independently of a higher power. The author does quote Aquinas multiple times, and just for those who are interested he would say they are of a ‘species’ and do have intellect of their own but would always act in concordance with God’s will at least after the ‘fall of man’, contrasted with Duns Scotus who would make each Angel an individual species (therefore sui generis) and would give them free will through their own agency but also would act in concordance to God’s plan. (The scholastics never argued trivialities such as ‘the number of angels on a head of a pin’, but they did get at meaningful distinctions such as ‘thatness’ v. ‘whatness’, or substance v. accident, and ultimately this author is getting at those kind of distinctions with her perception v. reality framing).

The UFOlogist of today can replace the word ‘flying saucer’ or ‘non human intelligence from another planet’ with how the scholastics from the middles ages or religious believers would use the word ‘angel’ from the past or believed in the Saints or divine intervention through Mary or in the prophets and a very similar ontology would result.

Chapter Nine had a good story on Ray and his sick dog and how it was miraculously healed. The order of the perception of reality for Ray goes that he first believes a Catholic Angel healed his dog, then aliens in UFOs did, then beings independent of flying saucers from another galaxy or dimension did, then to a near death experience explains it due to quantum consciousness connections through entanglement, and all the way up to an awful History Channel documentary show that had a special on Ray being attacked by angels thus creating a new perception of reality leading to the ‘medium as the massage (message)’ (McLuhan was quoted multiple times elsewhere in this book, but unfortunately that quote wasn’t used).

This book is written well and was easy to digest. In general, UFOlogist would not be offended by it, and Christians would not be offended by it. Though, I’m neither, I wasn’t offended either since I suspected that the connection between the two existed and I wanted to have it explained to me by a religious studies expert. I think the author makes a very good case that UFOlogist can be thought of as a modern day religion and she connects the dots showing that the modern day sub-genre of UFOlogists appear as rational in their beliefs as were the Christians of 1650 or the religious people of today. For either a classical religious person or a UFOlogist person, the special pleading that would be required for defending their own beliefs could just as easily apply towards the other’s belief. Both of them have similar ontological foundations albeit with radically different worldviews resulting, but each providing them a made up meaning to life lying outside of them resulting from falsely wanting to believe in a truth that must be out there.

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
I was very disappointed in this book. I wanted it to be an in-depth exploration of unexplained phenomenon, perhaps in the footsteps of Jacques Vallee's excellent work. (Vallee's name appears often in this book, but it contains none of Vallee's subtle, in-depth examination of this enigmatic subject.) Unfortunately, Pasula's book is in many ways indistinguishable from reactionary Catholic hagiography, such as that of Jacobus da Varagine's reification of the saints in his writing in the late middle ages. Pasula's "saint" here is a twenty-first century rich entrepreneur and inventor named "Tyler," an homage to Fight Club. (I wish I were kidding)...

Much of the book's conclusion concerns itself with the conversion of said "Tyler" from his Baptist faith to Pasula's own faith, Catholicism. In fact by the end of the book I began to wonder if Pasula, who investigates claims of sainthood for the Vatican, would be nominating "Tyler" for sainthood. The book has a lot of references to "Tyler" preforming miracles, complete with his unearthing an artifact at the beginning of the book, which Pasula dutifully compares to the holy relics of Catholicism. (Again, I'm not kidding. Wish I were.)

At the end of the book Pasula includes a quote from Martin Heidegger "Only a God Can Save Us" (German: Nur noch ein Gott kann uns retten) from interview he gave to Rudolf Augstein and Georg Wolff for Der Spiegel which was published after his death in 1976. That quote sums up the subtext of her whole biased diatribe.

The truth is this seems to be a pro-Catholic screed masquerading as a book on unexplained phenomenon. If you want something to discuss casually before your next cataclysm class, read it. But if you want to know about the book's purported subject I'd advise you to skip it and read Jacques Vallee's classics Masters of Deception or Invisible College, Patrick Harpur's Dainomonic Reality, or Jeffrey Kripal's latest book Flip instead.

[Allison Thurman · Rating 5 out of 5]

At long last! A book about what UFOs *mean* rather than what they *are*. Because who would care about their physical reality (or lack thereof) if people weren't so interested in them?

Pasulka is a professor of religion - studying what beliefs mean to people. If that wasn't enough to intrigue me, the fact that the preface is an account of driving around Silicon Valley with Jacques Vallee (one of the least silly UFOlogists around) hooked me.

The two main discussions in Pasulka's book involve 1) an "invisible college" of reputable scientists do investigate various facets of the UFO mystery, though most do so on the down low because of professional reputation, and 2) belief in UFOs is starting to take the shape of a religion (albeit informally organized), and to those who believe the question of physical reality is secondary to what their sightings and experiences mean to them.

This isn't just another account of famous sightings or speculation on whether or which extraterrestrials are visiting us. This comes at the topic from a far more personally relevant angle. Highly recommended - I'll likely reread once I have a chance to "digest" it a bit more.

[Thomm Quackenbush · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book lacks a cohesive focus and Tyler comes off as a "Oh, I totally have a girlfriend who is a model, but she lives in Canada and is really busy."

Oh, of course, you converted your UFO buddy to Catholicism because he was cool enough to have special access to the Vatican. Sure you did, buddy.

If you want to write fiction, just write fiction. It doesn't pad out the thesis well.

On the other hand, this does suggest a number of books that you might prefer to read.

[Jessica Mae Stover · Rating 1 out of 5]

In progress, but I thought it would be irresponsible for me to shelve this book (and hence raise its profile) without a few notes as a reminder to key up your skepticism and talk back to texts. I'll update this review (sponsored by my Patreons) when I finish reading.

- The nonfiction premise of this book is intriguing and compelling, and I think a broad spectrum of readers interested in the humanities and/or science fiction will be interested in the research topic.
- Around page thirty I began to have a few questions about a couple author inferences which were not in evidence, the use of solely anonymous sources that are the subject of whole chapters, and the masking of key locations. I'm going research ethnography standards and nuances in order to better understand what's typical and expected of this type of scholarship.

Update: The more I read this text, the more questions I have about the approach, format and ethics involved, particularly in the area of media studies and expertise. I suggest not accepting upfront, without evidence, that this text has any kind of authority.

It's also fair and necessary to consider: Is this book a text about religion (as advertised), or a religious text? Where is Cosmic on that spectrum? The author's promotional interviews should also be taken into account, especially as this is a book that attempts to engage with media influence and the author's appearances on pseudoscientific paranormal podcasts have influenced how this book is received by believers.

And so a final question: What's the author's responsibility here? And was that responsibility observed?

(My answer is, "no." This is a religious text that adds to the mythology, conspiracy theory and normalization of the magical thinking behind ufology. Related: The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan.)

2019

[Edmund King · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not a believer in UFOs, per se, but I am interested in belief. And, I guess, I'm especially interested in how our contemporary belief systems are shaped by media, technology, and various forms of secular religion. So I came to this book with high hopes, especially as Pasulka implies in the acknowledgements that it might be a kind of follow-on project from Brenda Denzler's Lure of the Edge (2001), which I loved. By the time I finished it, however, I'd decided that whatever enduring value the book might have will lie in what it inadvertently reveals about the information landscape, c. 2016-19, and the general creep of what Colbert called "truthiness" across all parts of the political spectrum and into academia and academic publishing.

The most engaging sections of American Cosmic are made up of a kind of Jon Ronson-style romp with UFO-believing scientists and technologists in the American southwest. Pasulka lacks Ronson's humour and lightness of touch, but these sections work alright in narrative terms, aside from their overall clunkiness. What's more unsettling, however, is Pasulka's tendency to "big-up" her anonymous sources; to insist on their superior levels of knowledge, insight, and intelligence, as well as their insider connections. It reminded me above all of press reporting at the height of #RussiaGate in 2017-18, when everything was a "bombshell" and the "walls were closing in on Trump" daily, anonymous, "high-level" informants were assuring everyone that successful impeachment was a certainty ... and then, of course, nothing happened. There's a certain resemblance here, as Pasulka's anonymous contacts are described in the most gushing terms, supposed "alien technology" is recovered from the New Mexico desert, and then ... the only payoff we get in the book is a description of a malfunctioning TSA scanning machine when one of them tries to take a lump of "alien" metal through airport security. The Truth is Out There! Watch the Skies!

(Of course, as Jason Colavito points out on his blog, it's much more likely that the pieces of "alien technology" Pasulka and her colleague "James" were directed to find in New Mexico were the same bits of misidentified 20th-century industrial slag (residue from a lead refining process) that have been doing the UFO circuits now for over two decades.)

The most glaring limitation in American Cosmic (and given Pasulka's religious studies background, and her possession of the Denzler archives, it can't be accidental), is the complete lack of discussion of New Age philosophy as an intellectual context for much of what she discusses in the book. Pages are spent rhapsodizing over various technologists' belief in the "download," with no acknowledgement that this is just channelling with its metaphors updated from 1960s-style radio technology to reflect the age of the internet. "Tyler" believes that off-world alien intelligences are guiding his understanding of technology and inspiring his various patents. How is this different from the role of "entities, angels, and intermediate beings" in the New Age universe? The idea of UFOs as "materialised information" sounds very 2010s to anyone not versed in the literature, but it's essentially just rehashed theosophy. The complete elision of this glaringly obvious New Age context when Pasulka describes the belief systems of her various Silicon Valley informants is baffling. Was she trying to make her study look more original by skating over a substantial body of literature that might call her rigid equivocations between UFOs and Catholic mysticism into question? Perhaps it's not for me to say. What it does mean is that Pasulka ultimately makes less sense of her material than Denzler did almost 20 years earlier, despite the inclusion of much turgid (though superficially applied) media theory, a la Katherine Hayles.

Back in 1989, Time magazine rather mockingly reported on what the late 1980s UFO flap in the Soviet Union revealed about an empire in unmistakable decline:

A disillusioned party member views state sponsorship of psychic and UFO studies as a new sort of official opiate. Says he: "They've been feeding us rubbish about the dream of Communism for years, and we now see they were lying. At least this gives us something new to dream about." So the next time aliens approach and ask for directions, point them toward Moscow. The Soviets need them more than ever.

As the New York Times turns from #RussiaGate to full-on, yet always oddly fruitless, UFO disclosure and Oxford University Press's New York office blithely markets American Cosmic as objective scholarship, when it so clearly isn't anything of the sort, are the UFOs telling us something similar about the state of the American empire, I wonder?

[Wendelah1 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read about half of this incoherent mess before I gave up in disgust. It was a waste of my time. The author starts out as an outsider, an academic who is supposedly conducting "research," but somehow along the way, she becomes a "believer," with no real explanation of why. How this got published in the first place is a mystery.

[Jocelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fascinating read! Pasulka applies her methodology as a religion researcher to the UFO community and examines how modern technology and media play into what, in her mind, are the equivalent to religious experiences for some. This was very interesting to me on multiple levels. First, I love the X-Files and am interested in UFOlogy/ "alien stuff" lol so I found her comparisons of experiences and sighting to documented "miracles" within the church fascinating. TO be clear, she's not exactly saying all this stuff is true, but instead saying that the parts of our brains that light up and process these two things are the same. We have the same kinds of reactions to them and process them in similar ways. She extends this concept to digital media literacy, which, as a librarian is HUGE for me. This was disheartening though because she basically said that we've created our own Matrix situation and most of us are willingly buying into it, even defending it. She talked a lot about the concept of reality and how often we as humans reject it in favor of something else...something more like emotion. This is why when the FAKE video of Nancy Pelosi looking drunk made the rounds and then was very widely rebuked and outed as fake, my cousin who hates Pelosi and loves owning libs decided it was more important to him to continue to share the false video and perpetuate the lie than delete his previous tweets and stop the spread of misinformation *eye roll hard*. This is a really interesting read for folks interested in extraterrestrial experiences, religious events, and how technology is creating a new kind of god we best back away from.

[Bryan at Postmarked from the Stars · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this book faster than anything I’ve read in the last 10 years. I found out about it after Ezra Klein interviewed her last week on his podcast. (https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Zhc...) Honestly though, this book is divisive. If you’re looking for proof of aliens or government coverups... this isn’t going to really scratch your itch. It does however raise all sorts of wild as hell questions about how billionaires, astronauts, scholars, and everyday people explore the subject of the unknown. Pasulka is a professor of religious studies and her style really lends itself to a fun and easy to follow discussion. I am not saying I believe or agree with some of the people highlighted in this book, I do find this topic absolutely fascinating though! 5/5 stars.

Personal note: the internet seems to think Tyler is Timothy Taylor.

[Steve Wiggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Few topics receive immediate ridicule like UFOs. Although this is a programmed response—well documented by those who study it—it nevertheless keeps many professionals from following their curiosity. D. W. Pasulka’s American Cosmic is a brave book that bucks this trend. Pasulka, a professor of religious studies, explains how she came to be interested in UFOs. The book is partially an account of a secretive man she met through official channels, and partially an exploration of how religion and the paranormal, particularly UFOs, are related. And also how technology plays into it. The account is skillfully woven and it will leave you scratching your head in a place or two.

I read Pasulka’s book on Purgatory a few years ago, and found it fascinating. In fact, it informed both my last book, Holy Horror, and the book I’m currently writing. There’s a fearlessness to her approach to topics from which many scholars shy away. I can’t help but think that there’s much more to the story in American Cosmic than she is able to tell. Skeptics will immediately dismiss much of this, of course. That’s their job. Still, for those willing to approach the subject with an open mind this book will take you to some headspace that’s a little less than comfortable.

This is a book I knew about, pre-publication. I awaited its appearance and have been awaiting an opportunity to read it ever since. As I note elsewhere (Sects and Violence in the Ancient World), the author was a consultant on The Conjuring. The real story, however, may well be stranger than the fictionalized account. This book is far ranging, encompassing levitating saints, movies, clandestine locations, and the Vatican’s secret library. It’s better than Dan Brown, though, because the author knows she’s not fabricating the story.

[Philip · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you are in the UFO community do not bother with this book. From her podcast appearances Pasulka may seem like she brings new incite to the phenomenon, but disappointingly she presents it as a religious event. I would be okay with this if she backed it up with evidence but instead she gives us a first person narrative of meeting experiences and scientists (that she keeps anonymous) without much evidence other than repeatedly saying these are smart people and name dropping institutions they are affiliated with. But, by keeping them anonymous we have no way to validate that they work at those institutions or if they are even real people. Sure in ufology we often rely on belief and not hard evidence but a huge portion of this book is about her “really smart science colleague” converting to Catholicism. What does this have to do with the phenomena!? The only reason I’m giving this 2 stars and not one is because chapter 4 does have some notable arguments about how the media constructs a collective imagination of the phenomena that makes it more digestible than it’s true incomprehensible nature.

[Rae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not sure what to say (I’m a reader not a writer) other than I loved this book. Very grateful I caught TheHigherSideChats and Rune Soup podcasts and went ahead and got this. I am a Catholic (and New Mexican) and loved vicariously being in the Vatican. There was so much I didn’t know in this book, which was a truly compelling read. A sincere thanks to Dr. Pasulka for “turning me on,” to Jacques Vallee and Bl. Maria de Agreda. I truly enjoyed this book so much!

[Owlseyes]

https://ufoholic.com/unexplained/beli...

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

This alternated between a really dense read integrating discussion of quantum theory and consciousness studies with case studies of credible, yet many times "invisible," scientists, biotechnologists, and computer engineers who are absolutely convinced that extraterrestrial life (what Pasulka terms "the phenomenon") exists. Pasulka, a religious studies scholar, claims that she seeks to explore more the effects of belief in UFOs as a new form of religion on individuals and society than stake a claim to belief in the phenomenon's "ontological reality," but it certainly seems as if she skews in the direction of its veracity. She so matter of factly states as plausible specific readings of miraculous encounters with angels and other beings in Scripture through the lens of extraterrestrial "contact events" (i.e. Ezekiel's vision as one of an alien craft) that one can't help but interpret her position as one that sees such links as being possible, if not likely. The weight of the witnesses she includes (astronauts such as Edgar Mitchell, a renowned ufologist) also seeks to push the reader to consider their claims as eminently truthful.

A bigger issue I had with the book is that it was difficult to follow the main thread of the argument at times. Is it about ways that nonhuman intelligence use sensitive individuals as "receivers," whose DNA "downloads" information from aliens? And that this is the next logical step in human evolution? Is it the ways in which media and culture define our understanding of UFOs and dictate reality for us? (There's a lot on Kubrick's "2001: Space Odyssey" and the monolith as a kind of movie screen). And why does a major player who claims regular contact with nonhuman intelligence through rigorous protocols of meditation, water intake, and exposure to sunshine convert to Catholicism towards the end? Some really intriguing sections, but it just felt like there was a bit too much going on!

[Rich Flanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks in large part to the recent NY Times revelations of secret UFO retrieval and reverse engineering operations, the UFO matter (or UAP - ''unexplained anomalous phenomena'' as it is now called) is fast emerging from the disparaged ''fringe'' to center stage. If true, this dwarfs every other story in human history. As news of Congressional Hearings and whistleblower protections on this apparent coverup appear on an almost daily basis, long-overdue scientific inquiry is accelerating. ''American Cosmic'' is an important companion to two fine introductions to the subject, Ross Coulthart's ''In Plain Sight''and Kelly Chase's ''The UFO Rabbit Hole.'' It's a riveting in-depth exploration of some of the most credible and compelling UFO incidents, while at the same time examining the genesis of the UFO/ET ''belief system.'' Highly recommended.

Author of ''Under the Great Elm - A Life of Luck & Wonder''

[Mark Tallen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an intriguing and fascinating book. The book is also, very well written. Highly recommended.

[S. F. M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read.
I saw a lot of negative reviews about "belief" being too much of a topic in Diana's book, but honestly people: what should a professor in religious studies be writing about?
The reviews made a little bit hesitant to dive into the book but I was positively surprised!

This book gave me a few new things to think about, like seeing how belief systems have so much impact on how we perceive things.
It's disturbing how much we are programmed by movies and popular culture! As an orthodox muslim myself it's especially interesting since we do not watch series or listen to music.

I truly liked this book. 10/10 recomend!

[Grace McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much to say about this book but wow! Can some friends read it so we can talk about it?!

My fascination with this book is not with whether our conscious/ spiritual experiences are actually extra terrestrial encounters, but rather how these experiences are interpreted as malevolent or benevolent. In my opinion, the trend away from ontological dualism cannot forgo the importance of moral dualism. While our considerations of good/ evil are not black and white as we understand them and will vary among world views and religions, our belief in the existence of good and evil has more dire consequences than the belief in non- human entities.

What I think is the most profound part of this book is the conclusion Pasulka comes to on the last page of her book. Say, non-human entities do interact with humans and even share information about human advancement and seemingly progressive and good human technologies. Is it possible we have interpreted some of this sharing as a benevolent act when it might in actuality be nefarious?

Reading about Tyler’s journey and the technological downloads he has received from “the beyond” increases my interest in the interpretation of these encounters as potentially malevolent. So many of our inventions prolong human life but how often does it compromise the morality (not talking dogma), character or virtue of the human race? An obvious example is the way social media divides in ways that can have mortal outcomes. This is not to say that all technology is bad. However, we should question each technology whether invented by the human mind or given by beings from the beyond just as a spiritual person would “test the spirits.”

When Tyler encounters the Holy Spirit towards the end of the book, suddenly what he is “downloading” or receiving from the world beyond is not more technology but rather a deep love and desire to serve. It is an inner transformation that prompts change in our current world and is predicated on love and relationship.

Reading this book as a Christian is profound. If the universe is expanding, God seems to be reaching in and moving closer towards humanity. My framework for understanding how non-human beings interact with humans is defined by Christ. Of course, I believe in the non-human world but I tend to see the revelation and information humans need from the non-human world as already received yet with infinite depths to explore. Even with what we have been given, the mystery, wonder and seeking never stops. We will never know in full until we ourselves transition to the world beyond which is why seeking but never fully acquiring is a beautiful and meaningful pursuit. Attempting to contact extra terrestrials or conjure an encounter is something which I would merit possible but has potentially dangerous consequences. It no doubt will look like goodness but I’m quite convinced it aims to deceive.

[John Ohno · Rating 1 out of 5]

Only repetition could allow a 244 page book to be this shallow.

The author's doctorate in religious studies should have made her well-qualified to meaningfully expand on Jacques Vallee's Passport to Magonia (of which she claims to be a fan), but she instead betrays an ignorance of its contents, presenting material covered in it as though original, failing to mention important and relevant insights from it when covering that detail, and at one point, incomprehensibly claiming (apropos of nothing & against all evidence) that Vallee couldn't possibly be familiar with the work of Swenenbourg.

The book is framed by an extended narrative section in which the author repeats the claims of a cartoonishly obvious con artist.

Structurally, the book is a mess. In the narrative sections, we often jump around in time three to four times in a single paragraph. Even outside of those sections, sentences are choppy and confusing: consistently too short, with clauses clearly edited in from other, barely-related sentences.

Aside from a vague gesture in the direction of media theory that would work better as a Guardian op-ed and a couple catholic-miracle deep cuts already covered better in Vallee, there is nothing here that someone with a casual interest in UFO lore would not already be familiar with (including the idea, repeated about 20 times in the first chapter and only slightly less often throughout the rest of the book, that religious studies scholars do not make judgements about the object-level validity of religions -- something everybody who has heard the term 'religious studied' knows).

I wanted to like this book -- or else I wouldn't have spent twenty five dollars on it. I'm not mad; just disappointed.

[Lars · Rating 2 out of 5]

A frustrating and at times bewildering read. Ostensibly a book about author Diane Pasulka's research into the UFO phenomenon, it's actually more about the belief systems of people who've had UFO encounters. Pasulka is a professor of religious studies and posits that people who believe in UFO's and E.T.'s are in fact having a kind of trancendental religious experience.

What is interesting but also at times frustrating is that Pasulka keeps an objective distance at all times. She mostly relies on the work of others but doesn't want to draw her own conclusions In the end this just left me confused as to what Pasulka tried to inform her readers about.

What's also weird that most of the book is about the UFO experiences of two high profile people, that have chosen to remain anonymous. These people have radical fringe ideas, but we know too little about them to judge how credible they and their ideas are.

American Cosmic can be bizarre read. Although it appears to be a work of scientific research, some of the hypothesis in the book are so out if this world that even Fox Mulder would probably scratch his head.

[Sam Sills · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can tell a lot of thought went into this book. I liked the analysis of UFO events coming from a Religious Study point of view. It does seem to make sense that the belief in anything paranormal is basically a religious experience.

For some reason I had a bit of a hard time reading this and I think it is because this book is much more philosophical in nature than most books about the paranormal. I’m more interested in the “facts” (yes, I believe in paranormal experiences, but I’m also skeptical). Nonetheless, I think anyone interested in UFOs or anything paranormal should give this book a go. It helped me to look at this whole field from a different perspective and in this day and age seeing things from a different perspective is definitely a good thing that we should all try.

[Agasthya · Rating 2 out of 5]

man, this was disappointing. the premise - studying ufo experiences through the lens of religion - is really great, and there are some very interesting theories the author asserts in the book, but overall, it felt like the author's editor said, "not enough aliens!". Way too many alien encounter stories that undercut the author's promise that she was not going to address the objective truth of encounter experiences. maybe I didn't get the point, or maybe the audio book nature made it hard to follow, but it definitely felt like the author was taking the stance of "aliens are real, they have interacted with humans, and here are the consequences", rather than "these people truly had some sort of experience (that is truly mysterious and unexplained!), so let's explore the consequences of how they classify and understand their own experiences." disappointing.

[Rinstinkt · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first time (Oct 2020), didn't finish it. Was put off by the first and second chapter that describes anecdotes and even when it tries to draw deeper analysis in my opinion fails.

I tried giving it a chance a second time (Nov 2023), and I have to admit the book has some valuable insight in the second half, but again the overall impression - despite being published by Oxford University Press - is that this book offers nothing new.

The most valuable bits of the book are those when she tries to give a 'modern' or more recent framing on the issues Jacques F. Vallée has already discussed in his books decades ago.

[Ky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful. An analysis of the UFO phenomenon by a religious scholar. If you've done any extensive research into the topic or government black projects, remote viewing or secret space programs or otherwise, none of the content here will spark fascination. The author is also incredibly naive as to the trustworthiness of government agents, vatican priests, and anyone else in a position of power who must be taken at their word whether they are withholding or not any information or intent. I don't even want to write about this useless book anymore. Not recommended. Obviously.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

More a memoir mixed with research and fieldwork than a solid piece of scholarship. If you are interested in the intersection of religion and ufology then this is the book for you...otherwise you can give it a pass.

Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars.

[Jonathan White · Rating 3 out of 5]

"A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign!" Matthew 12:39

"For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." 1 Corinthians 1:22-25

Ultimately, Ms. Pasulka strikes me as a "useful idiot" promoting the message of the "non-human intelligences" that are looking into the affairs of men [I'll clarify- she is not an idiot; I am using the phrase in the political sense of someone who is advancing a cause unknowingly]. As a Roman Catholic who refers positively to Carlos Eire's "They Flew," she sees UFO-related phenomena as possibly "roses called by another name" i.e.- maybe the things that used to appear to us as Marian apparitions are now appearing to people as glowing orbs of light and spaceships. I read and reviewed Eire's "They Flew" book last year. I very much enjoyed the book, though it left me more thankful than ever to be a Protestant. Many of the miracles that the Counter-Reformers used as proofs of the RC being the "true church" certainly struck me as possibly falling into 2 Corinthians 11:14 territory: "And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light." While Jesus clearly came with signs and wonders, the point was always to validate the truth of his message. Hence the Protestant elevation of "Sola Scriptura" (which of course needs qualifications-- but I largely hold to it).

In addition to being light on Scripture (though not devoid of it) there is almost NO Christ in this book. At one point Ms. Pasulka muses that maybe the Roman Catholic church could better be called "Roman Universalism." She tells the Genesis of the Church as almost as much a natural outflow of the Roman Empire, rather than from an earth shattering incarnation of the Son of God in a way that broke all earthly models of Reign and Religion.

Stylistically, this book falls into the "Dear Diary..." trap. It aspires to be journalistic but starts too many sentences with, "So we gathered up our things and headed out for adventure" or "We discussed these things over lattes with the ocean breeze in our hair." It may seem like a petty complaint but this flaw is reflected in deeper structural aspects of the book. It can't decide if it's a hard-hitting piece of investigative journalism, or a collection of personal anecdotes and reflections.

Despite all of those negative things I have to say-- I still enjoyed the book and found a number of her criteria for evaluating the phenomenon of "UFO religiosity" helpful. But yeah, no need to twist oneself into the pretzels that this lady does, just go to the Bible, go to Jesus.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

UFO’s, religion and technology: All three are relative to one’s perception of higher powers and the conceptual beliefs of which one’s guidance by one or all modalities influences or creates existential meaning. Synchronicities become known and meaning attached. Everything is connected and it’s hard to explain.

‘It's as if our imaginations have become exterior to ourselves, existing out there in our media, and our media then determines what is in our heads. Where does the spectator end and the screened media event begin? Where do we draw these boundaries? As Andy Clark has observed in his research into extended cognition, the assumption that cognition is brain-bound, or that it just occurs within the skull, is wrong. Cognition occurs within a network that extends into the environment.’ P140

‘Some computer coders even imagined that human consciousness could be downloaded into a nonbiological container, like a computer, and become unfettered, free, and even immortal. On the other hand, Jacques's work was unique in that he highlighted how the UFO was associated with the sacred, but he also suggested that it worked like technology. His early work revealed that UFO events function like contemporary artificial intelligence, "under the radar,' and almost invisibly—as in the case of contemporary social bots.’ P155

‘I practice a protocol of yoga to access my router rather than my RAM, direct sunlight to charge my DNA photonic cells, propagate the natural energy outside in nature, and focus on my core body rather than my brain given that the concentration of our DNA is between our hips and neck. I think humans like to believe the head is the smartest and only part of their intelligent system, but this is probably because it is the location that houses our sensors— eyes, ears, and nose. The body becomes as important as or even more important than our brains to optimize the storage, recep-tion, and transmission of this divine signal. So for people who practice calming the mind to allow the body to become more involved in the "thinking" process and perform functions that stimulate their computer, router, and WiFi signals, it wouldn't be surprising to find out that they are much more creative, productive, and intelligent. They've learned to leverage whatever knowledge is on the internet of the divine universe rather than rely on their small outdated laptop (their personal brain) that has no internet signal.’ P183

[Harper High · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. This was pretty engaging to me for a while, when I thought this was leading somewhere actually enlightening.

But I started to sense that the author was far too credulous - falling for clear bullshitters without underlining that that’s what’s happening, along with making claims about people that can’t be falsified by anyone because they’re kept anonymous. (As others have pointed out - their identities can be found easily and they are in fact obvious bullshitters.) Some of the other 1-star and 2-star reviews of this go into much more details. Even people who actively believe in UFOology should really look down on something like this.

“UFOology as a religion” is an extremely compelling subject for me, so I got much further in the book than I should have. But it’s simply not rigorous or trustworthy enough to justify finishing. I’m okay with books that have viewpoints (that I perceive) as insane, but not when they’re so overtly dishonest and lacking in thoughtfulness.