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UFOs and Aliens Are (Probably) Not What You Think: An Interview with Diana Walsh Pasulka
europeanconservative.com ^ | Rod Dreher

Posted on 11/09/2023 7:14:58 AM PST by RoosterRedux

Diana Walsh Pasulka never imagined that her scholarly work in the field of religion would lead her to skulking around in the desert near Roswell, New Mexico, with one of the world’s top scientists and a former high NASA official. She tells the story in her riveting 2019 book American Cosmic, in which Pasulka, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, surveyed the then-current state of knowledge of UFOs and related phenomena.

Then came the shocking 2021 revelations by the U.S. government that it had been investigating UFOs—then renamed ‘unidentified aerial phenomena,’ or UAPs. In a series of strokes, the research that Pasulka and many others had been working on for years, even decades, received powerful vindication. Something really is out there—and top national security and intelligence officials have been for a very long time taking it more seriously than they wanted the public to know.

Whatever the ‘aliens’ really are, it is startling to discover that many of the most informed people in the UFO world doubt that they are creatures from other planets. What are they, then? On November 7th, Pasulka’s latest volume hits bookstores, offering answers, but also raising new and important questions about that very issue. Encounters: Experiences With Nonhuman Intelligences (Macmillan), profiles a wide range of people who for various reasons have been drawn into the shadowy and mysterious world of UFOs, and whose testimonies move the phenomenon out of narrowly-drawn scientific categories, and well into the world of the religious and the paranormal.

Pasulka recently agreed to an interview about her work, her new book, and the emergence of a new form of religion tied to aliens, artificial intelligence, and high technology.

Pasulka (from the interview):

I had not paid the slightest attention to the UFO—or, I guess now, UAP—phenomenon since the first season of “X-Files.” Frankly, I thought it was for weirdos. But then a journalist friend told me I was missing out on a serious religious phenomenon, and advised that I read your book American Cosmic. I did, and then went into a mild version of what you call “epistemological shock.” Now you’re out with a follow-up that’s equally shocking. So let me start by asking you to bring ‘normies’ up to date on what we know about the phenomenon—and what we think we know, but really don’t.

Rod, like you, I had never paid attention to UFOs either. I didn’t watch the “X-Files.” I never saw Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I actually just saw that film last year and enjoyed it!

I began to study the topic of UFOs/UAPs somewhat by accident. My field is religious studies and my focus within that is Catholic history and miraculous events. In my field, we study religion academically, which means that we are looking at things like the social effects of religion, etc. As professors of religious studies, our beliefs, whether atheists or members of religious traditions, do not influence what we study. We are historians, archeologists, social scientists. We are not priests or ministers (generally). We don’t advocate for any religious tradition.

This is how I came to the study of UFOs. I had finished a long study of the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory. I used a lot of archival records to do this study, which means that I went to libraries of old manuscripts (archives) and looked at records from 1300 on up to about 1880. That is a long-time span, but I was just looking for what Europeans from those time periods believed about Purgatory.

I found a lot of information, and a lot of what I would call extra information. I saw a lot of records of reported aerial sightings. People saw orbs, discs, and basically things that surprised them, flying around in the skies. I took note of these. I found that when they saw them, they recorded a process of trying to identify these objects. Often, they would think that these were souls from Purgatory that needed to be prayed back into Purgatory. I thought that the sightings were interesting, so I kept notes.

When my book about Purgatory was finished, I showed a friend some of these records. He looked at them and immediately thought of UFOs! I thought he was crazy. This was in 2012. Then, there was a UFO conference near me, and based on my friend’s suggestion, I attended it. There, I heard people talking about aerial phenomena and describing the same experiences described by European Catholics of the past. I then began to study modern reports of UFOs.

At first, I wasn’t shocked at all by this research because I thought that people were utilizing different cultural frameworks for looking at unidentified aerial phenomena. That is, it is rational to approach the topic like this: in the 1400s people were using religious frameworks to describe what they saw in the sky. Today, people do the same thing, but now we live in an ostensibly ‘secular’ society and have achieved flight, so when people see unidentified aerial phenomena, they think of drones or something like stealth aircraft, and maybe UFOs. This is how I approached the study.

I became shocked when I was approached by government agents and scientists who said that they worked, in their ‘spare time,’ on UFOs, and collected UFO materials. They were and are credible people.

(Excerpt) Read more at europeanconservative.com ...


TOPICS: UFO's
KEYWORDS: ebe; et; etphonehome; roswell; uap; ufo
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To: trad_anglican

“Are they extra-terrestrial or from another realm of existence? It’s seems increasingly more probable the latter, to me.”

I know believe it is both. Along with the ability to transcend time and space.


21 posted on 11/09/2023 7:53:36 AM PST by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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To: Openurmind

now


22 posted on 11/09/2023 7:54:50 AM PST by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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To: RoosterRedux
RoosterRedux: "It’s a book review. If you don’t like book reviews, don’t read them."

It's NOT a book review. It's listed as an "Interview" by the guy who hawks the "Benedict Option".

23 posted on 11/09/2023 7:59:28 AM PST by Carl Vehse
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To: RoosterRedux
"UFOs and Aliens Are (Probably) Not What You Think: An Interview with louiswu"

Aliens may exist on their own world, but then they wouldn't be called Aliens. Current understanding of the physical universe does not allow for a practical means of crossing light years distance in a reasonable amount of time, time travel or transdimensional transport.

Aliens and UFO's most likely don't exist and most likely have a simple, natural explanation or are possible advanced aircraft or drones are being used to distract the general population from more urgent and important issues of the day.

The End...now pay me.
24 posted on 11/09/2023 8:00:32 AM PST by The Louiswu (Pray for Peace in the world.)
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To: The Louiswu

I could write several books detailing the logical and other flaws in your post.

Omg.


25 posted on 11/09/2023 8:01:44 AM PST by cgbg ("Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training." Anna Freud.)
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To: RoosterRedux

Bflr


26 posted on 11/09/2023 8:03:42 AM PST by colinhester
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To: RoosterRedux
His conclusion re: UFOs (that they are related to the angelic/spiritual realm) makes a lot of sense.

Yes, it makes sense. He will be missed. I think the goal of the so called UFOs, is deception. Jesus said, take heed, that no one deceives you.

27 posted on 11/09/2023 8:06:04 AM PST by Mark17 (Retired USAF air traffic controller. Father of USAF Captain & pilot. Both bitten by the aviation bug)
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To: RoosterRedux

“The new form of religion is a decentralized belief that encompasses technology, as in the belief that these beings are technologically more advanced than us. And it utilizes myths of which we are already familiar—for example, the belief that there are beings that are superior to human beings, gods and goddesses.”

It’s called the singularity of religion. They will create a new religion by drawing upon a little bit from every other religion and philosophy to create a cohesive religion. Then they will persecute all other religions until they go extinct.


28 posted on 11/09/2023 8:07:50 AM PST by Jonty30 (It turns out that I did not buy my cell phone for all the calls I might be missing at home.)
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To: Carl Vehse
Er, not all book reviews are entitled "Book Review."

It's an interview in anticipation of Pasulka's new book which was published/released 2 days ago.

Quit yur bitchin'. People just don't like complainers.

BTW, you keep wasting more (than 30 seconds) of your valuable time here. What gives?

You moan about wasting 30 seconds reading something and then hang around for multiple minutes to bitch about the 30 seconds you lost.

29 posted on 11/09/2023 8:10:53 AM PST by RoosterRedux (A person who seeks the truth with a strong bias will never find it. He will only confirm his bias.)
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To: Jonty30

Good post.

As we know (but often is a taboo subject here) every religion draws from those that came before it—that is what homo sapiens does.


30 posted on 11/09/2023 8:12:33 AM PST by cgbg ("Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training." Anna Freud.)
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To: Openurmind

Space Man Links Galore!


31 posted on 11/09/2023 8:13:43 AM PST by Big Red Badger (The Truman Show)
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To: Big Red Badger

Many are classic Christian artworks. How did they happen to “know” what a flying saucer looked like? They did not get to see the 50s Alien movies, they were long gone.


32 posted on 11/09/2023 8:16:39 AM PST by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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To: Jonty30

““The new form of religion is a decentralized belief that encompasses technology, as in the belief that these beings are technologically more advanced than us. And it utilizes myths of which we are already familiar—for example, the belief that there are beings that are superior to human beings, gods and goddesses.”

It’s called the singularity of religion. They will create a new religion by drawing upon a little bit from every other religion and philosophy to create a cohesive religion. Then they will persecute all other religions until they go extinct.”

Excellent, thank you, and that is the simple reality of it.


33 posted on 11/09/2023 8:19:06 AM PST by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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To: RoosterRedux

They are demons from another dimension. That explains the instantaneous disappearance of the craft: they didn’t fly away at great speed, but rather shifted dimensions. How? I believe demons to be bodiless entities that have been given permission to mess with our thoughts, but that is the extent of their power…until now. The “Grays”, IMO, are soulless protoplasm that have become vehicles by which the demons can directly interact with the physical world, build interdimentional crafts and cause all kinds of trouble. I do not think they are “little green men from Mars”, superior ancient aliens, military skunk works, or the like. They are demons. Disbelieve in demons at your own peril. They are real.


34 posted on 11/09/2023 8:24:47 AM PST by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
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To: Jonty30
"It’s called the singularity of religion. They will create a new religion by drawing upon a little bit from every other religion and philosophy to create a cohesive religion. Then they will persecute all other religions until they go extinct."

Yes exactly.

"COEXIST", baby.

35 posted on 11/09/2023 8:25:40 AM PST by OKSooner (Be especially sure to take extra wool socks.)
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To: bk1000
"They are demons from another dimension. That explains the instantaneous disappearance of the craft: they didn’t fly away at great speed, but rather shifted dimensions. How? I believe demons to be bodiless entities that have been given permission to mess with our thoughts, but that is the extent of their power…until now. The “Grays”, IMO, are soulless protoplasm that have become vehicles by which the demons can directly interact with the physical world, build interdimentional crafts and cause all kinds of trouble. I do not think they are “little green men from Mars”, superior ancient aliens, military skunk works, or the like. They are demons. Disbelieve in demons at your own peril. They are real."

Honestly that's the most plausible explanation that one has heard, first offered here at FR by the late Quix, who advised against interacting with them or accepting their offers of flying saucer rides, etc.

Sounds crazy but hey, there is crazy stuff in prophecy, like great deception.

36 posted on 11/09/2023 8:30:03 AM PST by OKSooner (Be especially sure to take extra wool socks.)
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To: minnesota_bound

Why do we explore other planets and fly a helo on mars?
Why do we experiment on animals and many times humans?


37 posted on 11/09/2023 8:30:12 AM PST by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: minnesota_bound

The crops circles were made by human hoaxers, not aliens.


38 posted on 11/09/2023 8:32:26 AM PST by Boogieman
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To: Jonty30

That’s what Mohommend did, except for the technology part.;-)


39 posted on 11/09/2023 8:34:13 AM PST by RoosterRedux (A person who seeks the truth with a strong bias will never find it. He will only confirm his bias.)
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To: Carl Vehse

A lot of this reminds me of the WEF prophet who talks about trans humanism and being gods through merging with AI. Klaus Schwab has control over the world and Biden is doing his bidding. You should see some of the lawsuits that are going on, and barely being mentioned, how the government wants control over hour mind. Scary stuff when you see what the government and elites want to do with us.


40 posted on 11/09/2023 8:36:25 AM PST by dragonblustar (You best start believing in Bible prophecies, you’re in one.)
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