Paranormal and occult hypotheses about UFOs
Encyclopedia
Paranormal and occult hypotheses about UFOs refers to the hypotheses that unidentified flying objects are related to or caused by the paranormal
or occult
. The study of both is generally seen as pseudoscience
by mainstream science and presently finds no support in scientific literature.
reported a number of visions where he was escorted around various planets. He regarded these visions as genuine.
Among Madame Blavatsky
’s writings were her descriptions of “The Lords of the Flame”, who resided on Venus
. Guy Ballard
, one of Blavatsky's disciples, popularised her teachings in the United States. He founded an offshoot, “The Great I AM”, which made contact with extraterrestrials a vital part of its teachings.
Though early contactees spoke of extraterrestrial contact, the general tone and the sort of messages imparted by extraterrestrials seemed almost interchangeable, in many accounts, as those offered by mediums and mystics. As early as the 17th century, the polymath
John Dee
and his assistant Edward Kelley
, working together, communed with superior and unearthly beings (which he called angels) who imparted to them a strange language, Enochian
, and imparting to them "wisdom" and knowledge.
Heavily inspired by the writings of H. P. Lovecraft
, the Left Hand Path occultists Kenneth Grant
and Michael Bertiaux
have formed magical orders devoted to using tantric
and ceremonial magic
as a means to contact extraterrestrial (and/or extradimensional) entities.
Carl Jung
, the famous psychologist, also theorized that UFOs might have a primarily spiritual and psychological basis. In his 1959 book "Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen In The Sky", he pointed out that the round shape of most saucers corresponds to a mandala
, a type of archetypal shape seen in religious images. Thus the saucers might reflect a projection of the internal desires of viewers to see them. However, he did not label them as delusions or hallucination
s outright; it was more in the nature of a shared spiritual experience. However, Jung seemed conflicted as to possible origins. At other times he asserted that he wasn't concerned with possible psychological origins and that at least some UFOs were physically real, based primarily on indirect physical evidence such as photographs and radar contact in addition to visual sightings. He also considered the extraterrestrial hypothesis
to be viable. In 1958 the AP
quoted him as saying, "A purely psychological explanation is ruled out.... If the extraterrestrial origin of these phenomena should be confirmed, this would prove the existence of an intelligent interplanetary relationship.... That the construction of these machines proves a scientific technique immensely superior to ours cannot be disputed."
John Keel
and Brad Steiger
promulgated various paranormal/UFO theories in a series of paperback books in the 1960s and 1970s. Keel in particular speculated that UFOs might have their origins not in space and time as we know it, but outside of it. He advocated that we may not do well to trust superior beings but to regard them as quite often deceptive or manipulative if not parasitic. Dr. Jacques Vallée
, a French ufologist, noted an almost exact parallel between UFO and "Alien" visitations and stories from folklore
of Fairies and similar creatures. This was documented in his 1969 book "Passport to Magonia" and explored further in his later works. The significance of these parallels is disputed between mainstream scientists, who contend that both are fanciful, and Vallée and others who feel that some underlying poorly understood phenomenon is actually interacting with humans to cause both kinds of sightings.
Terence McKenna
, in contrast, believed that UFOs are manifestations of the human soul, or collective spirit. He thought they appeared to individuals and groups in order to exert psychological influence over the course of history and might preside, in the year 2012, over history's end.
In the 1980s, this point of view had formalized into a paradigm in and of itself. Researcher Hilary Evans
published two well-researched studies, Gods, Spirits, Cosmic Guardians: Encounters with Non-Human Beings and Visions, Apparitions, Alien Visitors: A Complete Study of the Entity Enigma trying to examine phenomena ranging from "ghost
s" to "aliens" using similar principles, seeming to conclude that entities may have originated in the minds of the experiencers, with paranormal components. Since that time, discussion has stalled, with no one having much of substance to offer; writing tends to consist of repetitions of old theories.
The U.S. Government Printing Office issued a publication compiled by the Library of Congress
for the Air Force Office of Scientific Research: "UFOs and Related Subjects: An Annotated Bibliography". In preparing this work, the senior bibliographer, Lynn E. Catoe, read thousands of UFO articles and books. In her preface to this 400-page book she states:
regard UFOs as inherently demonic and part of a Satan
ic plan to undermine Christianity, which may involve the supernatural
Nephilim
as pilots of the UFOs.
Similar views are held by some Christian Orthodox
priests and believers, with direct references to affirmations made by saints of the Orthodox Church. The UFO phenomenon is connected to the arrival of the Antichrist and the wonders he would make to fool the world into believing him, including great fire coming down from the sky. The sky is seen as the place where demons live (see the similarity with Beelzebub
- "the lord of the flies", sometimes interpreted as "the lord of the fliers" - i.e. of those who fly). Many similarities can be drawn between UFOs and demonic manifestations: both involve revealing half truths, double truths or deceit, both tend to have a volatile character, as they seem to appear unexpectedly and have an indefinite or illusory character, inducing a sense of wondering and awe, and, more subtly, exposure to or knowledge of both, as incomplete as it is, can induce some abnormal or even pathologic states to those exposed - anxiety, fear, obsession with the phenomenon, and even paranoid schizophrenia, demonomania and suicide, according to John Keel
's book "UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse", cited in the links above.
In addition, some have argued that abduction experiences bear striking similarities to pre-20th century accounts of demonic manifestations noting as many as a dozen similarities. As evidence of their belief that Alien Abductions are demonic manifestations, researchers have offered various testimonies of aliens reacting to the name of Jesus
in much the same way that demons are recorded as having reacted in the New Testament, with some even alleging that the invocation of the name has shown to successfully abort such abductions.
Paranormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
or occult
Occult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
. The study of both is generally seen as pseudoscience
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
by mainstream science and presently finds no support in scientific literature.
Mystics, extraterrestrials, and contactees
In his 1758 book Earths in the Solar World, Emanuel SwedenborgEmanuel Swedenborg
was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, and theologian. He has been termed a Christian mystic by some sources, including the Encyclopædia Britannica online version, and the Encyclopedia of Religion , which starts its article with the description that he was a "Swedish scientist and mystic." Others...
reported a number of visions where he was escorted around various planets. He regarded these visions as genuine.
Among Madame Blavatsky
Madame Blavatsky
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky , was a theosophist, writer and traveler. Between 1848 and 1875 Blavatsky had gone around the world three times. In 1875, Blavatsky together with Colonel H. S. Olcott established the Theosophical Society...
’s writings were her descriptions of “The Lords of the Flame”, who resided on Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
. Guy Ballard
Guy Ballard
Guy Warren Ballard was an American mining engineer who became, with his wife, Edna Anne Wheeler Ballard, the founder of the "I AM" Activity....
, one of Blavatsky's disciples, popularised her teachings in the United States. He founded an offshoot, “The Great I AM”, which made contact with extraterrestrials a vital part of its teachings.
Though early contactees spoke of extraterrestrial contact, the general tone and the sort of messages imparted by extraterrestrials seemed almost interchangeable, in many accounts, as those offered by mediums and mystics. As early as the 17th century, the polymath
Polymath
A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...
John Dee
John Dee (mathematician)
John Dee was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, imperialist and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. He devoted much of his life to the study of alchemy, divination and Hermetic philosophy....
and his assistant Edward Kelley
Edward Kelley
Sir Edward Kelley or Kelly, also known as Edward Talbot was an ambiguous figure in English Renaissance occultism and self-declared spirit medium who worked with John Dee in his magical investigations...
, working together, communed with superior and unearthly beings (which he called angels) who imparted to them a strange language, Enochian
Enochian
Enochian is a name often applied to an occult or angelic language recorded in the private journals of John Dee and his seer Edward Kelley in the late 16th century. The men claimed that it was revealed to them by angels...
, and imparting to them "wisdom" and knowledge.
Heavily inspired by the writings of H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
, the Left Hand Path occultists Kenneth Grant
Kenneth Grant
Kenneth Grant was a British occultist, novelist, and poet, who with his partner, the artist Steffi Grant, headed the magical order previously known as the Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis but which is now referred to as the Typhonian Order.-Occult background:Grant's occult experiences began in 1939...
and Michael Bertiaux
Michael Bertiaux
Michael Bertiaux is an American occultist and Old Catholic Bishop, perhaps best known to the general public via the publication of his massive Voudon Gnostic Workbook , a 615-page compendium of various occult lessons and research papers spanning the sub-fields of Voodoo, Neo-Pythagoreanism,...
have formed magical orders devoted to using tantric
Tantra
Tantra , anglicised tantricism or tantrism or tantram, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures ....
and ceremonial magic
Ceremonial magic
Ceremonial magic, also referred to as high magic and as learned magic, is a broad term used in the context of Hermeticism or Western esotericism to encompass a wide variety of long, elaborate, and complex rituals of magic. It is named as such because the works included are characterized by...
as a means to contact extraterrestrial (and/or extradimensional) entities.
Theorists and popularizers
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...
, the famous psychologist, also theorized that UFOs might have a primarily spiritual and psychological basis. In his 1959 book "Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen In The Sky", he pointed out that the round shape of most saucers corresponds to a mandala
Mandala
Maṇḍala is a Sanskrit word that means "circle". In the Buddhist and Hindu religious traditions their sacred art often takes a mandala form. The basic form of most Hindu and Buddhist mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point...
, a type of archetypal shape seen in religious images. Thus the saucers might reflect a projection of the internal desires of viewers to see them. However, he did not label them as delusions or hallucination
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
s outright; it was more in the nature of a shared spiritual experience. However, Jung seemed conflicted as to possible origins. At other times he asserted that he wasn't concerned with possible psychological origins and that at least some UFOs were physically real, based primarily on indirect physical evidence such as photographs and radar contact in addition to visual sightings. He also considered the extraterrestrial hypothesis
Extraterrestrial hypothesis
The extraterrestrial hypothesis is the hypothesis that some unidentified flying objects are best explained as being extraterrestrial life or non-human aliens from other planets occupying physical spacecraft visiting Earth.-Etymology:...
to be viable. In 1958 the AP
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
quoted him as saying, "A purely psychological explanation is ruled out.... If the extraterrestrial origin of these phenomena should be confirmed, this would prove the existence of an intelligent interplanetary relationship.... That the construction of these machines proves a scientific technique immensely superior to ours cannot be disputed."
John Keel
John Keel
John Alva Keel, born Alva John Kiehle was an American journalist and influential UFOlogist best known as author of The Mothman Prophecies.-Biography:...
and Brad Steiger
Brad Steiger
Brad Steiger is an American author who has written or co-written over 170 books, a number of which focus on paranormal subjects.-Childhood:...
promulgated various paranormal/UFO theories in a series of paperback books in the 1960s and 1970s. Keel in particular speculated that UFOs might have their origins not in space and time as we know it, but outside of it. He advocated that we may not do well to trust superior beings but to regard them as quite often deceptive or manipulative if not parasitic. Dr. Jacques Vallée
Jacques Vallée
Jacques Fabrice Vallée is a venture capitalist, computer scientist, author, ufologist and former astronomer currently residing in San Francisco, California....
, a French ufologist, noted an almost exact parallel between UFO and "Alien" visitations and stories from folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
of Fairies and similar creatures. This was documented in his 1969 book "Passport to Magonia" and explored further in his later works. The significance of these parallels is disputed between mainstream scientists, who contend that both are fanciful, and Vallée and others who feel that some underlying poorly understood phenomenon is actually interacting with humans to cause both kinds of sightings.
Terence McKenna
Terence McKenna
Terence Kemp McKenna was an Irish-American philosopher, psychonaut, researcher, teacher, lecturer and writer on many subjects, such as human consciousness, language, psychedelic drugs, the evolution of civilizations, the origin and end of the universe, alchemy, and extraterrestrial beings.-Early...
, in contrast, believed that UFOs are manifestations of the human soul, or collective spirit. He thought they appeared to individuals and groups in order to exert psychological influence over the course of history and might preside, in the year 2012, over history's end.
In the 1980s, this point of view had formalized into a paradigm in and of itself. Researcher Hilary Evans
Hilary Evans
Hilary Agard Evans was a British pictorial archivist, author, and researcher into UFOs and other paranormal phenomena.Evans was born in Shrewsbury, United Kingdom. and educated at St George’s School at Harpenden. After National Service in Palestine he went up to King’s College, Cambridge, to read...
published two well-researched studies, Gods, Spirits, Cosmic Guardians: Encounters with Non-Human Beings and Visions, Apparitions, Alien Visitors: A Complete Study of the Entity Enigma trying to examine phenomena ranging from "ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
s" to "aliens" using similar principles, seeming to conclude that entities may have originated in the minds of the experiencers, with paranormal components. Since that time, discussion has stalled, with no one having much of substance to offer; writing tends to consist of repetitions of old theories.
The U.S. Government Printing Office issued a publication compiled by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
for the Air Force Office of Scientific Research: "UFOs and Related Subjects: An Annotated Bibliography". In preparing this work, the senior bibliographer, Lynn E. Catoe, read thousands of UFO articles and books. In her preface to this 400-page book she states:
A large part of the available UFO literature is closely linked with mysticism and the metaphysical. It deals with subjects like mental telepathy, automatic writing and invisible entities as well as phenomena like poltergeist (ghost) manifestations and possession. Many of the UFO reports now being published in the popular press recount alleged incidents that are strikingly similar to demonic possession and psychic phenomena.
UFOs and mainstream religions
A few Protestant fundamentalistsFundamentalist Christianity
Christian fundamentalism, also known as Fundamentalist Christianity, or Fundamentalism, arose out of British and American Protestantism in the late 19th century and early 20th century among evangelical Christians...
regard UFOs as inherently demonic and part of a Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
ic plan to undermine Christianity, which may involve the supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
Nephilim
Nephilim
The Nephilim are the offspring of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" in Genesis 6:4, or giants who inhabit Canaan in Numbers 13:33. A similar word with different vowel-sounds is used in Ezekiel 32:27 to refer to dead Philistine warriors....
as pilots of the UFOs.
Similar views are held by some Christian Orthodox
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
priests and believers, with direct references to affirmations made by saints of the Orthodox Church. The UFO phenomenon is connected to the arrival of the Antichrist and the wonders he would make to fool the world into believing him, including great fire coming down from the sky. The sky is seen as the place where demons live (see the similarity with Beelzebub
Beelzebub
Beelzebub -Religious meaning:Ba‘al Zəbûb is variously understood to mean "lord of flies", or "lord of the dwelling". Originally the name of a Philistine god, Beelzebub is also identified in the New Testament as Satan, the "prince of the demons". In Arabic the name is retained as Ba‘al dhubaab /...
- "the lord of the flies", sometimes interpreted as "the lord of the fliers" - i.e. of those who fly). Many similarities can be drawn between UFOs and demonic manifestations: both involve revealing half truths, double truths or deceit, both tend to have a volatile character, as they seem to appear unexpectedly and have an indefinite or illusory character, inducing a sense of wondering and awe, and, more subtly, exposure to or knowledge of both, as incomplete as it is, can induce some abnormal or even pathologic states to those exposed - anxiety, fear, obsession with the phenomenon, and even paranoid schizophrenia, demonomania and suicide, according to John Keel
John Keel
John Alva Keel, born Alva John Kiehle was an American journalist and influential UFOlogist best known as author of The Mothman Prophecies.-Biography:...
's book "UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse", cited in the links above.
In addition, some have argued that abduction experiences bear striking similarities to pre-20th century accounts of demonic manifestations noting as many as a dozen similarities. As evidence of their belief that Alien Abductions are demonic manifestations, researchers have offered various testimonies of aliens reacting to the name of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
in much the same way that demons are recorded as having reacted in the New Testament, with some even alleging that the invocation of the name has shown to successfully abort such abductions.
See also
- Ancient astronaut theories
- ParanormalParanormalParanormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
- UFO - Interdimensional hypothesisInterdimensional hypothesisThe interdimensional hypothesis , also called the extradimensional hypothesis , is an advanced theory by Jacques Vallée that says unidentified flying objects and related events involve visitations from other "realities" or "dimensions" that coexist separately alongside our own...
- UFO - ReligionsUFO religionUFO religion is an informal term used to describe a religion that equates UFO occupants with gods or other semi-divine beings. Typically, the UFO occupants are held to be extraterrestials and that humanity either currently is, or eventually will become, part of a preexisting extraterrestrial...
External links
- UFOs & the Cult of ET: The Phantasmagorical Manipulation
- Alien Resistance - Biblical perspectives on UFOs and abductions
- UFOs – real or psychic phenomenon?
- Michael S. Heiser, Presbyterian Semitic scholar and author of The Facade
- Christian ministry dealing with UFOs, abductions, Paperclip and the Roswell incident
- The Ufo and Paranormal Phenomena Social Network
- Paranormal Daily News