It’s been a strange opening to the Spring season spent thinking about questions that Diana Pasulka (UNC Wilmington) and Jeffrey Kripal (Rice University) will tackle today at the Ohio State University Center for the Study of Religion’s
4th Symposium on Religion, Narrative, and Media — Taking the UFO Phenomenon Seriously, that is, Religiously
According to the synopsis of Pasulka’s upcoming book,
American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology — more than half of adults and more than 75% of young Americans believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life — a level rivaling belief in God!
What happens (is happening) to world religions and deeply embedded social infrastructures as they face increasing pressure to adapt to new scientific understanding of consciousness and intelligence — understandings forced through technological innovation in areas of machine learning and artificial intelligence, advances in neuroscience, increased integration of psychical research and practical occultism in mainstream discourse, and most recently by the mainstream media’s heightened focus on the physical aspects of the UFO phenomenon…
