Aliens and Divine Cults

In more recent years, there has been a push to connect UFO sightings to the spiritual world.

In believing that alien life forms have the ability to see beyond the scope of what’s possible for a human being, some secular and religious groups believe that if contacted they can be a conduit to a spiritual world, a divine world, that’s beyond our current ability to reach.  

In other words, some believe they are, or possibly are, our connection to God.  The possibility of such a connection though fascinating, and hopeful for some, can also be quite dangerous; as evidenced by the members of the Heaven’s Gate religious group who committed mass suicide in the late 90’s in order to board an alien spacecraft that they believed was following an eternal comet.

Although the comet was at its brightest, the promise of reaching a space ship in this manner is to me, at best, a reach.

About Aliens...

Extraterrestrial Life, aka "aliens" (including UFOs):

Many believe that this category of unexplained phenomenon is not technically “paranormal.”  To these ghost snobs, I disagree, for as we just learned, the definition of the word “Paranormal” is that which is not scientifically explainable.

It also helps to embrace a firm distrust of the government and what the government allows the general public to be aware of.  An unidentified flying object may very well be an alien, or it may very well be an F-15 fighter jet, or it may also be an otherworldly spirit: as long as we’re kept in the dark, all three options are equally likely.

They are all scientifically unexplainable, as long as the scientists are not allowed to explain them.  And, I must admit, the mystery surrounding such incidents and claims of UFOs, and the reticence of the government to elaborate on such incidents and claims, does make you wonder…what are aliens and UFOs?

What are Aliens, Ghosts, and The Loch Ness Monster?

As best I can disseminate in the blog format (thank goodness I’m not twittering these thoughts, as I’ve been told you’re only allowed 140 characters), I will elaborate on the established classifications of paranormal phenomena. 

These classifications can be divided into three categories:

• Spirits (AKA “ghosts”)
• Extraterrestrial Life (including UFO’s)
• Cryptids (mainly creatures, like the Loch Ness Monster for example)

I’ve received feedback about being too wordy and using too big of a vocabulary.  Normally, as in the cases of my class lectures and with my students, I would respond with a chastisement: I shouldn’t dumb down my content for the fast-food consumption of my audience; but in this case, and for the purpose of disseminating as much information as possible, I will try to comply with the criticism...

In an effort to adhere to the “times,” and the attention spans of readers of the same age or below as my students, my following blogs will be brief.

If A UFO Falls in the Forest...

Things or events for which there are no explanations are many; however, since these things or events are indeed unexplainable, it is equally impossible to explain, and further prove, that these things do NOT exist or that these events did NOT happen.  To assert that something happened, for which there is no explanation, is equally as absurd as asserting that something didn’t happen, when there’s no explanation or evidence to support the assertion.

I consider the question of the paranormal as a modern existential predicament...