American Cosmic
Page 28
billionaires, and ufology and the study of anomalous aerial
phenomena, as observed by my colleague Brenda Denzler,
are “overwhelmingly white and male” and over 90 percent
Anglo- American.4 To make it even more difficult to attain
any kind of real knowledge about the topic, Tyler’s work is
invisible, as is most of James’s. The historians of ufology, with
few exceptions, ignore the history of African American and
indigenous traditions of the UFO, which predate the standard
assumption that the UFO mythos was born in the year 1947.
The founders of the Nation of Islam were articulating a UFO
narrative by the 1930s, and according to Elijah Muhammad,
the religion’s early leader, Wal ace Fard Muhammad, had
spoken of UFOs in the 1920s.
That night, Tyler admitted that his understanding of the
“beings” was being transformed by his experiences. His en-
counter with Sister Maria and her alleged bilocations, the
idea that they may have happened within a hub of modern
UFO activity, and information about the levitations of other
saints and even apparitions of the Virgin Mary had signif-
icantly affected his new understanding. This information,
coupled with what he had felt while making hospital rounds
with Father McDonnel , and then the insights he gathered
from the other scientists at the Vatican and the Vatican
Observatory, shifted his interpretive structure with respect
to what he thought might be extraterrestrials. He felt more in
touch with them than ever and that somehow his connection
had been “supercharged” by the environment in Rome and in
Castel Gandolfo, but he also felt that he knew less about what
they were, who they were, and their intentions. Later that
night we were sitting alone in the archive. Tyler was quietly
looking through a manuscript. He received a text message.
2 3 8 | A M E R IC A N C O SM IC
He told me, as he slumped in his chair, that his mother had
just been admitted to hospice.
Every night, the brothers and priests at the observatory
celebrate Mass in a small chapel. We were always invited to
attend. I now suggested to Tyler that we go, and he readily
agreed. When we arrived at the chapel I asked the priest if he
would offer the Mass for Tyler’s mother. Tyler was touched.
He asked the priest to bless some rosaries that he had bought
in the Vatican.
During the last conversation he had with his mother after
he returned home, he gave her a blessed rosary. She took it
and put it around her neck and then held Tyler’s hand. Later,
before her funeral, he asked his Baptist siblings if they would
allow their mother to be buried with the rosary. Seeing how
moved she was to have received the gift, and knowing that
the brothers and priests at the Vatican had prayed for her,
they readily agreed. Later Tyler learned that, while the Mass
was being celebrated in the observatory chapel, his mother,
who had been uncommunicative for months, roused to
consciousness for several hours with perfect memory and
conversed with her family. This was reported to Tyler by his
sister. She did not know that Tyler, and the observatory com-
munity, had been praying fervently for their mother during
that time.
T H E E N D I N G A N D
T H E B E G I N N I N G
Tyler’s life has been unusual by any standard, but it had not
been overtly religious. He believed that he was in contact
with beings of some sort, and that this contact was spiritual.
R E A L A N D I M A G I N A R Y | 2 3 9
However, he never theorized about what the beings were,
other than that they were related to spirituality and space.
This trip motivated him to begin thinking about who the
beings might be. He now felt a kinship to Sister Maria of
Agreda, and he vowed to devote his life to a new ministry. He
believed that these beings were, or were similar to, the beings
spoken of by Sister Maria, the angels that had transported
her to what is now the southwestern United States. Like
Rey Hernandez, a confirmed atheist whose experiences
transformed him into an agnostic, Tyler’s understanding of
his relationship to the beings shifted completely.
Months after we returned to the United States, Tyler was
invited to return to Rome. He would make his first com-
munion as a Catholic at a small Mass with Pope Francis, at
none other than the church of Santa Sabina where he had
first felt, in his words, the presence of the Holy Spirit. The
Mass took place on St. Valentine’s Day, which, in a rare
occurrence, was also Ash Wednesday this year. I never
anticipated that this story would end like this, with Tyler’s
conversion to Catholicism. For Tyler, it was not an end, but
the very beginning.
CONCLUSION
The Artifact
Credo quia absurdum, eh, Diana?
— Jac q u e s Va l l e e
IT TURNS OUT THAT ABSURDITY seems to have been
written into the fabric of the artifact— that is, the arti-
fact I had found with James and Tyler, or that was perhaps
planted for me to find. It was analyzed by research scientists,
who concluded that it was so anomalous as to be incompre-
hensible. According to these scientists, I was told, it could
not have been generated or created on Earth. One scien-
tist explained it to me in this way: “It could not have been
made in this universe.” This does not mean that the scientists
believed it was created by extraterrestrials. They just did not
know how, or by whom, it was made. They seemed comfort-
able, if amazed, with this degree of ambiguity. I recall some-
thing James told me about his research methods. He said that
when his graduate students found data that did not appear to
fit the hypothesis, they often ignored the data. He said that
he would redirect them toward the anomaly. The anomaly,
he explained, was there for a reason, and it was their job to
understand why it was there, and then to possibly change
their hypothesis. James and the other scientists had been
C O N C L U S I O N | 2 4 1
presented with an anomaly. John Mack, during his own re-
search with experiencers, had approached Thomas Kuhn,
who had convincingly argued that scientific revolutions
came about through attention to anomalies. Kuhn’s advice
for Mack was to focus on the raw data and to persist in
collecting it, even if it did not fit into any preconceived or
conventional frameworks of knowledge. This was precisely
how the scientists were proceeding with their research.
To make matters more interesting, just before the holidays
in December 2017, the New York Times published an article
featuring the testimony of Luis Elizondo, the former director
of the Pentagon’s Aerospace Advanced Threat Identification
Program, who alleged that the United States ran a secret pro-
gram to study UFOs.1 This article set off a firestorm of “dis-
closure” or “unofficial disclosure,” which prompted public
demands under the Freedom of Information Act that the
US government provide any debris or “alloys” they might
be keeping. Suddenly colleagues, including some who had
scoffed at my interest in UFOs and the phenomenon, were
now interested in the topic. The article promoted the “re-
alism” that is one of the mechanisms of belief I elaborated on
in this book.
As an object of mystery, the artifact functioned in reli-
gious ways, much like the relics of Catholic devotionalism or
other religious traditions. The Shroud of Turin, which bears
what appears to be the image of a man who had been tortured
and crucified, is an example of a sacred artifact. The shroud is
considered by millions of Christians to be the burial cloth of
Jesus. As such, it is an object of devotion within the Catholic
religion, although the owner of the shroud, the Catholic
Church itself, has not pronounced it authentic. How the
image original y got on the linen cloth is mysterious, and
2 4 2 | A M E R IC A N C O SM IC
scientists and artists have tried to recreate medieval artistic
and scientific techniques in hopes of showing that it could
have been produced during that era, rather than at the time
of Christ. None of the theories as to the origin of the image
are conclusive. It remains a mystery. It is also an artifact of
faith, devotion, and belief. It has its own history of being
discovered and doubted, and it continues to leave a trail of
miracles associated with it. Sacred artifacts are objects of
power. Part of their power lies in their mystery.
Within the field of religious studies there are multiple
definitions of religion, some of which consider the category
of the mysterious. The term “religion” is common, but it is a
slippery concept that has its own history and functions. When
I explain religion to first- and second- year undergraduates,
I explain that traditional religions usual y have two main
components. They contain functional aspects, such as places
of worship like churches and synagogues, sacred texts, and
oral traditions. These aspects of religion can be studied quite
easily. There is also another aspect to religion— the “sacred”
element. The sacred element is not easily studied, as it might
involve a sacred event, or a being. It is the object of belief,
but it is usual y mysterious and cannot be studied, itself, ob-
jectively. One cannot put an angel under a microscope. It is
this aspect, the mysterious sacred, that distinguishes religion
from other organized practices like sports or fandoms. In
religions, one finds the inexplicable, sacred event, or a mys-
terious artifact.
Tyler told me an anecdote that demonstrates the artifact’s
sacred significance to him and to many of the scientist-
believers. Tyler had put the part in a backpack and had then
stopped in to see a friend. He and his friend visited and
C O N C L U S I O N | 2 4 3
dined, and then Tyler left to continue his travels. The next
day he received a message from his friend.
“I had a dream about the contents of your backpack.
I dreamt that there was a separate universe that you carried
in it. A universe that was created within this universe that
who knows where this universe was created. Had very much
the essence of turtles all the way down . . . ha!”
Tyler asked me what I thought of his friend’s dream. It
was indeed an interesting dream considering what was in the
backpack. I asked Tyler what he thought.
“Remember what Whitley [Strieber] told us? That the
artifacts we studied also studied us? That is what I think is
happening here,” he said. “There is some sort of symbiotic
relationship between the artifact and those in its proximity.
It generates information. Some people are able to pick up on
that information. Don’t ask me to explain it, because I can’t.”
For Tyler and the scientist- believers, the artifact’s mys-
tery is not only impenetrable but also compels their rever-
ence and belief. It inspires them. In the words of Tyler D., it
was “elegant beyond comprehension.” At the end of my re-
search, I am an outsider to the community of scientists who
are also believers. I can’t solve the mystery of the artifact, but
I have seen how its reality has inspired belief and, as Jung
notes, rumors that spin mythologies.
The artifact and its influence on the scientists were dis-
concerting to me. I wasn’t sure of its implications. I tended to
think in terms of literal answers to its mysteries, for example,
that it might be technology that belonged to another country.
When I suggested this, the scientists looked at me incredu-
lously. Apparently, they saw this line of speculation as among
the least helpful of those that could lead to possible answers.
2 4 4 | A M E R IC A N C O SM IC
Even more disconcerting to me than the mystery of the
anomalous artifact was the level of belief produced by media
representations of UFOs. I saw media professionals use the
mechanisms of belief to push a story that was at times very
far removed from the event that inspired it, and yet it was
believed by millions. It was this that was most concerning,
as I came to understand the extent of the influence, and thus
power, wielded by the media in regard to belief in UFOs and
extraterrestrials.
Toward the end of my research for this book, as I sat in the
Vatican Observatory archive, I had come across astronomer
Carl Sagan’s book Intel igent Life in the Universe. His coau-
thor was Soviet astronomer Iosif Samuilovich Shklovsky. As
I opened the book, I was struck by Shklovsky’s words: “The
prey runs to the predator.” This referred to the search for ex-
traterrestrial life, of course. It suggested that if humans ac-
tual y did meet such life, it might not be friendly. I came to
understand these words in a different way. I related them to
our relationship to media and technology and the unreflec-
tive embrace of both. As philosopher Martin Heidegger had
predicted years earlier, technology would bring about a new
era, an era as much dominated by technology as the medi-
eval era had been dominated by God. Technology and its
effects would be misunderstood. In this misunderstanding,
Heidegger argued, humans would face a great and poten-
tial y very destructive crisis. In Heidegger’s last interview, the
German magazine Der Spiegel asked if philosophy could pre-
vent such a negative outcome. Heidegger answered: “Only a
God can save us now.” At Heidegger’s request, the interview
was only published posthumously.2
NOTES
Introduction
1. Jon Austin, “Billionaire Helping Develop NASA Spacecraft
Says Aliens Are Here- But It’s Covered Up,” Express, May 31,
2017, http:// www.express.co.uk/ news/ weird/ 8109
57/ Robert-
Bigelow- 60- Minutes- UFO- aliens- NASA- Bigelow- Aerospace.
2. Stephen Hawking, “Questioning the Universe,” filmed February
2008, TED Talk, 10:12, posted 2008, https:// www.ted.com/
talks/ stephen_ hawking_ asks_ big_ questions_ about_ the_
universe#t- 595954.
3. Jeremy Sconce, Haunted Media: Electronic Presence from
Telegraphy to Television (Durham, NC: Duke University
Press, 2000).
4. Massimo Teodorani, Signal vs. Noise in Ufology, personal com-
munication, August 15, 2017.
5. Lee Speigel, “Eric Davis, Physicist, Explains Why Scientists
Won’t Discuss Their UFO Interests,” Huffington Post, July 20,
2013, accessed September 10, 2017, http:// www.huffingtonpost.
com/ 2013/ 07/ 20/ physicist- eric- davis- mufon- symposium_ n_
3620126.html.
6. Leslie Kean, UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials
Go on the Record (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2010).
2 4 6 | NOT E S
7. “Most Say Humans Aren’t Alone; Few Have Seen UFOs,”
Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University, http://
newspol s.org/ articles/ 19620 .
8. Some examples include Barry Downing, The Bible and
Flying Saucers, 2nd ed. (New York: Malrowe & Company,
1997), first published in 1968; and Michael J. S. Carter, Alien
Scriptures: Extraterrestrials in the Holy Bible (Nashville: Grave
Distractions Publications, 2013).
9. Jacques Vallee, Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and
Cults (Daily Grail Publishing, 2008), appendix.
10. Carl Jung, Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the
Skies (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1978), 16.
11. Whitley Strieber and Jeffrey J. Kripal, The Supernatural: Why
the Unexplained Is Real (New York: Penguin Random House,
2017), 3.
12. Whitley Strieber and Jeffery J. Kripal, The Super Natural: A
New Vision of the Unexpected (New York: Penguin, 2016),
3, 5, 6.
13. Ann Taves, Religious Experience Reconsidered: A Building-
Block Approach to the Study of Religion and Other Special
Things (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009). T. M.
Luhrmann, When God Talks Back: Understanding the American
Evangelical Relationship with God (New York: Vintage
Books, 2012).
14. Carole Cusack, “Apocalypse in Early UFO and Alien- Based