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Diana Pasulka’s American Cosmic

Friday, April 26, 2019 2:50

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Professor Pasulka’s new book American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology [Oxford University Press, 2019] is not a book about UFOs, maybe ufology but not UFOs.

I was anxious to get the book as it is an academic work equating the UFO phenomenon with religion, abetted by technology. What’s not to like?

My pal MJ Banias recommended it but my academic buddy Bryan Sentes didn’t, writing that he had caveats about Professor Pasulka’s understanding of Heidegger’s views on technology, and intended a review of the book. However, health issues intervened and his delay caused me to get the book and assess (enjoy) it myself.

There are many generous reviews. Here’s one:

https://www.post-gazette.com/ae/books/2019/04/22/American-Cosmic-UFOs-Religion-Technology-Diana-Walsh-DW-Pasulka-alien-extraterrestrial-life/stories/201903310008

Right off the bat, I was flummoxed by Ms. Pasulka’s favorable comments about Whitely [sic] Strieber – yes, that’s a typo on Page 11, but not my concern here.

Strieber is, for me, a writer who created a UFO meme, several actually, that are fictional constructs promoting non-fictional “truths.”

Professor Pasulka deals with media’s detrimental intrusions into ufology and the UFO phenomenon, creating factional beliefs about UFOs for various reasons but she seems to see Strieber’s fictive efforts as benign with value for the phenomenon. I (and others) do not.

Ms. Pasulka drops names from the UFO community as if they are bejeweled artifacts meant to augment her view(s) that UFOs and ufology have taken the status of a religion: Robbie Graham, Greg Bishop, David Halperin, Robert Bigelow, Scott Browne, and, of course, Jacques Vallee, among others.

Carl Jung, and his “little book” (her assessment) are quoted reverently.

The book is dedicated to a squirmy character, Tyler, one of two fellows that Professor Pasulka seems to have a crush on; the other is James.

Tyler figures into the narrative as a computer-oriented fellow who takes Ms. Pasulka and James to a Non-Roswellian New Mexico 1947 UFO crash site, which is littered, supposedly, with artifacts left by extraterrestrials as part of that crash (or crashes).

James, Tyler, and Ms. Pasulka scour the “crash site” and find one of the gifted artifacts; the idea being that the “debris” is a gift from alien visitors, meant to disclose something – that something eluding me.

I found Professor Pasulka’s insight(s) about how media (social, news, and entertainment) have manipulated UFO scenarios into factual-like events spot on. The errant (and often purposeful) intrusions of media into UFO lore, have put us in the mythos we now find ourselves beholden to.

For me, Professor Pasulka’s entries about (many well-known) religious (mostly Catholic) manifestations or apparitions involving the Virgin Mary are splendidly rendered, especially the 1917 Fatima “miracle.”

And that she is a fan-girl of Jacques Vallee is okay with me also. My buddy Bryan Sentes is a fan-boy of the brilliant Vallee.

I have no sorrow about spending $16.64 for Diana Pasulka’s book. It’s a pleasant, inoffensive read, but it isn’t a book about UFOs, even though she manages to sneak in a few words about the recent Elizondo disclosure of the Pentagon study of alleged UFO intrusions.

I see no reason to accept UFOs or ufology as a harbinger of a new theology or religion.

While both involve faith and/or belief systems, religion has a sub-set of premises and “truths” that UFOs and ufology do not have.

Things profound and precious encase religion(s) whereas looniness and bizarre speculations embarrass the UFO phenomenon.

Ms. Pasulka’s thesis is one of those bizarre speculations, not loony but not really sensible either.

http://ufocon.blogspot.com – The UFO Iconoclast(s)

Source: https://ufocon.blogspot.com/2019/04/diana-pasulkas-american-cosmic.html

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