UFO Religions

In France, a UFO group known as the Raelian Movement works to create the first Embassy welcoming extra terrestrials from space, claiming that the world is the work of an alien people who built it from DNA. The Aetherius Society of Great Britain claims to receive cosmic transmissions from space intelligences, offering the chance to listen to online recordings of a spoken transmission from Jesus Christ. In San Diego, March 1997, 39 members of the Heaven's Gate group commited mass suicide at the appearance of the Hale-Bopp comet, believing that heavenly beings on a UFO wait there to gather them into the Kingdom of Heaven. There is no doubt that the spectre of the UFO, as popularised by shows such as "The X-Files", has brought an astonishing and often apocalyptic slant to the motley face of modern religious practice. But what motivates the fantastical and occasionally sinister beliefs of UFO worshippers? Why are people apparently so keen to believe that the truth really is "out there"? Does the image of the extra-terrestrial ever inspire love, or rather fundamentalism, instability and violence? "UFO Religions" is a useful introduction to UFO-based belief throughout the Western world. C

'This well-researched book cuts through the nuts and bolts pseudo-scientific posturings of UFO believers over the past fifty-odd years and clearly demonstrates that belief in UFOs is motivated and sustained by the religious impulse'.'A well-documented work, on a little-known subject.' - Bulletin Bibliographique

Christopher Partridge