UFO Cults CH 14

Commentary: This posting is in a series of posts summarizing the book, "Lights In The Sky and Little Green Men" by Hugh Ross, Kenneth Samples, and Mark Clark. Hugh Ross is a scientist in physics and Clark has a PHd in political science. The other authors specialize in social sciences, philosophies, and international relations.  The full series can be reviewed at UFOs an Alternative Look.

Introduction

The contactee phenomenon has lead to the emergence of UFO cults as it has strong connections to the occult. The cults have the same influences as the contactee phenomenon. The cults coalesced around the popularity of some of the contactees and remain popular. Most cults have folded when the founder dies but a few have grew to thousands of members. These cults represent some of the strangest elements in the UFO phenomenon.

Beliefs and Practices

Each cult group is individual but they demonstrate some common traits such as:

• Flying saucers are real; physical, psychic, or spiritual
• Humans communicate with alien intelligences associated with flying saucers usually by entering a trance state and by channeling.
• The messages are prophetic and revelatory being of immense importance to humanity

This forms the identity of the groups which are often led by charismatic and eccentric leaders. The group often takes on a mystical new age spiritualism aura. Some of the enduring groups are:

• The Unarius Academy of Science
• Heaven's Gate
• The Raelian Movement

The UFO Worldview

A worldview originating from abductees and contactees is a wide spread oblivion. There is no well formed, adequate, carefully considered, and solidly constructed worldview. The worldview protects an individual from irrational, even dangerous, thoughts and actions. However, the belief that aliens literally and physically exist comports well with a UFO-ET worldview. When assessing a worldview the following test are invaluable tools:

• A coherence test
• Mean test
• Explanatory power and scope test
• Correspondence test
• Verification test
• Pragmatic test
• Existential test
• Competition test
• Predictive test

The UFO-ET worldview has many weaknesses that standout and cannot be a basis for judging reality. Cultist prey on people's vulnerability to intellectual, emotional, and spiritual deception. Thus, having a foundation in the Biblical viewpoint can overcome those vulnerabilities and offer a basis for judging reality.

References:

Ross, H., Samples, K., and Clark, M. (2002). Lights in the sky and little green men: a rational christian look at UFOs and extraterrestrials. Navpress. Colorado.