This is not some self-published conspiracy theory: it is top-notch thinking and research. What’s more, D. W. Pasulka, the author, is a tenured professor of religion and an outstanding writer, and her book reads more like a novel in most places than a plodding treatise that might be inflicted on undergrads. A mature and respected scholar, she has done exactly what scholars are supposed to do: help us better understand ourselves and the world ... it is a profound and original exploration of how UFO culture can usefully be thought of as religion—one centered on science and technology, though. These may seem unconnected, as Pasulka realizes, but she makes a compelling case for the interconnections of religious modes of life and technology ... Anyone considering reading American Cosmic should be ready for what the truth can do, and I would be remiss, as a reviewer, if I did not say that serious scholarly study of strange things can have strange effects ... a reader will find few more thrilling reads in the fiction section than this academic book, hiding a modern Grail quest under its covers.
Without assessing any of the truth claims of Ufology’s practitioners, Pasulka argues that technology and media have had such an influence over the masses when it comes to the experience and interpretation of phenomena that they are slowly replacing traditional religious practice ... a superb investigation into the birth and rise of a new religion.
Much of American Cosmic deals in fascinating detail with that formation [of religious zeal toward UFOs] ... The main problem with such a diplomatic double approach [between interesting the author’s fellow students of religious history as well as the many various members of that new religion] is that only one half of it is based in reality, and that fact is often blurry in American Cosmic ... There is not one shred of actual scientific evidence for any of [the] presumptions [of UFO believers]. Pasulka is being friendly and diplomatic in her field research, yes, but she’s being friendly and diplomatic about people who are deeply, ingrainedly delusional.
... a readable and thought-provoking narrative. Pasulka and her cast of curious characters offer a compelling case for the study of extraterrestrial life. Contemplating the book’s enormous, mind-bending questions, the sort of questions that get at the fabric of who we are and why we are here, is not only a great deal of fun, but also it may be the only way we get answers to many of these questions.
One can imagine a book about the so-called Invisible College that meaningfully examines the role of Silicon Valley in producing and sustaining batshit belief systems, but it is precisely this examination that American Cosmic lacks. And yet, however unintentionally, Pasulka’s book does clarify some of the depressing ironies of living in a world shaped by Big Tech ... We languish in the digital panopticon while the people who built it plot deliverance from their own mortality by uploading their consciousnesses into the Cloud, doomsday prepping their New Zealand bunkers, or communing with extraterrestrials. All the rest of us can do, perhaps, is wait to be abducted, and pray that whatever takes us believes we’re worth saving.
American Cosmic is at times difficult for the average reader to understand. It frequently takes the shape of a doctoral thesis—an academic dissertation waiting for its final argument ... American Cosmic is an intriguing book that lays bare an enormous amount of research to prove a point. While Pasulka’s theory joining religion, technology, and UFOs should not be discounted, it is at times a difficult read, and may put off the reader who is not totally convinced.
Thought-provoking ... a sober, generally accessible account of research into what she calls 'a new religion, the religion of the UFO event' ... a hybrid of the lively and the abstruse that will leave many readers enlightened and puzzled in turn.
Irresistible ... instead of crafting a well-sourced argument, she offers a personal account of her encounters with believers and a frank discussion of her evolving understanding of the UFO phenomenon. Lively character sketches bring the story to life ... Pasulka gives wonderful, entertaining insight into the curious study of UFOs.
Pasulka makes a reasonable case that the spirits, angels, divine messengers, manifestations of God, aliens or their spaceships that humans have been reporting since the dawn of history are too numerous to be entirely delusional, so they deserve serious investigation.
