Vice President J.D. Vance on UFOs : « I will get to the bottom of the UFO files », « I think they're demons »
One of the most intriguing aspects of the perception of UFOs in the US is the view held by a segment of the Christian population that they are demonic in nature.
The establishment of the USA was fuelled by religious immigrants escaping persecution in Europe, thereby entwining religion with the nation’s history, particularly Christianity. In his interview, Vice President JD Vance elucidates this perspective:
I think that celestial beings who fly around, who do weird things to people, I think that the desire to describe everything celestial, everything is otherworldly, to describe it as aliens... I mean, every great world religion, including Christianity, the one that I believe in, has understood that there are weird things out there and there are things that are very difficult to explain. And I naturally go, when I hear about sort of extra natural phenomenon, that’s where I go to, is the Christian understanding that, you know, there’s a lot of good out there, but there’s also some evil out there. And I think that one of the devil’s great tricks is to convince people he never existed.
According to the King James Bible, the most common edition in the USA, demonic activity consists of deceiving the world. Satan is depicted as a dragon. This view of the world may seem strange to many, but it is important to remember that this is the basic framework of a significant part of American culture.
Spirituality and UFOs are combined in the witness. Dr. Diana Walsh Pasulka describes the following in American Cosmic:
Christopher Bledsoe, a Baptist from North Carolina, had been a pilot and owned a successful construction business. He had a profound UFO sighting that he interpreted as an extension of his own religious tradition. His congregation rejected his interpretation and called the experience demonic. For Bledsoe, this was an agonizing process that alienated him from his community and changed his life. Bledsoe struggled for several years, although he now seems at peace with his conversion.
As Dr. Jacques Vallée has studied, the phenomenon can act as a deceiver and can have harmful consequences for witnesses, similar to what believers can link to religious texts. In these texts, demons can control the thoughts and actions of humans. Contrary to mainstream culture, demons in the King James Bible do not appear as horned devils, but as spirits, and use visions to manipulate their targets. When they appear physically, they have an animal aspect. Most of the time, they are invisible and try to turn people away from God. They can impersonate and mislead.
While there is still a significant difference between what many people perceive as UFOs – Unidentified Flying Object – and advanced craft from extraterrestrial civilisations, a large part of the phenomena fit that description. Mostly untold and studied by few, examples include the so-called ‘hitch hiker effect’, in which witnesses of unconventional craft also report alleged poltergeist-like phenomena once back at their home.
Dr. Diana Walsh Pasulka also describes the following in American Cosmic:
The organization that funded my research trip to Rome had asked me to analyze the canonization trial records of St. Joseph of Cupertino and Sister Maria of Agreda. Why was St. Joseph canonized, they wondered, and not Sister Maria? Their stories were somewhat similar and they lived in the same era. Joseph was a seventeenth-century Italian priest who was said to have levitated so frequently that the priests responsible for the case for his canonization stopped counting the number of people who presented themselves as witnesses. There are copious records of the testimonies of his flights, levitations, and even soaring to the ceiling of a cathedral—on at least one occasion taking another person with him. The large number suggests that they were probably not making these stories up.
I had never had occasion to think of levitation as a reality, but Tyler had—although not with respect to Catholic saints. Within the UFO literature, levitation was a common theme. People reported that during a UFO contact event they had been levitated out of their beds into crafts, through windows, and so forth. Tyler proposed to come with me to Rome. The plan he suggested was that I would translate the documents and he would offer his analysis based on his work in aeronautics. Strangely, there was precedent for such collaboration. A number of individuals from aeronautic agencies had contacted me about my historical work on levitating saints. A colleague whose work focuses on Joseph of Cupertino had also been contacted by someone with similar space-related affiliations. Apparently, at least some members of the space industry believed in the possibility of levitation.
The correlation between UFOs, religious beliefs and unexplained phenomena is becoming increasingly evident. To a population raised in a religious environment, many of the phenomena that are attributed to UFOs are more closely associated with religion than with advanced science.
Nonetheless, the fact that the second-most senior official in the United States has declared « We’re working on it » « I will get to the bottom of the UFO files. » « I’m obsessed with this » is a major indication that this issue is now being taken seriously at the highest levels of power. The wave of articles that followed his declaration is proof of the interest of many.
The smug tone of some press coverage regarding the use of ‘demons’ to describe UFOs is to be expected due to cultural differences between the US and Europe. However, one must consider the possibility that such anomalous phenomena may be designed to fit the description of demonic activity. If the Phenomena is trying to educate us, perhaps what we see as paranormal events are another form of control mechanism, as described by Vallée, designed to limit the spread of UFO reporting by creating a religious stigma around the witness. It is acceptable to report an unexplained object in the sky, but describe entities roaming free in your house afterwards and many will question your sanity.
Nevertheless, other figures chose to take a different approach and to reinforce Vance’s statements. Bill Maher, a comedian, writer and producer, presented a segment in which he declared :
Given the increasing number in recent years of sightings by serious military personnel of unknown aircraft operating outside our current abilities, if at this point you don’t believe aliens are here and observing us, maybe you are the conspiracy theorist.