I want to make a point about UFOs that I've made in the past about near-death experiences (NDEs). Let's say it's the 1920s. Somebody tells you that over the next century, there's going to be a lot of work done in a couple of areas, NDEs and UFOs. They tell you about all of the research, documentation, and such that will occur. What would you expect to be discovered?
I think most people - especially those who were the most optimistic about human nature, optimistic about the future of humanity, skeptical of Christianity and other organized religions, and so forth - would have expected what we discovered about the afterlife and aliens to make a lot of sense from our perspective and to have a large degree of consistency.
Instead, both NDEs and UFOs are highly inconsistent, are often different than our expectations, are often seemingly nonsensical, sometimes exhibit hostility toward us, etc. In other words, NDEs and UFOs not only aren't what people expected, but are even much different than people expected. That should be kept in mind. People often try to salvage the situation by focusing on particular strands of NDEs and UFOs that they find appealing, and I don't deny that some portions of these things are at least somewhat similar to what people expected and wanted. But that doesn't change the fact that there's also much about NDEs and UFOs that has to be considered a major disappointment to a lot of people. And in their more honest moments, they'll admit to being disturbed by what the research has uncovered. I've given some examples of that in the past, such as in my collection of posts on NDEs and related issues here. On UFOs, see chapter 9, titled "The Case Against Extraterrestrials", in Jacques Vallee's Dimensions (San Antonio, Texas: Anomalist Books, 2008).
I don't expect a lot from NDEs or UFOs. I think NDEs are somewhat related to the afterlife and give us some minimal information about the subject, but they aren't equivalent to the afterlife. And I don't think UFO phenomena are caused by aliens. Since I think NDEs and UFOs are both manifestations of human paranormal capacities, I expect a big amount of subjectivity, inconsistency, and such. Similarly, I don't expect the dreams people have while they sleep at night to all fit together like puzzle pieces. NDEs aren't placing you in the afterlife, and UFOs aren't putting you in contact with aliens, so it's not surprising that the phenomena don't give you a largescale, cohesive picture of either the afterlife or aliens.
Judaism and Christianity have been subjected to thousands of years of scrutiny. That can't be a one-way street. Other worldviews also have to be subjected to scrutiny. The NDE-based view of the afterlife and the UFO-based view of aliens haven't held up well.
Do you think UFOs are a manifestation of some sort of Jungian collective subconsciousness?
ReplyDeleteNo.
DeleteJason,
ReplyDeleteWondering if you saw that Steve Miller was back on Sean McDowell's channel recently, defending his claim that NDE's are supportive of Christianity contra other religions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxXumHLen40&list=WL&index=60
Yes, I've listened to the interview. I have his latest book, but haven't read all of it. I read a prepublication version of his work on deathbed experiences and related issues in 2021. The books he's been working on since then aren't the same as that prepublication work, but they overlap with it to some extent. You can read my discussion with him in 2021 here. I discussed some of the anti-Christian aspects of NDEs in that thread. And here's a review of a book by Gregory Shushan that I wrote later in the year. For reasons I explain there, I don't think the weaknesses of the experiences cited by Shushan (how long after the event they were recorded, the potential for significant alteration of the accounts over time, etc.) are sufficient to remove the entirety of their evidential force. You can find more examples of the anti-Christian nature of NDEs in my collection of articles here and under the relevant post labels, like the "Near-Death Experience" label here. The dream model I've proposed explains the phenomena better, without the need for dismissing so many cases as anomalies, exceptions to the rule, and such, and doesn't have the further problems with the cases that are left (problems I discussed with Steve in 2021 and have discussed elsewhere).
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