One of the subjects Christians tend to handle poorly is the existence of healings and some other miracles in non-Christian, and sometimes more specifically non-Protestant, contexts. Healings affiliated with UFOs are part of that category.
I follow UFO issues to some extent, but it isn't one of my primary areas of research. I've occasionally heard about healings in the context of UFOs. For example, Jacques Vallee wrote in one of his books I've read, "What happens if we examine the files of sightings with an open mind regarding such psychic components? We find that phenomena of precognition, telepathy, and even healing are not unusual among the reports, especially when they involve close-range observation of an object or direct exposure to its light." (Dimensions [San Antonio, Texas: Anomalist Books, 2008], approximate Kindle location 2767) In my experience, however, people tend to not go into much detail about healings. Vallee didn't in the book just cited, as far as I recall. But maybe he has elsewhere. To whatever extent others have, it seems to be somewhat unusual for people to go into a lot of detail about the topic. I came across more information about it in Jonathan Kendall's recent book than I remember seeing anywhere else. I'll get into the details in my next post, but I want to address some other background issues first.
I've argued that the Bible implicitly and explicitly refers to and allows a large number and variety of non-Christian miracles, including healings. I've written about some implications to that effect from God's love for people in general (common grace), for example. In the context under consideration here, healings, think of the placebo effect, a form of mind over matter, something that isn't limited to Christians. That sort of thing could easily exist (and does exist) on a larger scale. Another factor is indirect influence, such as how a miracle in the life of a non-Christian grandparent could be used as a means of helping a Christian grandson. Or think of prayer. We're told to pray even for our enemies, which implies supernatural activity in their lives to some extent, as I've written about elsewhere.
Roman Catholics often bring up alleged miracles in Catholicism as an argument against Protestantism. We've responded to that argument many times, like here. I've said a lot over the years about the evidence for miracles among Protestants, phenomena like stigmata and eucharistic miracles among non-Catholics, etc. I've written about Marian apparitions, like the Zeitoun case, including healing miracles and other miracles affiliated with those apparitions. In the thread just linked, here's part of what I wrote:
Regarding healings, yes, I think healings can occur through something like human psi. There are reports of healing in paranormal contexts outside of Christianity. That could take on various forms, like a capacity to heal that somebody has had throughout his life or something that was acquired at some point by whatever means (e.g., through a paranormal experience). Similarly, Luke 11:19 likely refers to exorcisms performed by unbelievers. Revelation 13:3 refers to a demonic healing. There are some significant problems with Coptic Christianity, but I agree with them on most issues. There's a lot of common ground. So, in a Coptic setting, I would allow for some Divine miracles as well, whether performed directly by God or indirectly through somebody who had been given a power to heal by God.
So, though Catholics and others often appeal to miracles like healings in their circles and claim that nothing other than attributing those miracles to God is plausible, there are multiple plausible alternatives. If you take the evidence as a whole into account, the conclusion that makes the most sense is that the miracles are occurring in spite of the errors of Catholicism, not as a vindication of Catholicism. I've argued for that conclusion at length on many occasions, such as in my posts on Zeitoun (e.g., the one linked above and this one about the weaknesses of the Zeitoun apparitions).
Though we often hear about alleged miracles in contexts like the Catholic eucharist or Marian apparitions (whether Catholic or non-Catholic), advocates of those belief systems often ignore and probably are often unaware of healings and such in contexts like UFOs. Jonathan Kendall, in his book referred to above, notes:
Ufologist Preston Dennett details three hundred reported claims of healing as a result of UFO/alien encounters. Among the reports are alleged supernormal healings of a great variety of medical illnesses including musculoskeletal injuries; infections; disorders of the eye; heart, liver, and kidney problems; and even cancer. These cases are of mixed evidential quality. In collaboration with Dr. Joseph Burkes, however, Dennett examines ten alleged healings within the context of close encounters in detail, accompanied by professional medical commentary. Sometimes, the effects of such encounters seem to provide a curious mixture of benefit and harm. (approximate Kindle location 889)
The book also occasionally mentions healings in other non-Christian paranormal contexts. Anybody who's done much research into the paranormal ought to be familiar with some accounts of that nature and should know that it's unreasonable to dismiss every such account. They're not all true, but it seems highly unlikely that they're all false.
Regarding UFO healings in particular, the evidence is mixed, as Jonathan said. I can only provide some preliminary thoughts at this point, since I haven't yet looked into Jonathan's sources much. But I have come across UFO healing claims occasionally in other contexts, and I've read the book chapter by Preston Dennett and Joseph Burkes that Jonathan referred to, which is chapter 6 in Rey Hernandez, et al., edd., Beyond UFOs (United States: The Dr. Edgar Mitchell Foundation, 2018).
Before I get to that book chapter, in my next post, I want to provide an overview of some of my early impressions about UFO healings. Since they're early impressions, I could easily change my mind later. But providing early impressions is more important in this context than it is in others, unfortunately, because Christians have neglected the topic so much. There's more of a need than there should be for Christians to address the subject, even if it's only in the form of preliminary thoughts.
In comparison to reports of healings in Christian contexts, the reports of UFO healings seem to be much smaller in quantity and involve a much lower quality of evidence. I don't know of any UFO equivalent of, say, Craig Keener's two-volume work on miracles or the work the Roman Catholic Church has done on the subject. From what I know of Preston Dennett's work on UFO healings at this stage, it looks to me like his material falls well below the best work that's been done in Christian circles. And given the diversity of UFO-related beliefs, including the diversity of sources UFO healings are attributed to, the Christian network of miracles seems significantly more unified than the UFO network. And the Christian belief system more broadly has better evidence supporting it, for reasons we've gone into in many other posts here.
Having said all of that, I want to look at the Dennett/Burkes chapter I referred to above. I also want to say more about some broader issues. I'll do that in my next post.
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