On 26 March 1997, the bodies of thirty-nine men and women were found in a mansion outside San Diego, victims of a mass suicide. The incident not only shocked the police arriving to investigate, but also the world. Messages left by the group indicate that they believed they were stepping out of their ‘physical containers’ in order to ascend to a UFO that was arriving in the tail of the Hale-Bop comet. The group was known as “Heaven’s Gate”, just one of the numerous UFO-based religious cults around the world. What led these people to commit such a hideous act? And what has inspired the appearance of UFOs in religion? Christopher Partridge draws together the works of religious academics from around the world to review the history and scope of UFO-based religious belief.
From the Raelian Church that claimed to have cloned the first human, and the spread of the Aetherius Society around the world, to Commander Ashtar and the mysterious appearance of the Urantia book, this international group of scholars serves plenty of sociological, psychological, and religious analyisis of how UFOs get into our spiritual and religious lives. Several chapters also provide discourses on UFO spirituality in Germany, Finland, the United States, plus a discussion about Carl Jung's position on UFOs.
UFO Religions has done something few books have done - comprehensively review spirituality and organised religion with core UFO beliefs from around the world, and analyse them in a psycho-sociological context. Part I of the book provides a fantastic and readable review of major UFO religions around the world, and Part 2 the academic psycho-sociological analysis for those who enjoy a challenge. Collated and edited by Christopher Partridge, a most critical and welcome contribution to both the field of UFOs and religion.
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