Encounters Experiences with nonhuman intelligences

Diana Walsh Pasulka

Book - 2023

"A revolution is underway. For the first time in human history, we are at the cusp of experiencing contact with nonhuman life-forms of all kinds due to technological innovations and research into the experiences of people at the forefront of this development. In Encounters, author D.W. Pasulka takes readers to the forefront of this revolution, sharing the work of experts across a spectrum of fields who are working to connect humanity with unknown life-forms. Most of us have visions of nonhuman encounters that are shaped far more by Hollywood than they are informed by the current research. Encounters rewrites our visions of nonhuman species by featuring the work and stories of contemporary innovators who are rethinking our most basic as...sumptions about life and its manifestations beyond our experience. The author of American Cosmic, D.W. Pasulka is a professor of religion at UNC, Wilmington; her work as a scholar has given her the tools to systematically examine data that exceeds rational categories--exactly the skillset needed to parse the world of UFOs, angels, AI, dreams, and other dimensions, which exist at the edges of human understanding. Encounters is a riveting exploration of the leading science of nonhuman life and a bold glimpse of the future of humanity in a universe where we are far from alone"--

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Subjects
Published
New York : St. Martin's Essentials 2023.
Language
English
Main Author
Diana Walsh Pasulka (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
248 pages : 22 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN
9781250879561
  • Introduction
  • 1. The Space Psychologist
  • 2. Technology and Al: A Language Bridge Back to Contact
  • 3. The Gray Man
  • 4. Gray Man II
  • 5. The Soldier
  • 6. Gnosis
  • 7. Moon Girl
  • 8. Children of the Invisibles
  • 9. From Atheism to a Magical Mystery Tour
  • 10. The Dream Network: Dreamscapes, Visions, and Lucid Dreams
  • Conclusion: The End of an Allegory
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Pasulka (American Cosmic), a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, delves into the oft-misunderstood field of ufology and nonhuman intelligence in an intermittently revealing yet haphazard study. Among the book's salient features are its focus on the "spiritual" overtones of the UFO phenomenon ("witnesses" frequently consider their encounters "spectral messages") and Pasulka's capacious understanding of "nonhuman intelligences": along with "aerial vehicles that do not appear to be from Earth," little grey aliens, animals, angels, and demons also fit the bill, as does artificial intelligence, which may represent communication from "humans from the future who many people interpret as aliens." Pasulka weaves these "intelligences" into a variegated tapestry in which the fascinating (AI-driven efforts to reconstruct animals' language) intermingles with the absurd (Nobelist Kary Mullins's nighttime encounter with a light-radiating raccoon), making for an uneven though often intriguing take on the supernatural. Skeptics will be entertained and perhaps instructed by--if not converted to--Pasulka's unconventional worldview. (Nov.)

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