Description:
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A mind-bending investigation into the link between UFOs and AI--from the acclaimed author of American Cosmic and Encounters--revealing how non-human intelligence may be shaping our future.Acclaimed author and religious studies scholar D. W. Pasulka uncovers a hidden history of alleged contact between human and nonhuman intelligences--some framed as angels, others as UFOs/UAP--interwoven with the rise of artificial intelligence and the dream of immortality. Pasulka examines the science of life extension and the beliefs of people who have experiences of UFOs. She unveils a hidden architecture of belief and influence--one in which human consciousness is being reimagined and extended. Pasulka begins the book with a fascinating and unexpected historical origin story. In the early twentieth century, a censured Catholic visionary predicted that humanity would soon encounter a new form of intelligence--one that would appear alien but was something far stranger. By the mid-twentieth century, other Catholic mystics and science fiction visionaries, like Arthur C. Clarke, echoed similar prophecies, naming the twenty-first century as the critical threshold . . . and we are now at that unparalleled point in human history. It's time for The Others. Drawing on first-person interviews, suppressed histories, and access to insiders in science and tech, The Others explores a startling new terrain: where the sacred meets the synthetic, and where the next phase of human evolution may already be underway.
Brief description: D. W. PASULKA is a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, and the author of Encounters, American Cosmic, and Heaven Can Wait. Her research bridges Catholic history, religious practice and emerging technologies, and emerging reports of UFOs and supraterrestrial intelligence.
Review Quotes:
"At the frothy interface where high-tech radical concepts meet the deepest insights of religious tradition, Diana Pasulka raises the fundamental questions implicit in the new phenomena of space and non-human intelligence. Her message is plausible and urgent." -Jacques Vallee, author of Trinity: The Best Kept Secret
"In this book of staggering breadth and scope, Diana Pasulka uncovers the hidden spiritual and theological currents animating our most transformative technologies, from space travel to the Internet to AI. [...] Fascinating, erudite, and compulsively readable, this work offers clarity amid confusion and a sense of wisdom, meaning, hope, and humanity in a rapidly changing world." -Joanna Ebenstein, founder and creative director of Morbid Anatomy This is what I have been trying to say. Let us revise our present disclosures about the UFO or UAP in light of our scriptural, apocalyptic, poetic, philosophical, mystical, and visionary pasts. The UFO phenomenon returns the sacred to the real and to the present. In Pasulka's eloquent voice, religious studies becomes ufology, and ufology becomes religious studies. And both become more--way, way more. " -Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of How to Think Impossible: About Souls, UFOs, Time, Belief, and Everything Else "Diana Pasulka has issued a clarion call for our technological age. [...] Pasulka's prescience is combined with a master storytelling ability that is on full display here." -Brett Robinson, Associate Director, McGrath Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame "Pasulka is writing prophetically at the cutting edge of our accelerating culture. What she grapples with today, everyone else will be tomorrow. The Others is her most important book yet." -Rod Dreher, author of Living in Wonder and Live Not By Lies "An unsettling yet luminous meditation on technology, transcendence, and the sacred, revealing how ancient religious longings endure beneath our most modern innovations. With intellectual rigor and grace, Pasulka weaves theology, prophetic tradition, artificial intelligence, and the UFO phenomenon into a compelling vision of humanity poised at the edge of transformation and revelation. This is not merely a book about the future, but a reckoning with unseen forces already reshaping our imagination and redefining what it truly means to be human." -Ryan Sprague, author and podcaster, Somewhere in the Skies"[Pasulka] is the only author I know to address the important intersection between the two types of intelligence that are irreversibly altering the arc of human history - AI technology and the nonhuman intelligence (NHI) associated with UFOs. Whatever your personal and professional background may be, The Others is a must-read for anyone interested in the rapid revolution occurring in our understanding of reality." -The Honorable Tim Gallaudet, Ph.D., Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (ret.), former acting Under Secretary of Commerce and Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) "Diana Pasulka has done it again. The Others reveals the hidden connections between artificial intelligence, UAPs, and the visionaries who predicted our current moment decades ago. [...] At a time when AI is reshaping our world, and UAPs are dominating Congressional hearings, Pasulka provides the intellectual framework we desperately need. The Others is the Rosetta Stone for the strange new world we already inhabit." -Michael Shellenberger, best-selling author of Apocalypse Never and San Fransicko "Diana Walsh Pasulka's The Others really stayed with us. It's one of those rare books that doesn't try to shock you or force you into a conclusion. Instead, it feels like sitting down with someone thoughtful who's honestly trying to make sense of a very strange moment in history. [...] At its heart, The Others suggests that the real challenge of the coming years won't just be technological. It will be human. Intelligence and innovation may shape the future, but conscience, humility, and heart will determine what we do with it." -Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes, writers, producers, creators of The Conjuring franchise "'A full-tilt rollercoaster ride of an intellectual journey, as fascinating as it is frightening: a fast-paced plunge into the meta-media frenzy that has rewired the modern mind. Armed with nothing but avid curiosity and a faith-driven commitment to deeper truth, Pasulka tracks the hidden circuitry of our techno-spiritual age." -Alan Steinfeld, author of Making Contact: Preparing for the New Realities of Extraterrestrial Existence