Books

The critically acclaimed book about UFOs and UAP. More than half of American adults and more than seventy-five percent of young Americans believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life. This level of belief rivals that of belief in God. American Cosmic examines the mechanisms at work behind the thriving belief system in extraterrestrial life, a system that is changing and even supplanting traditional religions.

Over the course of a six-year ethnographic study, D.W. Pasulka interviewed successful and influential scientists, professionals, and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who believe in extraterrestrial intelligence, thereby disproving the common misconception that only fringe members of society believe in UFOs. She argues that widespread belief in aliens is due to a number of factors including their ubiquity in modern media like The X-Files, which can influence memory, and the believability lent to that media by the search for planets that might support life. American Cosmic explores the intriguing question of how people interpret unexplainable experiences, and argues that the media is replacing religion as a cultural authority that offers believers answers about non-human intelligent life.

As seen on The Joe Rogan Experience!

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 assumptions 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.

Acclaimed author and religious studies scholar D.W. Pasulka uncovers a hidden history of alleged contact between human and non-human 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 to 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 20th 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-20th century, other Catholic mystics and science fiction visionaries like Arthur C. Clarke echoed similar prophecies, naming the 21st century as thecritical 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, TheOthers explores a startling new terrain: where the sacred meets the synthetic, and where the next phase of human evolution may already be underway.

Edited by Diana Walsh Pasulka and Simone Natale. Forthcoming with Oxford University Press, 2018

Believing in Bits advances the idea that religious beliefs and practices have become inextricably linked to the functioning of digital media. How did we come to associate things such as mindreading and spirit communications with the functioning of digital technologies? How does the internetâs capacity to facilitate the proliferation of beliefs blur the boundaries between what is considered fiction and fact? Addressing these and similar questions, the volume challenges and redefines established understandings of digital media and culture by employing the notions of belief, religion, and the supernatural.

Co-edited with Michael Bess. Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks: Farmington Hills, MI: Macmillan Reference USA. January 2018

Posthumanism: The Future of Homo Sapiens will provide an introduction to a vast array of scholarly perspectives on emergent technologies and biotechnologies used to modify or augment the capabilities of human beings. The handbook covers the fundamental aspects of how bioenhancement will become feasible, what shape these technologies are likely to take, and what sorts of concrete consequences they will have for people’s lives. This volume strives for both intellectual clarity and a genuinely accessible voice, always emphasizing the practical and moral implications of bioenhancement technologies. Posthumanism takes an interdisciplinary approach to the subject, integrating science and technology as well as the arts, humanities, religious perspectives, and ethics.

Acclaimed author and religious studies scholar D.W. Pasulka uncovers a hidden history of alleged contact between human and non-human 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 to 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 20th 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-20th century, other Catholic mystics and science fiction visionaries like Arthur C. Clarke echoed similar prophecies, naming the 21st 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.