Alien Worlds: The Social and Religious Dimensions of UFO Phenomena

edited by Diana G. Tumminia

Syracuse University Press

(forthcoming 2006)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

List of Contributors

Introduction by Diana G. Tumminia

CONTACTEE RELIGIONS

1. Hagiography and Text in the Aetherius Society: Aspects of the Social Construction of a Religious Leader by Mikael Rothstein

2. The Odyssey of Sister Thedra by Jerome Clark

3.  Galactic Messenger! Overview of the Universal Industrial Church of the New World Comforter by Diana G. Tumminia

4. Presumed Immanent: The Raëlians, UFO Religions, and the Postmodern Condition by Bryan Sentes and Susan Palmer 

5.    In the Dreamtime of the Saucer People: Sense-Making and Interpretive Boundaries in a Contactee Group  by Diana G. Tumminia

ABDUCTEES AND CONTACTEES

6.   Towards an Explanation of the “Abduction Epidemic”: The Ritualization of Alien Abduction Mythology in Therapeutic Setting  by Georg M. Rønnevig

7.   Secondary Beliefs and the Alien Abduction Phenomenon  by Benson Saler

8.   Religious Contexts and Alien Abduction Narratives  by Scott R. Scribner

9.  Close Encounters of the French Kind: The Saucerian Construction of Contact and the Controversy over Its Reality in France  by Pierre Lagrange

MYTH, FOLKLORE, AND MEDIA

10.  Consciousness, Culture, and UFOs by Jacques Vallee

11. Aliens from the Cosmos: A Discourse of Contemporary UFO Myth by Anna E. Kubiak

12  All I Ever Want to Be, I Learned from Playing Klingon: Sex, Honor, and Cultural Critique in Star Trek Fandom  by Jennifer E. Porter

UFOLOGICAL “SCIENCE” AND THERAPY

13.  Observations from Archaeology and Religious Studies on First Contact and ETI Evidence  by James F. Strange

14.  A Confederacy of Fact and Faith: Science and the Sacred in UFO Research  by Anne Cross

15.  Ancient Alien Brothers, Ancient Terrestrial Remains: Archaeology or Religion?  by Pia Andersson

16.  The Raëlian Creation Myth and the Art of Cloning: Reality or Rhetoric?  by Christopher Helland

17.  Abductee Support Groups: Who Are the Members?  by Christopher D. Bader