UFOlogy and Mysticism Are On The Rise
Los Angeles, CA, Jan 12, 2026 – Editor’s Note: The following article first appeared on the Crisis Magazine website on Dec. 16, 2025 by writer Aaron McAfee. The original can be seen here: https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/ufology-and-mysticism-are-on-the-rise?ref=ufouapwtf.com
In 2017, I became fiercely interested in the subject of UFOs or UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena). This began for me with a New York Times article revealing Pentagon videos of an encounter between U.S. Navy jets on a training exercise and an anomalous object off the coast of San Diego. Initially, my thought was that this represented a kind of novel propulsion breakthrough, the “phenomenon” being a cover story to shield black budget programs.
Then, whistleblower and Air Force officer David Grusch testified to Congress that the government had actually recovered and was reverse-engineering craft of “unknown origin.” (It is also important to note that Grusch has since told members of Congress that he believes some of these “beings” are living among us.) Recently, other senior U.S. Government officials have reiterated the existence of nonhuman intelligence in a documentary titled The Age of Disclosure. Some notable appearances include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former DNI director James Clapper, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and Sen. Mike Rounds.
Flying saucers and alien bodies are admittedly a tall order, and while I am not a journalist, an interesting interaction with an aerospace contractor convinced me that enough was there to do some investigating of my own. Over several years, I attended scientific conferences and met with officials and journalists who were all seriously interested in the subject. I sourced FOIA documents and discovered—among other things—a slew of accounts pertaining to activity around sensitive U.S. military installations as early as the late 1940s. These were reports from employees at nuclear stockpile sites and power plants that described various objects of different shapes and sizes interfering with security systems and missile readiness.
Some of these scientists and officials I would later meet alleged retaliation for researching the topic: their clearances had been revoked, the brake lines of their cars mysteriously cut, and others told stories of individuals who had allegedly been killed or went missing for being “too loud.” Many of these attendees engaged with the subject quietly and professionally while maintaining high-level employment at universities and within the defense sector.
My question to them over time gradually became: “What is it?”
The kinds of responses I received were mixed—some said they had no idea, while others claimed to directly engage with the phenomenon on a regular basis. Over time, in these conversations, a kind of through line appeared: that these things, rather than being a kind of interplanetary visitor as the movies always describe, are actually an intelligence that has existed here, possibly long before us.
Many Catholic commentators have suggested, some with very little examination, that this phenomenon is demonic, and to that end I believe there is some truth. Hauntings on ranches, orbs, shadowy figures repelled by prayer, these stories are hardly novel in Catholic tradition. But if it’s true that there is physical, recovered, metal hardware that relies on a more advanced understanding of physics, to what extent do demonic entities play a role?
This ambiguity has created a vacuum—one increasingly filled by what I perceive to be a modern Gnosticism. Among the credentialed scientists I met, mystical language was common. Dr. Travis Taylor, a lead researcher on The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, told me he believed the phenomenon had a psychic component, once hearing “something like Hebrew in his head” while studying that paranormal ranch. Others (like congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna) have referenced the Book of Enoch to suggest an Earthy, more biblical origin. Firsthand whistleblowers speak of Greek-like symbology on recovered metals, ancient intelligences dwelling in the oceans, or beings capable of manipulating consciousness directly.
What is the Church’s official position on this matter? Officially, there isn’t one, largely because there isn’t sufficient evidence. According to Catholic Answers:
There is no Catholic position on the existence of aliens, as such. Whether life exists on other planets is a scientific, not a theological, question. If alien life on other planets is ever discovered, there are theological questions which can be considered.
Some in the Church have ventured further. The late Msgr. Corrado Balducci—an exorcist and theologian of the Roman Curia—reportedly told longtime UAP researcher Dr. Steven Greer that extraterrestrials, if they exist, are not hostile, and that “God cannot be so foolish as to entrust all of His hopes for intelligent beings to this planet alone.” Greer’s recounting may not be reliable, but Balducci made similar statements publicly during his lifetime.
Whatever the case may be with regard to evidence, the idea of interfacing with nonhuman intelligence is growing increasingly popular. Jake Barber—a whistleblower himself—runs a company called Skywatcher.ai, which claims the ability to directly “call” the objects down range on a desert installation he operates with his team in California.
I had the opportunity to speak with Jake at one of these conferences. When I asked him how often he encountered these anomalous objects, Jake replied, “every single day. We have had multiple landings…some have flown directly over us.” The call, as he describes it, utilizes both human “psionic” ability and proprietary electronic signaling. Many of these “psionic” individuals are Native American. Skywatcher’s data collection has attracted the interest of serious researchers from Stanford and other universities, as well as the U.S. Department of Defense’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office or AARO.
After my last attendance, I made the decision not to delve further into the topic. The idea of engaging with mysterious nonhuman entities (especially involving highly influential people with access to serious funding) was deeply unsettling. I defer to whatever the Church decides this phenomenon—if it can ever be understood—to ultimately be, but there is absolutely a “there” there. The U.S. government has provably paid tens of millions of dollars to study it.
My concern, as a Catholic, is about what happens next. There must additionally be a recognition that mystical experiences have grown more culturally popular in recent years, propped up by large celebrity podcasts and PR machines. Ufology represents one outgrowth of this, psychedelics another. My concern, as a Catholic, is about what happens next.
Professor Steve Kramp, formerly the Chair of Humanities at John Paul the Great Catholic University, is one of the more recent figures who has advocated further theological and ethical examination of the risks posed from a naive pursuit of mysticism and psychedelic use. He suggests that Catholics need to be cautiously aware of this sea change in the culture—that it causes real harm, not only to a person’s health and state of mind but also to their soul:
Whether we’re talking about UFOs or psychedelics, it comes down to the same thing: these things are mysterious. And when things are mysterious and you don’t have a spiritual framework in place that can handle the mystery, you naturally start to grant that mystery a spiritual power. And then when on top of that you’re spiritually malnourished, you naturally gravitate toward those mysteries that you’ve invested with spiritual power.
So even though UFOs and psychedelics are inadequate as replacements for actual religion, I don’t blame the spiritually starving people who are drawn to them any more than I blame a starving person for eating grass or leather shoes. Given their situation, their behavior makes sense. But it also makes sense for people who are feasting on everything that Christianity offers—especially the Eucharist—to refuse to join the ones who are eating grass. Because we have something a thousand times better.
The Church should proactively address the issue of UAP, provide what she may know already about the subject if appropriate (especially if there may be direct knowledge of an Italian crash retrieval), and address it beyond the customary silence or chuckle it has previously warranted. She must act as she always has to shepherd those who have come seeking answers about the nature of reality, offering them the fullness of the Faith.
As artificial intelligence progresses, psychedelics grow increasingly ubiquitous, and Congress weighs additional budget appropriation toward UAP initiatives, the Catholic struggle will increasingly be less with atheism or textbook secularism and more with mysticism, transhumanism, and whatever the effects of this phenomenon are on the world.
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ABOUT THE WRITER:
Aaron McAfee is an author based in Nashville, TN.
His website is https://www.aaronmcafee.com/ and he is on 𝕏 at https://x.com/aarontheobscure
