We are in the midst of a “soft disclosure“, as the UFO community is calling it. The Pentagon and the CIA have recently declassified thousands of UFO documents, and publicly acknowledged the authenticity of photos and videos showing encounters between US military ships and fighter jets with what they call Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP). The US government has confirmed that these phenomena aren’t in fact weather balloons or swamp gas, but are truly unknown objects that they, the most powerful military force in the world, have no answer for. The government has done everything short of outright stating that UFOs are real. UFO sightings, abductions and contacts are undoubtedly occurring. A 2019 Gallup Poll showed that 30% of people believe that UFOs are in fact real.

UFO sightings, abductions and contacts are undoubtedly occurring. A 2019 Gallup Poll showed that 30% of people believe that UFOs are in fact real. The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) received an annual average of 6,000 UFO sighting reports between 2016 and 2019. A 2002 Roper poll concluded that 2.9 million people in the US alone had reported symptoms consistent with a UFO abduction, and contactee cases are easily in the tens of thousands. Dr. Steven Greer’s CE5 app, which gives detailed instructions on how to meditate and “commune” with these supposed extraterrestrial entities, boasts over 50,000 downloads on the Google Play store alone. Disturbingly, the Apple App Store gives it a minimum age recommendation of 12 years old, and ranks it thirteenth overall in the “education” category for paid apps.

All this to say that the existence of this phenomenon is something that a large portion of the population of the world either believe in or have experienced directly, so it may come as a surprise that the Church is largely silent on the topic. Pope Francis has said that he would baptize aliens, were they to suddenly manifest before him and request it. Jesuit priest Father Jose Funes has gone so far as to state that aliens may not in fact need redemption, as maybe humanity is a cosmic “problem child” and therefore the only conscious race in need of salvation. Aside from these two comments, which truly only amount to speculation and hypotheticals, there is virtually nothing but silence from the Church. These comments do, however, lead Catholics to believe that the clergy has at least contemplated alien life and, therefore, one can infer in the absence of a direct statement, that this possibility may not be outside of the Church’s teachings. Regardless, the fact that there is no specific position on the UFO phenomenon is, in my opinion, a massive oversight on the part of the Church. Where are we as Catholics to turn in order to get reliable information on this pervasive subject? Where are we to find answers to our questions about what these things are? Are they, in fact, little green men from a distant planet here on a mission of peace and intergalactic harmony? Or are their origins a little closer to home, and their intentions far more sinister?

To begin to answer that question we must first go back to January of 1918. Around that time renowned occultist Aleister Crowley began what he dubbed “the Amalantrah Working”. Crowley was one of the foremost and most controversial (even among fellow magickal practitioners) figures of the earth 20th century’s occult movement. He founded multiple secret magickal societies, one of which, the Ordo Templi Orientis, he was kicked out of for being too extreme in his pursuits. Rumors of child sacrifice and cannibalism in the course of his rituals, in addition to sexual deviance and absolute degeneracy, contributed to his unofficial title of “wickedest man in the world”. His Amalamtrah Working, a prolonged sexual occult ritual, ultimately culminated, as he claims, in the opening of a portal to another dimension, through which an entity called Lam, claiming to be the spirit of a dead Tibetan mystic, emerged.

Crowley sketched the entity, and without the context of the previous paragraph the reader could not be blamed for assuming the drawing was of an alien Grey, not of a demonic entity summoned in a perverse satanic ritual. With its large, bulbous head, thin slit mouth and flat nose, the resemblance is unmistakable. How did Crowley, in 1918, draw what any modern person in the Western world would reasonably describe as a Grey alien 30 years before the 1947 Kenneth Arnold flying saucer sightings, and fifty years before the 1961 Betty and Barney Hill case brought the Grey alien archetype to common knowledge?

The connections between UFOs and the occult don’t end at mere appearances. Contactee cases, wherein a person goes out of their way to try to initiate contact with supposed extraterrestrial entities, are generally framed as pleasant and harmless experiences for the participants. They are, however, redolent with occult symbolism, practices and methods. Dr. Steven Greer, founder of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI) and the Disclosure Project, has outlined what he calls CE5 (Close Encounter of the 5th Kind) Protocols. The process for a CE5 contact event involves such things as meditation, opening your consciousness, and the projection of “peaceful thoughts”. Participants then invite “extraterrestrials” to manifest in their presence. Despite sounding like inane new age drivel, they are often successful, with sightings and supposed healings taking place frequently. Greer himself has documented startling phenomena associated with CE5 sessions in his documentary Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind.

Abduction accounts, in contrast, are rife with terror and dread. The smell of sulfur permeates UFO interiors and clings to their occupants. Abductees report fear as being their chief emotion during these abhorrent nocturnal occurrences. Typically, they are immobilized and brought against their will into the craft. Once onboard, invasive “medical” exams, often of a sexual nature, take place. Injections are administered, skin and bodily fluid samples taken, and mysterious substances are forced upon the victim, in the form of pills or viscous, foul-tasting fluids. Victims often report negative physical and psychological changes after their experiences. Frequently, poltergeists precede or follow the event. It is often hard to distinguish between reports of alien abductions and demonic oppression.

Some secular UFOlogists have made this same observation, albeit in a manner that is careful not to acknowledge the veracity of Christianity. Ronald D. Story, author of the Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters, said, “…I believe the UFOs to be the ‘Powers and Principalities’, as stated in the New Testament.” Dr. Pierre Guerin, French astronomer and author of UFOs, The Mechanism of Disinformation, said “…the modern UFOnauts and the demons of the past days are probably identical.” Dr. Jacques Vallee, French computer scientist, who wrote extensively on the similarities between UFOs, fairy encounters and demonic activity, noted “the ‘medical examination’ to which abductees are said to be subjected, often accompanied by sadistic sexual manipulation, is reminiscent of the medieval tales of encounters with demons.” He also stated that “…[an] impressive parallel [can] be made between the UFO occupants and the popular conceptions of demons.” Raymond E. Fowler, author of The Andreasson Affair, says, “I watched with dismay as a number of respected UFO researchers moved from a physical to a parapsychological interpretation of the…UFO phenomenon…Now I, too, am being forced to reexamine the UFO phenomenon in light of its apparent paraphysical nature.” These scientists and researchers, all pillars of the early UFO investigative community, initially assumed that these craft and the entities piloting them were physical in nature. Through countless hours of interviews, field work and research, they discarded that notion in favor of the theory that the phenomenon is “paraphysical”, and that the entities associated with them are malevolent. What would we, as Catholics, call malevolent, paraphysical entities?

It is my opinion that these are the same deceivers that have been plaguing mankind since Eden. They delight in tormenting humans and leading us away from God. I also believe that the evidence points to the UFO phenomenon being a grand deception, perpetrated by these entities with the help of willing and unwitting humans alike. This is a plot on a massive, global scale, meant to deceive us all and, maybe, even to usher in the antichrist. I intend to elaborate on these possibilities, and address specific facets of this expansive phenomenon in depth in future articles. I find it incredibly important that Catholics be made aware of the danger presented by the UFO phenomenon, and that we are educated on how to defend ourselves against it. I hope that for now I have somewhat opened your eyes to these dire happenings, and hopefully next time you hear about UFOs in the news you’ll think about the possibility that things are not as they seem, and will be on guard spiritually. As a final word I would like to add a disclaimer. The topics of the occult and the UFO phenomenon are redolent with misinformation and disinformation. The vast majority of what you will find on this topic, from both secular and Christian sources, is wrong. The field is highly theoretical, as these demonic entities thrive on disinformation (Satan is, after all, the Father of Lies). It is, ultimately, a grand deception, perpetrated by Lucifer himself. The goal with approaching this topic from a Catholic perspective is not necessarily to learn everything about it, but to distill the minute points of truth hidden amongst the tangled web of lies in order to be able to guess at how the enemy might be operating and prepare Catholics for defending themselves against them. Any information presented here is, to the best of my knowledge, not in contradiction to Catholic doctrine, which is the ultimate Truth.

Finally, I highly discourage you from looking into these topics very deeply yourself, especially without discerning with your spiritual director. The Occult is filled with traps. Merely bringing a book by an occult author into your home can open up doors to demonic influence, much less reading it. Talk to your priest about any interest you may have in this topic before looking into it, he may be able to answer any questions you have. I myself almost fell prey to the occult before my conversion, which is why I feel it is essential that Catholics be aware of these topics, for spiritual alertness, and so that they may recognize what to stay away from. Serious study of the Occult is spiritually dangerous work.

With this in mind we pray:

Saint Joseph, Terror of Demons, cast thy solemn gaze upon the devil and all his minions, and protect us with thy mighty staff.

Thou fled through the night to avoid the devil’s wicked designs; now with the power of God, smite the demons as they flee from thee!

Grant special protection, we pray, for children, fathers, families, and the dying.

By God’s grace, no demon dares approach while thou art near, so we beg of thee, always be near to us.

Amen