Alienology
It should be stated that this post is primarily filled with my opinions. While many of the Church Fathers taught this view of aliens/demons, it is not necessarily a dogma of early Christian doctrine.
Okay so, in the Church Fathers, the theology of salvation was not that our problem was literal legal trespasses against God that He refused to forgive without a suffering sacrifice (though sins are certainly trespasses, and the legal and sacrificial are certainly Biblical description), the problem was a very real ontological reality within us of a sort of self-gravity. We were designed to be soft and humble like children and have the agape love that is God Himself planted in the soil of our hearts. Instead, we reject Him in a very real way from our hearts, and thus the only god-like thing we know is ourselves (being icons of God). So, we become “ingrown” on ourselves, lonely and nihilistic, blaming others and blocking out our pain and lying to ourselves and others, and especially we idolize ourselves and other things, trying to clog them into the bottomless hole of our hearts instead of allowing the infinite God to fill that infinite emptiness.
This is what the Fathers saw God saving us from, this trespassing selfishishness, something very ontological and real (not a legal record for crimes), and thus the practices were both internal (prayer) and external (works), because salvation was to actually have our hearts healed from their deformities (sin, selfishness) and have the cleaned-up space filled with Jesus. (Salvation itself is actually a medical term.) And thus, humans could live the deepest mystical experience they can, their birthright, which is to be priests of agape love, showing God’s love to each other, to all Creation, and back to Him.
And part of how this comes is through suffering, which knocks away the corrosion of our hearts. (Ever been angry, and then suddenly very scared, and the anger was gone?) Suffering makes us face ourselves and breaks us out of the delusions we suffer from. And so, Satan, chief practitioner of these delusions (so much so that he will spend all his existence warring in a battle that the victor is already known) … Satan is completely imploded on Himself, uninterested in God’s mercy which is the only reason he does not receive it, as St Gregory the Theologian says.
While Christ is supremely humble love (the true definition of glory revealed at the Cross, not egotistical deities), giving Himself to all even when they reject Him, Satan demands all serve him or at least validate his existence (and if you dare make him feel discomfort in any way, he’ll bite you). In this we see the Church Father’s idea of humility vs pride, the humble Christ vs the egotistical Devil, the merciful Jesus vs the accusational Satan.
And so, the true definition of spirituality for the Fathers is the war between thinking of God and man first, or of thinking of ourselves first. This doesn’t mean never taking care of yourself, either, but is part of an inner change of heart that happens in one’s orientation towards others. You understand the idea when you go through Jesus’ parables, about how we treat others, about if we forgive others, about how we are forgiven. These are all the deepest revelations of what divinity is, what man was built to take upon himself.
So, aliens…
Fr Seraphim Rose in his book Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future got me on this. I was ready to take or leave that book after how many theories and weird arguments I have heard about government, science, “science,” the Bible, “Biblical prophecy,” the End Times, etc. But Fr Seraphim Rose pretty much sold me.
Tapping into the themes above, he notes in the Fathers teachings on demons, their main goal is to distract us from God. Because they are bitter at God and want to justify themselves, they do everything they can to distract men from God. They even distract people with very good and true things, because those are the most powerful distractions since they are so close to the truth. (You can do this with law like the Pharisees, or do it with the Bible, or do it with Orthodoxy, or do it with your idea of God.) If the demons can get you drowning in drugs, or focused on bitterness or insecurity, or constantly looking to achieve, or attached to a co-dependent relationship, or a fiery preacher who’s a white-washed tomb without humility… These are all victories for the demons.
“Everything that is of God is peaceful and useful and leads a man to humility and judging himself.” + St. Feofil, Fool for Christ
Another thing the Church Fathers teach about the demons is that their tricks are often parodies of God’s work, because it’s what we were made for so we easily mistake parodies for the real deal (which is why knowing the Truth Himself sets us free). Cults do this with things like a “safe”, all-knowing leader, and with things like “love bombing” (the members all showing extreme levels of affection to new members).
Likewise, the demons have warning signs. The Saints speak of the deepest levels of prayer being visions of the uncreated light, which is beyond words. They warned, though, that demons would come as lights (2 Cor 11:14), like literally floating lights and visual tricks in the sky. They also said demons could create a sort of “fake matter” that no one could identify the material of. And they said, most dangerous of all spiritual issues, was that the demons would lead a man to trusting himself and thinking he had accomplished much spiritually. This is called “prelest” and is considered worse than any sin, for it is to be unable to grow spiritually whatsoever since one no longer needs to repent (in their eyes).
The thing is the stories of aliens have some of these same features. The aliens often talk about coming back and enlightening humanity. They share very similar messages with other entities I have heard speak (such as a spirit channeler I was listening to last year), always talking about finding your own answer within you. It’s true that part of the answers of life are found within, but there’s more to the meaning of life than simple relativism. We have to take risks and be vulnerable and forgive. We have to live for something/someone other than ourselves. Whereas the theme of self-centrism, discouraging sacrifice or true vulnerability (which requires abusing others to maintain) is a theme across many shamanic experiences, hindu teachings, alien encounters, etc.
There’re also stories of aliens giving people (sometimes group witnesses) physical objects like “gray pancakes” that no one can identify, not even laboratories. It fits stories told in the Fathers, like “angels” giving a young monk full of pride a cloak to show off to his friends how spiritual he was, and no one could identify the beautiful material, but the monks recognized it and prayed, and it disappeared.
What gets me is that no other explanation makes any sense. There’re way too many witness accounts from reliable witnesses, sometimes pairs, even of actual beings/entities. So even though there may be lots of fake stuff and illusions, there’s too many reliable stories for me to think it’s all fake. Way too many.
But then what’s with the crashing? Why do they crash so much, even though it’s different ships and somewhat different aliens? They’re this advanced to travel through space but they can’t stop crashing??? Why do they usually say the same stories as the witnesses claim, that they crashed, and that they’ll be coming to help mankind?
The parallels with a false Christ who claims he fulfills all the religions of the world, and that works miracles, would certainly be hard to question if you were believing the aliens’ stories. Just an interesting possibility.
When the main thing the demons I think want for us is a distraction so that we never leave our self-centrism, anything but self-honesty and the seeking of truth and love… it makes sense that the aliens give people a further distraction, and it’s possible I think that such a thing could be used for the future antichrist, but I’m not gonna get all zealous about that.
It didn’t make so much sense as a Protestant just because their theology was more legal, as was the Catholics. But knowing more about what is wrong in my heart from direct experience, not just theological statements, it made a lot of sense from my own sin how the goals of the demons fit aliens (and what God wants instead). And I just couldn’t make sense of the other narratives. Could be wrong. Don’t think it’s worth being zealous about. Fascinating stuff though.
But I might say if you meet an alien, pray. If it’s good, it will pray with you and be happy that you repent and look to Christ.
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” 1 John 4:1
If a human you did not know and met on the street offered you power, would you just accept whatever they told you to do? We are skeptical by default of strangers with unusual deals, yet people meet entities claiming to be good and kind, and people will just believe them. Even if there are both good and evil entities, how can you know the first one you meet is good? People lower the bar for some reason when they’re curious about the spiritual realm, but I think “don’t mess with that stuff” is pretty reasonable advice.
