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[Sushan]

This topic is about the April 2025 Philosophy Book of the Month, On Spirits: The World Hidden Volume II by Dr. Joseph M. Feagan

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Still, I ask the reader to entertain and accept for just a brief moment that the lexicon much of the ancient world possessed had no word for alien or extra-terrestrial. In this vein, the language of the mystical and religious became the language for explaining all things in the realm of the scientifically unexplainable…

(Location 253 – Kindle Version)

In the olden days, it was common practice to explain myths alongside mysticism to interpret unique events that happened around the world. Bright chariots flying in the sky, beings concealed in light, and messages coming “from above” are today thought of as encounters with alien life forms. Our ancestors thousands of years ago might have tried to describe them as spirits, divine messengers, or even gods, as there was no scientific structure, let alone vocabulary, to support the idea.

Seeing a Vedic flying Vimana, Mayan sky gods, or even Ezekiel’s chariot description in religious texts is truly baffling. Not to mention, these accounts also sound strikingly similar to modern-day UFO or alien sighting reports.

Could the ancient reports be disguised misinterpretations of advanced extraterrestrial beings?

[Catarina Silva_]

This quote you selected is very pertinent to the debate as a whole. I have already commented on "Are spirits aliens?" and I think that the human mind assimilates what is easiest to understand. The extraordinary always passes beyond our comprehension, so if we think we are seeing spirits, I think they could indeed be extraterrestrial creatures. Your quote from the Bible is also very interesting. We have descriptions of the angels in the Old Testament as bizarre creatures that are beyond our comprehension, which makes us wonder if, in order for them to have been realized in the stories, they did not need to exist in front of the narrators.

What I mean is: I think that in order for us to be able to talk about such creatures, they must have actually appeared. This is because we would not be able to imagine (even today) something so different and extraordinary.

[Sushan]

This quote you selected is very pertinent to the debate as a whole. I have already commented on "Are spirits aliens?" and I think that the human mind assimilates what is easiest to understand. The extraordinary always passes beyond our comprehension, so if we think we are seeing spirits, I think they could indeed be extraterrestrial creatures. Your quote from the Bible is also very interesting. We have descriptions of the angels in the Old Testament as bizarre creatures that are beyond our comprehension, which makes us wonder if, in order for them to have been realized in the stories, they did not need to exist in front of the narrators.

What I mean is: I think that in order for us to be able to talk about such creatures, they must have actually appeared. This is because we would not be able to imagine (even today) something so different and extraordinary.

I am not certain whether humans are incapable of imagining things. There are many sci-fi fantasies that talk about highly imaginative things, and according to your arguments, the authors of such master pieces must have actually seen such things, which as per my understanding is quite impossible.