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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demonic UFO hypothesis | 1/1 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonic_UFO_hypothesis | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:18:36.963507+00:00 | kb-cron |
The demonic UFO hypothesis is the proposal that unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings are the result of a satanic influence, or are themselves demons. Psychologist Tim Lomas and theologian Brendan Case from the Harvard Human Flourishing Program argue that interpretations of anomalous aerial phenomena are shaped by the cultural and religious frameworks available to witnesses, with earlier “angelic” readings giving way in modern times to “alien” ones, and that such labels function as interpretive categories for making anomalous experiences intelligible rather than as definitive claims about the phenomenon’s nature.
== Chronology ==
Occultist Marjorie Cameron connected the 1952 Washington, D.C. UFO incident to the recent death of her partner Jack Parsons, a rocketry expert and disciple of Aleister Crowley.
In 1954, faith healer and evangelist Walter Vinson "W.V." Grant Sr published the booklet "Men in Flying Saucers Identified: Not a Mystery!" suggesting UFOs were demonic.
In the end of the 1960s, British UFO author Gordon Creighton endorsed the theory.
In the wake of the 1973 Pascagoula incident, Rev. Bill Riddick preached a sermon suggesting UFOs were demonic. In 1974, Clifford Wilson authored UFOs and their Mission Impossible which popularized the demonic hypothesis. In the 1975 book UFOs: What on Earth is Happening?, Christian fundamentalist authors John Weldon and Zola Levitt suggested demons are responsible for UFO sightings. Weldon collaborated with Clifford Wilson on the 1978 text Close Encounters: A Better Explanation.
Apocalyptic author Hal Lindsey wrote of demonic UFOs in The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon. In 1982, Rev. W.T. Widman of Arizona made headlines for his claim that demons fly UFOs.
The 2002 book Lights in the Sky & Little Green Men expanded on the topic. In 2010, British author Nick Redfern explored this concept in his book Final Events, subtitled "Demonic UFOs, Alien Abductions, the Government, and the Afterlife".
Beginning in the late 2010s, Luis Elizondo and others in the Disclosure movement discussed the demonic hypothesis. Parapsychologist and engineer Harold E. Puthoff included “demonic/djinn” as one of several candidate categories for interpreting UAP in his 2022 paper Ultraterrestrial Models.
== See also == Extraterrestrial hypothesis Space animal hypothesis Psychosocial hypothesis Interdimensional hypothesis Cryptoterrestrial hypothesis Time-traveler UFO hypothesis Signs (film), where aliens may be demons
== Additional reading == "Demonic theory of UFOs" by Barry Downing in Story, Ronald; Greenwell, J. Richard (October 9, 1980). The Encyclopedia of UFOs. Dolphin Books – via Google Books.
== References ==