It is an understatement to say that in 2012, as soon as my research focus shifted, so did my life. When I began to focus on modern reports of UFO sightings and events, I was immediately immersed in a world where the religious impulse was alive and the formation of a new, unique form of religion was in process. I was observing it as it happened.
Pasulka, D.W.. American Cosmic (p. 10). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
The UFO phenomena in its modern form began in 1947, 65 years befrore Dr Pasulka began to study the field. Why is it that whenever an academic scholar or scientist learns about a paranormal phenomenon they act like they are the first person to discover it?
Each of the scientists with whom I engaged was passionately obsessed with his research, but none of them would ever offer conclusions as to what the phenomenon was or where it came from. The suggestion that the phenomenon is the basis for a new form of religion elicited sneers and disgust. To them, the phenomenon was too sacred to become religious dogma.
Pasulka, D.W.. American Cosmic (p. 15). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
Scientist members of the Society for Psychical Research had the same attitude to Spiritualism. They thought it was wrong to make a religion out of mediumistic phenomena. But scientists failed to take the phenomenon anywhere. It is the Spiritualists who have brought the phenomenon to the public, providing demonstrations and
classes where the public can find out the truth of the phenomena for themselves.
And while the scientists Dr Pasulka is investigating, who are so against religion are keeping their research to themselves, once again it is the "religious believers" who are educating the public about UFO's
It is true there is a lot of confusion about what information is reliable. It is too bad the scientists are not fulfilling their proper role by providing reliable information.
People should not idolize scientists just as they should not idolize religious leaders.
[James] is one of the leading scientists in the world, and he had the instruments and the technical skill to determine whether the artifacts were genuinely anomalous.
Pasulka, D.W.. American Cosmic (pp. 23-24). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
Are these scientists using tax payer funded equipment and not revealing their results to the public?
In the book she explains that the academic researchers have a different ethic about being transparent about sources than the professional UFO researchers who have to take oaths of secrecy. Which is absurd when he has already explained that the academics are keeping their results from the public. How is that transparency? If that is her attitude, she is part of the breakaway civilization.
The standard baseline from which we all functioned was pretty conservative: unless we had proof that it was nonhuman, we would refrain from advocating that hypothesis.
Pasulka, D.W.. American Cosmic (p. 63). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
Readers may thing she is showing that the scholars at the meeting were objective. They only believe what is proven. But at the same meeting of academics, lack of proof didn't stop them from advocating other unproven hypotheses. Rather than being objective her statement shows the scholars are very, very biased.
In different places in the book, James first says there could be a genetic component to the phenomenon because it runs in families, then later he says the phenomenon sometimes spreads to friends and family of experiencers.