American Cosmic

UFOs, Religion, Technology

By: D.W. Pasulka

Narrated by: Norah Tocci

Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

More than half of American adults and more than 75 percent of young Americans believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life. This level of belief rivals that of belief in God. American Cosmic examines the mechanisms at work behind the thriving belief system in extraterrestrial life, a system that is changing and even supplanting traditional religions. 

Over the course of a six-year ethnographic study, D. W. Pasulka interviewed successful and influential scientists, professionals, and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who believe in extraterrestrial intelligence, thereby disproving the common misconception that only fringe members of society believe in UFOs. She argues that widespread belief in aliens is due to a number of factors, including their ubiquity in modern media like The X-Files, which can influence memory, and the believability lent to that media by the search for planets that might support life. American Cosmic explores the intriguing question of how people interpret unexplainable experiences and argues that the media is replacing religion as a cultural authority that offers believers answers about non-human intelligent life.

©2019 Oxford University Press (P)2019 Tantor

Content - Exceptional - Norah Tocci needs lessons

The absolute WORST narrator I've heard. Norah Tocci consistently mispronounces well-known words. Aren't these narrations reviewed????????

Interesting angle at UFO research

This book wasn't exactly what I expected, and I have to say the content made me uneasy at times. However, in the end I think it was a fascinating angle at UFO research, even if I might not fully agree with some of its conclusions.

As for the narration.. I feel bad for Norah that people are bashing her narration so much (she must read these reviews, too). Yeah, probably not the best narration, but when sped up by 20% it was quite listenable. This is the first book I've ever listened to that I could speed up by 20% without it sounding unnaturally accelerated. With most audiobooks, speeding up the narration by anything beyond 5-10% makes the narration sound unnatural, but not in this case.

Good content, author should have narrated

I listened to the author speak on one of my usual podcasts and bought the book based on her good tale telling. Was sad not to hear her very compelling voice telling its own story in this audiobook. Perfectly enjoyable and thought provoking content :)

Fascinating

D.W. Pasulka does a marvelous job of bringing an intuition that has long been a neglected part of the ufology/paranormal research communities to bear on the prejudices of both the academic and popular audience. John Keel, Jacques Valée, Jeffrey Kripal, and their ilk have been arguing for years that the UFO and related phenomena may be best understood in terms of mythology and religion as opposed to the material presence or absence of little green men from outer space. This means walking a very fine epistemological line between credulity and skepticism that makes scholars of religion and believers in such phenomena uncomfortable in equal measure. It is, nonetheless, essential to the ufology community as much as the academy of religion to consider the ways in which the fictional may be real, and the real may be fictional. Pasulka walks the line effortlessly, intertwining arguments of this kind with a narrative of her scholarly travels and researches that itself exemplifies her point and communicates to her readers a deep and personal sense of urgency when it comes to understanding and empathizing with 'experiencers'.

Norah Tocci's narration is a little dry, but by no means detracts from the excitement here.

4th time listening.

I heard about this great book on the mysterious universe podcast, season 21, episode 06. It basically covers all my favorite topics in one amazing story; with the added bonus of feeling like I was reading a self-help book at times (like reading about the protocols). I have even begun applying some in my own life. No wasted money here. Stop reading and buy the damn thing.

Exellent book!

well narrated, Exellent read on the research of the phenomenon of UFO'S and more. interesting look into the Invisible colledge.

Interesting viewpoint

Loved this as it offered a new point of view for me. Well written and researched. Makes me want to read more of her writing. A lot of the reviewers didn’t like the narrator but I didn’t have any great problem with her voice or interpretation. The only minor problem as a listener was that sometimes I wasn’t absolutely sure that a different voice/person was speaking until a few sentences into the paragraph. Really a minor thing. Overall a worthwhile listen.

Well written,thoughtful,objective -woman scholar

I heard an interview on the Mysterious Universe Podcast with this writer. She was so exuberant and well spoken I had to hear more of her unique, incredibly intelligent book. During the interview she shared that after the book came out she was been banned on social media for no reason that she knows of! Makes you wonder!The things she writes about aren't shocking but very interesting and compelling -especially in regards to the US and our history with UFO'S. Don't let this completely factual narrative slip by you! Intertwining spirituality with phenomenon is such an interesting angle to me. I absolutely loved this book. I'll be listening to it again asap.

Not really very revolutionary, both worth reading

I listened to the author on a podcast and thought this book was right up my alley, but turns out it wasn't exactly. I was already pretty familiar with the aspect of "experiencers" and that idea that many if not all probably have had actual "experiences" and were not making up what happened to them. Most of that came from reading books like John Macks and Carl Sagan back in the 90’s. So I am very comfortable with the idea the phenomenon of UFO being real even if I don’t believe the cause is little green men.

Pasulka wisely (only mostly though) avoids getting into the details if what experiencers have recounted has actually happened and sticks to the experience’s effect has on the “experiencer.” Still, she does seem to implicitly to support things like remote viewers as if it is an actual thing; lots of name dropping and humble brags too. She also doesn't discuss sleep paralysis enough as an explanation of what might be happening.

Pasulka mentions other books by Sagan and I would highly recommend Demon Haunted World in conjunction to any book of this nature. It will give you a toolset for thinking about these topics.

One specific point I would like to make. There seems to be this strange leap in logic that the "artifacts" found are tied to the "experiencers"; very post hoc ergo proctor hoc. She seems to come into it very a priori that two were related. For years abductees or experiencers have been producing artifacts supposedly found in their bodys only to discover they are just common metals. The crash site artifact in this book is highly suspicious. I am much the doubting Thomas and require to see thing before deciding that it is what they say it is.

In general, I believe American Cosmic is worth reading if you are interested in the effect UFO has on society. She has some good analysis and if the takeaway is that many of these people are not crazy and something is going that would be a good message to take from the book.

One last point about the performance. Some of the reviews talked about their dislike of the narrator and I just wanted on record that I thought she was very good and would listen to her again.

Fascinating dive into the know & unknown

A non-judgmental view of what we think we know of our world and what it might actually be. Written in a way that laypeople, like, me can easily understand. Read with an open mind and leave your pre-conceived notions at the door.

The Truth is inside of us, not out there!

American Cosmic is as much about our own spiritual destiny as our materialist world view of Ufology and the technologies that are spun off from relics and artefacts of crashed objects. It ties together ideas from quantum physics, religion, eye witness accounts of UFO's, belief systems and the impact of the media thereof, and the future of mankind.

it was an interesting and fun read.

wow what a great story

Over and over I kept thinking "yes I'd never thought about it like that before". Right up there with anything else in the genre. I'd go as far as to say it's on a par with Majestic by Whitley Strieber. The theologians viewpoint and deep knowledge of religion really intrigued me. If you have an interest in this subject matter get this book now! Only criticism is the narration sounds a bit robotic.

Dull

Had high hopes but alas dull to the point of boredom, hopefully others might enjoy it more

There has been much trumpeting of this book online and UAP podcasts…

This is an interesting take on the Religious aspect of the “modern” phenomenon or at least interpretation of UAP’s/UFO’s. The story is more of a tale of personal discovery for the author and Pasulka’s experiences at the Vatican in Rome.

The book is interesting and I really wish I had read it and not listened to the audiobook. This is because Norah Tocci, the narrator reading the book has such a monotone and expressionless voice that she manages to have less humanity than an AI text to speech algorithm. I had to listen in small chunks as my brain would switch off. I may give it some time and try to read the text.

Interesting take

Like other reviewers, I saw the author interviewed and my interest was piqued. The subject matter is well discussed although the narration is robotic to the point of sounding like an elevator announcer. The factual mistake of placing Ramanujan at Oxford rather than Cambridge is sloppy and draws into question accuracy elsewhere.

A great book for UFO and Theology Students alike.

Think Ancient Aliens but well researched, well thought out, convincing, moving, seemingly without agenda and where Humans are the clever ones, not just our brothers upstairs.
I finished the book a little more of a believer, in Catholicism also.

Brilliant!

I love this book and have listened to it many times. Deeply thought provoking and very enjoyable.

Open and modern catholic view on the phenomenon

A very interesting and well written book on the phenomenon, as subject of study by science it’s invisible college and as reflected in Christian scriptures and icons.

Not very enlightening

Felt like most of the book was banging on about religion is a manifestation of the phenomenon in the same way UAPs are. Could have been an article. A waste of an Audible credit.

Rendition

A boring and emotionless rendition of a interesting story,
Left me wondering if the reader was a robot .