UFOs, Conspiracy Theories and the New Age

Millennial Conspiracism

Prof David G. Robertson (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

264 Seiten

2017
Bloomsbury Academic (Verlag)
978-1-350-04498-2 (ISBN)

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How—and why— were UFOs so prevalent in both conspiracy theories and the New Age milieu in the post-Cold War period? In this ground-breaking book, David G. Robertson argues that UFOs symbolized an uncertainty about the boundaries between scientific knowledge and other ways of validating knowledge, and thus became part of a shared vocabulary.

Through historical and ethnographic case studies of three prominent figures—novelist and abductee Whitley Strieber; environmentalist and reptilian proponent David Icke; and David Wilcock, alleged reincarnation of Edgar Cayce—the investigation reveals that millennial conspiracism offers an explanation as to why the prophesied New Age failed to arrive—it was prevented from arriving by malevolent, hidden others. Yet millennial conspiracism constructs a counter-elite, a gnostic third party defined by their special knowledge.

An overview of the development of UFO subcultures from the perspective of religious studies, UFOs, Conspiracy Theories and the New Age is an innovative application of discourse analysis to the study of present day alternative religion.

David G. Robertson is Co-Editor-In-Chief of the Religious Studies Project and a committee member of the British Association for the Study of Religion. He teaches at the University of Edinburgh and has published widely on new religions, millennialism, conspiracy theories and critical theory. He recently guest-edited a special issue of Nova Religio and is the co-editor of After World Religions: Reconstructing the Introductory Course in Religious Studies (2016).

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements

Prologue: ‘And the Truth Shall Set You Free’
1. Introduction: Aquarian Conspiracies
2. Approaching Millennial Conspiracism
3. ‘Trust No-One’: UFOs, Conspiracism and Popular Millennialism during the Cold War, 1947–87
4. Occulted Histories: Whitley Strieber and the Abductee Narrative
5. ‘Problem-Reaction-Solution’: David Icke and the Reptilian Thesis
6. ‘The Science of Oneness’: David Wilcock and ‘2012’ Millennialism
7. The Counter-Elite/A Theodicy of the Dispossessed

Notes
Bibliography

Erscheinungsdatum	03.02.2018
Reihe/Serie	Bloomsbury Advances in Religious Studies
Zusatzinfo	8 bw illus
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Gewicht	376 g
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Esoterik / Spiritualität
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	1-350-04498-9 / 1350044989
ISBN-13	978-1-350-04498-2 / 9781350044982
Zustand	Neuware