THE OTHERS

Pasulka's 'The Others' treats reported human contact with nonhuman intelligences — angels, apparitions, UFOs, and now AI — as something best navigated through the frameworks religion and contemplation already offer. Her throughline is epistemic humility before any mind greater than our own, paired with concrete lenses: the comparative history of encounter narratives, science fiction as rehearsal for futures, altered states as the doorway to contact, an eye for mimetic desire, and a deliberate stance on how to relate to machine intelligence.

Navigate nonhuman contact

1. Use an existing religious or contemplative framework to make sense of contact with intelligences beyond human comprehension, rather than leaning on rationality alone. (source, source)
2. Read medieval and early accounts of angels, apparitions, and mystical visions alongside modern UFO reports to spot recurring contact patterns instead of treating them as unrelated. (source, source)
3. Hold gods, angels, demons, aliens, and AI in one frame rather than demanding a fixed category, and tolerate ambiguity about what a nonhuman intelligence actually is. (source)
4. Treat science fiction as a 'prophetic' tool: use speculative stories to rehearse possible futures before they arrive, rather than dismissing them as mere entertainment. (source, source)
5. Practice epistemic humility before anything that might exceed human intelligence. The book's core posture is humbling yourself before a superior power, whether God, aliens, or machines. (source)
6. Decide consciously whether you're relating to AI as a tool or a companion, and watch the emotional 'chemical' bond forming between people — especially young people — and machine intelligences. (source)
7. Assume genuinely advanced intelligence may be permanently 'incommensurable' with our own, and resist projecting human motives, categories, or limitations onto it. (source)
8. Pay attention to altered states of consciousness — prayer, meditation, psychedelics — as the historical and physiological pathway through which people report contact with nonhuman intelligence. (source)
9. Watch for mimetic desire and scapegoating in how groups react to the UFO and AI question, using René Girard's lens to notice imitative wanting and blame dynamics before acting on them. (source, source)