A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture
A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture
A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture
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<strong>the</strong> grays’ <strong>in</strong>scrutable analysis <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> human subject. At <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> a century and more <strong>of</strong><br />
imag<strong>in</strong>ed devices <strong>of</strong>fered as explanation and vehicle for <strong>the</strong> commun<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> mortal human and<br />
alien O<strong>the</strong>r, <strong>the</strong> displaced utopian imag<strong>in</strong>ary yielded an estranged vision <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> human itself.<br />
Two dynamics that attended <strong>the</strong> passage <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> displaced utopian imag<strong>in</strong>ary over <strong>the</strong><br />
years discussed <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> pages <strong>of</strong> this dissertation are <strong>the</strong> tendency toward <strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g<br />
strangeness <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> alien <strong>in</strong>terlocutor and <strong>the</strong> tendency toward <strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g embodiedness <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
encounter between human and O<strong>the</strong>r. In terms <strong>of</strong> <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g strangeness, <strong>the</strong> first spectral<br />
<strong>in</strong>terlocutors discussed <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>se pages were <strong>the</strong> dead. While <strong>the</strong> dead were strange, <strong>the</strong>y were<br />
separated from <strong>the</strong> liv<strong>in</strong>g only by <strong>the</strong>ir passage to heaven. They had once been human and <strong>in</strong><br />
many ways still were. Communion with <strong>the</strong> dead was no new affair—ghosts had haunted <strong>the</strong><br />
Western imag<strong>in</strong>ation through all <strong>of</strong> recorded history. What was new was <strong>the</strong> systematic,<br />
ostensibly technical, and willed nature <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> communication. The next discussed <strong>in</strong>terlocutor<br />
was <strong>the</strong> ascended master. Ascended masters too had been human, but became O<strong>the</strong>r via a<br />
process somewhat more mysterious than death. They had become O<strong>the</strong>r via occult tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g and<br />
practice, cl<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g to <strong>the</strong>ir humanity <strong>in</strong> only <strong>the</strong> most tenuous fashion as western bodhisattvas—<br />
hav<strong>in</strong>g reached enlightenment but mak<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> conscious decision to rema<strong>in</strong> bound to human<br />
affairs as teachers. The masters were not merely dead—<strong>in</strong> fact <strong>the</strong>y were not dead at all, but<br />
ra<strong>the</strong>r ascended—suspended <strong>in</strong> some state between <strong>the</strong> mortality <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> human and <strong>the</strong><br />
immortality <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> gods. The masters were more rarefied and decidedly less democratic than <strong>the</strong><br />
dead, appear<strong>in</strong>g only to those high <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> occult hierarchy. They rema<strong>in</strong>ed hidden <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> fastness<br />
<strong>of</strong> terrestrial wilderness or <strong>in</strong> even less accessible <strong>in</strong>terplanetary realms. It was <strong>the</strong> masters that<br />
provided <strong>the</strong> most immediate model for <strong>the</strong> next round <strong>of</strong> alterity. The space bro<strong>the</strong>rs were<br />
modeled primarily on <strong>the</strong> occult hierarchies articulated by Blavatsky and her followers. They<br />
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