A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture

Ch.2 Contact
INTRODUCTION
Contact with extraterrestrials was far from unknown prior to the twentieth century. As discussed
in the previous chapter, one of the seminal figures of American Spiritualism, Emmanuel
Swedenborg, claimed to have traveled throughout the solar system and observed life on the
various planets. Swedenborg’s visits to other planets and meetings with their representative
populations took place in the same way that the vast majority of such meetings did prior to
WWII, which was via astral travel, with the contactee functioning as a medium. 142
The séance
room was no stranger to extraterrestrials. In fact most pre-twentieth century contact took place
in a spiritualist context. Extraterrestrials were merely angels of another sort. Messengers from
the beyond, presenting themselves as historical luminaries, unnamed natives or beloved relations
had cavorted in parlors across the nation, revealing the perfection that lay beyond the veil.
Extraterrestrials, beings from other planets, were counted among this spectral parade. They too
bore witness to the perfectibility of society and individual. In an era when space travel was mere
fancy, the vast reaches of outer space were understood as somehow equivalent to the world of
the hereafter—angels, aliens and the dead all of a piece. As the twentieth century progressed,
beings from other planets would assume pre-eminence among those Others seeking to impart
wisdom to terrestrial humans. The elision of angel and alien and the transfer of sovereignty from
142 J. Gordon Melton, “The Contactees: A Survey” in The Gods Have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds,
ed. James R. Lewis (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995) 1-13.
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