Aug 24, 2026 · 3h 38m
A religious scholar traces UFOs from Vatican archives to social media
The Basement: Diana Pasulka | Angels, Vatican Archives, and a Government Email
The episode examines whether anomalous experiences can re-enchant modern life or become tools for deception, institutional control, and technological conformity.
- 1Diana Walsh Pasulka connects accounts of saints, apparitions, and UFO encounters without treating their similarities as proof of a single cause.
- 2A New Mexico expedition yielded mysterious material and competing explanations, including staged spectacle, advanced technology, and disinformation.
- 3The conversation frames social media and AI as forces that may reshape desire, belief, and humanity’s spiritual and individual life.
Don't miss
Pasulka recounts visiting an alleged New Mexico crash site, observing iridescent “frog skin” material, and weighing whether the scene was evidence or disinformation.
The brief
Diana Walsh Pasulka begins with religious studies, near-death experiences, purgatory, and the recurring patterns scholars find across accounts of the afterlife.
Her Vatican research brings her to Maria of Ágreda, Joseph of Cupertino, and records of levitation and apparitions—then toward modern UFO encounters.
The standout turn is a blindfolded New Mexico expedition where Pasulka sees alleged crash-site debris, including “frog skin,” while resisting easy conclusions.
The episode asks whether UFO experiences reflect advanced technology, deceptive entities, or an emerging religion shaped by institutions and digital communities.
Pasulka closes by linking social media and AI to propaganda, mimetic desire, and the erosion of interior life, while leaving re-enchantment as an uncertain possibility.
Books & mentions
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