Does Demonic Deception Lurk Behind the UFO Phenomenon?

A few weeks prior to the release of his xenophobic documentary, Alien Intrusion: Unmasking a Deception, Gary Bates was given space to write himself an “ad-itorial” in Charisma Magazine. In “Demonic Deception Lurks Behind This Widespread Phenomenon,” Gary Bates writes:

“I grew up as a science-fiction fan, and I can recall the religious impact it had on me. I dreamed of utopian alien worlds filled with technologically advanced beings that might save the Earth someday.”

Yeah, let’s just stop here for a second. What?? I’m not going to pretend for a moment that I ever saw science fiction as anything other than, well, fiction. I didn’t ever suppose that aliens would come to save us all because most scifi kind of teaches the opposite! Besides, saving the Earth and its inhabitants physically is hardly the same thing as saving souls. I weary of folks trying to conflate the two. Neither am I naive enough to suppose that technology, even advanced extraterrestrial technology, would eliminate our problems… and a lot of science fiction authors agree! This is why a lot of scifi has veered toward dystopian cautionary tales rather than painting visionary utopias in the tradition of Hugo Gernsbeck.

“After getting saved in my adult years (in an Assemblies of God church in Western Australia), I started to see things differently. I still love sci-fi, but front and center, I keep in mind the word ‘fiction’…”

Beat you to it, Gary. I’m guessing most of us did. Including small children. Because fiction, Gary.

“…because most people, including Christians, don’t recognize the strong evolutionary connection in sci-fi. Life only came about by one of two ways. Either it was created (as the Bible says), or it evolved (and countless times over in the incredibly vast universe). And if aliens evolved long before life evolved on Earth, they could also be millions of years advanced with their technology; building hyperdrive spaceships and so. It’s these ideas that permeates most sci-fi today.”

Of course, in his zeal to paint a belief in the possibility of extraterrestrial as part of the creation/evolution dichotomy, he leaves out the fact that Christian theologians and even early creation scientists have been discussing a third possibility since at least the Middle Ages: the idea that God might’ve created aliens.

Gary Bates has admitted that the constraints of creationist time dilation cosmological models allow for the possibility of aliens that are very ancient, so that point is moot as well.

Gary Bates then quotes the Bible:


Now we noticed that he doesn’t really explain how he thinks this verse applies to the subject at hand. If he means that extraterrestrials would be new and therefore could not exist, then I would gently point out the fact that the verse says there’s nothing new “under the sun,” which technically only applies to our particular solar system and, in context, really just our Earth.

“Polls report that in the U.S. alone, over 20 million people claim to have seen a UFO, and up to 4 million claim they have been abducted by aliens.”

This website has already pointed out that to Gary Bates did not see fit to examine whether those particular polls were accurate or not. After our own examination, it is apparent that the polls greatly exaggerate the abduction phenomenon. Keep this in mind because it becomes important later in this article.

“Other researchers and I have collectively interviewed thousands of people, and the common pattern of the experiences makes it clear something is really happening to them. The big question is, are these “close encounters” really aliens flying to earth in faster-than-light spaceships from a galaxy far, far away? The answer is a firm no, because the evidence itself shows that these experiences are spiritual in nature.”

Yes, something is happening, and likely happening to far less folks than those numvers suggest; the question is whether what is happening is physical, supernatural or psychosocial? Bates leaves folks with the misconception that it must be either supernatural or extraterrestrial. He’s quite fond of dichotomies, isn’t he? If his book is any indication, his rejection of the Psychosocial Hypothesis is the result of shallow research.

While I do not think aliens are visiting this planet, Gary Bates fails to mention that the Psychosocial Hypothesis of UFO likewise accounts for the UFO phenomenon from a Biblical worldview. The updated version of his book includes a brief section on this theory but he dismisses it, in part, because he failed to examine the validity of the polls which suggests that the phenomenon is much, much bigger than it actually is, therefore he believes that the abduction phenomenon could not be accounted for by such mundane things as sleep paralysis. Faulty assumptions lead to faulty conclusions, which is why actual research beyond simply confirming one’s biases are necessary.

“And this is not just some Christian interpretation. We interviewed The History Channel’s UFO guru, Nick Redfern, who has authored over 40 books on this subject and says:

“…we’re dealing with something that co-exists with us and which masquerades as ET… They’re not at all unlike multiple accounts that one can find in numerous religions. In fact, they’re near-identical. Lives are radically changed, and people find themselves on new paths. Gods, angels, demons, the ‘little people,’ and—today—aliens: it’s all one and the same.”

OK, I have to call BS here. Nick Redfern might hold to the Interdimensional Hypothesis of UFO. Maybe. But…

Redfern admitted in a comment on the website dedicated to promoting his book, Final Events, that he does not believe the Demonic Hypothesis himself.

Of course, Gary Bates believes that people like Nick Redfern are espousing a secular or occult version of the Demonic Hypothesis, and therefore serve as hostile witnesses to its truth. The fact of the matter is that demons aren’t equivalent to ultraterrestrials. Within the Interdimensional Hypothesis, the idea of ultraterrestrials is really the idea that demons are a mistaken notion of something else entirely, so Christianity is just as wrong as those who supposed they were fairies before or extraterrestrials now. That’s just as much the opposite of the Christian worldview as the claim that Jesus really did apparent miracles because he was an alien. It’s a subversion of Christian demonology, not an affirmation.

I again submit that the Psychosocial Hypothesis of UFO likewise accounts for the similarity between fairies, angels, Jinn, demons, etc.

“I use the UFO subject to reach people who might not read or watch anything Christian, affirmed by the book’s Amazon status. Hundreds have now contacted me, and there is a disturbing pattern. They claim that these entities are telling them that Christianity is wrong, or that Jesus was just an advanced ET like them, and that we should embrace the new age.”

What Bates fails to consider is that the Psychosocial Hypothesis accounts for all of these things. The original contactees were students of Theosophy. They established the general message of the contactee narrative. While Bates has admitted that science fiction has helped to popularize ideas about extraterrestrials, he seems to ignore the fact that sci-fi has also helped to make the contactee message well known. More than one researcher has noted that the abduction narrative was an established trope long before the abduction phenomenon actually began. A 1930 Buck Rogers comic strip called “Tiger Men of Mars” even featured most of the major elements of the alien abduction narrative as outlined by Thomas Bullard.

So why would we automatically suspect a demonic origin for things that were already a part of our cultural consciousness?

“Other Christian researchers have come to the same conclusion. It’s the same spiritual masquerade that set Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, and even Mohammed on the deceptive path of creating false religions.”

I won’t dispute the idea that those two religions were started by fallen angels, especially given the fact that both religions claim that they received their anti-biblical revelation from angels.

“People have had these experiences for centuries. In the past, these beings appeared as even fairies or elves or false gods. Now they appear as glorious space brothers, because this is a culturally acceptable guise. “The Apostle Paul wrote: “Although if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than the one we have preached to you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8).

I’ve already commented on how the Psychosocial Hypothesis of UFO can account for the fact that different cultures have translated the hallucinations that come with sleep paralysis to a more culturally acceptable guise their time. The idea that these experiences were demonic should be tossed out with the idea that all sickness is caused by demons, or fairies, or djinn, etc.

I would note here that there is a marked difference between the more or less benevolent Space Brothers and the trauma-inducing abductee movement. My own conclusions on this matter is that the difference is caused from a difference in sources. The space brothers were the products of human imaginations, and these humans derived many other ideas from science fiction and the Theosophy. Point in fact before George Adamski published a book detailing a visit from a Venusian on a flying saucer, he submitted a science fiction story to Ray Palmer that was basically identical except the Venusian Orthon was Jesus and the flying saucer was a rocket. He also published a new age volume of teachings that is basically identical to the so-called teachings of his Venusian Space Brothers. While the space brothers were the products of purposed human imagination, I believe the abduction phenomenon is the product of subconscious human imagination connected to sleep paralysis and often later manipulated through hypnosis.

“I’ve also now received many testimonies of conversions. It’s because once the spiritual deception is revealed and they begin to doubt the experience, the Holy Spirit can commence His work in their lives.”

I’m glad that these people are getting deliverance from the false belief that they were abducted by aliens; however, if Bates is wrong, he’s now deceiving them into believing that they’ve been possessed and oppressed by demons. How is that any better, if the real answer is something like sleep paralysis or hypnotically influenced false memories?

“Of course, we are dealing with a demonic deception—a widespread one because it now takes a culturally acceptable form. And now, for the first time, there is a film that uses actual firsthand testimonies of how the name of Jesus causes these often-horrific experiences to stop in their tracks. It’s the story that the UFO community and Hollywood doesn’t want you to hear—the truth. And this is not some low-budget Christian production. It features interviews from around the world with scientists, experts and theologians discussing many aspects of the UFO phenomenon, as well as cutting-edge special effects. And it is narrated by faith-friendly Hollywood actor John Schneider (Superman’s father in Smallville) who says: “It reveals one of the most disturbing, yet powerful affirmations of Christianity and the Bible.”

Amid this blatant advertisement for his Alien Intrusion film, Bates unveils his smoking gun: these so-called alien abductions can be stopped in the name of Jesus.

Compelling, right?

Not so fast. Are we saying that if the name of Jesus works on something then demons were involved? Doesn’t the name of Jesus work on sickness and storms? Doesn’t His name have authority over, well, everything? Including an episode of sleep paralysis, an hallucination or a bad dream?

Also, why does Gary Bates never mention that willpower and resistance also stop these so-called alien abductions? It undeniably undermines his argument that the UFO phenomenon is all the Devil anyway. This selective presentation of evidence should bother us enough to question his argument.

Perhaps there is a deception after all…


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