Los creyentes : Un ensayo sobre ovnis, tecnología desconocida y el inesperado origen de una nueva religión

The Believers begins with Diana Walsh Pasulka, the author of this book, blindfolded. Diana is a historian of religions and chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of North Carolina, but now she is traveling blindfolded in a government vehicle through a no-fly zone in the New Mexico desert. Although she is afraid, she has decided to see this investigation through to the end. She has interviewed some of the world's leading astrophysicists and molecular biologists, NASA engineers, Silicon Valley millionaires, and enigmatic figures like Tyler, the man responsible for launching the major American space shuttles (Columbia, Challenger, etc.), who now dedicates himself to designing revolutionary technologies inspired by a non-human intelligence. She has been assured that what she will see after removing the blindfold will be worth it. This is not, therefore, a book about Martians. This is a first-person account from someone who infiltrates an "invisible university" of top-level scientists and government agents who are secretly and seriously studying UFOs, while the media fabricates conspiracies and cult series from snippets of their work. Pasulka lucidly analyzes how these stories, mixed with the noise of the internet and pop culture, are shaping something unexpected: a new religion, with its sacred sites and relics. And most interestingly, she understands that the experiences and encounters recounted by these "new believers" coincide point by point with those recorded over centuries in thousands of historical-religious documents, such as those in the Vatican Secret Archives, where the author finds the closure she needed for her research. Thus, *The Believers* tells us how the UFO has become a symbol of hope, fear, salvation, and meaning in a hyper-technological world. After reading this book, you'll see the sky differently, but also your phone, your favorite TV shows, and your relationship with science. Because, perhaps, we're already worshipping our new "gods" without even realizing it.