UAP: the Interdimensional Hypothesis, UFO 20
In this Patheos series on UFOs and UAP, we’re entertaining alternative explanations. The extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) is the most popular one, of course. But there are others. Sorting through the candidates is a means to a further end, namely, to find the best ontology that accounts for reality as a whole as well as for UAP specifically. In this post we look at the inderdimensional hypothesis or IDH.
Where does the interdimensional hypothesis come from?
How do we explain UAP (Unexplained Aerospace Phenomena)? With the Ultraterrestrial Hypothesis? With the Interdimensional Hypothesis? With the Extradimensional Hypothesis? Hypotheses such as these were formulated in the 1960s and 1970s when discussions were rife regarding the ontological implications of quantum physics. Those mysterious electrons seemed to drop out of existence and then come back again in a different location. Where did reality go when we lost sight of them? Perhaps in the interstices those pesky electrons were sustaining another world, a parallel universe. This is the speculation of J. Allen Hynek’s notion of interlocking universes.
“There could be other universes with different quantum rules, or vibration rates if you want. Or our space-time continuum could be a cross-section through a universe with many more dimensions” (Hynek and Vallée, 1975, 2023, 212).
Despite the variety of names for this idea of interlocking universes, we’ll elect to dub it the interdimensional hypothesis, a term that goes back to occultist Meade Lane in 1947.
Today’s Interdimensional Hypothesis relies on the Multiverse
Along with physicists, the public has become fascinated with the concept of the multiverse—that is, the possible existence of more than one universe. Physical cosmologists such as Stephen Hawking called his view M-Theory, which “predicts that a great many universes were created out of nothing …. these multiple universes arise naturally from physical laws” (Hawking 2010, 8-9) Each universe has a separate history. But Hawking does not foresee openings to connect one universe with another as some ufologists do.
The interdimensional hypothesis asks: might UFOs come into our world from a parallel universe? Might they have found a window to travel back and forth from our universe to theirs? Might the interdimensional hypothesis explain the other-worldly character of alien visitation?
The Interdimensional Hypothesis according to Jacques Vallée
I’ve long admired the creative initiatives of Silicon Valley’s Jacques Vallée. He may be one of the first to expand on the interdimensional hypothesis as an alternative to ETH. What Vallée has brought to the subject of UAP is sensitivity, nuance, texture, and the courage to move beyond the limits of conventional thinking (Peters 2014, 160-163).
Vallée rightly recognizes that the current scientific model for understanding UAP has its limits. We need more than merely a materialist or physicalist explanation. So, he has been willing to indulge in speculation regarding the role being played by symbol, myth, and religion.
Now let’s ask: should we merely stretch our science to include religion? Or should we depart from science and take up the religious dimension of UAP independently? Vallée chooses the former.
Already in the era when Vallée worked arm in arm with J. Allen Hynek, Vallée saw himself moving away from the extraterrestrial hypothesis and toward a parallel universe or paranormal hypothesis. He wanted to move from the physical to the psychical dimension of UFOs. Extradimensionality replaced extraterrestriality.
…I believe that the UFO phenomenon represents evidence for other dimensions beyond spacetime; the UFOs may not come from ordinary space, but from a multiverse which is all around us…. [UFO] manifestations cannot be spacecraft in the ordinary nuts-and-bolts sense. The UFOs are physical manifestations that simply cannot be understood apart from their psychic and symbolic reality. What we see here is not an alien invasion. It is a spiritual system that acts on humans and uses humans. (Vallée, Dimensions, 2014, 284-285).
What Vallée believes he is doing is changing the location for UFO origin. Rather than from outer space, he suggests UFOs come from a space-time dimension which parallels yet co-inhabits with one we experience here on earth. According to Vallée, UFOs open “windows,” so to speak, whereby communication is shared between parallel dimensions. What I believe Vallée is actually doing is incorporating religious testimony into a scientized metaphysics.
Vallée’s method is to compare contemporary UFO experiences with premodern reports of fairies and elves. He finds remarkable similarities: light symbolism, communication, abductions, and such. In addition to fairy stories, Vallée occasionally includes identifiable religious phenomena such as Ezekiel’s apparition of the wheel within a wheel (Ezekiel 1); the appearance of the Virgin Mary to Juan Diego at Guadalupe in 1531 and to Bernadette Soubiroux at Lourdes in 1858; Joseph Smith’s vision of the angel Moroni in 1823; and the miracle at Fatima in 1917. After examining all the various wrinkles in these reports, Vallée irons them out neatly so they all have the same flat appearance: they are UFO cases.
“The mechanism of the apparitions, in legendary, historical, and modem times, is standard and follows the model of religious miracles. Several cases, which bear the official stamp of the Catholic Church (such as those in Fatima and Guadalupe), are in fact–if one applies the definitions strictly–nothing more than UFO phenomena where the entity has delivered a message having to do with religious beliefs rather than with space or engineering” (Vallée, Dimensions, 2014, 166).
What has Vallée accomplished by this? At least in his own mind, he has challenged the bulk of contemporary UFO researchers who are intent on finding an explanation for UFOs which fits within the paradigm of materialist science. Most UFO researchers want to find nuts-and-bolts spacecraft which transport intelligent entities from one solar system to another much as our rocket ships transport our astronauts.
But the ETH will not fly? Why? Because so many UFO reports simply do not fit the ETH model. Many reports include psychic phenomena, telepathic communication, religious messages, and prophecies of future events. To handle such reports we need to turn to the realm of myth, symbol, and even religion (Downing 1988).
Stretching Science to Include the Interdimensional Hypothesis
Even with the incorporation of paranormal and religious traits, Vallée cannot seem to make a full break from standard science. He wants to examine the religious qualities of the UFO phenomenon, to be sure. But he wants to do so strictly from within the safety zone of science. In order to do so, he asks us to engage in open-minded expansion of rational thought–that is, he wants science to stretch but to remain science in the process.
“Although the UFO phenomenon is highly complex and stretches the boundaries of the scientific method, I am not prepared to abandon the rational approach to knowledge for conclusions based on faith, intuition, or the alleged messages received by “channels” and contactees …. We have a rare opportunity to improve scientific techniques and to glimpse beyond the limits of ordinary reality” (Vallée, Dimensions, 2014, 221).
Vallée’s loyalty to scientific presuppositions is tenacious, almost fanatical. Genuine religion seems to threaten Vallée. For Vallée to get caught up in “faith” or “intuition” would constitute getting lost in an eddy of intellectual chaos. He protects himself from such chaos by never leaving the security of his scientific backyard.
What is entailed in the interdimensional hypothesis?
What, then, is entailed in the interdimensional hypothesis? The IDH supposes that those responsible for UAP are super technologists who are bent upon manipulating the human race through influencing our culture and our thought patterns. Vallée seems to assume alien visitors are non-benevolent entities who are seeking to control human behavior by provoking our curiosity and then confusing us with mixed messages. They lie. They deceive. They are in fact masters of deception (Vallée, Messangers of Deception 1979).[1]
Most curiously, Vallée simply cannot give up working with the idea that somehow, despite all the psychic and paranormal dimensions to the phenomenon which he recognizes, that behind it all lies some sort of advanced technology.
“I am not regarding the phenomenon of the UFOs as the unknowable, uncontrollable game of a higher order of beings …. Everything works as if the phenomenon were the product of a technology that followed well-defined rules and patterns, though fantastic by ordinary human standards” (Vallée, Dimensions, 2014, 180).
Vallée does not want to use the term ‘God’ or ‘gods’ to describe those responsible for UAP. Rather, visiting aliens are dubbed a scientized and technologized race who perform apparent miracles for the purpose of communication and miscommunication.
The Interdimensional Hypothesis according to John Keel
Journalist turned ufologist John Keel (1930-2009) touted a variant on the interdimensional hypothesis in the late 1960s. Keel conflated contemporary UFOs with historical phenomena such as apparitions, fairies, precognition, along with various paranormal and spiritualist claims. “The UFO entities and the spirit entities were part of the same gigantic system” (Keel, 1973, 2013, 308).
Keel observed a matter I think may be important as UAP study proceeds through scientific research and beyond, namely, that the UFO phenomenon can include the subjective dimension right along with the objective. UAP are not merely objects. They affect us in our subjectivity too.
The Interdimensional Hypothesis according to Jeffrey Kripal
Rice University Religious Studies professor Jeffrey Kripal recognizes how UAP as a phenomenon stretches us well beyond the borders of what objective science can study. We need a new order of knowledge that undergirds the IDH, he decleares.
“A new order of knowledge is on the horizon [derived from paranormal] phenomena like precognitive dreams … mystical experiences of cosmic unity, clairvoyant visions, near-death experiences, and UFO encounters that are not supposed to happen but do all the time” (Kripal 2024, 11).
To account for the unity of these disparate phenomena, Kripal appeals to IDH and grounds it in his version of non-dualism or dual-aspect monism. This ontology has predecessors in ancient gnosticism, in India’s Advaita, and New Age mysticism. On the surface of reality we sense difference, distinction, multiplicity. In the depth of reality, in contrast, there is only singularity, unity, oneness.
“Philosophically, I am articulating a form of dual-aspect monism—that is, the position that reality is ontologically One but epistemologically Two. We are the splitters of reality. Reality itself is not so split…. Put succinctly, dual-aspect monism is a philosophical proposition that states that the mental (psychological) and the material (physical) are aspects of one underlying reality which itself is psychophysically neutral (that is, neither mental nor material)” (Kripal 2024, 162).
In short, because metaphysically all things are only one thing, we can collapse the subjective and objective dimensions of UAP into a single reality.
We ask for an explanation of UAP, and we get an explanation of everything. Quite a bargain!
Envoi
I’m not an advocate of the interdimensional hypothesis or IDH. In my judgment, it violates the principle or parsimony. It relies on a specious speculation about a second reality that extrapolates from an unresolved mystery in sub-atomic physics. In short, the interdimensional hypothesis relies on too many unsubstantiated assumptions.
M-Theory, in my humble opinion, is bad physics. Why? Because of methodological prejudice. Because it is the product of Stephen Hawking’s presupposed atheism, not experimental evidence (Peters, The Trinity in and Beyond Time 1993).
My criticism aside, the interdimensional hypothesis has the advantage of incorporating not only nuts ‘n’ bolts analysis but the paranormal dimension as well. It takes seriously myth, symbol, and religion.
Conclusion
I’ll let Hal Puthoff offer a comprehensive conclusion. The best explanation for UAP may be either ETH or IDH or neither. “The two major options(ultraterrestrial or extraterrestrial) …. it might be both/and rather than either/or.
SR 1190 UFO 20 UAP: the Interdimensional Hypothesis
UFOs and Aliens at the Vatican
Are UFOs our Celestial Saviors?
SR 1177 UFO 7 Are UFOs demonic?
SR 1186 UFO 16 UAP Cryptoterrestrial Hypothesis
SR 1187 UFO 17 Scientizing Ufology
SR 1188 UFO 18 Are UAP from outer space?
SR 1189 UFO 19 Are UAP from future time?
SR 1190 UFO 20 UAP: the Interdimensional Hypothesis?
SR 1191 UFO 21 UAP and Ancient Alien Theology
SR 1192 UFO 22 UAP, ETI, and David Bohm’s Physics
SR 1194 UFO 24. A UFO for Christmas?
SR 1195, UFO 25. UAP in the Nation of Islam?
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Ted Peters directs traffic at the intersection of science, religion, and ethics. Peters is an emeritus professor at the Graduate Theological Union, where he co-edits the journal, Theology and Science, with Robert John Russell on behalf of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, in Berkeley, California, USA. He authored Playing God? Genetic Determinism and Human Freedom? (Routledge, 2nd ed., 2002) as well as Science, Theology, and Ethics (Ashgate 2003). Along with Martinez Hewlett, Joshua Moritz, and Robert John Russell, he co-edited, Astrotheology: Science and Theology Meet Extraterrestrial Intelligence (2018). Along with Octavio Chon Torres, Joseph Seckbach, and Russell Gordon, he co-edited, Astrobiology: Science, Ethics, and Public Policy (Scrivener 2021). Along with Arvin Gouw and Brian Patrick Green, he co-edited Religious Transhumanism and Its Critics (Lexington 2022). Look for his newest book, The Voice of Public Theology, a collection of previous articles. See his website: TedsTimelyTake.com.
Regarding UFOs, he is author of UFOs: God’s Chariots? Spirituality, Ancient Aliens, and Religious Yearnings in the Age of Extraterrestrials (Career Press New Page Books, 2014). He served as Louisiana State Director for MUON and is currently a member of two UFO investigation organizations, Society for UAP Studies and Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies.
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[1] Jensine Andresen contends that IDH should be classified as pseudo-science. “Interestingly, 1969 is the year in which Creationists began to reframe Creationism as an alternative science—and it also happens to be the same year Vallée published Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers to promote his version of the IDH” (Andresen, 2023, 151).Andresen, Jensine. Hyperconvergence: Religion, Politics, and UFOs (The UFO File) (p. 152). Kindle Edition.
References
Andresen, Jensin, Hyperconvergence: Religion, Politics, and UFOs. Independent, 2023.
Downing, Barry. “UFOs & Religion: The French Connections.” MUFON UFO Journal 242, 1988: 18-19.
Hawking, Stephen, and Leonard Mlodinow. The Grand Design. New York: Bantam, 2010.
Hynek, J Allen, and Jacques Vallée. The Edge of Reality. Newburyport MA: MUFON, 1975, 2023.
Keel, John. Operation Trojan Horse. Anomalist / Kindle, 1973, 2013.
Kripal, Jeffrey. How to Think Impossibly: About Souls, UFOs, Time, Belief, and Everything Else. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2024.
Peters, Ted. “The Trinity in and Beyond Time.” In Quantum Cosmology and the Laws of Nature, by Robert John Russell, Nancey Murphy, & CJ Isham, 263-291. Vatican City State: Vaatican Observatory, 1993.
—. UFOs–God’s Chariots? Pompton Plains NJ: New Page Books, 2014.
Puthoff, H.E., “Ultraterrestrial Models,” Journal of Cosmology 29:1 (2022) 20001-20016; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363346030_ULTRATERRESTRIAL_MODELS.
Vallée, Jacques. Dimensions: A Casebook on Alien Contact. Kindle. San Antonio TX: Anomalist Books, 2014.
—. Messengers of Deception. Berkeley CA: And/Or Press, 1979.
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