Belief in Aliens and the Imaginary: A Transdisciplinary Approach

Amidist a historical and cultural scenario of profound socio-political and ideological transformations, contemporary society is experiencing an era of uncertainty, fear, and hopelessness, which induces one to create and cling to all sorts of illusions, beliefs, and utopias – angels, gods, heroes, oracles, demiurges, extraterrestrials, and hierophanies – as instruments of coping with the rough reality of daily life. The search for identity, the non-admission of its inner weakness and external fragility, the fear of death and cosmic solitude, the search for completeness, and the impossibility of being a transcendent animal, lead one to existential anguish. This paper brings a condensed analysis of one of these “metaphysical crutches” by deconstructing the “modern myth” through hermeneutics and transdisciplinarity, reinterpreting its symbols, languages, signs, and representations. We base our claims on five decades of research and experience, supported by a ‘collegiate’ of the most expressive names in various areas of human knowledge.