Aliens and History People tend to believe all sorts o

People tend to believe all sorts of non-scientific and paranormal concepts and to accept this belief without proof. A prevalent belief is that aliens from some other cosmic body have visited the earth, though there is no direct proof of such an event. Many see this belief as deriving from the prevalence of science fiction in literature, films, and television and from anxiety brought about during the Cold War era, but in fact some belief in alien beings can be found throughout history, though identifying these interlopers as aliens from another planet is more common today than to see them as demons or emissaries from heaven or hell (even though many people believe in visitations from both these realms as well). Psychologists have considered the source of irrational beliefs of all sorts, including a belief in extraterrestrial visitors, and have developed theories to explain why some people accept such beliefs so readily and why there are periods when many people hold irrational beliefs. A consideration of how this applies specifically to the questions of whether extraterrestrial visitors have come to earth in our history serves to show some of the dimensions identified by psychologists.

INCIDENCE OF SUCH BELIEFS THROUGH HISTORY

Steven J. Dick notes the increase in scientific investigation of extraterrestrial life in recent years while also indicating that people would be surprised to learn that the concept did not first appear in this century but instead

Related Essays

History of Organizaed Crime in the US .... Most of the gang members are illegal aliens. .... This means that there are people all over the world learning .... sequel Godfather II detail much of the history of the .... (5473 22 )

Periclean Democracy .... History, of course, has done little to bear out .... an additional 25,000 metics (resident aliens without political .... Different people were thus meant to do different .... (2592 10 )

The Ascendancy of the Greek Polis .... History, of course, has done little to bear out .... an additional 25,000 metics (resident aliens without political .... Different people were thus meant to do different .... (2592 10 )

Immigrants in American Life .... for millions of undocumented aliens to cross .... of economic performance, and that people from certain .... cultural mainstream, notwithstanding a history of racism and .... (3814 15 )

The Sci-Fi Television Series Genre .... such groundbreaking contextual aspects, many people forget that .... was forced on them by powerful aliens for their .... hour-long direct-to-syndication hit in history. .... (2931 12 )

s as well as differences between the two. Basically, though, they had a different conception of the human mind. Freud sees human nature and human behavior as produced by "the irremediable antagonism between the demands of instinct and the restrictions of civilization" (Strachey 4). Human nature in the state of nature is thus one thing, while human nature in civilization has been reshaped and produces a different form of alienation in the Freudian conception. As the individual develops during the life cycle, the ego, or the sense of self, changes from encompassing everything to detaching itself from the external world and thus including only the inner world of the self. Jung's conception of the mind is based on a recognition of a link, the relation of mental contents with the ego, and without such an awareness there could be no consciousness of the object. Without consciousness, says Jung, there would be no world, for the world exists only in so far as it is consciously reflected and consciously expressed by a psyche. Consciousness is related to the outer world through the psychological functions of thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition, and at the same time there is the simultaneous contact with the inner world, th

Category: History - A