(This is the conclusion of a two-part series. For the first part, click here.) To say that the Sabbatai Zevi messianic movement of the 17th century was a personality cult would be an understatement. It was surely a great deal more than that--just what, historians are still debating--but … [Read more...]
Messiah of Transgression – Thoughts on Sabbatai Zevi (Part 1)
"Tell me, dunce: are you quite certain you will have a blessed afterlife for believing, without any sign or miracle, in a man insane? Who perpetrated, moreover, one lawless act after another? In Izmir, for example, he spoke the sacred Name of God in the city streets; he taught the rabble and the … [Read more...]
Ralph Blumenthal’s “The Believer” – The UFO Odyssey of John Mack (Part 2)
Ralph Blumenthal. The Believer: Alien Encounters, Hard Science, and the Passion of John Mack. High Road Books, 2021. (For the first part of this post, click here.) "It is also possible that some of the affective energy which is displaced onto the UFO controversy derives from the … [Read more...]
“Handbook of UFO Religions” – “Judaism and the UFO”
E. J. Brill, according to Wikipedia, is "a Dutch international academic publisher founded in 1683 in Leiden, Netherlands. With offices in Leiden, Boston, Paderborn and Singapore, Brill today publishes 275 journals and around 1200 new books and reference works each year." I've known its hefty, … [Read more...]
An Alien Abductee in Israel – the Strange Story of Ariel Semmel (Part 2)
(For part 1 of this post, click here.) "'Aliens' is a code word for something that exists, something that's evidently wiser than we are or wise in a different way, and we don't know what it wants or is able to do. Really, what's the difference between an 'alien' and God? Different people give … [Read more...]
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