Her research focuses on religion and technology, including supernatural belief and its connections to digital technologies and environments.Pasulka applied the “Page 99 Test” to her new book, American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology, and reported the following:
I conducted the Ford Madox Ford page ninety-nine test on my current book, and I found it to absolutely confirm Ford’s assertion that the quality of the whole book is revealed to the reader in that one page. Allow me to explain…Visit Diana Walsh Pasulka's website.
Far be it from me to criticize Carl Jung, but after reading everything he has written on the topic of flying saucers, I noticed that he missed a key, and very important factor in its mythic, legend-making features. This is what I write on page ninety-nine:Jung wrote that the UFO was apparently impossible. He didn’t say it was impossible. His point was not necessarily to dismiss its objective reality, but to move the study of it into the realm of the psyche, his field of expertise. It was a methodological strategy. Jung missed an opportunity to note that it is the potential physical reality of the UFO that causes it to be a living myth…Furthermore, I elaborate on the point that the UFO “is both a myth and a potential future reality. [Jung] nods in this direction, noting that contemporary physics has revealed so many scientific truths that appear miraculous that ‘UFOs can easily be regarded and believed in as a physicists’ miracle.’”
Jung said that UFOs can be believed in as much as the stuff of physics. I didn’t say that, although I agree with him. What I said was that the fact that the possibility that there is life “out there” makes the UFO myth a particularly potent belief system. And, that is as defensible as stating that time is not linear. It may seem odd to tell your co-worker that you believe in UFOs, but it certainly is not as odd to suggest their real possibility.
The Page 99 Test: Heaven Can Wait.
--Marshal Zeringue
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