angels | EXPLORING THE OUTER EDGES OF SOCIETY AND MIND

I Have Seen What I Call a UFO – Notes from a local UFO Seminar

Posted in > SUPERNATURAL LIVING IN THE AMERICAN MARKETPLACE, > BLACK CADILLAC REVIEW by David on April 28, 2024

“There’s a lot of curiosity in the world with UFOs and what’s going on in the world – what are these things that people are seeing. And a lot of people are thinking, “I don’t believe in that.” I’ve had some people tell me that. I feel like I’m a Christian, I love the Lord, I’m a retired preacher, never really retired from that because I love teaching God’s word…and I have seen what I call, consider, a UFO…”
– Evangelist Mike J. Reilly

It all started with a photo of a small flyer posted in a local community Facebook Page –

UFO SEMINAR
Saturday, February 19
5:30 P.M. – 8:30 P.M.
Old Colbert Elementary Auditorium
in Colbert City Hall
…
Free seating for
First 300 people!

Comments immediately popped up asking for more details – few were forthcoming. By the date of the event all that was known was that it was being put on by a local fellow named Mike Reilly who used to own a video store in Hull, Georgia just outside of Athens. He’d had a UFO encounter at some point and was putting on this ‘UFO Seminar.‘ The woman who had posted the photo above confirmed this, but had nothing more to say about what the event was going to be about.

My good friend Tex Crawford, a beloved Athens artist who co-curated last year’s UFO exhibit with me at the Athens-Clarke County Library, sent a note joking that it looked like a “Jesus Trap,” and judging from the fact no one seemed to know what this thing was going to be about – I concurred. This bore all the earmarks of a standard evangelism event with a pop culture theme to lure folks in. The clip art, font choice and exploitation marketing ballyhoo of ‘First 300 Hundred Free,’ when it was unlikely that even 100 people would show up, all seemed suspicious as well. Due to my peculiar predilections for popular spirituality, this suspicion merely increased my eagerness to attend.

February 10th was a grey, rainy day – departure from the house was accompanied by a sizable committee of vultures drying their wings while perched atop a dead tree in the yard. A few minutes spent enjoying their company and I was off to drive a county or two away for an evening of…something. Whatever it was to be may or may not have anything to do with UFOs, but I was sure that it would be interesting.

Colbert City Hall is currently located in a converted elementary school, situated amidst a variety of industrial agricultural warehouse buildings in various states of antiquity. Pulling in to the parking area I saw a number of families and small groups of people shuffling beneath heavy grey skies towards the door with the hesitant lost expressions that come with going to an event that has no clear agenda or purpose.

Entering the auditorium the first thing that I saw was an electric piano on the stage with an older man sitting by it flipping through a book of sheet music. There were two large open bibles near the sound board on stage. All details confirming that this was indeed an evangelistic event, and for the first time since deciding to go I began to wonder if my fortitude was up to the task of sitting through it.

Thankfully the host began talking with some folks in the front about how he enjoyed watching Ancient Aliens on the History channel and from what I could hear that was a core component of how he was working to understand his UFO sighting. Having written about and studied the effect that Ancient Aliens has had on popular belief, this alone was worth the free admission. (1) So I settled in and enjoy the hymn medley that the piano player had begun working through.

With the lack of details surrounding the event, many assumed that it was going to be a chance for locals to share their personal experiences. The revival angle left many attendees feeling they’d been subject to a ‘bait and switch‘ – they came for UFOs and got an hour long hymn medley played on an electric piano leading in to a heady mix of ‘listener stories‘ style personal experiences interspersed with revival testimonials and evangelism – all kicked off by Riley’s own personal account of seeing a UFO one night with his wife when they were returning from church.

There were about 40-50 people in the auditorium for the first portion of the seminar. A number of people had a chance to share their UFO sightings before the religious tensions grew to the point where most of the attendees left in anger and frustration. A woman from Savannah shared a sighting that she had as a child which included a missing time element, a man who grew up in Huntsville, Alabama discussed the prevalence of UFO stories surrounding ‘Rocket City,’ another woman discussed an experience she had when she was younger of staying with a rural family whose property was known to have nightly orb and light phenomena, overall a very nice mix of personal accounts. However, for those who had opened themselves up to the vulnerability of sharing their personal experiences, the Bible-Only framing of it as being most likely demonic encounters was not exactly comforting. The expectation from the host that this discussion would lead to religious conversions didn’t help to create an environment of open exchange.

The audio document of this event allows us to hear the accounts of everyday people who have run up against something they cannot explain and we can compare their interpretations with the Bible-Only Christian perspective given by Riley and some of his associates who provided their own personal testimonies. This a perfect opportunity to experience what a ‘UFOs are Demons/Angels‘ worldview looks like in practice at the street level, outside of (but definitely influenced by) the speculative musings of pundits, politicians, para-tainment and conspiritual content creators.

How does the authorization of ‘UFOs are real’ that we are seeing in the wider culture enter in to worldviews that are developed within the tight, inflexible framework of something like Biblical Inerrancy?

What different interpretations are available through other traditions of biblical study?

What different interpretations are available through other religious and spiritual traditions?

How do these beliefs adapt to the presence of this ‘Other’ that still exists in some ambiguous realm in which people experience something that the cultural authorities have yet to fully accept as real?

Will the UFO’s wider acceptance encourage a deeper and more open religiosity or will it create new restrictions and controversies?

Even among Reilly’s associates there was no firm agreement on what a Bible-Only stance on the topic means – some were open to an angelic interpretation, others saw nothing but demonic activity and Satanic deception. With information drawn from shows like Ancient Aliens or from weaponized Spiritual Warfare narratives like those popular in the Third Wave Charismatic movement and New Apostolic Reformation groups, it’s difficult to think that a sophisticated spiritual understanding will emerge until more cultural authorization takes place and speculation has to meet with reality. (2)

Those who left the UFO Seminar early missed a heartfelt account of a ‘miraculous healing‘ that Riley had experienced, and the real surprise of the event – a $15K bounty for anyone who could find a buyer to purchase a $1M+ commercial property that Riley owns in the neighboring town of Hull. After the friction caused by the clashing worldviews, this all served to bring back the sense of everyday reality and humanity – something that we often lose in the face of disagreements that go as deep as religious or political beliefs. While the framework of Biblical inerrancy can strike many as unpalatable, behind it is still someone searching for answers, longing for stability and seeking to find some connection to the wider meanings of life. (3)

Will the increased acceptance of the potential presence of other intelligences around us eventually serve to bring us together in our shared sense humanity?

Or will it merely provide more fodder for the divisive and contrary worldviews we struggle with today?

Only time will tell, but as the topic of UFOs is being reshaped in our culture through U.S. congressional hearings and increasing coverage in the mainstream and academic press, the tensions that arose during this Evangelist lead UFO Seminar in small town Georgia show how important it is to have resources available, beyond popular entertainment like Ancient Aliens and the like, to help coordinate and explore the curious and often confusing experiential histories involved.

With this in mind I have been working with Dr. Diana Pasulka, author of the best selling book American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology (Oxford University Press, 2019) and professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, to develop an online course series that will serve this growing sphere of inquiry. While we cannot offer any solid answers to the enduring mystery of the UFO – we hope to develop a set of resources and open conversations that support an openminded inquiry into these areas.

And we hope that you will join us in this journey!