UFOs, Conspiracy Theories and the New Age by David G. Robertson (review)

David G. Robertson's book offers a welcome new perspective on the significance of the UFO in the Anglophone world and the different meanings that these symbolically resonant objects have assumed in the post-Cold War period. Using the methodology of discourse analysis, he examines the UFO as a "discursive object" that takes on specific meanings in both New Age (or, as he prefers, popular millennialist) and conspiracy theory milieus. Robertson argues that as individuals involved with popular millennialism became interested in UFOs and, following that interest, encountered conspiracist material, a new kind of genre, which he calls "millennial conspiracism," began to emerge. Simultaneously a genealogy of UFO narratives, a history of how the New Age optimism of the 1960s gave way to a darker form of millennialism, and an examination of three prominent proponents of millennial conspiracism, the book is an instructive example of the social constructionist approach within religious studies.

Robertson finds that because it represents the shifting frontier between scientific knowledge and more subjective ways of knowing, the UFO is a key element in the discourse of millennial conspiracism, which combines the conspiracist focus on the malevolent influence of hidden agencies (such as the Illuminati, New World Order, or reptilian extraterrestrials) with more positive themes of personal and planetary transformation drawn from popular millennial narratives. The second half of Robertson's book traces the development of this evolving form of discourse over time, as evidenced in the works of Whitley Strieber, David Icke and David Wilcock, three popular authors whose claims draw on epistemologies stigmatized by established religious and scientific authorities.

Robertson's use of discourse analysis and his focus on the epistemological foundations and "epistemic capital" associated with different kinds of discourse distinguishes his book from others in the burgeoning literature on extraterrestrial contact, alien abduction (or contactee) narratives, ufoism, and UFO religions. It is aimed particularly at scholars in the field of religious studies, Robertson's own discipline, and models an alternative approach applicable in many other contexts. Focusing our analyses on discourse and epistemology, Robertson argues, rather than problematic analytical categories like "belief" (which has been subjected to thorough critique in recent decades) would enable scholars to "more easily consider the functional similarities between 'religious' discourses and those of 'nationalism,' 'political ideology,' and so forth" (211). From this perspective, conspiracy theories, UFO narratives, and popular millennial literature spring from the same source and serve the same social functions as those narratives deemed "religious." The difference is that they lack the latter's authoritative status or, as Robertson puts it, epistemic capital.

In the hands of a less competent writer, all this talk of "epistemic capital," "counter-epistemic strategies," "discursive objects," and "millennial conspiracism" easily could devolve into jargony mumbo jumbo or theoretical blather. Robertson, however, handles it with grace and an economy of style that facilitates understanding. He brings in just enough discussion of his terms and their theoretical foundations, such as Bourdieu's concept of habitus or Foucault's understanding of power, to be edifying without overwhelming, and his explanations are clear and succinct. Moreover, he rarely loses sight of his own objectives, continually reminding the reader of how these theoretical concepts illuminate his own material. The book's first three chapters focus on methodological and theoretical issues while later chapters offer more description and ethnographical observations.

After laying out the organizing themes of the book in chapter 1, Robertson explains the method of discourse analysis and defines his key concepts in chapter 2. This chapter, which is the methodological heart of the book and the place where Robertson articulates his contribution to religious studies most explicitly, ends with a brief overview of the five epistemic strategies or knowledge systems currently used in contemporary Anglophone culture: tradition, science, experiential, synthetic, and channeling. As Robertson explains, these epistemic strategies sanction particular ways of knowing and produce different types of knowledge and each has a different degree of authority within a given...