Joining us for the 14th edition of our special Quarantine Series is professor of religious history Diana Walsh Pasulka, Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

After completing her undergraduate work at the University of California Davis, she earned a master’s degree in Systematic Theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, and later went on to receive a doctorate in religious studies from Syracuse University.

Prof. Pasulka specializes in Catholic history, and her current research focuses on religious and supernatural belief and practice and its connections to digital technologies and environments.

Her lectures include, “Taking UFOs Seriously, That is, Religiously,” “The Belief-Effect of Media on Religion,” and “The Fairy Tale is True: Social Technologies & Belief in the Supernatural.”

Along with her colleague, fellow religious studies professor Jeffrey Kripal, Dr. Pasulka co-organized the conferences “Emergent Technologies & New Mythologies” for the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and “Bodies of Light & Super Saints” for the Esalen Center for Theory & Research.

She served as head religion advisor for the films The Conjuring (2013) and The Conjuring II (2016), and has received numerous grants and awards for research and applied learning, including sums from the Esalen Center in 2016 for research at Castel Gandolfo’s Vatican Observatory, and in 2018 for ongoing research involving the Vatican and the Vatican Archives.

Her two books, published by Oxford University Press, are Heaven Can Wait: Purgatory in Catholic Devotional & Popular Culture (2015), and American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology (2019). She is also co-editor of Posthumanism: The Future of Homo Sapiens (2018) which includes her chapters, “The Prehistory of the Posthuman” and “The Spectrum of Human Techno-hybridity: The Total Recall Effect,” and of the newly-released Believing in Bits: New Media & the Supernatural (2020) which includes her chapter, “Where Soul Meets Technology: Catholic Visionaries & the Stanford Research Institute as Precedents for Human-Machine Interfaces & Social Telepathy Apps” co-written with David Metcalfe.

American Cosmic crossed from an academic to a mainstream audience and became a best seller in several genres. It has been optioned by Chad & Carey Hayes of The Conjuring franchise and is being developed for television. Dr. Pasulka is asked weekly to appear on the History Channel, A&E and other media platforms and has lectured at the Guggenheim Museum, Harvard University, and the Commonwealth Club in Silicon Valley.

This interview was recorded on Wednesday, March 17, 2021. It’s 01:49:48 long and 102.6 MB. You can listen to it right here in your browser or download it directly to your computer. It’s also available on on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and Amazon Music.

You can also listen to this episode on your Amazon Echo device. Simply say, “Alexa, play Speaking of Jung on Apple Podcasts (or on TuneIn).” Just be sure to pronounce Jung with a hard J.

NEW: This episode is now available on our YouTube channel and it includes dozens of images!

SHOW NOTES

Extended Preface to American Cosmic Free PDF

St. Patrick’s Purgatory: A Mediaeval Pilgrimage in Ireland by St. John Seymour

The Legend of St. Patrick’s Purgatory: Tales of Ireland’s Ancient Pilgrimage Site by Shane Leslie

Lough Derg in Ulster: The Story of St. Patrick’s Purgatory by Shane Leslie

Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal & the Sacred by Jeffrey Kripal, Ph.D.

The Super Natural: Why the Unexplained is Real by Whitley Strieber & Jeffrey J. Kripal, Ph.D.

Arrival The movie

The Conjuring The movie

The DaVinci Code The movie

The Blair Witch Project The movie

The Invisible College: What a Group of Scientists Has Discovered About UFO Influence on the Human Race by Jacques Vallée, Ph.D.

Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers by Jacques Vallée, Ph.D.

Flicker: Your Brain on Movies by Jeffrey Zacks

Temple of the Jedi Order Jediism

Robert Bigelow on 60 Minutes

Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle by C.G. Jung

The Unseen with Mike Clelland with guest Laura London, Jan. 19, 2021

Speaking of Jung, Ep. Q13 with Mike Clelland and Jungian analyst Kenneth James, Ph.D.

2001: A Space Odyssey: Meaning of the Monolith Revealed YouTube video by Collative Learning

Speaking of Jung, Ep. 75 with Sonu Shamdasani, Ph.D.

The Red Book: Liber Novus by C.G. Jung

The Black Books by C.G. Jung

Of Monoliths, Pentagons & Moons: Has “Disclosure” Finally Dawned? Part 1 The Other Side of Midnight, Dec. 5, 2020

Of Monoliths, Pentagons & Moons: Has “Disclosure” Finally Dawned? Part 2 The Other Side of Midnight, Dec. 6, 2020

David Morehouse Remote Viewing Technologies

“A Brief History of Remote Viewing” by David Morehouse (full text)

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi Santa Fe, New Mexico

Martin Heidegger Amazon Author Page

The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism by Herbert Thurston

Tomb of St. Catherine of Siena Under the main altar of the Basilica di Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome

Speaking of Jung, Ep. 82 on The Ecstasies of St. Francis YouTube slideshow

The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa Statue by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome

Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies by C.G. Jung

Vatican Apostolic Archives Formerly known as the Vatican Secret Archive

Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial?: . . . and Other Questions from the Astronomers’ In-box at the Vatican Observatory by Guy Consolmagno, S.J. & Paul Mueller, S.J.

UNCW Professor Diana Pasulka to Visit the Vatican Space Archives and “Secret Archives” UNCW News, May 18, 2017

Vatican Observatory Castel Gandolfo, Italy

Searching for the (Star) Light at the Vatican Observatory by Elisabetta Povoledo, The New York Times, Dec. 22, 2017

St. Joseph of Cupertino Catholic Online

Mary of Agreda Official website

The Mystical City of God by Venerable Mary of Agreda (abridged edition)

The Mystical City of God: The Conception Volume I of The Divine History & Life of the Virgin Mother of God by Venerable Mary of Agreda (Volume II “The Incarnation,” Volume III “The Transfixion,” and Volume IV “The Coronation” are available through this link)

Taos Artist Helps Revive ‘The Lady in Blue’ by Rick Romancito, Taos News, Jan. 5, 2012

Mystery of the ‘Lady in Blue’ Perseveres Taos Public Library presents Dr. Anna M. Nogar’s work on legendary ‘bilocating’ Catholic nun, by Virginia L. Clark, Taos News, Sep 24, 2019

Ghosts & Poltergeists by Herbert Thurston

BOOKS BY DR. PASULKA

American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology

Believing in Bits: Digital Media & the Supernatural Co-edited with Simone Natale

Heaven Can Wait: Purgatory in Catholic Devotional & Popular Culture

Posthumanism: The Future of Homo Sapiens Co-edited with Michael Bess; includes her chapters, “The Prehistory of the Posthuman,” and “The Spectrum of Human Techno-hybridity: The Total Recall Effect” (same price from the publisher)

Foreword by Dr. Pasulka UFOs: Reframing the Debate Edited by Robbie Graham