Ohio State is in the process of revising websites and program materials to accurately reflect compliance with the law. While this work occurs, language referencing protected class status or other activities prohibited by Ohio Senate Bill 1 may still appear in some places. However, all programs and activities are being administered in compliance with federal and state law.

Spirituality and Technoscience in UFO Contact Modalities: A Talk with Patrick Dunn

October 21, 2025

Spirituality and Technoscience in UFO Contact Modalities: A Talk with Patrick Dunn

Patrick Dunn NMTAP

On September 29, 2025, Patrick Dunn, PhD Student in comparative studies and recipient of the 2025 LLES Award for the Study of Myth, presented his research on how the modern UFO phenomenon has been shaped by the interplay of spiritual practices and technoscientific operations. His talk, “Spirituality and Technoscience in UFO Contact Modalities,” explored living communities engaged in CE-5 (Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind) protocols and other “contact modalities,” asking how UFOs might be understood as both “consciousness-assisted technology” and “technology-assisted consciousness.” Following his presentation, Dunn spoke with us about his research, what drew him to this subject, and the philosophical and historical questions that shape his work.

 

What first drew you to this topic and to exploring the intersection of spirituality and technology?
 
In the realm of modern UFO encounters, spirituality and technology are deeply entangled. As a historian of religious and philosophical practices, I recognize that such entanglement is not new. In neo-platonic theurgic traditions, for example, the concepts of pneuma (πνεῦμα) and techne (τέχνη) evolved in close relationship to each other. In ancient China, a related complex of notions and orientations took shape and evolved differently. My interest is in how more recent manifestations of this dynamic prioritize technology in ways that have profound onto-political implications for the world we think exists.  
 
 
Could you give us a brief overview of your current research and what questions guide it?
 
What is power? How is it known? To what extent does power rely upon a dynamic of secrecy and disclosure? How is such a dynamic enforced at the level of basic metaphysical concepts and assumptions? 
My dissertation traces a specific dynamic of secrecy and initiation, through ruptures and transformations, from ancient mystery schools, to modern secret societies and occult movements, into contemporary formations of UFO/UAP engagement by the global techno-military-intelligence complex.    
 
 
What have you found most surprising in your work so far?
 
Amidst all the challenges of discussing these topics, there is tremendous interest among scholars across disciplines in moving the discourse in a more careful, sophisticated, historically-informed direction. Until recently, UFO/UAP matters were largely taboo in the academy. Very little critical conversation was possible. The situation is changing.    
 
 
How do you approach studying contemporary communities or practices related to UFO contact?
 
I build upon, and have great respect for, the many researchers who have been investigating UFO/UAP matters for generations outside dominant structures of social legitimation. Their body of research constitutes, in many ways, a stigmatized and denied knowledge-field. I also have much to learn from experiencers and participants in UFO/UAP programs.  
My own approach, however, is rooted in academic traditions of philosophy, anthropology, and critical theory. These intellectual paths are morphing as they respond to a planetary situation of unprecedented (as far as we know) cultural complexity, technoscientific expansion, and ecological crisis. Many of the questions opened up by UFO/UAPs - about religion, humanity, modernity, technology - are refractions of this larger transformation.  
 
  
Finally, what directions do you see your research taking next?
 
In some ways, the dynamics highlighted in my dissertation belong to a distinctively Euro-American genealogy of power and technology. Based on my decades of intimate involvement with Buddhist and other East Asian practice-traditions, I wonder how those traditions might provide the context for a different cultural and technological trajectory around UFO/UAP matters. Perhaps finding collaborators more familiar with contemporary East Asian UFO/UAP cultures will be a path towards clarity.