American Cosmic: UFO's, Religion, Technology by D.W. Pasulka

Author:D.W. Pasulka [Pasulka, D.W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780190692889
Google: jtc7swEACAAJ
Goodreads: 38819245
Published: 2018-10-16T13:49:31+00:00

A N E W F O R M O F R E L I G I O N

As a professor of religion, I am often asked to present my

research to community groups. On one occasion, I gave a

presentation on the interpretation of aerial phenomena in

several religious traditions. There were about fifty people

in attendance. Toward the end, I mentioned the religion

Jediism, which is inspired by the Star Wars franchise.

Usual y when I speak of Jediism, people laugh, and this

occasion was no different. For the record, I do not laugh

at any religious tradition. After the presentation was over

I was approached by a man and his son. He waited until the

people around me dispersed, and then he told me that he

was a practitioner of one of the religious traditions I had

mentioned.

“Buddhism?” I asked.

“No.”

“Christianity?”

“No.”

I then immediately knew he was a Jedi, and I felt bad the

audience had laughed when I had mentioned his religious

tradition.

“You are a Jedi!” I exclaimed.

He smiled proudly. He was a Jedi Knight.

Star Wars characters not only inhabit our virtual land-

scape but also have inspired a religious movement. In 2002,

I became aware that a group of people had claimed Star Wars

as their religion on a census in the United Kingdom, as a

joke. I used this as an example to show my students that de-

fining religion is not easy, but I was certain that it wouldn’t be relevant in another year. Yet this event, along with other, independent developments, soon became part of a movement

W H E N S TA R WA R S B E C A M E R E A L | 1 37

that endured, and now there are official religious groups

that claim Star Wars as their sacred “scripture.”21 Critics claim that it is not a real religion because it is based on a movie. Religions general y propose truth claims regarding a

transcendent, or supernatural, element. Movies do not. Yet

thousands of practitioners of Jediism believe that there is a

transcendent and supernatural element within Star Wars—

the Force. Of course, the Force is only one of many themes in

Star Wars movies, but practitioners of Jediism reserve unique autonomy for the Force, apart from its fictional status.

According to Jedi practitioners, George Lucas based the

movies on religious philosophies including Daoism and Zen

Buddhism. Because these are considered religions, and Star

Wars is based on and il ustrates them, it should therefore be considered a type of scripture that, like a finger pointing to

the moon, refers to eternal and transcendent truths. Thus,

practitioners of Jediism place their fiction- based religion

within a category reserved for traditional religions.

David Chidester, Carole Cusack, and Markus Alteena

Davidsen have all studied new religious movements based

on movies, science fiction, and other nontraditional

inspirations. According to Chidester, “fakelore or fake reli-

gion, although invented, mobilized, and deployed by frauds,

can produce real effects in the real world.”22 In a more gen-

erous vein, Cusack argues, “Studying religions that openly

advertise their invention not only enriches what we know

about traditional religions, but sheds light on how science

fiction speculations and new technologies inform religious

belief and practice.”23 She also notes that invented religions

il

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