Cartesian Aliens

Why I think extraterrestrial and UFO/UAP devotees are irrational and dangerous

In his 1641 treatise, Meditations on First Philosophy, René Descartes ran a thought experiment that has come to be known as “the evil demon” argument. It’s essentially an epistemological exercise that posits the existence of a powerful demon, or a deus deceptor (deceiving god), who deceives us about the fundamental nature of reality to such an extent that we cannot trust our own senses. This thought experiment, while ultimately self-defeating (if you’re deceived about everything, wouldn’t you also be deceived about the existence of the deceiver?), is nonetheless useful for exploring the complex philosophy of how it’s possible for us to have true knowledge about the world.

Descartes, of course, didn’t actually believe in the existence of such a divine deceiver. Rather, “he was using [the argument] as part of a larger project to radically re-conceive epistemology in an era of rapid advancements in science that was threatening to overturn centuries of our understanding of the world.”¹ However, it seems that we currently live in an era where numerous otherwise intelligent people practically do believe in Cartesian demons. They just call them “aliens.”

Since 2017, “aliens” have become mainstream. The 2025 documentary The Age of Disclosure contains interviews with dozens of intelligent, high ranking members of the U.S. government all attesting to the reality that there are “superior intelligences” that have been in contact with us for decades.

Just the other day I had a random video pop up on my YouTube feed by a Ufologist named Jesse Michels entitled, “Skinwalker Ranch & Sedona: The Underground Base Pipeline.” It may sound conspiratorial, but anyone who seriously looks into this stuff knows that it’s real. Since the mid-20th century the U.S. government has done psychological experiments such as remote viewing to enter into contact with “non-human intelligences” (NHIs), and the government is actively cooperating with these NHIs in the construction of secret military bases that are guarded by technologies that defy what we know about the laws of physics.

There is literally an app on mainstream Appstore’s called “CE5 Contact” (standing for “close encounters of the 5th kind”) that teaches you how to contact “extraterrestrials” through various occultic meditation practices. It was created by Dr. Steven Greer, who has been known to be able to summon UFOs and UAPs through his meditative practices (there are pre-AI video recordings of this actually happening).

The point of this article isn’t to “prove” that aliens are real. I don’t believe in aliens, and neither should you. Rather, it’s to argue that men like Greer and other Ufologists effectively believe in Cartesian demons and are therefore irrational and dangerous.

To understand why I hold this position, you must know that devout Ufologists don’t believe that extraterrestrial contact is an exclusively modern phenomenon. Oh no. They believe that these beings have been in contact with us for centuries if not millennia. As Jesse Michels states in the video quoted above, “They’ve been making contact through back channels, indigenous tribes, secret societies, occult practitioners, psychonauts, lone religious monks, or just some kid sending coherent love beams out his bedroom window.”

Indeed, the devout Ufologists will look at the credible miracle accounts from the ancient past until today and declare that it was all the work of NHIs. Whether it was Moses’ parting of the Red Sea, Elijah’s ascent to the heavens on a fiery chariot (doesn’t that sound like a UFO?!), our Lord Jesus Christ’s miracles, His being raised from the dead, or even the Shroud of Turin (consider how only “advanced technology” that “wasn’t available” in the Middle Ages could have produced it), Marian apparitions of the modern era (think of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s celestial imagery, Our Lady of Fatima where witnesses described a “disk” in the sky, or Our Lady of Zeitoun where there were luminous “doves” flying in formations that UAPs have been known to), all of these are interpreted as NHIs attempting to contact us.

However, there’s a massive epistemological cost that comes with interpreting all of these credible miracle accounts as the work of extraterrestrials. Consider that, if NHIs are intelligent enough to penetrate the deepest mathematical and scientific mysteries of the universe, not to mention the physical, psychological, and spiritual secrets of man himself, then surely they’re capable of (1) clearly communicating something to human beings, and (2) knowing how these humans and their descendants will understand these communications.

Given this, what does it mean to say that NHIs performed “signs and wonders” for both ancient and modern peoples in order to vindicate (in the Ufologist’s own worldview) a fundamentally flawed understanding of reality? It means that they’re deceivers.

The Ufologist is forced to admit that, within his own worldview, NHIs effectively “Truman Showed” generations of ancient peoples into accepting systematically false beliefs about history, religion, spirituality, anthropology, and even God. Worse yet, they made people submit to all of these falsehoods under the threat of physical death in the Old Testament, and eternal spiritual death in the New Testament. These NHIs then pushed the same “false” message about the truth of Christianity and the danger of eternal hellfire at the Fatima apparitions in 1917, using children as their instruments of deceit no less. This isn’t even to mention the other psycho-spiritual experiences that Ufologists attribute to NHIs that promote contradictory and (from their own perspective) dangerously false beliefs.

And come on. Devout Ufologists believe that NHIs have been deceiving human beings about the nature of reality for our entire existence, but now they’ve decided to tell the truth? To the most powerful and dangerous governments that have ever existed in human history? Really? If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

Ultimately, if the Ufologists are correct that there are superintelligent and quasi-omnipotent extraterrestrials who (1) are capable of manipulating the psychological and physical experiences of humans, and (2) have a proven history of fundamentally deceiving humans about the nature of reality, then they have shown the existence of Cartesian demons. But as noted above, the very notion of Cartesian demons is incoherent as it lands one in a skeptical scenario where he can’t even trust his own senses (including the senses that suggest to him that Cartesian demons exist). Therefore, if the UFO/UAP phenomenon is real, which I believe that it is, and if a good God truly governs the universe, which He does, then Ufologists have actually proven the existence of, not Cartesian demons, but just plain old demons.

The fact that devout Ufologists are ready to give their lives over to demons demonstrates that they are dangerous and need to be condemned in the strongest terms by Catholic authorities. Any Catholics who promote modern Ufology are (whether knowingly or not) likewise cooperating with demon worshipers. Stay vigilant.

1. Ryan Huckle, “A Modern Cartesian Demon.”