Then enter Nicholas of Cuss, a German philosopher, theologian and cardinal, who took forward the idea of aliens in the 15th century but with a twist. Nicholas in his writings declared that instead of the sun or even the Earth, God was the center of the universe(this was before Copernicus had established the heliocentric model). But that was not it, he states, “Rather than think that so many stars and parts of the heavens are uninhabited and that this earth of ours alone is peopled – and that with beings perhaps of an inferior type – we will suppose that in every region there are inhabitants, differing in nature by rank and all owing their origin to God, who is the center and circumference of all stellar regions.”
The idea was received well and soon his contemporaries too began discussing the implication of such a possibility. While the concept of aliens was looked at with a scientific approach as of yet, Medieval scholars had accommodated the concept well enough with their religious beliefs. Today aliens are a hot cultural topic, and they are being taken more seriously, with the Pentagon establishing a dedicated office, Congress conducting hearings, and NASA joining the investigation efforts. Despite the growing attention and importance placed on confirming the existence of extraterrestrial life, there is nothing substantial we know about them. Let us explore why even after no substantial evidence, the concept of aliens is still a relevant debate.
Until the 1940s, aliens were just an imaginary concept, whose existence was always blurred into ideas from religion, fantasy and superstition. This changed soon enough with the evolution of tech, and we saw the development of a new concept- Unidentified Flying Objects or UFOs. Kenneth Arnold, a private pilot, claimed to have seen nine high speed flying saucers shoot across the sky when he was flying past Mt. Rainier on June 24, 1947. The very same year, the Roswell Daily Record reported the capturing of a ‘flying saucer’ on Ranch in Roswell Region. However, soon it was found that it was not an alien spaceship but a high altitude weather balloon with a radar reflection. This triggered a mass reaction amongst people who got obsessed with the concept of extraterrestrial life, so much so that a new subculture known as “ufology” was established.
The 1950’s and 60’s are full of stories about ‘sightings’ of suspicious looking flying objects which people immediately recognised as alien related. However they spread a belief amongst the people that not only were aliens real, they do visit Earth from time to time. This belief was further fueled by the fact that the which government government’s investigation project known as- Project Blue Book was very hush-hush. The conspiracy theorists lapped up on this opportunity each trying to make sense of the events in their own way.
Area 51, a classified U.S. Air Force facility in Nevada, has become the center of conspiracy theories, especially concerning alleged alien encounters. Alongside these rumors, the concept of alien abduction emerged, shifting the public’s perception from curiosity to fear. Aliens transitioned from being distant, ethereal beings to perceived technologically advanced creatures potentially observing and abducting humans, adding an unsettling layer to the mystery surrounding extraterrestrial life. This fear was manifested in early 1950, when Antônio Vilas-Boas claimed that he had been abducted by aliens, while working at night on his family farm in Brazil. As per reports by “The Collector”, Antonio said that he was captured by these beings, who wore gray overalls and helmets. Those beings then took him aboard their ship, whereupon they took their helmets off. They apparently had small blue eyes and communicated via a series of animal-like grunts.
