Close encounters of the human kind:
Making contact with the other-worldly
This paper explores methods for human-initiated contact with non-human intelligences (NHI) and their implications for geographical thought. Traditionally relegated to the realm of the supernatural (deities and spirits), in the modern era belief in NHIs has expanded to include the extra-terrestrial and alien. While social institutions are reluctant to legitimise such supernatural others, consigning them to the fringes of normative inquiry, this has not dissuaded those interested in 'making contact'. I examine contemporary extraterrestrial contact protocols which have resonances with religious and indigenous spiritual practices such as prayer, ritual, intention, altered states of consciousness and community. Beyond methodological implications, the paper argues that the "radical otherness" and intuitive capacities engaged in such contact protocols open novel avenues for geographical thinking. These include challenging materialist conceptions of reality, decoupling fixed notions of space-time, and granting consciousness a more active role in ontological existence.
Presented at the Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference, August 2024, London UK.