Earth light, earth angel

The chapter argues that Paul Devereux's essentially mythopoeic writings on so-called 'Earth Lights' show that the paranormal may be more successful than moral or political exhortation at transforming humanity's relationship with nature and the cosmos as a whole. Devereux's Earth Lights hypothesis is intended to account for UFO and other paranormal experiences by reference to geophysical forces. I demonstrate that his ideas in fact involve a complex interplay of forces which takes place on somatic, psychic, imaginal, emotional and spiritual levels, creating intricate reciprocal relationships which can transform the experiencer and the world itself. The piece draws on the work of Henry Corbin to argue that the UFO vision is thus a kind of sacrament, in which the witness is transfigured, the world becomes Eden, and all is shot through with the presence of the divine.