Review of Ancient Aliens S20E19: “The Chosen”

​In an interview this week with The Guardian, Jeffrey Kripal, the religious scholar with wild opinions on UFOs and ancient aliens, claimed that during an incident of food poisoning in Kolkata in 1989, supernatural forces “downloaded” what he described as “massive amounts of information” into his body, making him a believer in otherworldly powers. By coincidence, today’s episode of Ancient Aliens is called “The Chosen” and involves people who feel they have been in contact with angels, aliens, or divine beings and received messages from them. If that sounds familiar, it’s probably because the show already did this episode back in season five, with their show on “Prophets and Prophecies.” This time, they mix and match material from that show with modern abduction claims, which … oh, yeah, they also did in “Strange Abductions” in season five, two weeks after “Prophets and Prophecies.”

​I’m starting to think that it might be time for me to call it a wrap on these episode reviews. Last week, a whopping 126 people read my review of the Linda Moulton Howe episode. Granted, she’s not a marquee name who would attract a massive audience, but it might be that reviewing this show has run its course and there isn’t anything left to say about its endlessly recycled content. 

​Segment 1
We open with J. Allen Hynek’s scale of three types of close encounters and Jacques Vallée adding two more levels to account for supposed alien abductions. Giorgio Tsoukalos leads us through the familiar claim that Biblical patriarchs were abducted by aliens, as were heroes from other cultures who visited the heavens in clouds or various vehicles. From here, we move into modern stories of “repeat abductees.” Pat McGuire of Wyoming started being abducted in the 1970s after his cattle were mutilated. When clips of Linda Moulton Howe interviewing McGuire for 1980’s A Strange Harvest shows how lazy this show is and how each episode “inspires” the subsequent one by making use of outtakes to create a new one. McGuire claims the aliens gave him a message about a future apocalypse. Howe tells us that abductees have “telepathy into [the] minds” of aliens.

​Segment 2
The second segment is a repeat of Whitley Strieber’s biography and alleged abduction and alien implant. They covered this last year in yet another episode on alien abductions. There is nothing new here.

​Segment 3
The third segment covers Chris Bledsoe’s claim to summon UFOs with his mind after an abduction. Bledsoe has appeared on Fox News to claim that he made 25,000 UFO videos in 24 years, prompting even Fox’s Jesse Watters to ask last year if something was wrong with him. When your claims are too unbelievable for Fox News, perhaps Ancient Aliens might have considered whether Bledsoe is credible in claiming that a divine woman came to him through a UFO. Jeffrey Kripal shows up to endorse the idea that UFO abductions are a religious experience, and Tsoukalos repeats his claims about Biblical encounters with alien messengers masquerading as God and/or angels. 

​Segment 4
The fourth segment reviews the claims of Phillip Krapf to have received messages from aliens about their mission to bring new planets into a galactic federation. His Star Trek-style mythology is rather dull, as his claim to be a spokesperson for the coming federation. Included in this section is former Canadian defense minister Paul Hellyer’s bonkers alien claims, made in his dotage, when, by his own admission, he was radicalized by a Peter Jennings UFO special and knew nothing prior about UFOS. We also hear again about ex-Israeli space official Haim Eshed’s claim, at age 87, that the U.S. is working with space aliens to abduct humans. 

​Segment 5
The fifth segment discusses alleged alien experimentation during abductions. This leads to a repeat of material about so-called “Star Children,” whom the show asserts are alien hybrids. The show conflates supposed alien hybrids with Native American lore and Chinese government claims to have identified thousands of psychic children. The show doesn’t both at this late stage of its life even to pretend to offer evidence, assuming viewers will simply accept that in the 1980s to early 2000s aliens were genetically engineering psychic children who—twenty to forty years later—somehow did not become an army of world-saving psychic adults. Oops.

Segment 6
The final segment discusses military UFO sightings, which are on the rise, and alleges that UFO and alien contact experiences are increasing, and the show posits that a secular Millennium is at hand when the prophesied return of the aliens will lead to a new age of wonder and joy. Tsoukalos steps in to remind viewers that Nick Pope’s claim of “first contact” being imminent isn’t right because the aliens genetically manipulated humans “thousands of years ago,” so any contact will be a return to the age of the gods. Howe says she longs for the government to confirm the reality of aliens before she dies, so she can pass happily—even though she claims to already know the “truth.” Nothing is real until Big Daddy Government tells you it’s OK to believe. It is the secular equivalent of waiting for the Pope to endorse a miracle, even if you saw it with your own eyes.