About Me

I am a Grad Student in the Religioius Studies program at CSULB who was just recently awarded their Masters degree. I have had a life long interest in paranormal phenomena, parapsychology, philosophy of mind, western esotericism, "occult" studies, UFO/UAP phenomena, and alien abduction. My thesis, "Silhouette of an Experience: Confronting Epistemological Marginalization and the Incorporation of Paranormal Phenomena in Religious Studies" was an attempt to hightlight the insufficiency within my own field (and the humanities at large) at tackling so-called paranormal phenomenon by assuming materialism as its metaphysical paradigm and the methodological approach of bracketing (concomittant with phenomenology) which serves to marginalize real experiential reports and discount their validity. My goal was to show, by discussing reports of alien abduction, psi phenomena, and associated government (and university) research, that an open ontology needs to be embraced if the humanities, and especially religious studies, is to flourish and disassociate itself from the pernicious idea that it is only a field of auxillary disciplines dependent upon and intellectually restricted by so-called Scientism. I hope to continue my studies in this arena further and pursue a PhD program.