UFOs, Aliens, and the Problem of Evil
What is the psychological significance of the UFO or UAP phenomenon?
Posted August 19, 2025 | Reviewed by Kaja Perina
The mysterious phenomenon of UFOs or UAPs inevitably touches on matters of religion, spirituality , morality , and psychology, including our innate quest for meaning and, especially, on the perennial problem of evil. We humans possess a primal, perhaps instinctual proclivity to perceive and deem that which we do not understand, i.e., the unknown , as negative, destructive, or evil.
In Part 1 of this post, I addressed some of the psychological dynamics and existential needs (e.g., meaninglessness and alienation in a mysterious cosmos, dread of the stranger or "other," seeking a messianic "ultimate rescuer," etc.) that can foster belief in UFOs, extraterrestrial visitation or abduction, etc.
Fervent, far-fetched, unswerving and unlikely reports with absolutely no objective evidence or corroboration can, in some cases, sound like the stuff of delusions or hallucinations heard every day in psychiatric wards around the world. And like hallucinations and delusions, these reported experiences can sometimes serve as a sort of projective test, revealing hidden conflicts, fears, resentments, repressed memories , traumas , and anxieties (and sometimes positive feelings, wishes, talents, potentialities, aspirations or beliefs) not only in the psyche of individual experiencers but deeply rooted in our collective unconscious psyche as well.
However, having said all that, this is in no way intended by me to dismiss or deny the objective reality of the UFO or UAP phenomenon but rather only to provide some psychological context within which to try to better comprehend, explain, and come to terms with it. Given some of the most recent information and imagery released by the government, for example, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, chair of a federal declassification task force, telling Joe Rogan (August, 2025) that she’s seen classified photos of objects “not created by mankind,” New York Times articles (2018, 2020) on UAPs offering several images of unidentified objects captured via video by the U.S. military, and thousands of eye-witness accounts by airline pilots, military personnel, police, etc., and other reliable and credible witnesses, it can no longer be denied that strange objects have been observed.
As with Hermann Rorschach 's famous inkblots, we tend to project our deepest hopes and fears onto such enigmatic and ambiguous phenomena. Indeed, human beings are prone, as C.G. Jung theorized in his concept of the "shadow," to project our own capacity for evil onto the "other"--be they our partner, neighbor, co-worker, or someone of a different race, religion, ethnicity , nationality, gender , political leaning, or sexual orientation --thus preserving our narcissistic and one-sided, unidimensional image of ourselves as being good, kind, caring people while consciously or unconsciously harboring hostility, hatred, resentment, distrust , and dread of the unknown other or stranger.
This dangerous and destructive dynamic is exemplified today in the excessive polarization, paranoia , and interpersonal hostility pervading American culture, manifesting in racism , antisemitism, political enmity, and defensive isolationism. But other nations and people engage in similar projection of the shadow, in the process, dehumanizing, devaluing, and demeaning the perceived enemy.
Human beings historically harbor a primal fear of the "other" and the "unknown" and superstitiously see them as threatening harbingers of evil, whether these are people of different races, ethnicities, nationalities, or religions or uninvited and unwelcome strangers from outer space. We project our so-called shadow, viewing them as the evil enemy. (See, for example, former PT contributing editor Sam Keen's 1991 book Faces of the Enemy. ) Consequentially, we are prone to attacking, verbally or physically, the unknown object of our fears, which causes untold interpersonal and international conflict and unspeakable suffering.
On the other hand, belief in UFOs and alien beings can be a way of wishing to be rescued from evil, much like the belief in a loving and good god or messiah (see my prior post on the messiah complex). This presumes the intrinsic benevolence and goodness of aliens. But is the problem or existential reality of evil indigenous to the human race or could it be present in extraterrestrial civilization as well? Whatever these foreign objects and their occupants (or remote or robotic pilots) are and wherever they come from, they have now become an integral part of our modern collective myth, for better or worse.
If aliens, assuming they truly exist, eventually turn out not to be trustworthy, demonstrating hostility, aggression , malice, evil intentions and pose a mortal threat to humanity, as depicted for example in H.G. Wells' (1897) science fiction novel War of the Worlds , they will need to be fought and resisted despite their superior technology if humanity is to survive. That they even possess or represent such a potentiality for evil is for some people frightening reason enough to deny their existence entirely. Not to mention the shattering impact that the reality of alien life would have on our religious, philosophical, and scientific beliefs.
Of course, another at least equally likely scenario in any close encounter with aliens has humanity as the initial aggressor, violently attacking these possibly well-intentioned, empathic , and peaceful visitors, as portrayed in another classic 1951 sci-fi flick The Day the Earth Stood Still . Indeed, it is at least equally possible that such enigmatic alien entities mean no harm by their presence or may actually wish to help society and humanity survive and thrive. That their mission here is to save us from ourselves.
Have evolved extraterrestrials, very unlike humanity, found some way to transcend, mitigate, or even eliminate the pernicious problem of evil that has plagued humanity from time immemorial? If so, would that make them immune to the tendency toward evil? Is this even a realistic possibility? It represents an optimistic but potentially very naive and, therefore, risky view which to assume would be wishful thinking. Because many people tend, as did humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers, to believe in the intrinsic goodness of others, we will likely give any extraterrestrial visitors the benefit of the doubt initially, presuming that by providing them a warm, friendly, supportive, empathic welcome (demonstrating "positive regard") they will choose to respond in kind. Perhaps.
But until we know for certain much more about these supposedly extraterrestrial strangers, whomever or whatever they are, we would do well to keep in mind the existential capacity for evil, not only potentially in them but especially in ourselves. For all we know, the problem of evil may reside inherently and exclusively in the terrestrial human condition but, then again, could turn out to be a pervasive and ubiquitous universal reality, one which, as here on Earth, can lead to catastrophic consequences when denied, minimized, or ignored.
The phenomenon of human evil, if proven to be indigenous and exclusive to our species, can be conceived of as a kind of malignant cancer capable in the future of metastasizing to the farthest reaches of creation. Thus it is crucial for we human beings to better comprehend the psychology of evil. The more we are willing to study, confront, and acknowledge the phenomenon of human evil, doing our best to understand, mitigate and control it, the less likely we are to engage in evil directed toward aliens, be they human or extraterrestrial. It is only natural to hope that visiting aliens have transcended, outgrown or eliminated the evil tendencies with which we humans still so tragically struggle.
The more likely scenario is that, if extraterrestrials do indeed exist, they are, for better or worse, probably something like us: creatures inherently capable of both good and evil.
Diamond, S.A. (1996). Anger, madness, and the daimonic: The psychological genesis of violence, evil, and creativity . SUNY Press.
Diamond, S.A. (2026). Forthcoming: "The psychology and psychotherapy of evil: Encountering the daimonic." In Hoffman, L. (Ed.) (2026). APA handbook of humanistic and existential psychology . APA books.
New York Times. April 28, 2020. U.S. Navy Releases Videos of Unexplained Flying Objects
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Stephen Diamond, Ph.D. , is a clinical and forensic psychologist in Los Angeles, and the author of Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic: The Psychological Genesis of Violence, Evil, and Creativity .
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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.