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130 Reception of religion and media

“seeker”-oriented autonomy we spoke of in Chapter 3. Judy presents
herself as taking responsibility for her own spirituality. She is the center of
the quest, and does not want to cede that role to church or to media.
Still, she sees media as an important context for the working out of her
ideas about her beliefs, as is clear when the Interviewer follows her into a
discussion of her belief in aliens. 17

Judy: I believe that there are aliens because where did we get all this
knowledge of high-tech equipment and people have found spaceships
and they have it on videotape about the, what is that where they did
capture an alien?
Interviewer: The autopsy thing?
Judy: Yeah. I have seen, you know, I have seen something but I believe
there is life out there in space. There’s other things.
Interview: Do you get reminded of that or search things out media-wise
for that?
Judy: It’s on TV all the time. TV kind of pushes... it’s kind of pushed.
They don’t let you find it out on your own. They kind of push it on to
you, like the X-Files or like now, Roswell, they kind of push that on
you. And also Star Trek. They kind of turn things around. They take
fantasy and there’s no more reality so they kind of turn things around.

Judy’s seeker autonomy is thus offended by what she sees to be the
preponderance of alien-oriented programs available in the media. Beyond
that, she finds their approach to be less than helpful because it is (a
favorite word of hers) “fantasy.” The Interviewer asks for a clarification:

Interviewer: I’m just trying to understand this. Are you saying because you
take these things [aliens, afterlife, etc.] to be real that the X-Files is
kind of a joke because it’s playing it for drama or for make-believe?
Judy: Yeah, it’s turning more into money because they figure while
they . . . [long pause] if they come out with all these stories they have
to kind of act, play, and dress up in their little costumes and they kind
of, now you’re looking into fantasy. It’s not reality.
Interviewer: Reality is the things that you believe.
Judy: Yeah.
Interviewer: Is the Crossing over thing closer to reality?
Judy: Yeah, that’s a lot closer.
Interviewer: Because they are making the TV show and I think they accept
that this isn’t what you’re calling fantasy, it is real?
Judy: They’re actually going into real contact. That’s why I said a person
has to go and see for themselves. That’s the only way you can tell if it’s
reality or fantasy. You have to go and check it out for yourself.
Because there are gifted people out there that can do these certain