I want to believe I thought about whistling the tune from the X files and I thought

what if it somehow gets me in trouble for copyright or something some sort of infringement

it's funny isn't it because u f UFO belief was this kitchy new age thing for so many decades

following the Roswell incident in 1947 and then things like the X-files and the 90s Star Trek before that and the I Want to Believe slogan

started to adorn many a sigh-fans t-shirts and memorabilia and

and this is a podcast about belief. It's also one that values curiosity over judgment.

So as unlikely or ridiculous as belief in little green men might be, it's always worth taking a look. I went alien hunting in Argentina, and okay

it was a little tongue in cheek because I didn't expect to find anything really, but I went

into the mountains in the early hours of the morning in a place called

Kapilla or Kapisha with an Argentine accent, Kapisha Del Monte, with some true

believers in pursuit of beings from the fifth dimension who live underground and they're called erks.

And I'm about as positive as I am that the world is spherical, that these beings don't exist. The lights that were supposed to alert us to

their existence according to my guides were quite clearly car headlights and

street lamps, but the culture around alien belief has started to change in recent years.

Firstly, we started to get to grips with just how large the universe is and the concept of other life forms out there has become actually more likely than the

chance that there's nothing out there. That's now the minority belief that there's nothing

out there. It seems utterly improbable given that life formed here

that it isn't anywhere else and now many scientists expect to find microorganisms

on other planets and moons in our own solar system.

As for complex life, like cows and things like that, it might be a little rarer.

And then intelligent life, so examples of the universe becoming aware of itself, becoming self-conscious in the form of beings

like ourselves, well that might be stunningly rare.

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