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David Robertson's UFOs, Conspiracy Theories and the New Age: Millennial Conspiracism is a highly original and compulsively readable study of conspiracy beliefs, popular millennialism, and the emergence of an alternative history of the post-war world generated by a 'counter-elite'. Robertson details the epistemic strategies of these champions of rejected knowledge, in which a Gnostic flavoured theodicy is united with transformative millennialism, promising a new world once individuals have awakened and the malevolent forces of Government, Big Pharma, and the 'Establishment' are defeated. The teachings of the three figures examined in detail, UFOlogist Whitley Streiber, prophet of the 'reptilian thesis' David Icke, and 2012 millennialist and alleged reincarnation of Edgar Cayce, David Wilcock, exemplify what Robertson terms a 'theodicy of the dispossessed', in which the disenfranchisement of the counter-elite is explained by the existence of a powerful malevolent enemy. While there is little in Robertson's study that could be traditionally understood as 'religion' or 'religious studies', the book is ultimately highly relevant to this discipline, and will act as an encouragement to scholars to more deeply interrogate notions such as theodicy, eschatology, prophecy, and belief, all phenomena that are equally relevant to traditional religions and ostensibly non-religious UFOlogical and millennial groups. -- Carole M. Cusack is Professor of Religious Studies Studies in Religion at The University of Sydney, Australia David Robertson's splendid book significantly illuminates our understanding of contemporary millennialism and conspiracism. Michael Barkun, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Syracuse University, USA Long confined to the lunatic fringe, narratives about UFO conspiracies gained a wider audience through the New Age movement. Robertson' timely book shows their surprisingly large influence on the contemporary subculture of alternative spirituality. It also makes for enjoyable reading. Massimo Introvigne, Professor of Sociology of Religion, Pontifical Salesian University, Italy

David Robertson's UFOs, Conspiracy Theories and the New Age: Millennial Conspiracism is a highly original and compulsively readable study of conspiracy beliefs, popular millennialism, and the emergence of an alternative history of the post-war world generated by a 'counter-elite'. Robertson details the epistemic strategies of these champions of rejected knowledge, in which a Gnostic flavoured theodicy is united with transformative millennialism, promising a new world once individuals have awakened and the malevolent forces of Government, Big Pharma, and the 'Establishment' are defeated. The teachings of the three figures examined in detail, UFOlogist Whitley Streiber, prophet of the 'reptilian thesis' David Icke, and 2012 millennialist and alleged reincarnation of Edgar Cayce, David Wilcock, exemplify what Robertson terms a 'theodicy of the dispossessed', in which the disenfranchisement of the counter-elite is explained by the existence of a powerful malevolent enemy. While there is little in Robertson's study that could be traditionally understood as 'religion' or 'religious studies', the book is ultimately highly relevant to this discipline, and will act as an encouragement to scholars to more deeply interrogate notions such as theodicy, eschatology, prophecy, and belief, all phenomena that are equally relevant to traditional religions and ostensibly non-religious UFOlogical and millennial groups. -- Carole M. Cusack is Professor of Religious Studies Studies in Religion at The University of Sydney, Australia

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David G. Robertson is Co-Editor-In-Chief of the Religious Studies Project and a committee member of the British Association for the Study of Religion. He teaches at the University of Edinburgh and has published widely on new religions, millennialism, conspiracy theories and critical theory. He recently guest-edited a special issue of Nova Religio and is the co-editor of After World Religions: Reconstructing the Introductory Course in Religious Studies (2016).

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