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12 Pseudo-Dionysius declared in the early sixth century that “it is most fitting to the mysterious passages of scripture that the saved and hidden truth about the celestial intelligences be concealed through the inexpressible and the sacred and be inaccessible to the hoi polloi.”"° Why did this geocentric conception survive so long? Even if it was not scientifically accurate, the Christian world view of the Middle Ages gave an integrated, rational account of all creation. The medieval universe might be grounded in mystery, but its articulation and structure were compre- hensible and logical; Harrison described it as the most satisfying and self-sufficient world system ever devised by the human mind.'! By compari- son with some Asian conceptions, this Western universe seems cramped. However, it was comfortable. A dilemma arose when the teachings of Aristotle were reintroduced into Europe in the thirteenth century: the dogma of our world’s uniqueness threatened belief in the omnipotence of God. The Condemnation of 1277, while ruling that the plurality of worlds as a reality was a pagan error, forbade teaching that God could not have created a plurality of worlds. This was not done in defense of plurality, but in defense of God’s power.” Cardinal Nicolas of Cusa (Nicolas Cusanus) made a bold statement of plurality in 1440. According to Nicolas, the universe was infinitely large; there was no essential difference between terrestrial matter and celestial matter; each star was a sun like ours with its own complement of planets, which probably were inhabited. The existence of humankinds on other worlds, wrote the Cardinal, is an absolute certainty.’ Pluralism had spokesmen in other cultures as well, although they had no more proof than Westerners. During the Sung dynasty in thirteenth- century China, Teng Mu restated the argument from probability: It would be unreasonable to suppose that, besides the Earth and sky we can see, there are no other skies and no other earths."* The Common Man Intellectual histories of this debate give great weight to speculations among the literate elite. What was the illiterate, uneducated European public thinking about non human intelligences? Their world view included angels and demons who inhabited the heavens, took human form, and visited the Earth. Space historians Roger Launius and Howard McCurdy observed how popular images of mysterious others continued to evolve. In the spir- itually conscious nineteenth century, people turned their attention to ghosts and sought methods for communicating with the dead. As science replaced superstition, people embraced extraterrestrials, especially those with advanced technologies.’* A Belief in Other Minds