​Field note excerpt from research for The Ultraview Effect (forthcoming, May 2026, University of California Press).

4-1-19, Vatican Observatory
At 4pm I did an interview with “Dario,” who described himself as a “secular priest,” meaning that he doesn’t belong to a particular order. He is an expert on the formation of galaxies ... He was trying to explain to me that we can see certain galaxies that are not in our line of sight because of a “lensing” effect where areas with a lot of mass (including a lot of dark matter) bend the light so that we essentially see around a corner. I think I get it… Kind of… He introduced me to the Italian word meraviglia, which means wonder, marvel, surprise, astonishment. He is, however, skeptical about miracles…

​March 7, 2019. Mojave, California.
I was hanging out ahead of my noon interview when I got an email from test pilot “Orville.” He had between 11:30 and 12 noon open for a flight, and could I do that? I said yes. A few minutes later he texted me to be at the pilot’s lounge in 10 minutes. Boom, I was there… We were going to go up in the silver plane.
Orville had reassured me by telling me about a 97 year old lady who had recently gone up and also about a 6’4” man with a walker who weighed 400 pounds and who had also gone up. He had also asked me if I liked roller coasters, saying small plane flight was more like a roller coaster than being in a boat. It was pretty windy and I was expecting a lot of drops and stuff but also felt that I could handle that better than some of his other passengers.
We flew up and it… was very similar to taking off on a larger plane. The sky was blue with some tiny puffy clouds here and there and we soared out over the desert …We went to the far end of our trip and then turned around, which was the most roller coaster part of the whole experience. We then headed back to the airport and slowly lit down.

​Field note excerpt from research for The Ultraview Effect (forthcoming, Spring 2026, University of California Press).

​April 8, 2019
It was a great interview. “Giorgio” really ties together mysticism and science, has a sort of experiential encounter with God through his physics and says the harmony and beauty of the universe prove to him that God loves us. He also had an encounter, similar to “Benedetto’s”, with a non-believing teacher who challenged him. The Vatican Observatory is such a unique situation, such an amazing location where these perfect science/religion hybrids can (usually) flourish.