Space Faith: Abduction Phenomena & the Importance of Psychic Dreams

Two aspects of parapsychology/paranthropology that I think would greatly influence the religious dimension of space civs is the continuation of the abduction phenomenon as an enduring mystery and the avenue of dreams as a means through which psionics acts.

Abductions by Extra- vs Ultra- Terrestrials: Abduction by aliens civs of higher tech levels but still existing within the confines of this universe would, I suspect, be more rational than that of the mysterious abductions that seem to be done by fairies and other absurd entities. There are the "nuts & bolts" aliens and the ones that seem to come through planar-portals linking our universe to the Weird that is their home. (Or, arguably, have existed at "right angles" to mundane civilization which puts them in the Weird corners of the Void's expanse)

There could be rational reasons for "nuts & bolts" abductions. There are a variety of Uplift Engines, Jump Gates, and similar Ancient/Precursor technology out there. Forcing another, "lesser" developed species to be one's lab rats may be more politically viable for alien abductors than trying to get approval for such experiments back on their home planets. Additionally, some Uplift Engines may only work for certain species, and some technologies may have been coding to only respond to particular species' DNA/psychic resonance/etc.

As civs enter the Void in their own space craft, and especially has they begin to master FTL drives & some transhumanist tech, may come to see that the "gods" of their past could've been alien visitors. However, on the flip side, the Weird cases that are also documented don't seem to fit into any "nuts & bolts" narrative. Maybe the craft are impossible to fly, maybe the fuel requested is unusual. Maybe the aliens just show up to offer pancakes. Worse yet, as the planetary defense capabilities increase and alliances with galactic factions are made, the number of "nuts & bolts" cases drops significantly but the number of Weird cases stays the same. On some worlds this number is so low as to be dismissed as clever hoaxes or the fabulation of the mentally ill. However there are enough cases on some worlds that the populace continues to seek the protection of talismans, rituals, etc. The efficacy of such things varies from world to world, which in turn effects the religiousity of the populace.

Psychic Dreams: Species can have telepathy, clairvoyance, & precognition but how these powers manifest may vary. If, as suggested in a previous post, psionics requires some kind of initiation to jump start the ability to where it is consistently useful, then all psionics gives partial validity to certain kinds of spirituality. In addition to this if a civ gets most of it's psychically obtained information through dreams this would also likely impact how religious a population is. Imagine going through the initiation process and then having prophetic dreams, dreams about events happening, or dreams of others' thoughts. Once these dreams are confirmed it suggests communication from the Other/Numinous. The civ might see the Dreamland as a real place, or at least an indication of some kind of collective unconscious. The latter might then suggest an Idealist reality or the existence of an Overmind. Any past scriptures where people tour Heaven/Hell or talk to God in dreams would, in some minds at least, be validated by the present day psychic dreams.