Alien life among us

TALLINN - According to a study that was conducted by the Tartu University department of religion, nearly half of the residents of Estonia believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life, while a fifth have participated in new age practices like yoga, meditation or liberation breathing, reports Postimees Online.
Nearly 70 percent of the 1,100 people who were polled agreed with the statement that they believe in spiritual self-development with the help of mental practices like meditation.

Forty-three percent of the respondents believe in the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations, the representatives of which occasionally visit our planet. Twenty-two percent believe that human civilization was brought to the Earth by creatures from other planets and 16 percent believe that governments of big states cooperate with aliens, but hide it from their citizens.
Sixty-one percent of Estonian nationals agreed to the claim that “natural religion is the true religion of the Estonian people,” but only 4 percent of the polled identified themselves as natural religion believers.
Fifty-eight percent of the polled agreed to the claim that “they have their own religion, which is independent of different churches and religions” and 49 agreed percent to the claim that they “don’t consider themselves religious, but they have high interest towards different religions and mental teachings.”

A fifth of Estonians and a half of those of other nationalities identified themselves as Christians.
However, 55 percent of Estonians and 77 percent of people of other nationalities think that “Christian doctrine is the basis of growing as a moral person,” and around the same agreed to the claim that they like Christian principles.
Twenty-eight percent of the polled agreed to the claim that “religion is an obstacle to the free mental development of a person,” and 35 percent agreed that “church is meant to manipulate.”