©By
Giorgio
Piacenza Cabrera
Part One: On UFOS and INTEGRAL THEORY: An Essay Proposing a New Variable
Introduction
UFOs have rarely been
mentioned in relation to Integral Theory. I think that this is a reflection of
a radical lack of “integral” awareness. The ability to recognize odd phenomena
as harboring potential benefits for most areas of life and knowledge is not necessarily
associated with people who think of themselves as “integral.” This may be due to a misguided selectivity
about what being “integral” is about, a practice involving a form of unnoticed
reductionism based on the psychological satisfaction of holding on to a model
that offers coherent explanations about other poignant areas of life. This
selectivity and bias may manifest in leading integral books and in the
psychological “developmental” tests that aim to measure other forms of the so-
called, “Second Tier,” or “Integral stage” also purported to be an embrace,
identification and openness toward all of reality in general. Largely unrecognized
by most participants in the Integral Institute-Centered “orthodox” Integral
Movement (and in the Ken Wilber and academically-approved “Wilber challengers”
hermeneutical circuit), there are genuine, recurring and, yet, elusive, reality-challenging
phenomena that would serve as axles around which a deeper form of research
could twirl. Notwithstanding the evolving explanatory power and promise of
Integral Theory, we would creatively seek an even more ground-breaking and
alternative integration of all aspects of human knowledge. For instance, the
very notion of a single, stable, independent and objective reality could be
challenged and (to name a few) the sociological, religious, spiritual,
scientific, technical, biological, metaphysical and theoretical dimensions of
knowledge (seen as expressions of a deeper, universal, organizing Integral Pattern,
in some measure recognized in Ken Wilber’s current “Integral Theory”) would also
be modified. The challenge would probably revolve around the rediscovery of
metaphysical principles which –in combination with some valid tenets of
Integral Theory and holon dynamics- might be seen to impinge in the stable (but,
apparently, partly modifiable) formation of “realms of existence” (also
correlated with and affecting awareness and experience).
A Brief (But Necessarily Stretched) Review
Briefly, in the UFO field
there have been those sometimes called “true
believers” and those sometimes called “nuts
and bolts” researchers, the latter being persons who find that the
scientific method (usually as mechanistically understood) is the final apex,
the best possible, no-nonsense way to understand what is going on. But, is the
second position true for all UFO and paranormal phenomena, at least in the
manner the “scientific method” is currently structured? Some individuals also
inclined to research this phenomenon in as close a scientific manner as
possible have been social scientists who have tended to offer some valid and
plausible but also restricted explanations. Among these are sociologists Leon
Festinger, Robert L. Hall, Lorne L. Dawson, Troy Zimmer, and psychologists like
Carl Jung, John Mack, Richard F. Haines and Michael Persinger. The
contributions of historian David M. Jacobs, political scientist Jodi Dean and
folklorist Thomas Bullard could also be added to the list. On the other hand,
occasionally religious figures in traditional religions have made some comments
regarding extraterrestrials-UFOs. For instance Monsignor Corrado Balducci a theologian-demonologist
at the Vatican curia spoke in favor of giving more credibility to human UFO witnesses
and to the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors. Then again, unfortunately,
few philosophers seem to have produced works on this subject.
It was June 24, 1947, soon
after the Second World War (after the use of atomic bombs and also after the precarious
but hopeful establishment of a new international political order) when airplane
pilot and business man Kenneth Arnold alerted the media to his sighting of what
seemed like nine tailless, crescent-shaped or pie-plate shaped objects moving “as
a saucer would if you skipped it across the water” (they were probably moving towards
Mount Adams from a general location above Mount Rainier). Bill
Bequette, a reporter who interviewed Mr. Arnold and placed it in the Associated Press
news wire became instrumental in coining the phrase “Flying Saucer” and in 1952, Mr. Arnold published his account in a
book titled The Coming of the Saucers. Nevertheless, the more neutrally
objective term “UFO” seems to have
been originally used and/or popularized by Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt who, around
1951, (while directing the USAF-coordinated “Project Blue Book”) mentioned that
he preferred to use the term “Unidentified
Flying Object” rather than “Flying Saucer.” This declaration was
understandable since not all UFOs were “flying saucers” as some were
meteorological phenomena, light reflections, balls of light, flocks of wild
geese, the planet Venus, weather balloons, spy planes, assorted
misidentifications, and even possibly extraterrestrial, differently-shaped
objects that –for instance- sometimes resembled metallic spheres and cigars.
Probably a good definition
of “Unidentified Flying Object” or “UFO” was given by astronomer J. Allen Hynek
who assisted the U.S. Air Force during Project Blue Book’s research efforts. In
his book The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry he refers to the term
as: "the reported perception of an object or light seen in the sky or upon
the land, the appearance, trajectory, and general dynamic and luminescent
behavior of which do not suggest a logical, conventional explanation and which
is not only mystifying to the original percipients but remains unidentified
after close scrutiny of all available evidence by persons who are technically
capable of making a common sense identification, if one is possible."
It was also 1947 when the alleged
July, 1947 Roswell UFO Crash Incident occurred. In this case U.S. Air Force personnel
first declared to the media that an extraterrestrial artifact had been
recovered but soon retracted from this statement leaving in the public
awareness a strong impression that would set the stage for the idea that the
government hid the truth. Anyhow, after Kenneth Arnold’s report was reinforced
by the Roswell incident, soon the phrase “Flying Saucer” came to basically mean
“extraterrestrial spaceship” and many individuals that had otherwise been
simply attracted to movements like Spiritualism, Theosophy and Rosicrucianism
began to associate UFO sightings with a re-creation or a convergence of many
elements in those esoteric views. Then, in the 1950’s a “flood” of genuine and bogus
physical contactees, physical experiencers allegedly interacting with protective
and benevolent extraterrestrial beings appeared in a more outstanding fashion
in the American cultural scene and –for the most part- they associated the
messages imparted by their alleged contacts with previously known esoteric
messages, while sometimes also offering alternative cosmologies and histories
of the Earth and humankind. People weren’t asked to “repent” as much as to
reconsider their ethical ways towards each other and towards all life in the
name of universal spiritual principles.
To be fair, I must
recognize that, in the 1950’s, contactees from other countries also came to the
fore. Among them were Elizabeth Clarer from South Africa, George King from
England, Aladino Felix (a.k.a. Dino Kraspedon) from Brazil, and Eugenio
Siragusa from Italy.
In his book Alien Base,
Timothy Good presents a well-balanced research of cases indicating that the
phenomenon of physical contact with “extraterrestrials” might have also taken
place during the first half of the XX Century but, before the Kenneth Arnold
and Roswell Crash incidents (thus, before the association of
“extraterrestrials” with “flying saucers”) most known, alleged contacts with “extraterrestrials”
(such as Martians and Venusians) took place through mediums. For example, in
the 1890’s Catherine Elise Muller, a well-known French psychic claimed that she
contacted Martians.
As mentioned, originally,
there were those that asked for a change of consciousness and ethics towards
our fellow men and planet Earth itself. Then, some individual contactees wrote
books and some others developed their own esoteric schools while participating
in lecture circuits. They wanted the world to change by mankind mending its
destructive ways and were eager to share the news of the possibility of a
coming, more enlightened new age of open contact with advanced civilizations.
Nevertheless, soon the UFO field was essentially divided between the “spiritual
messengers” and the “scientifists.” Alleged contactees like Howard Menger (author
of From Outer Space to You) and Frank Stranges (author of Stranger at
the Pentagon) held that they assisted with direct physical contacts as
liaisons between benevolent human-looking “extraterrestrials” and elements of
the U.S. Government, but also (in general agreement to what Michael E. Salla,
PhD states) that -in order to initiate beneficial exchange agreements- the
government at large had not accepted the condition of either ending the use
of atomic weapons or educating the public about the extraterrestrial presence. Thus,
the 60’s went by (albeit with other important legal and social reforms, some
interest in Eastern mysticism, psychedelic research, fantastic music, the
anti-establishment hippie movement, the Green Revolution, France’s 1968 failed
“student’s revolution,” the momentous arrival of Man on the Moon, cold and hot
wars for world political-ideological sovereignty, the rise of nations becoming
independent from colonial powers, the hope for greater equality and the rise of
idealist-interventionist economic development) and, slowly the impact of earlier
contactee expectations regarding open contact with benevolent, advanced
civilizations weakened. It was as though a slim window of opportunity had
closed as the 1960’s spirit of radical change (taking the forms of evolution,
revolution and reform), could have embraced actualizing the possibility of a
historic public revelation of the extraterrestrial presence.
Fortunately, the 1960’s was
also a “researcher’s decade” as many independent authors released interesting
books that kept probing into various aspects of the whole phenomenon. For
example, we had Ivan T. Sanderson whose book Uninvited Visitors dealt
with how the UFOs that seemed to be vehicles also imitated biological behavior. We also had Jacques Vallée’s Anatomy of a
Phenomenon which explained that contactee cases (even with saucer-like
discs) had been documented in the U.S. since the XIX Century. Vallée also brought
up what he called “The Harvard Syndrome”
by which scientists routinely distort the analysis of unknown phenomena until
they can be explained in known ways. John J. Fuller researched evidence for a cover-up and published this in his
books Incident at Exeter and Aliens in the Sky.
Then, -also in the 1960’s- some
rumors and news about ET abductions began to circulate, just when the original
post-WWI contactees were basically being gradually discredited by the
government, the media and some scientists. In relation to these incipient
shifts, the case of Betty and Barney Hill (researched by John G. Fuller) and
the case of Betty Andreasson Luca (occurring in 1967 but researched in 1977 by J.
Allen Hynek and Raymond E. Fowler) comes to mind. Michael E. Salla, a
well-known promoter of “exopolitics”
(go to: www.exopolitics.org) and founder of the “Peace Ambassador Program” at
American University, says that before the 1960’s president Eisenhower and secret
elements of the U.S. Government made a deal with specific humanoid
extraterrestrial species after rejecting the terms proposed by the more human-looking,
(classical early contactee) aliens. Thereafter (mostly but not exclusively) in
the U.S. it seems that contact with the “greys” (and similarly operating
species) began to replace contact with more human-looking members of a more
principled “Confederation” of worlds. This speculation (based on some general
patterns and unsettled information) is what I can construe for now.
Anyhow, after coming up
with Project Grudge and Project Blue Book which, (according to
the latter’s director Edward J. Ruppelt and astronomy consultant J. Allen
Hynek) intentionally discredited many good UFO cases, (not only by discarding
most “contactee” claims as “crackpot” cases but also by discarding interesting evidential
cases which they couldn’t explain away), the U.S. government (and the U.S. Air
Force) became one of the most publicly refuting institutions in relation to the
importance of the UFO phenomenon. As of today, it continues to deny any real interest
in the phenomenon or in the possibility of a unique extraterrestrial presence
behind it (except in relation to the identification of missiles and other possible
threats to national security). In the meantime, other countries like Brazil,
Italy, Peru, Chile, Belgium, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Denmark, The Republic
of Ireland, Spain and the Russian Federation and France (unofficially through
the Cometa Group) have gradually released some of their files and investigations
and been less secretive. Furthermore, some have been partially open to consider
the possibility of intelligent “extraterrestrial” presences in conjunction to
some UFO sightings.
In any case, generally
speaking, in the 1970’s, a new “batch” of alleged physical contactees emerged
outside the U.S. and (individuals not recognized in the academic world) like
Eduard “Billy” Meier in Switzerland, Enrique Castillo Rincón in Costa Rica and
Colombia, Salvador Villanueva and Maria del Socorro Fernandez in Mexico and the
brothers Sixto and Carlos Paz Wells in Peru, publicly shared their own
experiences, also often proposing unique cosmologies and messianic-like
expectations.
Questions Raised by Contactee Spirituality
In relation to all this I
ask: Why are –for the most part- persons that don’t represent influential
public institutions apparently “chosen” by “other worldlers” as intermediaries
to give messages which reach small audiences and seem less credible? I don’t
know but could it be that, in spite of appearances and Earthly expectations,
the gist of those general, ethical-spiritual messages is truly more important
than –let’s say- scientific information?
Could it be that, even if tiny (mostly esoterically inclined) sections
of humanity take these messages seriously, the “seeds of change” have been
installed in homeopathic fashion? Contactees in general seem to insist on the
importance of acquiring and spreading universal principles. They may be doing
it by presenting similar teachings and generalities to those few willing to
listen. Could it be that (at risk of losing credibility for asking this
question) this is indeed collectively-speaking most important for us? Could it
be that (notwithstanding the “integralists” lack of interest in esoteric and
metaphysical knowledge) some of the genuine, valid discoveries found in
Integral Theory about the living “Kosmos” be part of a universal knowledge that
humanity needs to possess?
Educated Contactees
All the same, as a contrast
to most contactee cases in which -as a rule- platitudes seem to be given, I want
to recall the case of a certain tenured Professor “R.N. Hernandez” (a
pseudonym) formerly active at the University of Mexico’s Medical School.
Apparently “Professor Hernandez” had been given information (by an
extraterrestrial woman named “Lya”) that warned about the imminent decay of the
ozone layer before the problem was internationally recognized. This physical contact
case was thoroughly researched by journalist Zitha Rodriguez Montiel and some
information in English can be found at: http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2007/03/09/01404.html and at: http://rune.galactic.to/lya1.html or by reading the book: UFO Contact From
Andromeda by Lt. Col. Wendelle C. Stevens and R.N. Hernandez.
Daniel Fry was an educated
contactee and unassuming man according to friend’s accounts.
The Dutch businessman,
mechanical engineer and architectural artist Stephan Denaerde seems to be a
well-educated contactee that brought back scientific and philosophical
information perhaps worth taking a closer look at. The book UFO Contact From
Planet Iarga and the online pages: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXueHVKRCS8 http://galactic.no/rune/iarapdx1.html and at http://galactic.no/rune/iarga.html are ways to start looking into this case.
Communication Problems
Now, after trying to follow
up the evolution of the most visionary contactee predictions and expectations
over the years, I think that these cosmologies and outlooks can be partially
correct in some ways but also partially distorted for various reasons, reasons which
include personal bias, the charismatic’s need to sustain group support,
half-truths and lies from a variety of “other worldlers” and, what I call, “inherent inter-realm” communication
problems. Perhaps –as a rule- the further (metaphysically speaking) a realm
is the more distorted and futuristic the communication will tend to be.
Now I must also tell of, (and
now you’ll correctly guess my disappointment) the human jealousy with which many key leaders representing (fixated interpretive
tendencies within the UFO community) defend their positions against the
interpretations of other leaders. For more than six decades there have been
expectations of progress in the UFO field but there are many formidable
barriers as subdivisions run deep and, quite often, the fact is that contactees
don’t dialogue with abductees nor with each other and either’s testimonies are not
respectfully treated as possible genuine accounts by most scientifically-minded
researchers. Moreover, every party seems to defend his small turf in the field,
even when grandiose universal expectations are held. Then, generally speaking (and
apparently for fear of losing credibility, prestige, power and funding), most
politicians and scientists do not want to get publicly involved with UFO
matters and, simultaneously, for the most part the media has been dismissive,
superficial and teasing regarding these matters. In other words, promoting a
serious, multi-faceted approach to UFO research is like pushing against a burly
bear.
Can There Be an Integral “Cargo Cult” Reaction?
At least since the 1950’s (and
in the U.S.) there have been expectations of the upcoming ushering of a new and
better world in connection with UFO sightings. In my view, part of this
phenomenon stems from a “Cargo Cult”
reaction which -under certain extraordinary circumstances- can be alive and
well even in “modern” societies. Many societies (including our Western society,
in spite of the more recent idea of progress) hold beliefs of sudden, episodic,
cosmic transformations. Messianic, end of days expectations are part of our
Western history. These normally religious ideas can be associated with the
appearance of “cargo cults.” In Melanesia “cargo” means the arrival of wealth,
a better moral order and swift, beneficial change. In “cargo cults,” there are
naïve imitations, interpretations, “fetishizations” and sacralizations of the habits
and the cultural artifacts of a more technically advanced society when that
more technically advanced society suddenly bursts into the cultural worldspace
of a less technically advanced society. Participants of the less advanced
society may perceive themselves to live in a crisis and charismatic visionary
leaders may provide answers to the people when a completely different reality
intrudes upon them. Thus, an interesting proportion of “UFO enthusiasts”
(perhaps for the most part represented by individuals already inclined to
interpret life in terms of spiritual and religious beliefs) seem to have been
affected by the enigmatic, sudden incursions of strange “flying discs” and the
enigmatic phenomena associated with them. Nonetheless, from the beginning, the
UFO field has been divided into two basic interpretive camps.
Within the UFO community, some
of what seems to be unrealistic expectations about imminent world changes (with
the prospect of various kinds of benefits) remind me of the “cargo cult”
reaction I mentioned, a reaction in which a less developed society may also generate
histories, explanations and expectations in relation to the sudden irruption of
definite unidentifieds from a more encompassing reality into their physical,
experiential and cultural worldspace. I think that this “cargo cult” reaction
may even take hold at what Integral Theory calls “Amber” and “Orange” “altitudes”
and “cultural stages.” I wouldn’t be surprised if it might even take hold in at
the also posited “Green” and “Post Green” or “Integral” “altitudes” if what
seem to be completely out of the ordinary events originating from a more
advanced cultural and technological civilization were to suddenly disrupt our
ordinary understanding of life in an objective way. Regardless of altitude,
what would be necessary is a key difference on how we normally experience
reality.
To learn more about “cargo
cults” go to the interesting Smithsonian article “In John They Trust” at: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/john.html.
I also recommend the book by Kenelm Burridge New Heaven, New Earth: A
Study of Millenarian Activities.
Cognitive Dissonance and Social Comparison
Besides the “cargo cult”
reaction, I think that social scientist Leo Festinger’s theories of “Cognitive Dissonance” and of “Social Comparison” could bring light
into the way many people tend to behave when they are quite psychologically
invested in a belief system in relation to preferred features of the UFO
Phenomenon. In relation to the first theory (as Festinger showed in his book
classic When Prophecy Fails after infiltrating a UFO religion back in
the 1950’s), when strongly held expectations do not come to pass and there’s
strong group coherence, quite often a plausible alternative explanation is
given to relieve the dissonance and keep psychological coherence going. This becomes
necessary to alleviate the feelings of emotional discomfort when expectations
and an obvious reality do not match. Thus, quite often, individuals tend to
stick to their previously held beliefs, even if there’s evidence to the
contrary. In this way, individuals form groups that maintain a mutually
supporting coherence.
Then, the second theory
brings attention onto how people’s sense about their own characteristics and abilities
relate to how they unconsciously compare themselves to others. Combining both
theories with my own twist on things I’d say that, perhaps, in order to
maintain an already established sense of identity (and also to avoid cognitive
dissonance), individuals that consider themselves to be part of a particular
social and/or intellectual elite (for example, either “spiritual” or
“scientific”) will unconsciously disconnect from those that their particular culture
ranks as less desirable and aware. Thus, for instance, those that value exterior,
objective, critical thinking will tend to dismiss those that value openness to
interior states or a felt sense of appropriateness. The same goes the other way around. Each will
also remain in closer contact with their preferred reference group to preserve
the self identity previously developed, a self-identity which, according to
recent sociobiological research might be associated with a mostly involuntary program,
connected with primary unconscious survival needs. Comparing ourselves with our
reference group will be an unconscious measure of how apt we are as individuals
to survive in the physical-biological world. There’s a short article that gives
an idea of this -phenomenon at: http://www.apa.org/monitor/nov04/comparison.aspx
Not only in relation to the
integral research requirements in relation to the UFO phenomenon but in
relation to the possibility of sustaining a universally respectful, worthy
human life on Earth, my question is: Can
the useful but also limiting and primeval human tendencies to form exclusive
comparison groups be tamed, transcended and included with awareness and
understanding?
Enthusiasm and Naiveté
During the 1970’s, 1980’s
and 1990’s I personally befriended and/or met several alleged physical contactees
and must say that a common psychological feature I found in them was their enthusiasm and apparent naiveté geared
to the purpose of sharing a message that would be necessary for people to know
themselves, the reason for human existence and what is expected of us among
benevolent space-faring entities. If the extraterrestrial messages
retransmitted by them were seriously considered only by a small percentage of
people living on this planet it didn’t seem to matter. They felt that they were
conducting a honorable, potentially politically important sacred duty as
interlopers for a cosmic organization which had a long history of involvement
with humanity. Some contactees said that a small group of self-transforming, well-intending
conscious individuals doing specific intention-based spiritual practices would
be able to have an effective influence on world events, changing their
possibilities in favor of a more positive, harmonious outcome. While some
contactees predicted cataclysmic changes that could be modified by spiritual
practice, human will and altruistic effort, others insisted that great
cataclysmic changes would be necessary and inevitable.
In the U.S. (in the 1980’s)
channelers replaced in large part the social “voice” of physical contactees and,
almost simultaneously, reports of -often human pain-indifferent and scary, but
awareness-amplifying abductions- (according to Harvard psychiatrist John E.
Mack, author of Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens), abductions
mostly committed by skinny, large-eyed, grayish beings began to multiply.
Although the ethical renewal of humankind was an idea that existed in the U.S.
at least since the 1950’s “early contactee” era (mostly of physical contactees),
more elaborate expectations soon began to emerge. Sometimes Christian-like
apocalyptic visions were combined with the idea of UFOs physically rescuing
many individuals, raising them to a higher plane and preserving them from the
physical upheavals that could befall our world. This was presented in the 1950’s
by George Van Tassel (who seems to have been a contactee, a channeler and also
a forerunner of the kind of “evacuation and/or ascension” channeled material
which increased in the 1980’s). Then (in the 1980’s) a channeler known as
Thelma Terrel (a.k.a. “Tuella”) also created many expectations in esoterically
inclined UFO enthusiasts. Interestingly, both Van Tassel and “Tuella” referred
to being in communication with a high-ranking spiritual-extraterrestrial being
called “Ashtar Sheran.” The expectations they generated are still a great
influence in other channelers and authors who (especially in the U.S.) have a
great influence in the New Age movement. In Italy Eugenio Siragusa also
allegedly became a contactee with “Ashtar Sheran” and made apocalyptic predictions
that didn’t come to pass. I feel that these were distractions (or, more likely,
subtle interferences) meant to attract sincere spiritual seekers open to
genuine physical contacts and were part of events that led to the closing of a
window of opportunity (for these genuine contacts) which had begun in the
1950’s (or before). These are educated guesses but, additionally, I have the
sense that a tendency towards expecting extraordinary rewards (partly as a
“cargo cult” reaction) took over and was probably used to manipulate social
opinion which -in turn- may have distorted what could have been a more
even-minded, realistic possibility of gradual communicative exchanges through
more objectively verifiable contacts.
2012
More recently (in a trend increasing
from the end of the 1980’s onwards) thinking of “the end of days” as a “cleansing
and rescue” situation eems to have been de-emphasized and replaced by an
“ascensionist” idea by which it is expected that numerous members of humanity
will be genetically, energetically and atomically raised to a “higher level” by
the influence of cosmic energies arriving to Earth as “she” ends a major dense cycle
and enters into a “higher vibrational state.”
Generally speaking, in the
UFO-esoteric-New Age community, the end of the long- count Mayan Calendar (taking
place in December 21st, 2012) has been taken as an “anchor theme” to promote
the idea of moving to a higher state of awareness, “vibration” or shift into a
new reality. People like José Argüelles (art historian and author of The
Mayan Factor), Terence McKenna (ethno botanist, entheogenist, author of The
Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens and the I Ching and co-author of Maya
Cosmogenesis 2012: The True Meaning of the Maya Calendar), Solara (author of
11:11 Inside the Doorway), Virginia Essene (author of You are
Becoming a Galactic Human), Gregg Braden (author of Fractal Time: The
Secret of 2012 and a New World Age) and Sheldon Nidle (author of Your
First Contact) have created the expectation of an almost automatic or
inevitable transforming event among those that would perhaps just normally be
esoterically-inclined “saucerians.” Even Barbara Marx Hubbard, Jean Houston and
Dr. Bruce Lipton (who are occasionally heard or mentioned in Integral Theory
studies) are published in a book of perspectives on 2012 (it was compiled by
Debra Giusti and Anjanette Harper and is titled Transforming Through 2012).
In relation with what could
happen by or on December 21st, 2012 different movies and
documentaries have been produced with various levels of honesty and
credibility. The influence of books, courses, documentaries and movies on the
subject seem to have even have influenced the opinion of people who may have
had genuine physical contacts. For instance, Ricardo Gonzalez, a well-travelled
and an –apparently- less fantasy-prone physical contactee and researcher is of
the opinion that a synchronizing information wave stemming from the center of
the Milky Way Galaxy will affect how events in our world evolve. I believe that
his opinion on these matters is more moderate than others in that there could
be a gradual influence on physical matter and on the human psyche and behavior.
Some related UFO photos and information (in Spanish) can be found at: http://www.legadocosmico.com/galeria_encuentros.htm
Nevertheless, there are
other alleged physical contactees that think that 2012 signals the possibility
of a sudden and intense reconnection with another reality (and time frame). I’m
open minded but feel that I don’t have any particularly convincing evidence on
this matter but, nonetheless, think that, if there’s something real to
any of it, it would, most likely, be gradual. Overall, I don’t think that most
people in the world care (or, due to their pressing economic needs are supposed
to care) about “extraterrestrial” contacts or about expectations like 2012.
Nonetheless, whether they care or not, some of them will continue to observe
and interact with the strangeness and anomalies related with the UFO phenomenon
and this makes them participants in the overall mystery.
Having observed many
contactee predictions that didn’t come to pass makes me ponder. The fact that
contactee expectations again seem to be acquiring surprising heights (as when
Tuella’s “Project World Evacuation” became popular in the 1980’s among many UFO-New
Age groups) makes me think of the power of social construction...which perhaps
in unknown ways may be a response of interacting with aspects of the UFO
phenomenon and/or perhaps generates an interpretive base assisting in the
interaction with aspects of the UFO phenomenon.
Back to “Respectable” Forms of Research
In this brief (and highly
incomplete) review we must understand that, besides contactee, abductee, channelers
and enthusiastic authors’ claims, there have been many well-documented and
carefully researched instances in which the UFO phenomenon itself appears to
have been validated as a genuinely otherworldly or -at least- bizarre but objective
phenomenon. For instance, airline pilots and various international air force
pilots have seen or intercepted strange metallic-looking maneuvering devices,
sometimes also seen on radar. (For media releases from government officials and
military officers go to: http://www.disclosureproject.org/).
Why is the stigma on UFOs
so deep when there’s so much plausible material worth of scientific study? For
instance, there is the research of Dr. Roger Leir, a podiatric surgeon that
submitted recovered alien implants to careful independent analysis (for instance
to the Dept. of Material Sciences and Engineering at the University of Toronto)
apparently finding that they are often made of isotopes not naturally found on
Earth. For instance, there are many sufficiently clear, filmed UFOs that have
been carefully analyzed and approved as genuine and of unknown origin (do an
online a search for “Dr. Roger Leir” or go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtKb6uVRRPc&NR=1). Also, there’s the “COMETA Report,”
written by high-level French military officers and government officials, a
report that concluded that about 5% of UFO cases could be considered “extraterrestrial”
in origin (see more information at: http://www.ufoevidence.org/topics/Cometa.htm).
Furthermore, I think that for
this concise compendium objective research, I should not miss mentioning the
interesting, or rather, significant findings on the annual “Crop Circle” phenomenon. It is
reasonable to assume that many of the thousands of delicately constructed
figures appearing at least since 1979, not only in Wiltshire County, England
but also in several other countries weren’t simply made by hoaxers with raw
instruments such as wood planks. For example, most weren’t made by the hoaxers
known as “Doug and David” (on whom the media focused its attention for some
time providing an easy answer to the public and discrediting the genuine phenomenon
at large). Not only have strange lights been clearly filmed around some of the
thousands of non-hoaxed crop circles that have appeared, but biophysically
anomalous effects and astoundingly complex and symbolically and mathematically
meaningful geometrical patterns (forming overnight in private cereal fields)
have been detected. The website “Crop Circle Connector” with updated
photographs and links (http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/interface2005.htm) and “BLT Research” (http://www.bltresearch.com/ ) could be good places to start
finding out more.
Transmitting from Mexico to
the 2011 International UFO Congress, Mexican Reporter Jaime Maussan presented three
simultaneously filmed videos of a bright UFO hovering above downtown Jerusalem.
It illuminates the shining luster of the Dome of the Rock and (after a flash of
light which also further illuminates downtown Jerusalem) swiftly shoots up into
the sky. The videos can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0jfNK3arvM
One of My Disappointments
In the early 1990’s, after
reading pioneering exobiologist Carl Sagan’s comment that there was not a
“shred of evidence” that Earth was today being visited by “extraterrestrials,” I sent to his office at Cornell University a
series of videos simultaneously filmed of one strange hovering object over
Mexico City. They had been compiled by Televisa Network anchorman Jaime Maussan
in 1991. What looked like a rotating metallic object had been filmed from
different locations during the 1991 Sun eclipse that some historians and
archeologists said marked the end of the Fifth Sun and the beginning of the
Sixth Sun, according to Aztec astronomy and prophecy. Since I knew that the
video had arrived but hadn’t heard from Professor Sagan in quite some time, I
called his office and his secretary told me that the Professor opined that it
would have been good if I had sent a video of a UFO object if it had been
simultaneously filmed from different locations. I had just done that but,
apparently, it hadn’t register! There were no more comments and it was one more
disappointment among a lifelong list in an earnest effort to facilitate
awareness among parties with an influence on our perspectives on the UFO
phenomenon.
Research Suggestions
What can be done not only
to “lift the veil” from those that do not want to know but to “open the lid”
from an alleged cover-up and to make interest in the UFO phenomenon less of a
stigma? We must understand that, notwithstanding such a growing collection of
“respectable,” objectively verified research (within which -being extremely
brief- we can also mention many carefully analyzed UFO films and photos), most
scientists pathetically continue to be slow to become involved. Thus, in one
way or another, it seems that -until now- most people honestly drawned in to
understand this phenomenon (either as a “nuts and bolts” researcher or perhaps
as a “spiritually- inspired interpreter”) are visionaries in one way or
another. Can the “integral” community rise to the occasion?
From an Integral Theory
point of view, the fact that (after careful selection and after considering the
sheer amount of witnesses and research over six or more decades) we can validly
say that there is “rigorous evidence” regarding “non terrestrial” UFO “visitations”
into our world would not invalidate how these visitations might relate with
social and individual interiorities. This is why we must not just focus on the
shared, objective –albeit anomalous- data but seriously consider all possible
visionary, sociological, psychological and spiritual aspects quite established
from the beginning of the modern UFO era in relation to this phenomenon. I
think that our research position must be “integral” (first in the sense of
honest and then inclusive all detectable aspects of reality). In fact, this
research may even require more of the best “integral” qualities we can muster
since the phenomenon seem to encompass a vast array of fields of human inquiry
like sociology, psychology, physics and materials sciences, genetics,
anthropology, biology, exobiology, history and politics. Needless to say,
practitioners in these fields have their own paradigms, procedures and biases. Needles
to say, it would be safe to suppose that, if were we able to establish and
sustain publicly available communicative contacts with advanced, intelligent “extraterrestrials”
the potential effect on all those fields of knowledge and on ethical, religious
and spiritual understandings would (perhaps mostly in the long run) be
significant. Do we have the cognitive capacity, the wherewithal, or, at least,
the attitude to engage in this challenge constructively? How can we
“integrally” learn from human testimony when refer to paranormal and “other
worldly” phenomena? Where do we draw the line between Interior experiences and
interpretations and concrete, repeatable exteriors? Can we correlate Interior
and Exterior experiences when they refer to inter-realm situations? Do we have
the capacity to distinguish between mental objects connected with no valid physical
exteriors (whether to “our” known physical exterior or to alternative physical exteriors
perhaps possessing other densities)?
Personal Reflections While at JFKU, Georgetown U. and other Places of
Learning
In my few years as a
student of Integral Theory at JFKU (and after carefully informing myself by
reading, travelling, going to UFO congresses, participating with contact groups
and even having a few experiences) I tried to bring up the subject of the
paranormal in a thoughtful, critical way but perceived a general lack of
interest in them, in the UFO phenomenon, in general parapsychological research
and in serious investigations regarding the origins of consciousness or also in
the possibility of consciousness surviving bodily death. All these issues seemed
either to create uneasiness or a shallow, not very critical acceptance of some
aspects as most people were unwilling or unable to “integrate” their multiple
aspects into a coherent whole. Apparently the pseudo rational-scientific
disregard for what can be interpreted as “mythic stage” interests remains alive
and well even amongst the largest part of people currently attracted to
orthodox Integral Theory. I must say that I didn’t conduct a careful poll and
that some individuals even told me of strange experiences but, overall, neither
students nor professors demanded that Integral Theory should include the study
of non ordinary phenomena. Apparently, the gut-feeling suspicion among some
academicians is that these fields of inquiry attract non empirical,
feeble-minded believers (probably an attitude stemming from modern and post
modern biases) has something to do with it. In addition, there’s Ken Wilber’s
search for a “Post-metaphysical” integral academic position in which (if I
understood it adequately) there’s the emergent idea that all valid phenomena
are (partially or completely?) disclosed or rather “enacted” as experiences by
altitude and perspective, preferably following a shared or collective method.
This is a search to transcend and include the postmodern ideas which -in
excess- can lead to nihilism and to a valueless society. This search for a new
widely accepted academic position is added to an awareness of a post Kantian “Myth
of the Given” in which- generally speaking- reality must be understood as
interpreted. This search also seems
to bring into question the idea that other levels of reality possess a complete
self-standing ontological status oblivious to social construction and human
perception and interpretation. The idea of interactive realms need not be based
in the either-or assumption that realms stand completely independent of each
other or that they come into existence only if they are “enacted” and the finer
points about this possible interaction need to be carefully elucidated. In
fact, I think that Integral Theory in general is developing interesting but too
incomplete (and biased) ideas which, unfortunately, also serve to create a
cultural ethos and practices/paradigms that don’t support individual, open
minded research into that broad category called “the paranormal.”
Only a combined, critical but open-minded, scientific and metaphysical
research into the ways in which realms relate could serve Integral Theory reach
a more comprehensive level, perhaps even capable of providing a general
template or set of guidelines that could serve to broadly inform physicists
venturing into an exploration of “inter dimensional” realities and applications.
Perhaps expanded metaphysical expectations could form the basis of this general
template when it comes to inter realm issues.
With a few exceptions, when
I tried to bring these issues up I got some blank stares, a great many yawns, some
occasional excessive “new agey” enthusiasm over some empowering, exciting aspects
or an irrational, dismissive skepticism. I came to wonder whether anyone in the
planet would be capable of dealing adequately with these matters, being that
even “integral” thinkers (purportedly the most advanced thinkers on Earth) seemed
unable to do so. I had found similar responses in other universities and in
most kinds of social environments. Attachments
to simpler, extremist kind of dualist solutions seemed to reign even within the
world’s foremost current intellectual development allegedly capable of
including the wisdom of all ages. Soon I realized that most of the “reunion of
inquiries” (my term) of students pivoting around the orthodox Integral Theory
program had to do with personal, spiritual and psychological interests and
practical applications into business, social and ecological coaching rather than
around the integral advancement of theory including renewed, plausible
understandings of science and philosophy. The main orientation is practical or
“this worldly,” so to speak and UFO-ET matters tend to be perceived as unclear,
unreal, evasive, prone to fanaticisms and to remnants of an age in which myths
were not distinguished from objective reality. The influence of the modern
ethos and its standards in which an outwardly stable reality is experimented
upon and analyzed to discover it still reigns. Also, the modern and postmodern ideas
that other approaches are a return to explaining reality in the terms of myth
or a useful but temporary social construction also reigns too close to the
current ideation of an “Integral Age.”
Generally speaking, people
interested in the UFO phenomenon also appeared to be quite partial in spite
that with what they were partial against was simultaneously supported by
various degrees of good evidence gathered over decades. In other words, those
interested in one major aspect of the phenomenon strongly tended not to be
interested in another. While in the academically sanctioned disciplines people
have attractions and preferences for different –mostly equally respected-
fields, in UFO matters (and paranormal phenomena in general) the various
aspects of an integral research seem not to be equally respected but, rather,
some denied in favor of others. For instance, those open to a participatory or “experiencers”
approach (for instance, with beings whom they consider as “benevolent” seemed
not interested in the objective, nuts and bolts, analytical aspects or in some
kinds of independently questioning, scientific approaches. Then, those
skeptical of a “participatory” approach tended to be more scientifically
inclined. I soon got the sense that both “camps” needed to integrate much
better for this field to make progress. Moreover, even among strong believers
that direct contact is actually taking place, there were those contactees (apparently
with benevolent beings) that dismissed abductee testimony and research as
government-induced psychological scare tactics. Then again, there were those
abductees that dismissed contactee research and testimony about contacts with
benevolent space beings. The whole field was rife with irrational dismissals. The
media tended to present UFO research in laughable ways, the U.S. military
officially denied serious interest in UFOs, scientists and politicians tended
to shy away from a practical exploration of the phenomenon in order to protect
their credibility, strongly religious individuals tended to demonize ETs and
UFO and, even UFO researchers and experiencers didn’t seem to be open to a
fruitful dialogue with each other. In fact, throughout my 30 years of personal
research and observation of the UFO phenomenon I experienced fundamentally
alike excluding attitudes not only within various academic institutions, but
within people’s of all persuasions, including New Age enthusiasts. But, why
weren’t even “integral people” apparently able to “take in” and weigh up all
major aspects to the phenomenon or only to value them more openly and
uninhibitedly? Why does the pattern of excessive enthusiasm vs. dismissal
continue and why are the major issues (and preference camps) related to the UFO
phenomenon much the same since the 1950’s?
I recognize that it is not
too fair to say that constructive criticisms of Wilber’s systematizations of
Integral Theory weren’t encouraged (after presenting the theory quite
“orthodoxly” when the program was starting in 2006, they were moderately but increasingly
encouraged at JFKU as years went by). Nonetheless, I still like to refer to this theory as
“orthodox,” partly because (perhaps in
order to maintain the coherence of a publicly accountable university program) the
fundamental revisions of the theory after recognizing intelligent criticisms (some
of them posted in “Integral World”) have not been undertaken and partly because
the brand of “integral awareness” offered doesn’t seem to establish a more
advanced, creative approach with phenomena that seem to show that there is actual
interaction with other realms.
Is the Integral Model Too “Post Modern” or Otherwise Ideologically
Biased to Handle the Paranormal & UFOs?
Interestingly, the UFO
literature seems rife with authors accepting the UFO phenomenon if seeming to personally
embrace for what could be called a “religious and/or pseudo religious and mythical”
attitude or for an “alternative scientific” and, perhaps, a “pseudo scientific”
one. These individuals would be non-postmodern oriented in an ideological
sense. They would be “answer finders” under an “either-or” logoic logic unlike “postmoderns”
so engaged in “deconstructing” and “relativizing” ideas about reality that they
would find spurious, suggestive phenomena like UFOs even less definable. They
would still believe in rather straightforward, clear answers, or rather, in logoic-meaningful
answers and they would tend to use different methods to approach mysteries in
order to obtain somewhat mutually excluding but meaningful answers. And what
about “post post modern” integralists? Well, generally for me, the model of “orthodox”
Integral Theory still seems to be too closely influenced by the all-questioning,
relativizing (postmodern) “social construction” ideologies which motivate
individuals to level out all certainties leading to the disclosure of exterior
uncertainties or a common ambiguity without unequivocal clear-cut answers which
–in a traditional fashion- could lead to new cosmological discoveries. Moreover,
the emphasis given within “orthodox” Integral Theory to “emptiness” and
“aperspectivalness” or to forms of “non dual” Buddhist doctrines (while possible
valuable for inquiry into the realm of non definable, Ultimate Truth) do not
seem to incentivate empirical and/or intellectual research into the complexities
of what could be the details of other “planes” or “realms” or “dimensions” of
existence which, in my view are probably associated with the display and materialization
of many of the most enigmatic aspects of the UFO phenomenon and
–simultaneously- of other “paranormal” mysteries showing similar gross physical
reality-defying characteristics.
The Inherent Uneasiness and Fear
As I review the UFO field, I
come to think that there’s a persistent human inability to gauge in a balanced
manner what we today call “paranormal” but can also be associated with
“otherworldly” phenomena, that is to say, there’s an inability to deal (in a
natural, participatory, critical and non fanatical way) with interesting and
important phenomena which challenge the regular happenings of reality. Today we
must probably do well in recognizing that the “paranormal, and the “otherworldly”
are phenomena that recur across cultures and individuals expressing themselves at
various alleged “stages” of development. It’s like a permanent, uneasy, intrapsychic
characteristic difficulty that can apparently be found even among “open minded
to the paranormal” traditional tribal peoples because they often become co-dependent
to real or imaginary sacrifice-demanding otherworldly entities. The
“intrapsychic tension towards the otherworldly” can be recognized in urban
mythical-religious agrarian peoples when they create rigid rules and
theocracies that denying nature or a freer personal exploration of spiritual
life other than those officially sanctioned. It can be seen in rational-technological
modern individuals who -for credibility’s sake- tend to dismiss evidence of
otherworldly realms and of spiritual realities. Thus, this historical “uneasiness”
appears to manifest sometimes as a wholesale rejection and sometimes as a
wholesale, uncritical acceptance and, in my experience, I don’t see that allegedly
incipient “integral stage” individuals currently break away too much from it. People
in general want to fit in well with their cultures either by accepting
wholesale the official version about paranormal happenings or by wholesale
rejecting adopting an official objective-skeptical attitude. In both cases,
understandings in matters paranormal are taken as matters of faith. Maybe this segregating,
irrational uneasiness would be one reason why, if there indeed are non “our-physical,”
non Earth human, self conscious, technologically advanced intelligences
associated with some objective manifestations of the UFO phenomenon, they may
not simply attempt open, public contacts. We would perhaps distort the
interaction through this (innate?) “uneasiness” or inability to think (about
concrete, stable reality in general and, more so, about less concrete, less
stable reality) without extreme dualist preferences. So what can be done about
it? Are individual UFO contactee (and perhaps abductee) stories the best way
Earth humans can today collectively process an interaction with technologically
advanced beings from other physical realms?
The Poll after the Bestseller
I think that, placing
otherworldly-related phenomena (such as the UFO phenomenon) on the cultural “map”
or “chessboard” of what is academically and intellectually acceptable for those
that consider themselves to be part of the current “intelligentsia” would be a
first step. People’s individual interests and perspectives are indeed
influenced by what is culturally acceptable. As ineludible evidence mounts (in
Ufology and Parapsychology) and as physical science increases its scope to expand
on concepts such as “higher extended spatial dimensions,” or other occasionally
interacting “bubble universes calibrated under different physical parameters in
the multiverse” it is likely that, in time, part of the information conveyed by
UFO contactees and abductees regarding other physical and non physical realms
of existence will become a bit more “kosher,” for those that consider
themselves as “Second Tier” and for those that don’t know or don’t care, so to
speak.
There have been many
serious attempts to bring the UFO phenomenon into public awareness and into academic
and political acceptance. In recent years the History Channel and Discovery
Channel have presented good cases and well led research on various aspects of
the UFO phenomenon. For instance go to “UFO Hunters” at http://www.history.com/shows/ufo-hunters
There have also been well
written reports sent to the U.S. Congress (see: UFO Briefing Document: The
Best Available Evidence by Don Berliner). Among the latest attempts are a
series of important and serious disclosures of high ranking government
officials at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. There have been a
number of these media events organized over the years by “The Disclosure
Project” but little political or academic follow up of social consequences have
been forthcoming. I also think that the poll
published in “Integral Life” by artist Stuart Davis and by investigative
journalist Leslie Kean, apropos of the latter’s well written and objective best
seller: UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on Record is
a valuable incentive for the “Integral” community to start thinking in an
“Integral” manner about the mounting evidence on scientifically unique aspects
related to UFO’s and –by extension- to other phenomena, also considered as “paranormal.”
The sheer data given by so many high level witnesses has an authoritative value
that would be rationally foolish to ignore. Nonetheless, that particular poll
titled “What Do You Think of UFOs?” has a question that limits replies to a reduced
choice between: 1) They are extraterrestrial; 2) They are secret military
technology; 3) They are natural phenomena and 4) They are “extra governmental”
(perhaps meaning secret world domination geared projects). These mutually
exclusive choices may be too narrow to reflect the broad, magnificent scope of
the UFO mystery. After being aware of many more possibilities often rationally
posited to explain the most bizarre aspects of the UFO phenomenon, in my view,
for a poll of this nature we ought to consider at least a few other
“plausibles” such as 5) Various forms of self delusion (including the need for
a mythical, sociological dimension); 6) The temporary materialization of the
“imaginal world” of unconsciously shared, collective symbols (research C.
Jung’s with W. Pauli’s collaboration and ideas); 7) A mechanism of
psychological and social control adopting the appearance of UFOs in our time
(read Jacques Vallée’s book The Invisible College); 8) Other being’s ambivalent
past situations specifically actualized through retrocausal time travel and/or
through contact with realms possessing more actualized exteriors (one of my
hypotheses); 9) Other beings from a parallel physical universe with similar or
identical natural constants as “ours” and 10) A simultaneous “all of the above”
option. Nonetheless, the last suggested option -while possibly adequate- may
just throw us into an intellectual dead end or into a non productive generality,
unless we find one or more “threads” to connect some of the options.
A Possible Connecting Thread
A ‘thread’ may relate
interiorities and exteriorities among realms in a way that has not been clearly
considered before. This thread could extend our concept of “Metaphysics” and
make it “kosher” for those seeking to understand the nature of reality by
adopting a metaphysically extended form of science. This is a thread partly based
on the idea of combination, of combination in different proportions of
primordial ontological constituents. It is my speculation on a possibility that
has already been occasionally mentioned in UFO literature.
That there may exist different levels and/or various
kinds of physical environments other than the “gross” physical
world we normally perceive, function, feel with and have our interior needs, strategies,
choices and conflicts invested in, is a possibility that also ought to be
considered in order to shed some light on the paranormal and UFOs. There may be
different degrees of quadratic exteriority even in realities which could be
termed “physical.” Overall, the UFO phenomenon seems to suggest this. For
instance, when in the 1950’s George Adamski apparently interacted with “Venusian”
beings he could see, listen and touch and, when in the 1970’s, South American
contactees were asked to “raise their vibrations” to prepare for a physical
contact in an intermediate “meeting point” with “Fourth Dimensional” beings the
idea that -in both cases- these beings lowered what could be called
“dimensionality,” “density” or “vibrations” to achieve a physical interaction
with human contactees, is not illogical. If Adamski didn’t “etherealize” his
Gross state sufficiently for a physical contact at the level where the alleged
Venusians live, perhaps his Venusian friends did “densify” theirs sufficiently.
In the second case, (as with contactees Sixto Paz in Peru and Luis F. Mostajo
in Bolivia) certain subtle energy and spiritual meditational practices were
used to extend the range of physical and conscious human activity while “Xendras” or interdimensional portals where
visibly activated by friendly “extraterrestrials” for them to come through in a
physically intermediate space-time environment.
When alleged
“extraterrestrial” spacecraft hover and take off without a known reaction force
obeying the laws of Newton and, apparently, without its occupants crashing
against the craft’s inner walls we can suspect that those controlling the craft
are also control of the physical limitations we are aware of. Are they bending
space-time? Are they surrounded by an Alcubierre-like isolating bubble within
which the zero point energy density of space (along with accompanying physical
fundamental parameters) is different from our know universe? Can they modify
the craft’s substance so that it acquires the properties of substance in
another realm of existence while –at times- retaining some of our know
universe’s physical characteristics so as to be impervious to gravity but still
visible and interactive with electric and magnetic fields?
The idea that other planets
(and even ‘our’ own) may be inhabited in other levels of physicality would
solve the riddle of not finding civilizations in places within the Solar System
which were mentioned by any genuine contactees. One of these places is Venus
where -as we know- the surface is covered by hot sulfuric acid.
When I refer to “levels” of
physicality I’m exploring the idea of “degrees
of grossness” and “degrees of
exteriority” assortedly combined with “Subtle Substance or, perhaps, Energy”
and I also explore the idea that some physical realms have greater proportions
of Mental and Spiritual elements so that, while retaining physical
characteristics, the exterior substance itself becomes more malleable, less
limiting, less resisting to quadratic interiorities and, therefore also, more “subtle.”
I speculate that when the basic Mental element (of the “Physical” Mental”
Spiritual” ontological trinity still associated with some understandings of the
“Chain of Being”) is more active in a particular physical realm, its quadratic
exteriors will possess a greater proportion of Mental Subtle Exterior Energy.
Thus the objective,
concrete, exteriors that –according to a fundamental approach to Integral
Theory- are found in all holons, may also stem from combinations of the ontological
Gross, Mental and Spiritual elements (which relate to the, so called, “Three
Eyes of Knowledge”). So, what in
Integral Theory is called the “Gross,” the “Subtle” and the “Causal” realms may
each refer to broad particular exteriorities that serve as (also
interpenetrating) vehicles for: 1) The interiority corresponding to the
Concrete Physical realms; 2) the Interiority corresponding to the
Mental-psychic-emotional realms; 3) the interiority pertaining to primordial spiritual
archetypes and ideas.
Thus, the experiences and
the possibilities of expression of corresponding (and also interpenetrating) interiors
would also vary in accordance to the dominant vehicle used and to how much its
exteriority is a combination of the exterior energies associated with (combinations
of) the three ontological elements. If all alternative physicalities were also
to interpenetrate (in both potential and actual ways) with what we call the
“Subtle” and “Causal” realms and with the kind of Physical Gross Realm we are
most familiar with (often called “Third Density” in some contactee books and in
New Age channeled material), perhaps it would not be too adequate to only call any
possible UFO intelligences by using the prefix “extra.”
Is anything outside of
physical reality as we know it “extra” physical? What about ghosts and about
materializing-dematerializing inner Earth beings claiming to be associated with
“extraterrestrial” entities?
Adding “Intraterrestrials” to the Equation
Besides the possibility of
part of the UFO phenomenon (for instance a part not derived from natural
phenomena linked to meteorology or from secret military technology) being
possibly associated with intelligent beings as a rule inhabiting other kinds of
physical realities, I must add that, due to some objective, even collectively
shared contact experiences (quite objectively reported by several friends here
in Peru and elsewhere in Latin America), I think that we must also
consider the possibility of various kinds of “intraterrestrial” dwellers (intelligent beings living inside
the Earth's crust's natural and artificially-adapted environments). These
beings, in a sense, would be “earthier” (or metaphorically speaking, closer to
the Earth’s womb) than us surface dwellers and, occasionally and only briefly
interact with some surface dwellers under extraordinary circumstances. Some of
them may even, perhaps, be as ancient as us surface humans according to face to
face reports in which some also revealed to be human-alien hybrids.
Nonetheless, their worlds may normally also be made of a different kind of
physical matter, a matter normally out of phase with ours as they were reported
as materializing-dematerializing, passing through rocks, becoming audible but
invisible or appearing and disappearing amidst a bubble of light, thus following
some of the alleged characteristics of some UFOs. Moreover, some contactees were
allegedly told by intraterrestrials that they preserved the knowledge and
technologies of prior, extraterrestrially-influenced advanced civilizations.
The interesting book Tayos
Gold: The Archives of Atlantis written by Scottish engineer Stan Hall shows
astronaut Neil Armstrong participating
in an expedition to the Tayos Cave in Ecuador along with the Ecuadorian army, apparently
to recuperate mysterious inscribed metal planks inside the cave’s large
chambers. There’s some information (with pictures) at:
http://books.google.com.pe/books?id=vIoVD1dVYK4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Tayos+Gold&source=bl&ots=YgEGjZknFp&sig=3Y7H7kW1WqW1PIyDvpwMu36rpVM&hl=es&ei=sWRRTdioKcW_tgf_-Z2eCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
A few years ago I
befriended in London, England a few members of the Chiriap family, members of
the Shuar Tribe in Ecuador, people whose traditional territory included the current
province of Morona Santiago in the Amazon Jungle. Back then, they told me that they had been young
porters during an expedition in which Neil Armstrong did participate. They also
told me that they had carried loads of materials extracted from a huge cave called
“Cueva de los Tayos” and that this
material could have included the remnants from a more advanced civilization. Moreover,
they told me that approximately every 60-100 years one of the Shuar Tribe
members is taken underground through temporary openings in certain jungle
waterfalls in order to biologically reproduce with the more advanced variety of
underground dwellers (of which there allegedly were the “Tzunkies” a more technologically
and spiritually advanced kind and the “Jurishkis,” a protective but, apparently,
less interiorly advanced kind). Some people may just say that anyone, including
Neil Armstrong, has the right to participate in an excursion into the jungle
and that this doesn’t necessarily imply any UFOs, ETs, more advanced
civilizations or the search for a more advanced lost civilization or an
“intraterrestrial” connection. Off course, they may be right but, anyway, Stan
Hall’s book was a pleasant surprise that at least corroborated to me what I had
been told about Armstrong’s curious presence in the harsh and humid Amazonian
environment.
There have been claims of
contact with beings living inside Mount Shasta in California and also members
of the Mision Rahma contact group in
Latin America claim to have directly met and interacted with different kinds of
“intra terrestrial” dwellers in Peru, Brazil and Ecuador. Some of this
information (in Spanish) can be found at: http://www.legadocosmico.com/ecis.htm
From “SomeWHERE” Else
There are alleged
contactees that claim that the physical level of “extraterrestrials” is
different. In the early “golden” years of UFO contact (around the 1950’s) some
contactees spoke about etheric-physical UFOs, beings and worlds. One such
(still surviving) contactee is Mrs. Aleuti Francesca (http://www.ufocongressstore.com/Aleuti-Francesca-Presents-Contactee-Or-Abductee-DVD-Presentation_p_248.html). Contactees like Eugenio Siragusa
and Giorgio Bongiovanni have referred to (and allegedly taken photos of)
“beings of light” that, nonetheless, use spaceships and produce physical
effects. Contactee Sixto Paz Wells and his brother Carlos spoke of being
surrounded by a bubble of light while being taken through an artificially
opened interdimensional portal (a “Xendra”)
into another kind of physical world (in which the passing of time seems to be
faster than ours). Contactee Luis
Fernando Mostajo (who, like Sixto Paz W. has been associated with collectively
verified sightings of structured UFOs and the replication of “physical” contact
experiences with other persons) told me about being taken to an otherworldly
aspect of Venus, to a city that both seems to be physical and dream-like. During
the gatherings of the early modern (post 1947) UFO age contactees organized by
George Van Tassel at Giant Rock in California, the existence of so called extraterrestrial
“ethereans” was often mentioned. An interesting photo of an alleged “etherean”
ship was taken by San Bernardino Reserve Sheriff Franz W. Ackerman and can be
seen (as part of a study of the Book of OASHPE at: http://www.studyofoahspe.com/id2.html An
interesting book that held sway in the beginning of the so called “modern UFO
era” was Mead Lane’s The Ether Ship and its Solution. It spoke of an
alternative 4th dimensional vibratory substance in which
extraterrestrials normally lived. A few other authors like Bruce Cathie who
wrote Harmonic 33 and Trevor James Constable who wrote They Live in
the Sky and The Cosmic Pulse of Life think in ways compatible with
the possibility of alternative physical space-time continuums. Nonetheless, probably
because talk about the “ether” and about “other dimensions” sounded retrograde
and associated with tall stories, myths, XIX Century physics (superseded by
Einstein’s theories), and fairy tales, these ideas (instead of being carefully
sorted out and possibly integrated into an expanded scientific paradigm) were
immediately rejected by the “nuts and bolts” ufologists (favoring a “classical”
scientific approach) and then became associated with the, so called, “saucerians” who favored both contactee
accounts and an occult, esoteric approach to the subject. Thus, possibly valid
elements comprising aspects of the whole UFO phenomenon were –typically-
dissociated among many opposing but intelligent and partially progressive
individuals and researchers. This is a pity and may reflect how the human mind
(even of pioneers) tends to emphasize divides over commonalities. Now is
perhaps an opportunity for “integral” thinkers to act differently. For more information there’s an interesting
introductory summary of some related UFO matters written for the Encyclopedia
of Occultism and Parapsychology and it can be found at: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/UFO.aspx
Thus, perhaps (if we
were to take the contactee communication, the apparent space-time manipulation
and some author’s educated guesses) we ought to consider the possibility that the
objective, exterior substance of many kinds of “extraterrestrials” and “intraterrestrials”
may be different and still temporarily interact (perhaps we could say, briefly
and “tangentially” intersect) with the kind of physical matter we normally
accept as “real” and as “ours.” What we ought to know more about the mechanism
behind this which also ought to be much more complex than what has been
popularly transmitted by any one source. Perhaps by synthesizing the main
insights of many complementary sources we would obtain a better grasp of what
may be going on.
Interestingly, according to
the brevity of UFO and associated sightings, the phenomenon (whether completely
natural or artificially induced under natural laws we still ignore) seems bound
to be elusive and (because of that impermanence in our ordinary reality) sociologically
and psychologically speaking, rather unimportant; remaining like an apparently non-credible
phenomenon of no consequence which (partly due to its inherent “high
strangeness”) elicits (as coping mechanisms) a variety of intense (and mostly
irrational, it seems) psychological coping mechanisms and reactions in most
believers, enthusiasts, researchers, debunkers, contactees and abductees,
according to strong personal, interpretive and emotional preferences. Can
“integral” members of the UFO community fair any better?
The Demonizing & Angelizing Dichotomic Tendencies
While scrutinizing a broad
sample of the UFO literature the agreeable or disagreeable interactions seem to
show that otherworldly beings also have dissimilar intentions toward us.
Nonetheless, the human tendency to reduce complexity before the unknown and to irrationally
“demonize” or “angelize” “UFO occupants” (and any genuine messages) is quite
apparent and must be kept in mind as we may also “demonize” those with whom we
could establish a benign, constructive relation and “angelize” those that seem
intent in serving their needs first. For instance, by posing questions and
trying to strike conversations on the UFO subject, I personally found that most
of the fundamentalist Christians I met tended to demonize all things extraterrestrial.
On the other hand, in my experience, generally speaking, Catholics were more
open to various other possibilities. I also found that, at least until the mid
1990’s and early 2000’s in Peru (and other Latin American countries, perhaps
with the exception of Brazil), most local contactee movement supporters tended
to “angelize” all things extraterrestrial, disregarding disquieting cases like
the Villas Boas’ (in which an alleged abduction was coupled with a forced
sexual encounter) or the Filiberto Cárdenas case (in which the shocked abductee
–who later in life struggled with psychological problems- was returned with cuts
all over his body and given world-event predictions many of whom apparently
came to pass). For some good information about these last two cases refer to Lt.
Col. Wendelle Stevens book UFO Abduction at Mirassol and to his overview
of the Filiberto Cardenas abduction/contact case (researched in collaboration
with Cuban-American attorney Virgilio Sánchez Ocejo). About this specific,
there’s some general information at: http://www.ufoevidence.org/Cases/CaseSubarticle.asp?ID=697 (I also recommend all of Lt. Col.
Steven’s books of the series “UFO Contact From” for a vast overview of suitably
well-researched and less known contactee cases).
Participating for several
years in the week-long “International UFO Congress” in Nevada I had the
opportunity to converse mostly with researchers and abductees and a few contactees.
Although this particularly informative conference itself offered a “smörgasbord”
of research and testimonial positions in the UFO community, most speakers also
seemed to be divided along strong lines of personal interpretation and preference.
For instance, in the main, abductees and famous abductee researchers showed a
lack of interest in any evidence supporting alleged cases of benevolent contact
either inside or outside of the U.S. and, moreover, some seemed to me to become
physically restless and psychologically uncomfortable when respectfully confronted
by proposals, evidence or views which they couldn’t readily dismiss. Generally
speaking, abduction researchers tried to associate their field with a
scientific approach and felt inclined to dismiss contactee material as
delusional in one way or another. Then there were government cover-up
researchers that told horror stories of citizen and general human rights abuse,
quite often implicating tense undercover alliances with self-serving extraterrestrials
as varieties of the so called “Greys” and “Reptilians” are claimed to be.
Making Creative Distinctions
As there may actually be other
physical realms than the one we are accustomed to, we must not make the mistake
of naming everything else in the lump sum categories of “spiritual” or
“subtle.” We must remember that also the so called “Subtle” and the “Causal”
realms of existence may have degrees of exteriority, of objective
quadratic correspondence to their interiors. Then again, these objective,
exterior aspects associated to the three main categories of realms accepted in
Ken Wilber’s essential encompassing version of Integral Theory (the Gross,
Subtle and Causal) either perhaps combine with each other in different
proportions to conform (along with their respective interiorities) particular
physical realms, particular subtle realms and particular causal realms (of which
the Radhasoami Tradition has differentiated sub realms as even what would be
the “Causal” is not simplified into “pure undifferentiatedness” as Ken Wilber
seems to do). I see that the time for incorporating into theory more specific
distinctions in relation to the cosmological realms is here.
Why are alleged “ET”
messages so incomplete, often matching in generalities but not in specifics? Regarding
the truthfulness and clarity of messages, we shouldn’t forget “earthier”
reasons such as the need some charismatic leaders may have to continually
produce unique phenomena, thus being called to sustain and embellish whatever
traces of genuine experiences there may be but another interesting reason
(besides the previously mentioned and outright human and “ET” lies or strong unconscious
personal interpretive biases) could be that, that (while living our physical
lives in the “Third Density,” Gross realm on Earth) we are used to a specific
relation between our interiorities and their corresponding exteriorities. Also considering
that those whom I might posit as “intelligent space beings from other (less
exteriorly restrictive) physical environments” are also used to a different
relation between their own interiorities and exteriorities, perhaps it follows
that our degree of natural interpretation of their communications may suffer
from what could be called an inherent “out of phase connection” or a “decoherent” inter quadratic connection.
Moreover, possibly because the interior mental objects we can handle are too
limited by our greater general “investment” in exteriority, (an “investment”
which -in my view- is also like a projection of our beings and which requires
metaphysical principles to explain) what they communicate must be reduced to
specific aspects of our interior understanding, still unfortunately the most
adequate to interpret them. Also, perhaps the more “advanced” and/or the more
“distant” from our known physical realm communicating beings may be, the more
general, unrealistic and visionary may be. Furthermore, many shared cultural
symbols which are forms of Interiority and which could be interpreted more
broadly may fill in the gaps of our insufficient mental objects.
Considering that (in
association with the -generally estimated- 5%-10% of genuine, non prosaically
explained, extraordinary UFO cases in which the ‘UFO’ may be a kind of
technologically advanced but even “interdimensional” non human “vehicle”)
intelligent UFO occupants would share with us the fact that they also live
under the possibilities and limitations of their own particular Gross form of
biology and of physical life, we could validly say: 1) That there could be some
points of convergence between their and our form of biology and physical life and 2)
That they would (also quantitatively speaking)
‘come from’ someWHERE else in a partially interacting, alternative physical
space. Off course space itself would seem to be “higher dimensional” or “multi
dimensional” in nature and –perhaps- the more exteriorly subtle spaces could still
maintain a link with our ‘interiors’ and to what for us would seem to be
smaller ‘inside’ elements our regular (3rd density?) physical space but,
which nevertheless, are also objectively exterior and concrete in their own
right at their own level of full actual expression. These other physical realms
(as already mentioned, also probably made up of different combinations of essential
realm-making ontological principles that can also be metaphysically defined)
may -under naturally and/or artificially
produced- intersecting energetic
conditions, co-produce a brief, objective “tangential encounter” with our
'regular' physical world. In this “encounter” physical parameters would be
modified and come close to each other to allow a mutually objective interaction
and recognition in which our interiorities participate.
Who Are They? Exploring ET Designation Alternatives
Once again, to say that the
intelligences associated with a genuine UFO phenomenon-as spacecraft are only
'extraterrestrial' could be a oversimplification. Self-aware intelligences perhaps
in some aspects partially equivalent, partially inferior and partially superior
(or more cognitively inclusive) to current Earth surface humans; intelligences
controlling a plausible “alter physical spacecraft”
may –as previously suggested- live and function in different kinds of physical
universes than the one we are normally aware of. Then again, as the
contactee and abductee literature suggests, perhaps there are varieties among
them, as they have been described as completely “human” (the “space brothers” of the early contactees from the
1950’s in the U.S. and the 1970’s in Latin America), as “hominid” or similar to humans (as sometimes certain varieties of so
called ‘grey types’ are described),
as “reptilian,” as “robotic” and as
“exotic” (a variety of luminous, floating, with strange looking forms). Perhaps,
in those cases in which these alleged beings are human or resemble humans in
essential ways, we could adequately refer to them as “homo alter natura” to consider their alternative physical natures. Then,
if the specific alternative physical realms were identified, the definition could
extend again (perhaps to “homo alter natura 2, 3, 4, etc”). We could also refer
to their subtypes according to more specific biological differences among them.
The book The Field Guide of Extraterrestrials by Patrick Huyghe can give
us a quick, general sense of what had been allegedly encountered and catalogued
(when the book was written). Then, Alien Identities by Richard L.
Thompson, Extraterrestrials: Friends and Foes by George C. Andrews and Glimpses
of Other Realities: Facts and Eyewitnesses (volume I) by Linda Moulton
Howe, would be interesting follow ups to start building a general sense of who “they”
might be. Also, Michael Salla produced a nice overview of possible species
which –as he says- are associated and not associated with the
“military-industrial complex.” This information can be found at: http://www.exopolitics.org/Report-ET-Motivations.htm
Salla’s typology of alleged
ET races and their motivations mentions beings related to a planet found near
the star Alpha Centauri as “promoting social justice and freedom.” This
coincides with the friendly presence of a star-faring people that in Peru
(starting in 1960 with alleged contactee Vlado Kapetanovic) and other Latin
American countries has been known as the helpful and respectful “Apunians.” Could
they also be the same type of beings (or, rather, space people) that –allegedly-
South African contactee Elizabeth Clarer met in the 1950’s? This information
also seems to coincide with the observations of a more recent alleged American
contactee called Alex Collier.
Are They “Aliens?”
Generally speaking,
regardless of socio and cultural developmental levels (and regardless whether
the Wilberian classification is this matters is right on target or partially
correct) what has so far remained active in human awareness and as necessary to
include beings into our sense of identity and into our degree of concern and
care has been “territory.” Many anthropologists believe that we are a
territorial species. In many tribal societies the “aliens,” the “others” were
those with whom we didn’t have to share physical territory. Now, in our
“modern” nation states, we loosely identify with a sense of patriotism with
those that share the fact of being born in the same territory as us. The link
is more symbolic as we also share legal norms and collective transaction
symbols but it also remains territorial. Supposedly, in the post modern cultural
stage, we are able to identify ourselves with all inhabitants of the
world-territory and this is why there are universal human rights concerns as
well as ecological movements and concerns. But what about those we call “the ETs”?
Will we need to recognize that we also share a vital territory with them to
consider them as part of us and as participative members of our living flock? What if we indeed share a multi-level
physical space which interpenetrates with the world’s territory? Will persons
at the “Integral” level of consciousness incorporate these other alleged beings
(regardless of their particular intentions) into their field of care and
concern?
Towards a More “Integral” and Creative Synthesis of Physics and
Metaphysics
Within the Cosmos and its
duality-derived quadratic expressions (both perceived by the human mind and
possibly constitutionally ‘out there’ in reality), the interactions of
potential and actual states of substance and conscious information processing
interiority, may play many important roles, especially for inter-realm
relations. I think that this factor must be seriously considered in the
development of integral models dealing with the study of the inter realm
relation of physis and psyche.
We need to recognize that, if
these beings exist in different physical realities, we also at least share with
them the fact that they must have some physical limitations and physical
possibilities. A question that arises is
how these limitations and possibilities would compare to ours. If more subtle
and causal elements integrate with their gross aspect than what we experience
in our physical world, perhaps their limitations would be less restrictive while
more of their corresponding interiorities would be able to find an easier expression
through them. Another way to begin seeing this would be to say that their
quadratic “interiority” is less invested in their “exteriority” and, thus, that
their exteriority would be more malleable or with more flexible physical
parameters. Their exteriority would perhaps respond more to consciousness and
also perhaps offer less inertial resistance to a change of movement. Keeping
Integral Theory in mind, I think that it would be too simplistic to reduce
their combined Interior and Exterior quadratic aspects to our interiority in
association with the Subtle Realm while only emphasizing this realm as a
“visionary” realm. In a way, because their exteriority would be more connected
or invested with their interiority, part of what would be “objective” in their
realm would be “imaginal” and “interior” in our experience. Nonetheless, they
would still have to be mostly considered as physical beings. I’d say that it
would be worth reviewing some of Carl Jung’s writing on UFO’s and other
phenomena that, while having a psychic representation in our unconscious minds
can also materialize and interact in an objective way.
To simply add 'all of the above'
to a list of possibilities about the UFO phenomenon would not be too productive
unless we had a model that integrates the elements. Many possibilities may be
true, each in their own right but without a way to distinguish in finer
analysis how the various aspects of the UFO phenomenon relate, would leave us
with an excessive degree of generality. Thus I think that we need
to start thinking about a kind of “inter-realm” physics and of degrees of concrete exteriority
differently interacting with interior psychic experiences while coming to terms
with a renewed and integrally expanded meaning of that almost taboo and uneasy
word “metaphysics.” This is a
must in order to make progress in the UFO field of inquiry which –as previously
stated- also converges with many aspects of interiority and the “paranormal.” The
truly integral “mandate” here is for an expanded theory able to assist
serious but open-minded individuals consider the finer points of these matters
more effectively.
A Necessary Metaphysics (part one)
As I tried to show in other
essays, the idea of Interior, Exterior, Unitary and Plural quadrants rose in
analogous ways before Ken Wilber’s mid 90’s breakthrough (a breakthrough which,
in spite of my criticisms, I still consider intellectually important). I had
mentioned the Peruvian Chakana Cross and some of the likely little know
ideology behind it. I mentioned the Jung-Pauli “Quaternio” and other Integral quadrant-like
ideas as the ones of emeritus professor and philosopher Archie J. Bahm who –decades
before Wilber- seemed to have developed a philosophical system that complements
Integral Theory. As my understanding of
Bahm’s works on polarity goes, something taken as a pole implies another
something exterior to it and through which that first something logically
refers back to itself. In other words, the “other” the “alter” (which is a
complementary pole) is implied by the presence of the original entity. Then
again, that one pole also implies (through the recognition of another) the
existence of at least two entities, or the existence of plurality. Thus, with a
logic of relations, partially similar to that one used in Marxist-Leninist
dialectics and also perhaps similar to some used by many tribal societies, the
logical rudiments of the quadrants can be generated. This is the logical origin
of the quadrants and it is more of a “both-and” logic but (as Bahm demonstrates
with his use of logical rigor) can also make use of an “either-or” strategy as
though the “both-and” dialectical logic were capable of incorporating or,
rather, transcending and including the classical Aristotelian “either-or”
stance. Another kind of logic associated with the Indian Catuskoti system and
then with Nagarjuna´s philosophical developments afterwards seems to transcend
the previous two logics. Digressing a little bit, I’d like to say that, while
the Aristotelian logic seems best to apply to a Gross world of objects and that
while Bahm’s dialectical model (called “ORGANICISM”)
seems to apply best to living, relational models, by considering the
possibilities where the Indian Catuskoti leads, God if known as the Western
Mystical Absolute, God if known as Vedanta’s Nirguna Brahman and the “essence”
of the Mahayana Buddhist Tathagatagarbha do all seem to be positive and affirming
compatible conceptions after all (only that the last logical position also
serves to deny self sustaining substantiality to any definable object,
phenomenon…or even holon).
Going back to the first
arguments, I think that when one pole doesn’t imply another exterior to
it and –simultaneously- more than one, we are not distinguishing what is as an
object. Our experience of objects exist as distinctions and “have us” through
the force that experientially binds us to them, the force of consciousness (the
only absolutely actual Reality) projected unto them. In other words, (Gross,
Mental and Causal) objects become binding and become vehicles of our experience
due to the projection of our innermost interiority (the only absolutely actual
Reality) onto them. We can say that this occurs in every realm or combination
thereof.
Augmenting the basic
Integral Theory concepts of Interiority, Exteriority, Individuality and
Plurality (or Collectivity), we could perhaps effectively borrow from classic
and scholastic metaphysical concepts like “potentia”
and “actuality” to shed some light –for
instance- on the possible relation between grosser and subtler realms. These
probably needs to be recognized to eventually understand some “paranormal”
effects also converging on some UFO “anomalies” as both, physical and mental
dimensions of existence may submit to the same metaphysical principles. Also, I
foresee that these thinking tools taken together could generate broad, useful,
orienting expectations eventually applicable to a more experimental scientific
approach. They are applicable to the idea of a hierarchical order dualistically
being understood as having God’s (or Spirit’s) Absolute Actuality on one pole
and the grossest matter greatest Potential (to be) on the other pole.
Logically pure, undivided
Interiority or an Individual Interiority would be metaphysically prior to the
co-arising of quadrants. Logically, (in spite of the dialectical simultaneity
of the co-emergence of Interiors and Exteriors), since the Exterior quadratic
dimensions and the Collective or Plural ones arise after Pure Being has been
split by the perception of implied complementary opposites, Interiority along
with undivided Oneness can be understood as closer (and more directly
responsive) to that Absolute God, the Nirguna Brahma, the Tathagathagarbha
which (in spite of this itself being a dualistic assertion) can be seen as the
Source of all consciousness. In other words, the Upper Left Quadrant could have
a closer relationship with the Non Dual Source in spite of arising (within the
Cosmos) along with other logically implied quadratic dimensions.
By reconsidering the -so
called- “Great Chain of Being” in an
Integral way under a rediscovery of (also integrally important) metaphysical
principles a new integral metaphysical model could combine with the general
psychic-physical direction where science seems to be heading if we review not
only quantum physics but serious experimental parapsychological research (go to
http://www.deanradin.com/ and to my essay “Bold reflection on
Integral Theory” under the subtitle “On Mysterious Objective Phenomena that
Like Integral Theory Challenge the Reduction of Life to a Form of Materialist
Determinism” http://www.integralworld.net/piacenza8.html)
A Necessary Metaphysics (part two)
Once again, in Medieval, pre-Scholastic
and Scholastic metaphysics (borrowing from Neo Platonic thinking) Absolute
Spirit, God is considered as absolutely actual in one end of the so called
“Chain of Being” and, then the physical world is considered as completely potential
because of being most distant from the Source of Being. Because contingency
cannot sustain itself, God as the Absolute is thought of as necessary for the
contingent world of form to exist and subsist. The intermediate realms (such as
the angelic realms) would be considered to be closer to Pure Actuality than the
Gross, Physical Realm. In relation to Integral Theory I would say that their
exteriors would be more expansive and less potentially existent or manifest
and, rather, more under the influence of the Interior quadrants. Once again,
I’ll say that, overall, these “intermediate” realms would be more experientially
centered in their Interiority than in its exteriority if compared with the
Gross, material realm. In other words, the objects of experience (even if still
partially experienced as exterior) would be more mental
As previously suggested, whether
the other physical realms might also simplistically be thought of as
"parallel universes" or as "other dimensions," I think
that they are expressions of combinations of Three Essential Realm-Making
Principles (the Gross, the Mental and the Spiritual principles). These
principles (perhaps also associated with the I, the We and the It and –outside
of contingent name and form- with a multi-religious perception of a Divine Trinity)
would form our physical realm and –in relation with other realms- would
interplay with potentiality and actuality.
How to adequately visualize
the hierarchical holonic relation between the Causal Realm, the Subtle Realm
and the Physical Realm needs to be inquired into. In terms of holons (and any
valid holonic rules) what whole holonic components encompass smaller holonic
parts? If it actually exists, does the Causal Realm include and transcend the
Subtle Realm and does the Subtle Realm includes and transcends the Physical? How
can this relation be visualized? Once again , I think that only if we add to
our understanding of the “Interior, Exterior,
Single, Multiple” quadratic aspects of every holon the well-known basic
metaphysical concepts of the “Absolute”
and the “Contingent” and the
concepts of the “Actual” and the “Potential” will we eventually come to
specify a finer detail on the holonic relation between realms. Moreover, these
additions will be necessary to advance our tentative understanding of the posited
derived subset of possible physical realms and their interactions.
I think that there’s a
general formula that can be deduced from Neo-Platonic and scholastic
metaphysics: The less non dual, real, the less simple, the less actual, the
less essential, and the less Interior something is, the more dual, the more apparent
or illusory, the more multiple, the more potential, the more exterior, and the
more contingent. Vedanta and other metaphysical systems do seem to be in basic agreement
with this. In general, there’s a traditional wisdom agreement by which we can
also truthfully assert that the realms closer to the Absolute (but also ultimately
indefinable) “Source” are considered to metaphysically precede in hierarchy in the
sense of being more real. Thus, for instance, if we simplify the realms
(without their subdivisions) as the “Causal,” the “Subtle” and the “Gross,” we
must admit that the first one is less apparent and more real; the second one is
intermediately apparent and real and the third one is more apparent and less
real. But can we also truthfully assert that the realms closer to the “Source”
include and transcend the ones farther from it? A search for this answer is the
point of this inquiry.
But what else accompanies the
realms that progressively become more apparent or less Real? In a way we could
say that the more exterior something is the more dead it also is. Progressively
these realms are thought to become more dual (more objectified, distinct and
separated in order to sustain a way of being and understanding), more apparent
(what seems necessary is experienced as outside of the Interior Source), more contingent
(dependent and in a mode of being in which objects, events, holons are
incomplete and insufficient in and of themselves), increasingly multiple (the
simple oneness of God is lost into the appearance of greater and greater objects
of experience and subdivisions), more exterior (the Absolute’s Actualization Force
of “His-Its-Our” Interior Life is projected to the Exterior and particular
consciousnesses living in His Eternity become proportionally limited and dependent
on Exteriors). These realms also become more potential (potential in the sense
of acting under the representation of Gross resistance, by “Inertia,” rather
than by “Initia”).
A Brief digression: No wonder that mental mathematical objects are found incomplete in and
of themselves or in their relation with other objects, as all objects under
duality and appearance are. No wonder that Buddha’s great insight on the
“emptiness of all phenomena” is basically compatible with the wisdom of Vedanta
and Platonic mystical Christianity. No wonder that ideas (even ideas about God)
are understood in contrast with their opposites, unless opposites are
understood as sharing being in the oneness of that which is. No wonder that
holons are partially complete and partially incomplete.
Into the “GREX”
As integral theorists I'd
say that we need to recognize “a larger herd” or a “larger flock" (the
word "Integral" also essentially means "inside a flock" as "Inte" derives from the Latin word "Intus" (meaning "inside") and "Gral" comes from the Latin word “Grex” (meaning “flock” or "herd").
Taking this etymological meaning as a metaphor and further as a guide, in order
to be inside a larger flock, thus, more integrally inclusive, we need to
reincorporate all the "lost sheep"
or what I would say are the suppressed, never acknowledged and forgotten elements
or human discoveries that would have been more naturally accepted in previous dominant
cultural stages. This would probably require more emphasis in the “include” aspect
than in the “transcend” aspect of cultural change as we –allegedly- “evolve”
from stage to stage.” Maybe the discovery of all forms of wisdom should have
been more of a continuum incorporated into what was already known. I think that
the best esoteric discoveries of the so called “tribal age” ideally should have
not been suppressed as human groups moved into great cities, theocracies and
religions. Similarly, many of the discoveries of this religious age should have
not been suppressed in the scientific, “modern” age and so forth. If we were to truly open our whole minds and
predispositions to the forms of wisdom associated with all these ages we might even
come to “incorporate into the flock” interactive intelligent beings from other
physical realms (whether they 'come' from other physical realms associated with
other planets or with other intra terrestrial, physical realms). To be truly
“integral” we need to embrace more aspects of reality into the flock. Perhaps
only then we will be able to withstand with less conflict-inducing
fear this more conscious association (with “other realiters” so to
speak) in a more natural, less pathological and less fascinating,
easy-going way. Are there nature spirits? Is there life after bodily
death? Can we learn objective information and –ultimately- information about
ourselves and the “Kosmos” from the most sincere, accurate or clearest mediums,
remote viewers and contactees? Are sentient beings from other realms partially
“enacted” by us as we ourselves are partially “enacted” by them every time
there’s conscious inter-realm interaction?
Under peril of “missing the
boat” by ignoring the mounting verification of the “paranormal” dimension where
metaphysical and scientific phenomena meet, I think that -as integral
theorists- we should boldly but carefully, and also integrally, metaphysically
and scientifically inquire into phenomena such as the Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP)
demonstrated by a growing number of “ghost hunters” whose exploits are being
also increasingly featured in Discovery Channel, the History Channel, A&E,
Biography and Nat Geo. I think that inter-realm research s poised to eventually
become an important experimental development affecting scientific and
philosophical activities in the not too distant future. We already have an
interesting theory that seems at least to recognize and to partially apply to
inter realm situations. Mostly our current “distaste” for these matters (typically
dismissively earmarked as “metaphysical”) and our lack of even-minded
objectivity is blocking us from discovering what seem to be fundamental aspects
of existence and of a grander scientific understanding.
Are UFO occupants from
other posited physical realms related at least in part with the electromagnetic
interactions apparently demonstrated by EVPs? Are there scientific and metaphysical
keys waiting to be discovered in this kinds of physical interactions? Why does
air oftentimes become cold when ghosts create physical effects? Is it a form of
ionization affecting air molecules? Does quantum scale and macro scale uncertainty
play a significant role in different kinds of inter realm contact?
Perhaps we could use “GREX” as a term to emphasize a conscious
effort of incorporating the “lost sheep” of human knowledge into the “flock;” the
missing conceptual elements for a more unified picture which includes the useful
attitudes towards mystery of eras gone by and which could still be associated
with a more complete form of human knowledge. Through this reintegrative effort
some individuals may genuinely come to embrace all sentient beings into a “universal
flock,” including those beings that -for now and for a lack of a better term-
we simply call “extraterrestrials.”
What is admissible into the
“flock?” Perhaps we should rank degrees of plausibility in relation to the
human testimony given by UFO contactees, giving more validity to that testimony
which is accompanied by collectively shared objective experiences seeming to
verify contactee claims. The same procedure may be recommended to claims about
other “paranormal” phenomena. Nevertheless, while being careful and skeptical,
we should not simply dismiss human testimony or always expect it to conform to
the “injunction, experience, and collectively verified discussion” guidelines
given for all valid knowledge in Wilber’s understanding of “Post Kantian,”
“Post Metaphysical” orthodox Integral Theory along with its “Integral
Methodological Pluralism.” I think that, in events involving inter-physical
realm contacts, there’s the manifestation of more subtle energy effects
interacting with our known Gross matter and this modifies that Gross matter
creating paradoxes in our interior experience and understanding. Nevertheless, the importance of personal
testimony even with various degrees of cognitive distortion remains as one of
the original nexi with the other realities. Thus, we need to keep in mind the
original ways contact has been experienced even if, perhaps, due to our inability
to adequately assess in simultaneous “real time” some inter-realm experiences (whose
freer interiorities correspond to exteriorities under different physical laws)
there are contact phenomena that first manifest individually under various
degrees of distortion that, nonetheless, could be collectively verified at a
later time. Also, asking only for the wholesale application of a rigid, more
classical “either-or” thinking more applicable to stable or regular physical
patterns would be a mistake. Perhaps this valid way of thinking in some
situations should be considered as a subset of other possible ways thinking without
engaging in irreconcilable contradictions.
At any rate, I’m glad that
the UFO subject is -first of all- “on the map,” so to speak, and in any case it’s
being referred to less dismissively in an integral forum as “Integral Life.” I
hope the same embryonic interest will blossom in “Integral World.” I praise
that in the second forum, some fine information appeared on the interrelated
subject of consciousness surviving
bodily death. This subject is related because it also involves the
possibility of inter-realm exchanges which –in my view- is poised as a common
factor waiting to be integrally and scientifically explored. The essay which
brings to light new objective discoveries challenging some traditional
skeptical criticisms on the Near Death Experience is titled: “New Light on the
Near Death Experience” and was written by Frank Visser. The link is: http://www.integralworld.net/vanlommel.html Perhaps, at last, some individuals
already interested in exploring integral theories are also showing a more
mature recognition and a basic psychological wherewithal capable of integrally dealing
with a variety of aspects of the “UFO challenge,” without succumbing either into
an unconscious “freeze, fight or flight response” or into a ‘kneel and worship’
(co-dependent, over-valuing of the “unique powerful other”) one. With an expanded
but objective, integral attitude, the combined spiritual, subtle and physical
aspects of the phenomenon could remain savory and free of an exclusive
preference for one aspect over another.
Remembering Aristotle’s recommendation
for a virtuous life, I think that, in trying to assimilate and learn about the
uncanny nature of the UFO phenomenon, we need to be inspired by the search for
a “just middle” which could be also thought of as an “integral dynamic middle,”
a dynamic, attitudinal place far from stagnation or from excess. We would be
actively interested in all aspects of the phenomenon while avoiding the
extremes of fanaticism or a mediocre stagnation.
Also, as stages are not
clear-cut and (more likely than not) do seem to combine or mingle more than
apparently emphasized by “orthodox” Integral Theory, someone with a more
comprehensive perspective in some fronts could also have a very
restrictive perspective in others. He or she my score hi in a test
structured to test how “Second Tier” a person may be but his or her gut,
emotional reactions towards the UFO phenomenon may also be highly exclusivist
and biased. In fact, all kinds of
phenomena dubbed "paranormal" seem to elicit or reveal the
unincorporated splits of valid elements discovered in previous stages. Thus,
unincorporated or non embraced aspects of different stages seem to come to the
fore when people confront aspects of reality they cannot easily explain. Hence,
a post postmodern, ecologically aware scientist or even someone widely expected
to be "integral" in many ways may dismiss aspects of the recurring
data on UFO's as “retro” “romantic” “metaphysical” or "nonsense."
Then again, sometimes a simpler minded person or perhaps a peasant in a Third
World country may be more (integrally?) receptive to deal perhaps even with face
to face interaction with the enigmatic ‘ET presence’. Researching the UFO
literature we can see that objective evidence of this recurring but short term
and elusive phenomenon abounds. This is not so in relation to a receptive but
critical and integral attitude among most believers, agnostics or skeptics.
Where’s the New Age At?
Where do New Age
individuals stand in relation to the developmental stages posited by Integral
Theory? Is there an intuitive recognition of the paranormal and UFO’s and is
this recognition a phenomenon that cuts across developmental levels? Could some
of this recognition be indicative of the esoteric claim that there is a
universal, perennial wisdom behind the outer forms of ritual and worship? For
once, I know that many UFO enthusiasts are attracted to New Age information. I
think that they are also generally attracted to the channeling phenomenon
associated with a variety of contactism. I know that New Age information is an assortment
of multiple available teachings more or less coinciding with the expectation of
a major shift in consciousness and/or in the nature of physical matter and
substance. There’s an enthusiasm running through the New Age community and quite
often information is uncritically accepted. Perhaps a lack of cultural support
for genuine esoteric or perennial wisdom forces what seems to be like a
partial, uncritical regression to the sense of sacredness and magic found in
what K. Wilber calls the “magical” and “mythic” stages. Perhaps because Wilber
is not intuitively called to probe into the psychic, the paranormal, the
prophetic, the visionary and its often associated esoteric wisdom, he also
partially misinterprets what many new agers are about or could emerge as.
While I think that the
uncritical attitude of many new agers purporting to be “more spiritual” by ignoring
critical thinking is rightfully criticized by Wilber as an example of what he
calls the “pre-trans fallacy,” I also think that there’s more to it as many new
agers (perhaps unlike most current “integral” thinkers) are recognizing the
importance of genuine phenomena which may change the way we understand
“reality” and who we are. Are there any
important truths new agers can recognize and bring “into the flock” of a truly
universal and integral human knowledge? Well, as is usually the case, perhaps
the answer is a resounding “yes but;” yes but not all of it. Like their
knowledge, they tend to display a combination of capacities, attitudes and
stages. In spite of their enthusiasm for what is normally considered “over the
fringe” their information is sometimes more critically sorted out and sometimes
not. New Age individuals can sometimes not be easily catalogued as primarily “tribal,”
“mythic,” or even as “retro romantic” (as they have occasionally been in
Integral Theory circles) because they may also be involved in well-adapted
rational, modern behavior and even in what Integral Theory normally recognizes
as Post Modern, ecological thinking. Moreover, in some cases (unlike the
alleged sentiments of tribesmen and of so called “Amber,” religious
individuals), their genuine sentiments could be for the good of all sentient
beings as “Second Tier” sentiments are expected to be within Integral Theory.
So what else do they represent that is not being recognized in the Integral
movement?
I do think that (as new individual
and cultural stages flexibly organize) many good traits of previous (partially incorporated)
stages are often suppressed and not consciously included because an emphasis
towards the new typically prevails…even, as far as I can tell, among most
supposedly emerging “Second Tier” thinkers. We may think that the “Integral”
stage already incorporates per se the best of the previous stages without
knowing that some of that “best” has been suppressed within us and our
cultures. Thus, perhaps key human "discoveries"
of previous (and precious) stages are forgotten under the attitude
that "now we know better" as, for instance, in the 'modern' stage we
now have a more effective and convincing means to control matter and nature
than through prayer, ritual and sacrifice. A sense of the sacred and a normal differentiating-but-not-
discarding attitude towards spiritual and subtle-psychic phenomena should also
be a part of our saved legacy.
Understanding UFOs seems to require the
integration of the best and essential discoveries made by humans in all stages,
perhaps also including the acceptance of an emotional opening towards the
extraordinary or to what seems like mythical, religious or pseudo religious
attitudes typically elicited among believers as part of an average human
response to UFO interaction. I presume that, while the emotional opening is
typically associated with a diminution in critical thinking it is perhaps
also associated with an availability or greater naturalness towards inter realm
experiences and this is why, perhaps even the information of New Age
enthusiasts may have some valid say in a genuinely integral study.
On the one
hand, many traditional views of the world have become disenchanted and
postmodern philosophy- with its deconstructive emphasis- may not have provided
orienting guidelines that truly satisfy the hunger for meaning in the human
soul. On the other hand, next to
traditional metaphysical and religious traditions, there have been throughout
the centuries, across cultures and across various individual and collective
developmental stages, not just mystical experiences but other, so called,
“esoteric” ways to allegedly obtain guiding information on the mystery of
existence. Some of the ways to “divine”
or to receive information from messengers or from sources closer to various
ways of understanding the sense that there is a “Transcendental Other” are
intuitive, premonitory, mantic, prefigurative, oniric, theophanic, oracular,
telepathic, mediumistic, psychometric, autoscopic, telesthesic, ludic,
astrologic, augural, trance-induced, prosopopetic, out-of-body, hypnotic and
prayer-based. Also, many types of cultures
across what Integral Theory considers as developmental levels
(shamanic/archaic/magenta, mythical/amber and modern/orange) have sustained
secret or esoteric traditions reserved for a few initiates and I don’t think
that this long-standing tradition of enacting and receiving guidance from
sources reserved to a few within a given culture is coming to a close any time
soon. Many of these traditions are meant
to provide overarching, more inclusive and (in a sense) “integral” explanations
on how the world works than what is provided by the “exoteric” (more publicly
shared) knowledge at large. For
instance, among shamanic cultures there are oftentimes degrees of initiation
and wisdom, among deity- worshipping, mythic cultures there are “mystery”
traditions and among modern cultures there are hermetic traditions or
subcultures, frequently associated with alleged contacts with otherworldly
realities. I actually believe there’s
the possibility that some of these alternative ways to obtain inspiration,
information and/or guidance among individuals and cultures also correlates with
an important capacity that transcends the rational instrumental mind and makes
use of “psychic” abilities that transcend “classical” space and time. In my view, these abilities can, in turn, be
coordinated by a higher form of intellection known as “Buddhi” (in Vedanta
philosophy) and as “Prajña” (in Buddhist philosophy). In fact, I believe that these unique forms of
meaningful information-gathering are probably coordinated by Buddhi or Prajña
(which could perhaps also be adequately called “Higher Mind” or “intuitive
intellection”). This gathering oftentimes serves to systematize alternative,
coherent ideologies which acquire the characteristics of what we might call “a
prevailing stage of cultural development” and serve to guide the lives of
groups of people. For instance, in the
so called “archaic age”, great creation stories came about together with
shamanic “voyages.” In the, so called, “axial age,” great doctrines and ethical
guidelines came about together with forms of egoic humbleness and
submissiveness-related prayer, meditation and contemplation. In the “modern age,” which partially grew in
relation to the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, a series of Western esoteric
schools (from the Marcilio Ficino’s Hermetic Philosophy in Florence to
Rosicrucianism, Martinism, Theosophy, Kardecian Spiritism, The Lucis Trust,
Anthroposophy, the Gnostic Universal Christian Movement, Triangles, the
Universal Great Brotherhood, et al.) probably sprung up as an effort to
incorporate an ancient line of revelations, attempting first to incorporate
secret revelations and interpretations of platonic schools and then to
simultaneously pay heed to the growing rational ethos of their time, associated
to the search for empirical evidence and, eventually, to the concept of
“evolution.” Almost simultaneously with
the appearance of these schools, a small number of individuals claiming to have
experienced guiding contacts with otherworldly beings also began to appear,
sometimes also giving rise to social movements also generally “esoteric” and
outside of the mainstream. For instance,
one of the first widely known explorers of “other realities” and also a
“contactee” in modern parlance was Emmanuel Swedenborg, an influential polymath
and author from the 1700’s.
The
French-influenced, postmodern period in philosophy with its eventual emphasis
in “deconstruction” seems to have had a less critical influence on the
disenchantment of the world than the alleged major shift between the so called
“premodern” to the “modern” ages. In its
own way, nevertheless, it does still affect directly or indirectly the ethics
and ethos of billions of individuals that (according to developmental studies
mentioned by some Integral Theorists) are transitioning between an “amber
(mythical) center of gravity” into an “orange (rational) center of gravity” or
prevalent way of being in the world and, in my view, seems to enhance cultural
and moral relativism as a required condition to make the transition. Although the influence of personal and
intersubjective interpretation challenging the, so called, “Myth of the Given”
needs to be considered, I think that we are in a perilous globalized position
in which, by denying the various forms of mythically interpreted transmental
guidance of yesterday, a resurgence of red-level driving forces could fill in
the gaps which rationality devoid of inter systemic awareness leaves. Thus, the massive shift from Amber to
Orange, together with a wholesale dismissal of the esoteric traditions that
accompanied the classic modern period (partially as an emotional countermeasure
to cold-hearted materialism), could leave a majority of individuals stranded
without ethical direction and willing to fall back into a no holes barred war
for turf in order to make it in the nitty-gritty competitive orange-enacted
world. So called, “red needs” and
values, at the root of survival mechanisms could blossom in replacement of
inexistent, integrating Meta systemic guidelines capable of reconciling mythic
structures with orange practicality and mean green deconstruction.
For these
reasons I wonder whether there could be salvageable elements among the various
esoteric traditions, elements that could be useful in today’s circumstances in
order to promote a plausible Second Tier, integrating conceptual
framework. It is easy to say that
perceptions and interpretations of higher states in eras gone by were only
useful only for people of those eras but I think that, since previous
developmental levels are still (explicitly or suppressed) here with as (as we
supposedly transcend and include them), we ought to carry out a comparative and
experimental (Integral Methodological Pluralism based) study of the realities that
were disclosed by various cultures and developmental levels in the past. This will insure that we don’t dismiss too
readily what we consider useful “belief” from the past from what we consider
useful “knowledge” today. Rekindling my
previous ideas, I’d say that the connecting thread among valuable esoteric
information disclosed in the archaic/shamanic, traditional/mythic and
modern/rational and postmodern/post rational “stages” (partially enmeshed with
us still today) is the link with a higher, less dual kind of integrating mind
(Buddhi/Prajña) perhaps associated with Ken Wilber’s somewhat vague notion of a
“vision-logic” correlated with the disclosures of a “Second Tier”
awareness. For this reason, I venture to
posit the likelihood that some of the esoteric knowledge disclosed and imparted
to small segments of individuals across various cultures in different periods
of time might be useful and valid across cultural developmental levels and
could, therefore, be necessary in the creation of an integral map for the
enhancement of human knowledge and integral applications. It is likely that some of the valid esoteric
disclosures related to this alleged “Higher Integrating Mind” were also
instrumental for maintaining a continuous link with the Ultimate Absolute or
“Transcendental Other,” for initiating the mystical states that led to
establishing the world’s great religions, moral principles, philosophies,
metaphysical systems and secret revelations claiming to offer more encompassing
explanations stemming from the “Spiritual Heart” of all things. It wouldn’t be a surprise if our budding
integral vision were also being inspired by this “Higher Integrating Mind”
disclosing aspects of truth across stages and cultures.
