Daily Grail: Reincarnation on Reddit
From Daily Grail:
Reincarnation research by Ian Stevenson Children’s past life memories
A popular link doing the rounds at the moment is to a question posed to Redditors regarding their kids: “Parents of Reddit, what is the creepiest thing your young child has ever said to you?” Obviously, some of the answers get a bit paranormal (seeing weird people in rooms/closets etc) so it’s a fun read, but there’s a also a few that sound very much like reincarnation-type stories. For example:
“Before I was born here, I had a sister, right? Her and my other Mom are so old now. They were ok when the car was on fire, but I sure wasn’t!”
He was maybe 5 or 6 years old? It was totally out of the blue..
The reincarnation-style quotes sound very similar to those collected by researchers Dr. Jim Tucker and the late Dr. Ian Stevenson , both from the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia. I’ve embedded a video at the top of this story in which Dr. Jim Tucker describes this phenomenon:
Very young children, usually between the age of 2 or 3, who start reporting that they have memories from having had a past life. Some of them talk about being deceased relatives, but others will talk about being strangers in other locations. And if they give enough details like the name of the other location, people have often gone there and found that in fact someone had died in the recent past whose life matches the details that the children gave.
Given that there were a few reincarnation-type stories in the original Reddit thread, a ‘Past Lives’ sub-Reddit has been set up for discussion of those specific types of statements.
I have seen this a lot, even with my own kids and grandkids.
I even remember a few episodes of myself remembering past-life stuff when I was little ( don’t ask me how! ).
All in all this is a fascinating case study and one that deserves more.
Maybe there is more to consciousness than gray matter!
The Invisible Invaders
From starpod.us:
(STARpod.us) — Imagine this, then pretend it isn’t real.
Professor Stephen Hawking was right, contact with an extraterrestrial alien civilization might be the end of us — but he was wrong about one thing: it is too late to avoid contact with ultra-intelligent extraterrestrial aliens.
They are here, now, and living with you, perhaps within you, in your home.
And their actions are utterly invisible.
Worse still, every human thought, every human response to this invisible terror is already known and is shared across an intergalactic telepathic mind-to-mind based Internet.
The above may sound like a science fiction tale, however the reality may be worse than our most feared imaginings.
To enter into this “Twilight Zone” of darkness we simply accept that the brief history of human scientific and technological evolution points to an ever-greater penetration of the human mind — and the probability, given the unfathomable vastness of eternity currently predicted by our best theories of the universe and beyond, of intelligent minds beyond our own.
Our deepest, inner thoughts and experiences are going to be turned inside out upon the world.
We enter this virtual reality with an understanding that an encounter with alien intelligence beyond our own is something we may not even recognize, if and when it happens.
And according to sources, some who have held high positions within the U.S. government, close encounters have already taken place.
It is this unseen, largely unheard and secret presence that haunts us like a secret society from the great beyond. Probing our actions — even before they are taken — the vast and disturbingly alien mind behind this unstoppable terror of invisible things surrounds us, watching and waiting, like an invisible guardian in a cosmic conspiracy written eons before our time.
The cover story for contact with this deeply disturbing intelligence was written in Hollywood: extraterrestrial biological entities arrived on Earth in flying saucers and maybe they even crashed a disk or two, which were later recovered by the government.
It is this wrap-over story that has been spread by a handful of former CIA-types including the recent revelation by Chase Brandon. According to Brandon, bodies and wreckage (presumably of an extraterrestrial alien origin) were indeed recovered in Roswell, New Mexico. Others have hinted of some deeply buried truth underlying the saucer tales, based upon hearsay from their more senior colleagues in intelligence. And this, so we are told, goes all the way to the top, coming from at least a handful of former CIA Directors.
But is there really any truth in the tales? At a minimum, we should begin our exploration of the unstoppable terror of invisible things with a brief examination of down-to-earth technologies from human sources. We will, for the time being, ignore that other Hollywood-inspired meme claiming the most advanced human technologies of the 21st century owe their existence to reverse engineered extraterrestrial technology.
There are other stories of possible relevance, tales of invisible things that sometimes show their face in brief and mysterious ways. They sometimes seem to speak to select groups of human beings, in particular scientific types, using a form of direct mind-to-mind communication.
Mental radio has been an essential element of the pop culture for decades, and once again appears to be just another meme invented in the fantasy of a Hollywood writer’s imagination. The situation is further complicated by the countless number of persons who have self-experimented on the core physical structure of the human mind — the brain — by ingesting a wide variety of chemical substances known to create hallucinatory effects.
Invisible things do not always remain visible: there are other stories and sometimes grainy and poorly photographed images of manifestations of unusual phenomena popping in and out of our consensus reality. Other highly questionable reports include observations of ordinary material objects moving under the force of an unseen source. Several persons I know have related to me stories of so-called psychokinetic motion, including one person who told me of a misadventure involving knives that were picked up off of a table and flung with extreme force into the wall. In this particular story, it was reported that the environment changed mysteriously prior to the psychokinetic event, and even space and time seemed distorted in some inexplicable manner.
Psychokinesis was once a concern for American intelligence agencies and their political handlers in Congress (and this is confirmed within the declassified government record). Once upon a time they even feared psychokinetic hacking of America’s missile arsenal launch codes.
Invisibility is no longer bound to the imaginative world of sorcerer Harry Potter. As physicists look deeper into the nature of quantum reality they are gradually realizing new and clever ways around what was once assumed to be insurmountable obstacles. The late Arthur C. Clarke, author of “2001: A Space Odyssey” is often referenced for having said any sufficiently advanced technology appears (on the surface to those who do not understand it) to be magic.
Cracking through the barriers of human ignorance and human fantasy does not come easily. But if we are indeed facing an unstoppable terror of invisible things — real, physical forces under intelligent guidance — then we need to prepare a response.
We are challenged in this effort by the anthropocentric nature of the human mind: Is is really possible to envision truly alien sources and methods? Or are we confined to describing the extraterrestrial alien droning of America?
Bekkum makes many valid points about possible alien interference with we human beings on Earth; the most important point is the immaterial way the interference would take place. No flying saucers, triangles or spheres need apply.
Remote control of human beings, i.e., possession, ( or avatars ) via of “mental telepathy” for lack of a better term, would be preferable to outright invasion and destroying turf. Especially if proxy colonization or species manipulation is part and parcel of the alien’s overall strategies.
CIA Psychic Agent Ingo Swann Passes Away
From STARpod.us:
BY EDITOR’S NEWS DESK STAFF
Sources are reporting that CIA superstar psychic spy Ingo Swann, known as the father of America’s secret remote viewing program, has died.
Swann’s story of recruitment by a covert black ops group in the 1970s was the inspiration for author Gary S. Bekkum’s book “To the Moon and Back, With Love.”
According to one of Swann’s psychic students, former U.S. government spy Paul Smith, “At the time of his death, on February 1, 2013, Ingo was well along in the process of creating a new book featuring his marvelous art work.”
Smith writes:
Supported by the military and intelligence communities, Ingo worked through the program at SRI-International to not only explore the boundary conditions of remote viewing, the consciousness-based skill that he had discovered and developed, but he used it operationally to discover some of the secrets America’s erstwhile Cold War opponents were trying to hide.
Here is an excerpt from the book “To the Moon and Back, With Love” about Ingo Swann’s encounter with a mysterious black ops leader called Mr. Axelrod and otherworldly beings on the lunar surface.
Government consultant Ingo Swann’s tale of covert extraterrestrial activity on the moon takes on a new twist, now that the CIA STAR GATE documents support many of his claims.
3 August 2006
(STARpod.us) — This is the bizarre true tale of Ingo Swann’s psychic work for the U.S government, at various agencies including the CIA and the DIA (now substantiated by the CIA release of roughly two thirds of the existing STAR GATE documents) and his personal allegations of a mysterious black operation that first contacted him during the peak of CIA sponsored testing at the Stanford Research Institute.
If Ingo Swann is to be believed, and this coming from a man with top secret clearance that in his day briefed and trained officers from the U.S. Air Force, the Defense Intelligence Agency, INSCOM, and many others too numerous to mention, then there is some truth to the rumors of an otherworldly intelligence working behind the scenes here on Earth. Not only are they already here, according to Swann’s testimony from a rare out-of-print book, self-published in 1998, but they are building something on the far side of the moon.
And they are not friendly.
The truth is stranger than fiction, and this story is guaranteed to stretch the imagination right back into reality. For Ingo Swann, the turning point leading into the cloak and dagger world of deep black ops and weird requests for psychic surveillance of the moon and beyond began in early 1975. When Swann published his tale in 1998, most of the CIA and DIA classified documents from the secret STAR GATE program were still unavailable to the general public. As this story goes to press, in the summer of 2006, more than 80,000 pages of documents are close at hand here at STARstream Research, including the results of medical and psychological tests conducted on Mr. Swann as a result of his CIA sponsored testing while working with SRI: The Stanford Research Institute, in the 1970′s.
The CIA STAR GATE Program
In the early 1970′s concerns began to float about the various intelligence agencies over a psychic war gap with the Soviet Union. Unknown to the general public, the Soviets were busy exploring fringe science: application of the dark shadow of the paranormal world for espionage.
Swann’s abilities had been tracked for some time, but they really attracted the powers that be in Langley with the recording of an apparent perturbation of delicate test equipment by Swann’s mental perception. In addition to disturbing the output of this sensitive instrument, Swann was able to produce a rough description of the device, which he had never seen previously.
In a letter dated June 27, 1972, Dr. Hal Puthoff of SRI wrote, “At the suggestion of Russell Targ I am writing you about an observation in the laboratory involving one Ingo Swann, a New York artist … An interesting side light of the experiment was that Ingo was able to describe rather well what the interior of the device looked like, apparently with some form of direct observation.” Although redacted, it is likely that the recipient of this letter was at the CIA. Apparently sponsorship of Dr. Puthoff’s interest in Swann’s mental interaction with the test equipment followed quickly.
Among the STAR GATE files is a Stanford Research Institute (SRI) Technical Memorandum dated 22 February, 1973, prepared by Dr. Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ, Contract Number 1471(S)73 and tagged by CIA/ORD # 1416-73:
“A program in biofield measurements was initiated in July, 1972 with a preliminary experiment with Mr. [Ingo] Swann. In this work using a shielded magnetometer, Mr. Swann apparently demonstrated an ability to increase and decrease at will the magnetic field within a superconducting magnetic shield. This experiment made use of an existing facility and we have confidence that Mr. Swann had no prior knowledge of either the apparatus or of our intended experiment.”
An August, 1972 memo to the Chief of TSD/BAB at the CIA notes that “[name redacted] and somebody named [redacted] from [CIA] Life Sciences are planning a trip to the West Coast on 11 August, when they will meet Ingo Swann and have a chance to watch him flex his sphincter … Life Sciences is planning on forming a coordinating committee to work on ESP and the data that is coming in …”
When we contacted the unnamed former officer from CIA Life Sciences, he confirmed the authenticity of the document, but denied any knowledge of Swann’s tale.
An undated draft memorandum from Deputy Director for Operations William Colby, addressed to the “Director of Central Intelligence,” reveals the clandestine nature of CIA involvement in research using human subjects:
“Recently, two individuals, Mr. Uri Geller and Mr. Ingo Swann, appear to have demonstrated certain of these abilities [paraphysical effects] under controlled laboratory conditions. The abilities of these individuals (unwitting of Agency [CIA] sponsorship) are being submitted to a serious scientific investigation, part of which is being supported by the above mentioned project.”
An anonymous source, working in the alternative energy and transportation industry recently commented, “Actually, they became interested in Swann when he RV’ed [psychically remote viewed] some of their well-hidden deep underground vaults, and the contents thereof. This was when they approached SRI because they were finally truly scared about the reality of RV [psychic remote viewing] as a tool in the hands of the Soviets.”
Based upon the available records in STAR GATE, no one seems to have seriously considered that all of these manifestations of the impossible were strong indications of interference in human affairs by higher intelligence with more powerful technologies at their disposal. Or did they? Swann’s account in his book suggests that someone lurking in the shadows was paying very close attention; someone whose reach included the often super-secret work done at SRI.
Arthur C. Clarke once said and I’m paraphrasing here, “Advanced extraterrestrial technology would be indistinguishable from magic.”
Now, I’m not sure Ingo Swann actually made mind contact with ETIs on the far side of the Moon or not and it certainly isn’t outside the realm of possibility.
My question is, “Why would an advanced civilization interfere with us in any meaningful way and what is it’s purpose?”
Even if they were interdimensional in nature, the same questions apply.
In the end, Ingo Swann had great influence on the U.S. Government via the work he did with the CIA and in the end proved there are pathways through other dimensions in which communications and observations are performed.
Just ask DARPA.
Is Ufology a Religion?
I am not the first to ask this and certainly not the last. In fact over at Micah Hank’s Mysterious Universe blog, researcher and author Nick Redfern asks the very same question and entertains some very interesting thoughts:
A few days ago, I wrote a Top 10-themed post at my World of Whatever blog on what I personally see as some of the biggest faults of Ufology. It was a post with which many agreed, others found amusing, and some hated (the latter, probably, because they recognized dubious character traits and flaws that were too close to home, and, as a result, got all moody and defensive. Whatever.). But, regardless of what people thought of the article, it prompted one emailer to ask me: “What do you think of the future for Ufology?” Well, that’s a very good question. Here’s my thoughts…
First and foremost, I don’t fear, worry or care about Ufology not existing in – let’s say, hypothetically – 100 years from now. Or even 200 years. In some format, I think that as a movement, it will still exist. I guess my biggest concern is that nothing will have changed by then, aside from the field having become even more dinosaur-like and stuck in its ways than it is today, still filled with influential souls who loudly demand we adhere to the Extra-Terrestrial Hypothesis and nothing else, still droning on about Roswell, still obsessed with what might be going on at Area 51, still debating on what Kenneth Arnold saw, and still pondering on what really happened at Rendlesham.
Ufology’s biggest problem also happens to be what made the Ramones the greatest band that ever existed: never-changing. For the latter, it worked perfectly. If, like me, you liked the mop-topped, super-fast punks in the beginning, then you still like them when they disbanded in 1996. Throughout their career, they looked the same, sounded the same, and were the same. For them, it worked very well. For Ufology, not so well. Not at all.
The reality is that 65 years after our Holy Lord and Master (Sir Kenneth of Arnoldshire) saw whatever it was that he saw on that fateful June 24, 1947 day, Ufology has been static and unchanging. It has endorsed and firmly embraced the ETH not as the belief-system which it actually is, but as a likely fact. And Ufology insists on doing so in stubborn, mule-like fashion. In that sense, Ufology has become a religion. And organized religion is all about upholding unproved old belief-systems and presenting them as hard fact, despite deep, ongoing changes in society, trends and culture. Just like Ufology.
If Ufology is to play a meaningful role in the future, then it needs to focus far less on personal beliefs and wanting UFOs to be extraterrestrial, and far more on admitting that the ETH is just one theory of many – and, while not discarding the ETH, at least moving onwards, upwards and outwards. Can you imagine if the major UFO conference of the year in the United States had a group of speakers where the presentations were on alien-abductions and DMT; the Aleister Crowley-Lam controversy; Ufological synchronicities; and the UFO-occult connection? And Roswell, Area 51, and Flying Triangles weren’t even in sight at all?
Well, imagine is just about all you’ll be able to do, as it ain’t gonna happen anytime soon!
While such matters do, of course, occasionally get mentioned on the UFO-themed lecture circuit today, the fact is that mainstream Ufology (and specifically mainstream ufological organizations, where more time is spent on deciding what utterly ridiculous title everyone will have than on doing investigations) will largely not touch such matters, or even consider them ripe for debate at their conferences. Why? Simple: they want everything to be as it was in the “Good Old Days” of the past. Well, tough: the past is gone, and no-one has succeeded in proving the ETH. So, give the highly alternative theories – and theorists – a chance for a change.
“Nooooo!” cries the old brigade. For them, that won’t work at all, because they don’t want to see the ETH-themed domain that has been so carefully nurtured for decades infected and infiltrated by matters ignorantly perceived as being of a “Hocus Pocus” nature. What they do want is crashed UFOs; aliens taking soil samples; landing traces; abductions undertaken to steal our DNA, etc, etc, blah, blah. Or, as it is scientifically and technically called: Outdated Old School Shit. They don’t want talk of altered states; mind-expanding and entity-invoking drugs; conjured-up beings from other realms; or rites, rituals and manifested Tulpas.
What this stubborn attitude demonstrates is: (A) a fear of change; (B) a fear of having been on the wrong track for decades; and (C) a fear of the unknown. Yes: mainstream, old-time Ufology lives in fear. It should be living in a state of strength. And it should be a strength born of a willingness to address everything, not just the stuff that some conference organizer thinks will attract the biggest audience. But Ufology commits the biggest crime of all: being weak and unsure in the face of new concepts and making like an ostrich when it encounters sand. Actually, I’m wrong. Ufology commits an even bigger crime as it coasts aimlessly along like an empty ship on the ocean waves: it avoids the alternative theories knowingly and fully aware of the long-term, and potentially disastrous, consequences that a one-sided, biased approach may very well provoke for the field.
If Ufology is to move ahead, find answers, and actually have some meaningful future, it needs to totally do away with belief systems and recognize that every belief is just a theory, an hypothesis, an idea. And that’s all. Ufologists need to embrace alternative ideas and paradigms, since many suggest far easier, and more successful, ways of understanding the various phenomena that comprise the UFO enigma than endlessly studying radar-blips, gun-camera footage, FOIA documentation, and blurry photos.
Should Ufology fail to seize the growing challenge it already faces, then will it die or fade away? Nope, it will still be here and here, popping up now and again. Not unlike a nasty, itchy rash picked up in the “private room” at the local strip-joint on a Friday night that never quite goes away. Probably even 100 or 200 years from now. But, it will be a Ufological Tyrannosaurus Rex: its sell-by date long gone, clinging on to an era also long gone, and perceived by the public of that era as we, today, perceive those nutcases who hold on to centuries-old beliefs that if you sail far enough you’ll fall off the edge of the planet. Or, the deluded souls who think the women on those terrible “Reality TV” shows that sit around arguing over lunch are really arguing.
I agree with some of Nick’s talking points in that UFO conventions often feature speakers who often talk of the “space brothers” and how they will save us and the Earth in spite of ourselves.
That is just the money making crap and smacks of televangelism.
Paranormal events versus technical reasons for UFOs is the wrong tact however. I think there is a way to join the two, but would be very hard to test using the scientific method.
Maybe there is a way to test paranormal events in the future? I do believe a scientist has tried to do so, but it is proving very hard to confirm by testability.
Perhaps that is why new paradigms are difficult to break through. The old ones must pass away slowly into that sweet night?
The future of ufology. ( The Daily Grail )
Red Ice Creations: “Clouds of alien life forms are sweeping through outer space…”
From YouTube via Red Ice Creations:
“Clouds of alien life forms are sweeping through outer space and infecting planets with life — it may not be as far-fetched as it sounds.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX0Y0glCjUQ&feature=youtu.be
_________
Red Rain in India
The Extraordinary Tale of Red Rain, Comets and Extraterrestrials
Also tune into Red Ice Radio:
Michael Mautner – Panspermia, Seeding the Universe with Life
Lloyd Pye – Human Origins, Intervention Theory & Genetic Experimentation
Mike Bara – Dark Mission, The Occult NASA Moon Mission
Marcel Kuijsten – Julian Jaynes, the Bicameral Mind & The Origin of ConsciousnessSusan Joy Rennison – A New Cosmic Age, Space Weather & Cosmic Radiation
The theory of Panspermia is also advocated by mainstream scientist Chandra Wickramasinghe and supported by the late Sir Fred Hoyle .
Maybe Sir Ridley Scott wasn’t too far off the beam?
When UFO Aliens are not Alien
UFO researcher and author Nick Redfern expounds on Micah Hanks’ blog Mysterious Universe on the theory that UFO aliens are not necessarily alien – that they are indeed a modern iteration of fairies, demons, angels, goblins and other forms of magical being(s) from the past.
The late Mac Tonnies – author of The Cryptoterrestrials and After the Martian Apocalypse – once said: “I find it most interesting that so many descriptions of ostensible ‘aliens’ seem to reflect staged events designed to misdirect witnesses and muddle their perceptions.” Mac was not wrong. In fact, he was right on target. One can take even the most cursory glance at ufological history and see clear signs where events of a presumed alien and UFO nature have been carefully controlled, managed and manipulated by the intelligence behind the phenomenon.
A look back at many of the early books, periodicals and fanzines on the Flying Saucers of yesteryear will show they were filled with encounters between astonished humans and aliens “taking soil samples.” “Radar-visual” encounters were all over the place. People were always in the right place – or, depending on your perspective, the wrong place! – to see the surprised and rumbled ETs hastily scoop up their little tools and race back to the safety of their craft. And they would always be sure to take to the skies in view of the witness.
If, however, we critically analyze events of this type, it becomes obvious that a trend is at work. These were not matters of an accidental or stumbled upon nature – at all. The entities were seen because they clearly wished to be seen. The reason: almost certainly to encourage the spreading of a belief in aliens amongst us – and in definitive meme-like style. And it has undeniably worked. After all, barely 65-years after the Kenneth Arnold encounter at Washington State in June 1947, the UFO phenomenon – and what it potentially implies, whether you’re a believer or not – is, today, known of just about here, there and everywhere.
In the bigger scheme of things, 65-years is no time at all. But in that period pretty much every one of us has been exposed to the theory that “UFOs = aliens” in some capacity, whether it’s via watching a TV show, reading a newspaper, seeing a TV commercial that incorporates UFOs into its marketing campaign, having a personal encounter or knowing someone who has, and…well, the list goes on. And that many admittedly don’t accept aliens are among us is, in some ways, wholly irrelevant to the fact that those same people still know what the term “UFO” suggests. Only sixty-five years after Arnold and we’re all pretty much “infected” by the alien-meme.
But, why would such entities – or whatever the real nature of the phenomenon may be – wish to make themselves known to us in such curious, carefully-managed fashion? Maybe it’s to try and convince us they have origins of the ET variety, when they are actually…something very different…
Back in 1957, a Brazilian named Antonio Villas Boas claimed to have been seduced by a vibrant, pleasantly-stacked space-babe who growled like a wild beast while the pair got it on. Hey, it doesn’t really get much better than that, does it? Well, I guess she could have brought a girlfriend along, too…
The Villas Boas affair is one that has been embraced by some in the UFO community, derided by others, and outright dismissed by far more than a few. Granted, it’s a highly controversial story, but there’s something else, too.
Before his departure from the craft to which he was taken, Villas Boas allegedly attempted to steal a clock-like device, but was thwarted from doing so by an irate crew-member. Researcher Jacques Vallee has noted that Villas Boas described the clock as having one-hand, and several marks, that would correspond to the 3, 6, 9, and 12 figures of an ordinary clock. However, while time certainly passed by, the clock-hand did not.
“The symbolism in this remark by Villas-Boas is clear,” said Vallee. “We are reminded of the fairy tales…of the country where time does not pass.” In addition, centuries-old folklore is replete with tales of people who claimed to have visited the realm of the fairies and who tried to bring back with them a souvenir, but only to be thwarted, in one form or another, from doing so at the last minute – just like Villas Boas was.
And still on the matter of fairies: In 1961, a Wisconsin chicken-farmer named Joe Simonton claimed to have met aliens who landed on his property in a classic Flying Saucer-style craft. They were said to be very human-looking entities, who had an “Italian” appearance, and generously gave the stunned Simonton a handful of pancakes that one of the crew-members happily cooked on his alien grill! Like the story of Villas-Boas, it’s not just controversial, but beyond controversial! However, read on…
The U.S. Air Force took notice of the Simonton case and, as a consequence, secured a remaining pancake for analysis. A report prepared by the Food and Drug Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare demonstrated that the pancake was made of soya bean, bran starch, buckwheat and hydrogenated fat. But, what was interesting was the fact that the pancake was totally lacking in salt. In the folklore of the Middle Ages, fairies could not abide salt.
On this same path, in today’s alien abduction stories, people are shown so-called “Hybrid Babies.” In fairy mythology, such entities had an obsessive interest in human reproduction and would often steal babies and leave “changelings” in their place.
Many alien abductees appear to have screen-memories in which their unearthly encounters with the black-eyed Grays were replaced by dreams and recollections of encountering owls. Roman mythology tells of the Strix or Striga that craved human flesh and often manifested while people slept. Its name was derived from the Greek term for owl. Tales from ancient Babylonia tell of owl-like entities, of a supernatural nature, provoking terror and fear in the homes of people in the dead of night – just like the Grays.
The parallels are obvious. We are seeing evidence of a very old phenomenon in our midst us that, at various times, has been perceived by the Romans, Greeks and people of Babylonia as near-demonic in nature, by the folk of the Middle Ages as being fairy-based in origin, and by us, today, as extraterrestrials.
This has become the modern meme amongst the UFO community nowadays. While such researchers as Stanton Friedman remain what passes for “mainstream” thought in the research area, the “aliens are not necessarily alien” meme is fast becoming the mainstream thought in this arena.
More to come tomorrow.
Hat tip to the Anomalist.
Even Gary Bekkum is skeptical
Gary Bekkum’s STARpod.org’s site is usually replete with government conspiracies, psychic spies, hamsters, Bigelow’s Skinwalker Ranch, Laura Eisenhower’s Mars Colony and other wondrous esoteric oddities that it’s hard to believe that Gary could be skeptical of anything.
But he is. He is very skeptical of the recent videos coming out on YouTube about the UFOs dive-bombing the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, Israel. And I agree with him in that we should all be wise to question these events:
There is a dangerous new crowd afoot on the planet: weirdly twisted versions of our former selves roam at will, seeking to consume our rational minds.No, I’m not referring to extraterrestrial aliens sneaking their way into our bedrooms in the darkness to poke our bodies and steal our souls.
The new crowd is far more insidious than the alleged kidnappers from Planet Ten (or was it Planet Thirteen?). They lurk in the subconscious shadows of cyberspace, ready to pounce from the safety of their anonymous smirks, as their fingers tap dance across keyboards on all sides of the globe.
They are the Cyber Tricksters: Shadowy Avatars tracing their thoughts into your home as a play of light and shadow.
Some are artists; some are cons; some are, apparently, quite clever, indeed.
And some are making and distributing videos of alleged encounters with something unexplained: perhaps even something from beyond this world.
The question at hand: what are we to make of all the videos of alleged encounters with Unidentified Flying Objects?
The latest ‘contact’ with ‘the otherworldly’ reportedly took place in Jerusalem over the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount. As of this moment, at least four videos have appeared on YouTube. Each of the videos appears to show a brilliantly illuminated object descend over the Dome of the Rock, and then zoom upwards at what appears to be an enormous velocity, disappearing into the blackness of the night sky.
We certainly cannot dismiss the possibility of alien life (even intelligent aliens) living on other worlds, somewhere else, ‘out there’ — besides UFOs, seriously bad weather, and confrontations in Egypt — today’s news includes the discovery of at least 54 potentially habitable planets by NASA’s Kepler space telescope.
Now it is also true that we have heard stories from former senior US intelligence types concerning a now-legendary tale of extraterrestrial contact with something not-of-this-Earth. We have also heard that no one really has a handle on the reality behind the tales, beyond a few rumors shared amongst the senior ranks. (We anxiously await Colonel John B. Alexander’s new UFO book to compare notes with our own sources.)
The latest Internet video craze should leave you in a similar state of mind: the visual displays are intriguing enough to fire up the engines of your imagination (or ire-up the engines of the skeptics) — but do you really want to believe?
Any intelligence capable of imagining their way from the depths of interstellar space to arrive here on Earth would be more than intelligent enough to play mind-games with the human race. Rather than bright lights in the sky, I would expect our new friends (enemies?) to employ a more covert and stealthy approach in their dealings with human beings. To further complicate the situation, consider recent developments in the breakthrough science of invisibility. Indeed, the reports of encounters that we have heard (from semi-official sources) fit the ‘high-strangeness’ profile better than any ‘nuts-and-bolts’ spacecraft explanation.
By all means enjoy the show, but keep in mind even if the alleged sighting is real — and there are always reasons to doubt the veracity of even the best video evidence — seeing is not believing in the murky dark strangeness of paranormal activity. Just ask those who have been ‘down the rabbit hole’ for the US government.
In this age of PhotoShop, is any video real? Should we question any and all photographic proof of any type?
I’m afraid the answer is yes.
Do you believe your lying eyes?
Extraterrestrial Rapture: Will spooky Jerusalem UFO videos entice believers in aliens?
Bizarre Beachcoming: Review of the Codex Seraphinianus
Dr. Beachcoming, that eccentric collector of all things of an exotic historical nature, reviews The Codex Seraphinianus, a book written by Luigi Serafini that is purportedly about an alien world complete with language, customs, architecture, flora and fauna.
Luigi Serafini, Codex Seraphinianus (numerous editions…)
Beachcombing has Ricardo R. to thank for an introduction to the Codex Seraphinianus, a guide to another world. First published in 1981, a copy from the original series now runs at about 8000 dollars. Beachcombing, who is a bit strapped for cash, did the barbaric thing and read it in pdf. He can’t for the life of him work out how a reputable internet site can justify putting up this relatively recent work: but he is glad that the Codex Seraphinianus, a guidebook to an alien world, slipped through the copyright net. Go feed, reader…
As to what world the Codex Seraphinanus describes no one is quite sure for the very good reason that it is not written in a human language. Whether or not the language is just scrawl, as the author recently claimed – memories of the Voynich manuscript? Or whether it is, Tolkien-style, an attempt to create a language is debated. What terrified Beachcombing was that the page numbers can be deciphered and they have been written using a twenty-one base numerical system. Gulp…
In any case, at the risk of annoying Seraphinian purists, the language can go hang. Beachcombing likes all the ‘pretty’ pictures and these rather go and hang themselves.
Beachcombing, on first looking at what LS created back in the fevered late 1970s, when Italy was in terrorist-induced meltdown, thought ‘bad Salvador Dali’. But Salvador Dali is a surrealist where nothing makes sense but dissolution and entropy. The Codex does have its own internal logic though: it is just not our logic. Perhaps to find a kindred spirit you would have to go and knock on Bosch’s or Escher’s door? In comics you would be best advised to learn French and read Le Cycle de Cyann by François Bourgeon and Claude Lacroix. Bourgeon must have read the Codex, there are some striking similarities.
Many of the pages read to Beachcombing like an IQ question where a series of symbols or pictures denote a pattern that needs to be deduced. Yet as there is no chance of fully understanding the pattern the reader can relax over it without any fear of losing a percentile or two. Think a Rubik’s cube with each of the fifty four panels a different colour, then imagine ‘solving’ the cube in a scented bath.
But if the hints of a foreign system of logic are not enough, there is also something more, something very inhuman.
The antique Christians used to place the order of heaven against the chaos of hell. The devil spawned anarchy.
Well, any human guide book or history of a foreign place is heaven sent, preferring order. It takes the new animals, plants, buildings, people and pins them to the page like a moth in a collector’s cabinet. The Codex seems obsessed with change: everything is always moving, nothing is taped down. Whether this is a cycle of Ovid or the flux of the diabolus is anyone’s guess. But it is impressive and rather frightening to get up close to… A couple make love on a white bed, become an alligator that then (singular) hops off the bed.
Whoa, that last statement was real weird…sounds like a bad acid trip!
Or maybe the author entered a world through the help of Ayahuasca , like ancient or modern Amazon shaman(s) use to talk to the gods.
I don’t think Dr. Beachcoming considered that. Maybe I could suggest that we should do a session or two?
Terror Threats and Human Time Machines
Lately I’ve been haunting the STARpod site picking up on odd bits of psychic stuff that Gary Bekkum says filters through the aether. Today was no different and I scanned this little article that caught my interest since it mentions quantum theory and multiple universes:
Multiple sources and declassified US government documents point to the US National Security Agency as the new home of a TOP SECRET program to utilize human time machines during the Bush War on Terror.Now, a Russian physicist, Michael Mensky, of the Lebedev Physical Institute, has come forward in a series of papers explaining how human time machines are able to retrieve information from alternative worlds, including the future.
Several independent sources to STARstream Research have provided information about the existence of a secret NSA program, said to be at the deepest levels of secrecy.
Government documents have identified NSA participation in earlier efforts to utilize human time machines by the US government, including programs run by the CIA, the DIA, the US Navy, the US Army, the USAF, and others.
In 1994, the US Defense Intelligence Agency contractor SAIC reported on a potential breakthrough in the physics of human time machines, following secret and covert analysis of research from the Former Soviet Union, of FSU. According to the SAIC report, the breakthrough involved the detection of a signal potentially related to the transmission and reception of information traveling through time. One source who came forward about the NSA program revealed the human time machines are managed under SIGINT, or Signals Intelligence, suggesting the program involves an unknown signal mechanism.
STARpod.org first revealed the existence of the human time machine program in 2007, based upon research provided by a source to Gus Russo, an independent investigative journalist who has worked for PBS and ABC. Another source, Chris Robinson, of the United Kingdom, has related how US intelligence sources contacted him about the program following a warning issued to the American CIA in London, hours prior to the 9/11 attack in New York City.
Russian physicist Michael Mensky, an associate of Russian time travel expert Igor Novikov, has come forward with a model of the human time machine concept, based upon the “many worlds” interpretation of quantum theory. The idea behind “many worlds,” which now appears to be the simplest explanation of the theory behind 21st Century technology, says that the universe we observe is only one of an infinite number of invisible alternative worlds. According to the quantum theory, as explained by leading expert David Deutsch, of Oxford, the worlds we cannot see weakly interfere with our universe. Quantum experiments confirm this interference, although the interpretation of the scientific observation of the effect is hotly debated by the scientific community.
Deutsch explains that among the alternative worlds are special worlds we call “the future.” Deutsch explains that these worlds share a common past with our world, but branch off into different alternative events: in one of these worlds, the 9/11 attacks failed to take place.
In his landmark book, The Fabric of Reality, Deutsch describes how time machines might be used to connect the present moment with one of the future alternative worlds. According to Deutsch, information sent back in time from a future world could be used to change the future, since what we call the future is actually just a special case of an alternative parallel universe.
Mensky has proposed the idea of “post correction” to explain human time machines.
In order to explain how human beings can become time travelers, Mensky developed an extended version of “many worlds” theory, where the human mind is able to access alternative worlds, including those we would call the future. Mensky has proposed that “consciousness is not produced by the brain, but is independent of it.” In Mensky’s theory, “the brain serves as an interface between consciousness and the body.”
Although Mensky’s ideas appear to be based in metaphysics, the real-world application of human time travelers to access information about the future by the NSA suggests an information channel is being studied by America’s premier information technology intelligence agency. Given the decades of interest in this topic by American and Russian, and now Chinese intelligence services, the on-going use of human time machines to predict future threats seems certain.
Now many mainstream science blogger types (and I know a few) would claim that Bekkum travels to the Land of Woo on a daily basis and I can see why some would claim that, it’s pretty incredible to believe such claims.
But this Universe is a large and strange place and we know very little of it (even though some mainstream science types would deny that). What we consider science now-a-days might be looked upon as ignorant superstition 1000 years from now.
And what we think of as “woo” is mainstream science.
Those evil, soul harvesting ETs
As a kind of continuation of my previous post (Dolan on Malstrom), the possible interference of UFOs/inhabitants in the US nuclear missile force is a meme that is gaining traction in our culture and ties in with another meme that is also getting attention; the idea that UFO beings are demonic in nature and that nothing good can come of them.
First, in the past few years serious researchers are considering the fact that UFOs have qualities that mimic paranormal, or ghostly ones. That ability to flicker in and out of sight, turn at right angles, shape shift and become a ‘personal’ experience for the observer. This is not an old idea. Investigator John Keel wrote about this during the 1960s. Researcher Jacques Vallee followed in suit in the 1970s. And Vallee was a staunch ETH nuts and bolts guy at first!
So the demonic meme isn’t an old one, just one that has had a resurgence. The most notable example is Nick Redfern’s ‘Final Events, and the Secret Government Group on Demonic UFOs and the Afterlife ‘ , a tome that is an expose of a secret think tank in the American espionage organization CIA and its plan to make the USA in a fascistic theocracy in order to save American ‘souls’ so they won’t get ‘harvested’ by these demonic beings.
What is curious about this meme is the Judeo-Christian flavor of it and to me, that is suspicious. For it completely leaves out the pantheon of gods and demons of the other religions on the earth.
There’s no mention of djinns, manitus, vimanas or anything like that in this think tank’s study, it’s completely fundamentalist, evangelical Christian in scope.
Writer and researcher Micah Hanks of The Gralien Report and Magic, Mysticism and the Molecule weighs in on this subject of demonic UFOs most eloquently and assuredly better than I can:
Quoting Archbishop Desmond Tutu in this week’s edition of Time Magazine, apartheid’s fierce adversary and soon-to-be-retiring holy man commented that, “The texture of our universe is one where there is no question at all but that good and laughter and justice will prevail.” Considering this philosophy alongside popular speculation that alien species may have been visiting Earth for hundreds, if not thousands of years, one might surmise that their intentions were good, also. If aliens are actually here, they haven’t harmed us yet, right?Speculation of this sort no doubt raises contention within ufological circles. After all, there appear to be two differing viewpoints present in modern ufology which, over the years, have slowly resulted in a sort of loose segregation among its ranks: those who believe aliens are here to help humankind, and those who feel that their intentions are more dubious, and present cause for concern. Though these differing perspectives will no doubt continue to foster argument, it is interesting to consider how people’s beliefs in this regard are affected by theology, namely that of Judeo-Christian origin.
During a recent interview, UFO researcher and Presbyterian minister Barry Downing told AOL News that UFOs “may have been around for millions of years,” and speculates that their presence could have had some influence on the “development of the biblical religion.” Downing’s 1968 book The Bible and Flying Saucers sought to draw connections between biblical mythology and visits from alien beings, similar to those proposed by the various progenitors of the “ancient astronaut” hypothesis, namely Ezekiel reporting the appearance of flying “wheels” in the Old Testament (Ezekiel 1:16). Downing cites the parting of the Red Sea that granted safe passage to the Israelites–and even the Ascension of Jesus Christ–as other instances where ancient people sought to explain complex phenomenon where aliens might have intervened.
Since the instances related above are generally accepted as miracles or, at very least, circumstances that seemed to work in favor of Judeo-Christians people in the Old and New Testament, one obvious perspective would liken the resulting influence of presumed alien visitors to that of angelic beings. This notion is contrasted rather drastically with the assertions made in my colleague Nick Redfern’s new book Final Events, and the Secret Government Group on Demonic UFOs and the Afterlife. Redfern’s book tells the peculiar story of the Collins Elite, an organization with members in various branches of government (namely the CIA) who begun investigating UFOs and their potential link to the devilish dealings of Aleister Crowley and, perhaps more importantly, Jet Propulsion Lab co-founder Jack Parsons. The notion that UFOs and their alien occupants may actually be linked to dark dealings and satanic rites is hardly new (as Redfern’s book illustrates), having been proposed in ufological circles by the likes of Daniel Boudillion, Greg Bishop and myself in my book Magic, Mysticism and the Molecule. But is there any credible link between the presumed activities of extraterrestrials and demonic forces?
Many have proposed the odd theory that alien abductions are actually representative of a tangible process of removing people’s souls, which our extraterrestrial visitors appear to be “harvesting” in various capacities. In his book Communion, famous author and alien abductee Whitley Strieber described how abductees “experienced feeling as if their souls were being dragged from their bodies.” Strieber even discussed one incident of his own where he had experienced “total separation of soul and body,” and reported hearing his alien captors literally say “we recycle souls.” Another peculiar exchange that points to the possible dubious nature of alien-human contact was reported during an abduction encounter that appeared in David M. Jacobs, PhD’s book The Threat. An abductee interviewed for Jacobs’ book recalls telepathically communicating with one of his extraterrestrial captors, and asking what their intentions were. Rather cryptically, he was told “all they’re interested in… no matter what happens at all, is that they control.”
The foreboding circumstances presented within such reports can hardly escape designation within our so-called “evil” category. Still, they may be worthy of further interpretation, as seen from perspectives seeking to define the phenomena more broadly, rather than the strict, cut-and-dry labeling of “good and evil.” Consider the numerous consistencies between reports of UFO abductees and those who have had various sorts of mystic experiences, both self-induced (via entheogenic drugs, meditation, etc) and spontaneous. One common theme would be the perception described by mystics that a “presence” accompanies their meditations, rituals, and other methods of entering altered states. This sometimes even culminates in trans-dimensional “encounters” with sentient beings, seeming so real that no explanation could exist in the mind of the initiate other than a literal meeting with an alien presence having transpired. Mystic experiences are also traditionally rife with descriptions of bodily dismemberment, as well as levitation, out-of-body experiences, tunnels of light, religious iconography, and a host of other things that similarly pepper various ufological literature, especially in the cases where alien abductions have been involved.
Does making associations between the two phenomena in this way challenge the notion that alien abduction is an entirely physical phenomenon? Perhaps so; but more to-point in the present circumstance, it illustrates the commonality between mystic experiences–many of which involve circumstances that could certainly elicit a sense of separation between soul and body–and the nuts and bolts, primarily medically-oriented alien abduction scenarios which, of no particular surprise here, contain many of the same sort of elements. Perceived in the absence of their mystical counterparts (and interpreted solely in a physical sense), alien abductions could hardly be received as anything but negative or “evil.” And yet, ironically, mystic practitioners have long noted circumstances that are curiously similar within their meditations and dream quests, having merely accepted them as one small part of a greater experience.
In the end I guess, one person’s DMT experience could be another’s demonic UFO abduction.
I’m not sure about this at all about the so-called spirituality of ET entities, or any other ‘spirit’ entity that can cross over from the other side/dimension at will.
Certainly the subject deserves more research on my part if I want to accurately comment on it.
Alien Contact in History: Battle for Our Souls, or a Culture Clash?
Dad2059's Webzine of Science Fiction, Science Fact and Esoterica 