Extraterrestrial visitors will have a playbook
The following point has to be repeated, again and again, until everyone grasps it as basic: we’re a semi-primitive, emerging intelligent species - a menace to ourselves, as well as having a range of more worthy qualities. Even if most people don’t really get this, often misguidedly thinking that they’re smart, anyone watching us from elsewhere won’t be as dumb. As advanced extraterrestrial civilisations will have previously witnessed numerous other emerging intelligent species struggle to unfold their potential, they’ll have a playbook. This accumulated knowledge will strategically guide the “when” and “how” of interactions.
Our behaviour isn’t normal; it’s sub-normal. Eight billion human beings are stuck in the backwardness, adolescence, and limitations of the self-orientated mentality - characterised by psychological avoidance. Very few seriously appreciate there’s an option of transitioning towards the significantly better psychology of non-selfishness or self-transcendence. Yes, there’s lip service to religion, other forms of spirituality, philosophy, and personal development, but none of it delivers much of note - with these half-hearted attempts at “change” inevitably riddled with hypocrisy and contradiction. The aim of psychological maturity isn’t really on the cards because immaturity is so widely normalised as being the only game in town, with life objectives consequently reduced to achieving lesser targets.
Millions of years ago, if not further back, there wouldn’t have been a playbook. If visiting extraterrestrials decided to openly land on some other planet in a galaxy far, far away - with the admirable aim of trying to help an emerging intelligent species still trapped in the self-orientated psychology - they definitely wouldn’t be tempted to do the same thing again. It would go wrong - badly wrong. It wouldn’t take long before the visitors got blamed for everything and anything. Even the “wrong” type of weather occurring would be “their” fault. They’d become the ultimate scapegoat, and quickly learn a valuable lesson.
Fast-forward to now. There’s probably little or nothing happening here on planet Earth that isn’t already in the galactic history books from having happened before, innumerable times, albeit always with unique variations. We humans might not appreciate or know this, but those who are here from elsewhere most certainly will. They’ll be well ahead of the game. And so they won’t be about to land on the White House lawn whilst we remain immature.
The White House and lawn
In the first of our recent mini-series of three films, we coined a name for the visitors, calling them the AMIGOs - an acronym which stands for Advanced Magnanimously Interested Galactic Overwatchers.
Their playbook will encompass all of the acquired information of what happens at this crucial stage of evolution - a phase of accelerated technological progress, heightening the need for psychological self-transcendence - pinpointing when it’s most likely to occur, as well as detailing all of the differing circumstances of how this next stage of evolution is eventually achieved. It will also cover any strategies or protocols for interaction with the emerging intelligent species - not least when and how this should and shouldn’t take place.
There will be nothing random, nothing left to chance, about this watchful process. The AMIGOs will be smart - genuinely smart. And they’ll immeasurably care about our situation, much more than we do. As we’ve said elsewhere before: advanced is advanced.
The AMIGOs will have been watching us for a long time. They would have noted pivotal markers of progress, such as the printing press allowing the first step in mass communication, followed a bit later by the industrial revolution. The production of jet engines and nuclear weapons would then have undoubtedly caught their eye - and there’s some evidential indication of this. More recently, the digital age and the World Wide Web would have been likewise clocked as further key points, not least because these introductions have permitted the speeding up of global communication. The significance of these benchmarks, and others, will be clearly understood by the AMIGOs because something similar will have happened elsewhere in the galaxy and beyond many times before they occurred here. They’ll be in the playbook.
The AMIGOs won’t be caught out. They’ll acutely appreciate the importance of “be prepared”, which is an essential component for heightened competence. Their capabilities shouldn’t be underestimated, including the means for surveillance and information gathering, which are highly likely to be far better and much more precise than most people might guess. I surmise there won’t be much they don’t know about us, if anything. It’s not as if they’ve just arrived - and, again, advanced is advanced. Looking ahead, they’ll be alert for forthcoming significant technological markers as human progress accelerates in certain fields. These will also be in the playbook.
They’ll be most keen to identify and celebrate early signs of breakthrough with human psychology. The AMIGOs will absolutely know the biggest tipping point of all will require a paradigm shift that addresses basic psychology - the need to move beyond the fundamental self-serving framework of desire and avoidance. (If you haven’t already watched the first in our mini-series of three films, we’ve identified there will be two fundamental psychological states or strategies, anywhere, common to all intelligent species: first, the immature and dysfunctional self-orientated mentality, eventually replaced by the much healthier non-selfish psychology which can be thought of as self-transcendence.)
The idea of a playbook is most commonly associated with American football
Here on Earth, we humans have playbooks of strategies for how to win sports games. And we have policies for this, that, and the other in business and government, albeit of dubious worth. But when it comes to taking control of the next step forward in our evolution, we’re woefully ignorant to the point of being outright negligent. Our organisation, The Human Potential Trust, has developed a precise and practical process for authentic significant change. And it’s been rigorously tested, over several decades, in various demanding practical situations, so we know it works. This concept of suggesting a better way of being has unfortunately long since been muddied and polluted by belief, woo-woo, and self-interest. Nevertheless, we’ve worked out a no-nonsense clear path forward.
Star Trek was wrong. There isn’t a “Prime Directive” - a policy of strict non-interference. But it appears there’s something similar, which we can call a Pragmatic Directive. There is some, limited interaction. When they have good reason for doing so, they’ll show themselves - as craft or even sometimes as occupants. Whereas they’re not completely hiding their presence, neither are they openly announcing their intention.
The AMIGOs will fully appreciate the need for freedom of choice and personal responsibility. They’ll know, of course, that it’s our planet and our lives - our past, present, and future. The playbook will likely stress the need to “watch and wait”.
The playbook - wide in scope and rich in detail as it will surely be - should not be seen as a know-all oracle. The self-orientated psychology, steeped in complex avoidance strategies, is undoubtedly a tough nut to crack - at least, here, and so likely anywhere. The variables in any attempt to escape from its limitations and to progress will be hard to exactly predict in terms of how everything will eventually work out. It will involve herculean struggle and setbacks. Therefore, the playbook presumably will have a degree of flexibility in what interactions can be approved, knowing that a specific outcome cannot always be guaranteed, even if desirable. Selfishness is the mother of all spanners in the works.
The enormity of benevolence that will be standard for any advanced civilisation cannot be stressed enough. We are the problem - the threatening, aggressive, unstable ones - not them. A way to begin to appreciate this is to become familiar with oneness experiences. These are glimpses of our evolutionary potential.
It’s a shame that many who are interested in the UFO phenomenon are focused on lesser, short-term matters such as disclosure. The emphasis needs to broaden and deepen. Once we can answer the basic questions of “Why are they here?” and “Why are they keeping their distance?”, the proverbial penny might eventually drop. Whilst travelling to outer space, having a oneness experience during his return from walking on the Moon, Edgar D Mitchell realised that our future is dependent upon exploring the inner space.
Translating such a profound realisation into concrete action of a fundamentally different nature is considerably harder to achieve. Yet it is this very aim or task that must be tackled. Anything less than this is a mere sideshow.
Written by Iain Scott, 2nd July 2024