UFOs, extraterrestrial visitation, and consciousness
There’s sufficient reason to assume that UFOs or UAP are sometimes real, solid anomalous objects from elsewhere. There’s not yet conclusive evidence to prove this beyond all doubt, but the phenomenon or phenomena can’t be adequately explained away as just being imaginary, misidentification, or hoaxes.
This is the third of three related articles. The first touched on the vulnerability and hindrance of “I want to believe”. Anyone and everyone with a keen interest in UFOs needs to clearly understand how belief makes you susceptible to making errors of judgement. The second article was an informed comment on alleged psychic phenomena, a topic often linked with UFOs. Again, we urged caution against the very real risk of self-deception.
As before, in the earlier two articles, we’ll start off boringly slow and build up as we go along.
It has to be said that “ufology” is a mess. As I’ve previously written - and this needs to be stressed and re-stressed - there are cliques of bland individuals vying for attention. They’re “Desperate to know”, but know almost nothing - and, in the absence of an abundance of solid data, there’s usually an obsessive “Need to waffle”. Their ignorance is hidden under a heap of mindless guesswork, innuendo, and conspiracy theories.
If it wasn’t already enough of a shambles, fiasco, or car crash - not exactly a good advert for advanced beings to come and meet us face to face - the trend of clutching at straws and incorporating half-baked notions has continued with the inane inclusion of “consciousness”.
For example, there are groups of believers who go out into the desert at night with the naïve aim of contacting extraterrestrials. They’ve previously been “trained”, for a hefty price, (so perhaps it’s best to substitute the word “trained” for “conned” or “fleeced”) to be able to use their “innate ability to open two-way communication with extraterrestrial civilisations”. They learn “the science of consciousness” and the “physics of infinite mind”. Yes, any authentic scientist reading this baloney has just pissed themselves laughing.
J Allen Hynek coined the categories “close encounters of the first kind”, “close encounters of the second kind”, and “close encounters of the third kind” - with the latter becoming the title of Spielberg’s famous movie. But his reasonable terms have subsequently been commandeered by wacky nutjobs. First came the “experiencers” who believe they’re abducted from their bedrooms by aliens - “close encounters of the fourth kind” - when the actual reality is the known phenomenon of sleep paralysis. “Close encounters of the fifth kind” is a lousy attempt to add “respectability” when a bunch of crackpots started claiming they could initiate “alien contact”, wonderfully abbreviated to “CE-5” to add extra “acceptability”.
I’m not being unkind when I use words like “crackpots”, “wacky”, and “nutjobs”. I’m genuinely concerned about the poor state of people’s mental health, which isn’t helped by indulgence in superficiality - and I’ve long since been working hard to do something about this sad situation. But it’s not sufficient to describe these particular individuals as being merely self-deluded, because it’s worse than that. They’re expecting us to swallow that advanced lifeforms are prepared to “communicate” with gullible “trained” fools who obviously have more money to waste than sense. And, anyway, if we cut to the chase, what wise detail have they learned, to share with us, that’ll help humanity? There’s nothing, of course, because this exercise in self-obsession is just a hollow sham. And, if there ever has been genuine contact between an advanced extraterrestrial civilisation and any humans, it will most certainly have been conducted extremely intelligently and with a specific purpose. We might be mostly dumb, but they certainly won’t be.
Anyway, let’s have a quick look at the science of consciousness - the real version, that is, not what the screwballs would have us believe.
For a start, the majority of psychologists have cowardly shied away from the classic mind-body question, knowing they’d likely make idiots of themselves if they opened their mouths, leaving the matter for philosophers to argue over. Neuroscience, by contrast, is now finding out a bit more. They’ve narrowed the search for where self-awareness originates within the brain, identifying its association with the cerebral cortex. The posterior cortex - which includes the parietal, occipital, and temporal lobes - seems to be especially relevant. But that’s about it, because science is still unable to agree on even a vague idea of what consciousness is.
Some cutting-edge scientists are attempting to push the boundaries of knowledge by looking into the intricate workings of the human brain, together with the consideration of quantum fractals, within a possible theory of quantum consciousness - but it’s still very early days, with almost nothing properly understood or agreed upon. These ideas, whether they prove correct or not, at least aren’t risible.
Those in the less-cautious realms of “ufology” and “spirituality” nevertheless continue to spout off about “consciousness” as if their IQs are higher and their knowledge greater. It’s pseudoscience, plain and simple, which should probably be renamed as crass stupidity dressed up to look posh. The word in question - consciousness - once held in high regard, is being mindlessly tossed around like a balloon at a children’s party. And shat on.
We’ve occasionally used the controversial word ourselves, but only in the context of an alternative to describe a psychological state. We have no doubt whatsoever that a “higher consciousness” exists, specifically as a healthier mental framework involving brain functioning. Our area of expertise is the no-nonsense development of human potential, including self-transcendence.
If we wanted to go further, pointing towards a possible future hypothesis to be explored, we could suggest that oneness experiences appear to involve a knowing that might, perhaps, maybe, necessitate the pre-existence of a means or source of comprehension beyond what the brain has had prior exposure to. But few will appreciate the exactness and detail involved here - perhaps even struggling to grasp what we’re talking about - so this is only inserted to indicate that we’re not closed-minded or limited in our thinking. There will undoubtedly be future discoveries that will further our understanding of existence.
The difference or gulf between dumbness and rational forward thinking must be understood. If there are to be any forward steps taken towards a mature discussion about UFOs or UAP, there has to be clarity and level-headedness. Anything less than this will keep people in the dark ages. And the possibility of contact between an advanced extraterrestrial civilisation and humanity will depend upon us progressing towards maturity.
To summarise: It’s a common, cheap, sneaky trick of those who indulge in pseudoscience to enhance their muddled and deficient thinking by association with advanced concepts that are poorly understood by the general public. This ploy is a shoddy attempt to cover up their ignorance, yet still self-promote - and it’s certainly nowhere close to being genuine knowledge. Quantum physics is possibly the best example of such misuse for self-aggrandisement. The hijacking of “consciousness” by a sorry bunch of “ufologists” - another example - is as deplorable as it is lame. They’d be better off keeping quiet, concentrating on getting better at their day jobs. The culprits ought to stand back and reflect - but, hell no, there’s that next podcast to get out, so this remedy isn’t going to happen.
The visitors or AMIGOs won’t look like Yoda, but - if they did - those ears would droop down far too often as they yet again sigh when we fail to grasp an opportunity for growth. They’ll be waiting for us to do better.
Written by Iain Scott, 12th December 2022