On Spirituality & Technology

I truly believe that in certain settings where people have a preconceived notion of what a place is like, these self-fulfilling prophecies are bound to occur. OK, some paranormal encounters or experiences can definitely be for real, but what about the other instances when a group of people are again, highly suggestible individuals? Think about the idea of group identity, or groupthink. People, when they really believe in something, are prone to be extremely polarized on the idea, as indicated in social psychological studies. It is truly my belief that these false expectations can be created and ok, while it is not true for all situations (there are always grey areas), it is for many.

That idea about culturally constructed narratives still rings true to me as well. Of course there are still many fringe groups in existence nowadays that hold an immense interest in ufology and hold it close to their being. Definitely. But let me turn to another article from "Sacred Realms" again -- this one is called "Parallels between Recollections of Repressed Childhood Sex Abuse, Kidnappings by Space Aliens, and the 1692 Salem Witch Hunts". I was vaguely thinking about the gist of this article when making the claim that oftentimes, narratives are culturally constructed anecdotes that must be viewed from a wider perspective.

The article talks about how "the way the memory for the alien abduction is uncovered closely resembles how memories of early sexual abuse and ritual abuse develop". The author notes some statistics, "between several hundred thousand to more than 3 million adults in the United States alone have had an abduction experience". Seriously? Is this for real? It really must be a product of therapy or media-triggered effects. In all these abuse and kidnapping experiences, the person is said to -- "1. be unhappy and feels that something is wrong, 2. begin to recall details with help of a therapist, 3. evoke even more memories with more therapy, 4. have these memories validated by therapist, support groups, and general community". When people in a community realize that experiencing a certain event brings attention, there will be an accumulation of claims that it has happened to a number of people.

An example can be seen in sexual abuse (there is absolutely no attempt here to delegitimize those who have actually gone through any sort of abuse). The article actually goes about saying that these people's claims are true, and yes, this may well be the case for abuse but I wonder if it applies to alien encounters as well. This following quote about abuse, I guess, can be interpreted in 2 ways in regards to alien encounters -- popularity of an experience triggers true memories, or it fabricates false ones in people's minds:

"This isn't an isolated thing that only happened to me. I traced it back in my little town 3 generations. And it happens in other towns too. It's happening to kids today. I've had more than a hundred calls about ritual abuse. It's starting to break into the papers. And people are starting to believe it... Ritual abuse is surfacing now because we've started to talk openly about the sexual abuse of children. More and more adults are remembering what happened to them when they were young."

Another quote that has a note of skepticism about these events:

"For most people today the point of doubt is reached well before believing that 3 million Americans have been kidnapped by space aliens, sometimes with repeat abductions between one therapy session and the next. For many, that point is reached well before accepting the belief that there is a nationwide conspiracy of satanists who sacrifice thousands of victims without detection - over twice as many as the victims of known murders. For others, the point of disbelief is reached at the point where people claim sexual abuse on the basis of evidence of the sort accepted as valid by Bass and Davis."

Anyways... interpretation is subjective. Our perceptions are shaped by experience and cultural context. I will end this post off with some links to websites.

1. The One World Family Commune: http://www.galactic.org/Starmast.html
The 2 individuals in tonight's clip from "Galactic Messengers" are a part of this "community", that was founded in 1967 by Allen Michael. Michael was once contacted himself by a being once, and perhaps this experience is what spawned his community. Read about it if you have time.

2. Billy Meier's Home Page: http://www.billymeier.com/
Billy Meier is a man who has claimed to have a number of experiences with extraterrestrials. There is immense controversy surrounding his claims.

I just remembered something from the other documentary clips from "Out of the Blue" tonight... anyone notice the civilian witnesses' names? One boy in particular? His name was "Hal Ley"... people in those clips had been gathering to look at the Hale-Bopp comet but instead they glimpsed some sort of spacecraft. Immediately I thought of Halley's Comet... Hal Ley... Halley. Yeah. Anyways, I thought that was either very coincidental or comical. Maybe he didn't want his real name released and had chosen that as his alias.