What are the aliens?

[Debi]

OK, now this one is worth reading, folks.

Opinion | Flying Saucers and Other Fairy Tales

Excerpt to wet the appetite...

This quasi-magical thesis made Vallée, as he put it, a “heretic among heretics” — the U.F.O. believer who rejected the U.F.O. community’s hope that their efforts could one day be incorporated into the normal sciences and lead us to some Spielbergian first contact. But his arguments for the basic continuity between folklore and flying saucers are quite compelling, and I suspect he’s correct about the commonality of these experiences …

… Which is not, of course, to say that they reflect the genuine existence of some fifth-dimensional fairyland, from whence morally ambiguous beings emerge to play tricks upon our race. Certainly for most sensible secular scientific-minded people, to say that our era’s close encounters are of the same type as encounters with the unseelie court of faerie is to say that they are all equally imaginary, proceeding from internalized fancies and hallucinatory substances and late-night wrong turns, plus some common evolved subconscious that fears shape-shifting tricksters in modern Nevada no less than in the mists around Ben Bulben.

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The fact that this is even being addressed from a non woo woo stance in the NYT tells me we're making headway in at least getting the MSM to acknowledge there may be more out there. And it MAY all be connected.

 

[WitchAndShaman]

OK, now this one is worth reading, folks.

Opinion | Flying Saucers and Other Fairy Tales

Excerpt to wet the appetite...

This quasi-magical thesis made Vallée, as he put it, a “heretic among heretics” — the U.F.O. believer who rejected the U.F.O. community’s hope that their efforts could one day be incorporated into the normal sciences and lead us to some Spielbergian first contact. But his arguments for the basic continuity between folklore and flying saucers are quite compelling, and I suspect he’s correct about the commonality of these experiences …

… Which is not, of course, to say that they reflect the genuine existence of some fifth-dimensional fairyland, from whence morally ambiguous beings emerge to play tricks upon our race. Certainly for most sensible secular scientific-minded people, to say that our era’s close encounters are of the same type as encounters with the unseelie court of faerie is to say that they are all equally imaginary, proceeding from internalized fancies and hallucinatory substances and late-night wrong turns, plus some common evolved subconscious that fears shape-shifting tricksters in modern Nevada no less than in the mists around Ben Bulben.

___________________

The fact that this is even being addressed from a non woo woo stance in the NYT tells me we're making headway in at least getting the MSM to acknowledge there may be more out there. And it MAY all be connected.

I liked the read. It's one more voice in support of a possible spiritual cause for UFOs. I liked the ending too. I'd quote it - I did in fact copy it to paste it here - but I think others should read the post or at least jump over there to read the opinion in the last paragraph.

 

[7Critter]

I liked the ending too.

Me too.

 

[Benway]

OK, now this one is worth reading, folks.

Opinion | Flying Saucers and Other Fairy Tales

Excerpt to wet the appetite...

This quasi-magical thesis made Vallée, as he put it, a “heretic among heretics” — the U.F.O. believer who rejected the U.F.O. community’s hope that their efforts could one day be incorporated into the normal sciences and lead us to some Spielbergian first contact. But his arguments for the basic continuity between folklore and flying saucers are quite compelling, and I suspect he’s correct about the commonality of these experiences …

… Which is not, of course, to say that they reflect the genuine existence of some fifth-dimensional fairyland, from whence morally ambiguous beings emerge to play tricks upon our race. Certainly for most sensible secular scientific-minded people, to say that our era’s close encounters are of the same type as encounters with the unseelie court of faerie is to say that they are all equally imaginary, proceeding from internalized fancies and hallucinatory substances and late-night wrong turns, plus some common evolved subconscious that fears shape-shifting tricksters in modern Nevada no less than in the mists around Ben Bulben.

___________________

The fact that this is even being addressed from a non woo woo stance in the NYT tells me we're making headway in at least getting the MSM to acknowledge there may be more out there. And it MAY all be connected.

Thanks for posting that. It is good to see what the mainstream press is saying about such things! To be contrary, I don't like the ending as (meaning no offense to my Christian friends here) I don't rate belief in God as more enlightened than belief in fairies or magic and think that although our understanding of many things has increased dramatically in recent centuries, we haven't increased our understanding of the supernatural in the slightest and may even have lost knowledge and become more ignorant.

I think the thing that bothers me is the attitude (as expressed in this article but not uncommon generally) that we know better than those ignorant peasants from a few centuries ago because we all know that the Bible, from about two thousand years ago is the explanation and so we are more advanced! All of those people who believed in fairies, goblins, magic, and so on knew full well about Christianity and believed that anyway!

Sorry. Rant over!

Also, while dismissing a trickster god may seem like a sensible thing, we all get set in unshakeable beliefs and the hubris of believing we are right and when reason fails a cosmic prank can work wonders to burst that bubble and really make us think! The trickster may exist for a reason.

 

[Debi]

Thanks for posting that. It is good to see what the mainstream press is saying about such things! To be contrary, I don't like the ending as (meaning no offense to my Christian friends here) I don't rate belief in God as more enlightened than belief in fairies or magic and think that although our understanding of many things has increased dramatically in recent centuries, we haven't increased our understanding of the supernatural in the slightest and may even have lost knowledge and become more ignorant.

I think the thing that bothers me is the attitude (as expressed in this article but not uncommon generally) that we know better than those ignorant peasants from a few centuries ago because we all know that the Bible, from about two thousand years ago is the explanation and so we are more advanced! All of those people who believed in fairies, goblins, magic, and so on knew full well about Christianity and believed that anyway!

Sorry. Rant over!

Also, while dismissing a trickster god may seem like a sensible thing, we all get set in unshakeable beliefs and the hubris of believing we are right and when reason fails a cosmic prank can work wonders to burst that bubble and really make us think! The trickster may exist for a reason.

Excellent points all, Benway! I happen to agree with you on many of these points as well. My point in the article is that we are at least now seeing the MSM bringing the topic to light without X-Files music ringing out in the background. I see this shift in making it a "normal" topic to be quite astounding. Of course, it's going to be continued to be filtered through the lense of one's own reality and beliefs, but it's at least coming out of the closet and presented as something more than a conspiracy theory. Finally.

 

[Debi]

we haven't increased our understanding of the supernatural in the slightest

In fact, we've probably just added more theories to confuse the whole thing. As we added in Quantum physics, we certainly changed the whole playing field of answers possible.

 

[Lynne]

Just found this wiki page that has some very related ideas...

Interdimensional hypothesis - Wikipedia

Good explanation Wands

Perhaps they can’t exist in our demenaion in a physical form for long periods of time. This would explain why they haven’t interfered more in our world. Perhaps there’s cosmic laws? The fact that they are reported to go through walls and disappear is evidence of some ability to control molecular structure. their ships change shape and morph into light orbs. It’s all very strange.