by Bill Chalker
(Sept-Dec 2021)
from
NewDawnMagazine Website
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Bill
Chalker
is a
leading UFO researcher with a science background in
chemistry. He has published extensively on the UFO
subject and is author of The OZ Files - the Australian
UFO story (1996), Hair of the Alien, the Australian
chapter for the UFO History Group's major study UFOs and
Government (2012), and contributor to all three editions
of Jerome Clark's two volume The UFO Encyclopaedia (the
latest appearing in 2018). He maintains a blog at
theozfiles.blogspot.com.
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Contents
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Part One
from New
Dawn 188
(Sept-Oct 2021)
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Baldwin Spencer and Frank Gillen, in their book,
The Northern Tribes of Central Australia (1904), provided a
classic account of an extraordinary tradition.
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An Aborigine, Kurkutji,
was set upon by two spirits, Mundadji and Munkaninji,
in a cave:
"Mundadji cut him
open, right down the middle line, took out all of his insides
and exchanged them for those of himself, which he placed in the
body of Kurkutji.
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At the same time, he
put a number of sacred stones in his body.
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After it was all
over, the youngest spirit, Munkaninji, came up and restored him
to life, told him that he was now a medicine man and showed him
how to extract bones and other forms of evil magic out of them.
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Then he took him away
up into the sky and brought him down to earth close to his own
camp, where he heard the natives mourning for him, thinking that
he was dead.
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For a long time, he
remained in a more or less dazed condition, but gradually he
recovered and the natives knew that he had been made into a
medicine man.
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When he operates the
spirit, Munkaninji is supposed to be near at hand watching him,
unseen of course by ordinary people."
This is a striking
description of the initiatory experience of an Australian aboriginal
shaman.
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A.P. Elkin aptly
referred to these individuals as,
"aboriginal men of
high degree."
There are numerous
accounts of this kind from the past, from recent times, the present,
and right around the world.
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In addition, there are
many excellent works covering shamanism, like,
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the classic study
by Mircea Eliade,
Shamanism - Archaic Techniques of
Ecstasy and his analysis of the Australian
tradition, Australian Religions
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Carmen Blacker's
The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanic Practices in Japan
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Michael Harner's
The Way of the Shaman
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Joan Halifax's
Shamanic Voices
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Holger Kalweit's
Dreamtime and Inner Space: The World of the
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Shamans Through
Time edited by Jeremy Narby and Francis Huxley
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Shamans of the
World edited by Nancy Connor with Bradford Keeney
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The Beauty of the
Primitive: Shamanism and the Western Imagination by Andrei
Znamenski...
Ritual death and
resurrection, abduction by powerful beings, ritual disembowelment,
implanting of artifacts, aerial ascents and journeys into strange
realms, alien tutelage and enlightenment, personal empowerment, and
transformation - these and many other phenomena are recurring
elements of the extraordinary shamanic tradition.
Incredibly, these worldwide native aboriginal experiences share an
impressive connection with a bizarre complex of human experiences
that have attracted a lot of attention since the late 1960s.
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Whitley
Strieber's "visitors"
One of the best-known accounts of this contemporary mirror of the
shamanic tradition appeared in 1987 in a best-selling book that sold
more than four million copies worldwide.
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The story behind it was
made into a film by Australian director Philippe Mora.
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I am referring to
Whitley Strieber's book
Communion.
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Its sequels,
Transformation
(1988), Breakthrough (1995), The Secret School (1996), The
Communion Letters (with Anne Strieber, 1997), Confirmation
(1998), Solving the Communion Enigma (2012), The Supernatural
(with Jeffrey Kripal, 2016) and A New World (2020),
...continued Whitley
Strieber's story of a claimed,
"elaborate personal
encounter with intelligent non-human beings",
...and his attempts to
understand the mystery. Whitley Strieber's story emerges from the
perspective of the alien UFO abduction.
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Whatever its factual
reality or physical basis, Strieber's account of his experiences is
one of the most potent personal expressions of the UFO
abduction mystery.
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Artwork of Whitley Strieber
by Ted
Seth Jacobs that appeared
�on
the cover of Report on Communion
by Ed
Conroy.
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Strieber describes how he was taken from his upstate New York cabin
on 26 December 1985 by unknown "visitors."
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From the nearby woods, he
recollected being taken up into the air and suddenly finding himself
in "a messy round room."
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Strange beings were
there. A needle-like thing was allegedly inserted behind his right
ear. A grey and scaly object with a sort of network of wires on the
end was briefly inserted into his rectum. An incision was made on
his right forefinger.
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He had no further
conscious recollections beyond that point.
The memory of what he thought happened came back to him over the
next few days. The impact was shattering. He thought he was losing
his mind.
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He even contemplated
suicide. Instead, he was helped by UFO researcher Budd Hopkins
who arranged for him to see a psychiatrist, Dr Donald Klein.
Dr Klein's hypnosis sessions provided further details of the 26
December 1985 episode and earlier experiences. As Strieber searched
further into his past, he uncovered not explanations and certainty
but instead more mysteries.
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He concluded:
"I had a relationship
with them, despite the fact that I could not even be sure they
existed."
By the time the December
1985 experience overwhelmed him, Strieber may have had these sorts
of encounters at least a dozen times.
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He embarked on an
intellectual journey through the vast UFO and related literature,
trying to grapple with the mystery that had enveloped him.
Strieber also describes how others around him were witnessing the
"visitors."
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Quite a number of people
who stayed at his New York cabin allegedly witnessed the "visitors."
Is this baseless
contagion or evidence of the paradoxical reality of the
"visitors," as seen by Whitley Strieber?
As a highly successful
novelist, Strieber has had to face claims that Communion and its
sequels are works of clever fiction.
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He insists it is all
true. Having met him and spoken at length with him on several
occasions, I feel it is clear he is trying to convey the
'impossible' as best he can.
Whitley Strieber felt that the "visitors" represented,
"the most powerful of
all forces acting on human culture.
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They may be
extraterrestrials managing the evolution of the human mind. Or
they may represent the presence of mind on another level of
being.
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Perhaps our fate is
eventually to leave the physical world altogether and join them
in that strange hyper-reality from which they seem to emerge."
Further, he wondered,
"if the shamanic
language of symbol and myth would offer a better insight into
the visitors' motives?"
In Transformation,
Strieber contemplates,
"Like the shamanic
aspirants of old, I would be forced to confront death."
A friend of Strieber's,
Dora Ruffner, felt,
"the visitor
experience was initiatory in nature - a journey into the
underworld."
In an interview for
Terror Australis magazine, Strieber suggested,
"that shamanism is
the shattered remnants of mankind's early attempts to control
this (visitor) phenomenon."
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Budd Hopkins
and ET Genetic Experiments
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Budd Hopkins (1931-2011),
author
of Intruders which established him
as a
major figure in the UFO movement.
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The field of Ufology has developed a range of positions on 'alien
abductions', but the most popular view appeared to be that of the
late researcher
Budd Hopkins, author of,
Intruders, Missing
Time, Witnessed, and (with Carol Rainey) Sight Unseen, and his
memoir Art, Life and UFOs.
The "alien abductors," in
Hopkin's view, were extraterrestrial and are involved in some sort
of extraordinary genetic experiment.
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Human beings are first
abducted when children. A cell sampling operation occurs. These lead
to certain individuals being followed closely. After puberty, ova
and sperm cells are taken during follow-up abductions.
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The goal of this activity
is,
"the merging of human
and 'alien' genetic material for the production of a hybrid
race."
The hybrids are then
apparently brought to term in laboratory "nurseries" inside large
UFOs.
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The involuntary
contributors are later abducted yet again and are shown the results
- tiny hybrid infants or children. This bizarre "baby presentation"
apparently involves the abductees being asked to pick and hold their
"offspring" in a kind of binding experience!
In the book Phenomenon (1988) edited by Hilary Evans and John
Spencer, Hopkins concedes:
"I am the first to
admit the sheer outrageousness of such ideas, but outrageousness
doesn't mean untruth.
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I find the evidence,
unfortunately, compelling. I have every reason to conclude that
these 'impossible' breeding experiments are actually taking
place...
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I am convinced that,
for good or ill, these genetic procedures are at the heart of
the UFO abduction phenomenon."
Hopkins is credited with
bringing abductions into the central focus of UFO study and research
in the 1980s.
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There was furious debate
amongst many UFO researchers about the legitimacy of these
developments. Not all accepted that the abduction claims were the
key to the UFO mystery.
Many saw the
abduction stories as an inevitable outgrowth of a psychological
response to the ostensibly more objective manifestations of
mainstream UFO 'reality'.
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Others saw such
events in a more positive light, with a transformational aspect.
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Others argued that
the richness of the human mind and dynamic interplay with UFO
researchers spawned these accounts, not aliens.
However, the UFO
abduction mystery was not simply an artifact of a few investigators.
It's seemingly
worldwide in its dimensions...
English researcher
Jenny Randles' book Abduction (1988) carries details from over
200 'abduction' reports from some 35 countries, as diverse as
Zimbabwe, Finland, China, USSR, Tibet and India.
Reports occur in Australia. I have investigated many cases myself.
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My book Hair of the
Alien: DNA and Other Forensic Evidence for Alien Abductions
(2005) examined the experiences of Peter Khoury and the hair
sample that yielded fascinating results.
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It led me to develop what
I referred to as "the alien DNA paradigm," focusing on the
possibility of evidence for alien genetic "intelligent intervention"
in various cultures (particularly indigenous cultures) around the
world.
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It was driven by
locations with high strangeness/breakthrough activities with UFOs,
light phenomena, alien abductions, by cultures that feature claims
of "sky beings," diverse UFO phenomena, by possible unusual DNA
markers within these cultures or present selectively or generically
in human DNA, and by locations or regions which bring together each
of these factors (UFO "haunted" location, alien mediated culture,
DNA aspects).
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John Mack and
the Psychology of the ET Experience
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In his
book Passport to the Cosmos,
John
Mack (1929�2004)
presented a shamanic envisioning
of the
alien abduction mystery.
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Alien abduction narratives became a central focus for many
researchers.
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The late
John Mack was a potent and
articulate spokesman for a transformational focus.
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With his 1994 book
Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens, and more particularly his
1999 book Passport to the Cosmos: Human Transformation and Alien
Encounters, he signaled and mapped out his perspectives.
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In essence, Passport
presented a shamanic envisioning of the whole alien abduction
mystery.
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The transformative
aspects of the phenomenon held sway for John Mack, and examination
of the physical dimensions seemed secondary or even unimportant.
The kind of information I have focused on such as DNA, albeit not
without ignoring the shamanic correlations, perhaps conflicted with
the numinous dimensions of the hyper-reality John Mack speculated
may be at the heart of the abduction phenomenon.
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It seemed that in alien
abductions, Mack saw affirmations of important concerns and
perspectives he had held for some time.
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They sat well with the
transpersonal and environmental issues he had championed for some
time, certainly long before the alien sirens beckoned him into their
seductive embrace.
The Believer: Alien Encounters, Hard Science, and the
Passion of John Mack (2021) by Ralph Blumenthal (co-author of
the December 2017 New York Times UAP/UFO breakout story), for me,
enhanced the contexts of his Australian visits and gives insights
into John Mack's conflicted dance with physical evidence of alien
abduction claims.
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He was more interested in
its ultimate meaning, nature and impact.
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When he was in Australia,
I supported his research into indigenous aboriginal abduction and
UFO experiences - an area we both had a strong interest,
particularly its shamanic dimensions.
John Mack argued in Passport to the Cosmos:
"There are problems
with an entirely literal physical interpretation.
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To begin with,
despite liberal use of words like genetic, DNA, and
mitochondria, there is not solid material evidence of which I am
aware to support the notion that any of this, including the
creation of the hybrids themselves, is occurring on the material
plane to the extent that detectable or measurable changes are
happening at the molecular level.
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At best what we have
in the physical domain are small lesions (which skeptics say
could be self-inflicted, but I have found no evidence for this)
and bodily symptoms that might be manifestations of subtle
forces, real energies originating on another plane of reality."
These statements puzzled
me somewhat because during his research visits to Australia and
afterwards, John Mack had become well acquainted with Peter
Khoury and the fact that the hair sample related to his 1992
experience was being subjected to mitochondrial DNA sequence
analysis.
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Our first report on the
work, 'Strange Evidence', appeared in the Spring 1999 issue of the
International UFO Reporter and information about it was widely
reported in the UFO media from June 1999 onwards.
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Before that, we were
circulating the preliminary results of the research. In addition,
while the words genetic and DNA might have been liberally used in
the abduction research field, I was not aware of similar usage of
the term mitochondrial until the appearance of my 'Strange Evidence'
report.
Mary Rodwell champions the transformational perspective in
her books,
Awakening: How
Extraterrestrial Contact Can Transform Your Life (2002) and The New
Human: Awakening to our Cosmic Heritage (2016).
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The extensive study,
'Beyond UFOs: The Science of Consciousness and Contact with Non
Human Intelligence', edited by Rey Hernandez, Jon Klimo, and Rudy
Schild (2018), gives a framework for this viewpoint.
Some critics argue that sufficient explanations for the UFO
abduction mystery are found in the physiological or psychological
domain, such as sleep paralysis, temporal lobe sensitivities,
fantasy-prone personalities, and a host of other avenues bound by
the human condition.
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The Imaginal
Realm
Another interpretation of UFO abduction accounts also appears to
strengthen the shamanic perspective of the abduction narratives.
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I refer here to the
imaginal interpretation.
Note that I wrote
imaginal, not imaginary...
There is a big difference
if you believe the proponents of the idea.
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Dr. Kenneth Ring,
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noted researcher within the field
of
near-death studies
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Dr Kenneth Ring of the Department of Psychology at the
University of Connecticut, and author of the
near-death experience studies Life
at Death and Heading Toward Omega, described his theory of
imaginal UFO abductions in the MUFON UFO Journal of May 1989,
and incorporated these ideas into his 1992 book The Omega
Project: Near-Death Experiences, UFO Encounters, and Mind at Large.
He included a quote from me:
"Aboriginal shamans
have a powerful and consistent tradition of ritualistic
initiation, the elements of which bear amazing similarities to
many modern-day UFO
abductions and
contact accounts."
This had come from a
research paper I presented way back in 1977 at an Australian UFO
conference.
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I stated that while, at
least then,
we appeared to lack
contemporary cases which demonstratively show, among other
things, the elements of abduction, "contact," and "time-lapse,"
Australia, unbeknown to most researchers, enjoyed a rich
indigenous tradition of similar accounts - the tribal initiation
accounts of aboriginal medicine men - men of "high degree" as
A.P. Elkin aptly puts it.
Kenneth Ring's ideas
struck a responsive chord with speculations I had been considering
for more than a decade.
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By 1990 I had examined
the works of the great French Islamic scholar Henry Corbin.
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In a paper first
published in 1964 entitled 'Mundus Imaginalis or the Imaginary and
the Imaginal', Corbin coined the term "imaginal" to account for the
Islamic mystical notion of a hidden realm ("a third
kingdom" - the Alam Al-mithal as contained in the Sufism of
the Islamic mystic Ibn' Arabi).
According to proponents, the "imaginal realm" could be accessed in
certain altered states of consciousness - for example, via "mythical
consciousness" (to use James Hillman's archetypal psychology term)
or "shamanic states of consciousness" (to use western shamanic
exponent Dr Michael Harner's terminology).
Kenneth Ring made the critical point that the imaginal realm was as
real as everyday reality but usually separate and invisible to us.
It apparently had form, dimension, and, he contends, "most important
for us, persons."
In this Islamic "imaginal" realm of Alam Al-mithal, there were
claimed to be quite a number of strange denizens, some having
characteristics that bear an extraordinary likeness to the entities
that dominate UFO abduction stories.
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One species,
the Jinn, was described in 1983
by veteran English UFO writer Gordon Creighton in a
fascinating piece in the Flying Saucer Review, entitled 'A brief
account of the true nature of the "UFO entities".'
Ring highlights shamanism as one of the most potent expressions of
the imaginal realm.
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He states:
"The shaman is the
prototypic 'otherworld traveller', a man (or woman) who is at
home in both worlds, recognizes the reality of each, and can
easily journey between them."
Richard Noll
succinctly states the critical issue in his essay, 'The Presence of
Spirits in Magic and Madness' (in Shirley Nicholson's compilation,
Shamanism):
"Humankind has
traditionally consulted extra-mundane entities for expanded
knowledge and empowerment, for they are traditionally considered
'sources of wisdom' that are transpersonal and able to convey
crucial information beyond the normal constraints of space and
time...
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The practitioner
usually initiates dialogues with spiritual entities by first
inducing an altered state of consciousness, which allows these
'invisible guests' to be seen and heard.
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However, in some
instances it is they who knock first on the doors of imaginal
perception.
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Called or not called,
they offer symbolic potential for transformation, whether for
oneself, for others, or for desired changes in the physical
environment..."
These beings are not
imaginary in the sense of being not real, pure fantasy, or
artificially made up.
They are
imaginal, existing in a realm of experience in which
they inhabit a reality of their own, a mundus imaginalis or "imaginal
world," as Henry Corbin deems it, which is co-existent with the
mundane experiential world of our ordinary state of waking
consciousness.
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Imaginal beings are
part of our experienced reality and have probably been so since
the birth of human consciousness.
The concept of an
imaginal realm sits very well with the paradoxical reality of
the UFO
abduction mystery, however, it is
just as unprovable as
the extraterrestrial 'hypothesis'...
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Some proponents of the
imaginal view argue that confirmation comes through experience. It
is difficult to see how the idea can be substantiated.
Dr Ring's suggestion that his theory could be easily disproved by
the arrival and open contact of extraterrestrial abductors, falls
short with the lack of explicit mainstream confirmation of such
visits.
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He argued it was high
time that we jettisoned,
"our out-worn
cartesian habits of thought" and approach "these phenomena from
an imaginal/folkloric perspective. This will necessarily take us
down a psychological road that will lead not only into folkloric
territory but into the realm of myth itself."
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That approach, while
fascinating, asks us to abandon the scientific 'ethic' and
mainstream 'conventions' of consensus reality.
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Given the extraordinary
claims and uncertainties that attend this strange area of human
experience, it may be premature to do that. More cautious and tested
approaches would seem more worthwhile.
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Such approaches, led by
collaborations with experiencers, may yet confirm we are dealing
with extraterrestrials, imaginal entities, and other hitherto
unfathomed explanations for this extraordinary phenomenon.
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An open mind would
be our best council...
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