A Remarkable Passage

What kills souls is quite simple: choice. They choose to die because they despair of themselves. They die of lack of love. Our lives must be rich with compassion both for ourselves and others. This is what enables us to thrive and live in the body of consciousness that is this universe. The body is a brief passage, a place of decision. It is here, in this engine of forgetting, that we can only decide from our essential truth whether we are going to go on or not.

From a remarkable essay by Whitley Strieber. Read it with an open mind.

Comments

[realpc]

That is an amazing story, and I suspect all or most of it is true, in some way.
Millions of people have encountered aliens, but often they are not believed, because the creatures are not on our level.
Physicists now think there are more dimensions than the ones we know about, and that there are other universes.

"the visitors completely shatter the secular view of the world."

"To enter the universe as it really is, you’ve got to leave your self-pride far behind, and that is a hard, hard thing to do."

That is so true.

Thanks for letting us know about this story amba. I have had some small glimpses into levels beyond our familiar world, and it can be so terrifying.

Secularism is both comforting and deadening. I hope that alternative science will eventually make belief in higher dimensions respectable, so stories like this can be taken seriously.

[amba]

Realpc,

Me too. Thank you. I was afraid the first response to this was going to be simply, "That guy is nuts!" (To which my response would have been, Anything that beautiful cannot be crazy.)

[Chris Hallquist]

Wow.

Thanks for posting this, Amba. Everything I've read about "abductees" has said that they are not crazy - and it's all from a skeptical perspective (Susan Clancy, Michael Shermer, etc.) This gave me an opportunity to to experience that first hand.

[Winston]

Being a lifelong SF junkie and a scientist of sorts myself, I have no doubt that we are not alone in this vast universe. And I allow the possibility that we have been/are being visited. While individual accounts frequently come across as hokey nut cases, this one seems sincere and real enough for me to tag it "don't dismiss yet".

In spite of a few typos it is well written and close to believable. But I would like to know more about Mr. Strieber so the essay can be placed in context. Does he lead a "normal" life with "normal" behavior? Or does he wrap his bath soap in aluminum foil to prevent penetration by devil rays from the aliens guns, etc.

[realpc]

The skeptics simply deny the possibility of aliens visiting earth, since if the aliens were on our physical plane it would not be possible for them to travel the great distances. Maybe the skeptics are not aware of the likely existence of higher dimensions and other universes -- but how can a scientifically educated skeptic not know what has been going on in physics?
But these are not really skeptics, just true believers in scientific materialism. They start from the premise that all strange mystical experiences must be dreams or hallucinations, so they automatically discount them as unreal. Experiences that humans have been having at all times and in all cultures are simply labeled as impossible and unreal. There is no opening in these skeptics' minds for doubt; they have already decided, with the complete support of the political scientific establishment.
It's true that strange mystical experiences are often connected with dreams, and with insanity. But just as often, they are not. And besides, scientists have absolutely no idea what dreams or hallucinations are, or what insanity is. These are just convenient labels for things they don't understand.

This is a very strange and incomprehensible universe -- or, I should say, collection of universes -- but the secularists feel better believing it's predictable and understandable.

Maybe Marx was right about religion, and maybe at times it can be a drug. But this is no less true of secularism -- it is a comforting tranquilizer.

[amba]

Winston,

When I knew Whitley (my husband and I are mentioned in his first abductee book, Communion) he was a successful author of horror/supernatural novels. I wouldn't exactly describe him as "normal" -- computers tended to short out when he touched them, and he was several orders of magnitude more brilliant and more anxious than many people you might encounter -- but he was good at his profession, had a lovely apartment, wife, and son, and no aluminum foil around his soap.

[Eustochius]

After overcoming my initial reaction of being freaked out, my major concern was of a theological nature. Assuming what he writes is true, by his own admission, these creatures are not wholly good. Even so, he seems to impart to them a messianic impportance. In some sense, in my view, he seems to advocate a degenerate, crypto-techno spiritual outlook. The creatures he describes are sort of just strange creatures like ourselves, only far more intelligent and far more powerful.

They lack the overwhelming goodness and perfection characteristic of divinity. They are not angels or Buddhas. They are flawed creatures. If they are here, that is certainly something of major importance, but I would be very wary of elevating them to the extent he seems to.

They really do seem to me like a caricature and degredation of Buddhas. They're not Enlightened beings--after all, they seem awfully interested in going around and collecting semen, and are willing to cause PTSD if it suits their purposes.

IOW, it seems like a lowering of the spiritual gaze. I don't mean to be tendentious, but based on my personal spiritual experience, I would consider it a tragedy were humanity to become enamored of these beings and fail to tap into that higher divine level of goodness, joy, and perfection.

To put a point on it, traditional philosophy of religion considers God to be a title that refers to that which deserves worship. And only a being that is infinitely good, powerful, and wise deserves worship. All else is, well, idolatry. Although, I am by no means an enthusiast of traditional western religion, I think the above makes clear the point of the danger of imparting such a high status to such obviously flawed beings.

[amba]

Eustochius,

Good point. And one I don't think Whitley Strieber is unaware of, as according to other things he has written, he prays to God. He seems to regard the aliens, or whatever they are, as companions and teachers, not as deities or angels.

As for God being "infinitely good, powerful, and wise," in the spirit of mischief I quote the following passage from The">http://www.therevealer.org/archives/timeless_002161.php">The Revealer, on why Intelligent Design may be bad science AND bad religion:

The proponents of ID do not appear to realize how big [the] problem is to the very type of religion they seek to promote. First of all, ID posits the notion of "The God of the Gaps" who steps in to meddle with the process of evolution in order to make life so wonderfully complex. But if God is willing to meddle with the inner workings of the bombadier beetle, why won't he put a little extra spin on a hurricane to make sure it doesn't hit any major cities? Speaking in religion's own terms, ID is not only an argument from design, it's also an argument for providence, God's good guidance of the universe, human history, and individual moral choice. Once God starts meddling, why does he limit himself to biology? If history, too, can be used as part of God's design, then the raw materials from which we try to deduce God's nature must include genocide, war, and famine. As Robert Frost wrote of some smaller "assorted characters of death and blight" in his poem "Design," "what but design of darkness to appall."

The Designer who so Intelligently Designed our world, in theory, could be malevolent or capricious just as easily as he could be all good. He might have designed us intelligently, but for the purpose of watching us tear each others' throats out. He might have designed us intelligently, but on a whim, and then forgotten all about us. In theological terms, ID suggests forces operating upon the world from without, but it does not say whether that those forces are good or evil. You could hypothesize, for example, that a Satanist could step forward to support ID. Yes, the world shows evidence of an intelligent designer, but one with a sick sense of humor. Therefore, the Satanist might conclude, Intelligent Design is correct, and we should worship the Devil, since the world seems more like his handiwork than the Other Guy's.

[Eustochius]

I guess I'm a bit of a hard ass. But you see, in some sense, these aliens almost represent where we DON'T want to go. Technologically sophisticated, but spiritually still deeplly flawed. IOW, if we think that humanity should move in a more spiritual direction, these are the kinds of guys we don't want as either companions or teachers. If the goal for all beings is Buddhahood, these guys took a wrong turn; they're kind of like the devas in Eastern lore that while being very powerful will eventually have to fall back to earth to reincarnate until they are enlightened.

It seems that to be enamored of these guys is to be seduced into a kind of secular, techno, almost material spirituality. Before we listen to these guys, I'd like to see a little evidence that these guys are significantly more wise and benevolent than us. Otherwise, I'd be kind of afraid of them: too much power and not enough wisdom or love.

***
Ah man -- look, I tried to keep traditional theology at arm's length and you still harassed me!

Alright, I think the divine is best described in terms of being wholly good and sufficiently wise and powerful for the purposes at hand. For instance, it doesn't make much sense to have a whole bunch of omnipotent Buddhas, but I'd like them be wholly good and to know what they're doing. It's the purity of motive that is the key element to divinity in this view. In this view, they're might be a hierarchy of divine beings with each level being populated by beings with greater quantities of love, wisdom, and power. Thus, I sidestep the infinite problem.

I've been thinking, and I think the major problem with the Western notion of God is that it takes all these distinct gradations and features of what humans consider divine and then squishes them all into one being -- and thus contradictions and perplexities result. I like to think in terms of levels and in terms of personal and impersonal manifestations of divinity.

Ah and the problem of evil.I tend to think that the world is governed by natural law as well as some "spiritual laws" such as karma and reincarnation. However, for one reason or another, this planet took a turn for the worse. Meaning, the conditions we have here, at this level, are rare in the cosmos. Most places have a lot less murder and a little more Buddha, say. While conceivably the whole experiment could be shut down, if that were done, all that has occurred would be lost. Furthermore, given the greater challenges on this planet, the "Buddhas that be" are probably hoping this place will turn out some real staunch and battle-hardened Buddhas. IOW, while a lot of evil does occur, I think if all facts were grasped and understood, most would agree that the benefits outweigh the costs -- at least when a long term perspective is taken.

And finally as for intelligent design, so that I may discredit myself and open myself up to ridicule, I would think that if any intelligent designing were going on it would be by nature spirits or by Buddhas of some variety.

It may sound crazy, but again, if you don't want to be a secularist, and you can't stand the perplexities of monotheism, I think a path like the above is somewhat more promising -- and more fun!

(Oh and I think the traditional -- and lame -- response to the above scepticism is : "the actions of God are inscrutable." I prefer to think that the Buddhas have "signed" a non-interference policy unless specifically invited. Otherwise, we'll never learn to do things ourselves and, for a technical spiritual reason, they don't have the authority to intervene unless invited. For this material plane, humans call the shots. Unfortunately, humans don't know what they're doing and mayhem frequently ensues. Oh and finally, the idea is not that one can just say "Buddhas do you magic!" and suddenly you've got miracles left and right. There is a certain karmic reciprocity required -- a sort of we'll match your devotion and quadruple it or something. Again, they're already Buddhas. We're the ones who need to learn. They can't do everything for us.)

[peter Hoh]

Dang, it's too bad all of this happened before video cameras were widely available.