Strieber's account illustrates the tenuousness of relating such experiences. It would be easy to discount the experience as suggestibility (the passages Strieber read earlier dealt with a similar experience), although it's equally easy to suggest that we may be most able to perceive alternate universes in a quasi-conscious state, and that perhaps the drone had somehow enabled such an experience after Strieber's reading precognitively prepared him.
Regardless of where one falls on the issue, Strieber's account is an intriguing reminder of just how little we know about the boundaries between reality and non-reality.
The author of this post echoes Greg Bishop's thoughts on the nature of Whitley Strieber's recent "contact" experience. Indeed, the central mechanism behind the UFO phenomenon seems to be less technological that "mystical," for lack of a better term. I'm convinced we're dealing with a stimulus with profound implications for human consciousness, in which case liminal states of awareness might help our minds amplify a "signal" that goes otherwise unnoticed. (A rough analogy can be drawn to Nick Herbert's concept of "quantum tantra" for establishing a nonverbal rapport with the "outside" world.)
2 comments:
Mac – agreed.
I wonder how the ETH platoons will react to this post...
Terence McKenna once said that ,”We have no real theory; we have conjectures, we have fiercely defended hypotheses; but we have very little that is concrete to go on. It's almost as though the issue of the UFO were an onion, and as we peel the layers of the onion, we discover when we get to center that there is nothing there whatsoever left. It reminds me that if you cross an onion with a UFO, what you get is a flying saucer that brings tears to your eyes…”
In that same talk, he made reference to the peculiar technique of “taking your eye off the ball” for a period of time in order to allow the mind to see at the edges of channel normal, strait-on, linear, rational perception – almost like struggling mightily with a problem, only to realize that your mind solved it in the course of a night’s sleep.
In physical terms, there is a concrete analog to grokking luminal states of consciousness: “The human eye has 'rod' cells and 'cone' cells on the retina, which is the sensory layer at the back of the eye. Rod cells and cone cells are distributed evenly throughout the retina except for the fovea, which is a small area on the back of the eye directly opposite the pupil. At the fovea, there are only cone cells. This is an important thing to know because the 'cone' cells are more proficient at color detection, whereas 'rod' cells are better for low light and detecting movement. Therefore, when trying to see in low light, try not to look directly at the places you are trying to see. By using your peripheral vision you are using more rod cells, which work much better in low light. This takes a great deal of practice for most people.”
For anyone interested in liminal states as they relate to Fortean phenomenon, try getting hold of “Daimonic Reality: Understanding Otherworld Encounters: A Field Guide to the Otherworld,” by Patrick Harpur.
Am I the only one who finds Whitley Streiber's previous career as a science fiction writer - relevant? In the same sense that Jay Anson's career as a horror novelist turns out to be very relevant to the matter of the Amityville Horror? the boundary between reality and non-reality, indeed!
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