Thursday, February 05, 2009

Aliens and archetypes

I was struck by some of the formations depicted in the theosophical book "Thought-Forms," shown here.





A few of them (seen above) could pass for witness reconstructions of UFO sightings. That the authors of the book consider them depictions of psychic intent suggests a commonality with the mandalas of Jung's collective unconscious.

6 comments:

dudivie said...

bbc, latest..The current research estimates that there are at least 361 intelligent civilisations in our Galaxy and possibly as many as 38,000. ..i didnt know that.

Anonymous said...

"...at least 361 intelligent civilisations in our Galaxy..."

Of course, there is no proof or evidence whatsoever. Care to cite your source?

Anonymous said...

Here's a link to the .pdf paper referenced by ninni as having been reported on by the BBC:

http://tinyurl.com/dbpe2j

The BBC article:

http://tinyurl.com/ctw8c7

While I find the claim of "at least 361 intelligent civilisations in our Galaxy" quite dubious, considering the data sources and methodology of simulation employed by the article's author, I thought those interested might want to check out the basis for the BBC article for themselves in order to better judge whether it has any validity or not.

I mean, everyone knows there are actually no more than 257 intelligent civilizations in our galaxy, right? 8^}

As for the "thought-forms" graphics from the 1901 book by Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater, I wonder if the symbolic graphics derived by the authors originated from theosophist or Hindu meditations and how they might relate to what are called "form constants," which are graphical visual displays sometimes seen in deep meditative, stressed, or hallucinogenic states of mind, and that relate to and reflect aspects of ocular and visual cortex physiology and brain structure, or that could be considered visual processing artifacts in rare circumstances.

These physiological processes, under certain conditions, may give rise to certain patterns of visual display that seem fairly universal, and provide some basis or evidence for why sometimes people see things, usually fleetingly, that appear external, anomalous, and otherwise generally unknown in origin, which could create an interpretation of having encountered something numinous when it's more likely a kind of psychological/stressor/physiological feedback loop of sorts.

This might explain some relatively small percentage of "ufo" reports or encounters. Might also provide a basis for some of Jung's speculations, and a new interpretive framework for same.

Mac said...

@Intense

Are you referring to entoptic imagery?

Anonymous said...

@Mac

Not really, as entoptic phenomena are visual effects whose source is within the eye itself, like floaters and phosphene effects.

The kind of images noted in "Thought-Forms" appear to be more related to "form constants," which relate more to the visual cortex within the brain, although there may be a relationship, or feedback loop, that could begin with entoptic phenomena. Form constants, on the other hand, usually originate under certain psychological states where normal visual processing within the brain is somehow scrambled or distorted by imbalances in neurotransmitters or aberrant electrochemical effects which affect perception to the degree that synthesized mandalic or geometric imagery overlay is generated within the brain, but may create an illusion that appears as external visual phenomena.

OTOH, I would guess many of the "thought forms" included in the Besant/Leadbeater book are purely imaginary creations that have nothing to do with either entoptic or form constant phenomena or causes.

Anonymous said...

what i believe is that mysteries must have been kept secret. beautifull things..horrible things. we cannot connect them to a philosophy or even theory or may i say everybody knows the truth, but cannot connect it
we are here just to spend..time
and if god so wants
learn