Monday 26 September 2011

Doubt Is OK. Certainty Is Dangerous.


After I got robbed in Hong Kong I met Steve who was kind enough to stand me a few beers while I was stranded waiting for Sam to reappear from his now questionable charity climb of Kilimanjaro and attend to his obligations. Steve and I got tangled in friendly but tricky discussions on the nature of God and so forth. Steve is a sceptic and so I think we agreed to disagree but we've kept in touch on Facebook and naturally he's sceptical of my UFO links I post on there from time to time. 


I think it's worth pointing out that intelligent life must exist in a universe where billions of stars form a galaxy and billions of galaxies form the universe. To me it's inconceivable to assume it's empty apart from us when our nearest star Proxima Centauri would take 72000 years using the fastest technology known to our species. But we're mates and so I haven't pressed my point but earlier today he touched on the sensitive topic of alien abduction which far from being the most ridiculous evidence, is to me much more credible than any photo or video of UFOs on Youtube. I'm not great at spotting the nutters immediately but I've developed a keen sense of authenticity if given a large pool of testimony and I think I'm brutally forensic if I can have a hundred or so hours of one person talking on difficult or unbelievable topics. Most people don't get past an hour and that number drops to single digits after five hours.


I had no intention of getting into all this UFO stuff but about a year ago I decided to research quantum mechanics and mysticism (same subject really). Which ever way I turned the UFO subject turned up again and again. So once I overcame my internal resistance to spending time with what I thought must be overly zealous proselytizers I realised I'd skipped possibly the most important question of our time. Then on the fringes of the research material it became apparent that the subject appeared to be on the verge of bursting into the daily domain of ordinary lives with a timing for me that I can only describe as unbelievably lucky. Some people have devoted their entire lives to the matter with no measurable return before they died and here I am sensing a change with just enough hours under my belt to argue cogently with some of the most seasoned players in the field. We all have widely differing points of view though and I'm madly hoping I get to find out what I got right or wrong sooner rather than later.


In any case here's me imploring Steve to consider the issue differently and as it's from the heart I'm sharing it here.


The late Budd Hopkins was a highly regarded abstract expressionist artist in New York. At great risk to his career he was unable to ignore the first hand testimonials of alien abduction which is marked by a feeling of confusion involving missing time in many different scenarios. 


The only way to salvage the memories during this process is to use hypnotic regression. Budd Hopkins has a video lecture of his findings after 700 of these regressions over decades and I put it to you that you can't watch it for a couple of hours without realising that it's a phenomena that deserves to be given the respect of at least the diplomacy of accepting that many of these victims have not only been held against their will, tested like a farm animal but also face the ridicule that opinions like yours shame most of them into never revealing what has hurt them psychologically for life. 


I see your anger for this subject as a kind of reminder to you that this isn't people claiming to be the new messiah who are in it for egoic reasons but is a sore concrete data point that nobody comes out of alien abduction with nothing but shame and misery and at best have here shared their information so that others may learn. You may challenge my view but it's just irritating facts as we both know a negative is impossible to prove.


So I believe that ET exists, ET has always existed, ET is part of the fabric of our history/cosmos and that UFO sightings went through the roof after atomic bomb testing (ding dong logic alert. hello is anyone listening) and some ET have been testing our species like mad since the that time too. You don't have to believe any of that but have the courtesy to listen without prejudice to Budd and have some sympathy for a group of people numbering hundreds of thousands if not million(s). Just some sympathy and maybe you'll find something that says it's not madness, but it is at is. 


I know your world view mate and that's fine but I spend my brain power looking for information that turns my world view upside down and it's not easy, takes deep diving and a good nose for bullshit which I don't have but which I'm getting better and better at, particularly with regard to video testimonial. Anyway listen without prejudice and if you have real concerns about authenticity that are above "he said, she said" rhetoric then I would love to hear those because I think your nose for the human story is probably as good if not better than mine. It's the most massively complex story I've ever had to unravel and this is just one small piece of a puzzle that has enraged far far finer minds than mine.