What the bloody hell are UFOs?
That is the question that this Encyclical Letter will answer - and of course [ahum] this will be the definitive answer. What else would you expect from the infamous G.M.Kelly!
Before we begin let me first say that I am a long time fan of not only good horror novels and films, but also well made sci-fi films and books. I also find the variety of races, nationalities and such in human society delightful and so I would love to believe in alien visitors from other planets, other galaxies, other dimensions, who would lend greater variety to life and who might perhaps be more advanced than we are so that they could help us with our many socital problems. I often joke, in all seriousness, that I would love to be the first Earther to have carnal knowledge of extraterrestrial women - of course, if we are to believe some people, I am already too late for that distinction. Some women have even claimed to have had babies, sometimes upon other planets, by alien beings! Again, I would love to believe that the Earth has been visited by extraterrestrial intelligences in the past who may have moulded us, even seeded humanity, and who may be visiting us now, perhaps to study and guide us, even to invade us - a thing which would be terrible in one way, but which could serve to make the nations of Earth finally come together to fight a common enemy. I think the whole idea is terrific. However, I also find myself, especially after a study of UFOlogy, most especially from the believers' arguments, agreeing with Carl Sagan. All factors considered, there must be intelligent life elsewhere in this vast, perhaps infinite universe - beings as evolved as we are, less evolved and more evolved. Yet, considering the unlikelihood of intelligent lifeforms elsewhere in our system, and the incredible distances between galaxies, the tremendous physiological complications involved in space travel, and the absurdly slim chances of one intelligent lifeform finding another in this remarkably vast universe, it is most unlikely that extraterrestrial beings have ever walked upon our tiny little planet. This is not to say that it has not happened in the past or cannot happen in the future, but I sincerely doubt that visitors from other worlds have ever existed on Earth and I think that all possible contact with extraterrestrial intelligences [in the physical universe, shall we say] is far off in our future. And remember: I am a romantic, but I am also a "realistic idealist".
So then, if "flying saucers" are not zooming through our skies, more frequently than our own terrestrial aircraft as some believers would have us think, and if people are not being abducted by alien beings, then just what the hell is all this talk of UFOs and abductions all about?
What the bloody hell are UFOs?
First of all, a "UFO" is not a "flying saucer" nor is it any kind of extraterrestrial spacecraft. All too often the terms "UFO" and "flying saucer" are used synonymously, even by reputable UFOlogists who often find their objectivity melting away while experiencing UFOria. A UFO is an Unidentified Flying Object, i.e. something that is at least apparently flying, has not been identified and seems to be unidentifiable. An errant, high-flying kite or weather balloon can be classified as a UFO, as has often been the case, simply because the observer could not identify it. If a UFO is identified it is no longer a UFO. Simple logic! Even if it has been identified as an extraterrestrial spacecraft it is no longer an Unidentified Flying Object. With this simple but necessary clarification out of the way, let us continue.
Secondly, as most UFOlogists and believers will agree, approximately 95% of all reported UFOs turn out to be hoaxes and pranks or misidentified, if sometimes rare, terrestrial objects or phenomena. That leaves only about 5% that are as yet unidentified. This does not mean that 5% are "real UFOs", a silly phrase often interpreted as meaning "real flying saucers". It only means that this 5% is as yet unidentified and the odds are that they can eventually be identified as hoaxes or misidentified terrestrial objects or phenomena. Example: In an excellent source book by Ms. Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, there is a picture of an "Alleged UFO photographed in Cocoyoc, Mexico, on November 3, 1973." There is nothing around this "UFO" to assist in an analysis to identify it or disprove the "UFO" and when I first saw this photograph I laughed at how amazing it is that it has, apparently, for so long remained unidentified.
I think any marine biologist would have recognized the "UFO" immediately since it is really an "ISO" - an Identifiable Swiming Object. I have spent many hours in front of tanks at the local Pittsburgh Zoo experimenting with communication between human beings and dolphins and I immediately and with complete certainty identified the "UFO" as a dolphin swimming towards the camera - an object surrounded by water and not air. The side fins are unmistakable, the tail fin barely visible, the dorsal fin almost entirely hidden by the curvature of the body, although I have seen dolphins in captivity with curved and badly damaged dorsal fins. The one streak of light on this otherwise dark blob shows the curvature of the head, the snout to one side. I think I can even identify it as a female dolphin, that's how clear the photograph is to me! And yet it is being used as a photograph of a "real UFO"! Amazing.
Let us explore the subject of misidentified natural, if sometimes rare, terrestrial objects and phenomena that are often mistaken for extraterrestrial spacecraft. Remember that sometimes the commonest thing can appear very uncommon if seen in an unexpected way or place - take for example a magnification of a very small object.
AFTERIMAGE: a visual illusion which can occur when impressions are made upon the retina, remaining for some time after the initial stimulus is removed. Airplane pilots seem to be most susceptible to these and the sun is cited as the commonest cause of afterimages, and since the human eye rarely remains stationary the afterimage seems to move about as if intelligently controlled. A mere glance at the setting sun, for instance, can create afterimages that appear to be dark objects flying about in the sky that suddenly disappear.AURORAS: luminous phenomena of the upper atmosphere caused by the collision of solar particles with air molecules. These brilliant lights may appear in various shapes, often accounting for the cigar- or spindle-shaped UFOs.
AUTOKINESIS: the apparent motion of an object which is the result of irregular and uncontrollable movements of the eyeball. Viewing stars, Venus, and so forth while experiencing autokinesis gives these lights the appearance of controlled, yet unusual flight.
AUTOSTASIS: the apparent cessation of an observed moving object caused by irregular movements of the eyeballs as they try to follow an object like an artificial man-made satellite. The "UFO" appears to make repeated stops in its flight.
BALLOONS: hundreds of these are released every day from weather stations, research installations, civilian and military airports. Some of their shapes correspond with typical UFOs, they can be highly reflective, especially during sun rise and sun set, and atmospheric conditions can alter their shapes, causing, for instance, a very flexible round balloon to take on a disk-shape. Currents in the upper atmosphere can carry weather balloons at great speeds, with apparent intelligent control, and the sizes of these balloons can be up to 300 feet in diameter.
BIOLUMINESCENCE: the emission of "cold light" by living organisms such as fish or insects. The common "lightning bug", seen at a glance, out of the corner of the eye, as it were, has often been classed as a UFO.
BIRDS: these account for a large number of UFOs, even those captured on film. The infamous Lubbock Lights seen over Lubbock, Texas in 1951 E.V. turned out to be plover flying overhead, their white breasts reflecting a new type of street light. Needless to say, the formation birds often fly in appear to be formation flying of intelligent air- or spacecraft. Owls, it has been discovered, account for some UFOs after roosting in dead trees that are infested with a luminous fungus. Birds, as well as other natural terrestrial objects and phenomena, can also cause radar returns that may easily mislead even the most experienced radar operators, more easily the less experienced. A large bird at close range can, in fact, produce a blip on a radar screen that is equivalent to that of an aircraft at a greater distance.
BRADYTES: starlike or circular objects which resemble bolides and meteors which, however, travel at very low speeds. They have also been seen to apparently accelerate and execute right-angle turns. A "bolide", by the way, is a term employed to describe a brilliant meteor, especially a meteor that explodes.
COMET: this celestial phenomenon orbits the sun. Its central mass, the nucleus, has a surrounding haze called the coma and usually possesses a "tail" which seems to elongate as it comes closer to the sun.
CRYILLIDS: first recorded in 1913 E.V., seen on the feast day of St. Cyril of Alexandria, thus the name, are celestial lights often described as a meteor shower, but which travel at slower speeds than meteors and in formation horizontally. These are meteors or other space debris that are caught in orbit around the earth and become temporary satellites until they are eventually consumed by atmospheric friction. Thus the light, relatively slow speed, low altitude and horizontal flight.
HALLUCINATION: this can be caused by a great number of psychological, physiological and emotional experiences, or a combination of these, even in otherwise "normal" and "sane" individuals, and the increased use of hallucinogenic drugs has accounted for a great deal of supposed UFOs, even long after drugs like LSD were used. "That's a bad trip, man."
HYPNAGOGIC and HYPNOPOMPIC STATES: these are, respectively, the states of consciousness experienced just before awakening from sleep and the drowsy state following awakening during which images are often self-generated within the human mind, regardless of whether the eyes are open or closed, and according to surveys this form of imagery occurs in up to 77% of the population and the sensations, which may be visual and/or auditory, but which may also involve the other sense, are so vivid that they are easily mistaken for physical realities. Many UFOs seen by lone drivers late at night, for instance, or people at home in their beds, are easily explainable in these terms, and even the person seemingly fully awake may experience the hypnagogic and hypnopompic imagery.
HYSTERICAL CONTAGION: a phychological condition usually experienced by a group of people experiencing a great deal of anxiety or tension that is combined with an ambiguous situation that apparently poses a threat. The ambiguous situation or circumstance is misinterpreted by at least one person and the condition causes others to accept the interpretation that their reason has been seeking an explanation for.
ICE CRYSTALS: these can create luminous patterns in the atmosphere that are often mistaken for intelligently controlled craft. Very small ice crystals in the vapor trail of jets can acquire an electrical charge from the rotating blades of the jet's engine and combined with reflective light from the setting or rising sun they can glow and move about in such a way as to appear to be aerial craft of an unusual, extraterrestrial nature.
MIRAGE: an illusion which distorts and/or displaces a distant object and is caused by the bending of light rays as they pass through various layers of air of different temperatures and densities.
PARASELENAI and PARHELIA: unusual illuminated images known also as, respectively, moondogs or mock moons, and sundogs or mock suns, caused by refracted moon- or sunlight within atmospheric ice crystals. These too can take on various shapes. The latter, for instance, can appear as halos, inverted arcs and even luminous crosses. No doubt that accounts for a Christian "miracle" or two!
PHOSPHENE: the sensation of seeing brilliant images that results from pressure on the eyeballs through closed eyelids or immediately following the adaptation of the eyes to a darkened environment. These lights or images can appear to be of a number of shapes characteristic of UFO reports.
PLASMA: a concentration of extremely electrified air which tends to glow intensely in a wide variety of colours. Often occurring on or around power lines this luminous effect accounts for a number of UFOs that are mistaken for intersteller craft tapping into our power systems. Ball lightning is associated with this and can sustain itself for long enough periods of time to erratically fly about, sometimes seem to exhibit curiosity and display controlled flight, and even pass through metallic objects like the bodies of automobiles and the hulls of aircraft without dissipation of its charge. Such things as plasma, ball lightning, chain lightning, and so forth, all natural if rare terrestrial phenomena, account for a great many UFO sightings.
SAINT ELMO'S FIRE: flamelike electrical discharge which appears usually during stormy weather on the very tips of pointed objects, usually accompanied by a fizzling or crackling noise, and often this has been misidentified as a "flying saucer".
SPATIAL DISORIENTATION: the inability to properly assess one's position, altitude and motion in relation to one's environment, and it has been the source of UFO sightings, most often by inexperienced private pilots, who, usually at night, misidentify groundlights for stars, and moving terrestrial objects possessing lights as extraterrestrial craft.
SUBSUN: usually observed from an airplane or a mountain, this brilliant reflection of the sun on stratus cloud layers consisting of tiny ice crystals can appear to have an elliptical shape and to move in unison with the observer, disappearing as if at a great speed or by slipping into another dimension when one has simply reached the point where the layer of ice crystals no longer exists.
SWAMP GAS: this has become a joke in UFOlogist circles simply because it is a natural terrestrial phenomenon that was overused as an explanation of UFOs in the early days. Generally this is a combination of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen and phosphine that is created, generated, by decaying vegetable matter in swampy areas. It usually produces only a small light just above ground level, but the wind can carry these lights for a few feet before they are extinguished, and under the right circumstances swamp gas can be misidentified as a "flying disk" and has been so misinterpreted at times.
This is a relatively small selection of natural objects and phenomena that have been and continue to be misidentified as "flying saucers", "flying disks", "extraterrestrial spacecraft" and so forth. There are a great many other things within nature that account for UFOs, often very simple things such as clouds which have even been photographed and very much appear to be solid disk-shaped or cigar-shaped bodies. The three basic shapes are the cirrus, cumulus and stratus clouds. There are various combinations of these and some, like the lenticular clouds, have a smooth lens-shaped form. Filled with moisture to give it a solid, dark appearance, with white clouds and bright sunlight behind it, a peculiarly shaped cloud can appear even more so to be a "flying saucer" from another planet, complete with a rotating motion caused by air currents.
The point is this: there are a great number of unusual and rare phenomena in our very interesting world, and it is more logical to seek out a terrestrial reason for such things to come to know our world better, than to reach for extraterrestial explanations that lead us away from truth and a better understanding of our world and physical experiences and phenomena. Naturally, however, when one encounters such unusual phenomena for the first time, lacking knowledge and experience, the imagination tends to run wild like a little child let out of school at the end of a very long, boring and tiring day, and at that point the mind can then play tricks upon the observer, and being so very suggestible, seeking a "rational" explanation for an apparently irrational occurrance, convince the observer that a great deal more was seen than had actually been observed, even going so far as to construct a fantasy which is later mistaken for a physical reality in order to produce reason where only the unreasonable seems to be.
Okay. So we know, in part, what most UFOs are. In about 95% of the reported cases of a UFO sighting it is either discovered that a hoax is involved or someone has merely failed to identify or properly identify some terrestrial object or phenomenon, and has perhaps even hallucinated in some way so as to better explain the apparently unexplainable. No single explanation can identify all UFOs. All of the sources of misidentification given above and many more not even mentioned in this place have more than once been mistaken for extraterrestrial spacecraft.
Electromagnetic effects attributed to the presence of "flying saucers" can be the result of a number of conventional and natural causes. Every effect thought to be caused by spacecraft from alien races, as unnatural as it may seem, has a natural explanation. We hear stories all the time of crashed ships, aliens taken prisoner, Air Force cover ups, and so forth, but physical evidence is never produced that cannot be explained by natural means, either terrestrial or meteoric. And if the Air Force is covering up the "fact" that they have captured alien spacecraft as well as their pilots they are to be commended for doing an impossible job quite successfully in this age of the ever-present, inescapable media investigation.
And what of those UFOs that cannot be explained by any of the already mentioned phenomena? Some psychologists have proposed the Freudian hypothesis, a theory which claims that witnesses and UFOlogists are victims of the classic Freudian breast/penis syndrome which accounts for the saucer- and cigar-shaped UFOs. While I tend to think of Freud as a pervert who could think of nothing but sex, leaning more towards Jung whose theories regarding human behaviour went quite a bit deeper, I must admit that in some cases the Freudian hypothesis does indeed aptly explain matters.
There are numerous explanations for the UFO phenomenon, and perhaps all of them are right in various cases. I am not even excluding the possibility that some UFOs are indeed extraterrestial spacecraft, or interdimensional objects of an either man-made [alien-made?!] nature or some unknown biological organism that normally exists in the upper atmosphere in such a fine metaphysical state as to be virtually invisible, only becoming visible when rarely visiting the lower atmosphere and becoming subjected to atmospheric friction. Just about any bloody possibility is ... well ... possible. However, all of the evidence, from debunkers and believers alike, tends to point towards natural terrestrial sources and however attractive the various "occult" theories are - aliens from another planet, from within the earth itself, from sunken Atlantis or Lemuria, stratospheric lifeforms, beings from other dimensions, humans from the future, secret military craft from our own country or others [this one probably true in many cases], secret Nazi military craft created within our supposedly "hollow earth", and so forth - however attractive, amusing and provocative these theories may be, I think that they belong most appropriately within the realm of science fiction.
So what, then, of the numerous reports of abduction by alien beings?
Again, there is usually a very natural, earthly explanation ranging from simple hoax to psychological dysfunction. However, there is one explanation that may seem rather "occult" and which does touch upon various theories, as if the people proposing those theories had glimpsed at but a part of the answer. The debunker who claims that the supposed sighting and/or abduction was "all in the head", that it was merely a psychological phenomenon, is not entirely wrong. The believer who says that the UFO and its inhabitants came from another dimension is not entirely wrong. Each has a part of the truth, but often individuals are unable to grasp that truth fully due to poor and inflexible mental programming that they just cannot break free from. An example is the kind of thinking that either something is "real" or it is "in his head". What is "real" and what is "unreal" is often relative to many things including one's point of view.
And so, without further delay, let us here give the definitive answer to the UFO problem. It does not explain all cases, but from personal experience and a great deal of mental and magical training, I am convinced that that small percentage of UFO sightings and apparent abduction cases that cannot be explained by way of physical if rare phenomena as well as psychological phenomena are explainable in the following way - and it points to a great change in the human psyche as a whole that seems to be causing quantum leaps which must be understood and properly dealt with if humanity is to take the Next Step upon the evolutionary path instead of stumbling and perhaps falling.
Recall the previous Encyclical Letter regarding UFOs and dealing, in particular, and all too briefly, with Communion by Mr. Whitley Strieber. The fact of the matter is that some people, in alarmingly increasing numbers, are apparently, as if by accident, slipping into altered or "higher" states of consciousness, perceiving the realities of those "higher" states, retaining the memory of them in the reasoning mind so that once they have returned to the physical state they are immediately translated into three-dimensional terms that approximate them, and which are then mistaken for physical state realities causing the magician's proverbial "mixing of the planes". An example of this was the lady I once dated who later became involved in Transcendental Meditation, was improperly trained, and found herself seeing elephants and mandalas in front of her as she drove down the highway, nearly causing her to have an accident because instinct perceived an object that she was about to crash into. A reality is perceived, but it is not a physical reality. It is a mental construct that best describes the "inner plane" reality to the reasoning mind and while it appears to be quite solid it is only solid upon its own plane or level of consciousness.
Whitley Strieber, for example, did not see a UFO or "flying saucer", and almost all of his experiences are those that are typical to the "out-of-body experiences" people have experienced since people existed. These are actually rationalistic interpretations of the shifting to and experiences in various states of consciousness. Within these states or upon these levels or planes of consciousness, that which is experienced is "real", relative to that state, but it is of a more abstract nature than physical experiences and upon reentry, so to speak, into the outer or physical planes, levels or states, the reasoning mind immediately fits concrete physical symbols to the "astral" realities in order to better grasp and comprehend those inner plane experiences and realities. Often, as in Mr. Strieber's case, the alleged "abductee" does not immediately remember his experience. This is because sometimes, for one or several reasons, the reasoning mind needs time to process the experiences in the altered states and to fit symbols to the realities therein perceived that it can accept rationalistically. Hypnosis is often used to bring out these memories, but it is a very inexact method that can lead to a great deal of error all too easily, and it cannot be relied upon for this and numerous other reasons.
Mr. Strieber claims to have encountered four basic types of "visitors" - he was, in fact, the visitor into their realms or levels of consciousness - and in the previous UFO EL I have identified them as personifications of his voluntary and involuntary physical functions, psychological complexes or "demons", and as for the very unique "visitor" with whom he felt a special, intimate, even sensual connection, this was the supraconscious mind or Self, fully realized - one's self in the future, the Genius, Atman, Augoeides, Zeitgest, Holy Guardian Angel, True Self, etc., etc. - "the Lord", "the Beloved", with which so many religious and esoteric philosophies tell us we are to seek union with.
The UFO interpreted as an intersteller craft from a superior alien race is a mental, rationalistic construct of the reasoning mind that symbolizes an "astral" reality of a far more abstract nature. In some cases the reality is a centre of force in our universe of one kind or another, while in other cases the observed UFO is a symbolic representation of that vast, advanced, superior intelligence, or an inner plane vehicle or "body" of that intelligence which the mystics and magicians of old have called by many names and which I prefer to call the True Self, the Daemon or the Supraconscious.
"Extraterrestrials" perceived when in these altered states of consciousness are modern interpretations of astral state realities that in earlier times were perceived of, or symbolized by, faeries, gnomes and so forth, even such monsters as the vampire and the werewolf. They are personifications of subconscious complexes, physiological as well as psychological functions of the human being, as well as other forms of consciousness that science is just now beginning to recognize, such as the consciousness of plant life, and they have a kind of independence upon their own level of consciousness, although they are not completely independent from humankind. They are real and yet, at least in part, they are parts of our own mind. The form of their reality is different upon the various planes or levels of consciousness, for the very nature of form is illusory. The realities of the "astral" state or states of consciousness are no more and no less real than the realities of the physical state, which seems like a dream when concentrated upon the astral state of consciousness.
What is happening is that, apparently without training, although as a result of numerous incarnations and lessons learned despite ourselves, many people are not only slipping more frequently into altered states of consciousness - all of us daily slip in and out of various states of consciousness without realizing or remembering it - and more importantly the realities perceived in the "higher" states are, more and more, being consciously carried over into the "lower" or physical state of consciousness. In this there is great potential for good enabling humankind to apparently take quantum leaps upon the evolutionary path, but due to a lack of proper education, personal experience, and guidance, and because of the misguidance of charlatans and lunatics, these inner plane experiences can just as easily lead humankind away from the True Path of spiritual and intellectual evolution.
A problem caused by this, as I have said, is the "mixing of the planes" - the personal conviction that the realities experienced on one plane of consciousness are realities on another or all planes of consciousness. This is a simplification, of course, but it involves the confusion between a "reality" and a "symbolic representation of that reality". In such cases, the symbol is mistaken for the reality itself, somewhat like mistaking the word "horse" for a horse and then trying to ride the word to get somewhere. Another gross simplification, I know, but we are dealing with great subtleties here.
People are not being visited - they are the visitors doing the visiting. Alien beings are not invading our sphere of existence - we are invading their sphere of existence. "They" are not studying us - we are studying them, and consequently ourselves. We have nothing to fear from these beings which are in fact a facet of ourselves unless we have reason to fear ourselves perhaps because of deeply rooted subconscious psychological complexes of a self-destructive nature. If "They" seem to hate us perhaps it is because for some hidden reason we hate ourselves, blame ourselves for things that we should not feel guilt for, or things that we feel responsible for. We tend to dislike the smaller aliens because these are really subconscious complexes that hamper our lives - personal "demons" which we must root out and banish with the sword of reason. Many more people than ever before are automatically calling such demons to apparently physical manifestation, evoking them, and if they can but realize consciously and intellectually what they are doing automatically they can then deal with these personal demons, these obnoxious aliens, and force them to work for instead of against one and then banish them when they are of no further use. If one can accept the single apparent alien who seems to have a very intimate and even sensual relationship with one, being careful to distinguish it from those I have called "demons", and seek the union with it that has been, in some cases, symbolized by sexual union with alien beings, one may come a little closer to an Understanding of the Yechidah, the single Unit of Being that manifests in these most interesting and multitudinous forms. If, however, one falls into the trap of mixing the planes and mistaking the symbols of reality for the reality itself, those subconscious psychological complexes, those "demons", will pull one away from the True Path and, not because they are an "absolute evil" but because it is their nature, their will to survive, they will prevent one from taking the Next Step that is so important now to the future of our entire planet and society.
Have I ever seen UFOs? Yes. However, due to my training I was able to distinguish between physical and astral state realities - although admittedly, during and even after, the astral state realities possessed such a quality in my mind that I felt as if they were physical realities. And the mind can play cute tricks upon one. For instance, while preparing to write the previous UFO EL I awoke one morning thinking of the fantastic display of flight I observed several apparently extraterrestrial craft performing. I awoke thinking of it as a physical reality and it was not until several moments later that I realized that what I thought I had just physically experienced was but a memory, embodied in UFO symbology, of an astral experience I had had years ago during my Second Great Magical Retirement at the Mt. Nebo Hermitage! If even I can be tricked by my mind after all of my experience and training, how much easier then for the average individual without the knowledge, personal experience and training I have?
In my magical diary, the entry dated "18 Oct. 1982 e.v." I wrote:
"Watched a 'space ship' flying overhead - once away from me - once across my field of vision. It was bright in the night sky with vari-coloured laser lights, basic shape being a long box, but of course complicated in structure."
I later perceived what was symbolized as a blunt-nosed reptilian humanoid and while I saw no apparent connection to the UFO I noted that I could understand how such a connection could be mistakenly made by the average person upon awakening.
On the 30th of April of 1983 E.V. I recorded:
"Recall an apparently normal night & morning sky - but with fantastic light displays. In particular: V-shaped jets - or so I at first thought - creating letters in the sky. However, these ships maneuvered too precisely to be Earth jets. They executed 90 degree & even sharper turns in an instant, often avoiding each other by incredibly close margins. They flipped, turned & otherwise moved in ways impossible of earthly air ships. And they did not create sloppy letters of exhaust smoke - but precise letters of light. All I (think) I recall are the letters 'O B' - recalls only 72 (Ayin Beth) = Shemhamphorasch & A.C.'s age at death, also 'Aub" (Atziluth's Secret Nature, cloud, etc.)"10 stars stood out of the night sky in a diamond pattern - (Hexagram?) - thusly: [Here I had a star in the lefthand corner, and three each in the righthand, top and bottom corners drawn.] This brings to mind Otz Chiim with its 3 Trinities & depending Sephiroth [sic], Malkuth. These exploded in a shower of golden sparks that fell to earth - upon & around me of course. The stars were silvery."
On the 22nd of September of that same year:
"In the Atral State I viewed numerous UFOs in flight, mostly luminous, mostly red & others green pure light, many only bordered with light, sometimes flying in formation, some saucer-like, others almost top-shaped, and so on. 1 crashed or exploded upon landing leaving no trace behind. I searched for wreckage and ran into another man so interested & instinctively knew of his interest."
And on the 23rd of May 1982 E.V., during that long retirement, I recorded the following:
"Definite astral experience, upon the higher levels of consciousness, occurring, as we crudely reckon time, during the early, dark hrs. of the morning of this day ... The day of Saturn, Saturday. (Saturn = Binah & M.T. 8°=3°.)"
This was my grade of magical attainment at the time and it took a retirement of years to fully assimilate the experiences that led to this grade, the so-called Crossing of the Abyss.
"I am in the astral parallel of the field across the street - the same but much different. (Sorry if that sounds awkwardly contradictory, but it's the best I can do.) It is night. (The N.O.X. or Night of Pan, which, as a M.T., as Nemo, I am an inhabitant of.) I watched more than one setting sun, as if on different, short days. They were all huge red disks setting in the East, not the West. (Red disks may = Geburah, my sphere of function as a warrior and/or Binah, my sphere of attainment of the Grade 8°=3°.) During one of these setting sun viewings I watched sparks of brilliant light fliting through the night sky as no conventional aircraft could move. Then appeared the star craft. All light in this astral experience was pure & brilliant. Only laser light comes close to it in this plane of consciousness ... and not that close at all. ... This craft would fly as no conventional aircraft could, but as soon as I would get a good visual fix on it my 'eyes' would blur, it would disappear, then reappear, etc. over and over again. I am convinced that most, if not all, UFO sightings are actually in the astral state of consciousness & not in the mundane, wake-world s. of c. The 'realism' could confuse and mislead untrained minds ignorant of these things. And one need not slip into the A.S. of C. only when the conscious mind is 'asleep'. A person may slip in and out of the A.S. of C. while 'awake' if fatigued or under stress. ..."
In the astral state of consciousness on the 10th of September 1983 E.V. I encountered three sleek black birds, very large, that humanized before my eyes to reveal themselves as partly human sirens. I encountered them in the same astral parallel of the field mentioned above and such sirens were said to be singing daughters of Earth who beguiled sailors, an appropriate symbol for one more or less recrossing back over the abyss, to the meadows of their island. Sirenland is best understood, we are told in The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, as the sepulchral island which receives the dead king's ghost, and at the time the symbolism of my magical position was that of lying within the womb of Nuit or within the tomb for "three days", "a king of the earth". The point being that my knowledge of magical and mythological symbology enabled me to produce a great plethora of symbolism for my reasoning mind to choose from to best explain my astral state experiences, and my training made it possible for me to keep from mixing the planes and to recognize the relative differences between astral and physical state realities.
Circa 1972 E.V. I encountered what appeared to be, after a unique series of experiences resulting in samadhi while practicing yoga, a lovely young girl upon the astral plane who seemed to give me the name Celeste when I asked for one. This being acted as my guide through various astral state experiences, once, sometime in 1974 E.V., reappearing after a long absence, to help me with the control of my passionate sexual nature through an experience with a succubus, which at one time appeared to be half owl while still quite humanoid and beautiful. That should strike a chord with Whitley Strieber as the owl symbolism came about in his experiences as well and he rightly attributed it to Pallas Athena, whose totem is the owl. What he did not realize is that that symbolism was a kind of message from the supraconscious. Pallas is a masculine name given to Athena after she killed a giant by that name, related to the word Phallus, and giving the Goddess of Wisdom a male-female nature. In Greek the name is spelled Pi Alpha Lambda Lambda Alpha Sigma Alpha Theta Eta Nu Eta [80 + 1 + 30 + 30 + 1 + 200 + 1 + 9 + 8 + 50 + 8] and its numeration is 418, the numeration of ABRAHADABRA, the magical formula of attainment in this current Æon of Horus. In fact there are a great many indications in this that explain the nature of the experiences and how they should be perceived. Odysseus, for instance, who endured many hardships and crossed the abyss of the ocean, had as his patron Goddess Pallas Athene [or Pallas Athena], Goddess of Wisdom, and by both Athena and the Cyclops, Polyphemus, Odysseus is called Nepios [Nu Eta Pi Iota Omicron Sigma, 50 + 8 + 80 + 10 + 70 + 200], which means both "fool", as in the "Pure Fool", Parsifal, and "child", relating to his being the "child" of his patron Goddess or "Daemon", as well as being the Babe of the Abyss in magical terminology. This word, Nepios, comes to the numeration of 418, showing the close relationship between the persona and the Daemon. Furthermore, Odysseus identified himself as No One, Nobody or No Man to Polyphemus, and that is Nemo in Latin, the term applied to the crosser of the abyss.
All this is not to say that people experiencing UFO sightings and apparent abductions in the astral state of consciousness are crossing the abyss, but they are indeed perceiving, at least glipses of, the absolute which lies across the abyss from the relative planes of being.
As for alien beings: I have experienced them. When leaving the physical state of consciousness, upon entry into the "higher" astral states, I have in the past felt and heard the cacophony [kakos/bad + phone/sound] of those subconscious "demons" as they tried to hold me back.
And my first remembered encounter with my Daemon, the supraconscious, was around 1972 E.V. when I found myself fully 'awake', aware, conscious in what seemed like the physical state but which was actually the astral state, to find myself apparently paralyzed [because I was trying to function in the astral according to the laws of the physical] with a living and apparently masculine shadow standing over me by the side of my bed. I felt fear. Then I felt a deep and mutual fraternal love, and then it was gone. Many times after that I perceived my Daemon in this form, the depth of its shadowy form quite similar, I am sure, to the depth of those huge black eyes Mr. Strieber perceived in his "visitor's" head. And interestingly enough, when I was a very young child, out in the woods, helping my uncle look for worms for fishing, I saw a creature about the size of a man's thumb, rather goldenrod in colour, with a straight lipless mouth, bulbous head and round black eyes. It's mouth was open, it appeared to be breathing, but it was as if it were made out of translucent rubber, a kind of living balloon that did not lose its air even though that mouth was open. As a child I thought nothing of it. I sat there and watched it breathe for a long time and when my uncle called to me I left it and never bothered to even mention this unusual creature that I took so much for granted then.
Our world is a vast and interesting place full of more mysteries than can ever be catalogued. The answers to those mysteries are so extremely interesting and provocative that I see no reason why anyone should seek answers without. The answers to the UFO problem and the mysteries it proposes are all to be found within us - not merely as psychological dysfunctions or misperceptions, but as genuine realities of a different than physical order relating to altered states of consciousness and how we perceive the world around us, as well as how we perceive ourselves.
The greatest danger in all of this is that people will mix the planes and mistake the symbols of reality for the realities themselves. If the people undergoing these wonderful and extremely important experiences could but be objective enough, properly educated and guided, they could be the first to take the Next Step in human evolution - instead of the ones to stumble the most and perhaps fall from the Path entirely.
Thelema provides the means of recognizing reality, of seeking it out and of dealing with it. The A.·.A.·. curriculum, in the proper hands, properly employed, will lead one to the Next Step, assist greatly in taking that step ever so carefully, and that Silver Star can guide the way to the realization of one's full potential, the "Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel", the eventual Union with the Daemon or True Self - the accomplishment of one's purpose for existing, the True Will.
Or if one prefers, one may mistake the symbols of reality for the realities themselves, create a fantasy world around those symbols within which to get lost, and fail to take the Next Step which unites the conscious and the subconscious, thus uniting us with the supraconscious - realizing ourselves as one with That - our creator, our source of being, that bright and shining Silver Star that we are.
1999 E.V. POST SCRIPT: hanging around at the local video store, I impishly fell into an intellectual jousting match with a devoted UFO believer. In complete frustration he eventually surrendered, giving into my "fancy words" and "college education" - I pointed out that I lacked the latter. Shocking, isn't it! What upset him most was my final suggestion. I proposed that as our government has experimented on unwitting American soldiers to discover the effects of atomic radiation and equally uninformed citizens to discover the results of LSD trips and nerve toxins, it just may be that after the first UFO reports our ever so curious government wondered what psychological effects this belief in UFOs might have upon us, studying, amongst other things, fear and hysteria, and the power of faith, of belief in the unusual, superior intelligences, et al, and to facilitate this the government itself may be behind as much of the hoaxing as the debunking. It may even be, I suggested, much to my victim's chagrin, that the original study has been forgotten, the members of the group behind it long dead, while the experiment continues to this day, government personal used without their knowledge and those behind the project themselves unsure as to the real purpose and motives behind the orders that they are dutifully carrying out. It's possible! For our government, for any government, it is not all that unusual! But it was not, of course, what my sparring partner wanted to hear. Needless to say, if we end up in the video store at the same time he tries very hard to pretend I am not there, and often simply sees me and leaves. I have that effect upon some people ... but this is more of an unflattering comment upon them rather than me.