[Joanofarc]

ALIENS:

I used to think they were contacting me as I had all sorts of weird experiences.

Anyone else have or had this one?

[spiritual_emergency]

~*~

And that was the turning point,
That was one lonely night!

The storm maker says: It ain't so bad.
The dream maker's gonna make you mad.
The spaceman says: Everybody look down!
It's all in your mind.

My current music of the hour strikes me as similar to reports of others I have read although "aliens" were not part of my experience. I imagine Firebird might have something to add to this thread however, and if I can find it, somewhere around here I have some info related to Jung and the symbology of UFOs/Aliens.

~ Namaste

See also: Social Groups: Psychology in Everything - "BoobMind" <-- We've been having fun with that particular topic.

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[Joanofarc]

Originally Posted by spiritual_emergency

~*~

And that was the turning point,
That was one lonely night!

The storm maker says: It ain't so bad.
The dream maker's gonna make you mad.
The spaceman says: Everybody look down!
It's all in your mind.

My current music of the hour strikes me as similar to reports of others I have read although "aliens" were not part of my experience. I imagine Firebird might have something to add to this thread however, and if I can find it, somewhere around here I have some info related to Jung and the symbology of UFOs/Aliens.

~ Namaste

See also: Social Groups: Psychology in Everything - "BoobMind" <-- We've been having fun with that particular topic.

.

Ooh yes that sounds interesting!

[spiritual_emergency]

Here we go....

Jungian UFOs
Shortly before his death, Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung was one of the first to analyze UFO encounters in a symbolic way. In a 1951 letter to an American friend, he wrote,

“I’m puzzled to death about these phenomena, because I haven’t been able yet to make out with sufficient certainty whether the whole thing is a rumor with concomitant singular and mass hallucination, or a downright fact.”

In 1958, Jung concluded that because of the need for wholeness out of the increasing fragmentation of the modern world, it was more desirable for people to believe that UFOs existed than to believe that they did not. Jung also thought it relevant that the shape of a flying saucer was round, the shape of the ancient Mandala, a spiritual symbol of wholeness.

Additionally, Jung believed that UFOs were examples of synchronicity, where external events mirror internal psychic states. Jung felt that to modern man, UFOs were modern symbols for the ancient Gods who used to come to man’s assistance in time of need.

In other words, if one believed in gods, demons, witches, fairies, or flying saucers, some unknown higher intelligence would adopt these roles. When these belief structures became outdated or forgotten, the entities would simply assume a different believable guise, in an attempt either to pacify humanity, so we would not destroy ourselves before maturing spiritually, or as a method for spreading new information and ideas to assist our spiritual growth.

The key here is that humanity has developed to the point where we may have attained scientific knowledge, but we may still lack the emotional and spiritual development necessary to deal with its consequences properly. What better way to guide an adolescent civilization away from the brink of destruction than to use archetypical religious imagery that resonates at the deepest level of our subconscious?

Author and paranormal researcher John Keel has often stressed that if belief in extraterrestrials, without verifiable evidence, is left unchecked, there may come a time when a faith in these entities will allow them to interfere openly with our affairs. While Keel may be overly alarmed, his idea that there is a developing “faith” in extraterrestrials may be correct. Whether or not this faith is being inspired by extraterrestrials, supernatural beings who mimic extraterrestrials, or our own unconscious minds, the fact remains that we may now be experiencing a new religion unfolding before us.

The next several centuries will show whether this new UFO “religion” will be able to sustain itself. Eventually, its disciples may end up being responsible for the scientific developments that will finally propel mankind off the planet and into the universe.

Imagine the planet as a dandelion blossom. When the time is right, the wind blows the seeds away to find a place of their own to start anew. Perhaps our evolving religious experience—with the assistance of our guiding aliens—represents the wind of the universe seeking to spread spiritually evolved, intelligent life.

Source: From Angels to UFOs

The religious associations strike me as interesting. "Religious" or "Spiritual" content ranging from the most torturous and terrifying to the sublime and transcendent is often seen in psychotic breakdown. This would be as expected if psychosis is what occurs when the barriers of the ego fragment and unconscious content floods forth. I would imagine that "positive" experiences could possibly be mapped against Jung's model of the Self whereas frightening ones might refer to shadow material.

Jung apparently wrote a book about UFOs as well that can be found at amazon: C.G. Jung - Flying Saucers I don't know if it might offer more information as related to alien encounters.

Aside from the song and the above, there's little more I can say about aliens within an experience of psychosis.

~ Namaste

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[FireBird]

I have experiences with aliens all the time. To be honest, I hate it. I know there are good aliens out there, but the ones that are after me are EVIL! And if that isn't bad enough, the Gov is after me as well. The aliens want me and many others from this planet that have special powers (mine is of psychic ability and influence. I predicted many things that have come to pass such as 9/11, the tsunami, the Air France disaster, and many earthquakes) to fight in an intergalactic war against other aliens. I have seen their ships before and had to run inside my house as fast as I could. the Gov is going to start World War 3 soon, billions will die in the end. It will be caused by robots (the gov is turning innocent people into robots, myself included. I have actually been smelling my body rotting away. I had a recent MRI and I felt excruciating pain from the metal inside of my body trying to rip out. Had this for many months as indicated by my past posts) fighting other people. Might start with nuclear explosions in several cities all over the world. How do I know all this? They tell me through thought insertion. It is terrifying at times.

[sleestak]

I am quite interested in the relationship between the psyche and the paranormal. Although I have never had an encounter myself, I am a firm believer that we are not alone, and I am convinced that others have had credible experiences. Interestingly, in his book "The Dreaming Universe", Fred Alan Wolf touches on the subject of schizophrenia as a case where parallel universes possibly overlap. Personally, I have pondered the idea that we are all sired from one or possibly more "alien" lifeforms. That this life is possibly an experiment, and that our minds have attributes of these different lifeforms. Maybe people with schizophrenia are more closely related to a lifeform that is not from a world such as Earth. I think that all matter, everywhere in the universe, is subject to the process of evolution and it is possible that people with schizophrenia have traits of an alien psyche that has not had enough time to adapt to this world.

[iluzhyn]

If, say, we live in a multi-dimensional universe and we, who can really only perceive in our dimensions, were to encounter something 'outside' of our normal perception it would seem alien, magical, paranormal.
Maybe some of us are just more prone (for whatever reason) to seeing beyond our reality but, since we have nothing to compare it with, our minds put together stories, myths, etc to try to make sense of what we are experiencing.
Personally, I've had many experiences; ghosts, demons, angels, aliens, etc. But, I take it as a given that what I may be seeing may be completely different than what I believe I am experiencing.
Maybe evolution is really about opening up our perception to higher and higher realities; maybe heaven is being able to experience it all, the whole universe, at once, instead of in bits and pieces

[spiritual_emergency]

This discussion could go in any number of fascinating directions -- parallel universes, the space-time continuum, are there really such things as flying saucers and alien creatures who steer them? I wouldn't want to detract from the discussion going whichever way it wants but I will toss in my Jungian based angle. In this case, drawing on the words of Jungian, John Weir Perry who spent 40 years working with individuals undergoing a schizophrenic crisis. (Music by Red Hot Chili Peppers)

~*~

Deep inside of a parallel
universe
It's getting harder and harder to tell
what came first

Under water where thoughts can breathe
easily
Far away you were made in a sea
just like me

Christ, I'm a sidewinder
I'm a California King!
I swear it's Everywhere
It's Everything

Staring straight up into the sky
Oh, my, my
A solar system that fits
in your eye ~ microcosm

You could die but you're never dead
spider web
Take a look at the stars in your head
fields of space kid

Christ, I'm a sidewinder
I'm a California King!
I swear it's Everywhere
It's Everything

Psychic changes are born
in your heart, entertain
A nervous breakthrough that makes us
the same -- bless your heart, girl

Kill the pressure it's raining
on, salty cheeks
When you hear The Beloved Song
I Am With You

Christ, I'm a sidewinder
I'm a California King!
I swear it's Everywhere
It's Everything

Parallel Universe

~*~

A New Look at Visionary States

I have made it my special task during the past three decades and more to watch these deepest operations of the psyche when they are intensely activated, that is, in the visionary states that so often find a psychotic form. In these disruptive turmoils one finds frequently a myth-forming activity that gives rise to vivid imagery with regularly recurring features. In light of my training I had expected that in a person's deep regression to early experience the personal problems of parent and sibling relationships would predominate and fill the field with the turbulent emotions surrounding early hurts. But surprisingly, the play of themes in the chaotic images and emotions most often concerned itself with the pressing questions of cultural idealogies.

The most urgent collective issues of society in any decade were felt fully as deeply as those that sprang from an individual's life story: in the 1950's, the clash of democracies and communism; and in the 1970's, the conflicts between those who are polluting the planet and those who work for ecological concerns. The fear of destruction of the planet at the hands of wrongly motivated agencies prevailed, usually with the terror of a nuclear blast woven throughout these misgivings.

These individuals impressed me as being souls so sensitive to the climate of the times they were overwhelmed by the magnitude of the collective plight. As a result, colorful messianic ideation would arise. Such imagery is easy for a therapist to dismiss because of its grandiosity and its transparent compensation for feelings of inadequacy; yet if taken seriously, it can be found to be highly significant in revealing an awareness of the cultural predicament and in envisioning programs of reform.

Listening to the visionary experiences in which these persons were engrossed at the expense of their relation to the everyday mundane reality, raised for me a host of puzzling questions. They were obviously undergoing a process of reorganization during which an old form of the self was being outgrown and supplanted by a renewed form. But the means of accomplishing this were surprising. Themes of death and rebirth ran parallel with those of world destruction and world regeneration; time was set back to the beginnings of one's own life in parallel with those of the creation; clashes of political and moral forces were portrayed on a cosmic scale, and opposites of all sorts were brought into collision, reversal into each other, and finally into union; expressions of worldwide mission of leadership and reform reached exalted dimensions.

Source: The Heart of History: Individuality in Evolution - John Weir Perry

In my own experience, the inner (personal) experience and the outer (cultural) experience reflect each other as a microcosm within a macrocosm; As Above, So Below.

iluzhyn: Maybe evolution is really about opening up our perception to higher and higher realities; maybe heaven is being able to experience it all, the whole universe, at once, instead of in bits and pieces

Maybe. And maybe that's part of the difficulty in attempting to pour the immensity of that kind of experience into someone else's hands who hasn't been there.

~ Namaste



See also:

• Dark Night, Early Dawn: Steps to a Deep Ecology of Mind - Christopher M. Bache
• The Relevance of Visionary Experience to Culture - Anne Baring

~*~

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[iluzhyn]

SE, all of this is really interesting and helpful and I'm sure can apply in a great deal of cases. But, getting to 'aliens' in particular, I think that sometimes one might just have to take it at face value. My own experiences with them started in 1959...I was 5. I wasn't spiritual, didn't want to change the world, hadn't suffered any psychic trauma, etc.
I was just a little kid. These beings would appear at different times in different places...sometimes just talk, sometimes take me 'someplace else'. I can see no psychology in all of this, it was just a fact, a reality.
In my later life I would see & experience many other things which probably could fit in with the Jungian perspective as many accounts of aliens probably could. But, sometimes I think we just have to admit where something is objective reality. It doesn't mean anything else, doesn't point to anything else...it just is.

[spiritual_emergency]

And that's where my own experience falls short because to the best of my knowledge, I've never had an "alien experience" in any state of consciousness -- at best, I can only speculate on that particular aspect.
But I've certainly encountered others who have had such experiences and they report them as being entirely real and valid. The natural inclination is to discount as much as pure hallucination but if we're being truthful I think we have to admit we don't know. It's a big universe, a big consciousness and a big mind.

~ Namaste

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[spiritual_emergency]

From a review of Christopher Bache's book...

~*~

... Slowly, gently, night unfurls its splendor
Grasp it, sense it, tremulous and tender
Turn your face away from the garish light of day
Turn your thoughts away from cold, unfeeling light
And listen to the music of the night...

- Andrew Lloyd Webber -

~*~

Millions of sane, intelligent people living today seem to live in a world that modern, scientific cosmology tells us just doesn't exist. Either they are deluded, or what they have to say about the world calls into question the dominant cosmological myth.

Judging by a deluge of media reports and a growing body of respectable scientific literature, a great many people are having experiences that don't fit into our civilization's dominant cosmological map. You may be one of them: someone who has experienced, for example, powerful, even predictive, dreams; remarkable synchronicities; undeniable psychic events; or convincing mystical experiences.

But, according [to] our culture's cosmology, none of these experiences is supposed to be possible.

In this book, transpersonal psychologist Chris Bache opens up a different way of approaching this conundrum - by exploring the spectrum of our consciousness and what it implies for a much wider and comprehensive cosmology. The personal and social consequences of such an expanded worldview are profound.

Cosmology orients us in the universe. It tells us where we came from, where we are, and where we are going. Implicitly or explicitly, it defines what is possible for us as human beings, and thus it channels, or limits, our highest ambitions.

Modern Western culture lives entirely within the confines of what Bache identifies as "daytime" consciousness - that is, it takes into account only what we can perceive through our outer, physical, senses, and of those perceptions it takes seriously only those we can measure. These data are then organized according to the rules of logic and reason (mostly mathematical). "Nighttime" consciousness - what we can learn about the world through, for example, dreams, intuition, psychic or mystical experiences, and other nonordinary states - plays no part in designing modern cosmology.

As a result, we are moving into a kind of cultural dislocation, in which the official cosmology fails to map many of the experiences that matter most to us.

Combining philosophical reflections with deep self-exploration to delve into the ancient mystery of death and rebirth, Bache emphasizes collective rather than individual transformation. Drawing on 20 years of experience working with nonordinary states, he argues that when the deep psyche is hyper-stimulated using powerful psychedelic techniques, the healing that results sometimes extends beyond the individual to the collective unconscious of humanity itself.

Bache presents one of the most persuasive accounts - based on many years of personal spiritual exploration and incisive scholarly work - of why our culture needs to take seriously the spectrum of nonordinary states of consciousness experienced by so many people.

If you want a powerful, at times dramatic, account of the sheer majesty and mystery of our multidimensional cosmos and how the psyche fits in, this book is a must-read. If you want a transformative approach to learning and education about who we are and our place in the cosmos this book will inspire you.

Source: Dark Night, Early Dawn

See also:

• Night Enfolds Her Cloak of Holes
• The Experience of Schizophrenia

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