UFOs, Aliens & Spirits

DO YOU BELIEVE IN INTELLIGENT LIFE OUTSIDE EARTH?

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Do you believe life exists outside our planet? I'm not talking about primitive lifeforms such as bacteria or algae, which would be amazingly interesting to discover, but sentient, intelligent life. This question is one that is pretty much up in the air. At various stages in my life I've gone from yes, to no, to yes, to no, and now to I don't know but seems very likely.

I've been looking more closely at some of the evidence that exists pointing to the existence of intelligent life that's not of earthly origin. I must say I'm surprised by the sheer volume of material that exists that most people either have never seen or just discount as "wacko stuff".

I just finished listening to the book "The Presidents and UFOs: A Secret History from FDR to Obama" by Larry Holcombe. The book catalogues some of the most credible accounts of UFO sightings and encounters mainly in the United States, but also around the world. I must say I am quite surprised by the level of credibility some of the witnesses have, and the hush-hush reflex action of the powers that be.

As someone who grew up around very spiritual people, and in a culture that openly embraces the supernatural and paranormal, I grew up believing that "we are not alone." As a ten year old, if I had woken one day and seen an alien standing in our living room, it wouldn't have surprised me one bit. I'd have been scared shitless, but I wouldn't have experienced the cognitive dissonance that some other people that didn't grow up in the same culture would experience. I may have classed such an entity as a "demon" or "jinn".

In hindsight, actually, I have seen some very odd things in the past. I'm talking about strange apparitions that were as real as the cup of tea in front of me right now. Having studied a lot about the human brain as an adult, however, I do understand how hallucinations work and how, from the brains point of view, they can be indistinguishable from reality. I also understand the psychologically, it is easier to experience a paranormal episode if you are already from a culture that accepts its existence. Belief is a powerful factor in these things.

I've been pondering the possible origins of paranormal apparitions, assuming we accept they really do occur. Depending on who's point of view, they are classed into the following as far as I can see.

• Hallucinogenic
• Spiritual Realm
• Distant Space
• Different Time
• Parallel Universe
• Higher Dimensions
• Earthlings
  
  

Hallucinogenic

As mentioned above, a hallucination can be indistinguishable from reality especially if the person strongly believes what they are seeing is real. This may be because they are from a culture (or religion) that already accepts the existence of the supernatural and paranormal.

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Hallucinations can also be enhanced by brain altering agents such as drugs, alcohol or music. Music? Yes, music. One of the most powerful things in existence that can alter or brain is music. Anyone who's been part of a religious organisation, or been to a very large concert, knows what I mean. Music, like hallucinogenic drugs, can alter our consciousness to a place where anything is possible, including the perception of things that are not there or don't exist.

Hallucinogenic drugs, like music, have been available to the human race through the ages. They are written about in many ancient books from Egypt to China. The effects of opium was very well known in ancient India, a civilisation in which a lot of paranormal apparitions happened, and magical and mystical happenings were commonplace. It's the same in most African folklores which are awash with tales of people having the ability to appear and disappear, walk through solid objects, fly, talk to animals and teleport over vast distances.

What this category is saying is that extra-terrestrial life do not or may not exist, but the so called sightings are not real, but people actually do experience apparitions in the form of hallucinations. Their brains tell them there is something there, and they believe it.

Spiritual Realm

Most religions of the world believe in a spiritual or supernatural realm. It is an existence that is separate from, but accessible to, our own reality. Depending on the religion, entities from this realm can enter ours much more easily than we can enter theirs. In fact, most spiritual entities can enter our realm at will. There are certain people, again depending on the particular religion, that have the power to enter, or at least engage or perceive, the spiritual realm at will. These humans include gurus, shamans, priests, diviners, prophets, seers, necromancers, and so on.

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Many religions believe that the spiritual realm is infinite in time in both directions, or are at least not bound to the rules regarding time and space. There is often a supreme being who resides at the apex of all power.

This is probably the oldest category to which most paranormal apparitions have been attributed over the history of mankind. It is closely linked to the above aforementioned category involving hallucinations. A UFO or humanoid apparition to a Catholic would be most likely rationalised as either an angel, demon, or divine / ascended entity such as Mary or one of the many saints. There are various accounts of flying "chariots of fire" in the Bible for instance.

Islam, being an "Abrahamic" religion is similar to Christianity in the accounts of ascensions and heavenly goings on. There is also the concept of "Jinn" in Islam, and "middle-eastern" culture. Jinn are entities that straddle the spiritual and natural realities. They can effect things in our realm, but are often unable to communicate with us directly or at will. There are different hierarchies of power, meaning some Jinn are more powerful than others. Likewise, we are unable to perceive or interact with them under normal circumstances, however certain persons, such as powerful imams, diviners, astrologers and spiritualists, can.

Various African traditional religions describe entities, similar to Jinn, that straddle both spiritual and natural realities. There are also the ascended, or "ancestors", who remain sentient in the spiritual realm ( or the afterlife), and are able to effect events in our present physical realm. They are also capable of appearing to people under certain circumstances. Powerful spiritualists are also supposedly able to interact at will the spiritual realm at will, usually with the aid of ceremonies that often involve music and hallucinogenic substances.

Again, like with hallucinogenic origin of apparitions, belief plays a critical role in the ability to experience an apparition from the spiritual realm. It is the most attributed source of "strange" and paranormal activity in the history of humanity.

Distant Space

This is the most popular category in modern times because it's the easiest to reconcile with your reality. It is the one that requires the least cognitive dissonance in order to accept. The two groups of people that would reject this category are absolute skeptics that don't believe there's any "life" outside our planet, and some religions people that believe that it would go against the teachings of, and there for invalidate their, religion.

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The apparitions are of entities that have traveled from locations in space. These locations are hidden from us, either by obscurity or prohibitively long distances. It suggests that these entities have the ability to travel to us, but we are not able to travel to them, which puts them ahead of us in terms of civilisation and evolution. Simply put, "they are way more advanced than we are".

From various accounts of UFOs, they are able to achieve directional motion and speeds that are beyond anything we can do here on earth. Some people have also reported abductions during which experiments have been performed. Whether you believe that or not, it does suggest they are interested in us and are studying us. Many sightings have also been at various nuclear facilities, power stations and military weapons sights, so they are apparently interested in that technology.

The Universe is so vast, and the concept that we are the only ones here that are sentient beings is kind of arrogant I think. I am inclined to believe that there are others out there in what is close to being an infinite universe.

The vast distances involved means that these civilisations have either achieved faster-than-light speeds or have found a way around it, such as using worm holes or folding space on itself to shorten distances. Both require unimaginable amounts of energy to achieve. "Unimaginable" to us anyway. Such a civilisation would have also come up with the ability to harness the near-infinite energy of the universe itself.

One common observation with UFOs is how quiet the crafts are. This suggests that they don't use the same propulsion technologies we use on earth; wind and jet propellers for instance. Motion is achieved by other laws of physics that we may be yet to decipher. Perhaps light, or the speed of light rather, isn't the "limit" we believe it to be. The ETs have either invalidated E = mc^2, or found a way to harness infinite E.

Different Time

This category straddles the both "science" and "woowoo". Mathematically speaking, it is possible to travel through time. We do it all the time by doing nothing at all, in one direction. The problem is going in the reverse direction. Like in the above category, it will involve violating some of our fundamental laws of physics, including breaching the speed of light. As such, it also requires unimaginable amounts of energy which we, at present, have no way of harnessing.

The space-time continuum describes both space and time effectively as the "same thing". Also, energy and matter are one and the same in this view. So the point where energy becomes mass, or mass becomes energy, or space becomes time, or vice versa, is a matter of experience.

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Time is relative. It's hard to wrap one's head around this, but it's true. It has actually been scientifically and empirically demonstrated. The reason why we don't notice the relativity of time as much on earth is because we neither travel fast enough, nor for long enough, for it to make a difference. Satellites in orbit do, and they do experience time at a slower rate than we slow moving entities on earth. This difference in time has to be accounted for by constantly correcting the clocks on these satellites! Crazy eh? It really is.

Realising that time itself isn't constant opens up the possibility of actively experiencing it at will - time travel. In this category, UFOs would be entities that have traveled backwards in time from a time in the future. They would not necessarily have to be extra-terrestrials, but the could be. They could simply be us from a future time. Mind you, we will probably colonise other planets, Mars for instance, before achieving time travel. The amount of energy required to terraform Mars is many orders of magnitude less than what is required to move through time in the reverse direction. They could be ETs of earthly origins.

If you're wondering why this would have to be visitors from the future and not the past, consider that first we are all visitors from the past!. We are all time travellers. Also, we would already know and recognise these "flying objects", which won't dazzle anyone since they will obey the normal laws of flight that we already know.

Parallel Universe

I'm not going to lie, this is by far my favourite category and one that I'm most interested in. I will attempt to keep this section brief because there's a danger of going on and on about PU, since I love the concept so much. It's one wing of the "Multiverse" theory of reality, the other being "String theory".

The specific description of the differences is beyond the scope of this writeup, but suffice to say that PU describes the existence of multiple universe all existing on the same space-time continuum. As such, there is a connection between these universes on a quantum level.

These universes are all similar, if not nearly identical, in structure and obey the same laws of physics. However, due to chaos theory, there may be vast differences in outcomes based on even the slightest differences in decisions and actions of the inhabitants. As such, there are universes in which civilisations have emerged that have developed technologies so advanced that they are able to, for lack of a better word, breach the divide and enter other universes. They may even be able to build bridges between their universe and others in order to be able to return "home". Likewise, there are universes where homo sapiens are still in the stone age.

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There is a sub-category of this one that I decided not to put it its own section. This is because this is my own brainchild from the many years of thinking about this stuff. I call it the "Experiential Alternate Reality". It's a mish-mash of Chaos Theory, Quantum Physics and Spirituality.

Chaos Theory tells us that every tiny action has the potential of resulting in massive outcomes. The popular saying, involving a butterfly flapping its wings in one country resulting in a tornado in another country, is one many of us have heard about. Quantum Physics tells us that observation has a direct effect on existence. If you know where an electron or photon is, then you don't know how fast it's going. If you know how fast it's going, then you don't know where it is. If you focus attention on sub-atomic particles that form the fabric of our reality; energy and matter, then you change their behaviour. Spirituality tells us that "you create your own reality". We have the power of will and decision to influence reality itself.

In this theory, each decision we make creates a new universe where the effects of that decision is a reality. The universe in which that decision was never made also carries on existing. As such, we are all creating universes with every decision we make. Simply put, absolutely everything that can happen, happens. The universe life that one experiences is based on decisions made and where one focuses. This elegantly solves the issues of "free will", and reconciles it with the concept of an "omniscient" deity. Normally free will and omniscience are incompatible since it presupposes destiny or fate.

Therefore, there are realities where people are experiencing UFOs all the time, and there are others where people have never seen anything. These are all happening to the same people all at the same time in every possible permutation of reality.

Higher Dimensions

This category requires a bit of imagination to grasp but, once understood, it very elegantly explains how objects and entities can appear and disappear, teleport, move at incredible speeds and execute angular changes in direction that apparently contravene the laws of physics.

We live in a three dimensional world. 3D is graphically described as having three physical axes; X, Y and Z. There is actually nothing in our world that truly exists in 1D or 2D. Even a line on a piece of paper is in 3D, which is clearly shown under a microscope. The first and second dimensions are purely mathematical concepts.

For entities to behave in the way UFOs have been described by some observers, the entity would have to exist on a higher dimension than hours i.e., a 4D or higher being. They would then be able to interact with this 3D world of hours the way they do since they're not bound, limited or defined by it. To understand the analogy, it may help to consider how we, being 3D, may interact with lower dimensions and how a being existing only in that lower dimension may perceive the interaction.

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1D -> 0D
Physically speaking, the zeroth dimension is a void - nothingness. Mathematically speaking it is a dot. The first dimension, by itself, also doesn't exist - at least in our world. Mathematically, it's a straight line. All entities existing solely in 1D would have to be shaped as a line. Now imagine a line (1D) interacting with a dot (0D). The entity in 0D will perceive it's 1D visitor as dot, which will suddenly appear out of nowhere, and vanish in the same fashion once the line has fully passed through the dot.

2D -> 1D
Like 0D and 1D, 2D doesn't actually exist in reality either, but is a mathematical concept. An example of a 2D object is a lamina. For analogy purposes only, let's assume a piece of paper is a lamina and exists only in 2D. If the paper interacts with a straight line, then the 1D entity on the line will perceive the paper as a straight line also seemingly popping into existence out of nowhere, and vanishing into nothingness once the interaction is complete.

To push the analogy further, imagine the paper has a cutout in the middle such that the paper resembles a donut. Passing through a straight line, the 2D entity (which is also perceived as a line in 1D) will suddenly appear to split into two separate lines, then merge again before the entity disappears. A 1D entity cannot do this in a 1D world, but a 2D entity can.

Imagine a circle passing through a line. What will be seen is a line that grows from zero length to a maximum of the circle's diameter, before reducing in length back to zero (vanishing).

3D -> 2D
This is probably easier to visualise than the above two analogies because the 3D world is where we live. To cut this one short, imagine a sphere (3D) passing through a 2D world (a lamina). What will be seen is a circle appearing out of nowhere, growing to the diameter of the sphere, and then back down to zero at which point it vanishes. Consider a 3D entity such as a person interacting with a lamina. What will be seen by the 2D observer is an irregular shape popping out of nowhere, much like the circle.

Furthermore, imagine the person passes two hands through the lamina at different locations. Two irregular shapes will be seen at different locations of the lamina. A 2D observer would experience those as two separate entities, even though in 3D they are one and the same. A person could simulate teleportation, moving thorough barriers, unfathomable speed and sharp angular changes in direction in 2D with little effort, all of which will be "godlike" to the 2D observers who are bound and limited by their world.

4D -> 3D
Now imagine an entity that exists in the fourth dimension. I'm not talking about "time", but a fourth physical dimension. I know, you can't, because we are bound and limited by our 3D world. I can't imagine such an entity either, but based on the above analogies, I can imagine how it would be perceived were it to interact with our 3D world.

If such an object is symmetrical across all four axes in 4D, much like a sphere is symmetrical across all 3 axes in 3D, and a circle in 2D and so on, then when the entity passes through our 3D world, we will perceive it as a sphere popping into existence out of thin air. It will grow, like an inflating balloon, to the maximum diameter of the entity, and then deflate until it pops out of existence.

If the entity is more irregularly shaped in 4D, like we are 3D, then it would be capable of everything we can do, and more, in 2D, in 3D. That is to say, the same entity would be able to appear at any coordinate at will, appear in more than one place at a time perceived as multiple distinct entities, teleport across vast distances, move at astonishing speeds, move through solid objects, and so on. The entity would be a god in our world since they would not be bound or limited by our 3D world. They'd be able to apparently breach our laws of physics, including outrun the speed of light.

Earthlings

The final possibility that I'd like to consider is that none of this is from outside the earth. That is to say, whether it be UFOs, humanoid entities that appear not to be homo sapiens, paranormal phenomena, displays of advanced technologies, and so on, those things are are all earthly in origin.

There could be one, or a combination, of groups of parties responsible for these events. The governments of the world are known to have top secret activities that their civilian citizens are not privy to. Heck, there are organisations within governments that are so secretive and clandestine that even the head of the government - a president, prime minister or monarch, is kept in the dark. It is very possible that these organisations are already in possession of technologies way advanced beyond what we can even imagine.

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Consider that a country like Germany, which is probably the most technologically advanced country in the world, does not have nuclear weapons. Could they be in possession of something much more powerful? Could there be, for imagination sake, a defensive weapon that could neutralise a nuclear blast using, say, a black hole? What really happened at CERN? Did they discover something they didn't disclose? I remember everyone worrying that they could create a black hole that could "collapse the universe", and then everyone suddenly stopped worrying or talking about it. Even the Vatican had been very concerned at the time, with all the "God particle" talk. Now, absolutely nothing. There's more to that that meets the eye for sure.

There are also numerous theories about other humanoid species that share our planet that are more intellectually "evolved" than we are. Some say they live in the crust of the earth, while some say they are in the less travelled parts of the globe; Antartica, Siberia, The African Sahara Desert, deep in our great oceans. Some even say they're right here living amongst us, but appear in a form familiar to us. Some talk of a "bloodline" of a race of humanoid reptilians that occupy the elite of society. Some of them are even supposedly immortal. These beings are supposedly the ones, in this worldview, that occasionally either slip up and reveal themselves unwittingly, or deliberately do so to see what our reactions would be. They are supposedly preparing us for a time in the future when they will make their full appearance.

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Conclusion

At this point, I am still agnostic to the concept of the existence of life outside our planet. Considering the above laid out possibilities, I am tending towards the affirmative. It just seems a little unlikely that we are all alone on this rock floating pointlessly around a much larger glowing rock in an otherwise beautifully orchestrated universe.

Also, since I've been actively looking into the existing "evidence", a lot of it is actually much more credible than I had previously assumed. I expected to find a crazy bunch of woowoo people, or people most likely to be under the influence of mind altering substances. However, what I found was military generals, world-class airforce pilots, scientists, mass civilian sightings, government level panic, and what looks like a constant effort to cover up or silence any credible scientist that asks questions.

I believe one day, the truth of what the powers that be know will come out. If these entities do exist, and they have been hiding from us, it's only a matter of time before an alien whistleblower will walk out into the open and spill the beans. I can only hope it will happen in my lifetime. I want to believe.

If you've actually read the whole thing, which I would not have been able to had I not written it, then I'd like to thank you for giving me a bit of your time to ponder along with me. I'd also love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Live long and prosper 🖖,

Adé