Teilhard de Chardin’s Metaphysics and UFOs

Copyright 2012, InterAmerica, Inc.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, as cognoscenti know, was a scientific theologian whose views are intricately metaphysical.

And in them lie a possible explanation for the UFO phenomenon, as we’ve noted much earlier here and at our RRRGroup blog.

The complexity of Teilhard’s thought is vast and presenting a succinct or concise account of it here would be sacrilegious, not to mention daunting.

Teilhard, a Jesuit priest, imbued his “philosophy” with a heavy, intrinsic infusion of the divinity of Jesus/Christ.

One has to set that aside and concentrate on the macro-quantum aspects of Teihard’s conceived reality.

Teihard proposed that the Universe we live in is actually The Mystical Body of Christ; that is, the Universe is the “biological” body of Christ.

Frank Stalter, at his Facebook venue, recently provided a link from Space.com which predicated the idea that the Universe operates like a brain:

http://www.space.com/18630-universe-grows-like-brain.html

That idea is a shallow concept when placed alongside Teilhard’s extensive musings, in such books as The Divine Milieu, The Phenomenon of Man, and popularized in “Let Me Explain.”

Teilhard states that Jesus/Christ is not only the Omega Point of the Universe, to which we strive (or should) to arrive, but is the all-encompassing Universe itself.

The “elemental particles” of this Jesus/Christ Universe are intrinsic to the living being that is Jesus/Christ.

When, for example, an evil outbreak of humanity occurs (a Genghis Khan or an Adolf Hitler or even a lone murderer), this body of Jesus/Christ is afflicted, as if a virus or cancer has attacked it.

The “soul” of the divine being that is the Universe suffers the same pain, except immeasurably so, as a solitary human being suffers.

We, the Earth, and our Solar System are comparatively quantum in nature but still inflict various vicissitudes, some good and some bad, on the divine body – the Jesus/Christ Universe.

Let me propose that UFOs may be considered intrusions like white corpuscles, which attack or support the health of the divine body, or that portion of it that we make up.

In the transcendental arena of Teilhard’s Universe the living creatures, the atoms or sub-atomic particles (humans) may be likened to skin cells or antibodies of a kind.

UFO may be likened to viral onslaughts that have been benign, so far, but presage a possible infection. The nature of which has yet to be determined or discerned.

In the Perennial Library paperback [Harper & Row, NY, 1957, Page 112 ff.] The Divine Milieu Teihard’s Part Three, entitled as the book itself…..

…is a dense compendium of mystical musings intermingled with hard science and theological underpinnings.

God (in the nature of Jesus/Christ) is everywhere and a concrete reality, composed of dense matter [Page 115].

In Section Two: The Nature of the Divine Milieu The Universal Christ and The Great Communion, Teilhard asks [Page 122 ff.] “Under what form…does the divine immensity manifest itself to, and become relevant to mankind?”

“Under what form, and with what end in view, has the Creator given us…the gift of participated being?

“The action by which god maintains us in the field of his presence is a unitive transformation.”

We are assimilated “into the omnipresence of christification” [Page 123]

On Page 125 is this “At every moment the eucharistic Christ controls….the whole movement of  the universe.”

“Across the immensity of time and the disconcerting multiplicity of individuals, one single operation is taking place: the annexation to Christ of his chosen; one single thing is being made: the mystical body of Christ…Hoc est corpus meum.” [Page 143]

Christ-Omega is defined in Let Me Explain [Harper & Row, NY, 1966]: Page 98 ff.

In The Phenomenon of Man [Harper Torchbooks, Harper & Row, NY] Page 81, Chapter One, Section A, Micro-organisms and Mega-molecules Teilhard’s discussion(s) of cellular life leads to the advent of man and his ultimate morphology.

The Psychogenesis of mankind is intrinsic to a validation, philosophically, of our existence as part of the mystical (the physical) body of Christ, as elaborated upon in The Divine Milieu.

I can’t do justice to Teilhard’s thought, so I suggest those of you with a metaphysical bent immerse yourself in his writings.

That we, UFOs included, are part of a cohesive existence that is tangible and real while transcendental in ways that boggle the mind could be helpful in determining what UFOs are, even if they, in the context, are only viral in nature.

RR

Jose Caravaca's Distortion Theory [Redux]

        From Wikipedia/Distortion

Our Spanish colleague and friend, UFO researcher Jose Antonio Caravaca, is bemused by my constant insistence that many UFO sightings and/or encounters are hallucinatory.

He provided an explanation and "corrective" for my views the other day.

I've reworked his e-mail to me -- English isn't his primary language (although he's more competent with my language than I am with his) -- so if there ends up being some confusion, the blame lies with me, not Jose.

Here's what he sent me (my comments will follow):

The Distortion theory argues that an unknown external agent uses the witness's psyche as the main source of documentation and reference in the "manufacture" of the contents and elements that come together in close encounters with UFOs, by forming a complex "holographic" type projection.

However the external agent adds some of its "own" components creating a plot that can be tracked and detected in hundreds of different incidents.

It is  extremely interesting that, regardless of the external form of the "flying saucers"and almost infinite types of humanoids, they are delivered in repeated gestures and actions over and over again, as if all the extraterrestrial civilizations have conspired to display the same behavioral patterns.

On many occasions the crews of UFOs are described with "objects" (sticks, guns, balls, etc.) in their hands shooting light rays at the unsuspecting witnesses, or the crews have their "spaceship" emit beams of light that immobilize or inconvenience observers.

In this characteristic feature, we must add that basic recognizable archetypes are used by the external agent as the basis of design and development experience, which adds to the individual elements of each witness  to form the close encounter .

These resources are psychological mechanisms that supplement the assimilation and interpretation of the experience, in a context, however, that is seemingly bizarre and puzzling to the observer.

Hence, on countless occasions, the alleged alien(s) present, in a surrounding terrain, a scenario of repairing their spacecraft, asking for help about where they are, or asking for water, along with other issues that are absurd, mundane, and ordinary.

Almost all the above elements, including the indiscriminate use of the light beams, we find embedded in many UFO encounters, but the external agent adds unconscious components to incidents that are pertinent to each witness, which ensures that each experience is seemingly unique.

But in the end, such experiences are only the result of a mise en scene of  same repetitive patterns ( craft breakdown, exploration, reconnaissance, light rays, etc.) adapted to the personal and confidential knowledge of witnesses and formulated so that the theory of distortion might be called "oneiric creativity."

The most sensible explanation is that the observations that ufologists have been labeling as close encounters with alien beings mask a type of unknown "psychological phenomenon" orchestrated by a external agent that uses the information in the psyche of the witnesses to "build" the experiences.

The method of expression used by this unidentified external agent, is the distortion of our individual unconscious content, that unfolds before the viewer's eyes with an approach similar to the experience of dreaming, but controlling and delimiting these experiences so they follow the schemes of "extraterrestrial visitation, "which is the objective sought to be instilled.

This will prevent the human psyche from "adding" or "contributing" too much material of especially inconsistent evidence, so that the human mind is errantly thought to be the originator of such experiences.

If the external agent does not exercise this authority or control over the mental creation  in the gestation of close encounters, the witness would "see" members of his own family, friends, or even their favorite actor.

In summary, the distortion theory  suggests that close encounters with UFOs and their crews, are the result of a "shared mental creation" between a external agent and the unconscious mind of witnesses.

Therefore, the meaning, purpose or impact of these experiences is to be found in the field of psychology.

Despite all this, we are not dealing, however, with a purely psychological phenomenon that is limited to the mental universe.

By contrast,  the Distortion Theory states that the external agent is able to create "ephemeral material" to give some corporeality to sightings and reinforce the belief that these phenomena are "real" and "physical".

JAC
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I think Jose's "theory" has merit, but I keep asking him to define his "external agent."

When I asked if it was God, Satan, or Alien Beings, he replied it was an unknown element.

I told him that he had to bite the bullet and provide a definition or explanation of who or what the "external agent" is.

Jacques Vallee, Mac Tonnies, and others have posited a "force" or entities that are responsible for UFO encounters and other paranormal visions.

Oliver Sacks has provided information in his most recent book, Hallucinations, that forces me to consider many UFO sightings as hallucinatory in nature, including some of the iconic encounters: Arnold's, the Hills', Travis Walton's episode, the Pascagoula event, and many others.

Jose, while accepting a psychological patina for his Distortion Theory, insists that the psychology is not inherently neurological (from within the witnesses) but induced by his external agent as a mechanism useful for the external agent's purposes.

But what is that purpose I ask?

Jose and I are open to suggestions from our visitors here. And we engage in our oppositional discussion with bonhomie and good will.

RR

A Religious Commitment to UFOs: Faith replaces Science

A comment from hallowed UFO researcher The Professor (Michael Swords) to my previous post about the death of ufology and its adherents, examples, for some of us, how UFOs have become a religious-like tenet, with dogma that is faith-based rather than objective.

Bruce Duensing, like us (me particularly) understands that the UFO phenomenon, while worthy of scrutiny, has to be understood in a gestaltian way; that is, UFOs are an interesting topic for myriad hypotheses, yet can only be understood within an intellectual collective, unified totality

But UFOs have become a miasma set upon by charlatans and “believers” rather than cool, objective researchers.

The Professor, like the rest of us in our waning years, hopes to get a handle on the phenomenon, having spent a lot of time and effort, in our short existences, to quell the enigma.

Jerry Clark, Stan Friedman, and a raft of other old persons who contribute and have contributed to the UFO panoply, wish to get a denouement before they pass on from this earthly dominion.

Phil Klass said that the UFO mystery shall outlast us all. And it will apparently.

The Professor is touting a backward look, by one of his young sycophants, about the 1966 Ann Arbor swamp gas fiasco.

Having covered that event for the Detroit NEWS, and a recent follow-up with Ronald Mannor, who saw the “flying saucer” with his father, Frank, I can say that the apparition was real to them, and not an hallucination nor swamp gas. (They knew what swamp gas looked like.)

But, as Mr. Duensing, intuits, what do we have by reconsidering the event?

As noted in my comment back to Michael Swords, we can excoriate J. Allen Hynek for his off-handed “swamp gas” explanation – he was lacerated by the press at the time – but that’s about all that can be said.

What the 1966 sightings in Hillsdale and Ann Arbor/Dexter were of cannot be answered, now, as they could not be answered then.

What is the UFO dogma?

That UFOs are real, and other-worldly.

That may be true, but like the belief in Jesus Christ, the evidence is faith-based.

The great theologians Edward Schillebeeckx and Hans Kung have proffered theologic proofs for the Jesus/Christ reality. But even their erudition ends up being cemented in faith not objective reality.

That UFOs and its advocates try similar argumentation, but to no avail for those who stand back and review the UFO materials and witness accounts with an unbiased eye.

Yes, I believe that UFOs, like Jesus/Christ, have a reality. What that reality is remains elusive and unexplained, in one case after over 2000 years.

So trying to get a handle on the UFO riddle has settled into a religious orthodoxy rather than a Newtonian-like inquiry.

Not to understand that will continue the ufological folly.

RR

Jose Antonio Caravaca reminds us that some past UFO stories are close encounters, something that is rare today.

Click HERE to read a 1970 sighting that smacks, to us, of an hallucination, except for tangible impressions in the ground at the alleged landing site.

Is this account a typical Distortion event -- Senor Caravaca's theory of UFO sightings? Or is it a neuro-psychotic episode? (But what about those depressions in the soil?)

RR

Ufology is dying and ufologists with it

A few of our regular visitors have noted that the UFO phenomenon no longer grabs their interest.

They, as one regular put it, are indifferent to UFOs and related matters.

The death of “prominent” UFO mavens this year -- with more to come by years end -- will decimate the moribund UFO topic.

UFO Updates is in trouble.

The Paracast’s Gene Steinberg was evicted from his home, but continues to operate out of a hotel, he told us the last time he filled us in during another plea for help/money from the UFO crowd. Paracast is tainted.

The aging UFO researchers are either ill or near-death, many divorced and struggling to maintain a UFO identity, but without cachet any longer or credibility.

Younger UFO enthusiasts have moved on, to other activities, and a more wholesome life.

And the really young UFO hobbyists just don’t exist. UFOs are an icky item for them.

While UFOs continue to be seen – or so we’re told – they no longer thrill nor have relevance for those with good minds and common sense.

We’ll continue to rattle on here for a while, but even we – and this oldster – will have to forsake UFOs for things pertinent to life as it is in 2013 and beyond, as we’re doing with our web-sites and blogs outside the UFO arena.

RR