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3 Dec 2003 @ 11:54, by craiglang. Thoughts
I just got finished reading Whitley's new journal entry: "Shedding Light on the Dark Side". In a way it's un-nerving. It portrays a very non-positive side the the close encounter phenomenon. Although it is still not at all clear what the agenda is, or even what close encounters are, Whitley suggests that recent events are taking a distinctly darker turn.
What has changed? Not sure. But I've generally noted that the CE4 phenomenon is a mixed bag: At once sinister and potentially enlightening. Like any challenge, it provides opportunities for enrichment, but it also can be a source of trauma. Apparently, from Whitley's latest journal entry, the traumatic aspect has been surfacing alot in recent times.
When hearing any person or publication that claims to have "the answers", my discernment flag goes all the way up the pole. So it is with Whitley's latest article. But he does have a point. The Visitors are nothing to be trifled with.
In everyone I know that has experienced contact, it has invariably been life changing. To anyone who says they want to experience contact, I caution: "Be careful what you wish for..." Once it begins, life will never be the same. Read More
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2 Dec 2003 @ 06:39, by craiglang. Experiences
Just wondering: has anyone else had a powerful sense of "warning" in the last day or so? I awoke this morning with a powerful sense of "something-wrong". It was the same feeling I had just before 9/11.
Followup: What was the warning?
...... Read More
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1 Dec 2003 @ 11:35, by craiglang. Diary
Yesterday, on a beautiful afternoon as we were driving home to Minneapolis from visiting family in Wisconsin, we were treated to one of those rare beautiful, crystal clear late-fall days. A stark blue/white and gray sky, the visibility infinite, and a sharp, cold wind out of the North. Driving along U.S. Highway 10, the road winds in, out, and through the central Wisconsin hills. At times, when the road tops over a hill, you can see forever. It is a beautiful sight - the stark november sky, leafless trees, and brown, harvested fields. It leaves one with a sense of wonder and mystery at this world God has provided for us.
And with wonder is a sense of mystery. Why? Several interesting things occurred in recent weeks that have served to focus my attention on the mysterious and the climactic. At the most general, there is simply the year-end - the approach of the winter solstice, holy days in nearly all religions. Yet there is a more specific sense. As one travels, one can sometimes sense a deep underlying interconnectedness. A sense that each house, each person, each small business along the roadside - each thing is interconnected with all others. One can sometimes sense an almost-visible web of being that interconnects each person, and each work of humanity or nature in an almost-tangible way.
Another mystery is one that perhaps being an anomaly researcher affords, that one might not otherwise notice. This comes from having looked into a number of rural sightings and close encounters in recent months. Among residents of the area, these are seldom discussed - especially with outsiders. Yet, sighting report databases indicate that the area we were driving through has had a bountiful history of recent anomaly sighting/encounter reports. So as I drove through the rolling hills, fields and woods of central Wisconsin, I could only wonder - In which of the farm-homes in the distance, did someone have a truly fascinating story to tell?
Sunset occurred as our car crested the tallest hill in the region. And in an interesting compliment to the mystery of a few moments before, we were rewarded with a spectacular portrait of the works of God. We were afforded a spectacular view of the western horizon - a colorful contrast of red sky and deep-blue clouds. It was a sight to never forget. A delightful dose of mystery and wonder on a Sunday afternoon. Read More
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29 Nov 2003 @ 16:38, by craiglang. Thoughts
These are the dark days of November in the northern hemisphere. the days grow ever shorter as the winter solstice approaches. A cold wind bites from the north, often laden with flakes of ice and snow. It is a time of starkness, a time of gray. And there is the sense at this time of year, that life is at its most tenuous.
At this time of year, too, I find that healing is often the strongest. There is both the need for healing, and the calling up of the reservoir of inner strength that helps bring healing where it is needed. It is that inner resource that only comes when we "let go, let God". And in light of this, I often wonder about the state of things around me. Why are we so divided? Why is there so much acrimony - in the world at large, and even within our closer knit communities.
At this time of year, during healing work, or just while talking with neighbors, I notice confrontation, advocacy and resistance. It is a polarity between dark and light, progression and reaction, right and left, male and female, yin and yang. And in all of this, what seems to get lost is love. Repeatedly, I am reminded of the teachings of my teacher in the eastern tradition, which inspires the comments to follow.
On more than one occasion, I have noted people saying something like: "I get it, why can't [so-and-so] see it, too?" The idea that the person has is usually an extremely good one. It is generally a new idea, and with any new idea comes change - some form of transition (albeit, probably a very needed one). With advocacy of change comes resistance. Resistance brings counter-resistance: pushing and pushing back. Polarity deepens, and the issue becomes like two sides of a teeter-totter, both sides in opposition, yet also in balance. The harder we fight, the more energy we give to the opposition. Like a bar magnet, or like opposite charges, we attract the very forces we oppose.
How can we move beyond the gridlock? How do we get off the teeter-totter? How do yin and the yang combine to yield harmony?
A lot of ideas come up, but often what I am taught is that we are approaching the time for transcendence, the time when "the lion lies down with the lamb." This is the time when compassion for the souls of those opposed to you becomes more important than the reason for that opposition. When the two sides can combine views to reach a higher view, emergence has occurred.
Most often used seems to be the chakra metaphor. In this model, the biggest struggle in the present day, at least as I understand it, seems to be between the third and fourth chakra life-modes. The third chakra represents the ego-based, service to self world of the corporate cubicle. This is the world of business-success-oriented activity. It is the world of money, and it is also probably the world of military aggression. It is often associated with the west, but I suspsect that it is in most/all societies, at the present time. Growth at the expense of the Earth, self at the expense of others, etc... And so, the imperitive is to transition to at least a fourth-chakra level of awareness.
I am taught that, in the eastern tradition, The fourth chakra life-mode is generally one of service, a life of the heart. Volunteering and pacifism - both are powerful and noble ideals, and clearly superior to greed and service-to-self of the lower centers. Yet they are still ideals, and in advocating them, we generate opposition. Anti-war is still "anti", and such a noble progressivism implies that there is a regressive darker-side that it opposes. Struggle energizes the opposition, and the two sides of the teeter-totter balance out once again.
So, how can we transcend this? What is above the fourth chakra world? Perhaps the most immediate answer is "the fifth chakra world". In the eastern tradition, the fifth chakra is one of devotion, communication and life purpose. It is the life-mode in which we see transcendence of the polarity of struggle by the understanding that comes from God. It does not follow logic, but only love. It is not the love that comes from one's own heart, but that which comes from a greater heart. It is not service from one's self, but from a higher power through one's self.
Above all else, I am told, it is allowing one's self to see that the other side is human, too. And it is an incredibly difficult thing to do, especially in this time of economic, political and religious division. Yet it is at this time when understanding and harmony become the most important. Now, it is all the more imperative that the "lion lie down with the lamb".
In the words of the teacher who told me these words, this will be the time when enemies become friends, swoards become plowshares and war becomes peace. It is then that we will see the emergence. Then and only then will we (all of us) have won.
Beyond the fifth center, of course are the sixth and seventh - and presumably their corresponding life-modes will one day be realized. But for now, the struggle is to save ourselves and our world, and in the process, to come to know and love ourselves. It requires a devotion to a higher power and a compassion of and for all of us on the pale blue dot we call Earth.
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28 Nov 2003 @ 11:03, by craiglang. Articles
I just finished reading the neew book by Budd Hopkins and Carol Rainey entitled "Sight Unseen". It offers what is at once a concrete view into the scientific plausibility of the UFO/CE4 phenomenon, a chilling view of what the phenomenon seems to be doing, and a potential ray of understanding (and perhaps hope - though, this is MY take on it) at why this is perhaps being undertaken.
In "Sight Unseen" Hopkins and Rainey begin with an examination of several cases in Budd's case files. These are fascinating glimpses into the effect of the phenomenon on our consensus reality - specifically, the idea of temporary invisibility (spontaneous human invisibility). They remind me of several in MN MUFON's own case files (see "Spontaneous Invisibility: The Mystery We Can Not See").
These cases are fascinating enough, but they are just the beginning. Hopkins and Rainey then go on to explore another fascinating aspect of the phenomenon that has to-date been largely ignored in the UFO literature - that of human-appearing beings that seem to be moving about among us (See "Close Encounters Of the Third Kind In Our Everyday World").
In "Sight Unseen" Hopkins/Rainey present some fascinating cases in which apparently "transgenic" beings have appeared in the lives of experiencers. In one case, a character named "Mr Page" lived with an experiencer family for many years. The primary witness in the case, an experiencer with the psuedonym of "Anne-Marie" had a close familial relationship with him for nearly all of that time - about 15 years. It seems to be, on the surface, a very positive relationship. Yet it has it's definite undertones of non-positivity - especially when the would describe how "Mr Page" would take Anne-Marie on "nature hikes", of which she remembers very little. In hypnotic trance, references to these apparent missing-time periods engendered powerful emotional responses. This is similar to the emotional responses which experiencers often have when viewing their childhood "secret friend" in hypnotic trance. The positive veneer seems to become a very mixed bag - still positive in some sense, but with an underlying apparently-darker purpose.
Hopkins/Rainey then continue to develop the idea of transgenics. This is the apparent answer to the criticisms of the idea that the UFO/CE4 phenomenon seems to be centered around human-alien hybridization. The "hybridization" idea has been heavily criticized on the grounds that human and alien DNA - if E.T.s would have DNA at all - would be fundamentally incompatible. Hopkins/Rainey grant this point, and build a good case based upon current human medical technology, for gene transplantation from one species to another.
Possible purposes for which this might be done are both encouraging and chilling.
- There is the possibility that this is simple exploitation - the very dark side of the idea spectrum.
- At the lightest side of the spectrum is the idea that they are somehow here to enlighten us, to bring us - well, whatever they are here to bring to us...
- Somewhere in the middle is the idea that "They" are scientific explorers/researchers, doing to us what "We" would do to experimental animals. The purpose is unknown (but I have a few speculations in other posts - some to follow...).
In the end, they build a good case for possibility that the CE4 phenomenon represents an external biotechnological tinkering with humanity - for unknown purposes. They further build the case that the intermediate results of this project are (at times) present among us. Given some of the similarities between cases Budd Hopkins' case files and those in our own (though Hopkins' case files are nearly an order of magnitude thicker than ours), I can only suggest that he offers some very good arguments.
In the end, I can only suggest that you read "Sight Unseen" for yourself and tell me what you think.
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10 Nov 2003 @ 11:08, by craiglang. Thoughts
Last night, I spent a couple of hours watching the next episode in Steven Spielberg's miniseries "Taken", on the SciFi Channel. I'm not normally a big TV buff, but this series has captivated me, for obvious reasons.
Overall, I have been extremely impressed with the way Spielberg has portrayed the UFO abduction phenomenon. He seems to capture the ambiguity and reality-shift aspects of it extremely well. He also portays the family-line "inheritance" that seems to be characteristic of experiencer families.
This most recent was Episode 7 of 10: "The Equation of God". The key events in the series are now coming up, in that we now see the character of Allie - the psychic child who is the apparent "end-product" of these family lineages.
What seems to be portrayed here is Spielberg's idea of where the phenomenon is headed - and this is, that its purpose is to create a new-human.
This psychic child reminds me alot of the children of many experiencers I have met (although, they are nowhere near as extreme as Allie is portrayed in the movie). It appears to be what Jan Tober describes in her book "The Indigo Children". So, is Allie intended to represent in one person, a whole generation of indigo chidren? Or is Spielberg trying to show something else here?
It will be interesting to see what episodes 8,9 and 10 have to say about that (I didn't see the series the first time it was aired, and so I don't know what these have in store). But one question I will float out there for general discussion: Are Allie - and all the "Allie's" out there - the future of humanity?
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 9 Nov 2003 @ 14:31, by craiglang. Diary
This week we had the sad duty of putting to rest Miss Lady Lass. Missy was the second of our two loving, but quite senior Shetland Sheepdogs. She follows her mother Lady Molly Brown into the canine afterlife.
Like Molly, Missy was our loving companion for nearly twelve years. She kept us company throughout all of that time, with an endless supply of unconditional love. She was there with us through thick and thin, through good times and times that were less so.
For twelve years, she did her job of barking at pizza deliverers and paper boys, and making sure that the backyard never became overrun with squirrels. And all the time, her playful yip brightened our lives.
She passed away unexpectedly on Monday morning, from a sudden, massive infection. We will miss her dearly.
Fare well, Miss Lady Lass. Read More
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2 Nov 2003 @ 14:49, by craiglang. Articles
Last night, as I was doing some late night channel surfing, I stumbled across a rerun of the movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I had not seen this movie for awhile. And this time, I was struck by how accurately the movie captured the state of UFO studies during the mid to late 1970s.
It was 25 years ago, nearly this time of year, when I first saw the movie. It was a cold December evening, just after having taken my last final exam of that semester in engineering school.
At that time in life, for a variety of reasons, I had a resurgence of interest in UFOs. There had been a recent surge of sightings, a few of which had made the media (sorry, I don't remember where I read about them, but I do remember doing so). There had been a few fascinating news items about SETI, including the WOW signal, in 1977. Also, at the time, this secondary focus on the extraordinary served as a wonderful break from the rigors of engineering school. I did not yet know that this diversion would become my passion a quarter-century later.
Yet, while interested, I really didn't know much about the state of UFO studies at the time. And so, much of the symbology - the most meaningful dynamics of the movie were lost to me.
More historical perspective: This was not too long after the demise of NICAP. MUFON was a relatively young organization, with a bright future - but completely unknown to me. At that time, the abduction/experiencer phenomenon apparently had not yet emerged into the world of UFO research. And so it appears that the present picture had not yet begun to form.
Now, 25 years later, as I watched again, I noticed that many of the signs of the abduction phenomenon were actually depicted in the movie. But at that time, they were interpreted differently. Some of these were:
---> Repeated, close-up sightings of UFOs.
---> The compusion to go-to/return-to a particular location - somehow associated with a sighting or anomaly experience.
---> The sense of mission - knowing that there is something that one is supposed to do, but not sure what it means.
---> Hidden knowledge - knowing something that is just outside of the edge of awareness - with no obvious source.
---> The impact of the phenomenon on the family dynamics of the experiencer.
---> The coverup - the idea that there is a secret government effort to come to terms with the Visitors, in some way.
Other aspects of the abduction phenomenon were pretty much missed. Missing time, the actual abduction scenario, and the apparent genetic/reproductive aspects of the phenomenon had not yet emerged into the literature. In fact, they were actively denied by some researchers. I could not discern any references to the classic two-hour abduction event later described by Budd Hopkins, Whitley Streiber, etc...
As I understand it, at that time the working hypothesis among UFO reserachers was that the phenomenon was a nuts and bolts visitation by an extraterrestrial civilization. Perhaps they were preparing us for contact. And that at some point soon, there would be overt first contact. Such a build-up toward open contact seemed to be suggested by the UFO waves of the 1970s. This includes the 1973 "Year of the Humanoid". It also includes the 1979 wave, which seems to be emerging in old sighting reports being investigated by Minnesota MUFON.
Yet the overt contact never really happened. Instead, what emerged were increasingly common accounts of a covert/furtive abduction phenomenon. Instead of a Fourth-of-July-style landing at a specially constructed amphitheatre at Devil's Tower, Wyoming, we have small entities appearing to a small percentage of humanity, individually, in the dark of night. It is a massive, but secretive effort of an unknown - and perhaps incomprehensible - nature.
Another fascinating things which the movie captured, but which I had not yet understood until the present time was the idea of a universal language. I had not understood the apparent ideas behind this until nearly twenty years later, when I had begun to study Eastern Tradition Meditation. And at the core of this was the idea that there are universally-meaningful sounds. This is the idea behind mantras, chants, and some forms of prayer. In addition, the hand signs which were also depicted in the movie, and which accompanied these universal sounds, are also described in various forms in the eastern tradition.
Although I am not aware of this permeating UFO studies at that time, I suspect that there were accounts of this surfacing in reports. I further suspect that many such accounts were in some way, the surface manifestations of deeper interactions with the phenomenon - abductions, contacts and other encounters.
Twenty five years later Steven Speilberg has again made a movie which again captures the current state of thought in UFO studies. This is the miniseries "Taken" shown on the Sci-Fi channel this year. Again, I wonder - what will we notice 25 years from now? As I watch the movie at this remote time in the future, I can easilly imagine myself noticing details and saying "Oh, that's what that means... Now I understand".
I can only wonder what the state of UFO studies will be like 25 years from now. Will we have solved the mystery? Or will this phenomenon do as it has done so far - apparently evolving over time, leaving an ever-continuing trail of mystery and enigma. Read More
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30 Oct 2003 @ 09:59, by craiglang. Articles
In the
October 16th, 2003 Edition of Whitley's Journal Whitley Strieber draws some very startling conclusions about the reality of the Visitor (a.k.a. CE4, Close Encounter, Contact, or UFO Abduction) phenomenon. He cites evidence both of his own experiences, and of those of others. He concludes from this that the phenomenon is very real, physical, and (at least in part) non-benevolent. In my view he builds an excellent argument for that reality.
Subsequently, he goes on to talk about the coverup. He discusses what he thinks the motives are behind it. What would prompt a government (indeed, most governments of the world) to clamp a lid on something that could be a true breakthrough in science? The possible conclusions he presents are for the most part, quite chilling.
The coverup motives he postulates are for the most part, not malevolent in themselves. However they are very much based upon fear. One class possible motives is that in 1947, those in the inner-circle of world governments (whatever that means) were warned - sharing knowledge of the Visitors will result in the destruction (deliberate or otherwise) - of your world.
Another class of possible coverup motives involves fear of the results of general exposure to the ultra-high technology of the Visitors. It is the fear that we will end up going the way of all lower-tech civilizations which are exposed to the higher technological advancement of the outside world - catastrope, collapse, colonization, and eventual absorption.
So, just what is the coverup covering up? Is there an inner circle that has the answers? Or do they just have more data? Are they, perhaps, just as confused about the true nature of the phenomenon as everybody else? My belief is that at least to some degree, the answer to this last question is "yes". Many researchers have built a good case that there is alot of excellent data, physical evidence and perhaps, even living entities in possession of those in power. But that does not mean that they understand the phenomenon. Indeed, the dynamics of the coverup as described in the UFO literature, suggest that they don't.
While Whitley claims that the phenomenon is real and physical, he does not claim that it is understood. And this is critical. At it's core, the phenomenon is ambiguous - a hall of mirrors. There is one loose end after another. One of the most prominent of these - at least according to what experiencers tell me - is the overlay of the physical and metaphysical.
More than one experiencer has described to me, while in deep hypnotic trance, how they were physically taken from their room, and into a nearby UFO. Yet in quite a few cases, at some point a metaphysical event occurrs. More than one person has described being met by a spirit guide. Others have described one or more events relating to previous lifetimes - in once case, as an E.T. And the list goes on - a continuum of spiritual/metaphysical events associated with nuts-and-bolts UFO encounters.
Another event is the reality anomaly. This has been written about extensively in the UFO literature, but will be summarized here in the words of Jenny Randles, as "The Oz Factor". During the time period immediately surrounding a close encounter, surroundings often seem to take a surreal character. The experiencer finds him/her-self on roads that apparently don't actually exist(?), or in places that seem to be non-physical in nature.
Other smaller anomalies abound. One such example is where one experiencer described to me looking through a window which was openned outward. On investigation we noted that the window does not open - it was framed glass, with no mechanism.
These are just some examples of how the phenomenon can manipulate reality to suit it's own ends. This is the reality-paradox behind the phenomenon - and there is so much more (Please feel free to check out my own site for more on this).
So what is the cover-up covering up? My bet is that they are covering up a very expensive, and highly organized research effort, which has had little more result than those of us in the civilian sector. They have a lot more data, but few if any answers. However they have assumed the self-appointed responsibility to protect their respective nations from all (potential) enemies. This implies control of the skies, etc. And if there is one thing that the phenomenon has demonstrated it is that the air forces of the Earth do not have that control - UFO's are able to zip around at will.
So in the end, the core of the coverup does not seem to necessarily be due to malevolence, but rather of fear. It is fear of the inability to protect it's citizenery, fear from lack of knowledge, and more generally fear of the consequences of acknowledging the reality of - well, of whetever the UFO/CE4 phenomenon really is. It is truly a cover up of the ambiguous. Read More
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30 Sep 2003 @ 22:10, by craiglang. Diary
Today was one of those days that I don't want to repeat too often. It is days like this when business associates get on your case about something that - in retrospect - is trivial. It is a day when the most difficult clients appear out of nowhere - and when software on the PC on my desk doesn't work - screwing up in the strangest of ways. Politics seems to be at its worst on days like today. And by late evening, I wondered what karma I was somehow paying off today... :-)
On days like today, I am reminded once again of "The Power of Now", the power of expectations, and the importance of mindfulness. And finally, at the end of the day, as I fitfully attempted my evening meditation, I asked myself, just why was today bad? The answer can only be that it's because I defined it to be that way. And in the end, it was through my "badness filter" that I saw it as that.
Now, having a business associate grouse at you for over an hour is never pleasant. But at that point, it can help alot to engage the mindful observer - to witness the person talking to the physical me, and myself listenning, (and wishing that "Myself" was somewhere else at that moment). And now, as I sit here writing this diary entry, I need to ask - did it really make any difference? Is the real me, the soul-self, any different because of this annoying character? No.
Today was one of those days where one needs to remind one's self that we are really spiritual beings having a human experience. And hopefully tomorrow's human experience will be a little bit kinder, and alot more fun... :-) Read More
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Exploring the emerging consciousness, the Universal Mind and the coming changes - as well as other general stuff... |
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I had been looking for some time for an on-line forum and collaboration site, and I think that at last I have found it. My hats off to the innovators, creators and maintainers of this site. This e-place is wonderful. |
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