http://www.msnbc.com/news/118894.asp
By Alan Boyle
'These people [extraterrestrials] are conducting experiments utilizing
humans for their own purposes. There’s no culture involved.'
— WALTER ANDRUS
Mutual UFO Network
MSNBC Peter Davenport of the National UFO Reporting Center analyzes
thousands of anomalous sightings every year — and some of them have
led
him to the guarded conclusion that something dramatic is going on.
THE STRANGE OCCURRENCES probably involve spacecraft beyond our current
understanding, he says.
As guarded as he is about the observations, he’s even more guarded
about the follow-up questions: What is the nature of the visitors?
And
what’s the purpose behind the visitations?
"Those are the things that keep us motivated," says Davenport.
But, he adds, "I don’t think there’s any ufologist who has the answers
to those questions. And if they do, you should probably reject their
information."
Ufology — the sympathetic study of UFO phenomena — is a hybrid
discipline: Some keep track of aerial sightings, analyze radar tapes,
look for unusual chemical residues. Others dwell on human testimony,
hypnotic regression, the physical and mental traumas left in the wake
of unsettling experiences. Generally, the people looking into the human
factor are more likely to look for deeper meanings as well.
The debate among ufologists over the ultimate meaning of UFOs can
become as sharp as the debate between skeptics and believers. Most
UFO
investigators scorn "contactees" who claim to have a psychic link with
benevolent Space Brothers. Walter Andrus of the Mutual UFO Network
says
such claims sound "a little bit like channeling, and we don’t take
much
stock in channeling."
Andrus and other sympathetic researchers do take stock, however, in
the
accounts of those who say they were abducted by extraterrestrial
visitors — a phenomenon that appears to involve telepathy,
interdimensional travel and drastic medical procedures that leave no
trace.
But even with abduction experiences, Andrus is reluctant to speculate
as to any deeper meaning.
"These people [the extraterrestrials] are conducting experiments
utilizing humans for their own purposes," he says. "There’s no culture
involved."
In contrast, Harvard psychiatrist John Mack says in his book
"Abduction" that aliens appear to "administer an odd mixture of trauma
and transcendence" — warnings about potential ecological ruin as well
as efforts to create an alien/human bond. In his view, the abduction
experience poses a grave challenge to Western religious tradition,
while Eastern religions may find it easier to embrace the phenomenon.
And in a book titled "The God Hypothesis," journalist Joe Lewels lays
out a theory that UFOs and interdimensional aliens helped foster the
origin of species and provided the inspiration for all the world’s
major religions, from Sumerian creation stories to Christ’s passion
and
visions of the Apocalypse.
Toronto ufologist Errol Bruce Knapp, who moderates the UFO UpDates
mailing list and documents UFO episodes as well, tries to refrain from
making conclusion on the religious aspect of UFO experiences. But he
does note that religion makes a difference in how people react to
abduction experiences.
"If they come from a religious background — not necessarily a strong
background, but if they’re a ‘go-to-church-on-Sunday’ kind of people
—
they’ll see it as a sign from God," he says. "Others — more pragmatic
people — are freaked out by it."
*The believers: From Heaven’s Gate to the Gates of Hell
*The skeptics: A cultish cause for alarm
*The scholars: Raw material for a new religion
*Introduction: UFOs and the spiritual dimension
*Discuss millennial change on the Social Issues Bulletin Board
*Discuss strange sky phenomena on the Space News Bulletin Board¿
¿ ¿
January 1999
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