The consciousness aspect of the UFO phenomenon. II.

Introduction

This is a second post on the consciousness aspect of the UFO phenomenon. The first post on the consciousness aspect you can find here.  As I wrote in that first post, I think it is a good idea to have some basic knowledge of what science and philosophy (in the West) says about human consciousness, so we at least have some starting point from where to continue our exploration of the connection between consciousness and the UFO phenomenon. 

It is not certain that modern neuroscience (or quantum physics) can help us further understand the UFO phenomenon´s effects on human consciousness (i.e., altered experiences of space-time and profound psychological and emotional changes). Instead, a greater degree of clarity will perhaps be found in religious and spiritual traditions from around the world? Or, more likely, both science and spirituality will be sources of progress and insights on this issue.

Before we go to the main point of this post, I want to repeat that the main purpose of this post, the previous post, and the coming posts on the consciousness aspect of the UFO phenomenon, is to, hopefully, elicit new thoughts and discussions about what the consciousness aspect can teach us about the nature and origin of the UFO phenomenon, and vice versa. 

Or, more specifically: what a person´s altered perception/experience of reality in connection to an encounter with the UFO phenomenon can teach us about the nature and intent of the UFO phenomenon (the nature and intent of at least some part of the UFO phenomenon), and the capabilities of human consciousness. 

The consciousness aspect of the UFO phenomenon. I.

 

Background

Beginning with this blog post, I will focus more on the consciousness aspect of the UFO phenomenon. Why? There are several important reasons, but I think to suffice to mention in this initial post are these two reasons:

1. Throughout UFO history, people claiming contact with the UFO phenomenon (sightings, encounters, communication) have more often than not testified profound changes in their worldview and values of what matters in life.
2.  Individuals, or experiencers, also talk about telepathic communication and manipulation of the experiencers´ perception/experience of space and time during an encounter with the UFO phenomenon.

So the first (1.) point should indicate that these experiencers genuinely believe that something extraordinary happened to them. Something that had a profound and lifelong effect on them as human beings. It would be dishonest of me to claim that I know for a fact what happened to these experiencers or who or what caused the profound changes. I do not know that. 

But I know that profound changes in one´s worldview and values, as seen and documented in some of the experiencers, are not typical and do not usually occur quickly. These kinds of profound changes are generally related to traumatic events (war, violence, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse), or some sort of sudden insight, or expanded awareness, often in connection to mystical and spiritual experiences, meditation, euphoric states, etc. 

Therefore, I think there are cases of contact between humans and something unknown, which are difficult to explain in any conventional way (i.e., the profound psychological and emotional changes). More importantly, I think there are some cases of contact where the human genuinely believes his or her experience and candidly tells his or her story. For me, that is reason enough to take their stories seriously and respect the people telling them.