Aliens, angels and daemons - Lent 2022, Day 11

The biggest single thing that has changed in my thinking since last year's Lenten reflections has been the mounting body of evidence that craft from other worlds are here, on our planet. The report to the US Congress from the Director of the Office of National Intelligence made public on 25 June 2021 was revelatory. The US military admitted that it has recordings of unidentified physical craft not of any known human-made origin. This was followed up by the Gillibrand-Rubio amendment to the National Defense Appropriation Act for 2022, which required the Pentagon to log all data pertaining to unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) and release a report by 31 October of this year.

Even a cursory examination of what's happening - from the 2017 release of the so-called 'TicTac' video on - suggests that simply ignoring the issue of unidentified flying objects is unwise. Scientists who for decades have ridiculed UFOs are beginning to approach the subject with a more open mind - Avi Loeb, astronomy professor at Harvard being one example, Stanford's Garry P. Nolan being another. 

There's a lot going on, if you're prepared to look. In essence, the US military now admits to having many documented cases of UAP recorded on multiple sensor platforms (radar, infra-red cameras, eyewitness accounts from aircrew etc) that it is unable to explain away in rational terms (data anomalies, digital artefacts, Venus low in the sky, flocks of geese, weather balloons etc). This leaves the possibility of adversaries' technology (highly unlikely), US technology (unlikely given the presence of UAP in restricted airspace, posing a danger to pilots) or alien craft.

So this leaves the last explanation - craft from other worlds - as looking increasingly probable.

What are the spiritual implications of the existence of other beings (who could just as well be from another solar system, another time or another dimension)? Why are they here, visiting Earth - what is their purpose? Are they benign, malignant or just neutral observers? Assuming the Pentagon's so-called 'five observables' (instantaneous acceleration/trans-medium travel/no visible form of lift (wings/ rotors)/no visible exhaust/some form of cloaking), they are beyond our current understanding of physics, and may be demonstrating technology thousands of years ahead of ours. So what is their understanding of the Universe - indeed, of consciousness, of life, of a Deity?

Where do they fit into humanity's views of God and Heaven? 

Consciousness is the key here. Imagine beings that are millions of years in advance of us, who can guide their craft by mind power. ("Internet of things? We have telepathy of things.") Tapping into the fields of quantum spin to will desired outcomes from out of myriad possibilities. Powers that we can barely imagine, the result of being millennia of evolution of consciousness ahead of us. Where do we fit in? 

Constructing a cosmology that accepts the presence of alien life here on Earth will require a shift in our perceptions greater than those required when Copernicus proved that mankind was not at the centre of the Universe, but that our planet was one of several orbiting our sun. And far greater than those shifts required when Hubble stated that our galaxy is merely one of billions in the known universe

The Fermi Paradox ('if the Drake Equation is correct, where is everybody?') is explainable in terms of the North Sentinel Islands, inhabited by indigenous people who have been protected by the Indian government. A 'no-contact' policy has been enforced, and no one is to approach within three miles of the islands, allowing the North Sentinelese to live without any external interference.

This would seem to be the case with alien entities and mankind An exception - perhaps - being that aliens might intervene to prevent planetary destruction by nuclear holocaust. This theory is proposed by those ufologists who point to numerous historical sightings of UFOs over nuclear weapons bases.

I can accept the notion of an alien presence on earth, and even tales of alien abductions of humans and some form of hybrid alien-human breeding programme. The classic 'greys' - four foot tall, big heads and eyes, skinny arms and legs - could be biological drones, von Neumann machines, built of local material (human DNA), to be sent off into space to explore distant star systems. We are clueless. Maybe our governments know more than they can let on to, for fear of social disturbance. One part of that disturbance would be to our science - the other part, to our religions.

This time last year:
Reconciling science and spirituality

This time two years ago:
The metaphysical journey as I see it

This time five years ago:
Spirit of Age, spirit of Place

This time six years ago:
The crux of the matter

This time eight years ago:
10,000 steps is a lot for one day

This time nine years ago:
Bary mleczne - Warsaw's cheap eateries

This time 11 years ago:
Old Town, another prospect

This time 12 years ago:
W-wa Śródmieście - commuters' staging post

This time 13 years ago:
Filthy ul. Poloneza

This time 14 years ago:
A sight that heralds the coming of spring