You’d think I’d be on safe ground, philosophically, since my interest is in concert with not only cutting edge physics and common knowledge in most of the world, but religious history, mathematical probability, ancient texts, archeology, art history and more.  But this “concert” is scoffed at, dismissed, and viewed skeptically, if at all, by those who control certain information streams in our “First World” nation.  (Other nations aren’t so skeptical.)

    Every culture in the world throughout time seems to have roots to origin stories that begin with creation by some powerful “heavenly” or “star” beings.  The same are credited, all over the world, with having instructed us, civilized us, destroyed some, blessed some, cursed some, confused and divided some, and helped some of us in wars against others watched over by other gods.

    It’s a fairly consistent story, with an appropriate diversity of points of view, given the diversity of cultures.  Sometimes the gods are beneficent, while others are deemed petty, arbitrary, jealous (by their own admission), or spiteful, as Greek and Roman gods and goddesses are described.

    Since the world’s accounts across culture and time are nevertheless consistent that star beings have since time immemorial interceded in the history of humanity, it mystifies me that the subject is mythologized, lied about and ridiculed so harshly, rather than considered in an open-minded, evidence-gathering fashion.  

    Testimony, supporting what other cultures have taken for granted since the beginning of time, comes today from astronauts, pilots, police (“trained observers” whose testimony will send people to freedom or death), two U.S. presidents, the director of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the former Director of National Defense of Canada, movie stars, shamans, entire tribes, and thousands (in the US; possibly tens or hundreds of thousands in other countries) of common folk and professional people who are not “looking for media attention,” as the dismissers claim, but who’ve testified that they’ve experienced something “other.”  

    One good friend challenged me once that I equated aliens and angels, when I hadn’t said or thought.  He had a slightly different hot button.  

    The most fascinating question in this entire debate, for me, is:  Are these silly cartoons and false equations simple accidents of pop culture?  Or do the media, one of the richest industries on the planet, and our government play an intentional role in discrediting this subject?  It would be silly to denounce this question too quickly.  Let’s think about it.

    So I understand how people who haven’t had a personal experience can resist accepting the information.  I do understand and sympathize.  I just don’t know exactly why we have this impulse to resist, when we all believe we’re open-minded to information.  

    If our cultural denial was the collective agreement of free minds, would fifty to eighty percent of Americans (depending on how the question is worded) admit that they believe that cosmic beings can contact people on Earth?  Not likely.  Tellingly, our collective ridicule exists primarily in the public arena, while privately, people admit they don’t actually condone the public hostility at all.  My conclusion:  we’re split-minded.

    I found the literature credible, but still didn’t want to believe.  So I attended a conference in order to suss out some of “those people.”  And they were not just normal folks, but intelligent and accomplished.  Not only with no weird facial ticks or obvious emotional imbalances, but the former Minister of Defense of Canada, diplomats, military officers, and plain old nice folks.  People with interesting ideas about expanding world views and consciousness.  And, of course, ideas about why the government and media would conspire to hide this most fascinating story.

    I know if it were only me, I’d be the first to assume that I was losing my marbles.  But so many others – in American cities and at home in the jungle – have reported events similar to what happened to me.  So I’m grateful beyond words that some of them took the trouble to write books and describe what they experienced, some with details that I relate to.  

    What a relief!  I wasn’t bonkers after all, but undergoing some sort of experience that has been shared by people throughout time.  

    I’d like to believe that my community would include a sufficient number of open-minded people simply interested in the nature of our reality, and unafraid of considering what might be considered too taboo to even call a taboo.  I want to believe these people exist in sufficient numbers, since there are what I consider impressive numbers of “us” I’ve discovered in this small town who also have information like I do, that the reality we’re living in might be quite different from that which we’ve been convinced to believe.  

    I sometimes believe we’re on the verge of a big “coming out of the closet” on this subject – not just in Silver City, but in this nation.  And when that happens, I believe most people will say, “It’s about time,” and “I always knew.”

    That’s what people said in the South after the civil rights movement had struggled to change their mindsets:  “We always knew this was right.  We were never racist, though our neighbors were.”  But before then, they were silent.

    Now I see the cracks in our cultural facade beginning to widen.  It might take a while more before we’re comfortable enough to shift our philosophical paradigms, and maybe with them, our paradigms of psychology, spiritual experience, evolution, anthropology, history, and more.  But I believe the day is coming.  

    And I’m doing my part.  I’ve written my story and occasionally I write essays like this.  I think I’m on safe philosophical ground.