VISITORS FROM HIDDEN REALMS

Discover the connection between UFO visitors and shamanic lore! Brent Raynes' stunning book—intro. by Brad Steiger.

Thinking Outside The Box

This column is what its name implies. I hope that most of the time it reaches its intended goal and that my own reality check hasn’t bounced too far outside true reality, though in a few instances I’m sure it has strayed slightly. Ah well, you can’t expound on the unexplained and know completely what the heck you’re talking about all of the time anyway, and who could prove you right or wrong (outside of God him/her/itself…whatever!), so hopefully some of you will cut me a little slack.

My hoped for aim with this column is simply to get folks to think “outside the box.” Too often we all fall short of that goal and we end up settling upon data and beliefs that appeal to our preconceived and comforting notions of what is right and what is acceptable. Most of us are a product of our cultural and social environment and our beliefs are dictated by the mainstream majority. If you’re born and raised in a predominantly Christian nation, you’re likely going to grow up a Christian or at least heavily influenced by those beliefs, values, and ideas. The same goes for if you’re raised in a Moslem nation. Or how about an isolated tribe deep in the Amazon Jungle?

After carefully examining ancient artifacts and habitation sites and apparent spiritual centers from various locations and cultures throughout the world, we keep hearing quotes and statements credited to such authority figures as archeologists who tell us that many of our ancient ancestors were not the ignorant savages and dumbbells that we moderns have tended in the recent past to stereotype them as. In fact, many of them were brilliant mathematicians, astronomers, builders, pharmacologists, and on and on, while the shamans acted as the priests/counselors/wise advisors of their people. Plus they knew how to survive in harsh living environments that required considerable skill, knowledge, and being physically fit. The majority of us from the “modern” world wouldn’t last long in theirs.

Another noteworthy point, I think. Science is a tool that’s only as good as the one or ones using it. Again and again, scientists down through the history of science have made observations and statements that were downright shortsighted and narrow minded. They lacked vision and insight, and so it seems that scientists can be just as biased and intellectually derailed as the rest of us.

In the 42 years that I’ve invested in pondering and exploring the great and controversial mysteries of our planet, covering the full spectrum of anomalous stories from UFOs, ghosts, angels, demons, aliens, Bigfoot, and so on and so forth, I have often found that the noisiest and most misinformed critics and skeptics were the armchair variety. I’ve had the distinct pleasure of knowing and interviewing very learned and fully professional people who actively investigated these things and determined that there was in fact a genuine thread of reality behind such strange stories. When a psychiatrist, a psychologist, an astronaut, an engineer, and an astronomer all give the same high level of credence to eyewitness accounts of such phenomena as the average UFO/paranormal student, then this is certainly a very sobering moment that should get the attention of everyone.

Laymen and scientists alike all struggle with maintaining objectivity in their personal observations. We’re all influenced by media, co-workers and friends, and before we know it we’ll be in a conversation with someone and find ourselves saying such things as, “They say” or “They know” this and that. It’s like an unconscious reflex. There are a lot of stories being told out there about this “they” group. “They” have their fingers in a lot of pies. (They must have sticky fingers!)

Why ramble on about how we all think and perceive things, and who is right, or at least closer to being right? (At least, in my non-humble opinion?) Okay, here’s where it gets sticky but at the same time takes some sort of a meaningful direction. In order to think outside the box, we have to first recognize that we’re in a box. A lot of people take pride in believing that they’re nobody’s fool and hard to bamboozle, while unconsciously riding shotgun with the herd (which equates with herd mentality).

Whoever you’re riding and hanging out with, you’ve got to take personal responsibility and be conscious and aware of your own thoughts and actions (and be prepared to periodically question those thoughts and actions). In a recent phone interview with ufologist Christopher O’Brien, who has written three very thought-provoking books on the UFO and paranormal mysteries of the San Luis Valley in Colorado, he mentioned how so many people today are frontloaded with preconceived ideas and beliefs (thanks largely no doubt to the internet and TV documentaries). The majority of the so-called “investigators” and “researchers” out there are frontloaded up to their belief-ridden gills and often will only follow-up on the data and clues that best support their pet theories and preconceptions.

In reality, as Christopher and I talked about during our conversation, there’s a lot of anomalous events out there that seem to synchronistically cluster in the same areas and often during the same periods of time. Those I’ll call the separatists are committed to belief systems wherein Bigfoots, UFOs, angels, poltergeists, and other energetic quirks and oddities of time and space are looked into from a conditioned mindset that keeps these weird events within single and separate frames of reference. But what if they’re not? John Keel certainly perceived a lot of interconnected events on the anomalous landscape, and today Phil Imbrogno, Christopher O’Brien and others are taking up arms and continuing this noble crusade.

Back in Issue Number 25 of our publication (when it was in print instead of online, and was called UFO Perceptions), which was in the Fall of 1993, our dear friend Dr. Berthold E. Schwarz, a retired psychiatrist and author today living in Vero Beach, Florida, contributed a thought-provoking article for us entitled “Experimental Ufology.” He wrote: “Experimental ufology means to adapt and apply time-tested scientific techniques and disciplines to UFO experients’ related psi phenomena and attempt to duplicate in microcosm, in the field, the laboratory or research room, what was reputed to have occurred in the UFO contact. For almost everything that has been reported in connection with close contact UFO experiences has its homologue in psychopathology and psi. With careful documentation and long-term follow-ups of UFO experients, experimental sessions may yield information on the mechanisms of how various events took place, roles of dissociation and how these relate to prerequisite trance-like states and paranormal effects, and thereby open a more embracive and enlightened interpretation of the original encounter. Could the core of many UFO experiences be paranormal with secondary psycho-pathological, cultural and religious adumbrations?”

I believe that a good example of such non-compartmentalized “experimental” investigation would be the ongoing studies of Nancy Talbott of BLT Research who for a number of years has been diligently investigating the claims and evidence connected with a Robbert van den Broeke of the Netherlands. This witness has “visions” of crop circle formations, a mysterious foreknowledge it seems of their location and even their design prior to the actual discovery of such circles. He has seen crop circles forming and observed mysterious lights. Nancy also witnessed a brilliant tube of light shine down into a field where a crop circle mysteriously appeared. In addition, Robbert van den Broeke seems very psychic, and has produced numerous and spectacular psychic photographs, which again Nancy has been present and been able to verify. For a review of this fascinating material, go to: http://www.bltresearch.com/robbert.html.

What are your thoughts? Are you satisfied with the inside or with the outside of the box perspective? Are you satisfied with the status quo approach to the numerous and bewildering events that are reported throughout our world? Or do you think there’s more going on than is generally perceived by the hard-line “believers” and “skeptics” alike?

If you’re an experiencer of the strange and the unexplained (of any variety), or an experienced researcher/investigator/student, let us hear from you. Are the surface appearances of many of these occurrences as they seem, or is there a deeper reality lurking beneath it. Are we merely perceiving the proverbial tip of the iceberg, or can we trust the present level of comprehension and understanding that is common to these currently existing frameworks of insight and belief?

I’d love to hear from as many of you as possible on this subject. This might make for a very interesting future article or column. Write to me: BrentRaynes@yahoo.com.