TRANSLATE THIS ARTICLE
Integral World: Exploring Theories of Everything
An independent forum for a critical discussion of the integral philosophy of Ken Wilber
Giorgio Piacenza was born in Lima, Perü in 1961 and studied in Markham College. At an early age, he began to participate in Western esoteric and Indian mystical groups while attempting to maintain a critical perspective. After a clear group-witnessed UFO experience in 1975 in the coastal town of Chilca, Peru, befriended several alleged contactees, abductees, contact groups and research organizations and until today has been consistently researching many aspects of the UFO phenomenon trying to maintain integrative and an objective criteria. He earned a degree in Sociology from Georgetwon University and an Integral Theory Certificate from John F. Kennedy University and he currently writes essays on a variety of theories, paradigms and worldviews which he strives to reconcile exploring their common underlying patterns.
SEE MORE ESSAYS WRITTEN BY GIORGIO PIACENZA
Self-Interview on Integrative UfologyIntegral Ufology, Part FiveGiorgio Piacenza
Right there and then I knew that contact with technologically advanced otherworldly beings was actually taking place.
My name is Giorgio Piacenza. I was born in Lima, Perú and I am also a U.S. citizen. I have been studying UFOs and what they may imply for science, philosophy, and society for over 45 years. In 1975 a group of friends, family members and I (totaling about 12 people) went by invitation from alleged extraterrestrials to an expected sighting or encounter that was to occur south of Lima, in a place called “Chilca” after my uncle (Taddeo Barchitta) and another person had received through very specific and dramatic automatic writing transmissions an alleged invitation from respectful extraterrestrial beings who wanted to establish a long-term, constructive relationship. In the middle of the beach area in Chilca, we saw a 45-50 feet in diameter, lens-shaped object appear at about 300-350 feet away from us. It hovered at about 10 feet over the Pacific Ocean and was visible for about 50 seconds. Then, it disappeared almost as imploding and reappeared a few minutes later remaining a few seconds and disappearing after producing an illumination in the water that approached the shore. Right there and then I knew that contact with technologically advanced otherworldly beings in relation with spiritual-evolutionary concepts was actually taking place and wanted to deepen this understanding thinking that the intelligences probably had been here for a long time and perhaps knew about human nature or why we were as we were, why we were so war-mongering, our origins, purpose, and possibilities in the large scheme of things. I hoped to one day be able to converse with them to understand what they knew about the purpose and organization of existence, the nature of God, esoteric principles, and who really was or had been Jesus the Christ. I have a degree in Sociology from Georgetown University and three degrees from John F. Kennedy University, including a degree in Integral Theory but, for the most part, I'm an autodidact, and an avid reader of physics, rational metaphysics, contactee accounts, perennial philosophy, sociology, psychology, history and, generally-speaking, I am quite eager to understand how everything may connect comprehensively. I have participated in Close Encounter of the Fifth Kind contact attempts and also with other kinds of voluntary contact groups (such as the Mission Rahma Contact Group); given conferences, written articles on various related UFO topics and was twice an advisor to the Peruvian Air Force in its UFO research office. I'm a member of MUFON (the Mutual UFO Network), the largest civilian UFO research organization in the United States and was in the Board of Directors of the Edgar Mitchell Foundation for Research into Extraterrestrial and Extraordinary Encounters (also known as F.R.E.E.) now becoming the Consciousness and Contact Research institute which studies multiple forms of experiencer contacts (also assisting experiencers) trying to understand their importance under the general idea that consciousness is at their basis. Its current web address is: www.consciousnessandcontact.org
In the F.R.E.E. organization, along with several scientists (such as emeritus Harvard Cosmologist Rudy Schild and highly experienced contact phenomenon researchers like Mary Rodwell), we produced an anonymous, international, in-depth, quantitative and qualitative scientific survey in English and Spanish to which more than 4,200 individuals from a total of 102 countries replied. The requisite for survey respondents was to consciously recall (without hypnosis or drugs) their contact experiences with non-human intelligent beings in association with UFO events and—based on their testimonies—we found some unique and persistent patterns. It would be unreasonable to think that they were all lying or deceiving themselves. We need to listen to so many persons giving these consistent testimonies worldwide, no matter how outlandish they seem. Unlike what is often presented by some researchers and documentaries and movies dramatizing or selectively focusing upon excessive negative interpretations or also on some negative aspects of some contact experiences, in this international, anonymous survey with a significant population we found that a majority of experiencers or contactees did not consider their experiences as “negative” or deleterious; that many had been healed of physical ailments; that most didn't want their experiences to end and that there was an overall enhancement of their outlook in life, becoming less materialistic, more generous, more humanitarian, patient, spiritual, broad-minded, multi-perspectival and ecological. They also began to experience more contact with other aspects of the otherworldly, for instance through out-of-body experiences, psi phenomena and intersubjective communication with otherworldly beings. Again, it would be unreasonable to think that all were lying or deceiving themselves. Today, there is no genuine, rational scientific excuse to dismiss or to ignore the truly “anomalous” or unconventional UFO and contact phenomena. We are even developing theories by which we could travel to the stars in a feasible, modified spacetime bubble without violating the speed of light limit. New applications with metamaterials may provides us with a practical means. Recently, after becoming aware of the evidence presented by the Pentagon and by the U.S. Navy through To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences, renowned string theory physicist Dr. Michio Kaku declared that the burden of proof has shifted away from UFO believers to the Government which would now have to demonstrate that we are NOT being visited by technologically advanced off-world beings. Thus, things are changing and courageous, creative scientists are beginning to recognize the facts. As integralists we also need to recognize that there is a core number of cases of objectively-verified, anomalous objects that appear to instantly accelerate and to change directions under intelligent control; that seem to materialize and dematerialize and that (without any classical means of propulsion) are seen to go inside mountains (including volcanoes like the Popocateptl in Mexico); under large bodies of water, to move in the atmosphere and in outer space. Some of these objects are being detected by infrared cameras whether they also are visible or not to the naked eye. And objects like these have been seriously researched for more than 7 decades while attempting to apply the scientific method and they have been witnessed worldwide for much longer than that. Unlawfully leaked but classified and lawfully declassified files have been steadily accumulating in the public domain for years. For instance, the CIA recently posted in 2019 another batch of files not only inclusive of UFOs but associated with parapsychological effects. Furthermore, countries like Brazil, the United Kingdom, and Spain have been constantly releasing for many years their formerly classified UFO files and countries like Perú, Chile, and Uruguay have had official UFO research offices for quite some time and various spokesmen have acknowledged that the phenomenon moving over their national air spaces is physical and genuine, often detected by radar systems and/or visually by trained observers. Clearly, many of these objects appear to be metallic (as one I saw within 250 feet in Lima, Perú similar to an Adamski type of craft in 1977) and, as General Nathan Twining wrote in a 1947 letter to Brigadier General Schulgen (in reference to flying discs as they were called then before the acronym “UFO” became popular) they have to be considered “real and not visionary or fictitious.” Moreover, these objects are regularly observed surrounded by a bright luminous energy field at night or by a light-distorting field during the day. Technically speaking an object is considered a “UFO” or also an unidentified aerial (or aerospace) phenomenon (“UAP”) only after it has been carefully studied by experts that can make an adequate determination of conventional or unconventional characteristics and a conventional explanation cannot be truthfully assigned to it. That said, some of the UFOs can well be technologically advanced and “otherworldly,” what I may more specifically call “trans-realm-utilizing, inter-reality vehicles.” For simplicity's sake, here I will use the term “UFO” referring to the last two meanings. While the U.S. Air Force's Project Blue Book had an overall implicit (and perhaps covert and explicit) mandate to try to explain away in a conventional manner as many cases as possible, a much higher percentage of “UNKNOWNS” was confidentially reported within the Air Force. As UFO researcher and nuclear physicist Stanton Freeman exposed, Blue Book's Special Report No 14 showed that, in general, 22% of their cases remained as “Unknowns” but also that—if the witnesses were more highly credible—this percentage was even higher. This finding contradicts the idea that UFOs are seen and reported by uneducated, fantasy-prone individuals. Beyond UFOs being a social taboo in the U.S., the taboo is almost universal, not only due to a disinformation and dismissive campaign installed in the 1950's but, more importantly, to the modern ethos. It goes well with modernity's rejection of things otherworldly in general. For instance, also within the Peruvian Air Force, I met many officers and personnel who had witnessed UFOs—sometimes at close range—but who also were reluctant to speak openly about this, afraid that they would be laughed at by their peers or that their mental stability would be questioned and that their careers would suffer. Perhaps in the early 1950's (in which there was an inviting contact with human-looking, flesh and blood, otherworldly beings) there was a window of opportunity for the U.S. Government to reveal the UFO and otherwordly presence, to educate the public and to establish necessary open relationship with a consortium of otherwordly beings, beginning with those that looked very similar to us. Vut the necessary Government and cultural leaders didn't rise to the occasion. There might be another opportunity now that the issue is becoming more credible and perhaps this time the required world leaders may rise to the occasion. Care about this we must but is it too late for us to evolve as a planetary species with it in time to avert ungovernability, dehumanization, social implosion and ecological catastrophe? I say this because I think that the more integrated, connecting patterns needed to understand the UFO phenomenon could give us a means to reframe what we think we know about reality and to intelligently adapt to the extreme exterior quadrants and systemic complexity that we are generating. A few years ago, a French committee formed by high-level Government officers, high-ranking military personnel and scientists associated with the French aerospace program published the so-called “COMETA Report.” After analyzing many UFO cases for 7 years they concluded that in about 5% of the cases the best reasonable hypothesis was the Extraterrestrial Hypotheses. This would also mean that in some cases Occam's Razor would best be applied by privileging this hypothesis. A few years later, other high-ranking officers like scientist and Apollo XIV astronaut Dr. Edgard Mitchell, Colonel Philip Corso (who served in WWII and under President Eisenhower) and former Canadian Minister of Defence Paul Hellyer came out publicly announcing that unconventional,technologically advanced, otherworldly UFOs were real together along with the non-human intelligences associated with them. Already some Russian cosmonauts and Generals had pronounced themselves similarly and soon thereafter, Russian Prime Minister Medvedev mentioned about the existence of extraterrestrials in an interview that some qualify as serious and others as a joke. But can we purposefully interact with the otherworldly beings? Well, yes. I recently participated in two so-called “programmed sightings”; one in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile and, previously, in another one in Mount Shasta, CA. “Programmed sightings” are intentional participatory sightings in which a bona fide contactee receives a clear telepathic or psychographic communication by which he or she is given permission to invite other persons to witness—and in some cases—record the sighting which may include researchers and reporters. Specific dates and times are given. In Mount Shasta (before a group of about 40 persons) several objects appeared, among them, a well-defined, reddish-orange, lenticular or oblong object appeared and remained for several minutes just above the pine tree line, some 1000-1300 feet away from our group and, in the Atacama Desert, a stationary light pulsated about 114 times above us (more than 300 witnesses). In the latter case, we checked that there were no geostationary satellites or iridium flare satellites. A Chilean and a Canadian team with video recording equipment were able to film part of the sighting. The point here is that—by scientists treating these procedures with empathy and respect—“programmed sightings” may evolve opening the possibility of repeatedly and experimentally interacting with the phenomenon which might gradually become more responsive allowing us to study it more easily under the scientific method and with scientific instruments. But the sentiments of scientists not wanting to have anything to do with contactees imbued by a sense of “spiritual mission” have to change as much as sentimentally prone, spiritually idealist persons supporting these contact experiences would have to appreciate even more the contributions of careful critical thinking, objectivity and science. The phenomenon calls us (already responding under different approaches) to come together respectfully, comprehensively and integratively for truth's sake and for the sake of adapting to it! In some of the Mission Rahma-related contacts there are contacts with almost non-physical, highly evolved, and benevolent, beings of “light” and the easiest way to contact them is through heartfelt kindness and LOVE, through sentiment which surpasses the intellect. If our minds do not understand these being's minds or intellects yet, perhaps the sentiment that connects also with a sense of the sacred can be a way of smoothing the ground and of understanding each other in a more elemental way. As my new friend Marcela Velasco would agree, ultimately “Contact is …A heart to heart relationship, a soul connection based on respect, unconditional love, and oneness.” Perhaps author and experiencer Mr. Whitley Strieber (apparently contacting different kinds of beings) would also agree with this statement today. The phenomenon calls all of us to leave behind excessive polarizing prejudices and to reach a clearer, species-wide, unified understanding through a conversing and integrative attitude. We need a dialogical approach. We also need to verify truth-claims associated with the phenomenon through various methodological means, quite likely under an enhanment of the 8 methodological perspectives described in Integral Theory; quite-likely considering how a trans-realm understanding may apply to these perspectives integratively. But do we also have concrete physical evidence? Besides several alleged alien implants emitting EM waves and possessing unique nanotechnological characteristics and off-planet isotopic ratios; implants that are not rejected by the body and produce an organic tissue that connects with local tissue and nerves; implants that were studied in serious labs previously being removed by podiatric surgeon Dr. Roger Leir, there also is a unique collection of metamaterials allegedly coming from UFO debris or released by UFOs during certain events. These metamaterials are artificially made and possess unique nanotechnological qualities as well as non-earthly isotopic ratios. One or more of these was and is being studied by researchers like information scientist and ufologist Jacques Vallée, by experimental and zero-point theoretical physicist Dr. Hal Puthoff and by Dr. Paul Chu, an expert in superconductivity. At least one that was acquired by To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences (TTSA) is being studied under a formal “CRADA” contract with the U.S. Army, an institution offering a laboratory facility to find practical applications.
The facts can no longer be ignored without appearing to be out of touch with reality, intellectually passé, dogmatic or silly.
While there are natural phenomena that are confused with UFOs and, while there may be very advanced military craft that can also be so confused, the possibility that there might also exist advanced vehicles not made by human hands is now—in 2019—being more formally confirmed both to the general public and to the U.S. Congress. This greater formal process stems from former U.S. intelligence officers, from Navy Officers and from relevant scientists and engineers with high-security clearances decisively turning the UFO subject into a legitimate issue that can be seriously discussed among modern “educated” people, academicians and politicians. We must recognize previous important political and academic pioneers in the field of ufology but also that the initiative carried on by the aforementioned, highly credible individuals gives representatives of major social institutions a greater implicit permission to credibly talk about UFOs without looking like fools. “Educated” attitudes against UFOs are changing. The tables are turning. Furthermore, the U.S. Navy is facilitating a sighting-reporting policy to its members. All of this occurs in addition to decades in which quite a few other countries have been declassifying and releasing their UFO files. And some of these files describe interactions with the phenomenon and, sometimes, with human-looking, humanoid, exotic, and other types of intelligent entities. Besides all of this, for many years there have also been credible reports of UFOs deactivating nuclear missile silos, something that can either be interpreted as a threat or— more benevolently—as a warning. The facts can no longer be ignored without appearing to be out of touch with reality, intellectually passé, dogmatic or silly. Definitely, our theories should change in accordance with the facts. I think that the way we behave with each other and how we treat the world we inhabit may change for the better if we can intelligently assimilate the reality of otherworldly contact. As previously stated, perhaps in the early 1950's there was a window of opportunity to reveal the UFO and its otherwordly presence, taking the “bull by the horns,” educating the public and establishing a necessary, open relationship with an association of humanity-supportive otherworldly beings, starting with the ones that look similar to us. Perhaps today there is another opportunity if the revelations by TTSA (and what may come afterward) are well-received. When I was a student at John F. Kennedy University studying management and—later on—Integral Theory, even in this highly progressive university, I found little interest in a subject that could change in so many ways the way we think about reality and about who we think we are. It is a subject linked to ontology, to a more advanced science apparently allowing other intelligences to overcome enormous spatial distances; to understand the interface between the mind and the body; a subject possibly linked to undeciphered aspects of our human origins and to more comprehensive models, to a renewed spiritual and metaphysical understanding and to how other intelligences may have advanced beyond our current social developmental stages without destroying themselves. Of course, it is also linked to the possibility of enhancing Integral Theory itself! But how come a hyper-technological, futuristic phenomenon is more clearly accepted by pre-modern, magical, shamanic-thinking persons and not by modern, post-modern and early integral-stage persons? On the one hand, Magical-stage individuals are said not to be able to unambiguously distinguish between subjective and objective experiences. Thus, anything that comes into their experience is accepted as “real.” Unless contacted by modernity they may not feel the need to favor exterior physical patterns that match a classic, modern view of the world. Any experienced phenomenon is equally real to them, and—if they perceive it—they naturally feel capable of relating to it. ***What I'm basically proposing here is that the genuinely otherworldly UFO phenomenon is an inter-realm phenomenon; both physical and interactive with what—in Integral Theory and Vedanta—(and other non-dual but also empirical traditions) is recognized as the “Subtle Realm.” Interacting with physically detectable vehicles that use the Subtle Realm to reprogram their physical states would naturally produce liminal, “high-strangeness” phenomena located between the physically established and the imaginal. Due to the “high strangeness” effects and synchronicities and paranormal psychokinetic effects, besides precognitions and missing time periods (connected with partially forgotten interactions with otherworldly intelligences), we cannot disdain its psychic and intersubjective aspects. Furthermore, thinking about the ways by which close encounters with the phenomenon interact with the mind in dreams and visions, and also through increased out-of-body experiences (besides being a strong catalyst for the expansion of one's personal worldviews and how much of “reality” we can accommodate in our consciousness 'space'), we can say that it uses an artificially enhanced interface which in my inter-realm model is determined by the difference between the more symmetrical causally interactive connection existing between Interior and Exterior Subtle Realm quadrants and the more asymmetrical, causally interactive Interior and Exterior interactive connection in Physical quadrants. Individuals predominantly situated in a “Magical” stage who think that everything (including non-biological objects) possesses subjectivity also have an easier time relating to this phenomenon intersubjectively because they tend to reduce reality to subjective and intersubjective experience. While (generally-speaking) this is a less comprehensive understanding, it also allows them an easier time to deal with multiple physical and non-physical realities, an ease of experiential access which in itself can also be understood as “fundamental” and as “Integral” and which should have been preserved across subsequent cultural stages.
So how should we as integralists relate with the truly otherworldly UFO (perhaps better called “inter-reality vehicles”) and the objective and intersubjective contact phenomenon? First by recognizing that we cannot treat it only in a rigidly objective, classic, modern, scientific manner. That the way it blurs the distinction between objective and subjective experience is—in itself—a fundamental component that can help us understand this issue. We should also ask if we have inherited a highly distorted modern ethos blinding our transition into post postmodernity and into integrality; an ethos that has disabled our possibilities for nourishing a more meaningful cultural order within the exterior hyper complexity that derives from an exacerbated manipulative and dependent focus on material technological prowess. Inasmuch as magical thinking individuals are better able to deal with various kinds of otherworldly contact phenomena they can be considered as more “integrative” at least in some manner or in certain lines of development. Today the tables against excessive, materialist, dogmatic skepticism are turning, and the UFO phenomenon is becoming a legitimate academic and scientific subject precisely at a time when faith in democracy is declining worldwide; when humanity is forgetting its democratic ideals and too many newly empowered people are willing to use any means to acquire wealth and personal advantage. Collectively-speaking, we may need some kind of “cultural shock” to move us out of complacency with the social, political, and economic systems and pre-integral interpretations created, including faith-based and scientific interpretations; an eye-opening surprise to activate the evolutionary impulse of “Eros” (something with which Ken Wilber may agree) and to feel the imperious, pre-verbal and also post-rational need to change our dominant worldviews currently geared towards the selfish,inordinate, external, reductionist, technological control of nature, of each other, of all sentient life and—eventually—of all experience. The Current SituationBesides gains in public health, life expectancy, the growth of the Middle Class worldwide (while simultaneously stagnating in other places), greater literacy, more access to information and less people dying in wars, our short-term, status-seeking, fear-based, personal gratification tendencies and biosocial, macroscopic evolutionary adaptations are destroying the lifeworld with which—generally speaking—we don't really feel personally connected anymore, especially when the neoliberal economic system demands from us to assign a commercial value to almost everything, promoting constant distractions or entertainment and vain, status-seeking in-group/out-group, identity values. As mentioned, worldwide, people are losing faith in the ideals of democracy; social institutions cannot keep up with competing social demands and—often unreasonable—expectations; growing expectations of frustration-intolerant people unwilling to respect the social order and l norms; while the classic liberal international social order based on equal human dignity is weakening, overtaken by cynical, self-serving politicians and personal identitarian and corporate interests that can manipulate the system. A fractioned human world unraveling into multiple nationalist, religious, right-wing, semi-fascist illiberal and left-wing illiberal, dictatorial camps while illicit, criminal monopolies are multiplying; while a minority of humanity accumulates an excessive amount of wealth and corruption is running rampant. In these situation (also defined by traditionalist, modern and postmodern cultural wars), the early stage, premodern and red-stage selfish individuals seem to prevail over the considerate, egalitarian and inclusive by having an easy access to the modern system which they have a fondness for exploiting it to get the upper hand as per decision-making, wealth and influence. If these tendencies continue without a dramatic shift, cultural and social development may regress or implode rather than complexify into voluntary cooperation and a synergistic planetary civilization. As a species, we appear to stubbornly hold on to tribal, religious, dogmatic and hyper-nationalist divisive attitudes and to self-serving behaviors while a mass extinction is taking place, and while microplastic invasion, the renewed proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, climate change and rising ocean levels are complicating everything. The connectivity of a hypercomplex, high-tech world empowering people with a plethora of choices (as well as potential restrictions on genuine self-determination) is unmanageable under prevailing mindsets. Is it any wonder why some contacts with the otherworldly seem to be about creating a hybrid species, perhaps capable of living on the planet without destroying it? We have information overload, a crowded, overpopulated, fast-paced world and an increasing lack of privacy. It is a complexity that includes artificial “actors” like the internet of things, artificial intelligence, virtual persons, 3D printing at home, general surveillance, asymmetric warfare, 5 G and above connectivity, hackers, connected intelligent devices sharing our data, self-programming AI, personalized genetic design, and the proliferation of drones and robots some of which are steadily replacing us in many ways. I propose that (to make sense of it all in an adaptive and fundamentally new way) we need to understand the underlying connectivity at the root of physicality, the connectivity of the Subtle Realm; from an absolute perspective, a more fundamental realm recognized by Integral Theory (and in various ways by ancient mystical and experiential traditions) and which (according to some rational metaphysical interpretations) provides the possibilities that cohere as physical actualities or manifestation. According to Ken Wilber's “Excerpt G” greater complexity of form is normally correlated or accompanied by more meaningfulness. This usually applies to biological forms but, extrapolating onto society, greater complexity and exterior connectivity in social systems should be accompanied by a greater descent, involution, involvement or presence of meaningfulness in terms of subjectivity and culture. Nonetheless, we seem to stubbornly hold on to a simpler “either-or,” dichotomous way of thinking and being, emphasizing exteriority, lack of trust and classic separations in space and time, including a proclivity for forming in-groups and out-groups and self-serving dominant hierarchies, something which perhaps was more tolerable when living in a simpler, less artificially-connected, technologically-scarce, physical environment. Moreover, it seems that we have not differentiated and integrated well across developmental fulcrums, perhaps tending to differentiate more than to incorporate previous truths when crossing onto a more comprehensive level. To avoid a pre-trans fallacy, in the Integral Stage (whose more comprehensive premises ought to be useful to relate better with the UFO phenomenon) we can reconcile the Subjective and Objective quadrants, not by blending these quadrants indistinctively, nor by reverting to a “Magical” stage of understanding. Rather by considering that they are distinct but mutually necessary and complementing each other; not just correlated and co-arising but interactive under a more inclusive and fundamental pattern, a pattern that would rest at the basis of our physical origins. I think that to expand beyond current, insufficient, “either-or”, binary ways of thinking and to survive as a species in the Physical World at present we need to accept contact with the Subtle Realm and its fundamental importance while living physical lives in physical bodies. Its connectedness is greater. It is at the core of the origin of physicality. Its more primordial connecting patterns can teach us how to think meta-systemically, to value harmonious, synergistic connectivity over a personal separation-based struggle against entropic decadence and inertia. It can even teach us to modify spacetime configurations to our benefit using its more comprehensive possibilities. I believe that many inter-reality-faring civilizations have learned to use this realm. I think that the otherworldly UFO presence is a “hyper object” persistently challenging our sense of reality and our cultural and societal adaptations across space and time. I think that it blurs the distinction between the subjective and the objective quadrants because genuine otherworldly UFOs use a “both-and” logic which—in practical terms—would prevail in the Subtle Realm. These hyper objects may also produce intermediate, semi-Physical, Subtle Realm-produced effects to manifest on different spacetime coordinates and—possibly (if multiverse theories are correct), a variety of physical universes. Said differently, two distinct modes of being would interface. UFOs force us to grow beyond what we consider to be ontologically real. And this is what we need at this time. Accepting a “both-and” logic is not a regression into the quadratic undifferentiation of a previous stage but a refinement into a more comprehensive understanding, under a more fundamental and symmetrical pattern that not only includes classical forms of logic but which transcends and connects otherwise incompatible opposites. Thus, we don't need to abandon common sense, either-or, binary logic but, instead, to transcend and include it, using it when appropriate. We need to activate our potentials for becoming more multi-perspectival and comprehensive. Metaphysics and Ontology Propitiating a More Comprehensive Understanding
Is there a metaphysical-ontological model that may fit with Integral Theory and which we can also use to enhance scientific understanding?
Is there a metaphysical-ontological model that may fit with Integral Theory and which we can also use to enhance scientific understanding? Metaphysically speaking (and in terms of the concept of “holons”) the Subtle Realm may act as a whole in which physical universes exist as parts that differentiate from this whole as actualized sets of coherent possibilities. The Subtle Realm may also provide us with new physically compatible possibilities that can temporarily and/or permanently modify stable physical patterns. For a subjective consciousness operating under physical duality, the greater connectivity of the Subtle Realm may be a step closer to the non-dual state. An even closer step to non-duality would be found in the Causal Realm (also recognized in Integral Theory) in which subjectivity is neither causally less effective than exteriors nor co-equal with exteriors but, rather, predominates over them. Finally (in the state of complete Nondual Consciousness equivalent to Pure Being), for the Primordial Source, God, or the Ultimately Indescribable Entity it would not be necessary (but instead only optional) to exteriorize material forms in order to manifest (ex nihilo and out of itself while never leaving itself) subjective, contingent consciousnesses that experience their existence in connection with these exteriorized material forms or realm-connecting vehicles. Moreover, the Source (in its original nondual condition), independent of all self-created illusions of limitations and modifications would infinitely transcend all forms in the three contingent realms. Now (in order to speculate in general quantum mechanical, physical terms about how advanced otherworldly physical intelligences may operate their technologically advanced vehicles) here is a more scientifically inclined 'mouthful': Technologically advanced, trans-realm-utilizing, multi-reality, otherworldly vehicles (often inadequately and simplistically called “UFO's”) may actualize different potential Subtle Realm patterns temporarily compatible with predominant, stable, physical patterns. The otherworldly intelligences may temporarily modify patterns in the Subtle Realm's Exterior Quadrants to rearrange their Physical Realm Quadrants and manifest in our spacetime coordinates. From a classic, physical perspective, we could say that they do so through a retrocausal, quantum-relativistic effect by artificially introducing new, compatible Subtle Realm possibilities capable of modifying quantum probabilities which—in turn—upon detection, observation or (from a Quantum Hologram Theory of Consciousness perspective) 'resonant' decoding manifest in our physical reality as retrocausality makes these patterns temporarily cohere or coincide with the prevalent deterministic, time-progressive, linearly perceived, coherent causal network of our physical universe. In fewer words, they would use Subtle Realm patterns to give rise to spacetime modifications by which they can manifest in our physical world. And there would also be a quantum-level interface through retrocausality. As retrocausal influences grow, there would be greater degrees of dematerialization from the Physical Realm until the inter-reality, Subtle Realm utilizing vehicle completely nullifies its spacetime characteristics and becomes a Subtle Realm entity. Then, it would be reprogrammed to re-materialize in a specific spacetime matrix and coordinate. The blurring of subjective and objective distinctions (which is typically experienced as 'nonsense') is only perceived as such from a physical, biologically instinctive, macroscopic and modern-rational perspective. But—as several alleged extraterrestrial communications ranging from those of Gray-like beings to more advanced energy beings to flesh and blood human-like beings (with different degrees of development and areas of interest and activities in connection with humanity) assert, as a species that has inherited genetic donations from several non-earthly species, we may have the potential to overcome our classic, evolution-biased, macroscopic, biopsychological attachments and to simultaneously comprise more advanced physical and non-physical perspectives and ways of being. Thus, out of an ancient relationship, there may also exist great expectations from UFO-related intelligences who consider us participants in their reality as much as a unique experiment. However, if our natural endowment proves unable to harmoniously stride between these two modes of being in the interface between realms, we may need to be externally modified or else to modify ourselves artificially or to be controlled or replaced cybernetically. Alleged hybridization programs conducted by some of the entities and referred to in many abduction accounts may not be a form of 'invasion' but a necessary measure for us to survive under another form that includes 'them'. Moreover, to relate to the science used by these intelligences, we would also have to increase our intersubjective relationship with the UFO inter-realm entities. Intersubjectivity exists in the Physical and Subtle realms and can enhance objective verification and perception of a trans-realm phenomenon. Actuality and PotentialityWe need to think in terms of actuality and potentiality in relation to otherworldly phenomena. For instance, I basically hypothesize that the Subtle Realm is ontologically actual but that—in relation to physicality—it contains the potentials or possibilities for all viable physical universes which—in turn—may (relatively—speaking) also exist in a potential or actual-resonant state with respect to ours. Thus, we would have to consider both the physical and subtle otherworldly both in terms of potential and/or actual realities as they relate with us. As previously mentioned, I also hypothesize that the Subtle Realm's exterior quadrants (a form of non-physical matter responsive to subjectivity and also equally affecting it) may be modified by the causal power of subjective input. Perhaps physical otherworldly vehicles can experience various degrees of disconnection from spacetime becoming less physical and—as they get into states pf physicality proximate to the Subtle Realm—their material states would also become more programmable until—in advanced stages of disconnection when retrocausality completely nullifies time-forward, deterministic patterns—they would completely abandon not just a physical universe but the Physical Realm altogether. Regarding quadrants, I think that besides them co-arising or correlating, Interior and Exterior quadrants also influence each other under different symmetrical and asymmetrical causal strengths within and between realms. Understanding these differences in terms of relative potential and actual states would be necessary to understand how realms interface through an intermediate (probably quantum-related) state, sometimes referred to as “etheric” by some esoteric traditions. In Vedanta (and in terms of the vehicles or masks which pure consciousness-being can inhabit) it is known as the “Pranayama Kosha.” Interiors and Exteriors would influence each other with a more symmetrical causal power in the Subtle Realm than in the Physical. Said differently, while in the physical worlds exterior quadrants have a greater asymmetrical causal power over interior quadrants (imposing deterministic patterns and hiding the perception of retrocausal quantum level influences that would connect with Subtle Realm potentials), in the Subtle Realm Interior and Exterior quadrants would be more causally symmetrical or equivalent, affecting each other equally. This can be expected from a model that considers that the Nondual may impose an illusory limit upon itself, generating duality, three contingent realms, difference, and connectivity in states of potential and actuality, the Four Dimensions recognized in Integral Theory and their combinations called the Four Quadrants. Who May the Otherworldly UFO Intelligences Be?The intelligences associated with the otherworldly vehicles may be physical entities temporarily coinciding with our spacetime coordinates but originally separated by vast classical distances. In other words, still operating in our general spacetime matrix. Or else, they might naturally exist in another physical universe. But if they use their subjectivity to modify Subtle Realm exterior patterns which—in turn—allow them to modify physical patterns and to interact with our particular spacetime configuration and coordinates, then learning to establish an intersubjective relationship with them may assist us in obtaining an enhanced, inter-realm, objective understanding of their reality and activities. By being able to use the Subtle Realm, some or all would also be capable of transferring themselves completely into it and from that perspective—much like ghosts—of producing physical effects through an inter-realm interface, or inter-realm decoding mechanism. The Gödelian Perspective
We can assume that most otherworldly UFO intelligences would be developmentally situated in an advanced Integral developmental stage.
I think that to find out how we can reorganize ourselves in a consistent manner we need to relate with a more complete and encompassing reality simultaneously outside but potentially inclusive of our social systems. Thinking in Gödelian or in Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem terms extrapolated into our social reality (which is still primarily ruled by dichotomous ways of thinking and organizing), the possibility of connecting with a cosmic community able to transcend and modify spacetime patterns by utilizing Subtle Realm patterns would entice us to become more viable as an organized species in terms of being more consistent and /or complete. Let me explain. We could extend our social systems and cultures by becoming participants and parts of a more complete and vast cosmic community. Our cultural holons and subjective understandings cannot relate well with the ever-increasing exterior hyper complexity of our social systems. For greater consistency and/or completeness in terms of a culture that could more wisely handle this exterior, hyper-complex, interconnected, planetary level still primarily operating under an either-or meaning-making logic (in Gödel´s terms associated with second-order arithmetic), our perspectives now surely require to be enhanced or (for coherence' sake) completed by contact with a more encompassing system and cultural whole; by the perspectives of a spacetime-transcending cosmic community and its objective quadrant realities; by more inclusive, multi-planetary, multi-reality entities and holons participating in a vaster network. I believe that besides knowledge of Subtle Realm patterns—as a planetary species—we also require a mindful participatory connection with the reality of a cosmic community in which different beings associated with the UFO phenomenon would participate. We need this to make sense of our hyper-complex systems and to reconfigure ourselves without imploding or regressing into self-destructive chaos or perhaps surrendering our humanity to a technologically controlled, automated dictatorship. We can assume that most otherworldly UFO intelligences would be developmentally situated in an advanced Integral developmental stage. Crucial elements of Integral Theory as it stands now may be part of their understanding and also a means we can use to relate with them. As integralists we need to catch up with a reality that is becoming socially legitimate and undeniable; first, by recognizing our failures in that we may have rejected ways of disclosing and accommodating more of reality in our consciousness “space.” Besides the permanently integral aspect of openness to otherworldly interactions (a key discovery of Magical-stage cultures), a greater recognition of the Amber or Mythical religious stage sense of Sacred Duty or of seeking personal alignment with a Transcendent Source of meaning is practical and adequate. This doesn't mean that we should deify extraterrestrials or become subservient to them. In fact, according to most alleged contactee or experiencer communications with different varieties of them, they don't want to provoke this response. For the most part, they seem to want to relate with us and with that which makes us original as equals. But they probably require our wanting to know, to care. They likely need to learn from us as we likely need to learn from them. And serious contacteeism indicates that this relationship is (for the most part) not about simple, exploitative, commercial trade or about the enslavement of people as portrayed in less credible, less verifiable— attention-getting—extreme “Secret Space Program” accounts. I have several Latin American friends who may not know much about Integral Theory perspectives or similar models or be too intellectually inclined but who, nonetheless, are open to working with extraterrestrial contacts under a Sacred Sense of Duty. Many have experienced various types of direct contacts and also work as a team to support shared missions often associated with the contact efforts of prime contactees. The types of non-human intelligences they are more familiar with do not abduct unannounced, but follow a different agenda, stressing voluntary efforts at personal ethical and psychic development to work with them in service to society under a sense of spiritual duty. These cases should not be dismissed as “airy-fairy” because they do not meet modern, individualist, self-interest, technologically-emphatical, “rational” explanations. As may be the case for Magical-stage individuals who are open to otherworldly contacts (as mentioned, a quality that in itself may be 'Integral' regardless of other non-integral lines of development), perhaps these Latin American friends also enjoy a crucial, integral-level quality by virtue of being attitudinally receptive not only to the otherworldly but also to a Universalist Sense of the Sacred, even if they appear (to Euro-American, judgmental First World eyes) to be mostly situated in an inferior, “Amber” or “Mythical” believers level. Perhaps, unbeknownst to modern, post-modern and integral stage persons, Love, Idealism, and Compassion indeed are keys that facilitate a relationship with highly evolved intelligences, even surpassing rational approaches. After knowing and participating with Mission Rahma contactees and supporters since 1977 in various service-based contact missions, contact exercises and excursions and gatherings, I'm certain that many have experienced direct forms of contact (such as energetic, out-of-body, clearly telepathic, inter-reality, portal-based holographic and portal-based physical, onboard crafts and other forms of contact which the otherworldly beings they relate with have provided, including a long-term, supportive, trust-building, relationship and ample physical evidence of their existence while trying not to force their presence and ways of being onto them. As per the previously mentioned survey and as per research by qualified academicians like Harvard Psychiatrist John Mack, highly interactive, intimate, personal contact experiences with more conscious otherworldly beings are transformative. The normal human response is to increase its perspective-taking capacities. First under a state of amazement but also upon connecting with the soulful core of our self-identities. Furthermore, due to the intimate, personal relationships that develops with these otherworldly entities that are reported peering deep into our minds, these types of contacts generally surpass (in terms of personal ethical shifts) most otherworldly perceptions produced by entheogens. Who is in the Emergent 10% “Integral”?Perhaps some persons in the expected, emerging, Integral-Level 10% of the population (that humanity allegedly needs to create integrative social, political, economic systems) are contact experiencers who may not know (or even care to understand) the tenets of Integral Theory or similar conceptual models. However, perhaps their values are “Integral” in the core of their being inasmuch as they are compatible with embracing life out of a sacred sense of service and duty. Again, perhaps some in that emerging, Integral-Level 10% are being contacted by intelligent, trans-realm, reality-crossing intelligent star and light beings. Their personal sentiment, identification, and values would at least be world-centric and, more likely, cosmo-centric and, thus, in their own ways they can also act as necessary participants in that expected Integral-stage 10%. In fact, maybe many of those whom we deem to be “Amber” and “Magical-stage” individuals may actually preserve for humanity crucial integral-stage universally Integral aspects that some of us have forgotten or are not capable to sufficiently recognize because—by virtue of closely participating in the modern Western culture—we may have excessively differentiated from certain truths without embracing them. Since many in the Integral Community operate in a United States-centered intellectual culture, still very close to modern and post-modern Eurocentric influences, we should be careful whom we consider as outside of that emerging 10% “Integral” and instead try to relate more with ethically-compatible persons rather than limiting ourselves recursively to our Integral social circles and appearing as excessively intellectual, disconnected or aloof. If (without limiting ourselves to a fear-based interpretation) we became knowledgeable and supportive not only of efforts to disclose and to understand the UFO phenomenon but of multiple forms of UFO-related otherworldly contact events (without abandoning Integral Theory and as the UFO issue becomes a socially legitimate subject) we could assist a borderline Integral, GREEN-stage population to move into an early Integral “Teal” stage by incorporating greater openness and understanding about UFO-related otherworldly contacts. As integralists it would behoove us and our society needs to incorporate the otherworldly in association with UFOs in earnest as a wonderful opportunity and without fear or serious distortions. Perhaps “they” do not show up in a definitive public manner to end the denial of their presence because they want us to have a more spontaneous, natural recognition that they are real: This would be a healthy pre-requisite for a necessary and highly-important intersubjective relationship, especially if this relationship requires to connect with Subtle Realm patterns. And our intersubjective openness and interest itself would facilitate and smooth out the actualizing of this objective quadrants-enhanced, inter-reality presence. RecommendationsAs official disclosure (or for some 'confirmation') proceeds, the physical and so-called “paranormal” decoding of the otherworldly presence in relation to UFOs (or, rather, shall we call them “inter-reality” vehicles?) and its intelligences is bound to increase because a trans-realm physical and simultaneously mind-based phenomenon like this would become more observable, actual or disclosed as we become intersubjectively resonant with its possibility. Thus, for the Integral Community to remain at the forefront of these world-changing events we should support research on the nature of the otherworldly vehicles and their intelligences, including establishing intersubjective and objective contact with all the variety of beings that can be beneficial to us, without jumping to early conclusions that might portray an 'us vs them' attitude. Perhaps many “inter-reality beings” may not adjust to the simplified “extraterrestrial visitor” concept. Some may be us from a probable future. Some may be our genetic relatives. Some may come from other physical universes. Some of these universes may still exist within the Physical Realm but be subtler than ours. Some may be more established in the Subtle Realm than at a particular universe in the Physical Realm. Some may be old-time inhabitants of the Earth inside the Earth's crust resonant with our physical frequencies or in other physical frequencies. Relatively-speaking, from a linear time perspective, many would have been here for a very long time, some perhaps before homo sapiens. As integral thinkers, we should separate genuine information from disinformation regarding who the different beings might be. And if some countries have secret space programs, how far do they go? How many popular accounts are disinformation mixed with the truth? In fact, we should promote a vast, comprehensive scientific and philosophical conversation, besides creative research and education on this subject. For instance, we should begin a conversation on what these beings' legal rights might be in terms (of exolegal and exopolitical systems) or how our national and international legal systems should evolve to accommodate their presence. We should also try to responsibly find out how we fit in the cosmic scheme of things, what is generally expected from us to be included as a sovereign species in the closest-to-us, inter-reality cosmic community; how different beings may cooperate or impose limits on each other in relation to their activities on Earth, and which beings should be considered our 'allies' and closest 'allies' among the different types of beings reported. As per a decision in what could be called “Terrestrial Exopolitics” (the Dr. Michael Salla definition), do we have the wisdom to develop weapons to defend against some of them or should we continue to rely on the alleged protection offered by still others (or perhaps even an alliance) amongst them? How much of any deciphered otherworldly technology can we disclose to the world without putting the whole world in peril? Should the possibility of extracting zero-point energy be made available worldwide? How can some of this technology be used to reduce carbon emissions and to clean the oceans and the atmosphere? As integralists, we also need to be activists and get politically involved. As integralists or simply as concerned citizens, we should promote further disclosure and worldwide, cooperative research on this subject, including vying for several countries to activate the 1978 United Nations General Assembly Decision 33/426 to create a UN UFO research, analysis, and education office. Of great interest, we should try to refine the theoretical robustness of Integral Theory (and also similar integrative meta-theories and how they relate with each other) to meet the challenge of understanding a way of being that appears to simultaneously include, modify and transcend classical physical limitations. It should be part of our fulcrum shift into greater integralism. And our shadows associated with an openness to the otherworldly and to a sense of the Sacred should be illumined. The shift involving an unheard-of way of being in the world is probably at least as important and radical as when our ancestors began to walk in an erect posture, the discovery of fire or the development of the imaginative mind, art, and written language. And we should use this expanded awareness to try to create a unifying World Philosophy respectful of local differences, enhancing the natural and social sciences and—in particular—how various integrative metatheories relate. Finally, as a community of scholars, some of us should empirically explore together and interface with the contact reality under shared inter-reality contact methods or injunctions, learning more about the patterns behind it, including trying to disclose what off-world exopolitical organizations there may be, how we could participate as a unified species in them and what are the different activities and expectations which different otherworldly beings may have about us in relation to them. By doing this, we would enhance the scope of scientific empirical investigations augmenting the scope of objectivity with intersubjectivity. So, let's assume our responsible role as true integralists at the forefront of a most unique, unprecedented shift in human history. Thank you very much.
|