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| maybe that was the guy on the phone? |
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| essential reading |
Mike, I “thought” I knew where it was headed. I thought it would be a fairly straightforward comparison between historical aerial phenomena and interpretations of aerial phenomena today. However, about two to three months into the study I was confronted by inquiries from scientists, screenwriters, actors, and I realized that this was not your usual religious studies research. Yet, I also realized that these are the kinds of people who show up when something important is about to happen, or is happening, and in this case it is the birth of a new belief system. When I realized this, I was very excited and surprised.2) You came into this arena as a scholar of religion, and you’ve framed the story from that point of view, and this seemed to allow for certain a level of objectivity. What was challenging for you about this book? And conversely, what was easy about this book?
The discipline of religious studies lends itself well to the study of this phenomena as most scholars of religion do not weigh-in on the truth or non-truth of the claims of believers. We look at effects, practices, etc. However, this position, my position, was seriously challenged because the people I was working with, scientists who studied the phenomena, were sharing their findings with me. Their findings made me think about their truth claims. I had to consider their claims, because they were not talking about whether or not a particular saint caused a painting to move, they were actually showing me scientific data. So, again, this was a surprising shift in my research.3) How was the coffee in Italy?
In terms of your question, what was easy about this book… there was nothing easy about it. It became something that I had to write, which was difficult, as I have a “day job” that keeps me really busy, and I am a mother to middle schoolers. So, it was challenging in every way, psychologically and practically.
I cannot overstate the difference between the taste of the coffee in Italy in comparison to coffee in the United States. I don’t mean to offend anyone here, but when I tasted the wine, and the coffee in Italy, I was, to put it bluntly, very shocked. When I returned from Italy I searched and searched for wine shops that sold Italian wines and coffees. I did find some, but it took me months.4) On page 8 you describe meeting, “the meta-experiencers, the scientists who studied the experiencers and the phenomenon.” Later in that same paragraph you wrote of experiencing: “an epistemological shock, that is, a shock to my fundamental understanding of the world and the universe.”
It was John Mack, the Harvard researcher who studied and wrote a book about this phenomenon in the 1980s, who coined the term “epistemological shock.” It means that your “theory of reality” is being shifted, and that it is a shocking experience. I had gone into the study a disbeliever, and I left the study something entirely different. This was due to my association with the scientists. Their research convinced me, and note, I am not trying to convince anyone else here, but their research was compelling and I understood that the question of this phenomena is not so easy to answer. It was easy to show how people’s beliefs and practices are influenced by media, but it wasn’t easy to dismiss the research of vetted scientists. I couldn’t.
This was just announced on Whitley Strieber's weekly newsletter. It's official! I'll be hosting a podcast series and I'm super excited, more soon!
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Cover design, in progress.
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My goal list for this project:
— Keep the “tone” of the original post.I’ve had people tell me I should write my story as a book. I thought about it, but pretty much all my experiences are on the blog. I realized that if I re-wrote everything for a memoir there would end up being a sort of distancing from the events. Many of the posts were written the same day as the experience I was attempting to describe, and the urgency is palpable in the text. A set of collected blog posts might feel a bit choppy compared to a formal autobiography, but I think there is a raw emotion in the posts—and that honesty is valuable.
— Edit minimally for clarity and grammar.
— Add any new insights, and note them as new.
— If joining a series of related posts, present them as one long story.
— Try to avoid repeating stories covered in The Messengers and Stories from The Messengers.
This was originally posted in Feb. 2010, and I'd nearly forgotten about it. There was this online service where you could create these awkward animations. I wrote a little script and look what happened... I think it's funny!
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A painting of Peter Birkhäuser (1911-1976), painted during a difficult period of his life, might offer an answer to this question. He called the painting Sun of the Night. It beautifully illustrates why it is so important that the individual is committed in a very concrete way, in his own house, as it were, to the spirit of the collective unconscious.
A nocturnal, owl-like creature with uncanny eyes rises from the horizon like the moon. Its look seems somehow foreboding as if it were in possession of a remote knowledge which certainly surpasses human consciousness. Its strangeness and even eeriness make clear that the encounter of the individual with the spirit of the unconscious isn’t anything like an easy task. On the contrary, the human being in his small house seems to be completely and utterly at the mercy of that supreme and alien power of the “Other.” Compared to the powerful Sun of the Night the small house with its warm human light appears rather unimportant. And now this dwelling place offers a vessel to the human, that is, a protected place of shelter. The human being needs such a place, where he or she can get in contact with and listen to the objective psyche, that is, to the spirit of the unconscious.
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| the owl is a symbol _______________________________________________ click on the image above for a HI-Rez view |
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