Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Do you feel a sense of mission?

There are these questionnaires that UFO abduction researchers will post on their sites. Here is a list (with links) to a series of questionnaires:  Brad Steiger - Barbara Lamb - Kathleen Marden - David Jacobs - MUFON - Mary Rodwell (see side-bar) - ICAR (Joe Montado's organization) - and some outfit I've never heard of called AAER. These are all fascinating.

I have filled out a few of these, more out of curiosity, than to receive any sort of potential validation of what might have happened in my life. There are some questions that I completely expected, like: Have you ever seen a UFO?

As you go down the list, there are some exceptionally curious questions that I wouldn't expect, like: Do you have a fear of closet doors? I'll answer yes to a few of 'em (I've seen a UFO) and I'll answer no to most of 'em (I have no fear of closet doors).

There is one question that gets repeatedly asked in most of these questionnaires: Do you feel a sense of mission? Now my reply to at one is a screaming loud - - -
I am not exaggerating, this needs to be in bold letters with lots of exclamation marks. For reasons I don't understand, this one feels like a burning urgency deep in my soul. And I don't know why.

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Please note:
Lucretia Heart added her own blog posting as a response to this posting of mine. She (as usual) states things plainly (and humorously). Her essay is linked HERE.
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9 comments:

Red Pill Junkie said...

Sense of a mission, or that one is destined to big things is a common feeling among creative individuals --and egomaniacs :P

Don't get me wrong. It's nice that people who think they have been in touch with a bigger aspect of life sense that they are compelled to follow a certain course.

But one should be mindful, too: how do you know this mission is not a suicide one, and that you won't end up becoming an expendable pawn?

PS: Maybe not 'scared' scared. But half-open closet doors do make me nervous :-/

Brizdaz (Darren) said...

YES!!!...me too.

What about creative egomaniacs RPJ?
I've always thought I might be a hybrid .-)

And regarding - "how do you know this mission is not a suicide one, and that you won't end up becoming an expendable pawn?"

Life is a suicide mission RPJ.
Nobody gets out of it alive.
And as to the pawn thing,being a creative egomaniac I would probably have to view myself as being a huge pawn star in their production,I guess :-P

Red Pill Junkie said...

LOL I stand corrected, Darren ;)

But I hope you find it a fair doubt. This sense of a mission some of us (yes, guilty as charged too) might have could be just a coping mechanism to rationalize our failures to be successful, as success is mea$ured in today's standards...

Bright Garlick said...

Mike I think I understand what you are saying. I agree with RPJ BUT I also have a suspicion that many people who have had contact with our otherworldly friends, have inherited a form of desire to do something significant for the benefit of others or the planet. No doubt there is an ego component to this but I wonder if this desire to bring something else, this burning desire to fulfill something isn't in line with what they may have given us. We do after all have a unique perspective and a willingness to look very honestly at ourselves and the world we have created.

For me the strongest sense of mission is to alleviate suffering and to know the answer to what am I ? From that Living Fully is the real mission.

Does that resonate with you Mike ?

Nice little post Mike !

Have an awesome weekend,

Bright.

Anonymous said...

For me, sort of a personal mission.

After I graduated from college (with a B.A. in History and a double minor in Psychology and Secondary Education) instead of
going for my certification to become a high school history (or social studies) teacher) I became very interested in working with adult mentally disabled people. This was shortly after the time when mental hospitals were closing en masse and people being released had not lived in anything resembling a normal enviornment.

Since then, I've worked with this population. I began as a direct care worker in a group home, working up to asst. house manager, manager, service-plan director and currently am an administrative facilitator.

I sensed quite suddenly, when I was 22, that if I had to work to earn a living (obviously) then I needed to do something that was personally helpful and meaninful to another human being.

I didn't lose my interest in the subject of History and consider myself a history buff. But, working with adult disabled has been much more satisfying than the idea of teaching to bored, smartassed high schoolers. ;-)

~ Susan

Anonymous said...

Lucretia here~!

I couldn't log in using my blogger ID because now you have to confirm it with a cell phone number and I don't own a cell phone! GREAT.

Anyway! Take 2. =^P

I think the normal "sense of mission" most people think of, and the ABDUCTEE sense of mission are a little different on several fronts:

1. We have a very strong sense of it from childhood that doesn't seem directly connected to our personal wants and dreams. We feel it coming to us from some outside source, rather than generating it from within as we develop like most people do. "I want to save animals," or "I want to work with abused children," are NOT the kind of MISSION we're talking about here.

2. Its not a 'savior complex' type of thing (being the special single person everyone 'oohs' and 'aahs' over) so much as a joining with many others to keep things from totally falling apart. Moreover, we don't expect to be rewarded or looked up to, but feel the need to keep it secret and hope to avoid notice if possible. We feel it will be possibly very dangerous at some points and not very rewarding-- but we believe we'll feel compelled to do it anyway.

3. Its about having a role like a JOB that we'll be jumping into at some point. Thankless, but necessary. What's more, few of us are sure just exactly WHAT that job will be. Very rarely, some of us will remember being trained for specific activities that will be needed in the future.

4. The sense of waiting drives us a little bit crazy in the meantime. You don't want things to go crazy (as it seems it must before the mission begins) yet being caught in a holding pattern feeling useless is frustrating too. You want to either get on with things or prepare better, and you're never sure which way to go-- so you end up switching back and forth your entire life.

Many people can understand the idea that all of us (or at least most of us) can have the potential to find some special mission in life in which we find a place to make a difference for the better in the world.

Most of us can understand that there are egomaniacs that would LOVE to be as special to other people as they believe themselves to be-- just for existing perhaps, or maybe they have delusions of grandeur where they're actually a messiah in their own mind.

But neither the honorable sense of mission, nor the deplorable sense of mission is what's being addressed. At least not for me. I'm guessing Mike feels like I do-?

A better survey question would probably be: *"Do you have a nagging and profound sense of mission that involves a job you feel you'll be performing in a future that seems so different than today as to seem unreal?" --but that's a little long!

Mike Clelland! said...

Yes - Yes - What Lucretia says.

Anonymous said...

~ Lucretia again!

Thanks for the confirmation, Mike. I suspected so!

Meanwhile, on my blog- I've had some interesting back and forth with people who can't understand how you can feel this "sense of mission" and not have a messiah complex. I keep remembering all those future dreams I had growing up and as a young adult where people like me were hunted, shot at, and despised-- yet I was on the job all the same along with many other people. I don't recall feeling even slightly superior to anyone, just resigned and stubbornly trying to help. There was ZERO glory. Granted, they were dreams, but if there is any truth to this future scenario then I don't foresee myself getting a big head. Heck-- I don't even know that I'll want to fulfill that mission once I know what it is and how its all going to work!

But the feeling, for now, is still with me.

Lori Bogedin said...

Mike, I am sitting here with a smile as wide as can possibly be to your response:

"I am not exaggerating, this needs to be in bold letters with lots of exclamation marks. For reasons I don't understand, this one feels like a burning urgency deep in my soul. And I don't know why." Mike Clelland

Perhaps you remember why - I don't know if you remember my answer or not. Your blog site and the site unkowncountry.com has opened my eyes to a completely different way of looking at events in my life and the world.

HA! To think that someone as curiously seeking answers as myself has only looked at things in black or white, crazy.

Everything I am learning from you and the others you are connected with are bridging a gap that I never thought I'd find. There is a whole new way of looking at things - no better time than now!

Lori B.