Artist and all-around creative person Ciara Barsotti blesses The Observer with an analysis of UFO belief. She also paints dope scenes featuring UFOs. Are you a Denier, Believer, or Questioner?
I've been studying UFOs for more than 3 decades (I'm 50) and after all these years I strongly support the 'excluded middle' approach. Judging questioners as 'fence sitting' is more unfair than calling deniers 'negative', because the people who are still making questions instead of fighting for a line they drew on the sand are aware there are many things that SHOULD be denied about claims re. UFOs—particularly if those claims are designed to manipulate public perception—but unfortunately Believers are too busy trying to convince everybody else they've been right all along.
"Belief is the enemy." This quote by John A. Keel (who nobody would call a Denier) has been a lifesaver in my life, and has helped me retain my sanity. By all means, we should retain the question in our minds for as long as we can, because falling into each of the other camps is an intellectual defeat.
PS: Your artwork is very beautiful and interesting :)
Thought-provoking article accompanied by beautiful art. I wonder, when you ask the "question," do you get more Believers than Deniers? Put me down as a Believer.
Some of this lack of understanding -- or maybe a great deal -- can probably be attributed to a condition described by Seth, the invisible being who spoke through Jane Roberts between 1963 and 1984:
"Most of my readers are familiar with the term, 'muscle bound.' As a race you have grown 'ego bound' instead, held in a spiritual rigidity, with the intuitive portions of the self either denied or distorted beyond any recognition."
John Mack's books were published after Jane's death; no could ask Seth for additional UFO-related information based on them; no one could ask Seth, either, about the visitors to the Ariel School.
Seth referred to physical reality as "camouflage" reality and described how we create it, "singly and en masse." Many borrowed his phrase "you create your own reality" without attribution and without the detail he provided.
As far as I know, I've never been abducted in the Mack sense of the term, but I have met someone who described an experience somewhat of that nature, one she shared with her sister and their mom.
Something triggered a memory of this -- otherwise completely forgotten, years later -- but proved very difficult to retain; reinforcing it by speaking to her sister and mom, triggering _their_ memories, required persistence and assistance. She'd decide to bring the topic up the next time she spoke with her sister then forget to do so.
Apparently, some unknown beings have a much better understanding of physical reality than we do, that includes routinely tampering with human memory.
Meanwhile, maybe some unknown % of UFOs are actually of a physical nature, others being something else that is more difficult to describe (Seth described odd effects associated with interdimensional transpositions).
The odd memory lapses in a good number of abduction cases remind me of the mesmerizers who traveled through 19th Century America, some of them attempting to put locals into trances for entertainment. After young Andrew Jackson Davis was put into a trance, he became amazingly clairvoyant -- an Edgar Cayce before there was an Edgar Cayce. (Davis was known as the Poughkeepsie Seer and died in Boston in 1910, the same year William James, who investigated the medium Leonora Piper, died.)
Was the clairvoyance experienced by Davis a result of transcending his particular 'ego bound' condition? How might he, in trance, have interpreted that which John Mack's patients described?
William James could get away with investigating Piper -- it was still possible for scientists in his time to delve into such areas, which included any possible afterlife.
Trances, mediums, invisible beings like Seth, clairvoyance (and I'd include modern examples, say the writings of Ingo Swann, especially those concerning his lunar visit), an afterlife, the nature of physical reality, and the perceptual restrictions of modern egoic consciousness of which many are completely oblivious (how could it be otherwise?) -- I'd connect all of this with "UFOs."
Am I a Denier, Believer, or Questioner?
As someone who spent years working in market research, I know that many multiple choice questions really should have "other" as a choice. Seth advised his readers to continually examine their beliefs. "Question" could be used in place of "examine."
I've been studying UFOs for more than 3 decades (I'm 50) and after all these years I strongly support the 'excluded middle' approach. Judging questioners as 'fence sitting' is more unfair than calling deniers 'negative', because the people who are still making questions instead of fighting for a line they drew on the sand are aware there are many things that SHOULD be denied about claims re. UFOs—particularly if those claims are designed to manipulate public perception—but unfortunately Believers are too busy trying to convince everybody else they've been right all along.
"Belief is the enemy." This quote by John A. Keel (who nobody would call a Denier) has been a lifesaver in my life, and has helped me retain my sanity. By all means, we should retain the question in our minds for as long as we can, because falling into each of the other camps is an intellectual defeat.
PS: Your artwork is very beautiful and interesting :)
RPJ!
You’re no stranger to The Observer crew! We love your work and contributions.
This is a well thought out reply and we tend to agree that there are some beliefs that should be denied.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Thought-provoking article accompanied by beautiful art. I wonder, when you ask the "question," do you get more Believers than Deniers? Put me down as a Believer.
There is so much we don't understand.
Some of this lack of understanding -- or maybe a great deal -- can probably be attributed to a condition described by Seth, the invisible being who spoke through Jane Roberts between 1963 and 1984:
"Most of my readers are familiar with the term, 'muscle bound.' As a race you have grown 'ego bound' instead, held in a spiritual rigidity, with the intuitive portions of the self either denied or distorted beyond any recognition."
John Mack's books were published after Jane's death; no could ask Seth for additional UFO-related information based on them; no one could ask Seth, either, about the visitors to the Ariel School.
Seth referred to physical reality as "camouflage" reality and described how we create it, "singly and en masse." Many borrowed his phrase "you create your own reality" without attribution and without the detail he provided.
As far as I know, I've never been abducted in the Mack sense of the term, but I have met someone who described an experience somewhat of that nature, one she shared with her sister and their mom.
Something triggered a memory of this -- otherwise completely forgotten, years later -- but proved very difficult to retain; reinforcing it by speaking to her sister and mom, triggering _their_ memories, required persistence and assistance. She'd decide to bring the topic up the next time she spoke with her sister then forget to do so.
Apparently, some unknown beings have a much better understanding of physical reality than we do, that includes routinely tampering with human memory.
Meanwhile, maybe some unknown % of UFOs are actually of a physical nature, others being something else that is more difficult to describe (Seth described odd effects associated with interdimensional transpositions).
The odd memory lapses in a good number of abduction cases remind me of the mesmerizers who traveled through 19th Century America, some of them attempting to put locals into trances for entertainment. After young Andrew Jackson Davis was put into a trance, he became amazingly clairvoyant -- an Edgar Cayce before there was an Edgar Cayce. (Davis was known as the Poughkeepsie Seer and died in Boston in 1910, the same year William James, who investigated the medium Leonora Piper, died.)
Was the clairvoyance experienced by Davis a result of transcending his particular 'ego bound' condition? How might he, in trance, have interpreted that which John Mack's patients described?
William James could get away with investigating Piper -- it was still possible for scientists in his time to delve into such areas, which included any possible afterlife.
Trances, mediums, invisible beings like Seth, clairvoyance (and I'd include modern examples, say the writings of Ingo Swann, especially those concerning his lunar visit), an afterlife, the nature of physical reality, and the perceptual restrictions of modern egoic consciousness of which many are completely oblivious (how could it be otherwise?) -- I'd connect all of this with "UFOs."
Am I a Denier, Believer, or Questioner?
As someone who spent years working in market research, I know that many multiple choice questions really should have "other" as a choice. Seth advised his readers to continually examine their beliefs. "Question" could be used in place of "examine."