Thursday, June 3, 2010

Of Ancient Astronauts and how once again all comes back to Philip K. Dick

For reasons that pass understanding, The History Channel canceled UFO Hunters a while back.  This left me with a bit of a void in my already dwindling amount of television viewing.  That void has been somewhat filled by Ancient Aliens.  You might infer from the title that the program covers the Ancient Astronaut theory and how supposedly, aliens have been visiting Earth since the dawn of time.  And you would be correct. 
During a recent episode, it struck me how ubiquitous it is, this meme of "beings far superior to us" bringing about our advancement if not our very existence.  Technically, you could say that all views of God are a posit of this.  But seeing a few of the alien theories put forth made me think of colorful world of Marvel Comics. Not a far stretch for me as I've been reading comics for nearly 40 years.  In Marvel continuity, mankind as we know it was brought about by a godlike race known as The Celestials, who travel the universe in mammoth, spiky-looking ships.  This in turn made me think of Warren Ellis' New Universal series for Marvel, where a spiky-looking ship brings about "The White Event" on Earth, causing otherwise normal people to develop superpowers.  Then I remembered my good friend Dreamer telling me that Ellis had in fact cribbed Philip K. Dick for that business.
For those of you who don't know, Philip K. Dick was a tremendously influential science fiction writer who wrote Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep and We Can Remember It For You Wholesale.  Translated for Americans, he wrote the basis for Blade Runner and Total Recall.  Shit, if you've ever read or seen a work of fiction that asks "what is real?" or "how fragile is our reality?" it owes itself at least in small part to Dick.  The creators of The Matrix fully acknowledge this.  Turns out PKD wrote a story called VALIS, his own gnostic representation of God where one node of an alien satellite relay known as the VALIS system, sits above Earth and creates reality for us.
Well he certainly was a prescient guy, that Philip K. Dick.  Funny thing is, I'm not so sure he'd appreciate my linking him to the Ancient Astronauts theory any more than he would like being associated with any of the "bug-eyed alien hoo-hah"  as a few might call it.  Can't say I blame him.  It is human nature to want to know where we came from, to believe that our origins were special, to know that we are on a pre-selected path to a higher destiny.  That's what in my opinion drives the bulk of the Ancient Astronaut theories.  To boot, AA believers even argue that we are a genetic hybrid of the aliens, explaining why they are bipedal humanoids when all biological odds say they shouldn't look like we do.  "In God's own image" indeed.
But to attribute our development and technological accomplishments in such large part to alien intervention, well, that to me discounts human aptitude.  The human brain is inherently no smarter today than it was 3,000 years ago.  Mathematics and the principles of science could have been parsed just fine without the aid of alien beings.
I'm not saying the AA proponents are wrong.  It would be amazing if they found evidence that conclusively bore out their position and my goodness wouldn't it just turn science and religion up on its end.  I know that my own personal beliefs would have to be questioned and that I might become a bit less eager to meet my maker. Nonetheless, if fiction like Philip K. Dick's VALIS is any indication, it's really an old story.
Operative word there being "story."
 
Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

8 comments:

  1. I've wanted to read VALIS ever since I saw Ben reading it on "Lost."

    ReplyDelete
  2. The problem with shows like UFO Hunters or Acient Aliens is that they simply take any unexplained phenomenon or mystery and attribute it to extra terrestrials. One of my favorite scenes from UFO hunters was when they were trying to find an airplane that crashed in the ocean and when they failed to locate it they immediate attributed their failure to tthe fact that aliens must have relocated it. It seems to me that humans simply do not like to keep things unexplained. Combine that with our miniscule understanding of the world around us and we get people jumping to wild conclusions about super-advanced, supernatural beings who just make things happen. This has been happening since the beginning of humanity it seems.

    The beautiful thing about shows like Ghost Hunters or UFO Hunters is that they never find anything, ever.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good post Jon.

    David said.."The beautiful thing about shows like Ghost Hunters or UFO Hunters is that they never find anything, ever."

    You are correct david, you know why, because the show is a fake like most reality shows.

    There are no such things as Aliens or Ghosts. They are made up to make you think there is other forms of life. Interesting that we never ever have been shown conculisive evidence of any of these beings existance other than our stories of imagination, fake books and made up science or Intellectualism = SCIENCE/SEANCE. Where is the proof?

    Grays – Aliens – Y-Rays Of Light

    There were many other experiences related to me by this individual, all which bordered on the unbelievable. Just as the little Greys of UFO fame are real illusions, so to, are the reptilian shape shifting forms, real deceptions. The word Grays, reveals just what these things are.

    GRAYS = G or Y – RAYS = EYE RAYS. In other words, Grays are simply rays of light.

    David said..."Combine that with our miniscule understanding of the world around us and we get people jumping to wild conclusions about super-advanced, supernatural beings who just make things happen. This has been happening since the beginning of humanity it seems."

    Unfortunately I have many of the answers but most human beings don't what to hear it. It's so unbelievable yet so simple.

    The Birth of Intellectualism – The Invention of Babylon the Great.

    A light beam, refracted to form colors, when connected to the thought of a specific shape, actually forms the illusory shape conceived. The shape isn’t really there, only the illusion of the shape. The light beam, when divided, forms the atom symbol when observed in 2 dimensions. But how could the ancient mystics possibly have knowledge of the atom 6,000 years ago?

    There were no microscopes. The answer is, they saw this up close and first hand. They were in the presence of light energy at its origin, when it was first conceived or conjured forth. The lucifer group mind did everything. These THOUGHT FORM entities created this illusory light by just thinking it. The light bringer, lucifer, thereby created color, shape and sound. The luciferian group mindset is the creator of heaven and earth, the light bearer, or more accurately, the divider of light and creator of duality.

    As light passes through a crystal, it is refracted into a rainbow. This is the origin of the term, Christ. The luciferian egregore group of thinking entities is the father god, the creator of LIGHT or LIES, and their saviour is the crystal, the light of the world, the messianic christ-all, that convinces us the 3D illusion is real.

    I have much more if you are interested.

    Take care. DS888

    ReplyDelete
  4. @David If I'm understanding you correctly, when you said "it seems to me that humans simply do not like to keep things unexplained," I think you meant "like to." Yes, the mystery is a big part of the appeal. If say, Bigfoot were proven to exist tomorrow, interest from many people would disappear because the veil of mystery would be gone. A little like telling a kid there's no Santa Claus and that it's really Uncle Larry who dressed up in the red suit and brought presents last Christmas.
    I think that we need to keep in mind that these UFO shows, above all else, are entertainment. If they were full-on, serious investigations they wouldn't have as many viewers and therefore they wouldn't be making money. Which, after all in America, is all that seems to count anyway.

    It's interesting that you bring up "Ghost Hunters." One of the reasons I liked watching it in the first season was that "they never found anything." They would find a door with a rusty hinge making an odd noise, an improperly sealed fuse box that was emitting high EMP, very explainable things and would be forced to tell the property owner, "sorry, nothing here." As the show progressed, every old house and bed and breakfast suddenly had an immediate diagnosis of "there is definite paranormal activity here" and "that's not lens flare, those are orbs in that picture!" My faith in the show disappeared like the specters they chase.
    I am a believer in the unknown. But I require evidence. Why do I believe in UFOs despite all the evidence to the contrary? Because not all the evidence to the contrary is entirely dissuasive.

    @darkstar I have only read meager passages about the notion that our "reality" is mere consensual, 3D illusion. It has interested me. Feel free to post more. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jon thank you for your kindness and warmth by invited me to comment openly on your blog without prejudice. I will come here and read your material to see what constructive and intelligent commens I may hsvr to offer. Since you "have only read meager passages about the notion that our "reality" is mere consensual, 3D illusion", let me know what you would like to learn about and I'll se if I can help explain things. Let me know.

    I didn't reviewed your new post yet but I will.

    Have been to the blogs I author? Take care. D*888

    ReplyDelete
  6. Our reality is an illusion because it is based on our perception. We sense "reality" through energies around us being perceived through our bodies and then interpreted by our minds. Because of this, no two people, or beings for that matter, have the same reality. We are patently unaware of anything our realm of perception except for our ability to form mental constructs based on shared ideas. For example when two people read the same book, which describes characters and locations rather than showing them, we form our own constructs and each is unique to the person creating it. We develop an understand of our own realities over time and then when we perceived new, unexplained events or objects, our minds try to assimilate these into our reality. Because each person has his own reality and understanding, the reaction to the new and unexplained differs and can take many forms including fear, annoyance, apathy, and skepticim.

    Further about our "reality", aside from some super being shining a flashlight on a crystl, our attempts to look both far and near have only demostrated the limited scope of our perception. As we look farther into the universe on a large scale, we only continue to find more and more universe. We honestly have no idea how big the universe is despite what astrophysicists will tell you because we don't even know how much of it we can see. At the other end, the more we try to look down into our atomic structure the more we understand that "matter" we are built from is always made from smaller and smaller particles. The closer we look, the more we find empty space and each particle, no matter how small, is contructed of smaller particles.

    Our collective understanding of the source of our reality is something that is both infinitely large and infinitely small at the same time. The only thing we know exists is energy because we can measure the effects of energies interacting with each other.

    So, where am I going with this? In our own unique realities which exist in a world we know only to contain energy coupled with our ability to mentally construct any variation of the energies we perceive, anything is possible. Our minds can create any story, any explanation of anything we perceive. One of our most universal ideas is that of a being greater than ourselves who has a greater understanding than we do of our reality. This idea may simply be a coping mechanism to allow us to deal with the fact that our minds can never reconcile all that we perceive and this is frightening.

    Whether you want to call these beings lucifer, christ, god, ufos, or whatever doesn't really matter because it doesn't change anything.

    That is my perceived reality.

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Jon, I absolutely mean that people do NOT like to leave things unexplained. If you could bring proof of Bigfoot tomorrow, interest would disappear but only from people who believe he is real. Everyone else assumes he does not exists because despite centuries of stories, there has been no real evidence. Personally I would be shocked if I found out a Bigfoot existed but then I'd watch the TV special about it and go back about my daily life. As long as he is not moving into my house, it really doesn't affect me. Right now the Bigfoot phenomenon has a simple explanation: He does not exist.

    ReplyDelete
  8. David, I must say I enjoyed reading what you wrote here. This is a simular way I am coming to understand things. As you read my blogs, you will discover many answers to excatly what you just said. Very good. Tyou.

    DS888

    There is no coincience that this knowledge has brought together. Everything here in this 3D realm has a purpose but this existance doen't.

    My recent discovery, after seeking it for over 50 years is to now know that Humanity Has No Purpose....sorry to say. :(

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.