[XiWm9O9S]

searching for meaning and truth in bookstores and the internet can be a little like panning for gold; so much is patiently sifted through, yet so little is gleaned. i still have most of the books i read before the advent of the internet, there are several hundred stacked away in my little apartment. there's a roughly even split between spiritual (books on meditation, esp, chakras, philosophy, winnie the pooh, channelling, world religion, etc) and ufo related material.

these two main threads of enquiry seemed separate; yet, i intuitively felt that they were different sides of the same coin.

i learned early to avoid allowing a closed system of belief to coalesce in my mind, and, again, as fiz has so eloquently put it, this keeps you from rejecting new material of potential value because you already know all about the subject!

throughout the years, and after moving mountains of literature, one realizes just how much 'stuff' is out there. especially in the ufo field where there is much mystery, darkness, contradiction and competition amongst writers and researchers. like photons which alter their movement and apparent structural properties in the presence of and actions of the observer, the ufo field of study seems to exhibit similar properties. the 'reality' of these phenomena seem inextricably linked to the varying conceptions of reality of those who undertake to study them. this is a totally open-ended field of study, impossible to define and package into a set of parameters of hard reality that has any set definition for the masses.

in the 1800's there were popularly described as appearing giant blimps or dirigibles, seen and described by many floating across the countryside. in the middle ages, there were multiple accounts of airborne sailing ships and strange mushroom shaped objects in meadows and forest clearings, surrounded by strange 'wee' folk. in ancient times, there were reports of 'fiery sky chariots' and men who came to earth from heaven.

throughout history, people's actual perceptions of otherworldly phenomena have been determined by what the popular culture of their times dictates. this, i believe, is in accordance with the 'law of confusion', otherwise known as the 'law of free will', the primary distortion of the 'law of one'. all people are entitled to not having their own perceptions of reality infringed upon by being confronted with that which 'blows' their world view.

the ongoing process of 'disclosure' through gradual public acclimatization to the general concept of intelligence other than earth-human is progressing, in the only way i think it can. it's a slow, extremely delicate process, as per the law of free will. our 'flying saucer' popular perception is a product of our times, as mankind has defined its popular awareness through pulp fiction magazines and science fiction/fantasy novels and movies over the past 50 or 60 years.

if humanity ever reaches 'critical mass' and becomes ready to accept extra-earth intelligence popularly, we may realize that the concept of nuts and bolts flying saucers from other planets was just a working facsimile (it's appearance adjusted in accord with our take on collective reality) of the greater hyper-dimensional, or spiritual reality.

the universe mirrors ourselves back to us, positive and negative, light and dark, clear and unclear. for each individual it's more important, i think, to shine a light down into the deeper layers of one's own self, if one wants to add clarity/resolution to the muddy, roiling, dark waters of life. only within the self can be found the tools for finding the more meaningful answers to that which mystifies you. the ultimate resolution, though, to the ufo question and all it's light and dark facets is a challenge placed before humanity at large.

mark