This was originally intended to be titled, "CE-V: Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind." But it kept enlarging in scope, and at a certain point it became clear that a different title is appropriate. What follows is about the "Great Awakening" in progress among the human inhabitants of planet Earth, considered in the context of the larger universe of which our planet and solar system are components, and the life forms that inhabit this larger context. It is also about the changes we must make to our own cosmology, if we are to negotiate the "next step" in our Cosmic evolution.
What follows is connected via footnotes to a number of related items which if followed with care, may reward the persevering reader with a significantly enriched exploration of "Where We've Been, Where We Are, and Where We May Be Headed" as a planetary race. Thank you for your time and attention.
There is such a thing, by the way, as a "Close Encounter of the Fifth Kind." these are close encounters with "non-terrestrial beings" initiated by humans, or in which such beings respond to human initiative. Dr. Steven Greer, Director of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI), has written a book about such contacts, and a great deal else besides: Extraterrestrial Contact: The Evidence and Implications.1 Greer persuasively presents the case that both the evidence for, and the implications of extraterrestrial contact are significant, and are of utmost importance to the lives of every resident of planet Earth. This may require a considerable stretch of the imagination, and / or credulity for some; yet I believe there are few residents of this planet who will not agree that contact between ourselves and intelligent residents of other parts of the universe will be (is, has been) one of the most significant watershed events in human history. It is incumbent upon each one of us, not "somebody else," to take whatever measures we can to make such contact mutually beneficial for ourselves and for all other beings involved - including, not least, "the children of our children's children."
As outlined in my 1999 essay, "CE-IV, Part I,"2 the late Dr. J. Allen Hynek in 1972 developed an abbreviated system for classifying three distinguishable types of "close encounters" with "unidentified flying objects" (UFOs), and / or their pilots and / or occupants, presumably from "elsewhere" (than planet Earth):
"Close Encounters of the First Kind [eventually abbreviated 'CE-I']. This category is the simple Close Encounter in which the reported UFO is seen at close range but there is no interaction with the environment (other than possible trauma on the part of the observer).
"Close Encounters of the Second Kind [CE-II]. These are similar to the First Kind except that physical effects on both animate and inanimate material are noted. Vegetation is often reported as having been pressed down, burned, or scorched. Tree branches are reported broken; animals are frightened, sometimes to the extent of physically injuring themselves in their fright. Inanimate objects, most often vehicles, are reported as becoming momentarily disabled, their engines killed, radios stopped, and headlights dimmed or extinguished. In such cases, the vehicles reportedly return to normal after the UFO has left the scene.
"Close Encounters of the Third Kind [CE-III]. In these cases the presence of 'occupants' in or about the UFO is reported. Here a sharp distinction must be made between cases involving reports of the presence of presumably intelligent beings in the 'spacecraft' and the so-called contactee cases."3
In his book on the 1992 M.I.T. Alien Abduction Conference, C.D.B. Bryan defined a Fourth Kind of Close Encounter, Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind [CE-IV], in which "personal contact between an individual or individuals is initiated by the 'occupants' of the spacecraft. Such contact may involve the transportation of the individual from his or her terrestrial surroundings into the spacecraft, where the individual is communicated with and / or subjected to an examination before being returned. Such a close encounter is usually of a one-to-two-hour duration."4
To the expanding list of Kinds of Close Encounter, Greer has added a Fifth, Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind [CE-V], "characterized by human-initiated and / or voluntary human interactive encounters. That is, encounters with UFOs or their occupants are initiated or furthered by voluntary, direct and willful means by human observers." Additionally, an instance in which "an individual was by chance in the area of a UFO sighting and then initiated contact, is called a Second Degree CE-5. Significantly, a First Degree CE-5 is distinguished by intentional human actions which attract a UFO to an area in an interactive fashion."5
Yes, folks, there are, or have been, bona fide Second and First Degree CE-V events, simultaneously witnessed by multiple individuals, reported and documented in Greer's book, and elsewhere. The ETs - at least some of them - evidently welcome human contact, and are responsive to human interest in them. The phenomenology associated with this is vastly complex and multi-layered; and an already mind-boggling human circumstance is rendered incalculably more so by the impenetrable cloak of secrecy, denial, and deliberate misinformation woven around the subject of UFOs and ETs by "the Authorities" who are (allegedly) charged with the responsibility of serving and informing the public. In my 1998 essay on "Aliens From Outer Space," I wrote, "I have not been able to decide which is the more fascinating aspect of 'UFOlogy,' the reported phenomena themselves, or the response to them by 'the Authorities'."6
Well, it's not exactly a "laughing matter." "The Authorities" who are acting as "gatekeepers" to the greatest bulk of human information about these phenomena, and about possible associated technologies,7 have taken upon themselves the responsibility of acting on behalf of all residents of planet Earth - without representing anyone but their highly exclusive selves; without considering or advancing the interests of anyone outside their extraordinarily exclusive "club." They have woven a veil of secrecy around themselves which renders them accountable to no one - including, in America, the President of the United States, Congress, or the director of any Constitutionally identifiable government agency. The veil of secrecy is "Above Top Secret," and all "government research" is conducted by highly compartmented "black" agencies with no external acknowledgment, access, or accountability. This formula is evidently duplicated in other countries, so the amazingly large volume of information about UFOs and ETs in the public domain consists entirely of "leakage," and / or unconcealable sightings beyond the control of these super-secret "black" agencies; which agencies have nevertheless consistenly done their utmost to obfuscate, confuse, and discredit any information not under their direct control about UFOs and ETs.
The consequence is a complex cosmology, complicated even further by a large and determined effort to obscure its outline and details from the human population at large. "We the People" have an enormous stake in this adventure, for it involves the future of our entire planet, and therefore the future of each one of its residents, and of "the children of our children's children," stretching into the indefinite future. There is no one on Earth, here or hereafter, who is excluded from the potential impact of events now unfolding on planet Earth, and involving Earth's and humanity's relationship with a much larger and more complex universe than most of us have ever before imagined.
Dr. Greer's book sheds considerable light upon the subject of UFOs and Extraterrestrial Intelligence (ETI). Putting the pieces together either precipitates, or requires as a prerequisite, an almost entirely new cosmology, or sense of what is, and is not, "real." Given the overwhelming evidence documented in Greer's book, and elsewhere, it is not easy for an impartial observer to plausibly deny that "Aliens from Outer Space" are a real part of our world, and of the wider universe of which we too are a part. "They're here," and "we are not alone." Probably, we have never been alone during our entire tenure upon this planet. If we are able to accept these statements as "probable facts," instead of "wild speculations," there is no one on this planet to whom they are not of vital importance.
Right now, as I type these words (12 April 2003, 15:00 GMT), it is becoming unmistakably clear that we human residents of planet Earth not only face the unprecedented prospect of imminent or already effected contact with intelligent species from other parts of the universe, but also that our planet is under siege by predatory rogue elements of our own species.8, 13 This is happening NOW, in "real time." It is a crisis of global scope, long predicted in the literature of many mythologies, and there is no one who is not right now a direct participant in the drama being played out upon the "Cosmic Game Board" of planet Earth, the Solar System, the local Galaxy, and Cosmos at large. This is happening "on our watch" - all six thousand million of us who are alive on planet Earth this very day.
This may sound alarmist, melodramatic, or hysterical to some; however, it may alternatively be seen in an exuberantly positive light. During his administration, President Ronald Reagen remarked on several occasions to the effect that one circumstance that might pull the human race together on this planet into a unified, cooperative whole, would be the eventuality of an attack upon our planet by an extraterrestrial species - i.e. "invaders from outer space." Only, in the actual event, the roles are reversed: our planet is indeed under attack, but from a terrestrial, not an extraterrestrial source;8 and it is increasingly evident that the extraterrestrials are at least our potential allies, not our foes in this crisis. And, just as President Reagan predicted, this global attack is indeed pulling the entire human race together into a unified, cooperative whole.
There is (it seems to me) unfolding upon this planet at this time an extraordinary drama of Cosmic significance, which takes place within a much vaster context than that of international, or even global terrestrial human events. We are experiencing a "shift of consciousness," a "quantum leap" in our Cosmic evolution, and are taking our places upon a much larger stage than we have ever within historical human memory imagined ourselves doing. Everyone - everyone - has a significant part to play in this experience, including, but not exclusively, the rogue faction currently terrorizing the human population of the Earth. They are supplying the "adrenaline rush" the rest of us evidently require to summon the energy necessary, and the detachment necessary, to "part ways," decisively and finally, with all our past paradigms, traditions, and beliefs. "Business as usual" doesn't cut it any more, folks; yet if not, what shall we do "else," when all we've ever known, all our lives, and throughout human history, is "business as usual?"
Neale Donald Waslch, author of Conversations with God, recently wrote the following, excerpted from a longer message:
"Human beings are continually in a state of conflict with each other (as opposed to a state of disagreement, which is something else altogether) because conflict has always been an acceptable aspect of human culture. That is, humanity itself has legitimized the experience, mainly by allowing it to continue virtually unabated for thousands of years.
"How and why have conflict and violence been so legitimized?
"It has been legitimized by humans themselves, because humans have been taught that conflict and violence are acceptable behaviors. And who has taught them that? I believe that religions have done so.
"'Differences' and 'conflicts' are, of course, not the same thing. Our differences do not have to produce divisions, our contrasts do not have to produce conflicts, and the variations in our beliefs do not have to bring violence to our lives.
"It will always be natural for human beings to have differences, because human beings are different from each other. Indeed, differences can be celebrated, for they make us all who we are. The differences between all living things are the 'individuations of God.' And those differences - in our beliefs, in our understandings, in our expressions of what it means to be human - do not have to lead to war and massive deaths.
"Yet conflicts continue to be a huge part of the human experience, and for good reason. Humans say that God Himself is the First Source of this experience, for God has told humanity, through the sacred scriptures of virtually all the world's great religions, of His own anger, His own conflicts, and His own violence.
"All of those scriptures - the Bible, the Qu'ran, the Bhagavad-gita, the Book of Mormon, and virtually every other text which has been devised by humanity's major religions - contain countless passages in which it is announced that God has vented His anger at human beings by killing them, or causing sickness and pestilence, or placing some other disaster in their path.
"As recently as ten years ago, apologists for God were proclaiming that the AIDS epidemic was a scourge sent by God to humanity to pay for its sins of sexual misbehavior.
"This widespread belief in a God who condones and uses violence as a means of conflict resolution, and of a God who can even experience conflict itself, is what has informed human teachings about not only God, but humanity as well.
"Many people believe it is 'only human' to experience conflict, and that it is quite natural to use violence as a means of resolving those conflicts. Because it is so natural, we find it acceptable, if deplorable. And so, our religions have taught us that deplorable behavior is acceptable. This is exactly the opposite of what religions purport to want us to understand, but that has seemed to make little difference.
"Unless and until we change these most basic understandings of human beings about life itself, and about the living of it with each other, and about the causes of conflict and the ways that civilized societies can deal with disagreement, we will never see an end to the kinds of tragedies we are now seeing in Iraq."9
And, I might add, if we do not soon "see an end to the kinds of tragedies we are now seeing in Iraq," we shall soon see an end to our own lives, and to life in general upon planet Earth. "Business as usual" is no longer a viable option for global humanity.
"Okay," some practical "nuts-and-bolts" type may want to know, "and just how do you propose going about putting an end to human conflict on planet Earth?"
Very good question. Here's another one: "How badly do you want to put an end to human conflict?"
"You may already have heard the story about the young man who sought out a 'Guru,' a 'Master,' and begged him for the secret to 'enlightenment.' Without a word, the Master beckoned his new disciple to follow him, and the two waded out to the middle of a nearby stream.
"Abbruptly, the Master turned and seized his disciple by the neck and thrust his head beneath the water, and held it there.
"The disciple struggled desperately to escape his Master's grip, and finally, purple-faced and soaking wet, broke free, gasping for breath.
"Placidly, the Master asked his disciple, 'What was the uppermost thought in your mind, your most urgent desire, just now?'
"'To get to the surface and have a breath of air, of course!' gasped the disciple.
"'When you desire enlightenment as urgently as you desired air just now,' observed the Master, 'you will not need to ask anyone to teach it to you.'"10
It is my perception that the human residents of planet Earth, individually, each in his or her unique way, are approaching the point of desiring peace as urgently, as desperately, as the disciple in the story was desperate for a breath of fresh air. We've had our heads held under the surface about long enough, I imagine, and I think we're ready to do anything to get back to the surface, and start breathing again. And not only peace: an entirely "new way of life," what I have been in the habit of calling a "new paradigm."
Now that is a very tall order. What do you suppose it is going to take to motivate all humanity, or at least a significant number of us, to make a paradigm shift as massive, as total as what we are implying here?
There is another element to the story about the Master and his disciple, which Dr. Greer also brings out in reference to the ETI he has been researching and studying for many years. You know, suddenly thrusting the head of a trusting disciple forcefully under the surface of a stream, and holding it there, doesn't seem at first sight like a very "enlightened" act, does it? It's not exactly what one would call "friendly." Yet it is clear in the context of the entire story this at first seemingly inexplicable "hostile act" by one with the reputation of an "enlightened Master" sprang after all from a benign and sensible motivation. The disciple may even have achieved satori on the spot, who knows? The story doesn't say.
Dr. Greer is an M.D., and in the course of his medical work has faced many situations in which traumatized and seriously injured children have been brought to him for emergency treatment. In some of these situations he has been called upon to take action which has exacerbated the pain his patients were suffering already; and particularly the youngest of these may have felt abused at his hands, and could easily have evaluated him as their enemy, the cause of yet more suffering and pain. Of course, this was not his intent. He was acting entirely for their benefit and swift healing - although it may not have seemed so to his young patients at the time; just as it may not have seemed so to the disciple almost drowned by his Master.
Similarly, Dr. Greer observes that
"...we must avoid the assumption of negative motives based on the reported actions of ETI. Our perception of an action must not be confused with the actual motives of the beings performing the actions since it is quite possible that frightening or negatively perceived actions are derived from genuinely good motives. Unfortunately the UFO / ETI literature is filled with the 'conventional wisdom' that many aspects of the phenomenon represent sinister actions driven by equally sinister motives.
"There is a facile tendency to conclude, either directly or by inference, that many reported actions are indicative of 'malintent.' A careful reading of many, if not most, 1980s books on UFOs and 'abductions' reveals an alarming tendency to jump to sinister conclusions. Even the language used to describe these events is emotionally charged and shows a propensity towards assumed ETI hostility and malevolence. Reports of actions are taken as evidence of hostility or evil motives without a careful analysis of the possible neutral or positive motives which may account for the events. ...[S]uch conclusions are both unwarranted and fraught with danger, since they color our thinking and emotions with unjustified fear, paranoia and negativity, and in turn will negatively affect the future ETI / human relationship. We must be careful that our assumption of false hostility does not create a future of actual hostility."11
"The human predicament" may also look to some like the work of "malevolant gods," or "outrageous fortune," just as certain emergency room procedures, or "abduction" experiences, may be seen as hostile and malevolant. Yet it may be interpreted in a positive light as well, if it has the end result of motivating large or significant numbers of us to turn decisively away from "business as usual," and create alternative solutions to the age-old challenge of living together in harmony and peace, amongst ourselves on planet Earth, and in relation to the larger community of beings at large in Cosmos. In such an eventuality, would not most of us, surveying the insane events of human history from the vantage point of a nascent genuine civilization, sigh in relief with the acknowledgment that we could never have achieved it had we not first gone through "all that"? It is difficult to say for sure, yet it is at least plausible.
The contemporary circumstance of humanity upon planet Earth is evidently vastly more complex and multi-layered than the "business as usual paradigm" is capable of describing. By way of "comparing notes" with the interested reader, I will here attempt a brief synopsis of the contemporary human condition, and its possible outcome, in the context of a necessarily enlarged cosmology.
We are not alone: most importantly, because we are the deliberate, purposeful, and intentional creations of That Which Creates "Everything" - the "entity" Neale Donald Walsch, and a great many others, call "God."
Do you realize how I am unfathomable? I am not what you can know, or see, or understand. I am outside comprehension. My vastness makes me invisible and unavoidable. There is nowhere you can be without me. My absence does not exist. It is this very nature that makes me unique. I am First Cause and Last Effect connected in an undivided chain.12
Additionally, we are not alone because, aware of it or not, we are hosting upon our planet intelligent beings with origins elsewhere than planet Earth. We also share this planet with intelligent beings presumed to be indigenous species (e.g. the cetaceans), which may also have their origins "elsewhere." For the matter of that, we ourselves, although we were born here, may have our racial origins "elsewhere" as well. In sum, we who are alive, who exist, share this remarkable property with all "other" beings throughout Cosmos. Aware of it or not, we do in fact belong to the "fraternity of All Life."
With the obvious exception of the rogue elements currently terrorizing this planet,13 the non-human intelligent beings with whom we share it, both "indigenous" and originating "elsewhere," have demonstrated themselves to be not hostile to humans, and have in general exercised extraordinary restraint in response to repeated vicious provocation in a wide spectrum of circumstances. Nevertheless, our planet is under siege by a contingent of (presumably) human beings who are manifestly hostile to all life, including in particular most human life currently resident on the planet.
The vast majority of humans are "not awake," at the moment, to these circumstances; although there is a "Great Awakening" in progress among us which, due in part to said circumstances (i.e. the "human predicament"), is expanding at a swift and accelerating pace. Presumably, the reader of this essay, like its author, is an intentional participant in this "Great Awakening." The most salient feature of the "Great Awakening" is the discovery, individual by individual, of a) the indivisible Oneness of "All Things," including in particular each individual human; and b) the limitless authentic power this realization bestows upon each individual human. Or more accurately, each individual who discovers his or her Oneness with "All That Is," also discovers the authentic power already inherent to him or herself.
There are numerous entities "not from here" with a keen interest, or possibly even a "stake" in contemporary events unfolding upon planet Earth. These entities are evidently not hostile, because they command "advanced technologies" that humans would find irresistable if they were employed against us with hostile intent; and they display impeccable circumspection and respect for the choices of contemporary humans. Apparent exceptions to this may be accounted for as described above by Dr. Greer; or by deliberate obfuscation and misinformation created by the rogue terrorists to contaminate CE phenomena with fear. ETs manifest their presence not only with the phenomenology associated with UFOs, and CE events, but also with that associated with "crop circles," which have been recorded as appearing in direct association with UFO and CE activity.14 These too yield evidence of benign, highly creative, subtle, and sensitive intent on behalf of their authors or creators.
This may be difficult or impossible to "quantify," yet I have the disctinct impression (and I am not alone in this) that the "fabric of reality" is "separating," and that individuals of contrasting "vibes" are actually experiencing increasingly dissimilar "realities." I have discussed this before,15 as have others, and although it flies in the face of what we have all been taught in school, it is becoming increasingly evident (at least to me) that it is literally impossible that any two beings experience exactly the same "reality," under any imaginable circumstances. Even your left and right eye do not see exactly the same "reality," which explains why we experience the illusion of "3D vision." If no two of us experience exactly the same "reality," what are the "limits" which define how potentially different our respective "realities" can be? I submit to your intuitive consideration the suggestion that there are no such "limits," and that one's "reality" is determined every moment by nothing less, more, or other, than what one is in that moment.
If this is not too long a stretch, then it may be so that as each of us progresses through our individual process of the "Great Awakening" - i.e. as we change and evolve from what we have been into what we are becoming - we may find ourselves "branching off" from the "reality" we have assumed we shared with "everyone else," and at the same time "combining realities" with "resonant others" we may have never before met. We may even find ourselves "combining realities" with individuals or groups of other races, species (such as cetaceans), or even with "Aliens from Outer Space!"16
According to this cosmological "theory," or "speculation," the human race on planet Earth, or those of us who so choose, stand now upon the cusp of "combining realities" with the "Galactic Community," or possibly with a wider-flung "Cosmic Community" of beings inhabiting a vastly larger domain than most of us have contemplated ever before. However, in order for us to take this step, unprescedented in human experience upon Earth, although not necessarily in Cosmos, each of us must completely and irrevocably "part ways" with our warlike, self-destructive, "business as usual" past.
In a "fictionalized" account (which may not be entirely fictional) of human interaction with what is eventually disclosed to be the prototypical "Central Race" from which all human races and species in Cosmos have been spawned, there is a passage which may give us the key to taking our place in Cosmic Society. The passage is set in a red-rock canyon in Northern New Mexico.
Samantha reached out to touch the middle object, and as she did, the shape changed. It began to take on characteristics of a human male, elderly, tall, bearded, looking the part of a wizard with eyes that bore into hers with such intensity she could only turn away. "Do not fear us," a voice filled her, reverberating inside. It was as if every cell in her body had suddenly grown ears.
"We are what you seek, what you have always sought," the voice continued. It was authoritative, yet gentle. "You are being led even at this very moment to find what we have left for you. It is already within your grasp, and when you find your fingers reaching for it, close them securely without hesitation. Without fear. We tell you that it is the only way. The only way."
The words gave way to silence. Samantha looked again at the being that was before her. It had reverted to the form of a rectangle. Hovering like a green, featureless door.
She spoke from pure instinct. "What is within our grasp?"
"The way into our world," the voice replied.
"Your world?" She echoed without thinking.
"You will only find our world if you proceed without fear. It is the only barrier into our world that is impenetrable."
"Why do you want us to find your world?" Samantha asked, aware that her voice sounded perplexed.
"We have been within your species since its creation on this planet that you call earth. We are within your DNA - encoded into the invisible structures that surround and support your DNA. Our world is both within you and more distant than your mind can comprehend. You will find our world because you need our assistance to awaken a part of your nature that is hidden from your view behind the languages of your world."17
"You will only find our world if you proceed without fear. It is the only barrier into our world that is impenetrable."
This, I believe, is the key to fulfilling our "cosmic potential," and taking our place in the society of peers who likewise live without fear. For Earth, throughout human history, has been ruled by fear, the bedrock foundation for what I have been calling here "business as usual." So long as we remain in that state, we are impenetrably excluded from the vast adventure of freedom and limitless scope for which we long with our profoundest and inmost being.
Love and fear are the mutually exclusive poles of a spectrum of basic emotions that control the "reality" each of us experiences in life. To the extent we harbor fear within us, to the same extent we are excluded from the sensations of love; just as when we are "cold," we are not at the same moment "warm." Love and fear create, respectively, the "realities" of "heaven" and "hell" in our individual, moment-to-moment experience. Is this not so? You have only to examine yourself to verify it.
The key to the door to "heaven on Earth" is love, only love, and nothing but love. This has been said many times, in many ways, by many "wise ones," and "foolish ones," throughout human history. It is so.
Until now, life for humans on planet Earth has been ruled by fear. This is the source of all wars, conquest, tyranny, oppression, deception, poverty, and want. Peace, liberty, and abundance cannot exist, or grow, or thrive in the presence of fear; although they can be mimicked, or counterfeited, sometimes, for some. To have the "genuine article," however, one must be the "genuine article," i.e. an individual who lives in love, unmixed with fear: "the only barrier into our world that is impenetrable."
This is what the "Great Awakening" is all about: great numbers of us are arising, deserting our fears, and donning the mantle of love which renders us invulnerable to those who remain embedded in fear. We are discovering that we have nothing to fear; and so those who have always ruled by fear are likewise arising with extravagant displays of terror and war, in a vain "last ditch effort" at retaining their grip upon their "runaway slaves." This is why they contrive elaborate schemes to destroy occupied buildings, and foment bogus and unjustified wars upon helpless women and children.13
It isn't working. They are only repelling us with greater energy, and awakening us in suddenly expanding numbers to the reality of the invincible authentic power that comes with sharing love with "All That Is."
In sum, those of us who are "Awakening" are finding ourselves emerging on a planet under permanent siege by those among us who have always ruled by fear. Yet we are also emerging into expanding awareness of a universe of limitless possibilities, populated by numberless intelligent species eager to extend themselves to us in love, friendship, and cooperation; if it is our choice to put aside our fears and join them in a Cosmic adventure entirely beyond the scope of our formerly fear-bound imaginations.
Therefore, we may rejoice that our "ET connection" is benign, non-threatening, and a potentially powerful alliance, as we gain the "Cosmic maturity" prerequisite to taking our place as peers in the community of "Galactic and Cosmic Beings." We do face a very formidable hurdle, however, before advancing to the status of our full human potential, individually and as a planetary race. We must somehow deal with those among us who we have allowed to usurp our authentic power and cast us fraudulently instead as "chattel / property" of those ficticious and imaginary "persons" known as "governments."18 This is neither a "recent," nor a "local" phenomenon. It has been part of the human condition for as long as individual humans have looked to our peers for "governance," instead of taking responsibility to govern ourselves. This too has been a product of fear, and must be corrected before we are able to advance to the "next square," to which the only "impenetrable barier" is fear.
"The long and the short of it" is that we cannot participate in a genuine civilization so long as we retain emotional ties to the fear-based system of oppression and control that has "governed" human society on this planet, time out of mind, and which is now displaying its vicious nature more flagrantly, globally, and unmistakably than it has perhaps ever done before. We cannot at once govern ourselves and be "governed" by "someone else." Each of us who will, must either stand up and take responsibility for his or her individual choices, and their consequences, or acquiesce in the nicely paved "one-way street" laid out for us by the organizers of "business as usual." It should be clear enough by now, for those "with eyes to see," where this "one-way street" ends. Anyone who does not wish to go there must choose a different path - which is certainly not paved, or even clearly marked.
"Tyranny is not self-correcting. Power, once established, grows until it encounters resistance of like kind, or disintegrates the underlying social order on which it imposes increasing coercion, artificiality, and interference, decimating the ecology of a free, natural order. In short, governments rule until overthrown through rebellion, conquest, revolution, or intrigues, or until they have ruined the society upon which they subsist, like an ever-growing parasite eventually destroying its host and itself as well."19
It is now incumbent upon we who choose to, to pioneer an alternative path, that leads to an alternative destination. This is not, and cannot possibly be, a "mass movement," although it can be very numerous; for the "mass" is an abstraction and does not exist outside the human imagination. What exist are individuals, each of whom make individual decisions and choices, every moment of every day, and are irrevocably responsible for the consequences of our choices.
Fortunately, the human drama now being played out upon this planet has attracted the interest of multitudes of intelligent beings from many parts of the universe, many of whom are eager to "bear a hand" to assist our negotiation of this most critical step on our evolutionary path. However, they are already what we are still in the process of becoming: genuinely civilized beings who do not in any way interfere with the choices of their peers - even if our choices lead to our eventual self-destruction. They are watching, waiting, "with bated breath," for what our "next move" will be, in this most absorbing of planetary dramas; and are present and willing, upon an instant's notice, to "bear a hand" in the eventuality that we choose to "enter their world" without fear, the only "impenetrable barier" we face. This is a choice that "we" cannot make "massively," only individually, for that is what we are: individual sovereign beings, bearing individual responsibility, each for our own choices, and their consequences.
The Really Good News is that, as we gather our courage, and "enter their world" without fear, we also enter "a separate reality" which cannot be penetrated by anyone bound by fear. This means that the oppression and tyranny we have endured for uninterrupted thousands of years comes to an abrupt end in our "new reality," never again to blight our individual lives, or our planet, solar system, galaxy, or universe. Maybe, for all we know, the oppressors and controllers of the Earth, and those who remain bound by fear, will "carry on as planned," and play out their game to its "bitter end." We, however, who choose otherwise, need not be a part of that "reality" at all. Imagine "all that" coming to a sudden halt,20 and "vanishing into air." We may see around us the vestiges of war, destruction, and tyranny; yet they are no longer animated by any human intent, and it falls to us to remake our world, heal her and our wounds, and found upon this planet at long last a genuine civilization. Thus we take our place among the genuine civilizations with which we also share Cosmos at large, and embark with them upon heretofore unimaginable adventures.
This, anyway, is my view of "Where We've Been, Where We Are, and Where We May Be Headed." Would you like to come along?
Love, Peace, Joy, Now,
Harmon
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1. Steven M. Greer M.D., Extraterrestrial Contact: The Evidence and Implications, Crossing Point, Inc. Publications, Afton, Virginia, 1999, ISBN: 0-9673238-0-0.
2. "CE-IV, Part I," 12/8/99: i.e. "Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind" (Part I).
3. C.D.B. Bryan, Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: Alien Abduction, UFOs and the Conference at M.I.T., Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1995, p. 8, quoting Hynek, The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry, Ballantine Books, New York, 1974, quoted in turn in "CE-IV, Part I."
4. Bryan, 1995, op cit., p. 9.
5. Greer, 1999, op cit., p. 168. Note that Greer uses the notation, "CE-1, CE-2," etc., while in the interest of maintaining consistency with my earlier essays, I have continued with the "archaic" notation, "CE-I, CE-II," etc. The meanings of both notations are identical.
6. "Aliens From Outer Space" 11/4/98.
7. See "New Beginnings, Part III," tnp vol. IV #4, 1/1/01, for a discussion of possible undisclosed technologies, and their implications.
8. Anyway, this is the least complex assumption. There are "conspiracy theories" in circulation that claim the innermost circles of "the controllers" who have hijacked the world's governments, or possibly even organized them in the first place, are themselves "reptiles from outer space" with a centuries-long agenda of conquest and control. Such theories are very difficult either to corroborate or deny outright. We take note of them in passing, and carry on.
9. Neale Donald Walsch, Is there nothing we can do but pray?, 3/17/03. See also HUMANITY'S TEAM -- C O M M U N I Q U E # 2, 4/8/03.
11. Greer, 1999, Chapter 9, The Case For Non-hostility, p. 49.
12. My Central Message , attributed to First Source.
13. See various items collected in the Peace section of the Freedom Digital Library, particularly Re: The Grandaddy of All Conspiracy Theories!, and The Official Version Of 9/11 Is A Hoax by John Kaminski. See also http://StandDown.net; http://911Timeline.net; Eric Hufschmid, Painful Questions: An Analysis of the September 11th Attack, Endpoint Software, Goleta, California, 2002, ISBN: 1-931947-05-8; David Icke, Alice in Wonderland and the World Trade Center Disaster: Why the official story of 9/11 is a monumental lie, Bridge of Love Publications USA, Wildwood MO 63005, ISBN: 0-9538810-2-4; and Michael Moore, Stupid White Men ...and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of he Nation!, ReganBooks, An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2001, ISBN: 0-06-039245-2. For some of the "legal details," see Lightbringer's ACTUAL AND CONSTRUCTIVE NOTICE OF BETRAYAL AND PERFIDY.
14. Greer, 1999, Chapter 34, Rapid Mobilization Investigative Team Report, Southern England - July 1995, by Shari Adamiak, p. 241. See also Judith Moore & Barbara lamb, Crop Circles Revealed: Language of the Light Symbols, Light Technology Publishing, Flagstaff, Arizona, 2001, ISBN: 1-891824-32-5.
15. For example, in "Knowledge," August 1997; in "Creation Myths," 11/5/00; and more recently in Re: The Grandaddy of All Conspiracy Theories!, 3/28/03.
16. For example, see the first few paragraphs of "CE-IV, Part II," 12/8/99.
17. WingMakersTM: The Ancient Arrow Project, Chapter Two, HOMEBASE, pp. 45-46.
18. See Lightbringer's Justice and Democracy. See also "Lightbringer on Law" for an illuminating series of monographs on law and governance.
19. Lightbringer, ACTUAL AND CONSTRUCTIVE NOTICE OF BETRAYAL AND PERFIDY
20. See NESARA, the National Economic Security And Reformation Act.
"Where We've Been, Where We Are, and Where We May Be Headed" copyright 2003 by J. Harmon Grahn. Verbatim copying and redistribution are permitted in any medium provided this notice is preserved.