The CE4 Corner
The Cosmic Bridge, Close Encounters and Human Destiny
by Craig R. Lang, Certified Hypnotherapist
Hypnotic Growth, Exploration and Healing for Mind, Body, Spirit and Beyond
Brooklyn Center, MN 763-257-7334 e-mail: craig@craigrlang.com
Jan, 2005 - The view from the revolving door
(c)2005 by Craig R. Lang MS, CHt
It is only now that I can look back and realize just how active the group has been in the last ten years. Looking at the MN MUFON website, I can see just how many cases we have written up. It gives me a nice feeling inside to see that we have accomplished quite a lot. And yet it is incredibly humbling to realize that the sightings and encounters we have investigated are probably only the tiniest tip of the UFOlogical iceberg.
The Roper polls of unusual personal experiences[i] in 1991 and 1998 indicate that about one percent of the population meets the criteria of having had four of the five key indicators which would qualify them as being experiencers. This implies that out of the entire Twin Cities population of about two million people, approximately twenty thousand would appear to have the qualifications for membership in this strange community of mystery.
If we instead adopt a more conservative criterion for being a possible experiencer – that of frequently experiencing all of the indicator events listed in the poll, then the number becomes only about one to two tenths of a percent. This number still implies that there may be about two to four thousand experiencers within the Twin Cities metro area. This is a far smaller number, but still powerfully significant. And to me it implies that we have only met a small fraction of the people who have actually had some form of interaction with the phenomenon.
What does this mean? To me, it suggests that the close encounter phenomenon is an active - and very powerful - force within the present-day fabric of modern society. It is an influence which is hidden beneath the surficial life of the experiencer – what David Jacobs refers to as the “Secret Life”. It is a covert influence on a colossal scale. And as such, it deeply affects the very core of our society. And thus, it is my mission to in some small way, work to better understand this phenomenon
In recent years, I have written a column for this newsletter, which I called the Field Investigator Update. Now, as I step aside from that role, and focus more on the CE4 phenomenon, I hope to begin a new column – one that I call the “CE4 Corner”.
But just what is a CE4? Simply put, it is a close encounter of the fourth kind. A close encounter is a sighting or experience with the phenomenon which is up close and personal. An event of the fourth kind is one in which a reality transformation takes place – where the witness is in some way, taken into the reality of the phenomenon. The previously separate witness now becomes an experiencer. For most in the UFOlogical realm, this is referred to as either a contactee (a positive connotation) or an abductee (less positive).
In the last six-plus years, as I have become increasingly active in the realm of close encounter research, I have found this to be my increasing passion – to explore and to understand this deep but invisible influence on humanity. And so, it is with a sense of mission that I introduce my new column – The CE4 Corner – with the sobering realization that this phenomenon is still, in spite of nearly 50 years of work, very poorly understood.
I have often asked myself what we have learned in the 10 years I have been most deeply involved in UFO studies. What do we understand now, that we didn’t ten years ago? Are we any closer to understanding the phenomenon? Or are we, in some ways, farther away now then we were in 1985? I hear from some researchers, declarations such as “we are close to the answer”, etc. But when I look at the descriptions of many of the theories that have been broached to help us understand close encounters, I wonder how much we understand at all.
The physical, nuts-and-bolts view of UFO visitation theorizes that the phenomenon is one of biological aliens visiting us in physical space craft from the stars. Yet this hypothesis does not account for the apparent reality anomalies which seem to permeate close encounter narratives. Many describe their encounters as being like dreams, but ones that leave physical traces such as burned spots on the lawn, or physical marks on the body. It is an overlay of the physical and the (para)psychological which suggests that the reality of the close encounter is far more complex than perhaps we even realize.
In summary, I suspect that we really know very little about close encounters. But as we learn more about them, I believe that we will learn a whole lot more about the very fabric of reality itself. So as I exit the revolving door of the FI coordinator role, I bid you a new welcome – welcome to the CE4 Corner. The adventure continues…
