The CE4 Corner

The Cosmic Bridge, Close Encounters and Human Destiny

by Craig R. Lang, Certified Hypnotherapist

 

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Hypnotic Growth, Exploration and Healing for Mind, Body, Spirit and Beyond

Brooklyn Center, MN  763-257-7334  e-mail: craig@craigrlang.com

 

November/December, 2005 - The Promises and Perils of Contact

©2005 by Craig R. Lang MS, CHt

 

I often hear from experiencers, little pieces of information about the apparent motivations and the process of contact.  Frequently, they describe to me a long-term relationship with the Visitors, which I would paraphrase as one of gradual acclimation.  It is a bringing of the experiencer, and by proxy, the rest of humanity, into a state of readiness for contact.  Yet, what does "ready for contact" mean and how might such "readiness" be accomplished? 

 

In previous editions of "The CE4 Corner", we discussed the idea that humanity is not yet ready for overt contact.  Yet, no reader who has followed the close encounter phenomenon to any degree can escape the conclusion - "They" are here...  So we once again return to the question, what might their strategy for contact be?  I am assuming that the Visitors' motivation is at least neutral, if not benevolent in some way.  We assume that they wish to make their presence known without harming humanity.  Thus, how can they establish contact with humanity in such a way as to minimize the impact on humanity?  In this edition of "The CE4 Corner", we focus on the latter half of the question, the impact of contact with the Visitors on humans in general. 

 

We can imagine the fabled "White House Lawn" Scenario, in which the aliens, whoever they might be, were to land at the sites of government (the 1952 movie, "The Day the Earth Stood Still"), or hover over our major cities (1996 movie, "Independence Day").  The social ramifications of such contact would be tremendous indeed.  The summary of "The implications of a discovery of extraterrestrial life" within the 1960 Brookings Report to NASA[i] describes significant potential negative reactions to extraterrestrial contact by (as a minimum) the scientific and religious communities.  It states that, depending upon the nature of the contact, it would potentially disrupt large segments of society in ways that are probably unpredictable.

 

Hale-Bopp and Heaven's Gate

In some ways, we can imagine that we have already had at least one dry run of an overt contact, the arrival of the comet Hale-Bopp.  In March of 1997, the comet Hale-Bopp made a spectacular pass through the inner solar system, providing a beautiful view to astronomers and back yard stargazers.  At the time of its closest approach, there also were reports in the new age media that there was an alleged "companion" object (e.g. a UFO).  To the Heavens Gate cult, this was taken to be a signal that they were to be picked up and returned to the heavens, presumably in non-physical form.  To do so, they believed that they needed to "shed their containers".  Thus began the path to suicide for the members of Heaven's gate. 

 

Budd Hopkins, in his talk at the 1997 MUFON symposium,[ii] asked the question: "What if The Hale-Bopp companion had been real?"  In his talk, he indicated (correctly, I think) that this incident had significant implications for those contemplating overt contact.  If a comet flyby resulted in scores of people committing suicide, what would the ramifications be if the Hale-Bopp comet approach really HAD involved a UFO?  To Hopkins, this suggests that "enlightened" E.T.s would most likely postpone overt contact.

 

Cultural Contacts in History

We can get another less-than-positive glimpse of the ramifications of massive overt alien contact by studying historical contacts between human civilizations.  Historical precedent seems to suggest that lower technology civilizations do not fare well in contact with those of higher technology.  The history of North America contains graphic examples of how contact with the higher technology European civilization largely destroyed the lower technology indigenous cultures.  This alone provides a case for potential negative effects of contact.

 

Who Speaks for Earth

Another problem with overt contact:  Who on our world would extraterrestrials actually contact?  When we refer to a "White House lawn" scenario, whose White House lawn would it be?  Would it be that of Abductees/Contactees?  Would it be that of Scientists?  Perhaps it might be of some government, possibly the UN.  In short, who speaks for Earth?  At present, there seems to be little agreement on this among scholars of the topic, and even less among politicians.

 

Contact and Popular Mechanics

In the February 2004 issue of Popular Mechanics, an interesting article appeared entitled "When UFOs Arrive."[iii]  In it they talk about the possibility of First Contact (which they clearly state is still in the future) and what the presumed human reaction would be.  It is interesting to note two main classes of reactions considered by the article, one from the scientific community and the other from the US government/military. The article initially describes how there will be "obvious signs of their approach", presumably radar or radio contact. Then it goes on to describe the SETI Declaration of Principles of first contact, which we could roughly describe as "be absolutely sure, then tell everybody."

 

The most interesting thing in this reaction-scenario is the assumption that the scientific (e.g. SETI) community would somehow be the leaders in any E.T. contact.  The article then goes on to demolish this assumption, describing what would most likely actually happen - a government/military takeover of the contact scenario.  It suggests that contact would likely be harmful to humanity and, based upon the Brookings report, describes a probable military-oriented response to E.T. arrival. 

 

Underlying government policy appears to be one of heavy-handed hostility towards any E.T. Visitors unlucky enough to fall into the hands of human (at least U.S.) officialdom. On page 57, the section of the article entitled "State of Emergency" reads as follows:

"If ET Turns up at NASA's doorstep, bearing that invitation [CL Note: invitation from the plaque on Pioneer 11], it is in for a surprise.  Instead of getting a handshake from the head of NASA, it will be handcuffed by FBI agents dressed in Biosafety Level 4 suits. Instead of sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom at the White House, the alien will be whisked away to the Department of Agriculture's Animal Disease center..." 

I suspect that this is probably an accurate description of US policy in the event of any overt contact with ET visitors. 

 

Such events appear to have occurred during crash of an apparent extraterrestrial object in 1965 at Kecksburg PA[iv].  According to witness descriptions, in a very short time the military had thoroughly secured the scene and had recovered the object, which was never again seen by anyone without a very high security clearance.  This suggests that in general, the mainstream scientific community would probably be locked out by the military powers-that-be.  Thus, they would very likely find themselves subject to the same apparent coverup that has bedeviled UFO research for the last 50-plus years.

 

So what does this suggest would be the most likely contact scenario?  Would E.T. simply walk into a situation such as this?  Presumably, they would be well aware of the situation on any world they were contacting (e.g. us).  Thus, it is doubtful that they would walk into the ugly situation described in this article.  We can assume that they would choose some means of contact under their control and on their terms.  This leads us to the question, is such contact not already occurring? 

 

A Gradual, Covert Contact Process

The potentially severe problems associated with open contact imply that in the near future the Visitors would most likely avoid it.  In order to minimize their impact, they would probably employ, at most, a gradual, controlled release of information about themselves.  We can further imagine that an E.T. civilization would initially employ covert methods, gradually acclimating humanity to their presence.  We can imagine such a gradual process, long before any kind of open contact occurs.

 

Is this what the Visitors are presently doing?  In future editions of "The CE4 Corner", we will look at strategies an extraterrestrial society might use to initiate contact with Earth and how this would appear to humanity.  We can then ask whether this might indeed be the strategy employed by Visitors to our world.  Might this be a model to help us understand the close encounter phenomenon?