December 15, 2009

Keep Watching the Skies for the Cops

Confirmation. But mostly speculation.
Confirmation: The Hard Evidence of Aliens among Us

This book was written by: Whitley Strieber, author of The Wolfen. Mr. Strieber’s other books, Warday and The Coming Global Superstorm, have proven that he can provide measured, non-alarmist views that are sorely needed in the field of alien abduction, a subject where "the lack of authoritative answers has meant that hucksters and false experts have been exploiting public ignorance"(p.87). However, as an alien abductee and implant recipient himself, Mr. Strieber is worried that aliens may be controlling his thoughts. He has published other books on alien visitors, but "when I read the books months after writing them, I could see a disturbing difference between what I had written and what I had intended [....] I appeared to have become a propagandist for aliens"(p.221).

What is in this book: An examination of the evidence for the existence of extraterrestrials. If space aliens do not exist, "this would mean that a part of humankind has technology so extraordinary that the rest of us are virtually a different, lesser species, confined to an overcrowded, dying planet while the others traverse the heavens like gods"(p.81). Some of the evidence reviewed by Mr. Strieber could be explained by human involvement, and "if there are aliens here and they have co-opted our own military and intelligence infrastructure, then there could be the very combination of human and apparent alien activities that are being reported"(p.248). That may sound a little paranoid, but "in this society, someone who isn't at least somewhat paranoid probably isn't entirely sane"(p.232) and Mr. Strieber offers exhaustive proof of his own sanity. The government has already been provided with the evidence discussed in this book, but "if—fantastically—the data really have been ignored just as the government claims, then we need to stop doing that"(p.74).

What is not in this book: Probing, anal or otherwise. This book contains zero occurrences of the word "probe," and only one instance of "probing," in a context where it is being done by a human surgeon. Mr. Strieber does not understand the public fixation on purported alien colonoscopies, asking "even if this sort of script were commonplace, which it is not, why would the UFO stories take such a frightening turn?"(p.91)
However, "if our close encounters are indeed with aliens, wouldn't they have an obvious motive for obtaining sexual and genetic material?"(p.93), and the aliens have no aversion to violence, as seen by their involvement in scenarios where "one witness's head explodes, another goes blasting through a windshield, a third is slammed in the chest, [and] a fourth gets attacked with machine guns"(p.100). In fact, "the visitors may be at once tempting us with their theater in the sky and forcing us into action by the outrageous invasion of our bodies represented by the close encounter"(p.259).

It was quite a booger.
Would you recommend this book to a fourth grader? Yes. Like a nostril, "the deeper you mine the close encounter experience—always refusing to submit to the temptation to rush to explanations—the richer and more profound are the questions it returns"(p.171). In fact:

One of the strangest implants ever found was contributed by Dr. John Mack. Expelled from a witness's nose, it is described as an organic, plasticlike, three-lobed fiber with an internal structure organized into intricate layers in a seemingly irregular manner. The specimen was a 'tough,' pinkish-colored, one-inch-long, kinky, wirelike object. A pathologist found it to be about twenty to thirty microns in thickness, and it could be stretched out more than three inches. It was reported to have a gelatinous sheath with bumpy outcroppings; it was clearly not a hair(p.236)

Would you recommend this book to an exotic dancer concerned about losing her job to illegal immigrants who received cut-rate cosmetic surgery from shady overseas clinics? That would be a hell of a reach just for a joke about "alien implants" but it would totally be worth it.

Oh, yeah. Strieber also wrote this book, which you may have seen around.
What was interesting about this book? White spaceman's burden. On Earth, "as technological civilization spread, the native cultures that weren't subjugated and destroyed succumbed to irrelevance and died,"(p.256) which makes it likely that alien visitors have refrained from contacting us directly because they do not want to ruin the developmental purity of our race. This hands-off approach of theirs means that "the visitors are not going to give us anything. But what we can take, we can keep"(p.252), so it's time to get aggressive. "To wrest knowledge from them, we need to be tough and smart and courageous, not passive and secretive and scared"(p.253). In other words, we need to become intergalactic carjackers.

Confirmation: The Hard Evidence of Aliens among Us by Whitley Strieber (St. Martin's Press, 1998, ISBN 0-312-18557-X)

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December 1, 2009

Glow Ball Enlightenment

Not to be confused with bringing society to heel.Healing Society: A Prescription for Global Enlightenment by Dr. Seung Heun Lee (Walsch Books, 2000, ISBN: 1-57174-189-5)

This book was written by: Dr. Seung Heun Lee, creator and grand master of Dahn Hak and Brain Respiration, which is less painful than it sounds. Dr. Lee writes that his work with Ki energy has allowed him "to perform some so-called miraculous feats, such as communing with spirits, curing incurable diseases, helping paralyzed people walk, and calming mentally unstable people"(p.xiii).

What is in this book: A discussion of the mindset and approaches that will be necessary to heal society, relayed via anecdotes from Dr. Lee and metaphors that may be more commonly used in Korea. Some of them translate across cultures, like the statement that "we human beings are like puppets dancing on a stage, unable to look beyond the curtains and realize that we are not dancing to the rhythm of the divine music that's playing in the theater"(p.79). Other references, like Dr. Lee's description of a series of pictures where "the second frame has the now-grown calf with a nose ring and getting a spanking from the farmer for misbehaving"(p.3), may need to be re-interpreted—try replacing "farmer" with "parent" or "teacher," and swap out "calf" for "child" or "hooker." However, some of the references are completely inscrutable, like his statement that "humans insist upon differentiating everything, ever since we ate of the grape in Margo's Castle"(p.74).

Seriously, I googled the hell out of "Margo's Castle" and only came up with some terrible music, a realtor, a bar, and a shopping mall development, which are tough to connect to either enlightenment or grapes.

What is not in this book: Undue weight placed on Christianity as the only path to a healed society. We are caught in a system of constant competition driving us to ruin, and "one or two enlightened people cannot stop this machine. Twelve disciples cannot help us now"(p.79). Did you hear that, Jesus? In your FACE. And that business about God sacrificing his only son for our sins? "Even a porcupine loves its young. Even a lowly rodent knows to die for its offspring"(p.19), so by Dr. Lee's reckoning, God has no more common sense than a porcupine.
This book also doesn't place a lot of importance on our physical shells. "The physical body and mental acuity that you have been born with are not you, but just tools temporarily lent you for you to experience things that will mature you spiritually"(p.xiv). Hopefully, you have borrowed these tools from someone who isn't in a hurry to get them back, but it's a perspective that helps you remember that "you are not a quick-tempered Latino male with a penchant for computer programming who enjoys football games on weekends and good detective stories. You are not a patient, virtuous woman who has good judgment and shrewd mind when it comes to 'too good to be true' offers"(p.10). Also, you are not a robot crimefighter from the steam age, a transgendered Swede who constructs scale models of global landmarks out of earwax, or a dog who solves mysteries with the help of a sassy talking pocket calculator.

This probably won't be the 366th way to change your life.Would you recommend this book to Suzanne Somers? Yes, she seems pretty interested in health programs, so she might like to learn more about Brain Respiration, which "is a training regimen maximized to meet the needs of the twenty-first century"(p.49). "The actual Brain Respiration program consists of five levels"(p.63), which are—in sequential order—Brain Sensitizing, Brain Softening, Brain Cleaning, Brain Reinforming, and Brain Energizing. Ms. Somers may be pretty familiar with the second level already, but she could still learn something new.

Would you recommend this book to an adolescent male? Yes. "All the problems we face now in this world came about because we, as human beings, could not play well with each other. We don't play well with ourselves, first of all"(p.90), so getting them to play well with themselves could solve all the world's problems without being much of a challenge.

What is interesting about this book? Although the title of this book promises a prescription, "Brain Respiration is done by your own hands, through your own choice, for the advancement of your own spiritual awareness, and for the betterment of yourself and all mankind"(p.48) without any of the harmful poisons that the western world calls medication.
Dr. Lee does not think small, stating that he wants "to call upon the world to embark on an Enlightenment Revolution, a massive spiritual awakening that will sweep across the Earth with a thundering speed, bringing the joy of enlightenment to everyone"(p.xii-xiii). It's a bold vision that will yield dramatic results:

I'm just going to tell myself that he means MILON'S Castle.

When these one hundred million people make the choice to reach a collective enlightenment, then we will change the destiny of the Earth itself. The healing vibration of their choices and determination will cure the Earth of the ills that we have caused. Then we will finally be on our way to Margo's Castle again.(p.75)

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