Over the last several episodes of this podcast we’ve been exploring the overlap between religious history, Shamanism and the UFO Phenomenon. In today’s episode we’ll be continuing this line of inquiry by zeroing in on the mystical and transformative aspects of encounters had as part of the modern UFO Phenomenon. Specifically we’ll be considering how the nature of these encounters, had in a seemingly alternate realm or alternate state of consciousness, prompt remarkably consistent and long-lasting worldview changes amongst those who’ve had the experiences.

While some will argue that the ontological shock experienced in interactions with alien beings that are not supposed to exist according to the dictates of conventional thinking is simply that – the result of paradigm-shattering experiences had with often frightening, “bug-like” creatures – a more thoughtful approach might suggest that, to the contrary, the “reality rewrite” that experiencers undergo is not just an unintended side-effect, but a chief aim of the entire enterprise.

Put another way, one can very clearly make the argument that a central mission of these mysterious Others interacting with human beings over time is to “wake us up” to who we truly are, and to how we’re connected to everything and everyone else around us, including myriad beings we have not even yet begun to map onto our collective awareness. Ultimately that “waking up” process is not only about expanding our conceptual categories, but more centrally about cracking open human perception and potential – allowing us to more fully step into our true birthright as powerful, multidimensional beings that are fractal representations of Source consciousness itself.

In the latter part of the 20th century, John Mack, a well-respected professor of psychiatry and head of the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School was thrust full-on into these confusing and controversial matters when he began to be sought out by the people who’d had these discombobulating encounters. In taking these accounts seriously, determining that – contrary to mainstream thinking of the time – these accounts were not the result of delusional, damaged minds, Mack played a central role in mainstreaming our culture’s engagement with these challenging issues.

In today’s episode we’ll be considering the observations made by Mack in his ground-breaking book Passport to the Cosmos: Human Transformation and Alien Encounters. By the time Mack penned this book, he was a decade or more into the matter of apparent alien abduction and hybridization, and, having had first-hand exposure not only to Western experiencers, but also to Shamans and those of various indigenous traditions from around the world, he was in a unique position to draw overarching insights from his immersive investigations. In what directions did these investigations take his thinking, and why were his tentative conclusions so utterly unpalatable for conventional, Western society? These are the matters we’ll seek to explore in this, the 97th episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.

When people are first introduced to the enigmatic topic known as the UFO Phenomenon, the working assumption is that this is a matter of determining whether or not aliens, i.e. extraterrestrials from some likely extrasolar source, have traversed the immense distances of outer space, to arrive at our blue pearl planet either to, A.) from a more positive view, study us, as in a scientific expedition, or, B.) from a less positive view, scope out our capabilities prior to some kind of invasion.

Perhaps it should not be surprising that this is where the conversation begins for people; including those who’ve flocked to this topic since 2017, when the revelations of a now famous New York Times article first entered the public sphere, suggesting to many that, despite decades of scoff and ridicule and X-Files jokes, perhaps there really was a there there.

Speaking of decades of scoff and ridicule, the decades leading up to the present one filled people’s minds with the very scenarios I just mentioned: that either these visitors from beyond are here as part of a scientific expedition, as in Star Trek, or as a prelude to a full-on invasion of our planet, as in War of the Worlds or Independence Day. These are familiar tropes in science fiction, and so it should not surprise us that this has worked its way into our cultural zeitgeist.

But those initial, rather tame and predictable questions about what the so-called UFO Phenomenon represents are quickly supplanted by much more profound, far-reaching, and, for some, disturbing questions, once newcomers really begin to start poking around and considering the plethora of reports made by credible witnesses, going back decades and decades – and perhaps even millennia – discussing in-person encounters with the intelligences supposedly responsible for the piloting of these sophisticated aerial vehicles known as UFOs or UAP.

Because, as I just mentioned, these encounters trace back deep into human history, and likely even pre-history, one could argue that these more recent “sci-fi” encounters are really in the same overarching category as what we might deem “religious” encounters from yester-millennia, the questions around what this all means suddenly become much more broadly sweeping and all-encompassing.

While the modern UFO era may have begun with the emergence of saucer sightings in the early to mid 20th century, that picture eventually grew to include not only those initial sightings, but also reported interactions with the supposed beings piloting these sophisticated, non-conventional craft. Yes, indeed “aliens” – or as they’re often called in modern ufology circles – non-human intelligences, often to clarify that we don’t actually know where they’re from, just that they’re not human – at least we’re pretty sure of that fact – if by “human” we mean beings akin to contemporary homo sapien sapiens. Of course, as we’ll see in today’s episode, that clear cut distinction between us and them might not be so easy to delineate after all, but we’ll get to that.

From sightings of supposed alien beings – or, apparently non-human but very often “humanoid” beings – the picture filled out even more, to include the now infamous abduction phenomenon, where modern earth humans are taken aboard craft – often from the comfort and quiet of their bedrooms in the middle of the night – where they are then subjected to a wide variety of experiences, including – in some cases of a perhaps less apparently positive nature – invasive medical procedures and supposed hybridization programs, and – in more apparently positive reports – opportunities to see the cosmos and even, on occasion, to learn to maneuver the craft, often via mental intention alone, no less.

In terms of the beings often seen, while there really is a broad spectrum of others, one particular form has come to represent the quintessential “alien” in our cultural zeitgeist. Here I speak of the proverbial “grey alien”. The emergence of this particular form had much to do, one could argue, with the front cover of Whitley Streiber’s ground-breakin and nerve-rattling book, Communion, published in 1987.

Of course, that image wouldn’t have made the waves it did if it were not for the fact that many thousands of people reportedly recognized that prototypical face – sometimes, much to their chagrin. After all, if they recognized the image, if it was somehow familiar to them, even if murkily so, did this mean they too were perhaps alien abductees? These were chilling questions for a plethora of human beings to contemplate.

Of course, the fact that these beings were – if not exactly human-looking – then certainly humanoid, raised many questions. Why would an alien being look so much like us? Wouldn’t the evolutionary trajectory of their own home planet take them in very different directions? The conventional thinking on these matters assumed this would be the case, and it’s partly this that led to so much ridicule and scoff. Many took these humanoid forms as a good reason to ignore the entire affair altogether. It’s as if these people decided that since aliens wouldn’t look like this, the entire affair must be reducible to make believe or delusion.

And yet, the enigma of this particular form of “otherness” has endured, to the point where it’s now a mainstay in our cultural heritage, both for those who believe and don’t believe aliens are here, and are actually interacting with human beings on an ongoing basis. Of course another possibility that’s emerged more recently, and this would explain why these others look so much like us is they may actually be us – but us from the future; our descendents, who have been taken in some strange evolutionary directions based on future events.

So what is it? Are greys from an extraplanetary source – i.e. are they extraterrestrials? Or are they future humans, what Michael Masters has aptly deemed “extratempestrials”? Or is it possible that both options exist? And, furthermore, could the prevalence of this form, and its evident ongoing connection to us, point towards an even deeper and and more primary construct – that might not only speak to common origins, but perhaps also to a common terminus – maybe in the form of the singularity that rushes to meet us at the end of our time? These are the perplexing yet fascinating ideas we’ll endeavor to explore, in this, the 78th episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.

The first layer is the notion that sophisticated alien entities may be in our midst, supposedly piloting – or at least controlling, even if remotely – the strangely exotic craft that have been regularly spotted buzzing in and around our skies. That part of the conversation is finally being had – in at least some elements of the mainstream, though widespread acknowledgement of this fact is still a long way off.

Further inward from that surface layer of the proverbial onion is discussion regarding how these alien others seem to be both contacting and ongoingly interacting with human beings, as we speak, and most likely have been for as long as our species has been around to have such experiences.

Another layer deeper from that part of the narrative, which is already much more than the general public and the political and media mainstream are willing to even discuss, is a notion even more shocking: that being that some people are taking a proactive role – and are reaching out to these alien others; taking the front-foot, as it were, in the contact and communication process.

CE-5 – short for “close encounters of the 5th kind” is a term used to describe a certain form of this kind of interaction with alien others. CE-5 involves a series of general protocols designed to peacefully invite contact with sophisticated, non-human intelligence. A person may, for instance, communicate, via the aid of meditation and directed intention, a desire to see a craft – presumed by many, if not most, to be extraterrestrial in origin – to show itself in a particular place in the sky at a particular time.

Interestingly, while CE-5 is the most familiar form of proactive, human-initiated contact with apparently non-human, alien intelligence, it is not the only method that has, and is, being employed. Astral travel is another form of contact/communication/communion that is being used to reach out and bridge whatever divide separates us and “them”.

Of course, the fact that astral travel seems to – after the correct kind of training/preparation – be just as effective in achieving this close encounter contact as is CE-5, this only begs the question as to the nature of the divide that does actually separate us from them. Indeed, the fact that we seem to be able to travel, via consciousness, as it were, without “physically” going anywhere, and still not only contact these alien others, but even spend time aboard their in-orbit spacecraft, suggests that the nature of the contact (or at least, some if it) is perhaps not what many first assume it to be. And really, once you really think about it, it becomes clear that the implications here even call into question the very nature of what we call “reality”.

Without doubt these implications are as fascinating as they are mind-bending; and are – without question – as simultaneously bizarre as they are profound. And these are the very matters we’ll seek to delve deep into, in this, the 60th episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.

Over the last several months we’ve been discussing how the totality of the data behind the UFO Phenomenon may include different patterns that, perhaps, suggest that different actors and agendas serve as distinct parts of that whole. Distinguishing segments within the meta-category known as the UFO Phenomenon can, perhaps, help us to better understand what’s actually going on.

Within that totality, for instance, is a subsection of data involving apparent alien abduction. Here we’re speaking about human beings first encountering evidently non-human corporeal entities in their homes, as well as elsewhere, and subsequently being taken by these aliens onboard what appear to be spacecraft. Once onboard these apparent other worldly craft, these individuals often find that strange, invasive and frequently uncomfortable medical procedures are performed.

While medical treatment for various conditions that may be ailing these abductees is sometimes the goal, much more often the medical procedures seem to revolve around some kind of vast reproductive scheme; often as part of what appears to be a wide-reaching hybridization program – where offspring who are part human and part grey alien appear to be being bred and then raised by these non-human others.

The data we’ve gathered over the decades on these kinds of encounters also suggest that these interactions between these non-human, alien others and usually individual human beings, begin early in childhood – even though it’s sometimes only in adulthood that these early life memories are successfully retrieved – sometimes as a result of some kind of triggering, associative event, or via the aid of therapeutic tools such as hypnotic regression.

These particular kinds of experiencer accounts are widespread. The fact that these particular alien abduction experiences share so many common data points suggest we really can learn a lot by really embarking on a close examination of the evidence. And that’s precisely what we’ll be doing over the next several episodes.

To begin that process we’ll be delving into a specific case that fits well within the boundaries of this particular kind of experiencer account. Terry Lovelace is a man who’s encountered these alien greys since childhood. That ongoing but usually intermittent interaction took a shocking turn when he was a young man in the military. Events in one particular scenario, depicted in his book Incident at Devil’s Den, seem to suggest these alien greys have wielded an alarming and overarching control over his behavior, intentions, perception and memory.

A deep dive into the astonishing but revealing – and all too familiar – case of Terry Lovelace, alien abductee, is the topic of this, the 54th episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.

When one considers the history of the UFO Phenomenon, both recent and going well back to the middle part of the 20th century, one thing is clear: subterfuge is an ongoing and ever-present element of the entire enterprise. When these elusive craft are seen, it’s often at night and, on average, in less densely populated areas. When they are spotted over city centers, some people will see these unidentified aerial phenomena, while others will not — because on top of being elusive, the intelligence behind these craft show a clear ability to manipulate human perception directly, in whatever way it sees fit. It is fair to say that you only see them when they want you to see them.

And then there are the witnesses, the abductees and the contactees: known collectively as “experiencers”. When these people do remember coming into contact with these apparently non-human intelligences, it’s often in fits and starts. The memories are foggy and disjointed. For this reason, many of these experiencers seek out trained therapists to conduct hypnotic regression, in hopes of pulling additional details from the ether of the deep subconscious. And when the embedded events do eventually arise in memory, it’s often clear that significant portions of the experiencer’s life have either been blocked from conscious memory, or masked as other events that didn’t tell the whole – or true – story. These shards of recall often touch on genetic manipulation, even the witnessing of apparent alien/human hybridization programs.

The question we’re left with is: Why? Why the secrecy? Why the hiddenness? What’s behind the stealthy nature of this alien intelligence? What can we tease from the data regarding the potential motivations behind these actions? Is this sign of a daunting, looming threat of enormous proportions? Or is a completely different future in play: one that involves a cooperative, inter-species relationship and a subsequently completely changed human civilization? These compelling questions are the topic of this, the 8th episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.