Since the very beginning of this podcast, we’ve been exploring the various experiences people report having, across time and across cultures, that speak to outlier events; events that defy easy categorization, especially within our modern, Western milieu. Here we’re speaking of events that are not only unusual, but that manifest in such a way as to appear—simply put—impossible, at least according to so-called “modern” understanding. Because of the bewildering—”does not compute” nature of these events, we’ve often resorted to doubting the witnesses themselves, calling them everything from prone to exaggeration, to delusional, to frauds.

And yet, the vast numbers of these events—once you dare begin to collect and collate the date in a dedicated, objective fashion—suggest such easy—and let’s call a spade a spade here—lazy dismissals, simply can’t stand as a legitimate assessment. Indeed, on this podcast, the sheer preponderance of these highly strange experiences has led us to not only catalog and compare them, but also to ask: what model of reality could possibly emerge to help us understand them? If these are “real”—as a phenomenological approach to the data would certainly suggest they are—then what does that say of the nature of our reality, itself?

Some would suggest—and have long suggested, going back to the dawn of our civilization, in fact—that we have everything upside down and inside out. That is to say, from this perspective, the problem lies not with these so-called outlier experiences, but with our insistence that this—which is to say: everything we see manifesting around us in apparently solid, physical form—is actually base reality. These people would unapologetically suggest it is in fact not; that this is a hall of mirrors, if you will, a carefully crafted illusion that hides, behind a veil, a deeper “true” existence, one not defined by the duality we see so evident in our day to day lives “here”.

The movement and/or perspective we’re speaking of here is colloquially known as “gnosticism.” Gnosis is a Greek term meaning “knowledge,” specifically direct, experiential knowledge of the divine or ultimate reality. Adherents of gnosticism are quick to point out that this is not mere belief—arising from some external authority or doctrine—but rather a knowing based on direct, first-hand experience. This notion of a direct, first-hand, felt-sense of the ultimately real, helps us make sense of why so many experiencers report these events as being “more real than real.” If these people are indeed experiencing modes of existence and/or states of being beyond the veil, as it were, then this of course is exactly what we would expect them to report.

It’s important to ask: why does this notion of our waking experience not being ultimately real prove so enduring? Why does some version of this perspective show up over and over again across time and space within human experience; evident in everything from Vedanta to Buddhism to Jungian depth psychology? Perhaps even more compellingly—at least to modern ears—why are elements of this perspective evident in our most cutting-edge physics, astronomy and neuroscience? More to the point, if this is indeed a truer apprehension of ultimate reality, then what are the implications, and how now shall we live? These are precisely the matters that we’ll seek to unpack in this, the 118th episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.

Many of the people who regularly tune into this podcast know that the UFO Phenomenon, general paranormality, and other so-called contact modalities such as NDEs, OBEs and psi phenomena are addictively fascinating matters. One could draw the conclusion that this is the case simply because the nature of the subject matter is seductive, and helps to distract people from the mundanity of their everyday existence.

While the subject matter does indeed draw one deeper and deeper into the proverbial rabbit hole the longer one pays attention with a keen, discerning eye, I think there’s more than meets the eye going on here. I think partly what’s going on is a kind of “remembering the future”. What I mean by that is that our collective fascination with this subject matter reflects a kind of mental bookmark to what becomes a key inflection point in our civilization’s history. You could describe it as the experience of living through the arising of an interference pattern, where the present is equally impacted by events from our past AND our future. Particularly significant points in time can tend to feel like this, even if it is confusing to those living through it.

Particularly thoughtful researchers, like the preeminent Jacques Vallee, have noted that what we are seeing take place with the modern UFO Phenomenon is simply the latest wrinkle in time of a larger phenomenon that has been manifesting since time immemorial. Here I speak of the interaction between human beings and other, sophisticated, bewitching non-human intelligences; intelligences so capable both in matters of the external AND internal sciences (manifesting in both the world and the mind) that they have undoubtedly played a key role in shaping the very meaning models that we currently shape our collective existence with and through.

Former rock star and later founder of TTSA, Tom DeLonge, ended up uttering what I have found – in retrospect – to be apt words in describing the nature and origin of many of the Others of which we speak. In one interview DeLonge said “The evidence doesn’t suggest it’s interplanetary, so, people need to understand religion, ancient texts…the occult…esoteric stuff…they need to understand that time is not linear – it’s parallel – & once you understand that all things – past, present, future – exist at one moment, which is what quantum mechanics is kinda figuring out, then they’ll realize there can be parallel realities right here, with advanced civilizations that are popping over with frequency. Not linear… not coming from Alpha Centauri here. And I’m not even suggesting that that can’t happen, too. But what *is* happening here is a little bit different.”

Indeed it is. And I would add to this insightful analysis – that I at first didn’t pay close enough attention to when I began this journey years ago – that it’s not that some of them are NOT extraterrestrial. In some very real ways some of the groups are. But, importantly, that’s only PART of the story. They are also interdimensional, but in a way that diverges from some of the ways that term has conventionally been used by astrophysicists, and is more inline with the way the term is applied, as DeLonge hints at, by enthusiasts of the occult and other forms of esotericism.

Notice there that I said “groups” – plural. And I stand by this. I am more convinced than ever that the evidence suggests more than one group is involved; and that these groups cover the gamut in terms of their developmental consciousness. I speak in terms of degrees of evolution because I have found this is both a more helpful and a more accurate way of describing the situation than painting in polarities of black and white – i.e. good vs evil.

Now, while Delonge has seemed particularly concerned with the ways some of the less mature groups have been working their will in our collective lives, I personally have experienced what it’s like to be in contact with, and be inspired by, groups who are typical of the more evolved, highly conscious end of the spectrum. And it’s a discussion of that particular interaction, and the way that it’s impacted my ongoing journey, that is the topic of this, the 75th edition, of the Point of Convergence podcast.