While the notion of extraterrestrial life has long captivated the public imagination, certain expectations regarding how such life might interact with us have also proven problematic. Primarily that’s because, being the stubborn species we are, when data doesn’t conform to our expectations, we tend to either ignore it, explain it away, or assume it has been gathered incorrectly, or is even the result of fraudulent reporting. This issue has been paramount in the matter of the modern UFO Phenomenon, because many elements of the reports that have arisen from eye-witness testimony contain elements that stretch our expectations – often to the breaking point and beyond.

A term that has been put forward to explain the various elements that stretch our expectations of how sophisticated non-terrestrial intelligence would interact with us – even to the point of defying rational understanding altogether – is “high strangeness”. Here we see crossover into another domain, that of general paranormality. Now while we modern Westerners would like to keep these bodies of data completely separate – after all, why would extraterrestrials act in ways that are reminiscent of apparitions and poltergeist phenomena, or so the conventional thinking goes — the reality is that these two kinds of data seem to regularly co-arise in people’s experience. And that being the case, it would be unwise to let our pre-existing biases prevent us from seeing linkages that clearly exist in the raw data itself.

Speaking of crossover between domains that tend to be kept distinct in our modern notions of how reality works, we also see startling parallels between the UFO Phenomenon and humanity’s most ancient expressions of religion – collectively referred to as “Shamanism”. The most glaring similarities arise in the experience of reality people report in both Shamanistic journeys, and encounters with supposed “aliens” during contact experiences reported as part of the modern UFO Phenomenon. In both cases people report experiencing the encounter in a seemingly alternate realm or non-ordinary state of consciousness. The question then emerges, pertaining to the UFO Phenomenon, if these really are “space aliens” – that is, physical beings arising from some distant star system – then why would the encounters involve so much overlap with the visionquest encounters reported in Shamanism?

While one can certainly attempt to explain away these parallels in the bodies of data, a more open-minded, objective, and sincere perspective might very well land on the notion that these clues are telling us something fundamental about the nature of reality itself; something that seems to inevitably lead towards a reframing of what it means to be a sentient life form living in a supposedly “physical” universe, as defined under the dictates of scientific materialism. But what precisely is the nature of the overlap between domains/topics such as Shamanism and experiences that fall within the modern UFO Phenomenon, and where might the implications of these alignments lead us? These are the mind-stretching and paradigm-collapsing matters we’ll seek to delve more deeply into, in this, the 96th episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.

Not all that long ago it seems, the notion that our world may actually be a simulation, a massively and masterly orchestrated virtual reality, seemed a notion best left to science fiction writers. In fact, the idea didn’t even really gain traction until our own video game technology — rendered with high definition graphics cards, and powered by code bases that included full-on physics engines — grew to be so immersive and realistic, that people began extrapolating outwards, wondering if — one day — perhaps a technologically advanced enough civilization could actually render an entire universe, one so all encompassing that even the participants would be fooled into believing it was “real”.

Believe it or not, today, this notion is taken very seriously, by philosophers and physicists alike. And it’s not just because we’ve been inspired (and perhaps frightened?) by the remarkable increase in the reality and capacities of our own digital creations. No, even more central to the growth of this idea are hints that have been found – breadcrumbs found along the trail, if you will – by observations made on the quantum level of reality. The implications of these observations are truly mind-blowing. Indeed, these very revelations led world-renowned physicist Niels Bohr to famously say, “If quantum mechanics hasn’t profoundly shocked you, you haven’t understood it yet.” Ultimately, these astounding findings bring into question the very fabric of our our “reality”.

In modern plays on this notion of virtual reality, television shows like Westworld depict human beings entering into the simulation to tweak the inner workings of the AI-driven robots. Not surprisingly, many a UFO enthusiast has noticed how similar such scenes seem to be to the reported abductions of human beings by apparently alien intelligences, who likewise, reportedly make “alterations” on their own subjects. And perhaps even more tellingly, many of these experiencers report, after the fact, feeling that “the realm of the Others” – whether that be on board a supposed UFO craft or elsewhere, actually feels more “real” than our every day waking existence. Indeed near death experiencers report the very same kind of sentiment when comparing “there” to “here”.

And beyond the issue of contact and abduction experiences, the very way these “Others” – these evidently non-human intelligences – are able to — apparently — effortlessly violate our observed laws of physics while they make their rare appearances within our world, has led some to postulate that perhaps our world is a simulation, and they, the architects. How is it that they seemingly pass through solid walls like passing through air — often taking us along with them? And how do they pilot craft that seem immune to the very effects of gravity itself – almost as if they’re operating within bubbles of localized space-time?

When you add to the mix the long-standing historical appearances of these “Others”, who were often understood by pre-scientific societies to be — depending on the circumstance and the worldview – “angels” or “demons”, and sometimes even “gods”, the very creators themselves, and the situation becomes even more — depending on your point of view — intriguing, inspiring, or disturbing.

This confounding complexity leads us to pose some astronomically large questions, such as: what is the “reality” status of our perceived universe? To what degree do these “Others” exist in or beyond this universe? And what is truly central to existence itself? What role does matter, energy, and pure information play? And could it be that each of these are derivatives of capital “C” Consciousness itself: the ultimate engine of parallel “virtual” universes?

These truly mind-bending and potentially paradigm-crashing questions are the topic of this, the eighteenth episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.