A friend recently shared this meme of “What-the-Dalai-Lama-told-John-Mack” (which I haven’t fact-checked), which, along with the recent publication of Diana Pasulka’s Encounters: Experiences with Nonhuman Intelligences prompts this post.
As readers here will know, one engine of thought here at the Skunkworks is the thesis that the very idea of technologically-advanced, extraterrestrial civilizations is ideological, that is, treating a profoundly contingent cultural formation (namely, that of the earth’s so-called “advanced” societies) as if it were somehow natural or universal. The Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (ETH) for the origin of UFOs/AUP merely projects “First World” humanity as a paradigm of “intelligence” and “technology” onto the cosmos.
However, recent reflections on “the Phenomenon,” taking their cue, arguably, from Jacques Vallée’s Passport to Magonia combined, sometimes, with more recent, original research, depart from the conjecture that UFOs/UAP hail from an extrasolar civilization. Following Vallée, it is proposed that the mind-boggling variety of entities encountered in relation to flying saucers, UFOs, and UAP are part of a broader, human tradition of interaction with nonhuman intelligences. As Pasulka writes in the introduction to her new book (in her characteristically breezy style): “Traditional religions, including Christianity, Islam and Judaism, as well as Buddhism, and Hinduism, in addition to Indigenous communities, include some recognition, in parts of their histories and traditions, either acknowledging or pondering the existence of extraterrestrials or nonhuman intelligence, or do not discount it” (8).
In this notion of “nonhuman intelligence” there seems something unreflected, and that is the very (reported) fact of human/nonhuman interaction, an interaction that is more like human-to-human interaction than that between different species. If these entities are not of the family Homo (and even within that family mutual recognition is restricted), then the grounds of the mutual recognition between human and nonhuman beings is mysterious (if not downright mystical). I have argued this point with regards to intelligent extraterrestrials: there is no obvious reason why They should recogize Us as their technologically-advanced, intelligent Other. The same reasoning is arguably applicable to the nonhuman intelligences posited by Vallée, Pasulka, et al.
Within the context of the Abrahamic religions, the interaction between humankind, angels, and demons is not suprising, however, given that they all spring from the same Creator, Man being made in His image. Just how an analogous thinking is operative in the traditions Pasulka lists above, she—the religious studies scholar—would know better than I, but my hunch is this analogue is present in one inflection or other in them all. It follows, then, that myths, traditions, stories, or reports of “face-to-face” interaction with nonhuman intelligences, at least within the context of a Darwinian understanding of life, intelligence, and consciousness, betray an anthropomorphism if not an anthropocentrism. In our average-everyday reality, human-to-human interaction differs from interspecies interaction, and interaction between human and nonhuman “intelligent” beings would be an instance of the latter, not the former.
This reflection reveals a deeper, unquestionable anthropocentrism. The very idea of “nonhuman intelligence,” as it is deployed in talk about “the Phenomenon,” excludes out of hand the “intelligence” of all other forms of life on earth (which is ironic given the way that non-Abrahamic traditions—“Buddhism, and Hinduism, in addition to Indigenous communities”—think of nonhuman beings in ways markedly more empathetic). As I have argued, there’s no such thing as intelligence. That is, the concept of “intelligence” denotes not some quality or characteristic in-itself, but is a piece in some language game (e.g., that of various fields of psychology, artifical intelligence research, etc.) possessed of significance only relative to its particular use. Just as the concept of technology is unreflectively inflated and projected onto the cosmos by the thinking that goes on in the ETH and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, too often in ufological talk, even in this latest inflection, “intelligence” appears blindly applied only to human, all-too-human (so-called) Others.
Skunkworks 
Once again, Bryan, you have stimulated my thinking about this matter. I have always thought that there is indeed an unexplained phenomenon, but given the wildly divergent reports of its perceived physical attributes, even as a teenager I considered the Krell Hypothesis as a possible explanation. Per “Forbidden Planet” (inspired in part by Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”). the Krell were supremely intelligent inhabitants of a distant planet, Altair 4, who eventually developed powers of psychokinesis to remotely transform their physical environment but alas in so doing they were unable to suppress their subconscious “monsters from the Id,” who manifested destruction, violence and species extinction resulted. As allegories go, this was a profoundly subtle warning about nuclear holocaust, so subtle that perhaps even the screenwriters missed it [insert laughing emoji here].
But for this hypothesis to be entertained, one would also have to posit that human consciousness studies have yet to find such hidden psychokinetic powers in mankind. Dr. Garry Nolan has documented some interesting findings among experiencers involving the Caudate Putamen but would that explain the “receiving end” or the “generating end” of the phenomenon, or both?
In any event, I have also always considered the proliferation of UFO reports coinciding with the dawn of the nuclear age more than a coincidence. And the proliferation of abduction reports at the dawning realization of a nuclear winter ending our species to be another signpost of a possibly self-generated phenomenon. And yet, generating radar returns and physical craft seems a bridge (and helm) too far for even the most Krellian-like (or gigantic Caudate Putamens) amongst us. Sigh. Considering all the possible explanations is sort of like trying to imagine the pre-Big Bang universe. Cognitive dissonance begins to boggle the mind.
Oh well, if all this hub bub about recovered craft is more than just the most intricately manufactured disinformation campaign since the D-Day subterfuge (in which case “just” is a poorly chosen word!), my pitiful imaginings will be put to bed along with the Krell.
Thanks for another excellent post. and now back to mindless football action!
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Joe, glad you got something out of this last post.
I know “Forbidden Planet,” a favourite of mine, not least because of the soundtrack.
Do I understand you to speculate that UAP and their pilots are a manner of unconscious, psychokinetic manifestation, along the lines of Jung’s speculations or Tibetan mythology?
I think we concur–despite numerous protestations–the phenomenon begins in 1947, with the Cold War. Abductions arise with the advent of biotechnology–the Human Genome Project, IVF, and cloning–little wonder women under hypnosis should dream of cold blooded alien doctors fascinated with their reproductive systems! Not that that context explains it all…
Nolan in his field I will not question; outside that, his speculations are no better than any other informed commentators, and perhaps less so given his investment in the Phenomenon as a self-confessed Experiencer.
And the hubbub about recovered craft is just so much tired rumour. Better to watch football than another interview with David Grusch, I think…
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Bryan, I’m not so sure the marvels of biotechnology had filtered into the brains of the common folk by 1961 when the Hills first complained about the cold medical staff they encountered. I prefer the fear of special extinction prompting images of harvested sperm and eggs – we shall survive! – as the trigger. Re: the tired rumors, the Schumer 62 page amendment seems like a lot of wasted effort if there’s no “there” there. Moreover the CVs of recent whistle blowers have become remarkably more impressive than the felonious poison retailer Bob Lazar, so I am keeping an open mind, God help me, or as me sainted Irish mum used to say, “May the saints preserve us.”
PS As a Jets fan (the most ridiculed NFL team over the years for their epic – hilarious to others – ineptitude), football has provided more reasons to stray from mainstream pastimes and turn to the collected works of Gray (“Aliens Ate My Lunch”) Barker and James (“Saucer Smear”) Mosley for entertainment.
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Joe, however archetypal the Hills’ experience may have been, the garden variety abduction _does_ take off in the 80s, in the work of Hopkins and Jacobs. Therein, the anxiety over genetic engineering is palpable.
What’s unimpressive about these recent whistle-blowers is how rusty their whistles are, tooting tunes we’ve heard before. Grusch seems a stooge…
At least you’ll have entertainment to turn to when this latest wave of interest subsides…before the next one!
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Bryan,
I am of two minds when I consider the possibility, however remote it might seem to you, that there have been recoveries. If so, the mystery enters a new phase. Speculation then becomes centered on Survival. I’d rather speculate on What If!
The wild card for me re: retrievals has always been: What if there have been recoveries, but they are all archeological? That possibility has also been percolating in the zeitgeist for a couple of generations. I have more I could say about that but it would have to be offline (he concluded mysteriously) and a few days hence.
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Yeah, our conversation has wandered from the implications of what is claimed to the possible truth thereof… Time will tell, eh.
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Bryan, just fyi. /mr/ https://aeon.co/essays/from-the-pseudo-to-the-forger-the-value-of-faked-philosophy
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Thanks for the link. I had seen a previous article arguing precisely that the Ḥatäta consituted evidence of an African Enlightenment. Was there a particular aspect of the post or comments that the article you share sheds light or comments on? Term end exhaustion prevent me from discerning it.
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No, no particular aspect — this as the only way I knew to send you a message. I’ve not come across any email address for you.
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