The Heavy Stuff

In the last couple of days I’ve been surfing the net, as usual, to find material for my daily AnomalyMan listing on Squidoo. One place I always check out is www.anomalist.com as it’s overall point of view closely matches mine when describing `anomalous’ links of dubious natures. And, it’s two of those links that I have today on my Squidoo webpage (March 27th date) that set off my brain concerning the phenomenology of the ontological structure.

One of the links (all links will be at the bottom of this post) had to do with a MUFON investigator and his recording of a very anomalous `light in the sky at night’ experience that he interprets as Ufo Orbs and their Mothership - and indeed, the link will have pictures that will convince you too that the image explanation could be justified. What’s shown is one brighter light with an apparent connection to another series of `lights’ (different light filters show a golden shaped `interior’ craft).

The other link goes to the story of a serious  gentleman who actively is seeking some answers to the Bigfoot In America saga. And again, this time too, a seeker of the unknown was rewarded with the very thing desired - this time in the form of a 7 foot terrifying `monster’ with a voice which had a bellow beyond belief - and told in a manner that leaves little doubt as to its temporal occurrence to the observer.

So, when I read each of these stories, nearly in order, it set off my brain. Immediately, thoughts like - could `everything’ that is a space — like a human, comb, grass, robin, world, star, atom, — everything — which has a space and has a mass - and that exists IN an ontological structure — everything LIKE that — has one unifing characteristic - it is knowable. VERY KNOWABLE. (Can be measured.)

Then, my mind continued to turn over. Could `everything’ that is UNKNOWN have a space too? A `space’ which can be `called’ to be what it needs to be? To be what it HAS TO BE? (Whatisnotabletontobeis) And, could such `spaces’ only happen (or nearly only happen) when expectations and intentionality’s are raised and/or focused? When the `expectations’ of the `observer’ could trigger the intentionality’s of the `unknown space’?

Hence, MUFON investigators will see Ufo’s. Hence, Bigfoot investigators will see Bigfoots. Hence, Ghost investigators will find Ghosts. And EVP investigators — well, I think you get the idea by now. It seems that the will of the intentionality’s is all that is needed for a Fortean event of an Unknown nature to occur. (Could it be that the `intentionality’s’ come from the unknown when a `possession’ occurs of a human? Does the Unknown have some specific `spooky’ nature to it? A nature different than the Known - which might be `positive’ in some overall balance?)

And, if spirits can be beckoned in this manner (from the unknown) and Ufo’s too can be `beckoned’ — might the `nature’ of these two experiences really be able to be grouped together? Does this justify all the `nutcases’ that claim its the devil who is the ufo’s? (And, of course, this does not rule out nut and bolt ufo’s from existing along with all of us human beings - on our side of reality - in the known - because they have space.) Could this be why Prophet Yahweh could call a `light’ into the sky?

And, really, aren’t scientific discoveries actually similar? A seeker of the unknown - `finds’ the information - that one was seeking as a scientist. Would the `Ufo’s’ and `Bigfoot’s’ BE - information? Information in the rawest form?

A Information or intelligence `representation’  which has expectations and intentionalities? And, could the transfer of those expectations bring a `space’ together with that information base - which might even be able to occur,  and `act’ for a `real temporal’ event. Being infused with `knowledge’ for a moment(s). Being the very display of the unknown.

Hey, thanks for reading - I appreciate your interest - bookmark THS and come back soon for more heavy thoughts. You have seen my FRONT page, right?

Enjoy the two links, and many more, at www.squidoo.com/AnomalyMan  - just check March 27th - or see the Ufo-Mufon story at http://www.ufodigest.com/news/0309/ufo-orb.php and the Bigfoot story at http://blogsquatcher.blogspot.com/2009/03/angry-old-man.html.

A few days ago I posted my analysis of many of the very cool questions that were asked of readers of the website www.anomalist.com - you can read that post directly below or by hitting the anomalies button on the right side of this blog if you came from another link to here. The results of those questions revealed a very interesting picture of `who’ may be interested in such matters. And, of course, the actual respondents demographics answer this question too — here’s that scoop directly from the report of the studies findings:

A little over three quarters of our audience is male, with the remainder female. The majority of Anomalists live in the U.S.A. They are college educated, some with degrees. Age-wise they skew to middle-age or later. The majority hold executive positions are self-employed or retired. They do not belong to any major organized religions or political parties. They did however vote in both the past mid-term and Presidential elections

In other words — mainly older (probably) white American males - with an intellectual slant. That is not a bad source or group of folks  to get a real read on many things going on in the world IMHO — that said; these views should NOT be taken to represent how divergent groups would feel (in other words, young-female-democrats may feel different about anomalist type events; or churchgoers - you get the idea - this is a specialized sample overweighted to certain attributes of the population) about UFO’s or other matters.

But, beyond the demographics, and their limitations at projecting those views on other demos - I wanted to comment on several other results from the research on these readers who were voluntary participants in the study. Specifically, I wanted to highlight the findings about some of the most fundamental aspects of the Fortean events seen in the world today - The UFO Enigma. The research indicated that 53/47 the respondents believed in Roswell; 54% thought the `ancient astronaut’ valid; and 48/52 - they believe `people are in contact with space people’.

What I love about each of these findings is the overwhelming nature of the 50/50 split (that said, it would be interesting to see these figures from those who say they have seen a UFO and those who haven’t). It’s also interesting that in a survey with such a huge percentage who have experienced the UFO thing personally - that the `belief’ isn’t significantly different that what National random surveys say - about 50/50. What do I make of this?

What I make of it is this — some of those who `saw a UFO’ aren’t convinced they saw an alien craft. And, they are right, of course — the crafts seen could be made by humansand do NOT offer `proof’ of “space people’. This is just an example of how complicated the whole analysis is of folks opinions on Ufo’s. But, to me, the 50/50 nature of `belief’ in UFO’s — is indeed — a 50/50 belief in `aliens’ — as exhibited by the `ancient astronaut’ and `space people’ answers. Simply put, half the folks who read the anomalist.com website come to have their viewpoint on UFO’s validated and the other half come to be convinced. These are the ones still looking for some indisputable `smoking gun’ about aliens.

Slowly, I’m becoming convinced that `proof’ will never be `UFO videos’ do to their ability to be faked — I’m not even convinced that a `breaking news UFO on CNN’ would be `proof’ to many folks of `aliens’ — it would only be proof of `unknown technology to the general public’. It will literally take visual proof of seeing an alien — in the flesh — for proof. Indeed, you’d need to be treated like the great comedian Jackie Gleason was once by Richard Nixon — you have heard the story about his visit right? Here’s the link http://frankwarren.blogspot.com/2005/04/jackie-gleason-richard-nixon-and-et.html — more great links like this on my anomalies, paraNormal and mind perceptions squidoo site.

There are several websites on the internet that offer a daily listing of `high strangeness’ from www.thedailygrail.com to www.forteantimes.comto others such as my own on Squidoo. However, to me, the best selection of Forteanlike subject matter is found at www.anomalist.com  and recently - that website put together an online questionnaire for its readers to respond to. The link to those results will be at the bottom of this article. Meanwhile, I’d like to cover some of the findings of the readers answers. I also have a direct link to the results on my lens at www.squidoo.com/anomalyman .

Anyways, the sample consisted of 449 responses - it should be noted that fewer than the whole sample answered any particular question and some questions had large omissions (meaning the % answers I’m about to give have different samples on each question - and therefore a different raw number of people saying such answers). Whew, glad that is out of the way.

First, let me state the major findings of interest to myself as one who answered the questionnaire and was a participant. Overall, these respondents (readers of anomalist.com) said they would act `brave’ IF confronted with the high strangeness that some say can occur - 74% saying they would stay in a haunted house overnight (could this be a boon industry soon), 63% would go on board a UFO, and an astounding 57% would go into a fairy realm. Frankly, to me - the Fairy Realm question was the heaviest on the questionnaire. But, the readers had a limit to their willingness to be brave - an overwhelming 90% would never summon a demon. Jump feet first into the fairy realm; but, don’t tempt the nether realm.

But, perhaps this bravery of the respondents came from personal experience? Well, yes - to a degree. 46% reported seeing a UFO at sometime in their life ( a number of these UFO experiences were close enough that the sighting was MORE than just a light in the sky - about 2/3 saw a solid object) and 42% said yes to seeing a ghost at some fleeting moment in their life. And, over half reported at least one ESP episode (56%). But, only a handful of folks said yes to ever seeing a `bigfoot’ (3%). And, while all these %’s are on the `high’ side — I’ve seen figures in print that about 5% of the population has seen a UFO relatively closely and about the same percentage on a ghost — one could expect those strata of folks to migrate to anomalist.com. - and, the ones with the most vivid experiences to answer the questionnaire.

However, all this prior unique experience with the unknown (at least once) did NOT increase the readers acceptance of the stories of anomalous phenomena in today’s world. 41% of the respondents said that only 10-30% of anomalous phenomena is described in a reliable and accurate manner and an amazing 30% thought that less than 10 percent of anomalous phenomena was being described accurately. Bottom line — it’s fine to be skeptical of any anomalous report.

However, while they may be skeptical of one high strangeness or another — here’s a comparison of the overall `beliefs’ on anomalies. By 8-1 they believe in UFO’s, by 7-1 they believe in Gov’t conspiracies to hide the truth, by 7-1 they believe in ESP, by 5-1 in Precognition, 3-1 ghosts, and by 2-1 in bigfoot and psychokinesis. A plurality also believed in angels, crop circles, and reincarnation. Out of favor and not believed are belief in fairies or chupacabras 3-1, and belief in time-travel and/or channeling 2-1.

Of the above figures, to me, the 8-1 belief in UFO’s (currently at about 50/50 in the nation I think as reported by the media) stands out - but, then again - 46% of these respondents have seen one. What also stands out is the inconsistency of peoples beliefs when it comes to the subject of time — time travel is impossible BUT foretelling the future is not — time is a tough subject to have compatible belief systems about.

But, beyond the idea of beliefs in things of high strangeness or of even experiencing high strangeness once; is the belief of the respondents that they can DO HIGH STRANGENESS. Fully 20% of the respondents thought they can do remote viewing and 26% astral projection - 49% claim an OBE as something in their experience base. A startling 1/8th claimed to have psychokinetic ability - and 62% claim animals are psychic. These are amazing claims of consciousness abilities or observations. Is it just us self-conscious humans patting ourselves on the back for figuring out such concepts?

So, is this as much a belief as it is an observation or even an action? This group of readers — perhaps much the same as The Heavy Stuff readers — seem to be in a higher state than the norm. A rarefied bunch of folks. Here’s the link to the study http://www.anomalist.com/features/survey1.html .