UFO Phenomenon: Just Part of Human Conciousness?

I believe a majority of the UFO phenomenon has been self-engendered through the mere need of 'something more' that almost all humans crave in some way. Rarely anyone will admit truthfully that they are perfectly content with knowing and believing that we are alone on our Earth, and no one and nothing has ever (or if they have rarely does) come in contact with our planet from outside this solar system. The concept of the human race being left to itself is quite frightening; we are killing each other over mere concepts (religion being historically more of a statistical occurrence), and the thought of never having anything outside of the earth to act as a superordinate catalyst for peace makes us appear doomed as a race.

Scientifically speaking, we most likely are alone on earth. Sure there are going to be plenty of planets out there with life, but the chance of said life to be intelligent in the way we are is HIGHLY unlikely. Sure there may be intelligent life, but there are limitless types of intelligence. Even on earth there are countless types: the horde intelligence of ants and other insects, intelligence derived through chemical mechanisms (the way plants know when/how to grow), and our own intelligence, brought about through neural networks. And seeing as how life on other planets would almost never have the same chemical makeup we have (they may not even be carbon based at all), their intelligence may be something unfathomable by the human mind.

So even IF there was intelligent life elsewhere in our galaxy, they would have to have similar intelligence-types, a motive to go elsewhere, and the capacity to do so (which we, even with our remarkable advances, certainly do not have).

This brings me to another point. Emotions are most likely a strictly earth-bound phenomenon. Many people believe aliens are "good" or "bad", but their intelligence structure may lack the capacity we have of labeling and interpreting things in such polarities. Their way of "thinking" and "feeling" emotions may be so different it is beyond the capacity of our language to describe. Therefore, being good or bad is merely an essence of human thought. An alien creature may not have any concept of good or bad, hungry or full, popular or unpopular, or even love and hate. They may have their own emotions which are indescribably by us because we do not have the capacity to do experience them.

Man has ALWAYS sought the need for feeling like something more is to the universe than what we can experience. Even the primeval tribes had gods and special forces to help describe certain inexplicable phenomenon. From there came established religion. And recently there has been a new form of this need for 'something more': the UFO phenomenon. People say they have been abducted and have seen for themselves ships and such, but similarly people have said for hundreds and hundreds of years to have seen 'god' or 'Jesus' or have spiritual experiences that are indescribable through earthly perception.

I believe the UFO phenomenon is mostly, if not completely, merely another form of religion or philosophy, to describe either real unknown phenomenon, or psychogenic unknown phenomenon. But as humans, we have a limited capacity to understand certain phenomenons, and in order to rationalize them, we have to apply logic based around faith and hope. This is why humans have always needed religion and other belief systems that are based on illogical reasoning that something that can't or rarely can be seen, observed, and experienced is there, watching over us, making sure we have purpose and meaning to our otherwise meaningless lives. It may all be just a mere outcome of the way our consciousness functions. We need meaning and purpose, and 'something more', and since we can't find it we make it up, and with faith and hope we believe its there, and sometimes if we believe hard enough, our minds may make it real.

This is my own belief, and you are free to criticize it.

[edit on 18-7-2007 by Sataurë]

Could abductions be part of human conciousness? Most likely. Are Unidentified Flying Objects witnessed by people in the air, people on the ground, and Radar just human conciousness? Probably not...

UFOs are real. There is no question about that. Something is flying around out there...

Originally posted by Diplomat
Could abductions be part of human conciousness? Most likely. Are Unidentified Flying Objects witnessed by people in the air, people on the ground, and Radar just human conciousness? Probably not...

UFOs are real. There is no question about that. Something is flying around out there...

Perhaps yes and perhaps no. People can see whatever they want to see, and radars can make glitches (this is highly unlikely, but can occur). But I can see when those two fall together into one occurrence it can appear as though something indeed did happen, and most likely it did.

My point was that people want to believe whatever is flying around out there is something intelligent and something magnificent that will change our perception of reality forever; something that proves we haven't and won't be alone on our rock forever.

Sure things are seen and captured on radar, but they could be anything, including our own classified air-craft. Only when one wants to believe there is something more out there do they claim it is a UFO. And the countless youtube videos with nothing but smudged lights in the distant becoming alien crafts and specks of dust making out-of-focus points of light in pictures becoming magical orbs of light are a testament to this. If someone really believes in something enough, they will, often without their knowledge, derive conclusions about things they experience that fit their belief systems even if that conclusion is irrational and illogical.

[edit on 18-7-2007 by Sataurë]

Originally posted by Sataurë
Only when one wants to believe there is something more out there do they claim it is a UFO.

[edit on 18-7-2007 by Sataurë]

No, only when one wants to describe something that they cannot identify they claim it is a UFO.

UFO does not mean Alien Spaceship...

[edit on 18-7-2007 by Diplomat]

My apologies for the miscommunication. I mean UFO in an alien/extraterrestrial context. My point was that:

People want to believe UFO's are 'something more'. Not the fact that they exist or don't exist. My original post was aimed at the UFO phenomenon related to alien-based beliefs, not whether the UFO's exist or not.

We have plenty of Unidentified Grounded Objects as well, like that weird plastic thing in my backyard. But if somehow society had created some strange belief that weird plastic things were secret message carriers from alien races, then it would be different.

[edit on 18-7-2007 by Sataurë]

Sataurë, my guess is that you haven't extensively studied the phenomenon. My favorite example is J. Allen Hynek, who started out as the government's Project Blue Book debunker (he's the one responsible for the "gas swamp" term), and wound up founding his own ufo institute. If and when you have your own sighting, you'll be able to replace your entire post with one sentence: "They're real."

Well I suppose I could, but I will always have that nagging question in my mind:

What is real?

We can't define what reality is because reality itself may in fact be unreal. Life may be just a large hallucination or dream in my own mind, or similarly of some larger consciousness.

I suppose people can tell people whatever they want, whether it be that UFO's and aliens are real, or that Christianity or Islam is the true religion, but the observer is going to be the ultimate end of the decision.

We can never really be sure of anything, but we always hope with faith that what we believe is in fact part of what we refer to as reality. I suppose my original theory applies to every facet of conscious existence rather than strictly the UFO/ET phenomenon...

[edit on 18-7-2007 by Sataurë]

Well now you are getting all "matrix" on us. I understand what you are saying. How can we know for SURE that all of this is actually real? Well I am pretty confident that I am alive, that I exist, and this keyboard in front of me also exists and is made up of atoms and molecules.

If this is all one big dream, then what are our actual dreams? Dreams within a dream? I don't think so...

Very good thread, as I am new in this forum I haven’t seen this kind of approach to the UFO phenomenon.
I live and work in Germany, I have never seen anything that will be related to "super-reality". Never the less has a human being I am concern about the growing number of report and witnesses. I have to assume that all the people that have been abducted or witnessed a paranormal event are like any body else. And this make me uneasy because we have a collective consciousness. I would like to mention a very good book that deal with this issue that you have brought on this thread.
Flying Saucers : A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies:
At the same time as Jung is known largely for his theories on the nature of the unconscious mind, he did have an interest in the paranormal.
In this dissertation Jung implement his analytical skills to the UFO phenomenon.
Rather than presuming that the modern occurrence of UFO sightings are due to extraterrestrial technology, Jung reserves judgment on their origin and connects UFOs with representative metaphors, concluding that they have become a "living myth."
This essay is fascinating in its tactic and insinuations as to the nature of UFOs and their relation to the human psyche.
But remember that also C.G.Jung, has failed to bring ultimate scientific proof on the subject of the 'Soul'. That was is biggest regret as a man of science. He had shown how religion had started but never could show where did it came on the first place. In this respect I find a connection between the phenomenon "God" and "UFO". If you ask a religious person what is faith he will tell you that faith cant be explain, it is just in us. And I have notice also that people that believe in UFO slowly come to the same argument.
I believe in today western world many people are faced with a spiritual predicament, where neither secularism nor religion seem sufficient.
The emergence of the inner spirituality addresses this dilemma. In each of us we are clearly splitting our mind in three sections - integrity, wisdom, and transcendence. All three notable suppliers of our new evolved intellect describe and analyze a mature form of spirituality that will be a characteristic of future years.
What I am trying to explain here is that we are living and witnessing now the changes in human consciousness and unconscious. The changes may bring some people to act against it because of loosing the grip on the masses which some believe have worked fine for millennia.

Good day to all.

Originally posted by Sataurë

What is real?

We can't define what reality is because reality itself may in fact be unreal. Life may be just a large hallucination or dream in my own mind, or similarly of some larger consciousness.

Well, if you want to look at it that philosophically, then there isn't much to say, is there? You can't deduce the reality of a specific phenomenon if you don't trust your perception of reality itself. Embodied beings generally make some assumptions in order to make sense of their environment.

Originally posted by yuefo
Sataurë, my guess is that you haven't extensively studied the phenomenon. My favorite example is J. Allen Hynek, who started out as the government's Project Blue Book debunker (he's the one responsible for the "gas swamp" term), and wound up founding his own ufo institute. If and when you have your own sighting, you'll be able to replace your entire post with one sentence: "They're real."

Quoted for truth.

At the end of the day after reading though tons of material, Its logical for me to think "UFOs are real"... All the skeptic mumbo-jumbo simply cannot explain everything. Something is indeed flying around out there.

Originally posted by Diplomat
Well now you are getting all "matrix" on us. I understand what you are saying. How can we know for SURE that all of this is actually real? Well I am pretty confident that I am alive, that I exist, and this keyboard in front of me also exists and is made up of atoms and molecules.

If this is all one big dream, then what are our actual dreams? Dreams within a dream? I don't think so...

Haha, my apologies for the matrix-ness of it. But I would like to point out: how are you so sure that you did actually wake up this morning? The past does not exist, nor does the future. Your memories may be false, or they may be true. What you can only truly be sure of is the present.

Anyways, back to UFOs. My underlying point here is that people tend to believe observations and experiences to be a certain way with mere hope and faith, and this function of human consciousness is the fundamental thread and seams together our reality, and permeates through every level of our experience. We have to believe what we are experiencing or have experienced are real even though there is always the possibility it is not.

Sometimes this function goes out of whack, and we use dysfunctional heuristics to come to conclusions without really questioning the deeper path we took to get there. The bad part is these heuristics can be infectious and spread to other people, perpetuation these 'dysfunctions', and hence religion. I use dysfunction loosely; it doesn't mean its malignant, but merely separate from the normal function of the human conciousness. I believe that this is the reason for many extraterrestrial stories and claims.

Now you are free to disagree, and I try to tell myself to try not to convince you or anyone else otherwise, but if I feel my idea is misinterpreted I must extrapolate.

Anyways, cheers! Its off to bed for me.

Originally posted by yuefo

Originally posted by Sataurë

What is real?

We can't define what reality is because reality itself may in fact be unreal. Life may be just a large hallucination or dream in my own mind, or similarly of some larger consciousness.

Well, if you want to look at it that philosophically, then there isn't much to say, is there? You can't deduce the reality of a specific phenomenon if you don't trust your perception of reality itself. Embodied beings generally make some assumptions in order to make sense of their environment.

Quite true, but what I was getting at was that the fundamental workings of consciousness (believing that what we experience is real), is not only limited to the holistic experience of humans, but also certain phenomenon like UFO's and such.

Originally posted by kacou
The emergence of the inner spirituality addresses this dilemma. In each of us we are clearly splitting our mind in three sections - integrity, wisdom, and transcendence. All three notable suppliers of our new evolved intellect describe and analyze a mature form of spirituality that will be a characteristic of future years.
What I am trying to explain here is that we are living and witnessing now the changes in human consciousness and unconscious. The changes may bring some people to act against it because of loosing the grip on the masses which some believe have worked fine for millennia.

Good day to all.

I agree with this assertion. People are finally beginning to break away from faulty collective heuristics and look within themselves for truth. This is the way I believe the UFO phenomenon should be looked at as well. Trying to convince others that UFOs are real is just as futile as trying to convince an Islamic person that Jesus is the actual real savior. People must look within their own experience for answers.

Originally posted by Sataurë
Trying to convince others that UFOs are real is just as futile as trying to convince an Islamic person that Jesus is the actual real savior. People must look within their own experience for answers.

I flatly disagree. You are positing that the objective study of a subject cannot sway one's opinion. Hundred's of thousands if not millions of people have studied, I mean actually studied, the subject of ufos and became convinced of their reality.

Originally posted by yuefo

Originally posted by Sataurë
Trying to convince others that UFOs are real is just as futile as trying to convince an Islamic person that Jesus is the actual real savior. People must look within their own experience for answers.

I flatly disagree. You are positing that the objective study of a subject cannot sway one's opinion. Hundred's of thousands if not millions of people have studied, I mean actually studied, the subject of ufos and became convinced of their reality.

True, and yet convincing still doesn't imply knowing. In order to know, we must look within our own insights.

I appologize if I'm coming off as facetious. I suppose I've started one of those philosophical debates that has no end

Originally posted by Sataurë
I suppose I've started one of those philosophical debates that has no end

I suppose so too. It's all very interesting just the same.