An interesting explanation of angelic encounters and miracles

The Virtual Reality of Alien Angels

Please ignore the title of the essay, it's misleading as to the contents. I think the author was just looking for something attention-grabbing (and, hey, it worked - I read it!).

Basically, the guy gives a really good metaphor for how miracles and angelic/demonic encounters happen. I recommend reading the whole essay as it's not too long and is really interesting, but I'm just going to put down the salient point that I wanted to get all of your opinions on.

Consider this, we are familiar with computer games and we are familiar with virtual reality. Let us say that I can put on a virtual reality suit and enter into the computer program to play the game. From the point of view of the characters in the game I am actually one of them, however different the rules of the program affect me and not them.

If, for example, I am playing a war game, the computer characters can get shot and die, never to return to active play. I, on the other hand, can reset the playing mode and get shot numerous times, die numerous times and still come back every time to continue playing. I know what I am doing and there certainly is nothing miraculous about it. However, if a computerized game character was generated with artificial intelligence and could view itself as a sentient being (however artificial), it would view me and my so-called powers and nothing short of miraculous or semi-Divine.

It is possible that from the “angelic” point of view, our world is nothing more than a virtual reality simulation and that we are each but players. The difference between the angels and us is that they are aware that they are playing a game and that the game is not reality, whereas we have become entrapped in the game and consider there to be no other reality. They thus come into and out of the game at will to try to reach us and get us to take off our virtual reality suits to remember the greater outside world.

I know it sounds kind of Matix-y (which is really kind of The Invisibles-y), but it's an interesting explanation of many miraculous events - and I like the idea that angels are trying to teach us how to be truly free.

I don't know, what do you guys think?

I like to think that I'm open-minded (most of the time at least), so why not, interesting theory.

I was told some time ago that angels are waiting our wishes so as to satisfy them. For this you only need a sheet of paper and a pen, write a letter to them and keep the paper in a book which is not frequently used.
They have service to Humankind as their main occupation. Who knows...

Ah, see, 'cos I believe angels only work in the service of God, not humankind. Of course, I have no 'factual' knowledge about angels, so I'm willing to accept I'm wrong on this point. I think it's God who wants us to throw off the bondage of so-called 'reality' and join Him (in the most profound sense) in REALITY.

Of course, I also believe that as close as we can get to God, and as immanent as He is, there is also a total ontological gap between Creator and created that is unbridgeable (but, damn, if we were to only try we could get bloody close!).

But I like the image of God sending angels into 'reality' to try and teach humankind how to reach REALITY. That Matrix-style metaphor of us being trapped inside a virtual reality whose rules are arbitrary and essentially breakable is one the rings very true for me though. As Grant Morrison states repeatedly in The Invisibles, if we could just "wake up" we'd really start living.

The basic problem with your hypothesis is that you are still seeing yourself as separate.

Nothing you can fathom in your wildest dreams are you separate from.
.Really.

From what the Bible tells us about them, good Angels are Gods messengers. I can imagine them working sort of that way. My theory is Angels are inter dimensional. They can be spirit or have bodies.They can also be fierce as in the case of the two Angels that destroyed Sodom and Gremorrah. Angels that interfere in the lives of humans are Fallen angels and they do not have our best interest at heart. I think they are behind the so called "alien" abductions.

Originally posted by antar
The basic problem with your hypothesis is that you are still seeing yourself as separate. Nothing you can fathom in your wildest dreams are you separate from.

See, now I don't necessarily see this as a problem. And also, whilst I agree with you that nothing i can fathom in my wildest dreams am I separate from, that begs the question about things that I can't fathom in my wildest dreams.

You see, I agree that everything in creation is essentially and ultimately one, that our individuality is a necessary illusion to allow change and development and to prevent staticity. However, I think the Creator of this wonderful unity, as well as being the only thing that actually exists, is also entirely unique to and separate from the thing(s?) created.

I admit and am acutely aware of this paradox - God is infinite in the most extreme, unrestricted and limitless meaning of the word. Therefore, to make room for creation God had to withdraw into himself to leave a space for something to exist. The paradox, of course, is that nothing can exist without God's constant intervention, and any place where God is not ceases to exist (in the most ultimate sense of that phrase). Nothing can exist where God is not because there is no place where God is not by definition because He is infinite, but if he is infinite there's no room for existence. I guess it's kind of panentheism, but not exactly. I don't know, it confuses me, but in my theology God is absolutely omnipotent, able to do the logically impossible. It's one of the (infinitely) many mysteries of God.

I don't expect anyone to change their own opinions about God, this isn't an exercise in 'conversion', I'm just explaining my own theory. Everything is one, and one with God, but there's a part of God that's absolutely irreconcilable with and unknowable to His creation. And still God is the perfect, absolute Unity. I like the way it makes my brain feel when I try and think about it.

Originally posted by Bigwhammy
I think they [fallen angeks] are behind the so called "alien" abductions.

Wow! I'd never thought about abduction cases in this way before! That's a brilliant connection and one worthy of more thought. I mean, if the Biblical descriptions of angels are literal and accurate, then modern day experiences could match those - I mean, look at Ezekiel's vision of the Chariot, which others on this board reckon to be a description of an alien abduction. Wouldn't it be amazing if, in fact, they had it all backwards, and actually it's modern alien abductions which are actually (fallen) angelic encounters?!

That's actually got my quite excited. I think I need a nice cup of weak tea...

[edit on 16/3/2008 by rexpop]

Angels talk, but we do not listen, or we run away.
Kind of sad, but I am glad they still try.
As for the piece, throw it on the pile, the mix, or conglomeration of what we think about things.
The world is amazing, too bad that by the time we start to figure it out, it's time to go, already.
Our lives are real, at least as long as they last.
We do suffer the consiquinces of things happening in our lives, from the beginning, to the end.
There is no re-start button.
At least that we have control of.

Genesis 6
1 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal ; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

The "sons of God" is Hebrew for Angels. This is an account of the fallen angels having sex with human women creating genetic mutant offspring. These Nephilim or Giants are most likely the source of most of the world mythology.

www.alienresistance.org for more info

[edit on 3/16/2008 by Bigwhammy]