Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Quantum Metaphysics

A New Cosmology for the Church, Part 4 
Alien Encounters: A Book Review


Figure 1. Kabbalistic painting


 “…we must recognize that we live within a virtual reality
that is actually a digital simulation!”

– Chuck Missler[1]

“A new world, as the mystics have always said,
is a new mind.”

Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy [2]


By Sarah H. Leslie 
 
Chapter 4 is titled “Reality’s Twilight Zone” in Alien Encounters: The Secret Behind the UFO Phenomenon by Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman.[3] This is a short little chapter packed with quantum physics. As I was to discover, chapter 4 leads directly into quantum metaphysics, i.e., quantum spirituality.[4] Metaphysics is not science. It has to do with the “spiritual, occult, esoteric, Hermetic, mystical, paranormal, or supernatural.”[5]

Missler believes that space alien UFO contacts are “interdimensional” visitors.[6] Alien phenomena that interact with earthlings are explained by certain quantum physics theories. Missler’s quantum ideas are borrowed from old occult sources and the New Age movement. He also relies upon certain quantum physicists who have applied mystical meanings to their scientific research.

Once again, while reading Chapter 4, I discovered that I had a prior familiarity with the topics that Missler is addressing. I was first taught this new mystical physics – not in science classes – but in educational psychology classes in the 1970s. One of my professors came out of Stanford University where he had frequent ongoing contact.[7] I was also taught consciousness as part of holistic education – that the nature of reality is in our mind, that to transcend our limitations we need expand our minds and experience a deep inner paradigm shift, that we are not separate but all interconnected to the whole, and that our minds can change the cosmos. It wasn’t until the 1980s that I first read Marilyn Ferguson’s book launching the New Age movement, The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s. After reading her book I finally understood that the strange “physics” that I had been taught in college wasn’t just eastern mysticism, it was also New Age metaphysics.


Wormholes & Superstrings 
The purpose of Chapter 4 is to lay the groundwork for explaining UFOs. Missler’s first suggestion is that these “Intergalactic Visitors” might travel through “wormholes” – “a shortcut through both space and time,”[8] citing research done by Kip Thorne, Michael Morris and Ulvi Yurtsever. Kip Thorne is also popular in the science fiction world because of his speculative works.[9] The theories about time travel and wormholes have captured the imagination of fiction writers and especially Hollywood. The popularity of “wormholes” in particular in the culture-at-large, a huge amount of pseudo-science is mixed up with physics.[9] One can see an example of a portal/wormhole in the recent science fiction movie Thor in The Avengers series. In fact, I have written about “wormholes” previously because some evangelicals in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) have adapted this as a quantum spirituality paradigm, which they refer to as “portals” between “heaven” and earth. Accessing these portals for them becomes a means for “dominion,” i.e., bringing heaven to earth.[10]

After considering a few other theories, another hypothesis proposed by Missler is that UFOs and/or their passengers are “interdimensional.” This is the hypothesis that Missler settles on, and it is brought up continually thereafter in the book. Missler explains:

It has been suggested by some of the most knowledgeable observers that the apparent ability of the UFOS to materialize and dematerialize seems to suggest that they are ‘hyperdimensional’ or from some other domain, able to enter and leave our space-time at will. While this sounds like a contrivance of some science fiction novel, this could be surprisingly consistent with current discoveries from the field of physics. [12]

Missler’s “knowledgeable observers” are not mentioned by name in the book, but in a 2010 interview with Tom Horn, Missler implies that UFO experts Vallee and Hynek may be the “competent researchers” who “have come to the conclusion that they’re hyper-dimensional.” [13]


10 Universes in the Kabbalah?
This “interdimensional” premise becomes extremely important to the entire thesis of Alien Encounters, in which Missler postulates that space aliens and Nephilim are interdimensional creatures who can slip in and out of our universe. Missler stated that “Particle physicists have now discovered that we apparently live in a universe of ten dimensions.”[14] I was intrigued by this and looked at the footnote, but it said: “For more information see The Creator Beyond Time and Space, by the authors of this book” with the Koinonia House phone number.[15] I googled the book[16] and it led directly to an article authored by Missler in 1998 in which he asserts, under the topic of “Hyperspaces,” that

The ancient Hebrew scholar Nachmonides, writing in the 12th century, concluded from his studies of the text of Genesis that the universe has ten dimensions: that four are knowable and six are beyond our knowing. [17]

Again, on page 95 under the subtopic of “Superstrings,” Missler asserts, “Our universe is now viewed as being made up of ten dimensions.” The footnote for this states, “From his study of Genesis 1, the ancient Hebrew sage Nachmonides came to essentially the same conclusion.” So it wasn’t necessarily “particle physicists” who were influencing Missler? Why was he citing Nachmonides? Who was Nachmonides? He was a leading Spanish Kabbalist in the 12th century. He had his own esoteric theory on the creation of the universe “intermingled with aggadic and mystical interpretations.”[18]

The Kabbalah? Is this a source for credible scientific physics?! Hoping that these references might be an anomaly, I kept researching. I found a nearly identical statement in another Missler article, under the subtitle “Evidence of Hyperspace?”

Nachmonides, in his study of Genesis One, eight centuries ago, inferred that the universe had ten dimensions: he concluded that four were discernible; six were "unknowable." This is consistent with the current conjectures of cosmological physics.[19]


Figure 2: Nachmanides painting

On a hunch I googled “Nachmonides” with the term “UFO.” I was surprised when yet another Chuck Missler article came up. Here his explanation was a more comprehensive integration of physics with Kabbalistic thought:

The 10-Dimensional Metacosm 
Both the astrophysicists and the quantum physicists now tell us that we apparently live in a hyperspace of more than four dimensions—ten is a current estimate…. 

Of the ostensible ten dimensions we now know exist, only four are directly perceptible by our current technologies. The remaining six are “curled” (to use the nomenclature of metric tensors) in less than 10-33 cm. (smaller than the wavelength of light) and thus are not directly discernible by current methodologies. It is also interesting that the Hebrew sage known as Nachmonides, writing in the 13th century, concluded from his study of the Book of Genesis that the universe has ten dimensions, but only four of them are “knowable” by man. 

It appears that many millions of dollars have been spent on atomic accelerators only to learn what Nachmonides concluded from his study of the text of Genesis!... 

It would seem that the domain of the “Metacosm”—which includes the elusive six dimensions—is the realm of the trans-dimensional phenomena such as angels, demons, and, perhaps, UFOs and other paranormal phenomena.[20] [bold added]

Note that last paragraph saying these other dimensions explain angels, demons, UFOs and paranormal phenomena! Again, it was becoming painfully apparent that Missler wasn’t getting his ideas solely from physics scientists. In an interview Chuck Missler did with Tom Horn, a leading postmodern prophecy teacher,[21] I discovered that Missler also attributes the 10 universe theory to the Jewish scholar Maimonides:

...that's exactly what Maimonides - the 13th Century Hebrew sage - concluded from Genesis 1 that the universe has ten dimensions, four "knowable, and six not knowable." He did it from textual gymnastics, and it's interesting that he came to the same conclusion as we have by spending millions of dollars on atomic accelerators, and all he used was the text. The point is as we start dealing with things like UFOs or things like angelic beings the more sophisticated we are in terms of our understanding of hyperspaces, the more normal those things strike us as being. [22]

Trying to make sense out of this strange development, I kept researching. I found out that Nachmonides’[23] work on the Kabbalah (also spelled Cabala) is considered significant in the history of metaphysics.

“Kabbalah” means “tradition.” The Kabbalah is thought to have been a teaching handed down from God to Moses, although the earliest textual evidence of a Jewish mystical tradition dates from about the first century B.C. Kabbalism is a fusion of early Jewish mysticism with Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, and possibly Hermetic Gnosis. Some have argued that Kabbalism definitely begins in the twelfth to thirteenth centuries in Spain. [24]

These “ten dimensions” are a clear reference to the ten Sephiroth (Sefirot) of the Kabbalah, which posits a metaphysical cosmology. The ten Sephiroth are “almost always depicted as circles and often shown grouped and interconnected in a diagram known as the ‘Tree of Life,’” and “delineate the stages of God’s progressive self-manifestation which, according the Kabbalah, represents God’s dependence upon man.[25] The Sephiroth is sometimes mystically conceived as “expressing the underlying structure of nature itself and of every created being.”[26] If this sounds familiar it is because it so closely resembles the esoteric teachings in the New Age that we are all one, we are all connected, and we are all becoming god.

The Kabbalah teaches a different version of the earliest chapters of Genesis:

…by manipulating the language of Adam they are recovering the wisdom he possessed and then lost in the Fall…. The Sephiroth Tiferet and Malkhut are identified with, respectively, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil from the Garden of Eden. Adam’s sin consisted in “separating” the two trees and choosing to “worship” only the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. [27]

The Kabbalah posits another path to redemption by changing the story of what happened in the Garden of Eden. Note the occult significance of this statement that man can become “One with God”:

Kabbalists claimed that their teachings came directly from the wisdom and the knowledge of the Garden of Eden, and that such teachings were channels to transport initiates back to that primordial state of innocence first experienced by Adam and Eve. The pathways of Kabbalah are like staircases to the Garden of primordial, pure, and untouched consciousness. Kabbalah is the mystical manifestation of mankind’s ultimate desire to reach God and to be One with God….[28][bold added]

In the Kabbalah, man uses mystical pursuits to attempt his desired union with God. This heresy quite obviously bypasses the Cross of Jesus Christ, the ultimate Lamb Who shed His blood to redeem fallen man (Rom. 5:9-10; 10:9). The Kabbalah teaches that mankind can find perfection through meditative steps. Specifically the Kabbalistic meditation is “aimed almost solely at transformation” and teaches that “the whole task of a human being in this life it to complete him- or herself.” Kabbalistic mystical meditation serves as “a vehicle, as medium by which we can travel in consciousness” and experience “contact with the divine.”[29]


Above is an image of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life “which plunges its roots in the Garden of Eden and grows its trunk upside down into the world of mankind. From the branches of the tree grow ten fruits, known as the sefirot….”[30] This tree is described as “luminous and alive, vibrating with the current of divine energy” and it is said to “contain the eternal rhythm of the universe and everything that it contains, from the biggest galaxies to the smallest human deed, as it unfolds and folds again.”[31] Note how the Kabbalah relies on meditations and mantras as a method to achieve divinity:

The principles governing each sefira are universal energy forces that can be applied to everything: they can be used as steps for meditation; they can be inspirations for contemplation; their names can be used as power mantras to be recited again and again to reach a higher state of consciousness.[32] [bold added]

Of relevance to the next section of this review, I read that the Kabbalah tree “can be described in more modern terms as a holographic image, where each part of the image also contains the whole.”[33] Interestingly, modern adherents to the Kabbalah also describe it in terms of quantum metaphysics:

We stand at the brink of a new age as we witness the mysterious world of quantum physics opening up before our eyes, divulging secrets that attest to the truths of centuries-old kabbalistic constructs. Just how unified are we with the matter that inhabits our universe? Can our positive thoughts actually create a positive reality? In this session we explore ideas in quantum physics and their parallels in kabbalistic thought as we seek to understand the fabric of our universe and how it can enhance the way we live our lives. [34][bold and color added]

Why was Missler using imagery from the Kabbalah? Wasn’t it sufficient to simply quote quantum physics scientists and theoreticians?


Reality Check
As I am obviously not an expert in physics, I went out to look at some of the scientific material. What does the current science of physics hypothesize about other dimensions, specifically ten dimensions? It is a bit complicated, but here are the simplest explanations I could find:

Additional dimensions 
In physics, three dimensions of space and one of time is the accepted norm. There are theories that try to unify different forces and such—these theories require more dimensions. Superstring theory, M-theory and Bosonic string theory respectively posit that physical space has 10, 11 and 26 dimensions. These extra dimensions are said to be spatial. However, we perceive only three spatial dimensions and, to date, no experimental or observational evidence is available to confirm the existence of these extra dimensions. A possible explanation that has been suggested is that space acts as if it were "curled up" in the extra dimensions on a subatomic scale, possibly at the quark/string level of scale or below. 

An analysis of results from the Large Hadron Collider in December 2010 severely constrains theories with large extra dimensions.[35]

In string theory, compactification is a generalization of Kaluza–Klein theory. It tries to conciliate the gap between the conception of our universe based on its four observable dimensions with the ten, eleven, or twenty-six dimensions which theoretical equations lead us to suppose the universe is made with. For this purpose it is assumed the extra dimensions are "wrapped" up on themselves, or "curled" up on Calabi–Yau spaces, or on orbifolds. Models in which the compact directions support fluxes are known as flux compactifications. The coupling constant of string theory, which determines the probability of strings to split and reconnect, can be described by a field called dilaton. This in turn can be described as the size of an extra (eleventh) dimension which is compact. In this way, the ten-dimensional type IIA string theory can be described as the compactification of M-theory in eleven dimensions. Furthermore, different versions of string theory are related by different compactifications in a procedure known as T-duality. [36]

I discovered that the subject of other dimensions creates much speculation, argument and controversy in the scientific community. Plus, this high intellectual level of physics is not easily explained or understood by lay people. Thus it lends itself to arcane teachers of metaphysics, who spiritualize the abstract, especially New Age leaders. And even certain physicists have entertained mystical interpretations to their research, as I was about to find out.


FLATLAND & Old Fogies 
Flatland has become a metaphor for a two-dimensional universe. “Flatland” is the title of a subsection in Missler's book. The footnote takes the reader to Edwin A. Abbott’s 1884 classic fictional book Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov’s description in the Foreword of the 1983 reprint of this old novel said it was the “best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions.”[37]

I was first taught the story about “Flatland” – not in a literature class, nor in a science class – but, again, in the context of educational psychology. Flatland was used as a metaphor for those old fogies who still live in a two-dimensional universe and haven’t yet been transformed into a new way of viewing reality. We were told to adopt a third worldview in which “consciousness is primary, and matter and energy are emergent properties of consciousness.” This third-dimensional thinking would open our minds to accept “psychic phenomena” and expand our ideas about the universe.[38] Marilyn Ferguson, in her book that launched the New Age movement, The Aquarian Conspiracy, explained, “Like the Flatlanders, we have been at least one dimension short.” [39]

The point of Missler’s citation of Flatland was to suggest that UFOs and space aliens are beings from “a parallel universe.”[40] It seemed like he was saying if we would but open our minds, we could consider the possibility how these creatures from another dimension can intersect our own dimension.[41] Missler explained that a “super being” of another dimension could pass through our universe.[42] Why would he focus on this? Hyperdimensionality seems to be a convenient way to explain mysteries in the Scripture. For example, in an interview with Tom Horn, Missler even suggests that Jesus was “hyper dimensional… after his resurrection” and that He

had some very peculiar properties in his resurrection body... [and] enjoys a dimensionality that allows him to enter and leave a 6-sided space, apparently without passing through any of the six sides. And that's the kind of thing that only a mathematician can deal with. In fact I've encountered some that argue from that, that he must enjoy at least 11 dimensions.[43]

Explaining Jesus merely as a hyperdimensional creature does not take into account the fact that Jesus Christ is God, and all things – ALL THINGS – were created by Him. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:10-3) And also, Col. 1:16: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.” 


Paranormal Psychotechnologies 
Footnote 109 in Alien Encounters refers the reader to a “Briefing Package” that was available from Missler’s Koinonia House. I found a 2010 version of this is posted online which refers back to “three briefings ‘beyond the boundaries of our reality” that were published in the 1990s.[44] The current version discusses the concept of a “Holographic Universe” in some detail, referring to David Bohm, “a protégé of Einstein’s and one of the world’s most respected quantum physicists.” As I read through this section, again I recognized what I was reading! Missler was teaching that nothing is real, everything is an illusion, and everything is connected. He wrote:

One of the implications of Bohm’s view has to do with the nature of location. Bohm’s interpretation of quantum physics indicated that at the subquantum level location ceased to exist. All points in space become equal to all other points in space, and it was meaningless to speak of anything as being separate from anything else. Physicists call this property “nonlocality.” 

One of Bohm’s most startling suggestions is that the tangible reality of our everyday lives is really a kind of illusion, like a holographic image. Underlying it is a deeper order of existence…. [45]

It sounds like physics. But is the application mystical? Where had I read this before? Marilyn Ferguson’s The Aquarian Conspiracy! In her book, Ferguson explained the history and theology of this new spiritual quantum physics. She taught that “we can achieve a new dimension of mind,” which is part of becoming “stewards of our own evolution.”[46] She described how David Bohm and his theories were adapted into a New Age metaphysics by the neuroscientist Karl Pribram[47] when he was at Stanford. Under the noteworthy subtitle “A HOLOGRAPHIC WORLD” Ferguson divulged:

The paradoxical sayings of mystics suddenly make sense in the radical reorientation of this “holographic theory.” [48]

If the nature of reality is itself holographic, and the brain operates holographically, then the world is indeed, as the Eastern religions have said, maya: a magic show. Its concreteness is an illusion.[49]

Starting from the premise of abstract and complex quantum physics, a mystical worldview is then put forth as though it were scientific fact. Ferguson related the story of how “Pribram was electrified” after he “read copies of Bohm’s key papers urging a new order in physics.”[50] She wrote of Bohm’s influence on Pribram, and how this developed into quantum metaphysics:

What appears to be a stable, tangible, visible, audible world, said Bohm, is an illusion. It is dynamic and kaleidoscopic—not really “there.” What we normally see is the explicate, or unfolded, order of things, rather like watching a movie…. 

…all apparent substance and movement are illusory. They emerge from another, more primary order of the universe. Bohm calls this phenomenon the holomovement”…. 

“Maybe reality isn’t what we see with our eyes,” Pribram says. “If we didn’t have that lens—the mathematics performed by our brain—maybe we would know a world organized in the frequency domain. No space, no time—just events. Can reality be read out of that domain?” 

He suggested that transcendental experiences—mystical states—may allow us occasional direct access to that realm. Certainly, subjective reports from such states often sound like descriptions of quantum reality, a coincidence that has led several physicists to speculate similarly. [51][italics in original, bold added]

Note the last paragraph and its emphasis on the mind. In a quantum holographic universe, according to the New Agers, the use of paranormal “psychotechnologies” will further the “mysterious process of collective evolution”[52] of mankind. It all begins in the human mind, they say, and we all just need to rethink.[53] Marilyn Ferguson broadened this to include well-known practices of the occult:

In a nutshell, the holographic supertheory says that our brains mathematically construct “hard” reality by interpreting frequencies from a dimension transcending time and space. The brain is a hologram, interpreting a holographic universe…. 

In this framework, psychic phenomena are only by-products of the simultaneous-everywhere matrix. Individual brains are bits of the greater hologram. They have access under certain circumstances to all the information in the total cybernetic system. Synchronicity—the web of coincidence that seems to have some higher purpose or connectedness—also fits in with the holographic model…. Psychokinesis, mind affecting matter, may be a natural result of interaction at the primary level. The holographic model resolves one long-standing riddle of psi: the inability of instrumentation to track the apparent energy transfer in telepathy, healing, clairvoyance. If these events occur in a dimension transcending time and space, there is no need for energy to travel from here to there. [54] [italics in original, bold added]

This spiritualization of physics provides a platform for New Agers to teach we are all one, we are all interconnected, and nothing is separate. For example, the Course in Miracles teaches that reality is all a matter of “perception.” Note the terrible conclusion:

True perception is the means by which the world is saved from sin, for sin does not exist. And it is this that true perception sees. [55]


“Ghostly Images” of Un-Reality
Niels Bohr, a Danish scientist who was a leader in the emerging field of quantum physics, said: “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory does not understand it.”[56] This quote is at the beginning of Missler’s chapter 4. Marilyn Ferguson had also cited Bohr’s physics, explaining:

Many great physicists over the years have become deeply absorbed in the role of the mind in constructing reality…. Neils Bohr, to symbolize his theory of complementarity, designed a coat of arms featuring the yin-yang symbol.[57


Figure 3. Neils Borh's yin-yang coat of arms in Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics

I then found a 1998 article, “The Boundaries of Reality,” where Missler described Neils Bohr’s physics:

The Danish physicist Niels Bohr pointed out that if subatomic particles only come into existence in the presence of an observer, then it is also meaningless to speak of a particle's properties and characteristics as existing before they are observed. [58]

Who was Neils Bohr and how does his physics lend itself to metaphysical interpretations? At my local library I happened upon a recent Science News article about Neils Bohr which helped to answer this question. Bohr, a contemporary of Einstein, was said to have emphasized “the role of the observer in creating reality.”[59] But the author notes that this is a “point of contention for many physicists today.”[60] According to this article Bohr was influenced by Kierkegaard’s existentialism, which helped him to be able to perceive the “multiple truths” and “quantum paradoxes”[61] inherent in quantum physics:

Multiple truths 
Bohr’s embrace of such incongruity reflected views about truth he had developed in his youth. In fact, his investigations of quantum science fed a much broader world view. 

“The primary payoff of his engagement with quantum physics for his wider philosophy was the discovery that multiple truths come … in complementary pairs,” Heilbron said.[62]

Notice that the concept of multiple realities gives rise to the idea of multiple truths. It is precisely at this juncture that the metaphysics advocates insert their spiritual interpretations. Missler, expanding on these ideas of Bohm, Pribram and Bohr has similarly speculated about “A Holographic Universe?” stating:

There seems to be growing evidence to suggest that our world and everything in it may be only ghostly images, projections from a level of reality so beyond our own that the real reality is literally beyond both space and time.[58]

A universe without reality is antithetical to the biblical teaching of a personal God who is real in space and time. “For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.” (Acts 17:28a). Obviously a view of Scripture corrupted by the metaphysics teachings of no absolutes, no reality – especially with the inclusion of a mystical Kabbalistic re-interpretation of early Genesis chapters – lends itself to both existentialism and ecumenism. As Dr. Francis Schaeffer once warned:

Another way to fall into an “evangelical existentialism” is to treat the first half of Genesis the way the existential theologian treats the whole Bible. The first half of Genesis is history, space-time history, the Fall is a space-time Fall, or we have no knowledge of what Jesus came to die for, and we have no way to understand that God is really a good God. Our whole answer to evil rests upon the historic, space-time Fall. There was a time before man revolved against God. The internal evidence of Genesis and the external evidences (given in the New Testament by the way the New Testament speaks of the first half of Genesis) show that the first half of Genesis is really meant to be space-time history—that is, space and time, the warp and woof of history.[54]


“The Holographic Universe” 
Just to double-check what I was researching, I decided to dig a little deeper. I was troubled by the physicists that Missler was constantly citing. I did a key word search on the physicists that Missler mentions most frequently – Bohr and Bohm – and this time added in Pribram. Up popped a book titled The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot. I was shocked once again.[65] It became quickly apparent that Talbot’s book served as a primary source for Missler’s metaphysical worldview.[51] Talbot credited David Bohm and Karl Pribram with being “generous with both their time and their ideas” and credited Marilyn Ferguson and her book The Aquarian Conspiracy as one of his primary sources.[52]



Talbot, who said he grew up in a psychic family and had many psychic experiences, wrote extensively about the paranormal in his book. Talbot described Bohm’s “reality” in terms of New Age mysticism:

One of Bohm's most startling assertions is that the tangible reality of our everyday lives is really a kind of illusion, like a holographic image. Underlying it is a deeper order of existence, a vast and more primary level of reality that gives birth to all the objects and appearances of our physical world in much the same way that a piece of holographic film gives birth to a hologram. [68]

Considered together, Bohm and Pribram's theories provide a profound new way of looking at the world: Our brains mathematically construct objective reality by interpreting frequencies that are ultimately projections from another dimension, a deeper order of existence that is beyond both space and time: The brain is a hologram enfolded in a holographic universe. [69]

Pribram's assertion that our brains construct objects pales beside another of Bohm's conclusions: that we even construct space and time.[70]

WE construct space and time?! This interpretation of quantum physics is essentially saying we are all little gods. Talbot’s New Age quantum spirituality thesis clearly influenced Missler’s idea of a “Holographic Universe” – to the extent that some of Missler’s key elements are obviously taken directly from Talbot.[71] Why is all of this important? Because Missler uses Talbot’s New Age physics to also explain the paranormal – specifically UFOs and space aliens. Talbot proposes, “In a holographic universe, a universe in which separateness ceases to exist and the innermost processes of the psyche can spill over” and where “consciousness is the agent that allows a subatomic particle such as an electron to pop into existence” that UFOs “may be projections” of “collective mentalities.” In Talbot’s dreamworld, even “animals, plants, even matter itself may all be participating in the creation of these phenomena.”[72] Isn't this just the type of occult thinking that was influencing Missler, who in turn influenced the rise of the Postmodern Prophecy eschatologies?[73]

I had first read about holographic cosmology in a book by New Ager Jeffrey S. Stamps titled Holonomy: A Human Systems Theory.[74] Relying on the esoteric theories of men like Kenneth Boulding, Ervin Laszlo, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, and others,[75] Holonomy was an intellectual attempt to define human “systems” in terms of mystical units of holons (also known as cells or fractals), which are all connected together for the evolution of consciousness of the universe. More eastern mysticism. In fact, Stamps titled his Epilogue “Emergent Tao.”


Stamps also talked about metaphysics. He observed how “Neils Bohr acknowledged the profound harmony between ancient Eastern wisdom and modern Western science.”[76]

 Figure 4. Neils Bohr’s yin-yang coat of arms in Holonomy

Stamps was quoting from Fritjof Capra’s groundbreaking book The Tao of Physics, which launched the New Age metaphysics movement. Capra’s book sheds more light on Neils Bohr. It appears that he was, despite his scholarly science, dabbling into eastern mystical ideas:

Niels Borh was well aware of the parallel between his concept of complementarity and Chinese thought. When he visited China in 1937, at a time when his interpretation of quantum theory had already been fully elaborated, he was deeply impressed by the ancient Chinese notion of polar opposites, and from that time he maintained an interest in Eastern culture. Ten years later, Bohr was knighted as an acknowledgement of his outstanding achievements in science and important contributions to Danish cultural life; and when he had to choose a suitable motif for his coat-of-arms his choice fell on the Chinese symbol of t’ai-chi representing the complementary relationship of the archetypal opposites yin and yang. In choosing this symbol for his coat-of-arms together with the inscription Contraria sunt complementa (opposites are complementary), Niels Bohr acknowledged the profound harmony between ancient Eastern wisdom and modern Western science.[77]

Realizing all of this, I decided to take a second look at David Bohm. When I simply went out to Amazon.com and searched his name I discovered that he had a 1985 dialogue with the Theosophist J. Krishnamurti[78] which was published in the book The Ending of Time.[79] I also found Marcia Montenegro's review of New Age leader Peter Senge's classic book The Fifth Discipline who had quoted Bohm as saying: “Science is not 'accumulation of Knowledge' but the creation of 'mental maps' that guide and shape our perception and action, bringing about a constant 'mutual participation between nature and consciousness.’”[80] Here was Peter Senge also using Bohm's physics as a basis for his New Age theorizing. Montenegro, an Christian expert on the New Age movement, made comments about Senge's use of the hologram model - comments which are also pertinent to this review:

In this section, Senge gets into the quantum theories that New Agers misapply to reality in order to offer evidence for their Eastern view that all is one. Senge is not using business or leadership principles here, but New Age interpretations of reality through a misuse of quantum physics. Senge refers to the hologram (p. 212), a New Age concept of the universe, and discusses this for several pages as a model of reality. The hologram model is pantheistic (all is God), or at least, panentheistic (all is contained in God). He also approvingly quotes Abraham Maslow, an architect of New Age thinking. To say science is a creation of a mental map implies that creation is not real (a Buddhist concept), but is only a tool with which we understand the perceived (but false) reality. For a Christian, science is the discovery of laws that God set in place to operate in His creation.[81]


The Truth
The sad fact is that Missler is still teaching and promoting all of this quantum metaphysics. At a 2012 Red River Prophecy Conference in 2012 Pastor Glenn A. Knudson heard Chuck Missler speak on this topic. Pastor Knudson’s summary confirms and underscores the concerns expressed in this review of Chapter 4 of Alien Encounters:

He [Missler] states there are "NO ABSOLUTES" at the sub-atomic or quanta level and that we no longer can have the perceptions we once had as "nothing is real" HE HAS JUST DESTROYED GOD!!!! He then recreates God by stating that at the sub-atomic particle level all things are connected, not merely in locality but in communication. He states it is hard for us to conceive but you can take two quarks and separate them by the expanse of the universe and yet they will communicate with one another. God has just been redefined and all of his creation has become one with the creator BUT NOT THROUGH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST!! 

He then began his trail of "experts" that allowed him to arrive at these conclusions. It begins with a 13th century Jewish rabbi named Nachmonides who determined from studying Genesis that there are ten dimensions…. This is the foundation that he lays for his version of quantum physics, boundaries of reality and interpretation of our existence.[82]

God in His Word seems to specifically address those dabbling in quantum metaphysics when the prophet Isaiah wrote:

Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being His counsellor hath taught Him? With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and shewed to Him the way of understanding?.... there is no searching of His understanding.  
(Isaiah 40:12-14, 28b) 



Endnotes:
1. Chuck Missler, “The Realm of Angels,” http://www.khouse.org/articles/2012/1044/print/ 
2. Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s (J.P. Tarcher, 1980), p. 36 [emphasis added] 
3. Alien Encounters: The Secret Behind the UFO Phenomenon, by Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman (Koinonia House, 1997) 
4. See classic definition here, and note the cosmology is part of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics 
5. John Lash, The Seeker’s Handbook: The Complete Guide to Spiritual Pathfinding (Harmony, 1990), p. 321. This book is a New Age dictionary.
6. Alien Encounters, subheading p. 85. 
7. This former Stanford professor also taught a class on Teilhard de Chardin. 
8. Alien Encounters, p. 84. 
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kip_Thorne 
10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhole and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_travel and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics_of_time_travel 
11. Here is a brief sampling of previous writings on portals published on Herescope: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2008/02/creating-heaven-on-earth.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2012/11/12-12-12.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2012/05/quantum-prophecy.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2013/06/techno-dimensional-prayer-combat.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/02/geographical-heresies-of-new-apostolic.html 
12. Alien Encounters, p. 85. 
13. Tom Horn interviews Chuck Missker, http://royalheir.blogspot.com/2010/06/ufo-disclosurecontact-part-13-dr-chuck.html “UFO Discloser/Contact, Part 13 - Dr. Chuck Missler,” 6/7/10. Vallee and Hynek have been mention in the previous sections of this book review. 
14. Alien Encounters, p. 86. 
15. Ibid, footnote 105. 
16. At this point in my research, it is outside the scope of this book review to review Missler and Eastman’s previous work.
17. Chuck Missler, “Quantum Physics: The Boundaries of Reality,” http://www.khouse.org/articles/1998/62/ and http://www.khouse.org/articles/2005/590/ 
18. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachmonides Note that there are many, many variations of the Kabbalah and its history, as well as many variations in how it is believed and practiced. Much of this is murky because it of its occult nature.
19. Chuck Missler, “How Constant are the ‘Constants’? Epistemology, Part 7,” http://www.khouse.org/articles/2005/590/ 
20. Chuck Missler, “The Realm of Angels,” http://www.khouse.org/articles/2012/1044/print/ Herescope previously published something about this article in Gaylene Goodroad’s article “Quantum Prophecy,” http://herescope.blogspot.com/2012/05/quantum-prophecy.html 
21. Other teachers in the Postmodern Prophecy Paradigm (PPP) rely upon the Kabbalah for their mystical sources, including Peter Goodgame in “The Divine Council and the Kabbalah,” http://www.redmoonrising.com/agenda.htm#The 
22. Tom Horn interviews Chuck Missler, Ibid. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachmonides and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides. I found Maimonides mentioned in a number of books about the Kabbalah, including 9-1/2 Mystics The Kabbala Today by Herbert Weiner (Macmillan, 1969, 1992) which refers to Moses Maimonides, “the great twelfth-century physician-philosopher,” p. 12. The Wikipedia page notes: “Maimonides was not known as a supporter of mysticism, although a strong intellectual type of mysticism has been discerned in his philosophy.” Missler mentions Maimonides in footnote 4 of his article “Return of the Aliens? As The Days of Noah Were,” http://www.khouse.org/articles/1996/43/ and also in the Bibliography of his 2010 Briefing Package Beyond Perception http://nicolepark.info/sites/default/files/chuckMissler/Beyond_Perception_Notes.pdf
23. Other spellings or names for Nachmanides include Nachmonides, Rabbi “Menachem,” Rabbi Moses (Moshe) ben Nahman,” and Nahmanides. I am thankful for the extensive research that Dr. Martin Erdmann provided to me from his collection. 
24. Glenn Alexander Magee, Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition (Cornell University Press, 2001), p. 165. An alternate history is that the “word Kabbalah itself… is found for the first time in the work of Ibn Gabirol (1021-1056).” Dr. Avram Davis and Manuela Dunn Mascetti, Judaic Mysticism (Hyperion, 1997), p. 178-179. There are many, many disagreements about the history of the Kabbalah but the roots do go back into various streams of the occult throughout the past few millennia.
25. Magee, p. 169. Also see Judaic Mysticism, p.176 which states “we are partners with God.” 
26. Jewish Mysticism, p. 169. 
27. Ibid., p. 175-176. 
28. Ibid, p. 179. 
29. Ibid, p. 124-125. 
30. Ibid, p. 183. 
31. Ibid. 
32. Ibid, p. 190. 
33. Ibid. 
34. http://www.torahcafe.com/jewishvideo.php?vid=6996ed362. “This class was given at the National Jewish Retreat - a yearly event hosted by the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute.” 
35. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimension_(mathematics_and_physics) 
36. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compactification_(physics) 
37. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimension_(mathematics_and_physics) 
38. I am quoting here from Dean Radin’s article “The Enduring Enigma of the UFO,” where he is citing Willis Harman’s M1, M2 and M3 worldviews. The M2 worldview was deemed too restrictive, dualistic, and narrow-minded. Published in Shift: At the Frontiers of Consciousness, Winter 2008-9, No. 21, p. 27, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Webpages/Shift-EnduringEnigmaOfUFO.pdf Also See: http://deanradin.blogspot.com/2009/01/enduring-enigma-of-ufo.html?m=1 
39. The Aquarian Conspiracy, p. 150. 
40. Alien Encounters, p. 95. This is a quote attributed to Jacques Vallee, footnote 112, citing his esoteric book Passport to Magonia, pp. 153-154. Also see Missler’s 1997 online article, http://www.khouse.org/articles/1997/29/print/ 
41. Missler seems to have derived this Flatland application from an earlier article in the SCP Journal (August 1977, Vol. 1, No. 2) by Mark Albrecht and Brooks Alexander titled “UFOs: Is Science Fiction Coming True?” Another author, Jim Simmons, in his book The Last Generation, posted online, used the same material: http://www.focalpointpublications.com/ArticleDeception2/ArticleDeception2.html 
42. Alien Encounters, p. 87. 
43. http://royalheir.blogspot.com/2010/06/ufo-disclosurecontact-part-13-dr-chuck.html “UFO Discloser/Contact, Part 13 - Dr. Chuck Missler,” 6/7/10. 
44. “Beyond Perception: Supplemental Notes,” Koinonia House, 2010. http://nicolepark.info/sites/default/files/chuckMissler/Beyond_Perception_Notes.pdf. Note that Nachmonides’ 10 dimensions are referred to on page 17 and in the Bibliography at the end (p. 27) Maimonides' The Guide for the Perplexed and Nachmanides' Commentary on the Torah are both cited as sources. 
45. Ibid, p. 22-23. 
46. The Aquarian Conspiracy, p. 46. Bold added. 
47. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_H._Pribram 
48. Ibid, p. 177. 
49. Ibid, p. 180, citing the research of neuroscientist Karl Pribram, worked alongside Thomas Kuhn at Stanford. The footnote in The Aquarian Conspiracy on p. 178 says that Pribram "worked on his landmark book, Languages of the Brain, in an office next door to Thomas Kuhn, who was writing The Structure of Scientific Revolutions."
50. Ibid, p. 180. 
51. Ibid. p. 180-181. 
52. Ibid, p. 183. 
53. A few years ago we posted many articles on Herescope about this concept of “rethinking.” Warren Smith wrote much of these posts. See, for example, http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/11/oprah-and-friends-to-teach-course-on.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/11/what-is-rethinking.html 
54. Ibid, p. 182. 
55. A Course in Miracles, Manual for Teachers (Foundation for Inner Peace, 1992) p. 85 [emphasis added]. This was at the top of the Herescope post on 11/14/07, “What is ‘Rethinking’?” I am grateful to Warren Smith for alerting me to the fact that quantum spirituality always leads to this type of New Age heresy. 
56. This quote can be found in Chuck Missler, “Quantum Physics: The Boundaries of Reality,” http://www.khouse.org/articles/1998/62/ and also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Bohr 
57. The Aquarian Conspiracy, p. 172-173. This fact is also documented at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Bohr and later in this review with a quote by Capra and a graphic. See Exhibits in this post. 
58. Chuck Missler, “Quantum Physics: The Boundaries of Reality,” 1998, http://www.khouse.org/articles/1998/62/ 
59. Tom Siegfried, “When the atom went quantum,” Science News (Vol, 184, #1), July 13, 2013, p. 23. Also posted online: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/351277/description/When_the_atom_went_quantum 
60. Ibid, but the author wrote” But Bohr didn’t speak of it in that way, says philosopher of science Don Howard of the University of Notre Dame.” Page 23. Nevertheless, see Capra's quote later in this review.
61. Ibid, p. 24. 
62. Ibid, p. 23. The “Explore More” at the end of the magazine article states: “Heilbron lecture: http://bit.ly/SN_bohr 
63. Chuck Missler, “A Holographic Universe?” Featured Briefing, Koinonia House, http://www.khouse.org/articles/2012/1086/. Gaylene Goodroad included this quote in her article on Herescope: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2012/05/quantum-mysticism-in-church.html. This quote is also found here: http://www.ucbdirect.com.au/items/koinonia-house~chuck-missler-/special-collection/11709DVD-detail.htm and http://www.khouse.org.uk/store/product/201/holographic-universe. Note that Missler has continued this theme of a holographic universe over the years. 
64. Dr. Francis Schaeffer, Two Contents, Two Realities. This was a “position paper” he sent to the International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland, 1974 at a time when the evangelical world was beginning to fall into the emerging mindset of eastern mysticism. The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, Volume 3: A Christian View of Spirituality (Crossway, 1982), p. 409. 
65. I found a scanned in version of Talbot’s book posted here: http://archive.org/stream/HolographicModelOfTheUniverse/holouni_djvu.txt. The original book was published in 1991 by HarperCollins, and it was recently reissued as HarperPerennial in 2011. The author passed away shortly after the book was published. One place Missler cites Pribram is here: http://www.khouse.org/articles/1999/229/
66.  Gaylene Goodroad pointed out to me that portions of Missler’s Cosmic Codes are pulled straight out of Talbot’s book without proper attribution. 
67. The Holographic Universe, “Acknowledgements.” Talbot says that his chapter 2 “is actually just a slight rephrasing of the words Ferguson uses to summarize” about Bohm and Pribram’s conclusions. 
68. Ibid, p. 46. 
69. Ibid. p. 54. Italics in original. 
70. Ibid. p. 55. Italics in original. 
71. See footnotes 60-61. More will be written on this topic later. 
72. The Holographic Universe, p. 284-5. Talbot is borrowing heavily from Carl Jung for his ideas that our dreams and our psyches create reality. But he extends it to all of the cosmos. In this section he is attempting to explain UFOs as both real and an illusion we create by our collective unconscious.
73. See Part 1 of this review on Herescope for an explanation, http://herescope.blogspot.com/2013/06/alien-encounters.html 
74. Published by Intersystems Publications, 1980.  I spoke about Holonomy at several Discernment Ministries conferences in 1997 and 1999 when describing the formation of the cell church model.
75. Note the connection to Stanford again, for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Advanced_Study_in_the_Behavioral_Sciences 
76. Holonomy, p. 46, quoting Fritjof Capra’s 1975 Tao of Physics, p. 160. 
77. Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism (Shambhala, 2010), p. 160. 
78. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Krishnamurti
79. http://www.amazon.com/Ending-Time-Dialogue-J-Krishnamurti/dp/0060647965/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375145308&sr=1-7&keywords=David+Bohm
80. Marcia Montenegro’s Notes, July 2012, reviewing The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, by Peter Senge, “a Zen Buddhist and New Ager,” who has had considerable influence on the formation of the Emergent Church movement. Senge was quoting Bohm on page 222. See: https://m.facebook.com/note.php?refid=52&note_id=10150999855393468 which was republished and revised as “Peter Senge: A New Church Shaman?”, January 2013, http://christiananswersforthenewage.org/Articles_PeterSenge.html#top  See also: http://www.crossroad.to/Excerpts/community/system-theory.htm
81. Ibid. We wrote about Peter Senge's influence on the formation of the Emergent Church movement on Herescope at: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2005/10/christian-leaders-go-on-expedition.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/06/other-side-of-emergent.html
82. “Review of Chuck Missler at the Red River Prophecy Conference by Pastor Glenn A. Knudson,” Apostasy Alert on Rapture Ready Radio, March 17, 2012. http://rrrapostasyalert.blogspot.com/2012/03/review-of-chuck-missler-at-red-river.html 


Exhibits:
Figure 1: Painter David Rakia's "Otot" (literally signs/letters), oil on canvas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rakia-letters.jpg Kabbalistic painting of the supernal illumination of Hebrew letters in Creation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah
Figure 2: Wall painting of Rabbi Moses ben Nachman , at the wall of Akko's Auditorium. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nahmanides_painting.jpg. Cropped from File:Rabbi Moses ben Nachman (Nahmanides) - Wall painting in Acre, Israel 
Figure 3: Neils Bohr's yin-yang coat of arms as depicted on page 144 of Fritjof Capra's book The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism (Shambhala, 2010), p. 144.
Figure 4: Neils Bohr’s yin-yang coat of arms as depicted on page 46 of Holonomy. It is presented as FIGURE 5.1 on page 46, stating “Bohr’s Heraldry. Coat-of-arms of Niels Bohr, showing his choice of the t’ai’chi symbol for complementarity (Capra, 1975, p. 144).”

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Flying Saucers and “Interdimensional Visitors”

A New Cosmology for the Church, Part 3
Alien Encounters: A Book Review 





“Space-Age myth” does not imply that UFO sightings or encounters with angels, aliens, fairies, sprites, elves, or demons are fantasies. Rather, it suggests that some of these experiences may literally be psychophysical, blurring conventional boundaries between objective and subjective realities. Some may object that this proposal doesn’t account for the physical traces associated with some UFO reports, but this misinterprets what [Carl] Jung and others [Jacques Vallee, ed.] have proposed. They suggest that the manifest world emerges from mind, that is, that mind shapes matter. Where have we heard this before? 
In his book Global Mind Change, former IONS President Willis Harman… argued… consciousness is primary, and matter and energy are emergent properties of consciousness
–Dean Radin, parapsychologist[1]


As co-creators with God, inventing new forms of energymatter (information) is part of the ongoing work of creation…. It is through creative intuition that postmoderns continue the work of divine creation....
Quantum spirituality… is most importantly a structure of human becoming, a channeling of Christ energies through mindbody experience. 
—Leonard Sweet, emergent leader[2]


By Sarah Leslie

Chapter 3 of Alien Encounters: The Secret Behind the UFO Phenomenon by Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman, titled “Interdimensional Visitors,” is a short course in UFO folklore. It reviews the most well-known incidents of UFO sightings. American readers have been exposed to the famous UFO stories of the past 6-7 decades, especially the Roswell, New Mexico incident,[3] which has become the baseline for subsequent UFO accounts, and the subject of Hollywood movies.[4] Missler re-hashes these familiar public stories, but with an obvious bias towards belief in flying saucers.

When I examined the UFO community as a whole, especially following the leading “experts” and “sources” of information that Missler says are reputable, I discovered there are amazing breakdowns in scientific credibility. This is because the UFO folklore community by and large functions as an offshoot of the New Age Movement. It is nearly impossible to separate UFO fact from fantasy, and even some of the leading scientific experts mix the two together. Missler attempts to make a separation by pointing out that “the vast majority (more than 90 percent) of UFO sightings can be explained by natural and man-made phenomena,” but in his book he chooses to focus only on those “which defy any physical or ‘natural’ explanation.”[5] And this ten percent is precisely where most of the mystical UFO culture flourishes.

At this point, still early on in the book, I wish I could say that Missler represents a sane voice amidst all of the UFO hysteria, but sadly he is not. I had sincere hopes that an esteemed evangelical leader of his caliber would step into the fray, become a voice of reason, and point people to the Gospel truth and scientific facts. But Missler becomes part of the problem. He continually references New Age and occult UFO sources as though they are credible experts. He then attempts to integrate New Age UFO lore with both quantum spirituality and quantum physics. Ultimately he will use his integrated thesis to craft a new eschatological paradigm.


Conspiracies and Cover-Ups 
In UFO folklore there is one hard-and-fast rule – there is a conspiracy by the government to cover up UFO reports. There are all sorts of conspiracy theories to explain why there is a cover-up. Most believe that our planet is being bombarded with elusive visitors from outer space. Some think that UFOs are deep intelligence secrets and/or secret military weapons. The evidence for cover-up does exist and cannot be denied. What is being covered up? And why? The lack of a substantial answer to this question leads to elaborate theories:

Real cover-ups are common enough, but any event which is not completely clear is likely to give rise to a thicket of conspiracy theories alleging covering up of sometimes the most weird and unlikely conspiracies.[6]

Missler excessively hypes the conspiracy theories about cover-ups.[7] Chapter 3 is an extensive rehashing of all of the main UFO incidents of the past 60-plus years, and each alleged incident is treated as if it is solid evidence for extraterrestrial visitors. And to dissuade readers from exercising their own skepticism, Missler repeatedly makes statements such as: “With what appears to be a hastily contrived cover story, an extensive cover-up seems to have begun. These events at Roswell, and whatever followed, have been veiled in government secrecy ever since.”[8]

In this chapter all of the witnesses are treated as “credible,”[9] and the government is said to have a “predictable prejudice against an extraterrestrial incident.”[10] This cover-up assertion is made on nearly every page as Missler alleges the government wants to “mislead the public” and “preserve secrecy.”[11] We warned about this tactic previously,

Here is a tip: Next time you read about a massive government cover-up from one of these sources, start asking questions about its validity. There are indeed government cover-ups—no one doubts this—just read the current news! But here we are talking about the act of CLAIMING a cover-up, which can also SERVE as a cover-up! Asserting that there is a cover-up can serve as a way to avoid having to deal with real facts, true science and documentable proof. Anyone can state anything based on the “massive government cover-up” assertion. For instance, we could insist that “little pink elves live on Pluto and NASA isn’t telling us” – and how could it be disproven? It can’t! Yet, it also can’t be proven.[12]

Missler works very hard to assert the factual reality of UFOs, borrowing heavily from some of the leading UFO advocates. Why is it so necessary for him to establish the reality of UFOs? Missler’s thesis in Alien Encounters pivots on establishing that UFOs are real – and he carefully defines them the exactly the same way they are described by leading UFO advocates.


UFO Psychic Science
Under the subheading “The Second Wave” Missler asserts, “In the early 1950s a second wave of UFOs began to sweep across the United States.”[13] After discussing the first blurry black and white photos, Missler states, “In the minds of many, the reality of UFOs had finally been established….”[14] It is said that nearly every UFO incident “confirmed” their “existence.”[15] Jacques Vallee is cited as an expert on government cover-ups, and in footnote 78 Missler recommends that the reader “see” three of Jacques Vallee’s books for more “statistics on UFO sightings.”[16] Missler also refers the reader to “see” Vallee’s 1992 Forbidden Science, a compendium of UFO encounters.[17] In other words, Missler is encouraging readers to pursue reading these UFO books written by an author with an obvious occult bias. This becomes problematic. As I wrote previously:

Who is Jacque Vallee and is he a credible source of factual information? He is an astronomist, venture capitalist and computer scientist who is most noted for his study of UFOs as well as his study of Marian apparitions. Vallee’s book Passport to Magonia is one of the leading works in “Paranormal and occult hypotheses about UFOs.” Vallee’s genre of UFO lore is characterized by mediums, mystics, ghosts, Jungian psychology, myths and fables, and occult metaphysics.[18]

J. Allen Hynek, also mentioned previously, is best known for being a consultant to Steven Spielberg’s popular 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He is held up as an example of a UFO investigator who changed his mind and became convinced about UFOs once he “thoroughly examined the evidence.”[19] Hynek held diverse views about UFOs over the years, but his last view is most telling in that he resorted to describing them in psychic and evolutionary terms:

Finally he introduced a third hypothesis. "I hold it entirely possible," he said, "that a technology exists, which encompasses both the physical and the psychic, the material and the mental. There are stars that are millions of years older than the sun. There may be a civilization that is millions of years more advanced than man's. We have gone from Kitty Hawk to the moon in some seventy years, but it's possible that a million-year-old civilization may know something that we don't ... I hypothesize an 'M&M' technology encompassing the mental and material realms. The psychic realms, so mysterious to us today, may be an ordinary part of an advanced technology."[20] [bold added]




Both Hynek and Vallee (pictured above), while credentialed scientists, resorted to explaining UFO encounters in psychic terms. And this is a recurrent problem throughout UFOlogy. Separating the science from the psychic becomes very difficult. They are most often intermingled. And Missler engages both.

The Project Bluebook, a series of systematic studies of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) conducted by the United States Air Force,[21] is discussed by Missler throughout his text. It was a controlled study of UFO phenomena by the government, and its foregone conclusions were disappointing to those who wanted the government to admit the existence of extraterrestrials. It became yet more evidence of a cover-up.[22] The “files of Vallee and Hynek are some of the best-documented cases of UFOS which defy conventional physical explanation,” concludes Missler[23] after recommending (again) the reader “see [Vallee’s] book Forbidden Science” for “an in-depth look.” So I decided to take a deeper look at Vallee.


Psychic Physics 
In the remainder of Chapter 3, and continuing through Chapter 4, Missler develops a thesis that attempts to integrate quantum physics with UFOlogy and also Christian spirituality. This integration model is actually not a new thesis. It was first articulated by the Emergent leader, Leonard Sweet, in his 1991 book Quantum Spirituality: A Postmodern Apologetic.[24] Sweet, while not overtly bringing in the additional concept of UFOs, did attempt to synthesize the evolutionary mindset into the Christian faith and physics. Sweet wrote of quantum physics in terms of spiritual “consciousness” which is precisely what many in the UFO world do:

Physics is increasingly becoming the study of matter so small (is it a wave? Is it a particle?) as to become the study of consciousness. In other words, physics is becoming metaphysics.[25]

The coming together of the new biology and the new physics is providing the basic metaphors for this new global civilization that esteems and encourages whole-brain experiences, full-life expectations, personalized, personalized expressions, and a globalized consciousness.[26]

Since most UFOlogy is based on an evolutionary view of the universe, and assumes the end-goal of mankind’s unity will result in a “cosmic consciousness,” there are many similarities and parallels. Many of the UFOlogists also believe in an evolutionary consciousness “out there” – some sort of untapped human/alien potential that will unlock humanity’s future.

Missler had first introduced his thesis in Chapter 2, where he informed the reader that his ideas are based on Jacque Vallee’s hypothesis that all of these visitations from space aliens and UFOs are hyperdimensional:

As an alternative to the extraterrestrial visitation hypothesis, Vallée has suggested a multidimensional visitation hypothesis. This hypothesis represents an extension of the ETH [Extraterrestrial Hypothesis, ed.] where the alleged extraterrestrials could be potentially from anywhere. The entities could be multidimensional beyond space-time, and thus could coexist with humans, yet remain undetected.[27] [bold added]

In Chapter 3, to lay more of a foundation for his interdimensional hypothesis,[28] Missler launches into a discussion of “The Superphysics of UFOs,” stating that UFOs “behave as though they are massless apparitions—in effect, a supernatural phenomenon.” He refers readers to “see” yet another Jacques Vallee’s book, Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults (1979) for a “detailed look at such sightings.”[29]

Missler then delves into more stories to give further evidence of the “hundreds of cases in the files of experienced UFO investigators.”[30] These stories were chosen because they illustrate a particular UFO attribute – the ability to “materialize and dematerialize” and act in other ways that seem to “defy physics.”[31] Missler calls this “superphysics.” Vallee and Hynek are both quoted as referring to UFOs’ reported ability to change shape like a “Cheshire cat”[32] or “dematerialize.”[33] Hynek’s quote comes from yet another New Age UFO magazine, UFO Report, depicted below:


John Keel’s 1973 book Operation Trojan Horse is also cited to bolster the case of “superphysics.” Keel claimed that “flying saucers” are “transmogrifications of energy,” i.e. “concentrations of energy that have the ability to change shape.”[34] Missler writes that “this suggests that UFOS are ‘paraphysical,’” which is UFO lingo for describing paranormal activity.[35] Who is John Keel? He was a journalist and UFOlogist – yet another expert who was steeped in the occult:

John A. Keel (March 25, 1930 - July 3, 2009) was an American journalist and influential UFOlogist best known as the author of "The Mothman Prophecies." In the 1950s, he spent time in Egypt, India, and the Himalayas investigating snake charming cults, the Indian rope trick, and the legendary Yeti, an adventure that culminated in the publication of his first book, "Jadoo." In the mid-1960s, he took up investigating UFOs and assorted forteana and published his first knockout UFO book, "UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse," in 1970. The book shredded the then trendy nuts-and-bolts extraterrestrial hypothesis for UFOs in favor of one that linked UFOs to a variety of paranormal and supernatural phenomena that have taken place throughout history.[36]

His third book, UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse published in 1970, linked UFOs to supernatural concepts such as monsters, ghosts and demons. In Our Haunted Planet published in 1971, Keel coined the term "ultraterrestrials" to describe UFO occupants he believed to be shape-changing, non-human entities.[37]

Why cite these men and their theories? It seems important for Missler to initially establish that “UFOs may not travel by conventional means in our space-time domain”[38] for developing his “superphysics” theory. “He also quotes from the “Physicist Jacques Lamatre” (an alias) who used the phrase “Einsteinian Continuum” in an article published in Flying Saucer Review, yet another UFO magazine.[39]


“Humanoid” Pilots?
Up to this point in the chapter the discussion has simply been about flying saucers – UFO craft sightings and reports of their strange maneuvers. But suddenly Missler adds into the mix the element of an extraterrestrial space alien “pilot,” stating that “UFOs and their humanoid ‘pilots’ are not simply physical entities confined to our three dimensions of space-time.”[40] This goes beyond merely talking about strangely behaving unidentified flying objects (UFOs), but leaps to the assumption that there must be “humanoid ‘pilots’.” How does Missler know these machines (if they are indeed machines) have pilots? How does he know that the pilots are humanoid? From whence did he derive this assumption?

Missler further speculates, “As we approach the end of the 20th century, radical new theories about the nature of our universe and the behavior of UFOs have suggested to many researchers that UFOs and their humanoid counterparts emerge from a dimensional reality beyond our space-time domain.”[41] So now “humanoid counterparts” to UFO crafts are thrown into his mix.

It is also at this point, still early in the book, that Missler introduces the extremely controversial ingredient of “bizarre abductions” by space aliens. This phrase comes directly from a quote by Jacques Vallee, who postulates that

the UFOs may not come from ordinary space but from a multiverse which is all around us…. Such a theory is required in order to explain both the modern cases and the chronicles of Magonia—the abductions and the psychic component. I believe that there is a system around us that transcends time and it transcends space. Other researchers have reached the same conclusion.[42][bold added]

Missler concludes Chapter 3 with, “It is this multiverse that we examine next.”[43] (In the next few chapters he examines hyperdimensionality and alien abductions in more detail.)


Mystical Magical Magonia
Curious about Vallee’s reference to “chronicles of Magonia,” I kept researching. This phrase kept coming up.[44] I found that it apparently tracks back to Agobard, the Archibishop of Lyon in approximately 800, who said that “there is a certain region, which is called Magonia, from which ships come in the clouds.”[45] Self-described “UFO investigator” David Halperin explains this name Magonia can mean “land of the magicians” and explains its significance to UFO lore:

Obviously—the skyships were “really” extraterrestrial vehicles, the three men and the woman “really” humanoid beings from other planets. That’s what the UFOlogists of the 1950s and 1960s would have said. It was left for Jacques Vallee, in a groundbreaking book published in 1969, to float the idea that the obvious resemblances between reported UFOnaut behavior, and traditional beliefs about “little men” and “fairy folk,” pointed instead to some transcendent realm which we humans can’t grasp as it really is....

Vallee took his code name for this realm from Agobard’s story. He entitled his book Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers. From there “Magonia” entered UFOlogical discourse, where it remains to this day.[46][bold added]

Fast-forward to our present day. This controversial UFO thesis of a “transcendent realm” has become part and parcel of Missler’s teachings, deeply embedded into his worldview. In a 2009 interview with Sid Roth, Missler stated the influence of J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallee on his own thinking regarding explanations for these paranormal phenomena:

Jacque Vallee, the Frenchman and J. Allen Hynek, the American, are probably the two most of the early pioneers, the two most reputable researchers. They both came to the conclusion that these things are hyper-dimensional. They’re not extra-galactical. That’s a very fundamental insight, by the way, because they seem to pose being something that they’re not. But the real point is that we’re dealing here with a phenomenon that bridges the physical reality we understand and a reality that’s outside that. One of the things we’ve discovered just in the last few years is that some of the constants of physics are changing, that we thought were constant. And Scientific American, in June of 2005, ran an article in which they pointed out, if the constants of physics are changing that implies that our physical reality is actually a subset, a shadow of a larger reality. And when you start dealing in the UFO area that’s one of the other demonstrations that there is a hyper-dimensional aspect of this. [47][bold added]

Missler’s statement above, that the “constants of physics are changing” is a classic example of postmodern thought. The idea that science itself is evolving was first articulated by Thomas Kuhn in his landmark 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.[48] Kuhn herein described the concept of a “paradigm shift” that opens up new ways of understanding “truth.” The New Agers heavily rely upon Kuhn’s thesis, because to Kuhn there were no absolutes:

[I]n his 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (University of Chicago Press). Kuhn, a scientist in academia, broke ground by applying Hegelian dialectics and existential thought to the field of science. He proposed that science itself is evolving and has no absolutes. Kuhn described science as a series of rocky shifts throughout history, created by a crisis when the old scientific model encounters new information that doesn't fit. When enough new information is accumulated, a "revolution" would occur and a new scientific paradigm would emerge; e.g. Newtonian science gave way to Einstein's theories…. 

New Agers and socio-political transformers took Kuhn's ideas to heart and applied it to the planned emergence of a new global mystical and political structure. Marilyn Ferguson cited Kuhn's ideas as significant, for example, in her 1980 book The Aquarian Conspiracy, which launched the New Age movement into the popular culture.[49]

So when Missler states that “our physical reality is actually a subset, a shadow of a larger reality,” he is not just explaining a scientific belief, but also making a theological statement. If reality (truth) itself is changing then there are no absolutes, and the truth is not rational in science, cosmos or history. Integrating spirituality with quantum physics becomes a dialectic process. “What is truth?” becomes variable, indefinite and unknowable.

Similarly, Leonard Sweet's model of quantum physics merged with spirituality implied that because “truth” is variable it can include other “sacred” traditions:

Just as physicists cannot understand truth by one model alone—that is, either the wave nature of light or the particle nature of light—so one model may not sufficient to understand God completely…. One can be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ without denying the flickers of the sacred in followers of Yahweh, or Kali, or Krishna.[50] [bold added]

The late Dr. Francis Schaeffer, in his classic work The God Who Is There, spoke against this sort of non-reason, reminding us: “God has spoken, in a linguistic propositional form, truth concerning Himself and truth concerning man, history and the universe.”[51] In other words, truth is reality found in God’s Word. There is not an emergent reality with alternative truths.

This research brought me back to Jacques Vallee.[52] Vallee incorporated the psychic, psychological, cultural and physics into his conceptions of UFOs as hyperdimensional entities.[53] Vallee’s integrated thesis began to change the way the UFO advocates looked at science and reality. And it was affecting Missler as well.


VALLEY of the VALLEE 
I began by looking into one of the Missler citations for Vallee’s Forbidden Science, which is repeated many times in Chapter 3. I found it on Amazon, a two-volume work, and the subtitle of the second volume is “California Hermetica,”[54] a clear reference to the occult Hermeticism.[55] One of the customer reviews made the curious statement that Vallee’s “insights into the parapsychology research at Stanford in the 1970s are priceless, and his anecdotes of Anton LaVey are original as well.”[56] Another customer review mentioned Vallee’s association Anton LaVey, and also the well-known LSD experimenter Timothy Leary.[57] Who is Anton LaVey?

He was the founder of the Church of Satan as well as the author of The Satanic Bible and the founder of LaVeyan Satanism, a synthesized system of his understanding of human nature and the insights of philosophers who advocated materialism and individualism, for which he claimed no supernatural or theistic inspiration.[58][bold added]


The grainy photo above, said to be of Vallee, LaVey and Aime Michel, appears on many UFO lore Internet sites.[59] Vallee also mentions Anton LaVey in his book The Network Revolution: Confessions of a Computer Scientist.[60]

The reference to “Stanford” in the quote above the photo concerns the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). Herescope has published much information about SRI’s Willis Harman in previous posts due to Harman’s influence over evangelical leaders in the late 1970s. Harman lobbied them to change their eschatology of the future. Harman was a “futurist,” working on developing a New Age paradigm for the future.[61] He was president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) from 1975-1997.[62] IONS has been working on developing a New Age view of science that would incorporate psychic phenomena and the paranormal, a psychic science.

This research includes topics such as spontaneous remission, meditation, consciousness, alternative healing practices, consciousness-based healthcare, spirituality, human potential, psychic abilities and survival of consciousness after bodily death.[63]

Dr. Martin Erdmann, in a scholarly article exposing the SRI, its leading role in the human potential movement and its work to facilitate the mystical spiritual evolution of mankind, concluded Harman and the others were working on developing a “cosmic spirituality”:

Since the publication of the academic study Changing Images of Man in 1974 [a SRI report, ed.]… the spiritualization of science, technology, and education has unquestionably made great strides. Its proposed change from a traditional value system based on analytical and rational thinking to a holistic view which imagines all aspects of intellectual pursuit to be in harmony with the mystical underpinnings of monism has led to the emergence of a global community having a heightened sense of cosmic spirituality that supposedly permeates all existence.[64][bold added]

The Changing Images of Man report issued by Willis Harman referenced UFOs and the need for a new science to account for paranormal phenomena:

In advanced societies, most people have sought explanation of natural phenomena in scientific terms, where formerly, explanation was sought from the authority of the major religions. Thus, science has acted as a kind of validating filter through which events in the "real" world had to pass before they could become accepted. However, in performing this function, science has often ended up rejecting as unreal or illusory many aspects of subjective experience of phenomena which cannot be explained by its own paradigms--psychic phenomena, UFOs, religious experiences--as well as some of the taboos listed earlier. In recent years, major institutions of science have begun to recognize that they can no longer refuse attention to aspects of human experience having high currency in society, and that to continually deny existence to widely experienced realities is to eventually destroy their own authority.[65][bold added]

Indeed, SRI was a seedbed for the formation of the New Age movement, and in a key essay Harman explained his psychic science[66] worldview which involved consciousness and the mind:

…The core of the current challenge to the scientific worldview can be taken to be ‘consciousness,’ which has come to be a code word for a wide range of human experience, including conscious awareness or subjectivity, intentionality, selective attention, intuition, creativity, relationship of mind to healing, spiritual sensibility, and a range of anomalous experience and phenomena.[67] [bold added]

In previous articles, Herescope has described Harman’s psychic science concept, which became an integral part of the New Age movement:

This so-called "science" of the mind is a laundry list of New Age mysticism that stormed across America during the 1970s. ESP, Transcendental Meditation, mystical experiences, altered states of consciousness, drug-induced (LSD) hallucinations, psycho-technologies, guided imagery, visualization, and the proliferation of cults and gurus all taught new ways of "seeing" reality that delved deeply into the occult. New Age apologist Marilyn Ferguson described an "open conspiracy among scientists who have discovered... metaphysical realities... a fraternity of paradigm breakers who cross into each other's territory for new insights."[68] [bold added]

Harman suggested that “profound inner experiences” would become a new mystical science of the mind, include such things as ESP, remote viewing, psychic phenomena, and precognition. He redefined science to accommodate his paranormal worldview, based on the “whole panoply of noetic experiences [that] defy materialistic explanations.”[69] Harman’s worldview, which he called “M3,” was described by his Dean Radin, also of IONS, as

transcendental or mental monism, which Harman argued is the source of both the perennial wisdom and the emerging worldview of the twenty-first century. In M3, consciousness is primary, and matter and energy are emergent properties of consciousness. M3 accommodates… rogue phenomena like telepathic ETs, observation-shy UFOs, and collective mind-manifested UFOs.[70] [bold added]

Note the idea of “emergent properties of consciousness.” This is a key article of the New Age movement. Radin continues:

If Willis Harman was right and as a species we are evolving toward an M3 worldview, then our future understanding of the UFO enigma will probably be a radical departure from anything we are able to imagine today.[71][bold added]

Indeed, the “emergent consciousness” doctrine of the New Age attempts to account for all paranormal phenomena – especially via its integration with the thesis of a quantum physics/spirituality. As Radin explains,

Space-Age Myth? 
The UFO phenomenon is unsettling enough, but that discomfort is significantly heightened when one considers its first cousins: crop circles, orbs, men in black, alien contact and abductions, telepathic communications, and so on. This phenomenological complex bears a resemblance to experiences reported in shamanic, psychedelic, mystical, religious, and psychic states, and to folklore, mythology, and religious lore. Perhaps these apparently disparate phenomena may all be connected in some way.[72]

Missler follows this path in later chapters of Alien Encounters, adding into his thesis all of these paranormal “first cousins” of UFO phenomenon. And Vallee's compatibility with SRI’s worldview was striking.[73] As I searched through the archives online, I found interviews with Vallee that indicated that he had borrowed from Carl Jung’s thesis that UFOs could be part of the “collective unconscious”:

In 1969, Vallee published another groundbreaking book, Passport to Magonia, in which he collected a body of folkloric "myths" that read remarkably like modern UFO encounters, from Celtic tales of fairyland abductions to Biblical passages and medieval chronicles of "visitors" from beyond. Building on Carl Jung's thesis that UFOs are a sociological phenomenon, a product of the collective unconscious, Vallee forever left behind the space-bound E.T. theorists. But his folklorist's approach to the problem would influence a number of later researchers and writers who continue to echo his ideas about other-dimensional forms of consciousness.[74] [bold added]

Interestingly enough, one of the inspirations for Carl Jung’s collective consciousness philosophy was the esoteric and racial teachings of Theosophy founder Helena Blavatsky.[75] Indeed, Carl Jung pursued paranormal phenomena and was deeply involved in psychic research.[76] Jung had a passionate interest in UFOs and even wrote a book Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky before he died.[77] It is not surprising that Jung’s idea about a “collective unconscious” has infiltrated the UFO movement. It serves as a convenient metaphor that harmonizes with psychic physics. Note the reference above to Vallee’s “ideas about other-dimensional forms of consciousness.” This is not a scientific statement about hyperdimensional theories in quantum physics. Vallee, like many other UFOlogists goes far beyond the science of physics and delves into metaphysics. And Missler follows him there.


The “Technology of Deception”[78]
In light of Vallee’s experience with SRI, and knowing SRI’s focus on human psychic psychology, I continued researching. I found a particularly disturbing revelation that Vallee made in an interview: that some of the UFO incidents were “staged for the benefit of witnesses, perhaps so that their psychological reactions could be studied.”[79] He suggested that the “military may be experimenting with psychological warfare techniques” and “that sham UFO reports might be used as cover for tests of new military stealth technology.”[80] He said that “in some of the cases I've investigated, the deception hides a mind-control experiment.”[81] Vallee offered an alternative “conspiracy theory” – could elaborate and sophisticated UFO hoaxes be orchestrated for the purpose of studying group hysteria and psychological manipulation?

Vallee poses is that from time to time, the target of UFO hoaxes might be the general public, or a segment thereof. 

"In some cases," he says, "the community of ufologists may simply be used in a sociological experiment because they are a convenient group of people to test, to see how they react to different rumors."[82]

Government experiments of this nature are entirely possible. But then Vallee leaps to propose an alternative reality scenario based on the idea of a cosmic consciousness that operates like a computer, appearing or disappearing through other dimensions.

Interviewer: So reality is like a computer database in that the right search word or "incantation" might cause a piece of information--a UFO or ghost or other anomaly--to materialize. 

Vallee: If you think of [reality] as the software for the universe, all it would take is for someone to change a comma in the program and the chair you are sitting in wouldn't be a chair at all…. [83]

Vallee claimed that a “graph of ‘waves’ of UFO activity” that he plotted in the 1970s “pointed out that it resembled a schedule of reinforcement typical of a learning or training process: the phenomenon was more akin to a control system than to an exploratory task force of alien travelers.” In other words, there was operant conditioning going on! He then asks the obvious question—was this manmade? Or did it come from another source? He thinks there are “very sophisticated devices now being used in psychological warfare to create holograms, to create visions to influence people” that could “destabilize” them.[84] Some of this he linked back to his experiences with SRI, which makes sense.

By this time in my research on Vallee, my over-active imagination was dwelling on this horrible possibility that there could be an “intelligence” operating behind a freakish behavioral programming operation. If there is a “consciousness” controlling these “alien encounters” it is so obviously demonic! And if that is true, then why are Christians being so gullible and falling for these deceptions?! I recalled that Constance Cumbey used to warn us back in the 1980s about a New Age plan for a sophisticated psycho-techno-spiritual “staging” of a “New Age Messiah”![85]

Vallee reiterated his conspiracy theory, with a warning about UFO cults:

The big problems in the world are the problems of fundamentalism and religion--whether it's Islamic or in other forms of religion. Those are the great destabilizing forces in the world today. Well, belief in Extraterrestrials coming here to save us can be induced in large masses of people with the technical means that exist today. 

The potential for contagion of absurd beliefs is a real one. In the hands of people who might deliberately use the Internet to create an epidemic of irrationalism we might see the emergence of a whole new class of very dangerous, powerful cults with all the trappings of high technology.[86] [bold added]

With some concern, this brought to my mind the strident tone of many of the PPP teachers and advocates, their entrenchment in this worldview, their merchandising, and bizarre mythologies. Especially when Vallee even went so far as to suggest the hypothetical scenario where a global crisis could be engineered:

…the UFO research community is a useful laboratory in which to observe the effects of propaganda and disinformation, since it is driven in large part by an intent to expose "the coverup." This creates an opportunity for people to masquerade as good guys and "reveal" all sorts of unverifiable rumors. They meet with a receptive audience because the context is one of "independent inquiry of original, bold, nonconformist ideas. Does that mean we should necessarily believe the man who claims he was in NATO intelligence and saw a classified document about the four humanoid races that live on the moon? I don't think so.[87]

I conclude with a sober story indicative of the spiritual bondage of those captivated by the “alien encounters” UFO lore. After a poignant dream, one fan of Jacques Vallee’s theories then experienced a UFO encounter. He worried that he had actually done something to invoke a UFO contact when he had then built an alien sculpture in the sand on a beach. In his paranormal “synchronicity” worldview, he attributed a mystical meaning to this “multidimensional phenomena” and ascribes a scary “consciousness” to it:

The other possibility is much more intriguing, but raises all sorts of troubling questions. It suggests that UFOs are a multidimensional phenomena (bending time and space), that they interact with human consciousness on an intimate level, and that they can potentially be summoned. Far more frightening is the possibility that whatever it is, it observed, drew upon, or manipulated my consciousness, my dreams, and my perceptions leading up to the sighting.[88] [italics in original]

How sad that for so many people UFOlogy is a sinister path towards the occult, without any hope of salvation, without any knowledge of Jesus Christ who

“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham.” (Hebrews 2:14-16) 


The Truth:
As I read through Missler’s re-hash of all of the most familiar UFO incidents, it seemed strange that “conspiracy” and “cover-up” were his constant theme.[89] Why does a Christian need to fixate on things that are hidden, secret, and can never be known for sure? The research rabbit trails for each and every example in Alien Encounters take the reader immediately into the New Age UFOlogy realm. Here it becomes very difficult to extricate oneself from the rampant occultism. A weak or fragile believer could easily become entangled in the unholy and unwholesome, not to mention scary, UFO stories. The only reason I even remotely understood the terrible ramifications of what I was researching is due to my own background in the occult!

For reasons that are not entirely clear, Missler in Chapter 3, along with other UFOlogists, seems to believe that it is necessary for the government to validate all of their sightings and experiences. But is this the role of government for the Christian? Shouldn’t we instead be searching the authority of Scriptures for wisdom and truth concerning how WE, as believers, should respond to paranormal experiences? Scripture actually has a lot to say to us on this topic, especially warning us to be not deceived! In the end, for believers it really doesn’t matter what the government does or doesn’t do, or who is covering up. We should eagerly anticipate that Jesus Christ is coming again soon, and trust He sovereignty over all of creation.

So why should we be consumed with panic and paranoia about claims of UFO invasions and the government’s alleged cover-up? Shouldn’t we be more concerned about the eternal destiny of all of those who do not believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior – especially all of these New Age UFO folklorists who are so obviously deeply involved in the occult, and who don’t know the Truth of the Gospel of Salvation message? Where is our focus? They need to hear the Gospel, not a re-hash of their New Age theories re-packaged for an evangelical audience!

Dr. Francis Schaeffer warned of an emerging “New Super-Spirituality.” He described it in terms that seem very relevant to this mystical UFOlogy:

Transcendental Mysticism 
The death of drug optimism and the decline of the New Left at the end of the 1960s has given rise to another crucial factor. A transcendental mysticism (which took many forms) came to the fore. Basically, what united the various forms of transcendental mysticism is a down-playing or a denial of reason. It is an attempt to find a different kind of trip, a trip produced by something other than drugs. Some of it is straight Eastern thinking, some an amazing mixture of mysticism and the occult, and some is demonic….[T]his transcendental mysticism gives no answers, and they glory in this as though it were something new, all white and shining.[90]

Many decades ago when I was entranced by the occult, I found myself on never-ending paths that were circuitous, swirling, spiraling –never coming to a conclusion and never satisfying with an answer. This is how the occult mysteries operate. They draw the seeker deeper and deeper into the murky labyrinths. It is the same way with UFOlogy! “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7a).

Thankfully, the Scripture promises believers in Jesus Christ that “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations,” (2 Peter 2:9a) and “the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work” (2 Tim. 4:18a).


Endnotes:
1. Bold added. Dean Radin, Ph.D., an Institute of Noetic Sciences senior research scientist, “The Enduring Enigma of the UFO,” Shift: At the Frontiers of Consciousness, Winter 2008-9, No. 21, p. 27, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Webpages/Shift-EnduringEnigmaOfUFO.pdf Also See: http://deanradin.blogspot.com/2009/01/enduring-enigma-of-ufo.html?m=1 
2. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, p. 133, 296-297, p. 69-70, quoted in Tamara Hartzell’s "Reimagining" God, p. 199 and 124, Original italics and bold removed, and new bold added. Download her book at http://www.inthenameofpurpose.org 
3. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident 
4. For example, the recent movie Thor, part of The Avengers series, depicts a portal at Roswell. I discussed the embedded occult symbolism in this movie in my presentation at the Quantum Mysticism conference, see: http://home.etcable.net/hestervanboven/MP3%20Format%20CD's.htm 
5. Alien Encounters: The Secret Behind the UFO Phenomenon, by Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman (Koinonia House, 1997), p. 79. 
6. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover-up 
7. Alien Encounters, for example, Footnote 76 cites the Lawrence Fawcett and Barry J. Greenwood 1984 book Clear Intent: The Government Coverup of the UFO Experience
8. Alien Encounters, p. 55 
9. Ibid, e.g., p. 56. 
10. Ibid, e.g., p. 58. 
11. Ibid., p. 71. 
12. http://herescope.blogspot.com/2013/06/nephilim-are-from-mars.html 
13. Alien Encounters, page 61. 
14. Ibid, p. 61-62. 
15. Ibid, p. 62. 
16. Ibid, footnote 78, p. 347. The footnote only mentions the first word in the title, but Missler is referring readers to the following three books by Vallee: Confrontations – A Scientist's Search for Alien Contact (1990), Revelations : Alien Contact and Human Deception (1991), and Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact (1988). 
17. Ibid, footnotes 80-81, p. 348. 
18. http://herescope.blogspot.com/2013/07/ancient-astronauts-star-children.html referring to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranormal_and_occult_hypotheses_about_UFOs 
19. Alien Encounters, footnote 83, citing Hynek’s book The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry. Hynek’s book Edge of Reality is quoted at the head of Chapter 3 of Alien Encounters, p. 53. 
20. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Allen_Hynek citing Curtis Fuller's 1980 Proceedings of the First International UFO Congress (New York: Warner Books), p. 157-163. 
21. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Blue_Book 
22. Ibid. 
23. Alien Encounters, p. 75. 
24. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality: A Postmodern Apologetic (Whaleprints, 1991). I am indebted to Warren Smith for these key insights. He has written extensively about Leonard Sweet. See chapters 10 and 11, in Smith’s book A “Wonderful” Deception (Lighthouse Trails, 2009). See also http://herescope.blogspot.com/2012/06/quantum-cosmic-christ.html and Tamara Hartzell’s website: http://www.inthenameofpurpose.org in which she has published several books, including her latest book “Reimagining” God, which has many chapters examining Sweet’s quantum theology. 
25. Warren Smith also called my attention to Sweet’s quote, which can be found on page 181 of his book A “Wonderful Deception (Lighthouse Trails, 2009). The quote comes from Sweet’s Soul Tsunami, p. 109. Bold added.
26. Ibid, Soul Tsunami, p. 121. See chapters 10-13 of Smith’s book for an extended discussion of the newly emerging quantum spirituality. Bold added.
27. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Vallee and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_hypothesis 
28. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdimensional_hypothesis 
29. Alien Encounters, footnote 85.
30. Ibid, p. 76. 
31. Alien Encounters, p. 77. Missler is quoting Brit Elders again in a Connecting Link magazine article, “ UFOs Over Mexico,” Issue 27, 1994, footnote 97. Connecting Link, as explained in Part 1 is a New Age magazine. You can view sample pages from it here: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2013/06/alien-encounters.html 
32. Alien Encounters, footnote 98 citing Vallee’s Dimensions (pp. 252-253), and footnote 99 refers to Hynek’s 1975 book Edge of Reality
33. Ibid. Hynek is quoted on page 78 and footnote 100 refers to an interview with Hynek in UFO Report magazine, August 1976, cover pictured here: http://rrrgroup.blogspot.com/2011_09_18_archive.html) 
34. Alien Encounters, pp. 78-79, quoting John Keel, Operation Trojan Horse, 1973, p. 182 (footnote 101, p. 349). 
35. I simply googled “paraphysical” with “UFO” and many sites come up, providing many examples, such as: http://rense.com/general67/ENIG.HTM and http://ufosa.wordpress.com/category/paranormal-paraphysical/ 
36. Amazon.com book description for Keel’s Operation Trojan Horse: http://www.amazon.com/Operation-Trojan-Horse-Classic-Breakthrough/dp/1938398033/ref=pd_sim_b_5 
37. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keel 
38. Alien Encounters, p. 79. 
39. Ibid, footnote 102, citing Flying Saucer Review, Vol. 15, p. 23. See: http://www.fsr.org.uk/FSRMain.htm. Lematre (or Lemaitre) is apparently a pen name for Dr. Pierre Guerin of France See: http://lists.topica.com/lists/iufo/read/message.html?sort=d&mid=1706692264 
40. Ibid, p. 80. 
41. Ibid. 
42. Ibid, p. 80-81, quoting from Vallee’s book Dimensions again, cited at footnote 103 on p. 349. 
43. Ibid, p. 81. 
44. Postmodern Prophecy Paradigm leader Tom Horn sells Vallee’s Passport to Magonia in his research digital library: http://www.survivormall.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=978-0984825639 
45. Italics in original. From Agobard, Against the Multitude’s Absurd Belief Concerning Hail and Thunder, chapter 2; translated by Wendy Lewis http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/Agobard-OnHailandThunder.asp, cited in “The Magonia Problem,” by David Halperin, http://magonia.haaan.com/2011/the-magonia-problem-david-halperin/, 7/16/13. 
46. Halperin, Ibid. 
47. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54DRUR57Oos (YouTube video: Sid Roth with Chuck Missler, Dec. 2009; Part 1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypffadd7XPo (YouTube video: Sid Roth with Chuck Missler, Dec. 2009; Part 2) http://www.sidroth.org/site/DocServer/IS531Transcript_Missler.pdf?docID=2101 (Pdf transcript of program). On It’s Supernatural: Aliens, UFOs, are they real? A former Branch Chief of the Department of Guided Missiles says yes. Discover the shocking truth behind UFOs, where they come from and what their End Time plan is. 
48. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kuhn 
49. See “Shifting the Emergent Paradigm,” Herescope, Jan. 25, 2006, http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/01/shifting-emergent-paradigm.html
50. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, pp. 130-131, as quoted in Tamara Hartzell’s “Reimagining” God, p. 127, bold and italics removed. http://www.inthenameofpurpose.org 
51. Dr. Francis Schaeffer, The God Who Is There: The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, Vol. 1, “A Christian View of Philosophy and Culture” (Crossway Books, 1982), p. 100. The entire discussion in Schaeffer’s book, and his classic work Escape From Reason, provides a Christian apologetic against such mystical postmodern thought. Yet, there is a whole new generation of believers who have not read these works.
52. See a brief bio: http://obscurantist.com/oma/vallee-jacques/ 
53. Vallee wrote a paper on how to analyze UFO experiences, that incorporated these components: http://www.skinwalkerranch.org/images/Vallee-Davis-model.pdf 
54. Forbidden Science - Volume One [Hardcover] http://www.amazon.com/Forbidden-Science-One-Jacques-Vallee/dp/0615187242/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373590986&sr=1-3&keywords=Forbidden+Science+Jacques+Vallee and Forbidden Science - Volume Two [Hardcover] http://www.amazon.com/Forbidden-Science-Volume-Jacques-Vallee/dp/0578032317/ref=pd_sim_b_1 
55. For an overview of Hermeticism, see our Herescope articles: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/02/brave-new-breed-creatures-in-pursuit.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/07/as-in-heaven-so-on-earth.html Warren Smith has aptly noted in his many books and writings that the phrase "as above, so below" comes from Hermeticism. In the UFO context, the "as above" takes on new connotations! See Smith's website: http://www.mountainstreampress.org for many articles on this topic.
56. Forbidden Science, Vol. 2, Ibid amazon.com. See also Vallee discussing “the early days at SRI”: http://www.stargate-interactive.com/news/jacques-vallee-on-consciousness-research-and-remote-viewing 
57. Ibid. 
58. I found this research so disturbing that I did not pursue the many rabbit trails. However, here are some basic pieces of information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_LaVey and also http://www.mansonwiki.com/wiki/Anton_LaVey 
59. http://www.ufomystic.com/2008/01/24/vallee-ufos-great-news/ Bill Chalker Says: 
January 25th, 2008 at 8:07 am: “One of more bizarre titles in my collection is Blanche Barton’s ‘The Secret Life of a Satanist – the authorised biography of Anton LaVey’, wherein Vallee is described as “a close personal friend and associate of LaVey’s” but LeVey was big on name dropping people he meet. The book has a photo of LeVey in between Vallee and Aime Michel. Vallee researched consciousness and some of the fringes of the occult underworld and through it came into contact with people like LeVey. Not a real hard thing to do in California?”
60. Page 190. http://books.google.com/books?id=6f8VqnZaPQwC&pg=PA190&lpg=PA190&dq=jacque+vallee+Anton+LaVey&source=bl&ots=nLauTqLJ1K&sig=U8aR_0zEi0rXWl0RVW2KWvOoenE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hATjUYu2OOfIyQH-tYCQDg&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAzgU 
61. See our previous extended discussions about this at: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/07/proposing-new-theology.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2011/03/body-mind-spirit.html 
62. Berit Kjos has much material about Willis Harman at her website. See http://www.crossroad.to/Quotes/paradigm-shift/harmon-willis.htm and also see http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_Harman and http://books.google.com/books?id=YDQgqe4lpLQC&pg=PT173&lpg=PT173&dq=stanford+research+institute+willis&source=bl&ots=STAlhFYtvX&sig=Em_igmIKepX_QOTbnpGYE6_E29M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XwXiUZiBGdXJ4AOawIC4CA&ved=0CDwQ6AEwCA 
63. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Noetic_Sciences 
64. I am indebted to Dr. Erdmann's scholarly assistance, insights and encouragement with this massive research project. Dr. Martin Erdmann, “The Spiritualization of Science, Technology, and Education in a One-World Society,” European Journal of Nanomedicine, Jan. 2009, Vol. 2, p. 31-37, http://www.clinam.org/images/stories/pdf/volume2.1.pdf See also: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2009/05/spiritualization-of-science.html
65. Willis Harman and O.W. Markley, Changing Images of Man, SRI International (Pergamon Press, 1982), http://ce399.typepad.com/files/changing_images.pdf 
66. See: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2005/09/willis-harman-introduces-psychic.html
67. Dr. Martin Erdmann article, quote on page 34, and taken from Harman’s essay “Bringing About the Transition to Sustainable Peace” (Part One: “A Changing Worldview”). 
68. See the Herescope series from September and October 2005 describing Willis Harman’s presentations to evangelical leaders (articles listed on lefthand column). This excerpt is taken from “Willis Harman Introduces Psychic ‘Science’ to Evangelical Leaders,” September 27. 2005, http://herescope.blogspot.com/2005/09/willis-harman-introduces-psychic.html and the quote from Ferguson is from The Aquarian Conspiracy, 1980, p. 152. See also: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2005/10/willis-harman-and-marketplace-ministry.html where we observed, “In fact, Harman was so influential at this time, that some historians suggest that he had much to do with the writing and publication of Ferguson's landmark book ushering in the New Age Movement.” 
69. Dean Radin, Ibid. 
70. Ibid. 
71. Ibid. 
72. Ibid. 
73. See “Jacques Vallee—The Software of Consciousness,” http://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22Stanford%20Research%20Institute%22
74. “Heretic Among Heretics: Jacques Vallee Interview,” Part 1, http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc839.htm 
75. In his extensive investigation into what gave rise to the psychic psychology beliefs of Carl Jung, Richard Noll in his book The Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung (Random House, 1997), reveals the importance of ancient mythology in creating this collective unconsciousness: “Blavatsky… was convinced that a careful study of the surviving artifacts of pagan antiquity could reveal key elements of the hidden ‘secret doctrine’ of the prehistoric ancestors of us all. Jung shared their views…” (p. 126). It is outside the scope of this review to comment on how much all of this has seemed to influence the Postmodern Prophecy Paradigm teachers.
76. Ibid. See also Noll’s earlier work, The Jung Cult (Princeton, 1994). 
77. Published by Signet in 1959. There are various versions of the title and updated versions. http://www.amazon.com/Flying-Saucers-Modern-Myth-Things/dp/B000XN99E2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1373991946&sr=8-2&keywords=Carl+Jung+Flying+saucers “Dr. Carl Jung And The UFOS: The Real Story,” http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc734.htm and “Carl Jung’s Perspective on the UFO Phenomenon: Part 1 of 2,” http://organizedreligion.me/2013/02/10/carl-jungs-perspective-on-the-ufo-phenomenon-part-1-of-2/ and http://www.openminds.tv/carl-jung-ufo-letter-up-for-auction-1025/ 
78. Ibid. 
79. “Heretic Among Heretics: Jacques Vallee Interview,” Part 2, http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc839.htm 
80. Ibid. 
81. Ibid. 
82. Ibid. 
83. Ibid. 
84. Ibid. 
85. Constance Cumbey, A Planned Deception: The Staging of a New Age “Messiah” (Pointe, 1986). Available here: http://www.amazon.com/Planned-Deception-The-Staging-Messiah/dp/0935897003 
86. Vallee interview, Part 2, Ibid. 
87. Ibid. 
88. Professor Pan, “Attempted Manipulation of UFO manifestations,” http://www.redicecreations.com/specialreports/2005/10oct/UFOmanifestations.html, 10/26/05. Note that this Satanic website includes a grainy photograph of Jacques Vallee with Anton LaVey and Aime Michel. 
89. Alien Encounters, for example, Footnote 76 cites the Lawrence Fawcett and Barry J. Greenwood 1984 book Clear Intent: The Government Coverup of the UFO Experience
90. Dr. Francis Schaeffer, The New Super-Spirituality, The Complete Works of Francis A. A Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, Vol. 3, “A Christian View of Spirituality” (Crossway Books, 1982), p. 387. 

The graphic at the top of the page came from http://zionsgate.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/ufo-2.jpg. The context was an article reviewing Tom Horn's Exo-Vaticana book posted at http://zionsgate.wordpress.com/ and retrieved on May 3, 2013. Note that Missler's Koinonia House advertised Horn's book in its May 24, 2013 e-mail.