March has come and with it the expectation of spring. Spring will come, certainly, but this last weekend was so much like the worst part of January that I watched movies at home. There is a cozying affect there, although most movies make me feel as if I've wasted my time. The one seen on Saturday almost, but not quite, did - Gravity, which had tremendous special effects and great tension, also fell into ridiculousness towards the end as every possible thing that could go wrong did, ending with the hero randomly pushing a button on a space reentry craft that - ta da! - miraculously worked. Ah, Hollywood. But she did look good in her space undies, no question.
The second was Dark Skies, one that I got because I am reading about UFO's right now and the screen writer for the film is also an active Ufologist. It also cost only a dollar. The film did have its predictable Hollywood affects - you could tell when a scene was coming up that was supposed to shock you as reliably as you can tell that an Olympic skater is getting ready to take off on a triple lutz - but it was genuinely dark and impressive. It was about alien abduction and the terror and dislocation it caused for an "average" American family, and it struck home - it was terrifying, and assembled (as I knew) from real reports.
Frequent contributor Cal Roeker has said that he would like to have a close encounter with aliens. I would not, and few who have had close encounters have been pleased with the results. The alien world is simply alien, not as another species would be, but as another reality that really works and supersedes one's own would be. Sure, a sighting from afar would be exciting, but it would have to be from afar and with at least one other human. Cal can keep the up close and personal for himself. I do, however, believe that movies such as Dark Skies might not be good for the apparently inevitable open encounter we are going to have one day with alien species. It invites fear, and fear closes off learning possibilities. This fear may be necessary to counterbalance Steven Spielberg films depicting aliens as friendly helpers, or worse, almost cuddly side-kicks, but fear itself is only useful for a quick flight or fight response. For anything long-term, we need to keep our heads.
This became clear to me a few decades ago when I was in Venezuela and went with my friend, L. from Puerto Rico, to a special mountain near the cost called Sorte. It rises out of the flat cane fields of the area and has long been the sight for practitioners of African- Iberian spirit cults. In the early part of the 20th century, the dictator of Venezuela made it an official National Park for the occult, and such it remains.
We arrived towards dark and rented a flea-bitten shack to spend the night, and then explored. A river ran from the top of the mountain down, and the higher one went, the more magical it was supposed to be, but as it was dark, we stayed at the base - and that was weird enough. People were gathered around large bonfires chanting before altars to "potencias" (powers), invoking their magic as well as spirit possession. We saw grown men weeping as they were laid down within candle-lit circles before a work or possession was to take place with them. I saw more than one person run screaming to the river, to wash off the possession or dark spirits. Drums pounded and chants rose, and the fires lit the dark nights interspersed by occasional wailing and more screams.
To say that I was terrified would be to exaggerate, but I was fearful. L. was not - this, she said, was common stuff in P.R., as was the belief in spirits. For her, although those being worked on often cried in fear, it was no more fearful to her than watching others being prepped for surgery. And so she was able to confidently talk to the practitioners, especially in the aftermath of the morning. For me, though, fear had clouded my reportorial skills. Without L, I would have missed most of what I had learned. And of course, in fact, my fears had been groundless - no monsters came to steal my soul in the night.
And such it is, or should be, with UFO's. Fear, if possible, should not be an option, for in fear we become victims. Only with a certain serenity can information be gained by those who seem to be seeking information from us. And thus it should be with all such things - with encounters with ghosts as well as with spooky psi effects. What "fears" in us is our survival - but if such fear takes away our control, survival is threatened even more. Yes, easier said than done, for fear is a powerful and often times overwhelming emotion, but such mastery can be done, at least at times. Should Cal get his wish, I would love to hear what he learns from his grey-headed captors after he calmly asks about their propulsion units and dimensional theories. I know that if I ever return to Sorte, I will do the same. FK
The second was Dark Skies, one that I got because I am reading about UFO's right now and the screen writer for the film is also an active Ufologist. It also cost only a dollar. The film did have its predictable Hollywood affects - you could tell when a scene was coming up that was supposed to shock you as reliably as you can tell that an Olympic skater is getting ready to take off on a triple lutz - but it was genuinely dark and impressive. It was about alien abduction and the terror and dislocation it caused for an "average" American family, and it struck home - it was terrifying, and assembled (as I knew) from real reports.
Frequent contributor Cal Roeker has said that he would like to have a close encounter with aliens. I would not, and few who have had close encounters have been pleased with the results. The alien world is simply alien, not as another species would be, but as another reality that really works and supersedes one's own would be. Sure, a sighting from afar would be exciting, but it would have to be from afar and with at least one other human. Cal can keep the up close and personal for himself. I do, however, believe that movies such as Dark Skies might not be good for the apparently inevitable open encounter we are going to have one day with alien species. It invites fear, and fear closes off learning possibilities. This fear may be necessary to counterbalance Steven Spielberg films depicting aliens as friendly helpers, or worse, almost cuddly side-kicks, but fear itself is only useful for a quick flight or fight response. For anything long-term, we need to keep our heads.
This became clear to me a few decades ago when I was in Venezuela and went with my friend, L. from Puerto Rico, to a special mountain near the cost called Sorte. It rises out of the flat cane fields of the area and has long been the sight for practitioners of African- Iberian spirit cults. In the early part of the 20th century, the dictator of Venezuela made it an official National Park for the occult, and such it remains.
We arrived towards dark and rented a flea-bitten shack to spend the night, and then explored. A river ran from the top of the mountain down, and the higher one went, the more magical it was supposed to be, but as it was dark, we stayed at the base - and that was weird enough. People were gathered around large bonfires chanting before altars to "potencias" (powers), invoking their magic as well as spirit possession. We saw grown men weeping as they were laid down within candle-lit circles before a work or possession was to take place with them. I saw more than one person run screaming to the river, to wash off the possession or dark spirits. Drums pounded and chants rose, and the fires lit the dark nights interspersed by occasional wailing and more screams.
To say that I was terrified would be to exaggerate, but I was fearful. L. was not - this, she said, was common stuff in P.R., as was the belief in spirits. For her, although those being worked on often cried in fear, it was no more fearful to her than watching others being prepped for surgery. And so she was able to confidently talk to the practitioners, especially in the aftermath of the morning. For me, though, fear had clouded my reportorial skills. Without L, I would have missed most of what I had learned. And of course, in fact, my fears had been groundless - no monsters came to steal my soul in the night.
And such it is, or should be, with UFO's. Fear, if possible, should not be an option, for in fear we become victims. Only with a certain serenity can information be gained by those who seem to be seeking information from us. And thus it should be with all such things - with encounters with ghosts as well as with spooky psi effects. What "fears" in us is our survival - but if such fear takes away our control, survival is threatened even more. Yes, easier said than done, for fear is a powerful and often times overwhelming emotion, but such mastery can be done, at least at times. Should Cal get his wish, I would love to hear what he learns from his grey-headed captors after he calmly asks about their propulsion units and dimensional theories. I know that if I ever return to Sorte, I will do the same. FK
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