January 25, 2008
There are so many theories about UFOs and aliens. There's the rather straightforward extraterrestrial, nuts and bolts hypothesis that supposes the UFOs are tangible spacecraft, and the occupants within are sentient beings from another planet. Of course, there are countless theories, amendments, and even detailed mythologies within the standard ET hypothesis.
Then, there are the many interdimensional, socio-cultural, religious, hyperdimensional, quantum, etc. theories. There is no shortage of speculation. It seems every possible idea has been placed under the microscope of possibility, and every fathomable lens has been affixed, in trying to understand the phenomena.
In his book, The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry J. Allen Hynek writes, "The part we ignore…may contain the clue to the whole subject." But what possible "part" of the ufological experience can have possibly remained ignored or mostly overlooked after all this time and exhaustive philosophizing? We have all kinds of UFO and alien theories revolving around lost civilizations, time travelers, evolved dinosaurs and sea mammals, tulpas, collective projections, hostile takeovers, demonic and angelic forces, and on and on.
We've been struggling for answers and clues while focusing on the entities, focusing on the craft, so those aspects have not been ignored. To taking Hynek's suggestion literally, it may be wise to see if there's an associated vine that silently and unimposingly weaves its way through all aspects of the UFO phenomenon; something ubiquitous in almost every narrative, on a large and/or small scale, as are the craft or the aliens. Something that is taken for granted yet undeniably present. I suggest there is: plant life.
The examples of botanical presence in the UFO phenomenon are overwhelming. UFOs are often seen in forests, and in fields. They are even seen collecting soil samples in these places and even in the cities as well. This idea of "collecting soil samples" is often used to convey the idea of high strangeness-for some reason, the idea that aliens would be interested in soil has struck us, and it has stuck. Even some of our canned cultural aphorisms about UFOs, such as "why haven't aliens landed on the white house lawn," and "little green men from Mars," include botanical notions.
The crop circle mystery is often associated with aliens and UFOs. Putting all theories of weather anomalies, plasma vortexes, mating hedgehogs, and all external explanations aside for a moment, we are left with the hard-to-ignore plant matter itself. Obviously the plants have not necessarily been overlooked in this case, as they have been investigated and studied. However, even within the observation that the nodes of the wheat shafts have been exploded as if from within, there is usually a question of external force. What if there's none; what if it's internal, or self-inflicted, through some yet-unknown or understood activity or power?
The crop circles do bring us to an area of plant life within the UFO mystery that has been explored: mushrooms. "Fairy circles" have a long history and rich lore, and some have speculated that they may have something to do with crop circles. In folklore, fairy circles are circular areas of altered grass or land in which mushrooms grow, and entities have been seen. The circles are indeed real, and have a scientific explanation involving fungi.
Mushroom lore and fairylore go hand in hand. The connection between mushroom legends and direct experience, (psychedelic and otherwise) and the UFO mythos is profound, and cannot be dismissed in a thought survey of the subject. In his book Supernatural, Graham Hancock lays out the case for this connection brilliantly. Traditional shamanic psychedelic experience induces a duplicate alien abduction scenario, and includes all the same features: discs in the sky, similar entities, probes, hybrid babies, and so forth.
In the book, Hancock even speculates that UFO craft may be some kind of evolved technological device used by entities to gain access into our dimension. The round disc shape itself, and oft-reported spinning motion seems to mirror folkloric accounts of fairies or entities seen making and moving together in their own circles, disappearing or appearing to passersby. Interestingly, the idea of spinning movement by discoid objects is obviously precedent in the motion of planets and solar systems, and we even the same aesthetic and mathematical elements to in our clock faces, to measure time.
And then there's Terence McKenna. His books The Archaic Revival and Food of the Gods are filled with pertinent insights and observations that may lend support to a cryptobotanical hypothesis. He even states, "…the mushroom told me it was an extraterrestrial." He also shares his wonder at the bizarre statement, unsure if it meant the actual fungi was originally from outer space, perhaps alluding to a panspermia theory, or if the mushroom was some kind of communicative device that, when ingested, provided the means to converse with an extraterrestrial somewhere on another planet.
What if we are to take the notion literally, but in a different way; what if the message is a key to a ufological Pandora's Box? What is a mushroom basically, insofar as science describes it? Fungi are neither plant nor animal. It's a thing unto itself, and fairly unclassifiable-an enigma in nature. It has even been recently postulated that fungi is more akin to animal life than plant life. That's pretty weird. Mushrooms exist in a liminal state (or perhaps more correctly, they are signified and designated as such by us) that might be expected; if they are a key, they might fit in a very strange lock, on a most bizarre door to a borderland.
And of course, there's the whole theory that we may have psychedelic mushrooms to thank for human consciousness itself. Hancock's book Supernatural really is a must-read for anyone wishing a comprehensive study and brilliant argument on the subject. In short, he argues the idea that the mysterious jump in culture-the advent of art, literature, ritual-may be attributed to the mind-altering and consciousness awakening effects of magic mushrooms. McKenna and others are also onboard with this idea. Interestingly, this same cultural awakening has been attributed to "alien intervention" and modulation and interference by many writers and theorists.
Taking the idea of the mushroom as an extraterrestrial literally, and the idea that mushrooms may posses some real form of consciousness, let's take a step into the abyss and put this together. The scientific phenomenon of mimicry is fascinating. From the Access Intelligence: The National Health Museum website: "Mimicry is one of several anti-predatory devices found in nature. Specifically it is a situation in which one species called the mimic resembles in color, form, and/or behavior another species called the model. In so doing, the mimic acquires some survival advantage."
This is the same process that allows butterflies to look like a large scary face with eyes, as well as spiders, caterpillars and the like to have fairly cartoonish-looking, Pokemon type faces on the rear ends and backs. Animals are not the only group to employ mimicry, plants do also.
What would a mushroom look like as a mimic of a human model? It may look like a classic gray alien. What if the mushroom, has by nature or will found a way out of necessity to interact with its predator and or ally-us? What if those crazy big bug eye alien optics are just black markings to look like eyes? The gray body is notoriously 'ineffective.' Their flimsy limbs seem to be almost irrelevant, as do their slim, stalk-like torsos. They do resemble a mushroom; many mushrooms have a more conical shaped cap, almost identical to the classic gray alien face, albeit upside down.
For the sake of speculation in this article, let's assume the Gaia Hypothesis-the notion that the earth itself is a single living organism-- and also McKenna's suggestion that mushrooms and plant life in general is minded, and that there is some sort of real oversoul or botanical collective consciousness. So, if mushrooms have a consciousness, they may be attempting to communicate with us directly, sporting a humanoid form that we can try to relate to. And with this idea of mimicry, there's a precedence in nature, and something that can be described and measured, accounted for in science. We don't necessarily have to stretch our imaginations to include a 'magical' or intangible, abstract idea to explain it.
Richelle Hawks lives in Salt Lake City with her teenage son. Next year, she will be moving to a small town in upstate New York, where she has just purchased a house with her longtime partner, the paranormal writer Stephen Wagner. She has been practicing bodywork for nearly a decade, and maintains a large full time private practice. She also maintains an online bookstore, makes and sells art items, and homeschools her son. Richelle attended Washburn University, the University of Utah, and the Utah College of Massage Therapy. Her writings on the paranormal, UFOs, legends, the occult, and healing therapies can be found at . Her blog is found at www.beamshipsequallove.blogspot.com. She also contributes to the Women in Esoterica blog, www.womenesoterica.blogspot.com, and has a weekly column at Binnall of America.
Then, there are the many interdimensional, socio-cultural, religious, hyperdimensional, quantum, etc. theories. There is no shortage of speculation. It seems every possible idea has been placed under the microscope of possibility, and every fathomable lens has been affixed, in trying to understand the phenomena.
In his book, The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry J. Allen Hynek writes, "The part we ignore…may contain the clue to the whole subject." But what possible "part" of the ufological experience can have possibly remained ignored or mostly overlooked after all this time and exhaustive philosophizing? We have all kinds of UFO and alien theories revolving around lost civilizations, time travelers, evolved dinosaurs and sea mammals, tulpas, collective projections, hostile takeovers, demonic and angelic forces, and on and on.
We've been struggling for answers and clues while focusing on the entities, focusing on the craft, so those aspects have not been ignored. To taking Hynek's suggestion literally, it may be wise to see if there's an associated vine that silently and unimposingly weaves its way through all aspects of the UFO phenomenon; something ubiquitous in almost every narrative, on a large and/or small scale, as are the craft or the aliens. Something that is taken for granted yet undeniably present. I suggest there is: plant life.
The examples of botanical presence in the UFO phenomenon are overwhelming. UFOs are often seen in forests, and in fields. They are even seen collecting soil samples in these places and even in the cities as well. This idea of "collecting soil samples" is often used to convey the idea of high strangeness-for some reason, the idea that aliens would be interested in soil has struck us, and it has stuck. Even some of our canned cultural aphorisms about UFOs, such as "why haven't aliens landed on the white house lawn," and "little green men from Mars," include botanical notions.
The crop circle mystery is often associated with aliens and UFOs. Putting all theories of weather anomalies, plasma vortexes, mating hedgehogs, and all external explanations aside for a moment, we are left with the hard-to-ignore plant matter itself. Obviously the plants have not necessarily been overlooked in this case, as they have been investigated and studied. However, even within the observation that the nodes of the wheat shafts have been exploded as if from within, there is usually a question of external force. What if there's none; what if it's internal, or self-inflicted, through some yet-unknown or understood activity or power?
The crop circles do bring us to an area of plant life within the UFO mystery that has been explored: mushrooms. "Fairy circles" have a long history and rich lore, and some have speculated that they may have something to do with crop circles. In folklore, fairy circles are circular areas of altered grass or land in which mushrooms grow, and entities have been seen. The circles are indeed real, and have a scientific explanation involving fungi.
Mushroom lore and fairylore go hand in hand. The connection between mushroom legends and direct experience, (psychedelic and otherwise) and the UFO mythos is profound, and cannot be dismissed in a thought survey of the subject. In his book Supernatural, Graham Hancock lays out the case for this connection brilliantly. Traditional shamanic psychedelic experience induces a duplicate alien abduction scenario, and includes all the same features: discs in the sky, similar entities, probes, hybrid babies, and so forth.
In the book, Hancock even speculates that UFO craft may be some kind of evolved technological device used by entities to gain access into our dimension. The round disc shape itself, and oft-reported spinning motion seems to mirror folkloric accounts of fairies or entities seen making and moving together in their own circles, disappearing or appearing to passersby. Interestingly, the idea of spinning movement by discoid objects is obviously precedent in the motion of planets and solar systems, and we even the same aesthetic and mathematical elements to in our clock faces, to measure time.
And then there's Terence McKenna. His books The Archaic Revival and Food of the Gods are filled with pertinent insights and observations that may lend support to a cryptobotanical hypothesis. He even states, "…the mushroom told me it was an extraterrestrial." He also shares his wonder at the bizarre statement, unsure if it meant the actual fungi was originally from outer space, perhaps alluding to a panspermia theory, or if the mushroom was some kind of communicative device that, when ingested, provided the means to converse with an extraterrestrial somewhere on another planet.
What if we are to take the notion literally, but in a different way; what if the message is a key to a ufological Pandora's Box? What is a mushroom basically, insofar as science describes it? Fungi are neither plant nor animal. It's a thing unto itself, and fairly unclassifiable-an enigma in nature. It has even been recently postulated that fungi is more akin to animal life than plant life. That's pretty weird. Mushrooms exist in a liminal state (or perhaps more correctly, they are signified and designated as such by us) that might be expected; if they are a key, they might fit in a very strange lock, on a most bizarre door to a borderland.
And of course, there's the whole theory that we may have psychedelic mushrooms to thank for human consciousness itself. Hancock's book Supernatural really is a must-read for anyone wishing a comprehensive study and brilliant argument on the subject. In short, he argues the idea that the mysterious jump in culture-the advent of art, literature, ritual-may be attributed to the mind-altering and consciousness awakening effects of magic mushrooms. McKenna and others are also onboard with this idea. Interestingly, this same cultural awakening has been attributed to "alien intervention" and modulation and interference by many writers and theorists.
Taking the idea of the mushroom as an extraterrestrial literally, and the idea that mushrooms may posses some real form of consciousness, let's take a step into the abyss and put this together. The scientific phenomenon of mimicry is fascinating. From the Access Intelligence: The National Health Museum website: "Mimicry is one of several anti-predatory devices found in nature. Specifically it is a situation in which one species called the mimic resembles in color, form, and/or behavior another species called the model. In so doing, the mimic acquires some survival advantage."
This is the same process that allows butterflies to look like a large scary face with eyes, as well as spiders, caterpillars and the like to have fairly cartoonish-looking, Pokemon type faces on the rear ends and backs. Animals are not the only group to employ mimicry, plants do also.
What would a mushroom look like as a mimic of a human model? It may look like a classic gray alien. What if the mushroom, has by nature or will found a way out of necessity to interact with its predator and or ally-us? What if those crazy big bug eye alien optics are just black markings to look like eyes? The gray body is notoriously 'ineffective.' Their flimsy limbs seem to be almost irrelevant, as do their slim, stalk-like torsos. They do resemble a mushroom; many mushrooms have a more conical shaped cap, almost identical to the classic gray alien face, albeit upside down.
For the sake of speculation in this article, let's assume the Gaia Hypothesis-the notion that the earth itself is a single living organism-- and also McKenna's suggestion that mushrooms and plant life in general is minded, and that there is some sort of real oversoul or botanical collective consciousness. So, if mushrooms have a consciousness, they may be attempting to communicate with us directly, sporting a humanoid form that we can try to relate to. And with this idea of mimicry, there's a precedence in nature, and something that can be described and measured, accounted for in science. We don't necessarily have to stretch our imaginations to include a 'magical' or intangible, abstract idea to explain it.
Richelle Hawks lives in Salt Lake City with her teenage son. Next year, she will be moving to a small town in upstate New York, where she has just purchased a house with her longtime partner, the paranormal writer Stephen Wagner. She has been practicing bodywork for nearly a decade, and maintains a large full time private practice. She also maintains an online bookstore, makes and sells art items, and homeschools her son. Richelle attended Washburn University, the University of Utah, and the Utah College of Massage Therapy. Her writings on the paranormal, UFOs, legends, the occult, and healing therapies can be found at . Her blog is found at www.beamshipsequallove.blogspot.com. She also contributes to the Women in Esoterica blog, www.womenesoterica.blogspot.com, and has a weekly column at Binnall of America.
Source: http://www.ufodigest.com
