Page 14 - 201004 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - April 2010

April 2010_june_july_2009.qxd 22/04/2010 11:26 PM Page 14 14 Are UFOs just a symptom of the stresses Are UFOs just a symptom of the stresses of 21st century life? By Stephanie Dearing When it comes to UFOs and extraterrestrials, there are two main groups of believers: those who believe extraterrestrials visit Earth routinely, and those who actively seek evidence of extraterrestrial life. The last group, represented by organizations such as the SETI Institute, would love to find other-worldly life forms, but are disappointed that their 50 year search for life in the universe has netted nothing. There is no shortage of news items over the mountains, saying, "The UFOs extraterrestrials "... was set by the painting on concerning the first group of believers. Stories began—as a belief system; people had always the cover of Whitley Strieber’s bestseller of presumed animal mutilations are blamed on seen odd things in the sky—in 1947, less than Communion, which came out at the beginning extraterrestrials, while continued sightings of two years after the end of WWII. My guess is of 1987 and created the image of the “UFO UFOs make the news on a regular basis. that the rise of the belief had something to do alien,” of which the most striking feature is the It is the obsessiveness of the last group, with the appearance of nuclear weapons, the uncanny, incredible eyes. These crop up again with claims of UFO sightings as well as realization that the end of humankind was a real and again in the recollections of UFO abductions, that demands explanation, possibility. Jung said something of the sort back abductees. They also crop up, weirdly enough, particularly because belief in aliens is now in the 1950s, in his book Flying Saucers—A in ancient Jewish documents describing widely accepted. Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies." heavenly ascents, which tell of how the Dr. David Halperin, Professor Emeritus One of the biggest fears humans hold is journeyers must encounter beings with huge, of Religious Studies, University of North that of the end of the world. The majority of the terrifying, “split-open” eyes. I think there’s Carolina at Chapel Hill was once a self- world's population subscribes to a religion, something here that’s fundamental to human described teen-aged UFO investigator who many of which predict a cataclysmic end to the psychology, that crops up again and again in grew up to become a scholar, author, and world. With the support of daily human different lands and different centuries. And this novelist. As a scholar, Dr. Halperin wrote five behaviour, such as armed conflicts, “something,” along with the direct influence of books on Jewish mysticism and messianism, as environmental degradation, political despotism, stuff like the Communion cover, lies behind the well as some 20 articles on the same topic. Dr. and economic uncertainty; the idea of the similarities." Halperin has been examining his own childhood apocalypse has always had a strong influence on Extraterrestrials almost certainly exist, beliefs in extraterrestrials, an introspection that beliefs. based on the size of the universe. But are they has resulted in his first novel, Journal of a UFO Fears about possible apocolypse advanced enough to create vessels to travel Investigator, available in 2011. highlight the general fear we have about our through space? And if so, do they visit us "I don’t know whether there are ultimate demise. This, said Dr. Halperin, is regularly, performing experiments, teaching our extraterrestrials or not. My guess is that there is instrumental in understanding our belief in special children, and taking samples from intelligent life somewhere out there. But it aliens. "Consider: my death is an intimate part animals? If they are visiting, why do they ignore doesn’t make sense that the UFOs are of myself. It was born with me; it grew with me; SETI scientists, who are seeking to make spaceships visiting us—the distances between it’s with me every day of my life, bone of my contact? us and the nearest possible star are just too bone and flesh of my flesh. Yet it’s also the most Ultimately, when it comes to great. UFOs are about us, our longings and our alien thing I can possibly conceive—the thing extraterrestrials coming to Earth, there is no terrors. And that’s why they’re so important," through which I cease to be me, cease to be hard scientific proof. As Dr. Paul Davies said Dr. Halperin said in an email. He suggested that anything at all. How better to express this than recently, promoting his book, Eerie Silence, there is a link between the belief in ascension to with a myth of aliens among us?" extraterrestrials "probably don't even know that heaven, and the belief in extraterrestrials, Dr. Halperin attributed his own juvenile we're here." [] something some religious sects share. belief in aliens to his mother's slow physical Dr. Halperin might be on to something, decline and eventual death from heart disease, a because those who believe in extraterrestrial decline all were aware of, but something that his visits to Earth also cite fear as an emotion that family did not discuss openly. Knowing clouds the truth. A promotion for a book on something was wrong, Halperin was seeking an alien abductions, called Awakening said answer, he just didn't know what the question was at the time. "Up until now, the phenomenon of alien Assessing the daily turmoil humans abduction has been presented in a bleak, must negotiate, it is easy to understand why oppressive, threatening, and fear filled fashion. people like to believe in a benign species of As we all "know", abductees are victims and extraterrestrials who come to Earth to provide counsellers help them cope. assistance, or dazzle us with light shows. But But what if its not like that at all? What many tales of human-alien interaction involve if its only our fear that makes us see this way? fear, uncertainty, a lack of control and even What if its our fear prevents us from seeing the pain. This, Dr. Halperin implied, is a reflection truth? What if alien "abductions" are not about of the human condition. "God gives us a sense experimentation and probing but about spiritual of order, security, that things are being cared for. awakening and galactic contact?" UFOs express our stubborn sense that there is something alien and ominous among us that Asked when the belief in extraterrestrials arose, cannot be rooted out." Dr. Halperin pointed to an incident that occured There is a commonly accepted over the Cascade mountains in the US in 1947, description of what an alien looks like. Dr. when a private pilot saw 9 "silvery discs" flying Halperin thinks the archetypal caricature of