Click here to support the Daily Grail for as little as $US1 per month on Patreon

Changing Aliens

As mentioned in yesterday’s news briefs, The Telegraph has an interesting story on Britain’s Astronomer Royal regarding alien life. The article is apparently quoting from an interview in Prospect (teaser here, though sadly not including the quote in question), in which Lord Rees – who is also currently President of the Royal Society – offered some surprising (and refreshing) views about the topic:

They could be staring us in the face and we just don’t recognise them. The problem is that we’re looking for something very much like us, assuming that they at least have something like the same mathematics and technology. I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms we can’t conceive. Just as a chimpanzee can’t understand quantum theory, it could be there as aspects of reality that are beyond the capacity of our brains.

Hopefully this signals a real change in thinking on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). While there’s a growing recognition within SETI circles of how limited and anthropocentric the search has been, they still stop a long way short of the sentiments of Lord Rees, one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists.

Obviously there’s a reason for limiting hypothesising on the matter, as a lot of time could be wasted on some seriously ‘out there’ ideas. Science works well most often because it is inherently conservative, building on knowledge in an incremental manner. But there’s also a time for unfettered speculation (as long as it is remembered to be just that!), and Lord Rees’ comments should, at the very least, allow for a bit more consideration of ‘serious’ ufology. Not necessarily assuming that what is seen are ‘nuts and bolts’ spacecraft either, which again is probably just anthropocentric overlay – but rather more in line with what Lord Rees is saying: that we may not even be able to comprehend the object/intelligence that is manifesting in these cases, or how it will or should behave.

Another line of ‘out of the box’ thinking should be, in my opinion, considering whether altered states of consciousness allow us to communicate with other, alien intelligences. This isn’t an original idea, so I’ll just quote Terence McKenna on the matter – and, happily, the quote opens with an important insight into SETI-as-we-know-it:

To search expectantly for a radio signal from an extraterrestrial source is probably as culture bound a presumption as to search the galaxy for a good Italian restaurant. And yet, this has been chosen as the avenue by which it is assumed contact is likely to occur. Meanwhile, there are people all over the world – psychics, shamans, mystics, schizophrenics – whose heads are filled with information, but it has been ruled a priori irrelevant, incoherent, or mad. Only that which is validated through consensus via certain sanctioned instrumentalities will be accepted as a signal. The problem is that we are so inundated by these signals – these other dimensions – that there is a great deal of noise in the circuit.

Unfettered speculation, remember – and I have no problems in recognizing that this is getting a long way ‘out of the box’. But it would at least make for good sci-fi…and I’m allowed to say these sorts of things because I’m just a good-for-nothing anti-science grubby intent on blowing out the candle of rationality (apparently), whereas an orthodox scientist would be run out of town with flaming torches. Unless you’re Lord Rees…

Just to bring a bit of orthodoxy back to the topic, readers will probably be interested in perusing the list of lectures (downloadable as mp3s) from the recent Royal Society discussion meeting, “The Detection of Extra-terrestrial Life and the Consequences for Science and Society“. Also, if you have the bandwidth to spare, definitely check out the videocast of Professor Paul Davies’ lecture, “The Eerie Silence”, which he presented at the end of the discussion meeting – it’s an excellent exploration of the history and concepts of SETI.

Previously on TDG:

Editor
  1. Makes me think of Jack
    Makes me think of Jack Chalker’s awesome “Well of Souls” Sci-Fi series. It’s natural for humans to anthropomorphize, it’s the only template we have to measure by.

  2. Chimps!? Wha…!?
    Are we 100% sure that chimps can’t understand quantum mechanics? Do we know that as a fact? Do we even understand quantum mechanics? Ok…what if THEY are the aliens? Hmmm? Well?

  3. Aliens scare me anyway.
    Hay Greg,

    Again, another good article with plenty of talking points.

    Shall i be the first to lambaste Lord Rees for assuming that chimps don’t understand quantum mechanics? How unscientific of him 😉

    [edit] ah rats – bleepingdeadalien beat me while i was writing.

    [quote]it could be there as aspects of reality that are beyond the capacity of our brains[/quote]

    Can i tally that up on my list of profound, but profoundly pointless quotes. Especially if ‘brains’ was used as another way of saying ‘minds’ or ‘imagination’ or ‘ability to conceive’, which is the way I would expect him to be using it. If that was actually right we could just put the money into healthcare instead.

    The possibilities of super-consciousness, psychic’s, shamans as well as recorded interactions through visual sightings, full contact, abduction etc suggest, if true, that our brains are already quite capable even if radio-telescopes are not the answer.

    The failure of radio-telescopes to detect signals is a shame, though after just watching another episode of Dr Who I’m happy to be alone and not being invaded from space, powerless to stop our children being used as food. I really hope aliens are friendly.

    Communication with aliens through altered consciousness definitely isnt a new idea. It’s even in Stargate Atlantis with Tayla communicating with Wraith minds to see their invasion plans through some form of telepathy.

    There is so much noise in our thoughts though. Correlating that noise is hard. Lets say you managed to get together the thoughts, dreams, day-dreams etc of a million, or ten million people for just one day. There would be ‘noise’, but also many many patterns. There will also be plenty of coincidences. Any real alien communication will be in there somewhere, but picking it out when you have no idea what it is is going to be very hard. It is not so much ‘out of the box’ as that any conclusion you make will most likely be based on preconceptions of your own, you’ve headed out of the box and into your own living room.

    There is one get out though. If many of the events were the same, and you could rule out common brain physiology, common experiences, desires, common culture etc (it would be no surprise if many people had thoughts about blue aliens and planetary consciousness on the same day Avatar came out) then we could start to form a testable hypothesis. I would love to see that done.

    People can focus on psychics etc as if it had already been shown that they were better than the general public (and especially since psychic activity is found everywhere – even in us orthodox scientists), but I’d be tempted to go down the larger scale study route until it had been shown psychics really were better. I’d still do the same experiment on a group of 10, 50, or 500 psychics though, just to check, but I think there would be too much variation and too little data given we are not asking them to concentrate on something, just asking what’s been popping into their heads – I don’t know if they are any better than you and me at that. Commonalties in philosophy, lifestyle and belief etc would probably skew the data – or at least you wouldn’t be sure.

    I’m always quite concerned about in group analysis with this type of study though. There are bound to be a few coincidences in almost any experiment (especially of the above nature) and if you pick that as your evidence afterwards without setting up expecting that to be the outcome then you have cheated. You can use it to repeat the experiment and see if the outcome occurs again, but not to claim a positive result.

    If 500 out of a million people dreamt that an evil tyrant had been defeated in a galaxy far away then they might have picked up on some extragalactic news channel, but I can’t see a way of making sure that your not committing in group analysis. There is no way to check again since the news has presumably changed. If you run the test again and another 50 people say that a food ship was lost in hyperspace then again you are no further.

    Perhaps this is equivalent to just hearing stories second hand, whereas to prove the existence of the news station you might need to find the signal or the apparatus. In which case we are back to looking for them.

    You need a way of determining coincidence quality, types and levels, but the random nature of coincidence causes a problem. Of course this occurs in science all the time, so large groups are used, but your expectations are predetermined and in group analysis after the fact will not be permitted.

  4. 2 universe effect
    I am an abductee who was translated from the mortal event to the dark ethereal plane where I was under the deep stare program of three gray aliens where one performed an intrusive procedure on the host, me.

    Through that dark realm, the host can be returned to the mortal event with emotional memories and physical complications. I know this well since the alien withdrew my life force from my left side with a round device placed on my left jaw and neck which damaged my entire left side and gives me constant trouble to this day.

    The alien exist outside our time and space and extends their will into the mind releasing the soul to there realm that perhaps operates on the otherside of the dark ethereal plane, to do as they wish on the host.

    The alien has us under control and will come for us at any moment. You don’t beleive it, ad up all the weirdness that goes on around the world and you will eventualy see it at work.

    What ever it is, it works in three’s.

  5. A Vast “Psychic” Ocean
    I’ve been reading The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science by E.A. Burtt, who is said to have been a major influence on Thomas Kuhn.

    My distant hope has been to acquire a good understanding of the nature of science, how it developed, and so on, as at the moment it’s not at all compatible with my own personal experience, no matter how effective science is when it comes to manipulating matter, or — in its very early days during the beginnings of The Royal Society — studying springs, pendulums, etc., to assist Charles II in coping with the Dutch enemy by developing a way for enabling the ships in his (at the time) entirely inadequate navy to navigate far from shore, giving that navy an edge. (It’s very interesting that the founders of the Royal Society were primarily Freemasons. Interesting and necessary, too, as the early society consisted of enemies from the two sides of the recently ended civil wars.)

    That went on well before Newton arrived, of course, eventually changing the way nearly everyone understands the nature of reality, even though we are long past the days of Newtonian physics.

    At the moment, I’m reading about Kepler and why he was so enthusastic about Copernicus’ ideas.

    I suspect, however, my efforts will be futile and that it’s not possible to connect present day science with my personal experience in any meaningful way.

    It’s not just my own personal experience, either; I lived through a phase of very active on-line experimentation with others and shared certain “psychic” experiences, including accidentally coming into contact with non-physically embodied beings not familiar with our earthly physical experience twice during on-line sessions.

    I believe we live in a vast interconnected mental or psychic ocean. The whole thing could be called “god” but I don’t call it that, and I don’t confuse it with the usual versions of “god,” either, particularly those I became familiar with in Sunday school as a little kid.

    The ways to access this ocean — and since it encompasses absolutely all and everything it includes us as constituents — are incompatible with the methods of science and always will be, unless or until science changes into something very different.

    So as much as I appreciate and, to an extent, understand science and its endless applications, I find it more or less useless when it comes to connecting with this great ocean of being.

    It’s as though we are, collectively, idiot savants. We have this complex & very extensive collection of knowledge and techniques we call science, ever growing, and have mastered endless theories, technologies, and what-not since the days of Charles II, but at the same time we are like bawling infants or complete idiots when it comes to comprehending and exploring the psychic ocean.

    The experiments of neurologists — wiring up Buddhist monks and the sisters of some convent (I forget which order) to EEGs and observing what happens at peak moments during meditation and prayer using even more sophisticated scanners are very interesting, but the scientists doing this are looking in from the outside. They may learn certain things but in general will remain absolutely clueless about what their subjects may be experiencing.

    The only way to do that is to partake of these activities, that is to become a monk or nun and meditate or pray. (Of course I have some problems with doing that, too, as I know how strongly beliefs can color such experience — accomplishing a pure, clear exploration of the unknown & vast inner spaces without preconception is not the easiest thing to do, as we all bring beliefs to everything we do.)

    I’m hoping that in some future existence I will discover that humanity has advanced well beyond its present stage of incredible ignorance and that the techniques and methods for inner explorations will be taught to me at an early age, alongside whatever remains of our very materially focused science.

    Bill I.

    1. Nice one
      Fascinating post. As someone who is nearly always “looking in from the outside”, I can’t comment too much on the points raised, but do appreciate the insightful way you presented those points Bill.

      1. Oops!
        Thanks, Greg, but I didn’t connect my thoughts to the “alien life” topic very well.

        Short version: The Terence McKenna quote makes great sense to me.

        It seems to me that, although there may well be physical beings somewhat like us somewhere, the best way to contact “others” is via the “ocean” I wrote of.

        I could add all kinds of speculation, including speculating on the nature of several particularly unusual experiences, but it would read like science fiction or fantasy fiction and not really contribute to the discussion.

        I am reasonably convinced that others have learned to travel in ways that would seem inconceivable to most of us but I have no real proof of this and I am also quite convinced that our own usual conception of “self” is just one of a great many possibilities, such that imagining human-like creatures in metallic space vehicles visiting from distant physical places is another way of projecting our own version of reality onto the cosmos, like creating gods in our own image.

        Still, it’s not necessarily completely out of the question that some unknown but small percentage of UFOs are of that nature, amongst a variety of realities, or that there might be some kind of life somewhere not so different from what we are familiar with, even some for whom our kind of electromagnetic communications wouldn’t seem strange at all.

        If there were such beings, why would they bother visiting our planet, considering how they would likely be received and how we treat each other here?

        Bill

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Mobile menu - fractal