It is possible that the visitors are about to show up. I am
not saying that this will happen, but only that this is a
time when it could happen, and there are some indications
that it may be about to happen.
The indications are these: First, the large number of UFO
sightings around the world, capped most recently by a report
that there is an active UFO on the ground in southern
Somalia. Is this report true? So far, it has not been
possible to follow up, and probably the only way to get
confirmation would be from a US military satellite, and we
can forget that. Second, the sudden upsurge in official and
semi-official statements, with the latest being Gov. Fife
Symington's reiteration on Good Morning America this morning
that he had seen a UFO.
So, all of the activity and public pronouncement suggest
change. Interestingly, conditions within our society suggest
that a basis of rational response to contact that has not
been present in the past is present now. For example, this
website now reaches a million people every month with its
sophisticated and sensible view of the UFO and close
encounter phenomena. Even five years ago, nothing like it
existed. Public reaction to UFOs is now muted. The
appearance of even extensive UFO activity in a given area
does not cause panic or sensational press response. They are
more-or-less taken for granted as a relatively benign
mystery of interest to some but not most people.
This is a profile that is conducive to a more productive
form of contact than has been possible in the past. It will
not be the way the world at first presents itself to the
visitors, but it is there, and behind it there lies the
potential for a rational response.
At first, the media will likely go to all the wrong
authorities: to scientists who know nothing of the history
of the phenomenon and will look upon whatever is happening
now as the beginning of a process of contact and not what it
is, which is the culmination of many years of effort; to
religious leaders who will contend that their own
beliefs must be reflected in the culture of the visitors,
and, if not, that they are somehow fallen, or 'not saved' or
otherwise ignorant; to
government officials who might make false claims about what
has happened in the past; and to various UFO researchers,
probably the ones with the most sensationalistic theories,
or who assert their leadership most forcefully, and are
therefore ego-driven and least capable.
Later, though, cooler heads will hopefully prevail, and we
will begin to explore how contact can help us. Initially,
this will be a matter of looking back over the past 60 years
at a higher level of scientific analysis, and seeing what it
has already left behind that can be of use to us. Then
learning to communicate with the visitors, which will
involve using our minds in a new way, and accepting that
such things as what we call 'telepathy' are merely aspects
of nature and perfectly detectable and measurable.
It will take human culture many years to evolve an efficient
organ of communication and exchange with them, and they will
not be in a hurry. There will turn out to be people, as it
were, hidden away in our socieities all over the world who
have already been prepared and will together provide a
useful beginning.
This will unfold outside of the context of current religious
and governmental structures. The planet is dying, which is
why the visitors are showing up now, to try to offer us a
new perspective. They will not lay out a plan of action. But
observing their presence, the knowledge they have left
behind already, and whatever messages we can glean from
early attempts at communication, will provide us with a rich
new source of ideas.
Depending on how serious our situation actually is, they may
intervene in the cultural milieu in some very surprising
ways, by taking specific action to deflect or curtail the
activities of those most unwilling to try to live in a way
that will sustain the planet's functioning long term. If
that happens, then we will see interventions that will cause
a good deal of consternation, although I cannot even begin
to guess the exact form they may take.
They will not at first address the species' various
religious ideas except in very general terms, by
communicating with us in triads, with a positive thrust and
a negative thrust, leaving us to evolve the message by
reconciling its two parts. I know that this is very, very
different from the way we commuicate, but it works and if
they do show up it will become familiar enough.
Face-to-face communication, if the experience of close
encounter witnesses so far is any example, will be extremely
varied. Not only will there be many different physical forms
involved, they will be presenting us with sometimes
radically different views of the way they should approach us.
Imagine what it would be like on another planet if human
spacefarers showed up, some from the US, others from Brazil,
others from Borneo, from France, from India and China, and
you can get a very minor idea of what this will be like.
What we are apt to see are many different variants of known
forms as well as some we have never seen, or hardly seen,
and some of these will be quite frightening, with a
combination of toughness and capabilities that will make it
very hard to face them. But not impossible.
I did it alone in the woods in the middle of the night, so
it certainly can be done.
There are also going to be more human forms. It turns out
that physical evolution follows similar patterns on worlds
with similar mineral content and similar stars. There is
something about the stars themselves that determines what
sort of creature will evolve on their planets, and so the
mix of forms is tremendous, but also strangely familiar,
and, in some cases, shockingly so.
People ask me what I will do under the circumstances of
contact. I already know my role, very precisely. I will not
volunteer myself, but I do have a lot of knowledge that will
be freely available to anybody who asks. I am not
ego-driven, in the sense that I will want to take some place
that I might think I deserve.
In this, we are all equal. Nobody knows much more than
another and nobody deserves any special place in regard to
the contact process. Those who seek to impose their presence
between the visitors and the rest of us will find that they
have made a grave mistake, in that they will be among the
first human beings called to task for violating laws created
elsewhere, that now also pertain to us.
What I will be eager to do is to help evolve effective human
institutions of contact. These will be scientific and
cultural. In my work on this subject in fiction and in the
movies, I am already struggling with the cultural aspect. I
am not trying to use fiction to disguise what I believe to
be factually true, but to offer stories that are emotionally
true, and give a taste of the wonder, fear and sense of
question the actual experience involves.
Once contact comes, my primary work will change. It will be
to offer persepective and guidance in the development of a
useful scientific response to this new model of the
universe, as an entity that contains a certain amount of
intelligent life beyond our own, and knowledge associated
with it that we can integrate into our own understanding.
This is what I have been unable to do so far, because
official denial has led to a broader culture of denial
within educated human circles. Right now, it is as dangerous
to a scientist's career to propose that money be spent on
the study of UFOs as it was in the fifteenth century for him
to propose that the earth revolves around the sun.
But the earth does revolve around the sun, and when we faced
that reality, we embarked upon a five hundred year journey
into science that has culminated in all the magnificent
knowledge we possess today.
Similarly, when science acknowledges that the visitors are
real and therefore that communication with them and use of
the knowledge we get from that is possible, a second, and
even greater scientific revolution will unfold.
At the end of the first scientific revolution, we are
sending instantaneous messages around the world, feeding
billions more than we ever dreamed possible, flying, and
doing so much more. It has been a triumph.
The next scientific revolution begins when the scientific
community acknowledges that other intelligence is here and
that it has unknown origins. When we look back from the
perspective of another five hundred years, we will find that
this second scientific revolution has been even more
profound, and the triumph
great beyond the most hopeful imaginings of today.
