RAW, Leary, and all the rest... Why did they think aliens contacted them?

[ArchangelIdiotis]

Leary, Wilson, and various other occultists/psychedelic researchers, thought they were in communication with aliens.

I have only really read up on Wilson and Leary's experiences. The predictions the supposed aliens gave Leary didn't come true, and neither Leary nor Robert Anton Wilson reported having an opportunity to telepathically interrogate the aliens directly.

I could see aliens existing. Infinite time and space = infinite opportunity. But something doesn't smell right to me.

I have (Edit: changed "two" to "some")some guesses as to what happened to them: 1) Probably it was just a hallucination. 2) Maybe it was a  group of human astral travelers playing a prank on everyone. 3) Conceivably Wilson & Co. were pranking us about the whole thing.

There's a chance (and rumors are circulated) that the aliens are "higher vibrational beings" so can't be interrogated telepathically. But surely, if they were real telepathic transmissions, real aliens could send someone down to a lower vibrational state to be interrogated.

Or maybe telepathy = real, mind reading = false.

[lexi]

from my reading of Cosmic Trigger - RAW didn't exactly believe anything, and questioned whether 1) and 2) were possible also. i think there were enough synchronicities around that they were unable to shake the feeling that something was siriusly there, and so i feel it's most likely they kept digging until they found themselves entrenched.

3) is a more interesting theory.. but that would undercut their entire Starseed message surely? it's also a lot of work to put into an unfunny joke

4) they probably did have tax-funded people fucking with them. they attracted enough attention, and it can take only a single dropped or spoofed signal sent between entities in space and time to near convince people of anything

[altered]

This all sort of comes back to the various UFO hypotheses.  Nuts-and-bolts, psychic world, ultraterrestrials, government-aided con artistry, there are some others.

That stuff, the UFO stuff, has been a topic of discussion in the Aftermathematics book club. I'd throw Cramulus a PM for an invite if you want to talk about that sort of thing with people who have discussed a lot of it. I'd throw you one personally but I don't have the server in my list right now.

[Doktor Howl]

The very best thing about Project Bluebook is that it was started in 1952, and Groom Lake (ie, Area 51) started up as a classified aircraft testing range in 1954.  I'm betting they got the idea from the weather balloon that crashed in 1952.

So sometimes you get a conspiracy that EXISTS but works backward from the way the nutters think it does.

In this case, it was a conspiracy to hide aircraft testing with outlandish tales about aliens.  The people who think they're wise to the Con were the exact people who carried out the wishes of the Con, and DID IT FOR FREE.

Also, if you do enough drugs, you'll eventually see the aliens.

If you do enough of the GOOD drugs, you may or may not see the aliens, but you won't care.

ALTERNATE THEORY:  The loons are right, and it really IS all about aliens.  In which case, they build the kind of spaceships that CRASH.  WE can do that, and we're not even NEARLY a star-faring culture.  We should demand better aliens.  And maybe treat the ones we already HAVE to some primate "hospitality".  Fuck those guys.  Seriously.

[altered]

See, I think the second one is right. MOSTLY because I want to help them play out War of the Worlds on Alabama (they clearly need the help), but still!

[ArchangelIdiotis]

I once had a dream of being abducted by aliens.

Nothing about the content of the dream was very scary, but I recall having a terrifying impression while dreaming that it was real. Like fear impressioning me to think the dream was real.

When I woke up, it seemed like a dream and it seemed obvious it had been a dream.

There wasn't any anal probing. And no enlightenment hints.

[Cain]

That almost sounds like a sleep paralysis episode. Some of those it's very obvious that you're awake - which lends a terrifying quality to it all, especially if you don't know what's going on (I imagine), but I've had at least a couple where I'm fairly sure I wasn't fully conscious at the time. That "fear impressioning me to think the dream was real" sounds very much like those experiences.

Might not be, but I thought that I'd throw it out there. Especially since there has been a suggested link between sleep paralysis and some abduction reports.