80 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
80 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
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The following article is reprinted from California UFO Magazine, Vol. 2
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Issue 3.
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-------------------------
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SCIENCE VS. SPIRIT:
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LET'S CALL A TRUCE
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by Jim Speiser
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Let's get one thing straight: I don't believe in channeling, crystal
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power, pyramid power, Space Brothers, or Semjase. I don't have an Akashic
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Record (or cassette, for that matter). I put no stock in Shirley MacLaine.
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As a so-called secular humanist, I don't even believe in God. My belief in
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the possibility that UFOs represent an extraordinary potential leap in our
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knowledge is based on a plethora of highly compelling evidence, and on the
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lack of cohesive logical arguments to the contrary.
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This belief basis places me squarely in the empirical "nuts-and-
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bolts" camp of Ufology. I am, of course, aware that there are others whose
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belief is more spiritually oriented, who seem to have mystically achieved
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certainty of various aspects of the phenomenon, where I have achieved mere-
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ly excited interest.
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Since the very early days of contactees and credible professionals
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tackling the UFO issue, it seems these two camps have been at odds with
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one another, but never more so than now, in an era that sports both Bill
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Moore and Billy Meier. Those of us in the empirical camp have in the past
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regarded "spiritual" Ufology as something of a nuisance, and have strug-
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gled to separate ourselves from it in the eyes of the public, the media,
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and the academic community. Our attempts at gaining recognition within the
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scientific establishment have been thwarted by our inability to fully a-
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chieve this perceptual schism. It's been rather like trying to get a date
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while your little brother who picks his nose is hanging around.
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Recently, however, it appears that some of our attempts at dicho-
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tomizing have taken on a more vitriolic tone, as characterized by cor-
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respondence that has appeared in CALIFORNIA UFO. One writer representing a
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major organization claimed that the magazine would never sell as long as
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it included "unfounded 'contactee' garbage." An ad appearing in the back
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of the same issue was printed without the group's name, for fear of "guilt
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by association."
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It seems to me that such entities as this magazine and the National
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UFO Conference are appropriate forums for many different points of view,
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and have stated so from the outset. Whether we like it or not, contactees,
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channelers, etc. are part and parcel of the larger sociological phenomenon
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we lump under "UFOs." Certainly, there are elements of fraud and huckster-
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ism in both camps, and it is our responsibility to make every attempt to
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weed these out and point them out as such. But there are many on the
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"spiritual side" who are sincere, honest individuals merely guided in
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their search for the truth by _internal_, rather than _external_, evidence
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-- and regardless of whether their professions of faith are products of
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self-delusion or wishful thinking, they are entitled to fair treatment in
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any publication that assays to cover the gamut of thinking and theorizing
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in the areas of UFOs and extraterrestrials.
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This attempt at total burial of our spiritual side puts me in mind
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of one of the more reprehensible activities in modern society, known as
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"fag-bashing," wherein a certain element of Cro-Magnon knuckledraggers
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feels compelled to beat the daylights out of homosexuals, in order to
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reinforce (mainly to themselves) their own masculinity.
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I should think scientific Ufology would have matured to the point
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where we can be comfortable enough with our own ufological "machismo" that
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we can at least tolerate the existence of those whose epistemology is more
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mystically derived than our own. While still decrying their credulity, we
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can at least acknowledge their rights to freedom of speech. Continuing to
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bash them, in order to reinforce (mainly to ourselves) our own legitimacy,
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is to engage in the same sort of witch-hunting we accuse our skeptical
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detractors of committing.
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Further, much as we left-brainers are loath to admit, there is a
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strong possibility that some of the answers to the UFO question lie in the
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metaphysical realm. The problem arises when such theorizing is represented
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to the public as legitimate, evidence-based Ufology. It then becomes more
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be plenty of room in
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that sucker for all of us.
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--------------------------
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To subscribe to California UFO, write them at:
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1800 S. Robertson Blvd.
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Los Angeles, CA 90035
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C
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