76 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
76 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: THE PSYCHIC PROJECTION THEORY FILE: UFO2757
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
From UFOs and the Limits of Science by Ronald D. Storey c.1981
|
|
|
|
Reproduced for educational purposes.
|
|
|
|
The Psychic Projection Theory
|
|
|
|
The Psychic Projection Theory represents a modern school of thought in
|
|
UFO circles, which like the Ultraterrestial Theory, developed as a
|
|
reaction to the Extraterrestial Hypothesis. The theory was first
|
|
outlined by Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman in the mid-1970s, based on
|
|
Carl Jung's concept of the collective unconscious.
|
|
|
|
The authors, however, have gone beyond Jungian psychology and postulate
|
|
that the collective inconscious can psychically project material forms,
|
|
represented in modern times by the UFO, and that "...the UFO phenomanon
|
|
has absorbed many of the ancient archetypal forms in which human beings
|
|
have traditionally needed to believe and which they have sought to
|
|
complete their world.
|
|
|
|
Clark and Coleman saa a danger in the modern world of science's
|
|
disrupting man's close bond nature, to mysticism, and to the elements,
|
|
bringing him to "the brink of catastrophe." The message they see in the
|
|
UFO myth is that the collective unconscious "...too long repressed,
|
|
will burst free, overwhelm the world, and usher in an era of madness,
|
|
superstition, and terror - with all the sociopolitical accounterments;
|
|
war, anarchy fascism," and that "...when the unconscious can no longer
|
|
be contained, its liberated contents will destroy all that the
|
|
conscious mind has produced; the fruits of science and technology,
|
|
civilized order, and the very process of reason itself. Under the new
|
|
imbalance a spiritual dark age will blanket the earth."
|
|
|
|
UFOs, then, are merely "planetary poltergeists," which are generated by
|
|
the "psychic energy" of the collective unconscious (and sometimes by an
|
|
individual unconscious), as were fairies, flying saucer "spacemen," and
|
|
apparitions of the Virign Mary. In some respects, The Psychic
|
|
Projection Theory relies on the same kinds of evidence as the
|
|
Ultraterrestial Theory, and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish
|
|
between the writings of authorities in the two schools.
|
|
|
|
The Psychic projection Theory would have to depend, at the very least,
|
|
on both the reality of Jung's collective unconscious and the reality of
|
|
extrasensory perception (ESP). Jung's writings have had wide popular
|
|
appeal, but experimental work has failed to demonstrate empiracally
|
|
that man possesses a collective unconscious. Future research may shed
|
|
more light on the validity of Jung's theory.
|
|
|
|
ESP research is a continuing and active area of research by numerous
|
|
psychologists, biologists, and physicists. A very bitter and emotional
|
|
debate has ensued over the years concerning the validity of ESP. Some
|
|
believe that the whole subject is nonsense and should not be given any
|
|
serious consideration. Others claim that ESP effects have been
|
|
conclusively demonstrated in repeated laboratory experiments and that
|
|
efforts should be directed more toward understanding the effects than
|
|
toward attempting to convince the skeptics.
|
|
|
|
Until the matter is resolved, the Psychic Projection Theory must remain
|
|
as simply a fascinating idea. Even if ESP effects (precognition,
|
|
telepathy, telekinesis, etc.) were ultimately demonstrated to be
|
|
authentic phenomena, bringing parapsychology into the mainstream of
|
|
"normal" science, there has been no indication that such "psychic
|
|
energy" could actually materialize (i.e., project) objects, whether
|
|
they be fairies or flying saucers.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**********************************************
|
|
* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
|
|
********************************************** |