Chapter Four
The Nature Of Man

Few of the many thousands of communications allegedly from UFOs which are available to the researching scientist are acceptable on face value to him. The reason for this is that the scientists have not formulated a general theory which can contain the contactee information. The scientist is not being particularly stringent or hard-nosed in this exclusion of data; this data simply does not “compute.” Some scientists reject the data as being unworthy of their attention. Other, more interested researchers look rather longingly at the more dramatic aspects of the UFO-related evidence and declare themselves ready to forge ahead until the new understanding is reached. In his excellent consideration of the metal-bending and other unusual talents of Uri Geller and the children who are currently demonstrating the Geller-type abilities, Professor Taylor says:

Part of the job of looking at the world through the eyes of a trained
scientist is to look for ways of improving our current scientific models
of the world.1

Hopefully, this is the thrust of this investigation as well. This chapter will begin the presentation of a theory of reality formulated as a result of long study of UFO and paranormal phenomena. The theory is still speculative, rather than conclusively proven. However, I believe the time has come for it to be presented for consideration by researchers and by the general public, because familiarity with the theory offers an entry into the myriad of UFO phenomena and contacts which seems to make sense.

The Real Nature of Man

Imagine yourself encased in a heavy rubber suit and the cumbersome divers’ apparatus, with the big bell face mask on your shoulders. You are carefully and with some difficulty walking about on the ocean floor. The suit, and the relative difficulty of movement within it, is a fair representation of the physical body in which we are encased and with which we usually identify ourselves. The body that animates this awkward physical body may be called, as St. Paul did, the “spiritual body,” or, as some occultists do, the “astral body.” It has not been proven to exist in a certain known manner, no one yet has ascertained the precise composition of the astral body; yet there is enormous weight of common belief in it, stretching back to the Egyptian belief in the “Ka.” Ghosts and apparitions throughout history have appeared as witnesses to the reality of this body. In their well-researched book, Muldoon and Carrington treat rather carefully the whole array of astral projection data that also lends credence to the assertion that there is an astral body.2 And Kirlian photography is catching a luminescence around the physical body that, according to some clairvoyants, comes not from the physical but from the astral body.

“We look, they say, something like an eclipse of the sun by the moon, the luminous astral body.”3

This astral body which all of us have, then, is the “double” of our physical body and in fact acts as the electrodynamic, or bioplasmic, mold from which is created that configuration of chemicals that manifests as our physical body. This finer body leaves the heavy material body at the time of death and is related to the spirit or soul. This again is not scientifically proven, but there is a great deal of descriptive evidence to indicate the truth of the statement. Much research has been done and is now in progress on the nature of death and dying by Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and others, and at this point in their research, they are asserting the presence of a good deal of collected data indicating a continuation of the individual consciousness through and after the death of the physical body.

Dr. Lyall Watson creates an elegant exposition in defense of the non-reality of what we call “death,” but then concludes that in investigating the paranormal, the researcher is perhaps “kept in check by a cautious cosmic nanny.”4 It is his suspicion, and I share it with him, that in the investigation of the paranormal we are treading on the edges of a type of knowledge we are not intended to have, at least until we learn to use some new tools for understanding. And the study of UFOs very much falls within this category.

The spirit body is the more basic of the two bodies. We spend more time exclusively in the spirit body than in the physical, for besides dwelling within it before birth and after physical death, we remove our consciousness to the world of spirit regularly in sleep. It is a cliché of several religions that the spirit world is one in which we have greater abilities, freedom from the problems and pain of the flesh, and in general a better deal.

Much research has been done to investigate this spirit world, and the findings are that there are not one, but many spirit planes of existence.5 Our physical plane, then, is not one of two worlds, but is very much in the minority, one of many worlds. The physical world which we are now experiencing is the anomaly. This point is getting at the crux of our problems with understanding UFOs. It is necessary to understand that we are forms of consciousness of a much more flexible and immaterial nature than is appreciated in our present state of awareness.

As we progress on to higher planes of life, we shall incarnate in bodies far more ethereal than those now used by us, just as in the past we used bodies almost incredibly grosser and coarser than those we call our own today.6

Many people have either voluntarily or involuntarily experienced out-of¬the-body travel for short periods. Perhaps the most common experience occurs in the pre-sleep, drifting period, when the person feels a floating sensation and discovers himself near the ceiling looking back down at his prostrate physical body. This ability to travel out of the physical body is learnable, and there are various methods taught to those who are interested, by such groups as the Theosophists and Paul Twitchell’s Eckankar. As Twitchell has noted, this type of information is also in that area where knowledge is difficult to come by or to express:

“He who has fully accomplished soul travel finds it nearly impossible to communicate his experience to others once he has returned to the physical form, especially when his traveling has taken him above the astral world into the higher planes.”7

So, hard though it may be to prove, my scheme of things into which the UFO phenomena seem to fit has as a basic tenet the concept that the physical body does not alone signify life, but consciousness signifies life, and that consciousness exists in a continuum of reality which includes what we now know as life, and death. When the physical body is no longer animate, still that consciousness exists in a continuing reality, having passed merely to another, lighter density of existence.
 

A natural addition to this line of thinking is the belief in reincarnation, that we have each existed through many incarnations, in various densities of existence, going from one to another largely through the gates of physical birth and death. There is an untold number of these densities throughout the universe. All are equally real. And each, presumably, has its own characteristics so that from many dimensions, other portions of reality are not perceivable. This is what has happened on our physical plane on Earth. We presently are experiencing an apparent isolation. Here we are, in the rather gross physical plane, moving about in the heavy physical body, restricted by the limitations of five physical senses, with little obvious reason to develop the psychic or non-physical senses which are part of our finer body. Why are we so limited in this density; why is it so difficult to expand our awareness? What is the reason for life in this density? In fact, what is the reason for life in all the densities?

Most of us Earthmen have some goals, usually concerning financial security or some accomplishment producing physical reward during our lifetime on Earth. Intertwined with these goals are other, more intangible goals, which show forth in our physical lives as feelings for the arts, for beauty, for philosophy, or for the ideal companion. The invisible side of existence constantly tugs at our awareness, through emotion and thought. This sort of pursuit of truth or beauty is one good example of the reality of more than just the visible, physical plane. At various levels of density, our objectives as an entity are quite different. Once we are completely removed from the physical density of experience, we realize the infinite nature of existence, the eternal span of our own conscious lifetime, and we begin to get a clearer sight of our primary objective.

We become aware that there is something worth striving for that is lasting. This is the impulse, brought back into the physical density, which is responsible for the creativity in all areas of life: we see in our spiritual selves that which we wish to bring back into our daily lives. The religious impulse, in its pure and unchurched form, is the opposite impulse: to seek while in the physical plane to visit and experience the higher reality of eternity. Life is therefore redefined in terms of the physical death, which in religious terms becomes a gate to higher life. Both in aesthetic pursuits and in pursuit of spiritual understanding there is the key concept: life is not limited or tarnished as it seems, but life and the living are infinite and eternal. You cannot take your earthly gains with you when you die here. All your goals will die with your physical body, but one thing you may take, and that is your consciousness: your mind, your spirit, the eternal you. And in this dense physical atmosphere, you are presently at work shaping not just your earthly self, but your eternal self.

Whether we realize it or not, we are all in this process of self-change together. We are growing. Not in the physical body only or primarily, but most of all in the higher body. This is the real evolution. This is the reason for our present Earth experience. We have chosen to come into this Earthly density to experience the emotional catalyst of physical life. The experience we gain here has its results in the evolution of our minds, our consciousnesses.

You notice I am assuming an intended direction, an ultimately predictable path, to this evolution. I predicate that this evolution is in the direction towards the thought of our Creator. As we grow in mind, we more closely approach the fundamental thought of our Creator. I believe that this is our primary objective. No matter what path we think we are on, this one is either advanced within our experience, or it patiently waits for us to finish with our dawdling and get about the main business.

The aura is the observable edge of our higher body, seen just outside the surface of our physical body. People with well-developed psychic senses have seen them throughout history; hence the halos around revered models rendered by many an artist through the centuries. Now it would seem that Semyon Davidovich Kirlian of Krasnodar in the USSR has developed a process whereby this aura is rendered not only visible but recordable by photography. Through his process, a whole world of color and life becomes visible to the physical eye. All living things, plants and people, have these auras. The color and intensity of the aura is an indication of the nature of the higher body as well as the state of the physical body. The aura seems to change in response to mood or the health of the subject, but its nature is not limited by those qualities of intellect and education by which we set so much store within the physical illusion. A janitor, for instance, may possess a more intense aura than the well-respected physicist whose office he cleans.

As OAHSPE puts it:

A man may be wise as to books and philosophy and mathematics and poetry and great learning, and yet be low in grade as to spirit. A man may know little of all such knowledge, and may be poor withal, but by hardship and experience, developed in sympathy and good works done unto others, and be high in grade as to spirit.8

Each of us, no matter what our circumstances, is experiencing life on Earth for the same purpose: further refinement of the spiritual, auric body. The condition of our auric glow is a quick index of our spiritual development.

There are 250 billion stars in our galaxy alone, and there are uncounted trillions of galaxies besides ours. The creation seems to be infinite, in terms of the present physical science as well as in philosophical terms. What is it that limits us from experiencing this infinite creation? Anyone who has ever tasted the heady taste of what lies in store for the developed consciousness knows that somehow, he must continue to seek that awareness of infinity again.

Many of the UFOs are attempting to play a part in this evolution of ours. A large percentage of them are in a different density than our physical world most of the time, becoming “real” to us and to the physical world for only short periods. The UFOnauts have good reason to act as they do, most of the reason being linked to this concept of the evolution of mind. They wish to assist us in the evolution of our minds.

There is much evidence that there is a wide variance between sources for UFO activity in our skies. Some UFOs are in contact with, and working with other UFOs. Some seem to be operating alone, as unaware of other UFOs as we are of the finer densities. Various UFOs come from various densities both within our “real” universe and outside of our reality. Their mental state of evolution varies widely, some entities not so far ahead of us, some incredibly beyond our ken. But they are all interested in Earth now. This present time seems to be centrally important. In our contacts with the UFOs, we find out why they feel this is so.

The Flat Earth Syndrome

It wasn’t so long ago that man considered himself to be living on a flat Earth, with edges that dropped off into the abyss. The night sky was a velvet black bowl, studded with small points of light, which turned about us. At present, we have made some progress in our understanding of Earth and stars. We see that the Earth is round, we see that it moves in space; we see that the points of light are either planets like us or self-luminous entities like our Sun. We have found that instead of the sky’s darkness being a close and protective bowl-surface, space is unimaginably vast, so that even within the celestial backyard of our nearest star neighbor, it would take us 80,000 years to traverse the distance thereto. This is figuring a velocity of 7 miles per second, the reported escape velocity of our fastest launched space vehicle to date, Pioneer 10.9 So far has our understanding brought us: space travel is a reality, but the thought of doing it, in person, is still absurd, especially if you begin to consider travel out of our planetary system. This is where our science is now: within the boundaries of our technology and daily routine we have a serviceable and solid philosophy of reality. But at the frontiers of physical space and time, we have a vast uncertainty. We are not equal to it yet. Its challenges lie there, waiting patiently for us to seek them out.

It is in this context that I feel the UFOs have arrived here. Perhaps we are on the brink of an unfoldment of understanding even greater than that which rounded the flat Earth and gave depth to the sky. And the UFOs are acting this time as the insistent clue to the new reality. That they do not “compute” according to our present understanding is a welcome characteristic, for it is this quality of data which historically has heralded a new level of advancement of man’s knowledge. The careful study of UFO and UFO-related phenomena has brought me to a conclusion about the nature of reality that is the kind of departure from accepted doctrine that the flat-to-round earth claim was in its day. The theory has its seeds not just in the ufology data but in disciplines far afield: atomic physics, parapsychology, theosophy, and theology. I have paid attention to science and also to pseudo-science. I cannot and do not claim that the theory is scientific, properly speaking; nor do I claim myself as an infallible observer, or receiver of ideas. I attempt to state my theory in such a way that it can be quickly comprehended. The pleasure and challenge of further investigation is then yours as well as mine. Most of this theory is the work of others. I have only combined the ingredients, adding a few refinements. Parts of this theory may seem absurd at first, but then so did the idea of a round Earth, no doubt.

There is one aspect of UFO study which does not yet equal the round-Earth story: Columbus and his demonstrated proof has not yet arrived for us! There is ample data to substantiate the theory developed in this text. But a goodly portion of this data is not evidential: it lacks provable validity. This means that many a sane and sensible man will back off right here. James Randi, the prestidigitator, puts this point of view well:

I have often been asked, “Do you deny the existence of ESP and other paranormal occurrences?” The answer is that I doubt their existence simply because I have never had evidence presented to me that would prove their existence. I cannot choose to believe something because I want to. Give me some hard proof, and I will change my mind: until then, I am burdened with Reality.10

And so are we all burdened with reality: a reality which is sending us numerous and obvious clues of an even greater reality. True science, I submit, is not only the explainer of the familiar, but the explorer of all that there is to explore. The UFO phenomena seem so often like the functioning in physical reality of the wildest imagination of our race. Carl Jung ascribed this phenomena to just that source.11 Yet these UFO events are occurring, and it is a valid response to strive to understand them, using all the available material. This is what I have done; the material treated here is in my opinion the best material available for the formulation of a workable solution to the UFO mystery. The test of any theory is its value as a predictive and explicative tool. For several years now, the UFO events have been fitting comfortably into this theory. It is as though I have gotten enough pieces put into my puzzle so that the remaining ones are quite easily fitted into the developing picture of the whole.

The body of the theory has been distilled from 25 years of collection of alleged contacts with UFOs. No single piece of evidence was judged when received; but only added to the mass of other data. Out of this mass has precipitated a surprising amount of correlation of data with regard to a high percentage of UFO related phenomena.
 

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