OE sounds like an ecstatic experience, and hallucinogens do the same thing and are much more accessible. There are some details, sure, cost for facilitation, medical, education, etc., but should we be quibbling at a time like this?
Mind blowing surely. Thanks you for informing and great first paragraph summary. Relatedly to what you say I once went to talk by Prof. David Luke of Greenwich University on how DMT "open doors" in the mind. It's been his field for years. The question is the reality of all the beings met and places people go (I get the impression real). I think all come back changed as we're talking about parallel realities being seen and "life" therein. I think it was John Mack who coined the term "ontological shock" for those having abduction events, so kind of similar - people realizing there's something bigger, controlling a bit and watching out there.
Perhaps the best example of an Overview Effect, or life changing transcendent experience in space I can think of is the late Edgar Mitchell. He called it samadhi. It sent him on a completely different kind of life journey.
Maybe this isn't the time to raise the subject, but I happened to listen to a podcast on the abduction phenomena and the question was raised as to how a researcher determines a false memory from a true one.
A quick search located an article from 1998: False Memories and Confabulation by Marcia Johnson and Carol Raye. While quite technical, it indicated that we have no measuring stick against which to check reality (as true or false), while growing up our brains develop their own 'fact checking' gatekeepers when filing and recalling memories. Everyone can be tripped up.
The article naturally focused on individuals with diagnosed issues, where patients had confabulated a range of false memories (including a space pirate); but what it didn't explore was the effect of filtering out true information in error.
One could argue that 'open mindedness' is the most reasonable position for any topic where 'unknown' data continues to accumulate and a history of 'unknowns' remain, especially when (a subset of the) data are provided by good sources. Those who are close-minded, under such circumstances, may be cognitively impaired (in a mirror image to those who confabulate.)
It's interesting that people are searching for ways to mimic and evoke the Overview Effect - as it highlights the fallibility of the human brain to accurately differentiate between reality and illusion (assuming there is a difference, when science eventually works everything out).
For Ufology, it's a big problem because not only is it very difficult to obtain empirical evidence, but individuals who believe they have experienced something profound will have the same emotional response whether it was real or not.
While many UFO/UAP sightings go unreported, it may turn out that truly alien experiences are relatively rare. But it's definitely encouraging that so many people are open to the possibility. There's hope for us yet.
When I was in single digits, a cousin took me to see a "hermit" who lived in a literal log cabin without indoor plumbing. As I discovered much later, he was a former slave, and he lived to be 115 or 116 years old. A few years ago, I retraced my steps and got an interview with the woman whose father owned the property the old-timer lived on for as long as she could remember. I said, OK, so that was just over there on the other side of the highway, right? She said no, it's always been on this side. Well, I only met the guy once, so I was in no position to argue. Point being -- and I will take this image to my grave with me -- I distinctly remember the guy living on the opposite side of the highway. And I'm 100 percent wrong. But that's my memory.
If you got there and found the hermit had never existed, then we'd all be a bit more worried :)
Life wasn't pre-designed, according to theories of evolution, so it's an ongoing fudge; therefore we're doing pretty well, considering. Our brains followed the same pattern of development - the universe throws genes against the wall and waits to see what sticks.
At some point we started to suspect that we're not the only bodged bipeds in the universe and the others have likely been around a lot longer, keeping a low profile (for the most part) and acting covertly.
It's not like gravity or electrons were deceptive and found places to hide when experiments were conducted. 'Science' had it easy. Ufology may be unique in this respect.
If some form of multiverse exists then reality might be far more dynamic than we ever imagined. We might float around a larger reality propelled along by our intentions. This current crazy place we see and act within may be a brief diversion.
I sympathized with Shatner's valiant attempt to express the inexpressible. A period of reflection would have been better before shoving mics in his face. Transcendent experiences are often diminished when we try to put them into words, which can be not...really...accurate.
Agreed. On the other hand, I think Shatner's attempts to describe a vision beyond words were as moving and as eloquent as anything I've heard from astronauts. That's why I think NASA blew it decades ago when it canceled its Journalist In Space program shortly after Challenger. The space agency needed an independent voice, undistracted by official duties, to put audiences in touch with the violence of ripping the gravity envelope, with weightlessness, with the view, with beads of water floating from the end of a straw, all that. Fortunately, going forward, we will likely be inundated with perspectives far outside the vocabulary of technicians.
OE sounds like an ecstatic experience, and hallucinogens do the same thing and are much more accessible. There are some details, sure, cost for facilitation, medical, education, etc., but should we be quibbling at a time like this?
Mind blowing surely. Thanks you for informing and great first paragraph summary. Relatedly to what you say I once went to talk by Prof. David Luke of Greenwich University on how DMT "open doors" in the mind. It's been his field for years. The question is the reality of all the beings met and places people go (I get the impression real). I think all come back changed as we're talking about parallel realities being seen and "life" therein. I think it was John Mack who coined the term "ontological shock" for those having abduction events, so kind of similar - people realizing there's something bigger, controlling a bit and watching out there.
Perhaps the best example of an Overview Effect, or life changing transcendent experience in space I can think of is the late Edgar Mitchell. He called it samadhi. It sent him on a completely different kind of life journey.
😃😃😃😃
Eben Alexander's account of his own NDE gave me a new appreciation for Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper."
Maybe this isn't the time to raise the subject, but I happened to listen to a podcast on the abduction phenomena and the question was raised as to how a researcher determines a false memory from a true one.
A quick search located an article from 1998: False Memories and Confabulation by Marcia Johnson and Carol Raye. While quite technical, it indicated that we have no measuring stick against which to check reality (as true or false), while growing up our brains develop their own 'fact checking' gatekeepers when filing and recalling memories. Everyone can be tripped up.
The article naturally focused on individuals with diagnosed issues, where patients had confabulated a range of false memories (including a space pirate); but what it didn't explore was the effect of filtering out true information in error.
One could argue that 'open mindedness' is the most reasonable position for any topic where 'unknown' data continues to accumulate and a history of 'unknowns' remain, especially when (a subset of the) data are provided by good sources. Those who are close-minded, under such circumstances, may be cognitively impaired (in a mirror image to those who confabulate.)
It's interesting that people are searching for ways to mimic and evoke the Overview Effect - as it highlights the fallibility of the human brain to accurately differentiate between reality and illusion (assuming there is a difference, when science eventually works everything out).
For Ufology, it's a big problem because not only is it very difficult to obtain empirical evidence, but individuals who believe they have experienced something profound will have the same emotional response whether it was real or not.
While many UFO/UAP sightings go unreported, it may turn out that truly alien experiences are relatively rare. But it's definitely encouraging that so many people are open to the possibility. There's hope for us yet.
When I was in single digits, a cousin took me to see a "hermit" who lived in a literal log cabin without indoor plumbing. As I discovered much later, he was a former slave, and he lived to be 115 or 116 years old. A few years ago, I retraced my steps and got an interview with the woman whose father owned the property the old-timer lived on for as long as she could remember. I said, OK, so that was just over there on the other side of the highway, right? She said no, it's always been on this side. Well, I only met the guy once, so I was in no position to argue. Point being -- and I will take this image to my grave with me -- I distinctly remember the guy living on the opposite side of the highway. And I'm 100 percent wrong. But that's my memory.
If you got there and found the hermit had never existed, then we'd all be a bit more worried :)
Life wasn't pre-designed, according to theories of evolution, so it's an ongoing fudge; therefore we're doing pretty well, considering. Our brains followed the same pattern of development - the universe throws genes against the wall and waits to see what sticks.
At some point we started to suspect that we're not the only bodged bipeds in the universe and the others have likely been around a lot longer, keeping a low profile (for the most part) and acting covertly.
It's not like gravity or electrons were deceptive and found places to hide when experiments were conducted. 'Science' had it easy. Ufology may be unique in this respect.
I'm still trying to figure out what's real :)
If some form of multiverse exists then reality might be far more dynamic than we ever imagined. We might float around a larger reality propelled along by our intentions. This current crazy place we see and act within may be a brief diversion.
I sympathized with Shatner's valiant attempt to express the inexpressible. A period of reflection would have been better before shoving mics in his face. Transcendent experiences are often diminished when we try to put them into words, which can be not...really...accurate.
Just ask those who've had an NDE.
Agreed. On the other hand, I think Shatner's attempts to describe a vision beyond words were as moving and as eloquent as anything I've heard from astronauts. That's why I think NASA blew it decades ago when it canceled its Journalist In Space program shortly after Challenger. The space agency needed an independent voice, undistracted by official duties, to put audiences in touch with the violence of ripping the gravity envelope, with weightlessness, with the view, with beads of water floating from the end of a straw, all that. Fortunately, going forward, we will likely be inundated with perspectives far outside the vocabulary of technicians.
"Poetry... They should've sent a poet..." - Ellie Arroway (CONTACT)
Sagan definitely had a point.
All I can say, Captain Kirk: I feel you.
Jeff Bezos has offered you a seat. Would you go?
What Gino said.
Hell yes!
Play Powerball - just in case.