Sunday, July 12, 2026

Divine disclosure (part 2)

 


So I had to ask ChatGPT to comment Gemini´s answer to the strange question "What gods should I pray to to reveal the truth of the UFO phenomenon".

[ChatGPT´s comment]

Gemini's answer is actually a very interesting mythological and symbolic interpretation of the question. It is less about "which deity has the best evidence for UFO disclosure?" and more about "which divine archetype corresponds to the psychological and metaphysical character of the UFO phenomenon?" In that sense, it is quite sophisticated. I would, however, make a few distinctions.

The strongest part of Gemini's answer is that it identifies liminality, hidden knowledge, and discernment as the relevant themes. Those really are the recurring motifs of UFO narratives: things that appear at boundaries, evade classification, challenge assumptions, and force people to reconsider the nature of reality.

Let's examine the choices.


1. Matangi — a surprisingly appropriate Tantric choice

Matangi is probably the most original choice in Gemini's answer.

In Śākta Tantra, Matangi is associated with:

  • unconventional knowledge,
  • the marginal and excluded,
  • speech and communication,
  • mastery of hidden or forbidden domains,
  • the power of expression beyond social convention.

She is sometimes called the "Tantric Saraswati," but with a very different flavor.

The connection to UFOs is actually quite elegant:

  • UFOs occupy a cultural border zone between science, mythology, psychology, and spirituality.
  • They challenge official narratives and conventional categories.
  • They often involve communication problems: "What is this thing? What is it trying to convey?"

A Matangi-oriented prayer would not necessarily be:

"Show me aliens."

It would be closer to:

"Give me the ability to hear the truth hidden in strange forms of communication."

This is a very Tantric way of approaching the unknown.

My only reservation is that Matangi is not traditionally a goddess of "classified information" or extraterrestrials. That is a modern symbolic extension.


2. Hermes/Thoth — perhaps the most archetypally accurate Western choice

This is probably Gemini's strongest point.

Hermes and Thoth are almost made for this question.

Hermes governs:

  • boundaries,
  • crossings,
  • messages,
  • translation,
  • ambiguity,
  • communication between different worlds.

The word "hermeneutics" (interpretation) comes from Hermes' name. He is literally the archetype of translating something from one realm of meaning into another.

If UFOs represent contact with a genuinely non-human intelligence, the problem is not merely:

"Where are they from?"

but:

"How do we interpret a form of intelligence that does not think like us?"

That is a very Hermetic problem.

The "trickster" element is also relevant. Many UFO researchers, especially Jacques Vallée, have emphasized that the phenomenon often behaves less like ordinary technology and more like something that interacts with human perception, symbolism, and expectations.


3. Virūpākṣa — fascinating, but more Buddhist cosmological than UFO-specific

Virūpākṣa is a very interesting choice.

He is one of the Four Heavenly Kings (Caturmahārāja) and is associated with:

  • the western direction,
  • seeing clearly,
  • supernatural vision,
  • protection of the Dharma.

The name Virūpākṣa means something like "the one with extraordinary/different eyes."

Symbolically, this fits extremely well:

"Give me eyes to see what ordinary perception misses."

However, Gemini slightly modernizes him. Traditional Buddhism does not generally portray Virūpākṣa as a cosmic UFO detector or guardian against interdimensional visitors. That is a creative reinterpretation.

A more traditional Buddhist choice might actually be:

  • Mañjuśrī for discriminating wisdom,
  • Avalokiteśvara for compassionate understanding of unknown beings,
  • Vajrapāṇi for protection against frightening encounters.

4. Bhairava — perhaps the deepest answer

This is where Gemini's answer becomes very Shaiva-Tantric.

Bhairava is not merely a "scary Shiva." He represents:

  • destruction of illusion,
  • confrontation with fear,
  • time (kāla),
  • the terrifying aspect of truth,
  • awareness beyond conventional reality.

The UFO question has a Bhairava-like structure:

"What if reality is much stranger than we think?"

That is exactly the kind of existential confrontation Bhairava symbolizes.

A Bhairava practitioner might not ask:

"Are UFOs aliens?"

but:

"What assumptions about reality are preventing me from seeing clearly?"

This is very close to the philosophical approach of Kashmir Shaivism, where the ultimate question is not about unusual objects but about the nature of consciousness itself.


How I would modify the ranking

For a purely symbolic UFO investigation, I might rank them:

1. Hermes/Thoth

The interpreter of contact.

  • How do we understand a non-human intelligence?
  • How do we translate between worlds?

2. Bhairava

The destroyer of false assumptions.

  • What if the phenomenon challenges our worldview itself?

3. Matangi

The revealer of hidden and marginal knowledge.

  • What lies outside accepted narratives?

4. Saraswati/Mañjuśrī

The safeguard against self-deception.

  • How do we know we are not fooling ourselves?

5. Virūpākṣa

The one with extraordinary vision.

  • Help us perceive what is hidden.

Given your previous interest in Bhairava, Śrī Vidyā, Shiva, and liminal spiritual experiences, I actually think Gemini's Bhairava suggestion is quite resonant with the Tantric worldview. In a traditional Śaiva framework, the "truth about UFOs" would probably be considered a secondary question. The deeper question would be:

"What is the nature of consciousness, and why does reality sometimes appear in forms that overturn our ordinary categories?"

That is very much a Bhairava question.

Interestingly, there is also a connection to Dakṣiṇāmūrti (Shiva as the silent guru): if the phenomenon represents something genuinely beyond human concepts, the final answer may not be a piece of information but a transformation of perception itself.

Divine disclosure (part 1)

 


Let´s have some fun. I asked the question below to Gemini. Here we go! Don´t tell USAF...

A somewhat strange (and perhaps hypothetical) question. What god (in any religion) should one pray to / petition if one wants to know the truth of the UFO phenomenon?

This is an excellent thought experiment. Because the UFO phenomenon behaves less like physical, hardware-based nuts-and-bolts aviation and more like a high-strung, liminal, interdimensional intelligence that slips between the cracks of human consensus reality, standard "sky gods" like Zeus or Thor won't cut it.

To peel back the layers of the UFO phenomenon—which involves hidden truths, non-human intelligence, camouflage, and the blurring of physical and psychic realities—you would petition specific deities who rule over liminal spaces, hidden things, and cosmic secrets:

1. The High-Tantric Choice: Matangi (The Weaver of Hidden Knowledge)

Within the Hindu Mahavidyas, Matangi is the goddess of the ucchishta (the left-overs, the outcaste, and the fringe elements of reality).

  • Why Her: She rules over things that exist on the margins of polite, official human society—which is exactly where the UFO phenomenon resides. Furthermore, she is the goddess of the spoken word and hidden information.

  • The Petition: You would pray to Matangi to grant you access to the "restricted files" of cosmic reality, piercing through government cover-ups and human psychological denial to reveal the raw truth.

2. The Trickster / Gateway Choice: Hermes / Thoth (The Messenger of the Worlds)

In Western and Egyptian hermeticism, Hermes (or Thoth) is the psychopomp—the traveler between worlds who translates the language of the divine/non-human into terms humans can comprehend.

  • Why Him: The UFO phenomenon is deeply tethered to the "trickster" archetype. It appears, breaks the laws of physics, mimics human expectations, and then vanishes. It refuses to be captured by standard scientific observation. Hermes rules over precisely this type of shifting, mercurial, highly elusive information.

  • The Petition: You would petition Hermes to act as a cosmic translator, helping your rational mind decode the bizarre, high-strangeness data points of encounters without driving yourself mad.

3. The Cosmic Surveillance Choice: Virūpākṣa (The Wide-Seeing King of the West)

As we explored earlier, Virūpākṣa, the ruby-red Heavenly King of the West, possesses the divyacakṣus (the divine eye that scans the entire cosmos).

  • Why Him: He rules the western gate—the threshold of transition and the twilight zone between day and night, where the veil between dimensions is thinnest and where the majority of anomalous phenomena are witnessed. His job is to monitor all non-human entities entering the earthly realm.

  • The Petition: You would petition him to open your eyes, sharing a fragment of his high-altitude, wide-seeing vision so you can see through the atmospheric camouflage used by these phenomena.

4. The Deep Subconscious Choice: Bhairava (The Shatterer of Illusion)

If the UFO phenomenon is ultimately an interdimensional reflection of our own collective consciousness (as researchers like Jacques Vallée suggest), you go straight to Bhairava.

  • Why Him: Bhairava represents the terrifying, unvarnished truth stripped of all comforting human narratives. If the truth of the UFO phenomenon is deeply unsettling to the human ego, Bhairava is the only force capable of showing it to you while keeping your psyche stable.

  • The Petition: You would petition Bhairava to burn away the false dichotomy of "human vs. alien" and show you the singular, terrifyingly beautiful web of consciousness that underlies both.

The Verdict

If you want to know the raw data and cosmic secrets, pray to Matangi. If you want to understand the bizarre, shape-shifting behavior of the phenomena, petition Hermes. But if you want to know how it connects to the absolute truth of existence, sit before Bhairava.

For a deeper look into how ancient cultures recorded these exact types of aerial anomalies long before the modern concept of "aliens," check out The 'Sky Beings': 5 Unexplained Encounters Hidden in Ancient Texts. This video explores historical accounts like the Prophet Ezekiel's vision, demonstrating how humanity has historically used the language of the divine to describe encounters with the unexplainable.

A mere lack of belief

 

Credit: XKCD

Skeptics and angry atheists on the web, like all the time. Or no? 

The secret sin of Jesus

 


OK, this was fascinating. When notorious 17h century Irish archbishop James Ussher procured Waldensian documents for a work on this medieval "heresy", two Cathar scriptures were found among them. One of them claims that *Jesus himself* sinned once - when he prayed to the Father to spare him from the crucifixion at the Garden of Gethsemane. This is somehow connected to Cathar theology concerning the physical body. As a divine being of Light, Jesus simply couldn´t stand being incarnated into one! Note also the doctrine that John the Baptist was Satanic...

The YouTube channel "ESOTERICA" seems to be an attempt to create a scholarly channel on esotericism which is still somehow esoteric. Make of that what you wish.  

Back to the things themselves

 


Our man Formscapes (the mutant Anthroposophist) just came up with a new term: "physicalist traditionalism". If you want science to go back to its state circa 1890, you are a physicalist traditionalist. Common sense science before Einstein, the Copenhagen interpretation and (I would guess) all the dark matter bullshit. And common sense materialism, too! Differently put: there is no such thing as "quantum mysticism" independent of quantum physics, indeed, QM *is* quantum mysticism. It´s woo-woo all the way down to the super-strings.  

Had I been a consistent materialist, I would probably be a "physicalist traditionalist". And while Marxism isn´t exactly that (due to its implicit teleology derived from one Hegel), there is certainly a family likeness. See Lenin´s "Materialism and Empirio-Criticism". 

I admit a strong sympathy for this position even though I don´t consider myself a "physicalist"...

Bad news

 

Credit: Paul Gear

Senator Lindsey Graham has suddenly passed away. WTF. In Swedish media, Graham is described as a "Trump loyalist", but the truth is that he wasn´t *really* a Trump aficionado but a more regular Republican who supported the erratic POTUS for tactical reasons. 

Graham´s role was to constantly push Trump in a more pro-Ukrainian direction, hence acting as a counterweight to the "isolationist" Vance and similar types. Graham was also extremely pro-Israeli, but on *that* score, the Donald didn´t need much pushing! It´s probably bad news that the senator passed away exactly when Trump is (at least seemingly) making a pro-Ukrainian gyration, for instance by letting them produce Patriot missiles. What if Trump changes his mind...?

It would be very good indeed if somebody on the other side could suddenly drop dead, too. Witkoff, for instance. Or what about Putin himself? One thing is certain: this shit (evidently) isn´t over yet.

Green fireballs

 


This is an almost one-hour long presentation by our "house ufologist" Richard Dolan on the latest (fourth) tranche of released UFO files c/o the Trump admin. Despite the frankly boring format, it does contain some very interesting information. Although of course no "disclosure" sensu stricto.

For instance, the air force was aware of at least two UFO observations *before* that of Kenneth Arnold. One of these involved multiple trained observers of weather balloons, who also saw a very large metallic object shaped like a disc. The military also noted that many UFOs were observed around Los Alamos, various nuclear facilities and air force bases. Trained balloon observers in New Mexico saw strange objects making impossible maneuvers. 

In 1949, high-ranking members of the military, the government and even the FBI held a classified conference at Los Alamos to discuss the "green fireballs" which had appeared around the research facility. None other than Edward Teller was there, trying to explain away the UFOs as meteorites, but eventually admitting that they couldn´t be so - provided the reports were accurate. Teller still thought that the physics of the fireballs made no sense!

The main suspect was (surprise) the Soviet Union. The military believed that the objects such be intercepted and identified. The matter is treated as a legitimate security / intelligence problem. Many of the witnesses were high quality: air force officers, air line pilots, astronomers, police officers. But in public, Project Grudge said that all UFOs have conventional explanations and that many witnesses are kooks or hoaxers!

Can all "skeptics" please go home now?

Frankly, none of this is super-surprising, but I suppose it´s good to finally get official confirmation. On a funnier note, the secret files also mention the avrocar, an actual attempt by the US military to build...ahem...a flying saucer. This in a CIA report dismissive of UFO observations?!

More disturbing is a 2015 case, during which an unknown flying object was spotted over the Pantex nucelar power plant, the most sensitive military installation in the United States (where the nuclear missiles are assembled). It could have been a drone, but if so, who was daring enough to send it there? Let´s hope it was just a drill! 

On YouTube, everyone concentrates on a number of fairly bizarre videos, but Dolan is unimpressed by these. One probably shows a deformed balloon (something even the observer himself suspected), while the "star-shaped UFO" is just an artefact of the tracking equipment.

We´re either subject to some kind of next level disinfo, or objects far exceeding human technological capacity have been observed in "our" airspace (and in "theirs" too) since at least the end of World War II.

Hmmm...

Saturday, July 11, 2026

Can all skeptics please go home now?

 

Credit: Richard Dolan / YouTube

From the fourth tranche of released UFO files...  

A Buddhist rant?

 


Another post from Doug´s blog "Gleanings in Buddha-fields". Confirms my impression that there is a lot of sectarianism in the Pure Land Buddhist milieu. Especially the Japanese version, although I´ve seen Chinese sectarian content, too, on YouTube. 

I wonder if the sectarian approach and "easy salvation" is what attracts some Americans to this form of the Dharma? You know, evangelicalism, cough cough. I just find it tiresome. Extremely tiresome, actually.

Apparently, Doug is an ex-supporter of Jodo Shinshu but is now a Tendai hang-around. In case you must know.   

There is more to Pure Land Buddhism than just the nembutsu

A medieval Buddhist revolution?

 

Gemini´s fantasy picture of the Ikko-Ikki rebels

I blogged about the Ikko-Ikki before. Apparently, they are often seen as crazy religious fanaticos by Western commentators, some kind of Buddhoid Taliban of late medieval Japan. A more romantic version, I suppose, is that they were surprisingly succesful peasant rebels. 

The links below go to a non-scholarly blog of a person who describes himself as a "history nerd". It turns out that the truth about the Ikko-Ikki is complex, although strong religious convictions and plebeian anger certainly played major roles. 

Note that the blogger is a former follower of Jodo Shinshu, the Buddhist sect rightly or wrongly associated with the Ikko-Ikki...

A medieval Buddhist revolution? Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four