From a Hoodoo channel on YouTube.
Saturday, April 27, 2024
Ignorance is strength
Ministry of Truth commissioner explains...something. Or something else. Word salad with totalitarian implications? Or just world salad?
This woman used to be the CEO of Wikipedia, and is now the CEO of the NPR.
Viral just now.
Latinx neo-dinosaurs?
| Real neo-dinosaurs from the Amazon |
Some mystifications. Neo-dinosaurs in Latin America?
Cajones
Somewhat surprisingly, the Xwitter troll Richard Hanania actually says some interesting things in this article on why a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is unlikely (albeit not impossible).
Too gay to rebel?
As usual, it´s difficult to know whether this guy is merely trolling, or if there is something serious beneath it all. And how does he explain the pro-Hamas Muslim students? Are they also "gay"?
Friday, April 26, 2024
Gottes Wille
The article linked below is from 2005, but was recently referenced on X. Apparently, Tucker Carlson said something positive about the Amish on Joe Rogan Show recently, and now the knives are out...
From the article:
>>>But their children have medical conditions so rare, doctors don't have names for them yet, reports correspondent Vicki Mabrey. The Amish make up only about 10 percent of the population in Geagua County in Ohio, but they're half of the special needs cases. Three of the five Miller children, for example, have a mysterious crippling disease that has no name and no known cure.
>>>The three Byler sisters were all born with a condition that has no cure and mysteriously leads to severe mental retardation and a host of physical problems. Last year, doctors figured out the girls have the gene for something called Cohen Syndrome; there are only 100 known cases worldwide. Since then, more than a dozen other cases of Cohen's have been discovered in Ohio Amish country.
>>>But for so many years, the Amish have had no names for these disorders. It was simply a mystery why half the headstones in Amish cemeteries were headstones of children.
Comrades, listen to the FBI
FBI fears that White supremacists may team up with Islamist terrorists. Is this the way to make the left anti-Islamist? They already hate Andrew Tate, so who knows!
Xwitter
I´ve been locked out of X for a couple of months (my fault), but I recently managed to log in again and guess what guyz...nothing much have changed.
The big things this week is the Ukraine aid package and Joe Rogan´s interview with Tucker Carlson, with the latter saying some really crazy shit about UFOs, creationism and the Amish.
But who knows, maybe Tucker is right about the UFOs!
It´s OK to say gay
Stephen Miller was one of Donald Trump´s most extreme appointees, so I somehow doubt that he is pro-gay. Yet, he can´t help using the gay/lesbian issue in a recent statement on transgenderism.
Miller makes the point that transgender ideology actually targets gays and lesbians (and their powerful lobby groups) in favor of a myriad of entirely new and arbitrary "identities", which will then be "administered" (and defined?) by the federal government apparatus.
He isn´t entirely wrong. Lesbians have long felt targeted by the transgender ideology. How long before gays will be the next group? Unless they embrace the new Social Justice (?!) gospel, of course...
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Where is the teleology?
| Synapsids born to rule? |
Previously posted on April 11, 2023. Reposted here a propos a recent ironic post about "non-avian" dinosaurs...
Synapsids were the dominant land animals during the Permian, only to be replaced by the sauropsids during the Mesozoic. Then, after an unfortunate meteorite impact, synapsids became dominant again.
Humans are synapsids. So are all other mammals (of course) and various groups considered ancestral to mammals, or closely related to them. Reptiles and birds are sauropsids.
In other words, synapsids and sauropsids have alternated as the dominant land animals for the past 300 million years or so.
So where is the teleology? Asking for a friend named Ashtar Command.
Have no fear, earthlings
A propos the doomeritis surrounding the green full moon. Have no fear, earthlings, it´s just the Buddha´s enlightenment day!
Mean Green...Moon
This was presumably posted back in 2016, but a similar rumor was spread just the other day or so! Compare blood moon, rare blue supermoon, and whatever whenever.
Hangover after the solar eclipse, guys?
Alyoshenka
This Russian story (or perhaps tall tale) is fascinating for one reason: the way it´s open to several completely different interpretations, each one just as "logical" as the others.
The Japanese film team - clearly inspired by US and Latin American UFO-alien lore - expected the strange "Alyoshenka" creature to be an extraterrestrial entity of some kind. The local population, on the other hand, connected it to folklore about "the Little People", presumably trolls or fairies.
The narrator, finally, claims that it must have been a mutant fetus badly damaged by radioactivity. Not impossible, to be sure, but also a kind of modern folklore where every strange birth defect can be attributed to the "mysterious" forces of nuclear power or ditto explosions...
The third time as burlesque
After Queers for Palestine, we now have Drag Queens for Palestine. We´re being burlesqued in real time. But sure, the left and the feminists (and perhaps even the Muslims) are being burlesqued even more!
Tartan Muslims?
| Picts on the march towards the Wall. Hate speech? |
It´s not going very well for the Scottish National (!) Party and its Muslim (?) First Minister...
Scotland: Less than 1% hate speech reports deemed legitimate
Första månaden i NATO
Har vi verkligen inte viktigare problem? Men okej, den hamitiske debattören verkar vara assimilerad. Av woke-vänstern...
Observera sammanhanget: ingen kallade honom "neger". Han reagerar på att ordet uttalas *under en debatt om själva ordet*. Och Aftonbladet försvarar honom...
Debattören lämnade efter n-ordet: "Flashback-liknande"
Det var hennes jobb att säga ifrån mot n-ordet
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
HA HA HA
This is only a preview, but it seems the biggest controversialist on YouTube, crankster-prankster Edward Dutton, had to disable the commentary function on this one!
For a moment, I thought he was losing his sting, but apparently not.
Ascension to INNER Earth
Peter Mount Shasta (Peter Mt. Shasta) is not only a spiritual teacher in
the I AM tradition actually living in the town of Mount Shasta, California. He
is also a UFO contactee. I previously linked to a video in which he claimed to
have met Semjasse (as he spells her name), the alien female from the Pleiades mostly
associated with Billy Meier.
In this interview, Peter continues his story. If I read him right, Semjasse
took him on a tour through the Hollow Earth by an entrance at the North Pole.
Admiral Byrd is explicitly mentioned. There is an apocalyptic undertone in the
interview, Peter claiming to have heard a prophecy by Ascended Master Saint
Germain that cataclysmic events will make it necessary to evacuate the Earth
surface. However, the chosen ones will not be beamed up to spaceships, but
rather taken to the interior of the planet, which is paradise-like, these
conditions being the result of the Inner Earth vibrating on a higher frequency.
One intriguing feature of Peter Mount Shasta´s message is that it sounds
less negative than similar channeled messages about an impending “world
evacuation”. Everyone is called upon to meditate and cleanse their karma,
forgive their enemies, and in general spread compassion and light around. By
thus avoiding negative energy, more people can perhaps be saved from the
destruction at the last moment.
In the second clip, Peter shows pictures of the UFO-shaped clouds around
Mount Shasta (the actual mountain), claims that the aliens created us, and discusses
the recent “disclosure” in Washington DC.
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Ufological Euhemerism
“`Ancient Astronaut´ Narrations: A Popular Discourse on Our Religious
Past” is an article by Andreas Grünschloss, first published in the Marburg
Journal of Religion in 2006 (vol 11, no 1). The article does contain some interesting
information on Erich von Däniken and the Ancient Astronaut milieu, although I
suppose it´s possible that aficionados (or critics) of said milieu knows
everything already! The main thesis of the article is familiar to me, however.
The author points out the seemingly paradoxical fact that while the ancient
astronaut “theory” could be seen as a “broken myth”, in the sense that it
de-enchants and explains the mysteries of the past in terms of modern
technology and humanoid space-farers, it has also re-enchanted the very same
past and made it mysterious again. The “discovery” that humanity´s gods are
really alien astronauts is turned around, making the aliens the new gods!
Däniken´s supporters organized themselves in the Ancient Astronaut Society
(AAS). I´ve heard somewhere that AAS later developed in a New Age direction. This
is not confirmed by Grünschloss, who claims the exact opposite. In order to
sound more “scientific” and respectable, the AAS changed its name to Archeology,
Astronautics and SETI Research Association (AAS RA). The author doesn´t seem to
have noticed that Ra is also the Egyptian sun-god, so perhaps there is a pun in
there. The membership of the AAS back in 2006 was surprisingly small: only
about 800 members worldwide, of which about 600 were from German-speaking
nations in Europe. However, the influence of ancient astronaut “theory” must
have been far wider, since Däniken had managed to open a theme park in
Interlaken in Switzerland dedicated to his ideas (the town is a popular tourist
destination). Add to that various popular Hollywood films. Today, there is also
the popular TV series “Ancient Aliens”.
One thing I wasn´t aware of is that Charles Hoy Fort wrote about UFOs
decades before the term was coined and the phenomenon “really” born. He also
speculated about alien visitations in the past, and wrote that humans might be
somebody else´s “property”. Däniken is of course well aware of Fort, and also
borrowed extensively from a French archeo-astronaut writer named Charroux.
Grünschloss believes that one can discern clear similarities between the books of
Däniken and the two aforementioned writers.
The AAS tries to put themselves forward as scientific, as a kind of
Paleo-SETI. Needless to say, the article author isn´t terribly impressed by
their “research”. Däniken and his associates simply repeat, over and over
again, all the old claims from the 1960´s and 1970´s, including those that have
been convincingly debunked (like the Mayan “astronaut” from Palenque). I also
get the impression that Däniken is strongly down-playing the more “esoteric”
side of his speculations, which include a belief in extrasensory perception and
an interest in Theosophy. Instead, he says that “everything is technology”. The
AAS, while criticizing establishment science for policing its boundaries against
the likes of AAS, engage in boundary policing themselves. The group strongly
condemns “UFO cults”. The author also wonders why the only aspect of modernity
projected onto the ancient aliens is technology. Why not something else? I
assume he has in mind such things as politics or social relations. What attracts
followers to speculations about ancient aliens is precisely their simplicity,
alongside a longing for the exotic and mysterious. Opposition to establishment
science is (of course) also a strong driving motive.
The author then briefly discusses the bizarre Raëlian religion as an
example of the esoteric-religious tendency within ancient astronaut discourse. What
makes the Raëlians to peculiar is precisely that they are nominally “atheist” and
“materialist”, deconstructing the ancient gods as humanoid space aliens, while
nevertheless being a new religion worshipping said aliens. The author ends on a
somewhat pessimistic note, arguing that it´s difficult to convince adherents of
ancient astronaut “theory” with purely rational arguments. Ancient alien
conspiracies will always be more exciting and easier to understand than
traditional religion or the complex theories of science. The continued
proliferation of this narrative has proven the author correct.
El Bandido Generoso
An interesting YouTube clip about Jesús Malverde, the supposed "narco saint" of Mexico. His real history (or mythology) turns out to be more complex. As usual!
Non-avian kind
They were big, they were bad, they were the dominant life form on land for 134 million years...and now they´re gone. In fact, they´ve been gone for 66 million years.
But we can beat them to it, right? Right.
The problematic problematique
Breitbart News are trolling the Greens. They are not wrong, though. Opposition to mass immigration (and overpopulation) used to be a thing in the environmentalist movement. At least in the United States.
Monday, April 22, 2024
Anti-Krists mirakler
En mycket bisarr sekt i USA och Latinamerika. Något slags framgångsteologi, fast med väldigt egenartade och delvis självdestruktiva drag.
Inför offensiven
Ryssland planerar en sommaroffensiv i Ukraina. Under tiden i NATO-landet Sverige...
Perpetuum mobile
The first time I heard about the above conspiracy theory (?) was during the 1980´s, when I listened to a Hare Krishna broadcast at the public access channel.
I´m skeptical, since the US military-industrial complex surely would want a source of free energy to beat the Russians or Chinese...
Make of this material what ye wish.
Time out of joint
Not sure what this even means. If light would be conscious, it would experience a 100 billion year-journey throughout the universe as happening in one instant? But the journey would *still* take 100 billion years.
I think...
Now, apply the above to God, a being OUTSIDE time and space.
Das Kleinod von Babylon
“The Occult Roots of Religious Studies”, edited by Yves Mühlematter and
Helmut Zander, is a scholarly volume published in 2021. It´s interesting, to be
sure, but the title is (frankly) click bait. (The subtitle is more correct: “Influence
of Non-Hegemonic Currents in Academia around 1900”.) The contributors don´t
really prove that religious studies have occult roots, and frankly don´t even
try. I get the impression of a comfy scholarly conference where everyone made a
presentation on their favorite obscure topic, had a quick snack in the bar, and
then went home to Paris, Heidelberg, or wherever these people have their
domicile! What the book proves is simply that many scholars of religion had “non-hegemonic”
side interests. In plain English: they actually believed in Spiritualism,
occultism, and the like. But that´s hardly news today. A more edgy volume
(which will have to wait another 50 years) would detail which scholars *today*
have religious connections and how that influences their academic research
(Tibetology cough cough). It´s also somewhat weird that the two biggest fish in
the occult/religious studies interface pond are hardly even mentioned. Yes,
that would be Carl Gustav Jung and Mircea Eliade. Oh, and what about Henry
Corbin?
But sure, “The Occult Roots of Religious Studies” isn´t bad, if you take
it in the right spirit (pun intended). The chapter on Britain shows that both
the Victorian and Edwardian periods were steeped in occultism, indeed,
occultism (at least in the broad sense) was near-respectable. Even after the
separation of science and “superstition”, many scientists were interested in
Theosophy and Spiritualism on a purely personal level. So nah, Alfred Russell
Wallace wasn´t unique. Chances are *Darwin* was! One thing that surprised me
was that some Theosophists were members of the SPR even *after* the latter´s
conflict with Madame Blavatsky. And SPR´s social base was near-upper class! The
scientist Sir William Crookes, inventor of the TV tube and discoverer of
Thallium, was a President of the SPR, a former President of the Royal Society
and…a member of the Theosophical Society. He is even mentioned in the Mahatma
Letters! It was also interesting to note that US philosopher William James was more
into Spiritualism than I had expected, and that he was the son of a
Swedenborgian minister…
One interesting chapter deals with John Woodroffe alias Arthur Avalon. Or
perhaps not, since “Arthur Avalon” was really a collective pseudonym,
encompassing both Woodroffe and a number of Bengali intellectuals. I never read
Avalon´s works (an unfortunate lacuna, I know), but we´re apparently talking about
a very late “reform” Tantra, paradoxically proposed to save India and Hinduism
from modernity, while simultaneously claiming to be “scientific”. And speaking
of India: one contribution deals with W Y Evans-Wentz, the man behind “The
Tibetan Book of the Dead” and a lifelong Theosophist, who never left his occult
ideas very far behind. He even saw evidence of reincarnation and other Theosophical
doctrines in Celtic fairy lore!
The most intriguing section isn´t even about a scholar of religious
studies sensu stricto: the famous German archeologist Walter Andrae. It turns
out that his Babylonian exhibition at the Pergamonmuseum in Berlin (the one
featuring the Ishtar Gate) is inspired by Anthroposophy! Apparently, Andrae
both arranged and interpreted the exhibition according to doctrines he picked
up from the Christian Community, the Anthroposophical “Church” founded by
Friedrich Rittelmeyer under the inspiration of Rudolf Steiner. Apparently, it´s
supposed to resemble an initiatory path. This also explains a weird anomaly in
the exhibition: its two sphinxes aren´t Babylonian but Hittite. Yet, Andrae
assumed that there simply must have been sphinxes present based on some hard-to-understand
Anthroposophical doctrine. Indeed, Andrae believed that the Babylonians were
carrying out a ritual created by a certain Zaratos, an earlier incarnation of
Zarathustra, and the spiritual teacher of Nebuchadnezzar II. There are also
speculations that the exhibition halls were painted according to
Anthroposophical principles, Steiner having a complex theory of color supposedly
derived from Goethe. While this is all very interesting, what conclusions are
we supposed to draw from it? For instance, why did Andrae get away with it? Was
it *only* because of his elevated position at an important institution, or did his
take on ancient Babylon speak to some more widespread Zeitgeist?
The introduction to the volume does make some points worth pondering. For
instance, it asks whether esotericism or occultism is really “non-hegemonic” to
begin with? If a worldview is widely shared and discussed in elite society,
isn´t it really hegemonic? Further, the introduction points out that the nouns “occultism”
and “esotericism” are modern inventions and become common during the late 19th
century. Why? What made it necessary to distinguish occultism/esotericism from
everything else during that period? Many of the ideas co-existing under those
headers are, after all, much older. Protestant theologians apparently started
denouncing esoteric ideas much earlier than Catholics. It struck me that this
may explain why many esoteric groups are drawn to Catholicism and even end up
creating a kind of pseudo-Catholicism themselves. Conversely, there doesn´t
seem to be any esoteric groups obviously drawn to Protestantism, albeit more
Protestants than we imagine may have been influenced by “heretical” esoteric
ideas.
With that observation, I close this little discussion.
Sunday, April 21, 2024
If only Ukraine was in Judea...
On a day like this, I feel nothing but contempt for the likes of Breibart News, who oppose aid to Ukraine but support Israel 110%. I support both. What Breitbart think they are doing is less clear. I assume that they are trying to cater both to Old Testament-thumping Evangelo-Cons and isolationist Paleo-Cons at the same time. As I said, contemptible.
Betrayal complete: Mike Johnson passes 61 billion dollar Ukraine aid
But 61 billion dollars for Israel is OK, right?
Democrat Gerry Connolly: "Ukrainian-Russian border is our border"
But the Israeli borders actually are our borders.
Democrats wave Ukraine flag on House floor
The Republicans should wave the Israeli flag instead!
Ukraine´s Zelensky personally thanks Mike Johnson for 61 billion dollar gift from US taxpayers
But I´m sure if Netanyahu personally thanked Johnson for any handouts of taxpayer money, that would be OK?
Saturday, April 20, 2024
WE CONTROL EVERYTHING
| - Welcome, seeker, let me teach you comparative religion! |
Two quotes from the introduction to "The Occult Roots of Religious Studies" (2021), edited by Yves Mühlematter and Helmut Zander. The entire book seems to be available free at Academia.edu, so I might read all of it when I get the time. Another contribution to the genre "everyone was really an occultist", apparently. Bingo!
>>>For example, the anthroposophical milieu has not been researched sufficiently. One could think of the anthroposophist Uno Donner, a Finnish industrialist, who donated a chair for religious and cultural history to the University of Turku/Åbo and and also donated/held one of the largest book collections on religion in Northern Europe.
>>>Another would be the German Diether Lauenstein, priest of the Christian Community, who learned Sanskrit from the Marburg indologist Johannes Nobel, habilitated (presumably) in 1944 at the University of Greifswald, where he subsequently received a teaching assignment for Indo-European Studies and Sanskrit. He was involved in the founding of the Herdecke community hospital (a nucleus of the University of Witten-Herdecke) and died as a supporter of apartheid in South West Africa (modern-day Namibia). We thank Robin Schmidt for the clues.
(...)
>>>However, this problem is not specific to representatives of the cultural sciences; rather, these blurred boundaries can also and especially be found in the “hard” natural sciences, where an even clearer distinction between science and pseudo-science, or religious studies, is often assumed.
>>>Such examples include Marie Curie, who not only stood in the laboratory, but also attended spiritual seances, or Albert Einstein, who was not only a theorist in the field of physics, but also read Blavatsky and attended lectures by Rudolf Steiner.
>>>Georg Cantor, the inventor of set theory in mathematics, who was interested in both Catholic theories of infinity and the existence of the “true” Rosicrucians, may be added to this group, along with the mathematician Jan Arnoldus Schouten, the explorer of differential geometry, who was also interested in Theosophy, or Thomas Alva Edison, who not only invented the light bulb and the two-way telegraph, but was also a temporary member of Theosophical Society Adyar (partly for economic reasons, e.g. to better sell his products in India?).
>>>The separation between the humanities and the natural sciences, which was established in university practice – though always criticised in theory of science – never disappeared on an individual level.
Being awkward
These guys talk too much, and this isn´t *the* most exciting content around, but if you can spare 45 minutes or so - and are obsessed with all things JW-related - I suppose it could be of some passing interest.
Michael Jackson was a former Jehovah´s Witness, and the first clip deals with his first Christmas at Neverland c/o Liz Taylor. The second clip comments a line in song by Taylor Swift, attacking the old fashioned dressing style of the JW´s.
Enjoy!
Bush & Brianna
Anti-Gamergate hero(ine) Brianna Wu seems to have been disavowed by the left.
The main reason is presumably her support for Israel against Hamas, but perhaps there are deeper disagreements in the background.
In the unlikely case that you like flame wars that will be forgotten next year...
Internationellt vatten
Svaret ingen vill höra
Tänk om det finns ett svar, men ett svar ingen vill höra? Skribenten verkar i vart fall inte ha några alls. Anmärkningsvärd kulturkrönika i Aftonbladet.
IQ
Ingvar Persson har ju alltid varit en härligt senildement ledarskribent, men nu har han nog överträffat sig själv. Såvida inte detta är något slags väldigt svårbegriplig ironi...
Från Aftonbladet. Om sanningen ska fram.
Friday, April 19, 2024
The biggest secret
Overheard on the web: Mahayana is a death cult disguised as a life cult, Vajrayana is a life cult disguised as a death cult!
Amazingly high
This must be the craziest druggie on YouTube, a guy who calls himself "The Amazing Atheist". His arguments are the usual ones, but his way of putting them forward...LOL. And yes, he has almost one million followers?!
Only in America
The latest conservative moral panic, or the most recent outburst of Woke nihilism? Or just an April Fool´s joke that came a bit too late?
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Fairy aliens
Staffan Stigsjöö´s book “Tefatsfolket – vänner eller fiender?” contains
a number of UFO experiences that predates Kenneth Arnold´s famous observation in
1947. Two of the more interesting are Finnish.
In 1942, a schoolgirl in Finland had what can only be described as an abduction
experience. She encountered a female human-looking alien who led her inside a
strange “machine”. A boy had already been involuntarily taken onboard the
craft. He was hysterically screaming throughout the experience, while the girl
felt completely safe. The female alien told her that it´s important to believe
in Jesus, that his word is true, and that the human soul is eternal. So is the
universe. The alien apparently had maps on her table. After the experience, the
girl felt sick, couldn´t eat, went blind and was hospitalized, where the
doctors couldn´t find anything wrong with her. She was at the hospital for a
month and stayed home from school the entire semester. For a year afterwards,
she felt intense fear every time she approached the location of the “machine”.
The boy went mad and ended up in a mental asylum.
Another account deals with an event in 1939. It took place in Ingermanland
(Ingria), an area in the Soviet Union which at the time had a large Finnish
population. Two kids, aged three and four, were out walking in the forest and got
lost. They then observed a white “hat-shaped” object that hovered above ground.
A man dressed in a white outfit approached and told them that their parents
would soon find them. When the parents approached, the mysterious man withdrew
to the flying hat, which then disappeared. One of the witnesses later said that
she had interpreted the man as a guardian angel, but as an adult realized that
it must have been “a real person”.
Both these pre-1947 encounters were presumably reported to ufologists
after 1947, so one cannot rule out that they have been colored by the
post-Arnold UFO/alien hype. They are still fascinating, since they sound like
hybrids of modern UFO lore and pre-UFO folklore. The Finnish report has traits
of a fairy encounter, while the Ingrian report does sound like a meeting with an
angel. Which just shows us that we´re dealing with an evolving cultural phenomenon.
Fairy lore and folkish Christianity morphs into “alien abductions” and “UFO
observations”.
Unless it´s fairy glamour.
The lure of the fringe
Staffan Stigsjöö was a Swedish ufologist who wrote three almost “classical”
books about UFOs and aliens during the 1970´s: “Tefatsfolket ser oss”, “Tefatsfolket
– vänner eller fiender?” and “Tefatsfolket har landat!” Two mainstream Swedish
ufology groups, UFO-Sverige and AFU, apparently disavowed one of the books. I
originally assumed it was the third one, but after looking through them (I
actually have these rare gems in my private stash), I came to the conclusion
that it must have been the second book.
Yepp, it´s a bit fringey, alright.
The first and third books are pretty moderate as UFO books go,
especially the first one. Think ETH plus Däniken (yes, really – ancient aliens
were a moderate take during the 1970´s). By contrast, “Tefatsfolket – vänner eller
fiender?” (The Saucer People: Friends or Foes?) contains more radical takes, at
least by respectable Swedish standards. A similar book published in the United
States would presumably be considered rather bland! It was published in 1974.
Stigsjöö takes abduction stories and MIB reports seriously. He wonders
aloud whether Earth might be threatened by an alien invasion, and eventually reaches
the conclusion that several different alien civilizations are fighting over our
planet. Some of the factions are hostile, others are not. And while he rejects
the Theosophically-inspired contactees (and even wonders whether they are CIA
agents or dupes), he espouses an even more absurd scenario: some of the aliens
might be benign secular missionaries, who just like Che Guevara, Fidel Castro
and Ho Chi Minh dream of a better society…
Wtf?! Sounds like Stigsjöö would be prime material for recruitment by
the bizarre Posadists, who actually believed that the ufonauts were socialists!
It also reminds me of the Swedish comic “Ville” (originally published 1975-76) by
Jan Lööf, in which a UFO contactee writes pamphlets about socialist utopias instructed
to do so by wise and ecologically conscious space brothers. Going back to Stigsjöö
again, his book contains a chapter on overpopulation and the ecological crisis,
even briefly mentioning anthropogenic global warming. Some things haven´t
changed since 1974, it seems.
Stigsjöö also discusses the interface between ufology and what many today would call cryptozoology, wondering about Mothman (here called “birdman”) and Spring Heel Jack. Could they be animals left behind by the aliens? Forteana is also extensively discussed, such as worms falling from the sky. While rejecting George Adamski, Stigsjöö believes we should at least have an open mind towards John Keel and Charles Hoy Fort. He also discusses the Philadelphia Experiment and the Bermuda Triangle (plus a supposed similar triangle on land in Florida). His most original speculation is that the Man with the Iron Mask was actually a captured alien!
Stigsjöö somewhat notoriously claims that UFO researchers or contactees
often die on the 24th of a month (or around that date). Kenneth
Arnold´s original UFO observation was made on June 24, 1947. More suspiciously
still, many of the deaths are from heart attacks or suicides. It´s rumored that
Stigsjöö himself “snapped” after writing this book, believed himself to be
harassed by MIBs, and so on.
Somewhere in this strange collection of factoids, there are actually some interesting reports, including two “UFO cases” which happened before Arnold´s famous encounter in 1947. Both are Finnish, and sound like a strange blend between folkloric fairy encounters and alien ditto. One is even a kind of abduction case. I might return to these in a future blog post.
Somewhat ironically, I almost suspect that the more spiritually-inclined subsegment of the ufology milieu might have been more well-disposed to this book than the secular mainline ufologists Stigsjöö presumably wanted to be seen as part of. Ironic, since the spiritual contactees are the only UFO believers he very explicitly rejects!
Through the looking glass
“Tefatsfolket
ser oss” (The Saucer People See Us) is a classical Swedish UFO-logy book,
first published in 1973. It was reissued in 1980. The author, the late Staffan
Stigsjöö, wrote three books about the UFO phenomenon, and this one seems to be the
best. It could still have used much better editing, being somewhat eclectic and
“stream of consciousness”. It´s also badly sourced and doesn´t contain a single
footnote!
The book´s purpose is presumably to educate the reading public about the UFO phenomenon, and try to remove the stigma, ridicule and disinformation surrounding it. Stigsjöö believes in a nuts-and-bolts version of the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis. He is also open to Erich von Däniken´s speculations about ancient aliens. One of the main themes of the book is to debunk the Condon Committee, or rather the media reports about it, since Stigsjöö believes that the actual report was much more positive towards the existence of UFOs than the 20-page summary sent to the press.
According to Stigsjöö, 30% of UFO observations are unexplained. J Allen
Hynek and Jacques Vallee are prominently featured in the book. To give the UFO
question an air of respectability, the author often references scientists (including
astronomers), pilots and military personnel who either saw UFOs themselves or
recommended UFO research. The book also translates a remarkable speech by a Ugandan
diplomat before the UN General Assembly, demanding an international discussion about
UFOs and the responsibility in case a space ship from a UN member-state accidentally
damages an alien vessel.
Unsurprisingly,
“Tefatsfolket ser oss” discusses several Swedish UFO cases, including the Anten
case (a hoax according to mainstream media) and the weird case of “the Pollen
King” Gösta Carlsson. There is also a Finnish case involving humanoid aliens. The
author is extremely negative towards contactees, and dismisses their stories
out of hand. He dislikes both the (easily disproven) tales of travels to Venus
or Mars to meet aliens, and the religious message often associated with contactees.
One medium attacked in the book claimed to channel the Ashtar Command (we deny
responsibility).
Stigsjöö is extremely annoyed at both the Swedish military agency FOA and the US Air Force for their constant denials of the UFO phenomenon. He believes that material evidence, such as photos and debris, have been confiscated by the military in various nations. Does the US government know that the UFOs are real and extraterrestrial in origin? Stigsjöö isn´t entirely clear on the topic, vacillating between a conspiracy scenario and a more “moderate” explanation, the latter simply being that the officialdom are lazy and incapable of taking in the fantastic new reality of the saucer people. Nor is it entirely clear whether the author regards the UFOs/aliens as benign or hostile. He often mentions cases which at least imply a hostile intent, with witnesses being irradiated or burned. As for the conspiracy, its intent is to preserve society as we know it, since knowledge that we´re not alone might trigger a global panic. Or that´s at least what the establishment believes.
Stigsjöö later moved in a more problematic direction. One of his later books was apparently
disavowed by UFO-Sverige and AFU, the two leading ufology groups in Sweden. The
man had also become paranoid, claiming that strange visitations, break-ins and
noises had taken place in his flat. He feared being murdered and claimed to
know the truth about the UFOs and an upcoming public "first contact"
between aliens and humanity. This sounds
very familiar, somehow!
Going back to ”Tefatsfolket ser oss”, the most interesting chapters deal
with UFO observations before Kenneth Arnold´s classical observation of 1947. People
have “always” seen strange lights in the sky, and many of them have moved
around in a way strikingly similar to modern UFOs (and hence can´t be meteors
or comets). When the book was first published, many were smitten by Erich von Däniken,
but obviously *this* must be considered the weakest part of the book. People
seeing “UFOs” throughout history isn´t the same thing as human culture being
directly influenced by intelligent extraterrestrials, or the even wilder claim
that humans themselves are from other planets. In this section, Stigsjöö makes
a major gaffe, claiming that “Dzyan” is an ancient Indian holy book. Ahem, no,
the Stanzas of Dzyan are a modern apocryphon only known from Madame Blavatsky´s
“The Secret Doctrine”…
Perhaps Staffan Stigsjöö should have talked to the contactees, after
all. Jokes aside, “Tefatsfolket ser oss” is a nostalgic blast from the past,
when the UFO phenomenon looked much easier to solve…if you pretended the
contactees and abductees didn´t exist. Today, the phenomenon is even unwieldier
than before, and somewhat ironically, the “disclosure” of UFO information by
the US military only adds to its complexity. The most striking feature of the
situation in 2024 is how little progress has been made since 1973. We´re still
not any closer to solving the mystery.
Unless the answer has been staring us in the eyes all along: the saucer
people see us.
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Ukraina: den sista varningen?
Har västmedia *äntligen* övergivit den korkade propagandalinjen om att Putin "förlorade kriget på dag ett", att Mariupol var "Putins enda seger", att Nordkorea är Puttes enda allierade, att han i själva verket avlidit och ersatts av en dubbelgångare, et cetera?
Det var ju inte en sekund för tidigt, måste jag säga. Även om det ändå kan vara försent. För sanningen är ju inte helt enkelt att västvärlden är rädd för en upptrappning. Sanningen är att det är högst oklart om västmakterna ens *kan* utmana Ryssland i nuläget...
Västvärlden klarar inte ens av att stoppa sina inre fiender. Varför skulle den klara av att militärt besegra en yttre?
God´s advocate
Adapted from a previous blog post.
One of Yahweh´s enforcers in the OT is a certain Habyon or Haby. In pagan Ugarit, Habyon was a god of the netherworld depicted with two horns and a tail!
So one of God´s associates in the Bible looks like...the Devil?! Eh??!!
What am I supposed to do with this information???
God´s monsters
MythVision
Podcast strikes again, this time with a YouTube documentary titled “God´s MONSTERS in the Bible - The Shocking HIDDEN truth”. It turns out that Yahweh was (is?) surrounded by fierce
guardian angels, downright demonic creatures, and Satan himself! In other
words: like any self-respecting *pagan* deity. The cherubim and seraphim were
not angels as we think of them, but rather something akin to the wrathful
deities of, say, Hinduism and Buddhism. They were “good” in the sense that they
served God and protected him against various adversarial powers, but in order
to do so, they would have to be fierce and terrifying. The weird beings described
by Ezekiel is a case in point.
MythVision
interprets the two cherubim at the Ark of the Covenant in this light. They
protect the gateway between God and this world. In a sense, they don´t just
stop humans from reaching the divine, they also restrict God from entering our
world (presumably because it would be burned to cinder if he would be
completely unleashed). An alternative interpretation, of course, is that the
cherubim represent Yahweh himself together with his “wife” Ashera, the ancient
Israelite religion really being polytheist.
More terrifying
still are the literal demons who seem to work for Yahweh. Their existence is
covered up in modern Bibles by literal translations such as “pestilence” and “plague”.
Actually, these natural phenomena were personified and seen as members of God´s
retinue or army. It´s even possible to see them as a kind of demon-gods, since some
of them were based on pagan deities. Rephesh (Plague) was widely worshipped in
Egypt and the Levant. Habyon or Haby, mentioned twice in the Bible, was a
chthonic deity depicted with horns and a tail by the Ugaritic pagans. So one of
God´s hirdmen looks like the Devil?! What on earth am I supposed to do with
this information? There is also Barad (simply rendered “hail” in English
Bibles), a Syrian god of cold storms, but again also part of Yahweh´s host.
Oh, and
then there´s the Adversary, later known as Satan. He was originally part of
God´s heavenly court…
While
Christianity usually depicts Satan and the demons as evil (probably the result
of Zoroastrian influence on exilic and post-exilic Judaism), there are also
more “classical” traits in the New Testament. Satan is said to have God´s
permission to test the disciples of Jesus. At the end of days, Jesus appears together
with terrifying apocalyptic riders. They seem clearly modelled on the
demon-kings accompanying Yahweh. But *I´m sure* it´s all just allegorical,
right? Right.
MythVision is surely correct that the worldview of the Biblical authors and redactors was very different from ours – including most Christians in the Western world – and intensely supranaturalist. Their world truly was a demon-haunted one. It was brutal, too. But even if you interpret the Bible literally and hence accept all these monstrous beings working for God, awkward questions arise. What´s the difference between the Old Testament worldview and, say, Hinduism with its strange gods and goddesses. Yahweh comes across as an asura, or at best a deva surrounded by asuras. And can a true god of love really be the same creature as Yahweh? I get some kind of sympathies (again) for Marcion after watching “God´s monsters”. Both the material and the supernatural worlds were created by the Demiurge (a very powerful demon-king, perhaps?). The real god of pure love and compassion stands outside this bizarro universe altogether. Let him now step forward!
The incoherence of the theologians
The YouTube
clip above is a surprisingly good introduction to the life, philosophy and
(perhaps) mysticism of Muslim polymath Ibn Sina or Avicenna (980-1037). Unsurprisingly,
it turns out that Avicenna wasn´t a very orthodox Muslim, at least not in terms
of his philosophy. Rather, he was a Neo-Platonist.
His
philosophical argument for God´s existence (which sounds very familiar still
1000 years later) goes something like this: all composite things are caused by
another thing, the entire chain of composite things we call “the universe” must
therefore also have a cause, the ultimate cause of everything must be simple. And
that´s what we call God. Or rather: that´s not really the god of classical
theism, but The One of Plotinus (whose ideas were known in the Islamic world
through a paraphrase called “The Theology of Aristotle”). Avicenna did believe
that the universe was eternal, but an eternal chain of composite things still
needs an uncaused cause that´s simple. This is also derived from Plotinus, where
The One eternally overflows and emanates various lower ontological levels, one
of which is our universe. Thus, the universe is both eternal *and* dependent on
The One as its eternal cause. The Avicennian-Plotinian god is a primordial and
perfect unity and simplicity, which emanates the lower level as part of its
very nature, while being completely blissful and unaware of the suffering and
privation at the lower levels. This god only knows “universals”, never
particulars. He, or rather It, stands outside time and space.
But how
can this kind of god ever save anyone? It seems that he strictly speaking
cannot – The One can be reached only through philosophical contemplation or
perhaps mystical states. The One does emanate two levels in between itself and
the universe: the Intellect and the Universal Soul. Strictly speaking, it is
the latter that then emanates the universe. The god of classical theism could
perhaps be assimilated to the Intellect, while the Universal Soul could be seen
as the “anima mundi”. Or they could both be seen as the god of classical
theism. But in this system, the apex of the ontological hierarchy is above Allah
or God the Father. This makes it problematic when Christian apologists tries to
use arguments derived from Avicenna to prove the Biblical God. You simply can´t
go from “even the entire chain needs a caused that must be uncaused” to “that
uncaused cause is Bible God”, since Avicenna´s whole point was that the uncaused
cause must be simple and non-composite. But the god of the theologians is
surely anything but simple: he is gendered, personal, can feel both anger and
love, is recognized in three persons, one of the persons being born as a man in
a specific location on Earth, and seems intensely interested in the behavior
and ultimate fate of Homo sapiens. How is this “simple”? Note also that this
god isn´t known through philosophical speculation but only through special revelation
(or theological speculation on special revelation).
In the
Orthodox Church, I suppose the three highest levels of the Neo-Platonist hierarchy
are all considered “God”. The One is the dazzling darkness, the unknowable
essence of God. The Intellect is God as he appears in the Bible. And the
Universal Soul is perhaps the uncreated energies described by Gregory Palamas.
But surely this is still composite by Avicenna´s standards? As for modern science,
perhaps space and time aren´t “composite” and can hence play the role of uncaused
cause Avicenna assigned to The One, but I suspect Ibn Sina would disagree with
this. Space and time can certainly be conceptualized as composite. The One,
presumably, cannot.
The religion with which Avicenna has most in common is actually Hinduism. The One has a family likeness with Brahman. In certain forms of Hinduism, Brahman brings forth Bhagawan – the personal god (such as Vishnu) – and Bhagawan then emanates Brahma, who creates the universe. This certainly sounds as a personification of the Intellect and the Universal Soul.
Personally, I have some kind of sympathies with both the panentheist-pantheist and theist camps, and mystics certainly report encounters with both kinds of god. Ultimately, humans probably can´t know these things anyway…
The entire history of philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato. And the entire history of theology is a series of footnotes to Plotinus.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)