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Exopolitics Journal from ExopoliticsJournal Website
Exopsychology would tap into and integrate the data provided by disparate disciplines, conduct research, and ultimately, develop theoretical models that would help bridge the gap between the objective and subjective worlds. Exopsychology would incorporate findings of nonlocal interactions between humans, and take into account the full range of the UFO related phenomena, including the abduction experience and “high strangeness”.
Exopsychology would employ experimental and research designs that are within the established scientific paradigm, and simultaneously attempt to stretch the limits of current scientific thinking and limitations.
Indeed, the phenomena under examination demand that we stretch our
thinking.
There is overwhelming evidence that UFOs are a genuine phenomenon, and that governments have been withholding information about them from the public. This situation gave birth to Exopolitics and various grass-roots movements demanding disclosure of secrets.
Another type of disclosure is a hypothesized gradual disclosure process being implemented by the operators of UFOs 1.
If this hypothesis proves correct, then we need to ask the question,
A third
disclosure is one hypothesized to be engineered by a secretive human
faction, independent of, and perhaps making use of, the grassroots
pro-disclosure movement. Exopsychology would seek to inoculate
people against the misuse of psychological manipulation.
Underlying the unwillingness of scientists to discuss UFOs and contact with Extraterrestrials (ETs), are at least three explanations:
Contact with Extraterrestrial Intelligence would be a paradigm shift
more radical than that produced by the discovery of the new World,
or the heliocentric reality of the solar system.
“Readiness”, in this case, includes preparedness for various scenarios in which contact could be made, the ability to sustain contact over time, and the ways that people could become ready for various degrees and types of contact. Exopsychology is concerned with the evolution of human consciousness, an evolution that is fundamental to “readiness.”
The preparedness we speak of is one that anticipates not only new information, but a wholesale dismantling of assumptions, a brutal correcting of misconceptions, a requirement that institutions and cultures rapidly adapt, a shift of perspective from the anthropocentric to the Cosmic, and as if that were not enough, an acceptance of telepathy, new conceptions of time and space, possible multiple dimensions, a blurring of the subjective and objective worlds, and of being sent from the top to near the bottom of a Galactic totem pole.
Perceived contact with ETs is transformative,
and may have been at the origin of many religions and spiritual
traditions. Not to be dismissed lightly, such contact has, at the
very least, already impacted society, with the formation of cults,
the emergence of what is essentially a new religion, and by assuming
a permanent place in the entertainment industry. Individual contact
with Star People may be part of an agenda to gradually and
unobtrusively prepare mankind for a more widespread contact.
The psychology of cross cultural differences and communication, the sociology of acculturation, racism studies, altered states of consciousness, hypnosis, neuroscience, Jungian perspectives, developmental psychology, ecopsychology, the psychology of persuasion and influence, genetics and quantum physics all have contributions to make; yet exopsychology is more than a multidisciplinary study.
If that were the case, then the argument for a new branch of psychology would be premature.
Exopsychology
would contribute by not only integrating existing knowledge, but by
also contributing research findings, concepts and theoretical
models.
What follows is a summary of the range of topics that are proposed to be appropriate to exopsychology, and to further delineate what makes exopsychology unique. There are four general areas of inquiry: the psychological, psychosocial, transpersonal and transformative aspects of the UFO and ET contact/abduction experience (UFO Related Phenomena or UFORP).
A theoretical framework is proposed that incorporates novel ideas, building upon the essential insights of Leary.2 This theoretical model would incorporate findings from mathematics (chaos theory), physics (quantum field theory), and research on the UFORP.
Alternate concepts of time, are especially required for a fully developed theory that would guide research and foster understanding of the various experiences and phenomena being studied.
Exopsychology looks upon the transformation of consciousness as a part of evolution, taking humanity to the next level of capacity to process information. Leary elaborated a model whereby eight neuronal “circuits” characterized the scope of human brain capacity and evolution.2
Each circuit has an increasing capacity to process
information and increase the range of human interest and
involvement, from basic survival at level one, to absorption in the
quantum atomic matrix at level eight. His concepts form the starting
point for a modernized exopsychology.
This work will build upon the seminal work of Timothy Leary, Carl Jung, Arnold Mindell, and others.
Rebecca Hardcastle conceived of exoconsciousness. She provides an overview of the physics and genetics that are pertinent to the study of consciousness, and that might bridge the previously intractable conceptual gap between the subjective and objective.
The spirit of science is not bound to dogma and tradition.
What counts is the discovery of truth. It is arrogant to assume that
essential truths could not have been discovered in times past, by
people who were not part of the scientific western tradition. It is
also ignorant, because Western Science would not have arisen as it
did, without influences from the Arab world, in particular, the
Sufis.9
Indigenous people maintain, to this day, ways of seeing and experiencing reality that provide an interesting counterpoint to the dominant Western discursive, rational mode of cognition.
Their thinking patterns,
expectations, use of metaphor and symbol, awareness of alternate
realities and shamanic technologies are of interest not only to the
ethnographer, but for anyone wishing to learn how perceptual and
mental/emotional structures and processes contribute to to the
manifestation of quantum non-
Mack
made a point of emphasizing the link between the abduction
phenomenon and shamanic worldview.7
Their teaching stories are full of references to beings that travel between times and places, and who appear in dreams, whirling clouds, visions, and specific locales – all of which may have bearing upon exopsychology. The Sufis have an extensive corpus of teaching methods designed to systematically alter the minds of students, in order to awaken latent “organs of perception”.
This is almost identical language to that used by Dr. Leary, who wrote of awakening latent neural circuits in order to become aware of our cosmic origins and destiny. The Sufis also have much to say regarding other areas of exopsychological inquiry, such as the psychosocial aspect of the UFO phenomenon.
Their understanding of cult formation and maintenance,
for example, sheds much needed light upon the various groups and
quasi-religions that have formed around abductees and UFO
researchers.
He considered the unconscious to be not only the repository of repressed desires and conflicts, but the treasure chest of the soul, a source of inspiration and wisdom, gateway to the collective unconscious, a field of awareness shared by mankind, populated by the energetic and symbolic forms called Archetypes. His concepts, largely inspired by Eastern philosophy and alchemy (a Sufi manifestation), presaged ideas commonly thought of as “New Age.”
He wrote extensively about the Shadow, a clinically useful identity construct that also informs the study of cultural phenomena. He studied UFOs as early as 1946, and wrote a book, “Flying Saucers” where he considered the phenomenon to be manifestations of the human psyche, the modern equivalent of ancient gods, made manifest as a new addition to the Collective Unconscious, by the elusive mechanism called synchronicity. Invoking alchemical and astrological theory, he wrote that the advent of UFOs presaged a new era in human history.
Despite conceptual gaps, his theories still maintain
credibility, and are sometimes invoked to explain UFOs and the
psychic phenomena that accompany them. Recent work with abductees
suggests that his original ideas may not have been far off the mark.
He claimed that this force pervades the universe, could be accumulated in devices, and employed. One of his devices was aimed at a UFO, causing it to react. The link between UFO phenomena and psychic phenomena is established, and Reich's work may shed some light upon the connection.
The sexual aspect of many abduction experiences, for example, may be related to the life force (and essence of the orgasm), that Reich investigated with such passion.
Abraham Maslow, in more recent times, was one of the first “modern” psychologists to write about healthy human development.
His “hierarchy of needs” extended so far as to include “peak experiences,” which have elements in common with contactee reports of psychic phenomena, specifically, the personality change that sometimes occurs, causing contactees to suddenly become interested in spiritual and ecological affairs.
He, along with Carl Jung, generated an influence that was to later coalesce into the field of Transpersonal Psychology, devoted to the exploration of the highest potential of human beings, and involved the study of states of consciousness, spirituality, and the practices to induce transcendent states.
The Transpersonal movement was led by Dr.
Stanislas Grof and Timothy Leary, among others. They undertook a
study of consciousness to explore not only clinical applications,
but human development and evolution.
He described exopsychology in terms of understanding human consciousness in an evolutionary context, one that extended in the past to the genesis of life on Earth originating in outer space (the panspermia hypothesis), to the return of humanity to the stars in an extraterrestrial migration, to complete the cycle.
He wrote about the consciousnesss requirements for extraterrestrial migration. His work is relevant to the study of how people may react to imminent, unequivocal disclosure of ET activity on Earth.
He also wrote about
shared reality, constructed by language and conditioning – a reality
that is the lot of those who have not activated the higher brain
circuits, and who are thus stuck at a larval (Pre-migration) stage
of human development.
They proposed a range of studies of potential Extraterrestrial Intelligent Species contact and human reaction, including the social and cultural dimensions, ET psychology and perception, decoding of ET radio signals, the impact of technological diffusion, and studies of intelligence. Their proposed study of “Impact” is most pertinent to the exopsychology proposed here.
They suggest that we build upon the foundations already established by studies in communication and interpersonal distancing, social perception, and mass media studies. They also point out that ET contact will have a profound impact upon human self concept, among other vulnerabilities, so clinicians should be prepared to provide effective counselling, as well as coaching to negotiators and representatives.
Compared to what is
proposed here, their scope is limited.
The study of consciousness has been beset by problems of definition and lacks a theoretical model that accounts for the full range of phenomena involving consciousness. The topic is at the boundary of psychology, where religion, philosophy and neuroscience all lend opinions and perspectives, with the result that to date, the study of consciousness is still a “work in progress”.
We are assembling the
pieces of the puzzle, and have not begun to form a coherent whole.
The main reason for this is that a truly multidisciplinary approach
is required, yet poorly supported by current institutional and
educational structures.
Philosophers weighed in with new attempts to make sense of consciousness. Ken Wilber, in particular, attempted a more comprehensive understanding with a model including not only individual consciousness, but cultural and ecological dimensions of consciousness.
Exopsychology requires a model of consciousness that
goes beyond traditional limitations, and the work of Wilber and Dr.
Timothy Leary point the way.
Parapsychologists
Russel Targ and
Harold Puthoff coined the term in
1974, following tests of the psychic
Ingo Swann at the Stanford
Research Institute that began in 1972.14
They accumulated vast amounts of data that breathe new life into the field.
More recently, interesting work from the University of
Milan 15 and a theoretical model of “supraliminal communication”
proposed by Thaheld 16 have injected new impetus and credibility to
the field of parapsychology, that will contribute to a comprehensive
model of the UFO experience, human evolution, and readiness for
contact.
In the UFO group they infiltrated, the members believed a prophecy that the end of the world would arrive at a certain date, and that they would be saved by aliens. When the date came and went without consequence, they thought up reasons to explain and justify their belief, and their affiliation with the group was strengthened, not weakened, by the failed prophecy.
Their
study resulted in the book,
When Prophecy Fails. Many studies
expanded and replicated their work, and especially the concept of
cognitive dissonance, which is the feeling one has when holding an
idea that is inconsistent with the facts.
They confirmed, for example, in their sample of
British and Austrians, that political right and high religiosity
scorers tend to not believe in Extraterrestrial life. They found
evidence that belief in extraterrestrial life does not translate
into a belief that Extraterrestrials have visited Earth. Such a
finding, if replicated on a large scale, would have significant
bearing upon the question of how and when to disclose an ET
presence.
Many enthusiasts are caught up in internet based communications, and participate in congresses and assemblies where the latest UFO finds are made public. Apart from the mercenary predators and agents provocateurs, everyone involved is sincerely interested in UFOs. That does not insulate them from harmful group dynamics.
Groupthink, for example, is a tendency for insular groups to make poor decisions because the need to maintain group cohesion is stronger than the need to learn the truth of a matter.
This well known phenomenon was articulated by Irving Janis, who defined it as,
The felt need to “prove” that UFOs really exist, that the government is engaging in a cover-up, that there is life on Mars, or that Disclosure by the government is imminent, can sometimes lead to elevated anxiety, disturbed judgment, and when in a group context, groupthink.
The means to identify those trends, and take remedial
action, ought to be more widely disseminated.
That event is still cited as a
rationale for continued secrecy and restraint from disclosing
secrets putatively held by world governments.
Each has their convictions fuelled by various documents.
Rarely does anyone study the phenomenon as a whole, to try and make sense of it from a dispassionate perspective, without any prior hypothesis.
Vallee and Davis, attempting to include the psychic factors of UFORP, make the plea for better data:
Exopsychology could tease out the prejudices, yearnings, blind spots, paranoias and expectancies that give rise to the claims and counter-claims. If, however, there is indeed a psychological operations (PsyOps) underway to mislead the public about UFOs, one way or another, then exopsychology would have to face constraints not normally encountered in scientific enterprises.
The fact remains that there is no persuasive (consensual reality) evidence of anything related to UFOs.
We can still conclude that:
Besides that, we have testimony (some of it very persuasive, but in the final analysis, only words), and more testimony.
When an
individual sees a UFO, however, the experience is such that all
doubt vanishes. Exopsychology would concern itself with the
psychology of paranoia, military psychological operations, and
witness credibility.
We could assign more credibility to intuition, thus by-passing the need for credible evidence that would be accepted by rational thinkers, but that would only work when the intuitions of many unrelated people (professional intuitives) were in perfect accord. Otherwise, we run the risk of falling into serious traps that could lead us down false paths.
Leary 2, Hardcastle 8 and Mack 7 all point out that scientific reliance upon the artificial boundary between the subjective and the objective, useful as it has been, seems to have approached a point of diminishing returns.
It is
our hope that a multidisciplinary approach, including exopsychology,
will find way to surmount, integrate or otherwise create bridges
that retain the usefulness of the distinction, while not entering
into chaotic, unstructured processes.
According to Dr. Michael Salla,
Exopolitics begins with the working hypothesis that the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (ETH) is the correct one. Demonstrating that Exopolitics has not made assumptions regarding the ETH, Salla introduced the concept of “celestials,” 33 in order to account for phenomena, first emphasized by Jacques Vallee 1 that are not easily explained by the ETH.
This openness to alternate hypotheses takes Exopolitics into areas even further removed from “ordinary” politics; this excursion invites a multidisciplinary association with psychological disciplines. Exopsychology would be congruent with Exopolitics in that both the ETH and other hypotheses would be considered, and not presumed to be mutually exclusive.
The search for truth requires an open mind, one that has not wed itself to an answer, then strives to confirm the answer that has been selected.
There are several areas where the exo-political and psychological areas overlap, and where they can be mutually beneficial.
Outside the closed circle of UFO enthusiasts and researchers, public readiness for disclosure is far from being verified, and even if fears about public panic are being artificially fuelled by disinformation specialists, there are good reasons to believe that panic or disruption would be the result.
The question becomes,
The findings of exopsychology would hopefully have some bearing on those decisions.
If notions of mind control and scalar technologies being misused are substantiated, then any information that would empower ordinary citizens to protect themselves would be essential for a disclosure to take place without it being spun and misused for nefarious political purposes.
Exopsychology and related disciplines could,
being one step removed from the exopolitical scene, provide an
objective sounding board and add to a multidisciplinary strength of
diversity that would help ensure Exopolitics' successful navigation
of treacherous political waters.
Based on that premise, he proposed a psychology that was all-encompassing and holistic, bearing upon human development through the life cycle and evolution, political affairs, consciousness, cultural manifestations, genetics and quantum processes of the mind. He suggested that our destiny is to complete an evolutionary cycle by returning to the stars, thus completing a destiny that is encoded in our genes.
He claimed that “histone-capped DNA” (now called “junk DNA”) is actually our future genetic code, in the same way that a caterpillar DNA contains the blueprints and operating instructions for a butterfly.
Presaging Raymond Kurzweil 34 by decades, Leary asserted that humanity was destined for a genetic transformation that would result in an entirely new human form.
Also like Kurzweil, Leary embraced technology, suggesting that it was key to the transformation.
Contrary to popular conceptions, Leary was dismissive of “hippies”, characterizing them as “wingless larvae”, evolved to a point, but unable to make the full transition to the fifth circuit. He saw that generation as a first, but failed, attempt at evolution. Leary's system of eight circuits of consciousness is an attempt to integrate Eastern mystical and Western scientific thinking.
A description of the eight circuits is beyond the scope of this paper; it should be said, however, that a proposed resurrection of exopsychology would not necessarily adopt his eight circuit model. It is based upon the premise that life originated and is destined to return to the cosmos - which is a leap of thinking that this writer is not yet ready to accept as even a working hypothesis.
The notion that we would forever leave our beautiful Earth is simply too much to grasp. Such an incapacity is evidence, Leary would say, of larval (pre-migration) thinking. There may be equally robust and wide-scoped cosmologies that do not involve leaving Earth, and that would still enable us to adopt many of his concepts.
Sufi
cosmologies, for example, have the status of being enduring over
time, as well as accommodating alternate realities, different
worlds, new technologies, and evolution of consciousness.
Building upon the seminal work of Timothy Leary,
exopsychology would integrate findings from both within and without
psychology, conduct research, develop theoretical models, and,
especially if disclosure efforts bear fruit, synergistically
interact with the related discipline of Exopolitics.
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At age 13, Michael
Gintowt won first prize at a science fair, for a
project on parapsychology, thus setting the tone for a
lifetime of interest in paranormal phenomena. He trained
as a psychologist, both experimental and clinical, and
has a Masters degree in psychology, having studied at
the Centre for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, at
Concordia University, Montreal.
local effects in human experience. 
Dr.
Timothy Leary coined the term exopsychology in
PARAPSYCHOLOGY
Other groups become quasi-religious, sometimes
crystallizing around a central figure, usually an abductee, or
someone who promises access to powers and information that come from
aliens. 
