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June 2011 from ExopoliticsJournal Website
Abstract
Furthermore, alongside new forms, existing research can additionally be re-examined to provide these new insights, and as a method for altering established preoccupations with particular themes that possibly occlude the emergence of others.
The purpose of this paper is twofold:
It will utilize the simultaneity of discourse, the Third Space and place and displacement to examine the experiencer narrative and then address some possible implications of this.
The main aim of this is to
outline core models as part of an on-going dynamic process in the
analysis of human-alien interactions.
This typically includes such recognizable themes as being forcibly taken on board a craft by small beings with huge black eyes, and undergoing various medical procedures. The establishing of such commonalities by the pioneering work of early abduction researchers has provided invaluable insight into a complex and compelling phenomenon.
Nevertheless, the drive to identify the reality of the experience has most likely led to a privileging of particular approaches and themes in the pursuit of validating what is authentic. This is evident in a recent publication of UFO Matrix magazine.
The cover contains the heading ‘ALIEN ABDUCTIONS - FACT OR FANTASY?’ and Nigel Watson’s article entitled ‘The Reality of The Abduction Experience’.[1]
The treatment of the subject is also familiar. Although Watson acknowledges that there is no standard model for the abduction experience, he outlines what can be regarded as the typical features: missing time, paralysis, medical procedures, screen memories and human physical markings.[2]
Whitley Strieber also observes this issue while acknowledging the paradoxical nature of the dilemma.
While discussing letters that the Communion Foundation had received, from those who described alien encounter experiences, he remarks:
Homi K. Bhabha The uncomfortable question that we are faced with then is why has this occurred?
Nonetheless, the inscription of these themes into the alien abduction narrative has undoubtedly shaped subsequent research. If the Newtonian/Cartesian world view influences Western perceptual frameworks and is utilized in dominant models, such as psychology that views sleep paralysis to account for the alien abduction phenomenon, then the authorizing of authentic themes and approaches runs the risk of structuring a sub-dominant order, whereby mimicking the practices of the dominant structures.
It is what Homi K. Bhabha refers to as the ‘structure of symbolization’[4], or what Basil Bernstein articulates as ‘the modalities of practice’[5], that need to be continually read anew and recontexualised to avoid the politics of ‘fixity’. [6]
This is of
vital import if we are to allow new perspectives to surface.
Consequently it is perhaps the visibility of particular
themes, what we can term as the more fathomable, that is partially
responsible for
the paradox the Whitley Strieber delineates and
ensures that the more complex or abstract themes are overlooked and
or hidden from view.
The intention should not be to supplant current methods of inquiry or interpretations with alternative models, but rather to adopt new perceptual frameworks that add to the Exopolitical initiative. Exopolitics, with its integration of diverse disciplines, inhabits a unique space.
To ensure that it continues to remain a multi-faceted
framework, well equipped to address the ET issue, it should seek to
mobilize new theoretical models for two very important reasons:
firstly to attract wider public interest in an attempt to raise
awareness and mobilize political action, and secondly to deepen our
understanding of the extra terrestrial hypothesis (ETH).
Some of the theories typically used in the analysis of literary texts and (or) culture, can be usefully adapted for the analysis of the abduction/contactee phenomenon as a necessary approach to understanding the ETH. Considering that experiencers’ narratives are communicated to society via oral and written narrative forms then literary theory is appropriately situated (and as valid an approach as any other) to provide a close textual analysis of their accounts.
Furthermore, I aim to demonstrate that in doing so useful insights are revealed. However, it is firstly necessary to provide a summary of some of the key theoretical models that will be utilized.
I will then outline how these can be adapted
and transposed as frameworks for alien encounter narratives, and
then apply these models to show how critical insights come into
view.
Firstly however, a brief definition will be
provided for the use of the term ‘Other’.
Thus black women, as both female and black, inhabit the sites of ‘racial difference within gender identity and gender difference within racial identity’ enabling them to simultaneously speak ‘both to and from the position of the others (s); the other(s) being representative of white men, black men and white women.[8]
In the process a ‘relationship of difference and identification’ emerges.[9]
Additionally, ‘internal dialogue’ with ‘plural aspects of the self’ informs this perspective. This is important since interior voices reveal internalized ‘distortions’ of societal values and ideologies. These multiple voices of external and internal engagement, that reveal points of difference and identification, are also evident in experiencer narratives.
In my redeployment of
Henderson’s approach I will utilize these points.
Bhabha, a Postcolonial critic, rejects the idea of complete or totalized cultures. Any claims to a unique collective identity, untouched by other cultural influences, are unsupportable.
As Bhabha points out,
Instead, it is during the process of when two or more individuals or groups interact and subsequently articulate their differences from one another that the “in-between” space, the third space essentially, opens up and ‘new signs of identity’ can emerge.[11]
Crucially, this site disrupts the notion of polarity or binary opposition.[12] The notion of polarity is the foundation of Western philosophical frameworks and John Mack states that various disciplines are informed by a ‘dualistic view’ of the psyche or self and other.[13]
Duality as a construct however does not sufficiently account for the complexities of the ETH. Instead, Bhabha asserts that ‘it is the production of meaning’ that calls for the ‘I’ and the ‘You’ (or self and other) to be ‘mobilized...through a Third Space’. This third space, a hybrid form, is representative of both the circumstances surrounding language and what is implied, and interpreted, via the act of communication.
In addition, the ‘structure of meaning and reference’ is an ambivalent and unconscious process.[14] However, the hybrid model should not be regarded as an uncomplicated blend of ‘new and old elements’[15], whereby the merging of two seemingly different forms is resolved ‘in some grand cultural synthesis’.[16]
Rather, we should think of the third space as a fluctuating process, whereby subjects are ‘caught in a continuous process of hybridity.’[17]
This constant process is expressed as ‘cultural uncertainty’, and Bhabha employs the use of Frantz Fanon’s term, “the zone of occult instability”, to provide a metaphor for this process.[18]
The notion of hybridity, as intended
by Bhabha, is an important one in regards to experiencer narratives.
I will demonstrate how it can be of use by adapting his notion of
the third space.
In my revision of Henderson’s and Bhabha’s approaches,
I have renamed this framework as the Triadic Space.
This paradigm is not a fixed construct, but rather a fluctuating one that reveals how points of identification and difference (or agreement and conflict) are continually negotiated and re-appropriated through contact with ETs. As with Henderson’s model, experiencer narratives demonstrate alien difference within human identity and human difference within the perceptions of alien identity.
Significantly, it is through this lens for viewing the construction of human-alien identities that we can, in part, map the evolution of the experiencer’s consciousness by understanding how it becomes transformed. In fact, it is the points of agreement and conflict that can result in moments of merged consciousness.
This hybrid form, which is representative of the triadic space, is neither human nor alien but simultaneously both.
In both written and oral modalities we can identify moments of merged human-alien consciousness within language. Indentifying the hybrid space then can be approached by examining what is expressed in language and other visual forms. The triadic space can be understood by examining when polarities overlap or dissolve, and by identifying how different forms can disrupt language.
This latter point can be approached in multiple ways, but a useful way of thinking about this space is as the ‘interstices’ or in-between spaces that rupture known linguistic forms, such as telepathy, symbolic forms of communication, ‘heteroglossia’, known as ‘speaking in tongues’ and the intervention of alien language(s).[20]
Consequently, what is expressed in language when hybridized moments of consciousness occur, as well as the various forms that disrupt the process of language, is indicative of the triadic space.
My use
of the term human-alien identities is being deployed as an umbrella
term and is not intended as a reductive paradigm that obscures other
differences between experiencers, such as gender and ethnicity, and
in fact the inclusion of such aspects can provide further
constructive insights.
These narratives then can be used as a
primer to compare to other abduction cases, but in order to provide
a comprehensive overview other accounts will also be examined.
To do
this I will state why Postcolonial models are relevant and then
adopt the notion of place and displacement to demonstrate how this
can be applied to experiencer narratives, highlighting what is
revealed in the process, and then end by outlining some implications
for
Exopolitics.
Mary Rodwell defines this term as the recognition by experiencers that ‘one part, or one aspect of them, has this ET nature, whilst the other feels human’.[22]
Employing the use of such a term provides us with a valuable focal point for recognizing when experiencers explicitly articulate this condition and (or) make statements that are indicative of this state. However, in light of Henderson’s model, a more suitable term such as multiple consciousness, to account for the many internal and external similarities and differences encountered when engaging with the alien presence, would allow for a more in-depth and multi-layered understanding of identity to emerge.
This is particularly relevant when we consider that some experiencers engage with more than one extraterrestrial race, so it is entirely feasible that different species would impact upon human identity in diverse ways.
Therefore, adopting this multi-layered
lens for viewing identity enables a more thorough understanding of
the ET nature to emerge.
Although the definition and use of Postcolonialism as a critical framework is still debated to this day, its main concern is with examining the effects of and the cultural legacy of colonization from the point of contact to the post-independence era. Indeed, the breadth of Postcolonialism as a discipline addresses such diverse areas like migration, slavery, indentured labour, language, race and gender, a few of which are not fundamentally postcolonial in nature but are utilized to inform its analysis.[23]
As a result, aspects of postcolonial models are relevant to the experiencer narrative because both exhibit how the psychosocial dynamics impact upon subjects when two or more cultures intersect in differing ways and it is in this regard that similarities can be detected and parallels can be drawn.
Although it is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss this in-depth, of particular use to the Exopolitical framework in widening the understanding of the experiencer phenomenon are notions such as ambivalence, borderlands, dislocation (or place and displacement) double consciousness and exile. Of particular use here is how the model of place and displacement has relevance to the experiencer’s sense of a fragmented identity.
I
will therefore define this model and show how it relates to the experiencer narrative.
Inherent within this concept is that a sense of dislocation has occurred.
If we adapt this premise to apply to experiencers’ accounts then their narratives often include the insertion of unfamiliar extraterrestrial environments that disrupt the earthly, terrestrial sense of location, and subsequently the sense of self.
Additionally, the earthly parameter of temporal sense is often ruptured in some way and the feature of missing time, often highlighted in the abduction narrative, represents only one aspect on the spectrum of temporality. The fragmented identity, attributable to traversing the human-alien selves, is further complicated since the establishing of a relationship between self and place is problematic.
This is because there is no familiar alien locale that can be fully identified with in relation to the ET aspect of their identity. Indeed, location frequently informs the multifaceted tapestry of identity but where is home for experiencers who find themselves caught in the ‘split space of enunciation’, between the earth and alien realms?
The alien locale is unknowable to a large extent and the sense of dislocation from the Earth domain is further exacerbated by the omnipresent consensus view in human society that the experiencer phenomenon is groundless.
The resulting displacement therefore, that contributes to the sense of fragmented identity, produces an ‘alienation of vision’ and a ‘crisis in self image’.
The question is then, is do experiencers recover a sense of
connection between place and location, and if so how is this
achieved? In the following section I will highlight some examples of
when experiencers narratives demonstrate this rupture in identity.
The crisis of identity results from the discovery that in he is in some way “part alien”. This leads to his “loss” of “identity” and subsequently a concern about being removed from his “earthling family”. [25]
This reveals how the fragmented identity results, in part, from a dislocation between self and place.
Joe’s statement also closely resembles Peter’s when he describes a sense of,
As a result he feels that he is,
This sense of conflict, symptomatic of an either or polarity, leads Joe to declare that he feels “split” from leading a “secret life”.[26]
Alternatively, Paul identifies home with being on the ship. While discussing the impact of human-alien selves upon experiencers’ identity, Paul astutely observes that,
This struggle is representative of being caught “in the middle”, or in the “in-between” space.[27]
Similarly, when Scott discovers his ET identity he expresses a desire to be “one of them” while simultaneously wanting to be human. A point of conflict emerges when he remarks that he “can’t be both”.
When asked why he responds with,
Again,
the rupture between self and place, influenced by the either or
polarity, results in a sense of a fragmented identity.
Certainly, there are some obvious differences between the postcolonial and experiencer spheres but while the ramifications of the former can be more effectively established the latter presents us with a paradox since we are dealing with impact of an unfamiliar, extraterrestrial paradigm. Furthermore, this is complicated by the denial of the ETH as a part of consensus reality.
A similar concern is explored by Professors Alexander Wendt and Raymond Duvall.
They examine how the UFO as an ‘authoritative taboo’ is actively produced via the mechanism of sovereign rule.
This political necessity propagated by the union of science and the state, even if this pact forms a somewhat uneasy one, ensures the stability of it. They contend that since the UFO issue includes the possibility of extraterrestrials as a plausible hypothesis then modern sovereignty is faced with a ‘physical and ontological threat’ to its rule.
I would suggest that if this is true of the UFO subject then this is even more so in regards to the issue of inter-dimensional and (or) off planetary intelligences interacting with the Earth’s human citizens. Accordingly, the UFO issue represents a sort of double entrapment since to disclose the former would lead to a questioning of the latter, and it is this site in particular that poses ‘ontological threats to identity or social being’.[29]
Subsequently, if the psychosocial dynamics of experiencers’ narratives shares similarities with those identified by postcolonial theorists then it is a political imperative for Exopolitics to explore this further for a number of significant reasons.
Points of Difference and Identification and the Representation of
the Body
Indeed, this is often apparent throughout much of the experiencer narrative and the sense of a fragmented identity, explored earlier, is also representative of this space. However, what is less evident perhaps is that experiencers also fluctuate between inhabiting the sites of either their human or ET identities more, to ‘changing degrees of intensity’.[33]
Subsequently, during
particular moments of consciousness, perception is particularly
appropriated via the human or alien lens.
Shelia, during one encounter, experiences a sense of struggle between to wanting to look into the eyes of the aliens while simultaneously wanting to make them “go away”. When a connection is established she suddenly feels more relaxed while simultaneously like she could “be crazy”.[35]
Joe also experiences a similar event when he describes wanting looking into Tanoun’s eyes, his alien guide, while at the same time he wants to avoid his gaze to reduce the power of the connection.[36]
The fluctuating states between resisting and identifying with the alien presence demonstrate that the influence of both aspects of human-alien identities, and subsequently their human-alien perspectives, are present to varying degrees. However, a moment of consciousness that is predominantly influenced by the human perceptual lens is provided by Scott.
Again, like Shelia and Joe, he resists eye contact with the aliens as “my humanness doesn’t want to see this” since it “can’t handle the other side”. The basis for this is revealed when he responds with “because I’d be looking at myself”.[37]
In seems in this instance that it is his alien identity that provides the source of conflict.
What happens then,
when experiencers connect with their alien selves?
While inhabiting this state he observes that he feels “so much more comfortable” which he describes as “Etherical”, “fluid”, with a feeling of “vastness”.
He then suddenly experiences a sense of struggle with his “humanness”. At this moment it is his human sense of identity that provides the source of conflict. Furthermore, Joe, as Orion, is able to explain the purpose of the alien breeding program via the alien perceptual lens.[38]
Carlos
also describes a similar state since during numerous encounters he
discovers himself inside an alien “helmet”, which enables him to
view his environment with an ‘alien quality’. When this occurs, he
becomes more like the “examiner” in the study of humans. Again, an
example is provided of when experiencers are appropriated via the
alien lens.[39]
This raises ontological question about the purpose of the
body with the alien encounter experience and demands an examination
that stems beyond a purely paradigmatic preoccupation with the
physical experimentation that abductees undergo.
The New Terrain of Hybridity &
Alien Communication
The ‘gaps’ between the mountains, spoken of by an experiencer, appropriately situates the domain of the triadic space.[40]
In this section I will be examine
this site to illustrate how simultaneous moments of merged
human-alien consciousness is represented in various ways. Although
these forms are interconnected, or equally present, they can be
conceptualized as moments of hybridity that relates to location,
visuals, physical states and language.
He suddenly experiences a sinking sensation and finds that he is looking through a window instead, and looking back at him, “face-to-face”, is the image of the alien.[41]
To be looking outside of a window can be read as the internal self looking outwards to an external view. This concept is disrupted however by the notion that the window is perhaps, simultaneously, also a mirror that casts back a reflection of the self and thereby reinforcing the insertion of the alien other. In this moment, the simultaneous appearance of the human-alien selves can be conceived of as a triadic site: a visual reinforcement of a hybrid identity.
This event is particularly
interesting when we consider that, later on in his narrative, Joe
comes to physically inhabit the site of his alien other.
This event appears to coincide with an evolutionary shit in
conscious and he experiences a sense of “oneness”. This unification
can be viewed as a physical and (or) spiritual hybrid endeavor that
results in a triadic moment of being.
They reflect the hybrid enterprise since they are the
result of human-alien interactions.
Dr John Mack The phenomenon of channeling extraterrestrial entities is often encountered in the experiencer narrative, and Peter, Eva and Scott’s accounts include this characteristic.
During one such event with Eva, John Mack observes that her perspective appears to alter to that of the alien community as she adopts the use of the pronoun “we”.
However, by end of the regression she alludes to the idea that her consciousness is present in some way, so although she states,
Eva also asserts,
In view of this, the use of Eva’s “we” perspective can be read as indicative of both human and alien modalities, and therefore reflective of a hybrid state of being and mode of communication.
In essence, Eva’s channeling is neither the result of a human or alien consciousness, but rather it is simultaneously both. Crucially, like many other experiencers, Eva appears to gain access to information during alternative states of consciousness that would possibly have been unavailable otherwise. In addition these states can be triggered by an evolutionary shift in consciousness.
Under hypnosis while Eva is discussing how to travel from one dimension to the next by “contracting and expanding at the same time” (a process that can similarly be viewed as a hybrid state) then the shift to the “we” perspective occurs. Curiously, at this stage in her account, the aliens are suddenly absent and Eva finds herself staring at the frame of a white triangle.
She gains access to the knowledge that the aliens require
“somebody that’s closer to the human being”. This is necessary in
order to “slow down the transmission” of information because it is
of such a “high intensity”.
This concept is again later reinforced from Eva’s “we” perspective when she states that the aliens need to,
He remarks,
The body, in the negotiation of hybridity, appears to play a pivotal role.
Eva’s encountering of the triangle is described as “intense” and “causing damage” to the physical body.[44]
Since the triangle can be viewed as a symbolic representation of hybrid communication then Eva’s experiencing of physical pain may be an indicator of humanity’s current physical and mental limitations in being able to utilize such modes. Furthermore this may help to shed light on the existence of multiple alien languages, and some experiencers’ abilities to use more than one mode, since not all may be the aliens’ specific languages.
Central to this idea is the role of the body in human-alien interactions as some modes of ‘alien languages’ may not function as a language at all, but instead serve an entirely different purpose.
If some extraterrestrials are required to
“adjust” their communication, a hybrid undertaking, then what is it
adjusted to and what are implications?
...and Paul receives images so rapidly that he is unable to comprehend them.[45]
Similarly to Paul, the speed in which Carlos receives the images reveals the limitations of human consciousness and language when he endeavors to refer to the imagery using descriptive words, while simultaneously attempting to hold onto the next flow of images.[46]
Human cognitive boundaries then perhaps explain the purpose of particular modes of alien communication in the encounter experience. Jim Spark’s narrative can be read as a response to these limitations.
For instance, his middle-ground or hybrid form of alien communication involves training in the use of holographic symbols:
Viewing the symbols can then facilitate an instant download of the information.
Similarly to Jim, Becky Andreasson also receives training in alien symbols via the use of ‘dual raised alien keys with moving symbolic symbols’. This symbolic language is taught via the use of the ‘mind, sense of touch, color and sound’.
Additionally, Becky also has the experience of touching ‘a page of light’ in a book that sparks a compulsion to spontaneously draw symbols. This appears to be a necessary step to some type of training, and later on Becky has her hands ‘measured’ to determine ‘how much symbolic knowledge’ she has managed to ‘absorb’ [48]
Becky’s contact with the book, an appropriate metaphor, indicates that a physical absorption of information has occurred that triggers her physical response to depict the symbols.
Spark’s tracing of the alien letters again
situates the body as an intrinsic part of this process.
Drawing by Tracy Taylor Mary Rodwell’s work with experiencers has also unearthed some compelling results.
As the experiencer narrative evolves so too do the manifestations of hybrid forms of alien languages and communication, and, although the complexities and depth of her case cannot be discussed at length here, Tracey Taylors’s narrative can be viewed as representative of this shift. Like Becky Andreasson, Tracey also depicts symbolic imagery.
However, many of the images she has created are extensively detailed and multifaceted, and her ability to channel them is sparked as a result of a richly symbolic encounter episode that involves, rather intriguingly, the use of a triangular image that contains two concentric circles within it.
She is then struck by ‘an intense wave of energy’ and the event triggers her ability to ‘channel through the geometric symbols and messages’. The purpose of the geometric designs is to,
Furthermore, Tracey also produces alien scripts and has the ability to spontaneously speak in multiple alien languages.
This is especially interesting since Tracey also engages with many inter-dimensional and (or) extraterrestrial entities, and the ‘information’ she receives for her geometric designs ‘come through’ from these various beings.[49]
Again, this
site can be interpreted as a hybrid endeavor.
Instead, the Third Space should be regarded as a site that ‘enables other positions to emerge’.[51]
The varieties of alien communications in the experiencer narrative, from the diversities of alien languages to the differences in visual forms, are a testament to this. All these sites are manifestations of hybridity that experiencers move in and out of, as Henderson’s sites of difference and identification also reveal. Additionally, their movement from a sense of fragmented identity to a site of integration, like Joe’s transcending the hall of mirrors, does not necessarily imply that this state of integration is complete.
Certainly, experiencers’ narratives reveal otherwise, so the hybrid should open up the space for new questions to emerge as we deepen our understanding of the ETH. Peter Faust defines the process of human-alien interaction as ‘open-ended’ and ‘very uncomfortable’, but it is precisely this uncertainly that often triggers evolutionary shifts in the experiencer’s consciousness.[52]
What’s more, the hybrid forms in this paper
demonstrate a continually evolving process, particularly in regards
to the purpose of alien language. It is the indentifying of this
third space will enable more diverse readings of the encounter
narrative to emerge.
Experiencers, in the negotiation of their human-alien identities, already inhabit this site and yet it is this state that creates the potential for disruption to sovereignty since their experiences ‘allude the politics of polarity’ and cannot be regulated by the state.[54]
It is the very possibility of unknown hybrid forms that cannot be acknowledge by the state.
A way of
resisting this site is to create the opportunities for the experiencer narrative to emerge, and Exopolitics can play a
significant role in this process.
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