Whitley Strieber Foreword to First Edition

8/13/2019 Whitley Strieber Foreword to First Edition

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/whitley-strieber-foreword-to-first-edition 1/6

>

Alien Identities Ancient Insights into Modern UFO Phenomena

by Richard L. Thompson

Foreword by Whitley Strieber

Once in a great while a book appears that genuinely furthersinsight into unusual and unknown phenomena. One such wasJacques Vallee's legendary Passport to Magonia, which relatedmodern UFO and alien abduction stories to the fairy lore of thepast, and revealed how both were clearly generated by the sameunderlying process.

Another such book is Alien Identities. By examining one of themost remarkable bodies of literature ever produced, the Vedas, itreveals without a doubt that the modern experience of apparentconfrontation with technologically advanced civilizations are partof a very, very, old process. It challenges glib assumptions aboutthe novelty of modern reports by showing that many flightcharacteristics and to an extent even the appearance of vimana

aircraft described in the Vedic literature parallel modern UFOdescriptions. What is most remarkable about the ancientdescriptions, of course, is that they emerge out of a culturalcontext that was apparently many generations away from flightof any kind, powered or not. In this sense, they represent at theleast a seminal act of imagination of staggering originality. Thereare no other places in ancient literature where instruments of technology are described in such detail, and where powered flight

is discussed in any detail. The most famous myth of flight outsidethe Vedic literature is typical of the genre: the Greek hero Icarusflies too close to the sun on bird's wings constructed out of waxand feathers. In other words, the imaginary instrument of flightclosely parallels the observable world.

What is so very remarkable about vimana aircraft is that they arein no way imaginary outcomes of available observation. They are

ardhan Hill Publishing--Alien Identities--Ordering Info http://nersp.nerdc.ufl.edu/~ghi/aifwd_n

8/11/2011 3



apparent imaginings of a type of technology that does not existin nature and could not be derived in any way from observationof the natural world. During that period, there were only threemeans of locomotion available to man: the horse, the sail, andhis own body. Birds could be observed on the wing.

However, the Vedic literature contains a staggering array of apparently imaginary technologies--many of which are clearlyviable by modern standards. Some, such as missiles that aresensitive to sound, are actually in modern use.

Then there are the parallels between Vedic texts and the modernreports of UFO phenomena. Some of these parallels may bederived from modern Theosophy, which drew on the Vedas. But

there is a richly detailed body of Vedic experience that shadowsthe modern UFO phenomena and the abduction experience insuch odd and subtle ways that it cannot be a matter of simplederivation.

For example, the whole structure of the Vedic universe is builtaround the concept of there being numerous planets that are allat different levels of spiritual and intellectual development, and

that these planets are arranged hierarchically, so that the lowerones have only the faintest access to the higher, while the highercan observe the lower at will.

Above the highest material planets there is the spiritualeffulgence of Brahman and the supreme Vaikuntha planets of Vishnu. The Vedas discuss these matters in detail, but it turnsout that Brahman plays an important but generally unrecognizedrole in the UFO phenomenon. In fact, some of the clearest andmost vivid descriptions of Brahman have been made by modernUFO witnesses, to the extent that the witness experience ispotentially one of the most direct approaches to this level of being that we possess. "Words cannot explain it. It's wonderful.It's for everybody. I just can't explain this. I understand thateverything is one. Everything fits to together. It's beautiful!" Thiswas said by Betty Luca, in describing what was beyond the door


8/11/2011 3



that so many UFO witnesses have faced.

I well remember when I faced the door on the night of December26, 1985. It was small, with a curved top, and a black reflectingobject where there might have been a porthole. I can recall howthis object reflected and distorted the room.

I was asked if I wanted to go through the door, but feared thatsome kind of drastic annihilation awaited me on the other side.Had I understood at the time what the Vedas say aboutBrahman, I might have been ready to pass through. But my fearlost me, at the time, the chance to see the light.

As I was reading Alien Identities for the third time, trying to

commit each detail to memory, I reflected on the extraordinarypromise suggested by this ancient material. The reason is, thatthe Vedic descriptions suggest that a much deeper level of contact once existed between mankind and higher levels of being; indeed, kings and leaders were often given access tovimana craft and other devices of higher technology.

Could it be that we might gain access to such things? Is the

beginning and end of our modern encounter with this ancientphenomenon to be so limited by confusion, fear, and ignorancethat it is wasted just at the time that it is most needed? My mail,which still runs at the rate of as many as five hundred letters amonth, is increasingly asking the questions, `Where do we gofrom here? Now that we've achieved contact, how do we make itwork?'

An important part of the answer may very well lie in the deeppast, and it could be that the Vedas have a great deal to offer us.For example, the states of mind necessary to achieve richercontact with higher levels of beings are explained in great detail,and the potentials of the meditative stance are described asbeing far greater than we ourselves expect. If we expected it, orknew that it was possible, would we also be able to reach a stateof mediative passion sufficiently intense to raise the body itself to


8/11/2011 3



another level?

I have certainly had experiences that would suggest that this ispossible, ranging from levitation, to extraordinarily clearout-of-body movement, to physical shifts in space-time, once inthe company of another witness.

The extraordinary value of Alien Identities lies in its power torelate these seemingly new potentials to ancient humanexperience. Suddenly one finds that one is not alone, and in thebest possible way. The Vedas offer strikingly clear guidance, and

Alien Identities is a luminous key to their vast potential for theUFO witness. It is this kind insight that is going to broadencontact. There is no question that, structurally, many

multiple-event witnesses are being led into higher spiritualrealms. Those who are most deeply realized, such as BettyAndreasson Luca, whose luminous experiences have illustratedthe great value of the Christian approach, gain the most. Butwhat of those of us who approach matters as technologicalagnostics, deeply mired in the illusions of the physical world?

For me, there has often seemed to be no way through that door.

Again and again the visitors have come to me, offering everykind of support and assistance, and again and again I haverecoiled in fear. It isn't that I am not ready; they wouldn't behere if we weren't ready. What is missing, oddly enough, is anelement of the practical.

One soon gets the feeling, upon close contact with the visitors,that they are very old. I've encountered specific individuals whoclaimed great age, and the material objects I have seen, theroom I have been in, have usually communicated an impressionof great age.

Understand, I am not asserting here that I think that this is aphysical phenomenon in the same sense that being in an airplaneis physical. Indeed, one of the difficulties we have in dealing withthe phenomenon is that it is so indeterminate that even


8/11/2011 3



communication about it raises implications one way or anotherthat cannot be accurate.

The authors of the Vedas experienced an even more intenseversion of this problem, because they were compelled to describethe function and performance of technologies that were not only

beyond their understanding, but even their conception.

In the literature of other religions, there are one or two flyingobjects described that are not of the natural variety like Icarus'wings. Chief among these is the wheel of Ezekiel that rolledthrough the heavens spitting sparks. "And he said unto me, Sonof man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee."(Ezekiel, 2) It could be that this is the demand to which we must

respond if contact is ever to fulfill its extraordinary promise,which is to grant the human mind a breathtaking level of directcontrol over the physical that it does not now possess. In theBhagavata Purana, as quoted by Dr. Thompson, Krishnadescribes a part of this potential called mano-java: "The yogi who completely absorbs his mind in Me, and who makes use of the wind that follows the mind to absorb the material body in Me,obtains through the potency of meditation on Me the mystic

perfection by which his body immediately follows his mindwherever it goes."

Stand on your own two feet. Gain primacy over yourselves. Inthis sense, one of the deepest implications of Alien Identities isthat our technological world is itself a kind of illusion: we aredevising physical objects to do things that we ought to be able todo with our minds.

A reader of Communion wrote me: "I was meditating one nightout on the porch, and I had been there a long time. I wasthinking and thinking about the light I had seen, when all of asudden, I noticed this cool air coming down into my head, like awind but it was a still night. Then I got lighter and lighter and Iseemed to move. It was so gentle, but I weighed nothing. Then Iopened my eyes and I was way up above the house! Way up


8/11/2011 3



above the house, so high I could hardly see it, just ourneighborhood and the fields in the moonlight. And I thought, Omy God, I am going to fall. And there I was back."

Now, if he had understood the concept of mano-java, what mighthave happened? Just as what happened with me quailing in fear

before the door into the truth, he was thrown out of focus by hisown surprise and fear.

This is what we must get beyond if we are to continue. It comesdown to this: we must find our way along a very old path, but inour own way. The remarkable thing that Dr. Thompson has doneis to provide an element of clarity where previously all wasclouded and out of focus.

Alien Identities is a decisive next step in understanding. Wherethe present and the past shall meet, there we will find the future.

Foreword copyright (c) 1995 Wilson & Neff, Inc.

Back to Alien Identities Home Page | See Govardhan HillPublishing Home Page

Govardhan Hill PublishingP.O. Box 1920Alachua, FL 32616-1920(904) 462-0466 / fax (904) 462-0463 / e-mail:[email protected]

Last updated on May 17, 1999.

© 1999 Govardhan Hill Publishing


Whitley Strieber Foreword to First Edition

Documents

Transcript of Whitley Strieber Foreword to First Edition