Another Reality (or Realities) from which UFOs (and other Anomalist things) come?

Copyright 2018, InterAmerica, Inc.

And can we access other alleged realities?

The August 10, 2018 issue of TLS (The Literary Supplement) reviewed the two books I noted a few weeks back from The New York Review of Books [Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind:The new science of psychedelics and Tao Lin’s Trip].

My posting provoked some commentary, much from my pal, academic Bryan Sentes, who, while fascinated by many things (UFOs among them), seems inordinately gleamed by hallucinogenic substances: LSD, psilocybin (magic mushrooms), Mescaline (a naturally occurring psychedelic alkaloid), et cetera.

Bryan also suggested that I read The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries by R. Gordon Wasson, Albert Hofmann, and Carla P. Ruck which I bought and am slogging my way through, and which I posted a note about earlier here.

Interestingly, the August 10 TLS also had, from its archive, reviews of two Aldous Huxley books, The Doors of Perception (reviewed February 19, 1954) and Heaven and Hell (reviewed March 9, 1956) both examined by Hugh I’Anson Fausset.

The Fausset reviews are pertinent to this posting as they go to the heart of what we may perceive under the influence of hallucinogenics, according to Aldous Huxley (Brave New World).

Huxley, it seems, like Bryan Sentes, was prone to be enthused by the possibilities of accessing another reality (or realities) by the ingesting of mescaline that the early “Indians of Mexico and American southwest have eaten and venerated [from] the root of a cactus, which they called peyotl [peyote] and regarded as a divine intoxicant.” [TLS, Page 34]

The reviewer (Fausset), writing in the 50s, noted that “more recently psychologists have become interested in it, since some of the changes in consciousness which it caused were similar to those which occur in schizophrenia.” [ibid, italics, mine]

Huxley, the reviewer told readers, believed that “Our modern recognition that living on the surface of the mind, caged in rational self-consciousness, is no real defence against the hidden forces in our nature [and] has started a whole movement of exploration of the deeper levels of the psyche … “ [ibid]

And “the Interest of Mr. Huxley’s essay, however, lies in the correspondences which he traces between the kind of ‘other world’ perceived under mescalin and the records of visionary experience preserved in all the cultural traditions in the heavens and fairylands of folklore and religion …” [ibid]

“Almost never does the visionary see anything that reminds him of his own past. He is not remembering scenes, persons, or objects, and he is not inventing them; he is looking at a new creation.” [ibid; I disagree with this.]

“But the kindred hells of the schizophrenic suggest how big a part subjective fantasy can play in this kind of experience. To an unwanted imagination it must be at best be a realm of fascinating illusion.” [ibid, really?]

The above, considering Mr. Huxley’s views, is typical of how some hallucinogenic advocates see the use of such “drugs”: schizophrenics are mad (insane) but users of hallucinogens, and what they perceive, are glorious visions of the greater reality (or realities) that exist and which they can access under hallucinogenic intoxication. [Posh!]

There seems to be intrusions into our “normal” reality – Nick Redfern examples many in his writings and books. But those are observed (experienced) by non-drug users usually.

I happen to think, as you know, that schizophrenics may have or get access to other realities which psychiatrists keep insisting are mad fantasies but may very well be perceptions of an actual reality (or realities) that a “schizophrenic” for some odd neurological reason is afflicted by and really sees and/or hears.

Let me propose this: if a person reports a UFO sighting, and we determine that the person is mentally healthy, we’d pretty much accept his or her observation (report) as bona fide, would we not?

But if we found out that the “witness” was under the influence of alcohol or LSD (or some other psychedelic or hallucinogenic material), would we be likely to accept their observation (report) as authentic, accurate? I think not.

But if a schizophrenic tells us that they saw a UFO and described it, along with a batch of mentally corrupt accretions (memories and fantasies), would we accept their observation as valid and true” Probably not. But we shouldn’t, I think, discard it out of hand.

Madness induced observations may be the real doorway to other realities, whereas the hallucinations of the Eleusinians (who used ergot, an hallucinogenic fungus) or the mental waywardness of an alcoholic or hallucinogenic user is suspect, as I see it.

Mr. Huxley, as much as I admire his works (Antic Hay, Chrome Yellow, The Devils of Loudon, Island, and those named above), was on the wrong path, about perceptions of a greater or other reality, just as my buddy, Bryan Sentes, is wrong about the use of hallucinogens, except maybe as a medicinal aide for the terminally ill.

RR