UFOS AS PSYCHIC "DISTURBANCES" OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN: Between shamans and religious mystics

Copyright 2018, Jose Antonio Caravaca

Close encounters with UFOs, that is, the complex scenery witnessed by hundreds of people who claim to have observed the landing of a flying saucer and the disembarkation of its occupants, can actually be the result of a psychic disturbance, the consequence of a sudden and unexpected irruption, in an expanded reality that somehow be "feeds back" from our unconscious.

An "unknown psychic entity" (the external agent) that inhabits this portion of expanded reality, interacting with our psyche, causes our psyche to be able to cross the barriers of ordinary consciousness. In other words, our mind can interact with the environment (our reality), and with that expanded reality, in a totally different way from the way it usually unfolds.

Our psyche enters into an altered state of consciousness that allows it to draw and construct elements in this scenography as if they were alien to its presence. These experiences are very similar to those narrated by mystics, visionaries and shamans who have described their particular immersions in other universes, other realities. 

Juan Martín Velasco in his book "The Mystical Phenomenon" (1999) referred to mysticism in the following terms: "The term "mystic" is also used to designate that world, that "nebula", of the esoteric, the occult, the marvelous, the paranormal or parapsychic which is occupied by a whole family of new movements in which the fatigue produced by a purely scientific-technical civilization, unable to respond to needs and aspirations very deeply rooted in human consciousness, emerges culturally.

A new example of the extension of the term to non-religious fields, by virtue of a functional analogy, is the use of the term in the sense of total commitment to the service of something taken for absolute, such as when one speaks of the mystique of action, the humanitarian mystique, the mystique of communism, or even the mystique of adventure or speed. But even in the religious field and in the theological vocabulary "mysticism" is far from being a term endowed with a precise meaning.

At the end of the last century, W. Inge offered twenty-six different definitions that responded to as many understandings". 

And although he thought that many of these episodes could have a conventional explanation, he also defended that there were other cases that were more complex: "Faced with these explanations, a reasonable attitude to this type of phenomena requires a whole series of theological as well as epistemological and scientific precautions. As a fundamental principle, once the fact has been rigorously established and described and analyzed with the greatest precision, it does not seem to be very important to establish whether or not it exceeds the natural laws, given that it is very difficult to establish at any given moment whether or not what apparently comes out of the habitual "behavior" of the phenomena really exceeds the functioning of those laws. In fact, the terrain of the relations of soul and body, mind and brain, the psychic and the physical, which is the terrain in which most mystical phenomena are situated, encompasses, beyond the field of what we recognize as normal, a wide area of paranormal phenomena of which science is still far from having given a satisfactory explanation, but which we already know it is not legitimate to simply attribute to supernatural causes.

Seeking the psychological or scientific explanation of such phenomena does not mean absolutely discarding their "supernatural" origin. Although the author did not rule out the existence of "God" behind these manifestations. Or, as we understand it, he left the door open to "other possibilities".

For example, St. Teresa of Jesus (1515-1582) relates an encounter with a mysterious angel: "I saw at my side an angel on my left, in human form. I confess that I am not accustomed to seeing such things, except on very rare occasions. Although it often happens to me to see angels, these are intellectual visions, like the ones I have referred to above. . .

The angel was short in stature and very beautiful; his face was kindled as if he were one of the highest angels who are all fire. He must have been one of those we call cherubim . . . He held in his hand a long golden sword, the tip of which looked like a burning ascue. It seemed to me that at times I was sinking the sword into my heart and piercing my insides, and when I drew out the sword, it seemed to me that my insides were escaping with it, and I felt myself burning in the greatest love of God. The pain was so intense, that it made me groan, but at the same time, the sweetness of that excessive sorrow was so extraordinary, that I would not have wanted to see myself free of it".  

For her part, the Italian Eduviges (Edvige) Carboni (1880-1952) said that on one occasion: "after communion, I found myself in a meadow and, on a throne, I saw Mary Help of Christians covered with a large mantle. On the plain there was a stormy squall of wind and fire. Suddenly St. John Bosco appeared, running in the midst of the storm and calling men and women to be saved, putting himself under the mantle of Mary Help of Christians. Many thousands ran to be saved under Mary's mantle, but thousands refused to enter and laughed, mocking those who entered under the mantle. In his book "The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism" (1952) the Jesuit Herbert Thurston said that: "In the mystical state things really happen that are irreconcilable with natural laws as commonly understood", referring specifically to all the paranormal components that he had registered for his study and that were very difficult to explain. In this sense, Juan Martín Velasco affirmed that: "a greater frequency of paranormal phenomena: levitations, inedia, visions, etc.; recourse to certain representations of God and Jesus Christ: maternity of God, and even of Jesus Christ; proclivity to the evaluation of the corporal: the sufferings of passion, devotion to the Eucharist, centrality of love lived in the most intense way and with strong repercussions in the area of feelings and corporality".

And in the shamanic universe we find again the same patterns.In an article entitled "Mystical journeys of shamanism" (2009), Florian Yubero states that: "Mircea Eliade, Romanian researcher who made the first compilation on shamanism and whose books are obligatory classical texts for study, defines shamanism as the technique of ecstasy or trance, and the shaman as the great specialist who has the ability to make journeys to the region of the spirits and from there can harmonize reality.

Shamanic ecstasy, like that of certain religious traditions, such as Buddhist samadhi, Sufi fana and the Christian beatific state, is a state of transport to mystical worlds to supposedly meet spirits, gods or demons. It includes clairvoyant phenomena such as voices and visions, which provide guidance or information for some healing, for spiritual growth or solidarity in the community". Mircea Eliade, in his book "Shamanism and the archaic techniques of ecstasy" (1951) states that: "The shamanic technique par excellence consists in the passage from one cosmic region to another: from Earth to Heaven, or from Earth to hell.

The shaman knows the mystery of the rupture of levels. This communication between cosmic zones has been made possible thanks to the very structure of the universe. The universe, in fact, is conceived, grosso modo, as constituted by three regions (Heaven, Earth and Underworld), joined together by a central axis (Axis mundi). [...] This axis passes through an opening, through a hole, and through this hole the gods descend to the earth and the dead descend to the subterranean regions; likewise, through it, the soul of the ecstatic shaman can ascend or descend during his travels. 

Michael Harner in "The Path of the Shaman" (20017) states that: "Shamans have been called those who see or people who know, in the language of indigenous cultures, because they are involved in a system of knowledge based on first-hand experiences. Shamanism is not a belief system, [...] shamans do not believe in spirits, shamans speak, interact with them. [...] This is very important, because shamanism is not a system of faith".

Amalia Bassedas in "Shamanism: The Legacy of the Ancestors" (2005) describes that: "The displacement of your spirit outside the limits of ordinary reality, in self-control, is the particularity of your practice, your specialty. It is through his travels that the shaman comes into contact with the world of spirits and, from these parallel territories, recovers information that will be transcendental for the prosperity of the community and the maintenance of the well-being of its members. [...] In his travels he enters into an expanded perception and understanding, hand in hand with his teachers, helpers and power animals, who await him to guide him towards the information that he will then bring to ordinary reality, or the Middle World, to be transmitted to those who need it. [...]

The shaman has the ability not only to make the journey, but also to accurately transmit the result of his exploration. [...] the spiritual world, nature and humanity are essentially linked. The shaman's skill is to bring them together. Eliade speaks of mystical light: "This mystical light is obtained by the candidate after long hours of waiting, seated on a bench in his cabin, dedicated to invoking the spirits. When he warns her for the first time "it is as if the house where she is suddenly disappears; he sees far away, through the mountains, exactly as if the Earth were a vast plain, and his eyes reach the confines of it. There is nothing hidden from him. Not only can he reach with his eyes to the remotest, but he can also discover stolen souls, even though they are in custody and hidden, in strange and very distant regions, or even though they have been snatched or led to the highest or lowest of the land of the dead".

He also points out some basic differences between shamanism and religious mysticism: "A comparison immediately comes to our thinking; that of monks, mystics and saints within Christian churches. But there is no need to force the comparison: unlike what happens in Christianity (at least in its recent history), people who declare themselves "shamans" attach considerable importance to the ecstatic experiences of their shamans; these experiences concern them personally and immediately, because it is the shamans who, making use of their trances, heal them, accompany their dead to the "Kingdom of Shadows", and serve as mediators between them and their gods, celestial or infernal, large or small. This restricted mystical minority not only directs the religious life of the community, but also, and in a way, watches over its "soul".

Visionaries and mystics all over the world have reported over the centuries experiences with unknown beings and entities that manifested themselves to certain people. According to this information it is probable that in certain circumstances our psyche can be dragged by an unknown and snatching "tsunami" that enraptured and took our senses, to unknown portions of our consciousness. And only our psyche is capable of filtering this new reality, distancing it from our own knowledge, yearnings, fears, hopes, desires; otherwise, we will only produce interferences that will prevent us from the deep knowledge that these experiences offer us... 

JAC