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 Greater Challenges for the Volunteer Ufologist Sheryl Gottschall 2005 Rights to all articles are held by the author and permission to reprint must be sought from ACUFOS. Over the decades many UFO researchers have worked very hard to bring UFO information to public awareness. This work has often been garnished with their blood, sweat and tears before being added to the ever increasing smorgasbord of evidence that the public can “sample” before “buying”. However, much to researchers dismay there have been far fewer “sales” from their efforts than they would have liked. This has caused much scratching of heads, disillusionment and sometimes abandonment of the UFO subject entirely by those who logically thought that knowledge brought enlightenment. What UFO researchers did not factor into their thinking, and still don’t to a large degree, is the immense challenge the UFO subject brings to the conditioned public mind and the fact that our society and individuals will deny anything that has the potential to destabilize it, however slightly, even at the cost of truth. Conditioning When researchers hand the public a “serving” of information about the UFO subject then stand back waiting for the walls of ignorance to come crashing down like they did at Jericho, we are clearly demonstrating our naiveté and lack of comprehension as to what it takes to change an individual’s opinion regardless of how much hard evidence they might be presented with. Generally, people will not change from one world view to another in a flash, if at all, and to think they do shows a clear lack of understanding of the process of change. Bringing about a change in a person’s perspective takes time, time, and then more time. This is why people who attend therapy can have many sessions before the new way of thinking, believing and behaving firmly establishes itself within their psyche. Generally, the more educated or older people are the longer it takes for them to accept something outside their normal paradigm, because they have undergone more conditioning than others. This is why we see examples of very intelligent scientists denying a subject that should have them upturning every stone until they find answers. They have been conditioned over a period of time to think within the boundaries of a particular framework and to do otherwise would mean to go beyond our present scientific understanding, thereby challenging the very foundations of our modern science. To step into that arena would mean a destabilization of a world view that reputations, opinions, status, beliefs and funding is based on. Hence the great hesitation for a scientist to go down that path. However scientists are not all to blame for our current situation. They are, after all, “home grown” having been cultivated in a “garden” where the western world view is to fully accept scientific viewpoints as all-knowing and omnipotent. This conditioning has been passed on from previous generations just like racism, religious beliefs and social attitudes, and presents our society and scientists themselves, albeit unknowingly, with a tremendous hurdle. The challenge of breaking through conditioning that has rusted minds shut is what the UFO community is up against, and to be armed with weapons to combat that “foe” we need to be able to understand more of its processes. Denial Added to the conditioning process is the challenge of denial. The knee-jerk rejection of the UFO subject by scientists, scholars and the public at large warns us that the human psyche is extremely clever and has an acute subconscious radar to anything that may cause it to waver. It will go to great lengths to avoid upset to the human mental and emotional equilibrium protecting itself from any challenges that may cause it to admit that it may be living under an illusion. It will do anything to remain cemented in the notion that it knows “the truth” while all else around remain self-deluded. Unfortunately the end result is that our western society has ended up living with only an impoverished and abstract reality at best. T.S. Elliot recognised this human trait of denial when he said, “humankind cannot bear very much reality”. Inherent in this statement is the idea that humanity will deny itself anything, including truth, in order to remain oblivious of something that creates discomfort, for whatever reason. Consequently, the evidence for something other than what’s generally accepted by society remains wafting in the breeze unseen, unacknowledged, yet right under the public nose everywhere, such as the UFO subject. You may ask how we came to live in such a state of denial? An interesting approach to this subject is explored in the book, Species In Denial by Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith. (1) Griffith proposes that earlier in mankind’s evolution humans operated with an instinctual mind only. It was purely biological in nature and responded to protect us instinctively in an unsafe environment. As man progressed he eventually developed an intellectual aspect to his mind. Unfortunately the instinctive mind and the intellectual mind found themselves at odds with each other, for the instinctive mind had a natural mechanical role to perform while the intellectual mind questioned that role. This split created great confusion and threw a spanner in the works of survival. The only way to continue to survive was for the intellectual mind to be suppressed while the instinctive mind continued to run on auto-pilot. Consequently, humanity today finds itself in a quandary. Instinctively we want to survive in our dog-eat-dog world, yet question how we and others do this. Our instinctive mind knows that to endure an often uninspirational job, mortgage repayments, traffic jams, pollution effects, environmental degradation, war and social hypocrisy, the intellectual mind that questions why we partake of such craziness must be suppressed at all costs, even if it means fooling ourselves. Griffith states, “on the one hand we aspire to goodness in its purest form and on the other we are competitive, aggressive and selfish. In human evolution when the intellect evolved to the level where it could take control from the instincts, the two systems clashed”. We see this arise within the UFO phenomenon when we are faced with the denial of the subject. Although UFO researchers’ hopes rise when they read the latest polls’ newest revelation claiming that today’s western society far more readily accepts an extraterrestrial reality, it appears that this is only an arm’s length acceptance of that reality. Our society is still only accepting of extraterrestrials as long as they are “out there” and remain in a distant galaxy far, far away from us. This is acceptable, for then we remain safely cocooned in our little corner of the galaxy without disturbance. To suggest that society accepts extraterrestrials may be visiting planet Earth right under our very noses is another matter all together. Unfortunately, those who deny this possibility, the majority in our western society, create stagnation within it as they look on with disapproval at those who question the status quo. They continue to live with a twisted reality full of untruths and in so doing restrain our cultural and social progress and possible cosmic status. Competing Emotional Commitments Competing emotional commitments are one of the most common causes of mediocrity within a society. When the emotional component of a choice competes against another it is the choice that has the most emotional fulfillment that will win. This is the reason why some people will never be able to give up smoking, drinking, excess food intake or remain in an unhappy relationship even though it is to their detriment. They are much more emotionally invested in one choice than another, whether this choice is made consciously or subconsciously. Likewise, when an individual is asked to accept an extraterrestrial reality as being a very real part of their existence, they are faced with the emotional implications of doing so with one choice emotionally outweighing the other. For example, there is the fear of criticism from loved ones, friends and colleagues, feelings about loss of status and social standing that chomps away at the very core of our self-identity, and feelings of isolation as we become part of a minority group and the perceived fringe element of our society, all of which we weigh up emotionally. There is usually much more positive emotional investment for individuals to deny the UFO subject by filing it away as incredible nonsense and thereby remaining part of the social majority, than there is to meet the colossal request to accept it as part of reality and deal with feelings of ostracism. Expanding on this notion, when this emotional request is made of a society it has far more emotional impact than that of just one individual. To accept a reality replete with the existence of alien life challenges the very heart of a social structure that has been based on our scientific, religious and social viewpoint for generations. The implications of going down this yellow brick road are enormous, so is it any wonder then that society chooses to do otherwise? Ufology – Presenting A New Panorama Windows of opportunity into the human psyche are fleeting at best. When they open in the public mind the UFO community needs to be ready. Some suggestions towards this might be: (1) To educate ourselves about the triggers that shut people down towards the UFO subject so that we might then understand what will open the public mind to the subject; (2) To change public perception from the notion that if one goes down the UFO track one will have everything to lose, to the idea that one will have everything to gain; (3) To understand that peer group pressure never ceases no matter what age or status we attain in life; (4) To help individuals to bravely transcend the status quo; (5) To cease perpetuating an “us versus them” attitude towards society. Create a compassionate approach to ignorance and fear of the UFO subject rather than intolerance. We are all in this together and great change will not come about until more bring it about together; (6) To help those who are ready for change find a “new home” and place to belong in an inclusive and friendly environment. The gaps in knowledge the UFO community has are far greater than what any government or cover-up merchants suppress. We have greatly underestimated what needs to be done in order to bring about a true and lasting change of attitude towards the UFO subject including educating ourselves about the human psyche, particularly if we are ever going to break through it. We need to do some changing ourselves and accept that the UFO phenomenon is just as much about humanity as it is about ETs. Doing so might just throw some light on the real barriers we are up against. As Griffiths says ”the problem may very well be the need for psychological rehabilitation of the western mind” and that might just be the real challenge after all. References (1) Griffith, J. 2003, A Species In Denial, FHA Publishing and Communications Pty Ltd. Back to Articles Index  |
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