From: "Regan Power" 
Subject: Re: [SD] All in the mind
Date: 21 Jan 2000 16:44:04 -0500
To: 

From: "Regan Power" 

        Many a true word is spoken in jest!   John Locker is quite
right, of course: UFO abductions do exist "only in the mind".   But
then, so does every other kind of experience which one may have -
including the most "basic" experiences of daily life, such as eating
one's dinner and handling physical objects.   Where are you having the
experience of reading this post now?   In your mind!   When an
astronomer sees a new star, or planet being born, thousands of
light-years away, where is he experiencing it?   No further away than
inside his own mind!   When you experience having contact and
communication with another person, where is that experience happening?
In your mind!   Everything that one is experiencing, has ever
experienced, or will ever experience, is inside one's mind!

        But John said: "ONLY in the mind" (my emphasis), which raises
the question of whether there is a realm of existence which is outside
of mind - a realm of "objective reality", where things exist
independently of any mind, which may, or may not be experiencing them.
The traditional Western mindset, which underlies modern world culture,
asserts positively and emphatically that such a realm of purely
objective reality does exist, and  calls it "physical reality", or "the
real external world".   Philosophers generally have a hard time
convincing people that there is no rational, or scientific basis for
this "physicalist" mindset, which stands as a founding article of faith
in just about all conventional Western belief-systems, including the
religious ones!

        The basic problem which we all have with this idea of the "real
external world", is that, if it does exist, it is absolutely unknowable!
Since we can only know things inside our own minds, we have no means of
knowing anything that may exist outside them.   We cannot get outside
our minds, into the "real external world" itself, to experience directly
what "reality" may be there.   And this restriction upon us is absolute:
there is not only no present way out of it, but there can never be one
either, because it is implicit in the inescapable fact that we can know
things only through, and inside our conscious minds.   So the "real
external world" is, at best, an eternal hypothesis which is eternally
untestable, uncheckable and unverifiable.   Its status is purely
imaginary.

        Now, so far I have portrayed this as just an academic problem,
which people of an intellectual disposition may find interesting.   But
the more urgent fact of the matter is that it is really an intensely
practical problem as well, for the whole world.   For, the central
dynamic and thrust of modern, Westernised world culture, is the
exploration, comprehension and mastery of this hypothesised "real
external world" (which would perhaps be better called "the real external
cosmos" these days) through the systematic application of physicalist
"science" and technology.   Implicit in this expansionist enterprise is
the fundamental assumption that the "real external cosmos" IS knowable,
with the aids of science and technology.   But that is a false belief -
a delusion!   The "real external cosmos" is only an imaginary idea held
in people's minds.   We have no means whatsoever, even with all of
science and technology's mighty aids, of knowing whether the "real
external cosmos" even exists, let alone of knowing what it must actually
be like!

        In my view, we cannot expect to understand the cosmos by
following this delusional path of believing that we are exploring an
external, objective reality, when we are, in fact, merely exploring our
internal, subjective realities.   And we cannot expect to understand,
either, the activities, attitudes and intentions of intelligent beings
from other worlds, who may not happen to share our particuliar,
peculiar, unreal mindsets.   Many features of UFO-contacts and alien
abductions defy understanding on the basis of the commonplace Western
assumption that they are happening in real, physical space and time, as
though they are just like other normal, daily experiences with which we
are already familiar.   Until we have found out a lot more about how our
own minds work and how and why this astonishing cosmos which is arrayed
before us, is being presented inside our minds for us to experience, I
don't think we are going to gain much understanding of the UFO-enigma
and the meaning and purpose of the alien presence here on earth.

        Regan Power
        ___________


----- Original Message -----
From: John locker 
To: 
Sent: 20 January 2000 18:38
Subject: [SD] Re: [SO] Clones are we next??


> From: "John locker" 
>
>
> Nearly right Bill.....abductions exist only in the mind...they are
screen
> memories put there by those requiring tissue samples for human cloning
> experimentation....ask any chimera ...they'll tell you ;-)
>
> John.
> ----------




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