Posted on 30 April 2012, 18:38

I traveled beyond conscious reality as I knew it, while retrieving details of my memories. During that journey I experienced an ineffable moment of total merging. I don’t know how else to describe having all your senses experience what should be an impossibility. It is as if I were given a glimpse of my/our potential.
Abby —November 10, 1997

When you are in the presence of that Source connection, there is nothing like it. There is nothing you can conceive of that isn’t understood. There is nothing that can’t be done. It is a love that cannot be contained, and you know then why I get so angry that I have to be back here.
Will —August 15, 1997

Virtually all religious and spiritual traditions in societies around the world and through time have in common knowledge of a supreme or ultimate creative principle or intelligence which is variously called the Divine, the Source (or just Source), the One, Home (especially favored by abduction experiencers), the Great Spirit, the ground of being, or God. The members of particular societies may experience a variety of relationships with this principle, ranging from a disturbing sense of estrangement or fear to a powerful feeling of spiritual presence or intimate oneness and harmony. The secular modern, or postmodern, Western culture in which I was raised and have lived is perhaps unique in the degree to which many of its members have become separated from any sense of the actuality of a divine presence or higher power in nature (Smith 1992). Some even deny the existence of any such principle, placing man at the peak of the cosmic intelligence hierarchy (Zimmerman 1998, p. 3).

I am not skilled in the disciplines necessary to argue effectively for or against the reality of a divine presence immanent in nature. My sense is that the kinds of evidence that people find relevant to such questions are more likely subjective or experiential than objective or empirical. What has, however, become clear to me in the nearly ten years that I have been wrestling with the mystery of the alien abduction phenomenon is the fact that the deeper power and meaning of the encounters cannot be understood without consideration of their transformative power and spiritual significance. “There aren’t just little gray guys with big eyes,” Karin says.

“Ultimately it’s about knowing God.” We seem to be experiencing now in the United States, and more or less throughout Western culture, a kind of spiritual renaissance. It reflects a deep hunger for something missing in the lives of many people, a sense, however vague, that there are other realms from which they feel cut off, and a growing realization that many of the catastrophic events of this century now ending have derived from radical secularism and spiritual emptiness. It seems clear that people in the West are increasingly seeking more direct contact with a higher power, which would usually be called God were it not for the anthropocentric connotation and other baggage that has become attached to this word.

Many of the phenomena documented in this chapter may sound familiar to students of the history of religious traditions. The longing for connection with Source or the ground of being; the anguish of separation from the Divine; the process of breaking down the barriers to connection or reconnection with Source; the cycles of the soul’s incarnation or reincarnation— are all familiar aspects of spiritual transformation. There is an extensive literature on these various topics, and those interested in exploring them further might consult the sources suggested in the notes to this chapter.1 What seems to be unique about the abduction phenomenon, as documented throughout this book, is its reality-shocking content, its energetic intensity, and its potentially rapid transformative power. This may enable individuals who, generally speaking, have not undertaken a path of spiritual practice to connect or reconnect with Source dramatically and quickly when they confront and work through the mind-shattering terror that often, at least initially, is produced by the encounters.

Some of the approaches to a higher power are initiated by individuals themselves. These include traditional forms of religious worship, such as prayer, meditation, and devotional service; twelve-step programs for the treatment of addictions; yoga, Holotropic Breathwork, and controlled out-of-body experiences (Buhlman 1996; Monroe 1971 and 1996); thoughtful use of psychedelic agents; vision quests and other activities associated with native and Eastern spiritual practices and rituals. But some transformational agents seem to come as if from outside, hardly expected or desired by the person himself, except in the broad sense discussed in the previous chapter.

These include near-death and other spontaneous out-of-body experiences, traumatic losses, serious illnesses or other personal tragedies that propel spiritual growth, spontaneous religious epiphanies or “born again” experiences, and of course encounters with strange humanoid beings.

In this chapter I will try to show how the alien abduction phenomenon can potentially be one of the most powerful agents of spiritual growth, personal transformation, and expanded awareness that is now affecting people on this planet.2 As Karin puts it, abduction experiences are the “fast track” for personal change (see also Whitley Strieber’s remarks on page 18).

“You want to know what it’s like to be in Source?” she once exclaimed. “You want to know what it’s like to be connected to the universe? You want to know about that fifth-dimensional part of yourself [she means a kind of fine vibratory resonance] that’s in every other human being, and you want to know what it feels like to be talking to that and be communicating with that and be in communion with that? Here it is, honey. Let’s go. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the past two and a half years, being in that space, working through that stuff, and learning how to communicate in ways that we don’t have a language for here.” In earlier chapters we have seen how the light, energy, and vibratory intensity of the abduction experiences, the traumatic shattering of the abductees’ worldviews, and the shocking visions of the threat to the planet’s life to which they have been exposed have combined to open their awareness to an expanded view of reality. Here we will explore more deeply the expanded sense of consciousness and the spiritual power and meaning of the encounters for the abductees’ lives and for their view of themselves in a rapidly and radically transforming world.

In order to appreciate this dimension of the phenomenon, it is necessary, I have found, to bear with the experiencers the fear, pain, and nearly overwhelming vibratory energies associated with the abduction experiences, and to put aside as much as possible conventional worldviews and ontological preconceptions. If a facilitator is unable to do so, the experiencer may become stuck in a place of resentment and victimization from which personal growth is difficult or impossible.

Sue expresses this challenge clearly: “I think what this phenomenon is doing, the abduction scenario,” is to press “really nasty buttons. It makes you feel like a victim. At the moment you have no control. You can’t do anything, so what do you do? Do you lie back and take it? Do you withdraw, or do you fight? Well, I’ll tell you, if you get up and fight and get beyond that victimization feeling, change happens. It’s unbelievable what happens. It has been for me, and I know it can be for everybody else. But what most people are not doing is getting beyond that feeling of being a victim.” The alien beings are usually perceived by experiencers, not as spirits or godly creatures, but as emissaries or messengers from the creative principle, which they most often seem to call “Source.” For Karin the beings function as “the go-between. It’s the translator” or a “kind of interpreter,” bridging the gulf that has developed between humans and “the One.” “For us to get the message from the Divine Source, it has to come through something that’s already connected,” she suggests. Other experiencers note that the beings seem to have a connection with spirit or Source that we do not have or have lost.

Passport to the Cosmos by John E. Mack, M.D. is published by White Crow Books and available from Amazon and all good online bookstore

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