Copernicus Did Not Cite Esotericism

    There is an argument that "the phenomenon" is ambiguous and fleeting. The elusive apparitions act with intent and even a sense of humor, or so say many of those who believe they have met the UFOs, Bigfoot, and similar oddities up close and personal.

My friend tells me if there are such goings ons, the instigator simply refuses to be corralled. They say it's like a soap bubble drifting on the breeze, colorful and attracting our interest, yet disintegrating under the very grasp which tries to contain it. 

The sights and events often interpreted to be related to UFOs and similar reported phenomena, some suggest, must surely all be from the same mold. This would account for its elusive nature and an overwhelming lack of confirmed physical evidence, even as cost effective technologies have advanced which would make the collection of hitherto absent evidence all the more feasible.   

Such theories of an intelligence behind an overarching and elusive "phenomenon" teeter on the edge of subjectively assigning definitive characteristics to apparitions not yet shown to so much as exist, at least not "exist" in more commonly accepted definitions of the word. Some would argue therein lies the rub, and perhaps they are correct. Maybe further knowledge of UFOs and things that go bump in the night indeed lies in the realms of the esoteric and traditions passed down among indigenous populations. 

If that is the case, however, they must also take responsibility for understanding they cannot expect those who prioritize evidence-based research to embrace their assertions on faith alone. They must effectively demonstrate a specific difference between their chosen endeavors and searching the snow on the television screen for patterns of intelligence. If there is a difference, it should be demonstrable.

If knowledge of the "phenomenon," "other," "visitors," or whatever labels one chooses to project upon it, is more likely found in monasteries than science labs, the scientist trying to simultaneously sell both ideas to the public - and funders - must come to terms with the dilemma. At the least, it is unreasonable to take the role of a persecuted Copernicus, suggesting those who argue alternative views will not accept your evidence, when your argument advantageously relies upon the notion your white whale leaves no evidence when convenient. It can't be both.

Identify What You Want

    We've all been there. You log into your favorite social media site and rapidly forget what you even liked about it. Snark is rampant, jokes aren't funny, and your intelligence is insulted by nonsense meant to be taken seriously. It can be difficult to remember what you hoped to get out of social media, and it can be even more difficult to keep in mind that not everyone shares your goal. Most may not, actually.

Identifying what we're doing on a social media site may be a good idea. If you're reading this blog and have a Twitter account, for instance, you may have hoped to find people discussing UFO stuff online. Maybe you hoped you'd learn something about UFOs, or share some of your ideas with others. 

Many hope to find like-minded people to talk about topics they find challenging to share with friends and family. Many such attempts result in a wide variety of online responses, ranging from over the top credulousness to caustic rebuttals. This is an inevitable part of social media interactions, and the sooner we accept it, the better. This doesn't mean we should accept abusive remarks, but neither should we expect emotionally safe behavior from dysfunctional keyboard warriors. Ya gotta step in some crap if ya wanna get to the barn.

We might take responsibility for seeking online interactions, and what type of interactions we're looking for. Are we looking for UFO contacts? What for, exactly? What do we expect to gain? What are we willing to contribute in return, and are we able to voice this?

I'm reminded of complications that frequently arise between UFO witnesses and investigators. Both parties often seem to think their intentions should be understood without having to state them. A more functional perspective might be that witnesses could intentionally identify what kind of assistance they are seeking, and investigators could be prepared to clarify what services they claim to offer.

Are we looking for a competent investigation, or are we seeking emotional support? The skills and resulting activities for providing such services could vary greatly. It would be helpful if we could accurately identify what we hope to gain from contacting a UFO organization or investigator, and questions we might ask to facilitate the process. 

Similar might be said for swimming around social media. We would be wise to know what we hope to gain and how we intend to achieve it. Understand the inherent risks of emotionally leading with the chin in public forums. Choose your support systems wisely, as well as sources you identify as offering quality information.

Be kind to yourself and expect to make mistakes. They're signs you're trying. And identify what you hope to achieve. Otherwise, you'll never achieve it.

There's Something in the Woods: Hope and Faith

If you take I-4 to Hwy. 27 and follow it south a couple dozen miles or so, you'll come to an “Old Florida” small town by the name of Lake Wales. If you're with someone who knows where they're going, you might then head east on 60 through orange groves and cattle country until you take a right onto a two-lane road. That road runs south through more orange groves into another road that circles a lake. Heading around the lake you'll find a dirt road that winds into some woods. As you make your way into the woods you'll round a corner and encounter an unexpected, seemingly anomalous sight. Rising out of the forest floor in defiance of time and elements is St. Anne's Shrine.

“Wow,” I mumbled as I tossed open the car door to climb out and take a closer look.

A bridge leads to St. Anne's Shrine, where statues depict a kneeling St. Anne to the left
as Mother Mary watches from above 

This seeming monument to humankind's hope and faith stands some twenty or more feet high. An altar is flanked by arched doorways while the top extends and bows forward, sheltering what was no doubt considered the sacred heart of the structure. Personal effects left by visitors have been carefully placed about. Candles and artificial flowers are plentiful, as are ferns growing wild.

Sunlight shimmers through an oak and palm tree canopy upon a stone bridge leading to the shrine. It both literally and metaphorically bridges the world to the statues of St. Anne and Maria on the other side. The bridge crosses a relatively large ditch which appears to have been intentionally dug in a manner to arc around the front of the structure, the remains of a church built some 98 years ago.

A devout Canadian Catholic by the name of Napoleon Pelletier is credited with single-handedly building and maintaining the church while he was visiting the still sparsely populated area. As the story goes, he built the structure about 1920 in gratitude for his ill son's revived health. Read more about the story on Wikipedia. 

Concrete slabs containing many symbolic decorations lie across the front of the shrine. One quickly assesses this was no small act of devotion manifested as a construction product, much less if undertaken a century ago. Initials carved in a tree trunk, it's not. 

Pelletier's handiwork apparently even included another statue of St. Anne erected upon stone in the nearby lake, though that particular figure is no longer standing. Many people, reportedly numbering into the thousands, made pilgrimages to the church in years long past. The still small road to the structure was crowded with visitors during select holidays.

A smaller stone monument remains to the left of the back of the shrine, where St. Anne stands in front of eleven stone columns. To the rear right is a relatively small stone formation, possibly once used as a christening pool. According to a memorial marker appropriately placed towards the front of the site, Napoleon Pelletier passed away in 1942 and is buried on the site.

Ghost Rockets Documentary Showcases Humankind's Quest for Answers

The Ghost Rockets website was recently launched, allowing visitors to explore a collection of declassified Swedish documents on the reported sightings of the 1940's. An associated documentary, Ghost Rockets, will soon be released. The approximately hour-long film with English subtitles follows the investigations and activities of a Swedish UFO organization. International audiences should find the film of interest for a variety of reasons.

Swedish Air Force officer reportedly seeks 
evidence of a "ghost rocket," circa 1946

The investigators seem sincere, and they are certainly not prone to sensationalism. They appear to seek legitimate answers for the UFO reports they receive, and the vast majority of times they find them. From reflections on windows to the planet Venus and all points in between, the investigators typically solve the sightings. It is the remaining two percent of their some 19,000 documented reports that fascinate them.

Take, for instance, a UFO sighting reported by a couple of hikers. Several years back, but much more recently than the 1940's, the man and woman claimed to have witnessed a rocket-like object descend upon a lake, appear to land, and subsequently sink. Investigators were intrigued at the possibility of obtaining physical evidence supporting the report.

Filmmakers take viewers through stages of the investigation, from planning to execution and the ever important aspect of fundraising. Educating the public on the group's activities and making pleas for financial support become standard ops when aiming to explore the bottom of a remote lake.

Audiences of diverse nationalities should find it interesting to watch how another culture approaches and works with the topic of UFOs. Discussions cover a wide range of subject matter, and, somewhere along the way, as the witnesses join investigators on a journey to the lake in search of answers, one might very well develop the suspicion the road is indeed better than the inn.

Ghost Rockets is recommended. It is about much more than Swedish UFO reports; it is about the people who make and investigate them. It is a story of humankind and its quest to understand its environment, itself, and its place in its environment, wherever that quest may lead and however flattering or humbling it may become.

Learn more, view the trailer and pre-order the film at ghostrockets.se.

Bhagavan Das Visits Central Florida

Bhagavan Das, 1960's counterculture icon, was prominently featured during the Temple of Sound Weekend held at Amrit Yoga Institute of Central Florida. A spiritual teacher, musician and performer, the guru was accompanied by his wife, Kali, during a Friday night presentation. Many follow such teachers in hopes of more healthily integrating life experience with deeper understandings of the nature of reality.

Bhagavan Das is credited with mentoring Ram Dass and opening for the Grateful Dead, among other items of note. More about the Friday night performance is described in my post, Bhagavan Das at Amrit Yoga Institute, at Orlando Paranormal Examiner.

Buddha's Birthday Celebration

The man recognized as the Buddha was born Siddhartha Gautama. It was after Siddhartha undertook a spiritual quest of various extremes that he eventually arrived at a middle way and is believed to have attained enlightenment.

The exact date he was born is somewhat a matter of debate, as one might reasonably understand of a day that dawned some 2,500 years ago. Specifics depend on the particular lineage of Buddhism one consults, but the birthday of the Buddha is generally agreed to fall sometime during the early part of the second quarter of our currently used calendar year. It therefore came to pass that the first weekend of May, 2012, in Orlando, Florida, jointly consisted of a supermoon, Cinco de Mayo and a grand celebration conducted at Guang Ming Temple in which the birth of the Buddha was honored.

Buddhism and the Paranormal

One need not look too awfully far to find circumstances within Buddhist traditions of potential interest to those who follow things that go bump in the night. Certain Buddhist texts, for instance, describe the Buddha and his initial followers to have been visited by devas, or non-human beings considered to be more highly evolved than humans. On one occasion the arrival of the devas was said to "light up the entire Jetta Grove with their effulgence."

A deva was also said to have counseled the Buddha shortly after his enlightenment. While still sitting beneath the now famed bodhi tree, it seems Siddartha experienced feelings of futility when considering explaining his acquired knowledge to others. The deva then arrived, however, and encouraged the Buddha to distribute his insights, explaining that some people had less dust in their eyes than others and would therefore benefit greatly from his wisdom and guidance.

The Buddhist worldview includes room for a wide variety of non-human beings, entities and non-ordinary states of consciousness. To an extent, actually, that practicing Buddhists do not view certain circumstances as particularly unexplained or perplexing that are commonly thought to be so in the traditional Western worldview.

It should be noted, however, that Buddhism is considered a practice of mindfulness and being. The practice is centered around meditation techniques, and monks do not typically encourage disproportionately delving into any particular concept or aspect of study as compared to learning practical application of acquired skills. Doing so might at times be difficult when chewing on such potentially distracting mental puzzles as those contained in The Tibetan Book of the Dead and similar such circumstances. Thus the Buddhist saying, "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water - after enlightenment, chop wood, carry water." 

The Celebration

I was met by the pleasant aroma of burning incense upon entering the Guang Ming Temple of Orlando. The facility well accommodated the hundreds of visitors who attended the Sunday, May 6, celebration.

The schedule for the day included a morning formal ceremony, entertainment activities and guided tours of the temple. Lots of vegetarian dishes were available to enjoy by afternoon, and cultural festivities consisted of an impressive art exhibit and silent auction.

Various statues and figurines were available in the silent auction, including a particularly detailed large wood piece. Calligraphy, framed copies of Buddhist texts and similar such keepsakes were also offered.

Items available in the silent auction included:

Just a few of the many quality entries in the art exhibit:



A striking painting by Xinlin Fan

The sun on a beach horizon painted by Sylvia Wan

Eleven-year-old Jefferson Tao expressed his fondness for foods
from the corners of the globe

Melody Halbert, eleven-years-old, shared her interpretation of people of
diverse ethnic backgrounds jointly supporting space exploration 

Eleven-year-old Jenna Chen showed quite the knack for drawing a tiger

   

All photos in this post were taken on May 6, 2012, at the Buddha's Birthday Celebration conducted at Guang Ming Temple, pictured below.

The Maitreya Project

During the Thanksgiving weekend I received a phone call from a long time friend in Orlando, inviting me to join them to visit a Vietnamese Buddhist center. The Phap Vu Buddhist Cultural Centre is located in Orlando and was hosting collaborators of the Maitreya Project, a Buddhist initiative dedicated to providing cultural and humanitarian services on a wide and long-term scale. The project currently includes the Heart Shrine Relic Tour, a world tour in which sacred Buddhist relics are displayed for public viewing. The viewing of these relics is believed by many to include substantial benefits to the participants, and Phap Vu was honored to be a hosting venue for the tour during the weekend.

The call inspired me to consider circumstances from what has now been many years ago. It was early in my search for answers related to the UFO phenomenon that I first came across some material that referenced the Buddhist world view. It was suggested to refer to the Tibetan Book of the Dead for further reading on topics such as non-human entities and the possible landscapes of human consciousness. I did as suggested, and I went on to develop a deep interest in Buddhist philosophy and meditation techniques. This led to my fascination with various states of consciousness, the extents that personal conditioning profoundly effects our perceptions, and similar such aspects of a Buddhist meditation practice that easily correlate with certain aspects of the current Western mental health paradigm.

I therefore accepted my friend's invitation and accompanied them to the Phap Vu Centre to view the relics. I was looking forward to exploring what would prove to be my current perceptions of the Buddhist community while considering the contrasts that might become apparent between my present and past perspectives.

The Maitreya Project is in itself a rather amazing and ambitious initiative. Inspired and co-founded by Tibetan Lama Thubten Yeshe, the project is funded solely by donations. Project personnel are constructing what will be an absolutely breath taking facility in Northern India. The facility will support extensive education and healthcare services, contribute to much needed economic growth, include a stunning 500-foot tall statue of the Buddha designed to stand no less than 1,000 years, and much more. To learn more about the Maitreya Project visit maitreyaproject.org.

The Heart Shrine Relic Tour, which publicly displays sacred Buddhist relics, is an arm of the Maitreya Project. The relics will eventually come to rest at the facility in Northern India.

Buddhist relics are artifacts that were instrumental to noted Buddhist teachers and even physical remnants of the remains of highly respected Buddhists. On display, for example, are remnants said to be remains of the cremated Buddha himself. Such artifacts are of course treated with the highest of respect and care.

Additional remnants include notable memos and literature, donated personal items from sacred teachers that have been collected and carefully maintained for centuries and even thousands of years, and similar such items of interest. Due to the sacred nature of the items, a great deal of ceremony precedes the public viewing. The ceremony includes combinations of sacred teachings, chanting, select music and rhythmic drumming. The public laypersons are then directed how to properly browse the relics in a collective clockwise motion around the large display.

The day that I attended there were approximately 75 other people in attendance. A large percentage of these were laypersons, yet there are several monks touring with the relics. There are also many laypersons from a diverse variety of nationalities that volunteer to tour, as well as many volunteers at each venue of the tour, all of which provide services to attendees and monks.

One of the interesting aspects surrounding the Heart Shrine Relics Tour is that many people believe the relics hold, or at least somehow manifest, special energies. These energies are said to facilitate healing and well-being. I therefore welcomed the opportunity to speak with fellow attendees, some of whom were touring with the relics, and hear their perspectives on the relics.

Many attendees spoke of profound experiences surrounding the relics. Some were so convinced of the accuracy of their perceptions that they were traveling great distances. Testimonies included profound observations at a prison where the relics had been displayed, a town where the crime rate dramatically decreased during the display of the relics, and many accounts of improved physical health and mental well being.

I spoke at length with two monks, one male and one female, who are touring with the relics. They described some quite interesting circumstances, and I of course have no reasons to doubt their word, or at least their beliefs in their observations. They explained that some of the relics are multiplying; that the amounts of cremated remains may increase periodically. The female monk further explained to me that she has witnessed and participated in the rituals as described in the Tibetan Book of the Dead and associated with a monk dying, or his consciousness moving on from his body, as she put it. She described sometimes profound circumstances, such as the body continuing to sit upright in a meditative posture and maintain certain vital signs, long after the heart had ceased beating. It should be noted that the Buddhist world view does not find such circumstances to be paranormal, but related to consciousness and mental activity.

I eventually worked my way into the line of laypersons circling the relics. I considered meditating on healing my aging body as I viewed the relics, or perhaps attempting to allow the collective healing energies to simply wash over my mind and body. I viewed the apparent remains of the Buddha. I viewed a 700 year-old incense holder apparently owned by a highly respected lama. I viewed a book apparently once held and studied by a great Buddhist teacher. I carefully viewed all the relics, monitoring my mind and body as best I could, attempting to mindfully note any responses of particular interest.

As I neared the end of the circle I was navigating, I encountered a young female monk. I had the option to kneel before her and accept her blessings. I gratefully and respectfully accepted, and with no more communication than a comforting smile she held a vessel containing relics to the top of my head. She held the vessel there for several seconds, eventually removing it, and I could then see in her eyes that I had been blessed and was free to proceed on my way, both literally and metaphorically.

While an intellectual part of my consciousness can indeed attempt to explain the testimonies and belief systems of the attending Buddhists as the results of various phenomena that might easily fall within the parameters of known and natural circumstances, perhaps that is not the most relevant point. Perhaps what is most relevant is that individuals may indeed find their higher powers and/or connect with one another and the universe through Pentecostal revivals, Catholic rites and rituals, authentic Native American ceremonies, or any number of such activities that, from even a short distance, can begin to all look quite similar. Maybe, ultimately, there is little consequence of what people choose to believe as compared to how well their beliefs equip them to interact with one another. Perhaps that is most practical and most important, and perhaps what some might term paranormal and metaphysical phenomena is subject to manifest within any religion or philosophy simply because such phenomena is part of our world, as are the religions and philosophies themselves. Perhaps it only stands to reason that they would cross paths now and then.