by D W Pasulka
physics was the go- to explanatory framework for impos-
sible skil s like remote viewing, information downloads, and
the strange physical aspects of UFO events, such as their
ability to appear and disappear. Even my atheist colleagues
entertained quantum theories as possible explanations for
the extraordinary abilities that certain saints were reported
to have possessed. A colleague who scoffed at my interest
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in UFO cultures was nonetheless fascinated by my work on
the cases of saints like Teresa of Avila, who was reported to
levitate, and other saints who were said to have been in two
places at the same time— bilocation. After one such discus-
sion he sent me a note in which he theorized, off the record,
about bilocation. He linked it to his own studies of quantum
physics.
“The idea of saints being in two places at once is in-
triguing,” he wrote. “Physical laws seem to suggest the im-
possibility of being in two places at once, but the idea of
‘superposition,’ in quantum mechanics suggests that atoms
and electrons can be in two places at once. Not only that,
but these two things seem to remain connected to one an-
other on some level in that they can influence one another.
Of course, larger objects have not been observed (scientifi-
cal y at least) to be in two places at once. And, I thought it
interesting, that in the cases of saints, bilocation is chiefly as-
sociated with acts of charity.”
“Charity?” I asked. That jogged a memory I had of both
Rey and Tyler saying that the idea of humility (not ego)
seems to be important to their “beings.”
“Can you say more about your idea of charity?” I asked.
“Scholastic philosopher Thomas Aquinas views acts of
charity as divinely infused/ inspired. This would place the
saint both in the world and not.”
I was mostly a bystander in the discussions of quantum
theory and mechanics, but I was intrigued that so many of
the scientist- believers used this relatively new branch of
physics to explain the phenomenon. This included Edgar,
one of six humans to have walked on the moon on the Apollo
14 lunar landing mission. Edgar earned a PhD in aeronau-
tics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of
T H E H U M A N R E C E I V E R | 2 03
Technology (MIT). He was also the founder of the Institute
of Noetic Sciences (IONS), which is dedicated to the study
of consciousness, and Quantrek, an institute populated by
physicists and scientists who study energy and conscious-
ness. He founded these institutions after a remarkable, tran-
scendent experience he had while on his way home from the
moon, floating in space, and looking at Earth.
The biggest joy was on the way home. In my cock- pit window,
every two minutes, I saw the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun,
and the whole 360 degree panorama of the heavens . . . and
that was a powerful, overwhelming experience. And suddenly
I realized that the molecules of my body and the molecules of
the space craft, and the molecules in the body of my partners,
were prototyped, manufactured in some ancient generation
of stars. And that was an overwhelming sense of oneness and
connectedness, it wasn’t them and us, it was “that’s me,” it’s all
of it, it’s one thing. And, it was accompanied by an ecstasy.
A sense, “Oh my God, wow, yes!” An insight. An epiphany.7
This experience was so profound that it changed the direc-
tion of his life. Upon his return to Earth, he went on an ex-
tended book encounter, voraciously reading as much as he
could on the topic of consciousness. Edgar had been raised
as a Southern Baptist and he was a trained scientist, yet he
final y found reports of a similar experience within the liter-
ature of Hinduism:
The experience in space was so powerful that when I got back
to Earth I started digging into various literatures to try to un-
derstand what had happened. I found nothing in science lit-
erature but eventual y discovered it in the Sanskrit of ancient
India. The descriptions of samadhi, Savikalpa samadhi, were
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exactly what I felt: it is described as seeing things in their
separateness, but experiencing them visceral y as a unity, as
oneness, accompanied by ecstasy.8
The transition back to Earth was difficult for Edgar, a feeling
that Tyler had expressed as wel , after each of his launches of
satellites and shuttles into space. Tyler said, “It’s an intense
experience to launch such a big thing into space; the whole
crew, the astronauts, the engineers, those in mission con-
trol, have to be working together as one unit. Nothing, and
I mean nothing, can go wrong. Then, it’s such a high when
the launch succeeds. Afterward we celebrate. But then, how
does a person go back to their normal life? How do we just
go to the gym? It’s surreal in way that is a complete and total
let- down. I would call it a form of grief.”
I met Edgar on two occasions. I knew that he believed in
UFOs and extraterrestrials, so I asked him to meet the small
group of researchers that I had organized in California. He
would attend our session via Skype. Beforehand I found out
everything I could about him and was surprised to learn that,
just like the other brilliant scientists I had interviewed, he
had been involved with the Stanford Research Institute (SRI).
He was also a practitioner of remote viewing. What was more
surprising to me was that he had conducted remote viewing
experiments in space during the Apollo lunar mission. These
experiments were not sanctioned by NASA, and Edgar said
that they were “secret.” Edgar Mitchel , like Tyler D., was part
of the hidden and unofficial history of the American space
program that I had been discovering— the cosmonauts and
rocket scientists, like Jack Parsons, who believed in extrater-
restrial or nonhuman beings that interacted with humans
with the goal of helping them achieve space travel and, in
T H E H U M A N R E C E I V E R | 2 0 5
Edgar’s case, peace on Earth. (He believes this is a prereq-
uisite for deep space travel.) In a sense, there was a hidden
history of esoteric cosmonauts. Edgar certainly fit the bil .
Edgar believed that extraterrestrials or nonhuman
intelligences intervened in space launches. Before our Skype
session I asked each of the other conference attendees, who
were all physical y present at the conference, to frame a
question to ask Edgar. We would each have time to ask our
question and we would all listen to his answers. When it came
time to ask the questions, I was the only one who asked Edgar
about extraterrestrials, even though that was the theme of the
conference. Apparently, the silencing mechanisms Jacques
had identified had been strongly internalized by my aca-
demic
colleagues. Here was an opportunity to quiz an astro-
naut, a scientist- believer in UFOs, yet most of the questions
had to do with whether or not humans would be able to live
together peaceably on Earth. This is an important question,
but it was not the question I would have thought of in these
circumstances. And indeed, why would he know the answer
to that question? He was an astronaut, not a deity!
When my turn came, I thanked him for being a part
of our session, and asked my question. “Edgar, I know that
you believe in extraterrestrials, and I also know that you be-
lieve they have been interfering with our satellites and some
of the rockets we launch into space. Can you describe how
you came to this knowledge and if you might know why they
would be doing this?”
Because of his connections, Edgar said, he was privi-
leged to know that extraterrestrials had dismantled several
weapons that the United States had launched into space.
He said that they did this because our weapons, particu-
larly nuclear weapons, not only damaged humans and our
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environment but also somehow damaged their environment.
He said that there were different species of aliens, and that
there were good ones and bad ones. The ones who intervened
in our space explorations were good ones.
I asked him to elaborate, if he would, on the nature
of the good and bad extraterrestrials. He appeared happy
that I had asked this question. He explained that there are
some people on Earth who are in contact with the good
extraterrestrials, and that they have missions to accomplish,
sometimes in secret. He believed (like Tyler and James) that
some extraterrestrials had left advanced technologies that
certain scientists can unlock and use for the good of humans
and the world. He said that we have already benefited from
this technology.
At the end of the interview, which lasted about an hour
and a half, I came away with several observations. Edgar used
language that I had heard used by many of the invisibles.
Certain words and phrases were repeated often enough to
form somewhat of a lexicon, or a language group. It reminded
me of academics who communicate in their own discipline’s
jargon, and unfortunately other people cannot understand
what they are talking about. I wasn’t sure what this meant,
other than that there was a group of people who shared a
common set of phrases and words and who also shared sim-
ilar beliefs about extraterrestrials, the US space program, and
technology.
Also, Edgar believed that networks of human–
extraterrestrial contact already exist. Organizations like
SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, were
not the preferred contact centers, apparently. Tyler had
mentioned this too. He thought humans, with their DNA
T H E H U M A N R E C E I V E R | 2 0 7
and cel ular receptors that worked like mini satellites, were
the best receivers of contact information from nonhuman
intelligences.
According to several of the scientist-
believers, in-
cluding Edgar, quantum physics provides a framework for
understanding the paranormal and supernatural events
and abilities, including remote viewing, miracles, and con-
tact with nonhuman intelligence. Rey and Edgar each called
this the contact modalities. Edgar’s theories are elaborated
in several of his books, and in his idea of the quantum holo-
gram theory of physics and consciousness. According to this
theory, Edgar says, information consists of patterns of en-
ergy. Information– energy packets are given off by matter. On
some level, all bodies of matter contain information.
Edgar and his associate Rudy Schild helped Rey under-
stand this theory, and Rey published articles arguing that
it provides a framework for his contact with nonhuman
intelligences. Significantly, he also argued that it retires the
conundrum of the subjective versus materialist approaches
that has plagued research of UFO events. “I now approach
the so-
called ‘ET contact phenomenon’ from a non-
traditional perspective, one that embraces both spiritual/
psychic and paranormal aspects, as well as decisively phys-
ical manifestations.”9
This theory is able bridge this gap because it posits a re-
ality that is made up of patterns of energy. Edgar’s theory is
elaborated in his idea of the “dyadic model” of conscious-
ness. This model, according to Edgar, explains how re-
mote viewing, telepathy, and even extraordinary mystical
experiences, such as his experience of Samadhi while trav-
eling back from the moon, are possible:
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Several factors emerge immediately from considering the
mystical experience from the dyadic point of view. The first
is that mystical insights are just information that requires in-
terpretation, not absolute and literal realities, that can stand
alone. The flaw in cultural interpretation of mystical inter-
pretation is precisely that of interpreting metaphor literal y.
However, a valid information function is taking place nev-
ertheless. Consider the experience of the nirvikalpa samadhi
which is described similarly in different traditions. In this ex-
perience the sense of Self merges with the cosmos and reality
is experienced as unity of Self with All- That- Is. The experience
is accompanied by intense ecstasy, a sense of eternity and a
complete loss of fear. The cultural interpretations are general y
that the experience represents union with the godhead, or the
ground of being. It is the experience of the “peace that passes
all understanding.” The dyadic model interpretation is that
the body/ brain is experiencing its “ground state” or resonance
with the zero point field. The awareness is the undifferenti-
ated awareness of the primordial field, as the sense of Self is
merged total y into the field. The question immediately arises
as to why an intense ecstasy plus a sense of security and eter-
nity accompany this state. It is only within the larger question
of why nature provided feelings at all that this question may
be answered. The internal feeling sense accesses the state of
wel being of the organism. In addition, the subconscious brain
functions integrate information from external senses and from
non- local sources to provide a “feeling” of alarm or security as
to the state of the environment. The feeling sense also provides
reward or punishment for behavior influencing survival: grat-
ification of thirst, hunger, sex drive, and discomfort or pain for
dangerous behaviors, etc.
According to Edgar, the feeling of ecstasy indicates that
this experience should be repeated. In this way, he integrates
an evolutionary component into his model. He explains
T H E H U M A N R E C E
I V E R | 2 0 9
how this model helps us understand how skil s like remote
viewing and telepathy are possible:
Although non- local effects have been observed and studied for
over a century by parapsychologists, in the absence of a com-
pelling theory the results have been ignored or disparaged and
certainly misrepresented by mainstream science. Non- locality
in quantum physics now provides a physical basis for these
effects. A large number of investigators for several decades
have demonstrated that brain waves can be synchronized and
information transferred between individuals across Faraday
cage barriers. The results do not obey the inverse square rule
of electromagnetic propagation, nor are they time dependent,
suggesting the phenomenon is a macro- scale version of
quantum non- locality, but with more degrees of freedom than
simple particles undergoing a double split experiment.10
Edgar worked to establish several organizations devoted to
the study of consciousness. He also helped fund and establish
the Disclosure Movement, which is a movement initiated by
the citizens of various countries to force their governments
to declassify documents related to UFOs. Through his
connections to astronauts and the US space program, he was
able to motivate people who worked for these institutions
to testify in front of Congress about UFOs. He is a pioneer
who supported scientists who wanted to study conscious-
ness and physics. This is now seen as a legitimate field of
study, but when Edgar started out it was not. He has joked
that when he began his work on consciousness studies he
was called a “space cadet” by some of his colleagues, while
others said he had been “lost in space.” I place Edgar within
a lineage of esoteric cosmonauts and rocket scientists, such
as Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, John (Jack) Parsons, Tyler D., and
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many others— people whose ideas and beliefs might appear
to be on the fringe, and are. They may be on the fringe of our
future.
Edgar had returned from space with the confidence of
one who has been where only twelve humans have ever gone.
Several months after my colleagues and I spoke with Edgar,
he passed away on the eve of the anniversary of his landing
on the moon.
R E Y R E P O RT S H I S E X P E R I E N C E