Voices From The Cosmos

by C B Scott Jones

  However, that doesn’t mean the subject of life outside our planet isn’t being discussed or explored. In fact, there are a number of projects working toward the goal of understanding if life can or does exist off Earth. Here are a few examples:

  SETI, The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, was originally stood up with help from NASA, but has since been moved to other sources of private funding. SETI’s main purpose is to act as a giant ear on behalf of the human race, pointing an array of ground-based telescopes towards space to listen for any signal from another world.

  Kepler is a NASA spacecraft in orbit that’s main goal is to search for Earth-like planets. Such a planet would be located in the “Goldilocks” zone of a distant solar system—not too hot and not too cold—and could potentially be habitable by life as we know it. The Kepler mission is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover Earth-sized, rocky planets in or near the habitable zone of the star (sun) they orbit.

  The Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity, is an automobile-sized rover that NASA is launching soon (Curiosity was launched on November 26, 2011, and successfully landed on Mars August 8, 2012.) The rover’s onboard laboratory will study rocks, soils, and other geology in an effort to detect the chemical building blocks of life (e.g., forms of carbon) on Mars and will assess what the Martian environment was like in the past to see if it could have harbored life.

  A last point: Many scientists and mathematicians have looked with a statistical mindset at the question of whether life likely exists beyond Earth and have come to the conclusion that the odds are pretty high that somewhere among the trillions and trillions of stars in the universe there is a planet other than ours that is home to life.

  Many have also noted, however, that the odds of us making contact with any of them—especially any intelligent ones—are extremely small, given the distances involved.

  But that’s all statistics and speculation. The fact is we have no credible evidence of extraterrestrial presence here on Earth.”

  Phil Larson works on space policy and communications at the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy

  The first obvious point to observe is that the official government of the United States is still sitting on a festering issue about which its hands are tied. It is accurate to say but currently difficult to explain and prove that this subject is not controlled by the U.S. or any other country. There are serious consequences from this. The worst is that the power and profit that accrues to the global financial community from suppressing the truth about ET/Earth contact has resulted in the corruption underlying more than a decade of perpetual war and savaging of the environment and Earth resources, and the inevitable consequences of placing profit before public interest. A saving grace of this boycott of reality protects us from sudden disclosure that would only exacerbate the existing problems and create others. The “other” news is that pre-disclosure mature global dialogue about what disclosure will mean is both essential and possible. Fundamentally, the problem is political and economic, and not about technology.

  Following the dialogue, an expected building global consensus about the opportunities following disclosure will be the leverage needed for the “not so secret” government to shift to their Plan B that ultimately will be just as profitable as their current strategy. The added features are that the odds for Earth’s survival will greatly increase, as will the quality of life of all the world’s citizens.

  But wait a minute, the White House told a flat-out lie in a program designed to show transparency and openness. Yes, that is correct and it cannot be excused by noting that all governments lie. Keep reading. The next section addresses a more important subject than denial about contact.

  Here There be Dragons

  In this context, dragons are a metaphor for danger, and danger avoidance is obviously significant. What follows is an assessment of danger identification. This is important because the specifically alleged danger is highlighted by two quite opposite agendas.

  The first of these has been decades of drumbeats about the alleged threat presented to Earth by extraterrestrials. Another voice can be heard that represents a completely different vision and reality. This book is part of the voice. Please listen carefully. One voice is true. The other is false and dangerously so.

  The warning “Here there be Dragons” can be traced back to ancient seafaring times when nautical charts were woefully lacking in details and accuracy. When this phrase was scripted on a chart it meant “sailor beware.” As more adventurous captains returned with new information about distances to land masses, and detailed navigational data, the “dragon” alert warnings began to disappear from charts. What previously was unknown and therefore a potential hazard became known. Experienced based knowledge was the key. Certainly some of what was learned by experience was correctly determined to be a hazard to the ships and crews of the time.

  Fear of the unknown is not exceptional in the human condition. And manipulation of fear by religions, parents, bullies, banks, governments, con artists (it is a very long list!) is a sad reality of life on Earth. When a Fear Card is played, it is important to discover who is behind the move in addition to accurately assess the reality of threat upon which the fear is based.

  No U.S. president played the fear card with greater skill than Ronald Reagan. For years he repeatedly asked a clever question that introduced the alien threat theme. The absolutely best example of this was on September 21, 1987 in Reagan’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly:

  “Can we and all nations not live in peace? In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity. Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world. And yet, I ask you, is not an alien force already among us? What could be more alien to the universal aspirations of our peoples than war and the threat of war?”

  This articulation is very sophisticated. The alien threat is presented at the front end, and he finishes by co-opting the UN reason for existence, ending war, but that, of course would happen after we came together and defeated an alien attack on Earth.

  It is no insult to Reagan’s intelligence to suggest that this speech was given to him to read for that particular occasion. He gets to wave the flag of Peace on Earth while making the case for spending billions for his hopeless Star Wars dream. Of course, the real dream was the profit of the military-industrial –congress complex, and the Reagan administration’s booming increases of the military budget was a dream come true.

  We cannot end this section without noting something very historically important from the Reagan Cold War period. The Cold War, 1947-1991, between the USSR and the US followed the end of World War II. It was marked with cycles of peek tension as each side responded to what they perceived to be an unacceptable change in the balance of power. For example, the Berlin Blockade, 1948-1949 was the first major crisis of the Cold War.

  This was a time when both sides were trying to exploit the missile technology demonstrated by Germany at the end of WW II. The objective of both sides was to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capability. The USSR was the first to do this, and trumped that when they launched Sputnik 1, an earth orbiting satellite proving they also had a guidance system necessary to make the ICBM a weapon system.

  The missile race was on, the USSR was ahead, and the term “missile gap” was born. The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 15-28, 1962 was an important piece on the US/USSR chess board, but the major pieces were the inventory if ICBM missiles, and balance of their numbers, i.e. the Missile Gap. An explanation of this gap is known as the “Gilpatric’s Principle.” It is named after the US Deputy Secretary of Defense, Roswell L. Gilpactric. His principle articulates the ironic consequences for the USSR of Soviet secrecy and USopenness, “The Soviets are forced to work very h
ard to keep up with whatthey knowwe are doing in order to keep up with whatwe thinkthey are doing.”

  The significance of the Gilpatric Principle was its pertinence before sophisticated reconnaissance satellites, military and civilian, became normal eyes and ears in the skies. The impact of space-based information gathering satellites has transformed warfare, and the impact in civilian sectors is equally huge.

  Things deep underground can still be hidden from cameras and radar, but if anyone talks about them more than once, secrets will be unlocked. This addresses a key problem in intelligence. Political leaders want to know what the “intentions” of a potential enemy are. Military Rule One: Weapons are issued to be used, but when, where and why usually remain to be answered.

  This book is a tutorial on how all political leaders in the future will be able to get all of their questions answered, and voters will also be able to get all of their questions answered about political leaders.

  In a relative sense, the messages of this book are simple: remote viewing and telepathy are real human “technologies,” and they are very valuable. The real exciting and complex answers are ahead. Extraterrestrial races exist and are older than the human race. Some coexist on Earth with humans and were here first. From our small sample those who are normally in the physical dimension had one head, two arms and two legs but were distinctly different from Humans. All of them have mind skills far beyond the average Human. This predicts that a fully mature post contact world will be going through a complete social and economic transformation. Respect and cooperation will either be the new norm or Human civilization will self-destruct.

  The Hollywood/ET Nexus

  For years Hollywoodhas played a profitable role in keeping the alien threat idea alive. The U.S. Department of Defense is usually willing to provide locations, equipment and personnel as long as the military is presented in a favorable light. For example, the 1996 filmIndependence Day that featured the White House being destroyed by a fifteen mile wide alien spacecraft, such assistance was offered. However, that was subsequently withdrawn when the film’s producers refused to remove the script’s Area 51, and Roswell alien UFO and alien crew member references. The film predictably featured hideously looking aliens and a scene in which a Roswell ET crew member regains consciousness after fifty-years and revealed that its species mission was to travel from planet to planet, destroying all life and harvesting the planets natural resources. Of course, by film’s end the U.S. military with significant civilian help defeated the aliens. The film’s combined domestic and international box office gross was $816 million. While that is impressive, the Star Wars franchise is the third highest grossing film series of all times behind Harry Potter and James Bond. We are talking billions now. That is serious money being made on feeding the human appetite for fantasy. We can understand why the secret keepers and mind twisters are so delighted to have such a profitable partner; no extra pay for their services is required.

  The simple messages of these films are direct and memorable. “There is a global threat to Earth from predatory aliens; U.S. military can handle it.” It is fortunate that the threat hypothesis is false, because the capability claim of being able to handle it is preposterous.

  The producers ofIndependence Day generously and shrewdly provided the White House a private screening of the film for Bill Clinton and his family before its nationwide release in the U.S.

  The fictional movie claim of an alien threat is important. It has conditioned a generation of the world to the idea of “alien threat.” Sometime in the future of most of the readers of this book a decision will be made by those currently maintaining a boycott on the reality of Earth/ET contact. The decision will be whether or not the formal announcement of ET/Earth contact will be made with a “threat spin.” This is why the pre-disclosure dialogue about what disclosure will mean is so important. The dialogue will directly influence that decision.

  We sincerely believe that the dialogue will result in affirming the capability of the needed transformation that earns for Earth an invitation to take its rightful place in the Cosmic Community.

  Who Else is in the Game?

  The world’s great religions are major players, but only one has suited up for the game. Catholicism is the only major religion that has publicly stepped forward on the issue. A very brief account of the Vatican’s current involvement starts with Monsignor Corrado Balducci. Balducci was a member of the Vatican Curia and starting in 1995 spoke openly about the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligences interacting with Earth. He identified that his interest and exploration into psychiatry and parapsychology led him into the UFO and ET field. He strongly defended the value of human testimonies using theological arguments for their acceptance and importance. He also drew from ancient church history to support his views. He quoted from the bookThus Spoke Padre Pio (author Don Nello Castello, 1974). “Someone in Padre Pio’s confraternity asked him, ‘Father, I thought Earth was nothing compared to the stars and all the other planets,’ to which Padre Pio replied, ‘Yes, and if we leave Earth we are nothing. The Lord certainly didn’t restrict his glory to this little planet. On other planets, there will be beings without sin.” Two other examples that Balducci used were from Cardinal Nicolo Cusano (1401-1464) who wrote, “There is not a single star in the sky which we can rule out the existence of life, even if different from ours,” and the Jesuit astronomer, Father Angelo Secchi (1818-1866) who wrote, “it’s absurd to consider the worlds that surround us as uninhabited deserts.” (These quotes are from an interview with Monsignor Balducci by Adriano Forgione, Editor-in-Chief of the Italian UFO Magazine ‘Dossier Alien’ in April 1999).

  Balducci’s citation of Saint Pio’s observation that, “On other planets there will be beings without sin,” will be heard again from a Catholic spokesman who brings a modern scientific perspective joined with theology to the subject.

  In April 2000, Zecharia Sitchin, a Hebrew scholar and researcher of ancient civilizations, a biblical archaeologist, and a descendant of Abraham met with Monsignor Balducci during an international conference held in Bellaria, Italy. Sitchin reported on his website that during their meeting they arrived at three common conclusions: extraterrestrials can and do exist on other planets; they can be more advanced than us; and materially, Man could have been fashioned from a pre-existing sentient being.

  Monsignor Balducci died in September 2008, Zecharia Sitchin died in October 2010.

  The Vatican’s Close Look at the Heavens

  The Catholic News Service lead news story in 14 May 2008 was headlined: “Vatican astronomers say if aliens exist, they may not need redemption.” The quote was in reference to what Jesuit Father Jose Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory had said during remarks in an interview published May 13 by the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. But that was old news as reported above. The new news from Father Funes was that Christians should consider alien life as an extraterrestrial brother. This was a very important theological statement and one with which millions of U.S. Christian evangelicals do not agree. Many Christians, largely Evangelicals, believe that the extraterrestrials are fallen angels, followers of Satan.

  It is no coincident that this modern voice from the Vatican is coming from Jesuit priests. Since the foundation of the Jesuit Order in 16th Century, compared with other orders, Jesuits have more men, more flexibility in the type of work undertaken, and a tradition of scholarship. The Vatican Observatory is one of the oldest astronomical research institutions in the world.

  Pope Francis, elected in 2013, became the first Jesuit Pope.

  The Quran and ET Life

  The world’s great religions undoubtedly watch each other. Crudely put, they are concerned about their market share of souls. At this point in current history, only the Vatican has publicly made statements concerning where extraterrestrials fit according the Catholic theology. Calling them our Brothers is a bold theological and political statement. None of the other major religions have publicly commente
d about this. One reason for this silence may be the confidence that other religious leaders have about their followers understanding of their religion’s belief on this subject, and the Quran has straightforward comments about this. The source for the following is Mirza Tahir Ahmad at, http://www.alislam.org/library/books/revelation/part_4_section_7.html and used with permission.

  Allah is He Who created seven heavens, and of the Earth the like thereof...

  It needs to be explained here that the figure ‘seven’ can be treated as a specific term of the Quran in this verse and many other similar ones. As such it would mean that the universe comprises many units of heavens, each divided into groups of seven (a perfect number), each having at least one Earth to it which will be supported by the entire system of that heaven (galaxy). Referring to that system in general, a more specific verse on the existence of extraterrestrial life runs as follows:

  And among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and the Earth, and of whatever living creatures (da’bbah) He has spread forth in both...

  Da’bbahcovers all animals which creep or move along the surface of the Earth. It does not apply to animals which fly or swim. It is certainly not applicable to any form of spiritual life. In Arabic a ghost will never be referred to asda’bbah, nor an angel for that matter. The second part of the same verse speaks not only of the possibility of extraterrestrial life, but it categorically declares that it does exist—a claim which even the most modern scientific researchers have not been able to make so far with any measure of certainty. Yet, this is not all that this verse reveals. Wonder upon wonder is added when we read at the end of this verse, that He (Allah) will bring together the life in the heavenly bodies and the life on Earth when He so pleases:

  ...And He has the power to gather them together (jam-’i-him) when He will so please.