Speculatively, we are supposed to look away from the single individual; therefore, speculatively, we can speak only superficially about sin. The dialectic of sin is diametrically contrary to that of speculation.

Søren Kierkegaard [1]

In the same year that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published their Communist Manifesto (1848), Søren Kierkegaard published his remarkable book, The Sickness Unto Death. Part II of that book was titled, “Despair is sin.” If we indulge in diversionary speculations, said Kierkegaard, instead of living in faith, we fall into a labyrinth in which one error follows another.[2] Speculations founded on despair are often used to justify spiritual rebellion, leading to violence and crime. Such speculations ignore that every individual is responsible before God. In their eagerness for change (as if through change they could escape from themselves), people tend to divert attention from the central questions of life; namely, what is good and what is true? (Signifying an obligation.)

The nihilist will answer, “What does it matter? Nothing good can come of anything!” Then he will point to our dismal political situation. Of course, no sensible person would argue that we live in a paradise (though fools often argue that we should be living in a paradise). Yet, our political situation is not the cause of the existential despair we see today; rather, it has emerged out of that despair. In fact, we have Russia and China openly joining forces because many individuals in the West turned their back on the truth, on their duty (dare I say, before God). Despairing of the good, Americans and Europeans decided to make money instead; and so, we have built up the economic power of the murderous Chinese Communist Party. That is why Chinese President Xi Jinping is telling the People’s Liberation Army to “prepare for war” against America.[3] The West fed him, and now he is hungry for more. Some might say that taking Xi seriously is a form of despair. Some might say that, in this case, economic optimism is obligatory. And so the sinner soothes himself with an ever-false optimism. Consequently, Europe and America continue to turn a blind eye as Western businessmen soak up Chinese cash. Few of our businessmen act as though they were responsible before God. And so, they continue to trade with mass murderers as they drift toward certain destruction.

Western elite capture, by Chinese communist agents, would never have gotten so far if Western institutions were on a sound moral footing; that is, if people saw themselves as morally responsible actors. At the same time, major personalities on the American right, uninterested in opposing naked Russian military aggression, denounce Ukraine as the most corrupt country in the world. The Russian Army has devastated Ukrainian society with troops, artillery, and missiles. Here is the first major war in Europe since the Second World War, and half the American right is ready turn its back on an important potential ally.

The United States and NATO support Ukraine. But this support has not been wholehearted, timely, or sufficient. Fearing a Russian nuclear attack, the West is afraid to do the right thing for Ukraine. There are many politicians, as well, who are on the hook to Russia. For the moment they are compelled by public pressure to support Ukraine. But if public pressure in this area declines, those Western politicians that have been compromised by Moscow will turn against Ukraine. In that event, Russia’s armies will reach NATO’s borders and God only knows what the next move will be.

The West has suffered from decades of ideological subversion and cultural deconstruction. The communist left has weaponized race, sex, and class. Subversives are inside the White House, inside the Pentagon, inside Congress, and inside NATO. Making matters worse, the West’s religious and political institutions are intellectually mediocre and ideologically disoriented. The left and the right believe in false narratives. Add to this the gangsterism of the drug trade, stemming from casual drug use by everyday Americans and Europeans. Drug trafficking has long been part of communism’s program of subversion, as outlined by Joseph D. Douglass’s book, Red Cocaine. Operation “Friendship of Nations,” an operation to flood the West with illegal narcotics, began in 1960 under Nikita Khrushchev. And what is the result, 63 years later? Money laundering operations have enabled communist intermediaries to bribe public officials, engage in election fraud, and blackmail banks.  

Corruption is now pervasive: first, corruption of the truth by the distortions and lies of expedient practice; second, the corruption of leaders; and third, the corruption of the masses who have been misled and misinformed. This is our modernity,[4] which resembles the modernity of 2,000 years ago described by the Roman historian and contemporary of Augustus, Titus Livy. In fact, Livy wrote his history to inspire a return to traditional Roman values. As he explained,

I invite the reader’s attention to the much more serious consideration of the kind of lives our ancestors lived, of who were the men, and what the means both in politics and war by which Rome’s power was first acquired and subsequently expanded; I would then have him trace the process of our moral decline, to watch, first, the sinking of the foundations of morality as the old teaching was allowed to lapse, then the rapidly increasing disintegration, then the final collapse of the whole edifice, and the dark dawning of our modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them.

Explaining his work in these terms, Livy added that “history is the best medicine for a sick mind….[5] The collapse of the ancient world, which took four centuries to play out – with Livy’s history being a kind of literary rearguard action – provides twenty-first century man with a mirror. What happened to Rome is happening to us. What unfolded before is unfolding again. Philosophers and theologians (pagan and Christian) have supposed that our corruption problem is spiritual, involving alienation from God (or the divine ground), the source of life and wisdom. Man has lost his connection to Heaven. 

In healthy societies we find the Primacy of the Vertical, in the “mandate of heaven,”[6] in the Divine Right of Kings – where Popes crowned emperors and high priests guided kings (if the kings themselves were not priests). Even the epicurean usurper, Gaius Julius Caesar, sought the office of Pontifex Maximus as a stepping-stone to absolute power. It is useful for ambitious people to appear as God’s instruments. And so, an ever larger number of people have adopted religion as a hollow pretense – making society itself hollow. Through most of history, men have looked to Heaven for authority. Only in modern times was the formula inverted, so that authority no longer comes from Heaven, but from “the people.” And now we are making a sad discovery: namely, that the people are not God; and Democracy, as a system where the leaders are first the follow, has given us hollow men.[7]

The ancient Romans looked for divine favor or disfavor by studying the entrails of animals or the flight of birds, or signs in the sky. The Churchmen of the Middle Ages prayed and looked for answers in scripture and theologizing. Secular leaders of today ignore the sky, ignore scripture and theology. Yet some are looking to the most curious sign of all – the Unidentified Flying Object (UFO).

Consider, by way of example, the story told by Chris Bledsoe of North Carolina, who wrote a book titled UFO of God, which has become a number one bestseller in the U.S. – with a forward by a former CIA clandestine operator, and an introduction by a retired Pentagon colonel who specialized in paranormal research. Here is the story of strange “beings,” dancing orbs of light, and apparitions of “a lady” in ancient attire giving out apocalyptic prophecies.[11] Bledsoe and his witnesses say the phenomenon is real; and like the scientist, Jacques Vallée, Bledsoe remains dubious as to what the phenomenon is; – yet he believes it is “of God.” A strange claim, indeed, from a Baptist. Since he is not Catholic, he does not want to say the “lady” he encountered is the Virgin Mary. Yet healings have been alleged in the vicinity of Bledsoe’s mysterious orbs, which are attended by visionary warnings. At the same time, Bledsoe has come under attack from his community and church, suffering what he calls “ostracism … and misery.” Bledsoe’s critics say that his orbs are demonic. Others say they are angelic.

When Bledsoe resolved to quit the phenomenon, the phenomenon refused to quit him. Being drawn by voices to a strange rendezvous, he would find himself chastised. “Before me,” wrote Bledsoe, “a woman floated in a circle of light, poised, still and silent. She gazed down at me. Her beauty tranquilized me, and my fear vanished.” On his knees, Bledsoe was compelled to listen. “You know why I am here,” said the apparition. “You cannot quit now. You made an agreement that must be kept.” The lady told Bledsoe that the flying orbs were her “tools.” The beings that attended her orbs were “guardians.” The apparition further explained that Bledsoe’s apocalyptic visions were of a “possible” future for mankind. The floating lady wanted Bledsoe to trust her absolutely, that she would protect his family. Symbolically, Bledsoe was given a lump of living fur as an icon of humanity; that is, a creature without head or tail – “senseless, in dire need of protection and guidance.” Of further interest, Bledsoe wrote, “She warned that there were forces at work to cast phenomena like this in a negative light, and that if this view went out humanity would be set on a path to ruin. She said that my work was to prevent this dangerous deception from taking root.”[12]

Here is one of those staged encounters with the unknown, which Jacques Vallée has tried to interpret. “Once we have entered this maze,” wrote the French scientist, “there is no turning back. We can only go deeper into the darkness, accumulating new data with an uneasy knowledge that much of what we find is distorted and perhaps deliberately biased to confuse us into an irreversible belief in extraterrestrials.”[13]

As we have lost our moorings, being disconnected from our vertical in the Great Chain of Being,[14] should we be surprised to find a hand reaching down to pull us back from the brink of destruction? Or is it a hand dragging us to Hell?

the Darkening Mind

UFO investigator Jacques Vallée has expressed the concern that narratives rising out of the UFO phenomenon may become “the next form of religion.”[15] Should our political systems fail, people may pin their hopes on extraterrestrial rescuers. We should not be surprised if a variant of ET ideology has been gradually building on the fringes. Here we find a new political rhetoric, centered on ET contact, gaining adherents. This is not to the good, since the ideology of ET contact dovetails with totalitarian narratives – with anti-capitalist, anti-American, and anti-Western themes.

Could the so-called “Great Reset” be propelled, ultimately, by a belief in extraterrestrial contact? A socialist who wants us to live as one planet, under one Reich, with one Führer, might say that our admittance to the Galactic Federation will require planetary unification. Imagine the wonderful new technologies, cures for diseases, longer life, unlimited free energy that would then flow down to us from heaven. Who could resist such a seductive political program?

When world politics is viewed in terms of interplanetary politics, speculative despair becomes the key. Men who refuse to accept the realities of existence are liable to imagine a hedonistic, science fiction future. In their corruption, they are primed to embrace magnificent space aliens – or the representatives of aliens on Earth. However entertaining science fiction may be, political science fiction and its false narratives will only produce tyranny. This game is not for immatures minds or hollow men. Discernment is needed here, most of all; yet our light has been growing dimmer and our intellectual powers are on the wane. Most people do not know when a thing is proved. They do not know how to analyze or think.   

In his memoirs, the political philosopher Eric Voegelin related how he happened upon Professor Cleanth Brooks while crossing the LSU campus. “I met him deep in sorrow,” wrote Voegelin, “I asked him what worried him. He told me he had to prepare a chapter on typical mistakes for a textbook on English style….” The difficulty was that typical mistakes were hard to find. Oh yes, he said, many mistakes could be found in any education textbook – a dozen on every page. According to Voegelin, “He then explained to me that he could not use this method because educationists were far below the level of average literacy, and their mistakes could not be considered typical for the average English-speaking person.” But not to worry, Cleanth brooks found a way out of his dilemma. He could use sociology textbooks to find examples of typical mistakes in English usage.[16]

We appear to be approaching an age of illiteracy and superstition – an age that may have already dawned. Much of the “knowledge” that passes through our universities today is anti-knowledge, bearing the same relationship to knowledge that antimatter bears to matter. It seems, indeed, that we are overrun by academic dogmas that close the mind and shut off the soul. Karl Jaspers wrote:

If we think we have seized upon the total historical process as an objective knowledge, if we think that thus we have visualized wherein and whereby we exist, we have lost the sense of the encompassing source from which we live…. Whenever an observer thinks he knows what man is, what history is, what the self is as a whole, he loses his touch with the encompassing [source] and thus is cut off from his origin and his essence.[17]

If the first rule is honesty, then the second rule is that we do not have all the answers. The universe is a mystery, and behind that mystery lies the creator of the universe. Atheists and positivists will balk, but everything we know bespeaks order and purpose. There is a higher intelligence behind it all. Evidence of this higher intelligence appears in the human genome, in the calibration of gravity and other physical forces that allow the existence of living things.

With this UFO business we want, very badly, to connect with something or someone “above” us. We instinctively want to reestablish our vertical linkage. The UFO alien, supposedly far in advance of us, has become a God substitute. Consider the case of Dr. Steven Greer of the UFO Disclosure Project. His rhetoric may appear non-ideological on the surface, but his statements contain the seeds of a fearful doctrine. Greer promises to roll back greed (i.e., market capitalism) and end global poverty by giving ET technology to humanity. The problem, says Greer, is that “a bunch of fascists are keeping this away from us. They are fascists. Full stop.”[18] (He is referring to core players in the “evil” U.S. military-industrial complex.)

Greer teaches paying customers how to contact ETs through meditation protocols. His teachings bear a curious resemblance to spiritualism. At the same time, Greer talks of battling “dark forces.” For example, he said, “I invited Neil Armstrong to the Disclosure Project Event [at] the National Press Club, and this really good friend of his on my team said, he was informed that … [Armstrong’s] wife, his kids, and his grandkids would all be killed if he did that…. They would end up in accidents or something. And that’s true.”[19]

Buzz Aldrin, a Presbyterian who read from the New Testament when he reached the Moon, told Howard Stern in August 2007 that he saw nothing extraterrestrial during the Apollo 11 mission. The UFO he famously reported, which was following the Apollo 11 command module into space, turned out to be a panel that broke off from the Saturn V booster rocket. Yet Greer, in effect, is saying that Aldrin is a lair. So who should we believe?

The first question is: – why would the government threaten the family of an American hero like Armstrong, one of the most famous men who ever lived? Neil Armstrong is so famous, he could have called a press conference any day of the week. Who, then, would have dared lay a finger on him? He could have said whatever he wanted, and the entire nation would have hung on his every word.[20] What kind of conspiracy could have survived Neil Armstrong going public? So, if there was a conspiracy, why did they fail to kill Armstrong in some accident years ago. He was, almost certainly, an inconvenient witness who could not be controlled – and certainly not by threats! And, for that matter, if the conspiracy is so bloodthirsty why is Greer still breathing? Surely, if sinister forces wanted to suppress the truth, Greer and his entire family would have disappeared long ago.  

Greer, of course, made his allegation about Armstrong after the astronaut’s death in 2012. In other words, Armstrong is not able to contradict the story. Yet the story is contradicted by Armstrong’s life and character. A test pilot, an astronaut, the first man to walk on the moon, is not rolling over for some government thug. He also did not like people enriching themselves from his fame. When Armstrong’s barber sold the astronaut’s hair clippings without permission for $3,000,[21] he demanded that the barber give the $3,000 to charity. And now, if the famous astronaut were alive, how much would Greer be forced to give away?

Greer has also put words into the mouths of other famous people. For example, Greer made claims about briefing former CIA Director Jim Woolsey on UFOs. Woolsey reacted by sending Greer a letter, with the signature of three other witnesses, chastising Greer for misrepresenting a dinner conversation they once had.[22] The demagogy of maligning the U.S. Government while promising people a better life from reverse-engineered UFO technology, is a pretty odd grift.

If Greer is not to be trusted, then how do we explain all those “former” intelligence officials and military types attached to his Disclosure Project? Jacques Vallée offered an insight on this when he wrote, “Those who claim to bring us these amazing revelations are generally linked to the military or to the intelligence community themselves. What they are exposing is not the real secret group, but an outer layer of outright lies and deceptions that were meant to be exposed in the first place.”[23] Devastatingly, Vallée offers three examples of men who made UFO-related disclosures as follows: “Not only was John Lear a pilot for a CIA-controlled airline, and Bill Cooper a Naval Intelligence man, but Bill English served as an information analyst at a listening post north of London. Bill Moore has admitted that he was an informant for the Air Force – and possibly for other agencies as well – and his main contact, Richard Doty, was trained in disinformation and in psychological warfare.”[24]

The Rise of Magical Thinking

The attending contagion of irrational thought, once unleashed, can spread rapidly through a population, destroying constitutional government and the rule of law (especially if constitutional government is already severely weakened). At present we can see a rising tendency toward magical thinking on the right and the left, where dangerous policies are aggressively pushed as if the future of humanity depended on actions that cannot rationally produce the promised results.

Speculative despair leads to magical thinking and to conspiracy theories which are akin to magical thinking. These are theories involving evil cabalists who rule the world through banks and Masonic lodges; of baby-sacrificing Satanists in high places; of shapeshifting interplanetary reptiles who drink human blood, and little grey perverts in flying saucers. In all these scenarios the universe is in the grip of an invincible, invisible, superhuman oppressor. (The individual sinner, once again, is taken off the hook.) Here is a Gnostic mythology that attracts despairing humans as moths to a flame. Cut off from authentic spirituality, alienated millions are likely to succumb to an inverted faith where the Creator is depicted as a demon who has imprisoned us in the “Concentration Camp Universe of Eternal Return.” 

Speculative despair has many outward forms but is always the same underneath. Some exponents make their inverted faith sound reasonable. Others are less skilled at hiding their madness. Miguel Serrano, the Chilean high priest of Esoteric Hitlerism, wrote a schizophrenic hymn to the Hitlerian Age – which calls on “the Hero to transmute himself into more than a God before exiting … the illusory ‘Concentration Camp Universe’ of the Demiurge.”[25] Serrano’s ravings about “the black virgin,” “Kristianity versus Christianity,” and Hitler’s “spiritual victory” in the Second World War, are so explicitly Gnostic as to require no explanation. Serrano’s mad occult gibberish, introduced to the reader with a jolting “Heil Hitler,” shamelessly presents what other ideologists take pains to hide.  

Eric Voegelin warned of “magicians” whose “metastatic faith” (i.e., magical thinking) tries to transfigure reality into paradise. Serrano’s magic sought to transform reality through the “Tantrism of the SS” and the ecstatic “eternalizing” of the god Hitler. Marxists perform their magic through the dialectic of revolution. Yet there is no prospect of a better reality through Esoteric Hitlerism or Marxism. These prescriptions merely weaken the dividing wall between the world and Hell.

Magical thinking, of course, allows the magician to believe he is God. “If the true divine is eclipsed or rejected,” noted Glenn Hughes, “some parts of finite being will be inflated to the status of gods.” Man’s hunger for the divine, having been thwarted by Gnostic inversions and “progressive” scientism, may lead an increasingly insane humanity to embrace a self-destructive fable. Hughes noted that when our “interpretive tools fall into disuse” we may not be able to distinguish the genuinely spiritual from “the magically exotic or charmingly occult or the demonically intoxicating.”[26]

What is the Structure of Reality?

It was Eric Voegelin who pointed to the complex of “consciousness-reality-language” as a way of getting at the structure of reality. Turning to the Book of Genesis, Voegelin pointed out that God created the world through speech. “And God said, ‘let there be light.’” A Divine command calls Creation out of the void. Voegelin noted, “The spoken word … is more than a mere sign signifying something; it is a power in reality that evokes structures in reality by naming them.”[27] Here we catch a glimpse of what Richard M. Weaver was describing in his little book, Ideas Have Consequences, where he presented his “intuition of a situation.” According to Weaver, “At the beginning I should urge examining in all seriousness the ancient belief that a divine element is present in language. The feeling that to have power of language is to have control over things is deeply imbedded in the human mind.”[28] Weaver further explained,

We see this in the way men gifted in speech are feared or admired; we see it in the potency ascribed to incantations, interdictions, and curses. We see it in the legal force given to oath or word. A man can bind himself in the face of contingencies by saying Yea or Nay, which can only mean that words in common human practice express something transcending the moment.[29]

Weaver suggested that humanity lost its way with the advent of nominalism; that is, the doctrine that universals (or general ideas) are merely names without any corresponding reality. For the nominalist, only particular objects exist. The nominalist therefore denies the reality of transcendentals – unity, truth, beauty, and goodness. Imagine a society that thinks truth and goodness are nonsense. Worse than that, in terms of nominalism’s narrowing tendency, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy tells us that a person who believes in universals might still be a nominalist if he believes “that everything that exists is spatiotemporal….”[30] What then is left of the spiritual, of morality or goodness?

According to Weaver, “The issue ultimately involved is whether there is a source of truth higher than, and independent of, man; and the answer to the question is decisive for one’s view of the nature and destiny of humankind.” The most immediate result of nominalism, he added, “is to banish the reality which is perceived by the intellect and to posit as reality that which is perceived by the senses. With this change in the affirmation of what is real, the whole orientation of culture takes a turn, and we are on the road to modern empiricism.” [31]

And why is this a bad thing?

“The denial of universals carries with it the denial of everything transcending experience,” noted Weaver. And that signifies the denial of objective truth, of moral goodness, and beauty. In other words, empiricism is entirely focused on the temporary rather than the eternal. In failing to relate the temporal to the eternal, it does not provide spiritual nourishment but leads instead to nihilism. Unable to see truth, beauty, or goodness, empiricism sucks the meaning out of reality.

Weaver is right to say that nominalism has been a catastrophe for mankind. Failing to find meaning in material objects, man has trivialized himself – despiritualized and demoralized himself – with empiricism, scientism, and materialist ideology. Isn’t it curious that we are suddenly confronted with unidentified flying objects that challenge empiricism, scientism, and materialist ideology in everything they do? What if these objects represent a disturbance in the field of reality – pulling us back to universals? Watch the comedy unfold, then, as modern man attempts to study these “unidentified objects” that do not behave as objects. Jacques Vallée wrote, “The things we call unidentified flying objects are neither flying nor objects. They can dematerialize, as some reliable photographs seem to show, and they violate the laws of motions as we know them.”[32]

What if UFOs are, in themselves, a reflection of modernity’s chief transgression? In this context, Vallée said that UFOs seem to be “metalogical.” The phenomenon, said Vallée, is apparently absurd; yet it has “the deep poetic and paradoxical quality of Eastern religious tales … and the mystical expressions of the Cabala, such as references to a ‘dark flame.’ If you strive to convey a truth that lies outside the semantic level made possible by your audience’s language, you must construct apparent contradictions in terms of ordinary meaning.”[33]

In his Ted Talk, “A Theory of Everything (Else),” Vallée offers what he calls the “missing sister” of physics. Here is what Vallée proposes:

The other side of energy, says Vallée, is “information.” And what is information? Ordered thought, ordered language, significance, meaning – the logos! Thus, Vallée’s notion of the flipside of physics can be linked to Voegelin’s postulated constellation of “consciousness-reality-language,” where information is what gives the void its structure and reality its meaning. What is form, after all? Language is the essence of form, as it represents ordered information. Thus, the universe is not a random chaos of colliding particles where species originate from mutations plus natural selection; for how can mere randomness give way to order, or truth, or goodness, or beauty, or self-conscious creatures who can appreciate truth, goodness, and beauty? Materialist physics postulates a universe without intentionality, without teleology – without God. But as Aristotle pointed out, a full explanation of something must consider its final cause as well as its efficient cause. What is a thing for? Why does it exist at all? And what would it mean to say that something has no reason to exist?

As Vallée suggested in his talk, physics is beginning to open its eyes under the concept of “double causality”; yet Vallée may not know that a further elaboration has been given by the Ukrainian physicist Victor Kulish, in a book titled, Hierarchic Electrodynamics and Free Electron Lasers: Concepts, Calculations, and Practical Applications, where Kulish shows that all systems (i.e., things nested in other things) are hierarchical, and that every system is ordered according to a God Principle. Voegelin cited Genesis to the effect that God spoke the universe into existence (even as speech is not gibberish, but ordered information). To remove the order and meaning of creation, one removes the primacy of the word through nominalism. Thus we return to  Weaver’s “intuition of a situation,” where “in the beginning was the Word [logos]” and nothing of consequence would exist without “the Word [logos].”[34]

When Science Has No Answer

In his journals, Vallée expressed the view that when the UFO phenomenon was making headlines in the 1950s and 60s, most scientists who showed interest in the subject were more concerned with their pensions than with getting at the truth. “Actually,” he wrote, “very few of them put a high priority on real science.”[35]

Vallée is not your usual scientist. For more than six decades he painstakingly groped his way through the subject of UFOs, looking at every conceivable angle. At no point did he become a wild-eyed believer. Rather, he has remained cautious and meticulous in his approach. At the same time, a host of pseudo-scientific speculators, who are anything but cautious, have presented the public with a continual stream of sensational but dubious “revelations.”

In recent years the History Channel produced a fictionalized TV series called Project Blue Book, depicting astronomer J. Allen Hynek and his wife Mimi as heroes caught between the sinister intrigues of the United States Air Force and the KGB. The reality, however, had many more layers. To give readers a taste of how things were, Vallée’s first meeting with Hynek’s “UFO committee” at the astronomer’s home in Evanston, Illinois on 17 November 1963, was nothing like the TV series. Mimi Hynek took Vallée to task when he expressed dissatisfaction with terms like “flying saucer” and “UFO,” preferring the term “Arnold Phenomenon.” Vallée wrote, Mimi “thinks the whole subject is utter nonsense, and argued emotionally against me. She did not believe there would ever be a time when the topic would be seriously studied at a major university under the term UFO, Arnold Phenomenon or any other name.” Professor Hynek watched Vallée and his wife argue. “Wisely,” wrote Vallee, “he avoided getting into the dispute.”[36]

Professor Hynek’s temperament was described by Vallée as “witty and gentle.” Hynek, as the scientific consultant for Project Blue Book, could not avoid controversy forever. The country at large was not his dinner table, with Vallée on one side and his wife on the other. The U.S. Air Force turned to a committee under Professor Edward Condon to debunk the whole inconvenient subject (as Mimi expected). After Project Blue Book was terminated, in Vallée’s presence, a French researcher began to blame the United States for lying about UFOs. Ever reasonable, Vallée asked, “Why is the U.S. always to blame for everything? I don’t believe the French Air Force is telling the truth about UFOs either.”[37]

Vallée has offered some ideas on why governments want UFO sightings to go away. First, the subject opens a can of worms touching on religion, the paranormal, and the meaning of existence. These are not comfortable topics for government officials. In fact, it is humiliating when you are expected to provide answers and there are no ready answers at hand. And so, the United States Air Force attempted to bury the UFO question with the Condon Committee at the cost of half a million dollars. The resulting eight-hundred-page report said that the study of UFOs “cannot be justified in the expectation that science will be advanced thereby.” Of course, that depends on what you mean by “science.” Vallée wrote, “Professor Edward Condon, who led the study, felt so strongly about the uselessness of the whole thing that he destroyed the project files. Three days before his death, in March 1974, he was still urging a physicist friend to drop his study of UFOs. When Condon was told that a documentary was being prepared, he advocated that all the footage be burned.”[38]

Why was Condon so determined to shut down the subject of UFOs altogether? Condon probably shared an attitude that has permeated mainstream science for two centuries. It is the belief that humanity’s salvation lies in scientific knowledge. Therefore, Condon did not want to acknowledge impenetrable mysteries. Such mysteries might call science into question. Therefore, the existence of something like the UFO, with all the attending paranormal elements, threatens science as faith. Yet this is no faith at all, where the suppression of truth becomes necessary. It is, once again, existential despair painted over with an inversion of faith. So the scientist mocks the UFO and marginalizes the witnesses – not because he is hiding the truth about UFOs. Rather, he is hiding from his own spiritual bankruptcy.    

Of interest in this regard, Wired Magazine published a piece titled “Jacques Vallée Still Doesn’t Know What UFOs Are.” Here we find Vallée handling a clump of metal that slurped off a roundish, reddish UFO in molten liquid form – in front of eleven witnesses. According to the article, Metallurgical analyses showed that the UFO metal “consisted mostly of iron, with traces of carbon, titanium, and other elements – basically, steel alloy scrambled to what looked like cast iron.” Vallée wanted a cutting-edge scientist to tell him where and how this “shallot-sized” lump of metal was made. The answer: “It was made of isotopically ordinary elements, atypically mixed together.”[39] The same answer has come up with other fragments, though in the Trinity case (published last year), a “panel” allegedly stripped from a crashed UFO proved to be manufactured by someone using the metric system. (!)

Conclusion

With the advent of mind-altering drugs, hypnosis, and psychotronic weapons, it may be possible for human technology to simulate an extraterrestrial contact event (e.g., an alien abduction). Vallée, suspects that governments have already faked UFO incidents. In a brainstorming session with Professor J. Allen Hynek almost fifty years ago, a much younger Vallée suggested that the UFO may be entirely human – produced by the human mind. “In this framework it has nothing to do with any external object,” Vallée proposed. “It may be that there is inherent in our species, a sort of built-in defense mechanism that reveals itself only at times of extreme social stress.”[40]

In his discussions with Hynek, Vallée also wondered whether occultists might be behind the UFO phenomenon. Hynek asked if he was suggesting whether “people in occult societies … may have discovered other ways of doing things….”[41] Vallée then offered an intriguing and frightening scenario, familiar to conspiracy theorists:

Suppose a group had investigated along the lines of rational thinking and finally contacted other forms of consciousness? They would have kept it secret, because their leaders were worried of the consequences of releasing it in an unprepared world. Why didn’t we keep secret the fact that E=MC2? … Because we were unwise. Suppose they were wise and they did keep their findings secret. And now they are making UFOs in their backyard. How is that for a wild theory? [42]

Vallée then attempted to critique this “scenario,” saying that occult organizations in the United States are usually groups of crackpots, idealists, and little old ladies. But then, maybe there are groups and occult societies that really have kept themselves secret. If so, a group like that could have … the means to manipulate public opinion on a grand scale.”[43]

We need not go far afield to discover evidence of not-so-secret occult organizations. Heinrich Himmler’s SS, under the Third Reich, originally consisted of several research bureaus. One of them was occult-related – led by highly educated men, sworn to secrecy – called the Ahnenerbe (Ancestral Heritage).[44] It was an organization in search of Atlantis and the Holy Grail. In fact, SS-man Otto Rahn was tasked with finding the Grail. He even wrote a book titled Lucifer’s Court: A Heretic’s Journey in Search of the Light Bringers. In its pages Rahn attacked St. Augustine and Christianity.

It is believed that Himmler wanted to revive German paganism. At Wewelsburg Castle, Himmler met with occultists – perhaps with the beautiful Maria Orsitsch (aka Orsic), who led a group of female mediums tasked with channeling otherworldly intelligences. Osric’s team allegedly contacted (through psychic means) aliens from the Aldebaran system. These entities supposedly passed technological secrets to Osric’s group. [45] Supposedly, Osric had a pile of channeled papers in an illegible script, which turned out to be ancient Sumerian. When translated it was found to be a blueprint for a circular flying machine. Some have said that Osric invented the flying saucer; unless, of course, the story is bunk (which it probably is). One thing that may not be bunk, however, is that Osric disappeared in the spring of 1945 – when Soviet troops entered Vienna. Her fans would like to think she left for Aldebaran. More likely, she was taken to Moscow.  

So, what does this all amount to?

Charles Upton has argued persuasively that the authentic UFO phenomenon is demonic in nature. He further suspects that the “intelligence/social engineering community” would like to use the phenomenon to advance a set schedule of “revelations”: (1) that UFOs are tracked on radar and seen by military aircraft; (2) that our military has recovered ET spaceship debris; (3) that alien abductions are real; (4) that the U.S. is back-engineering ET craft; (5) that we have recovered alien bodies; (6) that the government is in contact with aliens; (7) that we have enjoyed longstanding diplomatic relations with aliens races or a Galactic Council; (8) that aliens created mankind; and (9) that the aliens in question are interdimensional, and were once superstitiously regarded as demons or angels (completing the circle). Upton emphasizes that these steps are meant to debunk Christianity.[46] From my research into the subject, it does appear that “former” U.S. officials are advancing these “revelations” as outlined by Upton. Here, speculation regarding extraterrestrials might be shamelessly presented as truth; that is, a false truth designed to shatter traditional beliefs.  

Eric Voegelin once complained that “an unbroken chain of speculations” has plagued mankind since the High Middle Ages; especially, speculations about establishing a paradise on earth. Time and time again, noted Voegelin, humanity’s “liberation” has been “proclaimed in a wide spectrum of sectarian, Gnostic, alchemic, apocalyptic, and ideological moods.” In terms of today’s belief in extraterrestrial contact, Voegelin might say that we are dealing with the “pathos of thinkers who exist in a state of alienation and libidinous obsession.”[47] 

In this context, it seems that Dr. Steven Greer’s anti-fascist Disclosure Project “is a libidinous act of self-salvation” that, in Voegelin’s analysis, inverts the terms of human existence and its mysteries. [48] The most dedicated investigator of the UFO phenomenon, Jacques Vallée, has said “the UFO phenomena are not consistent” with the extraterrestrial hypothesis.[49] According to Vallée,

Somebody is going to an awful lot of trouble to convince the world that we are threatened by beings from outer space. In support of this idea many of the facts … have been distorted to the point where even the believers in UFOs are abandoning their field of research and the investigation of real sightings by real witnesses in favor of armchair speculation about crashed saucers and alien autopsies.[50]

It should be pointed out, and emphasized, that widespread belief in extraterrestrial visitation coincides in history with the rise of Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism; and this may not be accidental. If the genuine UFO phenomenon is associated with “a form of non-human consciousness that manipulates space and time in ways we do not understand,”[51] perhaps we are dealing with demonic or angelic phenomena which have intentionally manifested at this time. Perhaps the horrors of the Third Reich and the Soviet gulag coincide with the first mass sightings of UFOs for a reason. Perhap a nuclear war is coming, and the UFO is a portent.  

Notes and Links

[1] Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980), p. 120.

[2] Ibid, p. 77.

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/09/xi-jinping-tells-chinas-army-to-focus-on-preparation-for-war

[4] Insofar as the word “modern” signifies the present-time, as opposed to the nonsense concept of “postmodernity,” which is one of Marxism’s assaults on the integrity of language.

[5] Titus Livy translated by Aubrey de Selincourt, The Early History of Rome (Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1984), pp. 33-34.

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_of_Heaven

[7] See T.S. Eliot; also, Thomas Carlyle’s On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History where Carlyle discerns the hand of Providence in men who have the courage to take a stand. Carlyle’s view of historical development was non-materialist. While there are many problematic formulations in Carlyle, his insights about honesty and courage are essential reading.

[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HzfwPgvVTg

[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman

[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_alien

[11] Chris Bledsoe, UFO of God (Audible, 2020).

[12] Ibid, chapter 14.

[13] Jacques Vallée, Revelations: Alien Contact and Human Deception (New York: Ballantine Books, 1991), p. 165.

[14] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Great-Chain-of-Being

[15] Jacques Vallée, Messengers of Deception: UFO contacts and Cults (Berkley, California: And/Or Press, 1979), pp. 221-223. In the conclusion to his book, Vallée wrote, “The writing of this book has not been an easy task. In fact, it was outright difficult and painful. Few of the facts I have had to state in these pages were to my liking. They shocked earlier theories of mine, destroyed my accepted and familiar thoughts.” Vallée was baffled by the psychology of the UFO cultists. He was not equipped  (to look at them “from the inside.” The following dark thought entered into his mind: “If something bigger or smarter than the ordinary human mind is around, if some clever deceivers use it to feed us phenomena that have been designed to fool us by Machiavellian spies or benevolent masters, then a ‘scientific’ investigation will be useless.” Vallée then wondered about late antiquity, when people were “fed up with science.” In turns out, science could not tell people why they are here. So science was swept away in favor of a new religion. “Will the same thing happen to our science?” he asked. Vallée continued, darkly, “There is another system. It is sending us messengers of deception. They are not necessarily coming from nearby stars. In terms of the effect on us, it doesn’t matter where they come from. In even suspect that ‘where’ and ‘when’ have no meaning here.” He then concluded, “Receiving a visit from outer space sounds almost as comfortable as having a God. Yet we shouldn’t rejoice too soon. Perhaps we will get the visitors we deserve.”

[16] Eric Voegelin, Autobiographical Reflections (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989), p. 60.

[17] From Jaspers’s book, Nietzsche and Christianity as quoted by Glenn Hughes in Transcendence and History (Kindle), p. 84.

[18] https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/ufo-expert-dr-greer-reveals-first-ever-photo-of/id1442164847?i=1000446003531

[19] Ibid.

[20] To understand how unlikely Steven Greer’s claims about Neil Armstrong are, it is worth reading the comments posted on the Above Top Secret Forum, https://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread878621/pg1. Greer began embellishing Armstrong’s lunar experiences, by way of anonymous sources, shortly after Armstrong’s death. One poster in the cited chat wrote, “if Greer’s dog died he’d post it up on Twitter and send out the mails about how (sob) his dog (may he see the light) was assassinated by black-ops (he was a good dog … sniff) to scare him off.” Astronaut Buzz Aldrin has publicly denied claims that he and Armstrong saw other spacecraft on the Moon. Anyone can simply google what Aldrin said. As for Greer, he makes a living collecting money from people who want to talk to aliens.

[21] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Armstrong

[22] http://www.ufowatchdog.com/greer_letter.htm

[23] Vallee, Revelations, p. 166.

[24] Ibid.

[25] Miguel Serrano, Resurrection of the Hero (55 Club), p. 47.

[26] Glenn Hughes, Transcendence and History: The Search for Ultimacy from Ancient Societies to Post-Modernism (Kindle Edition), pp. 164-65.

[27] Eric Voegelin, The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin, Vol. 18, Order and History: In Search of Order, (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2000), p. 33.

[28] Richard M. Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), p. 148.

[29] Ibid.

[30] https://105plato.stanford.edu/entries/nominalism-metaphysics/

[31] Weaver, p. 3.

[32] Jacques Vallee, Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact (New York: Ballantine Books, 1988 ), p. 159.

[33] Ibid, p. 158.

[34] Logos: the Word of God, or principle of divine reason and creative order, identified in the Gospel of John with the second person of the Trinity incarnate in Jesus Christ.

[35] Jacques Vallee, Hidden Science, Vol. I: Journals 1957-1969 (USA: Documatia Research, LLC, 2010), p. 90.

[36] Ibid, p. 91.

[37] Ibid, p. 350.

[38] Vallée, Dimensions, p. 150.

[39] https://www.wired.com/story/jacques-vallee-still-doesnt-know-what-ufos-are/

[40] Hynek and Vallée, The Edge of Reality: A Progress Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1975), p, 241.

[41] Ibid, p. 256.

[42] Ibid, p. 257.

[43] Ibid.

[44] Ahnenerbe – Wikipedia

[45] Maria Orsic – The Goddess of the Devil: Hitler’s Medium. Occult secrets of Nazi super science. – Bing video

[46] Charles Upton, The Alien Disclosure Deception: The Metaphysics of Social Engineering (USA: Sophia Perennis, 2021), p. 84-86.

[47] Eric Voegelin, Order and History, Vol. IV, p. 260.

[48] Ellis Sandoz, The Voegelin Revolution: A Biographical Introduction (New York: Routledge, 2017), p. 240.

[49] Vallée, Revelations, p. 255.

[50] Ibid, p. 236.

[51] Ibid.

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147 thoughts on “Speculative Despair … and the Extraterrestrial Apocalypse, Continued, Part II”

  1. Pingback: Speculative Despair … and the Extraterrestrial Apocalypse, Continued, Part II – Mist Vista

  2. “Fearing a Russian nuclear attack, the West is afraid to do the right thing for Ukraine.”

    It’s too late to undo what Zelensky has done to Ukraine.

      1. Excuse me for jumping to conclusions, Jeff. What was it that YOU meant by, “to do the right thing”? What did you think would result from conventional kinetic action in Ukraine, enabled by the US? In case you haven’t noticed, there’s little infrastructure left standing, and of course all the farmers were killed when Zelensky burst three damns around Chernobyl, without so much as an evacuation notice. Is that what you meant by the right thing? You were most adamant about deleting any comments here which advocated negotiations with Russia, as Putin repeatedly requested, despite not being reported in Western media, including you.

        Now that Ukraine is rubble, what’s the right thing to do?

      2. There is kinetic action is Ukraine. And the Kremlin is responsible. We could have prevented it by sending more and better weapons to Ukraine during the Russian buildup. We might have deterred the war altogether.

      3. Why didn’t the US try that during the Cold War, instead of, Spheres of Influence, Balance of Power, and Mutually Assured Destruction? What proxy war has ever resulted in victory over or for a primary instigator? I must say though, that I am indeed quite surprised at how reserved that Putin is. The general Cold War fear was that to confront Russia would ignite a nuclear response. The fact that Putin has tolerated CIA intervention in Ukraine would seem to demonstrate sophisticated US intelligence, unless of course if Biden isn’t trying to get US nuked.

      4. The war in Ukraine is not a proxy war. You do not know the history of Ukraine, and think the CIA made the Euro-Maidan Revolution. The people of Ukraine made that revolution. Furthermore, there was partisan activity in Ukraine after WW2, when Stalin had broken all his promises. We attempted to help the Ukrainians then, unsuccessfully. Sending weapons to friendly countries, so they do not become victimized by communists or Nazis, has been America’s policy for several decades. You want to talk about irresponsible moves? In 1962 Moscow sent nuclear weapons into Cuba, seventy miles off our shores, and they sent 50,000 Soviet troops with tactical nuclear weapons. That move almost caused a nuclear war. Our meager support for Ukraine is not going to cause a nuclear war. In fact, American sent more military hardware to Afganistan than we have given to Ukraine. Putin is not a normal person. He who will do whatever he thinks he can get away with. You apparently would like to see him get away with more. As it happens, more people die under dictators in peace time than in war. Stalin killed 30 million Soviet citizens in peace time. He probably killed more Soviet citizens than the Axis did. Once a mass murderer controls a given territory, the people he wants to kill are defenseless unless they can flee. You want to make the U.S. into the villain. Why is that?

      5. After reading thru the comments (and they come from some good minds, which seem to be rare these days), I am reminded of Plato’s Cave. No one here gets out alive. Love you all !

    2. Petunia: “Fearing a Russian nuclear attack, the West is afraid to do the right thing for Ukraine.” Fearing to do the right thing is the best way to insure that a Russian nuclear attack happens. Fearing indicates weakness and weakness invites attacks by bullies.

      From what I see, both Putin and Xi are cornered rats. As long as they think that they can yet pull victory out of their hats by using nuclear weapons, they will use them. The question is not if, but when?

    3. It’s not too late for you to regain your honor and dignity, and to stop vomiting out Communist lies.

    4. @ Petunia: In all actuality, it was many in the Western elites (including American) that enabled the Russians through the granting of Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) for Russia in 2012, the transfer of technology (Re: Rusnano and Skolkovo), and the signing of the START and New START Treaties with the Russians. While Western capitalist greed (assiduously cultivated by the Russians and Chinese) and stupidity (re: arms control agreements) emboldened the Russians, the US and West fell behind and became progressively divided. This notion that the West has been hostile to Russia in a consistent fashion is simply untrue. I would argue that Gorbachev’s/Arbatov’s (the CPSU) strategy of eliminating the image of the enemy was a resounding success in many ways. We cut our divisions and strategic weapons while the Russians expanded their reserve of CBR and nuclear weapons (as revealed by various military and intelligence defectors). Moscow’s espionage operations reached greater proportions than the Cold War era. They expanded their influence in already existing and new Marxist-Leninist, socialist, and “anti-imperialist” states. Moscow continued to support elements of the international communist movement (e.g. the ALBA alliance in South America, whose meetings were attended by Russian Federation officials and the 2017 World Youth Festival facilitated in Sochi, Russia, etc.) As Bill Gertz revealed, Russia continued massive military exercises against the US even as the Clinton Administration shoveled IMF loans to Moscow which in part were diverted to Russian agents in the US like Aldrich Ames and to bail out Russian intelligence front companies.

      I have serious disagreements with Jeff and many readers on various issues, but he is spot on regarding on Russia and China and America’s policy towards those two powers. While great care needs to be applied in our policies to Russia and China (in part because we’ve become too intertwined with them-especially the PRC), we simply cannot cut off Ukraine either. Might I add, Russian GRU special services were very active in Donetsk and Luhansk well before they became satrapies of Russia. In fact, Moscow fomented the separatist movements there. Moscow was not simply going to let Ukraine function as an independent state (meaning not controlled by the Party of Regions). This whole narrative of American aggression (without any mention of collaboration with Western/US institutions with the Russians) does not tell the story in an accurate fashion.

      Moscow’s ultimate goal (especially since the late 1980s-when documents revealed and discussed by Vladimir Zubok told of Gorbachev seeking to hug the Americans to death in order to evict them from Europe) is the neutralization of Europe and dissolution of NATO. Hence, their political warfare and funding and cooperation with extremist parties and business groups in the West. Dmitry Medvedev claimed that the Russians sought a neutralized, friendly Europe from Vladivostok to Portugal if memory serves me correctly. So the battle in Ukraine is not about whether that country submits or not…it’s about Europe.

    5. Here another example: These whole ‘useful idiots’ (Lenin) have no idea whom they actually cheer there in Moscow! How the Kremlin also built up the Ukrainian neo-Nazis and used them against the interests of Ukraine, you can listen here:
      Operation Novorossiya: The History Behind the Kremlin’s Neo Nazi PsyOps in Ukraine – Part 1:
      GRU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsFsRd27QZI
      The History Behind the Kremlin’s Neo Nazi PsyOps in Ukraine – Part 2: The Rise of Wagner
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECmnZrWssUY
      The History Behind the Kremlin’s Neo Nazi PsyOps in Ukraine – Part 3: Grey Kardinal Vladislav Surkov
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALi8JAQy-uU
      The History Behind the Kremlin’s Neo Nazi PsyOps in Ukraine – Part 4: Strange Bedfellows
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S55yOhtlq2Y
      Part 5 and 6 follow

  3. Re:
    [ “It should be pointed out, and emphasized, that widespread belief in extraterrestrial visitation coincides in history with the rise of Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism; and this may not be accidental. If the genuine UFO phenomenon is associated with “a form of non-human consciousness that manipulates space and time in ways we do not understand,”[51] perhaps we are dealing with demonic or angelic phenomena which have intentionally manifested at this time. Perhaps the horrors of the Third Reich and the Soviet gulag coincide with the first mass sightings of UFOs for a reason. Perhap a nuclear war is coming, and the UFO is a portent.” ]

    As a contactee, I concur that the coincidence is likely not mere. The UAPs in my experience are subtly malevolent and deceptive. However, as evil as nuclear war could be, it wouldn’t be any more evil than what Zelensky, his benefactors, and Putin, have done to Ukraine, already.

    While a no nuclear exchange would be minor, any use of nuclear weapons in theatre will not be all out nuclear World War. We are currently in a World War, numbers notwithstanding. There will not be two more all out nuclear wars.

    The Great Tribulation has yet to occur and it won’t begin until the dictator of a new version of the European Union signs a peace treaty with the head of a newly created major new religion for the protection of Israel. Prior to that, the Church must be removed from the planet so that the Holy Spirit won’t be present to restrain Satan from acting through the Antichrist.

    The removal of the body of believers is the term coined by the Catholic Church as, The Rapture.

    Happy Easter.

    1. There will be no rapture; that’s Futurist leaven.

      There will be gagging laws unleashed in every western nation by 2025 and this will “slay” the Lord’s public witness as per Rev 11:7. Those laws are already being developed now, pretty much in-sync, throughout the West:

      1. The UK’s Online Safety Bill (initiated in 2022) ~ many conservatives are alarmed about this.
      2. Ireland’s Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 – this one includes a “pre-crime” feature that threatens 5 year prison sentences for those merely suspected of becoming likely hate criminals (i.e. speaking against LGBT, CRT, and other “protected characteristics”).
      3. The EU’s Digital Services Act.
      4. Canada’s Online Harm Bill (initiated in 2022 as an update to 2021’s Bill C-36).
      5. The US’s RESTRICT Act initiated in March of this year by Democrat Senator Mark Warner of Virginia ~ this one is also terrifying; it invokes national security in the face of the cyber threat from China, but look deeper and it is plainly carte blanche to gag at will, without recourse or remedy, all whom the USG / the Deep State wishes to silence. Like the Irish bill, this one also has a “pre-crime” element.

      The Tribulation starts when the Lord’s public witness is silenced in every western nation and as I have been saying for the past few years, this will occur in 2025.

      The “dead bodies” of the Lord’s witness will be the pariah Christians (esp. the gagged, faithful pastors) left on the periphery of mainstream society, excluded from the social credit system for refusing to bow to the Image of the scarlet beast (LGBT, CRT, enviro-cult, etc.) and I think some non-Christian conservatives will also refuse to bow. The Mark is any outward display of allegiance to that Image and is a metaphor (like the forehead frontlets and right hand binding of the Law in Exodus 13), not a literal branding, although those thus self-marked will probably be compelled to take dangerous vaccines / gene therapy to receive their CBDC and that could very well be how the “noisome sore” plague on those with the Mark comes about (in Rev 16:2).

      Bad eschatology is going to hammer the unprepared when this thing turns really nasty in 2025; you should be getting ready to survive what’s coming, not investing hope in a rapture that simply is not going to happen. And on that note, be careful to whom you listen in terms of teaching; that’s why I defer to the old Reformed writers from centuries ago, when the cause was purer.

      1. You neglect to support your assertions with Scripture, and nothing that you say even reminds me of any. All of the unlawful legislation which you cite is Doctrine of Demons, which is in ancient Hebrew Eschatology. Those attempts won’t stick until the Antichrist arrives on the scene. The Mark Of The Beast, isn’t even until after the first three and a half years of the seven year, Great Tribulation, when the Antichrist recovers from an apparent mortal head wound.

        My non prophetic guess is that the Antichrist doesn’t die, but that John may have witnessed him on the operating table, getting the wifi connection for the Third Beast, he makes in his image, which might be an android super computer.

      3. Oh I wish you guys wouldn’t argue eschatology. It’s hard enough dealing with shat we know. People disagree on how to read the Bible.

        For example, people point out there is no evidence for a seven year tribulation. That is totally based on a misinterpretation of a mistranslation of Daniel 9:27. The opening verb refers to causing to overpower, or in modern terms “impose”, a covenant on many. Grammatically it refers to a subject mentioned earlier, in verse 26. That subject is “people of the coming political leader”. Reading the rest of verse 27 we find an outline of the most salient events of the seven year Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt from 66–73 AD.

        How many other eschatological claims from all sides can be called into question? As a result, my answer is to wait and see how it all pans out (would that make me a pan-eschatologist?). Meanwhile, all this speculation of eschatology distracts us from day to day living and the duties we have for the here and now. So please don’t push your theories on eschatology, it only leads to argumentation.

      4. I agree with this. My grandfather told me of how his grandfather and his uncles wasted their time during World War I engaged in empty talk about the seven year tribulation beginning in 1914. They were completely wrong and so, as a result, missed the real significance of what was happening.

  4. This whole topic resembles a hall of mirrors. As for the (unlikely) extraterrestrial hypothesis, a widely proclaimed “alien threat” would certainly be a wonderful tool to “unite” the world, and be it under communism. Also, let’s not forget that belief in ETs has always been at the heart of Theosophist/New Age thought. The late Barbara Marx Hubbard is a great case in point as she was both a leftwing Democrat politician and a fanatical New Age “Guru Ma” at the same time.

    2. Margret Mead opined in the Brookings Report that Earthings were likely to defect to ET in encountered. I wonder if Project Blue Beam, might be the deception, deliberately leaked as if a real plan, so that people won’t believe in UAPs if they are genuine ET.

      1. To speak of “genuine ETs” already implies that extraterrestrials exist. But do they?

      2. When you look closely at all the evidence, all the testimony for the existence of ETs boils down to a rumor — to hearsay. After 75 years of flying saucers, that’s a long time for something to remain a “rumor.” As they say in detective shows, there’s no murder without a body. So, where are the alien bodies? Where are the spaceships we’ve supposedly captured? I think we are never going to see any such thing. The past is prologue…. Government agents or contractors leak the STORY that they have captured saucers and dead aliens. But it’s still only a rumor. And now it’s a rumor that begins to stink.

      3. PROPOSED STUDIES on the
        IMPLICATIONS of
        PEACEFUL SPACE ACTIVITIES
        for HUMAN AFFAIRS

        https://archive.org/services/img/nasa_techdoc_19640053194/full/pct:200/0/default.jpg

        4. Though intelligent or semi-intelligent life conceivably exists
        elsewhere in our solar system, if intelligent extraterrestrial life is
        discovered in the next twenty years, it will very probably be by radio
        telescope from other solar systems. Evidences of its existence might also
        be found in artifacts left on the moon or other planets. The consequences
        for attitudes and values are unpredictable, but would vary profoundly in
        different cultures and between groups within complex societies; a crucial
        factor would be the nature of the communication between us and the other
        beings. Whether or not earth would be inspired to an all-out space effort
        by such a discovery is moot: societies sure of their own place in the universe
        have disintegrated when confronted by a superior society, and others have
        survived even though changed. the factors involved in responding to such
        crises the better prepared we may be.

        –Margaret Mead, Associate Curator of Ethnology, American Museum of Natural History

        https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19620001145/downloads/19620001145.pdf

      4. Sigma Draconis is an sun similar to ours. It is 18.8 light years away. It almost certainly has planets orbiting it. Our radio telescopes are so powerful they could pick up a walkie talkie transmission from that system. After many years of searching for radio signals, we only have a few anomalous signals — but no proven transmission from an extraterrestrial civilizations. That is not encouraging, and suggests one of two things: (1) civilizations at our level of development are rare; or (2) once they reach our level of development they wipe themselves out within a relatively short timespan, falling back down to more primitive circumstances.

      5. I said “If”. Personally, from my own personal first hand experience, my belief is that they are actually, fallen angels. Furthermore, I appreciate that Jeff considers that to be a possibility. What I was wondering is if that, The Government, believes that ET is real, so tries to make people disbelieve in them?

      8. Do you suspect that the crashes are from NAZI and/or Russian, and/or US experiments?
        I wouldn’t believe official disclosure if it came from NASA or ET themselves. The Orbs might well have been advanced Space NAZI technology for all I know. Are fallen angels any more evil than NAZIS?

        Despite the rumors to which you allude, Jeff, you do believe that there is some mysterious phenomenon, irrespective of Earthling experiments, right?

      9. If Government is encouraging belief, yet SETI finds no ET TV shows, like the early episodes of, I love Lucy, that are just now reaching somewhere out there, then the belief in ET that Government proliferates might well to cover the fact that ET are really, fallen angels.

      10. I’ve told the story on this site several times. The library is about to close, so I’ll tell the lengthy account on Monday for your consideration to delete. Thanks for daring. Enjoy your Easter Sunday in peace.

      11. Jeff: there’s a third reason why after years of looking for radio signals and not finding any—there never were any advanced civilizations on other planets. How is it not speculative desperation that drives the continued search for those signals?

      12. Pointing radio telescopes at distant stars is speculative despair? I don’t know about that. I think, rather, it is curiosity. Only when they make a dubious claims about finding ETs can we say it is speculative despair.

      13. Jeff, nowadays you can get a murder conviction without a body though, there have been cases where investigators found enough blood evidence to come to the conclusion a person was fatally injured and that got a suspect in jail. Well maybe the blood counts as part of the body? Not trying to be facetious just a little thing from a person who likes a lot of True Crime shows

    1. So if I make a xerox copy of my brain, I can upload that too? Can you freeze your mind? Or just the dead matter your mind operates through?

      2. These AI experts are all delusional. I’m with Sir Roger Penrose when it comes to explaining how the brain works. I remember a health film in high school showing how the brain worked back in the 60s. It showed nerve cells switching on and off, and because I had studied computers I recognized that they were showing logical AND and OR gates. Such nonsense! It has progressed since then by telling us the synaptic connections made between nerve cells are how we remember and think.

        Penrose goes one step further into the quantum world on a much smaller level and he may be onto something. It would be an order of magnitude or more beyond simple network connections between brain cells.

        Of course, nothing in science is easily proven, but I think Penrose is on the right track with his ideas. But will they ever be able to create a real thinking mind. Well, things like GPT can come close to fooling many people that it has passed the Turing Test. Even a few years ago, the web chatbox for the AI movie had my young nephew busy talking to an electronic mind for many minutes. However, I’m thinking we are a long ways off from reaching the higher levels of mature human minds.

        Thank you for these last two articles. They were really great and I love how you take us back through history to help understand these strange times we live in.

      3. I agree that it is ridiculous to say that machines can think. They are not alive. Only if a spirit enters them, could they become “self aware.” Only then can Pinocchio become a real boy.

      4. I am fascinated by this topic–the ‘ghost in the shell’, some call it–that’s also the name of a movie. It opens so many intriguing possibilities for thought experiments, in my opinion.

    1. It’s like you’ve said, Jeff, that the China-Russia axis is doing their best to pick off the U.S.’s friends and allies one-by-one, and unfortunately for us, it looks like they’re succeeding at the moment.

      6. I can see that now, and it is very bad for us in the U.S., and for the other nations in Europe.

        When I read about Macron attempting to turn his back on the U.S., and him being willing to talk other European countries into doing so, I was thinking, ‘while you were in Beijing, for how long did they brainwash you?’ and/or ‘how much money did they (Chinese Communists) pay you to say this?’

        I think that if the Europeans/European Union move(s) away from U.S. influence and protection, and then Russia strikes at some point, running roughshod over them, they will come to bitterly regret such a decision, whether America ends up falling, or not.

      7. Agree, as for China, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, the dollar, American bonds, that doesn’t sound good and reminds me of Kevin Freemans book on the 2008 “crisis”

        Attack on the dollar! China is getting serious!

  8. I came across this writer some time ago, and I believe if you discard his bizarre fixation with Jews, the rest of his analysis on his blog is completely spot on, including the “UFO” part, which I believe may be used to introduce some type of new religion. Check out this guy’s analysis while tossing aside his odd random comments about Jews:

    “The plan seems to be to shift Russia and its Soviet Bloc allies in both Europe and the Islamic world to a China-led Eurasianist social credit system, leaving the SWIFT-based Western nations isolated from this consolidating alliance. As the Eurasianists “convince” (via debt traps, nuclear blackmail, etc.) more sovereign nations to join their new economic bloc, like they have done with the Belt and Road initiative, the Western establishment will become more isolated and more dependent on resources outside of its reach, resulting in more economic and political instability—as if the Soviet-created Scamdemic weren’t destabilizing enough. When the Synagogue of Satan BEAST feels that it is ready to pull the plug on the Western financial system, they will do so, leaving Eurasia as the only financially secure power. While there may be a brief period where the world is “multi-polar”, once the West finally is laid in a cheap Made-In-China coffin, Eurasia will become the defacto unipolar bear under their Chabadnik king despot of the world, just as the Protocols of Zion and the Holy Bible said would happen.

    Likely, none of the aforementioned will happen without a global conflict that might even see Westerners (especially whites) drafted to fight and die in a scripted war. Economist Chris Pirnak says we will have WWIII by mid-decade or so, with three more years of buildup—a very plausible scenario. Once America and freshly Brexited Great Britain are completely isolated and their elites realize that they have been double crossed by their Eurasianist benefactors, likely they will mount a last ditch effort to save the crumbling Western empire using their outdated and inferior technology (due to decades of Soviet-Israel technology theft) and us plebes as cannon fodder. It seems that by that time, Europe will have already been brought into the Eurasianist system, via energy dependence and/or nuclear blackmail.

    Once the world is subjected to Eurasianist unipolarity with pesky Western civilization relegated to a Third World existence in its (nuclear?) devastated homelands, the Jewish false messiah can emerge as king despot. It’s likely he (she?) will bring a seeming neutral “peace” that ends WW3 (even though Eurasianist hegemony had been preplanned all along). It could be a plug-and-play anti-Christ for Eurasia who could come from within the centre of the catalyst for this great war, Crimea or perhaps Kazakhstan, which might then be hailed as the New Khazaria or New Jerusalem. It’s likely that the state of Israel as we know it will be brought down politically, along with the West, so that the Eurasianists can claim to have defeated Zionism and its so called puppeteers America and Great Britain once and for all. The Hassidic Jews continue to hint at an Eastern European/Russian born messiah. For this reason, a New Jerusalem makes sense. It could also dupe many Christians-turned-Noahides by way of counterfeiting Bible prophecy of the New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven.

    As an aside, I suspect that a UFO-alien “breakthrough” will be used somewhere in this massive global deception to usher in anti-Christ, although it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly how and at what stage. It could be “assistance from the star people” that is publicly lauded as helping the anti-Christ bring peace at the end of the Third World War. A fancy light show, smoke, and mirrors would legitimize this deception in the minds of the gullible masses that survive the war and pestilences.”

    https://fitzinfo.net/2022/03/09/western-sanctions-helping-russia-china-shift-to-eurasian-system-for-anti-christ-global-conquest/amp/

    1. I don’t think this scenario is likely. China and Russia are attempting to create their own economic bloc and cut the West, Japan, et al off from certain resources like gas and oil. Historically, these efforts by totalitarian countries have failed. The Russian and Chinese economies are relatively weak. I doubt China’s economy is bigger than Japan’s, and it is contracting — perhaps rapidly. Every step they take to build an autarchic bloc to attack the West economically, they are degrading their own economic position. The West will suffer, of course, but they will lose more in the long-run. Socialism as a system, constricts trade, creativity, and technological innovation. Their only way to victory is with nuclear war. They have to reduce their enemies to rubble without getting reduced in turn.

      1. I agree with the nuclear attack part and think the author is wrong there. However, are they not now building their Eastern economic bloc now? It seems to me that before the attack, they must first dethrone the dollar. The recent deal between China and Brazil testifies to those efforts. If they can somehow convince Saudi Arabia to stop conducting trade in dollars, perhaps that could be enough to cause the dollar’s value to crash considerably. I don’t think they can convince Europe to abandon the dollar, at least pre-strike, but I did agree with the author’s ideas regarding this separate Eastern economic system they’re trying to build and their future use of “nuclear blackmail”.

      2. Yes, they are trying to wage economic warfare by building an economic bloc for themselves. But I do not think it can hold together.

      3. The only obstacle is their own greed. If Communists would pay citizens a living wage, then they could develop their own domestic economies. Instead, the Chinese military industrial generals who double as CEOs, take all the profit for themselves, as do Russian oligarchs. The limiting factor is natural resources, so there is some factual basis that the United States consumes most of the World’s natural resources, even if they are processed in Chinese manufacturing. If every Chinaman were to own a car, what would that do to demand for oil? Would anyone be able to afford gas or even electricity? The WEF takes this tendency to a fatalistic conclusion, rather than to endeavor to develop viable non lethal solutions.

  9. @ James G.: I once knew a fellow who was an expert in the field of AI. I kept trying to feed him with literature about communist longrange strategy and the ever advancing World Revolution. He wasn’t interested. He saw the real dangers in AI, indicating at the same time that all these AI enthusiasts and transhumanists, in all their dangerousness, are but children playing in a sandbox (which, apparently, makes them even more dangerous, given their ignorance about what they are actually doing).

    In this context, Physics Nobel laureate of 2022, quantum physicist Anton Zeilinger, who is a man not of applied physics, but of foundational research, gave me the chills when he, during his first press conference following the announcement that he had won the Nobel Prize, said, with a playful grin on his face, that maybe one day we won’t need these (holding up his smart phone) any more – which brings us back to Klaus Schwab’s insane vision of a new “mankind” of virtual cyborgs with electronic devices implanted into their brains.

    Tellingly, the Theosophist/New Age/futurist movement (that is, by admission, totally Luciferian) has always been talking about the “mind”, never about the soul – and about “co-creating” rather than about the Creator…

    The section in question of Prof. Zeilinger’s remark is from 12:25 till 14:20 (use YouTube’s translation function):

    1. Planting devices in people’s brains is so intrusive and sinister, I think there would be a violent revolution in any country that attempted it.

      1. You are most probably right. Also, the Chinese social credit system functions wonderfully based on smart-phones…

    2. Nothing like giving the subject a little electroshock once in a while to show them who is in charge! 🙂

      1. During the harsh Covid lockdowns of 2020/2021, I once even heard him somewhat play down the tyrannical system in China, casually arguing that we ourselves were now having a more rigid tyranny than China (without ever mentioning that SARS-CoV-2 had come out of a Chinese lab or that the general hysteria that led Western politicians to lock down our economies for months on end, was greatly pushed by a totally Chinese-controlled World Health Organisation, not to mention China’s influence on the very pharmaceutical companies that gave us those questionable mRNA “vaccines”). But then, Anton Zeilinger, born in 1945, is part and parcel of the problematic sixties’ generation – about which, by the way, I just posted a piece the other day on my own blog, titled,

        “Turned On, Tuned In, Dropped Out” Forever? – The Deadly Legacy of Timothy Leary, The Beatles and All the Rest of Them:

        https://thecontemplativeobserver.wordpress.com/2023/04/07/turned-on-tuned-in-dropped-out-forever-the-deadly-legacy-of-timothy-leary-the-beatles-and-all-the-rest-of-them/

      2. I inherited a Beatles album from my sister forty years ago. I played it a few times and threw it out. The music does not wear well. Not like Mozart or Brahms.

      3. McCartney wrote “Back in the U.S.S.R.” as a parody of Chuck Berry’s song “Back in the U.S.A.” and the Beach Boys. A field recording of a jet aero plane taking off and landing was used at the start of the track, and intermittently throughout it. The backing vocals were sung by Lennon and Harrison in the style of the Beach Boys, further to Mike Love’s suggestion in Rishikesh that McCartney include mention of the “girls” in the USSR. The track became widely bootlegged in the Soviet Union, where the Beatles’ music was banned, and became an underground hit.

        Back In The USSR
        https://youtu.be/yOYArc7mFiE

        Voyager
        32 Short Films About Glenn Gould
        https://youtu.be/1_vL5qK28XA

        They got Chuck Berry up in Outerspace
        Singing Johnny B Goode
        Down on Earth he’s doing time
        Said he’d pay those taxes if he could
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU2DDaryiKU

        Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, No.1.
        Glenn Gould, piano. 4:48
        “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
        https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-record/music/

  10. Again, this is why we cannot function in this reality we inhabit without the moral absolute and the authoritative absolute of the Word of God, which is also why it is referenced in Scripture as a rod; a measuring rod in Revelation 11:1, by which all things spiritual are to be judged and tested, and a rod of iron in Psalms 2:9 whose righteous edicts and decrees shall finally devastate the principles of ungodly rulership over the nations during the time of the coming Kingdom.

    In the meantime, I have a suspicion that the “hour of temptation” that will fall upon the world in Revelation 3:10, just as the coming Philadelphian church age is about to begin, has to do with the alien-UFO-interdimensional thing; I think it bids fairer than any other deception of our age for being a potential last roll of the dice by Satan, which would try all who profess Christ, and also perhaps unravel many or most of the other false religions on this earth, so that only those grounded in the Word of God and loyal to that Logos will be able to withstand the ferocity and heat of the deception.

    In the meantime, preparatory for such an epic psychological operation, depraved humanity has been feverishly engaged in removing God from the human experience, leaving a vacuum in the human soul primed to suck in a new spirituality.

    And this can be observed anecdotally; note, for instance, how many professing atheists nowadays speak of “the universe” as some kind of all-knowing source of providence. “I just commit my cares to the universe”, a friend once told me. Then a relative of mine recently remarked, “Don’t put that idea out to the universe”, when I expressed a concern that her daughter’s flight on an airliner might not be safe. Or, “I asked for A and the universe send me B” (blaming the universe for unwanted providences following requests submitted to it).

    They never seem to pause to consider the contradiction in their position; if the universe, as the ultimate source of all that is has somehow, through its agencies, led to the creation of the personal mind (the very existence of which should dispel empiricism once and for all), then how do they resolve the paradox that the universe itself is impersonal? It (by implication) creates and sustains the human mind, yet is itself not permitted to be a mind, or more than a mind?

    The reason for the paradox in broken down by the rod that is the Logos, the Word of God: fundamentally, the human soul has a need for meaning, that is, God, on the one hand, yet hates the idea of a moral, upright Creator to Whom we must all one day given an account of ourselves, on the other.

    Simply stated, while we are essentially spiritual beings, we are nonetheless evil and want to be free to sin without consequence; atheism only promises a solution to the latter part of that matrix, so a new spirituality must be concocted to resolve the former.

    The universe-as-God, however, is still too nebulous for materialist empiricists; they demand something more tangible, an idol of wood, stone or metal.

    Or better still, interdimensional flesh with high technology, previously misunderstood by our bigoted and superstitious ancestors as “daemons” with “magick”, but now declared by the scientists within the priesthood of the narrative as “man’s true creators”, custodians and source of authority, preaching top-down tyrannical rule along communist principles.

    So now we see the end goal (prior to eternal damnation) of atheism: it facilitates the total removal of God to produce a vacuum to be filled by Satan, just in time to consolidate a tyrannical Anti-kingdom on the eve of the emergence of the Lord’s true Kingdom. And yes, prophetically it will end in fire (Ezekiel 39:6), and I believe nuclear fire, and that it will happen before this decade is out.

    1. Hitler was a pantheist who talked about “Nature” as God. Using the word “Universe” amounts to the same thing. It is pantheism.

      1. I never knew that about Hitler, but that’s what he was talking about: pantheism… which in turn is part of Paganism. It’s interesting to observe too how atheism is begetting a neo-Paganism in its exaltation of the environment. It seems to be another full circle.

      2. Hitler was definitely not an atheist, though his thinking amounted to atheism. He imbibed his pantheism from German classical literature — as Goethe and his circle appear to have been pantheists. There are musings along these lines even in Schopenhauer and Nietzsche as well.

  11. The most interesting portion of Vallee’s Ted talk was the part about coincidences such as the example given by Yung and his morning telegram. We have all had them as Vallee explains and so numerous they don’t even warrant remembering, however, two of the most stark I have had involve my younger brother if you don’t mind me sharing.

    First when we were both young adults and still living at home I would work nights at the local 24hr supermarket and would walk down our reasonably long drive to my car in the dark before my shift started and the feeling of being watched and followed each and every night was so strong I would pick up my feet a little and swiftly enter my car, slam the door before driving to work. I though I may have been a little yellow in the dark until one morning my brother looks at me quite seriously and says asking from his own experience “do you feel like your being watched and followed when you walk down the drive?”

    The second was when we were a little older we went and worked together at a dairy farm in Tasmania and we were given a small isolated workers house to live in on the farm which counted as part of our pay. Occasionally one of us would fly back to Victoria where our family was to visit for a few days and the other would stay on to work as the farm required. The nights were quite sleepless alone in the house as the usual quiet would be full of bangs, clanks, scrapes and crashes that couldn’t be put down to possums squabbling on the roof. Lying there in the dark you could feel something in the house, unfortunately, your classic poltergeist stuff. After checking the house a number of times the best you could do was to close your eyes and hope for sleep to come and quickly. After a few times of this happening I sheepishly asked my brother if he had the same experience when I was away and when he confirmed I asked him what he does about it. He looked me dead in the eyes and said “I just walk out into the hall way and tell it to SHUT UP!” Which was bewildering to say the least.

    I know these aren’t completely relevant to UFOs but they’re in the same vein of phenomena having yet to be explained by science and probably never will be on our current trajectory and again everyone has similar stories.

    Anyway thanks for all the well written, thought provoking blog posts Jeff and bravo for slugging it out in the comments section it’s a rare accessibility that isn’t found in many other places.

    1. Brendan: I forget to mention in the articles that the poltergeist phenomenon is related to UFOs. People who see UFOs or have close encounters often report poltergeist disturbances. So the two things are related. As for meaningful coincidences and double casaulity, I have had a few of those too.

      1. Nine Orbs reappeared outside my terminal mother’s hospital room window. When she died they made the bed fold her up like a sandwich with no one at the controls. I had to unplug the bed to make it stop.

  12. there is no moral consideration to politics whatsoever. He who thinks there is is a fool. There is simply an ongoing process of might makes right. The ancient Romans used their superior military power to destroy their enemies. period. They did not have any superior morality to, say the Druids, for example, who they liquidated. In modern times, the catholic church had its power stopped by Napoleon. Their reign of religious terror over Europe ceased. Only a fool would say that the Inquisition was moral. Hitler tried to liquidate the Jews. That was his “morality”. The Jews turned around and created an apartheid state by liquidating the Palestinians. That is their morality. The communists are trying to liquidate capitalists. That is their morality. As you can see, the use of the word morality in any of these situations is an example of cognitive dissonance. There is not morality or moral position in politics. There is only a creation of one’s own reality which becomes a thing via might makes right. Stop talking about morality–it makes you look stupid!

    1. What nonsense. The Bolsheviks were unquestionably immoral. All communists are. The fact that semi-good institutions, such as the Church, corrupt and degrade, does nothing to take away from this fact. Some leaders fight and rule with honor, others with demonic brutality. Only the evil are afraid of moral judgments.

    2. I do not agree that there is no moral consideration to politics whatsoever. Aristotle and Plato and Socrates would not agree with this, either. Even Otto von Bismarck, a very astute politician, did not agree with this. Bismarck, for example, said that preemptive war should never be waged. The reason he gave was a moral one. He noted that whomever starts such a war is responsible for all the death and mayhem that results from it. Furthermore, the resulting bitterness at the injustice of any victory gained in this manner would make peace, after the war, impossible to secure.

      Politics is a human activity, and the statement that there is no moral consideration whatsoever would place political activity in the same category as crime. If you believe this, then you are leaving politics to the criminal class, and you are suggesting that politicians should engage in crime. This is much too cynical for anything good to come out of it; and, obviously, the birth of America would have been impossible if morality were not an important element in politics.

      By saying there are no moral considerations in politics, you are saying, in essence, that loyalty and patriotism have no place in politics, since these are moral considerations. In fact, if you read Polybius on the rise of the Roman Empire, he says that the Romans did not conquer because they relied on military power and treachery. He says they conquered BECAUSE THEY WERE MORALLY SUPERIOR TO THEIR ENEMIES. As Polybius was Greek, he complained that the Greeks could not hold the field againt the Romans because their commanders were liars and theives, while the Roman commanders accounted for every penny of the money owing to the soldiers, and their word was their bond. Perhaps you have heard the story of the Roman general Camillus, who conquered an enemy city by his moral virtue — without fighting a battle. Rome’s unification of Italy was a tremendous MORAL achievement. You give the example of Rome’s invasion of Britain. But Roman virtue had already declined by then with the advent of the Caesars. Indeed, the family of Juilius Caesar had an evil coloring. Ask yourself, then, how history turned out for him and his successors, the Julio-Claudian dynasty? Essentially, they disgraced and exterminated themselves in five generations. Caesar was assassinated by his own colleagues. Augustus’s wife killed off his grandchildren and children. Tiberius was a child predator whose cruelty, together with that of his mother, left him with one male successor, Caligula, who probably murdered Tiberius by poison, or by denying him food, and then by smothering him with a pillow. The psychopath Caligula was, in his turn, assassinated and replaced by Claudius, who was poisoned by his neice/wife, and succeeded by Nero who was the last of that line as he killed himself. This foul dynasty did not get away with their crimes, but were their own exterminators. When a centurion of Nero’s body guard was caught plotting the Emperor’s death, Nero wanted to know why the highest paid soldier in the Roman Empire would prove so disloyal. The centurion said somethign to the effect of , “You murdered your mother, you killed your brother-in-law, you kicked our pregnant wife to death, you married a man, and you sing.”

      Here is a moral lesson taken directly from politics. Murderers may prosper for a time, but they never last.

      I remember Olavo de Carvalho giving a video talk in which he said that politics is not moral philosophy. And that is true enough. He seemed to say politics is one thing, moral principles are something else. I think he said this because he was frustrated with Bolsonaro’s weak presidency. Politics, said Olavo, is a game in which you play to win. If you enter politics for moral posturing you are going to lose. This statement by Olavo puzzled me, as he wrote a book denouncing Machiavelli for saying essentially the same thing. But Machiavelli, to his credit, said statesmen SHOULD act morally, but will often be ruined when they do, since others will not reciprocate. Therefore, he suggested, morality in politics is a fool’s errand. And sometimes it is. We are not obligated to commit suicide, or to do foolish things when we are dealing with enemies. The problem is, not everyone in politics is an enemy. And anyone who treats friends treacherously is a villain, and who dares say that one ought to deal treacherously with friends in politics because “there are no moral considerations in politics whatsoever”?

      The concept of the political depends on the friend-enemy distinction. In politics there is a strict morality. The moral principle here is to treat enemies as enemies and friends and friends. The chief sin is to treat friends as enemies and enemies as friends.

      No moral considerations in politics? But politics is riddled with moral questions and considerations.

  13. As the old saying goes “those who believe in nothing will believe in anything.” Modern man in the West has largely rejected his Christian heritage and replaced Biblical faith with ‘faith’ in science. But science cannot fill the God-shaped void within us all, thus we have the desperate desire to believe in a humanistic higher power that will not call us to repent of our sins and believe in God, but instead tells we are just fine how we are. To these ‘believers’ death is just an illusion and the ‘higher powers’ (ET’s, UFO’s, Spritual Entities, Space Brothers, Ascended Masters, etc) are coming to bring us enlightenment and assist us taking the next step in our evolution towards god-hood.

    Although it was published in 1989 (so it deals with some dated Cold War era themes), those interested in a novel that deals with just who these UFO ‘higher powers’ are might enjoy The Mind Invaders by Christian author Dave Hunt.
    https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Invaders-Novel-Dave-Hunt/dp/1928660355/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+mind+invaders&qid=1681056792&sr=8-1

  14. I agree, the matter theory of existence has superseded the information theory of existence. The theory is that matter is the product of information. A simulation? A simulation within a simulation? God as an operating system?

    The problem with bible translations, is bible translations. Which bible, whose translations?
    Most people can’t accurately describe what happened a day ago on a witness stand in court. Yet, hundreds of years of oral traditions are then written down accurately? I doubt that. The other problem is whose or what god? Yahweh the Elohim? Allah, Brahma etc.
    And everyone holds their answer as the absolute truth. Same as it ever was.

    Consider the last few days of the huge classified document dump. Oh, the wild speculation
    that ensued of what was in them, what it meant, etc. How about downloading the documents, actually read them, and then form a conclusion on the information you actually read. The same can be said about so many Christians. They never actually read the bible naked, without outside influence, like injected Greek mysticism. I don’t believe Christianity could be what it is without the injection of the Greek mysticism. And the Greek mysticism smells a lot like Hindu mysticism.

    Satan, good god vs bad god were concepts absorbed by the Hebrews from Zoroastrianism.
    The more I look into it, the more it looks like this was cobbled together and changed depending on the ecosystem the Hebrews were in. Then there’s the Babylonian Talmud.

    The Elohim, whoever or whatever they were, left us this banking system and top-down pyramidal governing structure. Is it possible that their system of governing and banking works for them and not for us? Are we returning to our uninterrupted state before the Elohim interfered? In other words are we returning to our natural state because the Elohim DNA is no longer mixed with ours, hence the shortened life spans, falling intelligence?
    Is that why humanity pines for the return of a control structure?

    Aren’t we behaving like unruly teenagers with whiskey, car keys and no parents to keep us in check? Are we dysfunctional without the Elohim overlords? What I mean is, can we not function without superior beings keeping us on the right track, like parents.

    Then, there’s the question of whether the Elohim left or are still managing things from above. Or did they simply get what they came here for and then just left?

    I also wonder why denizens from other realms would be considered demons or angels or gods or devils? Why the absolute fear? The need for the absolutism? Or the need to categorize it based on the biblical point of view? Why not intelligent consciousness from afar? Why does it need to be evil and ungodly? Why would they think or reason like us?

    What are the UFOs? I have no facts to ponder, just crappy pictures/video and human testimony. I’ll have to be the doubting Thomas on this subject. Until I have a meaningful interaction/experience I can have no meaningful opinion, just conjecture, theories and possibilities.

    Is it also possible that this is all to distract from the ongoing magnetic pole flip and solar system changes? Are the UFOs here to ferry a few off world and bring them back after the disaster to start again? So many possibilities.

    -Bill Freeman

    1. Bill: The real problem, having reviewed much of the literature surrounding UFOs and cults, is the human manipulation factor. Since the universe is the product of mind (of God’s mind), and most men can see this, then there are men who want to speak for God, who want to represent Him to other men, making God into their puppet. It is a profound problem which we can trace throughout history, and appears intractable.

      1. Yes, the manipulation to selfish ends is all too human.

        God’s mind. That has a lot of possibilities as well. An operating system, an omnipotent being, a creator being, none of the above? Without interaction how can one even define God (again, whose god?)? It’s like being color blind and trying to describe the color red (how is that even possible) to a blind person using second hand information. And we rely on unverifiable information that’s changed hands so many times the chain of custody is irreparably broken. Blind leading the blind.

        The other problem is god, or what is god. For me, the old testament doesn’t talk about the all knowing, omnipotent, loving spiritual god Paul describes in the new.
        Yahweh is quite the opposite, if one actually reads what is actually written. Yahweh is acknowledged as one of the Elohim, not the all powerful, that would have been Elyon.
        Yahweh is referred to in Hebrew as Yahweh Eloha

        The god Paul describes in the new testament seems so fantastical, almost a perfect god for our human condition. Like a parent. Whereas Yahweh is a violent, jealous, war god. The two are at odds with each other. And of course there’s Yahweh’s companion Asherah, no one seems to acknowledge or speak about. Her name is mentioned some 40 times in the Old Testament but it is almost always translated as “grove” or “tree”. Even though she was worshiped as Yahweh’s consort. Also, Yahweh eats, sleeps, loves the smell of burning animal fat, also makes sacrifices (to whom?), forbids invalids from serving him, etc. Again, at odds with Paul’s description.

        Humanity has amnesia, and is trying to build a complete narrative from broken pieces of past fragmented memories. Memories of past epochs between cyclical catastrophe.
        Other memories are destroyed because they didn’t fit the current narrative (Buddhist statues taken down, statues in US taken down…because they threaten the current power structure and narrative). Past cultures wiped out to advance a particular belief structure that not one person can prove as true.

        Remember the lie is a lie even if everyone believes it, and truth is truth even if no one believes it.

        And truth of our origin and past has eluded humanity for a long time. A burning question that no one seems to be able to satisfactorily answer. Yet.

        -Bill Freeman

      2. But isn’t God still God, whether our little minds comprehend Him or not? And we are, still, creatures of that same Creator. Right?

      3. God is still God, but what God? Please explain what God you are referring to.
        Are you referring to the Trinary Christian God? Brahma like the Hindus view God?
        Yahweh as the Jews view God. Allah as the Islamic view God? The Mormon Godhead? That distinction is rather important.

        As far as our little minds go and our inability to comprehend, I have no idea, Maybe yes, maybe no. No one has the opportunity to address that hypothesis unless they can directly interact with God. I haven’t met anyone that has done that.

        Yes, we are all part of this creation, but again, created from what or by what?
        No one has a concrete answer, but people sure do feel good thinking they do.

        We honestly don’t know.

        -Bill Freeman

      4. The God that made the Universe — which is not an accidental jumble of matter, but ordered and calibrated for living beings.

      5. “The God that made the Universe — which is not an accidental jumble of matter, but ordered and calibrated for living beings. ”

        I agree with that, mostly. To me, God is God, not Christian, Hindu, Muslim or whatever.
        God is what it is. That’s my view. Once humans get involved in trying to define, or give it a name, as you stated, God becomes man’s puppet. And that’s what I see in religion, puppeteering for profit and power over people.

        -Bill Freeman

      7. LOL, yes isn’t that so true.
        It’s late and my brain is shutting down.
        Until next time.

        -Bill Freeman

    2. Bill: “Yet, hundreds of years of oral traditions are then written down accurately?” What makes you think that there were hundreds of years of oral traditions? What are your sources? What makes you think those sources are accurate? Have you verified your claims by referring back to the source documents in their original languages? The way you present your claims makes it sound like you don’t have first person knowledge of what you claim.

      In an earlier posting you talked about “official dogma”, in which you referenced a fundamentalism that is just as fundamentalist as the fundies that you decry. I’ve heard their dogma before. It doesn’t sync with the source documents. I rejected it because its an ideologically based dogma that has little relationship to deep scholarship and where ideology trumps data. There was a book published a half century ago called “Zur Datierung der Genesis ‘P’ Stücke” by Dr. Samuel R. Külling detailing the early history of that dogma, quoting those who founded that dogma, revealing its ideological roots in German rationalism, belief in evolution and antisemitism. Since then findings in archaeology have disproved many of their early claims, yet the dogma remains.

      You mentioned a guy named Mauro—has he read the complete Old Testament through cover to cover at least ten times? A person has to read it through five times at which point he starts to get a feel for the language. At ten times he starts getting fluent. Or is he like a typical PhD in Hebrew, having read only sections of the Old Testament in Hebrew, and most of them are the easier sections?

      Daniel didn’t know Babylonian and Persian history? Or is it that modern historians don’t know? There is a little problem with Persian history, namely Alexander the Great. He deliberately and with malice destroyed the Persian royal records. By the time Greek historians tried to reconstruct Persian history, all they had were dimly remembered oral histories. According to linguistic analysis of the Aramaic portions of Daniel’s book, the Aramaic is sixth century BC Aramaic, not later. So it comes down to, who do you trust? Someone who from the linguistic evidence was there at that time and observed the events, or modern historians working from very fragmentary records?

      In closing, you have every right to throw out your beliefs. But be prepared to see those beliefs called into question. Especially when your beliefs deal with subjects that are philosophical, religious or historical in nature where the evidence to back up your claims doesn’t exist.

  16. @ JEFF NYQUIST: Easterly Greetings!

    Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897): Piano Trio No.1 in B major, Op. 8 (1854; revised edition 1889):

      1. As you also mentioned Mozart (1756 – 1791) – he wrote a near-inifinite ocean of music, didn’t he, and what music! – here is his Serenade No. 10 for winds in B-flat major, KV 361/370a, “Gran Partita” (ca. 1781/’82). Enjoy!

  17. There are only two kingdoms, the Kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of light. There is only one prince of this world-Satan. There is only one King of the universe-The Alpha and Omega, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We have free will and we choose what Kingdom we want to live in. We are born into a battle for our soul till the day we die. We are either a servant of God, a soldier for Christ and obey Him as are commanding officer to further His kingdom on earth or we are a slave to Satan and join his army to destroy life, truth, faith, hope, love, joy, peace-all that is good, beautiful, fulfilling and meaningful.
    Our struggle in this world is not against humans but rulers, authorities, spiritual forces and powers of evil in this dark world. (Eph 6).
    Jesus died on the cross for our sins so he could send us the Holy Spirit to help us in this battle and make us into overcomers.
    If we choose to be on his side-
    He said we are no longer of this world now and we would be hated and persecuted for bearing His name but He will now fight our battles with us and for us.
    Being a friend of the world is an enemy of God. We had these and so many truths about the evil of the world but I think it has only recently sunk in how evil the evil is He was talking about. If we new how evil we would have been living like the Amish decades ago.

    We are dealing with the same demons that persecuted John the Baptist and cut off his head. Demons don’t die. They have thousands of years of experience in deception, lies, manipulation and fear mongering. They thrive and feed off of our fear and anxiety-do they not have a whole underground to torture and terrorize children? What do Gods people do? Nothing!

    Demons are only out to kill, steal and destroy period. That is why all their systems lead to death, death of health, happiness, life, families ect. They hate the truth and our always watchful with thousands of tongues to spread, exaggerate, emblazon, slander all Christian’s for the most trivial offense and forgive a thousand faults of evil. They call us every evil name and twist every good thing all the while they are full of the Devil.
    We should have avoided all things that gave advantage to the enemy. We reap what we sow. Deception is rampant because people don’t know the pure word of God. How did Jesus overcome the enemy? Scripture! He didn’t use what teachers, politicians, government, influencers, celebrities and priests said, He just spoke His word to the enemies face.
    We are made by God and for God and God never changes. He gives us free will to choose Him. Until people stop playing god and instead let Him be Lord of their lives everything will only get worse and worse.
    Men think they are wiser than God and can make things better their way when it only causes destruction and death.

    No one takes warning, the watchmen only watch out for themselves.
    You can’t be a nation that devours its people and children and is polluted with bloodshed and expect to not be in Gods judgement right now.
    God said in these times even the elect would be deceived if possible.
    The end time system of the anti-Christ is in place trying to make him all knowing and all powerful like God with his lying wonders-try out chat AI you will experience the new facts about historians-and truth being labeled misinformation in time. God allows these things for these end time days.

    God says do all you can to stand and stand firm on the truth until He returns don’t melt or crumble stand firm and you will be saved.

    “All who spread terror will be slain they will fall by the sword, they will be punished for their terror stalking through the land.” Ezekiel 32

    Thank you Jeff! Excellent work!
    Happy Easter! Thank you Jesus for all you’ve done and all you continue to do moment by moment daily.

    2. Mary, have you ever visited tldm.org? A Catholic woman who allegedly received visions said the death of Communism was a ruse, Russia and China would attack America, and that the USA was the nation spoken of in Revelation 18. And she said all this in the 80’s and 90’s.

  18. The oral tradition started with the first passed down stories. The point is that it’s like the telephone game. To suggest oral stories passed down from generation to generation would remain absolutely accurate to the original story is improbable. When these traditions were finally written down, how much remained accurate? You have no idea and neither do I. There’s nothing to compare it to.

    I don’t have time to translate all these things, so, at one point, yes, I trust someone else to do it and do it accurately. That’s what bibles outside the original source language are. They’re supposed to have accurate translation, which they don’t. They inject meaning into words that don’t mean what they say it does, Elohim, Ruach, Olam, El Shadday, Kavod, etc and these replacements changed the context and meaning.

    Concerning Mauro, please, just ask Mauro. Please debate him, seriously. I can’t imagine you’d have any problem shutting him down and setting him straight.
    https://www.maurobiglino.com/

    Concerning Daniel, https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/18242 engage Richard and call him out on any errors you perceive. There is a lengthy comment section for this piece, so maybe review whats been discussed and call out the errors as you see them. He has more knowledge on the subject than me.

    What I find interesting, is you attack anything that says anything against the Christian religion. Yet refute nothing with any morsel of evidence.
    If I were providing info claiming writings of Islam were untrue, you wouldn’t be here.
    It seems you are trolling just to support the Christian view.

    Who has the bone to pick?

    -Bill Freeman

    1. Bill: “The oral tradition started with the first passed down stories.” Which stories? Where is your evidence? Is your “evidence” that made up dogma from the early 19th century Germany? What makes you think that Adam, the first man, wasn’t literate? That when God gave man language, that God didn’t include writing with language? And that the Bible consists of written histories, mostly written by those who took part in those recorded activities, or in the case of the books of Kings and Chronicles, based on the written royal records? Yes, we all know about the “telephone game”, but are we dealing with the “telephone game” here? Where is your evidence?

      You make absolute statements about things about which you cannot know. Do you realize how foolish that makes you look?

      “I don’t have time to translate all these things,” from the way you write these things, I don’t think you can. You list several words, but no evidence. You claim that all the translations are false, but then by your standard so all lexica, the scholarly dictionaries, are also false.

      I don’t know Italian, but looking at Mauro’s site, what I found is that it’s formatted in such a way that no debate is possible. And Richard Carrier wrote, “Ezekiel is writing to a non-Israelite audience”? What? He lived in a community of Jewish exiles, and he didn’t write to them? Give me a break!

      By the way, it looks as if Richard Carrier is one of those pushing UFOlogy. Look at his site.

      Are you a troll, on this site to push UFOlogy? But that you think that you cannot do so openly, so you attack on false premises anything that might point to a god other than those connected with UFOs? Especially the Bible? Is there any reason why I should not conclude that that is your motive?

      2. You seem highly agitated and annoyed by your tone, maybe because you see some of the points are valid. Yet, still, you’ve not offered anything of substance that would make me trust your view, whatsoever. Also, please don’t say the Earth is flat and 5000yrs old.

        Oral tradition is “a community’s cultural and historical traditions passed down by word of mouth or example from one generation to another without written instruction.”. That’s what oral tradition is. So yes, oral tradition began with the first passed down stories.
        Which stories? Some of the oldest would be the 37000yr tale of the Aborigine Volacno god Budj Bim, which begins with giants (curious). Aboriginal Dreamtime may be the oldest oral tradition still being passed down. The hunter and the 7 sisters also comes to mind. And other worldwide oral traditions, like the flood story.

        Oral tradition over a long time can change (loss of memory, prejudice of orator, etc) before they are committed to writing.

        ‘when God gave man language.’ ( “absolute statements about things about which you cannot know”, pot,kettle,black.) Which god? Vāc?, Yahweh?, Taryenyawagon? Or am I supposed to assume you mean Yahweh, the Hebrew god.

        Whether Adam was literate or not, I have no idea. The bible doesn’t mention it as far as I know. Regardless, oral stories and tradition were and are still passed down. Many cultures have oral tradition and still do.

        The listed words all have a video associated with them and their meaning.

        https://www.youtube.com/@MauroBiglinoOfficialChannel/videos

        Watch them. The translations are taken from scholarly encyclopedias and dictionaries.
        Their context makes more sense without the mystical/magic approach.

        The translations of those words as they appear in home bibles is inaccurate. As is what they imply. So, the home bible translations are wrong. Mistranslation changes the meaning. So, for instance, lets take Olam. Mauro explains using dictionaries, etc, why it doesn’t mean eternity. So, is the Dictionary of Hebrew and Aramaic by Phillipe Reymond wrong when it says not to translate Olam as eternal? Is that a trusted source? If not, why not? And what credentials do you retain to actually make that claim one way or another?

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rerTk058VFw

        Don’t bash Mauro, politely refute point, by point with evidence, as Mauro does.
        Strange, Mauro is on a lot of other videos in discussion and debate, try harder.
        Or easily start your own youtube channel and join the debates.

        Richard Carrier pushing UFOs? What? If you search UFO only one article is present.
        If you are referring to Jesus Christ from Outer Space, that has nothing to do with UFOs.
        Nice try.
        So, where is he pushing UFOs? He has one article where he says he thought he saw one once, but it turned out to be a flock of seagulls. Can you show me the pushing part?
        “Ezekiel is writing to a non-Israelite audience”? I didn’t write it, why ask me? Ask Richard to explain why he wrote that. There is a comment section. Please be polite and articulate.

        Concerning the dead sea scrolls: A lot of research and AI assisted stylometry has expanded since 2010.

        You said ” The Dead Sea Scrolls are from 150 – 250 BC, some possibly older than 400 BC, showing virtually no change from then to now.”

        I just watched these and Dr. Kipp Davis would disagree concerning the not changing.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e2kuETGoOM
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH-9byDf7p8
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E62OwtQrlUg

        Artificial intelligence based writer identification generates new evidence for the
        unknown scribes of the Dead Sea Scrolls exemplified by the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa)

        https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8059865/pdf/pone.0249769.pdf

        https://news.nd.edu/news/dead-sea-scrolls-yield-major-questions-in-old-testament-understanding/

        Nope not pushing UFO, which just means the flying object isn’t identified. It doesn’t mean alien, god, or demon. Maybe there isn’t anything/anyone inside and it’s merely a probe of some sort. I have no idea what they really are. Whatever they really are, they sure are a distraction and seem to have come at an interesting time.

        I posited the UFOs could be the Elohim as described in the bible. Ezekiel’s wheel, the parting of clouds and columns of smoke, Elijah is carried heavenward in a chariot of fire, and people being taken for rides in them. Enoch’s trip. Yahweh’s kavod.

        You see, I’m curious, that if they are aliens from outer or inner space, what will that do to humanity, to religion? Until then, they remain unidentified flying objects.

        I only joined in this discussion because the topic was about extraterrestrials.
        Normally i just comment on what is written here. Never have I pushed ufo-ology

        It really boils down to I say the UFOs might be the Elohim, and you say no, great.
        But I’m not agitated in the least. I’m calm as a sleeping calf. i have no dog in this, just pointing out things that some people obviously don’t like.

        And strange, no one else jumped down my throat like you did. Like a troll would.

        -Bill Freeman

      3. I left a rather lengthy reply, but the crappy comment software didn’t display it.
        I’m sure it’s floating around there because god-forbid it has http links.
        Comment software feels like yesterday’s technology today.

        -Bill Freeman

      5. It should be up, but this darn thing sometimes flips them back and I have to hit the button multiple times. So very time/consuming.

      6. Bill: You double down on your defense of Mauro.

        As for my qualifications, my friends don’t need my defense of myself, and you won’t believe it anyways, so there’s no need to repeat it.

        I started watching his video on עולם eternity. Languages change, and his opening graphic references the modern Israeli meaning, not the Biblical meaning. Then his first argument is based on an Italian and French translation, not the Hebrew original. At which point I turned it off—I don’t need to waste my time on such foolishness. I’ve read and participated in a discussion on line about the Biblical meaning of עולם carried on by scholars around the world—this guy sounds like a flake.

        On the issue of the Dead Sea Scrolls, I recommended that you get an actual transcript of the scrolls themselves, then show me from the originals, but no, again you refer to a third party who puts his own spin on the subject.

        “I posited the UFOs could be the Elohim as described in the bible. Ezekiel’s wheel, the parting of clouds and columns of smoke, Elijah is carried heavenward in a chariot of fire, and people being taken for rides in them. Enoch’s trip. Yahweh’s kavod.” This looks like throwing a bunch of spaghetti against the wall to see what will stick, and this is some of the stuff that fell down.

        You came on this site like a prophet thundering down from above that we are all stupid and what you have to say is what really happened. Your experts are the ones who really know. Then you expect us to smile and say “Yessah, yessah”? I’m sorry, but things don’t work out that way. Some of us just might have some knowledge that calls your “experts” into question.

        What we jumped on was not so much what you said—von Däniken said much the same things decades ago—rather it is your superior, know-it-all attitude that comes through your writing that rubs us the wrong way.

  19. Thank you for the article, Jeff. It’s a great pleasure to grapple with these philosophical ideas. A few errors:

    Explaining his work in these terms, Livy added that “history is the best medicine for a sick mind….[5] The collapse of the ancient world,

    I think here should be a quotation mark to close the Livy quote. I thought the quote went on after the ellipsis. I may be wrong about this if the citation number is considered sufficient to close the quote.

    “This game is not for immatures minds or hollow men.”

    Immature instead of immatures

    “Yet Greer, in effect, is saying that Aldrin is a lair. So who should we believe?”

    Liar is misspelled.

    Please delete my comment.

  20. It might sound crazy, but it mentions somewhere in the Bible (sorry, can’t find this place, but I definitely read it) that God will gather together lost tribes of Israel from the islands of the sea and from heaven. Which implies that God could have led away from Israel groups of people not just to different lands on this earth, but taught them technologies and took them out of this earth. And at some point, will bring them back.
    There is also a book with NDE by Susan Freeman, “Through the Window of Life” with the account of how she was taken to heaven and Jesus had shown her the last days before His coming. He commanded her to share it with people to help them to prepare, and this is how the book came about. The deadly virus is mentioned there, foreign invasion to US. It also mentions appearance of one group of people from Israel, which come back from space. They did have advanced technologies.
    This goes together with my dream which I had around 1988-1989. I lived in Ukrainian SSR then and was just waking up to spiritual realities of existence of God and universal laws. In that dream I saw a very gloomy time when the sky was black and people were very depressed. Everybody (or just me) knew that the end of the world was going to come in 3 years. But suddenly the sky was blue again and the grass was green. And there was a spaceship and very tall people in silver costumes. Other than height they were actually normal people and not green men.
    I agree that the subject is very complex and many parties are using it to their advantage. There may be some demonic influences as well as Godly ones.

      1. I do not have further dreams about aliens. But I had lots of dreams before the Russian-Ukrainian war. Here are some of them:
        One dream was in April 2014 (after Crimea was taken). I am in Ukraine and big black cloud is coming from the North about to cover the setting sun. Then I knew that bigger war is coming.

        One dream was around 2019. I see numbers 2022. I started telling my friends and family that the war will start in 2022.

        In January 2022 I was in Ukraine expecting war any time. I prayed and fasted asking God to tell me when it will start, so I could sleep without fear of rockets. In my dream I was informed that it will be at the end of February. I left Ukraine on February 28.

        I have also shared in comments of one previous post my friend’s dream that Hitler’s moustache is growing out of Ukraine and covering the whole world. USA is in chaos and a woman in white says there are not enough rescuers. My feeling is that it is coming fast.

    2. Valentina: “…God will gather together lost tribes of Israel from the islands of the sea and from heaven.” I think you had in mind verses like Isaiah 11:11–12 but they don’t mention anything about “heaven”, at least not in the Hebrew original.

  21. And one more comment. It is not on aliens, but just for information. Yuriy Felshtinskiy, co-author with the murdered Alexandr Litvinenko of “FSB blows up Russia”, said that by this September Russia will throw nuclear bombs on Poland and Lithuania from Belarus. They will test the West if they will respond to that. Or maybe it will be to distract from Taiwan operation. Earlier Felshtinskiy said that Russia will transfer nukes to Belarus. It happened. He must have some insider information.

  22. This is not a comment on your article, which was interesting and frankly educational on many levels.
    So, I watched this clip of Jacques on Joe Rogan linked by one of your viewers.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TukvVnadRic&ab_channel=PowerfulJRE
    Having previously listened to the TED clip (which had some very interesting comments about Comms physics).
    He totally invalidates himself on JR by inferring that the recent MSM released F18 footage of “confirmed UFO’s” is genuine. It has been comprehensively debunked by Thunderf00t here:
    https://www.youtube.com/@Thunderf00t/search?query=ufo

    Really comprehensively 🙂

  23. @ Petunia: In all actuality, it was many in the Western elites (including American) that enabled the Russians through the granting of Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) for Russia in 2012, the transfer of technology (Re: Rusnano and Skolkovo), and the signing of the START and New START Treaties with the Russians. While Western capitalist greed (assiduously cultivated by the Russians and Chinese) and stupidity (re: arms control agreements) emboldened the Russians, the US and West fell behind and became progressively divided. This notion that the West has been hostile to Russia in a consistent fashion is simply untrue. I would argue that Gorbachev’s/Arbatov’s (the CPSU) strategy of eliminating the image of the enemy was a resounding success in many ways. We cut our divisions and strategic weapons while the Russians expanded their reserve of CBR and nuclear weapons (as revealed by various military and intelligence defectors). Moscow’s espionage operations reached greater proportions than the Cold War era. They expanded their influence in already existing and new Marxist-Leninist, socialist, and “anti-imperialist” states. Moscow continued to support elements of the international communist movement (e.g. the ALBA alliance in South America, whose meetings were attended by Russian Federation officials and the 2017 World Youth Festival facilitated in Sochi, Russia, etc.) As Bill Gertz revealed, Russia continued massive military exercises against the US even as the Clinton Administration shoveled IMF loans to Moscow which in part were diverted to Russian agents in the US like Aldrich Ames and to bail out Russian intelligence front companies.

    I have serious disagreements with Jeff and many readers on various issues, but he is spot on regarding on Russia and China and America’s policy towards those two powers. While great care needs to be applied in our policies to Russia and China (in part because we’ve become too intertwined with them-especially the PRC), we simply cannot cut off Ukraine either. Might I add, Russian GRU special services were very active in Donetsk and Luhansk well before they became satrapies of Russia. In fact, Moscow fomented the separatist movements there. Moscow was not simply going to let Ukraine function as an independent state (meaning not controlled by the Party of Regions). This whole narrative of American aggression (without any mention of collaboration with Western/US institutions with the Russians) does not tell the story in an accurate fashion.

    Moscow’s ultimate goal (especially since the late 1980s-when documents revealed and discussed by Vladimir Zubok told of Gorbachev seeking to hug the Americans to death in order to evict them from Europe) is the neutralization of Europe and dissolution of NATO. Hence, their political warfare and funding and cooperation with extremist parties and business groups in the West. Dmitry Medvedev claimed that the Russians sought a neutralized, friendly Europe from Vladivostok to Portugal if memory serves me correctly. So the battle in Ukraine is not about whether that country submits or not…it’s about Europe.

    1. What is US vital interest in Ukraine? Desert Storm was the last time that US leadership made the case for any military action. It’s as if now the DoD believes that it has a blank check, and politicians aren’t about to explain themselves to anyone. Just because Russia cheats on treaties is no reason to ignore Russia and refuse to negotiate in good faith.
      Lack of communication is far, more likely to result in war than stalemate negotiations.

      Nobody asked Ukrainians how they felt about having their country demolished, either. Make your case to the people, if you think it’s so, good.

      1. Must I say this again? We Americans are not fighting in Ukraine. The Ukrainian people are fighting. It is their war. They already answered the call. If they did not want to defend they would not have defended, they would not have accepted all the consequences that came with defending their freedom. You wrote as if this is the Vietnam War and Americans are defending them and we ought to pull out. No. We have no combat forces there. We conduct no bombing campaigns there. We cannot pull out because we are not in. Does someone have to hit you in the head with a hammer to knock that nonsense out of your head? And yes, you’re a fool to sit down with the Russians or the Chinese to negotiate because they will cheat. They always cheat. They have already cheated. But you want to make the larger context irrelevant while inserting a false context. Stop carrying the propaganda ball for Moscow. Good grief!

  24. I can see that now, and it is very bad for us in the U.S., and for the other nations in Europe.

    When I read about Macron attempting to turn his back on the U.S., and him being willing to talk other European countries into doing so, I was thinking, ‘while you were in Beijing, for how long did they brainwash you?’ and/or ‘how much money did they (Chinese Communists) pay you to say this?’

    I think that if the Europeans/European Union move(s) away from U.S. influence and protection, and then Russia strikes at some point, running roughshod over them, they will come to bitterly regret such a decision, whether America ends up falling, or not.

      2. Also, I’m sorry about my double post regarding Macron–I had meant originally to post it above, in the section where I had linked to articles about him. WordPress, however, to my great frustration, instead shoved it down here to the bottom.

  25. I was raised in nominalism/post-modern relativism and can testify that my mind was totally disordered, to the point I still struggle today to believe that moral good, beauty and truth exist in themselves. The ideology that individuals either inherit meaning from their cultural circumstances, or generate and project it themselves – or both – is insidious and intellectually corrupting. One thing that gets missed is their is a humble edge to it — “who am I, a mere mortal, incapable of knowing the unknowable, to lay claim to knowledge of what’s ultimately true, and to tell another person they are wrong?” Point being, we tend to cast the ideology as self-centered, in that Man substitutes himself for God as the source of truth – but as presented, as taught, this ideology grabs adherents by telling them they’re small and trivial (“who are YOU to decide what is true, good and beautiful? Who is anyone to decide for others?”). I think this is how disordered thinking works – a positive inclination, like humility, gets misdirected.

    I pray to God to tether me to the truth. I’ve read the Bible my whole life as an “intellectual” enterprise – but several years ago I finally read it and really *heard* it. I understood Jesus’ ministry in a way I never had – that telling the truth was a scandalous act, and would get you killed. I can only explain it as an awakening. Jesus isn’t/wasn’t some “Enlightened soul” like others – He is the Son of God, who picked up a cross to suffer on our behalf, the way, the truth and the life. Finally I understood that Jesus isn’t a “symbol” of something or a myth – he walked the earth and intervened in human history; God made manifest as Word and flesh.

    Understanding that forces me to take a stand that some things are True, and other things are not true, and it has been so uncomfortable I still haven’t sorted my way through it.

    Here’s why I say my mind was “disordered.” If I’m honest, I have to admit it is easier for me to see and believe the truth of evil (which I used to not even believe existed!), than it is for me to accept the Good News of eternal life in Jesus Christ. Why is that? I don’t know. But this essay points me toward something I’ll be thinking about: the temptation of despair. What I grapple with now – what torments my mind – is the very real possibility of earthly suffering, that in fact it is part of being Christian to endure our suffering in faith and gratitude for God’s mercy. All that I can internalize. It is very real. The ways of Satan are very real – I see them, and their logic, in worldly events surrounding us. On the other hand, salvation – God’s saving grace – is the part I still struggle with. A voice within me still taunts that it’s all wishful thinking (a coping mechanism), or that even if it’s not, I’m to weak and sinful to be saved anyway. Something I think of often is Kierkegaard’s Fear & Trembling – the Knight of Faith, who follows the Will of God absolutely, without falling to the temptations of worldly norms or even worldly ethics. I chastise my own lack of courage and clarity, and feel that if I truly were a believer, I wouldn’t struggle so much to discern and follow God’s Will.

    I will read Sickness Unto Death. It rings true that despair becomes temptation, leads us to fall prey to nihilism, separates us from full surrender to God.

    2. You’re not alone in your struggles. Our enemy is always trying to plant doubt and fear. Stay the course, just like our Lord Jesus did for us, “who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

  26. I have dreams too. I would say 10-15 years I had one of a middle eastern man is watching all we do. I believe we may be distracted with Russia and China when we should have our eye on North Korea and Iran. Put a wrap and beard on Obama and who does he look like? Osama Bin Laden.
    I had a dream years ago I was in a helicopter landing in North Korea during a war. Maybe they are sending us to their camps?
    I had a dream maybe 5 years ago I was at a party with the stars and the police where there and there were small children and I couldn’t use my phone to call anyone and tell people what was going on because I found out everyone was in on it anyway.
    I had a dream with snakes everywhere-the deception is rampant we are selves are greatly deceived.
    I have many dreams.
    Also I was in a room under the floor of the mass shooter the day before the shooting in Mandalay Bay with a beautiful view of the venue and I felt so much of an evil presence I had to leave the hotel and I went home and the Lord said go back to the pool and pray the next day. I went to the pool and prayed over the people ect. That night was the shooting.
    I was in Nashville for a conference when they had the last shooting and I felt such a evil presence I had to miss the conference so I could stay by my 17 yr olds side and than they had the shooting that day. My hotel ended up having pediphilia signs on it and I was up praying all night-there was stuff going on for sure.
    I had written a song for the conference I was at in Nashville also about a school shooting and someone’s loss for that songwriting conference and it said in the song a half past ten the time of that shooting. I left town early I was not comfortable at all at that hotel. I could go on and on.
    God is always speaking if you give Him your mind, heart and soul.
    I also feel like Jeff should run for President but he listens to Melvin who tells him he won’t get the money. Well God says wisdom, knowledge and understanding is worth all the gold in the world.
    Don’t listen to man it is a trap just listen to God.

    1. This is a link to a talk by Jonathan Cahn where he mentions that “shadim” שדים (demons) were involved. They are mentioned in the Bible. The basic meaning of the word is “violence” as in treating people violently. And there was violence involved.

      We can expect more violence from those who have given themselves over to the demons. That includes communists. And how much of the UFO phenomena are connected to demons?

    2. Have any of Jonathan Cahn ‘predictions’ come true?

      He seems to be yet another doomsday false prophet.
      The way he’s pushed on youtube and google aggressively
      with little counter opinions, smells funny.
      He sure has fooled a lot of people.

      Anyway, some counter balance.

      A Study of 1 John
      “How to Spot a False Prophet a Smile Away”

      file:///D:/DOWNLOADS%203/1JN13falsePROPHET4.pdf

      Beware of the false prophecies and exaltation of Jonathan Cahn
      Dr. Carrie Anne Horn

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QCOh_VTDPo

      -Bill Freeman

  31. God says he who is not against me is for me. No man is perfect or ever will be until we reach heaven. But how many voices have you heard in the last 20 years blowing the trumpet warning America what is coming? Jonathan Cahn has been a lead voice on that for over 20 years. He knows the original Hebrew language of the scripture in which we are all greatly lacking from. He calls himself a rabbi? Well priests call themselves Father when the Bible says we are to only call one person Father-Jesus Christ.
    You can’t listen to one persons law spouting-which the law is weak and useless and never made anything perfect. We have confidence now in a better hope which has been introduced in which we just draw near to God ourselves. (Hebrews 7:18-19).
    If we had taken Jonathan Cahns warnings America wouldn’t be in this mess.
    We must know the word for ourselves, while we can learn from others we can better discern what to spit out.
    Jesus is our wonderful counselor. He counsels us not man. He is to be our teacher. No power can match His power working in our lives.
    Our country is filled with false prophets and many sadly are led astray by them.
    The light is being covered by the thick clouds of darkness quickly.
    Wickedness is universal and all our infected with it.
    The proudest, stoutest sinner shall either bend or break.
    Let God be the judge of every man, for He knows what is truly in the heart and we don’t.
    May we humble ourselves under Gods mighty hand and wake up by these lessor judgements or greater will be expected.
    Keep your lights shining!
    Thanks Jeff!

  33. If the UFOs are man made, or recovered technology from a previous epoch, this would
    be closer to home, without aliens, elohim, faeries, gods, angels or demons.

    Is it possible they are just man-made and part of a psyop? Lazar claims
    one of the craft he worked on came from an archeological dig site.
    A real vemana, possibly from a previous advanced civilization?

    This theory is plausible if we truly have cyclic solar catastrophe.

    So if that jibes, and it was rebuilt, repaired, or something made from the tech, it’s not too far fetched that maybe some bad actors stole it, sold the tech to foreign intelligence, or maybe
    it’s used for fear, leading to irrational thinking, to keep everyone distracted and scared.
    It could be a joint Op with bad actors here and their counterparts in Russia and or China.

    Just musing possibilities.

    The recent videos from the navy FLIR cams might have simple explanations.

    Breakdown of the Pentagon UFO videos with Mick West

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le7Fqbsrrm8

    As far as the phenomena starting when it did, I’m not sure.
    The modern phenomenon seems to have taken off around and after WW2
    with Foo fighters starting around 1940 and the 1947 Roswell enigma
    But what I do find interesting about Roswell was that many reports indicate it was a balloon, now here we are full circle shooting down UFO balloons. Maybe the balloon theme is some sort of inside joke. Then there is the 1969 Barney and Betty Hill story.
    After that it took off like wildfire.

    And here’s notable UFO encounters since antiquity (NASA, I know)

    Unidentified Flying Objects in Classical Antiquity

    http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/2007/2007_Stothers_st02710y.pdf

    This list includes UFO sightings of antiquity.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reported_UFO_sightings

    Interesting how Ezekiel’s wheel isn’t mentioned. That event is mentioned
    as a UFO encounter in many publications, opinions, and videos. Yet, Fatima phenomena
    is listed as UFO.

    Here’s an interesting explanation for the UFO’s turning off the nukes story
    No idea of the accuracy.
    https://www.quora.com/What-do-you-think-of-UFOs-disarming-our-nuclear-missiles

    Whatever the UFO’s are, they sure have abducted the zeitgeist of part of the planet.

    For me, until they land and something exits and is proven to be other-worldly, it’s an interesting enigma. Otherwise, it’s speculation fueling a multi-million dollar industry of speculation. In essence it’s become a kind of religion.

    -Bill Freeman

    1. There was a very strange story about the SS expedition to Tibet under the Ahnenerbe in 1938. It was considered a big success. But nobody ever explained adequately what that success entailed What did they find? This may be the answer.

  34. The UFO thing doesn’t bother me as much as the AI thing.

    Not sure if this is a hoax

    https://twitter.com/chaos_gpt

    https://chaos-eth.org/

    But the fact that the nuts are already writing things like this
    makes me wonder.

    Will AI ever be self-aware I have no idea. I’m sure it’ll be made to mimic human thinking
    to a degree as to fool people, yes. Or be adequate enough like a droid.

    I found these interesting, I hope you do as well.

    Eliezer Yudkowsky explains AGI | Lex Fridman

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8NhfDisjQ4

    How AI will manipulate human psychology | Eliezer Yudkowsky and Lex Fridman

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDVNfDVEgZ8

    Eliezer Yudkowsky: Is consciousness trapped inside GPT-4? | Lex Fridman Podcast Clips

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qplLNwboQM0

    How to prevent AI from destroying human civilization | Eliezer Yudkowsky and Lex Fridman

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-PBlSOmZaQ

    In the field of computer graphics and animation AI is advancing rapidly.

    AI is Evolving Faster Than You Think [GPT-4 and beyond]

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIU48QL5Cyk

    -Bill Freeman

  35. Jeff

    Just trying to process the ideas in your article. Are you thinking that they beam the ideas, perceptions, dreams into people,s brains with technological devices ? Or that they summon actual demons ?

    If actual demons, what would be the effect on the summoner ? I think of the witch of Endor. She got a terrible fright and she was not summoning a demon. But breaking the prohibition on spiritism.

    Your thoughts Jeff ? Or anybody else also.

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