One Seeker's Journey: Close Encounters - The movie 25 years later    
 Close Encounters - The movie 25 years later9 comments
2 Nov 2003 @ 14:49, by Craig Lang

Last night, as I was doing some late night channel surfing, I stumbled across a rerun of the movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I had not seen this movie for awhile. And this time, I was struck by how accurately the movie captured the state of UFO studies during the mid to late 1970s.

It was 25 years ago, nearly this time of year, when I first saw the movie. It was a cold December evening, just after having taken my last final exam of that semester in engineering school.

At that time in life, for a variety of reasons, I had a resurgence of interest in UFOs. There had been a recent surge of sightings, a few of which had made the media (sorry, I don't remember where I read about them, but I do remember doing so). There had been a few fascinating news items about SETI, including the WOW signal, in 1977. Also, at the time, this secondary focus on the extraordinary served as a wonderful break from the rigors of engineering school. I did not yet know that this diversion would become my passion a quarter-century later.

Yet, while interested, I really didn't know much about the state of UFO studies at the time. And so, much of the symbology - the most meaningful dynamics of the movie were lost to me.

More historical perspective: This was not too long after the demise of NICAP. MUFON was a relatively young organization, with a bright future - but completely unknown to me. At that time, the abduction/experiencer phenomenon apparently had not yet emerged into the world of UFO research. And so it appears that the present picture had not yet begun to form.

Now, 25 years later, as I watched again, I noticed that many of the signs of the abduction phenomenon were actually depicted in the movie. But at that time, they were interpreted differently. Some of these were:
---> Repeated, close-up sightings of UFOs.
---> The compusion to go-to/return-to a particular location - somehow associated with a sighting or anomaly experience.
---> The sense of mission - knowing that there is something that one is supposed to do, but not sure what it means.
---> Hidden knowledge - knowing something that is just outside of the edge of awareness - with no obvious source.
---> The impact of the phenomenon on the family dynamics of the experiencer.
---> The coverup - the idea that there is a secret government effort to come to terms with the Visitors, in some way.

Other aspects of the abduction phenomenon were pretty much missed. Missing time, the actual abduction scenario, and the apparent genetic/reproductive aspects of the phenomenon had not yet emerged into the literature. In fact, they were actively denied by some researchers. I could not discern any references to the classic two-hour abduction event later described by Budd Hopkins, Whitley Streiber, etc...

As I understand it, at that time the working hypothesis among UFO reserachers was that the phenomenon was a nuts and bolts visitation by an extraterrestrial civilization. Perhaps they were preparing us for contact. And that at some point soon, there would be overt first contact. Such a build-up toward open contact seemed to be suggested by the UFO waves of the 1970s. This includes the 1973 "Year of the Humanoid". It also includes the 1979 wave, which seems to be emerging in old sighting reports being investigated by Minnesota MUFON.

Yet the overt contact never really happened. Instead, what emerged were increasingly common accounts of a covert/furtive abduction phenomenon. Instead of a Fourth-of-July-style landing at a specially constructed amphitheatre at Devil's Tower, Wyoming, we have small entities appearing to a small percentage of humanity, individually, in the dark of night. It is a massive, but secretive effort of an unknown - and perhaps incomprehensible - nature.

Another fascinating things which the movie captured, but which I had not yet understood until the present time was the idea of a universal language. I had not understood the apparent ideas behind this until nearly twenty years later, when I had begun to study Eastern Tradition Meditation. And at the core of this was the idea that there are universally-meaningful sounds. This is the idea behind mantras, chants, and some forms of prayer. In addition, the hand signs which were also depicted in the movie, and which accompanied these universal sounds, are also described in various forms in the eastern tradition.

Although I am not aware of this permeating UFO studies at that time, I suspect that there were accounts of this surfacing in reports. I further suspect that many such accounts were in some way, the surface manifestations of deeper interactions with the phenomenon - abductions, contacts and other encounters.

Twenty five years later Steven Speilberg has again made a movie which again captures the current state of thought in UFO studies. This is the miniseries "Taken" shown on the Sci-Fi channel this year. Again, I wonder - what will we notice 25 years from now? As I watch the movie at this remote time in the future, I can easilly imagine myself noticing details and saying "Oh, that's what that means... Now I understand".

I can only wonder what the state of UFO studies will be like 25 years from now. Will we have solved the mystery? Or will this phenomenon do as it has done so far - apparently evolving over time, leaving an ever-continuing trail of mystery and enigma.

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9 comments

2 Nov 2003 @ 15:24 by vibrani : When the film came out
I was just married and went with my husband and his cousin and her boyfriend to the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood to see the film. It was packed. When I saw the film it was as if Spielberg had put my story on film (in a way), and I cried throughout the film and for hours afterwards. Just couldn't stop crying...mainly out of joy. Here was the truth on film. There were symbolic reps of my family in the stars.

As for the future of UFO studies - they will continue. If the SciFi channel is suing the government for UFO coverups and more and more scientists and others are coming out with what they know, and more contact is made, it can only expand. I have watched this phenomena spread around the world for the past twenty-five years and it has grown so much that most people accept the existence of ETs and are not so small-minded to think that human life on Earth is the only life in the universe. I talked with parking lot attendants, people from all countries, and it's accepted as a fact by most people. In other countries sightings are shown regularly on the news. This country is paranoid about stuff like this. I don't see this as a mystery at all. I don't need a government-stamped approval on whether or not ETs exist - I KNOW they/we do. But it would be nice to have their admission and release the complex of some people who feel crazy and not believed because of their experiences.  

2 Nov 2003 @ 16:47 by ming : 25 years
Well, in 25 years we might have more collectively woken up to the whole thing, and have routine interaction out in the open with many other races. We might have joined the galactic community. Or the wrong kind of people might have succeeded in manipulating us into being even more in the dark, while they keep the knowledge to themselves. It is all up to us. I certainly hope we'll make more progress in that regard in the next 25 years than in the last.  

2 Nov 2003 @ 18:11 by craiglang : Thanx Ming and Vibrani...
for the comments. Some excellent observations.
I have alot of ideas, myself of where the phenomenon is headed, that I haven't indicated here. I think other posts say enough about those. But the biggest thing that I note about the phenomenon is its complexity, ambiguity and deep-mystery. As soon as we think we begin to understand it, it seems to change. The way I've heard it put may times: The more we learn, the less we know...

Re: the government - in my previous post, I indicated that I think they have alot more data, but not much more knowledge. IMHO there are a lot of experiencers that know one helluvalot more about the true nature of the phenomenon than researchers at the core of the inner circle (whatever that is).

What is the purpose of the phenomenon? Who knows... :-)
But my sense is that the next 25 years will see that purpose begin to become more manifest - for better or for worse. And my sense is that in some sense it is for the better. My purely subjective feeling is that the purpose of the phenomenon is awakening - to open our eyes to the cosmic and metaphysical neighborhood around us.  

2 Nov 2003 @ 19:12 by vibrani : Craig
what is the mystery you keep referring to, if you don't mind me asking?  

2 Nov 2003 @ 22:37 by craiglang : The Hall of Mirrors
That E.T. exists and is actively interacting with us is, to me, beyond question. A quick perusal of the Sturrock report, among other things, shows that the evidence is far too strong to deny that. I've worked with enough experiencers, and have investigated enough cases, including those with physical evidence, to be convinced myself.

Yet I also feel the mystery of the phenomenon is self-evident.
To summarize, as both an investigator and therapist, I find many baffling logical paradoxes in the phenomenon.
- First, there is the overlay of the physical and metaphysical so often described in CE4 events. It appears to be both at once - somewhat like a "dream" but which also might leave a burned spot on the lawn.
- Second, there is the apparent ability of the phenomenon to manipulate reality, itself. Look at my previous post for an example.
- Third, what is the agenda of the entities behind the phenomenon? There are theories, but these seem to only scratch the surface.
- Fourth, what is the nature of the entities themselves? Their origin, etc...?
- Fifth, what are the actual mechanics/logistics behind encounters? If they are physical, then the number of abductees, times the number of abductions per lifetime makes for a sky just crawling with UFOs. I call this the "Air Traffic Control Problem".

And these are just what I can think of at 1:00AM CST... :-)

Simply put, the deeper I look into the UFO/CE4 phenomenon, the more it seems to not make sense. With each experiencer - and each experience they describe - I find that it seems to defy nearly every model I've studied. In short, it seems to defy any paradigm yet proposed. The analogy I use is that of the hall of mirrors - a maze in which (nearly) every apparent path turns out to be an illusion.

There is indeed a truth present, but when we find it, I suspect that it will be something far different, and perhaps far more subtle than we now imagine. I believe that researchers really know very little about the close encounter phenomenon - far less than they (we) think they (we) do.

So, I guess that qualifies as a mystery to me... :-)  

3 Nov 2003 @ 21:50 by vibrani : Thanks for your answer
Craig.  

6 Nov 2003 @ 02:03 by vibrani : Close Encounters - Japan
[link]

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Interesting. Thanks for the link.
-Craig  

7 Nov 2003 @ 20:06 by magical_melody : Ha! We just viewed it too recently!
Hi Craig! Max had never seen the movie, so we recently enjoyed viewing it, and I have seen it numerous times. One of my favorites. So enjoyed reading this one! We also recently saw the sequel to 2001 Space Odyssey movie, as had missed that one myself. Was very interesting. In less than 25 years, I believe we will have already established a more conscious relationship as a community - with the ET intelligences, and ... surprises in store for sure. Happy Harmonic Concordance!  

9 Nov 2003 @ 14:12 by craiglang : The Concordance and the Agenda
Hi Alana,
Thanks for the note.

During the time of the actual concordance, we were at the tail end of the monthly MN MUFON meeting. Interesting dynamics, as usual - yet I didn't note anything extraordinarily different from other months. As a matter of fact, the remarkable thing about the approximate time of the concordance is just how ordinary things have seemed at the moment. In the midst of the chaos, there seems to be a momentary island of peace. It is as if events had paused for a breather before resuming their usual headlong rush to - well, to wherever...

As for where we are going in the next 25 years w.r.t. the UFO/CE4 phenomenon, my bet is that in some ways, there will be more of the same - but the depth of the experiencer community will be greater. I also would speculate that the Indigo generation, which I hypothesize is heavilly influenced in some way by the phenomenon, will have come of age.

My speculation is that in this way, the aggregate human consciousness and the phenomenal consciousness are being drawn closer together. In 25 years, that will likely have progressed past the point of no return. I can imagine that the goal of the phenomenon will likely not be complete (whatever that means), but it will probably be well underway - for better or for worse.

As the generation of indigo children matures and takes a functional place in society, my bet is that there will be a fundamental transformation. My sense is, that we will continue to experience a multitude of paradigm shifts as human consciousness continues to grow into what is needed to converge with our neighbors.

Well, that's a bit more than I had intended to say on this, but it think it pretty well says what I imagine is ahead for us.

Thanx again for the note.
Namaste,
-Craig  

Other entries in
17 Oct 2006 @ 02:40: A Symphony of Change
3 Feb 2006 @ 17:18: More spooky 9/11 stuff
24 Oct 2005 @ 20:57: The Republic of Vermont?
18 Jul 2005 @ 17:15: Seth Shostak's Glass House
16 Mar 2005 @ 22:10: Whitley on Armegeddon '2005, The Year of the Death Wish'
23 Feb 2005 @ 17:11: More by Richard Dolan
21 Jan 2005 @ 18:24: Controlling the Anger
30 Dec 2004 @ 16:39: 'Earthquakes in various places'
25 Oct 2004 @ 17:16: A Million Questions in the Eye of God
19 Sep 2004 @ 00:39: Sky Captain

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