Some weeks ago I had a conversation with an experiencer. He expressed his frustration that he was having trouble knowing what was really going on, and stated that we can’t really know or do a thing because ‘ET controls the narrative’. ET decides when contact takes place, what happens, and what we remember.
It reminded me of the story of another experiencer who, about a decade ago, was receiving telepathic messages to go outside, and follow a UFO. Sure enough, there was a UFO outside, and he started following it wherever it went. This lasted for hours, and he got quite frustrated. The moment he decided to give up, a being appeared explaining to him that none of what had happened was real, that it was just a virtual reality experience. Karla Turner coined the term ‘Virtual Reality Scenario’ for those experiences.
The question who controls the narrative is one worth paying attention to. Abductees, e.g., often have implanted memories and screen memories. There also are the Virtual Reality Scenarios described above, where one believes to have experienced something, but only the emotional response to it is real, the actual series of events isn’t.
So, does ET control the narrative? And, if so, what can we do about it?
We asked our panel for their comments.
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Thomas Minderlé
Deciphering the alien mystery is a daunting task. We’re chasing after a suspect who alters the memories of his victims, who uses an intimate knowledge of human psychology to craft his lies, who has the power of invisibility and precognition, and who normally hides out in a parallel dimension beyond our reach. Like the wind, he is invisible, but by the swirling of the dust we can know something of him.
Aliens are known liars. If an abductee or contactee is given wordy explanations about who these beings are, where they come from, and why they’re here, chances are high that these are half-truths meant to manipulate our opinion and knowledge of these beings.
Hostile aliens lie to disguise themselves as benevolent forces and butter up their victims, pacify them, keep them cooperative, and cover their own tracks. Benevolent aliens may lie to stay within the boundaries of our belief systems, and they may be protecting themselves from enemy factions trying to discover their identities and activities. We are as children, being told bedtime fables by one adult and malicious lies by another. So, nothing aliens say can be taken at face value. We have to dig deeper.
What abductees and contactees themselves say can’t be taken at face value either. That’s because they may be remembering screen memories, or were shown a staged scene meant to mislead, or the entire experience was a hallucination induced telepathically or technologically by alien, occult, or shadow military forces.
Our task is to distinguish between real experiences and fake ones, real events and staged ones, honest truths and clever half-truths, benevolent forces and hostile ones pretending to be benevolent. Essentially we have to apply Sherlock Holmes-level sleuthing to extract meaningful conclusions from fragmentary and circumstantial evidence.
My approach would be to begin by looking at the objective aspects of a case.
1) Was the encounter physical, or did it all happen in the person’s mind? This would be answered by security camera footage, GPS tracking, third party observation, and the intactness of locking methods used to tie oneself to the bed. If the target was present the whole time, then it was likely an induced hallucination.
If the camera malfunctioned and failed to record, then that suggests something physical may have happened. For several years I used a voice-activated digital audio recorder to catch anomalous activity at night, and despite being disciplined in changing the batteries regularly, I would occasionally forget to do so and the very next morning I would wake up with classic signs of having been abducted like our pet cat being visibly disturbed and seeming traumatized, unexplainable marks on the body, soreness, mental discombobulation, and vague dream fragments of aliens and ships and underground bases.
The fact that the abductions waited until the batteries ran out, or that I forgot the change batteries the night it happened, is an example of an objective detail from which we can glean something about aliens and their limitations, something that may not be part of the narrative they’re trying to shape. For instance, we can glean that they don’t like being recorded, which implies they make a noise or create some kind of electronic interference that leaves an undeniable record of their intrusion. Why would they care if they did leave such evidence? Well, that question leads to further implications they’d rather us not think about, since doing so might lead to realizations and discoveries that unravels their advantage. Maybe they are time travelers and the bigger the footprint they leave, the more they destabilize their lock on our timeline. Maybe they’re tiptoeing around a metaphysical freewill law, which implies that there’s a higher authority they cannot ignore. If that’s the case, then maybe by asserting our freewill and demonstrating resistance to alien intrusion, that makes it legally difficult for them to keep going. This is what I mean by sleuthing, to use an objective data point (recorder fails on night of abduction) to make some educated guesses.
2) If the encounter was physical (meaning aliens actually showed up and person actually went somewhere with them) then what was the person told and shown? What do they remember? Whatever it is, we have to ask why. If the individual remembers only seeing a light shining through the window and the bed suddenly being surrounded by bald headed beings, but nothing further then we ask why that scene, and why did the memory end so soon? This memory gives away that an alien intrusion happened (bald heads) and it lacks the content and directed purpose of a screen memory. If it were a screen memory, it would either cover up that an abduction happened at all (false memory of seeing some owls in the room) or it would be a directed deception (gray alien looking lovingly into the eyes and radiating such wisdom and caring with a touch of sadness of having lost their home-world to a nuclear apocalypse, as a popular false narrative of theirs goes). But just seeing a light and some bald heads in the room and nothing further, that seems like a genuine memory fragment. And so we can conclude that it likely was genuine.
On the other hand, if the abductee casually remembers what happened during the contact, vividly and clearly, we have to ask why? Why allow this individual to remember when most abductions are covered up with screen memories and memory erasure? Did aliens forget to wipe memories? No, they wanted the person to remember and perhaps to report it. Why? So that it would enter into the abduction research data pool. Why? So that it would shape public perception of the alien presence. Negative alien factions want us to know that aliens exist and are contacting or taking people, but that it’s for benevolent reasons; they’re staging experiences to present a Disney version of the story. Why condition humanity into adopting that viewpoint of aliens? To prepare us for an eventual alien disclosure on their part. Meanwhile, if a benevolent alien group makes contact with an individual and allows him or her to retain memories of the encounter, that would be evidenced by the veracity of what was said and shown. For example, they might mention the problem of the hostile alien groups and their agenda, and give novel pointers on how to resist their manipulations. That kind of freewill-enabling original knowledge is absent in the staged presentations by negative aliens. So again, by simply looking at the content of what an abductee or contactee remembers, we can detect its direction, its push, and thereby determine something about the alien faction’s orientation and agenda.
3) Look at the after-effects of the alien contact: psychological impairment (why?), residual phobias (why?), emotional changes (why?), pregnancy symptoms (why?), bodily marks and soreness (why?) and so on. Especially look at contradictions between what was remembered and the after-effects. Maybe someone remembers being abducted from his or her vehicle and meeting benevolent beings aboard a craft... maybe the beings showed them many wondrous things before putting them back and letting them resume their journey, albeit with some missing time. And yet when they get home, they notice unusual marks and bruising in their reproductive regions. Apparently what they remembered wasn’t the full story of what actually happened. There’s a contradiction between memory and experience. Why? Because they underwent memory erasure or screen memories. If the beings presented themselves as benevolent spiritual entities, why would they need to dig around physically in an abductee’s reproductive area and then erase a memory of it? Maybe they weren’t benevolent to begin with. If the alien contact continues and the abductee becomes a mouthpiece, an advocate, an opinion leader spouting a certain narrative shaped by these aliens, then either the narrative is true as evidenced by the fidelity of its claims (as tested by research, experience, and logic) or it’s false as evidenced by the logical fallacies, sleights of hand, selective omissions, and other ploys that are interweaved throughout it. And if the latter, then we can look at the direction that narrative seeks to push us, to determine the motivations of the alien forces who orchestrated it.
So despite them being clever deceivers, they can’t hide the end results of what they’re trying to achieve. By looking at what end results their ploys are point toward, we can figure out what they’re up to. This kind of inductive, deductive, and abductive reasoning allows us to take what little data we have and extrapolate from it some highly educated guesses that give us a leg up on the situation.
There are certain trivial details that we simply can’t verify, like what year they come from if they’re time travelers, or what exact star system and planet is their actual home world, or whether the names they give are genuine. Some aliens have an amusing habit of picking names that play off of Greek mythology and symbolically represent something about the purpose or nature of the alien in question. From a pragmatic point of view, however, these unverifiable details are somewhat trivial. They’re entertaining but they don’t really impact the reality of human-alien interaction in context of a disclosure event. Should aliens ever show themselves to the world and claim to be emissaries from Sirius or time travelers, we can’t take their word for it, but rather we’ll look at the effects of their words and the consequences of their actions. We’ll look at the direction and push of these things, and we’ll look for the selective data points they’re conspicuously omitting.
It’s not that aliens are omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent or that we’re powerless. They still have limits, they still leave their footprints, and they still give themselves away to those with discerning eyes, even if they succeed in deceiving the majority. As the saying goes, you can fool most people most of the time, but not all people all of the time. We can do it as long as we dig deep, think hard, follow through with questioning the implications, and cast wide net by cross-referencing multiple accounts not only geographically but also through time by looking at ancient encounters in folklore and mythology and archeological record. False narratives depend on selective omission of inconvenient truths that contradict the narrative. The more data points you take into account, the more will contradict everything but the truth.
Ellen Mahoney
Whether one’s core beliefs are Earth-centric or not, and whether one believes in otherworldly beings or not, feeling manipulated, hoodwinked, betrayed, exploited, confused or overpowered by another can lead to trauma and fear. In thinking about the question of the ET narrative and who holds the power, I wondered about what someone’s worries might be. Is it that another being could control what one thinks, feels and does? Could there be a separation from loved ones? What’s the purpose of the contact? These are all challenging issues to consider.
To respond to the question, I turned to the work of the late Professor of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School, John E. Mack, whose research has shed light on the ET and human connection. His 1999 book, Passport to the Cosmos: Human Transformation and Alien Encounters, is an eye-opening compilation of hundreds of interviews with people who shared their accounts of ET encounters. Mack described the individuals in his book as being truthful and of sound mind. In many cases, the experiencers first described frightening scenarios of feeling overpowered and violated. However, these feelings could change. In the section titled, “Confronting the Fear,” Mack acknowledged that although abduction experiences could be devastating, given the opportunity to realize more about what’s happened to them, “…many abductees are not likely to think of themselves as victims” (p. 211). Mack also added that with confronting fears, abductees could experience profound personal growth and an expansion of love (p. 213). In Passport to the Cosmos, Whitley Strieber, author of Communion: A True Story, spoke of feeling “terror absolute” during his ET encounters (p. 209). Strieber then went on to say that as he overcame his terror he felt a profound heart opening and a powerful love for people (p. 213). Isabel, another experiencer in Passport to the Cosmos, described fighting her fears during ET encounters with the power of love (p. 213).
In addition, in 1994 Mack helped bring new insights to the ET encounter discussion when he interviewed children from the Ariel Primary School in Ruwa, Africa. www.jar-magazine.com/encounters/89-through-their-eyes-ariel-school-encounter After an unusual encounter on the school’s playground, more than sixty children (six to twelve years of age), reported seeing two UFOs and two otherworldly beings. Following that day, a number of the children spoke directly with Mack about what they had witnessed. Their sincere testimonies, which were sometimes filmed, provide an important record of humans claiming to interface with otherworldly beings and their insights help us understand more about the ET narrative. Some, but not all of the children, described the encounter as frightening. A number of the children claimed the beings communicated messages to them telepathically. One girl spoke about being scared of the flute-like noise of the craft. Another said the being’s large staring eyes frightened her. Some children described messages from the beings that said humans need to protect Earth’s environment. And although teachers at the school weren’t sure what happened and did not see what happened, they did believe the children had witnessed something.
This event provides a unique opportunity to learn more about otherworldly encounters and to find out what information can be gleaned and discussed. In the case of the Ariel school encounter, it’s important to think about the children’s perceptions and descriptions of telepathy; a subject they likely had no prior knowledge of. Many questions arise. How were the messages transmitted to the children? What were the messages? Were the messages controlling or were they meant to provide information? It’s interesting to note that nearly twenty-five years later, some of the children, who are now adults, continue to speak out about that day and say it was life changing. In a YouTube interview streamed live on the October 18, 2017 Martin Willis Live Show, guest Salma Siddick, who was on the playground during the Ariel school encounter as an eleven year old, said that although she wasn’t sure what the point of the encounter was, she felt like one of the beings knew things about her and that the beings were trying to tell the children things about Earth.
In responding to the ET narrative question, I also thought about the phenomenon of channeling. Where does channeled information come from and what role does the channeler have in the receiving of messages? Who owns the narrative here? Edgar Cayce came to mind. Cayce was a psychic, who without any medical training, voluntarily entered into self-induced trances to give medical readings to thousands of individuals seeking help. Cayce made a personal choice to channel the information, and he was often called the “sleeping prophet,” or the “father of holistic medicine.” During his readings, family members or staff would write down what Cayce said. Throughout his adult life, his work as a photographer paid the bills and he focused on his family, community, and church. Although Cayce’s readings brought him challenges during his lifetime, he felt what he did was in service to others and he continued it for some forty years.
There are many unknowns and unanswered questions about human consciousness, life throughout the universe, and ET connections, which can boggle and fascinate the mind. I believe talking about these topics can help open avenues for continued research, discussion and understanding. We can always learn more.
But whenever it feels like one’s personal power is waning, it’s important to move from a fear-based mentality to a more positive and loving mindset. Turning to things such as meditation, prayer, listening to music, being in nature, connecting with others, service to others, finding guidance, and listening to one’s intuition, can help.
It’s also helpful to remember that we are spiritual beings having human experiences here on Earth, and that we live in a magnificent universe filled with love and light. We can always tap into this.
Gwen Farrell, CHt, RT
“In a discussion some weeks ago, an experiencer expressed his frustration that he couldn’t know anything for sure about his encounters, because ‘you can only know what they want or allow you to know. They control the narrative.’ That is indeed one of the challenges that we, experiencers, therapists and researchers, all are confronted with. There are, e.g., screen memories, there is manipulation of memories, etc. Where does that leave us? What can we do? Does ET control the narrative, and how / how much can we reclaim it?”
Human beings are by nature averse to ambiguity and uncertainty. From early childhood, we instinctively respond to uncertainty by reaching out via our physical senses for whatever information we can gather that will keep us safe and comfortable. As we grow, we continue to practice and perfect the communication and interpersonal skills required to get thrive in our world, but we never become comfortable with anything or anyone that threatens our sense of safety. So we constantly make assumptions about the circumstances we find ourselves in, and base our beliefs, actions and our very reality on those assumptions. When it comes to our interactions with extraterrestrial beings, we tend to do the same thing. Because most ETs don’t tell us where they’re from, why they’re here and what they want, we tend to assume that they don’t want us to know, and that it’s their intention to control our experience with them.
I won’t try to address alien intentions in this article, but there may be a number of reasons why they’re not telling us what we want to know that has little or nothing to do with their desire to control the narrative. Maybe they are unable to communicate with us due to physiological or anatomical differences between us and them - some ETs have said they can communicate with humans only at the Theta brainwave level, which can’t be achieved by humans when we are fully awake - or due to problems created by dimensional, temporal, frequency or vibrational barriers. Maybe we aren’t receiving their communications for other reasons. Communication is complicated - it’s takes at least two, and with beings from other star systems or dimensions, it may take even more. If all parties aren’t on the same wave length or a level playing field, so to speak, communication can’t happen.(1)
But the question of whether ETs are controlling the information they give us goes beyond the mere mechanical aspects of communication to encompass a wider concept of consciousness than we may have considered before. Humans are conscious beings and, based on their behaviour and interactions with us, it appears that some ETs are too.
Do ETs control the narrative? It's my belief that in a conscious universe, we each control our own narrative. If that’s true, it doesn’t matter whether ETs are talking to us or not. That doesn't mean we control every reality that affects us every minute, but it does mean that we control how we are affected by those realities and our responses to them, including our contact with alien beings. I understand that this may be tough to wrap your mind around when a strange being is standing at the foot of your bed at night and not telling you why it’s there. The truth is until ETs come out and tell us what their intentions are, we won’t know, but in the meantime, we each possess the power to decide for ourselves what we will make of our contact experiences with them and as conscious beings, I believe the narrative will always ours.
(1) How can I communicate with ETs?, by Gwen Farrell, JAR, 17 May 2018.
Continued in part 2: Control the narrative, part 2