Living in UFO Land: Call Me a Hippy, But . . .

So many researchers, investigators, organizations, pundits, witnesses, UFO television programs, books, theories, speculations, …

So many categories of experience. Genres of aliens and contact.

And an equal amount of disagreement about all of the above. "Disagreement" ranging from mild difference of opinion to out and out attacks of the most vile nature, verging on the illegal.

Then there is the Drawing Of Lines In The Sand. UFO groups (Gatekeepers, UFO Police, Scientific Organizations) get together and make damn sure they keep out any person or theory they don't like. They insist their take is the right take. They insist that "we'll never get anywhere" unless… unless their theory is accepted, unless the rest of us agree that such and such -- take your pick; contactees, abductions, ET, disclosure, -- is ridiculous. But more to the point, not just ridiculous but not to be entertained. Not to be included.

I'd like to see, not a "rigid scientific" UFO organization, or one that keeps all but one or two ideas within, but one that includes a diverse bunch. Call me a hippy, (which wouldn't be wrong) but the only way to begin to maybe get at It All is to look at the UFO phenomena/phenomenon with compassion, respect, and patience. That does not mean agreement. 

Regan Lee with friend, Venice Beach CA 1971, photo by John Lee

Instead, the majority of UFO people are running around fighting, attacking, sneering at others within. In other words, as had been said many times by others, the inhabitants of UFO Land are eating our young. With friends like that who needs enemies?

I think part of the problem is the crazy need to be accepted by mainstream society, by the institutions considered respectable (Big Science, academia, politics even) and main stream media. If only, think many UFO Land residents, we stick to …. pick your favorite: rigid scientific methods, and so on. Then we'd be accepted and taken seriously and everything will be cool and oh yeah, we'll also find out what it's all about.

Not one bit likely. All that will happen if we stay on that road is the continual fighting amongst ourselves, as well as the hoaxes, attention seekers and cheesy carny-like creeps that infest our fringes. Which is a part of the whole thing anyway, so not much use in bemoaning that reality.

This is what happens in UFO Land. An individual, or often enough, a few individuals who get together, find a little plot of land that has a sign on it: "ET", "Disclosure," "Abductions", "MILABS," "Fairies", "Mind Control", "Nazis" -- you know. Then a barbed wire fence is erected around this little bit of land. Often, rocks are thrown at the neighboring plots of land. No one shares, everyone fights, and the Big Answer is still a long ways off. Which brings us to . . .

The Big Answer. Expecting there is a Big Answer is equally futile. There might be one, I'm optimistic, but that's not my priority. It's the process, the quest, the journey, the effect of these still unexplained encounters upon not just the individual but the culture surrounding the individual, that is the issue. For now.

Of course, there is much more beyond that, but baby steps, baby steps. Such as agreeing to disagree while working together, not apart.