When Reality is Unreal: The Ufologists and The Metaphysicians

'What I thought was unreal now, for me, seems in some ways to be more real than what I think to be real, which seems now to be unreal." -Dr Fred Alan Wolf, physicist and writer.
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." -Albert Einstein

The Life Cycle Of Civilisations.

The cycling of civilisations is the history of large,living organisms. They have a youth, a middle age, old age and then pass away into the historical record. An interesting potion of this cycle is the proverbial reproductive cycle that is a significant portion of this process, in that the seeds of a new civilisation are most certainly sown in the dissipation of the previous generation of civilisation, only to appear as a youth in the framework of the next. Throughout this process from a point of observation receding back into an antediluvian age, there has been a unseen driver that can be observed in the very corpuscles of this creature. Much like the physical body, the health of the organism is dependant upon vitality of this, if you will, cellular component of the larger corpus.
The truth of the matter, this state of health, can be most certainly measured, when one examines the aims of the individuals within this creature as to their comparative position in relation to a central question: What is the nature of reality that is the container of life itself? This openness, or unbiased, lack of dogma evidenced in the reactionary formulations to dogma, most often begins to appear when it's larger body shows symptoms of ossification, of entropy and most importantly, rigidity. The rise in all sorts of reductionist fundamentalism, whether it is in the politically social arena, or theology, or for that matter, the philosophy of the empirical priesthood of science...reaches a critical mass in that the cognitive operating models of reality sustained and fed within them as a cohesive element of common good, increasingly become in conflict with external circumstances, and there arises much confusion, much debate and heated conversation ( a gnashing of teeth) based on the insufficiency of societal and cultural models to wrap it's arms around an increasingly dire circumstance to work out an equation of solution with the calculus of existing paradigms. Once again, here we are.

The Truth One Dare Not Speak

"Well, it is a value judgment, true enough. In reality, it is all the same. In reality, it is a matter of indifference, but we are not here in reality. We are here on a system of assumptions, and we are all busy maintaining them. On that system, then we can say, "Well, that will keep the ship afloat, and this will pull the plug out and we will all sink."
-G. Spencer Brown

Since very ancient times, there has been a quest for a unified field theory of reality which would account for events that not only had a reasonable certainty that
exist in material reality, but those who do not quite fit this model as well. For example, ourselves. I suggest taking a survey and go to a public area, looking officious with the prerequisite clipboard, and ask ten people a very simple question.
What is reality? You will find a large majority of your respondents with short circuit in hysterical laughter, or deny the relevance of the question to daily life. Only a thin minority will give you a thoughtful answer.

"Science, like art, religion, commerce, warfare, and even sleep, is based on presuppositions." - Gregory Bateson

Of course, if you ask this in the setting of a college campus, or at a supermarket, or a coal mine, your results will be quite different...and in the same manner, if you take your survey under the cloud of a national or regional crisis, you will find more seriousness attached to the quality of answers as opposed to asking the very self same question in a time of comparative peace and tranquility. A very large and long survey maintained in the fluid dynamics of events is required for us to develop a reasonably accurate portrait of our subjects, particularly if you happen to arrive from an extraterrestrial location.

"If the believer understood the meaning of the saying 'the colour of the water is the colour of the receptacle', he would admit the validity of all beliefs....."
Ibn 'Arabi, Fusûs al-Hikam

However, for us, the question is buried, ignored, and marked as irrelevant when on the contrary, it is the axis of our lives, whether we chose to recognise or dismiss it as an impractical matter to consider. We live an era wherein, we walk down a proverbial dark lane and happen to overhear the songs of a mysterious songbird carried on the wind. To ignore this most fundamental question,we could say has a very real and tangible cost in our experience.

"So little cause for carolings
of such ecstatic sound
was written on terrestrial things
afar or nigh around
that I could think there trembled through
this happy good night air
some blessed hope where of he knew
and I was unaware.."
-Thomas Hardy

“An Ancient Quest

"The phenomenon presented by UFOs is far larger than current speculation about “aliens from space.” It raises questions about consciousness, about the nature of reality and about human history on the Earth. " -Dr Jacques Vallee

The seekers of truth that are embodied in our developing codex of ufology could easily state;

" I have poked into every dark recess, I have made an assault on every problem, I have plunged into every abyss. I have scrutinised the creed of every sect. I have laid bare the innermost doctrines of every community. All this I have done that I might distinguish between true and false, between sound tradition and heretical innovation..." This was written many centuries ago by a gentleman by the name of Al-Ghazzli. Some more centuries old advice by Al-Arabi to Ufology:

" Do not attach yourselves to any particular creed exclusively so that you disbelieve all the rest; otherwise you will lose much good, nay, you will fail to recognise the real truth of the matter..."

Who knows of Suhrardi? In order to create a new conceptual model of reality, he synthesized a unification of Pre-Islamic cosmology with Ptolemaic planetary theory
in the framework of the neo-platonic scheme of emanations...several centuries ago.
http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-572076/article-9070195
Let us listen to his account of high strangeness,the phenomenon of which, is also nothing new.

"Suddenly I was wrapped in gentleness, there was a blinding flash, then a diaphanous light in the likeness of a human being...I watched attentively...."

Intermediate realities?, the correct word is "alam-al mithal". Heard of it?

An examination of these old dust covered tomes, such as "The Wisdom of Illumination" by Suhrawardi is evidential of the self same ancient quest that we carry forth in our temporal examination of the same territory, yet the work of earlier surveyors in this cartography are forgotten, discarded and fall into the oblivion of our largely self referential library. The hour is late as I type this letter to you, and I have placed these fragile books back upon the shelf. I consider them in the vigil of night wherein I look out upon the darkness.
Some unknown Magus watches from his promontory, the arc of flight in the migrating flocks of seasonal birds, the portents and omens in the natural order of an intelligent scheme that can be read as the pages of a book, and so places his lantern upon a crook to await what the shadows of light reveal in the dark rift of night.
The Ufologist scrys the same territory in discounting no creed, nor in favoring one above the other, nor ignores this instinctual intuition whisper in his ear about a convergence of inexplicable light that traverses the darkness of the same sky, the aerial provocation that is counter intuitive to his knowledge, which draws him nigh....
"There do exist enquiring minds, which long for the truth of the heart, seek it, strive to solve the problems set by life, try to penetrate to the essence of things and phenomena and to penetrate into themselves. If a man reasons and thinks soundly, no matter which path he follows in solving these problems, he must inevitably arrive back at himself, and begin with the solution of the problem of what he is himself and what his place is in the world around him.” -G. I. Gurdjieff

Could it so be any other way?