Going Green, UFOs and the End of the World

The current extreme popularity of the paranormal begs for a thoughtful look into possible meanings for its insertion into mainstream culture. After having researched and written about UFOs and the paranormal for over a decade, I've noticed some intriguing dynamics involving rhetoric and images used in the narratives and mythologies associated with these mysteries.

These dynamics prove to point toward perhaps the most meaningful thing possible-existence itself, and the manner in which we may at last be preparing to confront it head on. It could be argued that has been the purpose of all systems of philosophies and religions from time immemorial.

However, we find ourselves at a standpoint now, with technological possibilities that promise to change the nature of how we live, die, reproduce, communicate; the very nature of reality hangs in the balance. It is at once ominous, yet promising. The future is vexing.

The nature of consciousness is arguably the most vexing dynamic to scientists, researchers, philosophers, and even everyday people, as we ruminate on the mysterious nature of our existence.

It is the dynamic from which we are able to draw the unquestioned notions about our identity and sense of self and existence. In a large sense, consciousness is what we are. Consciousness may be the grand base engine of existence itself.

If this is true, that consciousness underlies existence, our individual waking awareness may simply be a by-product. We exist because of consciousness, and have evolved as filters for it. Exploring mysteries through the model that we are partakers of consciousness rather than its projectors, opens up a lot of possibilities.

There's the possibility that other forms have also developed as filters of consciousness . This is easy to apply to animals; they are easy for us to identify with. They move, eat, have a face. They take care of their children, show altruism, and grieve.

The real issues begin with things that are more difficult to identify with. Do plants and rocks partake of consciousness? Is there a way to know? Actually, there have been plenty of studies that have shown plants do respond to emotions, and have what we might term as a capacity to understand.

Mushrooms are especially fascinating. Neither plant nor animal; there is evidence that they are closer to an animal classification than plant. Mycologist/scholar Paul Stamets says outright they are sentient.

It's hard to fathom an existence or experience outside the human, so it's difficult to not personify it as applied to plants, mushrooms, rocks, water, or other organic examples. I'm not suggesting that a creature is present in a tree, or in that shitake in your stir fry.

Plants move, but with profound slowness and economy of purpose. They are connected, in constant embrace. There are complex networks of communication that are not fully understood. Mushrooms are even more mysterious and their connection/communication goes deep. As an analogy, this may be akin to such notions as a Zen, or Tao state of being.

Focusing on mushrooms a bit more deeply here, I can begin to weave ideas of how consciousness and the paranormal may be related. Choosing to apply questions about the paranormal is apt because within our climate of growing fin de siècle angst as 2012 approaches, there is an enormous focus of such things in the popular media, which can always be seen as somewhat of a little window into the collective psyche. The biggest blockbusters, bestselling books, and shows include paranormal themes.

I'll begin with a very lofty statement: mushrooms may be responsible for early jumps in development of human consciousness and culture. If this is true, then the physical and symbolic connection between mushroom and human is cosmic and profound.

Anthropologist Graham Hancock argues hallucinogenic mushrooms were responsible for the sudden appearances of art, agriculture, and sacred rituals in early civilization. Their properties acted as a muse, inspiring shamans and partakers with ideas, made manifest by creating art and sharing notions based on hallucinogenic images and direction. The onset of these things served as a catalyst within the larger populations.

Further, certain species of mushrooms required cultivation on cattle dung, thereby requiring maintenance of cattle, which led to agricultural and domestication benefits.

Let's go back to the idea of plant consciousness here. What if the experiences induced by the mushrooms in the early humans were more than mere chemical effects? With all the evolutionary advantage it provided, it is difficult to argue the results were random.

The chemical effects may be a measurement, but it doesn't tell of the experience-of the communication and meaning at hand. Ultimately, it can be seen that humans received information from the mushrooms, and applied it to their lives, for betterment. There is a real sense of communication here, implying a sender is involved.

Could the effects humans feel when ingesting psychedelic mushrooms hint at the mushroom's consciousness-or are the experiences a kind of hybrid-the merging of two types of consciousnesses in communion? Is this essential for progress?

Could it be that modern culture is dangerously now removed from natural experiences of discovery and cultural expansion that certain doom for all is imminent? If there is necessary symbiosis, between green and human, would one of the parties, sensing this apocalypse, reach out to the other?

It is easily argued that is at the heart of the do-or-die "go green" movement. However, the reaching out is very lateral in its target-the messages are sent by people to other people. "Green" is highly commoditized. Generally, the movement hangs in a "lets save ourselves" frame.

What would it look like if we tried to literally reach out with organized effort and communicate with plant consciousness? It's one thing to talk to your houseplants, but another to appoint ambassadors, lay peace treaties in vineyards, or have President Obama shake hands with a cornstalk.

It's silly, so we would try to communicate in a way the plant might respond. I'm not sure what that would be, but it probably wouldn't work. The plant consciousness may have an awareness of the strange presence, but there would likely be no translation. Our experience of reality might be so fundamentally different, that we may as well be in different dimensions.

Conversely, what would this look like if plant/mushroom consciousness were attempting to contact us? There would likely be the same impenetrable walls. As in the other scenario, it probably wouldn't quite work, but we may have an awareness of the strange presence.

Before we dismiss this absurd notion, perhaps we should consider if there are any strange presences that involve plants and mushrooms.

Anyone familiar with UFO phenomena has probably heard the phrase "high strangeness." It refers to events and dynamics within UFO narratives and events that are complex, reflexive, paradoxical, absurd, and, well, just weird.

There are reports of aliens wearing gigantic cowboy hats, lipstick, eating pancakes, capturing cows with ropes. Delving into the literature is like getting lost in the underbelly of a perverse and especially-absurd Land of Oz.

Conclusions progress from, "you can make this stuff up," to "you can't make this stuff up," and then finally to, "you can probably make this stuff up but why would you, and does it really matter because-here it is, and here it is again."

There's a sense that an intelligence is attempting to communicate, but doesn't have a grasp on how to go about it. Of course, it's supposedly "aliens," after all; it fits with the straightforward story. However, when we take a look at rhetoric and aesthetics of aliens and UFOs, some amazing similarities to plants and mushrooms emerge.

The shape of the iconic UFO is a mushroom itself. In a common depiction of a UFO, it hovers above the ground, a light beam pointing down from its center, touching the ground. This can be seen as an enormous mushroom, stalk included. Sometimes, in depictions, there is even a person present within the light, usually seen to be in either stoic or dramatic pose-bent over backwards, arms thrown out as if struck.

The message here, is that this person is about to be abducted by the UFO. Of course, when reading it as a gigantic mushroom, it becomes representative of our relationship and communion with the plant world; the dramatic pose may symbolize our symptomatic resistance.

There is so much more. I will briefly list some UFO/plant and mushroom dynamics. Recall the symbiotic relationship I pointed to earlier, between humans, mushrooms, and cows. When considering mushrooms as UFOs, we find an apt dynamic: cows have been centrally featured in UFO narratives since the beginning of the UFO era.

There is also the strange, UFO-related cow mutilation phenomenon. The crop circle mystery has been largely associated with the presence of UFOs, and the plant-material designs are said to be communications.

So-called "fairy rings" are just mushrooms growing in a circular pattern-it was once thought that fairies were involved. Fairy lore and alien abduction narratives share many common features, in some cases, exact.

There are many reports of aliens collecting soil samples-even in cities. Soil, of course, is an essential of plant life. Finally, the now-iconic and ubiquitous trinket alien somewhat resembles a plant himself, with his green stalk-like body and bulbous head.

Despite the fact that the contemporary aliens are named "greys" we still refer to them as "little green men." The Green Man is an ancient archetype-a half man/half plant creature. That "culture jump" Graham Hancock argues is due to mushrooms, is actually widely attributed to alien intervention within UFO schools of thought.

Neon green is used ubiquitously in sci-fi to signify high-tech otherworldliness. This is of course a very intriguing paradox, since the color green is also highly representative of earthly nature itself. Perhaps the deeper message that, since green is actually representative of both dynamics, the division is a false or incorrect one, begging to be incorporated. After all, technologies and artificiality are issues we must face now, as we stand on the border of our brand new century.

It is hard to think of a more loaded dynamic than the growing hysteria over the End of the World that the ominous date 2012 is supposed to present. Contemporarily, the end of the world meme began in the mid-century with the edge-of-your-seat Cold War , continued stewing with all kinds of Nostradamus-doomsday-king-of-terror-1999 millennial fear, and then came to a false climax with Y2K. If you want to party, 2012 is proving to be the real club to enter.

The notion of The End of the World is embedded in our psyche, and it may not be a coincidence that the symbol for it is a mushroom cloud. Considering there may be a mushroom present at the beginning of one earlier cultural explosion may allude to another such jump on the horizon. Should we suppose this is another attempt at communication from plant consciousness?

Perhaps a more grounded question might be: if our collective unconscious wanted to make us aware of something important, might we find pertinent images of it sewn into the fabric of loaded social and cultural dynamics? I believe the answer is yes, and propose that taking a look at popular imagery with an air of objective distance will always prove to be quite illuminating.

Sources:

Paul Stamets, 6 Ways Mushrooms can Save the World, TED Talks http://www.ted.com/talks
Graham Hancock, Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind, The Disinformation Co. pub, 2007