By Archbishop Chrysostomos of Etna
Almost universal
to the alien abduction experience—which typically entails a number of
abductions, not just one—is the physical examination of abductees by the
aliens, sometimes leaving lesions and small wounds and inevitably involving
experimentation with "the reproductive system". Women often
report mechanical impregnation by the aliens, followed, in subsequent
abductions, by the removal of alien-human fetuses. Men are frequently subjected
to similar mechanical procedures for the removal of reproductive fluids or, in
some cases, are forced to mate with their alien abductors. As abduction
incidents multiply, abductees usually come to feel "intuitively" that
various of the aliens that they see are "their own",
their offspring. This sense of attachment also generalizes, resulting in an
increasing sense of familiarity with their abductors. For example, whereas
their first encounters with the aliens and reproductive experiments are
"deeply disturbing" and evoke "terror" (though at times the
aliens use certain "emotion-extinguishing devices," with varying
degrees of success, to "anesthetize" their victims psychologically),
abductees eventually "reach new levels of understanding of what is occurring,"
through increased contact with their abductors, and "their relationship to
the beings themselves changes" from a negative to a positive one.
I should emphasize
once more, here, that the data from which Dr. Mack draws his profile of abduction
events—which I have briefly summarized—show an astonishing degree of
consistency. Nor do any psychological or emotional problems seem to account for
his patients’ reports. The observed lesions on, and other physical changes in,
the bodies of the abductees interviewed, furthermore, do not follow the
psychodynamic patterns that normally account for self-induced physical
scarring. Something has apparently acted on these individuals.
Noteworthy, too, is the fact that reports of abductions by young children two
or three years of age, who would be unlikely or unable to fabricate such
detailed accounts, are astonishingly similar to those of Dr. Mack’s adult
patients.
The effects of
these abduction experiences on the personal transformation of abductees are very
clearly enumerated by Dr. Mack and provide us with clear insight
into the psychic and spiritual dimensions of the abduction experience. Once the
initial terror of the experience subsides, and with the sense of familiarity or
comfort that repeated abductions foster, abductees report profound changes in
their philosophical outlook and understanding of themselves, others, and the
world around them. Dr. Mack identifies eight stages in this process of change:
1) The individual begins to accept the aliens and experiences what he calls an
"ego death." 2) Abductees come to regard their abductors as
"intermediaries...between...human beings and the primal source of creation
or God." 3) They begin to think of their experiences as trans-temporal and
trans-spatial, as "returning to their cosmic source or ‘Home.’" 4)
The individual begins to feel that he is himself an alien, when he returns
"back" to Earth. 5) Abductees come to understand existence in terms
of "cycles of birth and death over long stretches of time." 6) The
individual forms a feeling of "identification of consciousness with
virtually endless kinds of beings and entities." 7) Abductees develop
"a double identity," associating their souls with an alien identity
and their personalities with a limited human self. 8) They report functioning
beyond what they often call a "veil" and describe "being in
multiple times and places at the same moment," among other things.
Having examined
evidence for the abduction of human beings by alien creatures and Dr. Mack’s
description of the apparent spiritual changes that these abductees undergo as a
result of their encounters with beings from other planets, how is an Orthodox
Christian to understand these data? Do they constitute plausible, if curious
and bizarre, evidence that humans are being abducted by advanced beings from
other planets—indeed by beings with the ability to expand human consciousness
and imbue their victims with new levels of spiritual insight? There is an
immediate response to these questions. Whether or not these incidents are
believable, as Orthodox Christians we believe that spiritual knowledge, not
advanced technology, is the prime factor in the expansion and perfection of
human consciousness. We would expect advanced beings from
other planets, therefore, to evidence, not mundane powers, but highly developed
spiritual sensitivities. Enlightenment and salvation, furthermore, are inspired
within us, not by alien beings which seek to breed with us and exploit our
fallen sexuality, but by God, as He is known in the Holy Trinity, and by His
Angels and Saints. Nor, indeed, do we Orthodox Christians imagine that
salvation will come to us from other planets or from super-intelligent beings,
but from the Divinity within us, from our transformation in Christ through
union, in Grace, with Him.
Given what I have
said, we must come to understand that there is a decidedly anti-Christian tone
in the eight stages that Dr. Mack identifies in the process of personal
transformation in abduction victims. Seeing life in terms of cycles of birth
and death, identifying with other beings and entities, the cessation of
personhood, and looking to the "cosmos" for a "home"—these
are all undefined, vague, and eclectic things that violate the precise, Christocentric
teachings of Christianity and the life of discipline and obedience that
spiritual transformation entails. Indeed, the Fathers of the Church warn us
against these "false" teachings: reincarnation, delusion, and
spiritual wanderings. The observations of one abductee interviewed by Mack, in
particular, fully confirm the anti-Christian dimensions of the post-abduction
philosophies and "spiritualities" of those who have come into contact
with aliens. This man, called "Joe," reported that after his initial
impression that the aliens were "sinister" or "malicious", he eventually embraced his abductors as "his spiritual teachers,
peers, and helpers" . Rather than grow in an understanding of God
and the traditional precepts that we associate with Christianity, after his
abduction experiences, he came to think of himself as becoming "more
human" and, in a dream, experienced the integration of his
"male-female" self through the symbolic birth of a goddess, born in a
way too obscene to be repeated. His personal testimony leaves little doubt that
the post-abduction "transformation" of individuals who have contacted
alien beings is at odds with Orthodox Christian notions of human enlightenment,
transformation, and perfection in Christ, but is rooted, rather, as I have
argued, in a human-oriented idea of personal growth not dissimilar to that
envisioned by the New Age religions.
What, then, if
they are not advanced beings from other planets, are these
alien abductors? Ultimately, one cannot escape the conclusion that they are
demons or phantoms created by demonic power. In the first place, they look like
demons. They appear to be material creatures, and yet have a transparent
character. According to the teachings of the Church, demons are spiritual beings;
that is, they are fallen Angels. But because they are corrupt and degenerate,
they thrive on the human passions—feed on them. This well explains the almost
universal sexual exploitation of their captives by alien abductors. In the
second place, in the course of their physical examination of abductees, the
aliens inflict pain on their victims and frequently scar them. In spiritual
literature, and especially in the lives of the Saints, we repeatedly read of
physical attacks against Christian believers by demonic spirits. If these
aliens are not demons, how is it that beings so advanced that they can achieve
space travel cannot prevent pain and scarring during routine physical
examinations? It is not pain which the aliens cannot control, but their demonic
passion for inflicting the same on mankind. Moreover, at least initially,
abductees experience terror and fright in the presence of their alien
abductors; only later, after having been reluctantly won over by the aliens, do
they feel secure in the presence of their abductors. This is a classical
demonic machination. Demons inevitably strive, in a methodical way, to overcome
the initial and natural repulsion that human beings feel in their presence,
gaining the confidence of those whom they seek to mislead. Finally, the
spiritual effects of abductees’ contacts with aliens, as we have pointed out,
are anti-Christian. Abductees are drawn away from the universal teachings of
Orthodox Christianity and towards the demonic delusion that underlies modern
New Age philosophies. Human transformation ceases, for these victims of alien
visitation, to be a God-oriented, Grace-mediated process, but becomes part of a
personality-dissolving return to the "elemental" universals upon
which the pagan notion of Paradise is predicated.
It is worthy of
note that the late Father Seraphim Rose, in his book Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future (Platina,
CA: Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1990; Revised Edition), has also
examined the phenomenon of alien visitations to earth from an Orthodox
standpoint. He devotes an entire chapter of this work, "‘Signs from
Heaven:’ An Orthodox Christian Understanding of Unidentified Flying Objects
(UFOs)," to the true nature and meaning of alien contacts with human
beings. Though Father Seraphim, at a superficial level, approaches this matter
in a way reminiscent of Protestant fundamentalistic thinking, and while his
materials are dated and center only on more sensationalistic abduction
reports—deficits compounded by the fact that some of the authorities whom he
cites are clearly on the fringes of science—, his deeper analysis of the
phenomenon is ingenious and supports much of what I have suggested about alien
encounters with humans. He also observes that the aliens in contemporary
abduction reports are similar in appearance to the demons which, for centuries,
have been described in Orthodox literature. In fact, he recounts two
cases of demonic "kidnappings" in fifteenth- and nineteenth-century
Russia that, in Father Seraphim’s words, are "quite close to UFO
‘abductions’" today . It is his conclusion that classical
demonic possession, known to the Orthodox Church for centuries, accounts for
the alien abductions that we see in modern times and that "...modern men,
for all their proud ‘enlightenment’ and ‘wisdom,’ are becoming once more aware
of such experiences—but no longer have the Christian framework with which to
explain them". This conclusion perfectly reflects what I have
said about alien abductions and how they should be understood and viewed by the
Orthodox Christian.
Source: http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/alien_abduct.aspx
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