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One consistency does appear in this confusing picture: those who have had Close Encounters show marked personality change afterwards. At one extreme we find paranoid and schizophrenic breakdowns or acute anxieties requiring hospitalization; at the other, “illuminations” similar to those of Buddha, Mohammed, Jesus, St. Paul. In the middle we find a great deal of messianic fanaticism typical of vulgar religiosity everywhere. Rationalism—a philosophy for which we have great sympathy, as for a backward relative—wants to take UFO “observers” by the collar, shake them vigorously and shout in their ears, “Look you so and so. It never happened!—you got it, buddy?” Well, maybe it didn’t—and then again maybe it did. In either case, UFO-observers are all better artists than they realize. It should also be obvious that the Rationalist is a better artist than he realizes. Amid millions of people who have or create such experiences every day in every city on the planet, the Rationalist has created a separate reality in which such things never happen—to him.
Flying saucers and ESP (not to mention Fatima and its “miracles”) may seem far removed from Patty Hearst’s “decision” to become a bank-robber. We are trying to show that there is an intimate connection between all the weirdities of consciousness. The process by which we construct a kitchen chair out of a whirl of atomic energy is just as creative (artistic) as the processes by which Patty Hearst turned her father from a beloved parent into a Pig Imperialist. Your whole world has been constructed that way. You are “reconciled” to death because you have been told, all your life, that everybody must die. Only the Extropian minority—which can be found wherever scientists, science-fiction fans, Futurists and space enthusiasts gather—is living in the separate reality that claims we no longer have to accept this axiom of despair.
References
- Wilson, A., Robert. (1983). Prometheus Rising Chapter 13. Introduction to the Metaprogramming Circuit (Location 2559). Grand Junction, Colorado: Hilaritas Press.
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