From: Will Bueche <willbueche.nul>
Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 07:01:12 -0700 (PDT)
Fwd Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2004 10:27:40 -0400
Subject: Re: Alien Abduction Tales Offer Clues on Memory -


>From: Jim Speiser <jimspeiser.nul>
>To: <ufoupdates.nul>
>Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2004 19:58:25 -0700
>Subject: Re: Alien Abduction Tales Offer Clues on Memory

>>From: Will Bueche <willbueche.nul>
>>To: ufoupdates.nul
>>Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2004 21:22:17 -0700 (PDT)
>>Subject: Re: Alien Abduction Tales Offer Clues on Memory

<snip>

>There is an objectivist underpinning to secular humanism, but it
>does not necessarily exclude the possibility that such
>subjective experiences as abductions might someday be validated
>as occuring in _some corner_ of objective reality.

>The writer of the Discovery article - and the author of the
>previous post - may both be surprised to learn that Budd Hopkins
>has described himself as a secular humanist...at least he did
>so at a convention in Santa Barbara about 10 years ago.

You may be right, I may be using the term incorrectly. Certainly
the positive contribution of secular humanism - the idea that we
should take responsibility for making a better world - is
getting a bad rap due to the Council for Secular Humanism. Their
position and that of the reporter may more accurately be
described in another way. Perhaps when the article is published
you can weigh in on what position she truly had.

For my part all I can say is that tt was truly the strangest
interview I'd ever been in.

Basically my personal POV is that the alien presence comes from
another dimension, and I usually explain what I mean by
"dimension" as being the part of the world which has
historically been dubbed by theologians of old as the "spiritual
realm" - but which modern theoretical physicists would surely
describe in other, less theological terms. A realm that has life
which theologians might have improperly dubbed angels and such
but which our modern sensibilities perhaps more accurately view
as other species.

To this, the writer explained to me that there was no spiritual
realm, and that the only dimensions which exist are width,
height, and time.

Similarly when I offered my POV that humankind's meaningful
history is a record of people having developed a new perspective
on life here in this world after having perceived or received
information from these other parts of reality (either through
their own intention as in meditative like practices, or through
more dramatic visitations not by their own intention) she
explained to me that was also not true, that people simply have
a good imagination, and had written fiction books like the Bible
and other spiritual texts, and explained that these texts do not
describe reality, but rather, show off the capacity of the human
imagination.

So this is why I described her as a secular humanist. I may have
used the term wrong. But her tendency to disavow all aspects of
reality other than the material, while simultaneously crediting
all extraordinary experiences as examples of our own capacities
to be fanciful, are why I figured she was a secular humanist.
Could be she's a secular humanist with a hard core streak of
materialism, I dunno.

But I think it's safe to say she won't be writing any pieces for
the Shambala Sun. :-)