In Daimonic Reality, Patrick Harpur eloquently describes the surreal, dreamlike feeling that almost always pervades paranormal experiences, including UFO encounters. He also dwells at some length on the implications for our understanding of reality itself.
Although the same level of philosophical focus isn’t evident in a recent article about UFO encounters from the Union newspaper of western Nevada County, California, the article still does an excellent job of conveying just how bizarre these incidents (incursions? intrusions? eruptions?) can seem to conventional consciousness, and just how prone they are to producing profound changes in one’s thoughts, perceptions, and worldview.
“Back in 1965, I got off work at Harvey’s Wagon Wheel (in South Lake Tahoe) and a chum who rode to work with me and I went up Kingsbury to go home after midnight and all of a sudden the sky lit up,” Edwards said. “I thought that maybe there had been an explosion or a fire. We kept going for about a block and then saw this thing come over the mountains. It lit everything up like one of those torches used for welding. It came right at us and I thought it was going to hit us.”
Edwards was not able to see much more than an outline of the object because the light emanating from it was nearly blinding. “It was huge, not quite as long as my house and it was round,” Edwards said. “It came right over us and then stopped like it was looking at us for a second. There was no sound. Then it was gone. My friend and I looked at each other and we said, ‘That was a UFO.’ It had gotten so close to us that I swear with a ladder I could have reached up and poked it.”
Edwards then did what any artist would do. “I was so shook up that I went home and decided that I had better write down what I had seen,” Edwards said.
…“When it happens, your mind almost stops, because it’s such a shock,” Edwards said. “It’s hard to explain — really hard to explain.”
Full story at the Union.
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Matt, what is your take on UFO´s?
I think most sightings can be explained as weather balloons, weird clouds, Chinese lanterns, kites, mylar balloons, satellites, sunspots, etc., etc. — all the usual suspects. But I’m also firmly convinced that a great many such sightings and encounters are “real,” and that their nature is of the hyperreality or daimonic reality written about by John Keel, Patrick Harpur, and even Carl Jung, who famously (notoriously?) penned an essay about “flying saucers” as a new “modern myth,” meaning a new manifestation of the collective unconscious.
How about you?
I also appreciate Harpur’s view of the paranormal. Daimonic Reality is an interesting book. I’ve had a few unusual experiences in my life, but nothing as strange as a UFO.
Harpur is immensely persuasive and moving, isn’t he? For anybody who has had unusual experiences of the type in question, he provides, I think, one of the most sane and deeply meaningful guides.
Wow… I´ve heard before of such realities but never looked them up thoroughly… thanks for pointing them out.
I´m reading a lot of Patrick Harpur, thanks to you, Matt.
Very glad you’re enjoying Harpur’s work. I’m always happy to turn somebody on to it. 🙂