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From: Stephen Miles Lewis - ELFIS <elfis@austin.rr.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 01:35:34 +0000
Fwd Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 17:02:45 -0400
Subject: Re: Otherworld Reality Conference - Review PT. 2


Otherworld Reality
"Exploring the Ontological Status of Imaginal Consciousness"
Conference Review Part 2
by SMiles Lewis
www.elfis.net

    Part 1
http://www.elfis.net/RnR/smlotw.htm
    Abstracts-Bios-Links
http://www.elfis.net/RnR/absbio.htm

Conference Day 2
Sunday 5/2/99


 With the conference title of Otherworld Reality and its stated
agenda of Exploring the Ontological Status of Imaginal
Consciousness, this symposium's work was cut out for it. The
previous days explorations into the reality of imaginal
experiences, while providing a fundamental background for the
entirety of the wide spectrum of otherworld consciousness,
lacked the physical data required to satisfy most as to the true
nature of their ontological status. An anthropologist,
philosopher, dream researcher, mathematician and others seemed
to come up short when it came to truly "pinning down" the
physical REALITY of Imaginal Encounters. Though they each gave
details of the phenomena which point to the validity of
information revealed through the experiencing of imaginal
consciousness, the second days' line-up of speakers beckoned us
onward towards more arena's within which to continue our
pursuit.

 The second morning of the conference, having a better grasp of
getting around on the tubes, I used the Circle line to get to
Embankment station right by the conference location near the
river Thames. I arrived just in time to say hello to a few
people and make my way upstairs to take my seat.

 The actual conference speaking room was a square
high-ceilinged hall on the second floor of the Royal Society of
Arts, which the brochure calls the Great Room. The main doors
enter upon its tiered space midway up the stepped enclosure. All
four walls are adorned in an almost garrish panorama
representative of a Renaissance style by painter James Barry
titled The Progress of Human Knowledge. It was both impressive
and perhaps a little gawdy. The centerpiece of the room's high
ceiling was an apparent cuppola which had a circular patch at
its center (which turned out to be a sky light  opened only
briefly before the first speaker after lunch). The room could
supposedly seat up to 200 audience members. The head of the
tierred hall falls at the bottom level to your right as you
enter its main double doors from the south side. On this bottom
level were the panel chairs behind a long narrow table. Facing
it head on one finds the actual speaker's podium to one's right;
a video camera watching the audience over the speakers'
shoulders and the slide, overhead/video projector screen hanging
above and behind the panel table. Most intriguing to me was the
doorway, usually closed, at the back left of the panel table,
which when opened revealed an impressive atrium-like stone
stairwell area which may have connected at least four other
rooms across two levels. . .

Peter Rojcewicz

  The first speaker was Peter Rojcewicz whom I'd the pleasure
of sharing lunch with the day before. Peter's paper was
originally to be an overview of the different types of imaginal
experiences from ufo encounters to NDEs and beyond. However, he
changed his paper topic completely to address the deepening
problem of higher education and its lack of encompassing noetics
to better the life loving capacities of the student body. I had
a prelude of his paper from speaking with him the previous day
over sandwiches with Brian Johnson, Tony Arcari, and Michael
Grosso. Peter is an excellent speaker, and though I was a little
disappointed at not hearing his descriptions of the multitudes
of imaginal experiences (including his own encounter with an
MIB), this fact reminded me of the Eastern perspective that it
is not as important to focus on these phenomena as such, so much
as it is important to learn the lessons they may teach us so
that we may better our living within this reality.

 That is what his focus was on; the incorporation of the
lessons to be learned from these phenomena within the existing
institutions of higher learning. A return to the charge of
these schools to more fully educate the students at what it is
to be human. Not to continue the existing monetary paradigm
which Colleges and Universities find themselves in today. With
conviction and compassion Peter convinces us of the necessity
to do so if we ever hope to turn around the downward spiral of
the materialist paradigms which have brought us so close to the
brink of dehumanized existance we find ourselves already
knee-deep in today.

 Peter began with a quote from Jung on the nature of the
addict; the addiction is ultimately a thirst for gnosis and
wholeness. This thirst for wholeness is within all of us,
especially those who seek after these phenomena. Peter states
that the "healing of the split requires a long multidisciplinary
effort." Unfortunately, in our culture, "curing is usually a
quick fix."

 Mr. Rojcewicz' proposition for fixing the same split in our
gnosis institutes was to state that "Noetic Education promotes
development of other modes of knowing; experiential, moral,
aesthetic. Extrarational modalities encompassing analytical
approaches to myth, etc." Why should we accept such a proposal?
Because, "all modes of seeing have blindspots." The Noetic
student becomes a "Human Intellectual Hermes" capable in the
art of the "Reading of Images," cultivating an "Aesthetic
Literacy."

 Peter went on to say that "lack of this literacy propogates
the ability to be manipulated, for image is the primary source
of philosophy." This is the "paradoxical nature of Image as
psychic basis and social reality." All human experiencing of
"physical, social and religious realities is inferred as image."

 Ultimately the two consequences of the adoption of such an
Aesthetic Literacy, according to Rojcewicz, is the knowledge
that "we are tools for exploration, primary instruments of
learning" and the "discovery of the interior life of exterior
matter."

 Peter's concluding remarks where very Jungian in their
understanding of the need for the integration of the Shadow:
There is "no wholeness without pathology."

Richard Rudgley

 Richard Rudgley provided the second presentation which was an
extremely good ethnography of the imaginal as found within the
ancient global entheogenic (psychedelic plants) shamanic
traditions. Mr. Rudgley, though a reserved speaker, did a fine
job of illustrating the incredibly long history of the use of
such psychoactive compounds as ayahuasca, ginger, tobacco,
mushrooms, the elusive soma, and more, dating back perhaps as
long as 60,000 years to the time of the neanderthals. He gave
specific information on many aspects of this most valuable area
of research that I was not nearly as familiar with as I had
thought. He was also rather humorous in that dry British way.

 Beginning with an appreciation of the fact that western
cultural approaches to psychoactives are similar to the west's
approach to the imaginal Rudgley embarked upon his own
investigative approach which embraces the plants value as
imaginal facilitators. A litany of examples of the varying
degrees of use of such plants throughout both old worlds and new
lends evidence for a cultural difference instead of a lack of
biodiversity as the probable reason. It seems to always flourish
among cultures which come to integrate instead of irradicate.
Other variables needed to understand disparities of use among
different cultures revolve around issues of researcher bias. One
such bias being more investigation into the sacred use of such
plants in male mystery cults as opposed to female ones.

 Amongst some New Guniea initiatory rites, akin to those of
Masonics and other secret societies, there is a documented
system of 12 succesive levels starting the neophyte out with the
ceremonial use of large amounts of ginger often coupled with
fasting. Though typically not considered a psychoactive plant,
ginger can apparently become so if used within an enculturated
"mystery religion" context. Initiates use these trance
catalysts to travel out of the body with the help of ancestor
spirits whereupon they gain the knowledge of that particular
level's lesson. Increasingly difficult lessons are rewarded with
increased ecstatic ascetism. Apparently narratives from the
Americas' offer similar reports.

 Mr. Rudgley proceeded to illucidate the even more unknown, to
me, use of tobacco as a pscyhoactive facilitator. He chronicled
its spread from South America where it originated to eventual
be spread world wide. Tobacco, again in sufficiently excessive
amounts, has been used for generations by shamans as a near
death induction technique to learn the origins of disease, says
Mr. Rudgley. The smoking of 5 or 6 three foot cigars in one
session is not uncommon. Prior to the European invasion tobacco
use was entirely sacred. Continuing the tobacco chronicle
Richard suggested that perhaps the origins of agriculture arose
from the cultivation of sacred plants and not utilitarian food
production. He also raised the issue of the early European
perspective of all smoke as hellish and thus demonic in nature.
Mr. Rudgley ended the tobacco expose with a reminder that when
the "Russians" introduced it to the Siberians they quickly took
it up for psychoactive use.

 Then came an expose of the Ayahuascan "Vine of the Soul" used
by over 70 groups in South America and made from a mixture of
over 100 plants. This entheogen's use has been dramaticly
interwoven within and throughout the entirety of these cultures.
All aspects of their daily and artistic lives is informed by the
geometry of the realms opened by the concoction. The variety of
admixtures and cultural contexts creates a multitude of
different effects, however all of them create a consistently
recognizable "psychic shorthand" of shapes and forms as well as
an appreciation that THIS reality is the UNreality as compared
to the opposite Western take. There is also a sexual connotation
dealing with metaphors of the Cosmic Womb, says Rudgley.

 In a brief informational on Peyote, Rudgely spoke of the
discovery of peyote cacti remains found in a thousand year old
grave. He gave one example of the negative effects of
psychoactive use upon an aboriginal culture which involved the
sudden use of peyote by its warrior class. Previously its use
had been forbidden to all except the shamen. The use of the drug
outside the sacred context of the caste system undermined the
entire social order of the community.

 Toward the end of his talk, Richard Rudgley pondered the
identity of the elusive Soma described in the ancient Iranian
Divine Comedy. It describes the use of two psychoactives. Was
it some combination of Ephedra, Cannabis, and/or Opium? Again
the question of how far back psychoactive use goes within human
history is raised. Perhaps 60,000 years to a famous "flower
burial" which found that the pollen of six of the species had
indentifiable medicinal properties, including ephedra.

 Finally, Richard surprised me with a hum-dinger piece of
information; DMT may exist in higher levels in the spinal
fluids of schizophrenics. Shades of Dennis and Terrance
McKenna's assertions that the human brain can produce a DMT
experience "on the natch." Rudgley mused on the possibility of
Kundalini symbollogy being connected to this idea of DMT laced
spinal fluid. Niedam [sic?] is the term he used to describe the
physiological creation of psychoactives. Something he thinks
may ultimately lead to a new field of paraphysiology.

 During the brief tea break I found myself again speaking with
a beautiful psychic I had been questioned by at the end of
yesterday's proceedings. She and her husband of seven years (a
man who conscpicuously looked like Bill Clinton) spoke to me
about their use of new digital camera techniques and
technologies which allow for the photographing and interpreting
of human energy fields. She uses these in her practice of the
shamanic arts to heal many people. She also spoke to me of the
negative effects that one speaker at an ISEEM conference in
Colorado had inflicted upon her (and possibly the other audience
members).

Karl Jansen

 Returning from the break we were treated to the most animated
speaker of the conference by far, Mr. Karl Jansen, who spoke on
Ketamine and the NDE. His paper had been retitled "Ketamine:
the Mental Modem." Not only was he the most animated speaker,
walking back and forth across the stage utilizing the wireless
mike that no-one else seemed interested in using, but he also
utilized the slide projector to good effect. His sense of humor
also shone through and his flamboyant gestures were even more
exagerated by his extreme height.

 Mr. Jansen's perspectives provided valuable insights into
Ketamine. It helped dispell some of the myths I had heard as
well as providing vital information about it and its effects
within the brain. He even commented upon its use within the
Club/Dance Culture as well as informing me of several things I
didn't know like that continued use can create boyles and that
it is commonly prescribed, at least in Britain, for ashmatics as
well as for women with regard to obstetrics and gynecology. His
intention to found a Quantum Psychiatry is indeed a much needed,
yet obviously difficult goal.

 At first he focused on K's (Ketamine's) connection to the NDE
and NBE, near death and near birth experiences, respectfully.
Yes, K trips can induce experiences whose narrative is nearly
identical in character to those of NDEs. The near BIRTH
experience is equally valid from Jansen's point of view. "Why
are we so resistant to birth memory?" Karl repeated the refrain
again and again that K does not (usually) stop or lower the
heart rate, nor lower the rate of breathing. He lamented its 30
year safety record and emphasized the point that someone who has
an NDE is not necessarily close to death. In fact he ultimately
believes that the NDE is akin to the brain chemistry effects of
K and is in actuality a defense mechanism to protect against
brain death.

 Jansen describes the narrative descriptions of the effects of
NDEs and K as being similar in their content. Both describe
psychedelic insights about reality, personality, sacredness,
similar sounds, travel by tunnel into a light at high speed,
conviction of death, God, OBEs, other realities, re-experienced
memories, life reviews, clarity, a border between realms. As in
some NDE cases, K trippers, though unconscious, can often
recount the conversations and actions of spectators in the room
with them. Both K trippers and NDEers insist they were not
hallucinating, that the events actually happened. Mr. Jansen
stressed his opinion that just because NDEs can be induced does
not mean that they are unreal. In both experiences, he believes,
the brain is re-tuned to a different reality; a reality of
quantum connectedness wherein the mind's eye can "toggle between
life and death" as well as travel to any place and time without
the physical body going anywhere. In this way he equates the
timeless realm that is contacted in these NDEs and K-trips as
perhaps explicated by Bell's Theorom: a hyperspace where all
realities exist as a single point.

 Both NDEs/NBEs and K-trips can be very therapeutic if
undertaken within a safe environment. Benefits include more
concern for others, less depression, anxiety, and neurosis.
However it should be stressed that their is a dark side to
Ketamine. Besides the boyles, there is the same very seductive
quality that is the nature of the imaginal. Karl Jansen
continually spoke of the Faustian metaphor and of several
instances where Ketamine enthusiasts took that final trip never
to return. However, he emphasized that of these cases only one
of them could truly be termed an overdose - it is nearly
impossible to do so with this drug. He insists that these
individuals simply chose to not toggle back to the worlds of the
living. In each case the person was very happy in their life but
felt it was time to move on. In this same way, Jansen made a
point to not condemn people who make reality choices that we can
hardly fathom; he specificly cited the case of Heaven's Gate
(during the end of conference panel discussion).

 Mr. Jansen concluded with a much too detailed explanation of
just how Ketamine works within the chemistry of the brain. This
is where he outlined his belief that the NDE is in effect a
defensive mechanism to protect against brain death. He
reiterated his conviction that K actually allows the human mind
to penetrate new realities or "Transpersonal Fields" and that
this should ultimately lead us into the new domain of quantum
psychiatry.

Lunch

 Lunch time brought the inevitable waiting around in the hopes
of hooking up with someone with whom to share in the continued
networking of ideas. Luckily I again found myself in the right
place at the right time. This time, as before, it was with the
pressence of Michael Grosso, but the invitation came from the
other luminary amongst our forming lunch troupe, Stanley
Krippner. I had reintroduced myself to him yesterday right
before his presentation of Vallee's paper/outline. Accepting the
invitation I joined the enterage which ended up dining in a
nice little Italian restaurant right around the corner - in
nearly the opposite direction as the previous days food venture.

 Among our group was a young man (perhaps my junior) who was
lucky enough to get some sort of "scholarship" or grant to
attend. More interesting to me was the pressence of Roger
Woolger, a transpersonal psychotherapist with skills in
regressive hypnosis. Also present were Anthony "Tony" Arcari
(again) and some 'followers' of Mr Woolger's that were a
married couple whose names elude me. During our meal I found
myself talking mostly with Woolger and the wife of said couple;
both of them are extremely experientially educated in all these
matters. This wonderful lady would turn out later to be one of
the major instigators of a fantastic round of dialogue had
during the final Q&A panel discussion at the end of the
conference.

Dean Radin

 Once back at the conference it was time for the final speaker
who was one of the main draws to this event for me;
parapsychologist Dean Radin. Having read his book the Conscious
Universe, which I highly recommend, I was already aware of most
of what he presented but the sheer joy of his speaking style,
his sense of humor, his command of the data, and his effective
use of the overhead projector made him the perfect ending to the
conference. Also, I was overjoyed to hear him state certain
phrases and ideas as well as his assertion that there were no
less than 11 on-line random number generators around the world
continuing the work into Field Consciousness effects.

 Of all the speakers at this conference, Dean Radin was most
certainly the one who best addressed its agenda of exploring
the ontological status of the imaginal. Within Radin's speach we
heard of the most convincing evidence for the physical reality
foundation of psi phenomena and its related aspects of imaginal
consciousness.

 Like so many other speakers before him, Dean began with a Jung
quote. This time it was Jung's words on the interconnectedness
of psyche and matter. Radin also began with a couple of joke
statements. He lamented that there is "no career track for
parapsychology," and asserted in anticipation of the skeptics
regard to these phenomena that "reality isn't what it used to
be."

 You see, "measurement is addictive" according to Radin. He
stated this in the context of describing the three realms
within which we find ourselves looking at data; that of the
objective, subjective, and what he calls the intersubjective.
The intersubjective is his term for the imaginal. He described
the term in relation to the sender/receiver paradigm which has
yielded much success in the now famous telepathy in dream-state
experiments utilizing the ganzfeld technique.

 The really interesting information, though, had to do with
Radin's continuing research of Roger Nelson and what they term
Field Consciousness Effects. The idea, simply put, is that, if
one human mind can influence systems as disparite as other
minds and even machines, then what of the focused attention of
MANY MINDS. This type of experiment tries to verify the
influence of mass consciousness on the output of random systems,
in most cases, an electronic random number generator. Results
have been startlingly successful.

 Dean Radin collected many of these cases in his book and
reviewed them generously during his speech to the conference.
In all test cases, random number generators began producing LESS
RANDOMNESS coincident with events which were known to be
watched by large numbers of people. Some of these events
included Olympic broadcasts, the O.J. Simpson verdict, Princess
Diana's funeral, New Year's Eve, the recent Baseball homerun
excitement, and many many more.

 These experiments are part of the Global Consciousness
Project, also called the EGG, or Electro Gaia Gram. The
reference being to both a metaphoric EEG of the planetary
consciousness and the obvious symbolisms inherant in any egg
analogy.

 By far, the greatest addition to establishing the ontological
status of the imaginal is to be found in the data Dean Radin
presented next; that of the terrestrial and extraterrestrial
forces (geomagnetic and otherwise) discovered that play a part
in the human ability to access the imaginal. Some time ago,
Michael Persinger and Martha Adams investigated the connection
of geomagnetism and incidents of psi, both in spontaneous and
lab cases. What they found were higher numbers of psi incidence
during periods of lower geomagnetic activity. Since many people
had been searching for some electromagnetic compomant to the
mechanisms of psi, this was a breathrough towards new areas of
research. These new avenues are paying off and may soon be a
rather firm foundation for new paradigms of exploration.

 On-line random number generator experiments, coupled with
retro-causation (aka retroPK) research have confirmed an
extraterrestrial componant to psi conducive states: the full
moon. Long known in the occult for its psychic importance,
science has finally proven it does indeed effect the realms of
the physical AND psychical. Web sites like Mr. Walker's
www.fourmilabs.com have shown that INTENTION can be effective
backwards in time. The majority of positive effects were
concurrent with the Full Moon.

 One of the many examples of comparitive, complimentary
research into the effects of the moon upon the human psychic
faculty is best summed up by Radin's research into the nightly
payouts at gambling establishments. With the consent of the
casinos, Dean looked at the nightly payouts and determined that
the old gambler adage that you win more during the full moon....
IS TRUE. Though, as he put it to the casinos, "gamblers just
lose less on these nights."

 Finally, Dean Radin regailed us with yet another recently
discovered extraterrestrial inlfuence on human psychic
functioning: Cosmological effects. I had heard of the important
discovery of a local sidereal time componant to better psi
results but Radin put them into a context I wasn't familiar
with, that of facing into or out of our own galaxy. It seems
that, when facing into the galaxy, there are of course higher EM
levels than if one is facing out into deep space. These higher
EM levels are deliterious to the average psychic human. However,
other evidence has shown this to be the opposite with psychicly
gifted individuals. They seem to actually do better on days of
high geomagnetic activity and so may also do better by facing
into our galaxy.

 Radin concluded by harkening back to the works of Pierre
Teilhard de Chardin and his ideas of the noosphere - human
consciousness entwined about the planet as the next aspect of
human evolution. Dean used the moebius strip analogy to help
explain how it is that some people may in fact perceive
information that most of us cannot. Perhaps these people have
some faculty that is either emergant or dormant within each of
us. Perhaps we will all soon acquire the ability to perceive
time and space as a moebius strip wherein one side is the
physical/objective reality we all share and the other side is
the psychical/subjective realms that mystics have described for
millenia. Maybe gifted psychics have already developed this
intersubjective talent for seeing the psychical and physical as
the moebius strip whose dualistic qualities are simply gained
throught the inverting of one end of the spectrum to connect
with the Other. Perhaps.

Question & Answer Audience/Panel Discussions Exploring the
Imaginario

 The conclusion to the conference was the long-awaited Q&A
Panel Discussion whereby audience members were allowed to ask
specific questions they had prepared and submitted to Stanley
Krippner on note cards. Krippner was the Panel Chair and began
the discussion by utilizing new insights gained from Tony
Arcari's recent Saybrook paper on the differences and
similarities between certain consciousness research
terminologies. Tony had spoken to me of these concepts as well,
and though they seemed simple enough, I had a hard time coming
to grips with them. Krippner went so far as to create a drawing
of these ideas on the overhead projector.  However, this too
failed to totally enlighten me on these ideas. I did like
Stanley's use of the term Imaginario, though, to encapsulate
these concepts.

 Most of the questions and answers were rather staid and
uninteresting until one particular note card from a female
audience member pointed out the distinct lack of women on the
panel. Stanley Krippner did an excellent job of balancing the
potentially chaotic nature of ensueing audience/panel dialogue
which erupted over this issue. He supported the observation
with his own disappointment at this fact but assuaged any
discontent with the news that several women had indeed been
invited to participate but were all unavailable due to other
engagements (no pun intended). Skeptic Susan Blackmore was one
of the invitees who was unable to attend. He went on to
incorporate the valuable insights offered by female audience
members which, as I said, led to some of the best dialogue I
have witnessed in years. Female audience member after female
audience member chimed in with their own perspectives on the
issue of the seeming lack of female representation within the
imaginal/shamanistic traditions discussed within the course of
the conference.

 Most everyone addressed the prevailing biases in researching
gender related issues of consciousness studies. The general
consensus was that it is always difficult for a member of one
sex to investigate the mystery religions of the opposite sex.
Also, modern scientific experiments very often exclude female
subjects in their projects. Reasons range from fear of drug
effects upon the female subject who might become pregnant during
the experiment, to underlying problems within a male dominated
field which often simply ignores the feminine.

 Richard Rudgley asserted that he was not only aware of female
psychoactive societies but also of male ones which practice
such acts as ritual penile blood-letting, as a sort of menstrual
envy.

 Charles Laughlin stated that women have easier access to these
states and thus don't need the neurocognitive drivers such as
initiatory rites. Someone else mentioned the differences
between men and women's corpus collosum connections. Still
others mentioned some experiments which point to gender
differences in psychic ability: men do better influencing
machines where as women to better in less mechanistic type
exercises.

 Another audience member brought up the subject of
transgender/transexual shamanism to which Charles Laughlin pipe
up, "speaking as the only cross-dresser on the panel..." to
which the entire panel and audience laughed heartily. Of course,
the subject was then treated with much more respect as we were
all reminded that both cross-dressing male and female shamans
have both suffered at the hands of people inside and outside of
their own tribe. Most shamanic traditions address androgyny in
one form or another, usually identifying it with its own set of
vast powers. Yet even those cultures often look down upon such
transexual behaviours, typically reacting with prejudice and
violence.

 Another point was made that is relevant to the debate over
sexual differences; that of trauma and its differing
dissociative effects upon men and women. It is generally
accepted that males get angry and externalize their anger where
as females get depressed and internalize their feelings. It
should not surprise us then when we discover that in America,
more men are jailed and more women seek therapy than in any
other country.

 Finally, perhaps the most consternating aspect of the Q&A was
the continual focusing by certain audience members upon the
topic of Out of Body Experiences and other psi phenomena which
seem to imply that human consciousness can move beyond the body.
Particularly, two older gentleman whom I had eavesdropped on
throughout the conference, had repeatedly talked amongst
themselves about their own psi experiments whereby they placed
a set of 3 random numbers atop a wardrobe and challenged any
psychic to astral travel and discern the numbers.

 Many panel members addressed these issues, citing different
examples of psi experiments which lend credence to this very
ability. Michael Grosso went so far as to recount his own
encounter with a particular student's ability to do such, in
this case actually moving an object in his home, apparently
during an OBE. It was around this time that Paul Devereux was
obviously growing weary of such old paradigm thinking, as he had
his head down in frustration. He proceeded to launch into a
perhaps less than technical explanation for why he feels this is
a moot issue. He tried to sum up what had been spoken of
repeatedly throughout the conference and its importance for new
modes of thinking, re-stating the consensus that the human mind
can and does move beyond spacetime and there potentially
interacts with all matter and energy at an informational level -
not on a physical, old paradigm level where the mind LEAVES the
body. "There is no body to leave, therefore it is useless to
continue talking about such matters in terms of Out of Body
Experiences and Astral Travel."

 While I understood exactly what he was trying to say, I also
sympathized with his frustration at trying to get across these
ideas to people who sometimes can not quite grasp the
implications of what has been said. I suppose a better tack
would have been to simply accept that such phenomena as OBEs,
astral travel, remote viewing, clarvoyance, etc. are the old
paradigm ways that humans developed to interact within these
timeless, spaceless realms of Otherworld Reality. Once this is
stated, it should be a little easier to then go on and try to
find new paradigms which better describe the true nature of
these realms. Easier said than done, eh?

 All in all it was perhaps the best start towards actualizing
the new paradigms explicit within the narratives of experiences
of the imaginal that we could have hoped for. I for one do see
an over-arching structure forming from out of these many varied
speakers' presentations.

 We have evidence of human exploration of these Otherworld
Realities dating far back into human evolution, using such
neurocognitive drivers as psychedelics, visionary states and
meditation. We have similar explorations right up to the
present in the form of lucid dream research. From
anthropologists we learn that the information gained within
these excursions into Otherworlds often has value towards our
understanding of the orders within nature. The physicists and
mathematicians tell us these things are possible and we may be
on the verge of understanding the mechanics behind such
phenomena. Philosophers implore us to take this evidence to
heart and to apply it to the institutions which sustain our
civilization. Meanwhile, parapsychologists are helping draw the
maps that will lead us towards a better understanding of psi
phenomena and how it acts as interface between humanity and
these Otherworlds.

 Good job Consciousness Connection! May this set the stage for
a continuing dialogue and exploration of our imaginal realms and
the hopes they bring for a better world. Book me for the next
one!

Afterward

 The following days found me doing the touristy site-seeing
bit, befriending several students residing in the University
youth hostel where I was staying, as well as shopping for boots
and books in the Soho district. I toured the Tower of London,
saw the Family Jewels and the Tower Bridge.

 My new found friends and I spent one night in a club below
Leicester Square dancing to the same crappy music one finds in
clubs back in the States. We wondered home through nearly
deserted streets, past the gay bar that had been bombed a few
nights earlier. Our long walk ended with a late night beer fest
in the youth hostel commons area. The following day I heard
that 7 people had been shot that night in a London club.

 The friendliest of the University students I had gone dancing
with was a tall, thin Belgian (nearly ten years my junior)
named Mike. I spoke to him about American parapolitics
(conspiracy theory) and UFO stories. I told him of his own
countryıs dramatic publicized tracking of UFOs with military
aircraft radar. He had no knowledge in any of these areas,
specificly stating heıd never heard about his own countryıs UFO
cases. Not that surprising I suppose.

 My tours of the city were limited by time and resources but I
managed to spend exactly the amount of money I took with me. No
more no less. Had I bought those cute UFO/Alien postcards at
the Alien Cafe, which was a stone's throw away from Palace -
literally, I would not have had enough money to take the tube
ride back to Heathrow airport. This tube ride nearly caused me
to miss my flight due to delays along the tracks.

 At one point our subway car stopped above ground. I looked up
and saw a very interesting sight: through a huge window in
someoneıs flat I could see two life-size inflated ³grey²
aliens. One was blue the other green. There big black
wrap-around eyes stared at me, speaking volumes without
telepathy. Hanging on the wall behind and between them was a
life-size paper cut-out human skeleton, mimicking the aliens
black eyes with a relevance not entirely lost upon my own
exhausted and frustrated frame.

 Finally, the subway car lurched into motion again and managed
to get me to my plane on time. The flight home was pleasant and
uneventful. Much of the time I simply gazed out the airplane
window watching the beautiful roiling contrail from a previous
transatlantic flight which lay on our right side nearly the
entire way back to America. All the while I considered its
snaking trail in light of the current contrail conspiracy
schmaltz making the rounds through the gullible American
psyche. Aaaaaahh yes, back to America and its United States of
Unconsciousness.

Will we ever wake from our evolutionary slumber?

SMiles Lewis