Ontological Shock

People who know that I have been keeping turtles all my life often ask me whether there is some link between Daoism and turtles. There is one, actually, and it’s deeper than simply the connection between all living creatures, all sentient beings, and Dao. All across Asia, Daoist temples sport turtle statues (often with a snake on top to symbolize yang and yin) and there is a history of using turtle shells for divination that dates back to the proto-Daoist, often riverine, cultures of neolithic proto-china. You can read more about that, and how it might have affected the Great Sage of Daoist tradition, in my novel LOVE BECOMES HER and also in my book TURTLE PLANET

When it comes to the Daoist dimensions of alien visitation, the connection may be less materially obvious and demonstrable. While some people think that UFOs/UAP are imaginary, that is changing rapidly. When I originally penned THE REVELATION back in the early 1990s, the topic was strictly science fiction, although not for readers of John Mack M.D. and Whitley Strieber, the former a doctor who treated abductees and the latter an alleged abductee himself.

Now both social media and mainstream news media are full of stories of military encounters with seemingly impossible technology, disappearing scientists who have worked on advanced military programs (perhaps reverse-engineered alien technology) and whistleblowers claiming that aliens and their craft have been retrieved by government agencies. Even mainstream pundits (all right, he’s a comedian but still) Bill Maher say that if you DON’T believe that UFOs are real, perhaps you’re the conspiracy theorist.

Due to serious health problems, I’ve passed away and been revived three times since 2010. When that happened for the second time, in 2021, I experienced a “vision” in which I was “shown” a universe full of planets teeming with life. I’ve done quite a few media interviews sharing that vision, which also included a look at the future of the human race. What I saw was as real to me as another facet of life. In fact, the ubiquity of intelligent life seems to me to be the only logical scenario for the thinking person. Indeed, to think otherwise is, perhaps, to fall prey to a long-standing religious vision that puts humanity at the top of a hierarchy of living things, thereby justifying our transgressions and excesses against each other, all sentient life, and Planet Earth itself.

Daoism, for the most part, does not promote this heirarchichal view, although reincarnation and deities are acknowledged possibilities. Perhaps I will share more about that in future post. What we CAN fairly say, though, is that Daoism as a non-dual, albeit ancient philosophy, represents a challenge to the prevailing Western worldview, and one that is in far better accord with advances in theoretical physics and quantum mechanics. There have, of course, been other such shocks, including the increasingly-well-understood phenomenon of evolution.

If the government turns out to have been hiding the truth about the presence of aliens on Planet Earth, they may have good reason. As one member of congress put it, the government truth will shake us up big-time. Such an ontological shock (the rocking of core beliefs by new, indisputable evidence, including, in this case, what we think we understand about time and space) will not only affect (obliterate?) our traditional religious beliefs but may also have a deleterious effect on culture, society, and the global economy. I’d like to hope that there are enough fluid thinkers, realists, and seekers out there in the world to allow this news to be absorbed and accepted without precipitating various crises.

Give THE REVELATION a read and let me know how you think we’re going to handle the news. It may be coming soon.