Exopolitics:Coming out of the Cave by Lisa Lanyon

From Exopolitics: All the Above by Paola Harris

Coming Out of the Cave by Lisa Lanyon
Instructor Red Rocks Community College

When Paola Harris asked me to consider the question- “What would
the world gain from actual alien presence?” Several points came to mind.
Actual alien presence here on earth would allow our participation in a
larger community of living beings. Assuming we have some Exopolitical
framework that would prevent us from reverting back to aggressive behavior,
the interaction with non-terrestrials and even interdimensionals could be a
rich source of remarkable new experiences and knowledge.
This would then lead to a more expansive worldview, or more accurately,
a universal view. If these things were incorporated in to our philosophy of
existence, would we not have a clearer understanding of the true nature of
reality? I must answer yes, we would. Are we ready? I must answer for myself.

Yes. My hopeful answer for the world is “yes”.
Let me use a well-worn allegory to expand on this hope. Consider this
image.
Imagine a cave, dark and cold. Inside this cave people are chained. They
face the back wall. They cannot turn their heads or move around. They
cannot even look at each other, but the prisoners can talk to each other about
what they see. Behind but unknown to them is a little footpath or bridge,
and behind that is a fire. When anyone uses the path, they cast a shadow.
Sometimes they carry strange objects of various shapes as they walk this path.
They cast shadows.
Now, consider our chained cave dwellers. All they know is what the can
see from their limited point of view. They can certainly see the shadows but
not the bridge, not the fire, not the strange travelers using that bridge. Th e
shadows are their world. They become shadow experts. They discuss the
shadows, analyze the shadows and argue about their varying interpretation
of the shadows. But they don’t know about the bridge. They do not see the
Fire. They do not know they are in the small, enclosed world of the Cave. Th ey
do not even know they are in chains. Consider how limiting this cave world
must be. How does this affect their judgment and perception?
Imagine next that one of these “prisoners” is freed. What a surprise to
see the bridge, the fire and the travelers! Even more surprising, this freed one
sees a path beyond the fire, up and out of the cave. A whole new reality opens
up and out. This free one leaves the cave and goes outside into the fresh air
of new world. It takes sometime and patience for the eyes to adjust. But they
do. And then, what sights will be seen. Our slave rubs the tears from his or
her eyes and sees the beauty of the night sky fi lled with immeasurable stars.
The moonlight is dazzling and the eyes adjust.
The new cool grass underfoot… The smell of water…
If this is not enough, the night sky begins to change. Dawn begins.
The deep night sky turns luminous as the sun peaks above the horizon. Th e
enormity of this revelation is indescribable. The sheer gorgeous complexity
of the real world is breathtakingly strange. Warmth, richness, and color
sensations yet undreamt of…
This cave dweller has no words to describe this experience, yet… how
can this one return to the dark after experiencing the Sun? How can this one
tell the others about the world beyond the cave? Is it possible? Th e answer
must be yes.
When this Freed One returns to tell his friends in the cave about his
experiences and about the Sun, how do you imagine they will respond? Joy?
Fear? Panic? Rage? Will they turn on him and even try to destroy him and his
message? Unfortunately, this is probable. Human beings have a psychological
investment in the certainty of their reality.
Old ideas die hard. It is not easy to tolerate ambiguity. This one who has
seen the sun must be brave, must be willing to sacrifice for the truth. Th is
one is now ethically obligated to share the truth, even if no one wants to
accept it.
You will of course recognize these images from Plato’s famous Allegory of
the Cave. How apt this metaphor seems for our discussion of Alien presence.
Could there be a more radical paradigm shift? Are we not very much like those
cave dwellers in our present agreed upon reality? We do not know about the
limitations of our reality.
By some accounts there have been at least two major paradigm shifts
for the Western world since the medieval era. One from Galileo When he
viewed the moons of Jupiter revolving around their titanic host. With the aid
of his newly refined telescope, he essentially disproved the commonly agreed
upon theory of geocentrism. Th is effectively called all theories about the true
nature of reality of the time into question. If the earth was not the center of
the universe, how then could all the philosophy of the day be true?
Of course we have now accepted heliocentric as common knowledge.
But during Galileo’s time heliocentric was heresy. This has been called
Cosmological Decentralization.
Darwin next suggested that humans were not above and outside of nature,
but rather a part of nature. Humans were, in fact animals. Again this called
into question the basic assumption human beings were somehow diff erent
from all other life on earth. Perhaps human beings were not the highest
creation of the divine. Our bodies are here based on their ability to survive.
Just like every other species. This is still a point of contention for some, but
for many this too has become common knowledge and an accepted concept.
This paradigm shift has been described as Biological Decentralization.
Some philosophers suggest that the next great paradigm shift will occur
when we do have some sort of proof that non-terrestrial life and or intelligence
is proven to exist. How will this proof alter the fabric of our agreed upon
reality? How will the individual or group that provides this proof suff er and
sacrifice? Will this be as some have suggested Psychological Decentralization?
What is we discover that in reality we are not the only intelligent life in the
Universe, or Multiverse for that matter? I wonder.
But think of the Joy! How will knowledge of the glorious complexity of
reality enrich our experience of life, and possibly even of the hereafter? What
if there are bridges to be crossed that no one has even dreamt of yet?
This will be the great addition, the last known obstruction: the last
chain.
Could a parallel be drawn between this knowledge and the great realization
of Siddhartha Buddha? Ego is the last obstruction to Nirvana.
Perhaps our great earth systems of laws, facts, commodities etc, can be seen
as a vast ego construction. The chains and blinders we create for ourselves out
of insubstantial fears and insecurities. These are frail but tenacious boundaries
between what we are willing to see and what truths actually exit. We simply
must allow the childish chains of fear and ignorance to be unlocked. We must
allow them to fall to the floor of the dark cave. The can clatter and chafe as
the fall but they must go. We must let them go. They keep us trapped.
I advocate this -Explore. Be the one who returns from the beautiful
world of the Sun to tell the truth. Be ready to consider the possible.
Read… Listen… Think... Love...
Be the new Galileo and do not fear the light.
Lisa Lanyon
March, 2008