From: Stephen MILES Lewis <elfis@io.com>
Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 23:19:16 -0500
Fwd Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 11:25:36 -0400
Subject: ELFIS - London Otherworld Reality Conference


OTHERWORLD REALITY
Exploring the Ontological Status of Imaginal Consciousness
London Conference Journal
SMiles Lewis
www.elfis.net

I once chanced across the ocean and tubed thru a glass darkly.

My exploration into the ontological alien Otherworld Reality
across the Atlantic began with a flight from Tejas to O'Haire.
While at the Chicago leg of my journey, I sat sipping my last
Dos Equis lager while watching the UFO themed CNN Airport segue
between endless reports of Littleton copycats and Kosovo
bombings.

Once aboard the overseas flight I again had the opportunity to
observe the four distinct visual phenomena of my own eyeballs
at play against the blue and white backdrop of the clouds and
sky. I sat in the cramped seat for eight and a half hours
drinking booze at thirty thousand feet next to the very friendly
director of one of Chicago's largest downtown Presbytarian
churchs.

We talked of the paranormal speakers the church had hosted
there regularly as well as his wife's interest in spiritualist
mediumship. We also talked about his church's appearance on the
show we were watching, Early Edition; a paranormal precognitive
moral drama from the creators of Touched By An Angel - part of
the religious CBS agenda. Then the main feature fills the
monitors, Enema of the State, the NSA/Echelon mythos
perpetuated to encompass recent net-minded wire-tapping
legislation.

I didn't sleep.

Dawn came and I could finally see the craggy coast of some
imaginal realm below. After a time I could see a distinctly
alien countryside. A completely irregular patchwork of plots
totally dissimilar to any in the States. Patches of bright
yellow which I assumed to be raip. We circle and circle and
circle and circle. I see more aircraft buzzing about than I have
ever seen in one area before. There are small trash fires
burning throughout the countryside.

The word is given and suddenly we descend through a veil of
clouds obscuring the "real London." Bursting through the layer
of fluffy tufts we are greeted by evidence of a not too alien
civilization. Within seconds we are three thumps of the wheels
to the tarmac.

The cabin musak opens with the symphonic presentation of the
main theme from E.T. the ExtraTerrestrial. Through my cabin
window I see the 60's sci-fi look of the Heathrow terminals.
Interminably long terminal tunnels I would soon be walking
through, forever.

Breezing through customs and the tubes I find myself back above
ground and in the northeast quadrant of central London,
sweating and hefting as I stumble feebly toward my goal: sleep
in a comfortable hostel environment. Trying to focus on this
goal I am distracted by a green skinned 'grey-alien' sitting
meditatively cross-legged in the shop window to my left. A block
and a half and three flights of stairs later my head found its
target, the feather pillow.

Sleep came heartily.


Conference Day 1 Saturday 5/1/99

 It was an irony for me to be in such a mythic realm as that of
Central London in order to attend a conference purporting to
explore the ontological status of imaginal consciousness.
Establishing any sort of ontology relating to imaginal
experiences like NDEs, OBEs, Lucid Dreams, Mystic/Shamanic
Visions, UFO Close Encounters, etc. is a very tall order
indeed.

 Travelling outside of one's normal environs is sometimes
enough to give one the feeling of OTHERWORLD REALITY often
described in the above types of anomalous experience. My
dislocation to this world across the sea with attendant sleep
deprivation, jet-lag, descent into the underworld and back again
helped keep my mind in a most surreal condition. With all the
talk on my elist of choice (UFO UpDates) regarding the degree of
reality assigned to UFO close encounters and abductions, the
importance and relevance of this conference's attempt at
quantifying their ontological status did not escape my
attention. With this in mind I made my way across town to the
Royal Society of Arts located just north of the Thames between
the Charing Cross and Embankment tube stations - "Mind the Gap /
Watch the Closing Doors."

PAUL DEVEREUX

 Paul Devereux started off the conference with some general
announcements. As I began to tape record the session he made a
necessary request that people not record the proceedings as
they were doing so and expected the tapes to be made available
and HOPED that they might be able to publish the proceedings at
some time in the future. He didn't sound that convincing and was
lamenting the fact that it cost so damned much to put on the
conference in the first place - a feat accomplished with the
financial help of conference organizer Trish Pfeiffer. Among
the other announcements was the disappointing absence of Jacques
Vallee who "has been beset by personal problems" but whose
paper would be presented by Panel Moderator Stanley Krippner.

 Devereux opened the conference with an abbreviated
introduction of his paper presenting the Persian relevance to
the realms of the Imaginal (as outlined by Henri Corban who
coined the term). He spoke of Henri Corban's contribution to the
terminology and researching of anomalous experience via his
books Alone With the Alone, Cyclical Time and others. Devereux
presented the audience with a brief overview of the why of the
conference: to explore the least investigated areas of
consciousness research with some of the fields leading lights.
To reduce the prevailing paradigms pigeon-holeing of such
disparate phenomena as shamanic visions, abductions, out of body
experiences, etc. into such reductionistic areas as brain trauma
and psychopathology.

 He outlined the three main hinderances to an assimilation of
these ideas by our modern world: the numerous
conditions/variables which precipitate trance induction,
societal ignorance of these realms, and the aforementioned
reductionism of the "Physical World Compass." He alluded to the
ideas of quantum reality which would be reiterated time and time
again throughout the conference; the relevance of the "quantum
sea / the Tao" as the ground state of being from which
information is revealed to us in the form of psychodrama and the
paranormal. He characterized our modern world's imaginal amnesia
by describing our status in this waking reality as akin to being
"locked into a Lucid Dream."

 Though I wished he had the time to go into more details of
Henry Corbin's ideas, Devereux's brief introduction was an
excellent setting of the stage for the speakers who followed.

MICHAEL GROSSO

 The first official speaker of the conference was Michael
Grosso, philospher extraordinair. He discussed his thoughts on
William Blake's take on the imaginal. Not being all that
familiar with Blake I was thus not as up on his perspectives as
I would have liked to have been.

 Nonetheless he did elaborate on Blake's ideas of the
after-life as being the imaginal realm. He spoke of the
imaginal's power through image and of the image's importance to
all mention function. Talk of placebo effects, psychosomatic and
endosomatic phenomena led to examples of weeping icons,
telepathy, psychokinetics, voudoun and much more. He not only
spoke of anomalous phenomena but also of the relevance of
transpersonal psychology, psychedelics, and religion.

 Blake said "less than all can not satisfy men." In Blake's
philosophy, we are told by Grosso, we see a deconstruction of
Christianity and its Apocalypse myth. He sees a relationship
"between consumerism and the poverty of imagination." Blake's
paradise was a state of consciousness epitomized in the
statement "Jesus (is) the imagination." Blake saw in Christ's
words and deeds the knowledge that war and intolerance equals a
lack of imagination and insight into the Other. "Forgiveness
transcends memory" for "image is not memory . . . memory is
sensory data and inference." Blake's apocalypse is the idea of
Christ's resurrection on an individual, internal level of
transformation. It must be imagined anew every time or it
becomes dogma and violence.

 Grosso's speech was very well presented and as luck would have
it mine was the opening question from the audience. I asked him
about his ideas of the imaginal realm being the afterlife and
its resonance with the film What Dreams May Come. Unfortunately,
he hadn't seen the movie but did say it was an example of these
ideas making their way into the mainstream cultures. The second
question illicited more of a response and was from an
individual whom I ended up having lunch with, along with Mr.
Grosso and two others whom I will mention shortly.

 It was at this point that we had our first break of the day.
Everyone descended back down stairs to the reception room
wherein we were all able to schmooze away unfettered by the
question and answer format of the conference proper. As the
majority of the folk I wanted to speak to were occupied I made
myself busy with a glass of water to calm my iced coffee induced
jitters. Immediately I was approached by an older lady who gave
me the "have I met you somewhere before" line. Actually, in this
case we had "met" but only for a moment as I had rounded the
corner towards the nearby coffee house. She and her man-in-tow
had been looking for the conference to which I directed them
forthwith.

 While speaking to her a younger woman with a slight Jamaican
accent approached and proceeded to ask the same thing, "have we
met before?" To this Mary (the first woman) and I lightly
laughed and let this new person in on our joke. As it turned
out, the young woman is a psychic and very interested in all of
these subjects. Of course that goes without saying considering
she was at such a pricey conference.

 So, unable to speak with the folks I wanted to, I went off to
the rest room and returned for another try. This time I was at
last able to meet Paul Devereux while he was with his wife
Charla who introduced me as "the person I was telling you about
whom we lost his confirmation information." To which he did a
big head-back gesture of exasperation and apologized. I then
spoke to him of my respect for his work and interest in earth
lights whereby he recommended I speak to another chap who had
worked on the original Hesdalen project - Mr. Jan Fjellander.
Paul then got everyone's attention to draw them back into the
lecture hall upstairs so that we could resume the speeches. As
we moved out of the room I briefly spoke to Alan Worsley who
asked if I wanted to speak with Dean Radin, as I had been
hanging about them as they spoke amongst themselves. I told him
the truth that I would love to speak with both of them at some
point.

IAN MARSHALL

  Next up was parapsychological enthusiast Ian Marshall who
brought his knowledge of mathematics, philosophy and psychology
to bare upon the possibility of human consciousness sharing
these Otherworld Realities. He is Danah Zohar's husband and has
cowritten several books with her. I had really hoped for Danah
to be there but considering Ian's original interest and research
into ESP he was a more appropriate speaker. Though I know Danah
would have done a good job, Ian gave a fine paper.

 He began with a cursory overview of the types of personal
otherworlds described variously as the imagination, (lucid)
dreaming, trance, ESP, artistic creativity, and the chaotic
realms of the schizophrenic. He then described some of the
psychological and physiological approaches trying to quantify
mind. He spoke of the Myers-Briggs approach of identifying
"artistic types" as well as research into the temporal lobe.

 MagnetoEncephelogram's seem to be the most recent promising
tool for exploring internal brainwave activity. Already this
tool seems to have helped identify neuro-cohesive oscillations
of 40 cycles per second within the brain originating in the
thalamus. These oscillations bounce up and down, back and forth
through the brain but are diminished during dreamless sleep
states and cases of alzheimers. These coherant oscillations are
what many believe to be possible evidence for the idea that
"coherance leads to consciousness;" a concept finding more and
more support in the cross over sciences of mind physiology and
quantum processes.

 From these newer fringe perspectives to older paradigms of
cultural transmission, Ian Marshall sought to outline three
possible explanatory frameworks for how these inner personal
otherworlds might become the shared otherworlds that were the
focus of the conference. These hypotheses start with the most
reductionistic theory whereby cultural otherworlds are
transmitted in a way perhaps similar to on-going conceptions of
Memes, memetics, and memology (see Susan Blackmore's latest The
Meme Machine). Ian terms this "weak force" idea as the Beehive
Theory. It pursues the possibility of transmission as solely
being part of the mingling of ideas; when we view a painting or
meet a person we DO take from it some minimal essence of the
other person and thus their reality. Ian used the example of
Jung's discovery of the German 1930's image of the Aryan myth
in the collective unconscious of his patients. (I personally
feel the title Beehive Theory would be more appropriate for the
next hypothesis which he terms the Telepathy Theory.)

 In the second strongest departure from the mainstream paradigm
we have the Telepathy Theory akin to concepts of the WorldSoul;
a pan psychic / pan theistic model. In this hypothesis Ian and
others utilize the works of he and his wife (from the Quantum
Society) and especially Rupert Sheldrake's hypothesis of
morhpic resonance. He cites the spectrum of telepathy cases as
well as he and his wife's personal experiences of dream
switching as possible evidence of such a hypothesis. He
maintains that over fifty percent of people feel they have had
an experience of telepathic communication.

 Finally, Ian discussed the theoretical framework which finds
itself most distant and at odds with the prevailing paradigm,
that of Other Plane reality. In this paradigm the angels and
aliens represent actual entities with some intrinsic connection
to the material realm. All cultures have names for the denizens
of these Planes and we can not write-off the distinct
possibility that they represent the ecologies of worlds which
somehow coexist with our own.

 Ian ended his synopsis of these frameworks with yet another
allusion to the research into aspects of the quantum vacuum and
its probable importance to the understanding of all these
possibilities. I only wish it had started where it ended.

LUNCH

 After his speech it was time for lunch, which was to be two
hours. As people milled about before leaving for food, I was
able to meet Mr. Marshall and give my thanks to he and his wife
for the gifts their book Quantum Society had given me in my time
of need (during my GrandFather's passing when I was working on
my SAC paper).

 Shortly thereafter I noticed Mr Grosso and others nearby. I
used this opportunity to full effect and introduced myself as I
had planned, with reference to Robert Larson's suggestion that I
meet with him. He was speaking to a fellow by the name of Brian
Johnson. Immediately Peter Rojcewicz showed up with the chap
who had asked Grosso the question after me. His name is Anthony
(Tony) Arcari. Well, they asked me to accompany them to lunch
and this proved to be the best part of the conference so far.

 We went to a sandwich shop around the corner and proceeded to
have, if not a great conversation at least a damn good one.
Brian works with companies incorporating some of these new
paradigms into their Hman Resource (ooh eck) work and knows
someone who recently finished a TV piece on Area 51 which
supposedly sheds new light on the locale (and its seeming
abandonement). Tony is a psychiatrist/psychologist at Saybrook
where Stan Krippner works. We spoke about films like Dark City,
the Truman Show, the Matrix as well as the need for these new
paradigms to be REALLY incorporated into institutions, from
governments to corporations.

 After eating we sauntered over to the Thames which I saw for
the first time. We walked and talked. It was a grand time
indeed. We made it back to the conference where we were both
delighted and occassionally frustrated by the next line of
speakers. On the way up to the conference room I finally had the
chance to introduce myself to Dean Radin. I was pleased to hear
that he had heard my radio interview with Robert and Greg AND
had looked at my web site! I told him I hoped we could talk more
later.

CHARLES LAUGHLIN

 Beginning the afternoon lineup was a man I had noticed in the
audience as looking remarkably like Steven Spielberg but who
turned out to be the 'co-founder of biogenetic structuralism'
Charles Laughlin. His was perhaps the best given speech so far.
He presented himself and his work exceptionally well. But his
subject matter was like that of Ian's, good but it should have
started where it ended.

 Mr Laughlin went to great lengths to explicate his
understanding of myth as a generally much more accurate
appraisal of the many hidden forces in the world around us.
Through his study of "aboriginal" cultures around the world he
has come to the conclusion that their myths and cosmology often
intimate truths which science then goes on to prove through its
own ways of knowing.

 Charles defines cosmology in two simple statements: it is a
totality that IS, with most of its parts being HIDDEN. Giving
two additional functions of myth beyond the traditional
understanding of the word he states that it "transmits socially
important vicarious experience" and involves the "coordination
of individual conceptual systems relative to socially valued
experience." With a simple overhead projection of the cycle of
making and sustaining of myth/cosmology Charles explained how
this process galvanized the individual experiencing of these
paradigms within the overall reality of the individual's
culture.

 He further elaborated upon this tuning in of the cosmology by
outlining three points which show how the myth-ritual complex
is bound to reality . . .

-through the direct intuitive grasp of the order in reality -by
regulating development of the individual consciousness along
socially collective paths and -through enactments in the world
that have real effects and consequences.

 Again Jung was cited. This time in reference to his secretive
use of his Archetypal Amplification technique akin to a sort of
associational meditation. Jung was reserved with this approach
to "active imagination" due to its powerful evocative potential.
If not properly utilized in a therapeutic setting the visualizer
could be easily overwhelmed by the emotional upwellings of
imagery.

 Here again is a more modern approach to Laughlin's central
idea, that some aspect of the imaginal intuitive mind can
apprehend universal truths and force them up through the
unconscious to appear to us in the archetypal garb most suited
to the nature of the thing in question. Ritualized re-enactments
of myth, and all the seperate but often reinforcing individual
experiencings of it, help tune in the true nature of the forces
depicted within the myth.

 Native peoples anthropomorphic description of forces akin to
the Winds are quite appropriate. This "trueing (of knowledge)
references the inherant, epistemic faculty of the brain which
produces a cognized world in dynamic and veridical ways in
conformation to reality." Here again we have the delving into
quantum approaches to mind and consciousness. Laughlin explains
that the Universal Cosmology of most native peoples is "wired
into reality as HUMANS." As Ian Marshall and Danah Zohar
explore in their Quantum Society, humanity may be better served
by modeling its institutions which govern our lives after the
very nature of reality and its emergant systems, specificaly as
it relates to the quantum models of mind.

 What Mr. Laughlin is saying is that quantum physics and
traditional cosmology (from a global perspective) outlines the
very ideas being researched regarding the physics of the
vacuum. He cites the work of Austin's own Hal Puthoff and his
sojourns into the realms of this Quantum Sea of potentiality.
Laughlin again invokes the Navajo's idea of these forces as the
Wind and recapitulates his insistance that such NeuroGnosis
operates at the quantum level and is relevant to such things as
the study of remote viewing.

ALAN WORSLEY

 Next up was Alan Worsley, the man who had been talking with
Dean and noticed my interest in him. Alan is the historic
Oneironaut who first communicated from the dreamstate to people
in waking reality. He did this in a sleep lab some 24 years ago.
He has a very quiet, slow and shy sounding demeanor which made
it somewhat difficult to hear him at times. Nonetheless, his
material was some of the most interesting to me of any of the
presenters. He gave much data in his presentation and left me
with the urge to communicate with him more.

 I will focus upon his speech in particular within the next
installment as a feature of the ELFIS "DreamTime Now"
department. He had much of interest to abduction researchers as
well as dream devotees.

DARK TEA TIME OF THE SOUL

 I tried to talk with Mr. Worsley afterward but he was besieged
by questioners for there hadn't been time for a Q&A as his
speech was quite long, perhaps due mostly to his slow style of
presenting. I followed him down to the reception area still
hoping to talk with him but gave up for the chance to speak to
others. I did so quite specificly when I noticed the name
printed on one man's conference tag: it was Guy Lyon Playfair!
This is the man who wrote a book in the seventies titled The
Cycles of Heaven which is one of the most information packed
tomes out there, then or now. It was this book which convinced
me of the many strange 'energies' that can influence human
physiology. He is a watery-blue-eyed man and seemed a little at
a loss to speak with me but he did and we spoke enough for
perhaps both our tastes. I gave him my web address despite his
not having web access - "I don't even have a TV," he said.

JACQUES VALLEE

 Once upstairs it was finally time for Jacques' paper as
presented by none other than THE Stanley Krippner whom I had
spoken with on a panel back in 1995 at the SAC conference.
Before his speech I had the opportunity to briefly reintroduce
myself. I was flattered he remembered me.

 I will hold off now on talking about his presentation of
Jacques 'paper. Suffice to say he did a great job of presenting
Jacques' outline, filling in the framework with his own
experiences which were very worthwhile. I will be reviewing his
topic in depth as another seperate article for the ELFIS Mind
Kontrol Corner department next installment.

CONCLUSION OF FIRST DAY

 From Henry Corbin's defining a term whose meaning is being
reintegrated into modern anomalous experience research to the
long overdue assimilation of quantum physics into every aspect
of scientific inquiry from anthropology to parapsychology, the
first day of the OTHERWORLD REALITY conference was off to a good
start. But how much closer were we in this one day of talks to
any new understandings of these phenomena and their relevance to
our overyday lives? Were we any closer to anwering the question
of "how real are these realms?"

 We heard over and over the reports of these strange imaginal
experiences being the mainstay of indiginous peoples from
around the world. We heard philosophers, mathematicians,
psychologists, anthropologists, parapsychologists, and dream
researchers telling us of examples of the physicality (or at
least the convincing FEELING of physicality) of the imaginal. We
heard theory upon theory to accomodate these bizarre encounters
and experiences into the semblance of a new paradigm whose
outlines we have actually begun to see.

 With these ideas swarming inside the cavern of my skull and
that thing I call mind, me, self, I made the journey back into
the underground and headed towards the sanctuary of my hostel
bedroom. In the nights to come I would incorporate some of the
things I learned this day into the occassionally conscious
realms of my own lucid dreams. I am still, even as I write these
words, pondering from moment to moment, the ultimate meaning of
all I saw and heard.

 Little did I realize that the next day's speakers and panel
discussion would open my mind further and set it ablaze to
smolder, well after my own return home, to these United States
of Unconsciousness. So, "tune in next week" for the second half
of this review of when. . . . Next week's episode will reveal:

ELFIS DreamTime NOW! -Alan Worsley's research into Lucid Dreams
& their relation to abduction experiences!

ELFIS MKC Mind Kontrol Corner -Jacques Vallee's WARNING for the
New Millenium; Remote Viewing & the Internet!

-Peter Rojcewicz's Call to Gnosis in our Collegiate
Institutions!

-Richard Rudgley's Ethnography of the Imaginal a Wild Global
Drug Use Extravaganza!

-Karl Jansen's explorations of Ketamine, the Mental Modem!

-Dean Radin's presentation of the best evidence for the
ontological status of imaginal consciousness!

-AND the knock down drag out conflagration that was THE BEST
panel member / audience participation discussion of
The Millenium.

Hint: It's ALL about S E X   ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !