Is there a consistent type of communication, or language, used in paranormal phenomena?
Recently I have been reading the book Beyond UFOs: The Science of Consciousness and Contact with New Human Intelligence. It explores a large scale (N=3256) survey on people who have had some form of contact with UFO phenomena. The authors eliminate all stories that include sleep or sleep paralysis. While the annoying constant pedaling of their foundation has made reading the book frustrating, their results reflect similar to the types of stories in Passport to Magonia and for this reason it has interested me extensively.
There are a few things that modern UFO/UAP phenomena seem to have in common: the forms of abduction "story" or report, the saucer shape, the rapid life-like movements, etc. But even within these same themes, there is wide divergence in the sensory data received.
In Beyond UFOs, some people are abducted by spirit figures but others by physical humans. Some see grey aliens that are short, others see tall. Some see bright orbs hovering, others see physical objects. In opposition to the general narrative, most people do not want their experiences to stop - not even abductions - and the majority of people (> 70%) considered their experience to be good and report positive conscious transformations as a result.
Interestingly, some experiencers are absolutely positive a physical object (e.g. flying saucer landed on ground) was present, with witnesses who confirm their story, whereas others claim they were transported to some form of a "Matrix-like" reality and were not even sure if they were in their own body. This echoes quite closely what the apostle Paul says in his letter: "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows." (2 Cor. 12:2-4) Paul clearly cannot determine if it was physical or not.
Similarly, in Passport to Magonia, people in the 1800s and back to the medieval ages saw both blimp-like crafts and fairy creatures. They had gnomes and trickster dwarves spiriting them away to strange lands. In one story, they claim to have caught some of these people who were flying around in their crafts - who were indistinguishable from humans - and the townpeople were fighting over what to do with them. It was so commonly known for these "beings" to steal children from women (known as changlings), that even some Christian leaders like Martin Luther wrote about them. If we go back to Genesis 6 and the Book of Enoch, we find the stories of the gods coming down and stealing women and having children with them. We could go all Michael Shermer and reject all of these stories outright, but many of these stories involve dozens of witnesses and followup research.
In most cases, people experience the UFO and UAP phenomena with a heightened conscious awareness, seeing orbs (many captured on film or video) and visions, seeing auras, strange dreams, and - in Jungian language - an increase of synchronous experiences. For this reason, some like Jung have proposed the theory that the modern UFO phenomena is a new myth or legend or even a new type of religion.
The only thing that seems consistent throughout history about the phenomena is that the appearances often include some form of flying things (not affected by gravity) and confuse and baffle the observer - and drive them to change their life in some way. But the specific details are so varied that attempting to approach them scientifically is virtually impossible.
Obfuscation is the intentional scrambling of important information so that the source cannot be easily deduced or decoded while not destroying the original information. It is often used in computers to keep third parties from figuring out what is going on. It feels to me that there is intentional obfuscation in all paranormal experience.
I would propose that the uniqueness of each experience, when even multiple people experience that same phenomena at the same time, and the lack of direct logical and methodical communication of information is completely intentional and reveals that these beings are consistently obfuscating their interaction with us.
As Paul says, in his followup to the previous quote,
"[he] was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell."
This theme is found still today, in many Christians who experience visions or OOB (out-of-body) experiences. One is forced to ask the question, what in the world could be the point of telling an individual things not permitted to tell? Why tell them in the first place?
If I were to be so bold, it feels that there are several consistent things we can conclude from the mass of thousands and thousands of cases:
I would argue it was for these reasons that there was heavy overlap in the ancient times between priests, sorcerers, and wise men and women. The concept of a "seer", or one who sees things others do not, was revered by many. Yet you did not go to a seer for advice on which soil is best for your crop. The distinction between priests and philosophers goes back to the B.C. era. Philosophers thought long and hard and logically about things, while seers sought the gods and ritual and were more like Steven Greer. Like many species who have an animal whose designated life goal seems to be to point out all the potential threats in the neighborhood (I'm looking at you squirrels and prairie dogs), it seems mankind itself worldwide has had individuals who were born with some sort of nearly chaotic gift of interaction with the "gods".
Interpretating the interactions is an experience, not a form of logical thought.
I think we can all say that the one thing these experiences does convince the experiencer about is that something exists beyond our normal physical experience of life. Despite the obfuscation, it appears that the one consistent affect these experiences have on everyone who goes through them is a shift in their understanding of the world away from materialism. It gives hope there is something more, something out there, the possibility of a baffling outer-life - and possibly an after-life. It reminds us that we are being observed, even when we think we are not. For the Christian, this gives hope that our actions - even when no person is watching - could have real rewards.