More Than a Reaction to Fear

Earlier this year, around the time I was reading Mac Tonnies’ The Cryptoterrestrials, I spent two, dreary, overcast days and dark, cold nights terrified out of my mind that I was going to be taken by reptilians.

My mother and I had just done some very disturbing work on things that supposedly happened when I was a child, and my fear was completely beyond rational control. I didn’t sleep at all and it was difficult to bring myself to eat. I was consumed by that fear.

Eventually, on the morning of the third day, I came to a singular moment. I realized within that moment, on some deep, trans-rational level, that I would rather not exist than be this terrified, but that I really truly do want to exist. CLICK (as Robert Munroe would put it)

Almost without thinking I got up, went to my computer and started watching funny videos. I was completely exhausted, but I wasn’t afraid anymore. Something had just changed inside of me. I could no longer be that afraid of the possibility of what might have happened, or what may happen now. I had to be taken right to the edge in order to see that.

I still have many deep fears, ones that I can’t overcome by suppressing, denying or hiding, but I hope that I can decide to let them go when they come to me, with a little help. There are really terrible things in this world, and beyond it to, but I am asked to be more than my reaction to that fact. I am asked to be a light, and I will try.

Luminosity

A new blog has come to my attention through Mike Clelland’s Hidden Experience. Luminosity is Dan Mitchell’s blog, documenting his numerous encounters with beings and forces that seem to transcend our perception of reality. These experiences most closely fit the popular mold of the UFO and abduction phenomena, but very much in the vein of Mac Tonnies “The Cryptoterrestrials” there is much more going on and the truth of these events seems to be far stranger and more complex than we yet imagine.

I fully recommend reading the entirety of Dan’s writings, but I will draw your attention to three of his posts in particular. The first is They, which is potentially one of the better descriptions of the zeitgeist I find myself living in. the second is Metaphysics and Emanationism: Possible Explanations, or more accurately the comments on the that post. Lucretia Heart of Toward a New World drops in to express her differing views on the phenomena based on her own experiences. It’s very good to see two intelligent, articulate first hand experiencers contrasting their conclusions. The third is Dan’s most recent post, RH Negatives, in which he relates one of his most revealing encounters. I will leave you with a short excerpt of that post:

One night this summer several hours after I went to sleep, I woke up and found myself standing in my backyard. There was a being holding on to my right wrist. This experience is as real as any memory I ‘ve ever had. It spoke to me intuitively in the same manner the “Tooth Fairy” being spoke to me as a young child. The first thing I “heard” was,

“You will only see me peripherally. I do not want you to turn your head or you will be frightened. Do you understand?”

Well, I was already frightened to some extent but I wasn’t terrified. What I did see out of my peripherals was completely unbelievable. This being appeared to look almost like a praying mantis that stood approximately 8 feet tall. Yet at the same time, I was noticing that it would change shape instantly back and forth into a very tall man that was somewhat disproportionate. It’s shape was in a constant state of flux. I was told that I would have the chance to ask several questions and that I would be given the answer in a manner that I could understand.

First Impressions of The Cryptoterrestrials

I received my copy of Mac Tonnies’ “The Cryptoterrestrials” today and I just finished reading it. I will need to time to digest and absorb, but here are my first impressions.

“The Cryptoterrestrials” balances its contradictory qualities of boldness and subtlety, its profusion of ideas with its laser-like focus and lucidity. Mac’s approach is cyclical, taking us from point to point, paradigm to paradigm, but always returning us to his elegant and “tantalizingly testable” cryptoterrestrial hypothesis before setting out once again.

The power of mac’s work rests not in an attempt to colonize the mind with a new vision of The Truth, but in that it resembles nothing so much as a challenging and subtle instrument, or device of investigation. Whether its findings are positive or negative the instrument has the potential to reveal fundamental dynamics in our relationship to these most liminal of phenomena.

The Cryptoterrestrials is on the Shelves

The Cryptoterrestrials has just been released slightly ahead of what I thought the schedule was (thanks to Mike’s comment that let me know).

Anomalist Books doesn’t seem to have a Canadian distributer, but I’ll still be getting my hands on a copy as soon as I can.

You can us the “Look Inside” feature to read the first few pages of the Cryptoterrestrials on its Amazon.com page. I was blown away just by that small sample.

PS I’ve fallen in love with the beautiful cover art by Nadia Sobin, better known as Araqinta.

Release Date for The Cryptoterrestrials

Anomalist Books has set a March release date for The Cryptoterrestrials, Mac Tonnies’ posthumous “meditation on indigenous humanoids and the aliens among us.”

Beautiful and very fitting chapter art is being provided by one of Mac’s friends, Mike Clelland of Hidden Experience.

I’m very happy that Mac’s final project will see the light of day. I will definitely be ordering a copy.

Mac Tonnies in Memoriam

Mac Tonnies defines a period in my life. I was just starting to come into an understanding of my own experience. I was finding all these blogs and websites by crazy, beautiful people and his was first among them. I heard Alan Watts for the first time through his blog, learned about Jacques Valle, and found so many other people who are having a liminal experience right now.

I once wrote “I often feel that Mac is akin to a science fictional monk, wandering the edges of an epistemic breach. He sends us back postcards of the serene, prophetic and catastrophic. He’s also pretty funny.” That still feels right to me.

Mac helped me define myself, and now, to my great regret, for me he’ll always define this time and place in my life.

I could go on and on, but what I need to say is thanks, from me and for all the lives you touched.

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Mac Tonnies was in his own words “a Kansas City, Missouri-based author, blogger, Fortean researcher, and occasional speaker.”

He wrote prolifically at his blog Posthuman Blues, authored two books, Illumined Black and After the Martian Apocalypse, and contributed his essay “The Ancients are Watching” to the anthology Darklore Volume 2. The manuscript for his new book “The Cryptoterrestrials: Indigenous Humanoids and the Aliens Among Us” was scheduled to be finished by November. Hopefully it will still go to print.

Further writings and biographical information can be found on Mac’s website: www.mactonnies.com

Mac Tonnies Has Died

Someone wake me up.

Some part of me is still pretending this is a terrible dream, but all his closest friends and colleagues are confirming:

Paul Kimball: http://redstarfilms.blogspot.com/2009/10/mac-tonnies-passes-away.html

Greg Bishop: http://www.ufomystic.com/2009/10/22/mac-tonnies-gone/

Daily Grail: http://dailygrail.com/news/vale-mac-tonnies

Mac was just one of the nicest, most reasonable, and most wonder filled human beings I ever had the pleasure of meeting. I don’t know what else I could say. Goodbye Mac, we miss you.

Society for Scientific Exploration

I’ve added the Society for Scientific Exploration to my links.

The society is a “professional organization of scientists and scholars who study unusual and unexplained phenomena” as their home page says.

Generally speaking, I’ve come to think that modern scientific methodology is extremely ill suited to examining subtle realities. Steve Martin once said that “talking about music is like dancing about architecture.” I tend to think a scientific paper about UFO phenomena is like a sonnet about getting smashed at the levi and making out with your girlfriend, or a thrash metal song about samadhi. The words are there, but you missed the point (Total disclosure: I’d read the paper and the sonnet while I was listening to the song and probably enjoy them all. I’m just trying to make a point here). The medium misses the point because the point was to become part of the experience. If you try to prove every step in terms of the one that came before it you’re never going to get there.

Having said all that, I’m enjoying the variety of topics covered in their research section, particularly the papers of Jacques Valle. Particularly particularly “Five Arguments Against Extraterrestrial Origin of Unidentified Flying Objects.”

Thanks to Mac Tonnies at Posthuman Blues for posting a link to the Society and cluing me in.

Edit: Another point about scientific examination of “supernatural” phenomena. It’s a basic and unavoidable part of my experience that if you try to use a 3rd chakra state of consciousness to examine 6th chakra phenomena you are going to get completely messed. This is because not only are your measures of “reality” completely inadequate, but almost everything in that state is intelligent to some extent and most of it will delight and diverting, tricking, confusing and confounding you unless you are guided and/or have some serious ability in those realms.

Mac Tonnies on Coast to Coast AM

Mac Tonnies of Posthuman Blues, one of my favorite bloggers and commentators on UFO phenomena was recently featured on Coast to Coast AM. It wasn’t long before the interview went up on Youtube. (Edit: The video is back up now)

For a representative smattering of Tonnies’ recent views on UFOs go here.

For those interested in Mac’s broader writings, his “best of” post of 2007 is a delight. It can be found here.

Listen to the Rhythm

This is a joke, thus making it the perfect example. Don’t pay attention to the topic. Listen to the rhythm of the words. Anyone who uses that rhythm, sincere or not, (probably) doesn’t have your best interest at heart. The message doesn’t matter.

Care of Posthuman Blues