The Conscious Cosmos: Skinwalker Ranch and the Skeptics

I am inserting a large portion of text from Frank Salisbury’s book the “Utah UFO Display.” It will be presented later on after a more detailed explanation. I think it points to the fact that what we currently see going on with the UAP/UFO phenomenon is not straight forward but purposefully has a highly nuanced narrative. It is suggested in my view by the recent theories and proofs in physics and cognitive science. They are so recent that they are not naturally considered in any discussions about the phenomenon or for that matter material science in general. Three things are important in this idea. First is the recent Nobel Prize in Physics given to three men who proved that the universe is not locally real. Second and equally important is the work of Dr. Donald Hoffman and his students from the University of California that shows that it is quite likely that space-time and the material universe arise out of consciousness. Third and not least, are many philosophers that have put forth very thoughtful explanations of panpsychism.

I have long had an interest in a panpsychist, panentheistic view of reality. The works of Aldous Huxley such as the “Doors of Perception,” Abraham Maslow’s “Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences,” and Fritjof Capra’s “The Tao of Physics” have influenced my thinking along with what would be best characterized as mystical experiences. It is only recently that what was once considered woo-woo has become more respected by some scientists. So while that is my bias up until recently I was skeptical of the UFO phenomenon. The thing that changed that for me was the first three seasons of the History Channel’s docuseries “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.” Now as the fourth season emerges, the skeptics are growing stronger. I think that may in part be because they do not seem to have a scientific voice that influences their editing.

I am confident in the veracity of the team and the owner of the Ranch Brandon Fugal. I am somewhat skeptical of how the History Channel has presented them so far. I believe that they are on the frontier of scientific investigation. However, it is important to emphasize that they are dealing with something that can be material and can be mental or conscious based. That fact should be emphasized in the docuseries. If then the critics continue to be skeptical so be it. I believe they will shortly be shown wrong as current science unfolds in the areas mentioned above. However, to emphasize the science as strictly physicalist is a mistake. Let me repeat, given the new advancement mentioned in the first paragraph, I would like to share a portion of Salisbury’s book that demonstrates a world-wide ubiquitous examination of the phenomenon. Not just on Skinwalker Ranch, but across the globe and not just recently but for the last seventy years. The inserted quote speaks for itself.

“In 1977, at the First International UFO Congress in Chicago, J. Allan Hynek presented his thoughts in a speech “What I really believe about UFOs.” (See Hynek, 1980.) “I do believe,” he said, “that the UFO phenomenon as a whole is real, but I do not mean necessarily that it’s just one thing. We must ask whether the diversity of observed UFOs… all spring from the same basic source, as do weather phenomena, which all originate in the atmosphere” or whether they differ “as a rain shower differs from a meteor, which in turn differs from a cosmic-ray shower.” We must not ask, Hynek said, what hypothesis can explain the most facts, but we must ask, which hypothesis can explain the most puzzling facts. “There is sufficient evidence to defend both the ETI and the EDI hypothesis,” Hynek continued. As evidence for the ETI (extraterrestrial intelligence) hypothesis he mentioned, as examples, the radar cases as good evidence of something solid, and the physical-trace cases. Then he turned to defending the EDI (extradimensional intelligence) hypothesis. Besides the aspect of materialization and dematerialization, he cited the “poltergeist” phenomena experienced by some people after a close encounter; the photographs of UFOs, sometimes on only one frame, not seen by the witnesses; the ability of some UFOs to change form right before the witnesses’ eyes; the puzzling question of telepathic communication; the fact that in close encounters of the third kind, the creatures seem to be at home in earth’s gravity and atmosphere; the sudden stillness in the presence of the craft; levitation of cars or persons; the fact that some witnesses develop psychic abilities after an encounter.

“Do we have two aspects of one phenomenon or two different sets of phenomena?” Hynek asked. Finally he introduced a third hypothesis. I hold it entirely possible that a technology exists that encompasses both the physical and the psychic, the material and the mental. There are stars that are millions of years older than the sun. There may be a civilization that is millions of years more advanced than man’s. We have gone from Kitty Hawk to the moon in some seventy years, but it’s possible that a million-year-old civilization may know something that we don’t…. I hypothesize an “M&M” technology encompassing the mental and material realms. The psychic realms, so mysterious to us today, may be an ordinary part of an advanced technology.”

Salisbury, Frank B.. The Utah UFO Display: A Scientist Brings Reason and Logic to over 400 Sightings in Utah's Uintah Basin . Cedar Fort, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

The Conscious Cosmos: Conquering the Cosmos

John 16:33  “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”

According to the author of the gospel of John, Jesus said what is written above. This is a bold claim but I believe it is accurate with regard to our relationship to material and corporeal reality. According to Jesus teaching and claims, how did he overcome the world? This is a question that I hope to answer and also, what did he overcome or conquer? Let’s look at some of the Greek words that make up this claim.

World is translated from the Greek word kosmos. The Greek word kosmos describes and defines the known universe and all of material and corporeal reality. Suffering, tribulation, trouble is from the Greek word thilipsis. It means all of the above meanings. Finally the Greek word nikaho means conquered or overcome. So, I believe that Jesus is actually saying that he has conquered material reality and all of the trouble it presents.

How then did he conquer it? He conquered it with knowledge and faith. In other words, he had faith in his intuitive knowledge. His intuitive knowledge told him that he was the eternal offspring of the creator. He took that intuitive knowledge and applied trust to it. It was a fact in his mind that he relied on. He saw creative consciousness as the parent. While he called it father it was both feminine and masculine. If one believes in as above so below and as below so above then it is only reasonable that the divine parent is both genders. We see in the material world that it is the combining of the two genders that produce offspring. Therefore, the divine parent is the perfect description of creative consciousness that many call God. Thus, Jesus intuitively realized his divinity and went on to explain that it is true of ALL humanity!

That is the good news and it is truly good news. Being an eternal expression of creative divinity is good news we can use. He goes on to explain that by the very nature of the material world, the kosmos, the universe there is the likelihood of trouble, suffering, tribulation etc. However, there is likewise the opportunity for pleasure, peace and love. There is the possibility of experiencing the knowledge of the parent and thereby expanding that knowledge.

Eternity is now. It is always now. It has no future, and it has no past. Therefore, the knowledge that one is eternal and eternally part of the creator and creation, is what overcomes or conquers the kosmos, the material universe. This is the perspective that embraces faith in the eternal conscious creator. It is also the source of theodicy.

Both spiritual and material wickedness is a thought form linked to the material universe. While it has real effects, it does not have eternal effects. Therefore, the nature of creative consciousness which is love and peace conquers the material universe always. Putting trust in that knowledge lets each of us individual conscious agents, offspring of the parent conquer as well. Be of good cheer and have peace!

  

The Conscious Cosmos: Skinwalker Ranch an Alternative Perspective

I think it is important to begin this article with a fact about the most recent Nobel Prize in Physics. It was awarded to Alain Aspect, John Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger. These three essentially proved that the universe is not locally real. This means that matter is dependent on the observer and implies that consciousness is foundational to reality. Why do I bring this into the discussion about an overview of Skinwalker ranch? Well, it is to demonstrate that current physics may not be the answer to discovering what is going on at this location in the Uintah Basin of northeastern Utah.

According to Frank Salisbury and Joseph Junior Hicks, high strangeness has been ubiquitous in the Uintah Basin for at least eighty years. Then, there is the book “Skinwalkers at the Pentagon” and most recently the docuseries on the History Channel, “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.” I mention these three specifics because they are all interrelated and they paint a unified picture of the fact that consciousness is at work in this area in an anomalous and paranormal way. Of  course it is not just the above three that have led me to this conclusion but they provide the framework that needs to be fleshed out.

Since the 1960’s and going back hundreds if not thousands of years there are reports of UAP’s, Poltergeists, Orbs, Cryptids, and all-around strange happenings with the area. That would be very difficult to believe if reality is indeed material. However, if the universe is not locally real, if it needs an observer to collapse the wave function into a particle of matter, then all of those supposed anomalies and paranormal experiences would be possible. It can even account for how two individuals see the same event or object differently. It is in a non-locally real universe that all of the anomalies can easily exist. This brings us to the Uintah Basin and Skinwalker Ranch.

Current physicalist, materialist science asserts that the UAP phenomenon has to be nuts and bolts and the product of a further advanced civilization capable of unknown physics. But, if one looks at the universe in terms of the latest advancements in quantum mechanics there emerges a plausible way that what we call and consider the paranormal could in fact be normal, or at least feasible, just not normal with our current understanding. And, if it is not locally real it could even seem like it was spiritual and not natural or material.

This brings me to the book “Skinwalkers at the Pentagon.” It is a book that details the AAWSAP program and the experiences that happened on Skinwalker Ranch and how they affected the lives of some of the participants even away from the ranch. As it turns out, much of the anomalous phenomena was of a nature that could be considered spiritual, or consciousness generated. AAWSAP was a program financed by the Department of Defense that financed a scientific investigation of UAP’s and other high strangeness associated with the ranch. The contractor that received the contract for AAWSAP was Robert Bigelow and his BAASS organization. BAASS stands for the Bigelow Advanced Aviation and Space Studies.

AAWSAP was headed up by James Lacatski of the DoD and also involved an intelligence analyst, Jay Stratton (called Jonathan Axelrod in the book Skinwalkers at the Pentagon.) There has been a lot of scorn thrown at the program, especially by Steven Greenstreet of the New York Post. He has done a video series that ridicules the program and throws shade on all those associated with it.

BAASS had among many employees Colm Kelleher who headed the program and others like Hal Puthoff who were involved with remote viewing. There are photos that show Kelleher and Puthoff along with Jacques Vallee’ and Robert Bigelow from an earlier association. These are all individuals that were convinced by experience of the strangeness of the phenomenon. This fact adds to the ridicule that the venture gets from those firmly ensconced in a materialist physicalist dogmatic approach to science.

During this time, Robert Bigelow owned Skinwalker Ranch. The AAWSAP program lasted through 2012 when it ended. Four years later Bigelow sold the ranch to Brandon Fugal, a wealthy real estate businessman from Salt Lake City Utah. This ultimately led to the scientific investigation of the ranch that has culminated in the docuseries on the History Channel, The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch. This four-season series continues to document and study all of the anomalous phenomena on Skinwalker Ranch.

Moving back to the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2022, I find a question for perhaps a different or alternative perspective of Skinwalker Ranch. What if all of the materialist, physicalist scientists are wrong about the phenomena? What if consciousness is fundamental and the material universe with space and time and matter arises out of consciousness? That would make James Lacatski, Colm Kelleher, and Hal Puthoff et. al. not ridiculous but scientific pioneers. That would mean that all of the strange experiences reported in the book “Skinwalkers at the Pentagon” were actually true.

So now, the Brandon Fugal team, and the History Channel docuseries, are drawing in some circles, the same ridicule, skepticism, and accusations that are connected with the former program and the entire phenomenon in the Uintah Basin. In this perspective it is important that the current team and their effort continue as designed and let the critics be damned. It is possible that the scientific investigation will lead a path closer to understanding the strange universe we live in.