“WHAT YOU THINK SHOULD MAKE SENSE”

One of the chief characteristics of the conventional population is that by and large, its members have rational concepts about EVERYTHING. Whether their concepts are truly right is not important and is not guaranteed just because their lines of thinking maybe unanimous and can be illustrated from the beginning point to the conclusion point. What is important to them is that the general run and manner of the thinking is acceptable or understandable (if not agreeable) among all.

When it comes to individual actions, people in the mainstream of our culture use feedback from their peers to gauge the value of their individual utterances and actions. If a person does or says something “wrong,” he or she quickly notices the disapproving responses from the bulk of the herd and modifies his or her behaviors accordingly to get back in favor. And if the person does not correct his or her “mistake” and conforms, that person can expect to pay a penalty as deemed appropriate by an on-looking society. Such penalties may be formal (perhaps imprisonment) or informal (perhaps a frown), depending upon the issue.

We contactees, on the other hand, are not so lucky. We stand on the edge of the main culture espousing our very differing views while determinedly ignoring the urges to conform from the crowd of family, friends, and strangers around us. Worse, we rarely speak in unison about what we are trying to say, and so we gain no validity as a genuine “movement” (such as the peace movement of the sixties). Usually, we operate alone and frequently mutely for long periods. This turning inward intensifies the potential for moving too far astray with our interior dialogues which may then start to reflect themselves outward via our social interactions.

To protect ourselves, we must recognize that our first responsibilities are to our individual selves. We must stay mentally healthy. If you wish, you may consider yourself a disciple for this or that cause and be willing to devote your life to it. But nothing is served if you go astray and cannot continue to perform in the general society. Instead, you become a burden to it, or worse, a casualty and a detriment to your cause. No one wins in that situation.

See also  1999: Mental Health & the UFO Contactee

The rule of “what you think should make sense,” seems silly and simplistic because it is a stating of the obvious. During the normal give-and-take of our daily lives, we operate very closely along such lines without thinking about it. We automatically follow the rules that have been socialized into us. But when an adventuresome soul goes outside of the agreed-upon boundaries of social and cultural norms, handy guide posts of rules and order are missing. So it follows, if “What you think should make sense” is such an automatic and easy-to-use guide for staying healthy in the normal world, it need not be–and should not be–suspended when we venture into less tangible and highly personable realms of UFOs, ESP, higher states of consciousness, etc.

There are two easy ways to apply this rule to whatever belief system you find yourself exploring:

  1. Monitor your own thoughts and actions closely.
  2. Find a support person or group to supply feedback.

The easiest but least effective method is to question yourself closely to see that you fully connect and understand the various aspects of what you find filling your mind. However, it is nearly impossible to review concepts and theories point by point from start to finish solely in the mind without getting side-tracked. Most minds are not that precise and orderly. Try a more tangible approach of diagramming on paper your major belief points and then writing them out in brief detail in paragraph blocks that connect into a meaningful flowchart. Or simply write out word for word the whole story of what you believe. It need not be concise, but the result should be coherent at the least.

See also  1999: Mental Health & the UFO Contactee

This self-check method is the least effective one for a good reason. This method inherently has three major problems: (A) You are your own best/worst friend/enemy and, therefore can agree/disagree with yourself entirely too easily. (Almost always the first choice is chosen in all three instances!).

(B) You may slip beyond the reach of self-help before you are aware that your critical thinking skills have not been employed rigidly enough. (C) This last problem is so major that it can doom the whole self-help concept by itself.

The best method of safeguarding your emotional health would be to seek a trustworthy person or group of persons of like-mind with whom you can share the full extent of your thoughts and experiences. Such a person or group should do more than just listen. He, she, or they should also play the devil’s advocate by asking penetrating questions which will force you to offer reasonable responses about what you think you know, and thus, illuminate problem areas.

The suggestion that you connect with a group is not advocating that you submit to a vicious encounter-type group or the reverse, look for people who will totally support your views without question. Instead, look for support, compassion, and a willingness in others to try to understand your situation even it that entails taking you to task for things you say. The hallmark of an effective support group is that they are primarily in existence to GIVE of themselves as a group to help individuals and to GIVE of themselves as individuals to the group when they in turn need help.

Whenever individuals, a group or an organization start wanting something, you should be on your guard. There are two typical signs of such people.

See also  1999: Mental Health & the UFO Contactee

They will tend to agree completely with whatever views you have, no matter how outrageous. And second, once you see them as friends and allies, they may start the con by suggesting or hinting that some great, dazzling prize can be yours if you join with them in body, soul, and checkbook. (A young friend of mine got hooked up with a “contactee” group in south Texas which promised him a UFO “pilot’s license.” Honest! The price was $1000. Only in his case they let him sign over the title to his old pickup. They got the truck and he got…. )

There are no guarantees that a support group, any support group, is going to be helpful at any given time. It is unlikely that a group of lay persons can pull a person “out of the woods” if that person has gotten that far along.

But a decent group can still help immensely by knowing the danger signs and being able to communicate to a troubled person that he or she should seek professional help.

Make no mistake about it. This essay does not intend to suggest the idea that professional help for mental and emotional problems should be avoided by UFO contactees. Quite the contrary, the essence here is that by working with themselves or by working together, contactees can take more control of their mental hygiene by being acutely aware of how their thinking can drift off into dangerous territories. Contactees are unique persons, strong in many ways, fragile in others. We are a new, positive resource for the planet. We owe it to ourselves, to each other, and to all others to keep ourselves coherent, meaningful, and a positive force of new awareness in this awakening corner of the Universe!

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