1 hour ago
(This post was last modified: 1 hour ago by Yazata.)
(Aug 21, 2026 11:05 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: "In 1972, American astronomer J. Allen Hynek proposed a three-part “Close Encounters” framework for classifying UFO experiences that has shaped the field since the late 1940s.
A “Close Encounter of the First Kind” (CE-1) is a visual sighting from less than 150 metres away. A CE-2 involves physiological effects on the surrounding environment. A CE-3 involves observing non-human entities operating the UFO.
Five years after Hynek’s book appeared, Steven Spielberg’s 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind established CE-3 in popular culture.
I didn't know it originated with Hynek. Learned something new...hurts my brain, oww!
Quote:CE-5 is not just a category of experience, though. During the past three decades, it has developed into a ritual protocol practised by a global community...
...Practioners of CE-5 ritual protocol also report telepathic communication, “photon dialogue” through flashing lights and bodily sensations from UAP that they interpret as interspecies communication.
Shamanism with a technological twist
Is CE-5 a new religious movement?
Yes, the similarities are obvious. People have been seeing things in the sky since ancient times and probably long before into prehistory. And for most of that time, the heavenly visions have been given religious interpretations.
So what would be more natural in our secular "post-religious" age for the heavenly visions to be reinterpreted in "scientific" forms, as spaceships. It would still be heavenly visitors beinging transcendant knowledge, social and personal transformation etc. Just as they were when it was angels rather than aliens.
Quote:Although practitioners reject the label “religion,” their activities constitute a protocol enabling extraordinary experiences with superior, sky-dwelling entities. The fact that their efforts to connect with extraterrestrials draw upon telepathy and altered states of consciousness suggests a ritual form commonly associated with shamanism, yet with advanced technological mediation.
Yes.