Some Developmental Challenges in the Social Recognition of an Extraterrestrial/Non-Human Presence

 

Some Developmental Challenges in the Social Recognition of an Extraterrestrial/Non-Human Presence

By

Giorgio Piacenza

 

We must understand first that mythic-oriented persons are primarily focused not on facts but on beliefs, structure, hierarchy, and group identity. They might use facts to reinforce those factors weighing on in them more heavily.  They really need to hold on to a clear set of simple beliefs, even if these are inadequate limited for living in harmony in today’s world. And today's multiplicity of cultures, confusion, and competing beliefs makes them uncomfortable. 

 

Once they realize that they have implicitly agreed that manipulating facts is OK in order to accomplish their group's aims, their group cohesion is reinforced, they close ranks, and strengthen their "in group- out group" mentality. And they will create narratives that reinforce this even more. Moreover, if by manipulating facts (even lying) they succeed politically, they may consider that a higher truth is backing them up, in support of their righteousness and ‘sacred goals’.  Also, their populist leaders must stimulate their ethnic grievances, use blame on others, convince their base that they truly represent them, and thus get elected. Truth (which is valued in modern-rational levels) becomes a means to an end and the fact of winning irrationally tells them that they were right all the time. Postmodern criticism about the construction of rational, objective truth is misused or misinterpreted as a fact-dismissal proposal allowing premoderns to justify their rejection of objectivity in favor of belief.

 

Political or economic success shows them that they were right all the time, not facts, reason, and objective truth. Actually, as long as we don't understand how the mythic segment of the world population cognizes or thinks, more rational people are always going to be nonplussed by them and judged them inadequately. We must understand that their stage of development is universally present everywhere as a human fact. And we must also understand that – besides a beautiful sense of the sacred and enchantment that lives in this stage - it is in many ways an improvement over the previous stage of more limited, more violent, warrior bands.

 

However, by the simple fact of living under a modern rational system, mythic stage people may feel challenged to justify their actions and may have to pretend (even to themselves) that they are 'rational' (even more so than primarily modern rational people). Furthermore, to avoid any remorse or cognitive dissonance they'll rationalize, make excuses, become immune to criticisms by adopting as a rule that "the media" and other "liberal institutions" are biased or part of a "cabal of Satanists" or, quite simply, pretend that they ignore contrary information.

 

Not only do they lack a strong internal compulsion or need to rationally validate their beliefs but also lack a worldwide, multi-ethnic, human-species-centered identification. Thus, they’ll privilege their religions and limited group beliefs in a defensive “us vs. them” fashion as long as these beliefs keep their group’s cohesion and are seemingly complete or well structured, providing them with a sense of unity and belonging, clarity, and authority with which to vicariously identify. This is because they are more socially-defined than self-authoring. Harvard psychologist Robert Kegan and several other developmental psychologists focusing on different lines of development have found that the more defining lines by which individuals interpret reality and make important personal decisions can be divided under the same overall “stages.” Each stage is like an interpretive style with the same general patterns almost automatically adhered to by humans all over the world. And some are more inclusive and other more restrictive about what can be coherently admitted about reality.    

 

But we must understand that even more modern, rational (and worldcentric) persons also have some ‘mythic’ in them. All of us retain parts of our own previous stages of personal development in meaning-making, identity and values and may regress to them as our primary or dominant expression especially when there is fear and uncertainty in our lives.  Consequently, one tactic that populist authoritarian mythic leaders use to activate the political response of potential listeners is to instill fear in them while blaming their fate to other ethnic, religious, racial, gender groups…as need be.  And to be genuine populists they can only represent a portion of the people in their countries...those deemed to be the genuine members of their societies… their own ethnic or dominant identity group.  As per the U.S., this tends to be white protestant males who feel that they are being replaced by other groups (Latinos, Blacks, Oriental, Middle Eastern, Native American, even Jews). 

 

So, in relation to the growing confirmation of an extraterrestrial/non-human presence interfacing with us on Earth, what are we to expect from members of the human family naturally in need to distinguish themselves (as expressions of their own groups) from ‘others’? While they tend to be more receptive or open-minded to otherworldly phenomena their tendency to divide themselves into “us vs. them” is of concern.  According to particulars of their belief, their leaders, and inner group dynamics these social groups may consider the ET/NH presence in simplistic, dichotomous ways either as “friends” or as “foes.” Besides confronting modern perspectives, they may also confront other mythic-stage human groups with dissimilar particular beliefs. And, in case they have achieved great political influence, their exopolitical decision-making may be inadequate.  So, who will represent the best interests of humanity?

Moreover (even if cursorily open to non-material and otherworldly influences), their logic still remains excessively dichotomous and this may render them unable to conceptually relate to ET/NH.  Why? because ET/NH beings capable of manipulating spacetime or escaping from its classical limitations, may have also learned to think under more inclusive logical terms, for instance by including the trans ontological “hidden third” logical term mentioned by physicist and transdisciplinary philosopher Basarab Nicolescu.  In other words, while not totally eliminating the either/or classical logic of the “excluded middle” applicable in certain circumstances, they may be able to incorporate it under a more fundamental, underlying connection behind space and time distinctions.  Thus, to approach an intelligent, conceptually conversant relationship with ET/NH we may need to develop a post-dichotomous or integrative way of thinking. Otherwise, we may understand each other at the level of intention, emotions, feelings and related (subtle and physical) energy patterns.  

 

Roughly speaking, I’d say that about 40%-50% of the world population worldwide tends to be strongly 'mythic' and that under the right circumstances may be spurred out of their political indifference or complacency to actively support a populist leader and movement even if the leader and movement is anti-democratic.  However, modern democracy was begun by a modern rational minority of thinkers comprising about 10% of the population and it continually has continually included more segments of society's right to vote-participate in decision-making in terms of gender, race, ethnicity.  However, no discrimination as per developmental level of meaning-making has been possible or even considered.  It would be opposed by premoderns vying for exclusivist power and would strike modern and postmodern egalitarians as undue discrimination. Thus, even those that (due to their arrested pre-modern adult development) would not be able to satisfactorily participate in the construction of a rational, egalitarian, multilateral, continuously improving, modern democracy do, nonetheless, participate and their votes add up.

 

Therefore, the improvement of humanity’s current democratic project (or projects) has been a haphazard experience of advances and setbacks. But, given the way by which we are collectively destroying the life-world and given the approaching need to recognize the existence of a multifaceted, technologically advanced (and interacting) extraterrestrial/non-human presence on Earth we must come together to stimulate the development of meaning-making capacities towards those that allow us to be more inclusive.   

 

The good news is that if about 10% of the population achieves their individual development beyond the rational-modern stages they likely will modify the political, economic, legal, and educational systems so that human psychological development itself will be much more valued and supported and - by doing so - the majority of the adult population may at least reach the modern-rational, world-centric stage of meaning-making. This also means that a minority of forward-looking members of society can already prepare ideological other conditions in support of the development of individuals capable of reaching that 10%. They will probably have to be consciousness-based, rationally integrative, capable of continuous self-correction, and appreciative of the core truths discovered by humanity under previous stages of development. They would have to be post worldcentric individuals preparing the way for a coherent (and eventually trans-ontological) galactic civilization.