When people are first introduced to the enigmatic topic known as the UFO Phenomenon, the working assumption is that this is a matter of determining whether or not aliens, i.e. extraterrestrials from some likely extrasolar source, have traversed the immense distances of outer space, to arrive at our blue pearl planet either to, A.) from a more positive view, study us, as in a scientific expedition, or, B.) from a less positive view, scope out our capabilities prior to some kind of invasion.

Perhaps it should not be surprising that this is where the conversation begins for people; including those who’ve flocked to this topic since 2017, when the revelations of a now famous New York Times article first entered the public sphere, suggesting to many that, despite decades of scoff and ridicule and X-Files jokes, perhaps there really was a there there.

Speaking of decades of scoff and ridicule, the decades leading up to the present one filled people’s minds with the very scenarios I just mentioned: that either these visitors from beyond are here as part of a scientific expedition, as in Star Trek, or as a prelude to a full-on invasion of our planet, as in War of the Worlds or Independence Day. These are familiar tropes in science fiction, and so it should not surprise us that this has worked its way into our cultural zeitgeist.

But those initial, rather tame and predictable questions about what the so-called UFO Phenomenon represents are quickly supplanted by much more profound, far-reaching, and, for some, disturbing questions, once newcomers really begin to start poking around and considering the plethora of reports made by credible witnesses, going back decades and decades - and perhaps even millenia - discussing in-person encounters with the intelligences supposedly responsible for the piloting of these sophisticated aerial vehicles known as UFOs or UAP.

Because, as I just mentioned, these encounters trace back deep into human history, and likely even pre-history, one could argue that these more recent “sci-fi” encounters are really in the same overarching category as what we might deem “religious” encounters from yester millenia, the questions around what this all means suddenly become much more broadly sweeping and all-encompassing.

Without doubt, our religious traditions have shaped the development of our civilization. And if the encounters that inspired those very traditions didn’t actually involve gods, or angels or demons, after all - at least, not as they are typically portrayed, interpreted and understood in religious tradition - then perhaps this Phenomenon, and the intelligences that comprise it - has been much more intimately involved with our evolution than we first realized. And if that’s the case, then we’re suddenly a long way from merely Star Trek or Independence Day territory.

Eventually, if one traces this back far enough, especially in light of more recent revelations suggesting these overarching intelligences can tweak our genetics and even partake in hybridization programs that lead to the emergence of entirely new species, one inevitably lands at a very striking query: could our very existence on this planet be a result of some earlier version of these same endeavors? And if that’s the case, how do popularly held beliefs in notions such as reincarnation play into this? Is that a “natural” process, or is something more akin to what we might call “technology” involved?

These truly are not just mind-bending but also civilization-shaking matters to consider. And one wonders, if we truly are nearing some kind of so-called “disclosure” around the existence of this Phenomenon, then just how many of these startling revelations might be part of that mix? And how exactly will our civilization handle such acknowledgements? Tricky, nuanced matters to parse out, to be sure. But that’s precisely what we’ll endeavor to do in this, the 81st episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.