by Dustin Pike

“The phenomenon of UFOs does exist, and it must be treated seriously.”
–Mikhail Gorbachev

There is an old parable devised by Plato in his Republic wherein the pre-enlightened man and woman are taught the ways of the world only through the play of shadows projected onto the walls of a cave. After being kept there for awhile, one can assume that the shadows would take on a reality of their own. Perhaps they would even name the shadows, and attribute certain qualities to them. Meanwhile, patiently waiting outside the confines of the cave are the mighty and terrible forces of nature, silently lulling man ever closer toward the source of the light. This age old tale is of course more of a psycho-philosophical metaphor rather than an actual scenario, and is referred to as the ‘Allegory of the Cave’. One can imagine reaching the outer limits of the cave and being almost overcome by wonder and even fear. The cosmos unfolds itself before the eyes of the beholder, and the illusion of the cavern walls becomes a distant memory. As the sun descends and the night closes in, the moon, stars, and fellow planets cast their respective influence upon the newly enlightened man, and he is left with more questions than answers.

The placement and revolution of the planets and neighboring stars has long occupied the heart of humankind in its quest for answers. The previous cave experience enforced the light of mind to at least speculate whether this new reality was a further projection of some kind. If so, how does one separate their reality from their experience? Could there be other cave-dwellers out there looking back? The point Plato was attempting to make was simply that our external world can be deceiving. Monuments of understanding may indeed be erected, but they are doomed to crumble and be replaced by something new. Such is the curse of time.

The aim of this article is the possible influence of advanced intelligence upon humankind since our very beginnings, and thusly our art. As surprising as this may seem to some, there is actually a shocking amount of evidence to suggest such an claim. However, I am not an expert on this specific subject, and have filtered out unreliable material to the best of my ability.

First I must define what I mean when I say the ‘influence of advanced intelligence’, because there are numerous assumptions that might come to mind such as aliens, extraterrestrials, gods, angels, etc. What I am referring to could readily be any of the examples aforementioned, and also any I have left out due to lack of correspondence. The main point to gather here is that while there might be thousands of acceptable definitions for such an idea, hopefully we can agree that the messenger is quite insignificant when compared to the message.

From what our historians might tell us, our pre-history is a guarded mystery so to speculate would be ignorant non-sense. The all but forgotten ‘Lemuria’ and ‘Atlantis’ have long since been swallowed by the oceans of time, making analysis impossible. Instead, I will start with the ancient Sumerian culture originating, seemingly, out of nowhere around 3500 B.C.E. Although at this time there were many scattered groups struggling against the Neolithic hunter-gather mind-set, the Sumerian civilization is today considered to be the most influential of all. In the blink of an eye, mankind is delivered from the darkness of the cave, and given writing, arts, science, philosophy, mathematics, astrology, agriculture and even government from beings known as the Annunaki. The so-called Annunaki were described as ‘gods descending from the sky’, and there has been evidence to suggest that the earth-dwelling population of Sumer considered themselves as their creations for the purposes of gold mining. Further research concluded that there were inexplicable descriptions of our solar system from the viewpoint of the Annunaki as they  were traveling to our earth from elsewhere.

The Mahabharata and the Ramayana are two ancient Indian epic poems dating back to around the 8th or 9th century B.C.E., and when translated, read almost like science-fiction novels. It should be noted that during their creation, they were not considered myth but as actual ‘itihasa’, history. There are many instances where the characters of the poem are seem jetting about the skies with great speed in so-called ‘Vimanas’, which are often translated as flying machines, flying chariots, and the most peculiar of all, space-craft. Aerial battles between these flying machines take place often with accompaniment of smoke and flames, with instances of disappearing from one point in the sky and appearing in another. One should easily note the eerie resemblance these descriptions share with modern day U.F.O. phenomena.

Another curious instance of communication between those who are above and those who are below, comes from the all-too-famous Nazca Lines of Peru. Atop the high plateaus between the towns of Nazca and Palpa, lay nearly 190 miles of meticulously designed linear art ranging from simple geometric shapes to hummingbirds. Apparently these were constructed somewhere between 400 and 650 A.D., and their mystery lies not in the “how?”, but in the “why?” Most, if not all, of the designs cannot be seen by the passerby, and instead seem to be aimed at attracting recognition from those in the sky. Some even appear to the modern mind as giant landing strips for aircraft, but this is speculation at best. Although there are no absolute theories as to why they might have been formed, creating figures that extend past 800 feet like these in the desert sand surely doesn’t appear like the result of sheer boredom.

Throughout history there is evidence that has suggested ‘visits from the outer limits’ but until within the last 100 years or so, humankind, for the most part, has been convinced otherwise. With the modern advancement of the world-wide web, phones with cameras, and relatively cheap high-definition video cameras, people are finally beginning to simply look up and see for themselves. Our leaders of the world, for whatever reason, have not only denied the possibility of such phenomena, but have been consistently caught in the act of covering up any of the useful evidence. The cosmic push into the Aqaurian age is not without its opposition.

The Roswell, New Mexico incident of 1947 seems to still stand as one of the most blatant cases of government cover-up to date, as the official report from the Army initially stated that there was indeed a flying saucer crash complete with inhabitants, and then of course it was retracted and sold to the public as a weather balloon. Also, there is the case of the enigmatic ‘Foo Fighters’ in the World War II era which were described by one pilot as “two fog lights flying at high rates of speed that could change direction rapidly”, and by another pilot as a “metallic, disc-shaped object.” More recently in 1997, there was the mass-sighting incident of the Pheonix Lights, and in 2008 there was The Stephensville Lights. But in each case, whether it be weather balloons, fireworks, pilot vertigo, or airplane flares there always seemed to be a logical explanation to quiet the inner turbulence of the masses. Luckily, there have been a great many artists who found themselves disenchanted by the illusions cast by the ‘powers that be.’ The so-called Earthworks of Robert Smithson, Walter De Maria, and Michael Heizer, for example, all seem to be speaking upwards and outwards rather than with the earth-bound viewer.

The work of Paul Laffoley also elaborates on the subject of greater intelligence outside our immediate horizon by creating interactive, physically engaging psychotronic devices intended to engage the viewer by means of symbol. Challenged by years of lucid dreams involving ‘aliens’, and the ability to channel information from ‘outside intelligence’, his work often engages the viewer to become a part of the artwork. He has even stated that at one point “In preparation for a major oral surgery, I was subjected to a routine cat-scan of my head. As a result, a miniature metallic-like “implant” was discovered in my brain near the pineal gland. Laffoley considers himself a ‘utopian’, and came to believe he was a sort of creative messenger for the up-and-coming era of enlightenment, in which humankind finally realizes their individual potential and role in the universe.

Aside from the areas of fine art, the movie theatre is becoming increasingly flooded with the notion of visitors coming and having a visit, or adversely, our civilization coming across others while exploring neighboring planets. Films like Avatar, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., The Fourth Kind, and others have all been slowly but surely affirming the possibility of real life circumstances that have seemed impossible to past generations.

Whatever stance that one takes on this subject, there is obviously something going on out there that is quite unexplainable. Our governments and media outlets will shed only as much light on the matter as they see fit, but all too often it is not enough to even scratch the surface. My hope for writing this article was not to convince anyone to accept my views wholly, but to instead fuel the desire for those of you out there who might want to investigate these things for yourselves. I might totally be mistaken in thinking we’ve never been alone, but then again what if I’m not?