'MJ12' is the natural outcome of a particular interaction between cosmic intelligence and human intelligence. To the degree that cosmic intelligence has a prime focus, to that same degree its interaction with human intelligence is also likely to be focussed, 'MJ12' being a popular designation for that focus at this particular juncture of history.

Cosmic intelligence can and has manifested itself to us in myriad ways. All human cultures, including modern culture to a lesser degree, have been based on particular assumptions about the nature of cosmic intelligence and our relation with it. The UFO phenomenon, although present throughout history, has played a special role in the interaction between the cosmic mind and the modern mind.

The modern mind entertains certain expectations and myths about the cosmos, and the UFO phenomenon is shaped to partly adhere to those expectations at least to the degree necessary to engage the attention of a modern secular society. The phenomenon evidently adheres rather more to science fiction than it does to science per se. Thus it manifests itself as something of a caricature of our imaginations about the evolutions of technology and biology. We are fascinated to see manifestations of our imaginations, but when we attempt to make actual extrapolations from us to it, or from here to there, we run into logical barriers and paradoxes that baffle our linear extrapolations, and which leave scientists feeling very uneasy.

The degree of bafflement suggest the width and depth of the 'Rubicon' which must be crossed in the paradigm shift that we will have to endure in the process of realigning ourselves and our 'reality' with the cosmic reality.

Neither modern reality nor any of the traditional realities can begin to cope with cosmic reality, nor can any straightforward combination of them suffice. Nothing short of a breathtaking new vision of ourselves and the world will suffice. We will simply have to re-identify ourselves and the world and in that process, give up most of our cherished modern and traditional identities.

In order to grasp this 'brave new world' we will have to be persuaded to let go of the old one. Can we be so persuaded by anything less persuasive than an apocalypse? Could we not instead 'evolve' into our new belief system through a process of graduated exposure to the larger reality? Well, the smart money seems to be on the skeptical side with respect to our gradual graduation. It allegedly took and asteroid to knock us from a reptilian equilibrium to a mammalian one. I do not believe in either asteroids or dinosaurs per se, but I do believe in apocalyptic revelation. All of our traditions do speak to such episodes past and future.

The hope for the continuity of our 'physical survival' lies in the possibility that the apocalypse can be played out primarily in our public imagination and communication without having to spill over into such things as 'earth changes,' 'Armageddon' or 'raptures.'

On the scale of these possibilities, 'MJ12,' even by the most exaggerated accounts of its power, appears puny indeed. Even the cosmic intelligence may not have the power to ensure an entirely benign outcome to the transformation facing human intelligence and identity.

The gauntlet is being laid down before us. It is the path to our destiny. As in every other human endeavor, the most basic of human strengths, faith, hope and charity, will decide the day.

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rev. 6/5/97