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Thread: UFOs, space aliens & qigong

  1. #1
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    UFOs, space aliens & qigong

    I couldn't quite fit this into any other thread. Besides, it's amusing as a stand-alone thread, yes?

    Is anyone out there? The days when UFO fever gripped China
    Stories about aliens and flying saucers once grabbed the public imagination in China but hardly generate interest now

    PUBLISHED : Friday, 22 December, 2017, 8:51pm
    UPDATED : Tuesday, 26 December, 2017, 4:14pm

    Liu Zhen
    zhen.liu@scmp.com



    Chinese factory worker Meng Yang has been obsessed with UFOs since he was a child.

    Growing up in the 1980s, the 49-year-old from Mengyin county, Shandong province, remembers doing everything he could to get his hands on information about unidentified flying objects and aliens.

    “I read all kinds of articles, and I really wanted an encounter with a UFO,” Meng said.

    Then in 1993, when he was 25, he “felt” the aliens contact him “spiritually”.

    Meng’s experience was one of a flood of sightings and encounters across the country when China was in the grip of all things alien. The interest exploded in the late 1970s and peaked about two decades later. Today though, UFO news barely rates a mention – as was the case earlier this month when the Pentagon confirmed it had a multimillion-dollar programme for UFO research.

    But while flying saucers might no longer spark the public’s imagination, some believers say the interest will never completely die.

    The national conversation about UFOs took off in China after 1978, with the revival of science and technology, an area that had been neglected during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.

    The Communist Party’s official newspaper People’s Daily got the ball rolling in November that year by publishing an article about UFOs by Shen Hengyan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

    Shen’s article gave an overview of UFO research in the West during the 1950s and 1960s.

    At the same time restrictions on the media loosened in China, and new science journals and periodicals launched across the country.

    Some of those publications are still in print today, including Science Fiction World – established in Sichuan in 1979, and Aomi Pictorial – established in Yunnan in 1980.

    But Qi Lian, editor-in-chief of The Journal of UFO Research, said her publication was the first of its kind in the country and really put the topic on the map.

    “Back then the general public did not have access to scientific knowledge, and there were many myths surrounding subjects such as physics,” Qi said.


    The Journal of UFO Research really put the topic on the map in China. Photo: Handout

    By the early 1990s, the Lanzhou-based magazine had a circulation of more than 300,000 per issue, with the readership ranging from top scientists and civil servants to senior citizens and schoolchildren.

    By this time, there were dozens of cases each year of sightings and encounters – from claims of kidnappings to rape, all blamed on extraterrestrials.

    Qi said most of the stories ended up having perfectly simple explanations, mostly because the people involved did not fully understand natural phenomena and science.

    The enthusiasm for all things extraterrestrial was shared by Spanish translator and former diplomat Sun Shili.

    Sun had long been interested in aliens and translated Sacerdotes o cosmonautas? ( Priests or Cosmonauts?) into Chinese. The book was written by his friend Andreas Faber-Kaiser in 1971, and after the translation came out, Sun was soon regarded as an expert on the subject.

    “That book is a summary of more than 300 books in the world about UFOs, and it was one of the first few on the topic available to intellectuals in China,” Sun said. “The very act of translating it probably made me one of the most knowledgeable UFO experts in China.”

    Sun went on to co-found China’s first UFO association in 1979, and served as an adviser, before becoming chairman a few years later.

    By 1988, the China UFO Association had grown to include 50,000 members, and became affiliated to the China Qigong Science Research Association.


    Qigong practitioners absorb energy from the universe with pots on their heads in Beijing in 1993. Photo: Handout

    Practitioners of qigong, the Chinese holistic system of gentle exercise, meditation and breathing exercises, began claiming to possess superhuman energy gained from contact with extraterrestrials.

    Meng, a qigong devotee, was one of them, and says he still used the “extraterrestrial energy from aliens in his qigong practice”.

    But the partnership between the qigong and UFO associations ended nine years later due to a controversy over whether qigong was a pseudoscience.

    Meanwhile, scores of provinces and cities on the mainland formed their own UFO organisations registered with local science and technology administrations.

    Zhang Jingping, an advertising company owner and a keen UFO hobbyist, dates his obsession with aliens back to the 1990s when he was in his early 20s.

    Zhang has travelled the country, interviewing people about their claims of extraterrestrial encounters. In some cases, he has hypnotised his subjects to get at the truth.

    The passion has taken him to the ends of the country, including Heilongjiang province, where a man claimed to have had a child with a female extraterrestrial. The man offered a meteorite as proof of his experience, Zhang said.

    “I spend a lot of my own money to travel and investigate claims of alien sightings in China, purely out of personal interest,” he said.

    “My family did not approve of [what I did], but I didn’t mind. I could not give in just because they objected to what I believed in.”


    At its peak, The Journal of UFO Research had a circulation of more than 300,000. Photo: handout

    He said the news of the Pentagon programme could have relevance for China.

    “It shows the US government and military have been studying UFOs or aliens for years,” Zhang said. “China might be doing the same.”

    But Zhang is one of the few people on the mainland still interested in the subject.

    Sun said the gradual loss of public interest in extraterrestrials was natural.

    “There hasn’t been a breakthrough, and reports [of sightings] are repetitive and unfounded,” he said.

    “[But] I believe [the interest in UFOs] will never wane because humans are naturally curious about the universe.”

    This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: nation’s UFO fascination short-lived but intense
    I want one of those qigong pot hats. I think it would help me contact my muse.
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  2. #2
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    Storm Area 51

    Well, if mi jefe de Hombres de Armas is in, I must follow.

    Machete Star Danny Trejo Joins the Area 51 Raid
    By JENNA ANDERSON - July 15, 2019 04:57 pm EDT

    The Internet is attempting to organize an event unlike any other, with over a million people volunteering on Facebook to storm the Air Force's secretive Area 51 base. Quite a lot of memes have spun out of this ordeal, including one from beloved actor Danny Trejo. On Monday, Trejo took to Twitter to share a screenshot of himself from Machete Kills in Space, with the caption that this would be him after leaving Area 51.

    View image on Twitter


    Danny Trejo

    @officialDannyT
    After leaving #Area51

    3,840
    9:50 AM - Jul 15, 2019
    1,063 people are talking about this
    Twitter Ads info and privacy
    Trejo, whose filmography also includes everything from From Dusk Til Dawn to The Flash, has become a sort of cult icon

    For the uninitiated, Area 51 is a section of the Edwards Air Force Base in the Nevada desert. For decades, it's never been abundantly clear exactly what the base does, outside of evidence that it has been used to create experimental aircraft and weapons systems. Some have believed that the base is secretly hiding proof of extraterrestrial life, either through studying a crashed UFO or attempting to contact a new one.

    The Area 51 movement has spun out of a viral Facebook event, which is appropriately named "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us". The page suggests that a giant group of people attempt to visit and "Naruto run" their way into the secretive military base and find out what extraterrestrial information they have.

    "We will all meet up at the Area 51 Alien Center tourist attraction and coordinate our entry." the event's description reads. "If we [Naruto] run, we can move faster than their bullets. Lets see them aliens."

    While the event is clearly a joke, the sheer number of people responding to it has since garnered an official response from the Air Force, who are apparently "ready to protect" the base should the event actually come to fruition.

    “[Area 51] is an open training range for the US Air Force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces,” Air Force spokesperson Laura McAndrews said in a statement (via Yahoo). “The US Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets”.

    The "Storm Area 51" event is theoretically scheduled for September 20th, and there's no telling if anyone will actually turn their digital RSVP into action. If they do, maybe Trejo will be a source of inspiration for them.

    What do you think of Danny Trejo's take on the "Storm Area 51" event? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
    THREADS
    UFOs, space aliens & qigong
    Man at Arms: Art of War
    Machete Kills Again... In Space!
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  3. #3
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    surely they've moved the aliens by now...

    Storm Area 51 deserves its own thread, distinct from UFOs, space aliens & qigong.

    As Area 51 raid becomes a joke online, the U.S. Air Force issues a real warning
    The U.S. Air Force warned Friday against visiting the secretive base, saying that "any attempt to illegally access the area is highly discouraged."


    Groom Road or 51 Road is a dirt road that leads from Nevada Route 375 to the restricted area known as Area 51 on June 27, 2010, near Rachel, Nevada.Jon Elswick / AP file
    July 18, 2019, 8:04 AM PDT
    By Jason Abbruzzese

    They want to believe.

    The viral phenomenon of a Facebook event calling for people to storm the Nevada military base colloquially known as Area 51 has continued to gain momentum in the past week, becoming a running joke online but also a cause of concern for authorities.

    The event — a tongue-in-cheek attempt to find aliens hidden by the government — has taken on a life of its own in the internet zeitgeist, receiving nods from celebrities and brands while also turning into its own meme on the short-form video app TikTok.

    Celebrity chef Guy Fieri jokingly offered to cater the event with radioactive ribs. Bud Light created an Area 51-themed beer can. And MoonPie naturally got in on the fun.

    Rapper Lil Nas X even released a special Area 51-themed video for his smash hit, "Old Town Road."



    Meanwhile, the event's guest list continues to grow, with more than 1.6 million Facebook users marking themselves as "going." While the general expectation is that most people are embracing the event as satire, the sheer number of people who have joined the event have led to legitimate concern about even a few thousand people flooding the area around the military base.

    The deluge of attention on the event spurred its creator, Matty Roberts, to come forward and speak with KLAS-TV, a CBS affiliate in Las Vegas. Roberts told the affiliate that he was worried that the authorities may show up at his house.

    The U.S. Air Force warned Friday against visiting the secretive base, saying that "any attempt to illegally access the area is highly discouraged."

    Residents of Rachel, Nevada, the small town close to the base, have told local news outlets that they are preparing for an influx of visitors.

    The date of the Facebook event, Sept. 20, leaves time for interest and enthusiasm for the topic to wane. But the event has become more mainstream, reinvigorating questions about just what goes on at the military base.

    On Fox Business, host Trish Regan spoke with Robert Scales, a retired major general with the U.S. Army, who assured the public that the base is just a "testing range."

    He chalked up the recent hysteria to a certain unique national obsession with extraterrestrials.

    "This is only in America," Scales said.


    Jason Abbruzzese
    Jason Abbruzzese is the senior editor for technology news at NBC News Digital.
    Gene Ching
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  4. #4
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    Thai Buddhist aliens


    The UFO seekers flocking to a remote Thai hilltop in search of Buddhist aliens

    Richard S. Ehrlich, CNN • Published 5th October 2019


    On the hunt for extraterrestrials: A forest reserve in central Thailand is attracting UFO seekers who believe Buddhist aliens are visiting the site and sending telepathic communiques. The home of Wassana Chuensamnaun, lead campaigner for the extraterrestrials, is filled with alien artwork, including this statue.
    Richard S. Ehrlich

    Nakhon Sawan (CNN) — A hilltop in central Thailand is attracting UFO seekers who believe extraterrestrials hover above a huge Buddha statue, send telepathic communiques, walk across nearby sugarcane fields and use a crocodile-infested lake as a portal from their planets -- Pluto and Loku.
    Though it may sound like science fiction, a small group of individuals claims messages from aliens arriving in spaceships include plenty of traditional religious teachings too -- leading them to believe they are actually Buddhist.
    It's all happening three hours by road or rail north from Bangkok in Nakhon Sawan -- which translates to "City of Heaven."
    Without all the UFO hype, it's just a laid-back small town. But followers believe that if you meditate on Khao Kala hill, outside of Nakhon Sawan, you could hear the talkative silver creatures as voices in your head, speaking whatever language your thoughts usually chatter.
    They do offer a disclaimer, saying there is no guarantee you will see UFOs or aliens, which are described as unpredictable, speaking or appearing spontaneously and disappearing after a few hours.


    UFO believers in Thailand come to Khao Kala hill to meditate.
    Richard S. Ehrlich

    Government attempts to ban gatherings

    The group's activities have gotten them into trouble with Thai authorities in recent weeks.
    Government officials reportedly grew alarmed when UFO seekers began crowding onto Khao Kala hill to see and talk with aliens, possibly endangering the area's official "protected forest area" status.
    Visitors are allowed to climb to the top of the hill and view the large Buddha statue and nearby "Buddha footprint," which are places of public worship. But the law forbids anyone from living or staying overnight in such zones, including previous UFO seekers who pitched tents at the site.
    In August, about 40 officials, including members of the Forestry Department, disbanded a group of Thai enthusiasts at the top of Khao Kala, and petitioned a court to ban mass gatherings there.

    On September 20, about 30 police and forestry officials confronted Wassana Chuensamnaun, lead campaigner for the extraterrestrials, and about 60 other UFO enthusiasts.
    The group, wearing white clothing, planned to have a video made while members "meditated" atop the hill after sunset in hopes of mind-melding with aliens, Wassana tells CNN Travel.
    Not wanting to be arrested, the UFO followers regrouped at the bottom of the hill on private property, meditated for a few hours and departed, she says.

    "When the UFO spun me, I didn't feel dizzy at all"

    As for the origins of the hill's supposed attractiveness to extraterrestrials, believers say it all began in 1997, when retired Sergeant-Major Cherd Chuensamnaun, deep in Buddhist meditation at home, received mental messages from what he insisted were aliens.
    He told his family. They scoffed.
    "I asked my father to tell the aliens to show themselves," says Wassana, his daughter.
    "The next day, the aliens sent energy to spin my brother and brother-in-law."
    She says the two men were yanked up from the living room sofa and spun simultaneously, like whirling dervishes, out of the house and into the yard.
    "I felt like my legs and my arms had to spin," adds Wassana's brother-in-law Jaroen Raepeth.
    "I could not control myself for four or five minutes. I didn't feel afraid. We both spun outside."


    Jaroen Raepeth said that he was spun by the UFO.
    Richard S. Ehrlich

    Through an upstairs window, Wassana's sister-in-law says she saw a UFO.
    "It was about 10 or 15 meters long, at treetop level," adds Wassana.
    Asked to re-enact his spinning, Jaroen twirls slowly around the living room with his arms out, but soon falls down and stays on the floor, looking dazed.
    "I feel dizzy. But when the UFO spun me, I didn't feel dizzy at all."
    Wassana, who quit her job as a nurse to champion the extraterrestrial, says her father continued to receive telepathic messages over the years.
    "Before my father died [in 2000], he taught us how to communicate with the aliens," she adds.
    Today, she says more than 100 other Thais have this ability after practicing with her. Followers post updates and photos at the family's-linked UFOKaoKala Facebook group and elsewhere, some insisting they too have seen aliens and spaceships in the area.


    One of the latest photos on the UFOKaoKala Facebook page.
    Manop Ampan
    continued next post
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  5. #5
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    Continued from previous post

    Silvery spaceships filled with silvery humanoids

    Most alien encounters are reported near the family's home, on the outskirts of Nakhon Sawan at Khao Kala hill amid sugarcane fields and Bueng Boraphet Lake, which villagers warn is crocodile infested.
    The aliens are described as slender, little, silvery humanoids.
    Illustrations depict them standing upright on two legs with two arms and a bulbous bald head with a pointy face topped with a single antenna. Huge, glossy, almond-shaped black eyes gaze above a thin nose and miniature mouth.
    Believers say silvery spaceships appear festooned with colorful lights or resemble the domed, circular, retro-UFOs seen in low-budget 1950s movies.
    "There are two types of aliens," Wassana says. "One group is from the planet Pluto. The others are from a planet named Loku.
    "Pluto aliens are made of energy, can appear in physical form and are able to teach humans. Loku aliens have a physical body and knowledge of high technology. They work together.
    "Pluto aliens worry about something so devastating happening on Earth, such as war or in the environment, that it might impact their planet. They also want to give some people the ability to communicate with them, so if humans destroy everything in a nuclear war, the aliens will be able to help survivors rebuild human civilization."
    The planet Loku "is in the Milky Way, but they didn't tell us where."
    The aliens' purported choice of Khao Kala is unusual because it is the smallest among a cluster of loftier hills. Meditators say they are thankful they don't have to climb very high to reach the top.
    Up there, a larger-than-life statue portrays Buddha protected by a mythical seven-headed "naga" snake, which has topped the hill for many years and was not associated with any UFOs before the family's tales.
    A 360-degree view from the hill includes flat sugarcane fields below, where Wassana and other believers say they have seen aliens disembark a UFO, walk around and then vanish in an atomized puff.
    "I've lived 10,000 years," Pluto's alien leader revealed in communiqués purportedly channeled through Wassana during 1998 and 1999.
    "How long does it take for me to travel from Pluto to here? I travel through dimensions. It's advanced physics. I travel with my mind."

    'Embrace the cosmic laws'

    Wassana says Pluto's alien leader also told her that Buddha was "the greatest human mind," and "never spoke to humans about paying attention to extraterrestrials, or about trying to communicate with them," but did tell followers "to embrace the cosmic laws."
    Mind-melding communiqués from Pluto to Wassana include lots of advice about "karma," "reincarnation," "greed," "fear" and other Buddhist concerns, she says, as well as the altruistic thought-bubble that you shouldn't worry about Earth's Apocalypse from nuclear war, climate change, mutant diseases or other "catastrophes."
    Technologically superior, benevolent aliens promise to take care of selected "survivors."


    The Buddha statue portrays a mythical seven-headed "naga" snake.
    Richard S. Ehrlich

    That's good news in this Southeast Asian country where 95% of the population is Buddhist.
    It may also give followers legal and social protection if their UFO group gets too popular. Thai authorities and society frown on anything they perceive as a cult that veers too far from traditional religious beliefs and becomes influential.
    Buddhism is open to the possibility of extraterrestrials, ghosts, spirits and other non-human life, but warns against being sucked into an invisible cul-de-sac of absurd illusions.
    When asked about Thais seeing UFOs and communicating with aliens, Buddhist scholar Veeranut Rojanaprapa, who has a PhD in philosophy and religion from St. John's University in Bangkok, tells CNN Travel: "We don't need to know if it is real or not, if it's a fake story or it's reality. Buddha taught us that maybe the one who says that he thinks he can directly speak with the alien, or he believes, he hears them.
    "But it is not useful. It doesn't matter if he hears the alien or not. It does not help us for [experiencing] nirvana," says Veeranut. "We do not say if it is right or wrong if the human can speak to the alien. But please listen carefully: most of the situations are only illusion."
    Nevertheless, Bangkok-based Ploy Buranasiri has been visiting Khao Kala for nine years and says she's seen aliens and UFOs there several times.
    Asked what she would like to say to the aliens, says: "I would like ask for a relocation to their planet."
    Sukwasa Mukprom, 32, visited Khao Kala more than 10 times during the past year.
    "I want the aliens to send me the power to make me brave," she says.
    Sometimes there's these news stories that I cannot resist posting here. They aren't directly relevant. But where?
    Buddhism trending
    UFOs, space aliens & qigong
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  6. #6
    Mind-melding communiqués from Pluto to Wassana include lots of advice about "karma," "reincarnation," "greed," "fear" and other Buddhist concerns, she says, as well as the altruistic thought-bubble that you shouldn't worry about Earth's Apocalypse from nuclear war, climate change, mutant diseases or other "catastrophes."
    Technologically superior, benevolent aliens promise to take care of selected "survivors."
    Sound kind of like Noah and the flood. The righteous surving a catastrophe that purifies the world (for a time).

    In ancient times the gods were imminent: people encountered gods and communicated with gods. Aliens seem to have taken over that role in the modern psyche (a theme that's been well explored in science fiction and depth psychology).

    Apart from the meaningful symbolism and perhaps earnest practice it generates I'm sure there are a few local business owners (gift shops, hotels) that are doing well by it. Just as there were near the oracle at Delphi and you name it other places like that (Loch Ness )

  7. #7
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    Originally posted in this thread Shi Yongxin goes to space while meditating, had to bring it back because Shi Yongxin is a boss

    Meditate to Space

    Jokes aside, and poor translation aside, there is a truth at work here. In perspective, "as within, so without...." is a principle at work in meditation, so by knowing the (inner space) you come to know the (outer space). Now in my opinion, meditation, practiced thru time, with commitment, should make you a master of your inner space, totally.
    so I get it.

    my thought about meditating to the aliens: We all have dreams, and astral project, etc.....so if one masters shutting down the body, while remaining awake, and aware and attentive to the subtler realms you access while you sleep/dream, why cant we talk to aliens? Its also possible we are defining alien the wrong way, because technically to a Buddha, nothing can be alien, because there is no self as a vantage point, so there can be no "alien" being, technically all beings are present at once, to a Buddha of course. So one would be the alien, and the alien would be one. This is another way to interpret the words of the Abbot.

    I'm going to keep working on it. since I shared the article, this is my attempt to do it some justice.

    Amituofo
    "色即是空 , 空即是色 " ~ Buddha via Avalokitesvara
    Shaolin Meditator

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