Kastrup - Meaning in absurdity: what bizarre phenomena can tell us about the nature of reality

What Bizarre Phenomena Can Tell Us
about the Nature of Reality

What Bizarre Phenomena Can Tell Us
about the Nature of Reality

Bernardo Kastrup

Winchester, UK
Washington, USA

First published by iff Books, 2011
iff Books is an imprint of John Hunt Publishing Ltd., Laurel House, Station Approach,
Alresford, Hants, SO24 9JH, UK
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Text copyright: Bernardo Kastrup 2010

ISBN: 978 1 84694 859 6

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publishers.

The rights of Bernardo Kastrup as author have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Design: Lee Nash

Printed in the UK by CPI Antony Rowe
Printed in the USA by Offset Paperback Mfrs, Inc

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To the absurd within us all

The highest truth is one and the same with the absurd.

Carl Gustav Jung

This book is an experiment: an attempt to use logic to expose the absurd foundations of logic; an attempt to use science to peek beyond the limits of science; an attempt to use rationality to lift the veil off the irrational. Its ways are unconventional: weaving along its path one finds UFOs and fairies, quantum mechanics, analytic philosophy, history, mathematics, and depth psychology. The enterprise of constructing a coherent story out of these incommensurable disciplines is exploratory. Yet, finding ourselves confronted with the undeniable contradictions of our cultures current worldview, we must test untried waters if we are to escape banality and find our way back to the mysteries of existence. The payoff is handsome: a reason for hope, a boost for the imagination, and the promise of a meaningful future.

But it does not come free: this book will ask you to have an open mind and enough mental flexibility to navigate through seas that will drag you out of your comfort zone, wherever it may lie. If you are at home with the wacky, the weird, and the absurd but can keep yourself engaged when structured thinking is called for you may find a new world of insights when we explore quantum entanglement, Gdels theorems, intuitionistic logic, and the history of science. If, instead, you are comfortable with science and formal philosophy but can balance your skepticism and cynicism you may find a breath of fresh air when we explore the serious aspects of UFOs, the Otherworld, and the inner landscapes of the unconscious. If the experiment works, at the end all these disparate threads will come together to unveil a startling picture of reality and of our condition as minded characters within it.

For me, personally, this book represents a difficult critique of previously unquestioned assumptions and values I had held for most of my life; a departure from ingrained structures of thought I had grown so identified with I could hardly conceive of any other legitimate avenue of thinking. Yet, this is precisely what I now believe this book to embody: a previously unthinkable but legitimate articulation of an uncanny scenario about the nature of reality. If my own experience while researching it is representative, this book may confront some of your dearest notions about truth and reason, just as it confronted mine. Yet, it may do so in a way that you cannot dismiss lightly, because the (laboratory) evidence it compiles and the philosophy it leverages are solid in the traditional, academic sense.

The most exciting discoveries always entail the loss of previously held certainties. So here is my invitation to you. This is a short and sharp book, wasting no space on non-essentials or divagations. Making your way through it will not demand any major investment of time or effort. So give it an honest chance, and it may just help you open up entirely new dimensions for exploring that ultimate of all questions: What is going on?

First call: It is the mid-1980s, in a remote valley in northern Europe. A strange light is seen in the dark night sky. Its observer cannot make sense of what he sees: the light bounces around and performs impossibly tight turns at extremely high speeds. Inertia would prevent any object with significant mass from performing such maneuvers. Yet, the phenomenon is sustained. Even more puzzling, the movements of the light do not appear to serve any purpose: its zigzagging trajectory is absurd. Nonetheless, there is little doubt about the physical reality of the phenomenon: clear footage of its manifestation is captured. Over the years, the lights return to the same valley and are consistently observed by countless witnesses. A wealth of physical evidence is accumulated: pictures, film, radar data, and traces left on the ground directly under where the lights had appeared.

Second call: North America, also in the mid-1980s, in the suburbs of a large city. This time, more than just a strange light haunts the skies: hundreds of people independently witness, over a period of years, an enormous formation of lights seemingly attached to a large V-shaped craft. Witnesses include scientists, engineers, police officers, and city administration officials. The consistency of the observation reports evokes theories of secret military craft and even extraterrestrial visitation. Yet, a passing comment by a key witness seems to suggest something far more profound than such provincial explanations: From beginning to end, the nineteen to twenty minutes that I have viewed that craft was also a time of self-examination of myself and who I was. Some witnesses report a feeling that the strange light formation was somehow attempting to communicate with them.

Third call: Not all strange objects in the sky appear harmless. In the 1950s, a man stands observing the late afternoon sky. The sun is clearly visible behind a veil of clouds, just above the horizon. Suddenly, the sun becomes uncannily pale and what appears to be a second sun becomes visible at about the same height above the horizon. When the first sun sets, the second sphere of light speeds towards the Earth, as if falling from the sky. The man stands in awe of the spectacle. As the sphere approaches the moment of impact, the man realizes it is a much smaller object than he had initially thought. He also notices what appear to be decorative, symbolic markings on its surface. When the sun finally crashes onto the Earth, it does so at a considerable distance from the man. Other similar spheres then appear, falling towards the ground just as the first did. The man fears possible shrapnel and runs away. As he does so, he suddenly finds himself inside a house, where a girl sits in a chair with a large notebook on her lap. He tries to convince her to flee with him, but she will have none of it.

Fourth call: The theme of suns falling from the sky is a recurrent one. Early in the 20th century, in southern Europe, tens of thousands of people gather in a field. After a downpour, the storm clouds break and the sun becomes visible again. However, it has the uncanny aspect of a spinning disk, looking paler and duller than normal. Without notice, it careers towards the Earth in a kind of absurd, zigzag trajectory, frightening all present. Afterwards, witnesses observe that the muddy puddles of water on the ground, as well as their previously soaked clothes, had all suddenly become dry. The phenomenon, due to its simultaneous physical palpability and absurdity, confuses scientists and commentators for decades thereafter.