Strangers

On this world we are on, we are not two, we are one.

— Ray Davies, The Kinks, Strangers

What is a stranger? Someone, a person you do not know, maybe with the added requirement of their titular strangeness. But I have lived in multiple countries with vastly differing cultures and population demographics, for much of my adult life, and met nearly every general manner in which people exist.

What was clear at first is diamond-brilliant now: there are no strangers whatsoever among people. None. There are good, bad, square, weird, basic, and yes, strange people, but not a single stranger among them.

Not that I am so intimate with 8 billion souls that I could make such a claim, but when I spend even a few moments with anyone, they are clearly me. Or, at the very least, I can see myself in them. Even the very very worst of us.

Queue Thầy Thich Nhat Hanh’s heart-wrenching epic, Please Call Me By My True Names.

What composes the stranger, what makes that wretch, is me, as a wretch. It is not a challenge any longer, nor does it require effort. Effort is required now not to be ruined by these experiences, unable to function knowing the joys and horrors it requires to become a someone.

All that is to say, a question has been searing into my curiosity, for better or worse, these last 3–4 years, coinciding with my spiritual awakening and practice. It is undeniable, disorienting, destroys many underpinnings of conceptual reality, and can cause one to question the nature of their own existence, of their own mind.

No, I am not talking about a grifty guru, or immoral preacher. Neither am I talking about a biblically demonic force, wreaking havoc and promoting hedonism and poor judgment upon an unwitting populace — not to completely discount that, either.

I am of course referring to the stark, capital “S” Strangers represented by the multi-faceted UFO/UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) that have become so ubiquitous in our news cycles, and especially among the US Department of Defense (DOD), who have a fire under their asses all the sudden to appear transparent and desirous of revealing (only what they want) of the UFO topic to the world.

Personally, it was not until the DOD confirmed the Gimbal, Go Fast, and subsequent evidence, such as short clips of metallic orbs and some still photos, that I began to even let a tiny sliver of possibility creep in, where until that point I had remained one of the most scientifically dogmatic people you might have met. I mean in an overtly annoying and condescending way. Ask literally any of my friends.

It was not until months after my first Samadhi (meditative unity) that I began to approach the spiritual nature of many UFO experiences, and it was due to the *chance* encounter with the Law of One, as recorded in the channeling experiences laid out in the legendary Ra Material.

For anyone unfamiliar, over several years and more than 100 sessions, a young woman and her colleagues apparently channeled a higher dimensional being, Ra, who essentially gave an abstract of our reality as a dimensional, spiritual existence coherent with the concept of chakras, frequencies, or vibrational energy, on a range of quite dense to extraordinarily light.

Much of the material relates closely to Theosophy — a westernization of many Dharma traditions and “Eastern” esotericism, with some added curiosities added by the famous Helena Blavatzky. That is not to denigrate either the LoO (Law of One) or Theosophy — both are at times extraordinarily powerful teachers.

Rather it is to point out that the being, Ra, or their muse Carla Rueckart, did not produce a preponderance of brand new information necessarily (though much of it is), but proclaimed many wisdom teachings that we would recognize as perennial and timeless, about oneness, compassion, spirituality, energy, and the nature of existence.

Those messages come in loud and clear, but are also presented through the lens of explaining NHI — non-human intelligence. It is far too complicated to get into here, but essentially we are explained how we advance as spiritual beings to higher and higher levels of vibration, or union with our Creator, and the various natures and complexities, or lack thereof, at each level of existence.

I was fascinated, but didn’t necessarily buy into any of it wholesale; nor, honestly, can I say that I do now. However — and it is perhaps my life’s biggest single “however” — I am now convinced the basis of the Ra Material represents a significant portion — and perhaps the underlying reality of — the UFO/UAP question, and the overarching narrative of our encounters with such strangeness.

That is clearly not a statement to take on its own!! Had I not had many experiences to reinforce my intellectual study of mystical and esoteric traditions alongside UFOs, I would laugh in the face of such statements, and maybe write off UFOs entirely as either an insane psyop, or perhaps little green men. Fortunately or not, I no longer have the option to adopt such prosaic or simplistic physicalist views.

As a part of my commitment to peace, then, I will not try to define the UFOs we’ve seen on video, or the particular incidences, but as a whole they will be integrated into my work, and my reasoning for this will become obvious to anyone paying attention; I believe, very soon.

Our collective attention will require that these points be somewhat familiar anyway — not my points, or analysis, or bias, but what is evidenced in our collective conscious experience of these strangers.

My two cents? We will find there are no actual strangers whatsoever, but more phenomena, which arises from our own true nature. If possible, I and those familiar will provide some context, support, and love to those who may inevitably be shaken to the core by what is coming.

Fear is the only thing we need to be extremely concerned with, in the phenomena, because that will define our reaction to the strangeness. That is understandable of course, and may serve us for a brief time, but ultimately must be abandoned in the face of Reality. The most beneficial thing we can do is find the truths in ourselves, and love it.

I will do my best to be here, facing it. Please stay with me, I will need you even more than I do now.

There is one more aspect to consider, but for my next article: Convergence. Don’t fret over imagined implications, my love.

In the words of Julia of Norwich, a mystic from a familiar medieval English Christian background, in her absorptive encounters with Christ and God:

“Prayer fastens the soul, and makes it one with God’s will…

Jesus did not say, ‘you’ll never have a rough passage; you will never feel strained, you will never feel uncomfortable,’ but he did say, ‘you will never be overcome’…

We need to fall, and we need to be aware of it. For if we did not fall, we should not know how weak and wretched we are of ourselves, nor should we know our Maker’s marvelous love, so fully.

It was necessary that there should be sin, but all shall be well. And all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”

You are the very product of “God’s wise providence,” as are ALL manner of things.

No Strangers on this World we are on. We are Not Two.

©2023 Stephen Rains