Meta-Stories

Tuesday August 30th, In the year of our Lord 2011
My House, Caronport Saskatchewan
Just returned from work, 6:52PM
Weather = Gorgeous (and maybe a little on the warm side)

While surfing about the internet I ran into the testimony of a man who firmly believes that he lives with the spirit of Bobby Jordan and that Extra-Terrestrials are invading heaven and are also infiltrating our bodies. It got me thinking about how we interpret what is happening around us. Take a look if you like, it's about 10 minutes long.




It's amazing how we make sense of the world around us and to understand how we think. Even people who adhere to some really strange and different ideas about the world believe what they do for very real reasons. The fellow in this video makes reference to personal many experiences that weave together to make sense of what is happening around him. You, the viewer, probably question his view of the world because it doesn't exactly resemble a common understanding of how things are and tends to break the rules of what we call 'normal.' But let me assure you every person believes what they do for valid reasons, even if they are wrong. I don't want to go too much into Epistemology (the philosophy understanding how we know what we know) but I do want this video and your reaction to it to be an illustration.

What thoughts were going through your head as you watched this video? Mental Sickness maybe? Paranoia? This is probably a common response when confronted with such an 'alien' way of viewing the world, but it is not the only way. Personally I thought of demonic activity, especially when he talked about his human spirit friend, dark entities stalking him, and being aware of a reptilian extra-terrestrial inside of him. Then maybe there are those who read my postings who are syncratistic and have no problem interpreting this fellow's testimony into their own understanding of the world. Maybe what he sees as extra-terrestrials are actually manifestations of nature spirits, or the internal struggle of his soul and desires, or whatever else the reader might try to interpret them as.

The point is that all of us adhere to a meta-story of some sort. This fellow is part of a UFO / Spirituality conspiracy meta-story where everything is interpreted to have some sort of greater meaning. When he has a vivid dream or 'vision' he understands it to be a message for him or a revelation, not mental sickness. The materialists among us (those who only believe in material entities) know that this man is insane and needs help because we ghosts and visions and dark entities are not part of the meta-story that we believe in. As a Christian I may not doubt the authenticity of his experiences, but I can not agree with his conclusions. In a Christian meta-story (influenced by study of Scripture, tradition of the community of faith, reasoning of logic, and the Holy Spirit) human souls do not stay on earth but demons could pretend to be ghosts or spirits to deceive people. More importantly the Christian meta-story understands that God is all powerful and that not even aliens (if they do indeed exist) or dark spirits, or demons, or the devil himself, or anything at all can do anything against God or Heaven. Indeed, from my personal knowledge I can tell you that this video demonstrates textbook examples of demonic activity, from perceiving spirits to how the tones grow darker as time goes on the entire story smacks of classic demonic deception (and possibly mental sickness too). How do I come to this conclusion? Because it lines up with my own meta-story which has been shaped by Scripture, Christian teaching, and my own personal experiences.

Then there are those of us who think that we can not have any meta-story. It isn't possible. Even if you only believe things that are logically provable then logic and the tradition of logic is the authority in your meta-story, whereas personal experience and super-natural experience may be the authority in someone else's meta-story. This doesn't mean that at the end of the day that we're all right, but it does mean that everybody sees the world the way they do for very real reasons.

Thought is over
Supper is ready

Greg Out