A Mystic Journey

Amanda Ripley is a NYT best selling author and investigative reporter for Atlantic, Politico, and Washington Post, among others. Her High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out (Simon & Schuster, 2021) is a well-researched, impressive work with extensive case studies. All quotations in this post are from that book. Ripley talks of moral choice, lasting change, and transcending differences.

I originally wrote about Ripley’s book for one of my website posts. As I began writing my recent series of articles entitled Visits from Cosmic Travelers, I realized this topic was also related to high conflict, with strong feelings both for and against the existence of extraterrestrials.

“In healthy conflict, there is movement. Questions get asked. Curiosity exists. There can be yelling, too. But healthy conflict leads somewhere. 

It feels more interesting to get to the other side than to stay in it. 

In high conflict, the conflict is the destination. There’s nowhere else to go.”

The importance of belonging and being part of a group plays a significant role in high conflict.

• “We want to feel like we belong in our group, like we are understood. One way to instantly build that connection is at the expense of the other group…Those guys are the worst.”

• “Humans have certain fundamental emotional needs, including the need for a sense of belonging, for self-esteem, for control, and for a meaningful existence. These needs are nearly as important to our survival as food and water.”  

Does the possibility of extraterrestrials force us to question our need for “control”? Would the ramifications of such an unknown or unproven possibility make life seem untenable? Accepting a reality that seems too far from our normal thinking can pose problems. What does it mean if other beings exist? How might that change our lives?

What if we could have healthy conversations about nonhuman beings existing and visiting earth?

“The challenge of our time is to…change without dehumanizing one another. 

Not just because it’s morally right but because it works.

 Lasting change, the kind that seeps into people’s hearts, has only ever come about through a combination of pressure and good conflict. Both matter.”

We assume we know why we hold the positions that we do, but what if we are also led by misguided information. Ripley poses a significant question for us to answer:

“We think we are acting on our own volition—

making judgments based on hard facts and deeply held values. 

But are we?”

I previously wrote an article about The Age of Disclosure, a government cover-up of UFOs, which included well-documented studies. This documentary described groups, such as the military/industrial complex who provide inaccurate information in order to retain their control and power. This is just one example. We need to be sure we are reacting to facts rather than misinformation. The challenge for all of us is to listen and not just gravitate to any group that might agree with us and that wants to disparage another.                                                       

“High conflict is intolerant of difference. A culture that sorts the world into good and evil is by definition small and confining. It prevents people from working together.”

“Good conflict is not the same thing as forgiveness.

 It has nothing to do with surrender.

 It can be stressful and heated but our dignity remains intact.”

We often see ourselves as right and others who think differently as not only wrong, but potentially evil. It is time to change that belief.

“High conflict is what happens when conflict clarifies into 

a good versus evil kind of feud, the kind with an us and a them.”

Let us not allow any discussion of extraterrestrials to dissolve into a high conflict situation. Everyone has the right to his or her opinion. We must allow that freedom to all. I believe in nonphysical, cosmic beings. I accept that others may not.  I hope all remain open to the possibility of their existence, just as I must remain open to the idea that I may be misinterpreting the evidence.