UFO's, an example!

Let me take an example vaguely related to the path of mysticism; the question of UFO's. I will not in any way argue for or against the existence, or even the possible existence, of UFO's or 'aliens', or life in other parts of our universe, parallel universes etc etc etc. I just want to point put some interesting observations around the social phenomena UFO.

General known facts about UFO's

The general facts known are this:
1. Many UFO reports show almost identical encounters, no matter where in the world they originate from.
2. There exist some strange physical 'anomalies' in the form of burn marks and strange holes in the ground, and also physical anomalies on the bodies of people such as burn marks and 'radiation injuries'.
3. Although UFO's have been reported (of the three different 'degrees') for some fifty years now, there are absolutely no evidence that UFO's exists. No photos, no crashed 'vehicles', no nothing. Every claim of the opposite is pure speculation.

Belief or Knowledge?

Ask anyone if they believe in UFO's. There we already have the religious aspect, some will say that they absolutely don't believe in UFO's, while others will say that they do, or that there 'might be a possibility that we have visitors from other planets' (that is, they do believe, or want to believe, in UFO's, but choose to take a defensive position). In this case most people seem to have an opinion, although it is often obvious that they do not know much about the subject. This is, unfortunately, the case with many things. People in general tend to believe what certain sources (scientists or governments or new age gurus or TV or books, etc) report to be the 'truth', without ever verifying it for themselves. There exist in the individual (yes, even in you) a need to believe things, and everything presented to an individual is either moulded into this persons world view, or, as the only other choice, the world view of the individual must change. The latter is very painful (remember this)!

Some individuals can be said to be 'romantic'. They want to believe that UFO's exists. They want to believe it so much that they will take whatever piece of 'evidence' they may find, and mould it into something conclusive.

Others will do the opposite, they find the whole idea so utterly repulsive, that they will find any argument, scientific or otherwise, to prove that UFO's are purely imaginary. Both these views are of course romantic, and shows that when an individuals world view becomes threaten, the individual feels personally threaten. Some will kill or die for their world view.

Moulding

There are many different explanations of what UFO's can be. Most people seem to think that UFO's come from outer space. Some believe that 'they' are friendly, that 'they' have come to teach us and that 'they' will show themselves sometime in the future, when the world have become a better place to live in. Others believe that 'they' are a scientifically highly developed, and that 'they' are observing us. Some believe that 'they' are evil (whatever that means), and that 'they' will take over the world or use us for their scientific experiments, like we do with other living things. There are religious sects who believe different things about UFO's. We have UFO organizations of different kinds with different purposes. There are gatherings in certain places where UFO's have been reported, and people spend days and nights waiting to see 'something'. There are people claiming to have regular contact with 'extra terrestrials', and there are people claiming to have been abducted.

All of these have their own explanations, and these explanations are examples of 'moulding' the UFO phenomena into something that suits the individuals purpose or world view.

Verification

Verification in this difficult matter, since the possibility of really experiencing 'something' firsthand is very small, will consist of reading alot of UFO reports and books on the subject. It may be good to speak with both 'UFO experts' (almost always self appointed, or sometimes, scientists) and, if possible, with people claiming to have seen, or been in contact with, UFO's. Try to sort out what facts different experts emphasize, and try to see why they have drawn their particular conclusions.

The matter of UFO's is multi layered, and some knowledge about related subjects will also come in handy: Natural science (physics), psychology and sociology, perhaps astronomy, some knowledge about modern spirituality, perhaps 'parapsychology'.

When studying the material, it is important to proceed in a slightly scientific manner. Make difference between what people describe they saw, and what they believe. (If they say they saw an 'humanoid' or a 'spaceship', this is their belief of what they saw, perhaps not what they really saw). Take a note of peoples opinion, but make no conclusions. Try to define all terminology used. Cross reference and make comparisons. Always try to find alternative and/or natural explanations, but do not assume that your own explanations are in any way correct. The alternative explanations are very important!

Try to find the important questions to ask! For instance: Why are there no UFO reports earlier than the forties? Why have there not been even one single (good enough) photograph of UFO's? How can the reports of the UFO abductees show so many similarities? What about the seemingly unexplainable physical marks on the bodies of the UFO abductees? What about the odd holes found on locations where UFO's have been reported? What about the reported electromagnetic disturbances (car engines shutting off etc)?

Avoid dabbling too much into purely hypothetical questions such as 'If UFO's exist, where do they come from?', 'How do they breath?' or 'How do they get the energy to fly?'. These questions are of course no less interesting, but cannot be derived from the material available, and does not have much to do with verification. 

Also try to find connections to other reported (paranormal or not) phenomena such as Loch Ness, Crop Circles, Drug Experiences, Poltergeist, Elves/Goblins, Mythology and Religion. Popular books in these subjects (often with large colour photos) may provide interesting social insights...

Please note that I'm not in any  way an expert on UFO's or related material. The above is an example, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong :-)
 

Verifying Castaneda

Castaneda does not have too much in common with the above from  the practitioner's view, but when looking on the phenomenon 'Carlos Castaneda' from the outside (media etc)...

Many will want to do a theoretical verification of the castanedian system: "Does this view/subject have any parallel's in any other system?". The obvious choice of study then is other branches of mysticism, like the different flavours of eastern traditions. Another obvious choice is Shamanism. Another still is western mysticism, like Gnosticism, Alchemy, Gurdieff, Golden Dawn, Crowley or the available Theosophical literature. Psychology may also prove interesting, mainly the Jungian, but also Freud have a thing or two to offer. (I don't recommend any of these in particular, it is only some obvious choices.)

The above literature is far too vast for anyone to study, all the available literature from even one of the branches may prove too much. Start with popular, modern books, and follow literature references from those.

When studying different branches, one should be aware of the influences these may have had on each other. The influence of eastern mysticism in the western systems (even the early ones) may not always be obvious. 

One often finds that different systems have opposite oppinions in certain matters. One should not put too much importance on this, just make a note of it for further study if it's interesting enough.

Another thing is presentation, or the import of eastern systems to the west. Often we find that these systems are 'modified' to better suit the western mentality. The Zen we are presented with is more or less 'cleaned' of any traces of Buddhism, and we only get to see the more intellectual and philosophical aspect. It's the same thing with Taoism, and we seldom realize that in China, Lao Tzu (author of the Tao Te Ching) have been worshipped almost like Jesus, and that there have been numerous persons during the Chinese history claiming to be messianic incarnations of him. East have had their share of 'Jesuses'...