UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

By J.S. GORDON (1946-2013)—

Mainstream orthodox (or ‘physical’) science contains as many paradigms as it does supposed facts, if not more; but it still tends to treat the former as largely substantiated facts. However, a paradigm – as the dictionary confirms – is merely a model, involving one or more assumptions. In fact, it is representative of the seemingly best functional theory or hypothesis available with accessible data in the face of ignorance of the true facts, which may in fact be quite different. That then, along with all the rest, is then presented to the world as ‘scientific knowledge’.

This, however, presents us with a problem because physical science sees itself as technology based, due to the need for reliably consistent reproduction of accurate data in the face of man’s own psychological and sensory inconsistency. Problematically, physical technology is itself based on paradigmatic assumptions and the associated limitations of then available sub-technology. So where does that put us in relation to the wider human experience which takes into consideration states of existence beyond the physical and even treats these as more real than the physical?

Alternative (or more accurately, sequentially parallel) states of existence have been discussed in openly allegorical or hermeneutic (structured) terms for thousands of years by both mystics and more metaphysically orientated philosophers, by virtue of their own actual experiences through self-experimentation. Those experiences were of course subjective in nature (because other states can only be accessed in such a manner) and it is therefore assumed by critics that they lacked the objectivity necessary to achieve any real degree of reliable accuracy. But this assumption is itself based on the highly questionable hypothesis that laboratory methods and/or modern academic forms of presentation and substantiation are the only reliable ones when these are themselves largely un-natural. So where do we go from here?

Over the last three centuries there has developed a growing belief that the objective physical world and the ‘subjective’ states of existence are or can be inter-connected and can thus directly affect each other. This started with the phenomenon of mesmerism in the eighteenth century and continued with human ectoplasmic manifestations in spiritualistic séances in the nineteenth (although spiders have been producing ectoplasm to form their webs since time immemorial). Subsequent to this, the new science of psychology began to show the subjective worlds of human thought and feeling as having a real consistency of internal dynamics if and when viewed on their own terms. Furthermore, quantum physics in the twentieth century seemed to confirm that physical experiments could be phenomenally affected by the psychological attitude of the observer. Yet we now appear to stand at something of an impasse.

Physical science has accepted that consciousness has to be considered a fundamental part of the equation of existence but it still sees consciousness as a merely electrical phenomenon generated (by extension at the physical level) by aggregations of base atomic and then molecular matter forming itself into organisms. Yet it is unable to answer the question of how it is that organic life can somehow emerge from apparently ‘dead’ matter – or why it should do so. Esoteric philosophy, on the other hand, has always taken the view that there is no such thing as ‘dead matter’; that there is in fact only one principle in the omniverse and that this is Life itself, manifesting as a homogeneous substance called, for want of a better term, ‘spirit-matter’ and appearing in a vast spectrum of qualitatively based states, each with its own potential polarity and apparent fields of progression or limitation, thus giving rise to a sympathetic sense of inter-connectedness, which we call consciousness. Furthermore, esoteric philosophy has always seen the universal spectrum of Life as the manifestation of a single, Universal Consciousness possessing an infinite range of memory and intelligence. Deists call more remote aspects of this by the name ‘God’ and try to give it a sort of humanly interactive personality. However, philosophers say that it is not only inconceivable in all respects, but that it is also approachable only by a progressively expansive understanding of what it is not.

This, of course, is not acceptable to a science which states that everything must have a testable rationale. However, in adopting that stance, science again makes an erroneous assumption. Esoteric philosophy (if properly followed) is itself based on the understanding of a rational approach to the existence of progressive fields of consciousness; but its technique is necessarily both subjective and objective. Subjectivity is necessary for direct experience by self-experimentation and selection; objectivity (which, problematically, is also subjective) is necessary to rationalise and understand the effects in due context. However, these have to be used in tandem by an intelligence specifically trained in their simultaneous use – one that has itself developed the capacity not to merely react to experience. In other words, one that is self-consciously aware but which has also passed beyond the stage of a reactive self-association which is usually based on a mere mixture of like and dislike.

The science and art of true esoteric faculty involves a fundamental detachment of consciousness from that which is being observed. That is to say, one must learn to use a higher quality of consciousness to observe a lesser quality of consciousness in action and thereby understand its qualitative status and its modus operandi. We have to develop an adult perspective based on our own prior experience before we can really understand the motivation and actions of a child. There is no short cut. A child cannot understand the motivations of an adult because he/she does not have the experience and has thus not yet learned of the associated limitations by virtue of which we progress through such experience to a wider perspective of understanding.

Plato made the point that “All is recollection.” In other words, there is nothing new in Universal Nature; but it is up to us to access it. Yet the first thing we have to understand is that memory is organised and works in progressive sequences, each involving its own essential field of limitation. But the progression is not linear. The Ancients tell us that the universe is concentrically organised and so each memory is part of a greater one. So, we have to first explore the plenum of one idea (or field of ideas) before we can break through its field of limitation into a yet greater one. This is the way in which the intelligent development of consciousness works. Thus it is that we first need to establish where a limitation exists (or potentially exists) before we can set out to go beyond it and thus achieve a greater perspective. Otherwise we shall merely go around in chaotically confused circles, merely re-exploring the past over and over again, thereby wallowing in a sea of superficiality. This, sadly, is what many people tend to do throughout their adult lives and it is the cause of needless frustration. Instead, we need constantly to move forward. That is why we have ideals to pursue.

Curiously, science – despite its incessant materialism – is moving in the right direction, albeit grudgingly. It accepts the fundamental principle that a theory has to be fully and carefully examined before it can be accepted for further and wider usage. It also accepts that theories (paradigms) are all ultimately disposable, even though it currently chases the ultimate march hare of a supposed Grand Unified Theory which fails to take consciousness into account. However, many ‘New Age’ theorists are as much at fault in that they comprehensively tend to avoid the rigorous approach to consideration of both esoteric and scientific principles, substituting instead their own off-the-cuff theories, which cannot even be called paradigms because most of them are based on either partial perceptions or even pure wishful thinking. That is why physical science, with all its questionable paradigms, is so suspicious of ‘New Age’ thought. But as they say, “It takes one to recognise one.”

That, however, brings me to one or two examples of mis-orientated scientific thinking (which I have highlighted in my recently published book The Rise & Fall of Atlantis) which may perhaps be of interest to readers of this magazine. The first of these involves the relationship between the core of the Earth and the planet’s surrounding ionosphere. The modern geological orthodoxy is that the core is composed of solid or liquid iron, or a combination of both, this providing the basis of the planet’s gravitational magnetism. However, this idea is based on the supposition that the Earth, originally part of the Sun and thus composed of plasma, was to begin with a superheated mass which cooled down, thereby allowing the heavy element of iron to sink towards the centre. But the supposition that the Sun’s plasmic mass is actually superheated (rather than electrically superactive) in the first place is also pure assumption. My suggestion is that it is not – and also that the core of the planet is still a plasmic mass, which responds to the fluctuations of solar energy coming our way as a result of voltage changes in our ionosphere. Interestingly, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in the USA has already noted that the Earth’s core appears to rotate at a different speed to the crust. Present concepts of the Earth’s core fail to provide any suggestion as to how this could possibly occur.

Now the ionosphere surrounding our planet at a distance of some 60 kilometres from the crust is itself an electrified field of matter whose voltage necessarily fluctuates because of the incessant variations in energy received from the Sun. As that occurs, so it must expand and contract. But this will itself produce a sympathetic response in the Earth’s plasmic core, which must also expand and contract in fluctuation, thereby causing huge changes in the magma sea under the crust. As the magma expands, it must necessarily generate internal pressure in the geological fields which contain it, thereby inducing volcanic activity and localised crustal expansion. Correspondingly, as it contracts, so the magma will cool and recede, thus causing the Earth’s crust to shrink back again, which will in turn lead to earthquake activity. Now the first effect of this different perspective is that it calls into question the paradigm theory of plate tectonics.

The basis of plate tectonics (which was first suggested in 1915 and cast out through general scientific disapproval for some fifty years after that) is that all the visible landmasses were once gathered together as one gigantic continent called Gondwanaland, or Pangaea. For some inexplicable reason this then supposedly split up like a jigsaw puzzle into various continental landmasses, which began cruising around the globe on top of the supporting magma sea, and then started bumping into each other like ‘dodgem cars’ at the fairground. The next part of the theory then has some of the landmasses literally crawling over others and down the other side, this experience however, amazingly leaving both masses looking geographically pretty well just the same. The ‘proof’ behind this idea is that the eastward Brazilian projection of South America supposedly fits geographically very neatly under the westward projection of the African continent, thereby confirming the original, broken jigsaw puzzle theory.

Proponents of the plate tectonic theory also draw attention to what is called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the fragmented central area of the Atlantic seabed which we can see on bathyspheric maps. All along this ridge are to be found hydrothermal vents (sometimes known as ‘black smokers’) which are chemically based extrusions, often several metres in length, pumping out volcanic gases from within the crust. These, we are told, are clear evidence that the Atlantic seabed is splitting, so pushing South America and Africa gently even further apart. However, there is no actual proof of such a split.

Now, as is pointed out in my book – citing evidence provided by others far more knowledgeable in the field than I – the idea that continental landmasses can just cruise around in the manner suggested is absurd. It takes inconceivably huge expenditure of energy to shift large geological landmasses – energy levels which scientific measurement itself has proven the planet just does not begin to possess in sufficient capacity to motivate the landmasses in such a manner. Furthermore, the idea that landmasses could somehow slide over each other without damaging their geographic identity is altogether ludicrous. Even more unanswerably, new landmasses are constantly being created by the acre every year (as for example in Hawaii) by the spread of volcanic lava, or destroyed by gradual erosion or cataclysm. So how can plate tectonics work in the face of all these various facts?

Geologists have used their theories to ‘prove’ that the profile of the Atlantic seabed confirms why the ancient idea of a mid-Atlantic continent (aka Atlantis) could not possibly have existed. However, my suggestion (my own paradigm, if you will) as previously explained, provides a very clear indication as to how and why huge masses of the Earth’s crust could indeed be deformed by expansion and contraction generated by electromagnetic pressure from the planet’s core. However, that is not the whole story behind the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Its peculiarly twisted shape tells us of another influence – this time an astrophysical one.

The Ancients described our planet as being suspended in Space between two great magnets. But this does not sound so absurd when one takes into consideration that the indentation of the ionosphere at both poles effectively means that the true poles are in fact to be found far above the Earth’s surface, not on it as is commonly imagined. However, the ionosphere itself is like a giant squeezable crystal – indeed the ancient Egyptian god Ptah was described as containing the planet within a crystal globe which he fashioned. When I suggest that it is ‘squeezable’ I mean to draw attention to the idea that it behaves piezo-electrically. I am suggesting, in other words, that during certain stages of the solar cycles which our planet goes through, it is necessarily forced through much more powerful electrical fields in Space, which cause its biosphere to contract because of the corresponding electrical hypertension generated in the ionosphere.

As the ionosphere is thus ‘squeezed’ centripetally inwards, at both poles, so the plasmic core of the Earth is forced to respond by centrifugal expansion. At a particularly critical point, these two antagonistic forces will literally cause the magma under the planetary crust to generate a coreolis effect, resulting in the upper and lower crustal hemispheres twisting in opposite directions. If you now look closely at a map of the world you will see that the volcanic ridges along the oceanic beds follow an interestingly parallel pattern which could only be achieved, I suggest, by such a twisting in different directions of the upper and lower hemispheres. The nett effect of this, of course, is that the crust in the tropics would be subjected to such terrible force that any geologically ancient landmass in the area would literally crack up and fall apart.

This, I further suggest, is precisely what happened to Atlantis and, as I have described in my book, it is also very probably what caused the almighty cataclysm in the Gulf of Mexico mentioned in the Troano Codex to the Mayan sacred book, the Popol Vuh, as having taken place some 8,060 years before the author’s time, thus killing some sixty million people in the space of one or two days. Just consider the probable extent of the central American landmass before this cataclysm, which itself appears to have coincided historically with the submergence of Plato’s Atlantean island of Poseidonis in the north-eastern Atlantic, plus a variety of other events, such as the sudden raising of the Andes to the south.

Furthermore, this same historical time seems to coincide not only with what my friend Robert Bauval has shown as the Egyptian period of Zep Tepi (the ‘First Time’) but also with the celestial solstice generated by the 25,920 year cycle which we moderns call the ‘precession of the equinoxes’ – which was known to the Ancients as ‘the Great Year of the Pleiades’. It would take too long to describe the importance of the Pleiades in this paper (it is described at some greater length in my book); but suffice it to say that there appears to have been seen a pivotal (cyclic) association between it, our solar system and the seven stars of the circumpolar constellation, Ursa Major, leading to the very appearance of an originally spiritual, proto-human-kind on this planet, literally millions of years ago.

Most astronomers and astrophysicists will of course just laugh at this as the products of ancient superstitions. But then many of our modern scientists – not finding themselves able to credit the possibility of spirit-matter in the first place (notwithstanding their as yet hypothetical ‘dark matter’ and ‘quantum fluid’) – would hardly be likely to consider the possibility of the massed spirit-organisms of humankind (i.e. souls, not human beings per se) perhaps originating in another but kindred celestial system. I hasten to add that this can in no way be considered in terms of UFO activity. Spirits – organised as cellular groups of souls – would not need spacecraft if an astrologically and astronomically helpful period of relative proximity were cyclically available to enable a fluid transmission of celestial consciousness between greater and lesser star systems, which ancient tradition holds to be repositories of such consciousness. But is this not perhaps the origin of the very ancient idea of Man having ‘fallen’ from a superior state of ‘Grace’? Is this not perhaps also why the ancient Egyptians were so focused on spiritual development leading the highest initiates or Piru (not the pharaoh, as Egyptologists fondly imagine) back to the circumpolar stars?

In The Rise and Fall of Atlantis I have quite deliberately addressed the hitherto cloudy issue of spirits and souls in relation to the hugely ancient origins of humankind on this planet and its continued evolution of culture through civilisation. In doing so, I recognise the immediately apparent dangers of being treated as just another New Age nutcase. However, I have gone to some considerable lengths to show that Darwinism and Creationism not only do not work, but are also not the only (or even most viable) alternatives. When consciousness is itself brought into the equation as inherent in all the kingdoms of Nature, in concert with the concept that there is no such thing as dead matter, it will immediately be seen why the universe in toto has to be considered as a psychologically based organism (with a wide spectrum of intelligence) within which spirit and matter are qualitatively polarised aspects of one and the same principle. It will then be understood why astrologically timed and astro-physically organised insemination (or withdrawal) of different qualities of intelligence from any celestial body or system (as an organism) must itself be a quite natural function in universal Nature.

I hope that my book will be seen as providing a logically reasoned, alternative perspective for public discussion, rather than as merely another book on Atlantis and its geographic whereabouts. The sub-title to it – “The Mysterious Origins of Human Civilisation” – should be enough to suggest that there is far more inside it to chew on than one would normally find in a book on the subject. May I therefore wish my readers many happy hours of further discovery.

Interested in forgotten civilisations and secrets of the past? Then be sure to check out New Dawn Special Issue Vol 7 No 1.

If you appreciate this article, please consider a digital subscription to New Dawn.

Bibliography

H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine (Los Angeles, Theosophical Publishing House, 1947)

M. Cremo & R. Thompson, The Hidden History of the Human Race (Bhaktivedanta Book Publ., 2000)

C. Darwin, The Descent of Man (London, Penguin Classics, 2004)

J.S. Gordon, The Rise & Fall of Atlantis (London, Watkins Publishing, 2008)

B. Greene, The Elegant Universe (New York, Random House, 2000)

F. Hoyle & C. Wickramsinghe, Evolution from Space (London, Paladin Books, 1983)

R. Milton, Shattering the Myths of Darwinism (Vermont, Inner Traditions, 1997)

Plato, Timaeus & Critias (London, Penguin Classics, 1965)

P. Russell, The Awakening Earth (London RKP, 1982)

G. Santillana & H. von Dechend, Hamlet’s Mill (Boston, D.R. Godine, 1992)

D.E. Scott, The Electric Sky (Portland, Oregon, Mikamar Publishing, 2006)

Sir W. Scott, Hermetica (England, Solos Press, 1993)

S. Wolinsky, Quantum Consciousness (Bramble Books, 1993)

JOHN GORDON (1946-2013) held a master’s degree in Western Esotericism from the University of Exeter and was a senior fellow of the Theosophical Society of England, where he lectured on ancient history and metaphysics. Known for his in-depth knowledge on the ancient Egyptian mystical tradition, he wrote several books, including The Path of Initiation and Land of the Fallen Star Gods.

{ https://www.newdawnmagazine.com/ }

Zoeken naar aliens: we moeten het doen, maar we weten eigenlijk niet hoe. “De kans dat we buitenaards leven in onze directe omgeving gaan vinden, is héél klein.”

Het Scientias.nl-archief zit vol met ‘pareltjes’: artikelen waar we trots op zijn, die een interessante discussie hebben losgemaakt of waarin mensen aan het woord komen met een vernieuwende en verrassende kijk op wetenschappelijk gerelateerde kwesties. Het is eigenlijk zonde dat die artikelen naarmate de tijd vordert, wat stoffig worden. En dus stoffen we er zo af en toe eentje af en plaatsen ‘m opnieuw. Dit is zo’n ‘gouwe ouwe’. Het artikel verscheen in mei 2017 op de site, maar heeft aan actualiteitswaarde nog niets ingeboet. Enjoy!

Al decennia speuren we met behulp van radiotelescopen naar signalen van buitenaards leven. Zonder resultaat. Misschien zou je bijna gaan vermoeden dat het leven op aarde uniek is. De meeste wetenschappers willen daar echter nog niet aan. Zij kunnen zich onmogelijk voorstellen dat er in een universum gevuld met miljarden hemellichamen maar één planeet is waarop intelligent leven is ontstaan. Ook Heino Falcke, als radioastronoom en astrodeeltjesfysicus verbonden aan de Radboud Universiteit in Nijmegen, acht het bestaan van aliens “aannemelijk”. Maar op de vraag of hij denkt dat er buitenaards leven is, antwoordt hij wat terughoudender. “We moeten het eerst vinden, tot die tijd weten we het gewoon niet.”

Zeldzaam
En het vinden van die aliens: dat blijkt nog niet zo eenvoudig. “Wat is een succesvolle methode om aliens op te sporen? Dat weten we eigenlijk pas als we ze vinden.” Maar dat de radiotelescopen van SETI ondanks dat ze al decennia op zoek zijn naar buitenaardse signalen nog geen succes hebben gehad, wil niet gelijk zeggen dat die methode niet deugt of dat er geen aliens bestaan. “Intelligent leven is zelfs in de geschiedenis van onze planeet een heel zeldzaam verschijnsel,” stelt Falcke. Het lijkt dan ook aannemelijk dat intelligent buitenaards leven ook niet zomaar overal ontspringt. En dus is het zoeken naar een speld in een hooiberg. Die spreekwoordelijk hooiberg is enorm. “Je moet de omvang van het heelal nooit onderschatten.” En op het moment kunnen we zelfs met de krachtigste radiotelescopen in een gegeven periode slechts in een klein hoekje van die hooiberg naar de spreekwoordelijke speld zoeken. “De kans dat we buitenaards leven in onze directe omgeving gaan vinden, is klein,” denkt Falcke. Maar hoe meer planeten en sterren we op steeds grotere afstand van de aarde bestuderen, hoe groter de kans wordt dat het een keer raak is.

“WAAROM ZOU JE WILLEN COMMUNICEREN MET IEMAND DIE ONS WEL KAN BEZOEKEN, MAAR WAAR WIJ NIET NAAR TOE KUNNEN?”

METI
Terwijl SETI in een fractie van dat enorme universum op zoek is naar buitenaardse signalen, gaan er ook stemmen op voor een actievere zoektocht naar leven: METI. METI staat voor Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Het is eigenlijk heel simpel: in plaats van te zoeken naar buitenaardse signalen gaan we zelf radiosignalen uitzenden in de hoop dat aliens die dan opvangen. Falcke is echter niet enthousiast. “Ten eerste denk ik niet dat het wat oplevert. De kans dat iemand dat oppikt, is klein. Ten tweede vind ik het geen goed idee om met heel veel energie echt in de Melkweg bekend te maken dat wij er zijn. Je weet tenslotte nooit wat je tegenkomt.” Want de kans dat aliens de signalen opvangen, is klein, maar weldegelijk aanwezig. En daar krijgt Falcke eerlijk gezegd de bibbers van. “We weten uit de geschiedenis dat een botsing tussen twee beschavingen altijd uitvalt in het voordeel van de beschaving met grotere resources en betere technologieën. In dit geval zou dat de beschaving zijn die de ander kan bezoeken.” En dus lijkt het erop dat we bij voorbaat al aan het kortste eind trekken. “Waarom zou je willen communiceren met iemand die ons wel kan bezoeken, maar waar wij niet naar toe kunnen?” Falcke lijkt er nu al van uit te gaan dat we van aliens geen amicale houding hoeven te verwachten. “Waarom zouden zij beter zijn dan wij? Mensen die dat denken, zijn naïef.”

Aan boord van de beide Voyager-ruimtesondes bevindt zich een boodschap voor aliens. Mocht buitenaards leven de sondes – waarvan er één vermoedelijk al in de interstellaire ruimte is beland – tegenkomen, kunnen ze dankzij de grammofoonplaat onder meer aardse geluiden (wind en vogelzang) horen.

Afbeelding: NASA / JPL.

LOFAR
Maar als SETI – tot op heden – onsuccesvol is en METI ronduit gevaarlijk, hoe moeten we dan verder? Falcke is wel te spreken over Breakthrough Listen, een project waarbinnen met meerdere radiotelescopen naar buitenaardse radiosignalen en laserpulsen wordt gezocht. “Dat is een slimme aanpak.” Maar als Falcke het voor het zeggen had – en een ongelimiteerd budget toegewezen kreeg – zou hij de zoektocht naar aliens toch net wat anders aanpakken. “Ik zou zoiets als LOFAR (een radiotelescoop met duizenden radioantennes, red.) opnieuw gaan bouwen, maar dan groter. En dan de hele hemel doorzoeken.” Met een beetje geluk resulteert het in het oppikken van een buitenaards signaal. “En anders levert het sowieso fantastische wetenschap op.” Maar zo’n LOFAR 2.0 blijft – ondanks dat we in staat zijn om deze te bouwen – voorlopig een hersenspinsel, denkt Falcke. “Voor zoiets heb je miljarden nodig.”

Vragen
Terwijl wetenschappers zich het hoofd breken over hóe we die aliens nu het beste kunnen vinden, rijst wellicht bij jou de vraag waarom we zo nodig op zoek moeten naar buitenaards leven. Falcke kan er kort over zijn: “Het is een bijzonder fundamenteel vraagstuk.” Hij wijst erop dat er wel miljoenen vragen te bedenken zijn die met de ontdekking van buitenaards leven wellicht beantwoord kunnen worden. “Hoe werkt het leven ergens anders? Welke kennis hebben de aliens? Hoe zit hun samenleving in elkaar? Hoe kijken zij naar het heelal of naar religie?” somt Falcke op. “En door naar anderen te kijken, ga je ook nadenken over jezelf.”

“STEL JE STUURT: “IK BEN ER, ZULLEN WE NAAR DE KROEG GAAN?”, DAN BEN JE AL DOOD VOOR JE ANTWOORD KRIJGT”

Communiceren
Om die miljoenen prangende vragen te kunnen beantwoorden, moeten we echter niet alleen buitenaards leven ontdekken, maar ook een manier vinden om ermee te communiceren. En dat is waarschijnlijk een stuk lastiger dan veel mensen – afgaand op sciencefictionfilms – denken, vertelt Falcke. “Waarschijnlijk bevinden aliens zich op grote afstand. Als we een signaal van hen oppikken, is dat misschien al wel 1000 of 10.000 jaar onderweg.” En dus is niet bewezen dat de beschaving die dit signaal uitzond er nog steeds is. “Wie zegt dat wij er over 1000 jaar nog zijn?” En als je dan een signaal terugstuurt, is dat ook weer duizenden jaren onderweg. “Stel je stuurt: “Ik ben er, zullen we naar de kroeg gaan?”, dan ben je al dood voor je antwoord krijgt.”

Falcke was vorig jaar te zien in de documentaire ‘Searching for Aliens‘. De documentaire gaat over vijf mensen die op verschillende manieren zoeken naar buitenaards leven. Je kunt de documentaire online bekijken.

Religie
Maar zelfs als communiceren lastig of onmogelijk is, zal de wetenschap dat aliens bestaan of bestaan hebben, toch verstrekkende gevolgen hebben op aarde? Falcke denkt van niet. “Misschien dat de kranten er de eerste dag vol van staan, maar de volgende dag gaat het leven weer verder. Dat gaat onze beschaving echt niet op zijn kop zetten.” Zelfs religies zouden het bestaan van de alien kunnen overleven, denkt Falcke, zelf christen. “Bijna 900 jaar geleden werd er binnen de kerk al gediscussieerd over het bestaan van andere planeten. En toen werd besloten dat het verboden was om uit te sluiten dat andere werelden bestaan. En een Parijse bisschop voegde er later aan toe dat je niet mocht zeggen dat buitenaards leven niet bestaat. Want zo beperk je de macht van God en je moet God niet voorschrijven wat hij wel en niet mag creëren.”

Aliens zetten de wereld dus niet op hun kop. Anders is dat voor de wetenschappelijke wereld. “Als we ze vinden, leren we ontzettend veel. Dan verdubbelt in één klap het aantal beschavingen in de Melkweg! En misschien vinden we wel leven op planeten waarop we het helemaal niet verwacht hadden.” Een andere optie is natuurlijk dat we geen intelligent, maar eenvoudig buitenaards leven vinden. “Plant- of dierachtigen of eenvoudige cellen,” somt Falcke op. Hij benadrukt dat het vinden van sporen van die levensvormen misschien nog wel lastiger is dan het vinden van intelligent leven. “Daarvoor moet je in de dampkring van planeten kijken en daar heb je heel krachtige telescopen voor nodig.” Met de nieuwe generatie telescopen – zoals de James Webb-telescoop – kunnen we die dampkringen onder de loep gaan nemen, maar grote doorbraken verwacht Falcke nog niet. “De komende decennia verwacht ik dat we zo af en toe horen dat er misschien een aanwijzing voor buitenaards leven is gevonden.” Maar zeker zullen we daar – zonder nog betere telescopen – dus niet van zijn. Dat het zo lastig wordt om aliens te vinden, kan eigenlijk geen verrassing zijn. Neem nou Mars, een planeet waarvan sterk vermoed wordt dat deze ooit leven herbergde. “Deze bevindt zich in de achtertuin en we kunnen de planeet bezoeken en nog weten we niet zeker of er leven is geweest.” Of buitenaards leven bestaat, kan dan ook nog eeuwen een raadsel zijn. “Maar dat raadsel kan ook morgen opgelost zijn.”