UFOs and Aliens / Working with Negative Feelings

Author, journalist and TV personality Nick Pope ran the British Government's UFO project at the Ministry of Defense. In the first half, he spoke about his new video project, Indistinguishable From Magic, and issues raised in the documentary, such as how alien contact will transpire. He takes the title from one of sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke's three "laws" about the future-- "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Though Pope appears as an expert on many TV shows, he pursued doing his own documentaries as a way to get his views out in a more full-fledged manner. The film presupposes that we are being visited by aliens and then examines what some of the consequences of that may be.

He believes that our generation will be the first to experience official "first contact." Rather than the public erupting with fear and panic over the announcement, Pope suspects many will have more of an 'I told you so,' response. Our priority, he suggested, should be to keep an open-minded and non-aggressive attitude in communications with aliens (they likely have superior weapons they could unleash upon us if we tried to attack, he noted). We may be dealing with a "largely post-biological universe," he added, where beings are blended with machines, or even exist as a form of machine consciousness. He also commented on the latest UFO-related stories, such as the 'Storm Area 51' petition, which he considers foolhardy, and Congressman Mark Walker's letter to the Secretary of the Navy inquiring about UFOs. Other congresspeople have expressed interest in a briefing, he added, and President Trump has commented twice on the UFO issue in the last couple of weeks.

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In the latter half, psychologist Dr. Joan Rosenberg shared her therapeutic approach, showing how dealing with intense, overwhelming, or uncomfortable feelings is essential to building confidence, emotional strength, and resilience. To be able to experience and move through unpleasant feelings, one needs to first recognize the specific body sensations that are associated with them, such as butterflies in the stomach, she explained. Typically, people want to avoid these body sensations, but she developed a technique to allow her clients to physically stay with them (usually they dissipate after 90 seconds). She's found that with eight different emotions-- sadness, shame, helplessness, anger, vulnerability, embarrassment, disappointment, and frustration-- each has its physical counterpart in the body.

Rather than avoiding or disconnecting from these feelings, she believes that staying aware and "riding the wave" of pain or unpleasantness helps build emotional strength. Another concept she delved into is "disguised grief," which she characterized as unresolved trauma or a gap in expectations, and this can take the form of resentments and grudges. Rosenberg pointed out that the voice of self-criticism can be damaging, and it's important to speak assertively-- confidence comes hand-in-hand as we speak out with good intention, she stated.

News segment guests: Jerome Corsi, John M. Curtis