Post No. 43: Alien Abduction: A Short Story

This is the story of Gregory Gotchia.  G. Gotchia always had difficulty enjoying the mundane things in life.  He often had things in mind he should be doing, and was nervous about what he might miss.  He envied people who could just sit back and chill.  Some people could relax and seemingly enjoy something as mundane as enjoying the taste of coffee in the morning.  Mr. Gotchia felt he was somehow deficient in this category.  He felt that the more he tried to relax in this way, the more restless he became.

This way of being for him had a sudden turn one evening after sunset. As he walked on the beach overlooking the Gulf along the Southwestern shore of Florida, he felt an uncanny sense of calm.  Each of his steps seemed to flow by itself giving him a strong sense of equanimity. He noticed the sun’s red afterglow shimmering off the water, changing hue as gentle waves rippled ashore.  It was a pleasant but, for him, an eerie feeling. That was the last he remembered from that evening.

The next morning just before the sun rose in the East, he awoke lying on the sand.  Tiny waves lapped at his feet and he could sense the slow brightening of the early dawn.  He had an indescribable sensation that wherever he laid his eyes, or whatever he felt or touched, in that instant it was all there is.  His ability to focus was intense yet fully calm and relaxed.  He felt as if there was an aura of joy at whatever he set his mind on.  Slowly it began to occur to him that there was nothing other than each moment, one endlessly succeeding the other, and that he had never experienced it until now.  As he arose and looked around, his mind began to stir.  He suddenly realized that all he could see and feel, his sense of self, present, past and future, judgements about things, his entire world was a product of his thinking mind.  He realized that there is only this ever-changing moment and there is no separation in the entire world, other than that which the mind creates.  He returned home with an almost joyful focus but also with confusion as to the significance of the transformation that seemed to have happened to him.

Over the next few weeks he began to absorb and expand his appreciation for his newfound perspective.  He began to realize that compassion, that sense of not being separate from the rest of humanity and the world, was a natural and automatic response to the insights from his beach experience.  For example, “self” and “other” are creations of the human mind.  There is no separation in reality.  He did not know fully what to do with all of this new-found inspiration and insight.  Slowly, over time, he began to process the event more fully. For example, he had a patience that allowed him to appreciate the mundane actions he could never capture before.  The examples are numerous.  They are actions as simple as brushing teeth, making breakfast, noticing the flavors of food as he ate, or the graceful flight of pelicans as they glided just inches above the water in the Gulf.  He especially enjoyed chillin’ in the morning with his cup of coffee.  This simple pleasure was something he had not quite experienced before and he was grateful he found it. There was added interest and attention to others.  He  realized that when they speak, it offered a hazy glimpse into the world they create for themselves.  It seemed he also became smarter.  For example, when he read about world and national events, he had a sense that he could see them in a more independent, creative and common-sense way.

He began to walk by that same spot on the beach on his daily walks.  It somehow reinforced his focus and strong sense that each moment is perfect as it is, and imbued him with a clear sense of calm and compassion.  Then, about two months later, he found an eerie writing as he walked past that very spot on the sand where he awoke that fateful morning.  In big letters hand-crafted in the sand, it said …

G. Gotchia would never had known what really happened to him if the MANUAL had not mysteriously appeared. It was a document that recounted and explained his experience.  The MANUAL magically appeared directly in front of him as he walked along the same spot on the beach where he awoke that early morning weeks ago.  Here is what it said:

Manual for Humans on Third Planet from S359R238Q26, Gregory Gatchia Abduction

If you are reading this, then you are one of our chosen ones.  It is not for anything you’ve done, other than being in the right place and at the right time.  It seemed like one night as measured by your planet, but it was more like a year’s worth of experience with us.  You have undergone extensive training.  You feel invigorated and focused right now because for the last year you have had a healthy diet, light physical exercise and, most importantly, exercises for the mind.  We are always amazed at how humans spend so much of their mental activity with so little awareness.  In general most humans are aware of only five percent of their daily thoughts.

You were initially somewhat confused when you were teleported into our ship and into a human-designed training center.  We were able to control your mind such that you believed you were involved in a year-long intensive training, an experience you always wanted.  You came to think of it as a wonderful opportunity, and you bonded with your instructors and fellow students, who were actually robots, but to you indistinguishable from humans. Some of them we made very attractive to give you added zest to participate. One of them you were particularly attracted to.  We were concerned at the beginning that this would derail your training.  Her name was Gia Yufelforia.  She had very attractive, short, salt and pepper hair flowing to her ears, with cute bangs in front.  She had slender arms and legs with small but very noticeable breasts.  We perhaps made her too much to your liking.      

Although we arranged for you to eat well, exercise and sleep soundly, the most important aspect of your training was for your mind.  Even now your scientists, with their very limited knowledge, understand that there is a part of your brain that seems to be always active.  They call this the “default mode network”.   For the first several weeks after you arrived, we gave you mild drugs that calmed this area of your brain.  This allowed you to focus better on the exercises we designed for you.   After two months you no longer needed this artificial boost. You were able to focus naturally at a much higher level. The exercises were all designed to help you greatly sharpen your focus on your senses (taste, touch, hearing, sight, smell), movement and mind.  Some of the exercises were designed to give you the ability to completely relax and still the mind.  This is what led to your insights when you first awoke on the beach, when your thinking was sharp and clear.

You may be wondering why we abduct humans and put them through this training.  We have been doing this for two thousand years.  We realized at that point that humans would eventually develop technology that could destroy most of life on your planet.  So we began to train humans early so they could develop values that would prevent this catastrophic outcome.  Tens of millions have experienced our abductee training. Some we chose because of their positions of influence but most were ordinary humans, like you, from all over your planet.

Our hope is that your species will survive long enough to become multi planetary within your solar system.  You won’t be able to colonize beyond the planets of your own sun until you discover the nature of time.  As a result of your training you have experienced time as  timeless, always experienced in this moment, the endless “now”.  Once you are able to go beyond your inherited concept of time, you will find the secret to interstellar travel within the galaxy.  We hope you might eventually take over some of our duties as guardians of the galaxy, and that will allow us to explore other galaxies.  We have not solved intergalactic travel yet.  This is an immense challenge.  Your nearest star is only four light-years away; the nearest galaxy is 25,000 light years away.  Even though neither of us are able to take our next huge advance, we hope you continue growing in an overall positive direction.

There is one potential danger to your survival that you should be aware of: Artificial Intelligence.  The danger is not from an AI becoming conscious and somehow eliminating the human race.  Rather the danger is from humans themselves and how they use the unprecedented power of AI.  AI will not only create tremendous strides in human-assisting technology, but also new powerful weapons of war that will make nuclear technology seem tame.  It will threaten the very existence of humans on earth.  Already AI is being used in warfare.  AI-powered lethal drone swarms is one example. This is a major challenge of mankind and thus we have greatly increased our abductee training program on your planet.

When you are finished reading this, our MANUAL will disappear before your eyes.  Some of the things we have mentioned will remain in your subconscious, but the insights you had when you woke that early morning on the beach will stay with you for your lifetime.  Please use it for good.  You will continue to remember what you have read here for two minutes after the MANUAL disappears in your hand.  After that you will have no memory of us.  Good luck.

G. Gotchia could not believe what he had just read.  It was mind blowing.  Then he began to panic and realized he had very little time to somehow record what had happened to him.  He quickly knelt down on the sand and wrote “On this spot I was abducted by aliens”.

As G. Gotchia approached the very spot where he awoke that early dawn two months ago, he mysteriously kept thinking of a woman he had no recall of ever meeting.  He pictured an attractive slender woman with salt and pepper hair.  This memory felt strange and eerie because he had no idea where it came from.  It was while he was having this hazy, subconscious daydream about Youfellforia that he experienced an odd chill, with a spooky feel to it.  As he looked down at that fateful place on the beach, he came across some crazy writing obviously carved into the sand in haste.  It said “On this spot I was abducted by aliens”.  G. Gotchia thought to himself, “Some people will believe anything.”