[sunbug]

One other thought on transcendence, also related to this UFO subject…

Norland mentions how the quality of transcendence escapes the prison of language.

That is the feeling, I always had from reading Joe Campbell, the understanding of coming to that threshold of experience, where there are no words…where it is the experience itself which “speaks to the soul.” And the mystery…the place where all drops away.
Sometimes I wanted to challenge Campbell concerning this…not Transcendence but the “need to define.”

The other part of his works were discussing the traps and fallacies of concretization missing the transformative power of the metaphor…concretization often based in stricter religious tenets, which probably reflect the idea of the “Thou Shalt Dragon”  or “Thou aren’t worthy dragon” and Thou must believe or go to Hell.
So an escape from that type of concretization is understandable!
Yet if one is standing at the threshold or gate or experiencing a transcendent moment beyond words…or definition…

Is it not also a kind of “concretism,” to define “what cannot be,” when facing Mystery?

If definitions drop away, then how can one define Mystery?
Perhaps that’s why Jung remains mysteriously ambiguous in regards to UFOs. Maybe he enjoys hovering in that in-between place.
So I always wondered with the emphasis on transparency to transcendence….

how can one be so certain of What Is Not? If one falls into the place of experience beyond definitions?

I think you have said Stephen,  that Campbell protested too much in regards to metaphysics?  But I wonder if  for his chosen path he needed grounding?  My guess is he made that crossroad a long time ago.

It is interesting  too calling something unidentified leaves it open…it is not a direct definition…and even the change from object to phenomena is curious too…ball lightning is a phenomena…so UFO can be simultaneously a perceived object or a perceived event.

Also interesting Norland has just addressed this in his latest entry in the discussion.

My Mother (an Astronomer) saw some unusual “phenomena” both naked eye and through telescope but could only describe what she observed. She never pinned it down beyond referencing her viewings as unidentified. A big round light going behind a mountain (not the sun)…and…
I remember seeing a line of lights that stayed in one place for about 30 mins before moving in night sky. That one peaked my Mother’s interest.

But in reference to  your mention of different technology Norland…more earth related, what of Nikola Tesla?

It seems his name will occasionally crop up in relation to both tech and UFO phenomena.

(the irony is if Campbell so chose today…there are enough camps of perspectives to create whole new seeds of mythology/imagination in relation to UFOs! Even if counted as 20th Century/21 Century Folk Belief)