I first heard about Jeremy Vaeni because he was mentioned in a version of a paper that Jeff Kripal delivered at the Corbin Conference at the CSWR at Harvard. That gave him credibility for me. I’m a sucker for academic references. They are an epistemological touchstone for people like me who have been indoctrinated by Education. This is mostly a good thing, but it ought to be taken with a bit of skepticism. Anyway, I started reading his books. I would not otherwise have gotten very far because his style is decidedly not academic. It is barely even serious. But his humor and self-effacing style kept me reading because he was writing about his own experiences with bizarre and impossible events, including “alien abductions” and he was saying that almost everyone gets it all wrong. And Kripal took him seriously.
So I persevered. Eventually I got to Urgency . That’s the one to read I think. At a certain point in that book I, very briefly, got it. He was saying that the real Awakening that is somehow the point of all this high strangeness, including the entire UFO business and much else besides, requires the shutdown of the entire human cognitive apparatus. There is nothing that we have ever, or will ever, be able to think or believe that is anywhere near close to the reality of the universe. The world is indeed stranger than we can suppose. Our cognitive abilities are optimized by evolution to keep our animal bodies alive on this planet. But “consciousness” is Cosmic, and our tiny little brains cannot give us access—we already have it at another level entirely. You should read his book.
So I invited him to our class and he visited with us in real time for, I think, three sessions. I found him compelling, serious, funny, and genuine. He is totally convinced of the truth of his vision and this can make him a bit absolutist at times, which turned off some of the folks in the class. And I have to say that despite my attraction to his ideas I am far more inclined to posit a plurality of potential “explanations” for the wide range of weird phenomena than he seems to be. But, like Krishnamurti, who he often cites with approval, he has absolutely no desire to start a church or a cult or to amass a following. His point is the gnostic claim that he shares with Henry Corbin and many others: you cannot see the truth of what he is saying except through your own experience. No one can teach it. No one can prove it. No one can convince you. You must do it on your own. This is to me the guarantee of his genuineness. I guess it doesn't guarantee the truth of his claims, but it sure does guarantee his sincerity. He is not out for himself, but for others. His only desire is to help other people see what he has seen.
His ideas now permanently haunt me, always hovering somewhere in the background. I think he must be fundamentally right. This is why I’m so focussed on the unknowable, and the Impossible. A persistent, quiet sense of utter mystery goes back to my early childhood and is the setting for all the philosophy and science with which I filled my life. He speaks to that weird accompaniment that haunts the everyday world.
Unlike many of those who get all the publicity, Jeremy is not really a riveting speaker, and his extremely extensive Youtube offerings are a bit uneven. It’s useful to pick and choose according to your interests. But he is truly worth paying attention to. His video series CULTURE OF CONTACT promises to be really interesting as a very personal account of his bizarre life-experiences and what they may mean for humanity. That’s a huge claim, but if you take any of this seriously—all of this bizarre high strangeness, high weirdness, paranormal, UFO, Impossible Encounters material, then I think you really ought to check in with him now and then. He is perhaps not entirely alone in saying these things, but it’s a lonely voice. In a way, he is one of the most skeptical voices I know of in all this bizarre world of Impossible events. And that in itself is really important.
Yes, I agree: Urgency spells out something so very important and urgent. Am a fan of Culture of Contact videos which is live-streamed too. Thank you for introducing us to Jeremy Vaeni: a voice crying in the wilderness indeed!
Interesting. I actually was very surprised you veered into this lane after reading so much of your Corbin material. I have not attended your seminars. I am an experiencer as well. Not like alien abductions or ufo sightings. I had my own internal Awakening and somehow I was connected to some really weird people as I looked to integrate my experience. What you say about needing to find your own way I can totally relate to. I suppose on the level of the imaginal I can see how you got here. It’s all high weirdness. I watched a lot of Jeremy’s content. Eh. I like his skeptical approach. I have been in contact with a man named Dan Smith who is friends with an intelligence agent apparently, Ron Pandolfi. These two names are part of the UFO canon on the Internet. Dan is an eschatologist, former physicist. You can find info about these guys out there. They have a story, called the CORE story. Which I don’t buy. You wanna talk about weird, I’m about to hit you with the weirdest stuff ever. I’ve mentioned your work to them often over the years. Anyway, they claim that 3 visitors have come to earth, one came in a pod, she’s a princess. She is the queen of the hive. And portals are going to open up and allow folks to travel to this hive. It’s weird creepy stuff I have stayed far away from. We write on a forum called Openminds Forum. I’ll leave it there. I don’t know what the hell is what here. I’m way out of my depth.