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The gods may be lovers
The classic way for a civilization from outer space to conquer Planet Earth, as we’ve seen in countless movies and TV shows, is to use some ultra-modern form of Earthling-style barbarism. You know, shock and awe us with their ray guns of mass destruction. Blow us up real good.
I see that as same ol’ Earthling mentality dressed up in a different space suit. That was probably my biggest complaint with Star Trek. Technology had advanced at warp speed but humans and all those bad other beings had the same duke-it-out fight mentality we saw in Bonanza.
Why don’t we start thinking out of Idea Jail on this? Let’s conceive of a highly advanced race as perhaps having changed the game plan on visitations. Maybe they conquer (if you want to use that word) via pleasure principles.
Embracing natural ecstasy
Here’s something I don’t hear about much in the mainstream. The term that I first learned came way back in college in the early 70s. Abraham Maslow coined the term “peak experience.”
According to Wikipedia, “Peak experiences are described by Maslow as especially joyous and exciting moments in life, involving sudden feelings of intense happiness and well-being, wonder and awe, and possibly also involving an awareness of transcendental unity or knowledge of higher truth (as though perceiving the world from an altered, and often vastly profound and awe-inspiring perspective). They usually come on suddenly and are often inspired by deep meditation, intense feelings of love, exposure to great art or music, or the overwhelming beauty of nature.”
Later I would come to think of the peak experience as synonymous with ecstasy. This ecstasy has nothing to do with the so-named designer drug, which I never tried.
The overlooked art of ecstasy
I was stunned the other day doing a google search on the term ecstasy. I cruised through the first eleven pages of search results. The first mention of ecstasy in a context other than the so-named synthetic drug came on page five. Wow!
There was a mention of sexual ecstasy on the middle of that page. Underneath it was a reference to a page on religious ecstasy. And then came a shitload more references to the drug as if poor natural ecstasy had been sent out to pasture on forced retirement.
On one hand I know that I could change my search term to be more specific and get closer to what I was seeking, but first I wanted to lament about how pure, sweet, natural ecstasy has gone off the radar. And the farther off the radar something goes, the more the principle out of sight, out of mind applies.
