My Aunt Esther and I had some wonderful conversations over the years about philosophy, religion and life. When she passed away in 2010, those conversations became fond memories and I can recall many of them which keeps her memory alive for me. She would have been 93 this year and my grandmother would have been 101 years old. We spent many evenings around her kitchen table conversing and playing cards when my aunt and uncle would come and visit from Baltimore periodically. The topics were many ranging from family to life and philosophy.

One evening the topic was our origin. Where did we come from? Obviously there are two schools of thought that have been mainstream for centuries. The first idea was that we were evolved from lower forms of life a la Charles Darwin theories. The second idea was God created us magically from the earth and breathed life into us. That evening we speculated about a third concept which stemmed from recent movies and the best seller Ehrich von Daniken's "Chariot of the Gods". The proposition was that humanity is proof of extraterrestrial life because we are extraterrestrial ourselves.If you would indulge me this morning, I would like to engage you in a thought experiment and lead you on a brief speculative journey. At the end, you can disagree with me or agree, but just open your mind to the possibilities. Asking "what if?" is one of the best things we can do for our imaginations and we may decide at the conclusion the flow of thoughts leads to nonsense, but sometimes we can make breakthroughs. Now that this disclaimer is out of the way, what do I mean?What if we humans are not native species of this planet but were placed here by beings from another dimension or planet as a science experiment? One in which we have been periodically visited by our caretakers which would explain the cyclical nature of UFO sightings and alien encounters. Supposedly these encounters peak every 20 years. Could it be these encounters stem from being looked in upon by our "masters?" Perhaps the Bible which is claimed to be the inspired word of God is in actuality a veiled book of history describing visits with our handlers and their intervention on this planet.For example, the book Ezekiel vividly describes a vision in which he sees a "wheel in a wheel" in the middle of the air. This heavenly vision is cited by von Daniken and others as possible evidence of an early close encounter. None of us will really know for sure, but it sure does seem possible to me.Today, I am really not sure whether extraterrestrial life has visited this planet. Some stories and accounts strengthen the possibility in my mind, but just as many accounts refute the idea of ET visitations on this planet. What is intriguing is the notion that perhaps the "extraterrestrial life" that we seek is not from the stars at all. What if those sightings are from another dimension? What if someone has learned to "thin" the veil between our dimension and theirs? Could it be that we are being visited by our counterparts from a higher plane of existence? Or is it just our imaginations?I find it hard to believe that everyone has had an encounter with "aliens" was just daydreaming or mistaken. I think somewhere there is substance in the stories our fellow humans relate about their encounters with UFOs. It is possible however that rather than these aliens being from somewhere else, they are instead the altered memories of individuals who have encountered them. Could our "alien encounters" be instead encounters with officials who do not want their presence and true study known?As the field of physics continues to advance, one could even speculate these beings are neither alien nor altered memories, but instead they are from other dimensions who have somehow managed to crack the veil between planes of existence. The interesting part of this theory is there would be no way for us to know this let alone find a way to explain it.For example in the book Flatland, a wonderful novella by Edwin Abbott about a square who visits Lineland and tries to convince them that Flatland, a world of two dimensions exists. The one dimensional world refuses to accept this revelation. The Square then travels to the third dimension and sees Flatland as three dimensional beings perceive it. Yet the Flatlanders refuse to believe in the sphere and the third dimension even though secretly they discuss its possible existence. The Square ends up imprisoned for preaching the blasphemy of three dimensions and spends the rest of its days trying to convert others to his revelatory beliefs.Could this satire have some kernel of truth for us? Is it possible that while we can see length, width, depth we cannot see in the dimension of time? We acknowledge time, but we only experience it linearly and not instantly. We really have no way of knowing if there is a fourth dimensional being who can completely control and manipulate our existences simply because he has this extra knowledge that exists externally to our existence. But the possibility to me is an intriguing one.We really have no answers to these questions and if I reached my goal today, I may have created more questions about our existence. What do you think?Til next time…