Singer David Bowie is well known for the allusions to his extra-planetary experiences throughout his career. After the release of his newest album, The Next Day, which was recorded largely in secret over the last two years, the singer’s fans have been reminded somewhat of the esoteric facets of this famous and, at times, odd musician. One critic has already called the album’s sudden appearance and rise to the top of the charts as being, “the greatest comeback in rock’n'roll history.” But perhaps rising amidst the British pop charts isn’t the only kind of takeoff Bowie has experienced throughout his life.
Indeed, at various times throughout his career, Bowie has claimed (albeit somewhat tongue in cheek) to be a space alien who “fell to Earth” with a band of arachnids from the Red Planet as costars on stage, in addition to having had a lesser-known UFO encounter of his very own.
In the following excerpt from Peter R. Koenig’s book, “The Laughing Gnostic: David Bowie and the Occult”, Bowie not only speaks about a shared UFO encounter from his younger years, but also speculates about the holographic nature of reality he perceived in relation to the sighting:
[An] interviewer asked [Bowie] about what he thought UFO’s might be, and he said something like (paraphrased), “A friend and I were travelling in the english countryside when we both noticed a strange object hovering above a field. From then on I have come to take this phenomona seriously. I believe that what I saw was not the an object, but a projection of my own mind trying to make sense of this quantum topological doorway into dimensions beyond our own. It’s as if our dimension is but one among an infinite number of others.”
Bowie was Ahead of his Time?
This is indeed a fascinating statement, as it not only highlights the singer’s own profound thought processes, but also clearly illustrates a very deep thought process underlying his perspective on the apparent strange phenomenon he had been witnessing. And yet, in years that would follow, ufologists the likes of Jacques Vallee would similarly muse, as Carl Jung had done before him, that perhaps some UFO sightings had more to do with the individual seeing the craft, and that person’s interpretation of the physical phenomenon they were seeing.
Spiders from Mars? Perhaps not… but “quantum topological doorway” is still plenty fodder for the mind… or musician, in this case.
Image by Adam Beilawski via Wikimedia Commons GNU Free Documentation License.
“Time takes a cigarette, …puts it in your mouth.
You pull on your finger, then another finger, then your cigarette.
…
Whoa, whoa whoa whoa, you’re a rock and roll suicide”.
One of my favorite artists of all time. I did listen to the albumn at full volume like it suggested…with head between speakers.
“YOU’RE NOT ALONE…JUST TURN ON AND BE…”
Great to see him back in form. Amazing musician and apparently more going on than we knew
Be still my heart !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fHoMw8tCzo
“… was not the an object, but a projection of my own mind trying to make sense of this quantum topological doorway into dimensions beyond our own…” very interesting yes! and i’d not heard naught about this sighting before, thank you Mr. Hanks! it’s making me think, but i’m on the run and my thoughts are disordered….i will want to drop in with ordered thots later i hope!
fhwew, he sure favors an old boyfriend of mine who i haven’t seen in years, it’s disconcertin’. I wish i was half as good looking as some of my old beaux, that much i know! have fun, steph
Hey Micah, Hmmm—”quantum topological doorway into dimensions beyond our own,” indeed! good catch…
between the vaccuum and the washing machine…
“…I believe that what I saw was not the an object, but a projection of my own mind trying to make sense of this quantum topological doorway into dimensions beyond our own…”
I like the turn of phrase here (hello, lyricist) but even more the concept expressed. While most people take ‘my mind projected…’ to mean something like ‘it was my imagination’, Bowie’s saying that when confronted with the unimaginable his mind dealt with the utter alien-ness of the experience by ‘filling in the blanks’. In other words, he saw something, but it is hiding behind the image generated by his mind…altho he has a strong sense of what that original ‘something’ was.
I’ve often wondered what long-time practitioners of mindfulness meditation would experience in a similar situation, as the practice consists of learning to ‘unlearn’ the automatic labels and judgements we put onto all the ‘culturally deemed relevant’ stimuli in our environments. Even in my own limited experience i’ve found it’s quite possible to scrub away at all these automatic perceptions.
It would be interesting to compare reports by practitioners to those of non-practitioners, or even to see if repeat experiencers would be interested in practicing to see how that effects their contacts.
Meanwhile, the laundry….steph