Universal Correspondence to the Outer Rim; a Cry for Help
Transmission 1; 23:19:00 UTC
20 September, 2018
To the great unknown,
I believe there has been a terrible mistake. Thirty two years ago I opened my eyes for the first time on this planet, what its inhabitants call “Earth”. I cried out, as human babies do when they are born. Most are reacting to the cold air and the bright light so suddenly forced upon them and so utterly unknown in the warm, dark womb but my cries betrayed another discomfort. In that instant, it seems, my memory was erased and all that remained was a tiny beam of hope, a warm fuzzy feeling that somewhere in this universe or at some time immemorial, life made sense. That beam of hope is fading, is almost invisible now, after all these years of life down here. Had my memory not been erased so unfortunately, I might know why I’m here and remember what the mission was, or at the very least know where to send correspondence should I get stuck. Well, I’m stuck and this is a general cry for help from my position down on this planet to yours somewhere else. I would add that in my time here I have gotten to know many humans well and even have a deep connection and love for several, so this call is on behalf of this planet and all of its inhabitants, not just me.
There seems to be a great lack of imagination here, which I don’t really have the language to understand or describe. I feel it too, in fact. I have memories of a time when I could still imagine. Oh how I wish I could remember what I imagined then. My thoughts transcended this world, perhaps I was recalling my other life, before I was born here; I suppose it’s possible that the memory-erasure process missed a few spots that day. I remember when I was old enough to form my own opinions and observe feelings. I may not remember what my mission was but I guess it had something to do with asking questions, because I started questioning everything when this body was very young. It was that feeling, leftover from birth, of discomfort. I felt something deep down pulling me somewhere, to a place unknown, pulling me back home. I never really felt home here, despite trying.
These humans can’t seem to decide what they want and that makes them a fairly miserable bunch on a given day and a constant danger to themselves and all other forms of life here. Sure, many claim to be happy but when they have to define what that is their words often stumble, unsure of such lofty claims. The answers always seem to fall in the same vicinity: good job, enough money (food and shelter), time with family, healthy body. Yet each one of these things causes the human a great deal of anxiety and unhappiness on many occasions. Even in their happiest moments, they worry about losing it all. Earthly joy is tempered in this way, but it goes further. What I have observed, and this goes back to their stifling lack of imagination, is that even when a source of unhappiness or a problem is understood, the humans continue along their current path unquestioningly. In my time here and through many deep investigations of this world, I have often (even after making some progress) been shut down in a conversation with some form of “that’s just the way it is”. It’s the catch-all human response for retreating from a point of discomfort so vague and undefined to them that they run back to whatever they know, even if it is killing them and their planet.
I’ll provide an example. I already mentioned jobs and money as sources of happiness in this world but that is confusing. What really makes humans happy seems to be surviving comfortably without having to worry about how that is going to happen. Instead of simply doing that with their vast numbers and ubiquitous knowledge and power over this planet, they have instituted several layers of meaningless pursuit that stand in between, which can be reduced to “jobs and money”. This has the effect of placing their collective happiness in a glass box just out of reach. They can see the prize but can never embrace it and so they scurry around every day to their jobs always in pursuit of their elusive dreams. When I have in my investigations, questioned this arrangement, I am met with the same version of the aforementioned response, that money is required for eating and a job is required for money. From my vantage, and I’m guessing from yours as well, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The thing is, with these humans, they aren’t a universally-unimaginative species. At times throughout their history, they have employed tremendous imagination to conjure incredible fictions out of thin air. When one of these fictions is adopted, it’s as if the memory of its creation is forgotten and it goes from a fiction to non. Money, it seems, is just another example but there are countless others: religion, racism, power, politics, nations, patriarchy, even their notion of what “humanity” means. They just keep on chasing that glass box, no matter how much complaining they do about their job or this or that situation or person in the meantime.
The contradictions on this planet are immeasurable and seemingly impossible to cut through. This is the state of desperation in which I find myself writing this request for assistance or extraction. The beam of hope that you left me with when I first occupied this body has been dimmed by the dissonance of these humans. This planet needs a universal intervention or it is surely doomed. Only a massive and immediate shift will save the humans now and I’m afraid I have hit a wall. I am afraid I have failed a mission that I cannot recall. I am afraid and I need help. This planet and these people need help.
I hope this reaches the right place in the right time.
Standing by for further instruction.
Universally misplaced being,
RA-011086
Transmission 2; 03:00:15 UTC
21 September, 2018
To the great unknown,
Yesterday I reported on the plight of my investigations here on the planet Earth. While I stand by its content, I realize that my report made mention of several ideas that are core to the human culture here, but perhaps not understood broadly across the starry infinity of the universe. I will attempt to explain these various peculiarities in the most common way that I can in order that I may inspire a more universal understanding of this planet’s grave predicament. It is my most sincere hope that through these reports a tempest of cosmic forces might be condensed and brought down onto this planet with all the swiftness the solar winds can muster, for time is running low here.
Allow me to start by clarifying the subjects of my first report: jobs and money. The humans long ago instituted a system that governs everything they do, to the point that it is nearly impossible for one to survive otherwise. This is despite their biological survival needs, which are entirely unrelated but now utterly dependent on that system. Most now spend their days at “jobs” huddled in front of glowing computer screens in small enclosed cubes or around tables with others where they work on nothing of actual consequence to themselves, their families, or their planet and in exchange for their wasted time, they receive money. I mentioned many human fictions, which I will get to, but money is perhaps the greatest one of these as it has become omnipresent on this planet. Essentially, each human agrees to exchange their time and labor for this money which can then be exchanged for what they need to survive biologically — food and shelter — as well as a bunch of other items that are completely irrelevant. To understand the full futility of this situation, it must be understood that the time and labor exchanged for money could very simply be used on the pursuit of their survival, which would increase not only the pleasure they derive from work but also their leisure time considerably. This truth is ignored, and given that the fiction of money is now so fundamental to human life on this planet, the human believes that survival by any other means would come at horrendous consequence to their comfort. Nevermind that their current means of survival comes at horrendous consequence to their environment, enjoyment of life, health, and understood purpose.
This pursuit of comfort via money making has implications that go beyond the miserable individual human because throughout the history of this fiction humans have used money as a tool with which to accumulate another fiction called power. They have then used this accumulated power to inflict great harm on other people with less power. This relationship has been maintained for millenia, being called different names at different times but always resulting in a deeper pool of human misery. Power, like money, depends on the unfailing faith of humans, including those that do not hold it. It takes everyone to believe that they are either powerful or powerless for the system to work. Power, like money, can’t really be physically held as it does not physically exist. Like money, which can be represented by a physical symbol, power has a few physical manifestations as well, usually in the form of weapons. Power, like money, does not actually exist but it has actual physical consequences for humans. This is one of the paradoxes that I have observed on this planet. The humans have such a profound lack of understanding for the depths of their own imaginations, that they can actually manifest misery and harm to one another without ever touching or even meeting. This power is so insidious that now harm can be inflicted across the entire planet without even being intentional.
I suppose a clarification is in order regarding the human imagination. In my first report, I observed the humans suffering from a “great lack of imagination” when what they really suffer from is a great lack of understanding of the power held in their imaginations. The history of these humans has shown many times over that their imaginations can be harnessed to manifest harm and suffering out of thin air across their world. If that’s true, then the inverse should also be true but few humans have ever posed this and the ones that do are often sidelined as radical or labelled insane. In reality, given the ample evidence that exists here, the humans could collectively manifest happiness and meaning just as easily as they now manifest misery and meaninglessness.
To conclude this report, I will say unequivocally, that there is beauty here. This planet, and even humanity is worth saving. There are those of us who believe this and fight for a better future. We claim a banner of resistance but even we are caught up in the very things we resist. Our resistance therefore becomes yet another fiction to believe in, another fabricated purpose in an existence otherwise void of such a thing. We are merely providing a counterpoint to those that we resist, often the so-called powerful. Our fight only strengthens the fiction of power and keeps us from manifesting a different future. But there is beauty in our struggle. There is art here, and love. The seeds for a renewed humanity are already planted but we seem to be unable to cultivate the soil around them sufficiently that they may find root and grow. It could be said that even we cannot agree on what that renewed humanity should look like because of all the competing fictions in our world. Even us humans with the most love, passion, and resolve to bring about a happier world fail to imagine one that is truly different and not just some mild improvement on the current one. We are still moving in the same direction, towards money, towards comfort, instead of seeing the folly in this path. I see no route to our own redemption that does not involve an external intervention. We must be knocked off this path, all at once, to see that there is another way.
I will send further correspondence soon.
The cosmically confused,
RA-01101986
Transmission 3; 13:30:24 UTC
10 October, 2018
To the great unknown,
Three weeks have passed here on Earth since my last correspondence. In my own Earthly pursuits, I failed to write this sooner. My failure can be seen as nothing but human, as we are so prone to lose sight of what’s actually important in the midst of our egocentric lives down here. I am not even sure how to begin to report on the latest in the saga of humanity’s twilight. A few days ago, it was confirmed that we are indeed out of time on this planet. The relentless pursuit of money and power in the name of comfort that I described in my last report has finally brought us to the brink. The planet cannot support us much longer, that much we know. However, because of the human’s unwillingness to change their reality, those with the most money and power are now gleefully allowing the clock to run out and even continuing to speed up the rate of their own demise, actually believing that their wealth and power will save them somehow.
This news came on the heels of the confirmation that the most powerful government on this planet is no longer functioning for either its people or the planet. Many of us have known this to be the case for a long time already, but as of this week it has been made official and public. There is no more doubt, there can’t be any doubt, in anyone’s mind that we’re in grave danger and yet, most people are still living daily as though there is no need to worry. The fictions seem to be impenetrable even in the face of certain doom. I have very little else to say today, other than please send help immediately. These humans must be made aware of the true nature of their reality in this universe or their story is about to come to a violent end. I cannot guarantee any more correspondence at this time though some part of me remains hopeful. That feeling you left me with, it’s still there deep-down inside of me. I still occasionally feel its warmth and believe that its light will rise and shine brightly again.
Allow me to close this report with a final thought. This language I am using, English, is a funny one. Many of its words and phrases can have multiple meanings and are open to the interpretation of the reader or listener, regardless of what the writer or speaker intended. I used such a word earlier; twilight, which describes the time of day when the sun is just below the horizon. When I typed “humanity’s twilight” my intention was that our sun had already set and the last rays of our glow would soon dim into complete darkness, which I believe to be very likely. However, there is another interpretation that I would be remiss not to acknowledge. Twilight not only describes the moments right after the sun has set, but also those before it rises. The glow of its light begins to appear along the eastern horizon each morning and intensifies until the sun finally crests and rises into the sky of a new day. It is unclear to me whether humanity’s glow is fading, or about to rise into something new as my cosmic clock is quite disoriented and dysfunctional on this planet—I have no idea whether it’s sunrise or sunset for humanity. I’ll have to leave my assessment of twilight for your interpretation, my reader, the great unknown.
Have we burned out, or are we just about to wake up?
The disoriented and timeless insomniac,
RA-01101986
