Prime Time Replay:
Michael Grosso
on The Millennium Myth
MsgId: *high_strange(6)
Date: Tue Nov 12 22:12:14 EST 1996
From: Omni_Productions At: 38.12.124.173
Hello, everyone! Welcome to High Strangeness on Prime Time Live. My name is Patrick Huyghe and our guest this evening is Michael Grosso For more than two decades, Michael Grosso has researched psychic phenomena and the more exotic potentials of humankind. He believes that forces are awakening everywhere propelling humanity to powerful transformation. This is, of course, the subject of his latest book, The Millennium Myth: Love and Death at the End of Time, published by Quest Books and available through OMNI's online bookstore.Michael Grosso is a philosopher. He received his doctorate from Columbia University and has taught at colleges and universities across the New York metropolitan area. His prior books include The Final Choice, Frontiers of the Soul, and Soulmaker. Tonight we will discuss his latest book and the link between anomalous phenomena and the millennium. But first let's begin with a couple of general questions. Michael, the title of your book is The Millennium Myth. Could you tell us what the millennium myth is?
MsgId: *high_strange(8)
Date: Tue Nov 12 22:16:44 EST 1996
From: Michael_Grosso At: 38.12.124.173
The basic idea is that at the end of history we are going to have a final conflict between the forces of good and evil, but in the end all turns out well--there is light at the end of the tunnel. The Millennium Myth is the master myth of the Western world, a vision of total transformation, a hope in regeneration that has influenced our culture in culture in countless ways.
MsgId: *high_strange(15)
Date: Tue Nov 12 22:22:40 EST 1996
From: Moderator At: 206.80.176.39
We've got 3 years, 2 months, 19 days, and less than 2 hours until the year 2000. Isn't this end of the world business just calendar magic?
MsgId: *high_strange(22)
Date: Tue Nov 12 22:28:19 EST 1996
From: Grosso At: 204.255.24.25
Yes, it's magic--but the all-powerful magic of the imagination, which can cause wars, inspire whole peoples, and transform history--exactly as was the case with the American, French, and Russian revolutions.
MsgId: *high_strange(24)
Date: Tue Nov 12 22:29:50 EST 1996
From: Moderator At: 206.80.176.39
Okay. Let's get to anomalous phenomena and how they relate to the millennium. You say that phenomena like UFOs are signs of dramatic forthcoming changes in consciousness or human reality. How so?
MsgId: *high_strange(25)
Date: Tue Nov 12 22:32:11 EST 1996
From: Grosso At: 204.255.24.25
There are many types of apparent anomalies occuring today with implications for the millennium--but you have to look at this stuff symbolically as well as possibly literally. For example, alien abductions--there may be some literal content to these experi3ences, but symbolically they are rife with apocalyptic significance. One example--abduction itself resonates with apocalyptic idea of the rapture that St Paul said would take place at endtime.
MsgId: *high_strange(29)
Date: Tue Nov 12 22:36:41 EST 1996
From: Moderator At: 206.80.176.39
Can you explain this connection you are drawing between UFO abductions and the rapture of the New Testament?
MsgId: *high_strange(31)
Date: Tue Nov 12 22:40:19 EST 1996
From: Grosso At: 204.255.24.25
For thousands of years people in the Christian faith have been expecting the end to come and that this end would be signalled by being physically lifted off the planet, that is, raptured away--now, suddenly, during the late 90s we have these incredible reports of people claiming they are being lifted off the earth into space ships--the structure, the meaning is identical, what changes is the hardware.
MsgId: *high_strange(32)
Date: Tue Nov 12 22:41:13 EST 1996
From: guest At: 199.227.66.125
I dont' view alien abduction as synonymous with the second coming.
MsgId: *high_strange(33)
Date: Tue Nov 12 22:41:49 EST 1996
From: Grosso At: 204.255.24.25
The big question, of course, is, Is this stuff real? Well, real in what sense? It appears we may be confronting a new type of reality that exists between the psychic and the physcial, something Jung called psychoid or imaginal.
MsgId: *high_strange(34)
Date: Tue Nov 12 22:41:59 EST 1996
From: Moderator At: 206.80.176.39
You also find apocalyptic overtones to the recent mania over angels, don't you?
MsgId: *high_strange(35)
Date: Tue Nov 12 22:45:00 EST 1996
From: Grosso At: 204.255.24.25
Two things connect here. First, there is an epidemic of angel reports--real or unreal or what? no matter, what counts for my imaginal reading of these events is that angels in the Bible are said to be signals of approaching endtime.
MsgId: *high_strange(36)
Date: Tue Nov 12 22:47:10 EST 1996
From: Moderator At: 206.80.176.39
So whether these things are real--UFos, angels, etc.--doesn't matter? What matters is that they have a meaning for us. Which is what? That something is about to happen?
MsgId: *high_strange(38)
Date: Tue Nov 12 22:49:23 EST 1996
From: Grosso At: 204.255.24.25
What is about to happen, what the deep collective unconscious seems to want to happen, is a total transformation of human consiciousness.
MsgId: *high_strange(39)
Date: Tue Nov 12 22:50:31 EST 1996
From: Moderator At: 206.80.176.39
But what is the timing of this total transformation of consciousness? Isn't it a gradual thing?
MsgId: *high_strange(40)
Date: Tue Nov 12 22:52:47 EST 1996
From: Grosso At: 204.255.24.25
What is the timing of dreams? Who is scheduling this transformation? How can we really try to answer this question without making fools of ourselves?
MsgId: *high_strange(41)
Date: Tue Nov 12 22:54:29 EST 1996
From: Moderator At: 206.80.176.39
And then there are crop circles...you compare them to the monolith in the film 2001..how are they a tool for cosmic awakening?
MsgId: *high_strange(42)
Date: Tue Nov 12 22:56:31 EST 1996
From: Grosso At: 204.255.24.25
They seem to work by shocking our reality sense, by opening our idea of what is possible, by terrifying us into humility, and possibly, in some cases, by triggering unknown mechanisms that may be mutating our psychic sensitititiviites.
MsgId: *high_strange(43)
Date: Tue Nov 12 22:58:31 EST 1996
From: Moderator At: 206.80.176.39
You speak of mutating, transformation, light at the end of the tunnel...what is this leading to exactly? What are all these things signs or portents of?
MsgId: *high_strange(44)
Date: Tue Nov 12 23:01:40 EST 1996
From: Grosso At: 204.255.24.25
I think that the best model for working with these phenomena is evolutionary. After all, we don't really know how evolution takes place--what we need to adapt to the next millenium are new attitudes toward each other, new faculties of perception. Anomalies like, for example, the near-death experience seem to accomplish just that, a total overhauling of the human being, a new capacity to relate, a wider awareness--the rest will take care of itself.
MsgId: *high_strange(45)
Date: Tue Nov 12 23:03:04 EST 1996
From: Moderator At: 206.80.176.39
Have your own experiences with the anomalous led you to these conclusions or do they come from your studies and readings?
MsgId: *high_strange(46)
Date: Tue Nov 12 23:05:23 EST 1996
From: Grosso At: 204.255.24.25
Both. In my book Soulmaker, I recount a series of experiences, a ufo encounter, encounter with the dead, precognition, out of body experience, etc. -- all this has opened me to far greater possibilities. Also, my model of our evolutionary potential is in part based on my study of the saints.
MsgId: *high_strange(47)
Date: Tue Nov 12 23:06:27 EST 1996
From: Moderator At: 206.80.176.39
Thank you, Michael. I highly recommend your fascinating, well-written book The Millennium Myth, available through OMNI's online bookstore. That's all for High Strangeness tonight, but everyone is welcome to stick around for the open chat that follows. For High Strangeness, this is Patrick Huyghe. Goodnight!
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