In addition, there is often an image of a human being within the light; this image seems to tell a story within the common viewing-there's an assumption that the person is about to be 'taken aboard' the UFO, or abducted. There is even a tendency to convey the 'dazed' feelings of the person in the light beam-sometimes the body is thrown backwards as if it has been struck, and I've even found images on comic book covers with question marks above the person's head. In line with the idea that the UFO and light beam is a mushroom, this may actually represent our relationship to mushrooms and altered, atypical mind state that are associated.

Viewed objectively, this image at once certainly communicates a close, intertwined relationship between the object (the mushroom) and the human.

Looking at other features within a cryptobotanical hypothesis, many things come to light and fit. The language we use to signify aliens is curious. The term "little green men" is still used, not just by the general population, but even within ufology at times. For whatever reason, that term stuck, even though now, our image of a fully evolved alien is not green, and is even called by a different color, a 'gray.' Grays are green? Why do we still hold on to this?

This may be important somehow, for us to continue an open dialogue about the green men, or-the Green Man, the mythological figure which is a hybrid of human and plant, a bridge incorporating both natures. Of course it fits within the cryptobotanical hypothesis too-(it rather must, since the mushroom is the alien/little green men…) as the mushroom is literally a similar bridge between worlds, being neither plant nor animal.

But in what space could all this be taking place? Within the psychedelic philosophies and experience, there's an idea that substances allow the brain to tune into another channel of reality. Perhaps a plant/mushroom consciousness has its own sensory organs or information, or its own internal existence that we are not normally privy to-something that may be so foreign we can only comprehend it by comparison to our dreams or imagination.

Perhaps the plant consciousness is internal, and ours is external. Could this account for our lack of understanding of each other? We have to meet in a liminal space-a Twilight Zone of sorts, to communicate. This may explain the high strangeness involved with UFOs and aliens, and overall Trickster quality of the experiences.

Even if this cryptobotanical hypothesis has any validity, and we now have a place to start to discover 'what' aliens are, it doesn't necessarily mean any further answers can be had immediately. The liminal space between waking and sleep, between internal and external, between plant mind and animal mind seems to be a place not yet comfortable, and not yet really even necessarily describable. The only true melding of the two seems to be within the psychedelically induced state itself, and that of course is rife with political and social issues.

A note here: The ideas contained in this article are meant to be speculations only, and perhaps an area to explore new ideas. Also, I do not intend this as an 'apology,' or mean to exempt myself from intellectual responsibility, but I want to state that I do not necessarily 'believe' aliens are evolved mushrooms. It's simply an idea that popped in my head once, and I began to see how the idea actually fit well with many aspects of ufology.

Sources:
Access Intelligence, Mimicry, http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEPC/WWC/1995/mimicry.html
UFO Info, The Magonia Database, http://www.ufoinfo.com/magonia/magonia.shtml
The Archaic Revival, Terrence McKenna, isbn 0062506137
Food of the Gods, Terence McKenna, isbn 9780553371307
Supernatural, Graham Hancock
Image credit: 'Mushrooms' by Hans S. via flickr.com/creative commons license

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