@luminous Hi again: I was using the expression paradigm shift differently: specifically to describe how our current perceptions and beliefs about life and the universe are all beginning to shift. What IS reality?
In describing experiencers' encounters, Pasulka notes that one person will report seeing an alien while their spouse or a neighbor might report seeing the Archangel Michael. Someone standing right next to both of them might see nothing. As you capture well, the phenomenon is obviously more complicated than little grey men from somewhere else.
@jeanne's vision that humans are " containers taking in the energies of other humans and the rest of the universe" also resonates strongly with me.
On that last note, let me add a quote from Nobel Prize winning physicist Max Planck:
"As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clearheaded science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about the atoms this much: There is no matter as such! All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particles of an atom to vibration.. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind is the matrix of all matter."
Planck also said: "I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness..."
Planck won his Nobel over 100 years ago (1918).
I'm neither a mathematician nor a physicist. But as an interested layperson, I have for some time gotten the strong sense that modern science is getting closer and closer to ancient spiritual cosmology. They use different words/math/metaphors but I believe they are trying to describe the same thing. Or are at least circling around it.
Enough! I'm giving myself a headache. LOL.
One thing is certain: we're all on a magical mystery tour.