... so I guess we got to places that I normally don't go :) what did you find most interesting as it relates to things you're thinking about?
I just completed my walk and my third run through of the interview with your question in mind. Interestingly, this third run through rendered my post above as obsolete.
So here's what came through, but first, I now "get" the "evil is a lens" thing. Why now and not before? Interestingly, a real good night sleep and just the perfect amount of coffee and the all important component of "mind state" converged where I now have new clarity. In fact, I now understand far better than ever before
why you get so amped up!
It all comes through at exactly this point of the interview - 36:55 when you (Alex) dive into your interview with Dr. Hugh Urban to extract a particular moment of disagreement as to what is
actually most important. Emphasis on "most" - Yes, belief matters. Yes, beliefs may very well impact the forms of manifestation of the observed reality... but what has to be handled
first (and I now get it... you mean, universally handled as in "settled" as in "settled science" but even more... settled with regards to what that means for religion too) - and that is the very thing you preceded this part of the discussion with - highlighted by the
key sentence of the entire Wilbert Smith document referring to all things "UFO" - starting at 35:38 - "They believe that it's connected with mental phenomena."
And Alex's thing has been that which he (I believe) coined the term "extended consciousness" for the purpose of pointing to that which not only serves as a "word" (in this case two) representation of all conscious phenomena that resides beyond what Alex calls "ordinary consciousness / ordinary reality" but also serves to point to that which is an "open door" to that which provides the opportunity for "experimentation" with this (possible) extended reality and from there it can go in one of two generalized directions where in one case, it is towards a direction of personal and societal growth ("good"} and the other towards that which seems/feels/appears to be dangerously playing with "evil" (the experimentation void of ethics/morals, etc.) and... when those involved actualize intent, they emulate evil, they have essentially
become evil. And the good may also be achieved via "experimentation" but that would be more like "personal reflectiveness" with a moral basis and a greater morality/ethics, etc as the primary goal perhaps. Maybe after all there may be a moral imperative hierarchy as representative of the greater reality.
Alex also highlighted (earlier in the interview) that in all the interviews he's done that could be seen as to touch upon extended reality, what seems to have emerged consistently is the appearance of a hierarchy... well, let me state my own conclusion... a hierarchy towards ultimate light (dare I type Light?) but to go there now (as far as Alex focusing upon this potential aspect of extended consciousness) seems premature as long as we haven't settled first and foremost
the fact of extended consciousness. Because until that is accepted as worthy of deeper (scientific?) exploration while avoiding the pitfalls "religion" brings to the pursuit of understanding, we'll continue to have all these pathways that lead to that nexus in the center yet are forever barred from reaching the center by their various dogmas (scientific dogma just as powerful as any of the religious dogma).
I now conclude this is the key thing that gets Alex amped up the most and why I never saw it before is because I kept experiencing Alex getting amped up when one of the blocks appeared and I kept erroneously concluding his emotion was because of his internal affinity to that which could be assumed to be the "other side!" And now I see it... its all sides that stand as gatekeepers.
And finally, it is our structures which prop up the various "experts" "academia" "religious authorities" "philosophers" etc. who risk everything they've worked their life to achieve (Alex points to Dr. Urban as an example) if they go all the way (even if they are much closer to that nexus point within their own conscious heart/mind).