I have been thinking lately about a possibility implied by the beliefs of some "tribal"( "Indigenous"? "Native"? None of these are good descriptions of these cultures, but they are the words used, so I use them as well) cultures. In this veiw, there are two realms of existence, the "spirit" world and the "material" world. These two realms are tightly intertwined, yet fundamentally immiscible, like the warp and woof in woven cloth.
When describing the differences between these two realms, it is said that in the world of Spirit there is "perfect knowing", while in this world there is a "perfect ability to act". The interactions between the two realms are all said to be a result of attempts by conscious beings to gain access to one of those two traits...whichever one their respective realm does not have.
This makes some sense from my perspective, as I can certainly see all attempts to contact the realm of Spirit throughout history as essentially being attempts to gain knowledge of some kind.
However, I have no way of knowing anything about apparent contacts from the other direction or what the motives for such might be....
But lets try to unpack the description of the differences a bit. "Perfect Knowing" and "Perfect Ability to Act"--to my way of thinking, saying one realm has Perfect Knowing is also implying the other realm doesn't. Again, this is consistent with observed data(I definitely don't know everything, and neither does anyone else AFAICT). As for "Perfect Ability to Act", what that means is somewhat more ambiguous than "perfect knowing", but I believe it simply means the ability to make choices and act on them. It is in considering the implications of the Spirit realm's lack of this ability that things become interesting IMO.
How can there be a lack of ability to make choices and act on them? First I would say that Timelessness would have this effect; if there is no Before and After, but only an eternal unchanging Now, there is no possibility of Choice, or Action. Second, I postulate that Perfect Knowing makes Choice an impossibility; if you know everything, you never get to make a choice because there is only one choice--the correct one. And you always know what it is. Third, it seems to me that Perfect Knowing requires an unchanging Eternal Now.
Here in the manifest or material realm, the quest for knowledge, for understanding, has been and still is the ultimate goal, both individually and collectively, for the human race. This quest for knowledge is what informs our cultures, defines our lives, and challenges our best and brightest. It lies at the heart of every new insight, provided the drive to write trillions and trillions of words, it built the Hubble telescope, landed rovers on Mars, constructed a 27 kilometer circular tunnel and filled it with supercooled electromagnets so we could hurl protons at each other at 99.97% of the speed of light. It built Stonehenge and Gobekli Tepe. It carved the Sphinx, built the pyramids, the innumerable temples of India, the cathedrals of Europe.
Can we assume a comparable drive and desire in the Spirit realm for the ability to Act? For the ability to effect change(an act, fundamentally, is to go from one state to another, different state...i.e., to enact change)?
Suppose some of the spirits of the spirit realm devised a way to embed themselves or a portion of themselves in the material realm. While here, they would necessarily be greatly diminished, handicapped, truncated. The laws of this realm do not allow for Perfect Knowing, so in order to get here, they must leave that behind, even to the point of leaving behind any memory such a thing was even possible, or that they once possessed it. This in effect means leaving behind almost all memories.
While here, they indeed have gained a perfect ability to act, but having no memory of who or what they really are, they fail to utilize it to its potential. Eventually their material vessel expires and they are thrust back into the Spirit realm, where they regain all the memories and knowledge they had left behind...but they also now have an entirely new and different set of memories, from their sojourn in the manifest realm. These new memories are entirely unprecedented. They are NEW.
The spirit is different than before. Changed. In this way, change is brought to the unchanging NOW of eternity.
Of course, none of that explains how such a system came to be, why the Universe IS, etc...but it does seem to answer some of the questions posed in the article...?