We live in a weird world, which in turns inhabits a weird cosmos. Our explanations and constructs will not change that. Perhaps we should, in the end, relax and accept The Weird, even embrace it. It certainly will not go away. It exerts an enormous amount of influence over many, many people. Whether in the form of flying saucers, ghosts and hauntings, religious revelation, psychic ability or anything else, The Weird, the non-rational, the “paranormal,” is not leaving us. Even if understanding it is beyond us, we may have to learn to co-exist. The attempt to come to some sort of terms with such forces may, in fact, cause us to do a better job at understanding and co-existing with ourselves. We are, after all, often as non-rational (and irrational) as any poltergeist or spaceman. Which might be why they have sought us out in the first place. Maybe we are their Weird.
In The Chaos Conundrum, historian Aaron John Gulyas examines how the paranormal has intersected and influenced our culture in myriad ways, from the conspiracy beliefs of William Cooper and Exopolitics to the challenge that the stories of Gray Barker presented to our concept of self and time. He looks at the maelstrom of personalities, agendas, impressions, data, confusion, and contradictions that can be found in the world of the weird, and demonstrates how they have become an integral part of our lives, whether in the form of flying saucers, hauntings, religious revelations, psychic abilities, or dozens of other guises. Gulyas delves into the stories of the people who have attempted to create order out of the chaos. Along the way he recounts his own journey from enthusiastic believer in the “shadow government” and their underground bases to jaded academic skeptic, and then finally to someone who thinks there might just be something to the paranormal after all… but not what we have been led to expect or believe!
“A major contribution to paranormal research and observation.” – Nick Redfern, author of Final Events and Contactees