It is, on the face of it, an eccentric question — anti-American and for that matter anti-modern: that there may be something spiritually wrong with blasting rockets into space.
In this regard, we recall the perplexing news stories about astronauts and cosmonauts having what they perceived as supernatural experiences while aloft, including one Soviet who aboard the space station Salyut claimed to have heard a voice whisper:
“You arrived here too early, and you did it in a wrong fashion. Trust me, for I am your ancestor on the maternal side. Do you remember, she told you; back when you were a child, about your great-grandfather, who had founded the D-s factory in the Urals? Sonny, you should not be here, go back to earth, do not violate the Laws of the Creator…Sonny, you must return, return, return…”
When he checked with his mother, it was confirmed, to his astonishment, supposedly, that he had just such a great-grandfather…
If it all seems crazy — especially in a culture that celebrated the first man on the moon as it has rarely celebrated anything, and if exploration, first of continents, now of other planets, seems part of our “DNA” — one does note the possibly spiritual dimension to space: how some of those who have alleged near-death experiences describe being whisked past planets and stars to a heavenly realm with distant cities of light. No wonder they call it the “heavens.”
It presents a challenge in discernment.
If nothing else, one wonders at the origin of America’s rocketry program, for whatever the legitimacy of what has been mentioned heretofore, it is a fact that the scientist known as the “father” of the American space program was an openly practicing occultist named Jack Parsons, about whom there was recently a CBS special.
“You might not recognize his name, but Jack Parsons played a big role in getting humanity into space,” noted a reviewer. “Parsons was a literal rocket scientist who invented the first castable solid-state rocket fuel in 1942. He paved the way for mass production of the devices that would both launch humans into the stars and fuel weapons of war. Alongside associates from the California Institute of Technology, he founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, an organization that paved the way for NASA.”
As the publication further notes: “Parsons also pursued a lifelong obsession with the occult, sex, and the intersection of the two. He joined Thelema, the occult movement founded by British occultist Aleister Crowley, and took over the movement’s California branch. Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard lived in Parson’s home for a time and slept with his wife. Parsons attempted, repeatedly, to use sex magick to summon various deities to the earthly plane. All while continuing to work as a rocket scientist.”
Space travel?
Someday, somehow, the Crucifix must find its way to the moon and planets — or yes: we should not venture there at all.
[resources: Angels At Our Side]