English for Aliens

The Project

The purpose of ‘English for Aliens’ is to facilitate communication between ourselves and other intelligent beings that are manifesting more and more often in the space and time that we call Earth.

‘English for Aliens’ is intended as a global project, involving humans and also any aliens currently ‘present’ who are able to contribute. It will evolve as a co-learning project, calling on the skills and knowledge of all participants and provide a platform for the development of awareness, orientation and practice that will enable humans and aliens to navigate the challenges and complexities of communication with each other.

My name is Damian Killeen. I have a background in social justice, social development and social inclusion on Earth and I have a creative and curious mind. I currently teach English to adult earthlings. I do not present myself as any kind of ‘expert’ on the issues I am raising here, but as someone who wants to learn from others and to contribute to change in the face of the greatest challenge humanity has yet faced – at least in the current era – the revelation that we are not alone in the Universe and that contact between us and others is a real and imminent prospect.

The project is called ‘English for Aliens’ not because it assumes that ‘we’ will teach ‘them’ but because our interlocutors will perceive us also as aliens and, as aliens to their cultures, we need to be prepared to evolve and adapt our own communications, with the English language as our major contribution to the new diversity that we are about to inhabit.

Why?

Aliens are visitors from the Universe to Earth’s surface; they come from distant galaxies, from multiple alternative existences or from their colonies beneath Earth’s seas or inside its mountains. Some may be here already, recently or for a long time past; some may pre-date humanity on Earth others may be very new arrivals. We humans may not be the prime concern of all these different intelligent life forms but it seems, from witness testimonies that they share an interest in us and in communicating with us in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons.

Reports from the many thousands of humans from around the globe who have already been contacted by aliens describe communication mainly by telepathy or thought transfer, but there are serious drawbacks to this method as a reliable means of cultural exchange, negotiation over territory or for potential trade. Firstly, humans are not accustomed to distinguishing thought transfers from another entity from the product of their own mental processes; we are inclined to associate the experience of ‘inner voices’ with the possibility of mental illness. Secondly, the lack of transparency when there is no tangible or recordable evidence of communication leaves open the possibility that aliens are manipulating the minds of individuals to sow divisions rather than addressing whole groups or populations on an equal and inclusive basis; this undermines the possibility of establishing trust. And, thirdly, thought transfer does not engage with humanity’s written cultures which have been vital for thousands of years to our understanding of our histories and which are central now to our global systems of social networking and the dissemination of news and other data.

Much of the interest in talking with aliens has, so far, focussed on our ability to send or receive messages that might be comprehensible to us and them. Questions include; do aliens have a mentality similar to ours that includes the idea of ‘communication’?: do aliens communicate through anything approaching our idea of ‘language’?: and, are our messages comprehensible to beings from a completely different context and ‘life experience’? These are all reasonable questions, especially if we or they are reaching out randomly throughout the Universe with no idea of what we might find. However, this is different in the case of aliens who have or will demonstrate their presence here by arriving in a craft or by manifesting physically in ways that we can recognise, such as the well documented Greys. We can assume, at least, that in the process of planning their arrival they have also anticipated the possibility of some kind of engagement with other beings and might be orientated towards the possibility of some kind of communication with any life forms they encounter. Unless, of course, they have no such interest and we may be simply a source of food or other energy for them, or, even, a phenomenon in which they have little or no interest.

Why English?

Concerns about trust and transparency have long applied to inter- human communications and, whilst no one claims that all problems have been resolved, they have been significantly addressed by the widespread adoption of the English language as a common form of linguistic exchange.

There are many reasons why the English language has achieved this status, not least the colonial activities of English-speaking nations and the widespread diaspora of their peoples, but we are now in a position where the English language is largely detached from the idea of ‘Englishness’ and has been adapted to express cultures across the boundaries of nationhood. The English language may not be the perfect tool for global communication but, other deliberately constructed efforts, such as Esperanto or even Klingon, have largely failed to take root. English continues to adapt and grow as it is taken up as a second language by more and more people. The English language, in its many forms, may be one of the most significant evolutionary tools that humanity can bring to the developing situation in which the possibility of communication with non-human intelligences is becoming increasingly realistic. Given our uncertainties about the purposes of aliens, the development of the intra-intelligence use of English may even take on an existential value.

The value of a common language for such communications is readily apparent and, in the absence of any alternative being offered by other intelligences, it would seem that the English language, with its facility for evolution and adaptation, could be the best option on offer, to the benefit of all entities involved, including ourselves. There is a risk, as evidenced, for instance, by the invasive effect on other countries of American English as promoted through music, films and social networks, that the Universe might be reduced to an homogenous, bland, cultural similarity but, given the scale of the cultural variety we are probably about to face, this risk is unlikely to be realised in any foreseeable future; though it may, of course be already achieved in some parallel version of the world we humans currently understand.

Friends, Enemies or Frenemies?

The intentions of aliens in relation to humanity are unknown and controversy surrounds the various possibilities.

There is a tendency, promoted to some extent by popular media, to think that these intentions are, or may well be, hostile. However, there are also suggestions that aliens wish us well and are supportive, or even causative, of human development. Whatever these intentions may be, they will eventually need to be addressed by a global body, such as an enhanced United Nations, which is able to communicate separately or collectively with the representative bodies (if such bodies exist) of the other entities involved. Given that the UN already struggles to achieve collective understanding amongst humans using just nine languages, it is difficult to see how it might cope with a galactic Tower of Babel, especially as the outcome of their deliberations would also have to be communicated through the media to the wider populations of this and other worlds. There is already an established form of communication between earth based humans and other beings in the form of mediumship and channelling that might provide some useful lessons for our engagements with aliens. These contacts, usually conducted in the mother tongue of the medium or channel, are most commonly with deceased humans or with other spiritual beings that are somehow engaged in the soul journey that has included residence for a while in a human body. Whilst they provide connection with intelligences outside the earthbound human sphere, some of whom are exercising a largely benevolent oversight of human development, these do not appear to be the same kinds of entities that have been encountered by, for instance, abductees who have been taken into alien craft and they do not appear to be related to the creators or pilots of the many alien UFO’s (UAP’s) that are currently under investigation by various governments. Whether we are dealing with real or potential friends, enemies or frenemies, with beings with a settled will towards us or with entities who are as uncertain about us as we are about them, we need to find a common language that will create the possibility for exploring and, we continue to be wary of each other rather than falling into each other’s’ arms or going directly to war., establishing mutual understandings, even if we continue to be wary of each other rather than falling into each other’s’ arms or going directly to war.

Mother tongue ‘interference’.

There are many international conferences or events on Earth that are conducted in one language, usually that of the host nation or in English because that is the language most likely to be understood by the majority of participants. This means that many people at such events are communicating in a ‘second language’.

However, peoples’ use of a second language will not be uniform because their ways of communicating and the cultural assumptions they bring with them are significantly affected by their ‘mother tongue’, the first spoken language that they learned. In this situation, it is not uncommon for mother tongue English speakers to modify their use of the language to be more easily comprehensible to second language English speakers and to expand their interpretations of other speakers’ language to accommodate the possibility of these differences. When several different mother tongues are involved the potential for misunderstandings and misinterpretations is great, but when there is shared focus and intent, we have demonstrated an ability to manage this complexity.  Given that we cannot assume that every alien will use the same language with which to communicate with us, we will need to be particularly attentive to the cultural diversity encompassed by the idea of ‘aliens’ and to be prepared to recognise when their use of a common English language is being affected (or ‘interfered with’) by their mother tongue experience.

Zooming in.

The UFO/UAP phenomenon suggests to us that the aliens with which we might engage are demonstrably technically superior to us, in that they have developed the ability to engineer means of transition through space and time far exceeding our own.

There are also suggestions that, by reverse engineering recovered craft or by other means, some of our own governments have also achieved these abilities without letting the majority of us know.  This has led some to assume that alien intelligence is superior to ours in all respects when, instead, it may be that other intelligences are different to our own but not necessarily in all senses ‘more advanced’. Humans, for instance, have developed the technical ability to communicate with each other through video conferencing without the need to transition physically through space. Through programmes such as SETI, we are already attempting to extend this capacity inter-galactically, searching for some intelligent response. Why, we might ask, do aliens need to travel physically through space to engage with us (even if they are sending robots or androids, rather than themselves) when we have already demonstrated that other possibilities exist?

We also know from our human experience that technological expertise is not always accompanied by expertise in other aspects of life and relationship. The concept of ‘emotional intelligence’, for instance, might or might not be applicable to aliens but, in our own context, we would not always assume that our technical experts are the most appropriate representatives to front a negotiation on our behalf with potentially hostile people. We are, naturally, impressed by the evidence of space travel that we cannot currently emulate, but we should not assume that we will be dealing with entities that are ‘superior’ to us in every way. It may be, for instance, that our ability to communicate, both technically and through language, as well as our empathic skills, however limited, are ‘superior’ to theirs and that, through promoting linguistic communication, particularly the use of English, we may be in a position of a greater degree of ‘superiority’ than we tend to think.

Artificial Intelligence

Will the advance of AI make irrelevant this proposal about the use of the English language to facilitate communication with aliens?

Maybe, yes, at some time in the future. But, despite the ability of AI to gather, compute and transform vast amounts of data at speed, it is unlikely to be able to replicate the combinations of telepathic, physical and linguistic data from multiple diverse sources that are envisaged in the complex combination of activities we think of as communication with aliens. The output of any AI system for managing communications with aliens will also need to be comprehensible and reliable for all the inhabitants of Earth with their multiple languages and cultures. It may be possible for AI to produce a perfect Universal language of which we humans are just one of the ‘alien’ users and to translate and interpret communications with no risk of causing inter species problems but, as interplanetary interlocuters, we are likely to also require a means through which we can communicate directly with each other in order to check and confirm that our intentions are being properly transmitted. The common use of an evolved and adapted English language, with the possible support of AI, may be the longer term development that we will need to pursue to achieve our human objective of communication on mutual terms with the aliens that surround us.

Going Forward.

This project is an invitation to anyone who is interested in the topic of communicating with aliens, particularly using the English language, to contribute their views, ideas, experiences and practical proposals for how we might improve our abilities to do this.

I want to begin by inviting you to respond to three questions. These will stay open throughout the life of the project.

1. Do you agree/disagree, in whole or in part, with the main proposition – that an evolved English language can make a significant contribution to the development of communication with aliens? Why or Why Not?

Post your responses in the Comments where they will be available for comment by other participants.

• 2. Do you know of any other material (texts, video, podcasts etc.) that might contribute to our understanding of this issue?

Send links, references, copies etc. to the Comments where they will be used to create a Resources page for use by those interested in developing their understanding of the topic.

• 3. Do you have ideas for, or know of, any projects, programmes or other practical responses to this issue to go in a ‘Good Practice’ section of the project website?

Again, send links, references, photos, documents etc. to the Comments with as much information as possible about where, when and how these practices have or might happen, together any available contact details that might enable practitioners to connect with each other.

A Final Note

I am a real person and am using my real name for this project. I appreciate that this is not possible for everyone (including any aliens who might want to take part) but I would encourage as many participants as possible to do the same.

The project website will not accept material that is racist, sexist, genderist, alienist or otherwise discriminatory. We will not deliberately publish material that is personally offensive to any individual or entity and we will remove any such material that is brought to our attention.

The submission of any material to the project website will be regarded as permission to publish and to use for any further dissemination, marketing or publicity purposes.

The website editor’s decision regarding any submission to the site will be final.

Thank you for reading and welcome to ’English for Aliens’– a major contribution to the evolution of the wider community that inhabits this Universe. Please use any of the current online translation tools to convert it to your mother tongue.

Damian Killeen OBE

Personal English Trainer (TEFL, CELTA)

Taranto, Puglia

Italy

May 2024