Astronomers and others were jumping for joy last month at the apparent discovery of seven Earth-like planets that could contain water and “where life as we know it may exist,” as the CBC put it in a report.

That was as good as that big news story could hope to get, because there is no way we will ever really know. As the CBC reported, “there is no chance of direct observation.” The planets are orbiting some star 39 light years away, which translates into a 700,000-year journey.

So, the news story was somewhat anti-climactic: it didn’t answer the age-old question, i.e. are we alone in the universe?

I have always thought it was a DUH! question, anyway. Of course we are not alone in the universe. No, I don’t have any concrete evidence to back up my statement. But I just know that in a physical universe with billions of stars and planets, the odds are there is life on many of those celestial bodies.

And then there is the possibility of life in other dimensions that we can’t see with our earthly eyes. I have long suspected that Mars, for example, is teeming with life in other dimensions. Ditto for all of the other planets in our galactic neighbourhood, maybe even here on Planet Earth. Just because we can’t see something doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

But perhaps we do get glimpses of life in/from other dimensions once in a while, when the veils between our world and theirs dissipates for whatever reason. Things we see as ghostly apparitions, for example, might very well be people living on other planes or dimensions going about their business. I have also long suspected than when we shed our mortal coils, our spirits simply slip through death’s door into another dimension (kama loka), another playground . . .

That might also explain the UFO phenomenon. Maybe the unidentified flying objects that have reportedly been sighted are piloted by beings just going about their business in other dimensions that are much closer than any of us know. Maybe the “aliens” live right here on Planet Earth in another dimension. In your bedroom or living room . . . oblivious to our existence.

And maybe certain people in high places know there is something to all of this. Like former U.S. President George W. Bush, who hinted at as much on the Jimmy Kimmel program recently. In a somewhat lighthearted conversation about UFOs, Kimmel asked Bush a serious question: “Are there really great secrets that you know that you can’t share with people?”

Coast to Coast AM reports this response:

Clearly treading into classified territory, Bush confirmed that, indeed, he did receive such insights but would never share them with the public.

And that has basically been the answer given by many U.S. presidents. Yup, there might be something to all of this UFO talk, but they can’t say anymore. It’s classified information.

And perhaps it is just as well that it is. H.P. Blavatsky and other Theosophists have warned that it is dangerous for us to be trying to tear down the veil between dimensions, that it could lead to mental illness and madness.

Thoughts on all of this?

About Sunday Reads posts: This is a weekly feature giving us all a chance to point to an article or two or three that we found interesting in the preceding week, or the morning of. They can be offbeat, humorous, weighty commentary, whatever. So, if you have any recommendations, please point to them in the readers’ comments section below.

— Jillian

Photo: “This illustration shows the possible surface of TRAPPIST-1f, one of the newly discovered planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system. Scientists using the Spitzer Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes have discovered that there are seven Earth-size planets in the system.” Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech