It doesn’t come as any surprise to me that outer space aliens have chosen Shirley MacLaine to spread their message to the world. She writes and publishes books, she is a stage and screen star, and she has stored up a reserve of credibility over the years which is now free to put to use. Yes, if I were an outer space alien, I would pick Shirley, too.

I am referring, of course, to Shirley’s autobiographical book Out on a Limb, which was turned into a mini-series and aired Sunday and Monday nights. In it, Shirley finds herself mysteriously attracted to a married British member of parliament. To figure out why she is so compelled to have an affair with this boorish and insecure man, she goes on a spiritual quest. Did she know him in a previous life?

Things magically fall into place, as if something or someone were guiding her. A medium tells her that, indeed, she had known this man before in the lost city of Atlantis and lo, he was boorish and insecure even then. They had been married, and his job was to be a cultural ambassador to visiting aliens. But unable to convince Gerry, the married man, of his origins, or to get his approval of her quest, she turns to delving even further into the new-age “Twilight Zone Mumbo Jumbo.”

She meets David, the artist, who takes her to the Andes and teaches her to travel outside her body. He says he has met an alien who wishes to transmit her message through him to Shirley, and from her to the rest of the world, since she is a star. To her credit, she disbelieves at first. But via several miracles, she is convinced. The message is about reincarnation, karma and karmic justice, God as universal and man as co-creator with God. Shirley goes back to New York to write her book. She has been chosen as the guide to millions.

Now, while many people dismiss Shirley’s testimony as the National Enquirer’s Sure-Fire Method to Make a Quick Buck, I have my doubts about whether any amount of money could get a sane individual to jeopardize her reputation so. If she were not a superstar, Ms. MacLlaine would no doubt be in therapy right now, or worse.

One alternative is that Shirley is a little touched or at least highly gullible and was delivered into the hands of even wackier people who told her things. The other alternative is that her book and movie are authentic. You can ponder that one. I’m not going to get involved.

owever, before we dismiss Shirley as a raving loony, much of what she says in her book has been believed by millions of people for thousands of years. The idea of a God is not new, nor is reincarnation, karma or the idea that God and man are mystically unified. These are Eastern ideas which have to some extent caught on in the West.

Mediums and the like have also been around a long, long time. But in our times, especially in the West, it is hard to talk with conviction to our peers about the existence of God, let alone any other “Twilight Zone Mumbo Jumbo.” We are so scientifically rational that there is no place left for things we can’t see. The reality of our imaginations is left to wilt for lack of neglect. Kind of like a whole civilization of day dreaming children growing up to be boring adults.

Where Shirley really got in over her head was when she started talking about aliens who visit us and try to direct things through individuals who believe in them. Without evidence, or even with it, she will find no one willing to go along with her story. If the aliens were smart they would have known that. But perhaps extraterrestrial life is not evolved enough to figure out western politics. In any case, Shirley was no doubt duped while up in the thin mountain air.

Back in New York, she began to write her book, then sold the movie rights. And people are taking her seriously enough not to dismiss the whole story as a hoax. Tommorrow night, the news-features show 20/20 will air an interview with a medium that Shirley frequently consults. We will be able to tell by the ratings and the sales on the books just how curious people are about all this.

In the meantime, we might thank crazy ol‘ Shirley for injecting a little mystery and magic into our drier-than-melba-toast existence. Things really would be bad if we stopped wondering about all this. And we might also thank that boorish, insecure member of parliament for driving her out on a limb.