Alien Encounters

John Salter Jr. and Son

Mon, 08 Aug 2005 05:30:52 GMT

AN ACCOUNT OF THE SALTER UFO ENCOUNTERS OF MARCH, 1988: THEIR BACKGROUND, DEVELOPMENT, AND RAMIFICATIONS

By John R. Salter, Jr.
Copyright 1989 by John R. Salter, Jr.

When I think, as I so frequently do, of that night of March 20, 1988--the strange night of the UFO encounter and interception of my then almost 23 year old graduate student son, John III, and myself--I have only positive feelings (as does he) about the not-so-different from us people from afar whom we met and with whom we spent well over an hour. Still continuing recall images and sequences which have come to both of us, slowly and persistently through the fabric of induced (but obviously only intentionally temporary) amnesia, consistently point to good motives and beneficial actions. The physiological changes, more than a dozen, which have occurred in me--beginning since the encounter and still continuing--are witness to this.

There was no conscious sense of expectancy when we left Grand Forks, North Dakota on Sunday morning, March 20th, in my 1987 red Ford pickup. A light snow disappeared after we'd gone 30 miles but the cloudy sky continued. We were pointed toward Mississippi, and ultimately New Orleans at which I was scheduled to give a paper, "Civil Rights and Self-Defense," at the annual Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association gathering, a commitment made the previous August. Other activities were scheduled in Mississippi. None of this even remotely touched on UFOs and neither my son nor I (although we accepted the reality of these things and assumed their friendly extraterrestrial origins) had spent much time at all thinking about any of this. We had certainly read virtually nothing on the subject.

In retrospect--even very early post-encounter retrospect--it was clear that the route I had picked some days before for the first day of our junket was certainly not logical. I projected Grand Forks to the Twin Cities to Rochester (Minn.) and then to LaCrosse (Wisc.), Dubuque (Ia.), and the Bettendorf/Davenport (Ia.) area for the night. We had neither the time nor the special interest in the often rugged, frequently wooded, and generally lonely southwestern Wisconsin Mississippi River hill country that would justify that substantially out-of-the-way segment. Near the Twin Cities, John III spelled me off on driving. I looked at the road maps and, suddenly, noted the illogic of proceeding to LaCrosse and down to Dubuque (the roads between those two towns being narrow and winding); conversely, it obviously made much better sense to proceed from the forthcoming Rochester area down to Waterloo, Iowa, and double-highway, and then to Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, and an hour of interstate into Davenport. Reasonably, I moved to make this practical change. And then, welling up into my mind like a great wave of nostalgia from the past, came Kookaburra, the Australian lullaby:

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Merry, merry king of the bush is he.
Laugh, Kookaburra; laugh, Kookaburra
Gay your life must be.

The significance is this: An active organizer in social justice endeavors since the mid-1950s, starting with civil rights and militant trade unionism in the Southwest where I grew up, I spent a long period (beginning almost immediately after my marriage (to Eldri) in 1961) and extending to the latter part of the 60s decade, in the Deep South as a key organizer in the Southern Civil Rights Movement. (1) During the academic term, 1968-69, we were glad to spend a pleasant recuperative year at Coe College, Cedar Rapids, where I taught sociology before going on to Chicago and four years of rough-and-tough community organizing on the South/Southwest Side. During that year at Coe, we often drove up to Waterloo to the K-Mart--myself, Eldri, and our two thus-far children, Maria and John III. On the way back, we would always sing Kookaburra and remembered those times fondly--along with many other happy occasions. From Chicago, I occasionally got over to Cedar Rapids and Iowa City to give talks and, in 1973, we moved to Iowa City where I was attached for almost four years as a professor in the Graduate Program in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Iowa. I (and our family) often got to Cedar Rapids and, sometimes, in and around Waterloo a number of times after the Coe sojourn. We never thought poignantly of Kookaburra, though sometimes in the years since we would sing it. Now, in the afternoon of a late March day, 20 years after the Cedar Rapids experience, the plaintive Australian lullaby rose up--an extraordinary wave of sweet, nostalgic wine. It was simply overwhelming. In no way could I steer into those incredibly sweet and emotional waters: no swing down to Waterloo and beyond. We continued to Rochester and then to La. (If, as I'm quite certain, Kookaburra was drawn somehow from my psyche by an external force and magnified--intensively magnified--it was certainly a for more sensitively pleasant means of dissuasion than, say, a conjured up vision of our pickup colliding with a Semi on the outskirts of Waterloo. We now sing Kookaburra regularly with our nine year old daughter, Josie).

We were at LaCrosse late that afternoon: (2) fully awake, vigorous, well-fed (thanks to McDonald's), myself driving--and we left on combined highways 14 and 61, a narrow road. Our firm and clear intention was to keep on 61 when the roads forked at the small town of Readstown: at that point 61 proceeded to Dubuque and 14 to Madison. All of this was "new country" to us. Neither John III nor I have many memories at all of what happened the remainder of that late afternoon and early evening. Initially, of course, it was still quite light and the cloudy sky had broken somewhat. I clearly recall, as we topped out on one large hill two or three miles beyond LaCrosse and I looked westward/southwestward to the far horizon and the late afternoon sky, feeling an odd and intense twinge of expectant anxiety which registered quickly and then passed.

Although in retrospect, some time later, we felt we might have remembered a few landmarks after the large hill, a visit to the scene by me and my daughter Josie in early June, 1989, indicated that John III and I had been under very pervasive "mind control" characterized, among other things, by amnesia, for the next more than 60 miles. In the June, 1989 junket, I saw nothing beyond the large hill that I recognized--everything was "new"--even though there were quaint towns, unique hill formations, and Indian and other place names that would have definitely registered. (In checking with John III, now in California, no landmarks that I indicated were remembered by him.) Among other things, we did not recall Readstown and the much advertised forking of the roads with highways 14 and 61 very conspicuously parting company. Inexplicably, by conventional yardsticks, John III and I took Highway 14--much lonelier than 61--and thus went off course, southeast (although the two routes remain close together in that general area).

Sunset in that region on March 20 was about 6:13 p.m. It was twilight and about 6:25 p.m. when we came to the stretch of four-lane on Highway 14. (Turning out to be a very short stretch, this begins 68 miles or so from "inside" the LaCrosse setting and ends two miles before Richland Center, Wisconsin.) (3) Here the amnesia lifted (we would say, in retrospect, to give us a clear geographical point for future reference) and later both John III and I vividly recalled the wider road. (I remembered it very clearly in June, 1989.) We expressed hope to one another that it would continue and regretted when, after two miles, it ended. I recall saying, "I'm slowing down a little and turning on the lights." At that point, the curtain of amnesia (but not unconsciousness) descended on each of us. When I think about what came immediately after that, I sometimes get waves of strange, "electrical-like" sensations--vibrant chills--throughout my body. John III talks of "spooky feelings."

And this was the point of interception and close encounter--very close!

Then I was aware that I was driving at a normal speed and was going down a very steep hill by the highway. Quickly and smoothly my consciousness expanded--an awakening awareness--to include the bright lights of the pickup, the pitch-dark night, and the sounds of the engine and the tires. For a moment, a very sharp and clear moment, it was a summer night in 1957 when I, 23 years old, was driving in the isolated Arizona country somewhere around the little cow town of Mayer. My second thought was, "This was just like that time, then." It was about 7:45 p.m. Neither John III, whose amnesia lifted at the same time as mine, nor I had any particular sense of interruption; the interception and resumption had been accomplished with only a ripple of transition, if even that. (Later we realized that, at the point we'd "come out of it," we were in the immediate area where the physical interception had occurred.) On 14, we reached the outskirts of Richland Center and passed through that small town. (In June, 1989, I realized that, although I had that March night noted the outskirts of Richland Center and a long line of buildings on the other side of it, I had no recollection of passing through the business district. In checking with John III, I learned that he, too, had no recollection of the "downtown" section of the community. We both feel that double-amnesia was once again and briefly induced in order that we, still somewhat somnambulistic, pass through the business section without stopping and perhaps attracting negative attention.) On the other side of Richland Center and immediately beyond, I saw a series of signs indicating Madison, before grasping their significance; checking our map, we realized we had been on the wrong highway since far-away Readstown. The loss of time was utterly bewildering. From Richland Center to Dubuque is about 85 miles, including the back-on-course routes; we were in the Iowa town at 9:30 p.m., pushing on to Bettendorf for the night. We slept well and breakfasted at Peoria, Illinois.

We left that city shortly after 10 a.m., March 21st, on a double highway going east. I was driving. The day was clear and there was no wind. At 10:14 a.m., there was no traffic right around or ahead of us in either direction. And it was then that we both saw a bright, expanding light coming directly toward and above us; immediately we realized it was an incredibly bright object, glowing with an extraordinary shimmering silveriness. (The closest analogy I can make is the glowing coals of an oak fire, moving back and forth.) It was about two-thirds the size of the full double highway and, when about 200 yards from us, swerved slightly and rose over the pickup at an angle. We could now make out its saucer-like form and, I think, a slight dome. Then, with incredible speed, it was gone. At that point, John III and I had three simultaneous thoughts: This was a deliberate appearance for us and for us alone; this was quite friendly; and this somehow explained the strange occurrences of the previous night. I then had another thought: I remembered the 1961 interception of Betty and Barney Hill, an interracial couple (he black and she white but with some Indian ancestry and both much involved in civil rights and related activities), in New Hampshire. I had heard of this situation in the mid-60s, when it became well publicized. (4) I recalled, too, that Mrs. Hill especially had had a positive, essentially friendly view of the UFO humanoid people. Mr. Hill died manyyears ago but Betty Hill continues quite active on social justice fronts and maintains a strong interest in UFO-related matters. I have had an excellently helpful correspondence with this extraordinary person, beginning early in the fall, 1988. In August, 1989, Eldri and I and Josie spent an excellent week with Mrs. Hill in New Hampshire and, among other things, observed a number of UFOs at night with her. (On the way back to North Dakota, we visited the Richland Center setting and the location of our encounter.)

The remainder of our trip south, while quite interesting and productive, did not involve anything related to UFOs. (Later in the day, March 21st, John III realized he'd lost his sunglasses, couldn't remember having them in the motel, and we searched the pickup fruitlessly.) But the strange events of March 20/21 were always no further than once removed in our thinking, and were frequently to the fore. Back in Grand Forks, I finished the University of North Dakota academic year in conventional fashion, assuming the chair of our Indian Studies Department. (Just before the trip, I'd received the prestigious UND Award for Student Advising; soon after the trip, the American Indian students honored me with a very special ceremony at the annual pow-wow.) I began doing some reading on UFO topics (5) and I affiliated myself with the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON)--one of the several quite reputable UFO research organizations. (In September, 1988, I became its State Director for North Dakota. Thus, I became acquainted with Kevin Henke, a young scientist at the University of North Dakota and a MUFON member who has become an excellent friend and whose sharply critical mind has been of great help to me.) John III received his M.A. at UND and accepted an important position in Northern California, directing a grassroots Indian education program. He and his wife moved there two months after the encounters. (In the fall of 1989, his program was designated as the best of its kind in the state.) In mid-June, 1988, I sensed a strong, growing stirring within me vis-a-vis the experiences of late March--and especially the "missing time" period. I began to put together a series of detailed little reports, outlining the development, locale, and times of the encounters and our general thoughts, preliminary conclusions, and what we were convinced was a mutually friendly atmosphere at all points. But, when it came to events immediately following the four-lane stretch in southwestern Wisconsin, I hit a block (as did John III with whom I stayed in close touch via A.T. & T.). Then, in late June, 1988, my recall suddenly began.

Invariably, as they've developed, my recall vignettes--images and sequences--have come first as vivid dreams in the early morning hours, then recede back temporarily into unconsciousness before emerging the following late morning or afternoon as clear flashbacks laced with a sharp memory of the earlier dream or dreams. (John III's recall began in November, 1988, tends to come just as he's slipping off to sleep, and meshes with mine.) (6) In both cases, the recall is our seeing things with our eyes--precisely as we saw them that night in Wisconsin. Although this process is still continuing, (7) steadily and deliberately, enough has come thus far to establish the context, the basic components and participants, the points of primary focus, and the ethos. Here, with recall arranged, is the basic linear progress of our March 20th encounter:

As the four-lane ended and total amnesia (but not unconsciousness) enveloped us, we are gently but firmly forced off the highway onto a very narrow and extremely rough road. (8) In June, 1989, we determined, on the basis of recall and contemporary observation, that this is the Pier Spring Road, about a mile or so in length. This starts a very short distance after the end of the four-lane. As one goes down Highway 14, it is a sharp right turn off one's right lane. We parked the pickup near the "upper," far end of this winding, timbered road.

Then we are standing, John III and I, not far from the passenger side of the pickup which is parked on the level stretch of the Pier Spring Road, under some trees. It is almost dark. Completely at ease, I can see two or three small humanoid figures climbing up on the back bumper, looking at our gear in the back of the truck. Up closer, they are four to four and one-half feet tall, thin bodies and thin limbs--but comparatively large heads and conspicuously large, quasi-slanted eyes. There are several of these small people--perhaps six or seven--and a taller humanoid figure, almost as tall as I (six feet) and not as proportionately thin as the others. His features are more, as we would use the term, "human"--and he may well be a mixed-blood. Whatever clothing type they're wearing, it's tightly fitting and, to us at this point in recall, non-descript. Our communication with them is more than thought-impressionistic; it's telepathically specific. John III sits down. Three of the small humanoids gather around, viewing him with as much fascination as he does them. Everyone is very pleasant. The tall humanoid is attached to us in a special fashion and is obviously our key liaison. Now we are walking through the darkening woods, up a ravine and over a small ridge, to the UFO which is in a rather secluded clearing, some distance from the pickup. I stumble and fall backward but am immediately cushioned by a (telekinetic?) force. Very, very gently, several of the humanoids reach for me and pull me to my feet.

Throughout this entire, still continuing recall process of mine is the clear, persistent definite sense of a brightly lighted room--a kind of white light--and a deep-blue glowing panel. An implant is placed very carefully up into my right nostril and well beyond. There is a strong sense that the last time this happened to me was a long time ago, when I was John III's age, in 1957. There is now an injection into my neck, at the thyroid area; and then an injection into my upper, central chest (thymus gland). John III's face is scanned very thoroughly with a "flash-light" type instrument whose head is so soft that it melds into the contours of his face; special attention is given to his chin and jaw area.

Then we are out in the open again. The feeling is downright powerful that the meeting has gone very well indeed from everyone's standpoint. Our tall humanoid friend walks with me back through the woods to the pickup. He is carrying some sort of light, obviously for our benefit. John III is slightly ahead of us. I believe the smaller humanoids have remained with the UFO. John III goes into the passenger side of the pickup, closing the door. I feel an extremely strong, poignant sense of farewell toward the tall figure, sensing equally strong reciprocity. (His emotional and intellectual reactions are like ours: sharp intelligence, good-natured, smiled a great deal, eager, very interested in things and sad--very sad--at parting. Basically, I think all of this holds true for the smaller people.) The tall figure and I tell each other (and John III is included) that we will see one another again in another place, in another time. Now, John III and I are by ourselves in the pickup. We wait. Very shortly from his window, John III watches the UFO rise and, brightly lighted, move diagonally up into the dark clouds and beyond. We drive a short distance to the end of the Pier Spring Road and take Country Road ZZ, well paved and very steep, back to highway 14 and on to Richland Center.

The still continuing results of my implant and injections (although initially their presence was not known to me in the fully conscious sense) began to emerge in some cases as early as May, 1988. (John III has had none of these.) By June and July, other manifestations were present. My head hair, fingernails, and toenails are growing two to three times their normal rate; eyebrows have become very thick; and fine body hair has developed all over my previously almost hairless arms, legs, stomach and chest. Cuts and scratches clot immediately and heal very, very rapidly. (A denture placed in 1984 resulted in almost daily blood until shortly after the encounter--four years later!--when the situation healed and remained so.) Some little age spots have shrunk or disappeared and the few wrinkles in my face have faded away for the most part. My skin tone is generally much clearer. Blood is much closer to the surface all over my body--indicating even better circulation than formerly. For the first time in my life, my beard is very heavy, very thick, and quite dark. My immunity is heightened; flu bugs may touch me but don't dig deeply in and the few colds I may now get are very insignificant and short-lived. My energy level is up and my sleep needs, never really substantial, are down. Although not in any sense a "craving," my protein needs are very heavy and, in May, 1989, I began taking eight amino acid supplements per day--which has returned to normal my burgeoning meat consumption! An auto wreck in Mississippi in 1963 left some residual disfigurement on the right side of my face, but by spring, 1989, this had faded completely into normalcy. I smoked for 40 years and very heavily for the last 35, four packs of cigarettes a day (often unfiltered) and then, for the last 21 years, a pound of pipe tobacco a week. In the spring of 1989, my pipe smoking slacked off to some extent; in mid-May, I realized I had gone almost 24 hours without smoking--and I then stopped completely and permanently, doing so without one single physical or psychological twinge! My psychic sensitivities are sharpened and there are increased telekinetic episodes, especially around electrical equipment. I have a mild aversion to sunlight and increased sensitivity to lights in general, now preferring cloudy weather and darkish offices. My left foot and leg coordinate and walk a little differently, initially running down my left boot heels; there are no walking problems now since I've learned to let it happen smoothly and naturally. Occasionally, a red welt appears on the lower right side of my neck, in the thyroid area; and a brown, circular spot about a half inch in diameter and with a round point-mark in its precise center surfaces on my upper chest over my thymus gland region.

In the earlier part of 1957, although deeply involved in good causes, I was having some difficulty in determining just what I wanted primarily to do with my life (portions of which had already been quite interesting). Then, at some point in the summer, (9) my focus sharpened into its permanently fixed commitment to social justice pursuits. My health became notably great. (For example, an effort to kill me via a rigged auto wreck in Jackson, Mississippi on June 18, 1963, left me seriously injured with many broken bones in my face and some elsewhere. I was operated on extensively that night and faced a substantial stay in the hospital. Three days later, so much of me had healed so quickly that I was out of the hospital and back in the arena--to the great surprise of my physicians and the great displeasure of the white Citizens Council and the Jackson police.) In the wake of the March, 1988 encounter, my normally good health has been boosted very significantly and I feel strong creative urges, constructive restlessness, and a major recharging of my social justice commitment. John III is doing many positive things in his California Indian educational work and is also writing genuinely excellent fiction. Two other interesting physical things have taken place: A watch, purchased by me in 1984, has been quite satisfactory but lacked any luminosity. I often expressed disappointment that this was so but, soon after the March, 1988 events, noticed the hands glowing. Although this lasts only a few hours at most before requiring new exposure to light, it has persisted dependably enough. In another situation, John III's sunglasses, lost as nearly as we can tell at the time of the eveningencounter, surfaced in mid-December, 1988, behind the pickup seat. We had been behind that seat for one reason or another at least 100 times since spring, 1988--including every morning since well before Thanksgiving, since that's where we keep the windshield frost scraper/snow brush. In fact, the glasses were sitting casually on top of the much used frost-scraper brush! The lenses were not al all dusty. During a subsequent (February, 1989) visit to Grand Forks, John III positively identified the glasses as his. The pickup, incidentally, is kept locked at all times when not in use.

And a few suggestive but speculative things: In the summer of 1941, we were living temporarily on a Kansas farm--where I saw something big and strange over the nearby Smoky Hill River woods. It is even after we had moved to a nearby small town, I viewed that stretch of river woods with considerable apprehension. At some point around then, I developed an odd scar above my kneecap, an unlikely place for an injury (there have been reports of small flesh samples taken by UFO visitors from small children at about that age). In that general time period, I drew a picture (which I still have) of an "alien looking" person (large head, slanted eyes, no ears or hair) holding a human being. Only a few years after that, I developed a really very sophisticated interest in astronomy and chemistry. Strange things, difficult to delineate with precision, took place near Flagstaff, Arizona on Woody Mountain, one night in August, 1952, where I was a U.S. Forest Service fire lookout and asleep in my cabin at the base of the fire tower. Early the next morning, haunted by feelings of great "strangeness" (unusual for an 18 year old), I noticed a rock, two feet or so in diameter, which appeared to have moved 15 feet up the slope of the mountain, quite close to the base of the tower. It had rained briefly though heavily at some point that night and there was no particular "sign" on the ground. Unlike my encounter of 1957 and the events of March, 1988, all of which are very definite and tangible indeed, (10) these earlier situations are, as I've said, speculative.

In the last several years, a number of people who have had UFO encounter experiences, and some UFO researchers, have painted a bleak and oft-frightening picture of "alien motivations"--raising the possibility of genetic experiments and the like. Other people who have had this experience, such as myself and John III and Betty Hill, and a number of other researchers, take a friendly and positive view of all of this. I think, among other things, that we need to look at the socio-cultural backgrounds of the people involved in the encounters. Urban people--especially urban women--who live, understandably, in perennial fear of theft, rape, or other attack, are much more likely, I should think, to view a close encounter with UFO people as frightening and negative than are, say, rural people or part-Indian travelers on many frontiers like John III and myself and Betty Hill (or racially and culturally open minded people generally) who welcome new, unusual experiences, new friends, new challenges. With no false modesty, I certainly view my life, especially from 1957 onward, as having been a quite positive one to date: effective social justice organizing in many hard-core settings and much productive teaching and writing. I was pleasantly surprised in mid-January, 1989, to receive three awards for my social justice work (both contemporary and historic): one, presented by the general commanding Grand Forks Air Force Base; another from the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The "big" one was given by the North Dakota Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission--its 1989 award--and was presented to me by Governor George Sinner. In late spring, 1989, I was elected president of the UND chapter of the North Dakota Higher Education Association (NEA) and, in the fall of 1989, I was voted chair of the UND Honors Program Committee.

As I've said, almost to the point of redundancy, we see all of this as being very friendly. I do have several basic, concluding thoughts: I believe the number of direct physical encounters with the "alien" humanoids is not nearly as great as some people are presently saying. I see these as rare but not super-rare. I believe these encounters are specifically selective (anything except random) and, as such, necessitate among other things a good deal of careful planning and maneuvering by the humanoids. I do believe that, across the Creation, there are certain universals: e.g., principles of logic, scientific methodology, and the concerns of bureaucrats about cost and time factors. It probably took several days and a good many humanoid-hours to set up and implement the 1 1/2 hour meeting with John III and myself on March 20, 1988. I believe these are extra-terrestrial persons similar to ourselves and perhaps even related in some intriguing fashion or at least the results of a parallel evolutionary course. They are solid and physical and "all-around" tangible entities, sharply intelligent (as one would assume trained astronauts and scientists and perhaps even professors to he), and their range of emotions is comparable to ours. I categorically do not see them as angels/devils/psychic manifestations.

Their actions (motivations and effects and related factors) are quite positive. While I think it's possible that there may be some "experimentation" involved, I think this is ethically and honorably done--and to good ends. However, I believe the basic thrusts focus on helping some of us (directly) "keep on keeping on" in the business of edging humanity closer and closer to the Sun--figuratively speaking and sensitizing humanity with respect to the relatively nearby presence of other forms of intelligent life.

New as I consciously am to the UFO situation, it may seem more than a little presumptuous for me to, (paraphrasing, I believe, Koestler's Ivanov in Darkness at Noon), point out that there are some strange terrestrial birds in the trees of "ufology." Without getting shrill about it and recognizing that there can be "reasonable differences of opinion between reasonable people" (as I was reminded occasionally a long time ago and still am from time to time), I do believe that the "gloom and doom" people in UFO research are often either downright paranoid, motivated by commercial considerations, or ideologically endeavoring to resurrect a new version of the Red Scare (but I don't think they'll be able to dothat).

I do very strongly believe, and now I'm drawing on cogent impression existing above and below the water levels of my mind, that the people from afar that John III and I met (and the many other humanoids who look in on our struggling and so very often courageously valiant Earthly turf and drama), have good motives, very good ones, and the unfolding results of all of this--individually if our people can keep an open mind, and certainly with respect to the long-term perspective and future of human society--are and will be deeply beneficial through the many, many ages to come.

Note by JRS (October, 1990): Recall by summer, 1990, makes it clear that the 1952 and 1941 encounters are also definite.

Further note (September, 1991): It became clear by spring, 1991, that John III has grown more than 1 1/2" taller since the March, 1988 encounter. He had stopped growing several years before that when he was about 19 years old.

(1) See John R. Salter, Jr., Jackson, Mississippi: An American Chronicle of Struggle & Schism, (Melbourne, Florida: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Company, 1987).

(2) An odd thing occurred at a Mobil station at LaCrosse. Just as we were climbing into the pickup after gassing up, a strange looking little man, bundled in a coat and with a "Greek Fisherman's" cap, rushed, in stumbling fashion, from the station office to his Volvo. His eyes blocked briefly but intently with mine. As we left the station on a little intra-LaCrosse freeway, he followed us; I slowed substantially but he declined to pass. He remained behind us until we took the 14/61 turnoff. In the aftermath of the encounters, our minds were drawn repeatedly to this seemingly insignificant episode.

(3) The short stretch of four-lane is indicated in some quite recent road atlases and maps (such as our contemporary Mobil Wisconsin road map) but not in others.

(4) See the very well done book on the Hills' experience: The Interrupted Journey by John Fuller (New York: Dial Press, 1966 and various other editions) and also a fascinating compendium of articles dealing with the "star map" shown Betty Hill by the cordial captain of the UFO: "The Zeta Reticuli Incident," (edited by Terence Dickinson, (Milwaukee: Astro-Media Corporation (publishers of Astronomy), 1976

(5) Of particular value has been Thomas E. Bullard's massive two volume work: UFO Abductions: The Measure of a Mystery (Washington, D.C., Fund for UFO Research, 1987) and Richard Hall's Uninvited Guests--A Documented History OF UFO Sightings, Alien Encounters, & Coverups (Santa Fe: Aurora Press, 1988). Both men have since provided me with some excellent insights through correspondence.

(6) At all points in our joint March 20, 1988 experience, John III and I were "hit" simultaneously by amnesia and "came out" simultaneously. But, in the aftermath that night, he was groggier somewhat longer than I and his recall took longer to commence and has proceeded at a slower pace. It appears that he was "hit harder" than I. He is a little shorter than I am and much lighter and, on the surface, would be perceived as a less formidable "problem." Why, then, was he more profoundly affected by this (in part, at least) tranquilizing process? Was it because he is lighter and younger? A possible explanation, not known to me until August, 1989 (when he told me) is that John III was carrying a .22 automatic pistol on his person that night. We were on our way to, among other places, Mississippi--where memories are long. I had my unloaded .357 revolver, holstered and in a case on the pickup seat. The cartridges were in the glove compartment. Privately, John III had decided this was a too cumbersome proposition; hence, his on-person and loaded automatic. Could the humanoids have been aware he was carrying a weapon?

(7) On the March 20, 1988 trek from a few miles south of LaCrosse to the short stretch of four-lane where the double amnesia lifted briefly, all conscious recollection was blocked. But, almost a year later, in early March, 1989, an odd composite blur--almost an abstraction--began to emerge into my consciousness in a not unpleasantly sharp and forceful fashion with an implication of significance. It is a blend of road signs/markers and its emergence is accompanied by a strong sense that "we should have gone on the other road but we could not help ourselves." After our visits to the general area in early June, 1989 and mid-August, 1989, I'm convinced of that which I instinctively felt when this first surfaced in early March, 1989: It's a composite of road signs/markers from the critical Readstown junction (14/61) where highways 14 and 61 part company and where John III and I "inexplicably" took 14 and thus went to our destiny! When this composite/blur initially surfaced, I had the strong feeling that I should write up our encounter experience and this is what I did in my mid-March, 1989 paper--which I distributed widely and which has been well received. In late May, 1989, the composite/blur arose again--accompanied by the strong feeling that I should return to the site of the experience, and this is what Josie and I indeed did. At a number of subsequent points, the emergence of this has obviously been a trigger/signal for intensive and specifically delineated UFO interest/activity on my part.

(8) On May 13, 1989, I took my 1987 Ford F-150 pickup in for its first real maintenance (16,165 miles) since its purchase two years before and, with the exception of routine oil/lube jobs, the first maintenance of any kind since before our March, 1988 trip to the Deep South. The service person at Hansen Ford (Grand Forks) suggested that, in addition to the tune-up and related matters, a full alignment job be done and I agreed. Two very interesting things surfaced: (1) Although normally the right front wheel is supposed to be higher and the left front wheel lower, my pickup had things reversed. Computer measurement indicated my right wheel was .5 and the left 1.0; (2) The left rear rim was bent. The Ford people found this inexplicable--since we drive the pickup with great care and it's virtually never off a paved road. We could recall no conventional situation where this could have occurred.

(9) The 1957 encounter, which began to surface in the context of the March, 1988 experience, took place in late May of that year (summer in Arizona!) while I was returning to my home town of Flagstaff from a quick trip to Phoenix. The experience is definite; the details still remain somewhat murky. The humanoids involved are of the same basic racial group as those in March, 1988. The business of somewhat darker eyebrows and beard, heightened immunity, much energy, at least some aversion to sunlight and something of a preference for cloudy and dampish weather, all came after the May, 1957 experience and then, slowly, faded in the mid and late 1970s into the 1980s--until after March 20, 1988, when all of this bounced back more noticeably than ever before, plus much more. As long as I can recall, I've had some psychic abilities which have been noticed, over the years, by family and friends. There was some sharpening of these after May, 1957; there was no decline in the 1970s and 1980s; and there has been an increase since March, 1988.

(10) Almost from the moment of the March, 1988 encounter, I have had no hesitation in talking openly about the experience, its ramifications, and my positive perceptions of it. I have encountered little open skepticism and, although initially there was some fear by several older persons, this appears to have passed. Almost all younger people (under 35), and virtually all Indians regardless of age, have been very open minded and quite receptive--and many older non-Indians have, too. Regional newspaper and television interviews with me have been thoughtful, nicely done, and well received. UND Honors students have asked me to teach a three semester hour credit course on UFOs in 1990-91 and I have agreed. Only two colleagues, neither of whom at all doubts the reality of my UFO experiences, have suggested that I not draw attention to the episodes in order to ensure my continued credibility on other fronts. I answered them, reiterating my response to a television interviewer a short time later: "If I had worried about what other people thought, I would never have had the experiences I've had or accomplished the things I've accomplished."

</lj-cut.

Jim G.

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 15:31:33 GMT

August 23, 2003

Hi, my name is Jim. I live in a small town on the outskirts of London. Here's an account that happened to me in April 2001. It's taken me this long to deal with it. I promise to you everything that happened is true.

I woke up at about 2:30 in the morning to find a tall praying mantis looking being and a cloaked being by the side of my bed. I thought to myself "What crazy dream is this?" The cloaked being looked at me from beneath its hood, revealing its black skin, which appeared leathery and reflecting light much like a beetles skin. I shut my eyes, thinking this must be a realistic dream! But when I re-opened my eyes, the figures were unfortunately still there.

Drawing by Jim G. of praying mantis being

Drawing by Jim G. of cloaked being

The cloaked figure looked up to the tall praying mantis type, as if it was confused as to what actions it should take next.

The praying mantis turned its head towards the hooded one and made a series of high-pitched clicking sounds. I sensed this was the one in command, possibly the other was some kind of security guard. It's at this point I realized, I'm definitely not dreaming, I can hear them. I couldn't move but my brain went into a deep panic. "OH my god what is going on?" "What are they?" I don't want to look too closely at the mantis, so I just glance at it.

All I recall was that it was tall. At least 7 foot, it had to bend its neck because of the height of the ceiling. Its head was pointed with large eyes. Its for-arms were extremely long and moved in a jerky fashion. The cloaked figure was closer, crouching by my bed, so I couldn't tell how tall it was, but I could clearly see that it was wearing some kind of overlapping ridged amour? Including a metallic looking breastplate that had a series of circles on it. Its head was dome-like with emotionless facial features. Its eyes were large and surrounded again by detailed ridges. It acted in a way that reminded me of a robot or insect.

I remember thinking to myself, nobody's going to believe this! A bloody giant sized mantis and medieval-style dressed alien, what the hell is this? Before this incident, although I hadn't see one, I was familiar with the gray types but I had never heard of the praying-mantis types. At this point, the mantis bent its upper body, over my bed and directly above me. In its hand it was holding a long metal object that looked like a needle. A green light shot directly from the needle and into my right eye. Maybe it's a laser, I am not sure, but I do know it felt very painful. I could see all the veins from my eye, the same effect you get when an Optician checks your eyes. I screamed but no noise came out. I then felt something stick into my skull! I'm not sure what because by that time I had my eyes closed. I pretended to sleep and went into deep panic! My mind was racing at a million miles per hour. I heard a great whooshing sound and when I next reopened my eyes thankfully they had gone.

I lay shaking and confused for what seemed like hours and just couldn't return back to sleep. At no time did I feel like they cared about my health or me! They seem to have an insect cold type mentality. I really thought I was going to die. The next day I spent the whole day in bed and felt as if I had been through a major operation. It's very painful to recall and since this incident, I sometimes hear clicking sounds inside my head. I was in shock for a long while afterwards; I can say that this definitely happened, this definitely was real. I have no answers or conclusions but I think it's important to get real life accounts out there.

Thank you. Keep up the good work!

Regards,
Jim
-----------

UFO*BC: We sent Jim a response thanking him for sharing his account. A little while later we received another e-mail from him that included the two drawings above, a computer generated graphic of the cloaked entity (see below) as well as a very interesting sound file.

September 2, 2003

I don't feel any pain at this moment, but I can tell when I've been ‘taken’ because the next day I’m completely wasted. Like I've been in a medical operation, I just cannot move or do anything much at all. Dealing with this and being self-employed as you can imagine is no fun at all.

I can't remember anything else from the main encounter other than when I first woke up they were doing something to my legs and that there must have been a light source for me to see so much detail, but from where it was emitting from I can't say, possibly the cloaked figure was holding a staff.

Computer graphic by Jim G. of cloaked being

I haven't contacted anyone else with similar encounters; to be honest I still feel all this is too soon, just writing about this is quite an effort.

Although I do have some very good friends whom I've told and they were initially skeptical but now they do believe me (knowing me not to be a liar or a fantasist), I still feel very much alone and isolated. In my job you have to be quite confident and outgoing. It’s getting tougher and tougher hiding the trauma, and maintaining a ‘got it together’ appearance to the outside world. ‘How are you?’ ‘ Not bad, not bad, oh by the way I’m getting abducted by aliens that look like giant preying mantis!’

The day after the incident in 2001, I did do a word search on ‘mantis-type aliens’ and got nothing. So at first, although I knew it did happen, I really just put it down to a very realistic dream and denied it to myself. Until six months ago while surfing the Net I accidentally came across a drawing of a praying mantis alien holding a needle device. It was exactly what I had seen. I had a panic attack just looking at it; I just couldn't get it out of my head. The artist was J Westwood, it can be seen at alien alley.com. Also on the same site, an artist by the name of Sylvia Rayner has drawn a picture of ‘what the cloaked figure looked like’; it’s called Dark entity.

After a little research I realized that these were well-defined aliens within UFOolgy.If other people were seeing what I’d seen then either it’s a coincidence or it’s really happening! You know, I've had nightmares before but not in my bedroom and I've never felt any lasting trauma from a nightmare.

I came across a website that made it easy to report your experiences; It even had a report form with a scroll bar to choose the different types of aliens including preying mantis type. So I finality decided to write what I had seen and send it around.

Why do I think they chose me? Well, I've had many of what a lot of people would describe as strange experiences while I was a kid, (seeing ufo's, the walls talking to me every birthday) but I think a lot of kids have these things happen? I prefer to concentrate on the things that I can say really happened.

I was 18 yrs old and in the summer of 92 and while working in London, I sneezed and a metal ball fell out of my left nostril! I told my friends ‘wow London's so polluted; I must have breathed in some lead cause a metal ball fell out of my nose! I now suspect it was possibly an implant.

And in the summer of 96, it was a real hot night so I thought I’d climbed out of my bedroom window and on to the roof of my house. I got the strangest feeling of being watched, I looked into the star filled night sky and had the crazy thought of trying to communicate with aliens telepathically, I know how that sounds crazy but I’m sure a lot of people have tried it. It felt right some how. I just sent out feelings of love and that if anyone can pick this up I’d like to communicate. To my utter amazement, way up high, a ball of light appeared. I assumed it to be a satellite until it turned dived and hovered 200 feet above me. I could clearly see it was a ball of light. It made no sound what so ever. I stared in utter amazement. I felt calm and euphoric, completely at one with the world. The ball then just disappeared. I climbed back into my bedroom and fell into a deep sleep.

Since then, I started to have really strange experiences. I'd wake up in the middle of night floating above my bed! Or worse floating in-between my bedroom wall, One time I even floated outside my house and in the distance I could see the ball of light I was getting pulled towards it. I imagined myself surrounded by white light and I flew back to my bed with a thud. I don’t think I was astral projecting, this felt real.

Then these experiences complete stopped. And I mean so much so, that all of this started to become a distant memory! I started to get on with my life.

And then the praying mantis encounter happened.

So I’m really not sure why they choose me, maybe they sensed a spiritual awaken within me or more likely it was just mere opportunity. They just spotted some young fool on a roof of a house and thought ‘he'll do easy pickings’. One thing’s for sure; I really felt no spiritual vibes or energy (if you like) from these beings at all. I just felt like a lab rat.

Sincerely,

Jim G

PS. I've attached some drawings I've done, one of the mantis and one of the cloaked entity. And I've made a sound up of the clicks the mantis made, it's roughly accurate. Put it on a loop if you can and play loud.

September 12, 2003
Also I'm a sound engineer by profession so I've replicated the clicking sounds I sometimes hear inside my head. To get the full effect put on a pair of headphones and play quite loud. I only hear this at night and never experience the clicks before the mantis abduction. It is also very similar to the clicking sound the mantis made towards the cloaked entity.
You have my complete permission to use all this on you website, it is all original work.
I just hope it helps other people who are experiencing the same trauma that they're aren't mad and this is really happening.

Thank you for giving me a chance to get my story out there.

Regards
Jim G

Part II

I'd like to keep you informed and up to date with what been happening to me recently, including what I class as a major incident that happened on January the 16th 2004 involving another class of 'entity/alien'.

At first, I really only wanted to mention what happened on the 16th. But, as I started to write it, I felt that it was important to mention everything that previously happened. I'm so busy in my life I try my best to ignore these 'incidents' and carry on. I don't know what's going on but can assure you these aren't dreams, something real is happening to me and I want this information out in the public domain.

Typical Scenario

This happens about twice a week (but can stop completely for say a month, if I'm lucky).

A typical scenario would start with me lying in bed and just as I'm about to fall asleep, I'd hear a high pitched clicking sound inside my head.

With in a few minutes I'd hear the same sound again but this time it would be INSIDE my bedroom.

It's like its a warning to 'someone' that I'll soon be asleep, because as soon as I hear it, I know, that with-in the next ten minutes I'll be completely knocked out.

Before I pass out though, through half shut eyes, I'd see a reddish glow appear on my far wall, followed by shadowy movements of tall figures coming out of the light towards me.

I always try my best to fight it and stay conscious but it never works and I always lose consciousness.

The next day I'd feel completely exhausted. My whole body would ache all over as though it had been through a major operation. Sometimes my body would be covered in bruises, like in August 2003 when I woke up to find five separate bruises on the inner thigh of my right leg.

Drawing by Jim of bruise pattern on the inside of his thigh.

The bruises made up a wide spreading imprint in the shape of a huge hand. The night before I specifically checked my body for markings (to get one bruise while asleep I'm sure is not unusual but to get five in one night on one leg is). I'm the first to admit that by itself, it's not strong enough as evidence but considering recent events I think it's worth mentioning.

A Standoff with a cloaked being

One of the more significant incidents happened on November the 10th, 2003.

For the sake of my own sanity more than anything, I was convinced that I could get some solid evidence. The plan was simple; grab something off one of the Beings.

On the 10th at around about 3:00 am in the morning, I was lying in my bed, half-asleep, when I heard a noise in my bedroom. It like 'someone' was stealthily walking across my bedroom carpet. I pretended to be asleep and waited.

A few seconds later, I heard the noise again; this time there was no mistaking it, there was definitely something walking towards me.

I waited a little longer then jumped out of my bed. Everything went into slow motion. As my quilt went flying across the room, before I even landed, something squealed! (In surprise?) I can only describe it as like a high-pitched electronic pig squeal!

The 'something' ran away from me at high speed, knocking into some small storage boxes on the floor. This was no dream, something solid was moving in my room.

I landed on my feet and put my arms up into a fighting position, but it was so dark my eyes could barely adjust to the darkness. I could just make out a humanoid figure wearing a dark bluish cloak running at towards the back of the corridor part of my bedroom. Like with the 'first incident' my thoughts when into overdrive.

I couldn't believe what was happening! One part of me thought about the plan of grabbing it but I immediately thought to myself, "I'm not touching it!" (I really didn't expect to see anything!)

Besides even if I did grab something off it, what would I do? Run outside in the street screaming? I mean, how far would I get before the aliens would stop me anyway.

Part of me couldn't take in what was happening, while another part of my brain was assessing the situation.

I kept my eyes firmly on the cloaked being, which was in a hunched position, staring back at me from the far side of the corridor.

It was between 4-5 foot tall and wearing a dark hooded robe which looked as if it was covered in a purple-bluish energy (liquid in appearance).

Bizarrely, and I've no explanation for it, on the outside I was totally calm, even though I was essentially in a Mexican stand-off with a hooded alien.

It was smaller than me and it just didn't feel right to jump on it and pound its head in.

I can't fight anyone unless they attack me first and I was in a good position if it did decide to attack me.

So I relaxed as much as I could and changed my hands from clenched fists to open palms.

I said as calmly as possible; "I'm not going to fight you"

I waited for a response.

No reply.

I then asked, "What are you?"

Again no reply, It's Hooded head was pointing in my direction and I could barely just make out two reddish eyes.

Drawing by Jim depicting the red glowing eyes during the "stand-off".

My own eyes were still trying to adjust to the night but there was no doubt it was there.

The being then got up, ignored me, turned and walked INTO and through the wall!

As it disappeared from sight, it looked up at me from beneath its hood. I could clearly see two reddish-blackish eyes stare at me.

It freaks me just thinking about it. I will never forget them, they where unblinking metallic and completely emotionless.

It was then that the shock hit me. I sat down on my bed, thinking about the strangeness of it all. What could I do?

I didn't go back to sleep but stayed up all night constantly questioning what had just occurred. I took the next day off sick. I felt drained.

I can't say for sure, but I think it was the cloaked being that I saw with the praying mantis alien that I reported in my first incident but I'm not sure.

I made an image so you can get an idea of what it looked like. I wouldn't say it's completely accurate but it does definitely capture the eerie unemotional gaze of the red eyes.

Also at that time, as you can imagine, for a long time I was still in shock.

It hits you hard, it took me a long time to report the first mantis incident and come to terms with it.

Looking back on it, this seemed to be the catalyst for the increased alien activities that happened afterward.

After this incident, for several weeks I slept with a side lamp on, but ended up not being able to sleep so I now just use a small light by the side of my bed.

The Tall Praying Mantis Being appears again

On December the 18th I was staying at my brother's house. He lives a few miles away. I slept in the spare bedroom, which is adjacent to the neighbour's side. The walls are really thin, so thin that you can hear the individual words in the neighbour's conversation. I was so tired; I fell asleep at around 12:30 pm.

Without any warning I found myself wide-awake and completely unable to move! The clicking sound was continually screeching in my head. I screamed out " AAAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH! What the HELL IS going on!" (And please include every swear word you know). No sound came out from my mouth.

With every muscle I could muster, I pushed myself up on my side and turned my head to the bottom of the bed.

Standing before me was a tall Mantis-like being! The same mantis being I had seen before. This wasn't like the short cloaked being I saw before, the terror I felt upon seeing this sight was completely overwhelming. The only way I can describe it is, it feels like waves of fear washing over you.

I'm having trouble writing this, just recounting it is tough.

It was wearing a long dark robe. It was about seven plus feet tall and vaguely humanoid-ish. The body was extremely bony and skinny with a long black snake-like neck. It's head was grayish blackish and triangular in shape reminding me of a skull. The eyes were bulbous, black and rounded with a liquid-like appearance. In fact, it seemed to me, everything on the mantis was liquidly looking, like oil shimmering in the sun.

The arms were extremely long with multiple joints extending out in a messiah pose. The forearms were bent forward longer than the rest of the arm.

This really is a living nightmare,

It's the head and arms that give it the appearance of a praying mantis and unlike the first time I met this type of alien, I got a really good look at it, which gave me enough detail to make an image.

Jim's pencil drawing of Praying Mantis from his encounter on December 18, 2003.

Jim's colour artwork of Praying Mantis from his encounter on December 18, 2003.

As soon as it noticed me, the mantis, with extreme speed, extended huge bony legs from beneath its robe and ran directly into and through the wall!

I couldn't believe what I was seeing, but it's feet made a clunking sound at it ran across the floor confirming this was a solid object moving through the room!

As it ran through, I could see a strange red glow where it's body had come in contact with the wall. At the same time, a door to a built in wardrobe on the same wall, rattled loudly as if it was hit by some kind of an energy field.

All this happened in only a few seconds, maybe even shorter. But I got a damn good look at this thing.

At this point the neighbour from next door shouted "Oi! What's going on?"

The way this skeletal alien moved was jerky and fast, like a huge scuttling beetle.

I was completely speechless; so many mixed emotions came at once; I was in awe, I was tired, shocked, confused and scared but also relieved I wasn't dead. This is how intense these incidents are.

I mean, it could have easily killed me; nobody would ever know and it's not as if the police are going to find my body and reach the 'logical' conclusion that "yep he was killed by an alien."

It made me think, "How many people if any, have been killed by aliens?"

This did not feel like a peaceful encounter, I woke up into a nightmare.

I checked the time it was roughly 2:45 a.m. As you can imagine, I stayed up for the rest of the night unable to go back to sleep.

The next day I tried to ask my brother if he noticed anything strange last night? He said he didn't notice anything. I didn't mention the mantis being.

I'm not stupid. Most people if you told them wouldn't believe you or worse would think you're crazy.

A New Short Mantis/Fly-Head Alien

All was quiet until the 16th of January 2004. Although I'm convinced things have happened while I've been asleep. This is the one I originally only wanted to report.

In the middle of the night I suddenly found myself wide-awake. A loud buzzing sound filled my ears. I was curled up on my bed in a fetal position facing the closest wall. I felt a force push on the back of my head. I wouldn't say it hurt exactly but it was extremely uncomfortable.

Again, I heard the loud clicking sound in my head. This time it panned from my right ear to the left.

I really hate that sound.

I looked at my arm; it was covered in a bluish-purplish pulsating energy.

My brain tried to make sense of the situation and search for a rational explanation.

I couldn't move my legs or arms. I found I could just about move my head,

Some how I managed to break free and used all my effort to turn around.

Standing before me in the centre of my bedroom was some kind of short humanoid creature, with a large mantis/fly looking head.

A beam of energy was coming from the alien to me.

Thousands of thoughts entered my head at the same time.

"That's not supposed to be there, what is that? Why don't I feel scared?"

"Can I fight it? I can't move?"

"This isn't a dream!"

I felt I had known this being all my life. I also felt that I'd been manipulated into feeling this.

I then heard a slow deep voice, almost overwriting all my other thoughts. It seemed to be communicating telepathically.

It 'said' in an abrupt manner "NOW, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

"YES" I found myself answering, but I've no idea why I said it because I didn't understand. I didn't understand any of this.

"GOOD" It replied.

I turned my head back towards the wall and shut my eyes. The buzzing sound stopped and I felt extremely tired. I collapsed and lost consciousness.

But I got a good look at this thing. The creature was humanoid and 5 foot 5 inches or 1 meter 40 cm tall. I made a mental note where it's head came up on my wardrobe and measured it the next day.

Its head was huge in relation to its body. Its eyes were extremely large, shiny, insect-like and were supported by big sockets. My first impressions were that it looked like a cross between a praying mantis and a fly. This Being did not look like the tall praying mantis beings (I actually looked to see if I could see its arms, to see if they were bent like a praying mantis, but the arms were hidden by a dark black cloak) Again the Being appeared to be surrounded by a bluish purplish energy.

Illustration by Jim of Mantis/Fly-Head type alien he encountered on January 16, 2004.

In the centre of it's cloak was a golden badge. I was more preoccupied with getting a description of the alien but there was definitely a design or symbol on it I just couldn't make it out.

I looked closer at its head; it had two protrusions between the eyes and a mass of protrusions where a mouth would normally be. All at the same time another part of my brain was thinking, "what does it eat? What evolutionary path did it take?" It reminded me of a moustache, giving it a vaguely comic look but trust me; the overall look was one of menace. (That is why I've included two images, one to show the details and the darker one so you can get a sense of what it's like to actually wake up and see one of these things)

Pencil drawing by Jim showing details of facial features of Mantis Fly-Head type alien he encountered on January 16, 2004.

I was left feeling mixed emotions; I was feeling scared and again I was also feeling relieved that they had tried to communicate with me and weren't going to kill me (like I felt with the first incident). This was the first time they had tried a communication.

I kept thinking, what did they/it mean, "Now do I understand?" (It sounded like a command not a question) I also felt relieved; that at least, I knew with-in myself I wasn't going mad.

The next day I woke up like my body had been through hell and back.

Cloaked Being

Just as I'm trying to come to term with this, on Saturday the 13th of March 2004, I woke up to see a cloaked Being standing in the centre of my room.

It had the same shape as the short fly-head/mantis thing (but I couldn't say for certain). I heard a "Popping" sound and the Being quickly disappeared. Again, I wouldn't have mentioned before because I didn't get a good look at what it was, but I think the sound could be of importance.

Two tall Mantis-types

The latest incident happened on Sunday the 14th of March 2004, this time I woke up to see TWO of the tall praying mantis types standing in the middle of my room. The perspective I was seeing them was from the opposite position of the bed I had gone to sleep in.

They looked as if they were engaged in a conversation; making high-pitched (almost digital) clicking sounds at each other. I was too tired to be afraid so I just concentrated on making a mental description, cross checking it with the ones I'd seen before.

Both were extremely thin and tall, well over seven feet high. One was slightly taller than the other.

Their necks are long, flexible and tube-like and don't look strong enough to support the triangular heads (It was as if the head was floating while the neck followed in a smooth but jerky fashion).

The neck and head moved in a way that reminded me of the old stop-motion monster films or like a lizard, (quick fast pause, quick fast pause)

Both were wearing long black robes that again looked like liquid oil.

On the side of the face I could clearly see a small round hole just below their eyes.

I felt completely drained and couldn't move. I tried to move. I tried to get up but just couldn't move. I just had time to think "Bastards" before slipping back into unconsciousness.

Artwork by Jim G. of Mantis type alien. On this occasion, Jim noticed a small hole just below the eye as depicted above.

Conclusions

I really would like some answers; somebody somewhere must know this is going on.

I'm not involved with any abductee groups and haven't had any hypnosis sessions etc.; everything I've written is from memory alone. I don't want to be patronized by theories of lucid dreaming, sleep paralysis and fantasy prone personality. I know the difference between a dream and something solid in 3-D space. I think it's pretty obvious by now that UFOs are real so lets get information on whose flying them and what they want. All this started to happen after I saw the UFO (a ball of light) above my house in 1996. I had another UFO sighting (see below) in 1997.

Jim's UFO sighting in 1997. "The two spheres rotating around each other flew over my house, I had just enough time to see it before they disappeared over the horizon."

I can say that this is real, this is happening and I don't like it, don't need it and don't want it. I could really do with out any of this in my life.

I want it to stop. I've pleaded with them to leave me alone.

The fear and trauma I've experienced is getting too much. I'm dealing with it because I've got no choice

I don't know what's going on or what they want.

I reckon I've confused them. I feel they're confused on why I wake up during certain 'medical operations' and on my reaction to the red eyed cloaked being.

It seems to happen in phases, I try to avoid sleeping between two and four in the morning, but obviously I don't keep it up for too long so end up falling asleep and that's when they come. I do feel that I've got an Implant and I feel like it acts like a monitoring device, to what extent I can't say.

I'm not writing this to convince skeptics. I'm doing this for other abductees to show they're not mad and for UFO/Alien investigators to get a better insight. The only thing I'm proud about out of all of this is my recall; I'm trying to be as good a witness as I can be.

I feel frustrated because this should be major news, but I know, that if I went public with this, most people wouldn't take it seriously. And to me this is one of the worst aspects; knowing this is happening but knowing that the majority of people won't believe you.

Thank you

Jim G.

http://www.ufobc.ca/Beyond/prayingmantis.htm

John Lennon

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 07:03:12 GMT

There’s UFOs Over New York and John Lennon Wasn’t Too Surprised, Or Why I Hate December

By Larry Warren

With this being my first contribution to The Researcher and considering this publication originates in the great city of Liverpool, I thought I’d write about John Lennon’s August 1974 UFO experience. I had first-hand knowledge of this event because I knew May Pang, Lennon’s assistant and companion during his infamous "lost weekend". May was with John Lennon when the UFO sighting occurred. And maintained a vivid recollection of it. Over the years I’ve seen Lennon’s sighting misrepresented by writers in various books and magazine articles (either because of the writers ignorance of the facts or unease with the subject matter). I have also experienced the same thing as have many other high-profile UFO witnesses, and look forward to the day when many UFO researchers and writers become a bit more professional in their work. For now, let’s set the record straight on this event.

In the summer of 1988 I had an opportunity to speak with May Pang about her and Lennon’s experience while sitting in her New York city apartment, surrounded by artifacts of May’s time spent with one of the most famous people of this century. Over the apartment door hung the old style New York City street sign that John found and brought home. On a table, a silver-framed photograph that May had taken of Lennon, lying in bed with his two cats called "Major and Minor". The ceiling to floor mirrors he bought to make their East 52nd street apartment living room look larger. Most notably, I saw the gold record presented to John Lennon for his introspective album "Walls and Bridges", and it was this record that Lennon was recording when he had his amazing UFO sighting. Fourteen years had passed since the event, however, to May Pang, it was as if it had happened yesterday.

It was a typically repressive late summer evening in New York City, with air so heavy you could almost cut it with a knife. John Lennon and May Pang had just returned home to their east 52nd street apartment building, after spending a long day at the Record Plant East recording studio, where John was immersed in the final mix down of the Walls and Bridges album. Lennon loved the 52nd street address as it was only one building removed from the East River, and the view from their top floor apartment over to the docks of Brooklyn and the navy shipyard reminded him of Liverpool. Another point of interest for John Lennon was the fact that the reclusive actress Greta Garbo also lived on the block and he hoped to catch sight of her.

The night of August 23 was no different from any other that month for John and May. John made and received phone calls, watched TV and listened to the day’s recorded work while making notes. May Pang recalls that the apartment was hot that night, but by 8 O’ Clock the night air had cooled off enough for her to have turned off the air conditioning and opened the windows to get a breeze off the river. Just off the apartment’s living room was a part of the building’s roof which also acted as a private observation deck, with a great view of east New York. Access was only granted by climbing out of a window, which Lennon often did. The haze had now cleared over New York’s skyline. At about 8:30 p.m., May decided to take a shower, leaving Lennon alone in the living room reviewing mock-ups of his new record’s cover. The cover art on the final product would be a painting by a 12 year old John Lennon. A short time later, as May was drying off, she heard John yell to her from the outside roof, "May come here right now!" Startled, she ran to John’s aid finding him standing on the roof nude and pointing wildly southeastward. As May remembered, finding John Lennon nude on the roof was not a surprise, as he had no aversion to wallowing around in that condition. What did surprise her was what he was pointing at. Just south of the building now was a brightly lit "classic" circular UFO, floating silently and less than 100 feet away from the couple. As John Lennon would later describe, "I wasn’t surprised to see the UFO really, as it looked just like the spaceships we’ve all seen on the cinema growing up, but then I realised this thing was real and so close, that I could almost touch it!". As they watched, the UFO moved silently away. May told me that the lighting on the thing left them awe-struck, as it would change its configuration with every rotation. The object made no sound. The main structure of the craft could also be clearly seen for the duration of the event, due to the last remnants of the still setting sun. May ran back into the apartment and grabbed a 35mm camera, and once back on the roof both she and John took numerous pictures of the craft. May remembers John’s arms outstretched as he yelled at the UFO to come back and take him away! "He was very serious and I believe he really wanted that thing to take him with it back to wherever it came from, but then that was John Lennon, always looking for the next big adventure". Soon the object passed the United Nations building and slowly veered left, crossing over the East River, then over Brooklyn and soon the UFO simply blended in with the heavy commercial air traffic in southern Long Island. John Lennon and May Pang, both shaken by the experience, climbed back into the apartment. John picked up the phone and called up his friend and noted rock photographer Bob Gruen. Lennon told his friend to come over as soon as possible as he had some film he needed developed urgently! As they waited for Gruen to arrive, John began making sketches of the object he had seen, noting its size and distance. Then John called Yoko Ono at the Dakota apartments to tell her about the UFO and as May remembers it, Yoko became upset at John, because she hadn’t seen it too, and felt that he had "left her out of all the excitement".

Finally Bob Gruen arrived and John told the photographer what had transpired. Gruen later recalled "I took the film home and put John’s roll between two rolls of film I’d taken earlier that day and developed them". "My two rolls of film came out perfectly but John’s roll was blank. Later I asked him " did you call the newspaper?" and he said "I’m not going to call up the newspaper and say, This is John Lennon and I saw a flying saucer last night"… So Bob Gruen called up the local police precinct and asked if anyone had reported a UFO or flying saucer. The police responded with "where? Up on the East Side? You’re the third call on it". Then Bob called the Daily News and they said, "On the East Side? Five people reported it". At last, Bob called the ultra conservative New York Times and asked a reporter if anybody had reported a flying saucer? The reporter hung up on him.

Neither John Lennon nor May Pang would ever forget their UFO experience, but then again, how could they? This very real phenomenon changes and effects everyone touched by it, whether rich, poor, famous or not, it effects us all. Though John Lennon was hesitant to report his sighting to the media, he nevertheless took a stand concerning the sighting. When his album, Walls and Bridges, was released in the Autumn of 1974, any fan would see the notation on the booklet that accompanied the record. On the bottom right of the back cover it reads "On 23 August 1974, I saw a UFO J.L.". That simple statement meant a lot to many of us who read it. Most "flavour of the week celebrities" would never have had the nerve, but John Lennon was different, he had substance and was not afraid to take a stand. He was an inspiration to many people and perhaps that is why we still feel the sadness and loss due to his murder in 1980.

After speaking with May Pang about the UFO sighting with John, reading his extensive notes and studying his drawings, I was left with no doubt that John Lennon would have made one hell of an objective, thoughtful and professional UFO researcher. God knows, we need him now more than ever. May pang played an audio tape for me that John had recorded a few weeks after his experience. On the tape he discusses his thoughts on the UFO subject in general. I took notes and fully agree with his conclusions. In brief, Lennon states that he had no doubt that the craft he saw was from another world and discounted that it could have been a secret government test plane. That argument was stupid in 74 and it’s still stupid now in 99. John Lennon also felt that the craft he saw was part of a much larger fleet stationed just north of New York city, up in the area of the nuclear power plant at Indian Point. A side note: that area is and has been for many years a UFO hot bed, see the book "Night Siege". This area is the heart of the Hudson Valley "giant triangle" sightings and some have been described as being the size of three football fields. Government experimental craft? I think not. The people who promote these ideas should stand under one of these monsters, I’m sure they would be humbled.

John Lennon went on about his theory of how these craft use the earth’s gravitational field and take energy form nuke plants to counter the earth’s gravity. In the book I co-authored with Peter Robbins called "Left at East Gate", I also write about some amazing sightings I had while living in New York. In fact, it is a rather common occurrence for many people, (not just farmers)… Lennon also voiced his opinion and suspicion of a high level conspiracy to cover up verifiable UFO sightings and close encounters with aliens. He continued that "if the masses started to accept UFO’s, it would profoundly affect their attitudes towards life, politics, everything". John explained, "It would threaten the status quo". "Whenever people come to realise that there are larger considerations than their own petty little lives, they are ripe to make radical changes on a personal level, which would eventually lead to a political revolution in society as a whole".
Right on John! Peter Robbins and I have been trying to promote that point of view for the last ten years and I personally have been doing it for nearly eighteen, but I often wonder if anyone is paying attention?

The following day May Pang asked me to help her organise many of John Lennon’s personal effects that she still retained, as a rep’ from Sotherby’s auction house was coming over that week to assess the value of the items for insurance purposes.

In a box I found numerous dated copies of the British UFO journal "Flying Saucer Review"(FSR). All were addressed to John Lennon. I was surprised because I thought the 1974 sighting was John’s first introduction to the world of UFO’s, but the FSR’s dated back to the late 60’s. I asked May if John had an earlier sighting he might have mentioned?… As she carefully folded the black velvet suit he had worn on stage with Elton John in November 1974 at Madison Square Garden, May replied "Oh no, 74 wasn’t John’s first sighting". "In fact he told me that more than once he suspected he had been "abducted" as a child back in Liverpool!" "And he felt that experience was responsible for making him feel different from other people for the rest of his life". "Abducted" I said. "You mean by aliens?" May Pang answered. "Yes, but John didn’t go into detail about it". I was stunned, but that’s another story…

December 8th 1998, late evening and I’ve managed to finish the first serious attempt at writing I’ve made since I wrote the last chapter of Left at East Gate, and it’s great to be back at it.

Two days ago, an auction house offered an autographed copy of John Lennon’s last record "Double Fantasy" for sale. I don’t know if it was sold or not. Christ, it was estimated to go for 1.4 million US dollars. I have to say that the sale of this particular piece of memorabilia makes me sick to my stomach, as the album was signed by John Lennon to a fan whose name he would never know, but we all do. The date was December 8th 1980 and the fan was Mark David Chapman. Maybe something good will come from the sale of the record, I keep telling myself, perhaps the owner of the damned thing will donate a portion of the profits to benefit stronger hand gun control via the spirit foundation, John Lennon’s charity. What the hell am I thinking? In America in the 1990’s, money rules, and the heart has no place to call home, and that’s the flipping truth.

Two and a half weeks after John Lennon’s assassination, I briefly thought of him while blindly walking thorough a pitch black forest in southeastern England, and eighteen years later his final words to reporter David Sholin of RKO radio spoken only hours before his death still cross my mind. "Who knows what’s going to happen next?" Well folks, none of us do and that’s why I hate December.

Larry Warren is a well-known lecturer on the international UFO conference scene and has co-authored a book called Left at East Gate. The book covers many of his UFO experiences along with the associated government and military cover-ups.

http://www.mara.org.uk/John%20Lennon%20UFO.htm

The Night Aliens Called on Lennon

By Uri Geller

We were eating in a restaurant in New York City. Yoko was with us, so this was after their big break-up and reconciliation. Yoko was expecting their child, Sean, and John was excited — he was going to love this baby day and night: feed him, change him, teach him to talk, teach him to love music. He did all of that. And he was going to watch him grow into adolescence, through the tumbles from bicycles and terrors of schooldays, from reading to dating to college. He never got to do that.

John started talking about UFOs. He said he believed life existed on other planets, that it had visited us, that maybe it was observing us right now. He took me to a quieter, darker table, lit a cigarette and pointed its glowing tip at my face. “You believe in this stuff, right?” he asked me. “Well, you ain’t f---in’ gonna believe this.

“About six months ago, I was asleep in my bed, with Yoko, at home, in the Dakota Building. And suddenly, I wasn’t asleep. Because there was this blazing light round the door. It was shining through the cracks and the keyhole, like someone was out there with searchlights, or the apartment was on fire. That was what I thought — intruders, or fire. I leapt out of bed, and Yoko wasn’t awake at all, she was lying there like a stone, and I pulled open the door. There were these four people out there.” Fans?” I asked him. Well they didn’t want my f---in’ autograph. They were, like, little. Bug-like. Big bug eyes and little bug mouths and they were scuttling at me like roaches.” He broke off and stared at me.

I’ve told this to two other people, right? One was Yoko, and she believes me. She says she doesn’t understand it, but she knows I wouldn’t lie to her. I told one other person, and she didn’t believe me. She laughed it off, and then she said I must have been high. Well, I’ve been high, I mean right out of it, a lot of times, and I never saw anything on acid that was as weird as those f---in’ bugs, man. I was straight that night. I wasn’t dreaming and I wasn’t tripping. There were these creatures, like people but not like people, in my apartment.”

“What did they do to you?” Lennon swore again. “How do you know they did anything to me, man?” “Because they must have come for a reason.” You’re right. They did something. But I don’t know what it was. I tried to throw them out, but, when I took a step towards them, they kind of pushed me back. I mean, they didn’t touch me. It was like they just willed me. Pushed me with willpower and telepathy.”

“And then what?”

“I don’t know. Something happened. Don’t ask me what. Either I’ve forgotten, blocked it out, or they won’t let me remember. But after a while they weren’t there and I was just lying on the bed, next to Yoko, only I was on the covers. And she woke up and looked at me and asked what was wrong. I couldn’t tell her at first. But I had this thing in my hands. They gave it to me.” “What was it?”

Lennon dug into his jeans pocket. “I’ve been carrying it round ever since, wanting to ask somebody the same question. You have it. Maybe you’ll know.” I took the metal, egg-like object and turned it over in the dim light. It seemed solid and smooth, and I could make out no markings. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” Keep it.” John told me. “It’s too weird for me. If it’s my ticket to another planet, I don’t want to go there.”

When we first met on November 28, 1974, almost exactly 30 years ago, he was suffering terribly from his separation from Yoko. His drug abuse and drinking, linked to the sorrow of Yoko’s recent miscarriage, had driven them apart, and John desperately wanted to mend the relationship. He just didn’t know how to make the first move. The night Lennon and I were introduced, Elton John was playing at Madison Square Gardens. Elton was trying to persuade the ex-Beatle to get up on stage with him, and John was torn — he wanted to perform but he was scared. Finally, he turned to me and offered a deal, as though I were a negotiator sent by God: “I’ll sing,” he said, “but you have to make Yoko call me.”

Like all of John’s jokes, this one was a plea from the heart, wrapped in a sardonic quip. Yoko phoned John out of the blue, 36 hours later. I think John always believed I had beamed a mind-control ray at her. For my part, I think that of all the synchronicities that have shaped my life, that was one of the strangest.

John Lennon was a compulsive doodler. The last autograph he ever signed, 15 minutes before Mark Chapman gunned him down outside his home at the Dakota Building, on December 9, 1980, features a double portrait of himself and his wife, Yoko Ono. The drawings are done in a couple of lines — the style is unmistakable and so are the faces. I always marveled at John’s skill as an artist. There is no doubt that, if he’d been tone deaf and tuneless, the boy who created The Beatles could have become a successful painter or illustrator. During the last year of his life, we met most weeks to chat over a coffee in one of the hotels near our New York homes. Sometimes John would bring Sean, who was about four years old then. The rocker had put his music career on hold while the child was small. John once told me how bitterly he regretted that while his first son, Julian, was a toddler, he himself was devoting his energies to the stage or the studio, or would be out partying with friends.

“You don’t get those years back,” he said. “I’m not going to miss a minute while Sean is growing up.”

That is the greatest tragedy of my friend’s death. He had finally learned what made him happy, and then he was robbed of it. What really interested me about John was not his incredible life, his fame or his talent, but his deep spirituality. I too was working out what made me happy — I’d realized at last that buying watches and eating six helpings of dessert before making myself throw up was not the path to nirvana. The shock of Lennon’s murder was one of the powerful forces that drove me to quit New York and spend a year in Japan, undergoing a spiritual detox. John spoke with passion about Japanese views of life, and I am certain that Yoko’s philosophies were at the core of his last years.

I was woken on the day John was shot by a call from a friend, Roland, a publisher who lived opposite the Dakota. “He’s dead,” Roland sobbed. “They killed John.” I dressed in a few seconds and ran across town: somehow I had to see the house to believe the news. The radio reports weren’t enough. If John really were dead, if this wasn’t some sick media hoax, then there would be people outside his home with candles and prayer bells. They were there, in their hundreds already. I didn’t have to push my way through the crowd; I simply stood and stared across the road, and then walked away through Central Park with the tears running down my face.

Now, 24 years on, when I hold the cold, metal egg in my fist, I have a strong sensation that John knew more about this object than he told me. Maybe it didn’t come with an instruction manual, but I think John knew what it was for.

And whatever that purpose was - communication? healing? a first-class intergalactic ticket? - it scared him. I wish I could have warned him . . . that however scary aliens seem, it’s the humans you have to fear.

http://www.virtuallystrange.net/ufo/updates/2004/dec/m09-001.shtml