The Witchy Magick Season: Art, BVM and Apparitions

 My art groove is back. Rearranged my paranormal library; here's my Marian Apparition shelf. 

I'm keeping my Doreen Virtue Mary Oracle deck, even though Virtue's turned against the occult and became born again, denouncing her past heathen pagan ways. I could have sworn I had more books on BVM apparitions.

Years ago I put together a free PDF e-book on Mary as Trickster on Lulu.com. You can download it here.

Speaking of apparitions, I recently completed this:

Apparition, acrylic and ink on canvas, 18" by 20"

Back to the Marian apparitions topic, I did this collage about a year ago:

Dollhouse People, digital collage

The collage was created by using a photograph of a pasture where I saw a dollhouse just sitting there in the middle of nowhere. I added the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, then played with the color on the computer.

And this of the Blessed Mary, done about a year ago:

UFO Mary, oil pastel on paper

I have a blog titled UFO-Mary, but due to Google-Blogspot password insanity, I can't access the blog.  Very frustrating! 

Sinister Spirit, acrylic on masonite, James Rich

This painting was done by my husband. I had posted it at my UFO-Mary blog. As someone commented, it has a Buddha like feeling. Jim and I both thought it looked like an abstracted goddess or BVM figure.

Samhain Dance, acrylic and ink on canvas, Regan Lee

I painted Samhain Dance last month, October, the witchy season. 

International Ghost Hunters I.D. From the Files, and Home Study Course

 Going through the files and found my official  International Ghost Hunters Society I.D. from 1998.

I couldn't find a website for them (and don't remember how it came to be I found them and sent away for membership) but I did find this link on Amazon for International Ghost Hunters Society Home Study Course by Dave Oester. You can read it on Kindle for free (I downloaded it) or buy a paperback version for $9.95.

Women, Octopi, A Rainy Town

 Books I'm reading, all at once. Not literally all at once, but these four books are on my pile here and I take turns reading bits of all of them all the day long.

First off, Emma Woods. Yes, Emma! She has written a book about her life long experiences: Glimpses of Magonia. Each chapter has a poetic word gift from Alfred Lehmberg. I've just started reading the book, so can't give a review. Not that none is necessary, since, when it comes to a person's experiences, who am I to say?

Another book by an experiencer of the other world realm: Cosmic Witch; Magic, Witchcraft, and the Supernatural, by Susan Demeter. Just started reading it. Again, another woman who has experienced the "other" since childhood. 

 

On a different not, or maybe not so much, given the alien like qualities -- almost magical -- of octopi and celphapods: Other Minds: The Octopus, The Sea, and The Deep Origins of Consciousness, by Peter Godfrey-Smith. Just a bit into it but I love this book. It's science, sure, but written so that the layperson can easily understand the concepts here. It is a philosophy book, not a strict hard science book. And as someone who love octopi, this book is definitely a joy. 

Lastly, there's a vintage paperback I found while going through my "room of doom" (now renamed "Room of Opportunity" thanks to Karyn Dolan's suggestion) of books. 1955; A Town is Drowning, by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth. Both were science fiction writers, the two were collaborators on this non-sci-fi novel about a town suddenly deluged -- literally -- and relationships among the townsfolk. So far it has a slight if Koontz Met King vibe. (I like Koontz -- love his Frankenstein series! -- but much prefer King. Mainly, on a personal values/political values sensibility.)  Not too far into it but I am enjoying the writing. Love the pulp cover art.

Our Kitchen Spirit

 We've lived in our home for almost thirty years. From the first day, we felt odd vibes. Not that the house was haunted, but...something. Impressions of previous owners, residue. Like I said, something. 

One room in particular that has always been active is the kitchen. Once, Jim lost one of his favorite chopsticks. They were beautiful; handmade by a friend, wood. Really nice. We looked everywhere for it, never found it. Until. . . one day, months later, I found the chopstick stuck on a pantry shelf high up in between a food storage bin and the wall of the pantry. 

Many other times, looking for an item suddenly gone from its usual place. A day or two later, it's either back where it always goes, or is found in a really weird place that makes no sense. Even if misplaced, neither one of us would have misplaced in such a crazy place.

Tonight, I found the missing half of the wooden salad fork and spoon. The spoon went missing a few weeks ago. It always gets put back in the little drawer near the cutting board. We looked everywhere, every drawer, etc. Could not find it. We've been in the little drawer many times since, nothing. Tonight, I open the drawer and right there in front, are the salad spoon and fork. 

Things like this have happened in other rooms but nothing like what goes on the kitchen. 

I should try making friends with the kitchen spirit. It doesn't seem negative, just playful. 

Derril Sims: Seven Alien Types

 Last night's Coast to Coast with host Connie Willis had alien hunter Derril Sims as a guest, discussing, among other things, the "seven different kinds of aliens" most reported by us humans here on earth.

I found Sims ideas interesting. As he said, he approaches the whole UFO/alien/ET phenomena differently than most UFO researchers. Sims, being an ex-cop and a private investigator, as well as an abductee himself, has a different perspective. 

One point he brought up, that I had never thought of: the most common ET/alien types share something in common. Short grays, tall grays, Mantis/insectoid creatures, Reptilians, the Nordics, etc. while seemingly very different, are not all that different. Weird, I know. And by the way, let's just  forget what we might or might not think of Sims in general. Like a lot of researchers, there are issues. THERE ARE ISSUES. But let's not kill the messenger because he or she is, well, the messenger. Part of what is so damn obvious in UFO Land is the fact that the messengers, be they human or not, are often full of crap, and yet, there are little glittering gems of truth, or at least interesting glimmers, of Pretty Interesting Ideas.

So. Sims said that these "aliens" are not strictly aliens, as in, from Outer Space, but from here on  earth.

Sims referred to DNA. Mantis: they're here on earth. Reptilians: earth. (snakes, lizards, etc.) Nordics, here on earth. (humans.)  Short grays/Tall grays: here on earth. In terms of stunted, or genetically alerted humanoid types.

And so, these beings are of us, in various ways. Way out there various ways, true. Still.

Of course, the question is, who or what manipulated these creatures to the point of being perceived as "alien" (after all, if I saw a ten foot praying mantis, or a human looking lizard being, I'd be, at best, horribly confused and think, maybe, "alien as all fuck!") 

Aliens, There are aliens -- out there, far out there, and "aliens" in here. Right here. One begets the other. Or, not.

Food for thought. 

But I have always thought that the message brought to us by "them" is ...just that. A message. Doesn't mean it's true. Doesn't mean it means anything. And who is behind the messenger? 

Someimtes in UFO Land we forget to ask. Yeah, Reptialian. Weird, scary. Or, according to some, not scary but down right sexy. Intelligent. Bad, good, who knows. But, who is beind this, if anyone? Or thing?

We can't answer this question: who's behind this all?  Why do we have so many different religions, and sects within religions? Because we don't know.  Or some of us think we know, and believe no one else knows. And so on.

Well.

It is possible that the giant insects and Lizard Reptilians and grays and Nordics and so on are manifestations of the same thing. (Let's throw in Marian apparitions and such as well. Hell even ghosts, at times.) 

Trivial Syncronicities and I.A.

 A little bit ago, I posted about a trivial, yet also unnerving, bit of synchronicity.

Happened again today. In my mind; not thinking out loud, not mentioning it to anyone, not looking up info and links on Google, just in my mind, about eating a lot more veggies. "I really need to up my intake here on veggies, and fruits. I know there are powdered drinks and juices you can get to help get this started." I found myself thinking I should check out my local nutrition stores to help me find something along those lines.

An hour or so later, I'm on Facebook and yes, an ad pops up about a super uber industrial strength veggie powered power house drink of the upmost. Have not seen that ad before, ever. So, that.

And the day before yesterday, thinking about the movie Ghost Busters. The remake with the female cast, and how unfair and blatantly sexist the criticism of that movie was. I liked that movie. The first one of course, but also, the remake. No doubt Halloween had me thinking along those lines. But there are hundreds of movies in that genre I could have been thinking about. 

Next day (Halloween) Parade magazine had an article about GhostBusters. The first one. But nothing about the remake, which I thought odd. Why ignore the remake? 

Channeling/Possessed by Mom's Spirit

I have had hundreds of psychic episodes in my life. I've seen, heard and felt ghosts -- their presence. Felt their energy, their personality. Received images, and experienced all kinds of communications via dreams and OOBEs. (Out of body experiences.) I've seen UFOs, and encountered entities. I seem to go into a mild trance/channel mode when I read cards for others. But I have never experienced the following, not until my mother passed away a year ago.

I've experienced the following only twice. The first time was a couple of weeks after my mom died. I was at my sister's, at the home where my mom spent the last four years of her life, and my sister took care of. The other experience happened last night.

What happened was brief, yet incredibly intense. Both times I made a motion, a movement, a facial expression, that was "mom's." We all have those habits, micro-expressions, sayings, that we unconsciously inherit from our parents. Many times I'll say or do something that is "just like" my father or mother. But on these two occasions, it was much more.

Both times, when I made I was no longer me. At all. My mother was inside me. She had entered me -- it was her that was present, even if briefly. I cannot describe this yet in an articulate way. But it was so damn weird and different. I have never had anything pass through me like that. The closet I came to experiencing something similar was when I was walking through a home that was haunted. I suddenly felt an intense, burning heat "beam" go right through me. But even that was something that passed through. With my mother, she took over. 
a quick movement or expression that my mom would make,

Coast to Coast This is More Like It, and, How I Don't Make Friends...

Tonight on Coast to Coast Shows: Linda Moultan Howe, and Rich Newman who will talk about his research on "creepy bridges."

I have been listening to Coast to Coast since the Art Bell days. Give me all the good solid old fashioned Fortean, anomalous stuff: ghosts, hauntings, UFOs, aliens, reptilians, lizard men, Sasquatch, monsters of all kinds, cryptids of all kinds, conspiracies (mainly paranormal/supernatural related), religions of a paranormal kind… all that stuff.

Politics, economics, and health, loosely tied to conspiracy and even less so to paranormal themes, not interested. Yet those subjects are the subject of Coast to Coast frequently. I'm bored! I am not interested. Give me contactees, abductees and orbs. More of the latter, much less, in fact none, of the former.

I'll accept spirits of the dead, life after death, and topics covering that realm, like dreams, but politics? How our money is worthless, Big Pharma is ruining both our health as well as our very lives? While true -- I have no argument against that -- I don't want to hear it on Coast to Coast. It's the only program on old fashioned, old school radio, of its kind. Stick to the weird, the unexplainable, the mysterious.

Oh, and don't get met started on skeptics and silly shills, like Seth-from-SETI.

While I'm at it, let's talk about George Noory. I realize I am risking some ire and if I ever am fortunate enough to see my works in print in a bona fide book form (Bigfoot from Outer Space stuff, Orange Orbs, etc.) I will not be asked to be a guest. But Noory drives me insane. I cannot stand his constant interrupting - just when a guest is into delivering a great bit of information, making an interesting point, raising a good question, along comes Noory with some inane, stupid, insipid question or comment. SERIOUSLY?! (And see what I've just done? He's made me regress to middle school speak.) He restates the guest's point in the lamest terms. Noory asks questions that the guest just addressed, as if the guest hadn't even brought the point up in the first place. My poor little transistor radio is duct taped in places; it's been thrown across the room so many times in sheer and agonizing frustration.

Many guest hosts on Coast to Coast are excellent. I realize they have a great gig and I have no idea how they truly feel about Noory. And, they might (assuming they read my blog which I realize of course, they don't, let alone know who I am) find Noory an intelligent guy and deep thinker.  But I find it intriguing I can admire and respect the likes of George Knapp, or Connie Willis, or Jimmy Church, who step in for Noory, while they make strange bed fellows indeed. I don't blame them at all, hell, if I were in their shoes, I'd do the same.

This is just my personal rant; against the non-paranormal, non-supernatural, non-weird slant Coast to Coast gives us too often. I understand the argument is something like "we try to give a broad array of subjects" and "we're not going to please everyone all the time" but I'd love to access a mainstream show that devotes itself to the weird all the time. (What I'd give to have a twenty-four hour television station devoted to UFO and paranormal topics.) (Not streaming on-line, but your every day serviceable television-on-the-TV show.)

It's Not That I'm Jaded . . .

Because I'm not. Some have given it up altogether, others are close to walking away from UFO and all that relates, but not me. I've shifted.

UFOs, Sasquatch, ghosts and other paranormal, anomalous topics are related in many ways. Keeping with the contradictory nature of weird stuff, they're also separate from each other. Connected or not, I've long ago accepted the fact that they are. 

The "hunt" for Sasquatch -- not a literal hunt, not that, ever! -- well, what's the point? If you've seen a Sasquatch, you know they exist. If you haven't, well, maybe one day you will. And it seems to me the surest way to see one is to just be, sans guns, cameras, Paris of plaster, and just meet, (if you're lucky) in mind and spirit, the being in its own realm. I haven't personally seen a Sasquatch, but I know they exist. Some may argue that I prefer to have faith it exists -- philosophical quibbles. I know too many people who have seen one, and I believe them. Either I believe them, or I don't, in which case I am calling them liars. I am pretty sure they aren't lying. I know them -- why would they --in fact, some have only reluctantly told me upon promise of not repeating their encounters. So I accept along with the other evidence that's out there that Sasquatch exists.

Ghosts. I have seen, heard, and felt their presence.  It's difficult to explain to some who haven't experienced this for themselves. For example, the energy, the type of movement and motion involved in objects that do things they shouldn't. Or the voices that debunkers will say are just sounds from the radio, television or kids  other parts of the house. Nope. None of those satisfy, nor do the "explanations" that it's migraine or vision going wonky when seeming white mists forming before your eyes.

Not to mention the very location. A home that is over a hundred years old, once an old folks home, prison, hospital, orphanage, sanitarium, buried on top of an old cemetery, once a plantation -- haunted? You can be absolutely certain that place is haunted!

But while cameras do capture interesting images, and EVPS are always intriguing and evidence adding to the proof pile, there is something to be said for the sensitive, the medium, the psychic, that goes into these places. Respect, for one. Like searching for Sasquatch, a quiet and intentional respect for the situation goes a long way to an authentic experience.

So I no longer feel the compulsion to go out and take casts, photos and the like. I'm not out to prove anything to anyone, and certainly not to any infrastructure, so the only thing left is my personal experience in relation to the energy I'm curious about.

In many ways, the same goes for UFOs, USOs, UAPs.   Many have given up, as they have the search for Nessie or Sasquatch, because no Big Answer has appeared to us, revealing its reality or its purpose. I know its real, so I don't need to discover that aspect. I have no idea -- though I play around with tons of theories -- as to their purpose or intent. I'll probably never find out. But I've always been more of a process oriented type than a result type.

Roswell Ghost! (Just Had To)

UFOs, Orange Orbs, and Luminosities

The UFO Box
A life long experience with UFOs and what I’ll call loosely paranormal events has found me endlessly curious about what I call my Orange Orb encounter. I have assumed all these years that what I saw that night was a UFO. To be technical, it was a UFO: unidentified, flying -- or at least, moving through -- the sky, and it was an object of some kind. But was this “UFO” from outer space? Another planet? Was the orb inhabited, or operated by, some sort of non-human entity? As in, aliens? I have no idea. Being mainly immersed in the UFO category of anomalous events, I have always put this sighting into the UFO box. This box included the aliens or ETs, as well as human manipulated episodes; MILABS, for example.

I’ve discussed my orange orb sighting many times via blog postings, articles and podcast interviews, but to very briefly recap:  Riding on the back of a motorcycle. at night on Lorane Highway in Lane County, Oregon. Saw a lit from within orange orb in the night sky, a large object. It was stationary, as soon as I looked at it and thought “What the hell is that?!” it “zoomed” from its position (I guessed it was about a mile away, above the KVAL TV station at the top of the hill) to right across the road. I had the distinct feeling it was laughing at me, or, with me. Playing with me. It followed us to the intersection where we turned the corner to our home. The orb stopped once again in the sky above a neighbor’s house, then dropped down into their backyard.  (There was also missing time involved with this sighting. My husband saw the object only briefly.)

While I’ve always referred to this as an orb, due to its shape (round, sphere, circular) I never meant orb as in something nebulous. Not a spirit orb. Again, still in the UFO box, and, a somewhat nuts and bolts UFO box. After all, it was an object, a craft, a lit from within round thing. A machine with a light inside.

Orange Orb Above Lorane Highway, pastel drawing, Regan Lee

Through the years I searched for similar sightings. Nothing on orange orbs for a long time. Now of course orange orb sightings, as well as red, green and blue, are plentiful. People have captured these colored lights in the skies on video. But they rarely seemed to match up with what I saw that night decades ago. Usually these orange and other colored “orbs” are much smaller, sometimes don’t exhibit any kind of intelligence, and don’t behave quite the same way. Due to their shape, we call them orbs, but that  often seems to be the only similarity.


There is the category of spirit orbs, ghosts, that are smaller than my orange orb sighting, and don’t fit the category. Or so I’ve always thought. I am no stranger to ghostly encounters and have captured an orb or two myself but have never put that into the UFO box. Completely unconnected. Again, size differs greatly: spirit orbs are small. They do appear in different colors, including orange. But their connection to UFOs? Apples and oranges. But now I’m wondering if, at times, there are cross overs between UFOs and the more ephemeral  types of orbs.


Orbs as Luminosities
In the book Beyond Photography: with Orbs, Angels and Mysterious Light Forms, by Katie Hall and John Pickering, they talk about “luminosiites” -- their word for lights and orbs that appear in the sky.

This photograph from their book is very similar to what I saw years ago. While what I saw appeared larger, it’s appearance as well as its behavior is close to my experience:

Photo source: Beyond Photography, Kati Hall and John Pickering

Missing Time
I mentioned that my orange orb sighting included missing time. This missing time is not at all unusual in UFO cases. Is the missing memory an amnesia implanted by aliens? If we stay in the UFO Box the answer would seem to be yes.

But if the UFO is also a luminosity in some cases maybe it’s a part of being in the “zone” -- that area in the Oz Factor that researcher Jenny Randles wrote about. Why is it that most spectacular of UFOs can appear, complete with alien beings and all kinds of phenomena (including missing time) and only one or two witnesses will experience those things? Others close by don’t see a thing. They remain unaware that anything strange happened at all. This zone of weirdness, this "Oz Factor" is present in so many UFO encounters. Randles Oz Factor can also be found in many other anomalous events, which seems to support a cross over effect, or, a single source manifesting as many things.

Randles theory makes sense in terms of many a UFO encounter, and it also makes sense in other types of encounters. I’ve had that same strange “cone of Oz-ness” in other supernatural situations, but not UFO related, in an episode where we were discussing Bigfoot. (Although, the discussion did include a Bigfoot-UFO witness...) If the source of all this is a single source, that could explain cross over cases. Again, this is not to say there aren’t literally aliens (I believe there are, in fact) and UFOs from space, but that, in many cases, what appears to be a UFO and or alien isn’t. Also, UFOs/aliens and luminosities or “spirit orbs”  interact with each other.


Sentient Orange Orbs
I had said that my orange orb seemed to be intelligent -- either controlled from within, or remotely by an intelligent, sentient being. The orb responded to me; I had the strong feeling it was waiting for me, could read my thoughts, and was playing with me. It was as aware of me as I was of it.

Hall and PIckering write of this same type of communication in their book. Relating the experiences of UFO researcher Tony Dodd and his orange orb encounter:

“...Dodd...affirms that many of his own encounters with mysterious balls of lights left him in little doubt that they were intelligent, or intelligently controlled. . . on the Yorkshire moors at night, ... a large orange coloured ball of light glided about 30m feet above his head. As it passed, he tried to send out his thoughts to it; asking it to acknowledge his presence.  Whereupon it immediately stopped in mid air, blinked out for about 3 seconds, and the reappeared. Taking this as a response, Tony then thought the question: “Who are you?” (Beyond Photography, Hall and Pickering, p 93.)

To which the orb replied, telepathically, “I am the father of fathers and you are the sons of sons.” Typical trickster type behavior! (This also mirrors Marian apparitions; there is a hint of the religious here --  the authors have a section on Fatima and orb consciousness.) We  also get this silly kind of response from many a UFO connected entity.

In writing about orbs, or “luminosiites” the authors of Beyond Photography mention the intelligence behind these orbs. Often, the orbs seemed to respond to human thought; mind reading orbs, one could say.  Another case reported by Hall and Pickering:

Friends of the authors had an encounter with orange orbs in 1997. Two orange orbs, one the size of “a grapefruit” flew at their car at night while they were traveling on an isolated highway. Shortly after the first orb, another orange orb appeared, flying alongside their car. Their friends told them that “...in retrospect they both felt as thought the orange balls were checking them out for some unknown reason.” (Beyond Photography, p 94)

Plasmas, Ball Lighting and Consciousness
For decades “ball lighting” has been a throw away explanation for these balls of light.  As if giving them a label resolves the phenomena. Hall and Pickering have no argument about the fact these orbs are often plasmas, and or "ball lightening" but that is not all there is to these intelligent, interactive orbs.

While a physical reason may exist for the existence of these orbs, it does not explain their intelligence, their intentional movements, synchronicity, and their responses to human thought. Hall and PIckering write, of plasma and the intelligent behavior of orbs: “We now have two possibilities; plasma energy and luminosities with consciousness.” (Beyond Photography, p 96)

The Oz Factor implies that the UFO close encounter has a visionary component. You might interpret that as meaning it is all in the imagination, but it really means that there is a direct feed, if you like, from the source of the encounter to the consciousness of the witness. (Jenny Randles, The Oz Factor)

This idea of sentience, of a non-human intelligence that is UFO related interacting with us is nothing new. Jacque Vallee suggested this decades ago with his ultra terrestrial hypothesis. But it seems that, even with this history from many researchers of exploring such a connection, the UFO community is still missing this huge piece of the puzzle.


Entities, ET, Djinn, Angels, and, Oh My
Hall and Pikcering do not discount the reality of UFOs and aliens from other planets. For the purposes of their book, they are mainly concerned with so-called spirit orbs (as well as beams of light, humanoid type light figures, etc) captured on film. Are these lights earth spirits, fairies, etc.? Are there sometimes cross over interactions between what we call aliens -- meaning, ET entities -- and more elemental beings? Spirit energy? What some of us call Djinn?

I still have no idea what it was I saw that night, why it happened, or  what it meant. I do know it was very important, and not a mere case of ball lighting, or some mistaken sighting of, say, a helicopter.

It’s possible that on that night so long ago I did not see a UFO in the classic sense, but had an interaction, not with an ET from another planet, but something else involving an earth based consciousness. Which makes this not any less fantastic, nor does it negate any of the other UFO experiences I’ve had.

It could be that these things -- UFOs, entities,ETs, missing time, synchronicities, games, telepathy -- are connected. Aspects of the various and often seemingly separate phenomena join in a performance, one where we’re surprised to find we’re witness to.

“Something makes them pay attention by tuning out the normal sensory flow and looking up to watch the show. Where that show is being projected from remains the subject of great fascination. And it certainly does not eliminate another intelligence as running this show. To me the Oz Factor is a vital key to the UFO mystery, and may help us to resolve what is happening. We should not be afraid of its implications, just because they seem to suggest a fuzziness to the phenomenon. In truth we should embrace these cases.” (Jenny Randles, The Oz Factor)

Link:
The Oz Factor

New blog: Ecto-Ville

Didn't want to do it, didn't mean to do it, but I did... new blog: Ecto-ville.

At Ghost Hunting Theories: Creepy Things

A blog that's quickly become a favorite is the Ghost Hunting Theories blog. Her recent post Ghost Hunting Theories: Creeped Me Out In Childhood-How About You? of creepy things like mall Santas and Bear Jamboree, reminded me of this painting Jim did a few years ago. The painting is taken from a photograph of me when I was four or five year old, sitting in Santa's lap. The Santa in he photo is clearly tired, ill, or drunk. Or all three. Jim really captured the creepiness of that photo. (Although, I have to say, I don't like this painting. It's very rare that I don't care for something Jim has painted, I usually love his work, but this one, I won't allow him to hang it in the house!)  At the same, as can be seen in the painting and photo, I was immune to any creepiness; just feeling that Christmas magic in the air. If I can find the photo I'll post it, but here's the painting:

James Rich, Dreams of the Future, Shadows of the Past, acrylic on wonderboard

Penguin Moons and the Dreaming Mind

I am fascinated by the way our dreaming minds work, and the dream realm as another reality. A parallel universe? I've often thought, in context of story writing, how dreams function, the whys, the whats... and, what happens to the essence, the memory, of a dream once the dreamer has awakened? The memory of the dream still exists in the mind of the dreamer, but, only what was remembered. What of those dreams not remembered by the dreamer, yet, dreamt? Do they still exist? Do they continue on their own? The recurring themes and landscapes -- are they on simply on hold and non-existent until the dreamer returns to them. Or do they live on with their own lives, and the dreamer has merely visited, returned to in sleep?

I have many "stage sets" or landscapes that remain constant in my dreaming life. They may change slightly but overall remain the same. I have plots or themes that recur as well. Are these living, breathing stories active whether or not I am present, or do they only activate when I dream them?

Some dreams are surreal, some are pedestrian, some are scary, and so on. Some are spiritual and astral and of a most emphatically transcendent level that goes beyond "mere" dreaming. Some are visitations by others, as in the death of both human and non-human animal who have come tell me something. Some are announcements of things to come.

And some are simply silly yet nagging and bizarre. Like the "message" I had waking up this morning. I was just waking up coming out of sleep, and the last thought I had, distinct, specific, was "Penguin moons." What the hell are "penguin moons?" I have no idea. As far as I remember, I had no such dream of moons, penguins, birds, planets... no watching of TV or movies with penguins or even wildlife of any kind. Penguin moons, can't get it out of my mind. All day my mind has returned to those two words: penguin moons. At least I could point to something esoteric, something UFO-ish, paranormal or mystic if it had been owls. Particularly in the context of moons. Owls, now that's a symbol we can get behind. Penguins? On the moon? Or penguins that look like moons? Just downright silly.

---

So I searched for "penguin moon" and found this link on Wikipedia: Penguins on the Moon is the title of a Sack Trick album. Not familiar, but they're "classic" according to those who know.  There is the children's book Penguin Moon by Annie Mitra:

Penguin longs to talk to the moon but the moon remains silent. Through the five wishes of the giant starfish and with the help of friends, he is lifted up to the moon and learns that the moon has always answered but was just too far away to be heard. Penguin follows a long tradition of characters who have sought to befriend the moon in this tale told in the folktale style. (Amazon.com)

Which sounds charming but I'm not familiar with the book. Something about the motif of penguin/moon intrigues, since it comes up in various ways. . .

Camera Glitch in Masonic Cemetery

One of my favorite places to walk around here is the Masonic cemetery. It's an old cemetery with a lot of local history, and a group of volunteers that work very hard to preserve the integrity of the cemetery (plant life, trails, history, signs, grave markers, etc.) and keep it available to the public. There is a mausoleum as well, which is open to the public once a month. We went up there today to walk around.

I took a lot of photographs and even brought my recorder along in case I was lucky enough to get any EVPs (which didn't happen. I did feel two slight "buzzy" feelings I get when in the presence of spirits, but didn't feel that when I was inside the mausoleum, though I did get that feeling very strongly during the opening and dedication of the mausoleum a few years ago.) One odd thing happened when we saw this grave; we were both struck by the lovely simplicity of the marker and the grave.

Jim sitting on bench at grave marker

I joined Jim and we were sitting there, talking about how nice a spot it was, how we both liked the marker and the appearance of a natural piece in that setting. I started to take pictures of the marker when this happened:

I said "Look what's happening to the camera" and the images in the window were going crazy with color and jumping around. It isn't just that the images turned out this way, while I was just holding the camera the images in the window were jumping around and I couldn't make it stop. I just started taking pics anyway to see what, if anything, would happen.

Here's the same marker appearing normally

Possibly supernatural experience, who's to say. But it could also be a camera glitch. It's a cheap camera, and if you notice in the first photo of Jim, the flowers seem almost psychedelic in color. Camera on its last legs, or spirit communication. Either way nice effect.

Spirits About?

When we first moved into our house, built in 1927, there were some definite remnant energies. I wouldn't say the house was haunted, exactly, but we both felt strong imprints of previous owners. Oddly, the strongest feeling was fairly recent, rather than decades ago. Just not a healthy feeling. And for many years, there was always a negative feeling emanating from the backyard at night. I often felt silly, because it was just a backyard, medium sized, and fenced; nothing out of the ordinary about it. Why in the world would I feel such a strong creepy feeling every time I went outside at night? After many years, the feeling seemed to have dissipated, but it's still there on occasion.

Overall, through the years, things have calmed down -- not that they were ever exceptionally vivid, as with other haunted places I've been in -- and nothing has happened for some time. Until the past couple of weeks. Little things, like knowing damn well I put something someplace, and then, it's gone. And then, a few moments later, it's back. Happened again this morning; my glasses were not there on top of my computer, which irritated me, since I knew I had put them there the night before. (It's where I always put them at night.) Look around, thinking they fell on the floor or whatever, look back to the laptop, and there they are. That kind of thing has been happening a lot recently. I wondered why this, and a few other odd little things would be happening again after many years of calm.

Then I realized: we decided to devote ourselves into redoing our house. Not "remodeling" (too poor and house too funky for that) but lots of work, interior and exterior. Due to finances and health issues, we've ignored our house, inside and outside, and finally decided to direct our energies to fixing this place up. Two weeks ago we started with the roof -- whole thing completely redone. Lots of yard work, cutting back old brush and taking out shrubs and all kinds of stuff. We've been very active in this house recently, as far as fixing it up.  So it occurred to me that it's possible all this activity has stirred things up on the other side.

It'll be interesting to see how this progresses, if at all.

New blog: Saucer Sightings

The only reason I started this new blog, Saucer Sightings, was to keep all of my UFO sightings in one place. I got tired of rewriting any particular sighting I've had. This way, they're archived in one place. I can use it as a referral: "see my blog entry on my triangle sighting here" kind of thing. There isn't much there yet, and it really won't be much other than a chronology of specific sightings and encounters. It will also include specific paranormal encouners, like ghost sightings, etc. Which, this blog was kind of, sort of, intended to be when I started it a few years ago. But as you can see, it's become much more than that!

A Haunted Road

You can read about my experiences on a haunted road outside of the Eugene area in A Haunted Road, on Trickster Northwest.

A Strange Anniversary Conversation

Today is our 31st anniversary. Being old and tired, (but hardly bored with each other) (as you’ll soon see why) we agreed to stay home after a long hard day at work, enjoy our bottle of good wine and Trader Joe’s pizza, and each other. Tomorrow, rejuvenated with the weekend vibe (three day weekend for me!) we’ll go out and have fun.

So tonight, of course we’re watching the Larry King program because it’s the UFO show. (More on that later.) My husband, let’s say his name is, er, “George,” was pretty good about remaining quiet, although he managed to interject a good number of outraged sputterings, especially when Oberg was on, but overall, George behaved. It wasn’t until the very end of the program that George said to me:

“We've had weird UFO abductions or whatever happen,at least twice. That one in L.A. was the weirdest.

”
I did a huge “huh?!” I asked:

“

What do you mean, ‘at least twice?’ And, what do you mean, the L.A. one was the weirdest?!

In Oregon years ago, we saw the Orange Orb, that followed us on our way back in from Cottage Grove about 30 miles away. That incident included missing time and what I've always maintained a sighting of a silver sphere hovering above a pasture on the way out.

Turns out that’s wrong. At least according to George.

So we shouted at each other -- out of excitement and ‘wtf’s” not in anger -- just your basic abduction confusion:

Me: “What do you mean, that’s wrong! We saw that orb coming back from Cottage Grove when we lived on Friendly St.!”
George: “No, we saw it when we lived on Hilyard."

Oh boy.

So we went round and round, and it turns out, according to George, this is what happened:
1. Something weird happened in L.A.
2. Something weird happened in Oregon, when we lived on Hilaryd St. near the University of Oregon.
3. Something weird happened when we lived off Lorane Highway, at the top of Friendly St.

George: No, no, you’ve combined two different sightings into one thing. Your memory’s been messed with.”

Me: “How do you know it isn’t YOU whose memory wasn’t messed with?”

(I was pretty proud of that one.)

George just looked exasperated. He insists he’s right. I remember it the other way.
I don't remember anything weird at all happening when we lived on Hilyard.

It’s quite possible of course he is right, and does remember the incidents more accurately than I. Regardless, it’s clear we’ve both experienced some very weird things through the years.


L.A. (West Hollywood area)
I remember that one just fine. Well, obviously not all of it. Neither one of us do. If we did, that’d be a different story. But we both agree on this one; we agree it happened, we agree it happened just the way we both remember it. Walking back from our favorite place, Barney's Beanery. What should have taken us an hour at the most -- maybe -- took us a good two hours. When we entered the apartment we commented how odd it was that it was suddenly 4 a.m., then went promptly to bed, only to wake up at four the next afternoon. We slept straight through, very surprised to find that we slept so late!

I did have a few strange UFO dreams back then; one in particular that I call the “Geisha Woman” dream, about a tall chalky white being with huge black wrap around eyes, “pretending” to be female, with me inside a glass domed UFO in space and George in some other part of the UFO. She was very intelligent and very emotionally cold, detached, and didn't give a damn that I was scared and angry that she wouldn't let me see George, who was being kept in another part of the craft.

But the reason why I say it wasn’t the strangest, is because we didn’t see any kind of craft that night. We didn't have a UFO sighting. Not a hint. But George says it’s the weirdest, because we both agree on everything; no arguments about who was where, etc. We agree on where we were coming from, where we were going, that a couple of hours of missing time occurred, that we commented to each other on the oddness of the late hour as we walked into the apartment but also went promptly to bed, not waking up until 4:00 the next day.

Hilyard St. (Eugene, Oregon, near the University of Oregon campus)
Well, don’t remember anything weird there. I mean, aside from the horrid, spoiled, evil fraternity and sorority morons that lived in the frat and "sor" houses surrounding our little apartment. God, what assholes. Other than that, nothing.

I remember a weird “UFO” dream at the time though, about a robotic alien type being entering our apartment and causing problems.

It's while we were living on Hilyard that George insists we saw the silver sphere. We saw it out on Lorane, going out to Cottage Grove. (That part I agree with.) Silver sphere, above a pasture, daytime, a beam of light coming down from underneath the thing. I said to George tonight that I always thought it was weird that a beam of light would be necessary in the daytime.

We agree on the thing we saw, and place, but not the timing. I remember it as on our way out the same time we saw the orange orb which was on the way back. And I remember we were living on Friendly St. at the time, while George insists it was Hilyard.

(One question I have about this is: if the orange orb sighting took place another time, where were we coming back from? The only thing out that direction is . . . Cottage Grove. We didn't know anyone who lived out that way, from our house to Cottage Grove. But as George mentioned, we did just take off and for long rides in the country back then; true. I loved to do that on the motorcycle. It's possible we weren't coming back from anywhere in particular, as in visiting someone, but just out for a drive.)

Friendly St. (Eugene, Oregon, at the corner of Lorane, semi-woodsy rural area in parts)
I remember the orange orb at night, on the way back from Cottage Grove to visit his friend. The friend George says we went to see a year or so earlier when we lived on Hilyard.

George doesn’t remember seeing an orange orb. He does remember me trying to call someone when we went into the house (on Friendly) but I ended up just putting the receiver down. After all who was I going to call? The police? Airport? At that time, I didn't know about MUFON, or anything related to reporting UFO sightings.

Dreams started then too. Awful dreams about being paralyzed in beams of light so strong I could almost see through things. The sense of people -- or beings -- above me. Not being able to move. Screaming my head off for George, who I knew was nearby, but also being taken. Did I just say “taken?” Christ.

History
George said “Obviously we didn’t have what they wanted,” and I agreed. We’ve never talked about that, but when he said it, it made sense, and I acknowledged I’ve thought that myself many times.

He also said:

“Then again, we’ve both had life long experiences with this weird stuff. Maybe they got what they wanted a long time ago.

”

George also mentioned the uncomfortable and strong awareness that "they" are present at times. I too have felt that. Last time I felt that was a few years ago in this house we're now in. We've been here about ten years. This feeling that "they" were in the room, listening, watching, was confirmed by others. (One of whom has had her own history, along with many family members, of Bigfoot, haunting and UFO encounters. Connections?)

We don't talk too in depth about these events except for a couple of times a year. It's too close and chilling and just plain weird. We both get highly uncomfortable; anxious and need to stop. And yet, we talk around these things every day.

Something happened, something seemed to have happened a few times with the both of us. Neither one of us remembers actually seeing any beings. It’s as if we’ve come up only so close to this phenomena, and then, a steel door seals shut on us.

Oh, and please, someone tell me it was just sleep paralysis. I dare you.

I’m still not willing to say we were abducted. I can’t say that, because I don’t even remember seeing aliens, let alone being inside a craft, or being rudely probed, etc.

But something happened. While obviously there are trickster mind control alien game playing shenanigans going on with screen or cover memories, the reality is, something very real -- just highly strangely real -- occurred. And more than once.

The Roswell Onion

Well, most everyone’s been writing on Roswell lately, due to the 60th anniversary of “the crash.” I’ve stayed away from saying anything because I have never delved deeply into Roswell, so therefore don’t have much to say. I don’t have anything of value to say about the particulars of the Roswell event itself. But I’ll go ahead and join everyone else and throw in my observations. Why not? That’s the perk of having your own blog.

Clearly, something huge and weird happened that’s continuing to be covered-up.

There’s that very large rut that’s still there, and not often mentioned. That rut is proof something on the big side crashed there.

Nick Redfern’s book Body Snatchers in the Desert offers new, if not horrific, information on what might have happened. And curiously, like that rut, his theories don’t seem to be considered seriously; or rather, they don’t seem to stick. I’m not saying Redfern is correct, who knows at this point, but he’s offered something new, and something disturbing, and something that should be given consideration other than a cursory “yeah, well. . .” and everyone moves on.

The Roswell, er, “mythos” (excuse the cliché) is in itself highly interesting. Stories of sticky fingered aliens, magic foil, and all the rest. All those people aren’t lying. Maybe they didn’t see aliens, just thought they did, maybe some sort of mass delusion overtook the town. It’s too simplistic to dismiss it all as lying townsfolk. Sure, now there’s circus folk involved (so to speak) and layer upon layer of disinformation and misinformation and okay, sometimes just plain lying, but that’s all part of any UFO event. Roswell’s just bigger.

Oh yes, then there’s those alien ghosts Jim Marrs speaks about. That’s highly interesting as hell!

I agree with those who think we shouldn’t spend too much time on Roswell, while ignoring other cases, particularly current ones. Still , to try to bury it once and for all would be a disservice to UFOlogy as well as the more general world of the weird and anomalous: myths, motivations, deceits, belief, government manipulations and more.

Whether or not one believes ET crashed there, something happened, something so important that the government still believes it needs to cover it up. Obviously the Mogul balloon explanation doesn’t fly, and no one took the crash test dummies seriously. (I don’t think the government took that one seriously either.)


Personally, I don’t think aliens crashed there. I’m not sure why I don’t believe that. I “believe” (hate that word) extraterrestrials are about. Out there, down here, and have been for thousands of years. But that’s just me and my good old ancient astronaut theory.


The point isn’t, almost, whether ET crashed there or not. (Well, now of course it is a huge point, if it could be proven. . .) I mean that, aside from that point, there are other layers to the Roswell onion that can still reveal things about ourselves, each other, and “them.”