The Animals are Waiting

 

A powerful dream last night. Not much detail, only the intense emotional content and the message. Which was: 

An angelic presence, more than one, or guides, messengers, telling me I needed to hear this. That the way to an authentic spiritual life, connection, a way to navigate all the anomalous weirdness in this realm of High Strangeness, was to connect with animal spirit. All animals. Every animal. Their spirits. They are waiting for me, for us, to agree with them that yes, this is acceptable and we will listen, we will hear, we will share our stories. We will be here with you. We will communicate. We will accept your messages. We will be patient and listen and share and use what you have told us to grow, to live a deeper life.

Become the Tree: Post Orb Sighting

After my orange orb sighting, I began to have, not only more UFO sightings, but psychic experiences as well. From early childhood on, I've always been psychic, or sensitive, and I've also had UFO experiences, including missing time (in Los Angeles, before the missing time with the orange orb sighting in Eugene.)

All kinds of synchroniciites, UFO sightings, and psychic episodes and dreams followed the orange orb sighting. Includng the following, which involves Tree Spirit.

We were still living in the house where the orange orb sighting took place. We only lived there about a year. I was lying on the bed upstairs; it was early evening. There was a sliding glass door that led out to a little balcony by the bed. I was idly looking outside, at the trees . . . we lived at the top of a hill in a woodsy area, even though we were very close to town. Up the hill: woodsy, down the hill, traffic and 'the city.' Still light outside. I was very relaxed, though completely awake. Abruptly, I heard a rushing sound -- the sound of water coursing through. This came from outside, but also inside. Not inside the house, but inside me. I was aware of myself, as 'me' but I had been possessed (?) by the tree. I was the tree. I felt and heard water within me, the roots below. The awareness and sentient being of the tree. We were one. This was one of the most vivid experiences of my life.

Now, before you think "Too many 'shrooms there my friend," which is fair, I was not under the influence of anything remotely mind altering. No drugs, weed, alcohol, pills, nothing.
 

I was stunned but not upset or bothered. I was honored. I was surprised. I wondered at the seeming randomness of this event. And I couldn't help but think this intense, magickal moment was related to the UFO sighting.

Random Sketching, and Looked What Showed Up

Didn't mean to, it just came out that way. The ubiquitous aliens-in-the-bedroom drawing. Here's the original:

And then I played around with the color enhancement thingie and this felt right (as if there is anything "right" about this realm.)

We've seen these before; these drawings of faceless, ghost like beings peering down at us while we're asleep and unaware of the presences surrounding our beds.

I've written before that I have memories of little "wolf like" (gray, short, jabbering) beings surrounding my bed when I was a child. Jim, my spouse, has had similar experiences. (The Synchronicity of Puppet Wolves: Binnall of America 2007)

In looking at this sketch, I realize these entities are not all that short -- not the typical gray alien so commercialized and now a non-event in pop culture. The gray has replaced the little green man from mars as cartoon. Prevalent and used to promote all manners of entertainment. Yet there is one little guy (that's how I think of him, without thinking of him…)

What does all this mean? I'm not to say. I don't know. This not knowing annoys some. As if, because I've had these experiences, I should somehow know. I wish to hell I did know. But I'm not a prophet. I have some theories that are in constant stages of movement. A dance, and all performers come together in one beautiful display but abruptly break apart, flowing back into an alleged chaos. I continue to research and speculate and explore with others their experiences, but I don't know. I guess. I dream. I draw.  I manipulate the memories, hoping to evoke some truths out of what's hidden inside.

New blog: Ecto-Ville

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

(Update) "Break on Through to the Other Side, Break on Through...": OOBE Jokers

I've written before how, the older I get, the harder it is for me to go all the way with my OOBEs. I'll start to go out, all the usual preliminary stuff happens -- rushing, roaring, clanging, bells, music, chimes, static radio voices -- and then, everything stops, and I'm suspended in an almost motionless, slowly bobbing place where I'm not moving forward. I find this extremely frustrating and no matter how hard I work on this I can't get past this stuck place and move ahead.

(I wonder if this has any connection to UFO experiences. As a child, I'd leave my body all the time, I looked forward to it. These were related to UFO sightings and "alien" encounters. This continued on throughout my teens and as an adult, but I've noticed the past decade or so at least, the OOBEs are less frequent, and rarely successful. This stuck feeling: like I'm inside an elevator that is going up at an incredible speed, then, without warning, it just stops, getting stuck in between floors.)

This morning I had an OOBE, or, rather, apparently I was trying to have one. With a twist as well. I was awake but drowsy; could hear Jim moving around in the kitchen. The I heard the phone ring, but deep inside my head. It was our phone's distinct ring. I remember thinking "Oh, damn, hope it's not so and so calling about ..." something Jim had to do. It only rang once and I thought "Guess they hung up before Jim could get to it." Immediately after that I started that rushing feeling where I was leaving my body. I was very excited about this, and went with it. All the sounds came along, especially the radio sounds. In fact, I wondered if we hadn't left the radio in the bedroom on, because I could hear it so distinctly, voices, a bit of static but clear enough. I could make out what they were saying: two men talking, I could hear the words but I don't remember what.  Then it started to sound like someone was rapidly changing the dial, looking for a station. Meanwhile, I'm still rushing, leaving my body. Then things started to slow down. Damn!

There I was, bobbing slowly on the ethereal plane, listening to the astral radio. Which was playing the Doors "Break on Through." I had a lucid moment where I thought how funny that was. Clearly, my higher self and/or spirit guides were playing with me: the distinct telephone ring ("Hello? We're calling!", the Doors song) but yet, I couldn't get past the stuck place. I even imagined myself sitting up, in order to move my spirit body along, as well as jump up and down, which helped a bit. But I was quickly losing altitude, as it were, and came back. Now I was fully awake -- Damn it! -- and never could get it back.

Updated: After I had posted this, watching the recent episode of Alphas that we'd recorded, and The Doors People Are Strange is the lead-in music in the first segment...not super-synchronicity, after all, wasn't the same song, but thought it was a bit interesting...

Power Outage, OBE

Strange things happened last night... I woke up around midnight. It took me a few moments to figure out what wasn't right; the alarm clock was blacked out, the little red pinpoints of light on the receiver were out, etc. I went into the bathroom, and noticed the alarm clock in there was black, the night light was out, the overhead light didn't come on when I flipped the switch. Clearly the power had gone out. Great. I tried to wake Jim, but he didn't wake up. I was both glad and frustrated at that; I didn't want to disturb him, but didn't want the power out all night.

I tried to go back to sleep, but kept waking up.  Then, I had an OBE. My first one in a long long time. I felt like someone was pulling on my foot, pulling me out. I was delighted at this, excited, but also a little nervous. Something different this time than the other times; I'd start to leave my body, then, stop where I was. Just like being in an elevator going up  and stopping at a floor for a few moments. I saw a green point of light in my mind/astral plane, then it came closer and was a window, with a humanoid shape figure standing in it, watching me. I had the feeling it was very human like, but not human. That scared me a bit. The the "elevator" started up again, upwards, and I had that same feeling of being both excited and nervous. I was telling myself not to panic, not to be scared,  just let it be. But, we stopped again. Waited. In a holding pattern. Then started up again. This went on for awhile, and then, to my great frustration, I started to come back down. I tried to resist falling back into myself, into "reality" but I just couldn't seem to get beyond the point where I left my body completely.

I managed to get to sleep, kind of... had an epic dream (one of those dreams that was extremely long and detailed, complicated plot, etc. ) but still slept poorly. After about an hour woke up to find power back on. 

Owl Says: Not So Fast...

Just today, I was thinking that I haven't had any owl synchronicities since the last owl post. "Well, that owl episode is over," I said to myself this afternoon.

Then I receive an email from Tim Binnall, who sent me these images of an owls on his fence. He told me he took them today, and that it was the first time they've seen owls on the property.

Not so fast, Owl says! Oh, and my article for Tim, that should be available on his site Monday? About owls of course; I wrote it last week in September, and normally it would  have been up earlier, but Tim's been busy with many projects, so it was postponed. So today he emails me to tell me it'll be up Monday and he finds the owls on his property.

Seems they're listening, those owls...

And . . . more owls

Yes, more owls. Today in a room at work; the large bulletin board had . . . owls. Owl figures all over the place.

All this owl synchronicity -- in part, as I wrote earlier (see my owl posts below) it's messages, signals, signs, along the lines of "they're noticing you're noticing them" kind of thing. I put the intent out, as to conscious recall of orange-orb and related encounters, including missing time, and this is what happens. Throw in my affinity and relationship with animals, and we're off. But on a more mundane level, it's possible that owls are a new fashionable/trend/fad image in the culture stream; nothing esoteric, although, it is esoteric. The young person wearing a tee shirt with a giant owl on it is just wearing something they think is cool or looks good, but I doubt they're into esoteric-alien abduction-Illuminati symbolism.

But "they" know. Heh.

Entering the Orchid: A Glimpse Into the Orb?

 Red Canna, Georgia O’Keefe, 1923 (University of Arizona Art Museum)

Progress, maybe, or something, on my experiment here with intent, conscious recall, retrieving memories of the Orange Orb sighting. . . as I do every night, I go through a sort of meditation/prayer/vision routine. I wasn't thinking consciously of anything to do with UFOs, the paranormal but mundane things, when suddenly my head sort of exploded in a burst of orange. (Sharing a similar experience with this.) As that was happening, I felt myself, not leaving my body, as has happened many times with OOBEs, but a sort of reverse OOBE; I was falling inward. Falling into my third eye, into the orange, and then a large flower shape appeared that was an off white, cream color, oval or almond in shape, that opened to reveal another shape. This shape was more of a figure with an inverted triangle head, very faint. It had eyes, that were closed, but as I "zoomed" or fell in closer, it abruptly opened its eyes, which were the typical huge black eyes of the so-called grays.

At that moment, I had a vivid lucid dream experience. I "shouted" "Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" which sounds very funny right now, but at the time, I was almost pissed at the idea this pop-culture icon that's become a cliche and a joke in many ways, appeared to me. Arriving first almost invisibly, as a shadow, a faint outline, then becoming more defined, sharper in detail and image --- for what? Was this an accurate and literal mind post-card, a psychic encounter of something that is just as it appears, or something created out of my own mind because it's familiar, no matter how silly?

If looked at with the tools of imagery and metaphor, maybe this was a sign that I'm getting somewhere, and these images: orange light, oval petal, small gray, are offered because they are familiar acting as guides. Guides to what, is yet to be discovered.

"Dream Academy" Synchronicity and the subconscious

Readers of The Orange Orb know that I post many of my UFO related dreams here. To my surprise, those posts receive a lot of comments and emails. I acknowledge I post those dreams here as a way of trying to discover . . . something . . . about my experiences. My own, free, little therapy blog. But others find something in these posts, as I do in the posts of others who write about their dreams, and other  vague, surreal moments. Mike Clelland's blog, hidden experience, Anya is a Channel, The Secret Sun, among others, discuss dreams, symbols, images as a language connected with the esoteric.  As individual and often just weird these dreams, experiences, or interpretations of seemingly mundane events are, these shared personal landscapes resonate, and often we find bits of synchronicity as well.

This morning, checking one of my favorite Fortean news sites, The Daily Grail, I find the following link: Dream Academy: Secrets of the subconscious unlocked. The article is a bit of a fluff piece and feels the need to add in the skeptic's  admonishments:

Louise Chunn, the editor of Psychologies magazine, said she could imagine dream groups taking off, in much the same way that "today's narcissistic society" is addicted to talking about itself on Twitter. "I can imagine talking about your dreams becoming a trend in the way that people photograph their food. Is this just another way to validate ourselves?" She warned that the upshot could be to leave those with less exciting dreams feeling inadequate.

Some psychologists and psychiatrists worry that dream groups might cause harm if the distressing emotions turned up by the subconscious mind are mistreated. Patrick McNamara, associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at Boston University and author of Nightmares: The Science and Solution of Those Frightening Visions During Sleep, believes that dreams shouldn't be shared with anyone who lacks due regard for their complexity.

But the point of the article is that in the UK, dream groups are popular, and individuals are finding that discussing their dreams in groups is very helpful for them. In some cultures, discussing your dreams is not considered woo or "narcissistic" it just is, an important part of the daily routine.

Not all my dreams are UFO related. I have all kinds of dreams: dreams about obvious anxieties or issues about work, daily life, stress related dreams, weird dreams because I ate too much or not feeling well, fun dreams, silly dreams. When it comes to the UFO dreams, there is the question of intepretation, meaning. Are the dreams somewhat literal, something UFO related trying to get through, or are the symbols and scenarios stand-ins for something else? 

An example: I have a recurring dream that I find myself driving, usually alone, on a narrow, one lane bridge across the ocean. I just find myself in the middle of nowhere, all I can see is water on either side of me, in front of and behind me. The water comes up to the sides of the bridge, very scary. The bridge only has a small and frail rail on either side. It doesn't seem to have any purpose. It wouldn't stop a car from going off the bridge. I'm scared out of my mind because one slip and I'm in this water.  It's all so weird and scary: just one long narrow road on top of the water with no end in sight, no turn around, no signs, nothing.

I've had this dream for years, and still have it. Had one the other night in fact. What completely unglued me a few years ago was, I found myself on this very road! I was completely lost in Portalnd, no idea at all where I was, or going . . . I have no idea how I ended up on this road but there I was, on a narrow road with water all around, no signs, no turn around, no idea where I was going. None of that had to do with UFOs. Just a weird bit of synchronicity. 

Memory is a strange thing. Why do we remember vivid small scenes from childhood, the rest fallen away? What was it about that moment, that's stayed with us for decades, while others seem to leave? And what of the rare "scenes" where you remember, but not sure if it happened? 

image: Henry Fuseli: Nightmare (The Incubus)

Time, Elks, Dreams . . .

I have a vivid dream life, always have; dream in color, sing, sounds, scents, fly, sleep paralysis, OOBEs. . . I've even had a couple of dreams where the dream was in color, but little pieces were in black and white. One dream I recall: the dream was in color, but I was watching a black and white TV. But I've never had dreams where I had missing time or amnesia in the dream; until recently. A few months ago I had missing time within the dream, and last night, I had a similar episode within a dream.

Much preceded the missing time, or amnesia, too personal to post but at one point, I was leaving my place of work and found that all the roads had been torn up. Earth moved into huge piles, gravel everywhere, dirt roads... no signs. "Great," I thought, "how the hell am I going to get to where I'm going?" but I had no choice, so start to drive. A hassle but not a big deal. But at the end of this torn up road is a crazy network of freeways. Just dozens of on-ramps and freeways and hundreds of cars just zipping every which way, and no signs. Not a one to tell me where to go, how to get there. . . and I have no time! No light or anything just have to MOVE, now! So I make a decision in my panic and just drive like mad onto an on ramp, no idea at all where I'm going.

After awhile of driving crazy-mad the freeway insanity ends and I find myself on one of my "dream scapes" -- a one lane, one way highway or bridge over the ocean. The ocean is a beautiful royal blue color. The water is almost as high as the bridge/freeway, and it's churning. Very active. I am scared and nervous. Still no idea at all where I'm going, no signs The bridge/freeway goes on forever, I can't see anything ahead. The water is so high it's splashed onto the road, and I'm worried I'll slide right off into the water. All I can see on either side of me is water. There's a railing about four feet high on the sides of the bridge but it's little protection.

Next thing I know, I wake up in a funky small motel room. No idea how I got there. I'm wearing a large baggy tee shirt and underwear but that's it. I walk outisde, confused -- where am I?! I see it's a little coastal town, hilly, kind of funky but in a comfortable, easy way. I'm in the "poor" part of town but as I continue walking, find myself in a more habitated part of town. I go into a little cafe, order breakfast. It's very good. I tell the people there, who are very friendly, that I barely know who I am, let alone how I got there or why, etc.

I was thinking of this dream all day, and for some reason, that led me to remember something that happened when i was about twelve or thirteen. I was in the Girl Scouts, and we went camping in Northern California. Here we were out in the middle of nowhere, or so it seemed to me. I loved it though.

I've thought of the following experience many times, but only remembering the wonder of what I saw, not how I got there in the first place. We were all setting up camp and then, I took a walk. I was just walking around, in the woods. And came out on a road. So I'm standing there on the side of the road, and less than ten yards from me, directly across from me, an elk walks out from the trees and just stands there on the side of the road. I was in awe; this was the first time I had seen anything like this. I remember just standing there, looking at this beautiful creature. I wasn't scared, just amazed. I felt like crying, it was so beautiful. We just stood there, looking at each other, then it walked off.

What's surprising to me now, is that even though I've often revisited this memory of seeing the elk, some obvious things about this event never occurred to me -- until now. For one thing, I can't see the adults in the group allowing anyone of us to just walk off on our own. Yet apparently I did. I was all alone. And what road would that have been? No idea; it wasn't one we were on. I don't remember what happened before that, or after. All very strange.

Layers of memory. One "real" memory with no surrounding context, one missing bit of memory within a dream. Shifts of memory; no experience dreaming of having missing memory within the dream, and suddenly, two within a few months time.

Maybe age has something to do with the dreaming; I can't explain why it is I don't remember what happened before, or after, meeting elk on the road. . .

Hearing My Name

I've experienced hearing my name called, but not for several years. A number of times yesterday, and once today, I heard someone calling my name. It sounded very close by, yet distant at the same time; loud. And hard to tell if it was male or female; it really sounded like both. Maybe a bit less masculine, but hard to say if it was completely feminine either.

This is a bit weird, but not unusual in the realm of the esoteric. I think there's an obvious connection between this and my working with meditation and crystals lately. For the past week or so I've been working in this way on a very intense and serious level.

Some say that hearing your name is a sign from guides, or those who've passed on. Some cultures believe it's malevolent spirits trying to get your attention. (I don't follow those traditions.) And of course, there's the secular explanation: you're nuts.

It feels to me that I've been heard, and they're letting me know.