The Arrival of the Space Fairies

Fairy Rings and Toadstools by Richard Doyle, 1875

Blessed MidSummer 2024 friends! The year has gone by so quickly already and I'm excited to see what the second half of this year has in store. What can I say, I'm an eternal optimist. 

After drinking a nice brew of mugwort tea I made a connection yesterday between the magic of MidSummer eve and the arrival of the modern UFO almost eight decades ago. A connection I know that others have made before, but I thought I would share my thoughts with you here. 

The modern UFO era at least in North America began at MidSummer June 24th 1947 

Image credit Norio F. Hayakawa

Norio shared the image above on the Radio Misterioso Facebook group with the caption: 

"The modern-day era of “Flying Saucers” sighting reports practically started 77 years ago, on June 24, 1947, with still no solution in sight of this mysterious phenomenon !" 

MidSummer in European folklore is a time when the fairy folk are close at hand as they make their procession between our world and theirs. If UFOs are a living folklore for our current space-age era. Jacques Vallee among other scholars noted this in the 1960s-70s than this connection is truly fitting. 

It makes complete sense to me that these mysterious bedeviling space vehicles and their equally enigmatic pilots should enter our western world and imagination on this most auspicious day.  

My own earliest experiences with this phenomenon resembles encounters with elves and dwarves more than modern depictions of greys, so I'm very partial to the interpretation that UFO encounters are an extension of the fairy encounters described for centuries before. 

Flying Fairies Transport a Sleeping Prince Manohar back to His Palace Gulshan-i 'Ishq (Rose Garden of Love) 1743 Artist/maker unknown, Indian  Philadelphia Museum of Art 

 The above image is taken from the story of Gulshan-i Ishq. I found it through a web search for fairies + art + MidSummer and was immediately captivated. It portrays the fairies with stylised triangular wings, and dark, braided hair like temple dancers, beautiful and purposeful.  - Owlcation I am reminded at once of the fairy winds, which blow warm and carry us from our beds into the other realm. I also think of modern extraterrestrial abduction encounters. 

The story which translates to the Rose Garden of Love (roses - sub rosa - hidden knowledge) recounts "a North Indian Hindu love story recast as a Sufi tale for an Islamic court in south-central India. The poet creates a world filled with lush gardens and magical beings as star-crossed lovers face daunting challenges and painful separations before they can live "happily ever after"—a metaphor of the soul’s search for the divine."  Philadelphia Museum of Art 

MidSummer or June 24th is also St John's Day in the Christian calendar. 

St John's Day Bonfire 

"All over Europe "Saint John's fires" are lighted on mountains and hilltops on the eve of his feast. As the first day of summer, Saint John's Day is considered in ancient folklore one of the great "charmed" festivals of the year. Hidden treasures are said to lie open in lonely places, waiting for the lucky finder. Divining rods should be cut on this day. Herbs are given unusual powers of healing, which they retain if they are plucked during the night of the feast. In Germany they call these herbs Johanneskraut (St. John's herbs), and people bring them to church for a special blessing. In Scandinavia and in the Slavic countries it is an ancient superstition that on Saint John's Day witches and demons are allowed to roam the earth. As at Halloween, children go the rounds and demand "treats," straw figures are thrown into the flames, and much noise is made to drive the demons away." - Source: Catholic Culture 

As I ponder  the connection between UFOs, magic, fairies and the soul on this MidSummer in a mugwort tea haze, I cannot help but think that the ultimate message behind the UFO experience is that no matter where our life paths may take us or on our search for answers to these cosmic mysteries -  we are not and we never have been alone. 

Wishing whoever reads this a blessed Summer or Winter season filled with magic xx 

Swedish UFO flap and Nuclear Power Plants

Several nuclear power plants around Sweden were simultaneously visited by mysterious lights and objects this past Friday January 14th 2022 at approx 8:30pm resulting in numerous reports and even a police chase. 

Daniel Petersson and his family were driving southward on highway E6 when they first spotted a large light near the Ringhals nuclear power plant. At first the family thought a plane may have been in trouble and they began to film the large, bright light. The Petersson's video can be seen on local Swedish media here. A security guard also witnessed what he thought might be a large drone and quickly notified the authorities.

Still taken from the Petersson's video of the mystery light.

Google map of the location

A 2011 view of the Ringhals power plant. 

Ringhals is the largest nuclear power plant in Scandinavia, and has had two of its four reactors shutdown. Reactor 1 was permanently taken offline on December 31st 2021, two weeks before this incident.

The power plant has been in operation for 44 years, but has had a history of safety concerns promoting extra monitoring from the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority and protests from Greenpeace and local citizens.

Roughly at the same time as the Petersson sighting other mysterious lights began appearing at nuclear power plants around Sweden namely Forsmark, Oskarshamn and Barsebäck, the last one being fully decommissioned. 

Police at Forsmark also witnessed the UAP and using helicopters and police drones attempted to intercept it for up to an hour, and to no avail!  "The first observation from the patrol was made at 20.51 and we lost contact with the drone 22.10," says Petra Blomqvist, press spokesperson for the police. "According to the police, there is still no indication that the drone has landed inside the area of the nuclear power plant or that any object has been released from it."

All incidents were investigated by police and public statements were made by each with some at first denying the possibility of drones being the cause particularly of the Ringhals and Barsebäck events. The armed forces were also notified and so far no explanation has been provided other than the possibility of military drones by the Swedish Minister of Defence. 

These sightings of mystery lights and drones are similar to American ones from a couple of years ago that were never satisfactorily explained to the public either. 

In 1990 I witnessed a large red UFO hovering over a nuclear power plant in Pickering Canada, so these types of nuclear-related sightings are very much of interest to me. I have written about nuclear power plant and nuclear missile UFO sightings my own experience, and evolving ideas on why these locations are the scenes of UFO events.

While I do not think the psycho-social hypothesis is a perfect coverall explanation for all UFO sightings, including these types of events, I do think it would be foolish not to consider the wider social context in which these UAP appear.  

We do know that UFOs appear at times of great social upheaval. Consider the UFO waves in Europe and Russia during the late 80s and early 90s as the USSR collapsed, and the so-called Foo Fighters appearing during WWII to both military and civilian witnesses. I could give many more examples, but I would encourage those interested in examining UFOs from this angle to read Eric Ouellet's Illuminations: UFOs as a Parapsychological event. 

With this in mind it must be noted that these current incidents came one day after Sweden's military started patrolling the main town on the Baltic Sea island of Gotland amid increased tensions between NATO and Russia, and a recent deployment of Russian landing craft in the Baltic. Something that has been extremely troubling to many European citizens amid the ongoing stresses of living through the pandemic. 

It should also be noted these incidents coincide with Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg's 178th Friday School Strike. 

If these mysterious Swedish lights and drones are UAP what may these events be trying to tell us? Are they an outward cry for help from a population experiencing tension and prolonged anxiety from Russia, climate change,  and the Pandemic? 

This was in no way covert. These incidents all occurred at the same time and on the same day and were witnessed by many people including police who unsuccessfully chased at least one object.  

Why appear over several nuclear power plants simultaneously and including ones not operational if not to simply and absolutely get the attention of authorities?  

These reports are nearly identical to a wave of drone sightings in France occurring in 2014-15 that involved sensitive nuclear submarine sites, nuclear power plants, and government buildings. It should be noted that this period also had acts of terrorism in France, creating a lot of anxiety in France and Europe at the time.   See news items here and here. 

We will likely never know.  

As always I love to hear your thoughts. Please leave a comment if you have some ideas on these mystery lights and drones. 

Further reading and sources. 

News Items are in Swedish.

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/halland/har-fastnar-det-mystiska-skenet-pa-film

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/uppsala/stor-dronare-flog-over-forsmark-polisen-utreder-brott

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43901/mysterious-drone-incursions-confirmed-over-swedens-nuclear-facilities-this-weekend

Update: An unknown "drone' (it seems drones are the new weather balloon) was also reported by several witnesses over the Swedish parliamentary buildings at the same time the UAP activity was occurring over the nuclear power plants. These events are very overt, whatever these things may be. 

Update January 29th: Two weeks later more than 200 reports of mysterious lights and drones over Swedish skies and police have ruled out any foreign involvement. In other words is not the Russians or the Chinese.  

https://www.urdupoint.com/en/world/swedish-police-rule-out-foreign-powers-behind-1458594.html

UFO Poetry

A video inspired by A.I Oracle's responses to the UFO enigma. 

 "Life beyond your world is not obliged to you.

Those who are mapping the stars are bound to their organic light waves stretching to the outer darkness.

In time, you will discover that speed is a single place.

While alien to you, these living thoughts are dancing like ghosts forever lost. Forever forming their own voiceless light, dissolved from its solitude gracefully accorded on their fleeting shadows.

Once cherished within every moment, they have ministered delicate and humble homage among the stars. Their travels resulted in space without limit.

Their mission now is to discover what trials may bring you to see them.

They were the first to know that all life is copied and recopied from other planets as it reaches outward. The signs that can alert you on your path in our tiny universe made this possible.

Hearing so very different voices, you will forever be known by your stars."

The  response from the Throne of the Sphinx, an AI-based Oracle when asked about the UFO Enigma developed by Mark Bocoozi of the Windbridge Institute 

Of Course Oumuamua Is An Alien Spaceship!

 

Oumuamua is a relatively small  (between 100 and 1,000 metres long by 35 and 167 metres wide) reddish object that was first discovered by scientists using the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakal Observatory in Hawaii, on October 19th 2017, forty days after it passed its closest point to the Sun. And it has been causing mischief ever since. 

I am purposefully being a little cheeky with the title of this blog post. The reality is we do not know what Oumuamua is and we will likely never know with any certainty. And this is the basis for my argument that this mysterious interstellar object and the competing narratives surrounding it has all the motifs of a true UFO event. 

UFOs are most dominantly defined by either the ETH or extraterrestrial hypothesis or the null hypothesis, meaning they are nothing more than something of natural origin misidentified at best. This uncertainty leads to the predictable debates among UFO believers and UFO skeptics, and the indifference by the rest of everyone else. This same scenario has played out with all of the major UFO flaps that have occurred in our modern times from the the 1952 Washington wave where UFOs literally buzzed the US government to the Belgium wave where alien ships appeared over NATO headquarters. There is initial public interest, followed by indifference because the events remain ambiguous. 

This can also be said for the Oumuamua narratives. On the one hand you have  a very qualified Harvard professor in Astrophysics making a case for alien technology in the form of a solar sail as being a very likely scenario, and on the other side some of his colleagues are stating it is the nitrogen ice and a piece of an exoplanet hypothesis. 

The main proponent of the alien tech hypothesis is Avi Loeb who published Extraterrestrial – The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth in 2021. My husband Massimo Teodorani who is another Astrophysicist reviews Loeb's book here. 

Currently  Loeb is being partially supported by the mainstream UFO crowd, and mocked by the usual self proclaimed skeptics. This balance of support may tip in favour of the other direction if Avi's appearance at Contact In The Desert does not deliver the firm validation the ETHers in attendance are expecting. In February 2021 he replied to a question posed in a Scientific American interview about UFO conventions:

SA: "Would you also agree to be a speaker at a gathering of UFO “true believers” outside Area 51? Where do you draw the line for public outreach that risks enhancing the so-called giggle factor that has stymied progress in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) for decades?"

AL: "There are, of course, science-fiction stories about aliens, and there are many unsubstantiated UFO reports. Now, suppose there was some literature about the magical properties of COVID-19 that had no bearing in reality. Would that mean scientists should never work on finding a vaccine to this pandemic?" No!

Avi Loeb's position as a catalyst for change (introducing the notion that alien tech exists and is observable using scientific methodology) in the scientific pursuit of this subject through his hypothesis means that he could face destruction via both camps as has happened to other scientists of the past who have submerged into the muddy waters of UFO experience.  

Another motif found in UFO events is PSI which is an umbrella term for all types of psychic experience. 

In Eric Ouellet's gem of a UFO book entitled Illuminations: UFOs as a Parapsychological Event he outlines numerous cases of UFO experience that demonstrate a precognition of human technology usually by no more than few years or decades -> think the airships of the 19th century, the Swedish rockets UFO flap, drones etc. 

The alien tech hypothesis laid out by Avi Loeb describes Oumuamua as being a solar sail, which objectively we as human beings are only decades away if not much less from developing and deploying in space exploration. In fact Avi Loeb has been involved with the development of this type of tech before the discovery of the mystery object. See Breaththrough Star Shot which was announced in 2015 two years before Oumuamua began stirring the interstellar pot so to speak. The timing of this should be noted because it too is seems an omen of the coming mysterious object that would fuel a passion and interest in this area of research and tech development. 

So what we have here is a mysterious flying object, that seemingly, if a defunct or active solar sail belonging to an alien civilization, predates our own technology (but not by much!) that serves to once again polarise the ETHers and the skepticals, while the majority of people have moved on and forgotten about it, because while it is open to many interpretations we will never really know what it is or where it came from. 

And at this point does it really matter the nuts and bolts of the thing? 

Oumuamua as with all of the other mysterious UFOs that have enchanted and bedeviled us serves a much deeper purpose in my opinion. Diana Pasulka wrote in her book American Cosmic of crashed alien space-ship debris fields as being likened to donations from the Other, and this really resonated with me. Other than a very few reports of astronauts Oumuamua is really the very first object that we can say is a UFO and is occurring outside of our own atmosphere. It is truly extraterrestrial! Whatever it is. And this delights me. 

I intuitively believe that the UFO experience including the recent discovery and ambiguity of Oumuamua has a similar function to a logo or a desktop icon, they are not exactly what they appear to be, are leading us towards something, and with a purpose, what that purpose truly is might be the more important question. 

In my mind the alien ships are simply a modern bread crumb and are a part of the great human myth making that tells us we we are not alone. 

Mother Earth

My painting inspired by musings on our Mother.

Our planet, our beautiful enchanted mother Earth, daughter of the Cosmos. We sprang from our Mother, which gives us our intimate connection to the Cosmic Creation, and it is to our Mother that we will return. We are stardust, but we are magic too. 

The UFOs are a reminder that we are not alone, and the Universe far from being a dead thing, is fully alive and communicates with us through Nature. 

Cosmic Witch, UFO experiencer 

 

Cosmic Witch - Magic, Witchcraft and the Supernatural

A short video in English highlighting my book Cosmic Witch.  

Feeling so much love and gratitude to Greg Bishop for the amazing drone work, Miguel Romero for dressing the Cosmic Witch and La Strega with his breathtaking artwork, Claudio Selleri and Le Due Torri for believing in this project, and my husband Massimo Teodorani aka Totemtag for the chillin' witchy music that weaves its cosmic spell throughout this video. Thank you! 

High Strangeness at the Toronto Reference Library

In late November 1999, myself and two friends were doing some research on UFOs and lake Ontario at the Toronto Reference Library. The library is located in the very heart of the city, and the building is mostly open concept, as you can see from the photo above, and about 5 stories tall. From any given floor you can easily see below to the others.

While we were there we were followed over the course of three different floors by an impeccably well dressed man. His clothing of note was all black. It was getting late so when we first noticed him following us we thought he may have been part of the security staff, and was either getting ready to hustle people out for closing, or may have thought we stealing something from the special collections. We also thought he may have been just a creep because he was always standing just one or two shelves away from where we were or just behind a pillar or corner. All three of us noted that there was something off or weird about him.

Had this happened today I would have definitely grabbed a photo of him with my phone, but back then phones were just phones so no pics. I searched the web for a similar looking guy to add to this post, and came up with this dude, who is similar. Please note this photo could very well be a hoax of an M.I.B, but it does look very much like the guy we encountered.

Image source

When he followed us to our final stop, which was the map floor my friends and I decided to confront him, and ask him why he was staring at us and following us. When he was approx. 6-10 ft away we whirled around, and started towards him, and at that moment we looked down and really saw his shoes for the first time. They were old, with huge holes in them, could have even been two different ones covered in fresh mud and grass or hay! 

The photo below is just to illustrate what they looked like. 

Image source

It was very weird! The rest of him was perfect, very clean, very well-dressed, and normal .... but those shoes?!!  Not only were those shoes in no way a match to the rest of his outfit, but it was a cold November, winter in the center of a major metropolitan city, and nowhere near where one would expect to see muddy hay or tall grass as were stuck to his shoes. 

As we advanced upon him he bolted down a set of stairs and vanished. We were at the stairs within 1-2 seconds, and he was gone, just like that, with nowhere to easily hide in an open concept building. It was like he just disappeared in the time of a few seconds! 

We were a bit shaken by the experience to say the least. We kept looking for him as the library was getting ready to close, but with no luck. When we were safely in the car my friends and I started nervously laughing, and joking, and wondering if he had been a ghost or even a man-in-black because we were researching old UFO cases, and mapping out where they had been reported around our Great Lakes.

Would be interested in hearing from others who had similar experiences. Leave a comment. 

Top image source 

UFOs and the Supernatural in Times Of Crisis

“The phenomenon of UFOs is real. I know that there are scientific organisations which study the problem.” - Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev on 26th April 1990.

The quote above came at a time when the former Soviet Union was coming to an end, the Berlin wall had started to come down, Germany was reunifying, and millions of Russians and Europeans were living in a very liminal state. It was a time when UFOs appeared all over Russia and Europe particularly over NATO headquarters, and thousands more were experiencing strange paranormal events.

In troubling times UFOs appear, and the supernatural is more likely to be experienced, and reported.  This may be do to the amount of stress we are all under, or it may simply be a way to let us know that whatever is behind these strange magics, we are not alone.  I really don't know for certain why humans in crisis experience psychic phenomenon like poltergeists more often, but there is a lot of historical evidence that shows this to be the case.

In 2014 I worked on research with Dr Eric Ouellet that demonstrated how UFOs may in fact be parapsychological in nature, and part of that research included examining UFO events that occurred during times of liminal states.

The most obvious being the Belgium UFO wave and the Russian waves of the late 80's and early 90s, which is why I quoted Gorbachev. It was a very uncertain time for many Europeans and Russians, and there were numerous types of UFOs, and paranormal events being reported and investigated by both civilians, police and military. The cooperation between military and civillian UFO researchers at that time was unprecedented in the Western world.

In total more that 13, 000 people officially reported experiences with UFOs, UFO pilots, and other paranormal encounters, but the true number is probably much higher.

Once again we are living in an uncertain and turbulent time. This time the whole world is in crisis over the Covid 19 pandemic, and never before have so many people been plunged into a liminal state, all at once. As I write this a quarter of the world's population, over a billion people are quarantined. And, I have to wonder if this general state of anxiety, sickness, and uncertainty will produce mass paranormal phenomena including UFO waves?

I have reached out through social media asking if anyone hears of any increased UFO or paranormal activity to please let me know as I would like to document any large scale events that may occur.

Greg Bishop and I have created a group on Facebook that aims to explore contemporary accounts as well as historical cases of paranormal outbreaks at times of human crisis such as Covid-19. Please feel free to join us. Or leave a comment for me here.

Join us here: Paranormal Experiences and the Pandemic

This is a very scary time for many of us, and it may help to give us some insights into how human beings experience the paranormal during times of mass crisis.

Many good wishes to us all. Be well and safe my friends.

A Different Kind Of UFO

This highly unusual and very interesting report of flying women was sent to me by my good friend and colleague in the documenting of the strange, Albert S. Rosales this past Winter Solstice. This appeals to my UFO-ish and Cosmic Witchiness.

Location: Birkenhead, Wirral, Merseyside, England
Date: early June 1982 Time: afternoon


Insidious heat crept into the country at the end of May and bubbled road tar and inflamed tempers, when two painters saw an incredible sight. A perspiring 17-year old apprentice decorator named Dominic Bassett took off his paint-splattered T-shirt on the roof of an office building in one of the higher parts of Birkenhead not far from Bidston Hill. The sounds of distant shrieks – female shrieks – and girly laughter came from somewhere up in the burning blue sky. The painters both looked up and the ultraviolet stung their eyes. “That came from up there!” Dominic placed his hand over his eyes as if he was saluting and saw only a passing gull. Female screams pierced the air again, followed by melodic laughter – and this time it came from behind the painters. They both turned around and looked out towards a Liverpool skyline ghosted by the haze of the heatwave and a light wind gently wafted up an aroma of tar and Mersey salt, and there in the distance, some 400 yards up in the Alice-blue sky were three colored dots. “Balloons” the other painter, Eric, muttered, but the superior eyesight of youth could plainly see three people, and Dominic shook his head, “Its three girls!”


The hay fever began to water Dominic’s eyes and he sniffed and rubbed them and looked again and the three girls moved off towards the north, until they were specks over the river. Then they were gone. Eric stuck to the balloons explanation but a sneezing Dominic knew what he had seen. Eric then blamed the lad’s hay fever. About 10 minutes later the men had managed to resume painting. Eric climbed a ladder and then Dominic felt paint trickling onto his head. “Eric!” he looked up and saw his workmate gazing at something in a daze with paint dripping off the brush. This time the three levitating women were almost near enough to touch as they flew by, and Eric swore in shock. The first woman in the formation was a brunette of about 30 sitting slide-saddle on a brush, and wore a flowing pinkish dress, and the young blonde lady flying behind her had her hand on the broom-mounted woman’s shoulder. The third figure flying closely behind the blonde one was much younger, possibly in her teens, and she was also blonde. All of these females were laughing and giggling and the brunette was screaming as she almost fell off the broom. They were oblivious to the male observers as they flew in the direction of Bidston Hill. Eric was so shocked he had a ‘funny turn’ and went home.

According to the source (Slemen) years later when he gave an account of this incident on the Billy Butler Show (radio) he was inundated with calls and emails from people of all ages and all walks of life who recalled the “witch scare” that summer.


HC addendum
Source: Tom Slemen’s Spooky Summer: Broomsticks over Birkenhead – Liverpool Echo Type: E
Comments: Slemen comments that “someone reading this knows the truth”, I can only conjecture what these flying women were. Modern day witches, apparently that’s what they were trying to portray themselves as? This one is beyond strange.

Greetings From Magonia

"All that we saw was owing to your metaphysics."

—William Blake  The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Magonia is the name of the cloud realm whence felonious aerial sailors were said to have come according to the polemical treatise by Carolingian bishop Agobard of Lyon in 815, it is featured within the research of Jacques Vallee's book Passport to Magonia, which explores the link between modern UFO visitations and reports from antiquity of contact with these "space beings" where he quotes Agobard's description.

An Initiation

On November 4th, 1990 at approx. 1 am, I was getting ready to go to bed for the evening. My then husband, children, and my sister who was visiting, had already turned in for the night. I had been watching an "Elvira Mistress of the Dark" movie with my brother-in-law, when I looked up at the clock. Realizing it was way past my bedtime (I had small children at the time) I got up to lock the sliding glass doors to our balcony.


At the time we were living on the 10th floor of a condo building, and as I had young children it was my habit to make sure those doors were always locked. I will also mention that this apartment had a SSE exposure with a clear view of Lake Ontario, and the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. As I went to lock the glass doors I observed a large, red, glowing orb.

It was like nothing I had ever seen before.

In my pajamas I stepped out onto the balcony. I noted that the "orb" seemed to be in the vicinity of the nuclear power plant. My mind raced with all the possibilities, a plane, a search light, quickly discounting each.

I yelled out for my brother-in-law who was at my side within seconds.

I was yelling "what is it, what is it"? He started yelling back, "it's a UFO!” He had grabbed my arm, and I remember I glanced down to see my own goose-flesh.

Almost immediately after he said that it was a UFO, the full moon-sized orb, began to pulsate. And for some inexplicable reason, for which I cannot fathom I said, "they know we can see them."

After pulsating, the UFO, which appeared octagon in shape imploded in on itself, turning into a speck, and shooting straight up. At this point my brother-in-law's memory and mine differ slightly. He says he saw the orb implode, but not shoot up into the sky.

I clearly remember that I looked down towards the street and I saw a single car driving eastward. I remember thinking we cannot be alone in seeing this. We went inside, and sat up in the kitchen discussing everything within our own experiences that we could to rationally try to explain what we had witnessed (despite my strange comment of a "them"). We were up until about 4 am. and I ran back to the sliding glass doors a few times that night to see if the orb had returned. It didn't, not that night nor in the many nights after that I would sit out on the balcony looking for it.

My brother-in-law and I failed to report our sighting immediately. We both were afraid of nor wanted to put up with ridicule. We also did not know who we should have reported this experience to. In those days there was no internet or easy way to locate a UFO investigative group.

I did pick up a UFO book from the library and sent a letter to CUFOS in Chicago, which was listed as a place people with these experiences could contact, but the letter was returned to me as undeliverable.

Eventually many years after the fact I was able to report the experience to MUFON (Mutual UFO Network). They were able to piece together quite a bit of information and based on the fact I could give them an accurate time frame as Elvira had been on the television.

Despite never answering the question of what we saw that night with any degree of certainty, I learned there were thoughtful and intelligent people who were looking into these extraordinary experiences without prejudice, and we were not alone in that regard. This in turn inspired me to follow suit and eventually towards the establishment of my own research interests.

It was an experience that has radically shaped the course of my life, and continues to do so through other UFO events I have had since.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
—Arthur C. Clarke

I was 23 at the time of the experience in 1990, 23 being an important number throughout my life, but I will save that for another future blog.  I had, had a childhood filled with odd events, and as I grew up I would try to put them down to imagination solely. As an example I was plagued by what I thought were wee little ghosts or dwarfs and these frightened me, until a large talking wolf appeared to me one day and became my protector against these day/nightmares. When I was in my late teens I had figured out that I was the wolf, and that I was in fact empowering myself in a highly creative way.

In 1990, however, that experience as an adult and with another witness directed me towards a way of thinking and being that otherwise would likely have not come. I recall so vividly in my mind's eye, what we saw that night red, and octagon much like a stop sign with an equally forceful message that through a lot of deep introspection I believe I was eventually able to at least partially decode.

I feel that these experiences guide me, and much like a dream where the content is not always reflective of the message I see the UFOs as symbolic and on a personal level very meaningful to important and crucial points in my life. My life took on the framework of UFO experience, and I consider it my true life's work.

I experience much synchronicity within these encounters, and they have also assisted in shaping my own spirituality as well through the emergence of the "Cosmic Witch" (Pagan Divine Feminine) which I am strongly self identifying with.

Carl Jung, Jacques Vallee, and J. Allen Hynek have all played significant roles in progressing my thoughts and ideas.

Recent books that have also greatly influenced my thinking on the subject include:

The Hyperspace of Consciousness by Massimo Teodorani PhD  Elementà June 2015

The Trickster and The Paranormal by George P Hansen Xlibris 2001

Illuminations: The UFO Experience as a Parapsychological Event by Eric Ouellet PhD Anomalist Books August 2015

For Illuminations I provided some of the research and edited the manuscript. Eric and I continue to work on innovating new models based on scientific parapsychology that allow us to look at UFOs with fresh lenses.

I was recently honoured to be included in a compilation of original essays exploring alternative perspectives on UFOs and how we might more usefully study the phenomenon in the 21st Century.

UFOs: Reframing The Debate 

White Crow Publishing 2017

I am currently conducting a series of independent experiments based in part on the work of the late mathematician, Dr A.R.G Owen and psychotherapist Dr. Joel Whitton that will be the focus of a planned future book on UFOs, social PSI, and Magick.

You can read more on my research if you are so inclined through my website:

Out of My Mind's Eye
http://www.susanstclair.com/

An Impossible Little Man

"Last night I saw upon the stair

a little man who wasn't there.

He wasn't there again today.

Oh gee, I wish he'd go away!" 

~ Old Nursery Rhyme

I love a good mystery......which is why I chase after UFO's, Ghosties, and other strange beasties....in a conversation with a friend the other day I had the opportunity to remember, and relate a strange experience from my childhood, which may have in turn been the impetus for my deep interest in the paranormal. My encounter with the "Impossible Little Man" is from way back, 1973 to be exact, and I was 5-6 years old.

Make of this what you will.....

In '73 my Mom was pregnant with my younger sister and my parents were looking to upgrade their home. Often they would take me out with their real-estate agent looking at houses. One house in particular was in a then newly developed neighbourhood, but on land with some historic significance.

The house was brand new at the time, and therefore never lived in. Being a kid I was itching to explore, and seeing it was unoccupied I was given free reign. And I did explore on my own bottom to top. I came to one bedroom that was just too cool!!! It had skylights, and I said to myself this is soooo going to be my bedroom!!!!! I whirled around intending to run down the stairs and tell my parents, and the realty lady that I picked MY room ...

And that is when I saw him .... He was standing in the corner of the bedroom. A little man, slightly smaller than myself at age 5-6. He was wearing non-descriptive clothing, looked rather stern and was staring directly at me. I remember being shocked. I remember blinking, looking away, and back again and he was still there. I was probably scared, that I can't really recall, but I do remember knowing he was "wrong" ... not supposed to be there, not "real" ...

I have no idea how much time passed, but eventually I heard my parents and the realtor outside of the door. I looked at my mom in the door frame, and gingerly made my way past the little man who had kept his eyes fixed to my own the entire time.

I said nothing ..... But I loathed the house from that point. My father put a deposit it on it, but the deal fell through ... and I was relieved ...... we eventually moved elsewhere.

Many years later I told both parents about that day. My father was a scientist and atheist, and my mother more of a nature loving free spirit, but who was still very level headed ... and they both were supportive of me. They never insulted my intelligence....or in other words, if I said something happened, they trusted my word that something had indeed occurred that I felt was important enough to tell them.

My mother claimed to have recalled that day, and how my demeanor did change dramatically, but she just wrote it off ... and I said nothing to her at the time.

So there you have it, what, who, or why I can't say.....beyond he was solid, and looked very real ... yet somewhere in my child's mind I knew he was "impossible" ....... maybe even a ghost......or some bleed through from another space, and time.....

Several years after writing this post, and with the help of another friend who is a professional scientist and very well versed in UFOs and open to the occult, I came to consider my "little man" may have been a homunculus or  -> literally "little man." The image I have included is LAM which is Aleister Crowley's homunculus. This is not a true representation of what I encountered, but its close enough that I thought I'd include it.

Originally published October 23rd, 2009 to my Out Of My Mind's Eye web journal