I just finished reading Stan Romanek's book, Messages (written with co-author J. Allan Danelek). In a word, I loved it. It was probably one of the cleanest, most concise and at the same time, most extensive narration of the abductee experience I have read. The book is written in a plain style, the narration of an ordinary person undergoing extraordinary experiences. And yet, the experiences that the book contains are anything but typical if for only one reason, the intensity of the message. In addition Romanek claims to have captured evidence - both material samples and photographs - from his experiences.
Like most experiencers I have met, Romanek's awareness of the phenomenon began with some key event - in his case, a significant UFO sighting. This began a cascade of experiences, explorations and mysteries. Eventually, after a number of hypnotic regressions, the scenario of this one person's interactions with the phenomenon took shape with increasing clarity.
Romanek's narrative generally follows his unfolding awareness of the phenomenon, beginning with the times before he had knowledge of the phenomenon. He describes himself as initially a skeptic, yet also indicates that he had experienced a number of childhood mysteries. Among these were his encounters with what he called, "The Pretty Lady." His description of this event sounds nearly identical to those of many other experiencers, describing human-looking beings appearing to them early in their lives. The beings often look angelic, yet have the large, dark slanting eyes - something which seems to suggest an "alien" nature.
Additionally, the "pretty lady" event occurred at the approximate time of a series of close UFO sightings around the Air Force base at Grand Forks North Dakota. Having personally investigated several sightings in that area, I can concur that this area has historically been a common location for high-strangeness encounters.
Romanek them moves ahead to his sightings in Colorado, especially those at Red Rocks, near Denver. Living in the Denver area at that time, he describes a trip to Red Rocks with the intent to shoot some home video. At that point he observed a craft hovering in plain sight, clearly intending for him to observe it. He took a considerable amount of video of the craft as it paced his van and appeared to react to his presence in several ways. In addition to what I can only describe as a game of "cat and mouse" between Romanek and the object, he described a feeling of electrical intensity [my term, CL]. Then the object sped away to be lost in the sky - but definitely not forgotten.
later, Romanek replayed the video and found that he had clearly captured the object on film. In addition, he describes how he subsequently developed electrical sensitivity; street lights would blink out and electronics would malfunction in his presence. This leads me to suspect that there was far more to the UFO event than a sighting and video-recording of a distant object as many experiencers have described the same thing.
Like most experiencers, Romanek describes feeling torn between worlds - the unknown and the known, the human and the extraordinary, etc. Events continued, intensifying in his life, until he finally decided to get to the bottom of things. He decided to pursue hypnosis as a means to discern what had happened to him 'behind the veil' [my term, CL]. During several sessions with Deborah Lindemann, a hypnotherapist in Fort Collins, Colorado, a classic account of UFO abduction emerged. In the course of several regressions, increasing detail emerged.
Classic among the events during the alien abduction experience is the receipt of a message or vision. Many experiencers describe apocalyptic warnings, along with a torrent of spiritual and/or scientific images cascading into their mind - and Romanek was no exception. One powerful aspect of Romanek's message was a series of equations and diagrams, which he produced during the regressions. They describe increasingly complex equations in physics - including aspects of electromagnetic theory, general relativity, nuclear chemistry, etc. Another aspect was the prediction of a coming apocalypse along with a planetary alignment, apparently intended to give the predicted date of the event - September of 2012.
Subsequently, Romanek had hypnotic work done with Dr. Leo Sprinkle, a former professor of psychology at the University of Wyoming. Romanek states that Dr. Sprinkle was more focused on UFO abduction work, whereas Deborah Lindemann did more general hypnotherapy work. Thus, Romanek felt that Sprinkle would be the ideal choice to continue his regression work.
Indeed, for whatever reason, the level of trance seems to be far deeper and the results were considerably different. While the events and the messages were similar to what emerged in earlier regressions, several additional phenomena occurred; among them was the channeling of the main entity itself. The result was an even deeper message. The entity, which they ultimately referred to as "Grandpa," stated that humanity is at a crossroads. We are being watched and guided - and judged. Additionally, there is a movement toward enlightenment among us and it is imperative that this movement take hold before it is too late.
The channeling experience, the messages, drawings, etc. - all of these actually emerge relatively frequently in hypnotic regression work with experiencers. I often hear new-age-sounding messages from experiencers - many of whom have no prior background or interest in such topics. Yet what makes Romanek's book unique is the intensity of the message, the claims of physical evidence and the degree of investigation.
Romanek claims that his experiences have corroboration, including physical evidence exceeding that of any case to date. He describes taking material with him from inside the UFO - material which was subsequently analyzed in scientific laboratories with profound results. He refers to this as his smoking gun. Is this true or not? I believe the jury is out. We have heard many of these claims before and few if any of them have survived the light of skepticism. Yet if true, it is indeed a smoking gun.
Several researchers have claimed that Romanek's book has some dubious aspects to it. I am not familiar with controversy(ies) surrounding it, but I was a bit skeptical of his claims. Synchronistically, while writing this article, I received an e-mail entitled "The Smoking Gun that Shoots Blanks" - indicating that the e-mail's authors see far less to the book than Romanek states.
I have only scratched the surface of this case in this article. The book goes into considerable detail about his interactions with the government, military harassment, encounters with apparent human-aliens and men in black, etc. It is a veritable cross-section of the UFO abduction experience. And ultimately, whether it is true or not, it gives an excellent glimpse into what it is like to be an abductee.
If the claims in the book bear out, the case might well be the smoking gun. There are all the right elements in it - a combination of details providing a cross section of the UFO/CE4 phenomenon. Furthermore it is similar to what many other abductees tell me. Thus, either the authors have done a whole lot of homework on the case, or the experiences are real. Are there bullets or blanks in the smoking gun? Whichever turns out to be true, my nose definitely detects the faint whiff of gunpowder in the air.
