----------------------------------------------------
In early April, I had the pleasure of attending the Ozark UFO Conference in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. In a word, it was great, a fascinating experience. And the greatest thing about it was the ability to rub elbows, to be in the presence of so many others who really take the UFO and close encounter question seriously.
I drove down with a couple of friends, fellow UFO enthusiasts who also share my passion for hypnosis, hypnotherapy and abduction research. Thus, we had several hundred miles of fascinating conversation about everything from the subconscious mind to the alien agenda - not to mention some deep glimpses into each others' personal stories.
In the days before we left for Arkansas, I had the feeling that something about this trip was going to deeply affect my life. As the days of the conference passed, I realized I had been right. At the conference, I met several people who rocked my world. One of them was an experiencer named Sherry Wilde and it turns out that she grew up only a few miles from where I did. In fact, many of her experiences were occurring only a few miles from my own doorstep.
I often find myself lost in thought about what might be way out there, out among the stars and planets, out in deep space, etc. With news from the planet hunters, NASA's Kepler mission having returned volumes of data, from which we are now discerning hundreds of new planets - at least one of them possibly habitable to us - the sense of wonder is sparked anew. And then I heard Sherry Wilde, and realized once again that her story was not out there, but right in my back yard.
I get several calls a week from experiencers around the country, sometimes around the world. Yet on some occasions, the calls are local. A few days prior to writing this article, I got a call from a man in Minnesota. He had seen several UFOs up close and had experienced numerous psychic phenomena. I can always tell when it's going to be a long phone conversation - when I hear the "you're going to think I'm crazy but...", and in this case, I was right. He had a lot to say, and to this point, he had never found anyone who would listen.
What again struck me was how this person wasn't somewhere far away. He lived only a few miles from me. During some of the events he described, I should have been able to look out my own back door and see something - perhaps a UFO hovering over his house. (the fact that I didn't is another story in itself...)
As a hypnotherapist, I find myself seeing into the inner recesses of peoples' lives on a daily basis. I hear accounts of deeply private events and experiences - some involving the visitors, some not. Yet what I realize is that the close encounter phenomenon reaches into the very core of the experiencer's life. It lands in your and my back yards, intrudes into our bedrooms and deep into our souls.
Most of us think of the UFO topic as something that's safely far away. They zip around among the distant stars, or high in the atmosphere. However, listening to Sherry Wilde and others talk about the close encounter phenomenon being right here and now, and then getting this local witness call, all served to again drive the point home. The UFO and close encounter phenomenon is right here, in our yards and in our bedrooms. Almost literally, it is in our face. This makes it one of the most mysterious, and possibly one of the most urgent problems our nation and world face.
Who or what are these beings? why are they here? Are they good or evil? As I have stated many times in this column, I don't know the answers to any of these questions. Like any other researcher, I can pose theories, but humanity has very little solid knowledge of the phenomenon. All we really have at the present time are wonder and mystery.
For now, all we can do is try to gather as much knowledge as possible, applying as much discernment as possible as we face the wonder in our own back yards.
