fireball

view out my south window

In February of this year, I was in my cabin getting ready for bed. I was walking around the house shutting the lights off, and I passed by a big window facing south. As I looked outside, I saw a very bright orange ball of flame streak downward to the horizon. It only lasted a second, and it was very distinct in the night sky. I'll add that it looked sort of cartoony, like a perfect fireball with a long tail of flames.

I didn't think much of it. I was in my house, so I have no idea if it made any sound. It looked like it was way off in the distance, over the mountains to the south. It looked like a completely natural event.

I'll add that I had a curious feeling that I had seen this same thing before. I calmly thought, "Oh, this again."

I turned off the lights and went to bed.

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Text added on Feb 9th 2012:

I just realized that looking out this window to the south would line up right around the star Sirius. Whatever that might mean.

the view to the south from my cabin in Mid-February 2009

Text added on Oct 28th 2014:
This post has had more hits than any othe post on this site—ever! I am not exactly sure why, except that there has been an increase of fireball sightings (similar to what I saw in Feb. of 2009) and perhaps people are searching out the word fireball. If anyone around the world googles that word, this post (with it's one word headline) would probably show up. So, it might be nothing more that that.

The image above is from a cool site called Planetarium.

Also, this post has been VERY popular...

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streetlights

Last week I was in Bozeman Montana. I was on my bike riding through the cute streets of the downtown neighborhoods. It was nighttime and snowing, and it was really pretty. As I rode, I calmly thought to myself, “Nothing strange has happened in a little while, has this weird part of my life ended?”

And, at that exact instant, the streetlight directly above me shut off.

Ha! I laughed out loud. It was funnier than it was weird. I tried to ride past some other streetlights to see if it would happen again (it didn't).

I’ve experienced this occasionally over the years, where street lights will turn off as I approach them, but it’s been inconsistent, so I don’t really consider it strange. But that night, riding my bike in the wet snow, it felt different. It felt like I asked a question - and I got an instantaneous reply.

The question was just a playful nice thought, nothing needy or pleading, and this seems to be a pattern for me. Simple questions that just pop into my head are somehow more relevant.

ALSO: I have another nice thought event with the same street-light response.

[Text added: May 1st, 2009]

A mutual blogger named Stace (one of my sister blogs) just posted an insightful essay on her streetlight experiences.

Singing the Body Electric

- Human Force Fields and The Streetlight Effect

{an excerpt}

I’ve thought about “the streetlight effect” quite a lot, because the phenomenon of knocking out streetlights happens around me quite a bit. These events are also episodic to a degree, typically clustered around times when I perceive my quantum vibration to be intensely high, whether I’m relaxed or excited.

Based on how I feel energetically, I can generally predict whether or not I’ll be knocking out streetlights on a given night. If I’m driving home from an intriguing lecture or have just been involved in a fractalising conversation, or if I’m just thinking, thinking, thinking and making new connections - that’s when I’m more likely to affect streetlights.

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seeing a white Lion in rural Idaho

During the spring of 2005 myself and my friend Ned were spending part of the afternoon at an outcropping of small boulders near my home in rural Idaho. We were practicing and traversing on theses rocks as a way to get in shape for the upcoming summer climbing season. The spot is quite lovely. The long row of boulders were on a small hill above a dirt road, with sweeping views of the snow covered peaks of Wyoming in the distance. The long winter had ended, the sunshine was warm and everything smelled of sage.

The act of traversing on these steep rock formations proved to be quite a wake up call, both of us were surprised at how weak and sore we were after only about a half hour of bouldering.

We sat on a big flat rock above the road and lamented our exhausted forearms.

I remember quite clearly saying, “I need to get strong. This is the summer for it.” And Ned agreed.

Then - I saw what I thought was a dog on the dirt road below us. It was a ways off, and there was something odd about it.

I said, “There’s somebody’s dog.”

It took only a moment to realize that it’s slow lanky stride looked more like the way my cat walked. Within seconds, both of us knew this was no dog, this was a Mountain Lion.

We watched silently as the Lion walked along the road below us. It never saw us. We were transfixed as the cat calmly plodded past us. We watched it for about 10 minutes. It was rather small, no bigger than an adult golden retriever. It was almost completely white, except for a black spot on the tip of it’s long tail, and the distinctive dark “tear stains” under it’s eyes.

We sat in silent amazement, as it past us maybe less than 30 feet away.

It continued unhurried along the road for a few more minutes, and eventually it calmly stepped off the road, and walked leisurely into the tall grass and trees, and we lost sight of it.

This was quite a sighting.

People live out west their whole lives and never catch a glimpse of a Lion, and we were fortunate to have an astounding sighting, close up on a beautiful day.

The feeling was sort of magical, and I felt enormously fortunate. When I got home I wrote up a short email about the experience and sent it off to hand full of friends.

I got a reply from an email pal in New Zealand named Ivan. He scanned a page from a book on spirit animals and sent it to me. I’ll add that Ivan is an amazing fellow, he’s written two books that he claims are channeled directly from God. The text of the scanned page explained that, “seeing a Lion is an important sign that it is time to get strong.”

My first impression was that this meant some kind of spiritual strength, and it was a few days later that I realized that both myself and Ned were telling each other that: “We need to get strong” at the EXACT moment we saw the Lion.

[added text, april 21/09]

I was recently asked a question in a comment :

"Looking in retrospect, did something happen during that year or these last 4 years that proved this announce to 'get strong' to be a sage warning?"

That was a good question.

I hadn't ever thought about it, but the events of my life seemed to change direction sometime around 2005. This would have been exactly four years ago, and it was about that time that I began to focus more on paranormal stuff, as far as reading and studying for myself. These years have been an evolution of sorts, with some bold jumps forward. The last two years have been really hard for me, with a lot of personal challenges.

Perhaps this was a "sage warning" for me.

image from the original STAR TREK

This creepy image was at the end of every STAR TREK episode as the credits rolled. As a little kid, it always scared me.

comrades

The blogisphere confounds and impresses me, and here's another example.

As a follow up to my previous post about my two sister blogs, I’ve found my brother blog, PARANORMAL MUSINGS, created by Canadian film maker Michael MacDonald. Both our blogs are focused on weird paranormal stuff, much of it personal.

We’ve commented on each others posts, e-mailed, and even spoken on the phone since meeting through our blogs, with the initial conjoint link being Mac Tonnies and his blog POSTHUMAN BLUES. Michael found my blog (and made a comment) on March 10th, one week after my first posting.

There are a bunch of curious similarities between Michael and myself. And I don’t know what else to do but list 'em, so here goes:

* We are both named Michael.

* We both have (beautiful) Scottish last names.

* I am 46 and he is 47.

* My list of labels on this blog have both "paranormal" and "musings" as a quick link to the posts.

* Both of us are involved with a documentary project on the subject of UFO abduction phenomenon. His film INTRUDERS, is completed but mine (alas) is on hold. We were working on them at the same time. We’ve each interviewed Budd Hopkins, Dave Jacobs and Leo Sprinkle. When he described his film during our phone conversation, I started laughing.

* We both are big fans of Mac Tonnies.

* We are both cat people.

* We are both creative types (and we’ve both worked on a lot of TV commercials).

* We both have curious memories, and we are blogging and sharing our odd personal stories in a very public way.

* And - His blog was started on March 2nd of this year, and I started my blog March 3rd, the very next day.

Am I reading too much into this? I can’t help it, these similarities fascinate me.

Michael MacDonald actually commented on my posting

The Neuron-like Nature of the Internet, as I was adding his picture to this post.

He wrote: Interesting, as I was reading along it made me think of my Ackerman 000 experience, and you actually posted an excerpt. I think the internet in its vast and complex interconnectedness becomes the equivalent of a web-based-style of quantum slit test. In a similar fashion I have often wondered whether systems on the edge of stability, such as an electric light bulb about to burn out, are primed for influence by entities such as ghosts, spirits, and even aliens, if they do exist in the paranormal realm as we suspect.

two sister blogs

I’ve been utterly intrigued by two other blogs, both curiously similar to this one. The first is called Postreason and the postings are by a woman going by the name Kartott.

The second is Inter-Intelligence Communications (IIC), with postings by a woman named Stace.

Postreason started in February of ‘09 (25 days before I stated this blog). IIC started in November of ‘08. Mine was the most recent, with the first post in early March. I found their blogs only after starting mine.

Why did these writers (myself included) create these very public websites?

In a recent blog posting on Postreason, Kartott wrote:

About 1- 2 years ago ... I found I had the time and space to revisit old personal history, events and experiences that I had wondered about for years, but had put on the back burner in order to carry out my ordinary daily life. I began my exploration by joining Dreamland last year, participating in the chat sessions on that site. ... I joined the Paracast board last year, but did not post much until recently. Mike Clelland's recent posts there frankly gave me the courage to come forward more publicly (thanks Mike!), though I still have this weird feeling of wanting to run an hide every time I talk about this. Yet I feel a strong compulsion that its time to do this. I feel I must get my stories out whether written or visual. This is largely a selfish act, something I need to do for me.

And in a follow up comment Kartott added:

... More recently I have been feeling a sense of urgency regarding some visual imagery that I want to get out of my system. The stories are almost secondary at this point. ... However, in posting recent imagery (specifically, the cigarette lady) I felt it necessary to describe the particulars (i.e., the words). And in doing so, it seems I got even more questions about other events (oy)...

And there is a curiously similar tone from the author of the other blog. Stace wrote about her inspiration to begin blogging in a personal email:

As for IIC (Inter-Intelligence Communications blog), for ages I've felt a need to share my experiences that indicate a deeper level of reality than most people realize is interwoven with the mundane stuff. I've been more or less driven to tell my stories... and I also feel that by writing and posting my experiences, those that are "ready for" or "needing" or just "interested in" what I have to say will find it and get something out of it.

My need to develop IIC became more urgent in the past year, so when ... [I] set it up in November, it was like "WOW!" - a whole new world of possibility opened up, and I jumped right in!

When I review the words of these two bloggers, I am struck by the similar emotions. There’s a pattern in their explanations, there’s a repeating of words and phrases like: need, urgent, strong compulsion, I've felt a need to share my experiences, I've been more or less driven to tell my stories, sense of urgency, I want to get it out of my system.

Kartott stated is perfectly in six words, "I must get my stories out."

I feel the exact same way, and I don't quite understand why.

A few weeks ago I had a long talk with Stace on the phone. She made a real-deal effort to try and describe what she was feeling. She wanted to find the perfect word, and she actually got the dictionary out and looked up COMPELLED and IMPELLED in the hopes of better defining this feeling. We agreed that both words seemed accurate.

She said that what she was feeling was coming from outside of her. She was COMPELLED to come forward and share her story.

This matched what I am feeling - exactly. Especially right now.

I look at my blog, with all it’s strange (and very personal) stories, and the logical side of my brain says: “I must be crazy, I should delete all of this.” But I don’t. Some other part of me wins out, and instead, I add to it.

Recently, I had a psychic reading (and I wrote about it) from a woman and the first thing she tells me is, “You need to be journaling.”

To make all this even more mixed up, Stace plays an important role in one of my postings about visiting a crop circle, dated March 5th. She respond to me and says she just posted a story about her experiences in that same formation on March 3rd, two days before.

And just a little while ago, I was the focus of a bunch of internet forum postings questioning my honesty, and some of it was pretty negative. Kartott sent me a supportive personal message saying: “Hang in there.”

When I checked her site, I saw - to my surprise - that she had thanked me, she said I gave her courage. Right at that moment, I was in a very low mood, I felt really discouraged. And when she thanked me, I instantly felt SO good. I got kinda sappy and emotional.

And, Kartott writes about owls, and Stace writes about synchronicities. There's more, and I'll post it soon.

Why do the words of these two women resonate so deeply with me? They both articulate a sense of urgency, and I feel it too.

Should I try and describe what I’m feeling? I don’t know if I can. Both these women are saying it for me, better than I could. But what is it?

* * *

QUESTION: Is there anyone else out there feeling the same thing? Are there any other folks blogging for similar mysterious reasons?

(PLEASE NOTE: any editing by me of other postings and emails is indicated by using ... in the text)

neuron-like nature of the internet

I experienced a tiny little dose of the divine in a coffee shop in Moab Utah.

The other night I slept out in the desert under the stars. I was a few miles outside of Moab along a lovely stretch of high-way that runs parallel to the Colorado River.

Sometimes when I sleep outside I'll experience the most vivid dreams, and recently I've tried to encourage some extra message from the great beyond as I sleep. So, as I zipped up my sleeping bag below the sandstone cliffs, I asked the universe to give me an insight, I was receptive. Alas, I woke up without any dreams.

Later that morning, I drove back into town for coffee, and I pull out my laptop. I wanted to look up MOAB for any mythic significance, so I go to Wikipedia, a resource I rarely use. I log on and the featured article of the day on was about high-way 128 in Utah, where I slept the night before.

That was odd...

Now, this coincidence is curious, true enough. It obviously made me take note. In the previous days I had been composing a blog-post in my head about on the neuron-like nature of the internet and the possibility that it might be developing it’s own self awareness. And then I get a very curious cyber-synchronicity linked to where I slept, and where I asked for an insight.

Are we witnessing the internet form a new kind of collective consciousness? There is now a global expanse of electronic brain neurons running everywhere, in the air, into space and into the psyche of individuals. It's all emerging from an unfamiliar digital zeitgeist.

Is there an evolving giant life form of synaptic fibers emerging within cyberspace? Is it a new set of neurotransmitters, allowing and encouraging an alternative web of synchronistic happenings?

I recently tried (and succeeded) to poach a wireless signal at a friends apartment in Brooklyn. I was amazed to see a ridiculously long list of available internet connections, it was bizarre.

This is a new chapter of human history, nothing like this has EVER happened before. We are surrounded by a swirling electo-magnetic soup, with wi-fi portals, cell-phone towers and satellites in space. I am somehow forced to imagine billions of devout monks all chanting together, resonating collectively.

What is unfolding?

There is a perceivable significance in a shuffled deck of Tarot cards. And the I Ching is regarded as a system of divination within a random set of set of 64 abstract line arrangements.

Why is the internet any different?

Here’s a little bit more:

Below is an excerpt from PARANORMAL MUSINGS:
This is no joke. Today Ian and I went to Forrest Lawn Cemetery to pay our respects to Forry Ackerman, who died Dec. 4.

Next we ... arrived at our hotel. When I sat down and logged into the computer, Facebook required the typical security typographical entry before letting me see my mail. To my total astonishment, the words I was prompted to type were, "Ackerman 000" I kid you not.

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Text added Sept.  2nd 2012

Just so y'know, highway 128 shows up again in a very curious set of events, described in this post HERE. The experiences described by 'Artimesia' happened just a few miles from where I slept in the post above.

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