Longmire and owls

This image wasn't actually in the final episode of season three, this is a promotional photo.

The A&E series Longmire features owls in their mythic role as a totem of death. This series has lots of native American lore mixed in with the narrative, and the owl mythos plays an overt role. The owl is a symbol for death and messenger, and the script writers aren't shy about using this in the story.

  caution: spoilers below  

symbolic owl on the first episode of LONGMIRE

The opening scene of the very first episode features an owl. The main character and series namesake, Walt Longmire (played by Australian actor Robert Taylor) is at his little cabin in the morning and he looks out the window to see an owl. As I watched this first episode, seeing this owl, I immediately said, uh-oh somebody died. Up until this point, there had been no dialog, and the next thing that happens is the phone rings and his deputy says there's been a murder. We also later find out that the sheriff's life, is haunted by the memories of his dead wife.

An owl shows up again in season two, episode one, where sheriff Longmire is all alone, pursuing a villainous escaped prisoner in a winter mountain environment. Longmire falls into a creek, and sees an owl as he climbs out of the water. His life is in danger because of the cold, and he has a trippy hallucinations (or visions) as he tries to get warm again. He later kills the villain. So, the owl as a warning, proceeding a visionary state, ending in death. All the good mythology.

An owl shows up in the season three finale, right after Walt spreads the ashes of his wife. This scene coincides with some cross cutting of his deputy who "might" have killed his own father with a shotgun.

two pictures, same owl!

Above left is a photo of myself along with an owl. Above right is the author of the Longmire series of books, Craig Johnson, and oddly enough—he is pictured with the very same owl! Also note our choice of shirts.

This owl, with a wounded left wing, lives at the Teton Raptor Center in Wilson Wyoming. I have some funny synchronicities with that owl that I still need to post. More soon.

note any similarities?

Above left is one of Craig Johnson's books (he has a few books with owls on the cover). Above right is another book, and all I can say is that it should be out soon. The blue cover is a work-in-progress for my own book. I had no idea about this guy's book when I picked the name for my own. Both authors have 12 letters in their name. My initial set of owl experiences happened in Wyoming, the setting for the Longmire series (although the show is shot on location in New Mexico).

Now, it's not just me, there are others out there searching for owl references in the media soup. Like this site (HERE) that gave me a sense of relief that I'm not alone. And HERE too, this site featuring Twin Peaks.

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High Strangeness with Lorin Cutts

Lorin Cutts has a background in music recording, and he's produced a series of audio podcasts titled High Strangeness. His technical history has made for an excellent quality in the production, and these have been aired on KGRA Radio. These are highly recommended. His site also features some important essays and articles, especailly on how sycnronicity plays a role in this mystery. Let me add that his radio co-host, sychronistically enough, is named Lauren Kott.

His recent interview with remote viewer and UFO contactee Lyn Buchanan is required listening! The other interviews feature the likes of Thom Reed, Timothy Good, Evie Lorgan, Anne Druffel, Margie Kay, Yvonne Smith, James Gilliland, Donald Schmitt, Stan Gordon - and even me! Not all of these audio interviews are up and posted, but I am hoping they'll all be available sometime soon.

~ The High Strangeness homepage HERE
~ The audio podcast series linked HERE
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the single most popular post on this blog

recreation of the view out my south window

I saw a bright orange fireball from my window in Febuary of 2009. This post, simply titled Fireball, has had the most page views of anything on this site.

I'm not exactly sure why it has been so popular, except that there has been an increase of fireball sightings around the world and perhaps people are simply 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.

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Exo-Vaticana and footnotes about synchronicity

click on this image for a HI-Rez view,
the art director for this book cover crammed in a lotta stuff!

The book Exo-Vaticana has a provocative sub-title, Petrus Romanus, Project LUCIFER, and the Vatican's Astonishing Exo-Theological Plan for the Arrival of an Alien Savior. The authors, Cris Putnam and Thomas Horn investigate the connection between Rome and their secret work on extraterrestrial intelligence, astrobiology, and the intriguing preparations they are making for the arrival of an alien savior. 

The book quotes Carl Jung and his exploration into the symbolic meaning of flying saucers:

Jung concluded, “Something is seen, but one doesn’t know what. It is difficult, if not impossible, to form any correct idea of these objects, because they behave not like bodies but like weightless thoughts.”[685] To Jung, it looked as if “this obviously complicated phenomenon had an extremely important psychic component as well as a possible physical basis.”[686] In this way, a minimal amount of material manifestation provides the more influential psychic layer with philosophical legs to stand on. They peel the curtain of spacetime back just enough to exert an influence and then they vanish. Jung also considered that, in some cases, they could be manifestations of consciousness—synchronistic phantasms. Interestingly, indicative of the high strangeness involved, UFO abductees have said things like, “Synchronicity is like a language to them” and “synchronicity is the language that they use to communicate.”[687]

And here’s the footnote:

[687] Mike Clelland, “Synchronicity and the UFO Abductee,” essay within Alan Abbadessa et al., The Sync Book 2: Outer + Inner Space, Shadow + Light: 26 Essays On Synchronicity (volume 2) (New York: Sync Book Press, 2012), 333. Essay available from Mike Clelland here: http://hiddenexperience.blogspot.com/2012/10/sychronicity-and-ufo-abductee.html.

So, right after quoting Carl Jung the book quotes me. The author, Putnam, also writes about listening to an audio podcast with myself and Richard Dolan where we discussed how the number “333” seems to manifest in strange synchronicities connected to the UFO abduction phenomenon. Of note, that audio interview with Richard Dolan produced it’s own curious 333 sync, linked HERE.

page from Sync Book 2, click on the image for a HI-Rez view

Putnam noted that this quote from The Sync Book 2 shows up on a certain page number. More from the book:

It turns out (and this is the sort of stuff you just cannot make up) the citation is on page 333. Coincidence? Now, to me, that seems like a significant synchronicity, albeit to anyone else it likely seems fanciful. However, if it is, I believe it’s the sort of thing only God can providentially produce and, since this occurrence, I have been praying for Mike Clelland, specifically that he might consider his hidden experience through a Christian lens. Perhaps you might pray for him as well.

I was raised Lutheran, but that long ago time at church had very little impact on me. But, I do recognize, and believe in, the power of prayer. I think any form of directed intention can have a very real impact on reality. Also, I look at my hidden experience through a lot of different lenses, and the Christian lens is just as valid as any other way to frame these challenging questions. That said, I am cautious of any avenue of thought that gets too deeply entrenched. (Note: I haven't read this book) 

Here’s how I found out about this web of synchro-weirdness, a reader of this blog sent me a nicely written email this morning. Here is an excerpt from the opening of this message: 

I just had a genuine Axolotl! moment, one that actually caused the words represented by OMG to come out of my mouth as I walked away from my computer.

… in Exo-Vaticana starting with a chapter that goes into the UFO Mythos, the author has a scholarly examination of myth that eventually evolves into a discussion of Jung and his concept of synchronicity. All the while I'm composing an email in my head to Mike Clelland on how to introduce this surprisingly excellent book to him as an example of how the Contactee experience is impacting the Christian milieu.

I'm reading along when the writer gives two quotes relating to synchronicities and the UFO experience that resonate with me so much that I am compelled to click the footnote link [687] to see the source of the quotes. The footnote hyperlink appears at the end of a page, and it is the first time that I can recall using a footnote link out of the hundreds read so far. 

So, a reader of this blog is composing an email in his head to me while reading a UFO book. Then, upon the very first time he ever clicks on a footnote, that link that takes him to a reference to me! This is a reference that the author of the book feels is a “a significant synchronicity.” 

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Dolores Cannon and synchronicity

Dolores Cannon (1931 - 2014)

Yesterday morning, Dolores Cannon died peacefully in her home with her family at her side. She was 83 years old. I heard the news about her passing yesterday afternoon through a message on facebook. Later that evening, while at my desk, I heard a 'ping' from my computer meaning an email had just arrived.

It was from Katy Walker, and she wrote:

Hey Mike, have you thought about having Dolores on the show? This book is fascinating. I'm trying her technique this next week, where you bypass the fear and can recall clear memories. I'll be asking about our experiences and let you know if anything comes up. Here's the pdf version of one of her books.

Best
Katy

There was an attached PDF of The Custodians, the only book of Dolores’ that I own and have read.

As I was reading this email from Katy, my computer started 'pinging' and I watched as 19 more emails arrived in my in-box, all of them the same message from Katy. I sat there for the next couple of minutes and watched (and listened) as these duplicates arrived one after another.

image of my  email in-box with 20 repeated messages
- click on image for a HI-Rez view -

I replied telling Katy telling the sad news, that Dolores had died this morning. And also telling her that I was am being flooded with her repeating message into my in box. She replied to me this morning saying: "Sorry about that, it's bizarre, I was just trying to send one email, very strange, not sure how that happened..."

It was just two days ago that I cleaned up a short essay about Delores for my owl book. In her book The Custodians, she describes seeing an impossibly large owl in the road near her home in Arkansas (see this excerpt BELOW).

Katy is also featured in this owl book, she was part of a film crew that caught a UFO on video while shooting images of owls for a documentary on synchronicity. So, two people are connected with this odd event (well, three if you include me). All of us are featured in the owl book project, and this flurry of twenty repeated messages about Dolores Cannon arrived on the day of her passing.

~ More on Katy's UFO and owl experience HERE.
~ More on Dolores Cannon HERE.

 to read about Dolores' owl experience, click on the link below 

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owl physiology / book excerpt

Here is a work in progress from my owl book project. This excerpt is mostly focused on the physiology of owls and how that plays into their odd connection to UFO reports. It's long, over 12,000 words.

I am open to any feedback or editing suggestions. Please note, as the book nears publication, I will take this page down.

The first half is my attempt to show how seriously well designed the owl is, they are remarkable on a lot of levels. If this initial text seems too dry and "scientific" scroll down to page 14, things get a little more zippy at that point.

Text posted in PDF reader below.

Owl Physiology, a chapter for book in progress

and this too (linked HERE)
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problems with the Disclosure movement

What happens when a leader in the exo-political movement touches an author's butt?

Robbie Graham is sure to annoy a lot of people with his recent editorial on the problems with the Disclosure movement. I have to say that I completely agree with his assessment. I've had a few angst ridden talks with Robbie on exactly this subject, and I think maybe I hear a little of my own voice in his bold declaration. He starts his essay like this:

The problem with the Disclosure mindset was that it declared an end to the UFO enigma. It said, in essence, we know what ‘they’ are: extraterrestrial spacecraft. End of story. And then the movement looked to officialdom –a sort of unfair parent figure– and it tugged incessantly at the leg of power, saying ”daaaaaadddd, TELL US!”

... And he ends it like this:

So let’s take officialdom out of the equation altogether; let’s shift the focus onto ourselves and to our own relationship with this phenomenon. Let’s see UFOs as a call to look within, with the aim of unlocking our true mystical nature, our latent psychic and spiritual potential, because, in so doing, we might actually begin to understand all forms of extraordinary and impossible phenomena.

To read all the thoughtful stuff in the middle, go to his blog, HERE.

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audio conversation with Mary Rodwell

Mary Rodwell is a former nurse and midwife, and she now works in private practice as a professional counsellor. She is also a hypnotherapist (including past life regressions), Reiki Master as well as researcher and author. 

Mary is also the founder of the Australian Close Encounter Resource Network, (ACERN). The primary role role of ACERN is to offer professional counselling, support, hypnotherapy and information to individuals and their families with anomalous paranormal experiences, particularly specializing in abduction-contact experiences. This is not a research organization, it is a resource for therapeutic counseling and support.

  one-click audio download HERE  

The focus of this conversation was on the tensions within the UFO research community. Specificly when folks are confronted with reports and experiences well beyond the simplistic materialist framework that defines our existence. This subject forces any thoughtful observer to look deeply into the multi-dimensional aspects of not only UFOs, but reality itself.



There are a set of interviews with Mary done by Alex Tsakiris on Skeptiko that are essential listening. Linked here are PART ONE and PART TWO

Mary is the author of Awakening: How Extraterrestrial Contact Can Transform Your Life.

My Mum Talks with Aliens

This documentary was produced by Australian television and focuses on Mary's son Chris, and his attempts to understand his mother's work with UFO abduction. Recommended viewing.

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