The Hidden Lives of Owls, and my little cameo

beautiful cover design

I recently purchased the Kindle version of a book about owls. I read a few reviews, but more than that—I loved the cover!

In the book The Hidden Lives of Owls: The Science and Spirit of Nature's Most Elusive Birds, author Leigh Calvez writes about owl habitat, owl calls and their social behavior. She also explores the human-connection—in particular, owl obsession and mythology.

As I read the introduction, the opening ideas seemed similar to my owl book. She addressed something I find fascinating—the relationship between the owl and the shaman. Then I saw this line:

In many Native American tribes, the powerful owl is for the tribe’s shaman only. Some people even believe there’s a connection between owls and extraterrestrials. Writer and artist Mike Clelland, who writes about owls and mythology, believes that there is a synchronistic link between owls and UFO sightings. What is it about owls that makes them so mysterious and fascinating to us?

I had a cameo in someone else’s owl book! It wasn’t much, but I was struck how straight she wrote about my somewhat peculiar owl obsession. I realize I'm an easy target for ridicule, but I sense no smirking on the part of the author (whew!).

My brief mention was sandwiched in between two ideas at the core of my own research. The line before was about the owl and shaman, and the line after my was essentially the same question I have asked over and over: Why owls?

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Billy Pilgram hears a flying saucer and thinks it’s an owl!

Click on the image above for a HI-Rez view

I have been searching. Part of my research has been to find the very first reference in popular culture to owls in relation to UFO abduction. Since the publication of The Messengers in 2015, I’ve been saying that this was in Whitley Strieber’s Communion. But a reader of this blog (Mr. Smith) just pointed out an earlier reference, from another one of my heroes, Kurt Vonnegut!

I will now have to revise what I say.

Billy Pilgram, Vonnegut's protagonist in Slaughterhouse-Five, hears a flying saucer and thinks it’s an owl—all in the moments BEFORE an abduction!

This is a perfect collision of owls and UFOs, where they blur together to the point where they are mixed up. I fully realize that Slaughterhouse-Five is a novel and Communion is non-fiction, but I am more intrigued by the clarity of the symbolism. And, both books are—without question—icons of pop-culture.

an excerpt:

Overhead he heard the cry of what might have been a melodious owl, but it wasn’t a melodious owl. It was a flying saucer from Tralfamadore, navigating in both space and time, therefore seeming to Billy Pilgrim to have come from nowhere all at once... The only noise it made was the owl song. It came down to hover over Billy, and to enclose him in a cylinder of pulsing purple light.

I read Slaughterhouse-Five while I was in high school, probably back in 1979. To say it blew my mind would be an understatement. I even saw Kurt Vonnegut when I lived in New York. We stood in line together at a corner bodega. He was buying a watermelon! (I am suddenly writing in very short sentences)

I read this in high school, probably 1979

Reading Slaughterhouse Five (1969) by Kurt Vonnegut was a defining right of passage in the 70's. Here's an 11 minute excerpt where Billy Pilgrim tries to understand time as explained by the Trafalmadorians. This is part of an audio interview with researcher Richard Dolan.

  one-click audio download HERE  

Plus you get to hear the beautiful voice of Jose Ferrer.

Owl talk with Ryan Sprague

Episode Summary: 
Ryan speaks with author, Mike Clelland, about his recently released book, Stories From The Messengers: Accounts of Owls, UFOs, and a Deeper Reality.

This book is a companion to the groundbreaking ideas that began with Mike Clelland's earlier book, The Messengers. It's a further exploration of the connection, both symbolic and literal, between owls and UFOs. There is a strangeness to these accounts that defies any simple explanation. Each chapter tells a deeply personal story where these mysterious experiences are explored in depth. The ancient mythology of the owl is repeating itself within the modern UFO report. What plays out is a journey of transformation, with an owl at the heart of each story.

And in this episode, Mike tells some of those incredible stories and where they may fit in the entire UFO mystery and beyond.

  More posts with Ryan HERE  

Documentary project from Whitley Strieber

Whitley Strieber describes an upcoming documentary

This short video is meant to generate some buzz for an upcoming documentary project. I realize that there are already a lot of UFO documentaries, yet the overwhelming majority are terribly shallow. I feel strongly this one will aim high.

I have followed Whitley for decades (I read WARDAY in my first apartment in New York back around 1984). He has consistently framed the ideas of alien contact in extremely poetic and sophisticated ways. I have watched this video several times, and each viewing I have listened closely to his words. I am cautious to say this, but he is articulating the same vital ideas that I tried to express in my two books. These issues are complex and elusive.

My second owl book was just recently published—with a foreword by Whitley. I am absolutely honored to have his words within those pages.

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Audio Reading of Chapter 13 - Between two Bridges

recreated image to approximate witness sighting, autumn 2015
(click on image for a HIrez view)

This is chapter 13 of Stories from The Messengers. I have been recording my voice for an audio version of the newest book. The results have been good, and I am working hard to make it sound professional. This is a high quality 192 Kbits/sec file.