updates

1. About contacting Mike Lewis:
I have replied to the friend request from Mike Lewis. I even had a film crew in the room as I sent the note (yes, I know that's weird). Since that point, we've sent a few short notes back and forth. Just pleasantries. There will be a day when I ask him about that night in 1974, but it hasn't happened yet.

2. A curious update from Cindy Gail:
I just got off the phone with Cindy Gail. I said hello to her on the facebook chat-program and she immediately replied:

I have exciting news for you - What's your phone number? - it's something I can't type - too long - life changing for you - I'm calling you on the phone - RIGHT NOW!

Here's the scoop, she still visits her old next door neighbors (the married couple are now in their mid-80's and in good health). She said they told her a story that they saw a glowing green UFO above her house! This would have been before 1977 (when the couple moved). This roughly matches the time-frame of my missing time experience, in front of that same house in Michigan.

I begged Cindy to play the role of investigative reporter and dig up more on this very curious puzzle piece.

3. More owls
I've seen a few owls lately. They've made their appearance right before some heavy-handed and emotional events.

Just last week I was driving to the airport in the pre-dawn dark, and I saw an owl on a signpost along the side of the road. It flew away as I passed. My trip involved visiting my aging parents who are both dealing with very serious health issues. It was a hard and emotional trip. That said, the trip simply had to happen, even with the very real stresses.

the universe answers my plea

I’m in the midst of a very curious event, and I’m posting it, right now, as it’s unfolding.

I’ve been searching for answers, and something that seems to provide some insight involves me sleeping out under the stars. I’ve been going out into the mountains, alone, with the sole intent of asking the Universe for help. Yes, I know this sounds corny, but please keep reading.

Before I fall asleep, I’ll lay in my sleeping bag and I’ll ask out loud. I do this periodically, and I almost always get some sort of curious reply. It started in the form of VERY vivid dreams, and some are posted on this blog. Sometimes I’ll wake up, no dreams, nothing curious at all, but before noon I’ll find some other synchronistic event that seems to match my questioning. This post about the neuron-like nature of the internet is a good example, and it adds a deeper layer to this story.

Lately, I’ve been bringing a tiny hand held voice recorder. I’ll sit in my sleeping bag and record my appeal to the Universe. If I have a vivid dream in the night, I can record it as soon as I wake up.

Two days ago (Wed. July 29th) I hiked into the Tetons alone, I live close by, and I can get in quick. I just walk until it gets dark, and then I set up my sleeping bag. I know the weather around here, and I rarely set up a shelter.

Recently (and its an ongoing theme in this blog) I have been feeling lost and adrift. I’ve been trying to articulate my insecurities about what I’m dealing with, and it’s implications. It’s created a form of fatigue that is oppressive and confusing, and I’m tired of it. I want some answers.

As I hiked into the mountains on Wednesday afternoon, I rehearsed my speech, my appeal. I did this out loud. Is this prayer? I guess, maybe.

I feel comfortable hiking off-trail, and at about 10,000 feet this gets easy, you come out above tree-line and the terrain is open and lovely. I picked a direction (east) and just kept going, the sun was setting as I found an area just big enough to set my sleeping bag down. A little ledge of sorts, tucked in next to a little sub-alpine fir. There was a trickling spring nearby, and I was provided with a spectacular view of a canyon that sees visitors only rarely. I was perched above it, on a small platform of granite, watching the sun setting (in a blaze of orange) and the half moon rising. It was about 9:30 when I found my home for the night.

I ate a little something, I brushed my teeth, arranged my pad and climbed into my sleeping bag. Before zipping myself in, I spoke into my little digital audio recorder.

Yes, I recognize how perfectly mushy and New-Agey I sound. 

But this exactly reflects my deepest feeling, right then. 1 minute, 34 seconds.

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I woke up the next morning just a little before dawn. No dreams, nothing. I packed up my gear and kept going up in the calm blue-gray of the pre-dawn light. I hiked along a really pretty ridge system as the sun came up, climbed a nice peak, and then turned around, heading west, and made my way (off trail) back to my car. I got to the parking lot at about noon, and back to my house at about 1:PM.

 I open my email account and my heart literally stops. There, on my screen, was a Facebook friend request from Mike Lewis (a pseudonym for privacy). Okay - let me fill you in, Mike Lewis was with me in 1974 as we walked home on a friday night from a high school football game. If my memory is correct, at about 9:30 in the evening, we saw a strange orange flash in the sky, and I arrived home at about 11:30. Together, as best as I can figure, we experienced about 2 hours of missing time. (see this posting for more details).

I've been searching for Mike Lewis for the last three years. Unfortunately, I’ve found a large number of folks with this very common name, but I’ve been to scared to follow up and try to contact him. The last time we saw each other was probably high school graduation in 1980, that’s 29 years ago. The time of the incoming email from Mike Lewis was 9:38 PM, pretty close to the same time I spoke my emotional plea into that little recorder from my sleeping bag.

I ask the Universe for help and it answers me. This is a repeat of the single most important story on this blog. Please read the events surrounding Cindy Gail, and her reappearance in my life. The orange Flash and missing time took place in Cindy Gail front yard. The Facebook friend request. The exactness of the time. And both are an overt answer to a deep need in me. Okay - as I write this I am a little bit freaked-out.

Why can’t this feel peaceful and fun? Instead it’s welling up as a stifling quandary.

My next task as a human on planet earth is to “confirm this friend request.” But I’m frozen and scared. More soon.

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Added text on Sept. 3rd 2009

I have replied to the friend request from Mike Lewis. I even had a film crew in the room as I sent the note. Since that point, we've sent a few short notes back and forth. Just pleasantries. There will be a day when I ask him about that night in 1974, but it hasn't happened yet.

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Added text on Jan. 16th 2010

I've just posted a dream where Mike Lewis makes a very curious appearance.

orange flash and missing time

This is my old neighborhood as seen in a google-earth image. The yellow X marks the exact location of the event.

  This story requires reading this other story first.  

It was a pleasant and clear autumn night in Michigan, I was a boy living in a quiet suburb of Detroit. I was 12 years old and in 7th grade, it was 1974. It was Friday night after the local high school football game, and I was walking home after the game ended. It was normal for me to walk the half-mile back to my house. I was with my friend (also named Mike), who was walking the same way. We were close to my home in a neighborhood of small suburban houses on a well lit but quiet street. The scene was completely normal and calm. We were in front of a house where an elementary school pal named Cindy Gail's used to live.

A recent photo with the spot marked with a yellow "X"

I know exactly the spot on the sidewalk where we were when suddenly there was a bold and jarring flash that took up most of the sky. It was a giant blur, and everything up above us was lit bright orange. It felt like someone just flipped a switch and the sky lit up, and then went back to normal. As soon as it happened, it was gone. It was completely silent. We were surprised and both responded with, "What just happened?"

There was nothing to see, since the event was over instantly, but something unsettling had happened. Was it a meteor? Was it lightning? Why was it silent? I know that I saw something, but there's an odd skip in my memory.

The color seemed utterly bizarre, it was a very bright and very saturated orange. To this day, whenever I see a campfire, and look at that the way the coals can glow as a warm radiant orange, I say to myself, "That's how the sky looked above Cindy Gail's house."

We continued to my house, I said goodbye and Mike walked home. I was excited to get home and watch a television show I really loved (KOLCHAK, The Night Stalker) that started at ten o'clock. I remember leaving the football game in order to get home in plenty of time so I could watch this show. But when I walked in the door, my parents were angry that I was out so late. I was surprised because I had made certain to be home at about 9:30, but instead it was well after 11 o'clock. It seemed odd, but I was genuinely disappointed because I missed that cool TV show.

The next Monday a group of friends were all in the cafeteria at my junior high school, along with Mike, and I told everyone that we had seen a bizarre light on Friday night. Mike added, "Yeah, a UFO with lights and everything!" What? I hadn't seen anything with lights. Did he see something I didn't? Mike and I never mentioned that night again.

That was over 34 years ago, and I have no idea what has happened to him.

I've always had a memory of this event, but the pieces were disjointed. I clearly remember the orange light in the night sky. And, I’ve always had a definite memory of missing that TV show, and my parents being angry about me being out so late. I had no explanation for that missing time. It wasn't until the mid-1990's that I remembered both of these events together. It happened while watching an interview with Chris Carter, creator of the X-Files, he talked excitedly about how he loved the same TV show (KOLCHAK, The Night Stalker) when he was a kid. Instantly the memories resurfaced with an almost electric jolt, like somebody just flipped a switch in my head. These two events slammed together in my head.

I suddenly realized that this all happened on the same night, I jumped off the couch and paced around my cabin in anxious circles. I’ve read a lot of UFO books, and the implications of this story unnerved me to my core.

Note: I easily googled the TV show KOLCHAK and it was only on for one season. So, I can pinpoint this event to the fall of 1974. The show was on Friday nights at 10 o’clock, exactly as I remembered.
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A little more about the orange flash.

Now remember, this is over 35 years ago, so I can only say so much. I remember that it was a very pleasant night in autumn, there was nothing stormy about weather.

The actual color was a hot orange. Exactly the color of glowing coals when they "illuminate" as that deep rich orange. Quite a vivid color. Radiant.

The flash was abrupt. Normal night sky - ORANGE - normal night sky. Lasting maybe 1 second. Extremely jarring. Perfectly silent.

Imagine you took movie footage of a night-time street, a normal suburban street on a clear night. The film runs thru the projector at 24 frames per second. You take this film, and using some sort of post production computer effect you change the sky to a hot radiant orange, all of it, one uniform color. But only for 24 frames, meaning just one second. No fading up and no fading out. Just ON - and then OFF.

If I was to watch this film on a projector, with the effect inserted for one abrupt second, this would match (as much as I can remember) what I saw in Michigan in 1974.

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I've added this on Aug. 6th 2009.
If you've read this far, you simply must read about the curious reemergence (again, at an intensely synchronistic moment via facefook) of my friend from that night, Mike.

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And - I've added this on Sept 2nd 2009.

I just got off the phone with Cindy Gail. She still visits her old next door neighbors (the couple are now in their mid-80's). She said they told her a story that they saw a glowing green UFO over her house! This would have been before 1977 (when they moved).

I begged Cindy to play the role of investigative reporter and dig up more on this very curious puzzle piece.

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if only I could muster up my courage

Cindy Gail in 1967

I am trying to be brave, but it’s been oppressive and scary.

This blog was created in a flurry, and it was all about some deep need to share some of my nutty experiences to the world. Where this need is coming from? I wish I could answer that.

I know full well what my next post needs to be, and it requires bravery, or maybe the better way to say it, it requires abandonment.

I want to post a story about a 1974 UFO sighting. I saw something in my hometown in Michigan, but I’ve been stuck, unable to put it on this blog. Well, I didn’t really “see” anything beyond a very strange orange flash in the sky, but my friend told me he saw a UFO. It lasted just a second, it was silent and weirdly jarring. I arrived home almost two hours later than I should have, and the implications are disturbing. There is more to this story, but hopefully it’ll be the next post (above).

This event took place on a lovely autumn evening in the quiet suburbs of Detroit.

It was just a block from the house where I grew up, and I can point to the exact spot on the sidewalk. It was in front of a house I know well. This is where an elementary school class mate lived, and this home will forever be known as Cindy Gail's house. There is a sweet and emotional part of my childhood all wrapped up in this house. In 1967 I went to Mrs. Dunn’s kindergarten class and met Cindy Gail. I’ll add that she was my very first crush - ever. She had light red hair and freckles, and there was something so centered and calm about her. I remember her doing art projects, and they were always tidy and perfect, and I envied her sense of self.

Cindy moved away when we were both still in elementary school. We haven’t talked in close to 40 years, and I had no idea what happened to her.

Let’s fast forward to yesterday. I spent the day cross-country skiing in the foot hills of the Tetons. It was a glorious day, and I was with friends. But, the one thing that kept spinning in my mind was this oppressive need to post that story about the long-ago event on the sidewalk in front of Cindy Gail’s house. The implications of that night are a little bit scary, and I was wallowing in insecurities. Was I brave enough to share what happened? I didn’t know if I could go through with it.

As I skied I tried to visualize how I would post it on-line. I felt there needed to be some sort of visual graphic. Recently, I had used google-earth to pin point the exact spot in front of Cindy Gail's house. I obsessed over this image, with that little marker pin-pointing the spot on the sidewalk. I’ve spent a lot of time compulsively staring at that image, and all that it implied. I thought that this satellite view of my old neighborhood would work okay as a picture for this nerve-wracking post.

And I was planning to do it last night, if I could only muster up the courage.

After skiing I was tired and unmotivated. I stared at my computer, knowing what I needed to do, but it just felt so daunting. I can so clearly visualize that haunting spot in front of Cindy Gail house. I was stuck, unable to follow my heart.

My computer makes a quiet ping, and I check my e-mail, and two messages come in, side-by-side.

The first was - unbelievably - a facebook friend request from Cindy Gail.

What?

I stared at my computer in utter disbelief. Oh my God, was this really happening? I immediately replied to the request, and added this message:

Mike Clelland (March 12th, 2009) wrote at 10:29pm:
Cindy Gail? You did a "show & tell" in Mrs. Wyler’s first grade class showing how to fold a piece of paper, gently lick the fold, and then you could easily tare the paper in a nice straight line. Clean and perfect.

I still do this, and EVERY time I do - I think of you!

(NOTE: I realize now that this was actually Mrs. Zimmerman’s 2nd grade class)

At 10:33pm, this Message comes back:
Yes, that's me!! I think of you whenever I see cartoons! Are you still wearing Wonder Bread bags inside of your boots? I was so envious that your mom did that.

We talked back and forth via facebook - and I was absolutely overwhelmed. I even tried to tell her how utterly weird the coincidence was - that she contacted me - tonight of all nights.

It would be hard to describe how magical and wonderful this felt. It literally felt like there was sparkling “Disney Dust” (the cartoon stuff from Tinkerbell’s wand) swirling around me as I sat at the computer.

Okay, and to make things even weirder - the second e-mail right after Cindy’s, that came with the same little ping - was from the infamous UFO abductee Whitley Strieber. He was now following my updates on Twitter - and boy-o-boy, did I have something funny to share with him!

If my life is a path, and if I pay attention, I can sense it’s direction. This path is leading me somewhere. It feels like all the little clues that the universe is whispering to me are inching me toward one thing, that I share my extremely curious life events with the world. Yesterday, I was stuck on that path, unable to move forward, frozen and cowardly. Then at 10:27 PM, I was slapped in the head by a facebook friend request from the cutest girl in Mrs. Dunn’s kindergarten class!

Now I have the courage to post the next story.

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I’ve added this on Aug 6th, 2009.

Since we re-connected in March, I have been chatting (thru facebook) with Cindy Gail over the last few months. I talked with her last night, and a curious thing came up. It seems I remembered something wrong. I had assumed that Cindy had moved away from my hometown when she was in 2nd grade. She corrected me, she lived in that house on the corner (in the photo) until the end of 7th grade. That would have been the spring of 1975.

That means she was living right down the street from me when the orange flash event occurred. For some reason, this seems so strange. Maybe I just forgot, it was over 30 years ago. But we talked about the teachers in our elementary school, and it I remembered a lot of details, and as we talked I remembered some funny events involving her throughout my years in that neighborhood.

I realize now, that she may have been home, in her house just a short distance away from me on that autumn night in 1974.

- and -

If you've read this far, you simply must read about the curious reemergence (again, at a synchronistic moment via facefook) of Mike Lewis.

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And - I've added this on Sept 2nd 2009.

I just got off the phone with Cindy Gail. She still visits her old next door neighbors (the couple are now in their mid-80's). She said they told her a story that they saw a glowing green UFO over her house! This would have been before 1977 (when they moved).

I begged Cindy to play the role of investigative reporter and dig up more on this very curious puzzle piece.

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Note: the name Cindy Gail is a pseudonym.