illustrated posts

Anya Briggs sighted this large bald man in a Starbucks on 17th street, I added a few "extra" details. Click on the image for a close up view.

I just created a new LABEL to show my illustrated posts here on this blog. They are all linked HERE, with the label ILLUSTRATED.

A drawing is a much better way to share visual information than a bunch of words. I have played "police sketch artist" as I try to make sense of this elusive mystery. I've drawn (and posted) things that had appeared in my dreams, things that I've seen and things I've drawn for other folks. I am much more comfortable with a pen than a keyboard.

You should be able to double click on any of these illustrations for a hi-rez close up viewing.

______________________________________________ 

sketch from a dream

sketch from a dream, drawn the next morning

On December 17th of 2011 I sent an email to Kim Carlsberg and asked if this sketch (above) meant anything to her.

She replied with a very short answer:

 incubation chamber

Here’s the genesis of this sketch. I drew this after having a very vivid dream memory. It was vivid in a way that seemed important. The sketch was an attempt to show a sort of shelf system with little glass windows. Probably about waist high or a little higher. I drew this image the morning after my one and only hypnotic regression with Budd Hopkins. I remember quickly scribbling it in a sketchbook the very next morning; Oct 24th, 2007.

In the dream this shelf system was garishly colored with electrically intense yellows, greens and reds. It felt like everything was painted in day-glow paint.

Kim is an outspoken contactee who spoke did an interview with me on this site (linked HERE). She also published the coffee table book: The Art of Close Encounters. She pointed me to page 141 in her book (see below), this shows something somewhat similar to the sketch I sent to her. In a way, I sent that sketch to her because I knew what her response would be, and in a way, it confirmed what I suspected.

Illustration by Chuck Chroma

I’ve met Kim a few times at conferences, and she will laugh in my face when I say that I’m not sure if I’m actually an abductee. This isn't mean, she has a point.
________________________________________________________

The term "incubation chamber" shows up in the abduction lore. People will report seeing walls of aquarium like boxes with tiny hybrid fetuses floating in some sort of liquid. The implication is that these aliens are involved in some sort of program involving genetics and breeding.
________________________________________________________

two owls crossed our path

Two days ago I saw two owls, and they both crossed my path. Click on the image for a hi-rez view.

I was driving at sunset with my friend Erika, we were driving south out of town toward my home. There is a bridge right where the highway crosses the Teton Creek just a little bit out of town, and there is a row of tall cottonwoods along this river.

Then, right above the highway we both watched the obvious silhouette of a big owl swoop across the road from left to right and toward a branch on one of the tall trees next to the road. It flapped it’s wings and it looked like it was harassing a bird on branch, and this tussle caused the other bird to take off and it flew across the road from right to left. When we saw it in flight it was obviously another owl.

So, two owls crossed our path, in two different directions.

At the time Erika and I were trying to figure out what DVD we would watch that night. One was a stand up routine by an Australian transvestite comic, the other was a presentation by investigative mythologist William Henry titled STARGATE 2012. When we saw the two owls, we both sort of declared to each other, “Well, I guess we're gunna watch the William Henry thing.”

The fact that the owls crossed my path is a sort of curios confirmation for me, and I talk about why in the beginning of this post HERE. And in that same post I tell about another odd owl crossing my path at that exact same row of cottonwoods along side Teton Creek. This was also the location of another other interesting owl sighting with it’s own blog post HERE.

Three curiously sightings of an owl crossing my path at the same spot. It’s quite probably the same owl. Now, all this said, I do live in a place with lots of owls, but still...

owl and the full moon

A big owl on a tiny branch as seen from my sleeping spot in the Tetons. The moon was positioned impeccably. I worked hard on this illustration to accurately capture what I saw, I did not have a camera with me. Click on this image for a HI-rez view.

Last night I saw a lone owl, and the experience was absolutely magical. I was in the Tetons alone, and I was sleeping out under the stars in one of the most beautiful meadows imaginable.

I travel in the mountains with a tiny pack on my back. I checked the weather before leaving home, and it said that it would be a clear night, and that means no tent and thus an even smaller pack. Plus I one it was going to be a full moon, and I just NEEDED to be out there! Last night, I set my pad down on the ground just at the point that it was getting too dark to hike anymore. There is nothing in the world I love more than just sleeping out under the stars. The full moon was rising in the east, and I watched it creep it’s way up above the big peaks. Right then, I was awash in awe and amazement.

A few minutes later I was lying in my sleeping bag with a book, I was reading THE HANDPRINT OF ATLAS by an author names Sesh Heri. (more on this soon, there is a LOT of syncho-intensity connected to the book and the author, for now I'll just say it's about cosmic and terrestrial alignments)

As I was reading with my headlamp, there was a visual swoosh of something right above my head, and I sort of jumped. I looked up to see a big bird land on in a nearby tree. The moon was full so I could clearly see the silhouette of an owl. It didn’t have the cat-like ear-tufts, so I am guessing (by it’s size) that it was a great gray owl. I'll add that it looked way too big to be perched on the spindly little branch on that dead tree.

I sat and watched it for maybe 10 minutes, and the entire time it was in a pose of scrutiny, it was looking right at me.

Now here is the amazing part, from where I was lying on the ground the tree with the owl was precisely back-lit by the full moon. The perfect symmetry was amazing! Right in that moment, I was very aware that I was seeing something spectacular. How and why it landed on that exact tree, when I was lying in that exact spot, and the full moon was in that exact point in the sky makes me think that something more was at work rather than just mere chance.

I was looking up from my sleeping bag and I asked a series of questions. What are you trying to tell me? Can you communicate with me? Why are all you owls showing up in my life. Is someone watching me through your eyes? If you wanna tell me something, I get good information through dreams (I’ll add that I didn’t have any dreams after that).

All those questions were asked out loud, addressing them directly to the owl.

When the owl did fly away, it actually sort of scared me. It flew directly AWAY from me, but that was impossible to tell in the dim light, so it looked like it was zooming right at me.

____________________________________________________

More about the short trip:
I started hiking in the afternoon yesterday, and on my way into the mountains I saw a small black bear. It was along side of the trail eating huckleberries. It was a safe distance away, and it made for a wonderful sighting.

And - I started hiking very early this morning, just as the sun was coming up. I crested a hill, and there in front of me was a WOLVERINE! It looked at me for about 30 seconds, and then crossed my path and trotted off across the high alpine tundra. Dang, those things are fast! Just so you know, it is extremely rare to see a wolverine, and I felt perfectly blessed.

This image shows two, but I only saw one. It's coloring matched the top one.

Right ON

for my awesome

POWER ANIMALS!

_______________________________________________________

Also, check this out! Here's a little screen grab from an email reply from Anya Briggs on the subject of this very post. Note the time mark, 1234!

parallel psychics

I just got off the phone with Marla Frees. We had a very lovely conversation where she explained that she felt compelled to call me because she needed to share something.

She struggled a little to articulate what it was exactly, but she said I was supposed to be working (or promoting?) my illustration (or creative) skills. She felt it was an important time for me, and I needed to play self-promoter, she felt inspired to tell me this stuff.

Three days ago Anya Briggs called me and shared almost the exact same thing. Let me add that she called right while I was drawing the graphic novel image that I posted under the headline: the creative process.

Neither of them could quite express exactly what they were feeling, and they searched for phrases to try and put their psychic impressions into words. Basically, they said the same thing, and in the same unsettled way. These two women are both forthright and very clear speakers, and both had difficulty articulating their thoughts during the phone calls. Both spoke in a sort of an awkward halting way that was very distinct.

Please know, from my direct experiences both Anya and Marla are very powerful psychics.

______________________________________________________

Links for Anya and Marla.

______________________________________________________

This is the illustration I was drawing when Anya Briggs called me on the phone to tell me I needed to pursue some sort of creative project. This was pretty much the very first pen-to-paper sketch for a graphic novel idea.

______________________________________________________

owl on a cold winter's night

Last week I saw an owl on a telephone post. I was walking to my car on a cold winter night, after leaving a friends house. At the time I was in a somber emotional mood. It felt like I was in confusing point in my life. I stood directly under the owl for a minute or so, and it watched me from above but never flew off.

The next afternoon my friend (who's house I left the previous night) saw a Great Gray Owl on a post right outside her window. Earlier that day, she had received an emotional email from an old boyfriend, and when they were dating they both had lots of curious owl sightings, including owl dreams!

I'm not sure what any of this means, but I feel obligated to pay attention.

_________________________________________________

Text added Dec. 30th:

Just found this, more collected owl weirdness (LINK).

LUMINOSITY

A "police sketch" done by me from a description from Dan Mitchel. He sent me a rough drawing and a photo of his driveway. Double click for a high-rez view.

__________________________

From Mike Clelland Jan 31, 2022:

I have become suspect of the blog posts and written work by Dan Mitchell. I cannot vouch for his sincerity. I am including this notice here as a disclaimer. 

______________________________________________

I just read a very vivid posting from Dan at LUMINOSITY. This first-person narative is required reading. Linked HERE, and a follow-up story HERE.

An excerpt:

For the first time in my nearly 35 years, I have seen a solid "craft" at less than 20 feet and in a perfectly lucid state early this morning. This is absolutely unprecedented and I am still in a curious inward state because of the experience. Whether this was something that was beamed into my mind, I cannot say for certain.

_________________________________________________________ 

irrational fear inside our tent

Dream image inside a tent, where I felt myself floating up above my pad with a glowing flat mandala circle off to the side.

I just returned home after spending two beautiful weeks in the four corners area. A close friend, Natascha, flew in from Germany specifically to explore and camp in the canyons and sandstone of this amazing part of the West.

During our trip we had a collection of curious happenings, and this posting is one of the more dramatic experiences. Natascha is here with me as I write this, and she’s been adding details she remembers as we try and make this written work as accurate as we can.

We were on our way north back to Idaho when we noted some issues with the brakes on my car. We went into a small mechanic shop in Cortez Colorado and they pretty much said we would die if we drove on the broken brakes. So, we were stuck down in the four corners area for five more days waiting on parts. We rented a cheap car and made the best of it.

Late in the afternoon of Thursday May 13th, Natascha and I asked the very nice coffee shop girl (wearing a very groovy hippy dress) in Cortez if she knew of any spots to camp near town. She said there was open camping on the BLM land outside of the town of Dolores, just a few miles up the road.

We followed her directions and ended up in a secluded area of tall trees a short ways off the forest service road. We found a secluded spot with an old fire ring and some broken beer bottles. Perfect for our one-night camping needs.

We set up our tent and headed back into the town of Dolores and ate pizza at a cute local brewery. Our table was situated right next to the window and it looked out on the very quiet corner of a VERY tiny town.

During dinner, Natascha was quite emotional. As I write this she explained that she was very much in crisis, she was feeling sad and didn’t quite know where these emotions came from.

After pizza we went back to the camp site and climbed in our small tent. It seems like we quickly went to sleep. This is where things get strange.

I was suddenly jolted awake because Natascha had screamed. It was just a short shriek of fear. My instantaneous response was to bolt upright and scream with an intensity that would be hard to describe. I was screaming in fear, sure enough, but it was also a primal outburst of defense.

I've slept in the mountains for decades, and I've dealt with some scary stuff in the dark. Bears in camp, moose tangled up in my tarp strings, rats crawling across my face - but I have NEVER been frightened in a way that would come close to those moments in that tent.

I switched on my headlamp and held it in my hand. I asked Natascha what happened. I actually had the wherewithal to say, "Tell me the first thing that comes to your mind. Don't think, just tell me what happened."

She said almost nothing, simply stating, "I saw a face."

Natascha later explained that she felt blocked, like it was simply impossible to tell what she had actually seen. She also tried to articulate that she was perhaps still in a lingering realm where time had a different meaning, and I was firmly in our time reality, and it created a sort of disconnect between us.

While in the tent in the moments after our screaming session, I stammered to Natascha, in a voice on the verge of panic: "Look - if we need to - we can just leave - right now - we can leave the tent set up and just drive to town and get a hotel room - we can do that if we need to..."

I was freaked-out, and it came out in my voice. This is something I would never say in any normal circumstance.

She asked me, "Do you believe in evil ghosts?"

I thought carefully and replied, "No." My response was less out of honesty, and more an attempt to keep the mood from getting any scarier.

At some point I looked at my watch, and it was only 11:40 PM. My reaction was, oh sh*t, it's so early and now we have to worry about scary stuff for the rest of the night!

I had one arm over Natascha as we lay there. We sat in silence for a short time, we must have spoken a little, but I can’t remember anything of what we said. Perhaps we were both silent. I know my heart was pounding, and my thoughts seemed trapped in a kind of horror.

I lay there thinking, "This is f*cking terrifying. This is insane. How could I EVER camp out here? How could I ask for this kind of f*cking sh*t!" My mind was spiraling out of control.

I ended up chanting a repetitive mantra in my head, "Love and Light, Love and Light, Love and Light..." Over and over and over. This is how Anya Briggs ends her emails, and it might seem corny, but I really MEANT it!

At one point I put my arm back in my own sleeping bag and promptly fell asleep. I have to say it seems weird as I write this that I could slip back into sleep after being SO freaking' terrified. It seems impossible that we could both simply doze off again.

Later that same night I had a dream. This was a weirdly vivid dream. It took place inside the same tent, no dreamlike distortion, it was very accurate to the interior of the tent. (see the illustration above) I'll add that this dream was NOT scary in the least, it was curiously void of any emotion - good or bad.

I saw a big round mandala figure up and too my left, situated in a very specific point in the tent. It was a simple circle about the size of a large pizza with a lone dot in it's center. It looked very much like the blurry cataract image in my right eye, and strangely flat unlike a 3D orb. (more on that below).

Then I was floating up off the floor of the tent. The elevator-up sensation of slowly up rising felt strangely familiar (more HERE). I thought to myself, "I need to remember this - I need to remember this - I need to remember this..."

Then the the environment of the tent changed to a backdrop of white light. I thought, "Am I on a table? Am I on a table?" I didn't understand where I was. It was a mysterious realm with a uniform white glow around me. Was I on my back? Was I upright?

The dream abruptly ended when Natascha spoke up and said, "Mike, you are floating!" I don't think she actually said this, but I remember it clearly in that dream state. Her words sort of pulled me back down onto the sleeping pad, and the dream ended.

The next morning we immediately began to talk about the events of the night and more details emerged.

I asked Natascha what she saw that made her scream, and she explained that she saw a face within a circle. I pressed her for more details and she said, "I can’t say, but the only thing that seems to match is that drawing you did, of the face in the circle from your blog." [ link ]

This was very curious, she didn't know about my dream yet, and she described something very similar to the round mandala I saw. The way it looked to me was like the image I see in my right eye.

I asked where the face was positioned, at the time I assumed it was directly over her, centered above her face. She instead pointed up and off to her left, at an area in the wall of the tent - exactly where I saw the glowing circle in my dream. Again, I hadn't shared the events of my dream yet. More weirdness about this mandala shape HERE.

Notes from my small sketchbook, written the morning after the experience in the tent.

What actually might have happened is very difficult to say. I cannot dismiss the irrational fear that overcame both of us. This feeling of terror was entirely different than any emotion I have ever experienced, amplified in a way that seems extraordinary. I must have sensed something beyond a jolt of surprise when Natascha woke me with a short scream.

What is even more bizarre was the extremely vivid nature of my dream, along with the matching details to whatever Natascha witnessed. This is also extremely curious.


NOTE: I modified the swear words so the automatic blog format doesn’t add a extra blocking window when readers try and log on.

__________________________________________________________

Part TWO to this story inked HERE

__________________________________________________________

Follow-up posting:
There was an odd mark on my chest that appeared, as far as I can tell, from this experience in the tent. Click HERE for more on this disturbing story.

____________________________________________

Mac Tonnies and friends yukking it up in Wyoming

Additional info added Jan 28, 2012:

I found this image on-line, it was posted by a member of the film-crew from Canada that traveled with Mac in 2009 to produce a documentary for CBC television. I was struck by the orb in the photo, and it immediately reminded me of the floating mandala shape I saw inside the tent. Now, this floating orb in the photo could be nothing more than a speck of dust in front of the camera, but who knows? I am sceptical of these kinds of orb photos, but I suspect that some of them represent a genuine unknown.

____________________________________________

Max Ernst, The Twentieth Century, 1955

Text added Feb 11, 1012:

I found this image on a Secret Sun posting about Max Ernst. The mandala sphere in this painting seems to closely match my memory of the glowing circle in the tent.

____________________________________________

Text added March 13, 2013:
This experience shows up on a curious map with other odd events all lined up in a straight line in southern Utah. (linked HERE)
____________________________________________

Text added March 25, 2013:

In June of 2011 I had the honor to sit in as the guest host for Whitley Strieber's on-line subscribers and inter view Dr. Janet Eizebeth Colli. I had done my own interview with Dr. Colli just a month earlier. During this follow up interview we talked about this event in the tent with Natascha. This all ties back into the yellow line on the map of southern Utah, the tent experience was the Eastern most of the three points on that line (that's it's own bag of worms).

This conversation seems a little bit like a client and a therapist, where I ask for help and she shares her insights.

one-click audio download HERE

Thanks to Whitley for letting me post this 30-minute interview here on my site. His site is Unknown Country.

____________________________________________

vivid dream and blue orb (Laughlin 4)

Glowing orange dream imagery in a pine forest at night. Click on any of these illustrations for a HI-rez close-up view.

I had a weirdly vivid dream on the night of Feb 16th. The next morning I was going to start the long drive to Laughlin Nevada for the annual UFO conference. My sleep was restless, and I had my lap top near my bed, and I listened to an audio podcast to occupy my time. Shortly after starting the podcast, I ended up asleep.

________________________________________________________

This post has an accompanying audio file

audio download / recorded March 5th 2010 / 14 minutes long

________________________________________________________

The dream began in a nighttime environment, and I an standing in a gravel parking lot (or gravel road) in a very distinct forest. The pine trees are evenly spaced, and there are no branches down low. The forest floor is flat without any undergrowth. I looked to my left to see a very weird orange light shining through the trees. I moved a little to get a better view, and I see that it was a simple lampshade set on the ground (or, maybe floating a few inches off the ground) and it's giving off a vibrant orange glow. Instantly, I had the thought that this was NOT a lampshade, it was some sort of hallucination, and something else was there.

Even in my dream state I clearly think about an event in a book by Dr. Karla Turner titled: INTO THE FRINGE. There was a creepy scene in that book where a witness describes seeing a “satellite dish” in his yard, but he knows it’s NOT a satellite dish, something else was there.

I look at the lampshade for just a few seconds, and then I find myself floating up off the forest floor. I rise up slow and smooth, and I think to myself: “Oh, this again.” My perception is that the experience is quite familiar, and actually very pleasant. This comforting feeling fits a pattern of what I call my reassuring dreams.

Floating above a black shape.

Soon I am levitating above the tall trees, and I am looking down into the pine forest. My floating body is positioned with a slight tilt forward, so I am sort of forced to look downward. Below me is a huge round circle, inky black against the pale orange glow in among the trees. I am above something, that I perceive to be a large saucer shaped craft, and I smoothly descend downward into the center of the circle.

Floating downward in a weirdly vibrant tube full of colorful symbols

The next thing I realize is that I am floating in a shiny glowing blue tube, slowly descending. The walls of this tube is covered with a collection of brightly colored puzzle pieces, and these are inlaid into the wall. Each of these shapes look like some sort of Egyptian hieroglyph, they seem to be made of candy colored plastic and they are back lit in a sort of frame. I’m reminded of a brightly colored child’s toy.

I'm compelled to pick out one distinct shape

I reach forward and pick out one puzzle piece, it’s as if I am drawn to this one shape. I hold it in my hand and examine it closely, it is shaped like a stylized “W” and I’m filled with an intense compulsion to remember it, and I focused on the outline of the shape. (more about this here!)

I continue down into the tube, and then I’m walking around in a series of blue rooms crowded with people. The rest of the dream is a little bit frenetic in it’s imagery.

The dream seems to culminate with a meeting of some sort in a daylight street scene . I'm in among a crowd of people, and there is a discussion by a small team. They are carefully explaining that everything is alright, and that there will soon be a wonderful event where UFO occupants will join us here on earth. It sounds logical and nice, but it seems a little too perfect. I approach the woman sharing the story, and tell her that I don’t believe her, that my intuition senses some sort of deception. Suddenly her eyes get big and black, and the same happens with her teammates, and she stares at me in a very threatening way. She warns me NOT to tell anyone about my feelings.

Then I wake up.

The podcast is still playing on my laptop, and I was surprised that so little time had passed given the length and complexity of my dream. I was probably asleep for less than a half hour

The dream was so intensely vivid that I did something that surprises me as I type this. I got out of bed, went downstairs and found a little digital voice recorder, and carried it back up to my bed. I lay there, under the covers, and recorded the dream as best as I could. (audio from this recording posted here)

After, describing the weird narrative, I stopped the recorder and turned off the light. In the dark I saw a small blue orb, about the size of a grapefruit floating, centered in the ceiling above my bed. I could see it for probably less than 20 seconds, and then it was gone. It disappeared quickly and smoothly. Right after it faded away, I rolled over and promptly went to sleep, an unusual reaction to seeing something so strange.

The orb was a soft focus sphere, not the flat looking image that show up on digital flash photos. It was three dimensional and glowing softly. It gave off light, but it didn't seem to light up the ceiling the way, say, a glow stick might. Could it have been something in my retina from my bedside light? Maybe, but I've slept in that room for over 16 years and I've never seen anything like that before. In the follow up to the experience, I tried to recreate the experience by looking into lights in the room (including the tiny red light on the voice recorder) and then shut the lights off, these attempts didn't come close to what I saw that night. 

This orb image is from a the homepage of a person I met during the final hours of the Laughlin conference. Her name is Jill and she is a channel. I found it on her web page, minutes after posting this essay.

________________________________________________________

NOTE: This post has an accompanying audio file, found HERE.

________________________________________________________

police sketch artist

Drawn after a careful explanation from the witness. Some minor details are not exact (like the staircase in the window) but I was told that the overall image is very accurate. Click on the illustration for a HI-rez view.

___________________________________________________

I got to play the role of "police sketch artist" for Anya Briggs. She had a memory of a very odd event that took place on 17th street in Manhattan.

To read about here experience, see the short article by A.M. Murphy (here).

slightly edited excerpt:

The winter solstice (of 2007) brought what Anya believes is her first conscious contact. Standing at a crosswalk waiting for a light to change, Anya found herself face to face with (as she later wrote), "the strangest looking man sitting in the window of a Starbucks. He wasn't abnormal, for all intents and purposes he had a perfect body, like a professional swimmer's, but way bigger ... he also happened to have the longest arms and fingers on a person I've ever seen, and additionally, he was about 6'8 or 6'9 and had the most perfect posture ... Additionally he ... was holding his mug of tea very awkwardly - his elbows were sticking straight out, exactly parallel to the floor." As she watched this bizarre figure, she became certain he was "not of this earth." There was a moment of apparent mutual recognition. Then he seemed to inundate her with a new and blissful feeling that Anya describes as "universal love."

___________________________________________________

Just so you know, I have a sense of humor. It was a quiet Sunday morning, and I doodled with this illustration. Click on the small image to the left for a HI-rez view.

___________________________________________________

Text added Feb. 6th, 2010

Here is an excerpt from a comment I received last night:

Until I read the text below the drawing, I initially thought this was a picture of a tall, beefed-up Mac Tonnies, given the Starbucks and coffee context. A kind of spooky "deja vu all over again."

When I read this, I felt myself shudder. It seemed so weird. Mac worked as a barista at a series of Starbucks in Kansas City. He was a lover of coffee, and his blog is loaded with deep reverence for espresso. The bald man (despite his ubber size) looks more than a little bit like Mac. What does it mean? I have no idea, except I simply KNOW that Anya would have been totally captivated by Mac - as I was, as everybody was.

___________________________________________________

Wanna see a nice little video of Mac being charismatic in a coffee shop? Click HERE!

mythic owl dream

Owls and Hummingbirds invade my subconscious. Point of View from my eyes. Click on the image for a HI-rez view.

Two nights ago I had a VERY vivid dream with an owl.

I was somehow at a high school, it wasn't the school I went to - but I seem to be helping some students deal with something. It was the very last day of senior year for someone, maybe me?

I was in the passenger seat of a a classic 1970's station wagon, and we were driving to the high school at night, and there were two other people in the car with me, both sisters. Both looked very much the same, dark hair, small glasses - and I knew that they were both really smart. The older sister was driving, and the younger was in the back seat.

As we drove down the road (at night) there was a zipping flash, and a noise, near the windshield. I exclaimed, "Did we hit a bird?"

We soon realized that there was a bird in the car with us. I had a flashlight (where I got it, who knows) and I shined it in the back, and there was something flying around, and at first it was scary. But we all soon realized it was a beautiful hummingbird (and slightly larger than normal, sparrow sized). We were all delighted, and we gently managed to shoo it out the window. But, in just a few seconds, we realized that it was back in the car, it had flown back into an open window.

And looking in the back behind me, I saw an adult OWL peeking over the seat!

It was a cat-like screech owl, with the tufted ears and the big yellow eyes. My first reaction was, "Oh no! It's going to eat the hummingbird!"

But the girl in the back seat had the hummingbird safely cradled in her lap, and - by this time - the owl was actually laying down, like it was relaxing, with it's big taloned feet resting on the legs of the girl next to it. (see funny illustration)

Eventually (I'm not sure how) we got the owl out of the car, and the humming bird too. My gut was saying: "Uh-oh, the owl is a sign that something big is gunna go down."
We finally got to the school, and I remember being totally determined to talk to someone who taught comparative mythology, (or something like that) in order to make sense of the symbology of the event.

It was dawn by now, and I was told that there was a teacher who could help me, but he jogs in the morning. I watched as he was running away from the school down a long path in a desert like canyon below me, and the path seemed to be guarded by another beautiful cat-like owl (or, more likely - the same one). The path looked treacherous and steep, and I needed to find another way down. Right then, I saw that the teacher was jogging back up from the bottom of the canyon a different (safer) way. It seems someone told him I needed help.

I wake up.

Also, the two sisters looked a lot alike, and I think they were BOTH Anya Briggs.

What (if anything) does it mean?
______________________________________________

Why did I post this? And why did I draw the picture? I'm not sure. There was something SO overtly vivid about the dream, and I just couldn't shake it. I felt like I wouldn't get it out of my mind until I drew a picture. Also, Chris Knowles said to keep a dream log, and this one was especially intense.

______________________________________________

I sent this dream around to a few pals, and I got back a really interesting assortment of replies. I'll post these in the comments (below) so this posting isn't ridiculously long.

______________________________________________

reoccurring dream

a funny cartoon to represent my dream memory

Over the last week I’ve had a reoccurring dream. The imagery is decidedly foggy, so I can’t really share much. I seem to have the same dream every night, and I think it started after the six-hour phone call with Anya a week ago Saturday.

Here’s as much as I remember, I’m lying down on my side, and my brain is being filled with information. I see it visually as little items falling down and entering my head. The image I get is like breakfast cereal being pored from a box with my head being the bowl. The falling items seem like little rectangles.

On the very first night, I even saw a kitchen funnel in my ear as I lie sideways on the pillow so it was easier to pour the items. I recognize that this metaphor is downright silly, and that seems to match my temperament.

What am I being downloaded with? I’m not sure, I woke up last night and I could visualize a tidy list of everything that went into my head. Sadly, as I type this, I can’t remember anything.

During this dream, I am always lying down, and for some reason, I sense that Anya Briggs is there, and she might even be pouring the box of cereal, albeit metaphorically. And we are both wearing tight fitting dark suits, like a scuba diver might wear.

Anya Briggs emailed me this comment (slightly edited):

Ha! ... Ok, that's funny that you thought they looked like cereal or something, because to me, if they were looking like cereal, they look like LIFE cereal ... You know: "Hey Mikey! He likes it!" That cereal? Sure there's no "coincidence" here?

___________________________________________________________

funny dream

Double click on the illustration for a hi-rez view.

During the summer of 2008 I was at the receiving end of a series of oddly vivid dreams. I call them “reassuring” dreams because in each one I confront certain frightening UFO issues. In these dreams the scary things are presented to me as something simple and non-threatening. I’m not sure what to make of these dreams.

One of these curious “reassuring” dreams had the distinct air of comedy. It happened last summer while I was sleeping in a tent in the mountains of central Wyoming.

Please note, this NEVER happened, it was a dream!

In this dream, I was visiting my older brother in Michigan. We were together in his kitchen and he off-handedly told me that he had something that he thought I would find interesting. Then, he took me to the garage and showed me what he had, it was a flying saucer! It was about the size of a van, up on saw-horses and partially covered with a tarp. It looked like someone had started disassembling the thing because two big sections had been removed from the sides.

I was completely mystified.

My brother calmly explained he done some sort of government work, and knew some guy who ended up with this thing, and he didn’t want it anymore so my brother took it off his hands as a sort of favor. Anyway, it was funny how casual he was about it.

Here’s the weird part. He explained that if I got too close it would distort my perceptions, and - well - alter reality. I didn’t quite get what he meant. So, I approached it and as I got closer there was a distinct warping of my psyche. This eerie feeling would be hard to explain, but it was very defined. The feeling was unmistakably vivid.

And here’s the bizarre part, that warped sensation was familiar, it seemed to exactly match my memory of the events from Maine in 1993, and the dream like fog I experienced.

As I backed away, the feeling subsided, when I got closer it happened again.

My brother was totally cavalier about the whole thing. He said he was used to that weird feeling, no big deal. But he can’t figure out how to get inside the thing, that sensation holds him back. Then he showed me how he attached a camera on the end of a long stick and puts that in the door to see what was inside.

_______________________________________________________

The way I saw the craft was as a disassembled disc, with the sides removed. This drawing shows how I perceived the assembled craft.


_______________________________________________________

looking out my window at night

Drawn from memory. Click on the picture for a high resolution image.

I am attempting to recount a very short memory. The incident described in this post lasted, maybe, less than 20 seconds. The implications of this event has been difficult for me to integrate into my life. I’ve been terribly conflicted about the truth of this foggy incident. It could have been a dream, true enough. I cannot allow myself to discount that.

In January or February of 1993, I was living alone in a small house in rural Maine. I had been dealing with a hard break up, and I was in an fragile emotional state, and this is an important factor in this story.

The driveway of the house had one of those motion sensitive lights, and it was pretty common for the light to come on when a car drove by or a deer walked through the front yard at night. The bedroom window faced the driveway, and my bed was up against that window.

I was depressed during that chapter of my life, and sleeping poorly. But I woke up that night because a very bright light was shining in through the window above the bed. I sat up, propping myself up on my elbow, and looked out the window. I saw five spindly entities with skinny bodies and big black eyes. They were on the lawn walking toward the house. They were back-lit by a singular round bright shape. This light seemed oddly small.

My first drawing, done as a way to get my thoughts down on paper, and then hidden away in a drawer.

My response to this frightening image was to nonchalantly lay my head down on the pillow and promptly fall back asleep.

Shouldn't I have jumped out of bed screaming in terror? But instead I felt absolutely empty of emotion. It was almost as if I was somehow controlled. I calmly thought to myself, "Oh yes, they're here, let's just shut down and black out."

The illustration (above) seems to capture the memory as close as I possible.

Now, it’s important that I add this extra information. This memory is strangely vivid in a way that seems entirely different form a normal state of mind.

I saw something, but at the same time I truly do NOT think it happened in “this” reality. That may sound hard to grasp, but it is the only way I can honestly depict the experience.

It’s important to me that I try to describe this feeling.

Hmmm - how to use words - weirdly quiet - sort of a pressurized fish bowl - the deepest part of my psyche is displaced, and moved to the forefront - maybe the normal thought chatter in my head is turned off - maybe - kinda - sorta...

A distinct warping of my psyche, whatever that means.

This strange warped feeling shows up again a few years later as a key element in a funny dream involving a UFO.

Did it happen while sleeping, and I simply imagined everything? Was it just some sort of dream state? Maybe. That would be an easy way to sum it all up. I’ll add that, because of this strangely vivid state of mind was so weird, I do not fully trust this memory.

The next morning I had the image seared into my mind, and I could NOT imagine something so weird could be true. I simply dismissed it as some sort of dream. I will add that I don’t recall ever dreaming I was in my own bed. My dream imagery will always be somewhere else, never in surroundings that are exactly like my bedroom.

Could my fragile emotional state been a factor in this vivid image out my window? Was I simply so depressed that I created this scary delusion in my weakened mental condition? That night, was I somehow more susceptible to such a weird hallucination? Maybe.

This memory has a series of follow up stories. And each one is, for me, quite perplexing. I will continue to post more about this very curious event.

*     *    *

I try and articulate the process of doing two drawings of this event in this follow up post.

________________________________________________________

Text added Oct 31, 2009

The night of this event I was reading Budd Hopkin's book INTRUDERS. It was right there on the bed, probably just inches from my pillow. This might subtract from the potential reality of the experience. I mean, this book is filled with scary descriptions of skinny gray aliens, and my fragile mind was obviously filled with that imagery as I fell asleep. Did these vivid images well up as some hypnogogic dream? I have no idea.

________________________________________________________

Text added March 25th 2010

This is something that feels funny to try and articulate, and I didn’t add it when I posted this thing a little over a year ago.

I remember looking out my window, and looking past the five skinny beings, and being drawn to look at that light out in the small open field surrounded by tall trees along side my driveway.

I thought the light was unusually small, maybe the size of refrigerator. The bright light in the yard looked, to me, just like a movie light mounted on a very short stand, pointed right at me, and into my window.

I've drawn it (above) to match my memory. 

Now, here's where it gets weird. This matches a scene from the feature film COMMUNION, based on Whitley Streiber's book. There was a lot movie that bothered me, BUT, there was a scene where the actor Christopher Walken (playing Whitley) walks toward a bright light in a forest setting.

approx. 1:30:20 time count in the movie COMMUNION

In the film, it is supposed to be an alien craft, but if you look carefully, you can see it's just a big movie light pointed at the camera. When I saw this during the movie, I thought to myself: "Oh, that's a simple way to create this special effect."

I saw the movie sometime in the summer of 1992, and “seeing” the light out my window would have been early in 1993.

When I saw the bright light from my bed out the window, I literally saw that same kind of movie light, just like in the film, and I remember thinking, in those few seconds: "Oh, that's a simple way to create this special effect." I had a similar reaction when I saw the movie. I simply dismissed this as perfectly normal. There was nothing at all unusual about a movie light in my yard in the middle of the night, but at the same time - it was very odd.

Where do I go with this?

Is this just proof that it was nothing more than a dream? Or, did "they" somehow create a screen memory? It seems like “they”quickly scanned my brain, picked a screen image from the files in my memory banks, and implanted the image of the movie light. Okay, just typing that previous sentence was hard, what I wrote is a big leap, but it feels accurate.

Am I using this "movie light" image to reinforce my own belief that nothing happened, and it was just a dream. Or, is the overt sense of a screen memory telling me that something very strange actually happened?

________________________________________________________

Here’s an email excerpt from Mac Tonnies:

“Sure, your recollections aren't as inexplicable or dramatic as some, but you've never claimed that they were. (I think I mentioned this in a comment on my blog, but I tend to think the episode with the five Grays really *was* a sort of waking dream, as I've experienced similar phenomena myself). But the point is that you're not making unsubstantiated claims and that your take on the UFO counterculture is articulate and worth hearing, even if one happens to disagree with it.”

I agree with Mac on some level, I think this didn’t literally happen, but I simply don’t know. That said, 18 years later, the memory still haunts me.

________________________________________________________

Text added Oct. 2nd 2013
Presently, I feel that this event truly happened. I came to this conclusion because of that sensation I tried to describe in the essay above. I say this after some serious self examination of my own memories. That altered reality feeling has happened tome several more times, and each time it was very much part of a UFO memory. I wrote about these other experiences and how I reluctantly came to this conclusion, liked in a post titled Hyper-vivid Distorted Consciousness.

________________________________________________________