I bent a fork with my mind!

focused intention and two bent forks!

I bent two forks with my mind! Well, I actually bent them with my hands, but I used my mind to make the metal soft.

I was with Suzanne Chancellor, who played my coach. She repeated, “Don’t have any expectations.” I held the fork, concentrated and gently rubbed the “neck” of the fork for maybe a minute. I set the fork down for about 5 minutes, then picked it up and it bent like taffy. After that, I did it again, it was remarkable.

Of note: Joshua Cutchin's arm seen in the background.

________________________________

UFO conference in Rhode Island in April!

I will be speaking about my experiences and research at a conference in April.

X-Filers United!

2019 Rhode Island Convention

Friday thru Sunday — April 26, 27 and 28, 2019

at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick, RI

link to the event HERE

Other speakers include:

• Suzanne Chancellor
• Joshua Cutchin
• Timothy Renner
• Thom Reed
• Paul Eno
• Susan Brunell
• Aaron Cadieux
• Gary McKinstry
• Aleksandar Petakov
• Shane Sirois
• Mike Stevens
• Andrew Lake
• Colin Schneider
• Greg & Dana Newkirk
• Jaimy Mauricio
• and Dean Haglund from the X-Files!

_____________________________________

“You're that guy!"

maybe that was the guy on the phone?

Last night I called the Apple Support help line. I'd spent a frustrating bunch of hours trying to solve some formatting issues using Pages, a word processing application on my computer. The first guy heard me out, and he quickly realized that my questions were so specific he would need to hand off me off to someone in the technical department.

I was on hold for a few minutes. The next guy came on the line, and said he had my case up on his screen. I was explaining my issues when he interrupts, “Wait, your name is familiar.”

I asked, “Uhhhm, do you rock climb?” I asked that because I did cartoons in Climbing magazine for over a decade.

He said no, and then I cautiously asked, “Do you read you UFO books?”

He blurted out, “You're that guy! I used to listen to your podcast!”

He seemed genuinely happy, and I was too! I told him the day before had been the 10th anniversary of my blog. We chatted for a little bit and then we got down to dealing with my formatting questions. We shard the screen so he got a quick peak at the upcoming book. With a little trial and error, we managed to solve my issues said goodbye.

This kind of thing doesn’t happen very often. It was a nice way to quell the frustrations from all the technical stuff that afternoon.

_________________________________

today is the TEN YEAR anniversary of this blog

It was March 3rd, 2009 when I uploaded my first two posts. Both are linked HERE.

I am in the throes of trying to complete my latest book project, a collection of blog posts spanning 2009 thru 2019. It should have been available today, but that hasn't happened. I foresee it being done in a few weeks!

Huge thank you to anyone who has followed the site over the last decade! Your support and interest has been so valuable–I appreciate it more than you can know.

Peace,
Mike C!

_____________________________________

Q & A with Diana Pasulka on AMERICAN COSMIC

essential reading

The recently published book AMERICAN COSMIC should be required reading for anyone with even a passing interest in the subject of UFOs. I asked the author a few questions, and here are her answers:

* * *

1) Creating a book can have a life of its own. When you set out to write this book did you know where it was headed?

Mike, I “thought” I knew where it was headed. I thought it would be a fairly straightforward comparison between historical aerial phenomena and interpretations of aerial phenomena today. However, about two to three months into the study I was confronted by inquiries from scientists, screenwriters, actors, and I realized that this was not your usual religious studies research. Yet, I also realized that these are the kinds of people who show up when something important is about to happen, or is happening, and in this case it is the birth of a new belief system. When I realized this, I was very excited and surprised.

2) You came into this arena as a scholar of religion, and you’ve framed the story from that point of view, and this seemed to allow for certain a level of objectivity. What was challenging for you about this book? And conversely, what was easy about this book?

The discipline of religious studies lends itself well to the study of this phenomena as most scholars of religion do not weigh-in on the truth or non-truth of the claims of believers. We look at effects, practices, etc. However, this position, my position, was seriously challenged because the people I was working with, scientists who studied the phenomena, were sharing their findings with me. Their findings made me think about their truth claims. I had to consider their claims, because they were not talking about whether or not a particular saint caused a painting to move, they were actually showing me scientific data. So, again, this was a surprising shift in my research.

In terms of your question, what was easy about this book… there was nothing easy about it. It became something that I had to write, which was difficult, as I have a “day job” that keeps me really busy, and I am a mother to middle schoolers. So, it was challenging in every way, psychologically and practically.

3) How was the coffee in Italy?

I cannot overstate the difference between the taste of the coffee in Italy in comparison to coffee in the United States. I don’t mean to offend anyone here, but when I tasted the wine, and the coffee in Italy, I was, to put it bluntly, very shocked. When I returned from Italy I searched and searched for wine shops that sold Italian wines and coffees. I did find some, but it took me months.

4) On page 8 you describe meeting, “the meta-experiencers, the scientists who studied the experiencers and the phenomenon.” Later in that same paragraph you wrote of experiencing: “an epistemological shock, that is, a shock to my fundamental understanding of the world and the universe.”

What happened?

It was John Mack, the Harvard researcher who studied and wrote a book about this phenomenon in the 1980s, who coined the term “epistemological shock.” It means that your “theory of reality” is being shifted, and that it is a shocking experience. I had gone into the study a disbeliever, and I left the study something entirely different. This was due to my association with the scientists. Their research convinced me, and note, I am not trying to convince anyone else here, but their research was compelling and I understood that the question of this phenomena is not so easy to answer. It was easy to show how people’s beliefs and practices are influenced by media, but it wasn’t easy to dismiss the research of vetted scientists. I couldn’t.

Diana Pasulka's book is now available!

order here

_______________________________________

American Cosmic now available!

required reading

Diana Pasulka's book is finally available!

  order here  

The Unseen on Whitley Strieber's Dreamland

This was just announced on Whitley Strieber's weekly newsletter. It's official! I'll be hosting a podcast series and I'm super excited, more soon! 

The Unseen is Coming

Famed UFO investigator and experiencer Mike Clelland is coming to Unknowncountry with a new weekly podcast!

As the author of the UFO classic The Messengers, Mike needs no introduction, but we're introducing him anyway! Mike is the author of the Messengers and Stories from the Messengers, two of the most unique books ever published about the close encounter experience and the eerie relationship between owls and the visitors. He is an experiencer himself and an researcher as well. His weekly hour podcast will be a valuable addition to our growing site!

The Unseen will start in the next few weeks. You can visit Mike at MikeClelland.com.

_______________________________________

the challenge of hypnosis

Hypnosis is a source of bitter contention within the UFO community. One faction would see it as vital in abduction research, while the other would dismiss anything gained through hypnosis as useless—or destructive. 

In early November of 2017, I was invited to a home in New Hampshire where a small group of experiencers were planning to gather for a pot luck on a Saturday evening. Seven of the people expected to attend had let me share their stories in my books, so I was eager to make the long drive to join them. 

Abduction researcher Mary Rodwell was part of the gathering, and I had emailed her to arrange a hypnosis session while I was there. We scheduled it for Sunday morning, so I brought a sleeping bag and pad and spent the night in a room used as an office. I awoke at dawn to the hooting of a barred owl out the window. 

That morning, Mary and I spent almost two hours in an empty bedroom. She hypnotized me in hopes of finding the source of my fears in connection with my UFO experiences, and the story that emerged really shook me up. I cried a lot during the session, and Mary dried my tears.

What came through was jumbled and emotional, and I didn’t know what to make of it. The story was remarkable, and much of it matched with what I had read in abduction accounts. I shared the details with a few friends, but was cautious to treat it as a memory of a real event.

  this is a long post - read more below  

______________________________________________________________

moody streetlight

From Wed October 17 2018

A few nights ago I was talking on the phone with Suzanne Chancellor. Our mutual friend Kelly just experienced another close up owl sighting, and Suzanne was filling me in on what had happened. Kelly was featured in the final chapter of Stories from The Messengers, her account involved getting some close-up pictures of a beautiful barred owl while on a hike.

I've since spoken with Kelly, and there’ll soon be a blog post about her experience—with pictures!

It was a beautiful autumn night, and I walked around outside as I spoke with Suzanne. It was one of those conversations where every thread seemed tangled up with everything else. Elements of Kelly's story were reflected back at both of us. It seemed like every little detail was somehow connected to a frenetic web of synchro-weirdness.

We spoke as I walked around the dark driveway of the old inn where Andrea and I live. It's a narrow dirt lane that curves through a dense forest. There is a streetlight at the bottom of the driveway where it joins the asphalt street. The light is usually on at night, but it seemed to flicker as I made my way down the driveway. It slowly turned on and stayed on as I passed under it and walked down the paved road. There was no traffic, and I headed toward an apple tree alongside the quiet road. It was dark and I managed to find an apple, but it was too sour to eat.

While walking back to the driveway, I told Suzanne how it all seemed so cinematic. The eerie way the lone streetlamp lit the road was like something out of a Steven Spielberg movie. I tried to describe the mood of the dramatic lighting as I walked.

I got to the pool of light under the street light and looked up. The lamp wasn't very bright, it’s color seemed a muted amber so I could stare right up into the bulb.

I carefully tried to position myself directly under the light above me. I moved a little to the left, then a bit the right. It only took a few seconds, but when I was positioned exactly under the the light—it went off!

I had just walked along that road for about a hundred yards, and the entire time I was talking about that light, praising its mood as I approached.

As silly as it sounds, it felt like the light clicked off as a playful thank you for my attention and appreciation.

______________________________________

new book in progress

Cover design, in progress.

Click on the image for a HI-rez view.

In March of 2019 this blog will be ten years old. A lot in My life has changed in those years and this blog has been a diary of that journey.

I am working on a book right now, the title is Collected Writings from Hidden Experience. The process of turning ten years of writing into a book has been an introspective life review. I’ve gone back an re-read (or skimmed) over 800 posts. Looking at my own experiences like this has been quite an emotional process. Collectively these posts tell a story—it’s my journey from doubt, through fear and wonder, to a shaky acceptance.

Many were written in a time of anxiety and confusion—and these posts have a palpable sense of urgency. Some were written in such a flurry that there were more than a few typos. Suzanne Chancellor is playing the role of editor and helping me clean ‘em up. The process of reviewing and editing have made these accounts much easier reading.

I’m creating an ebook, and it’ll be online in early 2019. The print version will be available shortly after—and maybe even an audio book.

The target size of the project is around 110,000 words, or a print book at just under 300 pages.

Some the longer events are told in a series of posts, and it wouldn’t work to just cut and paste them into a book. I’m taking these more complex accounts and combining them into a more readable narrative.

My goal list for this project:

— Keep the “tone” of the original post.
— Edit minimally for clarity and grammar.
— Add any new insights, and note them as new.
— If joining a series of related posts, present them as one long story.
— Try to avoid repeating stories covered in The Messengers and Stories from The Messengers.

I’ve had people tell me I should write my story as a book. I thought about it, but pretty much all my experiences are on the blog. I realized that if I re-wrote everything for a memoir there would end up being a sort of distancing from the events. Many of the posts were written the same day as the experience I was attempting to describe, and the urgency is palpable in the text. A set of collected blog posts might feel a bit choppy compared to a formal autobiography, but I think there is a raw emotion in the posts—and that honesty is valuable.

________________________________

Althea Provost, owls, and the transformative experience

recommended interview

I say yes to a lot of interviews. After so many I can get into a rhythm of telling the same stories over and over. I enjoy the chance to talk, but there can be a similar vibe to the questions and format to a lot of show.

The interview I did with Althea Provost blew past the standard interview. From her first words we were into he deepest waters. She asked insightful questions, but it was more than that—she was urging me to confront the core of life’s mysteries.

This video presentation is excellent. She added graphics and quotes to match the conversation. I appreciate the time, effort and thoughtfulness of Althea’s approach.

Althea’s web site HERE

Althea’s other video interviews HERE

______________________________________________________

UFO Disclosure Implications

The intricacies of a quandary in under four minutes.

__________________________________________________

This was originally posted in Feb. 2010, and I'd nearly forgotten about it. There was this online service where you could create these awkward animations. I wrote a little script and look what happened...  I think it's funny!

__________________________________________________

Sun of the Night by Peter Birkhäuser

click on the image for a HI-Rez view

From the book: ‘Stone by Stone: Reflections on the psychology of CG Jung’

Here’s the text that accompanies this remarkable image:

A painting of Peter Birkhäuser (1911-1976), painted during a difficult period of his life, might offer an answer to this question. He called the painting Sun of the Night. It beautifully illustrates why it is so important that the individual is committed in a very concrete way, in his own house, as it were, to the spirit of the collective unconscious.

A nocturnal, owl-like creature with uncanny eyes rises from the horizon like the moon. Its look seems somehow foreboding as if it were in possession of a remote knowledge which certainly surpasses human consciousness. Its strangeness and even eeriness make clear that the encounter of the individual with the spirit of the unconscious isn’t anything like an easy task. On the contrary, the human being in his small house seems to be completely and utterly at the mercy of that supreme and alien power of the “Other.” Compared to the powerful Sun of the Night the small house with its warm human light appears rather unimportant. And now this dwelling place offers a vessel to the human, that is, a protected place of shelter. The human being needs such a place, where he or she can get in contact with and listen to the objective psyche, that is, to the spirit of the unconscious.

(thank you Peter Komidar!)
_________________________________________

best owl photo ever...

the owl is a symbol
_______________________________________________
click on the image above for a HI-Rez view

confirmation bias from my phone

voice to text

Sometimes I speak into my phone using the thing that changes my speech to text and it usually works pretty well. I spoke the word OWL and it read as HOW ODD. Not sure if that’s a mistake.

_________________________________________