Oregon L.O.W.F.I

Archive for November, 2009

About two weeks ago news items appeared about mysterious cattle and chicken killings in Virginiashowed up in the on-line Fortean realm.

Out west, in the remote area of eastern Oregon, cattle rustling is a major problem for ranchers and law enforcement. These cattle rustlers know what they’re doing; really quite an endevour given the remote and inhospitable area. See
Modern-day cattle rustlers hit ranches in southeast Oregon for article. Really something to know that the area they’re talking about is the size of Conneticut and Rhode Island combined, with a human population of 600. The article says that the rustlers know the area well; outsiders could never navigate, and so quickly.

Cattle mutilations have made the mainstream news the other day: Creepy string of calf mutilations mystify Colorado rancher, police This item seems to be making all the rounds; it appeared in our local paper, Eugene’s Register Guard, Friday.

The dead calves had their skins peeled back and organs cleared from the rib cage. One calf had its tongue removed.

But rancher Manuel Sanchez has found no signs of human attackers, such as footprints or ATV tracks. And there are no signs of an animal attack by a coyote or mountain lion. Usually predators leave pools or blood or drag marks from carrying away the livestock.

“There’s nothing really to go by,” said Sanchez, who’s ranched for nearly 50 years. “I can’t figure it out.”

Colorado’s San Luis Valley has been the home of supreme high strangeness for literally hundreds of years. Cattle mutilations, UFOs, even Bigfoot, and a whole lot of other Fortean and weird events. Paranormal researcher Chris O’Brien has written three books on the strange happenings in the area in his “Haunted Valley” series: Secrets of the Mysterious Valley, Mysterious Valley, and Enter the Valley. (O’Brien’s Stalking the Tricksters: Shapeshifters, Skinwalkers, Dark Adepts and 2012 is his recent work, released about a month or so back.)

O’Brien isn’t mentioned in the news item but Chuck Zukowski of UFOnut.com is. On Zukowski’s site there is a report, along with graphic photos, of the Colorado mutilations.

In the news item references are made to UFOs and aliens and the odd history of the place:

When something like this happens, there’s always talk of UFO’s and alien visits. Neither believe in that, either.

But some may look upward for an explanation. The San Luis Valley is a place where an unexplained horse mutilation maintains celebrity status 40 years after its death because of mysterious circumstances. It also has a UFO watchtower sitting on the roadside near Hooper.

Interesting this item made it into the national news stream, along with references to UFOs.

My new Trickster’s Realm column for Tim Binnall’s BOA site is up now. It’s a follow up from the previous column about a woman I met years ago who had what appears to be an abduction in the Gold Hill area of Oregon.

Adding to the overall high strangeness of her experience is the fact that Gold Hill is home of the Oregon Vortex or “House of Mystery.” A fact that begs for further exploration!

This was posted a few days ago after I watched the UFO HUNTERS episode on orange orb UFOs. I’ve had my own orange orb encounter many years ago in Oregon that paralleled what witnesses in the UFO HUNTERS program said they experienced:

Watching this episode of UFO Hunters (”Dark Presence”) about the orange orb UFOs seen in recent months was an intensely personal experience for me because of my own orange orb sighting.

It seems that witnesses have been seeing orange (and sometimes green or other colored) orb UFOs. These are not orbs as in spirit orbs, which are very different, but spheres — round objects — that are craft, or machine, or something “nuts and bolts.”

These sightings are occurring now, but go back a ways as well. One woman who appeared on the program, her identity disguised, saw one of these orbs when she was a child. My own sighting took place over twenty-five years ago in Eugene, Oregon.

There are many parallels to my orange orb sighting — and the sighting that started me on my path of exploration into UFOs — and the ones discussed in the UFO Hunters episode. Many witnesses reported feelings of dread, of fear, though some had experienced feelings of elation, upon seeing these orbs. I had both: feelings of a happy intrigue when I first saw the orb, and a real goofy, almost psychedelic response right after seeing it. And yet, even though I actually walked to the front door after going inside, with the intent of going back outside to look for the orb, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t open the door. I remember thinking how odd it was that here I just saw an incredible thing — experienced an incredible thing — yet couldn’t make myself go outside to look further. I also had the most terrifying dreams of my life right after seeing the orb. These dreams were always the same: I’m paralyzed inside a brilliant white beam of light that is so bright I can almost see through things. There is something huge above me, some kind of object. My husband is nearby but has been taken from me and I’m screaming for him, for “them” to return us to. . . or get us out of, wherever the hell we are.

These orbs were described by witnesses as being basket ball sized, or even larger, like a beach ball. That’s exactly how I’ve been describing the size of the orb I saw for all these years. Witnesses also said they felt a premonition, or some kind of telepathic communication between the orb and themselves; I also had that experience when I first saw the orb. I had glanced up having noticed the orb, which I estimated to be about a mile away. I had the distinct feeling it was waiting for me, and as soon as I thought “What the hell is that thing?” it zoomed right to me, following us along the road. (Witnesses also reported they were followed by the orbs.) As we turned the corner to go home (our house was right around the corner) the orb stopped for a moment above a house across the road from us, then just sank down, “landing” in the backyard. Similar behavior was reported by witnesses on the UFO Hunters episode.

People have asked me if there were lights on this thing, and I’ve always described it as a real, physical craft (as opposed to a cloud, or a spirit orb, etc.) and no lights on it, or around it, but lit from within. Witnesses on UFO Hunters described their orbs the same way.

Missing time was mentioned by at least one witness; I also experienced missing time in connection with this orb, as did my husband.

On this last point, there’s something very strange. To this day, after countless discussions, my husband and I still differ on some things. These points of disagreement were brought up again as we were watching UFO Hunters. He insisted we saw the orange orb when we lived on Hilyard street… I had to remind him of the detail of that sighting, which happened when we were on Friendly street. At first he was almost angry, denying it, but then he seemed to then remember that yes, we were living on Friendly street when we saw the orange orb, but the missing time happened when we were on Hilyard, during a different UFO sighting. But neither of us can remember where we were coming from when we saw the orb. Where had we been? Why can’t we remember? It was dark when we saw the orb; where would we be coming from in that direction? We were on our way in back to town when we saw the orange orb– so where were we? We don’t know. Does this mean we have had three episodes of missing time? (We did have a sighting of a silver craft, hovering about a hundred feet above a field in the same area around the same time; there are some cover memories and other odd things about that sighting as well.)

Recently, I posted on my blog The Orange Orb my experiment of trying to remember these missing time events. Maybe with focused intent, through dreams and other methods, I can uncover what happened.

When I had my orb sighting all those years ago, I read every book I could find on UFOs. I found all kinds of fascinating information, but nothing that came close to describing what I saw. Yet UFO Hunters showed us that these orb sightings have been experienced by many, and are still happening.

Was the orb I saw the same kind of orb talked about in UFO Hunters? Sounds like it. While the time line is different — mine was over twenty-five years ago, and, from what I could find at the time, didn’t seem to match up with any reports — there were witnesses who’d seen orbs long ago, as well as more recently.

Lots of speculation on what the orbs are of course from witnesses and researchers, but we can’t say for sure. What did I see that night? An orange orb lit from within, the size of a beach ball, that followed me, seemed to be waiting for me, could read my thoughts. Where did it come from, who made it and why, what did it want — those are questions I have no answer for, even after all these years.

Even after all the research I’ve done into UFOs from so many perspectives, I am still reluctant to come out and say “it was aliens.” I don’t know it was aliens. But what else could it be? Around and around we go. Government ops? Quite possible, and yet, just as many things wrong with that theory as there are right. Mental illness? Sigh. Well, then that means both my husband and I are mentally ill, and so are hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. So really, all other explanations are fantastic — which does not mean impossible, just fantastic. Time travelers, time slips, fairies, aliens, tulpas … whatever, something damn stange that we have yet to figure out.

Wolf Dream

I had the following dream last night, after watching the UFO Hunters episode and writing the above entry. The dream didn’t have anything to do with UFOs or my orb experience in specifics, but when I woke up, my first thought about the dream was that it was connected to the orange orb sighting. The dream had a definite UFO vibe:

Nervous Wolves
It’s nighttime, and very, very dark. Ink black. I’m outside the house I live in, which is a white, small little building — there is only an upstairs, like a small apartment, that is reached by a narrow flight of stairs. The stairs are inside, in other words, they’re surrounded by walls. There’s nothing underneath, just the covered stairs leading up to the apartment, which sits on a little hill. This place is surrounded by woods, the trees are bare. It’s impossible to see into the woods since it is so dark.

For some reason, I’m outside the house/apartment. I’m surrounded by my “pets” which are wolves, and wolf hybrids. The wolves are very nervous, agitated. Even though these animals are “mine” we have an odd relationship. I find myself wondering why I have wolf hybrids as pets, since I don’t think people should own such animals (neither wolves, or, hybrids) and I would never own such beings. Yet I’ve ended up with them somehow. They are my protectors in some ways, yet are also unpredictable. I’m a little wary around them.

I’m also concerned, they’re skinny. I wonder why, have I not been feeding them properly? Then again, some of them have just sort of shown up from “out there” and joined us. I feel responsible for them.

So here we are, out in the ink black night, starless, on a grayish hill of parched grass. Something awful has happened in the woods, many of the wolves come running up, and we all run up the stairs into the house. There is a man in uniform kneeling down inside, working on something, some kind of control panel or machine or something. He’s human and kind of creepy. I tell him he has to do something, that there’s some kind of creature out there attacking my wolves. “Maybe a rabid raccoon, I don’t know, something, but we have to kill it” I say. He ignores me, he’s pretty cold. There’s also something about another man who kind of sneaks off, thinking I didn’t notice. I also wonder what the hell these guys are doing in this, “my” house, but I also know that they’re in charge. Since they’re in charge, I demand they protect us, fix things. But they don’t.

All I care about are my wolves, and myself of course. . . just save us, get us the hell out of here, and take care of that nasty thing out there that’s trying to hurt these poor wolves who aren’t hurting anyone.

That’s the end of the dream, or, all I remember.

Paranormal Investigators From Episode Respond

I was delighted to find that Rachel, with the paranormal investigator group appearing in the UFO Hunter’s episode, left the following comment to my post:

Hi! I am Rachel, the case manager for MRIPA, that was on the UFO Hunters episode “Dark Presence.” I stumbled across this page through a google search and enjoyed reading the posts. Even though Jason and I got about 5 minutes on the show, what was aired was not even a glimpse of the indepth conversation that Pat, Bill, Kevin, Jason, and I had in what the orbs could be. Spirit orbs are definitely NOT the same thing as what you Regan are describing in your experiences. Unfortunately because of the show we have received some emails asking how we could think that orbs are only spirit related. This is where I have to say “sigh.”

MRIPA investigates all things paranormal: UFOs all the way to ancient legends. I really appreciate you writing about your experiences because I think it is very important that people share their stories because if it’s just not to get more information out there at least it will let others know who have had similar experiences that they are not alone.

Going back to “spirit orbs” Jason and I are very cautious when people claim to have captured “spirit orbs” on photographs. The truth is most of the pictures that we receive are the following: dust, water droplets/condensation, insects, and what’s most unfortunate is when we receive pictures that have been altered to resemble something paranormal. But the pictures that we shared on the UFO Hunters show were small orbs of energy which resemble a small ring of electricity. These are not as common as some may think. We also try to explain that just because these orbs of energy are present it does not mean that a spirit/ghost is present. It can increase the possibility, but more than not it’s related to a natural earthly phenomena.

But I will state again,what you have experienced is something completely different from “spirit orbs.” Jason and I did do an investigation with Indiana – MUFON back in July of this year. It was a woman and her family who live up in northern Indiana who witnessed one large red orb (basketball size) and a multitude of smaller white orbs (softball size) in the woods that surrounded her house. She too explained a feeling of “awe” at first and than fear. In fact she stated that the orb actually entered through her front door and left a sticky residue on her door. Her dog no longer likes to go out side at night, and when Jason and I were asking her questions, we both noticed that there was missing information that didn’t fit in sequence. When I say this, I do not mean that she was telling us false information, what she was telling us was the truth. Her story to this day still has not altered any. What I’m saying is the way she was talking and her actions fit into that of people that have experienced “missing time.” She couldn’t recall several hours of the 2 nights that she experienced seeing these orbs.

One claim that she stated that on the 2 nights that she saw these orbs she felt tired and was inclined to want to go to sleep. Anyways, I did a complete write up of this case for our website and Indiana MUFON, if you would like to read about it. Of course we didn’t capture anything, but than if what is being seen is of an intelligent source – maybe they are aware when we are looking and know not to make an appearance. (kind of gives me goose bumps just thinking about that)

Anyways, I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your experiences. I think if anything it will help people realize that something is happening that we cannot fully explain. Have a wonderful rest of your day and week!

Sincerely,

Rachel

I’ve been working on exploring memories and dreams, trying to get closer to what “really” happened with these experiences. Missing time, UFOs, and other high strangeness; what is behind these events? For example: missing time. Where was I (or we, since two, and recently it’s been considered, possibly three, missing time events experienced by my husband as well,) so where were we, what was happening?! during these missing time times. The world didn’t stop while we were — where ever we were. The point is, my mind doesn’t remember but obviously things were still happening around me, us. . . the question is of course, what?

I was working on my Orange Orb column for UFO Magazine the other night (wrote a full article on one memory “dream” that I call the “bedroom radiator alien” but followed where that led me, to an earlier memory, of the following “dream.” ) Like my patio alien “dream” I had around the same age (but in a different house) this memory has stayed with me for some fifty years or so, as vivid as the day it happened. It wasn’t a dream and yet, it must have been, since it couldn’t have literally happened:

I’m flat on my back in the dead center of my bed, which I remember as being large, and white; white sheets, and just a white covering. The bedroom is lit up very bright; which I wonder at: if I’m supposed to be asleep why are all the lights on?

I am so full of happiness!!!! I have an expectant joy that is so wonderful; I know “they” are coming. I stare up at the ceiling in anticipation. The ceiling opens up, two halves move up and outwards, revealing the starry night sky.

A giant eagle — so huge it’s almost the size of the open ceiling — swoops down from the sky, to my left, and down into the bedroom, right above me. It’s come to take me up. As the eagle flies into the room I turn and see my parents, my grandmother, and some others, standing in the doorway. They seem to be stuck there; they aren’t coming into the room. They’re just watching. I’m very glad to see my father but am a little confused; he doesn’t live with us and I don’t understand why or how it is he’s here.

The eagle comes, it’s so fantastic!

It wasn’t until last night that I realized there is a Thunderbird and Mothman connection to this experience. At age five or so I didn’t know what Thunderbirds were, nor did I know anything about Mothman of course.

I started doing some research about eagles in terms of UFO accounts and before I knew it, I had found all kinds of interesting things; things that will take awhile to explore.

One thing I found that I haven’t read fully but did skim is an article for the E.L.F. Infested Spaces (ELFIS) ‘zine by Jeffrey Lewis: Idiot Stick – Whitley Strieber’s Encounters. It is very esoteric and I only mention it because of the thinking done by Lewis on the nature of dreams, memories, symbolism and connections in the context of UFOs, aliens and entities. Frankly I don’t know what to make of it but as I say, I haven’t given it the attention needed. (There is much there; this is a site that will take you in many directions. . . )

Mentioned, I think, somewhere on the Elfis site, was something about the myth of Leda and the Swan; I also found a passing reference to the Greek myth in Erik Davis’s 1993 My Favorite Martians: A UFO Epistomology — this myth in context of UFO experiences has been addressed by UFO and esoteric researchers before. The comparison of this theme of a god like being or entity (Zeus), disguised as an animal that is familiar to humans, coming from the skies to have sexual relations with a human female to alien-UFO abduction and contactee accounts is an obvious one to explore in terms of alien-UFO stories.

I am not suggesting my memory had anything to do with anything so literal or sexual — but the comparisons and connections, all those glittering threads that reveal themselves when going tumbling down the rabbit hole of esoterica — are natural ones to follow for Fortean junkies like myself.

All that aside, bird and winged – being imagery is strong in UFO accounts, and that includes Mothman accounts.

Image: Leda and the Swan, painting by artist from the School of Leonardo da Vinci, 1505-1510, public domain.

Visit my blog The Orange Orb
http://orangeorb.blogspot.com