Oregon L.O.W.F.I

Posts Tagged ‘High Strangeness’

ABC News has picked up this story (see post below) of McMinnville, Oregon  high school students who came down with compartment syndrome, a rare illness and not one that affects the triceps, or so many people at once.

Odd report from McMinnville: MHS football players recovering; mass ’syndrome’ remains a mystery. Oregon.(McMinnville is home of the world famous 1950 Trent UFO sighting and site of the annual McMinnville UFO Festival held in May at Hotel Oregon.) Several high school students, all student atheletes, have come down with an unusual illness:

Ten Mac High School football players were hospitalized this week after experiencing intense muscle pain following workouts at a fall camp conducted by their new coach.

Seven were admitted to the Willamette Valley Medical Center on Wednesday night with sore and swollen triceps, and three were admitted the following night.

Diagnosed with compartment syndrome, three of the players in the initial group underwent fasciotomies designed to relieve the pressure and avoid permanent muscle damage. That could keep them out of action for one to two months, according to the surgeon who made the diagnosis and performed the surgical procedure.

Some 28 players underwent testing Thursday to determine the level of creatine phosphokinase or CPK in their blood, as that is an indicator of the syndrome. Sixteen were sent to the hospital for additional testing, and three of them were admitted, joining the original seven.

Additional players were tested Friday, but none of them showed elevated creatine levels.

There’s more: the students were doing an intensive series of workouts, it was very hot, and they stayed on campus, sleeping there while taking part in this football camp type thing.

The illness – “Compartment syndrome” — is rare, and doesn’t appear in the triceps, according to Dr. Peter Van Patten:

Dr. Peter Van Patten treated the players. He said compartment syndrome isn’t very common, and he’s never seen it strike the triceps before.

“In McMinnville, we do not see compartment syndrome very often,” he said.

The school district is looking into this of course, and asking the community for help and support.

People on the coast and elsewhere have reported that their shrimp and fish glow. According to Oregon State University, this is normal and the fish is safe to consume.

Shrimp and other seafood can appear luminescent, courtesy of certain marine bacteria that might be hitching a ride, said Kaety Hildenbrand, of Oregon State University Sea Grant Extension, which has been receiving calls from concerned consumers.

The thing to remember, said Hildenbrand, who works with coastal fishing communities, is that “glowing” shrimp is not a health risk and doesn’t reflect mishandling during processing.

I love some of the comments, such as:

“This seems to be a banner year for glowing seafood,…”

The following remark strikes me as very odd:

It’s also possible that there has been no increase in glowing seafood — just an increase in the number of people noticing it. That raises another question: Are more people cooking seafood without lights?

Complete story here.

Jim and I will be guests on Future Theater, Nancy and Bill Birnes podcast, airs 6:00 pm EST.

Full disclosure: I haven’t read the book.This is not a book review; it’s about the idea of the book’s premise, from what I’ve been gleaning so far. From what I’ve been reading about Pilkington’s book Mirage Men, the thesis is that UFOs are creations of our government. There are no “real” UFOs; just machines and stories about encounters made by man to confuse its citizenry and mask secret operations.

This is old news. But beyond this simplistic “revelation” about UFOs is the fact the government has been getting away with murder, both figuratively and literally, using UFOs as a convenient smoke screen. Isn’t anyone curious about what’s been hidden from us? Put aside “beliefs” about UFOs, they exist, they don’t exist, aliens are real, aliens are fantasy — just forget all that for now. Ask yourselves what is it the government is doing behind those flying saucers are here! scenarios.

A danger with books like this is that the mainstream culture will think it’s been offered an explanation for all those crazy UFO stories, and move on. Even some within the fringes who study UFOs will accept this. Including those “new thugs” that pose as UFO investigators or researchers but are part debunker-skeptic, part dilettante. Meanwhile, the government continues to perform often illegal maneuvers around us, and no one’s questioning that. In fact, stepping beyond the line of questioning will get you quickly slapped with a Tin Foil Hat sticker and you’re shoved over to the kook side. Mention chemtrails and it’s all over.

Okay, Pilkington and fans, UFOs don’t exist. Forgetting obviously that UFO means unidentified object and not alien from mars in a flying saucer … oh never mind. Sigh. Yet we still have, say, spheres showing up in our skies — these have been photographed dozens of times over — what are they? Whose are they? What are they doing? What about the video of a sphere I saw years ago, taken by a local witness, that seemed to disappear but upon close examination was till there, merely cloaked to near invisibility? What was the thing spraying onto the residences — and people! — below; for spraying some kind of mist like substance it was. Doesn’t anyone want to know about those kinds of things?

Let’s take my own missing time experiences, that occurred within a UFO context. And let’s say, for argument, that this “UFO context” was government created. If so — missing time, UFO — then that means our government was doing something obviously immoral, unethical, and illegal. Which is frightening. For that means, if it’s not UFOs, not mental abberation (shared by two people, two and possibly three, different times), then what was it? Why the persistence of a UFO based setting? WHERE WERE WE FOR ALL THOSE MISSING HOURS??!!

But see, now we’re entering MILAB territory, which is paranoid kook fringe fantasy, so no one is going to listen to that, because UFOs don’t exist, the government just uses that to . . . you see how this all becomes a circling back of absolutely no answers at all, while maintaining cover-ups? In typical cosmic joker trickster fashion, the idea of the government using UFOs as a cover for their shadow projects is a cover for the government’s covering up . . . because not many are questioning beyond the initial cover.

(This is my latest Trickster’s Realm column for Tim Binnall’s BoA site.)

An intriguing aspect of alien encounter stories is the shared experience element. There have been many times when I’ve heard a story that, no matter how unusual, how weird, and unbelievable someone’s account may seem, it often turns out that others have had similar, if not the same, kind of experience.

I’ve had UFO experiences going back to childhood, but my sighting of an orange orb in Oregon in the 1980s is, for some reason yet to be discovered, the catalyst for my journey into the world of esoterica, I couldn’t find any references to similar sightings. No books on UFOs or aviation mentioned basket ball sized, glowing from within, seemingly sentient and telepathic orange orbs. Yet I saw one. Furthermore, I experienced missing time the day/night of the sighting. (Other weird events occurred around this sighting as well.)

I’ve seen several UFOs since that sighting, but never anything like that orange orb. Although something odd did happen last year, as I wrote on UFO Magazine’s site:

An Orange Orb Blip

Something slightly odd and startling happened the other day. It was around 5:30 in the afternoon. I was relaxing on the sofa, not asleep but just in that semi-drowsy, pleasant light trance state. I had a short little dream — a dreamlet, you could call it — but I was awake on some level at the same time.

I “dreamt” I had a strong urge to go outside and look at the sky full of stars. (this is something I do almost every evening) and I walk out onto the path to the sidewalk, and scan the dark sky. I hear a voice inside my head, or more like a telepathic nudge, to turn around and look towards the south. I do, and see, very high up, a bright orange light, which is rotating. As far away as it is, and as small as it is — like a large, bright star — I can tell it’s revolving. When I see this orange “star” I’m very scared, and I can feel my stomach drop with cold dread.

I wake up abruptly, feeling very uneasy. With the sighting of the orange object I again am aware of a telepathic message; this one tells me that I know exactly what it is I saw years ago, and to stop playing games. I assume it meant stop playing games with myself, but I had a sense it might have meant with it as well, whatever “it” is.

I’m not sure why I feel it’s important to keep track of episodes like this, but I’m sure one of the many purposes doing this serves is that is simply makes me feel better. No closer to any mystery but I don’t think that’s the point any more. Acknowledging these weird little moments and adding them to the collection of pieces gives the illusion of work, of study. It’s calming somehow. It’s also empowering; once you call it, reclaim the name of something, it’s power diminishes.

And maybe, as has been said by Forteans and esoteric explorers, the Trickster or whatever you want to call it is alerted to our interest and responds. When we start noticing “it,” “it” starts to notice us back.

Every time I come across an account of an orange UFO I get excited and am curious to discover if the sighting was anything like mine so many years ago.

A few years ago, we began to see reports of orange orb or spheres; they’re still coming in. Most of these seem to be the lanterns used in celebrations that have become popular but as many researches have pointed out, this doesn’t explain much. The orange lantern explanation just doesn’t fit a lot of these sightings.

There have been a lot of reports of orange colored lights in the sky; not the floating type lanterns, not the basket ball sized orb I saw, but star like, or like the lights of a plane.

Interesting and sometimes they share some similarities to what I saw but, not the same thing.

Until the “Dark Presence” episode of UFO Hunters. That episode had to do with orange UFOs. Not small, airplane type lights, stars, or lanterns, but like the orb I saw. Some of the orbs witnesses described were green or other colors, but orange seemed to be the main color. I responded to that episode, again on the UFO Magazine blog:

There are many parallels to my orange orb sighting . . . 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. . . 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.

Finally, I had found others who described the same kind of object and events that I experienced, as I wrote:

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.

Witnesses also described the orb as being lit from within, or at least giving that appearance. The orb I saw had the same effect; no lights around it, or on it, but it seemed to glow from inside. Witnesses also reported missing time.

Strange to come across so many witnesses with such similar descriptions and so many years apart!

Comments that followed to my piece on UFO Magazine’s blog were interesting. Like this one from “Susan” who saw a large orange orb in 1975, and Raechel from MRIPA (a paranormal investigative group that was featured in the UFO Hunters episode.) Raechel wrote:

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. . . . 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.

The part about “missing information that didn’t fit…” parallels my own experience. To this day, my husband and I find we disagree, get confused, argue, and misremember parts of that experience. It’s like we have to retrace the same thing every time, and sometimes, new information seems to reveal itself as we try to work through what happened.

This past year I’ve been trying to recall the missing parts of this experience through dreams, meditation, and intent. I don’t know if I’ll ever use hypnosis as a tool but I doubt it very much.

I still don’t know what that orb was, why it was, or what really happened. It is — I don’t know if comforting is quite the word to use — but it is confirming to know that others have also experienced these orbs.
Notes:
UFO Hunters Dark Presence Episode post on UFO Magainze Blog

I started a new blog: Animal Forteana.

A grasshopper invasion warning has been issued for the Pacific Northwest:

http://www.krem.com/news/local/WSU-warns-of-grashopper-invasion-94590044.html

The Pacific Northwest must prepare for the worst grasshopper outbreak in 30 years.

Scientists for Washington State University and the USDA found a big increase in the number of grasshopper eggs last fall, and a relatively mild spring has set the stage for a major grasshopper infestation

Image in public domain

Oregon Sasquatch Symposium
Saturday, June 19 at 9:00 am
Sunday, June 20 at 5:00 pm
Eugene, Oregon –  Lane Community College Campus

Autumn Williams will be the keynote speaker. See here for Autumn’s excellent blog post about the symposium, her thoughts on witnesses and BF and her new book… (in fact, her whole site is the best in the field, I think, for it contains data, research, as well as an open minded approach to various Bigfoot theories…)

Toby Johnson is the one behind all this, and it seems like he’s doing a fantastic job!

Visit the Symposium site for more info.

See you there!

The blogThe Big Studyhas an interesting piece on the behavior of light; anomalous, high strangeness and unexplained events having to do with light. Included in the article is a bit about the Reeves case from the 1960s in the Newport-Toledo area on the Oregon coast. Called the Reeves case, the Toledo lights case, etc. or the Toledo Donuts… Keel wrote about this and a few mentions can be found here and there. To this day, the event reamains unexplained.

A possible explanation, in my opinion, is a military test of classified technology. UFO sightings were happening all over the area; and the navy and research facilities have a strong presence there. On the other hand, the Reeves case echoes other strange, out of place type “aliens,” type encounters. Maybe there is no rational explanation; it just is one more of those strange visitations that pop in from the “Goblin Universe,” (Holiday) or “Daemonic Reality,” (Harpur) or Trickster realm. (Hansen.)