The main problem with an eyewitness account of any event is reliability. Whether someone witnesses a homicide, car wreck, plane crash, or whether someone catches his mate in bed with someone else and they scream, “It isn’t what it looks like.” or whether someone claims to see an extraterrestrial spacecraft with a bunch of ET’s crawling all over it trying to repair a malfunction, reliability is the issue with personal testimony. It doesn’t mean that a personal testimony is a false one. It does not mean that when the milkman takes the witness stand in a court of law and says he saw Mr. Jones throw his wife’s mother from the third story bedroom that he is lying. Mr. Jones’ mother-in-law could have fallen out the window and Mr. Jones was trying to catch her before falling. Perspective is everything.

Multiple variables can affect the reliability of an eyewitness account. Whether the testifier is man or woman, child or adult, different worldviews through which interpretations are made, emotions, stress, authority figures like police, or even the age of the person telling the story can affect reliability.

“A University of Virginia study suggests that eyewitness reliability is linked to the age of the eyewitness. According to the study, older eyewitnesses are more likely to be mistaken in recollecting details and are also more likely to be certain about their erroneous recollections.” http://apublicdefender.com/2007/02/22/eyewitness-reliability-diminishes-with-age/

Someone giving testimony can be absolute

This does not mean that someone who sincerely reports something as having happened is lying or even necessarily wrong. It does mean that the reliability of the testimony has to be considered in light of a heck of a lot of circumstances that might affect what the person thinks he saw. The variables that surrounded the witnessing of an event have to be considered. This is only fair. You have to consider what the person says he or she saw and then you have to consider what else it could have been. I apply this principle to my own sightings and close encounters of the third kind.

In any group consisting of human beings, there is going to be a kooky-fringe contingency. Whether it’s church, the Boy Scouts, The Lion’s Club, or the UFO-Alien enthusiasts, you are going to have the nut cases that give the goal and effort of the group a bad reputation. I think that’s why I hesitated all these years in writing about this subject. It certainly is a departure from my usual genre, travel writing.

What the UFO-Alien field of study needs is to weed out the kooky reports and stick to the quality events that do get reported. There are some, believe it or not. There are events of not only eyewitness accounts but also accounts that are of such quality that one simply cannot commit intellectual suicide in dismissing them out-of-hand.

A Quality Close Encounter of the Third Kind

Daytime, mass sightings are not only rare but are also not so easily explained away with the usual intelligence-insulting explanations such as Swamp Gas, Flocks of Geese, or Weather Balloons. In fact, the one I am going to recount is absolutely chilling and is one of the finest quality eyewitness accounts in the literature.

The most chilling event of a sighting of UFO’s and its occupants came from Papua New Guinea in the spring of 1959. It is chilling, but nothing catastrophic happened. No one died. No one was abducted. No one had implants installed in his sinuses. No one got impregnated nor had an alien-human hybrid ripped from her womb. And yet, there were spacecrafts in such brilliant clarity with easily seen aliens on board. It is chilling because it involved contact between an Anglican missionary as well as scores of his parishioners and a spaceship full of friendly aliens. And, get this, they exchanged greetings. They waved at one another. I find this remarkable almost beyond the pale.

This daylight, mass sighting took place in the Anglican mission village at Boianai, Papua, New Guinea. The Australian Anglican church sent Father William Booth Gill to minister to the locals. This man was highly regarded by all who knew him. Gill was a devoted pastor and the thought of UFO’s and Aliens was the farthest thing from the mind of this man of God. He was a skeptic about the subject. His life was to serve God in Papua New Guinea.

Gill’s first sighting was of a fast-moving light that he saw on a local, unpopulated mountain peek. This caught his attention, Gill alleges, since the thing moved in an intelligently guided manner and faster than he thought possible. He thought nothing more about the event until his personal assistant had a sighting of a saucer-shaped flying craft a month or so later. Gill dismissed this as some natural event or phenomenon.

On June 26, 1959 at 6:45 P.M., he had another “light-in-the-sky” sighting. Word of this sighting not only spread rapidly through the village but brought a total of thirty-eight villagers into the mission to witness this event. In sworn statements by each individual, the mass stated that a large disc-shaped craft the length of five full moons lined up end-to-end hovered over the mission. They also could see human-like aliens outside the hovering craft. They were walking about on a kind of flight deck that surrounded the craft. The beings seemed to be working on the outside of this craft. After about 45 minutes, the beings disappeared into the craft and it flew off at 7:30 P.M.

Unable to tear themselves away from watching the sky, they saw smaller crafts flying about. The smaller craft appeared about 8:30 P.M. and afterwards, about twenty minutes later, the larger, original craft reappeared. This sighting would last for a total of four hours. Some sort of moving weather front brought in cloud cover that obscured the ships. Father Gill prepared a report which was signed by twenty-five of the Experiencers.

This once-in-a-lifetime sighting, incredible enough, was to be repeated the next evening.

The following evening at 6:00 P.M., the main spacecraft showed up again with its inhabitants. Support craft seemed to be accompanying it. Two of the creatures once again seemed to be making some sort of adjustments or repairs to the outside and center of the craft while a third was actually watching Father Gill and his parishioners. Having noticed the creature watching the church group and not knowing exactly what to do, Father Gill waved at the being. The being returned the gesture. Gill and his group then waved at all the little human-like beings that apparently were raised properly by their alien parents and waved back. This went on for some time. The humans would wave and the aliens would wave back. Assured that all was well, the humans went inside to have their church service. When they retuned outside at the end of the service, the ships were gone. This event would repeat itself a third time the next day and then no more sightings occurred.

Though the smaller ships, which appeared as lights, could be explained as some naturally occurring event, the main ship could not. It was visible and close enough to make out creatures returning friendly greetings. I think that Swamp Gas, Geese, or Weather Balloons could not exchange a greeting with humans.

What do you think?

Author Bio

Doug Bower – My New Book: I WAS ABDUCTED BY ALIENS But They Threw Me Back

No related posts.

Reagan seemed more enthralled with UFO’s than all the U.S. Presidents, including Nixon. Reporter Billy Cox noted the many mentions of extraterrestrials in Reagan’s speeches and commented, “Ronald Reagan’s abiding fascination with extraterrestrials.” One of Reagan’s daughters also commented on her father’s obsession with UFO’s and life on other planets. The source of his fascination is often thought to be the “few” sightings he claimed to have had.

In September 1981, Reagan received a letter from an UFO research group director, Major Ret. Colman VonKeviczky. This man had made a second career of sending plaintiff pleas to not only the Presidents of the United States but to the U.N. Secretary Generals. When a new president was elected or a new Secretary General came on the scene they all heard from Major Ret. Colman VonKeviczky.

What VonKeviczky wanted was to get the figures of power and authority in governments to recognize that UFO’s, “…represented an intergalactic task force that will destroy earth unless world leaders band together to end their hostile actions against UFOs.” http://www.presidentialufo.com/reagan_ufo_story.htm

He was relentless. As a true believer of what he said he sent letter and packages with materials outlining the dangers and with demands than plans be drawn up for a defense against the alien threat. In the September 1981 letter, more than 17 documents were sent to Reagan outlining the immediate threat to the world from the aliens. This was his t

While his previous letters were not answered, his third one was. A distinguished Army officer who gathered many high ranking positions and metals including Director of Strategy, Plans and Policy; Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans; National Security Defense Group Director; and the Chief of the Policy Branch of SHAPE in Belgium, Major General Robert Schweitzer, answered it. Schweitzer was the Chief Military Advisor of the White House and National Security Council.

Part of Schweitzer’s answer to VonKeviczky read as so:

“The President is well aware of the threat you document so clearly and is doing all in his power to restore the national defense margin of safety as quickly and prudently as possible.” Ibid

Well, VonKeviczky didn’t need a flying saucer to fly like the wind to the Associated Press with “an admission” of the alien threat by the Reagan administration. The AP almost put it out on the wire but didn’t once they called and talked with Schweitzer. Had Schweitzer put the word “UFO” in between “the” and “threat” they would have run with the story. You’ve just got to ask what Schweitzer was really thinking? Was his song and dance he offered to the AP the real deal, was it a stupid slip, or did he really mean “the UFO threat” in the context of VonKeviczky’s persistent screed?

The Chief Military Advisor of the White House and National Security Council, Major General Robert Schweitzer, was let go on 10/26/81.

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) program

Though Reagan was credited with this program and its “possible use” against space invaders, it was concept decades in the making and one has to ask the question, how come? Generals Douglas MacArthur and John A. McDavid both made comments for public consumption of the possible invasion of interplanetary beings. McDavid said an Air Force approved speech at Milliken University, Decatur, Illinois:

“Before long, people may be forced to realize and accept as a fact that this earth is only an infinitesimal grain of sand in an infinite universe,” declared McDavid. “The human is one of many forms of life with which God is concerned and others are superior to us. And if this is true, our meeting with other types of existence in other places in the universe quite likely will increase the potential element of conflict rather than reduce it.” Ibid

Why would a brigadier general have to have an Air Force approved speech unless he was treading on Top-Secret grounds and had to walk a very thin line in what he said? And, why if UFO’s don’t exist, they are just balloons and swamp gas, would he have to walk a very thin line and get Air Force approval?

A career State Department diplomat, Michael Michaud, wrote of Nixon’s worry about an alien invasion:

“Aliens from other solar systems are a potential threat to us, and we are a potential threat to them. Scientists and others have often postulated that extraterrestrial societies more advanced than ours would be less warlike. Regrettably, the stereotypes of the benevolent, super intelligent alien may be as unrealistic as the stereotype of the bug-eyed monster carrying off shapely human females. Even if a species had achieved true peace within its own ranks, it would still be worried about us, and would take the measures it felt were necessary to protect itself. This includes the possibility (not the inevitability) of military action . . . Our basic interest will be to protect ourselves from any possible threat to Earth’s security . . .” Ibid

There is some speculation that “Reagan’s” SDI had a two-fold purpose: To defend against the Soviets and extraterrestrials. Here are some of the sources:

In a June 1995 Bay Area Lecture Dr. Steven Greer announces information leaked to him from the North American Air Defense Command in Colorado shows that the Air Force tracks an average of 500 “fastwalkers” (term used for UFOs) entering the earth atmosphere every year.

New York Times Pulitzer prize winning author Howard Blum reports that NORAD deep-space radars track many UFOs.

Two Aerospace engineers working on the AeroJet’s DSP spy satellite claim UFOs are detected coming from deep space two or three times a month.

Author Whitley Strieber, in his book Breakthrough, stated that he had seen part of a document which revealed that the EG&G Corporation is involved in developing defense weapons against extraterrestrials.

Two further sources have told Greer that rogue units within Unacknowledged Special Access Programs, have directed black budget funds to develop SDI weapons to down UFOs. Further the sources have stated that they have been successful in shoot downs.

It must be said that there are other Ufologists who do not agree with these sources.

A Close Encounter of the Spielberg Kind

When Steven Spielberg’s movie, ET, came out, Spielberg did a private showing for Ronald and Nancy Reagan in the White House. There were guests invited for this private screening totally about 35 other persons. Apparently, the Reagan’s loved the movie indicated by Nancy’s tears and Ronald’s enthusiasm.

After the movie ended, the President leaned over to Spielberg and in a hushed tone said,

“You know, there aren’t six people in this room who know how true this really is.” http://www.presidentialufo.com/reagan_spielberg.htm

Spielberg told a TV producer of Reagan’s comment while being interviewed for a documentary.

Author Bio

Doug Bower – My New Book: I WAS ABDUCTED BY ALIENS But They Threw Me Back

No related posts.

Some folks, skeptics and scoffers, are not going to believe in the existence of Aliens from other worlds manning UFO’s unless they land in their backyards and ask for directions or to call a tow. And, even then, I do not know whether that would convince a scoffing skeptic.

I address this issue in my new book, I Was Abducted by Aliens But They Threw Me Back, in which I make the point that if you know you’ve been repeatedly abducted, for God’s sake, Velcro that digital camera to your wrist when you go to bed at night. Don’t leave the camera behind when you are planning on tooling down one of those deserted, “two-lane, come and abduct me because I am asking for it” highways where you will just be begging to get swooped up by a bunch of little Grey men (Why do repeat Abductees always drive down deserted highways at two in the morning?). Evidence is what is needed, even in the form of photographs. We can’t just depend on eyewitness accounts for proof.

I do not particularly poo-poo eyewitness accounts. It seems to work well in a court of law to send a convicted person to prison or the gallows. But, this doesn’t seem to fly with scientists because, well, you know how scientists can be. It’s their way or it’s the highway. What can’t be crammed into the scientific method is nothing more than figments of us mere mortals’ overworked and overcharged imaginations. The truth is that eyewitnesses can get it wrong, and often do. However, I do not see the court system throwing out using people&

Doug Bower – My New Book: I WAS ABDUCTED BY ALIENS But They Threw Me Back

No related posts.

I remember before I became a professional hypnotherapist I read a book about UFO abduction and learned that one of the ?tools? that these investigators use to gather details about reported abduction experiences is hypnosis and hypnotic age regression. I don?t know what to think of this, but as Fox Mulder?s poster on the wall of his office stated, ?I want to believe.? I?ve seen the X-Files and enjoyed the show a lot. But, I?m sad to say that now, after years of doing hypnosis sessions and conducting thousands of sessions, not one person has reported an UFO abduction experience! I?m a bit disappointed really.

This lack of uncovering UFO experience while clients are undergoing hypnosis also goes for the many hypnotherapists who have worked at the Banyan Hypnosis Center for Training & Services, Inc. who have conducted thousands more sessions. Why is this so? Well, of course there is the distinct possibility that there is no such thing as an alien abduction experience. So far, that hypothesis carries the greatest weight with me, although I must admit that in the back of my mind I would love to have a client reveal such an experience while in hypnosis in my office. And, I would be most likely to see such a session as real evidence of alien abduction if it occurred in a specific way, under certain circumstances. Let me give you an idea of what that would be.

First, I would prefer if that person was a scientifically minded person who did not give UFOs much of a thought. This person should be mentally healthy and of normal i

Calvin D. Banyan has a Masters Degree in Psychology, and is the CEO of the Banyan Hypnosis Center for Training & Services, Inc. He is an NGH Certified Hypnotherapist, Certified Instructor, and Fellow of the NGH

No related posts.

Based on the true story of Travis Walton’s abduction by extra-terrestrials in 1995, FIRE IN THE SKY is one of the most candid looks at the whole alien abduction phenomenon ever to be committed to film.

I take a look at this film again because every filmmaker with a digital camera seems to be making a film about aliens and whatnot only they seem to be making the cheesy/campy/bad “grey” alien flick that characterized the 50’s through to the ‘60s sci-fi film but comes off dated in today’s climate of E.T., ALIEN, PREDATOR, ENEMY MINE, ALIEN NATION, and SPECIES where the aliens are just as, if not more so, intelligent than us humans with an ulterior motive.

FIRE IN THE SKY is different in that it focuses on the human element behind the alien abduction phenom like the equally influential COMMUNION. Directed by Robert Lieberman FIRE IN THE SKY is about of group of working class forestry boys who encounter an unknown object in the middle of the night when returning home from a long night’s work. One of the boys decides to let curiosity get the better of him and ends up being abducted leaving the rest of the group to deal with the impending aftermath of the incident.

This film works because the relationships between all the characters work so well. You believe what they are telling you is true even when it all seems too fantastical to actually believe. The group consists of D.B. Sweeney, Craig Shaffer, Peter Berg, Henry Thomas, Bradley Gregg, and Robert Patrick who is the oldest and leader of the group as Mike Rogers, best frie

The film works because even at its most fantastic you, as an audience member, never forget the human element of the story, which is what is lacking in so many of the similarly themed films of today.

An independent filmmaker who writes screenplays and articles mostly in the entertainment fields.

No related posts.

In another interview on The Edgeam with Daniel Ott, the agenda of Aliens, The N.W.O. and wicked men came to light. The light was shown by a man named James Casbolt, who, until I resourced him and listened to his interview, did not know. The interview in the typical none attack format of Daniel Ott was definately convincing. I suppose you now are asking what we are doing writing about Aliens on a Christian website. I write because the research leads me to follow paths the Lord Opens up.

Moreover, if what James says is true, then trouble is a four letter word. i.e. D-E-V-I-L, spells trouble.

Revelation 12:12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

The above verse describes a time when the devil is come down unto us. Having great wrath because his time is short. The things James reveals about the hidden agendas, underground bases, and alien conspiracy is not new. I have heard or should I say read about it. I have always thought people were seeing things and that the experiences were real, at least to them. I could not explain it. But a number of years ago, probably ten or so, I had an experience which occurred three times. I will not go into detail, but I can say with all honesty, I know what happened. One of these days I might go into detail. Suffice it to say, I investigate to get to the rock solid bottom truth. I will not accept Daniel Otts word or even James Casbolts

What I prescribe is the Power of the Lord in all these events. I have evidence, that is verbal testimony and some written that former attempted abductees have escaped their fate by claiming and proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ. I hear James on air testify to his protection by prayer and Jesus Christ. To testify of such a name before a wide audience is the testimony of men. Read it here:

Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

Because of such testimony I take Him at his word. I also heard him say Speaking the name of Jesus Christ stops abductions..James to Daniel Ott on The Edgeam show. In view of this I do accept this testimony. As it backs up others. Hannah Billups said such things as did another Preacher who investigates such things.

Dana G Smith is a Writer, Author of the Book D Day for America , http://www.wingswatchman.org He writes news, inspiration, research,and freelance articles. Email .

No related posts.

I’ve been a sci-fi fan since before Star Trek’s Captain Kirk split his first infinitive (“To boldly go ..”) – but I have to doubt if we’ll ever encounter any of his intelligent alien friends or even any unintelligent alien microbes.

Some will assert that UFOs are a fact – but this only seems to mean that objects have been seen flying that were not identified – hence, by definition, they are ‘unidentified flying objects’ – but that does not make them alien spacecraft – just unexplained observations. Unfortunately, UFO data is not very convincing of an alien connection – and if aliens are amongst us, they are keeping a very low profile.

One hears statements such as: “Given the billions of stars in the universe it is beyond reasonable doubt that some sort of life exists in outer space”…and…”There’s no question but that we live in an inhabited universe, that has life all over it”

Unfortunately, the above type of statements tell us nothing – and until such time as genuinely solid evidence arises regarding UFOs, aliens, close encounters and/or alien abductions, we can really only weigh up the likelihood of extra terrestrial life based on the data that is available to us.

It’s certainly possible to make a plausible-sounding case for extra terrestrial life. For a start, we know that life exists on earth and we infer that it once did not exist. So at some point in the 4 billion year history of the earth, life ar

The ‘Drake Equation’ (Frank Drake 1961) goes beyond this – it seeks to makes an estimate of actual number of potential planets in the universe with life. The calculation is based on various assumptions, the key one surely being that life is highly likely to exist on any given earth-like planet – and the equation then implies that that there could be millions of planets throughout the universe with life – many life forms would be intelligent – and many would be more technologically advanced than ourselves.

However, a problem with the key Drake assumption arises as a direct consequence of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. This theory asserts that the earth’s organic complexity was produced gradually, over a period of several billion years, by the action of natural selection, causing gradual changes over many successive generations of self-replicating organisms.

But consider this – the number of generations along any sequence of evolution must be finite – one cannot fit an infinite number of successive generations of self-replicators into the finite history of the earth, no matter how short each one may be. Hence, if traced backwards, every evolutionary sequence must lead to a very first member – a self-replicating molecular entity that arose spontaneously (without the aid of natural selection, since there were no generations prior to its existence) some 3000+ million years ago. Indeed, every evolutionary sequence would lead back to the very same first self-replicating molecular entity, the common ancestor to all subsequent life forms – unless more than one self-replicator arose independently.

So, for life to exist on any planet, anywhere in the universe, a self-replicating molecular entity would have to arise spontaneously, for Darwin-like evolution to then follow. There is no “mechanism” involved, that we may envisage having once operated on the earth, and being equally likely to operate on any earth-like planet elsewhere in the universe – since the occurrence of a fist self-replicator is an entirely random event.

My own estimates indicate that, even if we assume every single star in the universe has an earth-like planet in orbit, and even if the first self-replicator was far simpler than the simplest known cells, the probability of its spontaneous origin on any earth-like planet is mind-bogglingly small.

Given our lack of knowledge about a potential first self-replicator, my assumptions about it for the purpose of my calculation are, of necessity, arbitrary – but I suggest that no reasonably realistic alternatives would justify the Drake-like assumption that life is highly likely to exist on any earth-like planet.

Indeed, there may well be millions of planets throughout the universe possessing the essentials for life (water & even organic molecules) and yet which are totally dead – because the self-replicating molecular entity, essential for subsequent evolution, did not spontaneously arise on any of them. The number of planets supporting life may well be just one – this one.

However, on the plus side (!) – all those millions of planets will be unoccupied, unpolluted Edens, ideal for ‘seeding’ and for our future colonisation, allowing us to spread throughout the universe unopposed by aliens. Future interplanetary wars envisaged in alien movies such as “War of the Worlds”, may well be between those who remain on the earth and the descendants of those who’ve made their home on other planets, subsequently seeking their independence from the ‘home world’ – not a bad story line for a sci-fi film!

© Copyright 2009 Andy Chains (andychains.com)

Andy Chains – Born 19 Mar 1952, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. BSc Physics (1st class) 1976. PGCE. MSc Scientific Computing. Longest continuous job – FE Teacher – Physics/Maths for 12 years.
My homepage (http://www.andychains.com) has lots of quality ebooks to read plus links to over 16,000 webs on a wide variety of topics to browse.
Check out also my ‘space-related’ web – http://www.andychains.com/cosmos/

No related posts.

Over many years I have had many things happen to me that prove to me there are Aliens. I don’t care if others believe me. I have written down these two so far but have others I could tell. At this point I think it is more important to figure out the true messages they are leaving us in the crop circles, it seems to go along with the 2012 disaster.

    I was at my farm house just north of Rockford IL. by myself and it was about 1:00 am. I herd a noise outside and looked out my back window. I saw a figure like a man only it looked like his head was on fire. I freaked and garbed my shotgun, ran out the south side door and around the house. As I came around the corner the thing started to run for the corn, I could not believe my eye’s but it had all the same features of a person only it’s head was not on fire but glowing. I ran after it and shot off one shot before it made it to the corn, then when I got to the corn I could hear it moving in the field so I shot a few more times and got back away, then started looking around my property to see if there were any more.

    I looked in the back yard then came into south side yard and as I was looking around I herd a strange buzzing noise like the seven year locusts if you have ever herd them. The noise came from two different directions, I looked and saw almost like a herd of small animals the size of maybe a foot and a half long and about eight to ten inches wide coming at me and I could see through  them but they were a glowing gold color. I could hear the same noise coming

    When I made it to the house I called my ex wife and made her drive out to get me. I knew I could not drive I was shaking so bad and it was 9:00 in the morning. It seems I lost around 8 hours of time. I never did tell anyone for a long time and have had other experiences of seeing things but never actual contact like this time.

    Another experience was in San Diego on my friends patio. We were having a good time and I looked up in the sky to see two huge rings side by side, the one on the left had small lights about every minute or so coming out of it and the one on the right had 5 or 6 lights hanging just off to the side of it then would enter one at a time into the ring. When they entered the light they disappear and from the one that they came out of the light was not visible until they came out.

    My personal opinion is that I was seeing what people have described as a worm hole, the only thing is that form my observation they need to have a separate one for each direction. I watched for over an hour and the really neat thing is that once I pointed them out to my two friends that were there, they were able to see them also. How cool is that.

  William Martin

I’m 50 years old and God’s servant. I just try to spur conversation about the knowledge I have received. We are in a special time in history and we have a true chance of a life time to participate in the biggest event in world history. My prayers are with you. God Bless!!

No related posts.

Tales of Otherworlds are almost universal in folklore and myth. There is not space to recount all of them, but today there has been a renewed interest in tales from the British Isles and Scandinavia, specifically those related to faeries, elves and other such Otherworldly creatures.

An interesting question to consider is whether these ancient tales were perhaps references to what modern philosophers and quantum physicists now call multidimensions, parallel worlds or possible worlds. These are all terms for the theory that reality is made of many dimensions, not all of them conforming to the same laws, especially in terms of time.

Faerie stories from the British Isles are of particular interest here, because they often specifically refer to the distortion of time that occurs when mortals interact with denizens of faerie. One of the most popular stories, from Ireland, is that of Oisin, a young man who falls in love with a faery woman, Niamh, and follows her to Tir Na Nog, the Land of Eternal Youth. Tir Na Nog is a fascinating topic of its own, as it is a place where time as we know it does not exist. Oisin, of course, is mortal, but has the choice of remaining in Tir Na Nog where he would become immune to the passage of time. As often occurs in such tales, he makes the mistake of returning to his native land, where he finds that hundreds of years have passed and everyone he knew are long dead.

Stories from other lands have similar themes. The Welsh version of Tir Na Nog is Annwn, which is featured in the Mabinogion collection of storie

Yet another, more modern, version of time distortion occurs in stories (whether true or not) of alien abductions. These are often frightening experiences, though sometimes the aliens encountered are friendly. In many cases, a common feature is that when the person is fortunate enough to be returned to earth, a distortion of time has occurred. As with faerie stories, this time distortion can go either way -even much more or much less time has passed than the “victim” believed.

We can, of course, simply categorize all of these tales as just that -tales, based on superstition, imagination or just plain fabrication, perhaps with alcohol or drugs thrown in the mix. However, when we consider the enormous number of such tales that are similar in so many respects, we might just as likely consider that there may be something to them. Could there not be a myriad of realities, some of which, under certain conditions, overlap with our own?

Shamans have traditionally believed something similar. Shamanic journeying involves visits to other realities and interacting with spirits and beings who reside there. Another aspect of shamanism is the belief that the dream world is just as real as the waking world, and that we are actually “journeying” to these Otherworlds when dreaming. That is why we often encounter people in dreams who are deceased in “real life.”

It would be difficult, probably impossible, to prove in a rationalistic way that any of these tales or experiences represent actual shifts in reality or visits to Otherworlds. Those interested in pursuing this possibility, however, might do well to study folklore alongside some modern theories of philosophy and physics and consider the similarities.

For more about possible worlds and quantum physics, visit Possible Worlds Explore the elusive world of Faerie Realms

No related posts.