Encounters
A snippet of a story I recounted in a recent chat: ...later encounters included a small elf-like creature (he was about 18 inches tall, funny shaped body and head) up at Cape Croker where I was attending an anishnaabe (ojibwe) "gathering of elders" event in 1996. After I saw this little guy, I asked an acquaintance (a local author who had connected me to attend the event) about it. He told me that there are several stories among the annishnabek about these small people, confirming what I saw. Another time while solo camping in new mexico I was sitting in my tent, getting ready to go to bed, when a blue entity came up through the floor of my tent (out of the ground below). It was shaped like a gray alien, but was semi-transparent and sorta smoky. Another time when I was around 18 I was working in a small convenience store, when a "woman" came in to buy cigarettes. At first I didn't pay any attention to her until I saw her hand (when she handed me the money) - it was not like a normal human hand. This startled me so I looked up and saw a very pale entity, wearing a thin black coat (like a rain coat) with collar turned up to cover her neck, a heavy long haired wig, and very large black glasses. This did not entirely hide her strange face: a very pointed chin, scant lip and nose. She did not speak. Took her cigarettes and left! I was kinda stunned. Oddly I cannot remember the details of her hand (though it was the first thing I noticed). Nor did she leave in a car which was odd since patrons drove up the store (it was somewhat isolated).
Postscript: In a post on his Post-Human Blues, the belated Mac Tonnies compared my story it to other stories of odd encounters.
"She did not speak."
ReplyDeleteDid she ask for a particular brand of cigarettes? If not, how did the selection of the pack of cigs get accomplished?
In those days (early 70s) cigarettes were not controlled like they are now. At the store where I worked, they were out in front of the counter with the cigars, chewing tobacco, etc. I distinctly remember that the only items behind the counter were rolling papers but I don't know (or don't remember) why those were an exception. Anyway she placed the pack on the counter, I rung them up, and she paid. I was not paying much attention to her until I saw her hand as she handed me her money. I did not see her place the pack on the counter but I think (after she paid), I may have picked up the pack and handed them to her (I sometimes had to look up the price for some brands / types), but that part is fuzzy. I don't remember the brand. I don't remember where she had her money (if she had her money out or took it out of a purse or pocket). This was 35 years ago so some details are less clear. I recall that she was startlingly strange looking. But since (at that time) I had never seen anything like "grays" depicted in popular culture I had no reference, nothing to compare her appearance to. Even now, looking back I don't think she entirely matched what is commonly depicted as a classic "gray". For example, her head was not overly large in comparison to her body (though she was very slight; around 5 feet tall), but other details (the ones that really jumped out at me) like her hand, her facial features, were not human looking. Perhaps a hybrid? Again, a modern reference which I did not have back then. Whatever she was, the memory of her face has stuck with me to this day. But what I find really odd is that the thing that first jolted me - her hand - I cannot remember, the visual is completely gone.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this!
ReplyDeleteYes, and I thank you for responding in such detail to my question as to whether she spoke. I know this is an area upon which it is often difficult to be fully open or express observed or personal details about, but your post has opened up some quite intriguing areas of contemplation.
ReplyDeleteI submitted a comment earlier about your account over at Mac's PHB blog, but a few other questions occur to me upon reviewing your chat excerpt; how do you know this was a female? Any other secondary characteristics which might indicate that?
Although you mentioned you had no early or contemporary context for what you may have seen at the time, in terms of "grays" or possibly a "hybrid" entity, and also said, due to the lack of an exaggerated head size, that the "humanoid" you interacted with was not entirely stereotypical, did you later, after learning about this now fairly standard or typical kind of "alien" body morphology, think that was what you may have seen? If so, or not, why do you think that was and could you specify either way how?
In regard to the two other entities you witnessed, did the small 18 inch tall being have clothes on, and if so of what kind or appearance, or if unclothed, did you observe any secondary sexual characteristics as to being male vs. female vs. asexual (neutered or no secondary identifiers) or just unidentifiable for some other reason, such as distance? How did it (and you) react when you observed it? How far away from you was it, and for how long? How did this encounter conclude?
In turn, when the translucent, smoky entity rose up inside your tent, did it wake you, or were you already awake, prior to retiring for the night? Was there a light on inside your tent, or not? Did it smoothly and quickly rise up through the tent, and upward and out the top or otherwise? Did it pause at any point as you observed it? Did it disappear (dissipate or vanish) or move out of the tent, and if so, how would you describe the movement? How did you react to this experience immediately afterward? How long before you went to sleep?
Have you had other encounters in addition to the three you noted, and if so, how were they different or similar in appearance and behavior, or any other related effects? If there were other encounters, were any of them with non-humanoid entities, or have you had any other ufo or possibly related anomalous experiences? Did any of these occur in the company of any other witnesses?
Other than physical characteristics, were there any other significant feelings, effects, or other characteristics of these encounters that you can remember, either peripheral, psychological, psychic, or other, that you can recall that are of note? Did you perceive in any of these incidents any form of communication, and if so what was the content? How might these events have affected your perspective or understanding of the nature of reality? Did they change you in any way, and if so, how?
Any better idea what year the initial "woman" event may have been, or season? Could you find out? I hope I haven't asked too many questions here, or that they are not too intrusive, but I myself had a close encounter, along with someone else, on a camping trip in the late summer of 1972, with an unidentified aerial phenomenon, and it's known, in turn, that there was a wave of apparent ufo and related humanoid encounters domestically in 1973, so my interest is not merely speculative.
This is an area of serious personal research and intellectual interest to me. Since you have noted your experiences here openly, and commend you for your honesty, I would hope you would feel it appropriate to provide a followup response to these questions here, also. I think others with a mutual interest would also appreciate your reply to some of these questions. Perhaps, if not here, it would be of interest as a separate follow-up blog post to your initial posting about these events. Or I could contact you via private email, if preferred. I am most interested in what you have to say about these matters.
Thanks for sharing this. I must ask - when did you start this Blog - and why? I'm genuinely curious.
ReplyDeleteMike C
Intense: thank you for your questions. I will attempt to provide other details for you in a later posting, but briefly as to the gender of the cigarette "lady", I have never been certain of that. I often refer to [it] as "she" or the "woman" (in quotations), then for convenience drop the quotations. And in terms of secondary characteristics, between the coat she wearing and her very slight figure (she was extremely thin and flat like a child), I could not discern anything.
ReplyDeleteAnne Strieber once read on the Dreamland radio program a letter she'd received about an experience similar to this . As I recall, the hybrid or whatever who bought cigs in that account said something before he or she left: "It doesn't happen very often, but when it does, it's really scary."
ReplyDeleteAlso, Whitley Strieber's strange acquaintance whom he calls the "guardian" apparently smoked incessantly. G.I. Gurdjieff smoked. Edgar Casey steadfastly rejected suggestions that he quit smoking. Ted Owens not only smoked but actually ate cigars. Lucid dreamers in the know use tobacco to enhance the lucidity of their dreams. North American shamans consider tobacco a sacrament.
So, I'm going to set forth putatively that tobacco use promotes a mind state compatible with the experiencing of other categories or levels of reality. So, whatever that's worth....
36+17=53
Unfettered: Mac Tonnies posted my story on his blog along with his ruminations about similar stories: http://posthumanblues.blogspot.com/2009/03/do-aliens-smoke-cigarettes.html. Later, he included it in his last book "Cryptoterrestrials".
ReplyDelete...oh I forgot to add: good figuring.
ReplyDelete