THIS is Reality – blink – what did I miss?

“Reality is the story we tell ourselves until the REAL thing shows up and demands an upgrade.” – Talking to Nightlights

“All over the globe persons in all walks of life, representing a wide range of educational and cultural backgrounds, are reporting, often in the face of unpleasant ridicule, sightings of objects that appear to be completely real objects yet have characteristics that match nothing about which we have present knowledge.” – James E. McDonald

“After killing and skinning a couple of fishers, he saw another huge owl. He shot it and saw it fall. But when he went to recover the body, there was no trace of the owl.” – A Singing Shaman Called by Owl and Dreams. – BeliefNet

Great Horned Owl. Nat Geo.

Snowy Owl. Snowy Owls in Massachusetts.

Glitch in the timeline

My Matrix Moment Involves a Cat. How long did it take me to figure this out? A decade? I’m still working things out. 

Chloe was my muse. I took dozens of photos – convinced each was her very best – and then replaced them with a few dozen more.

I have one classic image in a portrait, a creative inspiration that might best capture her expression in the experience I relate.

Chloe: 2005 – 2014 
10.20.23 is the very first time I make a connection.
A detail stands out. Her colors. Green and Pink.
Created long before my encounter.

The scene

Broad daylight, normal day, no weather anomalies or spooky theme music. I simply walked from one area of the house to the next.

Seconds.

Determined stride. I glanced aside as I stepped into the hallway and caught a glimpse of Chloe perched on the back of a chair in the living room, gazing directly at me. That face.

Seconds.

I continued walking, thinking about how she always seemed to manage a perfect pose. I really should take a picture, I thought. Perched as she had been on the back of the chair, in full view, wearing her green collar with the pink heart tag in the center. Posture, color, lighting: flawless.

Glitch.

Full stop. Reverse course. Fast.

Seconds.

Ten long steps. Back down the hall and into the room.

Chloe is seated in the chair – not perched on top. That would have been impossible. The chair back is too skinny to hold her in the position I saw as I passed by.

She would have been above the chair – at the height I witnessed. Looking at her, she is completely at ease, seated in the chair, facing a different direction.

This makes no sense. I am astonished. My mind is racing. She could not have been in the position I witnessed. But there is another thing that – honestly – blows my mind. That’s what stopped me dead in my tracks. Chloe doesn’t wear a collar. Never has.

She refused a collar to the point of Houdini-ing out of any practical or cutesy adornment I ever tried to saddle her with. I was lucky if I could find them.

Another mystery made it even more perplexing. In that moment, passing through the room, it felt normal. I seemed to have a sense of memory about the collar being part of her routine attire. It was as if I had always seen her wearing it. That was the red herring.

If not for that embedded misdirect, I don’t know that I would have realized anything was off kilter.

For months, I replayed the scene in my mind. Eventually, I settled on three possibilities. 1. dimension shift. 2. parallel timeline. 3. altered state.

There are more. Enlighten with your own observation. This is not a conclusion. It’s a wild a.. guess.

Another possibility dawned. The directness in her gaze was uncharacteristic. Our eyes met. Something about that instant was different.

A single option fit better: Screen Memory. Or not.

Was it intentional or inadvertent deception?

Wrestling with this again. Could it be my brain could not reconcile the image and opted to go with a familiar something I could handle? I would not have added the collar. Something gave me a clue.

Who or what was I unable/not allowed to see? Why?

When I open my mind to reexamine the scene, I see an overlay image of a smiling Cheshire cat – big, toothy grin. Underneath is an image that doesn’t match anything else in my memory. Is it an impression or a projection? I am letting it settle.

Living Ghosts and Others not easily quantified

Haunting. Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry, Non-Fiction – What happened to the living and the dead in the 2011 Japan Tsunami?  “More appalling than the scale of death was the spectacle of the bereaved survivors.” London Review of Books.

Part 1. UFO sightings along The 37th Parallel. Chuck Zukowski. Blog.
Part 2. Explore the gamut of unexplained and anomalous on the UFO Highway. Chuck Zukowski and [his sister] Debbie Ziegelmeyer have spent years travelling across the US investigating hundreds of UFO sightings and other paranormal occurrences. Link.

Cats. Owls. UFOs.

Mike Clelland writes about UFOS and Owls.

I have an owl story with a UFO connection. We were visiting Texas, planning on attending a UFO gathering, the only one I have been to so far. I wanted to connect with Paola Harris and Angela Joiner (deceased/covid) because I had interviewed them about that event. I ended up also connecting with Lisa Romanek and following up with an Interview.

The event itself was an odd experience and there were lots of paranormal quirks that happened during that visit.

The owl encounter stood out because it was a huge owl. White. A very large, white (snowy? horned?) owl that flew directly overhead when we went for a walk prior to going to the event.

Beautiful and conveniently synchronistic. That’s it. Short and sweet. I had not seen one before and I haven’t seen one since.

My insight with that presence: Right place, right time. Appointment met.

Mike asked an Intuitive who shared her Owl Story what it represented for her. The answer: Initiation. 

Coffeehouse Archives – Owls

Interview with Mike – starts with news headlines – 2017. During my time hosting on KCMO Talk Radio.

Share your Owl story. Contact Mike.

A previous blog post offers background for some of the stories mentioned in the podcast. Link.
Mike blogs about his other interests and upcoming books: Link.

The Ancients

“An Elder told me that every star you can see with the naked eye had a story, had a constellation, had a name and a teaching attached to it,” he says. “Due to the historical trauma that happened to our people, anywhere from 75 to 85 percent of that knowledge base was wiped out.”

– Wilfred Buck, one of the foremost Indigenous star-story experts in the world.

“In South Australia, for example, Aboriginal groups long shared oral tales of the variable brightness of the star Betelgeuse. It is a widely held belief in astronomy circles that the phenomenon was first discovered by Sir John Herschel in 1836 despite the fact that Indigenous people noticed it, along with the variability of other stars, 1,000 years earlier …”

The takeaway

Light and Dark – “The owl can see that which others cannot, which is the essence of true wisdom. Where others are deceived, Owl sees and knows what is there.”

It wasn’t a cat. 

Owl meaning. Symbol. Legend. Myth. Warrior Medicine Blog.

Spooky Ouija and True Haunts

“We are an impossibility in an impossible universe.” – Ray Bradbury

One in five Brits insist their house is haunted. One in 20 believe there is a ghostly presence in their workplace, according to a new study. Source.

Ouija: who done it? As Told By L. (Paraphrased)

Sounds like the perfect horror script. It could be.

Parents gone. Group of 13 year old girls decide to play a game called ‘Murder’. Someone is designated the killer. Lights out. One person is targeted. “You’re dead.” Lights on. Who did it?

This was a familiar game, but something odd happened that hadn’t happened before. At one point, it seemed there were two victims. One of them asked the designated murderer, “Why did you choke me?” The girl said she didn’t choke anyone. She tapped her victim on the shoulder.

A short time later, three girls from that group decided to have a Ouija session to see if they could find out what happened. After some initial interaction, they asked the question. Who choked their friend?

The Ouija Board, Norman Rockwell painting
from cover of The Saturday Evening Post.
Published May 1, 1920.

Letters were selected. Words started to form. L. said she kept the paper with the words for quite some time before she finally lost it. It had effectively scared the three girls off the board. The final sentence. “Stop asking now before it is too late.”

L. told me she now collects Ouija boards but that was the last time she ever used one for divination. Nor does she intend to use it again.

Museum of Talking Boards. Link.

John Dover – of the Paranormal Rangers offers advice on Ouija in this presentation. Also refers to it as a portal and suggests avoiding them. Link.

Archived .. 1995 prime time. “Real Ghosts” – Ghost at K-State. “At the Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity House on this campus, a ghost of a former fraternity brother named Duncan is believed to linger here after he died during a hazing accident.” The show includes a Ouija session to contact “Duncan”. YouTube.

Divine assist

“It began when as a young parish priest I tried to assuage my curiosity about ghosts, and in no time at all found myself enjoying the company of these people from the world of yesteryear. I even found myself acting as counselor/social worker to many of them. I just can’t understand anyone being afraid of ghosts.” – Holy Ghostbuster: A Parson’s Encounters with the Paranormal, Reverend Joe Aelwyn Roberts

Customer Review. Amazon. 5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating book
Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2018

“I read the trade copy in l996 and ran across it again today as I was going through a box of books. I immediately down-loaded it to Kindle for 99 cents and started to read it again. I remember that it was fascinating and well-written. Of course, many years have passed, so I feel as though I am reading it for the first time. I recommend this book. If you can’t trust a Pastor to write ghost stories then who can you trust?”

True Haunts

“I ain’t afraid of no ghosts.” – Ghostbusters, Ray Parker Jr.

Terry lives in one of the most haunted houses in Weston, Missouri. Ghosts don’t play dead – Wendy’s Coffeehouse 2018 interview with Terry McKenzie – Link.

Because of the unique history behind the house (descendants of Daniel Boone), the story behind the sale and how the McKenzie’s acquired it was newsworthy. Search: Lawrence Journal World.

Terry McKenzie says he first began to wonder when he heard heavy footsteps in the room above him while he was alone in the house.

A bigger impression involved multiple witnesses who were gathered in the basement after an event. Very clearly, the sound of a man laughing could be heard coming from the stairway. Two of the witnesses were spooked enough to gather their things and vacate the house. ASAP. 

And then there’s an incident that is completely off the chart for paranormal photography.

Terry needed to document some of the furnishings for insurance purposes and took a photo of an antique dresser with a mirror in an empty room. When the picture was developed, clearly reflected in the mirror, were the images of two people, a man and a woman – dressed in period clothing. Holy grail for a ghost hunter. Difficult to explain or to deny. That image is incredible. I’ve seen it.

Interviewed in 2018. (13 years in the house) Terry says some friends might joke and deny that the house is haunted but he and his wife don’t have the luxury of disbelief. The Ghosts seem to be friendly… or at least… not too scary. And there was one curious encounter/sighting that made him question whether he saw the ghost of Daniel Boone.

According to Terry, the time of day is key. He says the house takes on a different energy at night.

The Halloween Ghost Walk, an outside tour of several houses, usually includes the home. It was featured on the 2018 Weston Christmas Homes Tour. The 2023 Christmas Homes Tour list of homes is posted on Facebook.

Paranormal potluck

Still mulling this one over. Asleep for a couple of hours, the dog woke me as she left the room in search of a late night snack. I felt a sharp tap on the very top of my head. It would compare to being hit with an acorn falling from a tree, hitting you on the head and then bouncing off.

In that very same instant, I heard a spoken word and saw an image flash. Bold, block (black) letters across a yellow background with jagged edges. Reminiscent of the Batman TV series cartoon captions.

The word I heard matched the lettered image: Gotcha!

What? How incredibly odd. And interesting. The tap on my head felt physical. The discarnate voice was audible. Fully awake, I wondered who or what might be trying to get my attention and for what purpose.

As with the red and green lighted UFO I caught hovering in the corner of the room, it goes in the Contact category. News headlines of the day offered a clue. Top story was the first known case of COVID in our area.

Alien. Terrestrial. Interdimensional. PSI? Anomalies are pointless in losing sleep over when the possibilities number to infinity. *Date: 3/9/20, Full Moon.

Sci-Fi playground

“Imagine you’re a fish, swimming in a pond. You can move forward and back, side to side, but never up out of the water. If someone were standing beside the pond, watching you, you’d have no idea they were there. To you, that little pond is an entire universe. Now imagine that someone reaches down and lifts you out of the pond. You see that what you thought was the entire world is only a small pool. You see other ponds. Trees. The sky above. You realize you’re a part of a much larger and more mysterious reality than you had ever dreamed of.” – Blake Crouch, Dark Matter: A Novel, Amazon

“Crouch takes a sharp sci-fi premise and infuses it with love…A gripping page-turner [that is] concerned above all with the heart, and what we do to it—or let happen to it—over time. Dark Matter is It’s A Wonderful Life for the 21st century” – AVClub.com

October 25, 2023 Reader Review: Mind Blown. This book had me feeling every kind of feeling! I loved every second of it! This was a book I had to really think about in the best way! WOW!!

Insight out

“As we explore inward into the true nature of reality, the reality becomes less and less dense and more and more thought responsive.” – William Buhlman

OBE Expert William Buhlman proposes that the purpose of this reality is that it is the slowed down training ground for consciousness. And that would make such things as haunted houses the perfect playground to practice expanded awareness. William Buhlman presentation: “Entering Into The Spirit World” / YouTube.

YouTube Comment: “Wonderful, insightful, truthful, honest, creative, bold… Remember 2 things when developing OBEs… protect yourself with a bright white shell of light around yourself first… & clean your emotions of strong emotions like anger, sadness, fear and addictions. William says that he purges his belief system every few days or so… this is actually crucially important.”

Our Interview [2020]: Adventures Beyond the Physical. Link.