Alternate Perceptions Magazine, December 2021
In Memory of R. LEO SPRINKLE Ph.D.
by: Katie Griboski
Leo Sprinkle and Katie Griboski
On November 15, 2021, we lost a true gem, a pioneer, a man who was ahead of his time.
Dr. Leo Sprinkle was a treasure to the UFO community; he holds a special place in thousands of people’s hearts and minds. He touched so many with his gentle spirit, humor, inquisitiveness, brilliance, and wit. Leo was gracious of his time and spirit, always willing to truly listen to others, he would gladly engage in discussions and share his wisdom, insights, and books! Leo was a gentle fighter, who saw the world in a unique way, and who wasn’t afraid to challenge the status quo, a man ahead of his time.
Leo, always up for a visit, would welcome you in with a warm smile, invite you to take a seat and would share openly. He always had copies of his favorite materials on the ready to hand out to whomever was interested in learning from his hard work. Questions drove him to seek answers to life’s greatest mysteries. Leo had a unique way of looking past the superficial and seeing that perhaps the answers may very well be linked to consciousness. He saw the Universe!
Life seemed to slow down when spending time chit chatting with Leo; he knew the importance of taking the time to just be in the moment. He was engaged and curious about everyone who was lucky enough to know him.
I once asked Leo if he ever regretted spending decades of his life in pursuit of something he may never get answers to. I think back to his answer often, whenever I start to question my own path… Leo simply said, “Katie, it’s the journey along the way. It’s all about the people that you meet. Yeehaw.” And then he smiled that great Leo smile!
That is who Leo was. He was a “people” person! Genuine, caring, and funny! A true role model. Someone I would like to aspire to be. You just don’t find too many of these rare gems these days.
Thank you, Leo, for everything you did for this community. Thank you for your knowledge, bravery, and humor.
Most of all, thank you for the LOVE & LIGHT that you gave to so many!
Rest in peace my dear friend, know that the work continues through so many that you mentored, Yeehaw!
Dr. R. Leo Sprinkle was a Professor of Psychology at the University of Wyoming.
Psychologist, hypnotherapist, and UFO contactee researcher R. Leo Sprinkle was born in 1930 in Rocky Ford, Colorado. As a young man he joined the United States Army, serving two years as a corporal in the 194th Field Artillery Battalion in Wertheim, Germany.
He then returned to the United States, and began his studies at the University of Colorado, where he earned his bachelor’s degree, then a Master’s of Personnel Service in Counseling. He received his Ph.D. in Counseling and Guidance at the University of Missouri in 1961.
In 1964, after serving as Director of the Counseling Center at the University of North Dakota, he became Associate Professor of Guidance Education at the University of Wyoming. Leo served as Counselor and Associate Professor of Psychology there from 1967 till his retirement in 1989.
Leo’s many published writings have included his book Soul Samples (1999, Granite Publishing) and his approximately 50 articles published in academic and UFO journals. These have focused mainly on UFO research, extrasensory perception, hypnosis, reincarnation, spiritual growth, and counseling theory and practice.
Not long into his career, Leo became increasingly known in UFO circles as a researcher of contactee experiences, offering an open mind and a sympathetic ear for those needing to speak of their experiences. A nonbeliever for many years, Leo migrated, as he puts it, from “scoffer” to “skeptic” after experiencing a UFO sighting himself in 1949. A second sighting with his wife in 1956 then moved him from “skeptic” to “unwilling believer.” By the mid-1960s, Leo was involved in trailblazing research and investigation of UFO abductions. As psychology professor and therapist, over the decades he performed more than 500 hypnotic regressions of possible contactees and abductees. Viewed as an authority in the UFO field, he has spoken on this topic on national television and at international conferences. Among the many cases Leo has investigated have been some of the most extraordinary and well-known UFO incidents to have occurred since 1930. In 1964, using a set of standard tests, Leo’s breakthrough research included the first psychological study of hundreds of individuals who had reported sighting or experiencing a UFO. He concluded from this that most UFO witnesses operate within the normal psychological range.
“My approach is to minimize the tendency to ‘explain’ (or explain away) the reality of psychic experiences,” Leo has said, “and to emphasize the willingness to explore the personal meaning of these human experiences of spiritual emergence.”
In 1980, Leo founded the University of Wyoming’s annual summer Rocky Mountain Conference on UFO Investigation as a meeting place for hundreds of UFO contactees, abductees, and other experiencers seeking affirmation and support.
In 1988, Leo published the PACTS model of abductee/contactee experience. Based on 24 years of study, it marked out five stages of experience. Briefly, these were: Preparation (family and cultural experiences of ESP and/or spiritual contacts, including childhood visitations by Spiritual Beings (SBs), Abduction (UFO sightings and/or abduction experiences inducted or initiated, involuntarily, by SBs), Contact (adult visitations inducted or initiated voluntarily by SBs), Training (instruction for a mission or task), and Service (cooperation with SBs—channeling verbal or written information from them, providing healing, instruction, or assistance to others).
There is also the accomplishment which this book celebrates: Leo’s active correspondence over 40 years, in supportive yet academically responsible ways, with UFO and ET experiencers all over the world. Over the years, as a result of his research, Leo has concluded…. that UFO activity is a part of an incoming wave of human consciousness—a shift into viewing ourselves not only as “planetary persons,” but as “cosmic citizens.”
