Alternate Perceptions Magazine, October 2026
The Field
By: Nomar Slevik
Settled in 1774 and once known as Taylor Town, Union, Maine lies in the heart of the Midcoast region. The town is home to the Blueberry Festival, the Antique Festival, and, of course, the Union Fair.
Along Route 235, the George’s River Scenic Byway offers a striking contrast: beautiful shores on one side of the road and forests on the other. Look a little closer, and you’ll discover a hardworking agricultural community, one that runs dairy farms, tends blueberry fields and vineyards, and supports a wide range of service-based businesses.
The people of Union have a gift for cultivating and harvesting the earth beneath their feet. But what of the sky above? One woman knows the horror that can result from an unintended encounter with it. A pseudonym has been used by request.
I first heard of Laura Dent’s story from MUFON’S television program, Hangar 1: The UFO Files. As I watched the episode, I was upset with myself for not knowing about her story sooner. A quick search of the MUFON database provided me with Dent’s full story, and it was also how I came to befriend MUFON’s former Maine State Director, Valerie Schultz. I contacted her in May of 2016 to inquire about the case:
“I was the investigator,” she told me. “I remember it vividly. It was a case that had everything in it, crop circles, men in black who took samples of the grass and earth, a hovering disc-shaped craft, entities which were gray, and abductions!”
I shared her enthusiasm about the elements of the case and we discussed Dent’s incredible story at length. This is her story.
In 1981, while much of America was focused on the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II and Ronald Reagan’s first year in office, an eight-year-old girl began looking toward the sky. She was not lying on lawn during the carefree days of summer identifying animal shapes in the clouds. Instead, she was trying to sleep when lights from “somewhere above” engulfed her family’s farm. A brilliant glow filled her bedroom. She climbed out of bed and cautiously approached the window. But before she could see what was outside, the light vanished.
The next morning, she went downstairs and told her parents about the bright lights, but they were dismissive and told her it was probably just a dream. The rest of the day went on as normal, and when night fell once more, the little girl drifted off to sleep. Hours later, the illumination started again. Her eyes stirred under closed lids. The intensity of the light grew and her eyes popped open. Scared, she stood and walked to the window. The light shifted and was now low over the field. Frighteningly low.
She squinted and made out an object in the field. It was too far away to identify, a tractor she considered, but the timing seemed strange. It didn’t fit with what she knew of her father’s farming routine. She wanted to go outside and investigate, but fear held her back. She decided it could wait until morning. This time, she would insist that her parents listen.
When she woke the next morning, her parents had already left for town to run a few errands. She decided then and there to go into the field and see for herself.
As she walked across the field, an uneasy feeling came over her. Then she realized she had stepped into something completely out of place: a circular patch of neatly flattened grass. None of it made sense. She hurried out of the circle and ran back to the house.
When her parents arrived home, she told them about the light from the previous evening and about the odd circle she had just found in the field. Her father became concerned when it involved his hay crop. They went down to the field together.
When they stepped into the circle, her father didn’t know what to think. As they looked around, they discovered more areas of neatly laid grass. Some formed small rectangles that connected to other circles before leading back to the original, larger circle.
Her father then ran to the farmhouse and climbed onto the roof for a better view. From there, he was astonished to see a large, unusual pattern carved into the field. When she asked what he thought it was, he said it was probably someone playing a prank.
He then climbed off the roof, hopped on the tractor, and mowed the field; removing any evidence of the crop circle having been there.
A few days later, the girl’s folks went into town again. Not ten minutes passed when an unknown vehicle pulled up to the house. The girl was outside and saw it approach. Frightened, she hid behind a pear tree surrounded by farm equipment. As the car pulled to a stop, the girl peeked out and got a very good look at the vehicle and its occupants.
“This car was black,” she explained. “Black wheels, black windows, black everything, and no plate. The people were also dressed in black.”
It was two men, and when they got out of the car, they walked directly to the freshly mowed field, right where the crop circle had been. It scared her that they knew the exact spot. She watched as they collected samples of soil and grass and placed them in small jars. When they finished, they returned to their vehicle and drove away.
Ever since the strange men had visited, she stayed up with binoculars, hoping the light would return. A few nights later, it finally did. When it slowly began to illuminate her room, she jumped out of bed, raised the binoculars, and watched. As the light faded, a silver, disk-shaped object came into view. It had windows, and beneath them was a series of multi-colored lights - red, white, green, blue, and orange. She watched in amazement as it hovered just feet above the ground.
She noticed shadows moving beneath the object. At first, she thought they might be livestock, but they were too dark to make out. Then they stepped into the light. She adjusted the binoculars. Several small, humanoid figures were moving across the field. They were slender and gray, with bulbous heads and large, black eyes. The girl thought of all the science-fiction movies she had seen and whispered to herself:
“They're real.”
Years later, after hundreds of sightings, she awoke to find a strange mark on her right hand.
“It was between my pointing and middle finger,” she said, “in the shape of a triangle. It hasn’t always been there...”
When she touched the mark, she became lightheaded and fainted. Then, she said, someone, or something, spoke to her telepathically. It told her the mark should not be removed and warned that, if she did remove it, another mark would appear somewhere else. Only then did she realize that she had been abducted numerous times.
Now an adult, she has difficulty remembering the abductions. She recalls that the beings seemed kind and playful when she was younger but became less so as she grew older.
Even so, the memories have never completely faded. The lights, the crop circle, the men in black, and the small gray figures remain scattered throughout her mind. What began with a child looking toward the sky became a lifetime of questions and whether she was ever truly alone.
