Reality Checking
Invisibility, UFOs, Shamans, and the Draco connection
By Brent Raynes
“The first instance occurred when a bright, white light appeared outside my bedroom window on the east side of the house,” she began. “I noticed that the tall lilac bushes which covered that window for privacy simply were not there when the light was present. I saw this when looking directly at the light and also indirectly in the mirror. I (saw) all the features of the neighbor’s side of the house next to ours, which normally could not be seen because of the lilac bushes. It seemed as though there was an invisible tunnel between the light source and me, which prevented me from seeing anything but the light.”
“The second instance occurred, again, with a bright white light outside my bedroom window. That light began to wobble back and forth and moved from pane to pane as it crept closer to the window. Suddenly it shot like a flash through the closed window to within a foot of me. I recognized the light and embraced it. An intense force field emanated from the light, which prevented me from actually touching it. I had been worried about Carlos (an abductee friend here in Tennessee – Editor) that night and spontaneously implored the light to please take care of Carlos. Then thanked the light profusely. At that point, I lost consciousness--what seemed like a brief instance. Later I became aware of a tiny golden ball of light, staring at me about three feet from my face. The thought popped into my head that I should perform an experiment to see if I could block the view of the gold ball with my hand. As I swept my hand across the light, the ball was not blocked by my hand. Instead, my hand disappeared as it moved across the light. This seemed to satisfy my experiment.”
“The third instance occurred in the bedroom, again. A pinkish cloud floated through the window and positioned itself over my head. Again, I seemed to recognize the object and the thought popped into my head that I should conduct another experiment. I wanted to see what would happen to my hand if I thrust it into the pink cloud. I did so and my hand and part of my arm disappeared from view in the cloud. The cloud really didn’t feel like anything except some very subtle vibrations.”
“The fourth case of disappearance occurred when I was working at the sink about 4 p.m. one late summer day and noticed through the window facing north an orange ball of light over the neighbor’s house. There was something odd about the light so I stepped out onto the deck, still facing north, to get a better look. After watching the light for about five minutes I thought I should get my camera to take a picture of it. As I grabbed the camera, I began to feel a little anxious. By the time I got back to the deck I was feeling very agitated but couldn’t figure why. In the one-minute interval it took to get the camera, the light had disappeared and my anxiety had soared to an unbearable extent. I knew something was very wrong about the light but my extreme feeling of unease made no sense to me. As I watched the neighbor’s house, the thought popped into my head ‘better them than me.’ After that thought came, I suddenly realized what was wrong. The tall trees blocking that portion of the neighbor’s house were not there when I was watching the orange light. I thought about the idea of the pathway between the light and me and experienced that ‘Oh-Oh!’ moment when it dawned on me that the connection of the light was not with the neighbors but with me.”
“When I was describing one of these cases to a MUFON member at a meeting, he told me about a person he knew who saw a blue beam of light projected down from a craft overhead. The person had the idea that he should stick his hand and arm into the blue beam and, when he did, they disappeared in the light. This is very similar to my pinkish cloud experiment.”
Separate from ufology, in shamanic and occult accounts and traditions, invisibility may be achieved by engaging in certain rituals and ceremonies. Contactees have been known to “call in” (materialize?) the “saucers” by forming meditative circles; fairies (elementals) have been known to form “circles” to “dance” and “sing” in and shift from one reality to another – oft-times, it is told, altering the consciousness of humans who dare venture into their midst and who later find themselves in the world of the elementals/fairies, or else, like “alien abductees,” often “come to” in an “alien” world and then eventually back in their own world, the victims of so-called partial “missing time.”
The parallels are quite striking and suggestive and should be difficult to ignore, though ufologists sold on the “nuts and bolts” bill of ufological goods generally choose to ignore these global and historical comparisons.
I have found that many of the more spectacular contactees have been people of Native American ancestry, and again and again these people also describe pronounced encounters with the “spirit world” as well. To many Native Americans the “Star People” and the “spirit world” are a natural part of their own world. I’ve been quite engrossed in such matters for quite a number of years. For example, back in October 1979, my ears perked up at a public function involving Native Americans in Florence, Alabama, when a Cherokee elder casually remarked, “Our ancestors came off a space ship, called a thunderbird.” I approached him after his talk and learned not only of his strong belief in how his people had been seeded here by extraterrestrials, but also of his belief in the nearness of the spirit realm. He even expressed that UFOs were probably “spirit” manifestations and were “people from God.” He also shared with me how after his mother’s passing in 1975, his mom had visited him on three separate occasions, and he said that she appeared to him as real as she had been when she was alive. He said he even kissed her! He pointed out that such experiences are not uncommon among American Indians.
Back in 1976 and 1977, I twice visited a Native American shaman of Susquehannock ancestry at his home in Pennsylvania. He kept me spellbound for hours with personal tales of both “spirit” and ufonaut visitations. To him UFOs were not only “interplanetary space craft” but also “spirits,” adding “as are the spirits, powers, forces and beings who ride them, materializing to whom they will.” While John Keel had long ago written of UFOs appearing in areas of Indian Mounds, this shaman talked about constructing “prayer mounds” for his own use. He said that he had been instructed by his elders in the building of his first such mound at age four. He said that inside many mounds are crystals. “The primary purpose of the ‘crystals’ in some mounds and other places are beacons to guide in the outer space craft,” he explained. “Secondarily, the crystals have healing qualities.”
“I pray on mounds and commune with the Great Spirit and the Spirit of Mother Earth,” the shaman added. “We can communicate with powers, forces, spirits and elementals. Often they manifest to us in physical form. Sometimes only a voice.” Madeline Teagle of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, a contactee with some Iroquois ancestry, shared with me how she had witnessed spirit manifestations in the Pennsylvania shaman’s presence. She described how she witnessed him once performing a successful rain dance ceremony during a dry spell when a cloud in the sky split in half and what looked like four beings appeared in the sky. She said that one being looked “almost like a half bird, half human.” Madeline was even having constructed one of these “prayer mounds” on her property, at a spot where years earlier she had had one of her first alien encounters – a basketball-sized lemon-colored ball of light.
Though the shaman passed away late in 1979, his wife later shared with me how her husband continued to visit her. One very spectacular experience that she described occurred one day when she was feeling emotionally overwhelmed thinking of the loss of her husband and burst out in tears. She laid down and tried to calm herself. “Suddenly I felt something pulling my cover from my right hand, a hand warm and firm (that) took hold of mine. Looking up, unafraid, I beheld my lover husband smiling down at me. He didn’t say a word, as he enveloped me in his arms. These two felt warm and good to me. My heart beat like it did when we first met and that is exactly how he appeared, young again. I remember asking him if I dare kiss him. No words, his head came down and one thing I am still puzzled over is that as I reached up to stroke his face like I used to when we kissed each other, there I felt none of the solidness that was in his body, his arms, etc.”
On another occasion, she was down in the basement of her home fixing a coal window, something that her shaman husband had never allowed her to do when he was alive. “I saw legs from the knees down,” she noted, feeling that he was probably still keeping a concerned eye on her I gathered. “But Brent, this seemed so matter of fact that it only dawned on me when I came upstairs that legs ought not to have been there. I rushed down but it was gone.”
I’ve heard and read of similar things from others (i.e., the younger, youthful appearance of deceased loved ones who return for a brief visitation and how it’s sometimes only after a paranormal experience that one suddenly realizes how truly unusual and unnatural an occurrence was).
The shaman had told me that the ET’s came to his people from the constellation of Draco and that Ohio’s famous Serpent Mound was a representation of it. “The Great Serpent represents the constellation from which the original Mound Builders came to earth,” he explained. “Whiteman calls it Draco the Dragon. To us, it is the Homeland of one branch of our Family and Clan.” Through the years, I have seen various researchers arriving at the conclusion that this site and others have a connection with Draco. In Mysteries of the Ancient Past (2012), edited by Glenn Kreisberg, the author noted: “When researching Earth surface constructions that specifically reflect the constellation Draco, I discovered there are examples from around the world, including the temples at Ankor Wat, in Cambodia, documented by Graham Hancock. It also turns out the well-documented Great Serpent Mound in Ohio….also conforms to the constellation Draco. Also, a site discovered and documented by Lee Pennington in Fort Mountain, Georgia, is said to represent the serpent constellation.”
