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Reality Checking—Alternate Perceptions Magazine, May 2020





by: Brent Raynes






Infant incidents

In the last issue of this magazine, Cathy Brockway told us in an interview how when she was only two months old that her mom had temporarily laid her in the middle of the bed while she saw her husband off for work. It was night-time and when she returned moments later to the bedroom, her baby was not where she had left her! Soon she was in a panic and hysterical as she unsuccessfully searched the house for her baby, even checking the back door to make certain that no one had broken in and kidnapped her child. She returned to the bedroom and then suddenly heard a noise from the closet. She opened the closet door and there little Cathy was. “I guess she had a hamper with clothes and inside the hamper was me,” Cathy explained. “So absolutely no idea how I got there. Could never figure it out and the thing is my mom would get very funny when she would tell this story. You could tell it bothered her and she didn’t tell it very often. I always thought it was really cool when she told me this story.”

Her mom would tell her, “Even if you could have rolled off the bed and into the closet, how would you have gotten up on the clothes?” As Cathy got older she thought about fairies. She had experienced elemental type beings and phenomena, and she thought to herself, “Maybe I’m a changeling or something like that.”

As an adult, at a new house she had moved into over in Charlotte, North Carolina, she was putting flowers out in the front yard when she was surprised to see what she can only describe as a gnome nearby! “It just sounds so crazy to say this to anybody, but all I can tell you is the shape was like the typical lawn gnome that you see. The thing is it didn’t have clothes or a hat or anything like that. It was brown. It had a pointed head and a face. Was very short. I’m going to say maybe 3 – 4 feet tall, and it was standing there kind of just frowning at us and just looking at us like ‘what are you doing?’ It was only there for like a flash of a second and it was so startling that my oldest daughter, who was probably about 15 at the time, said, ‘Ah mom, did you just see a little man standing there?’ and I’m like ‘Yes I did. I’m glad that you saw that too.’”

“A year later we moved to Nashville. A brand-new house. Working on landscaping in the front yard and my other two daughters were with me at that time and the exact same figure – brown, pointed head – only there for a flash of a second, and very disapproving or watching over what we were doing like ‘you’d better be careful with the plants.’ And my youngest daughter saw that one and so I’m like okay, I’m not crazy. It just sounds so crazy to say ‘we saw this little gnome. He was all brown.’”

Cathy also has pieces of strange memories that suggest to her that she has had alien encounters. “The first time that I have a conscious memory of it happening was when my first two children were little. They were just toddlers or babies, and I do remember – this was so disturbing to me… I remember being in bed. It was night time and I remember when I woke up that morning I recalled, ‘Oh my gosh, I think – I could have dreamed this but I’m pretty darned sure that I actually was awake and saw what you would call typical grey aliens walking down the hallway and going into my children’s room and I remember just closing my eyes and going back to sleep. I was so distraught when I remembered that because I was feeling guilty like why didn’t I get up and stop that? Why did I lay in bed?” I recently found that ufologist Ray Fowler had once investigated a case where it was reported that a baby had disappeared from its crib and was found outside locked doors! This particular family had a history of alleged “abduction” type incidents.

A man in Florida, whose family had reported seeing UFOs, and having had paranormal and abduction type experiences, wrote me: “When I was an infant living in Key West, I disappeared during the night for several hours. My parents were dumbfounded when I was found on another floor in the building where we lived because the doors were locked.”

These baby stories and the UFO and alien abduction aspect has recently had me inquiring around about more stories from others involving young babies or children who might have gone temporarily and inexplicably missing. Then I heard from a woman whose story topped the charts, so to speak.

“My mother tells me a bizarre story that she experienced when I was a baby. She said I was a few months old and it was night-time. We were asleep. Me in my crib. She says she isn’t sure if it was a dream or what but she woke up and in the room was a short ‘leprechaun in overalls looking’ [her words not mine] being who tossed a small ‘golf ball sized glowing ball’ at her which exploded when it hit her and paralyzed her. She says she couldn’t move or speak. The being then went to the crib, removed me and jumped out of the second-floor window with me in his arms. She says she then fell back into the pillows and re-awoke a little while later [she’s unsure how long] with a fearful start and ran to the crib. She says the crib was empty. She even ran her hands over the mattress, not trusting her eyes. She says she just couldn’t believe what she had witnessed and figured it was just a weird dream and maybe she left me by accident in my little carrier. So she says she went downstairs and searched the whole house. She really began panicking at this point because she did not find me. She decided crazy dream or not she was going to have go to the neighbors to call the police as I was not in the house. She went upstairs one last time to grab a sweater to go walk to the neighbors. She says the crib was right by the closet. As she got closer to the closet she could see me sleeping peacefully in the crib. She said she checked on me and I was fine. She swears she checked the crib multiple times (and) I was not in it. It freaked her out even telling me. I had asked about it when I began piecing together my experiences. I recalled she [her mother] put extra locks on and their quiet discussions about my ‘getting out at night.’”

Interesting the many reports of people describing how they perceived what should have been a very startling or very frightening event, but instead of rousing up and responding they slip off into a deep sleep, and only later, often hours later, when they re-awaken do they come around and try to understand what they remembered and figure out how they could have simply slipped off into sleep like they did at such an unusual time.





(Scott H. Colborn)
(November 11, 1951 – March 30, 2020)



On the night of March 31st, I got the dreadful news from a loyal listener that Scott H. Colborn, the host of KZUM 89.3 FM Radio's Exploring Unexplained Phenomena, out of Lincoln, Nebraska [one of the oldest such shows, going all the way back to 1984], passed away suddenly of a heart attack early Monday morning, March 30th. Scott, the former director of the Fortean Research Center in Lincoln, who organized the annual Ghost tours of that city and who taught many young people the joys of playing guitar, was a real stand-up, caring and positive soul. A very uplifting influence in so many lives. From what I've heard I don't think he ever met a stranger! His co-host and producer Jim Shorney assures me my assessment of Scott is right on.

Everyone was in shock at this news. I had just spoken with Scott on Saturday morning, the 28th, doing my little monthly segment entitled “What Is Reality?” on his weekly show. He was his usual jovial and talkative self. His last post on Facebook was Sunday evening about how he and his daughter Melissa went to a local Chinese restaurant for take-out and he read his fortune cookie: "The world will look a little better with some love given by you!" His Facebook page was inundated with many expressions of love for this man who touched so many lives. I can hear him now. "Stay curious my friends. Peace."


Jennie R. Zeidman

[March 9, 1932 – April 8, 2020]

Jennie R. Zeidman, Project Blue Book’s first secretary, recently passed away on April 8th, at age 88. Here are details of her life and contributions she made in ufology.

Click Here


Thursday, March 28, 2024