Some local residents claim the carvings were done by Boy Scouts decades ago, but I spoke with a Native American shaman who indicated the symbols have been there for as long as any of his people can remember. He found it amusing that those who are not descendants of the tribes in New York continue to take credit for all the amazing things ancient Native Americans did. Some historians and researchers in New York feel that the carvings (petroglyphs) could be more than six thousand years old.
If you ever get the chance to visit this site, you will see it was intended to be used as a ritual area to perhaps communicate with beings from another reality. I and many others have made frequent visits to Hawk Rock; when you enter the sacred area, you can actually feel the energy shift. There is a feeling of peace and goodness and all negative thoughts seem to dissolve from your mind. You have a strong feeling of being under a protective zone that isolates you from the harsh reality of our modern world.
During my investigations of the stone chambers and other megaliths structures in New York and New England, I became good friends with a Native American Algonquian shaman whose non-native name was “Charlie.” Charlie told me that the stone chambers are very old and built by people who came across the sea, but Hawk Rock is much older and was carved by his ancestors. During his life, I visited Charlie many times and learned the locations of sacred ground once kept secret by the Native Americans of New York. Charlie told me that Hawk Rock and the stone chambers are not the only sacred things found in the watershed area; it is also the location of burial grounds of an ancient people and the home of a Trickster.
Who or What Is a Trickster?
The Trickster is a spirit found in mythologies all around the world capable of shape-shifting into animals or humans. The Algonquian people believe the Trickster is a creator, destroyer, giver, and taker and will always try to trick unsuspecting humans just to have fun with them. Neither good nor evil, the Trickster has no moral or social values and is constantly at the mercy of his passions. Almost every indigenous tribe believes the Trickster has some divine traits and a few actually worship him as a god. The animal shapes he likes to take on most are the coyote, wolf, hawk, and owl. Whatever he may be, the Trickster seems to be a survivor that uses his wits to adapt to changing times. Even in modern times, the Trickster is believed to appear in many guises and continues to outwit the shaman and the people of the twenty-first century who live on the land he protects. Perhaps the shaman was correct in indicating the aliens and hooded beings as well as the strange sounds, animals, and UFOs seen at Hawk Rock are nothing more than the Trickster having fun and scaring people off his land. Native legends of the Trickster remind me of the Islamic tales of the Djinn—perhaps they are one and the same.
Was It a Trickster?
When I began my research, few people knew about Hawk Rock and the stone chambers.[2] As a result of my efforts to spread the word, quite a few people have been visiting these sites in warm weather hoping to touch another world. It has become a favorite location for the local Wicca population, which conducts their rituals during the most magical times of the year. On May 1, 2007, I received a call from two people who had an encounter with a creature from another reality at Hawk Rock. The two witnesses whose real first names are Jeff and Liz gave me permission to use their story (I am withholding their last names for privacy purposes). I arranged to interview them both at Jeff’s home in Kent Cliffs, New York, one week after their experience. Their story appears below.
Jeff had read about the stone chambers and Hawk Rock in an article I wrote for the local newspaper. He and Liz decided to try finding the place and picked a warm, mild day in May. Although they made a number of wrong turns, after several hours they finally came upon the sacred rock at about two in the afternoon. Jeff said, “As we walked through the perimeter of giant boulders, you could feel the atmosphere change and despite us being tired and hungry we both felt quite energized.” Liz added that when they walked into the “sacred area” she felt a presence as if someone or something was watching them. Together the couple walked over to the perching giant stone hawk to admire its craftsmanship.
Jeff and Liz placed a blanket on top of a large flat stone that faced the giant rock bird and began to eat lunch. After about fifteen minutes they heard a loud sound, like a human screaming. Startled, they both jumped to their feet thinking that some crazy person was in the thick wooded hill above them. Then the couple heard another sound off to the right. It sounded the same, but now there were two sources of the noise and they seemed to be signaling each other. Jeff and Liz felt surrounded. The screaming then changed to a series of grunts, then growls. The sound no longer seemed human but from some type of animal. The couple then heard something big moving in the woods and saw a dark mass no more than a hundred feet away from them. At first they thought it was a bear, but noticed that it was walking upright like a man. The creature stopped, and although it was partially hidden by the thick brush, they could see it looking straight at them. Terrified, they left their belongings behind and ran to the trail. They could still hear the creature’s cries in the woods as they made their way back to the car. The experience was so unsettling they never went back to Hawk Rock again.
Over the past ten years, I have received several emails, letters, and calls from people who saw a similar creature in Hawk Rock’s vicinity. There were also reports of globes of light circling the petroglyphic bird and sightings of alien-like beings with red eyes that glowed in the dark. On two of my many solitary trips to that area, I have also heard strange sounds and Celtic flute music that seemed to come from everywhere in the woods. I often asked myself, were the sounds flowing in from another reality, or was it just a Trickster having fun?
Night Out at Hawk Rock
A number of people I have worked with on past paranormal investigations had been planning to camp out at Hawk Rock for several years just to see what would happen. We finally agreed the all-night vigil would take place in August 2008. The group, which was originally to consist of nine, were people from many backgrounds and expertise. They included Francine Vale, a healer and spiritual teacher; Paul Greco, an artist and founder of the UFO Roundtable in Yonkers, New York; Golden Hawk, whom I mentioned earlier; her friend Alana; Rosemary Ellen Guiley, a well-known paranormal author and researcher; Scott, a musician; Nadine, a very talented artist and her husband, Ted; Donna Savino, a member of the New England Antiquities Research Association (NEARA); and myself, the leader of this group and resident scientist.
I decided to divide the exploration of Hawk Rock into three parts: the first would be a meeting at my home where we would discuss both the history and paranormal events of that area, the second would be a day trip to Hawk Rock, and the third would be our spending the night under the stars near the great bird. The first meeting took place in July at my home in Connecticut. All of us in the group discussed what they expected to accomplish at Hawk Rock; the general agreement was to document some type of contact experience. We planned a day trip the first weekend in August, weather permitting. The Saturday of the day trip came and we couldn’t have asked for better weather to begin our hike to Hawk Rock. While walking through the woods and passing by two stone chambers, Golden Hawk (whose story is presented earlier) began to reminisce about her experience with the hooded beings at the Mother Earth (“the Womb”) chamber. The journey to Hawk Rock took about an hour or so, and I could tell that several members of the group were quite tired because the day was warm and the insects were biting.
As we reached the end of the trail and entered the sacred circle, I pointed out the many boulders pushed down from the north by giant glaciers during the last Ice Age. For some group members, this was their first trip to Hawk Rock, and as we passed through the line of carved stones that indicated the entrance into sacred ground, everyone experienced a definite shift not only in temperature, but also in temperament. The cooler temperature made us all feel very good, and the fatigue was gone as if some unknown f
orce was flowing through giving us a second wind. Everyone also noticed the flies and other insects were no longer bothering us! As we continued walking, several group members commented that the trees and plants here were different than those in the rest of the woods. There were tall pines with many brown needles on the ground that gave the area a surreal appearance.
Just below and to the east of the perching stone hawk was a large outcrop of rock about 5 feet above the ground. This rock was flattened on top and was large enough to fit all nine of us comfortably. We relaxed for a while, ate our lunch, and talked about how peaceful it felt. After lunch, Francine led us through a meditation in which some members of the group said they saw images and had vision-like dreams. Paul then photographed the area and was able to image bright globes of light invisible to the naked eye. The globes Paul photographed were very bright and more than the usual orb images that appear in many digital photographs. These bright globes appeared only around Hawk Rock and in the location where others have reported seeing the spirit of a Native American shaman.
Our group stayed for about two hours. Then we slowly made our way back through the woods to the cars. On the return hike, all the members of the group, myself included, continued to comment how good—almost euphoric—we felt. In a way, we had our own private experiences that day, but they were not going to prepare us for our next objective: the overnight stay.
We agreed that the 23rd of August would be a good night to sleep out at Hawk Rock; my only concern was with the weather. The northeastern part of the United States is notorious for spontaneous midsummer thunderstorms, and I didn’t want us getting trapped in the woods since that particular area is noted for multiple lightning strikes. As we got closer to the date in question, Francine and Paul were not able to make it, but the rest of us were ready and eager to go. We arrived in the parking area about six in the evening and began our long trip into the woods. As we got closer to Hawk Rock, Donna and Nadine strongly felt that something was following us but keeping its distance. We arrived at Hawk Rock just before sunset and began preparing for a long night.
The seven of us set up our sleeping bags on the flat meditation rock and although we had flashlights, a candle was lit and the group began to relax and talk. As darkness fell, we were all quite surprised how noisy it was with insects and other sounds that came from the surrounding woods. By eleven o’clock, it was so dark that we could not see beyond our candlelight illuminating the side of the great hawk like a living apparition from another world. A short time later, I got the group together and decided to do a meditation that Charlie (the Native American shaman) had taught me to connect with our spirit animals. Although I don’t believe in rituals of any nature, it seemed a good way to get everyone in the mood and open our minds to act as a possible conduit to connect with the intelligence Nadine and Donna felt was watching us.
We finished the meditation, and as if in response, a startling sound came from the woods. I will never forget it: at first it sounded like a human trying to imitate an animal, perhaps a coyote. Donna asked what it was, thinking at first it was an animal, but another member of our group said it was human. We thought there was someone out in the woods watching us, having a laugh at our expense. However, the sound continued and shifted into more of an animal noise. It’s very hard to describe, but we realized that this was not a human and not any animal that we were familiar with. It was almost like a cry, but it seemed to be directed toward us. Rosemary and I thought it could be a shape-shifter because its vocalizations went from human to something not human. The sound came from the north side of the ridge, but the foliage was so thick that even with our flashlights we could not see what was causing it.
Some of the members of our group became fearful and the sound stopped, as if in response. Needless to say, no one was able to sleep . . . but more was yet to come.
Things remained quiet until about two in the morning. Shortly after, while all of us were lying down on the rock, a barely visible object or force passed over us. Most of us saw it; as this thing passed overhead, the sky became distorted; like when one looks through heat waves coming off a car or roof on a hot summer day. In the woods, several of us saw what appeared to be tiny red lights that disappeared and reappeared. To me they looked like eyes, but to Rosemary they looked like small individual lights. At about three in the morning, I sat up and Donna said something to me. It seemed my eyes closed for a second and the next thing I knew it was five in the morning and members of the group were calling my name! I really can’t say what happened, but I seemed to have lost consciousness for about two hours and experienced no passage of time. You might say that perhaps I fell asleep, but the answer to that would be absolutely not: due to severe knee injuries acquired during my time in the military, I was in a great deal of pain sitting on the hard, damp rock. We packed our gear at the break of dawn to the tune of two owls in the still-dark woods. We had a long trek through the woods back to our cars.
We discussed what had taken place on the way to the parking area and decided to stop at a diner in Carmel. I was happy to hear that Rosemary and Scott were able to tape the sound we heard; at least there was some evidence that could be analyzed. While eating, three crows landed on the railing outside our window and just perched there, staring at us. As I watched them, I thought of Charlie’s many stories of the Trickster that could take different shapes to play with one’s mind. One of the crows had an injured leg, but they all stood almost motionless and stared into the window. They stayed and observed us until we left; it was a very strange sight.
Follow-Up
To summarize, we could not identify the sound that we recorded that night, despite input from various wildlife experts. The people on a website about owling thought it may have been an unusual call of a barred owl, but I consulted an owl expert who once worked for the Audubon society: he told me it was not an owl—it sounded more human.[3] He made the suggestion that perhaps someone was playing a trick on us. All of us present that night will never forget the sound—it was no trick—at least not a human one! As for the red lights in the woods and the invisible thing that passed over us, we also have no explanation. The Native American Medicine Council of Litchfield, Connecticut, told me we heard a shape-shifter, and the red lights were evil spirits that only came out in the dark and could not approach the sacred rock. The Council believed the invisible force was a good spirit that protected the sacred grounds and knew we had good intentions and allowed us to stay under its protection. All the members of our group are eager to once again return to Hawk Rock and spend the night, but this time we plan to bring various types of equipment and instruments so that any manifestations can be fully documented.
[1]. The Chuang Yen Monastery is a Chinese Buddhist temple/monastery in Putnam County, New York, near the town of Lake Carmel. Its Great Buddha Hall houses the largest Buddha statue in the United States.
[2]. My research into the stone chambers and other megalithic structures began in late 1982.
[3]. The Audubon Society’s mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity.
Psychic Powers:
Reality, Hoax, or Delusion?
The number of practicing psychics in the United States is staggering. I can drive up and down the major streets in any town of New York and Connecticut and see a sign saying “Psychic Readings,” “Palm Readings,” or “Tarot Card Readings.” Like any profession in the service industry, there are good practitioners and bad ones. Over a ten-year period, I conducted a part-time investigation and visited thirty-six psychics across the northeastern United States. My goal during this investigation was to observe the range of abilities in professional practicing psychics. In one month, I actually had three readings from three well-known psychics, and although they were correct in some aspects of my personal life and history, most of the informatio
n differed between them and was only partially correct.
Each “professional” psychic claims to have a specialty: some channel spirit guides (or, in rare cases, aliens from another star system), while others are hired to find lost items. Most of the practicing psychics I have talked to are mediums—individuals who claim the ability to contact spirits and those who have passed over. This is a popular specialty and some well-known mediums who have shown a track record of accuracy made it big with book sales and their own radio and television shows.
During my thirty-plus years in researching the paranormal, I have encountered a number of psychics who have extraordinary abilities, but there is an equal number who have not impressed me at all. My investigation of the psychic world has been published in a number of Connecticut newspapers over the years. In one of these publications, I was compared to Harry Houdini, who, in an attempt to prove whether or not life exists after death, paid many visits to psychics (“mediums” as they were called) in the early twentieth century.
Houdini never found any proof that the self-professed mediums of his day were in contact with the next world. He exposed some famous mediums as frauds and received many death threats from unstable individuals and cult groups as a result. I fashioned part of my investigation on Houdini’s work but did so with less passion than the great magician and escape artist. The great Houdini investigated the psychics and mediums of the early twentieth century with too much emotion and no objectivity, so I decided to be objective and let the data from the research determine my conclusions—not my personal feelings. To get a better understanding of my investigation in this area, I would like to share with my readers the great Houdini’s exposé of the psychics of his day.
Files From the Edge Page 17