by Steve Alten
Removing a laser pointer from his jacket pocket, he turned it on, directing its powerful emerald-green light at a patch of star-filled sky overhead. “As you can see this laser is quite powerful, with a range that extends some 200 miles into space. I’m always careful not to use it whenever planes are around. It’s not just a pointer; it is also one of our tools of communication. I remember the first night we used it. We were in the foothills of New Mexico when I flashed the laser at what I assumed was a satellite. The object flashed back at us before dematerializing into a cigar-shaped craft. It remained visible almost ten seconds before vanishing.”
Using his laser, Greer traced a circle around two stars. “You can’t quite see the entire constellation because of these clouds, but these two stars are part of the Big Dipper and they always point to Polaris, the North Star. Using our navigation points, we’d describe Polaris as what … about thirty degrees northeast. Everyone understand?
“The bright object peeking out behind this cloud is Jupiter. Over here we have a formation of stars known as the Winter Triangle. The lower star is Sirius, the upper—Procyon, and the star pointing at three o’clock is Betelgeuse, part of the Orion constellation …”
Adam closed his eyes, feeling himself nod off.
Leslie Ann shook him awake. “You were snoring.”
“Sorry.”
“I know you’re all hoping for a vessel to dematerialize out of the sky like the one I just described, but there are many other ways for us to experience a close encounter with an ET. Back in the early 1990s, I came up with the idea of using radio transmitters like this one—Leslie Ann can you hold that up? When we used the transmitter to broadcast CSETI tones into the atmosphere, within minutes an omni-directional, non-local anomalous tone came back to us. This clearly demonstrates not only the ET’s expression of intelligence, but their desire to communicate with us.”
Adam rolled his eyes. Or maybe your next door neighbor was using his ham radio …
“This next device is a magnetometer—a magnetic field sensor. We use it to detect an ET vessel as it phase-shifts from the higher dimensions of thought energy into our own physical world.
“This object here is a thunderbolt detector. We’ve discovered that a certain race of ETs—a very evolved, physically-imposing species who are extremely protective of what we are doing—will often let us know they’re here by sending a distinct signal through this particular sensor. This isn’t unusual by the way; many extraterrestrials, as well as souls in the spiritual world, often use electronics as a means of communicating across other realms.
“Now, as far as what to look for, an incoming ET craft can appear like a meteor, only they are moving more slowly, or a second meteor may follow the same path within seconds. Besides having no tail, an ET craft may streak directly down from the apex of the sky and go into the ground with no explosion or disturbance. A CSETI team witnessed a bright teal object do this in Joshua Tree National Park in November 1996.
“Some UFOs resemble stars. They might blink off and on randomly, sometimes moving slightly between the blinks. We once observed a whole squadron of craft in Sedona that blinked off and on for ten minutes in one area of the sky. When a laser was pointed at one of the objects it glinted off the craft.
“It’s also important I mention orbs. They vary in size and can be craft or drones. They are often a uniform amber or gold, although they can appear in various colors. Orbs often will remain stationary for a period of time, though they do move about as well. These are not to be confused with flares which are often dropped by the military to confuse observers after a genuine sighting has occurred. A flare will float downwards at different rates and give off smoke.
“Orbs can also be huge. In 1998, observers in England saw a very large orange globe rise above the horizon, then dip back below, then rise again before it suddenly disappeared. This object was observed on two separate nights in two different locations. The second night, after it rose above the horizon for the second time, it ‘dissolved’ as it disappeared. Within thirty seconds, several British military jets and helicopters appeared in the area, one chopper dropping a flare in the vicinity where the object had been seen.
“There is also a phenomenon you need to be aware of known as a distorted sky. This happens when an ET craft hovering just beyond the crossing point of light causes a distortion in the star field, leaving a shimmering effect even though no object can be seen. If this occurs, and it has on numerous occasions, assume there may be ETs on the ground nearby or among the observing group. During such an event, members of the group may sense a change in atmospheric pressure which can be felt in the observer’s ears, a sudden stillness or quietness, and the hair on your head, arms, or legs may stand on end. Don’t be startled if the radar goes off.
“Interactions between ETs and individuals in a CE-5 group range from sensing a presence, to a loving personal acknowledgment, to full telepathic conversations. The sense of love is almost always present, no matter the level of the interaction, and the expression can be truly wonderful and unforgettable. The conversations are typically non-verbal. Field observers have reported shimmering-light ETs that have stood in front of them or sat on their feet for a prolonged time.
“Touch is another way an ET might engage with you. While we are meditating you may feel a gentle contact, as if something is touching you, only when you open your eyes nothing is there.
“Most important—remember our mission. We are here to ask our ET ambassadors and guests to appear to us in a form that is most safe to them. Sometimes an extraterrestrial may choose not to fully materialize, giving off sort of a sparkling light. When an ET does spin-shifts across the crossing point of light and dematerializes in our physical world, they become visible not only to us but to the military—a condition potentially dangerous to the extraterrestrial. If this happens, it’s routine for us to be buzzed by Air Force jetfighters. So again when we go into our group meditation, each of us is asking the ET to appear using the method which they feel is safest both for them … and for us.”
Dr. Greer left the center of the gathering to take his seat within the circle.
“Let us begin. CE-5 is a close encounter of the fifth kind, the fifth kind defined as humans initiating contact with ETs. We do this through meditation and a technique called remote viewing. For those of you new to remote viewing, I’m going to walk you through it. As for the meditation, I’m going to give you a simple mantra. We use the mantra to keep our thoughts from straying. I’ll repeat the mantra a few times; then you can join in with me.
Greer repeated it several times, the first syllable an upper tone, the second a full tone lower, with the last a half note in-between.
“Let’s try it together.”
Adam closed his eyes, feeling ridiculous as he chanted the mantra.
The group continued until Dr. Greer instructed them to repeat the chant only to themselves.
For several minutes it was quiet, save for the sound of the wind rustling through the surrounding forests and the occasional electronic chirp from a sensor.
In due time Dr. Greer began, speaking in a calm, melodic voice. “Now, as we become aware that we are all created by one light … one consciousness; that this cosmic mind allows each one of us to be awake and living together in peace … that we are all drops from the same ocean, the same pure being who is watching and standing with us.
“And now, desiring only to share our presence with that of another consciousness, we allow our minds to leave our bodies. Looking down, we hover over ourselves, registering the unified oneness of our meditation circle. Floating higher, we rise above the dark contours of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the traffic headlights distinguishing the highways as they curve around the Virginia landscape. We can see the lights of Washington, D.C., quickly fading as we soar above the eastern seaboard of the United States until we are high over the Atlantic. We’re entering space now, gazing down upon the curvature of our planet as we feel the infinite love of Gaia—Mot
her Earth—and we vow to lift the burdens humanity has placed upon her.
“And now as we move off into space we see extraterrestrial vessels orbiting the far side of the moon and massive structures erected on the lunar surface. Leaving Earth-space, we race past Mars and head for Jupiter, registering the presence of a large extraterrestrial mother ship in orbit around the massive planet. Continuing beyond Saturn, we quickly leave our own solar system to travel light years past other stars until we find ourselves gazing at the Milky Way, a spiral galaxy composed of 100 billion stars, each system possessing its own planets, many of them inhabited.
“Circling our galaxy, we invite any ETs whose path we cross to join us. We vector them to us by focusing our thoughts on our spiral galaxy and the arm of Orion. From there we head back to our star system and the nine planets revolving around our sun. We lead our ET friends to our blue world, the third planet from the sun, escorting them to the eastern seaboard of North America and back to the dark contours of the Blue Ridge Mountains, beckoning them to join our community in this clearing, inviting them into our circle. We ask them to manifest in any form they feel is safe … in electronics, in sound, in physicality.
“Now I will remain silent while each of you repeats the remote viewing journey we just completed together, vectoring other civilizations to us, allowing your mind to connect with any interstellar vessels that cross your path.”
Adam attempted the mental exercise, making it as far out as the moon before he drifted off into sleep …
* * *
The woman from Wisconsin shook him awake.
“… anyone else have anything they’d like to share? Yes, Andrew?”
The heavyset Brit rose to his feet, bundled in his orange parka. “Moving off into space, I thought I sensed the color yellow flowing in a counterclockwise direction.”
Adam coughed, attempting to suppress a chuckle.
Dr. Greer was not amused. “Colors, sensations, scents—anything can remind us of something we may have remote viewed without even realizing it. What’s important, Mr. Shariak, is that you first believe something is possible in order to perceive it. If you had not first believed in aerodynamics, you could never have flown a helicopter. There is a saying, ‘as ye have faith, so shall your powers and blessings be.’ This is faith, not in the religious sense, but in an affirmative confidence that something can be, and to that extent, it will be. Knowing this helps people get out of their own way.
“Anyone else?”
* * *
It was almost three in the morning by the time Adam found himself back in the Greer’s guest room. Chilled to the bone, he thought about taking a hot shower until he sat on the queen-sized bed. Succumbing to gravity and fatigue, he managed to kick off his shoes and turn off the desk lamp before his head hit the pillow.
Moonlight violated the open slats of the Venetian blinds, casting a luminous pattern on the opposite wall. Too tired to move, Adam stared at the wall and the pattern of reflected lunar light, his mind drifting even as he realized …
There’s someone looking through the window at me.
He could not see the face peering in through the gaps in the Venetian blinds, only the long shadow of its enormous head, and the bulbous compound eyes and antennae. Instinctively he knew the extraterrestrial was a species of insect—first because the praying mantis was five feet tall; second because it had two legs and two arms, with sharp spikes protruding from the forearms.
What was really bizarre was Adam’s response. He simply continued to lie in bed, watching the being that was watching him. He had no doubt the Mantis-Man was intelligent and, like his own species, a product of evolution. The difference was simply the source material; humans having sprouted from primates, his visitor’s race from insects.
He waved at the ET.
The ET waved back.
Comforted by the being’s response, Adam rolled over and fell asleep.
* * *
“… huh?”
He opened his eyes to see Emily Greer hovering over him in her bathrobe.
“Come quickly, Steven needs you.”
Rolling out of bed, Adam methodically placed his bare right flesh foot next to the mechanical version of his left. Stand … and left … right … left—
Leaving the bedroom, he headed for the stairs, fighting the urge to hop down on his right leg to save time.
What the hell …
Amber waves of sunlight were streaming through the open front door and windows, the light so bright he could not see the front entryway.
Steven Greer was standing outside in his bathrobe and gray sweatpants, looking up at the source of light.
Adam, come out here and join me.
The Under Secretary of Defense rubbed his eyes, attempting to wake up. Greer’s words had echoed in his mind, and yet the man’s mouth had never opened.
Yes, I can hear your thoughts and I know you can hear mine. Now come outside please and let them see you.
Them? Vaguely recalling something about insects, Adam strode awkwardly out onto the front porch, grabbed Steven’s arm … and looked up.
“Whoa shit.”
The extraterrestrial vessel was enormous, its chevron-shaped undercarriage, hovering fifty feet above the roof of the Greers’ farmhouse, easily two hundred feet across. Three amber lights were aligned in the shape of an equilateral triangle, and everything within its borders appeared to shimmer.
Stay calm. They want to meet you.
As they moved away from the farmhouse, Adam registered a strange sensation—the air now still, the temperature noticeably warmer.
What’s happening?
Removing the laser pointer from his robe pocket, Dr. Greer aimed it down the driveway and pressed the power switch.
The green beam of light traveled seventy feet before dispersing into a prism of color.
My God … Greer, are we inside the vessel?
Yes, only it’s not completely phased in. I want you to meet a friend. Adam Shariak, this is Kindness.
As Adam watched, a luminous light appeared before him, materializing into the form of a woman. Her head was round and hairless, her eyes—almond-shaped, her features that of another species, yet still quite feminine. Only the lack of flaps around her ear holes identified her as something not quite human. She wore a one-piece outfit composed of a reflective silver cloth, and both the material and her pale skin seemed to shimmer.
She smiled at Adam, emanating an energy which exuded compassion.
Kindness was introduced to us through the spirit of my assistant, Shari, shortly after she died in 1998. Kindness is an ambassador to many species. While she still exists in the physical world, she shares a God-consciousness that allows her to function as an avatar in the spiritual realm. There are twenty-seven emissaries aboard this vessel, and many more that remain in orbit outside the crossing point of light.
Why are they here … oh!
For a brief, powerful moment Adam Shariak’s consciousness suddenly bloomed, allowing him to observe the Earth from the vantage of a higher dimension—and what he absorbed was as enlightening as it was frightening.
Suckling energy from the star about which it orbited, the blue world functioned as a living, breathing complex synergistic system designed to incubate, birth, and sustain life. Its heartbeat was the rock-steady spin which perpetually circulated its life-giving fluids; its lungs were the Amazon rainforest; its kidneys the oceans. Ice at the poles and heat at the equator regulated its thermostat; magma regenerated its skin.
For the last three-and-a-half billion years, the Earth had served as an incubator for life, its ever-changing atmosphere, seas, and land evolving to serve the complexities of its species.
And now one of its offspring had given it cancer.
The malignancy was everywhere. The Amazon rain forest, once lush, dense, and green was decimated and dying, its breathing capacity operating at the equivalent of half a lung. This exacerbated conditions in the atmosphere, which appeared th
ick with carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Observing the planet, Adam could sense the effects of global warming through the attributes of his host. He could feel the deep rumbling of Antarctica’s polar ice as it melted, fragmented, and collapsed; he could taste the acidification of the oceans … the seas poisoned with mercury, the marine life dying—the cancer spreading throughout the world’s food chains.
The aftermath was a sobering, gut-punching lesson delivered by Mother Nature as terrifying images of humanity’s obituary raced across his mind’s eye.
Tens of thousands of acres of crops—America’s breadbasket—shriveled beneath a dense smoke-gray sky, the drought delivered by changing weather patterns—photosynthesis disrupted by man’s refusal to abandon fossil fuels.
The images accelerated into the very near future, mass starvation leading to riots, cities burning to the ground, the dying feeding off the dead, disease rampant …
As he bore witness to his species’ demise, the terrifying scenes gradually disappeared behind a blizzard of snow which steadily blanketed Earth’s continents.
Adam knew what had happened, he had felt the toxins blanketing the atmosphere, baking the planet and melting the polar ice.
Greenland’s ice was melting—it had been for many years, releasing a steady tsunami of fresh water that was seeping into the North Atlantic Current—a warm water conveyor belt which circulated heat across North America and Europe.
It was saline that mobilized the current, and now Greenland’s melting ice had finally and irreversibly shut it down—