" PARANORMAL WORLD"
" WELCOMES RICK STOKES "
Chris Holly
Chris Holly's Paranormal World would like to welcome Rick Stokes who will now be writing about the subjects covered on this site to help us all in our understanding of the unknown.
Over the years of writing about the paranormal I have had the pleasure of working with Rick. I quickly discovered he was a bright talented man who understands that we have a great deal to learn about subjects we consider unknown.
Rick and I came to a place where working together seemed to be a logical way for us both to continue on with exploring and writing about many things that come to our attention considered paranormal, strange and without question unknown. We will be joining forces to l help us all toward the road of answers concerning many of the ongoing mysteries categorized unknown and unexplained.
Over the past five years, Rick Stokes served as news editor for the The Anomalist, a popular website dealing with reports of unexplained events, sightings and encounters. During that time he was exposed to a wide range of anomalous subjects dealing with everything from alien abductions and UFOs to poltergeists, ghosts and undiscovered creatures. He has had a lifelong interest in subjects that deal with the nature of what we have simply labeled "The Unknown." Thank you
"Rick Stokes "
A WARNING IS NEEDED AS SUMMER DRAWS NEAR:
A WARNING IS NEEDED AS SUMMER DRAWS NEAR: MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WILL TAKE TO THE GREAT OUTDOORS AROUND THE WORLD, HIKING, BIKING, HUNTING, FISHING, SWIMMING AND CAMPING.
CHRIS HOLLY AND I HAVE NOTED THE INCREASING REPORTS OF UFO SIGHTINGS, AND WE KNOW FROM THE REPORTS OF OUR READERS - AND, PERHAPS MORE IMPORTANTLY, FROM THE REAL TIME ABDUCTEES FEATURED IN MANY OF CHRIS'S ARTICLES HERE AT "CHRIS HOLLY'S PARANORMAL WORLD" - THAT MANY OF THESE SIGHTINGS DON'T STOP WITH A GLIMPSE OF AN ANOMALOUS OBJECT IN THESKY.
THE SIGHTINGS ARE SOMETIMES ACCOMPANIED BY INDICATIONS OF "MISSING TIME," AND THERE IS A SMALLER BUT MOST IMPORTANT INDICATION SOME OF THESE SIGHTINGS LEAD TO THE TOTAL DISAPPEARANCE OF SOME EXPERIENCE RS. SO PLEASE VIEW THE FOLLOWING REPORTS THAT WERE RELATED BY THE WITNESSES TO CHRIS HOLLY AS WARNINGS ABOUT WHAT YOU COULD SEE AND EXPERIENCE WHILE ENJOYING THE SUMMER SEASON.
ENJOY NATURE IN ALL ITS ASPECTS, BUT REMAIN VIGILANT, AND TRY TO ENSURE YOU ARE NEVER ALONE IN YOUR VENTURES. THERE IS MUCH THAT CAN BE CONSIDERED DANGEROUS OR THREATENING IN ANY ENCOUNTER WITH THE UNKNOWN.
EXAMINE THE REPORTS THAT FOLLOW FOR WHAT YOU COULD DO TO MAKE SURE YOU DON'T BECOME A VICTIM THIS SUMMER, IF YOU UNWITTINGLY FIND YOURSELF IN THE MIDDLE OF AN EVENT THAT EXCEEDS ANY DESCRIPTION OF WHAT WE CONSIDER NORMAL. BE SURE YOU AND YOUR COMPANIONS ARE PREPARED IF YOU'RE UNFORTUNATE ENOUGH TO HAVE AN ENCOUNTER WITH THEUNKNOWN! -- RICK STOKES
'Seeing is believing. A picture is worth a thousand words. I would not have believed it if I had not seen it with my own eyes.' I'm sure you've heard quotes like these all of your life. I'm also sure you've felt you needed to experience certain things for yourself before believing they were true. The people I've written about here felt that way about many subjects listed under the paranormal heading. They knew people talked about, wrote about and made movies about such things, but they really never believed any of it to be true - until, of course, they came face-to-face with such phenomena and saw the enigma up front and clearly - with their own eyes.
The first encounter that forced mostly skeptical eyes wide open happened to a young couple I know through a friend of a friend. I met the couple a few times briefly and could tell they felt I was that wacko who writes about all the crazy paranormal stuff! They look at me differently now - in fact, they look at lots of things differently now. This couple and their six-year-old son had what you would call a "life changing experience" one weekend late in the summer of 2011 while on a camping trip in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York.
The three of them would often pack up their camping gear and take long weekends in different forested locations around the state. One spot they always enjoyed visiting was one of the many wooded areas of the Catskill Mountains. It was an easy drive from their home outside of New York City and a beautiful place to find nature and adventure for their little boy.
Late in September of 2011 the small family decided to spend a long weekend, while the weather remained warm, hiking among the Catskills. The would drive to an area where they could pull their large, older model van off the road and set up a small campsite close to where they wanted to explore the wooded mountainside. Their campsite consisted of a few folding chairs and a portable grill they placed on the ground as a small fire pit. For safety and comfort the three of them slept in sleeping bags inside the back of their van. The family would investigate the hiking paths during the day, returning to their makeshift campsite to cook a dinner of hotdogs and toasted marshmallows over their small campfire at day's end. At night they would sit and watch the sky until their little fire died away. Then, exhausted from a day of exploring, the family usually crawled into their van before 9 P.M., slipping into warm sleeping bags. The next day, dawn would start the pleasant routine all over again.
The weekend at the center of our story was like many others they'd enjoyed over that summer - hiking along the mountainside, sitting around the campfire and sleeping in the van. Then came the day the six-year-old grew tired and hungry about 5 P.M., sending the three back to their small campsite. The parents set about building a small fire in the portable grill and pulling out the cooler full of food for the night. The little boy played nearby with a handful of toys he brought along. With the fire crackling, the young wife poured enough water in a small pot to make some hot chocolate for the family to help with the colder air slowly beginning to make its way across the Catskills. It was still daylight, but the family was tired and their day was winding down.
They sat contently around the small fire, fussing with the food and talking about things they'd seen during their hike when the child stood up from where he was playing around on the ground with his toys. With his back to his parents, he was looking out towards the sky above a small valley below them. Suddenly he interrupted his parents by whispering to his father, "Dad, what is that thing?" At first the father continued talking to his wife when his little boy called to him again, sounding a bit more frightened, "Dad, that thing, what is it? It's scaring me!" With that the little boy backed up to his father and grabbed his shirt tightly.
Turning to face the small valley, the young father looked to see what was upsetting his son. His wife was now paying attention to what was happening as well..
In front of this small family, rising from the valley floor, was a huge oval-shaped craft. The hulking craft had sinister glow as it loomed over the valley, changing rapidly from blues to greens to purples; however, there was no hint of the familiar lights that announce the nighttime presence of a standard aircraft. The entire surface of the ominous craft glowed with the continuously changing colors. It appeared the craft was seamlessly fashioned of a silvery metal skin with rotating luminous neon colors. It didn't seem to have any windows, doors or breaks in its smooth metallic surface and made not even a single sound. The family stood awestricken and frightened for a few seconds as the massive craft rose above the mountain scenery
Quickly conquering feelings of nausea and overpowering fear, the husband, a combat hardened military veteran, knew he had to move his family to safety. He didn't want whatever controlled the threatening craft to notice them. Slowly, he bent to empty the pot of water on the fire, dousing the flames. He slowly swept up his son, whispering to the child not to make any noise, pulling the boy close while he reached for his wife's hand. He shook his head when she started to speak. The young husband slowly withdrew his family, silently, to the van. He opened the passenger door, motioning for his wife to get in and passing her the child who was now whimpering in fear. He slowly moved to the driver's side of the van, keeping wary eyes on the craft that continued to slowly rise from the valley. He slid into the van and started the engine, slowly guiding it into the tree line for concealment. The van was a dark green, and he hoped he could hide it from the view of whatever mastered the rising craft. He was trying to maintain concealment while putting distance between the fear inducing craft and his little family
At a crawl, the van edged its way along the tree line as the husband moved carefully away from the threatening craft. He did this until he could no longer see the UFO, hoping the craft's crew couldn't see him either. He slowly increased his speed, trying not to crash into any of the trees as he distanced his family from the mysterious giant object. He continued this path along the side of the road, under the trees, until he felt it was safe to take to the road's surface to get his family out of there as fast as possible.The young family hit the road, speeding down the mountain as fast as they could, moving rapidly away from whatever it was that was rising above the valley.
The young husband headed the van for the closest area where other people would be and found a gas station at the bottom of the mountain road. The family, now shocked and still terrified, told the gas station owner what they had just seen. Strangely, the gas station owner didn't seem shocked, nor did he think they were crazy. He told them they did the right thing, getting out of there, and suggested the young man fill his tank and continue driving away from the area. The family took his advice, quickly finding their way to a heavily traveled highway and heading directly home.
When they were safely locked in far from the mountains in their own home, the young man called the sheriff's office responsible for the area where they had their ominous sighting to report what they had observed. A deputy politely took his report but showed no emotion or reaction to what the family had witnessed. The young husband couldn't tell if the lack of reaction was due to the deputy not believing him, or just the boredom that might set in for an official who had heard similar reports from a multitude of callers that night. The deputy had no response to the young man's question of whether others had reported the sighting besides him. The deputy simply thanked him and ended the call.
The couple had never thought much about things like UFOs before and never anticipated coming face-to-face with one while sitting around a campfire in the Catskills. Fortunately, the young father knew instinctively that he needed to get his family away from there as quickly and quietly as he could. He did an excellent job of keeping his focus and saving his family. The fact of the matter is that no one really knew exactly where this family was that day, and no one was near where they parked to spend the night in the woods. If the crew of the mysterious craft had noticed them and taken them, the family may have joined the ranks of the missing with no chance of anyone ever knowing what happened to them. The quick thinking that led the young father to rise above the terror of this situation was exactly the cool thinking needed to save his family from the possibility of an unknown fate.
This couple now knows these anomalous objects exist, and they're able to perform in ways that can't be matched by any known terrestrial aircraft. The object they witnessed was about the size of a cruise ship. Its illumination came from glowing rather than actual lights. It was silent, and even as large as it was, it could hover in mid air, slowly gaining altitude between periods of simply hanging still in the sky. The man told me only personally seeing such an object could ever convince him these fantastic aerial enigmas and their capabilities exist.
Not only did this family experience a life changing encounter, they received a lesson in keeping an open mind when it comes to claims about UFOs and similar seemingly outlandish things that are being reported worldwide.
That leads us to a report I personally received from a formerly skeptical source a few years ago. One of the things I've learned during the years I've been writing about the paranormal is that you never can be sure who will be the next person to tell you of an extraordinary event. More than once I've had one of my most strident critics or hardened skeptics tell me about something incredible that happened to them, something that challenged their beliefs and left them shaking their heads.
I'm both amused and amazed at these people who ridicule and give me a terrible time for years only to turn around and search me out to tell me of an incredible encounter of their own. The strange thing is no matter how clear and how bizarre their experience may have been, this type of individual will still hold onto the reasoning it was all explainable, or, at the most, a secret of our own government. Opening their minds to other explanations is just out of the question to this type of personality, even when the unknown is staring them directly in the face!
This sighting took place in West Haven, Connecticut. The event was experienced by a man who is a hardcore skeptic and his wife and two children. The belief challenging encounter with the unknown took place in the early 1990s.
In his own words, this is exactly what this man told me happened to him and his family:
"It was around the end of August. The family and I decided to go pick up a few burgers and take them down to the dock overlooking the water (the Long Island Sound) to eat them. By the time we picked up our food and made our way to the dock it was about 7 P.M. It was a beautiful day with a huge blue sky filled with big fluffy white clouds. We got our bag of food and drinks and parked at the dock along with about three other cars all doing the same thing as we were - eating. We were all sitting there looking out over the water enjoying our burgers looking at the water and sky when out of nowhere the water directly in front of the dock about 200 or so feet out from shore started to whirl. As the water swirled around up from the middle of it a big UFO came out of the water slowly rising right in front of us. At about 300 feet over the water it hesitated and simply hung there in the sky above the water. It was about as big as three school buses tied together. Oval or cigar shaped with a dome on top. The damn thing was big and right there in front of us. It was gunmetal gray with only two small blinking red lights on each either side of it. Otherwise no lights at all were visible. The thing just hovered there in the sky dripping. I thought it had to be a government secret craft of some type or maybe a hologram.
"I could hear the cars around me try to start their motors as soon as this thing started coming up out of the water. They could not turn over the car engines to start. I also tried to start my car as my first response, like the other cars, was to get away from this thing. The cars would not start. We all had no other choice but to sit and watch. No one wanted to get out of their car at this point. We did not know what this thing was or what it would do if we got out to run. We all just sat in our cars not knowing what to do.
"The UFO once again started to rise up into the sky. At this point I realized that clouds were directly over the craft and the craft seemed to be moving quickly toward them. Within a few seconds the UFO had entered the cloud cover above it and silently slipped deep into the cloud cover until you could barely make out the outline of the craft.
"We sat staring at this until I heard one of the other cars start. As soon as his car started all the other drivers tried and were able to start their cars too. The next thing we all heard were the squealing of tires as we all sped away from the dock as fast as possible.
"We drove home still a bit shocked at what he had just seen. Once safely inside our home I realized it was now nearly dark outside and glanced at the clock. It was nearly 9 PM. I could not understand where the time had gone as the entire sighting at the dock lasted only a few minutes. How we went from 7 to 9 PM was confusing. My wife and I talked it over and decided to call the police and ask if any military operations of any kind were taking place over the Long Island Sound. When we called our questions were received with at first a long silence and then a bit of confusion. The long and the short of it was that they did not know or hear of anything unusual going on.
"I know my family and I saw something unique that day. I have no idea what kind of experiment we were caught up in but feel it must have been either military or science driven. I would not even bring it up but since so many people are seeing things like we saw I thought I would throw my two cents in too."
That's what this man told me. I asked him why he ruled out the possibility this craft may have been something that didn't originate on our world. He simply laughed and said, "That's ridiculous and I'm not an idiot!" I felt it best to leave him thinking what he needed to think in order to deal with the incredible UFO sighting he and his family had while munching burgers in West Haven.
Many people see unusual things, and as you can see from the two reports I've given here, people also have their own views about what it is they witnessed.
Until we know for sure what these unidentified objects are that so many of us have reported seeing all over the world, we shouldn't discount any explanation, including the possibility they originate in a galaxy far away. For now we remain in the dark about who or what is behind the UFOs we're seeing and often recording on film. One day this phenomenon will be understood. Until then it will remain in the realm of the unknown.
Copyright (c) 2012 Chris Holly all Rights Reserved
Chris Holly's Paranormal World- http://endlessjrny.blogspot.com/
Email chrisholly61@yahoo.com Phone: 631-887-4818 http://endlessjrny.blogspot.com/2012/04/when-seeing-is-believing-ufo-sightings.html
IF YOU ARE VISITING FROM ANOTHER LINK PLEASE CLICK BELOW TO BE TAKEN TO OUR MAIN PAGE SO CAN READ OUR SITE IN FULL
