"What I did say is that I woke up one morning and experienced the appearance of a human-like figure in my room. And we proceeded to have a conversation about space travel. And five minutes later he was gone. Was it my future self? Was it an extraterrestrial, or the consciousness of one? Was it a sleep paralysis episode? Or was it simply a bad potato? I do not know. I do not know. People way overinterpreted that statement." -- SALON.com When FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper was awakened by a flash of light, he looked to see an apparition of a giant man standing at the foot of his bed. After a brief conversation the apparition formed a ball of light about the size of a basketball and sent it into Cooper's body.It all happened on September 30, 1990, in the fictional town of Twin Peaks.Wait a minute -- this is from a television show, right? -- but where have I heard this story before?That's right, it was former US WEB CEO Joe Firmage, who reported a nearly identical encounter in 1997.Here's how that encounter was described in a feature story about Firmage in TIME Magazine:It was the morning after Joe Firmage had his revelation about gravity and quantum mechanics that the alien showed up. The clock radio went off in his Los Gatos, Calif., home at 6:10, and he'd just hit snooze when the image of a dark, bearded man appeared over his bed. "Why have you bothered me?" the visitor asked, sounding rather annoyed."I want to travel in space," Firmage replied. The being chuckled skeptically. "Why should you deserve that opportunity?" "Because I'm willing to die for it." The visitor bowed his head, and a blue sphere of light left his body and entered Joe's. "I was physically overwhelmed," Firmage recalls, "with an ecstacy and a joy that I had never even imagined possible." The question in my mind: Did Firmage see Episode 8 of Twin Peaks when it first aired in 1990, seven years prior to his encounter?TIME explained the significance of Firmage's vision:Why, one might ask, is this close encounter different from any other? Well, because Firmage, 28, is an Internet whiz kid whose consulting company, USWeb, is worth about 2 billion. And because Firmage last week published a 240-page version of his magnum opus, The Truth, on his website. And finally, because his yen for space travel hasn't yet cost him his life, but it has now cost him his job.Is it possible that a distant memory of the television landscape, coupled with the added stress of his job and a paper by Berhard Haisch came together one early morning, forever changing the destiny of a rising business superstar?Meanwhile, Sharon Weinberger writes in WIRED Magazine's DANGER ROOM blog:True, it hasn't quite risen to the level of "New York Times" or "Washington Post" Op-Ed pages, but Larry King will take on the burning issue of aliens and national security this Thursday. "High-ranking military officials and government personnel from around the world discuss close encounters with UFOs," a CNN promo reports. "Is national security on the line?"National security issues? Or too many Sci-Fi re-runs? What do you think?
