Believing half of what you see

My mother always told me. “Believe nothing of what you hear or read, and only half of what you see.” In this age of fake news and half truths I find that sound advice.

Just this week the Sun Newspaper reported a US Government 1,500 page inquiry. An excerpt from the article states:

One document included in an Acquisition Threat Support report, sets out how to categorize "anomalous behavior" - with encounters with "ghosts, yetis, spirits, elves and other mythical/ legendary entities" classed as "AN3".

Seeing a UFO with aliens on board would be "CE3".

Poltergeists, crop circles, spontaneous human combustion, alien abductions, and other paranormal events are also categorized.

Studies into advanced technologies such as invisibility cloaks and mind-controlled robots are also included in the document cache.

The Sun is a British newspaper that now has a US edition. The term “Newspaper” should be taken lightly as it implies this is a publication with actual “News,” when it is along the same lines as “The National Enquirer” familiar in America for outrageous stories that most read for entertainment value rather than a legitimate news source.

I have never had an encounter with Ghosts, Goblins, or Creatures from another Planet, but I try to keep an open mind about those who have. When all is said and done, who am I to doubt what someone sees, or think the see? It is their experience not mine.

Let me share with you an experience I did have around 1992 or 1993. I do not usually retell this story but do so now to illustrate a point. My framebuilding business was winding down, my marriage was over, and I was searching to find myself, and decide what course my life was about to take.

One weekend I drove to Sedona, Arizona, turned off the highway and followed a dirt road about 12 miles into the desert. I parked the car and walked towards one of those rock formations that rise from the desert floor like some kind of monument.

As I approached this rock, I saw a pure white cougar climbing what appeared to be a natural pathway that led like stairs to the top. I ran towards it and followed, and the cougar kept stopping and looking back as if it was waiting for me.

When I reached the top, I became scared for the first time. I was following a wild animal and I could no longer see where it was. I pressed on cautiously, to the flat top of this rock formation. The cougar was gone, nowhere in sight.

I stood and took in the view. There was a silence that I can only describe as “Intense.” I slowly turned and I could see a complete 360 degrees and I every direction there was just desert, pure nature, not a single thing was man made. Even my car was parked out of sight beyond the rim of this rock.

I am not sure what happened that day, but it was truly a “Life Changing” experience. I began to see my true self for the first time, and my relationship to everything else. However, when I returned home and retold the story, I was met with anything from skepticism, to outright ridicule.

“Maybe it was a white feral cat you saw, and it was closer than you think.” Was a suggestion that was put forward, but I know what I saw. I soon stopped telling of my experience for fear I would be labeled a “Crazy” person. Also, this was “My” experience whether it was real, or I imagined the whole thing. I did not need to share it with others.

Soon after this I left the bike business and l later moved to Eugene, Oregon. It was several years after this incident, I met, and became friends with a Native American, from a local Oregon Tribe. One day I told him this story of the white cougar, and he said, “That was your Spirit Animal.”

He explained that when a Native American man reached a certain age a pure white animal or bird will appear and lead that person to a place where he connects with the “Great Spirit.” This statement just blew me away because at the time of this incident in the early 1990s, I had had no exposure to Native American culture, that this Idea could have been placed in my subconscious.

It matters not one bit to me what people think, if they think this story real or not. It is real to me, and more important it was “Life Changing.” Sadly. anyone having a similar encounter today would be so intent on capturing the whole incident on video that they would not have the final outcome that I gained from the experience.

I am not expecting that by reading this story, it will be “Life Changing” for you. The best I can hope for is that you have been entertained and have been given food for thought.

The whole point I am trying to make is that my own encounter with the White Cougar is no different from a meeting with Big Foot, or Aliens from another Planet. The big difference is this encounter happened just once thirty years ago. I do not have these encounters on a daily or weekly basis.

Therefore,I am not writing about these experiences continually, thus adding to the shit-pile of fake news and conspiracy theories.