The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters
Page 101
—RANDALL FITZGERALD
Spaceships of the Pleiades (Prometheus Books, 1995). Kal Korff traveled to Switzerland to research this book exposing Swiss farmer Billy Meier, who masterminded the most ambitious UFO hoax in history with his faked photographs. Korff unmasks Meier’s criminal background and tracked down former Meier friends and supporters who describe him as a charlatan who began the hoax for financial gain.
—RANDALL FITZGERALD
SpaceTime Transients (Nelson-Hall, 1977). Canadian psychologist Michael Persinger and his research associate Gyslaine Lafreniere find correlations between geomagnetic fields and the human perception of UFOs and alien visitors. Their pioneering work found that many unexplained events occur before intense solar and seismic activity. They theorize that the bioelectrical systems of human brains, when exposed to high electric fields, can release stored UFO and alien images from the unconscious and produce in the percipient “dreamlike states, episodes of paralysis, or intervals of unconsciousness.”
—RANDALL FITZGERALD
Sprinkle, R. Leo (b. 1930). Leo Sprinkle is a psychotherapist and researcher, who is also a UFO experiencer. Dr. Sprinkle was a consultant to the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization and the Condon Committee at the University of Colorado.
Dr. Sprinkle received his B.A. and M.P.S. degrees from the University of Colorado, in 1952 and 1956, respectively; and his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Missouri in 1961. He was Professor Emeritus of Counseling Services at the University of Wyoming, when he resigned to go into private practice in 1989. Dr, Sprinkle is nationally certified and licensed and a Registrant of Counsel for the National Register of Health Service Providers.
R. Leo Sprinkle
Dr. Sprinkle has participated in numerous television programs, including ABC-TV’s “That’s Incredible,” NBC-TV’s “Tom Snyder, Tomorrow Show,” and NBC’s “UFOs: Fact or Fantasy?” He has also appeared on many panels with scientists such as J. Allen Hynek and Carl Sagan. He started the UFO Investigation Conference for contactees and participated in the 1968 Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects (U. S. House Committee on Science and Astronautics), the symposium “Scien and the UFO” sponsored by the National Amateur Astronomers Association, and one sponsored by the American Psychological Association.
Dr. Sprinkle’s book, entitled Soul Samples, was published in 1999.
Address:
105 South 4th Street
Laramie, WY 82070
U.S.A.
POSITION STATEMENT: The status of UFO evidence is a deluge, not a delusion. The characteristics of UF percipients show a wide range of age, education, occupation, and cultural background; however, the evidence does not support the hypothesis that UFO reports are submitted primarily by persons who are experiencing neurotic or psychotic reactions.
The testimony of UFO witnesses indicates that they are convinced of the reality of their UFO experiences; however, traditional scientific methods do not provide “proof” of the existence of UFO phenomena. Thus, UFO investigators face the question: Is UFO research a problem (to be solved) or a predicament (to be tolerated)?
In my opinion, UFO investigation should continue at each level of existence: “physical” reality, “biological” reality, “psychosocial” reality, and “spiritual” reality There are problems for many investigators, from astronomers to zoologists, from anthropologists to parapsychologists. The UFO problem represents a significant challenge to science and humanity.
In my opinion, the present evidence for UFO phenomena indicates (tentatively) that the Earth is the object of a survey by intelligent beings from some other civilization(s). However, the evidence is not sufficient to determine the origins, purposes, and powers of these intelligent beings.
The challenge of the UFO problem is to develop our scientific and spiritual knowledge so that we can enter the “New Age” and communicate more effectively with other beings who coexist in this complex universe.
—R. LEO SPRINKLE
Star People, The (Berkley, 1981). Husband and wife writing team Brad and Francie Steiger not only believe that many humans are descendants of space beings who mated with our species to prepare Earth for transformation, but they themselves are Star People here to assist the aliens in that work. Among the qualities which identify Star People: they have charisma, a rare blood type, low body temperature, low blood pressure, feel an affinity for ancient Egypt, and as a child had an invisible playmate.
—RANDALL FITZGERALD
Star People, The It was in his book Gods of Aquarius: UFOs and the Transformation of Man (1976) that Brad Steiger first set down a number of apparent peculiarities associated with certain individuals who claimed contact experiences with alleged alien entities. This research had developed from a questionnaire created by Steiger in 1967 as a tool for fashioning a pattern profile of paranormally talented individuals, contemporary mystics, and spiritually oriented men and women. Because so many of these individuals had begun to express an awareness that their “soul essences” had come to Earth from other worlds or dimensions, Steiger decided to name these respondents “The Star People” after an old Chippewa legend of people from the stars that descended to mate with humans.
In 1968, Steiger had developed the questionnaire to define such Star People characteristics as: extra or transitional vertebrae, lower than normal body temperature, unusual blood type, acute sensitivity to electromagnetic fields, chronic sinusitis, and great personal charisma. The research was further delineated in The Star People (1981), with Frances Paschal Steiger, and The Seed (1983).
By 1987, working together with his wife, Sherry Hansen Steiger, Brad Steiger estimated that more than 30,000 men and women around the world had responded to the questionnaire. They found the Star People in all ethnic groups, all social strata, all occupations, and professions. Although they often express the feeling of being “strangers in a strange land,” the Star People are essentially “helpers”—many of them actively serving in such service-oriented professions as nurses, doctors, clergy, social workers, teachers, counselors, and law enforcement officers.
In 1992, Steiger and his wife Sherry published Starborn, revealing that over 90 percent of those who had returned the questionnaire claimed to have experienced the mystical ecstasy of being “one with the universe.” A remarkable 86 percent attest to some kind of contact with otherworldly or other-dimensional beings.
In addition to the anomalous physical and psychic similarities that they found among the questionnaire respondents, the Steigers found an intriguing commonality of experiences that they term “activating incidents.” At around the age of five nearly 85 percent of the respondents experienced a dramatic interaction with an alleged angel, elf, holy figure, or UFO entity. At about the age of eleven, nearly 80 percent suffered some sort of traumatic event—a severe accident, a serious illness, the divorce of their parents, etc.—that caused them to withdraw from the company of their peers and to retreat within for a period of time.
Currently, the Steigers state that the greatest single commonality among the Star People is a desire to be of service to the planet and all of Mother Earth’s children. It is such a sense of mission that seems to distinguish those who believe that they have interacted with some facet of a Higher Intelligence or with an extraterrestrial or multidimensional being.
Research into the Star People phenomenon continues.
—ETEP STAFF
References
Steiger, Brad. Gods of Aquarius: UFOs and the Transformation of Man. (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976; Berkley Books, 1981).
———. The Star People (Berkley Books, 1981).
———. Revelation: The Divine Fire (Berkley Books, 1981).
———. The Seed (Berkley Books, 1983).
Steiger, Brad and Sherry Hansen Steiger. Starborn (Berkley Books, 1992).
Steiger, Brad (b. 1936). Steiger taught American literature and creative writing on secondary and college levels (1957-67). He is the author or coauthor
of 148 books dealing with the paranonnal, including 22 on UFOs. He is also the co-scriptwriter of UnKnown Powers, winner of the Film Advisory Board’s Award of Excellence for 1978.
His major works on UFOs are: Mysteries of Time and Space (1974), and Gods of Aquarius: UFOs and the Transformation of Man (1976); and, more recently, coauthored with his wife Sherry: The Rainbow Conspiracy (1994), and UFO Odyssey (1999).
Address:
P.O. Box 434
Forest City, IA 50436
U.S.A.
Web site:
www.bradandsherry.com
POSITION STATEMENT: I have come to the conclusion that some external intelligence has interacted with humankind throughout history in an effort to learn more about us—or in an effort to communicate certain basic truths and concepts to our species.
I am also convinced there is a subtle kind of symbiotic relationship that exists between humankind and the UFO intelligences. I think that in some way, which we have yet to determine, they need us as much as we need them.
It is quite possible that either one or both of our species might once have had an extraterrestrial origin, but the important thing is that the very biological and spiritual evolution of Earth may depend upon the establishment of equilibrium between us and our cosmic cousins.
I do not dogmatically rule out the extraterrestrial hypothesis, but I do lean toward the theory that UFOs may be our neighbors right around the comer in another spacetime continuum. What we have thus far been labeling “spaceships” may be, in reality, multidimensional mechanisms or psychic constructs of our paraphysical companions.
I have even come to suspect that, in some instances, what we have been terming “spaceships” may actually be a form of higher intelligence rather than vehicles transporting occupants.
The UFO, the appearance of elves and “wee” people, and the manifestation of archetypal images throughout the world sig nify that we are part of a larger community of intelligences, a far more complex hierarchy of powers and principalities, a potentially richer kingdom of interrelated species—both physical and nonphysical—than we have been bold enough to believe.
I believe that numerous literal truths have been prompted by the UFO intelligences. I believe that, through the ages, they have been provoking humankind into higher spirals of intellectual and technological maturity, guiding men and women toward ever-expanding mental and spiritual awareness, pulling our species continually into the future.
Although these paraphysical, multidimensional entities have always coexisted with us, in the last half-century they have been accelerating their interaction with U.S. in preparation for a fast-approaching time of transition and transformation. This period, we have been told, will be a difficult one; and for generations our prophets and revelators have been referring to it as “the great cleansing,” “Judgment Day,” “Armageddon.” But we have been promised that, after a season of cataclysmic changes on the Earth plane, a New Age consciousness will suffuse the planet. It is to this end that the UFO is a transformative symbol.
—BRAD STEIGER
Brad and Sherry Steiger
Steiger, Sherry Hansen (b. 1945). While in seminary in the late 1960’s, (Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago), Sherry noticed that many of the things she considered to be mysteries of the Bible suddenly stood out to her in a new way. She noticed that many descriptions in the Old Testament sounded very “other worldly” in a UFO sense.
Her research at that time was interrupted by a passionate involvement with the social issues of the surrounding community and of the church at large and most of her years from that time forward, she served as counselor, teacher, in various aspects of the ministry and later in advertising. Although throughout the years her research and interest in UFOs and related fields, continued, it was not until much later, that she came to work with Dr. J. Allen Hynek.
Sherry founded several nonprofit schools in the late 1970s, for which she was in the process of receiving major funding for educational efforts in the media. One of the focus points was a media package she had written which was her research involving UFOs. In her meeting with Dr. Hynek, to discuss how her findings related to his own research, he asked her to work with him as his personal manager and director of publicity. He was just in the process of discussions with a benefactor who hoped to relocate Dr. Hynek to Scottsdale, Arizona, where a second location for his Center for UFO Studies was proposed. Sherry realized the immensity of Hynek’s vast involvement and research in the field and didn’t think twice about putting her work on hold. She accepted the honor and opportunity of Dr. Hynek’s urging for her to enter into an official contractual relationship for a new partnership.
From late ’84 until the time of his death in 1986, Dr. Hynek had Sherry interview people who were reporting their experiences and assist in an analysis based on her experience as a counselor, as well as include her in most all meetings and affairs of the Center in Phoenix. Sherry was working on television, motion picture and international lecture and media exposure for Dr. Hynek when a series of bizarre episodes regarding a “walk through” to see the alien bodies and a release of major documents (into Dr. Hynek’s possession) surfaced. A very high up official contacted Dr. Hynek and espoused details of an elaborate unveiling of previously classified very topsecret government documents and proof of alien craft and visitation to Earth that Hynek had so meticulously researched and sought his entire career. Many mysterious and somewhat “suspicious” events began to unfold until the sudden and untimely death of Dr. Hynek in April of 1986. Sherry described some of the events in The Rainbow Conspiracy (1994) one of 26 books she wrote/co-wrote with her husband, Brad Steiger, since 1987.
Address:
P.O. Box 434
Forest City, IA 50436
U.S.A.
E-mail:
timewlkr@WCTAtel.net
Web site:
www.bradandsherry.com
POSITION STATEMENT: My interest and research into the field of UFOs has been from the religious perspective, initially stemming from the interaction and guidance of Supernatural Beings in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. In the Book of Exodus, we are told that a “pillar of fire” and “pillar of cloud” lead the exodus out of Egypt. There is some awesome force contained in the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat. We have the “chariots of fire” of the prophet Elijah and the “wheels” of Ezekiel among many other ancient descriptions that also match present day reports of UFO sightings and experiences.
In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul was “blinded by a light that spoke to him on the road to Damascus and changed his life completely. Angels seemed to travel on the “clouds of heaven” and often literally appear in a physical manner, even to the point of partaking in food and lodging. Such angelic physicality appears in the Biblical account of Sodom and Gomorra, when angels came to warn Lot and his family. The angels “looks” were so appealing they were lusted after to the point where Lot had to secure the door to protect them against the crowd, even offering one of his own daughters to the crowd if they would leave the angels alone! Then, the angels blast and destroy the city with what almost seems to be an atomic or nuclear blast.
I have come to see through my continued study from the 1960s on, that all world religions have similar descriptions of astral vehicles and supernatural beings and their interactions with humankind. I believe UFOs to be the “Powers and Principalities”—as stated in the New Testament and may include many other levels of existence—which could be likened to as Jesus said: “In my Father’s House are many mansions” or dwelling places. I also believe that as on Earth we have the positive and negative polarities there must be that of the good and bad in the astral realms as well, meaning that some angels or messengers may be demons—or fallen angels.
In my personal study with Native American Shaman, such as Rolling Thunder and Grandfather David of the Hopi’s, I learned of the Native American tradition of the Star Beings teaching and guiding them throughout time. The similaritie
s of all cultures and religions, ancient art and rock and cave drawings of star craft and heavenly teachers are far too prevalent and universal to be ignored or viewed as psychological or emotional disturbances…although, certainly, those might be involved as well. Myths of elves, fairies and the like share common threads of “encounters” and also must be taken into consideration.
Certainly many sightings today are of “explained” phenomena, some which are “top secret” airplanes and missions by various governments. But in my counseling of individuals over time, considering the similarity of their own experiences, sightings, and interactions, as well as my own, there is no doubt in my mind that UFOs have been with us from the beginning and their interaction is significant to me now, not only “theologically,” but in every other “ology” and historicity there is!
—SHERRY HANSEN STEIGER
Stillings, Dennis (b. 1942). Dennis Stillings is the director of the Archaeus Project, a group of professional people interested in the investigation of unusual claims and anomalies for potential use in medicine and technology.
Stillings received his B.A. degree in philosophy from the University of Minnesota in 1965. He also performed graduate work in mathematics and German literature.
Stillings was the founding Director, now board member, of the Five Mountain Medical Community organization, which seeks to promote Northwest Hawaii as a health and healing destination for the Pacific Rim. He is editor of the publication Healing Island, and former editor of the now-defunct journals Artifex and Archaeus. He has published over 60 papers on anomalistics, popular culture, and the history of medicine. Stillings is a member of the Bioelectromagnetics Society, the Society for Scientific Exploration, a Fellow of the American Institute of Stress.
Address:
P.O. Box 7079
Kamuela, HI 96743
U.S.A.
E-mail:
dstillings@kohalacenter.org
Dennis Stillings
POSITION STATEMENT: My position on UFOs is not far different from what is expressed by the title of Jung’s monograph on the subject: Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies. While I believe that there is a residuum of UFO cases that represent genuine anomalies—aspects of reality that would seem to deserve serious scientific investigation—I am exceedingly pessimistic as to whether we have the tools, mental or physical, to do so.