Portals 2

Last week we talked about ghostly portals and this week I want to explore a little about extraterrestrial portals.  But, before I get into that, I wanted to share a little bit of a conversation Sarah (my daughter and assistant) and I had about last week’s blog.

Mirrors.

Sarah thought it would be unfair or unlikely that Heavenly Father would “trap” a spirit in a mirror. What is a mirror other than a piece of glass placed above a painted reflective board or a piece of glass with a painted back? What makes that glass different than a window? The other piece of material or the reflective paint? That really doesn’t seem to make sense, does it?

Then why are spirits seemingly “caught” in the old mirrors?

So, here’s my totally unscientific hypothesis.

Remember when I discussed my conversation with Dale Kaczmarek of the Chicago-based, Ghost Research Society? Dale told me that the corners of our eyes have elongated rods, and because of that, we can see things at different light spectrums than when we look at something straight on. Paranormal things tend to be in that spectrum, which is why we are always seeing things out of the corners of our eyes – that’s the part of our eyes that can pick up the frequencies.

I wonder if old mirrors with their wavy and uneven glass, or even the space between the glass and the reflective backing, creating that same kind of illusion or light spectrum. So, when we look into the glass and see a spirit, we aren’t seeing a spirit caught in the mirror, we are seeing a spirit standing behind us. But when we turn around and look at it straight on, we can’t see it anymore.  That makes much more sense to me than a spirit stuck in a mirror.  What do you think?

Okay, on to portals.

One of the first times I was introduced to the idea of portals was through the podcast, Astonishing Legends and their Episodes on the Skinwalker Ranch in Utah.  The ranch, situated near Vernal, Utah, is 500 acres of ranchland that has had more than its share of weird occurrences.  The ranch is so strange, according to Altered Dimensions website  that the National Institute for Discovery Science (owned by Las Vegas businessman and billionaire Bob Bigelow) purchased it solely for scientific research purposes. The strange occurrences include paranormal phenomenon such as strange creatures, bizarre objects, flying black triangles, animal mutilations, and telepathic messages, have been reported on the Skinwalker Ranch for hundreds of years.  It is estimated that over half the population in the area surrounding the ranch have witnessed unusual paranormal activity on, or near what became known as the “Strangest Place on Earth”.  Even the local Ute Indians believe the land to be cursed – and tribe members are strictly forbidden to enter the property.

Altered Dimensions goes on to report that the earliest attempts to document the paranormal phenomena that occur at Skinwalker Ranch began in 1951 by a local science teacher named Junior Hicks. After spotting a large object cross the sky during broad daylight (the UFO sighting was also witnessed by the students of his elementary class), Junior recognized that something strange was indeed going on around the Uintah Basin. Junior began documenting the unusual accounts which resulted in a record of over 400 different paranormal events in the area of Skinwalker Ranch, some dating back more than five decades.

In 1994, Terry and Gwen Sherman purchased the ranch to raise their prize-winning cattle. During their two years on the property the Sherman family say they experienced mysterious voices coming from the air, multiple cattle mutilations (in just two years, Terry Sherman lost 14 of his 80-head herd), bizarre, exotic multi-colored birds, inanimate objects flying around their home and property, UFO’s flying above their land, weird beastly creatures, and many more paranormal phenomena that they were at a loss to explain. Mysterious flying craft were frequently spotted zipping above the ranch land. In various shapes and colors, the Sherman’s even reported seeing a refrigerator-shaped object about the size of an RV with a white light at the front and a red light at the back. Terry had looked out the windows and noticed what he thought was an RV in the pasture. Thinking it was a tourist that was lost, he told his wife he was going outside to help them find their way. As he approached the vehicle, it rose straight into the air and flew out of sight.

In late 1996, Bob Bigelow (Budget Suites hotel entrepreneur and aerospace entrepreneur) purchased the ranch from the Sherman’s for $200,000 for the now defunct National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS). Immediately after the purchase a flurry of intense activity occurred on the property.

Additional activity reported at the ranch includes unusual or strange aircraft, balls of light floating above the ground, poltergeist activity in and around the property, cattle mutilations, strange alterations to the surface of the land (hundreds of pounds of soil moved from place to place in the course of a single night), and strange humanoid-like creatures roaming the ranch.

One NIDS researcher explained the experience:

“It isn’t as simple as saying that ET’s or flying saucers are doing it. It’s some kind of consciousness, but it’s always something new and different, something non- repeatable. It’s reactive to people and equipment, and we set up the ranch to be a proving ground for the scientific method, but science doesn’t seem amenable to the solution of these kinds of problems.”

During the podcast, the folks at Astonishing Legends wondered if the land, or at least part of it, held some kind of portal to another dimension. Someplace that made travel to this specific spot in Utah easily accessible. They also found that the activity seemed to be centered on the ranch, not in the surrounding community.

Several months later, the Astonishing Legends hosts interviewed Linda Godfrey who is the journalist who first wrote about “The Beast of Bray Road.”  During the podcast, she mentioned that she had located another site, like the Skinwalker Ranch, but this site was in Wisconsin.  Lee Hampel, a retired math and physics teacher and now a farmer, owned the land that this phenomenon has occurred on.  Not only has he seen and recorded strange creatures in his field, but he’s also found animal mutilations similar to those found on the Skinwalker Ranch. Godrey feels that this is possibly another spot in the United States with a portal entry.

During an episode of The Dead Files, “The Uninvited” in Season 9, Amy and Steve go to the pleasant-sounding town of Slaughters, Kentucky. It was during that episode that Amy goes onto the ground of the house and finds an interdimensional portal that she feels was filled with malicious aliens set on tormenting the living.

Okay, so I know what you’re thinking. Really, Terri?  Interdimensional portals?  Have you been overdosing on Coke Zero again?

But, one thing I have learned as I’ve studied that paranormal for the past few years is that I have no idea what’s out there and I have an open mind about everything.

I also think back to folklore, especially faery folklore. There are similar stories throughout the world, in a time when there was no communication from one county to the next, much less one country to the next.  Think about the faery lore – beings, not like us, who usually come from a hole in the ground and have special powers. They have been known to kidnap people and when the people are returned, they’ve lost portions of time. They were blamed for animals dying or crops withering on the vine.  Could that be a description of portals and extraterrestrial contact?  That’s a very good question.

Happy Friday!!

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