CHAPTER 19-Vol. III -- ADVENTURES IN A WINTER WONDERLAND: February-March 2004

THE THUNDER CLOUD DREAM

By Harold Egeln, Wednesday, February 4, 2004

A DREAM ABOUT ALTERING AND EXPANDING HUMAN PERCEPTIONS TO VIEW A GREATER REALITY, A VAST COSMIC ECOLOGY OF LIVING, HYPER-INTELLIGENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS... PERHAPS?

This is the dream which I had this morning before awakening for work (7:43 a.m.): I was at the Top Man and Top Woman Hair Salon where I have my hair trimmed (it is down the block from the Synchronicity Space art gallery in Greenwich Village), -- but it seemed to be in an alternate or parallel reality, a Mirror Earth, with some noticeable differences, which I became conscious of (lucid) in the dream. That made me pay more attention to my vivid surroundings. A nearby hair salon was closed, and then, even more fascinated that my mind here was inside my mind "there" in the Mirror World in my alternate self, I found myself on a bus-like vehicle floating slighty above the street as it moved. There were no cars. I looked outside at the shops and people, intrigued by the similarities and differences from our world. I noticed that, at some sites, protest rallies and demonstrations were happening, with the words: "Change Our Perceptions of Reality! Revolt Against Consensus Reality!" Off the bus, I was then in a surburban neighborhood with interesting looking houses, as I walked with a group of young people, and a woman moving ahead of me. Suddenly our attention was directed to a Giant Dark Gray Thunder Cloud in the daytime sky. Near the front of the cloud were streams of narrow white light beams down to the ground, as if probing. Concerned, I commented to my companions that this may be a "Cloud Mothership" aimed at the demonstrators or, perhaps, a device and means of changing reality and ageed-upon perceptions of reality. Then a white light beam streaked passed us and directed itself upon the woman, who vanished into invisiblity, causing me to "wake up." ******************************* NOTE: This evening I went to a reception for the release of a new book, "Bubbles of Perception: Exploring the Limits and the Future of Human Perception" by Paul Reban, published by Central Parker. The reception was held at 43rd Street (note time that I awoke from the dream), half-a-block from Grand Central Station, the world famous TRAIN station. The reception was in Patrick CONWAYS, an upscale Irish Pub, with many paintings of Dublin and the Irish countryside. The British actor Ronald Coleman played the character of Diplomat CONWAY in the 1935 movie classic "Lost Horizons" about the mythical Shangri-La paradise. It was the movie I saw right after the first hypnosis session (on my close encounters) in July 1988 on the block that is down the street from the Top Man/Woman Hair Salon, and where the SYCHRONICITY SPACE Art Gallery is now (but not then) across from the apartment building where I had the session. Coleman also starred in "A Tale of Two Cities." WWW.BUBBLESOFPERCEPTION.COM *********************************************************

ALIENS, STEPMOTHERS AND JIMMY DURANTE By Anders von Bergen Finland, Sunday, February 15, 2004 Update -- Today the comedy movie "My Stepmother Is An Alien" (1988) was shown on TV here in Finland. It tells about a SETI scientist (Dan Akyrod) who manages to get connection to an alien woman (Kim Basinger) and falls in love with her. JIMMY DURANTE jokes are an important feature in the movie. At one point, the SETI scientist has a HAT that was worn by DURANTE, and at the end, when the alien leaders wish to get the woman back, she disagrees as she has become a human being, and then they have a JIMMY DURANTE show. This, plus other things, convince the ALIENS that the human race is an intersting subject and that they have much to learn from from us. When the movie was over, a flash of JIMMY DURANTE was shown on the TV channel. During the title credits I saw the name HAROLD and a name that included a FINNISH surname, "Pitkanen." A "PITKANEN" means, in the old religion of FINLAND, "THUNDER GOD" (who was imagined to be carrying a HAMMER like THOR or, sometimes, bows and arrows). Then I thought, "There must be a GARY somewhere." And the there was a name GARY somewhere!! So, here we had, AGAIN, a nice and humorous COINCIDENCE that included: *** SEARCH OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE. *** CONTACT/RESPONSE *** RELATIONSHIP IN BETWEEN DIFFERENT SPECIES, and, of course.... *** JIMMY DURANTE. *** Plus connections to HAROLD, FINLAND, THUNDER GOD and GARY.

HERE COMES PETER COTTONTAIL, INKA DINKA DOO: Response To Anders By Harold Egeln New York City, Sunday, February 15, 2004 -- After reading Anders von Bergen's latest account, he asked me "what do you think?" Once again there is a SYNC LOOP between FINLAND and NEW YORK and the HYPER-INTELLIGENCE, "Where-Ever You Are," as Jimmy Durante would have said. As related in my recent book review of "Sight Unseen" by Budd Hopkins and Carl Rainey, his wife, in our S.P.A.C.E. EXPLORER E-Magazine, Hopkins is fond of making Jimmy Durante jokes, being a fan of the funnyman since he was a youth. (Durante lived from 1893 to 1980.) Yesterday, which is the day before Anders saw the "Stepmother/Alien" movie, Hopkins was interviewed by Whitley Strieber on his radio and Internet show "Dreamland" (which was the name of a fantastical amusement theme park in Coney Island a century ago). It was their first convesation in 15 years, after they had an unfortunate and unnecessary falling-out in 1989. Also, Hopkins was sent the review of his new book (a very supportive review, indeed!) three times in two months by S.P.A.C.E., but he, for unknown and unstated reasons, never acknowledged it. So, this is the context of this weekend in which Anders saw "My Stepmother Is An Alien" with its DURANTE references! It is a meaningful coincidence episode, since Hopkins is not only a Durante fan, but his theory of UFO abductions includes the premise (whether actually true or false) that the aliens are learning about human emotions, for they presumally do not understand them - and that is a focus of the movie Anders just happened to see and relate today! We are, again, having a COMUNICATION and MESSAGE delivered through two sensitive and compatible receivers (Anders and mself) in two faraway different locations (Finland and New York City), -- but united closely in the mysterious ways of the CONTACT. Also, when I was a boy child, one of my favorite records was a yellow Golden Record of the song "Here Comes Peter COTTONTAIL, hopping down the BUNNY trail" sung by JIMMY DURANTE. Add to this Organized Mix, my Dream of the Thunder Cloud 10 days ago (added here today before Anders saw it), along with his Finnish Thunder God references ("Pitkanen"), we clearly have further evidence and proof of the WOW! CONTACT, re-inforced from another direction by "The MARS WHITE RABBIT" happenings, and emphasized now ("NYT") by a news article in today's New York Times (see end of previous chapter page). And, Anders mentions that "Pitkanen" not only had "a Hammer like Thor (but) sometimes a Bow and Arrow." Yesterday, February 14, was Saint Valentine's Day, a big holiday here celebrating LOVE (which may be a theme of the WOW! CONTACT??), and CUPID, the TRICKSTER-like Cherub of Love, carries a BOW and ARROW much like "Pitkanen" sometimes does. *********************************************************

"S.P.A.C.E. UNTITLED" IN GREENWICH VILLAGE By Harold Egeln New York City, Thursday, February 19, 2004 -- This evening as I headed to a free writers, editors and publishers social event at a coffeehouse in Greenwich Village, a mini-sychronicity cluster happened. Getting off the subway stop at 8th Street, I saw a small panel truck (lorry) passing by with flashing lights and music advertising "CARNIVAL Knowledge," a new off-Broadway musical play, the title a take-off on the 1970's movie "Carnal Knowledge." I would see it twice again elsewhere in Greenwich Village during my hourlong stroll (I love walking for enjoyment and exercise) before the social event. CARNIVALS, CIRCUSES and CLOWNS are a theme pattern in our "Contact," as mentioned earlier by Anders von Bergen, as well as in stealth close encounters in general. Also, next Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, a major religious day, which is preceded by Fat Tuesday, celebrated by Mardi Gras CARNIVALS. The nonprofit organization, The Publishing TRIANGLE, that sponsored the social gathering uses a TRIANGLE as a symbol of its three components, uniting Editors, Publishers and Writers for networking purposes. Primarly the symbol represents "the association of lesbians and gay men in publishing," the TRIANGLE being representative of that social and cultural movement. Since a few of S.P.A.C.E.'s encounter explorers are gay or lesbian, this organization may be instrumental i getting our e-book in print, hence my attendance at the event. TRIANGLES have figured prominently in our Contact, and in UFO accounts. The late 16th Century Triangular Lodge in England and the 1995 UFO sightings over Coney Island involving triangular formations caused a BREAKTHROUGH insight on June 12, 2000. The place of the gathering in SoHo, just south of Greenwich Village and three blocks southeast from WHITLEY STRIEBER's old LaGuardia Place apartment house, is a coffehouse called the "SPACE Untitled Espresso Bar." That brings in our space and S.P.A.C.E. connections, with the "space untitled" name implying, by a referential association, the open-endedness of our explorations. As another association: "SPACE Untitled" is located on GREENE Street, making a free association to Columbia University astrophysicist Brian GREENE, author of the popular "ELEGANT UNIVERSE" book about superstring theory and unified field theory (subject of a recent Public Broadcasting System TV network series). Greene is also the author of a new book about the COSMOS. Since I was an early arrival, I had a choice of two free "advance copies" of new books, and I choose "My Master" by Colm Toibin, a Dublin writer known for his popular "The Blackwater Lightship," the name taken from a LIGHTHOUSE on a ship; that book was made into an American network TV movie this month. His new book revolves around Henry James. For the FIRST TIME since the "PROJECT WONDERLAND" E-Book (or more properly, an e-journal) has developed and evolved, I discussed the three volume book with an editor. (He approached me since I am, by nature, quite shy!) This gave me an opportunity (and soundingboard) to discuss the nature, theme, spontaneous construction and other distinctive elements of the FREE BOOK, along with its two co-authors, in England and Finland, among many other occassional contributors, -- but without mentioning UFOs (although I mentioned quantum physics and cosmology), since UFOs may raise a red flag and be a turn-off for some people, as I know very well by experience. That one-on-one talk made for a careful conversational dance and spoken word ballet that seemed to work, (challenging me to articulate it in an understandable way!) as the editor seemed to find the book intriquing and somewhat unique, although he, being tired from a long day, could offer no help with it. And his field is fiction. ********************************************************* NEVER-ENDING TRAVELS IN WONDERLAND Friday, February 20, 2004 -- This afternoon I received the new monthly e-newsletter of the literary organization which hosted last evening's social at SPACE Untitled. As I scrolled through the upcoming panels and events calendar, an item with the word WONDERLAND caught my attention. Nothing to do with Alice and the White Rabbit, it was a new anthology of travel writers, which just happened to have "WONDERLANDS:" as the book-title's first word. I did not expect this, but here it is, (following the scientific predictability of the Sync Pattern) within a day after last evening's gathering! -- Harold Egeln. *********************************************************

WONDERLAND AT THE WOODSTOCK ROCK FESTIVAL

The famous Woodstock Music & Art Fair of August 1969 is a now legendary highlight of the "Counter-Cultural" of the 1960's, defining a generation of young people who gave revolutionary new hopes of freedom to humanity with their lifestyles, gentleness and music.

The three-day Festival of August 15-16-17, 1969 featured rock music stars like Joan Baez; The Who; Crosby, Stills and Nash; Arlo Guthrie; Rickie Havens; Jimmy Hendrix; Janis Joplin; Country Joe and the Fish; John Sebastian and others, including, sneaking quietly into the backstages...

RABBITS AT WOODSTOCK.... By Harold Egeln Sunday, March 7, 2004 -- At home this evening alone, I decided, just on a sudden whim, to look at one of my many large photo albums, and I pulled one from a shelf. To my delight, it was the one that contained my own photos which I took while attending the three day "Woodstock Music and Art Fair" upstate in August 1969, the historic rock music festival of which I was just one of a half-a-million attendees, held one month after the first humans set foot on the Moon. Most of the 36 photos, taken with my Brownie camera, are of the huge vista of crowds, my friends who were with me, and scenes around the food, art and exhibit areas, as well as one single photo of at least seven animals around a food or water trough which just happen to be: RABBITS!!! Even though in the past (not within recent years) I have seen this photo, it now gains significance in context to the main image of our WOW! CONTACT, the theme hopping throughout it, and to England, to Finland and now onto MARS. The rabbit in the forefront of the photo is a WHITE RABBIT, the most prominent. There are also a black rabbit, and brown and mixed colored rabbits. There is a photo next to it of me standing next to a banner with the words: "A TRUE REVOLUTIONARY is guided by feelings of LOVE." The second half of the photo album has photos that I took in May 1973 on the 40-acres of woods when I shared that four-bedroom cottage in West Orange, New Jersey, where I and others had numerous anomalous experiences which led me, in 1988, on the pro-active search for close encounters and, in 2000, into Wonderland. The FACT that I have a photo of RABBITS at WOODSTOCK from 1969 -- almost 35 years ago when I was but a babe in the woods! -- is, in itself not an unusual thing, -- BUT in the CONTEXT of the WOW! SIGNAL CONTACT events, it is a MAJOR SYNCRONICITY arrived at by a SERENDIPITY. Within 10 minutes of this finding, I just happened to come across some newspaper clippings from a couple of years ago. One was a front page of the Sunday New York Times ARTS & LEISURE section, dated October 6, 2002, with the feature story: "A Collage in Which Life = Death = Art" by Michael Kimmelman about, says the photo blurb: "The artist Ray Johnson in front of the BROOKLYN Bridge in the mid-1950s, from a new documentary film about Johnson, 'How to Draw a BUNNY'." (emphasis ours) I recall saving the article because of the mention of "BUNNY" and the Brooklyn connection, but I don't think I read it at the time, and only saved the first part of the article. Reading the part of the article that I have, it tells of "the strange story" of the pop artist, based on the documentary by Andrew Moore and John Walter, and mentions this about Ray Johnson, who dealt in what is called "mail art": "For him, the world was made up of AMAZING COINCIDENCES, SERENDIPITIES and KARMIC GAGS." Once again, in a context removed from close encounters and UFOS, but in the realm of ART, a charateristic of our contact, we have the major elements of our WOW! Contact: ** "A BUNNY" -- RABBITS. ** "AMAZING COINCIDENCES" -- SYNCHRONITY ** "SERENDIPITIES" ** and... "KARMIC GAGS" -- TRCKSTERS Also, this was found within minutes of the WOODSTOCK RABBITS discovery this early Sunday morning shortly after midnight. Johnson, who in 1995 committed suicide by leaping off a bridge at age 67, is described in the article as: "though by no means a recluse, lived by choice on the margins, making mischievous little collages and other eccentrically beautiful, technically brilliant, ironic and zany works he either stored away or dissememinated to friends or strangers via the Postal Service." One of the film reviews called it a "Rashoman-like portarit...(about a man) who may be the most famous unknown artist in New York City." From one website, there is a description of his most famous work, "BUNNY": "The bodiless Ray Johnson BUNNY is something like a genetic mutant mickey mouse engineered to be a RABBIT, or visa versa. Johnson has claimed the cartoon tag to be a personal self portrait varied by the daily mood changes in his life... Johnson has drawn 'how to make BUNNIES step by step,' a parody similar to correspondence art school ads challenging readers to 'draw the portrait' and return for analysis. Indeed, Johnson repeatedly asked friends and strangers alike to alter his BUNNY ads,which he termed as 'add-ons.' At other times BUNNIES were assigned the names of persons either famous, unknown or known only to Ray and his circle of friends, collectively known as the New York Correspondence School." (from the Artistamp Gallery website, emphasis ours.) In my Woodstock-West Orange House photo album, I have a magazine clipping from 1973 to introduce the West Orange Woods section of photos, stating: "Apart from the things a man must do in order to survive alone in nature, Vincent spends his days in timeless meditation. He also writes but does not publish..." The text is set among photos clipped from that magazine article: A POCKET WATCH frozen in STONE and of a BOTTLE set on top of a table, with a single chair and a window lit by a bright light, photographed impressionistically, (hinting of the table in Aice in Wonderland) and its instructions: "Drink Me" along with the White Rabbit's Pocket Watch). I may have done this at the time with "Wonderland" in mind, as I also have a space collage that I created with a modern day Alice In Wonderland photo. The words from the magazine article text are similiar to that of the Times article about Johnson just quoted. "Project Wonderland" is not yet a print book, but has been published as a Free E-Book or E-Journal on the Internet ("a postal service" of sorts) because MSN-Web TV forbids using its websites for selling. The quote in the photo album is from a 1973 magazine article titled "A PLANET WASHED BY COOL MYSTERIES" that I clipped into a COLLAGE form (like Johnson's Collages) to fit in the theme of the West Orange Lost Mansion Woods photos, and linked to WOODSTOCK a few years previous. The article (magazine unknown, but the size of "Life") has photos of two youngsters, (a boy and a girl) in the woods, and begins as follows: "Without the shield of its atmosphere and the healing wash of its liquids, this would be a lifeless chunk of rock, swinging dumbly through lethal radiation in naked space, and like its sister planets, viciously hot or dead cold. But Anthony and Marina, the mythic travelers, find a Planet. Yet the Planet does not live apart from the children, nor do they from it...." The article is about Earth, ecology and how humans are connected with the planet, a favorite theme (along with Love) in my own life, my life's work and writing, all subjects which I must keep separate from UFO matters now for reasons of overall objectivity to avoid an "interference pattern." I also have the last page of the unknown magazine's photo essay, a piece titled: "A Vision of the Human Revolution" with a subtitle text: "You lead a locked-in existence -- with life lying just outside your present realm." PERHAPS, this has to do with the overall MESSAGE of the WOW! Contact and Communication, and why it comes to our attention NOW. Of course, this is all by INFERENCE, a key element of Serendipity, as a suggestion of meaning, showing that the cosmos brims full with "creatures out there that are far beyond" our concepts...."of your science and theology," as Anders von Bergen writes. It's a true wonder how a photo taken of RABBITS at WOODSTOCK back in 1969 would gain significance in 2004, and demonstrate the reach through time and space of "The WOW! Signals" clues, artistically implanted into our earthly reality! *************************************************

THE DECODING CHALLENGE ANSWERED

A S.P.A.C.E. PROPOSITION (March 9, 2004)

There is a specific private SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) project working on decoding messages received by radio telescopes, and the project, conceived by Canadians Yvan Dutil and Stephan Dumas, has made its own scientific and mathematical test messages to see if SETI scientists can unscramble them.

But, since our "Message" is coming through human receptors who are not radio telescopes, does this make our "Contact" invalid by the parameters of science? Perhaps, even almost certainly, since it is not through radio signals but direct human experience, dismissed as "subjective source," and therefore considered "unreliable testimony." But there is the QUESTION of DECODING a complicated, deliberated CODED MESSAGE received through and discovered by SERENDIPTOUS circumstances.

"Currently most resources are focused on signal detection. and not on message composition or decoding," says author Brian McConnell, author of "Beyond Contact: A Guide to SETI and Cmmunicating with Alien Civilizations." "I think it is important to research the latter beacuse in a worst-case scenario would be positive communication of an ET signal that nobody can comprehend." (from "'Alien' Message Tests Human Decoders" by Will Knight in NewScientist.com dated January 8, 2002.)

The central theme of our contact centers around "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland" and "Alice's Adventures Through the Looking Glass," an imaginative realm created by a top 19th Century MATHEMATICIAN, Charles Dodgsen aka Lewis Carroll, looking into the science of nonsense, in a manner of speaking. One must think outside of the proverbial box of time and space to allow this consideration, since Carroll preceded SETI by many years!

But why not alert this "SETI Message Project" anyway with our "Project Wonderland" WOW! Contact information, and then see what happens?

The leader of the SETI Institute's Interstellar Message Group in California, Douglas Vakoch, is quoted on this issue in Knight;s "New Scientist" article from two years:

"Our biggest challenge will be to keep open to NEW TYPES OF MESSAGES that we have NOT previously considered," he says. "That's why the SETI Institute is sponsoring a series of workshops on interstellar message composition, aimed at IDENTIFYING RADICALLY NEW WAYS of constructing messages." (emphasis ours)

Our MESSAGE NOW being COMMUNICATED and DECODED through the "INNER SPACES" of human interface with a nonhuman source may help give science a new discovery and help boost the greater Contact of Close Encounters, making the work of Ufology valid in the eyes of science.

A tall order (or a "tall story" as skeptics might say) to be sure!

MARK TWAIN ON "SYNCHONICITY" By Harold Egeln March 9, 2004 -- Decades before Dr. Carl Jung coined the term "synchronicity" to described meaningful coincidences that have an impact on a person's psychological state, the great Amercan writer Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemens), a contemporary of Lewis Carroll, wrote about his experiences with synchronicity. Only he did not use that term, of course, but called it "Mental Telepathy" to describe amazing meaningful coincidences and related paranormal incidents in his life. In a series of essays on "Mental Telepathy," he details those experiences. The writings can be found on the link below from the "Journal of Psychology and Social Change," the publication the Center for Psychology and Social Change, the organization headed by Dr. John Mack of which PEER, the Program for Extraordinary Experience Research is a component. It is extremely relevant to our discussions, and comes from a major literay giant (whose "Number 99, the Mysterious Stranger" relates to the mysteries of the universe) rather than an obscure little known and untalented writer but proliferic New York City newspaper journalist like myself whose insignificant life does not count:

A WHITE RABBIT IN WHITLEY STRIEBER'S HOMETOWN

By Harold Egeln

Monday, March 15, 2004 -- While searching the Internet for White Rabbit websites today, I discovered The WHITE RABBIT rock music lounge in San Antonio, Texas on St. Mary Street.

San Antonio, in central Texas, is both WHITLEY STRIEBER's current home and the famed author and contactee's hometown. The lounge also has a page in a major San Antonio music magazine called "THE EDGE MAGAZINE." Strieber's Unknown Country website has a section called "From The EDGE," which may or may not have a connection with the name of this magazine.

Just by sheer happenstance, this WHITE RABBIT finding (the lounge is on St. Mary Street between a college and a golf course), coincides with my discovery of the Woodstock Rabbits photo last week, and a news item on Strieber's Unknown Country website today about "Quantum Weirdness in Real Life," which talks about quantum computing, -- a subject that ties in with the Living Quantum Computing Hyper-Intelligence System that seems to be driving our WOW! Signal Contact.

WHITE RABBIT JIGS FROM FINLAND TO TEXAS

On the eve of St. Patrick's Day, which has more ancient pagan origins as a Celtic Spring holiday, it seems that the Wee Folk, those rascally. mischievous Leprechauns with their waterfall rainbows and pots of gold, may be up to some merry-making tricks... Or is it all just a wee bit of the old blarney?

YOU NEVER KNOW WHERE THAT WHITE RABBIT WILL HOP UP By Harold Egeln Tuesday, March 16, 2004 -- If I am home around six in the evening, I usually turn on the BBC World News from London on the city's prime public TV network station, PBS's WNET, Channel 13. Sometimes while watching I hop back and forth to the Russian national news broadcast from Moscow, shown here on the city's public educational WNYE Channel 25. This I did this evening. The broadcasts are a few minutes under half an hour, and I happened to be watching the end of the Russia national news program when a short segment came on Channel 25 at 6:27 p.m. First here was a city street scene and the voice-over announcer talked about how much easier it is for people to communicate today, and he talked about "The Mobile Internet" and mentioned its use in HELSINKI, FINLAND, especially among young people. Not a sync, but it grabbed my attention, the mention being HELSINKI. The next immediate scene was of a young, blonde-haired adult male holding a cellphone-like Mobile Internet device equipped with a pair of LARGE WHITE RABBIT EARS, a WHITE COTTONTAIL and a Rabbit Face!!!! Given the RABBIT WONDERLAND SYNCS since May 1, 2003 (Vapu Day) with ANDERS VON BERGEN, also a blonde, in HELSINKI, FINLAND, I was thunderstruck by this unexpected synchronicitiy! (Just as I wrote this, on St. Patrick's Day, a commercial about Cell Phones on WQXR the Classical Music Radio Station of The New York Times features the voice of WQXR Morning Show host Annie BERGEN.) In the three minute segment, as I grabbled for a videotape to place in my VCR, there were other scenes of beautiful Helsinki and a mention of Helsinki University, with others scenes of young people with Mobile Internet devices, and interviews with Mobile Internet company spokes-people, one company being "Picafun" (?). Here, suddenly and without expectation nor deliberate planning on my part, it appears that I saw this short TV segment by pure coincidence. But, by inference and implication, it re-affirmed the COMMUNICATION between HELSINKI and NEW YORK CITY, pobably orchestrated somehow on other little understood levels of reality, (through a deeply awarely living qantum computer-like system, this being a universe based more on associative information at the subtle levels?) by the unknown Hyper-Intelligence of our mutual CONTACT, and our desire to co-create. Later this evening I was reading The ARTS, a daily section of The New York Times. On page E2, among five brief "Highlights," there was an item in the ARTS BRIEFING by Ben Susario titled "SAN ANTONIO: Financial Plan For Troubled Orchestra." Even though it relates to San Antonio, WHITLEY STRIEBER's city in Texas, it was not a sync to yesterday's discovery of The WHITE RABBIT Lounge in that city, since there was no rabbit mentioned. Then I looked at the item before this one, "A BOOK, A MOVIE, A DREAM." It's about first-time children's book author Clive Woodall, 47, a supermarket manager in Cambridge, ENGLAND whose new book "One for Sorrow, Two for Joy" about a batle between robins and evil magpies was published yesterday and which is being made into a feature film by Disney. There was a segment about Woodall on the BBC World News on Monday night, last evening. The book does not involve rabbits, but here is what author Woodall said about the one million dollars movie rights deal: "I am like a RABBIT in the headllights," Mr. Woodall told Reuters. "It's a wonderful feeling, just overwhelming." So we got our RABBIT association, afterall, immediately before a news item on the SAN ANTONIO Orchestra!!!! And, also, our connection with England. (As I just wrote these last words -- on St. Patrick's Day -- a WQXR radio announcement comes on with a mention of MARK TWAIN in connection with a Wagner opera, "The Ring Cycle", a portion of which will be performed this weekend by the Eos Orchestra at New York University. It's the frst time that I can recall a mention of MARK TWAIN on the station, and it comes within the context of our recently placed account here of TWAIN's essays on his own Synchronicities! Folks, we did not plan this, but it's just happening as if it were PLANNED.) *** *** *** And on The Space Frontier in this Golden Age of Astronomy, astronomers and NASA announced on Monday (March 15, the Ides of March), the discovery of a previously Unknown World at the fringes of our solar system -- SEDNA (or 2003 VB 12) -- named after the mythical Inuit Eskomo ice goddess who created the Arctic Ocean's sea creatures. The planetoid, said the discovery team at the California Institute of Technlogy, is five billion miles further out than Pluto, with a highly ellipitcal orbit which varies from eight billion miles to 84 billion miles from the Sun, taking 10,500 years to make one orbit. Red like Mars and smaller than Pluto, it is at least 1,400 miles in diameter, with temperatures of 400 degrees below zero, and it may have one moon. Itorbits in the Oort Cloud, home to perhaps millions of comets, and is beyond the Kniper Belt of small planetoids, such as Quaoar, discovered a few years ago. Then, on March 16, WILLIAM H. PICKERING, a leader in space exploration, died in California. "WILLIAM H. Pickering, a leader of the first successful spaceflight by the United States and its first two decades of space exploration, died on Monday... announced by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory," said The New York Times obituary on March 17. Dr. Pickering, along with Dr. Wernher von Braun and Dr. James Van Allen, led the Army team from Huntsville. Alabama which launched the first American space satellite, Explorer I, into Earth orbit on January 31, 1958, nearly four months after the Russian's orbited the first Earth space satellite, Sputnik I. The three team leaders are famous for photographs of them holding a model of the JPL-produced Explorer I satellite above their heads at a press conference on Feb. 1, 1958, heralding the historic U.S. achievement. Here we have another WILLIAM in connection with space, even though it may be REACHING... into SPACE.. *********************************************************

THE WAY THE RABBIT HOPS By Harold Egeln New York City, Thursday, March 18, 2004 -- After work at the newspaper office today I went into Soho in Manhattan this evening to attend another monthly social and networking gathering for writers, publishers and editors of The Publisher's TRIANGLE at the SPACE UNTITLED coffee bar on Greene Street. As an early arrival, I had a choice of a few copies of free books by two famous authors, Ann-Marie MacDonald of Toronto, Canada who wrote the best seller novel "Fall on Your Knees" and another author's book. I chose the new MacDonald novel, "The Way the Crow Flies." Glancing through it, I noted that the period of the book centered around "the early Sixties, a time of optimism infused with the excitement of the space race" and the dangers of the Cold War, the book cover leaf said. As I glanced through the 700 page book, I noticed several references to major space events, and many mentions of the music, lifestyles and other events of the early 1960's, with which I identified. I got into a conversation with a woman writer, and she asked about what I do, saying that I am a journalist. When I mentioned the "Project Wonderland Chronicles" and my wish to get it published in print, she inquired more about the theme of the book. Just like last month at this event I was challenged to describe "Project Wonderland" in a comprehensible manner, And she appeared to understand the nature and free-flowing structure of the Chronicles. "Does this involve synchronicities?" she asked as I progressed, telling of associative material and linked information through seemingly staged events and insights, without mentioning "syncs" nor even "UFOS," -- although I told of Quantum Physics and Qantum Computers, and the running Alice In Wonderland and White Rabbit themes that keep popping up in unexpected way, places and times. Certainly not tonight. -- Wrong! Getting on the subway train after the event, I had noticed a quote from Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass"... and then one from "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland"... and still another from "Looking Glass" and yet another from "Wonderland" and so forth. Now, at a Publisher's TRIANGLE event at the SPACE Untitled Coffee Bar (which, like tonight's, I enjoyed a lot), there has been a DIRECT WONDERLAND connection! There was an indirect connection with a "WONDERLANDS" Travel Book last time soon after.) At home I cataloged, in MacDonald's book, four "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" quotes (on pages 497, 561, 603, 611) and four "Alice Through the Looking Glass" quotes (on pages 527, 616, 618, 628). ---- and all in a book with several SPACE program event mentions (although it was not about space in its entirety but centered around the tragic murder of a young girl named CLAIRE McCARROLL) -- a book I picked up at SPACE Untitled by a group that has a TRIANGLE in its NAME and LOGO!!!!! Even the girl's name, "McCARROLL," relates to Lewis CARROLL. And "CLAIRE" to the "ST. CLARE or ST. CLAIRE of Assissi" events at our contact site in the woods of Brewster, NY in August 1988 and May 1994. The 12th Century saint was made "the patron saint of television" by the pope in the 1950's, television being a medium of COMMUNICATION, the message part of our WOW! Contact. And that connects directly to SETI, searching space with radio telescopes to detect radio or TV signals from extraterrestrial civilizations! And that's the way the rabbit hops, to paraphrase famed TV newscaster Walter Cronkite...... *********************************************************

WONDERLANDS: SHERLOCK HOLMES AND LINTUKOTO

By Anders von Bergen

Finland, Friday, March 19, 2004 -- I am most amazed by the latest reports of how this most well organized contact has developed! There has not been, however, much happening here lately in Finland, except for perhaps one thing.

OK, this goes back to the EASTER time of last year, the time when I was taken into this WOW! Contact. This all began with strange coincidences, synchronicities, although I only began to understand them in the MAY DAY (VAPPU). 2003. Anyway, one of the first "syncs" was a small coincidence that I wrote in my diary. The day of the writing is April 21, 2003. I wrote:

"I one day thought about JOHN HOLMES (why on Earth?) just a couple of days ago. Today I happened to switch the channel from the MTV to Sub TV (a Finnish channel). There was the Conan O'Bryan Show on, and there was discussions about the movie that is being made about JOHN HOLMES!"

There I was wondering how my sudden thoughts about the famous porn king manifested in reality as I spontaneously checked what's going on on another channel. That was BEFORE I realized that I was a part of the WOW! Contact, and on that same diary page I told that I have also written the first lines on the novel about ALIEN CONTACT (the fictional novel that I was preparing)!!!

So, today, on March 19, 2004, I remembered this thing. Guess what is the name of the movie abou HOLMES? It is "WONDERLAND"!!!!

Yes, the WONDERLAND theme connected to SYNCHRONICITY. So FUNNY COINCIDENCES were there, so early in the beginning of the WOW! Contact on my part. It took me almost one year for me to understand that this strange JOHN HOLMES coincidence was directly connected to the ALICE IN WONDERLAND theme!

And guess what else? Today, on March 19, they will show in Finland the "Young Sherlock HOLMES" movie on TV!!

Here are some extra facts. In the JOHN HOLMES "WONDERLAND" movie there are these star actors, for example:

VAL Kilmer (one of Harold Egeln's e-mail addresses is VAL Spegeln), LISA Kudrow (ALICE is LIISA in the FINNISH version of the story), Natasha Gregson WAGNER (composer WAGNER was on Egeln's latest update). RICHARD WAGNER is also my favorite composer (actually the ONLY classical music that I listen to; I mostly listen to Hip-Hop, R&B and music from Indian "Bollywood" movies).

Yet one more thing is added here! On the NYT ("NOW") newspaper today there was an article about a rapper named Steen Christensen.... In this article a neighborhood was called "the Northern Lintukoto." "LINTUKOTO" is a word that has very ancient origins. It was, in the ancient Finnish myths, a WONDERLAND-like ISLAND far, far away from here.

The people thought that this was the place where the migratory birds flew each Autumn. It was also believed that there are small leprechauns or elves living in LINTUKOTO Island.

Now, let us see. LINTUKOTO is the name of the NOVEL that I was writing on EASTER 2003, when I was taken into this WOW! Contact. The LINTUKOTO in that story was a symbol of the home of the ALIENS somewhere in a distant galaxy.

And, falling on this same Friday (March 19), is the premier day of the new "PETER PAN" movie here in FINLAND! The Never-Never LAND is a real WONDERLAND and a DISTANT ISLAND just like LINTUKOTO. Remember what I wrote last EASTER?

"There are creatures out there that are far beyond even the definitions of God or Gods held by your science and theology." Yes, indeed!

BUNNY MESSENGER: "FLETCHER RABBIT, MAILMAN"

By Harold Egeln

New York City, March 23, 2004 -- "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" was a popular early children's puppet TV show from 1947 to 1957, first on NBC and then on ABC. One of its delightful main characters was FLETCHER RABBIT, the MAIL CARRIER.

As the TRICKSTER RABBIT has acted as a MESSENGER, like the wing-footed Hermes or Mercury, throughout our CONTACT, here we have "FLETCHER RABBIT the MAILMAN" who acted as the mail carrier for Kukla, the show's star; Ollie (Oliver J. Dragon); and the human host, singer Fran Allison, along with other charming characters such as Beulah the kindly witch.

The show's creator was Burr Tillstrom, born in Chicago on October 13, 1917 and who died in 1985. Tillstrom led the puppetry ensemble known as the Kuklapolitan Players, who first performed at the New York World's Fair of 1939-1940 with over 2,000 performances for fair-goers, featuring a different show for every performance, including "St. George And The Dragon."

The show premiered on Chicago TV in 1941 on WBKB-TV, but was soon pre-empted by the U.S. entrance into World War Two later that year, when American TV stations went off the air. It re-appeared as "Junior Jamboree" on the station in 1947 (the year "Flying Saucers" made their first mass public appearance), thanks to Captain WILLIAM Crawford Eddy, station director. On November 29, 1948 it went on the air on the fledgling NBC network, five days a week from Mondays through Fridays.

In 1950 Burr Tillstrom also directed a network TV version of the "Wizard of Oz," helped with the "Ford 50th Anniversary Show" on NBC in 1953, and directed a puppet version of "The Mikato" in 1954.

The "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" show's announcer was HUGH DOWNS, later a popular newscaster and game show host; Downs is also on the board of the National Space Society, founded in 1974 by Wernher von Braun, the famous space rocket pioneer. (I am the current vice president of the New York City NSS chapter, appearing recently with the chapter president on the "Astronomy Forum" program on Staten Island Public Access Cable TV.)

This is how Tillstrom described the role of Fran Allison, the show's ony non-puppet character: "Fran was just what we needed to turn our make believe real. SHE'S THE ALICE WHO WANDERS THROUGH WONDERLAND, the Dorothy who goes to OZ." (from "The Kuklapolitans" in "The Greatest Television Heroes" by Donald Glut and Jim Harmon, 1976, Double Day & Company.) So, there is a direct ALICE in WONDERLAND connection, right from the creator of FLETCHER RABBIT.

After 1957 the show appeared locally on Chicago and syndicated stations and the Kulapolitans TV specials such as "Crisis at the Easter Egg Plant" and "'Tis the Season to be Ollie" in the early 1980's.

While Tillstrom apparently created FLETCHER RABBIT as a mail carrier on his own, one can wonder if the influence of the TRICKSTER as MESSENGER was also present somehow in that creation, as an archtype, and specifically as the RABBIT TRICKSTER and MESSENGER?

Whatever, it is still an intriguing synchronicity we just had to take note of; besides, Fletcher Rabbit is so cute, as you will soon see.

While living in the cottage on the 40-acres woods of "The Lost Mansion of West Orange" in the 1970's (where I had my seminal close encounters), a talented friend made a hand puppet of Ollie (Oliver J. Dragon) for me, which I still have in perfect condition! Another friend, by-the-way, gave me a porcelein figurine of WHITE RABBIT from ALICE IN WONDERLAND, which sits today on a bookshelf I made in school at age 12.

Today, we also discovered through a MSN web search under "SETI Rabbits" only four mentions of rabbits in indirect connection with the SETI@Home Project, to which over three million people worldwide are hooked into. That is a miniscule, microscopic number of rabbit linkages, and, therefore, meaningless to our plethra of rabbits in our contact. The rabbits noted by he users are pets, including one called "Frodo" after the hobbit and are mentioned on SETI@Home profiles from people in Denmark, Sweden, Holland and California.

Below are several website links about the "Kukla, Fran and Ollie Show" and our focus character, FLETCHER RABBIT. There is also an audio site with FLETCHER RABBIT being interviewed by famous Chicago-based writer Studs Terkel, as well as thoroughly delightful songs, the best being "Dragon's Retreat" and "Our Love is Here To Stay." Play and Enjoy!

"WONDERFALLS" AND CONEY ISLAND AVENUE OF WONDERS

By Harold Egeln

New York City, Saturday, March 27, 2004 -- A quirky, creative, imaginative and beyond reality new TV show called "WONDERFALLS" premiered on the FOX TV network two weeks ago, set for a 13 episode series run, hopefully.

The action revolves around a woman, 24, who works in a Niagara Falls souviner gift shop where she first discovers that inanimate objects, animal figurines, dolls or toys, talk to her, and only to her, giving her what at first seem nonsensicle messages. In the stories, the messages become meaningful, having happy or dramatic results and consequences. The source of the messages remains unknown, a true mystery; not a god but maybe something beyond that. Sounds a bit like our WOW! Contact.

With TV in the U.S. today awash in a "vast wasteland" of innane "reality" shows, stupidity, violence, meanspiritedness and barbarity, except for public television and a few well-made TV movies, "Wonderfalls" brings true awe and enlightened thoughtfulness, mixed with fun and play, into TV-Land.

On last evening's episode, ""Wound Up Pengiun," the nonsensicle messages, cryptically mouthed by the animal figurines, result in a meaningful dramatic ending, which one of the guest stars' characters compares to a "Happy COINCIDENCE." That shows the subtle SYNCHRONISTIC and SERENDIPITOUS theme which runs through the episodes in storylines that can remind us of our own Contact experiences in real world settings.

Last night there was a reference made, in a large TRAIN station, of a MAN IN BLACK, who later turned out to be a priest who was the sunject at the end of the sync, -- And also a mention of WEST ORANGE in New Jersey, where I had my seminal close encounter and mysterious experiences three decades ago which led to my search for aspects of close encounters. The suburban community, in fact, has NO TRAIN Station while the other destinations announced on "WONDERfalls" do. Orange and East Orange have train stations, with Millburn, not West Orange, being the next stop on the Morris and Essex Lines. This was odd but it was direct and meaningful, given the context of the show and the nature of intimate close encounter experiences.

There will be an episode about a RABBIT, called "Cocktail BUNNY" due to air sometime in May. The creators of the shows were involved in such shows as "The X-Files" "Twin Peaks" and "Northern Exposure" and the show's producer has a collection of science fiction, Star Trek and fantasy action figures and items in his own place, similar to my own collections.

CONEY ISLAND AVENUE

Yesterday there was also a marvelous feature story, starting out on The New York Times front page (a quarter of the front page!) about CONEY ISLAND Avenue here in Brooklyn and its diversity of cultures ("On Brooklyn's Avenue of Babel, Cultures Entwine" by Andy Newman, pages A1 and B4.) There is a mention in the article on the front page of a kosher shop with "a display of EASTER BUNNIES," but being near Easter, that's natural, not a synchronicity.

The long avenue, filled with shops, is composed of a mix of diverse ethnic and religious cutures (Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, etc.) who mix together and get-along, all related in a wonderfully written article. On the page across from the inside page the top article mentions a WILLIAMS in its headline, giving us that name again in connection with CONEY (Rabbit) ISLAND, where our Contact emerged into First Light in June 2000.

And recent accounts from Anders von Bergen coincide with happenings here in New York City, as Gary in England works to document his lifelong experiences -- and the WOW! CONTACT with its COMMUNICATION hops along that Bunny Trail....

A POETIC, NOETIC WONDERLAND SYNC By Harold Egeln New York City, Tuesday, March 30, 2004 -- Off from work from the newspaper today, I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a friend to see the new exhibit, "Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557)" and to stop by to say "hello" to radio announcer Jeff Spurgeon, making a live broadcast for classic music station WQXR-FM and WQXR.com about the museum's old "Musical Instruments" section. While at the exhibit, a TV crew from the WCBS News was taping a segment about the exhibit. During the taping, Museum Director PHILLIP de Montabello, dressed in a BLACK suit, rushed through the gallery, like that White Rabbit hurrying. It was the first time I have seen the famous museum leader in person! While leaving the museum, at about 3:45, I saw a girl near the entrance wearing a backpack with a WHITE RABBIT head, in skull form, on a RED CIRCLE. I did not consider it a sync, nor connected with Easter. While riding a bus on Fifth Avenue, at 3:55, after leaving the museum, I looked into Central Park to catch a glimpse of the famous ALICE IN WONDERLAND Statue in the distance. To my surprise, a film or video crew was at work at the site! Within a dozen blocks, still riding the bus towards our destination of Greenwich Village (my favorite city neighborhood), at 4:00, I noticed a RED truck parked around East 61st Street wth the letters: "CARROLL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS" and CarrollMusic.com -- Well, here's our Lewis CARROLL reference associated with the MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Museum radio broadcast, and the film crew at the ALICE IN WONDERLAND statue. A SYNC CLUSTER in the making? Lastly, while waiting for a bus, around 6:40 and after dinner, on West 10th Street near Hudson Street in Greenwich Village, I looked into an alley way leading to a small, dark courtyard of an apartment building. Framed brightly in the darkness was a beautiful CHRISTMAS TREE, about ten feet tall, decorated with gorgeous COLORED CHRISTMAS LIGHTS, with a BLUE lighted STAR behind it! While watching it, a segment of lights on the tree blew-out, but most remained lit. Here it is, March 30, and here's a lit CHRISTMAS TREE shining in an isolated, almost hidden, easily to miss courtyard, making for a really beautiful unexpected anomaly, like visual poetry! --- As if the celebrate the "GIFT of a SYNC CLUSTER" today.... *********************************************************

PROJECT WONDERLAND CHRONICLES LOG

As the data mounts enormously in support of our "WOW! SIGNAL" reports, outpacing our ability to register them here in this third volume by Anders von Bergen and filling our electronic storage space, rather than create a fourth volume of our free e-book, we will continue with updates and accounts in a newsletter, the "PROJECT WONDERLAND CHRONICLES LOG." A link will be created here, below, and on the e-book's Table of Contents on the main S.P.A.C.E. WEBSITE.

THE "PROJECT WONDERLAND CHRONICLES" WEBLOG: