PAGE 10 - Close Encounters News: October-November 2005

"AND EZEKIEL SAW THE WHEEL... ....This is the Wheel he said he saw. These are Unidentified Flying Objects that people say they are seeing now. Are they proof that we are being visited by civilizations from other planets? Or just what are they? -- TV producer and star Jack Webb, in his introduction to the weekly "PROJECT UFO" show on NBC in the late 1970s. Webb, famous for the early "Dragnet" TV series, produced excellent hour-long TV programs recreating UFO cases culled from Project Bluebook files. ...AND NOW A REVEALING, BRAVE NEW BOOK TALKS ABOUT THE CONNECTION WHICH JACK WEBB SPOKE OF....

"ALIEN SCRIPTURES: Extraterrestrials in the Holy Bible" -- A LANDMARK ASTRO-THEOLOGY BOOK by REV. MICHAEL CARTER

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"If UFOs were involved in developing-stimulating the biblical religion, as is suggested in this book, then many questions follow: One is: Is a miracle still a miracle if it is caused by advanced technology rather than by the 'supernatural.' whatever theology means by that? If aliens in other worlds come a hi tech culture, and if they have directed our culture biologically (genetically engineered us), and inspired our religion, then who, or what, is God?" -- Rev. Barry Downing, retired author, "UFOs and the Bible" (1968)

"Rev. Michael Carter has done a great service for spirituality and science with 'Alien Scriptures,' enlightening the debate on how long extraterrestrials may have been involved in human history. UFOs are not only a modern era sensation, but an ancient one, and Rev. Carter does full justice to the controversial but intriquing subject. His thoughtful examination of what happens at the crossroads of ufology and theology greatly expands the dialog of close encounters for the 21st Century." -- Harold Egeln, founder-director, S.P.A.C.E.

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A BOOK REVIEW by HAROLD EGELN

Thursday, October 27, 2005 -- In 1968 Rev. Barry Downing's breakthrough book, "The Bible and Flying Saucers," first bravely explored apparent UFO accounts in the Bible. In 1974 a NASA rocket scientist, Josef Blumrich, wrote "The Spaceships of Ezekial" demonstrating how the ancient time prophet described, in the terms of his day, a possible rocketship landing and encounter.

Now, experiencer Reverend Michael Carter's new book, "ALIEN SCRIPTURES: Extraterrestials in the Holy Bible," published this month by Blue Star Productions (in Sun Lakes, Arizona, $10.95) daringly takes the theme of the crossover of science and spirituality pioneered by a theologian and scientist in the 1960s and 1970s into the third millenium, with new information, insights and investigations.

"There is extremely powerful evidence that there had been ET involvement in the life of Jesus, as well as the Old Testament prophets," writes Rev. Carter. "If this is true (and I believe it is) then we have to ask, What is the meaning of the enormous amount of UFO sightings and contacts in the world today?" (page 117)

The book, Rev. Carter's first, courageously explores the idea of ancient UFO encounters and includes the author's own personal interaction with the visitation phenomenon, adding to the depth of the study. The book is not about interactions with what have been called ancient astronauts and angels, but with beings who are "intelligent and finite," writes the author, which brings immense implications.

The author has appeared on national network cable TV, first in November 2003 in the "Abduction Diaries" documentary made in connection with the Sci Fi Channel's "Steven Spielberg Presents TAKEN" mini-series. And he was recently interviewed for an upcoming cable TV documentary, "The Real 4400," due out on the USA Network this Autumn, along with UFO abduction researchers Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs, plus a couple of UFO witnesses.

Rev. Carter is a graduate of an interfaith seminary and then of the famous Union Theological Seminar in New York City where he earned his Masters of Divinity degree. He is a Board-certified hospital chaplain who works with cancer patients, resides in North Carolina after many years in New York City, and he is a former actor in daytime TV drama serials, Off-Broadway plays, films and TV commercials.

Rev. Carter has written articles on his theme and experiences, including in the British "UFO Magazine" and in the "S.P.A.C.E. Explorer Newsletter." He made public presentations on his theme at a S.P.A.C.E. public seminar in 2001 and at the Eyes of Learning UFO Conference in Long Island in November 1997, which also featured Budd Hopkins.

The book is based upon his Masters of Divinity degree thesis, "The Possibility of Extraterrestrial Life and Its Influence on the Judeo-Christian Scriptures." "When I proposed my thesis theme, instead of getting strange looks and rejection, I got the go-ahead to do it," said Rev. Carter at the time, encougaged by Dr. Dolores Williams at Union. "I was delighted and pleased!"

"The Bible is a book of UFO stories," writes Rev. Carter. "Some may construe this statement as blasphemy or heresy. The Bible is much more than just a book of UFO stories, but UFOs definately figure into the scenario."

"Yet for me, many biblical stories confirm the visits of ET intelligences to this planet. Because of my personal experience and my resesearch, I am convinced that the Bible records early contact between ETs and human beings," writes Rev. Carter (page 25).

The beautiful and riveting book cover art for "Alien Scriptures" showing the Old Testament prophet Elijah being taken skyward by a "flying saucer," shown above, is by Jeff Westover, well-known for his UFO artwork.

A wealth of information and knowledge based on thoroughly exhaustive research, "Alien Scriptures" by Rev. Carter is a serious major work by a thought-provoking scholar and a daring researcher, whose writing style entertains while it informs and enlightens, a rare combination that soars into our minds and hearts. In part, that comes not only from his scholarship but from the inner texture of his own encounters and their effects, an artwork of his human spirit.

The expression of the close encounter experience may drive a number of its witnesses to form a virtual vehicle, -- "their inner UFO" as it were, bursting with the informational energy of both hidden and revealed secrets, -- which lands outside on Earth in the public form of movies, music, poetry, lectures, groups or books.... as what seems to be the stirrings that created "Alien Scriptures."

It's ironic that two movies, 45 years apart, brought the theme of Rev. Carter's book to life. The first was "Red Planet Mars" by MGM in 1952, starring Peter Graves (later TV star of "My Friend Flicka" and "Mission Impossible") as an early version of a SETI scientist whose contact brings a spiritual revival not of his making but through the messages of the alien contact's source.

Later, the late astronomer Carl Sagan put the issue of science and spiritually into the popular culture with his science fiction book "Contact" 20 years ago, which was made into a movie seven years ago starring Jodie Foster.

Now, in the 21st Century and nearly 60 years after the first widespread UFO reports of the modern "flying saucer era," Rev. Carter's "Alien Scriptures" re-focuses the issue in the public's eye, bringing a clearer vision to the UFO mystery and controversy.

It takes what could be called the study of "Astro-Theology" soaring to new heights, as he clearly and carefully creates his marvelously inspiring hypothesis.

ON THE CUTTING EDGE OF ASTRO-THEOLOGY

"The belief in UFOs in the Bible is a statement of faith, and the alleged participation of ETs in biblical stories is still yet a hypothesis. It is a challenge to the way the Bible is traditionally understood, and the claim that revelatons through UFOs and ETs have continued up to the present age contradicts the common Christian belief that revelations came to an end with the New Testament. This belief also requires radical rethinking of the traditional Christian doctrines of creation and redemption." -- Rev. Michael Carter, page 104.

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[NOTE: The painting shown here, "The Baptism of Christ," is by Flemish painter Aert de Gelder, circa 1710, and is on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England. The flying disc emitting four beams of light is quite noticeable. This painting appears in Rev. Carter's original Master of Divinity thesis for the Union Theological Seminary.]

"They Are Clearly Not From These Parts." -- Rev. Carter Bravely going where others have attempted to explore the possibility that UFO reports are contained within the Old and New Testaments, Rev. Michael Carter has now, with his landmark "Alien Scriptures" book, brought full maturity to the debates of science and theology, through the medium of close encounters old and new, into the academic discipline of "Astro-Theology." In the the contexts of ancient history, bibliical accounts, modern age ufology and science, and his own personal positive close encounter experiences, Rev. Carter's book offers a real challenge to basic religious thinking in a humanely sensitive manner, affected by both his excellent scholarship and his own personal encounter experiences which changed his life for the better. Here we have the accounts of Moses, Ezekial, Enoch, Zechariah, Abraham/Sarah and Jesus, as seen through our present day Space Age vision, interacting with apparent extraterrestrial forces (in the broad term) which are "not of this world." This interface raises profound challenges to present day science and theology, and the nature of ultimate reality and how it is interpreted by religion, as science keeps re-defining that ultimate reality through quantum and string theory, for instance. And it points the way where science and theology meet at the crossroads of very ancient and ultra-modern knowledge, highlighting the role of spirituality whatever its source. "For now, I believe that it is safe to say that UFOs appear to be more of a problem for the Judeo-Christian tradition. Most scientific and religious literature in the West does not address the issue of UFOs. On this both science and religion agree: UFOs are a drunken relative that we would well never to speak of in public," writes Rev. Carter (page 100). Before Rev. Downing, now a retired Presbyterian minister in Endwell, N.Y., first brought the subject up in his 1968 book, republished in 1998, clergy were openly involved in UFO investigations and sightings. A clergy member served 45 years ago on the board of directors of pioneering NICAP, the National Investigations Committee of Aerial Phenomenon. The Rev. William Gill, an Anglican priest, along with other witnesses at is mission, saw and communicated with hand-waving UFO entities over Boi-ni in Papua, New Guinea on June 26, 1959, a famous sighting report. Bringing the issue into the public arena, Rev. Carter writes, "The UFO phenomenon must force us to rethink our concept of the sacred," asking us to "open ourselves to endless possibilities" and to consider that "the questions are much more important than the answers." In raising this, Rev. Carter, a comparitive religion student, also cites Hindu, Mayan, Vedic, Greek and Buddhist text and sources, among others, including the Book of Enoch, excluded from the Bible like the Gnostic texts. The visitor phenomenon entered Rev. Carter's own life, making it personal and up-close, bringing lots of unanswerable questions, which led to his life-changing thesis and book. STRANGE VISITORS OPEN NEW VISTAS "Alien Scriptures" begins with Rev. Carter's own life story, first in Baltimore where grew-up and then his spiritual development, and how the close encounter experience eventually manifested in a big dramatic way for him in 1989 through the start of a series of nightly bedroom visitations in his New York City apartment. That launched his own study of UFOs, proceeding cautiously at first, as he recounts in his purchase of his first UFO book, "Encounters" (1989) by West Coast psychologist Dr. Edith Fiore and the synchronicity connected with it. "I am not one of those people who are not so much interested in the 'nuts-and-bolts' approach of the phenomenon," writes Rev. Carter. "I am more interested in how the contact experience inluences the life of the contactee. That is to say, what are the spiritual influences and transformations that occur in the experiencer after he or she has had a visit?" (pages 2-3) It is of sobering importance, he writes, to avoid "intergalactic racism," having encountered some of the Earthly kind as a man of color himself, and to avoid "demonizing or deifying ET civilizations," whether or not contactees have positive or negative experiences, both of which should be respectfully acknowledged without judgement. In his own fascinating accounts of his visitations, experienced in waking and dream states which began on December 28, 1989, Rev. Carter reveals what this experience is really like, and how it affected his life, empowering and transforming him. "S.P.A.C.E. IS THE PLACE" A support system for experiencers is beneficial, Rev. Carter writes, and he speaks of the help of UFO abduction researcher Budd Hopkins, therapist Dr. Jean Mundy and S.P.A.C.E. "The support group -- SPACE (Search Project for Aspects of Close Encounters) -- turned out to be a godsend... I was welcomed with open arms, and the people I met there were open about their experiences," Rev. Carter writes in a section about our support system (pages 18-21). S.P.A.C.E. thanks Rev. Carter for his acknowledgement of those in the network who support him and his own essentially vital contribution to our ufological research. Speaking with him in the past, I shared my own views as a child and later as a teenager attending a Presbyterian seminary in my freshman college year (I changed my major in my sophomore year), that I felt, for example, that the "star of Bethlehem" was likely a spaceship, a view which got me into trouble at times. Of the Star of Bethlehem, Rev. Carter writes: "In all likelihood, if we are to take the story literally, this 'star' was in fact a UFO. Stars do not travel across the sky and hover over mangers and stables, or anything else for that matter. Nor do stars shine lights down on the surface of the Earth." (pages 91-92) Now Rev. Carter can be thanked for his enlightening and informative "Alien Scriptures," lighting new stars of thought beaming through the often murky twilight zones of ufology, showing a bold direction of discovery from the road on which his deeply caring life travels, taking the science-theology dialogue on UFOs forward and upward. "We are the children of the great divorce between science and religion," writes Rev. Carter (page 63). "Perhaps reconciliation is in order between our two 'parents' if we are to begin to bear witness to the mystery of UFOs and the Bible." ******************************************************** "Alien Scriptures: Extraterrestrials in the Holy Bible" by Rev. Michael Carter, M.Div., is published by Blue Star Productions, "Tomorrow's Publisher for Tomorrow's Future," A Division of Book World, Inc., Sun Lakes, Arizona 85248. ISBN 1-881542-76-9. To order the book visit: www.bluestarproductions.net The book cover art, design and layout is copyright © Jeff Westover; www.swampgasgraphics.com. To contact the author, who lives in North Carolina with his wife Rev. Judith Long, email Rev. Michael Carter at mjscarter@charter.net *********************************************************

CANADIAN TV SERIES SHOW ON HUDSON VALLEY STONE CHAMBERS & UFO ENCOUNTERS

By Harold Egeln

New York City, November 11, 2005 -- Here's a S.P.A.C.E. News post-Halloween "treat" arriving on those Canadian cold fronts that give us those Autumnal chills!

A popular paranormal Candian TV series, "Creepy Canada," is producing a show segment on the mysterious stone chambers of the Hudson Valley, site of strange, spooky experiences, UFO sightings and close encounters.

The famous Hudson Valley UFO sightings of the 1980s focused national media attention on the area of Putnam, Westchester and Fairfield Counties north of New York City, and were the subject of a major UFO conference, attracting 1,500 attendees, held in a North Brewster school in 1984, which this reporter attended.

The Canadian series "Creepy Canada," showcasing "true" ghost and hauntings stories, is now in its third successful season on the CTV and OLN networks in Canada, and has had a few UFO segments.

The stone chamber mysteries segment will feature the extensive research of astronomer Philip Imbrogno, author of three books on the Hudson Valley sightings and stone chambers. This particular show on the stone chambers is based on the book, "Celtic Mysteries in New England Mysteries" by Imbrogno and Marianne Horrigan, published 2000, detailing their research of the chambers, believed to be built centuries by ancient, pre-Columbus Celtic settlers over "energy centers" which seem to act as "inter-dimensional portals" and attract UFO and entity activity.

Imbrogno is also author of "Night Seige: The Hudson Valley UFO Sightings" with J. Allen Hynek and Bob Pratt, and "Contact of the Fifth Kind" also with Horrigan.

The S.P.A.C.E.-related segment specifically involves a re-creation sement of this reporter's first night-time proactive close encounter on August 14, 1988. That incident, with the sighting of five "entities," led to another more extensive encounter on May 27, 1991 (investigated by Connecticut MUFON), and, starting in 1992, a series of dozens of other encounters and sightings by S.P.A.C.E. "Away Teams" in the 1990's. Roberta Puhalski, now S.P.A.C.E. South leader, researched the chambers in the mid-1990s.

The "Creepy Canada" show segment will focus on several incidents around the stone chambers reported by Imbrogno and Horrigan in their "Celtic Mysteries" book. When the show is aired, we will inform our readers on CEN's Front Page.

The "Creey Canada" film crew was in Kent Cliffs, Putnam County on November 6, 7 and 8, filming scenes of the chambers, re-enactments with area actors, and interviews, including Imbrogno and this reporter.

The late Carolyn Barnes, film and video maker extraordinairre, produced a 30-minute "Stone Chambers" video documentary shown on Manhattan Neighborhood Network in the Summer of 1992.

For more on "Creepy Canada," visit its website below and for more on S.P.A.C.E.'S proactive encounters in the Hudson Valley, visit the second link below from the main S.P.A.C.E. Website.

UFO RESEARCHER/AUTHOR HAS GHOST SERIES ON TLC-TV

October 12, 2005 -- Farah Yurdozu, a UFO researcher and author (shown in photo here), now has her own national cable TV series on The Learning Channel (TLC) -- "Dead Tenants," broadcast every Thursday evening at 10:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, beginning on October 13.

The TV show star lives in the New York City metropolitan area, coming there a few years ago from Turkey where she was born in Istanbul. In Turkey, Yurdozu was a prominent UFO and metaphysical researcher -- Turkey's first female Ufologist -- known for her popular TV show and books there, working at the Center for Metaphysical Studies.

Ufologist and psychic Yurdozu is the author of four books, all in Turkish: "UFOs Are Coming" and "UFO Truths and Lies" as well as "Metaphysical Love in Madrid" and "Life Is A Horror Film."

Yurdozu first spoke in public here in the USA at the Disclosure Network of NYC in Autumn 2004 and at the NUFOC (National UFO Congress) Conference this September.

Of her TLC series, Yurdozu said: "On 'Dead Tenants' I work with a team of investigators (the Preternatural Research Society) identifying the spirits who have invaded homes and help return the homes to their rightful owners: the families who live there! It's different from the usual ghost haunting shows, full of surprises and startling situatons. A great way to kick off the Halloween season!"

For more information about her work and the "Dead Tenants" TV series on TLC, check-out the links below:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! CLOSE ENCOUNTERS: TRICK OR TREAT?

Halloween, a holiday with ancient origins when the veil between worlds thins, opening doorways between them, has just come and gone. For this major Autumnal holiday, CEN Editor Harold Egeln shares his haunting seminal close encounters once again, through the link below....