CLOSE ENCOUNTER NEWS -- Page 8

SITE OF SEMINAL CLOSE ENCOUNTERS IN DANGER

There are certain specific places where witnesses' close encounters occur which have a hold on them, a homing beacon for learning more about their encounters, perhaps the key piece in their encounter puzzle.

It could be a park, a house, a body of water or any number of locales which draw their minds and haunt their dreams. For Whitley Strieber, for instance, it was his isolated cabin in upper New York State and the Olmos Basin near San Antonio in Texas when he was a child.

For the CEN editor it was a cottage with a "backyard" -- a beauitiful 40 acres of woods in suburban West Orange, New Jersey. It was there from June 1972 through May 1973 that he, along with others, experienced a series of mysterious events, at the time not even associated with close encounters. That came years later.

Now that nature sanctuary, a major focal point of his close encounters, is being threatened with a possible environmental disaster. It came to his attention when he read a major article in The New York Times on Friday, March 25. Here is his story behind that story...

40-ACRE NATURE SITE, ONCE MY HOME, STAGE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL-PAROCHIAL SCHOOL CHALLENGES ********************************************************* "THE CLEAREST WAY INTO THE UNIVERSE IS THROUGH A FOREST IN THE WILDERNESS." -- John Muir ********************************************************* By Harold Egeln Sunday, March 27, 2005 -- On Friday I was reading The Metro section of The New York Times and saw a major article: "West Orange Journal - A High School's Teams Challenge the Mighty Oaks" by Tina Kelley. There was a photo of a famliar looking wooded area and another of a parochial school's headmaster, Monsignor Michael Kelly of Seton Hall Prepartory School. As I started to read the article, I realized that the property, on First Mountain in the Watchung Mountain chain, in question was the place where I once lived in a cottage for one year over 32 years ago where I and other people had uusual mysterious experiences. Those odd episodes led me in 1987 to contact Budd Hopkins to help explore possible close encounters there and set the stage for S.P.A.C.E. five years later. The address of the property was 646 Prospect Avenue, across from the Essex County Country Club and golf course. I was among a group of six people who, from June 1972 to May 1973, shared in the $400 rent of what the landlord, or renting agent, called a "servants cottage" serenely set back off the avenue, out of sight of traffic. The four bedroom house was placed in the woods on a 40-acre parcel of land that once was home to a huge house called "the lost mansion" that burned down, a greenhouse and an arbortitum, with gardens and paths, some paved. The longtime untended gardens and walkways were overgrown with plants and filled with trees of all kinds, including mighty oaks and Oriental pines, providing an isolated oasis of natural beauty, wonder, inspiration and solitude. The view from the overlook in the wildest area of the land was breathtaking, with the skyline of New York City less than 20 miles away. ENIGMATIC HAPPENINGS During our stay, several unexplainable mysterious events occured. These included the sighting of an apparition by me and two other witnesses (June 1972); an "old hag ghost" at the foot of a man's bed (Autumn 1972); an unseen women's gleeful laughter with nobody seen to be the source, heard on numerous occassions; a chorus of voices traveling on a midnight's wind;- a young, blonde-haired woman in a long gown seen pushing me upstairs, which someone witnessed, yet I have no memory of it (Jan. 1973); a woman heard singing downstairs, but, upon checking out the source, no one was there; my favorite cat stopping short of a meadow in fear; and an unearthly chill on a hot Summer day. There was also the one time quicky appearance of a large white rabbit and a smaller dark grey rabbit companion. And, on Tuesday, December 5, 1972, an extraordinary experience which frightened me, awakened at exactly 3:00 a.m.: soft blue light in my bedroom and outside; a howling wolf or dog clawing furiously at the front door downstairs; then I fell suddenly into a deep sleep, waking up at noon with the worst nausea and migraine headache I have ever had. These are all recounted in greater detail in the links below at "SPACE EXPLORER ORBITZINE" - "Seminal Close Encounters." Never once did I, or any other person, think then that these were due in any way to close encounter phenomena. OLD-GROWTH FOREST DISPUTE CENTER In the "Times" article, It's reported that Seton Hall Prep, which I remember as a neighbor in 1972-73, has owned the land since the early 1990s and has bulldozed half of it for its sports teams fields. That I knew, when upon my first attempted visit after 26 years, in November 1999 with two friends, we saw the driveway blocked off and a work crew at the site, barring our access, Now, The Times reports, there are plans to expand the sport teams' playing fields to the remaining unspoiled section of the 40-acres, a 22-acre land parcel which the Sierra Club of Essex County calls an "old growth forest." A 10-acre section of the 22 acres contains many trees over 150 years old, two 240-year-old red oaks, a red-tailed hawk and a great horned owl, The Times reports. It is a section I well remember and photographed back in 1973, along with the entire woods, placing the photos in treasured albums. The Seton Hall prep high school, which is associated with the famous Seton Hall University in South Orange, plans six tennis courts, two baseball fields, a field house and parking spaces. Challenging those plans is the Sierra Club of Essex County in the interest of ecological preservation. The article quotes Sierra Club Preservation Committee Chairman Michael Cuillerier:"It's almost religious, if you walk through there when the leaves are on the trees, you hardly hear any noise anywhere." Those words precisely describe the feelings I had when I walked, usually on my own many times, through those woods. The Sierra Club wants the school to find alternatives for the 22-acres and preserve the old-growth forest there. Headmaster Msgr. Kelly, the article said, disputes the Sierra Club, saying that much will be preserved. After reading this article, on Good Friday on Easter weekend at that, I wrote and sent an e-mail letter to the Editor at The Times, noting that this property was once the place of my home for one precious year and that I support the Sierra Club's stand. The letter was not published.

A WOULD-BE PRESIDENT AND THE TRAIN LINK In The Times article, it was noted that "the land was once home to George Brinton McClellan, the governor of New Jersey from 1878 to 1881. Remains of his greenhouse amd arboretum can still be seen." I have photos of the shattered greenhouse and arboretum, taken back in May 1973! But the name McClellan sounded familiar and I did an Internet search. In 1972-73 we did not this fact. McClellan, who lived from 1826 to 1885, was a famous Civil War general and was the Democratic Party candidate in the wartime 1864 election, losing to President Abraham Lincoln. He was the youngest graduate ever of West Point Military Academy, at age 15, and he was a construction engineer. And he had a track record as a supervising engineer for two major railroads. He was a surveyor of a possible transcontinental railroad in the 1850s, the Chief Engineer of the Illinois Central Railroad (1857-58) working with the railroad's attorney, Abraham Lincoln. From 1858 to 1860 McClellan was the president of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. This railroad link is a key clue to the West Orange close encounter location. After the Civil War and prior to his becoming New Jersey governor, General McClellan was also Chief Engineer of the New York City Department of Docks (1870-72). Throughout his career he was often called "Little Mack." One of his sons born in 1849, married Harriet HARE, the daughter of Robert Harford HARE. Mrs. Hare-McClellan was later responsible for the archiving of "Little Mack's" family papers. The bold lettering of her name HARE is obvious to S.P.A.C.E. readers, as it relates to the RABBIT and HARE Archetype which is the guiding symbol of the "WOW! Contact" experiences and accounts, ala the "Alice In Wonderland" and "Alice Through the Looking-Glass" theme and recurrent pattern. When I first was referred by Budd Hopkins' first wife, April Hopkins, in June 1988, to psychologist Dr. Jean Mundy, these facts about McClellan were unknown to me. But, with the work of Dr. Mundy, we uncovered hidden associations giving clues to close encounter experiences that I had during the year living on the 40-acres woods. In early 1973 someone referred two "psychics: from Montclair to explore the mysterious happenings there. One of them was named "BUNNY." The RAILROAD connection with McClellan is very significant. As discussed in various articles and accounts, especially as a dream image, TRAINS and RAILROADS are a re-ocurring pattern. Did the apparent hyper-intelligence at the source of close encounters have an awarenes of military engineer McClellan's experience with railroads and use that knowledge, which I was unaware of in 1972-73, to implant the TRAIN symbol in my DREAMS? My father, years before he married my mother, was a TROLLEY driver in Essex County. The TRAIN image was used as a key dream-symbol in "The Abduction Project" play by the Collision Theory performance ensemble in its run in New York City in February-March 2001 and at California Institute of Technology in May 2004. It often, but not universally, occurs in the dreams of several close encounter accounts. CLUES ABOUND IN CONNECTING LINKS Thus, the 40-acres of woods in West Orange, once briefly my home, is a source of rich information, added to now by the focus of the current challenge to its ecological presevation. This brings in the ENVIRONMENTAL theme that is a recurrent pattern (and, perhaps, a "message"?) in many close encounter cases. The Township of West Orange, a 12-square mile suburb consisting of two ridges and two valleys of the Watchung Mountains, is home to the Thomas Edison Historic Site, where the first electric light, phonograph and motion pictures were invented. It is home to the first residential park in the U.S., the 400-acre Llewellyn Park founded in 1853, where Edison lived. It s also the site of Pleasant Valley, made famous by The Monkees in their late 1960s hit song, "Pleasant Valley Sunday," and the site of Turtle Back Zoo. The parks, woods, trains, rabbits and golf (the Country Club golf course across from the 40-aces) themes, with the proposed baseball field, tennis courts, parking lot, and our car being blocked at the woods' driveway in 1999, also coincide with current discussions involving experiencer dreams, which contain many of these images and themes, --- as well as the golf course-close encounter connection as discussed in the "Donnie Dark" article; plus the high school in the movie and in the West Orange land dispute. Note the triad of "Kellys" - The Times article by Tina KELLEY, Seton Hall Prep Headmaster Monsignor Michael KELLY and the association of Richard KELLY, the "Donnie Darko" filmmaker, constituting a Symbolic Triangle by synchronicity. I should also mention that actress Jane Fonda, who starred as the space traveler in the 1967 movie "Barbarella, Queen of the Galaxy," was an overnight guest of one of my housemates in our West Orange in 1973. All that has been discussed here seems to be major key elements in unlocking vital aspects of the Close Encounter Engima. Our detective work continues. *********************************************************

"...AND SEEK HIGHER COMMUNION IN THE NIGHT" "... A crisp-white winter's night of shining frost; I stare in fearful wonder at each star And wonder if in heaven's voids there are, Like me, those souls who from their own race lost Survey in hope each speck of twinkling light, And seek higher communion in the night." -- from a poem by songwriter-musician Paul Wagner, placed in Harold Egeln's photo album of the 40-acres woods in West Orange, New Jersey, 1973.

A TOUR OF A WEST ORANGE "NATURE WONDERLAND" By Harold Egeln In the Spring of 1973 I created a color map of the 40-acres woods, mapping its paths and sections in detail and in proportion, naming them. It might be fun to take a journey into "Nature Wonderland." The wooded area of the "Happy Road" driveway is called the "Guthrie Woods." leading to the secluded servants cottage, "Our House" which was a "very, very fine house." The house's backyard, with a picnic table and benches and the food tray for our cats, named "X," "Y" and "Fatty Arbuckle," is surrounded by the "Whispering Wind Haunts" woods. To enter the forest, pass a rusty iron gate ("Peter Pan Gate") at the end of the driveway, on you're on the paved portion of the "Groovy Path," flanked by Earthmother Forest. At the fork in the ath, "Oz Fork," turn right nto the "Gentle Way" path. On your right is the foundation of the "Lost Mansion," overgrown with plants and trees of all kinds, set in the "Lothlorien" woods. At a fork in the path is the ruined greenhouse, with broken glass and overgrown with plants. Turn left and walk through the "Woodstock Tree Tunnel," with overhanging branches mixing together like friends. The tree tunnel ends at "Abbey Road" where, if you turn left, you come to "Dolphin Brick Wall" beyond which is is "The Amazing Meadow" (named by a young woman visitor, Terry, who joined the circus as a clown). But we'll go right on "Abbey Road" which leads into the "Elysian Field" and then into the "Oriental Retreat," a small open space in which an Asian tree is set upo which people can easily sit on its lower branches and meditate, as I used to do. Leaving the quiet retreat and going underthe "Chesire Cat Arch," "Abbey Road" intersects with "The Long and Winding Road," at which is the Fillmore Floor, the remains of some sort of structure. We now turn left on "The Long and Winding Road" throung "Good Vibes Field" and with the thickly wooded, unexplored area on our right called the "Oscar Wilds." We next come to "Holy Toledo Straits," where there's a huge dead tree, and, off to our left, the "Amazing Meadow Path" which leads into the "Amazing Meadow." Back on "The Long and Winding Road" we proceed through The Starshine Clearing" and notice, on our left, several large pine trees, including "Lovers' Body Kiss Tree" in the center of "Earth Children Pine Needle Grove." Our long, winding road leads back into the "Groovy Path" where its paving end, and, turns, on our right, into "Blue Jay Way," taking us to Rainbow Buffalo Cliff" with its spectacular view of Essex County and the New York City skyline, 20 miles to the east, from Upper Manhattan to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. At the end of "Blue Jay Way" are 'Peace-Pipe Waterfall," "Treestone," the "Cherokee Vines" the "By-Gone Wall" and a steep "Rolling Stone Path" down to busy Northfield Avenuepass the Ronjolyn Apartments. The cliff goes to our right and makes a right angle turn at "Unicorn Point" and the overlook becomes "Flower Child Cliff" where we find "Angel Laughter's Hide-Away" and the "White Rabbit's Cave." Going back on "Blue Jay Way" we pass "Mirkwood," where there is "Tranquility Picnic Base." Returning on "Groovy Path," with "Earthmother Frest" to our right and the "Amazing Meadow" to our left, two paths lead into he meadow: "Brandywine Path" and "Green Planet Pathway." It was in this meadow, open to the sky, that my cat refused to tred and which I did not walk through. It may have been the site of close encounter interactions. ***************************** "THE WOOD IS FULL OF SHINING EYES, THE WOOD IS FULL OF CREEPING FEET, THE WOOD IS FULL OF TINY CRIES: YOU MUST NOT GO TO THE WOOD AT NIGHT!" -- from Henry Treece's poem "The Magic Wood" ("The Blacks Seasons", Faber & Faber, copyright 1945). *********************************************************

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! S.P.A.C.E. ENTERS ITS TEEN YEARS

March 25 marked the 13th anniversary of the founding of S.P.A.C.E., the Search Project for Close Encounters. It is a loose-knit community, rather than a formalized organization, dedicated to the support of witnesses, proactive research and networking.

S.P.A.C.E. was formed in March 1992 in answer to the critical question of "What do we do about this?" by close encounter witnesses who came from pyschologist Jean Mundy, PhD, the former New York City Communion Support Group (which met in 1989) by Whitley Strieber and Budd Hopkins support group attendees.

In these 13 years hundreds of people through nearly 100 meetings and gatherings have shared their stories and interacted with the unknown in groundbreaking proactive field studies.

We have learned much, through our successes and our mistakes. We find more questions than answers. We have discovered that there is not one key element in the Contact matrix that absolutely defines and seals it, but that there are many disturbing and enlightening aspects that add up to more than the sum of its parts. We have been given challenges, such as presented through the synchronistic-driven, Alice In Wonderland-like "WOW! Contact" experiences over the last five years.

We will not give up our Search Project and we encourage witnesses to find and use their voice, despite obstacles of all kinds, to try to engage their empowerment and to seek their own answers,

"DreamSpace Explorer" -- UFO DREAM ENCOUNTERS

Coming soon as a regular feature of CEN will be a link to another new S.P.A.C.E. website: The "DREAMSPACE EXPLORER."

S.P.A.C.E. regards dream research as a key aspect to understanding and in unlocking the mysteriies of the Close Encounter Visitation Phenomena. We have material on the main S.P.A.C.E. Website under "Close Encounters of the Dream Kind," in several features in our print and on-line newsletters and journals, and all throughout the "WOW! Contact" reports in our "Project Wonderland Chronicles.

We also have valuable insightful articles from a UFO dream researcher, psycholoanalyist Dr. Remo Roth of Zurich, Switzerland, who has experienced UFO dreams and studied those of others for 25 years. Some of us have extensive dream journals and notes on these dreams.

The first "DreamSpace" article involves the image in a recent vivid dream of the Dreamachine, a device said to induce dreams while awake and featured in The New York Times "House & Home" section recently. It was invented in 1959 by Brion Gyson with the support of William S. Burrough. The article will also discuss the prevelance of train dreams and how it all relates to close encounters. [For a look at the Dreamachine, click the link below:]