FROM THE BOOK ALIEN TIDE

By Tom Dongo
Extract
Several cases from the Sedona area

What demanded my undivided attention was the fact that the spot where the couple went to meditate is the exact center of recent intense UFO activity. This particular area is about one mile square and has been the scene of some extraordinarily odd paranormal activity.

They had meditated for ten or fifteen minutes when suddenly they were aware that they were no longer alone. They opened their eyes and not fifty feet away was an Indian man dressed in white, sitting on a white horse. Recovering from their surprise, they got to their feet and started toward the Indian. The Indian said nothing, but began to move away, keeping a fair distance from the couple. They followed him for over a quarter of a mile. The Indian and the white horse went behind a thicket of small trees -- and vanished.

Another incident I have recorded, unique in itself, is the following. In September 1989 two teenage girls and their mothers had hiked to the top of Steamboat Rock in Oak Creek Canyon. The women were deeply spiritual and of a metaphysical turn, but their two daughters had little interest in such matters. It had been a pleasant but moderately strenuous hike to the summit of Steamboat Rock. Once there, they had enjoyed the spectacular panorama of Sedona, the red rocks and the ramparts of Oak Creek Canyon.

They had begun the trek back down from the top, the two girls keeping a slow pace and staying a considerable distance behind their mothers. They had gone about halfway down the mountain and had entered an area of sparse, stunted pines. The girls were making their way carefully down the steep, rocky trail when they noticed a distinct, shimmering form beginning to take shape nearby in the pine trees.

As the startled girls watched, the finely outlined features of a radiantly beautiful young woman with black hair and angelic features came into full view. One girl was terrified by what she was seeing, but the other girl was nearly overcome with awe by the beauty of what she saw. The angelic apparition made a gesture of friendliness, smiled warmly and then vanished as quickly as she had appeared.

The two girls excitedly told their mothers about what they had experienced. Little more was said about the incident -- until a few weeks later during a shopping trip to Flagstaff. While in a store, one of the daughters was drawn to a display of books. She picked up a book that seemed almost to beckon to her. She began to thumb through the book and was stunned when her eyes went to an almost godly painting of a robed and radiantly beautiful young woman with dark eyes and black hair. It was the same young woman the two girls had seen materialize just weeks earlier on Steamboat Rock!

The painting was of Our Lady of Medjugorje, Yugoslavia. Our Lady, also called Mary, has been appearing to crowds of the curious there since 1981. In the last few years she has appeared in several other locations around the world. Along with her appearances come extraordinary, almost psychedelic displays of colors in the sky around the town of Medjugorje. This display is particularly vivid over the barren hill on which she originally made her first appearance to peasants.

The popular belief among those who make the pilgrimage to Medjugorje is that Our Lady is a purely spiritual being, or angel, sent from God. This may be, but interestingly enough, several years ago Our Lady allowed herself to be photographed by a devout follower. Her features are not typically human. Most striking is her unusually narrow chin. Could it be that Our Lady of Medjugorje is an extraterrestrial? One who is trying to gently and compassionately bring about a certain realization to humanity -- in a way that humanity can willingly accept, considering its preconceived notions?