SEDONA

SPACE SHIPS AND PARANORMAL OCCURRENCES
By Tom Dongo
PART 1

Space ship sightings in Sedona are sporadic, usually occurring in a one or two month period during any season of the year. But they can be spectacular. I have spoken at length to a number of people who have had first hand sightings.

Ships are sometimes observed flying in twos or threes in and out of the canyons. One such recent sighting by a Sedona resident was of two UFOs coming out of Fay Canyon at night viewed from a distance of about two miles. He said they were both a luminescent red, orange and blue. They flew in formation until about three miles from the canyon, then one went south and the other west. He explained that they were at first traveling at a speed of perhaps 50 miles per hour, then accelerated quickly to about 500 miles per hour. This story is heard with many variations corresponding to the same area at different times. UFO activity seems to be concentrated in this general area.

In one of the more dramatic sightings I know of, two women, a mother and daughter, were driving north to Flagstaff, Arizona, from Sedona on State Route 89A. 89A is a main highway and heavily traveled. About 2:00 PM on a clear, cloudless summer day, the daughter, sitting on the passenger side, looked out the car window and noticed a shiny gray object pacing the automobile about a mile away. The object was just above the tree tops.

This stretch of road is thickly forested by tall ponderosa pines. The two women were able to only get occasional glimpses of the object as it followed along. This situation continued for approximately fifteen minutes, when they suddenly noticed the craft was drawing closer. The approach of the ship continued until it was just a few hundred yards away. They could now see that it was a disc shaped craft with a layered dome on top.

After a continual approach, the ship then positioned itself directly ahead of their car -- and less than one hundred yards above the road surface. They told me that at this point there was no mistaking what the object was. A ship. And it was obviously not from this planet.

The forest was particularly tall and dense on this stretch of the road. It was like a high corridor with no ceiling. In front of them the ship began to tilt to a 45 degree angle, and very slowly, it descended lower and lower until it almost touched the car. The two women could clearly observe rows of multicolored flashing lights which seemed to extend all the way around the base of the craft.

The woman driving the car soon found a place to pull over. She brought her car to a sliding stop on the shoulder of the highway. The two then rushed out of the car and looked up in time to see the ship gain altitude, level off, and in moments disappear over the tops of the pine trees. They explained that they at no time experienced any fear at all. In fact, the daughter remarked that there was something strangely familiar and friendly about the ship. They also said that -- during the close proximity of the ship -- it was remarkably odd that not one car passed either way on the very heavily traveled highway.

In another incident, three prominent local businessmen were hiking in a canyon near Sedona when they all felt an urge to look up. As they turned their gaze skyward, straight above them, and moving at a speed a man could walk, was a gleaming gold disc that made absolutely no sound. They described how the disc filled the sky above them and blotted out the sun. They watched the disc intently for about five minutes, until it glided over the canyon rim, and then out of sight.

My own UFO experience occurred one night while I was camped out in the desert near Secret Canyon. I kept noticing two unusually bright stars that somehow did not look right. I glanced at the stars several more times and asured myself they were just stars and to forget it. Four or five minutes later I looked again. To my absolute astronishment the bright stars were slowly drifitng toward one another, and shortly became one light. As I now watched with riveted interest, the one star grew brighter -- and brighter -- and brighter. And then separated once again into two lights. As I stood watching, the two lights, now moving toward me, drifted directly overhead with no sound whatsoever -- no engine sounds -- no wind sounds -- nothing. They then floated out over the wide expanse of the Verde Valley desert -- and then gradually vanished in the distance.

To be continued.