10. CHAPTER 3 - ON TO ARIZONA - ON THE (UFO) ROAD AGAIN

As we pulled up to Betty and Paris Colorado's home we must have looked like the Beveraly Hillbillies! We arrived in our loaded 1978 Buick pulling an old white Ford LTD. The other couple were in their old red Maverick. The Colorado's lived in an exclusive district in the suburbs of Phoenix called Fountain Hills. At that point I would have liked to have been anywhere but there! In spite of this, Paris and Betty were very gracious and received us with open arms.

Very soon after arriving in Fountain Hills the other couple found a job, and an apartment. He had electronics experience and there was a need for technicians. On the other hand, we found it very difficult, we couldn't have arrived at a worse time. The economy was down; a tent city had been set up in the middle of Phoenix for people who had lost their homes and their jobs. The Salvation Army and other philanthropic organizations were serving meals. People were taking any menial job just to survive. That was in 1983. Since then the economy has changed in the Scottsdale and Phoenix area. I recently heard that 8,000 people a day are still moving into the "Valley of the Sun."

We rented a house in Mesa, Arizona. I worked at a temporary job for the Ramada Executive Suites for three months. Dan worked at a temporary job in a manufacturing plant.

As soon as possible we set up the UFO Contact Center again. We arranged to have meetings in Mesa at the public library. To advertise the meeting we were interviewed by the Arizona Republic newspaper. This article brought the people out to hear what we had to say about contactees and abductions.

At the Town and Country Book Store metaphysical subjects were discussed by numerous guest speakers in their small meeting room. They invited us to come and speak about the UFO Contact Center International. Through this meeting we found many contactees. We were in business again!

Cynthia Scanion, a writer, called and asked for an interview that would appear in the "Fate" magazine. We agreed and she asked if we would provide a contactee for her to talk to. We asked Paris Colorado if he would mind being interviewed. He agreed as long as the story appeared in Fate magazine.

For months we watched to see when the article would appear. It was with shock when we saw the article appear in "The UFO Review."

The following is the article by Cynthia Scanion in its entirety concerning Paris Colorado's abduction experience.

"On April 1, 1981, Paris David Colorado was abducted by a UFO. But it was no April Fool's joke. For Colorado, it was a very real and very terrifying experience.

It all began when Paris and his wife moved from Phoenix, Arizona to take over some campgrounds near Bend, Oregon. They had been running the campgrounds for six months when a young man in a trailer came to stay. He was involved in mining and got Paris interested in how to go about staking a claim. Mark, the mining claim expert, invited Paris to accompany him to his claim the following week and Paris accepted.

The weekend they decided to go, Paris woke up with a terrible pain in his shoulder. He said he suffered from bursitis and was having one of his attacks. Despite the pain, Paris insisted on going. So a few hours later, Mark and Paris were on their way to the claim. The area where the claim was located, approximately 290 miles from Paris' campground, was so primitive that Mark and Paris were forced to backpack hours in from the place where they had left their jeep.

"All the time we were up in the wilderness canyon, I had the feeling someone was watching us," Paris said. "That first night, when we camped, I could see a pair of eyes just outside the perimeter of the light. I would turn my flashlight on them and there was nothing there. And during the daylight, when we were walking up the trail, we would hear something moving along in the woods above us. It was like something was following us everywhere we went. This went on the whole three days we were up there."

But nothing came of it, and so having finished their work, they headed for home three days later. They started out in the evening and arrived at Mt. Vernon, Oregon at 7:30 p.m. Paris said he remembers it being 7:30 because he and Mark were hungry and everything had closed at 6:30. So they decided to drive on to Mitchell, which is approximately 40 miles from Mt. Vernon.

The night was exceedingly dark and the sky was filled with clouds. And yet, right above the horizon, Paris said it was clear. At least it was clear enough for both Paris and Mark to make out three bright stars in the distance. In fact, they noticed the stars were directly above the road. One flanked the left side of the road, one flanked the right side of the road and one was in the middle. The one in the middle was slightly higher. They both took note of the stars, but didn't think anything strange until they moved.

"As they moved up I could see a light underneath the stars," Paris said, "I don't know how far away we were at the time. There was a slight rise in the road ahead of us and whatever this was was way back from that."

As they approached the hill, a light was shining from in back of it. Paris explained the light as something like a semi-truck approaching from the other side. But the light kept getting brighter and brighter until it had to be about 20 semi's approaching, he said. When they were about three-quarters of a mile from the top of the hill, the object came over the top and started down the road toward them. It was then that Paris pulled off to the side of the road and waited with the motor running. They were unable to make out a clear description of the object because it was so dark. Paris guessed they were about half way between Mt. Vernon and Mitchell.

"I couldn't take my eyes off the light and neither could Mark," Paris said. "It was like we were hypnotized. We just couldn't look away from the light."

Paris described the light as bowing on both sides of the object like a bowl turned upside down. The light extended off the highway at least 100 yards on both sides.

"The object, whatever it was, was larger than a 747, yet it moved quickly and smoothly reverse and forward." Paris said. "You could see the little white lines on the highway that were going into the light when it moved forward."

At this point, both Mark and Paris became terrified at what they were witnessing. Paris grabbed the gear shift, but was unable to get the car into gear. When Paris made this move, he said the object stopped and darted back to the top of the hill. He said it was a smooth but quick move back. The gear shift continued to bounce back and forth, without shifting into place. Paris' attempts to get the jeep back onto the road proved futile.

"At that point I turned to Mark," he said. "I just turned my head without taking my eyes from the light and said, 'Mark, we're not going to get away from this thing.'"

Paris said his heart was pounding so hard he thought he was going to have a heart attack. He could feel his adrenaline pumping and he said he was terrified.

"At that point something said to me, 'Relax, take it easy, don't panic, we're coming to you,'" Paris said. "It wasn't words, it was like mental telepathy - like strong words in my mind. And when it first said 'Relax, take it easy, don't panic,' I thought, I'm telling myself to relax, take it easy and don't panic because I'm about to have a heart attack. But then I realized they were telling me that."

"At that moment, it shot down the road toward us," Paris continued. "Both Mark and I seemed to be pulled slightly toward the windshield. All of this took place in what we thought was three to five minutes at most. When it moved toward us, we went into a trance or whatever you want to call it. And that's the last thing I remember."

The next thing Paris and Mark remember is sitting in the jeep and noticing something moving quickly away from the car. In the next instant, a flash of light streaked away into the sky. They sat there for an unknown amount of time until a car came over the hill. The headlights of the approaching autombile hit both Paris and Mark in the eyes and brought them out of their trance. The Jeep motor was still running.

Paris drove off and neither one of them said anything for 15 minutes. Finally they pulled off to the side of the road and got out. They were talking about what they both thought they had seen when Paris asked Mark what time it was. It was eleven o'clock. They had been on the road for more than three hours and were still 15 miles from Mitchell. As they were pondering what had happened back on the road, it was then that Paris noticed a slight ache in his right hip. He said it felt like a needle puncture.

Rather than stopping for food, Paris and Mark decided to drive back home as quickly as possible. When they reached the campgrounds, they were anxious and nervous. Paris' wife thought Paris was playing an April Fool's joke, but seeing that her husband was serious asked for all the details. Not knowing who to contact in such a situation, Paris called the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA in return gave Paris the phone number of the UFO Reporting Center in Seattle, Washington. He spoke with the center personnel and was told two investigators would contact himself and Mark for further details.

The next morning Paris talked with the investigators, Dan and Aileen Edwards, about his experience. Paris talked with them on the phone and then agreed to meet with them two weeks later. They would at that time hypnotize Paris and try to find out what had happened during the missing three hours.

During that period before Paris met with the Edwards', he said he was a wreck. He went through wild emotional swings that included everything from paranoia to anger.

"I was afriad to go out, and I'm not normally afraid of anything within reason," he said. "But I was afraid to go out in the campgrounds by myself after dark. There was something in the back of my mind that was telling me, 'If you go out there something's going to get you. Not the Boogie Man, but something you can't see.'"

The other emotional phases Paris went through were much like those explained by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in her stages of dying. Paris cried for days. His emotions ran so high that he just cried for no apparent reason. Then he went through a period of acceptance where he resigned himself to the fact that this had happened to him and there is nothing he could do about it. Then he went through a period of depression. Then he got angry. He thought about someone taking three hours out of his life and it made him mad - really mad. He was useless at the campgrounds. Running the cash register or concentrating on anything for any length of time was too much for him to handle.

Paris finally met with Dan and Aileen Edwards to be hypnotized. Once under hypnosis, Paris was able to vividly recall most of the details of that April first night, although some parts still remain a mystery. According to Paris, as soon as he and Mark went into a trance, the UFO hovered over the car and engulfed it in white light. Suddenly, Beings came around to the front. Paris said he was not sure how many Beings there were, but he did say they were in no way hostile.

Continued tomorrow