19. TOM COURTNEY - ON THE (UFO) ROAD AGAIN

That same year we decided to have the second annual "Jorpah" in Safford. The Jorpah is our yearly convention. Helene Charbonneau had become an Associate Director. She arranged for Roper State Park as the site of the 1983 Jorpah. Fortunately in Arizona it is nice and warm so we were able to hold all of the meetings outside without worry about rain.

At Roper State Park there is a small man made lake. The lake is 6 feet deep at the most. On Saturday afternoon we were sitting on the banks of the lake listening to a lady from Pine Top, Arizona tell about her experiences. At the same time a swimmer (one of the attendees) had jumped into the lake but something made him scramble out again as fast as he had plunged in. All of a sudden the lake started swirling. Someone shouted, "Look!" while pointing at the lake. The poor lady was left standing there as everyone ran to see what was causing this unusual phenomena. While we watched, the lake started boiling in the middle. Small water spouts were shooting up in the depressed middle of the counterclockwise swirling waters. Pictures taken of the phenomena were cast in a purple light. All of the other pictures were what one would expect for a bright sunny day. While we observed the lake the hair on our bodies were electrically charged. I could feel the hair on my arms standing straight up. Excitement was rampant. That was the end of the lectures for the day!

On the last day of the Jorpah everyone was going home. We were taking things to the cars parked adjacent to the park, not far from the lake. Helene's friend Buddy was carrying a card table to the car. All of a sudden right beside the parking lot a huge wind came up that made the card table stand straight out. I opened the car door and threw our dog in and jumped in after him. We all said at once, "They must be leaving!" Again you couldn't see anything but you sure could feel it.

Tom Courtney, one of the attendees and speakers, read Budd Hopkin's book "Missing Time" and remembered when he had observed a UFO when he was a little boy. The following is his story as he related it at the "Jorpah" in Safford, Arizona.


One evening in 1978 I was driivng home at about three or four in the morning. I was on the edge of Phoenix and north of Scottsdale in a remote area. The lights inside and outside of the car started going on and off in a random way. The engine also started going on and off. This continued for about 25 seconds.

I thought I had a short in the electrical system, so I took the car home and borrowed my Dad's car since I had planned to drive to a seminar the next day. The following night at 7:30 I placed a call to my wife in Payson, a little town 90 miles north of Phoenix. I told her I was going to drive up there, that I had my father's convertible, which was a new car.

But, when I started driving, I couldn't control the car, not even to put the top of the convertible down. It was just like the car was on rails. I ended up driving this way for 50 miles, until I came to the top of a little hill.

At this point, a thought came into my head, which was very much like a command, "Now, stop the car." I slammed on the brakes, and pulled off to the side of the road, and pulled down the top. I had to go to the bathroom, but instead of walking around the side of the car, I found myself walking up this little valley. After I finished and turned around to walk back I was overcome by an incredible sense of dread.

I sensed a presence and I was terrified. The hair stood up on the back of my neck. I turned around and looked down the valley. The moon was very bright and was just at the apex of the mountain. The valley was filled with white light. I felt terrified, but exhilarated at the same time. A voice came to me telepathically and said, "Climb that mountain." I understood that there was incredible knowledge on top of that mountain. I hesitated, realizing that it would take almost five hours to climb up the mountain and that when I came down the next day, everyone would think I was crazy. Besides that, I was on my way to try to reconcile with my wife, who had said she would divoce me if I attended the seminar.

I was compelled to go directly to that mountain. I couldn't go to the car to take the keys out or anything. I felt paralyzed until I made the decision to go up the mountain. Then the voice came back and said, "You will climb the mountain and you'll know the time and the place. You don't have to do anything hard again."

It began to rain very heavily and I started walking toward the car. Suddenly, I began to receive knowledge about the nature of the universe. It was in parables and in statements. I could look from different angles and see probably lifetimes. It was incredible that just one quick statement would give me a whole new concept on things. "Life is just a lesson." That statement showed me everything about reincarnation, which I didn't know anything about. I had been an atheist. When I had walked to a certain point in the valley, I was unable to tell where I stopped and everything else began. I seemed to be merging with the universe. I can't even describe what I experienced in words, as it defies an adequate description.

I got into the car and left while the messages continued. I could feel the energy coming into my head. Finally, I felt as if I couldn't take anymore and said, "Where is this coming from?" A voice said, "John the Baptist." Then it just stopped and the voice was gone.

Then I drove to the cabin, where my wife was waiting for me. Later, my wife told me that when I walked in, she was scared to death. She was terrified because of the energy that I gave off. I went in to see my little boy, who was still awake. I knew that I could just communicate with thought. So I looked at him and enunciated in my mind, "I love you." He gave it right back to me in spoken words, "I love you too, Daddy!"

That night, when I went to bed, I saw what I intellectually knew was the moon through the trees, but it appeared before me in a series of symbols. I saw energy swirling and the moon getting bigger and bigger. I understood that the universe was expanding, as the vibrations increased. I saw visions all night and heard a humming sound within my head.

The next morning I got up and started back to Phoenix. When I got back to that little valley, there was a forest service crew mopping up. The valley had burned during the night.

Somewhere, that night, I had lost an hour. My wife had asked what took me so long, and I couldn't understand it, as I was driving faster than normal. There wasn't any traffic that late on a Sunday night.

I don't know what to make of the whole experience. I didn't tell anyone. I went to a couple of churches, but I knew I wasn't going to get an answer there. I even thought that perhaps I had just made up the whole thing. Then I went back over the experience, and I knew it was real. It came through me, that it wasn't something that I had made up.

Three months later in Santa Barbara, Calfiornia, I finally told my wife and her cousins all about what I had experienced. We were in a restaurant when I was telling them the story. Towards the end, I got very emotional and asked them if they knew anything about John the Baptist. Just then a hippy-looking guy came over from the other room. He said "Did one of you just get saved, or something? I said, "No." He said, "Well, I'm a born again Christian and I'm picking up incredible vibes, here. Are you sure you weren't talking about the Bible or something?"

Finally I said, "We were talking about John the Baptist. Do you know anything about him?"

He said, "I have been compelled for three months to study John the Baptist. I know everything about him." He sat down at the table and told us about John the Baptist for thirty or forty minutes.

After that, I went on a spiritual quest for many years. I read everything I could get my hands on, attempting to find out what my experience meant. I never dreamed it had anything to do with UFOs or anything like that.

Then, about three years later, in November of 1981, I was in a bookstore and something caught my eye. I turned around and there was an empty bookcase, with just one book in it. I've had very important books come to me that way. So I picked up the book and it was Missing Time, by Budd Hopkins which is a documentary of UFO abductions.

I picked it up and began to read about a case involving hypnosis. It described a little sore which this person had discovered right under the navel, which is red, and itches, and won't heal. I got cold chills because I had such a sore, which I had been worried about, until it finally healed. The book said it left a permanent mark which looks like a mole. I lifted up my shirt and sure enough, there was the mole.

I read some more and learned that there were people from 1943, who were perhaps a test group and were picked up by aliens repeatedly. They were usually picked up at about age seven, then at 16 to 18 and then from 35 to 38. There are certain scars which are common to the childhood experience. One of these is a very long scar on the upper left calf. I have one just like that. I also have one on my left kneecap, which is said to be very common.

Before I finished the book, I was driving to an appointment and received a telepathic message. All it said was "get called." I had no idea what that meant, until I finished reading the book. The last paragraph in the book said something to the effect that if you care to help our investigation and you've had an experience which is similar to this, please write us a letter and we'll call you.

So I wrote the letter. Budd Hopkins called me and we talked for an hour. Then the following June, they sent me to Los Angeles to be regressed. They picked up the experience from when I was going up the valley.

Under hypnosis I experienced being caught in a beam of light. It was the most terrifying thing I ever experienced. I was paralyzed and enveloped in an almost tangible light. It was like being hooked up to electricity. It took me a long time to move beyond that point.

Finally, they got me to look outside of that light and there were these beings, dressed in white. There were about ten beings standing in a cricle. Only one of them spoke with me. They were about five feet three inches to five feet five inches at the most. They were wearing a skin tight covering, which coverd the face and everything. They had large elongated heads. They had large, round black lenses over their eyes. Their mouths were just a slit and their noses were two holes. They had small chests and arms. I think they had only four digits. They seemed to be very light and unsure of their footing.

I was terrified but they seemed to get me out of it, so that the terror was replaced by a warm, loving feeling. I felt very peaceful and felt like I just loved them. I don't know if they gave me an injection, or how they caused the change in me.

The following March, I went to New York for a series of regressions with Budd again. This time they hypnotized me so that I would be able to watch the events from a distance. I saw myself go into the craft. The craft appeared much larger from the inside, than from the outside. When they took me in, they placed me in clamps. They examined my lower back. Some robots cut minutely inside my nose. They examined my head and face. It was a very quick, thorough, matter of fact, examination. I put my clothes back on, without remembering how my clohes came off.

I asked them what this was about, what they were doing. They said, "You'll know in time." They took me outside and there were two craft. The large one just kept hovering and the small one was the one which I had entered. The smaller of the two craft was about three or four stories high and probably 150 to 200 feet across. It had very steep sides and an incredible number of lights and windows on the sides. The large craft was the one which put the light on me. It put the light on me again, when I was ushered out of the little craft. It kept the light on me until the little craft took off. Then it released the light. I think that is when I had the mystical experience. I don't really know if they induced it.

One of the regressions went back to when I was seven. I grew up on a farm in Illinois. My mother had said that she saw a spacecraft. After I read the book, I asked her about it. It was in 1950 and she saw it hovering just above the trees in a small corn field. I used to play in this field and I thought that I had cut my leg with a blackberry bush or something. But in the book, they talk about pearl drops of blood that form around the wounds. I remembered pealing the droplets of blood from the back of my leg. Also, from that day on, we never played in that corn field again.

When I asked them where they came from, while I was being examined, they said, "Adonite Worlds."