The Extraordinary Ordinary

Last week I had the kind of experience I’ve had many times in the years since Whitley wrote Communion. I talked to some people I’ve gotten to know recently and heard some extraordinary stories.

Like most of the folks we meet every day, these people could be described as ordinary. One of them confessed that after he started photographing strange craft, he developed a triangle-shaped injury on his arm after a night when he slept deeply, almost until noon, although he’s usually up at six every morning. He showed us the injury.

This prompted the other person to reveal that she’d left her body, without warning, while riding in a car about fifteen years ago. There was no accident, but she suddenly found herself above the car, looking down at the passengers (including herself) inside. After a few moments, she found herself back in her body, but she’s never felt fully anchored there, and has worried about slipping out of her body and being unable to return ever since.

I’ve heard thousands of stories like these during the last decade and have read hundreds of thousands more. Every time I hear something like this, I remember what one of the many “ex” CIA agents, who seem so prevalent in the UFO world, once said to me: “The reason for the secrecy is that we don’t think Joe Sixpack can deal with it.”

But Joe Sixpack is already dealing with it, with absolutely no help from our scientists, philosophers or religious leaders, the media or the government. The world is full of ordinary people having extraordinary experiences, unacknowledged and all alone.

A few months ago, a childhood friend of Whitley’s contacted us and we all had lunch together. This man is a well- respected lawyer, and Whitley wondered if he would remember any experiences like those in The Secret School.

It turned out that he did remember seeing strange craft in the sky as a boy living down the street from Whitley, and that someone had come to him and told him that one day he would have an important role of some kind to play.

Then Whitley joked about how he puts out street lights whenever he walks or drives under them and the lawyer’s jaw dropped. “That happens to me whenver I jog!” he said. By the time he left, he was beginning to wonder if his experiences had been more extensive than he remembered.

I don’t think that those with official knowledge about UFOs are actually worried about what happens to the ordinary guy. They don’t seem overly concerned about us when it comes to education or health care, so why would they care about our extraordinary experiences? I think the truth is that they’re too scared to take the lid off the subject, so they hide behind the fiction that we wouldn’t be able to handle what they know.

Meanwhile, there are more extraordinary ordinary people out there every day: seeing strange sights, discovering implants, remembering “dreams,” coping with extraordinary children, leaving their bodies, and putting out street lights.

As far as I can tell, Joe Sixpack may be shaken up a little, but basically he’s coping just fine.

NOTE: This Diary entry, previously published on our old site, will have any links removed.