What the Bleep

Whitley usually appears on television alone, but occasionally I get to make an appearance as well. One of most enjoyable things Whitley and I ever did together was to participate in a live radio show in front of an audience at the River Rock Casino in Vancouver, Canada recently. But I have a feeling that my first time on live radio may also turn out to be my last, because I made a major blunder!

But I have to backtrack a bit to explain what happened. When Whitley published “Communion” in 1987, he put our New York City mail center address in it, as a sort of last minute whim, and asked people to send him letters about their own experiences. By this time, we had both met with groups of people who were having identical experiences to his, so we knew that Whitley wasn’t the only one who this was happening to, but we had no idea how many other people were going through almost identical experiences?sometimes in the same city, sometimes far away in other parts of the world. We met our secretary, who worked for us for many years, when she wrote us a letter about her own experiences. It turned out she lived one street away from us, so we met her and then hired her.

We attended a UFO conference once, where a speaker suggested that this was happening to only a handful of people (and he had most of those people sitting up on the stage with him). But the huge number of letters we received from just one mention in a single book proves that this isn’t true.

Shortly after the book was published, we began getting so many letters that the mail center refused to take them any more, and sent the postmen directly to our apartment. They dragged in huge, gray cloth bags, stuffed with mail, and heaped them up in the living room.

I took on the task of reading them and we estimate that I eventually read half a million letters. I was thankful that I had learned efficient skimming techniques when I was in graduate school (something you learn so that you can draw together information from many different sources in order to write your own paper).

But first I had to find a way to open them all, and I had to hire someone to help me that. I was determined to answer every single letter and I did that, even though I eventually had to resort to sending out form letters with handwritten sentences on them.

Because I read all these letters, I have become what might be called a “human encyclopedia” of abductee and UFO experiences. I probably know more about this field that anyone else on earth at this moment. I know much more than most “official” UFO researchers, who tend to postulate a theory and then gather information only from people who have had experiences that validate the theory.

As any legitimate scientist can tell you, this is not the way to do research.

Many UFO researchers and preachers have the same thing in common: they think they know the answers and they want to tell us what they are. But if we lose the question, we stop searching; we lose our footing on the spiritual path and end up lost in the dark woods of confusion that surround it.

During CKST 1040 AM Vancouver’s broadcast of the Coast to Coast show, I was on stage sitting in a chair alongside Whitley and the show’s host, so that I could answer questions from the audience about their Visitor experiences.

I often do this informally, when I’m at a conference with Whitley. At these “official” UFO conferences, so-called “UFO experts” get up and pontificate about who the ETs are, what planet they come from, what their nefarious plans are for the human race (although they obviously have no way of knowing any of this). Later, out in the corridor where people are milling around, I will feel a tug on my sleeve and turn around to see someone who desperately wants to share his or her experiences.

They will usually start out by saying, “I had a UFO experience, but it was different from what they talk about.” Then they describe what they saw and what the beings and ship looked like, what they felt and who else was there.

Since I’ve read and heard so many UFO stories, I’m able to tell them, “Oh, lots of people have experienced the same things you have” and then give them some details from the many letters I’ve read. This always seems to come as a huge relief to them.

During the Coast broadcast, an audience member stood up and, instead of asking me a question about his own experiences, began to talking about the theories (which he presented as facts) of a certain UFO personage for whom I have very little respect. He went on and on, promulgating one outlandish, unproven theory after another, until I finally couldn’t stand it any more. I leaned into the microphone and said, “That’s bullshit!”

The audience laughed, but the producers didn’t think it was so funny because the technician had to quickly push a button to “bleep” it out. Because you’re not allowed to cuss on the air, radio is broadcast with a five second time lag, so these words can be replaced with a loud “bleep” sound if they are uttered.

The radio show was being filmed as well as broadcast, and I could see the monitor clearly. I hadn’t anticipated this, although I had dressed carefully (wearing green, as usual), since we were talking to a live audience. Every time I glanced at the monitor, I saw something about my appearance that could have been improved. I even noticed that I was wearing mismatched socks!

Since the event was sold out, over nine hundred people packed the casino to hear us, along with George Noory and the other guests, so there were lots of witnesses to my gaffe.

When we filmed the pilot for a reality show a few months ago (which wasn’t picked up by any networks), I was left on the cutting room floor. Perhaps I was subconsciously trying to make sure I made an impression this time.

A note from Whitley: George, myself and the producers all loved Anne’s heartfelt performance on the show, and George told me she will ALWAYS be welcome on Coast, just as she is on Dreamland.

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