Possibilities

I moved to Oregon after high school but only managed to last 2 years before returning to Southern California. Lack of friends, activities, and sunlight drove the decision. It rained 10 months out of the year and that's just torture to a California boy used to seeing the sun almost everyday. Upon my return, my best friend gave me a book to read called Communion by Whitley Strieber. This is a true account of the author's encounter with alien beings. Strieber was already established as a horror fiction writer so many critics doubt the validity of the story told in Communion. I was totally captivated. It read like a horror story, keeping you up all night, but the real goal of the book was to try and understand the relationship between aliens and humans. The aliens are watching over our fragile evolution until we can properly cope with not being the only living thing in the universe. This was appealing to me. I recently unearthed an old piece of writing from high school in which I pontificated on the existence of aliens and their connection to human evolution so the germ of this idea was already in my head when I came into contact with Communion. "There's no God so it's possible that human beings could be a galactic experiment. The universe is so big there must be something out there." Even then I felt arrogant in thinking that human beings were the pinnacle of existence. Maybe at 17 I just wanted to believe something fantastic.

Right around the time I read Communion, my future wife and I visited a library book sale and I put my hand on a ring in the dark. There were tables filled with books and I was scanning titles as only the spines were visible. The first book I selected, based solely on the title without any idea of the subject matter, was Chariots of the Gods by Erich Van Daniken. It is an historical discussion of contact between ancient civilizations and alien beings. This was one of my first noted instances of things happening right when they're supposed to. Why did I choose that book? How was it possible that it matched and enhanced my knowledge of a subject that had already piqued my interest? It was as if something was saying "Here, read this next. It's the next piece of the puzzle." I took the book home and devoured it within days. After that, I was convinced that aliens were real and were just watching and waiting. This was the mid-1990s and alien stories and imagery were everywhere due to the popularity of shows like the X-Files (which I never watched). My belief in alien beings was not based solely on stuff I read in books, I've twice seen some strange things in the sky. In high school, my brother and I were ditching school and getting high in our garage (yes, this was our main activity in high school). The side entrance door was open and as I was staring dazedly out it when an object appeared in my line of sight moving across the sky from left to right. It was a silver ball. The sun shined on it and distinguished the shape. There were no wings, it was a sphere. I ran to the door with my brother in tow and we both stood there staring "What the fuck is that?" It moved off behind some trees and we were left trying to explain what we saw to people who only focused on the fact that we were in an altered state of mind. My second encounter happened while not under the influence and in the presence of my wife who is a more credible witness as she does not imbibe mind altering substances. We were driving at night and saw something in the sky that looked like a blimp wrapped in Christmas lights. I sped up for a better look but it moved away too quickly. I would have been able to catch a blimp so we're still not sure exactly what it was we saw. These events and my readings consumed my thinking and even pervaded my dreams. After I focused my attention on other matters, the dreams faded but every now and again resurfaced so I took to writing them down to avoid forgetting them.

Am I still certain of the existence of aliens? Possibly. What this series of events did for me was to open my mind to the belief that anything is possible. I don't believe anything is certain. If it's real in someone's mind, then it's real to them. My 6 year old recently asked about the existence of Santa Claus and, on a separate occasion, the existence of aliens (he has Lego sets with aliens in them). This is how I responded: Unless you personally experience an event, it is only a story related by another person. Everything is a story. Aliens, Santa Claus, Jesus. Some people choose to believe and some people choose not to believe. YOU get to decide, in your heart and mind, what YOU choose to believe. He looked at me with those eyes wise beyond his years and said "I believe in everything." "So do I" I replied.