Episode 13 - John Ratcliff

[wesowsley]

In this episode with chat with a listener! John Ratcliff joins us to talk UFO's, Religion, and Freemasonry.

[davidravenmoon]

Hello, I'm new here, and heard about the podcast from Paratopia.

This was an interesting episode. I wanted to comment. I agreed with Mr. Ratcliff for the most part, until the end when he insinuated that people who have paranormal experiences are mentally ill or were abused. That's nonsense. Sure, it must happen to some people that way, but not everyone. Just as he thinks the evidence for UFOs is overwhelming, so is the rest of it, but you have to stop thinking nuts-and-bolts space ships.

And that takes me to a bit later when the discussion comes to Emma Woods, et al. If you've spent any time studying the UFO/Alien phenomena, then you can see that the question has been asked many times... why would they need to keep coming here... first they were landing and taking soil samples. Then they were coming and seemingly taking samples from humans... again and again. The reason is probably because that's not what's going on. It's only what appears to be going on. Now while the government might be staging some of these things, there are many cases where the person having the experience was given information they did not have before the experience. You can't imagine something you don't know.

The reason for my thinking this way are my own series of experiences that started back when I was about four years old. Yes, I have been to doctors, and I'm in perfect mental and physical health. So I'm not imagining anything. Also some of these episodes had witnesses, and some of these people also had very strange experiences on their own.

Three examples I'll give here are when I was about eight, I was walking home from a friend's house one afternoon. There was a storm coming, and it had gotten very dark and windy. As I turned the corner someone grabbed my shoulders and prevented me from taking another step. A moment later a very large limb from an oak tree came crashing down inches from my feet. I realized I would have been killed! I turned around and there was no one there. So I ran home as fast as I could.

Sure, this could have been some unconscious thing at play that sensed danger, but I felt someone grab me. It was a very firm grip.

I never knew what to make of it. I'm not religious and never was, but I figured this must be the thing people have experienced that they call your guardian angel. Not that you can explain an unknown with an unknown. You can only give it a title.

Fast forward 20 years. I'm playing guitar in a band with my girlfriend and another friend. We had no drummer at the time so we used a drum machine. We were playing a song I wrote and I was about to play the guitar solo. I had composed a solo so I played it the same way every time we did the song. At rehearsals I like to experiment, so I decided to try something I read about once. I picked a first note and a last note and said I would clear my mind and just play. I was curious to see what I came up with.

Just as the time approached I heard a voice speak to me in my head. It is very important that I explain that it was not me thinking. I didn't hear it in my ears, but it was like hearing a radio or a speaker, but in my head. It was a male voice, and was very "pure" sounding. It wasn't monotone, but also didn't have an accent and very little inflection. It said these words: "Play these notes. They will work for you". As this was going on I was thinking "WTF!?!? is this really happening?" It creates almost a fear reaction. I also asked myself "who talks like that?" It seemed oddly phrased and old fashioned.

At that moment I was compelled to look at the neck on the guitar. I have to stress that I never look at the neck when I play, and in this case I felt it was not my free will that made me look down at the neck. What I saw looked like what I remembered from cartoons as a kid. It was a series of white circles with numbers in them. They were connected by dotted lines. It was one of those learn to dance things I saw in the cartoons.

I played the notes, also with little free will. I just did it, I didn't think about it. What I played was the most amazing thing I have ever heard. It wasn't like anything I ever heard before. it was nothing I could have played, both technically or even imagined.

We finished the song and I felt a bit confused about what happened. I remembered what I just told, but not what the music sounded like. Only what it felt like. I turned to my two friends and they were standing there looking at me with shocked expressions on their faces. They said "what was that you played?" I don't remember what I told them, but I think I told them what had actually happened. This was about 1988. I recently asked my friend John if he remembered the event. He said he didn't, but he did remember where we were rehearsing! I found that very odd. I later realized that he's very uncomfortable talking about the paranormal.

I never had an explanation for that, and it never happened again. It reminded me how musicians say they are in the zone, and stuff just comes to them. That happens to me too, but this wasn't the same thing at all.

Fast forward to about three years ago. I had been waking up every night at 3:47 AM. This went on for about four nights. On this last night I laid there unable to get back to sleep so I went into the living room to sit on the couch in the dark. I have always liked sitting in the dark since I was younger. So I'm sitting there with my legs crossed and eyes closed, basically meditating, and suddenly I have this rush of thoughts in my head. It felt like my brain was racing, and I became aware of a stream of information coming to me. It was all sorts of things... ideas, pictures, things.. I can't exactly describe it. I said to myself "wow, this is really good information"... those exact words. Then I wondered why I would say that, "really good information". I seemed very stiff.. I would have said "stuff"! While this is going on, I'm seeing a stream of images moving in a white arc to my left field of vision. My eyes are still closed. What I was seeing was everything known in the universe. And not just stuff we know. I saw technical drawings, and pictures of places, and things... lots of stuff that made no sense to me. Like things and places that made no sense.

Then I had this idea come to me. It had something to do with people raising their vibrations. I thought that sounded way too new agey, but it made perfect sense. It was so simple and profound that I thought "why didn't I ever think of this? It's so simple?"

Just then I heard that voice again. The same voice... I recognized it. Plus how many voices talk in your heard? It told me to write a book about what I was being shown, the vibration thing. It said to gather people together and start a movement. That was the exact words. It told me "this would help people."

Yikes! Now I thinking about all the times in history that people claim that some vision or entity came to them, and told them to gather people together and start a movement. This often does not end up well for the instigator. Look at Joseph Smith!

Part of me really wanted to help.. this seemed like an old friend. The entity that grabbed me. The entity that gave me those notes to play. Other experiences too. But then I felt really overwhelmed by what was going on. Was I crazy? I know I was awake. I even opened my eyes to see the time on the VCR. Plus I felt that I didn't want to be a cult leader!

So I thought back (my own thoughts seemed to be separate from me "talking" to it, though I sensed "it" knew everything I was thinking) "this seems like a lot of work, I don't know if I can do this". Then the images and information stopped. I don't remember if it was all at once or if it faded away. I still remembered the vibration idea. I felt the entity was displeased with me, so I'm thinking I'll get up and go into the kitchen, get the shopping list off the fridge and write it down. Just then I had to lay down. I had no choice in the matter. I became too tired to get up. It seemed like too much work and I lost my motivation to do so. But I kept saying to myself "it's OK, I remember the idea.. it's so simple. I'll write it down later."

I must have fallen asleep then. I woke up about an hour and a half later. I remembered the event, but not the idea. It has not come back to me since, nor has the voice. I have had two experiences of a woman's voice in my right ear. Once it said something to me directly. I was running through Penn Station in NYC to catch a train. It was very strange because it was in my ear, not external. It happened a second time a few weeks ago at another band rehearsal (for a different band). This time it was gibberish. I couldn't understand it.

Now up until the experience with the information, I just figured these and other things that have happened to me are paranormal. I don't know what that is, but it seems to effect many people. But that last time made me think of how similar it is to alien abductions, but without the aliens and the abduction. But the telepathic communication. The tone of the voice. The information being "uploaded" to your brain, and even scenes of some kind of catastrophe and the idea that this information will be needed later.

I did not see an entity, nor did I see a UFO. I have seen a UFO in the past, along with five other kids, and we all saw several small humanoid creatures covered in black fur with large glowing green eyes. They left small hoof like tracks in the snow and mud. The UFO left a 20 ft circle melted in the snow. We were all about 12-14 and didn't know what to do, so I didn't tell anyone. I'm still in contact with one of the friends, and he remembers it. Then years later two different girlfriends who I had never told the story to saw the same creatures in the same brook. Some people think small furry entities as well as phantom dogs and cats are the Djinn. They used to abduct people too. And why are these things associated with water and bridges? This happened at an overpass of a small brook with high cement walls in NJ.

So here we are, I'm not crazy, and have never been abused. I had as normal and happy a child hood as most. But I have been experiencing very odd thing as far back as I can recall.

I think this has been a part of our existence in this reality for as long as we have been here. It has taken on many forms, or sometimes no form at all. it seems to be directing our evolution here. Is it some aliens from another dimension? Maybe it's just part of reality we don't understand. Science as a tool, looks at the mechanical workings of things. We can say there was a big bang, but not why.

Since the information event I have random thoughts come to me all the time. The other day I thought "the reason we are here, is to wonder about why we are here." Why do UFOs keep showing up to people? Why do they do the same things over and over? So we believe in them. If we all believe in them, they will be real. Some one from the government actually said that in a UFO study once. I forget the details but I did heard Jeff Ritzman mention it. This military guy felt we need to not think about them, so we treat the subject like a joke. So no one believes in them. Otherwise we will have a full blown invasion. Hmmm, the Djinn want to get back here too. Somehow these old stories keep relating to all this. Why did people keep passing these stories down? I think we just don't understand them anymore. Same with Fairies and stuff. They abducted people too. Now it's grays.

So one by one people see them or have some kind of experience. That's safer than landing on the White House lawn, but still we don't know what this is all about. But people are not imagining this, and it's not all government staging, though some might be.

I'm enjoying the show so far. Lots of different topics.

David

[wesowsley]

Hi David and Welcome!
Thanks for sharing and thanks for listening! You know, I totally believe you had those experiences. Reading your post, I was thinking about the current situation with Jeff Ritzmann and his "Guest" that shows up from time to time...if you remember, he had mentioned in passing on the show that his mom had seen the entity too!
You bring up some good points about belief and I want to think about them before I reply...but thanks again...off to see my daughter dance ballet!

[davidravenmoon]

Yes, I've heard Jeff's stories. Interestingly he had the thing with waking up with scratches on his back. Before he told that story, I woke up one day with very strange scratches on the inside of my right upper arm. They looked like someone took a needle and scratched like five parallel lines. They hurt, and were bright red, but didn't bleed, and didn't get puffy like cat scratches.

I just kind of assumed it was from feather quills, because we have a feather bed (like a mattress sized pillow) on our bed. However the more I thought about it, I sleep with my right arm under my pillow, and that's a foam pillow. Also my wife never got a scratch from the feathers. Nor did we get any scratches on any other part of our bodies.

This happened a few times. Then one day I was sitting on our couch and it was mid afternoon. I had a tee shirt on. I was watching TV and then realized my upper arm hurt, so I pulled up my sleeve, and there were more scratches. But I didn't wake up with them. I showed it to my wife, and she found it disturbing. She doesn't like any of this stuff. I wish I had taken a photo of the scratches now.

But this was just the start of more weird stuff.

I was sleeping one night, and was woken with a slap in the face about 3 am. I jumped out of bed and yelled "HEY!" I looked around and my wife was fast asleep facing away from me. I had assumed she rolled over and flung an arm or something. But this was a slap. I was having a pleasant dream when it happened, so that wasn't it.. and my face still hurt. Our bedroom door was still closed. I have no clue what happened. I had the idea in my head that I was told to "pay attention". To what?

Around this time I started doing this sort of remote viewing thing while I was laying in bed before I fell asleep. And then I would have these lucid dreams. I have normal mundane dreams, and then I have these very lucid weird dreams, some of which are recurring.

In this dream I was shown some woman I didn't know. I was shown her name. I was told that her name also meant "something was wrong". When ever I saw her name is was written backwards. I was told I was supposed to tell people "I had the most amazing dream"

That reminded me of the other oddly phrased stuff. I woke up that morning, looked at my wife and said "I had a really weird dream" I couldn't do it! I did tell my son I was supposed to say it was an amazing dream.

This makes me think we are shown stuff for a reason. Jeff Ritzmann has said that the more you focus you attention on this stuff, the more it happens. I think this is totally true.

A good example of that was one evening last summer, I was actually listening to Paratopia on my iPod and decided to go sit outside in the back yard. I have always liked sitting in the dark at night outside. I like looking at the trees in the dark. Kind of weird, but there you are. So I'm looking up at the night sky and looking at clouds going by. Between the clouds I could see some stars, but I'm in a city area, so you don't see a whole lot of stars.

So then I notice a very small white blinking light. I live close to EWR, and several small airports, so I see plains all day and night. So I assumed it was a strobe on a plain.

But it was odd... it blinked 4 or 5 quick flashes, and then paused for the same amount of time, and then the flashes. It was very steady and mechanical. It was the color of a white LED... that sort of blue white color. Now it gets weird. I realized there were no other navigation lights.. usually you see a red or green light. Also it started moving in front of a large maple tree in the yard behind ours. It was still a small point of light. So my brain starts going through all the possibilities of what this could be. I knew it wasn't an insect. We have fireflies, but that's a yellow green light, and it's a slow pulse, not 5 quick flashes. But it behaved like a living thing. It went in front of the trees and around in a circle and then seemed to land on a branch. At this point it was hard to see. Then I didn't see it anymore. I waited an hour, and then went inside.

The most recent weird thing was last weekend my wife and I stayed in the Poconos in PA. It was pouring rain all weekend. I went downstairs and decided to look out the back porch. It was very dark and I could see two lights up in the nearby mountain. They looked like houses or something. Then I realized the light to the right seemed to be moving. So I figured it was a car on a road up there. But something wasn't making sense. It was moving, but I couldn't understand how it was moving. That sounds strange, but it was moving, but it wasn't. or it was moving towards me and not sideways as I expected. So I stepped out onto the screened in porch and pressed my face against the screen to get a better look. As I said it was pouring rain. Then I could see the light moving in the trees, and it started going up and down and sideways like someone was moving it with their hands... I could see the outlines of the trees in front of it. But this was way up on the mountain. I felt kind of confused at that point and thought about getting my camera to try and get a video, but then figured the screen was in the way and I'd never get a good shot, so I just went up stairs and went to bed. Before getting into bed I looked out a window up there and the light was where it was originally.

My gut feeling was it wasn't moving, but I was made to believe it moved.

I'll end with one last story that I think has an important detail about some UFO sightings. I think it was last August, and I was riding with my friend John (the guitarist I played with in the earlier incident) and we were on Rt 46 in Clifton NJ heading west. The sun was just starting to set and the clouds ahead of us had this nice golden color. We both noticed something odd in the clouds. It was a yellow-orange color, and had a disk or lozenge type shape. It seemed to have a blurry edge to it. It wasn't moving. It seemed to be self illuminated, and not lit by the setting sun, which was behind it.

So I point this out to John and say what do you think that is? He starts saying he thinks it's Venus. I start to explain that Venus looks like a bright star, and this thing was the size of a dime at arms length. Then he starts telling me this story how he would sit on his roof some years ago and see this very same object, and then it would change to a upward facing crescent shape, which is why he thought it was Venus. I explained that Venus doesn't look like that and you can't see the crescent with your naked eye.

While this is going on I decide to reach into a bag I had at my feet and grab my Canon digital camera. My idea was just to use the telephoto lens to get a better look. It never even occurred to me to take a photo! How many times do people see something and never think of taking a photo? Now it gets stranger still... I have my camera in my hand and I'm about to switch it on. Then in my mind I can see the camera's battery compartment, and it's empty. So I say to John "oh dammit, I have no batteries in my camera" and I put it back in my bag. As soon as we turned off the highway and couldn't see the object I came to my senses that not only did I have batteries in the camera, I had just been using it an hour earlier!

So clearly this thing knew what my intention was and used some form of mind control to stop me from using my camera. This is not unheard of in these stories, but here's what I want to know... how did this object know we were looking at it? We were in a truck on a busy highway with hundreds of other cars and people. But somehow it knew. I think this is profoundly important and lead me to believe that when people see a UFO they are meant to see it. Somehow these things or beings have total access to our mind. That seems impossible when you think of the sheer number of people, and in my example people on that highway. But somehow it knew.

I think we must be dealing with something so profoundly beyond what we can understand. it goes beyond nuts-and-bolts space craft and aliens. I have no clue what it is, and don't care to hazard a guess.

The funny thing is it wasn't until I started listening to these paranormal podcasts and visiting the forums and hearing other people's stories that I realized that a huge amount of high strangeness has been part of my entire life. I guess after a while you just get used to it and accept that we live in a very strange world full of odd things we can't explain.

I'm 52 now so I could probably fill a book. And childhood friends have had equally weird stuff from phantom black dogs to seeing gnomes with long white beards. I grew up in a house with a phantom black cat. Everyone used to see it. My son even saw it when we still lived there.

So I've been on a quest of sorts to compare notes as it were. I see a lot of people experiencing similar things. That gives me some comfort, but I'm still at a loss to explain it.

David