extraordinary%20encounters

88 Divine Fire
woman transposed over Howard’s body. One
audience member, Eleanor Warner, described
“the figure of a beautiful woman, very young,
with long golden hair, a very slim body, and
small waistline. She seemed to glow in the
golden light.” Another witness, Trudy Allen,
was “overcome by the transcendent beauty
that was shining forth.”
In Howard’s account, Diane appeared to
her, in full view of twenty-seven witnesses, for
the first time on April 29, 1955, and identified
herself as a Venusian. That same week
UFOs appeared on four occasions over Palm
Springs, California, Howard’s hometown.
See Also: Contactees
Further Reading
Howard, Dana, 1958. “The Drama behind the
Space Ships.” Flying Saucer Review 4, 3
(May/June): 21–23.
Divine Fire
In a book that would prove influential in
1970s New Age circles, Brad Steiger wrote of
what he called the “Divine Fi re.” He believe d
that a dramatic rise was occurring in visionary
experience, channeling, and other contact with
ostensible higher intelligences. “Clergymen,
c l e rks, professors, public relations exe c u t i ve s ,
h o u s ew i ves, students, servicemen, and factory
w o rkers have been demonstrating that Pe n t ecost
was not just a one-shot special designed to
e xcite the Apostles and their kibitzers in Je rusalem
of A.D. 30,” he said (St e i g e r, 1973).
According to Steiger, these extraordinary
experiences and communications were taking
a variety of forms, but the message was the
same in its essence as those given to prophets
five thousand years ago. He suggested that
“the very repetition of a basic message may be
evidence of the vital relevancy and universality
of a cosmic truth.” The messages came from
ostensible angels, extraterrestrials, divinities,
and the like, but all spoke of a “Higher Being”
from whom each individual could draw inspiration
and wisdom. These messages stated
that all humans have the power within themselves
to contact this Higher Being. All things
were one; everything and everybody was at
once individual and universal. And finally, humans
were entering, in Steiger’s summary, “a
New Age, another progression in our evolution
as spiritual beings. . . . We are moving toward
a state of mystical consciousness wherein
every man shall be priest.”
See Also: Channeling
Further Reading
Steiger, Brad, 1973. Revelation: The Divine Fire. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Dual reference
“Dual reference” is a term coined by Massachusetts
ufologist Joseph Nyman. His hypnotic
investigations of abductees have led him
to the discovery that many believe themselves
to be of alien origin. They have no conscious
memories of such a personal extraterrestrial
link, but under hypnosis they gradually come
to understand that the aliens who are abducting
them are actually their own associates and
colleagues. They eventually grasp that before
their human selves were born, their alien
selves made the decision to send their consciousnesses
into human fetal bodies. In the
very first years of their human lives, memories
of their homes on other worlds are lost, but
over the years, as they undergo abduction experiences,
they learn—through hypnotic “recall”
of these experiences—of their true past
and their mission in this life and on this
planet. Sometimes, while the session is going
on, the hypnotist is able to speak directly with
the alien intelligence in the subject’s body.
Similar notions are not uncommon among
contactees, many of whom are convinced that
they were extraterrestrials in an earlier lives
and are now here to help prepare humans for
the great geophysical and spiritual changes
that will be coming soon. Dual reference also
is somewhat comparable to the notion of
Walk-ins, popularized by occult writer Ruth
Montgomery, except that Walk-ins are not always
(though they are sometimes) extraterrestrials.
Moreover, they are so intellectually and
spiritually advanced that they only take up oc-