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extraordinary%20encounters
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UFO Experiences.” Journal of UFO Studies 2<br />
(new series): 45–58.<br />
Sprinkle, R. Leo, 1999. Soul Samples: Personal Explo -<br />
rations in Reincarnation and UFO Experiences.<br />
Columbus, NC: Granite Publishing.<br />
———, 1969. “Personal and Scientific Attitudes: A<br />
Study of Persons Interested in UFO Reports.” In<br />
Charles Bowen, ed. Beyond Condon: Flying Saucer<br />
Review Special Issue No. 2, June, 6–10. London:<br />
Flying Saucer Review.<br />
———, 1976. “Hypnotic and Psychic Aspects of<br />
UFO Research.” In Proceedings of the 1976<br />
CUFOS Conference, 251–258. Evanston, IL:<br />
Center for UFO Studies.<br />
———, 1995. “The Significance of UFO Experiences.”<br />
In David Pursglove, ed. Zen in the Art of<br />
Close Encounters, 164–165. Berkeley, CA: New<br />
Being Project.<br />
Sprinkle, R. Leo, ed., 1980. Proceedings of the Rocky<br />
Mountain Conference on UFO Investigation.<br />
Laramie, WY: School of Extended Studies.<br />
Star People<br />
“Star People” is a notion made popular in the<br />
late 1970s and early 1980s. Brad Steiger, a<br />
prolific writer on paranormal, occult, and ufological<br />
subjects, introduced the phrase in a<br />
1976 book. He writes that the “majority of<br />
Amerindian Medicine People” believe that<br />
Star People—individuals who many lifetimes<br />
ago came to Earth with a mission from their<br />
home worlds—are “becoming active at this<br />
time in an effort to aid mankind [in surviving]<br />
a coming Great Purification of the<br />
planet” (Steiger, 1976). In the course of his<br />
investigation of channeling and channelers, he<br />
says, he became aware of women he calls “Star<br />
Maidens.” Such women shared certain physical<br />
characteristics and had “memories” of arriving<br />
on Earth twenty thousand years ago in<br />
a starship. Before long Steiger became convinced<br />
that just as many men—including<br />
himself—had similar claims to extraterrestrial<br />
origin.<br />
Steiger eventually married a woman he believed<br />
to be a Star Maiden, Francie Paschal.<br />
Paschal reported a lifetime of otherworldly experiences,<br />
beginning with childhood visions<br />
in which an apparitional spaceman, looking<br />
like a “Hollywood-type Viking prince,” told<br />
Star People 237<br />
her, “Like unto another Christ child you will<br />
be.” He said she was from a “planet . . . like<br />
unto Venus” (Steiger, 1976). She and Steiger<br />
believed they had shared previous lives. As<br />
part of what they believed to be their mission,<br />
the couple moved from upstate New York to<br />
Scottsdale, Arizona.<br />
An article on their beliefs concerning St a r<br />
People in the May 1, 1979, issue of the Na -<br />
tional En q u i re r b rought them a flood of letters<br />
and telephone calls. It turned out that<br />
other persons suspected that they also we re<br />
space people put in place to help the human<br />
race through coming cataclysms and changes.<br />
Many said they had heard a disembodied<br />
voice tell them, “Now is the time,” short l y<br />
b e f o re they read the En q u i re r piece. T h e<br />
Steigers went on to release books in the “St a r<br />
People Series,” three originals and two<br />
reprints of earlier Brad Steiger titles. T h e<br />
originals we re based in considerable part on<br />
Fr a n c i e’s channelings.<br />
According to these messages, the Starseeds<br />
are the true Star People. As direct descendants<br />
of extraterrestrials, they have both alien and<br />
human genes. The Star Helpers are descendants<br />
of the extraterrestrials’ original disciples.<br />
Later, from further channeling, hypnotic regression,<br />
and testimony from others, the<br />
Steigers concluded that three different types<br />
of space ancestors could be discerned: Refugees<br />
who crash-landed on this planet thousands<br />
of years ago, after escaping from turmoil<br />
and destruction on their home planet; Utopians,<br />
benign aliens who colonized other worlds<br />
to give them perfect societies; and Energy<br />
Essences, nonphysical entities who drift<br />
through space, drop in on planets, and occasionally<br />
occupy a host body.<br />
In The Star People (1981), the Steigers reported<br />
that a number of their correspondents<br />
believed they had insights into the immediate<br />
future. They foresaw worldwide famine in<br />
1982, a pole shift between 1982 and 1984,<br />
World War III no later than 1985, and Armageddon<br />
around 1990. Somewhere in the<br />
middle of this, space people would land and<br />
announce their presence.