extraordinary%20encounters

Extraordinary encounters have been reported
for as long as human beings have been
around, and they are richly documented in
the world’s folklore and mythology. A full accounting
of traditions of otherworldly belief
would easily fill many fat volumes. This book,
however, is not about traditions but about experiences,
or perceived experiences, of otherworldly
forces as claimed by a wide range of
individuals over the past two centuries (with
the rare look farther back if the occasion calls
for it). In other words, it is about things that
people, many of them living, say happened to
them, things far outside mainstream notions
about what it is possible to experience, but, at
the same time, things that seem deeply real to
at least the sincere experients (that is, those
persons who have had the experiences). Not
everyone, of course, is telling the truth, and
when there is reason to be suspicious of the
testimony, that consideration is noted.
Mostly, though, I let the stories tell themselves;
I have left my own observations and
conclusions in this introduction. Though
much of the material is outlandish by any definition,
I have made a conscious effort to relate
it straightforwardly, and I hope readers
will take it in the same spirit. No single person
on this earth is guiltless of believing something
that isn’t so. As I wrote this book, I tried
Introduction
xi
to keep in mind these wise words from scientist
and author Henry H. Bauer: “Foolish
ideas do not make a fool—if they did, we
could all rightly be called fools.”
Most of us believe in at least the hypothetical
existence of other-than-human beings,
whether we think of them as manifestations of
the divine or as advanced extraterrestrials. At
the same time most of us do not think of
these beings as intelligences we are likely to
encounter in quotidian reality. God and the
angels are in heaven, spiritual entities who
exist as objects of faith. Extraterrestrials,
though not gods, “exist” in much the same
way, as beings who science fiction writers and
scientists such as the late Carl Sagan theorize
may be out there somewhere in deep space,
though so far away that no direct evidence
supports the proposition. When devout individuals
report feeling the “presence of God,”
they usually describe a subjective state that the
nonbeliever does not feel compelled to take
literally.
Of course we know there was a time when
our ancestors were certain that otherworldly
beings of all sorts walked the world. Gods
communicated openly with humans. One
could summon up their presence or encounter
them spontaneously. Fairies and other supernatural
entities haunted the landscape as