In the
late afternoon on a long summer day in 1968, a young girl ran home from the
distant fields on her family farm in upstate New York.
“They’re
leaving…they’re leaving! My friends are leaving!” she cried.
The girl’s
mother came outside to witness a “streak of light” beaming across the distant
sky.
I heard
this, and many other stories my whole life, but I was 22-years old before any
of it truly came into focus.
Awoken
from a deep-sleep by a loud murmuring sound: a channel of deep and cacophonic
vibration and light that seemed to surround my head and pin my body in place. I
was completely paralyzed.
The girl
was offered a series of predictions, and one solemn promise; that they would
“watch over us”, forever.
It wasn’t
until 3 years after my first experience (an experience which has repeated
periodically since), that I actually made “contact.” The figure was slender and
flexible, and wore a giant metallic helmet shaped like a pyramid. In it, I saw
myself reflected, but distorted, stretched.
“Why me?”
I asked.
The
response; a string of four simple words, is one that I will never forget, and
which has defined my creative life since:
“But, I am
you.”