UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

Today, I’m on a bit of a “weird dream” kick. By that, I mean there will be another dream-based article after this one. John Winterbauer is a friend of mine who I run into about once a year or so at conferences. At 8:43 a.m. on November 21, 2015 John sent me a text – while clearly in a state of some concern – that revolved around the story of a woman named Terry, who I interviewed a few years back. Her MIB-themed encounter makes for chilling reading. In part, Terry had told me: “This encounter occurred during the day time thirty five years ago in 1977 at a Winchell’s in Sunnyvale California, I was just sixteen years of age at the time. My best friend and I had just finished our coffee and were heading for the doorway to leave. As we were passing a man seated at one of the tables, he reached out and firmly grabbed my wrist. In that moment my first reaction was to jerk away from his grip, but looking down at him I realized that he was a very old man and I felt in that moment that he was harmless. He was dressed in black wearing an old fashioned hat and suit, his clothing looked like it was from the 1930’s. He was extremely pale, very thin and appeared to be very old, I guessed in his 80’s or 90’s.”

Terry continued: “He told my friend and I that he was a palm reader, a very good one, he claimed and could he please do us a favor by giving us each a reading. My friend and I talked briefly to each other about his offer and agreed to let him. I first sat down across the table from him, then as my friend was starting to sit down along side of me, he stopped her and asked her to please go sit a few tables away out of earshot from us, explaining that the information was going to be direct and personal, we would need some privacy. She complied and moved several tables away.”

There was more to come, too: “Once my friend was seated away from us, I placed my hands on the table in front of him, palms up and looked into the man’s face, it was then that I noticed the old man’s eyes were completely glazed over with cataracts, he was surely blind I thought, as his gaze was unfixed and unfocused in my direction. I asked him how long had he been a psychic? He responded by saying that his ability had nothing to do with being psychic and emphasized that it had everything to do with ‘science.’”

There are these closing words from Terry: “He began by talking about my early childhood experiences along with some very painful incidents that had occurred to me in which he had precise and detailed information that I was sure no one could have known about. Quite suddenly I felt very vulnerable and exposed as he recounted these events, his knowledge unnerved me to my very core. Staring straight ahead he moved along into my present situation, lecturing and chastising me like a father would a child, for some poor choices I had made during that time. All the while he broke a doughnut down into tiny pieces. My mind raced as I tried to figure out how on earth could he know this stuff? It was then in that moment that I would forever change my ideas of ‘secrets kept’ and how I viewed my own identity in the world. Apparently ‘nothing’ could be hidden from myself or anyone else for that matter. I felt naked in the truth.”

All of which brings us back to John Winterbauer and his text of November 21, 2015. It read: “Morning, Nick. Odd occurrences last night. I dreamed a woman came to warn me of an unspecified forthcoming trouble. She identified herself only as Terry [italics mine]. This morning I’m reading your new MIB book [titled Men in Black, and which referenced Terry, something John didn’t know until he began reading the book on the 21st] and just finished the donut shop account. My girl and I are getting ready to head to St. Louis for a weekend of paranormal adventure. This dream had no meaning this morning…now my hands are shaking as I type this. Most odd…most unsettling. Probably means nothing but the coincidence has me rattled. Thought I’d share in case I vanish or some weird shit this weekend! For the record I’ve enjoyed the book up to this last story!”

Thankfully, nothing untoward happened that weekend. John has not, however, forgotten this undeniably sinister and thought-provoking synchronicity concerning Terry. Neither have I. I saved that text and – as short as it is – I still go back and read it, now and again.

“A recently discovered group of nearby co-orbital objects is an attractive location for extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) to locate a probe to observe Earth while not being easily seen. These near-Earth objects provide an ideal way to watch our world from a secure natural object. That provides resources an ETI might need: materials, a firm anchor, and concealment.”

James Benford,a physicist and independent SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) researcher, told LiveScience he got the bug about ET bugs last year and it bugged him until he came up with the idea that co-orbitals might be a great place for aliens to send spaceships to plant solar-powered listening devices to spy on us. He expands on the theory in his paper published recently in The Astronomical Journal. Co-orbitals are asteroids or space rocks inhabiting roughly the same orbit as a planet – orbiting the Sun rather than the planet. The first Earth co-orbital found is 3753 Cruithne, discovered in 1986 in a photo taken in 1983. Its co-orbit wasn’t confirmed until 1997 and since then about 15 others have been identified. While occupying the same orbital space, their actual paths can vary — 3753 Cruithne has a bean-shaped orbit while others are more like closed horseshoes. The closest one, 2016 HO3, is 38 times as far away from Earth as the moon. However, that seems to be close enough for Benford’s alien eavesdropping theory.

Asteroid 2016 HO3 (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

In “Looking for Lurkers: Co-orbiters as SETI Observables,” Benford proposes that an advanced civilization on a nearby star could have send robotic probes to the most likely planet in our star’s “Goldilocks zone” (or whatever they might call it), but rather than violating their version of the ‘prime directive’, they positioned the lurkers on co-orbitals where they could listen and replenish their power from the star or from mining the asteroid. While they may have arrived millions of years ago and only picked up the moans of dying bacteria, eventually humans arrived to make enough noise to convince the lurkers that Earth finally contains intelligent (at least according to some definitions) life.

Hey! Anybody listening? Can you do something about that asteroid heading to the Gulf of Mexico?

It’s an interesting theory and certainly fits in with the Fermi Paradox – there has been no alien contact and we can’t detect them because they’re just quietly listening in. However, we may be able to find them or prove Benford wrong soon. China’s space program announced it will send a probe to 2016 HO3 in 2022 which will land, collect samples and send them back to Earth on a separate ship before continuing on to another asteroid. Since 2016 HO3 is so small (41 meters in diameter), Benford thinks there’s a good chance it could find evidence of a lurker from one of the many stars that have occasionally been less than a light year away from ours. If it were up to him, Benford might want to try communicating with them first using “Benford Beacons” – targeted short bursts of broadband signals in the 1-to-10-gigahertz range. Since they already know we’re here, this shouldn’t surprise the lurkers but may signal that we’re ready for contact.

Or maybe the beacons will act like a microwave dinger signalling we’re done cooking and ready to be eaten.

Is that really a good idea? Who knows? Are there really lurkers listening to us on Earth’s co-orbitals? Who knows? If they can pick up the Internet and read this, maybe we’ll find out.