DREAMS GHOSTS AND UFOS

So comes to us at times, from the unknown
And inaccessible solitudes of being,
The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul;
And inspirations, that we deem our own,
Are some divine foreshadowing and foreseeing
Of things beyond our reason or control.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I looked out the window and saw this white light. It was zigzagging around. I went up to the pilot and said, "Have you ever seen anything like that?" He was shocked and he said, "Nope." And I said to him: "Let's follow it!" We followed it for several minutes. It was a bright white light. We followed it to Bakersfield, and all of a sudden to our utter amazement it went straight up into the heavens. When I got off the plane I told Nancy all about it.
President Ronald Reagan

GHOSTS

I don't have any superstitions (that I am aware of).

I am not a church-going or religious person, but I am a baptized and confirmed Catholic.

I was turned off to religion (or at least to the Catholic Church) when I heard money being counted during Mass.

As that noisy machine clinked and clanked, I started to like church and religion less and less.

This is somewhat off-topic:

My mom went to a Catholic high school, and almost didn't receive her diploma.

One more time caught smoking (cigarettes) in the bathroom...and no diploma!

She would have to get permission (and forgiveness) from the archbishop.

I think Sister Mary told her that.

I have never seen ghosts.

Just Caspar the friendly ghost.

(Sorry about that.)

I have had other people tell me that they have seen ghosts.

One teacher at the high school where I teach told me that faces move by him in his house when he's watching TV or just sitting.

I asked him if it was an old house.

He said that it is.

I don't laugh at people who tell their ghost stories.

I also don't laugh at persons with their stories about UFOS or dreams.

DREAMS

I’ve always liked the title of a story by Delmore Schwartz called “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities”.

I recently bought a collection of Schwartz’s stories and poems, and read his short story again.

When I read it the very first time, I think I might have been in 10^th grade.

It had an impact on me.

But I think that it’s the title that I liked the most. Here is some information on Delmore Schwartz and this story.

(Everyone should read Schwartz…especially his poetry!)

***

[In 1962, Schwartz began teaching Creative Writing at Syracuse University. One of his students was future singer-songwriter Lou Reed, who dedicated several songs to his mentor (most notably "European Son"). Schwartz reportedly told Reed at one point, "You can write—and if you ever sell out and there's a Heaven from which you can be haunted, I'll haunt you," and Reed never forgot. He attended Schwartz's funeral in 1966, and years later in his song "My House," Reed tells a story of a ghost in his new home who spells out D-E-L-M-O-R-E on an Ouija board, and who doesn't spook him, but inspires him instead.]

[The expression "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" is derived from the Irish poet William Butler Yeats' 1914 volume of poems Responsibilities which uses a variation of the phrase as an epigram. Yeats attributes the saying merely to an "Old Play." Variations of this saying show up in unexpected places (e.g. the movie Deep Cover [1]).]

***

Dreams can be Powerful, Real, Unreal, Upsetting, Beautiful, and Strange.

Although I don’t believe in ghosts, I am not saying that they don’t exist.

My gut tells me that there are angels.

Or guardians of some kind.

I just don’t know.

I am a big skeptic at heart, though friends think that I believe in any wild-eyed and weird conspiracy theory.

I was majoring in the sciences at the university---until the bug of poetry and philosophy bit me hard---and I cultivated a critical mind.

My beliefs are not as liberal as my conservative friends think.

Can dreams be presages and harbingers of what will be?

Can the mind see into the future or communicate with other minds?

Maybe.

UFOS

I’ve read dozens of books about UFOS.

I still don’t know what they are.

I once was told something very intriguing by a very reliable source.

This individual worked at a facility that required a Q-Level government clearance.

He said,

“M…our top physicist showed me pictures of a disc that was under canvas.

It’s being taken to Wright Patterson Air Force base. He’s going to try to figure out how to pierce the metal of this disc.”

“You’re kidding”, I said.

“No. I’m not kidding.”

Another time this source told me that a tech who worked at this facility went to Area 51.

She was transported in a bus with opaque windows.

“She saw them”, he said.

“Saw what?” I asked.

“Discs.”

One clear night a friend and I were sitting on the roof of my apartment building in Boulder, Colorado.

I was looking at the western sky.

A “light” suddenly sped across the horizon above Boulder’s Front Range Mountains.

The “light” moved fast.

I thought, “That’s a fast jet.”

But it wasn’t a jet.

It was moving way too fast.

Then…

The “light” stopped in its tracks, and went back in the opposite direction, still moving on the same straight line.

Then…

IT DISAPPEARED AS A POINT OF LIGHT!

Like when a TV goes off and leaves that last point of light.

DREAMS

GHOSTS

AND UFOS!