Hi Craig. Thanks again for your response.

I was with you for the gist of your post, and your encouragement to always remain open minded (which I am), but I need to take issue with:

> So as to robed beings, shadow people, or
> extraterrestrials, we simply don’t know. But
> the number of people having experiences of them
> is very small, and we can’t test their reality, > so while we need to be open, we’re not yet able > to accept them as fact.

In particular the inclusion of ETs.

Again, I'm agnostic about just about everything.

But when it comes to compelling "UFO" reports, and sometimes encounters with the entities (for lack of a better word) associated with those "lights in the sky", the sheer number of reports vastly outweighs and outnumbers the number of people having ADCs or NDEs.

This isn't a slam on ADCs or NDEs at all! (Heck, I haven't even told my story yet...) I'm just saying that, if we're playing a numbers game, then there are far more people reporting "seeing ET" and "UFOs" than are having NDEs and ADCs.

And the number of sightings of "dark/black shadows/mists" seems to be on the rise. It's very strange...

Anyway...

> How many people have
> described a tunnel and meeting deceased loved
> ones in NDEs? Tens of thousands or hundreds of
> thousands. Those are very common phenomena. How > many have seen a robed being? I don’t know of
> any, but I’m sure you’ve read something. I
> wouldn’t trust the reports until tens of
> thousands or hundreds of thousands of people
> had reported them. But I wouldn’t dismiss them
> out of hand either.

In terms of "UFO contactees" and "experiencers", the number seeing "robed beings" is indeed a minority. But it does happen. And it's interesting.

Far more people see these kinds of "entities" when they are engaged in more esoteric and "occultic" practices. (Maybe a "doorway" is opened?)

And it is that commonality that I find fascinating, especially because I already see a huge intersection between religion, the "UFO phenomena" as a whole, various mystical practices, certain "psi" phenomena, etc.

As I said, it often seems like there's a bigger phenomena at work - something that manifests itself in various ways. Call it a "trickster" phenomena or what-have-you.

(Funny, on one of tonight's episodes of "Paranormal State" on A&E, one of the cases they investigate involves a house with a reported "hooded figure". Supposedly the man of the house killed himself after being repeatedly "attacked" by the hooded figure, and now his wife and the rest of the family think they could be in danger.")

Maybe I should have asked:

Do you *believe* in "negative spirits/energies"? Ones that can attack humans? What are they? Are they sometimes the "souls" of dead humans? Or is it always something else, like "demons" (for lack of a better word)?

> Google Dorothy Izatt. Buy a copy of her DVD.
> It’ll make a believer of you.

I'm familiar with that case. I never cared for her photos ... but I do think she saw something that defies explanation. I don't have that recent DVD, though. She's interesting, but far from being the most compelling (in my opinion) case for proof of the existence of UFOs/aliens.

Anyway, thanks again.

Ron