My Contact Work Begins
Copyright 2003 Joseph Burkes,
MD
This document represents the
views of the author alone. It does not represent CSETI position or policy
.
I had never attended a UFO
meeting before, but after reading on the subject for over a year, I finally got
up enough courage to attend a meeting on this very unusual subject. CSETI
director, Dr. Steven Greer, was a featured speaker at the UFO Expo West in May
of 1992. It was just a week after the Los Angeles Riots. The pungent aroma of
burnt out buildings was still quite strong in our Òcity of the angels.Ó I
attended the UFO Expo that was held at the LAX Hilton. I wandered into a
lecture hall that was one third empty.
At the podium stood a tall blond, bearded, well dressed man in his
mid-thirties who introduced himself by simply stating, ÒMy name is Dr. Steven
Greer.Ó Emergency room physicians by trade, we shared the same occupation. I
was curious to hear what my fellow ER doc had to say about the UFO phenomenon.
I was immediately impressed by what I heard
Dr. GreerÕs call for a
citizenÕs diplomatic mission to the Ets was interesting because I had been a
citizenÕs diplomacy peace activist during the Cold War. As a member of several delegations
of medical workers, I had traveled repeatedly to the former Soviet Union to
meet with other physicians to discuss the medical consequences of nuclear war
and the dangers of the nuclear arms race. I also served as an officer in the US
affiliate of the Nobel Prize winning organization ÒInternational Physicians for
the Prevention of Nuclear War.Ó
What excited me about
GreerÕs approach was that he combined what appeared to be high ideals, with the
courage to actively go into the field and attempt to interact with the
intelligence presumably responsible for the flying saucer phenomenon. With my
growing interest in UFOs and my decades of experience as a peace activist, I
guess you could say wild horses couldnÕt keep me away.
The following month, after
rearranging my ER schedule, I flew to West Palms Beach where Dr. Steven Greer
was giving a workshop on CSETIÕs Close Encounters of the 5th Kind
Initiative. It was a bold program attempting to initiate contact with the what
Greer and his followers called ÒExtraterrestrial Intelligence.Ó His long term goal as presented at the
workshop, was to establish a Òmutually beneficial, sustainable and cooperative
relationshipÓ between humanity and the Extra-terrestrial civilizations
supposedly visiting our planet.
In West Palm Beach,
following his customary workshop, a demonstration of CSETI contact protocols
was offered at an isolated local beach. This workshop/demonstration that I
attended, was only one of approximately 100 similar presentations that Dr.
Greer gave between 1991 and 1994 as part of an organizing drive for the CE-5
Initiative. It was at the Florida workshop, there on the Atlantic Coast that I
first witnessed a UFO.
The south Florida coast in
June is hot and very humid. Having spent the last 16 years living in Southern
California, I expected the weather
to cool off after the sun went down. Instead it actually got hotter. That night
of June 6th I got a real taste of the tropics. As the evening
progressed, instead of getting cooler as things do on the West Coast, the oppressive humidity felt like it
was suffocating me. Some of the participants in the workshop had ignored
GreerÕs request that the field work be carried out in a disciplined and focused
manner, with no invitations extended to friends. Instead about a third of the
group had brought their wives, boyfriends and various Òsignificant othersÓ to
skywatch with us. The presence of so many individuals who had not participated
in the workshop contributed to a kind of party like atmosphere. One couple modestly
covered themselves with a blanket for some romantic making out. Greer tried to
ignore them.
Contrary to CSETI protocol,
which banned alcoholic beverages from the research site, several individuals
had fortified their contact efforts with what looked like deliciously cool
Budwiser Beer. Not to be deterred by such obvious deviations from the CSETIÕs
proscribed methods, a group of about seven researchers trainees closed ranks
around Dr. Greer. We listened attentively to him and carefully followed his instructions
to the T. That humid night we were initiated into a guided meditation technique
called Coherent Thought Sequencing(CTS), and spent long intervals in silence
carrying out the thought projection method that has earned CSETI the
displeasure of both mainstream ufology and debunkers alike. We all took turns
at signaling into the sky with the half million candle power lanterns. The
CSETI Director had brought the lights from his hometown of Asheville North
Carolina .
The sky was overcast and by
2:45 a.m., even Steven Greer was ready to call it quits. Dripping with sweat
from the sauna like heat, I heard him remark that we should keep watching the
skies even as we are making preparations to break camp. He emphasized the need
for staying vigilant because
Òmajor eventsÓ he told us, can transpire just as a contact team is
dispersing. His remark was prophetic, not only for the event that was about to
take place, but was also predictive of a pattern of interactions which
contactee groups have observed all over the world. As unbelievable as it may
seem, it is the continuing experience of many groups, that strange events
unexpectedly occur just as a
contact team prepares to end field work. The timing of such closing
events is quite remarkable and appears to possibly represent a fond farewell or
ÒadiosÓ from the non-human intelligence responsible for the UFO phenomenon.
Now let us return to West
Palm Beach, that night of June 7th 1992. At approximately 2:50 AM it happened. As a group of us
were quietly carrying our folding chairs off the beach, a small, silent, pale
and blue-green light was seen moving rapidly across the sky. Traveling in a
westerly direction, it appeared directly overhead, flying in from the ocean.
The sighting lasted only about 4 seconds, but the pale light appeared to be
highly anomalous for the following reasons. A low cloud cover was present that
night and the objectÕs trajectory clearly ruled against its being a shooting
star. The unknown object flew at a very low altitude. In fact it appeared to be
only a hundred feet or less above our heads. Its apparent point of origin out
from over the sea, also was important to note. Since there were no ships
visible in our vicinity, the possibility of it being a tracer round fired from
a rifle seems quite remote. If it were a tracer bullet, it should have been
moving much faster. The UFO was totally silent with no associated
superstructure nor conventional aircraft lights. In addition it did not vary in
luminosity or color during the brief sighting. A group of about five or six of us all saw the same
unidentified blue light, and our descriptions of the object matched one
another. It was strange and definitely thrilling. In my excited state I even
fancied that the blue-green was
beautiful. I had seen my an anomalous nocturnal light, my first UFO!
Following that experience I
knew what I wanted to do. The next month after reading and re-reading the CSETI
literature that I had purchased at the workshop, I called the CSETI national
office. It turned out to be located in Dr. GreerÕs living room. His lovely wife Emily told me that they
were looking for a leader to coordinate the formation of a CSETI research team
in Southern California. I took a breath and audaciously replied, ÒYouÕre
looking for a Working Group Coordinator? Well I think youÕre talking to him.Ó
The following month on
August 29th 1993, Dr. GreerÕs workshop was held in Woodland Hills
California. With that workshop/demonstration we started our very own Close
Encounters of the Fifth Kind Initiative Los Angeles Working Group. I was named
as coordinator of this fledgling contact team and was designated the
responsible party for all of its operations.
Needless to say I had a
great deal to learn. I was not an experienced meditator. Thought projection while in a
meditative state is an essential component of the contact protocols. In medical
school I had heard about the beneficial effects of meditation in terms of
treating hypertension and reducing emotional stress; nevertheless I had never
dreamed of trying to follow a disciplined practice of daily meditation as
recommended by CSETI. My wife Yael
was far more interested in meditating than I was, and her enthusiasm propelled
me to sign the whole family up for a course in Transcendental Meditation. I remember
being somewhat disappointed after receiving only about 10 hours of instruction,
it seemed that our TM course ended far too abruptly. I felt that I needed more
training. In a candle lighting ceremony my TM instructor simply gave me my
mantra and that was it. I did not feel very well prepared to go out and
continue to meditate on my own. I said to Yael, ÒIs this all there is to TM
instruction?Ó Nevertheless I was determined to try to meditate. Soon after starting a daily meditation
practice, I noticed subtle changes taking place in our household.
My wife abruptly decided to
prepare only vegetarian food at home. I had always been an avid Òmeat and
potatoesÓ man and had never seriously given vegetarianism a momentÕs thought.
Now all of sudden I was going without the steaks and lamb chops that I once
believed I couldnÕt live without.
Strangely it didnÕt seem to bother me much. I was surprised to find that
I had lost most, if not all of my taste for being a carnivore. Other meditators
told me this was reaction to a daily practice was not uncommon.
My career as a CSETI
Working Group Coordinator was just getting started and I was engaged in a
seemingly never ending search for the perfect research site. The CSETI maxim
that the site should me both isolated and at the same time accessible was
clearly an impossible combination in Southern California. There were people,
homes and barking dogs seemingly everywhere. I had to exercise considerable caution in my search, as LA
nights are populated by a wide assortment of sociopaths. During those first
months of Working Group operations I did a great deal of hiking and checking
out wilderness real estate. That too was something new for me. The last pair of
hiking shoes I had purchased was when I was a medical student, some 20 years
prior. I bought a new pair of boots and was ready for action. Every weekend
during that Fall of 1992 I could be found climbing up steep desert hillsides
trying to find a safe and quiet place to position my team during our field
work.
In combination with my
vegetarian diet, all this vigorous
exercise caused me to lose almost 20 lbs. The middle age spare tire around my
abdomen melted away. The chronic low back pain that was plaguing me for years, suddenly
got much better. I was now more physically fit than I had been in years.
Participating in group meditation outdoors in nature facilitated some sorely
needed spiritual development as well. My growing acceptance of universal
consciousness as a possible link between human and extra-terrestrial intelligence,
reassured me that the visitors might not be so alien after all. The project
however, was not all heavy physical and mental exertion. Our team had time for
fun as well. In a comic frame of mind I fancied, based on my personal
transformation, that if CSETI ever wanted to recruit hoards of new members, it
might try to sell its contact program as a self improvement course. ÒYes you
too can lose weight and look better! Just follow CSETIÕs program of meditation,
vegetarianism and vectoring in Et spacecraft. You will loose 20 lbs., be more
attractive and feel healthier!Ó
My promotional campaign was
never taken seriously by CSETIÕs national leadership. This zany notion did
however add a lighter touch to my local recruiting efforts. After all in
Southern California everyone is obsessed with their looks. Here in Hollywood
its common knowledge that, ÒItÕs better to look good than to feel good. Ò This
foolishness aside, by the first week of September 1992, our research team was
ready to go out into the field to try and interact with what we believed was
Extra-terrestrial Intelligence.
END
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