Spirit-WWW: NewsGateway Article <news:alt.paranet.abduct.12665>


Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 13:05:58 -0800
From noahdove@lightspeed.bc.ca (Noah's Dove):
Newsgroups: alt.fan.art-bell, alt.paranet.ufo, alt.paranet.abduct,

Subject: REAL HELP FOR ABDUCTEES

All Follow-Up: Re: REAL HELP FOR ABDUCTEES

By Rita Elkins FLORIDA TODAY

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Imagine that alien abduction experiences and
demons are equally real.

Hey, we said it'd be tough. But you were halfway there watching the
recent movie, "Fire in the Sky," right? One more step and you're in the
strange and trendy world of UfOlogy theology, where extraterrestrials
could be even scarier than you think.

Odd as it sounds, the spiritual life of aliens is being taken seriously
in wide-ranging discussions among religious leaders. Magazine articles,
books and even evangelists are engaging in Bible-based speculations
about the nature and intention of entities that allegedly kidnap,
paralyze, physically abuse and sometimes sexually molest victims - many
of whom, more strangely still, come to believe the experience was
worthwhile.

Religious leaders are alarmed about a growing train of thought that
"wants us to reject traditional Judeo-Christian ideas about God" in
favor of benign "Space Brothers" who will save humanity from itself,
writes journalist William M. Alnor in his book, "UFOs in the New Age"
(Baker, Grand Rapids, Mich.). Alnor concludes this new belief is a
set-up for apocalyptic deceptions predicted in the Bible's Book of
Revelation.

He's not alone.

"The similarity between the abduction experience and demonic possession
is very, very close," says Joe Jordan of Cocoa, Brevard/Volusia state
director for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), a widely respected
clearinghouse for UFO-related research. "These (alien contact)
experiences these people are having are real. It does exist. But you
just need to understand what's doing it."

Jordan and his partner, Wes Clark, have begun a research group called
CE-4 (close encounters of the fourth kind, i.e. abductions), dedicated
to studying alleged alien abductions. Its 15 members also belong to
MUFON, but "nothing we do is necessarily sanctioned by them," says
Clark, a quality control engineer at Kennedy Space Center.

MUFON principals did not respond to inquiries about CE-4's unusual
hypothesis, summarized by Jordan: "This whole thing is spiritual
warfare. And the method the enemy's using is deception. Strong
deception."

In other words, entities really are abducting people against their
will. Only, they're not aliens from other planets. They're demons from
the pit of hell.

Stop in the name of ...

Joe Jordan is addressing a "New Millenium Symposium" in Titusville.
With his intense brown eyes and shoulder-length hair, he mingles easily
with New Age folks who paid $44 to study pyramids, Mayan dreamspells,
Lakota prophecies, and to hear Jordan's talk about "UFO Abductions."

Jordan, who works in product development and engineering for Sea Ray
Boats, speaks calmly, his voice firm, with good grammar and diction.
Kooks don't get to be state directors with science-oriented MUFON, for
whom he has chased lights for seven years.

Last year he focused on CE-4 research, and encountered a Central
Florida abductee whose otherwise-typical experience had one unique
aspect. "They had stopped the experience while it was happening. In all
the time I've been researching, I'd never heard that before."

Jordan punches buttons on a tape recorder. A nameless, 30-something man
with an intelligent-sounding voice, slightly Southern, tells his story.
Calmly, at first.

There were strange lights in a nearby woods at bedtime, barking dogs.
He is up and down a few times, yelling at the dogs while his wife
sleeps soundly. Then, lying down again ...

"I couldn't move ... gray fog. I couldn't see anything, but it was like
someone was there." He felt himself lifted off the bed. "I was
terrified, so helpless ... screaming inside, but I couldn't get it
out."

The voice is less calm now, but still certain, not hesitant.

"I thought I was having a satanic experience, that the devil had gotten
hold of me and had shoved a pole up my rectum and was holding me up in
the air ... so helpless. I couldn't do anything."

A non-religious person, he'd been to church with his wife a few times.

"I said, `Jesus, Jesus, help me,' or, `Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!' And when I
did, there was a feeling or a sound or something. That either my words
that I had thought, or the words that I had tried to say or whatever,
hurt whatever was holding me up in the air on this pole.

"And I felt like it was withdrawn, and I fell. I hit the bed, because
it was like I was thrown back in the bed. I really can't tell what it
was. But when I did, my wife woke up and asked why I was jumping on the
bed."

Yeah, but ...

Relentless anonymity is a given in abduction research. Nobody in their
right mind wants family, friends and co-workers to know they've had
their personal space violated against their will by strange-looking
creatures whose existence isn't even proven.

So they can't give names. But Jordan and Clark swear they have three
verifiable cases in which apparent abduction experiences were halted by
believers who called on the name of Jesus. And Jordan says as many as
400 cases may be documentable nationwide.

"It makes you wonder: If these beings are extra-terrestrial at all, why
would they respond to that name?" Jordan asks. "We think we found the
answer in the Bible, in Mark 16:17 where Jesus said, `In my name, they
shall cast out demons.' That seems to be exactly what we came across."

Three major researchers told Jordan, off the record, that they had
similar cases. But "they were afraid for their credibility," he says.
"They felt they already had put their credentials out far enough
dealing with extra-terrestrials."

Other "so-called researchers (are) sitting on this information," Jordan
says. "There's something wrong there. They're just as bad as the people
they say have conspiracies in other ways."

Why would anyone suppress such research findings? Jordan, who became a
Christian last year, says most UFOlogists share his former New Age
beliefs, which dismiss Christianity and Judaism. "These people go from
one thing to another looking for development of a higher
consciousness," he says. Anyplace but in traditional religion.

Stranger still

An estimated 40 percent of Americans say they believe aliens have
visited Earth. More than a million people worldwide claim CE-4
experiences. Still, mainstream Christianity mostly sidestepped the
issue - until March's mass suicide at Heaven's Gate showed just how
misleading some alien link-thinking could be.

Suddenly, the religious press is full of articles about UFOs.

The May cover story in Central Florida's "Discovery Christian"
newspaper focused on UFOlogy theology, interviewing Berkeley-trained
scientist and Christian author John Weldon. That was reprinted from
Rutherford Institute's nationally-distributed October newsletter.

Even Jewish believers are connecting UFO experiences with the Torah, or
Jewish Bible. "Many serious people who have been studying UFOs around
the world have reached the consensus that the Bible is a convincing UFO
story," said journalist Barry Charnish, quoted in a chapter titled
"UFOs in the Holy Land" from "Sightings: UFOs", by television writer
Susan Michaels (Simon & Schuster, New York, due out in September).

July's Charisma magazine, a 200,000-plus circulation monthly, featured
Christian evangelist and author Paul McGuire's article, "Alien
Invaders." McGuire cites the evolution of popular New Age author
Whitley Streiber's interests - from his first alien contacts in
"Communion", "Transformation" and "Breakthrough" to his latest titles,
"The Secret School: Preparations for Contact" and "Evenings with
Demons" - as an example of a progressive deception.

Indeed, Streiber fans often comment - albeit positively - on their
favorite author's change. From experiencing his first alien encounters
as terrifying and torturous, he began to seek them out and welcome
them, finally advocating them as a religious experience.

That, say religious leaders, indicates a deceptive entity is at work.

"Both the seemingly benign and the hostile entities ... will play an
increasing role in preparing a segment of humanity for the reception of
the Antichrist," writes bestselling author David Allen Lewis and Robert
Shreckhise in "UFO End-Time Delusion."

And the cover of "The Agenda, The Real Reason They're Here" gives this
premise: "In the near future, God will evacuate millions of people from
the horrors to follow. Aliens will take the credit" for the Rapture
(when Christians will be supernaturally airlifted to heaven), writes B.
Fox, a MUFON researcher who resides in-of all places-Roswell, New
Mexico.

Back in Titusville at the CE-4 office in Wes Clark's home, Joe Jordan
and Clark continue to study, research and solicit abductees through the
Internet and with classified ads in MUFON's UFO Journal.

"The one thing we can offer people in this field, that nobody else
elsewhere is offering, is hope. Hope that they can stop this
experience," Jordan says.

"We're still researchers. It's not conclusive. But this is what we have
so far."

To contact CE-4 Research Group, call 631-4393 or e-mail wclark59@bv.net


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