by Richard Seifried
Signal Hill Musings
December, 2009
Despite my limited intelligence, for the past decade, at least, I have theorized that time is something that we and nature use to maintain order in our universe. The late J. Allen Hynek, the eminent professor of astronomy, told me that he believed that UFOs came from another dimension. I found that hard to accept. However, some sightings, at least, seem to substantiate his premise. In July of 1977, I climbed up Steens Mountain in southeastern Oregon to interview the lady lookout, Elvira Ballard. She had, during her many hours of duty, personally observed five UFOs from her national forest lookout, a wooden structure sitting on the rocky mountaintop.
One day she was scanning the slopes just below the Continental Divide. Suddenly, there appeared a squiggly, clear area between Elvira and the divide, something like heat rising from hot asphalt. The “thing” wiggled, developed brownish spots, then became a solid, metallic looking UFO and shot away to the south.
Other observers have reported the same phenomenon.
Where do they materialize from? Another dimension? What were they? What did Elvira really see?
Four decades ago, while I was on a summer ranger assignment in Mt. Rainier National Park, Jean received a call from a gentleman who lived out in the western part of Oklahoma. For a long time, Jean was Oklahoma State Director for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). An Oklahoma City television station was going to fly her out to the site but their insurance wouldn’t permit it. So, Jean and a friend drove the long distance. By the time they arrived, Jean was suffering from heat prostration. Nevertheless, she completed measurements and conducted many interviews.
What she found were crop circles, a phenomena that gets a lot of attention in the UFO world, both good and bad. There was a lot of conjecture about what had caused the empty circles. Some experts sloughed it off as being the result of pooling rainfall – though they failed to notice that the circles were on high ground.
Months later, after I returned from my summer work, Jean took me out to the site. There were three large circles still almost completely devoid of vegetation. Obviously, water damage was not the cause. What impressed me was that originally the cattle had created a straight path from pastures (through these circles) to a nearby watering trough. Their trail now ran on an almost straight line until it came to the southeastern corner of a large circle. Then, abruptly, the new cattle trail turned to the right and then proceeded along the outer edge of the circle until it reached a point that led straight to the watering trough.
Obviously, without exception, for several months the cattle had avoided taking a single step into the circle.
Why was that? What had caused the perfect circles? We never found out.
During the late 1950s, I was deeply involved in wild cave exploring. One long weekend found four or five of us in an extremely large cave in Tennessee. On that trip we established our base camp in a low-ceilinged room that measured approximately the same size as a football field. We spent three days and four nights in the camp, sleeping and eating when we weren’t exploring.
A spelunking (and spunky) Richard is just barely visible upper left
The last evening (I think it was nighttime) we were there, I sat at the west edge of the room (we had compasses to assist us). Below me, far beyond the light rays of our carbide lamps and five cell flashlights was a deep, deep canyon that ran parallel to our room.
As I sat there by myself, rising up from the abyss came the distinct sounds of voices. Men’s voices. Women speaking in spirited conversations. I was unable to determine what the mysterious voices were saying. Fascinated, I listened, telling myself that no one was down there. And yet, someone – or something – was down there.
I never mentioned the voices to my friends.
Was I hallucinating due to ninety-two hours of existing in the aesthetic environment of the underground world?
All I knew, sitting there, looking down into the void, was that whatever was causing the voices must be some sort of dimensional crossover. Or ghosts. Or some other unknown phenomena.
There have been other peculiar, unexplainable experiences that have occurred during my life.
Now, once again, after ten years of silence, knockings on our walls have begun.
Always three knocks. Always before sleep or just after awakening. But, I am definitely awake!
The first time I heard them, this past autumn here on Signal Hill, the noise emanated from a distant wall. “Knock! Knock! Knock!” – rapid sounds coming from somewhere within our home.
The second time I heard the noises they came from above our bed’s headboard.
A third set, strong knocks, seemed to come from the living room wall, near the fireplace.
As of October 21, one more series of hard, not-so-very loud knocks occurred just as I was about to go to sleep.
Jean hears them too. When we lived in Norman, Oklahoma, they were very loud and frequent.
What causes these? Spirits? Energy? Why do they happen at bedtime, yet while we are still awake?
There is so much that we don’t understand about our little world. Yet try as we might. we can’t find definitive answers to all of our questions.
All I can definitively say about these experiences is “What was that?”
