Communion

«This is the story of one man's attempt to deal with a shattering assault from the unknown.» — apertura del Prelude.

«It is a true story, as true as I know how to describe it.» — declara el estatuto del relato, y lo acota a lo que sabe describir.

«To all appearances I have had an elaborate personal encounter with intelligent nonhuman beings.» — la reserva *to all appearances* es del propio autor.

«This book is about forming a new relationship with the unknown.» — portadilla, firmada WHITLEY STRIEBER.

«Seeming encounters with nonhuman beings are not new; they have a history dating back thousands of years.» — afirma continuidad histórica del encuentro.

«It seems to me that it seeks the very depth of the soul; it seeks communion.» — cierre del Prelude: la glosa fundacional del título.

«Communion is as wide as all the knowledge of both partners, as deep as their whole souls.» — definición operativa en el capítulo final.

«To participate truly in this experience, we must marry the unknown.» — el registro es nupcial, no sacramental.

«Out of communion there emerges transformation.» — enlaza el título con la transformación.

«I am not a candidate for conversion to any new religion that involves belief in benevolent space brothers» — rechaza la conversión.

«If we are dealing with a new system of beliefs on its way to becoming fixed into religious dogma» — En la misma página describe el fenómeno como matriz de una religión en formación.

«True agnosticism is a very active mental state, a sort of eager unknowing.» — nombra así el estado que reclama para quien pasó por la experiencia.

«I do not have it in me to be a believer. Nor can I be a true skeptic» — declara no decidirse ni por la creencia ni por el escepticismo.

Lista seis marcos posibles y no elige entre ellos: otro planeta, la propia Tierra, otra dimensión, viaje en el tiempo, el interior de nosotros, un efecto natural.

«Perhaps the visitors are the gods. Maybe they created us.» — lo plantea como pregunta, no como tesis.

«In our universe, their reality may depend on our belief. Thus the corridor into our world could in a very true sense be through our own minds.» — declara no excluyentes la lectura externa y la mental.

«Maybe I have located these symbols in the visitor material simply because they are so central to my own life.» — la reserva con que él mismo presenta todo su material simbólico.

«My historical survey has found that the core experience of seeing flying disks and small figures goes back a long, long time.» — es lo que afirma sin reserva.

«I loved Christ and Mary especially, and used to pray with great fervor whenever I was trapped into going to church.» — consigna su formación católica de infancia.

«I had been reading some sermons of the thirteenth-century mystical philosopher Meister Eckhart» — Añade que ese estudio hubo de abandonarse.

«Transformation for a Zen monk, a Moslem sufi, a Catholic, or a Jehovah's Witness is the same: It is a matter of delivering one's self into the possession of God.» — iguala las vías de transformación por su término.

«I spent fifteen years involved with the Gurdjieff Foundation» — Adjudica a Gurdjieff y a Ouspensky la tríada como clave de lectura.

«the Hindu sages have given the wonderful name maya, which P. D. Ouspensky in his more utilitarian interpretation described simply as» — «identification», en la lectura que atribuye a Ouspensky.

«The triangle was the symbol of the ancient Triune goddess» — Lo enlaza con la Trinidad cristiana.

«The central effort of my life has been the fulfillment of the triad, the creation of the eagle within me.» — declara la tríada como su propio programa, no como enseñanza recibida.

«I suggest that the Major Arcana reveal a hidden symbolic coherence of great purity that has more to do with order than chance» — lee el tarot como orden simbólico y no como adivinación.

«the feminine is viewed as a cup, the masculine as what is poured into it» — lo adjudica a la imaginería del tarot y al relato evangélico de Caná; la frase arranca al pie de la p. 225 y cierra en la 226.

«To understand the riddle of the Sphinx is to know how to begin one's walk along the ancient way» — de ahí pasa al «pathless path».

«The flying Sphinx is a triad rendered in yet a fourth dimension of reality: a triangular solid, a pyramid, known in esoteric thought as the living eternal.» — única página donde la obra usa la palabra *esoteric*.

«Three Ways was one name of the Roman goddess Hecate» — con las ofrendas en la encrucijada.

«Trefuilngid is known as the Triple Bearer of the Triple Key, which is the same appellation given Shiva, Astarte, and Ishtar, three ancient manifestations of the Triune Goddess.» — equipara las tres bajo la Diosa Triple.

«Babylonian scriptures call Ishtar the Light of the World, Opener of the Womb, Leader of Armies, Lawgiver, Forgiver of Sins.» — la serie de títulos, tal como la da la obra.

«The Latin word for owl is strix» — Adjudica a la lechuza la sabiduría de Ishtar, la «Eve-Goddess» mesopotámica.

«I wondered if there was any relationship between my experience and the mystic walk of the shaman, or the night ride of the witch.» — plantea el paralelo como pregunta.

«there are the kobolds, dwarfs who stalked the mines of medieval Germany and gave their name to the mineral cobalt» — abre el capítulo histórico por los enanos de las minas.

«the parishioners of the Church of St. Kinarius heard a noise on the roof» — el episodio de Cloera, Irlanda, y el ancla en el alero.

«As counterpropaganda, the sylphs kidnapped people and took them to their airy abode» — bajo Carlomagno y Luis el Piadoso, y a los devueltos se los quemó.

«the Milanese mathematician Jerome Cardan found himself involved in a visitor encounter» — lo data en 1491 y añade que la doctrina allí referida es «an eleventh-century Arabic idea».

«mankind has had a sexual relationship with the fairies, the sylphs, the incubi, the succubi, and the denizens of the night from the very beginning of time.» — pone el encuentro en serie con el hada y el íncubo.

«In a treatise called On Little Demons, Incubi and Succubi, written by Father Ludovicus Maria Sinistrari de Ameno» — lo cita como fuente documental del argumento histórico.

«in the Malleus Maleficarum, the notorious treatise against witches, demons are said to speak in reedy voices» — lo coteja con el sonido agudo que relata haber oído.

«The first debunker was probably the Bishop Adelbard of Lyons, who in the time of Charlemagne saved from an enraged crowd three men and a woman» — grafía del nombre tal cual: ver Notas de carga.

«Maybe there really is another species living upon this earth, the fairies, the gnomes, the sylphs, vampires, goblins.» — lo enuncia como posibilidad, sin declarar identidad.

«this is the first time that man has simply refused to respond to the ghosts and the gods» — adjudica a la época, no al fenómeno, la novedad.

«The Celtic tradition held that the veil between the worlds of man and spirit could grow thin at certain seasons of the year.» — Pregunta si habrá estaciones de eras.

«science debunks that, just as the clergy debunked the fairies in centuries past, and for the same reason» — equipara las dos desestimaciones.

«it will be the same thread that the maiden Ariadne handed to Theseus when he stood before the maze of the Minotaur» — cierre del libro.

«none of these people would allow his or her name to be used» — declaración metodológica: los nombres del coloquio de abril de 1986 son seudónimos, salvo el suyo y el de Budd Hopkins.

«When you read this incredible story, do not be too skeptical; somewhere in your own past there may be some lost hour or strange recollection that means that you also have had this experience.» — en la portadilla que firma, le pide al lector que busque en su propia memoria una hora perdida antes de descartar el relato.

«Instead of shunning the darkness, we can face straight into it with an open mind» — propone el trato con lo desconocido como cambio de actitud del que mira, y añade que al hacerlo lo desconocido mismo cambia.

«Fearful things become understandable and a truth is suggested; the enigmatic presence of the human mind winks back from the dark.» — el resultado que promete de esa actitud no es identificar al visitante sino reconocer en la oscuridad la presencia de la propia mente.

«To the ones who have slipped into the mirror And the ones who reflect it in their eyes To the ones who must hide everything, And the ones who lose what they hide. To the ones who cannot be silent, And the ones who must lie.» — dedicatoria en verso: dedica el libro a quienes quedan atrapados entre el deber de callar y la imposibilidad de hacerlo.

«To the scientific community, the nature of this phenomenon remains an unresolved question.» — cierra los agradecimientos dejando el fenómeno sin resolver también para quienes lo asesoraron.

«At first, I thought I was losing my mind. But I was interviewed by three psychologists and three psychiatrists, given a battery of psychological tests and- a neurological examination, and found to fall within the normal range in all respects.» — opone al diagnóstico de locura un peritaje que enumera; el guion suelto tras *tests* es de la capa de texto del PDF.

«I was also given a polygraph by an operator with thirty years' experience and I passed without qualification.» — añade el polígrafo a la lista de pruebas, con la experiencia del operador como aval.

«I had been indifferent to the whole issue of unidentified flying objects and extraterrestrials; I had viewed them as a false unknown, easily explainable as misperceptions or hallucinations.» — declara de qué posición venía: la del escéptico que daba el asunto por falso desconocido.

«Either what is happening is that visitors are actually here, or the u man mind is creating something that, incredibly, is close to a physical reality.» — plantea la disyuntiva entera del libro y no la resuelve; *the u man mind* es corrupción de la capa de texto por *the human mind*.

«Whatever it is, it is not presently understood by science.» — la única conclusión que da por firme sobre la naturaleza del fenómeno.

«What is new, in this latter part of the twentieth century, is that the encounters have taken on an intensity never before experienced by humankind.» — la novedad que reclama para su siglo es de intensidad, no de existencia.

«It has been falsely claimed that their memories are a side effect of hypnosis. This is not true.» — rechaza el argumento de que la hipnosis fabrique los recuerdos de los testigos.

«Most of them started with memories and undertook hypnosis to attempt greater recall.» — la razón que da: el recuerdo precede a la sesión y la hipnosis solo se busca después.

«Scoffing at them is as ugly as laughing at rape victims.» — compara la burla pública a los testigos con la burla a las víctimas de violación.

«At least from a behavioral point of view, however. this can no longer be considered a false unknown.» — acota su reclamo al plano de la conducta observable de los testigos, no al de la existencia de los visitantes; el punto tras *however* es corrupción de la capa de texto.

«The goal does not seem to be the sort of clear and open exchange that we might expect.» — lo que atribuye a los visitantes no es un propósito de comunicación informativa.

«This part of my narrative, covering December 26, is derived from journal material I had written before undergoing any hypnosis or even discussing my situation with anybody.» — declara la procedencia del relato del 26 de diciembre: diario escrito antes de la primera hipnosis y antes de hablarlo con nadie.

«Ours is a very sedate life. We don't go out much, we rarely drink more than wine, and neither of us has ever used drugs.» — descarta de antemano la explicación por sustancias describiendo su vida doméstica.

«I have never seen an unidentified flying object. I thought that the whole subject had been explained by science.» — sitúa su punto de partida fuera del interés ufológico.

«In the middle of the night of December 26-I do not know the exact time-I abruptly found myself awake.» — arranque del episodio que da origen al libro, con la hora declarada como desconocida.

«The system was armed and working perfectly. Not a covered window or door was opened, and nobody had entered-at least according to the row of glowing lights.» — pone la alarma antirrobo como testigo mecánico y acota su valor con un *at least*.

«If something is strange enough, the reaction is very different from what one would think.» — formula como regla general lo que le pasó esa noche: ante lo bastante extraño, la reacción no es la esperada.

«The mind seems to tune it out as if by some sort of instinct.» — nombra el mecanismo que propone: la mente sintoniza fuera lo extraordinario, y el verbo va con *seems*.

«I was not asleep, nor in a hypnopompic state between sleep and waking.» — descarta la explicación por estado intermedio de sueño para ese momento.

«I wish to be clear that I felt, at that moment, wide awake and in full possession of all my faculties.» — la afirmación de vigilia va marcada como lo que sintió, no como hecho probado.

«I could see perhaps a third of the figure, the part that was bending around the door so that it could see me.» — describe la primera aparición como visión parcial, asomada al filo de la puerta.

«My mind explained my vision to me: Despite my full wakefulness, it must be a hypnopompic hallucination.» — consigna la explicación que él mismo se dio esa noche, atribuyéndola a la mente y no suscribiéndola.

«Months and months later, I discovered that another person who has had the visitor experience first encountered it through the medium of this same peculiar figure rushing toward her» — sostiene que la misma figura inicial aparece en el relato de otra persona.

«The burglar-alarm panel alone emitted enough light for me to see.» — funda en el panel de la alarma la condición de visibilidad de lo que dice haber visto.

«I was quite shocked, but what I was seeing was so strange I had to assume that it was a dream.» — la rareza misma, dice, lo obligó a clasificar la escena como sueño.

«Such phenomena sometimes occur as one drifts between waking and sleep.» — glosa el término hipnopómpico y luego lo descarta para su caso por estar despierto.

«Subsequently the light never worked right, although it was in good order earlier that very evening.» — consigna un efecto material persistente, la lámpara averiada, como resto del episodio.

«I could feel myself as a shape and a mass. but not in terms of sensation.» — describe el estado en que dice haber flotado como percepción de masa sin sensación corporal.

«I could not move my head, or my hands, or any part of my body save for my eyes. Despite this, I was not tied.» — la parálisis que relata no tenía sujeción física, solo los ojos se movían.

«I do not know why, but I had the distinct feeling that this was a woman, and so I shall refer to her in the feminine.» — declara arbitrario el género con que nombrará a la figura y anuncia la convención.

«This was not a theoretical or even a mental experience. but something profoundly physical.» — rechaza para ese momento la lectura mental del episodio; el punto tras *experience* es de la capa de texto.

«I do not think that my ordinary humanity survived the transition to this little room. I died, and a wild animal appeared in my place. Not everything was gone, though.» — describe el terror de la cámara circular como aniquilación de la persona, y él mismo pone el límite con *though*.

«What remained, although small, nevertheless was occupied with an essential task of verification.» — lo que dice haber conservado bajo el terror es la función de verificar lo que veía.

«There is no way to be certain of how long I remained in this room.» — declara indeterminada la duración del episodio en la cámara.

«There is one drug, tetradotoxin, which could approximate such a state.» — ofrece una explicación farmacológica de su propio estado, en condicional.

«In small doses it causes external anesthesia.» — primer efecto de la lista con que sostiene la hipótesis de la droga.

«Larger doses bring about the "out of the body" sensation occasionally reported by victims of visitor abduction.» — enlaza la sensación extracorporal de los relatos de abducción con un efecto farmacológico conocido.

«This rare drug is the core of the zombie poison of Haiti, and little is known about why it works» — la misma hipótesis viene con su límite: del mecanismo se sabe poco.

«One of them, I think it was the one I had identified earlier as the woman, said, "What can we do to help you stop screaming?"» — atribuye a los seres una pregunta articulada, con la reserva de no estar seguro de cuál la dijo.

«The odor was distinct, and gave me exactly what I needed, an anchor in reality.» — el olor funciona en su relato como prueba sensorial de que no estaba soñando.

«It was not a human smell, but it was unmistakably the smell of something alive.» — describe el olor por lo que niega y por lo que afirma: no humano, pero de algo vivo.

«It did not seem in any way a dream experience or a hallucination.» — el verbo va con *seem*: es cómo se le presentó, no un dictamen.

«I was aware that I had seen four different types of figures.» — clasifica en cuatro tipos a los seres que dice haber visto.

«They were apparently responsible for moving and controlling me, and I had the distinct impression that they were a sort of "good army." Why good I» — nombra *good army* a los corpulentos de overol azul y se interrumpe preguntándose por qué los llama buenos.

«My memories of movement from place to place are the hardest to recall because it was then that I felt the most helpless.» — correlaciona la calidad del recuerdo con el grado de impotencia sentida.

«It seemed to swarm into me as if it had a life of its own.» — describe así el objeto que dice que le introdujeron en el recto.

«Only when the thing was withdrawn did I see that it was a mechanical device.» — corrige su primera impresión: lo que parecía vivo resultó aparato.

«One of them took my right hand and made an incision on my forefinger.» — la incisión en el índice, que días después relaciona con una infección que no cura.

«I awoke the morning of the twenty-seventh very much as usual, but grappling with a distinct sense of unease and a very improbable but intense memory of seeing a barn owl staring at me through the window sometime during the night.» — el recuerdo del búho, que él mismo califica de improbable e intenso a la vez.

«She was polite, but commented about the absence of tracks.» — su esposa opone al recuerdo del búho la ausencia de huellas en la nieve.

«Later I discovered that memories of animals in strange places are a common block to this experience.» — generaliza el recuerdo de animales como bloqueo recurrente en estos relatos.

«I did not know that the owl and the light were screen memories that concealed a traumatic experience.» — reinterpreta el búho y la luz como pantalla de otro recuerdo.

«As described by Freud, the screen memory is a method that the mind uses to shield itself from things too upsetting to recall.» — toma de Freud el concepto con que ordena esos recuerdos falsos.

«I started to worry about toxins in our food or water, but as nobody else in the family was affected, and we hadn't tried any food that might have caused some bizarre allergy, that seemed unlikely.» — descarta la vía tóxica por el argumento de que nadie más en la casa enfermó.

«At the time I had no idea that I was suffering from emotional trauma, or that dozens of other people had been through very similar ordeals after being taken by the visitors.» — sitúa su caso dentro de una serie que entonces desconocía.

«Since I wrote "Pain" as an expression of the emotional state that overlay the memories I was then suppressing, I will recount it briefly.» — presenta su propio cuento como síntoma del material que estaba reprimiendo.

«The visitors could be seen as the Wolfen, as Miriam Blaylock in The Hunger, and as the fairy queen Leannan and her soldiers in Catmagic.» — reconoce a los visitantes en las criaturas de sus propias novelas de terror, en condicional.

«Mankind must face a harsh but enigmatically beautiful force that, as Miriam Blaylock describes herself, is "part of the justice of the world."» — el tema común que se atribuye a sí mismo, dicho con la frase de un personaje suyo.

«I had a vague feeling that something distressful had happened to me, but no clear memory.» — el estado que describe antes de que los recuerdos se enfocaran: malestar sin contenido.

«An attempt to read Gerald's Party by Robert Coover left me profoundly confused.» — mide su deterioro por lo que dejó de poder leer.

«I could no longer follow my own thinking, let alone that of the authors who interested me. It was a fearful, haunting discovery.» — el síntoma que más lo asusta es la pérdida del propio hilo de pensamiento.

«I believe that the combination of the infected finger, the rectal pain, and the aching head were what finally brought my memories into focus.» — atribuye a los tres síntomas físicos, y no a la hipnosis, el desbloqueo del recuerdo.

«For half of my life I have been engaged in a rigorous and detailed search for a finer state of consciousness. Now I thought my mind was turning against me, that my years of eager study of everything from Zen to quantum physics had led me into some strange and tragic byway of the soul.» — declara de dónde viene —búsqueda de un estado más fino de conciencia, del zen a la física cuántica— y el temor de que ese camino lo hubiera extraviado.

«I did not remember the conversation, but the article caused me to glance over a hook my brother had sent me for Christmas called Science and the UFOs by Jenny Randles and the astronomer Peter Warrington.» — cómo dice haber llegado al libro que le abrió el asunto; *hook* por *book* es de la capa de texto.

«As a matter of fact, it does not make any claims about the reality of the phenomenon, but simply calls for more study and appeals to the scientific community to begin to accept it as a legitimate area of inquiry.» — describe así el libro de Randles y Warrington: no afirma la realidad del fenómeno, pide estudio.

«I was surprised to find that Science and the UFOs frightened me.» — el miedo ante ese libro es el dato que consigna, antes de tener ninguna explicación.

«The headline called the appearance a hoax but according to the story local people who had witnessed the event doubted that.» — opone el titular de prensa al testimonio de los vecinos que vieron el objeto.

«If all these objects were the results of pranks, then the pranksters would have been operating for more than thirty years-and even in the early fifties they would have had superb mufflers, considering that the object seen then made no more sound than the ones seen today.» — rechaza la hipótesis de la broma por el silencio de los objetos y por la duración de la serie.

«The official explanation, detailed in Discover magazine in November 1984, was that the sightings were created by a group of pilots flying light aircraft.» — consigna la explicación oficial de la oleada del valle del Hudson antes de discutirla.

«A pilot told me that this was all highly unlikely, that such formation flying would not be possible e even with much heavier aircraft. Pranksters and even secret aircraft may be part of the answer to the enigma, but they are not the whole answer.» — opone el juicio de un piloto y admite a la vez que bromistas y aeronaves secretas expliquen parte.

«An article appeared in the April 17, 1983, issue of The New York Times quoting a professional meteorologist who observed a silent object a thousand yards in diameter hovering a hundred feet above him. He is quoted by the Times as saying that he had the sensation of "being scanned and rejected."» — apoya el caso en un testigo con oficio técnico y en la cita del diario, no en su propia experiencia.

«I do not think that a professional meteorologist would mistake an object nearly a mile wide for a flight of airplanes, not at an altitude of a hundred feet.» — rechaza la explicación por confusión apelando a la competencia del testigo.

«Neither the official story nor Mr. Klass's offering explains the hundreds of closeup sighting reports collected by local science teacher Phillip J. Imbrogno» — mide las explicaciones escépticas contra el volumen de informes reunidos por Imbrogno.

«I was astonished to read a description of an experience similar to my own.» — el reconocimiento en la literatura ajena es lo que dice haberlo llevado a Hopkins.

«My blood went cold: Nobody must ever, ever know about this, not even Anne.» — consigna el impulso de silencio con que reaccionó, ocultárselo incluso a su esposa.

«The moment our interview began, Hopkins explained that he was not a therapist but he could put me in touch with one if I wanted that.» — deja asentado el límite que el propio Hopkins puso a su papel.

«He'd said that judging from his experience, the October events may have been caused by the same agency that was responsible for the disturbance of December 26.» — atribuye a Hopkins la conjetura de una misma agencia detrás de octubre y diciembre, en potencial.

«The answer is straightforward: I had tucked the whole episode into the catalog of open questions and forgotten it.» — explica así su propia amnesia sobre el episodio de octubre.

«We often deal with fear by rejection — and to this case, as will soon be evident, there was more than enough reason to be terrified.» — propone el rechazo como manejo ordinario del miedo, con la enmienda *to this case* de la capa de texto por *in this case*.

«I was startled awake and saw, to my horror, that there was a distinct blue light being cast on the living-room ceiling.» — el fenómeno luminoso de la noche del 4 de octubre, tal como dice haberlo visto.

«It could not have been a flashlight, because it was so uniform and so broad, and so distinctly blue.» — descarta la linterna por las propiedades de la luz: uniforme, ancha, azul.

«Finally I hit on what seemed to me a sensible solution: The chimney must be on fire and dropping sparks into the front yard.» — consigna la explicación natural con que se tranquilizó esa noche, marcándola como la que entonces le pareció sensata.

«crystal standing on end above the house, a glorious thing .hundreds of feet tall, glowing with unearthly blue light.» — el recuerdo del cristal azul sobre la casa; el punto suelto ante *hundreds* es de la capa de texto.

«I told Anne about it, and as I was talking I experienced a hollow sort of a feeling I knew that she didn't believe me — of course she didn't! And I didn't believe myself. "Wasn't there some problem with the stove?" she asked. I was embarrassed and never mentioned the crystal again. I put it out of my mind permanently.» — cuenta la incredulidad de su esposa y la suya propia como causa de haber enterrado el recuerdo.

«I was disturbed that Anne at once remembered being awakened by the bang. She did not see the glow, but my initial warning about the fire apparently didn't penetrate her sleep, because all she did recall was my saying that there was no fire.» — el testimonio de Anne coincide en el estallido y no en el resplandor, y él consigna la diferencia.

«"Yeah. The night of the bang." So he had also heard it. "A bunch of people told me it was OK; you just threw your shoe at a fly."» — respuesta de su hijo al preguntarle por esa noche, que él transcribe sin interpretarla todavía.

«called Budd Hopkins, who suggested that I ask my son not about memories but about dreams.» — atribuye a Hopkins el cambio de pregunta que abrió el relato del niño.

«"I dreamed that a bunch of little doctors took me out on the porch and put me on a cot. I got scared and they started saying 'We won't hurt you' over and over in my head.» — el sueño que su hijo le contó, transcrito como respuesta espontánea e inmediata.

«His words swept away all my hopes of solving this problem in anything remotely resembling a conventional manner.» — el relato del hijo es lo que dice haberle cerrado la salida convencional.

«I have done every conceivable thing to try to duplicate light like that.» — declara haber intentado reproducir el fenómeno por medios ordinarios.

«Nothing I can conceive of can account for the major light phenomena on that night.» — el resultado que declara de esos intentos, acotado a lo que él puede concebir.

«Whatever caused the effect, it was a highly unusual phenomenon and it is unlikely that it can be identified.» — cierra el examen de las explicaciones naturales sin adjudicar causa.

«They had, and have, no reason whatsoever to lie and they are most unlikely to be so radically confused by normal realities that they would derive from them memories such as they report.» — el criterio con que valida a sus testigos: ni motivo de mentir ni margen de confusión.

«And so far there is no way at all to account for Annie Gottlieb's testimony.» — deja el testimonio de Gottlieb como resto no explicado.

«I realized, finally and inescapably, that something very peculiar was going on.» — el punto al que dice haber llegado tras agotar las explicaciones ordinarias.

«I had become extremely fearful about living in the New York area and decided to move.» — consigna el efecto práctico del miedo: la decisión de mudarse.

«She really thought that she might have to leave me, because life together was just getting intolerable.» — el costo conyugal del episodio, dicho por él en nombre de su esposa.

«Even after talking to Hopkins, I was by no means willing to ascribe my experiences to the UFO phenomenon.» — mantiene separada su experiencia del marco ufológico aun después de Hopkins.

«I wanted to be quite clear: I had no idea what had gone on that night.» — la abstención declarada al cerrar el primer capítulo.

«When I looked at the dark canyon that stretched out into the shadows, and the stars in the evening sky, I felt suddenly and absolutely afraid. It was exactly as if the sky were a living thing, and it was watching me.» — el miedo que describe en Texas viene con su comparación, marcada con *as if*.

«In the past, as I have said, my interest in the subject was minimal. I have certainly read a book or two about them.» — mide su propia familiaridad previa con los ovnis en un libro o dos.

«Pressing myself I thought maybe I could remember seeing something years ago in Look magazine about somebody named Hill being taken aboard a flying disk.» — el único antecedente ufológico que dice recordar, y lo da como recuerdo forzado y dudoso.

«(In July 1986 I got copies of the issues involved — October 4 and 18, 1966-and I do not think that I actually read them at the time. I must have seen something about the story, though, because I remember it. Maybe there was a report in the newspaper.)» — corrige entre paréntesis su propio recuerdo tras cotejar los ejemplares, sin resolverlo.

«There did seem to be a lot of confusion, though, and perhaps even an emotional response on my part greatly out of proportion to what seemed a minor disturbance.» — admite que su reacción fue desproporcionada respecto de lo que entonces le parecía una perturbación menor.

«It could not be somebody who believed anything in particular about visitors or the disk phenomenon. The ideal therapist would have an open mind: I could have a mental problem. It might or might not have components unknown to science. Or it could be just what it seemed.» — el criterio con que dice haber elegido terapeuta: ninguna creencia previa, y las tres hipótesis abiertas a la vez.

«It is a flat-out myth that people can't lie under hypnosis.» — desmonta el argumento de autoridad que suele darse a favor de las regresiones.

«I'd read in Science News of a study that suggested that anybody under hypnosis can be induced to remember a "UFO abduction and experience," complete with little men and all the trimmings.» — recoge el estudio que amenazaba su propio método antes de contestarlo.

«When I got a more careful look at the study I had read about in Science News, I found that the questions asked were intentionally leading ones, specifically designed to evoke abduction memories.» — su respuesta al estudio: la sugestión estaba en las preguntas, no en la hipnosis.

«And I was very much hoping that the process would dispel the whole notion of the visitors and prove that — despite appearances — the experience had been a complicated series of misperceptions.» — declara qué resultado esperaba de la hipnosis, y era el contrario al que obtuvo.

«While Don Klein certainly didn't ask provocative questions, there is always the possibility that I was unconsciously eager to comply with an outcome that I might secretly have longed for.» — deja abierta contra sí mismo la hipótesis del autoengaño motivado.

«Maybe the idea of visitors coming along and saving our necks was more appealing to me than I might consciously have wished to admit.» — nombra el deseo que podría haber fabricado el material: visitantes salvadores ante el futuro que teme.

«I did not believe in UFOs at all before this happened.» — la posición previa que declara, junto a su negativa a convertirse a ninguna creencia nueva.

«The hypnosis used on me was not qualitatively different from that used on police witnesses. And the same caveats that apply to police cases apply to this case — those and no others.» — reclama para su material el mismo estatuto probatorio que el testimonio hipnótico en sede policial, ni más ni menos.

«It should be remembered, though, that — even given my earnest effort — I am describing what I perceived, which may or may not have been what was actually there.» — la reserva con que entrega todo el material de las sesiones: describe percepción, no hechos.

«We really do not have enough experience with our reaction to extreme strangeness to know how we alter such memories.» — el límite que pone al valor de cualquier recuerdo de este tipo, incluidos los suyos.

«I found, though, that I trusted Don Klein when he told me that even under hypnosis people cannot be readily compelled to say things they do not want to say.» — la garantía que aceptó, atribuida a Klein y marcada como confianza personal.

«I was afraid of relinquishing control over myself, which seemed deeply disturbing.» — consigna su propio miedo a la hipnosis antes de la primera sesión.

«I still felt as if I had a will of my own, a sensation that was never to leave me. In fact, the hypnotized subject does have a will of his own, very much so. But he is also open to suggestion.» — describe el trance como coexistencia de voluntad propia y apertura a la sugestión, y no suprime la segunda mitad.

«"I saw something that looked like it had a hood on it, standing over by the wall near the corner in our bedroom [breaks into panic] and I don't want it to be there!» — Strieber, bajo hipnosis en la sesión del 1 de marzo de 1986, describe la figura encapuchada; el corchete es de la transcripción.

«(I cannot recall experiencing at any time in my life such panic as was evoked at this point in hypnosis My memory was of seeing the shape sweeping across the room and realizing with a feeling that galvanized my whole being that it was something totally unknown to me, glaring at me from right beside my- bed in the dead of the night. I then emerged s ontaneously from hypnosis. No written words, noting, can convey my feelings at that moment. All I can say is that I relived fear so raw, profound, and large that I would not have thought it possible that such an emotion could exist.)» — acotación que el autor intercala en su propia transcripción, ya fuera del trance; *s ontaneously* y *noting* son de la capa de texto.

«I think I knew all along it was coming in the window» — Strieber, bajo hipnosis, sobre la luz de la noche del 4 de octubre.

«I can't. I'd have to be hypnotized again if I was ever gonna find out what that thing was saying.» — bajo hipnosis declara el límite de lo que puede recuperar en esa sesión.

«I swear to God. I just can't believe that this happened. But it did happen. I'll tell you the light comes down past the window» — bajo hipnosis afirma y descree a la vez de lo que está relatando.

«I think the explosion that they all heard. Yeah. He did it with a little needle.» — bajo hipnosis atribuye el estallido de la noche del 4 de octubre al instrumento del ser.

«I think he showed me images of the future of our world, is what he showed me.» — bajo hipnosis interpreta como imágenes del futuro lo que dice haber visto tras el toque en la frente.

«Because I think the park represents death, and he's there because he's dead.» — su propia lectura simbólica de la escena del parque con su hijo, dicha dentro del trance.

«I don't know. That's just my impression.» — el límite que él mismo pone a esa interpretación en la misma sesión.

«He had a bald head and I would say he had slanted eves.» — descripción del ser bajo hipnosis; *eves* por *eyes* es de la capa de texto.

«I'm not saying that I was being threatened so much as warned.» — distingue amenaza de advertencia al calificar lo que dice haber recibido.

«Maybe if I had not been afraid of nuclear war and perfectly happy, when he touched that thing to my head other images would have come out.» — abre él mismo la hipótesis de que las imágenes vinieran de sus propios miedos.

«I think increasingly that they might be pictures out of my mind of my worst fears.» — al reflexionar sobre la sesión inclina la lectura hacia el contenido propio, en potencial.

«I'm not sure, but at some point I almost thought it looks like a bug.» — la comparación insectoide aparece bajo hipnosis y con doble reserva, *not sure* y *almost*.

«I don't know. The only thing I ever remember reading about this was in Look magazine years and years ago.» — bajo hipnosis vuelve a fijar en el reportaje de Look su única lectura previa.

«I haven't read it. But you know, in our culture, there's so much media around .... It's possible, but I don't think so, because this is so damn real. It just seems impossible that it could be an image I picked up from somewhere» — admite la vía cultural de contagio de la imagen y la descarta por la cualidad de realidad del recuerdo.

«I'm determined to go through with this. And it seems now that there should be more, because it's obvious that this happened to me.» — declara dentro de la sesión su decisión de seguir.

«It's not. a question of being a hero. It's much more a question of not wanting to walk out before the end of the movie.» — el motivo que se atribuye para continuar; el punto tras *not* es de la capa de texto.

«The world turns into a whole red ball of fire. It just seems to burst into flames like a little ball of gasoline out in the middle of the sky.» — la visión del mundo en llamas, dicha bajo hipnosis y en presente.

«I don't know. It's not the story she told. Maybe it's something I fear might have happened.» — contrasta lo que ve en el trance con el relato que su madre le dio de la muerte del padre.

«I mean, it sure as hell wasn't his father. He's pulling this out of my head is what — he's pulling it out of my mind.» — dentro del trance atribuye al ser el acto de extraer las imágenes de su propia mente, no de mostrarle nada externo.

«It's not true. It's incredible, but it's not true.» — dentro de la sesión niega lo que acaba de relatar, y la obra conserva la negación.

«Maybe that image was created to see how I react to something that would be ultimately terrifying to me.» — propone que la visión fuera una prueba montada para medir su reacción, en potencial.

«One can preserve the guilt one feels for it — as I now see that I had done — or one can temper it with acceptance and use it as a building block in the edifice of maturity.» — la lección moral que extrae del material sobre su padre, dicha de sí mismo.

«If this was a real visitor, giving me a real blessing from some other reality, then why was it hidden in amnesia where I could not gain access to it?» — objeta él mismo la lectura benévola con la pregunta por la amnesia.

«Perhaps the hypnosis revealed not just the possible presence of visitors but the action of a hidden and tremendously therapeutic potential which, if correctly marshaled, could be of great value.» — abre la hipótesis terapéutica sin cerrar la otra, y la marca con *perhaps*.

«The glaring difficulty with this supposition is that the whole transaction remained hidden in amnesia until many months later.» — pone él mismo la objeción que arruina esa hipótesis.

«The easy route would be to dismiss this material as entirely psychological.» — nombra la salida cómoda antes de rechazarla.

«That would also be a mistake, at least until the physical effects are explained completely, in detail, and satisfactorily.» — condiciona el descarte psicológico a que antes se expliquen los efectos físicos.

«Even if there was a visitor, it seemed clear that concentration on the human part of the encounter was the key to understanding what meaning it may have for me.» — desplaza la pregunta del qué son los visitantes a lo que ocurre del lado humano.

«Maybe my experiences were only a side effect of some sort of study.» — una de las lecturas que enumera sin elegir: efecto colateral de un estudio ajeno.

«of the use of wands to grant insight, and the angel in the Book of Revelation is said to strike the elect thrice between the eyes and cause them great suffering, modern accounts of visitors contain only one oblique reference to this process.» — pone la varita entre los ojos en serie con la literatura de hadas y con el ángel del Apocalipsis, y advierte que en los relatos modernos casi no aparece; la frase arranca al pie de la plana anterior.

«I agreed with Dr. Klein and Budd Hopkins that I must remain as ignorant of this material as possible until after my hypnosis.» — declara la precaución metodológica: no leer literatura del tema antes de las sesiones.

«If these are indeed visitors, they know us well . . . better than we know ourselves.» — lo que atribuye a los visitantes va con su condicional intacto.

«More than visitors, they may simply be "others," an aspect of being which we have not yet understood.» — propone un nombre menos comprometido que *visitantes*: un aspecto del ser todavía no entendido.

«sightings over the past two generations and the smattering of abduction accounts certainly suggest that something strange is going on.» — lo único que da por sugerido por el conjunto de avistamientos y relatos; la frase arranca antes en la misma plana, donde la capa de texto suelda *flying-disk*.

«I have never felt so tiny, so helpless.» — bajo hipnosis, en la segunda sesión, sobre lo que dice haber sentido.

«I don't know if I can tell you. And also I'm not sure I'm awake.» — bajo hipnosis pone en duda su propio estado mientras relata.

«You see, what's so funny is I'm lying down and I can see the sky.» — bajo hipnosis describe el traslado boca arriba, con el cielo a la vista.

«I went way up. Right up. I must have gone up a hundred feet.» — bajo hipnosis relata el ascenso sobre los árboles.

«I have a feeling — I don't feel very much. I feel very numb and funny.» — el estado corporal que describe dentro del trance: entumecimiento, no dolor.

«She looks like a little person made out of leather, sort of.» — la figura del traje color cuero, descrita bajo hipnosis y con un *sort of*.

«And now they've got a floor under me. I know this is no dream.» — dentro del trance afirma que no es sueño mientras lo está relatando.

«I'm not going to let you do an operation.' "'We won't hurt you.' "'I'm not gonna let you do an operation on me. You have absolutely no right.' "'We do have a right.'» — el intercambio que transcribe: él niega el derecho de los seres a intervenirlo y la voz se lo reclama.

«'I do not want you to open that door! I belong with my momma and my wife . . . and my boy. That is where I belong.» — bajo hipnosis opone a la escena su pertenencia a los suyos.

«'You are our chosen one.' And it's bullshit and I know it right away.» — transcribe la frase oída y su propio rechazo inmediato al papel de elegido.

«'What would I like you to be? I'd like you to be a dream, is what I'd like you to be.» — bajo hipnosis contesta a la entidad diciéndole lo que preferiría que fuera.

«'You know. I'm not buying this. You ran show me all that little insignia you want, and I'm still not buying this.» — dentro del trance rechaza la escena y su insignia; *ran* por *can* es de la capa de texto.

«And I also don't know if it's a woman or not.» — retira dentro de la sesión la atribución de género que había hecho antes.

«Because they say, 'You are our chosen one,' and it's just bullshit.» — repite el rechazo del papel de elegido al comentar la sesión.

«They've got a lot of them, believe me.» — la razón que da para ese rechazo: los elegidos serían muchos.

«These things happen sometimes like they're sort of in between.» — describe el estatuto ambiguo de estos episodios, ni sueño ni vigilia.

«No. because it's not true. We weren't on a train.» — bajo hipnosis se resiste al escenario del tren que él mismo acaba de describir.

«I'm still thinking that, but it can't be, can it?» — la duda que expresa dentro del trance mientras oscila entre el vagón y la sala.

«I have no idea how I ended up there from being on a train.» — bajo hipnosis declara la discontinuidad entre el vagón de 1957 y la sala que describe.

«I never remembered anything like that before.» — sostiene que el episodio del tren no estaba en su memoria antes de la regresión.

«Yeah, the trip happened. And not only did the trip happen, something did happen on the trip. Because, on that trip, on the way back I was as sick as a dog.» — apoya la realidad del viaje de 1957 en el dato comprobable de haber ido enfermo.

«"I remembered vaguely before hypnosis that I knew someone there. But I just put that out of my mind because that's impossible. You can't — I mean, it's one thing to deal with something like that, and an entirely different thing to find out you know one of them already.» — dice haber reconocido a la mujer antes de la hipnosis y haberlo descartado por imposible.

«It was worse than the last time, last week, only the difference is that when you started out you said to be calm» — compara el terror de una sesión con el de la anterior y lo atribuye en parte a la sugestión de calma.

«I questioned my ability to live with the notion that my whole life might have proceeded according to a hidden agenda.» — el vértigo que declara tras la sesión: que su vida entera hubiera seguido una agenda oculta.

«Neither of these alternatives was acceptable — hardly endurable — and yet one of them had to be true.» — plantea la disyuntiva entre enfermedad mental y experiencia real sin poder rechazar las dos.

«If I did not accept that something real was hiding in the deep of my life, then I had to accept myself as a disturbed man.» — formula esa misma disyuntiva en primera persona y sin salida intermedia.

«Don Klein was an acknowledged expert and, even after this hypnosis session, he told me that he thought I was sane.» — el juicio de Klein sobre su cordura, referido por él y fechado después de las sesiones.

«But how could anybody not be psychotic and yet have these spectacular delusions?» — la objeción que él mismo opone al dictamen de cordura.

«Even if the visitors were real, there was no reason to believe that they were simply creatures from another planet.» — separa la realidad del fenómeno de la hipótesis extraterrestre, que no da por implicada.

«I speculated. It could be that the 'visitors' were really from here.» — abre la hipótesis de un origen terrestre, marcada como especulación.

«Not psychiatry, not religion, not biology could penetrate that depth.» — sostiene que ninguna de las tres disciplinas alcanza la capa de la mente que estaría en juego.

«Certainly the long tradition of lore suggested that something had been with us for far more than the forty or fifty years since the phenomenon took on its present appearance.» — apoya en el folclore la antigüedad del fenómeno, distinguiéndola de su apariencia moderna.

«Now there were brain probes and flying disks involved, abductions and gray creatures with staring eyes. Surely no change had taken place in the human psyche extreme enough to account for such a radical» — señala la discontinuidad entre el hada antigua y el gris moderno como problema no resuelto por la vía psicológica; la frase cierra en la plana siguiente.

«And yet, there was undoubtedly something here .... I thought perhaps the visitors were somehow trying to hide themselves in our folklore.» — la salida que ensaya para esa discontinuidad, y va con *perhaps*.

«Another thought was that the visitors might really be our own dead. Maybe we were a larval form, and the adults of our species were as incomprehensible to us, as totally unimaginable, as the butterfly must be to the caterpillar.» — otra de las hipótesis que enumera sin elegir: los visitantes como nuestros propios muertos.

«Perhaps the dead had been having their own technological revolution, and were learning to break through the limits of their bourne.» — continuación de la misma hipótesis, llevada hasta una tecnología de los muertos.

«It could be that the gods of the past were strong because the belief of their followers actually did give them life, and maybe that was happening again.» — hipótesis de los dioses sostenidos por la creencia de sus fieles, aplicada al presente.

«I wondered if such a thing might nut involve less differentiation from creature to creature than we have .» — plantea como pregunta una inteligencia menos individuada que la humana; *nut* por *not* es de la capa de texto.

«An intelligent hive might as a whole be very powerful, but as individuals, quite limited both in strength and in understanding.» — la hipótesis de la colmena viene con su asimetría: fuerte en conjunto, limitada en cada individuo.

«Such a mind might chink very well indeed — but very slowly.» — atribuye a esa mente lentitud, no torpeza; *chink* por *think* es de la capa de texto.

«That would certainly explain why they were being so careful in dealing with us.» — usa la lentitud de la mente colmena para explicar la cautela que atribuye a los visitantes.

«And yet, I did not have the feeling that they were hostile so much as stern.» — corrige la lectura hostil por una de severidad, y la marca como impresión.

«Sitting there at that moment, I suddenly realized that all my questions about whether or not my experiences were real were meaningless. Of course they were real.» — declara real la experiencia, sin decir todavía de qué es experiencia.

«They were not entirely mental, at least not in a conventional sense.» — el límite inmediato a esa afirmación, con doble reserva.

«The light seen by Jacques Sandulescu on October 4, the scampering heard Annie Gottlieb, and the explosion perceived by myself, my wife, Annie. and my son suggested that whatever happened that night was more than a psychological experience.» — apoya en la coincidencia de testigos, y no en su propio recuerdo, que lo ocurrido excede lo psicológico.

«Even though there has been no physical proof of the existence of the visitors, the overall structure of their emergence into our consciousness has had to my mind the distinct appearance of design.» — reconoce la falta de prueba física y aun así sostiene la apariencia de diseño, atribuyéndola a su propio juicio.

«But I wished to be objective about them, even to the point of saying that they could very definitely be something from inside the mind rather than from elsewhere in the universe.» — pone la lectura mental como prueba de su propia objetividad, no como concesión.

«Given their general reluctance to expose themselves to us in an open and obvious manner, it may be hypothesized that they are trying for a degree of influence or even control over us, but one that at least presents an appearance of compliance on our part.» — la hipótesis de un control que conserve la apariencia de consentimiento, enunciada como hipótesis.

«If mine was not an uncommon experience, it might be that we live in a society that bears a secret bruise from it.» — extiende su caso a un daño colectivo no reconocido, en condicional.

«But as more of us allow ourselves to see what we have fought so hard to ignore, maybe the bruise will begin to heal.» — el remedio que propone es mirar, y va con *maybe*.

«It was as if ignoring what had been happening to me required a very substantial effort.» — describe la represión de los recuerdos como trabajo activo, no como olvido.

«The brain is an electrical device. As such it has a faint electromagnetic field and even emits very, very weakly in the radio part of the spectrum.» — la base física sobre la que monta la hipótesis electromagnética.

«It is more prosaic, perhaps, than the magic of extrasensory perception. but it has just enough plausibility to suggest that external control of the mind, and even the implantation of perceptions (hearing voices inside the head), is not beyond the realm of possibility.» — prefiere esa vía a la percepción extrasensorial y la enuncia solo como no imposible.

«I should add here that the earth itself generates a good deal of ELF in the 1 to 30 hertz range.» — añade la emisión natural del planeta a la misma hipótesis.

«Perhaps there are natural conditions that trigger a response in the brain which brings about what is essentially a psychological experience of a rare and powerful kind.» — hipótesis de un disparador natural para una experiencia psicológica extraordinaria.

«Maybe we have a relationship with our own planet that we do not understand at all, and the old gods, the fairy, and the modern visitors are side effects of it.» — pone en una misma serie a los dioses antiguos, las hadas y los visitantes como efectos de esa relación con la Tierra, y lo dice con *maybe*.

«My emotional response was to real people, albeit nonhuman ones.» — describe su reacción ante la figura como dirigida a personas, con el *albeit* incluido.

«The space I entered smelled like warm Cheddar cheese with a hint of sulfur.» — el detalle sensorial con que fija la escena de la aparición femenina.

«In subsequent months I found that people who have had the experience often felt that they were familiar with one of the visitors, and usually perceived this person to be of the opposite sex.» — generaliza el reconocimiento de una figura familiar y de sexo opuesto entre los testigos.

«It was interesting to me that the idea of multiple experiences would be shared by so many people, given that there has been so little cultural reinforcement of it.» — argumenta desde la falta de refuerzo cultural para restar peso a la hipótesis del contagio.

«Published accounts generally avoided this aspect, because a single experience with the visitors stretches credibility so much that an assertion like this seems impossible to maintain.» — explica por qué la literatura del asunto calla las experiencias repetidas.

«Sitting before me was the most astonishing being I have ever seen in my life, made the more astonishing by the fact that I knew her.» — presenta la aparición femenina y añade que ya la conocía.

«First, the sheer helplessness that they evoked created awe, which could lead to a desire to comply . . . and then to love.» — advierte la deriva que ve en su propia reacción: de la impotencia al asombro, y de ahí al amor.

«Second, the fear caused such confusion that one could not be sure how to feel.» — la segunda deriva que se señala a sí mismo, la del miedo que desordena el juicio.

«Nobody in the world could know another human soul so well, nor could one man look into the eyes of another so deeply, and to such exact effect.» — el efecto de la mirada de la figura, dicho por comparación con lo humano.

«To an intelligence of sufficiently greater power, it may be that we would seem as obvious as animals seem to us — and we might feel as exposed as do some dogs when their masters stare into their eyes.» — la comparación con el animal doméstico va en potencial y aplicada a nosotros.

«Who gave it to them? By what progress of ethics had they arrived at that conclusion?» — interroga el derecho que los seres se atribuyeron sobre él.

«Maybe their right came from a different direction than one might think.» — deja abierta la procedencia de ese derecho.

«I wondered if it required debate, or seemed so obvious to them that they never questioned it.» — la alternativa que plantea: derecho discutido entre ellos o dado por evidente.

«If they were real visitors, though, I wanted to know the ethics behind their assertion of their "right."» — condiciona la pregunta ética a la realidad de los visitantes, sin darla por resuelta.

«applying the same cold ethic to their relationship with us as we did to ours with the animals. There was something of that in it though, very definitely. I had been captured like a wild animal on December 26, rendered helpless and dragged out of my den into the night.» — niega la equivalencia con nuestro trato a los animales y a la vez admite que algo de eso había; la frase arranca al pie de la plana anterior.

«Nor did I feel that they were simply studying me. Not at all.» — descarta la lectura del experimento científico como explicación suficiente.

«I did not think that the world was actually ending, but I could easily have been persuaded that the biosphere would soon change so catastrophically that an immense amount of human life would be lost.» — separa su temor ecológico de la expectativa apocalíptica, y confiesa hasta dónde se dejaría convencer.

«I began to feel strongly that the present world situation was unsustainable.» — la lectura ecológica que trae consigo a la experiencia, declarada como sentimiento creciente.

«Later, I thought to myself that they were taming me.» — nombra *taming* lo que dice que le hicieron, y no *estudiar* ni *castigar*.

«Maybe what they meant was that we have all been chosen — and we are all being tamed.» — reinterpreta el papel de elegido como algo colectivo, y en potencial.

«Nobody has ever domesticated mankind. We are thus a wild species, as wild as the day we first went howling across the savanna.» — la premisa sobre la que monta la idea de la doma: la humanidad como especie salvaje.

«did not tame us to visitors, but only to ourselves . . . and then not very well, given our violent history.» — acota el alcance de la autodomesticación civilizatoria; el tramo arranca antes, donde la capa de texto suelda *self-taming*.

«I reflected that the abduction to a round room had a long, long tradition in our culture: There were many such cases in the fairy lore.» — reconoce el rapto a la cámara redonda en el folclore de hadas, sin declarar identidad.

«The story called "Connla and the Fairy Maiden," as collected in Joseph Jacobs's Celtic Fairy Tales (Bodley Head, 1894, 1985). could with some changes be a modern tale of the visitors.» — el paralelo celta que ofrece, con su fuente impresa y su *con algunos cambios* incluido.

«Maybe the fairy was a real species, for example. Perhaps they now floated around in unidentified flying objects and wielded insight-producing wands because they have enjoyed their own technological revolution.» — la hipótesis de las hadas como especie real con tecnología propia, en potencial doble.

«Every time one decides either that this is psychological or real, one soon finds a theory that forcefully reopens the case in favor of the opposite notion.» — describe la oscilación entre lo psicológico y lo real como propiedad del asunto, no como indecisión suya.

«The most difficult part of my hypnotic material was the sudden regression to 1957. How could I explain that, even in terms of visitors? To do so, I had to revise my whole understanding of what my life had been.» — señala la regresión a 1957 como el material que ninguna de sus hipótesis acomoda bien.

«The more I thought about it, the less able I was to accept the idea that this had been happening to me most of my life.» — la resistencia que opone a su propio material, y crece al pensarlo.

«It is easy to speculate about such a thing on an idle evening, but when one considered the terrific intensity of the experience I had remembered, thinking that this might have happened again and again had the potential to shatter me.» — separa la especulación de sobremesa del costo real de sostener la hipótesis.

«is no way to tell. I would need some sort of corroboration before I could even begin to entertain it as a serious possibility.» — exige corroboración externa antes de tomarse en serio el episodio del tren; la frase arranca al pie de la plana anterior.

«If it was contact, then it must be proceeding somewhat along lines I could understand.» — el supuesto que se impone para poder examinar el material, enunciado como condición.

«Suddenly I understood how the nuns could take Limbo. I understood why the mass did and didn't end at the same time. It was all relative.» — cuenta cómo la relatividad le sirvió para sostener la doctrina que le enseñaban.

«Einstein, in describing the physical universe, had also described the internal logic of the Church, enabling me to preserve my faith.» — atribuye a esa lectura la conservación de su fe de infancia.

«My catechism class was asked to write essays proving the existence of God. Mine, an equation with an intentionally tautological argument, was declared to be a demonic inspiration.» — el episodio escolar con que ilustra su relación temprana con la autoridad religiosa.

«I do not recall thinking or talking at all about extraterrestrials.» — descarta que el asunto estuviera presente en su infancia, aun al revisarla entera.

«There was no magic to the thing; it was only an assembly of electromagnets taken from old motors.» — desmitifica la máquina antigravedad que dice haber construido de muchacho.

«I have subsequently discovered that there is a whole mythology of flying saucer technology, and a lot of it revolves around the concept of counterrotating magnets.» — llama mitología al corpus técnico ufológico en el que su propia máquina encaja.

«I don't really think that details like the construction of a motor can be part of some shared hallucinatory system.» — el argumento con que resiste la explicación por alucinación compartida.

«Recall that I did not even remember my antigravity machine myself, but rather was told about it by a friend who remembered.» — apoya el episodio en un testigo externo y no en su propia memoria.

«The fire was never satisfactorily explained, although I have a feeling that it was related more to the effect a little boy's antigravity machine had on the wiring than to the hostility of annoyed visitors.» — descarta la lectura sobrenatural del incendio y prefiere la eléctrica, marcándolo como corazonada.

«It is not the eating that disturbs me, because I seem to have lived, but rather the structural coherence of the thing.» — lo que le inquieta del episodio de la alimentación forzada es la coherencia del conjunto, no el hecho.

«The image was central to The Wolfen and Wolf of Shadows, and appears again in The Wild, a novel I have written but have not yet published.» — sigue la imagen del lobo a través de su propia obra publicada e inédita.

«I knew even as I spoke that we hadn't really seen a wolf, or heard one howl. Why then was I saying it? Where had it come from? Was it one of the screen memories which were so common to experiences with the visitors?» — trata su propio recuerdo del lobo como posible pantalla, en forma de preguntas.

«I note in passing that if my wise and determined friend from afar is a woman, it could be said that her personal symbol is an owl.» — el enlace entre la figura y la lechuza va con doble condicional y anunciado como digresión.

«The owl was also the totem of the Celtic Blodeuwedd, the Triple Goddess of the Moon» — añade a Blodeuwedd a la serie de la lechuza, junto a Atenea e Ishtar.

«I must admit that it has been going on for a long time, although in 1985 it became much more intense.» — su balance sobre la duración del fenómeno en su vida, con la intensificación fechada.

«Was it the pressure involved in keeping my memories of them hidden? I just don't know.» — deja sin resolver la causa de su propio deterioro previo.

«Many of my screen memories concern animals, but not all. I remember being terrified as a little by an appearance of Mr. Peanut, and vet I .know that I never saw Mr. Peanut except on a Planter's can. I said that I was menaced by him at a Battle of Flowers Parade in San Antonio, but I now understand perfectly well that it never happened.» — amplía la clase de los recuerdos pantalla más allá de los animales, con un caso que declara falso sin duda; *vet* y el punto ante *know* son de la capa de texto.

«For, me the trigger seems to have been the "You are our chosen one" speech.» — señala la frase a la que atribuye el disparo de la regresión a 1957.

«It was then that Dr. Klein asked me my age, and I heard myself say, "Twelve."» — consigna el momento en que la sesión cambia de edad, oyéndose responder a sí mismo.

«I changed completely, remarkably. I was my childhood self again.» — describe la regresión como cambio completo de persona dentro del trance.

«After hypnosis I recalled seeing a landscape with a great hooked object floating in the air, which on closer inspection proved to be a triangle.» — el triángulo flotante aparece después de la sesión, no dentro de ella.

«The answer is telling: "Because they were alone." It might suggest a methodology, one that is borne out by some studies of unexplained sightings: The craft seem to favor isolated areas.» — cruza la respuesta oída con los estudios de avistamientos, y lo enuncia con *might*.

«They do not appear as often over cities, and there are not many stories of their taking people from heavily populated places.» — el dato con que apoya esa regularidad de los sitios aislados.

«Perhaps a limitation of technology is visible here: There are simply too many risks in populated areas.» — la explicación que ensaya para esa preferencia, marcada con *perhaps*.

«I asked what was being done to the soldiers. The answer, typically uninformative, was, "We look then over and send them home."» — califica de característicamente vacías las respuestas que dice haber recibido.

«It is incredibly upsetting to see something that is clearly not human walking and moving about with intelligence.» — el efecto que atribuye a la escena, dicho en general y no solo de sí.

«I asked her why she looked so awful, she replied almost absently, without stopping her work, "I can't help that.» — transcribe el intercambio sobre la apariencia de la figura sin glosarlo.

«I wonder what Ishtar really looked like, and if the whole Greek pantheon of beautiful gods and goddesses was not something akin to the beautiful "godlike" beings imagined by people who have made flying saucers their religion.» — sospecha del panteón griego lo mismo que de la ufología devota: una versión embellecida de algo áspero.

«I wonder if Homer and Pindar did not do the same. And why was Homer blind? It is known that many different storytellers comprise "Homer." Perhaps hysterical blindness was a commonplace among the prehistoric Greek bards out of whose tales the classical pantheon emerged. I don't blame them. Hysterical blindness and congenial belief systems would both be excellent defenses against things similar to what I have seen.» — propone la ceguera histérica y la creencia acomodaticia como defensas equivalentes ante lo mismo.

«And there was no question in my mind about its being real.» — dentro del relato de 1957 no admite duda sobre la realidad de lo visto.

«It had never even crossed my mind that I might be dreaming.» — el sueño ni siquiera se le presentó como opción en ese episodio.

«This was as real as any other event in my life, despite the fact that it was far more frightening even than the most frightening horror movie» — mide la realidad del episodio contra el resto de su vida, con el terror aparte.

«The closest thing I have been able to find to an unadorned image of these beings is not from some modern science-fiction movie, it is rather the age-old, glaring face of Ishtar.» — busca el precedente iconográfico en la Mesopotamia antigua y no en el cine.

«Robert Crick, the renowned discoverer of' the double helix, has postulated that the genetic structure of life is so intricate that it seems designed.» — trae la hipótesis del diseño genético como apoyo lateral; la grafía del nombre de pila queda en cuarentena, ver Notas de carga.

«According to studies led by Dr. Allan C. Wilson of the University of California, there is genetic evidence that the entire human species arose from a single female in North Africa» — el dato genético con que enlaza mito y ciencia, atribuido a su fuente.

«The temporal lobe is arguably the most important part of the brain, the seat of "humanity" itself.» — sitúa el lóbulo temporal en el centro de la hipótesis neurológica que examina.

«People with temporal-lobe epilepsy report deja vu, unexplained panic states, strong smells, and even a preoccupation with philosophical and cosmic concerns.» — enumera los síntomas que solapan con su propio cuadro.

«If the temporal lobe is being entered, then it may not be possible to decide between the temporal-lobe-epilepsy and visitor hypotheses.» — declara indecidible la disyuntiva entre epilepsia y visitantes si la intrusión llega a ese lóbulo.

«There was no evidence of abnormality.» — el resultado de los exámenes neurológicos que se hizo.

«I had to fall back on the truth: I did not know what was happening, but it certainly appeared to be happening in the real world.» — la posición a la que dice quedar reducido tras los exámenes.

«they did not damage me in a way detectable to our science.» — el resultado de los exámenes, dicho con el límite puesto en lo que nuestra ciencia detecta.

«And I am not a temporal-lobe epileptic.» — cierra la hipótesis neurológica para su propio caso.

«There is no operation that proceeds as the visitors do, jabbing their needles up the nose.» — descarta que el procedimiento nasal recordado corresponda a una intervención médica.

«No doctor would ever do that, which also means that these are not buried childhood memories of operations.» — la consecuencia que extrae: tampoco es recuerdo quirúrgico de infancia.

«I don't know what happened, and there is no way at all to explain the event in a conventional manner.» — sobre el episodio de las horas perdidas: sin explicación y sin hipótesis propia.

«The fact that this individual was much smaller than a human being did not bother me in the least, nor even give me pause. Why not?» — vuelve sobre su propia indiferencia ante lo anómalo y la convierte en pregunta.

«There are reports of visitors carrying small lights, and the fairy lore contains dozens of instances of "fairy stones" that glowed.» — pone en serie las luces de los visitantes con las piedras luminosas del folclore, sin declarar identidad.

«A coincidence? Probably, but the mind seeks for large and subtle designs, images in clouds, hunters marching the stars, always for the hidden sense of the world.» — advierte contra su propia tendencia a ver diseño donde hay azar.

«There was no sequel to the appearance of the small figure, except perhaps a family member's comment the next morning that he had had a terrible nightmare.» — todo lo que puede aportar como corroboración de esa aparición, y va con *perhaps*.

«Perhaps, if great care is taken, a method can be devised of finding an answer to such questions, a method more reliable than hypnosis.» — deja la hipnosis como recurso provisional y pide un método mejor.

«I now understand to have been what is known as a "missing time" experience, lasting at least twenty-four hours.» — adopta el término *missing time* para el episodio de Austin, con su duración declarada.

«There was no discontinuous memory at all, no sense of being unconscious.» — precisa que el tiempo perdido no vino con laguna ni con desmayo.

«It was exactly as if six hours had somehow passed in less than a second.» — describe el salto temporal de la cena con la comparación intacta.

«There is no evidence that I suffer from any malfunction of the brain.» — vuelve a apoyarse en los exámenes para excluir la vía orgánica.

«For years we have laughed about the larconic trance, but I am not laughing anymore.» — el mote que un amigo puso a sus ausencias, ahora releído en serio.

«I was as sane then as I am now.» — extiende hacia atrás el dictamen de cordura, sobre su propia palabra.

«I believe now that this was a nightmare memory of an attempt I made to escape whatever unearthly thing happened to use in my apartment in Austin.» — reinterpreta una pesadilla vieja como recuerdo de huida; *to use* por *to us* es de la capa de texto.

«There then began a pattern of running that has persisted in my life until the present.» — hace de la huida un patrón de vida entera, no un episodio.

«It was my secret terror that drove me away.» — atribuye su salida de Texas al miedo y no a las razones que daba entonces.

«Whatever may or may not have happened in the flat was never acknowledged or referred to again by anybody who was there, with one exception, which I will recount in a moment.» — deja el episodio de Chelsea en indeterminación y anuncia la única corroboración que tiene.

«He said that he would get a witch to cast a spell to bring me back.» — la despedida de un compañero de piso, que él conserva sin interpretarla.

«He couldn't think why he had acted as he did, although he remembered a feeling of dread being associated with my journey.» — la corroboración que obtiene años después es un recuerdo de pavor, no de hechos.

«For eighteen years I told the story that I stayed in Florence for six weeks.» — consigna un recuerdo propio que resultó falso y que sostuvo durante dieciocho años.

«Even so, I placidly accepted this anomaly.» — el rasgo que se atribuye una y otra vez: aceptar sin alarma lo que no cuadra.

«There are certainly many odd incidents, but they are too variable in their nature to suggest the symptomatic consistency of disease.» — el argumento con que descarta un cuadro clínico: los episodios no se repiten en forma.

«If such incidents were a frequent occurrence in my life, I might suspect some sort of trance or fugue state.» — deja abierta la hipótesis del trance o la fuga disociativa, condicionada a una frecuencia que dice no tener.

«I am just not certain what happened, except that I lost weeks of time.» — la abstención sobre el viaje europeo, con lo único que da por firme.

«The voice was entirely clear, not like the sort of garbled message sometimes picked up from a passing taxi's radio or a ham operator.» — describe la voz del estéreo por contraste con la interferencia ordinaria.

«I called the Federal Communications Commission. A man explained to me what I already knew, that ham radios and taxis and police radios sometimes interrupt stereos. But a conversation, he asserted, was impossible.» — busca la explicación técnica y consigna que el funcionario la descartó.

«We were running, but we didn't know it.» — lee sus mudanzas sucesivas como huidas no reconocidas en su momento.

«Even though we called the police, they never came, and nothing was ever said by neighbors about the shrieking.» — consigna la falta de confirmación externa del episodio de los gritos.

«It moved faster than an airplane and left me with the feeling that it had something to do with me.» — describe el objeto luminoso y la sensación personal que le dejó, sin fundirlas.

«A siphon of seltzer had exploded, so violently that the glass was reduced to ads, to dust.» — el estallido de vidrio como suceso material sin explicación; *ads* por *bits* es de la capa de texto.

«But why do I need these absurd stories? They are not lies: when I tell them. I myself believe them.» — reconoce haber contado durante años relatos falsos sobre su propio pasado, creyéndolos.

«He said that "a little white thing" had come up to his bed "and poked me and poked me."» — palabras de su hijo, transcritas por el autor, sobre la entidad blanca del departamento.

«There is thus no way to tell whether my wife remembers the story correctly.» — declara insegura la memoria de su testigo más cercano, antes de apoyarse en ella.

«The truth is I don't know what happened to me during those three hours.» — la abstención sobre el episodio de las tres horas.

«I don't even know if I left the apartment.» — extiende esa ignorancia hasta el dato más básico del episodio.

«I simply cannot help it, even though I have a feeling that I might seem to future generations to be obtuse.» — declara su resistencia a la hipótesis de la nave y admite que puede estar equivocándose.

«It suggests that there is something ignoble about mankind, or even that we are prisoners on our planet.» — nombra el costo de la hipótesis de los visitantes: rebaja la posición humana.

«If I am right, then the source of their reticence is not contempt but fear, and well-founded fear, too.» — invierte la lectura del desprecio: lo que atribuye a los visitantes es miedo, y condicionado a que él acierte.

«I have seen them from close range, and if I was seeing real beings, then what was most striking about them was that they appeared to be moving to a sort of choreography» — la observación de la coreografía va con su condicional sobre la realidad de lo visto.

«If this were true, then they may be, in effect, a single mind with millions of bodies-a brilliant creature, but lacking the speed of independent.» — de esa coreografía deriva la mente única, con doble condicional.

«I will know then the reason for both their interest and their shyness: We awe them and frighten them.» — la explicación que da del comportamiento de los visitantes: nosotros los asustamos.

«There are stories of roads that don't exist, beaches that aren't there, structures that later prove never to have been built.» — enumera la clase de anomalías topográficas que la literatura del asunto recoge.

«One might be tempted to ascribe such reports to trance states, but that does not explain what happens to the victims' cars while they are in the trance — and there are often hours of» — objeta la explicación por trance apelando a lo que le pasa al automóvil; la frase sigue en la plana siguiente.

«He did not tell me what I have subsequently discovered, that confusion of place is common among abductees.» — deja constancia de que Hopkins le ocultó el patrón para no inducirlo.

«The dirt road I had seen there didn't exist anymore, and there was no sign of a road ever having been there.» — el dato con que cierra el episodio del banco de niebla, sin explicarlo.

«I have the feeling there's a lot going on but I'm just so totally stupefied.» — bajo hipnosis describe su propia opacidad dentro de la escena.

«I'm not scared now. I'm just amazed and totally — totally — it's like — just like I —I turned the corner and all of a sudden I was in Arabia or something.» — la desorientación del episodio de la camioneta blanca, dicha bajo hipnosis.

«"Yeah. Great big black eyes. She's sort of brown She has a little, tiny mouth. She's chin.» — la descripción de la figura bajo interrogatorio; *She's chin* es corrupción de la capa de texto.

«She looks like a big bug. Just sitting there, staring at me.» — la comparación insectoide vuelve en el trance, sin adjudicar naturaleza.

«I was in the woods on a dirt road — where — what — how'd I get here?» — el desconcierto espacial dentro de la sesión, en presente.

«She looks at me with a real mean look on her face.» — atribuye a la figura una expresión hostil, dentro del trance.

«Because the next thing I know, I'm on the road again.» — el corte del episodio: vuelve a la carretera sin transición.

«Better. They're abstractions, like triangles and circles and things. And they're fitted together in order. The triangle with the circle in it and the square comes around it and it moves all very smoothly, and it makes me feel better.» — las figuras geométricas que dice haber visto bajo hipnosis, con el efecto calmante que les atribuye.

«It was like my head was in a vise right at the end.» — la sensación física con que dice haber salido de esa sesión.

«I had the impression during hypnosis that I had been going somewhere that afternoon, someplace I wasn't supposed to go, almost as if, having been drawn to buy a house in that particular area in the first place, I was overreacting to the impetus and was on my way right into their laps.» — la lectura que ensaya del episodio va marcada como impresión y con un *almost as if*.

«I was concerned about complying not so much with Don's wishes, since he remains neutral, but rather with a hidden desire of mine that my memories would somehow confirm their own reality.» — nombra el sesgo que teme en sí mismo: complacer no al hipnotizador sino a su propio deseo.

«I was hoping that a more profound trance would direct me totally toward Don and thus all my compliance would be concentrated on him, and I knew I could trust his neutrality.» — la estrategia con que intenta neutralizar ese sesgo, apoyada en la neutralidad del médico.

«I was reasonably satisfied that I had been too directed toward the hypnotist to interfere with myself, but it is not possible to be certain of this.» — el resultado que declara de esa estrategia, con la certeza expresamente negada.

«I noticed afterward that he seemed to have kept his questions to an absolute minimum perhaps in an effort to further reduce suggestion.» — atribuye al hipnotizador la contención de las preguntas, con *perhaps*.

«I thought at first it was like a skeleton on a motorcycle or something.» — la primera forma que dio a la figura de brazos largos, bajo hipnosis.

«I just know it's there, I can see it clear as day.» — dentro del trance sostiene la nitidez de lo que ve, sin miedo esta vez.

«It was flying-no, it wasn't flying. I could just» — bajo hipnosis se corrige a sí mismo en mitad de la descripción; el tramo se corta al final de la frase transcrita.

«They've got white eyes. This has got dark, black eyes.» — distingue dos clases de seres por el color de los ojos, dentro del trance.

«I wasn't scared while it was working that thing up in my hair. I don't know what it was. I didn't ever see it. It was working a thing up in my hair. I didn't feel a thing.» — describe una manipulación que dice no haber visto ni sentido, y sin miedo.

«Well, I've started working with the young people at the Foundation." (This was the Gurdjieff Foundation, an organization devoted to the development of consciousness based on the ideas of the philosophers G. I. Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky. It is not related to groups that make public claim to be the "Gurdjieff Foundation." The real Foundation is not a public organization.) "I've been in a very intensive period. A lot of meditation and effort.» — sitúa los episodios de esos años en un periodo de trabajo intensivo en la Gurdjieff Foundation, y en paréntesis propio distingue a ésta de las que usan públicamente el nombre.

«They're menacing-looking. Strange. I don't understand where they even could have come from.» — bajo hipnosis describe a las figuras uniformadas sin poder situarlas.

«I do not know what's going on here. Is it because we're so high?» — dentro del trance busca una causa ordinaria para lo que está viendo.

«They aren't people, therefore it's a dream.» — el razonamiento con que dice haberse tranquilizado en el momento, transcrito sin corregirlo.

«I was shocked by the unqualified reality of what I had seen.» — el efecto que le produce el material recuperado, dicho sin matizar la palabra realidad.

«The short visits seem almost always to concern psychological activity, the long ones to involve more physical testing, almost as if preparations are made or results observed during those times.» — distingue dos patrones de visita, breve y prolongada, con doble reserva.

«I may have had these encounters at least a dozen limes. And yet I never learned from them. Each time the experience took place, I was as frightened, as tormented, as astonished as before.» — el rasgo que le parece más difícil de explicar: la sorpresa no se agota con la repetición.

«One would have thought that the mind, acting alone, would have compartmentalized all this material together, as it does with recurring dreams and nightmares, so that when I entered the state I would have had reference to other experiences of it, even though — as in recurring nightmares — the material would still have been terrifying.» — usa la pesadilla recurrente como contraprueba de la hipótesis puramente mental.

«My actual condition almost seems to suggest that there was an attempt to render me as helpless as possible, by placing me in a state where each experience was perceived in and of itself, without reference to past encounters. Thus each time the surprise was total.» — de esa contraprueba deriva un propósito deliberado, y lo enuncia con *almost seems to suggest*.

«There may be things about contact between beings formed in different biospheres that we do not understand at all. Perhaps they feel some instinctive emotion, too. I have the impression that these experiences are very intense for them, if not actually frightening.» — devuelve el terror al otro lado del encuentro, marcado como impresión.

«amnesia can be seen not only as an act of self-protection but as one of kindness also.» — lee la amnesia como benevolencia además de defensa; la frase arranca al pie de la plana anterior con su condicional sobre la biología.

«Assuming the correctness of my perceptions, this book then becomes a chronicle not only of my discovery of a visitor's presence in the world but also one of how I have learned to fear them less.» — describe el propio libro con la condición *assuming* por delante.

«I found that the image not only moved about of its own accord, it would move on command.» — lo que dice de la imagen persistente del rostro tras las sesiones.

«While I might indeed have been viewing the result of some extraordinary connection between myself and a real, conscious being, it may also be that this was an act of the imagination — the act of a mind calling upon itself to provide another argument in favor of this being an experience with an external component.» — pone las dos lecturas de esa imagen a la par, incluida la que sospecha de su propio deseo de prueba.

«What's more, the descriptions I found of eidetic images did not even begin to correspond to what I was experiencing.» — mide su caso contra la literatura sobre memoria eidética y lo declara fuera de ella.

«We don't know a thing about conjuring and magic. We've dismissed it all, we who love science too much.» — reprocha a su propio bando el descarte en bloque de la conjuración y la magia.

«It could be that very real physical entities can emerge out of the unconscious.» — la hipótesis de entidades físicas nacidas del inconsciente, enunciada como posible.

«I could observe any part of the body from the top of the head to the tip of the foot. I could do this again and a again, and see the same thing each time.» — la constancia de la imagen bajo examen repetido, como dato a favor de que no la inventaba.

«My research thus far has not uncovered any specific paradigm of this experience.» — declara sin precedente documentado el fenómeno de la imagen persistente.

«I will not assert finally that it was a mental phenomenon as yet unidentified, but at the moment this remains a distinct possibility.» — se niega a cerrar la cuestión y deja la lectura mental abierta.

«I do not know how to explain this image. If it was not created by the powerful effect of Don's, asking me to visualize the creature, then perhaps it was some sort of sophisticated holographic projection.» — las dos salidas que ofrece, sugestión del hipnotizador o proyección holográfica, y ninguna asumida.

«Frankly, the kid's observation, coming as it did at that moment, had convinced me that on some level what was happening must be real.» — el testimonio de la niña es lo que dice haberlo convencido, con el *on some level* incluido.

«When people dismiss such innocent and uninformed testimony, they make a great mistake.» — reclama valor probatorio para el testigo sin información previa.

«Precisely be cause it is so uninformed, it is powerful evidence of the reality of the phenomenon.» — el argumento entero: la ignorancia del testigo es lo que le da fuerza.

«Maybe the child really saw an object in the physical world.» — primera rama de la disyuntiva que deja abierta sobre ese testimonio.

«But maybe, also, the mind has powers that we do not understand.» — segunda rama, puesta a la par de la anterior.

«Perhaps there is such a thing as mental telepathy, and when I asked the image to help me, what I really did was send my own inner self on a quest.» — la lectura telepática de su propio pedido a la imagen, marcada con *perhaps*.

«I was overcome at this point by terror so fierce and physical that it seemed more biological than psychological.» — clasifica su propio terror como biológico antes que psicológico.

«I can only describe the sensation I felt when tried to move as like pushing my arm through electrified tar.» — la parálisis descrita por comparación, con el *only describe* que la marca como aproximación.

«The burglar alarm was still working because it had battery backup — but apparently it meant little to them, as they had entered the house without tripping it.» — vuelve a poner la alarma como testigo y consigna que no se activó.

«There was and is no way that I would ever make a provocative gesture in heir presence. In fact, I wouldn't move at all unless bidden, not until I understand more.» — la regla de conducta que se impone ante los seres; *heir* por *their* es de la capa de texto.

«I was an emissary of sorts — although perhaps only to the court of nightmare.» — el papel que se atribuye ante los seres, con la ironía y la reserva incluidas.

«Again it took an absolute concentration of will, a centering of my attention and the application of the most careful effort to the muscles of my face, but I did manage to smile.» — la sonrisa como acto deliberado dentro de la parálisis, no como reacción.

«I found that one of the other people I have met has also had an experience involving visitors in archaic quits.» — busca corroboración del traje antiguo en otro testigo; *quits* por *suits* es de la capa de texto.

«What happened the night of March 15 was fundamentally different, and more open, than any other contact I have had.» — distingue esa noche del resto de sus episodios por ser un encuentro abierto.

«Frankly, I'm quite certain that the beings I saw were not a dream, and probably not a hallucination. What they were was an enigma.» — descarta sueño y alucinación con grados distintos de certeza, y se detiene ahí.

«And they can also speak in the center of the head.» — atribuye a los seres una vía de habla interior además de la audible.

«My impression is that these people, if they exist, are more than a little afraid of us: They are deeply afraid.» — el miedo que les atribuye va con la existencia puesta en condicional.

«I suppose it was best to smile rather than move my hands toward them, but I wish that there had been touch.» — su balance del encuentro: prudencia acertada y contacto no consumado.

«From the beginning, I had been disturbed that my wife and son might have been involved in this.» — abre el capítulo dedicado a su familia con lo que más teme del asunto.

«I told Anne nothing and our son less than nothing.» — declara la precaución que tomó para no contaminar el testimonio de los suyos.

«I kept it from her because there was a possibility, however remote, that visitors had been around us in the night.» — la razón metodológica del silencio, con la posibilidad calificada de remota.

«If she had reported nothing, then to me it would have indicated that mine was an essentially psychological experience — perhaps shared in some unusual ways, but essentially psychological.» — declara de antemano qué habría contado como refutación de su propia hipótesis.

«Thus the visitor hypothesis would no longer have been among the more likely ones.» — la consecuencia que estaba dispuesto a aceptar de ese resultado negativo.

«I think that I would then have concluded that a hitherto undiscovered mental process with a definite physical effect was probably operating.» — la explicación alternativa que tenía preparada, también sin precedente conocido.

«Despite all the progress I had made in dealing with this experience, I must admit that Anne's hypnosis disturbed me all over again.» — el efecto que le produjo oír a su esposa bajo hipnosis.

«Her hypnosis does not reveal a person trying to concoct a story, but rather one trying hard to avoid remembering something she has been cold in the strongest terms to forget.» — su lectura de la sesión de Anne: resistencia a recordar, no fabricación; *cold* por *told* es de la capa de texto.

«My wife appears to have been made to believe that my mental health depends on her not remembering, on her providing me with a safe haven in ordinary reality when I need one.» — atribuye a su esposa un papel de refugio, y el verbo *made to believe* deja sin decir quién lo impuso.

«I suspect that she is right to believe this.» — suscribe ese papel para su propio caso.

«One could state a few things with certainty, if one was careful.» — abre el balance de las sesiones de su esposa acotando de entrada lo que puede darse por cierto.

«Something happened to me and possibly to my son. Its source and nature were unknown. but there was a strong suggestion that it included some sort of physical component external to and independent of us.» — lo único que da por establecido tras todo el material: algo con componente físico externo, de fuente y naturaleza desconocidas.

«The support she had provided may have been her own invention, rather than the outcome of training or suggestion from the visitors.» — retira la lectura fuerte de su propia hipótesis sobre el papel de Anne.

«The temptation was, of course, to say that the visitor hypothesis was now so compelling it must be true.» — nombra la tentación que se atribuye en ese punto del libro.

«However, it seemed to me that a rigorously objective approach still might prove more productive than surrender to a specific view.» — y la rechaza: prefiere la objetividad a rendirse a una tesis.

«My wife had painted a picture of me as a sort of soldier of the night, vulnerable and helpless.» — resume así el retrato que las sesiones de Anne le devolvieron de sí mismo.

«At first she clearly remembered that the night was uncomfortably light, although she later denied this memory.» — consigna la contradicción de su testigo sin resolverla a su favor.

«Anne's regression became a little confused at this point, because Budd Hopkins made the suggestion, "Back to that night," without specifying which night.» — declara un defecto del propio interrogatorio, con el nombre de quien lo cometió.

«It just seemed too odd, so I contented myself with saying that I had seemed to float around the room.» — reconoce haber matizado ante su esposa lo que decía haber vivido.

«What it was we will probably never know, and I cannot even guess its purpose.» — la abstención sobre el objeto blanco del departamento.

«She also admits that it was not Annie Gottlieb's voice, although not by saying so directly.» — el autor extrae de la transcripción una admisión que su esposa no formuló, y lo declara.

«He then went about his afternoon business, reading Tin-Tin and making a St. Patrick's Day card for his grandmother.» — cierra el relato del niño devolviéndolo a la escena doméstica, sin comentario.

«I sat in my chair, haunted by what my son had said.» — el efecto que le produce el relato de su hijo, dicho sin interpretarlo.

«My son was naked except for a dark blue cap that one of them had put on his head.» — detalle del sueño propio que dice haber coincidido con el del niño.

«They shook their heads sadly, and the care and love radiating from their eyes was such that I was not bereaved but reassured that she would be back soon.» — en el sueño propio atribuye a los seres cuidado y amor, no amenaza.

«The appearance of these people has never been discussed with my son at all, not by anybody, and vet his description of short ones and taller, thin ones is not only consistent with my own observations, it is consistent with the experiences of many of the other people who have encountered the visitors.» — presenta la coincidencia del niño como no contaminada, y ése es el peso probatorio que le da; *vet* por *yet* es de la capa de texto.

«He had bought a book of haiku at the Strand used-book store that afternoon, a book entitled A Net of Fireflies.» — la coincidencia del libro de haiku, que él mismo había tenido a los veinte años.

«That night a father staved a long time with his child, wondering about the soft fire of communion that might be hidden between the breaths of his life.» — cierra el capítulo en tercera persona y con la palabra del título en potencial; *staved* por *stayed* es de la capa de texto.

«I began this search by assuming that I was dealing either with a mental aberration or a visit "from another planet."» — declara el punto de partida de sus dos únicas hipótesis iniciales.

«Judging from the extraordinary range — not to mention the age — of some of the material I have found, thin cannot be the whole answer.» — abandona esa disyuntiva por la antigüedad del material; *thin* por *this* es de la capa de texto.

«There is so little final knowledge of this phenomenon that it is impossible to do more than speculate about its actual nature.» — declara el estatuto de todo el capítulo de hipótesis.

«But speculation need not be random; it can be careful and directed.» — reclama para la especulación un método, no una licencia.

«We cannot assume that time travel is out of the question.» — abre la hipótesis del viaje en el tiempo por vía negativa.

«Perhaps there are natural electromagnetic anomalies that trip a certain hallucinatory wire in the mind, causing many different people to have experiences so similar as to seem to the result of encounters with the same physical phenomena.» — la rama natural y alucinatoria, que explicaría la coincidencia entre testigos sin visitantes.

«Maybe we do have an afterlife, but not quite in the way tradition suggests.» — la rama de los muertos, formulada como corrección de la tradición y no como doctrina.

«Or even more extraordinary, it is possible to consider that they might have really, physically arrived sometime in the future, and then spread out across the whole of our history, in effect going back into time to study us. This might mean that they could be here only a short time — say a few weeks or months-but are carrying out a study that would seem to us from our position in sequential time to have extended over our entire recorded history.» — la rama del viaje en el tiempo desarrollada entera, y en potencial de principio a fin.

«Of all the theories, this one alone explains why creatures in 1986 would seem so unaware of our languages, nature, and even our clothing, and yet possibly have a history as fairies and gods going back thousands of years.» — el mérito que le concede a esa rama: reconcilia el desconocimiento del presente con la antigüedad del folclore.

«Meister Eckhart puts it very well when he says, "We must become as clear glass through which God can shine." But this involves giving up the "self," which feels just like dying.» — cita a Eckhart para nombrar la transformación y añade de inmediato lo que cuesta.

«All these hypotheses are interesting, but none of them is in the least provable.» — cierra el catálogo de hipótesis sin elegir ninguna.

«In the past forty years the question of the real nature of the UFO experience has been addressed by psychologists and psychiatrists, most notably Carl lung, by public personages ranging from presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford to Senator Barry Goldwater, by a plethora of scientists, by the United States Air Force and various security agencies, and by the general public.» — el censo de quiénes se han ocupado del asunto; *Carl lung* por *Carl Jung* es de la capa de texto.

«In my research I found an undertone of claims that the government knew more about this mattes than it was saying I decided to do some investigation into the truth of this possibility.» — declara por qué entra en el terreno gubernamental; *mattes* por *matter* es de la capa de texto.

«There is some small reason to speculate that the United States government may have had some sort of communication from visitors as early as the late 1940s, as well as obtained pieces of crashed disks and the bodies of the occupants.» — la conjetura sobre el gobierno viene con la fuerza expresamente medida: *some small reason to speculate*.

«These two pieces of evidence are certainly real, in the sense that they are not wilting hoaxes.» — acota qué quiere decir con *reales*: que los documentos no son fraudes, no que prueben la tesis; *wilting* por *willing* es de la capa de texto.

«If the visitors are indeed insectlike they could be organized as a hive, and not only as small as I saw but also as light as Dr. Sarbacher recalls being told.» — enlaza la ligereza del material referida por Sarbacher con la hipótesis de la colmena, en condicional.

«In addition, it could be that there is very little sense of self associated with individual members of their species.» — extiende la hipótesis a la ausencia de individualidad, como posibilidad.

«If their mind is also a hive structure, it could be that their language is more a biological function than something learned.» — de ahí deriva un lenguaje biológico y no aprendido, con doble condicional.

«Maybe it was although it is odd that a crashed balloon would have retained enough of its tension to appear to anybody, even briefly, to be anything other than a flaccid plastic bag and some tinfoil.» — admite la explicación oficial del globo y a la vez señala lo que no le cuadra.

«The first is that he was held incommunicado for days before he made them.» — primer reparo que opone al testimonio corregido del ranchero Brazel.

«The second is that members of his family have asserted that he made them under duress, and his being held incommunicado, which is» — segundo reparo, apoyado en la familia; la frase cierra en la plana siguiente con *a matter of record*.

«It is that none of the officers originally involved ever thought that they were dealing with the remains of known objects or they never would have allowed their press release to be issued in the first place.» — el reparo que considera más fuerte, porque no depende de la credibilidad del ranchero.

«The inescapable fact of the Roswell affair is that a group of professionally competent Air Force officers caused the publication of a press release claiming that the Air Force had recovered a crashed fling disk, after observing the debris.» — lo único que da por inescapable del caso Roswell: que el comunicado existió y quién lo firmó.

«That there are deep secrets connected with the area of unidentified flying objects cannot really be denied.» — afirma el secreto oficial sin afirmar qué guarda.

«In the 1970s Senator Barry Goldwater was denied access to secret documents concerning apparent research into UFOs being conducted at Wright Patterson Air Force Base.» — el caso concreto con que sostiene esa afirmación.

«It clearly states that a significant percentage of flying disk cases remain unexplained.» — lo que encuentra dentro del informe Condon, contra su prefacio.

«The Condon Report ended the public interest of the United States government in the whole subject of unknown flying objects.» — el efecto institucional que atribuye al informe.

«Cornell University professor Dr. Carl Sagan has stated many times that there is no evidence that unidentified aerial objects-and presumably visitors exist.» — consigna la posición de Sagan antes de matizarla.

«To be precise, there is no publicly acknowledged physical artifact.» — la precisión con que la contesta: falta artefacto reconocido públicamente, no evidencia.

«It appears that there is more than a shred of evidence that there are visitors here, and that they are doing something that involves its.» — su propia conclusión del capítulo, medida en *more than a shred*; *its* por *us* es de la capa de texto.

«The only lasting damage I can find has not to do with any direct side effects of the visitors' activities, but with people being isolated with their experiences because of the indifference or incomprehension of competent scientific professionals.» — sitúa el daño duradero en el abandono institucional, no en los visitantes.

«There is no publicly available reason to conclude that our earth is the object of visitation, or to support any of the other hypotheses that have been advanced.» — niega base pública para su propia hipótesis y para todas las demás por igual.

«Indeed, any such assertions would be premature.» — la consecuencia que extrae: cualquier afirmación sobre la naturaleza del fenómeno es prematura.

«In Japan, General Yoritsune observed while on maneuvers that there were mysterious lights swinging and circling in the southern sky. The visitation continued through the night. In the morning the general ordered a group of scientific investigators to determine what had caused the strange disturbance. After consultation they announced that "it was only the wind making the stars sway.» — el caso japonés de 1235 como primer dictamen oficial desestimatorio de la serie que traza.

«More recently, the distinguished Harvard astronomer Dr. Donald Menzel, in his 1953 book Flying Saucers, explained that a major sighting, carried out by professional observers with good equipment, was "an atmospheric lensing effect.» — el eslabón moderno de esa misma serie, con su fuente impresa.

«However, in his discussion of the sighting, Dr. Menzel did not mention the angle actually reported but assumed it was one at which it might have been possible to observe lensing.» — la objeción técnica concreta que le opone, no una descalificación general.

«There is no need to look, because there couldn't be anyone out there.» — resume así la posición creacionista que acaba de citar.

«The truth is that we do not and cannot know the actual condition of life elsewhere in the universe because we are presently too ignorant of conditions outside our own immediate solar neighborhood.» — la ignorancia declarada que opone por igual a creacionistas y a ufólogos.

«However, judging from the amount of evidence available, it may be possible to expand our knowledge simply by taking the flying disk and abductee phenomena seriously.» — lo que pide no es creer, sino tomar el fenómeno como objeto de estudio.

«This matter is a garden of luminous weed through which only a fool would dash yelling any doctrine at all, whether it be that of the Creationist and debunker or that of the UFO true believer.» — pone en el mismo saco al escéptico doctrinario y al creyente ufológico.

«When people in the present time find themselves face to face with the visitors, they often think that they are among the first to see them.» — el error histórico que el capítulo viene a corregir con casos antiguos.

«Perhaps the keepers of these secrets across the world ought to reflect on the ageless nature of this experience.» — de la antigüedad del fenómeno deriva un reproche al secreto oficial.

«My point is that there may be far more to this than science or government or even religion can separately address.» — su tesis sobre el asunto no es de qué se trata, sino de que ninguna institución sola lo alcanza.

«It would seem that our civilization is not paying attention to what mad be the central archetypal and mythological experience of the ale.» — el reproche a la cultura, con doble reserva; *mad* por *may* y *ale* por *age* son de la capa de texto.

«Is that why they have become so physical, so real, dragging people out of bed like rapists in the night — because they must have our notice in order to somehow be confirmed in their own truth?» — formula como pregunta la hipótesis de que los visitantes necesiten ser vistos para existir.

«They are not simply flickering effects of the mind. Something is out there, and it wants in.» — lo más lejos que llega en afirmación, sin nombrar qué es ese algo.

«I am not presenting a hypothesis that denies that the visitors may be real beings from another planet and/or reality.» — deja explícito que su lectura no excluye la extraterrestre; la doble negación es suya.

«All I am suggesting is that we do no know what they are, only that they are — and our relationship with them is very strange indeed.» — reduce su propia propuesta a que existen y no se sabe qué son; *do no* por *do not* es de la capa de texto.

«But I cannot assert that the disks don't really kill car engines, and very possibly because of something about the mysterious drives that power the ships.» — se abstiene también en la dirección escéptica, sobre los efectos en automóviles.

«Whomever or whatever the visitors are, their activities go far beyond a mere study of mankind.» — lo que niega es la lectura del experimento científico, sin decir qué la reemplaza.

«To really begin to perceive the visitors adequately it is going to be necessary to invent a new discipline of vision, one that combines the mystic's freedom of imagination with the substantial intellectual rigor of the scientist.» — pide una disciplina nueva, hecha de imaginación mística y rigor científico a la vez.

«I know that this story is true because the man it happened to was me, and the problem manifested itself the morning after my December 26 experience.» — declara ser él el testigo del caso del automóvil que acaba de contar en tercera persona.

«Perhaps Dr. Cardan was simply too honest to hide the truth.» — la explicación que ofrece de por qué Cardano consignó su encuentro pese al riesgo.

«In recent years many of the taken have reported having sexual experiences with the visitors.» — enlaza los relatos modernos con la serie histórica del íncubo y el súcubo.

«Our present relation to the incubi and succubi may very well center on real flesh-and-blood visitors who first appeared here recently. But if so, then it also has a most profound and unexpected human dimension, for they are entering our consciousness where our gods and goblins live.» — sostiene las dos cosas a la vez: seres de carne llegados hace poco y entrada en el lugar de la conciencia donde viven dioses y duendes.

«Why? Either because the visitors are good at keeping artifacts from us, or because they exist somewhere between reality and dream, and our inner selves know that we can never take into our hands things from the factory of the mind.» — explica la falta de artefactos con dos ramas que no jerarquiza.

«The most interesting thing about all this material, the most important, haunting thing, is that in the past half-century it has slowly stripped itself of all the illusion, the armies in the sky, the fairies, the incubi, the glorious creatures of old, and come down to what it really is: a difficult experience, terribly enigmatic, the very existence of which implies that we very well may be something different from what we believe ourselves to be, on this earth for reasons that may not yet be known to us, the understanding of which will be an immense challenge.» — su balance del capítulo histórico: el fenómeno se ha despojado de sus ropajes antiguos y queda como experiencia enigmática.

«If intelligence is normally centered in a hive or group context, a species such as mankind with individual independence of will might be a precious thing indeed, an almost inexhaustible reservoir of new thoughts and ways of acting.» — de la hipótesis de la colmena deriva un valor para la individualidad humana, y va con doble condicional.

«Perhaps the parallel world has also had a technological revolution, or the mind of man has created new possibilities in its secret universe, or the dead have discovered wonders about which the living only dream.» — tres explicaciones de la intensificación del fenómeno, ofrecidas juntas y sin jerarquía.

«The group was for the most part rather hardheaded and not unusually imaginative.» — describe así a los participantes del coloquio de abril de 1986, contra la lectura del delirio compartido.

«When they speak aloud, it is sometimes with a high, squeaking sound, other times in a deep bass.» — el rasgo sonoro común que dice haber hallado en los testimonios.

«There is a small body of research suggesting that low-frequency sound may have biological effects, especially in the area of disorientation.» — enlaza ese sonido grave con literatura científica, midiendo el respaldo como escaso.

«When we have contemplated sending a message into space, we have thought to send some core symbol — a prime number, perhaps, or the value of pi.» — el argumento por analogía con que introduce el triángulo como mensaje posible.

«The transmission of an isosceles triangle would not be an invalid choice.» — la conclusión de ese argumento, formulada por doble negación.

«This symbol is the triangle Buckminster Fuller. in his autobiography, called it the "fundamental building block of the universe." It is the central symbol of growth in many ancient traditions. An understanding of it is the key to the riddle of the Sphinx and to the pyramid as the mark of eternal life. G. I. Gurdjieff relates it to the "three holy forces" of creation and it is the main sense of the Holy Trinity.» — reúne en el triángulo a Fuller, la Esfinge, la pirámide, las tres fuerzas de Gurdjieff y la Trinidad, como lectura propia.

«The purpose of the colloquy was not primarily to discuss the details of being taken, but rather the experience of coping with it, of trying to live a normal life without knowing for certain what is real, of facing the risk of personal and public ridicule, of finding one's way in a world that has suddenly become very strange indeed.» — declara el objeto del coloquio: no los hechos, sino cómo se vive con ellos.

«Even though you aren't one, you're still one of us.» — le dice a Budd Hopkins al abrir el coloquio, incluyéndolo sin adjudicarle la experiencia.

«If there's anything we can understand, it's the meeting. The experience — I speak for myself, I don't know how traumatic it was for others — it was fine for me.» — dentro del coloquio acota su declaración a sí mismo y no la extiende al grupo.

«At the time I gave this warning, the only stories about the hole were saying that its significance was not understood.» — sitúa su propia advertencia ambiental de 1986 antes de que el asunto se entendiera.

«excessive ultraviolet light, but the information emerged visually, appearing as complicated images that I may not have understood fully.» — declara que su material ambiental le llegó en imágenes y admite no haberlas entendido del todo; la frase arranca antes en la misma plana.

«Additional information suggested that volcanic activity had exacerbated the ozone problem, and that there would be some reduction of the size of the major holes during the eleven years from 1986 to 1997, but that this would be only a temporary respite.» — la predicción sobre el ozono, fechada y con el alivio calificado de temporal.

«If I had told the reporters that alleged visitors were in any way involved, it seemed to me that there was a high probability that my credibility would be destroyed.» — el cálculo con que dice haber callado ante la prensa.

«I felt embarrassed to have been so cryptic with him, but I wanted a record of some sort of the real motive behind my calling the conference.» — cuenta la maniobra de dejar constancia sin decirlo, con la vergüenza incluida.

«However, in the past year the atmospheric predictions have emerged as being quite accurate, and I thought it best to mention them in view of the obvious seriousness of the problem that they address.» — justifica incluir el material ambiental por su acierto posterior, no por su procedencia.

«The problem, of course, is that there may be other energies we know little or nothing about that could affect electronic equipment.» — el límite que pone al valor probatorio de las interferencias eléctricas.

«My wife, myself, and a scientist friend have observed that I can sometimes affect electronic devices by simply placing my hand near them.» — declara un efecto propio sobre aparatos, con sus testigos nombrados.

«I think we all have something called performance anxiety.» — en el coloquio nombra así el estado común que atribuye al grupo.

«I think the reason is that a lot of us have been asked to do some very hard things, that were very frightening, and also I have a feeling that we've been questioned very, very hard.» — la explicación que da de esa ansiedad, en primera persona del plural y con *I have a feeling*.

«I am unwilling to run anymore.» — su declaración en el coloquio, frente al patrón de huida que se había atribuido.

«I think we're sisters and brothers not from the fact that we went through something together but from the fact that we noticed.» — funda el vínculo del grupo en haber advertido, no en haber vivido lo mismo.

«They won't comply, I don't think. They can be nicer, I've seen that.» — responde al reclamo de respeto con lo poco que dice haber comprobado.

«In the direction of skepticism, for the taken, lies one form of madness; in that of belief another.» — pone la locura a los dos lados y deja el agnosticismo activo en medio.

«This need for balance is fundamental to more than the process of reconciling oneself with the apparent meaning of visitation.» — extiende la exigencia de equilibrio más allá del caso de los tomados.

«For the experience does have its symbolic center in the number three and the triangular shape.» — enuncia la tesis simbólica del capítulo final.

«The visitors often appear in threes. They project triangular lights. They have been reported to wear various types of triangular devices and emblems.» — la base de esa tesis es una serie de observaciones, no una revelación.

«A current theory suggests that gravity may consist of two components counterbalancing one another, the balance of which causes the third force — which is what we call gravity — to emerge.» — trae la física del momento como paralelo de la tríada, atribuyéndola a una teoría vigente.

«It is not unreasonable to consider that a species with three basic forms would choose the triangle as its most basic symbol of self, as it would express both the nature of the species and a fundamental law of structure.» — la explicación que ofrece del emblema, formulada por doble negación.

«The third force emerges when the first and second forces come into balance, and when all three are in harmony they become a fourth thing, an indivisible whole.» — la doctrina de la tríada tal como la usa, con la cuarta cosa como resultado.

«I do not wish to imply by this anything beyond a human context.» — acota de inmediato el alcance de esa doctrina al plano humano.

«But the triad can never come into harmony until there is a firm ground of understanding.» — condiciona la armonía de la tríada a un entendimiento que dice no tener todavía.

«It is, however, too easy to call them evil, just as it is too easy to say that they are saints, kindly guides from the beyond.» — rechaza por igual la lectura demoníaca y la angélica de los visitantes.

«When the opposition between two is in balance, the third force emerges.» — la regla que aplica a todos sus ejemplos, del acto sexual al nacimiento.

«The third force is not a small thing: It is the immense progress of life, the very movement of the universe toward whatever goal it seeks.» — le da a la tercera fuerza alcance cosmológico, con el fin dejado sin nombrar.

«When the internal triad of mind, body, and heart becomes fixed in a state of permanent harmony, it is because the seeker has finally died to himself and all the allures of life.» — la tríada interior de cuerpo, mente y corazón, con la muerte del yo como condición.

«The human being in a state of spiritual harmony is looked upon as a sort of cosmic egg out of which hatches the bird of resurrection, which is the phoenix, also characterized as an eagle, the symbol of the yin.» — el huevo cósmico y el fénix como figuras de ese estado, atribuidas a una lectura recibida.

«The Aztec poets sang of the creative impact of the God and Goddess of Duality, and called the third force the song of the flower.» — trae el ejemplo azteca de la flor y el canto para la misma estructura.

«When we were first married, Anne and I found a motto for ourselves in the Bible, from Ecclesiastes, "Two are better than one . . . and a cord of three strands is not quickly snapped.» — funda la misma idea en su propia vida conyugal y en el Eclesiastés.

«This must be a very careful business, this communion, for it can easily make such a flame that the flower is burned.» — advierte que la comunión que propone puede destruir lo que junta.

«Marriage requires patience, giving without thought to keep accounts. When one says' I gave this and so I am owed that," the marriage has not yet begun.» — el modelo conyugal con que piensa el trato con los visitantes.

«We must be careful, for the stakes are high: Mankind is in the position of maturing as a species at the same time that our planet could be dying.» — enlaza la madurez de la especie con la crisis ecológica, en potencial.

«If we wait, we can be sure that nothing will save us.» — lo único que da por seguro en ese terreno es el costo de esperar.

«When two in balance cause a third to emerge and remain in balance, something more happens: The three together become a greater whole.» — la cuarta fase de su esquema, la del todo mayor.

«The riddle of the Sphinx: What has the strength of a bull, the courage of a lion, and the intelligence of a man? The answer is the Sphinx itself, who then takes wind like an eagle and looks down over life from outside of time, with true objectivity.» — su versión del acertijo, cuya respuesta es la Esfinge misma y cuyo término es la objetividad.

«The great symbol of transformation, the fourth beast of the Sphinx, is the eagle.» — nombra al águila como la cuarta bestia y como símbolo de la transformación.

«We do not even know if there are visitors. We do not know what we are, or why this is happening, or exactly what is happening.» — en medio del capítulo simbólico repite que nada de eso está establecido.

«I became interested in the tarot when I was studying the rise of monasticism in Europe for a historical novel I never actually wrote.» — declara la procedencia de su interés por el tarot, que es literaria e histórica.

«the tarot is much more than a deck of fortune-telling cards; it is a sort philosophical machine that presents its ideas in the form of pictures rather than words.» — lo lee como máquina filosófica y no como instrumento adivinatorio.

«It consists of the four beasts of the Sphinx, one at each corner, surrounding an enigmatic and powerful figure who stands within a wreath.» — describe la carta del Mundo por su composición antes de interpretarla.

«It is intended, I think, to represent a potential in all human beings.» — su lectura de esa figura, marcada como conjetura propia.

«In all of us there is an unaddressed urgency which we cannot really name, which seems to lie at the heart of our hope for ourselves.» — el impulso que pone en el centro de todo el capítulo, sin nombrarlo.

«We go from the endless battle of duality to the harmony of the triad, and then to the mystery of the eagle.» — la secuencia de su esquema, de la dualidad al águila.

«Each of us is potentially a transfigure being, the friend of God, the Phoenix gliding free.» — el término del proceso, dicho de todos y en potencial; *transfigure* es corrupción de la capa de texto.

«And yet, I cannot think that Betty Andreasson chose to present the fiery drama of the risen eagle with such force in her testimony entirely on her own.» — su única afirmación fuerte sobre el material simbólico ajeno, y va en forma de no poder pensar lo contrario.

«It is from the legend of Ishtar that the story of the descent into the underworld enters so many of man's traditions: The giver of life overcomes the taker of life, and rebirth emerges.» — adjudica a Ishtar el origen del descenso al inframundo en las tradiciones.

«Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo traveled the bath of transformation, and were not consumed in its fires.» — lee el horno de Daniel como paso por el fuego transformador; la grafía del tercer nombre va tal cual, ver Notas de carga.

«They symbolically sat astride the shoulders of the eagle, as did the medicine men of Native America, the shamans of the Siberian plains, the witches of old Europe when the ice king strode half the continent.» — pone en una misma serie a los tres del horno, los curanderos, los chamanes y las brujas.

«Length and breadth, when they merge, make the solid, which the Pythagoreans thought of as mind emerging into reality.» — atribuye a los pitagóricos la lectura del sólido como mente que emerge.

«No matter what factual reality attaches to the experience of the visitors, the presence of the triangle as a frequently observed symbol by many people who have no idea at all of its rich heritage suggests that there is much here that is worth exploring, and not only with the tools of science but also with the tools of myth and philosophy, with the heart as well as the intellect.» — separa la cuestión de los hechos de la del símbolo, y pide para ésta herramientas de mito y filosofía.

«It could be that the triangle performs a similar symbolic function wherever the three-dimensional universe prevails.» — la conjetura más amplia que arriesga sobre el triángulo, en potencial.

«The additional presence of the eagle in this symbology confirms its sense and direction and makes it difficult to assert that it is all just an accident, as anchored in chance as a remarkable thing I once saw» — mide su argumento contra el azar y en seguida se lo compara con una ola; la frase sigue en la misma plana.

«For a moment it seemed perfect, solid, and eternal. Then it sank slowly down, the victim of the same random forces that had created it.» — cierra el capítulo con la ola piramidal del Golfo, deshecha por el mismo azar que la hizo.

«I cannot say, in all truth, that I am certain the visitors are present as entities entirely independent of their observers.» — primera mitad de su abstención final: no afirma la independencia de los visitantes.

«Nor can I say that I do not think they are here at all.» — segunda mitad: tampoco niega su presencia, y la doble negación es suya.

«Science has not explained the visitors; indeed, it has not even begun to explore them.» — reprocha a la ciencia no el error sino la ausencia.

«Nor is it sufficient to say that "higher" beings are studying us, and remain passively waiting for what tidbits of knowledge they may toss us.» — rechaza también la versión benévola y pasiva de los seres superiores.

«A striking fact of the colloquy was the general expectation of catastrophe, a possibility that I also fear.» — consigna la expectativa apocalíptica del grupo y declara compartirla como temor.

«This is also the message of Fundamentalism — and of some parts of both the peace and environmental movements.» — sitúa esa expectativa en un cuadro más amplio que el ufológico.

«Premier Gorbachev has taken to wearing makeup on Soviet television to obscure a birthmark on his forehead because people have called it "the mark of the 294 beast.» — ejemplo contemporáneo del temor milenarista; el *294* intercalado es de la capa de texto.

«And there has been an undertone of fear in relation to the fact that the word chernobyl in Ukranian means "wormwood," the name of the star in the Book of Revelation that is poison to a third of the waters.» — segundo ejemplo, con la etimología y el pasaje del Apocalipsis tal como los da.

«As the ninth century closed toward the first millennium, the Western world was also swept by wave after wave of millennial hysteria. The end of days was expected momentarily.» — pone el pánico presente en serie con el del primer milenio.

«Nor can I be a true skeptic, for I loathe the narrow and love the broad.» — la razón que da para no ser tampoco escéptico, y es de temperamento, no de prueba.

«No, the visitors may very well be real. Quite real.» — dentro del epílogo vuelve a dejar viva la lectura realista, en potencial.

«I do not think that this is a question that will in the end admit itself to a linear and mechanistic answer.» — anticipa que la respuesta, si llega, no será de ese tipo.

«But the difference between science and theology is that science can make room .for new things.» — le concede a la ciencia la capacidad de rectificar que le niega a la teología.

«They are very strange. But that could be a two-way street.» — devuelve la extrañeza a los dos lados del encuentro.

«They are not all-powerful superbeings. They are frail, limited individuals far from home — if indeed this world is not their home.» — les niega omnipotencia y en la misma frase deja abierto que la Tierra sea su casa.

«The truth may be that it is not their involvement that is increasing, but our perception that is becoming sharper.» — invierte la lectura del aumento del fenómeno hacia el lado del observador.

«We initially noticed objects from afar, then closer, then we remembered seeing the visitors, and now we are beginning to remember being with them.» — describe la serie histórica del fenómeno como una progresión del recuerdo.

«It could be that they wish to avoid what Cortez did with such eagerness.» — la razón que conjetura para la discreción de los visitantes: no aplastar una cultura.

«Would we not all risk being lost in nonmeaning if an apparently superior visitor culture emerged suddenly into the open?» — el riesgo que ve en una revelación súbita, planteado como pregunta.

«Unless, of course, it were to emerge not into blinded awe, but into our understanding of its truth, its strengths as well as its weaknesses.» — la condición que pondría para que esa aparición no fuera destructiva.

«Maybe that is why two triangles were inscribed on my arm: to symbolize that we are each a tiny, complete universe, a small but valid version of the whole;» — lee las marcas de su brazo como microcosmos inmaduro, y lo dice con *maybe*.

«As we begin to admit that the visitor phenomenon has some sort of extrapersonal reality, perhaps it will begin to come into clearer focus.» — lo que espera del reconocimiento del fenómeno, medido en *some sort* y *perhaps*.

«There is something of the mirror image in all this, and in the visitors more than a little of the prankster which has so much significance in our own mystical literature. From Till Eulenspiegel to Mullah Nasir Eddin, we have always accepted pranks as one output of true understanding. "God laughs and plays," said Meister Eckhart.» — enlaza la ambigüedad de los visitantes con la tradición mística de la broma, de Eulenspiegel a Eckhart.

«There is, however, a problem. The problem is the man himself, and his extraordinarily apt qualifications.» — el caso del psicólogo perceptual, presentado como problema para el escéptico y no como prueba.

«But this highly qualified man feels certain that what he saw was actually there.» — cierra ese caso con la certeza del testigo, no con la suya.

«I would not be at all surprised if the visitors are real and are slowly coming into contact with us according to an agenda of their own devising, which proceeds as human understanding increases.» — su formulación más comprometida sobre la hipótesis realista, y va en forma de no sorprenderse.

«If they are not from our universe it could be necessary for us to understand them before they can emerge into our reality.» — la rama de los universos paralelos, con la comprensión humana como condición de entrada.

«Of course, the conditions under which movement between universes might be possible are not known.» — pone él mismo el límite a esa rama.

«We have seen that the visitors are not fairies, and that their ships are not figments of the wind.» — niega la identificación con el hada tras haberla puesto en serie con ella.

«It is an immense human reality, vast in its impact and complexity.» — lo que sí afirma del fenómeno es su realidad humana, no su naturaleza.

«Blind denial is as empty a response as blind acceptance, and operates on the same level of validity.» — iguala la negación y la aceptación ciegas.

«The visitor experience may be our first true quantum discovery in the large-scale world: The very act of observing it may be creating it as a concrete actuality, with sense, definition, and a consciousness of its own.» — propone que la observación misma cree el fenómeno, con doble *may*.

«And we can certainly find that thread, if we bring humor and honesty and courage — and great care — to the effort.» — enumera lo que pide para el trabajo, humor incluido, antes de la imagen de Ariadna.

«In any case accepting that. the visitor experience is not a false unknown will relieve a lot of suffering.» — el beneficio que reclama no depende de resolver qué son los visitantes.

«The reason I carried out the polygraph was to reassure readers that I honestly think that I perceived the things reported in this book.» — el objeto declarado del polígrafo es su sinceridad, no la verdad de lo relatado.

«It is not fiction, and does not contain a word of fiction.» — la afirmación más rotunda que hace sobre el estatuto del libro.

«My successful completion of this test in no way proves that my recollection of my experiences is correct, but it does confirm that I have described what I saw to the best of my ability.» — separa expresamente la sinceridad de la exactitud del recuerdo.

«His ability to do this — along with his leading position in his field — has convinced me that, despite the controversies surrounding lie detection in general, he is very skilled indeed.» — su conclusión sobre el examinador, acotada a la pericia y no a la técnica.

«IF WHITLEY STRIEBER ISN'T FIBBING IN HIS NEW BOOK COMMUNION» — blurb de *The Nation* en la contracubierta; sigue «THEN IT MUST BE ACCOUNTED THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK OF THE YEAR, OF THE DECADE. OF THE CENTURY...».

«Thus begins the most astonishing true-life odyssey ever recorded» — fórmula del editor en la contracubierta, no declaración del autor.

«The assistance of the physicians and scientists who have advised me does not imply that they support my conclusions» — salvaguarda impresa por el propio libro en los agradecimientos; es la línea que impide contar a los médicos nombrados como avales de la tesis.

Los agradecimientos nombran a Donald F. Klein, MD (New York State Psychiatric Institute), al Dr. Robert Naiman, al Dr. John Gliedman, al Dr. David Webb, al Dr. Brian O'Leary, al Dr. Bruce Maccabee, a David M. Jacobs (Temple University) y a Budd Hopkins.

«I have examined Whitley Strieber and found that he is not suffering from a psychosis.» — declaración firmada por Donald F. Klein, MD, en el Apéndice I. Voz de Klein, no del autor.

«He appears to me to have adapted very well to life at a high level of uncertainty.» — cierre de la misma declaración de Klein.

El Apéndice II reproduce el resultado del polígrafo del 31 de octubre de 1986; el ítem 13 queda evaluado «possibly untrue», y el comentario que sigue entre paréntesis es del propio Strieber.

«The concrete world has slipped through the meshes of the scientific net.» — epígrafe de Alfred North Whitehead, *Modes of Thought*, al frente del Prelude. Los otros epígrafes son de Dante (*Inferno* I, p. 10), William Blake (p. 70) y Walt Whitman (p. 86); son citas elegidas por el autor, no doctrina suya.

El material de Betty Andreasson que la obra interpreta en las pp. 228–233 procede de *The Andreasson Affair*, de Raymond E. Fowler, y la obra lo declara.

*Passport to Magonia*, de Jacques Vallée, se cita una sola vez, con el pie de imprenta tal como lo trae el texto: «(Chicago: Refinery, 1969)».

«Believe it. Or don't believe it. But read it — for this gripping story will move you like no other... will fascinate you, terrify you, and alter the way you experience your world.» — cierre de la contracubierta: el editor suspende la cuestión de la creencia y vende el efecto sobre el lector.

«I would especially like to thank Budd Hopkins, who has sacrificed an enormous amount of time and effort — often approaching the heroic — for myself and those like me who have been dragged to the edge of reality.» — en los agradecimientos, sitúa a Hopkins como quien acompaña a los afectados, no como autoridad que valide la tesis.

«Dr. Bruce Maccabee, research physicist with the United States Navy, read my manuscript for its physics content, but any errors in this area remain my own.» — el reparto de responsabilidad que la obra imprime para cada asesor: leyeron el manuscrito, los errores quedan del autor.

«My wife reports that my personality deteriorated dramatically over the following weeks.» — el cambio de carácter se apoya en el testimonio de su esposa, referido por él.

«Next I spoke to Jacques Sandulescu on the phone. This is a transcript of that conversation.» — la obra declara la naturaleza del material que sigue: transcripción telefónica, no relato del autor.

«Jacques: "The light! I was sleeping, all of a sudden something woke me up. I saw the room was full of light. Bright, like daylight. Not like the moon. I thought we overslept. I look at my watch, it says four-thirty. Then I hear you through the door, saying it's OK. The light is gone, so I go back to sleep."» — voz de Jacques Sandulescu en la transcripción; describe luz de día a las cuatro y media y no menciona visitantes.

«She reports: "It was a bang. Then I heard the scurry of little feet running across your bedroom upstairs.» — voz de Annie Gottlieb, citada por el autor; ella atribuye después esos ruidos a los gatos.

«I wish to add that Budd Hopkins was present at both of these sessions, recording them. He was allowed to ask questions, but only at the end of each session, and it was understood that his questions would be few. They are identified with his name in the transcripts. All other questions were put by Dr. Klein.» — el protocolo con que la obra declara haber producido las transcripciones y cómo distinguir en ellas quién pregunta.

«[This is an actual transcript of my first hypnosis. Nothing has been left out. This is what happened when my memories were examined under hypnotic regression.» — el estatuto que la obra reclama para el material transcrito, en corchetes del propio autor.

«Budd Hopkins responded. "It's often like this. Beginning moments are the worst. And after that, it gets easier."» — voz de Hopkins dentro de la transcripción, encuadrando la reacción del sujeto como habitual.

«Budd Hopkins: "What about the Hynek book? I think there's a drawing in that.» — voz de Hopkins en la transcripción, buscando una fuente impresa previa para la imagen descrita.

«It's also possible that it's something quite inexplicable that you're trying to hang something on, to give it some shape or form.» — el entrevistador propone que la figura sea forma prestada a algo inexplicable; el sujeto la acepta como posible.

«It is very unusual to do this, especially from a deep trance like the one Dr. Klein had induced.» — la obra consigna como excepcional la salida espontánea del trance.

«"That occurs in hypnosis. We have these spontaneous age shifts. Frequently what will happen is that somebody will under hypnosis see something they've seen before, or something like it, and age shift will occur."» — el hipnotizador ofrece dentro de la sesión una explicación técnica del salto a 1957, y la obra la conserva.

«But when I brought up Einstein with my mother, she said, "We are Catholic. Catholics are absolutist.» — voz de su madre, citada por el autor dentro del relato de su formación religiosa.

«The man was given the instructions during an abduction experience during the fifties, and claims that he was told that he wouldn't remember a thing until 1985, when he suddenly found his mind full of richly detailed plans.» — relato de un tercero que la obra transmite marcándolo como *claims*, no como hecho.

«Budd Hopkins had wanted me to cover this incident first, before any further hypnosis, because of its similarity to one of the most common abduction scenarios.» — el criterio de Hopkins al ordenar las sesiones, consignado por el autor.

«(Note: When people are asked at random to draw the first figure that enters their minds, 30 percent will draw a triangle. Nobody knows why this is the» — nota del autor intercalada en la transcripción; la frase cierra en la repetición de plana del troceo.

«Budd Hopkins suggested that I get an artist to render the image.» — la iniciativa del retrato de la cubierta viene de Hopkins, no del autor.

«Ted Jacobs tried especially hard to capture that elusive quality, and succeeded brilliantly — although the final result, on the cover of this book, is a bit more human than was actually the case.» — el autor declara que la ilustración de la cubierta humaniza algo la figura que describió.

«Anne said, "Well, it was a quiet night," and proceeded to make a beautiful breakfast while I sat and stared.» — la voz de su esposa a la mañana siguiente, que el autor deja sin conciliar con su relato.

«Rather than suggest to her in any way that we thought this might be the case, Dr. Naiman began with that night without telling her why.» — el protocolo declarado de las sesiones de Anne, conducidas por Naiman y no por Klein.

«Dr. Naiman: "First we want to concentrate on July thirtieth, 1985. You were with your son?"» — encabezamiento de la transcripción de Anne Strieber, con Robert Naiman como hipnotizador y la fecha de la sesión declarada.

«Well, it's hard being all alone all day with a .kid and I'm tired at night. and I'm not usually the one who puts him to bed. And I'm not as good at reading stories as Whitley is, and I don't look forward when Whitley's gone to putting him to bed.» — voz de Anne bajo hipnosis: lo que recupera de la noche del 30 de julio es rutina doméstica, no visitantes.

«Because of this procedure we are going through now, we may be loosening up some memories that will not emerge until you're out of the trance.» — el hipnotizador anuncia dentro de la sesión que los recuerdos pueden aparecer después de ella.

«But it's very possible that after I take you out of the trance, between now and the end of the weekend something will come to you about the thirtieth.» — continuación de esa sugestión, que el libro conserva sin comentarla.

«It wasn't a peaceful eight, but don't remember why.» — voz de Anne: afirma la inquietud de la noche y niega el contenido; *eight* por *night* es de la capa de texto.

«I don't know what the calendar says, but I get the sense that there was a new moon that night.» — voz de Anne sobre la oscuridad de esa noche, con el dato dado como sensación.

«If the roof's on fire you'd see the roof all lit up.» — voz de Anne bajo hipnosis, oponiendo al relato del incendio lo que ella no vio.

«He gets nightmares sometimes. But he sounded especially frightened.» — voz de Anne sobre el grito de su hijo: distingue la pesadilla habitual de ese terror.

«I wasn't supposed to. It was like your mother said to you, 'You have to stay here.'» — voz de Anne describiendo la prohibición interna de levantarse, comparada con una orden materna.

«Well, we're all trained to do that from childhood." Budd Hopkins: "Who told you that?" "Nobody told me! I just had to do it.» — el intercambio en que Hopkins presiona por el origen de esa orden y Anne niega que alguien se la diera.

«No one said so. I just knew it.» — voz de Anne, insistiendo en que la prohibición no tuvo emisor.

«Well, they weren't orders. You see, they weren't. They weren't orders, no.» — voz de Anne rechazando el término con que el entrevistador nombraba lo que ella describe.

«I wasn't supposed to know but my son was so afraid.» — voz de Anne: el conflicto entre la prohibición y el miedo del niño.

«I didn't feel restrained. I just felt like I wasn't supposed to go.» — voz de Anne: precisa que no había impedimento físico, solo la certeza de no deber ir.

«I found it funny when I woke up that the roof wasn't burned.» — voz de Anne sobre la mañana siguiente al aviso de incendio.

«I get the impression that someone was there but it wasn't Jacques and Annie, because they were in their room and they stayed in their room.» — voz de Anne: sitúa a alguien más en la casa y descarta a los invitados.

«I knew they still had to be in there, but it was almost as if they weren't.» — voz de Anne sobre los invitados, con la impresión de que estaban encerrados.

«Well, that's what I'm told. I remember the owl. I remember Whitley talking about a crystal, too.» — voz de Anne: separa lo que recuerda de lo que le contaron.

«He said it had a point that touched the earth.» — voz de Anne repitiendo la descripción del cristal que su marido le dio y que ella no vio.

«It was like a party and not being invited.» — voz de Anne describiendo la noche con una imagen de exclusión.

«No. Because he — I think he can deal with these problems.» — respuesta de Anne al preguntarle Naiman si su marido debía ver a un psiquiatra.

«It was — oof! It was like a joke. But then who would do that?» — voz de Anne describiendo el pinchazo en el abdomen como broma, y preguntando de quién.

«My son woke up and had a nightmare at the same time and said something poked him in the stomach.» — voz de Anne: el mismo suceso referido de su hijo la misma noche.

«The baby-sitter said she thought it was some boys with sheets over their heads, but it didn't look like that.» — voz de Anne, que consigna la explicación de la niñera y la rechaza.

«Oh, about as tall as a four-year-old. It had little pointed feet.» — voz de Anne describiendo la figura blanca del departamento.

«I thought it was interesting that he would actually show himself to the baby-sitter.» — voz de Anne, que subraya la presencia de un testigo ajeno a la familia.

«She was then brought out of the trance, after making a continent under hypnosis that she thought her memories had been "taken out," an assertion chat the hypnotist assured her would not be true in the future.» — el autor resume el cierre de la sesión; *continent* por *comment* y *chat* por *that* son de la capa de texto.

«During hypnosis it was found that she was still incapable of remembering much about the crucial nights, except that she had a powerful image that the screaming she had heard was me, not our son.» — el balance que el autor hace de la segunda sesión de Anne, con lo que ella no pudo recuperar.

«A basic ground rule today: Don't worry about saying anything you think Whitley or I may want you to say.» — la regla que el entrevistador enuncia al abrir la sesión de Anne, contra la complacencia.

«Try not to censor, not to judge, is what I mean.» — segunda parte de esa instrucción, tal como la imprime la transcripción.

«Not only will we not hold you responsible for your unconscious motivations, we welcome them.» — el entrevistador declara buscar precisamente el material inconsciente.

«What I'm worried about is more unconscious motivations. Consciously I'm not going to do that.» — voz de Anne: dice controlar lo consciente y desconfiar de lo demás.

«Oh, yes. I'm here voluntarily. If I had said, 'No. I'm through with this,' I wouldn't be here.» — voz de Anne afirmando que participa por decisión propia.

«That's like if there was an auto accident and everybody else got the number of the car and you didn't. You feel like a jerk.» — voz de Anne describiendo con una comparación su lugar de testigo que no vio nada.

«It soon became evident that this was no symbol for a flying disk but rather for our family life.)» — acotación del autor dentro de la transcripción, descartando la lectura ufológica del sueño de la casa blanca.

«I feel like I don't want to say anything. I don't know why that is.» — voz de Anne, que consigna su propia resistencia sin explicarla.

«I would rather not know about these things that make Whitley vulnerable.» — voz de Anne, que declara preferir no saber.

«"I had a vague memory of my eves closed and my eyelids all lit up as if the light was on in the room. But it was very vague."» — voz de Anne, con la reserva repetida dos veces en dos líneas.

«Supporting this came the first of a number of what she feels are references to a female authority: "It was like your mother said to you, 'You have to stay here.'» — el autor cuenta como serie las alusiones de Anne a una autoridad femenina, marcándolas como lo que ella siente.

«Finally she volunteered that she's often felt that there are things "going on" with me that she wasn't "supposed" to know.» — voz de Anne, en resumen del autor, sobre un saber que se le vedaba.

«She then revealed a definite role: "I'm supposed to kind of help him afterwards to deal with it. That's my role. But I can't stop them. you know. He just has to."» — voz de Anne definiendo su papel: asistir después, sin poder impedir nada.

«Her reply was that I do not have hallucinations, but "they come to him because of his head."» — voz de Anne, que niega la alucinación y a la vez sitúa la causa en la cabeza de su marido.

«Some were blue lights and they would look through the front of it and the blue light would make them see through me without an X ray.» — voz del hijo, describiendo el sueño del médico y las luces de colores.

«And there was an orange light that was supposed to see not my bones but the inside skin and what was happening.» — continuación del relato del niño, con su propia explicación de para qué servía cada luz.

«It wasn't like anything. It was just this big, massive thing.» — voz del hijo, que se niega a comparar lo que dice haber visto con nada conocido.

«He also complained that he saw a skeleton looking at him when he was trying to relax.» — el autor consigna la queja del niño sobre la figura delgada.

«Well, its — oh. It's not a skeleton, it's one of the thin ones that stood around behind the doctors.» — voz del hijo, que corrige su propia descripción y nombra a los *thin ones*.

«You know, the thin ones that are always saying 'We won't hurt you'? Them. It's not a skeleton, it's one of the thin ants.» — voz del hijo repitiendo la frase que atribuye a esos seres; *ants* por *ones* es de la capa de texto.

«Dad, you know, we like the haiku and all the beautiful words. But the thin ones, it's like they are the haiku. Inside, they are haiku.» — voz del hijo, que enlaza a los seres delgados con el haiku por su propia cuenta.

«No building ever came into being as easily as did this temple — or rather, this temple came into being the way a temple should. Except that, to wreak a spilt or to desecrate or destroy it completely, instruments obviously of a magnificent sharpness had been used to scratch on every stone — from what quarry had then come? — of an eternity outlasting the temple, the clumsy scribblings of senseless children's hands, or rather the entries of barbaric mountain dwellers.» — epígrafe de Franz Kafka al frente del capítulo SIX, elegido por el autor y no doctrina suya; *spilt* por *split* es de la capa de texto.

«About the only thing I remember at this time is that certain materials reported to have come from flying saucer crashes were extremely light and very tough.» — voz del Dr. Robert I. Sarbacher en la carta que la obra reproduce, con la memoria declarada como parcial.

«I still do not know why the high order of classification has been given and why the denial of the existence of these devices.» — cierre de la misma carta de Sarbacher, que la obra transmite sin suscribir.

«The release was Issued by public relations officer Lieutenant Walter Haut, on order from the base commander.» — la procedencia del comunicado de Roswell, tal como la obra la consigna.

«Under the headline DISC: SOLUTION COLLAPSES the Chronicle reported that General Roger M. Ramey had stated that the wreckage was "a high-altitude weather observation device" that "consisted of a box kite and a balloon.» — la versión militar del hallazgo, citada de la prensa de la época.

«Our study would be conducted almost exclusively by non-believers who, although they couldn't possibly prove a negative result, could and probably would add an impressive body of evidence that there is no reality to the observations.» — documento interno del proyecto Condon que la obra reproduce, con el sesgo declarado por sus propios autores.

«Condon told a public meeting: "It is my inclination right now to recommend that the government get out of this business.» — voz de Condon citada por la obra, anterior a las conclusiones del estudio que dirigía.

«The Institute for Creation Research has stated, "To date there is not one iota of real evidence in either science or the Bible that intelligent beings were either evolved or created anywhere in the universe except on earth.» — declaración del Institute for Creation Research, citada por la obra para discutirla.

«When he asked his visitors about the cause of the universe, "The tallest of them denied that God had made the world from eternity.» — doctrina puesta en boca de los visitantes de Cardano, citada por la obra de su fuente y no afirmada por el autor.

«On the contrary, the other added that God created it from moment to moment, so that should He desist for an instant the world would perish.» — continuación de esa doctrina, que la obra reproduce como materia del caso de 1491.

«One night he built around her bed a wall of stones so high that she and her husband had to use a ladder to get out.» — episodio del tratado de Sinistrari que la obra reproduce como material histórico.

«While they were washing their hands according to the custom-hop!-suddenly the table vanished, along with the dishes, the cauldrons, the dates, and all the earthenware in the kitchen, the hugs, the bottles, the glasses, too.» — continuación del mismo caso citado, con la exclamación de la fuente; *hugs* por *jugs* es de la capa de texto.

«A famous case of sexual involvement with visitors took place in Brazil in 1957.» — la obra introduce así el caso de Antonio Villas-Boas, que resume de otras fuentes.

«"Don't worry," he said, "everybody half believes that they're dreaming all of this up.» — voz de Budd Hopkins dentro del relato, sobre la duda que atribuye a todos los testigos.

«rather than tell their experience, why not focus on the idea of how everybody feels about their experience?» — voz de Hopkins fijando la consigna del coloquio de abril de 1986.

«I think what she's saying in terms of the mediocrity of what we're going through is only in the eyes of people around us, but that the important thing is right here, and some of us really understand what is going on, and maybe they are not 'them,' but they are us and we are them, so if you call them 'them,' and say, 'They are looking at us, they are doing this to us,' it's not right.» — voz de una participante del coloquio, con seudónimo declarado en la p. 202, que disuelve la distinción entre ellos y nosotros.

«I'm not really sure yet because I've only had one hypnosis, but I remembered something from when I was five years old, a very scary experience, and I've always blocked it.» — voz de otra participante, que consigna su propia incertidumbre antes del recuerdo.

«There's always been one central figure.» — voz de otra participante del coloquio, sobre la figura recurrente en sus episodios.

«I believe something is happening to everybody. At least everybody here. I don't know why it is more easy to accept things from all of you than I find it to accept them for myself. Like saying it seems more real when it happens to somebody else.» — voz de una participante: el testimonio ajeno le resulta más creíble que el propio.

«I think you get to the point where you almost want to detach yourself from the situation, because you'll really just lose your mind.» — voz de un participante del coloquio sobre el desprendimiento como defensa.

«I think that's the reason it's so difficult to piece it together when it's happening, because while it's happening you're saying this is not happening to me, so part of the mind shuts it off and part of the mind is having to absorb it.» — voz de un participante explicando por qué el recuerdo sale fragmentado.

«I know it happened but I can't believe it. And the other thing is, what's nice about the group, to get back on that for a second, we look at each other and we say, 'I can't believe her story, I can't believe his story, I can't believe your story. I can't believe my story.'» — voz de un participante: la incredulidad compartida es lo que el grupo tiene en común.

«You know, the first time I realized something had happened that wasn't a figment of my imagination, wasn't some subconscious thing or something or a creative element of my mind or something, I was reading Betty Andreasson's story [ The Andreasson Affair by Raymond E. Fowler]; she described a detail of some sort of crystal boots they had put on her. They had clear bottoms, like a platform, and there was some sort of electrical thing, something inside this clear platform. And that's exactly what I had on my feet.» — voz de una participante del coloquio, que fecha su convicción en la coincidencia con el libro de Fowler; los corchetes son de la obra.

«I would have gone insane if I thought it was my imagination.» — voz de un participante, que invierte la relación habitual entre locura e imaginación.

«In a way I feel envious of everyone here because you've all had a glimpse into another world, another dimension perhaps.» — voz de un participante que no se cuenta entre los tomados.

«The, question is, what kind of knowledge is it and what if we don't really want it?» — voz de otra participante, que opone a esa envidia una pregunta por el valor del saber.

«I don't think it'll ever come out completely into the public eye.» — voz de un participante del coloquio sobre el destino público del asunto.

«At what level of belief are we? Do we all believe that we had single experiences and they're gone? Or do you believe they come back and forth type of thing Do you believe they're here all the time among us?"» — voz de un participante que somete al grupo la pregunta por el grado de creencia de cada uno.

«How many people have the sense of continuous monitoring?" Jenny: "Being watched all the time?" Pat: "Continuous monitoring.» — el intercambio en que el grupo nombra la vigilancia continua, con los seudónimos que la obra declara.

«I don't think they have individual DNA.» — voz de un participante, que niega individualidad biológica a los seres.

«They were almost like under military discipline.» — voz de un participante describiendo la conducta de los seres.

«force of personality. He was directing the whole operation. Everything. The others were simply not even taking orders. It's not that an order was barked at them or said to them. They just — boom, boom, boom, did it.» — voz de un participante sobre la figura que dirige sin dar órdenes; la frase arranca al pie de la plana anterior.

«If I could identify him my life would be in danger.» — voz de un participante, sobre el temor a reconocer a esa figura dominante.

«My sister was left with a thought twenty years ago, and she still believes it strongly, that by the year 2000 this world is going to be a totally different place.» — voz de una participante transmitiendo la expectativa de cambio global de su hermana.

«I would turn the TV off, go and sit down and start reading, and the TV would go back on.» — voz de un participante del coloquio sobre las interferencias domésticas que relata.

«I haven't read Budd's book [ Missing Time]. I got a hundred pages in and it began to seem too familiar.» — voz de un participante que interrumpe la lectura de Hopkins por reconocerse en ella; los corchetes son de la obra.

«One very strange thing that Pat remembered — the thing of the needle going in under the eye — another case of the needle doing up the nose.» — voz de Hopkins en el coloquio, agrupando dos casos de intrusión con aguja.

«Wouldn't it be wild if you could see through people's eyes?» — voz de Hopkins especulando en el coloquio, sin afirmar nada.

«I don't even want to know what they're doing.» — voz de una participante que rechaza el conocimiento que otros envidian.

«The combination of the excellent witness, the strange physical trace, and the seemingly enigmatic nature of the observation caused Mr. Michel to decide that the UFO mystery as a whole was unsolvable.» — la conclusión de Aimé Michel sobre el caso del Dr. X, referida por la obra y no suscrita por ella.

«In 1932 Dr. Albert Einstein stated, "There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable.» — cita de Einstein que la obra usa como advertencia contra los dictámenes de imposibilidad.

«one skeptic said to me, "but if they are, and they're acting like this, it's just so damned disappointing that I prefer not to believe it.» — voz de un escéptico anónimo citado por el autor, que declara una preferencia y no un argumento.

«A visitor once said to an abductee, "On is off and of is on. We confuse the language.» — frase atribuida a un visitante en un relato ajeno, reproducida por la obra con su grafía.

«He is not hallucinating in a manner characteristic of psychosis.» — segunda línea de la declaración de Donald F. Klein en el Apéndice I, con la reserva *characteristic of psychosis*.

«I also see no evidence of an anxiety state, mood disorder, or personality disorder.» — continuación del mismo dictamen de Klein, por exclusión de cuadros.

«He is an excellent hypnotic subject, who appeared to make an honest attempt while under hypnosis to describe what he remembered.» — Klein valora la honestidad del intento, no la verdad de lo relatado.

«After an initial period of stress, he became much more calm about his situation and soon learned to deal with it in a psychologically healthy way.» — cierre del dictamen de Klein sobre la evolución del sujeto.

«I was aware of the controversial nature of polygraphic results, and so determined to add a test of Mr. Laurendi's effectiveness to the process.» — el autor declara en el Apéndice II la reserva con que presenta el polígrafo.

«Without telling him, I lied in my answers to control questions thirteen and sixteen.» — la trampa deliberada con que dice haber probado al examinador.

«The letter referred to in the test results was written to Mr. Laurendi on October 17, 1986, and outlined the part of my experiences that I remembered before hypnosis.» — precisa qué material cubría la carta que el polígrafo tomó como referencia.

«He has approached the dilemma of what is happening to him in a careful and forthright way and has pursued his investigation with diligence.» — juicio de Klein sobre el método del sujeto, no sobre el contenido de sus recuerdos.

«Do you think that those things happened to you on October 4, 1985, that were outlined in your letter dated October 17, 1986? Yes. (Evaluated true.)» — forma de las preguntas clave del Apéndice II: piden lo que el sujeto piensa, no lo que ocurrió.

«I've been in business for twenty years and I'm not sure I haven't lied occasionally.» — comentario del propio Strieber, entre paréntesis en el Apéndice II, sobre el ítem que el examinador evaluó como posiblemente falso.

Comunion — Palabra del título, redefinida tres veces: lo que el fenómeno busca en el alma, la unión de la anchura de dos conocimientos y la matriz de la transformación.

Triada — Dos fuerzas en equilibrio generan una tercera, y las tres en armonía una cuarta cosa indivisible; el autor la adjudica a Gurdjieff y a la Trinidad, y acota su alcance al plano humano.

Triangulo — Símbolo que dice hallar en los testimonios sin que los testigos conozcan su historia, y que enlaza con Fuller, la pirámide, la Diosa Triple y la Trinidad; su valor lo pone en el símbolo, no en los hechos.

Memoria Pantalla — Recuerdo falso que cubre otro intolerable; lo toma de Freud y lo aplica a su búho, a su lobo y a Mr. Peanut, declarando falso este último sin duda.

Tiempo Perdido — Horas o días que faltan sin laguna ni desmayo: la cena que pasa de tibia a fría, las veinticuatro horas de Austin, las semanas del viaje europeo.

Hipnosis — Método del libro y su principal reserva: el sujeto conserva voluntad y a la vez queda abierto a la sugestión, se puede mentir bajo hipnosis, y el material describe percepción, no hechos.

Mente Colmena — Hipótesis de una inteligencia poderosa en conjunto y limitada en cada individuo, lenta, con lenguaje biológico y sin apenas sentido del yo; explicaría la coreografía y la cautela que atribuye a los visitantes.

Transvection (el traslado corporal por seres demoníacos) — Pregunta si su traslado nocturno guarda relación con el paseo místico del chamán o la cabalgata nocturna de la bruja, y lo deja en pregunta.

Imaginación (phantasia) — Rama que nunca cierra: entidades físicas que emergerían del inconsciente, la mente como corredor hacia otras realidades, y la observación misma creando el fenómeno.

Microcosmos (el hombre-mundo) — Lee los dos triángulos marcados en su brazo como figura del individuo: universo completo y válido, menor pero no menos perfecto, solo menos maduro.

Secreto (lo que se jura no fijar por escrito) — El del gobierno, que da por innegable sin decir qué guarda, y el de los testigos, que ocultan lo suyo por miedo al ridículo.

Esfinge — Su acertijo se responde con ella misma, y el águila, cuarta bestia, es el símbolo de la transformación y de la mirada desde fuera del tiempo.

Tarot — Lo lee como máquina filosófica y no como baraja adivinatoria; la carta del Mundo reúne las cuatro bestias en torno a una figura que representa un potencial de todos.

Fenix — Ave de resurrección que sale del huevo cósmico, caracterizada también como águila; término de la transformación que se predica de cada individuo.