UFO of GOD
Es relato en primera persona de lo que su autor dice haber vivido desde el 8 de enero de 2007 «Bledsoe — UFO of GOD (2023) · p. 37». Su estructura religiosa es formal, no incidental: ocho capítulos abren con epígrafe bíblico y no hay epígrafes de ninguna otra procedencia «Bledsoe — UFO of GOD (2023) · pp. 37, 46, 70, 90, 97, 127, 188, 202».
La formación que declara es pentecostal y bautista del sur —diácono en la Pentecostal Holiness Church de Falcon, Carolina del Norte «Bledsoe — UFO of GOD (2023) · p. 31»—, y el mismo vocabulario se vuelve contra él: relata haber sido expulsado como poseído y rociado con agua bendita «Bledsoe — UFO of GOD (2023) · p. 60».
La figura central del libro es «the lady», a la que el autor describe con léxico grecorromano y sacerdotal —túnicas de sacerdotisa antigua, túnicas de diosa de la escultura romana— y a la que no nombra en ninguna de las 202 páginas «Bledsoe — UFO of GOD (2023) · p. 101».
Su posición declarada es que los fenómenos son una presencia angélica de alcance mundial, y la presenta como convicción adquirida en conversación con Diana Pasulka, no como revelación «Bledsoe — UFO of GOD (2023) · p. 170». La práctica con que cierra el libro no tiene técnica ni intermediario: salir, mirar arriba y decir «I am here» «Bledsoe — UFO of GOD (2023) · p. 211».
849 afirmaciones · 1 fuente · 1 atribución
Atribución
se consigna, jamás se afirma«Bledsoe — UFO of GOD (2023) · p. 1»
Cadena de la obra
el testimonio procesado, en esmeraldaAfirmaciones
849 entradas — la voz de la obra, con su pasaje«Two weeks after Christmas, on January 8th, 2007, our lives changed forever.» — la fecha fundacional del relato, bajo el epígrafe de Ezequiel 1:4.
«around it and radiating out of its midst like the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire» — Ezequiel 1:4, epígrafe con que abre el capítulo del 8 de enero de 2007.
«his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude» — Daniel 10:6, epígrafe que encabeza justo la página de la primera aparición de los seres.
«Enemies disguise themselves with their lips, but in their hearts they harbor deceit.» — Proverbios 26:24, epígrafe del capítulo de la investigación de MUFON.
«You may understand my knowledge in the mystery.» — Efesios 3:4, epígrafe.
«at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you» — 1 Pedro 4:12, epígrafe del capítulo del sábado anterior a Pascua.
«And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.» — Santiago 5:15, epígrafe del capítulo de las sanaciones.
«Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice.» — Proverbios 27:9, epígrafe.
«Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.» — Mateo 7:7, epígrafe del capítulo final.
«As the saying goes in Matthew, “to him who knocks, and keeps knocking, the door will be opened.”» — la única vez que cita la Escritura dentro de su propia prosa, fuera de los epígrafes.
«And most of all, I want to thank God.» — última línea de los agradecimientos, y última línea del libro.
«One night at our church, Cape Fear Baptist Church, where kids would meet to play, I was alone waiting for mother to pick me up.» — la formación religiosa de infancia que declara.
«An omen from God, from nature, or from the land that made me communicated that I would be kept.» — así lee un episodio de su niñez; la enumeración disyuntiva es suya.
«they believed in baptism by the holy spirit and that speaking in tongues was a result of God’s presence in someone» — sobre la Pentecostal Holiness Church de Falcon, fundada en 1911; añade los relatos de arrebatos extáticos.
«the Pentecostal Holiness Church, where I had begun to serve as Deacon—twice on Sundays and on Wednesday nights» — el cargo que declara haber ocupado.
«I studied the bible day and night like I never had before.» — Añade que fueron los momentos religiosos más ricos de su vida.
«The church her great grandfather had helped create was too ingrained in our lives to turn our backs on.» — el vínculo familiar con la iglesia que después lo expulsa.
«The devil is at work in that man.» — el rumor que relata haber circulado sobre él.
«The Pentecostal church sees Halloween as a pagan ritual used by Satan to encourage demonic worship» — Añade la regla que le adjudica: lo que el libro sagrado no contempla es necedad pecaminosa u obra del diablo.
«Yvonne had to live a double life, continuing to be part of a church that saw me as troubled and demonically possessed» — Describe a los líderes rociándolo con agua bendita ante sus hijos.
«sprinkle holy water as if the ground itself needed to be purged of some Satanic curse» — relata que fueron a su propiedad sin ser llamados.
«cast me out of their ranks as insane, sinful, untouchable» — así nombra la expulsión.
«I had depended on the church in facing the big questions in life, and when I needed them most they accused me of courting demons.» — el balance que hace de esa ruptura.
«The comfort I felt from prayer in church was the same as when I prayed looking up at the night sky, with only my soul and whatever was out there for company.» — Añade que los orbes aparecían sobre todo cuando rezaba.
«shouting at the group how he knew I had been taken by a demonic force» — el decano de un *bible college* bautista, con un libro en la mano, según su relato.
«label me a heretic doomed to hell» — lo que anticipaba de quienes estaban comprometidos con ese *bible college*.
«A roaring thunderous command shook me from sleep.» — apertura del episodio de la Pascua de 2012; la orden que relata haber oído es «ARISE!».
«Take this. It is yours. You must keep it.» — lo que relata que le dijo la figura al entregarle un objeto.
«Before me, a woman floated in a circle of light.» — la aparición de la figura central del libro.
«The gleaming robe she wore hung down to her ankles.» — arranque de la descripción del vestuario.
«They seemed to be some ancient priestess’s robes, with long sleeves drooping past her wrists and an unadorned collar.» — el léxico con que el propio autor la describe: sacerdotal antiguo, no cristiano.
«It reminded me of goddesses’ robes from Roman sculptures and mosaics.» — la única referencia iconográfica que da, y es grecorromana.
«You know why I’m here.» — Precisa que los labios de ella no se movieron al hablar.
«You cannot quit now. You made an agreement that must be kept.» — lo que relata que ella le dijo.
«She talked of the beings as guardians she sent to do her bidding» — jerarquía que le adjudica: los seres dependen de ella.
«an icon of humanity: directionless, senseless, without head or tail, in dire need of protection and guidance» — lo que dice que ella declaró sobre el objeto entregado.
«I had been chosen to tell humanity of the phenomena’s benevolence.» — el encargo, tal como lo formula.
«A new knowledge must arrive. Mankind must awaken to it.» — el mensaje que atribuye a la figura.
«it was clear she was director of all that had happened» — le adjudica la dirección de todo el fenómeno.
«This is your burden. You must bear it.» — el cierre del episodio.
«Somehow, the lady had used me as a conduit of healing.» — así explica las sanaciones que relata.
«I kept asking the holy spirit to guide me in my head. There was no recipe for a healing.» — la técnica que declara: ninguna, salvo sostener la imagen de ella en la mente y adivinar.
«The lady told me she would help me with witnessing the phenomena.» — el pacto, en su formulación.
«I recalled over and over my visions of her. In my mind, I repeated her words that I had a mission: simply tell what I saw.» — la misión, sin contenido doctrinal.
«I looked toward the sky and pleaded with her, God, angels, or whoever was out there, to save my father.» — la enumeración disyuntiva es del autor: no identifica entre sí a los términos.
«Standing four feet in front of me was a three-and-a-half foot tall being, gently glowing the color of the moon.» — la descripción de los seres, con el triángulo translúcido en el pecho.
«You don’t understand. We are not here to hurt you. We are here to help you.» — lo que relata que le respondieron.
«They communicated to me this obliterating epiphany: the singular, ultimate importance of all living beings.» — el núcleo doctrinal del libro, y es ético.
«I never squash a bug, I never fish or hunt.» — la consecuencia práctica que declara haber sacado.
«On a deeply intuitive level, all of it felt sent from God» — Enumera: las palabras de la dama y la directiva de no violencia y compasión de los seres, «or guardians as the lady called them».
«From the very first night I saw the orbs over the field, when I called out to God to protect me, I knew I was looking at something divine.» — la posición sobre la naturaleza de lo visto.
«the more certain I became that the phenomena were a worldwide and angelic presence» — la afirmación doctrinal más explícita del libro, y la presenta como convicción adquirida hablando con Diana Pasulka.
«Native American folklore described the appearance of white stone canoes flying overhead.» — el precedente folclórico que consigna, junto a barcos volantes de los siglos XVIII y XIX.
«I recognized orbs in what I read with total confidence: their playfulness, strangeness, consistent inconsistencies, colors, intensity, and mental connection were right there in the scripture.» — cómo dice leer la Escritura después.
«I have a deep respect for all people who seek God, whatever their religion.» — la posición ecuménica, con el matiz que sigue: la falla está en los sistemas de creencia y las instituciones.
«It’s merely a flaw in their belief systems and institutions that leads to so much unnecessary pain, sorrow, and violence.» — la distinción explícita entre personas e instituciones.
«they alone hold the keys to religious experience» — lo que objeta a las sectas e instituciones religiosas de afiliación política.
«The orbs were always here and open to all of us, ready to give us the signs and messages we need.» — el corolario del acceso universal.
«All I could tell Junior when he came to me saying he was afraid to sleep was to call out to God, say his name, and the shadows he saw would back off.» — la instrucción que da a su hijo ante las sombras.
«The closest thing I’ve felt was in my most moving experiences in church. In prayer, in song, thought, a similar tingling jolts through my body» — el término de comparación de la experiencia es litúrgico.
«call it the spirit of God, call it love» — Añade que la habitación estaba llena de eso y que se reconoce al verlo.
«If there were some wager between God and Satan about me, I knew I was lucky that the scale of my suffering was not as extreme as Job’s.» — su respuesta a la comparación con Job; quien la propuso fue Jim Semivan, según su relato.
«and share with witnesses. Share the truth. Difficult times ahead.» — el mensaje, cuya primera línea («We will allow you to film us more») arranca al pie de la p. 198; sigue hambre, plaga y desorden.
«Easters and Christmases remained among the most significant experiences of the year.» — el calendario del fenómeno es litúrgico, por declaración suya.
«All you need to do is humble yourself before the heavens.» — la práctica con que cierra el libro; glosa: salir y mirar arriba.
«Connect your heart and mind as one, humble yourself, and say out loud, ‘I am here.’» — el procedimiento entero, sin técnica ni intermediario.
«God, the universe—whatever you want to call it—did not make it difficult to connect.» — la disyunción es suya, y no la resuelve.
«The last sixteen years have been a tremendous test of my faith.» — el balance con que cierra.
«I didn’t know how healings worked or happened, nor did NASA.» — abstención declarada sobre el mecanismo.
«While I don’t have academic credentials, postulating theses, or speculative papers, I do have real, genuine videos of the phenomena.» — así marca su propia posición frente al aparato académico.
«a rough initiation into the joys and dangers of nature» — única ocurrencia de *initiation* en el libro, y es metafórica: no hay léxico iniciático.
«I want to thank Hayes Cooper for helping me write my story.» — la obra declara asistencia de escritura; ver Notas de carga.
«Jason had recently died from a heroin overdose. My friend was so distraught in the aftermath of the loss of his son that he gave up on life entirely, attempting suicide twice.» — Bledsoe abre el libro con la muerte del hijo de su amigo Larry Frascella; el hijo es de Frascella, no suyo.
«Pope. Danger. Heads-up. Danger pope. Warn pope.» — lo que relata que dijo la caja de voz de los investigadores frente al árbol quemado, en septiembre de 2015.
«I never knew such a machine could speak so clearly and responsively.» — su reacción ante el aparato; no explica cómo funciona ni pretende explicarlo.
«Whoever, or whatever, was speaking to us had an urgent message and given its willingness to bring Jason into the picture, seemed to be going to great lengths to get our attention.» — deja abierta la identidad de quien hablaba y lee la mención del hijo muerto como recurso para captar la atención.
«Larry had deep pockets and a longstanding interest in experiences like mine, and it was clear he was taking this warning seriously.» — así presenta a Frascella, el hombre que financia el viaje a Filadelfia.
«Was there to be an assassination attempt? Was Christ’s representative on earth, as the catholic doctrine describes him, in harm’s way?» — la pregunta con que enmarca el viaje, dicha en vocabulario católico que él no comparte.
«Larry is a serious man. He was devoted to helping in any way he could, as well as to understanding the phenomena.» — vuelve sobre Frascella para separar su seriedad del interés por los fenómenos.
«There was no one in the community he couldn’t get ahold of.» — le atribuye acceso total a la comunidad de investigadores del fenómeno.
«He was the keeper of all the secrets.» — así describe al coronel John B. Alexander al conocerlo.
«He was with billionaire Robert Bigelow the day Bigelow bought Skinwalker Ranch and he spent the first night there outside.» — la credencial que le adjudica a Alexander: haber estado con Robert Bigelow el día de la compra de Skinwalker Ranch.
«To me, there was no more dangerous and imposing figure in the UFO world than Col. Alexander» — así lo dimensiona antes de conocerlo en persona.
«We brainstormed potential routes the pope might take between speaking events, factoring in the kinds of security concerns only the colonel would have known to expect.» — describe el trabajo conjunto sobre las rutas papales.
«The pope was due to speak at Congress Hall, but it was swamped with tourists and hard to get a read on the situation.» — consigna el obstáculo práctico: el sitio estaba lleno de turistas.
«We knew we needed a major breakthrough and hard evidence if we wanted to get the pope to skip a speech out of security concerns.» — reconoce que su aviso no bastaba como evidencia para mover al papa.
«The pope’s visit had no doubt taken at least a year to plan, and the U.S. Secret Service would be there in addition to Pope Francis’s regular security detail, the Pontifical Swiss Guard.» — mide contra qué aparato de seguridad iba su advertencia.
«John said he wanted me to try a remote viewing session—something I had never done before much less heard of.» — declara que nunca había oído hablar de la visión remota antes de que Alexander se la propusiera.
«Remote viewing is the ability to describe a person, place, event, anything that is remote from you, that you have absolutely no access to, and no one has told you anything about.» — la definición que reproduce, sin atribuirla y sin discutirla.
«It can be past, present, or future, and time and space are not relative factors.» — continuación de la misma definición: la técnica no estaría acotada por tiempo ni espacio.
«A man with his background, education, and security clearance credentials obviously knows more than the average person when it comes to scientific study of the paranormal.» — su argumento de autoridad sobre Alexander es la credencial, no el resultado.
«Joe was a decorated retired U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer.» — así presenta a Joseph McMoneagle, a quien Alexander recurre después de la sesión.
«John asked Joe if he would do a remote viewing of the current situation. This entailed following a more stringent set of protocols than I was given. I was a complete novice and had no training or idea what I was doing. Joe obliged the request and the remote viewing process yielded information that was similar to mine.» — relata que la sesión de McMoneagle, con protocolos más estrictos, arrojó información parecida a la suya.
«This entailed following a more stringent set of protocols than I was given. I was a complete novice and had no training or idea what I was doing.» — declara su propia falta de entrenamiento en la técnica.
«Security tightened on the Walt Whitman and Betsy Ross bridges, and vehicle traffic was completely shut down on the Ben Franklin Bridge. Compared to his two previous stops in New York City and Washington D.C., the pope’s parade was shortened while in Philadelphia to a simple tour around Independence Hall.» — consigna las medidas que dice haber seguido al aviso, sin adjudicarse la decisión.
«Federal prosecutors ended up indicting a local man with plotting to assassinate the pope near the Ben Franklin Bridge.» — el desenlace judicial que consigna.
«Whether this arrest had anything to do with us, I do not know.» — abstención explícita: no reclama la conexión entre su aviso y el arresto.
«It was obvious though the serious attention that was given to what I had encountered only days earlier at the Burning Tree.» — lo que sí reclama es la atención recibida; nombra el sitio como el Burning Tree.
«Somewhere down a dirt road in North Carolina, a pile of trash burned behind a mobile home. Strange smoke wisped up through the pine branches that hung over my family’s clearing.» — así abre el capítulo 2, con el incendio de basura de su infancia.
«My occupation was of no less importance: grow up and stay out of harm’s way.» — cómo formula su lugar de niño en una casa donde siempre había trabajo.
«The gray-yellow smoke rose from a lump of rubble and trash in the far corner of the yard.» — el detalle con que reconstruye la escena de las quemaduras.
«The flames looked dim and tame in the morning light, and I got closer, wanting to know what was happening, how it got hot and withered in different ways, why Dad would put such a pretty thing so far away. I stepped into it.» — relata que se acercó al fuego por curiosidad y entró en él.
«The third-degree burns would have been much more serious if I were not so young, the doctors said.» — atribuye a los médicos la lectura de que la corta edad atenuó las quemaduras de tercer grado.
«If it is possible to become comfortable with pain, or heighten one’s tolerance of it, my apprenticeship began early and intensified year by year.» — llama aprendizaje a su tolerancia al dolor; el término que usa es *apprenticeship*, no iniciación.
«At six years old, I fell off a bunk bed and hit my mouth on a table. Half my teeth were knocked loose and I needed twenty-four stitches.» — segundo accidente de la serie que enumera.
«Jeffrey MacDonald, the doctor who sewed me up, yelled and cursed at me while he stitched. Three years afterward he was famously charged with the murder of his wife and two daughters at Fort Bragg.» — el nombre va tal como lo imprime la fuente, sin cotejo externo.
«One force harms, another rescues. The blood I’ve spilt in Cumberland and Robeson counties could make a creek run red, but healing has always found me.» — la fórmula con que ordena su vida entera: dos fuerzas, una que daña y otra que rescata.
«This book is an account of the fires I’ve wandered toward, what I’ve learned from them, and the people and forces that kept me safe.» — la única declaración del libro sobre qué es el libro, y es del autor, no del prologuista.
«My mother, Carrie Faye, and father, Ted, both grew up with deep roots in the areas surrounding Saint Paul’s and Fayetteville, North Carolina.» — los nombres de sus padres y el arraigo local que declara.
«My father’s ancestors arrived in the area around Fayetteville when it was still referred to as Cambellton, after the Scottish town Campbelltown where many of the recent settlers had come from in the early 1700’s.» — la genealogía escocesa que consigna; la grafía Cambellton es la de la fuente.
«He trusted me with a circular saw as an eight-year-old, so that was when I learned how to use one.» — así describe el aprendizaje del oficio con su padre.
«Everything was trial-by-fire, and I learned early the importance of managing risk and taking responsibility for my own well-being.» — la lección que saca de esa crianza; la metáfora del fuego es suya y reaparece en todo el libro.
«Pain screamed up my legs. I screamed back at the pain to make it stop as flames crawled over my pants. Out of nowhere, my granddaddy tackled me to the ground, smothering both me and the» — describe las quemaduras y al abuelo que lo derriba; la frase sigue al otro lado del corte de plana.
«They were well-trained dogs and Dad taught me how to use them, marshaling them around the landscape, carrying out our orders.» — describe el adiestramiento de los perros de caza con su padre, oficio que después repudia.
«He would walk the thirteen miles between their towns most days to visit and court her.» — así cuenta el noviazgo de sus padres.
«I would spend hours visiting my friend the moon. I was holed up in the back corner of the unit watching something bright and unfettered swing across the night sky.» — la luna como primera figura recurrente del libro; el trato que le da es de amistad.
«No two nights’ moons were the same. Always a new path, a new brilliance, a new angle of scythe-shaped crescent or bloating gibbous.» — la variación por sobre la identidad: el mismo criterio con que después describe los orbes.
«My fascination with the moon made an impression on my mother, and she bought me glow-in-the-dark balls to play with.» — consigna el objeto luminoso de la infancia como antecedente de su fascinación.
«I don’t know why I became so infatuated with the moon, but it was my first encounter with a shape that would appear to me throughout my life in stranger and stranger ways.» — declara la falta de explicación y enlaza la forma circular con todo lo que le pasa después.
«One of my favorite games was to draw circles alone in the dirt and pretend they belonged to the parts of a spaceship. Some intuitive instinct led me as I drew them.» — el juego de los círculos, que atribuye a un instinto intuitivo y no a un modelo.
«The recurring importance of this shape in my life matches the nature of the shape itself: how orbits repeat themselves indefinitely, how the constancy of its curve makes one portion of its arc indistinguishable from any other, how a circle in three dimensions makes a sphere, and how the matter of all planets, moons, and stars gathers itself into that shape.» — su razonamiento sobre el círculo: la órbita que se repite, la curva sin puntos distinguibles, la esfera como círculo en tres dimensiones.
«A golf ball soaring over a fairway or rolling predictably across a green was another iteration of the moon, its dimpled surface like its craters.» — sigue la serie de la misma forma, ahora en la pelota de golf.
«It was here that I discovered the power and pleasure of thoughtfulness, and it was here that I discovered my ability to accomplish and understand the same things my father did.» — cifra ahí el origen de su confianza práctica.
«Home could be harsh, but it was good, honest living.» — el balance que hace de su casa de infancia, sin suavizarlo ni agravarlo.
«I was behind in school the first few years, but after third grade I only ever brought A’s and B’s home on my report card.» — consigna su desempeño escolar.
«I had wanted to go to college after I graduated, but Dad needed me at a jobsite the following Mon» — la universidad queda descartada por el trabajo; la frase sigue al otro lado del corte de plana.
«Despite my comfort with the outdoors, eerie things happened in my childhood that unsettled me.» — así introduce los episodios extraños de la infancia; el adjetivo que usa es *eerie*.
«I didn’t know how long it had been there watching me.» — el primer encuentro con el búho, bajo la luz del coche.
«When I got in the car and told mother, she said she saw me under the tree but no owl.» — consigna que el testigo presente no vio al búho, sin resolver la discrepancia.
«I was entranced, and not at all frightened.» — su reacción ante el búho: fascinación, no miedo.
«I knew people did not survive this kind of thing because animals didn’t either.» — lo que pensó al recibir los perdigones, a los diez años; el criterio le viene de la caza.
«Death was nothing remarkable to me.» — así describe su trato con la muerte de niño.
«It turns out Vance had sprinted after me, hoping he would be the one to find the bird, wanting to finish off the dove he thought he had shot before me.» — reconstruye el disparo accidental de su amigo, a quien nombra.
«There is not much I remember besides pain and a floating sense of being outside my own body that I had given up on reentering.» — la sensación de estar fuera del cuerpo aparece aquí, en un accidente de infancia, mucho antes de los orbes.
«I gasped out, “Who shot me? Why did you shoot me?”» — lo que dice haber alcanzado a preguntar.
«Over three hundred pellets entered me, and seventeen are still inside my chest, shoulder, and arm.» — la cifra que da de los perdigones y los que declara conservar en el cuerpo.
«Nobody could explain how my vital organs weren’t damaged.» — consigna que nadie explicó la supervivencia; no llena el hueco con una tesis médica.
«Something kept me alive, and I credit that protective force to the giant owl that surprised and entranced me.» — lo llena con el búho: le adjudica a esa aparición la fuerza protectora.
«Outside of the church, my head among the branches of a dogwood, a friend was with me when I thought I was alone. Silently, secretly, I was watched that night» — así reinterpreta el episodio del búho: no estaba solo, lo vigilaban.
«The year I was born, John F. Kennedy asked congress to send a man to the moon. He asserted human hands would touch the lunar surface and bring its substance back to earth.» — introduce la carrera espacial por la fecha de su nacimiento.
«Of course, asking congress to pursue this mission had political and military motivations, but it was also a kind of prayer.» — lee la carrera espacial como oración nacional, admitiendo a la vez los motivos políticos y militares.
«Over the course of my childhood, the space race—this national prayer—guided scientists, astronauts, and engineers to make the impossible possible.» — mantiene el término oración para nombrar el programa espacial.
«Doubt and fear came alongside this hope, but enough people believed to make it happen.» — la creencia colectiva como condición del logro; es el mismo esquema que aplica después a los orbes.
«Like splitting the atom, would this leap from one sphere to another unleash a force that could never be taken back?» — deja la pregunta abierta, sin responderla.
«His son Raymond Floyd won The Masters in 1976 and his daughter Marlene made it on the LPGA tour.» — los nombres de la familia Floyd van tal como los imprime la fuente, sin cotejo.
«It was job site after job site. In high school I had my own» — así abre el capítulo 3, con la entrada temprana al oficio; la frase sigue al otro lado del corte de plana.
«It was not until I got my driver’s license at sixteen that I even learned how to navigate from Hope Mills to the nearest city, Fayetteville.» — mide su mundo de infancia por lo tarde que salió de él.
«Maybe it was a limited childhood experience: I did not tour Europe or learn foreign languages, but I still had enough to discover.» — reconoce el límite de su formación sin lamentarlo.
«Nature is inexhaustible. You can never love your family too much. Work hard enough and a round of golf and a good story is all you need for fun.» — la lista entera de principios que declara suyos: naturaleza, familia, trabajo, golf.
«These are some of the principles I’ve held to that have led me through a full and blessed life.» — así los cierra; el adjetivo con que califica su vida es *blessed*.
«I pulled into a service station, popped the hood, and went to check what was going on.» — así relata el accidente del Trans Am.
«I was struck by a jet of superheated green liquid that blew the radiator cap twenty feet away from the car.» — la segunda quemadura grave de la serie que enumera.
«They scrubbed my skin off with disinfectant and I watched long strips of it peel away.» — el detalle del tratamiento; el dolor es dato recurrente del relato, no adorno.
«Because Dad had a good reputation as a builder and many employees who needed work, he won a contract to build Housing and Urban Development apartments an hour and a half away in Wilmington, North Carolina.» — el contrato que lo separa de su casa y precede a la muerte de su primera esposa.
«We were just twenty years old but had been together four years.» — consigna la edad de ambos al casarse.
«I did not want to go to the party feeling this way, and I did not want to cause a scene, so I got back in my car and headed home.» — la decisión que precede al hallazgo, contada sin atenuantes.
«I stopped in the same church parking lot where I had seen the owl ten years before.» — vuelve a marcar el lugar del búho; el libro liga por sitio, no por causa.
«It was my wife’s. This body was my wife’s. She was my wife.» — la repetición es de la fuente: así consigna el reconocimiento del cuerpo.
«It still hurts. I drank and blamed her death on my suspicion and jealousy.» — se adjudica la culpa por celos y sospecha, sin matizarla.
«I drank to escape those feelings but held onto my job building condos on the beach.» — el alcoholismo que declara, con el trabajo sostenido en paralelo.
«I fell four stories through the network of metal bracings and makeshift plywood floors like a Plinko chip.» — la caída desde el andamio, cuarta lesión mayor de la serie.
«The bracing’s metal bars cut open my arm, stomach, and chest.» — continúa el inventario de daños.
«It was love at first sight. Like mine, her dad turned out to be a builder who liked to hunt and fish too.» — así relata el encuentro con Yvonne, su segunda esposa.
«Sam D. Page was Yvonne’s relative, and he had a leading role in the establishment of the church, which now has over a million members internationally.» — el vínculo familiar de su esposa con la fundación de la Pentecostal Holiness Church; el nombre va tal como lo imprime la fuente.
«We were Christians but didn’t follow anything resembling the restrictive codes followed by the members of the Pentecostal Holiness Church, which forbid alcohol and smoking.» — marca la distancia entre su cristianismo de origen y el código pentecostal al que entra por matrimonio.
«On the other hand, Baptist services were stiff and reserved compared to the passionate eruptions that characterize most pentecostalist churches.» — la comparación litúrgica que hace entre las dos iglesias que conoció.
«I had still been drinking while we dated and she tolerated it as long as I went to church on Sunday, though things quickly got more serious between us.» — la condición que declara: asistir el domingo.
«It was a fluke, but it was love at first sight with flying too.» — así cuenta su entrada a la aviación.
«I think I found peace in the sky because it was so dangerous.» — su explicación de la paz que dice haber encontrado volando: viene del peligro, no de la calma.
«It never ceases to amaze me how something as thin as air could support thousands of pounds of metal and fuel.» — el asombro ante lo que el aire sostiene; el mismo registro con que después describe los orbes.
«There were airstrips and enthusiasts everywhere we went; they have always been a welcoming and passionate community.» — así describe a la comunidad de aviadores, en contraste con la iglesia que después lo expulsa.
«They were thrilling to fly, and much safer to do corkscrews and barrel-rolls in than a real plane.» — sobre los planeadores; el detalle técnico es suyo.
«I bought a faster plane after that, a blue and white M20-E Mooney that could chug from Fayetteville to Disneyworld in an hour and a half.» — consigna el avión y la ruta; los datos de modelo van tal cual.
«By 1987 I had enough hours flown under my belt to take the commercial pilot’s test.» — la fecha de su licencia comercial.
«I felt great flying. I wore aviators, grew a mustache, and might have been mistaken for slimmer Mike Ditka on the airfield.» — la autodescripción de esos años, con la comparación que él elige.
«She was pregnant with our first child.» — el hecho con que explica su salida de la aviación comercial.
«I wanted to fly, but I had some long talks with my family and her and remembered the first years of our marriage traveling around in the trailer.» — así cuenta la decisión; la razón que da es familiar, no vocacional.
«Not much is known about what causes IBS and Crohn’s disease, but stress made it worse.» — consigna la ignorancia médica sobre la causa y le adjudica al estrés el agravamiento.
«I would get a call from one of the hog farms and I would have to drive the three or four hours to check on what was happening.» — describe el trabajo en las granjas porcinas familiares.
«Working with the machinery of maximum-efficiency pork production was often ghastly.» — el juicio sobre la producción porcina industrial; anticipa la ética animal que después declara.
«It was a job where success was uneasy: the lives of those animals differed so greatly from the hogs my grandpa raised behind our mobile home, wallowing all afternoon in the heat to cool down.» — contrapone esas vidas con las de los cerdos de su abuelo, sin resolver la incomodidad.
«Meanwhile, my time commitment at the church was ramping up.» — la iglesia le ocupa cada vez más tiempo en el mismo periodo.
«It was a passionate and supportive community, full of diverse opportunities to engage with other congregants and with God.» — así describe la congregación antes de la ruptura; el balance previo es favorable.
«I tried as hard as I could to keep up with all my responsibilities, but the harder I tried the more my IBS symptoms started acting up.» — liga esfuerzo y síntoma en la misma frase.
«People at work and church became used to me bowing out of events or arriving late, though they never knew explicitly why.» — consigna que ocultó el motivo de sus ausencias.
«In 1991 the Environmental Protection Agency effectively shut down the hog farms because pollutants from the waste lagoons had been leaking into drinking water and the air surrounding the sites.» — la fecha y el motivo del cierre de las granjas, según su relato.
«Around the same time, my dad realized that several hundred thousand dollars were missing from his construction company’s account books.» — el faltante que declara en la contabilidad de su padre.
«Luckily I was able to assume that debt, take over his company, and eventually successfully sued to get the money back.» — cómo dice haber resuelto ese faltante.
«None of this happened without a great deal of stress and uncertainty that caused my symptoms to worsen.» — vuelve a ligar circunstancia y enfermedad.
«He told me I would not live much longer if I didn’t sell the company.» — lo que atribuye a su médico sobre el costo de sostener la empresa.
«He prescribed me an antidepressant and referred me to a psychiatrist so I could find more ways of reducing my stress levels.» — así entra al tratamiento psiquiátrico que después describe como envenenamiento.
«The psychiatrist was smoking in his office when I first met him.» — el detalle con que lo presenta; el juicio queda implícito.
«I held onto the business and everything got worse.» — consigna que desoyó el consejo.
«By the summer of 2003, I was bedridden and unable to work due to the fact that the concoction of medications I had been taking reached a critical toxic level.» — fecha el colapso y lo adjudica a la mezcla de fármacos.
«What I did not know at the time was that the medications the doctor was prescribing were slowly poisoning me to death.» — la acusación que hace del tratamiento, en su propio vocabulario.
«Officially, it was lithium toxicity, which over the course of the past several months had slowly built up to dangerous levels in my blood.» — da el diagnóstico oficial y marca la palabra *officially*, sin sustituirlo por otro.
«He was unwell himself and has surviving family members, so I refrain from naming him.» — declara por qué no nombra al psiquiatra: hay deudos vivos.
«Back at home in bed, recovering from lithium toxicity and dogged by Crohn’s, I signed the papers to sell my company.» — el desenlace: vende la empresa desde la cama.
«Crohn’s kept me from working, which created more stress and in turn made the Crohn’s worse.» — formula el círculo entre enfermedad, desempleo y estrés.
«No one understood how or why this could have happened, least of all the employees and relatives who depended on my success for their livelihoods.» — consigna la incomprensión de empleados y parientes.
«People assumed that because I had sold the company I was cashing out and retiring early; in reality, I hardly broke even, had four children to raise, and was barely getting by.» — corrige el rumor con su propio balance económico.
«Because of the rumors surrounding the sale of my company that I had gambled it all away, betraying all of my employees and relatives for selfish and sinful reasons, it was difficult to find any kind of work.» — el contenido del rumor, en términos morales y religiosos: traición por razones egoístas y pecaminosas.
«To my shame, the kids would go to school without lunch money, but never complained.» — la pobreza que declara de esos años.
«I put aside my pride and took the job.» — así cuenta su vuelta a la construcción bajo su padre.
«The future was uncertain and I was as broken a man as I had ever been.» — el estado en que dice llegar a enero de 2007.
«I was depressed by my lack of job prospects beyond this.» — el ánimo con que llega al día del primer avistamiento.
«But Junior and the guys were in a celebratory mood, having been paid and not having another job to get to.» — describe al grupo que lo acompaña al río el 8 de enero de 2007.
«I had had one, but my doctor told me to get rid of it when he told me to sell my business, since the threat of impending disaster with every ring did a number on my nerves.» — explica por qué no llevaba teléfono esa noche.
«It’s about freedom: from work, bosses, family, responsibilities of all kinds.» — lo que dice buscar en el río; el término que usa es libertad.
«I would do anything that could give my kids a less impoverished life.» — la motivación económica que declara, en el mismo tramo.
«Even though I needed his help on the framing job, I regretted setting him so far back in school, especially because so many of my business problems would never have happened if I had gotten a business degree.» — la culpa hacia su hijo mayor, que aparece antes de cualquier fenómeno.
«Officially, people are warned to only eat the smaller, younger fish that aren’t bottom-feeders or apex predators; but the guys weren’t going to let that stop them from doing what they wanted.» — consigna la advertencia oficial sobre los peces del río contaminado y que el grupo la desoía.
«It was work, survival, and leisure all in one.» — así define la pesca en el Cape Fear.
«It wasn’t dark yet, but it was getting cold quickly, so the accomplishment of summoning warmth from the environment was already rewarding.» — el detalle del fuego encendido antes del avistamiento.
«The stakes were trivial but the fire’s comfort was real.» — la frase con que mide esa satisfacción.
«I felt okay about the fact that there were at least four people I hadn’t let down, that at least this job had gone off without a hitch.» — el estado de ánimo inmediatamente anterior a lo que relata después.
«These woods were as much my home as the bedroom I shared with Yvonne.» — declara su familiaridad con el lugar antes de contar lo que ahí ocurre.
«I had hunted around there since I was five years old and never had cause to fear anything in those woods apart from bears and snakes, but an intense fear came over me.» — contrapone décadas sin miedo con el miedo súbito de esa noche.
«He was the son to whom I’d given my own name.» — así nombra a Chris Junior, distinto del autor.
«It was a massive relief to be able to see my surroundings.» — la primera luz que relata haber visto esa noche la toma por alivio, no por prodigio.
«This was strange because I hadn’t traveled far enough or gained enough height in those few steps to have had such a drastic change in my vantage point.» — consigna la incongruencia de perspectiva como la primera anomalía, antes de ver nada.
«It shone brilliantly, and yet it was still dark out in the field.» — el rasgo que repite de los orbes: brillan sin iluminar el entorno.
«As I climbed the hill I saw a second sun, the same size and color as the first.» — la aparición del segundo objeto; el término que usa es *sun*.
«Not only was it strange that these sun-like objects did not light up the sun as suns would, but also that they were close, barely farther than the far side of the field two hundred yards away.» — da la distancia y repite la anomalía de la luz que no ilumina.
«Two flaming spheres hovering in the distance in perfect silence, each about forty-five feet in diameter, as big as houses.» — las medidas que declara: unos catorce metros de diámetro, en silencio total.
«Having spent so many years flying, I knew that these were not any kind of aircraft I had ever heard of.» — su argumento contra la hipótesis de aeronave es su propia experiencia de piloto.
«I thought of Junior and the other guys down on the river.» — su primera reacción es por el hijo, no por el objeto.
«I worried for him and wanted to get back to him, not knowing what was going on or how I could help, but at least we would be together.» — declara no haber sabido qué pasaba ni cómo ayudar.
«The three of them sat there over the tree-line now, unmoving but swirling with their red-orange flames.» — el tercer objeto se suma; describe llamas rojo-naranja sin movimiento.
«My truck had been moved and was now pointed toward where I had just run from.» — la anomalía material que consigna al volver al campamento.
«The large pile of sticks and logs we had gathered was now gone, and the fire itself had dwindled to a few ankle-high licks of flame.» — segunda anomalía: la leña consumida, indicio de tiempo transcurrido que él no vivió.
«There was the strange gap in my memory between cowering in the field and arriving back at the campfire, but that could have been because of a spike in adrenaline or merely a product of acute panic.» — nombra el hueco de memoria y ofrece él mismo las explicaciones ordinarias —adrenalina, pánico— sin descartarlas.
«He had been the first to worry about where I was, leaving the others to fish while he went off looking for me.» — lo que relata de su hijo Junior esa noche; el relato de Junior llega narrado por el padre.
«They seemed to him about the size of bowling balls.» — la medida de las dos esferas rojas la da Junior según su padre.
«They stopped fifteen feet away from him, hovering close to the ground blocking his path back to the fire.» — describe que las luces le cerraron el paso a su hijo.
«One of them was always watching him, guarding him, like they had a job to do.» — le adjudica a los seres una tarea, no una intención hostil; el verbo es *guarding*.
«He couldn’t scream and he found that he was paralyzed, unable to yell or move.» — la parálisis que atribuye a Junior.
«When I went looking for him, he could hear me calling out to him but wasn’t able to respond.» — la coincidencia entre los dos relatos, según el padre.
«These were rough, tough men who’d worked construction all their lives.» — así presenta a los testigos, apoyándose en su oficio.
«Nine balls of light, about the size and color of Venus on a clear night, shone from far up in the sky and started to gather into one circle directly above us.» — la cuenta que da de las luces del cielo y la figura que forman: un círculo.
«The circle began to rotate and then scattered like salt across the sky.» — cómo se deshizo esa figura.
«They hovered there silently, blazing stupefyingly bright.» — el silencio vuelve como rasgo constante de lo que describe.
«None of us had seen anything like this before.» — consigna que ninguno de los presentes tenía precedente.
«Education, religion, and culture are aimed at preparing us for what is or what might occur» — su tesis sobre por qué nada lo preparó; la frase sigue al otro lado del corte de plana.
«There is no set protocol for coming face to face with the impossible.» — nombra lo visto *impossible* y declara que no hay protocolo para ello.
«We made it into the forested section of the road, which was a relief; whatever those orbs were, they allowed us to gain distance from them.» — le adjudica a los orbes haber permitido la fuga: la iniciativa es de ellos, no del grupo.
«One of the guys said he knew of a family that lived in a trailer at the far edge of the field.» — así cuenta el intento de buscar testigos ajenos.
«We were hoping to use a phone at the very least, and to see if the people there were seeing what we were seeing.» — declara que buscaba confirmación externa de lo que veían.
«As we looped around to the trailer, we could see its windows were lit up.» — consigna que la casa estaba encendida y que nadie respondió.
«On the other hand, we figured that if these things wanted us dead, they’d already had plenty of opportunities to do so.» — el razonamiento con que descarta la hostilidad; es de esa misma noche, no posterior.
«Despite having been shot, I was comfortable with the sounds of gunshots as long as the gun wasn’t in the hands of an eight-year-old.» — liga el disparo de esa noche con el accidente de su infancia.
«No one in the truck could tell which direction the gun had fired from.» — deja sin resolver el origen de los disparos.
«There were no gaps or consistent variations to the pattern of its general brilliance.» — la descripción óptica que da del orbe central.
«It paused there, just above the tops of the trees, and rotated itself again, pointing upward north.» — describe la maniobra del objeto antes de irse.
«The show seemed to be over.» — el término con que nombra lo ocurrido; el libro no lo corrige después.
«I had been their boss, but now, first and foremost, we were all one thing: prey.» — así describe lo que la noche hizo con las jerarquías del grupo.
«If these things were going to get us, let them: I wouldn’t be the one who killed us.» — su decisión de no acelerar, contada como resolución moral, no como calma.
«There was a beauty to the orbs that calmed me, and I found I was curiously immune to the men’s chaos, rage, and fear.» — consigna que su reacción difería de la de todos los demás presentes.
«A whole city skyline’s worth of lights blared at us, just above the stumps of the clear-cut land.» — la última visión de esa noche, sobre el terreno talado.
«Thirty-six years earlier, in that same churchyard, I had been surprised and mesmerized by the yellow saucer-sized eyes of an owl» — vuelve a ligar el sitio del búho con lo que ve esa noche; la frase sigue al otro lado del corte de plana.
«I could not say why, but this orb’s presence above the site of the most traumatic moment of my life filled me with a sense of peace.» — declara no saber por qué; el sitio es donde murió su primera esposa.
«It was an immersion in supreme grace.» — el vocabulario con que nombra la experiencia es teológico: gracia.
«Time seemed to slow down. For the first time, I truly believed that what had happened to her was not my fault.» — la absolución que atribuye al episodio: por primera vez se cree inocente de la muerte de su esposa.
«For the first time, I truly believed that being able to hold her in my arms as she died was a gift to both of us.» — segunda parte de esa vuelta de sentido, en la misma plana.
«My jealousy had not ruined our lives.» — el cierre de esa reinterpretación.
«There appeared to be a row of square glowing lights, like windows, down the side facing us.» — la descripción del objeto rectangular; el término que usa para las luces es ventanas.
«The moment ended and time sped up again.» — la alteración temporal la consigna como sensación, no como medida.
«It was an eerie drive. Despite my positive experience, I couldn’t help but feel we were just biding time and waiting for the other shoe to drop.» — marca la coexistencia entre su experiencia positiva y el miedo del grupo, sin armonizarlas.
«Surely this was a world-wide invasion. Surely there was some breaking report that could explain what had just happened to us.» — lo que esperaba encontrar en las noticias esa misma noche.
«There was nothing on but a rerun of an Elvis special.» — la comprobación negativa que consigna, y que deja al episodio sin confirmación externa.
«Something had happened there. We had not totally lost our minds.» — la única conclusión que se permite esa noche.
«I said our hundred-and-ten pound Chesapeake Bay retriever, Rosie, would come with us to protect us.» — así entra la perra al relato; el animal como testigo es recurso constante del libro.
«I noticed the dogs weren’t barking toward the garage, which was toward the houses, but back behind the kennel, where there was nothing but woods.» — el indicio que lo lleva al bosque, leído con criterio de cazador.
«If somebody had come to rob the garage, they would have come from the road and then would have run back toward the road to get away.» — descarta la hipótesis del ladrón por la dirección de los ladridos.
«It was a basic hunting tactic I had done hundreds of times.» — la técnica con que sale a buscar es de caza, no de investigación.
«I was so focused on watching that strip of tree-line that I didn’t realize that Junior let go of my shirt.» — consigna su propio descuido antes de lo que sigue.
«We ran out the front door to the truck and were able to get away.» — la huida de la casa, esa misma noche.
«We drove to a hayfield five miles away and parked right in the middle of it.» — dónde pasaron la noche, y por qué: campo abierto con vista panorámica.
«I did not know how I was going to tell him what had happened.» — la dificultad de contar aparece desde la primera noche, y es el asunto del libro entero.
«If anything came toward us, it would have to travel a long way over land we had a panoramic view of.» — la lógica defensiva con que elige el campo abierto.
«The world hadn’t ended while we slept.» — así abre la mañana siguiente; la expectativa apocalíptica es suya.
«When I don’t know what to do, I return to the familiar.» — la regla de conducta que declara, y que explica su vuelta al trabajo.
«No one had gone out shooting, nor had they heard the three shots that sent the egg-shaped orb flying toward us then away into the night sky.» — la comprobación con los vecinos sale negativa: nadie disparó ni oyó los disparos.
«It can be very hard to predict how someone will react to news that runs contrary to their understanding of what is possible.» — su lectura de las reacciones ajenas, formulada como regla general.
«When we told the people in the mobile home what we had seen, their disbelief came with judgment: of our character, sanity, and reputation.» — nombra los tres frentes del rechazo: carácter, cordura y reputación.
«We could see on their faces that we had no common ground.» — así describe la ruptura con los vecinos.
«We had no answers, but we had each other.» — el saldo que hace de esos días.
«Dad had just chalked it up to him being a crazy kid on drugs.» — la explicación de su padre ante lo que contó Junior.
«I would come to learn that my dad’s responses were quite generous compared to most of the reactions our telling has garnered.» — consigna que esa reacción resultó de las benignas.
«I felt rotten for having abandoned him for so long, that his sense of safety at home was forever compromised, that his conceptions of reality were so dramatically challenged at such a young age.» — la culpa hacia su hijo, en tres frentes: el abandono, la seguridad y la idea de lo real.
«Whatever was there would not let me approach, rifle or not, no matter how determined I was to protect Junior.» — le adjudica a la presencia el control del acercamiento, aun estando armado.
«There is no nobler beginning to gossip than a guise of concern or of warning.» — su lectura del rumor comunitario, dicha como sentencia.
«there was nothing recognizable in them but pity or scorn.» — así describe las caras de sus vecinos después de contarlo.
«I remain so grateful to her for managing to strike this balance and keep our family together.» — le reconoce a Yvonne el equilibrio entre la iglesia y él.
«No aftershocks from the lithium toxicity resulted in anything but depression in me.» — descarta explícitamente que lo visto sea secuela de la intoxicación por litio.
«She could neither affirm or deny what had happened to her friends, family, and fellow congregants.» — la posición de su esposa ante la congregación; la grafía es la de la fuente.
«Even if she had been there that night, she understood the social cost of attesting to such an event in such a religious community.» — nombra el costo social del testimonio dentro de una comunidad religiosa.
«Possibilities opened up before me. I didn’t have to stay close to my bathroom all day and could find steady work again.» — consigna la remisión de la enfermedad como apertura práctica, sin explicar la causa.
«Unfortunately as rumors spread, it became harder and harder to find anyone who would risk hiring me.» — el efecto del rumor sobre su trabajo.
«I was persona non grata. Unfortunately, this happened as soon as I gained freedom from that debilitating illness.» — señala la coincidencia entre la cura y el destierro social, sin ligarlas por causa.
«There was no way out of this labyrinth of questions.» — el estado en que dice quedar tras el episodio.
«If everyone turned their back on me, turning my back on them was the only thing I could do to stave off my misery.» — declara su retirada como respuesta, no como elección.
«The sensation was close to the resistance met by trying to touch opposing ends of magnets together. A painful, prolonged zap ran through me.» — el símil con que describe la barrera: polos de imán enfrentados.
«In front of me, flickering from total invisibility into a translucent, moon-like glow, stood two of the beings I had seen two nights before. They were short, with red eyes and the same elongated upward-pointing triangle on their chests.» — la segunda aparición de los seres, con el mismo triángulo en el pecho que en la primera.
«It was a thought and a philosophy as much as it was sweeping emotion.» — insiste en que lo recibido es a la vez pensamiento, filosofía y emoción.
«All my memories, all my thoughts, all my emotions were changed.» — el alcance que le atribuye al episodio.
«My whole worldview reorganized itself around this foundational priority.» — llama prioridad fundacional a la importancia de todo ser vivo.
«As this happened, shame and disgust arrived, sickening my heart.» — la reacción inmediata: vergüenza por lo que había cazado.
«I sank into a profound state of mourning and regret for having killed.» — así nombra el duelo por los animales que mató.
«Finally, it seemed I had been given a clue as to what this all was about. A problem existed that might be fixed. A sickness that could be healed.» — lo que dice haber entendido: un problema que puede arreglarse, una enfermedad que puede curarse.
«The terror and trauma of the past days were pointed toward some benevolent end.» — así resuelve la ambigüedad de los días previos: en favor de la benevolencia.
«This was to become my work, whenever and however that work appeared to me.» — declara que ahí nace su tarea, sin contenido definido todavía.
«This understanding remains at the core of who I am.» — lo que dice conservar del episodio, dieciséis años después.
«It seemed my isolation was not total, though I wanted it to be.» — así describe su aislamiento tras la expulsión.
«All night long, it sounded like a few different owls were hashing out some territorial dispute directly over my family’s heads.» — los búhos vuelven como presencia constante sobre la casa.
«When all I wanted to do was lock myself away, those owls reminded me there was a world that had not rejected me, where I was not a failure or a father, where I was simply one vulnerable living thing among others trying to survive.» — lee a los búhos como recordatorio de un mundo que no lo juzga; se pone al nivel de cualquier ser vivo, en línea con la epifanía.
«These owls’ reminders of the peacefully indifferent natural world were persuasive.» — llama pacíficamente indiferente al mundo natural, no providente.
«There was no fixing these things; they would simply have to be lived with.» — su posición ante la ruptura familiar y comunitaria.
«I went to the outdoor store and bought a sleeping bag, a backpack, and a small gas stove.» — así relata su retirada al campo y al Appalachian Trail.
«I came to learn that the majority of the remaining CB radio community is either the disabled or elderly, and this was true of E.T., who couldn’t walk and had undergone almost fifty surgeries.» — describe a la comunidad de radio CB donde encuentra interlocutores; E.T. es el apodo de uno de ellos.
«I never told them who I was or anything that could lead them to discover it, but I built a deeply comforting connection I felt with people who were similarly stuck and in need of friendship.» — consigna que se relacionó en anonimato.
«Picking up the receiver, we couldn’t give each other what we wanted, but we could give each other a part of what we needed.» — la fórmula con que mide ese consuelo.
«Seeing bears, especially moms with young cubs, filled me with sadness, but it also filled me with tenderness.» — la mezcla de tristeza y ternura ante los animales, después de la epifanía.
«The shame I felt at having killed so many of them indiscriminately was crushing.» — vuelve sobre la vergüenza de su historial de caza.
«The wilderness was a good friend, but it was quiet.» — el límite que le pone a la naturaleza como consuelo.
«After a trip I might feel good for a couple of days, but my all-encompassing exile ground me down quickly.» — consigna que el remedio no duraba.
«I had never spent much time in a library, so it hadn’t occurred to me that there were ways for me to learn about what had happened.» — declara que no se le había ocurrido buscar información sobre lo ocurrido.
«The simple fact that there was a protocol for what had happened to me was reassuring.» — lo que le da MUFON no es respuesta sino procedimiento, y eso es lo que valora.
«Maybe the key didn’t work, or only led to another mystery, but it was something in which I could place hope.» — pone el límite dentro de la misma frase: podía no servir de nada.
«I didn’t know which outcome would be more disastrous, whether our experience was somehow proven or debunked.» — deja la disyuntiva abierta: las dos salidas de la investigación le parecían malas.
«Even the smallest chance of winning back my reputation was irresistible.» — declara el motivo por el que reporta a MUFON, y es social.
«I knew it was unlikely that such an investigation would lead to that result, but the rigid protocol of their process, the fact that their investigators were trained, had an air of legitimacy that I so direly lacked.» — lo que busca en MUFON es la legitimidad del procedimiento, no el resultado; el término *air of legitimacy* es suyo.
«No matter the risk, the allure of ending my family’s lonely torment was deeply compelling.» — el motivo familiar, junto al de reputación.
«We came to the conclusion that the problems it had caused for us weren’t going to go away unless we took action.» — así cuenta la decisión familiar de reportar.
«Still, what I had done was irreversible: I had opened Pandora’s box.» — su lectura del envío del reporte; la imagen es suya.
«Yvonne had the sense to call the federal air traffic controllers and ask if their radar had picked anything up in the area. They hadn’t detected anything.» — la comprobación con el radar civil sale negativa, y el libro la consigna igual.
«The whole family now shared the same problem. As parents, we confronted the fact that we could not protect our children from whatever was out there.» — el episodio del objeto en forma de cono de helado deja a la familia entera dentro del asunto.
«Despite them all having seen it, Yvonne still did not want us to talk about, and understandably so.» — consigna la negativa de su esposa a hablar del asunto aun habiéndolo visto.
«It was horrifying as a parent to see your child quake in fear over something you yourself didn’t understand.» — formula así el problema del padre: no puede explicar lo que aterra al hijo.
«I might have borne their rejection alright if I had gone alone, but I would not allow my children to see me treated that way by their own family.» — el rechazo que consigna viene de su propia parentela.
«I was thrilled to finally have him come, for something about our family dynamic to change, since it couldn’t get much worse without totally falling apart.» — así recibe al investigador voluntario de MUFON.
«MUFON investigators don’t get paid for their work, so it wasn’t until February that Steve’s job allowed him to make it down to Fayetteville to conduct interviews.» — consigna la condición de voluntariado de los investigadores y la demora que causó.
«After seeing the ice cream cone, she had tried to sweep it under the rug, but this event she could not bring herself to deny.» — describe el vuelco de su esposa: la segunda aparición ya no pudo negarla.
«Despite wanting answers for her own experiences, Yvonne was still against the idea.» — consigna la contradicción de su esposa sin resolverla.
«There was no way of knowing whether a higher-level and better-funded investigation would give us more definitive answers.» — la reserva que pone antes de aceptar la televisión.
«It became clear that MUFON was interested in a more comprehensive investigation.» — así narra la escalada de la organización sobre su caso.
«In messages from MUFON and Steve that winter, they told me that I would make a great witness as a family man, that my son and other witnesses lent credibility to the account, that this was my best chance at actually finding out what had happened.» — los argumentos que le atribuye a MUFON: hombre de familia, hijo testigo, mejor oportunidad de saber.
«It became clear we all had a desire to find out what happened and what was still happening.» — consigna que el fenómeno seguía en curso, no era un episodio cerrado.
«Steve was a good man who was kind to my family and me.» — separa al investigador de la organización; el juicio duro que sigue no lo alcanza.
«We had no reason to think the other MUFON members would act any differently toward us.» — así explica su confianza inicial.
«Yvonne stipulated that the shooting on our property be as discreet and quick as possible, and MUFON and the producers promised that it would be.» — la condición que puso su esposa al rodaje, y la promesa que recibe.
«In the South, reputation is everything, so one cannot get far in life here with sharkish, manipulative, or cruel business practices.» — el supuesto con que entra al trato; lo que el capítulo cuenta después es lo contrario.
«We wanted so badly for our community to look at us again as human beings, and everything about the show seemed to indicate our being taken seriously by respectable people.» — lo que esperaba del programa era reconocimiento social, no verdad.
«We did not know anything about how a TV show was really made and what was normal for people in our position.» — declara su ignorancia del medio.
«Once we told the kids, their expectations soared. They would talk to each other about things like who would get the most camera time,» — la expectativa de los hijos; la frase sigue al otro lado del corte de plana.
«I didn’t see Steve. I didn’t know who was with MUFON and who was with Discovery.» — consigna la confusión entre la organización de investigación y la productora.
«I felt betrayed by this ambush, that they would begin filming a polygraph examination the first day before asking me about any aspect of my story or the physical evidence that had been compiled.» — llama emboscada al polígrafo filmado antes de cualquier pregunta sobre el caso.
«Their priority seemed to be to get a sense of me and my honesty before anything else happened.» — lo que le adjudica a la producción: verificar al testigo antes que la evidencia.
«I thought maybe it was part of the objectivity of such a high-level scientific investigation.» — cómo se lo explicó en el momento, antes de cambiar de lectura.
«But the show wasn’t about my story, it was about ratings.» — la conclusión a la que llega sobre el programa.
«This was by no means clear during the shooting, but every shot in the editing process is geared toward this central tension in the plot.» — su lectura del montaje televisivo: todo plano orientado a la tensión de si el testigo miente.
«Our long story, with all the painstaking detail with which I had reported it, was reduced to brief clips of language and a rudimentary 3-D rendering of the orbs we saw.» — lo que quedó de su relato en pantalla.
«They had offered trauma counseling for all of us, but never followed through.» — consigna la promesa incumplida de acompañamiento psicológico.
«This may have seemed like a trivial disappointment for a TV producer.» — así introduce la exclusión de su familia del presupuesto de comidas del rodaje.
«But my kids had dealt with hunger.» — la razón por la que ese detalle no le resulta trivial.
«Of the whole experience, the only worthwhile ordeal was the regression therapy, which over the next year slowly unlocked my blocked memories.» — la terapia de regresión es lo único que rescata del episodio; el término *unlocked* es suyo.
«There was nothing we could do to stop it so we just hoped that they would refrain from the obviously damning portrait they had been painting.» — consigna su falta de control sobre el montaje.
«Our family was left in late October of that year not with vindication, celebrity, or revelation, but a nationally televised interrogation of our character with inconclusive results.» — el saldo del programa, en sus propios términos: un interrogatorio nacional sobre su carácter, sin resultado.
«Now, there was nowhere we could run away to.» — el efecto de la exposición nacional sobre la familia.
«There was no winning my reputation back, but it comforted me to be seen as a positive contributor to the community rather than malicious and insane.» — la jardinería como reconciliación parcial con el vecindario, con el límite dicho en la misma frase.
«My wariness was due as much to how poorly the shooting went as to how we were treated in the aftermath.» — su reticencia posterior ante congresos y medios.
«The counseling never came, with MUFON and Discovery assigning blame to the other party, and no one taking responsibility as Discovery had already pulled the plug on the series.» — así reparte responsabilidades entre la organización y la productora: ninguna la asume.
«The cheaply made, exploitative, sensationalist series remains one of the biggest debacles in the entire genre.» — su juicio sobre la serie, dicho sin atenuantes.
«The storm of ridicule and judgment that fell on my family was beyond anything we had imagined.» — el efecto de la emisión sobre la familia.
«If the gossip of churchgoers and businessmen was so damaging to me, it was nothing compared to what happened to the children.» — pone el daño mayor en los hijos, no en él.
«It made no difference to the community, or MUFON, that some neighbors had called me after the episode aired saying they saw the same things that night.» — consigna que hubo vecinos que llamaron confirmando lo visto, y que no cambió nada.
«Junior ran away from home. He was eighteen. We had no idea where he had gone, and could only guess that he had gotten fed up with everything.» — la huida del hijo mayor, contada sin certeza del motivo.
«Despite my efforts to convince him that the orbs were benevolent and well-intentioned, his nightmares and screams shook the house several nights a week.» — contradicción que no armoniza: sostiene la benevolencia mientras describe las pesadillas de su hijo.
«Having lost a son, it felt as though the world had already ended.» — el peso que le da a esa ausencia.
«I refused to use unnatural pesticides and fertilizers, wanting to be in harmony with the land.» — la huerta se rige por el mismo criterio de la epifanía: armonía con lo vivo.
«He grew up in a meaningfully different environment from his older brothers because of his access to the internet.» — así explica la diferencia de su hijo menor, Ryan.
«This validation protected him to some extent from the real life judgment he faced at school.» — la validación en línea contra el juicio en la escuela; el límite —*to some extent*— es suyo.
«Part of Ryan’s excitement had to do with his first encounter with Hal Povenmire, a six-foot-five man who showed up at our doorstep just before Christmas in 2008.» — así entra Hal Povenmire al relato; el nombre va tal como lo imprime la fuente.
«He told us his credentials: a graduate of Ohio State in astrophysics at the age of seventeen, he was immediately recruited at the beginning of NASA in 1958.» — las credenciales que Povenmire declara, según Bledsoe, sin cotejo externo.
«No doubt, as much of a blessing the visit was for Ryan, who longed for the kind of validation a NASA official could bring, it made the rest of the family all the more anxious.» — consigna a la vez el alivio del hijo y la angustia del resto.
«Another concern was that the government’s attention meant that our livelihoods were now in the hands of a vastly more powerful and dangerous entity than MUFON and The Discovery Channel.» — pone al gobierno en la misma serie que la organización y la productora, y como el más peligroso.
«The thought crossed all our minds that one agency or another would come one night and disappear us all, sweeping the whole thing under the rug forever.» — el temor de desaparición que declara haber compartido la familia.
«Work had always been synonymous with pain, but this felt like something new.» — así introduce el dolor que después le diagnostican como artritis reumatoide.
«I thought to myself that I ought to turn off the radio.» — el impulso que precede al rayo sobre la antena; lo consigna como aviso, no como corazonada explicada.
«I became more and more certain that the sight of the owl on the antenna that morning had warned me on some level to get away from the radio.» — le adjudica al búho de la antena una advertencia; el matiz *on some level* es suyo.
«To this day I feel protected by owls.» — la declaración más directa del libro sobre los búhos.
«I saw the glow of flames coming out of my study and sprinted to the back of the house.» — así relata el incendio del estudio.
«The fire caused thirty-five-thousand dollars’ worth of damage, handing our family another insurmountable burden.» — la cifra del daño y su efecto económico.
«The lightning strike was yet another reminder of our powerlessness.» — cómo lee la serie de accidentes: impotencia, no castigo.
«This called into doubt my insistence that these were benevolent beings sent to help us.» — registra su propia duda sobre la benevolencia que sostiene en otras páginas, y no la resuelve.
«It was impossible to tell in which direction the cosmic bounty on my head was tending: life, death, something in between?» — deja abierta la dirección de lo que le ocurre; la expresión *cosmic bounty* es suya.
«I was certain that I would be struck next.» — lo que dice haber esperado en esa racha.
«I was amazed by the fact that I was still breathing.» — su reacción tras el rayo.
«We were glad it was just the single, cheapest laptop taken, but the professional nature of the theft was terribly worrying.» — lee el robo del portátil como intrusión dirigida, no como delito común.
«This sickened me as a father, but I was relieved the focus was on me and not the kids.» — consigna las dos reacciones a la vez, sin elegir entre ellas.
«As with the lightning strike, we were all reminded that our house offered us little protection from whoever was out there.» — la casa deja de ser refugio; la fórmula *whoever was out there* deja abierta la identidad.
«I had been praying every night for the money to buy a cheap one.» — la oración por dinero, tal como la declara: pedido concreto y material.
«She was of the opinion that every attempt at maintaining a normal home life should be made.» — la posición de Yvonne ante los fenómenos, narrada por su marido.
«She was flooded with guilt over the years she subtly ignored the cause of his suffering, realizing this underlying disbelief only served to put distance between them.» — le atribuye a su esposa la culpa por haber desatendido el sufrimiento del hijo; el relato es de él, no de ella.
«All her consolations were tinged with some doubt.» — consigna la duda de fondo en el consuelo materno.
«Red light on their faces, she sat with him in his terror for the first time.» — el episodio del camión con luces de freno rojas que aterra a Junior.
«The North Carolina MUFON chapter had been emailing us all year asking us to speak at one of their meetings.» — así vuelve al circuito ufológico después de la serie.
«Doctor Michael O’Connell emailed us with a message that convinced us to give it a try.» — el nombre del hipnotista de regresión va tal como lo imprime la fuente, sin cotejo.
«His regression hypnosis represented the only positive outcome from the entire filming process, so we trusted him.» — la razón por la que le da crédito, y es la misma que da del rodaje entero.
«Evidently, the Discovery series had caused a huge amount of upheaval in the community, and MUFON membership locally and across the country was dropping.» — consigna el efecto de la serie sobre la organización que lo investigó.
«The local chapter was outraged at the show’s methods and focus: all the resources that could have been used for an actual investigation were instead used to pathologize me and question my credibility.» — lo que le atribuye al capítulo local; el verbo que usa es *pathologize*.
«Doctor O’Connell took it upon himself to point out the many deceptions and hypocrisies that had occurred during the filming.» — el papel que le adjudica al hipnotista ante la asamblea.
«He told me my brain was protecting itself and wouldn’t allow me to remember what happened all at once.» — la explicación de la amnesia que le atribuye a O’Connell, en estilo indirecto.
«I did my best to keep what I saw to myself so I wouldn’t worry my family, but I was deeply troubled.» — consigna que ocultó las visiones a su familia.
«I told them not to wake me up no matter how upset I seemed because I wanted to know what had happened those hours.» — la instrucción que da a su casa para no interrumpir los episodios nocturnos.
«The kind I most often received were visions of apocalypse: famine, plague, widespread destruction and suffering.» — el contenido que declara de sus sueños: hambruna, plaga, destrucción.
«All I could do those years was keep gardening and preparing for what I was seemingly warned about by the beings.» — la consecuencia práctica que saca; el matiz *seemingly* es suyo.
«It was unclear whether I had visited these places and times or whether they were images the beings had projected into my mind.» — deja abierta la disyuntiva entre viaje y proyección mental, y no la cierra en ninguna página.
«It sounded as though it were echoing around the walls of a round room.» — la descripción acústica del interior donde dice haber despertado.
«No doubt these dreams unsettled everyone else’s sleep in the house.» — el costo doméstico de esos episodios.
«There was a deep need in them to do this, and they had treated me well at their meeting, so I had a hard time saying no.» — por qué acepta la visita del capítulo de MUFON pese a todo lo anterior.
«I believe it was a collective good will that caused them to reveal themselves.» — le atribuye la aparición a la buena voluntad del grupo; es su regla de manifestación.
«It made no sense that they would give me a profound sense of well-being and compassion toward all life, while at the same time instilling so much fear in others and traumatizing Junior. It made no sense that they would cure my Crohn’s overnight, only to replace it with RA.» — enuncia la contradicción que no resuelve: benevolencia con él y trauma para su hijo, cura de Crohn y llegada de la artritis reumatoide.
«If the orbs and beings were sent from heaven, as some at the North Carolina MUFON meeting had said, I couldn’t square that with the fact their eyes appeared to be mechanical.» — el obstáculo que le opone a la lectura celestial son los ojos mecánicos; la lectura celestial la habían propuesto en la reunión de MUFON.
«I wanted desperately to prove what I was seeing and share this with the world.» — el impulso probatorio, anterior a cualquier encargo.
«There was an emotional component that I could never quite put into words.» — declara el límite de su propia descripción.
«These beings and their orbs seemed to respond to feeling in a way that no photograph or video could capture.» — su explicación de por qué la evidencia visual no basta.
«I found they communicated most directly to those who were at the deepest depths of their despair.» — la regla que formula: la desesperación como condición del contacto.
«I served as a deacon for a congregation that turned me into a pariah.» — resume así su relación con la iglesia.
«I had been so devoted to the church, but here was a spiritual experience as powerful as any I had ever felt at church.» — pone las dos experiencias en el mismo plano, sin decidir entre ellas.
«those in the worst condition found they were the ones to whom the beings were most willing to reveal themselves.» — repite la regla del contacto: se manifiestan a quien está peor.
«My only consistent hope was the well-being of my family and a sense that the story wasn’t over yet.» — lo único que declara sostenerlo en esos años.
«It would have to be seen through to the very end, whatever that might be, no matter how much suffering lay ahead.» — su decisión de seguir, con el final declarado desconocido.
«Two things had begun to happen in these years: the beings had started to appear more often, and it seemed they were becoming more and more sensitive to our behavior.» — la doble tendencia que registra: más apariciones y más sensibilidad a la conducta humana.
«A more or less consistent call-and-response was beginning to form between us and them.» — nombra el patrón como llamada y respuesta; el matiz *more or less* es suyo.
«She liked mowing at the end of the day when it was cooler out, often turning its headlights on and going well after nightfall.» — el contexto del accidente de Yvonne con la podadora.
«She was looking right past me, pointing at the window directly behind my head.» — el episodio de agosto de 2009: quien ve la figura es su esposa, y él narra.
«It was more solid than the shadowy beings she had followed down the hallway a couple of years beforehand.» — gradúa la materialidad de las apariciones: esta le resulta más sólida que las anteriores.
«We were all too scared to go to the river.» — el efecto inmediato de esa aparición sobre la familia.
«I thought about how noisy the gravel was and how I couldn’t possibly have missed the sound of a car coming around by my study.» — el argumento con que descarta que la camioneta azul fuera un vehículo ordinario.
«He did drive a blue truck, but it was beat up and dirty because he worked out of it, and it was decades newer than the truck she saw.» — consigna la discrepancia entre el vehículo real de su amigo y el que vio su esposa.
«Either she was focused on listening to what her mother was saying, or she figured at the time that the speed of the vehicle somehow made it quieter.» — ofrece él mismo las explicaciones ordinarias del silencio, y las deja como alternativas.
«When these things happened, our first thought was always the safety of the children.» — el orden de prioridades que declara ante cada episodio.
«We had to accept the supernatural drive-by as though it were an everyday event.» — así describe la normalización de lo extraordinario en su casa; el término *supernatural* es suyo.
«None of these things were burdened by the drag of any kind of conventional propulsion.» — la observación física que repite: los objetos no muestran propulsión convencional.
«Instantaneous acceleration: here one second, zipping miles away the next.» — así nombra el rasgo de movimiento que más consigna.
«Jeremy in particular faced far more cruelty from his peers than was his due.» — el costo escolar sobre otro de los hijos.
«None of it was letting up: nightmares and the voice in the back of our heads that feared anything out of the ordinary were two of the worst consequences of the phenomena.» — nombra las dos peores consecuencias, y las dos son psíquicas, no materiales.
«Fear can act like a contagion in close quarters between people who know each other well.» — su explicación del contagio del miedo dentro de la casa.
«Even if we kept them to ourselves, these brief moments of terror insinuated themselves into our daily life, affecting all of us.» — consigna que el silencio no evitaba el efecto.
«If they were happy, I didn’t want to ruin it by reminding their friends they were in an exile’s house.» — la palabra con que nombra su casa es *exile’s house*.
«Everything henceforth would be an uphill battle because of me.» — se adjudica la carga sobre sus hijos.
«If these phenomena wanted to come to me in a manner that yielded proof of their existence, fine.» — su rendición ante el fenómeno: deja la iniciativa entera del lado de él.
«If they wanted to continue this subtle game of winking away at the most frustrating moment, fine.» — nombra juego a la evasión de la prueba, sin acusarla de engaño.
«When I planted a row of zucchini or squash, they either grew or didn’t for reasons I couldn’t understand.» — la analogía con la huerta: acepta lo que no entiende sin buscar causa.
«I looked up from the yard I understood to the sky and vowed never to speak of them again.» — el voto de silencio que precede al episodio de la Pascua de 2012.
«No more conferences, no more visitors, not a single mention ever again.» — el alcance del voto, en sus propios términos.
«I couldn’t tell how many there were.» — la indeterminación de las sombras que dice haberlo llevado afuera.
«I realized the beings had relinquished their control over me as I walked over, set it down, and closed the door so it couldn’t get out.» — consigna que la voluntad le fue devuelta después de la entrega del objeto.
«I might have run straight back to the house with my newfound freewill.» — lo que pudo hacer y no hizo; el término *freewill* es suyo.
«I bent down, thinking for the first time how this story would sound to the outside world.» — la conciencia de lo increíble del relato aparece dentro del propio episodio.
«It demoralized me to think of the response—”so they gave you a headless limbless tailless chihuahua?”—but there was no time to linger on the thought.» — se anticipa a la burla con una fórmula propia; el objeto entregado no tiene cabeza, extremidades ni cola.
«An angry charging bull does not give up, just like in a bullfight, but I was not a matador.» — así describe la embestida del toro negro traslúcido.
«I was stricken and dazed, having narrowly missed getting trampled to death.» — el estado en que dice quedar antes de la aparición de la figura femenina.
«She had blonde hair and the most dazzling blue eyes I had ever seen.» — el rasgo físico que da de la dama, junto al vestuario sacerdotal antiguo de la misma plana.
«I was kneeling within the circle of light emanating from her.» — la postura y la figura del círculo, forma recurrente del libro desde la infancia.
«I thought no more of the bull.» — consigna el corte entre las dos escenas sin explicar la relación entre ellas.
«However, within that mysteriously placid expression on her face, I knew my error was not final.» — lee el gesto de la dama como perdón; el saber lo declara sin fundamento dicho.
«She had appeared to offer me a way forward, to show me that these tribulations had not been in vain.» — la función que le adjudica a la aparición: dar sentido a lo padecido.
«I had to trust that revelations like these could not be delivered all at once in blinding clarity, otherwise they would be rejected or ignored.» — su regla sobre la revelación gradual, que también explica el ritmo del libro.
«She communicated to me that the orbs, the beings, the missing time, were all tools she had been using.» — la jerarquía completa: orbes, seres y lapsos de tiempo quedan bajo la dama como instrumentos.
«She vowed that if I continued in this mission, she would protect my family and me, she would allow the orbs to be photographed, and she would allow me to show these phenomena to witnesses outside of my family.» — los tres términos del pacto que declara: protección, permiso de fotografiar y testigos ajenos.
«If I continued to talk about what I saw, she said that she would never leave my side.» — la condición del acompañamiento es hablar.
«She warned that there were forces at work to cast phenomena like this in a negative light, and that if this view won out, humanity would be set on a path to ruin.» — el encargo tiene adversario declarado: fuerzas que empujan la lectura negativa del fenómeno.
«Our world was not imploding. With the lady on our side, we would see better days.» — el saldo que hace del episodio.
«There would be no way out but through.» — la fórmula con que acepta la carga.
«Every time in the past I thought things couldn’t get any worse, I ended up wrong.» — la reserva que se pone a sí mismo en la misma plana.
«It was too much of a coincidence that I received their invitation so quickly after the encounter.» — lee la invitación a la conferencia como señal, no como azar.
«Again, it seemed the lady had given me some flexibility in terms of how and when to share what I had seen, so I didn’t feel I was being dishonest.» — declara margen propio sobre cuándo y cómo contar.
«I owed it to the audience to tell them the story they came to hear, but I felt I owed the lady even more for bringing me there.» — pone la deuda con la dama por encima de la deuda con el público.
«I said that two weeks ago, I had vowed to abandon everything related to the phenomena because of the misery that had fallen on my family.» — así abre su charla: contando el voto de silencio que acababa de romper.
«It was real. She told me to tell you what she said.» — la fórmula con que transmite el mensaje de la dama ante el público.
«There will be a 6.8 magnitude earthquake on September 23, 2012 in Baja, California. In New York this fall the elections will be disrupted.» — la predicción que atribuye a la dama, con fecha y magnitud; el libro la consigna sin evaluar su cumplimiento.
«I felt better; what’s laughable in a conference room isn’t so funny when you’re huddled together gazing across incomprehensible distances at old specks of light.» — contrapone la sala de conferencias con la observación del cielo.
«Just as we stood at the edge of the lake, we stood at the outer edge of earth confronting what we hardly knew.» — la imagen con que describe la posición humana ante el fenómeno.
«However there was something about Diana’s reputation that made him willing to explore the subject.» — lo que abre a su hijo Junior es la credencial académica, no el argumento.
«She had a master’s from Berkley and a PhD from Stanford, I thought she might offer him some validation.» — las credenciales de Diana Pasulka como él las imprime; la grafía Berkley es la de la fuente.
«Having a legitimate and academically respected person on his side to vouch for him would make a huge difference.» — lo que espera de esa validación es social, no doctrinal.
«It wouldn’t silence his critics and detractors, but it might make their voices a little quieter.» — el límite que le pone en la misma frase.
«I was impressed that the MUFON administration was running smoothly enough to organize our meeting, but I was shocked that the lady had appeared when she did.» — lo que le sorprende no es la organización sino la coincidencia temporal de la aparición.
«If she hadn’t, there was absolutely no chance that I would have accepted an offer to drive six hours to talk to them in Asheville.» — declara que sin la aparición no habría ido.
«It wasn’t the first such alignment and it would be far from the last.» — nombra alineación a esas coincidencias, y las declara recurrentes.
«These experiences were not hobbies or thought experiments for my family and me, they were a challenging, almost daily confrontation with forces beyond our understanding.» — marca la distancia entre su situación y la de quienes estudian el asunto.
«All my near-death experiences, losing my first wife in my arms, gaining and losing a fortune, going from being a respected member of my community to an outcast: all of it brought me a more complete appreciation of life itself.» — reordena su vida entera bajo la clave de la apreciación de la vida.
«If I had felt rich beforehand, with two planes and a big house, I felt just as rich arriving back at the house to my wife and children.» — la equivalencia con que cierra ese balance.
«I would not allow my family to get dragged through the mud again, and there was virtually no way of guaranteeing that in the making of a feature film.» — la reserva con que recibe el proyecto de película.
«I told her the Monday beforehand I would go out and pray for a sign every night.» — el procedimiento que declara para decidir: pedir señal, no deliberar.
«If the beings wanted me to meet with the screenwriters, I had a feeling they would let me know.» — deja la decisión del lado de los seres.
«I didn’t see anything the first few nights, and it had been raining all Tuesday and Wednesday.» — consigna los días sin señal antes del incendio del árbol.
«About seventy-five yards behind us I saw a tree erupting in flames.» — así relata el incendio del catalpa que toma por señal.
«As we got closer, we realized it wasn’t some errant firework, but a full top-to-bottom blaze all through the interior of the tree.» — descarta la explicación del cohete de fuegos artificiales por la forma del incendio.
«None of us had been outside beforehand, there had been no lightning or thunder that day, and the grass was still wet from the rain under our shoes.» — enumera las condiciones que descartan causa ordinaria: nadie fuera, sin rayos, pasto mojado.
«After it began to die out, I went inside to write to Diana that I had gotten my sign and that I’d see her and the screenwriters Monday morning.» — lee el incendio como la señal pedida y actúa en consecuencia.
«If we were going to put our family in jeopardy again, we had decided that we would at least take equal responsibility this time around.» — la corrección que introducen tras el episodio de la televisión.
«They made it clear that as screenwriters they could not guarantee any kind of control over the final product.» — consigna la advertencia de los guionistas, hermanos Hayes.
«Still, Yvonne and I were curious enough to see where it went, so we agreed verbally to the idea of a movie option for Seraphim.» — el acuerdo verbal por la opción cinematográfica.
«Later I received an email from Diana about changing the name to Cape Fear Prophecies» — el segundo título propuesto para el proyecto, según él.
«That fiery gash in the wood on an otherwise normal night was unforgettable. It was as plainly urgent as any of the other phenomena I had experienced.» — pone el incendio del árbol al nivel de los demás fenómenos.
«I had my instructions from the lady: I had to keep speaking out.» — formula el encargo como instrucción, no como impulso.
«The electoral disruptions I had predicted at the Asheville MUFON conference ended up happening.» — se adjudica el cumplimiento de la predicción de las elecciones.
«The invitation, which came entirely out of the blue, was for an event called the Gathering.» — así nombra el congreso de Filadelfia al que lo invita Larry Frascella.
«I arranged to have Diana invited along with us, and it seemed legitimate enough, so we weren’t too worried about getting disappeared by men in black.» — la broma sobre los hombres de negro es suya, y marca su distancia con el folclore ufológico.
«I was singled out as only one of two direct experiencers in the audience.» — su lugar en el congreso de Filadelfia: testigo, entre agentes, oficiales y científicos.
«Part of me envied that their status as agents, officials, and scientists legitimized their questions in ways that being a builder in Fayetteville never afforded, but I was glad to be there regardless.» — nombra la asimetría de legitimidad entre su oficio y el de ellos.
«Three years later Larry was driving me and John Alexander through the streets of Philadelphia trying to gather information on a future assassination attempt on the pope.» — enlaza este congreso con el episodio con que abre el libro.
«I believed then that nothing happened by coincidence with the orbs.» — su regla de lectura: ninguna coincidencia es azar.
«If they allowed themselves to be filmed, they would be filmed.» — la condición de la evidencia queda entera del lado de los orbes.
«Ever since this night they have become more and more willing to be recorded.» — registra la tendencia creciente a dejarse grabar, que es el arco del libro.
«I could only guess that the lady was pleased that I had gone to the Gathering and so rewarded me with the ability to capture orbs on video.» — lee la posibilidad de filmar como recompensa; el verbo es *guess*, no afirma.
«That winter my arthritis became unbearable. Often the hardest physical labor of gardening came in the colder months when it was time to prepare the soil for spring.» — la artritis reumatoide entra en el relato junto al trabajo de huerta.
«I was committed to using fertilizer from the manure of my forty hens, since I wanted to be able to provide for my family and neighbors in the event that my apocalyptic visions came true.» — liga la huerta con las visiones apocalípticas: se prepara para lo que dice haber visto.
«All that spring, I kept capturing videos and images of the orbs and sharing them with those I trusted.» — consigna la práctica de registro y difusión restringida.
«That Easter in 2013, I met the lady for a second time.» — la Pascua vuelve como fecha de las apariciones.
«My arthritis had gotten so bad it started to disrupt my sleep.» — el estado físico en que sitúa el segundo encuentro.
«Opening my eyes, I saw I was rising up through the top of the house, alert but entirely relaxed.» — así describe la levitación: consciente y sin miedo.
«There was no tractor beam or jerking, just a steady rise.» — descarta explícitamente el rayo tractor del imaginario ufológico al describir su ascenso.
«If they hadn’t harmed me yet, there was no reason for them to do so now.» — el razonamiento con que se tranquiliza durante el episodio.
«I felt deep down that they were doing all of this to prepare me to tell the world.» — le adjudica a los seres una pedagogía dirigida al testimonio.
«This was just another step in the process of molding me into the kind of witness they needed.» — se describe a sí mismo como testigo en formación, no como elegido acabado.
«I had no idea where I was going, but I knew I had traveled unimaginable distances when suddenly I was lowering through the atmosphere toward a surface.» — consigna el desconocimiento del destino junto a la certeza de la distancia.
«It could have been Egypt or any other desert on earth, but for some reason I got the sense that it was Utah.» — la identificación del lugar la da como impresión, no como dato.
«Their bodies glowed ivory-yellow like the moon, and it occurred to me that they must wear a kind of cloak to protect my eyes from their brightness.» — la luna vuelve como término de comparación de los seres.
«I didn’t try to speak and don’t know if I could have if I tried.» — consigna que no probó a hablar y que no sabe si habría podido.
«She was the light and the light source.» — así describe a la dama sentada en el trono de piedra.
«When the red star of Regulus aligns just before dawn in the gaze of the Sphinx, a new knowledge shall come into the world.» — la parábola que atribuye a la dama, con la alineación de Regulus y la Esfinge.
«I have come to understand that around Easter 2026 there will be the end of an old way and the beginning of a new.» — su lectura de esa parábola: fecha propuesta por él, con el verbo *understand*, no dictada por ella.
«She communicated to me that she could now trust that I was forever committed to sharing what I knew with the world, whatever the cost.» — el compromiso que le adjudica: hablar cueste lo que cueste.
«She said they would not interfere with our free will, which was why it mattered that I had chosen, and continued to choose, to take this path.» — la doctrina de no interferencia con el libre albedrío, que él pone en boca de ella.
«I woke back up in my bed that Sunday morning remembering everything that had transpired. Her beauty, above all else, was burned in my mind.» — consigna que despertó en su cama con memoria completa, al revés que en otros episodios.
«I wanted so badly to know how they had made it happen.» — declara que el mecanismo le sigue faltando.
«After going on for so long with only the slightest bit of proof, if you could call it that, I now had almost a full year of support, acknowledgment, and approval from some of the most respected people on the planet.» — mide su cambio de situación por el respaldo social, no por la evidencia.
«One of the friends I made at the Gathering was Grant Cameron, a writer and researcher who has studied UFOs for decades.» — así presenta a Grant Cameron; el nombre va tal cual, sin cotejo.
«There was always more to learn about the history of unexplained phenomena, and he knew as much as anyone in the world.» — lo que dice buscar en él es historia del fenómeno, no doctrina.
«I let the dogs outside beforehand so they wouldn’t bother us eating.» — así abre el episodio de la herida de la perra Nelly, con los perros afuera.
«A few moments passed as we ate together when I looked up and there they were, Nelly and Bell again, looking up at me for food.» — la reaparición de los perros que él consigna sin explicar.
«There was no ambulance for dogs.» — por qué no hubo recurso médico.
«She was bleeding too fast to get her to an animal hospital.» — el estado del animal antes de la oración que relata.
«I recognized her power, asked for her, and she closed the wound.» — la sanación que atribuye a la dama; el sujeto que cierra la herida es ella, no él.
«From that day on, I knew she might choose to act through me to relieve people of their illnesses and injuries.» — así entiende su papel en las sanaciones: instrumento, con la elección del lado de ella; el verbo es *might*.
«Whatever the lady’s reasons, she had allowed Grant to witness and record all of this.» — declara desconocer las razones y aun así atribuirle a ella el permiso.
«One of the many invitations and requests I received in the wake of the Gathering involved another free trip to Pennsylvania.» — así narra el fin de semana con un editor y otros autores.
«I was still not exactly sure what they wanted from me, but it seemed like another opportunity the likes of which the lady would have wanted me to take advantage of.» — consigna que aceptaba invitaciones sin saber qué buscaban en él.
«It went against everything I knew about life: that nature orders chaos, that nothing happens by accident, that the miracle of a tomato ripening on the vine is no less amazing than a fleet of UFOs dancing in the sky.» — su credo en tres cláusulas: la naturaleza ordena el caos, nada ocurre por accidente, el jitomate que madura no vale menos que una flota de ovnis.
«Everything about his actions went against nature. Every basic instinct about right and wrong within me knew without a doubt that he constituted evil.» — funda la existencia del mal en el instinto, no en la Escritura; el caso que usa es el de Jeffrey Dahmer.
«The lady had given me a mission to act in compassion and love toward all living beings.» — vuelve a formular el encargo en clave ética, no doctrinal.
«I myself had been close enough to the brink of death so many times that cherished life in a way these men did not.» — su argumento contra ellos es biográfico: haber estado cerca de morir.
«He had spent so long on the case that he eventually became something like a godfather to our children.» — cómo describe la relación con ese investigador tras cuatro años.
«My family’s saving grace all these years has been our ability to make friends out of strangers.» — lo que declara haberlos sostenido; la expresión es religiosa: *saving grace*.
«Word got around in the MUFON organization about Diana’s interest in me and the possibility of a movie.» — así explica la reapertura de su caso.
«In 2013, Diana offered to purchase my Life Story Rights naming her company in the contract, No Coincidences Management and Research, LLC.» — consigna el contrato y el nombre de la empresa tal como lo imprime.
«MUFON of course felt that they had a claim on my family’s experiences, and reopened my case that summer in the hopes of getting publicity and funding through the movie.» — le adjudica a la organización un interés de publicidad y financiamiento sobre su caso.
«Their initial investigation had been so unprofessional that I wanted nothing to do with them.» — su juicio sobre la primera investigación.
«This wasn’t 2008: I knew I had legitimate resources available and I wouldn’t be taken advantage of again.» — marca el cambio de posición frente a las organizaciones.
«A woman named Chase Kloetzke had gotten in touch with me to let me know what was coming.» — así entra Chase Kloetzke; el nombre va tal cual, sin cotejo.
«She was also still interested in doing investigations independently and asked to come collect samples from the burning tree.» — la investigación del árbol quemado empieza fuera de la organización.
«Beyond this, my biological reaction was the strongest he had seen.» — lo que dice haberle dicho Tim Taylor sobre su reacción al manipular los metales.
«I learned how to predict the moon’s phases, rises, sets, and even trajectories, noticing how the time of year affected all of these factors.» — su estudio de astronomía; la luna sigue siendo el objeto, desde la infancia.
«A photon, light itself, was privileged to move faster than anything else.» — así resume lo que aprende de física; es el vocabulario que aplica a los orbes.
«I was sitting out there tending the fire and thinking when two orbs appeared out of thin air.» — la aparición de los dos orbes anaranjados que sigue a ese estudio.
«They then plummeted downward, with the same instantaneous acceleration and stopping-on-a-dime that I had seen so many times before.» — repite el rasgo de movimiento que le sirve de firma del fenómeno.
«After thirty seconds or so of this duet performance, they came to a stop parallel to each other.» — llama actuación a dúo al movimiento sincronizado; la lectura de intención es suya.
«I was alone with the sky again, but by no means did I feel lonely.» — distingue soledad de aislamiento, como con los búhos del capítulo anterior.
«I told her that the orbs had flown off exactly in the direction of Saint Paul’s, which is just ten miles as the crow flies from our house.» — la coincidencia geográfica que registra entre lo que vio y el incidente de Saint Paul’s.
«None of them were quick to scare, and they were prepared for all manner of the unexpected, but they weren’t prepared for such a compelling and unusual display.» — así presenta al grupo de cazadores de fantasmas del incidente que le cuentan.
«The clocks and devices they had on them were all functioning perfectly, but it was as though their memory had been wiped as soon as they crossed the ditch.» — consigna la disociación entre los relojes intactos y la memoria borrada.
«I had never been a part of any ghost hunt, so I was interested in learning more about what the process was like.» — declara su falta de experiencia en la investigación paranormal.
«In just a few days, I would be on the former plantation wading into the dark of the woods with Tim, an agent who didn’t officially exist, Chase, a lifelong paranormal investigator, and Pete, a former submarine commander.» — enumera a los cuatro de la expedición; describe a Tim Taylor como un agente que oficialmente no existe.
«As we walked together, I told him more about the tree, that the lab results were inconclusive, that Yvonne had put the fire out three times and it kept re-igniting.» — consigna que los análisis del árbol quemado salieron inconclusos, y que el fuego se reencendió tres veces.
«It was as though the tree itself was offering him a curving, scaly greeting.» — así describe la aparición de la serpiente plateada en el hueco del árbol.
«I figured I had seen every kind of plant and animal there was to see, but I had never seen a snake that resembled it, and I still haven’t.» — declara no haber visto nunca una serpiente igual, antes ni después.
«Tim had asked me to keep his identity as secret as possible because he needed to keep a low profile, so I just said that he was a friend of mine.» — consigna el pedido de discreción; la obra no declara que Tim Taylor sea seudónimo.
«They weren’t silver or unusual in the area, but it was deeply strange that all of them were going in the same direction.» — lo que le resulta anómalo de las serpientes no es la especie sino la dirección común.
«I said I believed that it was all related to nature: the phenomena, the beings, the lady were part and parcel of the natural world.» — su tesis más general: fenómenos, seres y la dama pertenecen al mundo natural, no fuera de él.
«Environmental distress provoked this intervention on the part of the beings, not as force of violence or protection, but because their connection to the woods called them there.» — su explicación del tiempo perdido de los cazadores: daño ecológico, no violencia ni protección.
«I had to find a song that was at least four minutes long and that I knew all the lyrics of.» — la técnica de bloqueo mental que dice haber recibido; es la única del libro.
«Whenever I thought the beings could be near, I was supposed to sing the song to myself, whether out loud or just in my head.» — cómo se aplica esa técnica.
«I hadn’t been truly afraid for a long time, especially since meeting the lady, but I was grateful for the tactic nonetheless.» — consigna que ya no tenía miedo y aun así adoptó el recurso.
«I’d never known about this house before, so I was taken aback, but not too much.» — su reacción ante la historia familiar que le cuenta su madre.
«The plan for the night was to recreate, in as detailed a manner as possible, the events of two weeks prior.» — el método de la investigación nocturna: reconstruir el episodio.
«Three donned helmets with cameras fixed on all sides. They all pressed record and headed into the house one-by-one.» — el equipo con que trabaja el grupo.
«I’d hunted just about every kind of North American mammal, but didn’t want to presume to know the protocols and etiquette of a ghost hunt.» — marca su condición de ajeno al procedimiento; el saber que tiene es de caza.
«They eventually came out with nothing too unusual to report, though it often happened with these hunts that discoveries were only made after the recordings were analyzed.» — consigna el resultado nulo en el sitio y que el hallazgo suele ser posterior.
«Apparently, there was nothing going on in the room, but I did appreciate the empathy and courage involved in these attempts, aimed as they were at resolving historical traumas.» — separa el resultado del valor moral que le concede a la práctica.
«Pain may not be fixed by having others listen, but if tormented souls needed a sympathetic ear to move on, I thought the ghost hunt was a kindness outside of time more than the chase of some prey.» — su lectura de la caza de fantasmas: bondad fuera del tiempo, no cacería; el límite lo dice en la misma frase.
«I didn’t sing out loud for fear of ruining their investigation, and also because there is no imitating the vocal acrobatics and falsettos of Robert Plant and Sandy Denny on “The Battle of Evermore.”» — la canción que usa como bloqueo mental, con sus intérpretes nombrados tal cual.
«He said it was only about a hundred yards back due east to our cars, that it should just be a fifteen-minute walk back.» — la distancia declarada antes del episodio de tiempo perdido.
«Suddenly over Chase’s right shoulder my eyes met a pair of luminous, bright green eyes leaning out from behind a tree.» — la aparición de los ojos verdes durante la investigación nocturna.
«We were all familiar enough with the area to know that what had just happened wasn’t possible.» — el juicio del grupo sobre el trayecto; la palabra que usa es *possible*.
«Either the man who navigated nuclear submarines underwater had somehow lost his way across a hundred yards of woods he had already walked that day, or there was another explanation.» — plantea la disyuntiva sin cerrarla, dejando la explicación ordinaria sobre la mesa.
«We must have had one of those crossings wiped from our memory because that was the same ditch we crossed.» — su reconstrucción del hueco: una travesía borrada, deducida por la zanja repetida.
«Whether we had walked all the way back across the woods and had our memories wiped, or we had been taken and transported, or something else, Chase and I knew that whatever we had seen with green eyes was responsible for it.» — enumera las tres hipótesis —memoria borrada, transporte, otra cosa— y solo fija el agente.
«Because he was a painter, he often had a camera on him to take photos he could later paint from in his studio.» — así presenta a Doug Auld; el nombre va tal cual, sin cotejo.
«Doug was surprised to hear my dad describe his own experiences despite being a skeptic in the past.» — consigna el vuelco de su padre, que antes era escéptico.
«He and my family gelled, and we had a nice time together, though we didn’t experience any phenomena— to his disappointment.» — registra la visita sin fenómeno alguno; el libro consigna también las veces que no pasa nada.
«I asked him about whether he could make a painting of the lady, and he said he was afraid he couldn’t do it justice, but we would keep talking.» — el retrato de la dama queda pendiente; nadie la representa en el libro.
«That his horrific bruise had all but gone away and stopped causing him pain entirely. That night we went to the Heart of Christmas show and saw Emily perform beautifully, after which we went home and sat by the fire again.» — la sanación del hematoma tras la oración, contada junto a la escena doméstica que sigue.
«I didn’t like saying no to so many people, but I had a family to protect and kids to raise.» — el criterio con que filtra las invitaciones que le llegan.
«He went from jokingly accusing me of drug-use to total acceptance, standing beside us, witnessing it.» — el vuelco del padre, de la burla al testimonio.
«She said that Chapel Hill didn’t detect any cancer. From their MRI,» — el resultado médico que sigue a la oración por su padre; la frase sigue al otro lado del corte de plana.
«From their MRI, they only saw one tiny speck of growth, which was completely survivable as long as it was monitored.» — el resto del resultado, con el matiz de vigilancia.
«He was a fixture, a solid rock all of us could go to for shelter from whatever storm we faced.» — así describe a su padre antes de la muerte.
«It was like nature itself was weeping for him.» — la lluvia del funeral leída como duelo de la naturaleza.
«We couldn’t help but have the sense it was a message indicating that my father was okay.» — el búho blanco del funeral, leído como mensaje; el verbo es *sense*, no afirma.
«I can hardly remember any of those moments. A blur, an ache all through my body, gasping for breath between sobs.» — el estado en que dice haber pasado el duelo.
«He was a mountain of a man, unbelievably strong. It was difficult to even conceive that the man who taught me how to hunt, fish, and survive could be touched by death.» — cómo mide la pérdida.
«The doctors recommended I see a rheumatologist, but the waitlist was six months long, so I carried on the best I could.» — el diagnóstico de artritis queda pendiente seis meses por lista de espera.
«They might not save us from everything, but there is no doubt in my mind that they have compassion for all life.» — su posición sobre los seres, con el límite dentro: puede que no salven de todo.
«Tim Taylor and Hal Povenmire’s NASA credentials and words of support were unassailable shields he could rely on.» — lo que esas credenciales le dan a su hijo es escudo social; el término es suyo.
«Now though, the danger had passed, and some natural protective force kept its appointment with us.» — llama fuerza protectora natural a lo que aparece cuando el peligro ya pasó.
«She cast a brilliant halo around her entire figure, as though she were made of light itself.» — la aparición de la dama en el porche, la víspera de Pascua de 2014.
«Compared to her, all else was inscrutable darkness.» — el contraste con que la describe; la luz que emite no ilumina alrededor, como los orbes.
«He wasn’t there long before they put him in an ambulance to rush him an hour and a half away to the bigger UNC hospital in Chapel Hill.» — la enfermedad de Junior que sigue a esa aparición.
«They said he likely would not have survived if we waited one more day.» — lo que atribuye a los médicos sobre la urgencia.
«He developed myocarditis during this long, agonizing stay, and towards the end doctors warned us that his course of medical treatment would likely cause him to be sterile.» — el saldo médico que consigna del episodio.
«Deep in my heart, I know that the lady had appeared that night to give Junior the impulse to ask for help.» — le adjudica a la dama el impulso que salvó a su hijo; el fundamento que da es su convicción.
«I was thankful she had shown up, but I was equally frustrated.» — consigna gratitud y frustración a la vez, sin resolver la tensión.
«To all of these questions, I can only guess and remember what I had been told: have compassion toward all life, speak about what I see, and do not ever give up.» — su método ante las preguntas sin respuesta, reducido a tres instrucciones: compasión, hablar, no rendirse.
«I believe every witness is another gift from the lady.» — cómo lee la aparición de nuevos testigos.
«There is a saying that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.» — el dicho que usa para presentar los patrones no periódicos.
«I thought of them as cells, growing one from another from another.» — cómo traduce él esos patrones: células, no cristales.
«I had the sense that cells, stars, orbs, and everything else in nature was integrated by this design.» — la unificación que propone entre células, estrellas y orbes; el verbo es *sense*.
«Sometimes Tim would have a particular kind of experiment the next day, and would task me with something particular to focus on.» — describe su papel en esos experimentos: enfocar la atención sobre un asunto asignado.
«I still prayed and asked for his healing, but I» — la oración por el enfermo sigue, con una reserva que la frase deja al otro lado del corte de plana.
«Painting was a way of studying them and getting closer to nature.» — así explica su pintura: estudio de lo vivo, no representación.
«The history is long and complex, but there have always been reports of orbs, lights, and other objects in the sky surrounding the mountain.» — consigna el precedente local de Brown Mountain, con el límite en la misma frase.
«If nothing else, we could catch a special glimpse of the Linville Gorge, what’s called the Grand Canyon of the East.» — el paraje del retiro; los topónimos van tal como los imprime.
«My best guess is that it was a brown thrasher.» — la identificación del ave la da como conjetura, no como dato.
«Whatever it meant, I was grateful the bird stayed with us.» — deja el sentido del ave sin fijar y se queda con la gratitud.
«Not only did their future funding depend on its success, but they had been entrusted with a human life on which to test their research.» — lo que estaba en juego en la cirugía experimental, según él.
«I told him about the bird the previous night, but we both needed a more specific sign.» — consigna que el ave no bastó como señal para ninguno de los dos.
«I thought it was a snake wrapped around a staff, though in retrospect, I’d find that a single snake wrapped around a staff is actually known as the rod of Asclepius» — se corrige a sí mismo: lo que vio corresponde a la vara de Asclepio, no al caduceo; la frase sigue al otro lado del corte de plana.
«I knew immediately it was a sign for Tim, when the image of the caduceus morphed into a vision of the Spanish patient walking again.» — cómo lee la visión: señal dirigida a otro, no a él.
«Within minutes I called Tim and told him what had happened and that his patient would be walking again in sixty days.» — la predicción que dice haber hecho, con plazo.
«Sure enough, the operation was successful and she was up and walking well before sixty days elapsed.» — el cumplimiento que consigna.
«Naturally, I’ll never know how much or little my drawings and dreams helped their efforts, but Tim said that they did, and that’s more than enough for me to be proud of.» — declara que nunca sabrá si su parte sirvió; la garantía que acepta es la palabra de Tim Taylor.
«One of the most maddening things about the years since this experience has been the secrecy imposed on me.» — el secreto no lo elige: dice que se lo impusieron.
«I am a man of my word and kept my vow of secrecy.» — consigna haber cumplido el voto de silencio.
«I wanted to shout it from the rooftops every time a debunker waged a campaign against my family and me, and there were far too many of them.» — lo que el secreto le costó frente a los escépticos.
«This book is my shout from the rooftops: the celestial world is all around us, interacting with us all the time.» — la segunda declaración del libro sobre qué es el libro, y trae su tesis: el mundo celestial rodea e interactúa continuamente.
«It was fun to revisit movies like this and see how their conceptions of alien life and the subsequent government response lined up with my experiences.» — contrasta el cine de ovnis con lo suyo, sin adoptar su marco.
«Beside her I saw what I had missed the first time: a giant orange house-sized orb hovering just over the trees.» — el orbe del Día de la Independencia, visto primero por su hija Emily.
«The instant I saw it I knew it had the same size and shape as the orb that took me for four hours on January 8th, 2007.» — identifica el orbe con el de la noche fundacional; declara que aquel se lo llevó cuatro horas.
«It held still, but its shape slowly morphed from sideways oblong to a round-edged cube.» — la mutación de forma que describe, sin explicarla.
«On top of changes to its general shape, it had a pattern of shaded concentric circles within it, telescoping inward as if it were offering us a glimpse deep inside.» — los círculos concéntricos; la figura del círculo vuelve, ahora telescópica.
«Above and around the orb, the fireworks finale five miles away flitted around it, dim in comparison, like a bouquet of distant sparklers surrounding the core of a nuclear reactor.» — la comparación con los fuegos artificiales, que quedan opacados.
«It did not seem to be spending fuel or exerting energy as it cast its radiance over the tree-line.» — repite la observación física de siempre: brilla sin gastar; el verbo es *seem*.
«Whatever the broader intentions of these “burning ones,” that night they brought our family together in a way I had always hoped and prayed for.» — deja abiertas las intenciones y se queda con el efecto familiar; el término lo tomó de Diana Pasulka.
«It was a special window of opportunity because the woman in charge of the space center was temporarily allowing visitors into restricted areas that were usually off-limits.» — cómo explica el acceso al Centro Espacial Kennedy.
«No stone was left unturned: I had to account for virtually every moment of my life.» — el escrutinio de seguridad al que dice haberse sometido.
«By mid-September I got the news I wasn’t deemed a security threat, sleeper-cell, or under the influence of any foreign governments.» — el resultado de ese escrutinio, en los términos de la propia notificación.
«Mission control is one of the most highly secured rooms in the world, so it was an honor to be invited.» — cómo mide el acceso: por la seguridad del recinto.
«Tim’s integrity and accountability had a strange way of making me feel safe and a little unsettled at the same time.» — consigna las dos reacciones a la vez, sin resolverlas.
«It was clear that if anyone in the government was sure to regularly see UFOs, it would be the man in charge of these reconnaissance planes.» — su razonamiento sobre quién vería el fenómeno desde adentro del gobierno.
«If anybody knew anything about the phenomena, it had to be these people.» — la expectativa con que entra al lanzamiento.
«We see them, but they don’t seem to want anything to do with us.» — lo que dice haberle dicho Tim Taylor sobre los objetos, y el contraste que sigue con él mismo.
«However, this was happening, I could feel I was being guided according to the lady’s plan.» — lee su entrada al circuito oficial como parte del plan de la dama.
«When built, they were the largest self-powered vehicles in the world.» — sobre los transportadores del Centro Espacial Kennedy.
«The den mother led us around, pointing out the very chair Neil Armstrong had suited up in before stepping foot on the moon.» — el recorrido por los cuarteles de la tripulación.
«It was a marvel to see such a complex array of professionals working together to prep engines, observe the weather, and the million other infinitely minute details needed to send a satellite into a precise orbit.» — su asombro ante el trabajo técnico, en el mismo registro con que mira los orbes.
«The only people closer to the launchpad were in underground bunkers monitoring the launch systems.» — la cercanía al lanzamiento que declara.
«A wave of wind and heat hit us, and I prayed that nothing bad would happen.» — la oración sigue siendo su reacción, también aquí.
«There was hope here. For all that had happened to my family, there was still hope.» — el saldo que hace del viaje.
«I don’t know how I knew. I just saw it when I pulled into the driveway.» — así relata haber sabido de la muerte de la perra Nelly antes de que se lo dijeran.
«I walked in the back door with a lead heart and grief in my eyes.» — la llegada a casa; el episodio de la foto del orbe blanco sigue a esto.
«People have always seen what I’ve seen, it’s just that the words for it vary according to the cultures and religions.» — su tesis de continuidad histórica: cambia el vocabulario, no lo visto.
«It was known as an O.P. pin, short for off-planet, given to those who had direct experience with the phenomena.» — la insignia del regalo navideño y su glosa; el triángulo dentro del círculo va con ella.
«It was a good Christmas present, though I hardly knew who to thank for it.» — consigna que el remitente del regalo quedó sin identificar.
«They went ahead and officially diagnosed me with degenerative arthritis and osteoarthritis.» — el diagnóstico tal como lo imprime; en otras planas lo abrevia como RA.
«It felt terrible to agree to a regime of self-poisoning, but the little relief I found just barely made it worth it.» — llama autoenvenenamiento al tratamiento con metotrexato, y lo acepta igual.
«Southern Baptist bible college students would have to be unusually open-minded to entertain such ideas, but I hoped they would try, and feeling the lady on my side, I accepted their invitation.» — con qué expectativa acepta la invitación al colegio bautista; la reserva está en la misma frase.
«Its cover read Ultraterrestrial and had a little green man on it.» — el libro que el decano sostiene; es la única obra ajena que la fuente nombra por título, y no tiene ficha en este corpus.
«I didn’t know how to respond so I just sat back down.» — su reacción ante esa acusación pública: ninguna.
«It was a beautiful feeling to be surrounded by support after facing such a fire-and» — el consuelo de las mujeres del grupo tras el sermón; la frase sigue al otro lado del corte de línea.
«I didn’t want to hang around for long, and noticing this, the ladies invited me to one of their houses down the road for cake and ice cream.» — así cuenta el traslado a la casa donde ocurre lo que sigue.
«I explained how in the span of a few weeks, a kidney riddled with cancer according to one hospital turned out to be medically insignificant by another.» — el caso de su padre tal como lo cuenta: dos hospitales con dictámenes opuestos.
«I raised my hands to thank god, how between my hands appeared a pearly silver Tic Tac-shaped orb.» — el orbe plateado que dice haber visto mientras contaba eso.
«I dreamed about Sharon, how she was touched by the phenomena and this would not be the end of the road for her.» — el sueño con que sigue el episodio.
«To this day, Sharon is cancer free.» — el desenlace que consigna; no reclama para sí la causa.
«I can’t speculate what effect my meeting her had, what matters to me is that I had managed to give a scared soul some hope.» — su abstención sobre el efecto, y lo que pone en su lugar: la esperanza.
«Larry Frascella, the host of the 2012 Gathering, called me out of the blue two days before the Fourth of July, 2015.» — la llamada que lo lleva a Washington con el niño enfermo.
«Brandon’s mother, a doctor, and his grandfather, a well-known cardiologist in New York, had run out of experts and specialists to consult with.» — consigna que la familia es de médicos y había agotado la vía convencional.
«The Make-a-Wish foundation had just approved Brandon’s application, but the family wasn’t ready to give up yet.» — el estado del caso cuando lo llaman.
«I never knew what to expect or hope for: all I could do was care, try to feel the weight of this family’s sorrow, then expose that sorrow to the lady’s light.» — su método declarado ante un enfermo: sentir el dolor ajeno y exponerlo a la luz de la dama.
«They were Jewish and had a long history with conventional medicine, so this turn to a holistic approach represented a major shift.» — marca el giro de esa familia hacia lo que él ofrece.
«There is a hidden world around us asking to be recognized.» — su formulación más breve de la tesis del libro.
«I said that Tim Taylor had encouraged me to help as many and as often as I could.» — quien lo empuja a practicar sanaciones es, según él, un científico.
«This stubborn refusal to share one’s pain was all too familiar to me.» — lo que reconoce en el niño enfermo lo reconoce de sí mismo.
«It feels like an infinite flow of generosity, compassion, and understanding.» — así describe lo que dice sentir al invocar a la dama.
«The sensation isn’t unlike tuning a guitar: somewhere in my thoughts about her is an unmistakable note I try to get in tune with.» — el único símil técnico que da de su práctica: afinar.
«Along with this buzzing came the thought that if I gave Brandon a hug, he would receive the energy he needed.» — lo que hace con el niño; el gesto es un abrazo, sin rito ni fórmula.
«It was sure to be an extravagant occasion in New York City, but more than anything I was excited to see my young friend again.» — la bar mitzvah de Brandon, y lo que dice haber ido a buscar ahí.
«He had a twenty-five-year career as an operations officer, essentially a spy, and retired as a member of the senior executive service.» — las credenciales de Jim Semivan como él las consigna; el mismo Semivan firma el prólogo.
«Unlike Tim, Hal, and other high-level government officials I’d met, Jim’s interest in the phenomena was not strictly scientific or spiritual.» — distingue el interés de Semivan del de los otros oficiales que trata.
«It always brought a tension into the room that felt like being put on trial:» — así describe mostrar sus videos ante desconocidos.
«I had no clue what the stakes were for this meeting, what these two couples knew about the phenomena, or how they would react.» — consigna su desconocimiento de lo que estaba en juego.
«I could tell by the way Jim was focused on me that he believed me.» — lo que registra de Semivan durante esa reunión.
«Not only was it still shocking to see another government official speak openly about these subjects, it simply felt good to be believed.» — lo que valora no es el aval técnico sino ser creído.
«I told him I wanted to fly again.» — lo que le confiesa a Semivan; la aviación quedó atrás por la enfermedad y el dinero.
«I will never forget the flat certainty of his statement, how it filled me with hope, even comfort, knowing that I could believe it if he did.» — lo que le da esa frase es permiso para creer, no información.
«The change that simple sentence wrought in me was a small miracle.» — llama pequeño milagro al efecto de una frase de aliento.
«Sharing these stories requires a delicate web of trust, since all who share them put their careers and families on the line.» — su explicación del secreto que rodea a sus interlocutores oficiales.
«All the online hobbyists and skeptics who claimed to know everything would know the truth if they could have been in that room.» — su respuesta a los escépticos es el testimonio presencial, no el argumento.
«I knew all too well how damaging breaking that trust could be, but it took all I had to honor it.» — lo que le cuesta el pacto de silencio.
«I was planning on saying a prayer for him until a doctor came, but before I could say anything he shot up, gasping for air, stunned by the crowd surrounding him.» — el episodio del hombre que se desploma en la fiesta familiar.
«I don’t claim to have had any effect on him.» — abstención explícita sobre su intervención, en la misma plana en que la relata.
«I can’t claim to have done anything for Brandon, but things did slowly turn around for him after our meeting.» — consigna la mejoría sin reclamarla; la conjunción marca el límite.
«These things simply happened, and there are times I feel her unmistakable energy» — lo que sí declara es la percepción de la energía de la dama; la frase sigue al otro lado del corte de plana.
«I must have made enough of an impression on Col. John B. Alexander when in Philadelphia investigating the pope’s assassination plot, that he asked if he and his wife could come to Hope Mill.» — así llega la visita de los Alexander a su casa; el topónimo va tal como lo imprime.
«The only thing I could be sure of was that there was no way of predicting it.» — lo único que declara saber del fenómeno: que no se predice.
«Most important to John and me at the time however was the burnt tree, which had lent me the information that brought us together.» — le atribuye al árbol quemado haber dado la información del complot papal.
«I’ve come to believe that the horseshoe theory applies in cases like his and Tim Taylor’s: there comes a point at which duty, genius, and stoic rationality can take you no further, and seemingly impossible, antithetical answers become more and more likely, despite all your previous commitments and codes.» — su teoría del herradura: el deber y la racionalidad estoica llegan a un punto donde lo imposible se vuelve probable.
«It takes a certain combination of faith, vigilance, and steel to really accept, and I saw that in John as he told us about stories that Indiana Jones would have cowered at.» — lo que le adjudica a Alexander para aceptar el asunto.
«I was merely a guide on a whale watch, I thought to myself.» — así describe su papel ante los visitantes; la figura la sostiene en la frase siguiente.
«If no whales show up, well, then no whales show up.» — la consecuencia de esa figura: la aparición no depende de él.
«What harm could it do to pray and ask?» — la oración como único procedimiento que propone.
«If there were anyone in the world who needed to see what I saw, I knew it was him.» — por qué le importa que Alexander vea el fenómeno.
«He had the connections and experience to make a real difference in terms of getting the message out.» — lo que espera de él es difusión, no validación técnica.
«The one I’m most sure of is that large groups, say more than ten people, almost never have an experience.» — el primero de los principios que enumera: los grupos grandes no ven nada.
«I can only explain this by saying that every time I have an experience, there is a deep personal attunement to my emotional state, the words of my prayer, and those for whom I pray.» — la explicación que da: sintonía con el estado emocional, las palabras de la oración y aquellos por quienes reza.
«The second principle is precisely this intentional focus. The mind can’t be worried or preoccupied with dishes left in the sink or» — el segundo principio, el foco intencional; la frase sigue al otro lado del corte de plana.
«One has to offer oneself wholly to the present moment. The third is that one can’t harbor anger, hatred, violence, or anything negative and damaging when trying to observe the phenomena.» — el tercero: entrega al presente y ausencia de ira, odio o violencia.
«If it could be said that they have a personality, it is playful, thinks far beyond our intelligence, and abhors all things base and cruel. I have this sense because of the desperate place I was in when they first appeared, and how they show kindness and the delight of their appearance to those deepest in the depths of hopelessness and despair.» — el carácter que les atribuye —juguetones, muy por encima de la inteligencia humana, contrarios a lo cruel— y el fundamento que da: su propia desesperación cuando aparecieron.
«I felt all my children were magnetic for the phenomena, but she was the youngest and it simply felt right. It had rained recently and I didn’t have my old truck anymore, so John, Victoria, Emily, and I took their rental car on the ten minute drive to where it all happened» — por qué lleva solo a Emily; la frase sigue al otro lado del corte de plana.
«I was relieved to see the same stand of trees was there, and the path that dog legged right and south alongside the river wasn’t too overgrown. It was about as muddy as it had been in 2007 though, and the going was slow.» — la vuelta al sitio del río, ocho años después.
«I felt clever. As long as we didn’t spend too long by the river, we would end up back at the car around the edge of darkness, and it felt like favorable conditions for an experience.» — el cálculo con que elige la hora; declara condiciones favorables, no garantía.
«It hurt to remember the look on his face when I pointed to the spot in the tree-line where he had been hiding, paralyzed with terror.» — el sitio donde estuvo su hijo esa noche sigue doliendo en la visita.
«I prayed the last fifty feet of the walk, but nothing had shown by the time we got to his car.» — consigna que la oración no produjo nada de inmediato.
«I already knew that my meeting John had been preordained somehow, but I had no way of telling if we’d see anything that night.» — combina certeza sobre el encuentro con incertidumbre sobre la aparición.
«To this day, a clear night sky never fails to fill me with awe and gratitude.» — lo que declara sentir ante el cielo, sin fenómeno de por medio.
«It was an exacting and precise series of questions, but it showed he was serious and I was happy to answer them as best I could.» — cómo recibe el interrogatorio de Alexander.
«I remember being told to be quiet and listen.» — la instrucción de caza de su padre, aplicada ahora a esperar el fenómeno.
«It was like a switch had been flipped. We were in total silence.» — el silencio súbito que toma por indicio; los perros y el búho vienen después.
«Quickly I asked John if he heard that and he said no.» — consigna la discrepancia entre testigos, sin resolverla.
«John even managed a smile but I suspected it was one of the few times in his life that the phenomena appeared.» — lo que le atribuye a Alexander lo dice como sospecha, no como dato.
«Many witnesses, some of them government officials, have watched this process play out.» — su argumento de prueba es el testigo cualificado, no el instrumento.
«Jim is a remarkably intelligent and observant man, no doubt from his decades spent in pursuit of information crucial to our nation’s security.» — así presenta a Jim Semivan antes de su visita.
«It seemed that there was no grade, class, sport, or extracurricular activity that wasn’t overshadowed by the fallout of that one night in 2007.» — mide el alcance del episodio por la vida escolar de sus hijos.
«It was a relief that Jim would be able to see the house and property before we moved, since there was no telling what would happen to the house» — la mudanza forzada por la enfermedad; la frase sigue al otro lado del corte de plana.
«He introduced himself, detailing as much as he could about his career in the CIA while hinting at everything he couldn’t disclose.» — así narra la presentación de Semivan ante su familia.
«This was exactly the kind of direct vindication I had always wished for.» — lo que buscaba desde el principio, y lo dice sin rodeos.
«After that night, things changed for the Bledsoes when we ventured into town.» — el efecto social del aval de un exagente ante los vecinos.
«The whole family got closer together as a result of this one night, which banished so much of the pernicious shame and resentment that had dogged us for so long.» — lo que esa visita disuelve, según él, es la vergüenza, no la duda.
«My relationship with Jeremy improved dramatically, as he had faced the worst of the ridicule in middle and high school.» — consigna la reparación con el hijo más golpeado por la burla escolar.
«Tom DeLonge from the rock band Blink-182 had formed a new company to research and disclose information about UFOs called To The Stars Academy (TTSA).» — así presenta a To The Stars Academy; los nombres van tal como los imprime.
«The metals would go on to be tested in laboratories and none of us, Benny, Larry nor I, have seen them since.» — el destino de los metales; declara que nadie del grupo volvió a verlos.
«I was told the materials have been classified and will not be returned.» — lo que le informaron sobre esos materiales; no dice quién.
«My hands—the tools I’d used to build countless houses, an airplane, a garden, and raise a family with—had become virtually useless with pain and swelling.» — el estado de sus manos por la artritis reumatoide, medido por lo que construyó con ellas.
«Many in the community believed that the orbs and beings are location based or tied to a certain space, but there was no change in the frequency or feeling of my experiences after the move.» — registra la hipótesis local del sitio y declara que la mudanza no cambió nada.
«I largely stopped attending UFO conferences and other events because of the difficulty I had traveling.» — su retiro del circuito es por enfermedad, no por decisión doctrinal.
«It was a demoralizing time, but I also knew things had been far worse not so long before, so I kept my head up.» — el balance de esos años, con el límite dentro.
«The holidays came and went like a carousel after Jim’s visit, and after the third year I was bursting with anticipation for January 8th.» — la fecha del aniversario como espera de la bendición prometida a los doce años.
«Eventually, I would learn that I had the ability to imbue certain others with this ability to catalyze their environment, causing orbs and beings to appear.» — la única transmisión de capacidad que declara: contagia a otros la de catalizar su entorno.
«With these people, it sometimes happens that we see the same or similar orbs at the same time despite being hundreds of miles apart.» — la simultaneidad a distancia que consigna, sin proponerle mecanismo.
«A few times, when I was with a relative who had always doubted me, an orb would wink at them over my head and their jaw would drop.» — el patrón que le atribuye al orbe: aparecer ante el escéptico.
«The RA-related fatigue prevented me from doing interviews or talking for long periods of time.» — el efecto de la enfermedad sobre su capacidad de dar testimonio.
«I was haunted by the pamphlet I’d been given that described a laundry list of fatal illnesses, and especially the reduced lifespan for RA patients.» — lo que teme del diagnóstico es el pronóstico de vida.
«More than anything, I wanted to be there for my children who were going through a critical period, first entering adulthood.» — lo que declara querer de la curación: tiempo con sus hijos.
«I trusted deep down that the increasing number of appearances were leading to something.» — lee el aumento de apariciones como dirección, no como frecuencia.
«I remembered Tim Taylor’s advice to pay attention to my dreams and write them down, so that was where I placed my hope that night and for many nights to come.» — consigna de quién viene el método de anotar los sueños.
«I was so long in the habit of praying for others in greater need than myself that it seemed hubristic and selfish to do so, but I had tried everything else so I gave it a tentative try after a particularly bad day with RA symptoms.» — rezar por sí mismo le resulta soberbio; lo hace igual, y lo declara.
«I believe it’s crucial to be as receptive and present as possible.» — la condición que repite para el contacto: receptividad y presencia.
«Two thoughts kept me from true despair. The first was that it didn’t seem to me that the nature of the phenomena was in any way punitive.» — el primero de los dos asideros: el fenómeno no le parece punitivo.
«The second was that whatever the significance of Easter in relation to the phenomena, I had a sense this annual appointment might occur any time surrounding the day itself.» — el segundo: la cita anual pascual, con la fecha imprecisa dicha por él.
«I’d felt it many times before, and almost without fail I would walk outside to meet an orb hovering over the house.» — la descarga eléctrica corporal como aviso previo; el matiz *almost without fail* es suyo.
«Most of the time, an orb will appear and flash simultaneously where you happen to be looking.» — la regla que formula sobre dónde aparecen; en este caso la excepción es que lo esperaba.
«Sure enough, on the other side of the pond, two hundred feet above the eighty-feet tall pines, was an orb. It was an unusual appearance because it seemed to have been waiting for me to walk out the back door.» — consigna que el orbe parecía esperarlo, contra su propia regla.
«Spiraling down in a corkscrew motion, it flashed rapidly and brilliantly, changing colors in a white» — el descenso en espiral; la serie de colores sigue al otro lado del corte de línea.
«The most apt comparison I can offer for this motion is that it reminded me of an excited child that can’t control their emotions.» — la comparación que elige para el movimiento: un niño desbordado.
«All my friends in the government had warned me not to get too close.» — la advertencia que dice haber recibido de sus contactos oficiales.
«Despite this concern, and that I was shaking like a leaf on a tree, there would be no running from such a sight.» — consigna el miedo junto a la decisión de quedarse.
«I needed relief from RA so badly it was worth whatever risk was involved.» — la razón que da para desoír la advertencia, y es médica.
«Staring wide-eyed at this orb rising and falling, I began to see the outline of a tall being.» — la figura alta dentro del orbe.
«It was a tall, majestic figure with seemingly broad shoulders, though there was nothing quite physical about it.» — la describe majestuosa y a la vez no física, sin resolver la tensión.
«The being came to rest at the center of the pond and I felt at peace.» — su reacción ante el ser luminoso sobre el estanque.
«I knelt in awe of this grand, translucent being just twenty-five feet away from me.» — la postura es de rodillas; la distancia la da en pies.
«I was stunned to look down and notice that a whole ten minutes had passed.» — la distorsión temporal que registra, medida contra el reloj.
«The moment I pressed record it went totally dark.» — el fracaso del registro justo al empezar a grabar.
«It had to have known I wasn’t recording, which was why it allowed itself to be seen so openly.» — la explicación que propone del fracaso: intención del ser, no falla técnica.
«This was no doubt the fulfillment of the lady’s promise of help with witnessing and recording.» — lee la grabación conseguida como cumplimiento del pacto.
«I might have called everyone I knew to tell them if it weren’t for this exhaustion.» — la fatiga posterior, que él liga a la artritis y a la caída de adrenalina.
«I was full of convictions and understandings that I didn’t remember being told.» — así describe el mensaje recibido: convicciones sin recuerdo de haberlas oído.
«Famine, plague, and unrest were just over the horizon.» — el contenido de la advertencia, en tres palabras.
«It was difficult for me to reckon with such an ominous message coming from phenomena that I had always known as benevolent and good.» — consigna la contradicción entre el mensaje sombrío y la benevolencia que sostiene, sin resolverla.
«Armageddon seemed like a bit of a stretch, and I didn’t want to risk our reputation or scare people if there was a chance I was misinterpreting the message.» — pone en duda su propia interpretación antes de difundirla.
«It wasn’t so much a doomsday prophecy where toads would fall out of the sky, but a broader warning.» — acota el género de lo recibido: advertencia, no profecía apocalíptica.
«I sent emails to all of them that day, and within six months I’d given ten interviews detailing my experiences and offering this warning.» — la cuenta de entrevistas que declara haber dado en seis meses.
«After one of my podcast appearances, a scientist in California sent me a thousand-dollar Sionyx camera with night vision recording capabilities.» — así llega la cámara de visión nocturna; el instrumento lo aporta un tercero.
«I took it as a sign from the lady to keep trying to record the phenomena.» — lee el regalo como señal, con la misma clave que usa para el resto.
«Around Thanksgiving that year after another podcast, a scientist named Dr. Bob McGwier wrote me a beautiful letter asking to meet me.» — así entra Bob McGwier; el nombre va tal como lo imprime, sin cotejo.
«He was a professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) and served as the director of its Hume Center for National Security and Technology.» — las credenciales que le adjudica, tal como las consigna.
«Others have reported seeing these, though I’ve never caught a glimpse.» — consigna lo que otros dicen ver y él no; la abstención es explícita.
«I told him that they were there to help them in one way or another that we cannot understand.» — lo que le dice a su amigo sobre el agua que aparece en su casa; el modo declarado es incomprensible.
«After another week, I got another happier call from Bob, who said that Sharon’s stroke symptoms had all but disappeared.» — la mejoría de Sharon tras el derrame, con el límite en el propio verbo.
«When I heard that word, I was convinced that this was what the lady had been warning us about: suffering, death, locked doors, quarantine.» — lee la pandemia como el cumplimiento de la advertencia; la palabra que se lo detona es cuarentena.
«Covid was close to getting to North Carolina, but the appointment was important enough to keep.» — el viaje a la conferencia de San Francisco en el arranque de la pandemia.
«It may have been that my medication was in fact causing my symptoms, and that getting off them was what changed things.» — ofrece él mismo la explicación farmacológica de su mejoría, antes de descartarla.
«I was sure however that it was Jim’s advice that I pray for myself that did it.» — la explicación que elige, sin negar la anterior: la oración por sí mismo, sugerida por Jim Semivan.
«Since 2019, I have had many people reach out for so many different reasons that it’s hard to keep track of it all.» — el volumen de solicitudes que declara recibir.
«Unsure of the significance of the UFOs’ proximity to Mt. Weather, David was even more baffled because they bore no resemblance to any aircraft.» — el avistamiento de David Broadwell cerca de la instalación militar, narrado por Bledsoe.
«The most important thing I have discovered over the sixteen years since I first saw the orbs is that the majority of experiencers have some level of pain or tragedy they are struggling with.» — la conclusión que declara mayor de dieciséis años: el dolor previo es el rasgo común de los testigos.
«There, directly overhead, was a slow-moving and very beautiful bright orb.» — el orbe sobre él y David Broadwell durante la llamada.
«David purchased the same camera as I have, and we synchronized our settings.» — el procedimiento que montan entre los dos: mismo equipo y ajustes.
«In one instance, while David and I were on the phone experimenting, he filmed an orb flash overhead and yelled “Flash!” and I filmed an orb flash instantaneously at ground level twenty yards in front of me.» — el episodio de simultaneidad a distancia que consigna con más detalle.
«I do have real, genuine videos of the phenomena witnessed in real-time by government officials and lay people alike, from young to old.» — su prueba declarada son los videos con testigos, oficiales y legos.
«The videos now number in the thousands and are increasing exponentially for reasons I do not know.» — da la cifra en miles y declara no saber por qué crece.
«Soon David was able to obtain permission from the Monroe Institute board to hold a private, invitation-only conference in May of 2022.» — la reunión privada en el Monroe Institute, con fecha.
«The goal was to bring together a group of experiencers and researchers that share the same intention, and over a five-day period use Monroe’s technologies to interact with the phenomena.» — el propósito declarado: usar las tecnologías del instituto para interactuar con el fenómeno.
«It was an eclectic bunch that finally gathered, ranging from a Hollywood actress and psychic medium to a world-renowned UFO explorer.» — la composición del grupo, tal como la describe.
«The Monroe Institute is a beautiful and magical place set isolated in the mountains of Virginia close to Charlottesville.» — el sitio; el adjetivo *magical* es suyo.
«I lifted my arms and said a few words in private asking for interaction that night and all week.» — la oración de apertura de la primera sesión grupal.
«I lowered my arms and instantly a huge white flash appeared above the mountains we were facing.» — lo que ocurre inmediatamente después, según él.
«I found it hard to be in a large group where the intention seemed scattered, but here with just Emily it was easier to focus, and I was glad that we had» — repite el principio del grupo chico; la frase sigue al otro lado del corte de plana.
«Each day would start off with a wonderful breakfast followed by presentations and discussions about the phenomena.» — la rutina diaria de la semana en el Monroe Institute.
«These sound exercises were one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced.» — su juicio sobre las meditaciones sonoras del instituto.
«I had never had an EEG and had no idea what to expect.» — declara su falta de familiaridad con el experimento al que lo someten.
«It reminded me of the lie detector test MUFON surprised me with, though this was far more sophisticated and, of course, much more professional and kinder.» — compara el EEG con el polígrafo de la televisión, y distingue el trato.
«It was apparently picking up the left side of my brain, but nothing else.» — la falla del equipo tal como la consigna.
«They unplugged the leads and were surprised to see the left side of my brain was still registering on the computer with nothing connected.» — el detalle que consigna sin explicar: la señal seguía con los cables desconectados.
«They fired up the old machine and it began to work perfectly.» — consigna que la máquina vieja sí funcionó.
«For the first, Ross handed me a small, square plastic box that looked like a square fishing hook box but you couldn’t see through it. I held it a moment and envisioned a small square which resembled paper of a postage stamp.» — la primera de las dos cajas del experimento a ciegas y lo que dice haber visto.
«This time was different. I saw a bright blue flash with the outer edges having a gradation of colors morphing blue to green to white. I felt as though there was a living, glowing insect inside.» — la segunda caja; describe la sensación de algo vivo antes de saber qué contenía.
«What I did not know was that David had received from Dr. Harold Puthoff a tiny piece of metamaterial that, given its construction and composition, is believed not made on earth.» — consigna la procedencia del metamaterial; la adjudicación de origen no terrestre es de terceros, no suya.
«I had just taken part in a double-blind EEG experiment at the Monroe Institute using material supplied by Dr. Puthoff.» — así califica el experimento: doble ciego.
«The second box, which I described as feeling alive, contained the metamaterial.» — el resultado que reclama del experimento.
«Everyone had been hopeful during these sky watches, but very little was appearing. I wanted the phenomenon to show up, but felt that everything was being hampered by all the science and an endless sort of skepticism. Two individuals in particular seemed eager to discredit any glimmer of the phenomenon.» — le adjudica el fracaso de las observaciones al exceso de ciencia y al escepticismo de dos asistentes.
«I prayed about it off and on all day trying to figure out the best way of handling the situation.» — su respuesta ante los escépticos vuelve a ser la oración.
«I told them let the energy flow without judgment and they may be surprised at what happens.» — lo que pide a los escépticos: suspender el juicio, no creer.
«I stood up feeling the greatest joy because my prayer was being answered.» — lee la disculpa del escéptico como respuesta a su oración.
«He filmed that orb for an hour sporadically pulsing, and while the star field moved out of the frame, the orb never budged.» — el dato que da como prueba: el orbe inmóvil mientras el campo estelar se desplaza.
«But this story does not end here.» — así cierra el relato y abre la exhortación final.
«It continues with you. Do you want to experience the phenomena?» — traslada la tarea al lector; el libro termina en segunda persona.
«This simply means go outside and look up.» — la glosa que él mismo da de humillarse ante los cielos.
«You don’t have to follow some set of formal instructions, learning fancy words and acronyms to experience the phenomena.» — rechaza expresamente toda técnica, fórmula y vocabulario especializado.
«It is between you and God. Just pick one spot in the night sky, surrender yourself, and say, “I AM HERE.”» — la práctica final, sin intermediario: entre el lector y Dios.
«Beautiful orbs were everywhere, or what ancient text calls Chariots of Fire.» — la única identificación explícita que el autor hace de los orbes con un término de los textos antiguos.
«Particularly, I wanted to know about any trauma in David’s past.» — la pregunta que declara hacerle a todo el que lo busca, y que sostiene su regla del dolor previo.
«It stated, to no one’s surprise, “Our search revealed there are no records responsive to your request.”» — el resultado de la solicitud FOIA: sin registros; el libro consigna la negativa oficial tal cual.
«As we talked on the phone, I felt an intense connection with David, as well as that beautiful, familiar energy. The sound of the forest began to ring in my ears, and I knew they were waiting for me. While still on the phone with David, I grabbed my camera and opened the door. Immediately the sky was alive with light.» — la secuencia que describe: conexión, zumbido del bosque, salida y aparición.
«Just as excited, David walked outside of his Virginia home and looked up.» — la simultaneidad a distancia con David Broadwell, en Virginia.
Sobre la obra
112 entradas — lo que el aparato y la investigación dicen de ella«the whole subject area is extraordinarily complex and perhaps, ultimately, insoluble» — Jim Semivan, «Former CIA, Clandestine Directorate of Operations», en el prólogo.
«a truly enigmatic figure with the obvious religious and cultural correspondences» — Jim Semivan, en el prólogo, sobre «The Lady»; sigue «She has appeared before, often in quasi-religious contexts, and her role is always as a protector, guide, and hierophant of the otherworld». La correspondencia religiosa de la dama la introduce el prologuista, no el testigo.
«no one, to my knowledge, has come up with an adequate theory or hypothesis to explain all of the weirdness» — Semivan, en la misma página: el aval es de credibilidad, no de doctrina.
«The Invisible College indeed took notice» — Semivan usa el término de Vallée; Vallée no aparece en el libro: `--buscar "Vallee"` y `--buscar "Vallée"` dan 0 páginas cada uno.
«there are spiritual consequences related to these observed phenomena that exceed the limits of our current knowledge» — Col. John B. Alexander, PhD, en la introducción; la frase arranca «As some of us believe» al pie de la p. 6.
«it is the confluence of so many multifaceted phenomena that lends credence to the hypothesis that consciousness is at the heart of these events» — Alexander, introducción.
«Readers should know that these concepts are directly related to spirituality.» — Alexander, introducción.
«I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness…» — Max Planck según Alexander, en la introducción: cita anidada de tres eslabones.
«This book, UFO of GOD, will be an important addition to your repertoire.» — Alexander, cierre de la introducción, seguido de «Shanti, Shanti, Shanti». Es la única página del libro donde aparece el título, y está en boca del prologuista.
«In the past we interpreted the UFO as gods, goddesses, angels, demons, and today most would interpret the UFO as an advanced form of technology.» — Jeffrey Kripal, citado a la letra por Bledsoe; sigue la pregunta de por qué no se los interpreta hoy como dioses y demonios. Única aparición de Kripal en el libro.
«She said that in all her years studying the bible, she knew that the popular image of angels was completely at odds with the texts in which they appeared.» — Diana Pasulka en estilo indirecto de Bledsoe; sigue «Rosy-cheeked babies are not crawling around in mid-air in the Book of Revelations».
«She wanted the title to be Seraphim , an ancient term for angels and other celestial beings used in ancient Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.» — Pasulka, en estilo indirecto: era el título que ella quería para un libro sobre él.
«I was reminded of Diana Pasulka’s descriptions of seraphim and how that word, usually taken to mean “angels,” literally translates as “the burning ones.”» — la etimología, adjudicada a Pasulka por Bledsoe.
«Diana said that one of the biggest stumbling blocks for people when it comes to reckoning with the phenomena was a mistranslation of the word cloud in both the old and new testaments.» — la tesis de la mistraducción es de Pasulka según Bledsoe, no de Pasulka directamente; sigue la lista de sustitutos: *weather, rain, sky, angel, voice*.
«Diana Pasulka had even suggested that my RA was analogous to the stigmata that plagued Saint Francis of Assisi.» — la analogía hagiográfica, también en estilo indirecto.
«Something his grandmother had always told him was that the appearance of a silver snake was always a sign from God.» — cadena de cuatro eslabones: abuela de Tim Taylor → Tim Taylor → Bledsoe → el libro. Adjudicarlo a Tim Taylor pierde uno.
«Later that day, David told me that Uri Geller had a similar experience with a piece of material that Wernher von Braun handed him» — segunda cadena: Geller → David Broadwell → Bledsoe → el libro.
«which John explained was what they called a telepathic connection with a nonhuman intelligence» — el término «temporal connection» se lo explica John B. Alexander, según Bledsoe.
«You have opened my eyes to something I couldn’t see.» — lo que relata que le dijo uno de los escépticos del Monroe Institute; la obra registra que las objeciones se retiran.
«Cover Design: David Broadwell Interior Design: Creative Publishing Book Design» — paratexto editorial. El mismo David Broadwell es después personaje del relato (pp. 202–211); coincidencia de nombre que se consigna, no se resuelve.
«Copyright © 2023 by Chris Bledsoe» — la única declaración formal de autoría del archivo; la portada con el título no está en el troceo.
«This situation may change, of course, but I think not without the help of the phenomenon itself.» — Jim Semivan, en el prólogo: si el cuadro cambia será por concurso del fenómeno mismo, no del esfuerzo humano.
«And that prospect—a formal introduction or, perhaps, a long, Socratic dialogue—does not appear to be in the cards.» — Semivan descarta que vaya a haber presentación formal ni diálogo con el fenómeno.
«So far, we are engaged in a one-way conversation with the phenomenon despite the messages and admonitions it occasionally dispenses to contactees, experiencers, and abductees.» — Semivan describe el trato como conversación de una sola vía, aun contando los mensajes que el fenómeno reparte.
«UFOs have appeared often enough in our history that they are now indelibly stamped on our imagination.» — Semivan mide la presencia del fenómeno por su huella en la imaginación, no por prueba.
«But, they offer no calling card or fixed address except the occasional remark that they hail from a distant galaxy or planet or from another reality.» — Semivan consigna que el origen declarado —galaxia lejana, planeta u otra realidad— viene solo de comentarios sueltos.
«To add to this muddle, the science necessary to explain the phenomenon and/or place it in context and the philosophy to understand it ontologically are simply not available or exist only in a nascent form.» — Semivan sostiene que faltan a la vez la ciencia que lo explique y la filosofía que lo entienda ontológicamente.
«And perhaps more importantly, worldwide governments, scientists, and academicians are simply not displaying the courage and fortitude needed to finally accept that this phenomenon is a clear and unalterable part of our reality.» — Semivan carga la falla a gobiernos, científicos y académicos, y la nombra falta de valor, no de datos.
«Despite the recent U.S. government acceptance that there is possibly more to our consensus reality than we care to acknowledge, the subject is still seen as fringe, to be discussed only with a good deal of trepidation and skepticism.» — Semivan advierte que el reconocimiento oficial reciente no sacó al tema del margen.
«What should be “the story of the millennia” is too often relegated to the alternative press, informal government seminars, or used as titillating fodder for late night television.» — Semivan describe el destino editorial del asunto: prensa alternativa, seminarios informales y televisión nocturna.
«terms the “tradition of disbelief” is still encouraged despite overwhelming evidence of the reality of the paranormal, psychic phenomena and UFOs.» — la frase arranca al pie de la p. 3, donde Semivan atribuye el término al folclorista y etnógrafo David Hufford.
«But not having a context or branch of science to specifically place the phenomenon is certainly not an excuse to ignore it.» — Semivan niega que la falta de marco científico justifique desatender el fenómeno.
«Despite the opaque nature of the phenomenon we should find hope in the work of the many and varied intrepid researchers and historians doing credible research.» — Semivan cifra la esperanza en investigadores e historiadores, no en instituciones.
«And more importantly, we should look to the experiencers, those special few whose stories engage and enlighten us and offer a glimpse into the wilderness of mirrors that is the phenomenon.» — Semivan pone al testigo por encima del investigador como vía de acceso.
«there is no guile, no attempt to appear special in any way, and always a dedication to remaining on a morally and ethically centered course.» — Semivan avala el carácter del testigo, no sus tesis.
«What happened to Chris on January 8th, 2007 was life-altering and seminal in his later development as a teacher and healer.» — Semivan fecha el suceso y lo lee como origen de un maestro y un sanador.
«And his experience seemed to hit most if not all the variables of a classic contact and abduction experience: lost time, orbs, saucers, up close and personal contact with an alien presence, healings, absurd visuals, and, of course, the appearance of The Lady, to name a few.» — Semivan inscribe el caso en el inventario clásico del contacto y la abducción —tiempo perdido, orbes, platillos, sanaciones—, marco que el propio testigo no usa.
«Chris has probably been visited officially and unofficially by more “government types” and UFO researchers than any other contactee or experiencer.» — Semivan afirma que el caso recibió más visitas oficiales y extraoficiales que ningún otro.
«I am not a researcher, but like many of you who have purchased this wonderful book, I am a devoted student of the phenomenon.» — Semivan declara su propia posición: estudioso devoto, no investigador.
«The recent U.S. government interest in UFOs and the phenomenon is also, I think, a notable vindication for Chris and his family, a late but important acknowledgement that like many other» — Semivan lee el interés gubernamental como vindicación tardía de la familia.
«Now our role is to try and discern their message.» — Semivan cierra su prólogo poniendo la tarea en descifrar el mensaje.
«I also want to add a final note about the importance of family and how in this book Chris has taken great pains to describe how his and Chris Junior’s experiences had unintentionally severely strained the bonds of a very close-knit family.» — Semivan señala el costo familiar del contacto como asunto central del libro.
«Welcome to the great adventure. What you are about to encounter is a byzantine entanglement of phenomena that defy both explanation and imagination.» — Col. John B. Alexander, PhD, abre la introducción anunciando un enredo de fenómenos que desborda explicación e imaginación.
«If you have heard something about the UFO experiences of Chris Bledsoe, you may have many questions.» — Alexander plantea la pregunta del lector —si el caso puede ser real— y la responde con un sí escueto antes de complicarla.
«In fact, as many have learned, just being exposed to his observations may well lead to your own, firsthand experiences.» — Alexander sostiene que la exposición al relato contagia el fenómeno al lector: tesis de contagio, no de prueba.
«Since I have a solid scientific background, some explanation of why I am such an ardent supporter of Chris, and his family, might be in order.» — Alexander declara su formación científica como credencial de su respaldo.
«Near the center of the property was a unique hollowed out Northern Catalpa tree with clearly visible charred stains on the inside.» — Alexander describe el árbol de catalpa hueco y con manchas carbonizadas que el libro convierte después en punto focal.
«While visiting, we had the opportunity to observe firsthand some phenomena they had alluded to and sense that indeed, something there was different, almost magical. Hell, we even saw smoke on film although it was not physically present in the air that night.» — Alexander consigna lo que dice haber visto en la visita de 2015, incluido humo registrado en película sin estar en el aire.
«Worth telling again is the event that totally changed my perception and convinced me that Chris was telling the truth.» — Alexander nombra el episodio que le cambió la percepción; lo que avala es la veracidad del testigo.
«In the middle of that discussion, and without warning or introduction, Chris suddenly mentioned to me, “Oh, I think they are here.” Seconds later a bright luminous object spontaneously burst into view directly above us and immediately went streaking off.» — Alexander relata el anuncio previo y la aparición inmediata del objeto.
«The temporal relationship between Chris’s pronouncement and the appearance of the object firmly convinced me of the authenticity of his experiences.» — Alexander funda su convicción en la relación temporal entre el anuncio y la aparición; añade que no pudo describir la estructura del objeto.
«Our collegial relationship has sustained for years and Chris has continually updated me with videos he has taken of orbs.» — Alexander describe el trato sostenido y el envío continuo de videos.
«Thus, there was no doubt about the timing and authenticity of the event.» — Alexander cierra con la grabación telefónica de octubre de 2022 como control de tiempo del registro.
«The near-omnipresence of orbs (balls of light) in many, if not most events, is extremely significant.» — Alexander señala la casi omnipresencia de los orbes como el rasgo de mayor peso.
«For Chris, and many other observers, there appear to be an obvious connection between their conscious thoughts and the sighting and activity of these orbs.» — Alexander postula el vínculo entre pensamiento consciente y actividad de los orbes.
«As one who has engaged in experiments employing telepathy with dolphins and whales in their natural habitat, I am postulating that these interactions between humans and orbs may be an embryonic form of advanced interspecies or interdimensional communication.» — Alexander compara con sus experimentos de telepatía con delfines y ballenas y propone una forma embrionaria de comunicación entre especies o dimensiones. Esta frase la minería previa adjudicó al autor del libro; es de Alexander.
«Missing is a Rosetta Stone that provides the key to our human understanding of the information.» — Alexander declara que falta la clave para leer esa información.
«Near the beginning of all my presentations is a chart that lists many phenomena including UFOs, remote viewing, post-mortem communication, psychokinesis, spontaneous healing, near-death experiences, interspecies communications and even cryptozoology.» — Alexander enumera la lista de fenómenos que junta en sus presentaciones, del remote viewing a la criptozoología.
«The implication is that these, and other phenomena, have a common factor in human consciousness.» — Alexander propone la consciencia humana como factor común de la lista.
«Rarely have we encountered observations of so many separate elements rolled up into a single case.» — Alexander presenta el caso como excepcional por acumular elementos que suelen examinarse por separado.
«Echoing that thought, my friend, Larry Dossey M.D., in 1987 first addressed nonlocality of consciousness and wrote, “nonlocal consciousness and spirituality are seen as a complementary dyad.”» — Alexander añade a Larry Dossey sobre la no localidad de la consciencia; cita anidada de tres eslabones, como la de Planck.
«Strap in for a wild ride. As several explorers before me have stated, “You are a spiritual being having a human experience.”» — Alexander cierra con una fórmula que atribuye a exploradores anteriores, sin nombrarlos.
«Of the many descriptions of angels in the bible, virtually none of them are the typical children’s illustration of a human with wings on their back.» — Diana Pasulka en estilo indirecto de Bledsoe, sobre la distancia entre la iconografía popular y los textos.
«A few days later she emailed to say she was changed by our talk together, that she believed the beings I saw were angels and not aliens from distant planets.» — Pasulka, en estilo indirecto: la adjudicación angélica llega de ella, no del testigo.
«She said she felt that the four of us were meant to make this movie about UFOs and how UFOs are major factors in the world’s religions.» — Diana Pasulka en estilo indirecto de Bledsoe: la tesis de los ovnis como factor mayor de las religiones del mundo es de ella, no del testigo.
«Diana emailed saying that I was correct about this disruption and that the storm had caused a lot of problems.» — Pasulka en estilo indirecto: la confirmación de la predicción llega por correo, según Bledsoe.
«Grant wasn’t sure what to do so he just started filming us with his camera.» — Grant Cameron como testigo del episodio, según el relato de Bledsoe.
«One of the men asserted that there was no evil, that the universe and life itself was random chaos.» — la posición que Bledsoe atribuye a uno de los hombres del fin de semana en Pensilvania, sin nombrarlo.
«They said that Dahmer’s victims had in fact chosen to be eaten in their previous lives.» — lo que Bledsoe adjudica a ese grupo: doctrina de vidas previas, que él rechaza.
«Tim said that he had worked for NASA his whole life and was interested in my story.» — lo que Tim Taylor declara de sí, según Bledsoe; la obra no dice que el nombre sea supuesto.
«Hal actually told us that he had been sent to us to debunk the story of the river incident, and that after four years of interviewing our neighbors and researching county records, he wasn’t able to.» — Hal Povenmire en estilo indirecto: dice haber venido a desmentir el caso del río y no haber podido.
«He said that of all the people he had tested with these materials, only two people previously had a reaction, and that this confirmed for him the truth of my experiences.» — Tim Taylor en estilo indirecto: la reacción biológica ante los metales le sirve a él como confirmación del caso.
«These materials and their composition had yet to be understood: they hadn’t been made by human hands and nothing like them occurred naturally on earth.» — lo que Bledsoe consigna de esos metales según Tim Taylor; la obra no aporta análisis propio.
«He indicated that this material had isotopes that came from fifty million light years away.» — la cifra la atribuye a Tim Taylor; el libro no la discute ni la corrige.
«She explained to me that in addition to MUFON, she was part of a network of investigators of the paranormal, and that she had gotten a report about an incident in Saint Paul’s.» — Chase Kloetzke en estilo indirecto de Bledsoe, sobre la red de investigadores de lo paranormal.
«They had the ability to read your thoughts and fill you with fear even if nothing scary or unusual was happening.» — lo que Tim Taylor le advierte sobre los seres, según Bledsoe.
«My father told him he’d had out-of-body experiences and visions while in the hospital.» — lo que el padre del autor le cuenta a Doug Auld, en estilo indirecto de Bledsoe.
«He was, in fact, involved in advanced cutting-edge medical research.» — lo que Bledsoe consigna de Tim Taylor, sin cotejo externo.
«In mosques in the middle east, perfect quasi-crystalline patterns were used in brilliantly colorful and complex mosaics.» — parte de la exposición sobre cuasicristales que Bledsoe atribuye a Tim Taylor.
«He did not say where they came from, only that they were dated to fifty million years old and did not come from earth.» — lo que Tim Taylor declara de los objetos metálicos, según Bledsoe: cincuenta millones de años y origen no terrestre.
«He said that the galaxy was itself arranged in this regular, non-repeating pattern.» — la extensión cosmológica del patrón cuasicristalino, también en boca de Tim Taylor.
«She explained that she had worked there for over thirty years, spending many astronauts’ final days with them before sending them off to the final frontier.» — la mujer que Bledsoe llama den mother, en estilo indirecto suyo, sobre sus treinta años en los cuarteles de la tripulación.
«In the whole existence of the facility, from the 1960s to that day, she said only three hundred people had been granted access to the rooms in which we were standing.» — la cifra de trescientos accesos la da esa misma guía, según Bledsoe; el libro no la coteja.
«Everyone who has ever been in those rooms has been to space.» — lo que Bledsoe pone en boca de Tim Taylor al salir de esas salas.
«They brought something back with them, and it’s still there.» — continuación de lo mismo; la obra no explica qué sería eso.
«Now, you have felt it too, and it has felt you.» — el cierre de esa frase, con reciprocidad: lo sentido también siente.
«Diana, however, was wary of interacting with powerful government officials.» — la reserva que Bledsoe le atribuye a Diana Pasulka ante los oficiales de gobierno.
«She said the focus of her studies had made her enemies in a few academic and religious communities.» — Pasulka en estilo indirecto, sobre el costo académico y religioso de su tema.
«Instead of clouds , words like weather, rain, sky, angel, and voice were used.» — la lista de sustitutos de *cloud*, parte de la tesis que Bledsoe atribuye a Pasulka.
«He raised up his Ultraterrestrial book and started lecturing us about the demons, negative forces, and dark energies that overtook us that night.» — el decano del colegio bíblico bautista, con el libro en la mano, según el relato de Bledsoe: la lectura demoníaca del episodio es de él.
«the sad young woman on the couch leapt up and hugged me, saying, “I just knew you were going to talk about kidney cancer!”» — lo que Bledsoe pone en boca de una de las presentes; el nombre que da después es Sharon Debonis.
«She said that if the chemo didn’t start working, that would be it for her.» — lo que esa mujer declara de su propio pronóstico, en estilo indirecto de Bledsoe.
«Larry said there was a twelve-year-old boy named Brandon who needed my help.» — lo que Larry Frascella le pide, en estilo indirecto de Bledsoe.
«The doctors said he would be lucky to make it to thirteen, and they had the wealth and connections to see every kind of expert in the world.» — el pronóstico médico y los recursos de la familia, según el relato.
«He stopped on the sidewalk, looked me in the eyes smiling, and said, “Chris, you will be there again.”» — Jim Semivan en discurso directo, según Bledsoe; es la frase que él conserva del encuentro.
«Deborah stared at me and told me I saved him.» — lo que Deborah Semivan le dice, según Bledsoe; la adjudicación es de ella, no de él.
«Tim Taylor told me the first time we met. He said it was just like the bible verse, “Where more than one is gathered in my name, there I will be.”» — el versículo bíblico llega por Tim Taylor, según Bledsoe, y con esa redacción.
«He said he had spent more than fifty years pursuing the exact relationship I demonstrated.» — John B. Alexander en estilo indirecto de Bledsoe, sobre los cincuenta años que dice llevar tras esa relación.
«Jim meanwhile launched into a passionate defense of the phenomena, citing worldwide instances of unfair persecutions of experiencers dating back to the ancients.» — Semivan, según Bledsoe: la genealogía de persecuciones a los testigos es argumento suyo, no del autor.
«Then he told me that he was aware of a study. He couldn’t divulge what exactly the study was or how he’d heard of it, but he did tell me that for people who had experiences with the phenomena, a positive change always came twelve years after the first encounter.» — Jim Semivan en estilo indirecto de Bledsoe: el estudio de los doce años, cuya fuente él mismo declara no poder divulgar.
«He said that all I lost would return, my aching joints would improve, and my family would be blessed with happiness and success.» — la promesa que Bledsoe atribuye a Semivan; el libro la consigna sin verificarla.
«NASA, the CIA, the FBI, the NRO, the Vatican, and every division of the defense department had their hands in this, he said.» — la lista de agencias implicadas es de Semivan según Bledsoe; el libro la reproduce sin cotejo.
«The white house and other world leaders had been briefed on the events that took place on the very land we stood on.» — continuación de lo mismo, también en boca de Semivan.
«He denounced the Discovery channel episode as a ridiculous and exploitative piece of entertainment that did us a huge disservice.» — el juicio sobre la serie que Bledsoe le atribuye a Semivan, y que coincide con el suyo.
«There was an intelligence about this object, and he felt as though some line of communication had been opened.» — lo que David Broadwell declara de su avistamiento, en estilo indirecto de Bledsoe.
«I had no idea what he was talking about but he explained that the Monroe Institute was the premiere center for research into the deepest aspects of consciousness.» — lo que David Broadwell le explica del Monroe Institute, según Bledsoe; el autor declara no haberlo conocido antes.
«Rob Freeman, the world-class UFO explorer, came out of his room, wiped a tear from his eye and said smiling, “You won’t get that online.”» — Rob Freeman en discurso directo, según Bledsoe, al salir de una sesión sonora.
«I can’t believe it,” Nancy said, “this is our most reliable machine.”» — Nancy McLaughlin-Walter en discurso directo, según Bledsoe; los nombres van tal cual, sin cotejo.
«If you defeat this one,” Ross said, “you will be Superman.”» — el Dr. Ross Dunseath en discurso directo, según Bledsoe, antes de la tercera máquina.
«A renowned physicist, Dr. Puthoff’s work dates back to the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and the once classified CIA funded Stargate Program. Hal also conducted extensive experiments with Uri Geller back in the 1970s.» — las credenciales de Harold Puthoff según Bledsoe: SRI, el programa Stargate de la CIA y los experimentos con Uri Geller.
«Uri described the slender twelve-inch-long metallic piece as having a color like he had never seen before, pearl-like, almost translucent with greenish blue hues.» — Uri Geller → David Broadwell → Bledsoe → el libro: cadena de cuatro eslabones, la misma de la p. 210.
«Rob, a world explorer on the hunt to film the phenomenon, had a $200k camera array set up twenty-five feet away.» — el equipo de Rob Freeman, según Bledsoe; el registro que sigue no es suyo.
Conceptos tratados
Orbe — Unidad de observación del libro entero: esferas silenciosas que brillan sin iluminar el entorno, sin propulsión visible, con aceleración instantánea y cambio de forma; el autor las describe primero como soles y las mide en decenas de metros.
Serafines — Término que el autor toma de Diana Pasulka —traducido por ella como los que arden— y con el que nombra el orbe del 4 de julio; no lo deriva de la Escritura por su cuenta.
Angel — Adscripción doctrinal del libro: el autor declara haberse convencido de que los fenómenos son una presencia angélica de alcance mundial, y presenta la convicción como adquirida hablando con Pasulka, no como revelación.
Guardianes — Nombre que, según el autor, la dama da a los seres; con él quedan subordinados a ella junto con los orbes y los lapsos de tiempo.
Sanacion — Se declara conducto, no agente: la dama actuaría a través de él, sin receta ni técnica, sosteniendo su imagen en la mente y pidiendo guía al espíritu santo; el mecanismo lo declara desconocido, y también desconocido para la NASA.
Tiempo Perdido — Huecos de memoria que el autor consigna con las explicaciones ordinarias a la vista —adrenalina, pánico— y que la dama reclama después como herramienta suya; en el episodio de la investigación nocturna enumera tres hipótesis y solo fija el agente.
Conexion Temporal — Término que, según el autor, le explica John B. Alexander para la telepatía con una inteligencia no humana; la comparación que el propio autor ofrece de esa experiencia es litúrgica.
Vision Remota — Técnica que declara no haber conocido antes de que Alexander se la propusiera en 2015; reproduce su definición sin discutirla y sin adjudicarla.
Prodigio (prodigium, portentum, ostentum) — El libro lee sucesos naturales como señales pedidas o dadas: el búho que le anuncia que será guardado, el catalpa que arde sin causa y decide una reunión, la serpiente plateada, el ave que acompaña. La fórmula que usa para el búho enumera tres orígenes posibles sin elegir.
Secreto (lo que se jura no fijar por escrito) — Secreto impuesto desde fuera, no jurado por iniciación: dice haber callado años por pedido de contactos oficiales, y describe la red de confianza que lo sostiene como condición de que otros hablen.
Metamaterial — Piezas metálicas que le entregan terceros; el autor consigna lo que ellos declaran —composición no terrestre, isótopos de cincuenta millones de años luz— sin análisis propio, y el destino final: laboratorio, clasificación y no devolución.
Cuasicristal — Patrón no periódico que le expone Tim Taylor, ligado a los mosaicos de mezquitas y extendido por él a la galaxia entera; el autor lo traduce a su propio vocabulario, que es celular.
Profecia — Anuncios fechados que el libro consigna sin evaluarlos: el terremoto y las elecciones de 2012, la alineación de Regulus con la Esfinge y el fin de un modo viejo hacia la Pascua de 2026, y la advertencia de hambre, plaga y desorden. El propio autor acota el género: advertencia, no profecía apocalíptica.
Oracion — Único procedimiento que el libro propone, y sin intermediario: pedir señal, rezar por otros —y con reparo por sí mismo—, y la práctica de cierre, que consiste en salir, mirar arriba y decir que uno está ahí.