I've had a very interesting journey this week, and had to wrestle with a few things. I started out wanting to make a commentary about following too fast, too hard and too closely to something you're not quite sure of. Buyer beware... the P.T. Barnum thing... a sucker born every minute... you know. I figured I could do an Andy Rooney... candid and off the cuff.

Then, I started to give a lot of thought to my own contact with beings, not of this planet, and of my earthly experiences thereof.

As a newly awakened contactee, in 1989, I was swept up in a sea of information and emotions, while trying to make sense of what had been happening to me all my life, without disrupting my life. After all, it is rather overwhelming, and very easy to be led astray, because there's just so much stuff out there, and, not all of it is the truth. You feel like a push-me-pull-me, so, what do you believe and how much of it do you believe and then, who do you tell and when you tell them why are you telling them? What is your intent?

It was easy for me to state my intent, and difficult, because I knew the laughter curtain could ring down at any time, and it did, and often. Very simply, I told people that this was my reality, and that I didn't expect anyone to believe me. I just needed to talk about it... and I did. I got a lot of press. Some of it's still airing on the various networks. I also opened a metaphysical bookstore, with the largest selection of UFO books in the Toronto Region. Then there were the symposia and the Rogers Cable Network show called Interstellar: The UFO Show that I hosted and produced.

That kind of exposure, I soon found out, came with a great deal of responsibility. I got calls from all over North America. They were seekers. They were ridiculers. Some were ecstatic that they were not alone in their experiences and some needed more support than I was able to, or, rather, qualified to give. I was walking a fine line with these people.

Some people, in my town, started calling me a cult-leader, and I wasn't. Others came to me for answers that I didn't have. All I knew was what I had experienced. I was not the expert, as many would call me. I never presented myself that way, but when people are looking for answers, or are drowning, they sometimes hang onto a small piece of the wreckage. Even though it's just a small part of the ship, it still keeps them afloat and believing they can be saved.

I had to be very careful with these people, because I knew how easy it would be to develop a following and then, what. It's very seductive.

There are many who have fallen along the way because they find themselves in the position of having to embellish their credentials when the well of experiences has gone dry. When a person develops a following, they need to have something for people to follow, and, if they cease to have experiences, but have built a career on the foundation of those experiences, then they are, indeed, in dangerous water.

Last week, Strange Days Indeed had Carlos Paz Wells, a contactee from Peru, on the program. He, too, along with his twin brother, Sixtos, have had numerous contacts and, through automatic writing and channelling, have been able to prearrange sightings of craft and Extraterrestrial beings. In 1974, he and his brother formed Operation Rama whose members include professionals, like geologists and astronomers.

All of this has been done in order to make contact with benevolent beings and with Xendra, which are orbs of intense light. They are working towards contact and preparation for an evacuation of the planet, when the time comes.

And, in light of the new images that have come from the SOHO probe, studying solar flare activity on the sun, it's quite possible that the time is near. Over two hundred images of saucer, cigar and platform shapes have been photographed.

So, as I was listening to Carlos, I was intrigued, because much of what he had to say coincided with experiences I, and others, had had.

Cigar-shaped craft in South America are common occurrences. A friend of mine saw one in Bogota, Colombia when he was sixteen. He and a friend came out of the house to catch a bus, and he noticed the zeppelin shaped craft over the mountains. It came near, and he saw a being in a white space suit and tightly fitting helmet standing on the balcony of the ship. Harry asked the being how the rest of his life was going to turn out. The being didn't answer, just looked sternly at him and the next thing Harry knew he was standing half a kilometer down the road, with his friend, and it was an hour later. He's had several of these experiences, and these continue to this day.

Is it all right to get your message out? Absolutely! What has to be clear, though, is the intent.

And, yes, it's important to get people ready for contact. I believe it's imminent. But be careful. We can't be pushing the envelope, either, or creating artificial situations to make our point.

I don't doubt that Carlos and his brother experienced contact. I don't doubt that they met with beings. It doesn't even matter if I believe it because this is their experience. It's how we share it with others that make all the difference.

As far as a lack of evidence is concerned, most of the contactees I have spoken with never think of taking home a souvenir, and, they rarely have a camera handy. Although, I have to admit, that I did find it a little odd that the journalists that Carlos and Sixtos brought to the prearranged sightings did not have their cameras with them. These were left in the car.

I was also concerned that Carlos took two young ladies deep into the woods for a prearranged encounter with a being. That was not prudent. I don't know that these girls are impressionable but, when they talked about their experience it was as though they were talking through a haze, rather dazed and dazzled by what they had seen, or, by what they expected to see. One of them said, "It's not a joke.." I agree. It's not a joke. I also found it interesting that the being who Carlos spoke with was not only at a far distance, but was also in silhouette.

So, yes, it's important to get people ready for contact. I believe it's imminent. But be careful. We can't be pushing the envelope.

Has the well of experiences run dry? Perhaps and, then again, perhaps not, but...

That's the view from here.