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By Steve Hammons
Movies, TV shows, books and other media platforms seem to increasingly explore scientific mysteries about the Universe, Earth and Nature. Although the accuracy and reliability of some of these stories might be questionable, many of the areas of investigation seem to spark the curiosity of millions of people around the world.
New discoveries seem to be happening all the time, and more are surely on the horizon. Keeping up with new, and maybe unusual, scientific developments seems to require increasing open-mindedness combined with common sense, caution and a moral compass.
For example, information technology, quantum computing and artificial intelligence are evolving rapidly. Medical and health sciences are also moving forward. And many other areas of human endeavor and knowledge seem to be generally progressing, despite numerous risks and counterproductive human activities and developments.
In some forward-leaning scientific research, investigators are looking into the expanded potential of human perception and awareness, “weird physics” and the theories about multiple dimensions in Nature and the Universe.
Certain locations in the U.S. and around the world have been the focus of extensive research because of theories that they are associated with connection points or portals to other dimensions – dimensions that may be natural, but unusual for us.
DIMENSIONAL ENVIRONMENTS
A book published in 1995 was titled “Merging Dimensions: The Opening Portals of Sedona” by Sedona, Arizona, residents Tom Dongo and Linda Bradshaw. The authors shared details of a number of unusual experiences and observations around the Sedona area.
The book seems to reflect other research on that same region that indicates fluctuations in Earth’s magnetism there. This is believed to be related to the geology of the Sedona area – red earth, red cliffs and fantastic red rock formations there are rich in iron oxide and quartz, combined with volcanic geological influences.
Some of the odd phenomena reported in the Sedona area are reportledy suspected of being associated with connections to other dimensions.
Sedona is also on the southwestern rim of the Colorado Plateau, which spans the Four Corners states of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. This overall region is also associated with theories and reports of incidents related to interdimensional phenomena, UFOs and similar mysterious, and sometimes unsettling and concerning indications.
Around the Colorado Plateau and around the world, researchers and average people have reportedly encountered a number of anomalous locations and situations that seem to point to the possible reality of other dimensions. These dimensions might be nearby, or even abut our reality in certain ways, according to some theories.
Research into “near-death experiences (NDEs)” includes widespread reports by credible people of an afterlife dimension of some kind that they encountered.
More recently, the concept of “shared-death experiences” has emerged, describing cases where it’s not just the person passing on who has a weird experience. In shared-death experiences, family members or others in proximity who are perfectly healthy also experience odd phenomena related to the passing of the loved one into another dimension of some kind.
In some spiritual teachings we are told that there are certain dimensions that are good, transcendent and beautiful. And other dimensions – not so much.
EXPANDED ECOSYSTEM
Science and spirituality continue to cross paths in many types of research. This connection is sometimes reported in relation to natural and biological sciences, medical and health sciences, aerospace and space science, as well as other fields of human activity and progress.
The classes in Earth science we had in school might have been incomplete. In addition to geography, geology, oceanography and other Earth sciences, textbooks might one day include chapters about Planet Earth’s various interdimensional features.
And like the normal environments we’re familiar with, some dimensions might hold pleasant experiences. These could be like a beautiful ocean beach, scenic hilltop, peaceful blue lake or fertile green pastures and farmlands – with good, kind and wise beings there.
We might wonder if other dimensions, like those we’re also normally familiar with, could be like a wild forest or jungle, with creatures that could be dangerous and deadly. Or, also like on Earth, environments where there is violence, war, cruelty, oppression and suffering. If this could be so, then researchers and average people might consider increased caution when exploring certain unusual phenomena.
In our everyday world, it’s a good idea to avoid sketchy neighborhoods where violent crime occurs frequently. Taking vacations in certain countries and regions of the world is also not a good idea, due to crime, murders, and now, highly-contagious disease.
Maybe this kind of perspective is also applicable to some far-out and forward-leaning research into the ideas about multiple dimensions, UFOs and other anomalous phenomena. In both normal and unusual settings, any number of dangers or unforeseen consequences can sometimes emerge. Caution and safety are probably appropriate.
And for those who are researching theories of other dimensions, there’s also the promise of discoveries that could change Earth and its inhabitants for the better – in ways that could be surprising, signficant, robust, uplifting, transcendent or even miraculous.
(Related articles "Navy Research Project on Intuition" and "Human perception key in hard power, soft power, smart power" are posted on the CultureReady blog, Defense Language and National Security Education Office, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, U.S. Department of Defense.)
By Steve Hammons
The March 13, 1997, “Phoenix lights” UFO incident took place in close proximity to several other UFO cases around the edge of the Colorado Plateau, a huge land mass, roughly circular, that spans the “Four Corners” states of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.
The large, boomerang-shaped object reported over Phoenix that evening had allegedly been spotted earlier in Henderson, Nevada, a suburban city of Las Vegas, then in Kingman and Prescott, Arizona, heading southeast.
That southeasterly path also skirts the perimeter of the Colorado Plateau and the abutting mountainous “transition zone” which divide Arizona diagonally into the Sonoran Desert in the south and southwest, and the Colorado Plateau in the north and northeast.
In addition to Arizona, in New Mexico, Colorado and Utah – around the perimeter of the Colorado Plateau – there have been reports of UFO incidents over the years dating back to the 1940s.
Could there be any connections or related reasons why these incidents allegedly occurred, and are reportedly occurring, around the edge of the Colorado Plateau?
ROCKIN’ ‘ROUND THE CLOCK
Using the Phoenix lights case as a starting point and proceeding counterclockwise, Henderson, Kingman and Prescott are on the western and southwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau, approximately the 9 o-clock to 8 o’clock position of the rough circle of the plateau.
Kingman may have been the site of a 1953 UFO crash incident, possibly involving three or more objects, that was handled in a discreet manner by U.S. government national security officials.
Phoenix is on the southern side of the Colorado Plateau, at approximately the 7 o’clock position, just south of the mountainous transition zone between the plateau and the Sonoran Desert.
Sedona, where UFOs and other odd phenomena have been reported, is also in the same 7 o'clock position, a 90-minute drive due north of Phoenix. At about 4,300 feet elevation, Sedona is considered within the transition zone and on the southern edge of the actual Colorado Plateau. Flagstaff, about 30 miles north, is on the plateau at 7,000 feet elevation, and the vast forests of pondersa pines there welcome visitors.
A bit southeast of Flagstaff is the area of the 1975 UFO case involving a forestry crew and its foreman named Travis Walton. This incident was made into the Hollywood movie “Fire in the Sky.” It reportedly took place in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests on the Mogollon Rim, a notable geographic feature that forms a distinct edge of the Colorado Plateau in Arizona, also roughly in the 7 o'clock location.
At approximately the 5 o’clock spot on the rim of the plateau is Socorro County, New Mexico, the site of the well-known 1964 UFO incident involving City of Socorro public safety peace officer Lonnie Zamora. Astronomer and Ohio State University professor J. Allen Hynek, PhD, a scientific investigator with the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book, flew to New Mexico to investigate this case in person.
In about the 3 o’clock location of the plateau are the towns of Aztec and Farmington, New Mexico, and, to the east, southwestern Colorado’s San Luis Valley.
According to some researchers, a UFO crash-landed near Aztec in 1948. Federal government and U.S. Army personnel reportedly responded to the scene via nearby Durango, Colorado, just north of the state line. The object was reportedly recovered and removed.
In 1950, a signficant number of citizens of nearby Farmington allegedly observed dozens or hundreds of UFOs above their town over a three-day period. This case is known as the “Farmington armada” incident and was well-documented in newspaper reports at the time.
The 37th parallel runs directly through this region and some researchers speculate that it is a "paranormal highway" for unusual occurrances.
The Continental Divide of North America also runs north-south through this region, and to Alaska and South America. Water on the east side of the divide flows toward the Atlantic Ocean, and to the Pacific from the west side of the divide.
Colorado’s San Luis Valley to the east, abutting the New Mexico state line, is known as a hot spot for UFOs and other anomalous situations.
Continuing counterclockwise around the Colorado Plateau at approximately the 12 o’clock or 11 o'clock position is Utah’s Uinta (also spelled Uintah) region. This area is a known location of multiple UFO sightings and a diverse array of anomalous incidents.
Going further counterclockwise along the northwestern flank of the Colorado Plateau, abutting the I-15 freeway, continues around the plateau to the 9 o'clock Henderson-Las Vegas area via nearby St. George, Utah, close to the Nevada and Arizona state lines. (St. George looks a lot like Sedona, with red earth, and scenic red cliffs and mountains, and is also on the 37th parallel.)
PHOENIX CASE UNIQUE
As we know, UFOs have reportedly been sighted and encountered around the world, in all types of locations, time frames and circumstances. Yet, if there are possible clues, patterns or guideposts that might emerge, we might be wise to take note.
The March 1997 Phoenix lights incident is somewhat distinct because it occurred over a major city in the mid-evening hours. Hundreds or thousands of people in the area were looking skyward to view the much-anticipated Hale-Bopp comet on a pleasant and clear Sonoran Desert spring evening.
A huge V-shaped or boomerang-shaped object with several unusually-large lights underneath reportedly cruised slowly, silently and at a relatively low altitude right over the middle of the metro Phoenix "Valley of the Sun." It allegedly travelled diagonally from northwest to southeast, along the southern perimeter of the Colorado Plateau and abutting transition zone mountains north of Phoenix.
Hundreds, or thousands or tens of thousands of people may have witnessed the object. Many reportedly called 911, local TV stations and Luke Air Force Base on Phoenix’s west side. Luke AFB might have scrambled F-15 fighter jets in response, though this is apparently in dispute.
A few hours later in a seemingly separate incident, conventional illumination flares on parachutes were dropped by Air Force or Air National Guard planes south of Luke AFB at the nearby Barry M. Goldwater Range used for Air Force training. These flares would have been to the southwest of metro Phoenix.
According to a later Air Force statement, a unit of the Maryland Air National Guard deployed the flares while completing training at the Goldwater Range that night before returning to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson.
(In 2011, UK Royal Air Force Apache helicopter pilot Capt. Harry Wales, Prince Harry, trained on the Goldwater Range at the Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Field.)
In the days after the Phoenix lights sightings, then-Governor Fife Symington seemingly made fun of the incident at a well-known press conference when one of his aides dressed up in an extraterrestrial alien costume.
But in 2007, Symington, a former Air Force officer and pilot, came forward and said publicly that on the evening of March 13, 1997, he heard the chatter about people seeing something above Phoenix, and he went outside to check it out. Symington stated he also observed the huge craft with large lights that he does not believe was a U.S. military or civilian aircraft.
In 2017, actor and pilot Kurt Russell revealed that as he was flying into Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport March 13, 1997, he spotted six unusual, large lights and notified air traffic control at the Sky Harbor control tower. Russell has stated he thinks he might be the civilian pilot who was identified as having initially reported the object/lights on his approach to the airport.
And in 2020, to mark the 23rd anniversary of the incident, the annual March showing of the documentary film “The Phoenix Lights” is scheduled for Sunday, March 15, at the Harkins Shea 14 Cinema, Scottsdale, Arizona.
Looking at the Phoenix lights case in the context of UFO sightings around the world, do the Phoenix incident and other Colorado Plateau-related cases provide any clues about the broader and deeper UFO mysteries?
