Back around 1977 a member of a group -UFO International (less said about that the better)- offered to help me with compiling the CE3K/AE files. I gave a sigh of relief as there were a lot of books and magazines to go through. After two weeks the volunteer (a manager for a major petroleum company) looked at me and said "I can't do it any more. Sorry" -so I asked why?
It turns out that after spending days going over the reports he had a vivid dream in which he was in some kind of hut or cabin in the countryside and he saw a landed UFO and some entities get out and move about. He felt trapped. Basically, this was his mind, while he slept, sifting through what he had learnt in order to explain or make some sense out of it all.
I had a similar dream when I startedand it was quite vividbut it never scared me off the work! I will give a more mundane example.
One job I had in the 1970s involved backing items into boxes and also rolling large prints and putting them into heavy duty postage cylinders. For two nights I had vivid dreams of the mundane, mind numbing boring chore of boxing up items. Vivid. As I needed to eat, pay rent etc I did not go to my boss and say "I quit. I cannot do this any more -I had vivid dreams of packaging things up!" I did mention it to a co-workere who laughed and said "You, too?!"
I heard a similar story7 from someone who was working on business accounts for hour after hour and he told me that the vivid dreams of constantly opening up books, checking them was driving him nuts.
So, the fella with the CE3K work simply chickened out because of a dream.
I have read as well as spoken to supposed Ufologists who, seeing an object (large or small) come down behind a hill or trees will turn around and run.drive off. In one case an 'investigator' sent his father to investigate. Thankfully, that Ufologist being thoroughly incompetrent got out of the subject. I have known others that would not go to speak to UFO repeater witnesses in case "something" happened to them. Those people need to step way back or simply leave Ufology.
I have watched and heard so many supposed "ghost hunters" run away screaming for their mummies when they hear a sound or someone says they thought they sawa shadow move! Again, give up the hobby and find a new one.
Cryptozoology is another field where you find this. Luckily, it's less embarrassing as most "cryptozoologists" never leave the comfort of home.
Around 1977 I was living with my grandparents in Downend on the outskirts of Bristol. Even on a sunny summer day everything stopped at 1700 hrs! At night it was quiet even on the main Westerleigh Road -a little traffic might have helped as I walked past the large cemetery there! There was one large triangular patch of grass that was just off the Westerleigh Road on the Black Horse Estate. Returning from a UFO meeting on foot it was dark, warm but as I got more onto the country area the fog got thick. I crossed the patch of grass and turned as I heard a sound behind me. Fog too thick to see anything.
I continued walking but then heard foot steps behind me. I stopped andf they stopped. I thought it odd since it was hardly a robbery hot spot! I started walking again and heard the sound again but now on paving I realised that what I was hearing were hooves. Two hooves clip-clop clip clop. I stopped again but the fog was so bad I could not see two feet (60cms) in front of me. I carried on walking along the concrete slabbed pavement between a brook and play area and the row of houses and I was not that far from home.
I heard an odd sound as the two cloven hooves walked behind me. I stopped and said "Who is there?" but with a street light to one side all I saw were two very long horns. I turned and walked a bit faster but the clip clop stopped. I stopped. I could not see anything other than my feet on the pavement. I breathed a sigh of relief, Whatever it was was gone. Something warm then breathed on my neck. I ran to my grandparents house and there was a 6 feet high wooden gateway blocking the entrance to the back garden and from there I could get to the back door and into the house. I have still got no idea how but I vaulted over that gate. I stood with my back to the gate and listened as something was pushing the gate.
At bthat point what I call my "Gemini mind" was at work. One side panicked at what was going on while the other took over: I was "all mouth" about looking into the strange or unexplained when talking at meetings and here I was sweating like a coward. My more forceful Gemini side took over and I turned slowly and decided that what ever was on the other side of that gate I had -no options- to face it or I would simply be a useless coward. I slowly, and as quietly as I could, pulled bacck the gate bolt and lifted the latch. Calml;y I pulled open the gate.
What I confronted that night made sure that whatever I faced whether strange lights, odd sounds or mysterious figures I did not turn and run. I headed straight for it or observed and noted details because of distance. The "Devil of Downend" made sure I was always prepared.
