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Throughout his career, Steven Spielberg has been a prolific writer, director, and producer bringing to the world a multitude of work, entertaining both old and young alike in the process.
In 1977, Spielberg wrote and directed one of the many movies he is known for, a movie that now has a cult following, a Science fiction movie that is considered to be in the realm of the paranormal.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a fictional story of a rather plain everyday kind of guy who, during a close encounter with an alien intelligence, is gifted with a vision that he can not quite discern the nature thereof.
Of course we all know that Roy Neary, the character played by Richard Dreyfuss, later realizes that the vision that is haunting his mind is none other than Devils Tower, the astounding geologic feature that protrudes out of the prairie surrounding the Black Hills.
Against all odds Neary travels to the Wyoming mountain where he witnesses an event that is out of this world.
Teri Garr was the actress that portrayed Neary’s wife Ronnie, a woman who becomes distraught because she thinks her husband has gone quite mad. This interaction of two fictional characters was very believable at the time, when Ronnie takes the kids and leaves her seemingly irrational husband.
Indeed in those days everyone instinctively knew that anyone who believed in flying saucers was, well, mentally unstable to say the least.
Johnny Carson the one time host of the Tonight Show, was at times incredibly cruel to those that claimed to be witnesses of UFO phenomenon, Carson always earned a round of laughter from his audience when he made those who claimed to have had a close encounter, look like utter fools and simpletons.
Ironically, rumors have persisted that Carson was a closeted believer himself and desperately wanted nothing more than to witness a UFO in person, even reportedly—at times—traveling to distant locales where sightings were said to have occurred over several days or weeks, in the hope that he too would have a close encounter. Perhaps his personal interest explains his motives for frequently mentioning UFO sightings in his nightly monologue.
This was how it was for those who witnessed unexplained aerial phenomena, they were ridiculed, made to look like idiots, and their narratives dismissed as nothing more than routine and innocuous weather or other naturally occurring events. Until relatively recently, most of those unfortunate enough to have a close encounter, often kept their experiences to themselves rather than to risk public ridicule or even losing their family like Roy Neary in Close Encounters.
Those familiar with the trivia revolving around the development and production of Close Encounters, recall Spielberg’s statements in which he claims he received a twenty page letter from NASA informing him how detrimental it would be to release something that might—presumably—encourage belief in UFOs and alien creatures. According to Spielberg the government of the United States wanted him to kill the project.
Surprisingly, I-NEWS from the United Kingdom ran a story in 2005 claiming that a group of American Defense Intelligence officials had indicated that Close Encounters of the Third Kind reflected, real events.
Attitudes on such subjects change over time it would seem.
Now all these years later it is no longer a social faux pas to admit and share with the world the recollections one has of a close encounter with a UFO or as they are known in more modern parlance, UAPs or unidentified aerial phenomenon.
Once quick to portray a witness to such activity as a candidate for a mental asylum, the news media now reports such stories as sensational, but none the less main stream news events acceptable for wide spread publication.
But are these same people who are now so open minded in regards to unexplained aerial phenomena as receptive to other paranormal events? We will look further into that question in just a moment, but first consider the following.
Another film franchise, the original version also being co-written and produced by Steven Spielberg was Poltergeist, the 1982 film about one family’s close encounter, not a close encounter of the third kind with UFOs and alien creatures, but rather with very nasty spiritual entities of the paranormal variety.
In the spooky story, a typical suburban family, the Freelings, become victims of evil spirits. The entities become fixated on Carol Anne, the youngest of the bunch, eventually abducting the child and the family must come together to rescue her from the other side.
Having personally served as a minister to people who have experienced, a close encounter of the paranormal kind, situations in which largely innocent people are terrorized not unlike like the Freeling family in Poltergeist and I have to wonder if these people—some who have suffered immensely—will ever be as socially accepted as their counterparts who are said to have witnessed, out of this world phenomena.
Will the news media in some not so far off future, seek out those who have had such an encounter and interview these people like they might interview someone who had witnessed, shall we say more normal but yet sensational news worthy events?
Of course if you are one to search out news reports of close encounters of the paranormal kind, you already know that certain reporters and news agencies do in fact give a certain degree of credence to those that seem to have credible reports of spiritual encounters.
Although considered a tabloid by some, the Mirror from the United Kingdom is a center-left newspaper that supports the British Labour Party and which also has a correspondent in the United States.
Vassia Barba, the US News reporter for the Mirror filed a story in April of this year, telling of a family who like the family in the movie Poltergeist were physically attacked, an event that is undoubtedly a close encounter of the paranormal kind.
Barba’s piece was published in the Mirror with the headline: Ex-cop ghostbuster performs exorcism for family tormented by shadowy leg-grabbing entity.
According to Barba, Mother-of-two, Ashley White explained:
“I felt a hand grab my leg in bed one night when I was an 11-year-old girl. A shadowy kind of entity leaned over and dragged me out of the room and pointed towards the attic, calling itself ‘Max’.
This recollection on the part of Ms White, is not that unusual, even one of our associates here at St Michael’s Journal reports a similar situation that occurred nearly sixty years ago when she was a small child, presumably younger at the time than Ms White was when her tormentor first visited.
Reverend Ann remembers that in her bedroom ceiling there was an access to the attic that was covered with a board on the attic side. She tells how one night a creature in the attic, slid the board aside and stuck it’s torso through opening to leer at her with a threatening countenance.
Ann screamed, the creature retreated back into the attic, her parents came running into the room and after discerning that she was terrified but otherwise alright, they threatened her, making it clear that the next time she screamed she would be punished.
The next day, she recalls, her Father called her into her bedroom to ask her how the board covering the hole had been moved and left open. She remembers her Father being visibly shaken when he realized that she had indeed seen something and it was not her imagination that had opened the access to the attic.
As we reported in a previous piece on our St Michael’s Podcast and blog, such events are generally dismissed by the powers that be as simply being that which is referred to as night terrors or sleep paralysis, an otherwise normal event that occurs when the mind wakes from a deep sleep but the body has not as yet awaken and the victim is paralyzed unable to move. These same “authorities” insist that anything the victim sees or hears is simply an hallucination. Apparently hallucinations can move objects or drag uncooperative victims physically from their beds.
In the eleventh chapter of his Gospel, St Matthew relates how Jesus made what appears to be a rather stinging, sarcastic remark that is relative to the discussion at hand. Christ said;
“I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants.”
These so called wise and understanding authorities, far too often, choose to ignore the obvious, therefore creating alternative explanations for that which—as Christ put it “infants”— the plain every-day people who see and hear, and instinctively know, the event is very real and evil through and through.
As St Michael’s Journal has previously reported, there is substantial anecdotal evidence to conclude that people have actually died during one of these so called bouts of sleep paralysis, or close encounters of the paranormal kind. So naturally, when they can not get more conventional help, desperate people in fear of their lives—and souls—will contact those who are not above using ancient religious rites to exorcise these paranormal entities.
According to Barba, Ashley White claims that the entity which identifies itself as “Max” continued to visit her over the years, even though her family had requested a Priest perform the rite of Exorcism of a locale her childhood home where Max first appeared. White remembers the Priest saying there was something demonic in the house particularly the attic.
Barba writes:
Several years later, Ashley and her husband discovered they were pregnant with their first child, but Max returned, pointing towards her stomach before Ashley suffered a tragic miscarriage. Ashley couldn’t help but wonder if Max knew something was wrong or had even caused it.
As Ashley grew older, she began to feel like Max was a kind of guide, and there were “many times when he came with a warning about something that was about to happen.”
It wasn’t until recently when she responded to a casting call for a film project about sleep paralysis and demonic encounters that she discovered that her daughter and son, were also experiencing strange occurrences.
The family also heard voices and saw large, shadowy figures walking around their home.
Eventually, the entity started to target the couple’s seven-year-old son, attempting to become friends at first as he played games, but progressing to where the child believed the black figure wanted to kill him.
In Barba’s headline there was mention of an Ex-cop Ghostbuster involved in this case. Demonologist Chris DeFloria and his wife Harmony, reported being under extreme attack by the entity thought to be the demon named Max, but were eventually able to prevail and drive the creature from the home.
Defloria and Harmony are also featured in an article published by another UK periodical, the Daily Mail. In an October 2022 article Ruth Bashinsky reports how the DeForias were summoned to
Portland Maine to investigate a case in which a man believed he had been possessed by an evil spirit that inhabited his home. As with the case of Ashley White, this man reported physical contact thereby eliminating the possibility the event was simply hallucinations.
Yet in another article, writing for the New York Post Andrew Court reported in June of this year that Deforia had gone on record, giving it as his opinion based on his past experience as both a police officer and a demonologist, that the most infamous serial killers are often motivated by power and control, including Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy. However, Defloria believes that other serial killers are obsessed with the dark arts and appeared to be possessed by evil spirits.
Defloria claims one such murderer is Lori Vallow Daybell — the so-called “doomsday cult mom” recently convicted of killing two of her young children. Daybell claimed to hear Angels, was manipulative, deceitful, and had a total lack of remorse or empathy for her victims.
When you look at the commonalities in these horrendous murders one can not help but wonder if these overly narcissistic perpetrators are indeed possessed by some evil spirit?
Could it be that authorities are reluctant to release the Nashville Covenant School shooter’s manifesto as Audrey Hale’s writings might reveal she was demonically possessed? We may never know.
Could it be that Speilberg’s movie Poltergeist was a poignant example of art imitating life?
A life of terror in which families across the nation and around the world suffer—often in silence—as the powers that be, those that Christ identified as the wise and understanding, those authorities that choose to remain oblivious to the reality that humanity is indeed under attack.
As acceptance continues to grow for those who claim to have had experiences similar to that of the fictional Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, people who insist that they have witnessed UFOs, perhaps one day soon there will be wide acceptance and empathy for those who have had suffered demonic oppression or even possession, what we tend to characterize as a close encounter of the paranormal kind.
SOURCES;
https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/close-encounters-of-the-third-kind-conspiracy-theory-mystery-87937
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/ex-cop-ghostbuster-performs-exorcism-29816912
https://nypost.com/2023/06/09/im-a-demonologist-this-is-what-motivates-serial-killers/
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