Forums · Interview with Don Allis, Publisher of Alien Seeker News
Interview with Don Allis, Editor/Publisher of Alien Seeker News
Interviewed by Paul Dale Roberts, President of Jazma Online! General Manager/Ghostwriter of H.P.I. (Haunted and Paranormal Investigations International)
Paul: Tell us something personal about yourself. Where you were born and raised and maybe about your family life, what schools you went to, etc.?
Don: I grew up in Michigan and moved to the Phoenix, Arizona area in 1982 where I now still live today.
I was always somewhat adventurous and left home when I was only 16 years old and hitchhiked across the country when I ended up working on a ranch in Montana for a summer.
In my late teens I got restless again and hitchhiked to Florida where I worked as a framing carpenter. From there I ended up in New Orleans when I became interested in getting a job as a Merchant Marine. However in order to be issued my Merchant Marine documents I first needed a shipping company that would hire me. I connected up with an ex-sea captain who now owned a bar. For $100, paid under the table, he would give people letters from his friends, who were still sea captains, stating that they would hire that person. This letter would then provide what was needed in order to receive the merchant marine documents.
After receiving my Merchant Marine documents I got a job out of New York, NY working on a charter boat that went up and down the Hudson River chartering parties of 1000 people and more. One of my shipmates told me about working on the Great Lakes iron ore carriers and that the pay was so much better then what I was then getting then. Before I knew it I was on my way to Chicago where I lived for two months before securing a job with US Steel Corporation working as a deckhand.
After two years I felt I had enough of that with not having had much time for anything but short term relationships. Also the Edmund Fitzgerald had just gone down that season so I felt it was time for another change in my life. I had spent a lot of time on the Great Lakes reading every book I could on the paranormal, but also was introduced to a publication called The Mother Earth News, which flamed my interest in living a self sufficient type lifestyle. I then decided to move back home to Michigan where I purchased a home in the country and tried to live as self sufficiently as possible by raising most of my food organically and heating my home with a wood furnace. However with Michigan being an industrialized state the economy was always bad and during these years Michigan was always hit the hardest with people being unemployed, plus I was starting to get antsy once more to do something else in my life again.
I then decided to move to Arizona where I ended up attending college for a couple years and earned an AA in fine arts photography. I had been interested in photography from the time I was in my late teen years. I had already taken a number of photography classes while living in Michigan and from there the interest grew. I had always needed a creative outlet so photography became natural for me.
I no longer do photography; dont ask me why because I dont know. One day I put the cameras down and never picked one up again. Today I utilize my creativeness in other ways, such a cooking and the websites I have had over the years, but photography is no longer a part of me.
Paul: How did you become interested in the paranormal?
Don: My interest with the paranormal began from some very early experiences in my life. One of which was when I lived in Michigan during one of the biggest UFO flaps to have ever occurred back at that time. This was in 1966 when UFOs were being seen daily for a couple weeks, mainly centered out of Arbor, Michigan, which was during the time of Project Blue Book. This was also a time when the media seemed to take the subject of UFOs with a more serious note; at least our local newspaper did in Flint, Michigan. The sightings were making daily headlines and I could have not gotten enough of what was happening. I kept hungering for more, and the more I read then the more I wanted to know. I recalled reading in the local paper that Washington was sending a scientist to investigate the sightings. I did not know it at that time, but now I realized later that this was the now famous Dr. J. Allen Hynek who worked for Project Blue Book. This was the first time the term swamp gas was used as a description to debunk UFOs.
Along with everyone else I was just blown away by this swamp gas statement by Dr. Hynek. I recalled reading the reports in the newspaper where the sightings were so overwhelming that some in the area were actually packing bags and moving from the area in fear that we were being invaded. I also recalled reading where the police were sent to investigate a sighting and on their way to the scene they had a UFO that hovered above the cruiser and follow them. It was sightings like this and then to have someone come along and say it was nothing more than swamp gas was just unimaginable. After all I was just 15 years old at the time and I never heard such a blatant lie come from a US government official before.
After the 1966 Michigan UFO flap I started reading everything I could find on UFOs. Out of all the paranormal subjects that had interested me to date, UFOs are still the most fascinating.
Paul: What inspired you to create the very popular website known as The Alien Seeker News?
Don: Sometime in recent years I had moved away from discussing anything to do with UFOs and the paranormal. My interest also seemed too dwindled due to me growing tired of trying to communicate my interest and experiences with people to only to be looked at as if I was some kind of mental case. I started only wanting to fit in so I just left well enough alone and soon became disassociated with the subjects of UFOs and the paranormal.
Years later I once again became interested after seeing there was a brand new interest emerging online with many intelligent people who were open-minded to these subjects coming together to share their beliefs, experiences and encounters with all things to do with the strange and paranormal. After a few years of selling vintage movie posters through my own website I decided I wanted to be a part of something that played within parts of my own life experiences and finally be able to openly talk to people who were intelligent and open-minded enough to deal with such possibilities without the usual chuckle factor I had become accustomed to in the past. This is when I decided to start my own UFO/paranormal news website to bring other peoples experiences together so that others would feel less alone into what they may be dealing with in their own lives and to educate those who have enough of an open-mind to want to find answers.
Today there are many UFO and paranormal websites. However so many of these sites come across like a carnival of shows that are trying to put out some kind of entertainment for their visitors. The Alien Seeker News is just about the news and reporting it as honestly as we possibly can. I cant be the judge to all stories. I leave it to the readers to make up their own minds and judgments to what they want to believe. If people choose to not believe in a story then that is fine, but the reader should always remain open-minded to all possibilities. All these subject matters we discuss are strange to begin with so who can say for sure to what is real and what is not. We live within a reality of no longer even knowing what reality is.
Paul: With all of your researching, do you believe in UFOs, life on other planets, etc?
Don: One would have to be brain dead to think that there is not life on other planets. However there continues to be all these proclaimed great minds that cant think out of the confines of the box they were taught to stay within.
Yes, I think that UFOs are real and that many are intelligent controlled crafts. There are a lot of very creditable stories from very creditable people to just dismiss these sightings and encounters as being nothing more than just peoples imaginations or a misinterpretation of some terrestrial anomalies. I have had experienced far too many things in my life to close my mind to any possibility. I am open to all possibilities, but believe nothing. I question everything, but know that anything that I may question is very possible. I dont question the possibility to something able to occur within a very unexplainable dimension, but I always use caution when accepting someones claim to an experience or encounter. We live in a world filled with dishonesty and deceit so we cant allow ourselves to become too close to the experiencers experience, but to only know whatever they may have experienced is possible.
However I also realize that as peoples awareness grows of these things there is always going to be those who want to deliberately try to fool us with false claims of sightings and encounters. The reasons can vary for the purpose of financial gains to just plane immature hoaxers who have nothing better to do with their time.
There are also those who want to believe they saw something or have been a part of an encounter in order to just belong and have attention focused their way. Some people truly believe that they have experienced something due to them wanting it so bad. From things they have heard about, seen on TV or read about they begin to piece together fragmented parts of the own past memories and paint a picture of an event that may not have actually taken place. However their desire to jump aboard that bandwagon and be a part of what some call a new pop culture, they are easily fooled and deceived by their own memories. They in turn begin to form new memories from a disjoined puzzle that they have wrongfully pieced together in their heads, which it now becomes a part of them.
I do want to make it clear that I dont think that all memories are false, but there are many of them that are memories that have been retrieved from reaching back in time in order to make something from them. The memories who come from people who start out having no interest or have not been scanning their past for memories to try to make something out of them, but are memories that come about without any warning. These are most likely the ones that need to be focused on for a true piece of the puzzle.
Paul: What other paranormal subjects are you interested in and why?
Don: I am interested in all paranormal subjects, but UFOs have always interested me the most. Bigfoot has also been a most fascinating subject for me and also, due to my own experiences, out of body experiences.
Paul: Have you ever had any paranormal experiences? Can you explain?
Don: I have seen UFOs, experienced many out of body experiences, and have had various psychic experiences like knowing of my stepfathers death the day before he actually died. It came to me so clear that I told someone that I would be getting a phone call anytime now from my mother telling me her husband died. That phone call came the next morning.
Since I have had so many experiences it would take up a lot of space here so I will tell you about my first memory of an UFO experience.
It was in the mid 1950s when I was about 4 or 5 years of age. I remember sitting in the car with my father, brother and sister. For some strange reason I have no memory of my mother being there. I say strange because anyone who grew up in the 50s know during this time it was a big thing for the whole family to all pile into the car and take rides in the country. Also during these years the family always did these things together. We would have never gone anyplace without my mother also going along. It was rare for women to work outside the home back then so when families went somewhere, then they all would do it together.
I recall that we were parked alongside the road and no one is saying a word, in fact I cant remember a word ever being spoken during this event. My father was looking out his side window and to the front of the car, looking up towards the sky. I was sitting in the middle between my father and my brother who is two years older than me. My younger sister was in the back seat and leaning over the front seat to try to look at what we were all looking at from the front seat.
The day was a very clear blue sky afternoon. I was leaning forward looking up through the windshield and slightly to the left. In the sky was this silver metallic classic saucer shaped craft just sitting there. It was unmistakable to what it was that we were looking at. At least it was in my memory since I have never asked another family member about this event for reason of maybe just not thinking about it when I have talk to them years later. As I sit here now I can clearly see that metallic saucer in my head just sitting there in the clear blue sky.
Paul: How can someone contact you?
Don: I can be contacted through my website by way of an email form page at: http://www.alienseekernews.com/contact/contact.html[/URL]
I no longer provide my email address outside of direct associates due to the bombardment of spam email.
Paul: What is the URL address to your website?
http://www.alienseekernews.com[/URL]
Paul: Do you ever think we will have absolute proof that ghost exists or if there are truly extraterrestrials that live in our endless universe?
Don: I dont know if we will ever have proof within our lifetime to prove the existence of UFOs and ghosts. However I do think that we may now be in the beginning stages of disclosure of UFOs/Aliens. However this is not much more then mere speculation on my part, which is all we can do until someone officially can provide us with some answers to the truths.
Polls show that 70 percent of the people in this country now believe we are being visited. I have heard this countless times from many sources, but I very much question its accuracy just from my own experience of talking to many people about this subject.
I think most people when asked this question had just provided a flippant answer at the time. In reality when confronted by individuals who have actually had some kind of an experience then these same people will question such experiences and even question the whole possibility of aliens actually being here now. They then may change their original answer from "yes I believe in aliens" to "I believe that the universe contains other intelligent life forms besides us." Of course this would not be the same answer as what the flippant answer was, but don't most of us think in this way when posed a quick question only to change our answer when giving more time to think about it or to be presented face to face with a situation such as a person claiming to be an experiencer?
If one follows events coming out in just the past couple years then one can easily come to the conclusion that disclosure must be in process. However, this is only if you are one who searches for answers due to your already interest into the matter. Most Americans have not taken the time to research out what is occurring in ufology. They are just too busy with their everyday lives to be bothered with something that they are not hearing through the mainstream media. Until the mainstream media starts reporting on this topic as a top news story on the 5 o'clock news then the average Dick and Jane is not likely going to be enlightened to what is happening. We are beginning to see the media slowly coming around to covering this topic and it is the mainstream media who I see as being a major player at just how quickly disclosure comes about.
This brings into question to just how much the mainstream media is being controlled by outside sources and being kept from letting the public know too much, too soon. If indeed disclosure is occurring then I would agree that it should be controlled at a slow and gradual pace. As I mentioned above, people are not aware of the alien presence as much as polls would lead us to believe. If the general populace of this countries' world would all of a sudden be shaken by a sudden blow, right between their eyebrows, that aliens are HERE, then their boats are not only going to rock, but many of them will be capsizing.
People's religious and moral beliefs would send them into a state of chaos and confusion, which would mentally disrupt many lives causing a great amount of emotional stress and instabilities. One can only speculate as to how many in the populace would react to such a sudden disclosure of aliens, not only existing, but also being here now. Many people would go into a confused panic, which would cause this country a slowing of productivity when these same people do not show up for work the next day. There could even be a run on the stores for everyday necessities due to this panic. Panics have always caused people to stock up during what they may perceive as a time of a disaster. Hospitals and other health facilities would be overrun due to physical and mental illnesses caused from fear and anxieties.
We want disclosure, but we need to assimilate into it at a pace where our minds can adjust and the abnormal starts to become the normal. With every major change within our world it has caused disruptions throughout history until we have assimilated to that change, and some changes have still not brought stability after decades of change. I can see no other greater change in the total human history then what the disclosure of the presence of an intelligent alien life form would be. Many want disclosure right now, but this is not a well thought out demand. There is just way to many variables to that giant leap into what would be the biggest change the world has ever perceived. It is beginning to be obvious that there are some who have kept these secrets for more than 60 years who want and are starting to bring disclosure about. So let us be a little more patience and let disclosure happen at a comfortable and healthy pace, because without doing so we are only shooting ourselves in the foot.
Paul: What goes on in your mind, when someone creates a deliberate hoax, like the Bigfoot hoax?
Don: The Bigfoot hoax did not surprise me. If the news media would have done their homework then they would have know ahead of time that they were being sucked into a hoax. There was already enough information available to show that these guys were trying to pull off a scam for financial profit.
I am bothered whenever someone discredits any of these fields that we try so hard to get the masses and the media educated too. It also makes it very tough for the researchers to have to weed through all the garbage in order to just be able to get at small bits of the truth. Whenever someone like those two clowns pulls off another hoax then it sets us back further from trying to get the media to cover these subjects as a serious matter. The media is now know to be lazy by most and no longer takes the time to research a story to first see if it is true or not. If they would have, then they would have not had been so easily taken in by that Bigfoot hoax and they would also have learned by now that the UFO topic has more than enough evidence to show that it is indeed a world breaking news story. However they rather now just report on tabloid news, such as what Britney Spears is doing today then to actually do real research.
Paul: I notice that Brad Steiger contributes many articles to your website. How did you meet Brad?
Don: To be honest I dont recall how exactly we got connected up with each other. I think he responded about something I wrote in one of my newsletters, which he receives. However it was we got connected up I am very grateful that we did. Brad is one of the niceness people I have ever meant within this genre.
Paul: Do you know how large your fan base is?
Don: I have no idea since we are rapidly growing. Since I have updated our website with a brand new look there has been some days we have experienced over 30,000 hits on our site. However most of all I contribute the site success to all the fine contributing writers we have. When you have writers like Brad Steiger, Chris Holly and Paul Dale Roberts then how can a site go wrong.
Paul: If there was any type of paranormal event you would love to experience firsthand, what would that be and why?
Don: When I started having my out of body experiences I wanted to shout out to the world what was happening to me and that indeed we can live apart from the physical body. However over time I learned to not talk about such things. My friends were even starting to avoid me and questioned my insanity. As I withdrew from talking about my experiences I eventually stop having them.
Today if I was to have another life changing experience as the OBE was for me then I would want to have direct contact with an alien intelligent life form. No matter how much we accept something based on other peoples experiences we still have doubts buried deep within us questioning if this is all real or not. It is only that first hand direct encounter/experience that changes our minds and perspectives in ways no other experience can with being there ourselves and knowing that we are part of something far greater then only that dirt that dwells beneath our feet and the solid object that we can reach out and touch with our physical hand and see with our physical eyes.
Paul: What are your recreational activities and hobbies?
Don: Anymore I have just settled into making my home my oasis and enjoying life in my current surroundings. I enjoy cooking as a creative outlet and have somewhat of a gourmet kitchen. I have also built a dedicated home theater room with theater seats, front projection system, both blu-ray and HD DVDs and the whole 9 yards of being a little mini theater. My home has a pool, which most do in Phoenix and I am finishing off a large patio area where I am building a BBQ Island with outdoor plumbing. This is more of an outdoor kitchen then just a BBQ Island. I enjoy having dinner parties and being surrounded by friends. However I spend more time right here at my desk working with my website and emailing people then just about anything else. I have plenty of work to do around here, which keeps me physically active since I could not afford to have what I have if I had to hire out all the work.
Paul: What books, TV shows, movies, comic books, cartoons do you like?
Don: Well I would like to say that I am always reading a book and feeding my mind. However the truth is that the last book I read was The Day After Roswell. I would love to be able to read more, but I just dont have the time.
I rarely watch TV anymore and would not even know what the latest and greatest shows are. I grew up watching all the great classics like; The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Star Trek and then of course all the many comedies of the 60s, which was the greatest decade for TV comedy there ever has been with shows like Gilligans Island. The most recent shows that I enjoyed was: The X-Files, Lost, Ghost Whisperer, and a few others that I cant remember at the movement.
Comic books are something I never read in my life. They just never did interest me.
I cant remember what cartoons I enjoyed growing up with except cartoons the Flintstones. I remember when it was first airing that it was a primetime show. I am sure there were many more that I enjoyed as a kid, but that is one that stands out in my memory right now.
Movies were always a favor of mine. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Indiana Jones trilogy, and I also loved the Back to the Future trilogy movies. I have seen most of the sci-fi movies, which were always my favorite genre.
Paul: If you had 6 dinner guests, 3 fictional and 3 historical, who would they be and why?
Don: This is a tough question since there are so many very interesting people in the world. From the 3 historical ones I would have to say Jimmy Carter for the reason I found him to be the most honest politician in my lifetime and he would have made a great president if we still had a democracy that still worked on the principle that government is there to serve the people instead of the democracy we have today, which is that the people are here to serve the government. Some may even think that we are becoming enslaved to a New World Order government.
I would have also loved to have had both JFK and his brother Bobby as dinner guest.
Fictional guest, well I will have to think on this one further to name three. However a couple fictional characters that come to mind would be Dr. Emmett Brown played by Christopher Lloyd in the Back to the Future movies, and Dana Scully played by Gillian Anderson in the X-Files.
Paul: At what age were you fascinated with the paranormal?
Don: As mentioned earlier I had my first UFO encounter at the age of 4 or 5 years old. However there was a memory block that did not surface until many years later when I recalled this event. I became interested in UFOs in 1966 at the age of 16 during the Michigan UFO flap. This was also a time when I saw what I thought at the time was my first sighting. It was not until many years later when my memory surfaced about my first encounter at the age of 4 or 5.
Paul: This ends the interview. Thank you. Do you have any inspiring words for your fans!
Don: Maintain an open-mind and know that anything and everything is possible, but maintain a balance between believing whole heartily something to totally disregarding something. In order to find the truth one needs to stay in the middle to have a visual perspective in both directions. It is only when we lean too far to one side of the scale that the other side then loses focus. We cannot have an open-mind if we are only able to see one side of an issue. Be your own best skeptic and always use caution when approaching any story. Life is not one sided, but is multi-dimensional so we need to approach everything with this in mind.
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Interviewed by Paul Dale Roberts, President of Jazma Online! General Manager/Ghostwriter of H.P.I. (Haunted and Paranormal Investigations International)
Paul: Tell us something personal about yourself. Where you were born and raised and maybe about your family life, what schools you went to, etc.?
Don: I grew up in Michigan and moved to the Phoenix, Arizona area in 1982 where I now still live today.
I was always somewhat adventurous and left home when I was only 16 years old and hitchhiked across the country when I ended up working on a ranch in Montana for a summer.
In my late teens I got restless again and hitchhiked to Florida where I worked as a framing carpenter. From there I ended up in New Orleans when I became interested in getting a job as a Merchant Marine. However in order to be issued my Merchant Marine documents I first needed a shipping company that would hire me. I connected up with an ex-sea captain who now owned a bar. For $100, paid under the table, he would give people letters from his friends, who were still sea captains, stating that they would hire that person. This letter would then provide what was needed in order to receive the merchant marine documents.
After receiving my Merchant Marine documents I got a job out of New York, NY working on a charter boat that went up and down the Hudson River chartering parties of 1000 people and more. One of my shipmates told me about working on the Great Lakes iron ore carriers and that the pay was so much better then what I was then getting then. Before I knew it I was on my way to Chicago where I lived for two months before securing a job with US Steel Corporation working as a deckhand.
After two years I felt I had enough of that with not having had much time for anything but short term relationships. Also the Edmund Fitzgerald had just gone down that season so I felt it was time for another change in my life. I had spent a lot of time on the Great Lakes reading every book I could on the paranormal, but also was introduced to a publication called The Mother Earth News, which flamed my interest in living a self sufficient type lifestyle. I then decided to move back home to Michigan where I purchased a home in the country and tried to live as self sufficiently as possible by raising most of my food organically and heating my home with a wood furnace. However with Michigan being an industrialized state the economy was always bad and during these years Michigan was always hit the hardest with people being unemployed, plus I was starting to get antsy once more to do something else in my life again.
I then decided to move to Arizona where I ended up attending college for a couple years and earned an AA in fine arts photography. I had been interested in photography from the time I was in my late teen years. I had already taken a number of photography classes while living in Michigan and from there the interest grew. I had always needed a creative outlet so photography became natural for me.
I no longer do photography; dont ask me why because I dont know. One day I put the cameras down and never picked one up again. Today I utilize my creativeness in other ways, such a cooking and the websites I have had over the years, but photography is no longer a part of me.
Paul: How did you become interested in the paranormal?
Don: My interest with the paranormal began from some very early experiences in my life. One of which was when I lived in Michigan during one of the biggest UFO flaps to have ever occurred back at that time. This was in 1966 when UFOs were being seen daily for a couple weeks, mainly centered out of Arbor, Michigan, which was during the time of Project Blue Book. This was also a time when the media seemed to take the subject of UFOs with a more serious note; at least our local newspaper did in Flint, Michigan. The sightings were making daily headlines and I could have not gotten enough of what was happening. I kept hungering for more, and the more I read then the more I wanted to know. I recalled reading in the local paper that Washington was sending a scientist to investigate the sightings. I did not know it at that time, but now I realized later that this was the now famous Dr. J. Allen Hynek who worked for Project Blue Book. This was the first time the term swamp gas was used as a description to debunk UFOs.
Along with everyone else I was just blown away by this swamp gas statement by Dr. Hynek. I recalled reading the reports in the newspaper where the sightings were so overwhelming that some in the area were actually packing bags and moving from the area in fear that we were being invaded. I also recalled reading where the police were sent to investigate a sighting and on their way to the scene they had a UFO that hovered above the cruiser and follow them. It was sightings like this and then to have someone come along and say it was nothing more than swamp gas was just unimaginable. After all I was just 15 years old at the time and I never heard such a blatant lie come from a US government official before.
After the 1966 Michigan UFO flap I started reading everything I could find on UFOs. Out of all the paranormal subjects that had interested me to date, UFOs are still the most fascinating.
Paul: What inspired you to create the very popular website known as The Alien Seeker News?
Don: Sometime in recent years I had moved away from discussing anything to do with UFOs and the paranormal. My interest also seemed too dwindled due to me growing tired of trying to communicate my interest and experiences with people to only to be looked at as if I was some kind of mental case. I started only wanting to fit in so I just left well enough alone and soon became disassociated with the subjects of UFOs and the paranormal.
Years later I once again became interested after seeing there was a brand new interest emerging online with many intelligent people who were open-minded to these subjects coming together to share their beliefs, experiences and encounters with all things to do with the strange and paranormal. After a few years of selling vintage movie posters through my own website I decided I wanted to be a part of something that played within parts of my own life experiences and finally be able to openly talk to people who were intelligent and open-minded enough to deal with such possibilities without the usual chuckle factor I had become accustomed to in the past. This is when I decided to start my own UFO/paranormal news website to bring other peoples experiences together so that others would feel less alone into what they may be dealing with in their own lives and to educate those who have enough of an open-mind to want to find answers.
Today there are many UFO and paranormal websites. However so many of these sites come across like a carnival of shows that are trying to put out some kind of entertainment for their visitors. The Alien Seeker News is just about the news and reporting it as honestly as we possibly can. I cant be the judge to all stories. I leave it to the readers to make up their own minds and judgments to what they want to believe. If people choose to not believe in a story then that is fine, but the reader should always remain open-minded to all possibilities. All these subject matters we discuss are strange to begin with so who can say for sure to what is real and what is not. We live within a reality of no longer even knowing what reality is.
Paul: With all of your researching, do you believe in UFOs, life on other planets, etc?
Don: One would have to be brain dead to think that there is not life on other planets. However there continues to be all these proclaimed great minds that cant think out of the confines of the box they were taught to stay within.
Yes, I think that UFOs are real and that many are intelligent controlled crafts. There are a lot of very creditable stories from very creditable people to just dismiss these sightings and encounters as being nothing more than just peoples imaginations or a misinterpretation of some terrestrial anomalies. I have had experienced far too many things in my life to close my mind to any possibility. I am open to all possibilities, but believe nothing. I question everything, but know that anything that I may question is very possible. I dont question the possibility to something able to occur within a very unexplainable dimension, but I always use caution when accepting someones claim to an experience or encounter. We live in a world filled with dishonesty and deceit so we cant allow ourselves to become too close to the experiencers experience, but to only know whatever they may have experienced is possible.
However I also realize that as peoples awareness grows of these things there is always going to be those who want to deliberately try to fool us with false claims of sightings and encounters. The reasons can vary for the purpose of financial gains to just plane immature hoaxers who have nothing better to do with their time.
There are also those who want to believe they saw something or have been a part of an encounter in order to just belong and have attention focused their way. Some people truly believe that they have experienced something due to them wanting it so bad. From things they have heard about, seen on TV or read about they begin to piece together fragmented parts of the own past memories and paint a picture of an event that may not have actually taken place. However their desire to jump aboard that bandwagon and be a part of what some call a new pop culture, they are easily fooled and deceived by their own memories. They in turn begin to form new memories from a disjoined puzzle that they have wrongfully pieced together in their heads, which it now becomes a part of them.
I do want to make it clear that I dont think that all memories are false, but there are many of them that are memories that have been retrieved from reaching back in time in order to make something from them. The memories who come from people who start out having no interest or have not been scanning their past for memories to try to make something out of them, but are memories that come about without any warning. These are most likely the ones that need to be focused on for a true piece of the puzzle.
Paul: What other paranormal subjects are you interested in and why?
Don: I am interested in all paranormal subjects, but UFOs have always interested me the most. Bigfoot has also been a most fascinating subject for me and also, due to my own experiences, out of body experiences.
Paul: Have you ever had any paranormal experiences? Can you explain?
Don: I have seen UFOs, experienced many out of body experiences, and have had various psychic experiences like knowing of my stepfathers death the day before he actually died. It came to me so clear that I told someone that I would be getting a phone call anytime now from my mother telling me her husband died. That phone call came the next morning.
Since I have had so many experiences it would take up a lot of space here so I will tell you about my first memory of an UFO experience.
It was in the mid 1950s when I was about 4 or 5 years of age. I remember sitting in the car with my father, brother and sister. For some strange reason I have no memory of my mother being there. I say strange because anyone who grew up in the 50s know during this time it was a big thing for the whole family to all pile into the car and take rides in the country. Also during these years the family always did these things together. We would have never gone anyplace without my mother also going along. It was rare for women to work outside the home back then so when families went somewhere, then they all would do it together.
I recall that we were parked alongside the road and no one is saying a word, in fact I cant remember a word ever being spoken during this event. My father was looking out his side window and to the front of the car, looking up towards the sky. I was sitting in the middle between my father and my brother who is two years older than me. My younger sister was in the back seat and leaning over the front seat to try to look at what we were all looking at from the front seat.
The day was a very clear blue sky afternoon. I was leaning forward looking up through the windshield and slightly to the left. In the sky was this silver metallic classic saucer shaped craft just sitting there. It was unmistakable to what it was that we were looking at. At least it was in my memory since I have never asked another family member about this event for reason of maybe just not thinking about it when I have talk to them years later. As I sit here now I can clearly see that metallic saucer in my head just sitting there in the clear blue sky.
Paul: How can someone contact you?
Don: I can be contacted through my website by way of an email form page at: http://www.alienseekernews.com/contact/contact.html[/URL]
I no longer provide my email address outside of direct associates due to the bombardment of spam email.
Paul: What is the URL address to your website?
http://www.alienseekernews.com[/URL]
Paul: Do you ever think we will have absolute proof that ghost exists or if there are truly extraterrestrials that live in our endless universe?
Don: I dont know if we will ever have proof within our lifetime to prove the existence of UFOs and ghosts. However I do think that we may now be in the beginning stages of disclosure of UFOs/Aliens. However this is not much more then mere speculation on my part, which is all we can do until someone officially can provide us with some answers to the truths.
Polls show that 70 percent of the people in this country now believe we are being visited. I have heard this countless times from many sources, but I very much question its accuracy just from my own experience of talking to many people about this subject.
I think most people when asked this question had just provided a flippant answer at the time. In reality when confronted by individuals who have actually had some kind of an experience then these same people will question such experiences and even question the whole possibility of aliens actually being here now. They then may change their original answer from "yes I believe in aliens" to "I believe that the universe contains other intelligent life forms besides us." Of course this would not be the same answer as what the flippant answer was, but don't most of us think in this way when posed a quick question only to change our answer when giving more time to think about it or to be presented face to face with a situation such as a person claiming to be an experiencer?
If one follows events coming out in just the past couple years then one can easily come to the conclusion that disclosure must be in process. However, this is only if you are one who searches for answers due to your already interest into the matter. Most Americans have not taken the time to research out what is occurring in ufology. They are just too busy with their everyday lives to be bothered with something that they are not hearing through the mainstream media. Until the mainstream media starts reporting on this topic as a top news story on the 5 o'clock news then the average Dick and Jane is not likely going to be enlightened to what is happening. We are beginning to see the media slowly coming around to covering this topic and it is the mainstream media who I see as being a major player at just how quickly disclosure comes about.
This brings into question to just how much the mainstream media is being controlled by outside sources and being kept from letting the public know too much, too soon. If indeed disclosure is occurring then I would agree that it should be controlled at a slow and gradual pace. As I mentioned above, people are not aware of the alien presence as much as polls would lead us to believe. If the general populace of this countries' world would all of a sudden be shaken by a sudden blow, right between their eyebrows, that aliens are HERE, then their boats are not only going to rock, but many of them will be capsizing.
People's religious and moral beliefs would send them into a state of chaos and confusion, which would mentally disrupt many lives causing a great amount of emotional stress and instabilities. One can only speculate as to how many in the populace would react to such a sudden disclosure of aliens, not only existing, but also being here now. Many people would go into a confused panic, which would cause this country a slowing of productivity when these same people do not show up for work the next day. There could even be a run on the stores for everyday necessities due to this panic. Panics have always caused people to stock up during what they may perceive as a time of a disaster. Hospitals and other health facilities would be overrun due to physical and mental illnesses caused from fear and anxieties.
We want disclosure, but we need to assimilate into it at a pace where our minds can adjust and the abnormal starts to become the normal. With every major change within our world it has caused disruptions throughout history until we have assimilated to that change, and some changes have still not brought stability after decades of change. I can see no other greater change in the total human history then what the disclosure of the presence of an intelligent alien life form would be. Many want disclosure right now, but this is not a well thought out demand. There is just way to many variables to that giant leap into what would be the biggest change the world has ever perceived. It is beginning to be obvious that there are some who have kept these secrets for more than 60 years who want and are starting to bring disclosure about. So let us be a little more patience and let disclosure happen at a comfortable and healthy pace, because without doing so we are only shooting ourselves in the foot.
Paul: What goes on in your mind, when someone creates a deliberate hoax, like the Bigfoot hoax?
Don: The Bigfoot hoax did not surprise me. If the news media would have done their homework then they would have know ahead of time that they were being sucked into a hoax. There was already enough information available to show that these guys were trying to pull off a scam for financial profit.
I am bothered whenever someone discredits any of these fields that we try so hard to get the masses and the media educated too. It also makes it very tough for the researchers to have to weed through all the garbage in order to just be able to get at small bits of the truth. Whenever someone like those two clowns pulls off another hoax then it sets us back further from trying to get the media to cover these subjects as a serious matter. The media is now know to be lazy by most and no longer takes the time to research a story to first see if it is true or not. If they would have, then they would have not had been so easily taken in by that Bigfoot hoax and they would also have learned by now that the UFO topic has more than enough evidence to show that it is indeed a world breaking news story. However they rather now just report on tabloid news, such as what Britney Spears is doing today then to actually do real research.
Paul: I notice that Brad Steiger contributes many articles to your website. How did you meet Brad?
Don: To be honest I dont recall how exactly we got connected up with each other. I think he responded about something I wrote in one of my newsletters, which he receives. However it was we got connected up I am very grateful that we did. Brad is one of the niceness people I have ever meant within this genre.
Paul: Do you know how large your fan base is?
Don: I have no idea since we are rapidly growing. Since I have updated our website with a brand new look there has been some days we have experienced over 30,000 hits on our site. However most of all I contribute the site success to all the fine contributing writers we have. When you have writers like Brad Steiger, Chris Holly and Paul Dale Roberts then how can a site go wrong.
Paul: If there was any type of paranormal event you would love to experience firsthand, what would that be and why?
Don: When I started having my out of body experiences I wanted to shout out to the world what was happening to me and that indeed we can live apart from the physical body. However over time I learned to not talk about such things. My friends were even starting to avoid me and questioned my insanity. As I withdrew from talking about my experiences I eventually stop having them.
Today if I was to have another life changing experience as the OBE was for me then I would want to have direct contact with an alien intelligent life form. No matter how much we accept something based on other peoples experiences we still have doubts buried deep within us questioning if this is all real or not. It is only that first hand direct encounter/experience that changes our minds and perspectives in ways no other experience can with being there ourselves and knowing that we are part of something far greater then only that dirt that dwells beneath our feet and the solid object that we can reach out and touch with our physical hand and see with our physical eyes.
Paul: What are your recreational activities and hobbies?
Don: Anymore I have just settled into making my home my oasis and enjoying life in my current surroundings. I enjoy cooking as a creative outlet and have somewhat of a gourmet kitchen. I have also built a dedicated home theater room with theater seats, front projection system, both blu-ray and HD DVDs and the whole 9 yards of being a little mini theater. My home has a pool, which most do in Phoenix and I am finishing off a large patio area where I am building a BBQ Island with outdoor plumbing. This is more of an outdoor kitchen then just a BBQ Island. I enjoy having dinner parties and being surrounded by friends. However I spend more time right here at my desk working with my website and emailing people then just about anything else. I have plenty of work to do around here, which keeps me physically active since I could not afford to have what I have if I had to hire out all the work.
Paul: What books, TV shows, movies, comic books, cartoons do you like?
Don: Well I would like to say that I am always reading a book and feeding my mind. However the truth is that the last book I read was The Day After Roswell. I would love to be able to read more, but I just dont have the time.
I rarely watch TV anymore and would not even know what the latest and greatest shows are. I grew up watching all the great classics like; The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Star Trek and then of course all the many comedies of the 60s, which was the greatest decade for TV comedy there ever has been with shows like Gilligans Island. The most recent shows that I enjoyed was: The X-Files, Lost, Ghost Whisperer, and a few others that I cant remember at the movement.
Comic books are something I never read in my life. They just never did interest me.
I cant remember what cartoons I enjoyed growing up with except cartoons the Flintstones. I remember when it was first airing that it was a primetime show. I am sure there were many more that I enjoyed as a kid, but that is one that stands out in my memory right now.
Movies were always a favor of mine. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Indiana Jones trilogy, and I also loved the Back to the Future trilogy movies. I have seen most of the sci-fi movies, which were always my favorite genre.
Paul: If you had 6 dinner guests, 3 fictional and 3 historical, who would they be and why?
Don: This is a tough question since there are so many very interesting people in the world. From the 3 historical ones I would have to say Jimmy Carter for the reason I found him to be the most honest politician in my lifetime and he would have made a great president if we still had a democracy that still worked on the principle that government is there to serve the people instead of the democracy we have today, which is that the people are here to serve the government. Some may even think that we are becoming enslaved to a New World Order government.
I would have also loved to have had both JFK and his brother Bobby as dinner guest.
Fictional guest, well I will have to think on this one further to name three. However a couple fictional characters that come to mind would be Dr. Emmett Brown played by Christopher Lloyd in the Back to the Future movies, and Dana Scully played by Gillian Anderson in the X-Files.
Paul: At what age were you fascinated with the paranormal?
Don: As mentioned earlier I had my first UFO encounter at the age of 4 or 5 years old. However there was a memory block that did not surface until many years later when I recalled this event. I became interested in UFOs in 1966 at the age of 16 during the Michigan UFO flap. This was also a time when I saw what I thought at the time was my first sighting. It was not until many years later when my memory surfaced about my first encounter at the age of 4 or 5.
Paul: This ends the interview. Thank you. Do you have any inspiring words for your fans!
Don: Maintain an open-mind and know that anything and everything is possible, but maintain a balance between believing whole heartily something to totally disregarding something. In order to find the truth one needs to stay in the middle to have a visual perspective in both directions. It is only when we lean too far to one side of the scale that the other side then loses focus. We cannot have an open-mind if we are only able to see one side of an issue. Be your own best skeptic and always use caution when approaching any story. Life is not one sided, but is multi-dimensional so we need to approach everything with this in mind.
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