Case Briefs: Explorations & Review (November /
December 1994)
It
was my pleasure to meet the very personable Katharina
Wilson, author of The Alien Jigsaw, at MUFON's 25th
Annual Symposium last July. Her book was fascinating and I
was impressed and intrigued by her in-depth analysis and
insights into her own abduction experiences. Katharina's
encounters were explored during sessions with Budd Hopkins
and his comments about her in the Introduction of The
Alien Jigsaw pay tribute to this most remarkable lady.
LS: What were your motivations for going public with your
abduction history and writing your book, The Alien
Jigsaw?
KW: My motivations were two-fold. Although a few
excellent books about abductions had been written over the
past decade, I found myself feeling somewhat alienated from
the so-called 'mainstream abduction case.' This isolation
stemmed from the fact that I was experiencing events during
my abduction encounters that had never before been
published.
When I began meeting with and interviewing other
abductees, I realized they were feeling the same way I was
feeling. We were seeing Beings other than the Greys, and
experiencing phenomena such as teaching dreams, visions and
theatrical scenarios.
These are a very important part of abductions and they
are designed to test and elicit emotional and behavioral
responses from the abductee. I thought it was time for
someone to share this type of information with both the
research community and other abductees.
The other factor that motivated me to go public were my
abduction experiences involving apparent military/government
interaction. I had reported such interaction as far back as
1990, but my information wasn't getting out to the UFO
community. I can only assume that there weren't enough
reports to warrant sharing my information with the UFO
community. My book covers the first thirty-two years of my
life and out of 119 experiences, I documented fourteen
experiences that had military/government overtones. Some of
these experiences occurred in underground bases. It was
these types of experiences that really drove me to go
public.
LS: So far, has going public with your book helped or
hindered you?
KW: Going public is always difficult even if you think
you feel completely comfortable with it. I find it stressful
to speak to hundreds of strangers at UFO conferences.
However, I am compelled to do so because I know that even if
I only help on person come to terms with their experiences,
then it is worth it. Going public has certainly helped.
LS: Do you prefer the word 'abductee' or 'experiencer,'
and why?
KW: I use the term 'abductee' because it was the term
that was most commonly used to describe people who
interacted with non-human Beings back in the eighties. I
don't associate any negative feelings with the word, in
fact, many people are surprised when I tell them that 45% of
my experiences were neutral.
A lot of people would say the word 'abductee' means, "To
be taken against your will." Well, for most people, I think
we are taken against our will or at least we believe we are.
Of course, when we understand more about past lives and the
research that is being done relating to them, we may find
out one day that we agreed to do this work in a previous
life. However, right now I don't think we can say this with
certainty. It is only a hypothesis.
LS: What has been the most difficult thing to deal with,
outside the actual abduction experiences, since you became
consciously aware of them?
KW: The most difficult thing to deal with revolves around
a specific anxiety concerning the safety of my pets and my
family. I would have to say that the next most difficult
thing to deal with is the possibility that I may never know
the truth behind the whole abduction phenomenon. I don't
want to die without knowing what really happened to me.
Being abducted and remembering what happened to you is one
thing. Understanding why is quite another. I want to
know why I'm being abducted. And, I want to know why I'm
seeing military and government personnel in my experiences.
I don't want them to be there, but they are. And, during my
experiences, I don't feel as bad about it as I feel I
should. Sometimes I feel quite comfortable with the military
people I see.
Isn't it normal that I would feel it is wrong to be
abducted by military or government personnel? I ask myself
this question a lot these days. And-I wonder how the
families feel whose loved ones were experimented on in the
radiation experiments during the Cold War. I also wonder
about the black men who were experimented on in the Tuskegee
Institute's syphilis study. Could something like that happen
again? Did the experiments ever end?
LS: Where, if at all, do you feel that your experiences
differ from those reported by other abductees (such as those
who have reported experiences to Budd Hopkins, Dr. Jacobs,
Dr. Mack...)? What are some of the commonalities?
KW: I'm different in the ways I described when I answered
the first question. I have so many conscious memories that I
could have literally written my book to fit the
'Hopkins-Jacobs abductee,' or the 'John Mack experiencer.' I
decided to include all of my experiences in The Alien
Jigsaw because I know that we are not either
abductees or experiencers-we are both, and that is
what makes studying abductions so confusing.
The fact that Dr. Mack is rattling the establishment is
great. He is giving us options that western culture has
taught us to ignore. We are standing at a door that we have
to open if we are to move forward. We have to open it for
our children's sake. Right now there are a lot of people
standing in front of that door with their eyes closed,
terrified of what they will discover.
LS: Abduction researchers such as Ray Fowler and Dr. John
Mack indicate that some of their abductees (experiencers)
are reporting themes of reincarnation, dual human/alien
souls and future ecological trauma to planet Earth. What are
your feelings about these reports and how do they fit into
your own experiences?
KW: As I told a friend recently, "I know past lives are
real, but I don't do past lives-I'm not into it." Since I
made that statement, I've experienced two reincarnation
themes that felt as vivid and reality-based as my abduction
experiences, but they were not connected with alien Beings.
The spontaneous memories of these two past lives shook me to
my core because I never imagined or believed that I would
remember something like a past life.
Dual human/alien souls are another subject I felt
similarly about until recently. Whenever the subject came up
I would simply tune the information out. While I was
completing my work on The Alien Jigsaw, I found
myself thinking about the blue-skinned Being. She was a
small Being with a large bald head and huge round eyes. She
had beautiful pale blue skin and I believed she was
exceptionally wise. I always thought she had her eyes closed
during my interaction with her, even though she
telepathically told me that she always has blue-gray eyes
when she comes into the Earth plane.
One day I got my answer about the color of her eyes in a
manner that left me with more questions than answers. I
found myself standing in front of a mirror or some type of
reflective wall. I was looking at myself and was gently
rubbing my hand across my face. As I admired my reflection I
said to myself, "I really am beautiful. I am very satisfied
with my physical appearance." I had my eyes open and was
staring at myself in the 'mirror.' I was a blue-skinned
Being with large blue-gray eyes, but inside, it was still
me. I experienced the same knowing I felt
during my two past life memories. I know I used to be those
'people.'
LS: Have your religious beliefs changed since you became
aware of your experiences? If so, how?
KW: I was raised and confirmed in the Lutheran Church. I
went to Sunday school or church almost every Sunday until I
was eighteen. I do not want to offend anyone by saying this,
but I never felt as if I fit in there. I never quite
believed what I was being taught, and no one answered my
questions to my satisfaction.
I believe there is a great creative force, and I have
been taught to call this force 'God.' I pray and give thanks
to God every day, which is not something I did prior to
connecting my memories with the abduction phenomenon.
I am not a religious person, but I do consider myself a
spiritual person. I live my beliefs, I don't preach them. My
spiritual beliefs center around the basic premise that all
life is equal and is special, and should be treated with
respect and love. I am a vegetarian not for health reasons,
but because I love animals. For me to eat an animal would be
like someone else eating another human. When they are
available, I buy products that have not been tested on
animals and I will always buy vinyl over leather.
A lot of people assume that I'm a vegetarian because I've
been manipulated by the aliens and they wanted me to be a
vegetarian. Not so. In 1984, I began to realize the
connection within all life and drastically changed my diet.
Over the course of two years, I changed my behavior. People
don't just wake up one day and decide to be vegetarians.
Many vegetarians are people who have made that (sometimes
painful) connection to the value of life. They realize that
humans aren't the most important species on our planet and
they decide to live their life accordingly.
In living out my life on this planet, my spiritual
beliefs tell me that I should leave this world at least as
good a place as when I entered, preferably better. One
person can make a difference. I think a lot about all
the animals who are not being created and slaughtered just
to put meat on my plate. I have been a vegetarian for over
eight years and I am just as energetic and healthy as ever.
LS: Aside from
the fact that the whole phenomenon can be considered
strange, what do you feel was your most strange or unusual
experience?
KW: I would have to say the experiences involving
reincarnation and a dual human/alien soul. I recently shared
this information with another researcher at a conference I
was speaking at in Gulf Breeze, but this is the first time
I've spoken of it publicly...I still don't understand it.
My most unusual abduction experience involved my being
taken to a place that I was told was, "The dark side of the
moon." I saw enormous domed-shaped structures on the horizon
and tall crystal like structures in the foreground. I was
with two humanoid males who were wearing gray body suits. I
was wearing a body suit also and was learning how to use a
hand-held weapon that resembled a machine gun. However, this
weapon was light weight and emitted energy instead of
bullets. I distinctly remember looking at the dome-shaped
structures and wondering if this was a city and how it could
be here. Once you experience something like this, it is
impossible to ignore it.
LS: Is it your feeling that these Beings are
extraterrestrial, extra dimensional, or something else all
together?
KW: Yes-and I say that with a smile. I have had
experiences that have led me to believe that some of the
Beings are inter-dimensional while some of them are
extraterrestrial. The category "something else all together"
should stay on the board as well since we understand so
little about the universe.
LS: How do you deal with the skeptics and those who say
it's all in your head?
KW: The skeptics I hear on television make me laugh when
they say abductions are caused by mass hallucinations,
fantasy-prone personality, false memory syndrome and sleep
paralysis. FPP, FMS, sleep paralysis and hallucinations
probably do affect a portion of the population. For example,
Carl Sagan publicly admitted in a March 7, 1993, Parade
magazine article he has had auditory hallucinations
probably a dozen times since the death of his parents.
These new 'syndromes' have not been proven to be as
organized on such a massive scale as abductions appear to
be. Incidentally, FPP, FMS, and sleep paralysis are not
officially recognized in the DSM-III-R (the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of mental disorders).
I haven't been challenged in person about my abduction
experiences. I have, however, met with skeptical people who
have open minds and I think that is about all we can ask of
them. Try to keep an open mind. We don't have all the
answers yet.
LS: Finally, when you were a little girl, what went
through your head when you looked out at the stars at night?
How about now?
KW: When I was a little girl and looked up at the stars,
I felt that the Universe was wondrous. My father spent time
with me showing me how to use my little telescope and we
would look at the moon together. I remember the first thing
I wanted to be when I grew up, was an astronomer. I loved
looking at the night sky as a child, and still enjoy it as
an adult.
I enjoy looking for satellites and on a clear night I
will almost always be able to spot one. A few months ago I
went outside and sat down on my deck. I looked up at a group
of stars and marveled at how clear the sky was and how
beautiful the stars were. Then I began thinking about the
Beings. I felt a little sad and I said to myself (while
looking at a group of stars), "Why don't you ever let me see
you anymore like I am right now-completely awake and on my
terms?"
At that moment, one of the stars I was looking at moved
across the sky. Not fast, but it definitely moved. If I were
to hold my fist at arm's length, the 'star' moved from my
left to right, about ten inches across the sky (that is
holding a ruler at arm's length) in three seconds. It then
blinked out.
I couldn't believe what I had seen. Even though I had
asked to see it and I observed it, I still couldn't believe
it had anything to do with me. It left me questioning: Who
and what am I, that would cause an advanced alien species to
have an interest in me?
Laura Steiger is the editor for Case Briefs, the
newsletter for the Northern California Mutual UFO Network,
an affiliate of The Mutual UFO Network. This article has
been reprinted with the permission of the Editor, Case
Briefs: Exploration and Review. To subscribe to Case
Briefs, or for more information, write to: Case Briefs,
c/o Virgil C. Staff, MUFON Northern California, P.O. Box
7668, Landscape Station, Berkeley, CA, 94707-0668.
©1993-1996 Katharina Wilson. All
Rights Reserved. Puzzle Publishing, PO Box 230023, Portland,
Oregon, 97281-0023, USA. The preceding is reproduced with
permission of the Author. Permission is given to reproduce
and redistribute in printed form, for non-commerical
purposes only, provided the information and the copy remain
intact and unedited. http://www.alienjigsaw.com
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