The Mystery of Life Energy

Here are a few briefer items that have accumulated recently, all connecting to the larger theme of how mysterious life energy can be:

• Thinking globally, acting locally (from the Shelburne Falls Two Town News):

This article didn’t exactly go viral, but it was fun to share some book info with friends and neighbors.

• Separated at birth (a good one for you coincidence lovers):

Over the past few weeks, while driving down Route 2 I couldn’t help but notice a used car for sale on the edge of an antique store’s parking lot. I normally wouldn’t have looked twice, but it was the mirror image of the gray 2006 Toyota Scion I’ve been driving for the past 10 years. So I classified it as a fun but surely unimportant coincidence – until last week, when I had a minor fender-bender two blocks from where I was set to meet with a well-known PTSD expert. Maybe I was a bit distracted in anticipation of the big event, but luckily I was only going about 2 mph when I hit the rear fender of the SUV stopped at the Stop sign in front of me. Her metal bumper wasn’t kind to my plastic front end, though, but thankfully both drivers were OK.

However, I was now suddenly in the market for a new/used car. And the next time I drove down Route 2, I pulled over to look at that 2006 Scion with the For Sale sign. It was eerie in a way – see for yourself (the photo doesn’t do justice to my smashed left headlight or the crushed radiator grille inside):

Before and after?

It was too cool a coincidence to overlook, so I made some inquiries of the owner and had my trusty mechanic take a look (it had been rehabbed and brought to a sparkle by its current owner, an amateur mechanic). I thought for sure that this purchase was predestined, but unfortunately, my guy gave it a thumbs down: the rocker panels had nearly rusted through, not surprising after 250,000(!) miles. So I never made the transition to a new/used Scion, but it probably would have felt something like getting cosmetic surgery, or, better still, like reincarnating into a younger version of the same body. And that’s actually a provocative analogy – same driver, new car//same soul essence, new body. Maybe that’s why the process is called re-in-CAR-nation (sorry!).

• A film of interest (it’s out of this world):

I’m a member of our local film club, and we show classics and off-the-beaten track gems throughout the year at our Memorial Hall. This week we showed a film I had been advocating, a UFO-themed documentary call Ariel Phenomenon. It’s about a UFO that landed outside a school (the Ariel School – get it?) during recess and was witnessed by over 60 kids. The event caused quite an uproar when it happened in 1994, and Harvard psychiatrist and UFO investigator John Mack went to interview the kids (it happened in Zimbabwe). Local filmmaker Randall Nickerson began exploring this event, and visited the school several times to interview the children as adults, 20 years after the event. His film also includes scenes from Dr. Mack’s original interviews with the kids, who were then 8 -12 years old.

Their stories are both poignant and gripping, accompanied by the drawings they made of what they saw (a small craft and two beings). The film is all the more compelling because there’s no Hollywood hype, just some intense personal sharing by the bewildered witnesses. Of note, this film was viewed by the Senators, Representatives, staffers and witnesses who participated in this week’s Congressional hearings on disclosure, so it’s having quite an impact. More info on the film is at: https://arielphenomenon.com/

Randall outside Memorial Hall

Conducting the post-screening Q&A

Stay tuned for further developments….