Here are the story and the thoughts/questions that I’m anxious to share.
I feel very fortunate to have had a remarkable ‘close up and personal’ experiences back in 1984 with one of the gigantic triangles that became famous as part of the Hudson Valley ‘wave.’ I refer to this as an experience rather than simply a sighting because it truly and deeply changed my life. You can’t witness something like that and not be affected by such a profound and world-view changing sense of awe and humility.
I was pregnant with my second child and my 3 year old was home with a baby sitter while my husband and I went to a party in Yorktown, right off the Taconic Parkway and very near the Indian Point nuclear plant. It was a perfect spring evening and this was the first barbeque of the season with about 40 or so friends. We had arrived before dark, but the party outside and indoors continued once night fell. Not a cloud in the sky and the stars were in full bloom. Doors and windows were all left open so that there was a constant flow of people and conversation. There was some drinking and ‘smoking’ going on, but it was early in the evening and I had not been doing either since I was pregnant. I had been helping out in the kitchen, which let out to the patio, and there was plenty of laughter and jabbering going on. Quite suddenly, however, things fell completely silent outdoors. Talking and laughing stopped so abruptly that those of us in the kitchen immediately went out to see what had happened. As I emerged from the kitchen I looked up, since that’s where everyone’s awestruck and silent gazes had turned. With my head half outside the door, I saw something straight out of a Speilberg movie – merely a few treetops above the house, gliding silently and very slowly, was a massive structure so large that it completely blocked the sky and so close that I was easily able to discern its metallic underside, which was a matte finished gunmetal color and had some raised features on it. There were also lights, but I’m afraid I can’t recall exactly where, how many or what color, (which is a big frustration for me, since you want to recall every detail. I think the fact that we all saw different details depending on when we first saw it and from what angle and where our attention was drawn, and then compared notes afterwards, has confused that detail for me, since some people saw the tip of the triangle, which in my recollection had a large white light on it, and others saw colored lights around the edges). But my recollection of the massiveness and commanding presence of this thing is as clear as the night I saw it. One of the most remarkable features was the grace in which it moved – totally silent (and this was magnified by the fact that not only did all conversation cease, but it seemed that even the natural sounds of the peepers and anything else also fell silent) and so very slow and smooth. It oddly reminded me of the gracefulness of whales – so huge and yet so flowing and elegant. We all continued watching, speechless, as this behemoth moved beyond the sight line of trees that blocked it. I would guess that this lasted for about one full minute. As it passed over us it completely covered the visible sky (the house had a large yard with trees surrounding the perimeter) and I would estimate its size to have been at least 2 football fields in width. It was actually too close to be sure of the shape, but it did seem to be a triangular shape with soft angles at the corners. It was impossible to determine the height or thickness of the structure, since we were looking straight up at its underbelly.
There were two things for certain – we were not imagining this, and what we saw was something that could not have possibly been man made, since it completely defied the laws of physics and gravity.
Once the huge ship passed beyond our sight line – it was so low that the trees hid it – I wanted to go straight home. I felt no real fear in the usual sense of the word, but definitely a sense of anxiety, a sense that the world had changed, and I wanted to be home with my little boy.
As soon as we got onto the Taconic parkway we were on a rather high area and we could see the ship again in the distance. It was over Indian Point and seemed to hover there for a short while before literally meandering south along the Hudson towards NYC. As we drove, an amazing sight that night was to see almost every car along the southbound side of the Taconic pulled over to see this incredible sight. Many people were standing outside of their cars to watch as the ship slowly made its way south. Another detail that is foggy for me is what happened as we watched this part – I seem to remember watching it suddenly zoom off and disappear, but I’m not sure about that.
Interestingly, although I’ve stayed in touch with many of the people who were at the party and we’ve shared our memories of the event (it had a profound effect on those I’ve stayed close to), my now ex-husband has completely dismissed the event and actually becomes upset when I bring it up. He admits that we saw something, but has swallowed the official story that came out 2 days later that it was just a hoax by some people with ultra lights! I believe the real story did appear in the news on the first day, but by the next day the ‘official’ word came out and that was that. So very frustrating to those of us who had such close viewings (and I believe over the couple of years of so-called Hudson Valley Sightings there were thousands who reported sightings).
Ever since that event I have felt haunted by it and have searched out people and information that can confirm my own experience. The profound emotional nature of what happened has had a mostly positive effect on me, and like others I have heard about, has increased not only my spiritual sense, but has also enhanced my psychic abilities, which were always a part of my life. I have always felt a sense of gratitude for having had this experience and have always wanted more of it, as well as more exposure to fellow ‘experiencers’.

Now for a little more background on me and a question that has puzzled me most of my life… this is not the first or only time I have witnessed or experienced something out of the ordinary and I’ve always wondered why it is that so many of us who have had experiences like this seem to have had more than one. None of my other sightings or paranormal experiences were quite as awe inspiring or easy to confirm as this one, but here are a few:
– I was a very sick infant and young child with severe asthma and I believe I must have been on the verge of death several times in my first couple of years of life. I feel that during that time something affected my brain in that I seem to be more open to psychic and paranormal experiences than most people.
– As a young child I had intense lucid dreams and was a sleep- walker. Some of the dreams and experiences were quite terrifying and others were delightful flying dreams
– When I was an adolescent, my brother and I witnessed a number of orbs on Cape Cod. They were explained away as swamp gas, and my brother’s memories of this event are more vivid than mine.
– In 1968 in Ithaca, NY, I witnessed 6 chevron shaped UFO’s for about a minute. I was standing in a parking lot on a high hill waiting for friends who were going to drive down to DC with me for Thanksgiving break. The 6 craft were not only each ‘arrow’ shaped, but they also flew in an arrow shape formation and had a beautiful green/blue glow to them. They hovered for a while over a distant (about 4 miles away) hill, then darted faster than my eyes could follow to a different hill, hovered again and then again darted to another location. The distance they covered in such a short speed was unlike anything I had ever seen or could imagine. Finally, the entire group took off into space in an instant and disappeared. Interestingly, this was during a wave of sightings that I only learned of recently as well as a wave of cattle mutilations in the area. It was also very frustrating for me to have witnessed this alone!
– Finally, about 4 years ago I witnessed a formation of lights over the ocean at my home in Cape Cod. Having lived right on the ocean for 15 years I was very familiar with airplane routes, weather patterns and boats. There was a light drizzle and a heavy overcast that night, so you could not see any stars or planes. It was early evening and the lights – about 12 of them, were too high to have been from a boat but were below the cloud cover. They were about ½ mile out to sea and made no noise (it’s very quiet where I live aside from the sound of the surf, and sound travels very well over the water – I hear even small boat engines when they’re out that far. The orbs stayed in formation and were moving slowly AGAINST the wind. Once again, I was alone watching this.

As you can see, each of these experiences was very different – from the circumstances and time of life to the nature of the UFOs. Add to that the fact that I’ve had other paranormal experiences and it makes me wonder – why me? I have heard other experiencers ask the same question – why do so many people go through their whole lives without ever having any kind of paranormal experience and yet many of those who do seem to have multiple experiences of multiple types?

So, the question I would like to pose to fellow experiencers is – how many of the following life experiences or characteristics do we share, that may be part of what has given rise to our multiplicity of paranormal experiences? And which came first – the experiences or the characteristics? Were people like us ‘chosen’ for these characteristics, or do they just make us more open to certain perceptions than people who do not share them? Here is the list that I put together of my own life ‘tags’ that I think have made me more vulnerable and open to these experiences:
– a family history of paranormal events/personality traits
– lucid and pre-cognitive dreaming
– ESP
– Other paranormal experiences such as seeing ghosts
– Past-life memories
– Early illness
– Possible near death experiences (from birth until my teen years I suffered from severe asthma and almost died a few times)
– Astral projection experiences
– Artistic/right brained
– Learning disabilities
– Specific locations we may share – especially those known for strange goings on – ie, Hudson Valley, Ithaca, NY, Sierra Nevada mountains, Truro on Cape Cod
– Media or government access – either through self or family/friends
– Nature oriented
– Close connections with animals
– Heritage – ie, I have Native American and Scottish heritage
– Meditator

I can get into the details of the traits listed above later, but I would love to pose this question to the other people in this group – especially to those who have had sightings or even more intense experiences and get a feel for what we share beyond our interest in this phenomenon.

I know this is a lot of information, and sorry to be so long winded, but I do hope this might initiate some interesting conversation!
Melinda