Over the past few years, by design or just by his continuous delving into the connection between anomalous experiences with apparent nonhuman entities and a certain nocturnal avian, Mike Clelland has become informally known in UFO circles as “The Owl Man.” Mike was staying at the house for a few days and I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to have him as an in-studio guest.
He was in town to give a lecture on ultralight backpacking (which was knows enough about to have written an authoritative book.) For the first 11 minutes, we actually talked about that subject as well as how to construct in igloo before getting into the subjects at hand. We opened with a few little-known facts about Kenneth Arnold (who had a pet owl and was a huge fan of Charles Fort, and experienced mysterious orbs floating around his home.)
He told me the little known issue that many, if not all abductees have a specific number that is special to them, and that is apparently “assigned” during their experiences. We talked about problems with abduction research, of which I am a little more critical than Mike, but then I am not in the middle of that world, and it was valuable to hear his perspective. Our mutual friend, the late Mac Tonnies, suggested that Mike visit as many researchers as possible and see how they differed in their approaches. Among people with unexplained experiences, this is rare.
Mike also discussed his own years of anguish while he tried to figure out what was happening to him, and how the ultimate answer to the enigma may simply be the reconciliation of the personal experience, even if there is no answer to be found for UFO researchers. Mike’s newest book is Stories From The Messengers.