NUFORC Sighting 115477

Occurred: 1996-05-06 21:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2014-11-19 18:45 Pacific
Duration: 6 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Big Rapids, MI, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Emitted other objects, Possible abduction

UFOs performing geometric patterns in the sky/Fireball/Possible alien encounter

At the time that this incident happened in 1996, I did not know that any UFO reporting center existed, otherwise I would have reported this shortly after it happened. In the last couple of days (I'm writing this in November, 2014) I was listening to a podcast where Peter Davenport was interviewed; in the interview, Mr. Davenport encouraged anyone who had ever had a sighting at any time, no matter how much time had passed, to please write and submit their report. That is why I am submitting this report at this time. I do believe that this incident was quite significant and should be documented.

In 1996 I was 18 years old. I grew up and had lived in the same house in rural Michigan my entire life at that time, my parents still live there to this day. Our house was located on a small lake, it was and still is the only house on the lake. There is a trail from our house around the lake which leads to a small public access area. I knew this trail very well and I would often take walks around the lake.

On this particular evening (unfortunately I don't know the exact date, but I do remember that it was late spring of 1996, and for some reason I believe this happened on a Monday) I wasn't tired and I decided to go for a walk around the lake. I remember thinking about the fact that I was about to graduate high school and that soon I would be moving to Chicago for college. I remember looking at the lake and the sky and thinking about the fact that I wouldn't have access to this beautiful piece of land for very much longer and I was trying to absorb the location as much as possible. I mention this only to try to give further verification that although this happened almost 20 years ago, I still remember very minute details, even down to what I was thinking about at the time.

I took the trail around the lake and although I carried a flashlight with me, I didn't turn it on as I knew the trail so well. It was a very clear night and there was a moon in the sky which illuminated the area enough to where I could see quite well. The trail to the primitive public access site was approximately 3/4 of a mile from our house. Not surprisingly, I was the only person there at the time.

I stood on the shore of the lake and looked up at the sky. On a clear night, the stars are very bright in that area because there is no light pollution to diminish their radiance.

I was looking north over the lake at the sky for several minutes when I noticed what I thought was a satellite moving across the sky slowly from east to west. There was nothing spectacular about this, it looked like a small, white, illuminated satellite light that I had seen countless times before, it emitted no sound at all. I thought at the time that this was a satellite because it was just a solid, slow moving white light with no blinking red or green lights that would indicate that it was an airplane. I watched this light move, really just because it was something to look at when, out of the corner of my eye I noticed another "satellite" moving from the exact opposite direction, from west to east at the same slow rate of speed, also emitting no sound. This seemed odd to me because, normally satellites only move in one direction, not two in opposite directions.

As I watched these two objects slowly move across the sky and as they moved closer to each other, I realized that they were moving on exactly the same, but opposite course. As they moved closer to each other, it appeared that at some point they would either crash (I didn't think that would happen) or they would totally eclipse each other to where, for a split second, it might appear that there was only one light. They got to where they were almost going to meet, then they both suddenly came to a complete stop very close to each other. Both objects were now almost directly overhead of my position, approximately at a 70 degree angle from my point of reference.

I had never seen any moving object in the sky come to a complete stop, much less two of them, that's when it happened. The first object shot slightly to the north, while the second object, in perfect synchronicity, shot directly to the south, they then turned and one suddenly moved east while the other moved west, then south,north, east, west etc... in opposite motions, making a perfect square pattern. It's hard to judge the size of this "square" that they were making because although I do believe they were outside of the earth's atmosphere (I'll explain why later) I really have no idea how big they were, how far away they were, or how large this square pattern was. The only reference point I can give is if you were to take any two of the stars on Orion's Belt as you stare at it from our vantage point on earth, and if you were to "draw a line" between these stars, you would have the approximate size of one of the "sides" of this square.

The description of this square pattern is easier to convey in terms of a two dimensional surface like a chalk board rather then the three dimensional universe that we see. If you were to imagine two independently moving pieces of chalk on a chalk board representing the two flying lights, if one moved north or "up" the other moved south or "down," one "left" the other "right," over and over again and in such a fast rate of speed that it created a perfect geometric square with precise 90 degree angle turns.

I watched these two lights making a perfect square pattern for about a minute or so. I couldn't believe that I was actually witnessing this, so much so in fact that I literally didn't believe my eyes. At this point I actually looked away to try to confirm that I wasn't imagining the whole thing. I remember touching my tow into the water and watching the ripples emanate from my foot. I grabbed a piece of bark from the tree directly behind my, I smelled the bark and I took it and rubbed it briskly on my arm, I felt it scrape along my skin. I did this as sort of a "systems check" mostly just to confirm that I wasn't dreaming and that I was in fact in complete control of my body and my senses. I then looked back up into the sky, the square pattern was still happening.

At this point I became so overwhelmingly excited. I couldn't believe what I was seeing but I knew I was seeing it. The two objects creating the square pattern were moving so fast and it was mesmerizing. I began to feel, actually to realize, that this was something that was happening for my benefit, or at the very least for my entertainment. I knew at that moment that I was as aware of "them" as they were of me. I can't quite describe how I knew that they were aware of me other than that I just knew that they were. It's sort of like if you were to look across a crowded room and make eye contact with a random and complete stranger, your eyes meet and then you both smile or perhaps even wave at each other, you don't need to be telepathic to know that you are both aware of each other; that's how this moment felt.

I have since wondered if there was something telepathic going on there and I can't honestly say for sure. All I can say is that I know I was aware of a living presence and it felt overwhelmingly positive. It could simply be that this was the most amazing thing I've ever seen before (or since) and I felt so fortunate to be seeing it. I didn't feel that there was any underlying message being given to me other than at least two very advanced beings, with capability beyond anything humans could create just wanted to say, "hi, we're here and look how cool this is!" I remember smiling from ear to ear.

This went on for at least four or five more minutes. It went on for so long in fact that I remember thinking that no one would believe this, I wished that I had a way to bring everyone I knew into this situation, or to somehow document it with a camera, but unfortunately I couldn't do that, so the only thing I could do would be to enjoy it and to remember every detail as best I could.

After what felt like a very long time (again, I'd say four or five minutes, it felt so long that I began to wonder when it would end) the two objects then stopped and rested in the same position where they first came to a stop in the sky originally. Then, just as they came in, they both departed at the same slow rate of speed that they first emerged, but in opposite directions. One object departed towards the east, the other towards the west.

As they moved farther apart, suddenly the object moving to the west seemed to emit something, a gigantic fireball. This looked like a meteor entering our atmosphere (this is why I believe these objects were just outside of our atmosphere) but probably ten times the size of any "shooting star" that I had ever seen. It took up an enormous part of the sky, it was larger than almost any Fourth of July firework that I'd ever seen. It dropped out of the sky and appeared to come almost straight down across the lake to the north. It was a brilliant flash of light that lasted for only a second or so but it was so big and so bright that it made me yell out with excitement. I didn't see any object dropping other than the fireball itself and I have no idea if it "landed," burned up in the atmosphere, traveled for miles or just came straight down. Like the other two objects, the fireball made no noise. The object that appeared to emit it, as well as the other object, ! continued on their course until they were out of range. I was left standing there trying to comprehend what I had just witnessed.

I began walking back around the lake, my mind reeling with what I had just experienced. I had walked about 1/4 of a mile and was just on the other side of the lake from where I had seen everything, still about 1/2 a mile from home, when I began to hear something.

I sometimes hesitate to tell this part of the story, because I honestly have no idea if this is at all related to what I had just witnessed, but in the interest of full disclosure, I feel it is important to document this. Something in the woods just behind me and over my left shoulder, began moving and walking towards me, I didn't see it, but I could hear it.

It is important to remember that I had grown up in these woods and that I was very familiar with the sounds that animals make. If I hear a bluejay, I don't need to see it to know it's there, the same with the scampering sound of a squirrel, the waddling of a raccoon, the soft step and startled "snort" of a deer etc... The sound that I was hearing was unmistakably the sound of footsteps on the leaves. The footsteps approaching directly behind me and over my left shoulder. The only sound that I can compare this to is the somewhat heavy, bipedal sound of human footsteps, in a very rhythmic, "crunch, crunch, crunch," pattern. It sounded distant at first but it slowly began moving closer. Very few animals move around at night, unless perhaps they are injured or sick. Nocturnal ground animals like racoons don't sound anything like this. There are no bears or wolves in that area that I've ever seen, and although I've heard many animals walking through the woods,! I've never once had one follow me.

Obviously this was terrifying, especially considering what I had just seen. I got to a fork in the trail where I stayed to the left to get home. After taking this part of the trail, this thing was still following me and moving closer. I stopped. It took a few more steps then stopped. I started walking again and it started walking again. It slowly kept getting closer. My heart was beating through my chest at this point and my mind was racing, not just because I didn't know what this was but also because of everything that had happened to me so recently. I remember being very scared, by now I would estimate that whatever this was had to be about 15 feet or less away from me. Scared or not, I needed to know what this was. I wasn't going to walk the entire way home with something following me, and the idea of running away from it actually seemed worse because for all I knew, it might start chasing me.

I stopped again. I turned on my flashlight. I quickly spun around and ran as fast as I could in the direction that I could hear this thing. My adrenaline was working overtime and as I started to sprint. I think I heard the sound of leaves scattering, but I can't say for certain as the sound of my own feet were now the loudest thing in the area. As fast as this happened, I didn't see anything. I ran off the trail and into the woods, my flashlight now brightening the woods. Branches were whipping across my face but I didn't care, I needed to see what this was. I zigzagged back and forth, back onto the trail and off again looking on the ground, into the trees, everywhere that I could see, but I saw nothing. If this were an animal, you'd think I would have seen a tail, or legs, or something scampering up a tree, but I saw nothing. To this day I have no idea what that was. For all I know this could have been an animal behaving strangely that got away from me very quickly, perhap! s it was something else entirely, I really can't say for sure.

I don't exactly remember what happened after that. I'm quite sure I remember walking home along the trail and going up into my room and directly to bed, but this now feels like a distant memory. I sincerely regret not writing this down immediately after it happened, or at the very least taking note of the time and date that it occurred, but I guess I just assumed that I would remember all of those details forever. Obviously I know now that is not the case.

The only other strange thing about this story is that I really have no memory of telling anyone about this until years after it happened. I have a great relationship with my parents and I'm sure I must have told them, my high school girlfriend or any of my other friends, but I don't remember doing that. I remember telling one of my roommates this story about six or seven years later. I remember when I told him that I had already told some other people about it but I really didn't think about it that much since that night. To this day, even when I try to talk to someone like my parents, who know that I wouldn't make something like this up, they believe that I saw something, but they definitley don't believe the details that I absolutely know are true. I used to get very angry when I told people this story and they didn't believe me. I've received a lot of ridicule from other people who trust me and are very close to me as well; perhaps that's why I didn't and still don't tell! this story very often.

Probably because of this incident, I've become very intrigued with Ufology over the years. I've read many books and watched many videos. I've of coursed wondered if I may have been abducted that night, but after revisiting this incident many, many times and given it much objectionable thought, I really don't believe that I was. As I've stated, aside from that brief scare in the woods, this was an overwhelmingly positive experience for me.

Over the years I've learned not to get angry about the fact that it seems like only a small handful of people take this story at face value, basically that it happened and I don't really know much more than that. I've accepted the fact that many people don't know how to deal with something like this, and also that I have no idea who or what this really was, where they came from or why I got to see this when so few other people haven't had an experience like this. What I've learned to take away from this over the years is that I'm extremely grateful that it happened. Aside from the few terrifying moments in the woods, this was an overwhelmingly positive experience, filled with wonder and hope that there is something greater than us. I have no idea if these things are from other planets, other dimensions or perhaps right here on earth from something other than human origins.

All I know for certain as that this happened and I was fortunate enough to be in the right time and in the right place to experience it. For that I am grateful.

Thank you very much for all of your tireless efforts into this field of collecting data and for providing a place to submit this report like this.

Posted 2014-11-21

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