Going back to Castaneda for a moment, and keeping in mind these strange creatures described by Michael Harner, we find don Juan and Carlos out in the desert one day:
“…I really wanted to start for home right away […] but before we reached his house, don Juan sat down on a high ledge overlooking the valley. He didn’t say anything for awhile. He was not out of breath. I couldn’t conceive of why he had stopped to sit down.
“‘The task of the day, for you, ‘ he said abruptly, in a foreboding tone, ‘is one of the most mysterious things of sorcery, something that goes beyond language, beyond explanations. …So brace yourself by propping your back against this rock wall, as far as possible, from the edge. I will be by you, in case you faint or fall down. …I want you to cross your legs and enter into inner silence, but don’t fall asleep.’
“It was rather difficult for me to enter into inner silence without falling asleep. I fought a nearly invincible desire to fall asleep. I succeeded, and found myself looking at the bottom of the valley from an impenetrable darkness around me. And then, I saw something that chilled me to the marrow of my bones. I saw a gigantic shadow, perhaps fifteen feet across, leaping in the air and then landing with a silent thud. I felt the thud in my bones, but I didn’t hear it.
“‘They are really heavy, ‘ don Juan said in my ear. He was holding me by the left arm, as hard as he could.
“I saw something that looked like a mud shadow wiggle on the ground, and then take another gigantic leap, perhaps fifty feet long, and land again, with the same ominous silent thud. I fought not to lose my concentration. I was frightened beyond anything I could rationally use as a description. I kept my eyes fixed on the jumping shadow on the bottom of the valley. Then I heard a most peculiar buzzing, a mixture of the sound of flapping wings and the buzzing of a radio whose dial has not quite picked up the frequency of a radio station, and the thud that followed was something unforgettable. It shook don Juan and me to the core 0 a gigantic black mud shadow had just landed by our feet.
“‘Don’t be frightened,’ don Juan said imperiously. ‘Keep your inner silence and it will move away.
“I was shivering from head to toe. I had the clear knowledge that if I didn’t keep my inner silence alive, the mud shadow would cover me up like a blanket and suffocate me. Without losing the darkness around me, I screamed at the top of my voice. Never had I been so angry, so utterly frustrated. The mud shadow too another leap, clearly to the bottom of the valley. I kept on screaming, shaking my legs. I wanted to shake off whatever might come to eat me.” (Castaneda, 1998, pp. 231-233)
This is pretty scary stuff, to say the least. But, can it be true? Before we think that this is just a phenomenon or hallucination of shamans or anthropologist, let’s have a look at another event in a slightly different context.
This is just a short segment of an account obtained under hypnotic regression. The hypnotist is Barbara Bartholic and the subject is “David,” the son of Dr. Karla Turner.
“Something was obviously missing in David’s recollection of events, so Barbara asked him more about what he had seen by the fir tree.
“‘I’m looking at a shadow,’ he replied. ‘Maybe it’s the cat, he likes that tree. Rustling, pomegranate tree. At the bottom? but how? This, there’s something moving, but I can’t see it. It’s a dark spot, a black spot, moving around the tree. And it’s gone.’
“Barbara asked him to expand his description, so David continued.
“‘I saw, it looks irregular. Is it a shadow? It’s black. It’s on the ground. It’s moving around and away, quickly, rustling. Like walking on leaves. And it’s very faint with a whisper… a snake sound, real faint. […] My brain’s not working, ‘ he said. ‘I’m just tramping behind her to the car. Ah, ah. But I want to go look at that. I heard a noise.
“‘What did the noise sound like?’ [Barbara’s question.]
“‘A rope, pulled real fast,’ he replied. ‘Whoooo, kind of like a top. But soft, so it was muted. And that’ when I see the thing. The black. It’s just blackness, on the ground. Very quick. Something hit me before.’
“‘Where?’ Barbara inquired.
“‘Shocked me,’ he answered. ‘In the back. In my hip, at the bottom of my spine… I’m bouncing, mechanically, towards the satellite dish, I think. …. It’s big…. It hurt, all over, the shock. Tingles real loud. All over my bones it’s tingling, shaking. […] I’m walking around the tree, and I hear a noise. Like a top, a spinning top. It starts high-pitched and goes lower, and goes away pretty fast. So I look towards it. I can’t see very well. …It’s like a blot on the ground, … a black towel? Or a garbage bag? Kind of odd-shaped. It’s flat, flat-flat. It, it is on the ground, it’s no different than the ground, but it’s just black and moving fast. And it’s making a little noise. …I’m looking at the thing. …A blackness. A ‘not.’ Like a ‘not-there.’ Like a moving oil puddle on the ground. …And it’s moving, but changing, too. Not much, just the edges, not very stable. And it’s gone quick. …I feel strange. …I’m just not me. …I feel blank …like a remote unit…” (Turner, 1992, pp. 132-139ff)
It’s rather strange that this victim of an “abduction” has described something similar to what don Juan talks about as the “predator.” It is also worthy of note that David experiences some strange sound effects similar to those described by Castaneda while interacting with this “black shadowy” thing that looks like a puddle of oil on the ground. Castaneda, in fact, entitled the chapter that discussed these things: “Mud Shadows.”
But how can we begin to attempt to understand these “energy constructs” that appear in both shamanic visions as well as purported “alien abductions.” What do these things have in common?
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