Darren Skaalrud's Story
by Graham Conway
In September 1993, Darren was camping out alone in his car just north of Port Alberni (Vancouver Island, British Columbia), specifically at Stamp Falls Campground, located at the far end of Beaver Creek Road. He had gone to sleep in his car about an hour after it got dark, maybe around 22:00. His purpose in being there was because he wanted to photograph a waterfall the following morning.
About two hours after he fell asleep he was awakened by a very bright light. Looking up through the windshield he was amazed to see a large glowing ball of light about 250 feet away hovering motionless and totally silent. It appeared to be located about 20 feet higher than the trees. He estimated it to be about 150 feet around. The object produced enough light that you could see the forest floor from the trunk to the top of the trees. The entire forest floor was visible. At first Darren was not sure what to think. Getting out of the car he just stood there and looked at it, never once looking away, as it had his full attention. Even outside the car no noise was detectable from it. Completely round, like an orb. No other lights of any colour were to be seen.
At this point Darren proceeded to ask himself some skill-testing questions to establish if he was really awake and standing 5 feet in front of his car. Counting from 1-10, running through the alphabet, recalling his name. As the answers all came out right, he very reasonably assumed he WAS wide-awake! He stood watching the object for a good ten minutes, speculating on what it was, how it got there, and how it was going to leave. Some time later he really felt that his mind was being probed, a forced review of his life’s experiences, good and bad. At the end of that he felt really tired with a need to go back to sleep. Although he had all the time in the world to observe this glowing ball, his curiousity now thoroughly aroused, he wanted to see it do something, anything that had movement in it, but the need to sleep overcame him and he returned to his car where he continued to observe the ball of light until his eyes closed for the remainder of the night. When the sun came up in the morning he once again recalled the silent ball of light above the trees, for which he had no explanation. He knew it wasn't a plane or helicopter.
Putting this strange experience aside for the moment he went ahead and took his pictures of the waterfall and then continued to travel for the next few weeks. Returning to Victoria he rented a new place but was awoken one night with this experience. In his sleep he was dreaming about standing on a small hill, (like the one at the campsite where he saw the ball of light!). In his "dream" he saw two lights coming towards him very quickly then turn to the left. They were moving much too fast to be a car, cars just don't make turns like that. As soon as they were out of sight he felt on his chest what seemed to be invisible needles, two of them making contact about eight inches apart, one below the other. They seemed to move in opposite directions to each other until they had completed an oblong shape. Once this had been completed the area inside this design felt numb, similar to when your foot goes to sleep. Once this area was numb the same feeling spread all over his body, until he was completely paralysed and helpless to do anything. He couldn’t even open his eyes. However, he felt he was in an upright position and was moved forward about one hundred feet, then turned to a horizontal position, before feeling himself make contact with a hard surface.
At this point he was feeling pretty scared and helpless, not being able to move a muscle. Trying hard to get just one eye open, he finally succeeded, only to observe a bright light coming from above, surrounding him, seemingly from a source suspended above him. He was unable to focus any better than that. At that moment he awoke from his "dream", physically frightened and shaking, he had his back to the wall and slid along the floor to the light switch then turned it on. He discovered his arms and legs were shaking and his heart was beating madly, the clock said 03:30. Sitting up in an attempt to calm down it took at least half an hour before he could write clearly. All of this information he wrote down and also made a note on his calendar. He later discovered a strange mark on his upper right arm, a bunch of little red dots that formed a perfect diamond pattern. This measured about 1¼ inches along the sides with all the dots evenly spaced apart inside the formation. This mark (pattern) remained visible for three days very clearly, then faded away. Regrettably, no photos were taken of the mark on his arm. Having documented all this he went back to bed for the rest of the night.
Approximately six weeks later whilst staying at a friend’s place he was sleeping on the sofa when he felt that numbing feeling again all over his body and was paralysed. He felt his body lift off the sofa and begin to float forward. He didn't like this and tried to resist, somehow breaking free, and as a result, fell to the floor about six feet from the sofa. He was puzzled as to how he could get so far. Getting back on the sofa he tried rolling off to see where he would land, discovering that he always landed up right alongside his temporary bed. Once again the clock read 03:30! Sitting up he said, "OK, if someone is here give me a sign". With that the TV turned itself on! THAT really freaked him out, staying awake the rest of the night with all the lights on.
Shortly after that he began to collect books on UFO topics and abduction cases. More recently he has accumulated such as "Chariots of the Gods", "Mysteries of the Gods", "The Meir Chronicles", "The Secret KGB-UFO Files", plus countless other documentaries on similar subjects.
A short time later Darren visited an artist friend and, picking up a brush, he discovered a latent (?) ability to paint in a very competent and professional manner. He never looked back. His work strikingly displays an alien/space theme. Other areas of interest to him are astronomy, archeology, Egyptology, religion and anthropology. All sciences that "experiencers" tend to focus on, as we have long since been aware.
It will no doubt come as no surprise when I also add that he and a friend had another sighting of a huge object in January 2000 in the early hours of the morning. They both watched it for an extended period of time and took several photos that we are hopeful may help confirm the description provided, or at the very least provide confirmation of their report. This impressive event took place also in the vicinity of Victoria on Vancouver Island.
Examples of Darren Skaalrud's artwork:
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