Mason’s Memory Missing Many Minutes
By Graham Conway
Around the middle of October 1999, we here at UFO*BC received a phone call from a lady at Sechelt, a small coastal community about 30 miles north west of Vancouver. She reported seeing a large disc-shaped object over nearby Trail Island. Had we had any other reports, she asked? The answer was no. However, it was suggested she contact the Sechelt Reporter. They were sufficiently interested that they published a short article on October 30th, 1999. This resulted in a further ten telephone calls from the same region. The ensuing report was the result of an investigation into one of the more intriguing calls we received.
A gentleman
whom we shall refer to as "Gary Yates", phoned to say he had a story we wouldn't
believe. "Well try us out", is our standard reply. After hearing what he had to
say we felt that the circumstances warranted a fast response and further close attention.
Consequently, on November 7th, Dwight Atkinson and myself visited this person in his home
at Sechelt. Dwight was in charge of the recording and barely had time to produce his
equipment before Gary was off and running with his story. The telling was emotional and
rambling. Trying to secure some sort of sequential outline and coherency was not an easy
task. The essence of the account is as follows.
Gary, 35 years of age, is a handy man, stone mason and brick layer. The latter qualification resulted in him being contracted to construct a barbecue pit for a family friend, who lives about a mile north of Gary’s home. It was a miserable night, raining hard and windy. To make working conditions bearable Gary constructed a shelter over the work area out of a tarpaulin, illuminating the interior with a halogen lamp. The bricks he was using were recycled and set out on a plywood sheet in the formation that they would ultimately be cemented in position.
Sometime between 7:30 - 8:00 pm he
became aware of a strong feeling that he was being watched. Looking out from under the
tarp, he was surprised to see a bright light, "like a car headlight, but
smaller". The light pulsed and quickly grew in size over the roof of the
friend’s house. "It got closer, and closer, and closer, then BOOOM, I was thrown
up against the bank".
"Next I knew, the light was receding, away, away, away, then it was gone." He added that he saw a gray face in the light as it moved off. Considerably puzzled by all this and also quite shaken, Gary decided to drive down to the "Corner Cupboard", his local convenience store, for some cigarettes. On his arrival he was again surprised to find it was closed! He assumed for some reason they had closed early. He continued on to his brother's place, who wasn’t particularly pleased to see him, as it was now 11:00 p.m.! He arrived home to learn that it was indeed 11.O5 pm and he had somehow lost three hours. He couldn’t believe it nor could his wife "Helen".
The following morning he discovered a small object in his beard. This tightly curled organic object was about 4mm across, dark brown in colour with golden, translucent edges. He found it strange that this would remain in his beard and felt that it had special clinging (static or moisture?) and animated qualities, which he attempted with some success to demonstrate. It appeared to Dwight to be a ferrule as would encase a tiny blossom at the end of a stem.
Some time later, he also discovered a short wound on his right hand side, outboard of the right shoulder blade (particularly difficult place on the body to see). This wound healed rapidly. When we both examined it, the "cut" appeared elevated, scabbed over, a wound about 20mm in length. The wound appeared to have some pus beneath the scab. On further questioning Gary stated that there was no cut visible in either the rain jacket or T-shirt that he wore that night. Nor was any blood to be found on his T-shirt.
Gary was anxious and distracted during our interview. His wife stated that these experiences haven’t changed his interest, but greatly confused him.
We also learnt that he and his wife have noted unusual events, such as the radio in the bedroom came on by itself, even though its not a clock radio. That it also has a habit of changing stations, "by itself". The telephone displays a high degree of static and the portable phone acts in an unpredictable manner, (i.e. shutting down completely). A week after the previously described event the radio in the living room was very difficult to hear due to static. When Gary left the room it returned to its usual clarity. On his return the radio resumed its previous distortion.
Gary frequently experiences "bad dreams" which are accompanied by him yelling out, "No! Leave me alone!" He feels that "something is trying to get hold of him". Frequently falling asleep on the couch, he screams in fear if his wife tries to wake him. She feels "like a monster". He has become more paranoid since the episode and thinks that he is psychic and can predict tragedy.
We continued to seek answers in other directions and discovered that he had not used a wheelbarrow at the job site, which ruled out the scarring on the surface of the bricks. Four of which were "rutted"; the centre (fifth) did not readily display the two "melted" holes that Gary claimed. The saleil shrubbery on the embankment appeared undamaged, as did the surrounding trees with their sparse branches overhanging the construction site. Gary made a point of mentioning, with a degree of pride, that he would only use bricks with a smooth upper surface for this type of job.
Dwight had brought along a dosimeter designed to detect radiation. Bearing in mind that ten days had elapsed since the occurrence, he was unable to detect anything out of the ordinary.
I asked Gary if had been drinking prior to starting the job? The answer was no. Had he been drinking on the job? Again no. But he added he most certainly did when he got home that night!
It turns out that Gary has had six previous UFO events in his life, the first being when he was two years old in Winnipeg. Gary brought up the topic of hypnotic regression into the conversation. He was visibly torn between wanting to learn what happened during the missing three hours, but was equally apprehensive about what he might discover. We discussed this subject and its potential ramifications. It also came to light that his family considers hypnosis "devil worship"! Clearly this looms large on his mental horizon. Another hurdle he most certainly doesn’t need.
Our questioning elicited the fact he suffered a nosebleed, from the left nostril, the night following the episode. He does not regularly suffer nosebleeds.
Altogether our visit probably encompassed a period of two hours. After asking questions and taking photographs we returned home. Three days later he called again, suggesting that I contact the lady who owns the property on which he was working. Consequently I phoned "Helen Peters". She too had a rather interesting story to relate. This incident took place only three days afterwards.
On October 3Oth, 1999, Helen woke at 2:00 a.m. to find a bright white light swirling into her room from the backyard area, (where the barbecue pit is located). There was no discernible noise. She was not able to wake her husband, "Michael". Helen continued to watch the light until 03:15 when she went into the living room for a hot drink. After 35 minutes she returned to the bedroom to find the light had gone. It is also worthy of note that the dog that normally sleeps in the bedroom was hiding in the living room.
She also mentioned that something similar happened in the summer of 1999, (possibly June) only on that occasion she had a ringing in her head for a period of two hours. Again she was unable to awaken her husband.
Helen described the above events in a very rational and matter of fact manner.
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