Beyond the Shimmer: A Journal of Collective Awakening

“They are not from outer space. There is no need for them to be. They have always been here.” – John A. Keel, The Mothman Prophecies

James Edward McDonald (May 7, 1920 – June 13, 1971) was an American atmospheric physicist and meteorologist. He is known for his scientific research in weather modification through cloud seeding, while working as an associate director at the Institute for Atmospheric Physics and a professor of meteorology at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

During the 1960s, McDonald campaigned in support of expanding UFO studies, and promoted the extraterrestrial hypothesis as a plausible explanation of UFO phenomena.

In his Statement on Unidentified Objects to the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, McDonald made the following remarks regarding types of UFO accounts. “The scientific world at large is in for a shock when it becomes aware of the astonishing nature of the UFO phenomenon and its bewildering complexity. I make that terse comment well aware that it invites easy ridicule; but intellectual honesty demands that I make clear that my two years’ study convinces me that in the UFO problem lie scientific and technological questions that will challenge the ability of the world’s outstanding scientists to explain – as soon as they start examining the facts. […] the scientific community […] has been casually ignoring as nonsense a matter of extraordinary scientific importance.” – Source

New insight

Journal Entry – May 26, 2025

1. Early “Shimmer” Experiences (1997–1998)

In my first notes, about interactive nightlights, I described the phenomenon I called the “shimmer”: tiny, dancing sparkles in the air beside my bedside, like sunlight on a screen door. At the time, I treated it as a purely visual curiosity, never suspecting it might veil something standing just beyond perception.

2. Re-examining the Shimmer

Decades later, I asked my guides to let me see those who were connecting with me. [Not associating that with the shimmer.] They responded with a playful, but unsettling, demonstration meant to confront my fear. In complete darkness, I heard my name spoken in an automated, mechanical tone, definitely not human. In that moment, it struck me: the fear was primal. Could it affect how I would interpret or make sense of what I was seeing?

3. Preparing for the Unexpected

Over the years, I’ve continued to glimpse the shimmer off and on, but now I know it was a partial clue, not the whole story. I’ve been warned repeatedly to brace myself for a shock, to overcome fear so that I might finally look beyond the veil.

4. Last Night’s Encounter

Time: Shortly after 1 a.m.

Almost asleep, I heard an intense, high-pitched ringing in my ears. I recognized that as a sign. Somewhat groggy, immobilized, but alert, I confronted the presence. Out loud I called, “I know you’re here – why can’t I see you?”

In that instant, two shadowy outlines appeared above me as I lay on the bed, sideways, on top of the covers [and not under the covers where I had been]. Their elongated faces and large, forward-set eyes were unmistakably mantid-like – not the gray aliens I might have expected and have seen before, but a different, more angular form.

Seeing the unseen. I had never questioned the shimmer. Often we learn the hard way that the most subtle cues carry the deepest truths.

The next thing I remember is an abrupt scene shift: I found myself seated at a table with an unfamiliar bowl of something I could not identify (blue berries of some kind) in front of me – a clear sign that the encounter was ending. Almost as soon as I recognized the cue, the vision transitioned into a dream state.

5. What Remains Unremembered

I can’t recall any details after I saw the shadowed outline of faces and prior to sitting in front of that bowl. It was as if I was out of my body when I felt the scene shift and saw myself seated at a table. The encounter felt intentional, planned – complete with its own beginning and end cues.

So what did I see? Did it reveal or conceal? I believe whatever I witnessed was intentional. It knew it was visible to me and that was allowed. A shift. How fascinating.

6. Reflections on John Foster’s Work

Experiencer John Foster is now 87. He continues to update his blog. Link
His books are full of detailed accounts spanning several decades. His books are also available on his blog and Amazon

Our conversations are available on my podcast. Link

I can only imagine the frustration of possessing so much clandestine knowledge – of witnessing repeated encounters, subliminal programming phrases, even mass “freeze” events – yet being dismissed by mainstream consensus.

John posts some of his thoughts about that:

“How did they condition me? How did my conditioning allow me to perceive most all encounters in extreme detail after that last encounter that occurred in August of 1986?“

“After many years of contemplation, I believe it was partly psychological and partly physical conditioning of my mind and body through what I call excruciating conditioning sessions. I only had subconscious memory of the clandestine encounters for 46+ years!“

“The conditioning sessions might have been the reason for my mysterious feeling that seems to have plagued me for those 46 years…that feeling that there was more to my past life than others and I perceived with our common five senses.” Link

Sensing the unseen

“The forces on my body and mind also occurred in and near other objects and crafts throughout the 46 years. For instance, I felt obvious forces and strange feelings when an object or craft would materialize out of distorted air near us…or when the mysterious men came walking and talking up near us.”

“Many times it seemed like an object or craft would phase out and back into view. And sometimes it would repeat that disappearing and reappearing several times, but in slightly different locations.“

“As I recall, during most or many of these transformations I felt the strange forces in my body and head. However, I didn’t feel I was out of body or in some other dimension. I remained at the same location. Generally speaking, when the crafts, objects, men, beings, and voice were gone, I felt an emotional/mental residue but also completely natural.”

“I suspect now, not knowing exactly how, they conditioned me physically in my body and mind by somehow transforming the atoms and molecules of my body and brain with the mysterious forces. This is in recognition that the mind is much more than the physical brain.” Link

John has gone to great effort – painstakingly cataloging dates, locations, witnesses, and recurring trigger-phrases. His archives suggest a covert control program conditioning select individuals for unseen agendas.

Many corroborating witnesses are/were too afraid of facing criticism, shame or ridicule to speak up, and those who do/did have often faced ostracism in their community or social circle [including John].

“Exactly how the intelligences communicated with us beyond ESP during normal times really remains a mystery. Except, I know because of another bizarre experience, it at least required my subconscious openness and cooperation.” – John Foster, To Earth From Heaven, Page 37

This is a link to the documentary project about John Foster: YouTube

7. The Growing Shift

Today the landscape is changing – not because of government disclosure, but because thousands of experiencers are coming forward. The strength of sheer numbers is eroding old stigmas.

More of us have begun to realize that the real controllers of these phenomena are the intelligences behind the scenes, not any earthly authority. Every new account chips away at the illusion of total secrecy – and makes it harder for skeptics to deny.

“Whatever the technology was, Vallée believed, humans had been reckoning with it for millennia, as both empirical fact and quavering myth. In Japan, he found descriptions of an ‘earthenware vessel’ cutting a luminous trail across the countryside in 1180, and samurai accounts of a ‘red wheel’ in 1606. The Romans spoke of ‘shields’ in the sky, Native Americans of ‘baskets from heaven,’ and Goethe himself – in 1764 – recalled ‘innumerable little lights’ beaming in a ravine, yet ‘I will not decide.’” – Jacques Vallée, Wired

Each epiphany opens a new encyclopedia! As I am learning from John Foster, a lifetime is not enough to unpack this content and these experiences. One rabbit hole leads to another.

Decoding the shimmer indicates “upper management” has decided I am ready to access – and remember – some of the hidden rooms I’ve been exploring.

On the horizon

Transmission – 5.20.25. The guides are pointing to an event unlike anything we can describe in our existing languages or explain with today’s science. Our current models – even the most advanced Western frameworks – simply don’t account for it, and so we tend to ignore or dismiss anything we can’t neatly categorize.

Yet this event will occur – and it will happen so abruptly that it feels as if “overnight” everything has changed. It is a true enigma: unavoidable, transformative, and universal. No one will emerge from it unchanged.

This marks the dawn of a new phase – what you might even call a new millennium of human experience. Paradoxically, it will bring greater contrast (unexpected challenges, radical shifts) but also a deeper equanimity (a steadier, more inclusive balance).

Everyone will be offered the same opportunity: to adapt, to survive, and ultimately to thrive. Yes, it will test us – perhaps more than anything we’ve yet faced – but alongside the challenge comes a profound reward.

What else is left to say but “Thank Goodness!”? In time, hidden threads of history will be revealed, and the full scope of this shift will unfold before us.

It certainly sounds interesting.

Synchronicity

As I pondered the information, this insightful blog surfaced. Link

Musings from the Peruvian Amazon.

For this blog, I am taking one of the names that was given to me by friends – “The Cosmic Dr. Bii” – ‘Bii’ is the Shipibo word for mosquito.

In some of what he (Paul) is documenting, he refers to as the “different ways Westerners make meaning out of their experiences with ayahuasca.”

• I live and work in Pucallpa in the Peruvian Amazon. Pucallpa is the most intense, absorbing and challenging place I have ever lived. It’s important to have your wits about you. A close friend calls it “Ground Zero”.
  
  In this blog, I will write about some of my experiences here that do not fit into the conventional, rational Western mindset. I am very grateful to la Madre Ayahuasca and the Shipibo culture for offering me access to these experiences, and to my friends who have encouraged and supported me in taking this path –  “the Medicine Path”.
  
  Madre Ayahuasca had already shown me shortly after my first encounter with the mosquito spirit king that Gaia was getting ready to use his subjects as her first line of attack – her shock troops – along with some form of infection that would drastically reduce the human population. Link Date: April, 2013.

Another reference to future conflict with nature:

• As I listened intently to the noise made by the bats, I sensed they were wanting to communicate with me. Our short conversation went as follows:
  
  Bat(s): “Take to the hills.”
  Me: “I’m too old for that now.”
  Bat(s): “Well then, tell your children!”
  Link Date: April, 2016.

The final entry on his blog is dated June, 2017.

No worries. Just a reminder to focus on the path directly under foot. The shimmer is lifting, the signals are clearer, and the unusual becomes undeniable. Might now be the time to hunker down and clean house in preparation for worst case scenario so that best case scenario will be a walk in the park?

All indications are, change is upon us.

Transformative encounters trigger change

Perfect timing – how experience changes who we are and how we view reality. These stories highlight the evolving landscape.

Encountering Sasquatch. This experiencer says she realized after moving from a house they considered “haunted” the reality was more likely the presence of Sasquatch on the property and their efforts to interact.

Sightings of Butterfly People [and Shadow People] – in Joplin after the tornado. “Some observers saw something else as well. Tall, dark-cloaked figures walking with the survivors. One would expect these images to be frightening and seen as a bad omen perhaps. Instead, witnesses described the dark figures as guiding, or watching over, the survivors along their walk.” Link

“AI, Consciousness and the Question of Control” – “What if suppression isn’t simply about fear, but about transformation? What if it exists not to deny us the truth, but to initiate us into it?” Link

Archives of the Impossible conference 2025 | Fireside Chat – Michael Cifone (Founder and President of the Society for UAP Studies, Editor-in-Chief of Limina) Paul Smith (Retired Major, US Army Remote Viewing Program) Jeffrey Kripal, Moderator. – “The conversation was guided by several questions, including: What role do UAP and experiencers play in our understanding of the phenomenon?” Link

UFOs in the American Desert series with Ross Coulthart. In the interview with former Navajo Ranger John Dover, they cover Native American lore, cave drawings, skinwalker, and mysterious sightings Dover has investigated in his career on tribal lands. – Link

“What we attend to, and how we attend to it, changes it and changes us.” – Iain McGilchrist

Update

No doubt the algorithm supplied this interview. The synchronicities are ‘the shimmer’, mechanical voice saying her name, squirrel running up a tree and a UFO presence, Hooded figures in the bedroom/mid 1990’s timing. Coincidence. No. And so very interesting how many dots exist in this one interview. Link

Actor Thomas Jane [Miller from The Expanse] is making the interview rounds in advance of the upcoming Contact in the Desert. His latest is with MUFON. New to the scene, an experiencer, and ideas worth considering. Each experience is unique. Link

Encounters change us. We EVOLVE.