Now it's time to hear from some people who consider themselves Walk-ins and Wanderers. In the research I did for my first book, I found most of them intelligent, reasonable, and quite willing to share their stories and the details of their awakening. To simply label them kooky and far-out ignores the subtlety of what they're saying, and the intensity of what they've gone through. Here are a few stories. -- Scott Mandelker

Jonathan

As a child, Jonathan (or Jody as he likes to be called) says "I often left my body at bedtime, to meet and travel in other dimensions with friends," and was fully conscious during these strange experiences. He remembers looking down at his body as he floated upwards and while awake, as a child, he couldn't understand why he "couldn't fly as easily"!  He said that he often communicated with ETs and wrote down what they told him. Naturally, his favorite TV program was "My Favorite Martian" and he found the special abilities of the main character totally natural. He also drew spaceships in his elementary school art class, at least until a teacher forbid him to indulge his special interest, that is. Actually, this kind of youthful fascination with space is quite common among those who later come to realize themselves as ET Wanderers (for some other traits, see The New ETs Questionnaire.

At the age of sixteen, Jody had a near-drowning accident while surfing, during which he was trapped underwater until he began to lose consciousness. Interestingly, at a certain point he no longer felt the need to struggle towards the surface, and was aware of himself as a golden ball of light, able to see in all directions. After losing consciousness, he later found himself still in his Earth-body, floating on the surface of the sea. This experience changed his thinking forever.

During later adolescence and into his twenties, he felt extreme anguish about the state of the world, experiencing deep alienation and longing for some sort of spiritual connection. In a moment of crisis, he called out with all the intensity he could muster, "How do I contact other life?" -- and suddenly, like the center of his being had been "struck like a bell," he heard, saw, and knew the words "WE ARE GATHERING," as if all the voices in creation spoke as One. Actually, many other Wanderers have since told me that they've heard this same phrase. 

He saw the Earth as if from space, and viewing the globe along with him were gathered a multitude of beings, both in UFO ships and also formless, all of whom he realized were his true spiritual family. From that point on, his awareness of being an ET soul has grown clearer and clearer, so that today Jody is an articulate teacher who has helped many people understand their own unusual experiences, and works extensively on the Internet assisting Wanderers around the world. You can contact him via e-mail or his web site, Jody's ET-Phone Home Page. 

Maitrina

The woman who calls herself Maitrina has been a spiritual teacher and organizer in Southern California for many years. She told me that Maitrina is 'an extraterrestrial and captain of a starship" and is actually one of her multi-dimensional selves with whom she has become a soul braid, by which she means that their awareness is blended together. The story of how she came to this conclusion is quite interesting.

She first became aware of Maitrina in 1986, after an unusual contact experience. Having prepared herself through meditation with a close friend, she lay on the floor and became aware of a beam of light from a distant ship, shining on the middle of her chest. The next thing she knew, she was in a different body on a star ship, a foot taller and quite comfortable in her new body -- because she realized it was her own!  Surrounded by friends and ET companions, she realized her connection to the constellation Arcturus and also her purpose for living on Earth. She later began channeling Maitrina regularly.

One day soon after, all this became clearer. Feeling extreme alienation during the day, she went outside at night and looked up at the stars, and asked for help because she couldn't understand what was happening and why she felt so uncomfortable. This kind of heart-felt longing for the stars is very common among Walk-ins and Wanderers. That night she dreamt of being in a strange town, in a different house, wearing clothes she'd never seen before. She had no idea who she was.

Friends and family noticed that she became more sensitive and emotional for days, and out of the blue, a psychic said she had a telepathic mind-link with an ET group. Soon after this, a woman she had never met before told her she actually was the UFO captain that she met in a vivid out-of-body experience! Her connection with Maitrina became stronger as the years passed, so that today she says that she knows it is her identity at "a core level." She told me that "by becoming a soul braid and acknowledging my higher self and becoming it, I can help others do the same." Today, she helps other "earthbound extraterrestrials" in the process of discovering who they are. 

Jason

Living in the Southwest, Jason is a counselor, network organizer, and educator deeply involved in the global peace movement. He has extensive background in hospital administration, corporate management, and has even coordinated a vice-presidential campaign. There can be no doubt that he is someone who's been actively engaged in society for years.

ET behind the surface, Jason considers himself an ET Walk-in, and in 1985 he had a miraculous transformation that changed all aspects of his life. At the time, he was facing tremendous physical, emotional, financial and interpersonal challenges, and felt like he was at the end of his rope. In many ways, he had lost all hope. But through a series of events, he felt that a new soul entered his body (literally, "walked-in") and replaced the soul which he had been for 31 years.  Unlike the stories of the two Wanderers Jody and Maitrina, Jason had not requested any "help from above" -- it simply came to him like a blessing showered from heaven.

The central experience that changed everything occurred during this period of intense personal crisis. At a restaurant with his friends, feeling desperate and depressed, he had a strange feeling of sensing several different "streams of thought" coming into him at the same time; he then became dizzy and collapsed. Everyone with him, who knew how bad he'd been feeling, thought this was his death-knell, but in the ambulance on the way to the hospital he heard another voice in his head telling him to go home. Without understanding it, he simply followed the guidance.  At home, surrounded by terrified friends, he went into an out-of-body altered state of awareness, and says he experienced indescribable peace, joy and stillness. He was told in no uncertain terms: "If you want to live, you have to breathe!" -- and feeling renewed vigor for life, he did just that. 

For several months afterward, he regularly heard in his mind the phrase: "I have given you a new spirit."  From the way things turned out, Jason knows it really did happen. After the experience, everything in his life improved -- including personal relationships, self-esteem, and his feeling of commitment to serving society. Today, Jason is as active, enthusiastic, and helpful as he's ever been -- although like most other ETs I've met, he rarely talks about his cosmic identity, even though he actually accepted the ET-name that came with his Walk-in experience. Indeed, most of those from elsewhere realize that while being ET is certainly important, it is far more important to be a productive, loving member of society. Jason is a perfect example of this.

Some Conclusions

What conclusions can we draw from these stories? Well, wherever I lecture about the experience of being from elsewhere, I find many people who say "this fits me exactly!"  It seems there are far more Walk-ins and Wanderers among us than we know, though it's not certainly not trendy to say you come from another planet! It's not much of a popularity-grabber, and of course, many people greet these ideas with disbelief, scorn, or even contempt. How could anyone be eager to share such strange ideas?

Certainly, there are some people, I imagine, who say they're ET to make themselves feel special, but the psychological origin of this claim for some people doesn't mean that everyone is just "making it up." At the same time, no one can argue that Earth-human science already knows everything about the universe and soul-evolution. What about all the paranormal experiences of those who claim to have been out-of-body, had near-death journeys, or contacted non-human intelligence -- can we reasonably write them all off as mere hallucinations? Frankly, this kind of blithe dismissal is most immature. In the very near future, I think the scoffers and UFO debunkers will find themselves in the minority, struggling to play catch-up and understand what they denied for so long, the obvious reality of non-human ET life. With some degree of confidence, I predict that within the next decade (before 2010 A.D.), the reality of human-ET interaction will be widely accepted. If you're feeling some inner movement beginning to stir at this point, please read on...