Deja Vu Blogfest: Flashbacks

This post was originally put on the blog on July 29, 2010 but I am re-posting it as part of the Deja Vu Blogfest. This was one blog post where I opened up about something in my past I just don't talk that much about, and yet I felt the need to share. You can think I'm crazy for what I posted, and you would be right. Here you go, the original blog post, named "Flashbacks":

I'm about to get a little personal here, and I hope people do not take this wrong. I consider myself a pretty logical person, but I am also of the belief that science (at least current scientific understanding) cannot provide us with an explanation of all things.

The other night I was watching the season 2 finale of the X-Files. I had not seen the episode, I think, since it originally aired, but something about it stirred up memories I have not thought about deeply for years. When I was about 14, I went with several Scouts and two leaders from our troop to a remote part of western New Mexico, around the area of Grants. If I remember correctly, we were at the edge of a wilderness preserve near El Malpais, which in Spanish means "The Bad Country."

The purpose of the trip was to help one of our fellow Scouts complete his Eagle project. We were going to be constructing "dams" out of chicken wire and cement in an arroyo at the edge of the wilderness preserve. We arrived in the area after driving quite some way from Grants, where we had stopped for dinner. The area was remote; it was not a place people normally camped in. We had to drive on a small dirt road for at least a couple of miles before we settled down in a stand of trees, just a short distance from the wilderness preserve.

After darkness fell, one of the Scouts started to tell me about how the area we were in used to have homesteads, and that he thought he saw the ruins of a house or barn near the dirt road we have traveled on, just outside the stand of trees where we had set up camp. With our leaders' permission, me, this Scout and one other boy set off with flashlights in hand. We talked excitedly about finding old coins, boot spurs or other interesting artifacts at the homestead site. The walk took several minutes, since the supposed location of the ruins was on the opposite side of the stand of trees from where we were camping.

When we arrived at the site, we began searching the ground for any indications of where the building had been. It was dark and the ruins were badly decayed and overgrown. We started to comb through the dirt and underbrush with our hands, hoping we would uncover something interesting to take back to camp.

A light appeared in the distance, in the middle of an open patch of desert about a mile from where we were. The light looked very similar to a car's headlights, only it was brighter and there was only one light instead of two. The light was shining directly at us, and so we stopped what we were doing and began to wonder what was going on.

A second light, much like the first one, appeared from behind the first light. The first light stood stationary, but the second light began to advance on our position. We turned off our flashlights, realizing they had probably given us away. The boy who had come along began to panic and say he was going to run off to the camp. The boy whose idea it was to come to the homestead site decided he would crouch behind a bush and wait to see who would show up. A sick feeling welled up in my stomach as the light quickly approached us. The one boy was already running down the dirt road. I was able to convince the other boy to go back to camp. By this time the light was very close. I listened intently, expecting to hear the roar of an engine, yet I heard absolutely nothing.

We took off running as fast as we could. When we were several hundred feet up the road from the homestead site, I looked over my shoulder and saw the light arriving at our original location. I ran faster, sure they would guess the direction we had gone and overtake us before we reached our camp. I'm not sure I have ever been so frightened in my life. Fortunately, the light did not come up the dirt road. I lost sight of it as we delved deeper into the stand of trees and finally arrived at the camp. We yelled to the leaders what happened, and at first they did not believe us. After we insisted someone was out there, they grabbed their guns and ran off to investigate. After a while the leaders showed back at camp, saying there was no sign of lights or anything else.

I am not claiming I saw a UFO, partly because the lights were at ground level and partly because I still have absolutely no idea what I saw. Unlike some people, I really don't like jumping to conclusions too quickly, since often in strange situations there is more than meets the eye. The fact I did not hear the roar of an engine does not mean the lights were paranormal. I could have simply not heard anything because I was panicking. I will say that the most disturbing fact about the incident came the following day, when we were driving back towards Grants. As we drove out of the stand of trees, I and the other two kids who were with me gasped as we realized the ground the light that advanced on us had to cover was chock full of rolling hills. The light did not bob up and down as it would have if it were attached to a land-bound vehicle. This single fact cast the greatest doubt in mind about who or what the light was.

I have considered the possibility that what we saw was a manifestation of the infamous ghost lights, but they moved as if they were attached to a vehicle of some sort. I have heard rumors, but have not found any authoritative sources, that say the Navajos absolutely refuse to enter the area, believing it has been cursed for generations. None of my sources cite why the area is supposedly cursed. I have found many, many accounts of other supposed paranormal activities around the Grants area. The area is down the road from Chaco Canyon, a site where an entire (and very advanced) group of Native Americans mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind tools, clothing and food on their tables. Some have theorized these people were part of a massive alien abduction. I say pretty much any theory is possible since nobody can seem to come up with any conclusive evidence about what happened at Chaco Canyon.

I have  no idea if what I saw was connected to the Chaco Canyon mystery, or any other mystery. I do wonder what would have happened had we not run away from the homestead site, had we stayed to see what the lights really were all about. When it comes right down to it, I am glad we ran, because something deep inside of me told me if we hadn't I wouldn't be writing this today.