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Stories from the Messengers: Owls, UFOs and a Deeper Reality
This book is a companion to the groundbreaking ideas that began with Mike Clelland's earlier book, The Messengers. It is a further exploration into the connection, both symbolic and literal, between owls and UFOs. There is a strangeness to these accounts that defies any simple explanation. Each chapter tells a deeply personal story where these mysterious experiences are explored in depth.
The ancient mythology of the owl is repeating itself within the modern UFO report. What plays out is a journey of transformation, with an owl at the heart of each story.
The ancient mythology of the owl is repeating itself within the modern UFO report. What plays out is a journey of transformation, with an owl at the heart of each story.
377 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 17, 2018
86 people are currently reading
199 people want to read
About the author
Mike Clelland
40 books58 followersMike Clelland is an avid outdoorsman, illustrator and UFO researcher. He has written extensively on the subject of alien abductions, synchronicities and owls. It was his first-hand experiences with these elusive events that have been the foundation for this research.
His website, Hidden Experience, explores these events and their connections to the alien contact phenomenon. This site also features over 200 hours of audio interviews with visionaries and experts examining the complexities of the overall UFO experience.
Beyond that, Mike is considered an expert in the skills of ultralight backpacking, and has authored or illustrated a series of instructional books focused on advanced outdoor techniques. He spent nearly 25 years living in the Rockies, and now lives in the Adirondacks.
His website, Hidden Experience, explores these events and their connections to the alien contact phenomenon. This site also features over 200 hours of audio interviews with visionaries and experts examining the complexities of the overall UFO experience.
Beyond that, Mike is considered an expert in the skills of ultralight backpacking, and has authored or illustrated a series of instructional books focused on advanced outdoor techniques. He spent nearly 25 years living in the Rockies, and now lives in the Adirondacks.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 9, 2018
Mike Clelland follows up The Messengers: Owls, Synchronicity and the UFO Abductee with another volume: Stories from the Messengers: Accounts of Owls, UFOs and a Deeper Reality. This is an opportunity for Clelland to share stories he couldn't include in the first volume and expand on ones he abridged. He's a gifted wordsmith, and the care he puts into vocalizing the mysterious is readily apparent. You can also tell how much Clelland cares about faithfully presenting the stories he's collected: they may seem outlandish, but any suspicion is best directed toward the original events' circumstances and witnesses.
And outlandish the stories are! There are descriptions of various aliens, a plurality of lights in the sky, conflicting UFO designs, floating orbs, missing time, cosmic callings, eerie premonitions, remote viewing, religious connections, and always, always owls. One early story even features a troop of bigfoots (bigfeet?), UFOs and mysterious, winged creatures that collectively terrify a family. The common denominator of all the stories is captured by an Anne Strieber quote Clelland holds dear: "If it's not weird, I don't trust it."
Clelland has still not discovered what the underlying message is of all these owls. Sometimes they terrify, sometimes they comfort, sometimes they warn, sometimes they confirm, and sometimes they're just there. He suspects their purpose is to signal transformation and initiation, and to serve as alarm clocks and archetypes. None of this is particularly predictive, so it's all left up to a lot of post-hoc conjecture and interpretation. He admits this is no exact science, but feels the levels of coincidence are simply overwhelming and too significant to be ignored.
As ever, Clelland has an active synchronicity detector, and he regularly highlights connections and coincidences both big and small (and very small). As I read, I observed numerous occurrences around me that could easily be seen as connecting with the stories I was reading, and could generate all kinds of synchronicities of my own: "He just mentioned a Renaissance fair, and I'm staying in a Medieval-theme Airbnb!" "He's talking about people named Christopher/Kristin/Christy, and I just got a text from Chris!" While my mind tends to highlight clues within the narrative pointing to more mundane explanations, it is a fun exercise in exploring human perception. It is also good, creepy reading for late at night.
And outlandish the stories are! There are descriptions of various aliens, a plurality of lights in the sky, conflicting UFO designs, floating orbs, missing time, cosmic callings, eerie premonitions, remote viewing, religious connections, and always, always owls. One early story even features a troop of bigfoots (bigfeet?), UFOs and mysterious, winged creatures that collectively terrify a family. The common denominator of all the stories is captured by an Anne Strieber quote Clelland holds dear: "If it's not weird, I don't trust it."
Clelland has still not discovered what the underlying message is of all these owls. Sometimes they terrify, sometimes they comfort, sometimes they warn, sometimes they confirm, and sometimes they're just there. He suspects their purpose is to signal transformation and initiation, and to serve as alarm clocks and archetypes. None of this is particularly predictive, so it's all left up to a lot of post-hoc conjecture and interpretation. He admits this is no exact science, but feels the levels of coincidence are simply overwhelming and too significant to be ignored.
As ever, Clelland has an active synchronicity detector, and he regularly highlights connections and coincidences both big and small (and very small). As I read, I observed numerous occurrences around me that could easily be seen as connecting with the stories I was reading, and could generate all kinds of synchronicities of my own: "He just mentioned a Renaissance fair, and I'm staying in a Medieval-theme Airbnb!" "He's talking about people named Christopher/Kristin/Christy, and I just got a text from Chris!" While my mind tends to highlight clues within the narrative pointing to more mundane explanations, it is a fun exercise in exploring human perception. It is also good, creepy reading for late at night.
August 1, 2018
I have been a fan of Mike Clelland’s blog, the Hidden Experience, for a number of years, and this book, and The Messengers, to which this is a companion piece, are fascinating insights into the elusive connection between owl encounters and the UFO phenomenon. There is such a wealth of anecdotes out there connecting the two, and his research compiling these stories has been an incredible feat. These are human stories, brushes with the inexplicable and unusual, manifesting in powerful religious experiences and transformative moments in people’s lives. The author reads these stories wonderfully, with a warm, avuncular voice that is equally calming and engaging. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is as fascinated with magic, high strangeness, and the generally unexplainable side of the world we live in.
July 11, 2018
Fascinating!
Mike continues as the chronicler of these amazing experiences as people explore owls, UFOs, and a deeper understanding. Truly an awesome read.
Mike continues as the chronicler of these amazing experiences as people explore owls, UFOs, and a deeper understanding. Truly an awesome read.
December 5, 2018
Boring
May 7, 2019
What a delightfully bizarre, mysterious, and thought provoking read. I first heard about Owl Guy (aka Mike Clelland) on my favourite podcast, Oh No Ross and Carrie. Owl Guy, with his wild, wacky and hilarious theories about UFOs, owls, and synchrocities, was a bit of a smash hit with us listeners. He's kind of a meme in the ONRAC community now. Yelling "OWL OWL OWL!!!" is a standard greeting between fans at this point. So, I jumped at the chance to win a copy of this book signed by Ross, Carrie and Owl Guy himself by doing some Owl themed art. I won, and I'm glad I did because I love this book!
I admit, that I went into this book thinking I'd just be laughing at pure ridiculousness for 250 pages. To my pleasant surprise, parts of Mike's book actually touched me. That's because he interprets owls not simply as harbingers or screen memories for UFO abductions (which is just... wild) but also investigates the other mythic and spiritual connotations they have for all of us. And he's right. Owls are beautiful animals with thousands of years of cultural and mythological connotations attached to them. So, seeing an owl in the wild can be a powerful and moving experience, whether or not you believe in little grey aliens, or shamanic awakenings, or believe that what's going on is anything more complex than a run in with a chonky big-eyed bird.
Clelland is a gifted wordsmith and the retellings of UFO and owl contact experiences in this book were very atmospheric. Some of the stories in here really sent a tingle down my spine, particularly when they explored a deeper connection to nature. My favourite may well be Don's story of seeing a snowy owl and a single doe on a hunt through the silent forest from chapter 17. Although I'm a skeptic when it comes to UFO sightings other elements of the paranormal, I do feel a spiritual connection to nature. I too have sat in a forest and felt something stir my soul, although I'm not yet lucky enough to have come face to face with an owl (fingers crossed). So stories like this resonated with me.
Luckily for the gleeful science fan inside of me, elsewhere this book made me cry tears of mirth and crack up laughing. Some of the synchronicities Owl Guy writes about are every bit as ludicrous and tenuous as what I had come to hope after hearing some of his work be reviewed on Oh No Ross and Carrie. I don't want to disrespect Owl Guy and the research he does, because I understand that for him these connections are incredibly important, and they provide him and others with powerful meaning and have also given his life a sense of direction when he was struggling in a dark place. That's awesome, and I support and respect that. The work he does clearly resonates with many people who are feeling lost after a bizarre UFO/owl/alien/squirrel??? experience, and it's wonderful that he can give them a sense of purpose and community.
But to an outsider... well. Case in point: the mysterious connection of a friend called Alan Green to a cafe nearby called Green. Gasp!! How could this be coincidence!!! *facepalms*
I wish more time in this book had been spent exploring the cultural, symbolic, mythological (etc.) meanings of these various owl sightings, instead of just recounts of different stories. I have a feeling that this is more the focus of his first book. Which means I'm going to have to buy it! I can't wait *rubs hands*
Owl Guy is the first to admit that he doesn't have all the answers, and that the pressure of people in the community provide an answer can be daunting. Hey buddy, I reckon you must be doing a good job! At the passages where Mike writes about his own confusion and frustration, as a reader I felt a tiny bit of disappointment too. What DO these experiences mean? What is the owl a symbol FOR? Is there a mysterious, unified extra-terrestial/ godly plan behind all of this (spurious, but what Owl Guy is hoping to find) or is each sighting simply what that experiencer makes of it (cough the rational answer cough)? But let's just say, if he does ever come up with a Grand Unified Owl Theory, I am going to be first in line to find out!
I admit, that I went into this book thinking I'd just be laughing at pure ridiculousness for 250 pages. To my pleasant surprise, parts of Mike's book actually touched me. That's because he interprets owls not simply as harbingers or screen memories for UFO abductions (which is just... wild) but also investigates the other mythic and spiritual connotations they have for all of us. And he's right. Owls are beautiful animals with thousands of years of cultural and mythological connotations attached to them. So, seeing an owl in the wild can be a powerful and moving experience, whether or not you believe in little grey aliens, or shamanic awakenings, or believe that what's going on is anything more complex than a run in with a chonky big-eyed bird.
Clelland is a gifted wordsmith and the retellings of UFO and owl contact experiences in this book were very atmospheric. Some of the stories in here really sent a tingle down my spine, particularly when they explored a deeper connection to nature. My favourite may well be Don's story of seeing a snowy owl and a single doe on a hunt through the silent forest from chapter 17. Although I'm a skeptic when it comes to UFO sightings other elements of the paranormal, I do feel a spiritual connection to nature. I too have sat in a forest and felt something stir my soul, although I'm not yet lucky enough to have come face to face with an owl (fingers crossed). So stories like this resonated with me.
Luckily for the gleeful science fan inside of me, elsewhere this book made me cry tears of mirth and crack up laughing. Some of the synchronicities Owl Guy writes about are every bit as ludicrous and tenuous as what I had come to hope after hearing some of his work be reviewed on Oh No Ross and Carrie. I don't want to disrespect Owl Guy and the research he does, because I understand that for him these connections are incredibly important, and they provide him and others with powerful meaning and have also given his life a sense of direction when he was struggling in a dark place. That's awesome, and I support and respect that. The work he does clearly resonates with many people who are feeling lost after a bizarre UFO/owl/alien/squirrel??? experience, and it's wonderful that he can give them a sense of purpose and community.
But to an outsider... well. Case in point: the mysterious connection of a friend called Alan Green to a cafe nearby called Green. Gasp!! How could this be coincidence!!! *facepalms*
I wish more time in this book had been spent exploring the cultural, symbolic, mythological (etc.) meanings of these various owl sightings, instead of just recounts of different stories. I have a feeling that this is more the focus of his first book. Which means I'm going to have to buy it! I can't wait *rubs hands*
Owl Guy is the first to admit that he doesn't have all the answers, and that the pressure of people in the community provide an answer can be daunting. Hey buddy, I reckon you must be doing a good job! At the passages where Mike writes about his own confusion and frustration, as a reader I felt a tiny bit of disappointment too. What DO these experiences mean? What is the owl a symbol FOR? Is there a mysterious, unified extra-terrestial/ godly plan behind all of this (spurious, but what Owl Guy is hoping to find) or is each sighting simply what that experiencer makes of it (cough the rational answer cough)? But let's just say, if he does ever come up with a Grand Unified Owl Theory, I am going to be first in line to find out!
October 22, 2021
Mike Clelland continues his chronicles of owls, synchronicities, and UFO experiences in this sequel to The Messengers, a thoroughly-fascinating exploration of high strangeness and symbolism, full of unanswered and perhaps unanswerable questions.
This time, he explores these occurrences, synchronicities, UFO encounters, NDEs and OBEs through a wide collection of personal stories, each one connected to owls and their portentous symbolism in some way or another. I cannot judge any of the people whose stories are told in the book - they definitely experienced something and Clelland remains careful, fair, and invested in their stories too.
Clelland collects a wide variety of stories and experiences from all kinds of people. Each one has some common threads but every one of them is unique and fascinating. I personally preferred The Messengers for its more mythical and symbolic ideas where this companion piece humanises and localises much of the ideas in the previous volume.
Just like in The Messengers, there are so many questions raised and left unanswered but there was never the expectation that this journey Clelland is on, and we with him, would ever reach the answer, the goal. Instead this is more about our awareness of world around us, its interconnected nature, and the reality that something is out there far greater than we are. What it is and what exactly owls have to do with it remain unknown for now.
This time, he explores these occurrences, synchronicities, UFO encounters, NDEs and OBEs through a wide collection of personal stories, each one connected to owls and their portentous symbolism in some way or another. I cannot judge any of the people whose stories are told in the book - they definitely experienced something and Clelland remains careful, fair, and invested in their stories too.
Clelland collects a wide variety of stories and experiences from all kinds of people. Each one has some common threads but every one of them is unique and fascinating. I personally preferred The Messengers for its more mythical and symbolic ideas where this companion piece humanises and localises much of the ideas in the previous volume.
Just like in The Messengers, there are so many questions raised and left unanswered but there was never the expectation that this journey Clelland is on, and we with him, would ever reach the answer, the goal. Instead this is more about our awareness of world around us, its interconnected nature, and the reality that something is out there far greater than we are. What it is and what exactly owls have to do with it remain unknown for now.
September 5, 2018
Strangley, I came across Mike Clelland after looking up Super Natural from Whitley Strieber and Jeff Kripal but was confused about Graham Hancock's Supernatural of similar title and instead saw the piercing eyes of an owl on the cover and had to learn more. I'm glad I did dive into this end of the fringe as there most certainly is a phenomenon that Mike has tirelessly demonstrated in these books and his website and appearances on podcasts. Truly this revelation of a connection to the deeper reality will be something you can't unsee. Required reading of anyone interested in the UFO abductee phenomenon.
March 14, 2019
It seemed fake !
The criteria for validity that The the author used; was… is it crazy enough ?!
But The criteria that I prefer, is; Is The story incomplete ?
All of these stories are too refined, invariably including a moral or deeper meaning that makes these contacts events ‘complete’ !
A believable quixotic story should leave you hanging, while all of these seemed like they were written by a first year novelist !
The criteria for validity that The the author used; was… is it crazy enough ?!
But The criteria that I prefer, is; Is The story incomplete ?
All of these stories are too refined, invariably including a moral or deeper meaning that makes these contacts events ‘complete’ !
A believable quixotic story should leave you hanging, while all of these seemed like they were written by a first year novelist !
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews