Files From the Edge (20 page)

“There was something almost eerie in how Alana saw the chamber in the dark without a light. The night was cloudless and there was a moon in the sky. We entered the chamber and started a meditation. I said to everybody that we would not leave until daylight because it was so dark and wet outside. Alana’s brother started to complain that he was cold and tired so we started huddling together and everything got quiet. Then, there was a vibration-like buzzing sound and I looked at Alana and said ‘Do you hear something?’ She said yes. The two boys stayed inside while Alana and I went out side the chamber. We saw this white light, very bright at the top of the hill to the right of the chamber. It was hard to tell if the light was in the air or on the ground because we were looking through woods, but it was illuminating the trees.

“The light was a whitish-blue and very bright—like a spotlight. The light was only about a hundred feet from us and at this time we saw only a light. My first impression was someone was in the woods with us and that worried me, but then I thought, ‘Well, there’s a meteor shower tonight and they must have come here to see it also.’ I remember thinking it was strange they had such a bright light on, expecting to see the meteor shower. As I looked more closely, there were figures illuminated by the light that seemed to have hoods on their heads and the light appeared to be above them.

“The light seemed to be round or a rectangle, but I could not tell for sure. We still heard the buzzing sound; it was very intense. We stood there looking at these beings and my first feeling was that I needed to protect everyone with us because there were strange people out in the night with us. We called the boys out, pointed out the light and beings, and told them to stay quiet. I suddenly got a strong urge to leave. After some discussion, the plan was to walk right past them to get to the path that led to the car without paying any attention to who or what they were. We neared the beings and started to pass them on the right. I was too afraid to look and told the others to not look; to stay focused and talk loudly as if they were unafraid and didn’t care if they were there. Basically, I told them to not show fear. I didn’t try to sneak past these strangers; I wanted them to know we wanted no trouble and were leaving.

“There were three beings with a light above them doing something with their hands. They seemed very busy with something that I could not see. They were all wearing black hoods and were at least 7 feet tall. As we passed, I caught a side glance; they had a scary presence. I did not see any faces, just the hoods. We were then walking arm and arm and I was trying to be strong and focus on one thing: to get to the car safe and sound. We walked by them and it was a little tricky because we had to walk through the stream so we got wet. The beings were silent; the only sound was us. I told everyone beforehand I wanted to let these beings know we were aware of their presence, and we were not afraid. The beings paid no attention to us as we walked by them. The ground was well lit from the light so we had no trouble seeing. We made it to the path by 3:30 am and didn’t look back. The feeling I got was that they were not friendly beings. I thought this because we reacted to them and they didn’t do anything. I also got the impression that we saw them but they could not see us. We finally made it back to the car and I was surprised the sun was starting to rise—I didn’t think we spent that much time in the chamber.”

It is possible that whatever Golden Hawk and her companions saw that night was interdimensional and not fully integrated with our universe. This could be why the hooded beings appeared not to be able to see them . . . or was it that they considered their task of great importance and the humans were of little interest?

The Cursed House

The Hudson Valley of New York is full of “haunted” places: some are real and some are not. I documented a great deal of paranormal activity around the locations that contain chambers and standing stones. I also discovered the locations in which these structures were constructed have strong magnetic anomalies. I always wondered what it would be like to live in a house located near a chamber. Although there are several of these “haunted” stone structures with homes on the same property, there is one farmhouse built right on top of a chamber, and the builders used it as part of the foundation and cellar.

The house was built in 1826 and located in Putnam County, in the town of Kent Cliffs. Since the property is now vacant and the owner is hoping to rent or sell it, I will not give its location. This house has had a number of people occupy it over the past twenty years, and all have been scared or forced out after seeing apparitions and the feeling that something evil was walking through the rooms at night. In two cases, the personalities of the people who lived there changed and one incident resulted in the breakup of a couple that had been happily married for fifteen years.

While the house was still empty in 2004, I spent a night in it with my camera and the last of my ultraviolet film. Throughout the night, I had a feeling that something was watching me from the dark rooms, most likely wondering what I was doing there. I didn’t get any sleep that night, and although I heard what sounded like bangs and footsteps throughout the dark hours, unfortunately the entity didn’t think I was worth an appearance or manifestation. I had ten frames of film left and only one had something on it: an ectoplasm-like blob that should not have shown up on the film—the rest of the frames were blank (clear) indicating there was no UV light striking the film. The house’s owner promised to keep me informed of any strange happenings taking place. On more than one occasion, he tried to have the house blessed by a Christian priest, a rabbi, and even a Buddhist monk from the nearby Chuang Yen Monastery, but nothing worked.
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If the chamber and house is the home of a Trickster (Djinni by any other name) then it will not leave until it wants to. The age-old rituals of exorcism performed by the Catholic Church will just not work when it comes to this type of entity.

The Sleeping Dragon

The Chuang Yen Monastery was built in a central point surrounded by stone chambers. Under the Buddha Hall is a large rock that looks like a sleeping dragon. It makes up the foundation of the building and is referred to by the monks as “The Dragon Rock.” According to their beliefs, this rock channels up energy into the Great Buddha and allows the energy to flow through all who visit and mediate. Some people who visit the Buddha Hall for the first time experience headaches and nausea while others have seen visions or felt a spiritual awakening of one form or another. I asked one of the monks, “If the energy is so pure, why does it have a negative effect on some?” He asked me in return if I felt that way, I replied no, I always felt good and at peace when I visited. He said, “It’s because your energy centers in your body are unobstructed and [energy] flows through you. Many who visit for the first time are clogged up and it backs up causing headaches; one must learn to open up before attempting to commune with the Buddha.” Perhaps like the Dragon Rock, the chambers were also designed to harness earth energy—people who visit them experience the same sensations as those who mediate in the Great Buddha Hall.

Hawk Rock

Hawk Rock is located deep in the woods of a New York City watershed in Putnam County, and it is perhaps one of the most mystical places and best kept secrets in North America. The rock was once Native American sacred ground and there is no coincidence that it is found in the same area in which Golden Hawk had her experience. There are three other chambers at this location, and it seems that the builders, just like the Native Americans, knew the land was a gateway to the gods and earth spirits.

The rock itself is about 25 feet tall and a perching hawk is carved on one side. There is no doubt about its shape; the rock doesn’t just resemble this bird of prey, it looks
exactly
like it. Whoever carved Hawk Rock definitely had a bird in mind—you can even see layers of feathers in the wing. The stone was cut and shaped at angles that could only have been done by intelligent beings; it was not formed naturally. The difference in appearance between each side of the rock is amazing: the hawk figure can only be seen on the rock’s eastern side. Alongside of the great bird, just below the wing is a smooth area that has three carvings: a sun, long-tailed bird (no longer found in the area), and a turtle. All three are Native American symbols that represent the heavens (sun), sky (bird), and earth (turtle).

Some local residents claim the carvings were done by Boy Scouts decades ago, but I spoke with a Native American shaman who indicated the symbols have been there for as long as any of his people can remember. He found it amusing that those who are not descendants of the tribes in New York continue to take credit for all the amazing things ancient Native Americans did. Some historians and researchers in New York feel that the carvings (petroglyphs) could be more than six thousand years old.

If you ever get the chance to visit this site, you will see it was intended to be used as a ritual area to perhaps communicate with beings from another reality. I and many others have made frequent visits to Hawk Rock; when you enter the sacred area, you can actually feel the energy shift. There is a feeling of peace and goodness and all negative thoughts seem to dissolve from your mind. You have a strong feeling of being under a protective zone that isolates you from the harsh reality of our modern world.

During my investigations of the stone chambers and other megaliths structures in New York and New England, I became good friends with a Native American Algonquian shaman whose non-native name was “Charlie.” Charlie told me that the stone chambers are very old and built by people who came across the sea, but Hawk Rock is much older and was carved by his ancestors. During his life, I visited Charlie many times and learned the locations of sacred ground once kept secret by the Native Americans of New York. Charlie told me that Hawk Rock and the stone chambers are not the only sacred things found in the watershed area; it is also the location of burial grounds of an ancient people and the home of a Trickster.

Who or What Is a Trickster?

The Trickster is a spirit found in mythologies all around the world capable of shape-shifting into animals or humans. The Algonquian people believe the Trickster is a creator, destroyer, giver, and taker and will always try to trick unsuspecting humans just to have fun with them. Neither good nor evil, the Trickster has no moral or social values and is constantly at the mercy of his passions. Almost every indigenous tribe believes the Trickster has some divine traits and a few actually worship him as a god. The animal shapes he likes to take on most are the coyote, wolf, hawk, and owl. Whatever he may be, the Trickster seems to be a survivor that uses his wits to adapt to changing times. Even in modern times, the Trickster is believed to appear in many guises and continues to outwit the shaman and the people of the twenty-first century who live on the land he protects. Perhaps the shaman was correct in indicating the aliens and hooded beings as well as the strange sounds, animals, and UFOs seen at Hawk Rock are nothing more than the Trickster having fun and scaring people off his land. Native legends of the Trickster remind me of the Islamic tales of the Djinn—perhaps they are one and the same.

Was It a Trickster?

When I began my research, few people knew about Hawk Rock and the stone chambers.
[2]
As a result of my efforts to spread the word, quite a few people have been visiting these sites in warm weather hoping to touch another world. It has become a favorite location for the local Wicca population, which conducts their rituals during the most magical times of the year. On May 1, 2007, I received a call from two people who had an encounter with a creature from another reality at Hawk Rock. The two witnesses whose real first names are Jeff and Liz gave me permission to use their story (I am withholding their last names for privacy purposes). I arranged to interview them both at Jeff’s home in Kent Cliffs, New York, one week after their experience. Their story appears below.

Jeff had read about the stone chambers and Hawk Rock in an article I wrote for the local newspaper. He and Liz decided to try finding the place and picked a warm, mild day in May. Although they made a number of wrong turns, after several hours they finally came upon the sacred rock at about two in the afternoon. Jeff said, “As we walked through the perimeter of giant boulders, you could feel the atmosphere change and despite us being tired and hungry we both felt quite energized.” Liz added that when they walked into the “sacred area” she felt a presence as if someone or something was watching them. Together the couple walked over to the perching giant stone hawk to admire its craftsmanship.

Jeff and Liz placed a blanket on top of a large flat stone that faced the giant rock bird and began to eat lunch. After about fifteen minutes they heard a loud sound, like a human screaming. Startled, they both jumped to their feet thinking that some crazy person was in the thick wooded hill above them. Then the couple heard another sound off to the right. It sounded the same, but now there were two sources of the noise and they seemed to be signaling each other. Jeff and Liz felt surrounded. The screaming then changed to a series of grunts, then growls. The sound no longer seemed human but from some type of animal. The couple then heard something big moving in the woods and saw a dark mass no more than a hundred feet away from them. At first they thought it was a bear, but noticed that it was walking upright like a man. The creature stopped, and although it was partially hidden by the thick brush, they could see it looking straight at them. Terrified, they left their belongings behind and ran to the trail. They could still hear the creature’s cries in the woods as they made their way back to the car. The experience was so unsettling they never went back to Hawk Rock again.