Heavenly Guardians

Cheryl was just getting out of watching a hockey game at the old Erie County Field house years ago. The field house stood on a busy road just off an Erie exit of Interstate 90. Cars would go speeding by in both directions as people made their way to and from the highway. There were many tragic accidents on this busy roadway as pedestrians, mostly teenagers, would cross the road after a concert or sporting event to make their way back to their nearby homes on foot. Cheryl was crossing the street after the hockey game with a few friends, when she lost her footing and fell in the middle of the road. One car swerved and barel missed her. Suddenly Cheryl was lifted up to her feet by some unseen force, just as another car sped past her. If she had not been raised off the ground, she would have been another fatality of the busy roadway. She could not explain it. She knows that she did not do it herself. Something had raised her up from the ground and saved her life. As a spiritual person who has been raised in a church all her life, Cheryl is pretty sure what saved her that day. An Angel. A guardian Angel.

Almost every ancient culture had a belief in angelic messengers from God. Ancient Hellenistic culture believed that every individual had a guardian spirit assigned to them, Plato and his followers expanded this belief. In his Phaedo, Plato talks of a destiny or guardian spirit that is the constant companion of man. Ancient Sumerians also believed in guardian spirits and many ancient Mesopotamian homes had altars dedicated to the resident's guardian angels.

Angels are talked of quite frequently in the Old Testament. Specifically Psalm 91:11 tells us,

"For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways." (NKJV)

In the New Testament Jesus Himself talks of guardian angels in their relation to children,

"Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven" Matthew 18:10 (NKJV)

Whether seen or not, guardian angels are among us today.

Stacy and his boss had an emergency in another field location of his employer. So they both quickly entered their vehicle and took off down the highway to their destination. Stacy forgot to buckle his seat belt. Although they were going well below the speed limit, the person that ignored the stop sign and sped through the intersection was not. The impact tore of the back axle off the Ford truck and sent it flying in the air and tumbling down the road. He remembers having one hand on the cab's roof and the other on the door. He could feel the ground beneath the roof as it turned end over end. Finally in a matter of seconds that seemed an eternity, the remaining part of the truck stopped. The glass in both door windows were smashed, but neither Stacy or his boss were injured. The paramedics that shortly arrived were amazed. Stacy remembers climbing out of the wreckage and seeing a man standing on the side of the highway with no car in sight. An odd thing to see, who walks down the highway? And after he pulled his boss from the wreck, he once again scanned the area. The man was gone. The roadway was enclosed by guard rails and deep foliage. there was nowhere the man could have gone. He disappeared. Stacy has always felt that his surviving the accident was a miracle. He is sure the person he saw was his guardian angel.

Recently I was sent this picture from a reader in Puerto Rico:

Here it is in Black and White to see the phenomenon more clearly:


If you look close, you can see the being behind the standing girl. It looks as if it has wings. I sent this photo to author Brad Steiger earlier this year and he had it analyzed by Dr. David Oester. Brad e-mailed me Dr. Dave's conclusion:

The haze is not around the body, but away from it. It does not resemble any aura, but it could be spirit energy as in ectoplasm. The photo was taken with Slow Shutter as the lights in the background are representative of hand holding a camera showing duplicated lights instead of a single light ray for each light. This would be considered paranormal.

What is behind the standing girl? I have repeatedly contacted the supplier of the photo, but he does not wish to elaborate or be recognized by the public since he is a person with a high profile in the local community. But the implications are obvious. For thousands of years, spiritual people, philosophers and clergy have claimed encounters with supernatural beings who have been charged by the Master of the Universe to watch over specific individuals. Most of the time they are invisible. Sometimes, on rare occasions they make themselves known. But one thing is evident about these heavenly guardians...

They walk among us.

Until Next Time,
Pastor Swope

Up Up and Away on the 21st of May

It's that time again.

Another doomsday prophet has predicted the end of the world (sort of) with the rapture happening May 21st 2011. I am sure you have all heard about it. If not all you need to know is related in these two articles:

Christian Leaders Respond to May 21 Rapture

Family Radio Spokesman: May 21 Rapture is Guaranteed

In this post I won't go into the long history of predictions of the end of the world. There is an extended list here: A Brief History of the Apocalypse. Since the Assyrians in 2800BC mankind has been awaiting impending doom. From the beginning, we have been seeing the end as nigh.

But the Bible tells us that no man will know when the end of the world will occur. Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew 24:35-37 tells us,

"Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be."

Harold Camping also predicted that the rapture would happen in 1994.

In this world of doubts, upheaval and fear one thing we can count on is that the rapture will not happen on May 21, 2011. And the World will not end in October 21st.

Even the Theology of the Rapture is quirky; it is less that 150 years old and was formed in a controversial period of Christian History. But more on that on May 22nd.

Until next Time,
Pastor Swope

The Witch of Endor

Before "Return of the Jedi" Endor was the home of a certain Israelite medium who had made a living fooling the local citizens by claiming that that she had access to their dead loved ones. After King Saul had banned all the effective mediums from his kingdom following the prophet Samuel's death, all the traditional methods of finding God's will eluded him and he was tormented about his future as a disobediant king. He eventually turned to this one of the last mediums of Israel, who lived in the area of Endor. Saul and the medium were suprised when the actual spirit of the prophet Samuel appeared and pronounced a curse upon Saul.

Here is a write up of this incident and the historical and theological background of life after death. Where does the Bible say we go when we die? Follow the link. Thanks to Pastor Baz and Bryony for the chance to write on this subject on the Christian Cryptozoological and Paranormal study Group Blog!

The Witch of Endor Part 2

Real Aliens

Brad and Sherry steiger's new book "Real Aliens: Space Beings and Creatures from Other Worlds" is available now on Amazon. I have had the privilage once again to be able to contribute to one of the Steiger's books in this series with this new release. Like its predecesors in the 'Real" series, this one does not dissapoint. It is an entery level book for those unfamiliar with the topic as well as a thorough overview of current topics and encounters to thrill the novice as well as those who have been investigating the UFO phenomena for years. Just a look at the table of contents will spark the curious to take a look at this latest work from Brad and Sherry:

Little Green Men
The Blonde Nordics
The Greys
The Praying Mantises
Reptilians and Serpent People
Robots and Androids
Hairy Dwarves and Bigfoot types
Frightening Encounters and Acts of Hostility
Contactees
Abductees
Sex with Aliens
Alien-Human Hybrids
The Star People
Aliens and the Military
Aliens and the Presidency
Astronauts and Aliens
Aliens and the Space Program
Underground and Undersea Alien Bases
Aliens and Secret Societies
Nazis and Aldebeeran Aliens
Alien Researchers Face Threats and Daath
Aliens in Earth's Prehistory and Religion
Aliens: Decievers or Deliverers?
Do We Face a Final War of the Worlds?

This book is fascinating reading. I contributed my research on the Presque Isle UFO/Bigfoot encounter of 1966.
You can buy the book on Amazon: Real Aliens

UFO on Lake Erie

I am currently writing a book for the History Press called "Eerie Erie" which details many unexplained and paranormal events from local history here in Erie Pennsylvania. (which explaines why i have not updated here recently, my deadline is May 2!) In my research on UFO sightings on Lake Erie and the possibility of a hidden underwater UFO base there I came across this video, that I have never seen before.



I hope to get publishing new post after I finish torementing myself with this book!
(over 60 hours of research in 2 weeks!!)

Until Next Time,
Pastor Swope

The Dwayyo, Werewolf of the Northeast

I have a new article on my Examiner site, about the creature called the Dwayyo. It is a local cryptid of the Blue Ridge area of Maryland. Here is the introductory story:

According to ‘Aubrey’, she was driving her old Subaru on Coxey Brown Road near Myersville, Maryland late in the summer of 2009 when she had an eerie feeling.

It was as if she was being watched. The road was lined with trees, she was on the outer edge of Gambrill State Park, and the forest was beginning to grow thicker. According to her, as she turned on Hawbottom Road, where her friend lived, the feeling became overwhelming. The hairs on the back of her neck rose in terror as she sensed the unseen eyes upon her.

She wanted to stop the car and take her breath, she was afraid that she would veer off the road and hit a tree because she her nerves were getting so unsteady that she began to shake. But she knew that whatever was watching her, and following her was out there, and she took what little comfort she had by being safer inside her rust rotted car.

Still, to prevent a wreck, she slowed down as she headed south, and that was when she saw the creature. At first it was a blur to the right of her periphery vision. Something that was moving through the trees, a shadow that flickered as it went in and out of sight on the edge of her vision.

It was a brown smear of color that popped out in contrast to the dull dark grey trees that she passed. Whatever it was, it bobbed through the underbrush and between the trees to keep pace with her car. She thinks at the time, she was going around 25 miles per hour. She then slowed down once more to take a good look to her right, and make sure that she was not seeing things. As her car slowed to a crawl, the brown blurry smear of color seemed to bound out of the woods closer to the road.

With a massive leap the hazy color became flesh as a huge dog-like animal on two legs emerged from the foliage.

The fangs, Aubrey wrote, are burned into her memory. Huge fangs from a mouth grimaced in anger and hate. She could feel the fangs as if they were ripping her skin while the creature stood there panting on the side of the road. Drool dripped from its huge mouth as she heard a loud growl, and she looked into the dark eyes. Darkness took up its entire eye, there was no white at all. It was if she was staring death and hell head on in dizzying madness.

Then it leaped, arms outstretched with claws grasping the wind. Instinctively Aubrey stepped on her gas pedal with all her might. The squeal of her tires seemed as if her car too was screaming in horror at the thing that emerged from the dark looming forest.

She did not look back. She didn’t want to know if the thing was following her. She didn’t feel the eyes upon her anymore. She was too shaken to really feel anything at all.

When she made it to her friends house, she sat in the driveway shaking as she looked around to make sure the creature had not followed her there. The house was also in the woods, at the opposite side of the State Park.

When she felt safe, she made a mad dash for her friend’s door, and banged on it frantically. He did not know what to make of her story. Aubrey knew he did not believe her. He had lived in the woods all his life, and had never encountered what she had seen. He assured her that it must have just been a dog, perhaps a rabid one at that. Her mind was playing tricks on her. But the young woman knew what she had seen that late summer day. It was no dog. It was something out of a horror movie come to life before her eyes.

Though she told nobody what she felt it really was, she called it a werewolf. That is until after she did some research in the local college library and came up with the name that others had called it when they too saw the forest come alive.

She had encountered the Dwayyo.

For the full article and more on the Dwayyo, go to my Examiner article here: DWAYYO

Link: Is the Paranormal Industry self perpetuating?

Pastor Baz from the Unity in Paranormal Community has another spot on article I would like to share. http://ccapsg.blogspot.com/2011/03/do-we-create-spooks-is-paranormal.html
As a spiritual person, no matter what your faith or creed, if you are SINCERE and truly looking to help others, you need to be sure you have a clear calling to help others to be rescued from dark entities.
If you are looking for fame or glory in the paranormal world, the area of demonology should be avoided. As a minister it has not brought parishioners running to my doorstep. And more times than not your collegues who have not been trained in this type of ministry think you are a loon.
Yet there are many who boast to be a demonologist or exorcist without proper training in pastoral counseling let alone psychology who attempt to claim fame in the paranormal community. If you deal with real people with real issues you need real training. Waving a cross, sprinkling Holy water and reciting a few prayers will do no good if you have no inner resources from which to draw upon if things go bad. You need to be called out from the crowd to minister to the oppressed.