CONTACT IN THE DESERT:
UFO sightings, crop circles, the secret space program…and BEYOND.
text + photography ROWLAND AKINDURO
It’s no secret that our planet and even solar system for that matter, are physically in a different place than we where before. In fact, although our bodies on earth give us the illusion that we remain relatively still, we are constantly occupying a vastly different area within the greater multiverse, as we are quite literally hurling through space in a vortex like manner. We occupy a finite amount of space within a finite amount of time all within what is seemingly an infinitely greater amount of space. One of the events in life that Coachella Magazine was fortunate enough to temporarily occupy space within recently, was Contact in the Desert. This was an incredible journey into the exploration of ancient astronauts, extraterrestrial life, human origins, crop circles, UFO sightings, contact experiences, the secret space program, metaphysical healing, inner earth beings, alternative energy sources, the nature of our reality, and much more. Now I’m fully aware that this may seem overwhelming to the uninitiated, or even down right laughable to some, but having conducted exhaustive research in many of these areas myself, in addition to interacting directly with seasoned experts within their respective fields, extensively exploring these occult elements of life and integrating their beneficial elements may just be the catalyst to a truly sustainable, prosperous and transparent future. When one directly interacts with multiple people who share such a spell bounding interest in these occult, taboo, fringe, and in some cases, dangerous subjects, an interesting amalgamation of cultured dialogue emerges; this resulted in hidden and even suppressed knowledge permeating through and from the illustrious Joshua Tree Retreat Center during the event. Whether it was a panel of speakers at the amphitheater, workshops in Friendship Hall, lectures in The Sanctuary, a life celebration with the legendary George Noory, or even a live radio broadcast by Jimmy Church at Lotus, an overarching theme of collective evolution began to emerge. It was less about the alien abduction experiences individuals where sharing and more about as Eric Rankin from Awakening Code Radio puts it, “where our society is headed as a whole.” We fortunately caught up with several of the key players throughout the event. I had a brief moment with James Gilliland in which I asked him how he feels about hecklers and people blurting out questions inappropriately during lectures. He responded by eluding to doing his best to address their questions with a level head as everyone is at there own stage of awareness with this type of knowledge. And it needs to be honored.
Best selling author, lecturer, and TV personality Mike Bara, who has an extensive knowledge base in the fields of aerospace and ufology, possessed a healthy level of skepticism and a down to earth approach to the entire field despite his very voluminous research. He demonstrated this when I approached him with a potentially derailing question pertaining to his thoughts on computer simulation theory (the idea that we are most likely living in a ‘The Matrix’ like simulation). His response was both hilarious yet profound for someone being an accomplished truth seeker. He said, “When you’re finally with the girl you’ve always wanted does it make any difference?”
We managed to get a pulse check with Ancient Aliens star Giorgio Tsoukalos who, despite a full dzay in the heat, relayed that he felt, “fantastic.”
At an event after party, we caught up with the captivating best selling author Jim Marrs who had much advice to give to the younger generation in regards to going off grid and starting to build a self sufficient sustainable life which is best accomplished sooner rather than later.
Out of the several interviews that were captured, in this article I will feature one that stood out and occurred rather serendipitously with television producer, journalist, author, photographer & researcher Alan Steinfeld:
Rowland Akinduro: What was one of the major highlights for you thus far at this event?
Alan Steinfeld: Whitley Strieber and hearing him reevaluate his whole abduction experience. Now he doesn’t really know what it was. He thought it was alien, but it could be something much bigger than that-much stranger than that, whatever that would mean. But I realized, wow, we’re trying to put these things in a box. We call it UFO and we think we know what it is but we don’t even know what that even means. We have to keep expanding because we don’t even know what alien is. We think we know what things are when we label them but we have to tear away the labels and stay in the unknown. So, anytime people tell you this is what it is, “oh yeah that’s an alien”, they’re trying to narrow it down to human limitations. What we have to do is expand beyond the human realm and start to include more of reality without putting it into a box.
Rowland: In regards to this community, what do you feel your role has been? Obviously, this being a microcosmic example relative to the world as a whole.
Alan: Part of my role as a researcher has been to gather information from many, many different angles as an experiencer, as someone who is a journalist interviewing other people about their phenomena, as a historian looking at government cover-ups and how in some ways what’s stranger than aliens, is that the government is not telling us what it knows while hiding the facts. I mean that’s more unacceptable than the fact that there are beings visiting us here. My role is to kind of connect the dots. How do all those things connect? And I put it all in the framework of new realities. We have to expand perception in order to realize we’re living on a much different planet than we’ve been conditioned to think we are on. Reality is much broader than putting our heads in the ground and walking along and doing your job and listening to what they are telling you on television. We have to look up to the stars and the stars are where the answers are. We are from the stars.
Rowland: Thank you. So frequencies as well?
Alan: Oh yeah, there’s a whole thing about frequencies, dimensions and crop circles. I think what’s really happening is that we are vibrating at a quicker frequency than we were before and I think that’s why there’s more contact and there are more sightings. People are thinking about this. It’s why this festival grows every year by thousands. First year it was a thousand then two thousand than three then over three. So something’s being activated. We are getting ready for or we are preparing for something bigger. That’s what I feel. So my role is to keep connecting all these pods together and to study up on all of them and see how they all relate as far as the government cover-ups, UFOs and abductions. How does it all relate to human psychology? I’m interested in how perception dictates reality. If your perception and your frequency is low then your reality isn’t going to be very varied and it’s going to be very narrow. The bigger the frequency, the wider the possibility & the bigger the experience we can have here. We are here to have great experiences and expanded experiences.
Rowland: That sounds like a very spiritual perspective.
Alan: It’s spiritual but it’s also cognitive in the sense that we are expanding perception.
Rowland: So it’s quantifiable as well.
Alan: Well, yeah it’s quantifiable, but we’re using more of our brain so, neurological. Quantifiably neurological or something like that.
Rowland: What has been a chief frustration for you in regards to the field at large or government cover-up?
Alan: Whatever these things are, if they’re real, why are they so illusive first of all; and why is the government so elusive? They kind of mirror each other. The government is hiding. They’re hiding. Most of the human population is caught in the middle of government denial and these things that are definitely there. 95 to 99% of the people here [at Contact in the Desert] have either seen something or experienced something. There’s definitely something and why is that so elusive? Why is the government not telling us? Why do we have to figure it out for ourselves? Maybe that’s why. Maybe we’ll only get it when we have to figure it out for ourselves. We have to go by our own instincts and say, “I know it this time.” I think the only way we really get something is when we teach it to ourselves. If the government gives it to us, it’s too passive. If they show up, it’s like well, we don’t know what to do with that.
Rowland: Do you feel as if it’s beyond our perception?
Alan: No because our perceptions have been conditioned and brainwashed by our culture, but naturally it’s not, but we’ve been shut down through the conditioning via political, media all that, to not think to the capacity that we can. So it’s yes and no. It’s not beyond our perception and it has become beyond because we have not been allowed to expand.
Rowland: Social conditioning
Alan: Social conditioning limits our perception.
Rowland: Do you feel that social conditioning is the main impact on our perception being limited?
Alan: I think that’s one of them. We need social conditioning in order to function but we also need education that starts to expand it [perception].
Rowland: Would you be able to tap into the different levels of intelligence whether it’d be emotional, social intelligence, academic etc? Would you be able to talk about the different levels of intelligence that exist.
Alan: The bigger picture? Yeah. I think what sums it all up is, you have to go within your own self and feel into a situation and develop a sensitivity through feeling. I guess that’s feeling intelligence, but I’d start there and that’s the key that connects it all.
Rowland: Authenticity.
Alan: Yeah. Thanks, that was great!
Contact In the Desert, for many, was full of ground breaking lectures and experiences. One of the mind blowing experiences was the military grade CITD Night Vision Skywatch at Orion’s Lookout where attendees were equipped with high powered night vision goggles & lasers to point out/observe potential (non satellite or plane) anomalies. I admit to seeing one anomaly if it wasn’t a very fast moving satellite, then it was an actual U.F.O. Fortunately, my sanity was protected by the woman who initially discovered the anomaly and the several other laser wielding patrons wearing the night vision goggles simultaneously exclaiming their passionate perspective relative to the fast moving object we collectively observed in the night sky.
Another great highlight was the booth by Twisted Sage Studios who utilize Tensor Ring technology which is a superconductor that neutralizes magnetic fields. They displayed a 13 foot high interactive chamber called the 5D Animator or simply the Ascension Chamber where one can stand inside to interface with the Tensor technology directly. I definitely had a positive experience with it.
Life coach and holistic healer Michele Anderson emerged as a real pillar of the community sharing with many whether it was the fundamental distribution of much needed cold gel packs at peak temperature moments to a keen awareness of the different speakers, to co-leading the singing bowl ceremony alongside Mark Dr. Dream Peebler designed to raise the collective vibrational frequency using hundreds of bowls to help bring in a contemplative and meditative denouement to the event. Ultimately, Contact in the Desert was a phenomenal creative collaboration by coordinators, speakers, technicians, and attendees or should we say, contactees, that poises to have a lasting positive impact on everyone involved.
web contactinthedesert.com
where Joshua Tree, California
when MAY 19-22, 2017