*Frequently today, no UFOs and no messages are involved in "contactee" cases, but some manner of contact seems to be happening, thus the validity of the term beyond its original intent.

I have talked with few contactees who wished they were not involved with UFOs. Despite the emotional, mental, and physical suffering they almost universally go through, most contactees feel they are involved in something good for themselves and the planet if not the Universe. Because of that general feeling, it is understandable then that "Love and light" are the bywords of the contactee movement. But there is a dark element that many of us run into early in the transformation, along the way, or even after we have settled into some semblance of stability with our new views. 

The most difficult time for a contactee is usually when he or she starts to withdraw from the normal, quite concrete reality everyone else accepts, and he or she begins to synthesize the newly gained, outrageous information into an acceptable outlook for themselves. There is much to think about and usually no understanding soul with which to openly share it. As a consequence, we frequently operate in solitude. Everything is held inside, hidden, where it continues to take upon a beautiful, full-dimensional form of length, breadth, and substance. But on occasion, something goes wrong. The discovery process takes a twisted form and becomes counterproductive both to our individual lives and the part we play in the overall scheme. 

I remember all too well some of my own early trials in the years following my time-loss experience. Sometimes it would feel as if my head would explode with so many different and new thoughts coming and going almost at once. Each thought was so unique that I wanted to hold on to it for a while and examine it at leisure. But they kept coming. One new thought would lead to another and another. And then whole new concepts would spring from collections of these thoughts and one concept would in turn flash to another. It was wonderful in the respect to my growth, but it had its nightmare side. 

It frequently happened that an astounding thought that flashed into mind on one day was forgotten and unrecallable the next. All I could remember was that a grand thought had been there. I could perhaps recall that it had been a thought of staggering importance at the time. But all I could do after it was gone was to sense the hollow where it had been suspended for a while, mourn its loss, and then let even that go. Maybe it was meant to pass quickly on, not to hinder me, but having done its duty of preparing me for the next thought. 

Eventually I found myself led into another world--a world fashioned solely in my head and a ''world I still cannot fully share with any other person. However, it is easy for me to revisit the more bizarre times of that world if I wish. All I do is to step to my filing cabinet and pull forth some of the mounds of notes I made in those days. Or if I want to really embarrass myself, I pull out copies of wild letters I wrote during that period. 

I believe I now know what causes contactees to be susceptible to emotional problems (in addition to the associated conscious and unconscious traumas normally involved). It is difficult to define for non-contactee readers, but many, if not most contactees will know what is meant when I try to explain with the following: "I can't explain or justify the immense feeling of 'understanding' I have about many things. It isn't logical or reasonable--it just comes with a mere touch of some mild stimulus to the mind. POOF! Instantly, a full-blown concept, feeling, or understanding surrounds the person, place, or thing under scrutiny. It is not the same thing as being psychic, I believe, but perhaps it is closely related to that ability in that it is a knowing." 

Since the word "intuition" is widely accepted as a valid defining term in our culture, we could say that this phenomenon I've tried to explain is a type of expanded intuition. 

Apparently, this understanding-type phenomenon is specifically enabled in us as part of our experiences. I suspect this enhancement over our normal abilities is what allows our thinking to go zooming out in all directions in the first place. It is a gift that can turn into a burden. We start using it without having training or an instruction book. Some persons use it correctly and adjust to it. Some do not fare so well and crash. Like children growing into adults over night, contactees can have difficult times handling their new-found attributes. 

But whatever the reason, it is during the frantic transformation from being normal to being "blessed" that the danger is greatest. The danger is that of not knowing how to curb what we allow or find in our minds. Having thrown away the reality rule book normal people use, we retain few limits about what is acceptable or unacceptable in our thinking. The situation becomes serious when our newly formed interior universes start butting heads with the work-a-day-world. If something has to give, it will be our individual selves and not the surrounding, stout brick wall of mass conformity. 

Most regular people (professionals and lay people alike) have no inkling about what has happened to us. But they do notice our deviations from the norm. In hope of understanding us via their standards, they carefully define the unacceptable behaviors we exhibit and hang neat labels on the resulting collections. In this way they pretend to understand our "problems," and then feel justified in proceeding with a "cure." 

There are some contactees that have had such severe mental upheavals as a result of their experiences that they have required treatment and hospitalization. --And I think it is amazing that the disability rate is not even higher. While they may not regret being contactees even then, we can be sure that they regret letting themselves slip to a point where they required outside help from people that could never understand their exact predicament. It would have been immensely better if such afflicted contactees had stepped out of the inertia of their new-found awareness from time to time to check their own progress and redirected themselves if necessary. Some people may argue that such would be hard or impossible to do. --Difficult, perhaps, but not impossible and certainly necessary when seen in hindsight. 

It is easier to help yourself early in the situation than having it force-fed later by outsiders when things start going drastically to pieces. 

The feat of maintaining ourselves in the larger society is simple and easy. For the most part, all we must do is to perform the physical and intellectual interactions expected of us. --It's that simple. 

The rest of our individualities, outside of the areas of duty and public scrutiny, are our own personal matters and we may conduct them as we please. But of course, that is where the trouble begins too, during the solitary mental meandering when we strive to fathom the length and breadth of the Universe and our position within it. To safeguard ourselves during such times, we need to carry along a simple, general, and trustworthy rule of thumb by which to keep our interior selves conforming to a universal standard. Here it is: 

"WHAT YOU THINK SHOULD MAKE SENSE" 

One of the chief characteristics of the conventional population is that by and large its members have rational concepts about EVERYTHING. Whether their concepts are truly right is not important and are not guaranteed just because their lines of thinking may be unanimous and can be illustrated from beginning point to conclusion point. What is important to them is that the general run and manner of the thinking is acceptable or understandable (if not agreeable) among all. 

When it comes to individual actions, people in the mainstream of our culture use feedback from their peers to gauge the value of their individual utterances and actions. If a person does or says something "wrong," he or she quickly notices the disapproving responses from the bulk of the herd and modifies his or her behaviors accordingly to get back in favor. And if the person does not correct his or her "mistake" and conforms, that person can expect to pay a penalty as deemed appropriate by on-looking society. Such penalties may be formal (perhaps imprisonment) or informal (perhaps a frown), depending upon the issue. 

We contactees on the other hand are not so lucky. We stand on the edge of the main culture espousing our very differing views while determinedly ignoring the urges to conform from the crowd of family, friends, and strangers around us. Worse, we rarely speak in unison about what we are trying to say, and so we gain no validity as a genuine "movement" (such as the peace movement of the sixties). Usually, we operate alone and frequently mutely for long periods. This turning inward intensifies the potential for moving too far astray with our interior dialogues which may then start to reflect themselves outward via our social interactions. 

To protect ourselves, we must recognize that our first responsibilities are to our individual selves. We must stay mentally healthy. If you wish, you may consider yourself a disciple for this or that cause and be willing to devote your life to it. But nothing is served if you go astray and cannot continue to perform in the general society. Instead, you become a burden to it, or worse, a casualty and a detriment to your cause. No one wins in that situation. 

The rule of "what you think should make sense," seems silly and simplistic because it is a stating of the obvious. During the normal give-and-take of our daily lives, we operate very closely along such lines without thinking about it. We automatically follow the rules that have been socialized into us. But when an adventuresome soul goes outside of the agreed-upon boundaries of social and cultural norms, handy guide posts of rules and order are missing. So it follows, if "What you think should make sense" is such an automatic and easy-to-use guide for staying healthy in the normal world, it need not be--and should not be--suspended when we venture into less tangible and highly personable realms of UFOs, ESP, higher states of consciousness, etc. 

There are two easy ways to apply this rule to whatever belief system you find yourself exploring: 

1. Monitor your own thoughts and actions closely. 

2. Find a support person or group to supply feedback. 

The easiest but least effective method is to question yourself closely to see that you fully connect and understand the various aspects of what you find filling your mind. However, it is nearly impossible to review concepts and theories point by point from start to finish solely in the mind without getting side-tracked. Most minds are not that precise and orderly. Try a more tangible approach of diagramming on paper your major belief points and then writing them out in brief detail in paragraph blocks that connect into a meaningful flowchart. Or simply write out word for word the whole story of what you believe. It need not be concise, but the result should be coherent at the least. 

This self-check method is the least effective one for a good reason. This method inherently has three major problems: (A) You are your own best/worst friend/enemy and, therefore can agree/disagree with yourself entirely too easily. (Almost always the first choice is chosen in all three instances!). (B) You may slip beyond the reach of self-help before you are aware that your critical thinking skills have not been employed rigidly enough. (C) This last problem is so major that it can doom the whole self-help concept by itself. 

The best method of safeguarding your emotional health would be to seek a trustworthy person or group of persons of like-mind with whom you can share the full extent of your thoughts and experiences. Such a person or group should do more than just listen. He, she, or they should also play the devil's advocate by asking penetrating questions which will force you to offer reasonable responses about what you think you know, and thus, illuminate problem areas. 

The suggestion that you connect with a group is not advocating that you submit to a vicious encounter-type group or the reverse, look for people who will totally support your views without question. Instead, look for support, compassion, and a willingness in others to try to understand your situation even it that entails taking you to task for things you say. The hallmark of an effective support group is that they are primarily in existence to GIVE of themselves as a group to help individuals and to GIVE of themselves as individuals to the group when they in turn need help. 

Whenever individuals, a group or an organization start wanting something, you should be on your guard. There are two typical signs of such people. They will tend to agree completely with whatever views you have, no matter how outrageous. And second, once you see them as friends and allies, they may start the con by suggesting or hinting that some great, dazzling prize can be yours if you join with them in body, soul, and checkbook. (A young friend of mine got hooked up with a "contactee" group in south Texas which promised him a UFO "pilot's license." Honest! The price was $1000. Only in his case they let him sign over the title to his old pickup. They got the truck and he got.... ) 

There are no guarantees that a support group, any support group, is going to be helpful at any given time. It is unlikely that a group of lay persons can pull a person "out of the woods" if that person has gotten that far along. But a decent group can still help immensely by knowing the danger signs and being able to communicate to a troubled person that he or she should seek professional help. 

Make no mistake about it. This essay does not intend to suggest the idea that professional help for mental and emotional problems should be avoided by UFO contactees. Quite the contrary, the essence here is that by working with themselves or by working together, contactees can take more control of their mental hygiene by being acutely aware of how their thinking can drift off into dangerous territories. Contactees are unique persons, strong in many ways, fragile in others. We are a new, positive resource for the planet. We owe it to ourselves, to each other, and to all others to keep ourselves coherent, meaningful, and a positive force of new awareness in this awakening corner of the Universe!