Ann Andrews and her family visited Western Australia in November 2000, not just to see a beautiful part of Australia, but to meet all those here she had connected with so deeply, who happened to live 12,000 miles from her native England, being myself and members of the organization called ACERN (Australian Close Encounter Resource Network) based in Perth, WA. How this happenned is a fascinating story in itself, but this article is more especially to relate Ann's experiences with the Ufology enigma of the "missing pregnancy" syndrome.
Ann's third pregnancy was confirmed by normal medical procedures. Later, Ann awoke from an 'Abduction/contact experience' to find that she was no longer pregnant. The consequences of this experience for Ann were devastating, emotionally and psychologically, and certainly coloured her feelings about ET's and their involvement with humanity. However, what she discovered through regression was a far cry from what she had initially believed. I was, in a small part, the facilitator for her amazing discovery. This is Ann's story.
I read Ann's book, 'Abducted' very soon after it was published in the UK. It is set in rural England, and tells a 'classic' tale of human and ET Contact and it encapsulates for me many of the Extraterrestrial Contact 'stories'.
Ann and her family were faced with a series of terrifying and bewildering events, which escalated once they had their second son, Jason. Ann’s manner conveys to those who meet her, to be a gentle, unassuming, balanced and practical lady with her feet planted very firmly on the ground, certainly not someone given to fantasies. This is also true of Paul, her practical, no-nonsense husband. They did all the normal things a caring, but bewildered family does when faced with experiences, which were way beyond their understanding. They sought help from professionals in the hope that they could explain the unexplainable. Why her son Jason, from a very early age, was terrified at night, disturbed by unusual, and frightening dreams? This was apart from the strange 'paranormal phenomena' and poltergeist activity they experienced, with the continual harassment from covert governmental forces. They knew no one could help with that.
Ann's main concern and focus through her story ('Abducted') is centered around Jason. A book she co-authored with a professional writer Jean Ritchie. Jason is her second son, the eldest Daniel, who was also involved with Contact experiences, but in a less confronting way it seemed. Jason was fortunate to be born alive and healthy. Ann relates that she was given a very poor prognosis at the end of her second pregnancy; the doctors warned her baby was not expected to live. The mystery was he was not only born alive, but a healthy baby. From the beginning, there were many strange occurrences around Jason. The book 'Abducted' highlights some of the more unusual, but particularly mentions the 'trauma' and fear that were part of his everyday life, even from a small child.
Jason was part of a caring and loving family, who struggled to understand his many fears. When finally desperation led his parents to take Jason to see a psychiatrist. Jason, was relieved the psychiatrist was prepared to listen to him, but soon became disappointed when 'she' the psychiatrist, was plainly unable to accept the strange world that was Jason's reality. But, fortunately for Jason, she found no evidence of mental illness. To allay his difficulties with his 'insomnia' and fear at night, she prescribed medication. To Jason, this was less than satisfactory, Jason was frustrated that his experiences were still 'negated' and his response to this was extreme behavior that became increasingly aggressive and disruptive. Ann and Paul were at a loss to know what to do next.
By chance, a television program on hypnosis was the 'catalyst' that opened the Andrew's family to the understanding of what Jason had been trying to tell them all along. This program showed a man being hypnotized, who subsequently revealed he had experienced Extraterrestrial contact. When Jason saw this, he erupted with anger and said that no one should want to know and this is what he had being trying to tell them. Daniel also said that he too knew all along. This episode, more than any other, was instrumental in giving Ann and her husband Paul the clue as to the possible 'reality' of this experience. Before this episode, Ann admits that 'alien Contact' was such a bizarre concept they understandably assumed Jason's experiences were the product of Jason's imagination. Now, finally, they both knew they must explore this further. It was with some anxiety and determination their search led them to a well-known, very supportive Ufologist and researcher Tony Dodd. A policeman, who had witnessed sighting several UFO's himself and disclosed in his own book, 'Alien Investigator' that he too had had ET related contact. He provided an invaluable support for Ann and her family during the many months of integrating this confronting and bizarre fact her son was not only speaking the truth about his ET Contact, but Contact was very real experience for many millions of people all over the world.
The Andrews family, together with members of ACERN
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Ann ultimately learnt that this 'contact' was not just with Jason, but also Daniel, Paul and herself. The many confusing 'jigsaw' pieces of the family’s experienced through their life were finally beginning to make sense. However, this opened up more challenges for her as she learnt of the possibility that this contact extended beyond her immediate family to her own father and her siblings. The deeper she delved into this, the more challenges emerged. Such was the courage of this family; they decided to tell their story as a way of helping others with similar experiences. Ann had suffered greatly because she had felt she had let Jason down by dismissing his experiences, as they were so beyond anything she had knowledge of. This 'guilt' haunts her still. The book was her way of informing people that this experience has a reality and also a way of finally demonstrating to Jason her sorrow for not believing him and now that he had her total support of him.
I am a former nurse and midwife; I now practice as a professional counsellor, healer and metaphysician. I was drawn more and more into the area of a holistic, spiritual framework in counselling for my work. I realized that many people had intuitive and paranormal experiences, some of which had an extremely profound effect on them both emotionally and spiritually. They often needed to share and understand their experiences. If the experience was too unusual to what is considered a 'normal' experience, they often feared that they might be considered odd or, worse, mentally ill. They would be wary of exploring these experiences in a traditional therapeutic setting. I had slowly developed my own 'intuitive' skills, so I was prepared to work within a more multidimensional reality, honoring whatever experience or 'reality' was relevant to my client. I found I was attracting clients that needed that open framework and individuals that told me they had encounters with Extraterrestrials.
It was through this work and my association with the Australasian Society of Psychical Research that I met a former social worker Elizabeth Robinson. Elizabeth was coming to terms with her own 'multidimensional reality' and we felt strongly that support during this process of paradigm shift was, for some, quite vital for emotional and psychological health. Elizabeth was completing her book of her own experiences and is author of 'Secrets, Truth and Destiny' which told of her personal life and experiences with ET's, ultimately transforming her into a wonderful talented healer.
Together, we decided to form a resource for those with Contact experiences. ACERN (The Australian Close Encounter Resource Network) was born. A professional resource, specializing in offering emotional support and information to those who experience contact. We decided to make every effort to open public debate of experience and its reality in a more public forum, lectures, and media, radio and television - whatever form which may highlight the Contact experience in the public arena. We felt it was essential to inform those with Contact that there was help and support available. I avidly researched any material that would give me more insight on Contact experiences found and bought a copy of Ann’s book.
It was very relevant for me at this time, as I had been contacted by a young 19-year-old girl who had described to me similar experiences to Jason. Also in her early teens she was taken to a psychiatrist, and when she told him she was seeing aliens, he told her that there was no such thing. Unfortunately for her that is where her story and Jason's change, because, she was diagnosed as psychotic and medicated. Perceived as mentally ill from that time, by the medical profession, as well as her family and friends, meant her life was centered on fear, debilitating medication and isolation. Five years later, at nineteen, she contacted me, when she had gradually questioned her diagnosis and had found out through her own research that others had claimed ET contact.
The similarities of Jason's story to this young woman's gave me the impetus to contact Ann Andrews. I wanted to know if I could use her book as a reference, as I was writing a book as a resource for experiencers. Ann’s response was immediate and encouraging and she said anything that would help others, was fine by her.
I found Ann to be a wonderfully warm and caring individual. Already she was giving much of her time to offer support to many people who had contacted her after reading her book. I was not the only one in Australia who had done this. Ann and I started corresponding and I found that we were able to share many things, including our understanding of the implications of this experience. Ann's own paranormal experiences had frightened her and made her very wary. Despite having very 'intuitive' sons who had become more comfortable with their clairvoyant and psi abilities, Ann had remained very frightened. She was far more 'intuitive' than she wanted to acknowledge. As the months went by, Ann found it helpful to share some of her ongoing experiences with me. I appreciated and valued her trust.
Gradually she told me of one of the most difficult issues for her, which was the awareness she had another son on the ship with the Extraterrestrials, this fact was explored only briefly in her book. Ann found the whole issue very distressing. To add to her pain was the fact that Jason was aware of her other 'son' who was his brother and who also was aware of the name she had secretly given him, which was 'Nathan'. Jason was quite angry with her in the fact that Ann struggled to acknowledge Nathan, who Jason said, wanted to meet her, and who loved her. Ann struggled with many conflicting feelings, clouded by deep pain and anger. She had always felt the 'Aliens' had used her and taken her baby without her consent. How could she then meet the son, who they had taken in that way, when she felt so much anger and hurt? She felt she just couldn't bring herself to do it. Although this made Jason very angry, he couldn't understand why his mum would not want to meet his brother, who was also her son!
I knew and understood that this was a huge issue for Ann. Over the months, she had confided to me her concerns over this issue. I knew that she needed someone to work with her who had the therapeutic skills and experience in this area to explore it in more depth. She needed a clearer picture not only because she had uncomfortable and painful 'flashbacks' of the time when Nathan was taken, but also she needed to find out from more than just a conscious level what her limited jigsaw of events was showing her. She had no one she could turn to do this. Regression work in this specialist area is only done in a very limited way in the UK. This, I believe, is due to concerns with the process and validity. Therefore, Ann had no one she could turn to.
I knew I might be able to help, as a portion of my work is assisting individuals, through focused relaxation, to explore from deeper levels of awareness what their subconscious wants to show them. I have had much success by using this way of working, to open up not only the memories of a particular experience, but can often access deeper understanding about it, which can lead to a new awareness, integration and healing. I knew that if we met physically, then I could help Ann in this way too. Ann and I had built up such a rapport and trust after two and a half years, I knew she would allow me to help her with this, if the opportunity arose and finally it did.
In November 2000, Ann decided that she would bring the family for a 6-week holiday to Australia, to meet the support group and friends she had already connected with and myself of course. I arranged for them to stay with a very aware lady who was a good friend of mine, so they could be themselves without concerns. During the stay, Ann was happy to tell her story to the support group and the ASPR/UFORUM (Australasian Society for Psychical Research) in Perth at Murdoch University. Despite her limited public speaking experience and nervousness, Ann spoke clearly and articulately about her family and their paranormal and ET related experiences.
During this time, I was finally able to spend some time with Ann, not only to help with her overcoming her fear of the paranormal, but also through offering her some intuitive 'tools' to manage her 'psi' clairvoyant abilities and finally exploring with Ann a fuller perspective regarding her truth about her third son, Nathan. It was one of the most moving and powerful sessions I have ever done with someone.
Ann bravely tells her side of this experience in her own story about her time here in Australia.
I had known 'intuitively' that part of the reason Ann had come to OZ was for her to finally work out her issue about her son, Nathan. The hurt, and anger she felt by the forcible removal of her child without her consent was unforgivable to her. Ann was terrified about exploring this issue as the pain of it was so deep and to revisit it was to be unbelievably difficult. However, I had Ann’s trust, and she knew that this might be the only opportunity for her to explore it with me. Bravely and with a certain resignation and trepidation, she allowed me to begin. Initially to relax her further, we talked briefly about her conscious memories and the flashbacks, before the regression began. The only positive thing she could remember she said was that one of the 'beings', a tall gentle being she later recognised as the 'soldier' man, stroking her forehead, after taking her baby, saying that they would look after him. This was my only clue that there was more she needed to know about this very harrowing experience. It was so sensitive an issue that to even broach it always brought Ann near tears.
I knew Ann had dreaded this session. Understandably terrified, knowing the pain she would feel revisiting the snatches of memory she had slowly over the years become aware of. I asked for all the assistance I could from those 'loving spirit helpers' that I believe assist me in my work. This was like the surgeon doing the most delicate of surgery. To trust that now Ann was ready to understand once and for all the circumstances behind her child being taken by the ET's.
She had told me that she had been nearly three months pregnant. Her doctor had told her that if she went ahead with the pregnancy she could jeopardize her life, as well as the baby's. So, she had already been in the process of trying to decide if she could go ahead with the pregnancy, with the risk of losing the baby as well as her life. She had two children and a loving husband - what would happen to them if she died?
One morning, the decision appeared to be made for her, as Ann woke up the next day finding herself surrounded by blood and no longer pregnant and strangely there too was no fetus. It was another mystery that for some time Ann couldn't explain, along with her doctor. Slowly, through her 'dreams' and frightening flashbacks of this event, Ann was given clues to what really happened, but the facts were far worse to her than the mystery. What she suspected was too bizarre to tell any doctor. What she really came to believe, through these dreams, was that Extraterrestrials had stolen her baby from her and that he was alive, but not with her!
I did not know what this session with Ann was going to reveal, what would we uncover? A horrendous picture of ET abuse or something quite different? The last thing I wanted was for Ann to be in a worse emotional state than before. I hoped that Ann would gain some understanding, healing and peace. I began to lead Ann on her journey of discovery, but in my heart all I could hope was that whatever it was, it would finally help her to understand why the ET's had taken her child.
The start was slow and painful, Ann was clearly struggling with her memory of that fateful night when her whole world was ripped apart, when one day she was pregnant with a child and then to find that the next morning she had no baby, just pain and blood, with a deep emptiness that filled her soul with hurt and anger. Slowly and with choking sobs, Ann recalled the night 'they' came. From the moment 'they' took her to the ship and had her waiting for the procedure, Ann was plainly struggling to revisit her experience. She needed much gentle support and encouragement to continue. The procedure was so painful to her that I lead her to she view it detached from her body so that she could see what happened, without experiencing some of the pain. Ann saw her baby taken from her, then 'they' moved the baby to another room, where finally she saw it placed there. She knew her child, was alive.
As a facilitator, it was very hard to remain detached as Ann’s description of her experience was so heartrenching and any mother would be able to relate to her pain. Ann’s deep emotion surrounding this experience would completely negate any suggestion that this was a 'confabulation' of events, as is often suggested with regression work. (In other words a construct of the client's imagination.) The experience and its impact were almost too difficult for her to verbalize to me emotionally and physically her body shook. Concerned for her, I tried to help her continue by distancing her from the emotional content as much as I could.
I knew that if I was to keep her on track, we might finally learn why this had happened. To bring her back to a fully conscious awareness at this point would just awaken and reinforce all that she had originally believed i.e. ET races were cruel and heartless and had no concern for human rights or feelings.
At this point, I called to the part of her that 'knew' the part of her that answers from this space, what I call the person's 'inner wisdom' and asked why did 'they' (the ET's) take the baby? Ann spoke firmly and clearly. She recalled a special room she had been taken to and the 'soldier' being was there, he radiated love and concern. She said, 'he' had explained to her that it was the only way to save her and the baby's life. If she had gone ahead with the pregnancy, then she would have died as well as the child. (Ann knew this already from her human doctor’s information.) However, the decision was hers, she said. She had agonized over this, but 'knew' she couldn't risk a pregnancy and leave her husband Paul alone to cope with raising two small boys. Heartbreakingly, she made her decision, but she made them promise they would take the best care of him and they must love him. She said, most of all really love him and to tell her son that she loved him and that she had no choice. Only when the 'soldier' man promised this, she agreed, as it was the only way to save Nathan's and her own life. She knew that although he would never be able to live with them as a family, he would at least live. The special being that had visited her had promised that he would do as she asked.
It was hard to keep the tears from my own face as I heard this; Ann's face too was covered in tears. I knew that there was one last thing I needed to do as I said to her now would you see your son? Ann nodded through her tears, and as she did that, her face lighted up with the most amazing smile and said, "I see him, I see him, he is standing with the 'soldier' man, holding out a red rose to me". Ann embraced him saying, "he is telling me he knows all about us, as Jason often talks to him." Tears framed Ann's face.
Ann tells in her own words about this incredible experience in an article that she has written about her time in West Australia which will be in a sequel to her book, Abducted. I just listened in awe and relief as with more than a few tears in my own eyes. Ann finally looked at last as if she could have some peace. Wet with tears, I brought Ann into a more conscious awareness; we hugged one another as she cried some more. I also felt very emotional and I defy anyone who had witnessed such an amazing experience not to be. With relief and thanks to my 'invisible' helpers, Ann had been shown what she needed in order to heal and move on. We talked about this for a short while, until Ann was calmer and when I felt she was ready, I left her alone to become composed because Paul and Jason were outside. I knew she would need a little more space and she was not quite ready to face them with this, she needed time to integrate what she had learnt.
I was relieved that Ann had finally received the information that would help her move forward, heal and integrate with this ET experiences in a way that was beneficial to her. My job was done.
Ann continued to have more amazing experiences whilst in WA. and the family left with vows to return, particularly the boys who loved the lifestyle and friendliness of the people. They said they had found true friends and acceptance here and this was what they would miss the most. We too had learnt so much from them and their courage and honesty. My journey with Ann and the family continues and they are now good friends as well as companions along this incredible journey.
The saga continues……….
I recently received a letter from Ann in the UK. Following is an excerpt:
"I have seen Nathan a few times since our visit, but strangely I 'feel' him more than that and then I can see him in my mind very clearly. Usually when I am writing - and getting stuck with words to express myself – that is the time he comes to me. The whole room changes; the atmosphere becomes warm and though its hard to put into word, love and immense feelings of peace abound. It is a truly wonderful experience every time. I used to ask if it was Nathan, and I would always get the image of him and the answer "Yes, Mum". Now I don't ask anymore as I know his energies and always the same love and inner peace. I know this will sound incredible Mary, but I feel that he helps me with my writing. I always get over my word block then thoughts and details enter my head and I can't get them all down quick enough! I rush through the particular piece of writing and then, exhausted, sit in silence just enjoying what we have together. He always says goodbye, but I don't feel sad, as I know that he always returns - and it's the greatest feeling in the whole world! All thanks to a very great lady. Thank you."
ACERN thanks Ann, Paul and family for sharing with courage their incredible story.
My thanks to Ann especially for having the courage to share such an intimate part of her story with us all. For what we discovered that day was part of the amazing enigma of our intimate relationship with our Extraterrestrial visitors and that we are still only scratching the surface of what our connection with our galactic neighbours are showing us.
References:
Abduction ........................................ John Mack
Abducted ......................................... Ann Andrews and Jean Ritchie
Secret's Truth and Destiny ................... Elizabeth Robinson
Alien Investigator ............................... Tony Dodd
