So what about the long shape shifter story HJ? Since I assume that story is about a closer experience (closer than the lights in the sky), it might provide some other interesting insights too.
Thank you for asking. Sorry for the belated response I've been busy.
So I wrote that mufon article I cited about what I saw and felt from the air. I got the feeling that I should leave our what happened on the ground... Which was a close encounter of the 3rd kind on the Hynek scale. I ended up getting a call from some spooky old man asking me about the whereabouts of the experience and my whereabouts, but not any questions on the experience which I thought was odd. Said he was with MUFON.
We decided to camp overnight in a state park and we would sneak in. This was once heavily contested native ground I might add. It was the Tonkawa hunter gatherers and the Apache nation that fought along the river we were camping on. As well as the settlers.
We hiked into the camp and saw a single strike of dry lightening. The sun had gone down but the moon was bright. There was no clouds in the sky at that time anywhere that could be seen. Clouds only began to blow in from the south many hours later. About 7 hours later clouds came in. I am aware lightening can miles in front of a storm but this wasn't even a storm, literally just the only clouds began blowing in 7 hours after this lightening. In Texas you can see the sky very well, the first Spanish explorers noted that "it felt like you were in a bowl looking up." Just putting into context this peculiar lightening strike.
I remark to my friends that dry lightening is associated with UFO activity. Foreshadowing what would happen later that night. We make camp and build a small fire to keep the wild boar away, our only weapons are 2 machetes. We are less than a mile from a major highway if we needed to walk out, it would only be minutes. But that wasn't the plan, no, the plan was to stay until sunset and enjoy the sunset then head home when it starts to get hot.
About an hour after we make camp, a volley of .45 caliber handgun shots ring out really close to us. We didn't hear any projectiles or twigs snapping or anything really except the gunshots. We freeze. I throw dirt on the fire instinctively and kill the music to listen.... Silence.... "We are on the edge of the property line of the park" I whisper, " maybe someone just having fun at night?". "Maybe someone shooting at hogs" my friend chimes in. Maybe a warning shot to warm intruders (us) at night not to come further. Maybe shooting at something that wasnt quite of this world... We wait anxiously for any other clues. Nothing. The coast is clear it seems. So I rebuild the fire from the embers and we turn a little music back on. It's a weekend, people shoot guns at night all the time unfortunately but we have about a like 50 foot cliff at least to our back, and we are on the highest position of the river. Intentionally. We can see all around us except behind us towards the cliff. If anyone or anything tried to come at us from this massive clearing we will see them... Wouldn't want to be walked up by a hobo or anything. Funny we had the instinct to look out for something beforehand hand as well.
We decide to stay because everyone but me has a good feeling. I start to feel like something is wrong and it wasn't the gunshots, although that was disconcerting for sure. But we weren't going to go on that property so we would be fine. My friends break out a bottle of whiskey. I refuse the shot, I say "I feel like I am going to need every sense to be at it's best." Nothing has even happened since the weird gunshots like an hour ago. Just the sounds of nature. But start to have this feeling like 20 minutes after that something
else was there. I have this feeling that something nearby was listening to us... Like we were prey kind of? We begin talking about some pretty heavy stuff. Human consciousness, thought layering of our perceptions, visualizing our position in the solar system and galaxy. Then you try and project that outwards towards space. It's not the same as astral projection but it's similar, it's just visualization like I said. Then you try and manifest love as best as you can. I had just read this online and then heard of it being done by Buddhist monks, so I gave it a shot with my friends. During this conversation I felt something getting closer and more intensively listening to us. I began to literally feel it watching over us, reading our minds, hanging on our every thought and word. At this point we decided to go down the hill and look at the moon by this massive tree just stood out. A dead tree but it still connected to us somehow like we really liked it. The thought of this tree and looking at the moon in this big clearing made me On our way down we started by following what 3 of us including myself thought was JB. We followed him in the moonlight through the waist high foliage. He stopped for a few seconds and let us get closer then kept walking. We follow him another 15 yards or so and he stops again. This time he lifts his left arm out straight and turns his head using his arm to cover his face like a vampire. We make eye contact and I stop in my tracks, something is off... I shout " hey **** I know you can hear me, I can feel you listening to us." It keeps walking forward in between two large shrubs in the clearing, really the only foliage in the entire large clearing. He stops for a 3rd time and stands still waiting for us to get within 2 yard or so. JB, who we are following, does a clean tuck and roll into the bushes to the left and disappears. We all freeze. JB is a heavier set guy, he couldn't do that... After this point everyone has their own version of events. I will tell what I experienced. At this moment my friends hear a inside joke we have with one another, trying to affirm it's one of us. I hear a scratchy "hey c'mere" I take a step or two towards the bush so I could see through the leaves with the moonlight and I see 2 long slender grey arms in a ape like stance with no visible hair I could see. At this point I scream " **** this! It lead us here! Into the very steps we are standing!" And I take off sprinting towards the exit of the park. My friend L comes running after me asking what I am talking about and to not run out into the city because it might be dangerous and that we need to stick together. I get this feeling that I need to shed as much light on this situation as possible, literally. I was going to put tea candles everywhere to make a perimeter. I had a feeling to stay moving! Very important feeling, urgent, almost like my life depended on it. L says he need to urinate and I see him walk up to the bushes and begin.