Sky People (13 page)

“The old, old stories tell us that the Maya were guided to this land by the Sky People,” the elder said, “but these are not the stories we tell the invaders.” He identified himself as Ramiro, but as the evening wore on, he admitted he had selected the name to protect his real identity. “There are those who believe we should not share our knowledge with outsiders, but you are
Indios
, and so I tell you, so you may pass this knowledge along to others. I believe the more that people know about our origins and the origins of all people of the Earth, the better prepared we will be when the Sky People return. Still, I will call myself Ramiro.” He paused, and took a drink of the black Guatemalan coffee and asked Mateo for a sweet roll, which Mateo picked up at the counter and delivered to the elder. “Mateo tells me you may someday write a book about your adventure in Maya country. It is all right with me if you add my story. It needs to be told.” After he ate half of the sweet concoction Mateo had set before him, I asked my first question and waited for Mateo to translate.

“Why do you believe the Sky People chose to place the Maya in Guatemala?” I asked.

“This land, which the world calls Guatemala, was not chosen for us by the Sky People. We came to the land the invaders call Mexico, but when we fled the invaders, we came here to Guatemala and hid in the mountain jungles. The ancient Maya referred to themselves as the children of the Mayab or inhabitants of the Land of the Chosen. This land had everything we needed to survive. The right climate for feeding ourselves. Animals for food and protection. An altitude and terrain similar to our home place. It was perfect for us.”

“So are you telling me that the jungle climate of Guatemala was the same as your home planet?” I asked. He nodded when Mateo translated and took another bite of his roll.

“An elder in Honduras told me that the Maya possessed a star map that allowed them to travel the Universe. What, if anything, can you tell me about that?” I asked. I waited as Mateo translated.

“It is true. Our people possessed a star map. We knew our way around the Universe,” he said. “The star map was our guide. That is how we got here.”

“What happened to the star map?” I asked.

“Lost, burned, destroyed by the invaders or Catholic priests. The invaders [Spaniards] and their priests feared our knowledge about the Universe and our origins. They thought it was evil and rejected it as the work of the Devil. They were such uncivilized men who did not appreciate nor understand an advanced culture like the Maya.” He paused for a moment and spoke to Mateo in his traditional Mayan dialect before he continued. “Man always destroys what he does not understand. It is the same the world over.”

“So is everything lost today or is some of the past knowledge still known?” I asked.

“Our chants to the heavens allow us to speak to the Star people even today. There are living Maya who can talk to the Sky People, but it is an ancient practice, alive and well in Guatemala and Mexico.”

“Obviously, it is widely known among archaeologists, historians, and other Mayanists that the Maya were great astronomers. Has any of your knowledge about the Universe been proven by modern-day astronomers?”

“Our legends speak to the birth of the heavens. Much of our ancient knowledge has been confirmed by astronomers today,” he said.

“Do your young people know these stories?” I asked.

“Only a few of the young know. We choose those who learn the old ways wisely. Most of our young people do not hold to the old stories. The grandmothers have kept the stories for those who really want to know. The Lacandon in Mexico are the real protectors of our knowledge. Their young people listen to the elders, but then they are more isolated than our children.”

“Do you believe that the Sky People still come to you when you pray or chant?” I asked.

“The Sky People come to those who believe,” he said. “I know the role that the Sky People played in our lives. So they come to me and take me far into space and they tell me things.”

“What kind of things do they tell you?” I asked.

“They tell me to practice our chants and pass on our knowledge to those who will listen. They tell us many sad things are about to happen to this earth. They tell us to be ready with our chants and the Sky People will remember us and come for us. We just need to say our chants and they will hear.”

“Can you tell me specifically any one thing that they tell you?” I asked.

“They say that one day a great volcano will open under the sea and all the land connecting North and South America will drop into the ocean. As the land sinks, all of the people of these countries will not know where to go. There will be only the water, but the Maya will be taken by the Sky People to the heavens.”

“Do you believe that these things will happen?” I asked.

“It will happen very soon, but the people do not listen. Two-thousand twelve will not be the end of the world, only the beginning of a difficult time. The next decade will witness great suffering of the people of the Earth. There will be signs in the heavens if people will take the time to look skyward, but most are too busy to look. They will miss the signs.”

“When you are taken to the stars and the land sinks, will you be returned to Earth, once the destruction is over?” I asked.

“Some of us will return, but others will go to another star to begin a new world. This is what the Sky People tell us,” he said.

Later that evening, Ramiro invited me to join him in a prayer ceremony. Mateo and I ventured into the mountains outside of his village, and there on his prayer mount he laid out his corn kernels and bowls. He chanted to the heavens and spoke to the ancestors.

A
lthough I did not travel the Universe that night, I felt myself a part of the cosmos of the Maya people
.

G
uatemala has some of the most amazing UFO encounters on record. Especially remarkable is the sheer variety of the sightings, which range from straightforward accounts of flying objects to abductions, landings, and cattle mutilation, as well as contactee accounts and strange beings that emerge from oddly shaped craft
.

In this chapter, you will read the story of four young men, three brothers and a cousin, who gave a hitchhiker a ride. The hitchhiker turned out to be an alien
.

I met Eliseo, Javier, and their brother, José, at an outdoor cafe. The meeting was arranged by Mateo, who dropped me off at the small restaurant, while he went in search of another possible contact. I recognized the trio immediately from the description Mateo had given me. They could have passed for identical triplets. They were stout, short men with straight black hair and dimples that outlined their perpetual smiles. They wore sleeveless t-shirts exposing their muscular arms. They stood as I approached their outdoor table, and took off their cowboy hats and placed their machetes on the picnic-like table. When I was seated, José walked to the counter and ordered bottled water for the four of us. I couldn’t help but notice the old rifles that were poised at their side, but for some reason I felt safe among the threesome. For a moment, I thought I might be in the presence of members of the mountain guerillas, but I disregarded the thought as their contagious laughter and jovial manner made
me feel at ease. Mateo had assured me the brothers were all university students and spoke perfect English.

Eliseo, who identified himself as the elder brother, set the stage for the interview. “We were leaving a wedding reception for our sister in Guatemala City. There was me, José, Javier, and our cousin Miguel. We left after everyone else was gone, because we agreed to return some chairs and tables that our sister had borrowed for the reception. As we loaded the back of the van, a stranger approached us and asked for a ride. Thinking he was a guest of the bridegroom, we agreed to give him a lift.”

“I drove,” José said. “Instead of following the main highway, I took a service road that led around the city. It was strange because I had never taken that road, and yet I felt compelled to choose that road. We were a few miles outside the residential area when the front tire began to wobble. I pulled onto the shoulder of the road in front of a textile factory. It was very dark. No moon, no light at all. That’s another thing. There were always lights on at the textile factory, but this night it was pitch black. No lights.”

“Let’s go back to why you took an unfamiliar road out of Guatemala City. Who suggested it?” I asked.

“I’m not sure anyone suggested it. For some reason, I knew this was the way I had to go. I don’t know why,” José said.

“What was your hitchhiker doing at this time?”

“That’s another strange thing. All of us—my brothers, my cousin, and me—had to remove the chairs and tables from the back of the van to reach the toolbox so we could fix the tire. At some point, we realized he was gone. He disappeared.”

“Didn’t you think that was strange?”

“It was just another event in that crazy night. Everything was loco that night, but it got crazier.”

“Before you go on, could you tell me about your hitchhiker?” I asked.

“I really didn’t pay much attention to him. When he asked for a ride, I turned briefly and looked at him. He was dressed like everyone else at the wedding: jeans, white shirt, cowboy hat
pulled low over his eyes. He was taller than me and skinny. I thought to myself that this guy had never seen a day’s work. He was not like the four of us. We have muscles.” As if on cue, the three brothers showed me their muscles like a group of bodybuilders, and then, as if embarrassed, they collected themselves and looked at me like small boys with their hands caught in a cookie jar.

“Anything else?” I asked.

“Not that I remember, but we could go to Miguel’s house. He’s our cousin. He was with us. I’m sure he will tell you what happened that night. He will be interested in meeting you, although his wife will probably get jealous. She doesn’t like him talking to women,” Eliseo said. “We are single so we don’t deal with jealous women.”

“Yeah, and we like it that way,” José added. Again, they laughed like teenage boys and gave each other nods of approval.

“We will talk about visiting your cousin when Mateo returns, but for now, please tell me what happened after you unloaded your van and found your tools.”

“We had a lantern for light. We lit it and found the tools. I started to remove the tire. Miguel helped me remove the lug nuts and José brought the spare. Javier started yelling about a vehicle with bright headlights that was approaching about a kilometer (.6 miles) away. We continued working without paying attention to his warning. I wanted to get the tire changed and get home. Just as I replaced the flat tire with the spare, a light suddenly appeared behind us above the parking lot of the textile factory. The light was no longer like headlights, but it turned into a bluish light that was so bright it lit up the night. I concentrated on tightening the lug nuts, while José, Javier, and Miguel loaded the chairs and table back into the van. I jumped into the driver’s seat while Javier jumped in the passenger seat, and José and Miguel opened the back door and fell inside,” Eliseo said.

“At this point, did you know it was a UFO?” I asked.

“I’m not sure we said it out loud, but I think I knew it was an UFO, but we just didn’t say it. We were scared. When I turned the key in the ignition, the engine failed to start.”

“What did you do at this point?”

“José opened the car door and tried to get out of the van, but suddenly, he was paralyzed. We were all paralyzed. That’s when the hitchhiker reappeared. He was no longer dressed like the four of us,” Eliseo said.

“He was wearing a white one-piece suit, but—the strangest thing of all—he was still wearing the cowboy hat. He opened the door and climbed into the passenger’s seat. He told us not to fear. He closed the door and then the van began to move toward the craft. A bright white light fell on the road in front of us and I felt the van move upward. All the time, the stranger is saying that we should not be afraid,” Javier interjected.

“Can you describe the craft?”

“I never really saw it. None of us did. The lights blinded us,” Eliseo said.

“Did they take the four of you on board the craft?” I asked.

“They took the van, the four of us, and the hitchhiker onboard. Once we were onboard the craft, the doors opened and we were surrounded by four strangers. They were like humans, but they were not human. They had the strangest red eyes. They pulled us out of the van and with one hand they lifted our feet off the ground and carried us down a long hallway. The lights inside hurt my eyes and I closed them to avoid the blinding pain. We complained about the blinding lights and they lowered them a little, but it did not help much.”

“Can you describe these strangers?”

“The tall ones with red eyes were very strong. They could lift us with one hand. Other than the red eyes, they looked like humans, but they showed no expression. They never spoke to us. José struggled against them, but it did no good. They wore light-colored suits, maybe a light blue. I could not be sure. The light hurt. It hurt my eyes. When I complained again, they changed the lights to a greenish glow.”

“Can you describe your abductors?” I asked.

“They had light-colored brown hair and big, round bright blue eyes. I had never seen such blue eyes,” said Eliseo. The others nodded.

“Did you see other humans on board the craft?”

“After we were placed in the room, two others entered that we had not seen before, along with our hitchhiker. In a calm voice, our strange passenger assured us they meant us no harm. One of the others was a woman, I think. She was taller than the others with longer blond hair. She came forward and pricked my finger and took my blood. She took the others’ blood, too. After that, she left the room. A few minutes passed and two different strangers entered the room. They led us down another hallway. That is the last thing I remember until I woke up behind the steering wheel of the van several hours later,” Javier said.