Nakhon Sawan (CNN) — A hilltop in central Thailand is attracting UFO seekers who
believe extraterrestrials hover above a huge Buddha statue, send
telepathic communiques, walk across nearby sugarcane fields and use a
crocodile-infested lake as a portal from their planets -- Pluto and
Loku.
Though it may
sound like science fiction, a small group of individuals claims messages
from aliens arriving in spaceships include plenty of traditional
religious teachings too -- leading them to believe they are actually
Buddhist.
It's all happening three hours by road or rail north from Bangkok in Nakhon Sawan -- which translates to "City of Heaven."
Without all the UFO hype,
it's just a laid-back small town. But followers believe that if you
meditate on Khao Kala hill, outside of Nakhon Sawan, you could hear the
talkative silver creatures as voices in your head, speaking whatever
language your thoughts usually chatter.
They
do offer a disclaimer, saying there is no guarantee you will see UFOs
or aliens, which are described as unpredictable, speaking or appearing
spontaneously and disappearing after a few hours.
Richard S. Ehrlich
|
Government attempts to ban gatherings
The group's activities have gotten them into trouble with Thai authorities in recent weeks.
Government
officials reportedly grew alarmed when UFO seekers began crowding onto
Khao Kala hill to see and talk with aliens, possibly endangering the
area's official "protected forest area" status.
Visitors
are allowed to climb to the top of the hill and view the large Buddha
statue and nearby "Buddha footprint," which are places of public
worship. But the law forbids anyone from living or staying overnight in
such zones, including previous UFO seekers who pitched tents at the
site.
In August,
about 40 officials, including members of the Forestry Department,
disbanded a group of Thai enthusiasts at the top of Khao Kala, and
petitioned a court to ban mass gatherings there.
On September 20, about 30 police
and forestry officials confronted Wassana Chuensamnaun, lead campaigner
for the extraterrestrials, and about 60 other UFO enthusiasts.
The
group, wearing white clothing, planned to have a video made while
members "meditated" atop the hill after sunset in hopes of mind-melding
with aliens, Wassana tells CNN Travel.
Not
wanting to be arrested, the UFO followers regrouped at the bottom of
the hill on private property, meditated for a few hours and departed,
she says.
"When the UFO spun me, I didn't feel dizzy at all"
As
for the origins of the hill's supposed attractiveness to
extraterrestrials, believers say it all began in 1997, when retired
Sergeant-Major Cherd Chuensamnaun, deep in Buddhist meditation at home,
received mental messages from what he insisted were aliens.
He told his family. They scoffed.
"I asked my father to tell the aliens to show themselves," says Wassana, his daughter.
"The next day, the aliens sent energy to spin my brother and brother-in-law."
She
says the two men were yanked up from the living room sofa and spun
simultaneously, like whirling dervishes, out of the house and into the
yard.
"I felt like my legs and my arms had to spin," adds Wassana's brother-in-law Jaroen Raepeth.
"I could not control myself for four or five minutes. I didn't feel afraid. We both spun outside."
Richard S. Ehrlich
|
Through an upstairs window, Wassana's sister-in-law says she saw a UFO.
"It was about 10 or 15 meters long, at treetop level," adds Wassana.
Asked
to re-enact his spinning, Jaroen twirls slowly around the living room
with his arms out, but soon falls down and stays on the floor, looking
dazed.
"I feel dizzy. But when the UFO spun me, I didn't feel dizzy at all."
Wassana, who quit her job as a
nurse to champion the extraterrestrial, says her father continued to
receive telepathic messages over the years.
"Before my father died [in 2000], he taught us how to communicate with the aliens," she adds.
Today,
she says more than 100 other Thais have this ability after practicing
with her. Followers post updates and photos at the family's-linked UFOKaoKala Facebook group and elsewhere, some insisting they too have seen aliens and spaceships in the area.
Manop Ampan
|
Silvery spaceships filled with silvery humanoids
Most
alien encounters are reported near the family's home, on the outskirts
of Nakhon Sawan at Khao Kala hill amid sugarcane fields and Bueng
Boraphet Lake, which villagers warn is crocodile infested.
The aliens are described as slender, little, silvery humanoids.
Illustrations
depict them standing upright on two legs with two arms and a bulbous
bald head with a pointy face topped with a single antenna. Huge, glossy,
almond-shaped black eyes gaze above a thin nose and miniature mouth.
Believers say silvery spaceships
appear festooned with colorful lights or resemble the domed, circular,
retro-UFOs seen in low-budget 1950s movies.
"There are two types of aliens," Wassana says. "One group is from the planet Pluto. The others are from a planet named Loku.
"Pluto
aliens are made of energy, can appear in physical form and are able to
teach humans. Loku aliens have a physical body and knowledge of high
technology. They work together.
"Pluto
aliens worry about something so devastating happening on Earth, such as
war or in the environment, that it might impact their planet. They also
want to give some people the ability to communicate with them, so if
humans destroy everything in a nuclear war, the aliens will be able to
help survivors rebuild human civilization."
The planet Loku "is in the Milky Way, but they didn't tell us where."
The aliens' purported choice of
Khao Kala is unusual because it is the smallest among a cluster of
loftier hills. Meditators say they are thankful they don't have to climb
very high to reach the top.
Up
there, a larger-than-life statue portrays Buddha protected by a
mythical seven-headed "naga" snake, which has topped the hill for many
years and was not associated with any UFOs before the family's tales.
A
360-degree view from the hill includes flat sugarcane fields below,
where Wassana and other believers say they have seen aliens disembark a
UFO, walk around and then vanish in an atomized puff.
"I've
lived 10,000 years," Pluto's alien leader revealed in communiqués
purportedly channeled through Wassana during 1998 and 1999.
"How
long does it take for me to travel from Pluto to here? I travel through
dimensions. It's advanced physics. I travel with my mind."
'Embrace the cosmic laws'
Wassana
says Pluto's alien leader also told her that Buddha was "the greatest
human mind," and "never spoke to humans about paying attention to
extraterrestrials, or about trying to communicate with them," but did
tell followers "to embrace the cosmic laws."
Mind-melding
communiqués from Pluto to Wassana include lots of advice about "karma,"
"reincarnation," "greed," "fear" and other Buddhist concerns, she says,
as well as the altruistic thought-bubble that you shouldn't worry about
Earth's Apocalypse from nuclear war, climate change, mutant diseases or
other "catastrophes."
Technologically superior, benevolent aliens promise to take care of selected "survivors."
Richard S. Ehrlich
|
That's good news in this Southeast Asian country where 95% of the population is Buddhist.
It
may also give followers legal and social protection if their UFO group
gets too popular. Thai authorities and society frown on anything they
perceive as a cult that veers too far from traditional religious beliefs
and becomes influential.
Buddhism
is open to the possibility of extraterrestrials, ghosts, spirits and
other non-human life, but warns against being sucked into an invisible
cul-de-sac of absurd illusions.
When asked about Thais seeing
UFOs and communicating with aliens, Buddhist scholar Veeranut
Rojanaprapa, who has a PhD in philosophy and religion from St. John's
University in Bangkok, tells CNN Travel: "We don't need to know if it is
real or not, if it's a fake story or it's reality. Buddha taught us
that maybe the one who says that he thinks he can directly speak with
the alien, or he believes, he hears them.
"But
it is not useful. It doesn't matter if he hears the alien or not. It
does not help us for [experiencing] nirvana," says Veeranut. "We do not
say if it is right or wrong if the human can speak to the alien. But
please listen carefully: most of the situations are only illusion."
Nevertheless,
Bangkok-based Ploy Buranasiri has been visiting Khao Kala for nine
years and says she's seen aliens and UFOs there several times.
Asked what she would like to say to the aliens, says: "I would like ask for a relocation to their planet."
Sukwasa Mukprom, 32, visited Khao Kala more than 10 times during the past year.
"I want the aliens to send me the power to make me brave," she says.
Richard S. Ehrlich
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