<\/p>\n
Is Colorado a destination for beings from other galaxies?<\/p>\n
Longmont-based author and paranormal investigator Richard Estep\u2019s new book, \u201cColorado UFOs,\u201d talks to people who claim they have seen UFOs in the Centennial State\u2019s skies \u2013 some who say they have even made contact.<\/p>\n
Estep, who is an EMT, said writing a book about UFOs wasn\u2019t exactly on his radar; in fact, it was his publisher\u2019s idea to investigate what\u2019s going on in Colorado.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018Well, I\u2019m not a UFO guy. I\u2019ve read on the subject, I\u2019ve more than a passing interest in it; I can talk about it somewhat intelligently in a conversation, but I\u2019m not an expert,\u201d he said. \u201cThey said, \u2018That\u2019s kind of what we want. \u2026 We want to look at the human experiences to what\u2019s going on in the UFO scene in Colorado. Go find out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The two-year writing adventure took Estep to locations around the state \u2013 to some pretty strange places, he said, including into a forest clearing outside Evergreen at midnight with people who were trying to contact an alien ship. He said what took longest was forming connections with the people he met.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just don\u2019t walk into that community and get people to trust you and talk to you,\u201d he said. \u201cFortunate for me is that having the connections in the paranormal, the ghost side of things, a lot of people knew people, and based on their referrals and recommendations, I was able to make some contacts and have people tell me their stories. But it didn\u2019t happen overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n
And as he did research for the book, he said he was warned by people that things could get a little weird: \u201cThey said, \u2018Be prepared for high strangeness,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In \u201cColorado UFOs,\u201d Estep describes the experiences of people who have seen unidentified flying objects, who claim to have been abducted and have been contacted. He said it\u2019s often hard for people to tell their stories for fear of not being taken seriously, or worse, being made fun of. There was also the risk of the author being taken advantage of by people making false claims.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are people that are often ridiculed for what they say they experienced. There\u2019s a lot of stigma with it. \u2026 But in the case of this book, I had more than one person tell me, \u2018Hey, I\u2019ll tell you my story, I\u2019ll share it because I think it\u2019s important, but please change my name, please change my circumstances, my location. The story, of course, is the story, but remove anything that could identify me.\u2019 You have to ask yourself: How does that person gain?\u201d<\/p>\n
The stories Estep recounts in his book are amazing: He takes readers through the various theories about what is exactly going on at Denver International Airport, to the mysterious death of Philip Schneider, who was incredibly vocal about the work he did as an engineer for the U.S. military in underground installations. There are stories about UFO sightings in Breckenridge and personal stories of people who claim to have been visited by extraterrestrials, some over the course of decades.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s San Luis Valley, where you can visit, and even camp, at the UFO Watchtower in Hooper in Saguache County. Owned by Judy Messoline, who originally bought the land to ranch, the UFO Watchtower has logged countless sightings.<\/p>\n
What is it about the San Luis Valley that seems to attract so much activity?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s something about that area that goes back for hundreds of years that\u2019s always made it almost a mystical location. Whether it\u2019s geological, whether it\u2019s something to do with the way that it\u2019s structured, whether it\u2019s the mountains, I have no idea why specifically it\u2019s the case,\u201d Estep said. \u201cBut if you start delving into folklore and historical records, for many, many years, you\u2019ve got these kind of UFO stories and fantastical stories coming out of that one region of Colorado. It\u2019s basically a UFO valley, isn\u2019t it? You start digging, and the phenomena of that area go back forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Estep wrote in the beginning of \u201cColorado UFOs\u201d that he\u2019s no closer to figuring out what he believes when it comes to the subject.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s needed, he said, is more study into the subject, but not many scientists are willing to go out on a limb to study the subject for fear of academic stigma.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that we do need more evidence, we do need more proof. But at the same time, as I talked to these witnesses, people that were experiencing this phenomena, there are a lot of consistencies in what they told me.\u201d<\/p>\n
And at the end of the book, he challenges readers to think about what they believe.<\/p>\n
He concludes, though, that despite what readers may or may not believe about the existence of UFOs, aliens and other worlds \u201cout there,\u201d there are bigger lessons about humanity we would be wise to consider.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo whether that\u2019s true or not, in terms of are there other races out there? I don\u2019t know, but the story I\u2019m being told consistently just kind of rings true: We do need to grow the hell up. We do need to stop destroying our environment. We do need to care less about material things and more about one another. And I think that story is what I was left with after talking to so many of those people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n