A small portion of my reasoning process through all the paranormal/spiritual experiences in my introduction story.
So it has been almost exactly two years since I first saw the two UFOs with my friend. In that time I think the story has been shared with or seen by well over 50 people. Christians, atheists, agnostics, and everything in between.
There have been a lot of suggestions on the specifics of each individual paranormal occurance in my story. Some of them have been decent, but as of yet I have not had any good suggestions that explain all that happened. To reiterate, here is a small portion of things that happened:
There were probably another dozen or so things not mentioned here. But I will focus on these because I think they were the most important. Note that it was not one of these events that convinced me, it was the accumulation of all of them working together that convinced me. And it was not a conclusion I really wanted.
As best I could I ruled out that the ghost voice was anything natural in the apartment. I and the "stranger" spent quite a bit of time ruling out any reproducable phenomena to make the same sound again.
Some have claimed perhaps it was a prank. But there are pieces of information that rule this out. First, the advertisement for the apartment said nothing about a haunting. So we can rule out that the owner was attempting to get attention and gain customers by advertising a "fake" haunted unit. In addition, the stranger that I spoke with (who I am now friends with), was male with a distinctly deep voice. The voice I heard was distinctly a high female voice. It was so convincing I thought it was the owner or another person in the unit.
The stranger was more concerned than I was at the sound, and was insistent it was related to something spiritual before I even believed in it. To top it off, the guy was older, an Episcopalian Christian, and is a respected videographer who is known for his charitable work in places like Haiti who tended to be rather serious in our conversations. In addition, he had no idea I was going to come back to the apartment for a second day to play the prank twice. If he had intended to play a prank on the first day, why would he have done so and lead me to believe it was a human voice without knowing I would come back again? This would certainly be a poor prank.
So whatever made the voice must have known I would come back a second day to "finish" the event. However, when the voice was first heard, even I did not even know that I was going to come back for a second day. So if it was a human doing this, it makes no sense to simply "prank" someone by saying "excuse me, sir" while I was in the bathroom on these two separate days. And it makes even less sense to do a prank like this if you do not know whether you will get a second chance.
In addition, the owner of the apartment had mentioned nothing about a haunting until I brought up the voice that me and the only other person in the house had heard simultaneously from the same location. Only at this point did she mention it was haunted. So this rules out that I was "primed" by some information beforehand to spook me into conjuring up something from my unconscious.
To top it off, despite all this evidence, I still wanted to get more information. So I spoke with the stranger a year later, and he confessed several things. First that the event had deeply concerned him since. Second, he had spoken with the owner more since it happened since they had been friends for years. She had given him more information about other "haunted" events that she, her children, and other guests had experienced. They all were related to a "female" apparition that was in the apartment. Other guests had experienced something similar to me, where they had seen a strange woman in the apartment they thought must be someone else living there only to find out that there was nobody there by that description.
So my experience in the apartment is confirmed by a witness, confirmed by other events that I had no prior knowledge about, and I have ruled out a prank or a subconscious conjuring of the voice.
However, the ghostly voice does not make any confirmations of a religious nature. It simply confirmed for me that at least some paranormal events must occur.
Clearly I saw a UFO. My friend saw the UFO too. However, the first appearance could be interpreted as super fast balloons, or maybe a top-secret government project.
I doubt the balloon explanation quite a bit, simply because of their distance and their speed. They were moving at least as fast the jetliners that were moving through the sky. I am not sure what could make a balloon move that fast. Jet streams tend to be in the couple of hundred miles per hour maximum. Airliners move at 400-500 MPH typically at that altitude. So from that information we can rule out an unpropelled object.
The sky was nearly completely clear of any clouds, was deep blue, and all the jetliners were leaving contrails. I have a photo from a few moments after we saw it of an airliner leaving a distinct contrail as evidence of that. For that reason I think we can eliminate a normal propelled object, as all propelled objects we know of that can travel at that speed use jet engines which would leave a contrail due to condensation.
Now this by itself proves nothing related to religion. We could still at this point argue that it was just a "normal" UFO sighting of which there are thousands reported per year.
However, the next time I see the UFO, it was bright like a star. It was not moving fast, it was just gently gliding. The exact second I look at it, it disappears over a period of about 0.5 seconds against a blue sky. It left no smoke, it did not reappear. It did not blink, it did not flicker at all, and there were no clouds in the sky for it to disappear behind. It just was there hovering, I looked at it, and it disappeared completely. Was it one of the UFOs from the first experience? Possibly, but I do not know for certain. There was only one this time, however.
Then it repeatedly appeared in the exact same fashion over a period of several months. Each time the same way. No smoke, no contrail, no fast movement during these times. Just a bright, hovering star that disappeared the exact instant I looked at it.
My conclusion at this point was that I was being observed directly by something, but I did not know what it was or for what reason. However, internally I took this as a sign of protection due to the dark presence that was around my apartment.
Fast-forward a couple of months after another 3-4 sightings. I was getting a little fed up with this. Regularly I would think I was seeing it again and it would only be an airplane or something similar. Airplanes are easy to identify due to the blinking lights and their predictable movement. So I got good at being able to tell whatever this thing was apart from standard flying objects.
I am familiar with spotting satelites as well, and the next experience ruled this out. Due to being fed up I distinctly remember the day when I was walking home from work and thought to myself "I cannot conclude I am seeing a UFO unless it moves in a way that defies physics".
Shortly after (not sure how many days) I saw it again, and this was the sequence that followed:
The movement of it is unlike anything I had ever seen. It scared me, but also left me in wonder. I was truly seeing a classical UFO.
Now, again, at this point we could conclude that perhaps it was a top-secret government project. What is bewildering is the timing. First of all, why would a top-secret government project be interested in me. And if it wasn't interested in me, what is the probability that I would continue to be at the right place and right time to repeatedly see it? Almost 0. Finally, why would a top-secret government project make itself visible in the Stockholm sky and then shortly after I decided it needed to move in a strange way do exactly what I wished for? The probability of all this added up is infinitesimaly small. It would be easier to believe it was a classic UFO.
But then what happened next convinced me it was not a government.
After discovering that my experience was remarkably similar to what is described in Matthew of the Magi following a "moving star" from nearly two thousand years ago, I prayed that if this thing wanted me to follow it, it should reappear and move in the same manner again. And it did.
So, what is the probability of all the following:
In my opinion, concluding this was a being that could read my thoughts, responded to traditional prayer, and acting in accordance with this was the most rational conclusion.
However, this by itself does not conclude anything related to religion. It only gives a hint that whatever this was was also keenly aware of the reported sighting in Matthew of the magi. After all, the only reason I thought to follow it was because of that passage from nearly two-thousand years ago. And if it wanted to cast doubt on that ancient story, why would it have answered my prayer?
The dark presence first appeared to me when I was probably around 10 or 11 years old. It would repeatedly appear, often when I was alone in my room. At the time I knew nothing about sleep paralysis.
However, I have ruled out sleep paralysis for several reasons:
So eliminating sleep paralysis, we are left with either a demonic entity or some form of mental excitement.
Regarding mental excitement, I think I can be forgiven simply because of the UFO experience that involved a witness. Certainly something was interacting with me and my friend. So something out of the normal was happening. Given the physics-defying movement of the star-thing, we can conclude that at least that was paranormal in nature. So is it unreasonable to conclude that perhaps the dark presence that came back before the UFO appearances was also paranormal in nature? The timing fits.
The dream I had of the angry dog lunging at me occurred when I was probably 15 or so. During that time I was experiencing the dark presence on a regular basis.
One could argue that perhaps the dream was influenced by my knowledge of the Padre Pio quote. However, when I had the dream my family was purely protestant and I knew nothing of Padre Pio. I did not first hear of Padre Pio until I was doing my research years later into evidence for the supernatural shortly before I became an atheist. And during that time I did not encounter the quote by him about the devil being like a rabid dog.
So my first encounter with the quote about the rabid dog was due to the book that the strange from the haunted apartment recommended I read. I did not want to read the book, due to my objections to the Catholic church. But I read it anyway, and at the end encountered the quote, which fit in like a glove with all my experiences. Padre Pio had recountered numerous experiences with similar dark presences, and the quote was in part due to that.
After I woke up from the dream in my teens, a small voice had told me that the devil is always on a chain. Remember, this is before I had heard of Padre Pio. And Padre Pio's quote I read nearly 20 years later had that in his quote.
Given the interaction from the star-like object in the sky, combined with the dark presence during the period of the dream, combined with the absence of the dark presence during my atheist years, combined with the dark presence during the period of the star-like UFO when I was beginning to believe in something supernatural again, combined with the fact I would have never read the Padre Pio qutoe if the person at the apartment during the ghostly voice had not recommended it, I have conclude that all of this is spiritual in nature. I have concluded that the same messenger that marked the dream in my teens was the same messenger that lead me through the ghostly experience in the apartment to talk with the stranger who overheard it. It was the same messenger that pushed him to have me read the book about Padre Pio, and that lead me to read the quote. And that reading of the quote tied together all the events into me concluding that the dark presence must have been the devil and that the messenger clearly was warning me. I have also concluded that since I would have never been lead to follow the star-like UFO without a knowledge of the story of the magi, that the same messenger that appeared to me through the star must have been knowledgeable of, or been the same as, the star that lead to the birth of Jesus.
However, this by itself did not convince me. After all, I could still have been mislead by following the star to the wrong location.
During all these experiences I had started a journal in my Notes app on iOS. Unfortunately early on I was not always writing down the dates, which I regret. However, during this period, roughly in August of 2019, I had an experience where a "voice", similar to the voice after the dream I had in my teens, gave me a cryptic message about "Deliverance".
One could easily conclude that the "deliverance" would be from the dark presence, the same dark presence associated with my dream of the rabid dog. This is an obvious conclusion to anyone with a judeo-Christian background.
However, I did not conclude this when I first got it. I needed more data. So I wrote down that I received the word "deliverance" in my journal at this point.
After I prayed for the star-like UFO to move "again" in a physics defying way if it wanted me to follow it, it did so. I then used Google Maps to pinpoint the exact location it had disappeared beyond the horizon, which coincidentally also was the exact location it had been moving the previous time it had moved in a physics-defying way.
The discovery of a "New Life" church on my map was not exactly what I was hoping for, but I begrudgingly went. However, at this point we cannot conclude I went to the right place. Perhaps I went to the wrong location.
It was all of the following facts that combined together lead me to believe I was at the right location that the star-like UFO was intending me to go to:
After giving my life back to Jesus, reluctantly, and admitting I was wrong and turning my life around the dark presence has disappeared from my life again.
Could all this be coincidence?
One of the most confounding things about all of these is that broke nearly every worldview that I had known up until this point. I will give some examples.
In protestant Christianity, it is typically assumed that Catholic experiences involving Mary, Fatima, Padre Pio etc. are either fictitious or demonic. After all, in this worldview the Catholics are on the wrong side of the faith vs. works issue and as a result the protestants are the correct ones.
In Catholic and Protestant Christianity, it is often presumed that all UFO experiences are demonic. However, this certainly cannot be correct because given my experience the Magi were certainly driven by a "UFO" of sorts to where Jesus was born. As a result, it cannot be said that all UFOs are demonic in nature. In addition, the UFO lead me to a protestant church combined with a Padre Pio experience.
Clearly skeptical agnosticism is ruled out. In my story the beings were certainly guiding me somewhere. As a result they had a message. The message lead directly to Christianity so at the very least I could rule out being completely agnostic about the subject.
Atheism propose that all paranormal experiences have a natural explanation. However, the movement of the UFO combined with the release by the Navy and Pentagon acknowledging the existence of UFOs lends serious doubt on this argument. If we combine with this the fact that UFO experiences have been reported for thousands of years, we can certainly rule out that the US government was involved in the ones that occurred long in the past.