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STRANGE STORIES

MAKING

The making of a writer. Where do stories come from? I suspect it is different for each writer. I can only tell you about me:

 I’m a 72-year-old man in my second retirement trying to write stories people might like.

Most of the stories I write, or the fragmented visions and ideas that birthed them, came to me in dreams or PTSD-fueled nightmares.

 Like many, as soon as I wake, the dreams begin t to crumble and fall apart like clouds shredded by the wind. Fragmented memories of the dream are all that is left. What remains is little more than a seed, a small, fragile thing that might become a story with a bit of imagination.

That’s how most of my Strange Stories come about, and many of my tales are pretty strange. You might say they live in the shadows on the weird side of the street.

If I’ve forgotten to take the PTSD medication, the one that takes away the bad dreams, I might toss and turn all night thinking about, dreaming about a long-ago war and the people and events left behind in that distant time and place.

The story borne from that nightmare might show you an old veteran, lost and troubled in mind and spirit as he struggles with unseen visitors. Will these strange visitors lead him to take his own life, or will they transport him to a safer, better place – welcome him home?

If I’ve read way too much about the dangers of climate change, I might tell you Climate change is real, and it’s coming for us. Along the way, I’ll spin a tale of a lonely survivor’s long journey to find a safe place and his efforts to exist in a dying world.

I might even tell you the dead man’s dream, the one where he is a lonely ghost wandering across America. What happens when we die takes on a whole new meaning in stories like this. Death and beyond might be, could be far different than we imagine.

Or about the man so driven to despair by the Great Recession, he finds a way to start over, go back to his childhood days, make different decisions, relive life in an attempt to alter the outcome.

How about a young boy, a child, eternally altered by terrible sexual abuse. He retreats from the world, lives his life as a loner, afraid to trust, isolated from all but his wife and children. As a grown man, he discovers the abuse altered his brain waves, introduced strange quantum vibrations in the living cells of his brain, giving him the ability to walk out of his dreams into another life as a different man in a parallel universe.

🔥🔥 🔥🔥Fire Sale! 🔥🔥🔥🔥

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 Fire Sale 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 🔥

Try a true story of the U.S. Army's experiment in psychic warfare. Only $0.99

Secret Warriors

Do you know what happens if climate change suddenly accelerates? This SciFi anthology gives you an idea.

Strange Stories

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Judge, 28th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards

 

Judge’s Commentary*:

 

SECRET WARRIORS, PSYCHIC SPIES: REDUX by Roger Mannon is an intriguing book primarily about the author's experience with the Monroe Institute. The purpose of the institute is to work with the mind to help people discover their true selves. Before encountering this book, this reviewer had no idea the military used this institute, or these tactics, for training. Anyone who wants to know more about the military, about the author, and what it's like to undergo this type of training, will find this book a must-read.

Production-wise, the book is lovely. The cover has a wonderful texture. The silhouette of a wolf is appropriate to the author's account. The back cover copy enlightens the reader about the book, and the book lives up to its promise. The author's photo and bio are great. Endorsements would have been welcome, but because of the sensitive nature of the story, it's understandable why the author didn't seek those. However, they still would have been nice to have.

The author mentions that this copy is a redux, shortened by 20,000 words from the original. The account still holds together well. Though this reviewer didn't read the first book, the missing words aren't evident, and there don’t seem to be holes in the story. All in all, a great account that only this author could write. And, yes, this reviewer believes his story.

Secret Warriors, Psychic Spies: Redux

Everything Imaginable Podcast

 This past Veterans Day I was honored to participate in a Podcast with Everything Imaginable. An awesome site with a great moderator, Gary Cocciolillo.

I haven't done a Podcast before so have no way of knowing if the length of this one is typical or not.

It runs for an hour and a half and covers my experiences as a participant in the Center Lane Project.

Center Lane was an investigation of out-out-body experiences, the ability to induce them and train soldiers to enter the altered states of consciousness promoting access to OOB experiences at will.

The goal: to identify and recruit military intelligence professionals with the ability to explore remote locations via out of body travels.

Center Lane ultimately led to the CIA Stargate Program..This is the link to the Podcast:

EverythingImaginable Podcast

The embedded link to the Podcast is here:

What is this thing called psychic phenomena

 

Psychic phenomena? Could it be real? Is it possible for your essence to leave your physical body and visit distant places, other realities? Could altered states of consciousness be portals to these unexplored worlds? The U.S. Army thought so and, between 1977 and 1985,, conducted experiments to prove it. Are you curious? Do you want to believe?  Yes? Then come, take a trip with me.

This is a true story of one of those experiments.

Secret Warriors, Psychic Spies

What is this thing called psychic phenomena? Could it be real? Is it possible for your essence to leave your physical body, travel to spiritual realms, visit other realities? Can you see the shape of the future? Could altered states of consciousness be portals to these unexplored worlds?

What if your mind could travel to places on this earth you have never visited, never seen, and allow you to describe them in detail?

Are you curious? Do you want to believe?  Yes? Then, come, take a trip with me.

Once upon a time, the U.S. Military investigated just these possibilities. This is the true story of the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command’s Center Lane Project.

Seven short days atop a remote mountain in the Blue Ridge of Virginia answered all those questions for me.

I learned the world we live in is more mysterious and magical than most know.  We all have abilities we are unaware of, abilities that can be found, strengthened, and used on a voyage of discovery and enlightenment.

There are other realities and other beings just outside the reach of our normal senses. Places that can only be reached via altered states, out of body journeys. 

This is the story of a remarkable journey into alternate states of consciousness.

I found such places, visited them, and mapped their shape while undergoing top-secret training conducted by the Army.

I was part of Center Lane. Once, long ago, it was a gateway into what became the CIA's Stargate Program.

Midnight in the Desert

Earlier this year I was approached by Midnight in the Desert and asked to do an interview about my experiences with the Center Lane Project (a predecessor to the CIA Stargate Program). The experience is the basis for my book, Secret Warriors, Psychic Spies

Midnight in the Desert is a late night radio broadcast that caters to the paranormal, UFO, Cryptids, and other weird things in the world, so, yeah, their interviews are interesting but strange.

My interview was an hour long and the recording is preserved here if you wish to listen. Any MP3 player should do the job for you:

Midnight in the Desert Interview