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attention in this way more often, many additional things would become accessi- ble. don’t need to go home.” She talked further of how her spiritual path was her way of reaching a place in herself where she could “give love” both “‘there”’ (in the other dimension) and “here”’ on Earth. Despite the joy she feels when she enters the other dimension, Sara feels it would not have been “ethically correct” for her to “jump” the chasm between the two planes totally or too readily. “In the past” she said it felt as if she “made a commitment, like an exchange student” spending a year abroad to be here on Earth. She was, in effect, in “‘an immersion program,” has “taken resources”’ and has “a responsibility” to see it through. One way or another, Sara expresses a desire to use “ecology as a way to help people make a... transition . . . People have to redefine philosophically what they mean by environment. People think, ‘Oh, my environment.’ But, it’s like environment is [complete] . . . environ- ment is . . . infinite. And it has an infinite number of characteristics, and they extend from physical to emotional psychic to interplanor and cross-sectional ... You eas Sana a Te 3 anne DISCUSSION At one of our meetings, Sara asked me if I thought that the direction of her thinking and experience reflected something psychopathological—‘“‘like I’m making it all up.” She was reassured to learn that other abductees had been struggling with the same philosophical questions. Sara has been preoccupied since childhood with philosophical and spiritual questions, and apparently from an early age has exhibited certain paranormal powers, such as the ability at least to create the impression of levitating another child. These concerns and abilities seem to have been intimately connected with reported lifelong encounters with alien beings, beginning in early childhood with a mentor figure she calls Mengus whom she describes as her first teacher. Sara’s abduction experiences, fun and joyous as a child, but always at another level deeply serious, appear directly related to her personal and _ spiritual growth and her determination to find a calling that will give sufficient scope for her desire to serve the planet as fully as she can. Ultimately, however, Sara believes that at its core the abduction phenomenon emerges from a_ place beyond the physical plane and cannot be grasped through technology alone. It appears as if from childhood Sara’s encounters were a kind of preparation of consciousness for a life’s work she strives to. accomplish. This work appears connected to using an expanded notion of ecology or “environment” to bring about a paradigm shift from a consciousness of division and separation to one of openness, creativity, and unconditional love. Sara relates her own evolution in this direction to her encounters and to her are your environment .. . It’s a much broader way than most people think,” she noted. Sara spoke then of how diffcult it has been for the human species to reach a “creativeness-affirming, life-affrming” place of unconditional love, which she related to all the ways “by which we differentiate ourselves,” such as by creating gender, ethnic, and religious barriers. Ecology could be used to discover “commonalities” and “transform consciousness . . . If you truly, truly, truly do what’s good for yourself, you’re doing what’s good for the world. The two things are synonymous.” Sara observed that she herself still experiences ‘“‘emotional neediness.” Using her metaphor of the exchange student here from another dimension she said, “I might be able to take a vacation back home, or be in two places at one time,” but she says it may be more useful to reach a state of consciousness in which “‘it didn’t really matter to me if I went home or not. Then I can go home because I to to to 38