CASE EIGHT: "We've been here a long, long, time." by Preston Dennett

A very unusual case of extraterrestrial contact occurred to a waitress named
Maryann X, of Carpinteria, CA. One evening in 1992, following a series of UFO
sightings, Maryann was in her home watching TV when she became aware of a
presence. Although she couldn't see anything, in her mind's eye she sensed a
strange being. The figure was thin, bald, with a large head, gray skin and dark
almond-shaped eyes. In other words, the typical gray-type alien.

At that point, Maryann began to experience the phenomenon of automatic writing.
Messages which she believed were from the alien began to be transmitted through
her.

Says Maryann, "He's very interested in our interest in him and his race. [He
says] that they've been here for a long, long time, longer than we have from
what I understand.... They're vastly interested in us. They're almost more
fascinated in us than we are in them. We don't think the same way they do. He
said, 'We live in oceans.' They live in the ocean, underwater. Their ships are
underwater. They're very benign. They have no nuclear warheads [or] this kind of
stuff."

Like many contactees, Maryann was given information about upcoming natural
disasters. "He was telling me something about earthquakes. He didn't predict
anything else. He just said we're in for some big type of natural disaster. I
get the impression, thinking back to what he talks to me about, is that they're
almost here to warn us. Not of an impending doom type of thing, like the world's
going to blow up, but they're not here to hurt. They're here to observe."

The alien told Maryann that their race is much more numerous than all of
humanity. "Lots and lots and lots. This is not just five or ten or twenty ships
roaming around. We're talking--from what I get from him--millions and millions
of these people. And they've existed before we recorded time and history."

The alien told her that they were conducting a program to contact small groups
of people across the planet. "That's the understanding I have. They have jobs
like everybody has jobs down here. His job is to find people who are receptive
enough that he can talk to. And he was really worried about whether or not I was
really scared....I get the impression that I am not the only one he talks to.
That's kind of the impression I got, is they kind of probe different people."

Marianne has made contact with the alien on several occasions, and has been
given much more information.