I’m surprised this story hasn’t gone viral. I even checked Snopes, thinking it might not be for real, but they don’t have a flag on it. This heart-warmer had me weeping — it’s the world as it could be. Please read it. It will make your day.

Here’s a spot-on comment it got on another blog site:

What a great awesome story!! I have seen other stories like this but not quite anything to this extent! I have lived in a small town my whole life and to have that many people show up in your town and the service they provided for these people to help them feel at home while they were away from home is amazing. There are amazing great people out there, we need to remember to always spread the love to others no matter what the situation is. God bless the U.S.A. and the World!

I’m copying the whole story from a flight attendant on Delta Flight 15, written following 9-11:

 

On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, we were about 5 hours out of Frankfurt, flying over the North Atlantic. All of a sudden the curtains parted and I was told to go to the cockpit, immediately, to see the captain. As soon as I got there I noticed that the crew had that “All Business” look on their faces. The captain handed me a printed message. It was from Delta’s main office in Atlanta and simply read, “All airways over the Continental United States are closed to commercial air traffic. Land ASAP at the nearest airport. Advise your destination.”

No one said a word about what this could mean. We knew it was a serious situation and we needed to find terra firma quickly. The captain determined that the nearest airport was 400 miles behind us in Gander, New Foundland. He requested approval for a route change from the Canadian traffic controller and approval was granted immediately–no questions asked. We found out later, of course, why there was no hesitation in approving our request.

While the flight crew prepared the airplane for landing, another message arrived from Atlanta telling us about some terrorist activity in the New York area. A few minutes later word came in about the hijackings.

“We decided to LIE to the passengers while we were still in the air. We told them the plane had a simple instrument problem and that we needed to land at the nearest airport in Gander, New Foundland to have it checked out.

We promised to give more information after landing in Gander. There was much grumbling among the passengers, but that’s nothing new! Forty minutes later, we landed in Gander. Local time at Gander was 12:30 PM! …. that’s 11:00 AM EST.

There were already about 20 other airplanes on the ground from all over the world that had taken this detour on their way to the U.S. After we parked on the ramp, the captain made the following announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, you must be wondering if all these airplanes around us have the same instrument problem as we have. The reality is that we are here for another reason.” Then he went on to explain the little bit we knew about the situation in the U.S. There were loud gasps and stares of disbelief. The captain informed passengers that Ground control in Gander told us to stay put.

The Canadian Government was in charge of our situation and no one was allowed to get off the aircraft. No one on the ground was allowed to come near any of the air crafts. Only airport police would come around periodically, look us over and go on to the next airplane. In the next hour or so more planes landed and Gander ended up with 53 airplanes from all over the world, 27 of which were U.S. commercial jets.

Meanwhile, bits of news started to come in over the aircraft radio and for the first time we learned that airplanes were flown into the World Trade Center in New York and into the Pentagon in DC. People were trying to use their cell phones, but were unable to connect due to a different cell system in Canada. Some did get through, but were only able to get to the Canadian operator who would tell them that the lines to the U.S. were either blocked or jammed.

Sometime in the evening the news filtered to us that the World Trade Center buildings had collapsed and that a fourth hijacking had resulted in a crash. By now the passengers were emotionally and physically exhausted, not to mention frightened, but everyone stayed amazingly calm. We had only to look out the window at the 52 other stranded aircraft to realize that we were not the only ones in this predicament.

We had been told earlier that they would be allowing people off the planes one plane at a time. At 6 PM, Gander airport told us that our turn to deplane would be 11 am the next morning. Passengers were not happy, but they simply resigned themselves to this news without much noise and started to prepare themselves to spend the night on the airplane.

Gander had promised us medical attention, if needed, water, and lavatory servicing. And they were true to their word. Fortunately we had no medical situations to worry about. We did have a young lady who was 33 weeks into her pregnancy. We took REALLY good care of her. The night passed without incident despite the uncomfortable sleeping arrangements.

About 10:30 on the morning of the 12th a convoy of school buses showed up. We got off the plane and were taken to the terminal where we went through Immigration and Customs and then had to register with the Red Cross.

After that we (the crew) were separated from the passengers and were taken in vans to a small hotel. We had no idea where our passengers were going. We learned from the Red Cross that the town of Gander has a population of 10,400 people and they had about 10,500 passengers to take care of from all the airplanes that were forced into Gander! We were told to just relax at the hotel and we would be contacted when the U.S. airports opened again, but not to expect that call for a while.

We found out the total scope of the terror back home only after getting to our hotel and turning on the TV, 24 hours after it all started.

Meanwhile, we had lots of time on our hands and found that the people of Gander were extremely friendly. They started calling us the “plane people.” We enjoyed their hospitality, explored the town of Gander and ended up having a pretty good time.

Two days later, we got that call and were taken back to the Gander airport. Back on the plane, we were reunited with the passengers and found out what they had been doing for the past two days. What we found out was incredible.

Gander and all the surrounding communities (within about a 75 Kilometer radius) had closed all high schools, meeting halls, lodges, and any other large gathering places. They converted all these facilities to mass lodging areas for all the stranded travelers. Some had cots set up, some had mats with sleeping bags and pillows set up.

ALL the high school students were required to volunteer their time to take care of the “guests.” Our 218 passengers ended up in a town called Lewisporte, about 45 kilometers from Gander where they were put up in a high school. If any women wanted to be in a women-only facility, that was arranged. Families were kept together. All the elderly passengers were taken to private homes.

Remember that young pregnant lady? She was put up in a private home right across the street from a 24-hour Urgent Care facility. There was a dentist on call and both male and female nurses remained with the crowd for the duration.

Phone calls and e-mails to the U.S. and around the world were available to everyone once a day. During the day, passengers were offered “Excursion” trips. Some people went on boat cruises of the lakes and harbors. Some went for hikes in the local forests. Local bakeries stayed open to make fresh bread for the guests. Food was prepared by all the residents and brought to the schools. People were driven to restaurants of their choice and offered wonderful meals. Everyone was given tokens for local laundry mats to wash their clothes, since luggage was still on the aircraft. In other words, every single need was met for those stranded travelers.

Passengers were crying while telling us these stories. Finally, when they were told that U.S. airports had reopened, they were delivered to the airport right on time and without a single passenger missing or late. The local Red Cross had all the information about the whereabouts of each and every passenger and knew which plane they needed to be on and when all the planes were leaving. They coordinated everything beautifully. It was absolutely incredible.

When passengers came on board, it was like they had been on a cruise. Everyone knew each other by name. They were swapping stories of their stay, impressing each other with who had the better time. Our flight back to Atlanta looked li ke a chartered party flight. The crew just stayed out of their way. It was mind-boggling. Passengers had totally bonded and were calling each other by their first names, exchanging phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses.

And then a very unusual thing happened. One of our passengers approached me and asked if he could make an announcement over the PA system. We never, ever allow that. But this time was different. I said “of course” and handed him the mike. He picked up the PA and reminded everyone about what they had just gone through in the last few days. He reminded them of the hospitality they had received at the hands of total strangers. He continued by saying that he would like to do something in return for the good folks of Lewisporte.

He said he was going to set up a Trust Fund under the name of DELTA 15 (our flight number). The purpose of the trust fund is to provide college scholarships for the high school students of Lewisporte. He asked for donations of any amount from his fellow travelers. When the paper with donations got back to us with the amounts, names, phone numbers and addresses, the total was for more than $14,000!

The gentleman, a MD from Virginia, promised to match the donations and to start the administrative work on the scholarship. He also said that he would forward this proposal to Delta Corporate and ask them to donate as well. As I write this account, the trust fund is at more than $1.5 million and has assisted 134 students in college education.

I just wanted to share this story because we need good stories right now. It gives me a little bit of hope to know that some people in a far away place were kind to some strangers who literally dropped in on them. It reminds me how much good there is in the world.”

In spite of all the rotten things we see going on in today’s world this story confirms that there are still a lot of good and Godly people in the world and when things get bad, they will come forward.

God Bless America…and the Canadians.

This is a plea for curiosity in the face of what could be beyond our ken to know — things whose origins could be other dimensions, other times, or other places in the universe. I am asking that we go from arguing about whether or not there are phenomena of mysterious origin, to looking for what might authenticate things as coming from elsewhere.

If we did find intelligent life it would be the biggest news ever to hit humanity. It’s being said that if Curiosity discovers microbial life on Mars, it would change everything. If finding microbial life would be so changeful, the mind boggles at how vitally, fundamentally, and radically impacting the discovery of intelligent life would be.

Copernicus and Galileo were the last to change everything. Monarchies gave way to democracies when Earth was no longer top dog in the cosmos. There’s more to be said about that and about how modern science came from having a shifted cosmic perspective. If readers can educate me, please help me flesh this out.

I see the discovery of other intelligent life seeping into the groundwater of reality and causing a sea change. It would bring the world into a dialogue. We would be one humanity, no sides, trying to figure out what to do in relation to “the other.” And it wouldn’t be one day’s, or one week’s, or one month’s news cycle; it would be forever.

Seeing the game-changer that discovering life would be, it would behoove everyone to cool their skepticism in favor of curiosity, where we examine all possibilities. That includes of course crop circles and UFOs, and also investigations of artifacts found on Earth that can’t be but are. The evidence for a different timeline for intelligent life is staggering. Caves, pyramids, city complexes, some underground and some underwater, all over the world, await examination. Here we are, floating in inconceivable vastness, the product of billions of years of evolution, and instead of looking into the richness of our origins for a greater sense of who we are, we square off against each other. It is insane.

Either technologies and tools were brought here from elsewhere, or we have not accounted for mass extinctions where advanced civilizations totally disappeared and life started from scratch each time, or something else altogether. We are in the realm of mythmaking, and we are in-between stories. But, a heroic spirit remains alive. It is in that spirit that I make this plea.

Placid times, where nobody wants to rock any prosperity boats are behind us in this century of violence. Lots of energy is scrambling for answers. So many good people are out there. How to unite us, to speak from the heart to impact the world? No need for laundry lists of how we squander our paradise. We know that human life is threatened. We’ve got our heads in the sand of this dualistic plane of reality. A changed underpinning, of ourselves as one, could put us in the best position to fix everything. There is no more important pursuit.

If you agree, think with me. How to get this plea to be heard? How to improve it? What to do?

I was asked to write something for a magazine related to what I’ll be talking about at the upcoming Pythagoras Conference (see below):

Getting from Here to There, or, Brother Can you Spare a Paradigm? 

You wouldn’t find any disagreement today about the trouble we are in. Whether you are a liberal or a conservative, whether you are from the U.S. or from elsewhere, the crisis is worldwide.

Beyond cheerleads for us to be all that we can be, where eventually enough people will be evolved enough so that 100 monkeys will shift our worldview from one based on separation to one based on oneness, we don’t talk about our fundamental thought process that gave rise to much of what challenges us. Is a waiting game the only option? Seeing as there is no sign we are near the tipping point, what else could we do?

This is what I’m focusing on now. And I think I have a key.

We need public conversation about the discrepancy between the quantum perspective that science has progressed to and our worldview that’s still based on Newtonian physics. Newton’s is a dualistic world of opposing parts and linear progression, where we are encompassed by space and existing in time. But, in the quantum reality, which goes beyond space and time, everything is entangled. We are interconnected and interdependent. We are one.  

So, how about dealing with this very publicly? In fact, it’s bizarre that we aren’t talking about what supports the way things are. Where greed prevails and war is our method of mediation, we don’t have the platform for things like global warming to be addressed. Some new agreement, worldwide, has to take us over. Slogans would be, “More for you is more for me,” and, “Whoever does the most good wins.” An ad campaign could help. But, until we start talking, educating humanity to what is so, we won’t come up with anything proactive to do.

My advocacy for conversation has evolved from my work with the crop circle phenomenon and the stimulus it could provide to open our minds to a bigger reality. We don’t operate collectively, as humanity, but, if there were proof that there is off-planet intelligence, we’d all be on the same side – a united humanity in relation to “the other.”    

I have a lot to say about the circles. I’ve been responsible for the two documentaries about them that were made with Hollywood production standards. The first, in 2002, for which I was the Executive Producer, was CROP CIRCLES: Quest for Truth. It’s a history of the circles. I went on to produce and direct What On Earth? Inside the Crop Circle Mystery, a more personal film to showcase the most interesting and knowledgeable people in the crop circle community. Both movies have won awards, and The New York Times, which hadn’t mentioned crop circles for decades, gave What On Earth? a very good review!

The media has done a poor job of dealing with the circles. Programs made by cable stations in the U.S. have been short on accuracy and long on cynicism. But, there’s more going on than perpetrations by people with boards and ropes. The god of science has pronounced the circles to be genuine mysteries, with no way to account for changes to the biology of the plants and the chemistry of the soil. Hoaxes aside, whatever or whoever is delivering these artworks, it’s not us.  

I want to direct you to two things online. One is a 48-minute interview with Stephan Schwartz , a consciousness researcher with a scientific and academic background, who did landmark work in establishing some of the protocols for remote viewing. I hosted a webinar series this summer for Evolver Intensives, called Doorways to Another Reality, and Stephan, as my first guest, tuned us into the quantum perspective. My second guest, Edgar Mitchell, 6^th man to walk on the moon and founder of IONS, has written Needed, A New Perspective, an excellent paper that speaks to that subject. And here’s Vital Mission! Will you join me?, my blog post about all this.

To summarize, we need a new ideational framework in which humanity pulls together, superseding our current value system in which whoever has the most toys wins. Science has given us the underpinning for re-creating our story. A new science-based vision won’t take hold, though, unless people know it exists. And, when they do, there will be a natural swing to treating each other differently. So, the bottom line right here, right now, is to get conversation happening — educating us on TV, in print, and on the net; spreading to conferences, to classrooms, and to homes. Getting a new vision, a new story, a new paradigm, a new worldview should be priority number one. Please join me in addressing that. As I share my thinking, all thoughts that contribute to mine are welcome.

Look at me, top right, at the Pythagoras Conference, in Indiana, in October! Please pass this mailing along to Kentucky and Indiana friends. Early-bird rate through July31 and save $100 with my coupon code: ST2012.