"Secret School" in the Olmos Basin (San Antonio, New Braunfels: home, high school)

[maluminse]

A "constance claire" wrote a book, reaching for reality, about similar occurences. Has anyone heard of it? Does her book revolve around the school?

[GWhopper]

Originally Posted by maluminse

A "constance claire" wrote a book, reaching for reality, about similar occurences. Has anyone heard of it? Does her book revolve around the school?

Haven't heard of a "Constance Claire". Is she from San Antonio?

This gives me something to research....

[texas_red_head]

responding to this message, after a series of circuitous clicks following a conversation with a friend about the stephenville UFO earlier this year.

i grew up in san antonio..my childhood was all in the 1980s. i'd say the mid 80s is when i rode my bike all around my little section of the city, sometimes into the woods.

i'm responding to this because i grew up no more than 3.5 miles from the Olmos Basin area that is the subject of many of these posts.

I remember the first time i saw the book "Communion" it was at North Star Mall in the B Dalton bookstore, on the rack near the front. I was with my mom and brother, walking around, and i saw that alien picture on it, and it scared the living daylights out of both me and my brother.

over the years, my brother and i would talk about that alien photo alot and even joke about it having visited our house. i suppose i'm rambling a bit here, because after having read these posts, alot of past memories and experiences sort of link together....not claiming anything like Mr. Strieber claims, but i am saying that alot of things are overlapping now, and the coincidences and associations are really pronounced.

i'll outline this is sort of a block form, so it maybe makes a little more sense to me, and anyone who reads this.

1- as a kid, we used to visit the olmos basin alot. i have to say i was so very curious about it and nearly entranced by it. i remember riding in the car along 281 with my grandma nearly every single day in the summer (she had a business downtown she would take me to spend the day at) and always staring out the passenger window at that basin area from the highway, asking her questions about it. it seemed so mystical and alluring, that big expanse of wilderness in the concrete metropolis. on rare occasions we would detour down there, drive along the windy roads, look at the "old money" homes and the picturesque lawns and woods. i was definitely drawn there.

2- i have very fuzzy memories of being taken to a church in that area. i think it was an episcopal church, i was so young i can't remember

3- from the time i was adventurous and semi-independent enough to wander away from home on the weekend days and summer days, i rode my bike all around. i remember trying to convince my friends to ride with me into the woods. i always felt like something very special was in the woods. i dont ever remember seeing anything strange, but i do remember nearly begging my friends to go with me biking in the woods or fishing in the creek down there

4- we ended up getting the book "communion" sometime when i was in high school perhaps. maybe middle school. my brother and i both read it and scared the wits out of us. we also saw the Walken movie. my brother would claim that he remembers a little thing like the creature from the book, in his room, staring at him. i always thought it was a fiction-borne imaginative claim like kids often will do ("monster in the closet") etc.

5- when i first learned to drive, something would really pull me towards driving thru alamo heights then down into the olmos basin area. i always chalked it up to the serene scenery and beautiful homes. perhaps there is something more...just sooo coincidental these other postings on here and Strieber's book.

6- after college, i went to work with a military program. my boss held the highest rank you can get as an enlisted person in the Air Force. he and i got on the subject of the paranormal a few times. once, while alone in his office, just chatting, he closed the door and told me a story. he said while living as a newlywed in Alamo Heights, he and his wife would wake up, paralyzed, unable to move, and see bright, blinding lights in their house. the next morning they would wake in their beds, like nothing happened, but would remember the experience days or weeks later, as if in a dream. he went on to say many people in alamo heights (near olmos basin) had this experience. sent shivers up my spine.

7- obsession with "little people". my mom's family was irish. as a kid i was absolutely obsessed with "little people". i don't know if it was from watching darby o'gill, but i would ask my grandma all about the little people of ireland any chance i would get.

8- mid 1980s. incident in back yard. if you stood at the kitchen sink at my home, you could see out into the backyard. the window at the sink was perhaps 4 feet off the ground. i remember being in the kitchen late at night one weekend night and my mom absolutely freaked out. she said she saw a short man walk past the window and only saw the white of the top of his head. i always thought this was very weird because it had to have been someone very small or someone ducking down under the window. we looked outside and saw nothing and nobody. the backyard was a gated yard with a tall privacy fence.

9- dreams. a friend in high school and i always shared our dreams with eachother. a real common theme was flying thru the air or in space. we both read up on lucid dreaming after this and tried to recreate it, but never could. also i had a recurring dream of entering the upper levels and eventually attic of an old-style house like those found in olmos basin. in the attic, i found a small chest? that when i opened (about 3-4 feet long) contained the skeleton of a small thing/person. i had this dream maybe 1/2 dozen times and it scared the living daylights out of me. i was reminded of it when i watched x-files in high school.

10- i was always concerned with going to a special class or special school when i was little. i had fantasies of belonging to a school that taught mystical things. while in grade school, i was offered to go into a special program, but could not because i was obligated to attend speech therapy which conflicted with the schedule. i have an eidetic memory.

well i felt like i was rambling, so i'm closing this now.

Originally Posted by Bob_Oso

Ok, I've just joined this thing in order to post comments. This has all been very interesting to me, because I have experience with the area Strieber writes about. The way I learned about him was because years and years ago I was describing a very vivid dream to a friend of mine, about an alien abduction, and then told her about seeing a UFO when I went to Incarnate Word College.

The year must have about 1976 and a very bright object appeared in the sky towards the Olmos Basin as seen from Marion Hall (my dorm). The object stayed in the sky the whole day and was even in the news; the news said it was a "weather balloon" even though it didn't move from that same spot all day and it was as bright as the sun, but smaller. Everyone on campus saw it too. So, this friend of mine told me about Strieber and his book Communion.

As I read his description of the place he went to, I knew exactly the place he was talking about, as I have been there hundreds of times. When I was single, one girlfriend even thought me weird for having such a fascination with the place. So anyway this is very strange for me because I hate sounding like a kook, but there's just way too many coincidences for me to explain. For example:

1. Same location as Streiber discribes.
2. UFO seen while attending IWC.
3. Vivid dreams about aliens and abductions.
4. Dreams of being in a "mystical school" of some sort.
5. Finally, a scar that's about one inch long next to my navel with no stitch marks and no reason for it to be there. In other words, no surgery, no wound, no nothing!

Alrighty then, there my weird confession and yes I know how it sounds, so let me have it. Tell me what any of you think about all this.

[rexkwandosatx]

Originally Posted by texas_red_head

10- i was always concerned with going to a special class or special school when i was little. i had fantasies of belonging to a school that taught mystical things. while in grade school, i was offered to go into a special program, but could not because i was obligated to attend speech therapy which conflicted with the schedule. i have an eidetic memory.

well i felt like i was rambling, so i'm closing this now.

okay i read this thread with great entertainment over the course of its life, but one thing stood out to me...
your quote about a "special class"...in school i don't really recall a special class, but when i was young, maybe 5 or 6 i went to a school like place and my mom and i walked around for a little while. at one point i was asked a series of questions, and then asked to assemble several puzzles. and then asked to draw a figure over and over again. something like a figure eight tilted to the side. i recall the setting to be either outdoors or in a garden setting and there were other kids around me, all testing or reading, or drawing. now, this could have all been just some random interview to go into an exclusive primer school or something, or maybe like Sylvan or something like that...but your story brought back some memories...i was a kid of the 80's and also remember reading COMMUNION in B. Dalton's as a kid in the 80s...and the cover freaked me out too...lol great post...just generated some ideas

[maluminse]

anyone ever have a dream of a vague large balloon growing near the ceiling and loud loud white noise?

[maluminse]

Originally Posted by GWhopper

Haven't heard of a "Constance Claire". Is she from San Antonio?

This gives me something to research....

my mistake - I wrote down the name as I was told it in an antique store but its apparently 'clear'.


Amazon.com: Reaching for Reality: Seven Incredible True Stories of Alien Abduction: Constance Clear: Books

wow reading the synopsis it appears pretty interesting - she was a thereapist and sketched together stories of abduction when she realized they were all taking a similar theme/background/factual basis.


Whitley Strieber's Unknown Country

Constance Clear (http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/phenomena/constance_clear_990923.html - broken link)

she looks familiar.
Constance Clear Presents Ambassadors Or Lab Rats? Best Evidence (DVD Presentation) (http://www.ufocongressstore.com/servlet/the-575/Constance-Clear-Presents-Ambassadors/Detail - broken link)

I sure would like to read this book now. Let me know if anyone finds it online.

[OzzyRules]

I believe the so-called "school" memory was inspired by Mr Streiber's grandfather's real life experience, as was suggested by someone here earlier.

[streetscenes]

Originally Posted by texas_red_head

1- as a kid, we used to visit the olmos basin alot. i have to say i was so very curious about it and nearly entranced by it. i remember riding in the car along 281 with my grandma nearly every single day in the summer (she had a business downtown she would take me to spend the day at) and always staring out the passenger window at that basin area from the highway, asking her questions about it. it seemed so mystical and alluring, that big expanse of wilderness in the concrete metropolis. on rare occasions we would detour down there, drive along the windy roads, look at the "old money" homes and the picturesque lawns and woods. i was definitely drawn there.

2- i have very fuzzy memories of being taken to a church in that area. i think it was an episcopal church, i was so young i can't remember

3- from the time i was adventurous and semi-independent enough to wander away from home on the weekend days and summer days, i rode my bike all around. i remember trying to convince my friends to ride with me into the woods. i always felt like something very special was in the woods. i dont ever remember seeing anything strange, but i do remember nearly begging my friends to go with me biking in the woods or fishing in the creek down there

When I was in middle school and high school we lived in Olmos Park about a block from the Olmos Basin. I spent alot of time down there either walking around with my friends, riding dirt bikes and later on riding my motorcycle. There were tons of trails and looking back I can't believe my parents let us wander around down there. We used to run across stashes of girlie magazines and all sorts of stuff. We knew the trails really well and could navigate from the San Antonio Gun Club to the Olmos Dam without going on the roads, just had to cross 2 roads as I recall.

The episcopal church in that area is St. Lukes and right above that was TMI (Texas Military Institue). I went to St. Lukes as a kid and my friends and I would sneak out of church and wander around TMI. There were definetly some buildings on that campus that were a little freaky.

The Olmos Dam used to be much more picturesque before they retrofited it. On a few occasions we would explore the tunnels inside the dam. That was really scarry stumbling through those dark and smelly areas. I remember that kids would fill up panyhose with shaving cream and hang them from the pipes. The shaving cream would harden and you would constantly run into these "legs" hanging down.

[Buffyfan]

Y'all are creepin' me OUT. I'm am never going to look at '09 the same way AGAIN!

[OzzyRules]

The "huge spiders" mentioned being seen in Olmos Basin are enough to keep me away.