Julia: How did the concept of 
				Star Visitors become the focus of your 
			life work?
Leo: I had two lines of interest. The first came from my personal 
			experiences. I saw a flying saucer in 1949, and later, in 1965, I 
			saw an aerial phenomenon. These were the triggers.
My interest became galvanized when I decided to go into graduate 
			studies to become a psychologist and to focus on the idea of UFOs. 
			At this time, there were huge misunderstandings about the 
			phenomenon.
There were two thoughts about people who talked about such things. 
			If you saw one space ship, you were crazy. If you repeated the 
			experience and saw another ship, then you were even crazier. I 
			thought if I were going to study this, I would be more credible as a 
			psychologist.
I use hypnotherapy with many people who have had experiences 
			relating to UFOs.
 
				
				
Julia: Can we talk about the similarities between people's 
			experiences?
Leo: Some people have good experiences, and others don't. It may be 
			that the level of consciousness determines the experience.
For example, we may learn from both good and bad teachers, but the 
			individual consciousness may play a role in the actual experience. 
			If your consciousness is highly evolved, you may learn about Light.
				
Many people who have these experiences to do not talk about them for 
			fifteen or twenty years. After time passes, they may regain interest 
			in recovering their experience. They may watch movies, read books, 
			or search inwardly through meditation. I tend to think the Star 
			Visitors are engaged in some type of educational program for helping 
			us to evolve inwardly or spiritually. 
				
				 
				
				Perhaps these people who have 
			been contacted are being exposed to some type of educational model 
			for the planet.
 
				
				
Julia: What are the changes for people who have these experiences?
				
Leo: They seem to have heightened psychic abilities. They may have 
			been selected because they had those abilities in the first place, 
			and then those abilities grew stronger after the contact was made. Contactees believe in reincarnation.
And after the Star Visitors leave, many people feel as though their 
			own family members have departed. The contact of consciousness is so 
			strong that they feel a sense of sadness at its loss.
Many have experiences that involve the workings of Light. They are 
			told about photons and light particles and are given instructions 
			for spiritualizing matter. This seems similar to me to 
				
				Greg Braden's 
			
				zero point ideas. If you focus on the Light or a positive outcome, 
			without negative emotion, the light particles actually coalesce into 
			a coherent wave. A wave of coherent light is so much stronger than 
			particles of light interspersed with particles of darkness.
I suppose that a high wave of love, divorced from passion that flows 
			up and down a scale, could energize the wave of Light.
I also think the information about Light is was similar to what 
			Gregg Braden is saying in 
				
				The Isaiah Effect, where he talks about 
			praying to God "with all thy heart, mind, and strength." Many people 
			who have had UFO experiences have been able to visualize weather 
			changes and have them occur very quickly. They can create rain 
			merely by visualizing the rain. I'm not speaking of praying for 
			rain, but rather of imagining what it feels like to be in the rain, 
			to have mud around your feet, to hear the plants growing.
These are some of the profoundly positive changes I've experienced 
			around those who have encountered UFOs. Of course, not everyone is 
			able to actualize them because of distortions in thinking or 
			perception that can stem from the physical body.
 
				
				
Julia: When you are speaking about Light, do you relate it to Love?
				
Leo: Certainly, I do. The beginning of all religion is about this 
			transforming or creating in the material world through spirituality. 
			We are all here to learn how to spiritualize matter. Every religion 
			begins with this idea of Love and Light. Love energizes the field of 
			Creation.
 
				
				
Julia: Do you think that we fail to actualize this idea because of 
			distorted perception?
Leo: We have to develop inwardly to be able to express this concept. 
			It's a hard process to dig through the psyche and change, but doing 
			this process allows us to have the opportunity to serve others. And 
			it's service that makes our lives worthwhile.
It's interesting that many times when people see UFOs, the 
			experience symbolizes something that is happening in their world. 
			One woman was driving to Cheyenne with her husband, and she looked 
			out of the passenger window and saw a flying glow with three lights 
			flying. Her husband didn't see this. When she reported the incident, 
			I asked her to think about its significance. 
				
				 
				
				Later, she called and 
			said, 
				
					
					"I know what it means. I'm getting divorced and taking our 
			three children."
				
				
				The Star Visitors are on a different plane. I don't think it is 
			difficult for them to perceive our consciousness. They want to 
			educate us in our evolutionary process.
 
				
				
Julia: You said that a belief in reincarnation is common among 
			contactees. Can you tell me more about that?
Leo: The interest in delving into the inner self and reading books 
			about UFOs is often a sign that someone has had an encounter. Most 
			people who have had an encounter do believe in reincarnation.
				
One of the most interesting examples of this change in beliefs was a 
			young man found himself doing a lot of reading and studying, but 
			didn't know why. I told him that it was likely he had encountered 
			UFOs and didn't recall it. I offered to hypnotize him, and he 
			agreed.
I asked him to go to the time when his interests began, and he 
			remembered a Native American lifetime. He saw a star vehicle above 
			the sagebrush and went inside the ship. He was told by the Star 
			People that he wouldn't remember this until he was in another 
			lifetime as a white man.
As he was relating this experience, he said, 
				
					
					"Who would want to be a 
			white man?" 
				
				
				He wasn't thrilled that he was a white man in this life.
 
				
				
Julia: Why does such a length of time pass between the encounter and 
			remembering it or changing from it?
Leo: Many people immediately begin to develop a rich inner life 
			through spirituality, but they don't remember the experience until 
			they have developed enough to "translate" it. Also, I think that 
			these Beings make a long term communication with the people they 
			contact. It isn't a one-time encounter. If you meditate and keep a 
			journal, it is possible to receive information from them throughout 
			your life.
So these inward changes continue to take place through an 
			individual's entire life. There is no question that the evolution 
			continues through a long, not a short, time period.
 
				
				
Julia: Do you believe that people who have had these experiences are 
			more evolved or different from the general public?
Leo: They are not different, in that we all have these latent 
			abilities and it is possible for any of us to develop them. But they 
			are perhaps more evolved in their consciousness. I think that if you 
			decide to look inwardly and evolve, then your level of consciousness 
			is naturally higher.
There was a report by Paul Ray and 
				Sherry Ruth Anderson about the 
			consciousness of Americans.[1] They defined three groups. The first 
			was the Traditionalists. They live in rural America and are involved 
			in traditional religion. The second group was called Moderns. These 
			are competitive, urban, materialistic, and scientifically oriented. 
			The third group was named the "Cultural Creatives." These people are 
			more spiritual, as opposed to religious. They are less competitive 
			and are deeply interested in the environment.
It is thought that this third, Cultural Creative group is likely to 
			gain power as time goes on, both socially and economically, because 
			of their desire to help the planet.
I think it's likely that the contactees belong to the third group.
 
				
				
Julia: Are either men or women more likely to have an experience 
			related to Star Visitors?
Leo: Approximately two-thirds of the participants in my workshops 
			involving UFOs and hypnotherapy are women, but I have no data on the 
			subject. I think women are more likely to be willing to deal with it 
			or talk about it because women are more used to suffering in our 
			world than men are and they also handle fear much better. I also 
			think that more women may be contactees because the masculine energy 
			is waning and the feminine energy is coming in.
I think this is a time when a balance will be achieved between male 
			and female energies or sexes. This is another evolutionary change on 
			the planet.
 
				
				
Julia: What are the characteristics of contactees?
				
Leo: Over seventeen years, I tested 225 persons reporting mixed UFO 
			experiences ranging from a light in the sky to being contacted. A 
			study of the profiles of these witnesses showed certain unique 
			characteristics. Witnesses exhibited a high level of psychic energy, 
			self-sufficiency, and resourcefulness, along with a tendency to 
			question authority and situational pressure. They also possessed 
			above average intelligence and assertiveness, and a tendency to be 
			experimental thinkers.[2]
I can tell you, though, that the factors of race  whether you are 
			black or white or purple, rich or poor, male or female  don't play 
			into these demographics.
The two things that are associated with contact experiences are 
				increased precognition or psychic phenomena, and the fact that those contactees who stick with it  those who develop themselves  become 
			more spiritual. 
				
				 
				
				Those are the two constants of the entire 
			experience.
 
				
				
Julia: How does one who has had this experience develop it and 
			"stick with it"?
Leo: You begin by writing it down in a journal and possibly talking 
			to someone who is open about it. You meditate on it, and you try to 
			meditate on the Beings that you encountered. You would be very 
			surprised at the rapid changes and synchronicities that can take 
			place by doing this inner work.
A woman who had had an experience or encounter but didn't know what 
			to do, or who to talk to, went to the public library. Immediately, a 
			book fell off the shelf and opened to a page that said "Leo 
			Sprinkle," with my address and phone number! 
				
				 
				
				She called me, and we 
			talked.
You would be absolutely amazed at the rapidity of 
				
				synchronicities 
			that will occur for those who pursue contact experiences. This all 
			has to be coming from a higher order, a higher awareness. Many 
			people are ashamed or reluctant to talk about their experience, but 
			it is important to talk about it.
They say that any new science goes through three phases: being 
			ignored, being ridiculed, and being accepted. I'm being ridiculed 
			now, and I'm pleased, because it means that we are close to 
			accepting extraterrestrial contact as a new science. People need to 
			move away from fear of ridicule, though, and talk to someone who can 
			understand and help them make sense of it all.
Also, I think that as contactees continue to evolve, their 
			consciousness has profound effects on other people. They may not see 
			themselves in this light  they may see themselves as mothers or 
			painters or teachers, or whatever  but they do affect the people 
			around them because they are living at a higher spiritual level. 
			
				
				 
				
				People of higher consciousness can profoundly influence those in 
			their individual worlds.
 
				
				
Julia: Who do you think the 
				Star People are? Do you think they come 
			from different galaxies or universes? Do you relate them to angels?
				
Leo: They may be the forbears of this planet, or they may be 
			visitors from many planets or universes. I don't think it matters. I 
			have friends all over the world, and I don't really care where they 
			live. They are still part of my spiritual family, and there is a 
			connection with them.
As far as gods or angels, it may be that we have mistaken the 
			message for the messenger, or the messenger for the message. It 
			could well be that evolved beings have been bringing us these 
			messages that are the basis for all religion. When you think about 
			it, anyone who looks inwardly goes to the guidebooks that are 
			connected with religion, whether it is the Bible, the Vedas, works 
			on meditation, or whatever. It may be that the ETs guide us to the 
			guidebooks they have written for us.
I do think, though, that at whatever our level, the Star People are 
			making an effort to aid in our evolution. It may be that if we are 
			concerned with fear and doubt, we have a frightening experience. On 
			a slightly higher level, we may encounter or become interested in 
			crop circles. 
				
				 
				
				Finally, if we are evolved enough, we may meet an 
			angel or a Being of Light who explains Light and Creation to us.
 
				
				
Julia: What impact would it have on our civilization if everyone 
			became aware of ETs and UFOs in such a way that it had to be 
			accepted?
Leo: There are many different ways of looking at that.
				
Let's start with the perspective that it might make very little 
			difference.
Two possibilities are that people would blank it out or they would 
			evolve. The evolving group would probably think about it and end up 
			changing society in a way that was more sensitive and evolved.
				
At this point, the Star People have graciously and gracefully 
			appeared at a low level to allow us to gradually adjust to their 
			presence. They have allowed us the free will to accept, reject, or 
			be doubtful about them, and to have fluctuations in our perception 
			of them.
There is definitely a cover-up about UFOs on all levels: individual, 
			community, military  and on the ET level itself. While it is 
			possible that the cover-ups all exist as a mirroring of the 
			individual level, it would be interesting to have all of the 
			cover-ups dissolve.
Another scenario is that people would be greatly affected by their 
			presence, and they would evolve spiritually in the way we discussed 
			earlier. Certainly, this would be beneficial for the planet. One of 
			the huge long-term effects on civilization would come out of the 
			fact that evolved do not perceive war and violence as positive.
				
In the end, I am convinced that we are moving from being planetary 
			to cosmic citizens.
There is no question that UFOs and ETs have come as a part of a huge 
			educational program. They are moving the sphere of this planet to a 
			higher level.
Perhaps we are the particles that are becoming the wave. When we 
			accomplish this, we may join the field and become part of the cosmic 
			field or confederation.