INSIDE THE SPHINX

by Trudy Werrington

                              Author's Note: All names have been changed to protect the  individuals' privacy.

Julie Larson had her first paranormal experience at the age of ten when her grandfather died. For the six weeks following his death, Grandpa Larson's head appeared in her bedroom window where he did nothing but stare at her. Julie was frightened even though she knew it was her grandfather, but ... she, also, knew he was dead! Dead people weren't supposed to stare in bedroom windows and frighten little girls. Additionally, Grandpa Larson had lived 1,800 miles away and that, alone, should have made it an impossible feat. Julie didn't tell her parents until the age of twenty-one and, then, she was shocked to discover that her mother also had seen her grandfather for the same six weeks.

During the following years, Julie experienced occasional paranormal experiences, which she eventually accepted as normal -- at least, for her. At fifteen she married her eighteen year old sweetheart and things went along fine without many "weird events" to upset her life -- until the age of twenty-two. One Saturday night Julie and her husband, Michael, went to a concert at the local Civic Centre to hear an unknown band and dance. This was the beginning of the most extraordinary experience in Julie's life!

It started out pretty much as any other ordinary experience does. There was nothing, no sign or sound, to indicate that this night would be any different than a hundred other nights. The band played and Julie and Michael danced until they were exhausted. This was 1967 when dancing required the expenditure of a lot of energy. So, the two of them danced until they couldn't dance any longer. Exhausted, they stood in front of the stage and watched the band perform.

That's when strange things began happening. Julie loved Michael, yet she began staring, almost mesmerised, by the lead guitar player and singer. She stood, almost rooted to the spot, unable to move, staring at the young man performing. She knew nothing about him beyond the fact that the band originated in Lawrence, Kansas. She didn't understand the fascination. He was a nice looking young man, but he wasn't extraordinarily handsome. Puzzled, yet she couldn't stop staring at him and even Michael was mildly fascinated. The amazing thing was that the singer returned the stare!

For hours, as the band played and the crowd danced, the two stared at each other with Julie barely moving. Dancing was forgotten, even the music was forgotten, as this hypnotic stare linked the two of them until even thought was impossible. In a deep part of herself, Julie was completely mystified. Finally, the band began packing up their instruments and the crowd thinned out while Julie and Michael just sort of stood there in a daze.

Soon, the lead guitar player finished putting all of his things away and strolled over to where Julie and Michael stood, introducing himself as "Jeff'. It felt like the three of them were standing in an isolated pocket of the universe. As soon as Jeff introduced himself, a few trivial questions were asked. The subject of the conversation turned almost immediately to metaphysics and the paranormal. Inside herself Julie was shocked. She usually didn't talk on that subject with just anyone and she had no idea how the subject had even arisen. Even as they talked, another part of her was trying to analyse how this had happened, but there were no answers.

Around them the band had finished picking everything up and were loading the truck while the entire audience had emptied the building. Julie, Michael and Jeff kept talking until the security guard, finally, had to tell them to leave. The three of them stared around the empty auditorium in astonishment as none of them had been aware of their surroundings until that instant.

They didn't want to stop talking. But they couldn't go to Michael's hotel room to continue the conversation as it was shared with the other band members. A restaurant didn't have the right atmosphere. So, without hesitation, Julie and Michael invited Jeff home with them -- a thing they had never considered doing before with a complete stranger. The three of them talked non-stop on the drive to Julie and Michael's house; they talked at the house from 1:00 a.m. until 5:00 a.m.; they continued the conversation on the drive to Jeff's motel, and then they sat outside the hotel talking until 7:00 a.m. There was such an intense energy field around them that none of them experienced any tiredness, but they knew they had to quit, as the band needed to leave for their next engagement by 9:00 a.m. After exchanging addresses, they reluctantly parted.

For the next six months or so Julie and Jeff wrote each other and discussed metaphysics in each letter. They covered philosophy and personal experiences in a chain of correspondence. Even after Julie and Michael moved to California in February 1968, the letters continued. But hope of getting together faded due to the distance. Then, another strange event occurred.

Three weeks after Julie and Michael moved to California, Julie received a phone call from Jeff. The band was in the their city, seeking their fame and fortune as musicians.They had a free day so could Julie and Michael come spend the day at their hotel room? So, the couple packed up their two children, aged five and three, and drove to where the band was staying.

All four-band members were staying together in something resembling an efficiency apartment in order to save money. It had a living room, kitchen, and bedroom with two double beds in it. It was a Sunday afternoon and the TV was blaring out the football game, the drummer was practising his drums and the other guitar player was practising his chords. Add to that two small children and quiet was an unknown word!

It was a dingy and dreary motel furnished with old Salvation Army-style furniture, but the company was good and that's all that mattered. Julie set the toys out to entertain the children and Michael sat down to watch football while Jeff hauled two kitchen chairs into the already crowded living room.

He set them up in front of the door, as no more company was expected, about four feet from the television set, with the backs facing each other. After the children were settled Julie and Jeff each straddled a chair, facing each other, and leaning their elbows on the backs.

There began a rapid-fire exchange of all the news that had happened since their last letters and then they fell silent. Once more they began simply staring into each other's eyes--ignoring the children, the TV screaming out the football game, the shouts of the spectators and the drummer as he practised. Time had no meaning as the stare became more and more intense and the edges of the room began to blur and disappear. It was as if the two of them were surrounded by a vibrating energy field that encapsulated them and prevented any sound or motion from penetrating it.

As the room disappeared Julie and Jeff found themselves standing in front of the Sphinx in Egypt wearing some sort of long, white robes. Each had a circlet of some type of metal on their heads with something resembling a smoky quartz crystal or moonstone hanging from it over the third eye. No words were spoken as they stood in front of the mysterious beast, but they both knew what they were to do as they directed others to follow their bidding in the cooling evening air. They couldn't see what those others did; they simply 'knew' it was being done at their behest and were satisfied.

Without warning the scene changed and Julie and Jeff were in the bowels of the Sphinx in a large, semi-dark room crowded with what they 'knew' to be books. They also noticed what looked like a large movie screen, a strange flying machine resembling nothing they had ever seen before, possibly some sort of an altar, and many other unidentifiable items. They 'knew' they were almost finished with what they had started out to do and they were the only two people in the room.

No words were spoken, but the room needed some last minute organisation before they could leave. Silently, the two of them approached the altar and placed something resembling a gemstone in the centre of it. They began 'concentrating' and pointing their fingers, rather like Samantha in "Bewitched", in different directions as objects levitated into various places. At last, they looked at each other, nodded their heads and were suddenly back in the motel room.

Julie and Jeff were in a state of shock at what had occurred and sat in silence trying to assimilate it. Shortly, words began flowing back and forth as they tried to verify that the same vision had happened to both of them. It had! However, neither of them knew how to get into the Sphinx in the present time and this was frustrating to them. The visit broke up shortly thereafter with an agreement between Julie and Jeff that they would meditate on it to try to discover the secret and relay it in letters.

Several weeks passed with Julie meditating on the problem, but no insight appeared. Disappointment welled because she knew that deep inside herself she knew that she knew the answer. One night she went to bed and had the most vivid dream she had ever had in her life. It was so vivid that it appeared more real than reality, but it was like she wasn't really asleep! It was more like she was in a trance. She stood in front of the Sphinx and a vision of the Greek key appeared superimposed over it.

Julie knew immediately that this was the secret key and that was why the pattern had been used so much in antiquity--so that it wouldn't be forgotten. The longer she stood there the more complete the picture of the "key" became. It worked rather like a combination lock-

11 stones right 9 stones up 7 stones right 5 stones down 3 stones left 2 stones up and 1 stone right!

The stone moved like a secret, swinging bookshelf in a movie and Julie was amazed at the ease of the movement! She started to enter the passage, but something held her back. She could sense danger, but didn't know from where or how it would manifest. She stood there, frozen, as she extended her senses as far as possible. Then, she felt it! It was like force field stretched over the revealed opening. She pushed with her mind, but the field resisted. Julie pushed again and woke up!

The next day, filled with excitement, she wrote Jeff about her dream and tried to meditate to obtain more information, but it was like the phone line had been cut. Nothing would come to her no matter how hard she tried! It appeared that everything had been revealed that was going to be revealed so she might as well forget trying to discover any more. Yet, the information was so tantalising, so intriguing! What if there really was a room under the Sphinx? What if it really did contain all the things they had seen there and, most important, who were the people that had put those things there and why?

There were so many questions and no real answers. There was no one to ask either. Julie didn't know very much about Egypt, but she did know that no room had ever been found under the Sphinx. She didn't know if anyone even suspected such a thing! Jeff's return letter finally arrived and it gave Julie cold chills to learn that on the same night she had dreamed of the Greek key and how to get into the Sphinx, Jeff had had the exact same dream. It was too strange to be coincidence, but what it was Julie didn't know. There had to be some deeper purpose.

Jeff's dream had relayed only a little more information than hers. He felt that when the time was right the Sphinx would be opened to reveal knowledge that was meant to be shared with the whole world, not hoarded by any one nation. He, too, felt that there was danger once the opening became apparent, but he didn't know what the precise danger was. Through the exchange of many letters back and forth, Julie and Jeff tried to come to a more definite understanding of what they had learned, but nothing further happened to enlighten them. As time passed, the incident was pushed to the back of their minds, but never forgotten. As is the way with such things, the two of them eventually lost touch with each other. It seemed to Julie, later, that the sole purpose of their meeting was to have this shared vision!

Through the ensuing years, when the 'feeling' seemed right, Julie tried off and on to communicate her vision of the Sphinx with various people. She wrote to Ralph Bergstresser who was investigating pyramid power and wanted to build a pyramid city in Arizona. He thought it quite interesting and agreed that when the time was right the Sphinx would be opened, but was in no position to do anything about it.

Next, she wrote to the British author, Andrew Tomas, now deceased, who wrote books along the line of Eric Von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods". Mr. Tomas wrote back that he had been inside the Sphinx in the 1930's, that it was guarded by a group of Druse tribesmen with the honour being passed in sacred trust from father to son and this had been done for centuries, and Julie's basic information was correct! This vindication of her vision. made her feel quite good. However, Mr.Tomas opined that it would be opened when the time was right and the 1970'swas not the right time! He suspected sometime in the late 1990's! Julie and Andrew Tomas corresponded for many years before his death.

After writing to Mr. Tomas, Julie didn't feel the urge to let anyone else know about it for many years. Then, John Anthony West appeared on the public scene with his television special hosted by Charlton Heston. She wrote Mr., West with the details of her vision, but Mr. West didn't deign to reply!

While reading "Atlantis Rising" magazine, Julie decided to write to one of the contributors, Mr. Joseph Jochmans, concerning her vision. Mr. Jochmans didn't consider it a "real" vision of a "real" Sphinx and proceeded to tell Julie that it was only a personal vision of her own Hall of Records and implied it had no place in concrete reality! He appeared to have no desire to pursue the issue any farther!

It has been twenty-eight years since Julie first had the vision of the room under the Sphinx. Much has changed since then. People, echoing Edgar Cayce, are now saying there is a Hall Of Records in front of the Sphinx and it has become fashionable to speculate on it. She has tried over the years to let others know of its existence in the hope that she would reach the right person, the person designated to be the one to open it and reveal what's there to the world.

Naturally, she would like to be present when this event occurs, but either the time is not yet or she hasn't reached the 'right' person.