The Psychic Who Saved the World
In 1955, John Anthony Walker enlisted in the Navy. Thirty years later, he was taken into custody by the FBI for espionage. What happened? And what does any of this have to do with unidentified flying objects in Maine? The psychic knows.
It’s All About the Benjamins
About thirteen years into his naval career, John Walker experienced financial difficulties in trying to support his wife and four children. He also owned a restaurant that he barely kept in business, and funds were needed badly. One day in 1968 he found himself in Washington, DC, pacing anxiously in front of the Soviet Embassy. He held a closely guarded briefcase and sighed wearily when thinking of its contents. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, looked over his shoulder one last time, and walked inside.
Contained in that briefcase was a radio cipher card. After he spoke with officials inside the embassy, he walked out with a few thousand dollars, a sense of relief, and the beginnings of a torrid double life. That day became the first time John Walker sold US intelligence secrets to the Russians. It also sparked a seventeen-year stint inside an espionage ring that involved friends and members of his own family. He commissioned his wife, Barbara, naval student Jerry Whitworth, his older brother Arthur, and his son Michael, who was an active duty seaman. Walker would eventually try to recruit all his children into the ring, including his youngest daughter, who had recently become pregnant.
Throughout the years, Barbara became despondent over John’s involvement with the Russians and despised the fact that he’d recruited his own family members. Her distress turned to anger, and in 1976, they divorced and she moved back to Maine—Skowhegan, specifically. Soon after, Barbara began abusing alcohol due to her constant worry about her children and her ex-husband’s espionage exploits. Fast-forward to November 1984, when she finally contacted the FBI office in Boston, Massachusetts, admittedly in an inebriated state. But she did succeed in reporting John’s secret activities.
Okay, let’s step back for a moment. We finally have a Maine connection with Barbara’s move to Skowhegan. So … UFOs? I know, just be patient with me.
While living in an apartment complex in Skowhegan, Barbara became friendly with the Vigue family. The family’s daughter, Shalel, was (and still is) a practicing medium and tarot reader, and she happened to be Barbara’s neighbor. One day in January of 1984, Barbara came to Shalel for help. She asked for a reading because she wanted guidance to decide if she should turn her ex-husband in to the authorities. Shalel told the Washington Post, “She said she suspected he was giving secrets to the Russians. She said he would get drunk and call her on the phone and brag about it.” After much consideration, and specifically crediting Shalel for her guidance, Barbara called the FBI and reported John on suspicion of espionage.
Author Howard Blum wrote of John’s exploits in the book I Pledge Allegiance. Pick it up if you can. It is a fascinating read.
The Psychic and the Stars
Due to the John Walker story, interest in Shalel’s work grew, and she was interviewed by the New York Times, Washington Post, numerous other major newspapers around the world, and local author C. J. Stevens. In Stevens’s subsequent book, The Supernatural Side of Maine, he revealed some interesting insights of the extraterrestrial variety. Shalel disclosed that she’d begun speaking to extraterrestrials at the age of twelve. She explained that she could speak with them telepathically, and they made her aware of her psychic abilities. She described a 1967 encounter where she observed a UFO outside her bedroom window—an orange light. She then saw a face in the clouds that was “long and gaunt.” She further explained, “They told me that I had abilities unlike others, and I would be responsible in the coming years for helping the US gain world peace with Russia. I also asked it if this is really what you look like, the extraterrestrial said, ‘That’s the closest that I can let you see of my real face so you will not be afraid.’” She had two other encounters with this extraterrestrial (1975 and 1977) and was given messages that they meant us no harm. She said, “They are intent on the preservation of our species.”
After researching the John Walker case and Shalel’s involvement with it, I contacted her for an interview. I met with her in July 2016 at her home in Skowhegan. As I pulled into her driveway, a gorgeous Persian cat greeted me outside. A woman came to the door with a big smile and a warm greeting. As we became acquainted, kittens paraded into the room. Side note—I love kitties! And to be interviewing a UFO witness, conducting research, and surrounded by kittens … I must tell you, dear readers, I was in heaven! Anyway, let’s get back to Shalel.
As a young girl, she had told her parents of her encounters with extraterrestrials. In her opinion, her folks reacted poorly to this revelation. They assumed something must be wrong with their daughter and promptly took her to the hospital. After an examination and tests, the family doctor found nothing medically wrong with Shalel and sent her and her parents on their way. Her mother then figured it must be a spiritual issue and took Shalel to a retreat center in Augusta. As she explained to me, “My mother brought me to the hospital because she didn’t know what to think. After all the tests came back negative, and I was found mentally stable, she brought me down to Dedication to the Mary Mother of Jesus at Saint Paul’s Retreat Center in Augusta, Maine.” Father Val was one of the servicing priests at this retreat center and Shalel’s mother had her meet with him. Of note is the fact that Father Val had a Vatican sanction to perform exorcisms, and Shalel’s mother thought that might be just what her daughter needed. As Shalel explained, “Father Val had been blessed by the Pope to perform exorcisms, and my mother took me down to verify that I wasn’t possessed by demons. He told my mother, ‘If she does have a demon, I will exorcise that demon.’ He chuckled a bit after my mother left the room. Well, after the Father spoke to me he told me that I was a fine, normal girl and to keep reading.” According to Shalel, her mother was a good woman who appreciated both the doctor’s and priest’s diagnosis, and she supported Shalel’s gift.
Cured!
During the ice storm of 1998, there was another otherworldly encounter that resulted in physical evidence, witnessed by one of Shalel’s neighbors, and also a miraculous healing for both Shalel and her cat. “I believe the extraterrestrials made the ice storm happen,” Shalel explained to me. “They landed on the roof of where I was living [corner of Chandler and Stewart Streets in Skowhegan]. And my neighbor asked me if I believed in UFOs because something had landed on the roof the night before and left an impression in the ice!” Shalel was taken aback by this claim, and both hurried outside to look at the roof. Sure enough, there was a perfect circle melted into the ice! The neighbor speculated that perhaps it was the military or the National Guard running training maneuvers in the area. Shalel gave in to this possibility but knew that something different had been afoot.
During that time, Shalel told me, she’d suffered from a tumor in her adrenal gland and her cat had feline leukemia. On the morning of her neighbor’s report, she knew something felt different, and then her neighbor’s discovery confirmed it. Weeks before the ice storm began, Shalel had prayed and meditated to everything and anything she could think of to avoid surgery on her tumor. She told me, “I put that out to the universe. If there are angels, if there are saints, if there are loved ones passed on. Or extraterrestrials that ‘wanna’ help me with this. Remove this adrenal tumor!” Weeks passed with no answer … until the ice storm came. “That morning I woke up and all my pain from the tumor was gone,” she exclaimed. “I know that leukemia was gone too. That cat was running around like a kitten, all lit up.” Shalel felt great, the best she had in years. No more pain, no more aches, and even her cat seemed renewed and went on to live several additional years.
“I know they made this ice storm to help me with this,” Shalel said. “There must be more to this. They’re going to use me again. Why go to all this trouble?” I asked, “Use you for what?” “Well, that would bring us to 2009,” she replied. “I told you about when I was twelve and they said I would help the US with Russia. That was more than just the Walker case.”
Shalel believed her visitations were meant for a greater purpose, and that her visitor’s mysterious messages and healings would all culminate in an event she described as “intense and controversial.” She anxiously anticipated their next arrival.
The Time Is Upon Us!
About ten years after the ice storm incident, Shalel’s extraterrestrial brethren reappeared once again. She noted that this encounter was different from the others; she had been awaiting this moment and knew it would be significant. The encounter suggested world affairs and avoidance of war but gave her little else to go on. “I woke up one morning after having a vivid dream, or what seemed like a dream,” Shalel said. “The one who visits me arrived again and told me something significant.” (While Shalel was explaining this to me, her demeanor changed. Not drastically, but it was apparent. She adjusted her seat and her tone lowered. I could tell that I was about to hear something important.) “He said to me, ‘The time is upon us, what we trained you for. I’m sorry if it is scary, you really have to rise to the occasion.’”
At this point in the conversation, Shalel looked at me and smiled. She must have seen my receptive demeanor as I actively listened. “I’m going to show you the deck I used,” she continued. Shalel uses tarot cards in her readings and meditation to help her receive messages. “It’s a world Dakini deck.” She splayed the cards across a table in her living room. (I researched the deck when I got home and found that this type of deck is said to show the intuitive wisdom of the “oracle,” which helps to find meaning in the unwritten future.)
After her encounter with the extraterrestrial visitor, Shalel meditated and then went through the deck and found “something of interest,” as she put it. She said to me, “Then I realized what it was. Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, had bought a missile from Russia with which to deliver an atom bomb to the state of Israel to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth. He wanted to do this before the election in June because he knew he couldn’t win legally. But in case he lost, he wanted to leave a legacy.” I looked at her, dumbfounded. My jaw probably dropped, mainly because I couldn’t fathom how she’d gotten that from her meditation and the deck. She said, “You have to read them, over and over, put it all together.” And put it together she did.
Iran’s election in 2009 was filled with controversy. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was running against three opponents. With 62 percent of the votes counted, Ahmadinejad was announced the victor. This irregularity surprised the people of Iran, which resulted in protests by thousands across every single Iranian city. “I was very interested in the situation in Iran,” Shalel said. “I have friends in the area. For years, they have suffered through multiple tyrannies.” Concerned after her meditation, Shalel conducted research on Ahmadinejad and searched for verification of the missile purchase.
According to my own research and knowledge of the situation, Iran was in talks with Russia in 2009 about purchasing Soviet surface-to-air missiles, but the deal never went through due to UN sanctions in 2010. It came up again in 2015 when multiple countries, including the United States, condemned the sale. And finally, in 2016, the deal went through and the missiles were delivered. Shalel, however, had unearthed a different version of events when she found a peculiar news report from 2009. As she explained, “In an obscure CNN archive it said ‘Iran purchases Missile from Russia.’ I went into that story and found that the missile was supposed to be used to deliver an atom bomb to Israel because Ahmadinejad wants them destroyed.”
During my research into Shalel’s story (summer 2016), I searched the exact terms of the article as she did and received an “HTTP Status 404” error. This type of error means that communication with the server did connect properly, but I found no results due to the original link either having been removed or broken. A common error type, for sure, but it could imply something may have been there previously.
Once Shalel studied the situation, she knew she had to act. She thought about the alien request, her meditation, and what her cards had told her, and she devised a plan. “I found five to six people in my network who are at the top in their field. This includes military officials, masons, and members from the Dalai Lama group. I contacted them, told them of what I found and asked what to do with this information.” One of her contacts took great interest in what Shalel had to say. He was a Marine veteran who shared a peculiar dream with Shalel that he felt foreshadowed something. It was about the world being on a tortoise’s back, and the world would plummet if not for that tortoise. He felt that Shalel’s findings and the extraterrestrial intervention, coupled with his dream, was a call to action.
He asked Shalel, “What makes this Ahmadinejad man tick? We’ve got to do this from another approach. We’ve got to get inside his head and get him to change his plan.” Shalel pondered this and suddenly it hit her like a ton of bricks. She knew what they had to do. She knew the one thing that would change Ahmadinejad’s mind about setting off an atomic bomb on Israel: family. “Let’s scare the bejesus out of him by sending military snipers to take out his two sons! We’ll contact him and tell him if he doesn’t change his mind, his sons will be dead in hours. It’s a bluff, but we’ll make him believe it.” They both thought the idea could work, so they set out to get the ball rolling. Shalel had an Israeli friend whom she’d met online. She told me, “They were from a very wealthy family and had connections to Iraq, Iran, and Israel. His father was an oil baron.” With a plan in place to communicate that message to Ahmadinejad, Shalel prayed that it would work. “I prayed on it. I didn’t want the world to have to endure this. The extraterrestrials knew and came to me. The radioactive air would affect millions for generations.”
Did It Work?
As the date of the election approached, no bombs were dropped. According to Shalel, the plan worked! An atomic bomb was not dropped on Israel, and, Shalel explained, as a final act to preserve his status, “Ahmadinejad rigged the election in 2009 to remain president so he could figure out a different plan for his legacy. But we did it!” I felt her terrific pride in this during our conversation.
It’s a wild story, but the emotion was real. I thought about it on my drive back to Bangor. Was the world a better place because of this psychic from Skowhegan? Was she an unsung hero who had had a hand in thwarting a nuclear war? I couldn’t begin to fathom this thought, and really, I could have just dismissed her. But if you remember from the “perception” discussion at the beginning of this book, never dismiss the outrageous just because it’s easy to. Maybe Shalel did save us, or maybe she didn’t. What I do know after meeting and spending time with her is that she’d save the world time and time again if given the chance.