On the evening of September 14, 1978, Susan Ware (an artist and former 3rd Class Petty Officer in the US Navy) and her friend Karen drove along a remote highway in the deserts of central Utah. It was a beautiful night as the moon rose, and the stars shone brightly in the clear night sky. But suddenly, things changed. An eerie darkness settled over the area, blotting out their view of the sky above. Then, without warning, Karen, (who was driving) slammed on the brakes and came to a stop. Ahead of them on the highway, they saw something astonishing. A group of twenty oversized jackrabbits were blocking the road. The rabbits stood unmoving, like sentries, their backs facing the vehicle. The astonished women exited the car and stared with disbelief. The jackrabbits were far too large to be normal, and their lack of movement betrayed the fact that something very odd was happening here.

Susan and Karen walked to the front of the car and reached out to hold each other’s hand. At that moment, the lights in the vehicle turned off, the radio which had been playing became silent, a blinding light shone down on them from above, and all the rabbits turned around in one smooth, synchronized movement. Susan screamed. The rabbits were no longer rabbits: they were gray aliens!

The next thing Susan and Karen knew, it was morning, nine hours had passed, and they were in a small diner in Grand Junction, Colorado, hundreds of miles away from their original location. Both women stared around them in astonishment. Susan’s mind instantly went back to the last thing she remembered: the car stopping, the rabbits turning around, the gray aliens, the bright light coming from above. At the same time, she began having flashbacks of being in a strange room, seeing gray ETs looking at her, and falling through the sky high above the Earth. Karen, however, could only remember starting the drive earlier that evening. She didn’t remember anything about the encounter itself. Both women had no idea how they got to the diner. And both felt physically ill with burns on their skin, a raging thirst, nausea and more.

Unable to understand and process the experience, both women moved on with their lives. As Susan recovered, she remembered that as a child, she had several encounters with strange humanoids looking in through the window of her home. Joining the Navy as a young woman, she had several UFO sightings. Once while camping with friends in the desert, she had an astonishing close-up sighting.

For decades, she did her best to forget about her strange experiences, particularly the encounter on the desert highway. She got married, had children and did her best to live a normal life. But throughout the years, she continued to have experiences with high strangeness: seeing a spirit, having psychic visions, powerful intuitions and synchronicities, remote viewing, even a couple of Bigfoot encounters. But always, in the back of her mind, was the encounter on the desert highway. What happened that night? What had occurred during those nine hours of missing time?

Finally, the time came when Susan realized it was time to figure things out. Her children had grown up. She was separated from her husband. She no longer had to worry about what other people might think. She went to her computer and typed in the word UFO. To her amazement, the film, “Alien Abduction Answers,” by John Yost had just been released that very day. This incredible synchronicity inspired her to reach out to John Yost. This led to her meeting hypnotherapist Debz Shakti.

Under hypnosis, Susan recalled being pulled onboard a craft along with her friend Karen. She found herself in a small room with soft blue walls. A small gray stood next to her. Susan asked if she could touch the being, and it said yes. It then proceeded to show her images of war: tanks on the streets, explosions, people starving and more. The gray warned her that Susan had to do her best to warn the world about the dangers of human aggression. She was physically examined, and she believes she may have been healed. Both women were returned to Earth.

Going under hypnosis turned out to be a turning point in Susan’s life. She overcame the fear of her encounter and finally had answers about what happened. She sought the help of researchers like Richard Banasiak and Earl Grey of MUFON. Susan’s case garnered a lot of attention and was voted as MUFON’s best case of the year for 2023.

Susan’s story is also told in my book, “Humanoids and High Strangeness: Twenty True UFO Encounters.” Now available!