A local copy is stored in a separate file here.
Another copy with preserved formatting as it was published can be found here.
In 2003 I emailed the interviewer, Cliff Bostock, who from my investigations is an honest journalist (there are other articles of his online). I asked him whether he remembered Michel and his book. I got no reply.Creative Loafing, August 20, 1995
PARADIGMS
By Cliff Bostock
Few phenomena of popular culture are as hard to explain as
alleged encounters with UFOs and extraterrestrials. Although
literally millions of people lay claim to such experiences,
nobody has ever produced any convincing proof.
Of course, the U.S. Government is blamed for covering up
sightings and incidents like the alleged crash of a space ship
in Roswell, N.M., in the '40s. Individuals often blame the lack
of evidence on the superior intelligence and technology of the
aliens themselves. The current issue of _Yoga Journal_, for
example, includes a story about Steven Greer, the Asheville MD
who claims regularly to elicit contacts with UFOs through
technology and meditation. The author, Keith Thompson (whose
book _Angels and Aliens_ is a study of UFOs as mythic phenomena)
tells the story of a powerful contact ... in which all cameras
on the site are shut down by a craft's electromagnetic field.
Recently, a French emigrant to Australia, Michel Desmarquet, has
been in Atlanta promoting his book, _Abduction to the 9th
Planet_ (Arafura Publishing). Mr. Desmarquet, a landscape
architect, claims that he was physically abducted not merely to
a spacecraft, but to another planet, Thiaoouba, billions of
miles away in another galaxy. There, he says, he was given
answers and explanations to physical and spiritual mysteries
under the tutelage of Thao, a 10-foot-tall woman, who instructed
him to write his book.
I interviewed Mr. Desmarquet, who speaks in a very heavy French
accent, recently and attended a lecture by him at The
Wishfulfilling Tree, a bookstore. He is by all appearances
completely sincere and seemed wounded when I told him I found
his story "incredible." The following interview is extracted
from my own meeting with him and from questions posed him by
audience members following his talk.
You were abducted?
Yes, I woke up at half past midnight June 26, 1987. I was in a
completely strange state -- refreshed like I'd had a full
night's sleep but also I felt as if I'd been divided into two
people. One part of me seemed to watch the other part. I got
dressed, wrote a note to my wife, telling her that I would be
away for 10 days and that she need not worry. Then I went
outside. Everything was washed in blue light. The next thing I
know, I am being lifted into the sky. I think I am dreaming, of
course, but I am told I am not. I wonder who is speaking to me.
Then I noticed I am being lifted by a very tall woman, Thao.
Why were you chosen for this experience?
Of course, I asked that as soon as we got on board the ship,
which, by the way, was a perfect sphere and looked nothing like
a flying saucer. They explained to me that I am in my 81st
lifetime, which is unusual. They told me I would have to write
my story and I said I am not a writer. They said that was good,
because I would not be inclined to embellish it. I said, "Well,
then, you need a journalist" and Thao said journalists on our
planet would only sensationalize the story.
Mr. Desmarquet, I'm going to focus here not so much on your
experience, which people can read about in your book, but on
your claim itself. Did these people give you anything to prove
to us that you were abducted?
No! I asked the Thaori for a piece of metal, something that
does not exist on earth and they said, "We could give you that
but then your scientists would just claim that an alchemist
created it." They told me that when people read my book -- and
people should read it three times --they will realize I am
speaking the truth. I am a landscape architect without a lot of
education. I don't know anything about these things they told
me.
That of course would constitute proof too. Did the Thaori
explain something to you for which we have no explanation here?
Did they give you a cure for a disease or even a new spiritual
technology?
Well, they told me all about the astral body, for example. I
met seven masters who could hardly keep their physical bodies in
place around their astral bodies ....
But the notion of an astral body is nothing new to our planet.
People have been writing about that for centuries. It seems to
me that if these people are so advanced and wanted to really
help our planet, they would have new information to offer that
could be verified. At the very least, one would expect a
completely new inflection of ancient mysteries.
They told me about the lost continent of Mu and explained the
Easter Island statues to me. They even told me that God created
man because He wanted some means of physical sensation for
Himself.
But that too is information we can't verify. Such information
can be imagined, like fiction. What convinces you that you
weren't in the grip of an hallucination?
Well, for one thing, Thao gave me a large bruise, but mainly I
just know that what happened was real.
And how did you pass through billions of miles in a few days?
We entered through a parallel universe. They created a space
like the Bermuda Triangle, which is an opening to a parallel
universe beyond time. You see, I had never heard of such ideas
as a parallel universe before this time.
Did you have an interest in UFOs and extraterrestrials before
your abduction?
No! When people would speak of such things, I would smile. I
did not think it was impossible, but I thought it was probably
not so.
I wonder how your wife reacted when you showed up 10 days later,
saying that you'd been abducted.
She did not believe me. She was sure that I had been with
another woman. But, finally, after a couple of months she said
that she knew me well enough to know that I would not lie. My
son, who is interested in spiritual things, had no trouble
believing me. They showed me all of my past lives. This was
mainly a spiritual experience, I think.
Did they explain to you why so many people are being abducted
and seeing UFOs?
Well, I hate to say this, but that is rubbish. They explained
to me that it is possible to have collective hallucinations. I
understand there are nearly 5 million people who claim to have
been abducted and implanted with something. They said that no
more than 100 people in all of time have been actually abducted.
When people tell me they have been abducted, I smile and I'm
polite, but usually I know it is not true.
So you are convinced that your abduction is real while most
others are not?
Yes, I know how it sounds. I am only repeating what they tell
me.
What do these people think of us?
They are appalled by our materialism and the way we treat the
planet.
Why are they here? Do they ever intercede?
They are not police. They are very loving beings who want to
help and they have interceded. Sometimes they will nudge us. For
example, during World War II, they gave a nudge to the Americans
in the discovery of the atomic bomb. The Nazis were very close
and they did not want for them to get it. They believe in free
will and know that communism, fascism, all forms of
totalitarianism, are bad for men. So, they support America.
(From an audience member): It is surprising that they should
necessarily favor America. This has been a very fascist country,
during the '50s, for example, in the McCarthy period.
I do not think so! America, fascist? No, I do not think so.
How was returning?
I did not wish to come back. It was like returning from
paradise. And, of course, I did not like having to go public
with this story. People think you are crazy, but I was
instructed to write this book. It took three years to get a
publisher. Everyone wanted to change it, but I couldn't allow
that. I didn't channel it, but Thao was there with me when I
wrote it.
So, summarily, what is the most important information they gave
you?
That we should not look to religion or politics, but inside
ourselves. Inside, through meditation and the higher self, we
can communicate with the creator at any time.