From: Louise Lowry <SHnSASSY1.nul>
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 04:43:26 EDT
Fwd Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 10:11:54 -0400
Subject: Pilot To The Paranormal


Source: The Daily Republic - Fairfield, California

http://www.dailyrepublic.com/articles/2004/07/21/news/news1.txt

07-22-04


Pilot to the paranormal - From wheat fields to the supernatural
Fairfield resident lives to explain the unexplained

By Warren Lutz

Fairfield -- Thirty years ago, Steve Moreno stood near the gates
of Travis Air Force Base, trying to come to grips with his
psychic experiences.

For the first 21 years of his life, strange things happened to
Moreno. He saw things other people couldn't. Odd weather
patterns sometimes followed him. And he couldn't control any of
it.

"It was pretty strange, because I had nothing I could really
ground with it, or relate it to," he said. "So I felt quite
different, to say the least."

Moreno had met people who had similar experiences. But that
night, as he watched the jets cut through the sky, depression
began taking root. Maybe it was all in his head.

Minutes later, as he drove toward a local pool hall, Moreno's
Dodge Roadrunner struck the center of the road and started to
flip, end over end. Stuck upside down inside his vehicle, Moreno
found himself pleading for his life.

"I said, 'Look, I'll never be depressed again,' " he recalled.
"Just let me walk away from everything."

From psychic to science

Now 49, Moreno has a successful contracting business, keeps a
tidy home on the edge of the military base, and has a wife and
two kids. He laughs easily and listens well.

He also believes in UFOs, extraterrestrials and a satellite
government. In fact, he doesn't just believe in such things. He
has proof they exist, he said.

In the nearly 30 years since his near-death experience, Moreno
has become Solano County's leading expert on all things
paranormal and supernatural. Only now, he uses only science, not
psychic ability, to explain such things as crop circles and
straying spirits.

Since his accident, "I was no longer the out-of-control
psychic," Moreno said. "I became Mr. Investigator Scientist...
and I had the best of both worlds going for me because I
already knew what being a psychic was all about."

His years of research came in handy when the largest crop circle
formation in North American history appeared in a Rockville
wheat field last year. Through Psi Applications, the nonprofit
paranormal research firm he runs from his home, Moreno collected
chaffs of wheat and networked with more experienced crop circle
researchers to explain who or what was behind the phenomenon.

"He is very dedicated investigator," said Ruben Uriarte, the
Northern California director of the Mutual UFO Network who
studied the circles with Moreno. "When phenomena occurs in his
backyard, Steve becomes a very key individual."

He set a precedent, too, Uriarte said, by setting up a live
Internet telecast from the wheat field, allowing researchers and
interested parties from around the world to see the phenomenon.

"That really opened the doors," Uriarte said. "Now other people
can witness (such events) live."

Battling closed minds

While many of the researchers he works with have academic
credentials and scientific backgrounds, Moreno is first to admit
he doesn't have either.

He rather likes it that way.

"Right now... I don't really pose any real threat to people
that are involved in the intelligence community because they
look at me and say, he's just a contractor and he's not going to
go anywhere with it."

But what Moreno doesn't know, he learns from others, said crop
circle researcher Jeffery Wilson, who describes Moreno as a
meticulous researcher.

"Steve has gone out of his way to archive just about every
paranormal thing that has ever hit the media," said Wilson, who
holds a masters degree in general science from East Michigan
University.

"Since the crop circles came down in his county last year, he
has sought out expert advice from people who have been studying
crop circles for a long time," Wilson added. "He had really gone
out of his way to learn as much as he could."

But with such work comes frustration. Hoaxes and claims of
hoaxes often provide fuel for skeptics.

Two weeks after the Rockville crop circles were found, four
teens claimed they made them out of boredom. Although they could
offer little proof, many people - and some of the media - bought
their story.

"People are afraid of what they don't know," Moreno said. "But
if it's presented to them in the right manner, I think people
are more than ready to understand there are other things that
are beyond our current paradigms of science and theology."

Recording the abnormal

Crop circles are only part of Moreno's work with the
supernatural.

For years, Moreno has investigated UFO sightings and "presences"
rumored to exist in some of Solano County's oldest buildings.

Several years ago, for example, Moreno staked out the Vallejo
Naval and Historical Museum after a employee caught something
strange on camera. Enhanced frames of the shots show two
illuminated faces looking downward.

On more than one occasion, Moreno has seen supernatural
occurrences first hand.

Several years ago, before a guest spot on the supernatural radio
program Coast to Coast, "this craft came over the house and
started doing all these gyrations," he said. "I went up on the
roof with my camcorder and that spot beam right there and
flashed at it.

"The thing stopped in mid-air and started doing all these
mutations and everything."

Moreno's tools - some of them handmade - include temperature
gauges, Polaroid cameras (for tamper-proof images), and infrared
motion detectors covered with black boxes to detect items that
don't move in front of the devices, but through them.

Psi's Web site, www.psiapplications.com, is stacked with
findings, Moreno's and others.

"All I am is just the messenger," he said. "I'm not creating any
of this, it already exists. I've just brought all this
documentation together and brought to one point."

Where we're headed

After years of research, Moreno has discovered common threads in
his findings.

He also believes the Earth's resources are quickly running out -
 but that humans could be saved by a benevolent intelligence
from beyond.

"All roads point to 2012 being the point of no return," he said.
"We'll still survive, it's not going to be like, 'lights out.'
It's going to be a slow burn in hell. All the money and all the
power in the world is not going to make a darn bit of
difference."

If people find Moreno's research and outlook strange, few share
it with him.

After the Rockville circles appeared, Moreno was a guest on the
Sacramento radio talk show Armstrong and Getty.

"They were trying to poke fun at me a little bit", he said.

They asked Moreno if he was "a nut".

"I didn't respond," he said. "I just let them sit there for a
minute. Then I said, 'Well, no, I don't think so. I think I'm a
regular person and I'm just trying to bring some information
forward.' "

Moreno often spends more than 40 hours a week running Psi
Applications. Although it's a nonprofit, he is looking for seed
money or a grant so he can work full-time on paranormal
investigations.

In fact, expanding people's views of the supernatural was part
of the deal he made with the 'source' he spoke to in the moments
after his car accident. And when he made that deal, he said, his
car door opened, and Moreno was pulled out of the wreck on his
back.

As he would many more nights ahead, Moreno found staring at the
sky.

"The stars," he said, "never looked so beautiful in my entire
life."

Reach Warren Lutz at 427-6955 or wlutz.nul


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