"The Butterfly People." This is just one of the many names of seemingly other-worldly or spirit-type beings that countless stories around the globe involve, where someone or something appears at the moment of imminent, life-threatening danger, and imposes its will to either save that person or influence them to get out of harms way. Usually, witnesses of the unexplained are solitary ones, having experienced the event alone and afterward relating the story of their experience. As credible as a solitary witness may be known to be to others, we are still left wanting for more supporting evidence. In the following story, such corroborative testimony is available.
In May, 2011 a large, destructive tornado whipped through Joplin, Missouri. Amid the destruction were stories told of people unable to explain how they miraculously were not injured or killed while in the midst of certainty of that happening. As surviving children came forth to tell of their accounts, they shared one similarity of what happened. They described "butterfly people" coming to their aid and protection. One example as related by a father and his child, concerned them being in their car on the road and suddenly found themselves with the tornado bearing down on them up ahead. A car thrown by the tornado was soaring down about to hit them. The child related "two very big angels” held the flying car back at the time and threw their own car to the side, out of the way of harm. The father related he had no time to react and cannot explain how they ended up veering out of harms way. He had not witnessed the angels his child reported to have seen.
Another vehicle on the road was in the direct path of the tornado. The mother and young daughter fled their vehicle and took refuge in a roadside ditch. Somehow, the tornado which was bearing directly down on them left them unscathed. Upon realizing they were miraculously safe from harm, the daughter replied to her mother, "weren't they beautiful? Did you see how beautiful their wings were?" When the mother told her daughter there was no one else there with them, the daughter insisted that beings with rainbow colored wings had surrounded them and protected them as the tornado passed.
Another young boy of 5 years of age was found unharmed amidst a pile of devastation, the building literally torn to shreds around him. He told about the winds whipping all around him so violent he couldn't see anything except three glowing people with butterfly wings walking up to him and surrounding him, with the debris bouncing off them to the side all around him. When the tornado passed they looked at him, smiled and vanished.
The most incredible related story is of the 4-year old boy who was found in a field that was 6-miles from the hospital he was at when the tornado struck there. Incredibly showing no signs of injury, the boy stated "angels brought me and set me down here."
There were numerous other stories about strange people lifting heavy debris off trapped survivors, debris too heavy to have been lifted by the rescuers who then were nowhere to be found when other help arrived. Other stories told of survival with no recollection of how they were spared.
It may be hard at times to believe a child's typical active imagination, however keep in mind that none of the above children who told about butterfly people knew one another or had heard the other's story. A thought comes to mind that for all of those who were miraculously rescued, the associated visual experience was based on what the current degree of their belief system allowed them to see, whether it was the not yet fully informed, developed beliefs of a child or those of both ends of the belief scale when it comes to adults.
Not all stories had a happy ending that day. In the midst of 200-plus mile-per-hour winds that shredded entire neighborhoods like toothpicks, many lost their lives. For those who survived, was it luck or perhaps coincidence? Was there something else that came into play that day, something that cannot be explained, yet cannot be denied?
Survivors ask the question, "why me?" Finding peace in answer to that question can only be achieved by the very same people who benefited from the assistance of the seemingly angelic-like entities. The answer for each of them individually, will hopefully come over time.
In one way there may be a message contained within this story for each of us. That message is that for those who pursue proof of the paranormal, the answers are not to be found "out there," by science or any other investigative and/or pseudo-scientific means. The "search" for the paranormal should begin and end instead, inside each and every one of us. How cool is that?
So, what was it? What do you believe?
- MoonJoey