My friend C and I camped in Joshua Tree to celebrate New Years Eve 2012. Everything about this trip was perfect: things fell seamlessly into place and we were so excited to welcome in the new year. We spent the evening talking and eating snacks. We were in such positive spirits! We had nothing bad to say about anyone or anything; we were just glad to welcome the New Year. Shortly after midnight, C and I created a drinking game with champagne, proposing toasts to everything. "Cheers to the multiverse, for always providing what we need, when we need it. Cheers to the sun for making all life possible. Cheers to creative expression in the New Year. WHATEVER'S UP THERE, CHEERS TO YOU." (We only consumed half a bottle of champagne and the temperature was below freezing; it is important to note that we were not in any heavily altered state!) We sat down at our fire and decided to go for a nature walk before bed. We finished our glasses of champagne and walked into the desert and onto what seemed a different plane. The moon reflected blue on granite rock faces as we explored. We found ourselves on a trail that led us to the mouth of a ravine. We stood in front of the ravine, C climbed on a rock and I stood below. I was overcome with the need to pray so I put my head down and found myself suddenly still in a deep, rare state of prayer and good intentions for everyone I know: "please help so and so get a job. My friend needs to regain health. Help my brother communicate better. Help me communicate better." C said look up and I did. Up was a bright gold light speeding across the sky, about 200 ft from the ground. I started weeping the moment I saw it. All we could say was "THERE IT IS!" We stepped away from the ravine and out into the open and the light stopped to hover above us, glittery, silently gold and pulsating. "Let's go back to camp," C said and he turned and started walking but I couldn't move I was so mesmerized and the light was communicating something to me that i've yet to understand. "Let's go back to camp" and as we started walking the light drifted gracefully but quickly back up, true north, to space, to wherever. We stumbled, hyperventilating, jumping and running over rocks and the light drifted higher, higher and disappeared. We stopped, looked at each other and hugged, shaking, asking "Are you OK!?" Back at camp I just had to lay on the desert floor. "Did we just get abducted?" we asked, "How long were we gone!" (only about an hour.) I'm not sure that we were physically abducted, but something happened with our minds and this light. We now refer to the light as THE GODDESS and we've come to some conclusions: the light was not a machine. but a being. A living, organic entity. It was an intimate encounter, terrifying, but not threatening. The encounter did something to our minds/bodies/spirits. Initially, this experience confused and frustrated us both: how could we return to our normal lives knowing this exists? Fortunately, we've been able to integrate this experience positively, into our spiritual lives. I believe I know that the entity communicated ideas of lovingkindness to us, for we had this experience when we were in a most positive, joyous state.Later, C confessed that I alone might have been abducted: "there was a time when you weren't next to me. There was a minute where I didn't see you. I turned away to walk back to camp and you stayed there, alone." The world didn't so much end in 2012. It began.