Roughly ten years ago, I had an experience that changed the way I look at the universe. I left Iowa City, IA where I was living with a friend to have a vacation for a few days. We drove to his parents' farm in the Council Bluffs, IA/Omaha, NE area. Specifically, we were right next to the Loess Hills a few miles from a tiny town called Thurman. My friend's high school classmate joined us, and we built a large fire where the mowed lawn and trees met the hills and pastures. Once the fire was blazing, we mixed drinks (our first and only; we were completely sober through this experience) and took our seats around the fire. We hadn't been sitting for more than 30 seconds when we all seemed to get the feeling that something was watching us and looked up at the top of the treeline. All I remember is a still, dark mass behind the blinding light that was projected at us. As soon as I had looked up, I turned away due to the intensity of the light. I remember looking down at my feet, then at the bonfire in front of them. I distinctly remember the fire disappearing, as the beam of light was far brighter than the fire itself. We were engulfed in the whitest light I have seen for a moment, and I'm not sure what happened next exactly. It was like waking from a dream; we were all disoriented and looking around. I rememer yelling "LOOK!" at the guys as I looked to the sky and caught a glimpse of a light zipping up into the atmosphere and disappearing from view. The light had a greenish glow to it; it reminded me of some of the Xenon Green headlamp bulbs I had seen in friends' souped-up import cars. We stood up immediately, shaken and stumbling around the yard trying to find an explanation for our confusion. We walked around the trees where it seemed that the light had originated for a few minutes before my friend's classmate decided he was too shaken and drove home. We walked around the yard a bit more wondering why the dogs hadn't made a sound if some foreign object had been nearby. We went in the house and sat in the basement, confused and trying to calm down. When we noticed the time, we became quite alarmed. It seemed that 2 hours had gone by with a series of events that should have taken less than 15 minutes. "Impossible," we thought. We returned to our bonfire to find low-burning coals. The huge fire we had just built looked like it had, indeed, been going for 2 hours. An eerie, terrified feeling descended on us for the rest of the night. We hid in the basement, and my friend huddled in the corner crying. We finally got some sleep, and in the morning were surprised that his parents were not at all shocked by this. They had seen UFO's years before our experience hovering in a nearby field, which was followed by the discovery of crop circles in another part of Iowa. I feel fortunate to have had others present during this encounter, as it seems almost like a dream to me now. I have been able to check in with my old friend over the years to make sure that it did happen. I have been curious about what actually happened to me since the event; today I found that Craig R Lang, a hypnotherapist and member of MUFON, is near where I am now living in Minneapolis, MN. I called to inquire about hypnotic regression, and he directed me here. I am certainly willing to cooperate to see what my experience can add to UFO research, and would like to be involved in MUFON myself. I had always been open to the idea of life outside Earth, but this event made me infinitely curious.