05-07-90 - PEORIA, Ill.

A local woman is composing music that is out of this world from simple
little melodies to grand keyboard compositions inspired by what she
described Monday as her contacts with aliens. Connie Cook, 42, said she's
been visited by "small, yellow-skinned" aliens in her bathroom, bedroom
and seen formations of alien spaceships in the skies over Peoria many times since 1981. "I hesitated to ever speak out about this because I feared criticism and ridicule," Ms. Cook said. "But after so many experiences, I decided to speak out." Ms. Cook said her life changed in November 1981 when
she watched an unidentified flying object hover over Interstate 74 in Peoria. Two city police officers reported seeing the strange white light, which
lasted 90 minutes before disappearing. Immediately after the experience, Ms. Cook said she began hearing music inside her head and started writing it
down, despite no prior experience composing songs. In April 1987, the
sightings became more personal as a "small, yellow-skinned" alien appeared
in her bathroom. "It identified itself as the one who's been communicating
with me," Ms. Cook said. "It had silver eyes and had radiant beauty. I have
no prior frame of reference to describe it." Those experiences, along with numerous sightings of silver globes hovering and flying in formation in the sky, inspired Ms. Cook to compose. A local music critic, Jerry Klein of the Peoria Journal Star, described her compositions as "sometimes ethereal, haunting and eclectic." Overall, he said of her work: "most of it is very pleasant and listenable." Probably the people most surprised by Ms. Cook's sudden musical ability are her parents, LaVern and Genevieve Cook of Canton. "We are just a normal, middle-class, middle-income family," said Genevieve Cook, 69. "We were skeptical about this at first. "But we have seen such a dramatic change in her personality and ability. Something's happened to the girl to give her the ability to play and compose music all of a sudden. And
she isn't the type to make this up." Experts support the sightings of UFOs. They insist people like Ms. Cook aren't insane. Philip J. Klass, an author
of four books on UFOs, defends the sightings. "Ninety-eight percent of the people are telling the truth, they aren't nuts or crackpots," Klass said.
"The other 2% are mentally disturbed." Robert Baker, a psychology professor
at the University of Kentucky, said many people with no sign of pschological problems often report UFO contacts. "They aren't really crazy or psychotic," Baker said. "They lead normal lives. They just have certain fixed ideas."
Baker said about 45% of the American population's "fantasy prone" and may be more receptive to delusions of UFOs. He said some people are able to create
an identity for themselves by sighting an alien spaceship. Ms. Cook said
she's not hallucinating. She admits, however, that some of her inter- dimensional experiences may have been dreams. With no photographic proof to support her sightings, Ms. Cook can only point to her music as evidence of
an extra-terrestrial influence in her life. "They work through me because
I'm a writer and I'm not afraid to talk about it," she said. "If this is a delusion, then everyone should have one. It's had such a wonderful impact on
my life."
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