A survey of modern fairy experiences by Dr Simon Young

§474

Australia 1970s
Male: Age 11-20 never or almost never has supernatural experiences
in woodland 12 pm-3 pm two to ten minutes on my own
no special state reported
‘obsessed with a thistle’
No special experience reported

‘At first I saw a large pink butterfly on a thistle on a dry riverbank. I was young and had been left alone by my father and his friend. On approaching it, the butterfly folded like origami, first into a flat looking faerie, then into a pretty little pixie. I watched it for a long time. It fled when the adults returned and I was very tempted to follow it.’ ‘First a butterfly, then it folded itself into a pixie after an intermediate flat form.’ ‘Gentle rustle of its wings.’ ‘It was a small female figure with butterfly wings. It was tangibly present and fled by flying away not fading. I suppose it ‘might’ be an alien, but there was no technology present to suggest that.’ ‘[Fairies are] extra-dimensional beings.’ ‘I didn’t know at the time but I have since learned that the ‘origami folding’ it performed was probably what is called ‘glamour’.’