New Information on Ted Rice, Part 6, Ted Rice's Miracle

  

Jesus calling to Peter to leave the boat

Masquerade of Angels, 1994, the story of Ted's lifelong encounters with alien intruders, is out of print, but is available on amazon.com. You can buy an autographed copy from Ted himself for $75. You can email him at teddywayne789@yahoo.com or write him at 2513 Crossford Dr., Foley AL 36535. 

It has been a while since I completed my original Blogspot series on Ted Rice’s story, as written by Karla Turner  in Masquerade of Angels. I wrote 5 blog posts from Karla’s book, but I was left wondering what happened to Ted; was he a real person, was Ted Rice his actual name or was it changed to protect his privacy? For many years following the publication of the book others had the same questions, usually posted on UFO forums.

In February 2021, Ted’s goddaughter, Bonnie Pate, contacted me by email because she found something I wrote about him on a UFO forum and liked it. She shared family tidbits and verified that Ted was real, that she hadn’t seen him for about 20 years, that he had genuine psychic abilities, and that he was a very kind person. Excited about this new information, I re-read the book by Karla Turner, and that inspired me in March to whip out the 5-part series. I felt that Ted’s story was important, but it was slipping away from UFO memory, so I pressed Bonnie to see if Ted would communicate with me. He did pass a message or two but didn’t contact me directly.

It was Ted’s podcast partner, Stuart Eglington (Alien Talk), who found my series and brought me in touch with Ted. We got along well enough that they invited me to participate in a couple of their podcasts. I didn’t hear from Bonnie after she contacted Ted. I got the distinct impression that she was afraid of the topic and feared attracting paranormal harm to herself or her family by continuing the contact. After our pleasant exchanges, she hinted she would not be responding in the future and that she had some angst about what happened to Barbara and Karla. Several subsequent outreaches went unanswered. 

After all, Ted’s coauthor Karla died of a virulent quick spreading cancer. Because she had expressed concern that she was being followed by military type vehicles, the UFO community was suspicious that her cancer didn’t occur naturally. Her passing was a loss to the entire UFO community, but especially to those she mentored. In one of his podcasts, Ted tells a couple of illuminating tales about her. When the Men in Black came to her door, she told them to “f — — off.” One weekend there was a gathering of her clients at a farm. Everyone had a great time, but when it was dark and time to sleep, the abductee group put their palettes together in the barn because no one wanted to be alone. Too many of their nightmarish abductions had taken place at night. Karla picked up her sleeping gear and headed for the house, but first she said, “If aliens come, tell them where I am. I have lots of questions for them.” Stuart’s response to her three books was, “I’m a fanboy of Karla Turner.” So am I, Stuart.

Barbara Bartholic was equally respected in the UFO community. She was an attractive model, an artist, and had a radio show for a while. She and her husband Bob owned the Barking Dog art gallery in Tulsa, OK. When Barbara’s radio show was dropped due to her growing interest in the paranormal and UFOs, she dove into researching UFOs, learning hypnotherapy to become a support and mentor for abductees like Ted Rice. At some point in their work together, the memories that regression evoked for Ted were so traumatic that he had to stop that aspect of therapy.

Barbara’s fame grew to where she worked with the renowned researcher and author Jacques Vallee, but the paranormal opposition was strong. When a vengeful teenager set fire to a boat in their backyard, she stopped her collaboration with Vallee, but she continued to press Ted to move to Tulsa and continue their regressions, because his story had much to tell us about the nature of the “aliens" and their connection with psychic phenomena. Finally consenting, he got a transfer and began preparations to move.

One day in late 2009, a speeding car rearended the Bartholics. Their car went airborne, flipped, and both were thrown out. Bob died a few weeks later. Oddly, the car that hit them drove away! It should have been damaged, with the driver killed or badly injured. I’ve never been a conspiracy believer, but the Bartholic's car was crushed. The driver was never caught. The police claimed the car a late model Chevrolet that was stolen an hour previous, but, according to Ted, some of the witnesses told Barbara it was a black SUV with tinted windows. 

Barbara had her own suspicions about the crash, but she seemed to think the attack was paranormal. Her comment was, “I feel like the boy or man that caused the accident was, in some way, manipulated to create that death.” A year later, Barbara died of an aneurysm. She was 71. She and Bob had been married for 50 years.

So, I didn’t feel bad when Bonnie stopped answering my messages. The family was concerned about Barbara’s stroke, and the weird thing is that Bonnie herself soon passed away from a stroke in the same region of the brain. As a fairly conservative Christian (Lutheran, but formerly Pentecostal, Evangelical), I began my association with Stuart (in Ireland) and Ted (in Alabama) with lots of prayer. I reminded Ted of his early Christian upbringing and how if aliens are demons, God is far greater.

Ted admits that at the age of 80, his health has been declining for years, and that includes a risk of stroke. He’s usually up early in the morning, but one recent day he was still in bed sleeping until 10, having no desire to get up. He didn’t think it could possibly be anything important. The problem was that his doorbell kept ringing, so he staggered downstairs to answer. It was a policeman who said, “Hi, I’m here to do a wellness check on you.” All seemed to be well enough, so the cop left. Who sent him? He didn’t say. Ted turned to the task of making his morning coffee, but he realized that something was wrong when his coffee cup wouldn’t come obediently to his mouth. At lunchtime, his son Chuck came home from work, something that had never happened in the past. Chuck immediately realized that Ted was in trouble and got him to the hospital where it was diagnosed that Ted had had a stroke.

Ted is fully recovered now, but if Chuck had found Ted in bed, he may have just thought he was tired and allowed him to stay there. If Chuck had not been released from work early that day, Ted may have lost that critical window of care that makes all the difference in a stroke victim. We all felt that Someone was watching over him to shield him from a gratuitous paranormal attack. I strongly recommend those interested in the alien abduction phenomenon to check out the Alien Talk podcast and meet an icon of UAP lore.

In light of all that, it might seem a little crazy for Ted to keep on with his podcast for me to keep blogging about who the aliens really might be, but our Sunday sermon this morning offered some comfort and inspiration. Back story: If you keep up with articles and TV shows dealing with UFOs/UAPs, you can’t help but notice that the latest lore includes the fact that UAPs are seen in the air, in the water, and perhaps in bases inside mountains. That’s why the latest U.S. government agency to study them is called All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). Such a boring name, and so far, their conclusions as to UAP research are just as dull. However, the hyphenated word all-domain indicates that the government is finally acknowledging the fact that UAPs function equally well in multiple domains — air, space, water, and inside mesas and volcanoes.

Back to the Sunday service. Those of you who spent some time in Sunday School may recall the time that Jesus delivered two Gergesene men of a host of devils, and the devils, after acknowledging that Jesus was the Son of God, asked that they be allowed to go into a herd of pigs. I used to think that their plan went awry when the pigs ran down the hill and perished in the lake, but recently I’ve decided that they drove the pigs into the lake because they were just going back home, back to headquarters (Matt. 8:28–34).

The sermon text this morning was Matt. 14:27–33. Jesus had been preaching to the crowds and wanted to be alone. Sending his disciples across Lake Galilee in a boat, he went off to a mountain to pray. A storm arose, and his disciples began to fear that they would be swamped. This is where we humans forget every good thing that God has ever done for us and cry out, “God, don’t You know this may kill us? What were You thinking, putting us in this position? Where are You? Why aren’t You saving us? … yada yada.” We all do it.

But, behold, an apparition appeareth on the thrashing waves. A ghost, they all said, not expecting Jesus. They probably thought that the Angel of Death had come to reap their souls. Wouldn’t Jesus feel bad when he realized that they had all perished while he was on the mountain praying? But, no, it was Jesus, and instead of trying to feed off the energy of their fear like demons and aliens, he comforted them, saying, “Don’t be afraid, it’s me.” But “it is I” doesn’t translate what the Greek conveys, which is “I AM,” the name of God the Father.”

In one of Peter’s best moments, he shouted over the storm, “Lord, if it’s really you, bid me come to you on the water.” Jesus answered, “Come on, then,” so Peter hopped out of the boat and became the only disciple crazy enough to walk on water. He looked around, like we all would, and began to fear, and fear was a lack of faith in God’s power to sustain him. Logically, if he could take 3 steps on the water, he could make it all the way, but when we are waaay out of our comfort zone and panic, we aren’t logical, so he began to sink. “Lord, save me,” he cried, and there was Jesus, offering a hand.

I couldn’t help but think of the theoretical UAP bases under those waves. According to the Bible, any multidimensional entity that comes up from the water, the ground, or a hole in the floor is no representative of the Kingdom of God. Christ’s hand is always there for those who call on him. No forms to fill out, no waiting weeks, months, years. Just a cry, “Lord, save me!” And he will.

This essay can also be read at Medium: Ted Rice’s Miracle. It has been a while since I completed… | by Janet Katherine Smith | Aug, 2023 | Medium