What do crystals, fossils, stunning sunsets, black magic, demons and insanity have in common?

Our drive to Colorado does.

It started as a simple trip — one week or so in Delta,Co., including driving time because we were scheduled to present at a Sasquatch conference in Beaver, Wa. immediately on our return. Larry and I had found a piece of land in Colorado that was stunning: acres of desert mesa beauty covered in selenite crystals, ancient fossils, and wide open sky. But to make it ours, we stepped into something else entirely.

The land we originally purchased was not empty. It is 40 acres, half of which when looked upon resembles a moonscape pristine and majestic alluring and entrancing, yet look the other direction, and it was sprinkled in abandoned squatters encampments — people living in tents, and improvised shacks, surrounded by hills of garbage, abandoned vehicles, and the unmistakable residue of drugs and dark practices. It wasn’t just a physical mess. The entire area felt thick, like a psychic swamp.

Yet, the power and the message from the land was very clear: clean me.

This started a line of questions and inquiries for Larry and me because it did not make much sense for our lives. Yes, the whole thing came about because we bought land and wanted to hold in person events there — yet the view was massively and negatively impacted by the encampments, not exactly the ideal backdrop for a gathering.

We wondered how to fence off or hide the view of the encampments — maybe trees, or a very big fence — so our guests would not be subjected to the negative view. Little did we realize then that the negativity was not just in the view; the people there were drug addicts and black magic practitioners. It was a classic case of buying a slice of paradise then finding out your neighbors are 100% incompatible with your enjoyment of that paradise. Something not unlike the present split in reality we are cocreating this very moment more broadly. Some things are simply incompatible with each other. Period.

But that realization came some time later.

Some months ago, one of our neighbors told us that the parcel covered in black magic and detritus was for sale through a foreclosure sale. Larry and I looked at our finances and bought it. After the sheriff’s sale, we believed the previous owners and their guests would become compelled to leave and we would have clean, clear land with some clean up perhaps to conduct.

Nope. They dug in, and we had to spend months and thousands of dollars in litigation to clear them out. Apparently, landowners in Colorado have a huge burden and many hoops to clearing their land from individuals with any claim whatsoever to being present. Once cleared, trespassing is very strongly enforced with very serious consequences, but give, as in give permission at any point, even in a limited manner, and that can quickly be construed as permission to inhabit which then requires a long process to rescind.

As we arrived there for our week visit, I remember standing there the first day, watching the wind shimmer through the crystals on the ground while the smell of decay and burnt plastic rose from piles of trash. Light and shadow, beauty and horror, coexisting within the same few acres of land. I thought it would be a quick cleanup because the eviction process was set and it was just a matter of the sheriff coming over and getting the squatters to leave the land.

I was wrong.

The Land of Paradox

There’s something surreal about seeing selenite glinting in the sunlight beside syringes and blackened fire pits. The land itself seemed to whisper — “Clean me.” It was both sacred and deep. Ancient. Yet, the surface was anything but.

Larry and I sat down to discuss why Gaia — the land and the human collective — wanted it cleaned. After all, what does it matter to Gaia if those people and garbage stay there? After a million years, nothing would be left of them. A million years ago everything there was blown to smithereens by the largest volcanic eruption on the continent creating the flat topped mesa 100’s of square miles in size, which is just the base of this gigantic mountain that is no more. Another million years ago the entirety was submerged at the bottom of an ocean of water. So a few people? What’s the biggie, besides it was nasty to experience in our present, a dark to our light. But the message came in stronger every day: no one was allowed to stay, and no garbage was allowed to stay either.

We visited the sheriff’s office to find out what we were supposed to do, and they were very clear that for the process to be legal, we had to be present. Physically stay and be there for the entire process to be legal and complete. Otherwise, it would be cancelled and would need to begin over again from the beginning.

Oops… We might not make our sasquatch event commitment…

The eviction date was not the one stated in the judgment. We had to wait two days after that date, then get a writ for the sheriff, who would then post eviction notices, and after ten more days, go to the land to evict them. After that, the people would get another day to get all their stuff out.

Not only that, but the eviction process itself was complex. It required us to go into all the structures where people were living — RVs, mobile homes, and so on — and remove absolutely everything that was not nailed to the ground, floor, or ceiling… by hand, and place it in an area they could later access

Yup, we were told we had to move all the items by hand. There were deadlines, county notices, and an eviction process already in motion. On paper, it looked straightforward. In reality, what those people had in their living accommodations was the stuff of nightmares. The rooms were filled from floor to ceiling with garbage, scrap metal, dirty laundry and dishes, and so much more — including drug needles and black magic sigils on the floors, walls, and ceilings.

And then came the energy of resistance. The people living there didn’t want to leave. They begged, lied, cast spells, called the sheriff, their own lawyers, and called upon spirits — sometimes all in the same day. They wept and they cursed. It wasn’t just about losing a camp; it was about a dark collective trying to hold on to territory, both physical and energetic.

At night, I could feel the field pulsing — fear, anger, confusion, war. Each morning, I’d wake determined to face it again, and each night, I’d fall into bed emotionally drained, my nervous system fried.

The Human Vessel of Darkness

It’s easy to think of “squatters” as a faceless problem. But once you meet them, you realize they’re human vessels of darkness — fragments of the collective human psyche acting out low-frequency patterns: aggression, anger, suffering, indulgence, righteousness. Each one carried archetypes: the lost healer, the trickster, the wanderer, the wounded child, the demon, the mage.

Some were kind, some dangerous, some clearly caught in deep delusion. A few believed the land was “theirs by divine right.” Others just wanted to stick it to the man. I couldn’t help but feel pity for their choices — but pity alone wasn’t enough.

One of the sheriff’s deputies told us to be careful — that these people had months to get organized and leave, and they hadn’t. They would try to get us to let them stay longer, but if we agreed, the entire legal process we had gone through would be invalidated.

For most lightworkers, the hardest part is learning where compassion ends and enabling begins. Sometimes love wears the face of firmness. Saying “no” to darkness is not a rejection of humanity — it’s a kindness and an affirmation of truth.

This was one of the most important things to keep in mind for this trip: staying loving without becoming naïve, staying clear without becoming aggressive or overwhelmed.

Still, leading up to the eviction date, our bodies took a toll — both emotionally and physically.

And then, our allies rallied around us.

Yes — four of our Driving to the Rez panelists, plus our friend Teo, traveled over a thousand miles to help us clean not just the new land, but also the previous property, which still had garbage and negative energies from the previous year when we had purchased it.

They arrived in two RVs, with their pet dogs, garbage bags, gloves, and other equipment to get the job done. And did they ever!

They arrived a few days before the eviction date and got to work. We also had an amazing time hunting for desert-grown selenite crystals, fossils, agates, jasper, and petrified wood.

At night, we gathered to skywatch in the desert and saw multiple planes, satellites, and yes — UFOs!

The Eviction Day Arrived

The sheriff’s deputies arrived on time, calm and professional. The county representatives were kind, responsive, and genuinely concerned. The neighbors offered tools, advice, and hands.

It was as if the universe had organized a living example of collective light-in-action. Where I expected bureaucracy, I found compassion. Where I expected to be overwhelmed, I found help.

It reminded me that humanity is not lost. The system — often criticized for its lack of empathy — became, in this case, a framework through which order, safety, and clarity could flow.

It wasn’t “us versus them.” It was all of us bringing a corner of reality back into coherence.

Larry and I met the sheriff’s deputies at the road and decided to evict the trailers scattered throughout the land first. As it happened, the people had already left, but they had left their trailers and a lot of items inside them. We left our helpers back at our other parcel until we were sure those people were gone; they had become aggres