It’s nearly 7 p.m. on the second Tuesday of the month, and Catherine Chapey is sitting at home in Holtsville, Long Island, making preparations for a social highlight of her week — a virtual meeting with a group of people who claim to have experienced close encounters with extraterrestrial life.
Chapey, a former electrician and an ordained “interspiritual minister,” found herself in the role of den mother to the eclectic and growing gathering after having her own brush with the otherworldly — subsequently reaching out to find out if there were more like her.
Starting with a small, in-person gathering at her local public library, she now has a mailing list of thousands — some beaming in from as far as Japan and New Zealand.
One by one, Chapey’s fellow “Experiencers” pop into the Zoom meeting, billed as a safe space for attendees to recount their abductions, telepathic visions from beyond and other celestial come-to-Jesus moments. What the average observer might find hard to believe, Chapey likes to think of as “spiritually transformative experiences.”…