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Greta Woodrew

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Greta Woodrew
Born(1929-12-16)December 16, 1929
DiedSeptember 1, 2010(2010-09-01) (aged 80)
Resting placeGreensboro Hebrew Cemetery, Greensboro, Guilford County, North Carolina, USA

Greta Andron Woodrew Smolowe (December 16, 1929 – September 1, 2010) was an author, psychic and healer,[1] and purported contactee of extraterrestrial beings.[2] Her books, On a Slide of Light and Memories of Tomorrow, and newsletter, The Woodrew Update,[3] addressed her purported alien encounters, while her foundation, the Space Technology and Research Foundation (STAR), was established to carry out philanthropic work, including broadcasting messages she received from alien life;[3] Woodrew would later become a donor to philanthropic organizations like Conservation International[4] and the Sierra Club Foundation.[5] Woodrew also published a children's book in her lifetime entitled Hear the Colors! See the Music!: A Tomorrow Book for Today.[6] Some of her papers are held in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives at Stanford University.[7]

Personal life

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Woodrew was married to Richard E. "Dick" Smolowe. They had four children together, Allan, Jonathan, Jill, and Ann.[8] Woodrew was the granddaughter of Alexander Schlang and Blanche Cohen-Schlang-Nirenstein, the latter of whom was deeply involved in social and charity work in New York.[9] Woodrew was the great-granddaughter of David and Wilhemina Cohen, the former of whom was a founder and funder of the Eldridge Street Synagogue in New York City.[10][9]

Education

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Woodrew attended the University of Florida, graduating with honors and a B.A. in 1951. She was the first woman to graduate from the university's four-year program and to receive the Phi Beta Kappa Achievement Award and Dr. Allen's Award for Excellence.[11] In 1979, William Penn College granted Woodrew an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.[11]

Contact with extraterrestrials

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Woodrew claimed to first come into contact with "extraterrestrial intelligences" in 1976. In her 1981 book On A Slide of Light, she described her encounters as taking place initially "under laboratory conditions with a leading medical doctor and scientist." It was her "impression that once [she] left the lab, [she] would also leave [the extraterrestrial intelligences] behind, but this was not to be the case. Once [she] exercised [her] free will in allowing extraterrestrials into [her] life, they quickly became a regular part of [her] experienced reality. [She] could be sitting at [her] desk at, say, 10 a.m., getting ready to phone a client about a prospect, [she] dialed the number and once again glanced at the clock, and to her confusion, it would read 10:45..."(The Saucer Life podcast; March 18, 2020 episode; 7:10)

Woodrew attributed these time discrepancies to a "continuing dialogue with extraterrestrial intelligences transcending time and space and the third dimension." (The Saucer Life podcast; March 18, 2020 episode; 7:54) The beings with which Woodrew claimed she had contact with were supposedly from another solar system located astronomically on the Messier list at M-92. The place of origin, Woodrew claimed, was called Ogatta,[12] "part of a binary, or twin star, system, which comprises what they call a jorpa, and we call a solar system, of five planets in another galaxy." Woodrew claimed the five planets were called Ogatta, Arshan, Arka, Mennon, and Tchowvie. (The Saucer Life podcast; March 18, 2020 episode; 8:26)

The "leading medical doctor and scientist" through whom Woodrew had initial extraterrestrial contact was doctor, medical inventor, and medical and parapsychological researcher Andrija Puharich.[13] The experiments the two undertook, leading to Woodrew's alien contacts, took place at what Puharich called Lab Nine on his estate in Ossining, New York.[13][14]

During her lifetime, Woodrew also had contact with author and psychical researcher Harold Morrow Sherman; she and husband Dick Smolowe visited Sherman at least once at his home, Ark Haven, in Arkansas.[15]

Healing abilities

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Woodrew claimed to be a healer, with extraterrestrials' healing abilities channeled through her. One such instance of healing was for ballerina Virginia Rich Barnett for whom Woodrew, "in minutes, cured [...] of a knee injury so severe doctors told her she would never even exercise again, let alone dance."[16]

The Woodrew Update

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Woodrew and husband Dick Smolowe began their newsletter, The Woodrew Update,[17] in 1980. They continued publishing it until 1997.[6] The publication was national and international, with subscribers from across the United States, Canada, and 14 other countries.[11]

Legacy

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The University of Florida offers the Dr. Greta Andron Smolowe Scholarship; she also holds a place in the university's Hall of Fame as First Lady of Student Body Dramatics, Service and Leadership.[11] In addition, the American Biographical Institute honored her for International Contribution to the World of Psi.[11]

Woodrew's North Carolina compound, the home base of her STAR Foundation, became home to Save the Animals Rescue.[18][19] Additionally, her life and career were covered in the March 18, 2020 episode of podcast The Saucer Life.[20] Her books are still in circulation. Woodrew's son, Alan, went on to earn an MBA from Lehigh University, a PhD from the University of Orlando, and an Ed.D. from Barry University. Son Jonathan and daughter Jill attended Princeton,[21] and daughter Ann graduated from Dartmouth. Jill became a journalist, holding the post of foreign affairs writer for Time[22] and Newsweek. She also served as a senior writer for People[23] and published two books, Four Funerals and a Wedding: Resilience in a Time of Grief[24][25] and An Empty Lap: One Couple’s Journey to Parenthood.[23]

Bibliography

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References

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  1. ^ Andron, Ben; Andron, Dr Michael (August 7, 2012). The Essential Guide to Energy Healing: Harness the Power of Natural Healing Energy to Relieve Pain and Illness. Penguin. ISBN 9781615642632 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ Lewis, James R. (January 1, 1995). The Gods Have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds. SUNY Press. ISBN 9780791423295 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ a b Heard, Alex (January 4, 2000). Apocalypse Pretty Soon: Travels in End-Time America. Doubleday. ISBN 9780385498524 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ "Annual report" (PDF). www.conservation.org. 2010. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  5. ^ "2005 Annual Report" (PDF). The Sierra Club Foundation. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
  6. ^ a b Atwater, P. M. H. (November 6, 2003). The New Children and Near-Death Experiences. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781591438601 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ "Guide to the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Papers M2476" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-04-19. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
  8. ^ "Why I call my Dad even if it's not Father's Day | Fulton Presbyterian Manor". www.fultonpresbyterianmanor.org.[permanent dead link‍]
  9. ^ a b "Blanche Cohen Nirenstein | Jewish Women's Archive". jwa.org.
  10. ^ "David Cohen: A Founder and His Legacy". August 13, 2014. Archived from the original on February 7, 2021. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  11. ^ a b c d e "Dr. Greta Andron Smolowe Scholarship". University of Florida Advancement.
  12. ^ "Book Reviews, Sites, Romance, Fantasy, Fiction".
  13. ^ a b Read Cosmic Communications From The Orgattans Online by Dr Ian Gordon | Books | Free 30-day Trial | Scribd – via www.scribd.com.
  14. ^ "Plan Nine From Outer Space". Uri Geller. March 15, 1996.
  15. ^ "Chronology – Harold Sherman".
  16. ^ Adair, Virginia (2001). New Daughters of the Oracle. New Paradigm Books. ISBN 978-1-892138-03-3. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
  17. ^ "UFOs and the Extraterrestrial Contact Movement" (PDF). Retrieved 2023-09-24.
  18. ^ "STAR (Save The Animals Rescue) Ranch in Waynesville, North Carolina". www.adoptapet.com.
  19. ^ "Star Ranch Animal Rescue | A refuge for abused and neglected horses in Haywood County, North Carolina". Archived from the original on 2021-01-26. Retrieved 2020-05-12.
  20. ^ "Why do Bird(-like Aliens) Suddenly Appear?". The Saucer Life. March 18, 2020.
  21. ^ "Jill Smolowe '77".
  22. ^ "Nine Hard-Won Lessons About Grief". Time.
  23. ^ a b "Nonfiction Book Review: An Empty Lap: One Couple's Journey to Parenthood by Jill Smolowe, Author Pocket Books $23 (288p) ISBN 978-0-671-00436-1". Publishersweekly.com. 1997-11-03. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  24. ^ "Jill Smolowe". Glassworks.
  25. ^ "Four Funerals and a Wedding: Jill Smolowe on Resiliency". Psychology Today.
  26. ^ Memories of Tomorrow (9780385238878): Woodrew, Greta: Books. Amazon.com. June 1988. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  27. ^ Woodrew, Greta (1981). On a Slide of Light (9780026313902): Woodrew, Greta: Books. Macmillan. ISBN 0026313901.
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