Taking the Hyper Dimensional Resonator to Candyland
Steven L. Gibbs' HDR Unit, More Butts/Corder, and a Prelude to the Gulf Breeze 6
Not far from the Russell, Kansas UFO study group explored in previous installments, and certainly not far from Dr. Corder’s home in Ottawa, a time traveler lived among the locals of Lyndon, Kansas. A farmer named Steven L. Gibbs, dubbed “the Rainman of Time Travel” by one acolyte, invented a brilliant machine in his workshop in 1985. The device was based on one created by another man who Gibbs was in contact with (Mike Arklinski of Fitchburg, Massachusetts) called the Sonic Resonator. Updating the schematic to this Sonic Resonator, Gibbs created what he called the Hyper Dimensional Resonator or HDR Unit. The device apparently works through electromagnetic energy and technical terms that are beyond me. When a user turns on the machine, they place the electromagnet over their solar plexus and are transported to another point in time after the energies take effect.1 Some healing properties are also reported. The device purportedly creates an energy field that causes time to move differently around it, allowing someone to travel through time. However, this is a gross oversimplification on my part. In a Coast to Coast AM interview, Gibbs says that ley lines also factor into how well the device works. Additionally, Gibbs also mentions using a “witness well” where one places a piece of organic material from a person—or even a crystal—so that the HDR Unit has access to a person’s orgone energy. (Forgive me if I’m slightly skeptical, I do want to believe.) You can view pictures and videos of the HDR Unit in action on Gibbs’ website at http://www.hdrusers.com/.
More exciting than the specific components of the machine (which I’m not convinced does anything) are the stories of various users who have gone backwards and forwards in time. Arklinski used Gibbs’ updated version of the device “over a natural grid point up in Great Falls” and “went physically back into 1945 and stayed there for 6 hours.” On another attempt: “He went to the year 1895 and stayed there for something like two hours. He visited some of the old saloons back in those days. He says that it was nothing like what they say the old West was in the movies.”2 I can’t help but notice how scant the details are in some of these accounts.
In 2001, an HDR user named Patricia Griffin Ress of Nebraska released the book Stranger Than Fiction which explores her experiences with Steven Gibbs and his fantastic time machine, plus some testimony with other people who have had paranormal experiences with the Hyper Dimensional Resonator. What I find interesting in Ress’ book is that she explores all manner of high strangeness dealing with time slips and dimensional portals in the United States while also outlining why she believes in the properties of Gibbs’ device. As just a brief taste of the book, our old friends from Russell actually make a cameo appearance in Ress’ book:
Even Donna Butts, the famous abductee/contactee of the UFO Butts-Corder case, said that she had been told by a group of aliens calling themselves the Americans (it is actually Amorcans, but this highlights an interesting phonetic similarity I had not thought of) that a “transmutational channel” had opened over Nebraska and Kansas. Perhaps it is no coincidence that Steve Gibbs is from Nebraska and so is author Kathleen Keating, who sees the Biblical rapture occurring in a manner not inconsistent with the workings of Steve Gibbs’ time machine.3
Nothing gets me more excited than when disparate paranormal events are connected to one another. Ress herself mentions seeing an alternate universe version of the 1953 movie Shane and that Gibbs informed her there are entire universes populated “dogs, cats, and (…) mysterious and dark entities.” Gibbs once visited a universe “where everything appeared normal, but was made of cakes, candies, and gingerbread.”4 Are you convinced yet?
Apparently there were rumblings in the HDR community that Gibbs’ had passed away in December 2021, but the person who runs his website says that he’s alive and well. It is also worth listening to this classic Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell where he interviews Gibbs on his machine and experiences:
While this may seem like a spook-free detour into the whackier side of paranormal stories, there is possibly a connection to the spookier side. In the September 1st, 1998 episode of Coast to Coast AM, guest Richard C. Hoagland invited on his “NSA source” who was a point of contention on the show the night previously. Resident remote viewer Major Ed Dames got into a verbal altercation with Hoagland over his claim to have an inside source at the NSA—Dames argued that no one at the NSA would say any of this or they would be in jail/were not actually NSA. Wanting to clear the air, Art Bell invited Hoagland to bring his NSA source onto the show the following evening. The source in question was Vance Davis, one of the Gulf Breeze Six who had gone AWOL from their post in West Germany based on predictions from a Ouija board. They are talked about briefly in St. Peter at the Sonic Drive-In, Pt. 4. Davis confirmed his at least former NSA status but seemed to imply current connections, making statements on current world events and further predictions. Among them, Davis actually mentions Osama Bin Laden and purported terrorist plans to demolish the Statue of Liberty, albeit in different contexts. Weird in hindsight, at the very least.5
Tying back into Steven Gibbs and the HDR Unit, Davis actually gives his email on the show and the username of his address is “HDR”. Was Davis a believer in or user of Gibbs’ HDR Unit? Davis actually hailed from Valley Center, Kansas, a suburb of Wichita, which is not far from Gibbs’ home in Lyndon. Likewise, Davis was no doubt a Coast to Coast AM listener and had appeared on the show five years earlier. Steven Gibbs was also interviewed by Art Bell in 1997, between Davis’ appearances. What this all means is unclear—there’s a chance that HDR stands for something else—but there was certainly a highly strange current running through Kansas in the 80s and 90s. If Vance Davis did believe in Gibbs’ HDR Unit, it certainly would not be out of character, as I intend to illustrate in future articles.
This has been a brief exploration from Getting Spooked. Thank you for reading and donating, as always. If you enjoy what you’ve read, consider a paid subscription through Substack or a one-time donation through Ko-fi. Every article will continue to be free, but funding can help this research continue. If you have any questions, comments, or recommendations, feel free to contact me on Twitter at @TannerFBoyle1. Until next time, stay spooked.
Ress, Patricia Griffin. Stranger Than Fiction: The True Time Travel Adventures of Steven L. Gibbs, the Rainman of Time Travel. Self-published, 2001. Page 52. Available here.
Chorvinsky, Mike. “The Steven Gibbs Interview: Successful Time Travel.” Strange Magazine, no 14. Spring 1995. http://cd.textfiles.com/amigama/amigama199804/WWW/HiddenTruth/data/VJent/timetrav.html
Ress, Patricia Griffin. Stranger Than Fiction: The True Time Travel Adventures of Steven L. Gibbs, the Rainman of Time Travel. Self-published, 2001. Pages 6-7.
Ibid., page 13.