What can I say about the captivating mystery surrounding this woman’s fateful last leg of her now infamous journey around the world? It has been a point of intrigue for me ever since I was a child and was, therefore, one of our first Traveling sessions together.
There is something almost enchanting about an unsolvable mystery that captures my attention, especially one that has spanned so many years, and this was no exception. In fact, you’ll see in this transcript that we came back to the events and the personalities involved multiple times, if for nothing else, to eke out every last detail that could and that would help finally solve the elusive mystery once and for all.
As was our usual routine, I simply suggested that Bonny focus her mind on the woman and her life as a pilot; I had very little detail except her name and the year (May 21, 1937) of the legendary flight to go on, the rest, as it were, was left up to her.
Of this session, Bonny wrote: As a young girl reading about Amelia, I found myself in admiration for her in the respect that she was way ahead of her time. Growing up in the late 1950’s, women were not out making names for themselves or doing things that made them outstanding, unless of course you were a purring sex symbol in Hollywood. She was different; she knew what she wanted and was determined to make it happen. She was not pretty by any standards, but had a personality that made her well liked by those around her and was respected and admired by men and woman alike.
This Travel was interesting and informative, but somewhat uncomfortable to be put in a situation where I had to be in the cockpit of a plane, especially in a plane that was having problems. I don’t like to fly and only do so because it’s the fastest way to get where I want to go, as ever since I was a small child I have suffered from motion sickness. Therefore, in this Travel I declined to add any extra thoughts as to how I felt at certain times do to the above.
Bonny: I’m at an airport.
John: An airport? Where do you find yourself at this airport?
Bonny: I’m back by a fence, not on the strip. Planes are funny looking.
John: Describe what you see?
Bonny: I see a man. He has on a hat that has a strap hanging down here and here. Has a one-piece suit on (she motions with her hand by both her ears).
John: What is he doing?
Bonny: Talking to another man. Looks like they’re checking a plane—checking it out.
John: Can you hear what they’re saying?
Bonny: He’s talking about speed, distance, headings.
John: Do you see Amelia, by the way?
Bonny: No. No crowd of people. Other men walking around with clip boards.
John: As time moves forward, is there any activity around this plane?
Bonny: They have a ladder. She’s got short hair, really short, dishwater blonde.
John: You’re describing the person climbing into the plane?
Bonny: Yes. There’s a man in the back and a woman in the front.
John: In the back and the front. Anyone else there?
Bonny: No crowds, nothing, just the two of them.
John: Does this plane have any kind of cover over the pilot or co-pilot (at this point I don’t know what kind of airplane this is)?
Bonny: I don’t see any.
John: Any further discussion going on?
Bonny: He’s putting goggles down, she, too. Leaning up, touching her.
John: He can reach forward and touch her (I’m still trying to determine the model of airplane)?
Bonny: Yes.
John: To tell her something?
Bonny: She puts her head down; it’s like a caress. They’ve taken out the blocks. Engines are warmed up.
John: Then there are others helping them?
Bonny: Flagging directions . . . they’re flying, dipping, not going really anywhere, just flying.
John: Can you tell what airport they’re taking off from?
Bonny: Just a small one with small planes. Don’t even see . . . (a very long pause, here)
John: What do you see?
Bonny: Trees, grass, don’t see any mountains, don’t see any ocean. I don’t know. I don’t think you want me here, somewhere else.
John: Where would I want you to be?
Bonny: You want me to follow them on the trip they’re taking—they’re planning. They fly together; she can’t fly without him.
John: Can you tell if they have decided on a direction to go?
Bonny: They’re just flying. Trees, clouds, a river. I think they’re just riding.
John: As time passes, see if this flight goes beyond the airport.
Bonny: They’re in an air show!
John: But there weren’t any crowds?
Bonny: No, there’s people in the stands. Going down, and then up. It’s dangerous.
John: Any banners or signs that would tell us what air show this is?
Bonny: People, American Flags—different flags.
John: Time pass, even days and weeks, to a flight that they plan around the world (it didn’t seem that we were on the world-wide trip).
Bonny: They’re in the air. Things look well. No land, water, no land. Good day, hardly any clouds.
John: You see her with the same co-pilot?
Bonny: He’s her navigator. Good day, flying, winds, North, Northwest.
John: Does someone say that?
Bonny: The man says, good day, winds North, Northwest . . .
John: Describe the aircraft that they’re in.
Bonny: Old.
John: Is this a different airplane than you saw them in before?
Bonny: Seems so.
John: As you look at them, are they . . .
Bonny: They have hats, goggles, coats. She’s blonde, dishwater blonde, short hair. He’s got dark hair, what I can see. No mustache, beard, long fingers. Married, he’s got a wedding ring.
John: What about her?
Bonny: Don’t see one.
John: As time goes on, they land at various places along the way . . .
Bonny: Haven’t landed. I don’t know where I am. Islands below. Something wrong, gauges (hands motion like windshield wipers).
John: The gauges are going haywire?
Bonny: Crazy, engine . . . pointing down.
John: He is or she is?
Bonny: She is pointing down.
John: Toward the islands?
Bonny: Yes, pointing down.
John: What’s happening?
Bonny: Circling . . .
John: What can you describe about these islands?
Bonny: Don’t see people. Going down too fast, too fast, pull up, pull up! Oh, dear.
John: What’s happening?
Bonny: Nose down.
John: What about them?
Bonny: Thrown forward and back, unconscious.
John: Can you tell where they are?
Bonny: Small islands, chain, like a bracelet.
John: As days go by, does anyone come out of the airplane?
Bonny: No.
John: Does anyone come looking for it?
Bonny: Pieces scattered. Don’t know if anyone will find them.
John: Watch this airplane as time passes forward—what happens?
Bonny: On the bottom of the ocean.
John: The bottom of the ocean? What happens to the island?
Bonny: It’s there.
John: What of the plane?
Bonny: Didn’t land on the island, hit the water.
John: Hit the water, nose down?
Bonny: Yes, couldn’t pull up. They’re dead.
John: As you go forward to the present day, do you see skeletons still in the cockpit of the plane?
Bonny: Yes.
John: Are the islands still as you saw them before?
Bonny: There’s other things on the island. Old, old airplanes.
John: Old airplanes that have crashed there, or landed there?
Bonny: Crashed.
John: Where do you find this chain of islands?
Bonny: South America . . .
John: Which coast?
Bonny: Down, Pacific.
(Additional session next day)
Bonny:On the outer edge of the island, there is a little bit of sand around it, but the inner part of the island has the sandy beach and the tropical overgrowth and the mountains. It was on these mountains that he told her to pull up, to pull up, but she couldn’t.
John: So she was aiming right for the mountains, from in the inside or the outside of the island?
Bonny: Coming from the outside, the beach was too short to land, and he’s telling her: pull up, pull up!
John: You described the instruments going haywire?
Bonny: No, just one. The others are not like this one, I don’t know what it is. They’re all acting funny; they’re all moving where they shouldn’t be moving. One is going like this [her hand moves in a windshield wiper action], and she said: I can’t, I’m going to hit it!
John: So, what happens?
Bonny: They hit.
John: They hit the island?
Bonny: Yes, and then in.
John: Can you describe how it happened?
Bonny: Clipped and then down.
John: Are there people who live on the island?
Bonny: Not then. There is another plane that is there in the overgrowth, but it happened later, later.
John: Put yourself with them as the instruments begin acting up and describe what you see below.
Bonny: I see the islands and it’s just below; small chain that goes like this, almost in a ‘U’ shape, and then out like this (her hands move in an undetermined motion). Then there is one down further that almost looks like a wreath or a wedding ring; that’s where it starting happening.
John: Are there any other islands that are unique in shape like this one?
Bonny: Yes. There is an island; they almost look like part of a barrier reef; I didn’t see that before, the way they are shaped.
I’ve always known the name of Amelia Earhart and her mysterious disappearance, but had never followed the route of the circumnavigation. The first site on the Internet that I came across (see map, below) opened my eyes to the miracle she would have performed had the fates been in her favor—it was, and still is, however, an amazing and irrefutable accomplishment.
Early in the morning after the first of our Earhart sessions, Bonny woke up from a sound sleep and had the urge to draw the following map of the area that she had seen as she followed Amelia and her navigator on their last leg of the journey.
[Bonny writes: As an artist, I have found that throughout the years that awaking during the night with the urge to work on a painting is quite a common occurrence. When doing so, I have also found that I have been able to achieve the necessary creative flow that was needed to bring across the look or the ideal of what was in my mind and transfer it onto my work. So it was very natural when I started drawing what I had seen in my travels.]
I wasn’t sure what she had drawn at first; my initial thought was that it was a drawing of the island chain she had described in the session. Needless to say, Bonny was not so impressed with my ignorance of geography nor my appreciation for the detail provided by her mind. As I got on the Internet, once again, and started looking at maps of that area of the South Pacific, I discovered the image that I’ve placed next to her’s (above, right), and had to admit my failings as I realized that she had drawn the Island of New Guinea as it lies just above the pointy tips of Australia—Amelia’s last take-off point.
Off to the right within her drawing, if you look closely, is a grouping of dots (islands) in between Australia/New Guinea and another landmass, which would seem to be the upper coast of South America. There wasn’t a lot of detailed information I could find on the various island groups to the north and east of New Guinea, only general maps of the 600 plus islands that exist there, as you see in the renderings below.
As Bonny started looking over these maps, she recognized the formation of a particular set of islands that we came to find out was called the Phoenix Group (above). When she initially showed me her early-morning drawing, I asked her if she could also show me what the shape of the island was. She stood there for a moment and then drew the outline of the island that you can see below.
It most noticeably is an atoll island, which I later found out describes a particular type of ring-like coral island with an interior lagoon—her’s with a definite mouth or opening on the left side. After looking and scrutinizing the atoll-shaped islands in and around this area, we settled on this island (above, right) known as Gardner Island by the British and as Nikumaroro by the natives of the area (the island was populated for only a few short years as a study, but not at the time period that Amelia crashed).
Bonny’s best approximation of the crash site is on the section of the island referred to in the drawing next to her’s as Ritiati, on the lagoon (inner) side just where the beach makes a bend. In her last unrecorded Travel to this island, she indicates that the fuselage was still intact, but that the wings and tail section had since corroded and fallen off, leaving it to the fish as a natural habitat (the skull of the navigator is still inside).