A few years ago, meeting and talking with an angel was considered by many to be a taboo subject, occultish almost. Today, angels are turning up with increasing frequency, and people are more receptive to the heavenly beings than ever before, say leaders of angel­related organizations and businesses.

Behind the skepticism and cynicism that often comes with a reporter's beat, I've managed to keep an open mind...

That's why years later, I'm still able to think back on stories that puzzled me at the time, particularly stories involving "mysterious strangers" or "unidentified Good Samaritans" -- unsung heroes who never seemed to stick around long enough to give their name or receive due credit for their heroics.

There are some remarkable tales like these that I've never managed to get out of my mind, or been able to come up with a good earthly explanation for. Like this one:

One otherwise quiet Sunday evening, almost 30 years ago, in the south London area, there was a horrendous train crash which killed about 30 people and injured hundreds more.

I was dispatched to the scene by my news desk shortly after the crash. It was a terrible scene, as you can imagine. Rescue workers were tending to scores of people they had extricated from mangled coaches, dangling perilously above a steep embankment. There were heartrending screams of pain and anguish from less fortunates obviously trapped inside the wreckage.

As well as interviewing rescuers and survivors, I was called upon to help escort the walking wounded down the embankment to a makeshift first aid station. At the top of the embankment, rescuers were shouting out for volunteer doctors to help tend trapped and obviously injured passengers.

On one of my trips down the embankment, I saw my first angel. She was making her way to the wreckage, crawling up the embankment on all fours. A lady doctor, obviously. She was an elderly woman, probably in her late 60s, wearing a light-colored raincoat and a distinctive black beret. I knew she was a doctor, because she was lugging along a black leather bag--the type doctors always carried with them on calls back in those days.

"Angels exemplify love, and love is the driving force of the 1990s"

I was to see that little lady many times that awful evening over a period of several hours. She seemed to be everywhere. She was at the crash scene administering to trapped passengers, dispensing at the first aid station, talking gently to distraught relatives as they began arriving at the scene.

At one stage, I approached her to ask her name. "Not now," she gently admonished me. When I filed my story with the newsroom, I paid tribute to the tireless rescue volunteers, referring specifically to that "yet unidentified lady doctor--just one hero in a night of heroes."

I would catch up with her later for a follow-up story. Or so I thought. I spent the better part of the next day trying to find the compassionate lady doctor in the black beret. I spoke to rescue workers, police officers, ambulance workers, local hospital officials, and other doctors who answered the call for volunteers. None of them were able to help me find her. I spoke to survivors and relatives I remember seeing at the scene. Again, I drew a blank.

However, the most baffling aspect of the story is that nobody remembered ever seeing a lady doctor who answered her description. But she was there. I saw her, I spoke to her, and I was awed at the tireless way she worked.

Researching the book I'm currently working on about the angel phenomenon, I am delighted to report that most angel believers cherish their encounters with their own special angels. But they don't consider themselves to be something special. Sure it's a personal, sometimes intimate experience, but it's also an important message that should be passed on.

All the lucky people who had angel encounters, whom I spoke to for my book, were only too glad to talk openly and frankly about them. They couldn't conceal the joy in their voices as they recounted their amazing experiences. Their faith and enthusiasm were infectious.

A few years ago, meeting and talking with an angel was considered by many to be a taboo subject. It was considered part of paranormal lore, occultish almost. But as more light has been shone on the subject, more and more Americans are coming forward with their wonderful stories and standing up to be counted.

Times have gotten so bad, that guardian angels are turning up in individuals lives with increasing frequency, and people are more receptive to the heavenly beings than ever before, say leaders of angel­related organizations and businesses.

Within the past year, guardian angel pins are popping up all over the place. At one time they could only be found in Catholic bookstores. Now you can find them at check­out counters in card shops, florists and even drugstore chains.

At least five mail-order companies I know of specialize in angel­related goods, and the Golden, Colorado­based Angel Collectors Club of America has seen its membership swell to 1,600. The Angel Collectors Club of America exchanges information on everything from angel cookie jars and postage stamps to--of course--angel-food recipes.

With sales of angel books exceeding the five million mark, the angel subculture is already pretty well organized. The AngelWatch Network of Mountainside, N. J. monitors angelic comings and goings in its newsletter, which has 1,800 subscribers. Angels have also become big business. Angel artifacts are selling like wildfire, particularly around Christmas-time. As well as a whole library of angel books, there are angel calendars, angle diaries, angle dolls, angle pins, angle watches... And--at Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman-Marcus--a new "Angel" perfume from French clothing designer Thierry Mugler, who believes everyone has a guardian angel, or can at least can smell like one.

There are now more than 100 specialty stores and catalog houses devoted exclusively to angelware across the country. Crystal Connection, an environmentally concerned store in Austin, Texas, sells icons of plant and river angels to encourage reverence for the planet. "Our whole store is angels this year," says Debbie Tompkins, co-owner of Translations in Dallas, Texas, which offers angel napkin rings, plates and thank-you notes.

A couple of years ago, I was sent on assignment to the island of Arran in Scotland's Firth of Clyde to cover a "missing climbers" story, a frequent occurrence in that part of the country.

By the time I got there, the two missing climbers--schoolboys, part of a youth group on a hiking expedition--had turned up safe and sound.

As I still wanted to do a rescue story about their 20-hour ordeal atop a mist-shrouded mountain, I spoke to both boys who were none the worse for their experience.

"We followed the lady down the mountain," both told me. Apparently a slender young woman in a white frock had appeared to them out of the mist and beckoned the lost pair to follow her. No words were spoken, and they dutifully followed her to a safe trail down the craggy mountainside where they literally bumped into an anxious search party of experienced locals.

The lost pair were unable to shed any light on their rescuer. I asked the leader of the search party about their story. "That's what they say--but we didn't see any young lady in white," he told me.

As if reading my mind, the searcher smiled, and added, "Unless it was an angel."

He had read my mind correctly.

"The world is in a lot more trouble than it's ever been. People are recognizing their own sense of powerlessness," says best-selling angel author, Eileen Freeman editor of the AngelWatch newsletter. "We're not the only race of intelligent beings around. There is another race­-and we call them angels."

More and more people are turning to angels, and belief in an angelic realm continually grows. A recent Gallup Poll found that half of the nation, including nearly three­quarters of teenagers, believe in the heavenly beings.

Angels are favorites among today's youngsters. Here's the breakdown of another Gallup Poll of 506 American teens aged 13-17 who were asked which paranormal phenomena they most believed in:

Based upon the national network media interest, one can only assume that angels would poll even higher today.

Another experience still itches in my memory. This was also in the west coast of Scotland, in the fishing town of Campbelltown on the remote Mull of Kintyre.

I was despatched there after a report about a fishing boat being lost at sea. This wasn't a regular commercial fishing boat. It was more like a social club fishing trip, with about 20 to 30 souls on board--fathers, sons, uncles, granddads...

Anyway, the boat was long overdue. It was a stinking, howling night. Around 11 p.m., the townspeople gathered anxiously at the pier, staring beyond the sheltered harbor towards the treacherous, black storm-tossed Atlantic.

Suddenly, the lost boat appeared at the entrance to the tiny harbor. It was battered. It was crippled, its engine barely sputtering. And tragically, three locals were lost at sea, swept overboard at the height of the storm which popped up from nowhere.

I interviewed most of the people onboard about their experience. They had been drifting aimlessly at the mercy of the storm for hours. Their equipment onboard wasn't functioning. They tried to hug the shore, but were in constant danger of being thrown against the rocks in the craggy coastline.

Out of the pitch blackness, the desperate fishermen saw a series of sparks. "It was as if someone was flicking a huge cigarette lighter," one of the survivors told me.

As they neared the constant flickering lights, they saw that the signals were coming from hands belonging to a "mysterious figure" perched precariously on a rock. Despite being lashed by wind and rain, the figure steadfastly stood his/her ground, as it continued to send out a series of sparks.

"We're not the only race of intelligent beings around. There is another race­-and we call them angels."

Yes, the figure on the rock guided the boat to the harbor entrance--and safety. Yet, no one waiting at the pier saw the series of sparks which led the boat in. They were setting off flares at the pier-side as a signal to the lost boat. But none of the survivors saw any flares.

All they remembered were the flickering series of sparks coming from a craggy, almost inaccessible promontory almost half a mile away.

As you'll have gathered by now, no one was ever able to come up with a satisfactory explanation for the figure on the rock and how on earth they managed to produce a continual series of bright sparks on a miserable night like that.

I'm convinced that's because there is no earthly reason. A whole town is convinced that angels were at work that sad night.

It is no accident that angel interest is at a peak today ­­ probably more than at any other time in history. Why? I've been doing a lot of probing, talking to theologians, academics, and your average angel believer. The experts are able to offer a variety of logical explanations (none of them, fortunately, in `The End Of The World Is Nigh' category). Here are some of them:

­­ Angels exemplify love. And love is the driving force of the 1990s, as opposed to the materialism and greed rampant in the 1980s.

­­ Angels are the ultimate companions. Loneliness is one of the biggest scourges in today's society; everyone yearns for companionship.

­­ Angels symbolize trust. In a society in which truth and honesty are often at a premium, it's comforting to know there are people you can trust with your life.

­­ Angels extend hope...they are beacons of hope for a secure and contented life, as well as the promise of a wonderful life hereafter.

"I was moments away from death, when out of the darkness a strange light appeared," recalled Pruett, a firefighter and mother of two. "It was an angel. Nothing will ever convince me otherwise."

Suddenly the diver, who'd risked her life to rescue a baby believed trapped in the car, was free and swimming to safety.

The riveting drama took place October 14, 1991, when Pruett and other drivers with Nashville, Tennessee's elite fire department rescue squad dove in search of a despondent woman who'd driven her car off a ramp into the Cumberland River.

Pruett found the woman and dragged her to the surface. Then she dove down again to search for a baby reported to be in the car.

By the time she found the car again, the gutsy diver had less than six minutes of air left. Hurriedly, she reached to open the car's door, when a sudden shift in water pressure slammed it on her middle finger!

She frantically tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge, she said.

"I knew I'd drown if I didn't take my knife out and cut off my finger. I decided to do it.

"I prayed: 'Help me, God. Please don't let me die like this.'"

"That's when the angel appeared. I turned and over my shoulder I saw this bright light. It came within arm's length...and then it was gone. Suddenly my finger was free."

Pruett scrambled to the surface and was pulled into a boat by two other rescuers. Fortunately, there was no baby in the car, she was later told.

Still curious about the light she had seen, Pruett asked her supervisor which diver had gone down and tried to rescue her.

The chief said, "Nobody."

Bill Burt is a prolific book and magazine editor and writer. A reporter for London's Daily Mail for 8 years, he went on to become the Editor of the National Examiner. He's the author a book on angels, Embraced By Angels, published by New American Library. Bill invites New Frontier readers to share their angel experiences with him at ANGELS, Box 3276, Lantana, FL 33462.

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