Hi Guys,
I'm amazed at the quality of the information on here about Owen, I think your all doing a brilliant job at filling in some of the many many blanks about this case.
Yes, I have been putting many hours into this, I've done a few 12 hour days working solely on finding Owen and following up leads, so I feel I'm close to being up to speed on it now. There is a dirth of information generally regarding this case, and in my opinion huge gaps in information I've been able to get. This list has come up with lots of great info, which has been terrific too, and whoever put the time line together of Owen's movements, that was a stroke of brilliance.
Eckankar is an interesting thought, although knowing a bit about Eckankar in Australia, it's really not their style, but then Eckankar may differ from country to country.
I wonder whether Owen had medical insurance. He knew he was hurt, when he was in the police officer's car. I guess as an Australian, most Australians have the perception that if a person in the USA or Canada ends up in hospital, they may end up with a medical bill of $10,000 + To a 24yo, this would mean the end of his trip and probably debt for quite some time. Maybe it was easier for Owen to slip away and not pay the bill. I'm not suggesting Owen is someone likely to break the law, I don't know, but this certainly could be one explanation. Does anyone know whether Owen had travel medical insurance? and if so, whether his hospitalization would be covered by it?
Having run a business myself in the past, I suspect that the person who wanted the dreamcatcher and didn't have the cash, probably was told by Owen or the person selling it to them that they didn't have a bank account. The next best scenario would be to write the check out to Nordly's. This would indicate that they intended to buy more dreamcatchers from Nordly's in the near future, or were owing them money for the one's that they had. If I had power to do anything in the case, I'd be using the courts to subpoena Nordly's for the address they send the dreamcatchers to. I have no idea how co-operative or not the proprietor's of Nordly's are, but even if they are co-operative, they probably would not be allowed to disclose information about who their clients were, short of a subpoena by the courts to present that information to the courts. It could well end his relationship with whoever this client is/are. Very few companies sell direct to the public, so this would be unusual to write a cheque to the company, but I've come across this sort of thing in business a number of times before, so I don't see anything unusual there.
I think the key with paranoia is that a lot of things can be written off as "paranoid" until further information is obtained. Paranoia is unrealistic fears or delusions. The thing is maybe Owen was having realistic fears. Maybe the Shambahlah people wrote them off as just delusional, but it sounds like there were things to be feared around the corner, so maybe he was not at all delusional. Owen didn't have any sort of history of mental illness.
I find it hard to believe that Owen would be delusional for days after the Shambahlah music festival. The thing is the magic mushrooms Owen took have an effect for up to 10 hours. I wonder whether discussions with the Shambahlah medical team that looked after Owen for the 3 days he was in their tent, whether he said that he took them on purpose, or whether some of his food or drink were laced with the magic mushrooms. Does anyone know this? I see this as important in ascertaining whether there was any threat to Owen's health at Shambahlah, or if anyone purposely laced something Owen took with it.
Someone in a drug induced state is much more easily brainwashed / manipulated / controlled.
The bashing would have had a very severe effect on Owen as according to his family he'd never been in a physical fight before. My sense of Owen is that he was far too trusting - but then I'm a very cautious type myself, but that probably comes with maturity and awareness of crimes.
As time goes on I think the Moonies is the most likely scenario of where Owen has gone. He might have amnesia, but I think the chances of that are so miniscule. I think if Owen had brain damage that was that significant, he would also have significant developmental delay from it and or other neurological damage that may impact on the way he can move his body. I'll try to talk with some neuropsychologists / neurologists and see what they say. Has anyone done this? I'm not saying it's not possible, but just that it's highly unlikely. I also think that he's obviously interacting with others, and it's quite bizarre that if amnesia was the issue that someone hadn't put him in touch with medical help by now means that it's extremely unlikely. In fact I think the only plausible explanation is that he's with the Moonies and has been sent for free on some of their courses interstate, without papers, so he's keeping his head down and enjoying the experience. I did read one page about Moonies that said they are taught to live in the now without constraints of what they "should" do, or feeling a sense of responsiblility.
I also know that when many men have issues in their life, they choose to withdraw and sort of hibernate until they sort what's going on in their head out, then resurface. Women are very different in the way they problem solve.
I personally think Owen is going to be found amongst one of the many groups that train new Moonie inductees. There are quite a few organizations in Canada and the USA that run these. I also believe that Owen will resurface down the track, even if he is with the Moonies, as they'll use him to recruit other young people. Owen is a very likeable, loving and affable young man from what I hear, just the sort to bring in new recruits (unfortunately), so someone like Owen would be extremely valuable to them, and also with his skills as an electrician. No he can't sign off on electrical work in Canada, but yes he could do the work and have a local electrician sign off on it.
