Håkan Blomqvist´s blog

After a lifetime of travel, field investigation and study of UFO, Fortean and paranormal phenomena American journalist John A. Keel reached the conclusion shared by many researchers into these areas: we live in a multiverse inhabited by a variety of diverse intelligences. In his last book, The Eighth Tower (1975), he wrote: "Today many scientific disciplines are moving in the same direction, not realizing they are mapping a very old country. In a few years, perhaps even in our own lifetime, all sciences will suddenly converge at a single point, and the mysteries of the superspectrum will unravel in our hands." (p. 216).

John Keel´s prophetic assertion comes to my mind when I study the new books by academic physicists and astronomers postulating a multiverse. One of these academics is Swedish-American cosmologist Max Tegmark, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Techology and also scientific director of Foundational Questions Institute. His latest book, Our Mathematical Universe, has recently been published in a Swedish edition, Vårt matematiska universum.

The multiverse theory is today presented from different scientific disciplines; physics, astronomy, psychology, parapsychology and since the 1970s it has been a prominent hypothesis among ufologists and Forteans (John A. Keel, Jacques Vallee, Allen Hynek). This is an interesting cultural phenomenon. A sort of re-enchantment of the world advocated by scientists and scholars (instead of disenchantment), to use the terminology of sociologist Max Weber. But as John Keel so aptly remarked this is "mapping a very old country". A country for centuries studied in the Esoteric Tradition. Academic and scholarly interest in this heretic and forbidden science has seen a remarkable renaissance during the last decades. It has been realized that the Esoteric Tradition can be regarded as the third intellectual force or pillar in cultural history alongside religion and science.

Esotericism as a serious academic pursuit must of course adhere to strictly empirical research and the attitude of "methological agnosticism" argued by Wouter J. Hanegraaff, professor of History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at Amsterdam University. But no academic student can work totally free of any basic paradigm or worldview. An interesting problem of scientific credibility is to what extent can an academic scholar of esotericism also be an advocate of the Esoteric Tradition?

The field investigator of UFO, Fortean and paranormal phenomena who after years of study and with a mass of empirical data realizes that the reductionist/materialist worldview is untenable and a paradigm or theory encompassing a multiverse must be formulated, face the dilemma of finding a reasonable and intellectually acceptable alternative working hypothesis. I have for some years in my blog and latest book argued that the Esoteric Tradition as formulated Helena P. Blavatsky, Alice Bailey and Henry T. Laurency constitutes the best and most interesting multiverse paradigm and theory to explain the multitude of intriguing phenomena documented by many researchers.

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky 1831-1891

The perhaps most difficult question to answer is: can a critical, scientifically minded researcher and intellectual humanist accept a controversial worldview like esotericism as a working hypothesis? What are the problems and dangers? My answer to the first question is that I have found esotericism, especially as presented by Bailey and Laurency of such intellectual and humanist quality that they are worthy of consideration both as a worldview and ethical compass. Of special importance is that Bailey and Laurency also have solved the basic epistemological problem of how to intellectually relate to the claims in esotericism. Here two quotes of relevance:

"Reasons for the appearance of phenomena are being everywhere sought, and societies are formed for their investigation and demonstration... Three types of people will respond to this book. They are: 1. Those open minded investigators who are willing to accept its fundamentals as a working hypothesis... they will be frankly agnostic, but willing temporarily, in their search for truth, to try out the methods and follow the suggestions laid down for their consideration... Our attitude should be that of reasonable enquiry and our interest that of the investigating philosopher, willing to accept an hypothesis on the basis of its possibility, but being unwilling to acknowledge as proven truth anything until we know it for and in ourselves." (Alice Bailey, A Treatise of White Magic, 1971 ed. pp. 6, 32).

"To scientists without experience of other worlds than the physical, hylozoics can, of course, be only a working hypothesis...a working hypothesis acceptable to those philosophers and scientists of the future who will seek for a tenable world view and life view, realizing that there must be superphysical worlds and kingdoms." (Henry T. Laurency, The Way of Man, 1988, online ed. pp. 5, 40)

"Even if by thorough study you are however much convinced that the hylozoic system agrees with reality, yet you must view it as a working hypothesis... This principled attitude is necessary to avoid all manifestations of dogmatism, fanaticism, and intolerance." (Henry T. Laurency, Knowledge of Life Four, 1995, online ed. p. 29-30).

Alice Bailey and Henry T. Laurency constantly in their works reiterate the necessity of treating the esoteric worldview as a working hypothesis and the only tenable scientific and intellectual attitude to the presented claims. A problem on a different level are all the odd and naive believers and sects who claim to be exponents of the Esoteric Tradition but simply present a sad travesty of esotericism. In this group we also find the more potentially dangerous groups using esoteric ideas to promote various ringt-wing or neo-Nazi ideologies. This aspect of esotericism has been thoroughly documented by the late academic scholar Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke in Black Sun. Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity (2002).

From a Swedish perspective this problem is of special significance as the publisher of the Henry T. Laurency books, Lars Adelskogh, unfortunately combines his publishing venture with political right-wing activism, holocaust revisionism, antifeminism and the anti-modernist ideas of Traditionalism. Ideas which are anathema to the spirit of the Esoteric Tradition and must in todays unstable and troubled world be regarded as potentially a threat to democracy, freedom and human rights. Politically the Esoteric Tradition has more of left-wing ideas which I have noted in several blog entries. An esotericist who clearly understood that the Esoteric Tradition was basically politically left-wing was Riley Crabb, director of Borderland Sciences Research Foundation 1958-1985. He devoted many articles in The Journal of Borderland Research to explain this political dimension to esotericism, which of course rendered him many enemies.

Riley Crabb 1913-1994

I view the Esoteric Tradition as an enlarged or deeper form of humanism. This must be obvious to anyone reading the books by Alice Bailey, amanuensis for the Tibetan. The student is constanly reminded to strive for the good, the true and the beautiful. Something sorely needed on this interplanetary Alcatraz. For the active field investigator of UFO, Fortean and paranormal phenomena looking for a working hypothesis or paradigm I present the answer given to me by the British esotericist and ufologist T. Bryon Edmond in 1976: "Basically I am agnostic, but I accept Theosophy provisionally because it answers more questions in a logical and scientific way than any other religion or philosophy that I know of."

One of the largest UFO contactee organizations in the 1950s and 60s was Understanding, Inc. founded by Daniel W. Fry in 1955. From a modest beginning with nine members in El Monte, California the organization grew to more than 70 local units in the United States and many members throughout the world. Recently AFU received a donation of old documents from the only European Understanding Unit, founded in Sweden 1963 by Sven-Erik and Ing-Marie Asklund, then living i Bandhagen, south of Stockholm. This event was proudly announced in the magazine Understanding, June 1963.

Daniel Fry in Sweden 1970

On February 12, 2012 I interviewed Sven-Erik Asklund by phone to get some more historical data on this group. They were some twenty members who gathered at the Asklund home in 1963-64. For some time they worked hard trying to initiate more Understanding Units in Sweden, without success. Publicly they did an attempt to publish a Swedish edition of Understanding magazine, but it folded after three issues. When the Asklund couple moved to Småland in the south of Sweden in December 1964 the Understanding Unit was discontinued. Unfortunately the Swedish Unit archive, including all correspondence, was lost in connection with a burglary. The few documents now at AFU have been donated by Swedish ufologists who were members of the group: Erik Fredriksson, Karl-Erik Nordquist, Bertil Kuhlemann, Brage Jansson.

Daniel Fry and his organization Understanding is still waiting for a biographical study. Sean Donovan in Canada, who rescued most of the Daniel Fry archive in 2003, is working on a biography. So far he has done an excellent job with the Daniel Fry website, where a mass of interesting historical data can be found, including all the issues of Understanding magazine. According to Sean there were very few Understanding Units outside the U.S. There was one in Canada och one in Puerto Rico. So the Swedish Unit most be regarded as rather unique. The "officers list" from September 1963, preserved at AFU, contains 60 Understanding Units, but 74 units are mentioned in later documents. An interesting question is how come that such a large and successful organization disbanded? There ought to have been many regional directors able to continue the work.

From a Swedish viewpoint there were in practice two Understanding Units. The publishing company Parthenon, founded in 1957 by the new age activist Miss Edith Nicolaisen, was regarded as a unit but not formally announced as such in the international officers list. Edith Nicolaisen was one of the organizers of Daniel Fry´s European lecture tour in 1970. He was invited by the Swedish couple Gita och Douglas Keiller living at Särö in the Swedish archipelago south of Gothenburg. The Keiller couple sponsored Fry´s tour by paying his travel expenses. The Keiller home, Gövik, was for several years a sort of new-age center with guests from all over the world. In 1975 Gita and Douglas Keiller founded the Peace Through Unity Trust together with Anthony Brook. When Douglas Keiller became a supporter of the I Am movement, the sad right-wing travesty of the Esoteric Tradition, Gita separated and left Särö. She married Anthony Brook in 1982.

Gita Keiller and Anthony Brook

Edith Nicolaisen 1916-1986

Daniel Fry lectured on three occasions, September 3-5, in Sweden during his 1970 tour, two lectures at Hälsingborg and one at Malmö. He wrote about his "European Pilgrimage" in several articles for Understanding magazine:
"Immediately after the Berlin lecture, we returned to Govik, in Sweden, where we spent several busy days preparing for the next stage of our pilgrimage. This began on Sept. 3rd when we departed for Halsingborg, in South Western Sweden, for a series of lectures sponsored by our friend Edith Nicolaisen. (As most of our readers know, Edith is the able and energetic leader of the first unit of Understanding in Sweden.) She had visited us in Merlin a few weeks before our departure for Europe, and we had become well acquainted. Her work centers principally around youth groups, with a series of instructional and inspirational programs, designed to prepare them for the many critical problems which they will inevitably face during the coming years. Having checked into our rooms at the Hotell Vingarten, we visited Edith at her home, and arrived just in time for tea. (Edith’s hospitality is so flexible that, regardless of the hour at which visitors arrive, they are always ‘just in time for tea’.’) (Understanding, vol. 16, no. 11, November 1971).

Daniel Fry in conversation with Swedish ufologist K. Gösta Rehn,1970

In Sweden he met a rather skeptical public, among them Swedish ufologist and APRO representative K. Gösta Rehn. To the Swedish journalists Fry told of his trip in a flying saucer and his meeting with the supposed spaceman named Alan. He is described as a middle aged man, with blue eyes and brown hair. Alan had an American passport obtained by Fry and he was at that time stationed in Kairo, officially as a businessman but actually trying to work out a solution to the Middle East problem. According to Fry, Alan has an unusual bloodtype. Alan is the man that inspired Daniel Fry to found the Understanding movement "dedicated to the propagation of a better understanding among all the peoples of the earth, and of those who are not of earth."

Photograph taken by Tahalita Fry November 1968

In several blog entries I have suggested the esoteric intervention theory (Jacques Vallee) as an explanation for some of the first generation physical contactees in the U.S.: Orfeo Angelucci, George Adamski, George Van Tassel. Daniel Fry and Howard Menger. This is also the basic theory presented in my latest book Gudarna återvänder. Ufo och den esoteriska traditionen (Return of the Gods. UFOs and the Esoteric Tradition). Data from a wide variety of sources indicate that some of the first generation physical contactees were involved in a test orchestrated by a secret group (esoteric lodge) with access to Vimana technology, possibly in co-operation with real extraterrestrials. The object of this group was to prevent total destruction of the earth by nuclear war and use a somewhat novel method of presenting the Ancient Wisdom in a popular version introducing a new form of "phenomena" - UFOs. The test was only partially sucessful as many of the ordinary people contacted could not stand the strain of the contact.

An interesting indication that this was a test by a secret group are the experiences of journalist and esotericist Paul M. Vest who was obviously contacted by a "middle man" and asked to help in this endeavour. Anyone acquainted with the esoteric tradition as presented by Helena P. Blavatsky, Charles Leadbeater, Alice Bailey and Henry T. Laurency will recognize the esoteric philosophy in the books by Adamski, Fry, Angelucci, Menger and Van Tassel. Daniel Fry´s The Curve of Development is a good example of a simplified version of the evolution of consciousness in line with esoteric philosophy.

Swedish edition of The Curve of Development

Religious scholar Joscelyn Godwin has suggested that there was a "hidden hand" behind the spiritist phenomena in the 19th century, a secret group with the aim of changing the culture of the West. This is also stated as a fact by the Tibetan in the Alice Bailey books: "It is interesting to note that this movement (modern spiritualism) was started by a secret society which has existed in the world since the last period of seventh ray dominance in Atlantean times." (Alice Bailey, Esoteric Psychology, vol 1, 1970 clothbound ed., p.166-167). I suggest the possibility that this secret society or lodge was also behind some of the first generation UFO contacts as part of what in esoteric philosophy is named The Externalization of the Hierarchy or the return of the planetary guardians. A part of this program may also have been help by extraterrestrial intervention.
This is of course a conspiracy theory but different from what is ordinarily presented in this genre, as it is a benevolent conspiracy.

A very interesting indication that Howard Menger and a few other of the first generation contactees were involved in a test by a secret group is given in Connie Menger´s foreword to From Outer Space to You (1959):
"Let us assume that there is on this planet a group of scientifically minded and spiritually dedicated men and women who are working to accomplish this great task. And, let us further assume that they have already established contacts with equally dedicated people of other planets. To continue their work and remain effective, they must of necessity remain behind the scenes. However, they can, in the interest of humanity in general, send out hints as to what will take place in the near future. Perhaps they send out scouts to make personal contacts for the specific reason of determining the reactions of every-day people. Perhaps it is done as a "smoke screen" to temporarily keep secret the real work which is going on until such time that the people are prepared to meet this new era with many changes it will bring...Then there are the personal contact stories, some of which are authentic, and which have been established for study purposes and for keeping alive a story which must eventually be brought before all people. If given in small doses, the general acceptance will be made over a period of time, and will take place almost naturally."

This weekend Clas Svahn, former chairman of UFO-Sweden, presented his latest book at the Göteborg Book Fair: UFO: Spökraketer, ljusglober och utomjordingar (UFO: Ghost Rockets, Globes and Extraterrestrials). It has already received favourable comments in several national media and is in my estimation one of the best and most thoroughly documented UFO books written in Sweden - destined to become a classic in the UFO and Fortean genre.

Clas Svahn presents around fifty Swedish UFO cases, the most intriguing and unexplained UFO encounters, from 1922 until 2011. Almost all of them personally investigated and documented by Clas himself, often with several follow up interviews. Here we find the Swedish Ghost Rockets, close encounters with several witnesses, observations by military pilots, humanoid and abduction narratives. The book is a strong case for the reality of the UFO phenomenon in all its varied manifestations. I recommend this book to all hardline skeptics but they will probably not read this tome as they have already decided reality from their materialist/reductionist maps. The empirical data documented by Clas Svahn makes a skeptical position untenable - logically, scientifically and intellectually. The UFO phenomenon should be addressed by the best minds in science and investigative journalism. But it takes a scientific and cultural heretic to enter this domain of forbidden science.

Besides being a distinguished journalist at the largest Swedish daily, Dagens Nyheter, Clas Svahn is a prolific writer with many titles of great interest coming from his pen. A real classic is his profound study of the famous Swedish close encouters witness and contactee Mr. Gösta Carlsson: Mötet i gläntan. Sveriges mest kända närkontakt med UFO (2000) (Encounter in the Glade. The Most Famous Swedish UFO Contact). The book is now very hard to come by, even from antiquarian booksellers. Clas spent many years investigating this most complicated UFO case and it is a masterpiece of investigative journalism.

Very popular has been his trilogy: Det okända, Berättelser om det okända samt Möten med det okända (The Unknown, Stories of the Unknown, Meetings with the Unknown). A mixture of UFO, Fortean and paranormal experiences.

Sekter, hemliga sällskap och domedagsprofeter (2012) (Sects, Secret Societies and Domesday Prophets) is a 477 page documentation of weird and destructive cults from Sweden and all over the world. A book that rendered him some threats from one of these not very nice groups.

A book of rare beauty is Naturfenomen (2011) (Phenomena in Nature) giving the reader an awesome estetic experience with many photographs of unusual phenomena in nature.And in 2013 Clas published his study of strange coincidences: Osannolikt. Märkliga möten och fantastiska sammanträffanden (Improbable. Intriguing Encounters and Fantastic Coincidences).

Last week Clas Svahn, together with his son Niklas and Carl-Anton Mattsson visited England to once again fetch books, magazines, correspondence etc donated to AFU by British ufologists and Forteans. Soon a lorry from Schenker will arrive at AFU headquarters with 240 boxes of documents of all kinds. AFU has now expanded to eleven premises but with the enormous amount of material coming in from all over the world we still need more space. 23 people are now working at AFU in various functions and projects. Quo vadis AFU?

Carl-Anton Mattsson and Niklas Svahn with the 240 boxes on their way to AFU

As usual there is a steady stream of visitors to AFU. Guiding groups and presenting all our eleven premises takes quite some time so my collegue Anders Liljegren and I use to limit the presentation to four or five premises. This is more than enough for most visitors to get a good grasp of the staggering amount of books, magazines, clippings, correspondence and other archival records preserved at AFU. We don´t want interested beginners to develop mental exhaustion at their first visit to the archives.

On October 11 we were visited by Christian Forslind and Mattias Lövgren from the nearby city of Linköping. And on October 13, Anders and I guided a group of librarians with friends from Norrköping Public Library. It is always a pleasure to present the AFU collections to my librarian collegues as they of course are curious to enter and understand the literature of the strange underground world of ufology, Forteana and paranormal phenomena.

Librarians and friends from Norrköping Public Library

Librarian Tommy Jansson with alien

Anders Liljegren telling about Charles Fort

Our new visitors had a chance to peruse the impressive donations that recently arrived at AFU. 260 boxes of books, magazines etc from donors in England: Lional Beer, Bob Rickard, Omar Fowler, Busty Taylor, Bill Foley (Contact International), Peter Rogerson, Edwin Joyce (FSR), Bob Digby and the late Steve Moore. Especially fascinating was the large collection of books on the Kennedy assassination and related conspiracy theories from Peter Rogerson. There is also a small film clip from the C-archive on You Tube taken by Clas Svahn, which gives a good estimation of the size of the latest donation to AFU.

Recently donated books ready to be cataloged

Unpacking the boxes I always feel like a small boy on Christmas. So many new and interesting titles and so little time to read. Below some titles from the Peter Rogerson collection.

While perusing the shelves at AFU I become acutely aware of the heretic nature of our subjects and data. How distant we are from mainstream science and religion and the usual interests and hobbies of "normal" everyday people. Especially as we have the audacity to claim there are a vast array of phenomena out there that neither orthodox science nor religion understand or care to investigate. Those cultural and intellectual heretics who enter this world of Forbidden Science often becomes an embarrassment to mainstream society as they open a crack in the wall of materialist/reductionist science and philosophy. Serious ufologists, Forteans and paranormal investigators are the gnostics, cathars and hermeticists of today. Representatives of the third intellectual force in Western history. Allen Hynek understood this well when he named his group of investigators the Invisible College. An interesting comment on this was presented by Jacques Vallee in his foreword to the reprint of his 1975 book The Invisible College. You can read his new foreword in the 2014 edition at the Amazon site.

This week I have arranged the organizational files of Köpings UFO-förening, one of the most active and prominent local groups in UFO-Sweden history. It was founded already in January 1973 and folded in 2004. During its heyday 1973-1980 it was directed by chairman Thorvald Berthelsen, who changed his name to Bevan Berthelsen in 1980. Bevan and Köpings UFO-förening, in many respects, laid the groundwork and changed the direction of ufology in Sweden to a more serious and scientific endeavor.

The organizational files of Köpings UFO-förening

Thorvald Berthelsen entered the ufological scene with a fervent commitment and soon became a leading public figure and spokesperson for the Swedish UFO movement. Together with collegues from Köpings UFO-förening he started a massive information campaign ranging from November 10 to December 15, 1975. During these weeks he lectured in 22 different Swedish cities and travelled more than 200 Swedish miles. In many cities there were hundreds on listeners. A second information campaign was conducted between February 3, and March 23, 1976. As a result many local UFO groups were founded all over Sweden and many of the active ufologists today began their ufological career after hearing a lecture by Thorvald Berthelsen in the 1970s.

The local press reporting on the information campaign

In March 1976 Thorvald was elected the new chairman of the national organization UFO-Sweden. He immediately started reforming the handling and investigation of UFO reports and entered an informal cooperation with Swedish military and intelligence authorities. He initiated better and more critical investigative procedures and was one of the first to recognize that some UFO reports were in fact launchings of Russian satellites.

Thorvald Berthelsen at his home in March 1976

In order to improve the quality of investigation Thorvald together with the Köping group started the first weekend seminars for field investigators in September 1977. Since then hundreds of field investigators have received their basic UFO education in the annual seminars. This helped to improve the quality of investigation and documentation of UFO observations and incidents.

Nerikes Allehanda reporting on the first field investigation seminar in 1977

February 24, 1978 was the opening night in Stockholm for Steven Spielberg´s film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Thorvald and the Köping group entered a massive advertising and media campaign in collaboration with Warner-Columbia. Information about UFO-Sweden was printed in the Warner-Columbia leaflets. Largerly because of the heavy media coverage the UFO-Sweden annual conference in Stockholm on March 18 was attended by 1.300 listeners. The largest annual conference in Swedish UFO history.

The next great PR event initiated by Thorvald and the Köping group was a large UFO exhibition at the Köping Museum in the summer of 1978. With economic help from the Köping municipality the exhibition became a huge success with more than 10 000 visitors. A large flying saucer model visible from the E18 highway attracted families on summer vacation. The model was 5,5 meters in diameter and weighed 250 kilo (551 pounds).

The many years of intense and dedicated activism for the UFO cause took heavy toll on Thorvald´s health and in 1979 he retired from his post as chairman of UFO-Sweden. At the annual conference on April 7, 1979, Birgitta Andersson was elected as new chairman.

Birgitta Andersson and Thorvald Berthelsen at the annual UFO-Sweden conference April 7, 1979

This is the open and visible history of Thorvald Berthelsen and his UFO research activity in the 1970s. But there were also a few intriguing and unexplained events not generally well known in Swedish UFO history. Some of these events were mentioned by Thorvald when I interviewed him on October 10, 1992. In the beginning of the 1970s he regarded UFOs as a "ridiculous, laughable" subject. But something happened in the summer of 1972 that was to change his life.

My interview with Bevan Berthelsen October 10, 1992

In the middle of one night in the summer of 1972 Thorvald left his bed sleepwalking. He put on his clothes, left his house and bicycled about two kilometer (1,4 miles) to an uninhabited plateau (Slätängen) with a few deserted crofts situated between the towns of Köping and Arboga. At this plateau he suddenly woke up, wondering what he was doing there in the middle of the night. Rather irrationally he picked a few flowers, found his bike and went back home where his wife naturally was curious to know what he was doing in the middle of the night, as he had been gone for several hours. Thorvald could give no logical answer as he was not a sleepwalker. To this day he is still puzzled by the event.

About a week after this curious episode Thorvald became intensively fascinated by UFOs and borrowed all books he could find in the local library. He soon contacted the UFO-Sweden organization and formed the local group Köpings UFO-förening in January 1973. On March 11, 1973 Thorvald, together with three witnesses from his workplace, observed a cylindershaped object silently passing over Köping. No explanation was found to this observation which was reported in local media.

Thorvald Berthelsen reporting his observation

Thorvald Berthelsen and his wife lived in a country house with good views in all directions. On the same day his UFO observation was mentioned in the local newspaper a man knocks on their door. Bevan is met by a man in his thirties, dressed in a brown suit and white shirt. He has dark hair, appears suntanned and his eyes are slanted but still not Asian looking. The man ask Bevan how he is feeling and continue asking about directions. He says thank you and leave. "I thought, who the hell was that? I ran out and looked for him. The road was straight in both directions. If he had come walking I would have seen him. His eyes were slanted. That caught my attention. Afterwards I felt this experience was weird". For ufologists this is a classic men-in-black (MIB) experience. Or was it just an unusual man looking for direction?

Bevan Berthelsen in 1992

Were these events unusual coincidences? Or were Thorvald Berthelsen somehow "tagged" by whatever was behind the phenomena, as reported by several contactees and close encounter witnesses? To this day he has no idea and has refrained from speculating. In 1980 Thorvald left his UFO engagement and inspired by his wife entered Subud, a spiritual movement founded in the 1920s. He then changed his name to Bevan Berthelsen. When I asked him if he ever regretted his involvement in the UFO movement the message was clear: "No, it was fantastic years. A wonderful time."

From a larger cultural perspective the impact of the UFO phenomenon on society after the Second World War has been tremendous. It has engendered a military, scientific, religious and popular culture response. But first and foremost it has generated a world wide movement of private organizations and groups dedicated to investigating and documenting an unknown and intriguing phenomenon. The history of the UFO movement and the ideas and activities of the diverse personalities involved is for me almost as fascinating as the phenomenon itself. I have been a part of this heretic underground movement since a teenager so it has become sort of homebase. This has also made me aware of the importance of documenting the UFO movement for future generations and researchers.

One of my activities at AFU is arranging the thousands of organizational documents and files from the Swedish UFO movement: annual reports, protocols, correspondence, historical records, clippings, photographs, audiovisual material etc. Since 1970 there has been some 130 local groups belonging to the national organization UFO-Sweden. The files of the local groups are now placed in separate binders and arranged according from what city the operated. This is primary source documents of great value to historians, journalists and ufologists who wish to study the sociological aspect of ufology.

Files and historical records from local UFO-Sweden groups

My interest in the history of the UFO movement resulted in a monograph, published in 2010: En resa i tiden. UFO-Sveriges historia 1970-2010 (A Travel in Time. The History of UFO-Sweden 1970-2010). As I have stated in several blog entries the Swedish UFO movement was implemented by active members of the Swedish Theosophical Society (Adyar) in 1957-58. When the national organization UFO-Sweden was founded in 1970 it represented the first systematic attempt to investigate and document UFO experiences from a more critical and scientific viewpoint. Since then UFO-Sweden has been the foremost UFO organization in Sweden working together with and in close partnership with Archives for the Unexplained (AFU).

When I study the historical files and records of the various local UFO groups in Sweden I am often amazed at the large amount of social activities these groups arranged. A good example is Enköpings UFO-förening (Enköping UFO Society), active between 1976-2010. For many years they organized study circles, auctions, festivities, visits to interesting places and other local groups and most impressive, open house at the club house every Wednesday for more than thirty years.

Arnold Idebring, chairman of Enköpings UFO-förening 1980-1998

All this social activity for so many years both in local UFO groups and among the board of directors has of course established deep bonds and friendships among members. Several of the active members of UFO-Sweden have known each other since the 1970s. Traditions have been formed within the organization and oldtimers often mention that UFO-Sweden is like a family. Perhaps this is a unique situation for the Swedish UFO movement. There is much talk about dissension and infighting from UFO organizations around the world. Of course there is intense debate and sometimes rather heated discussions also in UFO-Sweden but goodwill has prevailed and made the organization a secure and pleasant homebase for old and new members.

Part of the UFO-Sweden gang at the annual conference in May 2010

Happy smiles at dinner after the annual conference in May 2012, Pia Hellertz and Gunnar Karlsson

Clas Svahn and Linda Friman

Clas Svahn and Tobias Lindgren at the annual UFO-Sweden conference 2010

This week we had the pleasure of having Bob Rickard as a guest at AFU. He is one of our foremost donors of books, magazines and clippings on UFO and Fortean subjects. With his typical Fortean humour Bob has found an appropiate name for Clas Svahn and his UFO-Sweden collegues who every year "pester" British organizations and authors with requests for donations to AFU - The Viking Raiders!

Bob Rickard

Tobias Lindgren, Bob Rickard and Anders Liljegren

Bob Rickard is perhaps best known as the founder and editor of the magazine Fortean Times, formerly The News and The Charles Fort Institute. Many books and articles have come from his pen and I still remember my fascination, in the 1970s, when reading his classic Phenomena. A Book of Wonders, written together with John Michell.

Bob stayed four days at AFU, studying our collections, especially to search for data on levitation and Japanese folklore on alien visitors. Thursday evening we had dinner and a pleasant chat at a Chinese restaurant in Norrköping. Bob tried his best to order his dinner in Chinese, only to find out that the waitress didn´t speak the language!! But we had a great time and hope to meet our Fortean friend again soon.

Anders Liljegren and Bob Rickard

Saturday, November 15, the UFO-Sweden board meeting was held at AFU. Eleven members of the board discussed plans and projects for the coming year. 2015 will probably result in much media exposure as a result of a one-hour documentary on UFO-Sweden and the Ghost Rockets planned for viewing on Swedish, Norwegian and Danisk televison during next year. A large-scale field investigation project in Södermanland is also planned for the summer of 2015.

UFO-Sweden chairman Anders Berglund

Clas Svahn showing a small preview of the documentary

Clas Svahn and Håkan Ekstrand during a coffee break at the board meeting

The lack of active female ufologists has often been discussed in our organization. But now we are happy to welcome Jennie Backman as a new member of the board. Amanda Fredriksson is already a member of the board since 2009. We hope for more gender equality in the future.

Jennie Backman

Finally I must mention a fascinating historical document found by Clas Svahn and me among donated archival material. On August 23, 1966 Swedish ufologist Sven Olov Larsson, from Borlänge, distributed an appeal to form a national UFO organization in Sweden. This appeal was sent to the seven or eight UFO groups existing at the time. As far as we know this was the first attemp to form a national UFO organization in Sweden.

UFO-Sweden was founded in 1970. Sven Olov Larsson was an avid collector of UFO books and magazines. Unfortuntely his relatives threw away all his files when he died, including a volumious correspondence. One of the important UFO collections that AFU was too late in saving. A reminder to all involved in UFO and Fortean subjects to remember Archives for the Unexplained as a custodian of historical documents when discussing what to do with old collections.

There are two basic ideas or themes presented in my latest book Gudarna återvänder. Ufo och den esoteriska traditionen (Return of the Gods. UFOs and the Esoteric Tradition). First and foremost I have documented the ideological influences of the Esoteric Tradition on the historical development of the global UFO movement. Secondly the book is an attempt to interpret the various aspects of the UFO phenomenon using the esoteric worldview as a paradigm or working hypothesis. Esotericism as presented by Helena Blavatsky, Charles Leadbeater, Geoffrey Hodson, Cyril Scott, Alice Bailey and Henry T. Laurency.

The perhaps most controversial part of the book is my theory that some of the first generation physical contactees were actually involved in an test by a secret, benevolent, earth based group with access to an advanced "vimana" technology, possibly in co-operation with an extraterrestrial group. I specifically refer to Orfeo Angelucci, George Adamski, George Van Tassel, Daniel Fry and Howard Menger. The test put a tremendous psychological strain on the contactees who sometimes acted irrationally and didn´t understand what was happening to them.

Orfeo Angelucci

This theory is not in line with mainstream "scientific" ufology who usually regard these contactees as totally unreliable frauds and myth makers. But my many years of in depth investigation of physical contact claims in Sweden and abroad finally convinced me that the answer was not always that simple. I noted that in some instances there were circumstantial evidence, witnesses, that contactees actually did interact with strangers from somewhere who obviously possessed an advanced technology. American ufologist Ted Bloecher reached a similar conclusion after studying the Woodrow Derenberger case. A renewed study of the contact experiences and philosophy in the more intellectual and academic presentations of the Esoteric Tradition then added interesting data and new perspectives on the modern ufo contactees. I am of course aware of that this is tricky and controversial territory and to seriously enter this domain for many academic scholars and ufologists equals intellectual harakiri. In this respect I prefer to be a heretic among heretics adhering to the motto of Riley Crabb, for many years director of Borderland Sciences Research Foundation: "If I have one goal in life it is un uncompromising search for Truth, whatever that might be, and wherever it may lead."

Howard Menger, who died in 2009, is one of the more interesting of the 1950s contactees, in part because of his open admission that he didn´t really understand all of what happened to him and his speculation that the people he met could actually have been a secret earth based group and that he was also involved in a sociological experiment conducted by the Pentagon. Unfortunately no American ufologist or journalist have have made an in depth study of his experiences. I have for many years collected documents relating to Menger. Timothy Good kindly sent me the whole transcript of his interview with Howard Menger in 1978 and the 1980s I corresponded with psychiatrist Dr. Berthold Schwartz, who knew the Menger couple and reached the conclusion that "the contact claims or case of Howard Menger is far from being an open and shut or black and white matter."

In several interviews Howard Menger speculated that the individuals that contacted him were actually a benevolent secret earth based group. In the Timothy Good interview he stated: ""It´s possible that they don´t want us to know that they live here on this planet, that they would probably throw us off the track by telling us, you know, Venus or Mars". Relating to this idea is an interesting quote in Mengers´ book From Outer Space To You (1959) p.159: "There are also space craft... which are built by people of this planet. These people are in communication and in service with people from other planets. They are people who possess a high spiritual understanding and have reached an awareness of natural law..."

If there is any truth in this statement this secret group would in contact with ordinary people of necessity have to work like classic intelligence agents, sometimes using mild forms of deception to remain undiscovered. In the case of Howard Menger there are many such clues. Code words were used by his contacts. In The Song of Saturn (1968), Connie Menger mention a meeting Howard had with one of the visitors at the local post office: "He smilingly spoke the code word to Alyn (Howard) which Alyn recognized immediately as one of the means of identification between friends and agents of the visitors from other planets." (p. 109).

There is a very interesting comment made by contactee George Van Tassel in his magazine Proceedings, February-March 1957. Van Tassel personally investigated the Menger contact claims and interviewed several of the witnesses. His defence of the Menger story reveals a fascinating detail: "In my contact with the four men who landed here on August 24th of 1953, they gave me information which they told me to use as a "key" to establish authentic, or phoney, contactees in the future. Howard Menger used the words of this "key" properly and correctly." (p.5).

George Van Tassel

If some of the 1950s UFO contactees actually were involved in a test or experiment orchestrated by unknown benevolent visitors, the really deep mystery is: Who are they? I have made a detailed study of the world view and philosophy presented to the contactees by the visitors and especially the books written by Adamski, Angelucci, Fry and Menger are somewhat simplified but very clear expositions of the Esoteric Tradition, even in specific details as the claim that our planet is quarantined and a sort of interplanetary Alcatraz. Could therefore this test have been made by a group belonging to the hidden custodians of the Ancient Wisdom, the Esoteric Tradition or Science of the Multiverse. If this is the case Howard Menger was not only involved with Pentagon and the CIA but also with what I refer to as the HIA - Higher Intelligence Agency.

The well meaning and naive man or woman on the street naturally ask: if this group actually exist why don´t they show themselves in the open? I think the best answer was given by the "Venusian" Bill to journalist and esotericist Paul M. Vest: "Upon your earth the mere colour of one´s skin - a slight difference of religious belief - merely belonging to a different race or country - in fact the most trivial deviations precipitate animalistic belligerencies, hideous brutalities and the bloody slaughter of millions of your fellow creatures. Can you then truly be surprised when I tell you the the beings of certain other worlds view earth as earthlings might look upon a den of deadly serpents stinging each other to death."

As far as I am aware AFU, Archives for the Unexplained, is the worlds largest UFO/Fortean archive and library. But perhaps we also have the oldest still active UFO society in Sweden? On October 1, 1958 Malmö UFO-Sällskap (Malmö UFO-Society) was founded. In 1962 they adopted the new name Malmö Interplanetariska Sällskap (MIS) (Malmö Interplanetary Society). They are still very much active with monthly lectures and what is even more remarkable, one of the original members, Mr. Ebbe Johansson is today the energetic chairman. Ebbe recently celebrated his 85th birthday.

Ebbe Johansson

In the autumn of 1958 Karl and Anny Veit from the Deutsche UFO/IFO Studiengesellschaft (DUIST) were invited to Sweden by Edith Nicolaisen, founder of the Parthenon publishing house. Karl Veit lectured in Malmö and Helsingborg. To advertise the lecture a large poster was printed which was carried around in the streets of Malmö by the then young ufologist Alve Holmqvist. Unfortunately no journalist or photographer immortalized this original idea. Partly as a result of the Veit lecture MIS was founded, basically as a lecturing society.

Karl Veit in Edith Nicolaisens´ apartment in Helsingborg 1958

The poster carried around in Malmö by Alve Holmqvist

Alve Holmqvist in June 1972

MIS was not the first UFO society in Sweden. Together with Brita Rodosi, secretary in the Götaland district of the Theosophical Society (Adyar), new age activist Edith Nicolaisen succeeded in founding Sällskapet för interplanetariska studier (The Society for Interplanetary Studies) at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg on March 19, 1958. This group of UFO-interested technology students soon disbanded but it was the first attempt to found a UFO society in Sweden. Not more than four days later, on March 23, 1958 Ifologiska sällskapet (The Ifological Society) was founded in Stockholm. This group was also an offshoot of the Theosophical Society in Sweden (Adyar). Ifologiska sällskapet folded in 1969.

Since 1958 Malmö Interplanetary Society has arranged a lecture every month except during the summer time. Subjects are UFOs, astronomy, space research, ancient mysteries, parapsychology, mysticism and a whole range of other topics, sometimes presented by academic scholars. Besides lectures MIS has arranged many types of social activities: study tours, field trips, Christmas and jubilee festivities, even masquerades. In 1988 MIS published a small jubilee booklet with the ingenious title Thirty Years in the Twilight Zone.

Ebbe Johansson and Svend Pohlman entertaining at a MIS party

Ragnar Olssson and Ebbe Johansson at a MIS lecture September 4, 2009

Ebbe Johansson is one of the real oldboys of Swedish ufology. He joined MIS already in 1958 and has during various periodes acted as chairman and has also been a well known lecturer on UFOs in different organizations and clubs. His interests ranges from astronomy and speleology to electronic voice phenomena (EVP) and philosophy. In 2010 MIS joined the national organization UFO-Sweden which for us felt like a historical moment and an honour to have incorporated the oldest still active UFO society in Sweden - and perhaps in the world?

Ebbe Johansson at his home March 6, 2010

To my friends on this planet and on other planets and spheres in the multiverse

I wish you all a

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Even for a librarian it is almost impossible to keep up to date with new titles, especially for me who try to follow the publishing of books relating to both UFOs and the Esoteric Tradition. Here are a few new acquisitions that I find of interest. First and foremost a book I have been looking forward to read for a long time: Sky People. Untold Stories of Alien Encounters in Mesoamerica by Dr. Ardy Sixkiller Clarke. This is the sequel to her very fascinating Encounters With Star People. Untold Stories of American Indians. A third volume in this series is planned and I predict this trilogy will become a classic in UFO literature.

Between 2003 and 2010 Dr. Clarke travelled through Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico conducting around 100 interviews among indigenous people. The author collected stories of encounters with aliens, sky gods, little people and giants. Because of her unique background as American Indian and a professor emeritus at Montana State University she succeeded in winning the confidence of many local indigenous men and women who related their encounters with UFOs and various entities. One of the witnesses express this sense of confidence: "Occasionally I see someone looking for stories about UFOs, but they do not possess the methods needed to get the local people to talk. You, on the other hand, seem to be able to touch people´s hearts and souls".

Dr. Ardy Sixkiller Clarke is not a field investigating ufologist trying to determine the reality of the various encounters. She has employed the academic scholarly approach usually named the emic perspective. Approaching the witnesses as an insider, simply documenting the narratives not questioning the existence of Sky People or the myths and legends of the indigenous people. The other research method is named etic, or the outsider perspective where the scholar is trying to interpret the encounters and stories within the worldview of the researcher. By using the emic perspective Dr. Clarke has probably succeeded in documenting more unique UFO and alien encounters than if she was a critical ufologist. This touches on the problem of the skeptical movement and its researchers. What close encounter witness would like to be investigated by someone who already "know" that the experience was a misinterpretation or a "myth"?

One of the most expensive books I ever acquried is Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism, edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff, professor of History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam. The price is 1446 SEK ($182). It was published by Brill already in 2006 and is an indispensible reference work for academic scholars of Western Esotericism and all serious students of the Esoteric Tradition. This massive tome of 1228 pages has excellent indexes of persons and groups and organizations.

A peculiar omission is that there is no specific entry for Pythagoras, one of the most influential philosophers in the Esoteric Tradition. I have not found any explanation for this omission. Six pages are devoted to UFO traditions, written by Jean-Francois Mayer, University of Fribourg, Switzerland. It has the usual references to Swedenborg, Theosophy, the I Am movement, Aetherius Society and the Raelian Movement. Of the classical contactees only George Adamski and George Van Tassel are mentioned. I am still waiting for scholarly studies of Orfeo Angelucci, Daniel Fry and Howard Menger and their presentation of the Esoteric Tradition as told by the alien visitors. Few religious scholars seems to have discovered this connection. Nor have I found any discussion of the influence of Alice Bailey on the UFO movement.

A book I have still not read is Hitler´s Priestess by the late academic scholar Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. The book was published already in 1998 and is an important document of the sad misuse of the Esoteric Tradition to promote rascist and neo-nazi ideas. As I have often noted in my blog this is especially tragic as the Esoteric Tradition is basically democratic, anti-rascist, humanistic and politically left-wing. Unfortunately there are groups who use UFOs and esotericism as a front for ringt-wing politics. This book should be studied in connexion with Black Sun, Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity, also by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. Together they are an excellent antidote against esoteric totalitarinism.

During my many years of investigating and documenting contactee cases I have met a wide assortement of personalities, most of them sincere mystics with diverse forms of inner experiences. There has also been the usual cadre of drug addicts, compulsive liars and fantasy prone personalities. A few, a very few, intriguing cases of physical contact claims are still unresolved and remains a riddle to me. One of these is the Rickard Höglund case which I documented in Främlingar på vår jord. Ufokontakter i Sverige (Aliens On Earth. UFO Contacts in Sweden). A summary of the Höglund experiences was presented by Timothy Good in his latest book Earth - An Alien Enterprise.

Rickard Höglund claimed that on his second contact with the aliens, in August 1966, he was given a small metal plate with unknown script and ordered to go to their base in the Bahamas. He was told to always wear this plate on all his contacts and travels. Sometimes the plate became so hot he had to keep in asbestos. Other times it gave him rashes. This reminds me of the controversial Albert K. Bender who also claimed he received a small metal from his "Men In Black". He mentions in Flying Saucers and the Thee Men (p. 93) that his metal sometimes "got so hot I had to drop it". Rickard showed the metal plate to his wife Gunvor Höglund who affirmed its existence when I interviewed her several times. She also mentioned that once at the Bahamas, Rickard was so fed up with working for the aliens that he threw the plate on the floor exclaiming "to hell with all of this". This same evening the aliens showed up at their apartement and he was given a sharp reprimand for his behavior.

Rickard Höglund in Nassau, Bahamas

The signs on the metal plate given to Rickard by the aliens

Gösta Johansson was one of Rickard Höglund´s very few friends and one of the primary sources during my many years of documenting this case. He also received a copy of the signs on the plate. In January 1968 Gösta happened to meet the famous stage magician Johny Lindell on a parking place south of Stockholm and as he knew Johny was interested in UFOs Gösta showed his copy of the signs on the metal plate and explained that he didn´t know what was up or down in the script. Without any hesitation Johny said "you start reading here" and then he pulled out his business card and wrote down something with similar script, signing the message ZZ, which was the initials for his stage magician namne Zania Zemona. But he also said: There are a few dots missing here. Either it has been copied carelessly or there is some other fault." According to Johny the plate was a sort of identification card and the signs represented mountains and rivers. Later Gösta Johansson showed the message written by Johny to Rickard Höglund who said: "Yes we know of this writing. We have interpreted it fairly well but there are a few dots we don´t understand".

Gösta Johansson at his home September 15, 1986

The Johny Lindell business card with his stage name Zania Zemona

The signs written by Johny Lindell on the back of his card

Johny Lindell was not only a famous stage magician but also claimed to be in contact with aliens and working for them. He had his own metal plate received by the aliens. The Swedish psychometric medium Anna Lykke tested Johny´s metal plate in 1967 by holding it in her hand. According to Gösta Johansson she recieved such a chock that she fainted. When she woke up she said: "This was the most gruesome thing I have ever held. There is a mafia connected to this metal. If Johny tells me to work for him I will have no alternative." According to Johny Lindell the aliens he was involved with were really a form of mafia. There were two extraterrestrial mafia groups operating on Earth, one was called Brothers of the Axe and the other Z. The ordinary eartbound mafia had to pay them money. All this was probably pure fantasy by Johny but a fascinating coincidence is that Rickard and Gunvor Höglund, for a short while in the 1960s, really worked in the home of Mr. Louis (Lou) Chesler in Nassau, Bahamas, having been hired by the Swedish businessman Hans Bratt. Chesler was the front man for famous organized crime figure Meyer Lansky.

So who was Johny Lindell? With good help from Christer Nilsson of Sveriges Magi-Arkiv (The Swedish Magic Archives) and documents from AFU I have been able to ascertain a few facts. Johny Lindell (1922-1979) became fascinated by stage magic already in school. He began a professional career as a stage magician entertaining audiences with spectacular magic tricks. For many years he regularly performed for the Swedish Royal family at Christmas. He toured in Sweden and several European countries and also showed his talents on Swedish television. Johny Lindell was married two times and had three daughters.

Johny Lindell 1963

Johny Lindell med sin fru Maria da Conceica Dos Santos

In 1984 I interviewed one of his old partners, Ann-Marie Jönsson. She was a motorcycle acrobat and between 1958-1963 they had a show together including stage magic. Ann-Marie hired Johny for the show and for several years they travelled together and during these years she came to know him quite well. Ann-Marie didn´t know what to think of all the stories she heard from Johny. He claimed to have been in the Himalaya meditating but also having been a member of the French Foreign Legion. She believed this to be true as he showed her documents from his involvement. He told of having witnessed a UFO landing in the USA and to be in contact with aliens. Ann-Marie believed some of his stories to be fantasies or exaggerations but she sometimes experienced a nasty or wicked "aura" or radiance from him.

Södernyheterna March 22, 1973

The Swedish ufologist Christer Janson was a good friend of John Lindell. They were both members of Ifologiska sällskapet (The Ifological Society) in the 1960s and spent many evenings together where Johny told of his involvement with an alien group called Z (Zäta). When I interviewed Christer Janson in August 1986 he mentioned that Johny openly told him that not everything he said was the truth.

Johny Lindell was a member of UFO-Sweden until his death in 1978. He was active in the UFO group Solna Astronomiska Förening (SAF) and sometimes performed his magic tricks during meetings. On December 1, 1976 Johny Lindell was interviewed in the local newspaper Södernyheterna as a representative of UFO-Sweden. To the journalist he stated: "There is a lot of evidence. We have no idea where they come from but they are real, that is for sure."

There were several people who were afraid of Johny Lindell and his strange tales. Psychometric medium Anny Lykke believed he worked for some mafia organization and he told one of his friends he was involved in the gambling and porn industry. Swedish contactee Rickard Höglund said "Johny was evil". It is hard to determine what was the truth or fiction in the fantastic world of stage magician Johny Lindell. He was a fantasy prone personality and also a riddle.

A pleasant UFO-Sweden tradition is the annual board meeting at Hotel Lilton in Ängelholm. A small but very charming 19th century hotel in the center of the city. The UFO-Sweden board has gathered here since 1998 and this weekend we were fifteen participants who as usual were warmly welcomed by the the proprietor and UFO-Sweden member Anna-Michéle Nielsen and her assistant. Unfortunately our chairman Anders Berglund was ill so he had to abandon the trip.

Anna-Michéle Nielsen at Hotel Lilton always makes us feel welcome

Our secretary Mats Nilsson and treasurer Gunnar Karlsson were late for the meeting but we commenced at 2 p.m. with Tobias Lindgren as deputy secretary. With the absence of Anders Berglund vice chairman Clas Svahn conducted the meeting with his long time experience. Clas was the UFO-Sweden chairman between 1991-2012.

Board meeting at Hotel Lilton

Tobias Lindgren and Clas Svahn at the board meeting

Rickard Andersson, Tobias Lindgren and Clas Svahn

The first version of the new UFO-Sweden website was presented by Tobias Lindgren and we hope the site will be officially launched as soon as possible. Tobias has done a great job and the board members were all very satisfied with his efforts. The new website is especially important now as next week the film Ghost Rockets will be shown at the Gothenburg Film Festival. The directors Michael Cavanagh and Kerstin Überlacker has worked with this documentary during four years and we are very excited about the result. Later this year Ghost Rockets is also scheduled for Swedish television.

Tobias Lindgren presenting the new UFO-Sweden website

During the board meeting we also discussed plans and preparations for Project Kolmården 2015. During one week in August this summer a group of UFO-Sweden field investigators will make a detailed study of UFO incidents in the Kolmården area, north of Norrköping. There has been many UFO observations reported from this district and by going from house to house the field investigators hope to document many UFO incidents from first hand witnesses.

The UFO-Sweden annual conference and Expo will be held at the city of Trollhättan on Saturday, May 2. After the board meeting we all relaxed a couple of hours with a good beer, while discussing the new website and exchanging the usual jokes and anecdotes. At 7 p.m. the group strolled to restaurant Telegrafen were we all enjoyed a delicious dinner although this time the chef, to our great disappointment, missed the starters so next year there will probably be another restaurant for the UFO-Sweden board.

Who said there are no tin foil hats in UFO-Sweden! Johan Gustavsson proves the opposite

Johan Gustavsson, Tobias Lindgren and Gunnar Karlsson engaged in intensive discussions during dinner at restaurant Telegrafen

Many times on this blog I have referred to the diaries of Jacques Vallee, Forbidden Science, so far published in two volumes. These diaries are absolute must reading for all serious ufologists, including academic scholars interested in “borderland science”. There are several reasons why Jacques Vallee has named ufology the Forbidden Science. He, and collegue Allen Hynek, relates todays study of UFO phenomena to the situation faced by 17th century scientists. They formed what has been called The Invisible College to protect themselves from the Catholic inquisition. The situation for open scientific research changed with the forming of The Royal Society in London 1660.

The underground network of scientists seriously interested in UFO research, created by Hynek and Vallee in the 1960s, was also referred to as The Invisible College. Because of past experience they both realized that qualified UFO research would never be initiated by the authorities or mainstream academic institutions. The only possible option was privately funded research. This is also the view and ideological policy adopted by AFU very early on from our founding in 1973. We realized almost from the start that petitioning the authorities to fund UFO research was a lost cause.

Let me present the four main reasons for privately financed UFO research which are also reflects the AFU policy as a private non-governmental (NGO), non-profit organization.

UFO research is scientifically controversial
The study of UFO phenomena is a complicated multi-disciplinary task with no natural connection to any academic discipline. There are of course academic research on UFOs performed by historians, folklorists, psychologists and historians of religion a.o.. But it is important to understand that these scientists do not address the ontological issue, the basic question of the reality of the phenomena. This requires a different approach and methodology which is not regarded as scientific within these disciplines. Mainstream academic science is intrincically materialist and reductionist and is therefore automatically challenged when confronted with phenomena indicating a multiverse of forces and entities.

Field investigation with the object of determining the reality of UFO phenomena has no natural academic connection. Any academic scholar trying to address to ontological (reality) issue will immediately be questioned by collegues and university administration and face public media ridicule as the strange scholar who believes in little green men. He or she will also be heavily critized by the new inquisition (not the Catholic Church this time) but by the representatives of the Skeptic community, condemning the heretic for promoting pseudoscience and irrationalism. Few scientists are willing to put their academic career at stake when faced with such obstacles. An Invisible College of critical but open minded researchers affords the best option and protection in such a cultural situation. The common media strategy of asking an astronomer or other mainstream academic scholar to comment on the the reality of UFO phenomena is like asking an ornithologist for a view of Byzantine architecture.

UFO research is militarily controversial
The basic mission of the military and intelligence community is to protect the nation from inner and outer enemies. By necessity much of military research and intelligence operations must remain secret. UFO-Sweden and AFU has a productive and as far as possible open communication with military authorities but UFO research sometimes involves cases where the field investigator probably documents activity associated with secret military projects, remotely piloted vehicles (RPV), drones or other forms of covert activity. The possibility of black projects like military abductions, MILABS, is a case in point. Research into these more or less secret areas will of course be very controversial and only a privately financed institution could hope to achieve results in these areas. Basic research into the reality of UFO phenomena is not a part of military mission.

UFO research is politically controversial
Politicians today are very much at the mercy of various media and often quite defenseless if they happen to make a mistake or say something inappropriate or wrong. Any politician advocating serious UFO research would immediately recieve negative publicity in the press and become an embarrasement to political collegues. Demands for resignation would follow. "We don´t want a UFO nut in our political party". As very few people are aware of the depth and extent of the UFO enigma and the serious issues involved there is no possibility in official funding of UFO research nor of help from politicians.

In 2012 the Swedish liberal activist Torbjörn Jerlerup tried unsuccesfully to discredit AFU by claiming we were engaging unemployed people to hunt for "little green men with antennas". We were compared with charlatans and soothsayers. With this incident in mind I can imagine what would happen if we really were officially funded.

UFO research is religiously controversial
Perhaps this aspect is not so much noticed in our secular Swedish society but for many religious fundamentalists UFO is taboo. This becomes very obvious when studying all the books in the AFU library written by representatives of various religious groups. UFOs are simply regarded as demons or djinns in the islamic world. That UFO research is something you should stay away from was made clear to me by my former physiotherapist. He was active in Seventh-Day Adventist Church and during one therapy session he asked about my interests. I frankly told him about my passion for UFO research. His stern comment was: You know they are demons! This is also the view advocated by Anthroposophists as evidenced by the late Gordon Creighton, former editor of Flying Saucer Review, who was deeply influenced by Anthroposophy.

With these points in mind it is obvious that serious UFO research can only be successfully implemented by private institutions and funding. This has been the AFU policy for many years. If you wish to support our efforts and become a regular sponsor helping us develop what has become the worlds largest UFO and Fortean archive/library visit our Your Sponsorship site.

When Ardy Sixkiller Clarke was a young girl in high school she was deeply fascinated by the two 19th century explorers John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood. She read their classic Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, published in 1841. Together they were pivotal in the rediscovery of the mysterious cities of the Maya. Ardy Sixkiller Clarke fell in love with this adventurous duo and promised she would one day follow in their footsteps. She realized her dream between 2003 and 2010 with fourteen journeys, travelling through Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. Not basically to study Mayan ruins and culture but collecting stories of encounters with sky gods, giants, little people and aliens among the indigenous people. The results of her endeavors are documented in her latest book Sky People. Untold Stories of Alien Encounters In Mesoamerica, published by New Page Books, 2015.

Sky People is actually the sequel to the author´s former Encounters With Star People (2012), a documentation of alien encounters among the North American indians. This is one of the most fascinating books I have read in years with many intriguing physical contact stories and close encounters. I have eagerly awaited the sequel and was not disappointed. Sky People is a very personal and exciting travelogue giving an inside view of alien experiences among the indigenous people. As a woman with American Indian ancestry and a professor emeritus of Montana State University Ardy Sixkiller Clarke was highly respected by the men and women she met who shared their personal stories and experiences. One of the witnesses gives her this special credit: "Occasionally I see someone looking for stories about UFOs, but they do not possess the methods needed to get the local people to talk. You, on the other hand, seem to be able to touch people´s hearts and souls."

These books by Ardy Sixkiller Clarke should not be regarded as ufological studies in the ordinary sense. She is not the critical investigator trying to determine the ontological status of the experiences. Instead her approach is what in Anthropology is named the emic or insider perspective simply recording the narratives avoiding judgements about the observations: "In doing so, I never questioned the existence of the Sky People, Sky Gods, or the traditional myths and legends of the indigenous people, nor was I skeptical of their reported encounters." For more information on this aspect read Brent Raynes´interview with the author in Alternate Perceptions Magazine.

The 46 chapters are a fascinating mix of legends and very interesting close encounters and contact experiences with a wide variety of entities, most of them similar in type described in the international UFO literature. Chapter ten, An Encounters With the Old Ones, is of special interest as Ardy Sixkiller Clarke herself becomes the percipient of a UFO. The incident happened in Copan, Honduras, The village holy man presents Ardy with a prophecy: "... if you are the woman sent by the gods, you will se the ancients." In the middle of the night Ardy is escorted to the ancient ruins by a local man, Teodoro. They enter the steps of a temple. At the top they lean back and wait in the darkness. After some time small balls of light flicker around them in formation. But that was only the beginning: "While I was lost in thought dawn came and sunlight flooded the plaza. Suddenly a large, circular, rotating wheel-like craft appeared overhead. I watched speechless as the revolving wheel disappeared toward the east, and the sun appeared in its saffron glory. I squinted my eyes and looked in the direction of the sun but the craft was gone." The next morning Ardy learns that there were reports on TV of a UFO observed and disappearing in the direction of Copan. The author makes no more comments regarding this spectacular observation but in another chaper she concludes: "What began as a teenager´s dream became a passion. It was there, among the ancient ruins of the Maya, that my life changed significantly."

In several of the humanoid cases mentioned the entities are first seen as balls of light that transform into human-looking aliens. What can be interpreted as classic materialization phenomena. One witness reports: "Sometimes they come as balls of light and turn into men that look just like them. Other times they look like people but are not people."Sky People also contain some very intriguing physical abduction stories, where several witnesses in secret hiding places have observed how aliens led, obviously paralysed, local people into their craft and watching them come out again.

In an epilogue Ardy Sixkiller Clarke concludes "I believe there is a literal truth to the accounts... It confirmed in my mind that something is definitely happening to the people of Earth, and the problem is not isolated, nor is it confined to one region of the planet." In a very special way the author rejects the ancient astronaut theory: "From my research, I believe the Maya of today are the descendants of those who came to Planet Earth from another world. The were not "assisted" by alien astronauts; they were the ancient astronauts."

As an investigator of contactee cases for many years I have often lamented the lack of thorough research and documentation of the early classic contactees of the 1950s. There is still no biography of Orfeo Angelucci, George Van Tassel and Howard Menger. Lou Zinsstag and Timothy Good did a pioneering effort with George Adamski. The Untold Story (1982) but since then very little has been written. It was therefore with great expectation I received Contactee. Was Daniel W. Fry Telling the Truth? by the young Canadian author Sean Donovan.

Daniel Fry

Sean is to be commended for a remarkable cultural achievement, having in 2003 rescued what was left of the Daniel Fry and Understanding organizational archive and continually presenting more and more of this data on a website dedicated to Fry and his organization. All copies of Understanding magazine 1956-1979 and Newsletter 1982-1989 can be found on the site and also photos, audios, films, interviews a.o. My hope is that other researchers will copy this excellent effort when it comes to contactees like George Adamski, Orfeo Angelucci, George Van Tassel and Howard Menger.

Daniel Fry in Sweden 1970

Sean Donovan is not a ufologist in the usual sense of the word. Resident of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada he has a Batchelor of Applied Science in Computer Engineering from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. He runs a web consulting business and does research into gravity control, the subject that eventually got him interested in the theories of Daniel Fry. During his years at the university in the 1990s he, more or less as a diversion from the monotony of study, started looking into the problem of gravity control and studied many books on the subject: "My first encounter with Daniel´s story happened when I was 28 years old in the year 2001 during a cold, snow filled night on a farm in Saskatchewan, Canada, where I read "The Rode in Space Ships"... Upon first reading Daniel´s story in November of 2001, I was skeptical, but excited. It was clear that if the physics from Fry´s books worked, I could follow my original goal of gravity control instead of "inertial propulsion" which was proving fruitless."

Sean Donovan

Sean became intensely fascinated by Daniel Fry, contacted and interview his children and relatives and ended up preserving the Understanding organizational archive, including a real treasure, a month by month journal of Daniel Fry´s doings from 1966-1977. All this material became the basis for his biography Contactee. Was Daniel Fry Telling the Truth?

The first part of the book, some 35 pages, is a very detailed family history, a part of the text that could have been somewhat reduced as not very relevant to the rest of the story. The author then presents the contact experiences of Daniel Fry in his own words. Sean has combined the information from four different books to get a version as complete as possible. White Sands Incident, Steps to the Stars (1965), Atoms, Galaxies and Understanding (1960) and he also quotes from They Rode in Space Ships, written by Gavin Gibbons (1957).

A large part of the book covers the history of the Understanding Organization and the personal life of Daniel Fry. Here, for the first time, is a detailed and very fascinating story of the activites, ups and downs, the economic problems and controveries of the organization. Still a few questions remain after reading this history: What happened to all the local units all over the country? With some 70 local units and 10 000 members how come such a large organization just collapsed? And what became of the arsonist who burned down the library and kitchen in the Understanding headquarters in 1978, then at Tonopah, Arizona? Who was this man and was he ever convicted?

As Sean Donovan is an engineer and technician several chapters are devoted to the physics and technical aspects of the Daniel Fry claims. Sean also presents his experimental evidence for and against Fry. Experiments that he consider promising and hope for an investor like Robert Bigelow to be able to continue. He has also started a website studying the physics of Curvity, a name used to describe the physics of Daniel Fry. Not being technically minded nor interested I can give no informed opinion on these discussions but simply recommend them if your interests are on the technical side.

So, was Daniel Fry telling the truth? Like other UFO researchers Sean Donovan concludes that Daniel Fry´s film is a fake: "The spinning model like motion, the attempt at a second filming and the blatant visible supports are all evidence the films are false." What is missing in the book is an investigation and analysis of the Tahalita Fry UFO photographs taken in November 1968. There is also a reproduction of the bogus Ph.D. degree that Fry recieved from Saint Andrews Ecumenical Collegiate, a title that made him call himself Dr. Daniel Fry for the rest of his life. After considering the evidence for and against Daniel Fry the author presents no definite conclusion but keeps an open mind. In the beginning of the book he has a quote from astronaut Gordon Cooper: "I have seen my share of wide-eyed UFO fanatics and lunatics. Dr. Dan Fry was not in that category. I found him totally credible."

Photo by Tahalita Fry, November 1968

The weak part of the book is the author´s lack of knowledge of the complexity of the contactee enigma. A complexity that takes a lot of study and field investigation of physical contact claims to comprehend. Contactee experiences are seldom a question of black and white which was also the conclusion reached by psychiatrist Dr. Berthold Schwartz, who investigated the contact claims of Howard Menger. On his Curvity website Sean Donovan makes a "Comparison to Other Contactees" and concludes that "other similar contactee stories are fabrications" and in his book he claims: "Amongst Fry´s contactee peers, there is nothing bu bunk". Admittedly many contactee claims of the 1950s were pure fabrications or misidentifications of mystical experiences. But not all of them. There is substantial evidence indicating that some of the 1950s contactees were involved in a cultural influence experiment implemented by a group of benevolent aliens from somewhere, with access to advanced "Vimana" technology. The contactees involved did not always understand what was happening to them and sometimes made a mess of the information delivered. That this was a psychological experiment to test the reaction of human society to alien contact is told by journalist Paul M.Vest who was asked by a "Venusian" to help spread the message and experiences of Orfeo Angelucci.

The real contactees involved in the experiment were also told to use various methods to keep certain information secret, using blinds and code words in communication. Sean Donovan noted some of these diversions when he quoted Fry: "In composing my report of the incident at White Sands, I took great care to present it in such a manner that it would immediately be dismissed as nonsense by the "military" type of mind, and yet would present all the vital information in such a manner that its value could readily be understood by the type of mind capable of making use of it."

By presenting this "benevolent conspiracy theory", which is a variant of the Esoteric Intervention Theory of Jacques Vallee, I admittedly become a heretic among "scientific ufologists". But as Vallee has also stated, in Forbidden Science II, "...the history of ufology should be placed within an esoteric context." If Sean Donovan had been a student of the more academic presentations of the Esoteric Tradition or science of the multiverse (Helena Blavatsky, Alice Bailey, Henry T. Laurency) he would have noticed that the message given to Fry was a sort of simplified version of the Ancient Wisdom. This is especially evident in Daniel Fry´s The Curve of Development. It is also evident in the messages given by Adamski, Angelucci, Van Tassel and Howard Menger.

Swedish edition of The Curve of Development

These few critical comments should not hesitate readers to acquire the book which is an important contribution to the study of the classical contactees. And once again I would like to salute Sean Donovan for the excellent work with the Daniel Fry archive and websites.

In the history of the UFO movement Desmond Leslie (1921-2001) has a prominent role and it was his writings and theories that to a large extent influenced much of the 1950s and 60s ufology. The book he co-authored with the controversial contactee George Adamski, Flying Saucers Have Landed (1953) became a bestseller and was translated into more than thirty languages. Global sales reached around one million. When a revised and very much enlarged edition was published by Neville Spearman in 1970, Flying Saucer Review editor Charles Bowen named it The Book That Was Dynamite.

Much has been written by and about Desmond Leslie but it was not until 2010 that a biography appeared. Desmond Leslie. The Biography of an Irish Gentleman by journalist and art historian Robert O´Byrne. It is a traditional biography presenting Leslie´s family history, marriages, career as musician and the rather complicated and stresssful life he lived beginning in 1963 when he, in spite of financial and personal problems, in the end succeeded in preserving and developing his family estate, Castle Leslie, in Glaslough, Ireland. But to me the biography is something of disappointment. It is obvious that the author has very little knowledge of, nor sympathy for, either ufology or the esoteric tradition, which are referred to as "eccentric" and "quasi-religious" subjects. It this respect the book becomes a flatland biography never reaching the "soul" of Desmond Leslie. We still have to wait for an scholarly ufologist or esotericist to write a biography that will give the final word on Desmond Leslie and his fascinating life.

In his book The Fifties Spiritual Marketplace (1997) religious scholar Robert Ellwood refers to Desmond Leslie as a "British esotericist". This is to a large extent a correct description. Flying Saucers Have Landed was the first major UFO book that connected "flying saucers" to Blavatsky´s vimanas and the esoteric tradition. There are many references and quotes from the classic works of Alice Bailey, Trevor Barker, Annie Besant, H.P. Blavatsky, Geoffrey Hodson, C.W. Leadbeater, A.E. Powell, W. Scott Elliot, A.P. Sinnett a.o.

The biography by O´Byrne gives scant information on how Desmond Leslie came to realize there was a connection between the esoteric tradition and UFOs. In 1951 Leslie visited an unnamed friend and found a copy of The Story of Atlantis (1896) by W. Scott Elliot. In this book he was fascinated by a reference to the vimanas of Atlantis who were described as made of a metal of extreme lightness and strength. These craft shone in the dark as if coated with luminous paint. "It was an intriguing book , and while reading it I sensed something familiar. Certain characteristics were described there which tallied almost identically with the United States Army´s flying saucer reports of today. I began to think - and wonder. ". What perhaps Desmond Leslie didn´t realize at the time was that The Story of Atlantis was a joint effort by W. Scott Elliot and theosophist Charles Leadbeater.

Desmond Leslie

This discovery entered a period of intense research by Leslie to find references to aircraft in ancient manuscripts. He spent many hours at the British Museum studying the hindu epics Ramayana and Mahaharata where he found many refences to aerial vehicles. He read the classics in Theosophy and Alice Bailey and eventually started corresponding with Meade Layne, founder of Borderland Sciences Research Associates (BSRA) in 1945. From Meady Layne he was informed of George Adamski´s meeting with a pilot from a flying saucer. Desmond Leslie wrote to Adamski, was offered his photos free of charge and the rest in history. Flying Saucers Have Landed was published by T. Werner Laurie, London in September 1953.

In June 1954 Desmond Leslie headed off to California to meet George Adamski. Leslie had intended to stay for a month but stayed on for nearly three month. He was 33 at the time and Adamski 63 but they got along very well together and for Leslie the visit was a joyful and a success in all ways except one. He had hoped to be allowed a trip in one of the scout ships photographed by Adamski but this never happened and he complained rather bitterly at the time. Many years later Adamski explained why Leslie was not allowed on board to his co-worker Lou Zinsstag: "You know they once planned to take aboard a young friend of mine whom I very much wanted to be favoured. But they tested this man in secrecy and found out that he was still too young... to keep a secret." In his Commentary on George Adamski, published in the revised and enlarged edition of Flying Saucers Have Landed (1970) Leslie found this a wise decision. Noticing how publicity and illusions of grandeur have ruined the lives of several alleged contactees he concludes: "Vanity lurks skin deep in most of us. The eager crowds, the silly adulators, the hungry sheep seeking some new stimulus, the temptation to be "The great I Am" - I might well have become the worst of the lot." During his stay with Adamski, Leslie did observe a small golden disk not more than fifty feet away.

Desmond Leslie with George Adamski in 1954

During the 1950s Desmond Leslie was intensively involved with the UFO movement. He lectured all over the world and was interviewed on many radio and TV programs. But he also continued his study of the esoteric tradition and paranormal phenomena like materializations visiting various spiritualist mediums who could produce what is named ectoplasm. Leslie claimed to have witnessed at least forty complete materializations in the presence of many witnesses. In an appendix to the Leslie biography Herbie Brennan relates an interesting experience. Desmond had participated in a seance with the famous materialization medium Alexander (Alec) Harris. The "spirits" walked into the room were they would talk with the sitters. Leslie was convinced this was some sort of fraud with accomplices dressed up and decided to expose the fraud: "Desmond leaped from his seat and grabbed one by the arm. "I was never so surprised in my life. The creature simply dissolved under my hand and disappeared.""

One of the reasons critical ufologists regarded George Adamski and other 1950s contactees as frauds was their assertion that the visitors come from planets in our solar system, especially Venus. But although Adamski himself and the present Adamski movement still claim that Venus is inhabited by physical beings like ourself, Desmond Leslie never really accepted this assertion and argued heavily with Adamski on this issue. He tried to explain his view in Commentary on George Adamski in the new edition of Flying Saucers Have Landed, where he presented the esoteric explanation that Venus is inhabited but not in our visible part of the multiverse.

The esoteric explanation to Adamski´s venusians was presented already in 1952 by Borderland Sciences Research Association. This information was given clairaudiently to the remakable medium Mark Probert commenting on the contact November 20th 1952: "The story is in the main true. The Disc did land and Mr. Adamski did carry on a conversation with the operator of said ship. But brother Adamski was so excited he does not remember clearly all that was said. This particular ship was from the planet Venus. We would like to remind you however, that the intense heat on that body, due to its proximity to the sun and an atmosphere heavy with carbon dioxide, make it highly unlikely or impossible that beings with the same organic structure as earth-man could abide on its surface. The Venus beings live in the ether of this planet." (Journal of Borderland Research, Jan-Feb. 1972, p. 20)

"Venusian" scout ship photographed by George Adamski, December 13, 1952

From the many references and quotes from various esoteric authors in Flying Saucers Have Landed and many subsequent articles it it obvious that Desmond Leslie was very well versed regarding the esoteric tradition. This made him realize there was a great similarity between the worldview of the "space people" and esotericism. In a letter to George Adamski co-worker Carol Honey October 14, 1962 he wrote: "The teachings of the "brothers" are acceptable because they tally (agree) with the teachings of that band of initiates and sages who through all history preserved the Divine Law and released to the world in every age as much as they considered advisable to the relatively simple "children" they tried to help."

With his deep commitment to the more intellectual or academic esotericism it comes as quite a surprise that Desmond Leslie around 1960 began studying the teachings of the spiritualist group the White Eagle Lodge, founded by Grace and Ivan Cook in 1936. A traditional spiritualist group very much engaged in healing and teachings which are more mysticism than esotericism. One of the reasons may have been that Grace Cook, according to Leslie, already in the 1930s had predicted the coming of the space people. In an article, The Rise and Fall of UFO Societies, for the magazine Awareness, published by Contact U.K., Spring 1968, Desmond Leslie writes: "Thirty years ago they first received information as to the impending coming of the Space People. the have never swserved from the light, nor from the guidance given them." If Desmond Leslie had carefully studied the works of Alice Bailey he would have found the same information presented in a somewhat different form.

So can we like religious scholar Robert Ellwood define Desmond Leslie as an esotericist, in spite of his endorsement of the White Eagle Lodge teachings? I would answer in the affirmative. White Eagle Lodge functioned like Leslie´s "church" as he left the Catholic Church, but his worldview was clearly esoteric. This becomes obvious in his position statement in The Encyclopedia of UFOs (1980), edited by Ronald D. Story: "The UFO problem is vastly more complex than I first thought it was. Many are undoubtedly interplanetary probes from other systems... some of the odder sightings are not of spacecraft but of psychic and spiritual phenomena." He then refers to the theosophist Geoffrey Hodson, postulating that some UFOs could be devas or elementals.

Desmond Leslie was a pioneer in the controversial and fascinating underground world of ufology. I admire his searching spirit and his wonderful humour. Some years before his death in 2001 a guidebook to Ireland had described his family as "mildly eccentric". Leslie wrote to the publishers explaining that the Leslies were in fact "very eccentric".

As librarian and archivist one of my favourite movie series is The Librarian, starring Noah Wyle as the librarian Flynn Carsen. After a very special interview and scrutiny he is hired by The Metropolitan Public Library. To his great surprise he is taken ta a very old and secret section of the library housing not just rare manuscripts but artifacts like The Ark of the Covenant and Excalibur. His first mission is to bring back a part of the Spear of Destiny, which has been stolen from the library. The story is a charming combination of Indiana Jones-type adventure and mystical romance.

What I find even more fascinating is that the basic theme in the series is literally taken from the Esoteric Tradition and adapted to popular culture. Secret esoteric archives and libraries is often mentioned in the classic works of Helena Blavatsky, Henry Olcott, Charles Leadbeater and Alice Bailey. It is stated that the adepts, the planetary guardians, have created large archives where the real history of mankind is preserved. An idea that has my deepest sympathy as on this cosmic Alcatraz cultural barbarians has throughout history destroyed manuscripts and libraries. The Islamic religious extremists in IS is the latest example. Earlier in history Christians were no better. Whether AFU - Archives for the Unexplained will be spared from this destiny only time will tell.

During my many years of study of the classics in esotericism I have especially noted references to secret libraries and archives. I wish to share some of these references which may be of interest to academic scholars as well as that band of cultural and intellectual heretics who are fascinated by or possibly connected to the Higher Intelligence Agency.

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

In her introduction to The Secret Doctrine, Helena Blavatsky has several pages discussing the esoteric archives:
"The Secret Doctrine was the universally diffused religion of the ancient and prehistoric world. Proofs of its diffusion, authentic records of its history, a complete chain of documents, showing its character and presence in every land, together with the teaching of all its great adepts, exist to this day in the secret crypts of libraries belonging to the Occult Fraternity." (p. xxxiv)

"Along the ridge of Altyn-Toga, whose soil no European foot has ever trodden so far, there exists a certain hamlet, lost in a deep gorge. It is a small cluster of houses, a hamlet rather than a monastery, with a poor-looking temple in it, with one old lama, a hermit, living nearby to watch it. Pilgrims say that the subterranean galleries and halls under it contain a collection of books, the number of which, according to the accounts given, is too large to find room even in the British Museum." (p. xxiv)

In Henry Steele Olcott´s Old Diary Leaves, Second Series, is presented an intriguing experience of a visit to a secret place of the Adepts. In connection with this visit Olcott comments on the hidden archives:
"All the buried ancient libraries, and those vast hoards of treasure which must be kept hidden until its Karma requires its restoration to human use, are, she said, protected from discovery by the profane, by illusory pictures of solid rocks, unbroken solid ground, a yawning chasm, or some such obstacle, which turns aside the feet of the wrong men, but which Mâyâ dissolves away when the predestined finder comes to the spot in the fulness of time." (p. 45)

A theosophical study of great interest is The Astral Plane (1895) by Charles Leadbeater. This, in my view, is the most comprehensive and detailed taxonomy of non-human entities and phenomena from the multiverse perspective of the Esoteric Tradition. In his introduction C. Jinarajadasa mentions that this was also the opinion of one of the adepts who consequently wanted a copy of the manuscript for the "Museum of Records of the Great White Brotherhood". The Astral Plane was regarded as a "landmark in the intellectual history of humanity."
"This Museum contains a careful selection of various objects of historical importance to the Masters and Their pupils in connection with their higher studies, and it is especially a record of the progress of humanity in various fields of activity. It contains, for instance, globes modelled to show the configuration of the Earth at various epochs of time; ... It contains various old texts relating to extinct and present religions, and other material useful for an understanding of the work of the "Life Wave" on this globe, our Earth." (p. xiv-xv)

In several of the volumes by Alice Bailey, amanuensis for the Tibetan, there are references to "the archives of the adepts". The Tibetan often mention checking information found in the archive.
"I but present the facts as I know them from my access to records more ancient than any known to man". (Esoteric Psychology, volume one, p. 394).
"There is an interesting and ancient proclamation found in the archives of the adepts...". (A Treatise On White Magic, p. 616).
"If you were a disciple who had access to the archives wherein instructions for disciples are contained, you would be confronted... by six large sheets of some unknown metal. These look as if made of silver and are in reality composed of that metal which is the allotrope of silver and which is therefore to silver what the diamond is to carbon. Upon the sheets are words, symbols, and symbolic forms." (Discipleship In the New Age. Volume Two, p. 249).

Alice Bailey

Finally a reference from the outstanding and erudite Swedish esotericist Henry T. Laurency. With his usual Blavatskyan temperament he discuss the secrecy of the adepts and their work:
"The condition of culture is universal brotherhood, and it is obvious that we have a long way to go before we are there. Civilization with technology is quite compatible with barbarism, which fact the 20th century clarified to everyone having a wee bit of judgement.
Knowing that fanaticism systematically eradicates everything it does not approve of, the planetary hierarchy has since fifty thousand years been collecting the essential things from the history of mankind in its inaccessible museum. There the symbolic writings of the knowledge orders are preserved as well. That museum can be visited only by causal selves who have acquired objective causal consciousness. Good provisions have been made so that no barbarians will have any opportunity to destroy it, as they did with the Alexandrian Library." (Knowledge of Life Three, p. 4).

Archives for the Unexplained (AFU) is today the custodian of very large collections of books and magazines on paranormal phenomena as well as Esoterica. We are not very secret of course as our collections are open to anyone, whether academic scholar, skeptic or journalist. Perhaps in the distant future we could become a branch of the real esoteric archive? In that case I will in my next incarnation make an application for employment as librarian. I guess Flynn Carsen wouldn´t mind a collegue in his tough and exciting work around the world. I love his comment in the Curse of the Judas Chalice, when confronted with a group of brutal thugs: "I warn you, I am a librarian".

The Evans library at AFU

In a recent blog post by former MUFON director James Carrion he presents some very critical views regarding the work and ideology of the organization he headed between 2006-2010. In the blog post with the scathing title, What´s next MUFON? Book Burning?, he states:
"MUFON is not scientifically studying UFOs, it is collecting data and has been doing so for over 40 years with nothing concrete to show for it. No hypotheses, no conclusions, so in a nutshell - no science. Collecting data for the sake of collecting data is not science, it is a landfill."

This is an interesting remark worthy of consideration. From my vantage point here in Sweden I cannot comment on how relevant this criticism is regarding MUFON but it is certainly a problem that should be addressed by ufologists worldwide. As an example John F. Schuessler, director of MUFON 2000-2006, did an excellent compilation of cases in his UFO-Related Human Physiological Effects (1996), but in this study there is no theory or hypothesis given to account for all the varied physiological effects documented.

Formulating a theory on UFO phenomena is a complicated undertaking. Part of the problem is that UFOs are so obviously diversified relating to nature and origin that one theory can only account for a part of the unidentified cases. Then there is the problem of ideology or paradigm. How to formulate a scientific theory when the phenomenon studied behaves and appears in ways that is "scientifically impossible" from a reductionist, materialist worldview? Take for instance the cases I have have presented here: Björkvik, Gohs and Väggarö.

Observation by Rolf Gohs and Peter Ingemark in May 1970

When UFO-Sweden was founded in 1970 the theory issue was no problem. UFOs were extraterrestrial visitors and the object of the organization was to convince authorities and public of this "truth". During the first annual conference in Motala 1970 the decision was made to launch a large-scale information campaign with the stated goal to "get an official recognition that flying saucers are of extraterestrial origin." During the 1970s and 80s various steps were taken to approach the subject in a more serious and scientific manner and when Clas Svahn was elected chairman of the UFO-Sweden board in 1991 he formulated what has been named the third way ufology: neither naive belief nor debunking skepticism but an open mind to various theories and claims based on critical investigation and empirical data.

Clas Svahn during a UFO-Sweden board meeting in 2009

In 2014 Clas Svahn´s book UFO. Spökraketer, ljusglober and utomjordingar (UFO. Ghost Rockets, Luminous Globes and Extraterrestrials) was published. This is a landmark in Swedish UFO history, a presentation of the best and most intriguing UFO encounters in Sweden. Most of the cases personally investigated by Clas himself. His conclusion: "After 40 years of investigation I have no hesitation in stating that there are unknown phenomena in our world that we ought to devote much more time and resources investigating." In spite of this conclusion and the careful documentation Clas Svahn presents no theory or hypothesis for these unexplained cases. This is a sensible strategy because when you enter the controversial world of theories you are immediately in deep water. Still, we must after forty years dare to formulate theories and try to map this unknown country represented not only by UFOs but all types of Fortean and paranormal phenomena.

To handle this delicate issue ufologists, Forteans and investigators of paranormal phenomena must become a sort of alternative paradigm pathfinder force. Intellectual heretics entering, what Jacques Vallee has called, Forbidden Science. As most scientists and intellectuals have no knowledge of nor interest in these "absurd pseudosciences" no help is to be expected from the mainstream academic world. The few serious students of these phenomena will have to work like an Invisible College. Hopefully there will in the new academic generation be a few students fascinated by this work as expressed by Vallee: "For me the challenge was to find out the very limitations of science, the places where it broke down, the phenomena it didn´t explain."

When I began my active involvement in ufology in 1970 field investigation was a relatively simple pursuit. It was not too difficult to ascertain the usual misinterpretations of planets, stars, aircraft, balloons and the common psychological mistakes made by UFO witnesses. Today the situation is radically different. The digital revolution has made assessment of photos and films exceedingly complicated. Internet is teeming with obvious fakes or highly dubious reports.

The field investigator must also be aware of all the new and large and small air vehicles, RPV, drones and model aircraft moving in our airspace. Not to mention Chinese lanterns and possibly black project aircraft of various design. And then we have the cultists, the mythmakers, the more or less credible whistle blowers and the political extremists using the “UFO myth” to attract members to extreme right-wing or neo-nazi groups.

Tobias Lindgren releases a Chinese lantern during the UFO-Sweden field investigator training in 2007

To this situation must also be added the often debated decline in ordinary or classic UFO reports. Today daylight discs and close encounters cases are exceedingly rare. The cause of this change in reported observations is intriguing. Personally I have advanced the theory (esoteric intervention theory) that some of the first wave of UFO reports and physical contact cases in the 1940s and 50s was a cultural test made by a benevolent group of aliens from somewhere – earth-based or extraterrestrial.

How is the serious field investigator and student of UFOs to proceed in this complicated situation? First of all he or she must realize that there is a strong overlap between UFO, Fortean and paranormal phenomena. I believe it was a very wise suggestion when AFU donor Hilary Evans mentioned that AFU, Archives for UFO Research should adopt a new name including Fortean and paranormal phenomena. Now we are called Archives for the Unexplained. UFO-Sweden field investigator training and seminars should include basic information on folklore, Forteana and paranormal phenomena.

Me and Hilary Evans during his visit to AFU in 1996

The Evans library at AFU

UFO-Sweden and AFU are neutral and open minded when it comes to theories and paradigms. But no field investigator can study all these phenomena for years without forming some type of worldview to account for the high strangeness of the cases he or she is documenting. Readers of my blog are aware of that I regard the more scholarly presentations of the Esoteric Tradition as the most interesting and intellectually tenable paradigm, the best working hypotheses I have encountered.

Here are some esoteric sources and quotes that could be of interest to field investigators and the future of phenomena investigation. The writings of Jacques Vallee and John Keel made mainstream ufologists aware of the close resemblance between some UFO entities and the devas, nature spirits and elementals described in folklore and religion. According to the esoteric tradition devas and nature spirits are a parallell evolution to man living at different levels of the multiverse. In the coming centuries we will become more conscious of each others existence and be able to co-operate. The reappearance of The Fairy Investigation Society is an interesting cultural phenomenon pointing in this direction.
"The etheric levels of the plane will be full of an increased activity, and slowly but surely, as the decades slip away, man will become conscious of these levels, and aware of their inhabitants... Men in their etheric bodies will be noted, and communicated with, and the devas and elementals of the ethers will be studied and recognized." (Alice Bailey, A Treatise On Cosmic fire, p. 474.)
A Swedish entity encounter that I would interpret as nature spirits is the Helge Eriksson case of 1931.

The entities encountered by Helge Eriksson in 1931

Elementals was a favourite term of John Keel who interpreted most entity encounters as elementals. But Keel never studied the scholarly Esoteric Tradition as far as I know. Elementals are simply mind creations, made consciously by those who know how and unconsciously by religious devotees of all faiths. A form of multiverse robots - good, neutral or evil.
"Later will come the power to materialize thought-forms. People will come into incarnation that will have the ability temporarily to create and vitalize these thought-forms, and so enable the general public to see them."
(Alice Bailey, A Treatise of White Magic, p. 181-182).
I have personally investigated one entity close encounter that I would interpret as elementals, the Väggarö case of October 1965.

The Väggarö entities of 1965

An interesting example of thought-creation is given in Conjuring Up Philip. An Adventure In Psychokinesis, by Iris M. Owen and Margaret Sparrow. A group of parapsychologists in Canada decided to try to create a fantasy entity named Philip. George and Iris Owen were well known parapsychologists interested in poltergeist phenomena. The group succeeded in creating an entity they could communicate with and who caused several paranormal phenomena. The famous traveller and author Alexandra David-Neel gives a very vivid description of how she created a fantasy monk, a tulpa. This mind-creature became so physical that a visitor took it for a live lama.

A very fascinating and promising prophecy in esoteric literature is that within a hundred years we will be able to photograph and film phenomena of the etheric world and other parts of the multiverse. If true that would be the definite end of materialism as a mainstream academic worldview. To field investigators of UFO and paranormal phenomena it would open up a totally new world of entities and phenomena. Until that day the data and claims made in the Esoteric Tradition can be used as an alternative working hypothesis.

Esotericism and the intellectual humanist

Understanding Sweden, Unit no. 1

A book that will become a classic

Visitors and donations

What happened to Bevan Berthelsen?

Documenting the UFO movement

Bob Rickard and board meeting

The Howard Menger enigma

The worlds oldest UFO society?

Christmas greetings

Books for the new year

The fantastic world of Johny Lindell

Hotel Lilton revisited

Four reasons for private UFO research

Alien encounters in Mesoamerica

Daniel Fry biography

Desmond Leslie as esotericist

Esoteric archives

UFO-Sweden, ideology and theories

The future of phenomena investigation