Håkan Blomqvist´s blog

As a young student in 1971 I was browsing the shelves in the antiquarian section of Anderssons bokhandel (Andersson Bookshop) in Norrköping. My eyes caught the title Telepathy, written by Alice Bailey. I bought the book and was immediately fascinated by its content, although there was much that was beyond my understanding and knowledge at the time. After acquiring some further titles by Alice Bailey I enrolled as a student in The Arcane School in 1972. Receiving the student papers Light on the Path I began meditation and study with the help of my personal secretary at the school. I kept this up for about one year but as I also had the ordinary school to attend and being chairman of the local UFO society I resigned from The Arcane School in 1973. This was my first acquaintance with the Alice Bailey books, which I would later continue studying all my life.

Parts of my Alice Bailey collection

There are today literally hundreds of metaphysical systems and schools and thousands of channeled messages from various exotic entities. Cults and new age societies are constantly being formed based on these messages while scholars are doing their best trying to document the new groups and ideologies, with their many offshoots. At Archives for the Unexplained (AFU) we have large collections of channeled messages, especially from “space people”. They are usually exceedingly boring to read, a combination of well-meaning platitudinous comments and naïve love-and-light mysticism. It is fully natural and reasonable that academic scholars and intellectuals being confronted with such “wisdom” become even more skeptical of this genre and find secular humanism or materialist reductionism a better alternative.

The critical and scientifically minded student will eventually, if persistent, in this djungle of conflicting messages and teachers, discover that there is a philosophy and tradition of a quality vastly different from the popular new age channelings. It is referred to as The Esoteric Tradition or Ancient Wisdom and can be regarded as the third intellectual force or pillar in cultural history alongside religion and science. One of the foremost exponents of this philosophy or science of the multiverse is Alice Bailey. In other blog entries I have asserted that accepting esotericism as a worldview or paradigm does not imply irrationalism or a loss of intellectual integrity.

In the Esoteric Tradition as represented by a.o. Helena Blavatsky, Alice Bailey and Henry T. Laurency we find a philosophy that is consistent and rational with a profound humanism at its core. It also constitutes the best and most interesting multiverse paradigm and theory aviable to explain the multitude of intriguing UFO and paranormal phenomena documented by many researchers. Esotericism as presented by Alice Bailey is definitely on the side of modernity, democracy, social democracy, gender equality, human rights and politicallly more left than rightwing. She also wished to give a more balanced description of the adepts, the custodians of the Ancient Wisdom: " They will stand forth as living examples of goodwill, of true love, of intelligent applied wisdom, of high good nature and humour, and of normalcy. They may indeed be so normal that recognition of what They are may escape notice." (The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, p. 699).

Alice Bailey was for many years the amanuensis for the Tibetan, who dictated several of her books. He was given the name Djwhal Khul (D.K.) but that is not his real name. When first contacted and asked for co-operation Alice told the Tibetan: "Certainly not. I´m not a darned psychic and I don´t want to be drawn into anything like that". (The Unfinished Autobiography of Alice A. Bailey, p. 163). She had noted that many metaphysical and sprititualist writings were of so low an order of intelligence and mediocre in their content that educated people laugh at them and cannot be bothered to read them. Eventually she did give it a try as she found the quality of the esoteric philosophy dictated by the Tibetan of a high order.

Alice Bailey

The Tibetan asserts that he is "secretary and organising contact man" to the inner world government or planetary guardians. (Discipleship in the New Age, p. 33). He often refer to his access to the esoteric archive, library and museum maintained by the adepts, mentioned in several books by Blavatsky, Olcott and Leadbeater: "I but present the facts as I know them from my access to records more ancient than any known to man." (Esoteric Psychology, vol. one, p. 394). A problem with the Bailey books, Theosophy and esotericism in general is the abstruse and confusing terminology. The Tibetan is very much aware of this problem: "A new and deeper esoteric terminology is badly needed". (Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle, p. 131). This problem has been brilliantly solved by the eminent Swedish esotericist Henry T. Laurency in his presentation of esotericism or the science of the multiverse.

The investigator of UFO and paranormal phenomena will, in the books by Alice Bailey, find an enormous amount of data regarding various phenomena and entities. I find it somewhat amazing that neither ufologists nor esotericists have noted that in the writings of Bailey there are many references to an awaited extra-terrestrial intervention mentioned before 1946. I have found no less that 34 references on this subject in her books. Here a few examples from The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, clothbound ed. 1981:

April 1935: "... the regenerative forces of Those extraplanetary Beings Who offer Their Help at this time." (p. 25)

April-May 1940: "Hovering today within the aura of our planet are certain great spiritual Forces and Entities, awaiting the opportunity to participate actively in the work of world redemption, re-adjustment and reconstruction.... the waiting extra-planetary Forces." (p. 222-223)

September 1940: "There still remains one mode of intervention which is still more mysterious, illimitably more powerful, and definitely more difficult to evoke and subsequently to contact. This is the emergence, responce, or appearing of great Sons of God Who dwell in sources far removed from our planetary life altogether..." (p. 261)

April 1943: "Certain great Energies of extra-planetary significance Who stand ready to intervene..." (p. 392).

The books by Alice Bailey constitute an intellectual challenge. They are not easy to read but why should the science of the multiverse be easier to understand than any academic discipline? It takes years of intensive study and hard work to be an accomplished esotericist. The philosophical attitude to the teachings have been formulated by the Tibetan:

"Our attitude should be that of reasonably enquiry and our interest that of the investigating philosopher, willing to accept a hypothesis on the basis of its possibility... Those open minded investigators who are willing to accept its fundamentals as a working hypothesis until these are demonstrated to be erroneous. They will be frankly agnostic..." (A Treatise on White Magic, 1971 (orig. 1934, pp 6, 32).

To keep the chronology of guides and mentors in my life the relevant name here should have been Jacques Vallee. His writings and ideas have greatly influenced me personally in my research and he was also an important inspiration in the founding of AFU in 1973. But as I have presented Vallee and his theories many times before I refer readers to these blog entries. When reviewing the guides and mentors in my life I find it difficult to arrange them in some sort of order of importance. They have all meant much to me during different time periods. Still, there is one individual that stand out as unparalleled and transcendent – the Swedish esotericist Henry T. Laurency.

Laurency presented in the Swedish daily Morgon-Tidningen July 9, 1947

Henry T. Laurency (Henrik von Zeipel, 1882-1971) was an exceptional intellectual who studied philosophy at Uppsala University. His teachers were the famous Swedish philosophers Axel Hägerström and Karl Hedvall. For most of his life Laurency also studied the basic tomes of the esoteric tradition, especially Helena P. Blavatsky, Charles Leadbeater and Alice Bailey. He wrote several books presenting the Ancient Wisdom with a modern och scientific terminology, most of which can be found in English translations at the official website of the Henry T. Laurency Publishing Foundation. As an academic philosopher Laurency especially addressed the basic scientific, ontological and epistemological issues and problems confronting students of esotericism. He often pointed out that the only scientifically and intellectually tenable attitude to the esoteric worldview is to regard it as a working hypothesis: "To scientists without experience of other worlds than the physical, hylozoics can, of course, be only a working hypothesis" (The Way of Man, p. 39, online version).

To the esotericist the Laurency writings represent an invaluable treasure trove of data, a presentation of the Ancient Wisdom in a completely new way that can appeal to academics and non-conformist scholars. His criticism of other authors and writing style can be a stumbling block for the more emotional new age mystics but his books are not for the general public. Laurency is addressing the intellectual and cultural elite, His comments on science, philosophy, religion and cultural issues reveal a profound and penetrating knowledge. We also get to understand that his works have been inspired by one of the adepts of the Inner Government. "The Knowledge of Reality is not my work, even though I was the instrument holding the pen that wrote it, and was made to rewrite every page until the content was approved as being correctly perceived." (Knowledge of Life. Four. Online version, p. 17). That is why I presume the Alice Bailey reference to a "disciple of rare capability in Sweden" is actually Laurency. (A Treatise on White Magic, orig. 1934, p. 79. clothbound ed). If ever there was an esotericist of rare capability Laurency fits the description.

Swedish edition of the Philosopher´s Stone

In the biographical chapters Laurency gives a short summary of what information is new and unique in his presentation of esotericism:
"Philosopher´s Stone contains four revolutionary new teachings that were never given out even in the esoteric knowledge orders.
The first one is the solution of the mystery of “trinity”, the three equivalent aspects of existence, the basic idea of the absolute knowledge system, the foundation of the philosophy and science of the future. (Matter, energy, consciousness - HB)
The second one is the assertion that matter (the atoms) is the carrier of consciousness, that the meaning of existence is consciousness development, that this consists in the monad’s continuous self-activation of consciousness in ever higher kinds of molecules and atoms, that these molecular and atomic kinds indicate the limits of the different kinds of consciousness, that not having this understanding the self, or monad, will drown in the ocean of consciousness there is between worlds 48 and 46, as raja yogis do.
The third one is the objective criteria of the different stages of development indicated.
The fourth one is the formulation of the “laws of life”, particularly emphasizing those which are essential to our times as introducing the Aquarian epoch, the epoch of law."Knowledge of Life Four, p. 17, online version)

I have written many articles and blog entries about Laurency and his books, also with some critical remarks. As a ufologist I have naturally been trying to gain a deeper understanding of UFOs and life on other planets from an esoteric viewpoint. There is no reference to UFOs in his books but in a letter to a friend who asked his opinion Laurency writes: "Regarding the "saucers" I have no knowledge and I have never taken an interest in any type of "phenomena". Actually the idea itself is not preposterous. The inhabitants of Venus have in addition to an etheric envelop a dense aggregate envelop confusingly similar to an organism. They are far ahead of us in consciousness development and have solved their "physical" problems. They know all about us so the visits could be a way to give humans something to ponder on" (Letter, October 12, 1965).

This is an interesting assertion that I have never found mentioned in the books by Alice Bailey or other esoteric writings. The esoteric tradition is on the side of mainstream astronomy in the opinion that no higher organic life is possible on our neighbouring planets. Esotericists assert that highly developed civilisations exist on the other planets in our solar system but at the next multiverse level, the etheric, normally invisible to our eyes. According to Laurency the people of our neighbouring planets do have dense physical bodies consisting of atoms and molecules held together electromagnetically. This means they can be formed and dissolved instantly if the individual so chose. Interestingly this is exactly what many of the first generation contactees reported to have witnessed, a.o. Howard Menger. But would they be normally visible or invisible to us on their own planets? According to Menger they would be invisible. Unfortunately Laurency never gave an answer to this riddle.

An American contactee with whom I have been corresponding for several years told me of his first experience of this phenomenon: "Before I had my first "visits", I was a total unbelieving skeptic. And I said to them at one point, "give me proof, personally", and I need never ask that again, that´s for sure. When you get proof my friend, you will feel like the world as you knew it has ended.... I remember the first time there was about 5 space people in xx (name withheld) house talking with her as I quietly watched, and then suddenly one of the men turned, looked directly at me, smiled gently, and then very slowly turned to the kitchen room wall and walked right through the wall! I watched this very closely as he then came back in... Let me tell you, those kind of incidents have a very deep and troubling affect on our minds because we cannot comprehend it." (Mail conversation February 25-26, 2012).

We find the same type of materialization phenomena often mentioned in the Theosophical literature. But then performed by the adepts or the planetary guardians. There is a charming episode described in Charles Leadbeater´s biography How Theosophy Came To Me: "It was in Madame Blavatsky’s room in that hotel that I first saw one of the members of the Brotherhood. While sitting on the floor at her feet, sorting out some papers for her, I was startled to see standing between us a man who had certainly not entered by the door, which was straight before me the whole time, and had not opened. I jumped up uttering a sharp exclamation of surprise, which caused Madame to laugh inordinately. She said banteringly: “You will not go far on the path of occultism if you are so easily startled at a little thing like that.” Then she presented me to the visitor, who proved to be he who is now the Master Djwal Kul, although he had not then taken the Initiation which made him an Adept." (p. 68).

Charles W. Leadbeater

Most mainstream scientifically oriented ufologists would probably regard these type of studies and discussions as irrational, meaningless or new age nonsense. But I have noticed how several investigators of UFO and paranormal phenomena after years of research come to realize that the materialist, reductionist worldview is untenable. Like John Keel they turn from phenomena to philosophy in their search for answers. Ufologist Aime Michel expressed it this way to his friend Jacques Vallee: "Ufology is not a science but a process of initiation. One starts with field investigation and ends up studying Arab mystics". I agree with Michel but would change Arab mystics to the Esoteric Tradition.

In the 1920s and 30s three books excited enormous interest, especially among Theosophists and those interested in the Esoteric Tradition. They were first published pseudonymously, "by his pupil", but later editions gave the actual name of the author, Cyril Scott (1879-1970), English composer, writer and poet. The trilogy was named in sequence The Initiate. Some Impressions of a Great Soul (1920), The Initiate in the New World (1927) and The Initiate in the Dark Cycle (1932). These books still exert a far-reaching influence and are constantly published in new editions, aviable on-line. There is also a website dedicated to Cyril Scott.

These three books have for many years been among my favourite esoteric works and I use to recommend them to new students of esotericism as valuable alternatives to the standard textbooks by Blavatsky, Leadbeater, Bailey and Laurency. Names and places in the story have been changed to preserve the "wall of silence". An expression used by the famous Italian psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli, founder of the psychological school known as Psychosynthesis. Only a few of his closest associates knew of his connection with an adept of the Inner Government, the Planetary Guardians. The "wall of silence" is an unfortunate necessity on this planetary Alcatraz and Cyril Scott has done his best to preserve the integrity of his secret teacher.

Cyril Scott

Cyril Scott was a prolific writer. In addition the his Initiate trilogy he wrote several books on health, philosophy and psychology. Among his esoteric works Music: Its Secret Influence throughout the Ages, has become something of a classic. There are also a two autobiographical works: My Years of Indescretion (1924) and Bone of Contention (1969). Theosophical scholar Jean Overton Fuller spent several years of research trying to document the life and various ideological influences on Scott, using some of the novels written by his two wives. Although Jean Overton Fuller has doubts regarding some of Scott´s sources she states that he was definitely "on the side of the angels" (p. 53). Fuller´s monograph Cyril Scott and A Hidden School: Towards the Peeling of an Onion, was published by the independent scholarly journal Theosophical History - Theosophical History Occasional Papers, vol. VII (1998).

The Initiate trilogy is the life story of Charles Broadbent (Cyril Scott) and his involvement with a man, Justin Morewood Haig, to whom he is introduced in wordly London. Haig seems as first to be as other men but Broadbent soon comes to realize he is an initiate and accepts to be his pupil. The books combine the personal life history of Broadbent with the teachings given by Haig. The Initiate trilogy is a treasure trove of esoteric wisdom and sound psychological insights and advice, presented in a somewhat unusual context but easy and fascinating to read.

In his introduction to The Initiate Cyril Scott wrote: "THE story, if so it can be called, of Justin Moreward Haig is a true one, in so far that such a person does exist, although, as explained later, I have been compelled for many reasons to conceal his identity. And I emphasise the fact of his existence because there are a number of people who may doubt the possibility of attaining to that degree of perfection which he undubitably manifested, thus crediting me with writing romance instead of fact... Although I am aware that two such Masters (or Mahatmas, as they are often called) reside in the far distant fastnesses of Thibet, yet to suppose they all follow this example is to suppose a fallacy; for I know there are several such Masters living in England at the present moment, as well as in America and in almost all countries of the world. "

To normalise themselves himself in the eyes of the world Justin Morewood Haig and his fellow adepts sometimes affect some harmless vice or idiosyncracy, such as smoking. Haig also like to shock people with unexpected assertions, "casting conversational bombs into the arid chatter of conventional society". His views and advice, when it comes to psychological problems, can be very frank and down to earth. A woman who because of fear and vanity is afraid of emotions and has locked herself in an inner prison, can, according to Haig, only be cured by " a very deep and passionate love affair".

One of the most common mistakes made by clairvoyants and beginners in esotericism is misinterpreting inner visions and voices. With great conviction students excitely relate their contacts with masters, angels, space people or other exalted beings without realizing they have perceived thought-creations, astral automata, believing they represent real beings. Astral clairvoyance can be a real trap unless you have been trained to recognize how this part of the multiverse appears and functions. Referring to this phenomenon Morewood Haig mention an amusing episode: "Level - headedness and good sound common sense are what I try to instill into my pupils before I encourage them to peep into the hidden realms. A thorough grounding in philosophy is the first thing to be acquired- otherwise one’s up against hysteria and imagination of a wrong type, and all the other evils we know so well. I know of women who come down to breakfast every morning with the story of some wonderful vision they’ve had in the night, in which some supposed ‘Master’ has appeared and given them ‘teaching’, it turns out to be sheer nonsense or some moral platitude. Well, well- it is fortunate we gurus have a sense of humour.” (The Initiate in the New World, p. 48, 1991 ed.)

In my view, one of the great riddles of the Theosophical movement is why so many theosophists promote and endorse the teachings of Krishnamurti. I can well understand the frustration of Geoffrey Hodson when he was confronted with the peculiar form of advaita mysticism of Krishnamurti. An intellectual quicksand that gets you nowhere and with no relation to esoteric science. Blavatsky with her forthright manner and vulcanic temperament would probably have given him a harsh reprimand if they had lived during the same age. And Henry T. Laurency, with his Blavatskyan temperament, is very critical and clear in his analysis of Krishnamurti. The Krishnamurti problem is given a forthright and lucid presentation in The Initiate in the Dark Cycle: "...Krishnamurti not only destroys the path - or paths - but the goal itself... he cut himself adrift from the White Lodge, and repudiated all of us." (pp. 66, 136, 1991 ed.)

The cultural influence of Theosophy worldwide has been impressive and generally beneficient when it comes to an understanding of the multiverse. But today the movement is more of historical interest, a society very much consisting of devotional mystics lost in the advaita world of Krishnamurti. Theosophists and the Theosophical movement receive some critical comments in The Initiate in the New World: "...latterly there has arisen a movement which, on the assumption that Madame Blavatsky said the last word on occult wisdom, condemns all never teaching as a sign of disloyalty to her memory.” “Why, I thought,” was my comment, “that even while she was still alive the Masters pointed out that as yet they had only ‘lifted a corner of the veil,’ and admitted that with all her qualities she wasn’t entirely reliable in some respects.”... Altogether I am sorry to see an attitude of dogmatism among Theosophical members - some of them go so far as to think that they as Theosophists have the exclusive right to attention from the Masters. They’d doubtless get a shock if you told them that there is many an atheist and even a harlot more receptive to the teachings of the Masters than they are." (pp. 125, 129, 1991 ed.)

In the introduction to the last book in his trilogy Cyril Scott writes a summing-up of his thoughts and experiences concerning the adepts and their philosophy: " The reason why I have been selected to write of such weighty matters as will be dealt with in the following pages, is that my life is so constituted that I am in the enviable position of being able to devote the greater part of it to the requirements of the Adepts. Indeed, I find Their activities--such of them as I am permitted to follow--the most absorbing and romantic interest of my present incarnation, and I can imagine no employment so inspiring and stimulation as that of being Their metaphorical “errand boy.”

During my 40+ years of investigation and study of UFO and paranormal phenomena I have talked to many kinds of witnesses, with a wide variety in profession and education. One of the most regular comments after an interview has been - don´t mention my name. That so many witnesses to UFO and paranormal phenomena prefer anonymity is a problem in research as the credibility factor is reduced, especially when witnesses only wish to talk to one investigator. I have been in this situation many times and lamented it. But witness integrity is very important. There is a social stigma in mentioning experiences and encounters that mainstream science regard as impossible or mythic. I well remember the words of a Swedish woman who went public with her UFO close encounter: "If I had known the public reaction to our observation I would never have talked to the media."

This is probably the prime reason why so few academic scholars go public when encountering unusual phenomena. To mention telepathy or intuition may be acceptable in academic circles but if you recount materializations, levitations, UFO close encounters or observations of little people, fairies (leprechauns) you are usually in for trouble. This is probably why active scientists and academic scholars loathe to disclose their personal experiences. It could also be the end of their academic career or work if the organized skeptics enter a campaign against this "irrational pseudoscientist" who has entered the domain of Forbidden Science. "Science is the pursuit of the unknown", wrote biologist and Fortean researcher Ivan T. Sanderson. Or at least it should be!

An interesting effort that may somewhat remedy this situation is a website called the PK-Collection by Marcus Heymann. It is a collection of documented reports and statements from well-known scientists and academics who have publicly told of their observation of phenomena like materialization and levitation. Marcus Heymann gives this interesting explanation for his project:
"I brought this collection into life, because once I was even an involuntary witness of a floating object. A table had risen, remained in the air and fell slowly to the floor again, as if it was held by invisible hands. You can probably imagine that such an experience is not pleasant. One believes to have went mad and is afraid. Fortunately, there were other observers present with the same horrified look. That helped to reassure me, because I have never heard of sudden-onset group insanity. For the particularly clever of you, no, it was not a magic show!... So I went on a search for other witnesses of these types experiences, that’s called psychokinetic phenomena (pk phenomena). It seemed that there are many but only a few had the courage to describe what they witnessed using their real name. Most people use a synonym. For me, it´s interesting, to get a confirmation from someone who had an academic background and was (is) willing to use their real name. That´s why I went looking for academics who had seen something like this. I was amazed when I discovered that well-known scientists and Nobel Prize laureates had witnessed such events and written about it. That was the beginning of the collection."

Maybe we are now witnessing a more open attitude to paranormal phenomena among leading scientists? American science journalist John Horgan in his book Rational Mysticism (2003) noted the increased academic interest in the interface between science, mysticism and religion. Hogan use the term "rational mysticism". In his article in Scientific American, July 2012 with the provocative title Brilliant Scientists Are Open-Minded about Paranormal Stuff, So Why Are Not You? he concludes: "... the discovery of telepathy or telekinesis would blow centuries of accumulated scientific dogma sky high. What could be more thrilling!" Another scientist who challenges the materialist and reductionist worldview is Dr. Jeffrey J. Kripal, professor of religious studies at Rice University, Houston, Texas.

From an esoteric viewpoint one of the most audacious theories regarding 19th century paranormal phenomena formulated by an academic scholar is the Hidden Hand Theory presented by Theosophical scholar Dr. Joscelyn Godwin, Colgate University, New York. In a four part series of articles, The Hidden Hand, 1990-1991 in the academic journal Theosophical History, Godwin presents impressive documentation indicating that a secret society created the first wave of very physical materialization phenomena in the United States: "The suggestion is that the Hydesville phenomena were not a spontaneous manifestation, but something provoked by living persons, acting with no lesser intent than that of changing the worldview of Western civilisation." (Theosophical History, vol. 3:2, April 1990, p. 38.) Joscelyn Godwin is very much aware of the problem of presenting such a theory as an academic scholar. In a position statement he states: " "My own mind is open to the possibility of events for which materialistic science, and the historical scholarship modeled on it, has no place; consequently, I do not automatically dismiss the idea of immaterial influences, such as were suggested byt many writers on the Hydesville incident... I would suggest that there was another Hierohistorical event in the early 1870s; another move to affect public opinion, mainly by working from within the Spiritualist movement." (Theosophical History, vol. 3:3, July 1990, p. 72-73).

This is also the view of history as given in the Esoteric Tradition and mentioned by writers such as Charles Leadbeater, Constance Wachmeister, Annie Besant, Alice Bailey and Henry T. Laurency. In his book The Astral Plane (1898) Charles Leadbeater mention a secret lodge he personally knew, The Yucatan Brotherhood: "The Chiefs of this Lodge, though they have always kept themselves and their society strictly in the background, have nevertheless done what they could from time to time to assist the progress of truth in the world. Nearly a century ago, in despair at the rampant materialism which seemed to be stifling all spirituality in Europe and America, they determined to make an attempt to combat it by somewhat novel methods – in point of fact to offer opportunities by which any reasonable man could acquire absolute proof of that life apart from the physical body which it was the tendency of science to deny. The phenomena exhibited were not in themselves absolutely new, since in some form or other we may hear of them all through history; but their definite organization – their production as it were to order – these were features distinctly new to the modern world. The movement which they thus set on foot gradually grew into the vast fabric of modern Spiritualism, and though it would perhaps be unfair to hold the originators of the scheme directly responsible for many of the results which have followed, we must admit that they have achieved their purpose to the extent of converting vast numbers of people from a belief in nothing in particular to a firm faith in at any rate some kind of future life. This is undoubtedly a magnificent result, though there are those who think that it has been attained at too great a cost."

In esotericism this secret lodge is regarded as a subsidiary branch of the planetary hierarchy, the planetary guardians, custodians of the science of the multiverse. This is the branch or department of this global organization especially concerned with the development of science. Alice Bailey mention their work in Esoteric Psychology I: "The rise of modern spiritualism is no doubt due to the seventh subray influence, and it may also be a foreshadowing of the great seventh ray still to come. It is interesting to note chat this movement was started by a secret society which has existed in the world since the last period of seventh ray dominance in Atlantean times." (p. 166-167, clothbound ed.)

There is an interesting Swedish connection to the Yucatan Brotherhood. Swedish esotericist Henry T. Laurency mentioned in a letter to a friend that he was aquainted with a Norwegian man who was a member of this secret lodge. This man travelled around the world in the 1920s visiting various spiritualist groups, but was not impressed by their activities. (Letter April 12, 1964). According to my understanding Henry T. Laurency worked together with, or was inspired by, a member of the planetary guardians who is referred to as Hilarion, responsible for the branch of adepts involved with concrete knowledge and scientific development. Regarding his work we find this reference by Alice Bailey: "... He (Hilarion-HB) controls and transmutes the great movements that tend to strip the veil from the unseen. His is the energy which, through his disciples, is stimulating the Psychical Research groups everywhere, and He it was Who initiated, through various pupils of His, the Spiritualistic movement." (Initiation, Human and Solar, p. 59, clothbound ed.)

Experiencing a UFO close encounter or a very concrete and physical paranormal phenomenon can be traumatic or inspiring, whether you are an academic scholar or ordinary citizen. People all over the world are changed by these experiences so the impact on our culture is deep and lasting. As a ufologist I can only sympathize with the education by astonishment agenda of the Yucatan Brotherhood. Perhaps they also use the UFO phenomenon in this way? On September 1, 1984 I interviewed Peggy Robert, who had a close encounter with a UFO that became a turning point in her life. Before this incident she was a typical ego-tripping materialist. During the interview she tried to explain her new life after the UFO encounter: "Now I knew there was something else in other dimensions, life that is different and more evolved... After this contact with the UFO I couldn´t accept Christianity as presented in the churches. Now I started an intensive period of searching." Peggy Robert later studied alternative medicine, Reflexology, Acupressure and nutrition. The rest of her life she dedicated to helping people with psychological and physical healing, working at various health resorts.

Peggy Robert

If we imagine that members of the Yucatan Brotherhood initiated the UFO incident I guess they could say - Mission Accomplished.

There are and have been many brilliant authors, excellent authors in world literature and then once in a while history gives us an author that is "divinely" gifted, truly inspired by "The Gods". In this last category I would like to position the Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940), my absolute favourite in the World Parnassus. She was born in the Swedish province Värmland, the province per excellence of poets, artists and mystics. Her life, philosophy and writings are a monument of and reflect the eternal aspiration of the esotericist to contribute to the good, the true and the beautiful in this world.

Selma Lagerlöf in 1906

Selma Lagerlöf was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature 1909 and in 1914 she was elected to be the first woman in the Swedish Academy. She wrote many novels and short stories that have become classics in world literature. The Academy mentioned "the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings." The more than 40.000 letters she received during her lifetime reveal the tremendous amount of joy, hope and consolation readers found in the works coming from her pen. Mårbacka, the home of Selma Lagerlöf, is preserved as a museum and has become a place of pilgrimmage for thousands of visitors every year.

Visiting Mårbacka July 10, 2014

Selma Lagerlöf has also been honored in a somewhat unusual fashion by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) who in 1985 named a crater on Venus the Lagerlof Crater. On September 10, 1991 German astronomer Freimut Börngen discovered a new asteroid. This planetary body was named 11061 Lagerlof.

Her first novel, The Story of Gösta Berling, was published in 1891 and initiated a new trend in Swedish literature. The 1880s had been dominated by realism and naturalism but Lagerlöf favoured fantasy, beauty, "magical realism" and the folklore stories of her native province Värmland. Later several Swedish authors adopted her ideas on literature which altered the trend in Swedish literary history. The novels and short stories of Selma Lagerlöf are often filled with magic and mystery, encounters with nature spirits and invisible powers greater than Man. Some of her stories can best be described as Gothic fiction, a.o. Körkarlen (1912), Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness. But there is always an ethical message and a lifeview of hope in spite of the grim reality in some of her works. Selma Lagerlöf was never a naive idealist. She was very well aware of the human tragedy, with its ingredients of pain and sorrow.

There are thousands of articles on Selma Lagerlöf, her life and writings, several doctoral thesis and many biographies. Large collections of her correspondence have been also published that give a more detailed and personal view of her inner life and world view. Still many biographers find it difficult to understand Selma Lagerlöf´s lifeview. The reason for this bewilderment can be traced to the basic general lack of knowledge of the Esoteric Tradition among scholars and writers. This situation will probably be remedied in future generations because of the renaissance of academic interest in "Western Esotericism".

A recent example of this renaissance in Sweden is the book Förborgade tecken. Esoterism i västerländsk litteratur, (2010), (Hidden Signs. Esoterism in Western Literature). A study by fifteen scholars from various academic disciplines; History of Religions, History of Ideas, Art History, Literary Science a.o. One of the essays, Esoterism i Selma Lagerlöfs En herrgårdssägen (Esoterism in Selma Lagerlöf´s The Tale of a Manor) is written by Mattias Fyhr, Assistant Professor in Literary Criticism at Stockholm University. Fyhr emphasize that his essay is the first study of The Tale of a Manor from an academic esoteric viewpoint and present ample documentation of Selma Lagerlöf´s deep influence from the Esoteric Tradition. Her library at Mårbacka include a fairly large collection of books by Theosophists and Spiritualists, a.o. Charles Leadbeater.

On October 2, 2013 I had the pleasure of interviewing Mattias Fyhr in connection with his lecture at Norrköping Public Library. We also visited AFU and he expressed his appreciation of our extensive collections of Esoterica.

Mattias Fyhr at AFU

Interviewing Mattias Fyhr at Norrköping Public Library October 2, 2013

After the death of Selma Lagerlöf in March 1940 there have been many attempts to research and document her lifeview and worldview in popular articles and academic studies. Already in 1945 orthodox Christian author and journalist Sven Stolpe noted in his article Selma Lagerlöfs mystik (Selma Lagerlöf´s Mystique) (BLM, February 1945) that she could not be regarded as Christian in the ordinary sense. Commenting on Christianity in a letter to a friend in 1925 she said: "I wish instead that they (people) could feel secure with reincarnation, but it will probably take a long time before this is the general belief."

One of many doctoral thesis on Selma Lagerlöf

In 1951 a detailed study, Om Selma Lagerlöf och teosofin, (On Selma Lagerlöf and Theosophy) where the author, Erik Eliasson, presented extensive documentation of Lagerlöf´s contact with Theosophy. For many years she corresponded with Theosophist Stella Rydholm and also subscribed to Theosophical journals, but she was never a formal member of the society. In a letter to Stella Rydholm August 3, 1920 she declared: "I enjoy reading these books but I don´t wish to become a member of a Theosophical society, because I can´t be entirely sure of the teaching".

In a letter to her friend Henriette Coyet, 1931, Selma Lagerlöf summarized her search for a tenable worldview: "I have not found any religion to affiliate with among the many offered... I rather wait until we can scientifically prove existence after death. I think this can be done and I wish that we shall never have to believe as now in old folktales. We must know what is behind the visible world. There will probably come a religious genius solving this riddle, in the way it has to be solved for our time."

Selma Lagerlöf

To my knowledge there is no documentation that Selma Lagerlöf ever read or was aware of the books by Alice Bailey. But she was well aquanted with the older Theosophical and Spiritualist books, including works on paranormal phenomena and research. Because of personal clairvoyant experiences she was convinced that we live in a multiverse but her approach to these issues was in many ways rational and scientific. She had the mind of a true esotericist and also an innate understanding of the laws that govern consciousness and its evolution. Her novels and short stories testify to a deep understanding of life. Like her comtemporary Swedish poet Gustaf Fröding she was profoundly inspired by the Esoteric Tradition. Commenting on her book Körkarlen, (Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness) she stated: "In Körkarlen I am above all bringing a message. I felt like a medium. That is why this book appeals so much to me."

The title of this blog entry may come as a surprise to the old guard Swedish ufologists who know that we were three young men who formally founded AFU in 1973. But the truth is that AFU as a library and archive was from the beginning actually the idea and work of only one of us - Kjell Jonsson (1952-1986). As a tribute to our old friend and UFO colleague the story behind the founding of AFU as an archive should be preserved for posterity.

Kjell Jonsson in 1977

Kjell Jonsson and I became good friends in our early teens as we were schoolmates and both of us worked part time, Saturdays and evenings, at the local public library in Södertälje. We were also in some respect outsiders, Kjell because of his almost constant physical illness. He suffered a.o. from severe asthma and had stopped growing. I was a frail and sensitive teenager with low self-esteem. Probably because of this life situation we both became bookish and some time around 1970 I introduced Kjell to UFO literature found in my parents library. He immediately became very fascinated by the subject and an avid reader of UFO books.

Kjell Jonsson as a young UFO enthusiast in 1971. Notice the flying saucer button.

In the Autumn of 1970 we started contacting local UFO groups and were introduced to the national organization UFO-Sweden that had been founded in 1970. As a result of this contact Kjell and I founded a local group, UFO-Södertälje, in November 1970. After a few years of operating this group our interest became more and more research oriented, which was also the view shared by our common friend Anders Liljegren in Norrköping. Inspired by Jacques Vallee and John Keel the three of us founded Arbetsgruppen för ufologi (AFU) on March 17, 1973, as a small informal working group.

Our aim was building a foundation for serious UFO research in Sweden but in 1974 both Anders Liljegren and I were occupied with personal and practical problems. Our magazine Ufologen was folded in the Spring of 1974 and in the Autumn I moved to Stockholm and began my studies at Stockholms University. The day to day work of keeping AFU alive then for a time rested on the shoulders of Kjell Jonsson. And it was in the beginning of 1974 that he got the brilliant idea of starting a UFO library. In a letter written February 12, 1974 to a Swedish ufologist he tries to explain the situation: "I am now the only active AFU representative. AFU has closed down all former activities, our magazine Ufologen and field investigations. Instead I am presently engaged in planning a lending library of books and magazines and will also serve ufologists with copies of magazine articles."

Kjell with the first two AFU bookshelves 1977

In the Spring of 1974 Lennart Johansson, Stockholms UFO-Center donated his entire collection, around 200 UFO books, to AFU. In an interview I did with Kjell in 1977 he said that this donation further inspired him to continue building a UFO library. As he planned to become a librarian he felt that it was in this way he could benefit ufology. From the beginning in 1974 the library was housed in his very small, one room apartment and it only consisted of two bookshelves. Between 1974-1980 Kjell operated the lending library as a one man enterprice. With his gallant idealism he spent a lot of time and his own money to run AFU.

The "UFO librarian" in 1978

We both chose to become librarians as profession and we entered The Swedish School of Library and Information Science in Borås, but not at the same time. We did get one term together though in the Spring of 1977. As his subject for a thesis Kjell decided to write the first Swedish UFO bibliography. He spent a tremendous amount of work on this thesis, visiting and interviewing ufologists and it was subsequently published by AFU in 1977, Svensk UFO-bibliografi 1946-1975.

Kjell working on his UFO bibliography in the Spring of 1977

When AFU moved to new premises in Norrköping in 1980 Kjell´s interest in UFO and the library waned and his visits to Norrköping ended some time in 1981-82. His health problems increased as did his difficulty in finding a steady job as librarian. The last years of his life he spent as an activist for gay rights, always an idealist. He died during a heavy fit of asthma on April 30, 1986.

Today AFU is the worlds largest UFO and Fortean archive and library. My thoughts sometimes goes to my old friend and AFU colleague, Kjell Jonsson, who made this dream possible with his pioneering hard work and idealism.

In a 1979 lecture, Contactee rustling, Fortean author and journalist John Keel lamented the lack of serious investigation of the classic contactees: "In the 1950s, the government was very interested in the contactee phenomenon. The so-called "scientific" ufologists wouldn´t touch a contactee with a hundred-foot pole in those days, but the Air Force was very interested." (Flying Saucer to the Center of Your Mind, ed. by Andrew B. Colvin, 2013, p. 78). This unfortunate attitude among the early serious ufologists has resulted in a severe shortage of data and knowledge concerning the first generation contactees. Timothy Good has somewhat remedied the situation but his investigations began in the 1960s. Today research on the early contactees must rely on data in books, articles, correspondence and interviews.

My own investigations of Swedish physical contactee cases, a.o. the experiences of Richard Höglund and "Anna" to me indicated that aliens from somewhere operated on our planet. Partly because of this research I decided to take a second look at the controversial first generation American contactees and gathered as much data as possible to determine whether there was enough circumstantial empirical evidence to accept some of these old cases as valid contacts. I did find evidence or corraborating indications that five contactees were of interest in this respect: George Adamski, Orfeo Angelucci, Daniel Fry, George Van Tassel and Howard Menger.

Howard Menger 1922-2009

Today these classical contactees are all gone and part of ufological and cultural history. New data may of course emerge from time to time from relatives or archives but that will always remain secondary sources. Some years ago I decided to reread the books by these five contactees and also renewed my study of the basic tomes of the Esoteric Tradition: Blavatsky, Leadbeater, Bailey, Laurency. To my amazement I found that the philosophy presented by the five contactees almost exacly corresponded to esotericism, possibly with the exception of Van Tassel. This discovery became a sort of Eureka in my research and helped me formulate the Esoteric Intervention Theory in a new way. Especially when I also found indications that these contactees were involved in a carefully orchestrated test or experiment implemented by a benevolent group of visitors with advanced Vimana technology, earth-based, extraterrestrial or both.

As mainstream scientific ufologists are usually not erudite scholars of the Esoteric Tradition no one has so far made this kind of study and discovered the obvious and detailed similarities between the "space peoples" philosophy and esotericism. An exception is Riley Crabb, director of Borderland Sciences Research Foundation (BSRF) 1959-1985. In his first Round Robin editorial 1959 he wrote: ""Since coming to the mainland my lectures have been concerned with the problem of relating Flying Saucer data, and phenomena, to the teachings of the Mystery Schools. I believe you´ll agree this is no easy task. If I have one goal in life it is un uncompromising search for Truth, whatever that might be, and wherever it may lead."

Riley Crabb 1913- 1994

In my evaluation of the early contactees I have used the esoteric criterion as a sort of alternative veracity test. If there is circumstantial empirical evidence that the contacts were genuine and the philosophy presented correspond with esotericism then I regard it as a reasonable working hypothesis that the contactee was involved with emissaries from the planetary guardians (adepts) from our planet or from an extraterrestrial source. I am of course aware of that this a heretic viewpoint or theory not accepted by mainstream academics or "scientific" ufologists. An exception is Joscelyn Godwin, professor at Colgate University, New York who wrote in a letter to me October 9, 2015: "Your approach to the contact phenomenon may be the most significant step in ufology since Vallee´s and Keel´s works".

Of the five American contactees Howard Menger is in my view the most interesting from an esoteric viewpoint. Here is a brief summary of esoteric philosophy as presented in his 1959 book From Outer Space to You:

Reincarnation: "People live in fear of death, when in truth there is no death. It is only a change from one condition to another." (p.53)
"All of us have lived through hundreds of incarnations on various worlds. Some of us have volunteered to come to this planet and be reborn in earth bodies." (p. 122)

Evolution of consciousness: "A man´s soul, as with the lower forms of life, such as dogs, cats, cows, horses etc., is the sum total of a process of evolvement of consciousness. Everything created has a consciousness, and the consciousness evolves to the soul point, where it expresses i higher forms..." (p. 175)

Esotericism, the science of the multiverse: "A few things I say will not conform to our orthodox religions. The occult sciences, however, do touch upon some of these subjects... Science asks for proof, but how can we prove something which is beyond our sciences?... But, somehow, out of these advanced ideas must come a science, a system of some kind... Such a science, a cosmic science, which will involve investigations in to the realm of other senses and dimensions, has already has its humble beginnings; but its patriarchs, like those ancient iconoclasts who announced the world was round and was not the center of the universe, have been prececuted." (p. 123)

Earth, a quarantined, prison world: "... Venus, for example: a veritable heaven compared to Earth... At the lecture I caught myself wondering if it was the soul of myself or Marla which had voluntarily cast itself once more into the hell of Earth." (p. 124)

Only Earth has organic physical life: "For instance, on Venus and Saturn the rate of vibration is much higher, and renders corporeal structures more tenous; and if an Earth man in physical body could go there he probably would not see some to the life forms which vibrates more rapidly than his own - no more than he can see the spiritual life forms in and around his own planet." (p. 126-127)

Levitation by sound waves: "Long before the time of the Conquistadores we made contact with the Aztecs. We helped these people in many ways... Some of the secrets had to do with the use of sound and light to produce power and run machinery... the discs were some sort of sonic instruments used for levitations when turned to the frequencies of individuals using them." (p. 33-34)

Vimanas, used by the Planetary Guardians: "There are also space craft, though of inferior design, 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..." (p. 159)

These are only a few quotes from Howard Mengers book presenting the esoteric world- and lifeview. More can be found in Conny Menger´s book Song of Saturn.

A detailed study of the books by George Adamski, Orfeo Angelucci, Daniel Fry and partly George Van Tassel will yield basically the same result. This is an indication that the Esoteric Intervention Theory can be regarded as a reasonable working hypothesis when studying these five contactees and their experiences.

Every autumn UFO-Sweden arranges a weekend seminar for field investigators. Since 2013 at the charming Föllingen Hotel situated in the southern part of the Swedish province Östergötland. Weekend seminars for field investigators was introduced already in 1977 by former UFO-Sweden chairman Bevan (Thorvald) Berthelsen. This was an important innovation in the history of our national UFO organization, aiming at improving the quality of empirical data and documentation of Swedish UFO-reports. These annual weekend seminars are also important and pleasant social gatherings, a meeting place for old and new ufologists. A newsletter is also produced, Rapport-Nytt, with Swedish UFO cases, articles and organizational news for the active field investigator.

Håkan Ekstrand and Clas Svahn at Föllingen Hotel 2013

Beginners at the seminar recieve basic training in field investigation techniques, misidentifications, witness psychology, UFO-history, UFO-Sweden ideology and policy and often a lecture on a specialized theme by an invited guest speaker. With my 40+ years of active involvement in the UFO movement I have often pondered on the best way to introduce new field investigators to the exceedingly complex and controversial world of ufology. How do we inspire and motivate new field investigators to seriously begin their own research and documentation of UFO encounters?

Launching of Chinese lanterns during seminar 2011

In his third book Tefaten är här (The Saucers are Here) 1972, the grand old man and pioneer of Swedish ufology, K. Gösta Rehn, gave this advice to the new generation of young ufologists: "Concentrate on the close encounter cases". This is a message I have for many years tried to convey to new and old field investigators at the UFO-Sweden seminars, lectures, articles, blog and books. With the stubbornness of a drunken old parrot I have reiterated: concentrate your efforts on detailed investigation and documentation of close encounter cases with much empirical data and forget the ordinary misidentifications of simple lights, digital camera effects, sensational YouTube movies etc. – or ufology will get nowhere. It is with a certain sadness and frustration I notice all the very intriguing close encounter and contact cases found in the UFO-Sweden/AFU files, but only briefly mentioned and not thoroughly investigated. It is these cases that represent the real scientific and intellectual challenge – the true UFO enigma.

K. Gösta Rehn

There is also a psychological aspect to this problem. When I began serious field investigation at the beginning of the 1970s I was immediately catapulted into the fascinating underground world of close encounters; landings, observation of humanoids, physical contact claims etc. If I would only have been confronted with investigating mere lights in the sky or undetermined objects caught on cameras I would probably have lost interest in ufology. Instead I was confronted with the controversial claims of a.o. Sture and Turid Johansson, Sten Lindgren and Richard Höglund. These cases inspired me to really try to find out the truth behind all these observations, experiences and claims.

In UFO-Sweden we have often given new field investigators simple and easily explained cases as a start up. Based on my own experience I would advice quite the opposite - let the new field investigators begin with a really complex close encounter. This will function as a stimulating intellectual challenge, besides being very exciting. Much more so than studying misidentifications of Chinese lanterns, planets or airplanes. If no new cases are aviable hundreds of older close encounter reports can be found in the UFO-Sweden report archives.

The extensive UFO report archive at AFU

A close encounter that would be a good start for any field investigator is the Siw Fester landing and humanoid observation at Haverdal, near the city of Halmstad, August 21, 1983. Several UFO observations were reported in the area during the same night and there is also rumours of a second landing. A re-examination of this case would probably yield more and relevant data. As often happen during field investigations one case will lead to another.

Illustration of the Siw Fester landing case

Another case that would be a real challenge for a new field investigator is the Sören Broman close encounter and contact experiences. I interviewed Sören Broman on October 23, 1994 but here is a case with many dimensions: close encounters with several witnesses, abductions, physical contact with Nordic type alien, messages and claims of aliens among us. A thorough study and documentation of this case is simply waiting for a bold field investigator.

Sören Broman visiting AFU on October 23, 1994

There are hundreds of challenging close encounters and contacts briefly mentioned but lacking investigation and documentation in the UFO-Sweden report files at AFU in Norrköping. This is the real UFO enigma. I can but repeat the words of K.Gösta Rehn to Swedish ufologists: Concentrate on the close encounters!

The novel, Lost Legacy, by science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) has been one of my absolute favourite novels since I first read it many years ago. It was originally published in the November 1941 issue of Super Science Stories and later included in the collection Assignment in Eternity. I know of few novels that reveal such a deep and innate understanding of esoteric philosophy. An accomplished and erudite esotericist could hardly have done a better job. This novel is must reading for anyone seriously interested in the Esoteric Tradition.

The narrative centers around a trio from a California university, Dr. Philip Huxley, professor of Psychology, Dr. Ben Coburn, neurosurgeon, and Joan Freeman, student of Psychology. They discover psychic abilities in one another and theorize that all humans possess these faculties as potentialities. When their superiors at the university become aware of their heretic interest and activities they are immediately discouraged from pursuing such research. Dr. Huxley laments the situation: “Fat chance. I talked with the dean and he wouldn´t even take it up with the President. Scared that the old fathead will clamp down on the department even more than he has. You see, officially, we are supposed to be behaviorists. Any suggestion that there might be something to consciousness that can´t be explained in terms of physiology and mechanics is about as welcome as a Saint Bernard in a telephone booth”.

Dr. Huxley has been collecting data on all sorts of paranormal phenomena that run contrary to orthodox psychological theory: “I decided to forget about theories, to treat these outcast phenomena like any ordinary data, and see where it landed me…Very little of it has been duplicated in the Western hemisphere, which counts against it; nevertheless a lot of odd stuff in India has been reported by competent cool-minded observers – telepathy, accurate soothsaying, clairvoyance, fire walking and so forth.”

This trio of heretic academics decides on a road trip to Mount Shasta. Climbing the mountain Ben Coburn falls on a slippery cliff and receives a fracture of the shin bone. A tall, elderly man appears from nowhere and offer his help. The group are led through a passageway into the mountain where they find themselves in a living room, illuminated by indirect lightning. They spend the night in this room and in the morning Ben´s wound has mysteriously and completely healed. They are then introduced to the around thirty persons resident in several rooms, men and women of different ages and nationalities. Questioned how this community could exist without it being a matter of common knowledge the group is informed that: “We have taken certain precautions… to avoid notoriety. Our reasons, and the precautions they inspired will become evident to you.”

Philip, Ben and Joan are then briefed on the history of the community, their philosophy, inner powers and work in the world. They are custodians of the Ancient Wisdom and have for ages worked behind the scenes to further the cultural and spiritual evolution of man on planet earth. There are so many well formulated esoteric statements in Lost Legacy that I have often wondered whether Robert Heinlein was a student of the Esoteric Tradition? I have found no definite information on this issue but his second wife, Leslyn MacDonald, who held a master´ s degree in Philosophy, was said to have practised “white witchcraft” and her mother was a Theosophist. There is also indications that Heinlein was influenced by Gurdjieff´s disciple P.D. Ouspensky.

Here a few quotes from Lost Legacy with comments:

"We see the history of the world as a series of crises in a conflict between two opposing philosophies. Ours is based on the notion that life, consciousness, intelligence, ego is the important thing in the world." (p. 64, paperback ed. 1978).
This is the quintessence or central idea in esoteric philosophy, the science of the multiverse. Human self-consciousness, the illuminated window in the cosmic night, is to me a tremendous mystery. Simply defining man in material terms is presenting an incongruous flatland model of something infinitely greater. There is a quality in human self-consciousness that requires a different approach. I can never accept the proposition that a lump of matter randomly can form sentient beings, conscious, self-reflecting and capable of ethical decisions. That human beings have an almost unlimited capacity for evil, is something that we are constantly reminded of by reading global media. But what is really interesting and hopeful is that we can surmount harsh existential conditions and develop an almost limitless kindness and empathy. Here we find an indication that the deeper meaning of our existence is the transformation and evolution of our consciousness. We are a step in the evolution of consciousness in the multiverse.

This basic idea is summarrized by the Swedish esotericist Henry T. Laurency in Knowledge of Life Two: "What is lacking in all religions is the knowledge of the meaning of life: consciousness development. Christianity knows of nothing but eternal bliss in heaven. The yoga philosophy thinks that evolution has reached its final goal with man and what remains for man is to become god, to enter the “absolute”. It knows nothing of higher kingdoms, that man’s next goal is to attain the fifth natural kingdom." (7.1, p.1, online ed.) www.laurency.com

"Free will is the primary good of the Cosmos". (p. 58)
The most important law of life in esotericism is the law of freedom. In all ages and nations humans constantly strive for freedom from religious and economic oppression, war, totalitarian rule. Henry T. Laurency devotes a chapter to a detailed exposition of this law in his book The Philosopher´s Stone:"Divine right is individual sovereignty. Man is a potential godhead. No power has any right to take away the freedom that life grants to the individual. The individual has an inalienable, divine right to think, feel, say, and do whatever pleases him, as long as, in so doing, he does not violate the right of anybody else, does not infringe the equal right of all to that same inviolable freedom. (3.9, p. 9, online ed.) www. laurency.com

"... the forces that killed enlightment in the rest of the world are spreading here. Little by little they have whittled away human liberty and human dignity. A repressive law... a blind dogma, to be accepted under pain of persecution... You see, sir, our antagonists don´t wait. They are active all the time. They´ve won i Asia, they are in the ascendancy in Europe, they may win here in America... With the aid of the archives they (Philip, Ben, Joan) learned the techniques byt which the brotherhood of adepts had interceded in the past when freedom of thought and action in America had been threatened." (p.p. 65, 88-90)

In Lost Legacy Robert Heinlein makes it very clear that orthodox religion is, and have been, one of the largest impediments to human progress and happiness. The perfect tool for the "forces of darkness". In earlier centurys Christianity represented oppression but today it has been moderated by the ideas of The Enlightenment, humanism, science and The Modern Project. Freedom and democracy are today instead threatened by global islamic fundamentalism. Islam as a world religion has not passed through the evolutionary stages and philosophical moderation as Christianity and because of this stagnation represent a grave danger to the free world.

The custodians of the Ancient Wisdom have many times pointed out this problem to humanity. In the classic The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett the adept K.H. give this view on the history of religion: "... the chief cause of nearly two thirds of the evils that pursue humanity ever since that cause became a power. It is religion under whatever form and in whatever nation. It is the sacerdotal caste, the priesthood and the churches; it is in those illusions that man looks upon as sacred, that he has to search out the source of that multitude of evils which is the great curse of humanity and that almost overwhelms mankind... It is belief in God and Gods that makes two-thirds of humanisty the slaves of a handful of those who deceive them under the false pretense of saving them." (Letter no. 10, pp. 57-58, 1979 ed.).

Interestingly we find the same information coming from some of the first generation UFO contactees. Howard Menger was warned by his "venusian" contacts about the opposition to their work: "My friend, this earth is the battlefield of Armageddon, and the battle is for men´s minds and souls... You don´t know, Howard, that there is a very powerful group on this planet... This group has been infiltrating religious organizations to dupe your peoples into a distorted concept of truth which enveloped your planet thousands of years ago. They are using the credulity and simple faith of many people to attain there own ends." (Howard Menger, From Outer Space to You, 1959, pp. 143-144).

Even the controversial UFO contactee George Adamski presented a similar view in his last book, Flying Saucers Farewell. Adressing the community of priests in a fictional form he writes: "You no doubt consider yourself a true prophet, a messengers of God, but even you, you and thousands of other oppointed ministers and teachers of Truth are actually messengers of Satan. You have perverted the laws of the Cosmos even as the so-called criminal element of the world has done... It was religion that withheld the right of free thought, crying "heresy" to the works of scientific minds such as Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and hundreds of others... religion as it has been taught and practised stands only as a symbol of oppression." (pp. 180-181).

The similarities in message and philosophy in the Esoteric Tradition and from some of the UFO contactees is very detailed, as I have have been trying to demonstrate in this blog and other writings. It is therefore reasonable to assume a common source or purpose. Hence the Esoteric Intervention Theory. Heinlein´s Lost Legacy is a treasure trove of esoteric philosophy. An excellent choice for summer reading.

Finally it arrived. The third volume of Jacques Vallee´s diaries Forbidden Science. This time with the subtitle Journals 1980-1989. On the Trail of the Hidden Truths. The two former volumes were published in 1992 and 2008. Like its predecessors this is a massive tome, 513 pages including index and notes. The general tone of this volume is more sombre as Vallee with sadness and pessimism follow the decline of ufology in the 1980s coupled with the increasing manipulation and disinformation coming from shady characters associated with various intelligence agencies. "The lie-steal-and-cheat department", in Vallee´s words (p. 396).

Giving a detailed and accurate review of this massive work is a mission impossible. There are so many UFO incidents, personalities, events, ideas, theories and personal memories and anecdotes mentioned that makes it necessary to concentrate on a few themes. As I was an active ufologist in the 1980s it is exceedingly fascinating to once again encounter familiar names and UFO cases but this time from the personal inside view of Jacques Vallee.

Jacques Vallee, photo by Clas Svahn, June 2016

American ufology in the 1980s was heavily influenced and partly ruined by disinformation from various intelligence agencies. Bogus or very questionable documents were distributed to ufologists who often swallowed the bait resulting in endless debates and conflicts in the UFO community. Vallee understood very early that this was a trap and he gives many sad examples of how even serious ufologists were sidetracked by this game, when they instead should have been doing classic field investigation. If the object of this disinformation was to destroy the UFO movement they sure did an excellent job. Vallee is also convinced that the "absurd theories" about cattle mutilations as caused by predators, presented by FBI investigator Ken Rommel was a disinformation job funded by the CIA: "Ken Rommel threatens legal action against those who might propagate rumors of unnatural death. No wonder the ranchers are keeping the best cases quiet." (p. 18) Another problem in 1980s American ufology was the abduction phenomenon where amateur psychologists and ufologists made a mess of the situation by using hypnosis with indadequate knowledge of the proceedings. Vallee presents many inside views on this sad state of affairs and how it affected witnesses and ufology in general.

Vallee is no naive believer but he often voice his contempt for "rationalists", the skeptics who debunk UFO and paranormal phenomena without thorough investigation. In his view some of the more vocal skeptics could be working for intelligence organizations: "... when skeptics Truzzi, Klass and Oberg state their positions in the name of "rationalism" I have to bite my tongue. The disinformation is blatant, coming from these well-informed men who must have the same data I do..." (p. 256) Only Hilary Evans is mentioned as "one of the better skeptics of ufology" (pp. 449-450). With this statement I can only agree. Hilary Evans was one of the foremost donors to AFU and an open-minded skeptic.

Inspite of the controversial rumors of MJ-12 or other secret investigations mentioned in various documents Vallee becomes convinced that real secret research, a black project, is ongoing at some level. He documents several indications in this direction: "What about the people who brought Castillo to the United States and grilled him for several days about his experiences? Perhaps there is a project so black it could operate without a need for the extraordinary skills of Art Lundahl, the arcane knowledge of Kit, the military lines of command of Houser and Johnson." (p. 436)

There is also an even darker side to this issue. From his friend at Stanford Research Institute (SRI), Hal Puthoff, Vallee is informed about a physicist who is said to have studied crashed saucers in the fifties and anlyzed the propulsion system. This physicist had been found hanged, his hands tied behind his back, his lab in shambles: "... all his plans were in a secret bank safe. In case of death, someone in the family would receive a letter with instructions to retrieve the documents. The letter did arrive but the bankers said that government men bearing official identification had opened the box and confiscated the contents." (p. 103)

A heartbreaking part of the diary is following the fate of Allen Hynek, the close friend and Invisible College collegue of Vallee. Hynek became involved with the couple Brian Myers and Tina Choate in Arizona, who introduced him to an English millionaire, Jeffery Kaye, who promised funding CUFOS research. In spite of bad health Hynek moved to Arizona where he died of cancer in 1986, Much of Hynek´s private archive was retrieved by Vallee but Brian and Tina succeeded in getting hold of the APRO archive which is now lost to research. Coral Lorenzen died in 1988 and this left the field without clear leadership.

Much of this volume is devoted to Vallee´s field investigating in Brazil and Argentina. But he also briefly mention several exceedingly intriguing contact cases involving the aliens-among-us theme. This becomes somewhat frustrating as there is no follow-up documentation. Equally frustrating is that Vallee, as did Hynek, dismiss the early contactees like George Adamski without any proper investigation. Vallee concludes simply that Adamski was a hoaxer. What scientific ufologists often fail to recognize is that this kind of emotional response is simply a reflection of the naïve new age ufologists who already know the answer without investigation. Mere criticism is not enough. You must have facts. This quote is revealing: "... I felt as I often do with contactees and visionaries, that I am before a deluded person, there´s something almost obscene about it; I´d rather change the subject" (p. 164). Vallee gives some favourable comments on John Keel, "...the development of his views and mine are striking" (p.254), but when it comes to contactees Vallee should have listened to Keel as he understood there was a reality behind many of the bizarre tales.

Not many scientific ufologists have been aware of how deeply influenced both Hynek and Vallee have been by ideas in the esoteric tradition. This becomes evident also in this volume of Forbidden Science. Hynek studied Manly Palmer Hall, Max Heindel and above all Rudolf Steiner all his life. His favourite book was Steiner´s Knowledge of the Higher Worlds. (p. 271) Vallee refer to hermeticists, mystics and occultists like Stanislas de Guaita, Sedir and Serge Hutin. (p. 78) Both Hynek and Vallee realize that the materialist, reductionist worldview is untenable, especially when confronted with UFO and paranormal phenomena.

To me the great mystery is why they didn´t follow in the footsteps of Desmond Leslie and discovered the central Esoteric Tradition, Theosophy and Alice Bailey? Hynek noticed that Rudolf Steiner realized there was a Spiritual Science, or science of the multiverse but he never understood that Steiner lost himself in the astral world without understanding how difficult perception is in at various levels of the multiverse. I takes intensive training by an adept of the planetary guardians (Higher Intelligence Agency) to not make basic mistakes in these worlds. Swedish esotericist Henry T. Laurency has an excellent chapter on Steiner in The Knowledge of Reality. The followers of Steiner often end up with far out conspiracy ideas as happened with Flying Saucer Review editor Gordon Creighton, who was much influenced by Antroposophy. That his articles became more and more vitriolic and rambling is even noticed by Vallee. (p. 352)

Gordon Creighton

In his diary from August 12, 1988, Vallee writes: "My library contains every book I could find, in various languages, about life, death, and consciousness: works by scientists and hermeticists, mystics and doctors, yet none of them gives an answer or even a reasonable direction in research. " There is much I admire in the works and theories of Vallee, a.o. the Esoteric Intervention Theory. But how come he has missed the core Esoteric Tradition? I have 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. 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. The esoteric worldview as presented by these authors could be accepted as a reasonable working hypothesis by any scholar or academic.

These critical comments aside I still regard Jacques Vallee as one of the best and brightest researchers in our field. He is an intellectual heretic with extensive knowledge and field experience who dares to challenge both academic flatheads and the naive believers. The three volumes of Forbidden Science should be, not only read, but deeply studied by all serious ufologists. There is also much of magical, poetic beauty in several entries in Forbidden Science three where Vallee speaks of his love for his wife Janine and fascination of nature and life in general. His conclusions after years of research is that the UFO phenomenon is physically real; it is an unknown technology with extraordinary psychic components; governments, through their military intelligence channels are aware of this reality.

In most countries the UFO movement that appeared in the 1950s consisted of two factions, one with a basically scientific agenda and the other more or less inspired by new age ideas and the early UFO contactees. Sweden differed in this respect as a country where the formal UFO societies in the 1950s were exclusively founded by esotericists, often members of the Swedish Theosophical Society (Adyar). This unusual historical development is mainly due to one exceptional woman, Ms Edith Nicolaisen (1911-1986), founder of the new age publishing house Parthenon in July 1957. She was strongly influenced by theosophical and anthroposophical ideas and was a good friend of Theosophist and Danish liberal Catholic Bishop Otto Viking. The Parthenon board consisted of three women, all active in the Swedish Theosophical Society (Adyar): Brita Rodosi, Rut Lindberg and Sonja Lilienthal.

Edith Nicolaisen

Edith Nicolaisen spent eight years studying various languages and Philosophy at the universities of Copenhagen, Paris, Berlin and Heidelberg. Between 1953-1957 she worked as a saleswoman for the Swedish publishing company Diana Bildreportage AB at Hälsingborg. 1949 was a turning point in Ediths´ life. She read An Outline of Occult Science by Rudolf Steiner, whom she later came to regard as "the greatest Western adept of the 20th century" (Letter to Wilbert B. Smith, February 17, 1959). For several years she devoted much spare time reading books on Antroposophy, Theosophy, Rosicrucianism (Max Heindel), Spiritualism and mysticism. From her American Friend Carl Vett she was told about flying saucers and during the summer of 1954 she read the classic Flying Saucers Have Landed by Desmond Leslie and George Adamski, a book that completely changed her life.

Edith Nicolaisen with her sister in Copenhagen 1930

In a letter to Basil van den Berg, September 1, 1963, Edith told of this great moment: "The first book I read was that of Leslie- Adamski´s Flying Saucers Have Landed and something in me recognized the truth, however fantastic it all sounded to my intellect and narrow-minded teaching, we all have received. I am a Danish citizen, who in 1954 was faced with the difficult choice either to accept the doors suddenly flung open for an additional three years college-training in USA for a future career under WHO Geneve... or, to volunteer for the SAUCER-cause here in Sweden, which meant to chose the "thorny and stony" road of the lonesome pioneer. After a fierce fight between intellect and heart, the latter gained supremacy."

Edith Nicolaisen began corresponding with George Adamski in 1954 and the first book published in Swedish in October 1957, was Flying Saucers Have Landed by Desmond Leslie and George Adamski. Her second aim was to form as many UFO and new age groups in Sweden as possible. In October 1958 she and her Parthenon co-workers invited the German new age and contactee oriented ufologist Karl Veit to Sweden. With his help Edith was able to inspire the founding of Malmö UFO-Sällskap (Malmö UFO Society) on October 1, 1958. Later adopting the name Malmö Interplanetariska Sällskap (MIS) (Malmö Interplanetary Society), today the oldest still active UFO society in Sweden and now a local group belonging to UFO-Sweden.. Parthenon published several of the classic contactees of the 1950s: George Adamski, Daniel Fry, Ray and Rex Stanford, Elisabeth Klarer. These books had a strong influence on Swedish ufology in the 1950s and 60s. Edith Nicolaisen corresponded with hundreds of ufologists, contactees, esotericists and new-age activists from around the world between 1950-1986. The Parthenon archive was donated to UFO-Sweden and AFU and is a treasure trove of valuable data for research on the early UFO and new-age movement. The correspondence has also been digitized for easy access.

Swedish edition of Flying Saucers Have Landed

During her first years of acquintance with George Adamski, Edith accepted the view that the space people had organic, physical bodies like earth people. But in 1958 she adopted the esoteric view, shared by a.o. Desmond Leslie and Meade Layne that the venusians were etheric, but could adopt a visible physical body when needed. She gave this explanation to Frederic H. Curtiss, Massachusetts, USA in 1959: "You asked me about my opinion of this ”curious object”. The interplanetarian space crafts belong to the so called ”etheric realm” and therefore they are usually not seen by our physical eyes, unless our interplanetrian friends want to draw our attention to their space-crafts or when they want to contact us – then they slow down the vibratory rates of their ships so that the vibrations can be caught by retina of our eyes and thus seen by our physical eyes." (Letter, September 19, 1959).

To get a more compehensive view of how Edith Nicolaisen interpreted the Esoteric Tradition I have made a renewed study of the thousands of letters she wrote to correspondents all over the world. Somewhat intriguing is that she never refer to books by Helena Blavatsky, Charles Leadbeater, Geoffrey Hodson or Alice Bailey - some of the central exponents of esotericism. Neither was she seemingly aware of the Swedish esotericist Henry T. Laurency. With her academic background in Philosophy these authors should have appealed to Edith. Besides, many of her best friends were active in the Theosophical Society. And between 1970-1977 she corresponded with the well known English esotericist and portrait painter Vera Stanly Alder, They met two times in London, 1970 and 1972, and got along very well. Edith planned to publish a Swedish edition of Alder´s books The Finding of the Third Eye and The Fifth Dimension, but had to abandon these plans.

The preface to The Finding of the Third Eye was written by Alice Bailey, amanuensis for the Tibetan adept D.K. Vera Stanley Alder was one in a group of individuals who during the 1930s and 1940s received personal instruction by D.K. as documented in the two volumes Discipleship in the New Age by Alice Bailey. Vera Stanley Alder is given the alias LDO and her instructions can be found on pp. 127-135 (volume one) and pp. 443-459 (volume two). Swedish esotericist Henry T. Laurency wrote an interesting essay on Alder in his book Knowledge of Life Five.

In spite of all contacts and studies Edith Nicolaisen was in many way more of a mystic than esotericist. She freely mixed channeled messages of dubious content and prophecies of doom with esoteric philosophy without comprehending the differences in quality or source. Neither did she understand that the Anthroposophical view of UFOs was very negative (Ahrimanic demons), although this opinion was made clear to her in a letter from Antroposophist and Flying Saucer Review editor Gordon Creighton who wrote: "”I think the creatures in the flying saucers are evil, and I do not think they come from other planets or other galaxies.” (Letter to Edith Nicolaisen May 31, 1966).

Readers of my latest book, blog and articles are aware of that I have advanced the theory that some of the physical contactees of the 1950s (Adamski, Angelucci, van Tassel, Fry, Menger) were involved in a cultural influence test. An experiment implemented by a group of benevolent aliens, earth based or extraterrestrial, a group with access to “vimana” technology. This test was done in co-operation with the Higher Intelligence Agency, the custodians of the ancient wisdom, using a new type of phenomena as attraction as they used spiritualist phenomena in connection with the founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875. IF this theory is correct those actively involved with these early contactees could also be expected to experience som form of paranormal or UFO manifestations as confirmation of the authenticity of the contact.

When it comes to Edith Nicolaisen I have found one such UFO encounter of special interest. She described this incident only to her closest friends and correspondents. In a letter, March 1, 1962, to the Cosmic Brotherhood Association, Yokohama, Japan she writes: "In November 1955 on a moonlit evening between 22-23 p.m. about 15 km south of Linköping while waiting in my car for a train to pass, I suddenly caught sight of a beautiful green-light far above the way-lin´s green signal-light. In order to see better I rolled down the car-pane on the left side and put out my head – and there a few hundred meters above the ground a big bell-shaped ”Flying Saucer” with portholes and landing gears was suspended in the air.. In the clear moonlight it looked like a magnificient silhouette of the world-famous Venusian-scout-design. From one side of the portholes shone a shaft of green light and from the other a shaft of orange light. (The colours and the intensity reminded much about our most beautiful neon-light advertisements.) As I had time to watch this ”silhouette” suspended in the air for 2 á 3 minutes before it disappeaed of sight, I noticed the details as above described. The next day a local newspaper reported that five people south of Linköping had observed a ”Flying Saucer”. The description of the observers tallied with my own observation."

Photo by George Adamski December 13, 1952

Edith had mentioned this observation already in 1956 to Desmond Leslie. Later she also told Leslie of a detail about the craft she had observered that puzzled her: "As I have had the opportunity to watch space-ships on many occasions I know that the photos of G.A. are genuine. Particular two occasions, I remember: In 1955 here i Sweden about 15 km south of Linköping I watched a Venusian scout-craft with four port-holes howering for several minutes and at a very close distance. And in 1956 while standing on a mountain..plateau in the Austrian Alps, a huge mothership passed silently, but with great speed close to the plateau, both mentioned spacecrafts were of the exact type and appearance as those G.A. took by help of his telescope and Brownie-camera from Palomor Garden… If you happen to have photos of a scoutcraft with four portholes in your files, I should appreciate veiry much to get photoprint in black-white reproduction. Unfortunately only three portholes can be seen on the scout-craft which G.A. took. In O.p.R. he speaks about four portholes."

Desmond Leslie with George Adamski in 1954

She wrote to several ufologists worldwide to relate and discuss this problem of three or four portholes on the scoutcraft. Her detailed observation and puzzlement on this issue does give some credence to the observation. Here a quote from a letter to Gray Barker March 9, 1968: "If you find a photo-print of a Venusian-Scout-ship – the Adamski-type with four portholes, please let us know, as all the photoprints which we received from G.A. for the mentioned two books had only three portholes. Personally, I know that G.A. is right, when he speaks about four portholes, as I have seen a Venusian-space-craft (of exact the same type and form as that reproduced on the cover of the English edit. Of ”Flying Saucers Have Landed”) at a very close distance about 15 km south of Linköping here in Sweden in 1955 – and it had four portholes."

As Edith mention a newspaper article reporting that five people had observered the same craft outside Linköping I have tried to find this article but so far no luck. If someone could locate this article it would indeed be a fascinating confirmation of her close encounter. Perhaps in this way Edith Nicolaisen really became a part of or involved in a psychological and cultural test implemented by a group of benevolent alien visitors - the Esoteric Intervention Theory. And this in spite of her personality faults, idiosyncrasies and rather fanatical missionary zeal. Future history and research can hopefully give us the truth about this mystery. That will probably not happen until the real history behind mainstream history is revealed. Then we will better understand the significance and work done by outsider scientists, heretics and the individuals whos dharma it is to be part of the pathfinder force trying to create a real new age on this planet, where all human beings strive for the good, the true and the beautiful

Edith Nicolaisen often bitterly complained about the difficulty in finding trustworthy and dedicated co-workers in her mission. She was not an easy woman to get along with. Stubborn, demanding and with an iron will. She worked 14-16 hours every day and often exhausted her frail body. But in spite of her faults she succeeded in her endeavors, inspiring hundreds of, especially young people, to enter UFO research or a study of the Esoteric Tradition. She was a pioneer and a woman with a mission so I give the last word to Edith Nicolaisen expressed in a letter to Daniel and Tahalita Fry, January 10, 1975: " The mentioned photo of the scout-ship taken by Tahalitha at Merlin, menas a treasure to me too, due to the fact that in November 1955 on my way to Stockholm a scout-ship of exact the same appearance manifested above my head 15 km south of Linköping while waiting in my little car for a train to pass, it was late in the evening – and may be, in order to draw my attention, - a strong green light was beaming from one side of the craft and a strong orange light from the opposite site. Later I understood it meant a greeting and an encouragement from our Brothers to overcome all adversities and difficulties which the information-work about the UFOs and the Brothers messages to man of Earth would cause here in Sweden, indeed beyond imagination and description. Thanks to these greetings and encouragements in critical hours, I got the needed inner strength to face and to overcome the adversities of all sorts and to continue the new-age-information-work of Parthenon during the latter 17th years here in Sweden."

Photo by Tahalita Fry, Oregon November 1968

For several years I have been deeply concerned regarding the future fate of the archive of Borderland Sciences Research Foundation (BSRF). On the internet I watched a video sequence showing the archive in a terrible mess, housed in a garage in Eureka, California. Meade Layne, together with Max Freedom Long, founded Borderland Sciences Research Associates (BSRA) already in 1945 and many of the early Forteans and ufologists were involved with this group. From a historical and research viewpoint the BSRF archive is of paramount importance.

Meade Layne 1930

James Borges with the BSRF archive at Eureka

Custodian of the BSRF archive in Eureka was James Borges, but he had no time or possibility to arrange or scan the collection. Clas Svahn, UFO-Sweden has for many years made regular visits to the UK and other countries in order to resque UFO and Fortean archives for preservation at AFU. Because of Clas and collegues tenacious efforts to retrieve archives from all over the world Bob Rickard has named them The Viking Raiders. And Clas also succeeded this time, convincing James Borges that the best option for preserving the BSRF archive was at AFU in Sweden. During a trip to the U.S. in June this year Clas and his sons Niklas and Markus met James in Eureka and together packed 72 boxes of material, among dust and spiders. On July 29 the archive finally arrived at AFU.

Part of the BSRF archive unpacked at AFU

Recently I spent two days for a first inventory and perusal of this invaluable collection. What a treasure trove of unique documents, especially from the 1940s 50s and 60s: rare publications, magazines, correspondence, photos etc. And of course all the magazines and publications published by BRSF, including Riley Crabb´s 1950s newsletter from his Akualele Research Group in Hawaii. I had also hoped to find correspondence from Millen Cooke and Paul M. Vest but so far no luck. But I did find some of the correspondence between Desmond Leslie and Meade Layne from 1952-1955, discussing George Adamski and the publication of Flying Saucers Have Landed. Rare and unique documents indeed. In his letters Desmond Leslie proves to be a very erudite esotericist, also mentioning that he has been "helped to write by certain entities in the other world who have told they are doing the best to guide my pen." (Letter November 13, 1952). We all know the result - "the book that was dynamite" - quoting Flying Saucer Review editor Charles Bowen. Leslie first suggested the title Saucers and Sorcery for his book. But with the George Adamski contact of 1952 included he changed the title to the definitely more inspiring Flying Saucers Have Landed.

Special BSRA issue of Ouranos, April 1953

Part of letter from Desmond Leslie to Meade Layne

Meade Layne became acquainted with the unique and fascinating deep-trance medium Mark Probert. The information channeled by mediums is generally a bore to read, platitudes coupled with naive love-and-light mysticism, But the Mark Probert communications are different, of a definitely higher intellectual and cultural quality, with intersting discussions of science, philosophy and esotericism. Meade Layne and his associates worked for many years with Mark Probert and the results were published in Seance Memoranda. Esotericist Riley Crabb, who directed BSRF between 1959-1985, referred to the sixteen men and women speaking through Probert as the "Inner Circle", the invisible powerhouse behind BSRF.

Mark Probert

The Inner Circle present themselves with names such as Ramon Natalli, Dr. Charles Lingford, Yada Di Shi´ite, Lo Sun Yat etc. Could these names be personas, fictional characters used by members of some of the secret lodges on earth? If this theory proves correct my guess would be the Yucatan Brotherhood mentioned by Charles Leadbeater, Annie Besant, Alice Bailey and Henry T. Laurency. This secret lodge created the first physical materialization phenomena that inspired the formation of the Spiritualist movement in the 19th century. Academic scholar Dr. Joscelyn Godwin has written several interesting articles seriously discussing this "The Hidden Hand Theory". With the donation of the BSRF archive most of the Seance Memoranda are now part of AFU and catalogued by Anders Liljegren.

Anders Liljegren cataloguing Seance Memoranda at AFU

I corresponded with Riley Crabb 1979-1985 and was really glad to find many articles, photos and correspondence in the BSRF archive, going back to his years on Hawaii. For three years Crabb was president of the Honolulu Lodge of the Theosophical Society and also a well-known lecturer on UFOs. In 1957 he, together with his wife Judy, moved to the U.S. and in 1959 he entered the directorship of BSRF as Mead Layne retired.

Riley Crabb with friends in Honolulu April 1949

Riley Crabb was very much concerned with the problem of relating UFO data to the Esoteric Tradition. Somewhat surprisingly this interest was not always met with enthusiasm by active Theosophists and other esotericists. In a revealing letter to Gordon Creighton August 5, 1990, Riley laments the conservatism and lack of UFO interest among these groups: "It is now obvious to me that one of my major reasons for being here in NZ is to try to awaken the leaders of the Theosophical Lodges to the realities of other inhabited planets and of advanced beings from them, quoting their own earliest literature... Phyllis is an AMORC Rosicrucian but got snubbed when she tried to open the San Jose, California leaders to the reality of UFOs materializing from the Forth Dimension; and when I quoted the early literature on space travel to Joy Mills, one of the leading American Theosophists at Krotona, Ojai, California, she replied that the references were "allegorical", hah! She also quoted Jung on UFOs in his book, that the space craft were images in the race mind."

The larger part of the BSRF archive consists of folders, alphabetically arranged according to subject or persons. In each folder can be found clippings, photos, correspondence or booklets. But there are also large piles of unsorted papers which will take months to assort. There are probably many gems hidden in these piles. The archive we have received at AFU is not complete. Part of the collections have probably been retrieved by former leaders or active members? But we are very glad that this unique archive has been preserved and is now in the custody of AFU, open to all serious investigators worldwide.

The scholarly and critical investigator of UFO and paranormal phenomena will usually, sooner or later, come to the realization that materialist, reductionist mainstream science cannot account for the wide variety of intriguing phenomena reported and documented worldwide. To discover this fact becomes an intellectual challenge facing all serious and honest investigators. Then the real existential problem begins. Few researchers are willing to publicly enter the ardous path of the heretic or iconoclast, especially if their academic or scientific credibility will be questioned by collegues and friends. Entering Forbidden Science is perhaps today safest in the secluded company among like-minded investigators working together and sharing data as an Invisible College.

This becomes even more important as investigators begin the complicated and controversial journey of trying to discover an alternative working hypothesis or paradigm where these phenomena can be understood or explained. Like myself, many researchers and scholars have found the Esoteric Tradition or Ancient Wisdom, to be the intellectually most interesting and challenging alternative worldview. Several of my guides and mentors in Forbidden Science have after many years of research and study indicated that this is the direction in which answers may eventually be found. Here are three quotes relative to this issue:

"Previous to all this I was a typical hard-boiled skeptic. I sneered at the occult. I had once published a book, Jadoo, which denigrated the mystical legends of the Orient. I tried to adopt a very scientific approach to ufology, and this meant that I scoffed at the many contactee reports. But as my experiences mounted and investigations broadened, I rapidly changed my views"… I have dealt with thousands of honest, sincere witnesses by mail, phone, and in person. My skepticism has melted away, and I have turned from science to philosophy in my search for the elusive truth". John Keel, Operation Trojan Horse (1970, pp. 274, 306 ).

”…the history of ufology should be placed within an esoteric context. Throughout history there has been a tradition of higher knowledge, and the claim that it was accessible to us, if only we agreed to be tested, to work through certain spiritual problems… That´s the meaning of the hermetic schools. The UFO problem, the question of parapsychology, are central to this business. Looking for the solution isn´t just a scientific project; it´s a quest, an initiation, an enigma like that of the Sphinx…”. (Jacques Vallee, Forbidden Science II, p. 211).

”My interest in metaphysics, in this life, dates back to 1934 when I discovered the not inconsiderable library of the Minneapolis Lodge of the Theosophical Society; and tried to read through it in record time… Since coming to the mainland my lectures have been concerned with the problem of relating Flying Saucer data, and phenomena, to the teachings of the Mystery Schools. I believe you´ll agree this is no easy task. If I have one goal in life it is un uncompromising search for Truth, whatever that might be, and wherever it may lead.” (Riley Crabb, About the Author. Round Robin, vol. 15, no. 4, July-August 1959).

The Esoteric Tradition as formulated by a.o. Helena Blavatsky, Charles Leadbeater, Alice Bailey and Henry T. Laurency is a consistent and rational worldview, with a profound humanism at its core. A science of the multiverse also presenting a detailed taxonomy of multiverse entities and paranormal phenomena of interest as an alternative working hypothesis to the field investigator. According to the Esoteric Tradition we are not alone in the universe. There is life on all planets in our own solar system and beyond on planets in other star systems. But, and this is highly significant, the Esoteric Tradition is of the same opinion as todays astronomers and astro physicists that higher organic life is impossible on the other planets in our solar system.

I have collected a few statements on ETI, relating to the issue of organic versus etheric bodies, by Swedish esotericist Henry T. Laurency, comparing them with empirical data from a few interesting UFO contactees. Unless otherwise stated all quotes are from the English online versions of the Henry T. Laurency books - www.laurency.com/index.html

"Only on our planet do the individuals of the fourth natural kingdom develop through organisms and reincarnation. On other planets development is done through aggregate envelopes, which subsist until the individual has acquired the consciousness of higher molecular kinds and the envelopes corresponding to that consciousness."

The Way of Man
Introductions, 1.39.1

"Our planet (Terra) is the only planet in the solar system where organic life is possible. On other planets, man’s lowest envelope (49:5-7) is an aggregate envelope and not an organic one."

Knowledge of Life Two

Conscious Development, 7.2.9

"Regarding ”the saucers” I have no knowledge and have never been interested in any type of ”phenomena”. Actually there is nothing impossible in this matter. The inhabitants on Venus have, except an etheric envelope, a dense aggregate envelope confusingly similar to an organism. They are far ahead of us in consciousness development and have solved their ”physical problems”. They know everything about us, so the visits could be a way to give mankind something to ponder on.”

Letter from Henry T. Laurency to Curt Östergren, October 12, 1965 (my translation).

Laurency also mention that aggregate envelopes, or bodies, are atoms and molecules electromagnetically held together. They can be instantly materialized and dissolved Only organic bodies have different sex so a temporarily formed physical aggregate form could be made into any gender. Several of the early contactees reported interesting physical differences when describing the visitors. Regarding the venusian "Orthon" George Adamski writes: "The flesh of his hand to the touch of mine was like a baby’s, very delicate in texture, but firm and warm. His hands were slender, with long tapering fingers like the beautiful hands of an artistic woman. In fact, in different clothing he could easily have passed for an unusually beautiful woman; yet he definitely was a man... As nearly as I can describe his skin the colouring would be an even, medium-coloured suntan. And it did not look to me as though he had ever had to shave, for there was no more hair on his face than on a child’s." Desmond Leslie, George Adamski, Flying Saucers Have Landed, Werner Laurie edition, London 1959, p. 195.

This description indicates the possibility of a non-organic, temporarily formed body. We find the same type of observation made by American journalist Paul M. Vest who met the venusian "Bill" in California, June 1953. He appears out of nowhere to the confused Paul: ""I was dumbfounded! An instant before the streets had been absolutely deserted. Bewildered, I saw him approach the car, smiling. He introduced himself saying, "I'm Bill - the fellow who phoned you last night from Los Angeles." We shook hands and I recall being aware of the peculiar feel of his hand-as though it were without any underlying bone structure... A casual observer would certainly not be startled by his appearance. In a crowd he would pass as a rather unusual appearing person. But as I studied him more closely while he talked, I was aware of certain strange characteristics in his physical appearance. His skin was exceptionally white – so white in fact that it appeared to have an odd bluish tinge. His cheek bones were unusually high and his eyes and brows had a peculiar Oriental cast. Yet in no way did he resemble a true Oriental. And I noticed that his ears were oddly pointed and appeared to be more delicate and complex than any I had ever seen. I recalled how odd his hand had felt in my grasp. Looking at his hands, I noticed that his fingers were long and tapering and so smooth that they seemed to be without joints or underlying bone structure. He spoke slowly and clearly with no trace of an accent, but he seemed to be choosing his words with great care. I noticed too that his voice had a peculiar resonant quality."

An American contactee, who claims to be working with the same group of visitors who contacted George Adamski, Howard Menger a.o. and with whom I have been corresponding for several years told me of his first experience of the visitors dissolving and forming their bodies: "Before I had my first "visits", I was a total unbelieving skeptic. And I said to them at one point, "give me proof, personally", and I need never ask that again, that´s for sure. When you get proof my friend, you will feel like the world as you knew it has ended.... I remember the first time there was about 5 space people in xx (name withheld) house talking with her as I quietly watched, and then suddenly one of the men turned, looked directly at me, smiled gently, and then very slowly turned to the kitchen room wall and walked right through the wall! I watched this very closely as he then came back in... Let me tell you, those kind of incidents have a very deep and troubling affect on our minds because we cannot comprehend it." (Mail conversation February 25-26, 2012).

American contactee George Van Tassel mention several incidents where he observed the visitors suddenly appear and disappear. Interestingly he also claimed they possessed a small technical device carried on a cord around the neck or suspended under the blouse, that could make them instantly disappear from vision although still physically felt real to the touch. Regarding the difference between the visitors materializations and mediums he mad this interesting comment: "Many of the space people live in frequencies of life beyond the human limits. By using methods developed by them, they can bring their body vibrations inside our visiual limits as easily as we can condense unseen moisture out of the air into water, and then freeze it into ice... Many spiritualist mediums can materialize people from beyond the door of death. do not let yourself be confused, howeer, with these ectoplasmic figures; or the words spoken through them. All figure of people generated through the ectoplasm of another person, are from the transition or earthboud level, or are created by the mind of the medium." (George Van Tassel, Materialization and de-materialization, Proceedings, vol. 3, no. 9, June 1955, pp. 9-10)

What chemical elements could the visitors bodies consist of when materialized? This question was asked by the group listening to the remarkable deeptrance medium Mark Probert in San Diego, May 1957. The question was asked by "Ramon Natalli", one of the controls behind Mark Probert: "The blood nature of these Space Beings is this: Carbon, Silicon, and Hydrogen. Especially is this true when they take on form so as to be seen by your eyes... In your body the principal component is water - more than 90% and this is not compressed. But silicon and carbon make for handness and strength, as in the case of diamonds, which do not deteriorate except under great heat. This makes these Beings very durable. It is likely that in taking form such bodies could suffer such injury as to produce seeming death; but the entity concerned would simply withdraw and reconstruct its vehicle when and where desired." (Comments of Raymond Natalli. On the Space People and the UFO. Round Robin, vol. 13, no.1, May-June 1957, p. 13)

Compare this quote with what Henry T. Laurency writes in the Way of Man, regarding the difference between organic and aggregate bodies: "It is part of this insight to know that organic life is not a normal phenomenon, does not enter into the general plan of the monads’ consciousness development. On other planets, where all have only aggregate envelopes, so-called natural catastrophes are without consequences and there are no so-called accidents."

The Way of Man
The Second Self, 9.100.1

Field investigators of UFO and paranormal phenomena will find many intriguing parallels by correlating data from research with statements from the Esoteric Tradition. Naturally the results must be regarded only as alternative explanation models or working hypothesis. This attitude is necessary to keep a psychological balance and intellectual integrity. As John Keel wrote, "belief is the enemy" or in the words of warning from Henry T. Laurency: "“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).

One of the most well known, first generation American contactees of the 1950s was George W. Van Tassel (1910-1978). He became something of the hub of the contactee movement, very much because of the popular Giant Rock Spacecraft Conventions arranged annually between 1954-1977. But also because of his claims of both personal and psychic contacts and co-operation with space people and his building the Integratron on his property at Yucca Valley, California. Messages received from the space people during his meetings at Giant Rock in the early 1950s were printed in his magazine Proceedings and also published in his first book I Rode A Flying Saucer (1952).

George Van Tassel at Giant Rock

George Van Tassel began weekly meditation meetings at Giant Rock in 1949 with a usual attendance of 25 to 45 people. During these first meetings he experienced entering "an area of golden mist" and heard a voice speaking. The words were taken down in shorthand or taped. Van Tassel was never able to find out the source of the voice, "as it seems to come from all directions at once." (Proceedings, vol. 8, no. 7 Oct-Nov-Dec 1968, p. 15). Later several of the messages were printed in Proceedings. Reading these Messages From the Golden Density today reminds me of the writings of the classic Christian mystics, often beautiful and spiritually inspiring, but more like poems than factual information.

Beginning in 1952 a totally new type of voices entered the scene. According to Van Tassel these voices were from space people, using an instrument referred to as Adiphone. They presented themselves with rather odd-sounding names like Hulda, Lata, Singba, Kerrull, Molca och eventually also Ashtar, who later became a popular "space commandant"among channelers all over the world. In May 1952 one of the space people referred to himself as "Clatu, 2nd projection, 4th wave, 3rd sector, realms of Schare". I don´t know if Van Tassel ever noticed that in the classic sci-fi-movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, released in September 1951, the spaceman was named Klaatu? An esoteric interpretation of such messages would be either a mixture of Van Tassels own ideas from his subconscious or merry pranksters from the astral plane impersonating space people.

Although most messages are uninteresting or meaningless there are a few intriguing exceptions. On April 6th 1952, Noma communicated: "Your Pentagon will soon have much to muddle over. We are going to give this globe a buzz. I hope they do not intercept us from in front". (I Rode A Flying Saucer, 2. ed, 1953, p.20). Van Tassel gave this information to Air Force Intelligence Command in a letter answered July 22, 1952. On July 26,27 and 28th 1952 the famous Washington saucer flap occurred. Co-incidence?

The life of George Van Tassel was forever changed on the night of August 24, 1953. While sleeping outdoors he was awakened around 2 a.m. and found a man standing nearby. Beyond the man was a hovering scout ship of the same configuration as in the photographs of George Adamski. The man introduced himself and Van Tassel would later refer to him by the alias Solgonda. Van Tassel was escorted to the craft where he met three other men and was given information on various projects. The visit lasted around twenty minutes and then the craft took off.

George Van Tassel

Before I continue let me present a brief summary of the Esoteric Intervention Theory as related to the experiences of George W. Van Tassel. I have advanced the theory that some of the physical contactees of the 1950s were involved in a cultural and psychological influence test. An experiment implemented by a group of benevolent alien visitors, earth based or extraterrestrial, a group with access to “vimana” technology. This test was done in co-operation with the Higher Intelligence Agency (HIA), the custodians of the Ancient Wisdom, using a new type of phenomena as attraction as they used spiritualist phenomena in connection with the founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875. Involved in this test was a.o. George Adamski, Orfeo Angelucci, Paul M. Vest, George Van Tassel, Daniel Fry and Howard Menger.

After the contact of August 24, 1952 George Van Tassel was on several occasions visited by "Solgonda" and others belonging to his group. These visits were very physical, like ordinary meetings and conversations with anyone on Earth. But he wrote very little of these experiences, obviously trying to preserve the integrity and secrets of his visitor friends. There are a few references scattered in some issues of Proceedings. The individual Mr. Wheeler, also named Venuto, was one of the visitors belonging to this group: "I personally talked with "Venuto", who figured in the Los Angeles Time`s case, and who worked for Los Angeles County for several weeks. This Venusian, dubbed "Venuto" by the reporters in the case, visited us here several months after he disappeared from his job in Los Angeles. This visit was in the presence of 23 witnesses." (Proceedings, vol. 4, no.4, July 1956, p. 6). In another article George Van Tassel also mention that Mr. Wheeler, when visiting Giant Rock, demonstrated a technical device that made him invisible: "The man didn´t dematerialize. He was still there, because the third time he disappeared I had my hand on his shoulder, and he was solid; still there under my hand." (Proceedings, April, May, June 1977, p. 14)

Ufologist William F. Hamilton, who was a good friend of Van Tassel interviewed some of the witnesses to this event: "About thirty people were present for this session. Venudo took out a crystal device, identical in appearance to the one worn by Solgonda, and proceeded to demonstrate it by tapping it and disappearing from view. Dan asked Venudo to repeat this performance and reached out to touch his shoulder when he disappeared again. Dan found Venudo invisible but tangible. I interviewed Dan and another female witness about three years after the event and when Saturday night sessions were a thing of the past." (William F. Hamilton, Alien Magic, 1989, p. 9). I have never listened to these interviews nor seen any transcripts but I hope they are preserved for future research.

To know who was a genuine contactee or fake Van Tassel was given a secret code by his visitors. Like a covert agent he used this code several times in his meetings with various people in the UFO movement. This was one of the reasons he could say that Howard Menger was genuine. Van Tassel personally investigated the Menger contact claims and interviewed several of the witnesses. His defence of the Menger story was presented in Proceedings, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 4-6: "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). That code words were used was also revealed by Howard Menger´s wife in her book 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). This was the reason George Van Tassel in an article Flying Saucer Activity Analysis could state that "...the authentic, publicly known "contactees" can be counted on one hand." Proceedings, vol. 7, no. 1, Feb-March 1961, p. 14).

This hidden or covert co-operation with the visitors George Van Tassel at one time planned to publish in a separate book. But he was adviced by his visitor friends that the information should not be released as it was too sensitive at the present time. In the 1970s Van Tassel and his second wife Dorris Andre Van Tassel published an information sheet on the coming book. It stated: "The tremendously exiting book which is in preparation is the true story of a visitor from Venus. It is called Venuto and has verifiable proof of his unusual abilities from a well-known investigative laboratory in Los Angeles with his photograph included also. It is difficult to write about this book, Venuto because of its startling contents. It is so amazing and astounding that all the words which come to mind hardly does it justice."

William Hamilton mention there were many people who met this group of visitors in the 1950s, but very few became public contactees. One of these was George Van Tassel`s second wife Dorris Van Tassel. She was a sort of booking agent for the genuine contactees from the early 1950s and very much involved in covert co-operation with the visitors. But she almost never mentioned her own contacts with the visitor group around "Mr. Wheeler". One exception was at an Understanding convention in 1976. A short note in Understanding magazine reported: "Two women were a delightful part of the program. Dorris Van Tassel told the story of her contact with space people, a fantastic story it was too. Until you have heard her, you´ve missed something." (Understanding, vol. 21, no. 5, 1976, p. 6.) Dorris Van Tassel also wrote a small childrens book Suzies Sudden Saucer. During her later years she also worked on a book on her experiences with the space people. What happened to this manuscript I have not been able to find out.

The real and behind the scenes full story of the 1950s contactees is waiting to be written. Information from some of my correspondents worldwide indicate that this benevolent, alien group of visitors are still around but working only behind the scenes on various projects. The test made in the 1950s with public contactees was abandoned as so many couldn´t handle the situation. The test put a tremendous psychological strain on the contactees who sometimes acted irrationally and didn´t understand what was happening to them. Some lost their head in the glamour of publicity and embellished their stories with faked encounters and photographs. British ufologist and author Desmond Leslie noticed much of this problem. He had hoped to meet the visitors but in later years was glad this didn´t happen. Noticing how publicity and illusions of grandeur have ruined the lives of several alleged contactees he concluded: "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." (Commentary on George Adamski in the second enlarged and revised edition of Flying Saucers Have Landed).

Allen Hynek, Flying Saucer Review editor Gordon Creighton and Swedish ufologist Sven Schalin adopted Anthroposophy as their worldview, Fate magazine editor Ray Palmer championed the teachings of the channeled "Bible"Oahspe, Finnish ufologist Joel Rehnström is a representative of The Urantia Foundation, Swedish publisher and new age activist Edith Nicolaisen was very influenced by Max Heindel, founder of Rosicrucian Fellowship, psychiatrist Dr. Nils-Olof Jacobsson, author of Life After Death and student of paranormal phenomena is an advocate of Danish mystic Martinus, as are several others in the UFO movement. The worldview or personal philosophy of individuals involved in UFO and paranormal research provides an interesting cultural and sociological study in itself.

Witnesses to UFO and paranormal phenomena and investigators of these observations share a common problem. From different perspectives and experiences both groups sooner or later come to realize that the mainstream materialist, reductionist worldview or paradigm becomes untenable when faced with the large quantity of well documented, unexplained empirical data. A natural reaction to this heureka moment is interpreting the phenomena in the light of the religious or metaphysical cultural frame of reference inherited from birth. The other alternative is entering an ardous existential journey in the jungle of conflicting philosophies and teachings, trying to find a worldview making sense of the unknown phenomena.

Let me present this problem from the viewpiont of two very different individuals, UFO witness Peggy Robert och journalist and UFO investigator John Keel. In September 1973 Peggy Robert had a close encounter with a oscillating, saucer-shaped craft. She noticed entities moving back and forth behind windows. This UFO observation became a turning point in the life of Peggy Robert. Before this happened she described herself as a typical ego tripping materialist basically interested in expensive clothes, jewellery, cars and the good life. "Now I knew there was something else in other dimensions, life that is different and more evolved... After this contact with the UFO I couldn´t accept Christianity as presented in the churches. Now I started an intensive period of searching." Peggy contacted many alternative religious and spiritual groups. She went to India to meet the Indian guru Sai Baba and for a time found inner peace with his teachings. Back in Sweden she studied alternative medicine,.Reflexology, Acupressure and nutrition.

Peggy Robert

After a lifetime of travel, field investigation and study of UFO, Fortean and paranormal phenomena John Keel reached the conclusion shared by many researchers into these areas: we live in a multiverse inhabited by a variety of diverse intelligences. This discovery changed his outlook on life and his continuing search. In the classic Operation Trojan Horse (1970), he wrote: "Previous to all this I was a typical hard-boiled skeptic. I sneered at the occult. I had once published a book, Jadoo, which denigrated the mystical legends of the Orient… But my experiences over the past few years have changed both me and my outlook, just as similar experiences haved changed so many others. I have stood on many a winding hilltop staring in amazement at the multicoloured objects cavorting about the night skies. I have dealt with thousands of honest, sincere witnesses by mail, phone and in person. My skepticism has melted away, and I have turned from science to philosophy in my search for the elusive truth".

John Keel and girlfriend during a visit to Sweden 1976

Neither Peggy Robert nor John Keel evidently found ”the elusive truth”, a tenable philosophy, worldview or paradigm that could replace materialist reductionism. But John Keel sensed the direction research was going. 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."

Many UFO witnesses and investigators have crossed the borderline into the multiverse by accepting some alternative philosophy, teaching or guru as their new worldview. And here comes the tricky part. They are mostly exclusive and present very different ”facts” regarding reality. Here is a short list of options: Anthroposophy, Gurdjieff, Urantia, Sai Baba, Bahai, Edgar Cayce, Swedenborg, Maurice Doreal, Richard Kieninger, Sture Johansson, AMORC, Nicholas Roerich, I Am Movement, Martinus, Theosophy, Scientology, Spiritualism, Aetherius Society, René Guenon, Alice Bailey, Meher Baba, Oahspe, Subud, Eckankar, Bo Yin Ra, Lobsang Rampa, Rosicrucian Fellowship, Sri Chinmoy, Benjamin Creme ….. The list could go on and on with hundreds of groups and teachers.

I have the deepest sympathy for research collegues and friends who refrain from theories and when encountering some of the more devoted adherents of these worldviews, who have found ”The Truth”, simply refuse to even consider their opinions or take some time to study the teachings. After many years of studying various spiritual teachings and worldviews my reaction in 1986-87 was rather similar. I was simply fed up with all the irrational and inhuman ideas encountered in different groups and organizations Disappointed with what I experienced in the spiritual underground I abandoned my spiritual quest in 1986 and for a couple of years became active within the Swedish Humanist movement, Humanisterna. During these years I was a harsh critic of various New Age ideologies. It was a consistent and necessary psychological reaction in my life even though, in culture radical zeal, as secular humanist, I threw out the baby with the bathwater. I never climbed so far out on a limb though as K. Gösta Rehn, the Swedish UFO research pioneer. His assessment of the theories of John Keel and Jacques Vallee was ”a terrible blind alley”.

K. Gösta Rehn

If there is a multiverse inhabited by various sentient beings of different evolution and intelligence there must also be a science of the multiverse. Which implies that it is reasonable to assume the existence of "scientists" of the multiverse or custodians of knowledge not discovered by mainstream science. This is the position maintained by The Esoteric Tradition or The Ancient Wisdom.
Readers of my blog, books and articles are aware of that I regard myself as an esotericist in the Blavatsky, Bailey, Laurency tradition and advocate the Esoteric Tradition as a valid alternative working hypothesis in researching UFO and paranormal phenomena. With what I have presented above is this a reasonable and intellectually tenable position?

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

For me to accept, as a hypothesis, a multiverse worldview or philosophy the following demands must be met:

The basic scientific, ontological and epistemological issues and problems must be addressed in a rational and intellectual manner, not by obscure mysticism.

The worldview is presented as facts and a science of the multiverse.

The language and terminology must appeal to scholars and researchers.

New empirical data indicating a multiverse can be interpreted and understood within the worldview.

The ethical message is a combination of humanism, goodwill and idealism.

These demands I have found reasonably met in the Esoteric Tradition as represented by Helena Blavatsky, Alice Bailey and Henry T. Laurency. There are of course statements in these teachings which I find problematic but the basic philosophy is in my view of an intellectual quality unsurpassed.

In the recently released documentary Ghost Rockets my UFO-Sweden collegue and friend Clas Svahn adress the paradigm problem with this excellent quote: "To believe is one thing, To know is something entirely different". The most important thing to realize for any researcher with intellectual integrity, proposing a new theory, paradigm or working hypothesis is - it may be wrong. This of course also goes for the multiverse worldview of esotericism. But after 45+ years of research and study I have found no worldview that can challenge the Esoteric Tradition. History will prove or disprove if this really is the Ancient Wisdom.

Recently one of my blog readers, a former member of Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.), recommended an interesting biography of the founder Paul Foster Case (1884-1954). Builders of the Adytum is a modern "mystery school" in the Western Esoteric Tradition, the teaching based on the symbolism of the "Holy Qabalah" and the "Sacred Tarot". The biography, Paul Foster Case. His Life and Works is written by Dr. Paul A. Clark, founder of The Fraternity of the Hidden Light.

What especially interested me was the information that Paul Foster Case was a friend of Alice Bailey and also claimed having physically met and been instructed by one of the Elder Brothers or adepts referred to as The Master (R), Racoczy or The Count de Saint Germain. An excellent, scholarly biography of this fascinating and intriguing adept is The Comte de Saint Germain. Last Scion of the House of Rakokczy by British author Jean Overton Fuller. It has the advantage of being written from both a mainstream historical perspective and ending with a chapter on the Theosophical or esoteric view of the Master R. Jean Overton Fuller is also the author of Blavatsky and Her Teachers. An Investigative Biography.

When Builders of the Adytum and esoteric orders with similar origin and teachings refer to The Western Mystery Tradition the curriculum is usually a mixture of Hermeticism, Qabalah, Tarot symbolism and Alchemy combined with ritual initiation ceremonies and ceremonial magic. Many of these orders trace their historical roots and connection to The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, founded in London 1887. From this origin many offshoot societies and orders developed. including several of the modern neo-pagan groups and wicca covens.

I made a rather extensive study of the Western Mystery Tradition in the late 1970s, Reading included classics like Ritual Magic in England by Francis X. King and Sword of Wisdom. MacGregor Mathers and the Golden Dawn by Ithell Colquhoun but also books by Gareth Knight and W.E. Butler. My favourite in this tradition became Dion Fortune, author of many books on the Western Mystery Tradition and founder of the Fraternity of the Inner Light, later re-named Society of the Inner Light. I corresponded with several members belonging to this tradition and was once, without my wish, even elected Swedish representative of The Fellowship of Isis, headquartered in Ireland. After some years in the rather sterile and ascetic milieu of the Anthroposophical Society (die versteinerten Theosophen - Franz Hartmann) I found this form of pagan nature mysticism refreshing and wrote an article with the title Pan lever, renässans för naturmystiken - Pan is alive, the renaissance of nature mysticism.

During this period I also made a short séjour in the theosophically oriented Liberal Catholic Church. Although I was fascinated by ceremonial magic and understood the modus operandi, especially after reading The Science of the Sacraments by Charles Leadbeater, I eventually realized that The Western Mystery Tradition as presented by these societies and orders were not my cup of tea. I looked for a more academic and intellectual approach to the Esoteric Tradition and finally discovered the writings of the scholarly and erudite Swedish esotericist Henry T. Laurency, a disciple of the adept (H.) Hilarion, head of the branch or department of the Planetary Guardians organization especially concerned with the development of science and with a special interest in the psychical research groups around the world. I assume this would today also include the UFO movement.

Early in life Paul Foster Case developed a profound interest in the history of playing cards which eventually led him to a study of the Tarot cards and their symbolism. But he also, as very young, had several mystical experiences that can be described as expansions of consciousness. He also began to hear an inner voice. Being well aware of modern psychological theories and psycho-pathology he believed the voice to be a manifestation of his subconscious mind. But the voice was sometimes very specific. For instance when searching for information in a library the voice told Paul: "If you will reach for the third book from the left on the top shelf, and turn to page... you will find the reference you re looking for".

Paul Foster Case spiritual studies and quest led him in 1918 to contact with a representative of the Thoth-Hermes Lodge in Chicago, an American successor organization of The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, where he was initiated in 1920. Open criticism of some aspects of the teachings resulted in his expulsion from the order and in 1923 Paul founded the School of Ancient Wisdom, later Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.).

Knowledge and inspiration to found his new school came in a rather unexpectant manner to Paul. In the Summer of 1921 the phone rang at his apartment. A man at the other end stated briefly: "I presume you recognize my voice?" To his astonishment Paul realized it was the voice he had heard in his head for many years. The man suggest a meeting at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Nervous and unsure of the outcome of this adventure Paul enter the hotel and is met by an olive complexioned and dark haired man of slight build and neatly trimmed beard. He introduce himself as the Count de Saint Germain. Paul is reassured that "I am a man, just as you" and the adept R. explain his reason for the rendezvous. If he accept the proposition of a period of training and instruction, Paul will be able to restate the Ancient Wisdom in terms of modern psychology and a training system eliminating some of the outworn old elements that has dogged the current presentations in the Western Mystery schools. Paul accepted this dharma which resulted in many meetings with R.

Paul later in rather familiar terms referred to his adept friend R. as "the Boss". This reminds me of Theosophist Henry Steel Olcott who had met several adepts personally and often called them "the boys". Accomplished esotericists and bibliophiles will probably notice that the physical description of R. corresponds to the presentation given in Initiation, Human and Solar by Alice Bailey: "He is rather a small, spare man, with pointed black beard, and smooth black hair." (p. 58 clothbound ed.) R. was obviously very candid regarding the choice of Paul for the intended project: "That while he was not particularly impressed by Paul`s personality, he was absolutely the best they (i.e. the Masters) could find for the job they had in mind. They had to work with what they had at hand." This is an interesting comment explaining why disciples with their personality faults and idiosyncracies seem so inadequate for a chosen project. It also takes away the glamour that disciples should be regarded as infallible teachers of esotericism because of their contacts with the Planetary Guardians. Listen to what K.H. had to say about Blavatsky: "But, imperfect as may be our visible agent - and often most unsatisfactory and imperfect she is - yet she is the best aviable at present, and her phenomena have for about half a century astounded and baffled some of the cleverest minds of the age." (The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett, letter 2, pp. 9-10).

As is often the case with esoteric teachers Paul Foster Case received his share of unfounded rumours and criticism from conceited and self-righteous moralists. Dr. Paul A. Clark relates a very human episode during a crisis period in Paul´s life when he was alone at a hotel room in Reno, very sick and no money left. The week before he had become acquainted with a card shark at a gambling establishment and a woman who proved to be a prostitute. This couple found him unconscious at his hotel room, called a doctor and paid all expenses. They nursed him back to life, until he started to recover and could continue his journey to California. Later Paul use to tell his classes: "... don´t forget to send love and gratitude to a prostitute and a very dishonest card dealer, who had so much love in their hearts, that they went to a man they did not know at all. They spent their own money to feed him... Please remember this when you start evaluating what is and is not highly evolved. It can be misleading."

Paul Foster Case devoted his whole life teaching esoteric philosophy and directing Builders of the Adytum. But he was also ordained a priest in the Liberal Catholic Church and a Freemason affiliated with lodges in New York and Los Angeles. His method of presenting the Esoteric Tradition with the help of the Tarot and Qabalah is one of many paths leading to the same goal. Personally I find the use of too much old symbolism,like qabalah frustrating and adher to the views on this issue by Henry T. Laurency as more in line with present day scientific thinking. Interested students are referred to the chapter Symbols in Knowledge of Life Three. This is not to belittle the teachings and effort of Paul Foster Case who according to my understanding was a genuine disciple of the Planetary Guardians and exponent of the Esoteric Tradition.

Was there a hidden hand, an ancient esoteric society behind some of the first UFO contactees of the 1950s? Were George Adamski, Orfeo Angelucci, Daniel Fry, George Van Tassel, Howard Menger a.o. involved in a psychological and cultural test made by this hidden group, working in collaboration with benevolent alien visitors with access to Vimana technology? This is the rather controversial theory, the Esoteric Intervention Theory, I have advanced in my book, articles and blog. To determine whether this theory is tenable and can be validated requires much more research and empirical evidence.

During the last decades there has been a resurgence of interest in studying the connection between the UFO phenomenon and the Esoteric Tradition. This renaissance is partly due to the growing academic study of what is called Western Esotericism. To mainstream scientific ufologists this issue is more or less taboo as they don´t what to be associated with cultists and mystics. And there is a definite problem here, because how to establish and define what should be considered esotericism?

Gerard Aartsen

This question becomes clearly obvious when studying the writings of Dutch author Gerard Aartsen, an exponent of the British esotericist Benjamin Creme and co-worker of his organization Share International. Aartsen has written several books detailing the connection between the messages given by UFO contactees and the Esoteric Tradition, a.o. George Adamski. A Herald For the Space Brothers (2010) and Here To Help: UFOs and the Space Brothers (2011). Gerard has kindly donated his books to AFU. His latest, Before Disclosure. Dispelling the Fog of Speculation was recently published and can be downloaded free on his website.

We have had an open and friendly correspondence since 2012, discussing various issues involving UFO contactees and esotericism. And this in spite of my critical comments on his books and Gerards presentation of the Esoteric Tradition. We have agreed to disagree on several points. So I don´t think he will be offended by my further, rather true than nice, critical comments on his writings.

The fundamental question is how to define esotericism? Can any teachings be regarded as esotericism simply because the proponents of some author or mystery school use this term? Is the writings of Rudolf Steiner, Martinus, René Guenon, Krishnamurti, Elisabeth Clare Prophet, Helena Roerich a.o. to be regarded as esotericism? My answer would be a simple no. When it comes to Benjamin Creme the problem becomes somewhat more complicated as his general presentation of esotericism is basically correct.

Let me give some basics as to what contitutes esotericism:
1. It is a Science of the multiverse, as exact as any academic discipline. A knowledge of reality presented by the "scientists of multiverse", adepts belonging to the "Higher Intelligence Agency" (HIA), so far a hidden organization, often referred to as the Planetary Hierarchy or Planetary Guardians.
2. Esotericism is not some form of mysticism or vague and irrational teachings and tales.
3. As a specialized field of knowledge, like academic philosophy, esotericism is not aimed for the general public but for those of a scholarly mind, researchers and intellectuals, with basic understanding of science and the history of ideas.
4. No demands for simple belief is ever given in esotericism, but for the students to regard the teaching as a working hypothesis.
5. Goodwill and a humanist outlook on life is fundamental to esoteric philosophy.

On March 28-29, 1987 I had the opportunity of parcipating in a weekend seminar with Benjamin Creme at Stjärnsund residential study center in Dalarna, Sweden. I was not impressed and wrote a critical article on Creme in the Swedish magazine Sökaren. Even though Creme´s presention of esotericism is basically correct his claims of channeling the adept Maitreya is a sad example of glamour or misinterpretation of inner voices. In almost every issue of the magazine Share International there are photos of obvious misidentifications of natural phenomena, not investigated. But Creme informs his readers that Maitreya confirms the objects as space craft from Mars etc. A clear exeample is the spiral phenomenon observered over Norway on December 9, 2009. The sighting has been definitely confirmed as a missile launch from the Russian submarine Dmitrij Donskoj. The launch was even announced beforehand. There is nothing mysterious about this missile launch. And it has happened before with the same result. So here is one message that definitely proves that Creme or "Maitreya"was wrong.

Benjamin Creme also says that only 4 per cent of crop circles are hoaxes. We (UFO-Sweden) know for a fact that just about all crop circles are hoaxes because we have investigated all of them in our country. There is one circle we are not sure of but in the other cases we have many times talked to the people who did them. Even complicated circles are easy to make. I know because I have made them myselves. Here is another claim when Cremes´ messages can be definitely contradicted by facts. Statements like these from Creme give esotericism a bad name

Benjamin Creme in Sweden 1987

Gerard Aartsen, as well as Creme, endorse the teachings of Krishnamurti. In my view, one of the great riddles of the Theosophical movement is how so many theosophists can still promote the teachings of Krishnamurti. I can well understand the frustration of Geoffrey Hodson when confronted with the peculiar form of advaita mysticism of JK. An intellectual quicksand that gets you nowhere and with no relation to Esoteric Science. Blavatsky with her forthright manner and vulcanic temperament would probably have given JK a harsh reprimand if they had lived during the same age. And Laurency, with his Blavatskyan temperament, is very critical and clear in his analysis of JK. Finding books by Krishnamurti in Theosophical bookshops is like finding books promoting atheism in a Catholic bookshop while the nice and naive manager of the shop doesn´t understand the difference between the two radically different world views. A sad state of affairs.

This is my general criticism of the writings of Gerard Aartsen, a confusing mixture of dubious sources and teachings with no relation to the core Esoteric Tradition. On his website Our Elder Brothers Return there are references to Krishnamurti, the Danish mystic Martinus and Helena Roerich. As for Roerich I would recommend the book Red Shambhala by Andrei Znamenski. He mentions that Helena Roerich was informed by the adept Morya to cooperate with Lenin and the bolsheviks to build their theocracy in Tibet. No elder brother would have advanced a plan to cooperate with one of the worst dictators in history. Readers can also study the article The False Mahatmas of Mr. and Mrs. Roerich by Lars Adelskogh.

The latest book by Gerard Aartsen, Before Disclosure, also suffers from the mixture of sources of different quality. I will not go into details here but simply point out one factual error that may be of interest. Aartsen is critical of the secret space program claims from various whistle blowers in the United States: "... who had heard of "secret space programmes" before Ronald Reagan´s ill-concieved Strategic Defence Initiative of 1983, or even before the fictional governments of Earth decided to co-operate on a planetary defence system in the Independence Day blockbuster of 1996?" Actually several of the early 1950s contactees mentioned a secret space programme. George Van Tassel started alluding to this in the middle of the 1950s in his magazine Proceedings: "... the military research branches of the Goverment have had several anti-gravity, electro-magnetic test ships operating since the middle 1950´s. " (Proceedings, vol. 7, no. 1, February-March 1961).

To not appear as overly critical I wish to underline that there is also data and ideas of real philosophical value in the writings of both Aartsen och Creme. In spite of my criticism they can both inspire UFO researchers and philosophers to take a second look at the early contactees and make an in depth study of the core Esoteric Tradition. I also find Creme´s idea of "sharing" a worthy goal and certainly in line with esoteric throught. Especially when we see an increase in underpaid McJobs, materialistic consumerism and robber capitalism. There is a general goodwill in the messages forwarded by both authors. But I would advice a little more of esoteric discrimination. These quotes from the early classic The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett may be of some help:

" Unless regularly initiated and trained — concerning the spiritual insight of things and the supposed revelations made unto man in all ages from Socrates down to Swedenborg and "Fern"— no self-tutored seer or clairaudient ever saw or heard quite correctly." Letter 40.

"You know, S. Moses, and you know Maitland and Mrs. K. personally. And, you have heard of and read about a good many Seers, in the past and present centuries, such as Swedenborg, Boehme, and others. Not one among the number but thoroughly honest, sincere, and as intelligent, as well educated; aye, even learned. Each of them in addition to these qualities, has or had an + of his own; a "Guardian" and a Revelator — under whatever "mystery" and "mystic name"— whose mission it is — or has been to spin out to his spiritual ward — a new system embracing all the details of the world of Spirit. Tell me, my friend, do you know of two that agree? And why, since truth is one, and that putting entirely the question of discrepancies in details aside — we do not find them agreeing even upon the most vital problems..." Letter 48.

What do you do if you experience something that according to mainstream science is impossible or encounter entities that doesn´t exist? Tell your friends? Contact the media? Consult your therapist? Thousands of people around our globe face this dilemma. Many simply clam up, They feel intrigued, confused, sometimes frightened and often embarrased to relate the experience or encounter.

I was recently made aware of this problem when a woman acquintance, whom I have known for some time, found out about my interest in UFO and paranormal phenomena, In a subdued voice and almost apologetically she said - I have seen some things. When I asked for further details she hinted that the encounter was so strange and absurd that no one would believe her of she told what had happened. Not even her husband knew of this experience. I explained that whatever happened I would never reveal her name but she was adamant in her silence: "What would people say if this got out?" Still I succeeded in being informed in general terms that she had experienced a close encounter with a UFO on the ground and observered several entities. Unfortunately she was the only witness. Hopefully she will in time change her mind and give me all the details.

On October 4, 2012 I had a telephone call from a woman, Birgit (pseudonym) living in a city in the north of Sweden. She wanted to relate a strange experience together with her husband that happened in 1979, something they had often pondered on. I respect her wish to remain anonymous. In a letter December 12, 2012 I was given the full story.

"That night in January or February 1979 my husband and I went to bed as usual with varm clothes on as it was very cold outside, minus 25 degrees Celsius, and only plus 15 degrees in our room... We both slept under varm duvets. I woke up in the middle of the night and found the room bathed in an orange light and it was very hot in the room. I was laying on my back and when I tried to turn my head to lock at my husband I couldn´t move. This ceased after a short while and then I discovered that we were totally naked and wet through with perspiration. Like in a trance we got out of our beds to take a shower and then went to our bedroom, picked up the duvets from the floor and fell asleep. The light must have been gone when we came back from the shower.

We slept like dead. The next morning we didn´t talk about what had happened. We were like anesthetized. Later we talked about the incident in a low key as we felt somewhat ashamed of it all. Not because we were naked but because it all seemed so absurd.
The room lit up in the middle of the night and we didn´t react to this.
Why were we naked?
Why didn´t we talk to each other?
When I write this down I realize how absurd and fantastic it appears. It was an ordinary night. The children were sleeping in another room."

I discussed this incident several times on the phone with Birgit and received some more details. The house was an ordinary three-storey building and the couple lived on the third floor. But it was obviously not an ordinary building. Both Birgit, her husband, friends, relatives and neighbors had experienced various paranormal phenomena in the house. Once a chair became totally impossible to lift from the floor. A visiting relative suddenly one night found a old man sitting in the kitchen. Frightened she woke up Birgit and her husband but when they checked the kitchen the man was gone. Neighbors told they had heard someone walking around in their apartment when they were not at home and Birgit often felt an invisible presence in her home. Birgit has no idea what could have happened during the night. She does not speculate about abductions. She just contacted me to hear if I had ever heard of similar experiences.

In May 1970 the two witnesses Rolf Gohs and Peter Ingemark were confronted with the impossible, something that doesn´t exist, if you ask the skeptics. The incident happened not far from the village of Stjärnhov in the Swedish province of Södermanland. The two friends waited more than ten years before they dared to openly recount their experience, which I have mentioned in an earlier blog entry.

Rolf Gohs

Here is the version given by Rolf Gohs: "In the spring of 1970 I was for a two days visit at Peter Ingemark, then living at the Solbacka rectory. It was resplendent sunshine och we went for a long walk together with Ingemar´s dog. After about two hours we came to a bend in the road. We stopped and noticed that the dog felt something and he rushed into the woods. We heard it barking at a distance and wondered what had happened.

Suddenly I heard a sound like an angry wasp close to the ear. I turned around and observed a black, flat or round - maybe oval - object fly across the road and over the woods behind me. The top of the fir-trees were flattened by the object´s speed. And then the strangest of all. The object just disappeared in thin air, like you turn of a lamp. There was a eerie silence. We just stood there for a while, staring and chocked. After quite some time the dog came back from the woods. It was totally exhausted. We didn´t say much during our walk back."

UFO-Sweden have a grave responsibility as the only serious organization that witnesses can turn to when confronted with the impossible. Someone who will listen and do an impartial and open minded analysis and documentation of the incident. Someone who will not á priori dismiss the encounter as a misidentification or myth but in the best scientific tradition study the empirical data to find whether this incident can be explained as some form of misidentification or remain unexplained. Science is the pursuit of the unexplained to further our knowledge of the universe and man. So far this type of inquiry it is to a large extent a Forbidden Science but history hopefully doesn´t end with our generation. The coming scientific heretics and iconoclasts should listen to Jacques Vallee as inspiration: "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 you visit the AFU head office the first person you are likely to meet is our devoted and long-standing archivist Sven-Olov Svensson at his desk. He is one of the pillars of AFU who with idealism and perserverance has faithfully taken care of the day to day practical duties at the archive since we moved to our first premise in Norrköping in 1980. Sven-Olov may not be so well-known in the ufological community but without his hard work behind the scenes AFU would not have been what it is today - the worlds largest UFO and Fortean archive and library.

Sven-Olov Svensson at his desk, April 20. 2012

Sven-Olov Svensson, born in 1949, developed an interest in UFO phenomena at an early age. I first met him as a member of the local UFO-Sweden unit, Norrköpings UFO-förening - NUFOF - (Norrköping UFO Society), in 1971. NUFOF had been founded by Anders Liljegren in 1970, the same year that I founded the local group UFO-Södertälje.

Sven-Olov second from left. In the middle Anders Liljegren. April 1972

When the AFU headquarters was moved from Södertälje to Norrköping in November 1980 Sven-Olov began his career as a volunteer archivist after his ordinary part time work at a local company. At that time it consisted mainly in distributing loans by mail from our UFO lending library to ufologists all around Sweden. In 1987 Sven-Olov made the historical decision to terminate his ordinary work at the local firm and engage in full time volunteer service at the then rather small AFU office. Truly a gift from heaven for a non-profit but growing foundation.

Sven-Olov, June 1988, with the Swedish author and artist Eugen Semitjov´s illustration of astronomer Clyde Tombaugh´s observation August 20, 1949

Sven-Olov at the first AFU premise in Norrköping, August 1989

As a research oriented ufologist, meticulous regarding relevant sources, one of the more frustrating experiences in maintaining the worlds largest UFO archive and library is finding documents and data I know should be preserved somewhere among our extensive collections. Then I turn to Sven-Olov, a master detective in locating obscure books, magazines and documents in our twelve premises. Very often he knows where to find what I am looking for.

Sven-Olov at the AFU report archive, July 18, 2008

Sorting magazines, December 29, 2010

An old UFO-Sweden poster July 14, 2010

Like myself Sven-Olov is deeply fascinated by the contactee enigma and he has been collecting contactee stories since 1970 in an international catalogue now comprising more than 1700 cases. He regularly searches incoming materials at AFU for entries to his catalogue and has also corresponded with ufologists worldwide for contactee data. Today much of his time at AFU is spent keeping order in our collections, making copies of requested material and posting books and magazines bought from the AFU Shop by customers in Sweden and worldwide.

Being an archivist can be pretty tuff. Sven-Olov and the AFU team unloading the Hilary Evans collection on December 13, 2010. Sven-Olov with the hood.

As I stated earlier Sven-Olov Svensson is one of the pillars of AFU, who steadfastly, for more than thirty years, has given his time and money to our venture, following our ups and downs. In 1996 Sven Ove Hansson, then director of the organized Swedish skeptics, suggested in an article that we should cease our activities, close down the archive and instead engage in something worthwhile like bird watching!!! Fortunately we didn´t listen to the Siren song of the organized Swedish skeptics (the new Inquisition) but kept on executing and promoting our Forbidden Science.

August 12, 2010

Sven-Olov has several interests besides UFOs, Swedish literature and folk music, unsolved Swedish crimes and is an enthusiastic supporter of local football and basket ball leagues. Every year he arranges the Åke Franzén Memorial Cup. AFU´s annual miniature golf contest, in memory of our late friend and UFO collegue Åke Franzén. And the winner is very often Sven-Olov himself, a good friend and AFU supporter through all these years.

Golf contest, July 5, 2010

During the weekend October 22-23 UFO-Sweden arranged the annual weekend seminar with the object of educating and training both new and old field investigators. As this event is also an important social gathering most participants arrived already on Friday 21 for a relaxed get together, welcomed by the gracious staff at Föllingen Hotel.

The nice and friendly staff at Föllingen Hotel

The program was as usual a mixture of theory and exercises: UFO-Sweden ideology and policy, basic training in field investigation techniques, witness psychology, misidentifications and the popular group exercise in trying to solve a complicated UFO case.

Some of the 44 participants listening to Clas Svahn

Carl-Anton Mattsson at the impressive book table.

Special guest this year was journalist Jack Werner who lectured on the problem of checking information on the Internet and the unreliability of social media. This is a complicated issue for all new ufologists and a completely new situation compared to ufology in the 1970s, when I started field investigation.

Jack Werner

Jack also helped us with the tricky problem of getting a good photograph of all seminar participants, in spite of the rainy weather. The ladder he climbed could be somewhat slippery but with the help of Clas Svahn all went well and they succeeded in getting all the group together in one picture.

Clas and Jack arranging for photographs

All the seminar participants

After an excellent dinner and lottery it was time for demonstration of how drones and Chinese lanterns appeared in the dark night. In spite of the rain we succeeded in getting one lanters to a lift off.

UFO-Sweden chairman Anders Berglund was quite successsful at the lottery

Watching the drone

Johan Gustavsson trying hard to get the lanter lifting

Lift off

On Sunday four unsolved UFO cases were presented by me, Johan Gustavsson, Anders Berglund and Clas Svahn. Very much appreciated was the lecture by Göran Lengqvist on how he after months of detective work could prove that the UFO film, called Orsa-filmen, was a clever fake.

Göran Lengqvist

Guides and mentors: Alice Bailey

Guides and mentors: Henry T. Laurency

Cyril Scott as esotericist

Paranormal phenomena and the academic scholar

Selma Lagerlöf and the Esoteric Tradition

The man who created AFU

Howard Menger and esotericism

Field investigation in Sweden

Robert Heinlein and esotericism

Forbidden science versus dark science

Edith Nicolaisen and the Esoteric Tradition

The BSRF archive

ETI and the Esoteric Tradition

The two lives of George W. Van Tassel

Paranormal phenomena and the paradigm problem

Paul Foster Case and the Esoteric Tradition

Gerard Aartsen, UFOs and esotericism

When the impossible happens

AFU people: Sven-Olov Svensson

Field investigator seminar 2016