Håkan Blomqvist´s blog

Knowledgeable and experienced ufologists will recognize the theme of this blog entry as the title of book written by British ufologist Brinsley Le Poer Trench (1911-1995) published in 1974, Secret of the Ages: UFO´s From Inside the Earth. Coming from one of the mainstream ufologists of the 1960s and 70s this was of course a very controversial book. The idea for this work may have been inspired by esotericist Millen Cooke, married to Brinsley Le Poer Trench 1961-1969.

Brinsley Le Poer Trench

In 1981 I made a short summary of the inner earth theme in relation to ufology and esotericism, published in AFU Newsletter (The Inner Earth Theory – A Source Study, AFU Newsletter, no. 22, August-December 1981). At that time very few ufologists were interested in these ideas, but today there is a plethora of more or less fantastic conspiracy theories and claims of inner earth contacts, especially from various channelers. For a serious ufologist or esotericist to separate the wheat from the chaff in this underground djungle of conflicting information is an undertaking worthy of a Sisyphos. An agnostic or interesting-if-true-attitude is the best option when dealing with the these controversial ideas and experiences. In this blog I present some of the data from my files that I personally find interesting.

Who are these people, was the question I posed in a former blog entry, referring to contact experiences with aliens who look like us and mingle in our society. In their discussion of theories in The Edge of Reality, Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallee used the term earth-bound aliens for this group of visitors. Mac Tonnies called them Cryptoterrestrials in his book, published in 2010. A group of people with an advanced technology, sharing our planet but who have kept themselves hidden and unknown for various reasons. According to some contactees and esotericists they have developed an advanced civilization in large caverns, deep inside the interior of the earth and this is the ”secret of the ages”.

The first pre-Adamski contactee, Eugene H. Drake (1889-1973) mentioned this civilization in his first book Visitors From Space (1950): ”There is an ancient civilization living underground with entrances in Mexico, and not such a great distance from Mexico City. They often come to the surface and mingle with the people, but aside from a few mystics, the people of Mexico do not know this, and they would have a difficult time, if they did, to locate the entrances to their underground cities.” (p. 26)

There is also a very cryptic statement in Howard Menger´s book From Outer Space to You. When discussing a conspiracy of ”others” operating on our planet a space woman relates to Menger: ”They use people not only from this planet… but ”Also other people of your own planet – people you don´t know about. People who live unobserved and undiscovered as yet. It is a kind of ”underground” in your popular terminology.” (p. 144)

I 2015 I asked my American contactee friend about these claims. He divulged some rather startling experiences:

”At first, there were the people, who since ancient times, have lived inside our planet… I have met some of them, fine people.

Håkan: Do the people living inside our planet have saucers? Do they look like us?
X: Yes, they have craft. Yes, they look like you and me, although they have other sizes among them because of the gravity variations over the centuries I would assume.
Håkan: How do you know which people are from inside the earth and which are the friends upstairs?
X: Friends upstairs are light beings, they have one hundred percent control over light, people inside our earth, just Human. The types of craft, the methods of travel and communicating, all telling signs. Friends upstairs can go invisible at the snap of a finger, walk thru walls, levitate by thought travel.” (Email, October 21, 2015).

From The Hollow Hassle, vol. 2, no. 1, 1981

Very little is said about the inner earth in the Esoteric Tradition, although a few hints are given by some authors. The reason for this scarcity of information is also in esotericism ascribed to the extreme secrecy of the subject. It is truly regarded as the ”secret of the ages”. This was explained by Theosophist Charles Leadbeater in the 1895 classic The Astral Plane: ”… there are two other great evolutions which at present share the use of this planet with humanity; but about them it is forbidden to give any particulars at this stage of the proceedings.” (p. 91) But he did give a few hints in a later work, The Inner Life I, originally published in 1910: ”The conditions of the interior of our earth are not easy to describe. Vast cavities exist in it, and there are races inhabiting these cavities, but they are not of the same evolution as ourselves. … One of these evolutions… is at the level distinctly lower than any race now existing upon the surface of the earth… the other is more nearly at our level, yet utterly different from anything that we know.” (p. 231, 1967 ed. Theosophical Publishing House).

Meade Layne, founder of Borderland Sciences Research Associates (BSRA) had a deep fascination with the inner earth enigma. He had a conversation on this issue with one of the Inner Circle members on November 22, 1947. Medium Mark Probert hearing the answers clairaudiently and relaying them to Meade:

”Yes, indeed, there are vast underground regions (caverns) that stretch from equatorial Africa to the North Pole, and also to Venezuela., where there is an opening… The opening in Venezuela is in the southern tip, in the region north of Loreto…
(Q. of size of underground population) I would say several millions. Oh, yes, they are humans. Yes, there is some contact, but mainly through their secret organizations. These people as a whole are much more healthy than those of the surfaces… Yes, in some parts of the underground world people possess a high degree of culture… Yes, there are openings in Mexico, and one in the region of Alberta, Canada.” (Those Underground Regions, Round Robin, vol. 18, no. 2, March 1962, p. 17).

Irene and Mark Probert

In 1871 one of the most famous classics in esoteric literature was published, The Coming Race, by Edward Bulwer Lytton. He was a member of the real and secret Rosicrucian order and obviously decided to disclose the ”secret of the ages”, but using a fictional form. I am somewhat surprised that, to my knowledge, no ufologists, nor esotericists have noticed the close resemblance between the people described in The Coming Race and some contactee experiences. It is even mentioned that the inhabitants of the inner earth travel in ”air-boats” (p. 56) All quotes are from the edition published by Wesleyan University Press, 2005. Ufologists who have made an in depth study of contactee cases will surely associate these quotes with various observations made in another context:

”It was the face of a man, but yet of a type of man distinct from our known extant races… Its colour was peculiar, more like that of the red man than any other variety of our species, and yet different from it – a richer and a softer hue, with large black eyes, deep and brilliant… The face was beardless… They seemed as void of the lines and shadows which care and sorrow, and passion and sin, leave upon the faces of men, as are the faces of sculptured gods… I never met one person deformed or misshapen. The beauty of their countenances is not only in symmetry of feature, but in the smoothness of surface, which continues without line or wrinkle to the extreme of old age… ” (pp. 12, 14, 60)

”A figure, in a simpler garb than that of my guide, but of similar fashion, was standing motionless near the threshold. My guide touched it twice with his staff, and it put itself into a rapid and gliding movement, skimming noicelessly over the floor. Gazing on it, I then saw that it was no living form, but a mechanical automaton… Four automata (mechanical contrivances which, with these people, answer the ordinary purposes of domestic service) stood phantom-like at each angle in the wall.” (pp. 13, 19).

”These subterranean philosophers assert that, by one operation of vril… they can influence the variations of temperature… that by other operations, akin to those ascribed to mesmerism, electro-biology, odic force but applied scientifically through vril conductors, they can exercise influence over minds, and bodies animal and vegetable, to an extent not surpassed in the romances of our mystics. To all such agencies they give the common name of vril.” (p. 27)

These are only a few of the quotes in the novel, but ufologists and esotericists can find many more that give very clear associations to the contactee cases of our time. Probing into these areas can of course be somewhat mind-shattering and unnerving. Suppose you really find out that there is a secret war going on, on this planet, a power-struggle between secret groups of various motives cooperating with, or manipulating, hitherto unknown intelligences and that the UFO phenomenon is only the tip of the iceberg of this cosmic Watergate. A phenomenon cleverly used by both the alpha and omega groups. Few ufologists, not to mention the public, could take such a revelation without developing at least a mild form of paranoia. How about stamp-collecting?

On the beautiful and sunny Spring day May 24 I visited the grave of my old friend and UFO colleague Kjell Jonsson. His gravestone can be found at Södertälje Cemetery, not far from the house where Kjell in his small, one-room apartment created and for several years in the 1970s maintained the first AFU library. His father Henry is buried at the same place. I have written about Kjell and our UFO interest and work in many blog entries but here I simply wish to pay homage in pictures to my old friend.

It was our common interest in books and reading that resulted in our acquaintance. As teenagers we both, beginning in 1967, worked part time evenings and Saturdays at Södertälje Public Library, where we soon discovered that we studied at he same school. Our friendship deepened as we both in different ways were outsiders. Kjell had a very poor health since childhood, a.o. severe asthma and had been heavily medicated, which was probably the reason he stopped growing when quite young. Being very short and different from his classmates he was the constant victim of both verbal and physical bullying and abuse at school. We spent much time together and soon discovered a common interest in spiritual searching and mysteries.

Kjell Jonsson May 1968

Fun times working at Södertälje Public Library 1969

Walking home from library work, Spring 1970

Celebrating New Year´s Eve together 1970

As a young teenager I had read all the UFO books found in my parents library and when I introduced Kjell to these books he immediately became intensely fascinated by the subject and entered a subscription to Flying Saucer Review. In 1970 we contacted UFO organizations active at the time which resulted in our founding a local UFO group, UFO-Södertälje, later Södertälje UFO-Center. We were of course naive and idealistic and spent many evenings skywatching and waiting for the space people to appear in their craft.

Ready for a bookshop tour to Stockholm August 29, 1971

Skywatching with members of UFO-Södertälje May 1971

When our UFO interest became more realistic and research oriented we founded an informal working group Arbetsgruppen för ufologi (AFU), later Archives for UFO Research, together with UFO colleague Anders Liljegren, Norrköping. As I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, The man who created AFU, it was Kjell who in 1974 came up with the idea of building a UFO lending library. Practically as a one man enterprice he maintained and expanded the collections until the AFU was instead located at Norrköping.

Kjell working with his Swedish UFO bibliography at my apartment June 1976

One of our many discussions of his UFO bibliography

The first two AFU bookshelves August 1977

The first AFU librarian October 22, 1977

In the 1980s Kjell´s health problems worsened and he died, 34 years old, caused by a heavy fit of asthma. His short life was in many respects an incarnation of suffering, poor health, pain and loneliness. In spite of all these hardships he was an idealist, caring, cheerful and full of good spirit. A great and beautiful soul in a miserable body. Kjell was a pioneer who made the AFU venture more than a dream. I cherish and honour the memory of my dear old friend and hope we will meet again.

July 30, 1978

The student or interested reader who for the first time, in books or on the Internet, begin searching for information on esotericism or the Esoteric Tradition will be faced with a plethora of conflicting claims and a seemingly endless stream of fanciful and fantastic messages from ”Ascended Masters”. Scientifically and philosophically educated students soon realize that the naive platitudes and simple mysticism presented in much of this literature is of little interest, except to scholars of Religion or Cultural History.

The problem is that hidden in this mass of popular occultism and mysticism there is to be found a treasure trove of knowledge and wisdom of a very different quality. A profound philosophy and Science of the Multiverse that should be of interest to every intellectual humanist and academic scholar looking for a worldview and lifeview that can present relevant and reasonable answers to the deeper existential questions not given by orthodox theology, science or philosophy. Furthermore this Science of the Multiverse or paradigm is a useful tool as a working hypothesis to the investigator of UFO and paranormal phenomena.

A complicating factor, even for those students who have found The Philosopher´s Stone, is the difference in the level or quality of presentation given by different authors. To my knowledge the best and intellectually most articulate introduction to The Ancient Wisdom is written by the Swedish esotericist Henry T. Laurency. In his writings he often laments the mistakes made when esotericism was first publicly introduced to humanity, beginning in 1875 with The Theosophical Society:

”After 1875, esoteric facts have been publicized. But just very few of these facts have yet been put into their right contexts. Loose facts are worthless and too few facts will easily be misleading. It is very deplorable that this “secret knowledge” at its first appearance was given such an abortive presentation… The various theosophical attempts at esoteric world view are incomplete to the extent of being misleading (Sinnett and Judge), or all too one-sided (Leadbeater) to meet the demands of intellectuals for an all-sided mental system. It is true that Blavatsky publicized a great number of esoteric facts, but she did not bother to put them into comprehensible contexts. Her writings (Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine) are certainly gold-mines of facts, more resembling voluminous encyclopaedias, but are largely inaccessible for those who have not acquired a system. Her inability to find a terminology suitable for Western language usage makes it even more difficult to study her writings… The concepts used must be clearly defined. They must be part of Western language and scientific mode of presentation. If you want to give knowledge to people, you must do it in such a manner that they are able to comprehend it. Instead, there was a monstrous mixture of symbolic sayings and unintelligible terminology with Sanskrit words already misunderstood. ” (Henry T. Laurency, Knowledge of Life Two, online ed. 3.4:1,3,7)

For the novice in esoteric studies it is important to have a clear understanding of the source of this knowledge, to realize who are the actual custodians of the Ancient Wisdom. Although they are far ahead of humanity in general in the evolution of consciousness and belong to the next or fifth kingdom in nature, they are no hazy spooks in the astral world but most of them men and women, presently incarnated in physical bodies working together in a hidden or secret organization that has been given various names in literature; Planetary Hierarchy, Inner Government, White Brotherhood, Elder Brothers, Great White Lodge. The Tibetan adept D.K. who is the official secretary and organizing contact man of this organization made this statement in one of the books dictated to his amanuensis Alice Bailey: ”We who watch and guide on the inner side, watch with loving care all of you who struggle in the thick of the fray. We are like the General Headquarters Staff who follow the course of the battle from a secure eminence. ”Alice Bailey, A Treatise of White Magic, clothbound ed. p. 371).

Some of the books by Alice Bailey

Another important fact to consider is that this organization has since 1775 made plans to reveal part of their knowledge for the benefit of humanity and also decided that from 1875, as a test, disclose the fact of their, hitherto unknown, existence and work on our planet. Eventually they hope to be able to live openly in our society as teachers and guides. To the mainstream intellectual and cultural elite, immersed in and limited by the materialist, reductionist worldview such ideas are anathema or irrational fantasies, unless they have entered the path of the scientific heretic and discovered that there is a Forbidden Science.

In popular occultism the members of the Planetary Guardians have often been presented in unrealistic and ridiculous ways, uttering meaningless platitudes to spiritist mediums and channelers worldwide. The critical and discerning student will immediately notice the difference in intellectual quality between these messages and the teachings presented in esoteric volumes. But we still have to contend with the limited knowledge, ability and idiosyncrasies of the authors in contact with and working together with members of the Planetary Guardians. Especially as the information is not always dictated but ”inspired” in various ways.

Alice Bailey is in this respect an interesting example. Although she physically met and corresponded with her teacher, the Tibetan D.K., her books were dictated clairaudiently or often only inspired where Bailey used her own knowledge and terminology. As she early in life was a Christian missionary many of her books use ideas and expressions from Christianity but with an esoteric explanation. This can be very confusing and frustrating at times, especially to readers with a scientific and critical mind who simply want the facts without Christian symbols or quotes from the Bible.

Alice Bailey

Esotericist Henry T. Laurency makes some critical comments on this problem when reading Alice Bailey: ”Everywhere the former Christian missionary shines through who could never divest her mind from old Christian fictions and who makes this colour her presentation… If A.A.B:’s intention was to meet with approval among Christians by using their terminology, she counteracts this effect by unnecessarily disclosing the import of the symbols and depriving these readers of quite a few cherished illusions and fictions. When A.A.B. speaks it is now the esoterician speaking, now the Christian missionary who knows her Bible.” (Knowledge of Life Five, online ed. 7:2, 39). This comment is not made to belittle the tremendous work done by Bailey but simply to explain the problems encountered by the teachers. The Tibetan is very well aware of these shortcomings regarding his amanuensis and also that a new and more adequate terminology is badly needed in esotericism.

The teachers belonging to the Planetary Guardians I have sometimes, in a humorous mode, referred to as the Higher Intelligence Agency (HIA). Theosophist Henry Steel Olcott, who knew several of them personally often called them “the boys”. This attitude can be a useful antidote when confronted with the often ridiculously devotional literature attributed to the adepts. There is a quote regarding the lives of ”Masters” in Alice Bailey´s book The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, that gives a good perspective of this issue: ”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… I would here remind you that many of the Masters are married and have raised families". (p. 699, clothbound ed.)

In 2013 my book Gudarna återvänder. Ufo och den esoteriska traditionen (Return of the Gods. UFOs and the Esoteric Tradition) was published. To my knowledge this was the first extensive study of how ideas and assertions in the Esoteric Tradition has influenced the UFO movement, both from a scholarly and esoteric perspective. But it was also an attempt to formulate a variant of the esoteric intervention theory, presented by Jacques Vallee in several books and articles.

As the book was only published in Swedish several of my many friends and UFO research colleagues around the world urged me to make an English translation. About a year ago I did begin translating the manuscript but soon discovered that so much additional interesting data had come my way since 2013 that I abandoned the idea. Instead I decided to publish a compilation of some of the relevant blog entries about UFOs and Esotericism written 2013-2017. This compilation is only a selection and more data can be found on my blog.

To make reading easier I have arranged the blog entries in these main headings
Contents
Introduction
1. The Esoteric Tradition
2. Academic Esotericism
3. UFOs, Paranormal Phenomena and Esotericism
4. Esotericists, Ufologists, Researchers
5. Guides and Mentors
6. UFO Contactees, Case Histories
7. Miscellanea
Some Comments From Blog Readers

As I have not changed anything in the blog entries there will naturally be much repetition in the compilation. But I hope this study will be of interest and compensate readers who had hoped for a translation of my book.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to all friends and research colleagues worldwide who have provided much new data, encouragement and help in several ways.

This compilation, Esotericism and UFO Research, I will try to make aviable as a free pdf on this blog. Until then anyone can have a free pdf copy if you just send an email request.

Late afternoon on July 27, 1999 several witnesses observed a missile or rocket shaped object crash into lake Backsjön, north of the town Arvika in the province of Värmland, Sweden. The object was about three meters in length with small wings at the sides. It hit the lake with a splash resulting in a large water cascade. One of the witnesses called the local rescue service and eventually a unit from the Swedish military began an intensive search for the missile.

During the first days of investigation the military gave various cover stories to the press of what had happened. They interviewed seven witnesses who were all regarded as very credible. After some preliminary dives in August a ten days search was initiated in September with a small submarine equipped with ultrasound and cameras. In spite of a very detailed search in the lake, nothing was found and this was very confusing to the military. ”We considered this report as credible. The search resulted in nothing and we really don´t know what we are looking for”, commented colonel Yngve Johansson.

The Backsjön case makes it quite obvious why these type of unknown craft are called Ghost Rockets. Since 1946 there have been hundreds of well documented Ghost Rocket reports in Sweden. Always with the same scenario, apparently physical objects crashing into lakes and the military finding nothing in spite of intense search. Swedish ufologist Clas Svahn have investigated the Ghost Rocket phenomenon for many years and regard these reports as one of the most intriguing type of UFO observations in our country.

In 2015 filmmakers Michael Cavanagh and Kerstin Übelacker released the UFO documentary Ghost Rockets. A film about the national organization UFO-Sweden and the expedition to find a Ghost Rocket that landed and sank in lake Nammajaure, in the north of Sweden 1980. After two expeditions nothing has been found so far but there are indications that some object may be hidden deep in the mud in this small lake. Hopefully a third expedition may give some final results.

To the skeptic the lack of physical evidence for the Ghost Rocket reports prove that these reports are nothing but a myth based on misidentification of ordinary objects. To mainstream scientific ufologists the Ghost Rockets are an intriguing enigma indicating unknown air vehicles. But to the open minded researcher the lack of physical evidence opens up a third option usually not considered by the two former groups.

Before the Robertson panel of 1953 and the general silence policy on the subject from 1954 American contactee George Van Tassel were sometimes visited by military men from the Air Force who had a personal interest in or had become involved in UFO incidents themselves. He related several such incidents and talks in his magazine Proceedings.

George Van Tassel at Giant Rock

In 1953 an Air Force Major, stationed at George Air Force Base, at Adelanto, California, spent many weekends with the Van Tassel family at Giant Rock Airport. The major was officially in charge of UFO investigations in Southern California. An interesting case he had been involved in told of jet pilot who radioed George Air Force Base tower that a round unidentified object had crashed into the ground near San Jacinto Mountain. The Tower phoned the Major and hurriedly he and other Air Force personal climbed into a helicopter and headed for Mt. San Jacinto. They spotted the jet circling the area and landed the helicopter in a clearing about 200 feet from the unknown object.

”The Major said they walked slowly toward it and when they were about 25 feet from it they stopped in awe because the couldn´t figure out what was happening. The Major said the object was apparently remote controlled, and was in the process of some automatically activated ”self destruct” proceedure. He said the object had a pulsing bright light in tghe middle of an ovoid mass, of what looked like black tar about two feet thick and about 12 feet in diameter. The entire black mass was quivering like jelly, shaking and getting smaller by the minute.” (Proceedings, vol. 10, no. 6, Oct-Dec 1974, pp. 11-12).

In a short time the black blob dimished until there was nothing left and the pulsing light just vanished. The group took samples of the ground where the object had been and also samples of the earth a hundred feet away. George Van Tassel never heard what the results were as the Major then stopped visiting Giant Rock when security and secrecy regarding UFOs increased in 1954.

There is a very fascinating description of this process in George Adamski´s Inside the Space Ships. During one of his contacts Adamski was told by one of the space people:

”Whenever possible these complex and highly sensitive little machines are returned to their parent craft, but sometimes, for one reason or another, the connection is broken and they go out of control or crash to the ground. In such cases emergency procedure is immediately brought into action. On each side of the mother ship, just below the disk-launching ports, is a magnetic ray projector. When a disk goes out of control, a ray is projected to disintegrate it. This accounts for some of the mysterious explosions that take place in your skies which cannot be accounted for by artillery, jet planes or electrical storms. On the other hand, if a disk goes out of control near the surface of the planet where an explosion might cause damage, it is allowed to descend to the ground where a milder charge is sent into it. Instead of an explosion, this causes the metal to disintegrate in slow stages. First it softens, then turns into a kind of jelly, then a liquid, and finally it enters a free state as gases, leaving not a wrack behind. This latter process is without danger to anyone or anything should the disk be touched while in process of disintegration. The only harm could come if, by chance, someone should see it fall and touch it at the moment the ray is applied.” (George Adamski, Inside the Space Ships, 1955 ed. p. 155).

Could the Ghost Rockets be some type of aerial device used by an alien group as described by Van Tassel and Adamski? This is just a theory of course but how come that these strange missiles are never found? And why the large concentration of Ghost Rocket reports in Scandinavia and especially Sweden?

In an email from Dr. Tim Rudbøg, Associate Professor, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, Copenhagen University, I was informed of his recently founded Copenhagen Center for the Study of Theosophy and Esotericism (CCSTE). A commendable effort that I hope will inspire scholars to in-depth research into the much neglected history of the Theosophical and Esoteric movements in Sweden. Dr. Rudbøg is one of the foremost international experts on Western Esotericism and author of several books relating to esotericism. He is also a specialist in rare occult books and proprietor of H.E.R.M.E.S.`Antiquarian.

When studying and documenting the influence of Theosophy and esoteric ideas on the development of the UFO movement I became aware of the lack of research in the history of Theosophy and its offshoots in Sweden. The new research center founded by Dr. Rudbøg has a vast uncharted territory to discover, especially in Sweden. From my vantage point these research projects would be of great interest:

1. A detailed history of the founding of the Theosophical Society in Sweden. Cultural influences, personalities involved, official debate.

2. A biographical study of Countess Constance Wachmeister (1838-1910). She was a close friend and important co-worker of Helena Blavatsky.

3. Theosophy and the Swedish King Oscar II(1829-1907). He was strongly influenced by Theosophical ideas and invited Henry Steel Olcott and Annie Besant for audiences at the Royal Palace.

4. The cultural influence of Theosophy in Sweden 1891-1930. During these years Theosophy had a very extensive cultural impact. Theosophical ideas influenced famous authors like August Strindberg, Gustaf Fröding and Selma Lagerlöf. Well known members very psychologists Sidney Alrutz, Bror Gadelius and painter and Gustaf Fjæstad, member of the Rackstad colony of artists in Värmland.

5. Krishnamurti and the crisis of Swedish Theosophy1929-1930. In 1925 there were 45 local Theosophical lodges in Sweden. Many of these lodges folded or ceased activities during the period 1929-1930. How did members and the general public react when Krishnamurti disavowed his role as World Teacher?

6. Esotericism and the founding of the UFO movement in Sweden. Many of the first generation ufologists in Sweden were active Theosophists or members of various occult societies. The first Swedish UFO organizations of 1957-1958 were actually founded by members of the Theosophical Society Adyar. In what way and how much did ideas from the Esoteric Tradition influence the Swedish UFO movement?

7. Henry T. Laurency and the Esoteric Tradition. The writings of Swedish esotericist Henry T. Laurency, pen name for Henrik von Zeipel (1882-1971) are to a large extent unknown even among scholars of Western Esotericism. In what way have his books contributed to our understanding of esotericism as a worldview?

There is an interesting and rather sensitive dilemma associated with this area of research. A problem addressed by Dr. Jean-Michel Abrassart in his essay Paranormal Phenomena: Should Psychology Really Go Beyond the Ontological Debate? Should academic scholars state their own beliefs on the topic they are studying? That is, being honest in regard to religious, esoteric affiliations or adherence to some specific paradigm or worldview? Being open minded in this respect can be detrimental to the academic career and result in a loss of intellectual integrity in the academic community.

In spite of this problem Dr. Abrassart advocates the view that an open position statement from scholars is of great importance: ”I think that transparency (stating one´s own beliefs about the subject one is studying) is preferable to staying safely outside the ontological debate… If we can imagine that a committed Christian can legitimately study personal prayer, why not a medium studying mediumship?”

I agree with Dr. Abrassart in his views but the idea is fine in theory but the practice may not be so easy. As blog readers have noted I have personally clearly and openly stated my position or worldview as esotericist in books, articles and blog, an adherence to the Esoteric Tradition as presented by Helena Blavatsky, Alice Bailey and Henry T. Laurency. This is no problem to me as I have no affiliation with any University or official research institution and as retired librarian I can be as heretical and iconoclastic as I please. It is only my esteemed colleagues in UFO research that may raise a few eyebrows at my writings and wonder if I have committed intellectual harakiri.

For the academic scholar interested in esotericism, UFO or paranormal phenomena research becomes a bit more complicated as in academe you are restricted by the predominant materialist, reductionist worldview and certain rules regarding research. And with topics like esotericism, UFOs and paranormal phenomena you are standing at the gates of Forbidden Science. This is why I have always advocated privately funded research institutions. Let me once again state my four reasons for private UFO research:

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

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

UFO research is militarily controversial

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

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

UFO research is religiously controversial

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

This criticism should not be seen as depreciating academic research in these controversial areas, but only to show the problems and restrictions involved. As mentioned earlier I really commend the founding of Copenhagen Center for the Study of Theosophy and Esotericism, looking forward to many interesting monographs and dissertations.

Swedish ufologists Anders Skoglund and Christoffer Mossberg recently came across a very fascinating story told by a woman living in the south of Sweden. I was briefed of this encounter in an email from my UFO research colleagues on June 18. The observation occurred in Tunisia in the 1980s where the family for many years spent their summers. This is only a preliminary report and I hope Anders and Christoffer will continue investigating and documenting this extraordinary case.

Anders Skoglund

Christoffer Mossberg

”It was during Ramadan and me, my husband and two children had visited mother-in-law in the evening. It is around midnight when I drive our car to the house we are building, about 7 kilometers from the city. Our house is situated between two villages. About 150 meters from the house is a railway and from what I remember there were seldom any trains coming. When we approach the railway crossing the red lights begin flashing. We stop just a few meters in front of the railway tracks, waiting for the train.

There is no sound from any train and instead four or five bright creatures appear in front of us, walking in the middle of the tracks. They walk behind each other with arms stretched to the next in line. Their heads are large and round and narrowed at the chin. The beings look straight ahead, never turning towards us. They are extremely thin, almost like skeletons. We can see the bones in their chest. Feet are very small and they almost jump ahead. Their height maybe two thirds of ours. Actually they looked like very skinny old men.

Drawing by witness

Our children are asleep. Me and my husband remain silent and just stare at these beings. When they had passed the red lights are turned off and we can continue driving. We are still silent, wondering what we have witnessed? I just want to go come home as fast as possible. When finally at home and our children asleep we sit down at the kitchen table and we both asked ourselves – what was it we encountered?

Each of us take a paper and draw a picture of what we observed. I thought this was the best we could do so as not to influence each other. We made similar figures and our memories of the observation were the same. We speculated about UFOs and also another theory. According to local tradition there was once an old well not far from the railway crossing. And beside this well people had encountered jinns on several occasions. Some had even been chased by these jinns. These jinn had the feet of animals with small hoofs.”

This observation is especially intriguing as the beings obviously affected electricity in the railway lights. This is often mentioned in UFO reports but I have no knowledge of this physical effect in creature encounters with no UFO. The comment on jinns is also interesting as there is a rich folklore on these beings in Arabic countries. Jinns are also an important part of Islamic theology and often mentioned in the Quran. There are several classes of jinn, both good and evil. In several respects they can be compared to demons or nature spirits in the Western world. Flying Saucer Review editor GordonCreighton, who became convinced that UFO entities were evil demonic entities sometimes in his articles compared them to jinns.

This encounter in Tunisia has some similarities with an observation made in Estonia 1938 or 1939. In two letters to Swedish ufologist Sven Schalin, 1959, the witness Karl Laiande narrates what he observed together with a friend in the village Juminda, Estonia. The event occurred on the farm owned by the grandparents of Karl Laiande. He first noticed someone trying to crawl through a crevice between a small shed and a fence. Something looking like a human hand appeared and Karl´s first thought was that his younger brother was trying to sneak up on them. But he soon realized this was something entirely different. The being that appeared was no human. Karl made a sketch of the creature attached in the letter.

Sven Schalin 1992

”In height it was about 1,10 m, probably 1,05 m. Very long legs. The chest extremely high, almost like hump and the hemispherical head placed directly on this hump. Across the hemispherical head was a slit. The eyes appeared as two slits. The body seemed to be covered with some green-brown pegamoid (leather) material. When my friend started to run towards the creature it first made no hurry. Not until he was very close did it start running at an incredible speed. He simply rushed pass my friend as close as 1 meter. I was never closer than 30 meters. Suddenly the creature simply disappeared into thin air in front of my friend.”

In his letter Karl Laiande explain that he has tried to find a scientific explanation for this encounter: ”I consider this experience as an undisputable evidence that our planet is visited from space”. His two sisters and uncle to whom he related the observation are convinced he has seen a ”kratt”, a magical creature in Estonian folklore, made by flour and blood from the person who made it.

Drawing by Karl Laiande

The comment made by Karl´s relatives is very interesting as they probably are closer to a correct interpretation than Karl himself, who tries his best to find a reasonable scientific explanation. From an esoteric viewpoint the creature encounters in Tunisia and Estonia open up two possibilities. Either nature spirits using the above forms in materialization or elementals created consciously or unconsciously and temporary appearing in visible form. I would vote for the latter interpretation.

To understand these phenomena we must consult one of the best sources presenting a detailed taxonomy of non-human entities, Theosophist Charles Leadbeater´s classic The Astral Plane, published already in 1895. A magnificent contribution to esotericism as a science of the multiverse. The writings and investigations of Charles Leadbeater are very controversial among Theosophists. One of the reasons being his sometimes rather excentric behavior and controversial sexual activities, documented by Dr. Gregory Tillett in his biography The Elder Brother (1982). But in spite of his faults and mistakes Leadbeater was a pioneer in his research and writing. Commenting on some of his mistakes The Tibetan D.K. still has this to say: "... of his sincerity and of his point of attainment there is no question." (Alice Bailey, Esoteric Psychology II, p. 303).

Inhabitants of the astral plane are classified in four groups in Leadbeater´s study: Human (living), dead, non-human, artificial. It is in the last category we find elementals, consciously or unconsciously formed. Leadbeater explain what happens on the astral plane when the human mind for a long time concentrates and formulates a definite and purposeful thought or wish: ”The effect produced is of the most striking nature. The thought seizes upon the plastic essence, and moulds it instantly into a living being of appropriate form – a being which when once thus created is in no way under the control of its creator, but lives out a life of its own, the length of which is proportionate to the intensity of the thought or wish which called it into existence. (p. 125-126)

In this way anyone with enough concentration and will power can create an artificial entity of any form. This experiment was successfully tried out by a group of parapsychologists in Canada who together created the elemental ”Philip”. They documented the experience in the book Conjuring up Philip. An Adventure in Psychokinesis by Iris M. Owen and Margaret Sparrow (1976). Creating a tulpa, golem or elemental is not recommended. A lesson that was learnt the hard way by Alexandra David-Neal who created a tulpa in the form of a monk. It took her six months of hard struggle to dissolve the phantom. (Alexandra David-Neal, Magic and Mystery in Tibet, pp. 314-315).

In the future the knowledge of how to materialize thought-forms will be known to humanity, according to the Tibetan adept D.K. : ”People will come into incarnation who will have the ability temporarily to create and vitalize these though-forms, and so enable the general public to see them. The time, however, is not yet. There is too much fear, and not enough experience of truth in the world. ” (Alice Bailey, A Treatise of White Magic, pp. 182-183).

Encountering the little people, leprechauns or fairies is usually a nice and fascinating experience. Coming face to face with an elemental can be quite the opposite, depending upon how and for what purpose it was created. Maybe you then should pronounce the words of Rav Zeira said when meeting a golem:"You were created by the sages; return to your dust".

The golden era of UFO contactees, the 1950s, is still in many respects an uncharted territory when it comes to serious research and documentation. A pioneering effort was made by Lou Zinsstag and Timothy Good in George Adamski. The Untold Story (1983), followed by New Zealand journalist Tony Brunt´s George Adamski. The Toughest Job in the World (2010). A very interesting biography, Contactee. Was Daniel Fry Telling the Truth?, was published by Sean Donovan in 2013. But still there is no in-depth documentation or biographies of Orfeo Angelucci, George and Dorris Van Tassel, Paul Vest or Howard Menger.

It was therefore with great anticipation when, about a year ago, I received a review copy of The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson by Michel Zirger and Maurizio Martinelli. The book is an impressive, 395 pages, documentation based on fifteen years of research and rare archival material, notebooks, correspondence, photos etc, acquired by Michel Zirger. When reading the book I soon realized that reviewing this work was not an easy task. It is not very well organized. There is no linear narrative and the two authors mix events, biographical data and personal theories in various chapters. Eight chapters are written by Zirger and five are from the pen of Martinelli. Another problem was the seemingly uncritical endorsement of the teachings and claims channeled by George Hunt Williamson. In this respect the biography is more like a hagiography. I let the book rest on my shelf but finally decided that this important documentation should be reviewed not just as another UFO book but evaluated also from an esoteric viewpoint.

In UFO history George Hunt Williamson (1926-1986) is perhaps best remembered as one of the six witnesses to George Adamski´s meeting with a Venusian in the California Desert on November 20, 1952. All his life Williamson asserted the veracity of this contact experience as documented with several quotes by the authors. During a lecture in Sao Paolo, Brazil on July 21, 1958 one of the listeners asked him about this event and whether he really observed the cigar-shaped ship over Desert Center: ”The answer is easy, yes! And all other persons present also. It was rather high in the sky, but I was able to observe it for a long time through binoculars. It was a large silvery, metallic-looking cigarr reflecting th sun… And let me anticipate the other question that certainly someone will ask me: yes I did see George Adamski talking in the distance to ”someone” , whom you know now under the name of Orthon… the account of the events made by Adamski in Flying Saucers Have Landedis accurate and true”. (p. 160-161).

George Hunt Williamson 1953

It is reasonable to assume that Williamson´s participation in this historical contact would have resulted in many years of friendship and co-operation with Adamski. But this was not so. As Michel Zirger narrates the association with George Adamski lasted only one month (p. 99). The reason being a difference of opinion regarding the reliability of channeling. Adamski always urged his co-workers not to accept channeled messages indiscriminately: ”You can never check on the sender of a trance message. Every mock spirit or evil impersonator could come and tell you that his name was Ashtar or Aetherius and that he lived in a space ship. I think that these entities are having a heyday leading astray the gullible mediums and their public… This is not to belittle mediums in any way, but it is to say that most of them have much to learn before they can be sure of just what they are receiving, and from whom and where.” (Zinsstag & Good, George Adamski – the Untold Story, pp. 55, 57).

Unfortunately George Hunt Williamson did not heed this wise warning from Adamski but chose a very different path. On November 20, 1953 Williamson met William Dudley Pelley (1890-1965) who from now on became his ”intellectual guide” (p. 204) and ”inspirational master” (p. 313). A very unfortunate choice of ”master”. After an out-of-body experience in 1927 Pelley started channeling various entities via automatic writing. Inspired by Adolf Hitler´s National Socialism and his channeled messages Pelley in 1933 founded the Silver Legion, better known as the Silver Shirts, modelled after Hitler´s Brown Shirts. Because of his politial activities Pelley was charged with high treason and sedition and spent seven years in prison. After release in 1950 Pelley moved to Noblesville, Indiana where he founded Soulcraft Press and the magazine Valor. During four or five month in 1954 Williamson worked as associate editor of Valor magazine and chief of the research laboratories at Soulcraft headquarters.

Proceedings, vol. 2, no. 17, June 15, 1954

In connection with a lecture in Detroit, December 1954, Williamson found ”the second important association” in his life, Dr. Charles Laughead and his wife Lillian. This meeting developed into a long friendship. Together this group held many channeling sessions with Williamson as medium and Lillian Laughead as scribe: ”After putting himself in a meditative trance,George Hunt Williamson served as a channel for various extra or supra-terrestrial entities who expressed themselves through him, each with voices stunningly different from his own. Perhaps the most notable among them was the enigmatic ”Brother Philip”, affiliated to the no less enigmatic ”Monastery of the Seven Rays”, supposedly hidden in the heart of the Andes.” (p. 103). Dr. Charles Laughed and his wife also became involved in the famous failed prophecy of channeler Dorothy Martin (later Sister Thedra) who predicted the end of the world in a great flood on December 21, 1954. The activities of this group were documented in the classic social and psychological study When Prophecy Fails (1956).

Undeterred by this failed prophecy the group continued receiving messages from various ”Ascended Masters” such as Lord Aramu-Muru and ”El Morya”. Because of a message received in 1956 they decided go to Peru to search for The Monastery of the Seven Rays and to establish a new age center The Abbey”, as an outer expression of the master´s work in South America. With this end in view the members of the group sold their property, left their jobs and headed for Peru, George Hunt Williamson and his wife Betty Jane, the Laugheds and Dorothy Martin. The activities and life in this monastic community established by the group is very well documented by authors Zirger and Martinelli. Much of what happened during the years 1956-1958 has not been known in such detail before. Betty Jane died on August 11, 1958 and Williamson was forced to return to Arizona. The Abbey was then for a while headed by Dorothy Martin or John McCoy.

George Hunt Williamson wrote several books in the 1950s that today are minor underground classics, such as The Saucers Speak (1954), Other Tongues – Other Flesh(1957) and UFOs Confidential (1958), co-authored with his friend John McCoy. His last book written using the old name was Road in the Sky, published in 1959. When Williamson disappeared from the contactee scene in 1961 there was much speculation of what had happened. In 1960 he legally changed his name to Michel d´Obrenovic and claimed to be a descendant of Yugoslavia´s royal family. The last book from Williamson, Secret of the Andes (1961), was written under the pseudonym Brother Philip. Between 1961-1986 few ufologists knew of his activities. In chapter 4, The ”Hidden Years” of Williamson, Michel Zirger has made a commendable effort in documenting what transpired during these years. Always a religious man George Hunt Williamson was ordained a priest in the ”Orthodox Christian Church” and settled in Santa Barbara, California.

As already noted reviewing this book is no easy undertaking. There is an immense amount of research work involved with lots of never before published facts and documents of great value to all researchers, whether ufologists or academic scholars. More problematic is the authors uncritical acceptance of the channeled messages by Williamson, Dorothy Martin (Sister Thedra) and others in the group. Maurizio Martinelli does make some reservations in his Introduction when discussing ”the ultimate source of the various types of messages which Williamson had received… themes that must be approached with great caution” (p. 37).

Unfortunately no such caution or critical discussion can be found in the book. And this is the weak part of this otherwise pioneering work. Any accomplished or erudite esotericist reading the channeled messages of Williamson or Dorothy Martin will immediately notice that this is either astral entities masquerading as ”ascended masters” etc or information coming from the subconscious mind of the channelers. A mixture of Theosophy, spiritualism and mysticism. This is the most common mistake made by students of esotericism – lack of discrimination. The books and channeled messages by George Hunt Williamson is a curious mixture of mysticism and genuine esotericism (the science of the multiverse). John McCoy appears to be the one in the group best aquainted with the more academic Esoteric Tradition, mentioning Blavatsky and Alice Bailey in part II of UFOs Confidential, co-authored with Williamson.

Brother Philip and the Monastery of the Seven Rays are most certainly pure fiction. But these myths have had the unfortunate result that South America is now plagued with various cult groups. According to a report in the London newspaper The Guardian, November 15, 1986 there are hundreds of new age sects in Peru and Bolivia. An interesting question is whether there could be a real ”safe retreat” or ”protected area” used by the Planetary Guardians in the Andes?

On January 27, 1984 I received a letter from American esotericist Dane Rudhyar regarding a question I had asked about the mystic Brown Landone (one of George Hunt Williamson´s sources): ”I regret to say that I have at present no printed material from Brown Landone, who I never met. I only read many years ago an article or two he had written about the transfer of some of the great planetary Beings from Tibet to the Andes. Apparently they were expecting the Chinese conquest and possibly some other changes not yet experienced as yet. Landon´s assertions were confirmed to me by a person I was close to and who has passed away many years ago, but who should have known at least the basic facts.” There is also an interesting reference in the remarkable work Through the Curtain by Viola Petitt Neal and Shafica Karagulla. Regarding a center in the Andes mountains Viola Petitt Neal is informed by her teacher during a Night Class December 10, 1961: ”… there is a center there where people live. I don´t know anything about it, but there are people in it.” (p. 261).

The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson is a book I can recommend to all serious UFO investigators, in spite of my somewhat critical remarks. It contains a treasure trove of rare and hitherto unknown information about the contactee movement of the 1950s and unique insights into the life of one of the key figures in UFO history.

During my many years of investigation and documentation of the Richard Höglund contact case I discovered an old close encounter report from Brazil with many similarities to Richard´s first contact with the space people, December 9, 1965. The incident occurred on July 23, 1947 northeast of Pitanga, Brazil.

Swedish artist Max Magnus Norman´s illustration of Richard Höglund´s close encounter

Here is a short summary of the case:

Hearing a whistling sound, Jose C Higgins, a topographer, saw coming down a lens shaped object with surrounding flange; it landed 150 ft away. It was of gray white metal, about 150 ft in diameter with a 3 foot rim, and 15 ft high, "crossed by tubes in several directions," the whistling coming from these. Metallic legs, which bent a little, supported the craft. Walking closer, he saw through a black glass window 2 persons watching him; a door opened beneath the rim, and there emerged 3 people enveloped in inflated transparent suits, with metal boxes on their backs. They wore shirts and shorts, which looked as though made of paper rather than cloth. Their heads were almost hairless, their eyes round and large, and their legs relatively long; they were nearly 7 ft tall. All 3 looked identical.

They spoke in an unknown language, and he noticed that they kept in the shade except for brief periods. One, pointing a metal tube at him, motioned Higgins to enter the door, through which he could see an inner door and the end of a "pipe." Using gestures, Higgins asked where they came from. One drew on the ground a dot (the sun, "Alamo" in their language) surrounded by 7 circles, and pointed alternately to the seventh circle (called "Orque" Uranus) and to their craft. Not wishing to go there, Higgins showed them a picture of his wife, indicating that he did not want to leave her, and the allowed him to go. From the forest he looked back to see them "playing like children, jumping in the air and throwing enormous stones." After half an hour, having "carefully examined their surroundings," they re-entered and the craft took off.

Especially interesting was that the Brazilian observation occurred already on July 23, 1947. It was first printed on August 8, 1947, in Diario Da Tarde and the Correio Do Norroste, in Bauru. It was rediscovered by journalist Joao Martins and reviewed in the large magazine O Cruzeiro November 13, 1954 with an illustration by the artist Mauro. The report was translated and forwarded to APRO by Brazilian ufologist Olavo T. Fontes. This translation was printed in The APRO Bulletin, May 1961 and also in FlyingSaucer Review vol 7, no. 6, Nov-Dec. 1961.

Part of Joao Martins´article in O Cruzeiro

Unfortunately there was no more data to be found on this case and no follow-up investigation. So beginning in 1991 I decided to search for additional information. After several failed attempts I received a kind reply from American journalist and ufologist Bob Pratt, who had investigated hundreds of UFO incidents in Brazil and other South American countries. He is the author of UFO Danger Zone (1996). Somewhat to my surprise he had never heard of the José Higgins case but gave his view of the story: ”I don´t know how many cases I´ve investigated there, but it´s easily at least 200 and maybe more than 300. And based on some of the stories I´ve heard, I´m not surprised by what José Higgins reported, nor do I have any doubts that the incident probably occurred as he said. There are several elements in his story that I have heard in other cases – people frightened and running away, the UFO landing in front of the witness, people getting out and talking in an unintelligible language, the sketch in the dirt showing the ”location” of their home planet or whatever, and the occupants playing ”games” as the witness hid in the woods.” (Letter March 30, 1993).

Bob Pratt gave me the adress to two well known Brazilian ufologists, Irene Granchi and Alberto Francisco Do Carmo. In a letter May 11, 1993 Do Carmo made a few comments on the José Higgins encounter: ”Unfortunately, the Higgins case is that kind of good case that got lost in the crowd. I talked to Joao Martins in person and he hardly remembered it. Let me remind you: Joaoa Martins was one of the best reporters in Brazil, worked for ” O Cruzeiro” a magazine as important as LIFE was for the American public… My opinions about O´Higgins case are most of all judgements of value, since I never had the faintest opportunity of meeting the witness in person… He told his story and vanished in the crowd without no newsmedia publicity, lecture tours and alike.”

From Irene Granchi I received som additional information. She phoned her friend Joao Martins who mentioned that this case could be found on page 75 of his book As Chaves Do Misterio. Irene Granchi checked the original article and the book by Martins and made some additions and corrections of the translation. This information is of interest to all researchers so I reproduce this part of her letter.

Here some of the intriguing similarities between the Jose Higgins and Richard Höglund close enounters:

Higgins: ”… he heard a high-pitched, piercing whistling sound, which seemed to come from the sky.”
Höglund: ”Suddenly Lizzi (dog) run around like crazy in circles so that he eventually has to quiet her. Soon afterwards he heard a whining sound that is reminiscent of when artillery pieces fly through the air.”

Higgins: ”… three people came out. They were enclosed in a kind of transparent suit which enveloped their bodies completely, head and all and inflated like a rubber bag full of compressed air.”
Höglund: ”The entities are wholly embedded in clothing similar to plastic covers, fully transparent.”

Higgins: ”They had no beards… almost hairless… they were somehow beautiful and appeared in excellent health”.
Höglund: ”The entities are of medium height and similar to humans but they are completely hairless… The skin is smooth without the slightest blemish. Likewise, they have perfect teeth.”

Higgins: ”One of the men on the outside carried a tube which appeared to be of the same metal of the ship, which he pointed at Higgins.”
Höglund: ”Then the old man goes back to the spacecraft and float up in the same way as he came down. He returns shortly and then with a cylindrical object that resembles a microphone, about three centimeters in diameter.”

Higgins: ”… they moved with incredible agility, forming a triangle around him.”
Höglund: ”Then the entities make up a circle around Richard and join hands to show they have friendly intentions.”

Higgins: ”They were playing like children, jumping in the air and throwing stones of enormous size.”
Höglund: ”The entities are very amazed that Richard has hair on his head. They laugh and point at him and obviously find the this quite amusing.”

One of the entities encountered by Richard Höglund

Could Richard Höglund had been informed or read about the Higgins encounter? This is highly unlikely. The story was published in APRO Bulletin and Flying Saucer Review 1961. Richard had very little formal education and no knowledge of English. The similarities between these two close encounters from 1947 and 1965 are certainly fascinating.

In my large research file on the Richard Höglund contact case there are several very unusual and intriguing experiences and statements, coming from a Swedish labourer in the 1960s. Very few of the general public in Sweden at that time knew anything of the Men-In-Black (MIB) phenomenon. But Richard Höglund narrates som surprising experiences during his work with the alien visitors in the Bahamas.

Richard wrote a letter from Nassau to his friend Gösta Johansson, January 11, 1969: ”I hope that one day I can tell you why we are here, but now it is impossible. We have our own car here, a large black Cadillac. But you must understand we are under a certain control.” Later Richard narrated some further details about the car to Gösta Johansson: ”They had stayed at a villa (in Nassau) and he had driven an old, black Cadillac. It was old but looked like brand new. It was good driving but the strange thing was, you couldn´t collide with it, as it turned away by itself. The car had a magical eye, that´s what Richard called it. Very easy to drive when you found out how it worked.” (Interview with Gösta Johansson February 13, 1980).

Researchers of close encounter and contact experiences will immediately recognize this description as the classic cars used by the so-called Men-In-Black (MIB). John Keel encountered them several times during his investigations in the 1960s.“On a number of occasions I actually saw the phantom Cadillacs as advertised, complete with sinister-looking passengers in black suits. On Long Island, following the directions given me in an anonymous phone call, I pursued one of these cars down a dead-end road where it seemingly vanished into thin air (there were no side roads or turn-offs).” (John Keel, The Eighth Tower, p. 141)

There are hundreds of MIB-cases documented but I have never heard of a contactee working with an alien group, that has been allowed to use a MIB-car. Richard ones told Gösta Johansson: ”I have even been entrusted with taking care of their car”. (Nov 6, 1984). This car was obviously owned by a very special individual, Lou Chesler, active in real-estate development in the Bahamas and a frontman for organized crime boss Meyer Lansky. Richard Höglund and his wife Gunvor worked for a time in 1968-1969 in the house of Lou Chesler and according to Richard he also met some of his alien visitors there on several occasions.

Richard Höglund in Nassau, Bahamas

The connection between alien visitors and the mafia is certainly a riddle. Many times I have wondered if the complicated contact story of Richard Höglund was actually a front for some type of organized criminal activity or espionage? A sort of false flag operation to use a modern terminology. But the problem is that there are too much circumstantial evidenceindicating real alien contacts.

To get some kind of overview of the aliens involved with Richard Höglund I have made a summary of quotes from different witnesses I have interviewed. GH- Gösta Johansson, SJ – Sture Johansson, TJ – Turid Johansson, GH – Gunvor Höglund (wife of Richard Höglund). Readers not familiar with the case can find a summary in Earth An Alien Enterprise by Timothy Good (pp. 165-180) and more information here, here and here.

Physical apperance
Re. Photos of the aliens: ”I saw several pictures he had taken. None of them could be seen on the photos. Instead there was a lighted square, like the photos had been damaged by light” (GJ, Feb. 13, 1980)

”They could disappear into thin air. He told me that he had been sitting on a bench in the Bahamas, talking to two of them. When some people passed by he felt very ashamed because suddenly he was sitting alone talking. They were gone. But otherwise they seemed totally material. (GJ, Feb. 13, 1980)

”They were brown, like suntanned, dark eyes. Richard said they were musical and some of them interested in art. But on the other hand also totally insensitive to humans. (GJ, Feb. 13, 1980)

”Richards aliens had long fingers and pointed noses.” (GJ, May 24, 1978)

”Richard had never seen them eat, only drinking, even liquor. There were no women among them in the Bahamas.” (GJ, Oct. 23 1980)

Gunvor Höglund, wife of Richard Höglund

Psychology

”He doesn´t trust them. They say they don´t want an inch of our planet but maybe that is just talk and they have destroyed their own planet or something. He doesn´t even believe they are telepathic. (GJ, Feb. 13, 1980)

”They were not telepathic, maybe they had some form of technical device as help. Neither does he regard them as especially intelligent. If you ask them something you will not get an immediate answer. But the next time you meet them the answer may be given when they have talked to their leaders.” (GJ, Feb. 13, 1980)

Origin
”They are here in two-year periods, then they go home. I asked from what planet the came. It was in the outskirts of our solar system.” (TJ, Oct. 27, 1973)

”They belong to our solar system. The people he had most contact with belong to our solar system” GH, June 1, 1984)

Gösta Johansson, close friend of Richard Höglund

Saucers

”Richard could not stand up in the crafts. They were semitransparent. No cooking facilities. He did travel in their craft but I don´t think it was many times. He said the trip went extremely fast. They arrived in just a moment. But he became ill on these travels.” (GH, June 1, 1984)

Richard´s work for the aliens
Somehow he was a spy, but no ordinary spy. (GJ, Feb. 13, 1980)

Richard once said that he translated from some kind of computer language to Swedish. He got papers from them with only numbers. The numbers faded for each day and he had to translate before they were gone.” (GJ, Feb. 13, 1980)

They spent much time on Paradise Islands. They had a base on an atoll far out. (GJ, Feb 13, 1980)

Richard met a Russian in the Bahamas who had been in contact for twenty years. Other contactees were backed up by organizations and travelled free but Richard hadn´t succeeded with that for which he was heavily criticized. (GJ, Feb. 13, 1980)

”I cannot and am not allowed to disclose what we are doing here but I can reveal that we are attending a sort of school and then you realize that there are interplanetary teachers involved.” (Postcard from RH, Jan. 16, 1969).

Richard in 1974

”Richard was to help them prevent a third world war.” (GJ, May 24, 1978.

”After the third trip to the Bahamas Richard was picked up, travelling in the saucers. He drove to a secret place were ha could park his car. He became sick during his first trip. (GJ, Mars 5, 1981).

”After the first trip to Mexico, Richard travelled many times and was gone around one month. When he came home he was suntanned.” ( GJ, Mars 1, 1984)

”Richards basic motivation for working with the aliens was that he believed helping them preventing a third world war.” (GJ, Mars 22, 1985)

”Richard had small notes with numbers on them that he translated. During his last years he said concerning these notes: I have some notes here and I have to hurry before they fade. They faded in about two weeks. (GJ, May 3, 1986)

”He believed somehow that he was to get money from them, get some kind of help, but that never happened.” (GH, June 1, 1984)

Good or evil?
”Gunvor believes she has seen the angels of God, but I don´t think so, said Richard”. (Gösta (GJ, Feb. 13, 1980)

There was a black man, called Loftin, and a Russian on the same course. Loftin proved to be a CIA-agent and was later found on Little Exuma with a hole in his head. He had revealed some things so he was shot, executed. (GJ, Feb. 13, 1980)

Loftin and Richard in Nassau

Among them he felt like a monkey in the Zoo. They are totally callous and can witness the most brutal torture. It doesn´t affect them the least.” (GJ, Feb 13, 1980)

”Sometimes I wonder if humanity has lice. Someone is living on us and let us do the work for them? According to Johny Lindell(contactee) that is the truth. The Mafia have to pay them money”. (GJ, feb 13, 1980)

”They said that money is no problem, the world is full of money” (GJ, May 24, 1984)

”Gunvor confessed she had not told all she knew. Still she was afaid she had talked too much” (GJ, June 4, 1984)

”After the second trip to the Bahamas Richard told Gösta Johansson: Quit your UFO interest. They don´t like people prying into this.” (GJ, Nov. 6, 1984)

”Richard ones said: They can witness the most terrible torture and it doesn´t matter anything to them. They are not morally advanced, regarding us a domestic animals.” (GJ, Nov 6, 1984)

”Sometimes after the trip to Mexico 1968 Richard said: I have been forbidden to write but this aught to come out somehow”. (GJ, Oct. 28, 1985)

”According to Johny Lindell Richard´s aliens were a mafia”. (GJ, June 26, 1991)

”The moved their base when Loftin died in the Summer of 1968. He disclosed where their base was located to the CIA. Suddenly there were CIA-agents everywhere, Richard narrated.” (SJ, Oct. 27, 1973).

”He said he really doesn´t know what they want. Personally he believes they are enslaving us. He doesn´t dare to pull out because then he will not be alive. There have been six or seven contactees but only two are left, working as couriers. The others have been terminated, none of them are alive.” (SJ, Oct. 27, 1973)

”I always carry some pills in case I cannot take it anymore. You don´t know what kind of hell I´m living in”. (TJ, Oct. 27, 1973)

”My name must have come up in a lottery somewhere” (GJ, June 1, 1984)

Richard and Gunvor in the Bahamas

Richard Höglund was a reluctant contactee. During his first contact experience he claimed his kidneys had been healed by a group of aliens and because of that he, from the beginning, felt compelled to work for them in various international schemes. Richard travelled to their bases in Bahamas and Mexico during his active involvement with the alien group between 1965-1977. But he differed from the ordinary contactee in that he was very doubtful regarding their true motives and noted that their morals were not very high. Richard was actually afraid of these aliens and didn´t always believe what they told him. "I don´t know if they are Gods or devils", he once told his friend Gösta Johansson. He didn´t dare stop working for them and towards the end of his life he told my ufologist collegue Åke Franzén to beware of this group as they were dangerous. Whatever happened to Richard Höglund circumstantial evidence clearly indicates that he was involved with some secret group, whether a spy organization, international mafia or alien earth based group.

During the first years of the 1960s Danish ufologist Ole Henningsen paid several visits to Otto Viking (1885-1966) and his wife Anna at their home, Besant Garden, near Nakskov, Denmark. Otto Viking was since 1946 Bishop of the Scandinavian Liberal Catholic Church and an internationally well known Theosophist. His wife, Anna, had worked as a Circus Princess for many years. A rather unusual alliance. But Otto was a rather unusual Bishop as he also had a deep interest in UFO contacts and had written a novel about the covert activities of a secret society of Venusians operating on Earth. It was their common interest in UFOs that was the cause of Ole Henningsen´s visits to Besant Garden. Ole has kindly forwarded some photos from his visit in 1962.

Ole Henningsen

Otto Viking 1962, photo by Ole Henningsen

Anna Viking 1962

Already in 1955 Otto Viking had written an article in Flying Saucer Review (FSR), Flying Saucers and Religion by ”Monseigneur Otto E. Viking” It reflected the ideas and hopes of several Theosophists during these years that highly evolved Venusians were coming to help our planet at a critical period in Earth´s evolution. Otto Viking expressed these ideas in his article: ”If we can be fairly certain that the people coming from other worlds are more evolved than our own humanity, there may still be hope for our survival… It is not unreasonable to suppose, therefore, that a race that has conquered space and speed will, in all probability also have attained this super consciousness, because it will be in the normal order of things. And if this is so, religion may bid our visitors from other worlds a hearty welcome as our saviors from global suicide and inaugurators of a world religion to replace all old ”Tribal” ones, and so make a world peace not only a beautiful dream but a living reality.” (Flying Saucer Review, vol. 1, no. 5, Nov-Dec. 1955, pp. 19-20).

Otto Viking

In these ideas the Theosophists differed from many Antroposophists who regarded and still regard UFO manifestations as demonic, inspired by Ahriman. In his book Flying Saucers. Physical and Spiritual Aspects, Anthroposophist Dr. George Unger writes: ” "True spiritual experiences should come to man in our time but Ahriman is distorting them into pictures of UFOs". Flying Saucer Review editor Gordon Creighton was heavily influenced by these ideas during the later years of the FSR era. Incidentally, this is also the view shared by many fundamentalist Christians.

Otto Viking travelled all over the world, meeting Theosophists and colleagues in the Liberal Catholic Church. During a lecture in Johannesburg, South Africa, Summer 1959, the well known contactee Elisabeth Klarer was among the audience. In a letter to his friend Ms Edith Nicolaisen, founder of the Swedish new age publishing house Parthenon, Otto Viking told what happened: ”Mrs Klarer attended one of my lectures in Johannesburg and we were introduced by a common friend. We had a long and interesting conversation after the lecture, which Mrs Klarer commended very favorably and, what interested me specifically, she said that ”the philosophy and lifeview you presented in the lecture is entirely in accordance with the Venusians”. Mrs Klarer made a very strong impression of being a totally truthful, reliable and sterling personality whos word I would not doubt.” (Letter July 10, 1959).

Elisabeth Klarer

Already in 1954 Otto Viking had finished the manuscript to his novel En klode griber ind. But he couldn´t find a publisher. Edith Nicolaisen entertained plans to publish a Swedish edition by Parthenon (founded 1957) but these plans never materialized. The book was finally privately printed in 1961, with illustrations by Martin Poser. An English translation, A World Intervenes, was published by Exposition Press, New York 1964 but with no illustrations. This volume is obviously very rare. I bought the last copy from Amazon a couple of years ago and now I only find one copy aviable from AbeBooks.

In the book we can follow the fascinating story of the young Danish couple and peace activists, Ole and Anna, who one day receive a letter suggesting co-operation with another organization. This group claims superior means to prevent the catastrophe threatening civilization. The letter is signed Lami and this individual promise a visit in the near future.

When Lami appear Ole and Anna are told that he is working for a secret organization helping this planet during a critical evolutionary period. They are also told he does not belong to this planet but comes from Venus. The Venusians have followed our evolution for hundreds of years. In the 1940s they were allowed by the inner government of the solar system to establish a colony in Antarctica and actively interfere with our culture because humanity had began using nuclear weapons. Lami offer Ole and Anna to become secret agents for this organization but they must remain absolutely silent about their involvement.

Otto Viking

The work will imply education at the colony. Ole and Anna enlist enthusiastically and Lami explain he will fetch them in his ”vimana” or ”flying saucer”. They must also keep the existence of the colony secret as it is protected with various advanced technology and they wish no interference. In several chapters the education and work with the Venusians is narrated. After many adventures and complications the secret organization succeeds in establishing peace between all nations on Earth.

En klode griber ind was reviewed in the Swedish magazine Graal 1961, edited by Ingrid Nyborg-Fjellander, wife of Sigfrid Fjellander, Bishop in the Swedish Liberal Catholic Church. The couple were close friends to Otto and Anna Viking. In his review Jan Fjellander, activist in UFO and new age groups, wrote: ”If you are aquainted with ufology… one starts to wonder whether this is a novel, if it is only fantasy? From where have Bishop Otto Viking got his ideas? En klode griber ind is written with true intuition and makes you wonder: Is this the truth about the flying saucers?”

During the 1950s and 60s there was a strong overlap in membership between Theosophists and ufologists. Leading Theosophists such as Edward L. Gardner, Boris de Zirkoff, Geoffrey Hodson and N. Sri Ram wrote articles about flying saucers. The Swedish UFO movement was initially founded by members active in the Theosophical Society (Adyar). The history of this connection between ufology and the Esoteric Tradition is still not very well known and should be of interest to scholars of Western Esotericism.

In the February 1976 issue of the magazine Flying Saucer Review I found an interesting letter, UMMO again, written by the British Theosophist T. Bryon Edmond. In a discussion regarding UFO entities he referred to several quotes from various esoteric sources, among them Alice Bailey. I wrote him a letter and we exchanged valuable data and ideas before the correspondence ended.

T. Bryon Edmond proved to be an erudite and cultivated older gentleman, very well acquainted with Theosophical literature. He had also followed the UFO issue for thirty years and tried to find clues to the enigma in the Esoteric Tradition. I found his ideas and reasoning of great interest. In a letter he summarized his life of study and searching: “Basically I am agnostic, but I accept Theosophy provisionally because it answers more questions in a logical and scientific way than any other religion or philosophy that I know of.” (Letter June 17, 1976)

Mr. Edmond was surprised to find that I, a young university student in Stockholm, had read books by Charles Leadbeater and Alice Bailey. But I had rather early in life discovered UFO and esoteric literature, which I read alongside my university studies in History of Religion and Philosophy. I soon came to realize that this was rather odd and unusual interests in the academic world and among the reading public. A fact also noted by the Swedish esotericist Henry T.Laurency. In his introduction to The Esoteric World View in The Philosopher´s Stone he writes: “There exists a vast literature of which, amazingly, the general public appears to be entirely ignorant.”

The vast literature referred to by Laurency are the works of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Alfred Percy Sinnett, Henry Steel Olcott, Charles Leadbeater, Alice Bailey a.o. Perhaps it is not so amazing that this literature is relatively unknown. To find the esoteric signal in the noise of popular New Age and occult books requires a scholarly mind, discernment and persistence.

My personal search for a tenable world- and lifeview has gone through many stages. Already as a teenager I was fascinated by different spiritual teachings and read all books I could find on Spiritualism, UFOs, mysteries etc. found in my parents bookshelf. Later studies included Anthroposophy, Theosophy, Alice Bailey, Dion Fortune, Kabbalah, paganism and various New Age authors. Disappointed with what I experienced of fanaticism and irrationalism in the spiritual underground I abandoned my spiritual quest in 1986 and for a couple of years became active within the Humanist movement. During these years I was a harsh critic of various New Age ideologies. It was a consequential and necessary psychological reaction in my life even though I in culture radical zeal as secular humanist threw out the baby with the bathwater. During my ideological path back to the Esoteric Tradition I was for a brief period influenced by Christian Humanism as expressed by the Swedish philosopher Alf Ahlberg and journalist and author Erik Hjalmar Linder.

Today I find it intellectually untenable to defend a materialist, reductionist or physicalist worldview. There are two basic reasons. The enigma of consciousness and the enormous amount of well documented paranormal phenomena, including UFO phenomena. Facts clearly indicating that reality is larger than what we presently know and can scientifically verify. In a 1966 interview Christian Humanist Erik Hjalmar Linder summarized the existential issue: “I find it incomprehensible that not everyone perceive our existence as a complete mystery, that we exist is inexplicable.”

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.

A hint of the potentiality of consciousness is given us in the mystical experience vouched for by thousands of authors, philosophers and common man. The Swedish philosopher and educator Alf Ahlberg, for many years principal of Brunnsviks folkhögskola (college), recount in his interesting episode in his memoirs:

“… something strange happened to me during a cold night in November 1916. We were on guard duty in the vicinity of Ängelholm. Around 2:00 a.m. a friend and I were ordered on a mission. Reluctant and freezing off we went with rifles in our hands… We talked in a low key, like you always do in the woods at night and felt really ill at ease. We talked about the war that never seemed to end, about all the evil in this world and our own worries. Suddenly I stopped as if nailed to the earth. Close to me I experienced something overwhelming, impossible to describe… A living reality but of a different kind we usually designate. How shall I describe it?... Life, light, love? – yes, but of an entirely different kind, not just in degrees but in type. It was everywhere, in the trees, in the sea and in the stars. I felt penetrated by a flow of benevolent force and security. All my anxieties suddenly appeared strangely small and paltry.” (Alf Ahlberg, Från prästgård till arbetarhögskola, pp. 134-135)

A famous Swedish author and scholar for whom the personal mystical experience had a deep influence was Sven Delblanc. His mystical experiences were frequent up until his thirtieth year and are recounted with magical beauty in his autobiography Livets ax (The Web of Life). In spite of Delblanc´s words like ”mystical rapture”, ”higher reality” and ”distant land” he did not refer to his experiences in orthodox religious terms but they became an integral part of his lifeview. According to Delblanc man has access to deeper levels of ethical insight leading to a profound humanism. All individuals have the potentiality of reaching this depth dimension of life.

Alf Ahlberg and Sven Delblanc are no peculiar outsiders when it comes to the mystical experience. It is shared by people all over the planet irrespective of religion or lifeview and has been reported all throughout history. It is obviously a fundamental depth dimension of man.

The second factor that makes it untenable for me to accept a physicalist worldview is the enormous amount of thoroughly documented paranormal experiences, including UFO and other puzzling phenomena. They become one more crack in the materialist, reductionist wall.

Since 1980 archivist Sven-Olov Svensson has with idealism and perseverance taken care of the day-to-day practical duties at AFU. But he is also, like myself, deeply fascinated by the contactee enigma and has for many years collected contactee cases in an international catalogue now comprising more than 700 entries between A.D. 800-2004. The sources are books and magazines but also correspondence with ufologists worldwide. Unfortunately Sven-Olov has no plans for including post-2004 encounters but the catalogue is a useful document because sources to each case is provided. Hopefully this catalogue can be made aviable as an AFU download.

Sven-Olov Svensson at AFU August 12, 2010

One of the more interesting letters received by Sven-Olov Svensson is from Dr. Leopoldo Diaz, Guadalajara, Mexico. The letter is dated October 26, 1984 and is a short account of the intriguing alien visitor examined by Dr. Diaz on November 28, 1976. What makes this case especially interesting in the annals of UFO history is that Dr. Diaz was briefed on his encounter at the U.N.

Dr. Diaz at first told no one of his experience but eventually he related the meeting to his family and some close friends. The pro-Adamski group UFO Education Center had a branch in Guadalajara and the story finally reached Charlotte Blob, director of the group with headquarters in Valley Center, USA. From then on the story became widely known. Michael Packer, a California radio newsman interviewed Dr. Diaz and there were many articles worldwide relating his encounter.

In June 1977 Dr. Diaz wrote a letter to the editor of Contactos Extraterrestres, describing what had happened:

”I am a general practitioner in the city of Guadalajara. Well, then, on October 28, 1976, I attended to my patients as usual. At 12 noon I was ready to finish, when the last patient came in, who attracted my attention very much. It was a person about 50 years old, of very white skin, almost totally bald, grayish-blue eyes, a penetrating look, and of a genial nature.

I did not hear him when he entered the waiting room, but I saw him paging through a magazine when I opened the door to say good-bye to another patient. When I looked at him he got up and I could see he was very short, about 1.50 m. [4’-11” -trans.]. With a high-pitched voice he told me, “I want you to give me a checkup”; I told him I would. I proceeded with the checkup and was baffled by his perfect health; his vital signs and his reflexes were surprisingly normal. He was hairless except for his face, where he had a very fine fuzz; on the rest of his body his skin was as smooth and delicate as that of a robust baby of six months. Upon noting this to him, he told me, “I have always led a very healthy life, without any excesses, and have cultivated mental control for a long time I have not gone to the doctor for a long time.”

I almost fainted when I learned his age: 85 years! He noticed my perplexity and told me, “I am not from here, and don’t ask me where I am from, because I can’t tell you. My name is Llop Zarniet. [In Spanish, the “ll,” a letter of its own, is pronounced like “y,” which is the more usual rendering of that sound. -trans.] There are more planets in this solar system that have not yet been discovered; several such as I are distributed throughout the world trying to enter into contact with conscientious [or reliable] people who are disposed to help us make known our presence without causing any fear. We want to help improve the general conditions of development on Earth and avoid the evils that can lead you to chaos.”
(Contactos Extraterrestres, no. 15, June 22, 1977 p. 5, translated by Richard Heiden).

I am not aware of any detailed and published investigation of the this contact case but Timothy Good did a follow-up on the claim that Dr. Diaz had made a special trip to New York and related details of his encounter to a United Nations delegation. Timothy Good spoke with Dr. Diaz on the phone in 1980:

”… he struck me as being completely truthful, and gave me the names of some of the United Nations delegates with whom he had spoken in New York. The meeting had taken place in the office of Robert Muller, Under-Secretary of Economic and Social development, and accordingly I telephoned him at the U.N. Mr. Muller confirmed the meeting with Dr. Diaz, but when I asked what the U.N. proposed to do about it, he replied: ”Nothing – nothing at all. I circulated it to some people who might be able to do something about it and I had not a single response.” (Timothy Good, Alien Liaison, 1991, p. 76).

Ufologist Ramona Cortez wrote an article about the Dr. Diaz encounter in Beyond Reality 1979 and included some more data on the U.N. investigation: ”Bertrand Chatel, in charge of the Technology Applications Section at the United Nations, stated that he has met Dr. Diaz several times in secret sessions in New York City. ”We still need more investigations. It is the only UFO contact case we are probing. It is definitely unusual. It cannot be considered a major scientific event because we must have additional scientific evidence.” (Beyond Reality, no. 36, March-April 1979, p. 16).

In the same article Ramona Cortez mention an interesting comment by astronaut Gordon Cooper: ”I´ve known for some time that there has been high-level interest in the Mexican encounter. I am not surprised at Doctor Diaz´physical description of the being. It conforms to previous encounters I´ve been told about.” What happened to the result of these investigations? Could they still be found in the U.N. archives?

What I find somewhat frustrating in this case is that there is no mention of Dr. Diaz taking a blood sample of the visitor and saving it for further study. This could have confirmed whether the alien had a physical organism like us or maybe a non-organic, materialized, body as has been mentioned in several other studies.

Wherever this alien visitor came from his message to Dr. Diaz` is certainly worth listening to: ”It is necessary that you people recognize that many of us are here intermingled with you, and trying to help, because you are very close to having tremendous problems on your planet… You are misusing energy sources and it is necessary for you to learn to find another source of energy. We are trying to give you this information because you are polluting the atmosphere: you are contaminating not only your planet bu teven space, and are very close to being destroyed…”. (Good, Alien Liaison, pp. 74-75).

Now and then I read some old issues of Round Robin,The Journal of Borderland Research. Especially the volumes published 1959-1985 when Riley Crabb was editor and director of Borderland Sciences Research Foundation(BSRF). These old journals are a treasure trove of interesting and thought provoking information, research and theories regarding all aspects of borderland investigation. In my view these were the golden years of the journal because Riley Crabb was an accomplished esotericist, something quite rare among investigators of UFO and paranormal phenomena. When Riley Crabb´s wife, Judy, died in 1985 and he moved to New Zealand the journal continued until 1997 with various editors. But it lost its ”soul” and concentrated very much on technical aspects of borderland research.

Riley Crabb

The unique and invaluable BSRF archive was sadly neglected and housed among dust and spiders in a garage in Eureka, California. After much negotiation and discussion Swedish ufologist Clas Svahn succeeded in convincing the custodian of the archive, James Borges, that the best place for preserving the BSRF archive was at AFU in Norrköping, Sweden. In June 2016 Clas and his sons Niklas and Markus traveled to Eureka to meet James and together packed 72 large boxes of archival material, which arrived safely at AFU on July 29. This was a monumental achievement by Clas Svahn who in 2013 also succeeded in acquiring the Flying Saucer Review archive, among many others, for preservation at AFU. He should be awarded the Nobel Prize in Borderland Research – if that ever becomes a reality.

James Borges with the BSRF archive in Eureka, California June 1, 2016

When Meade Layne created Borderland Sciences Research Association (BSRA) in 1945 he had no idea that within one year he would co-operate with a unique deep trance medium of unusual capacity – Mark Probert. Beginning in 1946 Meade Layne and his group of associates recorded many hours of conversation with the individuals channeled by Mark Probert. This was not the usual simplistic and naive messages from the spirit world, but intelligent discussions on science, philosophy, UFOs, paranormal phenomena, esotericism etc. The group behind Probert were referred to as the Inner Circle and presented themselves with names such Charles Lingford, Ramon Natalli, Theresa Vandenberg, Professor Luntz and Yada di Shi´Ite. I have advanced the theory that these names were personas, fictional characters used by a secret lodge to hide their real identity. My guess would be the Yucatan Brotherhood mentioned by Charles Leadbeater, Annie Besant, Alice Bailey and Henry T. Laurency. This ancient society was part of the ”hidden hand” behind the creation of the Theosophical Society. By creating various paranormal phenomena they tried to combat materialism by somewhat novel methods.

Mark Probert

Riley Crabb joined BSRA in 1951. With his wife Judy (Judith) Riley moved from Hawaii to California in 1957 and began working supervising of staff of scientific illustrators at the Naval Missile Center, Pt Mugu. He gave up the Civil Service career in 1959 when Meade Layne, because of health problems, asked him to become director of BSRA. Riley and Judy moved to San Diego and from July 1959 worked together as a team to keep the organization and journal going. Meade Layne had done a great pioneering work with BSRA and was very well acquainted with both Eastern and Western Mystery Traditions, having been a member of Dion Fortune´s Society of the Inner Light. But he also had some problematic sides which would complicate the situation for Riley and Judy and which they openly related to all members in several issues of Round Robin1960-1961.

Although BSRA was a non-profit association Meade Layne insisted on selling it as a business to his successors. They finally agreed on $1,200 to be paid at the rate of $50 a month. In Round Robin, October-November 1960 Riley Crabb explained that ”… Mr Layne had no legal or moral right to sell it; nor for that matter did I have any right to buy it”. But Riley and Judy accepted these terms as they regarded BSRA as such a unique organization that it must somehow survive. Soon they also discovered that BSRA had been incorporated as a not-for-profit foundation in 1951 but Meade Layne had never bothered to turn in any annual reports. To manage the first year they had to spend all their personal savings but they also received donations from members and survived the first hard years. BSRA was now there sole source of income. Mark Probert and his wife had severed connections with BSRA in 1954 because of different opinions on economy. They started their own organizations The Inner Circle Kethra E´da Foundation in 1955. In spite of this situation Riley Crabb wrote in 1960: ”I believe it was the overriding high purpose of the Inner Circle which gave Meade Layne and BSRA there drive from 1946 onward. That purpose, remove the veil of ignorance which clouds the minds of men, is as valid now as it was fourteen years ago; and it is my belief that the Inner Circle is still with us.” (Round Robin, vol. 16, no. 3, April-May 1960, p. 30).

Meade Layne

To my knowledge Round Robin never had more than 450 subscribers (1986). In 1959 there were 400 so in this respect there was not much change because of the new director. But Round Robin was not for the general public but a specialized journal for those who wanted to enter the Forbidden Science. It was never a love-and-light new age publication. Riley´scomments, covering several issues, on Theodore Illion´s book Darkness Over Tibet is not for the faint-hearted. As esotericist Riley Crabb was rather true than nice and could be quite severe on fake mediums and the psychic racketeers in the UFO movement. After a lecture tour in 1960 he wrote some harsh criticism of UFO contactee Wayne Aho: ”We lectured in El Paso in November 1960 after the national election. We were only a few days behind Wayne Aho on that trip. He advertised himself as a Flying Saucer lecturer but spent the first hour or so of his talk flailing away at the corrupt Democratic party and accusing Kennedy of buying his way into office. Then for variety Aho would switch to his other pet subject, his personal meetings and hours of conversation with Jesus Christ, an ideal combination for the conservative Bible belt.” (Round Robin, vol. 18, no. 1, January-February 1962, p. 32).

In 1981 I sent Riley Crabb a copy of The Knowledge of Reality by Swedish esotericist Henry T. Laurency. In a letter to me December 18, 1981 he wrote: ”Yes, we did receive the Laurency opus and thank you very much. It appears that he is an initiate of some standing in the Western Mystery Tradition and has some interesting, even startling, observations on philosophy and occult science, past and present. The Knowledge of Reality is a welcome addition to our reference library and we´ll have to try to review portions of it in upcoming journals”. Unfortunately no review was written but it is interesting that Riley Crabb noted and recognized that Laurency ”is an initiate of some standing in the Western Mystery Tradition”. As I have mentioned in other blog entries I am confident that Laurency is the ”disciple of rare capability in Sweden”, mentioned by Alice Bailey in A Treatise of White Magic.

When I mention Riley Crabb it is important not to forget his wife Judy, who wrote many articles in Round Robin, proving her wide knowledge of psychology and esotericism. Together they were a truly unique couple and idealistic pioneers in borderland research. Here is Judy´s short article Are You Nice-minded or True-minded, published in 1961.

”Those who urge the doctrine of Love upon mankind say that Love will solve all problems and bring peace to the world. These people have nothing but love to give. But the Mystery Schools train you to look at life and ask "is Love enough?". Love alone, without wisdom and Power , is self-sacrifice. The best examples of this are the Christian martyrs. Love without wisdom and Power is useless, but also wisdom and Power without Love are barren and useless. This is the condition of the Westernworld today. Science has given us the wisdom and Power to conquer the world, but our magnificent weapons threaten to destroy mankind because we have not Love. No one should concentrate on just one aspect of the Logos . If he does he will learn to his sorrow that the othertwo aspects of the Trinity are equally necessary to a just and perfectbalance.

The Trinity is in reality a three-sided Law of Love, Wisdom and Power. When a person has these three powers well balanced within himself he has health and well-being . One aspect of the three without the other two in proportion is useless. To say "Love is All" is sentimentality and the seeker after Truth cannot be sentimental. You cannot change the Law nor escape its action. Once you have acted there is no escaping the burden of the reaction.

Love alone does not have the strength nor the wisdom to get the world´s wo rk done. You cannot evade facts. There has to be discipline. There have to be arms and police forces to deal with evil. There is crime. There is suffering in the world. These facts are deplorable and you cannot evade their reality. The tendency of the spiritually-minded people who are attracted to metaphysics is to become nice-minded. This is escaping reality rather than facing it! Any true Mystery School will teach you to face the truth of life. The Master will insist that you be true-minded rather than nice-minded.”

(Round Robin, vol 17, no. 6, Sept-Oct 1961, p. 1.)

As a young ufologist in the 1970s I read How ToContact Space People by the American contactee Ted Owens. He told of his work with Space Intelligences (SIs) and how he with the help of these beings could produce strange weather events, lightning, hurricanes, drought, earthquakes, UFO appearances and assorted paranormal phenomena. Owens described the Space Intelligences as resembling small grasshoppers standing on two legs. Naturally I found the claims absurd and not worthy of any further study. But as is often the case with contactee appearances and claims, they are very deceptive. A second look and a more thorough investigation can reveal surprising information.

This problem is very well documented by parapsychologist Jeffrey Mishlove, Ph.D. in his biography of Ted Owens, The PK Man. A True Story of Mind Over Matter. Mishlove wrote his doctoral dissertation Psi Development Systems at the University of California, Berkeley, released as a Ballantine paperback in 1988. The PK Man is actually an updated version of an unpublished manuscript called Earth´s Ambassador, written together with journalist and author D. Scott Rogo in 1979.

In the 1970s physicists Hal Puthoff and Russel Targ had developed an interest in the paranormal abilities of Ted Owens. But because their research at SRI International was already controversial (remote viewing) they decided that a promising young graduate student should continue the Owens investigation project. ”I was their candidate”, recounts Mishlove. ”But I did not know the price to be paid for opening up this seeming Pandora´s box of mystical powers. It is only now, a quarter century later, that the full story can be told – and, I hope, understood.”

Owens claimed that he had been abducted by Space Intelligences. They had operated on his brain which made him half human and half alien. As proof he used to show a thick crease at the base of his skull. But he did not regard the aliens as evil and affectionately called them Twitter and Tweeter. Because of the operation he was constantly in psychic contact with the Space Intelligences and had acquired paranormal powers which he regarded it was his mission to prove to the authorities and the world. Although in many respects a UFO contactee he never referred to the SIs as coming from another planet but always insisted they belonged to a higher dimensional realm.

Jeffrey Mishlove followed closely the career of Owens and carefully noted his claims and predictions. Although not always correct there were according to Mishlove too many incidents of weather control or influence to dismiss Owens as a charlatan. In the book is related several instances of correct predictions. The extreme weather conditions in Florida 1979 is an example with storms, record rainfall, drought and hurricanes. Mishlove concludes: ”… it certainly looks as though Florida´s 1979 weather was somehow manipulated by Ted Owens. The coincidences between the psychic´s pronouncements and the resultant changes in Florida´s weather are too numerous and exact to be dismissed.”

Owens himself was uncertain in interpreting the effects that he apparently produced. Whether it was his own psychokinetic powers or the Space Intelligences that was the cause. He made it clear that these intelligences were no ordinary space people. In one of his letters he wrote: ”… I figure that somehow I had managed to contact the essence of the intelligence behind Nature herself.”

Another facet of Owens abilities was producing UFO appearances at will and also teaching others how to make UFOs appear. They usually appeared as glowing balls of light moving in erratic ways. Mishlove presents an alternative theory regarding these manifestions: ”… were the UFOs that Owens and his acquaintances saw so often actually only materializations brought into existence by Ted himself? This possibility, I believe, is the one that must be taken seriously. And it is potentially more awesome than the simple physical presence of alien spacecraft.”

After working with Ted Owens for many years Jeffrey Mishlove concludes that an ”intelligent energy” worked with Owens producing various paranormal phenomena. He also concludes that this ”energy” can be dangerous and destructive in its effect on the psychic in contact with and using it. There are several examples in the book as when Owens in December 1985 warn Mishlove on the phone that the Space Intelligences ”really mean business. The will destroy the shuttle. It´s up to you to prevent it.” Mishlove was ”shaken to my bones” on January 28, 1986 when the space shuttle Challenger exploded, killing all seven members of the crew.

”Science is ill-equipped to explain the phenomena reported herein”, writes Mislove. This is certainly the case, especially with mainstream materialist, reductionist science. When reading about all the paranormal phenomena documented in The PK Man I can only lament that the author hasn´t discovered that there is a science of the multiverse that can be used as a working hypothesis – the Esoteric Tradition. Here we will find all these phenomena described with a detailed taxonomy of the entities and forces involved. In the chapter The Dark Side of the Force, Mishlove does once refer to ”the esoteric teachings of many cultures (reinforce) that the display of psychic powers is detrimental to the path of spiritual enlightenment”. (p. 205)

To me as esotericist it is obvious that Ted Owens had developed a contact with the devaevolution. Which is probably the case with many UFO contactees. One good example is Uri Geller. According to the Esoteric Tradition ”The deva and human evolution will, during the next five hundred years, become somewhat more conscious of each other, and be able therefore more freely to co-operate”. (Alice Bailey, Letters of Occult Meditation, p. 182). But in esotericism there are also constant warnings about the danger and risks involved. Especially the devas of the air are high energy beings that can literally destroy the unwary pioneer. ”… it is not safe for the uninitiated to tamper with the parallel evolution of the devas, yet it is necessary and safe to investigate the procedure pursued by the builders, the methods followed by them, in reproducing form the archetype, via the etheric that which we call physical manifestation.” (Alice Bailey, Initiation, Human and Solar, p. 203).

Creating UFO manifestations in the form of balls of light is a paranormal phenomenon more easily performed by anyone acquainted with the modus operandi of concentration and visualization. Possibly I succeeded in creating one of these UFO phenomena myself many years ago. In the middle of the 1970s I participated in a meditation group with Swedish contactee couple Sture and Turid Johansson. We experimented with distant healing, visualizing and concentrating on sending energy. One evening I decided to try this experiment on my then girlfriend, without her knowledge. She had a bad flu. I followed the usual modus operandi and then left it at that. Next morning she called me on the phone to relate a very strange experience. When she was gone to bed she noticed a ball of light that suddenly appeared in her room. This ball of light slowly entered her body and gave her a very good feeling. Of course I don´t know if I created this ball of light but it happened the same evening when I did my experiment.

Creating and sending these balls of light is often described by the Kahunas of Hawaii. The phenomena are called Akualele. Riley Crabb, director of Borderland Sciences Research Association (BSRA) often described such incidents in his magazine Round Robin:
”During the four years I worked at the Naval Supply Center, Pearl Harbor I became well acquainted with one of the safety engineers, a Caucasian-Hawaiian from the island of Molokai. He knew of my interest inFlying Saucers and toldme of his own early childhood experiences withAkualele. He had an uncle who was oneof the 57 varieties of Kahunas. Byappropriate rhythmical breathingand chanting this unclecould call up an Elemental and give it a temporary form in the shape of a glowing ball of light. Another Kahuna across the valley had similiar abilities. They were probably initiates of the same Mystery School. They were . friendly rivals, too, and to entertain themselves - and show off their prowess - in the long Molokai evenings, these pagan sorcerers would create highly charged globes of electrical ether and send them back and forth between them! The enginner told. me of those long-remebered nights there in the tropic darkness of his home island, sitting at a respectful distance from the Kahuna, and watching open-mouthed as the ghostly, glowing globe came floating down out of the darkness.” (Round Robin, vol. 18, no. 3, April 1962, pp. 30-31)

The PK Man is an excellent documentation of the wide variety of paranormal phenomena and the problems facing critical investigators when confronted with individuals like Ted Owens. It takes courage to enter into this type of research as demonstrated by Jeffrey Mishlove in his book. Allen Hynek, who considered Owens` powers to be subconscious in nature once said he wouldn´t ”go near him with a ten-foot pole”.

During this weeks visit to AFU I walked between our many premises, perusing the different libraries and archives. It is an impressive sight to behold this gigantic collection of material from all over the world, in many different languages. After more than 45+ years of study and investigation I can still find books and magazines in the AFU library that I have never seen or heard of. This is a treasure trove of information for all types of researchers and scholars both academic and private. AFU is the custodian of the worlds largest UFO, Fortean, paranormal archive and library. More and more I have come to regard AFU as a true and unique cultural World Heritage.

One of our three libraries

To give a few insights into the work and problems of AFU here are some quotes from our extensive Annual Report 2016, 13 pages in all, compiled by Anders Liljegren.

”A sustainable future for AFU

Creating a sustainable future has, more and more, become the focus for the AFU foundation’s board. The big question remains – how are we to do it? This difficult task is mixed with the frustrating and time-consuming daily routines of trying to find new and creative space-saving solutions for storing an ever-growing collection within the boundaries of slightly more than 500 square meters. Rearranging collections, and performing transports between our thirteen different facilities, has become an almost daily routine. In recent years, we’ve also seen a growing problem of hiring new spaces in the close-by area. And, to top the list of problems, we cannot possibly fit increased costs into our already underfinanced budget.

Part of the Hilary Evans Library

1st Problem: Financing

Everyone who has visited us, and had a tour through our facilities, is overwhelmed by the

quality, quantity and perseverance with which we are working since 40+ years. All this measured against a meagre access to resources. From this fact AFU should – by now – have hundreds of regular financial supporters, worldwide. Visitors here learn that preservation of ufo and phenomena-related memories is not an obvious task for the tax-driven public sector. We must rely heavily on private initiatives. Despite our efforts, we only have about some forty regular monetary sponsors.

One may wonder why there is nearly no support from the international scene, except for a great willingness to donate collections for preservation. For a foundation like AFU to survive and flourish we need much more hands-on support by direct monetary donations, wills and bequests for the future. What will happen to so many important collections in future years is everyone’s responsibility. There is no natural law that any group should tour the landscapes of Sweden, the UK, Europe, and even the United States, hunting down “odd phenomena collections” that are in danger of being dispelled, being sent to waste-disposal dumps, or burnt in ovens. Often, such collections are the results of life-long personal commitments and deep levels of interest in phenomena.

Despite shortage of resources AFU has been able – so far – to sort out incoming collections of printed books, magazines, newsletters and magnetic tape collections (audios, videos). To sort and catalogue this “bulk” of most collections has been our priority.

Main office

2nd Problem: Logistics

The problem of our meagre finances spill over to the physical environment in which we must work daily, creating more problems than any other “normal” archive or institution would ever have had to fight with. Basement facilities are cheap, as compared to ground-level areas. That’s why we are in basements for the most part. On a positive side being in many different basements might be a good spread of potential risks but when measured against “effectiveness” the dispersed facilities are a small disaster. And basements do have a very high risk for flooding by external sources.

Managing the archives requires large sets of many different keys and a durable sack carriage to carry sometimes heavy loads. We depend upon good weather suited for transports, not rain, or heaps of Swedish snow. Storing in 13 different places, behind 13 different doors, is at the maximum of what a human brain can handle logistically (without, maybe, a dedicated computer system to serve memory). Carrying boxes up and down narrow basement stairs is not for the weak, and we are all turning older.

All these problems would be lessened or cease to exist if we were under one single roof. We can spot many alternatives locally for such premises but the cost is mind-boggling to us, often twice or three-times the present cost for facilities.

Hard work when the Hilary Evans archive arrived December 13, 2010

3rd Problem: Human Resources

For the past six years, we’ve had a nearly unrestricted access to work-force through a unique and much-scorned (in the Swedish political debate) government program to keep out-of-work people “going” while in-between-jobs. Besides providing free workforce for us (for instance at our six scanners), working with unemployment programs has provided very good finances for our foundation. We could develop and sustain with government subsidies.

Most of these incoming resources went into salaries for employees, our rents and to costs for

acquiring collections including shipping to Sweden. Job markets are now changing. Sweden suddenly appears to have one of the highest employment rates in Europe. Some statistics say we are heading for a top position in that league. This may not be so in the local area of Norrköping, where there are still quite many non-academic, unskilled members of the population. Local unemployment rate is still at roughly 12 % among the youth.

Keeping unskilled people going with jobs that may motivate them every day is not an easy task. We have seen that. Attendance from some of these people has not been impressive and you must have a good sense of balancing available tasks with selfproclaimed abilities, interests and (particularly) the personal energy (or often lack of same).

Putting qualified files, like the collections from Evans or Creighton, into such unknowing hands will end in disaster. AFU would need at least one full-time “academic” archivist to make good “researchable” files from what is now stored on shelves in random order often within the boxes they once arrived in, or slightly repacked.

Me trying to get an overview of the BSRA archive

Digitizing Projects

During 2016 we digitized an estimated 50.000 new clippings from the Fortean Times editorial files. The total number of digitized clippings in the this collection is now more than 300.000. We also digitized some 500 magazine issues in a project organized by London ufologist Isaac Koi. Isaac – a member of our International Advisory Board – attempts to get releases of copyrights from previous magazine editors so that their old magazines can be scanned and uploaded for public download.

During 2016 Isaac Koi worked with AFU employees Leif Åstrand and Irene Remberger on this project and the result can be viewed at AFU Downloads. During the year, we had an inflow of about 300magnetic audio tapes which have mostly been digitized through our unemployment program. In total more than 5.000 tapes have been digitized through the years. Much of this cannot be put up for public internet download due to copyright and personal integrity.

Books and Magazines

At the end of 2016 we had about 29.500 catalogued books, distributed at three different facilities. Finding space on shelves for new incoming collections was and is a challenge. We now have 197 shelve sections on our floors, mostly of the IKEA “Billy” type. Total library capacity is 885 meters. To save on space, this year we took out the third archival copy of each title in the “P” library (parapsychology and occultism). We temporarily file these copies in boxes kept in a new rented storage close to one of our libraries. This is the 13th facility.

Anders Liljegren busy cataloguing our collections

A new magazine catalogue was produced and posted on our web on October 31. The new catalogue included the main part of the BSRA magazines that arrived here in June. Another quick job done. Our files of magazines, journals and newsletters now amount to 73.845 single issues.”

As anyone can understand from our annual report our greatest challenge during the coming years is financing. We are an international foundation and whether you live in Stockholm, Berlin, Hongkong, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Moscow, Teheran, Auckland or Tokyo we need your economic help to survive and continue develop as the largest and foremost archive and library in the world promoting, supporting and initiating research covering all aspects of UFO, Fortean and paranormal phenomena.

But AFU is not only about thousands of books, magazines and documents but essentially an organized effort to understand the nature, origin and implications of the many types of intriguing phenomena, hitherto not generally recognized by mainstream science and society. In a couple of decades when we oldtimers have left this strange planet, or at least left our physical bodies, we hope the torch of research will be carried by a new generation of heretic, non-conformist investigators and scholars who dare to cross the threshold into what Jacques Vallee has named Forbidden Science. And we hope that AFU will be the international center for this inquiry. It is your economic support that can make this dream come true.

It all began in late August 1971 in a town in East Midlands, England. Jim Wilson had observed a white light moving slowly across the sky. Just an ordinary mundane sighting of no special interest but ufologist Derek James, a close colleague of Jenny Randles, made a standard follow up. He was rather surprised to find that two men in smart business suits and driving a black car har interviewed Jim Wilson. The men claimed to be from the Ministry of Defense (MoD) and instructed the witness to forget the sighting as it had been identified as the Russian satellite Cosmos 408.

Why would the MoD send two men to interrogate a witness to such an ordinary sighting? Derek James checked the satellite information centre at Farnborough. At the time of the observation Cosmos 408 had been over Canada and had not passed over England at all. Now the witness contacted Derek once more and was rather alarmed because several nights in succession two unknown men in a black Jaguar car had parked outside his house and he was sure they were watching him. Derek James had a relative who was a high ranking police officer and a plan was hatched to check the car as they were perhaps planning a robbery.

A police car was asked to keep a look out and on October 19 and 20 the policemen watched the car outside Jim Wilson´s house. The car waited for about thirty minutes and then drove off. A check of the car registration found out that the vehicle did not exist and now the police became really interested. On October 21 a police patrol was ordered to bring in the occupants of the Jaguar for questioning. Following standard procedure the two policemen walked towards the car, one on either side. They noticed two smartly dressed men inside. They were just about to knock on the window when the car simply disappeared into nothingness in front of the astonished policemen. The area was examined but gave no clue to the disappearance. Neither car nor occupants were ever seen again. For rather obvious reasons a cover story was presented in the final police report.

Jenny Randles in 2016

This unusual Men In Black case was published by Derek James and Jenny Randles in Flying Saucer Review, vol. 23, no. 3, October 1977. A somewhat updated version was later published in Investigating the Truth Behind MIB the Men In Black Phenomenon (1997). These elusive gentlemen and their mysterious black cars have been reported during the whole of the UFO era and observed by both UFO witnesses and investigators. Gray Barker´s classic They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers (1956) put hem on the ufological map for ever.

When John Keel visited Sweden and my home in October 1976 we especially discussed the Men In Black, which Keel regarded as one of the really intriguing aspects of the UFO enigma. He had investigated many MIB encounters, personally trying to chase their strange cars many times as related in his last book The Eighth Tower: “On a number of occasions I actually saw the phantom Cadillacs as advertised, complete with sinister-looking passengers in black suits. On Long Island, following the directions given me in an anonymous phone call, I pursued one of these cars down a dead-end road where it seemingly vanished into thin air (there were no side roads or turn-offs).” (p. 141).

During his years of active UFO investigations Keel presented different theories about the MIB. In 1967 he regarded them as definitely a menace, as revealed in a letter, July 18, 1967, to Jim and Coral Lorenzen of APRO: ”The MIB represent a very large terrestrial group who are allied with a very hostile UFO group. They are not connected with any goverment in any way… The people I am concerned with are Androids… manifactured entities controlled by a distant and unknown master… they are quite stupid in many respects.”

This last comment by John Keel is very apt. In many cases these elusive figures behave like some not too intelligent characters from a badly rehearsed amateur play. But the MIB obviously have different origins and agendas as evidenced by the hundreds of cases published. The men confiscating photos, films and other items from witnesses and ufologists are probably intelligence agents. In one of his first letters to me in 1984 Timothy Good mentioned his involvement with the MIB: ”Some of them are from various intelligence branches here on Earth, but other, I feel, are from extraterrestrial or Earth-based advanced groups. I have had MIB experiences myself, and have even taken a photo of a possible MIB and his car (it was rented of course). The photo of the man (who was not actually dressed in black) came out with a black or dark halo around his head, so that one can´t see his face at all… I´ve had my picture taken by shady characters in both the U.S. and U.S.S.R., and had an important notebook stolen from my motel room during one of my many trips to the U.S. Nothing else was taken, although cameras and lenses were in my camera bag on the bed.” (Letter, February 27, 1984).

Timothy Good

Men In Black encounters are not always threatening. Sometimes witnesses simply report odd looking salesmen or persons acting in strange ways in their vicinity. A Swedish ufologist who have reported such an incident is former chairman of UFO-Sweden, Thorvald (Bevan) Berthelsen. Some of these events were mentioned by Thorvald when I interviewed him on October 10, 1992. In the beginning of the 1970s he regarded UFOs as a "ridiculous, laughable" subject. But something happened in the summer of 1972 that was to change his life.

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

Thorvald (Bevan) Berthelsen 1992

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

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

In the January-February 1973 issue of Round Robin. The Journal of Borderland Research, I read about a rather fantastic MIB case in Canada. It was a letter from J.L.S., Victoria, B.C. :

”… the experience of a young man we know personally, who lived in Victoria. He had been an UFO enthusiast for many years and had seen a number, too . Finally he caught one on the ground near the top of a local mountain. The occupants decided to take him into their confidence, and told him how they were getting control of communications, finance , industry and politics. Several of them, they told him, are living in Victoria and are married to earth women. They are interesting young people in a crusade to " take over" at some future date. Inference was that this was going on in all the big cities. There was a U.S.submarine in port at the time and they invited him to come aboard. This is onlya small part of what the young man told us here, but the upshot wasthat due to the lad's religious scruples he suddenly decided he couldn't go along with them. The result was a series of accidents which befell him. For several months he was in the hospital more than he was out of it! Finally he left town but we heard that he isstill being hounded where he went. Can't get anything more out of his parents. They were UFO fans too, but now wont talk. A man came to the father's shop one day -in a black suit! - and asked for Herman. When toldthe young man was in the Hospital the man said , 'Well ,we warned him.'These are rather simple people, Dutch immigrants, and this developmenthas been a severe jolt to them.”

In 1984 I decided to try a follow up on this case and wrote to Riley Crabb, editor of Round Robin, asking for the adress to the man in Canada. On May 27, 1984 I received a reply from Riley including one of the letters from Canada. When I read Riley´s answer today, I become both surprised and distressed: ”I did find the 1973 file in the attic and am enclosing a Squance letter for you to follow up on. All this old material is going to the dump when I sell out here, hopefully later this year…”. Maybe much of his ”old material” did go to the dump but we at AFU succeeded in saving a major part of the BSRF archive in 2016. To me it is almost inconceivable and a riddle why Riley Crabb would want to dump his extremely important archive.

I wrote to the adress in Canada, John and Dorothy Squance in Victoria, B.C. and received a kind reply on June 21, 1984. John mentioned that he and his wife had conducted a discussion group in their home and about 1970 the young man´s parents started attending the group. The subject of UFOs often came up for discussion. On one occasion the parents told of their son´s experiences so he was invited to talk to the group. The young man attended once and spoke for about thirty minutes of what he had become involved in. ”He spoke of them enlisting a force of several hundred young people who would help them bring about the new dispensation they were planning. It was all to be top secret for a time while their leaders infiltrated finance, economics and industry… The program they said was being initiated in all the larger cities.”

According to John Squance the boy became disillusioned and quit having anything more to do with the ”space people”. It was then that the harassment began. The young man was hospitalized on at least two occasions because of rather inexplicable accidents. The father told John some time later that a man had come into his store asking where the boy was. When the father said ”in the hospital”, the reply was ”Well we told him to keep his mouth shut”. In the letter to me John said that both the young man and his father were now dead. In a follow up letter July 19, 1984 John mentioned that the young man died of ”a mixture of alcohol and drugs. Possibly mental harassment”. This information makes it rather likely that the MIB story was a paranoid fantasy, the result of the young man´s drug abuse and the black suited man who entered the father´s shop some local mafia leader involved in illegal drug trafficking. Unless, of course, this is evidence of covert activities of an unknown mafia group, earth-based or extraterrestrial?

Although the Men In Black is definitely a serious and possibly dangerous aspect of UFO research I must relate a rather amusing story how the Men In Black became a help to UFO-Sweden. It is told in the autobiography of Mats Nilsson, one of UFO-Sweden´s oldboys still active as board member. In the 1970s and 80s a very eccentric old gentleman, Karl-Gustav Porath, always attended the annual UFO-Sweden conferences. He placed himself in the front row with a large tape recorder. Porath always had fantastic UFO contact stories to relate, unfortunately often to the visiting journalists, which gave UFO-Sweden unwanted publicity. One of his stories told of how he could make ordinary flies fly in military formation.

Karl-Gustav Porath

In 1979 UFO-Sweden arranged a large UFO exhibition and lectures at the National Museum of Science and Technology, Stockholm. When Mats Nilsson and Håkan Ekstrand from UFO-Sweden discovered that Karl-Gustav Porath was there as usual they came up with a brilliant idea. Mats and Håkan approached Porath, who was deadly afraid of the Men In Black, and told him the MIB was among the public, disguised as journalists. Porath was very glad to get this information and didn´t talk to any reporter about his experiences. Mission accomplished!

It is August 27, 1989. My AFU friend and colleague Anders Liljegren and I are traveling by car to an apartment in Bromma, outside Stockholm, where the late Swedish UFO research pioneer K. Gösta Rehn spent his last years. He died on June 17, 1989 at the age of 98. Already in 1978 Rehn had donated part of his collection of books and magazines to AFU. He had also told his daughter, Greta Frankel, that the remaining archive, mainly consisting of correspondence, would go to AFU after his death.

K. Gösta Rehn

Eager and expectant we enter the apartment and are met by Greta Frankel. Stunned and surprised we find only a few remaining books and magazines on the shelfs. We naturally ask Greta Frankel where all the correspondence is placed? Shocked and dismayed we are told that, about a week ago, she had dumped all correspondence in a container at the back of the house. Disheartened we walk to the back of the house and in a container filled with lots of trash we locate 32 binders of correspondence, all in good condition. In a state of euphoria we load the binders into our car for transportation to AFU. During the travel back to Norrköping we praise fate for our almost incredible luck and success in this endeavor.

These 32 binders contain, especially for researchers, invaluable correspondence with UFO witnesses, ufologists and scientists from all over the world. A treasure trove of fascinating data giving personal insights into the UFO movement of the 1950s. 60s and 70s. As K. Gösta Rehn was the Swedish representative of APRO there are 220 letters exchanged between Rehn och Jim and Coral Lorenzen. Part of APRO correspondence was an important source of data for David Booher when writing his recently published No Return. The Gerry Irwing Story, UFO Abduction or Covert Operation?

I have never really understood people who find archives dull and unimportant. Perusing a recently donated archive at AFU is for me like entering a new and unknown universe full of fascinating information. In September 1989 I spent a week reading all the Rehn correspondence, resulting in a large biographical article and later a chapter in my first UFO book UFO – i myt och verklighet, 1993 (UFO – In Myth and Reality). By reading the complete correspondence file of K. Gösta Rehn I received an unprecedented insight into the personal life, research and theories of one of the real pioneers of Swedish UFO research.

Another pioneer in the Swedish UFO movement was Ms Edith Nicolaisen (1911-1986), founder of the publishing house Parthenon in July 1957. 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. Parthenon published several of the classic contactees of the 1950s: George Adamski, Daniel Fry, Ray and Rex Stanford, Elisabeth Klarer. Edith Nicolaisen corresponded with hundreds of ufologists, contactees, esotericists and new-age activists from around the world between 1950-1986.

In 1985 Carl-Anton Mattsson and Mats Nilsson, UFO-Sweden, became concerned for the future of Parthenon and the large archive of the publishing house. Mats Nilsson wrote a letter to Edith Nicolaisen resulting in a meeting, October 1985, at Nicolaisen´s apartment in Helsingborg. Edith was by then old and frail and during the meeting decided donating the Parthenon archive and in the future also the publishing house, provided Carl-Anton Mattsson and colleagues continue publishing UFO and New Age literature. On November 9, 1985 Carl-Anton Mattsson and I travelled to Helsingborg loading our hired van with lots of boxes filled with books and magazines. Several trips were made before the entire archive was safely housed at AFU. About three months later, February 28, 1986, Edith Nicolaisen died, 74 years old. The very extensive and voluminous correspondence from K. Gösta Rehn and Parthenon has been digitized by Leif Åstrand at AFU.

Edith Nicolaisen

Carl-Anton Mattsson at AFU, August 14, 2010

In the 1990s I began a systematic effort to locate old Swedish ufologists and representatives of UFO groups no longer active, to retrieve as many archives as possible. In this way much of Swedish UFO history was saved for future research. Practically all people contacted generously donated their archives but now and then my inquiry came to late and I was informed that all material had been burnt or dumped not long ago. A sad message when the collection was especially large or valuable. But many times Anders Liljegren and I could celebrate a happy ending to our efforts when travelling home to AFU with still another archive in the car.

The fate of an archivist. Anders Liljegren working hard with a new donation August 8, 2011

In the 1990s Clas Svahn, together with UFO-Sweden colleagues, expanded the archive retrievals to include several European countries, especially England. As there is no archive institution like AFU in England many British ufologists have donated their collections for preservation in Sweden. Large Schenker lorries are regularly unloading boxes of archival material at AFU, with donations from all over the world. We are especially grateful to be the custodians of the Flying Saucer Review (FSR) and Borderland SciencesResearch Foundation (BSRF) archives. Clas Svahn and colleagues have by now made at least 25 journeys across Europé in pursuit of archives. While I am writing this Clas Svahn and Carl-Anton Mattsson has just arrived at AFU after yet another successful trip to England. We are now expecting the next Schenker lorry with around 150 boxes of material.

Clas Svahn with the archive of Boris Jungkvist

313 boxes in London 2012, on their way to AFU

Although our efforts to save UFO, Fortean and paranormal archives around the world has been a success story we have also experienced failures and listened to the sad stories of dumped and destroyedarchives. Here just a few examples:

Ivan Troeng, first generation Swedish ufologist. We were promised his archive but relatives dumped the entire collection in a container 2004.

Sven Olov Larsson, first generation Swedish ufologist. His brother dumped the archive although we had been promised to have all material.

Bjarne Håkansson (Zacharias Brandt), active in Swedish ufology since early 1960s. He threw away his large personal archive but regret the mistake today.

Kolbjörn Stenødegård (1937-1997), Norwegian ufologist. Representatives from the municipality in Norway emptied his apartment and dumped a very large UFO archive.

Dr. Helmut Lammer, author of MILABS: Military Mind Control and Military Abductions (1999). In an email to me April 2011 Dr. Lammer claimed to have thrown away his entire archive.

My AFU colleagues and I hope that everyone reading this blog will not repeat the same tragic mistakes as shown above. If you do have material of interest to AFU or know of archives in danger of being destroyed, contact us as soon as possible. We will do our best to save the collection for future research.

1957-1958 were the formative years of the Swedish UFO movement. Before 1957 there were no formal societies dedicated to the UFO enigma, only a few isolated individuals with a personal interest. Behind the Flying Saucers by Frank Scully was published in a Swedish edition 1951 (De flygande tefaten) and in 1955 Swedish ufologist K. Gösta Rehn had translated Donald Keyhoe´s Flying Saucers From Outer Space (Flygande tefat – observatörer från världsrymden).

In July 1957 Danish-born Ms Edith Nicolaisen founded the publishing house Parthenon in Helsingborg. The Board included three women, all active in the Theosophical Society (Adyar), Brita Rodosi, Rut Lindberg and Sonja Lilienthal. Parthenon published several of the classic contactee books of the 1950s and inspired the formation of UFO societies in Sweden. On March 19, 1958, Sällskapet för Interplanetariska Studier (The Society for Interplanetary Studies) was founded at Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg. It was initiated by the women in the Parthenon board but the the society was a very short-lived organization consisting mainly of university students.

After a visionary experience in 1950 Theosophist Jan-Erik Janhammar, together with his friends Gustaf Adolf Pettersson and Gösta Eklund, founded the lecture society Måndagsgruppen (The Monday Society) in Stockholm, 1951. It became a free and open minded forum where people from various religious, philosophical, esoteric and New Age groups met for lectures and discussions. This rather remarkable society celebrated 35 years of activity in 1986 after having arranged 1336 lectures.

Jan-Erik Janhammar

In March 1958 Måndagsgruppen faced the predicament of having no lecturer for the coming week. A suggestion was then made to invite Mrs Kerstin Bäfverstedt for a lecture on flying saucers. The lecture was a huge success and was held once again a week later, when enrollment lists were circulated for those who wanted to participate in the formation of a UFO society in Sweden. On March 23, 1958 Ifologiska Sällskapet (The Ifological Society) was formally founded and announced in the press. This society folded in 1969.

Kerstin Bäfverstedt in 1959

Before the founding date there had in fact been an informal group of UFO interested persons belonging to Måndagsgruppen, calling themselves The International Space Investigators (IS), later referred to as ”The Nine”. According to a an university essay on the history of Ifologiska Sällskapet by ufologist Heikki Virtanen, 1980, the members of the IS group were: Kerstin Bäfverstedt, Eric and Gunnel Nordquist, Greta Berg, Anna Lycke, Richard (?), Karin Lidelius, Britta Ekbom and Hilding Havrenius. Not much is known about this informal group and there is also some different claims regarding their founding. In the March-April 1959 issue of Flying Saucer Review(FSR) a small note says that The International Space Investigators”have just been formed”, headed by engineer Eric Nordquist. He also wrote a letter to Ray Palmer´s Flying Saucers, July 1959, presenting IS as ”a small, exclusive group living in Stockholm”. I haven´t been able to find any more data on IS and they were probably a short-lived informal group of friends interested in UFO research.

Kerstin Bäfverstedt (1909-2000) became fascinated by Theosophy, reading Helena P. Blavatsky in her early teens. This initiated a lifelong spiritual quest involving Spiritualism, esotericism, paranormal phenomena, alternative healing practices, UFOs a.o. Kerstin was married to Bo Bäfverstedt in 1936, MD, later Attending Physician and Professor at Södersjukhuset 1946-1979 (Stockholm South General Hospital). In 1957 Kerstin Bäfverstedt lectured on reincarnation at Stockholm Spiritualist Society, a lecture that was published as a series of articles in the magazine Spiritualisten: ”Människans liv. Från födelsen – genom döden – till återfödelsen” (The Life of Man. From Birth – Through Death – to Rebirth). The articles are partially based on the works of Max Heindel, founder of The Rosicrucian Fellowship. Kerstin was a member of the Swedish Section of The Rosicrucian Fellowship since 1956. She was also a frequent lecturer to local Spiritualist groups in Sweden.

During her many travels around the world Kerstin visited researchers and leaders of various societies involved in UFO and paranormal investigation. In the United States she became a good friend with several members of Borderland Sciences Research Foundation (BSRF): Riley Crabb, Trevor James Constable and Dr. Ruth Drown. She was for many years Regional Director of BSRF and her letters and comments were sometimes published in Round Robin. The Journal of Borderland Research. During the 14-15 October 1961 Kerstin participated in The Giant Rock Space Craft Convention, organized by George Van Tassel.

Trevor James Constable, photo by Kerstin Bäfverstedt 1961

Kerstin´s photos from Giant Rock Convention 1961

Orfeo Anglucci speaking at Giant Rock

BSRF associate Dr. Ruth Drown (1891-1965) became a lifelong friend and they often visited each other in USA or Sweden. ”… she was my dearest friend that I will never forget” Kerstin recounted in a letter to Round Robin, May-june 1976. They corresponded between 1962-1965. Ruth Drown was an American chiropractic and proponent of Radionics which led to many controversies with the American Medical Association (AMA). She was also one of the associates of BSRF and lectured on the Kabbalah, which is evident from the front page of her book Radio-Vision. Scientific Milestone. A Research Activity of Drown Laboratories, published in 1960.

Dr. Ruth Drown

Riley Crabb comment on Ruth Drown in Round Robin

In 2013 the archive of Kerstin Bäfverstedt was generously donated to AFU by her daughter Eva Sundler Malmnäs. From a historical viewpoint it is interesting to notice that the ideas of Borderland Sciences Research Foundation, because of Kerstin Bäfverstedt, influenced the Swedish UFO movement. It also reinforces my assertion that the ufology in Sweden was to a large extent initiated by persons active in various esoteric and spiritualist societies.

Eva Sundler Malmnäs

Readers of my blog are aware of that in the Summer 2016 the very extensive archive of Borderland Sciences Research Foundation(BSRF) was donated to AFU. As my colleague Anders Liljegren is working hard to get the Flying Saucer Review (FSR) archive in order we decided that I concentrate my time and efforts on the BSRF archive. This is a huge undertaking and it will probably take me at least one or two years of concentrated work to get all the files reviewed and organized.

Studying with the BSRF collection

As the work proceeds I plan to regularly present interesting data from the archive on my blog. For an archive aficionado like me it is exceedingly fascinating to delve into the files and folders of this unique collection of material. In one of the folders I found a treasure trove of old letters. Correspondence between Meade Layne and science fiction writer Roger P. Graham (Rog Phillips) covering the period July 1946 – January 1948. So far I have found 60 letters. 12 from Meade Layne and 48 from Roger P. Graham. What is especially unique with this collection is that it gives behind the scenes information and comments during the early days of the UFO era and insights into the founding years of BSRF. The correspondence is of special interest to ufologists, Forteans, esotericists, investigators of paranormal phenomena and of course to fans and historians of science fiction.

Meade Layne

Roger P. Graham (1909-1966) was an American science fiction writer, often using the pseudonym Rog Phillips. During his active years he used more than twenty different pseudonyms. Graham became a full time writer after World War II. In 1946 he moved together with his wife to Evanston, Illinois to work for Ray Palmer´sAmazing Stories. They became close friends and Graham received first hand knowledge of the controversial Maury Island incident. He also developed a close friendship with Meade Layne, whom he visited several times at his home in San Diego, California. There is much information on the internet about ”Rog Phillips” as a science fiction writer but nothing is mentioned of his deep interest in spiritualism, esotericism and paranormal phenomena. The quotes and comments I present here from his correspondence with Meade Layne gives an deeper insight into Graham´s spiritual quest, his theories and writings.

Roger P. Graham

The first letter found in the Layne-Graham correspondence file is an long (four pages) undated letter with much personal information from Meade Layne, written in June or July 1946. It is a reply to Graham´s introductory letter:

”Your letter is unusual, and interesting, and very welcome. As you know, I just don´t and can´t writ long letters except on very rare occasions. I am writing one to you for the same reason you wrote to me – because I want to.”

Graham´s first letter must have struck a deep chord in the 25 years older Meade Layne. In fact this long, personal letter was so unusual that Riley Crabb printed the entire text with comments in Round Robin.The Journal of Borderland Research, vol. 31, no. 2, March-April 1975. The reason was that in this letter Meade Layne stated much of the purposes and principles of Borderland Sciences Research Associates and he also was unusually open minded regarded his own life:
”A few words about myself, since you hav given me considerable insight into your ways of thought. I´m not a scientist or mathematician. I have an earned Doctorate in philosophy, tho the thesis for the degree was actually done in comparative literature. I taught in various colleges and universities, also in high schools for several years. So, I´m only an academician who has strayed into borderland sciences and psychic research… My occult background is in what is called esoteric Qabalism – which is no child´s play, I assure you”

The affinity was obviously mutual as in his reply Graham wrote:

”You know, I think I like you very much. I like your not having a religious organization to rake in the suckers money with. I like your attitude. I am only thirty-six and just starting out in life in many ways.” (Letter to Meade Layne, July 13, 1946).

Graham had because of his move to Evanston been influenced by the ideas of Ray Palmer and studied the complicated channeled ”Bible” Oahspe, a favourite of Palmer. Although Graham kept an open mind he was by this time more of an agnostic and soon entered a kind of student – teacher relation with Meade Layne, who was an erudite esotericist and former member of Dion Fortune´s The Society of the Inner Light:
”Then, if we are really immortal as phenomena strongly indicates, we will at least have gained a start in the right direction by the time we cast off this body. It is much better to die not believing anything, and with a well ingrained system of analysis, than to die believing a mass of phantasies and exalted theories based on meaningless words.” (Letter to Meade Layne August 28, 1946).

Inspired by his new correspondent Graham began reading classics like The Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune and The Secret Doctrine by Helena P. Blavatsky. These studies resulted in a manuscript for an article, Existence, A Discussion, which he sent for publishing in Round Robin:
”The general trend of modern study and research is to bring the supernormal into the fold of the normal and the understood. This trend should be accompanied by a serious attemp to clarify terms, and week out the obsolete and discredited meanings, either by coining new words and restricting their meanings, as is done in mathematics, or by specific definition and tabulation of terms… Another example, to many people soul and spirit are synonimous terms. To me the soul is the vehicle, the permanent, material vehicle of the spirit.” (Quote from manuscript enclosed with letter to Meade Layne October 30, 1946).

Coming from a beginner in esoteric studies this was certainly very insightful comments on the problems encountered when trying to understand Theosophy or the Qabalah of Dion Fortune. In his manuscript Graham tried to formulate Hylozoism, that all matter have consciousness, a basic concept in esotericism and also criticize the abstruse terminology used, usually a stumbling block to understand what the author is talking about. Both these problems have, in my view, been brilliantly solved by the Swedish esotericist Henry T. Laurency.

Surprisingly Meade Layne appears to have misunderstood Graham on these points and declined to publish the article. In his reply he wrote:
”Since you are a friend of mine, (and I wish to be yours), I suppose I can criticize your article rather freely… On several points I feel that you are misinformed. I don´t know of any serious study being made, to determine whether astral bodies are material. So far as I know, no one in the whole history of occcultism ever denied that they are material. All informed spiritualists understand that matter. All the five vehicles of the Theosophical teaching are ”material” – finer grades of matter” (Letter to Roger P. Graham, November 22, 1946).

In a letter written in January 1947 Graham gives a rather uncanny ”prediction” regarding future conflicts between nations:
”One of my definite convictions is that we will not ever have a war with Russia. Another is that the next war, which will not come for many years yet… will be between Christianity and Islam, - a federation of Moslem states which is not yet completely crystalized, against Europé, and opened by the moslems.” (Letter to Meade Layne, January 19, 1947).
There is no information about how he arrived at this conclusion, which certainly is something to consider looking at todays political and religious clashes. Churchill gave his famous Iron Curtain speech at Fulton, Missouri in March 1946 so speculation of a war with Russia would have been more logical. And the Middle East conflict resulting from the founding of Israel didn´t begin until 1948.

After the Kenneth Arnold sighting Jun 24, 1947 Graham made these comment in two of his letters:
”Your card came this morning. Also the morning newspaper which looks like an edition of the Shaver mystery, with people lost in caves, and flying pie plates seen all over the United States. What a world!” (Letter to Meade Layne, July 5, 1947)
”The note just received on the saucers is interesting. Of course you have now read the army interpretation. To accept it means calling a lot of people who are undoubtedly reliable and experienced in observation, with the added advantage of being in a plane at the time, of being outright liars.” (Letter to Meade Layne, July 10, 1947).

Working with Ray Palmer it was only natural that Graham would also become involved in the controversial Maury Island incident of June 21, 1947. He makes several interesting comments on this case in his letters to Meade Layne:
”Am wondering how you got hold of the information? Here´s the dope of it.Working out of Tacoma Washington is a tug boat outfit or some kind of boat outfit (not sure of the type). One of the men on this wrote Ray that about twenty tons of stuff fell from the sky, - not necessarily from a flying saucer, since he didn´t see where it fell from. He sent Ray about five pounds of the stuff. I took a small piece and subjected it to a few tests. It is an oxide of some kind. It has a high electrical resistance indicating that it may be the oxide of some metal. Heat did not affect it in any way, though I did not have facilities for intense heat. It looks like hard coal, but fifteen minutes over a gas flame turned the edges of it white hot without any signs of burning, so it isn´t coal. It is heavy and black coming in pieces with glistening black surfaces and from large sheets, apparently, that are about an inch thick.” (Letter to Meade Layne, July 26, 1947).

”The FBI called on Ray Tuesday and grilled him, trying to get him ”confess” that he started the flying saucer stuff as a hoax to increase circulation. That after the official arme announcement that it is a hoax and all investigation of it has been dropped. Oh yeah?... The FBI entertians the idea that Arnold, under the pay of Ray, took the stuff up and dumped it from a plane. (At least twenty tons of it!)… Ray believes the flying saucers are here to prevent another war, and that a war cannot be fought so long as they are in the sky and not accounted for. (Letter to Meade Layne, August 14, 1947).

”Ray plans to send you some of the sworn statements for your files as soon as he gets through with them. In that way they will not all be in one basket. The F.B.I. has their eyes on him, and if they knew of the plans we have they would stop them, because the saucers are squelched now in the news. They exist and the government knows they exist, but doesn´t want that known to the public.” (Letter to Meade Layne, September 6, 1947).

Ray Palmer

Whatever is the reality regarding the Maury Island case, these statements from Graham must be one of the first assertions that the government is covering up the truth about the flying saucers. Interesting is also Ray Palmer´s belief that the saucers are here to prevent war on planet earth. A view very much different from Richard Shaver´s dark visions, also presented by Ray Palmer.

In several blog entries I have written about MillenCooke, who wrote the remarkably prophetic article Son of the Sun in Ray Palmer´s magazine Fantastic Adventures, November 1947. From the letters of Roger P. Graham I learned that he actually was a good friend of Millen Cooke. This was a fascinating co-incidence as I have tried to find more data on Millen Cooke from various sources, without much success. Graham introduced her to Meade Layne 1947 and she became a membere of BSRA, writing several articles for Round Robin. That she was an intriguing woman is attested by Graham in one of his letters:
”Anent Millen Cooke, I can´t say that I ”know” anything. Everything up to and including the present moment convinces me that she is a genuine adept without very many ilusions. The thing that counts is that she is completely honest and reliable in her utterances, and also very cautious about them. She has asked me about you and your policy, and that was the reason I had you send her RR, so she could find out. (Letter to Meade Layne, December 28, 1947).

Roger Graham gave regular and generous economic support to Meade Layne for the printing of Round Robin, The Flying Roll and the Seance Memoranda from the Mark Probert seances. Graham sometimes participated in these sessions and in several letters they discuss the origin and validity of the persons (The Inner Circle) coming through Probert. Graham presented different theories but eventually came to the conclusion ”that the phenomena through Mark are genuine, and that there is no faking, conscious or subconscious, involved”. (Letter to Meade Layne January 13, 1948). One theory that neither Meade Layne nor Roger Graham seems to have considered is that the names of the Inner Circle members could have been personas, fictional characters used by a secret lodge to hide their real identities.

The sixty letters between Meade Layne and Roger P. Graham 1946-1948 are historically important source documents that give in-depth knowledge of the first years of the UFO era and the personal lives and views of the fascinating writers and researchers of that time.

Secret of the ages

Homage to an old friend

The problems in introducing esotericism

Esotericism and UFO Research

The vanishing missiles

Research projects and paradigms

Creatures from the Twilight Zone

The spiritual quest of George Hunt Williamson

The José Higgins Close Encounter 1947

The Contactee Who Drove a MIB-car

Otto Viking - Bishop and Ufologist

A Crack in the Materialist Wall

The Doctor and the Alien

The Journal of Borderland Research

Ted Owens - The PK Man

AFU - A Cultural World Heritage

The Enigmatic Men In Black

Archives Saved and Archives Lost

Kerstin Bäfverstedt, Pioneer of the Swedish UFO Movement

The Meade Layne - Roger P. Graham Correspondence