Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus by Headline Books / Zoom Into Books

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus is the second exciting book in mythologist, magic realist, and ufologist, Dr. Raymond A. Keller's internationally acclaimed and award-winning Venus Rising series. Some of the interesting and real individuals you'll meet in this book of astounding science include: The German “Rocket Man” who saved New York City in early 1945; the wife of a Japanese prime minister who traveled to Venus in another dimension aboard an ethereal beam ship; and California contactee under constant surveillance by the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) and his public revelations that smashed the Venus Conspiracy. The team of Russian scientists probing the mysteries of Venusian life being monitored by the ABOVE TOP SECRET United States Air Force's “Project White Stork,” the mega-stars who have used various forms of magic to contact Venusians and other entities inhabiting the mysterious phantom zone known as “Dimension X.” The enigmatic psychic Maria Orsic and the members of the Vril Social Club that inspired the early German science fiction writers and rocket scientists and countless others also appear in the well documented pages of the Venus Rising series. “Book II of the Venus Rising trilogy, The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus, is a grand slam home run. While the premise seems implausible at first glance, the doctor did an outstanding job in proving, to my satisfaction at least, that the planet Venus is an abode for intelligent life in our immediate solar system. There are many never-before- seen classified documents in this book from the files of military and space agencies that clearly show that the powers-that-be knew a lot more about intelligent life in outer space than they were ever letting on, and that they have known this for a much longer time than anyone may have previously suspected. Buckle up and get ready for blast off to the cloud-covered planet of Venus, the most mysterious, powerful and wondrous of all the worlds in the Milky Way galaxy!” —Michael A. LaRiche Northeast Ohio Coast-to-Coast A.M. Radio Discussion Group

Cosmic Ray and Lady Venus at the Philadelphia Metropolitan Museum of Art on 20 March 2017.

Dr. Raymond A. Keller, II, award-winning author and retired History professor, is the author of the Venus Rising trilogy Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus and Cosmic Ray’s Excellent Venus Adventure are newest in the series. Dr. Keller's books explore various facets of conditions and life on Venus in many dimensions from a perspective of conspiracies, history, theosophy, ufology and current events, especially space research. To date, the first book, Venus Rising: A Concise History of the Second Planet, won awards at the Southern California and London Book Festivals. Dr. Keller has lived and worked in 44 different countries and has been writing about UFOs and paranormal activity since 1967. He was the founder and director of the Outer Space International Research and Investigations Society (OSIRIS) of Hilmar, California, as well as the publisher and co-editor of the New Millennial Star, a monthly pre-Internet tabloid newspaper with a circulation of 7,500 copies. He received his doctoral degree from West Virginia University in 2011 focusing on various aspects of the Basque settlement of Venezuela, and received his master’s degree from the same institution in 2004 in foreign language with an emphasis on magic realism in Latin American literature.

Book II of the Venus Rising Trilogy: A Concise History of the Second Planet

Raymond Andrew Keller II

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Book II of the Venus Rising Trilogy: A Concise History of the Second Planet

United Planets Commander Buzz Corry and Security Chief Major Robbie Robertson land on Venus in this episode of Space Patrol, first produced and broadcast over KECA, the ABC television network affiliate in Los Angeles, California, on 9 March 1950.

Dr. Raymond Andrew Keller, II, a.k.a. “Cosmic Ray” Headline Books, Inc. Terra Alta, WV

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Book II of the Venus Rising Trilogy: A Concise History of the Second Planet by Dr. Raymond Andrew Keller, II copyright ©2018 Raymond Andrew Keller, II All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any other form or for any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage system, without written permission from Headline Books, Inc. To order additional copies of this book or for book publishing information, or to contact the author: Headline Books, Inc. P.O. Box 52 Terra Alta, WV 26764 www.headlinebooks.com Tel: 800-570-5951 Email: mybook@headlinebooks.com ISBN 13: 9781946664037 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017944235

P R I N T E D I N T H E U N I T E D S TAT E S O F A M E R I C A

“It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.” �Eleanor Roosevelt The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus is dedicated to all of my outstanding co-workers at In Touch and Concerned (ITAC) in Morgantown, West Virginia. ITAC has been serving the economically disadvantaged, the elderly, persons with disabilities and veterans in the community since 1971, by making reassurance calls and getting clients on time to their dental and medical appointments at little or no charge.

Contents Foreword ....................................................................................................................................5 Introduction................................................................................................................................6 Chapter I: The Rocket Man.....................................................................................................11 Chapter II: Things More Bizarre..............................................................................................21 Chapter III: Putting the “Spin” on Venus.................................................................................33 Chapter IV: Back in the U.S.S.R..............................................................................................89 Chapter V: “Blast from the Past” ...........................................................................................129 Chapter VI: The Real X-Files ................................................................................................148 Chapter VII: Playing With Magic ..........................................................................................193 Chapter VIII: NASA’s Mariner to Venus ...............................................................................216 Chapter IX: “Operation Paperclip”........................................................................................263 Acknowledgements................................................................................................................276 Index ......................................................................................................................................277 About the Author....................................................................................................................280

Foreword In his ground-breaking epic Venus Rising: A Concise History of the Second Planet, Dr. Raymond A. Keller, a.k.a. the “Cosmic Ray,” introduced his readers to some of his- and ourintimate friends from Earth’s sister planet Venus, or Abejar, as it is known by its inhabitants. These include bees, humans and hybrids. At the end of Venus Rising, the author and doctor of history, magic realism, mythology and theology, announced that a sequel was already in the works. The UFO research community was overwhelmed with curiosity. “What could possibly top the first Venus book?” the ufologists and Venus researchers wondered. But lo and behold, he produced not just one amazing Venus book, but two! Frankly, with this book II of the Venus Rising trilogy, Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus, he’s hit a grand slam home run. While the premise seems implausible at first glance, the doctor did an outstanding job in proving, to my satisfaction at least, that the planet Venus is an abode for intelligent life in our immediate solar system. Rockets details the race to send unmanned probes to our sister planet Venus by the various space-faring powers here on Earth. At the same time, the Cosmic Ray closely examine events taking place on Earth related to the intensification of flying saucer activity in our skies surrounding close approaches of Venus to our world. In addition, the intrepid researcher scrutinizes and analyzes the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) monitoring of contactees in all aspects of their lives. There are many neverbefore- seen classified documents in this book from the files of military and space agencies that clearly show that the powers-that-be knew a lot more about intelligent life in outer space than they were ever letting on, and that they have known this for a much longer time than anyone may have previously suspected. Buckle up and get ready for blast off to the cloud-covered planet of Venus, the most mysterious, powerful and wondrous of all the worlds in the Milky Way galaxy! Michael A. LaRiche Northeast Ohio Coast-to-Coast A.M. Radio Discussion Group Rootstown, Ohio 24 April 2017

Introduction Credit phantomandmonsters.com blog of 7 June 2016 Dr. Raymond A. Keller is also known as the “Cosmic Ray” because he is the author of numerous articles and books about flying saucers and life on Venus. His latest book, Venus Rising: A Concise History of the Second Planet, was published this year by Headline Books in Terra Alta, West Virginia. It has already won two prestigious awards in the “wild card” category- at the Southern California Festival of Books in Hollywood and the London Book Festival in the United Kingdom. Recently I shared a ride with Dr. Keller to attend a conference in the Parkersburg area, sponsored by Volunteer West Virginia. On the one and a half hour ride from Morgantown, I discovered that he is a retired professor of literature and history. The Cosmic Ray, who speaks Spanish fluently and is conversant in several other languages, earned both of his advanced degrees from West Virginia University at Morgantown, his M.A. in Latin American Literature with an emphasis on “magic realism” (2004) and his Ph.D. in African History with a dissertation focused on the diaspora of certain Imbangala warriors of Angola, in Africa, to western Venezuela. They were brought there in 1722 by the Basque pirate Captain Juan de Chourio to help protect Spanish settlements from invasion by roving bands of the Motilones Indians (2011). However, his lifelong passion has been UFO research. During his youth, he experienced a close encounter with a flying saucer in an Ohio state park. The Cosmic Ray has been writing about flying saucers ever since he was a teenager and a reporter for the Bedford Times-Register, in the suburbs of Cleveland. The professor has since lived and worked in 44 different countries. These were mostly associated with military duties while serving honorably in both the Navy as a yeoman and in the Army as a voice intercept operator in the Spanish language. In 2013, however, he returned from China where he taught at an international high school in Wuxi, a city some 40 kilometers to the west of Shanghai. He had some interesting encounters with UFOs there that he writes about in the Venus book. But when he is not writing or talking about the Venusians living among us or the flying saucers they pilot, the craft that we erroneously refer to as “UFOs,” Keller is serving people with disabilities, seniors and veterans in Monongalia County as an AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) with In Touch and Concerned. There he helps individuals in

these groups to find free or affordable transportation to dental and medical appointments, or get a ride on Saturdays to a local Wal-Mart. During the ride to Parkersburg the Cosmic Ray played Katy Perry’s music in his CD player. He noted that ever since Katy’s 2010 hit, “Extraterrestrial,” he counts himself as one of her biggest fans. He praised Katy’s and Snoop Dogg’s “California” cut in his book Venus Rising, and includes a commentary on her “Dark Horse” cut and video in his forthcoming Venus sequel. “You know that Katy has come out strongly for Hillary,” said Dr. Keller, adding that, “This is important, because Hillary Clinton has advocated complete UFO disclosure on the part of the government.” The Cosmic Ray also noted that when he published a flying saucer magazine in Hilmar, California, the New Millennial Star, with a 7,500 monthly pre-Internet circulation, subscribers received a free t-shirt that proclaimed, “Flying Saucers Are Real! The Government is an Illusion!” We laughed and then I asked the Cosmic Ray some questions about this election year. “So the Venusians are for Hillary?” “They are not allowed to directly interfere in human history. Let’s just say they prefer to build bridges instead of walls.” “What about current events, like restrooms in North Carolina?” “Well, the inhabitants of Venus, that live in Dimension X, have bodies of light that are nonspecific as far as gender is concerned. It only becomes an issue for them if they have to assume human form to interact with us. Then whatever spacesuit, or body they chose to wear in our atmosphere, becomes a matter they have to concern themselves with.” During the first day of the Volunteer West Virginia conference, the AmeriCorps VISTAs took a tour of the Boys’ and Girls’ Club of Parkersburg. Here the Cosmic Ray started to talk to some children outside the Teen Center, an area of the facility that included a library. Dr. Keller had the receptionist come over and unlock the Teen Center, entered it with the children and picked two books off the shelf, “A Wrinkle in Time” and “Slaughterhouse Five.” “These are great books,” he told the youngsters. “They explain everything you want to know about time and space. You’ll learn more about life on other planets in the pages of these books than by anything NASA will tell you, or most likely ever will tell you.” “Like what?” asked a little girl. The Cosmic Ray picked up a piece of paper off a desk and marked a small dot at the bottom of the page and another small dot at the top of the page. “What are you doing?” the girl quizzically asked. “You’ll see,” said the Venus author. “I’m going to show you how the writer of this book explains that the shortest route between two points isn’t always a straight line. He then folded the paper in half, matching the bottom and top dots and then pushed a pencil between them. “That’s very nice,” said the girl. “This is how we look at time on Venus. It doesn’t go in a straight line, like here on Earth.” “I had to write a report about the planets,” said the girl, adding that, “Venus was my favorite one!” “It’s my favorite one, too,” said the Cosmic Ray. “It kind of reminds me of California.” With that, another girl wondered out loud, “What about the other book?” “Sure,” said Cosmic Ray. “This one is about a veteran, like me, that slips in and out of time. His friends are extraterrestrials. They come from a moon of a distant world on the fringes of our solar system. It’s in Dimension X and called Tralfamadore.” “I never heard of such a place,” replied the second girl.

“Well believe me, it’s there. And there are plenty of other inhabited worlds, too. Kurt Vonnegut wrote the book. He was really writing the truth about life in outer space but he didn’t want to alarm anybody. So he called it fiction, or make-believe. The space people are really our friends. I think you would like them, once you got to know them.” “Cool,” said the girl. “It’s all about magic,” said Cosmic Ray, “M.A.G.I.C.” “What does that spell?” asked the girl. “What that stands for is Making A Great Impact Collectively. In other words, anything that you or your friends want to do, you can do if you put your minds together and ask yourselves at the end of every day what you have done to make it happen. That’s how we make magic on Venus. Nothing is impossible because we work together, just like the honeybees in a hive. This is how we do it! ” “I think I get it. That’s nice to know. Can you do another trick, like you did for her?” “OK, but stand back a little bit….” Dr. Keller held up the books and then poof! We heard some kind of buzzing noise and there were blue spots in front of our eyes, as if looking directly at a flash bulb. The buzzing was just coming from a bee that had flown in and out of the room. The Cosmic Ray was out of sight, but not out of our minds. When I got back to the lodge with the other VISTAs the Cosmic Ray was already there. On the second day of the conference in the park, Dr. Keller explained a little bit about his Venus book and showed a power point presentation he had previously prepared for the Theosophical Society in Akron, Ohio, about the “Wisdom of the Ages,” important messages from Venusians brought to our planet through “avatars,” or illuminated teachers going back thousands of years. He pointed out that being volunteers in service to humanity was the most important thing we could be doing right now because the best way to affect change is through one person at a time. He taught us that a small act of kindness was more valuable than thousands of prayers. Dr. Keller recalled an old Sunday school poem that went like this: “I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day. I’d rather one would walk with me than merely point the way.” He laughed and added that, “It was probably a Venusian who came up with that sage adage.” He shared a full-page article that appeared in the National Enquirer fifty years ago detailing the close encounter with a flying saucer that he and a friend shared on a campout in an Ohio state park. He also colored in with crayons a drawing of a mystical horse and explained how it related to the Katy Perry “Dark Horse” song and video. “We shouldn’t be afraid of the dark,” said the Cosmic Ray, “because after all, without the blackness of the night, how could we ever see the beauty of the stars, or the planet Venus?” He also explained that synchronicities would mount up right before experiencing a supernatural event. He liked to call these extrasensory episodes “Dark Horse Phenomena” in honor of Katy Perry. Like Richard Dreyfus’ character with the pile of mashed potatoes in Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” movie, the Cosmic Ray twice whispered, “This is important.” After our ride back to Morgantown, the Cosmic Ray talked about theology. He said that he had received so many questions about angels, God and religion following the publication of the Venus book that he was starting classes at the Community of Christ Seminary at Graceland University in Independence, Missouri, in the Fall Semester. We discussed angels and aliens; and the professor said that he, like the Rev. Billy Graham, thought they were one and the same. When we finally got back to Morgantown and I got out of the Cosmic Ray’s car, he told me to look up Hebrews 13:2. When I got home, I did just that and discovered that it was all about being kind because one never knows when they are “entertaining angels unawares.”

As a student of the supernatural, I thought that Raymond, besides being a senior citizen, must be a very old soul. He told me back in Parkersburg that he was born in the Chinese Year of the Horse. I just wondered in what century. As he drove off, I noticed that he had two bumper stickers on his car, an old but completely paid-for Chevrolet: “I brake for aliens” and “A51.” Ariel Crawford Morgantown, West Virginia

Chapter I: The Rocket Man

Here’s a 1940’s version of “Rocket Man.” See http://cultured.com/images/image_files/2864/10035_o_rocketman.jpg.

She packed my bags last night, preflight, zero hour, nine a.m., and I’m gonna be high as a kite by then, I miss the Earth so much, I miss my wife, It’s lonely out in space, on such a timeless flight, and I think it’s gonna be a long, long, time ‘til touchdown brings me ‘round again to find, I’m not the man they think I am at home, ah, no no no, I’m a rocket man, rocket man burnin’ out this fuse up here alone. —Elton John, lyrics from Rocket Man (1972) On 12 April 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was supposedly the first human being to be launched into outer space, making a 108-minute orbital flight in his now legendary Vostok 1 capsule.1 The world’s media lauded Gagarin’s, and the Soviet Union’s, great accomplishment. But was Gagarin the first “rocket man” to be launched into the abyss of outer space? Perhaps not, for now you are going to learn the rest of the story. Don your space helmets and fasten your seat belts. And get ready for the commencement of The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus. One balmy, fine summer evening in 1993, while sitting in a karaoke bar in the Glendale section of Los Angeles, California, with Andy Reiss, the psychic correspondent for the Weekly World News, the renowned seer related an interesting story that was bandied about the editorial offices of the tabloid newspaper he had come to so well represent. It seems that the courageous and intrepid Yuri was actually the second man to be launched into outer space. The National Socialist (Nazi) regime in Germany had accomplished the same feat 16 years prior to Gagarin’s historic flight. But the story gets even better. 1

Jim Wilson, page editor, “Yuri Gagarin: First Man in Space,” National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 13 April 2011, http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/sts1/gagarin_anniversary.html (Accessed 22 June 2015).

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus While we were sipping on some mójito concoctions, Andy conveyed the story of a German aviator launched on a suicide mission ordered by Adolph Hitler to fly a rocket into the Empire State Building in New York City in early 1945. Andy, also a UFO experiencer who wrote about his contacts with an entity known as the “Venusian Observation Ranger” in the pages of the New Millennial Star of the Outer Space International Research and Investigations Society of Hilmar, California, of which I was the co-editor and co-director, respectively, avowed that sources deep in the hierarchy of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had confided to him that not only does America’s space organization have proof that the Nazis launched a crack pilot into space for the purpose of carrying out such a diabolical mission, but that this aviator/astronaut actually splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean on 2 April 1990, whence his bulb-shaped capsule was recovered by the United States Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71). It seems that the Roosevelt had just returned from her maiden deployment with Carrier Air Wing Eight in the Mediterranean, and was back off the eastern coast of the southern United States, in the vicinity of Charleston harbor, when the German capsule was recovered. Confidence was high for the crew of the Roosevelt, that less than one month previously was awarded the 1989 Battle “E” (for Efficiency) from Vice Admiral John K. Ready, Commander, Naval Air Force United States Atlantic Fleet, on 20 March 1990, The Vice Admiral assured President George H. W. Bush that the Navy airmen aboard the Roosevelt “were ready for any contingency.” Andy explained that his primary source, an informant deep inside the highest echelons of NASA, confided in him that the top scientists of America’s space organization were carefully examining the German capsule, searching for any clues as to how the pilot survived his long sojourn in outer space. “What’s particularly interesting,” noted the NASA official, “was that the astronaut not only returned to Earth alive from his dangerous mission, but that he hadn’t even aged. Our best guess was that he passed through some sort of time portal.” The NASA official continued, declaring that while the space organization’s top scientists had thousands of questions and very few answers, “The simple fact that Hitler launched a man into space in 1945 is mind-blowing enough.” He further informed the Weekly World News correspondent that, “The fact that the astronaut survived a 46-year ordeal in outer space is almost beyond human comprehension. There’s no telling what we can learn from this man and his spacecraft. I do know that they are going to put us light years ahead of the Soviets, just like the Germans were light years ahead of us.” So I asked Andy how the story was able to stay under wraps for so long, to which the top psychic replied that, “NASA, military and government officials angrily refused to discuss the report and actually promised to ‘ruin’ him or anyone else on the staff of the Weekly World News or any other media outlet who let word of this story get out.” In other words, the full force of the purported Silence Group, what popular media refers to as the Men in Black (MIBs), was definitely in effect. I then inquired of Andy, “What did the NASA scientists and technicians discover about the German astronaut and his spaceship?” To this he replied that, “The insiders themselves admitted that details are sketchy. But they confirmed that the Nazi astronaut was launched on a suicide mission ordered by Hitler himself, one where the pilot would guide the explosiveladen rocket into the Empire State Building in New York City as an act of vengeance for the fire-bombing of German civilian populations by the Allied air forces. As to the rocket itself, all 12

Raymond Andrew Keller II I can tell you is that it had three stages. It was a modified version of the powerful V-2 rockets that Germany used for bombing missions during World War II.” As far-fetched as this plan may seem, I believe Andy was telling me the plain, unadulterated truth. James P. Duffy, a noted World War II military historian and specialist on weapons technology in Hitler’s Third Reich, wrote the following with respect to the symbolic significance of New York City in the eyes of the Nazi regime: “Before there were the Twin Towers, there was the Empire State Building. By the time the Second World War had begun, it was the symbolic representation of New York City, recognized by people throughout most of the world. It too was a target. The idea of aiming a bomb-laden plane at New York City’s most visible building had occurred to several Nazi leaders. It had also occurred to some American government officials, as demonstrated by a United States propaganda poster that shows an airplane with a swastika clearly visible on it pointed directly toward the Empire State Building. Because New York City was the world’s best-known symbol of the United States, the Germans began as early as the 1890s to make it their particular target for attack. This continued throughout World War II, as demonstrated in some of the fanciful schemes that were suggested by various military leaders.”2 The seriousness of this matter was reflected in Allied defensive planning sessions going back as early as 12 April 1943, when the Vice Chiefs of the British Imperial General Staff convened a top secret meeting to discuss a report titled, “German Long Range Rocket Development.” In the four months previous to this meeting, Allied commanders were filing reports claiming that the Germans were working on the development of long-range rockets. Because of this, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill assigned his technically capable son-in-law, Duncan Sandys, to look into the veracity of the commanders’ assertions. History clearly shows that Sandys was not selected out of any feelings of nepotism on Churchill’s part, but because the candidate was truly the most qualified that could be found in the British Isles at the time. First, Sandys was a member of the House of Commons. Hence, he was politically well-connected with significant operational command personnel in both the British intelligence and scientific establishments. He was also a veteran of the Norway campaign and the former commander of Great Britain’s first experimental rocket regiment. At the same time, Reginald V. Jones, the Director of Scientific Intelligence of the Air Staff, was investigating the possibility that the Nazis were developing some types of long-range missiles. Jones was also well qualified for this task, earning his doctoral degree at Oxford for research in the propagation of infrared radiation. What was significant was that both of these qualified individuals were successfully compiling and verifying those incoming reports indicative of the then extant work being done on the development of the pilotless V-1 and V-2 missiles out on Usedom Island, part of the Peenemunde facility off the German Baltic coast. Both Jones and Sandys confirmed that Usedom was “the center of the research and development for these new weapons (the V rockets),” and that if something wasn’t done about it soon, the tide of the war’s course would turn in favor of the Third Reich. Under the direction of the Supreme Allied Command, reconnaissance missions were flown over the Baltic coastal region, confirming the base of Nazi rocket operations as Peenemunde. In an attempt to stop, or at least mitigate, the V rocket launches against the British Isles, Project Hydra was initiated to commence continuous night bombing raids on the Peenemunde facilities. 2

James P. Duffy, Target America: Hitler’s Plan to Attack the United States (Guilford, Connecticut: Lyons Press, 2004), 107-108.

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Duffy also pinpoints seven other areas along the occupied French Channel coast for experimental Nazi rocket development and launches. At these sites, it appears that largescale concrete construction was underway; but Allied photo analysts could not make any determination as to the purpose of these buildings, other than that they had something to do with the German secret weapons program. “They (Allied intelligence operatives) were correct,” noted Duffy, adding that, “Of the seven sites they found, two were intended for the launchings of A-4 rockets, one was planned for a high-pressure gun that was never completed, and four were to be used for storing and launching V-1s against England.” But inasmuch as conventional Allied bombing proved ineffective against these hardened Nazi sites, the United States Army Air Corps generated what it believed would be the perfect solution: a super secret operation code named Aphrodite. Basically, this mission involved taking several B-17s and a B-24 and stripping them down of all equipment not required for actually flying the aircraft. This allowed for the B-17s to be completely packed with explosives. The plan entailed having two men aboard each of these flying bombs. For the most part, their task was two-fold: to get the aircraft off the ground and point it in the right direction, against the German coastal rocket emplacements. Duffy further explains the Aphrodite mission, declaring, “That at a predetermined location, control of the aircraft would be turned over to a second bomber through radio control and the two men would parachute to safety. The manned B-24 bomber, called the ‘mother plane,’ would then guide the drones, called the ‘babies’ by the men involved in the program. As they approached the target, a baby would be aimed directly at the large doors marking the entrance to the concrete bunkers in the hope it would impact directly at the doors and explode inside the structure.” Of course, carrying out Aphrodite proved to be very dangerous, costing the lives of many Allied airmen. Among those who lost their life in Operation Aphrodite was Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., the brother of the future United States President John F. Kennedy. Intelligence gathered by Operation Aphrodite was disconcerting to the Supreme Allied Command. What it revealed was that the Germans were actually working on a rocket that could span the Atlantic Ocean and reach New York City; and in all probability it would probably be launched from one of the bunkers in the French Channel area that was being so closely watched. Nazi rocket program historian Jack Olsen, author of Aphrodite: Desperate Mission,3 duly notes that, “Midnight telephone calls were flying back and forth and jump pilots (the men who piloted the drones) hastily recruited, and the menace to New York and London and even Pittsburgh discussed till all hours of the morning by the highest ranking Allied officers.” And what is most remarkable, is that even after World War II had ended, reports of a German attempt to build an intercontinental ballistic missile persisted. In a postwar report issued by the Navy Technical Mission on Guided Missiles, reference was made to an A-9/A-10 two-stage rocket system that was intended to be deployed against the United States in the early months of 1946. The top secret Navy report concluded that, “This two-stage rocket was scientifically possible and undoubtedly would have been realized had time permitted.”4 When these Channel coastal bunkers were finally overrun by the Allied combined forces, it became apparent that from six of the seven, at least, no rockets had been stored or launched. But there was one that particularly concerned all the nations in the Supreme Allied Command, especially the United States, and that was the bunker at Wizernes. Duffy writes that, “While 3 4

Jack Olsen, Aphrodite: Desperate Mission (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970), 225. As quoted by Olsen, 16.

Raymond Andrew Keller II the others all appeared to be facing, and thus aimed, at either London or Bristol, this one was different. Alarms went off in early 1944 when a photo interpreter discovered that this bunker was aimed ‘within half a degree of the accurate Great Circle bearing on New York.’ The reason for this has never been explained.” Was this bunker designed to hold the prototype A-9/A-10 super rocket, the one that could be adapted to accommodate a third stage booster? Additionally, the bombproof doors for the Wizernes bunker were twice the size required to pass an A-4 missile through them. The A-4 was the rocket vehicle used to launch the V-1 and V-2 series of missiles. British political historian David Irving, whose area of specialty was the Third Reich, astutely surmises that, “We are left to speculate whether this was to be the launch site for the combined A-9/A-10 intercontinental missile that many Germans hoped would bring the war home to America.”5 But premier Weekly World News psychic Andy Reiss proclaimed that the Nazis had developed a threestage rocket and actually launched it; while Duffy, Irving and other World War II historians assert that they only got so far as building a two-stage A-9/A-10, but never deployed it. So who is telling the truth about this matter? It seems that Andy was; for immediately after A third stage adaptation to the A-9/A-10 the war, Peenemunde rocket scientist Dr. Wernher von launch system would allow the Nazis to put Braun toldAmerican Operation Paperclip interrogators a man in space as early as 1944, or bomb New York City. See www.luft46.com. that not only had his engineers completed working models of the A-9/A-10 systems, but had already completed design studies on an A-11 vehicle. Regarding the A-11, Frederick I. Ordway, III, and Mitchell R. Sharpe, historians who closely followed the development and application of rocketry to space flight, from the Nazi program to America’s manned lunar exploration, write that, “This was a booster rocket on which the A-9/A-10 combination would be mounted for launch. They calculated that through the use of a three-stage rocket they could get the A-9 into orbital powerless flight, thus extending its range to anywhere on Earth.”6 In other words, it could reenter the Earth’s atmosphere as a glider, with an ace pilot bringing it down to any desired location, much as the modern United States space shuttle. A second source in NASA frankly admitted to Andy that “von Braun personally knew the astronaut ultimately selected for the suicide mission, but never said anything about it to the personnel at Operation Paperclip. I guess he figured the one A-11 that the Nazis had just malfunctioned somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean and that was the end of the story.” Naturally, how could von Braun know that the man chosen to pilot the A-11 would ever return? The NASA official remarked that, “The German space capsule was equipped with heat shields and parachutes for re-entry and splashdown. But these were apparently just for show.” In other words, the capsule only served as an escape pod; but there would probably not be enough time for the astronaut to get into it after getting the rocket close enough to its target and setting it on 5 6

David Irving, Mare’s Nest (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1965), 219-220. Frederick I. Ordway III, and Michael R. Sharpe, Rocket Team (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Publishers, 1979), 57.

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus automatic pilot to continue its flight path into the Empire State Building. The official also declared that there wasn’t enough time to safely transport the A-11 to the French coast, so Hitler himself ultimately ordered it to be launched from Peenemunde. As an intercontinental ballistic missile, it might not make it to North American skies under powered flight, burning up all its fuel. But if it could be Photo from NASA depicts German rocket engineer directed on a glide path from orbit, it would all Wernher von Braun (center) surrendering to the U.S. depend on the skill of the pilot in directing it Army in Ruette, Bavaria, on 2 May 1945. From the left are U.S. Counterintelligence Corps agent Charles to its target. “For the Nazi regime, launching Stewart; Dr. Herbert Axster, wartime chief of staff at the A-11 was what American footballers would the Peenemunde missile base; Dieter Huzel, assistant call a ‘Hail Mary pass.’ While the chances that to von Braun; Wernher von Braun; Wernher’s it would succeed in reaching New York City younger brother, Magnus von Braun; and engineer Hans Lindenberg. Two months previously, von Braun and destroying the Empire State Building were was involved in an automobile accident, whence he slim, there was still a glimmer of hope that it broke his arm and had to wear the cast. See http:// might just work,” affirmed the second NASA www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/m-6721. source. In the right breast pocket of the German astronaut’s G-suit was found a folded telegram from Hitler thanking him for making “the ultimate sacrifice” on behalf of the Fatherland. But many questions remained, among them: How did the astronaut survive the marathon space mission? How did he manage to bring the capsule back to Earth? Why didn’t he age in space? Why didn’t the crew of the Roosevelt discover any food, water or explosives in the Nazi space capsule? And most importantly, why didn’t the astronaut complete his mission and destroy the assigned target? The first NASA source declared, “We just don’t know what the hell went on up there. In a way, it’s like something out of the Twilight Zone.” He added that, “We don’t know where the capsule went. It certainly wasn’t orbiting the Earth or we would have spotted it decades ago.” In addition, the space official informed Andy that, “We don’t know what the astronaut ate and drank, either. We’ve been throwing around a lot of terms like ‘black hole, time warp, suspended animation,’ even ‘extraterrestrial visitation.’ The fact is, we don’t have any explanations.”7 Accuracy of the Tabloid Newspapers Nelson Mann, a special correspondent to the Weekly World News, researched the Nazi astronaut story along with Andy Reiss, but insisted that the capsule held three German space pioneers. Andy respectfully disagreed, insofar as the A-11 was a prototype, and there was only one pilot in the Third Reich who was briefed to fly it. In addition, the more astronauts that could be packed into a rocket meant more fuel was required, less distance covered, and little room for more explosives. In light of these contradictions over the particulars of the story at the tabloid offices in Lantana, Florida, I asked Andy about the reliability of articles in the Weekly 7

Nelson Mann, “Nazi Astronauts,” Weekly World News, 17 April 1990, Lantana, Florida.

Raymond Andrew Keller II World News and other tabloid newspapers, especially stories concerning outer space and paranormal phenomenon. Yes, the stories were of a sensational and titillating nature, but could they be trusted? To this, Andy replied that, in the case of both the Weekly World News and the National Enquirer, they could be counted on for accuracy. Both of these tabloids were owned and published by Generoso Pope, Jr., the son of Generoso Pope, the founder and publisher of Il Progresso, an Italian-American daily in New York City. When Pope, Jr., had taken over the Enquirer in 1952, it had fallen on hard economic times. Circulation was in the basement at 17,000 copies, with the newspaper only being sold in the five Burroughs comprising New York City. Pope immediately went about changing the format from a traditional broadsheet to a sensationalist tabloid, with a focus on sex and crime, the same formula that had worked so well in the British press. The paper was mostly sold at newsstands and drugstores; but within five years Pope changed the name of the periodical to the National Enquirer and managed to start selling issues of it and a new sister publication, the Weekly World News, at supermarket checkout stands throughout the country. In the ten years since he had taken over the original Enquirer, Pope managed to boost its circulation into the millions. But the focus on sex and violence was marring the image of the tabloid press, generally, so in 1967 Pope made a conscious decision to tone down the more salacious and gory content of the publications in favor of an emphasis on more benign topics like celebrities, the occult and the UFO phenomenon. Interestingly, while I and Alan Weston, junior high school journalists were publishing a UFO fanzine at that time known as the Flying Saucer Report, the National Enquirer got wind of our activities and published an article about us. By 1971, both the Enquirer and Weekly World News were moved out of New York City to new offices in Lantana, Florida.8 This change of address was certainly more in conformity to the calmer, suburban shift of content in both of the Pope publications. So the stories that one reads in such tabloids are true; but the emphasis still remains on the more sensational aspects. And as far as the German astronaut, there appears to be enough circumstantial evidence to support Andy Reiss’ version of the story; but there are more surprises yet to be revealed…. Nazi “Kugelblitz” Speculation regarding Nazi involvement with the development of advanced aerial and aerospace vehicles can be traced to obscure references made in UFO literature to a “Kugelblitz” or “ball lightning” program. As the Allied Forces were closing in on Germany, Hitler and the Nazi High Command were pushing for an acceleration of those efforts already underway to develop and deploy a disk-shaped, jet-powered aircraft. Ufologist William Moore, a researcher into the role of disinformation in the Nazi flying saucer legend, does admit that, “there seems little doubt that at least one and probably several of these craft were actually constructed as prototypes and test-flown with results entirely in keeping with the capabilities of the conventional technology employed in them.”9 So at least we can recognize that much as historical fact. But whether the Nazi scientists and engineers were able to construct a “flying saucer” that operated on the bottled up power of “ball lightning,” or a sustained electrostaticcharged plasma, is another matter altogether. According to Moore, the claims about the Nazi development of the so-called Feuerball or V-7 were spot-on accurate. Basically, this was a circular-shaped craft, having the appearance 8 9

International Directory of Company Histories, entry for “History of Enquirer/Star Group, Inc. History,” Vol. 10 (Farmington Hills, Michigan: St. James Press, 1995). William L. Moore, “Kugelblitz? Fiddlesticks! The Role of Disinformation in the Nazi Flying Saucer Legend,” 31 March 1991, Focus Quarterly: Journal of Fair Witness Project, Burbank, California.

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus of a traditional “flying saucer;” but it was powered by conventional jet engines. The only exotic aspect of the craft was its circular shape; and when knowledge of its existence became widespread after the war, it was easy to see how many could assume that the Nazis invented and continued to pilot the flying saucers-UFOs that everyone was seeing around the globe. Perhaps, they reasoned, fugitive Nazis were operating out of air bases in Patagonia or maybe even Antarctica. Of the V-7, Moore writes: “There is reason to believe that one or more prototypes of this craft was/were actually constructed and test flown. While the results were certainly not spectacular, it does appear that they were sufficient to warrant further research and development.” So the evidence would suggest that such a Feuerball deployment was undertaken towards the end of World War II. However, it must have been a short-lived program insofar as the German military-industrial complex was quickly collapsing and could no longer sustain further research and development in these exotic areas. Just how far the V-7 project advanced before the end of the war is anyone’s guess, but Moore concluded that, “there is absolutely no reason to believe, that whatever results might have been achieved, were anything but conventional.”10 Keep in mind, however, that as hope for victory became increasingly untenable in the eyes of the German volk, the Nazi propaganda machine continued to grind out a lot of disinformation about a number of wondrous “secret weapons” that would soon be deployed against the Allies, thus rapidly securing a turnabout in the course of the conflict and solidifying the Hitler regime’s plans to continue building their Third Reich that would last for a thousand years. Perhaps, the Nazi propagandists imagined, this would be enough to buoy up the German population’s sagging morale. Of course, after the war, a few formerly high-positioned Nazis saw to it that some of this propaganda made its way into American hands. It was then forwarded to Washington, D.C., where intelligence analysts may have accepted all or at least a goodly portion of it to be true. All the more reason to bring those Nazis working on such secret projects to the United States, where they could continue to develop these weapons for use against the Soviet Union in some future war for control of the planet. If you were a former Nazi who was working in an aerial/aerospace vehicle development, or even a new type of energy program, you could clearly weigh the advantages of collaborating with the Americans, vis-à-vis the Soviets, after all the dust would settle from the Second World War. But while the Nazis did have a somewhat more advanced rocket program, the piece of disinformation had to do with the mythical claims about developing and deploying a “flying saucer,” the legendary Kugelblitz, a craft of incredible size, performance and capabilities in unparalleled proportions. Over time, the Kugelblitz became conflated with the UFO phenomenon. Italian aviation writer and ufologist, Renato Vesco, was one of the first to pick up where the Nazi propagandists left off. Of the exotic aerial platform, Vesco writes that, “The principle of the symmetrical circular aircraft was combined with gyroscopic stabilization….,” adding that, “This marked the rapid development of the Feuerball (Fireball), which finally became a weapon. “The Kugelblitz (Ball Lightning), which apparently for greater safety combined the electrostatic firing device with an analogous short-wave device manufactured by the PatentVerwertungs Gesellschaft of Saltzburg, lumped together in a single compact mass the wings, tail, and fuselage of ordinary planes, but it had nothing in common with them in either form or performance. It was the first example of the ‘jet-lift’ aircraft. “After a single lucky wartime mission, the Kugelblitz was subsequently destroyed by 10

Ibid.

Raymond Andrew Keller II technical detachments of retreating S.S. troops…. Even if UFOlogists do not know it or refuse to admit it, the Kugelblitz, older brother of the Feuerball…. is the second authentic antecedent of the present-day flying saucers and it is with them…. that the true history or, if you like, the ‘prehistory’ of the UFO question begins.”11 Vesco’s revelations created a firestorm in the global UFO community. By 1980, the momentum behind the Kugelblitz/flying saucer mythology had become a runaway train, of sorts, even penetrating pop culture. Noted science fiction author William A. Harbinson’s elucidates on the Nazi-UFO connections: “Now let us review the situation. It is not confirmed, but it is very possible that the German Feuerball existed, that it accounted for the first modern UFO sightings during the Second World War, and that an extraordinary flying machine, the Kugelblitz, was successfully A Nazi disinformation campaign about creating flown in Germany a few weeks before the war a “flying disc” obscured their development and ended. The Feuerball, therefore, could have deployment of advanced rockets. See www.dailymail. been the forerunner of the small, seemingly co.uk. remote controlled UFOs observed frequently throughout the final months of the war, while the Kugelblitz could have been the first of the larger, pilot-controlled flying saucers.”12 Moore, who was shown a once classified 1946 report from the United States Air Division of United States Forces in Austria, by fellow Focus Research Consultant Henry Schuren, who obtained it from filing a Freedom of Information Act request, believes that the fabled Kugelblitz was nothing more than a classic Nazi disinformation ploy that was ultimately picked up by “credulous UFOlogists.”13 And insofar as “disinformation” is generated by the manipulation of reality through the introduction and spreading of credible but misleading information, then it should come as no big surprise that Vesco’s rendering of the Kugelblitz story should check out in every detail except one, the one that Moore clearly points out to be the “most important.” As it turns out, the Kugelblitz was not a flying saucer, or even a disc-shaped craft. Rather, it was an experimental anti-aircraft rocket. Advanced Rocket Development The Kugelblitz turned out not to be the Nazi saucer prototype many in the Allied intelligence community assumed it was. However, the subsequent Austrian revelations confirmed that a Kugelblitz program indeed existed. And yes, the program was specifically designed as both a smoke screen for the development of advanced rocketry in the Third Reich and also as an actual and crucial automatic ignition device for several of the German self-searching flak rockets then in various stages of assembly. Note the following extract from the Air Division’s Austria report quoted in Moore’s article: 11

Renato Vesco, Intercept but Don’t Shoot: True Story of the Flying Saucers, English translation of original 1968 edition (New York, New York: Grove Press, 1971), 156-157. 12 William A. Harbinson, Genesis (New York, New York: Dell, 1980); page unspecified, quoted in Moore. 13 Moore.

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus “The Patent Verwertungs Gesellschaft (Patent Utilization Company, Salzburg, Austria) had an unimpressive start on 1 September 1943 as a private firm for the development of certain patents…. Kugelblitz was a high frequency, i.e. shortwave, proximity ignition device for flak rockets. This was the initial project arising out of Chief Developing Engineer Richard Haas’ recommendations around which the Patent Vertwertungs Gesellschaft had been formed…. It was developed in three successive models, each an improvement of the previous one. The final model was ready for production in January 1945, but never reached the production line. Parts of the Kugelblitz, but not the whole model, are at the laboratory site.” There were clear advantages here. Clearly, remote controlled flak rockets could be directed to the target, with the operator maintaining coverage of the target during flight. “However,” the Air Division report goes on to state that, “neither the course nor the timing of the rocket could be predetermined. A time setting was of no use in this case. The explosion had to occur automatically at or about the instant of nearest approach of the rocket to the airplane. This demand was met by Kugelblitz.” The Austria report also indicates that the success of the Kugelblitz was proven in test flights at Ainring Airfield conducted before an official committee of the Luftwaffe. The seasoned aviators in attendance were all of the considered opinion that the Kugelblitz was by far the best device of its type. And so we see that the existence of the Kugelblitz as an automatic, targetseeking missile designed to explode at the instant of its nearest approach to an airplane. Back in the 1940s, Allied intelligence operatives could rightly classify it as nothing less than a “secret weapon.” It was radically different from anything in common use by the military forces of any nation during the course of World War II. Basically, it was a combination of an electrostatic firing device, or automatic detonator, with an analogous short-wave Doppler radar distance meter capable of measuring the rocket’s proximity to its intended target. While it certainly was not a “flying saucer,” as so many ufologists had come to believe, the Kugelblitz as a finned rocket had literally nothing in common with any other aircraft in existence in 1943, either in form or performance. So what does the existence of the Kugelblitz have to do with our story? First, we note that it was perfected on or about the beginning of 1945; and second, it provided the kernel of knowledge necessary for the development of effective multi-stage rockets. The team of German scientists developing the booster-fitted A-9/A-10, i.e. the A-11 to be launched against New York City, could do nothing without the incorporation of such a mechanism into their deadly rocket. Such a missile would require a timer mechanism to be used to stage composite propellant rocket motors. One may think of it as a launch controller that fits into the rocket and fires off the igniters in the upper stage motor(s). It uses an accelerometer to detect launch. Therefore, it could be programmed to fire motors at any point during the flight. The fusion and modification of Kubelblitz technology was going to make this happen.

Chapter II: Things More Bizarre

See Nora’s posting at https://twitter.com/book_3000/status/381877212107923456. The Solar System seems to be full of chrono-synclastic infundibula. -Kurt Vonnegut, Sirens of Titan (1959)

In 2009, Miyuki Hatoyama was 66 years old when her husband Yukio Hatoyama, age 62, assumed the office of Prime Minister of Japan. Unlike previous first ladies of this East Asian island nation, however, Miyuki refused to remain quietly in the background. Miyuki, it appears, back in 1989 experienced first-hand a close encounter of the third kind with extraterrestrials hailing from the planet Venus. And not only did she meet the Venusians face-to-face, she also flew home with them for a tour of their world. All of this and more was described in her 2008 independently published book entitled, Most Bizarre Things I’ve Encountered. Naturally, because of these UFO assertions, Miyuki became an international media sensation, even apart from her famous spouse. In her book, Miyuki maintains that, “While my body was asleep, I think my soul rode on a triangular-shaped UFO and went to Venus. It was a very beautiful place, and it was very green.” Her husband, on the other hand, while generally supportive of his wife, approaches her claim of traveling to Venus with a degree of skepticism. Said Yukio, “I can understand to a degree [the existence of UFOs]; but being told by your wife ‘I’ve gone and returned from Venus,’ still bewilders me.” In other media venues, the prime minister largely attributes her Venus account to a lucid dream. Nevertheless, he is clearly devoted to Miyuki and has also stated in interviews how much he is invigorated by being with her. He cites as an example how he allows her to style his hair in a pompadour fashion, thus defying the conservative, slickeddown look in which Japanese politicians present themselves to the public.14 14

Coco Masters with reporting by Yuki Oda, “Japan’s First Lady: Introducing ‘Mrs. Occult’,” 7 September 2009, Time magazine, New York.

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Of course, the traditional scientific community was not as accepting or understanding as her husband Yukio. Space.com editor Robert Roy Britt immediately found two alleged discrepancies in Miyuki’s Venus account: “Okay, Problem No. 1: The aliens only took you to Venus? How boring! I would think that if they’re out there, they’d have more exotic destinations where it’d be harder for NASA to find them. “No. 2: Venus isn’t green. If you’re going to dream up hooey like this, the least you could do is crack open a reference book and get your planet colors right. The surface of Venus is brownish-red and it is a crushing place where humans would fry if they weren’t first pulverized by the extreme air pressure.”15 First, the very headline employed by Britt inaccurately reflects the context of Miyuki’s encounter. It cannot rightly be characterized as “abduction” because it was not carried out against Miyuki’s will. Second, the use of a painting of a sinister gray alien to illustrate Britt’s article does not do justice to the peaceful nature of the Venusians as related by Miyuki in her book, whom she depicts as looking very much as we do. Third, Britt assumes that any alien civilization existing on Venus would be easy to discover; and since nothing has so far turned up, there must be nothing there. Ergo, Miyuki is fabricating a ridiculous story. But this is assuming too many conditions, i.e. the government is really telling us the truth about what it knows about what lies under Venus’ dense cloud layer; that a civilization on Venus would not have the technology to hide itself from our instruments; or that no Venusian civilization could possibly exist outside our reality, such as on a spiritual plane or even in another dimension. And fourth and lastly, why do scientists, so-called, always have to insist that life evolves on other planets after the same fashion as it does on Earth? After all, there are examples of organisms right here on Earth that can thrive in the high temperatures of thermal vents at the great pressures of ocean depths, in conditions not unlike those that might be found on distant, alien worlds. Does Miyuki Hatoyama gives an account of her journey to life on other planets have to be as “we know it,” beautiful Venus. See http://news.3yen.com/2014-0511/japanese-researchers-arent-saying-it-was-aliensor are there other alternative evolutionary paths but/. for life to follow? Fortunately, the people of Japan, and particularly its electorate, are not so closed minded as the Western scientists appear to be. They are familiar with Miyuki Hatoyama as a regular contributor to Mu Magazine, a publication that explores such subjects as ufology, end-time prophecies, the esoteric mysteries of the giant heads of Easter Island and the lost Sun-worshipping civilizations of South America. Miyuki often speaks openly of “eating” the morning rays of the Sun for energy, much as many advanced extraterrestrials do. In fact, Miyuki is sometimes referred to as “Mrs. Occult,” largely due to her writing a monthly spiritual column in Mu. She 15

Robert Roy Britt, “What’s Wrong with Miyuki Hatoyama’s Alien Abduction Story,” 3 September 2009, Live Science, http://www.livescience.com/5669-wrong-miyuki-hatoyama-alien-abduction-story.html (Accessed 2 May 2015).

Raymond Andrew Keller II is also a strong adherent of the doctrine of reincarnation; and claims she once knew American actor and devoted Scientologist Tom Cruise in a previous life, when he was a Japanese samurai warrior. Miyuki and Yukio met in California while she was working at a Japanese restaurant in San Francisco and he was attending Stanford University. They were married in San Francisco in 1975. They have one son, Kiichiro. She is also noted as an outstanding actress, splendid cook of traditional Japanese cuisine and life coach. If nothing else, Miyuki’s comments and writings served to spark a boom in “astroculture” throughout Japan. The Japanese are, on the whole, much more excited about the prospects of exploring outer space and discovering intelligent life on other planets. Additionally, attitudes about finding such advanced life on Venus are much more open than in the United States, so much so that the Japanese have rallied behind Miyuki, thereby giving an impetus to Japan’s space exploration agency to give its highest priority to an investigation of the second planet. The Akatsuki Venus Probe In December 2015, a Japanese space probe successfully completed a second chance to orbit Venus, five years after an initial attempt that missed the orbital insertion and only managed a flyby of the cloudy planet. The Akatsuki Venus probe was supposed to go into orbit around the second planet in December 2010. However, there were some complications with the spacecraft’s main engine. Try as they could to fix the problem, the Japanese technicians did not have enough time to make the repairs. It failed during the crucial orbital-insertion burn; but they still had five more years until the probe would return to a flyby of Venus and they could make another attempt. So what was the probe doing all this time? According to a press release from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Akatsuki was orbiting the Sun. But now that JAXA officials have corrected the engine problem, this time, on 7 December 2015, they maneuvered the probe into a Venus orbital insertion. Since the main engine was dead, the Akatsuki was inserted into Venusian orbit at the appointed time through the mission team’s use of its small attitude-control thrusters. And insofar as the maneuver succeeded, the spacecraft slipped into a highly elliptical orbit that now completes one lap around Venus every eight to nine days. The original mission plan called for a 30-hour orbital period, to allow more time for an intensive survey of the planet’s surface; but at least some significant data will now be gleaned and Japan will be duly recognized as one of the few nations with an interplanetary reach. The Akatsuki, whose name means “dawn” in Japanese, will then also study Venus’ atmosphere with a variety of instruments, gathering data about the planet’s clouds, air circulation patterns and other characteristics. A mission update prepared by JAXA officials in February 2015, declared that, “When flying further away from Venus, or about 10 times the radius of Venus from the planet, the Akatsuki will continuously observe Venus as a whole to understand its clouds, deep atmosphere and surface conditions,” adding that, “When flying closer to Venus, or less than 10 times the radius of Venus, the orbiter will conduct close-up observations to clarify cloud convection, the distribution of minute undulatory motions and their changes.” The Akatsuki probe was launched in May 2010 at a cost to Japanese taxpayers of $300 million; but nobody is complaining. The Japanese people are keeping an open mind to what the Akatsuki will discover about Venus, hoping that the telemetry arriving at JAXA Control will confirm some of the writings about conditions on the planet previously produced by Miyuki Hatoyama in 2008. The findings of the Akatsuki mission will certainly help researchers clear up a lot of questions they’ve had 23

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus about our twin planet over the past few decades of robotic exploration. Full scale observations of Venus are scheduled by JAXA to begin in April 2016. The delicate probe blasted off on the same rocket as JAXA’s IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) spacecraft and became the first spacecraft ever to travel through deep space utilizing a solar sail. The Akatsuki mission is actually Japan’s second attempt to explore another planet. Japan’s first interplanetary probe, the Nozomi Mars Orbiter, was launched in 1998 but immediately experienced problems with a valve malfunction, resulting in a significant fuel loss. JAXA officials were, therefore, unable to continue with the project and Japan’s ventures in space were put on hold. It appeared as though Japanese politicians were unwilling to fund further interplanetary research, leaving that up to China, Europe, Russia and the United States; but the book and articles by Miyuki Hatoyama sparked enough of a demand from the curious Japanese electorate to at least send a probe out Japanese first lady Miyuki Hatoyama’s esoteric to Venus to see if there was anything out there writings about the planet Venus generated sufficient worth further investigating. So just under two public opinion in support of sending a probe to our sister planet that the politicians came through with years after the publication of Miyuki’s Most ample funding for JAXA’s Akatsuki mission. The Bizarre Things I’ve Encountered, JAXA had robotic spacecraft arrived in Venusian orbit on 7 the Akatsuki on its way to cloud-shrouded December 2015. See http://www.space.com/29017japan-venus-spacecraft-akatsuki-second-chance.html. Venus.16 Multidimensional Venus So perhaps Miyuki’s rendition of a journey to Venus is not so far-fetched after all. In Venus Rising: A Concise History of the Second Planet,17 our understanding of Earth’s “twin world” was expanded by providing a peak into its existence in multiple vistas of reality. Besides the Venus of the popular imagination, to include the vast perspectives provided through science fiction, our observations of this sister terrestrial sphere now include the chronicles of its transitions over time from the third to the fourth and fifth dimensions. In the third dimension, it should be noted that there is a remnant of the ancient Venusian civilization that still exists underground on the planet Venus still visible to us as both the Evening and the Morning Star, as well as dispersed and hidden in various outposts in the immense caverns that cut through our world’s interior as well as the Moon and other planets and their attendant natural satellites throughout the solar system and beyond. There are even some Venusian colonies constructed in hollowed-out asteroids. In the fourth dimension, Venus exists as a physical planet with conditions much as our Earth in the present, but flourishing either in the remote past or the future along our current time line. Perhaps this may help to explain the proliferation of Venus exploration projects among the states of Earth. For once we have engaged in the experience of terraforming the second planet we can begin to repair some of the damage that has been done to the third planet, our home, 16

Michael D. Wall, “Japanese Spacecraft to Attempt Venus Comeback in December,” 6 April 2015, SPACE.com, http:// www.space.com/29017-japan-venus-spacecraft-akatsuki-second-chance.html (Accessed 29 June 2015) 17 Raymond A. Keller, Venus Rising: A Concise History of the Second Planet (Terra Alta, West Virginia: Headline Books, 2015).

Raymond Andrew Keller II since the start of the industrial revolution. No doubt the knowledge acquired in the process of terraforming Venus will prove invaluable in its application to resuscitating the feeble Earth. After the terraforming of Venus, a torrid and inhospitable world for human habitation, and making it bloom, then making deserts on Earth verdant again should be a piece of cake. Our scientists will be able to utilize new techniques of climate and weather control on Venus without engendering disastrous effects on the Earth. Essentially, the terraforming of Venus will allow more latitude for trying out and testing the more innovative procedures. Some politicians in the United States are already complaining about funding for various planetary research projects, of which an ambitious new program of proposed Venus exploration would be a casualty. The Senate proposes to provide only $1.36 billion for planetary science for 2017; and this cut, if enacted, would be a severe $270 million cut from 2016.18 The alluded to NASA program includes the eventual placement of floating cities in the atmosphere of Venus. One of the more vociferous opponents of Venus research is Arizona Senator Jeff Flake. Recently, the embittered politician told a reporter for a national newspaper that, “It’s outrageous…To see so much money so outlandishly wasted, it’s clear that Washington’s ballyhooing over budget austerity is a farce.” The senator also added that, “Taxpayer-funded science projects even sounded like they were concocted at a frat house rather than a government research agency.”19 One of the science projects singled out for cuts by Flake was the National Science Foundation’s investigation into how an unattractive person wins the heart of one more handsome. The Arizona politician said that it cost United States taxpayers $276,000 to discover that the answer simply boiled down to time, i.e. the longer people know each other, the less important looks become. Interestingly, an astrologer could have explained that it was all related to time as well. If an individual is patient enough in waiting for Venus to pass through their Sun sign, then romance is sure to follow. The other science project, that got Flake’s dander up was NASA’s spending of $279,000 of the taxpayers’ money to draft blueprints for a cloud city on Venus. Known as the High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC), it would entail sending a robot to Venus to evaluate the possibilities of building a “floating cloud city,” something akin to a massive blimp, in Venus’ atmosphere. As it turns out, however, the Venusian atmosphere is an exciting destination for both further scientific study and future human exploration, well worth the measly three thousand dollars more than the expenditures on how ugly persons can find and keep attractive mates. For starters, a lighter-than-air vehicle will carry either a host of instruments and probes, or a habitat and ascent vehicle for a crew of two astronauts to explore Venus for up to a month. John D. Reeves, the NASA official with oversight authority of the project under the auspices of the space agency’s Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate, declared that, “The mission requires less time to complete than a crewed Mars mission, and the environment at 50 km is relatively benign, with similar pressure, density, gravity, and radiation protection to the surface 18 19

Casey Dreier, “The Senate Just Proposed to Slash Planetary Science Funding,” 26 June 2016, Planetary Society blog, Pasadena, California, http://www.planetary.org/blogs/casey-dreier/2016/0425-the-senate-just-proposed-to-slashplanetary-science-funding.html (Accessed 8 May 2016) Kelly Corcoran, “Government Waste at its Finest!,” Globe, Boca Raton, FL, 18 January 2016.

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus of Earth. A recent internal NASA study of HAVOC led to the development of an evolutionary program for the exploration of Venus, with focus on the mission architecture and vehicle concept for a 30 day crewed mission into Venus’ atmosphere.”20 Some of the key technical challenges for the mission include performing the aero-capture maneuvers at Venus and Earth, inserting and inflating the airship at Venus, and protecting the solar panels and structure from the sulfuric acid in the atmosphere. However, with advances in technology and further refinement of the concept, missions to the Venusian atmosphere can expand humanity’s opportunities for a wondrous future in space. The human species NASA’s High Altitude Venus Operational Concept is still in the cradle insofar as exploring the (HAVOC) meets stiff opposition from short-sighted vastness of outer space; so missions to the politicians. See http://sacd.larc.nasa.gov/branches/ space-mission-analysis-branch-smab/smab-projects/ Moon, Mars and Venus will constitute our first havoc/. baby steps into the universe. But apparently the politicians feel that more important areas of space research require funding, such as enhancing military capabilities in orbit and diverting rogue asteroids from striking the Earth. As taxpayers, it would be good if we urged our politicians to increase funding for planetary research, especially in light of the fabulous New Horizons more than successful mission to Pluto. Unlike the Planetary Society, that in this regard wants to give a carte blanche to NASA, the American taxpayer concerned with the search for extraterrestrial intelligence ought to put a caveat on receipt of those funds, i.e. that the government come forth with full disclosure of what NASA really knows about the other civilizations that share our solar system and the flying saucers that the inhabitants of these neighboring worlds send to patrol our skies. One must hope that when astronauts from Earth finally do arrive at Venus, our society will have peacefully advanced to the point where they will be welcomed and assisted by our Venusian brothers and sisters. The terraforming of Venus would be a long-term project, extending over centuries. We would be attempting to alter what the Cosmos formed over a period of billions of years. Ultimately, it will be the Earth that benefits in the end because of what we shall learn. The space visionary Pamela Sargent wrote that, “What it comes down to is that we either have to gain some mastery of planetary engineering, or eventually we have no choice except to leave Earth….”21 If Al Gore and others in the Green Movement are right about global warming, we may have arrived at the point of no return. Acquiring these enhanced engineering skills may be the only hope we have for ministering to dear Lady Gaia, who now finds herself on life support.

20 21

John D. Reeves, “HAVOC,” 17 October 2014, NASA Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate, Langley, Virginia, http://sacd.larc.nasa.gov/branches/space-mission-analysis-branch-smab/smab-projects/havoc/ (Accessed 8 May 2016) Pamela Sargent, Venus of Dreams (New York: Bantam Books, 1986), 237.

Raymond Andrew Keller II

Map of terraformed Venus in the Earth year 3,000 C.E. See www.worlddreambank.org.

As for Venus in the fifth dimension, on the other hand, the planet could best be described as a spiritual realm, the abode of angels and other high celestial beings. Of the fifth dimensional Venusians, it has been said that it is no longer necessary for them to construct their buildings with machinery or tools, such as we or other entities might employ in a physical reality of the third or fourth dimension. Rather, the fifth dimensional Venusians build with the creative energies of their minds. The homes and other structures on Venus of the spiritual realm represent the first constructive use of the angelic Venusians’ mental powers, powers that are still latent in most of us stuck in the third or even fourth dimensional level of existence. Here on the physical Earth, the artist paints upon a canvas the beauty that surrounds her or him; and the sculptor elicits from the rock the image of the mind’s eye. In a similar manner, bricklayers and masons can be said to be artists in their own rights. Mal Var, a Venusian in the fifth dimension, explained to the psychic channel Ernest L. Norman, whom he conducted on a tour of his home world, that “We, here on Venus, are likewise artisans. But instead of using the brush and chisel, or the trowel and hammer, we use as our tools our own minds, and the creative desires which stem from them, combined with the radiant energies from the Fountainhead become all of the things which you see about you. Yes, all of these buildings and all of the streets upon which they stand, and even all of the things which are contained within, were created by mind and not one finger was lifted in any construction.”22 But even when one considers Venus as the abode for material beings of the third dimensional plane, an objective analysis would lead the scientist to conclude that such speculation was not beyond the bounds of reason. Despite the planet’s allegedly thicker and toxic atmosphere, along with its higher median temperatures, it might be possible for humans or humanoid creatures to construct vast underground, air-conditioned bases, and perhaps even cities, protected from the harsher conditions found on the surface. Even as I write this book, our world’s own space 22

Ernest L. Norman, Voice of Venus: Pulse of Creation Series, Vol. 1 (El Cajon, California: Unarius Educational Foundation, 1956), 61.

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus engineers have plans to construct air-conditioned domes on the surface of other nearby bodies in space, the Moon and Mars, in particular. Under these domes, artificial atmospheres matching the composition and pressure of Earth’s would be continuously pumped and circulated. Therefore, it could surmised that an extraterrestrial civilization thousands or even millions of years in advance of our own, might easily fabricate such bases or cities on or under the surface of Venus. Evidence of a conspiracy to hide the truth about what the governments of the world really know about the second planet and the existence of advanced life there was presented in my last book, Venus Rising, especially with regard to the visit of the Venusian mothership commander Valiant Thor to United States military leadership in the bowels of the Pentagon itself and a series of meetings with President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard M. Nixon from 1957 to 1960. Valiant Thor confirmed that a Venusian remnant third dimensional civilization that Entrance to a subterranean, played-out lava tube on did not transfer itself into a higher vibration Venus is depicted above. The first astronauts to thirdof reality still occupied a vast complex that dimensional Venus will find pleasant conditions in continues to flourish under the surface of his limited areas both above and below the surface. See www.philosophicalanthropology.net. home world. At the Core of Venus! However, without seismic data or knowledge of the planet’s moment of inertia, there is little direct information available concerning the internal structure and geochemistry of Venus. But its similarity in size and density to the Earth suggests that both planets share a similar internal structure: a core, mantle, and crust. The Venusian core, like that of Earth, is at least partially liquid because the two planets have been cooling at about the same rate. And the slightly smaller size of Venus suggests that pressures are significantly lower in its deep interior than Earth. Scientists studying information garnered from the various probes sent to our sister planet suggest that the principal difference between the two worlds is the lack of evidence for the action of plate tectonics on Venus. This may possibly be due to its crust being too strong to subduct without sufficient water, a necessary ingredient that in abundance would make it more viscous. This, in turn, results in reduced heat loss from the planet; and this prevents Venus from cooling and providing a likely explanation for its lack of an internally generated magnetic field. This may also account for the increased volcanism, with Venus losing its internal heat through periodic major resurfacing events. In 1967, the Soviet Union’s Venera 4 probe indicated that the Venusian magnetic field is much weaker than that of Earth.23 It seems that the Venusian magnetic field is induced by an 23

Robert Reeves, Superpower Space Race (New York, NY: Plenum Press, 1994), 199-200. When the Venera 4 descended to an altitude of 200 km, or about 124 mi above the Venusian surface, it was at the point of just beginning to penetrate the atmospheric envelope. At this conjuncture of the mission, the probe determined that the planet’s maximum magnetic field was only 10 gammas, about 5,000 times less than Earth’s own magnetic field. However, Reeves notes that, “Observations of the solar wind bow shock, or the zone where the solar wind is repelled by the planet’s magnetic field, showed the bow shock is much close to Venus than it is above the Earth.” This is significant because while the shock wave above our planet is at an altitude of about 20,000 km, or 12,500 mi, the corresponding phenomenon on Venus occurs at only about 500 km, or 310 mi above the planet. This can largely be explained because of Venus’ weak magnetic

Raymond Andrew Keller II interaction between the ionosphere and the solar wind, rather than by an internal dynamo in the core like the one inside the Earth. Therefore, Venus’ small induced magnetosphere provides negligible protection to the atmosphere against cosmic radiation. This radiation may result in more intensive cloud-to-cloud lightning discharges. That Venus lacks an intrinsic magnetic field came as quite a surprise to the Soviet scientists, who reasoned that since Venus is similar to Earth in size, it was also expected also to contain a dynamo at its core. But a dynamo requires three things: a conducting liquid, rotation, and convection. And while the core is thought to be electrically conductive and, while its rotation is often thought to be too slow, simulations conducted in the Soviet Union indicated that the Venusian core was, indeed, adequate to produce a dynamo. That such a dynamo was missing, therefore, implied that there was a lack of convection in the Venusian core. On the Earth, such convection occurs in the liquid outer layer of the core because the bottom of the liquid layer is much hotter than the top. On Venus, periodic global resurfacing events could have shut down the plate tectonics, thereby leading to a reduced heat flux through the crust. And this process, in turn, could have caused the mantle temperature to increase, thus reducing the heat flux out of the core. This would account for the absence of an internal geo-dynamo that would be needed to drive a magnetic field. So this results in the heat energy from the core being used to reheat the crust. Launch Complex, an international website for space enthusiasts, suggests the following for Venus’ lack of a magnetic field: “One possibility is that Venus has no solid inner core, or its core is not currently cooling, so that the entire liquid part of the core is at approximately the same temperature. Another possibility is that its core has already completely solidified. field. Reeves added that, “Without a strong planetary magnetic field to contain solar energetic particles, it was not surprising that no radiation belt was detected around Venus.” Concerning both the bow shock and the magnetic field, Scottish astronomer V. A. Firsoff in Solar Planets (London, UK: David and Charles, 1977), 109-110, largely agrees with the Venera 4 results. He reminds us that Venus has an ionosphere with a density of about 10⁴-10⁵ electrons per cm3. This is roughly a quarter of our own planet; but is sufficient, however, to deflect the solar wind and, under normal conditions, produces a bow shock and comet-like magnetic tail some 5 million km long. Keep in mind that Firsoff was writing about the Venusian magnetic field in 1977, just three years after America’s Mariner 10 probe’s encounter with Venus, that made its closest approach to our sister planet on 5 February 1974 at a distance of 5,768 km or 3,584 mi. The American probe’s measurements indicated that the, “external magnetic field of Venus is no more than one-twentieth of a per cent of the Earth’s field;” but the Scottish astronomer attributed this to the much slower rotation of Venus. With only our planet to make any comparisons with Venus, Firsoff came to believe that since the Earth’s magnetism is generated by the dynamo effect of a conductive liquid core in a relatively rapid rotation, the lack of a strong magnetic field on Venus must be indicative of the presence of a very weak dynamo on Venus; and both the Venera 4 and Mariner 10 observations served to substantiate this. But Firsoff, being a world-recognized authority on the inner planets, wondered why Mercury, which also has a very slow rotation, possessed a measurable magnetic field. He also pondered the effects of the atmosphere on Venus with any potential magnetic field there. Firsoff noted that, “the upper atmosphere of Venus (which must be partly ionized) rotates quite fast, so that it too must act like a dynamo.” Up until 1977, when Firsoff was writing the Solar Planets, the magnetic field of Venus had only been examined close to that planet’s equatorial plane, and not near the poles. Additionally, the planet Mars had been found to be non-magnetic by the same types of measurements; but readings taken closer to the Martian surface seemed to reveal and appreciable magnetic field. For Firsoff, the findings on Mars proved to have some applicability to Venus as well. According to Firsoff, “This would be even more pertinent in the case of Venus, whose field must be expected to be pinched by the solar wind.” The Venera 4 relayed data informing a magnetic interaction taking place with the solar wind on Venus at a much lower altitude of some 200 km. Something akin to magnetic reconnection was occurring closer to the planetary surfaces of both Mars and Venus, right on the edge of each planet’s respective atmospheric envelope. And what was taking place in the polar regions of Venus? Clearly, the study and observations of Venus have abounded in contradictions. A spokesperson for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, put it this way in Mariner Venus-Mercury 1973 Status Bulletin, No 19, Part 2, dated 2 July 1974: “The final results (from Mariner 10) are going to be basically new inputs to our understanding of Venus-her body and her clothing…. Her clothes?- anybody with that much on must have a lot to hide.” Firsoff also aptly opines that while subsequent probes to Venus have generated some interesting results, “they were far from conclusive and were, at least in part, out of tune with the expectations.”

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus The state of the core is highly dependent on the concentration of sulfur, which is unknown at present.”24 Of course, in the years since Venera 4, astronomers and other scientists from around the globe have pondered the further implications inherent in the weak magnetosphere around Venus. And what some have concluded is that because of the field’s debilitated capacity, the solar wind is interacting directly with the outer atmosphere of the planet; and it is here, in the outer atmospheric envelope, that ions of hydrogen and oxygen are being created by the dissociation of neutral molecules from ultraviolet radiation. The solar wind can then supply the energy that gives some of these ions a sufficient velocity to escape the planet’s gravity field. And it is this erosion process that results in a steady loss of low mass hydrogen, helium, and oxygen ions, while the higher mass molecules such as carbon dioxide are more likely to be retained. The atmospheric erosion facilitated by the solar wind most probably led to the loss of most of a good deal of the planet’s water during the first billion years after it formed. Also, the erosion served to increase the ratio of higher mass deuterium to lower mass hydrogen in the upper atmosphere by a multiple of 150 times the ratio in the lower atmosphere. All of this is quite significant in backing up Commander Valiant Thor’s assertions. For once, as far as Venus is concerned, liquid water was abundant on the surface, and also in the atmosphere in the form of precipitation. However, the weakened magnetic field, over countless millennia, facilitated the diffusion of this water into space, thereby bringing about a gradual deterioration of conditions on the surface and in the atmosphere, forcing the physical, third dimensional Venusian civilization to move underground, where water existed in abundance, having gathered in aquifers over a period of some four billion years. Through a process of electrolysis, the Venusians were also able to generate enough oxygen to breath in the vast subterranean caverns. That some civilizations, both Earth-bound and extraterrestrial, move underground in the hopes of one day emerging Yoko Tani, Gunther Simon and Oldrich Lukes as back onto the surface and rebuilding their cosmonauts challenging the Cosmostator’s robot to worlds is the theme of numerous science fiction a game of chess while en route to the second planet movie epics, such as This Island Earth (1955), in Kurt Maetzig’s First Spaceship on Venus (1960). See http://culture.pl/en/article/science-fiction-filmsWorld Without End (1956), Time Machine adapted-from-lem. (1960) and First Spaceship on Venus (1960). Venus and the Shaver Mystery The idea of underground civilizations on Earth, Venus and the other planets of our solar system first began to accrue credence in the latter-half of the 1940s, before the advent of television, when pulp magazines were an important source of entertainment for millions of Americans. Pulp paper was inexpensive and proved to be an excellent vehicle for delivering exciting and rapidly produced tales for public consumption. The stories in pulp periodicals spanned many genres: the old west, true romance, crime and mystery and, most notably, science fiction. In the latter motif, the settings were on distant planets, in the far future or 24

“Venus,” Launch Complex, 2015, http://thelaunchcomplex.com/venus.php (Accessed 1 July 2015).

Raymond Andrew Keller II the ancient past. The blaring, colorful and exotic covers of these science fiction magazines quickly attracted the reader’s attention. And the most tantalizing covers in all these categories were to be found in Ray Palmer’s Amazing Stories, being filled, as they were, with space adventurers, scantily clad women, streamlined spaceships, and bug-eyed monsters. In addition, they contained the most illuminating of illustrations for those stories by the prolific Richard Sharpe Shaver. Unfortunately, he is now an almost forgotten writer, but in my opinion one of the best in the classic sci-fi universe, to be ranked along with Robert A. Heinlein and L. Ron Hubbard.25 What made Shaver, and his editor Ray Palmer, a.k.a. “Rap,” stand out in sci-fi fandom was their claim that the stories were based in fact. Shaver, once a resident in a Pennsylvania mental hospital,insisted that he regularly received “transmissions” from caverns deep under the Earth where an evil race, known as the Dero, and an angelic race, known as the Tero, continually fought for the soul of humankind. In this sense, Shaver could rightly be considered to be one of the first “channels” of the modern era. He alsoinsisted that he had personally visited the caverns beneath our world and observed the operation of the powerful technology. The channeler said that the inhabitants of the Inner Earth referred to their scientific applications simply as “mech.” Shaver also maintained that both the Dero’s and Tero’s utilization of this mech was largely responsible for much of the bad and good- respectively- that happens on the surface of our planet. He also noted that both the Dero and Tero were not indigenous to our world, but arrived here long ago from our March 1948 edition of Amazing Stories explains how sister planet Venus. an advanced, underground civilization on Venus also Collectively, the writings came to be established a colony in the deep caverns of Earth. known as the Shaver Mystery. If nothing else, Robert Gibson Jones is the cover artist. See https:// rokfogo.com/. it certainly sold an abundance of magazines, along with generating a monumental scandal in the sci-fi universe that literally brought the Palmer/Shaver dynasty to a tumultuous crash at Amazing Stories. This was facilitated by the publication of the June 1947 issue. The entire edition was dedicated to the Shaver Mystery and to Shaver’s “true-to-life” fiction. Interestingly, 1947 was the year that saw the emergence of the flying saucer craze and the Doomsday Clock at the University of Chicago. But one year later, both Shaver and Palmer were gone from Amazing Stories. It was all too much for the executive board at Ziff-Davis, the publisher of the periodical. 25

Gregory L. Reece, Ph.D., “The Shaver Mystery: Everything You Need to Know About the Mysterious Forces that Control our Lives!,” 22 April 2014, rockfogo (blog), Word Press, https://rokfogo.com/ (Accessed 8 May 2016)

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Fortunately for generations of ufologists to come, Palmer went on to play a pivotal role in the development of the flying saucer and contactee movement. Richard Sharpe Shaver, born of humble circumstance in Berwick, Pennsylvania, on 8 October 1907, continued to write about the caverns under the Earth and other planets. He passed away on 5 November 1975 in Summit, Arkansas, but not before attaining world acclaim as an artist whose paintings- or so he claimed- were based on information imbedded in certain rocks by cavern dwellers. Shaver collected these rocks during subterranean excursions. He believed that the rocks literally spoke to him about life in the caverns and among lost civilizations like Atlantis and Lemuria. Both of these cultures included Venusian colonies. Richard Shaver snaps one of the first “selfies.” See https://rokfogo. com/.

Chapter III: Putting the “Spin” on Venus

See http://www.truthliesdeceptioncoverups.info/2013/04/privacy-secrecy-and-coverups.html.

Secrecy, being an instrument of conspiracy, ought never to be the system of a regular government. —Jeremy Bentham, “On Publicity”from The Works of Jeremy Bentham, volume 2, part 2 (1839) No one has generated more interest and excitement about the planet Venus and its angelic inhabitants than the late George Adamski (1891-1965), whose encounter with a Venusian saucer pilot out in the Mojave Desert may well represent a turning point in modern human history. Witnesses present with Adamski on the outskirts of Desert Center, California, signed legal documents attesting to the truthfulness of the event. In addition, there was a United States military pilot who reported via radio a large unidentified, cigar-shaped craft (mother ship) to his superiors back at a nearby air base. The signed legal documents still remain for anyone to view, but the aviator’s records which would support Adamski’s claims have been long since destroyed. And on top of all of this, this chapter will definitively prove that the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s San Diego, California, office was under orders from the highest federal authorities to quash the contactee’s story, utilizing all means at their disposal. This, of course, was all standard operating procedure for the so-called Silence Group, the arch nemesis of all ufologists. The George Adamski Story It was Thursday, 20 November 1952. The Sun was at high noon over the blistering Mojave Desert. George Adamski, an amateur astronomer, burgeoning author of science fiction and professor of the mystic arts, believed that he was being telepathically summoned by extraterrestrial or ultra-dimensional entities to this desolate site, situated slightly to the east of the small town of Desert Center, California. He wasn’t quite sure what to expect; but he brought a party of six companions to serve as witnesses for any incident that might transpire. Adamski, an ardent Theosophist, was well known throughout Southern California for his public 33

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus lectures on Eastern religions and his weekly radio broadcasts concerning esoteric subjects such as reincarnation, mental telepathy, lost civilizations and the sudden appearance of significant numbers of flying saucers in our skies. On previous occasions, when Adamski felt that the extraterrestrials or ultra-dimensional beings were attempting to establish telepathic communications with him, he took this as a confirmation that their spacecraft or inter-dimensional vehicles were in the vicinity. He would then go outside and affix his camera, with a special attachment, to his eight-inch reflecting telescope, knowing for a surety that he was going to take some outstanding photographs of their most unusual transport, quite unlike anything that any of the powers of this world had heretofore sent aloft. A little more than half a year ago, on 1 May 1952, the amateur astronomer followed similar telepathic guidance that also led him this same remote location. It was around 8:00 a.m. by the time he had set up all of his equipment; but it was all worth it, for he ended up photographing a large carrier, or “mothership.” On both dates, 1 May and 20 November 1952, Adamski’s hair had stood on end with the approach of the mothership. He would later discover that this hair-raising effect was the direct result of standing in close proximity to a highly-charged magnetic field. The mothership’s powerful electromagnetic motor induced an intense negative ionization of atmospheric particles. In any event, the amateur astronomer was sure that this was the One of Adamski’s 1 May 1952 mothership photos. See www.abovetopsecret.com. same ship. Adamski’s six companions were situated about a quarter of a mile away, safely tucked behind a small rock formation. They were taking turns, watching their friend and guru through powerful binoculars. Off in the distance, however, they could see a bright orange-topped object deployed from the huge mothership. It was saucer-shaped, wingless and lacked any tail assembly; and it was coming over to Adamski’s position. There was also some sort of symbol on the side of the craft; but none in the party could recognize it or even guess at its meaning. At a later date, Adamski allowed Bob Grant, a correspondent of Real magazine, to interview him about this unusual encounter.26 “Suddenly I saw this saucer come in,” Adamski declared, adding that, “In the mean time, the Air Force jets had spotted the cigar-shaped craft and began closing.” Fortunately, Adamski remained cool, calm and collected, using up his entire roll of film. The near blinding orange light of the saucer obscured its apparent landing some distance away. Adamski thought it had simply rejoined the mothership. Adamski started to pack up his photo gear and telescope when he thought heard someone audibly greet him from a short distance away. His first impression was that the stranger was some kind of geologist, or rock hound. The guru signaled to his entourage that he was going to go over to this individual and that they should come over to help by finishing up with the packing of his equipment while he figured out what was going on, or what kind of help might be required. Adamski recalled that as he walked toward this person, “the odder I felt.” He paused and then told Grant that, “I was cautious, but not frightened.” A close inspection revealed that the stranger’s clothing exhibited no unusual qualities. 26

Bob Grant, “George Adamski: The first ambassador to outer space,” Real magazine Flying Saucers Pictorial (special edition), 1966, Studio City, California.

Raymond Andrew Keller II The individual was wearing what appeared to be some kind of light tan jump suit, and was girded about by an orange sash. The clothing was quite utilitarian, like some kind of work uniform but without any apparent markings or insignia of rank. At this point, Adamski was also experiencing a difficult time in ascertaining this person’s gender. Whether it was the unisex uniform, the long, blonde tresses falling down on the shoulders or the slender fingers, this one seemed to possess an androgynous look. Adamski estimated that the being was somewhere between 5’2” and 5’6” in height. It was hard to make a more exact measurement because of the hilly and rocky terrain that the individual was standing on, in addition to the high brown leather boots worn. Whether female or male, Adamski guessed that the stranger was probably in their late twenties or early thirties. Adamski also took note of the stranger’s high forehead and finely chiseled appearance against the brilliant noontime desert Sun. The eyes were also quite startling. They seemed to change color from grey to green to brown, and back to grey. It was really incredible. Adamski started to believe he was in the actual presence of an extraterrestrial, although the entity in question had not yet spoken a word close up. Adding to the androgynous aura emitted by this being, Adamski remarked to interviewer Grant that the unusual eyes were “set in a face that was nearly as hairless as that of a baby.” And when the two were just an arm’s length apart, the mysterious visitor struck forth the left hand in a friendly gesture. But rather than shaking hands, this individual just Adamski encounters an androgynous entity in the California desert. See http://stendekkk. rubbed the extended and uplifted palm against blogspot.com/2011/11/ufo-coverupcontacteegeorge-adamski.html. Adamski’s own extended and uplifted left palm. Adamski broke the ice and took the initiative in asking the stranger from whence he or she hailed. However, the visitor just shook their head and flashed an apologetic expression, but transmitted an understanding to Adamski’s mind that he or she wanted to commune via mental telepathy. Adamski readily surmised that he needed to open up his mind fully to this new process if he was going to make any progress with his new acquaintance. Therefore, he created a mental picture of all the planets in the solar system in their orbits around the Sun. Right away, the amateur astronomer received the message that he was speaking with a cosmonaut from Venus. Elaborating on this situation, Adamski explained to reporter Grant that through “telepathy, gestures and sign language,” he slowly amassed the information that this alien, whose name was “Orthon,”27 had come to Earth with friendly objectives, being particularly concerned with “radiations from our nuclear tests.” He also discovered that while Orthon was born a woman, she was equally satisfied in either of the two human gender roles while carrying 27

Orthon’s complete story appears in Raymond Keller, Venus Rising: A Concise History of the Second Planet (Terra Alta, WV: Headline Books, 2015).

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus out her assigned missions on this planet. With regard to her present stay on Earth, it was also important for Adamski to guard her secret and only refer to Orthon as a man in both his lectures and writings. Most of the Earthlings in 1952, it seems, were not quite ready to embrace the concept of either gender equality or gender selection. Dear reader, please keep in mind that this was Adamski’s initial physical contact with Orthon. While our extraterrestrial friend was certainly capable of speaking English and a great number of other languages, she was taking precautions in this first meeting in order to better ascertain the contactee’s intentions. Should all proceed as planned, and as they ultimately did, Orthon would open up more to Adamski and communicated with him at ease and with facility in the English language. After pointing out to Adamski, with an outstretched left hand and an extended, elongated index finger, her flying saucer landed and just barely peeking out from behind a nearby hill, Orthon took the occasion to further communicate telepathically to the contactee that she utilized the shiny, George Hunt Williamson was silver-colored but semi-translucent saucer as a type of scout one of the witnesses to George craft to convey her back and forth to the larger, blunt-ended Adamski’s initial contact with Orthon. Here is a drawing of mother ship that usually remained in orbit, like the one Orthon made by Williamson that Adamski had photographed earlier on that very day. Adamski he subsequently published in the 4 December 1954 issue of Valor: The understood, however, that the Venusians also had other means Magazine of Soulcraft (Noblesville, of transport and fantastic, even unimaginable powers, but that Indiana). Note that Orthon clearly in such a short encounter as this, she would not have the time appears as a young woman, similar or inclination to go in detail about these with him. in size and appearance to the Orthon also transmitted the image to Adamski’s mind dressmaker Dolores Barrios, whose biography is presented in Venus of many landings and contacts, like the one he was then Rising. For some never-before-seen participating in, as taking place at many locations around the photos of Dolores, “The Queen of Earth and that numerous such encounters would continue, and Outer Space,” with your author, “Cosmic Ray,” and by herself, even intensify, as the years progressed, both for Adamski and please go to the last chapter of many others. Adamski even received the mental picture of a Book III in this Venus series. boy on some Caribbean island as being in touch with Orthon telepathically, as well as another young man in California. Adamski got the impression that these two young men were destined to continue with his own work, but commencing after he had departed this terrestrial sphere for “higher ground.” In other words, once he had transitioned on and was reincarnated on Venus, then one or both of these boys, as young men, would actually encounter Orthon and her craft on the physical plane and start to tell people through Orthon points out the scout craft, partially hidden from view behind word of mouth and writing, all about the wonders of Venus a hill. See http://www.orandia.com/ and the important work that the Venusians were accomplishing forum/index.php?id=82913. 36

Raymond Andrew Keller II here on Earth, or at least trying to accomplish.28 Adamski pondered in his mind by what motive power the mothership was operational. He garnered from previous telepathic communications with Orthon that the vast carrier ships were operative by some type of electromagnetic propulsion; but what kind of power source was utilized by the Venusians to generate such powerful fields of energy? The inquisitive contactee then received a vision with crystal clarity of some nuclear laboratory workers experimenting with the isotope of a new type of trans-uranium element. Adamski saw through Orthon’s eyes how this was powerful element, Cytherium as it was known on Venus, powering not only the Venusian spacecraft but also the cities, trains, submarines and almost, well, everything! This even extended to technology used at a very personal level. But Adamski also came to see, with his third eye of extra-sensory perception, that there was a dire timeline in Earth’s future should this nearly unlimited power be applied to the initiation of warfare. Following some nuclear conflagration in a time not far off, all life on this planet would come to a quick and sudden end; and many of our cosmic brothers and sisters on neighboring worlds would also get sick and die. Clearly, the Venusians weren’t going to let this happen. There were tears in Adamski’s eyes as Orthon placed her left hand over to and on top of Adamski’s right shoulder, resting it there and speaking audibly for the first time, “Believe me, George. We will take whatever steps are deemed necessary by the Angelic Hierarchy of Light on Venus. ‘You can take that to the bank,’ as they say on your world.” So Orthon had read the good heart of George Adamski, and allowed the contactee into her circle of trust. “I just want you to know that on Venus, George, we are not preoccupied with the laws of materialism, as your fellow Earthlings are. Believe me, I know. I was born on your world, a long time ago; and I’ve literally seen it all. Several of my Venusian friends have even been killed as the result of thoughtless actions by some men of your world. For this reason, extraterrestrial visitors do not generally land in populated areas because they would literally be torn to pieces. We definitely have to be extra careful when living and working among your kind.” Adamski had learned from previous experience that when he had a hunch that extraterrestrial spacecraft would be appearing in a certain area on a certain date and at an approximate time, then he should always have his Brownie camera ready to snap a few pictures. Orthon, sensing that the contactee wanted to take a photograph of her as proof of the encounter, declared that, “I’m sorry you can’t take my photo at this time, George. It’s not that I have anything against you, really. But I hope that you can understand that I am frequently required to do some ‘undercover work’ here on Earth. I just can’t afford to be recognized.” She added, “You can see that, can’t you, George?” George was saddened, but nodded his assent. Adamski looked across to Orthon and asked her if she wouldn’t mind answering a few questions for him about the space people and their mission here on Earth. Orthon readily agreed to give it her best shot. “Ask away, George. I’ve no objections.” Adamski: Do all the inhabitants of Venus have a humanoid appearance? Orthon: The ones that come to this world are primarily humanoid in appearance, although there are other species like the bee and mantis; but only the bee is indigenous to Venus. The insectoids, however, are rarely engaged with your fellow Terrans, which is the name we have for the people of Earth. 28

A more detailed account of the initial contacts with Orthon by both your author and Lester Rosas of Puerto Rico can be found in the last chapter of this book.

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Adamski: If you don’t mind me asking, just how many worlds are inhabited? Orthon: There are just too many to count. In our galaxy there are over a million inhabited worlds; and within the Sol system, or solar system, all planets and moons are either populated with indigenous life or colonized. In the Galactic Federation, however, there are 51 member worlds. One day even the Earth will be represented in the Galactic Federation’s Grand Council. Adamski: I understand that some Earth people have actually been harmed through contact with you and your spacecraft. Can you explain this? Orthon: That was no fault of ours. Strong mental commands were given to those approaching our ships to turn back. Unfortunately, the desire to explore something in detail is so intense among your kind…. Adamski: I think I understand…. Can I ask you another question, though, about the solar system? Orthon: Well, go ahead. I suppose I can even answer a few more questions. Adamski: So I take it that not many Terrans have actually been to Venus, the Moon or some of the other celestial bodies in the solar system? Orthon: You’ve got that right, my friend. Not many. If you- as a species that is, come out unscathed through the nuclear and the space age, however, we’ll know that you can be trusted and our Hierarchy of Light will accept your cosmic ambassadors. Adamski: Orthon, you mentioned a Hierarchy of Light. What is that and who do they represent? Orthon: Basically, the Hierarchy of Light is what the religious leaders of your world might refer to as the Grand Council in Heaven. Oft times it is simply referred to as the Grand Council. Basically, this is the political body that makes the big decisions, deciding who needs to reincarnate on the Earth sphere. The Hierarchy of Light also embodies an ongoing meeting of the God Force or Infinite Field of Consciousness (Pleroma) with its spiritual sons and daughters that have assumed leadership roles in various capacities throughout human history. The Hindus recognized these great ones as avatars. One of these great teachers who came down among you from Venus was recognized on Earth as the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith. On the role of avatars, Smith explained that every individual who has a calling to minister to the inhabitants of the Earth was so ordained to that very purpose in the Grand Council even before the earliest hominids of your planet started to evolve into Homo sapiens. Smith wasn’t just talking about religious leaders, either. Whatever you feel a passion for in life, you were meant to be doing that from your very beginning as an emanation or spark from the Divine Source. It’s all quite marvelous, you know. We continually ascend a spiral staircase of light into the starry infinities. While most on Earth lack the spiritual eyesight to see beyond the veil of illusion or maya that surrounds you, we of Venus can access these higher spiritual realms due to our positioning in this celestial hierarchy at a slightly more advanced level of cosmic understanding. In other words, on Venus we live with an exact knowledge of spiritual realities. On Earth, you must still come to incorporate spiritual truths into your being based on numerous faith-based assumptions. Many others will come to comprehend these important concepts, George, as the Angelic Hierarchy of Light begins to extend its outreach among all peoples of your beautiful Earth. Adamski: Thank you, Orthon. As a Theosophist, I have some understanding of what you and your friends are trying to do here; and I really appreciate it.

Raymond Andrew Keller II The contactee estimated that his conversation with Orthon took about one hour. He was so entranced by it all that he wasn’t really paying much attention to his watch. In any event, Orthon told Adamski that she was receiving an incoming tensor beam transmission from the command ship and excused herself in order to answer it. The tensor beam is an actual radio signal modulated to her exact brain wave oscillations. Unlike telepathy, which just imparts images to the brain, the tensor beam is precise, directly conveying the message as it is given without filters, psychic or psychological that might alter one’s perception. At this point, Orthon reached into her pocket and held up high over her head with her left hand what looked like some kind of decorative wheel, much like you might see in some colorful artifact such as a sand painting typically found in a Hopi Indian pueblo or a Tibetan lamasery. A similar communications/translation device was given to me by Lady Encara in China. However, in discussing this matter during my own meeting with Orthon at Chula Vista, California, in November 1972, she explained that it was necessary to rotate the device in all four cardinal points of the compass in order to hone in on the most promising signal. Hmm, maybe the Venusians are using something like our own Sprint or Verizon networks. Clearly, the Venusians long ago installed their own satellite network around the Earth and other planets. The military forces of China, Russia and the Soviet Union are well aware of these Trojan satellites, discussed in greater detail later in this book. Venusians, when not in telepathic communication, utilize point-to-point laser or tensor beaming of messages in order to significantly reduce the possibility of interception by the military forces of Earth-based nations. The Venusians and other extraterrestrials operational in our space sector would not risk piggy-backing Young Cosmic Ray and Lady any of their own transmissions, even well encrypted ones, off Orda (Dolores Barrios) at Chula Vista, California, 1972, ponder the our satellites for fear of such communications intercepts. They secrets of the universe. Photo by are very concerned about the maintenance of security in all Gabriel Green (AFSCA), (c) 2017 of their transmissions, realizing how certain individuals might Dr. Raymond Keller and Headline use information about Venusian science and technology to Books. wreak havoc on other inhabitants of our beautiful, blue Earth. Hillary, please take note! But be that as it may, Orthon, a.k.a. Lady Orda, did acknowledge that since every Venusian isn’t a telepath, adaptive technology was needed from time to time in order to compensate. While Orthon was hearing the tensor beam communication from inside her head, what surprised Adamski is that she audibly answered the call, just talking into the air. What it sounded like was that Lady Orda was speaking to herself in Mandarin Chinese. It wasn’t until December 2012 that I had the pleasure of listening to her speaking with fluent Mandarin as well. At that time, she was working at the Lop Nur rocket base in Central West China. After the short tensor communication with the mothership overhead, Lady Orda took Adamski by the hand and walked with him to the other side of the rock so he could get a better, more detailed look at her saucer, or scout ship. On Venus, or Abejar as the Venusians call their world, this type of craft is known as a ventla, which in English signifies a “swoop,” because of the action it takes while maneuvering through the atmosphere. Adamski looked in back of him and noticed that Lady Orda’s shoes left some deep impressions in the ground, with lettering looking like 39

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus

Raymond Andrew Keller II a combination of Chinese pictograms and Russian Cyrillic. There was also a curved swastika form on the heel of each foot, and Adamski was informed about its spiritual significance among the Basques, the Hindus and others throughout time. The Nazi swastika, he was told, represented a perversion of this oh so sacred symbol. In Book II, the higher, esoteric meaning of this symbol is explored, especially in the context of Basque culture. So Orthon walked with Adamski over to her ventla. “It’s a beauty, don’t you think?” inquired the Venusian of the contactee. “Most definitely, Orthon, but it looks more like a glass bell than a flying saucer, as reported in all of the papers with regard to the sightings being made worldwide regarding these type of craft.” “George, there was a lot of misunderstanding concerning Kenneth Arnold’s report. As you know, he only described the movement of the objects as being like ‘saucers skipping across water.’ He never depicted the objects themselves as being ‘flying saucers.’ That term was invented by the newspaper reporters that followed up on the report with various articles.” The scout craft appeared translucent, emanating a wide spectrum of exquisite colors. There was a dome-shaped top with three huge ball-shaped objects on the underside. Adamski estimated the ventla to be about 50 feet in diameter. “Can you explain to me something about the ship, Orthon? I mean, what’s under that dome, and what are those balls for?” “Under the dome is a heavy-gauge power coil, George. It glows brightly in varied colors as electro-magnetic power is channeled and flowing through it. The portholes are not so much for looking through as air vents for cooling the coil. The portholes function much like a radiator on your automobile. You see, this type of scout craft largely operates within planetary atmospheres, utilizing the electro-magnetic lines of force generated by the planet’s own dynamic core forces. The balls, on the other hand, essentially serve as condensers.” “How so?” asked Adamski. “Perhaps I might explain the condensers as more like capacitors. In other words, each ball serves as a device for the storage of electric charge. Inside each condenser there are two plates composed of an electrically conducting material and separated by a non-conducting material or dielectric medium. This could be something as simple as glass or even wood.” “What about that electrically conducting material? What can you tell me about that?” “Well, George. Not much at this time. If I told you any more, the scientists of your planet would use that knowledge to create weapons of mass destruction. The members of the Angelic Hierarchy of Light would have conniption fits and I’d be demoted to dogcatcher on Venus. You catch my drift?” “Most assuredly, Orthon, but please go on and explain more about the ventla.” “As I was saying, if voltage is applied to the plates inside one of these balls, by connecting one plate to the positive and the other to the negative terminal of one of our special batteries, the plates will become charged, one positively and one negatively. So if the externally applied voltage is then removed, the plates of the condenser will remain charged and the presence of the electric charge will induce an electrical potential between the plates. This resulting electrostatic induction represents the capacity of the device for storing electric charge, what your engineers on Earth know as its capacitance. This, in turn, can be increased by simply increasing the area of the plates, by decreasing their separation, or by changing the dielectric.” “How has something that simple eluded our top scientists here on Earth for so long?” 41

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Orthon winked and said that, “Well, not all of them, George. Nikola Tesla understood this. But just between you and me, he was really one of us.” “I sort of figured that. And by the way, you’re the smartest gal I’ve ever met.” “Thank you, George. One day the women of your world will begin to exercise their full potential. We won’t constitute such a big anomaly then; but it won’t happen until about a quarter of the way into the next century. Nevertheless, in continuing my explanation of the motive drive, I would have to say that the dielectric constant of a particular dielectric is the measure of its unit capacitance, whereby the ratio of the capacitance of a dielectric-filled capacitor to a capacitor of the same size with a vacuum between the plates can be gauged. Condensers like these are used in many electrical and electronic devices on Venus and other planets throughout the solar system and beyond. The main capacitors are non-polarized for use in circuits of alternating current and polarized for use in circuits of direct current. So such capacitors can also be classified as fixed or variable.” “Isn’t that kind of like how a TV set operates?” “Yes, George, at least for one type of variable capacitor used in your simple radio and television tuning circuits. That type consists of two sets of semicircular plates, one fixed and the other mounted on a movable shaft. By rotating the shaft, the area of overlap between the two plates either increases or decreases, thus increasing or decreasing the capacitance. Your scientists will soon replace those devices with frequency synthesizers and more specialized types of solid-state diodes whose capacitance changes with the reverse-biased29 voltage across it. They are still in the process of back-engineering three of our crashed ventlas, so they haven’t officially ‘discovered’ this yet. So you understand I can’t tell you much more about it, although I’d like to.” “Thank you so much, Orthon, for explaining all of this to me.” With that the two embraced; and as the Venusian pilot stepped aboard her scout ship everything lit up inside like a Christmas tree. The outside of the craft glowed with an intense white light, from the top on down. It rose to about ten feet off the ground, hovered for a few seconds, and then blasted off, being engulfed in flashes of sparkling lightning and zipping away in the direction of a nearby mountain for rendezvous with the waiting mothership. This is an accurate account of by Adamski of Orthon’s scout Adamski’s first physical encounter with Orthon on 20 Photograph ship taken on 13 December 1952 at Palomar November 1952;30 and it aptly illustrates how George Gardens, California. See http://forgetomori. Adamski, a man of humble origins, was chosen by the com/page/106/. 29

The application of direct-current voltage prevents or greatly reduces the current flow in a diode or transistor, whereby a negligible current will flow through such a component when its cathode is made more positive than its anode. Therefore, in the case of a diode, it is said to be reverse-biased. – Cosmic Ray 30 Orthon explained that the Grant interview with Adamski, that was written and published almost one year after the contactee’s death, contain certain inaccuracies. She provided her own take on what occurred and what was said during the historic 20 November 1952 meeting in order to “set the record straight,” so to speak. She provided this information to me under some of the most unusual of circumstances as found in Book III of this trilogy, Cosmic Ray’s Excellent Venus Adventure. –Cosmic Ray

Raymond Andrew Keller II Hierarchy of Light to become Earth’s “first ambassador to outer space.” Of course, Adamski went on to have several more encounters with Venusians and other extraterrestrials that he wrote about in his flying saucer books and discussed all along the lecture circuit. By 1954, we find the contactee on an overall successful European tour. And before his life came to an end in 1965, he went on to visit many other countries around the globe. People still remembered him fondly in Brisbane, Australia, and spoke highly of George Adamski and his visit to their fair city, even while I was living and working there with a video production crew in 1988. Adamski also enjoyed flights to outer space and some of the other planets in our solar system. While many did not believe some of these strange accounts of interplanetary travel, at least they enjoyed the stories for their entertainment value. Even those who didn’t believe him, however, thought him a kind man and an engaging speaker, despite the remnants of his Polish accent that at times made him a little difficult to understand. So it is true that some who purchased his books did so with the understanding that it was science fiction. In fact, when Adamski filed Flying Saucers Have Landed with the Library of Congress in 1953, he purposely classified it as a work of science fiction. But he later explained this as an action largely done to protect his financial interests against any law suits that might be generated by the forces arrayed against him, which undoubtedly were many. For this same reason, I have chosen to list the Venus series as works of magic realism, a literary genre where everyday humans encounter extraterrestrials and ultra-terrestrial- yes, even spiritual entities impinging upon their construct of reality, emerging from that etheric realm of the Omniverse generally referred to as Dimension X. Within the higher echelons of the United States government, however, it was apparent that George Adamski and the other contactees were promoting the idea that a utopian civilization had evolved on Venus and some of the other worlds in our solar system. This information had to be suppressed because these planets were situated within a relatively easy distance from which to launch their spacecraft to the Earth, whence the Venusians and other extraterrestrials could infect our world’s inhabitants with their communist ways of organizing a peaceful and progressive society here. They especially fear that the Venusians may have already been in touch with both the Red Chinese and the Soviets. So the idea was conceived in the minds of some GS-10 and higher Washington bureaucrats that while the idea of intelligent life existing on other planets was not a far-fetched one, after all, there was just no evidence found in the Mariner probe and other astronomical observations by telescope, spectrometers, etc., of the other planets in our solar system that any “life as we know it” exists there, or ever even evolved there once upon a time. This, of course, did not preclude the existence of intelligent life coming in from outside the solar system, but scientists like Carl Sagan were instructed to pronounce that such life could only pay a visit to Earth once every 20,000 years or so, due to the vast distances involved. And at the same time, they would present “reliable information” from NASA that Venus, Mars and the other worlds were uninhabitable due to horrific atmospheres and extreme temperatures. Life in Outer Space Considered Naturally, it was certain that the existence of an advanced civilization on nearby Venus could not be kept hidden forever from the American public, and all the peoples of Earth. They had to be prepared, especially in the case of an inadvertent disclosure. Therefore, without being specific in making reference to Venus, but in discussing the intriguing question of whether 43

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus there are intelligent beings on other worlds, the new, young and charismatic president John F. Kennedy assigned this important task to Dr. Albert R. Hibbs, the Chief of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) Division of Space Sciences. Then, in a special conference titled, “Our Life in Space Began Just Six Seconds Ago,” held at the laboratory’s main facility in Pasadena, California, on Friday, 10 February 1961, Higgs speculated that, “If such species exist, starting perhaps a billion years more before the first man stood upright on the Earth, it is reasonable to ask why they have not visited here and made themselves known.” Making effective use of the long pause, and ever the intense and personable young scientist, Navy veteran and California Institute of Technology alumnus, he continued with his lecture, noting that, “But perhaps they have.” Wow. You could have heard a pin drop after Higgs threw that salient thought out there. Here was the so-called “Voice of JPL,” hand-picked by President Kennedy to oversee the planetary research arm of NASA, telling us that maybe an alien intelligence so vast and powerful spanning the countless millennia is out there in outer space, monitoring our every move. Those in attendance were so wrapped up in Hibbs’ discourse, that they commented that, “He made the solar system as familiar as your block and the universe as understandable as your town.” What follows is an exact transcription of what Higgs said on that memorable day to those gathered at the laboratory in Pasadena: “To get a better grasp of the times involved in this problem, suppose we scale them all down. Suppose the Earth is a house and instead of being five trillion years old, suppose the house is only 500 years old--- a museum piece by American standards but not too uncommon for many European countries. “In this 500-year old house, nothing at all happened in the first 300 years, as far as occupancy went. But about 200 years ago the first mold began to appear on the walls, and the first bacteria began to grow in the dust in the corners. “Over the next 199 years and 11 months, the animals that roamed through the house, and the plants that grew there, became more complicated and sometimes considerably larger. “Then about one month ago (scaled down from one million years) the first being that we might call human began to crawl through the rooms. “He had to fight all the other animals in the house for food, absorbing all his time and energy until about five hours ago (scaled down from 6,000 years). “That was relatively when man started cultivating and storing food, so he wouldn’t have to fight all the time. With all that leisure, he started painting pictures of himself on the walls and surrounding them with symbols for the noises he made in his throat. “Only two or three days ago did man start recording events on the wall, and it was just about two hours ago that he began to think philosophically and to wonder about the house in which he lived. “It was about 20 minutes ago that the first got an inkling that the best way to learn things was to observe and experiment. “Until the last ten minutes on the scale, man merely had glanced out of the window, was amazed at what he saw there--- Sun, stars and Moon--- but was always content to tell himself silly little stories about these objects and go back to hunting food. “But now he is beginning to try to understand them. Over the last six minutes, his science has matured to the point where his theoretical explanation of his house and the things outside is beginning to make scientific sense. 44

Raymond Andrew Keller II “About three minutes ago, he found he could fly around his house on metal wings and began to wonder if he could not get out of the house altogether. Finally, six seconds ago, he launched a rocket that put a satellite into orbit about his house. “I will have to concede that man has been speculating idly for some three or four minutes about whether there might be anybody else in any other house, anyplace outside. But it is only in the last five seconds that he has seriously raised the question: ‘Is anybody out there looking in? Only in the last five seconds have all eyes been looking out the window. “Well, is anybody looking in? Considering the house is 500 years old, it’s very possible that a lot of people have looked in…. Concerned, as we have been, with the problem only the last five seconds, we might have missed a lot of visitors. Some may have left a few minutes ago, and others may be on their way now, ready to knock on our door in the next few minutes. “But before we dash out into the front yard, waving our arms and trying to attract the attention of whatever neighbors there may be…. Perhaps we should consider first whether or not our new neighbors are likely to be friendly.”31 Nevertheless, California contactee George Adamski’s British co-author of Flying Saucers Have Landed,32 added that, “If the space people are hostile, and want to take us over, then what are they waiting for?”33 Clearly, this was a good point; for if the Venusians were going to take any actions against us, they would have done it a long time ago. But much like the Federation of Planets in the fictional Star Trek series, the Venusians must operate from the principles of avoiding direct interference in human affairs. Even as reporter Grant was writing up his interview, just one year after Adamski’s death, government agents were looking with alarm at the spectacular sales figures for the contactee’s flying saucer books. Grant informs us that Adamski’s Flying Saucers Have Landed “turned out to be one of the most highly publicized books of our time.” It was printed in 18 different languages. Additionally, by the close of 1965, surveys within the publishing industry revealed that Flying Saucers Have Landed had sold more than a quarter of a million copies, while its sequel, Inside the Space Ships, had already broken the 100,000 mark in sales. All of this served to make the California contactee a very wealthy man, indeed. Thanks to Adamski and some of the other contactees, true information about outer space was getting out there, much to their consternation. This is why the Silence Group, operative in the higher levels of the United States government, had taken their first steps, even back in the early 1950s, and especially following the massive sightings over Washington, D.C., to initiate constant surveillance over the lives of the contactees and to look for “kinks in their armor,” so to speak, that could be exploited in publicly debunking them. If they couldn’t diminish the power that the contactees’ messages were having on the population at large, even the pop culture, then they could at least reveal garnered personal information that would detract from any perceived credibility that the contactees enjoyed with the American populace and especially the press, being as it is a so-called “fourth estate.”

31 32 33

Julian Hartt, “”Our Life in Space Began Just Six Seconds Ago,” Examiner newspaper, 12 February 1961, Los Angeles, California George Adamski and Desmond Leslie, Flying Saucers Have Landed (London, UK: T. Werner Laurie, Ltd., 1953), 253 pages Norbert F. Gariety, Editor and Publisher, Saucer Phenomena and Celestial Enigma (SPACE), Coral Gables, FL, Bulletin No. 51, March 1961, page 8.

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Federal Bureau of Investigation: On the Trail of the Flying Saucers The government agency with the longest involvement with ongoing research into the appearance of flying saucers in our skies, landing or crashing here on Earth, as well as the occupants who pilot these strange craft and the people who report meetings with them, is the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). At least since the UFO flap of 1947 and the crash of a flying saucer in the vicinity of Roswell, New Mexico, FBI agents have been hot on the trail of the flying saucers. That the federal government was concerned about flying saucers and the contactees’ involvement with them for so long has been well known in ufology circles. Many times, visits by federal agents of the FBI and other intelligence networks left the UFO experiencer with the impression that he or she had just been raked over the coals by the mysterious “men in black,” or “MIBs,” whose existence was first made known in the case of Albert K. Bender and his International Flying Saucer Bureau (IFSB), one of the first civilian organizations checking out UFO sightings and occupant reports from around the world. George Adamski, who had been contacted countless times by FBI and other federal agents, came to collectively refer to these minions as the Silence Group. Public clamor about the government’s probing of various civilian groups, ranging from the Black Panther Party for Self Defense all the way to UFO investigative groups like Gabriel Green’s Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America (AFSCA), headquartered at first in Los Angeles but later moved out to Yucca Valley, California, prompted cries for greater disclosure. Many objecting to such extensive federal involvement in private groups, whether they any of them are political, religious or scientific, or even a combination of these, were now demanding to know the full extent to which the very Constitution’s Bill of Rights may have been violated during the course of these federal investigations. To at least minimally address this issue, the 89th Congress passed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C.§552, a federal freedom of information law that allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States government. The FOIA defines various federal agency records as being subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure procedures and grants nine exemptions to the statute. The FOIA was reluctantly signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on 4 July 1966, and went into effect on 5 July of the following year.34 So while ufologists were able to successfully petition for and gain some records detailing the federal government’s intrusion into their individual or group activities with regard to researching the phenomenon, that the federal government allowed the agency under the magnifying glass of public scrutiny to retain numerous exemptions to the FOIA meant that the full extent of such federal intrusions could not be fully ascertained. In the case of George Adamski, however, we find quite an extensive cache of information in the FBI files alone, dating back to 1952. Most of this data originated from the FBI’s San Diego field office. Of course, there may even be more information available on Adamski from the FBI’s integrated network of offices, but because of the exemptions allowed the organization by the FOIA in retaining exclusive access to information pertinent to national security concerns we may most likely never come to review it. Here are some important exerts from the FBI’s own files on George Adamski, presented in chronological order: 34

“What is FOIA?” Freedom of Information Act website, undated, United States Department of Justice, https://www.foia. gov/about.html (Accessed 3 October 2016)

Raymond Andrew Keller II 28 May 1952, Letter from field agent in San Diego, California office to Director, FBI: (DELETION) advised that when ADAMSKI left the group for a brief period, one of the women working in the café came over and entered into the conversation. She stated that some of our servicemen who stopped there to have drinks during World War II and subsequent thereto, told “Professor” ADAMSKI of the atrocities which they were forced to commit, murdering women and children on orders of their superior officers. (DELETION) stated that while this woman was making these statements, she exhibited a great deal of animosity against the United States, stating that the United States committed more atrocities during World War II than did the Japanese but since the Japanese were the ones who lost the war, they were the ones who were tried as war criminals. This woman added that a friend of hers who recently returned from Russia stated he was very pleased with everything he found there. He stated to her that the people in Russia received seven tickets per month for the opera and cinema. These tickets are free, being issued by the government. The woman added, “The people there (in Russia) don’t have to be worrying about where their next meal is coming from. Everything is fine in Russia and in the United States we have to fight for everything we get.” (DELETION) advised that ADAMSKI returned to continue his conversation stating that the United States will soon be in the same condition that Europe was in during the last war. He added that, “It is a good idea to be quiet now. Right now if you talk in favor of Communism you will be spotted as a Communist and if you talk against Communism you will be spotted by the Communist, so it’s best to just shut up.” ADAMSKI stated to (DELETION) that, “The United States hasn’t a chance to win the war. Russia will take over the United States.” (DELETION) Valley Center, California, (DELETION) advised that ADAMSKI has lived in the vicinity for approximately ten years and is the owner of the Palomar Gardens Café. (DELETION) advised that ADAMSKI also operates a small telescope on the premises and is noted for giving lectures on “Space Ships.” (DELETION) advised that ADAMSKI recently appeared on a television program in San Diego and gave a lecture on “Space Ships.” (DELETION) could furnish no information concerning subversive activities on the part of ADAMSKI. (DELETION) described ADAMSKI as a very brilliant individual who gives the community the impression that he is mentally unbalanced because of his lectures on “Space Ships.” The records of the (DELETION) San Diego, examined by (DELETION) Manager, contained no information concerning ADAMSKI. The San Diego Office has opened a Security Matter case on ADAMSKI to establish whether he is sincere in his remarks pertaining to Russia and any pertinent information whih will be of value to the Cleveland In many science fiction films of the early Office concerning (DELETION)wa. will be forwarded 1950s, such as Invaders from Mars (above), the extraterrestrial intruders served as a to that office. veiled substitute for the alleged Soviet threat. See http://www.daviddarling.info/ RUC. encyclopedia/C/ColdWar.html.

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Analysis: This letter is dated before the publication of Flying Saucers Have Landed, so it appears that even before Adamski gained all of the notoriety that came with the publication of that book, he was on the radar of at least two of the FBI’s field offices, Cleveland, Ohio, and San Diego, California. This was not so much for his lectures on space ships, which were perceived as relatively eccentric but not subversive, but for the discussions going on between him, his staff and patrons at the Palomar Gardens Café concerning life and opportunities in the Soviet Union and perceived faults in the American system and way of life, generally. 22 September 1952, Office Memorandum from SAC, San Diego (100-8382) to Director, FBI Subject: GEORGE A. ADAMSKI, aka; Professor George A. Adamski; George A. Adamsky SECURITY MATTER – C Reference San Diego letter to Director, entitled (DELETION). Contrary to information furnished in referenced letter, no further investigation is being conducted concerning the captioned Subject inasmuch as the facts do not warrant a security type of investigation as prescribed by recent Bureau instructions. The following is the result of the background investigation conducted by the San Diego Office: (DELETION) San Diego, reflect the subject was born in Hungary and was naturalized on August 25, 1915 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Subject’s naturalization certificate number is 577095. The following is the subject’s description as taken (DELETION): Born: March 12, 1883, in Autrics, Hungary Height: 5’7” Weight: 165 Hair: light Eyes: Blue Social Security #: 561-34-1686 Relative: Wife- VICTORIA K. ADAMSKI Residence: Palomar Café (5 miles east of Rincon, California) Occupation: Café owner, amateur astronomer The records of DIO, 11th Naval District and the records of the Office of Special Investigations, San Diego, contained no information concerning the Subject. CTG:htw CC: Cleveland (100-18743) Dallas Los Angeles SD 100-8382 22 September 1952 Office Memorandum to Director, FBI (PAGE TWO) Confidential National Defense Informants of the San Diego Office were contacted and no information concerning the Subject was furnished. The Office of Special Investigations, San Diego, has been advised concerning the Subject’s lectures on “Space Ships” and “Flying Saucers.” Copies of this letter are being furnished to the Cleveland, Dallas and Los Angeles Offices, 48

Raymond Andrew Keller II because these offices have received previous communications concerning the Subject. Analysis: It has been four months since the last known inquiry, but information on Adamski continued to be collected and reports continued to be sent to the Director’s office with copies dispatched to the Cleveland office. In this memorandum, however, we note that offices in Dallas and Los Angeles were added to the growing list of recipients for Adamski information with a rationale given that these added offices, in addition to the Cleveland office, had received prior communications of an unspecified nature regarding George Adamski and his activities in their areas. Pertinent personal information, including Adamski’s Social Security number and Naturalization Certificate data, are included in the growing file. The San Diego official writing this report is of the opinion that no further investigation of Adamski is warranted; and he so recommends this to J. Edgar Hoover, the Director. However, the San Diego FBI office takes the initiative of informing the San Diego Office of Special Investigations about Adamski’s lectures on space ships and flying saucers, most likely in the event that Adamski might inadvertently be stumbling into an area of national security concerns. 28 January 1953, Office Memorandum from SAC, San Diego (100-8382) to Director, FBI Subject: GEORGE ADAMSKI, was., (APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN WHITED OUT), SECURITY MATTER – C On January 12, 1953, (DELETED) OSI, received a telephone call from a friend, name unknown, of ADAMSKI’s, who advised ADAMSKI had in his possession a machine which could draw “flying saucers” and airplanes down from the sky. ADAMSKI’s friend stated that ADAMSKI wished to see an Agent because of the possibility of sabotage. (DELETED) advised the San Diego Office of these facts on January 12, 1953. On January 12, 1953, GEORGE ADAMSKI, Palomar Gardens Café, foot of Mount Palomar, was interviewed by (DELETED) OSI, and SA (DELETED) FBI. ADAMSKI stated he had been working on “flying saucers” with two men by the names of (DELETED) and (DELETED). He further advised that on the morning of January 12, 1953, (DELETED) told him that he, (DELETED) was receiving a machine through the mail that would draw down flying saucers and airplanes. According to ADAMSKI, this machine which had not arrived as yet, operated on the principle of “cutting magnetic lines of force.” ADAMSKI stated that he had asked (DELETED) if it would draw down planes belong to the U.S., and (DELETED) had replied “Yes,” in a manner which indicated he might not be friendly with the U.S. ADAMSKI stated that when he indicated his displeasure to (DELETED) about drawing U.S. planes down, that (DELETED) had become angry and he and (DELETED) had packed their belongings, piled them into (DELETED)’s car, (a green Crosley Station Wagon, bearing Wisconsin License Plates (DELETED) and headed for Los Angeles, California. Their destination was unknown to him, according to ADAMSKI. ADAMSKI stated he further suspected (DELETED) of being disloyal to the United States because (DELETED) was a close friend of (DELETED). ADAMSKI advised that (DELETED) was interested in flying saucers and had correspondence with him and written numerous letters which indicated to him, ADAMSKI, that (DELETED) was not entirely loyal to the United 49

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus States Government. ADAMSKI furnished the letters as evidence of his belief of disloyal attitude, which are enclosed to the Bureau and Cleveland. SD 100-8382 28 January 1953, Office Memorandum to Director, FBI (PAGE TWO) ADAMSKI advised that he had been corresponding with (DELETED) with regularity, for about one year, but advised that he did not know very much about (DELETED) due to the fact that he had never met him, and that (DELETED) never told him much about himself in his letters. ADAMSKI stated that he had received correspondence from (DELETED) at the following addresses: (DELETED), Campbell, Ohio, and (DELETED), Cleveland, Ohio. ADAMSKI advised that he had corresponded with (DELETED) since approximately March 12, 1951, and that on December 30, 1952, (DELETED) had appeared at the Palomar Gardens and told ADAMSKI that he wanted to work with him. ADAMSKI stated that (DELETED) had brought a tape recorder with him on which he had recorded the voice of (DELETED) giving some instructions and that (DELETED) had also brought some tools with him. ADAMSKI stated that (DELETED) had formerly been employed at the Oster Plant in Indiana and that he had been discharged from there. ADAMSKI furnished the following description of (DELETED): Age: 35 yrs Height: 5’9” Weight: 180 lbs. Eyes: Blue Hair: Blond; Sandy Face: Narrow Complexion: Fair Scars: None Race: German Peculiarities: Smokes pipe, says “ya”-“ya” Addresses: (DELETED), Wisconsin; (DELETED), Wisconsin; (DELETED), Wisconsin SD 100-8382 28 January 1953, Office Memorandum to Director, FBI (PAGE THREE) ADAMSKI advised that he had corresponded with (DELETED), starting approximately November 26, 1951, at which time (DELETED) had written a letter to him stating that he had heard ADAMSKI’s story concerning space ships and wanted to exchange information concerning them. (DELETED) was formerly in the 371 5th Training Squadron, Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas, and was discharged from military service in October, 1952. ADAMSKI stated that in November, 1952, (DELETED) appeared at his Palomar Gardens Café and stated he was (DELETED) and moved in. ADAMSKI advised that (DELETED) had formerly lectured on flying saucers at the Lackland Air Force Base and furnished the following description of (DELETED), of whom he stated he would consider to be a loyal American citizen: Age: 23 yrs. Height: 5’5” 50

Raymond Andrew Keller II Weight: 160 lbs. Eyes: Brown Hair: Black Complexion: Olive Scars: None Speech: Soft Spoken ADAMSKI further advised that on November 20, 1952, on the California Desert, at a point ten and two-tenths miles from Desert Center on the road to Parker and Needles, Arizona, that he had made contasct with a space craft and had talked to a space man. ADAMSKI stated that he, (DELETED) and his wife MARY, had been out in the desert and that he and the persons with him had seen the craft come down to the earth. ADAMSKI stated that a small stairway in the bottom of the craft, which appeared to be a round disc, opened and a space man came down the steps. ADAMSKI stated he believed there were other space men in the ship because the ship appeared translucent and could see the shadows of the space men…. SD 100-8382 28 January 1953, Office Memorandum to Director, FBI (PAGE FOUR) ….ADAMSKI described the space man as being over 5’ in height, having long hair like a woman’s and garbed in a suit similar to the space suits or web suits worn by the U. S. Air Force Men. ADAMSKI stated that he and the space man conversed by signs and that there appeared to be a certain area around the space ship which consisted of magnetic or electric lines of force, inasmuch as when he got too close, some of the lines went through his arm and momentarily paralyzed his arm. ADAMSKI stated that he took a picture of the space ship and the space man, but the space man could evidently read his thoughts inasmuch as he motioned to him not to take the picture and when the space man left he took the “plate” with the negative on it with him. ADAMSKI further advised that he had obtained plaster casts of the footprints of the space man and stated that the casts indicated the footprints had signs on them similar to the signs of the Zodiac.35 On January 12, 1953, ADAMSKI advised that on December 13, 1952, the space ship returned to the Palomar Gardens and came low enough to drop the plate which the space man had taken from him, ADAMSKI, and had then gone off over the hill. ADAMSKI stated that he saw the space ship and that as the space ship was leaving, (DELETED) also took a picture of the ship. ADAMSKI stated that when he had the negatives developed at a photo shop in Escondido, California, that the negative that the space man had taken from him contained writing which he believed to be the writing of the space men. ADAMSKI furnished the writer with copies of the space writing and photographs of the space ship. (DELETED) at the Palomar Observatory, advised that he had been acquainted with ADAMSKI since 1943, at which time ADAMSKI had called himself “the Reverend ADAMSKI” and had held Easter Services in the Valley. (DELETED) stated that in talking to 35

These signs do correspond to the Venusian Zodiac, which represents thirteen constellations on the plane of the ecliptic. The additional constellation is Ophiuchus. According to Lady Orda (Orthon), “As you know, on Earth the clusters of stars along the plane of your ecliptic form the twelve formations of the Zodiac. But on Venus, we too share a roughly equivalent orbital plane; and we, too, commence our new years with our planet’s transition into the constellation of Aquarius. The only difference between your Zodiac and ours is that we add another configuration, Ophiuchus (the Healer), squeezed between Scorpio and Sagittarius, with all of our months coming in much shorter durations because of Venus’ closer proximity to the Sun itself.” See Keller, Venus Rising, 274.

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus ADAMSKI, ADAMSKI had told him, (DELETED), that he had a “cult” or colony at Laguna Beach, California, previous to 1943, and that he had also been interested in metaphysics and astrology. SD 100-8382 28 January 1953, Office Memorandum to Director, FBI (PAGE FIVE) (DELETED) further advised that Adamski claimed to have worked at Mount Palomar, but stated that ADAMSKI had never been employed at the Observatory. (DELETED) stated that ADAMSKI also claims to have been associated with (DELETED), formerly with the Observatory at Mount Palomar, but now located in Pasadena, California. (DELETED) stated that (DELETED) had known ADAMSKI for quite some time and that (DELETED)’s address was: (DELETED), Pasadena, California; Telephone: (DELETED).

Palomar Observatory is a center of astronomical research owned and run by California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the same institution that supplied and continues to supply the majority of scientists employed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. It was the JPL that in 1962 launched and guided the first successful probe to the planet Venus. The identity of the mysterious scientist at Mount Palomar who knew Adamski “for quite some time” still remains a mystery. See http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/homepage. html.

(DELETED) stated he considered ADAMSKI to be more qualified in astrology than astronomy. He continued that he had never viewed any space ship and believed ADAMSKI to be an opportunist. Copies of the letters of (DELETED) and prints of the space writing and flying saucers, are being enclosed to the Bureau, for informational purposes only. Copies are also being enclosed to the Cleveland Office for any action that they may desire to take. This information is not being furnished to the U. S. Air Force inasmuch as (DELETED), OSI, was along at the time of the interview, and is cognizant of the facts contained herein. ADAMSKI furnished the following information concerning himself: Born: 4-17-1891 Place: Poland Father: JOSEPH ADAMSKI (deceased) Mother: FRANCES ADAMSKI (deceased) Sister: (DELETED) (phonetic) Address: Lackawana, New York 52

Raymond Andrew Keller II Sister: (DELETED) Address: Dunkirk, New York Sister: (DELETED) Address: Dunkirk, New York SD 100-8382 28 January 1953, Offrice Memorandum to Director, FBI (PAGE SIX) Brother: (DELETED) Address: Lackawana, New York Brother: (DELETED) Address: Dunkirk, New York Entered U.S.: 1893 through New York 1913-1916: Entered U.S. Army, 13th U.S. Cavalry, “K” Troop, Stationed at Columbus, New Mexico Employment: 1916: Yellowstone Nat’l. Park (took charge of the park for the Government and was a painter) 1918: Went to Camp Lewis, U.S. Army, and entered Nat’l. Guard and stationed at Portland, Oregon, 9 months. 1918: Worked in Flour Mills in Portland, Oregon 1921: Came to California and worked in Concrete Business at Los Angeles, Calif. 1926: Began lecturing on philosophy Education: Had not received college degree & title of Professor was nick-name. Marital Status: Married; Wife: MARY ADAMSKI, nee (DELETED) Address: Palomar Gardens Café Children: None Height: 5’8” Weight: 171 lbs. Hair: Gray Eyes: Brown, cataract right eye; Complexion: Ruddy Build: Medium Scars: 3” scar on naval Peculiarity: Well spoken; friendly; cannot pronounce “th” in speech; SD 100-8382 28 January 1953, Office Memorandum to Director, FBI (PAGE SEVEN) (DELETED) advised that when (DELETED), who as a matter of cooperation was preparing prints of the “Flying Saucers” for the San Diego Office, saw the prints he made the remark, “those are some of that crackpot ADAMSKI’s shots – he has been in here with his pictures before.” (DELETED) further advised he believed the photographs were taken by setting the camera lens at infinity, which would sharpen the background of mountains and trees and blurs the saucer, which was probably strung on a thin wire. (DELETED) advised that if the camera were set at infinity the wire would not show. 53

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus No further investigation is being conducted by the San Diego Office. This case is considered being closed. ENCLOSURES TO BUREAU & CLEVELAND: 1 photograph of the Space Writing 2 photographs of the Space Ship 1 copy of letters from (DELETED) -CAnalysis: The confidential memorandum is significant because it depicts Adamski working with an alien technology, or at least being cognizant of such. In particular, the document references a machine “that would draw down flying saucers and airplanes” by means of “cutting magnetic lines of force.” Interestingly enough, Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), with his many ties to the second planet explored in Venus Rising, was attempting to construct a similar device. Tesla inherited from his Eastern Orthodox father a deep hatred of war; and throughout the intrepid scientist’s life, he sought a technological way to end warfare. Tesla was convinced that war could be converted into a “mere spectacle of machines.” In 1931 Tesla announced at a press conference that he was on the verge of discovering an entirely new source of energy. And when he was asked to explain the nature of the power, he replied, “The idea first came upon me as a tremendous shock... I can only say at this time that it will come from an entirely new and unsuspected source.” Of course, the dark and ominous clouds of war were again converging on Europe. On 11 July 1934 the headline on the front page of the New York Times read, “TESLA, AT 78, BARES NEW ‘DEATH BEAM,’” with the associated article reporting that the new invention “will send concentrated beams of particles through the free air, of such tremendous energy that they will bring down a fleet of 10,000 enemy airplanes at a distance of 250 miles....” Tesla declared that the death beam would make war impossible by offering every country an “invisible Chinese wall.” Naturally, the idea generated considerable interest and controversy. Tesla went immediately to J. P. Morgan, Jr. in search of financing to build a prototype; but Morgan was unconvinced. Tesla also attempted to deal directly with Great Britain’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain; but when he resigned upon discovering that he had been out-maneuvered by Hitler at Munich, interest in Tesla’s new “anti-war weapon technology” eventually collapsed. Nevertheless, by 1937 it was clear that war would soon break out in Europe. Despite being frustrated in his attempts to generate interest and financing for his “peace beam,” Tesla sent an elaborate technical paper, including diagrams, to a number of Allied nations including the United States, Canada, England, France, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia, “New Art of Projecting Concentrated Non-Dispersive Energy Through Natural Media.” This was the paper that provided the first technical description of what is today called a charged particle beam weapon. But what set Tesla’s proposal apart from the usual run of fantasy Flash Gordon “death rays” was a unique vacuum chamber with one end open to the atmosphere. Tesla had carefully devised a unique vacuum seal by directing a high-velocity air stream at the tip of his gun to maintain what he considered “high vacua,” such as surrounds the launch of a time probe in the Cyther Dome on Venus, as described in the last chapter of this book. The necessary pumping action, however, 54

Raymond Andrew Keller II was accomplished with the aid of a large Tesla turbine. While many countries received Tesla’s fantastic proposal, the greatest interest came from the Soviet Union. In 1937 the scientist presented a plan to the Amtorg Trading Corporation, an alleged Soviet arms front in New York City; and just two years later, in 1939, one stage of the plan was tested in the USSR and Tesla received a check for $25,000. Tesla hoped that his invention would be used for purely defensive purposes, and thus would become an anti-war machine. Tesla had no qualms about sharing this technology with the Soviet Union insomuch as they were announced foes of Hitler’s totalitarian Nazi regime, fearing that Hitler would try and accomplish what other West European tyrants had failed to do- conquer Mother Russia. Tesla’s system required a series of power plants located along a country’s coast that would scan the skies in search of enemy aircraft; and since the beam was projected in a straight line, it was only effective for about 200 miles. This figure is very important because it corresponds to the distance of the curvature of the Earth. Tesla also considered peacetime applications for his particle beam, such as the transmission of power without wires over long distances. And yet another radical notion he proposed was to heat up portions of the upper atmosphere to light the sky at night with a man-made aurora borealis.36 Interestingly, following the collision of a large asteroid body with Venus countless millennia ago, it threw the planet into a retrograde motion and slowed its day from 96 hours to about 243 Earth days. This is the time it takes for Venus to spin around on its axis just once. And because it’s so close to the Sun, a year goes by much faster than it does here on Earth. It takes 225 Earth days for Venus to complete one orbit around the Sun; and that means that a day on Venus is a little longer than its year. But since the day and year lengths are similar, one day on Venus is not like a day on Earth. Here, the Sun rises and sets once each day. However, on Venus the Sun rises every 117 Earth days. This is something that can be very disconcerting to Terrans visiting Venus. It translates into our biological clocks being all thrown out of sync, with the Sun rising two times during each year, even though it is still the same day on Venus. And because Venus rotates backwards, the sun rises in the west and sets in the east.37 To compensate for this, the surviving Venusians created just such a device to light up their long night sky at sundry intervals. And coupled with the natural bioflorescent life that evolved there, an aurora-like spectacle, often referred to as an “ashen light,” graces the dark side of Venus and sometimes can be viewed on the rim of the planet by astronomers at ground-based observatories here on Earth. Because of Tesla’s intimate connections with Venus and Venusians, to include his own ancestry, he was probably quite familiar with this device and all its potential applications for peace. Insofar as the disposition of Nikola Tesla’s technical and scientific papers after he died at the height of World War II in 1943, it was natural that the FBI and other U.S. government agencies would be interested in any of his ideas involving advanced technology and their application to weaponry. Some FBI officials were concerned that Tesla’s papers might fall into the hands of the Axis powers, or the Soviets; with this latter group actually being the one that Hoover feared most. And on the morning after the inventor’s death, his nephew Sava Kosanovic´ hurried to his uncle’s room at the Hotel New Yorker. Sava was an up-and-coming Yugoslav official with suspected connections to the Communist Party in his country. But by the time young Sava 36 37

Master of Lightning – Nikola Tesla, section titled “Weapon to End War,” broadcast as PBS Documentary in April 2004 (Washington, DC: New Voyage Communications), http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_wendwar.html (Accessed 21 November 2016). Kristen Erickson, “All About Venus,” 17 November 2016, NASA Space Place, http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/all-aboutvenus/en/ (Accessed 21 November 2016).

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus arrived, his beloved uncle’s body had already been removed. Sava immediately suspected that someone had already gone through his uncle’s personal effects insofar as technical papers were missing as well as a black notebook he knew that Tesla assiduously kept. This was a notebook with several hundred pages, some of which were marked “Government.” So because Adamski was involved with some individuals working with a Tesla-type technology, this would definitely be a matter of deep concern to Director Hoover and the FBI. In returning to Tesla’s case, it was P. E. Foxworth, assistant director of the New York FBI office, who was called in to investigate. According to Foxworth, the government was indeed “vitally interested” in preserving Tesla’s papers. Two days after the inventor’s death, representatives of the FBI’s Office of Alien Property (OAP) went to his room at the New Yorker Hotel and seized all his possessions. Dr. John G. Trump, an electrical engineer with the National Defense Research Committee of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, was called in to analyze the Tesla papers in OAP custody and following a three-day investigation, Dr. Trump concluded that, “His [Tesla’s] thoughts and efforts during at least the past 15 years were primarily of a speculative, philosophical, and somewhat promotional character often concerned with the production and wireless transmission of power; but did not include new, sound, workable principles or methods for realizing such results.” Or so they say for public consumption. Just after World War II, however, there was a renewed interest in beam weapons on the part of the United States government, especially since the Soviets actually paid Tesla for information on the same prior to the outbreak of the global conflagration. It appears that copies of Tesla’s papers on particle beam weaponry were sent to Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio as part of an operation code-named Project Nick. The research that ensued was heavily funded and placed under the command of Brigadier General L. C. Craigie. Its purpose was to test the feasibility of Tesla’s particle beam weapon concept. Details of the experiments were never published. The project was apparently discontinued. However, something very peculiar happened. The copies of Tesla’s papers just “disappeared” and nobody knows what happened to them, even to this day. So when two gentlemen are apparently working on such technology along with George Adamski, this is going to be a special matter of concern for the FBI and many other United States government agencies. That the matter was forwarded to the Cleveland office is also an interesting aside here; for not only did the two men have Ohio addresses, but as reported in Venus Rising,38 a laboratory of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in Cleveland was the purported destination for some of the debris recovered from two crashed flying saucers in New Mexico. It’s an absolute outrage that it took nine years since Tesla’s death for his remaining papers and possessions to be released to his dear nephew, Sava Kosanovic, and returned to Belgrade, Yugoslavia, where a museum was created in honor of the great inventor. For many years to follow, under Josip Broz Tito’s communist rule, it became extremely difficult for Western journalists and scholars to gain access to the Tesla archive there. And even those who did gain access were only allowed to see selected papers. This, however, was not the case for Soviet scientists who swarmed there in delegations during the 1950s. Of course, concerns dramatically escalated in 1960 when Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev announced to the Supreme Soviet that “a new and fantastic weapon was in the hatching stage.” Work on such advanced particle beam weapons also continued in the United States. In 38

Keller, Venus Rising, 172

Raymond Andrew Keller II 1958, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) began a top secret project code-named Seesaw. Situated at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California, it purpose was to develop a charged-particle beam weapon. And more than ten years and twenty-seven million dollars later, the project was allegedly abandoned “because of the projected high costs associated with implementation as well as the formidable technical problems associated with propagating a beam through very long ranges in the atmosphere.” According to the PBS documentary, scientists associated with the project had no knowledge of Tesla’s papers. Likely story! And by the late 1970s, there was fear that the Soviets may have achieved a technological breakthrough. Some American defense analysts concluded that a large charged particle beam weapon facility was under construction near the Sino-Soviet border in southern Russia. The American response to this so-called “technological surprise” was the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) announced by President Ronald Reagan in 1983. It became known as the infamous “Star Wars” anti-missile defense shield. Teams of government scientists were urged, “Turn your great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace, to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.” The spokesperson in the PBS documentary declared that, “For many years scientists and researchers have sought for Tesla’s missing papers with no apparent success. It is conceivable that if Nikola Tesla knew a means for accurately projecting lethal beams of energy through the atmosphere, he may have taken it to the grave with him.”39 But given the circumstances surrounding the confiscation of his papers at the time of the great inventor’s death, this seems highly improbable. NASA and Air Force personnel have spoken to me in anonymity, assuring that there is indeed a space program not for public consumption, and that this more advanced agency works with both alien and Tesla technologies. 23 March 1953, Office Memorandum from SAC, San Diego (100-8382) to Director, FBI Subject: GEORGE ADAMSKI, was. SECURITY MATTER - C Re San Diego letter to Bureau dated January 28, 1953. On March 13, 1953 an article in the Riverside “Enterprise” newspaper stated thatADAMSKI in a speech before the Corona, California Lions Club on March 12, 1953, had prefaced his talk on space travel with a statement that “his material had all been cleared with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Air Force Intelligence.” On March 17, 1953 ADAMSKI was contacted at his residence, Palomar Gardens Café, Valley Center, California by agents of the FBI and OSI. ADAMSKI at this time stated that he had not made such a statement. In the presence of the agents he also wrote a letter to the Editor of the Riverside, California “Enterprise” newspaper stating that their article was incorrect and advising them that it was his desire that they correct the statement reading that “his material had all been cleared with the Federal 39

Master of Lightning – Nikola Tesla, section titled “Missing Papers,” broadcast as PBS Documentary in April 2004 (Washington, DC: New Voyage Communications), http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_mispapers.html (Accessed 21 November 2016).

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Bureau of Investigation and Air Force Intelligence.” The agents observed the mailing of this letter. ADAMSKI was severely admonished and a signed statement obtained from him that included the following: “I understand that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Air Force investigate complaints affecting the security of the United States. I understand that they make no recommendations as to the validity or non-validity of these complaints. “I have not and do not intend to make statements to the effect that the U. S. Air Force or Federal Bureau of Investigation have approved material used in my speeches.” CLARENCE CARPENTER, (DELETED) California, reporter of the story on ADAMSKI advised the statement, “his material had all been cleared with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Air Force Intelligence,” was a direct quote from his notes. Unless advised contrary by Bureau no further investigation will be conducted. Analysis: In some manner, Adamski mentioned the interest of the FBI and the Air Force in his UFO research during a lecture to a chapter of the Lions Club. The FBI and Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI) dispatch agents to Adamski’s home and secure a written statement from him attesting to the fact that he will no longer mention that either the FBI or the Air Force has approved the contents of his speeches. In addition, these agents watch him write a letter to the reporter of a California newspaper who covered his Lions Club lecture. In this letter, Adamski informs the reporter that his article was incorrect in declaring that he had made any such statement concerning the approval of the contents of his lecture by any government agency. Both agents observed Adamski mailing this letter to the newspaper office. Adamski was “severely admonished” by these agents. Apparently, various agencies of the government are starting to become concerned about Adamski’s activities. They certainly do not wish for Adamski to say anything that reflects the interests of their respective agencies in anything Adamski is saying or doing with respect to UFOs or life on other planets. 10 December 1953, Office Memorandum from SAC, Los Angeles (100-24442) to Director, FBI Subject: GEORGE A. ADAMSKI, aka. SM – C 00: San Diego Re San Diego let to Director 9/22/1952. On 12/10/53, (DELETED) for the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau, 742 South Hill Street, Los Angeles, California, appeared at the Los Angeles Office and advised (DELETED) that his Bureau is investigating GEORGE ADAMSKI’s book, “SAUCERS HAVE LANDED,” to determine if it is a fraud. On 12/9/53 ADAMSKI was interviewed by (DELETED) in Los Angeles, at which time ADAMSKI produced a document having a blue seal in the lower left corner, at the top of which appeared three names of Government agents, namely, (DELETED) FBI;” (DELETED) Agent, USAAF;” (DELETED) USAAF.” ADAMSKI inferred to (DELETED) that these Government agents had “cleared” him to make speeches concerning flying saucers. COLSTON stated that he did not pay too much 58

Raymond Andrew Keller II attention to the document, but that the seal looked “faked.” (DELETED) advised that his Bureau intends to label ADAMSKI’s book a fraud since there seems to be absolutely no basis for some of his claims. He indicated that his book has sold over 100,000 copies and ADAMSKI is getting a great deal of publicity by appearing on radio programs and by making lectures on the subject of flying saucers. ADAMSKI claims to have taken a trip around the moon in an interplanetary ship piloted by men from Venus. ADAMSKI, according to (DELETED) returned to his home near San Diego on 12/9/53. The above information is being furnished to the Bureau and the San Diego Office for whatever action deemed appropriate. OSI, Los Angeles, has been advised. REG. AIR MAIL CEW: VMD Cc: 2 – San Diego (100-8382) (REG.) Analysis: A representative of the Los Angeles, California, Better Business Bureau suspects that Adamski may be perpetuating a fraud with his book, Flying Saucers Have Landed, and so informs the local FBI office. The popularity of Adamski’s book and attendant lectures is attracting the attention of agents beyond the immediate jurisdiction of the San Diego office. Contrary to his statement to the agents who previously visited his home, Adamski is now not only stating that some government agencies approve the contents of his talks on flying saucers, but is producing signed documents testifying to that effect. 16 December 1953, Office Memorandum from L. B. Nichols to Mr. Tolson40 Subject: GEORGE A. ADAMSKI SECURITY MATTER – C COAUTHOR OF “FLYING SAUCERS HAVE LANDED” SYNOPSIS: George A. Adamski, 62, described as mentally unbalanced and a “crackpot” of Palomar Gardens, Valley Center, California, is coauthor with one Desmond Leslie of the book “Flying Saucers Have Landed,” first printed in September, 1953, and now in its fifth printing. Adamski claims to have taken trip around Moon in an interplanetary ship piloted by men from Venus. A 3-13-53 article in the Riverside, California, “Enterprise” states Adamski, in a speech on space travel before the Corona, California, Lions Club 3-12-53, stated his material had all been cleared with FBI and Air Force Intelligence. On 3-17-53, Adamski interviewed by SA(DELETED)41 San Diego Office, (DELETED) and (DELETED) Office of Special Investigations agents. Adamski denied making statement, wrote letter to the editor correcting record and gave signed statement witnessed by the three Agents to effect he had not and did not intend to 40

John Stuart Cox and Theoharis, Athan G., The Boss: J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisition. (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Temple University Press, 1988), 108. Since the 1940s, rumors circulated that Hoover was homosexual. Historians John Stuart Cox and Athan G. Theoharis speculated that Clyde Tolson, whom Hoover elevated to the position of an associate director of the FBI as well as his primary heir, may have also been his lover. Allegedly, Hoover hunted down and threatened anyone who made insinuations about his sexuality. SA indicates that a special agent was assigned to the case, interviewing Adamski.

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus make statements that the FBI and OSI approved his material. He said he understood these agencies make no recommendations. Copy of statement demanded by and given to Adamski 3-17-53. By letter dated 12-11-53, to Director from (DELETED) Better Business Bureau, Los Angeles, California (DELETED) states Adamski exhibited a document signed by three Agents purporting to clear his material. (DELETED) on 12-10-53, advised Los Angeles Office the Better Business Bureau intends to label Adamski’s book as a fraud. Air Force officers in Pentagon likewise received letter from (DELETED) dated 12-11-53 SAC (DELETED) at San Diego instructed (INSERTS HERE “by telephone on 12-14-53”) to have Agent, accompanied by OSI, read riot act to Adamski in no uncertain terms, diplomatically retrieve copy of signed statement if possible, admonish him for statements and false representations. (DELETED AND THEN INSERTS HERE “to advise as to results.”) Proposed letter to Better Business Bureau prepared. RECOMMENDATION: That the attached letter to Mr. (DELETED) Research Division, Better Business Bureau, Los Angeles, California, be forwarded pointing out true facts of the FBI’s relationship with Adamski and fact this Bureau has not endorsed, approved or cleared Adamski’s speeches or book. Attachment cc - Mr. Ladd cc - Mr. Belmont cc - Mr. Jones REW: ps Memorandum to Mr. Tolson, December 16, 1953 (PAGE TWO) DETAILS: Bureau file 100-395273 reflects that George Adamski, age 62, born April 17, 1891 in Poland, according to (DELETED) is a “crackpot.” Individuals in the community regard him as “mentally unbalanced” in that he claims to have taken a trip around the Moon in an interplanetary ship piloted by men from Venus. He currently resides at the place of his employment, Palomar Gardens Café, Valley Center, California. He entered the United States in 1893 through the port of New York; served from 1913-16 in the United States Army; worked as a painter in Yellowstone National Park in 1916, in the flour mills in Portland, Oregon, in 1918, in the concrete business in California in 1921, and in 1926 began lecturing on philosophy. He never received a college degree; his title of professor is a nickname; he is married but has no children. We have never investigated Adamski. George Adamski, together with one Desmond Leslie, co authored a book selling for $3.50 known as “Flying Saucers Have Landed.” First printed in September 1953, and copyrighted 1953 by “The British Book Center, Incorporated,” 420 West 45th Street, New York, New York, the book, in December 1953, is in its fifth printing. Adamski claims he has sold more than 100,000 copies of this 232 page book. In it he sets forth photographs purported to be of flying saucers in flight and on the ground. Also included are “writings from another planet” which 60

Raymond Andrew Keller II Adamski claims came into his possession after he took a photograph of a flying saucer and “a little man” from the spaceship took the photographic plate from him and some days later returned a photographic plate to him on the California desert which, when developed, disclosed “writings from another planet.” On 12-10-53, (DELETED) Research Division of the Better Business Bureau, 1010 Lincoln Building, 742 South Hill Street, Los Angeles, California, came to the Los Angeles Office in person and stated the Better Business Bureau is investigating Adamski’s book, “Flying Saucers Have Landed,” with a view to branding it a fraud. (DELETED) said in connection therewith he had, on 12-9-53, interviewed Adamski who produced a document having a blue seal in the lower left corner and at the top appeared three names of government agents: (DELETED) FBI; (DELETED) Agent, USAAF, and (DELETED) Agent, USAAF. According to (DELETED) it was inferred by Adamski the above-named government agents have “cleared” Adamski to make speeches concerning flying saucers. (DELETED) said he did not pay too much attention to the document, but that it looked faked. ByletterdatedDecember11,1953,theabove-named (DELETED) advised the Director of substantially the same information as related by (DELETED) to the Los Angeles Office 12-10-53. (DELETED) stated the Better Business Bureau was interested in whether or not the document, in possession of Adamski, is authentic and As of the end of 1953, FBI Director J. Edgar whether the FBI endorsed the “Professor’s” book. Hoover took an active interest in the George The Director inquired, “What about this?” Adamski case. See www.express.co.uk. The Utopian Threat The increasing flurry of memoranda between an expanding number of FBI field offices, coupled with the unprecedented international popularity of Adamski and Leslie’s Flying Saucers Have Landed, at last caught the attention of the FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. While he would not publish his anti-communist book, Masters of Deceit,42 until 1958, it was apparent at the start of the Cold War that Americans were decidedly opposed to communist expansion anywhere in the world and felt that it was the duty of the United States to both stem and push it back, wherever and whenever it raised its ugly head. Hoover’s opposition to communism extended back to the First Red Scare that took place immediately following World War I, however; so it seems logical enough to assume that he must have been seeing “red flags” all over Adamski’s and the other contactees’ accounts of meetings with extraterrestrials hailing from some “utopian” society that had evolved on Venus and other nearby planets in the solar system. Hoover was born on 1 January 1895 in Washington, D.C., the son of Anna Marie (née Scheitlin; 1860–1938), who was of German Swiss descent, and Dickerson Naylor Hoover, Sr. (1856–1921), who was of English and German ancestry. For most of his life, Hoover lived in the Washington, D.C., area. Politically, he definitely followed a conservative line of thinking. He 42

J. Edgar Hoover, Masters of Deceit (New York, New York: Pocket Books, 1958).

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus attended Central High School in the nation’s capital and was an active member of its Officers’ Training Corps program, where he participated on the debate team, arguing against women getting the right to vote and against the abolition of the death penalty. One would rightly suppose that Hoover would end up being so reactionary insofar as both of his parents were so authoritarian and stern in raising him. But much to his credit, the young Hoover remained focused in his studies, and went on to obtain a Bachelor of Laws degree from the George Washington University Law School in 1916 and a Master of Laws degree in the following year from the same university. While the young man was studying law, he worked as a messenger in the Orders Department of the Library of Congress; and during this time, Hoover took for his mentor the United States Postal Inspector Anthony Comstock of New York City, who waged a relentless battle against fraud, vice, pornography, and birth control. But it was right after graduating with his master’s degree that the industrious Hoover was hired by the Justice Department to work in the War Emergency Division, where it didn’t take long before he became the head of that division’s Alien Enemy Bureau, authorized by President Wilson at the beginning of World War I to arrest and jail disloyal foreigners without the benefit of trial. Hoover received yet additional government authority from the Congress’ passing of the 1917 Espionage Act. Since Hoover was of German descent and fluent in the German language, he was put to work immediately in that section of the new bureau dealing with German and German-American activities taking place in the United States. We have to keep in mind that many German Americans and European immigrants were coming under suspicion at this time because the new Soviet government in Russia, headed by Lenin, had pulled out of the Allied command in fighting the Germans. Therefore, out of a list of 1,400 suspicious Germans living in the U.S., the Bureau arrested 98 and designated 1,172 as being subject to arrest. In any event, in just two years, Hoover became head of the Bureau of Investigation’s new General Intelligence Division. This was also known as the Radical Division because its goal was to monitor and disrupt the work of domestic radicals. Thus emerged America’s First Red Scare, wherein Hoover was taking a key role in carrying out the now-regarded as infamous “Palmer Raids.” In these actions, Hoover helped in rounding up, arresting and deporting alleged anarchists and leftist radicals throughout 1919 and 1920.43 This is why Adamski must have been seen as a special interest individual to Hoover, for the contactee was a character aptly fitting the profile of a suspected radical back in these early days of the FBI Director’s career, especially with his Polish background and occasional “anti-American” comments made in the Palomar Gardens Café or on the flying saucer lecture circuit. During the early years of hunting radicals, Hoover chose as his able assistant, George Ruch. Together, they began monitoring a variety of radicals with the intent to punish, arrest, or deport those whose politics they decided were dangerous. Some of the more notable immigrant targets during this period were the Pan-African nationalist Marcus Garvey, the socialist and feminist leader Rose Pastor Stokes, the Caribbean communist Cyril V. Briggs, anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, as well as the future Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter. Of the latter, Hoover maintained that Frankfurther was “the most dangerous man in the United States,” most likely because he was one of the founders of he American Civil Liberties Union, in addition to serving as an architect for so many of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s progressive New Deal programs.44 Overall, that Hoover would one day decide to 43 Curt Gentry, J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets (New York, New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2001). 44 Anthony Summers, “The secret life of J. Edgar Hoover,” 31 December 2011, Observer, London, United Kingdom

Raymond Andrew Keller II focus his attention on the likes of George Adamski indicates that the xenophobic director really put the contactee in with some good company in American history. Hoover’s star rapidly ascended in the Bureau of Investigation. By 1921, Hoover was promoted to deputy head and, in 1924 the Attorney General made him the acting director. And on 10 May 1924, President Calvin Coolidge appointed Hoover as the sixth Director of the Bureau of Investigation. Some historians believe this action was taken partly in response to allegations that the prior director, William J. Burns, was involved in the Teapot Dome scandal. In any event, at the time of Hoover’s assumption of the director’s duties, the Bureau had approximately 650 employees, including 441 Special Agents, compared to the 35,000 working with the organization today.45 Keep in mind that even before Adamski was writing about his contacts with Venusians, he enjoyed some notoriety as an author of science fiction. And this was an area where its fans, writers and publishers were frequently scrutinized by the FBI as possible instigators of subversion. In the vast universe of science fiction, there have always been two notable strains. First, there is the New Fandom faction. This group was rather innocuous, at least insofar as it was only reading science fiction for its pure entertainment value. On the other hand, there were the Futurians. This faction was highly politicized, so much so, that its adherents were attempting to implement the utopian principles of societal organization introduced in the pages of science fiction magazines directly into the American body politic. Among the ranks of the Futurians could be found a young Isaac Asimov, an immigrant from the Soviet Union, prominent biochemist and aspiring writer of both popular science and science fiction. In 1939, we find Asimov enroute from his home in California to attend both the World’s Fair and the first World Science Fiction Convention. Asimov must have felt that he had died and went to heaven. At the World’s Fair, he was one of the select Americans to get a sneak peek at such new marvels as 3-D movies (that are all so now the rage), fax machines, fluorescent lighting, FM radio, Lucite, nylon, television and much more. All of this had to do with the fair’s theme of “Building the World of Tomorrow.” And at the science fiction convention, the young Asimov continued to imbibe in inspiring, utopian dreams of exploring distant planets and learning about all sorts of exotic new life forms and extraterrestrial civilizations, and lest one forget, alternative ways of The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) may represent a modern gnosis organizing our own. Such heady days these must have in the making. How will SETI and UFO been! From such marvelous experiences, Asimov came disclosures impact the evolution of society to believe that, “science fiction should rise to a vision and its structures? These are questions considered by Isaac Asimov, the writer of of a greater world, a greater future for the whole of popular science and science fiction books. mankind, and should utilize idealistic convictions for Book above first published in 1979 by aid in a generally cooperative and diverse movement Ballantine, New York. 45

“Frequently Asked Questions,” undated, United States Department of Justice, https://www.fbi.gov/about/faqs (Accessed 20 October 2016).

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus for the betterment of the world along democratic, impersonal and unselfish lines.” Naturally, Hoover was aware of this utopian and leftist trend, as many of the Futurians were involved in suspicious causes like the promotion of aetheism, humanism and yes, even communism. The FBI director was also cognizant of the fact that some of the Futurians were members of the American Communist Party and hence they were to be considered as “dangerously red.”46 Adamski’s earlier entry into the realm of science fiction clearly placed him in the Futurian camp; and therefore, it is not entirely unreasonable to assume that Adamski might have been under FBI surveillance from an earlier time, preceding his involvement in the flying saucer movement. Continuing FBI Surveillance of Adamski With Hoover now taking a personal interest in the Adamski case, the San Diego office issues an office memorandum to the Director, FBI, on 15 December 1953, subject GEORGE A. ADAMSKI, aka Professor ADAMSKI, George A. ADAMSKI, George A. Adamsky, with a security classification of “C,” presumably meaning that the document was confidential. This memorandum was written in regards to the Los Angeles letter to the Bureau, dated 10 December 1953, the San Diego letter to the Bureau, dated 22 September 1953, and telephone calls from the Bureau (J. Edgar Hoover) to San Diego on 14 and 15 December 1953. Clearly, the Director was becoming impatient and needed the rundown on this Adamski character. Of course, the San Diego letter to the Bureau on 22 September advised that no additional investigation was being conducted with respect to this case; but for the information of the Bureau and the Los Angeles office of the FBI, it was reported that Adamski owned and operated the Palomar Gardens Café, located about five miles east of Rincon, California, at a point where the highway branches off leading to the Mt. Palomar Observatory. At that time, Palomar was considered the most powerful telescope and astronomical facility in the world. When any Department of Defense47 officials became concerned about the appearance of some new astronomical phenomenon, Palomar Observatory is the place they would automatically turn to in the hopes of obtaining better resolution photographs of the anomaly. Naturally, it became a matter of concern to the FBI and other intelligence agencies that a Polish immigrant who occasionally made critical statements of the Air Force and other government agencies, was living right next door to this important facility. Of Adamski, the San Diego office informs the Director that, “He is an amateur astronomer and for the past several years this office has received complaints relative to the subject’s having seen flying saucers in the vicinity of his establishment. He exhibits photographs purported to be of flying saucers to patrons of his establishment. OSI of the Air Force has done considerable investigation relative to these complaints and lends no credence to the truthfulness of ADAMSKI’s statements.” In addition, the Director’s attention was invited to the San Diego office’s letters dated 28 January 1953 and 23 March 1953, both regarding the activities of George Adamski. The following statement, obtained and signed by Adamski on 17 March 1953, was also forwarded to the Director and the Los Angeles office along with the 15 December memorandum: 46

George Pendle, Strange Angel: Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons (Orlando, Florida: Harcourt, Inc., 2005), 154, 156. 47 On 18 September 1947, just months after the Roswell crash, the Department of War was officially renamed the Department of Defense. Were we sending a message to the extraterrestrials that we would not be the first to take aggressive action against their spacecraft, but would defend ourselves if attacked, or perhaps just provoked?

Raymond Andrew Keller II Palomar Gardens March 17, 1953 To Whom It May Concern: I, George Adamski, hereby make the following signed statement to (DELETED) Agent_F.B.I._and (DELETED) and (DELETED) Agents of the Air Force. This statement is voluntary and no threats or promises have been made to me. I understand that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Air Force investigate complaints affecting the security of the United States. I understand that they make no recommendations as to the validity or non-validity of these complaints. I have not and do not intend to make statements to the effect that the U. S. Air Force or Federal Bureau of Investigation have approved material used in my speeches. I have read the above statement and it is true and correct to the best of my knowledge. Signed, /s/ GEO_ ADAMSKI George Adamski Star Route Valley Center, California GA:lm The statement was witnessed and signed by one agent of the FBI and two special agents of the Inspector General, Office of Scientific Investigation, U. S. Air Force. Copies of this statement were sent by COL:CS via registered airmail to both the Director and the Los Angeles office (100-24442) with high priority. The memorandum also avows that per the Director’s instructions, “ADAMSKI will be contacted in the immediate future, at which time he will be requested to cease and desist making any reference to the FBI in his talks or in any publications which he might issue.” Naturally, the Director was informed that he would be advised directly concerning the results of this contact. Toward the end of the following year, the Detroit, Michigan, office of the FBI had been drawn into the ongoing Adamski investigation. In an office memorandum to the Director from the SAC, Detroit (65-2677), dated 30 November 1954, reference was made to a letter from J. Edgar Hoover dated 8 October 1954 with regard to the Detroit Flying Saucer Club and its activities. The subject of the memorandum was “DETROIT FLYING SAUCER CLUB, ESPIONAGE – X.” Perhaps this is where the real “X Files” began. The author of the Detroit FBI memorandum writes that, “The purpose of this letter is to set out for the information of the Bureau, the activities of the Detroit Flying Saucer Club, as they are known. This is done chronologically. “On May 18, 1954, (DELETED) advised that she had been attending meetings concerning flying saucers, rockets to the Moon, etc., which she felt could be subversive. On May 27, 1954, (DELETED) and (DELETED) talked in Detroit on flying saucers. They were alarmed at the nature of the remarks; such as ‘We are Americans, but….’ and that we should reduce our 65

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus arms and would blow ourselves up with the H-Bomb, because visitors from outer space were afraid we had started something that would get out of hand. Another lecturer in Detroit, was TRUMAN BETHURUM. The sponsors of these speakers were HELEN REEVE, LAURA MARXER, HENRY MADAY and RONALD COOK. According to pamphlets furnished by (DELETED), a “Flying Saucer Review Group” was to be formed. This was headed by HENRY MADAY, 364 W. Lewiston, Ferndale, Michigan, who uses the pen name, JARED LYON. He is editor, Bresser Cross Index Directory, Detroit. They advised that LAURA MARXER was the Station WWJ-TV personality “MIDGE” in the “Playschool” program. “On July 13, 1954, (DELETED) advised that MADAY was bringing to Detroit, someone who talked to people from Venus, Clarion, etc., who are more highly advanced than Earth people. They advocated the Golden Rule as the only workable rule. A meeting was to be held on July 15, 1954. (DELETED) also furnishes a letter from one (DELETED) encouraging him in his interest in flying saucers. (DELETED) felt such an organization could use the flying saucer scare as political propaganda or from a pseudo-religious view. He said they opposed the atomic bomb and warfare. “(DELETED) advised she attended the July 15, 1954 meeting of the flying saucer group. The purpose was to organize a flying saucer club in Detroit. HENRY MADAY was behind it. (DELETED SENTENCE HERE) An organizational letter was passed out at this meeting stating the purpose of the ‘Flying Saucer Club of Detroit’ was: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Exchange ideas, and in general, become aware of the flying saucer picture. Invite national “saucer” speakers to Detroit, and enlighten the public. Spread information on flying saucers. To engage in those aspects of ‘saucer’ interests, especially appealing to each member, such as, astronomy, engineering, spiritual, curiosity, etc.

“The temporary committee setting forth these aims were: HENRY MADAY, LAURA MARXER, BRYANT REEVE, N. D. HUNTER, HOWARD KEHL, HELEN REEVE, and JOHN HOFFMAN. At this July 15, 1954, meeting, GEORGE ADAMSKI introduced CLARENCE A. TROUT, of E. Outer Drive, Detroit, who reported seeing a flying saucer July 14, 1954, at 10:30 p.m. “(DELETED) advised that the first official meeting of the Detroit Flying Saucer Club (DFSC) would be held August 19, 1954. “The Detroit Times of 20 August 1954, in an article on the August 19, 1954 meeting, said that ‘Scientists were wrong is discounting the flying saucer theory’ and that the Club would act as a clearing house for local sightings, and submit reports to the Army test center, WrightPatterson Air Force Base, Dayton. “(DELETED) advised that the August 19, 1954 meeting consisted mostly of people saying they had seen saucers. Mr. REEVES, an engineer, commented on each reported sighting. JOHN HOFFMAN, an advertising man, and a Mr. TROUT, of Continental Motors, reported sightings. “(DELETED), Farmington, Michigan, advised on September 29, 1954, that the officers of the DFSC, 6432 Cass Avenue, Detroit, were: HENRY MADAY, President; LAURA MARXER, Vice-President; DOLORES M. COYNE, Secretary; and JOHN C. HOFFMAN, Treasurer. “He said the club was going to petition the President of the United States to make public all 66

Raymond Andrew Keller II government information on flying saucers. He also stated that by letter, September 25, 1954, LAURA MARXER advised him he was a group leader in the club, and his duties would be to keep up with the latest developments and advise his group, the names of which he would receive from Miss COYNE. “The Detroit Free Press of September 29, 1954, said in an article that the DFSC met September 28, 1954, and DESMOND LESLIE, British flying saucer authority, spoke, stating that GEORGE ADAMSKI made contact two years ago with space people in a California desert. “(DELETED) a letter September 30, 1954, from DOLORES M. COYNE, Secretary, DFSC, setting out the discussion group in the Farmington area as: Mr. and Mrs. BAILEY, 32740 Northwestern Highway, Detroit. ALFRED S. STUDER, 28993 Parkhill, Detroit. M. K. ZIMMER, 29581 Belfast, Detroit. “(DELETED) received a letter from her October 4, 1954, adding to the above list: Miss LUCY RAMBO, 30203 Overdale Ct., Rte. 4, Farmington. (PARAGRAPH DELETED HERE). “He advised the object of group discussions, according to MARXER, was: 1. To indoctrinate people to receive space people. 2. Mass landings in Detroit in October (not further explained). 3. A saucer landed at 4:30 a.m., September 30, 1954, at Rotunda Drive and Southfield (Detroit) with strange greenish men in brown uniforms. 4. Unseen psychic forces (no further explanation). (PARAGRAPH DELETED HERE).

Beginning in the 1950s, George Adamski and Desmond Leslie’s Flying Saucers Have Landed inspired many to join local UFO clubs. Little did anyone realize that their daily activities were being scrutinized by the FBI Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO). See http://www. roystoncartoons.com/2010/03/ufocartoons-watch-skies.html.

“(DELETED) BAILEY said she was an atheist. The main discussion was about religion, science, and double talk, (DELETED) said. Twenty such discussion groups exist. MARXER said there would be landings in Detroit in October, but she could be wrong. (SENTENCE DELETED HERE). “(DELETED) said a group leaders’ meeting was held November 6, 1954, at Ed. SANDERS, 7323 Mayburn, Dearborn, Michigan. Seventeen were there. He did not consider any of it surversive. The Board of Directors of the DFSC are: HENRY MADAY, President; LAURA MARXER, Vice-President; DOLORES M. COYNE, Secretary; JOHN C. HOFFMAN, Treasurer, HOWARD KEHL, RANDALL COC and MADELINE MENDE, Directors. “(DELETED) said the purpose of this leaders’ meeting was to discuss how to handle issues arising in group meetings. These were: Religious

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Group representation to the Board of Directors of the club. “The group leaders are supposed to control discussion, and not offend any religious belief.” Of course, this is directly in line with the Objects of the Theosophical Society. Given the backgrounds of Adamski and Leslie, this should come as no surprise. But it wasn’t religious concerns that mostly worried the attendees at these early flying saucer meetings, but the fear of communist infiltration. In the next paragraph of the Detroit FBI office memorandum it goes on to state that, “At this Michigan meeting, FRANK R. SCHUSTER, a group leader, 3022 Chalmers, Detroit, said that JOHN HOFFMAN opposed group meetings because of accusations against them of subversive activities. An unidentified person said he did not think it true, but it was alleged one member of the Board of Directors was a Communist. MADAY answered this by saying he would mention no names, but the accuser should see him about this, and the accused was not a Communist. He said fellow travelers could get in or infiltrate the club, but he was at a loss as to any way of controlling that. As a result of this meeting, (DELETED) felt the group was either subversive, or a new religious group. He felt it all stems from ADAMSKI in California. He said one RIC WILKINSON, a flying saucer speaker, had moved to Detroit.” The general climate of fear and paranoia, so prevelant during the early 1950s, was creeping into the group and destroying its cohesion. The memorandum continues, “At this meeting, MADAY said that had saucer landings occurred in Detroit, in October, the group leaders would have been first to know it. He said he reported to ADAMSKI the predictions of MARXER, and ADAMSKI felt she should not predict more than 30 days in advance, and, even that was no good sometimes.” What is interesting here is that Maday, as president of the club, is reporting directly to George Adamski. In light of member Schuster’s concerns expressed above, about the controversy stemming from Adamski out in California, this type of action demonstrated little political autonomy or managerial authority for the DFSC. Adamski’s concerns about prophecies seems justified, too, considering the higher standards by which religious organizations are judged vs. secular ones, that are mostly dealing with scientific investigations on an objective basis. It makes sense that the leader of the contactee movement would like to keep it steered in this direction, rather than getting bogged down in endless theological debates. At this juncture, an entire paragraph is deleted. Then the memorandum continues as follows: “(DELETED) LAURA MARXER (DELETED) was resigning from the Board of Directors of the Club (DELETED) she was going to show the film, ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still,’ around Michigan, as a result of having met two men (not named). She said ADAMSKI, in California, was her God, even admitting his earthly faults.” One can only begin to imagine what Director Hoover thought of this report about Adamski being seen as God to Laura Marxer. Hoover probably wondered how many other people perceived Adamski in the same way. No, this was not going to be a file that would be quickly closed, put out of sight and out of mind. Perhaps this Adamski character, for all of his rhetoric about utopian Venus, was a dangerous, communist infiltrator. He would definitely continue to be the focus of attention and scrutiny by special agents of the FBI dispatched by the orders of Director Hoover. The identity of the two men who met with Marxer and urged her to show the movie, Day the Earth Stood Still, even into the twenty-first century remains a mystery; but they may very well have been Venusians, or at least individuals claiming to be Venusians and occasionally seen in the company of George Adamski. 68

Raymond Andrew Keller II Hakan Blomqvist, the leading authority on the contactee phenomenon in Europe, declared that in his personal investigations of many experiencer cases in his home country of Sweden, he has discovered independent witness confirmation that the contactee did meet up with some type of “strangers,” regardless of who they might have been. The intrepid Swedish investigator wrote, “We find this also in the Adamski case. Lou Zinsstag mentions that when Adamski stayed in a hotel in Basel in 1959 he was now and then visited by his contacts. Lou decided to check on this and asked the hotel manager and the porter. Both men answered, ‘There are several men who come at nine o’clock, but never more than two at a time.’”48 The comings and goings of mysterious individuals in visiting contactees along the routes of their tours in bars or hotel/motel rooms either before or after their public presentions has been well established. But those skeptical of Adamski have long asserted that these special visitors were not Venusians or even agents of some top secret government agency. Rather, they have generated derogatory speculation that Adamski was having secret homosexual trysts, joining in threesomes.49 However, for Blomqvist, this seems doubtful. The Swedish ufolgist states that, “To my knowledge, there are no facts supporting such a hypothesis.”50 In any case, this was the type of musing that would have caught the avid attention of Hoover, so we can be sure that Adamski was probably being tailed by orders from the Director over the course of his entire life. All of the members of the DFSC became subjects of intense interest for Hoover. The memorandum’s author continues, reporting to the Director that, “(DELETED) furnished this office on November 18, 1954, some literature put out by Dr. CHARLES LAUGHEAD, 407 Clarendon Road, East Lansing, Michigan, which (DELETED) obtained at a flying saucer discussion or class. LAUGHEAD’s material is in the form of a letter, with attachments to American editors and publishers, stating that he feels they should publish it. He claims messages are received by extra sensory perception from other planets, which are watching the earth. He said one Mrs. DOROTHY MARTIN, Oak Park, Illinois, receives the messages, mostly as lessons for flying saucer clubs. He said she one day picked up her pencil, and it began to write for her in the form of these messages (apparently, it has been writing ever since). LAUGHEAD’s letters to editors are dated August 30, 1954 and September 17, 1954. One dated April 24, 1954, captioned ‘Telepathy Our Common Means of Communication Dr. SEARLE BEIGLOW of Lansing, Michigan.’ It says he was a physician and psychiatrist who suffered much, and was persecuted for his unorthodox lessons in mental disease. He seems to be the contact with outer space.” The connection of flying saucer reports with enhanced psychic abilities in the UFO 48

Hakan Blomqvist, “Marc Hallet – A Critical Appraisal of George Adamski,” 30 July 2015, Hakan Blomqvist’s blog, http://ufoarchives.blogspot.com/2015/07/marc-hallet-critical-appraisal-of.html (Accessed 27 October 2016) 49 Marc Hallet and Richard W. Heiden, A Critical Appraisal of George Adamski, the Man Who Spoke to the Space Brothers (2015), https://archive.org/stream/ACriticalAppraisalOfGeorgeAdamskiTheManWhoSpokeToTheSpaceBrothers/A%20Critical%20Appraisal%20of%20George%20Adamski%20-%20The%20Man%20Who%20Spoke%20to%20the%20Space%20Brothers_djvu.txt (Accessed 27 October 2016), excerpt from page 184: “During Adamski’s trips alone to Los Angeles, or during his trips elsewhere in the world, he always needed to stay at hotels, because, he claimed, if space people wanted to contact him suddenly, it was the best place for it to happen without attracting attention. In Europe, his co-workers noticed that he received visits from young men in his room. Adamski said that they were space brothers. But according to what he had said about the space brothers on other occasions, the latter seemed to be older — about thirty or forty years old, such as those he pointed out at restaurant tables or in a crowd, saying they were space people. Here again, one can only make suppositions, knowing that some old heterosexual males become sexually attracted to boys or young men when their sexual potential decreases. One thing is sure: when Ray Stanford knew Adamski, he and his friends were teenage boys, but Adamski never had an inappropriate attitude towards them.” 50 Op cit

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus experiencers may have also been an area that sparked some interest on Hoover’s part. As we now know, both United States and Soviet spooks studied paranormal powers in certain individuals in order to obtain a Cold War advantage. One of the United States government organizations working on these types of special projects throughout this critical time was the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Even back in the day, DARPA was well known for pushing the boundaries of science and technology in search of ways to give Uncle Sam a decided military edge over the Soviet Bear. DARPA technicians were constantly coming up with new devices that could be deployed in the service of Cold War spies and warriors: robotic pack animals, self-navigating vehicles, plant-based jet fuel, etc. But a lesser known Cold War-era project in DARPA’s “bag of magic tricks” was its investigation into how paranormal phenomena like extrasensory perception (ESP) might be used by the United States to secure an advantage over the former Soviet Union on numerous fronts. And of equal importance, United States intelligence operatives from the highest echelons needed to find out what the Soviets were accomplishing along avenues of similar investigation to employ against us and other nations in the so-called “free world.” It has now become clear that DARPA was working closely in its psychic investigations with the Washington, D.C., think tank, the Research and Development Corporation (RAND). DARPA and RAND investigators determined that paranormal research by the Soviets was primarily focused on physical science, engineering and quantifiable results. On the other hand, in the United States, counterpart investigators tended to be psychologists endeavouring to explore the human mind. The bottom line of all of this, as reported in the 1973 DARPAcommissioned study entitled Paranormal Phenomena, was that “the U.S. has failed to significantly advance our understanding of paranormal phenomena.” The astute authors of this joint report were concerned, however, that the Soviets might win the race to harness the forces of the supernatural to their own advantage much as they had threatened to win the space race decades earlier when they launched the Sputnik satellite. “If paranormal phenomena exist,” concluded RAND analysts P. T. Van Dyke and Mario L. Juncosa, “the thrust of Soviet research appears more likely to lead to explanation, control and application than [does] U.S. research.” The intelligence analysts cited above both acknowledge that the joint study was limited, largely because it was based on a small sampling of works available at the time. But among this sampling could be found a decade of abstracts from the parapsychology section of Psychological Abstracts, a print version of the PsycINFO abstract database of psychological literature. What these “somewhat impressionistic” abstracts revealed about Soviet efforts, they admitted, could not always be considered with any high degree of reliability insofar as they were mostly centered on “frequently imprecise reports of Western visitors to the Soviet Union.” Just what J. Edgar Hoover knew about the true extent of Soviet parapsychological research in the mid-1950s, at the height of the Cold War, is not known. But insofar as Hoover’s concern about Soviet spy activities in the United States, it only seems logical that he would keep himself informed by his agents in the field of any new techniques the Soviets might be employing to penetrate our extant national security measures. At least so far as telepathy is concerned, Soviet research dates from the early 1920s when a program was established at the Institute for Brain Research at Leningrad State University. The Soviets were fascinated with telepathy, which their investigators referred to as a type of

Raymond Andrew Keller II “biological communication.” Military strategists in the Soviet Union also saw some possibilities in using telepathy as a “ship-to-shore way of communicating with submarines without using electronic equipment.” Additionally, they considered training their cosmonauts to develop and use precognitive abilities to “foresee and to avoid accidents in space.”

For Soviet military planners, telepathy could be utilized as a type of biological communication to avoid intercept of their radio transmissions. See https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/news-blog/us-and-soviet-spooksstudied-parano-2008-10-29/.

It seems that the Soviets were also interested in exploring the possibilities of utilizing psychokinesis in furthering their espionage activities. Intelligence strategists pondered the use of mental imagery to move objects as a way of literally “disrupting the electrical systems associated with an ICBM’s (intercontinental ballistic missile) guidance program.” The Soviets appeared to be more inclined than American scientists in seriously considering that paranormal phenomena might be some sort of end product of the “bioenergetics,” or the energy given off by the metabolic processes of living things. According to this theory, all people exude “bioplasma,” a theoretical energy field that, under certain conditions, emits charged coherent radiation beyond the body surface in the form of electrons and possibly protons. And although the Soviets did not reach a consensus on the existence of bioplasma, RAND investigators concluded that, “The very pursuit of this theory indicates that Soviet parapsychologists were attempting to explain alleged paranormal phenomena with a greater degree of specificity than their Western counterparts.” That extraterrestrials may have developed these extrasensory, bioenergetic powers to a higher degree than could be found among the peoples of Earth was a foregone conclusion. Insofar as the contactees like George Adamski, Howard Menger, Ted Owens and others were concerned, if it was true that they communicated 71

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus in some fashion with an extraterrestrial or ultradimensional intelligence, the monitoring of their activities would definitely fall under the prevue of sundry intelligence agencies. In returning to the 30 November 1954 memorandum, however, it is extremely important because it deals with the investigation of possible espionage activities. At the behest of the FBI Director, the members of the Detroit club were under intense surveillance because of the claims of some that they were in actual contact with extraterrestrials from a “utopian”read that communist- civilization on nearby Venus. The FBI needed to make some rapid determinations. First, were there really extraterrestrials living and working among us in the greater Detroit area? Second, were these extraterrestrials in touch with American citizens? Third, if this was the case, what were the intentions of these extraterrestrials? And fourth and lastly, were the humans in any way being empowered and manipulated by the extraterrestrials for the accomplishment of nefarious goals? The 30 November 1954 memorandum concludes: “In his September 17, 1954 letter, LAUGHEAD states an important date is December 21, 1954, with the center of activity being the Midwest. There will be an earthquake, buildings will fall, Lake Michigan will rise in a wave extending to Lake Erie, and here and elsewhere, he describes how the entire world will change geologically.” Reading this, the FBI needed to immediately ascertain if the earthquake and other disasters were natural or artificially constructed. The memorandum continues to its conclusion: “On November 23, 1954 (DELETED). He inquired whether the FBI was investigating the club, and was advised we could make no statement one way or another regarding the organization. It is not known the date his story will appear. “The Detroit Office has conducted no investigation of the DFSC, and has received its information from those indicated above, who are voluntarily furnishing it. No investigation of the club is contemplated at this time. “Detroit has no identifiable subversive information on the officers of the club or of LAUGHEAD or BEIGLOW (also BIGELOW).” Summary of Adamski Correspondence 26 June 1956, (DELETED) of Seattle, Washington, to FBI Director Hoover: The concerned citizen quotes a paragraph from Waveney Girvan’s Flying Saucers and Common Sense,51 with regard to a radio interview given by Adamski in which he described some of the FBI’s actions to silence him and threats to arrest him if he failed to comply. Jones writes that, “This story sounds unbelievable,” and adds that, “I am usually suspicious of anything that appears in a flying saucer book; nevertheless, I want the facts.” The Seattle letter writer particularly wants to know about an alleged visit by three FBI agents who warned Adamski to be quiet about the FBI and the government, and threatened him if he did not; if a warrant for Adamski’s arrest had been made and would be served the next time he spoke of such matters on the radio; and lastly, if the story in Girven’s book was false, what did the FBI plan to do about it? 10 July 1956, Office Memorandum, Mr. Nichols to A. Jones, Subject: G. Adamski: For a future response to letter from Seattle resident, visits to Adamski by FBI agents are revisited, along with information in the Bureau files with respect to Adamski and his wife, to include warnings from the Bureau about making uncleared public statements concerning it. Adamski’s 51

Waveney Girvan, Flying Saucers and Common Sense (New York, New York: Citadel Press, 1956), 120-121.

Raymond Andrew Keller II difficulties with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) of Los Angeles, California, were also reviewed, including the FBI’s letter to the directors of the business organization pointing out several instances where Adamski was visited by special agents for the purpose of pointing out to him “on no uncertain terms the falsity of his representations.” It was indicated that the Air Force was also planning to write a letter to the BBB in Los Angeles to “label Adamski and his works for the fraud they are known to be.” It was the recommendation that inquiries concerning George Adamski be forwarded to the BBB Los Angeles chapter. 13 July 1956, Helen W. Gandy, Secretary for Director Hoover, to (DELETED) of Seattle, Washington, with regard to George Adamski, suggests that the concerned citizen communicate with the BBB at 1010 Lincoln Bldg., 742 S. Hill St. in Los Angeles, California. On the FBI’s copy of this letter are two attached comments from RGE. The first is to the San Diego office referencing their file 100-8382 regarding contacts with Adamski by representatives of their office and OSI and requesting copy of the same. The second is to Mr. Belmont, noting that, “There is no record in Bufiles (Bureau’s files) indentifiable with correspondent. See Jones to Nichols Memo dated July 10, captioned “George A. Adamski, Palomar Gardens, Valley Center, California.” RGE:jfm. The second comment reveals more about the undemocratic methodology employed by the FBI than anything else. Those citizens who inquire of them are just as scrutinized as suspected criminals. One might suppose that Mr. Hoover and his agents never heard about the Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution that provides for “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated….” Did this happen to other citizens making inquiries about flying saucers? Was this standard operating procedure or just a special case because it involved questions about George Adamski? 2 August 1956, Letter from (DELETED) of Seattle, Washington, to Director, FBI: In the second letter, the correspondent reports in detail on the BBB of Los Angeles’ reply to his letter, which he wrote as Mr. Hoover’s secretary, Helen W. Grady, suggested. Essentially, the BBB declared to have no information on Adamski, what he said on radio programs and when or anything else about his books or the claims made in them, and that if the correspondent needed to know more about the activities of FBI agents, he should address his inquiries to the FBI. The correspondent insists that he has not come down in favor of or against the interplanetary hypothesis for flying saucers, but is keeping an open mind. He still desires to write an article for a national magazine soon about George Adamski. 14 August 1956, Office Memorandum to Mr. Nichols from M. A. Jones, Subject: George A. Adamski, Palomar Gardens, Valley Center, California: Jones informs Nichols that the FBI has once again received a letter from the Seattle correspondent in which reference is made a “previous letter he wrote to the Bureau on 6-26-56” asking questions concerning Mr. Adamski’s book on flying saucers. He states that the FBI sent the correspondent a letter referring him to the Los Angeles BBB. However, in the second letter, the correspondent is still bothered by “Adamski’s claim that he was visited by three FBI Agents and warned to desist in making statements relative to flying saucers or face arrest.” Jones comments that the Bureau file 100-395273 does reflect that agents contacted Adamski on two occasions and informed him that he “must desist from inferring that he has any type of approval from the FBI relative to his flying saucer statements.” But in the new letter, says Jones, the correspondent “wants to publish an impartial report on flying saucers but states that it is imperative that the FBI answer the question about Adamski being threatened by FBI Agents. The tone of (DELETED)’s letter 73

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus is argumentative, and he warns that he will quote in his report any information given to him by the FBI.” To this, Jones adds that since the correspondent appeared to be “rather persistent about this matter,” that agents should be dispatched to his address to explain that although Adamski was contacted by the FBI, it was only to “suggest he desist in inferring that the FBI cleared his material on space travel.” Therefore, the memorandum’s recommendation was that the correspondent’s letter not be acknowledged, but that agents from the Seattle office be instructed to personally make contact with him. At attached comment from CSM declares that both the FBI and OSI have supplied the BBB denying any sponsorship of Adamski and denouncing his claims as false. 15 August 1956, letter from Director, FBI, to SAC, Seattle, Subject: George A. Adamski: Attached were the two letters from the Seattle correspondent. Letter goes on to state that, “With respect to his inquiries, you are instructed to have two experienced, mature Agents contact (DELETED) and tactfully inform him that although the FBI did contact Adamski, it was merely to suggest he desist in inferring that the FBI cleared his material on space travel. Inform (DELETED) that the Bureau has no authority to clear any organization, publication or individual and that we certainly have no authority to comment on space travel. He should be informed this was the sole reason for our contact of Adamski….” The Director concluded by expressing his desire that this matter be handled immediately, and that the results of the investigation be transmitted via Air-tel immediately. Airtel Message dated 24 August 1956 from SAC, Seattle (94-267) to Director, FBI, Subject: George A. Adamski, Palomar Gardens, Valley Center, California, Research (Crime Records): Seattle FBI Office makes reference to “Rebulet, 8/15/56,” followed by the deletion of an extensive paragraph. The remainder of Airtel states that on 23 August 1956, special agents did contact the correspondent in the presence of his parents and followed through with the recommendations previously made by M. A. Jones. While the correspondent was disappointed that he was unable to get the answer to his questions in writing, he at least said that he understood the Bureau’s position on the matter. The correspondent’s parents also indicated considerable concern over the son’s involvement in this matter, but admitted that he was “very self-willed and determined to pursue his research on flying saucers,” in spite of their disapproval. 27 November 1959, (DELETED) of Seattle, Washington, to Director, FBI: In the correspondent’s third letter he announces a continuance of plans to publish a book about Adamski soon, to be titled Air Force Evidence Confirms Adamski Story.52 Despite the bureaucratic road blocks that the author, whom we now may presume to have been the young man Richard Ogden, encountered from the FBI and other agencies of the federal government, it is apparent that he was still struggling to remain as objective as possible. Ogden wrote, “In this book, Air Force Evidence Confirms Adamski Story, it is my intention to present the views of all sides of this controversy. For instance, I have attacked the exposés of Adamski by James W. Moseley, editor of Saucer News, and Mr. Lonzo Dove. However, it is not my policy to 52

September-October 1958 Flying Saucer Review, Rickmansworth, United Kingdom, notes that Richard Ogden of Seattle, Washington, was scheduled to self-publish his book in late 1958. The book was never published, however; although another title, Second Coming of Christ and Flying Saucers, was self-published by Ogden in 1963 under the banner of Ufology Publications, which Ogden incorporated in Seattle, Washington. The second book of Ogden sounds a note of alarm regarding the coming Armageddon, warning readers that they should prepare as soon as possible for survival in the last days. Apparently, Ogden’s opinions about flying saucers evolved to the point of integrating them into a global Christian perspective. According to the author, the flying saucer occupants need not be physical entities from another planet. They could be the product of supernatural powers, and hence supernatural beings. See Saliba, John A., in James R. Lewis, ed., Gods Have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), 25.

Raymond Andrew Keller II attack others without allowing them space to reply. Only when the public is allowed to read both sides is it possible to find the truth. I feel that neither side will tell the whole truth but between the conflicting viewpoints lies the truth. This is why I present both sides and leave it up to the reader to separate fiction from fact.” In late 1959, pressure on Adamski was mounting. He was fortunate that a few began to challenge the assertions being made against him in the highest echelons of the federal government; and that among these asking the right questions was Richard Ogden, speaking truth to power. In the letter, the young man enclosed a list of allegations made against the FBI and offered Hoover an opportunity to reply. There were just three allegations that Ogden requested explanations for the purpose of clearing them up and setting the record straight: 1. That in answer to my letter to you of June 26, 1956 your secretary, Helen W. Gandy, game me false and misleading information and tried to dodge my inquiry. 2. That in answer to my letter of August 2, 1956 to you that you sent two agents to my home to lie about Adamski and falsely discredit an innocent man by claiming that he made dstatements that he never made as proven by a transcription of the tape recording of the radio interview in question, and that he was falsely accused of a crime by your agents who are guilty of hoaxing me. 3. That the FBI took part in a conspiracy to intimidate and silence George Adamski on December 17, 1955. Ogden points out that Adamski on many occasions actually praised the FBI and the great work it was doing in protecting America’s citizens from the many threats facing them from abroad and at home. So it surprised him that the FBI would take such an extraordinary interest in muffling Adamski’s efforts to tell Americans what he knows about the flying saucers, perhaps providing some clues to solving the mystery of their appearance in our skies. Apparently, Ogden made inquiries about Adamski and UFOs of Allen Dulles, then director of the CIA, and received a more cordial and open response. It is unfortunate that no one has been successful in locating a copy of Dulles’ reply to Ogden, insofar as his book was never published, at least to my knowledge and that of other ufologists. Ogden would have surely included any response from Dulles in the pages of his first book. 22 May 1961, letter from (DELETED) in Carmel, California, to J. Edgar Hoover The author of this letter has read an article by J. Edgar Hoover concerning the connection to con games involving spiritualists and alleged communications with beings from other planets.53 The correspondent inquires about connections between George Adamski and George Hunt Williamson. The correspondent also desires to know if Adamski and Williamson’s writings have anything to do with séances and spiritualism. The author of the letter declares that he/she has a friend who informed him/her that they have seen movies of Adamski addressing crowded auditoriums in Great Britain and Holland where some of the crowned heads of Europe were in attendance, paying close attention to every word the contactee uttered. The author also wanted to know if rocket scientist, Dr. Wernher von Braun, was indeed a “constant consultant” of Adamski. The letter writer was concerned about the extent that spiritualism influenced the development of America’s space program, in addition to the type of relationship shared by Adamski and von Braun. He/she was also concerned about Williamson’s alleged claims to be 53

J. Edgar Hoover, “From the Files of the FBI…. The Strange Case of the Swindler from Outer Space,” 21 May 1961, Chronicle, San Francisco, California.

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus a European prince from a principality known as Sumadija and asks Director Hoover, “What is this phony business all about, and how dangerous is it to our United States?” 2 June 1961, Director J. Edgar Hoover to (DELETED) in Carmel, California The Director acknowledges receipt of the letter and expresses appreciation for the interest which prompted the writing of it. Additionally, Hoover explains that, “Although I would like to be of service, the FBI is strictly an investigative agency of the Federal Government and neither makes evaluations nor draws conclusions as to the character or integrity of any organization, publication or individual.” He goes on to explain that he regrets not being able to help the letter writer whose opinion was so favorable to the Director’s newspaper article, and states that he hopes that the letter writer would “not infer in this connection either that we do or do not have data in our files relating to the matter about which you asked.” Interestingly enough, Hoover encloses a recent statement that he made concerning both Adamski and Williamson that he felt might be helpful to the writer: Enclosure 4-17-61 Statement re Internal Security NOTE: Bufiles contain nothing of a derogatory nature concerning (DELETED) with whom there has been one previous contact on 4-12-49 at which time she was given a no-jurisdictiontype reply. Bufiles indicate that George Hunt Williamson and George Adamski have come to the Bureau’s attention in the past in connection with allegations that flying disks exist. In 1954, Williamson was connected with a program to be presented in Cincinnati which was entitled “The Real Flying Saucer Story.” Adamski is the author of a book entitled “Flying Saucers Have Landed” which was published by Werner-Lowery Company in England in 1953. HHA:pia(3) Analysis: It is clear that Director Hoover is concerned about the existence of flying saucers insofar as these objects may pose a threat to national security. He is also wary of any connections with that the contactees may have with spiritualist scheming, which up to that time largely fell under the prevue of bunko squad investigators in local police departments. While Jack Parsons, one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was steeped in occult and spiritualistic practices, it should be noted that he passed away on 17 June 1952, as the result of a mysterious explosion while working on some pyrotechnics for a Hollywood movie. Nevertheless, the extent that occult organizations influenced our rocket scientists and space pioneers in 1961 would have been a matter of deep interest for the Director and the FBI, insofar as these were the professionals on the cutting edge of advanced technological developments and then working on the preparation of the first space probe to another planet, the Mariner which was scheduled for a fly-by of Venus. We were in a race with the Soviets to be the first to send a spacecraft to another world. That the communists could use occultism as a sedgeway to get into the minds of our space scientists, Director Hoover would not put it past them. Debunking Adamski in the Emerging UFO Community The second prong of attack, initiated by Tolson at the behest of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, was to obtain the assistance of select and highly respected members of the emerging UFO research community in debunking the contactee George Adamski and his work. Tolson correctly surmised that those who favored the more conservative approach taken by the retired 76

Raymond Andrew Keller II Marine Corps aviator Major Donald E. Keyhoe and his National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) could best be exploited toward this end. Tolson believed that degrading Adamski’s credibility would divert the flow of public interest away from the more colorful contactees and their flying saucer movement, generally, and more toward the boring but more acceptable and emerging “scientific ufology” community. One of the prime figures in the Adamski-debunking group was none other than the early advocate for ancient astronauts, the late Buffalo, New York, rabbi Yonah Noel ibn Aharon. The rabbi held Doctor of Divinity and Doctor of Ecclesiastical History degrees from the Central Conference of Sephardi Seminaries of Salonika and Marrakesh. He was also the author of numerous and specialized works in Semitic philology and Rabbinical studies, besides being a frequent contributor to various UFO publications. In 1956, ufologist Gray Barker was impressed with the rabbi’s UFO investigations and follow-up reports to such a high degree that he appointed the Jewish cleric to be a senior executive editor of Saucer News, the flagship publication at Saucerian Press. Barker noted that, “Y. N. ibn Aharon’s identification with ufology goes back to the early days of our field, and in his published works on the subject, he anticipated many subsequent ‘discoveries’ by noted scientific authorities.” While Barker was sometimes noted for his exaggerations, his introduction of the rabbi was certainly not one of these. Even in the Soviet Union, the prominent astronomer I. S. Shklovskii, who would later work extensively with Dr. Carl Sagan in his initial Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) research,54 was expressing an interest in various facets of the rabbi’s work. Also, the Soviet mathematician Mikhail Agrest largely depended on material by ibn Aharon first published in the pages of Saucer News, dealing with his controversial thesis that space beings played an important role in Earth’s early civilization, but not necessarily our contemporary societal constructs.55 It seems that ibn Aharon started attending a local flying saucer club in the Niagara Frontier region of Buffalo back in late 1954. One of those in attendance at that group, Benjamin D. Benincasa, wrote a book review of Adamski’s Flying Saucers Have Landed in the Buffalo Evening News and also planned on coming out with a his own UFO book sometime soon. The To keep abreast of Adamski and the other rabbi was so impressed with the article that he wanted contactees, Rabbi Y. N. ibn Aharon became to meet the author of the piece in addition to some of a senior executive editor at Saucer News. the other members of this group who shared his ardent Photo is courtesy of the Gray Barker Collection, Clarksburg, West Virginia. interest in the UFO phenomenon. As it turned out, 54

Carl Sagan and Iosif Samuilovich Shklovskii, Intelligent Life in the Universe (New York, New York: Dell, 1966). Shklovskii’s work is comprehensive and compelling. Essentially, Sagan began to build up his reputation in the astronomy community by writing extensive footnotes to Shklovskii’s definitive exploration of the scientific and mathematical evidence for his conclusions that first, there almost certainly are other intelligent life forms in the universe; and second, we will most likely never encounter them in our lifetime due to the vast distances involved, or unless the more advanced of these extraterrestrials want us to “discover” them. However, the probability of detecting an intelligent radio signal from deep space seems to be much higher. 55 Gray Barker, biosheet for Yonah Noel ibn Aharon, undated, Saucerian Press, Clarksburg, West Virginia.

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus however, Benincasa was in telephonic communication (not telepathic!) with Adamski each Friday night for the past year; and he sprung a big surprise on the rabbi and other members of the group by announcing that the “great man himself (Adamski) would be passing through Buffalo on his way to England during the following April (1955), and that he would be available for a talk on the afternoon of the 23rd; and if, furthermore, somebody wanted to invite him for dinner after the talk, why, he just might be available….”56 As it turned out, Adamski did show up in Buffalo on 23 April 1955. Of the contactee’s historic visit, ibn Aharon wrote confidentially in that above-cited letter to Gray Barker: “Well, George Adamski gave his talk, and quite a talk it was. All spaceships, he informed us, were operated by Venusians, who occupied the other planets as well. This race was identical in every way with the races which held suzerainty over all the galaxy, and into which company we, the unworthy of Earth, might soon be admitted.” Of course, we now understand from the European and Japanese space probes sent to Venus, that the planet existed in paradisiacal conditions for at least two billion years, so the emergence of an advanced civilization on the second planet is certainly within the realm of possibility. But to ibn Aharon, in 1955, this seemed an unlikely prospect. Of the rest of the evening with the contactee, the rabbi further wrote that, “Afterwards, we went to the home of one of my closest friends, where we were invited for supper, Schultz57 in our company. Now if Mr. Adamski could have been called garrulous during his public speech, he could have been designated veritably fluid during the six hours for which he held forth in private. After informing me that I was an ignoramus in the fields of Semitics and Egyptology, Mr. Adamski launched off on an indiscriminate attack against all occultists, emphasizing his hatred of Theosophists; both Schultz and I are members of the Theosophical Society.” So it clear that Adamski rubbed the rabbi the wrong way; but it seems doubtful that the usually cordial and gentle flying saucer lecturer would suddenly turn on anyone in the hosting group, going so far as to refer to the rabbi as an “ignoramus.” This is inconsistent with Adamski’s conduct in every other occasion of meeting with a group of flying saucer enthusiasts. For the most part, if there was an overall skeptic in the house or someone who even disagreed with him over some particular point, he would simply wish them well and hope that they at least found his story “entertaining.” And as to any inveighing against Theosophists, this seems to also be out of line with Adamski, since he was also a member himself of the Theosophical Society and based a good deal of the formation of his own Cosmic Philosophy and Royal Order of Tibet on the works of Helena P. Blavatsky. We might keep in mind, also, that Adamski was partial to the struggle of the Egyptians in their fight against colonialism in the Arab world since his mother was Egyptian. He may have said something of his background or of a political nature with regard to the extant situation in the Middle East that displeased the sensitive ears of the rabbi ibn Aharon, who was an avowed Zionist. In the biographical sheet provided by Barker’s Saucerian Press, the rabbi is presented in a photograph where he is sitting in front of an Israeli flag holding one of the many books he has written on ancient astronauts. But that is not where Adamski left off with his alleged tirade, according to the rabbi, who continued to write that, “After he was finished with the Theosophists, he started on mediums, and concentrated his whole venomosity upon Mark Probert. Being a former colleague of Dr. 56 57

Confidential Letter from Y. N. Fortner of Buffalo, New York, to G. Barker of Clarksburg, West Virginia, dated 14 July 1956, in Gray Barker Collection, Clarksburg, West Virginia. Edward S. Schultz, a prominent member of the Borderline Sciences Research Association residing in the Buffalo area.

Raymond Andrew Keller II Layne, Adamski was in a position to know quite a bit about Schultz, and the pathological fashion in which he went about assaulting the cherished beliefs of everyone in the room foreshadowed the unadulterated iconoclasticism (sic) which was shortly to bloom in full color.” Here again the rabbi ibn Aharon presents us with another inconsistency. Adamski was frequently asked about the work of Probert and Meade Layne conducted under the auspices of the Borderline Sciences Research Association in San Diego, California. Both Probert and Layne were noted pioneer researchers of ufology and parapsychology, best known for proposing an early version of the inter-dimensional hypothesis to explain flying saucer sightings. Their initial reports of a Venusian mothership over Southern California on 8 and 9 October 1949 paralleled and served to confirm Adamski’s photographs of a similar craft taken over Palomar Gardens on several occasions between 1947-1952, as I amply described in my first Venus Rising book;58 so why would Adamski try and undercut the authority of any individuals whose testimonies bolstered the veracity of one of his own initial reports? Also, Adamski even wrote on many occasions that he did not exclude the possibility that his journeys aboard Venusian spacecraft may very well have been of an ultra-dimensional nature; but that it was difficult for him to make an exact determination of this insofar as he had no such prior experiences by which he could make comparisons. Those inquiring as to the ultra-dimensional nature of Adamski’s initial, in-person encounter with Orthon, might recall that while the contactee sensed that the Venusian and her saucer were as “solid” as anything else in this three-dimensional world, he did observe that: “Certain students of this subject have asked me if I thought saucers and their occupants might normally be ‘etheric’ in nature or texture, but be able to ‘condense’ and so take on ‘solidarity’ and ‘visibility’ in Earth’s environment. This is an involved subject. There are, of course, more things in Heaven and Earth than we have dreamed of and it never pays to be too arbitrary about those things which as yet we ‘see through a glass darkly.’”59 Therefore, it is Adamski’s prior published words that testify that he was, in fact, quite open to Probert and Layne’s theories of an ‘etheric’ realm or alternate dimension as the source for flying saucer phenomena, generally, and his own paranormal experiences, specifically. There were also present three Protestant clerics. The rabbi informs us that Adamski did not shy in letting them have a piece of his mind as well. He wrote that, “Adamski let out the most furious indictment of theistic religionism (sic) which I have ever had occasion to hear,” adding that, “An interesting sidelight to this final part of his long harangue was that he affirmed his conclusions to the effect that the ancients of this planet were nothing but a bunch of numbskulls, who possessed no traits of character, thoughts of mind, technical process, or artistic ability which was in any manner whatsoever superior to that which is commonly to be found today.” At this juncture, the rabbi Y. N. ibn Aharon could scarcely contain himself. He goes on to explain that, “When we discreetly pointed out to him that his views on the subject were somewhat divergent from those of Leslie, he put the cherry on the icing, by going into a frothing attack upon the personality and intellectual competence of Desmond Leslie. He told us further that his account was coupled with that of Leslie at the latter’s request and that he would rather have had them published separately.” The rabbi then went on to solicit Barker’s agreement on this subject, “because it’s the only topic I think of on which a sane man can lend 58 59

Keller, 67, 158-160. Adamski and Leslie, Flying Saucers Have Landed, Library of Light on-line edition without page numbers, closing paragraphs of Chapter 22, “The Memorable November 20th.”

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus his stamp of approval to George Adamski’s psychotically derived conclusions.” None of this makes any sense. Adamski was on his way to England to meet up with his co-author on a book signing tour. Why would he make any statements to cast aspersions on the credibility of Desmond Leslie or do anything that would jeopardize the success of his endeavors alongside the English aristocrat? As an overview of Lord Desmond Leslie, let us recall that he was a cousin of Sir Winston Churchill, a Spitfire pilot, proponent of extraterrestrial life, composer of revue lyrics and a collector of “electronic noise,” what is commonly referred to today as electronic voice phenomena, or EVP in ghost busting circles. Leslie was a scion of the Irish ascendancy, the son of Sir Shane Leslie, third Baronet, and lived at Castle Leslie, in Co Monaghan. His first encounter with a paranormal phenomenon occurred one November night in 1934 after “lights out,” whence he claimed his dormitory was “suddenly lit by a brilliant green glare which had his fellow schoolboys rushing to the window to see an immense green fireball move slowly across the sky and disappear behind the Sussex Downs.” Naturally, Leslie wondered, “Why should they risk a public landing? Their ship would be impounded for evasion of custom duties. Their clothes would be torn off and sold as souvenirs. They would be denounced as saboteurs, Anti-Christs, and disturbers of the peace, emissaries of Satan, and the rest.” So Leslie created television history when, during the live filming of That Was The Week That Was with Bernard Levin, who had given his wife’s Cabaret show, Savagery and Delight, a bad review, he emerged out of the audience and took a swing at the emcee. So if nothing else, Leslie was passionate about defending his wife.60 Fast forward to the present time, it could have passed as standard fare for the likes of the Jerry Springer Show. In the book, Flying Saucers Have Landed that he co-authored with Adamski, Leslie spent considerable time explaining what saucers were not. But he believed, for the sake of future generations, that he should be logging as many sightings as he could muster.And naturally, Leslie ridiculed the feeble explanations of these sightings given by the establishment. Many consider him to be an Eric von Daniken before his time, for the English author drew on levitating saints, Atlantean myths and ancient airships to evolve a specific theory of interplanetary propulsion which he sought to relate, Gaia-like, to the Earth itself. Leslie, after due consideration of the matter of interplanetary spaceships from Venus, penned that, “As I write this, I am riding on a great green luminous spaceship…. rushing through the Ocean of Space.” The book culminated in a 50-page account of Adamski’s encounter of the third kind with tall, long-haired Venusians in outfits “like ski trousers.” While Leslie was researching the Vedas (ancient Hindu texts) including around 50 episodes of the Mahabharata, the noble concluded that the ancient chariots or flying machines called vimanas were actually anti-gravitic vehicles and some of the Brahma weapons could well have been nuclear bombs or death rays. The descriptions in the Vedas of the resulting devastation were reminiscent of the accounts provided in the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Leslie’s esteemed opinion, those episodes written in the Dheiva were probably fairy tales; but those of the Menusa he considered factual. Like other occultists, the noble Leslie also believed in reincarnation, and the holistic theories of Gaia. He also joined a faith-healing sect, the White Eagle Lodge, run by noted mediums, Grace and Ivan Cooke. This is in itself quite significant, insofar as it equates the UFO phenomenon with the realm of magic and ultra60

Neil Gould, “Revisiting George Adamski’s Claims of Human Looking Extraterrestrials,” Exopolitics Journal 3:2 (July 2009), http://exopoliticsjournal.com/vol-3/vol-3-2-Gould.htm (Accessed 5 October 2016)

Raymond Andrew Keller II dimensionality. The White Eagle Lodge is first and foremost a spiritual organization. It was established in England by the aforementioned Grace and Ivan Cooke in 1936. Both of these mediums claimed to have received the teachings from a spirit in the higher realms named White Eagle. The Lodge is a mystic school that continues up to the present time that teaches their beliefs in a manner suited to the contemporary world. Primarily, the White Eagle Lodge is helping humanity develop its true spiritual nature, and uses the symbol of the six pointed Christ Star to radiate healing and peace to those all those standing in need. An emphasis is placed in the lodge on instructing the initiates in the arts of astrology, healing (both absent and contractual), meditation and yoga. In addition, the White Eagle Publishing Trust distributes the teachings of White Eagle worldwide in many languages. The Mother Lodge is located in England with two continental centers in America and Australia.61 Leslie and the other members of this lodge were steeped in the practice of white magic. In contrast to black magic, often perceived as morally evil, white magic was considered by nineteenth and twentieth century occultists to be a morally good system for use in attaining esoteric knowledge and supernatural power. Hence we note that the White Eagle Lodge was focused on developing the latent psychic powers of its membership. John Michael Greer, a 32nd degree Freemason and the Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America, declared that, “Efforts to define the boundary between the two (black and white magic) have strayed all over the philosophical map; but most descriptions of white magic focus on the relationship between the magician and the higher spiritual powers of the universe, however these are defined.” Therefore, white magic is worked with the intent of harmonizing with the purposes of higher spiritual powers, even extending beyond the Earth’s sphere of influence and into that realm of Etheria written about so eloquently by the likes of Riley Crabb, Meade Layne and Mark Probert of the Borderland Sciences Research Association. Black magic, on the other hand, is worked with selfish intents. The practitioner of this type of magic makes no pretentions about working on behalf of higher powers, just her or his own self-interest and self-aggrandizement. To be fair to the workers of white magic, like Desmond Leslie, it should be noted that they reject any form of magic that is meant in any way to be hurt or dominate any other human being. Frankly, these look poorly upon anyone employing the magic arts to conduct rituals for the attainment of selfish ends at the expense of others.62 Long after Adamski’s death, Leslie continued to pursue his near-Messianic belief in UFOs, lecturing at UFO conferences in Laughlin, Nevada, in 1998, and, as late as June 2000, at a similar conference in San Marino. Essentially, Leslie served as a legendary witness to the very birth of ufology. Adamski was quite thankful to Leslie for the extreme degrees of care that the nobleman took in working with him as an equal. Adamski exhibited a high degree of confidence in Leslie and sent him some of his better pictures of the various types of Venusian craft to do as he wished with. But Leslie did not want to spoil Adamski’s efforts in publishing a book, wanting the California contactee to get the credit that was rightly his due as the first ambassador to outer space. Leslie, therefore, kindly arranged to co-author a book with Adamski, wherein he would provide the esoteric and historical background of the flying saucer 61

Joan Cooke, Wisdom in the Stars: the story of the signs of the Zodiac and their effect on the character and destiny of man (London, United Kingdom: White Eagle Publications Trust, 1959). 62 John Michael Greer, Element Encyclopedia of Secret Societies (London, United Kingdom: Harper Element, 2013, revised edition), 532, original published 2009.

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus phenomenon while Adamski would provide the engaging narrative of his contact with Orthon out on the Mojave Desert. This is what made Flying Saucers Have Landed one of, if not the best of all UFO books ever published. Gould speculates that, “An aristocratic background carries credibility and it could well be that Leslie was chosen or influenced by higher forces in ‘getting Adamski’s word out’. Desmond Leslie refers to the work of a Meade Layne of California who was experimenting in very advanced and mysterious fields of physics and who believed that life on Venus takes place at a higher octave of matter than on Earth. Dr. Layne gives details of Venusian ships, which fit in with many observation reports.”63 The White Eagle Star Brotherhood is dedicated to establishing fraternity on Earth. Its membership, however, is not confined solely to a group of individuals on this planet.A White Eagle website proclaims: “Brotherhood is a quality first and foremost. Members of the Brotherhood have to be absolutely committed to the principle of establishing brotherhood on Earth. White Eagle is clear that brotherhood is not only not White Eagle Temple at Liss, Hampshire, the United Kingdom, was patronized gender-specific, but not species-specific either. In fact, in by Lord Desmond Leslie, co-author with it includes the whole of life, but at all levels – so it Adamski of Flying Saucers Have Landed. takes in the Etheric level, the angels, and discarnate See http://www.psychicnews.org.uk/articles/ beings, too. Moreover, and it’s a sobering thought, it is way-white-eagle-lodge. a brotherhood which bridges the whole of time – so that ancient Egyptians and Andean chiefs of old are part of it.” See http://www.psychicnews.org.uk/articles/way-white-eagle-lodge. Therefore, the seeker of truth can clearly establish the philosophical underpinnings of Leslie’s support for George Adamski and his astounding claims, as well as Adamski’s reliance on the support of Leslie and his associates in the esoteric community, generally, and the White Eagle Lodge, specifically. It wouldn’t make any sense for Adamski to undercut Leslie, as the rabbi asserts in his letter to Gray Barker. Let’s return to Y. N. ibn Aharon’s critique of George Adamski, where we will see how he ties this in to Benincasa, the chair person of the Buffalo flying saucer club. Writes the rabbi: “The reason for throwing in so detailed an account of Adamski’s visit was to enable me to point up Adamski’s erraticism (sic). It was this erraticism (sic) which enabled him to change in two years from a confirmed occultist into the grossest sort of materialist. After a close scrutiny of Adamski’s history, it would seem to me that, because he has relatives in Dunkirk, New York, and because he stays with a cousin in Lancaster, New York, during his visits, his ties to the Polish Catholic community of Western New York, in which he grew up, are still quite strong. Benincasa is not Polish, but he’s damn well Catholic, and it would have been quite easy for him to apply indirect pressure to Adamski, in order to convince the latter that he should allow his peculiar experience to serve the cause of the Mother Church; a little palm-oiling may very well have been a factor in the affair, too.” These are very harsh words, indeed, from the rabbi; but there is more. Declares ibn Aharon, “In any case, from the time of Adamski’s visit until the time Adamski refused to let Benincasa see a copy of Pioneers of Space (his original science fiction novel), which was during November 1955, Benincasa gave everyone to think that he and Adamski were pushing the same saucer 63

Gould, “Revisiting….”

Raymond Andrew Keller II pills. After that the break came thick and fast. By December, Benincasa was telling everyone who inquired that he was giving up all saucer activities on January 13, 1956, and that there was no likelihood that he would ever return.” This most decidedly comes across like sour grapes on the part of the rabbi, who, with his reference to the “palm oil,” clearly exhibits an anti-Catholic bias. But there certainly seems to be more at work here, behind the scenes. Perhaps there may be some jealousies and internal squabbles taking place in the Buffalo flying saucer club. Seriously, why would Adamski even care about something like this? He is on his way to the United Kingdom and a European tour and he is going to let himself be pressured to alter his message just for Benincasa (a gentleman he apparently knows only through some Friday night telephone calls), the Buffalo club or even the Holy Roman Catholic Church? This really seems unlikely. On the very subject of God, religion and truth, Adamski proclaimed his objectivity and wrote that, “There are many phases of truth and there are many phases of God. It all depends on who is promoting what. Even a lie sometimes becomes a truth. What is true to one can be a lie to another. Because of these great differences it can now be said that truth does not prevail in this world anymore. Since it is not the truth upon which humanity is founded, suspicion and mistrust are the result. This is the reason why the world is in the state in which we find it today, governments as well as individuals mistrust each other.”64 As the author of esoteric literature and books dealing with extraterrestrial and ultradimensional contacts, I can appreciate Adamski’s objectivity. Yes, there are many “phases of truth” and “phases of God,” as the contactee writes in the above paragraph. It’s much like a group of blindfolded persons walking up to an elephant. Some get hold of its truck, others one of its ears, while yet others may be touching its feet. They all know that they are touching a living entity, just not being sure of what its true nature is until they can remove the blinds from their eyes. Additionally, why would I, Adamski or any other writer of UFO and paranormal phenomena risk alienating their potential readership by favoring one religion over another? In the same article, Adamski further wrote about the sorry conditions extant on the Earth: “I can say at this time that the picture for the world is not a pleasant one. This does not mean that humanity could not change. The masses have gone to an extreme in greed and self-exaltation. We have gone beyond the ancient civilizations in some fields of scientific development, but not so in self-understanding or of our cosmic nature in relation to all. As I stated before, we have created for ourselves many gods to suit our purpose and personal egos. These gods are just as weak as ourselves. When a god needs defense of a man he is no different than a man who needs defense of another.” Here Adamski emphasizes that the scientists of Earth have developed certain technologies to a much higher level than some of their counterparts in more ancient civilizations were able to achieve. By this I believe that the contactee was referring to nuclear technology and its application to weapons and advanced delivery systems. The threat of nuclear annihilation is a frequently mentioned area of concern for Adamski when writing editorials in the pages of the Cosmic Science Newsletter. In this “Real Truth” article, Adamski concludes with, “As the Great Book says, have no false gods before me. Since we do have false gods we are as false as the gods we created. That which is false will destroy itself. The true God the Great Book speaks of is not a respecter of persons. Jesus called this true God the Father. The space people call this true God the Supreme Intelligence. Unless we return to the original household, as did the Prodigal Son, we, as personalities, will destroy ourselves as others have done.” This is why it is imperative that we 64

George Adamski, “Real Truth and Superficial Truth,” Cosmic Science Newsletter, Volume 1, Number 5, May 1962, Anaheim, California, C. A. Honey, editor.

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus develop our spiritual capacities and understanding at least to the same degree that we advance in our knowledge of science. How we apply this newly acquired technology will depend to a large extent upon our acquisition of accurate spiritual knowledge, or enlightenment. In the May 1962 issue of the Cosmic Science Newsletter, its editor Carol A. Honey answers the following question from the perspective of George Adamski’s cosmic philosophy, “Was Jesus Christ God in human form? Or was he just an inspired teacher? What do the space people say about this?” -K. N., Valencia, Pennsylvania. Here is Honey’s answer: “Many teachings and many different beliefs exist in the world, all of them of a more or less dogmatic nature. Your question can be answered, however, in line with Cosmic Principle and this can be verified if our views are broad enough. When we observe nature, including Earth and all other planets and stars, we must admit that some Supreme Intelligence (First Cause) created it. This Creator respects all creation equally alike, including man. All of us in this respect, including Jesus, are therefore ‘Sons of God’ and represent the Creator reflecting his ideas. The difference between Jesus the Christ and present-day man is that Jesus knew this and lived it while present-day man does not. Remember Jesus said that he and the Father were one and that without the Father he could do nothing. He also said that we could be like him and do even greater things.” In many ways, this expressed philosophy parallels ancient Gnosticism as well as contemporary Theosophy. Rather than being the “Only begotten son of the Father,” as in a traditional Christian sense, the Cosmic Philosophy of George Adamski places Jesus clearly in the Gnostic tradition as being just one of the many “Sons of God,” but an inspired avatar. “In this way we call him God’s inspired teacher,” writes Honey, but taking note that, “The Creator manifests through his creation and actually is reproducing and expressing himself through it. Jesus taught that we are all temples of God, but only in kindergarten in our learning. He said he was feeding us with milk (light teachings) instead of meat (deep teachings) because we were babes in Christ.” Here the allusions are also Gnostic, implying the existence of hidden or occult knowledge, but available only through Jesus as the ascended Christ. These comments by Honey about Jesus Christ and religion are very important, for he served at the pleasure of George Adamski in editing his official newsletter. Besides writing a monthly column in the newsletter, Adamski would fact check the contents of each issue, especially the “Questions and Answers” page(s) to make sure that his opinions on timely topics were not being misrepresented or misconstrued in any way. So whatever Honey, as editor, would write about or the information he would include in each issue of the Cosmic Science Newsletter, had to have the imprimatur of the legendary Adamski himself. In any event, Honey went on to explain that, “All things created by God are as holy as they can ever be. Man cannot improve upon although a lot of men think they can. All nature is holy in this respect and all humanity are ‘Sons of God.’ All humanity, including Jesus, are part of God, some just babes in knowledge and others teachers as Jesus was. Those who have read Mr. Adamski’s books will remember his statements as to the origin of Jesus. He was an advanced teacher who chose to be born here to help us in our climb up the ladder of knowledge. He taught brotherhood and Universal Law and never wanted or intended that men would twist his teachings or start churches in his name.” In this statement we come to understand that Adamski’s views did not parallel those of the Roman Catholic Church with respect to the identity, mission and soteriology of Jesus Christ; and neither did Adamski represent the interests of the Roman Catholic Church or any other denomination. 84

Raymond Andrew Keller II While Adamski was alive he also desired that his followers would not organize cults around the presence of the space people here on this world. In that same “Question and Answer” column, Honey wrote, “Today the people or Earth are again trying to make a new religion out of the coming of the visitors. Many people literally worship them. The space travelers deplore this situation and this is another reason they cannot do all they might like to do. One of the main purposes is to show people that an ethical code can be developed independent of the confusion in the world today, and following the same code that worked so well on the other planets in our system.” Therefore, ibn Aharon was wrong about the alleged ties of Adamski and Catholicism, deliberately misrepresenting the contactee’s nonsectarian and ethical approach to the extraterrestrial presence. The California contactee never claimed to represent any religious movement and clearly defined the peaceful mission of the space brothers and sisters in largely secular terms. Insofar as some readers of this Venus Rising series have occasionally expressed an interest in organizing a religious movement around it, I would reiterate Adamski’s concerns as divulged through C. A. Honey. If anything, the reader should know that this book and the previous Venus Rising were written from a mostly Theosophist and Christian-tempered perspective. And while I am a baptized member of the Community of Christ and a seminary student at Graceland University of Lamoni, Iowa, my writings in no way should be construed as reflective of that church’s or its academic institution’s doctrines or teachings. They are purely my own. It also seems right that the individual reader should follow the dictates of their own conscience as far as pursuing any religion or ethical philosophy is concerned; so I am making it clear that I do not advocate for any organized religion or attendant set of dogmas, nor for the establishment of any new ones. This is consistent with the Objects of the Theosophical Society, the likes of which Adamski also subscribed to. In the continuation of his letter to Barker, ibn Aharon goes on to write that, “As I told you in my last letter (the one you acknowledged on the ninth), I was shocked to see Bennie back in business; he’d been oh so secretive about the reasons of his close-down that one could get a thing out of him. I thought that it might have been that the break with Adamski was too much for him, and that Adamski’s noncooperation threatened to ruin the entire case which he had taken the better part of two years to build up. I would have gone on thinking this to be the only factor, had he not told me during February that there were ‘other reasons.’ He implied that these reasons had to do with the security of his job at Norwich Pharmaceutical Company, for whom he is sales director, and of his home, which is occupied by his wife and three children. After having received your letter of the ninth, I made a call to his home; after three or four tries, I got him. Lethargically, and with some reluctance, he told me that the reason why his book hadn’t come out in September was because the publisher wanted to couple with a rebuttal of the Catholic view, that he hadn’t been visited by a government agent, that his company had given him no official rebuttal, and that you had asked him to write the review for Moseley’s slop-sheet (italics mine – ynf). I encouraged him to publish the work, albeit privately: it seems to me that the sooner such foolishness comes to light, the sooner it can be disposed of. The thesis of the book is that since all saucer men are human beings (this is evidently where his dependence on the Adamski tale comes in), they are all descended from progenitors who had committed original sin (the very fact that they’re not lolling around in Paradise is enough o substantiate this conclusion for Benincasa); all who are born with the taint of an original sin on their souls must atone for this sin. Since the only way in which to affect this atonement is through the worship of Jesus of Nazareth, and since the only proper way in which to worship 85

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Jesus is through the sanctities of the Roman Church, it makes sense that all good saucermen are hurrying to Earth for none but the express purpose of joining the Catholic Church!!!!! This information came directly from Benjamin Benincasa himself; at the end of the conversation, he promised me his files upon publication of the book. I then sent him a letter urging him to oblige the saucer public by making the book quickly available; my motives in doing so are unashamedly base.” From all of this, it appears as though the rabbi was taking Benincasa as the weakest link in Adamski’s chain of followers, looking for some points of doctrine brought up by the Buffalo ufologist that he could wrongfully attach to the visiting California contactee and easily challenge, thus weakening the credibility of George Adamski overall in the estimation of not only New York flying saucer enthusiasts, but also among the growing number of subscribers to Barker’s Saucer News and other paranormal/UFO publications. This leads me to believe that Benincasa, to Adamski at least, was nothing more than an occasional blip on the fringe of his personal radar screen. Sure, Adamski talked with him a few times over the telephone and was willing to stop in Buffalo on his way to Europe to sell some of his books at a meeting of the local flying saucer club. But that ibn Aharon felt so threatened by Benincasa and his quasiCatholic religious view of ufology makes me want to question the rabbi’s motivations for vehemently going after this regional and part-time investigator of flying saucer reports. That the busy rabbi would divert his attention to going after Benincasa doesn’t really make much sense, unless one considers the possibility that Y. N. ibn Aharon might have been on the payroll of the FBI or some other governmental organization whose particular mission it was to track the activities of George Adamski and his followers and to debunk them at every turn. It would be the federal government’s prerogative, and not Adamski’s, to disclose that information about our nearest planetary neighbor, Venus, that would so shape the course of future political and scientific developments here on Earth. FBI’s Continued UFO Involvement For many years following the death of Adamski, the documents presented herein not only remain classified, but were checked out, initialed and stamped dozens of times. In the interests of national security, there are probably many more FBI documents pertinent to George Adamski and his experiences in addition to other contactees and their encounters with an extraterrestrial or ultradimensional intelligence, the true X-files. In 1975, just three years after J. Edgar Hoover passed away and ten years after Adamski’s death, it was revealed that the FBI was intently involved with the investigation of UFO phenomena all along and at every level. John M. Webb, a reporter for the National Enquirer, declared in the 1 July 1975 edition of that newspaper that, “In the staid FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin- which goes to 80,000 agents and police officialsan article instructed police to relay citizen reports of UFO sightings over a secret toll free number to the privately operated Center for UFO Studies in Northridge, Illinois.” When an FBI spokesperson, Ed Gooderham, was asked why they ran that UFO article in the bulletin, noted that it was crucial to do this because most people turn to the local police when they see something out of the ordinary. “We recognize it’s a police responsibility to look into UFO reports,” he asserted. The spokesperson also justified the article on the grounds that the FBI was trying to help scientists find out the answer to the UFO phenomenon. Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the author of the article, as well as an astronomer from Northwestern University in Illinois and former consultant to the United States Air Force Project Bluebook, 86

Raymond Andrew Keller II was then serving as the Director of the Center for UFO Studies. “I have no doubt,” said the esteemed scientist, “that this further cooperation from law-enforcement agencies could bring us closer to a solution of the great UFO mystery.” His article provided detailed instructions as to how the police should utilize the 24-hour UFO hotline to call in accurate descriptions of UFOs and any possible physical effects the objects may exert on people, plants, animals, cars and communications. The astronomer noted that when a determination was made at the center that a particular UFO sighting or encounter was important enough, eyewitnesses would be interviewed as quickly as possible by trained UFO investigators; and that these would also conduct an extensive survey and examination of the area where the UFO was sighted or encountered. Hynek’s detailed guidelines also appeared in the American Federation of Police publications, Police Times and the Police and Fire Journal. These are read by over 23,000 fire chiefs, 17,000 police chiefs and3,000 sheriffs. Hynek commented that, “Of the calls we’ve received over the hot line from police, 25 percent involve UFO sightings made by the police themselves. Five years ago very few officers would have reported seeing a UFO because they would have been laughed at. Now, no matter how bizarre a person’s story, the police tend to check it out- and often see for themselves.” Hynek concluded, “With police participation, we’re getting better data because officers are trained observers.” Gerald Arenberg, the executive director of the American Federation of Police, announced that, “The fact that the FBI took the opportunity to endorse the project proves there is credibility in UFO investigation. It’s natural for people to turn to police for assistance after a UFO sighting; and law-enforcement agencies must be ready to handle reports effectively.” He also said that it was now the official policy of the Federation of Police for members to provide information on UFOs The 24 April 1964 Socorro, New Mexico, to scientists and to use the UFO center’s hot line. So as close encounter between local police officer Lonnie Zamora and an ovular long as the FBI and local police and fire departments UFO is considered one of the most solid were content with chasing lights in the sky, they were at cases on record. See http://beforeitsnews. least serving to create the illusion that the government com/paranormal/2015/06/police-officerwas doing something about getting down to the truth lonnie-zamoras-ufo-sighting-stillunsolved-2491998.html. about flying saucers. Hynek’s deeper involvement with both the UFO phenomenon and the Venus conspiracy is explained at greater lengths in Venus Rising.65 Venus Connections to the Tunguska Event Therefore, beyond the investigation of the UFO phenomenon at a superficial level, let us return to the quest for accurate information about our sister planet Venus. In the Greater Los Angeles area throughout the 1980s, Dr. Arthur A. Jones was noted as the preeminent transformational psychologist and “go-to” person for UFO experiencers seeking a deeper understanding of the increased levels of paranormal activity in their lives. Upon a return from conducting some psychical research in the Soviet Union, Jones once told me and fellow Outer 65

Keller, Venus Rising, 175. Revelations given to Brazilian space researcher Débora Bergara in Argentina by Hynek upon his visit to Entre Rios province are detailed.

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Space International Research and Investigations Society (OSIRIS) correspondent Yvonne Bryant that, “Everyone had read Adamski over there. The excitement about the Venusians’ presence here on Earth cannot be contained.” And so when we return to Hibbs of the JPL’s contention that with the recent dawn of the Space Age, “We might have missed a lot of visitors (extraterrestrials),” it is significant that some Soviet space researchers found an apparent agreement with him. The furor generated by UFO investigations and the possibilities of extraterrestrial contact were “off the scale” in the former USSR; and not surprisingly, such enthusiasm for flying saucers and all facets of paranormal research continues unabated in present-day Russia, thus confirming Jones’ astute observation. One of those UFOs that history has glossed over is the so-called “meteor” that crashed in the Tunguska region of Siberia back in 1908. According to an article in the 22 February 1960 edition of Time magazine, “The controlled newspapers and magazines of the Soviet Union ridiculed the Western craze for flying saucers. But ever since the first Sputnik, the Russians have indulged in their own kind of science fiction about possible visitors from outer space.”

UFO Flight Path: On 30 June 1908, a mysterious object- presumably a Venusian scout ship- was first sighted 175 miles east of Irkutsk. It sped along 500 miles north to Kezhma- follow the solid black line on the map above- then turned toward Preobrazhenka (follow the broken line, whence it turned and crashed near Vanavara.) See http://home.earthlink.net/~dconklin3/Tunguska_stuff.ht.

Chapter IV: Back in the USSR

Soviet propaganda poster 1957: “Glory to the Soviet Science!” See www.pinterest.com. Our rockets can find Halley’s Comet and fly to Venus with amazing accuracy; but side by side with these scientific and technical triumphs is an obvious lack of efficiency in using scientific achievements for economic needs, and many Soviet household appliances are of poor quality. —Mikhail Gorbachev, Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World (1987)

The UFO phenomenon, and particularly the notion that our planet was, and continues to be visited by Venusians, was definitely taken seriously in the halls of the Kremlin. One of the early advocates for Soviet research into sundry aspects of ufology was Alexandr Kazantsev, a high-ranking committee member of the prestigious and top secret Soviet Research Institute of Electromechanics. Kazantsev was born in Akmolinsk, Imperial Russia (contemporary Astana in Kazakhstan) in 1906. He went on to graduate with honors from the Tomsk Polytechnic University, and carried out groundbreaking work at the Soviet Research Institute of Electromechanics. Highly trusted by Stalin, Kazantsev was assigned a position with the Soviet delegation at the 1939 New York World’s Fair; but when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the patriotic scientist joined the army where he served with distinction and valor. At the conclusion of the war in 1945, Kazantsev was released from active duty, holding the rank of colonel. It should also be noted that he was awarded membership in a number of orders, including the Order of the Patriotic War and the Order of the Red Star. In civilian life, Kazantsev returned to a life of 89

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus scientific inquiry and investigation, settling in at the literary village of Peredelkino, a complex of dachas in Moscow’s southwest suburbs. Surrounded in academia, the innovative scientist focused on his writings. He outlived the breakup of the Soviet Union and died in 2002, but not without leaving an indelible mark on the Russian Federation’s scientific and UFO community. Aleksandr Kazantsev was the first to theorize that the great Tunguska depression in Siberia, allegedly caused by the fall of a meteor in 1908, had really resulted from the explosion of a nuclear-powered Venusian spaceship attempting to land on Earth. While some Soviet meteor experts and astronomers initially ridiculed Kazantsev’s theory, by 1972 the majority had come around to seeing the matter Kazantsev’s way. In fact, expenditures on Venus probes and research on the mysteries of the second planet dramatically intensified throughout the Soviet Union’s scientific establishment, largely due to the connections that Kazantsev and others were finding between the Siberian crash event and a Venusian origin for the spaceship. Naturally, the idea of inhabited worlds evokes in the masses a variety of emotions which are not always amenable to the current standards of scientific inquiry. But in the Soviet philosophy, science fiction is accorded an honorable status, at least insofar as it is not represented in terms of solid achievements in science. However, in a state such as the Soviet Union of the late 1950s and early 1960s, where information of a sensitive nature, like the search for extraterrestrial life, could not be freely discussed by the scientific community in open forums, science fiction was seen as a plausible vehicle for getting the word out, so to speak. And in the case of the Tunguska event, that is actually what transpired. Kazantsev was not the first among Soviet astronomers to introduce a fresh idea to his colleagues in the scientific establishment through the pages of a science fiction novel; but his 1958 classic tale, Guest Out of the Cosmos,66 propelled him into the position of being the most well-known. According to a special report issued by the United States Air Force Foreign Technology Division on the Soviet Effort to Contact Extraterrestrial Life, dated 3 February 1967, “The main idea (of Kazantsev’s novel) is that the Tunguska meteor, which landed in Russia in 1908, was in reality a spaceship from Mars supplied with a hydrogen bomb. This ship blew up over Siberia thus saving the Earth from conquest by the Martians.” Soviets’ True Intentions toward Venus The Soviets, however, could not afford to be up-front about their discoveries coming out of the Tunguska region. It was clear that these contributed mightily to their focus on Venus, not Mars. A front-page article appeared in the 7 March 1958 edition of Prace, the official Czech trade union newspaper published in Prague that asked the big question, “Did Venusian Spaceship Hit Siberia?” The article noted that Soviet scientists were speculating that a meteorite which fell in Siberia 50 years ago, back in 1908, “may have been an atomic-powered space ship from Venus.” According to the Prace piece, the original, uncensored book by Kazantsev, titled A Guest from the Universe, presented actual evidence from various Soviet scientists supporting the theory of a Venusian origin for the Tunguska space ship. The anonymous author of the Prace news item declares that Kazantsev explained that the so-called “meteorite” caused an explosion that produced a big fireball, followed by a mushroomshaped cloud. Also, people living near the site of the impact died of a then unknown illness, showing the same symptoms of what we would recognize today as overexposure to atomic radiation. The Czech report added that, “The explosion had its biggest impact at some distance from its centre- exactly like an atomic explosion. There was no crater.” 66

A. P. Kazantsev, Guest Out of the Cosmos (Moscow, USSR: Geographgiz, 1958), 129 pp.

Raymond Andrew Keller II The author of the article also notes that Kazantsev’s book details a Soviet expedition to the Tunguska site in 1956, where “particles of iron, which are not part of a meteorite,” were discovered. The book also reveals that, “Eye witness accounts of the explosion indicated that the object slowed down to about the speed of present-day jet aeroplanes before exploding in the air.” Additionally, Kazantsev reported that, “At the time of the explosion- June 30, 1908- the planet Venus was in optimal constellation to the Earth.” Of course, as the Prace article makes plain, Soviet scientists’ suspicions were aroused when several expeditions to the explosion site failed to find even the slightest trace of a meteorite. For this reason, Kazantsev also stated that, “An explosion of a radio-active meteorite is quite impossible. Thus, there is only one explanation: the secret visitor from the universe was a space ship in which, for unknown reasons, the atomic fuel exploded.” To support the Venus theory for the origin of the space ship, the Czech newspaper reported that the original, uncensored version of Kazantsev’s book provided an analysis by the wellknown Soviet expert on astronautics, Dr. Ary Sternfeld, the pioneer of interplanetary exploration and author of the landmark article, “Problems of Cosmic Flight,” published in Priroda space magazine back in December 1954, which was primarily an exposition on flight trajectories from the Earth to the Moon, Venus, Mars and Mercury. Sternfeld was later responsible for working out the courses taken by Soviet satellites, beginning with the first Sputnik; and after that would go on to become the father of the Soviet Union’s own strategic missile defense grid, or “Star Wars” program. For Kazantsev’s book, Sternfeld calculated reverse trajectories from the various planets of the inner solar system to Earth and showed how he reached the conclusion that the Tunguska space ship most likely had its point of origin on the planet Venus. As each planet moves along its own orbit at varying speeds, on leaving one planet to get to another, a space ship has their originating planet’s speed along its orbit in a direction perpendicular to the shortest route between the respective planets. However, in order to make the spaceship travel in a straight line, the lateral speed along the orbit would have to be overcome. But this would require the useless expenditure of a tremendous amount of energy. Therefore, it would be more advantageous for a space ship to move along a curve using the speed along the orbit and thus adding to the space ship only the necessary speed for it to break away from its planet of origin. Keeping this in mind, and taking into account the oribital velocities of the Moon and inner planets with relation to the Earth’s oribital speed of 30 kilometers per second, Sternfeld was able to accurately calculate the navigation routes and times of flight for any space ship launched from these celestial bodies to the Earth to arrive the closest to the day of the big explosion, 30 June 1908. As it turned out, Mars was in opposition to the Earth, being at its closest points, in both 1907 and 1909. So taking into account the 24 kilometers per second of Mars’ orbital velocity in contrast to the 30 kilometers per second for Earth, any space ship from Mars, using the greatest economy of fuel and having left the Red Planet at the most suitable time, should have reached our world in either 1907 or 1909, but on no account in 1908. Venus, however, travels at an average speed a little over 35 kilometers per second, or 78,337 miles per hour, in its orbit around the Sun. So with a flight from Venus and utilizing that sparkling world’s opposition to Earth in 1908, Sternfeld conclusively proved that the most optimum launch window on the cloud shrouded planet would have brought the space vehicle into our atmosphere exactly on 30 June of that same year! Clearly, the materialist conception of the universe as an abode of abundant life was consistent with the overall scientific philosophy 91

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus of the Soviet state. Therefore, the only reason one can think that Kazantsev’s first book was censored and modified to reflect Mars as the point of origin, might be that the Soviets wanted to distract or confuse the Americans about their most earnest intentions of desiring to be the first to send a space probe to Venus. Adamski on Venus and the Cold War The 6 May 1963 edition of Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper carried a front-page article about George Adamski’s visit to that northern European country. Titled “Saucer Chat without Paper and Pencil,” the piece frames the Polish-born, California contactee as charming, with an engaging personality, but also as one who is “not easily played down.”67 At the time of this interview, Adamski was already 73 years old. At the start, the reporter asked Adamski if it would be alright if he asked him a few questions that might, at the first instance, “sound a little offending.” Adamski just smiled, expressing dignity as well as calmness. The old contactee replied, “Go ahead. I’m used to it.” The interviewer, only known as Handy, then came back with another question: “Also to the fact that people don’t believe a single word that you are saying?” “Yes,” said Adamski. What follows is an excerpt from the interview from the point of Adamski’s curt response: Handy: Why have you never given any poof for your assertion that the Earth is now and then being visited by people from other planets? You said that you had gone up in space ships now and then…. Adamski (interrupting and correcting): Eight times! Eight times I went up in a space ship. Handy: Very well, then you had even more opportunities to arrange with your friends from Venus for reporters to witness your departure or arrival. Adamski (smiling unperturbed): They did on one occasion in California, near Hollywood. But there were also a lot of top brass, high military, present, and the story was suppressed. Only a few unimportant lines appeared in the press. Handy: Are you aware that there are several people in the world who tell similar stories, i.e. that they went up in space ships? Some years ago I interviewed a Danish mechanic who had the same kind of strange experiences. Adamski (parrying): This is not so strange. My books, which have been translated into many languages, have inspired many to their own experiences. (Note: In the article itself, Handy inserts the word “supposed” as an adjective to experiences and puts it in parenthesises.) Handy: Is there a special reason for your being the only person on Earth the space people chose for their contacts? Adamski (somewhat astonished and raising his eyebrows): But I am not the only one. There were several persons present at my first meeting with people from other planets. The reporter notes that Adamski cannot be taken down so easily and refers to him as “that grand, charming pioneer.” He informs his Danish readers that in certain points, he does not trust Adamski at all and even on occasion told him so right to his face. Nevertheless, Handy did positively comment that at least the contactee acquitted himself with a smile. As to Adamski’s alleged military connections, however, Handy declares that he believes this is true. “I do believe that he plays a part with authorities in the the USA,” wrote the reporter, adding that, “He speaks openly and freely about the connections he has throughout the world and the USA with military 67

The newspaper was published in Aarhus, Denmark, and the author is attributed solely to one known as “Handy.”

Raymond Andrew Keller II persons of high rank, with members of the Senate and others. He is amazingly well informed about the USA space program.” Handy (continuing with the interview): Why is it, then, that the wondering Earthlings should not be told the truth about the space people who watch and visit us in their so-called flying saucers? Adamski (somewhat evading, at least according to the reporter): The governments have been in contact with the visitors from other planets for a long time. But the population of Earth is not prepared to accept the full truth. We live on a planet with many religions and…. Handy (not happy with the direction Adamski is going and interrupting): What would happen if one day we were informed by our governments that it was a scientifically established fact that Earth was not the only inhabited planet and that soon we should be able to contact the Venusians, for example? Adamski (raising his hand disarmingly): Can’t you remember the panic which was caused by the radio play, the War of the Worlds, by Orson Wells, which the people in the USA took for a real report? No, the time has not yet come. Handy (agreeing): That was regrettable. But what do you think? Adamski: I cannot tell you. I can only say that a new time is just ahead, which will strongly influence our lives. The USA is planning on sending a man to Venus, but just when that will be I cannot tell. But they intend to have it all on TV and that will tell much. Handy: Wait a minute. The reports and measurements are not correct! Adamski then went into a detailed explanation on the possibility of life on Venus, covering many of the facts already presented in this chapter. This was followed by an analysis of Venusian bases on the far side of the Moon and some of the photos of them taken by a recent Soviet probe that ended up being depicted on some special commemorative postage stamps, issued in Russia. Handy: You have seen it, too? Adamski (nodding seriously): Yes, I saw the other side of the Moon from a space ship. When I was in Holland, I told Queen Juliana about the Moon during a two hour conversation. Strangely enough, the very next day, when I turned on the radio in my hotel room, I heard a report on Russian observations which tallied exactly with my own. The interviewer is impressed withAdamski’s responses and frankly admits that the contactee “knows a great deal.” Adamski told him about American models of flying saucers that already existed, but as far he could determine, had not yet been test flown. Adamski also told him about the intense, behind-the-scenes interest of American politicians, military personnel and scientists in the UFO phenomenon, in addition to commenting on the true nature of the space flights and observations made by the astronaut John Glenn. Apparently, these were similar to the reports of outer space that appeared in Adamski’s books and other writings. Adamski (referring to some secret space project utilizing Tesla technology): We shall see the day when the Americans will fly in their disks. What we are doing now is not quite the right thing. We shall not as easily reach Venus with rockets, but with the aid of electricity…. (Note: Adamski gave a thorough explanation of the propulsion systems employed by Venusian space ships, but the reporter comments that he is sorry that he can’t repeat it in his article due to its scientific complexity and his limited ability to comprehend it all.) Handy (protesting again): Why should people of Earth be kept in the dark? And why don’t we get any evidence? You keep telling me that we are not yet mature enough, but this sounds to me- excuse the expression- like a sailor’s yarn. 93

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Adamski (shrugging): The United States government is fully informed and so is the Russian government. If one of these two big powers would inform the world, the other would shout at once, PROPAGANDA! Later in this book, the idea hinted at here by George Adamski, i.e. the existence of a hidden, top secret space program with acquired knowledge of advanced beings on Venus and other planets is thoroughly explained, beginning with its murky origins back in 1948. But in returning to the White Stork project and extraterrestrial research being conducted in the USSR, the anonymous author of the Air Force report went on to remark that, “Astronomer Yu. G. Perel (1959) concedes that a fiction writer may invent anything he pleases, but Kazantsev represents his wild surmises and ignorant theories as scientifically established facts.” But in response to Perel, Kazantsev proceeded to attack Soviet official science as concealing from the public the true situation. The United States Air Force report noted that in this, Kazantsev and his followers were “thus closely paralleling the UFO enthusiasts in the United States who accuse the Air Force of suppressing evidence supporting flying saucer visitations.”68 But unlike Tsiolkovskiy, Tolstoy, Obruchev and other writers of science fiction in the Soviet Union, it was Kazantsev’s that had the greatest impact when it came to generating repercussions abroad.69 While the Soviet scientific establishment initially opposed Kazantsev, however, it quickly became apparent that he was winning over powerful adherents in the Kremlin that were not only affecting, but directing the national space exploration policies. For the most part, the inner circles of Soviet science became convinced of Kazantsev’s premise of the explosion of an extraterrestrial spaceship over the Tunguska region, but further top secret research was pinpointing the craft’s origin as the planet Venus. In the highest echelons of the United States Air Force Foreign Technology Division, Project White Stork was established to monitor all Soviet activities regarding the search for extraterrestrial life.70 In a tasked survey of all Soviet literature on this sensitive subject, White Stork revealed the following trends: 1. Advanced extraterrestrial life was present on other planets in our solar system and throughout the Universe. 2. Mars was losing out as the home world of another advanced civilization in our solar system; and 3. Venus was ascending as just such a home world; and as such, Soviet space exploration would be directed toward the second planet. White Stork Revelations Based on the available files from Project White Stork, let’s examine each of these trends that were then emerging in the Soviet Union of the early 1960s. First, we have to consider the overriding materialist philosophy that prevailed in the Marxist-Leninist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics throughout this crucial time. Such a materialist philosophy would certainly impact the general attitude of the population with regard to this question, to include those in the scientific community. White Stork noted that, “The Soviets are emphatic that their materialistic philosophy is in complete agreement with the idea of extraterrestrial civilizations. According to this philosophy, life is a normal and inevitable consequence of the development of matter, and intelligence is a normal consequence of the existence of life.”71 68 69 70 71

United States Air Force Foreign Technology Division, Soviet Effort to Contact Extraterrestrial Life (Maxwell AFB, Alabama: USAF Historical Archives, 1967), 14 Ibid. Ibid., 66 Ibid., 7

Raymond Andrew Keller II The report goes on to say that, “Even the best informed scientists in the USSR, like Oparin and Shklovskiy, must necessarily subscribe to this crude philosophy promulgated more than 100 years ago by Marx and Engels. However, once having stated their materialistic point of view they often introduce reservations. Thus Oparin thinks that the presence of oceans was the necessary factor in the appearance of life on the Earth, and Shklovskiy is willing to accept the existence of life only on the Earth, but this would be a ‘miracle.’” So unlike in the West, where the skeptics ruled the day, the official policy of the Soviet state reinforced the idea that the universe was teeming with life, all evolving at a myriad of stages toward higher degrees of intelligence. And interestingly, even when one considers the reservations proffered by Oparin and Shklovskiy, it readily becomes clear that Venus cannot be ruled out insofar as, even if it is now a superheated world, it once held vast oceans for billions of years in which life could have sprung up and evolved; and that it is highly unlikely that our planet is the only one out of trillions in the vast cosmos that has any form of life on it. Nevertheless, the debate continued to rage in the Soviet Union over just what kind of life future cosmonauts would discover out there. The Soviet scientists, for the most part, seemed to be committed to life based on hydrocarbon compounds. In other words, they were referring to the kinds of life we find here on Earth, all the way from the simplest bacteria to a human being. A. I. Oparin considers that any other basis for life would be a sheer impossibility; or if it did exist, would be absent of any meaning in a physical context, at least as far as we have come to understand life.72 I. S. Shklovskii, on the other hand, does go to considerable lengths in order to delineate the energy considerations that must be taken into account, aptly illustrating how life needs be based on hydrocarbon reactions.73 Therefore, it can be said that essentially in the West, for the scientific community the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe was considered more of an article of faith, while in the Soviet Union and the East generally, it was taken as a scientific fact. However, of equal importance to the Soviet astronomers and exobiologists was the pinpointing of another terrestrial world within our solar system that could harbor intelligent life. Keeping in mind the priority given to the military budget of the Soviet Union in the mid-fifties through the mid-sixties at the height of the Cold War, it has been estimated that during this crucial time the Soviets were spending twice as much on national defense as was the United States.74 While the United States could afford to let NASA lose a few rockets and even some satellites, opting for multiple targets of exploration in the solar system, the Kremlin leadership would brook no incompetence with either the allocation or administration of funds set aside for the conduct of space research, especially since these were diverted from critical and strategic defense interests. Therefore, rather than pursue a scattergun program of space research akin to that of the United States, the Soviets needed to economize and focus on that one planetary target that would yield the most promising results. Therefore, the debate ensued 72 A. I. Oparin, Origin of Life on Earth (London, UK: Oliver and Boyd, 1957). 73 I. S. Shklovskii, Universe, Life and Intelligence (Moscow, USSR: Nauka, 1965): The author provides an outstanding summation of his work, that later formed the basis of continued research with the American astronomer, Carl Sagan. 74 Timothy Sosnovy, “Soviet Military Budget,” Foreign Affairs, April 1964, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ russian-federation/1964-04-01/soviet-military-budget (Accessed 11 June 2015): “The great development of modern weapons of mass destruction has caused enormous changes in military science including military doctrine and military strategy. However, these changes have not affected the concept of the military budget. Today, as in the past, the military budget, approved by appropriate organs of the state, indicates to a certain extent the defense effort of the nation. On the basis of the analysis…., it appears that, as a percentage of Gross National Product (for the U.S.S.R.- national income), the Soviet military budget is about double that of the United States.”

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus in the Soviet scientific academy over the robotic exploration of the Moon, Mars or Venus. Mercury was excluded because of its close proximity to the Sun and lack of a sufficiently dense atmosphere. Anything in the outer reaches of the solar system, or even beyond, would have to be left to the prevue of radio telescope operators. But insofar as finances would only allow for the study of one neighboring solar planet, either Mars or Venus, and not both, it became incumbent upon the Soviet scientific establishment to settle on just one of these two orbs as the target for further investigations. White Stork agents looked closely at Soviet plans to robotically explore Mars. It was noted in the Stork report, however, that after vigorous debate, many of the Soviet scientists and engineers had proffered their preference for and considered opinions about the second planet. Venus, these insisted, and not Mars, was the only celestial sphere where conditions remotely approached those to be found on Earth. They reasoned that both the atmosphere and gravity of Mars were too weak to support the emergence of indigenous life forms there. Nevertheless, Mars still maintained a solid bloc of Soviet scientists ardently pleading for its exploration to receive a priority over Venus. Therefore, the red planet became an early contender and focus of attention, along with cloudy Venus, for those Soviet astronomers and exobiologists looking for that ever-elusive evidence of life elsewhere in the solar system. But keep in mind that they couldn’t have it both ways. They were required to arrive at a consensus, and soon, before the more resilient and wellfinanced American space program beat them to the punch with its emerging dual approach. Tikhov Pushes for the Exploration of Mars Back in the USSR, the most famous proponent for life on Mars was the Belarusian astronomer Gavril A. Tikhov (1875-1960). Based out of the Pulkovo observatory, Tikhov acquired an outstanding reputation for his work accomplished there. In 1909, when Mars was in close opposition, Tikhov studied the red planet through filters and proved the existence of snow near its poles and clouds in its atmosphere. This was a difficult feat, because from the Pulkovo site, Mars was positioned low on the horizon at the time Tikhov was making these crucial observations. Unfortunately, the great work of Tikhov went relatively unnoticed in the west. Basically, the same results were obtained by W. H. Wright of the Lick Observatory in California with the next significant Mars opposition that occurred in 1924. Following his retirement from the Pulkovo observatory, however, Tikhov did not go quietly into that good night; but rather, he settled down in Alma-Ata in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic where he established the world’s first “Sector of Astrobotany” in the Institute of Physics and Astronomy of the Academy of the Kazakh S. S. R. The function of the sector, or section as we would call it in the west, was to study the behavior of plants under conditions approaching those found on Mars. For the most part, that would be gauging plant adaptability to Arctic tundra and high mountains. Many astronomers and botanists were engaged in this work at the Kazakh academy that carried out its investigations up to the death of its director, Tikhov, in 1960. While the Kazakh academy published a five-volume edition of the proceedings of the Sector of Astrobotany, alluded to in the pages of the Air Force Foreign Technology Division’s report, to this day it remains under tight wraps in both the Russian Federation and the United States, only available on a compartmentalized “need to know” basis. But based on what Project White Stork agents have been able to determine, this report contained 33 of Tikhov’s papers on the “problems of terrestrial plants and the existence of life on Mars.”75 However, White Stork 75

Soviet Effort, 10

Raymond Andrew Keller II concluded that Tikhov’s findings were deemed “indecisive so far as the existence of plants on Mars was concerned, paralleling similar results in the West,” and adding that, “They simply increased the probability in favor of the existence of such life.” Nevertheless, White Stork did take note that, “The occurrence of intelligent life on Mars is even more difficult to prove than the existence of plants,” and marveled that Shklovskiy, in the hallowed towers of academia, had stuck his neck so far out as to proclaim that, “Mars once had a civilization which launched artificial satellites, but is now a dead body.”76 Therefore, the Kazakh team determined that the question of whether or not there is, or ever was, life on Mars of any kind, is a matter that could “only be resolved with an actual visit there either of instrumented or manned vehicles.”77 But insofar as even the most optimistic appraisal, that of Shklovskii, recognized the red planet as only once being the abode of an advanced civilization, but now, for all intents and purposes, being a dead world, was it worth the investment to travel to and explore the more distant world, when perhaps Venus, the closest planetary neighbor, offered more promising results? After all, it was rumored that the Americans were already in contact with an advanced civilization on Venus via radio astronomy, and that an emissary from our sister world (Valiant Thor) was received by President Eisenhower in the White House. If Mars, and even the Moon, did prove to be inhabited, both of these orbs would most likely be revealed to be the home for Venusian space colonies. The Soviet Spy It was never the case that the Soviets did not give Mars a chance to reveal its secrets. As early as 10 October and 14 October 1960, spacecraft designed for Mars fly-bys were launched, only to blow up before ever getting beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. The same sorry results occurred on 24 October 1962, with the arrival of the next Mars window and yet another launch mishap. In an attempt to settle the question about life on Mars once and for all, on 1 November 1962 the Soviets launched their fourth probe to the red planet, aptly called Mars 1. Unfortunately, the ambitious endeavour resulted in total failure. Communications with Mars 1 were lost when it was about 191,000 km out from its intended destination. The probe presumably continued to sail past Mars at this point, whence it most likely went into an eternal orbit around the Sun.78 Soviet engineers were puzzled. They had launched a much heavier, capable and expensive spacecraft to Mars. This time, it made it beyond the atmospheric envelope and was well on The 8K78 launcher (the sturdy its way to the mysterious red planet. Its design was based Molniya rocket), carrying the upon traditional aircraft flight-testing practice. In other words, Mars-1 probe, blasts off from the Baikonur RKK Energia the engineers learned from the previous three launches and Complex. Repeated attempts by made the appropriate adjustments. The Mars 1, an automatic the Soviets to reach the red planet interplanetary station, was launched on the optimum vehicle ended in failure. See http://www. russianspaceweb.com/images/ for such a mission, the sturdy Molniya rocket. Had the probe spcrft_plnt_mars_mrs-1_200.jpg. succeeded in arriving at Mars, it would have accomplished a 76 77 78

Ibid. Ibid. Bruce Murray, Journey into Space (New York, New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1989), 36-37, 58.

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus fly-by at a programmed distance of about 11,000km (6,800mi). It was designed to image the surface and send back data on cosmic radiation, micrometeoroid impacts, Mars’ magnetic field, radiation environment, atmospheric structure, and most importantly, the possible existence of organic compounds.79 Once the spacecraft left the Earth’s orbit, the Molniya rocket booster’s fourth stage separated. The solar panels were then deployed. Early telemetry indicated, however, that there was a leak in one of the gas valves in the orientation system. Therefore, the spacecraft was immediately transferred to gyroscopic stabilization. While the Mars 1 was functional, there were 61 radio transmissions, initially at two-day intervals and later at five days. A large amount of data was collected, especially concerning the interplanetary medium; and this would prove useful in future mission planning. The ultimate failure of the Mars 1 to accomplish a close fly-by of the red planet had some serious repercussions throughout the Soviet Union. A decision had to be made about the direction the Soviet space program would be taking. It was going to be too expensive to keep sending probes to both Mars and Venus. Keep in mind that the Soviets were in the middle of a cold war with the United States, so the majority of the nation’s budget was geared to intelligence collection, military developments and operations. The Politburo was relying on the Soviet Academy of Sciences to make the correct decision in this regard. A meeting in the highest circles of the Academy was convened to discuss the situation; and it was decided that in the interim period an agent with the highest scientific credentials would infiltrate the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in “Mars 1” stamp in Soviet Union. order to gather as much first-hand information about any American discoveries related to planetary research. This new data would allow the Academy to choose the optimum target. The Americans were dividing their research time and resources among the Moon and all the planets in the Solar System. Once the American space probes prioritized target areas in the search for extraterrestrial life, the Soviets could hone in on the better prospects, revving up and accelerating their own projects to the most opportune celestial body or bodies. This piggybacking would, in effect, save the Soviet Union a lot of money and time. The best way for the Soviets to penetrate NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory was to get a respected academician on the staff at Caltech, the institution providing the majority staffing for the noted Pasadena research facility. Remember that this was taking place in the mid-1960s, when the Cold War continued to put a big chill on America’s relations on multiple levels with the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, the Soviet Academy of Sciences immediately drew up a proposal for an amiable exchange of scientists and scientific information between the two superpowers. At the Academy, most of the chief scientists thought that nothing would come of this. After all, it was a little more than two years following the Cuban missile crisis and one year after Lee Harvey Oswald, a former resident of the Soviet Union, had been arrested as the prime suspect in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and shortly thereafter was assassinated 79

Chris Mihos, “Mars (1960-1974): Mars 1,” 11 January 2006, Department of Astronomy, Case Western Reserve University bulletin.

Raymond Andrew Keller II himself. Essentially, this deal was what we in the United States might refer to as a “Hail Mary pass.” Surprisingly, however, the Americans took the bait. As part of this exchange in the areas of planetary research, the United States sent the then assistant professor of astronomy from Harvard University, Dr. Carl Sagan to the Soviet Union; and the Soviets sent to the United States their prominent authority on radio astronomy, Dr. Arkady Kuzmin. In the USSR, Sagan worked with Dr. Iosif S. Shklovskii in researching the possibilities for the emergence of extraterrestrial life in the Universe at large, based on the use of radio astronomy for suspected deep space sources.80 Sagan, who worked with the design team of the infrared radiometer of NASA’s Mariner 2 fly-by of Venus, wanted desperately to examine the data collected on the second planet by the Soviet Venera program, but was denied. Clearly, the Soviets were not going to trust this Sagan fellow with their research data on Venus. The Soviet intelligence branch, the KGB, had conducted an extensive investigative background check on Sagan. They discovered that he was a true Trojan horse, definitely a man not to be trusted with such important state secrets. In life, the vaunted astronomer Carl Sagan (1934-1996) was, for the most part, highly regarded for his many academic accomplishments. However, 20 years after his death, the picture of a different Sagan is emerging. On numerous occasions, Sagan took the role of a schill for the United States government’s Department of Defense propaganda apparatus, covering up the facts about intelligent life on Venus, the true nature of space travel and the existence of flying saucers as intelligently guided spacecraft from other dimensions and planets. In the year 2000, former NASA executive Leonard Reiffel, who directed an above top secret Air Force project back in 1958 designed to detonate nuclear bombs on the surface of the Moon, informed the American people that a young Carl Sagan was part of a special team responsible for predicting the effects of such nuclear explosions carried out under the alleged conditions of a lunar vacuum as well as our natural satellite’s lower gravity. Sagan was also supposed to evaluate this project’s scientific value and present his report directly to Reiffel. The project was code-named “A119,” and also referred to as A Study of Lunar Research Flights.81 Documents pertaining to A119 remained secret for nearly 45 years. We still do not know if all of them have been released, insofar as the Freedom of Information Act precludes the disclosure of certain data in the interest of national security. Besides his involvement with Project A119, Reiffel has been involved in several positions in NASA’s The Soviets did not trust American scientist Apollo program, whence he originally began as a Dr. Carl Sagan for many reasons. Chief among them was Sagan’s work on the above consultant on the possibility of life on the Moon. Later, top secret Air Force Project A119 to explode he moved up to become deputy director of the entire nuclear weapons on the surface of the Moon, Apollo moonshot project, a post he held from 1965– both front and back sides. 1969. In his year 2000 revelations concerning A119, 80

The result of this research was their co-authorship of Intelligent Life in the Universe (New York, New York: Dell, 1966), previously referenced. 81 Anthony Barnett, “US planned one big nuclear blast for mankind,” 14 May 2000, The Guardian, United Kingdom.

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus however, Reiffel declared that while he was in charge of the project, its alleged aim was to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon for the purpose of addressing and perhaps answering some of the mysteries in planetary astronomy and astrogeology. For example, if the explosive device detonated on the surface, and not in a lunar crater, then the flash of explosive light would have been faintly visible to people on Earth with their naked eyes.82 Supposedly, this “show of force” would have served to boost domestic morale and trust in the nuclear defense capabilities of the United States. While there is no doubt that such a boost was needed in 1958, just one year after the Soviet Union took an early lead in the space race with the launching of the first Sputnik, it is doubtful that this was the primary reason for the existence of Project A119. Space historians from many nations have speculated that the Soviet Union was also working on a similar project. The contactees with flying saucer occupants Dr. Carl Sagan was an integral member from throughout the world had also been stating, since of a top secret United States government the late 1940s, that the Venusians and other Solarians project planning to nuke alien bases on the Moon. See http://thehigherlearning. had bases both on and under the surface of the Moon’s com/2014/06/30/did-you-know-that-thefar side. An account of Venusian operations on their u-s-almost-dropped-a-nuke-on-the-moonlunar far side Base Clarion by one of these contactees, during-the-cold-war/. Truman Bethurum of Redondo Beach, California, is provided later in this book. In any event, Reiffel worked alongside Sagan and Dr. Gerard Peter Kuiper (1905-1973) on the project. Kuiper was a Dutch–American astronomer, planetary scientist, selenographer, author and professor. He is the eponymous namesake of the “Kuiper belt,” an area on the fringes of our solar system composed of a plethora of trans-Neptunian objects of varied sizes. Kuiper, the credited discoverer of numerous celestial objects (comets, craters, minor planets, moons, planets and stars of varied configurations), is considered by many A complex of domed structures was to be the father of modern planetary science. In 1958, photographed by a NASA space probe on the farside of the Moon, confirming reports Sagan was thought of as somewhat a “wild card” by the of their existence made by the contactees Air Force overlords of Project A119; but since Kuiper of flying saucer occupants. See http:// chaired Sagan’s dissertation as a graduate student at angelesovni.blogspot.com/2011/06/alienbuilding-on-dark-side-of-moon.html. the University of Chicago and insisted that Sagan’s participation would be beneficial, the Air Force relented and admitted the young astronomer, primarily to work as Kuiper’s assistant.83 82

Julie Johnsson, “From the Moon to the end zone; This inventor helped run NASA, split atoms with Fermi, and even changed the way we watch football. And he’s not done yet,” 14 October 2002, Crain’s Chicago Business. 83 The comprehensive collection of the Gerard P. Kupier Papers, 1894-1992, are housed at the University of Arizona at Tucson. It is comprised of the personal and professional papers of astronomer Gerard P. Kuiper. The bulk of the material relates to his career as an astronomical researcher and administrator at the Yerkes Observatory (University of Chicago), McDonald Observatory (University of Texas) and the Lunar Planetary Laboratory (University of Arizona). Items included in the collection are correspondence, publications, research material, newspaper clippings and photographs as well as Kuiper’s personal experience as a member of a special team to discover enemy scientific developments in the course of World War II.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II Murky Origins How did such a dastardly program as A119 begin? When we return to the time of the project’s conception, newspapers were reporting a rumor that the Soviet Union was planning to detonate a hydrogen bomb on the Moon. Following the successful launch of the Sputnik satellite, press reports from throughout the West in late 1957 were declaring that an anonymous source had divulged to a United States Secret Service agent that the Soviets planned to commemorate the anniversary of their Bolshevik Revolution by causing a nuclear explosion on the Moon. Supposedly, this detonation was to coincide with a lunar eclipse on 7 November of the same year. Reports of the rumored launch included mention of targeting the dark side of the terminator, where some of the contactees reported the presence of domed structures and other artificial constructions erected by the Venusians. Project A119 was also considering this same boundary as the target for their prospective explosion. But levels of anxiety were high, for it was also reported that a failure by the Soviets to hit the Moon would likely result in the missile returning to Earth.84 And should a missile from any nation on Earth actually obliterate a Venusian base on the farside of the Moon, the resulting retaliation measures might extinguish all life on Earth, at least as we know it.85 Personally, however, I think the origins of this project extend to the lunar radar ranging experiments conducted at Monmouth, New Jersey in 1946. Although just a radar beam, it nevertheless represented much more, especially since it constituted the first projection of power off world by the inhabitants of Earth in modern times. A full analysis of the New Jersey project is included later in this book. But Sagan was the cat among the pigeons, even when it came to the flying saucer phenomenon. Sure, he frequently declared that the existence of extraterrestrial life was a high probability; but he also maintained, at least in public, that apart from an occasional visit every 20,000 years or so by some unmanned probe on autopilot, there were no manned alien spaceships from other worlds or even other dimensions traversing our skies, let alone landing and communicating with us on any personal level. Sagan frequently remarked that if any communication with extraterrestrials was going to be affected, it would have to be through radio astronomy. Even though he was a very engaging and motivational speaker, if you were a UFO investigator while Sagan was still alive, you were wasting your time in waiting for any significant disclosures from him regarding the enigma. Sagan and the “Venus Conspiracy” Early in his career, Sagan was intimately tied to investigations of the second planet. During the period 1960 to 1962, we find Sagan working as a Miller Fellow at the University of California’s Department of Astronomy at Berkeley. Midway through his Miller fellowship, Sagan published an article in 1961 in the journal Science on the atmosphere of Venus, while simultaneously working with NASA’s Mariner 2 Venus fly-by team. He also served as a planetary sciences consultant to the RAND Corporation, reporting on everything discovered about Venus at the University of California and NASA directly to the RAND corporate directorate. Of course, RAND is the largest think tank in Washington, D.C., so their heavy involvement with all of the United States government’s programs to penetrate cloud-shrouded Venus makes one wonder to what extent all of these agencies are collaborating in some kind of conspiracy to hide the true facts about the second planet from the population at large? 84 85

Joseph L. Myler, “Latest Red Rumor: They’ll Bomb Moon,” 1 November 1957, Pittsburgh Press, Pennsylvania. For an analysis of the implications of this scenario by Dr. Rudolph M. Lippert of the University of San Diego, Department of Astronomy, see Raymond Keller, Venus Rising, 195-196.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus But following the publication of Sagan’s 1961 Science article, Harvard University astronomers Fred Whipple and Donald Menzel, the chief UFO skeptic of his time, granted the budding young scientist the opportunity to give a colloquium in their astronomy department, and subsequently offered him a lecturer position at the institution. Sagan knew that his cooperation with RAND put him on the inside track for having a need to know about the real situation on Venus. It also made him a hot commodity, an expert on the emerging field of planetary science sought after by every leading university in the United States, and beyond. So instead of accepting the generous offer to be a lecturer at prestigious Harvard, Sagan asked to be made an assistant professor. Both Whipple and Menzel were easily able to convince Harvard to offer Sagan the assistant professor position he requested. So now Sagan was onboard, where he presented classes, performed research, and advised graduate students at the institution from 1963 until 1968. In addition, he also found work at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, which was also located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. However, in 1968, when the issue of tenure came up for Sagan at Harvard, he was denied it. Sagan later wrote that the decision was very much unexpected. But was it, really? After all, Sagan was sharing the information he was gathering at each institution with all of the others. I would think that each school in the academy would want to control exclusive rights to all of the information Sagan was gathering in his research at their facilities, without dispensing it to other organizations of higher learning, no matter how prestigious and well-connected to the government they were. It has also been suggested that the tenure denial may have been based on other factors, including that Sagan focused his interests too broadly across a number of areas (while the norm in academia is to become a renowned expert in a narrow specialty), and perhaps because of his well-publicized scientific advocacy. In this regard, Sagan succeeded in transforming his image into a hip version of Bill Nye the Science Guy, just one for an adult audience. Of course, some scientists perceived Sagan as just some young whippersnapper that was borrowing the ideas of others for little more than self-promotion. An advisor from his years as an undergraduate student, Dr. Harold C. Urey, wrote a letter to the tenure committee recommending strongly against tenure for Sagan.86 It was during his time as an honors program undergraduate at the University of Chicago that Sagan worked in the laboratory of the renowned geneticist Dr. H. J. Muller and wrote a thesis on the origins of life under physical chemist Dr. H. C. Urey’s direction;87 so it wasn’t as if Urey was unfamiliar with some of the more negative characteristics exhibited by Sagan: his zeal to belittle the research of other scientists, his desire to always place himself in the spotlight, his opportunistic approach to the attachment of various theories and political ideologies, as well as his unreliability in dealing with classified information and maintaining the trust of his associates on any given project. The latter was particularly important, insofar as Sagan’s tendency to showmanship could rob the others working with him on various experiments of their credit due, but also undermine the very reputation of the respective university that happened to have been saddled with the onus of employing this glory hound in the first place. Of Urey, it has been said by Arthur Ruark of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, that his discovery of the heavy hydrogen isotope was “a feat that will be still be yielding benefits to mankind a million years from now.” In fact, is is nothing less than a transuranium isotope of 86

Keay Davidson, “Sagan, Carl,” American National Biography Online, February 2000, Oxford University Press, http:// www.anb.org/articles/13/13-02612-print.html (Accessed 7 November 2016) 87 Holly Williams, “Happy Belated Birthday, Carl!” Berkeley Science Review, 9 November 2013, University of California at Berkeley, http://berkeleysciencereview.com/happy-belated-birthday-carl/ (Accessed 23 December 2016)

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Raymond Andrew Keller II Californium that keeps the Venusian mother ships aloft and sundry nuclear devices operationl here on Earth. Keeping in mind that the simplest atom is hydrogen, having just a single proton with a single electron in its orbit, it is said to have simply an atomic weight of one. There is also such a thing as “heavy hydrogen.” Basically, it consists of a neutron as well as a proton in its central mass, or nucleus. Heavy hydrogen, or deuterium, was actually discovered by Urey and is an isotope of hydrogen. In 1934 Urey won a Nobel Prize for this momentous discovery. Basically, an isotope of an element has the same number of protons in its nucleus as the basic element does. Therefore, an isotope will have the same atomic weight as the regular element, and thus would be considered chemically the same. However, an isotope differs from the standard element in that it will not have the same number of neutrons. So while the atomic weight will be the same, it will be assigned a different atomic number. Deuterium has this extra neutron that regular hydrogen normally does not. Urey’s work, unlike Sagan’s that only served his own self-interests, actually benefitted all of humanity. For example, iodine isotopes are tremendously important in medicine, where they can be used as “tracers” to help doctors find the focal points of illnesses. Cobalt isotopes can also be used to fight the spread of tumors. Because of his groundbreaking work, Harold C. Urey (1893-1981) became known as the “elder statesman of American science.” During World War II, Urey worked in the top secret Manhattan Project, developing the atom bomb. He worked with a team striving to separate hydrogen, boron and uranium isotopes, in that order. The Uranium-235 that was synthesized in his laboratory actually went into the second bomb, the one dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. While the dropping of the atomic bombs certainly helped to bring the war in the Pacific to a speedier close and probably saved millions of lives in the process, Urey began to have his doubts about the use of atomic energy in warfare for any reason whatsoever. He stepped into the forefront of those scientists expressing concern about the power that humankind now had its disposal to literally wipe itself out, and all vestiges of civilization along withit. Therefore, this great scientist adamantly stressed the importance of humankind finding a way to overcome petty rivalries and jealousies. Individuals and nations needed to start co-operating for human advancement.88 Because of Dr. Harold C. Urey’s firm belief in nuclear disarmament and the global peace movement, he must have been wary of Sagan’s later involvement with the A119 project to militarize outer space and bombard the lunar surface with atomic missiles. Also of interest to my readers might be some of Dr. Urey’s commentary concerning life on other planets, especially with regard to our favorite sister orb of Venus. Of course, the Internet serves as a type of filter working at the behest of the entrenched powers-that-be, the so-called Global Establishment that does not want you to find out what has truly been discovered about the vast Universe we inhabit, teeming as it is with myriad forms of life. This is why I am constantly spending time in newspaper archives and public library microfiche files, looking for pre-Internet articles, books, newsletters, pamphlets, etc., chronicling humankind’s efforts at exploring outer space through telescopes, rocketry and all scientific avenues at our disposal, these efforts constituting our very first steps into outer space in those immediate decades following the successful conclusion of the Second World War. A good example of this Conspiracy of Silence regarding life on other planets has been the effective cover-up of the positive statements concerning extraterrestrial life made by such high-ranking scientists like 88

Patrick and Getze (only names given), “Profiles in Science: Chemist Found Hydrogen Isotope,” Grit newspaper, 6 December 1964.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Dr. Urey over the ensuing years. Unfortunately, while we have all had to endure having our sensitive ears pummeled by the anti-ufology nonsense spewed forth by the Establishment lap dog Sagan, when have we enjoyed the opportunity to listen to what one of his chief mentors had to say? Let us turn the hands of time back to Thursday, 4 May 1961, where Dr. Urey is in Mankato, Minnesota, giving a lecture about the possibility of discovering some kind of life on other planets in our solar system, or even beyond it. The Nobel prize-winning astrophysicist is on the campus of the University of Minnesota, speaking in the science auditorium to a large assembly of students. Remember that the new president, John F. Kennedy, has recently announced that plans are underway to send robotic space probes to the Moon, Mars and Venus to search for any signs of life on these nearby orbs. I am of the opinion that what Urey told those students and other interested individuals that happened to be lucky enough to have been in attendance that day has proved to be one of the more significant discourses of our time; for the renowned scientist declared that the discovery of life on some other planet in our solar system, which he believed was imminent, would go down in history as the “most significant scientific accomplishment of the century.” And of all the known planets in our system, Urey contended that there most likely candidates for the discovery of life are Mars and Venus. While other scientists during his time, to include the sell-out Sagan, were prepping the American people for future disappointments as the “conclusive results” of the various space probes were soon to be transmitted back to Earth, and thereby “correctly interpreted” to signify that the possibility of life on Venus was “fairly improbable,” he did note that recent findings concerning bacteria taken from oil wells makes it seem much more likely that some kind of life would soon be detected on or under the surface of our cloudy neighbor in space. “Scientists at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at La Jolla, California, have found bacteria living in oil wells, in temperatures and under conditions that possibly are no worse than found on the surface of Venus,” he emphatically noted. The scientist also stated that, “If life can survive in the petroleum deposits laid down a hundred million years ago, then we must admit that life can adapt to rigorous and strange conditions.” Wow! Quite a different message than Sagan’s that perhaps some kind of bacteria might be found in the upper cloud decks of Venus, only, and that no other life can exist on the Venusian surface. Perhaps what is even more important than what he said during the lecture is what he spoke of informally afterwards. A reporter was there from the Minneapolis, Minnesota, Star newspaper, and wrote that, “He said that if the same set of conditions should ever exist on another planet, the possibility would be good that life would arise again. It is Urey’s belief that almost every other single (not double) star among the billions in the universe has a planetary system. On some of these planets, he thinks, life would have arisen.” And while Urey was aware that even if intelligence existed, it would not necessarily result in a culture-building one such as is possessed by humankind. The reporter also commented that Urey, “is inclined to believe that our culture-building abilities arise from one facet of our intelligence—an insatiable curiosity.” As to life on Mars, he still believed it was possible. Despite the small amount of water detected via high altitude balloon testing of the distant red planet, Urey speculated that the changing color of certain parts of Mars could be likened to the chaning color of vegetation. While expressing some doubts about any extraterrestrial origin for flying saucer reports, however, the astrophysicist was not about to totally dismiss it. In a question and answer session conducted immediately after his lecture, Urey said that if UFOs were operated by people from

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Raymond Andrew Keller II some other planet, “wouldn’t it be wonderful,” and added, “If they dare, I’m not afraid of them. Let them come!”89 An informational pamphlet issued by the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), of 1536 ConnecticutAve., Washington 6, D.C., and distributed throughout 1959, also attributes the following statement to Urey: “It is exceedingly probable that there is other life in the Universe more intelligent than ours.” This statement was made while the astrophysicist was participating in various colloquia on “Lunar and Planetary Exploration” that began in May 1958 and ultimately lasted until May 1963. During the first year, over 400 specialists from numerous fields impacting space research were in attendance at these meetings. Among these scientists participating in the colloquia were aerodynamicists, astrodynamicists, astronomers, astrophysicists, biologists, chemists, cosmologists, engineers, geochemists, geologists, geophysicists, meteorologists, oceanolographers, officers of the armed forces and government agencies, physicists, mathematicians, photogrammeticists, radiochemists, space medicine researchers, scientific writers and editors, seismologists and zoologists. All of the colloquia were carried out as closed-door sessions; and the first two, conducted in May and July of 1958, dealt exclusively with sundry lunar phenomena. Detailed presentations were put forward by Doctors Dinsmore Alter of the Griffin Observatory (Los Angeles, California), Frank Press of Caltech and Harry Vestine of the RAND Corporation, among other distinguished scientists. It was obvious that the United States had fallen far behind the Soviets in the space race. At this point, something had to be done to catch up or surpass them. Perhaps one way this could be accomplished would be in successfully landing an unmanned space craft on the Moon. By July 1958, Albert George Wilson led the colloquia, presenting a detailed analysis of the problems encountered in planning for space exploration. Unlike the Soviet Union, where a space program could be mandated and funded by a decree from the Politburo, and where it would be controlled largely by a military command, in the United States public pressure on the politicians was required if anything was even to be considered for proposed legislation and subsequent funding. Wilson, who directed the operation of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, from 1954 through 1957, had recently moved to the RAND Corporation in Washington, D.C. He spoke of the great public enthusiasm generated in the so-called “prespace era.” Wilson commended the scientific community for this, insofar as their efforts in promoting the creation of an American space program literally, “rivaled Madison Avenue in their contributions to the science of motivational research.” The RAND scientist added that the space promotion campaign was successful because, “Almost every type of probable and conceivable gimmick was used as a lure to cast before the military and civilian fund dispensers, in order to make a sale.” However, now that space activity seemed to be a priority agenda for the United States, at least since the launching of the Soviet Sputnik in the previous year, Wilson argued that the time had arrived to sort out the motives behind the advancement of various projects and, “confront the problem of arriving at a unified, scientifically responsible program, or syntax, of space exploration.” Furthermore, this foremost astronomer suggested that we take the experience of the Earth as a model for outlining the required steps that needed to be taken insofar as initating the exploration of any new region in space. First, Wilson urged the colloquia attendees to assemble all existing pre-knowledge which can be obtained from indirect methods. Second, 89

“Urey Believes Life May Exist on Mars and Venus,” no author stated, 5 May 1961, Star, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus that knowledge should be extended for specific exploration purposes. And third, and lastly, from the successful completion of these first two steps would emerge the design of the initial exploration efforts. “In the case of the Moon,” Wilson stated that, “The astronomer has not been concerned with landing a space ship on the Moon and has not made all of the observations or performed any of the simulation experiments that would be useful for this purpose. This is an operation that is only now being proposed or conducted by nonastronomical research organizations.”90 This is the theme that set the tone for the colloquia until its closure in 1963, following the success of the Mariner 2 probe’s fly-by of Venus on 14 December 1962. Of course, all of the scientists in attendance at the colloquia were there on a “need-toknow” basis. While the Soviets maintained the highest degree of secrecy about their space program, our own intelligences services must have gotten wind of the OKB-1’s plans to launch a Tyazhely-class Sputnik in February 1961. This was a “heavy satellite” that was to go into orbit around Venus and then deploy a reinforced atmospheric probe. Essentially, it was to be the Earth’s first interplanetary “mothership.” The Soviets were to follow up with the launching of its Venera 1 probe eight days later. While the American scientists in attendance at the various colloquia could not possibly know that the Venus Sputnik would never get beyond low Earth orbit due to a third-stage ignition failure, or that the Venera 1 would suffer a communications breakdown while 100,000 kilometers out from Venus, and thereby transmitting no data,91 it is clear that Soviet space ambitions, especially concerning our cloud-shrouded neighbor, provided the impetus for all of them to get off their butts, get organized and begin the implementation of Wilson’s three-step process. That they did this resulted in the Mariner 1 and 2 Venus missions, of which the latter was eminently triumphal. Evidence that this was so comes from the proceedings of the March 1959 colloquium, where the planet Venus was on top of the agenda. From the “pre-space age era” to the time of this momentous meeting, the American public was quite optimistic about our future in the “final frontier.” It was widely believed that in twenty years, or less, plastic-domed villages built by American colonists would dot the surface of the Moon. Dr. I. M. Levitt, the director of the Fels Planetarium at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, proclaimed that, “Bright reflections from these plastic domes may be visible from the Earth.” Adding to this prediction, Levitt also said that, “By 1980 or sooner, Earthmen would be living in such settlements, extracting water from rocks and drawing energy from the Sun to transform the Moon from the bleak body we know it today into a flourishing civilization. From the Moon rocks will come an atmosphere, water and hydrogen for fuel. With a nuclear power breakthrough, we may even be able to build Moon settlements much sooner than 1980; and from this base it will be possible to explore space and carry out a reconnaissance of our solar system planets.”92 As Dr. Levitt said, it was generally believed that bases would be needed on the Moon in order to launch space ships to other planets in the solar system. Knowledge of powerful Soviet rockets capable of the non-stop, direct transporting of satellites to Venus sent the May 1959 colloquium attendees back to their drawing boards. The “rubber was hitting the road,” so to speak. It was time for a reality check. 90

Joseph N. Tatarewicz, Space Technology and Planetary Astronomy (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990), 3435. 91 Asif A. Siddiqi, “’1961,” Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958-2000,” Monographs in Aerospace History, No. 24, (Washington, D.C.: NASA History Office), 29–32. 92 “Planned Lunar Villages Resemble Odd Domes Already on the Moon,” author unstated, NICAP Bulletin, Richard Hall, Associate Editor, January 1959, Washington, D.C.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II At the March 1959 colloquium it was Dr. James Edson, formerly of the Lowell Observatory and later assistant director of advanced research and development for the U.S. Army, who reports on some observations and photographs of Venus made near its inferior conjunction that he and some other astronomers made back in the 1930s. Conditions for the viewing of Venus were optimal at the time, and photographs showed actual breaks in the clouds, indicating the presence of a large mass near the planet’s northern polar region. There also appeared to be some type of vortex activity in the upper atmospheric layers. Unfortunately, the important work being carried out by this group was interrupted by World War II. The astronomers engaged in this Venus project had to break off their efforts. They just lacked the time required to have their collected data reduced or evaluated. Edson, however, showed how the data could be used to arrive at models of the vertical structure and composition of the Venusian atmosphere. This is where Dr. Urey, the vocal advocate for the existence of life on Venus, reenters the picture. Urey turns to Dr. Albert R. Hibbs, the director for space science at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and asks him face-to-face, “Why can’t we get somebody to measure and analyze these things?” He was referring to the atmospheric phenomena that manifested on Venus in Edson’s early observations. Hibbs explained to Urey that the JPL was currently short on qualified personnel to accomplish such a task; but he was attempting to recruit some graduate students emerging from various university astronomy programs throughout the country. Hibbs sadly acknowledged that the JPL’s planetary and astronomical expertise was sorely lacking. He then looked in Edson’s direction and declared, “We would be perfectly willing to hire any astronomer who wants to take over your photographs and reduce whatever data we can get out of them- if there is one who can stop looking at the galaxies long enough to do the job.” Hibbs then shifted his gaze back to Urey and noted that, “There’s money available. There’s interest available. Where are the people who know what they are doing?” Urey retorted, “Surely the techniques are not too esoteric to be learned. Maybe you should forget the astronomers and try the physicists!”93 At the same time, however, that Urey was making his statement previously quoted concerning life in outer space to the university students assembled in Mankato, Minnesota, the Roman Catholic Church’s magazine, America, carried an article by its associate editor and Jesuit scholar, the Rev. L. C. McHugh, who expressed the ever-growing view that, “intelligent life Higher dimensional light beings from is quite a common phenomena in the vast reaches of Venus frequently appear to manifest space.” McHugh added that insofar as “organic life on “angelic” qualities while on the Earth Earth evolved toward a specialized form that in God’s plane. See https://www.pinterest.com/ pin/534450680749918465/. design was apt material for the infusion of a spiritual soul, while at the same time, the lower forms were ordained to serve as a substratum for rational existence and its needs, then why should these things not be generally true in a physical universe characterized by uniformity of law and process?”94 And like his mentors at the University of Chicago, Muller and Urey, Sagan demonstrated a life-long interest in life’s origins. From his youth, he postulated on the evolution of intelligent 93 94

Tatarewicz, 35 Untitled news item, as reported in Saucer Phenomena and Celestial Enigma (S. P. A. C. E.) newsletter, Bulletin No. 53, May 1961, Coral Gables, Florida; Norbert F. Gariety, Editor and Publisher.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus life elsewhere in the Universe. He also manifested a persistent fascination with UFOs. According to K. Davidson, a science reporter for the Examiner newspaper in San Francisco, California, as late as mid1954, when the budding young scientist was a college junior, he suspected that UFOs might very well be extraterrestrial vehicles. After numerous attempts at trying to convince one of his professors of this, the wary instructor countered by citing one flying saucer report that suggested most UFOs may be Soviet-built advanced aircraft. To this, young Sagan replied in a letter dated 27 January1954, that there was no reason to believe that most UFOs were of Soviet making. Sagan pointed out that legitimate sightings had occurred prior to the Soviets coming to power. He also argued that the Soviets would probably not take the risk of Dr. Harold Clayton Urey (29 April 1893, dispatching their saucers over United States airspace. Walkerton, Indiana - 5 January 1981, La After all, if one crashed or was shot down and its Jolla, California), had serious doubts about his rambunctious student, Carl Sagan. origin was discovered, that might start World War III. (See https://biblescienceguy.wordpress. Also, some of the saucers had been clearly observed com/2013/11/06/21-evidence-for-godmaking flying maneuvers that defied the known laws design-convinces-scientists-7/). of physics. Or even if it were possible for the Soviets to create such a craft, it would require materials much stronger than anything on Earth in order to carry out these exceptionally sharp turns. Additionally, it was doubtful that a human being would be able to survive such aerial maneuvers as could be executed by a flying saucer. The extraterrestrials, Sagan surmised, must have a totally different physiology or at least a technology so advanced that it could nullify the effects of such powerful G-forces as would be exerted on their ship. So why did Sagan abandon his belief in UFOs as extraterrestrial craft? Davidson writes that, “He might also, however, have joined the skeptics movement partly to reassure his colleagues—the Donald Menzel types who suspected his loyalty to orthodox science—that he really was a loyal (if highly speculative) member of the epistemological mainstream, and not a budding (Dr. John) Lilly or (Dr. J. Allen) Hynek about to saunter off to fairyland.”95 Clearly, Sagan’s life shows us that if nothing else, he was an opportunist. He knew that Donald Menzel, the world’s then leading opponent to the extraterrestrial hypothesis for UFOs,96 held his future at Harvard and the scientific community in his hands. If Menzel were to tell Sagan to jump up and down and bark like a dog, the syncophant scientist would have replied with just two questions: “How high?” and “What kind of dog?” That Sagan further compromised his position with respect to extraterrestrial life is also indicated in Davidson’s bibliography of the up-and-coming scientist: “When it came to extraterrestrial life, Sagan didn’t follow a dogmatic ‘party line.’ Sometimes he argued that it was possible (as when he espoused lunar life, balloon animals in the skies of Venus and Jupiter, and polar bear-sized creatures on Mars). Other times he shot down arguments for exobiology (as when he showed that Venus is too hot for life)….”97 95 96 97

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Davidson. Donald H. Menzel, Flying Saucers (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Unviersity Press, 1953). Keay Davidson, “Universe and Carl Sagan,” Skeptical Inquirer, v. 23.6, November-December 1999, http://www.csicop.

Raymond Andrew Keller II In the late 1950s, a team from the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., was analyzing microwave radiation from Venus with a radio telescope dish situated on their roof. The scientists disclosed that temperatures on Venus registered at over 600 degrees Fahrenheit. However, many disagreed on exactly how to interpret this news. Some of the scientists speculated that the temperature readings might be misleading because the heat could be from Venus’ upper atmosphere; and the surface might not be so hot after all. A few others thought high winds and dust clouds might be causing friction, thereby creating heat. Still others imagined the planet as a desert covered with ponds of oil and a thick atmosphere of smog. By March 1961, however, the journal Science published Sagan’s paper,”The Planet Venus,” which he handily adapted from his doctoral dissertation. Basically, Sagan argued that Earth’s seeming twin was, in fact, the victim of a runaway greenhouse effect. This was clearly an opportunistic move on his part, insofar as all of the leading scientists of the day, including those at the Naval Research Laboratory, were disputing that the findings of the microwave radiation survey of Venus indicated that that the temperature was too hot for life to exist there. This paper attracted the attention of the powers-that-be at NASA and Sagan was able to secure a position on the Mariner 2 team. He served as the “face” for the mission and made the announcement in a late February 1963 NASA news conference that Venus was too hot to support any forms of life, at least remotely resembling any biology like that on the Earth. When Sagan was asked why it took two months after the close of the mission to make the public announcement, he replied that it was delayed because the science team took up to two months to analyze the data. Interestingly, the radiometers reported a temperature of only 300 degrees Fahrenheit; and many scientists continued to challenge Sagan’s contention that this reflected surface readings. So Sagan, doing his masters’ biddings, reported to the world that Venus was no haven of life. While future estimates of the surface temperature were gradually revised upward with each succeeding American mission, and now stands at an incredible 900 degrees Fahrenheit, the surface pressure estimates were also jacked up exponentially at 10 times the original reading, now being set at 93 times Earth’s.98 Nevertheless, Venus continued to be the destination for numerous American, European and Soviet missions over the decades that followed. It’s surprising that no one asked Sagan anything about the balloon animals in the Venusian atmosphere that he once so proudly predicted would be found there. If Venus was the hell hole that Sagan and NASA were making it out to be, the Soviets weren’t buying any of it. Back in the USSR, scientists at the Academy were pondering the quirky results from Mariner 2 provided by the JPL. Something just did not jive, especially with regard to Sagan and his pronouncements about the greenhouse effect allegedly prevailing in the Venusian atmosphere. The overall attitude in Moscow was that the Americans were lying about what their probe really discovered about the planet Venus. It seemed to the majority of Soviet scientists that their American colleagues, in commenting on the Mariner 2 findings, had shown themselves to be either in complete ignorance or in outright denial about the facts. The Soviets had conducted high altitude balloon flights in order to obtain accurate information on Venus for use in properly constructing their space vehicles that would carry various probes across the void of space, ultimately flying by or even landing on our sister world. The Soviet Academy of Science’s members were also aware of America’s launch of a high altitude balloon flight in 1959; and that the results of this completely contradicted the Mariner 2 Venus probe. 98

org/si/show/universe_and_carl_sagan (Accessed 25 November 2016) Franklin O’Donnell, “Venus Mission: How Mariner 2 led the world to the planets,” Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2012, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mariner2/, (Accessed 25 November 2016)

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus It was in that fateful year that Commander Malcolm D. Ross, USN, and Dr. Charles B. Moore of Cambridge, Massachusetts, discovered three to five times more water vapor on Venus than at comparable altitudes here on Earth. “How can this be?” noted one Soviet scientist, a respected astronomer. Another explained, “Mariner either failed to measure this, showing their equipment was defective, or information is being deliberately withheld to give an erroneous picture of Venus to the public.” The first star gazer also added that. “Any scientist who still denies that an abundance of water vapor exists in the upper atmosphere of Venus is unworthy to be called a scientist.”99 Interestingly enough, these words echoed those of Dr. John Strong of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, the very first scientist and inventor who discovered water vapor on Venus. Dr. Strong was among the first to challenge the so-called “findings” coming in from the Mariner 2 probe as it flew by Venus. When one compares the careers of the glory-hound and syncophant Sagan with the solid accomplishments of Strong, the latter wins mightily. Strong advanced the development of telescope mirrors and other optical devices, but died in March 1992 at the ripe of age of 87, succumbing to pancreatic cancer at the Amherst Nursing Home in Amherst, Massachusetts. The scientist was both an educator and researcher, contributing significantly to technology in astronomy, meteorology, optics and physics. During the Great Depression, he helped develop a vacuum evaporation process for coating glass with aluminum to make telescope mirrors more durable and sensitive than conventional silver-backed glass. Furthermore, in the 1940s Dr. Strong used that same process on the 200-inch-diameter telescope at Mount Palomar in southwestern California. Most likely, the astronomer could have spoken with Adamski while he was coating the glass of the Palomar telescope, as the contactee was a frequent visitor to the observatory, or maybe during his lunch break while visiting the Palomar Gardens Café. For its time and type of instrument, the Palomar telescope was considered the largest of its type. Dr. Strong’s coating technique still remains in wide use, not only for telescopes, but also for computer chips and other sensitive electronic devices. An extension of the technique was also developed by Dr. Strong, an anti-reflective coating for optical elements to prevent spurious “ghost” images from emerging. Yet another area where Dr. Strong made major advances was in defraction gratings, optical devices with grooves far finer than human hairs. The gratings, it seem, break down light into constituent colors. This is similar to what a prism does, but much more precisely. Dr. Strong’s special gratings were used in the first analysis of far-ultraviolet rays from the Sun. Nevertheless, his greatest accomplishment was in the discovery of water vapor on Venus. Note the laudatory remarks of Bruce Lambert regarding Dr. Strong in his 28 March 1992 obituary in the New York Times: “Dr. Strong’s controversial claim in 1964 of detecting water vapor in the atmosphere of Venus was based on data from instruments he sent to an altitude of 87,500 feet on a piloted balloon. Other experts disputed his claim and insisted that Venus’s clouds were only volcanic dust. Eventually he was vindicated.” The erudite Dr. Strong did research and taught at the California Institute of Technology from 1930 to 1942. In addition, he worked on military research at Harvard University from 1942 to 99

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It should be noted that water eruptions are quite common in areas of intense volcanism. On 30 March 1961, for example, an underwater eruption occurred in Savusavu Bay off of the coast of the second largest island in the Fiji Group, Venua Levu, in the South Pacific Ocean. Columns of water were hurled hundreds of feet into the air. Similar phenomena have been observed on moons of Jupiter and Saturn. The existence of such water spurts on Venus might serve to substantially augment the water vapor content of its atmosphere over an extended period. Your attention is invited to “Water Erupts in Fijis,” 30 March 1961, Buffalo, New York, Evening News.

Raymond Andrew Keller II 1945 and helped the Allies to catch up with the Germans in infrared studies. Dr. Strong also served as both a professor and textbook author. Lambert wrote, “He (Strong) was a professor and director of the Astrophysical and Physical Meteorology Laboratories at Johns Hopkins University from 1945 to 1967, and was a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst from 1967 to 1975. He wrote several textbooks, including Procedures in Experimental Physics, Concepts of Classical Optics and Procedures in Applied Optics.” Dr. Strong was born of humble circumstances in Riverdale, Kansas in1905. Hegraduated from the University of Kansas in 1926 and received a doctorate in physics from the University of Michigan in 1930; and then went on to win medals from the Society of Photo-Optical Instrument Engineers, the Franklin Institute and the Optical Society of America, of which he was later president. The man was a genius in both the theoretical and practical applications of everything astronomy and physics. So if he said that there was water vapor on Venus, you could surely believe it. Adamski once told his close friend, C. A. Honey, that he “met someone connected to the Mariner 2 flight who told me information came back that was much different than that reported to the public.” Additionally, Honey reported in one of his monthly newsletters that, “According to Mr. Adamski, this man was an authority on the project.”100 You don’t suppose it could have been Dr. Strong who so informed Adamski? Decisions Made Keep in mind that the Soviet radio astronomer Arkady Kuzmin was sent to Caltech for the purpose of gaining entry to the JPL in order to monitor the Mariner 4 results as they came in from Mars. The information that Kuzmin gained, after being relayed to the Soviet Academy of Sciences, would inform the recommendations of that august body for the direction the Soviet space program would take in the near future. In other words, are their scientists’ efforts going to focus on the bright cloudy planet Venus, as they largely had been, or diverted to the fiery red planet Mars? As to this mysterious radio astronomer’s activities at Caltech and the JPL, the latter organization’s director at the time of the Soviet scientist’s visit, Dr. Bruce Murray, wrote the following: “The Russians were watching too. The Russian radio astronomer Arkady Kuzmin visited Caltech as part of an early Soviet-U.S. scientific exchange. Of course, in the mid-1960s any Soviet scientist permitted to live alone in the United States was exceptionally well trusted and was naturally collecting new scientific information for his government. With his crewcut hair topping a thin, intense face, Arkady displayed special interest at our first seminar on the Caltech campus when the Mariner 4 results were unofficially released.101 I had never before seen anyone photograph projected slides in a darkened lecture hall. But Kuzmin’s 35-mm camera clicked away when the key graphs appeared showing unmistakable evidence of Mars’s unexpectedly thin atmosphere.”102 Essentially, the Mars discovered by the Mariner 4 was “just a big Moon with a thin 100 C. A. Honey, “Editorial,” April 1963, S. P. Newsletter (Space Philosophy), Issue 16, Anaheim, California 101 The Mariner 4 was the fourth in a series of spacecraft intended for planetary exploration in a fly-by mode. It was designed to conduct closeup scientific observations of Mars and to transmit these observations to Earth. Launched on November 28, 1964, Mariner 4 performed the first successful fly-by of the planet Mars and returned the first pictures of the Martian surface. 102 Bruce Murray, Journey Into Space: The First Thirty Years of Space Exploration (New York, New York: W. W. Norton, 1989), 43. Even in 1987, ordinary Soviet scientists often could not travel overnight alone to scientific meetings within the United States.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus atmosphere and no life (at least indigenous to the planet –R.K.). There were no Martians, no canals, no water, no plants, no surface characteristics that even faintly resembled Earth’s. In jarring contrast with our expectations, we had just discovered a Mars incredibly inhospitable to life.”103 Clearly, after receiving and processing Kuzmin’s dire report on Mars, the Soviets were going to turn their attentions back to their first love, Venus. Back at the Soviet Academy the cries in favor of Venus were nearly unanimous. The Americans’ report made the Soviet Zond 2 Mars robotic spacecraft plans obsolete. The Martian atmosphere was just not dense enough for the Soviet entry payload to slow down sufficiently to allow it to safely arrive on the planet’s surface. And even if the Zond 2 did make it across the vast distance between the Earth and Mars, it was bound to slam into the Martian surface much faster than a speeding jet plane. Such a collision would result in the total disintegration of their probe. Far better, the Soviet scientists reasoned, to refit the Zond 2 for Venus exploration, for which it was The Soviets were surprised when Mars drew a blank. Sorry, no Martians, in green or any better suited in any case. The Soviets would not return other color. See http://villains.wikia.com/ to Mars for another six years.104 They were placing all wiki/Instant_Martians. of their bets on Lady Venus! Venus Rich in Oxygen Dr. Strong, speaking for his team of astrophysicists at Johns Hopkins University, told a reporter from the Associated Press on 7 December 1964, that, “The clouds surrounding the planet Venus are composed of water in the form of ice particles.” He added that, “The finding of water vapor on Venus raises the possibility of oxygen in its atmosphere.” The lead scientist explained that his team based their reasoning on calculations that all of Earth’s oxygen could be accounted for by the releasing of oxygen from water vapor in the upper atmosphere. And the oxygen on Venus, like anywhere else in the Solar System, is freed by the action of sunlight. The astrophysicist explained that there were many questions about Venus and the possibilities of life there that were still being harbored in the scientific community. On 27 October 1964, an unmanned balloon flight was launched from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, under the direction of the Johns Hopkins team of astrophysicists, to the limits of Earth’s atmosphere to take measurements of Venus free of the lower atmospheric clutter. The results from this experiment would either confirm the JPL’s, and Sagan’s conclusions, as they were supposedly gleaned from the Mariner 2 probe, or inform the interested scientists of some discrepancies that they could look deeper into. And as it turned out, the balloon findings indicated that Venus, truly Earth’s sister planet, was about equal in density and general composition to our own world, including its atmosphere. Dr. Strong explained to an Associated Press reporter that, “The possibility of a source of oxygen and a previous discovery that its atmosphere contains carbon dioxide raises the possibility that life in some form might exist on the planet.” Dr. Strong and his team came to the conclusion that the balloon measurements only served to confirm their earlier readings indicating a surface temperature on Venus being close to -40 degrees Fahrenheit, with only a few degrees of difference between the light and dark areas of 103 J. Denton Allen, et al, “Mariner IV Photography of Mars: Initial Results,” Science 149 (1965): 627-630. 104 Op cit

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Raymond Andrew Keller II the cloud-shrouded planet. Unfortunately, the Mariner 2, while passing within 21,000 miles of Venus, reported with Sagan’s radiometer, that its surface temperature was close to 800 degrees Fahrenheit. This is hot enough to melt lead; so the majority of the scientists remained doubtful amoult this whole space enterprise. But despite the probe’s closer proximity to Venus, Strong concluded that the latest data confirmed confirmed his earlier measurements. The high altitude balloon observations were in direct conflict with the radio telescope findings of both Earth-based stations and the Mariner 2 probe. However, the astrophysicist explained that, “The interpretation of radio-telescope waves as an indication of temperature has neither been provien nor universally accepted. Moreover, what these previous radio telescope findings seem to indicate is a large amount of lightning-like electrical activity in the turbulent atmosphere of Venus.” Superiority of Balloon Observations In October 1959, the United State Navy Laboratory sponsored a top secret manned balloon flight to the envelope of the Earth’s atmosphere with the stated purpose of taking spectrographic readings of the planet Venus. In this dangerous experiment, it was discovered that water vapor was present in significant amounts in the upper atmosphere of the Solar System’s second planet. The equipment was later modified into an unmanned robotic telescope apparatus that could easily be aimede by Sun sensors and locked onto sparkling Venus with a startracker device. The first unmanned balloon flight was then launched in February 1964, whence an onboard spectrometer measured water vapor by its absorption of certain infra-red wavelengths in the sunlight reflecting off the fluffy white Venusian cloud layer. During the October launch from Holloman Air Force Base, however, the telescope measured a different wavelength and actually obtained readings from the Venusian clouds themselves, rather than the mere reflections. The telescope was hovering at an altitude of 86,000 feet and was locked onto the cloudy planet for more than three hours. And what did this platform and the history of sundry balloon observations of Venus reveal? The scientists concluded that the heavy clouds which shroud Venus are composed of particles of frozen water, similar to Earth’s clouds. They also ruled out the widely-held and Sagan-promoted ideas of Venusian clouds being composed of dust or noxious chemicals, thus ruling out any alleged greenhouse effect. Other Lies about Venus Debunked Back in the USSR, where planetary and rocket scientists knew exactly how lucky they were to be working on various projects related to finding life on the second planet, 1965 has arrived and Mars is off the agenda for space exploration, at least in the short term. All attention is focused on Venus and getting Soviet robotic spacecraft there on a consistent basis. Dr. Georgy Petrov, the Soviet Union’s best engineer, born 31 May 1912 in the village of Pinega, Arkhangelsk Governorate, is appointed by the Politburo to head up the Soviet Academy of Sciences. His primary mission is to find out what conditions really are like on Venus, and if life of any kind exists there. In 1935, he graduated from the Moscow State University with honors, whence he worked at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute. In 1944, he worked at NII-1, a jet propulsion research institute; and in 1953 he was nominated professor of engineering at the Moscow State University. And in the same fateful year, Petrov became a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, ultimately becoming the director of its Space Research Institute in Moscow from 1965 to 1973. 113

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus The newly installed director Petrov calls for a special assembly of scientists and engineering personnel at the Space Research Insitute on Monday, 4 April 1966. Needless to say, he is not a happy camper. From a dear friend who was married to the daughter of a retired Soviet colonel associated with the rocket program, here is gist of what the new director had to say on that day: “Comrades of the great Soviet Union, pioneers of the Moon and planets, it is now my good fortune to lead you out of the mire in which you have found yourselves, especially with regard to the exploration of Venus. Since the successful conclusion of the Mariner 2 mission in the imperialist United States, let us review our efforts to catch up. “Since the Mariner 2 was just a fly-by mission, we thought we could outdo the Americans by landing a spacecraft on Venus with our Venera 2MV-1 No. 2, which was subsequently destroyed after going off course at launch on 1 September 1962. OK, back to the drawing board. On 12 September we settle for just a fly-by mission, to at least equal the American accomplishment. We rushed it. The lander mission required more time, and we should have sent the fly-by vehicle, Venera 2MV-2, No. 1, first, as its designation implies. Result, our zeal Georgy Petrov, 1912-1987 See to get the probe through the short window on 12 September, http://www.astronautix.com/p/ petrovgeorgi.html. just 11 days after the first disaster, is yet another fiasco. The rocket went off course at launch and subsequently had to be destroyed. “Now what do we do? We retreat back to the Kosmos 21 vehicle. We launch in just two months, with the next window on 11 November. This was just supposed to be technology test to see if the probe could endure the long voyage, nothing more. But it didn’t even get off the ground, either. This is yet another launch failure. So now we are back to taking our time and trying to get things right; so we skip numerous launch windows. But we go with the Venera 3MV-1, No. 2 for a fly-by of Venus. However, this results in another launch failure on 19 February 1964. “On the 27th of the following month we go again with Kosmos 27. It was designed to be a lander but dies in a launch failure. Then at the beginning of April, on the second day, we try the Zond 1. We are making better progress now. While the Zond was designed as a lander, it at least makes it to within 100,000 kilometers of the planet before comms are lost on 14 May 1964. Then last year in November our Veneras 2 and 3, designed as landers, were launched on the 12th and 16th days of the month, respectively. On February 27, our engineers determined a malfunctioning in the landing gear; so we opted for a fly-by at 24,000 kilometers. But we lost contact with our Venera 2 right before we had a chance to steer it past the planet. On 1 March of this year our Venera 3 lander was actually deployed; but once again comms were lost. But this time it was during actual atmospheric descent. “So, Comrades, what is the common thread in all of these problems with the Venus probes? Engineering is what the problem is; and that is why I am here, to see that these problems get fixed, whether they are in rocketry, navigation or sustained communications. “Clearly, Comrades, we would not be placing all of this emphasis and effort on getting to Venus if we believed it was the Dante’s Inferno that NASA wants us to believe. I know that many of you were disturbed after reading of the supposed ‘findings’ of the imperialist 114

Raymond Andrew Keller II Americans’ Mariner 2 probe. NASA’s spacecraft was well-designed; but their government would not allow them to reveal what they really discovered about the cloud planet for fear of public panic, not knowing how the masses would react to the existence of any kind of extraterrestrial life. Up until the lap dog Sagan put forth his ridiculous theory that the surface temperatures on Venus exceeded 800°F, scientists were content with the high altitude balloon spectrographic observations of the Venusian atmospheric layers being conducted in the United States by their Navy and Air Force laboratories. The results of these experiments indicated an electrically-charged atmosphere largely consisting of water vapor, with no signs of toxic gases conducive to a run-away greenhouse effect. Since the real results of the Mariner probe probably indicated moderate temperatures within the range of human habitability, NASA had to lie to the world and declare that it was vindicated insofar as their probe supposedly revealed surface temperatures up to 600°F. This is the lie perpetuated by the American imperialists and the lie that we must overcome. “The Venus measurements from Earth-based stations in the United States and in our beloved Union of Soviet Socialist Republics have already shown a temperature of -60° F in the upper atmospheric layer and -30°F in the lower levels. Because we know that the clouds of Venus are largely composed of water vapor, it is safe to assume that the clouds are very much as those on Earth. So let us examine the Earth’s cloud system first and see what parallels we might encounter on Venus. Those who have studied the ionosphere realize that it consists of several layers with varying characteristics. These ionospheric layers are named D, E and F and are broken down even further into layers called E1 and E2, as well as F1 and F2. No doubt, a similar layering exists around Venus. So if we could start out at the surface of the Earth and measure the temperature as we went upward, we would find that it got much colder as we increased in altitude. This would continue until it reached about -75°F. This will vary, of course, insofar as the figures cited are approximations. “Now on Earth, the E layer reaches from approximately 50 to 100 miles; and the F layer is above that. When we reach the altitude of 60 miles, we would be amazed to find that the temperature has climbed to about -8°F; and by the time we doubled that altitude, to 120 miles up, the outside temperature would be about 1,200°F. And at 180 miles it would rise even more, to about 1,700°F, but dropping a little bit to temperatures between 725°F and 1327°F at around 240 miles altitude. At 300 miles, we would find layers running from 1,100°F to 2,400°F. And some of our rocket probes, sent just beyond the Earth’s atmospheric envelope, in recent months measured layers averaging from 4,000°F to 6,000°F. But now a new factor enters the picture; and this is where Sagan is proved to be the liar. “The high temperatures measured around the Earth are not heat temperatures, as we know them. Rather, they are measurements of what is termed ‘kinetic’ temperature. Some may see this as the electron temperature. When solar radition enters and is absorbed by the ionosphere, photo-electrons are emitted that possess energies much greater than those in existing atmospheric particles. Therefore, if energy continues to be built up in this process, then temperatures can reach exceedingly high, measured by the kinetic temperature. A good example is the kinetic energy that surrounds the Sun, reaching 2,000,000°F, while the surface of that same celestial body measures only 6,000°F. As a consequence, what I am telling you is that the kinetic temperature is not heat as we generally understand it. “Let me illustrate it in this way: If we drop water on a hot stove, it will form into little bubbles that dance all around. And the hotter the stove gets, the faster the bubbles dance. 115

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Well, the same thing applies to the small particles in the higher atomosphere. The more energy they have, the faster they vibrate, or dance, if you like. The speed of vibration will, of course, correspond to their equivalent temperature. Therefore, in the F layer around the Earth, only a very small portion of the absorbed radiation will appear as heat. At least 85%, however, resulting from the excitation of the energy levels of molecules will be radiated as kinetic heat and not the real heat as we know it. Because of this, our esteemed astronomers, astrophysicists and scientists from many fields, have concluded that Venus should have a much higher kinetic temperature than our world’s 6,000°F level, especially since it is closer to the Sun and will thereby receive particles vibrating at a higher speed. And what is more, Venus should have a magnetic field three to four times stronger than that of the Earth, despite the lie proferred by the Americans that their Mariner 2 failed to measure one. “Therefore, Comrades, the secret of the high readings on Venus really lies in the method used to obtain them. In the case of Mariner 2, the method the Americans used was radiometric. This was at the instigation of the imperialist lap dog Carl Sagan, who designed and installed the radiometer, and the same one that our KGB agents discovered was working on plans to militarize the Moon and outer space with nuclear weapons and testing of them beyond the Earth. What Sagan contributed to the Mariner 2 program was really nothing to speak of. He knew what the findings of the radiometer would be, that they would supposedly vindicate his ridiculous theory on the surface temperature of Venus. Let me tell you, dear Comrades, that Sagan’s detector was nothing more than a radio receiver designed to scan for electromagnetic radiation on definite wavelengths or frequencies. The scanning mechanism malfunctioned and failed to scan as planned. Therefore, the lap dog Sagan settled for the device to make only three passes across the planet and all of the so-called ‘readings’ were determined from that. “We know that according to theory, if the microwave radiometer scanned Venus as it should have, then it would have detected larger electron concentrations around the limb (edge of the planetary disk), provided that the heat was from the ionosphere. But if the heat was from the surface, as Sagan contends, a limb-to-limb scan would have showed gradual changes. Ahh, Comrades, but it is from such faulty methods that the Americans employ that their great Mariner 2 pronouncements are made! For now we understand that the temperature readings were radio emissions originating from the upper atmosphere of Venus, probably at ionospheric levels. And compared to Earth readings, were below normal instead of being true readings. I tell you this of a surety: It should be noted that the kinetic temperature of high altitude cloud layers might be in the order of 600 to 800°F and that the infra-red (true heat) scanner would measure a cloud temperature of many degrees below zero. Thus the two temperatures could co-exist. The methods of heat measurement, if they were also applied to the Earth from a probe at a similar distance as the Mariner 2 was from Venus, would clearly show our world as uninhabitable for human life because the temperatures would exceed the melting point of lead! “Do not let yourselves be deceived or discouraged by the lies of NASA. We are going to Venus and we will discover the truth of the extraterrestrial presence there for the collective benefit of all humankind. Comrades, let us declare with one voice, ‘Onward to Venus!’” Petrov banged the dais with his fists and the assembled scientists followed his example, pounding their desks and stomping their feet. The next probe to the cloud planet, the Venera 4, was launched on 12 June 1967 of the following year and on 18 October of the same year, successfully culminated in the first landing of a spacecraft on another planet. Much is owed to the inspiring leadership and direction of Dr. Georgy Petrov, who passed away on 17 May 1987, 116

Raymond Andrew Keller II just as much a space hero of the Soviet Union as the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. Unless you happen to know some individual(s) who worked inside the Soviet space program or were associated with them and could therefore pass on second-hand accounts, obtaining accurate information on its sundry projects is almost impossible. Security has always been tight, even predating the success of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite. When the Sputnik project was first approved, one of the most immediate courses of action taken by the Politburo was to consider what to announce to the world regarding their spectacular achievement. Therefore, it fell upon the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) to establish precedents for all official announcements on the Soviet space program. As a result, the information eventually released was quite sparse, not even offering details on who built and launched the satellite or why it was launched. Nevertheless, the press releases were illuminating in what they did reveal. In the case of the Glory to the Soviet People, the Pioneers TASS coverage of Sputnik, it was said that, “There is of Space! See http://russiatrek.org/blog/ an abundance of arcane scientific and technical data... art/propaganda-posters-of-soviet-spaceprogram-1958-1963/. as if to overwhelm the reader with mathematics in the absence of even a picture of the object.”105 What remains of the release is the pride for Soviet cosmonautics and the vague hinting of future possibilities then available after Sputnik’s success. As a general rule, TASS press releases about the space program were very optimistic, but much in line with the expressed philosophy of Ernest Kolman, a Czech-born professor of mathematics who was both a confidant of Lenin and Einstein.106 A Bolshevik of the old school, being an atheist and materialist, Kolman advanced a set of prognoseses about the future of Soviet space exploration, declaring that there would be “actual space colonies as humans made their way to the Moon, Mars and Venus, and then the rest of the galaxy, and finally beyond.”107 So we see that from the very beginning of the Soviet space program there were plans for Venus, to be utilized as the final staging point for the further expansion of humankind, under the red Soviet banner, into the limitless cosmos. Of course, the Soviet space program’s use of secrecy served as both a tool to prevent the leaking of classified information between countries and also to create a mysterious barrier between the space program and the Soviet populace. By the very nature of the program, messages were always ambiguous, but largely focused on the program’s lofty goals, successes, and values. It has been said that the program itself was so secret that the average Soviet citizen could never achieve a concrete image of it. What they received was a rather superficial picture of its history, present activities, or future endeavors. Author and historian of the Soviet space program, Dominic Phelan, wrote that, “Launchings were not announced until they took place. 105 James T. Andrews and Asif A. Siddiqi, Into the Cosmos: Space Exploration and Soviet Culture (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011), 48. 106 Ibid, 169 107 Ibid, 296

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Cosmonaut names were not released until they flew. Mission details were sparse. We did not know the size or shape of their rockets or cabins or most of their spaceships, except for the first Sputniks, lunar probes and Venus probe.”108 However, while officials attempted to promote the space program by frequently connecting its successes to the strength of socialism, it could also be said that these same officials understood the importance of secrecy in the context of the Cold War. Therefore, this stress on secrecy in the Soviet Union can readily be understood as a measure of protection regarding both its strengths and weaknesses. The reasoning for such secrecy was clearly motivated by the desire to protect information related to the very security of the Soviet state. In this process, what evolved was a news apparatus with the desire to positively promote the external image of the Soviet Union to the outside world while at the same time limiting content which may taint its image. All of this helped in asserting the government’s control over ideas and technology and the protection of Soviet inventions. And most assuredly, the military influence of the Soviet space program may be its most sweeping explanation for the shroud of secrecy that surrounded it. The many firsts and successes of the Soviet space program were actually orchestrated by the Experimental Design Bureau-1 (OKB-1), which was subordinate to the Ministry of General Machine Building. This was the government body that oversaw the operations of the most highly secretive military-industrial complex targeted by Western intelligence agencies’ surveillance throughout the Cold War. The astute historian must keep in mind that the primary and initial goal of the OKB-1 was the production and further improvement of intercontinental ballistic missiles.109 This may have changed somewhat in the 1960s with the shift in gears towards the “space race,” at least insofar as knowledge gained from space exploration could be channeled into definite military applications. For this reason, the Soviet space program’s achievements were covered in another layer of secrecy equal to that imposed on the military’s missile development and deployment program. It therefore becomes apparent that the demands for security in the Soviet space program were strongly influenced by overarching military requisites. So we see that the Soviet Union was a closed society with strict control over all media. During the Cold War investigations of widespread UFO reports in the USSR by Western ufologists were almost impossible. However, that such UFO reports were the source of some great confusion in the West, may have lent themselves to situations that were easily exploited, or even created, by the Soviets. A good example of this temporary opening up involved the numerous sightings over Petrozabodsk on 20 September 1977, where no attempt was made to suppress UFO information coming out of the country by the Soviet authorities. And then a little less than three years later, with the spectacular sightings of 14 June 1980, the Soviet press seemed to go out of its way to encourage the extraterrestrial hypothesis as the correct interpretation of the UFO enigma.110 To explain this unusual turn on the part of the authorities, United States science writer and expert on the Soviet Union’s space program, James Oberg, connected these particular sightings with top secret satellite launches from a space rocket station in northern Russia. The Soviets encouraged the UFO mania in the United States and the West in order to hide the rocket launchings. Of course, during the early years of the flying saucer era, the Soviet press 108 Brian Harvey in chapter, “Hidden in Plain Sight,” in Dominic Phelan, ed., Cold War Space Sleuths: Untold Secrets of the Soviet Space Program (Chichester, United Kingdom: Praxis Publishing, 2002), 32. 109 Claude Wachtel and Chrisstian Lardier in chapter, “View from Paris,” in Dominic Phelan, ed., Cold War Sleuths, 116. 110 Gray Barker, Gray Barker’s UFO Annual 1983 (Clarksburg, West Virginia: Saucerian Press, 1983), 45

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Raymond Andrew Keller II was denouncing the alleged appearance of these objects in their skies as just another Western propaganda stunt. The big changes did not start to come until the early 1960s, when Soviet and Communist bloc scientists made affirming statements about the crash of a Venusian saucer in the Tunguska region and astronomy professor Alexis Zolotov postulated that Phobos, one of the two small Martian moons, was in reality an artificial satellite.111 Off the record, Zolotov mentioned that he had read some of his Adamski’s books on flying saucers and largely agreed with him about the role of motherships in the extraterrestrial reconnaissance of the Earth. The astronomer points out one case that he personally investigated that proves his point, that of Antonas Basilikis, who on 11 November 1979, was making his way home from a political meeting witnessed when he witnessed a tiny, disc-shaped object flittering about in the beams of his automobile headlights. “At first I thought it might be a bird, or even a radio-controlled toy,” Antonas said to Zolotov. He added that, “But it was flying so slowly and often it would stop and hover momentarily. Its maneuvers clearly ruled out the latter explanation.”112 The observer estimated that the object was only about the size of a dinner plate. He said that it had a black top and the rest of the disc was bright red. Antonas was not afraid, however; for he didn’t believe that anything that small could do him much harm. He just thought that it was examining his car and headlights. “I was too much amused to be afraid,” he reported, and added that, “As I watched it with child-like wonderment, finally it swerved and moved over the car. I looked back but it was gone.” It was so bizarre that he vowed not to tell a living soul, except for his beloved wife. When he got home, however, he soon discovered that the whole town was alive with talk about the “toy flying saucer” that had been zipping up and down various streets and even peeping into the windows of residents.113 Adamski referred to these small drones as “registered discs.” He even took a brief motion picture of one fluttering above a friend’s home in Maryland sometime in 1963. Zolotov, for his part, remarked goodnaturedly that, “I term them ‘thought discs,’ though this is not a good description. Small disc-pshaped and tubjular objects have been seen often, flying around and The microminiaturization of circuitry even entering homes as if making inspections. They are has allowed the intelligence services of obviously a miracle of technological miniaturization, Earth to create small drones the size of a mosquito. Did we learn this technology employing indstrumentation that we have just begun to from the Venusians? See “Secret Insect develop and not even yet approached with our gigantic Spy Drones,” https://www.youtube.com/ Salyut-6 space modules. I believe they are collecting watch?v=KMI7HIhKdIo. information and transmitting this to a mothership, acting as an orbital receiver.” The Soviet scientist added that, “The ‘thought discs’ have a mobility not possessed by larger craft and attract much less attention.” 111 Ibid 112 Ibid, 45 113 Ibid, 44

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Lightning in a Temple With respect to such probe phenomena, one actually was observed in the heart of the Kremlin back in 1977. At about 8:30 a.m. on 5 August, a fiery sphere appeared at about 200 meters over the Great Kremlin Palace. Its estimated diameter was about one meter. After less than a minute, however, it broke off into three smaller balls. One descended to Ivanovskaya Square, the second to the Tainitski Garden and the third, estimated to be about five centimeters in diameter, moved towards the Arkhangelski Cathedral. As it was raining quite hard, the door was left open for visitors to come in and wait out the downpour. The fiery sphere, though, moving about one meter off the ground, just flew through the door between the keeper of the cathedral and a watchman on duty. All who observed the object were in agreement that its color was similar to a “burning filament lamp.” Within a matter of seconds, however, the object moved inside the cathedral and then proceeded to explode against the iconostasis. Fortunately, no damage was cvaused apart from the slightly charred wooden volute of the iconostasis’ carving. There was a strong small of ozone in the cathedral. One scientist on a tour of the Kremlin postulated that the light intensity of the object was five to ten times that of sunlight. Its estimated energy was most likely sufficient enough to destroy the whole cathedral, but for the most part, nobody felt any heat from the ball. Nevertheless, its intense light did manage to dazzle the witnesses. Unfortunately, within two to three days, many of the strange ball’s observers began to manifest signs of hypertension, queeziness, violent headaches and blurred vision. While some scientists tried to explain this phenomenon away as being just a case of “ball lightning,” the facts did not support this conclusion. The very architectural structure of the Kremlin complex was fitted with a perfected lightning protection system; and the ball behaved as if it were totally unencumbered by such protective measures. More than 400 years before this event, however, a similar fiery ball flew into this same Arkhangeliski Cathedral. It, too, approached the altar and exploded in an array of multi-colored sparks against the iconostasis then in place. Soviet security officers said it was just a “freak natural phenomenon,” but the Russian Orthodox priests who run the cathedral claim that, “It was a sign from God to bring real religion back to the USSR, to return the power to the people and the Christian churches.”114 So the presence of UFO phenomena in the former USSR and contemporary Russia is real. And as Adamski clearly stated, if either the US or the USSR broke through this veil of secrecy and had announced some significant findings about intelligent life of any kind on Venus or any other planet in the solar system or beyond, that was actually visiting our world, it would have immediately been shouted down by the other side as pure propaganda, a tool for political destabilization. Just look at all the hub-bub in the wake of alleged Russian hacking of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails. Imagine even in our day what a full Venus disclosure about advanced extraterrestrial life there, on the part of the Russians, would do to totally turn the whole of American society on its head? This is something that must seriously be considered. Kozyrev Leads the Venus Camp Naturally, the existence of any kind of life on Venus was dependent upon an amenable atmosphere. White Stork was especially concerned about the investigations of the Russian astronomer and astrophysicist Nikolai A. Kozyrev in regard to the actual temperatures at 114 M. Dmitriev, “Lightning in a Temple,” 6 June 1979, Vokrug Sveta (Around the World), No. 6, p. 45, Moscow, USSR.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II various layers of the Venusian atmosphere. Leading the Venus camp, Kozyrev first gained notoriety in Soviet astronomical circles in 1954, following a proclamation that, “The high temperature of Venus refers to its ionosphere, and the surface may be in a condition to allow the development of life.”115 Kozyrev was born in St. Petersburg in 1908. As a youth, he became obsessed with all aspects of astronomy. In 1928 he graduated from the Leningrad State University with a Ph.D. in astrophysics; and three years later he began working at the Pulkovo Observatory, situated on the southern outskirts of Leningrad. Kozyrev was the youngest student to receive a doctoral degree from the prestigious Leningrad State University and was considered by the faculty of the Astronomy Sector to be the most promising of the new breed of astrophysicists emerging in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Unfortunately, with the coming to power of Josef Stalin, the Pulkovo Observatory faculty and staff soon discovered that they were not immune to buffetings of his repressive regime; and Kozyrev was numbered among the victims of the Stalinist purges carried out in the Astronomy Sector. It all started by the accusations of a disgruntled graduate student, high in the party ranks. Tragically, most of the observatory staff died as a result of this student’s unfounded claims against the sector. Kozyrev was arrested in November 1936 and sentenced to ten years for allegedly conducting “counterrevolutionary activity,” i.e. not blindly passing the student for his marginal class performance. While incarcerated in a Siberian gulag, the great scientist was allowed to work in facilities engineering and maintenance. Despite the incessant petitions by his peers throughout the Soviet astronomy and astrophysics academies, the Stalinist authorities saw to it that the supposed “counterrevolutionary” served out his full sentence. But perhaps there was a silver lining in this cloud, for many others in the Soviet scientific community lost their lives in defending the Russian homeland from the Nazi invaders in the Great Patriotic War. So despite Kozyrev’s “chilling out” World War II in the Tundra wasteland of Siberia, he lived on to continue his important work, the investigation of the true nature of planets, stars and even time itself. Incidentally, Alexander Solzhenitsyn remembers serving time with Kozyrev in the gulags and writes about him in his monumental work, the Gulag Archipelago.116 By December 1946, Kozyrev was out of the gulag and back in Leningrad, resuming his work at the nearby observatory. Kozyrev on Lunar Phenomena Among his peers, Kozyrev was rightly considered to be a bold thinker and was highly esteemed by many of the prominent scientists of the Soviet Union, among them Arkady Kuzmin, Vasily Moroz, and Iosef Shklovskiy. Besides his research on the mysteries of the planet Venus, Kozyrev accomplished breakthrough work on the nature of lunar phenomena and the space-time continuum. Today, Kozyrev is honored as one of the founders of theoretical astrophysics in Russia. As to the Moon, it should be noted that ever since telescopes were first used to observe the nearest natural celestial body to our world, the lack of evidence for active volcanism on its surface suggested to most astronomers that it was a dead orb. But that all changed on 3 November 1958, when Kozyrev, from the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj, near Bakhchysarai, sighted what he believed to be a “reddish cloud” emanating from the central peak of the crater Alphonsus, located in the lunar highlands on the eastern end of Mare Nubium, west of the Imbrian Highlands. There is a slight overlap with the crater Ptolemaeus 115 Claude Wachtel and Chrisstian Lardier, 11 116 Thomas Hockey, ed., entry by William Sheehan and Thomas A. Dobbins, “Kozyrev, Nikolai A.,” The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, 2nd ed. (New York, New York: Springer Publishing, 2014), 1242-1244.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus to the north; while to the northwest is the smaller Alpetragius. Nevertheless, Kozyrev, employing a spectroscope recorded on spectrograms the possible luminescence of volcanic gases escaping from the crater. The spectroscope consists of a movable slit and collimating lens that refracts light into a frequency spectrum. It was attached to the 50-inch reflector at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory. During the time of exposure, Kozyrev noted that the central peak on the spectrograph slit appeared to be brighter and whiter than usual. “Suddenly,” the astrophysicist said, “the brightness of this peak dropped to normal during the time on the order of tens of seconds.” He further added that, “This circumstance must not be considered accidental.... hence, we can conjecture that the central peaks of lunar craters may be of a similar origin to the cones of terrestrial volcanoes and are, consequently, gradually accumulated formations.” Of course, a discovery of this magnitude was sure to lead to a firestorm in the world’s scientific circles; and it did. An exhaustive scrutiny of the Kozyrev spectrograms indicated the volcanic signature to be that of the C2 molecule, a molecular carbon usually associated with volcanoes. In addition, further telescopic observations of the Alphonsus crater and the region round about it revealed the presence of a scattered reddish substance, adding further confirmation of Kozyrev’s observations as made from the Crimean telescope. In addition, in slightly less than three years, Dr. Thomas Gold, a Cornell University scientist stated that he believed that there were extensive water resources on the Moon. It seems that Cornell had just opened up a new center for Radio Physics and Space Research, and appointed Gold as the director. At the first of several meetings of the American Geophysical Union on the planetary sciences co-arranged by the American Is the Moon geologically alive? This Physical Society and held at the new facility, Gold photograph from NASA’s Lunar Orbiter Reconnaissance Camera clearly expressed his belief that lunar water was shielded from demonstrates active volcanism on the Moon, evaporation by a layer of ice at a shallow depth. “In vindicating Kozyrev’s earlier observations. some places,” the scientist noted, “water or ice may lie See http://www.luggageonline.com/lolnews/ volcanoes-moon/. only 100 feet below the surface, making it accessible to a manned scientific station on the moon.”117 In other words, he confirmed what the contactees like George Adamski and Howard Menger had been saying all along, that the Venusians had beaten us there countless millennia ago, colonizing our own Moon.118

117 Walter Sullivan, “Big Water Supply Believed on Moon,” dateline Washington, 19 April 1961 appearing in New York Times, 20 April 1961. 118 The reader’s attention is invited to unstated author, “Scientist Suggests Moon UFO Base,” NICAP Bulletin, January 1959. Adamski and Menger were vindicated in this when Dr. John Russell, head of the University of Southern California astronomy department, suggested that visitors from outer space might be using the back side of the Moon as a base for reconnaissance operations. According to Russell, “If there are flying saucers from some other planet scrutinizing our own, then the back side of the Moon whould be an ideal staging platform for them. Extraterrestrial space craft could (at the time of a new Moon) circle around the Moon several times before landing, and still go unobserved. And once landed on the back side, they would be absolutely safe from further detection, later on.”

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Raymond Andrew Keller II Naturally, Gold’s hypothesis depends on the existence of a sufficient heat source on the Moon to liberate the water vapor from the rocks. As usual, there was a skeptic in the crowd, who asserted that the Moon could not generate much water because it was “dead and too cold.” To this, however, Gold cited Kozyrev’s research at the Crimean observatory. Gold replied that, “Dr. Nikolai Kozyrev, Soviet specialist in the spectroscopic analysis of light reported then that he had seen, within a lunar crater, a flash typical of glowing carbon.” While there was little evidence of further volcanic activity, however, Gold did not dispute the accuracies of Kozyrev’s spectrograms. In explaining why the Moon should no longer be considered as a dead body, Gold explained how Nikolai Aleksandrovich Kozyrev (1908volcanoes on Earth simply “cook” water out of rocks, 1983), noted Russian astrophysicist, made scientific breakthroughs while observing releasing clouds of steam. Gold stated that, “A similar various phenomena on the Moon, Venus process on the Moon, fired by the heat of radioactivity and in the space-time continuum. He in the deep interior, would send water vapor seeping was honored in September 1969 by the International Academy of Astronautics toward the surface. As it entered cooler layers, it would (Paris, France) and awarded a gold medal condense and, at a depth of perhaps a half mile, freeze, “For remarkable telescopic and spectral filling all the interstices and cavities in the rock at that observations of luminescent phenomena on the Moon, showing that the Moon level.” remains a still active body, and stimulating He continued, “This accumulation of ice at a fixed development of the methods of luminescent layer would eventually seal water vapor that might researches worldwide.” Additionally, in December 1969, the State Committee for otherwise escape; and Affairs of Discovery and Inventions at the further loss of water Ministerial Council of the USSR awarded from the Moon would N. Kozyrev a diploma “For the discovery be slight.” of tectonic activity of the Moon.” Also, the International Astronomical Union has Gold’s research named asteroid 2536 after him, as well as a paralleled that of crater on the Moon. See https://the-moon. Kozyrev. Up to that wikispaces.com/Nikolai+Kozyrev. time, the general view had been that the Moon is waterless. Astronomers believed that the lunar gravity was too weak to retain an atmosphere of water vapor or other light gases; but Gold showed highdefinition photographs of lunar craters taken at French observatories, pointing to domes on crater floors that could have only been produced “where water pressure had forced a bulge in the hypothetical ice layer.” The French photographs and Gold’s analysis were well Pencil drawing is of Corina received by astronomers back in the USSR. White Stork even Chirila’s “Alien Girl on the Moon” took note that A. I. Oparin, the Soviets’ leading proponent (2002). Corina has seen her in in the search for extraterrestrial life, “thinks that organic recurring dreams since her early youth. See https://korethemaiden. substances either alive or dead are possible on the Moon.” But wordpress.com/tag/drawing/ page/2/.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus while most in the West continued to scoff at Oparin’s optimistic assessment of the Moon, there was one who wasn’t laughing. The White Stork report noted that Boston born, Lowell Observatory astronomer, William H. Pickering, “tried to explain various changes of tint in the Moon by colonies of insects appearing and disappearing during the progress of the lunar day.”119 This American astronomer should not, however, be confused with the New Zealand born William H. Pickering who headed up the Mariner 2 Venus program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. More on the work of that astronomer, with the same name, will be explored further on in this book.

Cat-Women of the Moon (1953) See https:// thetelltalemind.com/2015/01/06/cat-womenof-the-moon-1953-the-visuals/. How long have the Russians known about the Venusian Space Base Clarion on the far side of our own Moon?

Venusian Astronomical Anomalies With Tikhov taking up the red banner of Mars, it was up to Kozyrev to wave the blue flag of Venus. Of Kozyrev, the prominent space journalist Brian Harvey notes that it was the Russian’s pioneering spectrograms that painted a promising picture for the future Soviet exploration of Earth’s cloudy, twin sister. With Kozyrev, Venusian “surface temperatures were estimated in the region of 60 to 76 degrees C.” In addition, Kozyrev was convinced that his spectrographic observations proved that Venus was a planet possessing “watery oceans.”120 It seems that in 1954, Kozyrev took note of an emission spectrum from the night side of Venus but ascribed it to discharges in the upper layers of its atmosphere. The dutiful Russian calculated that the temperature of the Venusian surface must be +30°C/86°F;121 although somewhat higher values were found earlier by A. Adel and G. Herzberg. As late as 1959, however, V. A. Firsoff arrived at a figure of +17.5°C for the mean surface temperature of Venus, only a little above the mean annual temperature of the Earth (+14.2°C/63.5°F).122 Therefore, with the vaunted reputation of Kozyrev solidly behind a Venus that paralleled conditions in California, the attention of the Soviet space program became riveted to the second planet in their search for an advanced civilization in outer space. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, several Soviet authors excitedly suggested that their observations, either telescopic or spectroscopic, indicated the presence of organisms in the atmosphere or on the surface of Venus. Kozyrev, ever the advocate for Lady Venus, ascribed some of the absorptions detected by him in the spectra of our sister world to micro-organisms. And Tikhov, long the proponent for life on Mars, even came to Kozyrev’s defense when he was attacked by some Western astronomers touting the American government’s line, for public consumption, that, “There is no evidence of life on Venus; and if the surface temperature proves to be 800°K/980°F, the presence of organisms with a terrestrial- type biochemistry is precluded.” Nevertheless, Tikhov boldly asserted that there is a preferential absorption of red and yellow light by the surface of Venus that is similar to the light absorption by vegetation. 119 Soviet Effort, 11 120 Brian Harvey, Russian Planetary Exploration: History, Development, Legacy and Prospects (Chichester, UK: Praxis, 2007), 12. 121 N. A. Kozyrev, Izv. Krymsk. Astrofiz. Observ. 12 (1954) 122 Science News, 52, Summer (1959).

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Raymond Andrew Keller II So while the American scientists, at least publicly, were quick in dismissing even the possibility of finding life on Venus, it was clear that the Soviet scientists were keeping a more open mind on the matter. Soviet science correspondent Oleg Borisov wrote the following in the January 1972 issue of Space World, addressing some of the concerns of those Venus researchers at the Space Research Institute of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: “Venus is a hard nut for scientists to crack. The problem is that its gas envelope does not let through the waves of the optic and infrared ranges, and those are the regions of the electromagnetic oscillation spectrum that give us the information on celestial bodies. For investigating the surface of that planet by radar methods there is a narrow window in the decimeter and partly in the meter radio wave range. Ground radar was used to sound Venus in the centimeter range, but these short waves reflected not only from the surface, but also from the depth of the atmosphere, and this confused the picture.”123 The Soviet author, publishing such honest information in a popular United States space magazine, was directing his comments to those scientists everywhere involved with investigations of outer space and the phenomena found therein. He was pointing out that the results of radar investigations performed directly from the Earth by Soviet specialists were not quite definite when it came to the composition of the Venusian atmosphere. In fact, Borisov went on to write that up to 1972, its composition was still “practically unknown.” The implication was that since astrophysicists know that the parameters of the signals which pass through a gas medium vary according to the characteristics of that medium, then how could the American scientists be so sure in all of their announced findings about Venus? Certainly, the Soviets weren’t as adamant as the Americans in this regard, in jumping to conclusions about Venus. What the Soviet scientists wanted to do was to correlate the information provided by their Venera 4, 5, 6 and 7 probes with respect to the composition of the atmosphere of Venus at varying altitudinal levels, along with pressure and gas densities at these same altitudes. As to the findings of these Venera missions, specialists at the Space Research Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences were beginning to sense that the planet Venus was not quite the inhospitable location the Americans at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory were making it out to be. The decision was made to launch additional Venera probes to secure more accurate atmospheric data. With the start of 1972, it had been a year and half since Venera 7 was launched, with only sketchy information pouring in following the probe’s successful landing on Venus, in operational order in the planet’s equatorial and then day-lit side, on 15 December 1970. It was clear to the scientists at the Space Research Institute in Moscow that the Americans were not about to share any of the hard information that would lend support for the existence of life, of any kind, on the planet Venus. If the evidence was going to be found, they reasoned that they would have to find it on their own. The Venera 8 was also a Venus atmospheric probe and lander. Its instrumentation included temperature, pressure, and light sensors as well as an altimeter, gamma ray spectrometer, gas analyzer, and radio transmitters. The spacecraft was launched, as was its predecessor Venera 7, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, on 17 March 1972. It took 117 days to reach Venus, three days faster than Venera 7 made the run, with only one mid-course correction on 6 April 1972, separating from the bus (which contained a cosmic ray detector, solar wind detector, and ultraviolet spectrometer). It penetrated the Venusian atmosphere on 22 July 1972 at 08:37 Universal Time (UT). A refrigeration unit that was attached to the bus was employed to pre123 Oleg Borisov, “No Oceans of Oil on Venus,” Space World, Amherst, Wisconsin, January 1972.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus chill the descent capsule’s interior prior to atmospheric entry with the intent of prolonging its life on the surface. The probe’s descent speed was reduced from 41,696km/h to about 900km/h by aerobraking, with the 2.5 meter diameter parachute opened at an altitude of 60kilometers. When Venera 8 touched down on the Venusian surface, it was night time on our sister planet. Possibly because of tussling in the upper atmosphere and exposure to a high electricallycharged environment in the atmospheric layers it passed through during its descent, the probe only managed to transmit data for the space of one hour. By the time the gas analyzer was activated, Venera 8’s batteries had burned out. But before it fizzled out, transitioning into that ethereal realm whence no space probe can return, with its last spark channeled into the gas analyzer, Venera 8 told the Soviet scientists there was oxygen and water vapor in the lower atmosphere. Kozyrev remarked, “I wish the engineers had taken the time to install a television camera in the Venera 8. I’d sure like to see what’s happening there in real time.” But Georgy Petrov, the director of the Space Research Institute in Moscow, quickly replied, “My dear Nikolai, you know better than that. It wouldn’t have done much good, as the signal would have been too weak to be properly received from any Earth station. We’d have to relay an augmented signal from an orbiter to get a truly bird’s eye view of what’s going on with Lady Venus.” “Get some balls, Comrade Georgy! Don’t you know anybody in the Directorate?” Kozyrev paused to wait for the response; but none was forthcoming. Then he added, “There are plenty of researchers here at the Institute with some ‘push’ in the Kremlin. Perhaps I shall ask one of them to put a bug in Comrade Leonid’s ear. Then we’ll have a television for more than watching all that cultural crap and propaganda from Programme One. After all, does every ruble have to go into the military budget?” “You’re right, Nikolai, so right. We’ve worked our whole lives seeking life in outer space. And if it’s on Venus, it’s right under our noses. I’d like to find something out there, even if it’s a microbe that evolved on some other world.” And Georgy Petrov proved as good as his word. No one knows who he talked to; but with Venera 9, the Soviet scientists were rewarded for their persistence in demanding a television camera. From Venera 9 forward, every landing module was redesigned to accommodate not only a television camera, but all of the latest in technological developments. The new Venera probes could easily withstand both higher temperatures and pressures. And when it came to the television cameras on the new Veneras, they decidedly outperformed all expectations, providing clear, close-up panoramas of the fantastic Venusian landscapes. Borisov felt that the discoveries of these Venera probes would make it possible to correct the results of ground radar investigations in the centimeter range, “and thus get rid of the distortions,”124 meaning those atmospheric readings that were causing confusion with In 1984 the Soviet Union printed a special the ground radar observations could be appropriately edition stamp commemorating its Venera 9 spacecraft and the first television set apart. Elaborating, Borisov writes that, “From this is transmission from our sister planet. See http://www.123rf.com/photo_11615298_ became possible to process all of the radar observations ussr--circa-1984-a-stamp-printed-in-ussr124 Ibid. 126

shows-the-venera-9-spacecraft-from-theseries-television-fr.html.

Raymond Andrew Keller II of Venus from the Earth and arrive at information on its upper layers to a depth ranging from 30-40 centimeters to 7-8, and in some cases, 30 meters. So far these data have not been obtained for any specific area of the planet, but as an average for its entire ‘radio-visible’ surface.” This was in line with the thinking of Soviet scientists at the Academy’s understanding that the radio beam is reflected from a vast area at a time, and not focused on a specific, more confined location. But by changing the length of the waves, the Soviet scientists discovered important characteristics about the Venusian soil, such as its dielectric constant and reflection factor. Interestingly, many astronomers in the Soviet Union and around the world, familiar with the then extant Venus research, privately concurred with the famed British astronomer, C. E. Housden, who postulated that certain telescopic observed markings of Venus were intelligently constructed artifacts. When Housden first proposed this theory back in 1916, it should be pointed out that he was supported by the likes of none other than the most illustrious star gazer of his time, Dr. G. E. Hale of the Carnegie Institution. From 1906-1916, Hale was conducting a survey of Venus and the then known six other solar planets at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California. This observatory housed, up to that momentous time, the world’s largest telescope, a 100-inch reflector. Hale’s words were taken as gospel the world over, at least by those with reasoning minds operative in a scientific mindset. With astronomical work in its formative stages in then Tsarist Russia, Hale’s analysis of the question of extraterrestrial life rang true for the aspiring astronomers, besides raising possibilities previously not duly considered. The everinspirational Hale wrote that it was natural that, “Most readers take a lively interest in the curious intellectual problems so often presented by the study of astronomy. One of these may be summed up in the phrase used by the late R. A. Proctor, ‘Other worlds than ours.’ This problem falls into two parts: In the first place, are any of the solar planets besides the Earth possibly inhabited by reasonable beings, or are any of the planets that circle other suns so inhabited? Secondly, can we ascertain the existence of such inhabitants and some day get into communication with them? The first question is one really for the philosopher, guided by the conclusions of the astronomer as to the physical conditions in existence on the surface of our own planets. The question in general would, on a priori grounds, be answered by most modern thinkers in the affirmative. Only on the hypothesis of a special and arbitrary creative act can we suppose that the Earth is the only planet on which sentient life has come into existence. The other planets have been demonstrably Inscription on rocket: “Earth-Venus.” Text: formed of the same elements and under the same “In the name of peace and progress!” See http://www.visualnews.com/2014/10/06/33- conditions as the Earth. If the primeval act of creation soviet-propaganda-posters-space-age/. brought the whole physical universe into being and left it to work out its own perfection under the definite laws 127

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus which condition matter and energy, it is impossible to suppose that the Earth is the only one out of millions of planets on which the reactions of chemistry have given birth to the mysterious entity which we call life. So far as the solar system is concerned, however, the astronomer is able to state definitely that life, at least any kind of sentient life which we can imagine, is only possible on three of the eight major planets—the Earth, Mars, and Venus.”125 Thus we find the basis of the Marxist-Leninist materialist philosophy of the Soviet Union’s astronomy and space research communities. Remember, it was the Communist Party line that, “life is a normal and inevitable consequence of the development of matter, and intelligence is a normal consequence of the existence of life.” Furthermore, the advanced American thinker Hale, writing in the highly respected Spectator magazine, at the apex of British and Western journalism, concluded his remarks with the declaration that any astronomer worth his salt would readily recognize that indigenous and sentient life could have only evolved on three planets in our solar system: the Earth, Mars and lovely Venus.

125 G. E. Hale, “Problems of Astronomy,” Spectator, 29 January 1916, London, UK, page 29.

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Chapter V: “Blast from the Past”

See www.123rf.com.

“Is the presence of extraterrestrial civilizations conceivable? Of course. Before the uniqueness of the Earth is demonstrated, this assumption should be taken as quite legitimate. As regards UFOs, their presence cannot be denied: thousands of people have seen them. It may be that their source is optical effects, but some of their properties, for instance, their ability to change course by 90 degrees at great speed, simply stagger the imagination.” —Yevegni Khrunov, Soyuz 5 spacecraft pilot in 1969, in UFOs through the Eyes of Cosmonauts (1980). James Oberg, an internationally recognized expert on the Soviet space program and author of the most revealing Red Star in Orbit,126 noted in the April 1994 issue of Omni magazine that by 1967, the issue of flying saucers over the skies of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had become a major cause of concern for the Kremlin. Every day throughout 1967, waves of saucers were traversing the skies of southern Russia. Writes Oberg: “Cossacks on horseback saw them high in the evening sky. Pilots aboard commercial airliners and military interceptors chased and dodged them. Astronomers at observatories in the Caucasus Mountains noted their crescent shape and their fiery companions.” Clearly, by the fall of 1967, Soviet military authorities publicly recognized that their beloved homeland was in the midst of a massive UFO flap and there was little they could do about it, let alone stem the sense of enthused curiosity that these sightings were generating among the Soviet peoples. Reports of flying saucers were openly described on Soviet radio and television programs and reported in the state controlled newspapers. And authorities throughout the Soviet republics were even allowing for the formation of private, civilian UFO study groups. With the important Omni article, Oberg continued his analysis of the 1967 saucer flap: “In one detailed account, an airliner crew from Voroshilovgrad to Volgograd, flight 104, insisted that a UFO had hovered and then maneuvered around their plane. According to Soviet UFO enthusiast Felix Zigel, who compiled such accounts, the plane’s engines died and did not start up again until after the UFO had disappeared, when the aircraft was only a half mile 126 James Edward Oberb, Red Star in Orbit (New York, New York: Random House, 1981).

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus high in the air.” Dr. Zigel, however, was more than just a “Soviet UFO enthusiast.” American journalists William Dick and Ralph Mahoney, traveled to the Soviet Union back in 1968 to interview various authorities on the supposed “Tunguska meteorite,” and obtained vital information on this phenomenon from Zigel, then 47 years of age and an assistant professor at the prestigious Moscow Aviation Institute. Zigel was considered one of the Soviet Union’s foremost astronomers for his years of painstaking, scientific detective work concerning the Tunguska event. He was rightly considered the successor to Kazantsev, following his line of investigation into the possibilities of the Siberian “meteor” actually being an extraterrestrial spaceship, and most likely of Venusian origin.127 Dick and Mahoney were at the Moscow Aviation Institute on the 60th anniversary of the Tunguska event, when Zigel announced what was long believed to be a “meteorite” explosion in Siberia “was actually a nuclear blast which destroyed a visiting spaceship and all the beings onboard.” The Tunguska event occurred at 7:17 a.m. on 30 June 1908. The shock waves that it created reverberated twice around the globe, being duly recorded at extant seismographic stations in Asia, Europe and North America. Zigel stated that his investigation of the Tunguska event was important because it provided a solution to the “riddle which has fascinated scientists for decades.” He further explained that his Tunguska research established for a certainty what had long been suspected, i.e. “that intelligent beings elsewhere in the universe developed sophisticated nuclear weapons and space vehicles long before they were even dreamed of here on Earth.” Zigel added that, “The theory that the flying object seen before the explosion was not of natural origin, but was of an artificial nature, has been confirmed by scientific investigation.” So the question now remains, “But how so?” To answer this, Zigel pointed out that there was new evidence that the object executed a maneuver just before it blew up. It appears that from eyewitnesses to the flight and explosion, 105 that were still alive in 1968, that Zigel had clearly established that the Tunguska object entered the Earth’s atmosphere at a point 175 miles east of the city of Irkutsk, traveling on an almost straight northward course for about 500 miles to Kezhma. “There,” Zigel stated, “it veered sharply east for about 200 miles to Preobrazhenka, where it reversed itself and headed almost due west to a forested area near Vanavara, where it exploded and disintegrated in the Tunguska River basin.” Of course, we now understand that meteorites and other natural celestial objects fall to Earth without any changes in their flight direction. “But,” notes Zigel, “the Tunguska object, flying at speeds estimated up to 30,000 miles per hour, definitely performed a maneuver drastically changing its flight pattern.” In addition, the Russian astronomer cataloged various descriptions of the object from the then 105 still living witnesses, who all agreed that it appeared as “barrelshaped” and “cylindrical” to them as it was observed along its northward course as far as Kezhma. But north of that city, it was not sighted at all; and this is where it should have been spotted had it continued its northward journey. And since it was seen by many persons over the village of Preobrazhenka, 200 miles to the east, it is evident that the object changed its flight path. And naturally, no one around Vanavara saw the object itself, but only the massive fireball resulting from the explosion. In addition, Zigel thought it curious that the point of the object’s detonation was directly on the line of its original northward trajectory. This was indicative of the object returning to its original flight path after having executed the east-west maneuver. The Soviet astronomer 127 William Dick and Ralph Mahoney, “Russian Scientist Says Space Creatures Visited Earth 60 Years Ago,” 2 June 1968, National Enquirer, New York, New York.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II also concluded that the aliens visit to Earth was brief, maybe a matter of seconds. He also surmised that the explosion took place in the extraterrestrial vehicle’s nuclear propulsion motor. Zigel speculated that there must have been some kind of accident that occurred onboard an exploratory space vessel. The good news, however, was that the alien visitors exhibited no hostile intent. Perhaps they allowed themselves to be obliterated, directing their crippled ship to explode over a sparsely inhabited area, rather than crashing it into a major city. Of the blast itself, it literally split the sky, killing a fisherman and two woodsmen, in addition to several hundred reindeer. Unfortunately, no trace of the men or the animals was ever discovered; but an ax known to be wielded by one of the woodsmen was found a mile and a half from where he had last been working. And following the explosion, a fire storm engulfed the trees and scattered peasant huts at the center. For an area taking in 1,200 square miles, Zigel noted that an estimated 50,000 trees were knocked down. The Tunguska explosion registered on seismographic stations around the world. Even weather stations reported that a rush of hot air caused by the event circled the world twice. According to Zigel, “the intensity, depth and destructive force of the explosion, by themselves, certify that it was of nuclear origin – a theory previously advanced by another Soviet scientist, Alexander Zolotov.” And when Zigel was asked to elaborate on this speculation, he replied that, “The energy generated by the Tunguska explosion was the equivalent to a ten-megaton nuclear bomb,” adding that, “As the explosion occurred, a mass of heated air flew upwards into the stratosphere, while cold air rushed in from all sides to take its place.” Zigel felt that this was important because, “There developed a fiery whirlwind blowing toward the center, the kind of whirlwind still vivid in the mind of those who experienced the atom bomb tragedy of Hiroshima, Japan, in World War II.” The Soviet scientist also gave an account of radiation burns inflicted on the inhabitants of Vanavara and adjacent areas because of the alleged “nuclear” explosion. Zigel said that, “An old physician in the region has confirmed reports of unexplainable ailments – probably radiation sickness – among the Evenks, natives of the area, developing after the catastrophe.” And as to the object’s flight pattern and “disintegration,” as reported by surviving eyewitnesses to the Soviet researchers attached to various scientific expeditions over the prior 40 years, Zigel was duly impressed with both their sincerity and the intricacy of the details they provided. Even in the west, as revelations of the Tunguska event continued to leak out of the Soviet Union, researchers could not help but notice the similarities between the sightings made by the Tunguska peasants so many years ago and the more contemporary reports of UFOs worldwide that continue to flood in to both civilian and government research organizations.128 In Krinov’s Giant Meteorites (1966), appears a republished report from the correspondent of an Irkutsk newspaper, first published on 2 July 1908: “The peasants saw a body shining very brightly with a bluish-white light in the northwest, quite high above the horizon. The body was in the form of a pope, that is, cylindrical. When the body approached the ground, it seemed to become pulverized. A huge cloud of black smoke was formed and a loud crash heard. And at the same time a forked tongue of flame broke through the cloud.” Additionally, Krinov reported the account of a peasant named Bryukanov made sometime in 1930, 22 years after the Tunguska event took place. Bryukanov claimed that, “We were lying in a boat, off the bank of the river, when we saw in front of us in the northwest wedge-shaped rays, with the broad end downwards, flying to the north.” In addition, the peasant’s sighting 128 E. L. Krinov, Giant Meteorites (London: Pergamon Press, 1966).

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus report was backed up by another witness, S. B. Semonov, the proprietor of the Vanavara trading station at the time of the event, who declared in 1927 that, “The whole northern part of the sky appeared to be covered with fire. At that moment, I felt great heat as if my shirt had caught fire…. A hot wind, as from a canon, blew past the huts from the north. It left its mark on the ground in the form of little paths and damaged onion plants.” Additionally, another peasant named Kosplapov, who was in the trading post with Semonov at the time of the explosion, reported to Soviet questioners in 1927 that, “Suddenly, it was as if a fierce heat scorched my ears. I held them, thinking the roof was on fire. Afterwards, I went straight into the hut but no sooner was I in and about to sit down to work on the floor, than a crash echoed, earth came sprinkling down from the ceiling, the oven door flew off the stove, and one window pane was smashed.” Clearly then, such testimonies support Zigel’s assertions that the blast occurred in the air and was not the result, as long believed, of a meteor crashing into the Earth. Zigel summed it up nicely: “Astronomers so far are unaware of any natural bodies which, on entering the Earth’s atmosphere, explode in the air like nuclear bombs. And scientists comparing the effects of the 1908 Siberian explosion with the American high-altitude nuclear explosions of 1958 came to the conclusion that, in their basic patterns, they were identical.”129 The strong electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that resulted from the above-referenced nuclear air burst testing had several components. In the first few tens of nanoseconds, about a tenth of a percent of the weapon’s yield appeared as powerful gamma rays, manifesting energies from one to three mega-electron volts (MeVs). The gamma rays, in turn, penetrated the atmosphere and collided with air molecules. These molecules deposited their energy, thereby producing huge quantities of positive ions and recoil electrons, sometimes referred to as Compton electrons. The impacts created MeV-energy Compton electrons that accelerated and spiraled along the Earth’s magnetic field lines; and the resulting transient electric fields and currents generated electromagnetic emissions in the radio frequency range of 15 to 250 megahertz (MHz), or one million cycles per second. This high-altitude EMP occurred between 18 and 31 miles over the surface of the Earth, thus demonstrating the device’s potential as an anti-satellite weapon. This was the extreme significance of the August 1958 testing carried out in Operation Hardtack Teak. The EMP observed at the Apia Observatory at Samoa was four times more powerful than any created by solar storms. A subsequent nuclear air burst EMP test, Starfish Prime, in July 1962, damaged electronics in Honolulu and New Zealand (approximately 1,300 kilometers away), fused 300 street lights on Oahu (Hawaii), set off about 100 burglar alarms, and caused the failure of a microwave repeating station on Kauai. This caused a cut off of the sturdy telephone system from the other Hawaiian Islands. Navy research scientists noted that the radius for an effective satellite kill for the various prompt radiations produced by such a nuclear weapon in space was determined to be roughly 80kilometers. Further testing to this end was carried out, and incorporated in the Department of Defense above top secret Program 437. Soviet agents, operating from the Tongan Islands in 1958 and observing from a relatively safe distance the American nuclear testing taking place in Samoa, were well aware of the possibilities inherent in the development and deployment of EMP technology. Zigel’s focus on a nuclear air burst in the Tunguska event pointed to an extraterrestrial technology. But as we shall in later chapters, it was the American, and subsequent Soviet nuclear air burst testing, that 129 Op cit

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Raymond Andrew Keller II provided the precise clues for determining both the origin of the Tunguska spacecraft as well as the reasons for its destruction. From 1958 to 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union conducted over a dozen nuclear tests in the Earth’s upper atmosphere or actually in space--the highest at an altitude of 540 kilometers. Dr. William Robert Johnston, a research physicist in the field of space physics from the University of Texas at Dallas, in Richardson, wrote his dissertation examining the relationship of the plasmapause and the outer radiation belt, using observations from the DMSP and SAMPEX satellites. His Masters in Science degree was earned for his work with the University of Texas at El Paso, in conjunction with a “relativity group” at the University of Texas at Brownsville, focusing on data analysis for gravitational wave detection. There he worked on developing methods for triggered burst and stochastic searches. Currently under contact with NASA and the Department of Defense, Johnston is studying the space environment, encompassing realms from the ionosphere to the magnetosphere to interplanetary space. His current concentration is in the study of the Earth’s radiation belts. From all of this research, Johnston has determined several effects relatively unique to high altitude bursts: • Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is important only for high altitude bursts. For such detonations, ionization of the upper atmosphere can produce a brief intense pulse of radio frequency radiation which can damage or disrupt electronic devices. For explosions above most of the atmosphere, EMP can affect large areas. • Ionization of the atmosphere from explosions in the atmosphere can interfere with radar and radio communications for short periods. • Charged particles produced by explosions above the Earth’s atmosphere can be captured by the Earth’s magnetic field, temporarily creating artificial radiation belts that can damage spacecraft and injure astronauts/cosmonauts in orbit.130 In the interim, remember that with the 1958 testing, we came to learn that the generated Compton electrons became caught up and spiraled into the Earth’s lines of electromagnetic force. That the Tunguska event occurred in the northern latitudes of our planet is indicative of a pulse disruption of the alien ship’s electromagnetic propulsion system possibly due to its being caught up in an intense power flux of the Compton electron stream generated in the Earth’s magnetic lines of force. Zigel believed that a reconciliation of the Tunguska object’s flight direction with its previous northern trajectory was impossible, unless the “meteor” changed course, thus conducting a maneuver. But that would prove that it was a controlled space vehicle. Also, the nuclear nature of the blast is supported by a plethora of other evidence. For example, in 1965 American scientists discovered heavy deposits of radioactive carbon-14 in wood that was formed just one year after the Tunguska explosion. The scientists were Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Willard F. Libby. C. R. Atluri of the University of California at Los Angeles and Dr. Clyde Cowan of the Catholic University in Washington, DC. They found the radioactive carbon imbedded in the tree rings of a Douglas fir from Arizona and an oak outside Los Angeles, with both of the rings having formed in 1909. To this, the Soviet aerospace expert commented that, “It has been established that radioactive carbon produced by a high-altitude nuclear explosion will shower the atmosphere of the entire Earth in the following year or year and a half.” 130 Dr. William Robert Johnson, “High Altitude Nuclear Explosions,” Johnston Archive, http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/ nuclear/hane.html (Accessed 31 July 2015).

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Therefore, even while adequate testing of the Tunguska region for radioactivity had never been completed, Zigel maintained that there was still a substantial body of other evidence attesting to the nuclear nature of the anomalous event. The Soviet scientist conjectured: “It is well known that the release of energy from a nuclear explosion creates abnormalities in living cells of any kind that exist in the vicinity. “In the region of the Tunguska catastrophe, an expedition of Soviet scientists found that trees, and all vegetation in general grew exceptionally fast after the blast of 1908. “The luxuriant growth of vegetation was produced by special causes which cannot be explained away by common forestry knowledge of plant and tree growth.” Of course, back in 1908 Tsarist Russia, the area in which the explosion took place was relatively remote and inaccessible. So when news of the event finally filtered down to the scientific establishment, on the basis of available knowledge a determination was made that a meteor had come down somewhere in Siberia, and that was the end of the story. But when Soviet researchers finally mounted an expedition to the area to check out the situation, the meteor theory began to lose its luster among the scientists back in Moscow or Leningrad. And on top of all of this, the most compelling evidence against the meteor theory was conspicuously absent. There was no impact crater in the region. Additionally, diligent searches of the applicable terrain failed to turn up any significant amount of meteor or meteorite fragments. Zigel speculated that if the spacecraft had not exploded where it did, in remote Siberia, the damage to Mother Russia would have been much more horrific: “If there had been a slight delay and if the space Distortions in tree rings worldwide followed vehicle had continued on its last course, headed west, the Tunguska explosion. Was it a nuclear the explosion could have taken place directly above event? See http://www.ancient-worldSt. Petersburg. The resulting loss of life and property mysteries.com/earth-changes.html. damage would have been catastrophic.”131 The Wizard of Moscow The Venusian Hierarchy of Light has long taken an interest in Mother Russia. Venusians have clandestinely lived and worked among the Russians for countless centuries, making known their presence to select individuals from time to time. One interesting figure emerging out of Russian history was the enigmatic scientific advisor to Czar Peter the Great, Iakov Willimovich Brius, a.k.a. Count Jacob or James Daniel Bruce (Russian: Граф Яков Вилимович Брюс, Graf Yakov Vilimovich Brus; 11 May 1669 - 30 April 1735). Apart from acting in his capacity as an able scientist, Bruce also served the Russian royal court as a statesman and military general. He was actually of Scottish descent, hailing from the Clan Bruce; and according to his own testimony, had ancestors who lived in Russia since 1649. His brother, Robert Bruce, also served Czar Peter as the first military governor of Saint Petersburg. Bruce distinguished himself through his valiant participation in the Crimean (1687 and 1689) and Azov campaigns (1695–1696), where Peter the Great pitted his forces against the Ottoman Empire during the Russo–Turkish War. And it was during the Great Northern War that Bruce was appointed major-general of artillery. During his tenure in this position, Bruce 131 Op cit

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Raymond Andrew Keller II revived the artillery branch which had been seriously weakened following a Russian battlefield loss to the Swedes at Narva in 1700. He personally took command of the artillery forces in the Battle of Poltava (1709), securing a much needed victory for the Russian army. For this great triumph and many other contributions to the building up of the Russian Empire, Bruce was made a knight of the Order of St Andrew and in 1721 was proclaimed by Czar Peter to be one of the first Russian counts. All who knew Bruce proclaimed him a genius. He had many interests and areas of investigation. In many ways, he was much a man of the Enlightenment, being both a naturalist and astronomer. Czar Peter was so confident in Bruce’s abilities as a scientist that he was charged with administering a school of navigation. The school opened its doors in 1702; and Bruce dutifully saw to it that the first Russian observatory was established there before any students actually started attending classes. The school and observatory were located on the top floor of Moscow’s Sukharev Tower. Built on the Zemlianoi val (mound of earthenworks), the high tower afforded Bruce an unimpeded view off into the distant horizon. Bruce also maintained a growing scientific library at the school. By the 1730s, he had compiled over 1,500 volumes and these became a substantial part of the library of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Among Muscovites, Bruce also gained fame as an alchemist and magician. This was due, in part, to his innovative designs and renovations incorporated into the Sukharev Tower, which he converted into one of the most unusual edifices of the eighteenth century. There was even a rumor afoot that the greatest of his “black magic”132 grimoires had been bricked up into the walls of the tower. For the most part, a grimoire is a textbook of magic. It typically includes instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms and divination. But most importantly, it tells the seeker how to summon or invoke supernatural entities such as angels, demons, and other types of spirits.133 In some cases, the grimoires themselves are believed to be imbued with magical powers, much like this book that you are now reading. Although classified as “magic realism,” there are many aspects of authentic magic in the pages of all the books in this Venus series. The very first printed almanacs in the Russian language were also created by Bruce. Besides accurate astronomical information, Bruce’s almanacs contained astrological predictions similar to those provided in popular Western European versions. As far as W. F. Ryan, one of the world’s leading authorities on older Russian sources for magic and divination, is concerned, the last almanac to carry the general’s name, Briusov kalendar’ na 200 let, was published in St. Petersburg in 1912. Ryan also notes that Bruce was “popularly regarded as a wizard who possessed the ‘water of life’ amd a ‘black book’ that would cause demons to appear and offer their services to anyone who chanced to open and read it.”134 The clue to understanding the “water of life” may be found in the works of theosophist Alice K. Bailey, where she paraphrases Helena Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine135 in the first paragraph below and then elucidates on this phrase in a more scriptural context in the remaining paragraphs: 132 It is unfortunate that the adjective “black” has been associated with magic. There is only one kind of magic and its utilization is dependent upon the individual manipulating its power, as to her or his good or bad intentions. Like the Force on Star Wars, magic is neutral. 133 For a comprehensive treatment of grimoires, please see Owen Davies, Grimoires: A History of Magic Books (New York, New York: Oxford University Press USA, 2009). 134 W. F. Ryan, “Magic and Divination,” in Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal, editor, Occult in Russian and Soviet Literature (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1997), 42-43. 135 Helena P. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy (London, United Kingdom: Theosophical Publishing Company, 1888).

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus “In The Secret Doctrine the ‘water of life’is equated with electricity—the ONE Life at the upper rung of Being, which is described as the sacred generator of fire, light, heat, adhesion and sound as well as the foundation of all manifestations which lies back of all evolution.” Interpretation: A nation, as a human being, is subject to the impact of energies emanating from solar and cosmic sources. These energies influence the nation as a whole through a “mechanism of response” equivalent to the Monad-soul-personality constitution of a human being. Different nations are more receptive to some of these energies than to others; but all nations, subject to the evolution of their own national consciousness, have a destiny set before them which is literally based on the qualities and the principles of the particular ray energy seeking expression through their respective national soul. All energies, and hence all substances, ethereal or material, are inherently electro-magnetic. As matter can neither be created nor destroyed at its very constituent, electro-magnetic level, following the expiration of one’s material body, their ethereal body is merged into the collective soul force of the Universe where it can ascend to higher dimensional spheres of existence or manifest in another material body on the physical plane of existence. The soul is immortal, but it reincarnate, over and over in many material, substantive forms. “In John 4:13-14 Jesus talks with a Samaritan woman at the well from which she is drawing water, Jesus makes the following statement with regard to water: ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. “The water-carrier (another name for the world server) is starting upon his selfappointed task. Now we arrive at the anchoring upon earth of the New Group of World Servers whose representatives are found in every land and in every great city. This, I would remind you, has taken place without exception in every land and they work on all the different rays; they express many points of view; their field of service is widely differing and their techniques so diverse that in some cases comprehension is not easy to the smaller minded person. But, they all carry the pitcher containing the water of life upon their shoulder, reverting to the language of symbolism, and they all emit the light in some degree throughout their environment. “....In this sign [Aquarius] the waters of the Piscean age will, symbolically speaking, be absorbed into the water-pot carried on the shoulder of Aquarius in the symbol which is distinctive of this sign, for Aquarius is the water-carrier, bringing the water of life to the people-life more abundantly. “In the Aquarian Age, the Risen Christ is Himself the Water-Carrier; He will not this time demonstrate the perfected life of a Son of God, which was His main mission before; He will appear as the supreme Head of the Spiritual Hierarchy, meeting the need of the thirsty nations of the world - thirsty for truth, for right human relations and for loving understanding. He will be recognised this time by all and in His Own Person will testify to the fact of the resurrection, and hence demonstrate the paralleling fact of the immortality of the soul, of the spiritual man. The emphasis during the past two thousand years has been on death; it has coloured all the teaching of the orthodox churches; only one day in the year has been dedicated to the thought of the resurrection. The emphasis in the Aquarian Age will be on life and freedom from the tomb of matter, 136

Raymond Andrew Keller II and this is the note which will distinguish the new world religion from all that have preceded it.”136 Interpretation: These paragraphs deal with the ministry of angels. Clearly, in all religious traditions there are avatars sent from the Hierarchy of Light to illumine our path and guide us in the true ways of material and physical salvation. Jesus Christ, being the Firstborn in the Fullness of Time, is our designated exemplar. Humanity now finds itself in a state of becoming. He is Michael, the Chief of Angels and the One whose very name means “like unto God.” He was the first to emerge from the vast sea of cosmic consciousness that we have come to know as the Pleroma. We are guided and given the opportunity by the spiritual Hierarchy of Light, or the supreme government of the solar system headquartered on Venus, to form a stable and peaceful world for the benefit of all. The understanding, acceptance and fulfillment of spiritual possibilities will serve to weave the destinies of all peoples together. In this synthesis, a new collective is established whereby each individual contributes to the whole. Consequently, the unfoldment of each individual’s potential is significantly augmented. What emerges is a true recognition of the true soul destiny of nations whereby international adjustments can be made conducive to our entry into the Galactic Federation of Planets. Various ray qualities affecting the peoples of the world can then be used intelligently to yet further promote understanding and unity across the Cosmos. The water that Jesus Christ offers us is that water which facilitates the immortality of the soul; for that individual spirit who partakes of it will never truly die. One whose testimony has been made sure through the personal manifestation of an ascended being will never taste of material death. For a clue as to the true nature of General James Bruce, your attention is invited to Hebrews 13:2 in the pages of the Holy Bible. Tickets to Ride It was the spring of 1990, a bit colder than usual, maybe due to a brisk wind blowing down from the north. Sergei Simonov, a forestry worker and resident of the sleepy village of Krasniye Stanki in the Novgorod region of Northern Russia, was done for the day at the lumber yard and making his way home. He usually went straight to his house, his wife and his children; but today he decided to change things up a little bit, and took a detour. He walked to a stream near a bathhouse. He wondered why he came out here. He noted that the time on his watch was 6:15 p.m.; and just as he was about to turn around and make his way to his humble abode, he heard a still small voice from behind him. “Hey you, good man!” someone cried in a strange and squeaky voice. Sergei turned and didn’t see anyone. He started back on the trail to the main road, but stopped when he heard the disembodied voice yet again. “Yeah, you man!” is what he heard this time. And as Sergei looked in the direction of the voice, there emerged from the bushes a gentleman of about 5’8” in height. He had blonde hair and a sunburned face, like he was just returning from a dasha along the shores of the Black Sea, in the Russian Riviera. Sergei could not help noticing that there was some kind of wire that ran down from the backside of his neck to inside the front of his overalls. “How would you like to fly with us?” the stranger asked. Sergei, who was somewhat afraid, nevertheless agreed. Somehow he just sensed that this stranger was OK. As they walked across the field, Sergei noticed that the man’s feet were

136 Alice K. Bailey, Destiny of the Nations (New York, New York: Lucius Trust, 1949), 146 for commentary on Secret Doctrine, then 150-151 for remainder.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus clad in sandals and about 50 per cent longer than his own. A few steps further on, the Russian noticed that an unusual apparatus appeared before them, being parked on the other side of a small hill but seemingly popping out of nowhere. It was disc-shaped, about 15 feet high and some 50 feet wide, being a metallic, whitish-gray in color. There were portholes on the cupola, glowing with subdued and translucent yellow lights. A weak “buzzing” sound could also be heard in the vicinity of the craft. Adoor slid open on the apparently seamless exterior of the craft, and two stair-steps extended from the doorway to the ground. The strange gentleman stretched forth his left hand and took Sergei’s left hand, pulling him up and helping him with ascending the steps and entering the mysterious ship. Sergei followed his guide to some kind of control room at the center of the ship, where he noticed five crew members, all dressed in black, and all busy manipulating some kind of instrument panel from their respective chairs. There were three women and two men. These personnel were about the same height as the guide. They all had long blonde hair and exhibited a beauty that one rarely encounters, except for Hollywood, perhaps. All of them got up from their swivel seats and stood at attention when Sergei and his guide entered the room. The guide extended his left arm with distended fingers, palm down, and all the personnel resumed their seated positions before the panel. From there the guide led Sergei into a smaller, adjoining room where he was directed to take a seat on a sofa built into the wall across from a large viewing screen. The guide sat down on the opposite end of the sofa and a type of dial emerged from the floor to meet his left hand. With that, the screen sparked to life. Sergei could see that the craft was already airborne and in a hovering mode. He could make out the roofs on the houses of Krasniye Stanki, along with the bathhouse, below him. A sickening feeling gripped Sergei’s stomach. He was overwhelmed with a sense of dread. “Sorry, sir, but please, I have to go home. I have a wife and children who need me there.” The guide replied, “We were going to take you up beyond the atmospheric envelope of your planet so you could experience the same sense of wonder enjoyed by your cosmonauts. Those of your scientists that study and work with the human brain have come to the realization that certain centers of that organ can be activated for enhanced psychic perception and augmented powers. In this regard, your people are much in advance of the United States. But I see that you are not quite ready for this. So don’t worry. We understand that ‘there’s no place like home;’ and we shall return you forthwith to the outskirts of your village.” Sergei: “Before I go, however, I want to ask you a question.” Guide: “Go ahead. Hit me with your best shot.” Sergei: “Who are you people? Are you Americans? What’s your name?” Guide: “Well, my friend, that’s three questions. But nevertheless, I will oblige you. No, we are time travelers conducting an historical survey. We hail from the Russian Collective on Venus, from one thousand years ahead, in your future. This is a time for momentous changes in Mother Russia and we are trying to understand what is happening here with the common people. My name is of little consequence, although some people know me as Bruce.” Straight away the flying saucer effortlessly touched down about one and a half kilometers from the point where Sergei first encountered the apparatus. When the door slid open, the forestry worker leaped through it and nearly stumbled on the two extended steps. Once on the solid earth, Sergei felt as through he was hardly able to drag his legs. He was so tired and exhausted, even though he hadn’t really done anything of a strenuous nature since being escorted into the craft. He wanted to thank Bruce for letting him leave the craft, and not taking 138

Raymond Andrew Keller II him off to Venus in some other time or dimension. But when he turned around to make it so, he could not even see the flying saucer, let alone its occupants, for they had all disappeared in the blink of an eye.137 It was also in the spring of 1990 that an elderly Ukranian agricultural worker from a collective farm in the Kirovograd region, Grigory Vasilyevich, age 65, claimed to have been taken for a ride to Venus aboard a flying saucer. It is interesting to note that many of these close encounters of the third kind that take place between humans and Venusians generally occur within a few days to two-month period following an inferior conjunction of the planet. This may be indicative of the Venusians’ utilization of their planet’s magnetotail to hitch a free ride to Earth on the continuous waves of the solar wind. Note that George Adamski’s famous encounter with Orthon of 20 November 1952 occurred just five days after the Venus inferior conjunction falling on the 15th. To understand the Venus phase cycle, one must consider that it takes only 225 days for the cloudy planet to orbit the Sun. However, when the lovely world is viewed from Earth, her full synodic cycle (from inferior conjunction to inferior conjunction with the Sun) takes 584 days, or about 1.6 years. This is accounted for by the interaction of Venus’ 225- day orbital period with the 365-day orbital period of the Earth. To find a listing of the principal stages in each Venus phase cycle, with a space between each 1.6-year cycle, please check out the website footnoted below.138 The astute reader will note that each new Venus phase cycle begins about a biquintile (144 degrees) earlier in the Zodiac than the previous one. Therefore, in five successive phase cycles the inferior conjunction points (or other comparable points in the cycles) trace a pentagram around the Zodiac with five Venus phase cycles taking almost exactly eight years. This is a direct Fibonacci ratio. As a result, at the end of every five cycles, I have inserted an extra line space. This marks the beginning of a new series of five cycles. Thus, the new series traces a similar pentagram, but everything is displaced approximately two degrees earlier. Ergo, in every four years the superior conjunction takes place at almost exactly the same Zodiacal degree (within only a few minutes of arc) and usually on the same day of the year as the preceding inferior conjunction. When the ufologist understands the Venus cycle, he or she is able to find those correlations that exist between waves of UFO sightings, or flaps, as they have come to be called, and the inferior conjunctions of the cloud-shrouded planet with the Earth. This may also prove helpful in predicting future UFO activity and the arrivals of Venusians to our world in significantly augmented numbers. One of the better kept secrets in the medical research community is that various strains of the flu might find their origin on Venus. In the article, “Flu from Venus?” that appeared in Time magazine of 21 Febraury 1944, page 90, we find the following comments, excerpted here: “Professor Louis Backman of Uppsala University, Stockholm, suggested that it was entirely possible that organisms causing recent flu epidemics had come from Venus, Jupiter or Mars…. Laboratory workers know that bacteria and other living cells can survive the near-absolutezero temperature of interplanetary space…. University of California professor Charles B. Lipman once claimed that he had found living bacteria locked in meteorites millions of years old…. Backman believes it very unlikely that life originated on the Earth; he thinks it more properly started in the more favorable atmospheres containg methane and ammonia gases 137 Sergei Bulantsev, “Russia’s Most Bizarfre Unsolved Cases,” October-November 1991, UFO Universe magazine, New York, New York. 138 Venus Phase Cycle, 1900-2050, Scribd. Inc., 2017, https://www.scribd.com/document/320310727/VeCycle-1-pdf (Accessed 11 February 2017)

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus which surround planets such as Jupiter, Venus and Mars. From them, he says, living organisms may have been transported to the earth by meteorites or by the propulsive power of the sun’s rays.” Also, in his landmark work, Worlds in Collision, Immanuel Velikovsky speculates about the possibility of bacterial and insect life forms existing in the Venusian atmosphere some 3,500 years ago.139 Calculated Dates of Venus Inferior Conjunctions140 (Accuracy plus/minus 2 days) Latest Update 18 SEP 2014. New or modified text is in bold. 08 DEC 1874A 06 DEC 1882A 04 DEC 1890 01 DEC 1898 28 NOV 1906 26 NOV 1914 24 NOV 1922 22 NOV 1930 20 NOV 1938 17 NOV 1946 15 NOV 1954 13 NOV 1962 11 NOV 1970 09 NOV 1978 07 NOV 1986 05 NOV 1994 31 OCT 2002 29 OCT 2010 26 OCT 2018 24 OCT 2026 21 OCT 2034 19 OCT 2042 16 OCT 2050

13 JUL 1876 19 FEB 1878 11 JUL 1884 17 FEB 1886 09 JUL 1892 15 FEB 1894 07 JUL 1900 13 FEB 1902 05 JUL 1908 11 FEB 1910 03 JUL 1916 09 FEB 1918 01 JUL 1924 07 FEB 1926 29 JUN 1932 05 FEB 1934 26 JUN 1940 02 FEB 1942 24 JUN 1948 31 JAN 1950 21 JUN 1956 28 JAN 1958 19 JUN 1964 26 JAN 1966 17 JUN 1972 23 JAN 1974 15 JUN 1980 21 JAN 1982 13 JUN 1988 19 JAN 1990 11 JUN 1996 17 JAN 1998 08 JUN 2004D 15 JAN 2006 06 JUN 2012D 11 JAN 2014 03 JUN 2020 09 JAN 2022 01 JUN 2028 06 JAN 2030 30 MAY 2036 04 JAN 2038 27 MAY 2044 01 JAN 2046

22 SEP 1879 20 SEP 1887 18 SEP 1895 16 SEP 1903 14 SEP 1911 12 SEP 1919 10 SEP 1927 08 SEP 1935 06 SEP 1943 03 SEP 1951 01 SEP 1959 29 AUG 1967 27 AUG 1975 25 AUG 1983 23 AUG 1991 20 AUG 1999 18 AUG 2007 15 AUG 2015 13 AUG 2023 11 AUG 2031 08 AUG 2039 06 AUG 2047

02 MAY 1881 30 APR 1889 28 APR 1897 26 APR 1905 24 APR 1913 22 APR 1921 20 APR 1929 18 APR 1937 15 APR 1945 13 APR 1953 10 APR 1961 08 APR 1969 06 APR 1977 04 APR 1985 02 APR 1993 30 MAR 2001 29 MAR 2009 25 MAR 2017 23 MAR 2025 20 MAR 2033 18 MAR 2041 15 MAR 2049

A = Venus transits solar disc - ascending node D = Venus transits solar disc - descending node But in returning to the case of Grigory Vasilyevich, he was sitting in his living room listening to a local radio station when all the sudden he lost the signal. It was overwhelmed with a loud and crackling static. At the same time, he noticed some intensely bright shafts of light streaming through his curtains. Naturally, he went over to the window, pushing the curtain aside to see what was causing this great brilliance. Stepping outside to get a better look, he was nearly blinded; but Grigory could at least detect the presence of an unknown “silvery structure” 139 Immanuel Velikovsky, Worlds in Collision (New York, New York: MacMillan and Company, 1950), 59-60. 140 http://www.datasync.com/~rsf1/vel/1918ics.htm (Accessed 26 December 2016).

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Raymond Andrew Keller II out by the gate to his plot of the collective farm. Squinting through the glare, however, he noticed a group of people near the object, dressed in loose, dark clothing. A beautiful young, blonde-haired girl broke from the assembled group and approached Grigory. She spoke to the elder gentleman in perfect Russian, as if she were an educated Muscovite: “Comrade, we are prepared to offer you a ride to our home planet, the one your people call Venus.” “Well, if I go with you, you’re going to bring me back, aren’t you?” he inquired. She replied, “Of course, Comrade. We don’t take anyone against their will.” The Venusian maiden put her left hand in his left hand and they walked up to the group, where polite introductions were made before everyone ascended an extended metal plank and boarded the flying saucer. It only took minutes to reach a massive, cigar-shaped mothership high in orbit. It actually seemed as though it took longer to disembark the ship than the time that transpired in reaching the larger carrier. Grigory remembers being escorted to some kind of observation room. He was led to a sofa and told he could rest there. After about 10 minutes of watching the Earth recede in the distance to the size of a ping-pong ball, he finally dozed off. He didn’t know how long he was asleep; but after he woke up the young girl immediately entered the room and walked with him to the observation window, which he saw was actually a flat screen, a futuristic type of 3-D television set. The girl pointed to various ground features below them, and indicated the Vitoria Mountain chain and a ring of volcanoes surrounding the rim of a large crater. She ran her left hand along the side of the screen and magnified the picture. She pointed to an extravagant blue crystalline city on the floor of the crater and told Grigory that this was their destination, the capital of the planet Abejar (Venus), the Temple City of Azure. Despite his age, the farmer was captivated by his beautiful guide, who identified herself as Urania. Frankly, he hadn’t been turned on by the sight of a pretty girl for many years, so this was a delightful turn of events for the aging farmer, feeling so animated and aroused, as he was. After the launching of a scout craft from the mothership, its landing at the Vitoria Space Port, and Grigory’s two-month inprocessing on Abejar, as calculated in equivalent Earth time, he was taken to an agricultural station under a dome built on the plains extending from the southern outer wall of the crater. Urania remained with him most of the time. She explained that some of the various fruits and vegetables that had been transported to Abejar from the Earth were spotted in places and wilting. They seemed to be infected and needed the farmer’s assistance in reviving them or at least keeping the other plants from suffering a similar fate. Grigory was there, on Venus, for the Earth equivalent of eight months (two months inprocessing and six months at the station). The apple and peach orchards, cucumbers, potatoes and other crops were all coming along nicely, thanks to the diligent efforts of Grigory. But now the mission was accomplished; and one day Urania entered the dome with a contingent of Metrons, the time police. The leading Metron asked, “Shall we erase everything?” “No, we’ll let him keep something. Our brothers and sisters in Russia from his time especially need encouragement. He is a good and sincere man and many will believe him. Despite previous indoctrination from government political commisars, he has also remained a true stalwart of the Christian church. Lord Dysmas is very pleased with this one and wants him to remember his happy times here on Abejar. In fact, after he returns he will probably gain increased psychic powers, be able to communicate and direct bees and some other helpful insects, and live at least an additional twenty years than he normally would have.” 141

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Naturally, eight months is a long time; but upon his return to Earth it seems he was only missing for five days. Worried family and friends were looking high and low for Girogry Vasilyevich, with no results. Vera Ivanovna, his dutiful wife, presumed the worst and lost all hope of seeing her husband alive again. But all of a sudden, she felt as if something was pushing her outside. Her heart leapt for joy when she sighted Grigory kneeling down on one knee before the gate. He was making a sign of the cross. There were no vehicles in the area and it was raining, so Vera did not understand how Grigory’s clothes were still mostly dry. Only his knee was muddy, where he knelt to offer thanks to God for his wonderous experience in such an angelic realm and his safe return to Earth.141 The Venus Channel While some like Sergei Simonov, whose case we previously but penultamently examined, exhibit fear of the unknown, there are others who eagerly embrace it. One such individual is Mziya Levashova from the Caucasus. When speaking about some other world, like Venus, or maybe some other space, time or universe, Mziya maintains her calm demeanor. Not only does she claim contact with extraterrestrial and ultradimensional beings, however, but Mziya swears that she actually is such an alien being. Russian ufologist, director of the Ecology of the Unknown Association in Moscow, enjoyed the opportunity of interviewing Mziya. He reported to the popular American UFO Universe magazine, the following: “Sometimes on her own initiative and sometimes in response to a call from the infinity of space, Mziya leaves her physical body and travels in a thin membrane from one world to another, from one star to another, from galaxy to galaxy. Such a summons is often an SOS signal, and Mziya hastens to the place where dark forces are close to a victory over the light. When her spiritual essence returns to Earth, her physical body ‘wakes up,’” adding that, “It’s as if it had been asleep. Mziya was sent to Earth by the light hierarchy to protect us, Earthly people, against the dark forces.”142 At times, the beautiful young woman breaks down and cries when speaking of this chronosynclastic infundibula. Her big, dark and sympathetic eyes dilate to such an extent that they seem to encompass the very distance between the Earth and her faraway home world of Venus that exists in a higher dimension. Whether or not Mziya actually leaves her physical body and fiels into space in a thin membrane still remains a matter of conjecture for the Russian ufologist, but he at least remains open to the possibility. In these modern times, when cultural barriers between peoples are literally falling down all around us, it is becoming much easier to access spiritual food for thought from the works of Eastern sages and Western philosophers. Clearly, the ufologist believes that one’s striving for such knowledge can more readily be satisfied in our world’s current socio-political environment. In other words, the truth is out there for anyone diligent enough to seek for it. In the winter of 1991, Mziya declared, “I am an alien!” While in a trance-like state, the young lady serves as the vehicle whereby highly advanced Venusians can speak through her. She becomes the Venus channel for many people anticipating her important messages. Perhaps just a few years earlier, she might have been locked away in a mental asylum, but 141 Sergei Bulantsev, “Russia’s Most Bizarfre Unsolved Cases;” Additional information was acquired through the Abejan branch of the Universal Library. In our solar system, however, this library is headquartered in a crystal ice cave on the planet we call Uranus. Some mystics on Earth know it better as the Akashic Records. It can be accessed remotely by them, through the power of mental telepathy. 142 Ibid

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Raymond Andrew Keller II not anymore. The times are truly changing. The messages that she passes on from the Venusians are optimistic ones about a “bright future” for Russia and the whole world. And many of them get published in local newspapers. Russians don’t seem to be distracted when it comes to listening to Mziya’s preachings about better times ahead that are coming just around the corner. According to the seeress, “Today, something really ecxtraordinary has to happen to make it into a newspaper. I am happy that so many editors find merit in the Venusian channeled messages.” The Healer from “Dimension X” Besides channeling, some Venusians or those intimately connected with the energies of the planet Venus have demonstrated the power to heal. Back in 1989, Liudmila Petrovna, a 36-year-old resident of the The widespread appearance of flying saucers over the USSR spurred intense interest in the Crimea, was paralyzed. She had already lived through spiritual aspects of the UFO phenomenon a clinical death at the cardiology center in Simferopol among average Soviet citizens from all and later had undergone open heart surgery in Kiev. Her walks of life. Some even began to suspect weight was a mere 31 kilograms. With each passing that Venusians were living and working among them. See http://apanelofanalysts. day, her condition worsened. By the beginning of April, tumblr.com/post/129525527814. she was even placed in a separate ward. Liudmila was helpless and praying for a release from her physical body. Nurses had largely forgotten her and hence, rarely came to her bedside. This was horrible as she could not even turn over without their help. Additionally, she could not sleep and neither had she received any sleeping pills. By the time 18 April rolled around, however, in the last remaining hour of darkness before the Sun would rise, a mighty rushing wind seemed to pass through Liudmila’s ward, despite the only window and solitary door being closed. The wind got much stronger, though, and all of the sudden the desperate and dying woman witnessed a flash of brilliant light that filled the room. She also heard a cracking sound, something akin to thunder. Liudmila thought she was hallucinating. The intense light coalesced into a beautiful orb, something akin to a crystal ball. It then dissolved into a pulsating aura about the body of a mysterious stranger, a man dressed entirely in white raiment, not unlike pictures of angels she had seen in her grandmother’s family Bible. His eyes were the clearest blue, mixed with specks of sparkling gray, and these seemed to be radiating light. “Who are you? Where do you come from?” asked Liudmila. “We are from Dimension X. You might know it better as Paradise,” replied the stranger. Liudmila was puzzled. “You said ‘We.’ But I only see you!” The wise man explained, “You are encompassed about by many friends. But it is not your time, Liudmila. When your time comes, you will see them all. They are always with you and know you very well.” “I’m not afraid now, sir. I know that you are a Holy One sent from God to answer my prayers. I believe you are real and I am putting my faith in you, with all of my heart. Are you Jesus or one of his angels?” 143

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus “No, my dear Liudmila; I am not Jesus, but I am one of his messengers, and one of his friends. We went through a painful ordeal together many centuries ago, by the reckoning of your time. But be not afraid, my child. You will be able to walk again!” Liudmila’s soft eyes were swollen with tears of joy. The divine messenger and his friends had chosen to answer her prayers, to visit her even when the nurses had not done so. O what a joyous day for Liudmila! “I believe you! I surely do! I offer many thanks to you all, and to Jesus Christ Our God and King.” The visible angel reached into his tunic and brought forth a simple wooden cross fashioned after the manner of the Russian Orthodox Church. Liudmila made a Sign of the Cross and repeated a prayer she had oft heard in Friday worship services, “In the midst, between two thieves, was Your Cross found as the balance-beam of righteousness; For while one was led down to hell by the burden of his blaspheming, the other was lightened of his sins unto the knowledge of things divine, O Christ God all glory to You.” The angelic apostle declared to Liudmila, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, my sister, but Jesus Christ who rules in the Celestial Realms.” With that, he pressed the cross against Liudmila’s lips, whereupon she gently kissed it. Then the Holy One placed the cross in her hands and pressed it to her bosom. “We shall see each other again,” he said, as he disappeared into a haze of small, twinkling lights. They looked like miniature stars. Liudmila might have thought she was going mad, except for the fact that she was holding the small cross. With the break of daylight, golden rays of sunshine were streaming through the window and Liudmila was actually sitting up in the bed. She was surrounded by a beatific glow and kept repeating the Friday prayer. There was an intense light shining forth from under the door, and it attracted a woman who was walking the floor, coming from a neighboring ward. She opened the door and beheld Liudmila’s countenance shining like the Sun itself. The woman screamed and suddenly people from all over the facility crowded around Liudmila to see what was going on. Someone had even called her husband; and when he arrived he took her hand. He didn’t know what to make out of any of this. There were red and white lights coursing all throughout her body. Then she felt as though someone was pushing her from behind and she heard the very clear, distinct and friendly voice of the messenger declare unto her, “Get up and go. It’s now or never!” Liudmila Petrovna gently set her husband’s hand aside onto the bed and then got up. Everybody made way for Liudmila. Her feet were on the ground; and she took one step, then another. She was now walking without any difficulty.143 Everyone was crying with happiness and hugging Liudmila, so happy for her and sharing in her joy. It’s moments like this that make being an angel an exciting job. Back in the Cyther Dome on Venus, Lord Dysmas and his special operations team congratulated themselves on another mission well done. 143 Ibid

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Wooden Russian Orthodox Cross

Raymond Andrew Keller II My friends, there is no doubt in my mind that Dimension X touches our own sphere of existence at many points along the space-time continuum. Liudmila’s case is not the only one of its type. Some may say this is all nonsense; that it is beyond logic. Nevertheless, there are thousands of such miracles that happen all around us, every day. Perhaps God has chosen the seemingly foolish things of this world to confound the wise. When one looks with the heart, instead of through their natural eyes, this will be the person that sees the paradise that is truly the planet Venus. Religious Factors In the former Soviet Union and areas under its control, the release of sensitive UFO material to the public was a matter for stricter state control. Reports of UFO contact cases seemed to parallel those in the United States. In the Soviet Union, where a materialist philosophy which embraced the concept that life emerged from the same process of chemical evolution throughout the known Universe, it seems rather odd that those who reported UFOs, and especially those who acknowledged having been contacted by the UFO occupants, were subject to so much scrutiny, censorship, or even being imprisoned. It is now evident that the officially-declared aetheist Soviet government, unlike its religiously tolerant counterparts in the Western democracies, was unwilling to accept the dissemination by some of its citizens of the hard messages of the extraterrestrials, especially insofar as these appeared to have been heavily laced with religious implications. For example, there was a report circulating throughout the Soviet defense establishment that outside of Moscow, in June 1978, a Russian military officer encountered the occupants of a flying saucer that had come to land their scout craft in close proximity to his post. The humanoids then approached this startled soldier of high rank and told him, “We know a lot about you. If you start a war that becomes dangerous to the planet, we will interfere and stop you!” While the flying saucer occupants failed to identify their point of origin, the officer assumed that they were from some other planet, possibly one close to the Earth since these extraterrestrials had apparently been able to garner a substantial amount of information with respect to human life on Earth over an extended period of time. These aliens also “prophecied” of some catastrophes, both natural and man-made, that would befall the Soviet Union in the relatively near future.144 This would include the political demise of the Soviet state, at least temporarily. So after reporting this close encounter of the third kind, nothing more was ever heard from again of the unknown Army officer. Perhaps the Soviet authorities believe that most close encounters of the third kind really take place; but they doubt any extraterrestrial or inter-dimensional origin of the UFO occupants. Military officers must be counted on to carry out their orders at all times and in all circumstances. The anti-war message of the alleged aliens, if embraced by enough airmen, sailors and soldiers of all ranks, would certainly serve the American interest of demoralizing, and hence weakening, the defense forces of the Soviet Union. Were the “humanoids” really American military personnel in disguise? Were they carrying out some CIA-inspired Hollywood act designed to undermine the military objectives and missions of the Soviet Union? And given the ufonauts ability to “prophecy” future catastrophes, what was the Soviet leadership to make of this? The implication was clear that the so-called “extraterrestrials” were speaking from a voice “on-high” of spiritual authority that certainly trumped that of the Soviet government. 144 Gordon Creighton, “Dr. Felix Zigel and the Development of Ufology in Russia,” in two parts, Flying Saucer Review, Volume 27, Number 3, November 1981, and Volume 27, Number 4, January 1982, Rickmansworth, United Kingdom.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus In December 1981, the Swedish UFO investigator and leading light in Scandanavian ufology circles, Hakan Blomqvist, conducted an in-person interview with Juri Lina, a fellow ufologist who had managed to escape from the Soviet republic of Estonia and had taken up residence in Sweden.145 At the time of the interview, Lina was 32-years old, but had already clandestinely organized a network of ufologists from behind the iron curtain that had chronicled volumes of material about all sorts of UFO activity that was then taking place in the Soviet Union. Lina spoke fervently about the beginnings of his UFO research and ufology organizing efforts in Estonia. “Didn’t you fear your activities would be discovered?” inquired Blomqvist. “Yes,” replied Lina, “we were very afraid of the authorities and I used the pseudonym Tuulo Ellis in print. We received very few books from abroad, but lots of magazines which were easier to smuggle by mail. Books usually didn’t reach us. Most of the material came from Finland. Our information net increased, and soon we had contacts with people from Moscow, Ukraine, Leningrad, Lettland, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden. Material mailed from Sweden never reached us and had to be shipped via Finland.” Blomqvist asked another question: “How long did you continue this activity without interference from the KGB?” Lina: “Almost three years.” Blomqvist: “How did the KGB find you?” Lina: “Somehow they found out there were some young people gathering who didn’t drink and who had peculiar philosophical ideas. They began questioning my friends about what I was up to, since I was the leader of the group. My friends warned me and mentioned the KGB visits. I now had to be very careful. I kept very little material in my apartment. If someone wished to borrow a book, I told him to be at my place on a precise date and hour so that it could be made available. “But on 2 April 1975, I woke up and noticed some men trying to enter the front door of my house. I immediately realized they were KGB and hurriedly burned dangerous letters and documents. They searched my apartment and inquired about my UFO interest. ‘UFOs exist only in the West, not here,’ they said. ‘You are not to tell anyone about UFOs. If you persist, we will make it impossible for you to live here in Estonia. Also you don’t drink. This is not good. You must have religious reasons.’” Following this visit from the KGB, Lina was unable to get anything published in his native Estonia. Being blacklisted by the KGB also meant that he could no longer find any kind of work at all in his professed field of journalism. Therefore, he was forced to take on the parttime job of transporting cattle to a Central Asian republic. Later, he was hauled before a judge who threatened to place him into a mental institution because of his belief in the reality of UFOs and their extraterrestrial origin. “You have a mental problem to believe in such things. If you do not stop talking and writing about UFOs, we will put you in a mental hospital.” But when Lina started quoting Marx and Lenin, the judge became confused as to the disposition of Lina’s case. If he had quoted the Bible or even spoken of spiritual matters, he surely would have been carted away to the mental asylum as “just another religious fanatic.” But by providing an atheist and materialist Marxist-Leninist interpretation of the UFO enigma, Lina was free to go his way. Nevertheless, he was still prohibited from speaking and writing about UFOs. 145 Hakan Blomqvist, “Interview: Juri Lina, Ufologist-Dissident,” AFU Nyhetsblad (Archives for UFO Research Newsletter), January-April 1982, Norrkoping, Sweden.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II Following this warning from the judge, Lina kept a low profile and started working as a night watchman. Blomqvist asked, “But you didn’t stop writing?” “No,” answered Lina, adding that, “I smuggled articles to Finland and also published some in Estonia, using my friends’ names. They got the money and gave it me. But this was no solution to my problem. Sooner or later, I would be discovered and imprisoned, perhaps in a mental institution. In the USSR, they can send you to prison if you haven’t been working for two months. The second time this happens, you are sent to Siberia.” The Swedish ufologist asked Lina if he knew of any Russian UFO researchers who had been imprisoned, to which he replied, “Yes, there was a man in Minski, Veacheslay Zaitsey. In 1978, he stopped writing and I heard from Moscow he had been sent to Siberia for five years. They formally accused him of writing ‘religious propaganda’ because he would occasionally quote the Bible in his UFO research.” Lina was, therefore, sensing a growing urge to escape the clutches of the Soviet Union. In 1978, he was assisted in this endeavor by his friends in Finland. They sent Lina a Finnish girl for him to marry, but just as a front. The Soviet authorities let him and his new “wife” depart Estonia on 2 April of the following year, whence they went their own separate ways upon arrival in Helsinki. In July 1979, Lina moved to Sweden. What we learn from Juri Lima, the Soviet dissident, is that there was a general increase in UFO reports and that the authorities were worried about the consequences. “They want them (the UFOs) to go away.” But it was the religious overtones of the UFO enigma that the Soviet authorities were most concerned about. When Blomqvist asked Lina what it was about his UFO philosophy that most scared the Soviets, the budding ufologist replied that it was because, “They thought of me as religious.” Lina further explained that many of those who study the UFO contacts in the Soviet Union, after the period of a few short years, would become teetotalers and vegetarians. Many would also start turning their attention to deeper philosophies such as Theosophy or even become baptized members of various Christian denominations, with the most popular being the Russian Orthodox Church. And so it goes that in a totalitarian state like the Soviet Union, there can be no gods or angels, even ones from outer space. They can only be figments of a wild imagination, or a drunken stupor.

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Chapter VI: The Real X-Files

See http://paulfrancis.deviantart.com/art/The-Pyramids-of-Venus-516781223.

“Venus: The enigmatic, cloud-shrouded planet on whose surface, some scientists say, NASA has discovered an array of pyramids and a Sphinx-like structure, not unlike the structures that are thought to exist on Mars.” —William J. Birnes, entry for “Venus” in the UFO Encyclopedia (2004). In 1946, the United States Army Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories initiated a series of experiments whereby American scientists began receiving radar echoes from the surface of the Moon. That the United States was the first nation to send anything to the Moon, albeit a few seemingly harmless radar beams to be bounced back to Earth, naturally aroused significant comment from astronomers, engineers and others engaged in various cutting-edge technical pursuits. Certainly, the scientific aspects of transmitting radio-frequency signals through the ionosphere were of great importance. More particularly, however, the work done by the Signal Corps might better be classified as an engineering achievement, as well as a tremendous source of national pride inaugurating the entrance of the United States as the world’s first duly recognized space power. Up to 1946, no long-term systematic observations had been conducted in the area of radar probing in space. Briefly, the radar experiments consisted of transmitting quarter-second pulses of radiofrequency energy at 111.5 mc every four seconds in the direction of the Moon, resulting in the detection of echo signals approximately 2.5 seconds after each pulse transmission. The display of the detected signals was audible as well as visible. On the technical side, the experiments utilized well-established radar techniques. However, radically different constants were applied 148

Raymond Andrew Keller II throughout the system. The considerations of pulse width, receiver bandwidth, transmitter power and the precise frequency of the returned signal due to Doppler Effect, were such that special attention to detail had to be given to the design of the overall equipment used throughout every phase of the experiments. Jack Mofenson, an electronics engineer who worked directly under the watchful eyes of Lt. Colonel John H. DeWitt Jr., the project’s commander, explained that, “After preliminary calculations were made concerning transmitter power, the reflectivity coefficient of the target, and receiver noise figure, it was apparent that receiving radar echoes from the Moon was technically possible. Under the direction of Lt. Col. John H. DeWitt, a project called ‘Project Diana’ was set up in September 1945 to develop a radar system capable of transmitting r-f pulses to the Moon, and detecting echoes more than 2 seconds later.” The engineer added that, “Prior to entering the Signal Corps, Colonel DeWitt, who at that time was chief engineer of Radio Station WSM in Nashville, Tenn., designed and constructed transmitting and receiving equipment for the purpose of receiving echoes from the Moon. This equipment employed substantially similar transmitter power and frequency to that used by the Signal Corps, but the attempt was a failure due to insufficient sensitivity in the receiver. Colonel DeWitt’s appreciation of the problem and personal supervision were the driving forces that made the present experiments successful. Assisting Lt. Colonel DeWitt were E. K. Stodola, Dr. Harold D. Webb, Herbert P. Kauffman and the writer (Mofenson), all of Evans Signal Laboratory. Credit is also due the members of the Antenna and Mechanical Design Croup, Research Section, Theoretical Studies Group and others.”146 Even as far back 70 years ago, the practical implications of radar contact with the Moon were numerous. During World War II, the Germans used the V-2 rocket that had the capability of climbing some 70 miles above the Earth. Mofenson sadly pointed out that the future held the unhappy prospect of missiles going far higher than this, noting that the matter of the transmission of radio signals to great distances above the Earth for the detection and control of such weapons would, of sheer necessity, become a problem of military importance. Additionally, the use of a reflector far beyond the Earth for radio waves makes possible the direct measurement of the ability of radio waves to penetrate the ionosphere. All of this and more indicated, to Morfenson at least, that a more complete investigation in this direction would be in order. Therefore, Project Diana personnel clearly foresaw This is the Project Diana antenna that bounced radar beams off the lunar surface. the possibility of using the Moon as the reflector for a It was situated on Camp Evans. In 1946, part-time, long-distance point-to-point communication the camp was part of the U.S. Army’s system, as well as using the Moon as a target to measure Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. See https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Diana. field strength patterns.147 146 Jack Mofenson, “Radar Echoes from the Moon,” Camp Evans Technical Publication, Evans Signal Observatory, Belmar, NJ, January 1946. 147 Mofenson

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus And so we see that in the latter months of 1945 and into 1946, United States military planners already had their designs on our closest neighbor in space, the Moon. But what if the Moon was already inhabited, perhaps colonized by sentient beings from other worlds in our solar system? How would the denizens of that nearby crater-pocked orb react to the United States’ scheme to militarize Earth’s natural satellite, initially using it as a “target to measure field strength patterns” but ultimately to convert it into a staging area for missile launches against other powers on Earth, or in the heavens? To answer that question, we turn to George Adamski, a prominent space age lecturer and philosopher from the decades of the 1950s and 1960s. He was also one of the first of the socalled “contactees” to publicly come forward with claims of communicating in person with visiting Venusians to our own lovely sphere. Adamski, in explaining why the Venusians and other extraterrestrials decided to suddenly increase their presence and monitoring activities on Earth, specifically referred to the U.S. Army-sponsored Project Diana activities taking place at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey: “It was in October, 1946, that the U.S.A. shot its first radar beam to the Moon. This was for experimental purposes. The center of the Moon was the target, since our scientists thought they had accurate calculations of the distances between our planet and her satellite. The intent was to learn the time required for a radar signal to travel such a distance through space and return.”148 The contactee also noted that in 1946, bouncing a radar beam off the surface of the Moon was considered to be one of the more significant news items. Adamski wrote that, “At that time, considerable publicity was given to the feat and its achievement, but, so far as the public has been informed, the matter was dropped there.” But insofar as the government was concerned, the matter was far from being considered over. Behind the scenes, everyone with a “need to know” was in on Project Diana being just the first round in a titanic struggle with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics for the militarization and conquest of outer space. Adamski concurred with this assessment, writing in 1961 that “in reality, that event was only the beginning of our rapid progress spaceward.”149 Adamski, the author of numerous books on space and cosmic philosophy, had the pleasure of discussing the initial phases of Project Diana with some of the Venusian operatives here on Earth. Of the first transmission of a radar beam to the Moon from the United States, the contactee asserted that while it missed its mark at the center of the lunar disc, it “hit the edge of the Moon and ricocheted into space.” Adamski believed that, for the most part, it would have gone undetected by the Venusians monitoring space activities in the vicinity of the Moon and their saucer bases on that orb, had it just been a standard radio transmission. But when the radar signal hit the rim of the Moon, its constituent properties became fragmented and scattered across the quantum radio spectrum, thereby exhibiting a high degree of “strangeness” that the contactee claims “was mistakenly interpreted to be a signal of distress.”150 Clearly, to the Venusians that were monitoring sundry communications from Earth, the scattered radar beam with its quantum emissions was unlike anything they had encountered before. Of course, the Venusians answered with their own signals. Perhaps the Venusian communications officer thought that one of their own or some other extraterrestrial, perchance a Martian, was stranded and in some kind of predicament, and sending up a beacon requesting assistance. 148 George Adamski, Flying Saucers Farewell (London, UK: Abelard-Shuman, 1961), 15. 149 Ibid. 150 Ibid.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II The Venusian Intelligence Service When discussing further this matter of a radar beam transmission to the Moon in 1946, it was Lady Encara, the Isis mothership commander, who once informed me that the Venusian Supreme Science Council, when augmenting their interplanetary communications and monitoring capabilities some 7,000 years ago, took the dramatic step of harvesting asteroids from their orbital space between the planets of Mars and Jupiter to reposition them as quasisatellites of Venus and all the other inhabited worlds of the solar system, to include the Earth. Once these asteroids were repositioned as quasi-satellites, Venusian construction crews engaged immediately in the process of hollowing them out and fabricating luxurious habitats within their interiors. “Your scientists at NASA and other world space agencies are aware of these ‘quasi-satellites,’” noted Lady Encara, a.k.a. the “translated” Annalee Skarin, adding that, “Those in the loop know of their existence as manned Venusian observation platforms and communications relay radio relay stations; but only a small number of your astronomers have even begun to think of them as anything but captured rouge asteroids.” The Venusian commander’s star has been shining brightly of late at the Space Command headquarters in Azure, the capital city of Aphrodite Terra. Lady Encara has been quite busy in securing the safety of Venusian colonists on the planet Belaton in the Sirius star sector. Belaton is a terrestrial world, two-thirds land and one-third fresh water, in orbit around Sirius B, a smaller white dwarf star that itself orbits Sirius A, the brightest star in the constellation of Canis Major, or the “Big Dog.” With this is mind, it is easy to see how Sirius A has come to be known down through the ages as the Dog Star, while Sirius B, whose existence was confirmed by the American telescope-maker and astronomer, Alvan Graham Clark of the Dearborn Observatory on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, on 31 January 1862, was euphemistically dubbed the “Pup” by this same stargazer.151 My dear friend and research associate, Dr. Kiva Mahkete Fall, of Dogon ancestry from the West African nation of Senegal, once informed me that his ancestors from the most “ancient of days” also shared in some intimate knowledge of a third star in the Sirius sector, another white dwarf. Taking the opportunity to verify this information, I asked Lady Encara if she could elaborate on the presence of this third celestial light, to which she declared that, “Yes, Cosmic Ray, by all means it certainly does exist, just as your compatriot described it. In the Sirius star sector, the main sequence star, Sirius A, is known as ‘Sothis;’ while the white dwarf Sirius B is called ‘Satais’ and the other dwarf star ‘Anu.’ The latter orb, however, while of the same approximate size as Satais, is nevertheless, much lower in magnitude. Anu’s dimness has prevented your astronomers from so far observing it, at least with conventional telescopes.” The Venusian cracked a smile, and chuckled, “Of course, that is not to say that they haven’t tried to find it.” After my return to Earth in January 2013, I could not find any information about this third star in some of the sundry astronomical journals published in the People’s Republic of China, so I had to wait until the following month when I would be back in Morgantown, West Virginia, so could I more thoroughly check out the pertinent Sirius star data in the West Virginia University Department of Astronomy and Physics research library. Lo and behold, it appears that astronomers had been conducting an intensive search for Sirius C all along. In 2008, French astronomers published some findings from their most recent and controversial observations: “….Apart from Sirius-B, no other source is detected within the total 25´´ field. A 151 Camille Flammarion, “The Companion of Sirius,” Astronomical Register, August 1877, 15 (176): 186–189.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus comparison of the flux expected from the faintest known brown dwarfs at the distance of Sirius demonstrates that the above limiting magnitudes correspond to a star of spectral type later than T5 at 5´´ and T7 at 10´´. Using theoretical spectra of brown dwarfs and planet-size objects, we also show that the end of the brown dwarf sequence is reached in the outer part of the image. The minimum detectable mass is around 10 M_Jup inside the planetary limit, indicating that an extrasolar planet at a projected distance of ~25 AU from Sirius would have been detected.”152 Outside of Europe, however, little if any mention was made of this momentous discovery. Once again, NASA was caught up in a conspiracy of silence, rightly living up to its acronym of “Never A Straight Answer.” Yet once more, the Venusian-provided astronomical information turned out to be correct. Anu was a proto-star, a dim brown dwarf about ten times the size of Jupiter at more or less 25 astronomical units out from the main sequence Sirius A in a highly elliptical orbit. While Anu’s orbital eccentricities took it far away from both Sothis and Satais for the majority of its elliptical circumnavigation about these neighboring stars, it could rightly be considered as an integral part of the Sirius star sector, and definitely of the Sirius super cluster. Naturally, I was quite appreciative that Lady Encara took a couple of hours off to come and visit me in one of the mothership’s many observation lounges to illumine me about some of the Venusian Hierarchy of Light’s and Supreme Science Council’s operational goals in the Sirius star sector.153 Suffice it to say, the Venusians have been granted permission by the indigenous Mantis population of Belaton to settle in certain mountainous areas of the planet, similar in terrain to that of Trinity County and Mt. Shasta in Northern California. The Isis has been given the responsibility of transporting the Venusians and other authorized colonists to these 152 J. M. Bonnet-Bidaud and E. Pantin, “ADONIS high contrast infrared imaging of Sirius-B,” Astronomy and Astrophysics, October 2008, 489 (2): 651–65. 153 From information gleaned from both Lady Encara and the Senegalese Dogon professor, Dr. Mahkete Fall, we have come to understand much about the Sirius star sector, especially the third star Anu. Around that proto-star orbited a Mars-size planet that the Dogon knew as Enome Ya. The more spiritual aspect of this world countless millennia ago ascended from the third to the fourth dimensional space-time continuum, during the period known as the Sirian Shift. It was also during this time that the remnant physical solar system, the part that remained third dimensional, assumed the highly elliptical orbit that it now finds itself. Another of the planets that orbited Anu, one that did not achieve ascension when the rest of the solar system made the shift into the fourth dimension, was that of the Neptune-sized Nibiru, the home world of the Annunaki. Nibiru suffered the misfortune of being flung out completely beyond the gravitational influence of Anu. For tens of thousands of years, Nibiru was a rouge planet, aimlessly plying the depths of darkened space between the various solar systems of our stellar arm of the Milky Way galaxy until it was captured by our own star, Sol. Nibiru is now Planet XII of our own solar system, provided we still count Pluto as an integral part of the Sun’s family of spheres. Nibiru is noted as having the most extreme elliptical orbit around the Sun, as a trans-Neptunian planet taking approximately 15,000 years just to make one complete ellipse. Once more both the Dogon and Venusian-provided information are confirmed by an independent astronomical investigation. On 16 January 2016, two scientists announced evidence that a body nearly the size of Neptune—but as yet unseen—orbits the sun every 15,000 years! These astronomers believe that the planetary interloper probably was drawn into our solar system about 4.5 billion years ago. They say that since the passing world most likely encountered the condensing nebular cloud that was then forming the Earth and other planets of the emerging solar system, it must have been slowed down by this gas cloud, thereby allowing the planet to ultimately settle into a distant, elliptical orbit, where it still lurks today. This new evidence comes from a pair of respected planetary scientists, Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. They defend their discovery against the arrows and slings of the skeptics with detailed analyses of the orbits of other distant objects and months of computer simulations. Most scientists have pooh-poohed the idea of such a large trans-Neptunian world orbiting distantly on the very fringes of the solar system, even beyond the Kupier belt. “I would, too,” astronomer Brown declared; and asking the rhetorical question, “Why is this different?” and answering with, “This is different because this time we’re right.” See Eric Hand, “Astronomers Say a Neptune-Sized Planet Lurks Beyond Pluto,” Science magazine, 20 January 2016, http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/01/feature-astronomers-say-neptune-sized-planet-lurks-unseen-solarsystem, (Accessed 21 February 2016).

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Raymond Andrew Keller II secured zones on Belaton. Lady Encara, besides commanding the Isis, serves as the telepathic communicator and ambassador to the Mantis collective. Hence, she has been empowered, under certain circumstances, to traverse the Omniverse via the inter-dimensional star- gate, which on our planet connects to the ethereal city of Shamballah in the Gobi Desert as well as Mt. Shasta in California. The Mantis is allied with the Honeybee in the Hierarchy of Light, hence intimately connected to the Venusian collective. The natural enemies of the Mantis are certain species of the Ant and the Wasp. These are the predators that rob and devour their eggs. The Honeybee is also preyed upon by the Ant and the Wasp; therefore it is logical that the Mantis and the Honeybee should partner to advance their mutual survival and other interests throughout the Omniverse. As the saying goes, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” So a new Venusian collective has been allowed to be Mike Brown (left) and Konstantin Batygin’s established on Belaton in exchange for the protection calculations predicted the existence of the rouge planet Nibiru. As George Adamski, provided by the humanoid Venusians and their Howard Menger, Omnec Onec and other honeybee allies. The humanoid Venusians thrive on contactees have long contended, our Belaton, transferring the socio-economic structure of solar system is much bigger than anyone their communal and matriarchal way of life to the new previously imagined. “Will Nibiru return to a closer proximity to Earth?” ask the planet. The humanoids dwell in long houses, tending to conspiracy theorists. Nobody is laughing gardens and living in harmony with the Honeybee and anymore. See http://www.sciencemag.org/ Mantis collectives that prosper in their midst. As an news/2016/01/feature-astronomers-sayneptune-sized-planet-lurks-unseen-solaroperative of the Venusian Hierarchy of Light, however, system. there is only so much that Lady Encara could share with me about their presence in that crucial sector of space. When our civilization is ready, we too, as an ascended species, will be able to dwell on Belaton. The Venusians have gone ahead to prepare a place for us. Of historical note, the Mantis has long been revered here on Earth, especially recognized for her supernatural powers among the peoples of the ancient civilizations of Assyria, Egypt and Greece. In Nineveh, the capital of Assyria in the ninth century B.C.E., the Mantis was identified as the Buru-enmeli, or “Grasshopper of Necromancy.” Additionally, the Mantis in Assyria and other Mesopotamian areas was believed to possess the powers of a soothsayer, and hence was referred to as Buru-enmeli-ashaga. And along the Nile, in ancient Egypt, at least according to The Mantis has long found her friends the Book of the Dead, the Mantis was regarded as the among some Terrans and Venusians. “Bird-fly,” the god responsible for leading the souls of See http://blogs.discovermagazine. com/loom/2008/05/15/feminism-andthe dead to the underworld. As for the Greeks, it seems cannibalism/#.VspuZkAYER8. as though the Egyptians’ belief about the Bird-fly must have been transferred to them following Alexander’s 153

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus conquest of Egypt and his installation of the Ptolemy dynasty there. Among the Greeks, a large Mantis, at least over ten feet long, would materialize from time to time to intercept lost travelers and conduct/fly them back to their homes.154 Even today, the Mantis remains highly esteemed; and in the southern African Khoi and San traditions this venerable insect is thought to be a god. And because of its praying posture; the word for the Mantis in Afrikaans is Hottentotsgot or “God of the Khoi.”155 Interesting, is it not? When the Venusian commander of the Victory mothership, Valiant Thor, appeared at Howard Menger’s farm in High Bridge, New Jersey, in 1957, to attend a flying saucer club meeting, it was August C. Roberts, a photographer for the prominent West Virginia ufologist Gray Barker who snapped a picture of Thor and some of his Victory crew members, who remarked that Thor was a fluent speaker of both Afrikaans and Khoikhoi, the indigenous click language of the Khoi and San peoples. The Khoikhoi belong to a pastoral culture and linguistic group that extends across Southern Africa. Anthropologists believe that they originate in the northern area of what is now modern Botswana. The southern migration of the ethnic group was steady. Eventually, the Khoikhoi reached the Cape around 2,000 years ago. The Khoikhoi people, sometimes referred to derogatorily as the “Hottentots,”156 then occupied this extended region for centuries before the Dutch arrived. Among Khoikhoi subgroups are the Namaqua to the west, the Korana of mid-South Africa, and the Khoikhoi themselves in the south. Contemporary sociologists have noted that the husbandry of sheep, goats and cattle grazing in fertile valleys across this extended area provides for a stable, balanced diet, and allows the Khoikhoi to live in larger, extended family groups in a region previously occupied by the subsistence hunter-gatherers, the neighboring San peoples. Bantu groups in the third century, C.E., advanced on Khoikhoi territory, forcing movement into more parched areas. While the sociologists have observed some intermarriage between migratory Khoi bands living around what is today Cape Town and the San, the two similar linguistic groups have remained culturally distinct insofar as the Khoikhoi continue to graze livestock and the San to subsist on hunting-gathering.157 Having lived in Africa for two years and holding a doctoral degree in African History from West Virginia University, what I find remarkable is not only that a white man could speak the click language so fluently, but that the other Venusian crew members on the Menger property for the flying saucer club meeting could apparently understand every Khoi word that Valiant Thor uttered. On Venus, only a minority of the males possess telepathic abilities; so perhaps, one might assume, Valiant was not to be counted among that minority. Also, some of the other crew members may not have been Venusian, albeit they were attached to the Victory mothership. Perhaps they were other, non-telepathic extraterrestrials, like Adamski had noted as serving onboard various Venusian spacecraft, such as the scout ship landing team members Firkon of Mars and Ramu of Saturn. Since telepathic communication was apparently unavailable, what better way for Valiant to impart critical instructions to his team than by 154 Frederick R. Prete, Harrington Wells and Patrick H. Wells, “The Predatory Behavior of Mantids: Historical Attitudes and Contemporary Questions,” in Lawrence E. Hurd, Frederick R. Prete, Harrington Wells and Patrick H. Wells, The Praying Mantids (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), 3–8. 155 “Insek-kaleidoskoop: Die ‘skynheilige’ hottentotsgot,” Mieliestronk.com, undated, http://www.mieliestronk.com/insek7hotten.html, (Accessed 21 February 2016). 156 “Bring Back the Hottentot Venus,” Race Science in Media, 15 June 1995, http://web.mit.edu/racescience/in_media/ baartman/baartman_m&g_june95.htm, (Accessed 21 February 2016). 157 Alistair Boddy Evans, “Pre-colonial Cultures in South Africa,” About.com, 2016, http://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa-SAColonists1.htm, (Accessed 21 February 2016)

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Raymond Andrew Keller II speaking in an Earth language they all could understand but those Terrans around them could not! That is was the clicking tongue of Khoikhoi makes a lot of sense, when one considers that the Mantis beings came down among them as gods in the ancient past. Apparently, there has been much more interaction between the Venusians, the Mantis collective and certain, select groups of Earthlings! Valiant and the others could not afford to speak in Venusian, at least insofar as it would have been a dead giveaway. The Afrikaans and the Khoikhoi spoken by Valiant surely attracted enough attention. The Venusian Radio Relay Stations But now in getting back to the lunar radar beam experiment conducted in New Jersey, of this scenario Adamski wrote that, “When no replies were received, their ships were dispatched to investigate. Naturally, these went to the section of our planet whence the signals had originated.” This brings us to the question as the how the Venusians were able to pick up and retrace such a seemingly weak and diminished signal, in the first place. To answer this, we must turn to George Oliver Smith (9 April 1911 – 27 May 1981), a prominent American science fiction author who hung out in Southern California with such luminaries in the genre as Isaac Asimov, John W. Campbell, Jr., Robert A. Heinlein, and L. Ron Hubbard, with the latter also being the founder of the New Age religion of Scientology. According to an entry in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Smith was also recognized as an expert electronics engineer. His technical background certainly carried over into his writing of traditional, hard-core science fiction. As an author, Smith was most active and frequently featured in the pages of Astounding Science-Fiction throughout the decade of the 1940s, in which his first story, “QRM – Interplanetary,” was featured as the lead in the October 1942 issue of that pioneering sci-fi publication. With respect to the “QRM” story, the Encyclopedia informs us that, “the tale both began his sf career and initiated his most famous endeavour, the Venus Equilateral Series of stories (all in Astounding except for one late addition) about a Communications-centered Space Station in the forward Trojan position (60° ahead of the planet) of the orbit of Venus (at the Lagrange Point –R.K.), and the various crises that must be solved by its onboard team. These stories were assembled as Venus Equilateral (stories October 1942-November 1945 Astounding; collection of linked stories 1947; with three stories added, exp 1975 2vols; UK version vt The Complete Venus Equilateral 1976 1vol).” The entry writer, known only by the initials of J.C., posits that these stories “exhibit Smith’s main strength, a fascination with technical problems and their didactic explanation, after the fashion of Hugo Gernsback and the early Amazing, as well as his main weakness, an almost complete lack of interest in character or plot plausibility. However, though the technical presuppositions on which he based his communications station dated very swiftly, the sequence – featuring as it does a passel of cheerful wisecracking engineer/ troubleshooters – vividly evokes a characteristic 1940’s sf point of view about the future as an arena whose problems were solvable by humans.”158 J.C. reaches the conclusion that Smith “was one of the very purest writers of engineer’s sf.” When we recall that Adamski, with his background in Theosophy and cosmic philosophy, was more a mystic than a mechanic, it’s wonderful to know that as early as 1947, just one year after the New Jersey radar experiments, there was one imaginative fellow out there with 158 J.C., entry for “George O. Smith,” Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, 2 April 2015, Gollancz, SFE, http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/smith_george_o, (Accessed 22 February 2016)

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus enough technological savvy to explain the gargantuan implications of the event to the future of outer space research. Smith surmised wrote that, “In 1946, the United States Army Signal Corps succeeded in sending forth and receiving radar signals from the Moon. This was an academic triumph; at that time such a feat had no practical value. Its value came later when the skies were opened up for travel; when men crossed the void of space to colonize the nearer planets, Mars and Venus.” The science fiction author who could successfully incorporate accurate and technical details into his stories, Smith continued that, “They found, then, that communications back and forth depended upon the initial experiment in 1946.” In explaining this, Smith noted that “there were barriers, even in deep space. The penetration of the Heaviside Layer was no great problem. That had been done. But they found that Sol, our sun, was often in the path of the communications beam because the planets all make their way around Sol at different rates of speed.” Wow! I’m reading this and can hardly contain my enthusiasm for Smith’s outstanding insight. With regard to the radar beams, he had foreseen not only the future problems that would be encountered by space farers, but also workable solutions to them. Smith argues that, “All too frequently Mars is on the opposite side of the sun from Terra, or Sol might lie between Venus and Mars. Astronomically, this situation where two planets lie on opposite sides of the sun is called Major Opposition, which is an appropriate name even though those who named it were not thinking in terms of communications.”159 The significance of all this is found in the concept of Sol being between two planets and interfacing with communications. In this scenario, it is easy to see how there is no true physical alignment insofar as the Sun is a tremendously powerful generator of radio thermal energy. Therefore, communication begins to fail as soon as the other planet is anywhere from 15 to 20 degrees from the Sun. Ergo, from 30 to 40 degrees of opposition passage from the Sun, Smith posited that the Venus Equilateral would become a necessary relay station. Clearly, the visionary Smith could see a day when the human colonists of Venus would have to find a way to keep communications channels open with the Earth and other inhabited planets in the solar system. Adamski, on the other hand, knew that such a Venusian radio relay station existed in the vicinity of their home world and probably in other locations scattered throughout the solar system as well, but he did not have the technical grasp to adequately describe its operational capabilities and parameters, as Smith did in his science fiction novel. The “Trojan” Asteroids This explanation certainly goes a long way in explaining why, in the beginning, more extraterrestrial spacecraft were observed over the United States than other parts of the world. Adamski also noted that “as it will be when our space ships reach other planets, some of their craft landed here and there as they found it safe or necessary.” adding that, “If a person happened to be in the vicinity of the landed craft, the crewmen inevitably endeavored to meet and talk with him. When successful, they always explained why they had

The Venusians enjoy all the good things of life in a habitat created by hollowing out an asteroid garnered from the space sector between Mars and Jupiter and repositioned in the vicinity of their home world. Their new, converted asteroid home also serves as an interplanetary communications monitoring and radio relay station. See https://www.pinterest.com/ pin/496592296385591585/.

159 George O. Smith, Venus Equilateral (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Prime Press, 1947), 10-11.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II been attracted to Earth in increased numbers.” As to the explanation proffered by the visiting Venusians to those Earthlings whom they chanced to encounter, including Adamski, the aliens made it quite clear that insofar as “they were unfamiliar with our terrain and atmosphere (we had been experimenting with atomic bombs and, not long before, had exploded some to end the war, thereby setting up an unnatural condition), or the strength of the planet’s magnetic fields, there were more crashes than we realize.”160 So Adamski confirms that the Venusians lost more than just the one downed scout craft that the United States government recovered from Roswell, New Mexico; and that the atomic testing altered both the Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic fields to such a degree that it interfered substantially with the safe and efficient operation of the Venusian scout craft then patrolling our skies. Adamski also used this knowledge as the basis for discernment when it came to establishing the validity of others’ contactee claims. Adamski stated that, “It was this information that enabled me to tell whether a claimed contactee was telling the truth, or indulging in wishful thinking, because one having an actual experience of this kind would mention this part of the conversation during his relating of his meeting with people from a space ship. I have never divulged this fact previously because it would have served as a basis upon which imposters could work. Now, however, I have been given a means of identification, and the Brothers have suggested that this information be made public at this time in order to answer many questions heretofore unanswered.”161 Credibility of George Adamski

For all the notoriety that resulted from the worldwide dissemination of his books, Adamski was the most targeted of the contactees. There is no doubt that he received the most scrutiny and criticism of all those in that special category of claiming contact with extraterrestrials. But Adamski was both consistent and persistent in his assertions that not only had he continued to meet with people from other planets since 1952, but that he had actually visited the planet Venus, arriving there in a spacecraft and not simply in a “dream state,” via some sort of psychic experience. His trip to Venus was in the substantive, third dimension. At least as far as he could determine, there was nothing mystic about his voyage. And in less than one month prior to his death on 23 April 1965 in Maryland, Adamski was still on the lecture circuit, visiting flying saucer fan clubs up and down the East Coast. One of his last stops George Adamski (1891-1965), first of the modern contactees. See http://ufoarchives. was the Little Theater in Worcester, Massachusetts, on blogspot.com/2015/07/marc-hallet-critical- the evening of 31 March 1965. At that time, Adamski appraisal-of.html. talked about his interplanetary experiences to a largely receptive audience, but endured some technical problems with his movie projector while attempting to show some films he had taken near Mt. Palomar, California, of the Venusian 160 Ibid., 15, 16 161 Ibid., 16

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus mothership and some scout craft in operation. In any event, the then 74-year old Vista, California, UFO lecturer affirmed that there were “many, many people from outer space living among us.”162 There had been some heavy rain that evening; so the estimated attendance of 300 was not quite what Adamski and his sponsors, the editorial board of the Controversial Phenomena Bulletin, had expected. Nevertheless, despite feeling somewhat ill and depressed by the inclement weather, Adamski soldiered on with the lecture, that promptly began at 8 p.m. After all, these were his die-hard fans. Even after the Jet Propulsion Laboratory declared that their Mariner 2 space probe indicated no chance for “life as we know it” to exist on Venus due to hostile surface and atmospheric conditions, Adamski continued to maintain that his contacts were very much human in appearance and hailed from a super-scientifically advanced civilization on the second planet. He also stated that not only was Venus inhabited by such exalted beings, but that “it has only been their presence which has prevented the destruction of the Earth by a nuclear holocaust.” Adamski added that “if it wasn’t for them (the Venusians), our space program would not be as advanced as it is.” As to the appearance of the Venusians, Adamski clarified that, “They look and talk just like you. In fact, you could be one of them – I don’t know - with all the questions you are asking.” The contactee further explained that, “I first made contact with them in 1952, and I had no intention of talking about it. You never would have heard of me if one of the six witnesses at our meeting – a scientist from Arizona – hadn’t gone and blabbed to the press about it.” So Adamski made it clear that he wasn’t a publicity hound. He never set out to seek all this attention. He only felt that someone had to speak out about the dangers of nuclear experimentation and testing before it became too late to turn back the hands on the doomsday clock on the wall at the University of Chicago. Most in attendance could believe that Adamski had some kind of UFO experience on the California desert. After all, the close encounter of the third kind was witnessed by six others who actually testified to that effect, and the contactee had many seemingly valid photographs of what seemed to be some type of flying saucer, that he referred to as a “Venusian scout ship.” Those in attendance at Adamski lectures were at least able to grant him that much. They were sure he met up with genuine extraterrestrials, but weren’t sure that Adamski’s aliens came from Venus because NASA was loudly proclaiming that no life, at least in human form or as we have come to know it, can possibly exist there. And as to Adamski’s taking a ride in an interplanetary spacecraft and actually traveling to Venus, many in the flying saucer fan clubs proved skeptical. Consider the following comments from Nancy A. Reynolds, a member of the Northborough, Mass., UFO and Science of Life Study Group who attended the Adamski lecture cited above: “Here are my reactions and impressions of the evening that we all spent with George Adamski. My first reaction, as Mr. Adamski stepped into the room, was ‘so this is the great man that I have read and heard so much about. He doesn’t look any different than the rest of us.’After the introductions had been made and we sat down, the meeting got off to a flying start with Mr. Adamski telling us of his first contact with the spacemen. I am confident that Mr. Adamski has 162 Gerard E. Goggins, “Self-Styled Visitor to Venus Touches Down Here,” Evening Gazette, Worcester, MA, Tuesday, 30 March 1965. (Note: Goggins prefaced the Adamski discourse with notes from the contactee’s prior engagements and presentation of UFO films. The author augments the dialogue with recollections of the discourse and dinner with Adamski by members of the sponsoring Northborough UFO group as published in various issues of their unofficial newsletter, the Controversial Phenomena Bulletin, A. A. Laprade, editor.)

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Raymond Andrew Keller II met and talked to these people. I doubt, however, that he has actually traveled to Venus. He spoke of going to the mothership and I wondered then, as I do now, if perhaps the space people showed him pictures of their planet, rather than actually taking him there.”163 Remember, this was back in 1965, and the idea of a holodeck had not yet been introduced, even in the vast scifi universe. Reynolds may have been onto something here. Basically, a holodeck is a fictional virtual reality facility that was first featured in the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series.164 It is primarily used for recreational activities; and is often utilized to recreate familiar places, participate in interactive stories, and to hone a variety of sports and skills. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, holodeck environments and people are created by the use of “hard light” simulations. These are holograms confined to the holodeck or other areas with “holographic projectors.” But in our “real world,” there is no such extant technology. Star Trek: The Next Generation (Paramount, Nevertheless, some computer scientists predict virtual 1987-1994) popularized the holodeck reality tools similar to those found on the Star Trek: experience. Did Adamski and other contactees perceive close encounters of the The Next Generation holodeck, but minus the ability third kind under such simulated conditions? to touch. These technicians will probably not have a See http://shirtoid.com/80036/whatviable holodeck that will become a “consumer-ready happens-on-the-holodeck/. product” until 2024.165 Overall, one must consider the possible deployment of such a holographic technology by an advanced alien civilization when engaged in contact with human beings. The use of a device like a holodeck could serve to further the acceptance of the aliens, along with their agenda, by the human population that might otherwise shun the extraterrestrial presence out of fear or misunderstanding. A holodeck would permit the alien interlopers to set the stage and thereby tailor many of the close encounters they may generate with humans. The holodeck could anthropomorphize the aliens, thereby making them a “pill” much easier for the majority of us humans to swallow. But in returning to Nancy Reynolds, and her astute observations, we note that she goes on to state that she “was interested to hear him say that there are some 2,000 people from Venus living among us here on Earth. This has been a favorite thought of mine for some years. How I would love to meet a person from another planet and ask all manner of questions.” This is an understandable sentiment. From Tannhauser, Swedenborg, Adamski and other contactees, we come to learn that Venus is an incredible and lovely world totally beyond imagination, exceeding all of our expectations. Mrs. Reynolds, who as a board member of the sponsoring UFO group attended a pre-lecture dinner in honor of Adamski, described the contactee as a “marvelous person.” She noted that, “It’s too bad that there could not be more meetings, as small and informal as ours was, so that others could get to know and hear him as we did.” She added that, “He is a man who inspires great confidence. Perhaps if more people could hear and get to know Mr. Adamski and other 163 Controversial Phenomena Bulletin, “Lest We Forget,” memorial issue for George Adamski, Vol. 2, No. 3, Whole No. 9, June 1965, J. L. Ferriere, ed., Worcester, MA. 164 Paramount Domestic Television, 1987-1994. 165 Nick Bilton, “Disruptions: The Holodeck Begins to Take Shape,” New York Times, 26 January 2014.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus contactees, and, the messages that they bring from the space people, we wouldn’t be so stupid as to blow ourselves to bits over petty arguments with each other.” Mrs. Reynolds concluded by declaring that, “It was a most enjoyable evening. I thank you very much for inviting me to share in the meeting.” She then extends thanks to the hostess, Genevieve Larochelle, for helping make the evening one to long remember. Back to the lecture, however, Adamski did attest that he was, indeed, a passenger aboard an interplanetary spacecraft. “I didn’t go for a ride that first time,” he said, but interjecting that, “I wasn’t scared. I just a little cautious; but then, afterwards I decided what did I have to lose – I was getting old – and I went for a ride in their ship.”166 He also affirmed that the people he rode in space with were from Venus. While Adamski told those in attendance that he visited their home world Venus, he was reluctant to speak of his experiences there. When asked if he had been to the Moon, the contactee declared that he had seen it close up while passing the body in space, but did not land on the surface. And when asked if he was bothered by the general aura of disbelief that continually confronted him from all but his ardent followers, Adamski took note that he wasn’t too upset by it since, “They criticized everybody who came up with something new.” Fireflies in Space Adamski spoke up for himself at the meeting. “You know,” he said, “in 1956 I wrote a book called Inside the Space Ships and I talked about the firefly effect that you get when you look out at space when you’re traveling through it. Years later, John Glenn comes back and says the exact same thing.” And since it had been 13 years since his initial contact with the Venusians, Adamski stated that he did not believe that the space people who live among us constitute any kind of a threat, otherwise they would have taken some kind of action against us in the interim period: “If they were a danger to us, it would have showed up since I first met them.” And while the Venusian government is more centralized, or socialistic, it is also fundamentally democratic in structure. Adamski said: “The citizens of Venus have a democracy similar to that of the United States; and that instead of having separate nations on that planet their government is made up of 50 odd states.” The contactee also stressed the benevolent character of the Venusians. He mentioned that he was instructed to warn the public and certain government officials in the United States about the threat of nuclear destruction. Adamski also commented that the Venusians “are very intelligent; and an expression of their intelligence is that they’ve been traveling through space to our planet for hundreds of years.” And what is more is that Adamski claims no exclusivity in communicating with the extraterrestrials. He maintains that there are “About 2,000 other people who have had the same type of experience.” Earlier in the day, Adamski made an appearance on Boston’s WTAG-TV’s “Live Wire” program, promoting the evening lecture. On the air, he discussed some of his controversial but popular UFO books, including Flying Saucers Have Landed (1957) that he co-authored with Winston Churchill’s nephew, Desmond Leslie. Also on the television broadcast, Adamski declared that there is much that we can learn from the space people, and that is why he has maintained continual contact with them since his first physical encounter with them in 1952. Adamski reassured the television audience that the Venusians were not coming here for the purpose of conquest; and further stated that, “I never counted how many of them are here; but they’re here.” He also conflated angels in the Bible with the alien Venusian presence on 166 Goggins

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Raymond Andrew Keller II Earth, paraphrasing Hebrews 13:2 that “We can entertain angels without being aware they are angels.” George Adamski Vindicated Other contactees through the decades have echoed assertions with respect to the imminent dangers inherent in atomic testing and the concerns of the extraterrestrials about it, especially with respect to the Venusians. Shelia Gibson, a.k.a. “Omnec Onec,” a Venusian “walk in,” wrote in her autobiography that after a mothership was deployed from our sister planet Venus to check out the source of the radar beams as well as the technological infrastructure of our military installations, that “What they found was frightening; a planet inventing and exploding ever more powerful nuclear weapons. The last fifty years on Earth has been a time of tremendous technical growth. It was the same sad pattern we had seen on Atlantis and Lemuria before this. The rebirth of the dreaded atomic sciences became of grave concern to scientists and spiritual leaders of the Brotherhood of Planets. No longer would Earth be entirely her own.” Sadly, the beautiful and alluring Earth-incarnate Venusian added that, “With this awareness of nuclear power, this planet has become a menace to the entire solar system.”167 And so it was that the peoples of the Earth took cognizance of the Venusian scout craft and UFOs from other planets in our solar system and beyond as they penetrated our atmosphere, conducted reconnaissance missions over the world’s capital cities, industrial sites, military bases and centers of scientific research, especially, nuclear testing sites. For many in positions of political and hence military authority here on Earth, it became apparent that these flying saucers were real and that they were either drones or manned spacecraft from a planet possessing superior technology. Naturally, the military leaders became concerned and imposed a blackout on the dissemination of UFO information until such as a time as they could adequately address the phenomenon and its implications for national security. Omnec Onec, the Venusian queen speaking through Shelia Gibson, confirmed this when she declared that, “In all parts of the world, our ships are active, watching Earth’s atmosphere, lands and oceans. The serious effects of continued nuclear testing are of special concern, as well as natural events such as earthquakes, climate changes and axial tilt of the Earth.”168 Radiation Fallout- Damage Already Done Early on, there existed in the United States an acute awareness of the dangers inherent for the entire world in continued atomic testing. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered a powerful address on this subject to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on 8 December 1953. Titled “Atoms for Peace,” the president who had spent so much of his life in the military profession, explained the new United States President Eisenhower believed that atomic program that would supply equipment and information power could be put to peaceful use by all the to hospitals, schools and research establishments nations of the Earth. The Venusians, on the throughout America and around the globe explaining other hand, had their doubts. in the “new language of atomic warfare” the means that 167 Shelia Gibson, a.k.a. Omnec Onec, Ambassador from Venus (New Brunswick, NJ: Global Communications, 2008), 3334. 168 Ibid, 37

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus should be taken to divert such awesome power into peaceful development and progress, thereby averting so great a catastrophe that Adamski and the Venusians feared might be lingering on the horizon. Under the provisions of the Atoms for Peace program, the first nuclear reactors in Iran, Israel and Pakistan were built by the American Machine and Foundry Company, with ticker symbol AMF, a corporation more commonly recognized as a manufacturer of bowling equipment.169 All the while that President Eisenhower was pushing for nuclear disarmament and the diversion of atomic power into peaceful uses, however, the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union continued to test and build up their respective nuclear arsenals of mass destruction. Of this continuing aggregation, by 1955 many biologists had come to fear that radiation levels worldwide were nearing a point of peril. Assembled in Geneva, Switzerland, on 15 August for the International Atoms for Peace conference, the leading biologists from sundry nations issued a joint declaration that atomic radiation in the atmosphere was approaching a point of danger for the entire human race. One concerned correspondent at the Swiss meeting stated that, “Our legacy of horror is already upon us! The Bikini (atoll) test exposed our chain of doom. The scientists are frightened men, afraid to tell the public the truth.” The journalist further explained that, “Every nuclear explosion releases tremendous amounts of radioactivity. A hydrogen bomb exploded close to the Earth gouges out a tremendous crater and hurls into the air millions of tons of radioactive debris. This ‘hot’ material is carried by high winds all over the Earth. It drifts down gently from the sky, almost always invisible, to mix with the air we breathe, to fall into our water supplies, on our plants, and on our livestock. It becomes a part of our everyday life. It is inescapable.” But this is not the end of the story insofar as nuclear radiation is concerned. The reporter takes note that, “Once the ash has been distributed, it remains dangerous for years; some types are lethal for centuries. Certain types of the ‘debris’ emit subatomic particles which pass through the human body as easily as a bullet cuts the air. If this radiation tears through your reproductive organs, your genes may, and probably will, be damaged. If they are…. then you are one of those people whose genes will pass on to future generations a sentence of living horror.” Unfortunately, he adds that, “Sometimes the atomic ash is breathed into the body. It can be swallowed by drinking water. It can be eaten in food which has been contaminated.” And the saddest of all, he fervently declared that, “You never know when it happens to you.”170 Because of the anti-communist crusade underway in the United States, and to a lesser extent in other Western nations, few there were who would speak out against atomic testing, believing it was necessary to keep America and her allies ahead of the dastardly Soviet Union and the other Eastern Bloc nations in the arms race. Nevertheless, the contactees and those intimately connected with them, were not afraid to opine on this issue. Based on the information provided them by the Venusians and other space intelligences, they realized that the American government was hiding the truth about nuclear radiation, just as they had long denied the existence of the flying saucers as extraterrestrial ships. Ray Palmer, the editor and publisher of Mystic magazine, had long been a friend and advocate for the contactee community, and in the October 1955 issue of his publication wrote a scathing 169 Avner Cohen and William Burr, “The Eisenhower Administration and the Discovery of Dimona: March 1958-January 1961,” 15 April 2015, National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu (Accessed 18 February 2016). 170 “Our Coming Race of Human Monsters,” Exposed magazine, Vol. 1, No. 3, January 1956, New York, New York.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II critique of the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and their obfuscation of the facts about nuclear radiation. In this important article, Palmer quotes Dr. Franklin Hutchinson, an assistant professor of radiation physics at Yale University, who stated that, “The AEC has given misleading information about the danger from atomic test blasts. If the AEC has data to back up its contention that there are no harmful genetic effects from the radiation, that’s just wonderful. The trouble is, I don’t know of any such data, and neither does anyone else to whom I’ve talked. Radioactive fallout from atomic blasts is producing genetic effects in mankind that will be showing up for thousands of years to come.”171 No wonder the Venusians maintain such a small contingent on the Earth at any one time. And who can blame them? It thus becomes apparent that there must be some military or political reason for hiding the truth about atomic testing. If the radiation physicist is correct, then surely if these tests were going to prove harmful to future generations, they must have exercised some very detrimental effects on those who lived during the time of these bombs’ detonations. Perhaps the spokesperson for the AEC was counting on Americans of the 1950s to find some comfort in hearing that radioactivity to which they were exposed would only injure some far-off, future generations. The commission’s propagandist just did not have the heart to inform them that the atomic tests radioactively contaminated the very air they were breathing, the water they were drinking and the food they were eating. Palmer opined, and one cannot but agree with him, that, “Future generations will lay the blame at the door of the American people; and it will prove to be a ghastly accusation in the light of the fact that it can be proven we knew the danger, and we inflicted it upon them regardless, and criminally.” Of course, all throughout the 1950s, scientists at the AEC were maintaining that it was only a particular amount of radiation, classified in roentgens, that was actually operative at a dangerous level. In other words, they wanted the American people to believe that exposure to any amounts below that particular level were safe, that the increased radioactivity to which they were exposed due to the nuclear test explosions had not exceeded the so-called, “scientifically decided-upon-level of tolerance.” They were also counting on each individual American’s sense of patriotism in keeping them from asking about the radioactive particulate that gets into our bodies from the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. Palmer succinctly wrote, “What is important is the numbers of these particles we add to those they so slyly tell us are already a natural content of our bones and blood. What is important is that if we double the number (and that is what must happen if the amount in the air is similar to that already in our bodies), we double the exposure.” So the government lied, as usual, and the people suffered, and continue to suffer from this malfeasance. Propagandists for the AEC were making statements to World News and Report, Time and other powerful and politically influential periodicals that, “The increased radioactivity of the air as a result of atomic test explosions is no greater in comparison with the ‘background radiation,’ than what we receive from a chest x-ray exposure.” Please, give me a break! Even back in the 1950s it was widely known that the exposure for a brief second to the radiation of one chest x-ray is considerable. It is certainly dangerous; and too many x-rays in one year can cause serious genetic and cell damage. Even back then, it was recognized in the medical establishment that too many doctors were careless in the use of x-ray machines, needlessly exposing many of their patients to a very serious danger. 171 Ray Palmer, “Liars in the Atomic Energy Commission,” (editorial), Mystic, Vol. 1, No. 12, Evanston, Illinois

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Of this situation, Palmer elucidates: “One of the pet phrases harped by the AEC is that the radiation of the tests is hardly equal to an ordinary chest x-ray. What they do not say is that this radiation goes on for days, not seconds, and that in certain areas it is incredibly more than the average chest x-ray.” In the article, the Mystic editor also points out that while certain areas were tested for levels of specific radiation in local populations, theAEC conducted these samplings before the Spring 1955 atomic testing in these locales. Palmer writes, “The AEC made extensive tests of atmospheric background radiation, and found it so trifling an increase over the natural level, that it was certainly not dangerous. They made the tests in February. In March and April the bombs were tested. How left-handed can you get? This is subterfuge if we ever saw it.”

From This Island Earth (Universal Studies, 1955), two scientists played by Rex Reason, left, and Faith Domerge, right, battle an extraterrestrial monster. Over generations, some of the inhabitants of the planet Metaluna mutated as the result of continual atomic wars. Outside of science fiction and ufology circles, very few in the 1950s realized the dangers to the future of humankind inherent in nuclear testing. See http://www.avclub.com/article/rip-rexreason-star-island-earth-228925.

Venusian Concerns As we learned from Adamski, Menger and other contactees, the Venusians have been visiting the Earth for countless millennia, content in conducting a scientific exploration of our world spanning numerous disciplines. And following our development of atomic weaponry and the ability to project military power into outer space, the Venusians and other extraterrestrials have also come to see the necessity in augmenting their respective defense forces. This is especially true of the Venusians, insofar as they dwell on the planet closest to Earth, being at a distance of just 26 million miles when in conjunction, in addition to having bases underground on the Moon and above the lunar surface under protective domed structures on the far side of our natural satellite. Clearly, it is out of this urgency to promote their self-defense that the Venusians and other alien intelligences began arriving here in such great numbers since 1946, a little more than one year after the first atomic explosion in Hiroshima, Japan, and corresponding to the transmission of a radar beam that bounced off the rim of the Moon. The contactees from the 1950s informed us that the inhabitants of the sundry planets in our solar system arose from a common root race and biological origin. Hence, the reference is made to Martians, Venusians and Saturnians as our “space brothers and sisters.” In other words, they’re family. And naturally, as cosmic relatives, these more advanced members of the solar family have compassion on their “lesser brethren” and a desire to save us from our own path to self-destruction. While most of the military and political leaders of Earth remained blind to the dangers ahead in our massive nuclear build up in the Cold War arms race, the spiritual masters on Venus and other worlds in our solar system could clearly and distinctly foresee the perilous course we foolishly embarked upon. Dr. Raymond Bernard, an early scientific spokesman against nuclear testing, warned us in 1955 that, “The explosion of the Hiroshima atomic bomb seems to have been the warning signal of this coming danger; and that is why the flying saucers came in such great numbers immediately following this event. According to this theory, the ultimate purpose of the coming of the flying saucers, and the reason why they came in fleet formation and in such great numbers, is in order to rescue the survivors of a future nuclear catastrophe in the form of a 164

Raymond Andrew Keller II global atomic war, whose coming the planetary supermen who sent their space ships to Earth are able to foresee.” Dr. Bernard elaborated on this theory even more, declaring that, “the flying saucers that came to Earth during the past ten years represent merely the advance guard of a much greater invasion, which will occur when the growing radioactive peril reaches its climax, threatening human survival on Earth. At this time, the flying saucers will land and commence their work of rescuing survivors of the catastrophe, carrying them to another planet (probably Mars) for safety.”172 Knowing how barbaric some Earthlings can behave, the loving and more passive Venusians probably declined taking many of these future refugees to their home world. “There goes the neighborhood,” they would be probably come to think when the first Terrans arrived to spoil their paradisiacal abode. One has to wonder if the Venusians and other extraterrestrials are speaking from experience. After all, George Adamski once remarked that all the craters on the Moon and other orbs in our solar system may be the direct result of a terrible interplanetary war that took place in the remote past. So if these enlightened beings who sent their flying saucers to Earth can foresee a terrible radioactive catastrophe on this planet, which may eventually make it uninhabitable, and if they came to salvage as many human lives as possible, Dr. Bernard wonders why they did not commence their rescue all at once, by landing and transporting as many humans as possible to other planets for safety, instead of hanging around until the last moment, which would be a more inconvenient time since such rescue work would be a lot more difficult, impeded, as it were, by mass confusion and hysteria. Dr. Bernard speculates that, “First of all, it would be dangerous for superhuman beings to land and display themselves to humans, who bear the same relation to them as savages do to us. They might be captured by military authorities, confined, and possibly even be vivisected, tortured and killed for purposes of ‘scientific study.’” And he adds that, “Secondly, human beings have not suffered sufficiently to appreciate their errand of mercy; and few would be encouraged enough to risk a space voyage, especially at a time when conditions on Earth are not intolerable for the continuance of life.” Third, and lastly, the doctor also pointed out that most people are too culturally arrogant, or “too filled with pride at their false civilization, too devoted to false religions and imaginary gods and saviors, to accept actual supermen from other planets; if they appeared before them.”173 For these three stated reasons, and possibly more, Dr. Bernard concluded that the Hierarchy of Light, rightfully installed as the governing body on other planets in our solar system and beyond, has collectively made the decision that the flying saucer pilots and crews should simply bide their time, just waiting for a terrible catastrophe to occur on Earth before engaging in any mass landings of their spacecraft here. Dr. Bernard declared that “when civilized humanity stands at the last stage of desperation, after civilization has been destroyed through an atomic war and after the gods in which people believed failed to come to their aid, then, and only then, those who survive the catastrophe will turn to their elder and wiser planetary brethren as their saviors.”174 Dr. Bernard’s warnings, along with those of Adamski and the other contactees, were taken quite seriously in the United States of 1955. From the end of World War II up until Dr. Bernard’s published admonitions, the world faced a period of heightened international tension and competition that historians have come to know as the “Cold War.” During this era, 172 Raymond W. Bernard, Escape to the Inner Earth (Clarksburg, WV: Saucerian Publications, 1974), 5. 173 Ibid 174 Ibid

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus the United States and its non-communist allied nations faced some extraordinary challenges. These included the Soviet Union’s development of atomic weapons, the Soviet Union’s flexing of their newfound nuclear muscles and the Soviet Union’s extension of its political ideology and hegemony into Eastern Europe and elsewhere. On 14 May 1955, the Soviet Union and the Eastern European states within its sphere of influence joined together in a political and military alliance known as the Warsaw Pact. Naturally, the formation of this new political and military amalgamation, together with the advancements of the Soviet Union as the premier communist superpower, were seen in the West as posing a threat to democracy, security and world peace. Since Dr. Bernard surmised that the Hierarchy of Light would only permit the mass landing of flying saucers on Earth following the terrible catastrophe of an all-out nuclear war, then it was imperative that there be a contingent of survivors for the Venusians and other extraterrestrials to pick up and evacuate from this planet. There were a lot of pessimists in the United States back in 1955. Most people came to believe that a nuclear war between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was inevitable. Therefore, in response to this aura of fear and paranoia that gripped the nation, the federal government responded by creating the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA), later called the Office of Civil Defense, to instruct the public about how to prepare for and survive such a horrible conflagration. The Eisenhower administration began a program to prepare the American public by distributing educational information to educate citizenry about measures they could start taking to protect themselves. The survival literature generated by the federal government was written primarily for a suburban audience insofar as it was assumed that cities would be targets and most urban dwellers would not survive. The officials at the FCDA fervently believed that if people were educated and prepared for a nuclear attack, they could literally survive an atomic bomb blast and avoid the wholesale death and destruction that had occurred at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One of the FCDA’s recommendations in preparing for an all-out, toe-to-toe nuclear conflagration with the Ruskies, was the building of community, expedient, family, hidden, individual or multipurpose nuclear fallout shelters. A “fallout shelter” has aptly been defined as “a civil defense measure intended to reduce casualties in a nuclear war. It is designed to allow those inside it to avoid exposure to harmful fallout from a nuclear blast and its likely aftermath of radiation until radioactivity has dropped to a safer level. A basic fallout shelter consists of shielding that reduces gamma-ray exposure. Since the most dangerous fallout has the consistency of sand or finely ground pumice, a successful fallout shelter need not filter fine dust from the Cold War, many Americans air. The fine dust both emits relatively little radiation Throughout believed that they could survive a nuclear and does not settle to the earth, where the fallout blast in their fallout shelter and then emerge onto the surface, reclaiming the world from the occupation forces of the dreaded Soviet Union.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II shelter exists. Concrete, bricks, earth, and sand are some of the materials that are dense or heavy enough to provide fallout protection.”175 Fallout shelters first entered the American consciousness as early as 1949 when President Harry S. Truman made it publicly known that the Soviet Union had detonated their first atomic bomb. With the United States losing its nuclear autonomy, President Truman was saddened to announce to the world the real possibility of nuclear war between the two superpowers. Long-range bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles made this scenario seem more than credible. Such fears of nuclear war only intensified throughout the 1950s with the development of the hydrogen bomb by both the United States and the Soviet Union. The Eisenhower administration increased its efforts in promoting the construction of fallout shelters following the publication of the Gaither Report in 1957.176 This report was extremely important because it represented the culmination of an effort to assess the relative nuclear capability and civil defense efforts of both the United States and the Soviet Union. It concluded that the United States would soon be surpassed in all categories of nuclear weaponry and that civil defense preparations in the Soviet Union were well ahead of American efforts. 1957 was also an important year due to the launching of the first Sputnik satellite in the Soviet Union. For the most part, 1957 through the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 represented the period of the highest nuclear tensions between the superpowers. The prophet of doom, Dr. Bernard, was of the opinion that, “We must believe that the flying saucers come to us to help us and to save us from future atomic destruction. Not only do they wish to prevent an atomic war, they also wish to prevent further atomic explosions, whether for testing purposes or for striking military objectives. From their viewpoint, it makes little difference whether the radiations from an atomic blast on Earth come from a test explosion or in wartime. The explosions and their effects on other planets are the same in either case.”177 For the construction of fallout shelters, concrete “We’re in it for the long haul, family! I hope was the favored building material. Walls were at least you brought your homework assignments, 12 inches thick. According to Federal Civil Defense Judy.” See http://candysdirt.com/category/ Administration specifications, “The required shieldkessler-park/. ing could be accomplished with 10 times the amount of any quantity of material capable of cutting gamma-ray effects in half. Shields that reduce gamma ray intensity by 50 percent include 0.4 inches of lead, 2.4 inches of concrete, 3.6 inches of packed dirt or 500 feet of air. When multiple thicknesses are built, the shielding multiplies.” 175 “Fallout Shelters,” United States History, undated, http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h3706.html (Accessed 27 February 2016) 176 Deterrence and Survival in the Nuclear Age, a.k.a. “The Gaither Report,” Security Resources Panel of the Science Advisory Committee, Executive Office of the President, 7 November 1957. For the active role of the Venusian emissary in the Pentagon, Valiant Thor, from 1957-1960, see R. Keller, Venus Rising: A Concise History of the Second Planet (Terra Alta, WV: Headline Books, 2016), throughout. 177 Bernard, 5

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus The Enigmatic Dr. Raymond W. Bernard Like George Adamski, Dr. Raymond W. Bernard comes from an Eastern European immigrant background. He is considered to be one of the more interesting persons in the annals of ufology, being born into a family of immigrant Russian Jews in Manhattan, New York City, as Walter Isidor Siegmeister, on 5 or 6 October 1903. His parents were William Siegmeister (May 1877 – 1 September 1932) and Rebecca “Bessie” Gitler, or Gittler (25 February 1880 27 October 1968). Walter’s parents immigrated to the United States in July 1893. His father took the oath to become a naturalized United States citizen in 1902 at the Superior Court in New York County (Manhattan); and Walter’s parents, William and Bessie, are both buried in the Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Glendale, Queens County, New York.His father was a surgeon who started out as a student of biochemistry in Germany; and his brother, Elie Siegmeister (1909-1991), became a very famous American composer. Walter graduated from Columbia University in 1924 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and received his Master’s and Ph.D degrees in education from New York University in 1930 and 1932, respectively. His Ph.D. thesis was titled Theory and Practice of Dr. Rudolf Steiner’s Pedagogy (New York University, School of Education, 1932), 320 pages, typed. The dissertation was published under the Ufologist Gray Barker suggested that esoteric researcher, Dr. Raymond Bernard, name of Raymond Bernard, which is the first time he is may have “disappeared” while exploring believed to have used the new appellation.178 caverns in Brazil that led to a veritable Dr. Bernard’s writings on UFOs and other esoteric Shangra-La in the Inner Earth. Bernard that the Earth, Venus, Mars and subjects were, to say the least, voluminous. Gray Barker, believed many other worlds in our solar system the eminent Clarksburg, West Virginia ufologist, and beyond were hollow and inhabited by published many of the doctor’s works under the banner advanced intelligences piloting the flying of Saucerian Publications. Prior to getting into flying saucers. See https://thefarstairs.bandcamp. com/track/the-hollow-earth. saucer research, however, Barker ran a drive-in movie theater on the outskirts of Clarksburg. Unfortunately, the drive-in movie business appeared to be turning over only a marginal profit for the off-and-on Clarksburg saucer investigator, so Barker made the decision to just let the drive-in theater operations go and concentrate his efforts on a full-time promotion of the elusive flying saucers and their allegedly extraterrestrial pilots. As it turned out, Barker made an outstanding business move. He not only proved to be an excellent investigative reporter, but his writings were imaginative and entertaining. As a drivein theater operator, Barker was a big fan of the campy science fiction films that proliferated throughout the decade of the 1950s, films that he consistently ran at his Clarksburg drivein. Barker, also a subscriber to Amazing Stories, other sci-fi magazines and UFO journals, successfully infused his articles, books and other writings with expansive descriptions of aliens, their home worlds and allegedly clandestine missions being conducted here on Earth. 178 “William Siegmeister,” Brasil, Cartões de Imigração,1900-1965, digital folder 004912669, image 00004, indicates immigration of subject in 1954 to Brazil with arrival at port of Rio de Janeiro. Folder contains ancillary family data.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II The intricate details for this astounding UFO universe he most likely borrowed from the everexpanding annals of science fiction. But like Jules Verne, H. G. Wells or other prolific science fiction writers who preceded him, Barker turned out to be “spot-on” in many of his speculations concerning possibilities of extraterrestrial life, the psychic powers latent in humankind and our future among the stars. Barker was one of the pioneer ufologists. Barker, when commenting on the career of the enigmatic doctor, once declared that, “You may not know that the UFO Mystery, and the Inner Earth, although subjects to much research by Dr. Bernard, were not his favorite pursuits.” Barker added that, “Despite the fame that has come from ‘Hollow Earth’ books, Dr. Bernard’s main concern were the poisons he believed were in man’s food supply because of the departure from organic food raising. The threat of nuclear testing, nuclear war, and contamination through the peaceful uses of atomic energy were also prime concerns of his, and the subjects of much of his research and writing.”179 Dr. Bernard so feared the irreversible effects of nuclear contamination that he moved to Brazil in 1954. But he did not go alone. Wrote Barker, “He went there to found colonies to which North Americans might migrate. As developed in his manuscript, Escape to the Inner Earth, he believed South America offered an environment which would be most free of radiation, and which would lend itself to the return to organic food raising which he advocated.”180 So how far did Dr. Bernard get in carrying out this plan? Perhaps the doctor got as far as “Phase One,” at least according to the testimony of Gray Barker. The West Virginia ufologist, who was personally acquainted with Dr. Bernard and familiar with his work on radiation, believed that he was both a sincere and practical researcher. Barker’s files prove that Dr. Bernard succeeded in forming a colony with a small contingent of North American colonists on the Island of Santa Catarina in Brazil. As most of these first settlers hailed from the state of California, they named their new Southern Hemispheric center of activity as “New California” and began the process of recruiting colonists there from around the world. That Dr. Bernard’s ambitious plans were cut short is quite saddening. Barker wrote that, “Addenda which I published in my edition of The Hollow Earth181 suggested that the scientist may have died while exploring cavern entrances to the Inner Earth;” and the ufologist speculates that, “It is conceivable to believe that had Dr. Bernard discovered a way to the Inner Earth he would not have come back and shown the way to other people unless dead or prevented from doing so.”182 The disappearance of Dr. Raymond Bernard remains one of the great mysteries in UFO lore, on a par with the “translation” of Annalee Skarin from Mt. Shasta to an ethereal temple on the planet Venus. It is the privilege of your author, Dr. Raymond A. Keller, a.k.a. the “Cosmic Ray,” to carry out UFO research in both the paranormal and personal files of the late Gray Roscoe Barker (1925-1984). Barker was best known for his book,They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers(1956),183 which provided a description of fellow pioneer ufologist Albert K. Bender’s encounters with the so-called “Men in Black.” These mysterious agents, whose job it was to keep UFO experiencers from talking about their close encounters, were later popularized in movies with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in starring roles. Barker also received worldwide notoriety through his own UFO investigative efforts, which he wrote about in the pages of the 179 180 181 182 183

Bernard, “Introduction,” Escape to the Inner Earth, no page number. Ibid ______The Hollow Earth (Clarksburg, WV: Saucerian Publications, 1969) Ibid Saucerian Publications

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus serial magazine,The Saucerian, of which he was editor and publisher. For the most part,The Saucerian served as a collection point for contactee stories and other types of UFO encounters. It was through the pages of this cutting-edge periodical that Barker brought an intense spotlight to the appearance of such enigmatic entities in West Virginia as the “Flatwoods Monster” and the “Mothman.” In addition, it was Barker who first focused attention on the alleged disappearance of the Navy destroyer USS Eldridge (DE-173) and its crew in the so-called “Philadelphia Experiment.” The Barker Collection consists of approximately 29 drawers of file folders, 300 books, 75 magazine sets, photographs of Barker and various props used by Barker. My ownVenus Risingcan also be found among the titles in the book section. The Barker Collection is located in the Gray Barker Room of the historic Waldomore House adjacent to the Clarksburg Harrison Public Library at 404 West Pike Street in Clarksburg, West Virginia 26301. The public is welcome to visit during regular library hours. David Houchin is the collection curator. Gray Barker Biography Gray Roscoe Barker was born on 2 May 1925 and grew up in rural Braxton County, West Virginia, near the town of Riffle among a culture saturated with story-telling. Barker was introduced to science-fiction while studying at Glenville State College, which he continued to read as a hobby throughout his life. After graduating, Barker briefly taught English in a Maryland high school before moving back to West Virginia to manage a small theatre in Clarksburg. Barker went on to establish his own business in Clarksburg, booking films for local drive-ins and cinemas. In January 1953, Barker’s first UFO article, “The Monster and the Saucer,” was published in Fate magazine, wherein the emerging writer described the sightings of the so-called “Flatwoods Monster.” This was a very spooky alien with a spade-shaped head and glowing eyes. The enigmatic entity was observed within a few miles of Barker’s hometown of Riffle. The overwhelming interest that the article generated Gray Barker, pioneer ufologist, 19251984. See http://venusconcisehistory. prompted Barker to write and release the first volume of drupalgardens.com/blog?page=1. his own UFO magazine,The Saucerian, in September of that same year. In 1956, Barker changed the name of the publication to The Saucerian Bulletin; and it continued to attract readers- all fans of everything UFO and extraterrestrialfrom around the globe well into the 1960s. In this same year, the immediate success of Barker’s book, They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers, also served to fuel the notoriety of The Saucerian Bulletin and prompted Barker to look into establishing his own book publishing enterprise. Of the period that followed, the collection curator, David Houchin, noted that, “Beginning in 1959, Barker expanded Saucerian Publications, which produced The Saucerian/The Saucerian Bulletin in Clarksburg, West Virginia, to include books sales and production. The first book the 170

Raymond Andrew Keller II Saucerian Press produced was Howard Menger’s From Outer Space to You (1959). Saucerian Books also produced and sold works by Morris Jessup, Laura Mundo, and Michael X, which can be found in the collection. The business also sold overstock books from other publishers, and served as a mail order book service for hard-to-find or out-of-print works as noted throughout his personal correspondence….” By 1962, however, Barker ended up sellingThe Saucerian Bulletinto James Moseley, the editor of the competingSaucer News; and not long afterward, Barker filed for bankruptcy. Barker did return to magazine publishing when he replaced Moseley as the chief editor ofSaucer Newsfor a brief stint between 1968 and 1970; and five years after that went on to set up another UFO magazine,Gray Barker’s Newsletter. The newsletter continued until April 1984. Saucer News, on the other hand, was restarted in 1976 by its long-time editor, James Moseley, and it continues to be published to this day under the name ofSaucer Smear. It is more of a specialized publication, focusing on the lives of ufologists and other paranormal researchers. On his other works, Houchin stated that, “In 1970, Barker published his second best wellknown book,The Silver Bridge, in which, Barker regaled readers with the Mothman sightings that took place around Point Pleasant, West Virginia, before the collapse of the Silver Bridge in 1966.” The curator added that, “Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, Barker continued to publish his own works as well as others via the Saucerian Press. In 1983, Barker releasedMen in Black: Secret Terror among Us. In the book, Barker provided readers with additional and updated stories about the men in black. Barker may have gone on to write other works; these have not been confirmed.” End of an Era Beginning in October 1984, Barker began to struggle with difficult illness, being admitted and released from a local hospital. By late November, Barker was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit in Charleston, West Virginia, where he died on 6 December 1984. He continues to be missed by the worldwide ufology community. Barker’s creative writing style inspired a generation of readers to dream about UFOs and life on other planets or other dimensions. His works sparked debates among ufologists and enthusiasts around the world and pushed the boundaries of reality through the infusion of UFO lore into popular culture, thus significantly expanding the planetary level of consciousness. In returning to the “disappearance” of Dr. Bernard, however, Gray Barker believed that regardless of what may have happened to the doctor while searching for the Inner Earth, the most important component of the story was the legacy of scientific research that the investigator left behind him. Particularly, Barker cited Dr. Bernard’s Organic Science Manuscripts. Barker opined that these documents “offer a world of information to the person who believes his food is poisoned by sprays and artificial fertilizers in today’s mass commercial farming enterprises. Regardless of our good intentions, one must face the fact that it may just not be practical for the average person either to settle in South America or hope to find the entrance to the Hollow Earth.” In other words, Barker posited that Bernard’s investigation into pure sources of food was information of a more immediate value to the readers of Saucerian Publications. The results of Dr. Bernard’s work in this area provided data that readers could use in their everyday lives, helping them to live longer and to enjoy their extended years in better health. That is why Barker made the decision to publish the doctor’s Organic Science Manuscripts in the pages of Escape to the Inner Earth. Barker had accomplished a similar task in 1959 with his publication 171

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus of contactee Howard Menger’s bestselling book, From Outer Space to You. That book also included an extensive nutritional chapter replete with agricultural information imparted to him by Venusian agriculturalists growing superior potatoes in underground, agroponics facilities on the far side of Earth’s moon. So clearly, both Dr. Bernard and Saucerian publisher Barker were concerned with the survival of humankind on many levels. Dr. Bernard mentioned that, “Some time ago a very interesting book appeared, The Saucers Speak,” adding that, “This book claims to present messages, including actual radio messages, received from people of other planets, who sent their flying saucers to Earth.” Dr. Bernard was quite impressed with the book, for he quotes a paragraph from it: “These messages constitute a warning to men on the planet of the third orbit or Earth. There isn’t any threat of invasion; but as a father warns a child of danger, these people who are wiser than we, are telling us we have already done untold damage to our world through the use of atomic energy. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say, the misuse of this energy. The spacecraft intelligences know exactly what our insane experimentation has done in the past and they know the prevailing conditions on Earth at this time.” And as to the fallout shelters, it seems that Dr. Bernard did not put much faith in them. Rather, the doctor believed that there were three practical ways to escape from a future radiation catastrophe; and none of these involved fallout shelters. First was escape into space. Second was escape into the bowels of the Earth, where some humans could continue to live; and third was escape to a part of the Earth’s surface that was, more or less, immune the higher levels of specific radiation that engulfed the rest of the planet. This involved a similar scenario to that found in the British-Australian author Nevil Shute’s post-apocalyptic novel, On the Beach (1957), where there were survivors of the nuclear holocaust that got along Down Under, at least for a while, or until the radiation clouds girdling the Earth finally caught up to them. Of this third scenario, and the survival plans he was advancing at the time, Dr. Bernard noted that, “The island off the coast of Sao Francisco on the coast of Santa Catarina in South Brazil, which is swept by low-radioactive protective Antarctic winds currents, seems to offer such a refuge. But granted that a time may come when no part of the Earth’s surface will be safe from radioactive contamination of the air, water supplies, soil and good, and at such time when the continuance of life on the Earth’s surface will no longer be possible, the move to South America and the establishment there of survival colonies seems sensible for two reasons….” At this point, Dr. Bernard explains that there exists underneath the South American continent a network of vast tunnels, extending for thousands of miles in every direction. These were constructed by a pre-historic race as a refuge from a similar atomic catastrophe, like the one now projected for contemporary humankind but that took place countless millennia ago. Some explorers are known to have disappeared while exploring the Matto Grasso region in Brazil, looking for an entrance to this subterranean complex. The doctor is of the opinion that some of the ancient inhabitants of these tunnels would not mind sharing them with refugees from an atomic war. And then, of course, the work of rescue would certainly be a lot easier if our flying saucer rescuers can find us all gathered in one safe spot, no matter how remote it may be, rather than in or in the vicinity of some overcrowded metropolitan areas. Perhaps one may speculate that the farther away from the populated areas an individual finds her or himself, the better. The larger cities of North America would certainly be targeted for nuclear attack. Hence, they would become areas of dangerous fallout. This would extend over the entire North Temperate Zone, 172

Raymond Andrew Keller II where both the United States and the Soviet Union were situated. Fortunately, Dr. Bernard observes that, “South America and Africa, the two chief continents of the Southern Hemisphere, cannot be expected to be directly involved in such a war or to become atomic targets; and certainly not to the extent that will be the case with the nations of North America, Europe and In the epic movie, On the Beach (United Asia.” But like the sorry inhabitants of post-apocalyptic Artists, 1959), as the lethal radioactive Australia in On the Beach, the inhabitants of the more clouds approached, some knelt in fervent prayer while others partied like it was 1999. protected areas are only buying a little time. It would only be Doomsday delayed, for the radiation would Dr. Raymond Bernard thought we might wait out the arrival of the Venusians in their eventually catch up to all on the Earth’s surface. Only flying saucers in remote South American those who escape into the subterranean tunnels or communities. The Venusians, the doctor maintained, would whisk us off to a new life are taken off the Earth in flying saucers by the space on another planet. intelligences could possibly survive the global reach of the radioactive fallout in the trade winds. In the next section, we reexamine another flying saucer crash in New Mexico that failed to receive the intensity of coverage associated with the Roswell incident. The spotlight focuses on Aztec, New Mexico and the Venusians’ response to the seeming epidemic of crashed saucers they endured during this crucial time. Events Leading Up to the Flying Saucer Crash at Aztec, New Mexico, 1948 Earthlings fear what they do not understand. Following World War II, hundreds of reports A Venusian observation patrol craft crashed of “disc-shaped objects” filled the pages of daily at Aztec, New Mexico, on 25 March 1948. See http://www.ufocasebook.com/Aztec. newspapers across the United States. One such report html. filed by Boise, Idaho, civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold on Tuesday, 24 June 1947, is of special historical note. The aviator claimed to have observed nine such disc-shaped objects; and that he estimated each to be about two-thirds the size of a DC-4. The pilot, while flying his Call Air airplane in the vicinity of Mt. Rainier in Washington State in the process of searching for a downed C-46 Marine transport plane, maintained that the objects were “skipping like saucers across water” over some peaks of the Cascade Range; and he determined their approximate speed at about 1,500 miles per hour. He accomplished this by timing the objects’ travel between two mountain peaks of a known distance.184 After 184 Kenneth Arnold, “I Did See the Flying Disks,” Spring 1948, Fate magazine, Lakeville, Minnesota. Arnold wrote that, “On Tuesday, June 24th, 1947, I had finished my work for the Central Air Service at Chehalis, Washington, and at about two o’clock I took off from Chehalis, Washington airport with the intention of going to Yakima, Washington. My trip was delayed for an hour to search for a large Marine transport that supposedly went down near or around the southwest side of Mt. Rainier in the state of Washington. (This airplane has since been discovered at the time of this writing - July 29, 1947.) Arnold added that, insofar as he and his own aircraft were concerned, “My pilot’s license is 33489. I fly a Call Air airplane, which is a three-place single-engine land ship that is designed and manufactured at Afton, Wyoming, as an extremely high-performance, high-altitude airplane that was made for mountain work. The national certificate of my plane is NC-33355.”

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus the international press got word of Arnold’s report, the objects were henceforth decreed to be the ever-elusive “flying saucers.” Clearly, Arnold was a qualified observer. By the spring of 1948, however, with all the attendant publicity regarding the emergent flying saucer phenomenon, the intrepid pilot found himself cornered by the national, and even the global press, to make some kind of statement concerning the reality of these objects. Were they some kind of advanced Soviet spy planes or maybe extraterrestrial space ships from Mars, Venus or some other more distant world? Caving to this incessant pressure, Arnold wrote in the above-cited Spring 1948 issue of Fate magazine, that, “I have received lots of requests from people who told me to make a lot of wild guesses. I have based what I have written here in this (Fate) article on positive facts and as far as guessing what it was I observed, it is just as much a mystery to me as it is to the rest of the Civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold in front of his famous Call Air plane, from which he world. I saw them and I know they are real.”185 nine “flying saucers” over the One of the leading authorities on the great post- observed Cascade Range in the vicinity of Mt. Rainier World War II flying saucer flap is Loren Gross, a retired in Washington State on 24 June 1947. See engineer of the General Motors Corporation who http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case511. currently resides in Fremont, California. As a founding htm. member of the Sign Historical Group, his particular contributions to the chronicling of UFO history came by way of technical expertise. Gross was an Air Force radar operator during the Korean War and attached to the Air Defense Command working radar sites in Arizona, Michigan and Korea from 1956-1960. During his military service as both radar operator and technician, Gross became well aware of the existence of UFOs insofar as he was required to sort out all types of anomalous radar propagation on a daily basis such as small aircraft entering and leaving a radar beam or sundry electronic malfunctions. “Frankly,” opines Gross, “some good witnesses seeing a UFO close up in daylight beats any radar return.” Nevertheless, Gross did detail two of his personal experiences with UFOs and radar propagation that he believed might somehow be connected with the reconnaissance activities of extraterrestrial activities in our skies, one at the Air Defense Command radar site at Selfridge Air Force Base in Michigan, 185 The article, “’Angel’ Theory Offered by Pilot Who Coined Term ‘Flying Saucer,’” author unstated, in UFO Review, Number 14, 1982, T. G. Beckley, editor, New York, New York, details some of the later opinions on UFOs expressed by Kenneth Arnold: “Over the years Arnold, who once ran for governor of the state of Idaho, has sighted UFOs several additional times. Noting their strange behavior, he has long contended that at least some UFOs are other than interplanetary craft. He has theorized that they may actually be living life forms and not nuts and bolts space ships. “Now living in Meridian, Idaho, Arnold remains convinced what he saw was real. ‘It was no optical illusion.’ Currently, Arnold thinks that UFOs could be a link between the world of the living and the world of spirits. ‘There might be two worlds connecting the living and the dead. Maybe you continue living when you die. I can’t envision myself on the steps of God, playing a harp with a million other souls….Maybe it has something to do with that.’ “One time Arnold’s home was even invaded by UFO beings who he says remained invisible, though he could see the identations they made while walking on his rug. ‘Once I saw a UFO which changed its density, so I concluded these things could be something alive rather than machines.’” It appears as though Arnold’s evolution of thought about the nature of UFOs parallels that generally occurring in the field of ufology.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II on the outskirts of Detroit, in 1956, and another, one year later in Korea while monitoring air activity over the Demilitarized Zone with some technicians temporarily attached to the Air Defense Command from the Bendix Electronics Corporation. When asked his opinion concerning the nature of the UFO phenomenon and the so-called “hardcore reports” that persistently categorized the post-World War II-1952 era (and the emergence of the contactees), a subject he had studied for more than half a century, Gross replied that he was “biased toward the existence of very high tech machines of unknown origin,” adding that, “It’s true that some reports seem like magic and their purpose puzzling, but to a great extent one should expect that if we are dealing with an advanced civilization. On the other hand, I’m well aware of the ideas of men like Vallée and Keel (ultra-dimensional). I can’t say that I am ready to endorse any extreme UFO origin theory at this point.”186 So Gross went on record as favoring a physical explanation for the majority of those UFO reports that entailed some radar tracking. Being an experienced and proficient radar technician, it was apparent to him that “Ockham’s razor” might be suitably employed in the investigation of these elusive objects. Ockham’s razor is based on the Latin lex parsimoniae (law of parsimony) and has long proven a useful tool for scientists the world over. It is a problemsolving principle attributed to William of Ockham (c.1287–1347), an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher and theologian. Basically, one who utilizes Ockham’s razor operates on the assumption that among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected. And while there may be some grounds for applying a metaphysical or ultradimensional interpretation to some UFO reports, it just doesn’t make much sense in immediately jumping to the most esoteric and exotic concept when simpler and more comprehensive explanations can be posited for the radar cases. In the vast majority these cases, there appears to be some evidence of physicality based on the shape of the objects in question. Alan Fisher, an authority on the radar tracking of UFOs and the current System Administrator with Arctec Alaska on an Alaska Radar Systems contract, once served as a consultant on radar in UFO incidents for the Center for UFO Studies, whence he provided the following guidance: “I am somewhat amused when radar UFO reports give significance to a ‘bogey’ suddenly appearing or disappearing on a radar screen. Even the casual reader of radar textbooks may be left with the impression that radar teturns are reflected or scattered form all in-view surfaces of a target. Actually (except with an actively transponding target), it is only those portions of the in-view target surface normal to the ray from the radar site which return detectable signals to the site.” The radar expert gave an example to support his contention, noting that “a planar surface must be within a fraction of a degree of normal to view, to produce, a significant return. Thus it is only the many small convex surfaces of a conventional aircraft which reflect returns for nearly any aspect. Only spherical targets provide a uniform (if relatively weak) return from all aspects; and many solid geometries cause no return-to-source whatever from many aspects.” This has a great bearing on the shape of UFOs being reported. Fisher goes on to report that, “If I were asked to select a solid geometry which would provide no radar return from most aspects and a minimal return from the few remaining aspects, I would suggest two shallow sphere segments joined to form a sharp circular edge!” The radar expert also added, 186 Loren Gross, interviewed by Richard H. Hall, “Project 1947,” Journal of UFO History, Volume 1, Special Omnibus Edition, 2006, http://www.project1949.com/loren.loren_hall.htm (Accessed 13 February 2016).

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus without hesitation, that “A cylindrical shape would get a close second place.”187 These are precisely the most commonly reported UFOs, the classic flying saucer and large, cigar-shaped craft, respectively referred to by George Adamski as the typical Venusian “scout craft” and “mothership.” To this, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, famed astronomer, astrophysicist and editor of the International UFO Reporter, remarked that this was much like the fuselage of an airplane insofar as “Radar controllers have told us that without transponders, they would only be ‘painting raw targets’ for 20-30% of the time they were within range.” So we see that the saucer and cigar shapes of the UFOs are well suited for the purpose of evading tracking on both civilian and military radar sets.188

Diagram from George Adamski, Inside the Space Ships (London, UK: Arco Publishers, Limited and Neville Spearman, Limited, 1956).

As we have noted, Adamski, the amateur astronomer and contactee resident on the slopes of Mt. Palomar, California, was the first to maintain that atomic testing posed a serious danger to Venusian scout craft operating in our atmosphere. This was due to the radioactive contamination deposited there by the atomic tests and also by the resulting distortions of our planet’s magnetic fields. Adamski also remarked that several Venusian scout craft had crashed as a result of our atomic testing programs in the late 1940s; and that one particular crashed flying saucer, that he was aware of, came down at Aztec, New Mexico in 1948, with the details being provided by Hollywood’s Variety magazine investigative reporter Frank Scully’s best-selling book, Behind the Flying Saucers (New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 1950).189 187 Alan Fisher, “The Problems with Radar,” letter to the editor, International UFO Reporter, Vol. 5, No. 1, January 1980, Evanston, IL. 188 Ibid. (response by Dr. Hynek) 189 Adamski, 16

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Raymond Andrew Keller II The Venusian origin of the flying saucers was confirmed through an analysis of the debris obtained from various UFO crash sites. In Venus Rising, the circumstances surrounding the Roswell crash were thoroughly explored. In this book, Rockets to Venus, however, we look closely at the Aztec event for the evidence pointing back to our sister planet, Venus, as the home for the extraterrestrials. The first revelations in this case came at a 50-minute lecture on flying saucers given to the student body at the University of Denver on 8 March 1950 by an anonymous witness of the crashed Aztec disc, who was later identified as Silas Mason Newton, the president of the Newton Oil Company of Denver, Colorado, and a graduate of geophysical studies from both Baylor and Yale universities. Originally, Newton was invited to speak on the subject of flying saucers to just one class at the University of Denver, that of science instructor Francis P. Broman. No public announcements were authorized, but word seaped out that a talk about flying saucers was scheduled for Broman’s class. Interest was so high that another venue, the university’s auditorium, ended up being utilized to seat a full-capacity crowd. Newton had requested anonymity because he wanted to keep a low profile, at least insofar as not letting the government know his true identity. But word of the impending lecture even reached the military; and attempts were made by their representatives to identify who the mysterious lecturer was going to be. So while Newton’s identity was not given away at any time during the lecture by Broman or anyone else connected with the University of Denver, some reporters and others in attendance from the Greater Denver area had quickly deduced it. It was general knowledge by 17 March. Of Newton, Scully notes that he was a “man of substance as well as science and as American as apple pie.” For some years prior to the publication of the book, Scully appears to have been a close friend and associate of Newton. In Chapter 3 of Behind the Flying Saucers, Scully has high praise for Newton and his credibility, writing of him that, “He was one of the great geophysicists of the oil industry, with a record of exploratory operations that was surpassed by none.” He further states that, “He (Newton) hunted for oil with instruments that had cost a fortune and were a closely guarded secret. With them, he had rediscovered the Rangely oil field years after the major oil companies had written it off as a failure.” So clearly, we note that Newton’s credentials are authentic and verifiable. At the lecture, which was entitled “Man and Science,” Newton claimed that four flying saucers had crashed on Earth and that three of them were salvaged and being inspected by government scientists in conjunction with men whom he was currently working alongside in geophysical research. For reasons of national security, he could not provide those in attendance with any of the real names for any of these individuals. Nevertheless, Newton reported the measurements of the first disk as 99.9 feet in diameter with a cabin 72 inches high; while the second ship was 72 feet in diameter and the third one being only 36 feet across. Newton wondered out loud if there was somesignificance in the fact that all of these measurements were divisible by the number nine. The oil company president also maintained that 34 dead alien bodies had been recovered from the wreckage of the three discovered saucers; but these aliens were allegedly of a shorter-stature than an average American, per se. Also in the saucer that crashed at Aztec, New Mexico, there were some remains of another type of life form, but these were charred beyond any recognition. Most likely they had been seared by a sheering blast of atomic radiation. Early in Scully’s book, he explains that, “The saucer not only didn’t appear to come from any part of this Earth, but the question of where it came from 177

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus still remained unsolved. The best speculation was Venus….” As previously noted, the secretary to the great contactee and ambassador to outer space, Professor George Adamski, was Mr. C. A. Honey of Anaheim, California. In his Cosmic Science Newsletter of May 1962 (Vol. 1, No. 5), Honey answers a reader’s question concerning the deceased Venusians found at the Aztec, New Mexico, scout ship crash site. Reader: “In Mr. Adamski’s books he states that Frank Scully’s accounts are 95% factual, with small changes made to protect certain individuals. Mr. Adamski says that the space people look exactly like us and Mr. Scully says they were less than four feet tall in the ships that crashed. Who is lying and why? They should have compared notes before publishing their information?” Honey: “Many people do not really stop to think about what Mr. Adamski really wrote. They deliberately wish to disbelieve and throw all sorts of imaginary contradictions into the picture. The fact that space people look exactly like us has no reference to height. On Earth we have Pygmy tribes as well as giant tribes. “In this world we have yellow, brown, black, red, and etc. We have many kinds of cultures. Each has its own particular identificsation as to food, clothing, Zip Zip was a friendly, gender-neutral who made friends with Earth habits and housing. The space people run through all Venusian children and took them for frequent rides these various sizes, colors and etc. After all, they came in a flying saucer to outer space. Zip Zip from the same Creator as we. If they want to contact was many hundreds of years old; but the us they choose people from among themselves those Venusian’s smaller height allowed for more of a blending in with Earth children. whom more closely resemble in height, color, race Zip Zip first appeared in print in 1958. and etc., the population group on Earth that they wish Zip Zip described Venus as a “mushroom to move amongst, undetected. If they are merely on planet” where everyone was always happy and nobody suffered or had any problems routine scientific journeys, they would have no need to to cry about. It was sort of like Portland, select crews according to height or race. Small ships Oregon, minus all the rain. Zip Zip hoped that the children who got to see Venus for would have small crews.190 themselves would help make the Earth a “All sizes and colors are in the big ships, as Mr. happy place, too. I read my first Zip Zip Adamski has written or stated many times. Native story book in the Maple Heights, Ohio, Venusians as a rule are smaller than the Earth public library back in 1960. I now have might be the largest private collection average, although some may be the same size or what of books about Venus, as both a planet and larger. a goddess, but Zip Zip Goes to Venus (New “Now you see what we mean when we say they look York, New York: E. P. Dutton Company, exactly like us, and exist exactly like us throughout the 1958) is still my favorite! 190 From my own experience, as the scout ships are the “work horses” in Venusian transit, it makes sense to obtimize space aboard them for specialized equipment and additional storage by taking on smaller-sized individuals as crew members. On most missions, one must also all keep in mind that ample room must be made available for a detachment of larger but intelligent honey bees. As a consequence, those individuals selected for space missions must also share in a symbiotic relationship with the bees and the Venusian Hive Collective. Certain Venusian races, originally hailing from red star systems such as the Norcans and Aldebarans, are both smaller in stature and more socially and psychically amenable to working with the Venus bee population.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II Cosmos. It wouldn’t make any difference if some were blue or green in skin coloring, although I know of none in our system; they still would be completely like us in all characteristics that classify us as humans. Size may vary; color may vary; but differences are no more than found between various nations here on this planet.” Insofar as we have examined both the outward physical characteristics of the scout ships and their occupants, we can now turn our attention to their electromagnetic mode of propulsion. Scout Ship Propulsion As the fourth crippled saucer was never discovered, scientists analyzing its radar-tracked southwest glide path and diminishing altitudes, made the assumption that it probably went down into the Gulf of California. But based on their analysis of the remaining three crashed saucers, it readily was determined that their propulsion system was based on the harnessing of electro-magnetic forces, much as Nikola Tesla had predicted that future aircraft would surely incorporate into their designs. During World War II, it seems that American scientists had already begun to make huge strides in this area. Of this, Scully surmised that any blank spaces left in the development phases of an electromagnetic propulsion system were going to be filled in by the back-engineering of the crashed disks. In Chapter 2 of Behind the Flying Saucers, he quoted Newton as declaring during his famous lecture that, “They (the scientists) had come to the conclusion that everything existing owed its shape and being to magnetic lines of force. There are 1,257 such magnetic lines of force to the square centimeter. That is to say, about a half inch.” Newton was further quoted as saying that, “Much of the magic, which has baffled both trained and untrained observers, is not magic at all. A good deal of what is claimed to have happened to ships in the air, such as disintegration, suspension for a period time, immobilization of their instrument boards, and such, can be duplicated in the laboratory. Mantell’s plane and every portion of his plane from the motor to the tips of the wings hung together by reason of magnetic frequency. This was true of even Mantell himself. Therefore, all that a flying saucer had to do to disintegrate Mantell’s plane was to demagnetize it.” Captain Mantell’s Misfortune In this instance, the Mantell he is referring to is none other than Captain Thomas F. Mantell of the Kentucky Air National Guard, 165th Fighter Squadron, Flight C, who died on 7 January 1948, at the young age of 25, while in pursuit of a UFO. Flight C was already in the air on training maneuvers, flying their P-51 Mustangs out of Godman Field at Fort Knox, when the control tower at the air base received a report from the Kentucky Highway Patrol of an unusual aerial object in the vicinity of Maysville, Kentucky. Reports of a westbound circular object, 250–300 feet (80–90m) in diameter, were also received from residents of the communities of Owensboro and Irvington, Kentucky. At approximately 1:45 p.m., Sergeant Quinton Blackwell observed an object from his position in the control tower at Godman Field. Two other military personnel, an airmen and an officer, were also witnesses in the tower of a white object off in the distance. The sighting officer was none other than Colonel Guy Hix, the base commander. He described the UFO as being “very white,” and “about one fourth the size of the full Moon…. Through binoculars it appeared to have a red border at the bottom…. It remained stationary, seemingly, for one and a half hours.” Meanwhile, ground observers at Clinton County Army Air Field across the riverin Ohio, described the mystery object as “having the appearance of a flaming red cone trailing a gaseous green mist.” The Ohio cadre observed the object for 179

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus around 35 minutes. And there was yet another observer at Lockbourne Army Air Field, alsoin Ohio, who noted that, “Just before leaving it came to very near the ground, staying down for about ten seconds, and then climbed at a very fast rate back to its original altitude, 10,000 feet, leveling off and disappearing into the overcast heading 120 degrees. Its speed was greater than 500mph (800km/h) in level flight.” Back at the Godman Field control tower, Sergeant Blackwell was in radio communication with the four pilots of C Flight throughout the event. The sergeant relayed orders from the colonel that they were to approach the object and get a better look at it, in order to make some kind of determination as to what type of aerial object they were dealing with. But as one of the pilot’s Mustangs was low on fuel and the other the other two were running out of oxygen, all three quickly abandoned their efforts to pursue the UFO. Mantell was then at 22,500 feet when he remained the only one of the four pilots still capable of and in the process of pursuing the object. Air Force Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, the first director of Project Blue Book, took note that there was some disagreement amongst the air traffic controllers as to Mantell’s words as he communicated with the tower. While some reported that Mantell had described an object “that looked metallic and of tremendous size,” others in the control tower disputed whether or not Mantell actually said this. In any event, when Mantell’s Mustang had reached 25,000 feet, he blacked out for lack of oxygen, going into a state of hypoxia. He plane went spiraling back to Earth, in a circling descent, and crashed on a farm just to the south of Franklin, Kentucky, almost right on the Kentucky-Tennessee state line. When Captain Mantell’s body was later pulled from the wreckage by the firemen at the scene, his watch had stopped at 3:18 p.m. Therefore, it was assumed that this was the actual Captain Mantell desperately attempts to pull time of the plane crash. The UFO itself remained away from the strong electromagnetic field of the flying saucer. See http://thenightsky. visible in the sky to observers from Godman Field for org/mantell.html. yet another 32 minutes.191 Death in Pursuit of Venus Of course, the Mantell crash was investigated in detail by officers from Project Sign, the first Air Force research group assigned to checking out the validity of UFO reports. As the Air Force rightly expected a flood of press queries concerning the Mantell case, the Project Sign personnel worked quickly in coming up with some possible and plausible explanation. Since Venus had been the target of a chase by an Air Force F-51 several weeks before, the word went out that Mantell had unfortunately been killed trying to catch up with the planet Venus. There was even an Air Force major, interviewed by several reporters following Mantell’s crash, who “flatly stated that it was Venus.” By 1952, however, Air Force Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, the supervisor of Project Blue Book, the successor to Project Sign, was ordered to take another look at the Thomas Mantell UFO incident. Ruppelt spoke with Dr.J. Allen Hynek, then an astronomer at Ohio State University and scientific consultant to both Sign and Blue Book. It was Hynek who had supplied Project 191 No stated author, “Mantell UFO Encounter,” 15 August 2016 (revised), The Night Sky, http://thenightsky.org/mantell. html (Accessed 30 December 2016).

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Raymond Andrew Keller II Sign with the Venus theory in the first place, and largely because Venus had been in the same place in the sky that Mantell’s UFO was observed. But in the ensuing four years, Dr. Hynek had changed his mind, now concluding that the Venus explanation was incorrect because, “Venus wasn’t bright enough to be seen” by Mantell and the other witnesses. The investigative astronomer also took note that there was a considerable haze present at the time of Mantell’s deadly encounter that would have further obscured the appearance of the planet Venus in the sky. This Air Force Captain Ruppelt was also cognizant that Dr. Hynek’s revised statement that Venus, even if visible, would have been a ‘pinpoint of light,’ bolstered the authenticity of the case being an actual encounter with a flying saucer, at least insofar as the eyewitness’ “descriptions plainly indicated a large object. None of the descriptions could even vaguely be called a pinpoint of light.” Out of respect for Mantell’s family, it was a good thing that Captain Ruppelt did in seeing that the Venus theory was thoroughly reputed. After all, his fellow Air Force captain, Thomas F. Mantell, was an experienced pilot. The courageous Mantell’s flight history consisted of 2,167 hours in the air. He had also been honored for his part in the Battle of Normandy during World War II.192 Following the Mantell incident one thing was certain: the United States government was not going to be caught with its proverbial pants down again. From now on, top military brass in descending order to lowly Army boot soldiers and airmen recruits were going to be taking the matter of flying saucers very seriously. They would be ready the next time a UFO appeared, and indeed they were in just under three months when the Venusian scout craft crashed onto a desolate mesa about 12 miles northeast of the small town of Aztec, New Mexico, in the blackness of pre-dawn on 25 March 1948. The Crashed Scout Once in a great while, an airplane would be spotted flying over Aztec, but these always flew at consistent speeds and in a straight line. The few people who were up at the time the object initially appeared were somewhat startled to see it behaving quite so radically, fluttering and wobbling across the sky like a drunken sailor on a pass during the night of a payday. They correctly surmised that it was an aircraft of some kind, in trouble, and that it was headed in their direction. They just hoped against hope that it wasn’t those damned Ruskies attempting to send a recon aircraft taking photographs over Los Alamos or some of the other military atomic and missile test sites that dotted the New Mexico map. On duty Cuba, New Mexico, police officer Manuel Sandoval and on-duty New Mexico Highway Patrolman Andy Andrews were the two initial observers of the mysterious craft. Another observer of the wobbling flying saucer was rancher and Army veteran Telesforo Valentin Archuleta. He was one of the tough ones, a survivor of the Bataan Death March imposed on American prisoners of war by the Japanese during World War II. Out tending to his livestock, Valentin looked up to see a large disc-shaped craft “wobbling as it flew.” It was seemingly out of control, and struggling to hover at an altitude of some 100 feet above the ground. Also on top of the mesa was the young oil field worker, Doug Noland, 19 years old at the time, and fellow oil worker as well as Doug’s immediate supervisor, Bill Ferguson. They witnessed what appeared to be a “comet” of some sort flashing down from the sky and crashing into the hills surrounding the oil drip tanks of the El Paso Oil Company, situated out on Hart Canyon Road, about 12 miles northeast from Aztec. Other oil workers, asleep on the hill top, 192 Edward J. Ruppelt, Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (London, United Kingdom: Victor Gollancz, 1956), 50-52.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus were awoken by the tremendous crash and the wild fires that were subsequently sparked. They worried that the oil drip pans at the base of Hart Canyon Mesa might catch fire or even that the oil tanks might explode. Quickly they mobilized to put out the fires. An eerie haze hung over the oil workers’ encampment, being fed by the brush fire as it swirled around them in the early light of dawn. It was very surreal, to say the least. It looked rather like some tribal ritual among the natives of Papua New Guinea as they danced about a huge bonfire, praying to a crashed World War II cargo plane and thinking it some kind of idolatrous sky god. “The flames are just too damn hot to get close to that thing,” yelled Bill, adding that, “We’ve got to get that fire out first or the tanks will blow!” Being oil workers, they had sufficient equipment in the encampment (fire extinguishers, axes, shovels, etc.) to put out the fire in about twenty minutes time. Now the Sun was up and they could all get a closer and much more detailed look at the object. The young oil worker, Doug, was the first to closely approach the object. Gritty and sweaty from fighting the brush fire, Doug still held a heavy fireman’s axe in his hands that he had used in chopping down and clearing charred brush. And not knowing what kind of creatures might pour out of that “space ship,” he wasn’t going to take any chances. After all, it might be an advance scout for a Martian invasion, like a real-life Orson Welles-type scenario. You know, like with that radio broadcast before the war… As Doug started to ascend the hill, Bill reached out and put his right hand over Doug’s axe-wielding arm. “Hold on there, Doug. Not so fast. I’m going with you. If anything crawls out of that thing, you won’t be alone. For all we know, it might be Uncle Joe Stalin himself!” Bill then turned to the other oil workers and said, “You guys wait down there. We’ll call for you None of those present on the mesa knew what might crawl out of that crashed saucer! when it’s safe to come up.” See http://www.ebay.com/itm/INVASIONAscending the hill, Bill and Doug came upon OF-THE-SAUCER-MEN-SAUCERMENa very large, metallic and lens-shaped craft atop the FLYING-SAUCER-MEN-MOVIEmesa; but it definitely appeared to be banged up. One POSTER-ALIEN-1957-/170329735255. of the portholes was substantially cracked. Years later, Doug later told a UFO investigator, “We realized the craft was smooth with no noticeable seams, rivets, bolts or weld marks. It looked as though it was molded.” Touching the object and sensing that it had cooled, Doug climbed to the top of the object, and estimated to be almost 100 feet in diameter. In reminiscing about the flying saucer, Doug would later explain that, “The craft was brushed aluminum, looking to be very smooth, but not highly polished aluminum like you see on an airplane.” The young man also took note that, “The windows or portholes looked like mirrors until you would look closer; then you could see through them.” Years later, after mirrored sunglasses were all the fashion rage, Doug would recall the craft and be reminded of its unusual, reflective windows.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II “One of the windows or portholes was busted,” said Doug to the UFO investigator. “The hole was the size of a quarter, no bigger, as I recall. It was a hole in the window the size of a damn quarter!” Doug and Bill looked through the window and saw “two small bodies slumped over what appeared to be a control panel of sorts. The Sun was up by this time, and we could plainly see two bodies.” The Circus But now the circus has come to town, and the admission is free. Suddenly, everyone from within 20 miles of the crash site is driving out to the mesa to get a better look at this thing that fell from outer space. The policeman, the New Mexico highway patrolman and the rancher Valentin are now up on the mesa; with the next ones showing up being some cattle ranchers, Mr. and Mrs. Knight, from an adjacent property. The Knights seemed frantic. They pleaded with everyone to stay back from the “thing” until someone in authority could figure out what it really was. “Maybe it’s from Russia,” said Mrs. Knight. Parking was becoming scarce up on the mesa, so as more people poured in they began to parallel park on the right side of the dirt road leading up to the mesa, extending back for about a mile, and then walking up to the site. Officer Sandoval attempted to enforce some semblance of crowd control and keep people away from the object, but to no avail. This thing was just too big. It was a “once-in-a-lifetime event” that they could even tell their grandchildren about one day. Even a military Sikorsky H-5 series helicopter had made a landing. Out of it authoritatively stepped an Army major who gathered everyone around him, and imperiously declared, “The military is aware of this craft. Everyone needs to leave this area at once.” Of course, no one way moving as they all wanted to get a close-up view of the “space ship” before heading all the way back home. In any event, the military officer returned to the helicopter and radioed something to his base. Then he took out of a notepad and personally took everyone’s name, address and phone number, if they had one, checking IDs in the process, if they had one of those, too. Doug recalled that Bill wasn’t too pleased with this bully of an Army officer, pushing everyone around and barking orders like the locals were privates under his command. Doug recalled that, “By the time the officer showed up, Bill, who was ignoring orders to stay away from the craft, was trying to poke around the craft with a fire pole or something he pulled off one of the trucks. Soon he hit some damn thing, and a door or walkway appeared. Some of us had to look inside and see what the hell was in there, and if anyone was in need of help.” Doug said that none of the bodies showed any signs of life. They were charred, almost beyond recognition, and not moving in the slightest. He commented that, “They were charred a dark brown. I mean, they did not appear to be of dark skin- just seemed to have been exposed to heat.” Other oil workers checked out the rest of the craft and reported that there were more dead bodies in the upper levels. Some of them looked like charred humans and insects plastered against a bulkhead. Doug remarked that it was strange that the bodies were charred but that there seemed to be no fire damage or burning of the craft’s control room. “What do you think?” Doug asked Bill. “Hmmmm… It might be radiation from one of these atomic bomb tests. Maybe this thing flew through a bomb test.” By noon the military showed up in a big way, coming to reinforce the major who had previously arrived in the helicopter. The soldiers reported to the major, who briefed them on the situation. Then the major got back into his helicopter and flew off. The military established 183

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus a gate at the entrance of the oil encampment, checking everyone in and out of the site. During his interview with the UFO investigator, Doug was asked about the military’s arrival on the scene, to which he replied, “I am still not certain to this day what branch they were from. There was the Army major in the helicopter, but I just don’t recall seeing anything else that told me where these other personnel came from, if it was the new Air Force or the Army. All I know was that they weren’t really young guys. They seemed older and certainly were well trained as far as getting there and taking over in a very assertive manner. They did not take kindly that we were there. But I do remember that they wore light blue armbands on the right side; so maybe that had something to do with the new Air Force that was just created.” The UFO investigator, also a specialist in magnetic fields and wire, asked Doug what else he could recall about his encounter with this military force, to which he replied that, “They told me that this event was extremely important to the United States of America- that we were responsible for our national security, and that we will never talk to anyone about this event. Everyone, with maybe the exception of Mr. and Mrs. Knight, were talked to, in private. I mean, we weren’t talked to in a group- just kind of one-on-one. They weren’t kidding around. They were very serious and not very friendly. I can only speak for myself and what Bill told me later, but we were threatened with our lives if we ever spoke about this.”193 Saucer Removal and Clean Up-The Tyler Revelations It took about two weeks to get all the equipment up to the site for the removal of the saucer. One young airman, an officer once stationed at the Walker Air Force Base on the other side of the New Mexico border, in Colorado, who wished to remain anonymous, explained it thusly: “The operation had been delayed a few days in the beginning of the recovery due to some problems with a freshly cut road. The soil near the crash site was very moist and sandy and created problems for moving in some heavy equipment.” He further told the UFO investigator, “Look for some footers or concrete foundations that had to be poured for the equipment to be stable; but now I can’t remember exactly what kind of equipment it was that they brought in.” “….A crane, perhaps?” The former airman replied emphatically, “Yes, that’s it. I remember now. It was a huge crane.” When the UFO investigator asked him about the final destination for the disc, he responded, “Well, I would guess Los Alamos, because when it was all over I noticed that a lot of equipment was at Los Alamos; and I was helping one of my fellow officers that was working on logistics. He had ‘borrowed’ some equipment that needed to get back to certain locations, and he had some sitting up at Los Alamos; and he was working on getting them back to where they should be.”194 It should also be noted that the area had to be “re-landscaped” to project its appearance prior to the crash, insofar as it blended in with the rest of the terrain up on the mesa.195 Noted geologist, Dr. George C. Tyler, the president of the Colorado Shale and Metal Company, based in Denver, Colorado, was among those contracted by the Department of Defense for the provisioning of some of the heavy equipment that would be needed in assisting 193 Scott Ramsey, et al., Aztec UFO Incident (Wayne, New Jersey: New Page Books, 2016), 13-34. This book includes a preface by physicist Dr. Stanton Friedman. It was personally authorgraped and presented to me by Dr. Friedman at the one-day Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) symposium held at Greensburg, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, 19 November 2016. I, in turn, presented Dr. Friedman with a personally autographed copy of Venus Rising. 194 Ibid, 32-33 195 Ibid, 29

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Raymond Andrew Keller II recovery and clean-up crews from both the Army’s Fifth Group, based out of Colorado, and the Air Force’s Walker Base, that up through 1947 had been known as the Roswell Army Air Field. Desmond Leslie, the co-author of Adamski’s Flying Saucers Have Landed, was particularly interested in this Aztec case, especially since George Adamski would mention or write favorably about it from time to time. Leslie made a long-distance telephone call to Tyler inquiring about the case, and in return Tyler sent him a detailed letter regarding not only his involvement with the Aztec case, but two other UFO incidents as well.196 What follows is the unedited “CLASSIFIED” Letter to Desmond Leslie from Dr. George C. Tyler, U.S.A., “Flying Saucer Story of Dr. George C. Tyler,” written at some unspecified time during 1954. I have supplied here only those parts of the letter pertinent to the Aztec crash of 1948 and the disposition of the saucer. Friend Leslie: The Los Alamos Saucers and the U.S. Government The hero of this story (and I mean hero, because of what he suffered) is a noted scientist, whose name for the purpose of anonymity, I will call Professor P. (the name is Baron Nicholas Von Pappen, address as of two years ago, 1562 ½ North St. Andrews, Los Angeles. As to our personal relationship, 25 years ago, I was president of Colorado Shale and Metal Company, in Denver, where we made the first successful shale oil mill in the U.S. It worked successfully, but was not economical. One day the baron arrived in L.A. at the head of a delegation from France. He had trailed me over the country, and was told as of that time, I was the only person who engineered such a mill in this country. The Baron wanted me to visit his land of Estonia, in the Balkans, that together with Latvia and Lithuania, made up the Protestant states, a population of 17 million, the best European stock, and build a shale oil mill, in fact many of them. His country had oil fields developed, but had fine shall beds and oil was needed. I was afraid of the rising tide of Communism, which was starting to wash against their borders on the east; but he assured me that there was no real danger, just as the Pentagon is doing right now, that they are safe-guarding us from the same menace, now 20 times as strong. I finally consented to go after he made his offer seem more tempting. He had their Reichstag elect me Premier of the little country with full power to rejuvenate the commerce. On the strength of this they borrowed 30 million dollars, in New York, bought an old steamer of large capacity, and loaded it with old cars, cheap, discarded radios, to be made over in their land by mechanics who at that time were starving. However, at this time, secret service men of a certain people, came to me with the information that, that the whole of Europe would be conquered by the Bolsheviks soon, and anyone like me would be liquidated, Red style. It was such definite information that I backed out, much to the Baron’s dismay. He departed for his country at once. They carried out the plans as we had made them, or tried to, but all was brought to an end by the disaster I feared would happen. The baron saw his beautiful wife cut to pieces and his two children dashed against the wall of the stone cellar, as he hid under some driftwood, wounded and helpless. Years later he managed to get back to his country, came here and we renewed our friendship. 196 Letter written sometime after March 13, 1954, in 1954, by Dr. George C. Tyler of Denver, Colorado to Desmond Leslie, 36 South Lodge Grove, End Road, London, N.W. 8, England: “Flying Saucer Story of Dr. George C. Tyler, U.S.A.” marked “CLASSIFIED.” The original copy is archived in the Gray Barker collection, Clarksburg, West Virginia.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus I go into this lengthy detail, to try to impress that he was like Monohan,197 a man of extra responsibility, at the head of millions of people who looked to him for temporal and spiritual leadership. After we met, I learned to love the personality of this frail man. Already a scientist, he had to do constructive work, so he became a scientific photographer- so well recognized that he was repeatedly called on for difficult work along those lines. I was a little surprised one day, when his voice came over the phone asking me to meet him in the Coffee Room of a downtown hotel, saying, “I have a matter I must discuss with you. Get there at one; it will take one hour.” I did so, but when we left it was six, my head spinning. Here is the story as told to me: (I’m not going into the small details as it would take too long.) BARON: “Last week two secret service men came to my home. They told me they had a photographic job to be done, to please go with them. We went by plane and landed inside the vast Los Alamitos Field. I was met by the superintendant of that part of the field. We walked to the fringe of a crowd of several hundred men who were milling around a large, flat object, lying on the ground. When a lane was opened, I was led through the crowd and found myself viewing the real ‘Flying Saucer.’ There it was, surrounded by what looked like 1,000 men, technicians and experts of all kinds, the best the government can hire. To say that I was astonished, would be putting it mildly. I was given the finest equipment I had ever handled and told to photograph the ‘thing.’ For two days, I crawled all over it, on top, underside, distance and close-up, literally within inches of special pieces of equipment. They asked me to try to show the texture of the metal of which it was made. There seemed to be several kinds. Most of it looked like steel, but different to any I’d ever seen. Some of it was actually translucent, something I didn’t understand. (Note inserted by G. C. Tyler: This from a noted scientist). “Now I’ll try to describe it to you. It was 1/10th of a foot less than 100 feet across. They, the builders seem to have a different mathematical number, the differences between six and nine. It was about 8 ft. thick in the middle. The government men managed to open a door on the side, with its base on the chime of the rim. The door was so machined that when closed, left no indication that it was there. I suppose to insure against any seepage of air, when in space. Inside was a circular room about 30 feet across, curving ceiling in conformity with the outside of the ship. Between the sides, next to the chime, were very heavy cables, some which looked like copper. The rest I couldn’t determine and no one expressed an opinion in my presence. It was like that all of the time, very hushed up. They all seemed to be afraid of each other, and almost of themselves. About in the center of the room was a panel control board, covered with push buttons and tiny levers, almost like what we have here on Earth, and I’ve seen plenty of them. Before this board, which was small, were four swivel buck seats, with men strapped in each, dead. “I’ll try to describe them as carefully as possible. The largest, who seemed to have been the captain, was 4’ 9” tall, and weighed about 35 lbs. The smallest and youngest was 23” tall and about 22 lbs. They were white men, with very pale skin, as if grown in a cold world with little air. The faces were very intellectual and refined, as I have never seen on Earth. The captain’s right arm hung down as he lopped over and the fingers touched the ship’s log book lying open 197 Tyler introduces Leslie to Herbert D. Monohan at the introduction of his letter. Monohan lived at 522 W. Granada Rd., Phoenix, Arizona, in 1954 and made frequent trips back and forth to Mexico City, where he was the chief chemist for the Great American Smelting Company. Monohan experienced a close encounter of the third kind while inspecting one of his oil fields in the Laramie, Wyoming, region back in 1952 and privately related this information to his friend and associate in the international business community, G. C. Tyler.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II on the floor, the exposed pages covered with glyphs, nothing like I’ve seen before. But the book was made of some sort of indestructible material which was not paper at all, but could be written on. He must have had it in his hand when the trouble began. On the floor of the room were some 15 little machines, beautifully welded to the floor, with welds that left no indication that showed any difference in appearance with the rest of the floor, though I could see that they were welds. I am particular about this, for there is some secret there which an expert ought to be able to discover. The machines looked a little like typewriters, beautifully made, though not at all as intricate as one would imagine. It showed me that these people have long passed through the period of technology development that we are in now, and again tended toward the simplification of life and thus eliminating the intricacies that tend to obscure the natural laws of being. I concluded that they were the different pieces of apparatus that controlled the cosmic space motor which was made up, it seemed, in the big cables coiled around the inside of the chime of the ship, and some mechanism which they did not let me photograph. Anyway, it was the sort of garrett beyond the inside, central control, and living room. I’ll try to describe that part of the ship. “Against the sides were several Pullman-like bunks, but only suitable for these pygmies, perfect in every detail. Against the wall was clipped a water bottle, out of whose spigot we drew heavy water. It tasted good, and that was the only thing they let me have. You couldn’t tell the difference between it and any water cooler we have in our offices, except that it was not made of glass, but it was translucent. There was a corresponding toilet, with peculiar arrangements, all very modest. But the one thing that drew my curiosity, above anything else was, against the wall was clipped a regular radio tube, or it looked like one of our tubes. Every once in a while it would ‘beep beep,’ a regular code call coming, as I judged, from outer space, and I had the idea that other ships connected with this one, were anxiously trying to communicate with it. That went on all day, until I was ready to leave. When I had finished my work, I slipped it out its clip, wrapped it in my handkerchief, and another rag, as firmly as I could to muffle its sound, and tucked it into my pocket. But as we went to the plane that was to carry me to L.A., it sounded off again, and the Superintendant who had met me and who was with me all the time, heard it, and at once said: “Ah, so that’s it. You are trying to snitch on us? Give, young fellow.” And naturally, I had to return it, so I don’t have a single thing to back my story, except my word to you. “Further, in leaving the subject, about the ship, it had one peculiar that no one has discussed with me, or even imagined. Around the ship was a second metal covering, the full size, of course, and must have been about 4” from the skin of the inner or real ship. It was a sort of overcoat, that did not touch the ship in any way, and I suppose, that when it flight, it was perfectly controlled from the control board, could be depressed on one side or the other to change the flight course, and from its surface, I imagine came the different glowing lights that would be the cosmic energy developed, or rather transformed, from the currents met in space by the ship’s motors, to both drive it through space with small amount of the power developed, and that threw the rest out in every direction, to fend off any objects encountered in flight, for I did two of the engineers looking at my work, discuss the subject, and they figured that space was filled with sand, grit and very fine particles, that if they hit the ship at the terrific speeds they seemingly make. A short distance away, there was a circular mass of scorched and warped metal that had been exactly the same sort of ship, and further on was another pile of the same thing, another burned ship. I also took pictures of these piles. This is my story, Friend George.” 187

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus We both went home. But at my next Friday evening lecture, to a class I had at the time, I gave this story to them, to the great enjoyment of them all, but one, who did not particularly like me. He was sort of a Communist-New Dealer, so it is not surprising that a day or so later, I was visited by two secret service men, who accused me of telling a false story. I agreed that I told the story, but that it wasn’t false. They threatened to put me in jail. Being a down east Yankee, this aroused my anger and I told them I would now lecture on the subject every chance I got. This cooled them off, and after a consultation, they asked me not to make the ectures, for security reasons, as the information may reach the wrong parties. So on this note, I agreed not to make my lectures, and haven’t made any until 29 December 1953. But first, I phoned my friend, and asked him to meet me at the same place. When we got together, over our coffee cups, I told him what had happened on our ‘Saucer’ story. His face turned white, and asked in a startled, scared voice: “What Saucer story?” I said, “Your story of the saucers at Los Alamitos that you told me two weeks ago, right in this same booth.” “Why I never told you a story about any saucer. What on Earth are you talking about?” With trembling lips and pale face, he was remembering his terrible and gruesome experience in Estonia, where he wasn’t in sympathy with. “My friend Marshall Zukoff,” as our chief executive has said many times with the result of seeing his family slaughtered, always the same case, I could forgive him and forget it until the time came to retell this amazing story. I kept silent over my four years, until our first visit to meet the famous George Adamski at Palomar Gardens Inn, 29 December 1953. When in making arrangements to collaborate with their group in the most fascinating subject, Adamski’s most efficient secretary, Lucy McGinnis, gave me a smile and told me that they had my story, in writing. A party was given in Hollywood a few weeks before to a group of important people, among whom, was the superintendant I spoke of. When he got some drinks under his belt, he told the group, the story I tell, the only difference being, that HE was the very man who bossed the job,. The hostess, being greatly interested, heard it all, rushed home, and told her writer husband, who wrote it down at once, and sent it to them. Here is the payoff. The ship was dismantled carefully, piece by piece and shipped east to Dayton, where every piece was carefully studied, and a duplicate was built. But when completed, the duplicate wouldn’t fly. Do what they could, fume, fret, fuss, call each other names, it just sat there placidly, and refused to budge. Thank God, I give my thanks, advisedly, for knowing my race, of which I am part. We are so far from being decent, that it would be one of the most terrible things, imaginable, if we could make them fly. The first thing we’d do, would be to put machine guns on them, fill up with bombs, and go off trying to find and destroy some world in space. The first thing being, that we would know, that they would continue to lead their own lives, but must exactly follow our guidance benevolently given, first at the cannon mouth, and then when beaten, at the direction of our nosey bosses. “God forbid,” is my prayer. I feel that we are neither fit nor decent enough, to in any way associate with these folks, except as humble students to superior masters in spirituality. Before the incident of Adamski, I forgot to mention, that while the Baron was denying the fact that he’d told me about the Saucer, the waitress, serving us our coffee, impulsively broke into our conversation, as she should, being a type of that bright open-minded American woman, and said, “Why, you told him that story about a Saucer; and we were all so thrilled here. Why, I could hardly sleep, thinking about it.” Thus ends the account of the Aztec crashed disc, hauled away from the remote mesa to Los 188

Raymond Andrew Keller II Alamos, and later moved on the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, for further analysis at the technical center situated there. The remainder of Tyler’s letter to Leslie consists of an account provided by literary professor Darby Compton of Los Angeles, California, of his and others’ sightings of sundry UFOs throughout Southern California, but especially in the vicinity of George Adamski’s residence on the slopes of Mount Palomar. Over time, Scully’s book has continued to garner controversy. When Behind the Flying Saucers first appeared in bookstores, the newly created Air Force had already issued a public statement denying the existence of flying saucers as interplanetary spacecraft. By late 1948, the Air Force Project Sign was discontinued and replaced by a new government flying saucer research group, code named Project Grudge. This organization was designed from its very inception to be much more negatively oriented in its approach to the mysterious flying saucers that seemed to be showing up all around the United States. The same young Air Force aviation engineering officer that supervised operations at Project Sign, Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, was transferred over to head up the new saucer investigatory group. However, the lack of objectivity in the new organization became a bone of contention with Ruppelt, insofar as he admits that he was given orders to downplay the presence of flying saucers in our skies, dismissing these objects as optical illusions, unusual cloud formations, conventional aircraft seen under unusual circumstances, etc.198 The Air Force captain also reported that the choice of the word “Grudge” to describe the new project was deliberate. Ruppelt’s superiors in the higher echelons of the Air Force demanded that the new Project Grudge commander take the initiative in providing more mundane and prosaic explanations for as many of the incoming sighting reports as possible. Consider Ruppelt’s own words concerning this matter: “On February 11, 1949, an order was written that changed the name of the UFO project from Project Sign to Project Grudge. The order was supposedly written because the classified name, Project Sign, had been compromised. This was always my official answer to any questions about the name change. I’d go further and say that the names of the projects, first In 1948, Air Force Captain Edward J. Ruppelt had, as Desi might say to Lucy, Sign, then Grudge, had no significance. This wasn’t “a lot of esplainin’ to do” concerning the true; they did have significance, a lot of it.”199 presence of flying saucers in our skies. Ruppelt referred to the Project Grudge era as the See http://www.sharecg.com/v/16205/ related/5/3d-model/1950s-flying-saucers. “Dark Ages” of official Air Force UFO investigations. 198 Edward J. Ruppelt, Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (London, United Kingdom: Victor Gollancz, 1956) details the Air Force captain’s experiences in three government agencies investigating “unidentified flying objects (UFOs),” a term and new word, with the acronym being pronounced “Yoo-foes,” for short, that, incidentally, he created to replace the more ubiquitous “flying saucers.” Ruppelt was the director of Project Grudge from late 1951 until it became Project Blue Book in March 1952. Nevertheless, he continued on with Project Blue Book until late 1953, whence his request for reassignment was granted. With the publication of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Robertson Panel findings on UFOs in January 1953, recommending that UFO reports be debunked and civilian ufology groups be monitored in the interest of national security, Ruppelt felt it was time to move into more fruitful areas that would serve to advance his military career. The Panel, headed by Howard P. Robertson, arose from a recommendation to the Intelligence Advisory Committee in December 1952 from a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) review of the U.S. Air Force Blue Book investigation. The CIA review, classified TOP SECRET at the time and since declassified, was, for the most part convened in response to the UFO flap over the Washington, D.C. area during the summer of 1952. 199 Ibid., 50

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Still, by late 1949, some 20 percent of UFO sightings remained classified as “unknown” by Grudge investigators; and by late 1951, according to Ruppelt, some highly influential Pentagon generals had become so disenchanted with Grudge’s debunking that Grudge itself was dismantled and replaced by Project Blue Book, with Ruppelt in charge. UFO historian Jerome Clark wrote of Ruppelt that, “Most observers of Blue Book agree that the Ruppelt years comprised the project’s golden age, when investigations were most capably directed and conducted. Ruppelt himself was open-minded about UFOs, and his investigators were not known, as Grudge’s were, for force-fitting explanations on cases.”200 The Aphrodite Project Imagined Even following the publication of the Project Sign report in 1948, however, it became clear in Washington, D.C., centered in the highest echelons of military and political power, that the United States needed to develop an atomic rocket capable of carrying a space probe to the planet Venus. The Sign panel’s conclusions that the flying saucers emanated from our sister planet Venus was propelling the drive to initiate what would become known in the inner circles of the military-industrial complex as the “Aphrodite Project.” Hints of this top secret program were leaked by science writer R. S. Richardson, under the pen name of Philip Latham in the pages of the June 1949 issue of Astounding Science Fact and Fiction. Basically, Richardson proposed that the United States should develop and launch a rocket to Venus, whence it would endow the cloud-shrouded but solitary orb with a moon of its own, albeit an artificial one. This, of course, would be a satellite that we would deploy into a highly elliptic, but extended Venusian orbit. Personnel in the Department of Defense, worried about the intensive increase in flying saucer sightings around our military installations, were hot on the idea of applying atomic energy to military purposes. If the flying saucers represented the intrusion of Venusian technology into our skies, what was the intention of our celestial neighbors in carrying out this reconnaissance? By the end of 1948, President Truman had ordered that two of the most powerful telescopes in the world be dedicated to the continuous observation of the planet Venus. These were the Mount Wilson 100-inch telescope in Los Angeles and the 200-inch telescope atop Mount Palomar to the north of San Diego. Astronomers on staff at these observatories were sworn to the utmost secrecy in the interest of national security. Each telescope crew would alternate days of operation. At first, nothing was showing up concerning Venus except a blank disk. But it was soon discovered that certain markings and unique cloud formations would show up when the planet was photographed in ultraviolet light. Fortunately, one day the Venusian cloud layer had parted. This allowed the California Venus watchers to “look at an enormous mountain on the surface.” But more was needed if we were to get a closer observation of the Venusian surface, perhaps espying a city or massive military facility, such as a spaceport. In order to accurately assess the Venusians’ capabilities, however, the United States had to get a probe in orbit about Venus as soon as possible, with such a remote controlled device having the capacity to collect, encrypt and transmit the gathered intelligence back to Earth. Naturally, we had to be careful. We could not afford to let any of this data get into the hands of the Soviets. Interestingly, a survey of documents released by the Department of Defense during this critical time turns up the so-called Smythe Report, officially titled “Atomic Energy for Military Purposes.” This document is important because its unknown author speculates that atomic energy can be applied to rocket propulsion. But more on this will be discussed when we 200 Jerome Clark, UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial (Detroit, MI: Visible Ink, 1998), 517.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II later explore, in this chapter, the unusual origins of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. There was certainly a need for an “Aphrodite Project,” such as the one that Richardson described even back in 1948. The idea of sending a rocket to Venus was well within the realm of possibility, as we shall shortly see. Twelve years after Richardson’s initial recommendation, he would declare in another issue of Astounding Science Fact and Fiction that, “Undoubtedly such an instrument (a space probe) will add greatly to our knowledge of this planet (Venus). Until such a feat becomes possible, however, we will have to rest content with observations made from Earth in the usual way.” But now the science writer was covering up, asserting that, “Unfortunately, the clouds have never rolled away to give us so much as a glimpse of the surface below.201 Thus of necessity all of our information of Venus has been gained from without the cloud layer.” Concern about Venus investigations in the Soviet Union were also expressed by Richardson; but remember that this was six years before the United States Air Force’s White Stork revelations about the search for extraterrestrial life in the solar system and beyond by Soviet scientists, as detailed in this book. But by 1960, Richardson states that he was cognizant that, “Some of the most important of the recent papers on Venus have been in Russian and hence have received Young astronomers gather at the Moscow little more than scant mention….” And of these papers, Planetarium in 2012 to view the transit of he notes that, “They are mostly by Dr. N. A. Kosyrev of Venus. See https://www.google.com/search? q=Venus+in+Russian+astronomy&source=l the Crimean Observatory who startled the world about nms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwio1Z a year ago with his observation of what he called a eD7aPLAhWBuoMKHW7HAx0Q_AUICS ‘volcanic process’ in the lunar crater Alphonsus.” Thus gD&biw=853&bih=431#imgrc=Sokh5DwQ buoyed by the accomplishments that Kosyrev made GQJPfM%3A. regarding the Moon, Richardson comments that, “His 201 In the article, “Scientists Revise,” Spacecraft News, Number 3, June 1967, Gray Barker, editor, Clarksburg, West Virginia, it is declared that despite the negative consensus concerning life on Venus arrived at by NASA scientists following the fly-by of the cloudy planet by Mariner 2, by 1966 some leading lights in the American astronomical community were demanding a reassessment, insisting that the next probe to Venus be equipped with a television camera for a quick reconnaissance of the planet. What changed their minds was actually a photograph of the Earth, but one taken by NASA’s Lunar Oribiter 1. The lunar probe acquired photographic data from 18 to 29 August 1966. Most of the photos were of the lunar surface, but there was a special one that showed Mother Earth as viewed from the vantage point of the Moon. This photo depicted a crescent, much like the astronomical photos we can take of Venus, as seen with optical enhancement from the Earth. Ufologist Gray Barker, long a die-hard believer in Venusian life, the author of the Book of Adamski (1966) and the publisher of Howard Menger’s From Outer Space to You (1959), noted that, “Apparently the atmosphere and cloud cover of Earth cuts out surface details when photographed from a great distance. Could this not be true of Venus?” Of course it could. Photographic comparisons of the two worlds suggest that if Venus could be photographed in detail, equivalent to the relatively close pictures made of Earth from satellites, its cloud-cover might prove to be broken and variable, rather than solid and unchanging. Unfortunately, while many scientists in 1966 wanted those TV cameras installed on the next flight scheduled for Venus in June 1967, there wasn’t enough time to design, build and install them properly. Neither would any of the other equipment of the following year’s Venus probe be capable to acquire any other information as to how Venus actually looked from close up. NASA informed Gray Barker that the next Venus mission, after the mid-1967 launch, would not come until mid-1972; and that it would be large enough to carry the advanced television camera. At that, Gray quipped, “So we may have to wait five years to learn whether George Adamski was right or wrong.” Interestingly enough, the 1972 photos of Venus, when taken in infrared light, did indeed show Venus with a scattered blue cloud layer, looking very much like the Lady Gaia’s twin sister. Venus’ similarity to Earth is remarkable.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus observations of Venus are equally interesting if not so spectacular in nature.” What Kosyrev’s study of the Alphonsus crater revealed was that our Moon remains geologically active; and what he discovered about Venus was so startling, that it would forever change the way in which his fellow Russians would consider our sister world in its level of prioritization for funding and further space research in the most powerful of all communist nations.

This “Zip Zip”-type Venusian was taking an old-school “selfy” in a Los Angeles shopping mall photo booth, self-modeling a new style zip-front dress, so in vogue on the cloudy planet. See https://www.pinterest. com/explore/zip-front-dress/.

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Chapter VII: Playing With Magic

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-54LNFDolc.

Make me your Aphrodite. Make me your one and only. But don’t make me your enemy, your enemy, your enemy. So you wanna play with magic, Boy, you should know what you’re falling for. Baby, do you dare to do this? Cause I’m coming at you like a dark horse. Are you ready for, ready for A perfect storm, perfect storm? Cause once you’re mine, once you’re mine, There’s no going back. —Katy Perry, “Dark Horse,” Prism album (2013) Katy Perry’s performance of “Dark Horse” at the 56th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, on 26 January 2014, stirred up quite a controversy, worldwide. Her act, rife with an occult theme and pregnant with esoteric symbolism, left many fundamentalist Christians wondering if Katy had signed on as a spokesperson for the Illuminati. Noted Christian journalist Daniel Distant, “The pop singer departed from her usual bubbly themes Sunday with a Grammy performance some called Satanic, and the creepy performance had many seeking answers as to what the song really means.”202 On the surface, Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” video is about a witch warning someone not to fall in love with her. The singer explained this to a reporter from Music Television (MTV), declaring that it was just a “kind of juxtaposition.” She added that, “It’s got me, a pop artist…. and the lyrics are kind of witchy and dark, as if I was a witch warning this man not to fall in love with me, and if you do, know I’m going to be your last.” Elaborating on this point during the E! pre-Grammy show, Katy went on to say that her performance was inspired by one of her favorite Stevie Nicks lyrics that goes, “Which witch is which?” 202 Daniel Distant, “Katy Perry ‘Dark Horse’ Meaning: Grammy’s ‘Satanic’ Performance About Drugs? (VIDEO),” 29 January 2014, Christian Post Reporter, http://www.christianpost.com/news/katy-perry-dark-horse-meaning-grammyssatanic-performance-about-drugs-video-113600/#! (Accessed 11 April 2016)

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus In the Grammy performance, Perry emerged out of a crystal ball wearing the cross of the Knights Templar and then danced on a broom surrounded by demons. At the end, being engulfed in roaring flames, she was burned at the stake. Seeing this spectacle live, a reporter from E! News tweeted, “Um, did we just witness actual witchcraft during Katy Perry’s Grammys performance?” And Natalie Grant, a prominent Christian singer, was so repulsed that she left the Grammy’s early. While Natalie told reporters that sometimes she wondered if she made the right choice in going into Christian music, versus breaking into the secular market like Katy did, she now emphasized that she’s “never been more sure” in the correctness of her choice in becoming a gospel artist. Katy Perry, nee Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, like Natalie Grant, was also born into a goodly Christian family. She came into this world on 25 October 1984 at Santa Barbara, California, to Pentecostal pastors Mary Christine (née Perry) and Maurice Keith Hudson. Both of Katy’s parents are born again Christians; and according to Katy, they turned to Jesus after a “wild youth.” Like most Americans, Perry has a mixed ancestry. She’s got English, Irish, German and Portuguese blood streaming through her veins. Interestingly, on her mother’s side, Katy is a niece of film director Frank Perry. Katy has a younger brother named David, who occasionally finds work as a singer, along with an older sister, Angela. Perhaps it is not too difficult to understand how Katy has strayed so far from her Christian roots. From ages 3 to 11, the young Katy often moved across the country as her parents set up churches before settling again in Santa Barbara. While she was growing up, Katy attended religious schools and camps, including the Paradise Valley Christian School in Arizona and the Santa Barbara Christian School in California during her elementary years. In the constricting conservative and fundamentalist Christian environment that dominated these schools, the ever creative and inquisitive Katy must have felt stifled, just biding time until she could finish her high school program of studies and strike out on her own path to success. And while her family struggled financially, Katy thankfully remembers that her parents qualified for both food stamps and welfare assistance payments. Therefore, this is just how the young Katy thought of religion: It was all her parents’ spiritual quest and her parents’ church, and certainly not her own. So once she was independent and making her own kind of music, it is easy to comprehend how it would end up being infused with various elements antithetical to fundamentalist Christianity. This was Katy’s way of making a protest statement. One of the doctrines that Katy found most difficult to accept was that of the existence of Satan and Hell. More than anything else, this tenet of damnation caused the young girl to depart from her evangelical roots at an early age. Recently, when asked about her religious beliefs during an interview published in Marie Claire magazine, Katy explained that, “I’m not Buddhist. I’m not Hindu. I’m not Christian. But, I still feel like I have a deep connection with God.”203 She also told the fashionista journalist that, “I pray all the time— for self-control, for humility. There’s a lot of gratitude in it.” Others have seen an anti-drug message in Katy’s “Dark Horse.” In my opinion, however, this message does not seem to originate with Katy, but rather Juicy J, a rap collaborator on the song. On this, Daniel Distant writes: “Even though the somewhat vague song lyrics contain references to love and witchcraft, the meaning behind her ‘Dark Horse’ song may in fact be drug addiction. The Christian journalist also writes that, “….a closer analysis of the song points to a warning away from drug addiction as well. Perry refers to the feeling she gives as ‘magic,’ 203 Claire Hoffman, “Katy Conquers All,” 9 December 2013, Marie Claire magazine, Hearst Publications, Harlan, Iowa

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Raymond Andrew Keller II something to make you ‘levitate,’ fly ‘like a bird without a cage’ and being ‘in the palm of your hand’— all references to getting high. Juicy J, who collaborated with a verse on the song as well, says leaving her will make her ‘cold as a freezer’ and says he’ll ‘put her in a coma’— references to the struggle of withdrawal from narcotics.” Juicy gets even more explicit in highlighting the drug connection when one of his stanzas affirms that, “Her love is like a drug, I was tryna hit it and quit it / But lil’ mama so dope, I messed around and got addicted.” Distant opines that one can lament that the meaning of the song as an anti-drug warning was largely masked by the spectacle of Katy’s Grammy’s performance. It does seem clear, however, that Katy Perry, like David Bowie and a few other rock stars that preceded her, was tuned into some kind of alternate dimension that found reflection and amplification in her work. When compared to other cultural movements or musical genres, rock and roll is still in its infancy. As a musical style, it is only a few generations old. Nevertheless, in the few decades that it has been on the global scene, rock music has definitely succeeded in changing the world like no other art form ever has, or probably ever will. With regard to this phenomenon, the Pennsylvania paranormal research journalist and music reviewer Matthew L. Swayze recently wrote that, “It’s altered more than music, though: it’s also changed occult history. In the past sixty years, rock music has produced stories of ghostly visits, tales of demonic encounters, lists of curse victims, and accounts of just about every type of paranormal phenomena in existence. One question then presents itself: Why is the rock and roll genre so haunted?”204 Also among the many occult themes addressed by rock and roll is that of the search for extraterrestrial life, with a particular focus on the UFO enigma. Even before Katy Perry composed “Dark Horse,” she entered the mysterious universe of ufology with her hit, “E.T.,” which is an acronym for “extraterrestrial.” The song was recorded at Conway Studios in Hollywood, Many rock stars incorporate occult themes in their music. The late David Bowie, shown California, in 2010, and made its debut as the fourth cut on Katy’s third studio album, Teenage Dream, released here, dressed in a Pharaoh-style outfit to pay homage to the master magician Aleister on 16 February of the following year. It was produced Crowley, whom he credits as one of his with the help of Dr. Luke, Max Martin and Ammo; and influences. See http://en.paperblog.com/ it features a guest rap by Kanye West. “E.T.” presents bowie-inspirations-how-to-be-a-cuttingedge-rock-n-roll-star-967246/. an electronic and hip hop ballad that draws heavily from dubstep and techno, infused with doses of bass and drum. “Lyrically,” Perry maintains that, “it speaks of falling in love with a foreigner,” albeit one from another planet. Here follows a portion of some of the more pertinent lyrics: You’re from a whole other world, A different dimension. You open my eyes; And I’m ready to go. Lead me into the light. Kiss me, k-k-kiss me. 204 Matthew Swayze, “Hexes, Ghosts, and Rock and Roll: A Paranormal History of America’s Rock Era,” 2013, Llewellyn Journal, https://www.llewellyn.com/journal/article/2426 (Accessed 13 April 2016).

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Infect me with your love and fill me with your poison. Take me, t-t-take me. Wanna be a victim, ready for abduction. Boy, you’re an alien, your touch so foreign. It’s supernatural, extraterrestrial. You’re so supersonic. Wanna feel your powers; stun me with your lasers. Your kiss is cosmic. Every move is magic…. These lyrics are important because they clearly indicate that Katy equated the extraterrestrial presence with a “different dimension,” a realm of the “supernatural” where everything is “magic.” In many ways, Katy was rediscovering a lost country, one that rocker Jim Morrison of the Doors’ fame stumbled into during the latter years of the turbulent decade of the sixties until his untimely death at the age of 27 in 1971. Some may recall that Jim was hailed by some as a modern-day mystic and shaman. He referred to his alter ego as the “Lizard King;” and when in this alternate persona, he wrote many cryptic songs such as “Break On Through” (1967), “Celebration of the Lizard” (1970) and “Riders on the Storm” (1971). At first glance, it may be tempting to dismiss Jim’s lyrical prose as the rants of a madman on drugs. However, with deeper reflection one might consider that the drugs served to open a gateway or door to another dimension. This may have allowed Jim Morrison to peer into a world more real than the one we live in. The prevalence of a vast spectrum of drugs in the rock and roll community might help to explain this on-going connection of rock stars to an alternate world of supernatural phenomena. Jim knew that there was something not right about the reality that we were born into. “Break On Through” takes place at night and describes the appearance of Jim Morrison of the Doors, he’s already a woman with arms that chain us and eyes that lie, there. encouraging us to break on through to the other side: See https://www.flickr.com/groups/ thedoorsbreakonthrough/.

You know the day destroys the night. Night divides the day. Tried to run, tried to hide. Break on through to the other side.... Everybody loves my baby; She get high. I found an island in your arms, Country in your eyes, Arms that chain us, Eyes that lie; Break on through to the other side.... 196

Raymond Andrew Keller II The gate is straight, deep and wide. Break on through to the other side.... Shortly before Jim’s heroin-induced final transition to the Other Side on 3 July 1971 in Paris, France, he made the following remarks on how controlled and brainwashed society is and how he viewed himself:205 “A person has to be willing to give up everything -- not just wealth. All the bullshit that he’s been taught -- all society’s brainwashing. You have to let go of all that to get to the other side. Most people aren’t willing to do that.” “Whoever controls the media controls the mind.” “We’re like actors, turned loose in this world to wander in search of a phantom, endlessly searching for a half-formed shadow of our lost reality. When others demand that we become the people they want us to be, they force us to destroy the person we really are. It’s a subtle kind of murder. The most loving parents and relatives commit this murder with smiles on their faces.” “I see myself as a huge fiery comet, a shooting star. Everyone stops, points up and gasps ‘Oh look at that!’ Then ‘whoosh’ and I’m gone.... and they’ll never see anything like it ever again.... and they won’t be able to forget me -- ever.” And so the price that Jim Morrison paid for this illumination, of departing this matrix, was his very life. The night was upon us and the Dark Horse was approaching. In this alternate dimension, however, one perceives myriad supernatural phenomena…. Among those experienced are the extraterrestrial encounters. Arthur C. Clarke, the noted British science fiction author, once wrote: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”206 Clearly then, the separation between science and magic can be blurred to deceive a bystander. In some cases, one may indeed masquerade as the other. Following the encounter with Lady Encara on Mt. Shasta in 1987, as described in the last chapter of Venus Rising, I went on a radio talk program in Salt Lake City, Utah, to discuss the contactee conundrum. When asked about the true nature of the Space Intelligences (SIs), I explained that the seeker in this regard look no further than the pages of L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz207 for the answers. The Wizard was representative of the alien technology L. Frank Baum’s novel, the Wonderful while Dorothy and her entourage groping their way Wizard of Oz, provides some clues to the true nature of extraterrestrial intelligences. along the Yellow Brick Road represented humankind Seeking for the answers to the UFO as caught up in this matrix of illusion that we generally phenomenon in the known physical universe may prove to be an exercise in futility. Photo refer to as “reality.” With Katy Perry and many others, is from Metro-Goldwyn Mayer’s classic, UFOs thus form the tip of an iceberg, an introduction Wizard of Oz (1939). into the occult realms. 205 Compiled by Wayne J. Bush in “Tricked By the Light,” 2002 with 2012 last updated, http://www.trickedbythelight. com/tbtl/index.html (Accessed 13 April 2016). 206 Arthur C. Clarke, Report on Planet Three, (New York: Harper and Row, 1972), 129-130. 207 L. Frank Baum, Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Chicago: George M. Hill Company, 1900).

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Understanding Magic Thus we see a strong linkage of the UFO phenomenon with magic. Generally defined, magic is understood to be “the art of using spells to invoke supernatural powers to influence events.”208 But then, this begs a plethora of questions: Who is casting the spells? What constitutes these spells? What kinds of supernatural powers are being invoked? What kinds of events are being influenced? No doubt, the answers to these questions will lead us to a very strange wizard pushing buttons and pulling levers behind a very thick comet, planet and starbedecked curtain. On an esoteric level, however, magic might more appropriately be seen as a word that “describes the inner nature of the beings that make up the universe- the spiritual part of all things.”209 Dr. Greenwood further explains that, “The spirit forms a hidden dimension to the ordinary, everyday world that we inhabit.” Our encounters with sundry elements of this unknown dimension probably occur more times than the average person is capable of recognizing. It is this “hidden” aspect of magic that imbues it with such “occult” overtones. Most people in modern, Western society also share the tendency to put down the occurrence of uncanny events in their respective lives to “coincidence.” But our own ancestors going back a century or two, or even peoples from developing nations around the globe today might interpret such occasions quite differently. Because of the cultural context in which we find ourselves, however, we must still exercise some degree of caution when discussing matters of “magic” or the “occult.” It is unfortunate that so many of our neighbors continue to impart negative connotations to these words. The heavily-negative charge affixed to the mere mention of magic or the occult is largely generated in orthodox religious circles. The leaders of these more fundamentalist sects frequently voice concern or disapproval in regard to the participation of their congregants in any activities associated with magic or the occult. Frankly, the “do-it-yourself” approach to spirituality that can be found in magic and the occult sharply contrasts with the mediating clergy and priesthoods of organized religions that are paid so well for their services. For when their members discover that they can do as much, or more, for themselves than the pastors and prelates of the churches to which they have affiliated themselves, there will be- as Ross Perot once said, a “huge sucking sound” heard as the membership vacates all the chapels scattered across the land. “Dimension X” Up until 1962, any references to so-called “etheric” dimensions could only be found in the pages of science fiction pulp magazines and television shows,210 obscure UFO newsletters 208 Susan Greenwood, Ph.D., A History of Witchcraft (London, UK: Hermes House, 2015), 8. 209 Ibid. 210 “Production and Decay of Strange Particles” was the 30th episode of the Outer Limits, an ABC Television weekly series that ran from 1963-1965. It was written and directed by Leslie Stevens and first aired on 20 April 1964. The episode introduces us to a one, “Dr. Marshall,” who oversees operations at a nuclear power plant. Marshall unintentionally exposed to some high-velocity, subatomic particles to Nobelium-238. This has created a highly-radioactive crack between our world and an alternate dimension. The intense energy output pouring out from this fissure vaporizes two plant workers, whose empty radiation suits rise up and inexplicably resume their work. Marshall shares his speculation that formless energy beings from the other dimension are occupying the suits and endeavoring to widen the crack by causing a nuclear explosion. Unfortunately, more plant workers are forcibly drafted into this effort, thereby creating a small army of zombielike stuffed suits. Marshall’s initial instinct is to just flee the scene, but his wife persuades him into sticking around and trying to fix the problem. It then becomes a race against time. Marshall tries to figure out a way to stop the beings’ growing attempts at causing a fusion reaction. Ultimately, he decides that if he can beat them to the punch by creating his own nuclear explosion, the inter-dimensional rift might be sealed. And even better, the collision of matter and anti-matter from the other dimensional just might cause time to reverse and undo the entire mess. Marshall then rigs a

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Raymond Andrew Keller II or psychic/spiritualist circles. However, this is not to say that the subject was not being taken seriously by some in the highest echelons of the American scientific community; for it was. The first scientific indications for the existence of a Dimension X began to appear as the result of top secret investigations being carried out by a team of physicists contracted by NASA and working out of the main campus of Columbia University in New York City. Gabriel Green (1924-2001), the President of the Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America, headquartered in Yucca Valley, California, received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1953; and apart from his fame as a UFO investigator, was known to have made several important contributions to the standard model of elementary particles. After coming out about his contacts with extraterrestrials and the commencement of his research into the flying saucer phenomenon, however, Green was shunned by most fellow physicists in the scientific academy, but not all. One he kept in contact with was Dr. Leon M. Lederman at Columbia University, who happened to be the very scientist heading up the top secret program to search for and probe Dimension X. Green and Lederman came from completely different backgrounds; but they both shared a love for physics. Green was born and raised in rural Whittier, California; while Lederman, born in 1922 of Russian Jewish immigrant parents, grew up on the rough and tumble streets of the South Bronx. Green was the more outgoing of the two, traveling about the world on the UFO lecture circuit. Lederman, on the other hand, was the more studious and introverted, preferring to conduct research and confining himself mostly to his native New York City and the surrounding area, except for a three-year stint in the Army during World War II and taking up some academic posts at the University of Chicago and the Illinois Institute of Technology. Interestingly, it was at the University of Chicago from 1989-1992 when Lederman served as the President of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the same organization and publication responsible for maintaining the so-called “Doomsday Clock,” showing at the end of each year how many minutes until midnight the world has left until Armageddon. And according to Green, preventing such an apocalypse is also the primary concern of the extraterrestrials and the reason for maintaining their presence here on Earth. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if it was Green who urged Lederman to take on this added responsibility. Lederman completed all of his schooling in New York City. In 1939, he received his high school diploma from James Monroe High School in the South Bronx, and his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the City College of New York in 1943, his master’s degree in physics from Columbia University in 1948 and his doctoral degree in physics, also from Columbia University, just three years later. His doctoral dissertation involved working with Columbia’s Nevis synchro-cyclotron. Back then, it was the most powerful particle accelerator in the world. “hydrogen thermonuclear component” out of whatever’s lying around and dangles it like a carrot in front of the lightning zombies. They then drag it back to the fissure. From a safe distance, the Marshalls watch as the entire power plant and the surrounding area is consumed in a massive atomic explosion. Luckily, it does reverse itself as time runs backward to the point that the inter-dimensional rift was first formed. Besides being the creator of the Outer Limits television series, and the author of numerous Outer Limits episodes, Stevens (1924-1998), was also a prominent figure in New Age circles. He was the author of est: The Steersman Handbook (New York: Bantam Books, 1970). The “est” refers to what Stevens described as “Electronic Social Transformation,” describing a future society brought about by the rise of the “est people.” The “est people” are technically minded, eclectic, and computer literate. They possess qualities necessary for social transformation, essential to Earth’s survival. Some of the individuals named as examples of “est people” include Albert Einstein, R. Buckminster Fuller, Eric Hoffer, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Marshall McLuhan, Lewis Mumford, Ralph Nader and Malcolm X.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Even Dwight D. Eisenhower, in June 1950 the president of Columbia University, and future president of the United States, cut the ribbon dedicating the atom smashing device. Such cyclotrons were just coming of age at this time and created the new discipline that came to be known as particle physics. In any event, following receipt of his terminal degree, Lederman joined the faculty of Columbia University and became a full professor in their Department of Physics in 1958. In 1960, however, Lederman took leave from Columbia to carry out some experiments at the European Council for Nuclear Research, a.k.a. CERN, a name derived from the French acronym “Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire.” This important group was established as a provisional body in 1952 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, not far from the French border, with the mandate of establishing a world-class, fundamental physics research organization in the heart of Europe. In the early 1950s, pure physics research concentrated on understanding the inside of the atom, and therefore one notes the incorporation of the word “nuclear” in its title. By 1954, CERN attained full scientific credentialing. Its laboratory, now in 2016 significantly expanded, includes the Large Hadron Collider. CERN was one of Europe’s first joint scientific ventures. It now includes 21 member states. In any event, after a year and a half of intensive investigations into the nature of the subatomic universe at the CERN facility as a Ford Foundation fellow, Lederman returned to the United States and six months later, in 1962, announced his discovery of the muon neutrino at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island in New York. The American scientist explained that this was important because, “The muon neutrino is a subatomic lepton elementary particle which has the symbol ν μ and yet no net electric charge. Along with the muon, it forms the second generation Dr. Manhattan of DC Comics’ The of leptons, hence its name muon neutrino.”211 So OK, Watchmen series gained omnipotent powers you are thinking, what’s the big deal here? After all, after a nuclear accident propelled him into the universe is filled with various subatomic particles. another dimension. See http://comicvine. gamespot.com. What’s so special about the muon neutrino? Faster Than Light Particles Deemed Possible Lederman’s muon neutrino discovery brought a fresh infusion of federal research dollars to the Brookhaven facility. In addition, Columbia University came around to adding more specialists to Lederman’s investigative team, the renowned physicists Drs. Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger, who were diverted from other, but less lucrative projects. Lederman found the goose that laid the golden eggs. The question persisted, however, as to whether Lederman could keep knowledge of the muon neutrino experiments at Brookhaven a secret? Leon Lederman was itching to discuss his research with his old friend Gabriel Green. His investigations into the muon neutrino were providing indications that another universe existed 211 G. Danby, J.-M. Gaillard, K. Goulianos, L. M. Lederman, N. B. Mistry, M. Schwartz, J. Steinberger, “Observation of high-energy neutrino reactions and the existence of two kinds of neutrinos,” Physical Review Letters 9: 36 (1962), Woodbury, New York.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II out there, but one not conforming to the standard laws of physics. Essentially, Lederman’s discoveries proved the existence of Dimension X, a place where every particle vibrated at speeds faster than light. Gabe would definitely appreciate knowing this. In previous late-night telephone conversations, Gabe and Lederman would talk well into the wee hours of the night about the appearance of flying saucers in our skies and what this meant for all of humankind. Leon’s eyes were blurry, and red; yet he continued to heck and peck at his typewriter, pounding out a paper on the most unusual subatomic properties of the muon neutrino. Hours ago even the test pattern had disappeared from the screen of his sturdy RCA television set. In its place was a lot of electronic snow, static from the cosmic background radiation, filling the room with a subdued, crackling noise. But being absorbed in his important work, the doctor just let it float in one ear and out the other. He didn’t even bother to turn off the TV set. Lederman was working on the muon neutrino paper at the kitchen table. He lived up on the second floor of a two-story brick house in the Shirley neighborhood, a bedroom community a short bus ride away. It was located to the south of the Brookhaven facility. In any event, Lederman would come into work every day, without fail, packing some cold cuts sandwiches in his lunch pail, and return home just in time to pour himself a martini and watch Walter Cronkite on the CBS Evening News, and all of this before getting back to his scientific writing. But this evening Lederman was thinking about his friend Gabe, out in sunny California. “I think I’ll give Gabe a call,” he thought to himself. “The phone is probably tapped, but what the hell! Gabe is always fascinating to listen to, with his tales of encounters with aliens from the AlphaProxima-Centauri star system.”212 The scientist further pondered that, “Gabe often thought that the flying saucers were propelled by some unknown, electro-magnetic force impacting on neutrinos. Wow! Will he get a kick out of what I’m about to tell him!” Being engulfed in his fascinating research, he didn’t take into account that it was already three o’clock in the morning. Earlier in the day, Leon had been so caught up in his work that he didn’t even notice that he had forgotten to eat his lunch. He took the baloney sandwich out of his pail, carefully unfolding its cellophane wrapper. He took a bite out of the now somewhat stale rye bread, staining his white shirt in the process, dripping mustard on the only, but leftside pocket. The mustard from the sandwich dripped down on his pocket protector and then rolled down onto the lower-center part of the pocket itself. He grabbed a drying towel and then turned on the water, dipping the edge of the towel under some running water and then trying in vain to rub the mustard off his white shirt. He was still so excited with the discovery that he and his team of physicists made earlier in the day that he didn’t have any time to concern himself with a stained shirt. “Forget about it,” he vocalized, and then muttered, “I’m calling Gabe. He may be a bit eccentric, but we understand each other.” He dialed Gabe’s number from memory; and after about six rings it finally dawned on him just how late it already was. He was about to cradle the telephone handle back to its resting spot when Gabe’s voice cut in. It was midnight out in California. 212 See Mike Wall, “Found! Potentially Earth-like Planet at Proxima Centauri Is Closest Ever,” 24 August 2016, Space. com, http://www.space.com/33834-discovery-of-planet-proxima-b.html (Accessed 31 January 2017), wherein the senior writer at Space.com informs us that: “The star closest to the sun hosts a planet that may be very much like Earth, a new study reports. Astronomers have discovered a roughlyEarth-size alien world around Proxima Centauri, which lies just 4.2 light-years from our own solar system. What’s even more exciting, study team members said, is that the planet, known as Proxima b, circles in the star’s ‘habitable zone’ — the range of distances at which liquid water could be stable on a world’s surface….” Also of particular note is this comment from one of the team’s members, Guillem AngladaEscude, a physics and astronomy lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom, that helped in the discovery of this new world: “We hope these findings inspire future generations tokeeplooking beyond and to the stars. The search for life on Proxima b comes next.”

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus “Hello.” The voice came as a bleary muffle across the distance. “Gabe, Leon here. Sorry to bother you at this ungodly hour; but I think I’ve made a discovery that will substantiate some of the things you’ve been saying all along. It’s about the existence of Dimension X.” “That’s OK, Leon. As a matter of fact, I was trying to stay awake for Joe Pyne’s nightly rants on KABC, 790 AM out of their studios on La Cienaga Blvd. He’s our West Coast version of your Long John Nebel, albeit ours can be a lot more contentious. Adamski’s supposed to come on after the break and talk about life on Venus.” “Wow. Wish I could hear that broadcast. We’ve got Howard Menger out here as a regular on Long John’s program. I prefer him a little bit over Adamski. Menger seems well versed on science, especially electronics. Most of his message actually makes sense. Adamski can go off on more esoteric tangents. Sometimes when you listen to Adamski you’d think you were listening to a lecture from that Yogananda guru of the Self-Realization Fellowship, except that Adamski keeps ending every other sentence with ‘See?,’ something that I find very irritating, and I’m from an immigrant family myself.” “Anyway, amigo, as long as you’ve got me on the line, what’s up?” “Gabe, what I’m about to tell you has to remain between ourselves. So far as the public is concerned, our discoveries at Brookhaven and CERN only prove the existence of various types of neutrinos, nothing more. But the implications of this go far beyond anything we could have dreamt up in our wildest imaginations.” “Talk to me, brother. I’m all ears.” “Now we’ve come across strong new evidence leading us to believe in one of the strangest of concepts. It is that somewhere there is an ‘anti-world’ or even an ‘anti-universe.’ This goes along with the Dimension X you previously speculated about.” “Please go on.” “It seems that there, in this Dimension X, all atoms and stars and planets, and even people, if there are any, would be composed of antimatter. Antimatter is the reverse, or mirror image, of matter or material as we know it. And when bits of matter and antimatter meet, they end up annihilating each other, just turning into energy.” “Hmmmm. And speaking of gurus like Paramahansa Yogananda, one takes note that they have specifically asked not to be touched, either immediately before or right after going into a trance-like state. I wonder if they are projecting their astral bodies into an etheric realm, this Dimension X….” To this, Leon stated that, “Perhaps, perhaps this is so, Gabe. Frankly, given what I am learning about the quantum nature of the universe, this is a real possibility.” At this point he continued with a more detailed explanation, declaring that, “If a spaceman from Earth shook hands with a spaceman from an anti-world, both would disappear in a flash of light, heat and radiation.” Gabe then interjected, “So taking the case of Adamski and Orthon, for example, both would have needed to prepare themselves for the encounter ahead of time, perhaps encasing themselves in some kind of force field or etheric shield. While I am not consciously aware of doing this before meetings beings from the Alpha-Proxima-Centauri system, I must say that I definitely feel as though I am in a heightened state of awareness. Physiologically, I even experience goose bumps up and down my arms and legs when I feel a contact with the space people is imminent. Sometimes even my hair stands up on end, as with an exposure to a static charge.” 202

Raymond Andrew Keller II “I’ll tell you something more, Gabe. I think that perhaps an anti-rock, from space, once hit the Earth’s atmosphere and caused the tremendous blast in Siberia, back in 1908, the one that blew down countless trees over a radius of some twenty miles…. Or maybe it was a Venusian scoutship that crashed there, being instantly vaporized, as both Adamski and Leslie said.” “Do tell me more about Dimension X, Leon. I find this so utterly fascinating.” “Well, in an anti-world, time as we know it would run backward. Just how human beings would experience this phenomenon remains a mystery. My guess is that such a chronological anomaly might create a sense of timelessness in the minds of a paranormal experiencer. Since their mind could not process time in any way other than a continuous, progressive flow, as in our own third dimensional space-time continuum, it might discount time altogether.” Gabe declared that, “While I am not a psychologist, this at least seems like a reasonable supposition.” With both gentlemen being physicists, they did, indeed, understand each other. Basically, with respect to the neutrino discoveries being made, Leon explained that since his and the Brookhaven team’s discovery of the muon neutrino, they developed an advanced type of oscillator to detect tau neutrinos spinning off the muon neutrinos following their bombardment with a “neutrino beam.” If nothing else, Leon was ever alert to his surroundings. Upon his last visit to Europe he made a side trip to the Laboratori Nazionale de Gran Sasso in Italy to check out their latest invention: a neutrino generator. He was allowed to obtain a copy of the blueprints of this massive floor model; and from it he constructed a slimmer, more compact version from which he could produce the fantastic, concentrated neutrino beam akin to those employed in the huge extraterrestrial carrier ships and that one day would be used to propel starships from Earth across the vast distances of the cosmic void. It is actually a device as “Buck Rogers” as it sounds. Basically, the neutrino beam is generated through a process that starts with protons being pumped out from the chamber of a super proton synchrotron. These protons are fired in pulses, and can be directed through any carbon filtration, such as a diamond. Upon impact with the carbon atoms, the protons produce subatomic particles known as pions and kaons. These particles instantaneously decay and convert into a stream of muons and neutrinos that continue on their way. The most amazing thing about these particles, however, is that they are suspected of traveling faster than the speed of light in an alternate universe filled with many other such quanta. Leon further explained these new developments in subatomic particle physics to his friend: “What I’m reporting to my superiors, Gabe, is that the oscillator only made some measurements. But to my satisfaction, and this is for your ears only, the findings are clear. There are particles in this universe that do travel faster than the speed of light, because I and my team have created, detected and measured them. Whatever the directors at Brookhaven want to tell the public about this research is up to them, or whoever pulls their strings.” Gabe replied, “Leon, this is the confirmation I’ve needed all along. When I tell people that I’ve traveled to the Alpha-Proxima-Centauri star system on an alien mothership, their first reaction is, ‘That’s impossible. It would take thousands of years just to get there, let alone return to Earth.’213 Your discovery now proves that the whole field of physics is up for grabs. The theorists will have to go back to their chalkboards, because Einstein’s theories will have to 213 In our universe, light travels at 299,792,458 meters per second, or 186,282 miles per second. Light can move this fast because it has no mass. In the vacuum of empty space, and lacking any obstructions, light is unable to either speed up or slow down, but is constrained to always move at the speed cited here.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus be totally scrapped, or at least seriously revised. And at the very least, the critics will now be forced to admit that my account is plausible.” Neutrino Primer Before proceeding further, let’s examine briefly what we know about neutrinos. First, they are tiny but elementary particles that are almost weightless and which pretty much ignore the presence of all other matter. Even as you are reading this, there are literally millions of neutrinos streaming through your body, arriving from some undetermined points in outer space. Of the majority of the neutrinos arriving on our planet, however, it can safely be said that they originate in the core of the Sun. Even as you sleep, neutrinos from the Sun can still affect you as they can easily pass through the whole of the Earth before coming up through the ground, up our feet and leaving to continue on their journey back into outer space. Most neutrinos, it can be scientifically stated, are so light that they are able to travel almost at the speed of light; and our scientists know that there are at least three types of neutrinos, these being electron neutrinos, muon neutrinos and tau neutrinos. Of these, the most common, the electron neutrinos, are produced in what is known as beta decay inside the nuclei of atoms. Gabe questioned Leon about the oscillator experiments. To this, Leon replied that, “My experiment involved timing an enhanced beam of mostly muon neutrinos between their point of origin at Brookhaven and the arrival point at the Gran Sasso Lab in Italy. The receiving facility has special detectors than can capture these elusive particles. The travel distance is approximately 2,000 miles between the antipodal points of Brookhaven and Assergi, at the headquarters of the Gran Sasso Lab in Central Italy, and the neutrinos appear to have covered this at a speed faster than light.214 Basically, they arrived within 20 billionths of second sooner than light would have were it travelling in a vacuum. And even though these neutrinos were travelling underground, it’s as though they were moving through empty space. That’s because they never interacted or bumped into anything. They were traversing unobstructed through Dimension X!” The Maximum Speed Limit When the first Aeons emerged into our universe some 14 billion years ago, the population figures for the total number of these celestial beings was very low, perhaps thirty at best. They hadn’t even begun the process of forming the myriad of life forms that would come to inhabit all the new worlds they were creating throughout the immensity of space. But having an eternity of experience in establishing an unending string of such bubble universes throughout the cosmos, the chief among the Aeons, a.k.a. the Archangel Michael and Grand Architect, unilaterally decided that there should be some way in place to guard their vast storehouse of knowledge and thereby protect the more etheric realms from contamination by the emerging and evolving life forms on the material spheres. With due consideration of this problem, the Grand Architect established a barrier in the space-time continuum that would separate the realms of light, collectively referred to as the Pleroma, from those areas of the darker and denser universe of matter. Perhaps Donald Trump himself could not have devised a better wall separating these two planes of existence. After all, it was just a speed; and everything moving faster than a simple ray of light would remain invisible until such a time that humans or any 214 On a great arc over the surface of the Earth, the distance is a little over 4,000 miles.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II other life form might evolve to the point that they could build some kind of contraption capable of peering into the consistency of the finer, quantum omniverse. According to Einstein’s theorizing, the faster an object moves the heavier it becomes. Therefore, it becomes even more difficult to make it go yet faster. In fact, the closer it gets to the speed of light, the larger its momentum becomes. This occurs by virtue of its increasing mass and not its velocity. When an object moves very fast, the equations of special relativity come into play, showing how mass and energy are related. Einstein, for his part, demonstrated that mass can be converted into energy and vice versa. The two are linked through the equation E=mc2. This calculation tells us how much energy is stored in any given mass. Insofar as c stands for the speed of light, then the quantity c2 (the speed of light times itself) is a very large number indeed. This explains how we can get so much energy out of a small amount of mass and also suggests that that we can think of mass in terms of The Cosmic Speed Limit protects the Etheric realms. See http://www.rpi.edu/dept/ ‘frozen energy.’ phys/Dept2/APPhys1/optics/optics/node4. And because a moving object also has energy due html. to its motion- called kinetic energy- its total energy will be the sum of the energy frozen as mass when it is not moving plus its kinetic energy. And the faster it moves the more energy it has, meaning that the real mass of an object will be due to its frozen energy plus the energy due to its motion. However, for most of the time the frozen energy of an object (its mass) is so much more than the energy of its motion that we can ignore the latter and take the mass to be constant; but as its speed approaches that of light the kinetic energy becomes so great it can exceed the frozen energy. Therefore, the mass of a fast moving object is much greater than its mass when stationary. One can fathom the problems involved in trying to attain light speed. Dr. Jim Al-Khalili, a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Surrey in the southeast of England, sums it up nicely here: “Imagine an accelerating train engine pulling a single carriage. What if, for every ten kilometers per hour faster that it goes, another carriage is added; it would therefore have to work harder just to maintain its speed. The faster it goes the more carriages it has to pull, and the more power it needs. In the same way, the faster a body moves the heavier it will seem, and the harder it will be to make it go any faster. To accelerate it up to the speed of light would require an infinite amount of energy, which is impossible.”215 So to the flying saucer research community there is probably nothing that annoys investigators more about Einstein’s theory of relativity than its claim that nothing can travel faster than light. Back in 1991, I asked Gabriel Green about this very matter: “Gabe, as scientists theorize that matter would literally cease to exist at the speed of light, then how do the Venusians and other extraterrestrials travel the vast distance between the stars?” 215 Jim Al-Khalili, “Faster than the speed of light?,” Professor Jim Al-Khalili Official Website, 18 November2011, http:// www.jimal-khalili.com/blog/faster-than-the-speed-of-light.html (Accessed 4 July 2016).

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Gabe replied that, “The space people say that this theory is as invalid as the previously held belief that man could not surpass the speed of sound. Our own history and continuing progress in scientific achievement offers convincing testimony that the main obstacles to man’s progress are the roadblocks in his own mind. That which the mind of man can conceive he can, in time, achieve.” Gabe paused for a moment, and then continued with his answer. “As for the Venusians, they say that after they had developed interplanetary flight- at sub-light speed some 18 million years ago or so, it was 1,500 years before they were able to surpass the ‘light barrier’ and achieve interstellar travel. Through friendly exchange of such knowledge with the worlds of other star systems, all advanced planets now have craft that fly many thousand times the speed of light. Vast distances are no longer the barrier they once were. The Venusians are now standing by, waiting for the human race to reach a point in our cosmic evolution where they can share this information with us, where we will be ready to apply it peacefully toward world betterment. If the Venusians or other extraterrestrials act too prematurely, the consequences could be disastrous for the entire known universe.” “Gabe, there is no doubt that this is a stupendously high speed to which nothing that we know of, apart from subatomic particles in the quantum universe, can even approximate. However, special relativity seems to indicate that the laws of nature actually forbid anything from going faster. How would you scientifically explain all of this to a layman, such as me?” “Cosmic Ray, this is definitely a subject difficult for the layman; but I will grant you that there is this universal speed limit that exists in our universe. The way that space and time are so intertwined in our universe serves to confirm its existence. What I am saying is that if one goes outside of our universe, that individual can sidestep the physical laws that govern our reality. When that one enters Dimension X, he or she has passed into an area outside the space-time continuum where those laws of physics that we have become so familiar with actually break down. In other words, they no longer apply.” “So what you are saying my friend, is that new paradigms are required in tackling these issues.” “Precisely, Ray. That is exactly what I am saying. Einstein’s mentor, the Dutch professor Hendrick A. Lorentz (1853-1928), even cautioned his pupil that the special laws could only be applied locally, to this universe. He believed that other forces besides electromagnetism were at work in the creation and maintenance of an extended omniverse that existed on many levels. This is what I and Leon came to realize as a result of the neutrino experiments. If anything, these experiments only go to show that our current theories and understanding of the physical universe will no longer suffice. The whole of modern physics needs to be overhauled- and the sooner the better.” On Gabe’s point, the reader might find some agreement with Dr. Al-Khalili’s statement that, “Yes, of course Einstein could be wrong. The whole point of a scientific theory is that it is there to be shot down – to be shown to be false by new experimental evidence or to be replaced with a better, more accurate or more profound theory that explains more about the universe….” He also suggested that, “We may have to bring back the aether, or modify Einstein’s equations….” and that, Einstein was wrong and the Lorentz invariance has to be modified: technically, there may be nonlinear correction terms in the mass-energy relation.”216 So Einstein could have been wrong; and in the scientific community more are beginning to ponder alternate theories. As babies in a universe of countless civilizations already working 216 Al-Khalili

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Raymond Andrew Keller II with quantum physics at advanced levels and exploring the depths of outer space, our scientists are only scratching the surface in examining possible ways in circumventing the light barrier. For instance, the Nobel prize-physicist, Sheldon Glashow, along with his associate Andrew Cohen, have surmised that the discovery of such faster-than-light neutrinos would require that we find them to be radiating electrons and their antiparticles, the positrons, all along their designated route from CERN to Grand Sasso via a process called vacuum Cerenkov radiation, and all the while losing energy.217 While this phenomenon has so far not been detected, the fault may well rest in limiting the search for these superluminal neutrinos in areas along the some predetermined path. After all, in the quantum universe in which such particles exist, their superimposition or random leaping may place them well beyond any supposed tracking with our current instrumentation. Of course, it all boils down to those against the superluminal neutrino theory asserting that the experiment was flawed. But if it wasn’t in error, then Einstein was wrong; there is a Lorentz invariance being violated and, in addition, a preferred frame of truly transformative reference. Therefore, it may not be out of hand to reject notions of tachyons (hypothetical faster than light particles), or wormholes as shortcuts through the space-time continuum, or even replacing the electroweak theory, etc.

See www.pinterest.com and http:// quoteaddicts.com/topic/bumble-bee-cantfly-quote/.

Disturbances in the Force The conduct of these quantum experiments, along with continuing nuclear proliferation and testing around the globe, was beginning to manifest an unparalleled increase in paranormal activity. Essentially, perforations were being in the veil that separates our reality from those other dimensions of time and space. Everything was starting to become unhinged. Among the first of sundry phenomena to be reported were psychic disturbances so profound that they rocked the very foundations of the Spiritualist Church and movement. A prominent New York religious writer, George W. Cornell, brought attention to this problem in his syndicated column appearing in numerous newspapers across America throughout the third week of October 1957, 217 Andrew G. Cohen and Sheldon L. Glashow, “New Constraints on Neutrino Velocities,” 30 September 2011, paper in Physics Department, Boston University, http://arxiv.org/pdf/1109.6562v1.pdf (Accessed 21 April 2016). According to the paper’s abstract, “The OPERA collaboration has claimed that muon neutrinos with mean energy of 17.5 GeV travel 730 km from CERN to the Gran Sasso at a speed exceeding that of light by about 7.5 km/s or 25 ppm. However, we show that such superluminal neutrinos would lose energy rapidly via the bremsstrahlung of electron-positron pairs (_ ! _ + e− + e+). For the claimed superluminal neutrino velocity and at the stated mean neutrino energy, we find that most of the neutrinos would have suffered several pair emissions en route, causing the beam to be depleted of higher energy neutrinos. Thus we refute the superluminal interpretation of the OPERA result.”

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus just two weeks after the Soviet’s launch of the Sputnik, the Earth’s first artificial satellite. The reporter maintained that the inhabitants of the planet Venus were “keeping a close but friendly watch” over our entire planet. Cornell added, “That is the contention of a new Spiritualist movement, which holds that messages from Venus are coming in regularly. And now, with that Russian satellite whirling around out there in space, they (the Venusians) assuredly feel the time is ripe to get better acquainted.”218 Cornell, a New York City reporter, attended a Spiritualist convention in Portland, Maine, where he listened to the recordings of an alleged Venusian space commander, produced and distributed by an Edgewater, Florida, congregation member, Robert Ewing. Clearly, Cornell was intrigued by what he heard of Ewing’s channeled messages from Venus. On the tape, Ewing interviews a channel who declared that, “They (the Venusians) plan to begin token landings next month.” This was very important information, because up to a certain point, contacts with extraterrestrials had been few and far between- at least those that were reported to the press and whose stories made it into the daily papers. And while for the most part the approximately 2,000,000 then extant followers of the Spiritualist religion considered themselves as liberal and expansive thinkers; any claims of contact with Venusians, either physically or psychically, were regarded as highly controversial and downright suspicious by a good many, to include some of those in positions of leadership. In fact, both psychic and physical contact with Venusians had become a significant wedge issue within the ranks of the Spiritualist Church. Spiritualist churches emerged as places of worship for the practitioners of Spiritualism. The Spiritualists needed to carve their own niche in the religious plethora that’s out there, for these practitioners of mediumship found little acceptance among the traditional Christian denominations. In a typical Spiritualist meeting, there is an opening prayer, an address, the singing of hymns, and finally a demonstration of mediumship or other psychic powers. Healing circles may also play some role in the formal proceedings. A Spiritualist church The Seneca Falls, New York, Convention is, for the most part, any congregation affiliated with of 1848 set irreversible forces in motion full equality for women. The the informal Spiritualist movement which began in promoting struggle continues! See http://girltalkhq. the United States of America in the 1840s. Spiritualist com/happy-165th-birthday-womens-rightschurches are not a uniquely American phenomenon, movement/. however; but can be found around the world. The origin of mediumship is usually linked to the ministries of the Fox sisters (Kate, Leah and Margaret) at Hydesville, Arcadia, New York, in 1848. This was also an important year in the history of the world because Frederick Engels and Karl Marx published their Communist Manifesto in February and the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women’s rights assembly, took place over 19 and 20 July. Advertised as, “a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman,” and held in Seneca Falls, New York, it opened a door for the advancement of women that would never be shut. It should also be noted that some religious historians trace the unofficial beginning of modern Spiritualism to the Shakers, a group that broke off from the Quakers in the eighteenth century British Isles and was one of the first religions to afford significant leadership positions to women. The Shakers’ meeting houses sprang up all along the expanding American frontiers 218 George W. Cornell, “Venus Catches Ear of Some Spiritualists On Earth,” Sun-Times, Chicago, IL, 18 October 1957.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II and provided a fertile breeding ground for the likes of the Fox sisters and others receptive to spiritual insights. By 1853, the Spiritualist movement had reached San Francisco and the Golden State of California; and in just two years the first Spiritualist Church was chartered in London, England. The Fox sisters remained very influential in Spiritualism throughout their lives. Mercy Cadwallader, an advocate for progressive education from Chicago, Illinois, emerged as a global missionary for the movement; and Emma Hardinge Britten of London, England, who wrote for the first Spiritualist newspaper in Britain, The Yorkshire Spiritual Telegraph, went on to define the Gnostic-Theosophical theology of the movement in addition to carrying out a crucial role in the foundation of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), an organization with intimate pagan connections to the goddess Venus. Interestingly, it was the OTO that would later cement the metaphysical foundations of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, as well as L. Ron Hubbard’s new UFO religion of Scientology. So in light of the progressive and accepting nature of the Spiritualist Church toward sundry paranormal phenomena over the years, one has to wonder why some in its 1957 leadership directorate would be so opposed to the idea of mediums channeling messages from our dear brothers and sisters on the planet Venus. Agnes Reuther, the editor of The Psychic Observer, a national Spiritualist publication, was interviewed by Cornell about this very question. Reuther answered, “It’s a comparatively new thing so far as the whole movement is concerned. There are numerous instances in which information has been given by spirits that these other people (the Venusians) are there. Many have been studying and wondering about these reports. Others are not so receptive.” Hmmmm. This seems like a pretty tepid response from Reuther. What about others in the movement? What did these leaders have to say about the Venusian question? Insofar as Cornell was at Spiritualist Central in Portland, Maine, where the National Spiritual Association was holding its convention, he went about asking as many of them as were willing to opine on the matter. Flatly said trustee Victoria Barnes, attending from Chicago, “We do not accept that.” And William Hubbard, the president of the Maine Association, was in lock step with Barnes, declaring that reports about Venusians were simply “not dignified.” When asked to elaborate on this, Hubbard stated that, “We accept only that which can be proved. At this time, we feel this (communication with Venus) has no bearing on Spiritualism. Our board of education does not teach it.” Well, this was, as Reuther said, a “comparatively new thing;” and Spiritualists have traditionally confined their mystic efforts to communicating with departing souls on this planet. Nevertheless, the Maine Association president did admit that since there were about fifty organized wings of Spiritualism, there were probably a few of them out there that were not so conservative, so skeptical; and therefore, Cornell should not give up on trying to find some members from those groups willing to speak out in favor of the Venus channels. At the Maine convention there was one contingent of the Spiritualist Church that was actually embracing the Venus messages. That was the state branch from A massive Venusian space platform remains Florida. One of the first presentations that Cornell cloaked at an orbit 10,000 miles out from the Earth. See http://fineartamerica.com/ attended at the assembly was that of Robert Ewing, featured/alien-space-station-murphy-elliott. the Florida congregant who made the recordings of his html.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus conversations with a channel for the Venus message. So it was back to Ewing that the New York reporter went; and Ewing readily agreed to an extensive interview. Ewing was 41 at the time of this interview. Being a psychology graduate of Dartmouth College and a former commercial pilot, his credentials were impeccable. Ewing maintained that “Venus has sent word;” and he continued to relay some amazing information about our sister world to the inquisitive Cornell. Thanks to the interview, we came to discover that: 1. The Venusians have eight large platforms, with landing strips and living quarters, circling the Earth as satellites at a distance of 10,000 miles. These platforms are cloaked, however; insofar as any view of them is prevented by the bending of light rays. 2. That from at least 1953, huge Venusian spaceships dispatched from these massive platforms have intensified their surveillance of the Earth. These are the “mother ships,” each of 462-feet in length and deployed to stationary positions some 15 miles up over strategic points on the Earth’s surface, like missile/rocket bases and nuclear power centers in the United States and the Soviet Union. And from these mother ships are launched the yet smaller, electromagnetically-propelled scout ships, which the Venusians refer to as “ventlas.” 3. The Venusians are built like Earth people, although generally a bit taller and finer featured. They worship God and believe in life after death. They have a civilization far in advance of ours; and the average life span for a Venusian greatly exceeds that of a typical Earthling’s. 4. The original reason for their intensification of visits to our planet was to halt the pollution of outer space by radioactive dust from atomic and nuclear blasts here on Earth. To this end, the Venusians have been releasing charges from the so-called “green fireballs” frequently sighted over atomic and nuclear facilities and test sites, charges designed to counteract or at least minimize the blast and radiation effects. 5. That their intentions are entirely benevolent, but that they will not permit an atomichydrogen war which would contaminate space and perhaps destroy Earth – that they will slap down any atomic missiles fired for war. 6. That they take no sides in the then running dispute between the Soviet Union and the United States. 7. That they allowed the Soviet satellite to stay up because it had no warhead; but that they are affecting its orbit and slowing it down by magnetism. Koji Shima directed Japan’s first sci-fi 8. That they feel Earth complacency about life adventure, Warning from Space (Daiei Film, on other planets had already been sufficiently Tokyo, 1956). A huge, one-eyed, star-fish alien assumes the shape of a female human shaken so that Venusians could begin more being (above) and materializes on the upper increased visitations without causing panic; deck of an astronomical observatory in and that they were planning the initiation of Japan. Beamed down from an alien space platform, she attempts to recruit the aid more landings in late November 1957. of scientists in carrying out her mission, 9. That the visits would be stepped up in 1958 and which just might save the Earth. See 1959 as Earth people become more adjusted to http://www.millionmonkeytheater.com/ WarningFromSpace.html.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II the idea. The Venusians were hoping that by 1962 they would be able to facilitate, in some small way and abetted by their vast scientific and spiritual knowledge, a “New Age” on Earth. 10. That on Venus, all disease had been conquered and that its inhabitants are clairvoyant and “understand the thoughts of all others,” that dishonesty is impossible, that news is transmitted by thought processes at the rate of 50,000 words per minute, that homes are built of a type of nylon-rubber-plastic substance, and that the main danger is from electrical storms. Ewing claims that he taped recorded his conversations with two of the planet Venus’ top counselors, these being the male master teacher, Hamamatra, and the female master teacher, Cymatrali. It was the latter teacher, according to Ewing, that first approached him, declaring that, “I am the one assigned to soften you up on Earth.” I suppose Ewing was just one more that couldn’t handle the truth, once exposed to it and without sufficient preparation. In any event, back at the Maine convention, Ewing recommended that Cornell pay a visit with Enid Brady, a minister of the First Spiritual Church of Daytona Beach, Florida, who had come up with him to participate in the proceedings and advocate for the Venus channels. While Ewing had only been in psychic contact with the Venusians, Brady had met them on the actual, physical plane of existence. She informed Cornell that she had been meeting regularly with Venusians for a period of six months. Brady claimed that she was chosen for contact by the Venusians precisely because she had studied everything she could get her hands on about life on other planets and flying saucers over the past four years, especially the books of the prominent California contactee, George Adamski, whom she ardently believed in. She even made a trip out to California just to visit Adamski’s restaurant on the slopes of Mt. Palomar in 1955, whence he signed her first-edition copy of his book, Flying Saucers Have Landed (London, UK: T. Werner Laurie, Ltd., 1953). As a long-time student of both Theosophy and Spiritualism, Brady became a key and respected figure in Florida metaphysical circles. She possessed accurate knowledge of all paranormal phenomena and was the one anyone would go to if they had spiritual questions. So for the members of the First Spiritual Church of Daytona Beach at least, if Brady said that flying saucers were real and came from Venus, than that was unquestionably deemed to be the gospel truth. Brady explained to the New York reporter that in her opinion telepathy and the flying saucer enigma were definitely linked. “We know that telepathy is a fact,” elucidated Brady, adding that, “The people on these other planets are flesh and blood, like us, but they are far advanced in using their brainpower.” Brady further explained that the Venusians were able to transmit messages through any open-minded individual offering to serve as an “instrument.” She maintains that she goes into a type of trance and that through “wave impulses,” the Venusians can use her body and vocal chords; and all the while that this is transpiring, Brady herself is oblivious of the process. She and Ewing often work together in helping to get Venusian messages through. With her as a medium, Ewing can converse with the Venusians, recording the exchanges on tape. The Venusians that he speaks with say that they have six other contacts here on Earth: three in the United States and one each in France, England and Russia. In his last conversation, he enjoyed speaking with a Martian onboard a Venusian mother ship. This extraterrestrial identified himself as “Yala.” And from the Martian, he came to learn that besides our sister planet Venus, 211

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus there is life on all of the other planets and moons of our solar system. If it isn’t indigenous to those worlds, it was brought there by the Venusians, Martians or some other advanced, space-faring peoples. Ewing noted that Venus was deficient in iron, so they were now getting their supply of it from his home world of Mars. Mars is so red because of the high iron content in its oxygen-rich soil. At first, Ewing thought it was all a “lot of bunk.” He told Cornell that, “I’m a practical guy; and I don’t believe it.” But he came to the conclusion that, “Now I’ve talked to them (the Venusians) enough to know it.”219 Contacting Extraterrestrials Most likely, the degree of extraterrestrial contacts taking place in the ranks of the Spiritualist Church “Hope he’s not feeling the Force too much represents a microcosm of what is happening in the today.” See www.pinterest.com. overall population of the planet. As in any random group, there are the dogmatists and those more open to what the universe may be trying to tell them. Of course, in all human societies there exist individuals whose job it is to guide and supplement the religious practices of others. These individuals are highly skilled at contacting and influencing supernatural beings, to include possible extraterrestrial or ultra-dimensional intelligences, and manipulating supernatural forces. They qualify for this is that they have undergone some form of special training. And in societies with the resources to support fulltime occupational specialists, the role of guiding religious practices and influencing such supernatural entities belongs to the priest or priestess. However, those societies that lack fulltime occupational specialization have existed for a much longer time than those in which one finds such specialization. In these types of societies there appears to have always been various individuals who have acquired religious power individually, usually in solitude, when the “Great Mystery,” “Great Spirit,” the “Power,” or whatever divine entity manifests for them. These are the persons that most likely become the recipients of certain special gifts, such as healing or divination. Naturally, when these blessed few return to their respective society they are frequently assigned the important religious role of the shaman.220 The modern implications for shamanism were explored in detail by the late archetypal psychoanalsyst, Carl Jung. He placed the shamanic archetype at the center of his philosophy; and found it central to understanding the higher nature of the UFO phenomenon. We now find ourselves into the second generation as followers of Jung in terms of the movement that has developed bearing his name. It has also become clear that Jung himself performed the functions of a shaman by the influence he has exerted on a culture and its power to deal with the elements of healing and curing. He succeeded magnificently in fusing science and religion, or the rational and the irrational or mystical. However, there is now much questioning in Jungian circles, as 219 Cornell, additional information can be found in Associated Press account in Cumberland News, Cumberland Maryland, 18 October 1957. 220 Lowell John Bean, editor, California Indian Shamanism (Menlo Park, California: Ballena Press, 1992) provides an outstanding introduction to the role and work of a shaman in society.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II the initial light and power emanating from his personality are on the wane, especially insofar as those who knew him are beginning to pass on. New paradigms will be needed if we are to ascertain the meaning of the movement he represented, conforming, of course, to the context and necessities of living in this material, modern world. But on the horizon, we see emerging the development of different approaches to treatment and the healing process. Presently, it could be said that there are eclectic or modern Jungians who function basically through dreams, treat relationship in a symbolic way and already practice the paradigm of being both pupil and teacher. These might rightly be called the priestly Jungians, once considered the ‘classical’ ones who have almost ritualistically tried to recreate what he represented. In many ways, they evoke the numinous and archetypal in the developmental and healing processes as much as priests do. In a theology class at Graceland University, where I was an on-line student, I needed to answer a professor’s critique for the incorporation of Gnostic, mythological and Theosophical content into one of my essays. I wrote back that since one of my graduate degrees was in Latin American literature, specializing in magic realism, that I was having a difficult time in keeping my ideas in this area from spilling over into a theological discourse. The line between magic realism and theology was indeed a thin one, at least insofar as I was concerned. The professor pensively replied, “Maybe there’s not much of a difference between them, after all;” and I went on to get an “A” grade for that course. There are, finally, those few who might justly be called the “true Jungians.” These are those individuals, who like Jung himself function as shamans in the therapeutic process dealing directly with the patient’s illness- real or perceived- in order to produce a transformational healing experience. Of course, there are few analysts who can be shamans and work as Jung did; for Shamanism, as the literature reveals, is a dangerous occupation and few can survive it for a long period of time.221 Living between two worlds is never easy, especially as one must continually return to this one.222 But Jung definitely saw the flying saucer contactees burgeoning in the 1950s and early 1960s as the herald of a new age.223 Dark Horse Phenomenon So this is where we stand at our current level of technological understanding with regard to the existence of Dimension X, at least according to some of the world’s top astroparticle physicists: “The search for antideuterons in cosmic rays has been proposed as a promising channel for dark matter indirect detection, especially for dark matter particles with a low or intermediate mass. With the current operational phase of the AMS-02 experiment and the ongoing development of a future dedicated experiment, the General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS), there are exciting prospects for a dark matter detection in the near future.”224 In their breakthrough paper cited above, the scientists declare that they have developed a, “detailed and complete re-analysis of the cosmic-ray antideuteron signal, by discussing the main relevant issues related to antideuteron production and propagation through the interstellar medium and the heliosphere. In particular, we first critically revisit the coalescence mechanism for antideuteron production in dark matter annihilation processes. Then, since antideuteron searches have their best prospects of detection at low kinetic energies where the effect of the 221 C. J. Groesbeck, “C. G. Jung and the Shaman’s Vision,” Journal of Analytical Psychology, 1989 July 34(3):255-75, London, United Kingdom. 222 As for me, I am counting on my next trip to Venus with the “Queen of Outer Space” being one-way, and as a translated being, at that! 223 Keller, Venus Rising, 80-83. 224 N. Fornengo, L. Maccione and A. Vittino, Abstract to “Dark matter searches with cosmic antideuterons: status and perspectives,” Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, September 2013.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus solar wind and magnetic field are most relevant, we address the impact of solar modulation modeling on the antideuteron flux at the Earth by developing a full numerical 4D solution of cosmic rays transport in the heliosphere.” So essentially what they are saying is that there may be some linkage to the recently discovered phenomenon of magnetic reconnection that is taking place over the northern polar region of the Earth and other planets in the solar system, and perhaps beyond, with all of these phenomena associated with the eddies and constant fluxing of particles trapped in the solar wind. The astroparticle specialists emphasized that, “We finally use these improved predictions to provide updated estimates of the reaching capabilities for AMS-02 and GAPS, compatible with the current constraints imposed by the antiprotons measurements of PAMELA. After the antiproton bound is applied, prospects of detection of up to about 15 events in GAPS LDB+ and AMS-02 missions are found, depending on the dark matter mass, annihilation rate and production channel from one side, and on the coalescence process, galactic and solar transport parameters on the other.” “Dimension X” Applications to UFO Research Reliable records of UFO reports, obtained from the files of scientific and governmental research organization throughout the world, clearly reveal that in many instances both the flying saucers and the entities which emerge from them exhibit metastatic qualities. These objects and entities are known to emerge out of nowhere, suddenly disembody and vanish. Even while the UFOs are in flight, they have undergone such transformations, and all before the human eye. As incredible as this may seem, we cannot dismiss these facts. And even more recent evidence signals a plausible case for the theory of the so-called Dimension X. Dimension X, existing outside our own concepts of the space-time continuum, would necessarily incorporate elements of fourth dimensionality. One of the foremost proponents of fourth dimensionality has been the late Dr. Meade Layne (1882-1961), the founder and first director of the Borderland Sciences Research Association, headquartered in San Diego, California. Dr. Layne provided his fourth dimensional interpretation of the flying saucer phenomenon in the 4 February 1955 issue of the Civilian Research, Interplanetary Flying Objects (CRIFO) Newsletter, Volume 1, Number 11: “Aeroforms (saucers) are best understood as ‘emergents:’ that is they emerge onto our plane of perception from a space-time frame of reference which is different from ours. This process may also be described as a conversion of energy and a change of vibratory rates. When this conversion takes place, the aeroform becomes visible and tangible. It appears to be, and definitely is what we call solid substance, and so remains until the vibratory rate is again converted. The ‘steel’ of a landed disk is ‘etheric steel,’ and its copper ‘etheric copper.’ This change amounts to a process of ‘mat and demat.’ Just as there is a spectrum of sound and color, so there is also a spectrum of tangibility, ending in forms of matter which are too dense to be touched. The ordinary matter of our plane is a rarefaction: the interspaces between the nucleus and the electrons are relatively enormous. This extremely dense matter of the ether(s) passes through Earth substance much as wind or water would flow through a screen with meshes a mile wide. But if the vibratory rate of an etheric object is slowed down, it becomes less dense and enters our field of perception.” Unfortunately, little attention was paid to one of the greatest discoveries ever made, back in the summer of 1962, when Helena Blavatsky’s assertion that all of space was filled with matter, 214

Raymond Andrew Keller II light and intelligence was proven true by a spectral investigation of deep space conducted by the astronomers at the Lick (San Jose, California) and Mt. Wilson observatories. Up to that time, it had been erroneously assumed that no interstellar matter, even refined particles and gases, could be present between the stars in the elliptical, extra-galactical systems. But now we know better. There is no such thing as an empty space in the interstellar medium. Spectrographic studies of the spaces between the galaxies clearly showed evidence of ionized oxygen in the sundry elliptical and extra-galactic nebulae. Given this startling revelation, perhaps we can speak of, at most, a slow change-over from the nearly non-existence of such spectrographic lines to clear-cut, demonstratable quantities ones consisting of dark, interstellar matter. From these particles and gases thus emerge that particulate matter requied for the emergence of new systems;225 this, in turn, means that we, as a species, have finally entered a new phase of human evolution.226 Essentially, we are given a large slab of blank sheet rock by our creator and told we can paint anything we want to on it. This is how we thank the inhabitants of Diminson X. These advancements represent our first step beyond science. Now, however, we are entering a realm familiar to the songs of Katy Perry. We’re invoking dark horse phenomena by playing with magic. For an example of space and time travel in action, please see the last chapter of my third UFO book, The Cosmic Ray’s Venus Adventure, where the “Queen of Outer Space,” most well known on this planet as Dolores Barrios, and myself are traveling from the Cyther Dome on Venus in the Earth year 2012 to the Mojave Desert in 1954 California. This referenced chapter is replete with brand new, never-before-seen photos of Dolores Barrios, two of them with the author. If you are unfamiliar with the life and times of the translated and immortal being Dolores Barrios through many aliases on Earth, please check out the last chapter of my first UFO book, Venus Rising: A Concise History of the Second Planet (Terra Alta, West Virginia: Headline Books, 2015). All the Venus books are available direct through Headline Books or amazon.com. There is also a kindle version on amazon.com of the first book in the Venus trilogy.

Black horses were an inspiration for the popular singer and entertainer Katy Perry. The statues of four horses surround the grave of the first emperor of Imperial China, Qin Shi Huang (221-206 B.C.E.) at the Terracotta Army Museum in Xi’an. See http://www.aliexpress.com/cheap/cheaprunning-posters.html.

225 International Paranormal Bulletin, Amsterdom, Holland, September 1962. 226 Ibid.

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Chapter VIII: NASA’s Mariner to Venus

Mariner 2 approaches Venus. See http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/2012/08/27/and-mariner-too/.

Venus favors the bold. —Ovid, Roman poet, Metamorphoses (8 C.E.) It was clear that the real space race was focused on Venus, rather than the Moon. Because the Moon was closest to the Earth, both American and Soviet space planners assumed it would prove an ideal jumping off point for future astronauts on their way to Venus, Mars or other inhabited spheres in our solar system. While officials in the Kennedy administration were well aware of the presence of advanced life on Venus, in addition to the spacecraft from our sister planet and other worlds patrolling our skies, they certainly were not going to make their existence known to the public, fearing the great damage such a revelation would cause to our already antiquated economic, political and military systems. Besides the numerous UFO reports flooding the front pages of daily newspapers around the world, thereby promulgating an intensified interest in space research and finding life on other planets, two New York scientists, Dr. George Claus of the Medical Center of New York University and Dr. Bartholomew Nagy of the Department of Chemistry at Fordham University, announced in the 18 November 1961 issue of the Nature journal, that they had discovered evidence for the traces of living things in meteorites reaching us from outer space, most likely originating on Venus or Mars, since these planets are the closest to Earth in our solar system, having rocky bodies.227 Fossils in Meteorites The two scientists reported that they “found in certain meteorites organized elements resembling in structure the fossilized remains of microscopic forms of life.”228 Such organized structures they classified into five categories; and four of these were said to be similar to known Earth species, but not identical. They resembled small single-celled animals- dino-flagellates or chrysomonads. But what is most remarkable about this discovery is that these are kinds of the tiniest creatures on Earth that can only live in sea or lake water. The fifth organism, on the other hand, was “unlike any known terrestrial organism.” 227 George Claus and Bartholomew Nagy, “A Microbiological Examination of Some Carbonaceous Chondrites,” Nature 192, 594 - 596 (18 November 1961). 228 “Report Two Meteorites Hold Trace of Life,” Journal-American newspaper, 18 November 1961, New York City, New York

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Raymond Andrew Keller II All of these organisms came from just two meteorites, the Orgueil meteorite that fell in southern France in 1864 and the Ivuna meteorite that plummeted to an arid region of Central Africa in 1938. While no single piece of this type of evidence can be considered as conclusive proof for the existence of extraterrestrial life, the scientists reported that, “It is most likely that the structure they have seen are the fossilized remains of living micro-organisms indigenous to the meteorites.”229 Of course, the prospect of more interesting discoveries seemed to have brightened, with the imagination of the public being set off in the process. But as it was certain that the analysis of meteorites would accelerate worldwide, it also was becoming apparent to the powers-that-be at NASA that they should keep a tighter rein on releasing such information to the sundry media outlets. In other words, in the future various departments at universities would be starved for NASA grants if they didn’t “play ball,” so to speak. Cold War Powers Race to Venus Meanwhile, the attention of the world was engaged in the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States, to include any efforts by both of these superpowers to send a robotic probe to Venus. Back on 4 February 1961, the Soviets were the first to try and send a probe to our sister planet, launching the Sputnik 7. However, the final stage of its rocket carrying it into Earth orbit failed. Therefore, the Soviet spacecraft was unable to achieve the necessary trajectory to carry it all the way to Venus. But undaunted by the misfortune that had befallen their Sputnik 7, Soviet space engineers went to work immediately in planning for the next rendezvous with Venus and destiny. And in just eight days, they succeeded in launching the first of the Venera probes. Venera is the Russian word for Venus. In any event, while it seemed as though they had worked out the “bugs” they previously encountered in the Sputnik 7 probe with regard to the final stage of the launch vehicle, the Soviet scientists mysteriously lost communications with Venera 1 somewhere at the halfway point between Earth and Venus. Of course, Soviet planners were concerned. After all, astronomers in the Soviet Union were in unanimous agreement that there was nothing between the orbits of Earth and Venus that could possibly hinder the communications array of the Venera 1 spacecraft. Perhaps it was destroyed by the Venusians, who wanted to establish the protocols for the first official extraterrestrial contact scenario on their own terms. Or even worse, the Venera 1 was blasted out of space by a top secret American military space platform, which meant they were actually far ahead of the Soviets and possibly in an alliance with the Venusians or some other advanced alien civilization. But while Valiant Thor did share some limited information regarding space travel while in Washington, DC, he made it clear to President Eisenhower and other American political leaders that he came into contact with that the Venusian Hierarchy of Light would give no specific military advantage to either of Earth’s then extant superpowers, either the United States or the Soviet Union. Therefore, American scientists were feverishly endeavoring to build their own spacecraft. If any nation was going to be the first to land a probe on the surface of Venus, it was going to be the United States. It was bad enough that the Soviets had already been the first to launch a satellite around the Earth in 1957; and then send up the Luna 2 space probe that made the first impact of any artificial Earth object on the Moon’s surface on 14 September 1959. To achieve these ends, the Americans launched Mariner 1 on 22 July 1962. 229 Ibid.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus The Great “Flying Saucer Flap” of 1961-1962 “99 Red Balloons” You and I in a little toy shop Buy a bag of balloons with the money we’ve got Set them free at the break of dawn ‘til one by one they were gone Back at base bugs in the software Flash the message: “something’s out there!” Floating in the summer sky Ninety-nine red balloons go by…. —Gabriele Susanne Kerner, Nena, a 1980’s pop culture icon, warned a.k.a. “Nena” (1984, English version) about the dangers of Cold War escalation

and nuclear confrontation. See https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=Q97YBR6DT5w.

With all of this attention from the superpowers focused on the planet Venus, how did the Venusians react? Remember that the race to the second planet was initiated in the period right before the Cuban missile crisis; so the masses throughout the world were wondering if they had to store up years of food and water supplies and hunker down in their basements to wait out the mutual assured destruction of both the United States and the Soviet Union. As far as most Americans were concerned, the Air Force had largely succeeded in getting them to believe that the so-called “flying saucers” were nothing but misidentifications of natural phenomena or outright hoaxes, fantastic tales woven by the contactees to generate money from book sales on the lecture circuit. So clearly, the Venusians had a hard job cut out for them. Without intervening directly in human history, they had to do something to make their presence known, to get people thinking again about the spaceships from Venus that were patrolling their skies. Maybe political pressure could be created from the ground up all across the planet, forcing the stubborn leaders of the two competing countries to temper their red hot rhetoric and pull back from the breach of a nuclear holocaust. But most of all, the Venusians did not want the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union to forget that they were ever alert to their militaristic shenanigans. In the words of the Dude, played by Jeff Bridges in the Big Lebowski (1998), “I do mind, the Dude minds. This will not stand, ya know, this aggression will not stand, man.”230 While I can’t speak directly for the Venusian Hierarchy of Light, I can at least tell you that the Dude’s comments pretty much sum up their members’ sentiments on this matter. Ninety-nine red balloons Floating in the summer sky Panic bells, it’s red alert There’s something here from somewhere else The war machine springs to life Opens up one eager eye Focusing it on the sky Where ninety-nine red balloons go by…. 230 Big Lebowski (Universal City, CA: Gramercy Pictures, 1998), written and directed by Ethan and Joel Coen, starring Jeff Bridges and John Goodman.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II Like Toto, Dorothy’s dog in the Wizard of Oz, there was at least one individual- albeit a human being- aware of what was going on “behind the curtain,” and that was prominent civilian UFO investigator George D. Fawcett of 9-A Warren Ave. in Woburn, Massachusetts, who wrote to Gray Barker of Saucerian Publications in Clarksburg, West Virginia, on 21 July 1961, that, “1960-61 proved to be another year of ‘space probing’ by various Russian and American devices, a year in which at least one astronaut from each country took their first rides into space.” Fawcett continued, “But this was not the only thing going on in space, because with the close Mars opposition to the Earth on December 24, once again there was an increased flurry of ‘flying saucer sightings’ worldwide. It seemed ‘visitors from space’ had similar intentions.” It should be pointed out here that Fawcett was unsure if indigenous life forms existed on Mars. However, he did believe that the Red Planet was colonized, as were all of the other planets and moons of our solar system, by the Venusians and even other extraterrestrials from worlds circling nearby stars in our spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Soviets initiated their first launch to send a probe to Venus in February 1961, so it is not surprising that the greatest flurry of UFO sightings that the world has ever seen started in January of 1960 and continued all the way through early January of 1963, when the Americans lost contact with their successful Mariner 2 fly-by of our neighboring cloud-shrouded world. The late 1950s marked the dawn of the Space Age, but the Venusian Hierarchy of Light became more than concerned when their operatives on Earth reported that the Americans and the Soviets both had designs on Venus. Over at the JPL, Dr. Carl Sagan, the sinister astronomer from the University of California at Berkeley attached to the program and the scientist who wanted to launch a nuclear strike at alien bases on the farside of the Moon, was already working on the Mariner 2 mission planning team. “Oh, dear God,” exclaimed the reigning Queen Ni Nu of Venus during this time, “What’s a loyal Abejan to do?!” It seems that in a closed-door session at the JPL headquarters in Pasadena, California, held on an undisclosed day in early January 1960, Sagan told the assembled scientists and engineers that, “Man may land on the planet Venus after making its air suitable for humans. This job could be done by dropping primitive plants into the planet’s atmosphere, then waiting for the results.” The astronomer and wannabe astrobiologist further explained his ambitious plan: “The primitive algae would split the carbon dioxide, believed to poison the air on Venus for humans. The result would be carbon and oxygen found in the Earth’s atmosphere. The bluegreen algae would be the best.” Sagan also emphasized that, “Experiments on developing algae on a simulated atmosphere, “Behold, the Venus Garuda!” Dr. such as that on Venus, should be made. Seeding of Venus Carl Sagan was compared to this should come only after existing conditions on Venus have terrifying, dragon-like beast of been thoroughly investigated.”231 Venus by Queen Ni Nu herself. See https://www.pinterest.com/ When Venuto, the lead Abejan operative in the Southern pin/330381322636121576/. California area, made his report to Queen Ni Nu, she called for 231 Confidential information garnered by Saucer Phenomena and Celestial Enigma (S.P.A.C.E.), subscriber Dorothy Lefler and reported to the publication’s editor and publisher, Norbert F. Gariety of Coral Gables, Florida.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus an emergency session of the Hierarchy of Light, to include the honey bee representatives from the Abejan Hive Collective. “This is an outrage!” proclaimed the queen, adding that, “Well, how nice of Dr. Satan, errr Sagan, to plan on waiting until conditions on Venus have been thoroughly investigated! Hmmmff! Did this garuda (a Venusian dragon) ever suppose that perhaps we Venusians actually like our present balance with nature? How would the Terrans like it if an Abejan decided that they had too much oxygen in the atmosphere of Earth and decided to change it from oxygen to carbon monoxide- for instance? They wouldn’t like it at all, would they? As these rookies embark in their space program, how can we convince them to be a little more charitable to the inhabitants of Venus, and those on other celestial bodies as well? We Abejans and other cosmic peoples scattered throughout our star sector have developed very well in our contemporary environments. I believe I speak for one and all of us when I say that we cannot let this stand. We cannot let the Terrans spoil our solar system and region of space. I doubt that the doctor has even thought about the possibility that some 18.5 million years ago, we Venusians decided to make the Earth habitable by introducing a proper atmosphere for beings such as ourselves to evolve there. Thanks to us, they’ve come a long way from lemurs swinging in the trees of Madagascar to the space cadets putting their toes in the shores of the cosmic ocean that they are now. And this is how we get repayed?! The Terrans want to turn around and try to change our atmosphere, and in the process introduce foreign biological elements that might wreak havoc on our own world, even making Abejar unlivable for life as we know it.” All stood and applauded Queen Ni Nu, who took a bow and asked, “Any comments or suggestions?” All in attendance professed their agreement with the queen’s assessment. The honey bee queen from the Alta Regio hive telepathically communicated with all the members of the Hierarchy. Immediately they all understood the concept of the “swarm.” Swoops would be deployed from all available motherships in the solar system for the purpose of “buzzing” the Earth’s military installations and putting on a peaceful “show of force,” so to speak. A message would be sent to the powers-that-be on Earth, and perhaps policies could be modified. All were in unanimous agreement. The Swarm Underway 1960: Throughout 1960, Fawcett tallied UFO sightings from 36 states and over 17 foreign nations. In the United States, the largest number of sightings came from California, followed by New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Overseas, the most active UFO activity came from Brazil, New Zealand and Australia. Information from the Soviet Union was not available at that time, although one can safely surmise that it equaled, if not exceeded, that of the United States. Actual landings of anamolous objects occurred at Ft. Worth and Arlington, Texas, on 6 and 7 January, respectively. And from Mozambique in East Africa and LeCamp, Louisiana, came landings as well on 9 April. Further landings took place at Paracuru, Brazil, on 12 April; Ocumare del Tuy, Venezuela, on both 14 and 24 May; Miami, Florida, on 22 July; Boulder, Colorado, on 11 August; Las Cruces, New Mexico, on 26 September; Wichita Falls, Texas, on 28 September; Price County, Wisconsin, on 3 December; and Durango, Colorado, on 24 December. As this was Christmas Eve, the UFO observer first thought it might be Santa Claus

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Raymond Andrew Keller II arriving in a new, revved-up sleigh. Photographs and confirmed radar sightings reports also flooded the NICAP offices from across the globe.232 For 1961 and 1962, the situation only intensified. 1961 was “déjà vu all over again,” as the famous Yankee baseballer (catcher, coach and manager) Yogi Berra once said. It was all the same UFO phenomena reported in 1960, just a hell of a lot more of it. And interestingly enough, Fawcett, the great chronicler of UFO activity, reported that UFOs actually did “swarm” like never before in the year after that, 1962, breaking all records in every category yet again. What follows is an apt summary of 1962 by Fawcett: “In 1962 many reports of UFOs came from New England by phone, radio, newspapers, correspondence, etc. At the same time landings were reported, car passengers were burned, pilots tried to ram these objects in the skies, witnesses on the ground received electric shock, felt numbness, sometime blacked out due to electromagnetic effects in close UFO encounters. Falls of fragments and ‘Angel Hair’ from the skies during UFO sightings were reported. A large number of car passengers and drivers reported UFOs over the tops of their automobiles, radio signals were picked up during UFO sightings that could not be explained. In Canada and Ohio many persons panicked because of unexplained fireballs in the skies as traffic tie-ups occurred in New Jersey as crowds watched ‘saucers’ perform overhead.”233 I also recall the great saucer flap of 1962. I remember being quite excited about the premiere of the East German-Polish science fiction epic, First Spaceship on Venus,234 on Halloween Night, Wednesday 31 October, at our local movie theater. So dearly did I desire to see this movie, that I pleaded with my father to take me there, after I and my sister Mary Sue had gone “trick or treating” up and down Walvern Boulevard, where we lived in Maple Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. My father, however, was a little tired from office work, not to mention all the walking and candy collecting. As a result, he promised to take us to the Mapletown Theater on Broadway Avenue on Saturday, 3 November, to see the film along with a Japanese monster flick that would be part of a double feature. True to his word, he took Mary Sue and I to see both of these matinee feature films. Without a doubt, the Venus movie exceeded all of my expectations. It was thrilling to see international cooperation in the exploration of outer space, and especially to see humankind working together to launch the first spaceship to the cloudy and mysterious planet Venus. We went into the movie theater around 1 p.m., and we left it at around 3:00 p.m. All of the sudden, though, everything came to a complete standtill as we stepped out of the darkened theater and into the light. Everyone was looking up in the sky and pointing to three pencil-thin silver objects streaking across the sky in a triangular fashion, but leaving no contrails. My father reached in the car, turned the ignition and then turned on the radio in our classic 1954 model Hudson, “Green Hornet” automobile. On every station, all the radio hosts were agog over the appearance of the so-called “flying saucers.” They just looked like some kind of jet or experimental aircraft, but people were letting their imaginations runaway with them. When they tilted somewhat, they took on the authentic appearance of being “flying saucers.” What I enjoyed most, however, was being caught up in the enthusiasm of the crowd. Since I just saw a movie about the planet Venus, my first thought was that 232 George D. Fawcett, “Chasing the Flying Saucers- 1960-1961,” original unpublished article dated 21 July 1961, in his personal files, with copy in my Venus archives. 233 George D. Fawcett, “’Massachusetts and Rhode Island’ Two-State UFO Study Group Reports Many New England ‘Flying Saucer’ Sightings, Photographs, Landings, Car and Plane Pursuits in 1962 Worldwide,” original unpublished article dated 23 January 1963, in his personal files, with copy in my Venus archives. 234 Venus Rising, 80-81, provides all the details about this breakthrough movie.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus the Venusians wanted to come down and help us out in some way, maybe assist us in averting a nuclear holocaust, like some of them had to go through. Well, as I couldn’t figure out why the flying saucers were there, I just relaxed and enjoyed the free show. I was never really sure why the extraterrestrials were here on our world until I saw a flying saucer closer up some five years later, down the pike, so to speak. Even before the massive UFO flap of 1962 and the provocative premiere of First Spaceship on Venus, “Watch the skies!” All throughout 1962, however, George D. Fawcett had predicted that year’s the Venusian presence was strongly felt on importance to the history of ufology, and the entire Earth. See http://www.shapeways.com/mark etplace/?tag=flying+saucer. planet. Going back to 21 November 1961, Fawcett wrote a highly prophetic but unpublished piece entitled “A Challenge for 1962,” extracts which follow here: Now that we are rapidly approaching the end of 1961, I would like to issue a ‘Challenge for 1962’…. During the past 14 years, steadily with each passing day, the worldwide evidence for UFO reality has continued to amass data. UFOs from the very beginning have proven to be a real phenomenon worthy of a serious, scientific investigation…. There is still a growing interest in the UFO problem from every corner of the globe. The UFOs have demonstrated time and time again that they are capable of stalling cars and interfering with plane motors, causing interference with radio and television signals and inflicting shocks and burns on observers. The Congressional Record covering the “Proceedings and Debates of the 86th Congress, Second Session,” dated Wednesday, 31 August 1960, mentioned remarks by the Honorable Leonard G. Wolf of Iowa of the House of Representatives concerning NICAP’s UFO Report. This report was issued to Congressmen, Senators and members of the press and the radio by members of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), located at 1536 Connecticut Avenue, Washington 6, D.C. The NICAP UFO Report points out the dangers of a possible, accidental World War III caused by mistaking UFOs for the guided missiles of an enemy, the dangers of propaganda coming from false rumors of man-made secret weapons in time of a crisis and the dangers of hostile acts toward UFOs bringing hostility in return by space visitors in the present or in the near future. My personal belief, based on 14 years of UFO research and investigation, is that the UFOs are a real, ageless, worldwide phenomenon, being guided by intelligent control and having an outer space origin. There is also a history of recorded UFO landings and near landings, as well as a 26-month periodic cycle of increased UFO sightings. Some of the UFO encounters demonstrate hostility. These conclusions I’ve accepted and believed since early 1952. Much evidence is documented and ready to be heard if and when “open hearings” in Congress are held. The record shows UFO straight lines of flight (indicating intelligent purpose), radar and scientific instrument sightings, “angel hair” and 222

Raymond Andrew Keller II fallen fragments, movies and photographic evidence, observed electromagnetic effects upon “non-hallucinated” machines, sightings by astronomers, pilots and scientists, mysterious ‘sky quakes,’ hostile acts and near collisions, increased radiation, varied physiological effects on observers, sounds of UFO propulsion systems, sightings of occupants in or near UFOs, etc. Reported speeds and maneuvers of UFOs are beyond the capability of any Earth-made devices now existing or even being planned for the future. As mankind, as we know it, begins its big step into space, a realistic policy needs to be developed towards ‘space travel in reverse,’ or visitors to our own homestead as well. Government restrictions, censorship, secrecy, red tape and inefficiency are also a documented matter. Interested persons should write to their Congressmen and Senators…. and request ‘open hearings’ so that the full truth can be revealed. The ‘challenge of 1962’and the new frontiers that lie ahead must be faced by the nations of the world. And all such challenges must be met and accepted by the individuals who make up the nations. The “Right to Know” and the “Need to Know” what is going on in our skies will be an important factor in helping us to make future George D. Fawcett (1929-2013) decisions. ‘Less we forget’- to avoid such a challenge maintained one of the largest private as this would be, I feel, to court another aerial “Pearl archives on global UFO sightings. See Harbor” of gigantic proportion in the future…235 http://mufon-nc.com/?start=36. (signed) -George D. Fawcett 9-A Warren Avenue Woburn, Massachusetts Working with the Premiere Ufologist 1997 was the year that marked the 50th anniversary of both Kenneth Arnold’s “flying saucers” sighting and the UFO crash at Roswell, New Mexico. At that time I was teaching night classes of English as a second language in the Orangeburg, South Carolina Public School District #5 to adult immigrants in the area. But upon thinking of Kenneth Arnold, the Roswell crash and the whole development of the flying saucer saga over the years, I took some time off between the Spring and Summer semesters to drive up to Lincolnton, North Carolina, where Fawcett was then living, not too far above the state line. The purpose of my visit was to obtain an interview with him. I had long admired his investigative work and the attention to details that he included in all his countless articles and book.236 Our interview resulted in a 235 George D. Fawcett, “A Challenge for 1962,” original unpublished article dated 21 November 1961, in his personal files, with copy in my Venus archives. 236 Israel Curiel, “Tribute to George Fawcett,” Mutual UFO Network of North Carolina website, Undated update to biographical information originally published on the same website, 5 November 2011, http://mufon-nc.com/?start=24, (Accessed 31 May 2016): “….George Fawcett (George D’Espard Fawcett, III, 1929-2013, -R.K.) has investigated

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus tremendously informative article that filled up two full pages of the 6 July 1997 issue of the Orangeburg Times and Democrat. In any case, he gave good directions to his house and I immediately knew that I had arrived when I spotted a car with the license plate “UFO PILOT” in the driveway. While the Times and Democrat piece largely dealt with then contemporary sightings and encounters from Fawcett’s extensive files, those cases that occurred in South Carolina that he had personally investigated, I was alert to our mutual friendship with Gray Barker through the exchange of publications over the years. I recalled the importance that he placed on the years of 1961 and 1962, when the space programs of both the United States and Soviet Union were just sparking to life, because of the frequent allusions he made to this era in the pages of Barker’s Saucerian publications as well as other periodicals emanating from throughout the UFO community and beyond. Cosmic Ray: Thank you for this interview, George. You’ve been following the UFO scene from the very beginning; so I appreciate any insights you can give me. George: That’s my whole mission in life, Cosmic Ray…. getting to the bottom of this UFO enigma that has especially puzzled us since the Arnold sighting so long ago. And even before that. I’ve been looking into flying saucers since 1944.” After six hours of interviewing, and garnering all the information I would need to write the 50th anniversary Arnold and Roswell story for the Orangeburg newspaper, I shut off the recorder. “George, this is completely off the record. But as you know, I am particularly interested in the planet Venus. It’s been my lifelong avocation and, yes even my passion to follow Lady Venus wherever she leads me. I know you’ve worked with the Air Force officers and other government officials from time-to-time. We both know that MUFON is almost fully saturated with them by now.” I paused for a moment, realizing the Fawcett was high up in the MUFON hierarchy. I wished I wouldn’t have bit the hand that was about to feed me. But then I was pleasantly surprised with his response. over 1,200 UFO sighting reports and has read over 700 books and 1,000 magazine articles on the subject since 1944. He has had published over 100 UFO investigative and research articles he has written in Flying Saucers Magazine, Search, Fate, Saga, Argosy, True, Flying Saucer Review, National Enquirer, UFO Magazine, UFO Universe Magazine, MUFON UFO Symposium Proceedings. In 1975 Fawcett authored the highly illustrated book, Quarter Century of UFOs in Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee. His illustrated UFO lectures have been well received by almost 600 different colleges and universities, service clubs, military and scientific organizations, technical and special interest groups in United Stated and overseas. Fawcett has been a guest on dozens of radio and TV shows and also featured in many books and magazine and newspaper interviews. Dozens of Fawcett’s articles were listed in the 1969 Library of Congress book UFOs and Related Subjects: An Annotated Bibliography published under contract with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. George was a consultant to the movie, UFOs-Target Earth produced by Centrum Films in Atlanta, Georgia in 1974. Fawcett served as the founder and chief advisor to the New England UFO Study Group (1957), the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Two-State UFO Study Group (1965), the Florida UFO Study Group (1968), the Tar Heel UFO Study Group (1973) and the Mutual UFO Network of North Carolina, Inc. (1989). Fawcett is the owner of a large ‘Sauceriana Collection’ consisting of over 15,000 items. From 1976 to 1984 George helped organize seven consecutive UFO symposiums for the state unit of he worldwide MUFON, Inc. and co-hosted by the Tar Heel UFO Study Group in Winston Salem, North Carolina. From 1979 to 1982 George taught a 30 hour (3 credit hours) accredited collegiate UFO course titled, “UFOs: A New Frontier of Science” at the Lincoln County Campus of Gaston College. Fawcett’s efforts in the UFO field were included in both the UFO Encyclopedia by Margaret Sachs and The Encyclopedia of UFOs by Ronald R. Story, both published in 1980. In 1988 Fawcett’s achievements were listed in The International Who’s Who in UFOlogy Directory by Robert D. Boyd. Over the years Fawcett has been a member or field investigator for the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) in Arizona; the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) in Washington, D.C.; the Scientific Bureau of Investigations (SBI) in New York; the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) in Illinois; the Fund for UFO Research, Inc. (FUFOR) in Maryland and the Mutual UFO Network, Inc. (MUFON) in Texas.”

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Raymond Andrew Keller II “Ray, you are somewhat right about MUFON. Government agents infiltrated the organization for the purpose of commandeering it to smash APRO (Aerial Phenomena Research Organization of Tucson, Arizona –R.K.); and when the job was done, they just went back to Langley, or wherever it was that they came from. So I don’t like everything there is about MUFON, either; but frankly it’s fast becoming the only game in town. We have to work with the hand that’s dealt us.” “I can see that,” I replied, relieved that George wasn’t so put off by the question. “And I appreciate your honesty…. What about Venus? Anything you can fill me in on, in this regard?” “Ray, I’m going to provide you with some astounding UFO reports and correlative data from my files for the years of 1960 through 1962, when the United States and the Soviet Union were in a desperate race to get an unmanned rocket probe to Venus. One day this information will prove invaluable. The public has a right to know this.” “Thank you, George. I really appreciate this.” “To begin with, just how much the ‘powers-that-be’ really know about life on Venus was slipped when England’s Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, went on record in the June 1962 issue of McCall’s magazine- a periodical with over 30 million readers- and defended flying saucers!” “What was the gist of his saucer defense?” I queried. To this, the North Carolina UFO investigator replied that, “At a dinner party given by the Queen, he told friends, ‘I’m sure they exist. All the evidence points to it. So many people say they have seen them. You should read the book, Flying Saucers Have Landed.’”237 “That’s incredible,” said I. “Prince Philip himself believed George Adamski! That’s pretty lame, though, considering how European royalty publicly pooh-poohed Queen Juliana of the Netherlands for receiving Adamski in her court during his world tour.” “You know it,” said George, who was also an Army veteran that was stationed in the Panama Canal Zone, as was I. George was there at Ft. Davis from 1955-56; and I was there on Galeta Island from 1981-1986. George served as a private in the personnel office of the 33rd Infantry and I served as a staff sergeant and voice intercept operator in the Spanish language, deployed throughout the Central American theatre of operations. We had many stories of Panama and Latin America, in general, to share with each other. But getting back to Prince Philip and European royalty’s true opinions about the flying saucer phenomenon, George continued, “Frankly, the prince has been a closet student of UFOs for decades. But he’s just one of a great number in the highest echelons of European royalty that firmly believe George Adamski’s claims about the planet Venus…. Some of them that I can think of right off the top of my head are Lord Mountbatten and Lord Downing, and of course, Queen Juliana. I might also add General Lionel-Max Chassin of the Free French Forces in World War II and Dr. Herman Oberth, the German designer of the V-2 rocket. All of these people have come out firmly in support of the extraterrestrial hypothesis for UFOs, and without exception embracing Adamski and Leslie’s book as fact, not fiction.” “George, this is a revelation to me. Seriously, I knew that there had to be a group of higher echelon people out there somewhere who believed in George Adamski, and by inference, Menger and some of the other contactees.” 237 George Adamski and Desmond Leslie, Flying Saucers Have Landed (London, UK: T. Werner Laurie, Ltd., 1953), 253 pages

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus “Yes, Cosmic Ray. Desmond Leslie, the co-author with Adamski, was himself a member of the British royal family. Leslie somehow connected to the Irish branch of the family tree, however; so at times the more stodgy members of the royal family looked askance at him. But he links many ancient writings to tales of flying saucers. Leslie writes about the most fascinating legends from Atlantis, through Central America, the Middle East, Tibet and India demonstrating the alien influence exercised on our global culture by the appearance of the UFOs. As far as Leslie goes, the pyramids, the flood, Sanskrit scriptures, the Bible – literally nothing was left untapped for source material. Therefore, one might suppose that even if a reader of Flying Saucers Have Landed had doubts about Adamski, they might consider Leslie’s contribution as more viable.” George paused a moment, and then remarked that, “But that wasn’t the case at all. Royalty put the hamburger chef from the Mt. Palomar Café in California on an equal footing with the erudite earl, Desmond Leslie.” Cosmic Ray: “Let’s talk about Adamski….” George: “Yes, let’s. Because the book has exercised such a powerful influence in the highest echelons of global power, George Adamski must never be sidestepped in any investigation of the UFO enigma. First, George Adamski occupies a totally separate section of the book. Most of his writing consists of meetings with aliens and is supported by a number of photographs. He describes and sketches these alien visitors, as well as markings on their clothing and footwear.” I quipped, “Perhaps if they traveled back from our time to 1952, they were wearing Adidas’ new KD8 tennis shoes. I could see how KD8s would be interpreted as extraterrestrial in origin, maybe being designed with serving to compensate for our slightly higher gravity in mind. NASA says that a person who measures 100 kg when they leave home would tip the scales on the Venusian surface at 90 kg. Incidentally, Venus also has about 86% of the volume that Earth has along with 82% of the mass. The KD8s really look like actual molded feet extenders; and wearing such shoes might give a Venusian the added spring to make up for the slightly higher pull of gravity here on Earth, avoiding hammer toes over the long run.” “Let’s not read too much into it, Cosmic Ray. I recall some of the deconstructions you made of NASA mission findings in the New Millennial Star. They were interesting, though highly speculative. I think that Adamski and (George Hunt) Williamson were just curious about the meaning of the markings on the soles of the alien’s shoes. Nobody has quite figured out what these markings mean, but someday we’ll have the knowledge and where-with-all to make some good guesstimates.” “Of course,” I interjected, “Adamski came to Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1959. While there, he lectured in Central Hall about his friendship with the Venusians and extraterrestrials from other worlds, mostly from our own solar system. He also discussed the propulsive mechanism of Venusian spacecraft, the motherships and the scouts. Back in the United States, however, representatives of Project Bluebook were downplaying Adamski’s claims about life on Venus. They were spouting the same old lies: that it was too hot, the atmospheric pressure was too high, the atmosphere was toxic, etc., etc. SOS---- Same ol’ shit! Clearly, the mushroom principle was in effect once again. They kept the American people in the dark and fed us more manure. It was like they were peeing on us while saying that we should enjoy the rain.” “So, Cosmic Ray, who do you think was pulling the strings?” “George, I think that the Air Force was definitely acting on orders from higher echelons in the federal bureaucracy, and I base this statement on documents that I discovered from the offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in San Diego, California. Most likely 226

Raymond Andrew Keller II the Air Force disinformation about Adamski was just a smoke screen to cover up NASA’s race with the Soviet space program to get a probe up to the cloud shrouded planet first. By the time that the Adamski lecture took place in Scotland both American and Soviet space mission planners already designed rockets capable of reaching Venus.” “I have to concur, Cosmic Ray. The superpowers had spies in each other’s space programs, so nothing was kept secret for long. For our part, everything that Dr. J. Allen Hynek, an astronomy professor the Soviets were finding out about life on Venus and serving as a consultant for the Air Force, other planets was being cataloged in Project White was just following orders when he tried Stork and classified ABOVE TOP SECRET. You to publicly discredit contactee George might recall that Bluebook ordered its top scientific Adamski and his photographs of Venusian spacecraft in our atmosphere and outer consultant, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, to get out in front of space. See https://milwaukeeparacon.com/ the public and downplay Adamski’s photographs of tag/mark-oconnell/. the Venusian space ships. But I think that the Adamski photos represented the strongest evidence not only in his case, but for the actual existence of UFOs. Adamski had amassed a great many affidavits from astronomers at Mount Palomar, professional photographers, photographic labs and other witnesses all asserting that the photographs were authentic.” “We are in complete agreement, George. Even after six decades and with Adamski long dead, the contactee still has an enthusiastic and growing fan base. I still meet friends of Adamski, albeit in their 80s and 90s, who affirm that not only was Adamski a gentleman, but that he consistently demonstrated a real concern in working for harmony and peace on planet Earth. This definitely shines forth from all of his writing, whether esoteric, science fiction, scientific matters or ufology.” “This is the truth, Cosmic Ray. Many say that Adamski was the ‘First Ambassador from Outer Space.’ Naturally, it’s only logical to see him as a healing emissary from the planet of love. He amply indicated in every word and showed in every action that his primary focus was the betterment of humanity’s future here on Earth, eventually arriving at the day when we, too, as a species, would join the Venusians as members of a galactic federation of light, albeit at the lowest rungs of a celestial hierarchy, during the initial phase.” “I, too, George, see it the same way. The inhabitants of Venus definitely dwell on a higher frequency of existence where they maintain a strong vibration of love, probably far greater than most other civilizations scattered throughout the Milky Way galaxy. Maybe one day, with the help of our brother and sister Venusians, we, too, will enjoy citizenship in a federation of light. I’ve heard many contactees affirm this; that beings from Venus are now coming forth on our planet to infuse us with love energies, psychically aligning the Earth with Venus to abet the total transition of humanity into a higher dimension, what some have called Dimension X.” “Cosmic, this has probably been going on for a much longer time than anyone suspects. From a Christian religious perspective, it’s not that hard to see aliens in the role of angels. They are on our planet in order to oversee our evolution as a celestial species, supporting and guiding us all along the way. The powerful and enervating resonance of the Venusians’ transmissions are serving to align our personal auras and helping to merge us with the energies 227

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus and consciousness of the Earth Mother, just as they are in tune with the positive energies of Lady Venus. The Earth and Venus are truly becoming twin planets at a higher level of consciousness. This will create a healing boost of love energies for the inhabitants of both worlds to experience and enjoy.” “Yes, George. This is so profound. Clearly, at the dawn of both the Atomic and Space Ages, Adamski was manifesting wisdom that some believe had been lost to the Earth for centuries. But now it has been restored; and we must seize the time to build upon it.” Ninety-nine decision street Ninety-nine ministers meet To worry, worry, super scurry Call the troops out in a hurry This is what we’ve waited for This is it, boys, this is war The president is on the line As ninety-nine red balloons go by…. Ninety-nine knights of the air Ride super high-tech jet fighters Everyone’s a super hero Everyone’s a Captain Kirk With orders to identify To clarify and classify Scramble in the summer sky Ninety-nine red balloons go by…. “Someone’s hijacked our space probe!” Nevertheless, it was only a matter of four minutes and 53 seconds after take-off from Cape Canaveral that the Atlas LV3-Agena B rocket, without any known reason, veered dramatically off course. One of the controllers exclaimed, “Someone’s hijacked our space probe.” Because it cost American taxpayers $554 million dollars, NASA’s chief flight controller at the cape got on the horn right away and called President Kennedy at the White House in search of his directions in the matter. President Kennedy, who was watching the historic launch on television in the Oval Office along with Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director William H. Pickering, NASA Administrator James Webb and other officials of the nation’s space agency, without hesitation said “Bring it down or get rid of it as safely as possible.” Immediately, the range safety officer, operating out of the NASA Flight Facility at Wallops Island, Virginia, gave the orders for the detonation of the rocket, being concerned that the runaway Mariner 1 would turn into a flying bomb, crashing into the North Atlantic shipping lanes or into some inhabited area along the United States eastern seaboard. More than fifty years after the launch of Mariner 1, there is still no logical reason for the probe’s failure. The objective of the mission was to fly by the planet Venus and return data on its atmosphere, magnetic field, charged particle environment and mass. It was also to take measurements of the interplanetary medium throughout its journey to the second planet, and even continue transmitting this data back to Earth after a successful flyby. The Mariner probe 228

Raymond Andrew Keller II was based on the successful Ranger lunar spacecraft. Previous to the launch of Mariner 1, on 26 January 1962, Ranger 3, equipped with a television camera, transmitted images of the lunar surface as it sailed past the Moon. Films of these transmissions are still highly classified. And later, Ranger 4 was flawlessly launched on 23 April of the same year. Supposedly, the spacecraft became disabled on its way to the Moon. The project engineers alleged that the probe crashed on the far side of the Moon, noting that radio contact with Ranger 4 was lost when it transitioned over to the far side, never to reemerge on the near side. President Kennedy and the NASA team were convinced that the two Ranger missions of 1962, despite some shortcomings, demonstrated the excellent performance capabilities of the Atlas-Agena B launch vehicle, in addition to the overall reliability of the spacecraft. The Soviets were definitely hot on getting to Venus; so going with the proven Atlas-Agena B launch vehicles was the only ace up our sleeve that could give us an edge in being the first to reach our sister planet. NASA spokespersons would later try to couch the Ranger missions in the context of “Dark Days” for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL): “Successful as it has been, JPL spent much of its early space career apparently mired in failure. The five Ranger spacecraft it built and launched to explore the surface of the Moon in advance of human astronauts were all spectacular flops. The first two Rangers failed because of bad launchings. Ranger 3 got launched so vigorously that it reached its rendezvous with the Moon before the Moon arrived. Ranger 4 hit the Moon squarely, but its computer brain went dead and it took no pictures. Ranger V lost its solar power supply, and its batteries failed.”238 Yes, perhaps this is how it went down for the Ranger probes. But one must also consider that each Ranger carried its own telltale instrumentation to report, via radio, on the performance of each of its individual parts. Essentially, each radio report from a Ranger probe became a lecture from outer space on the proper procedures that should be taken in future missions. Valuable information was gleaned on how to rewire circuitry or how to avoid future problems by adding or subtracting some small part. But most importantly, thanks to the JPL ongoing upgrades in the Ranger program, NASA learned how to gain redundancy, which is defined as, “the ability to provide duplication for a function that might fail.”239 Of course, conspiracy researchers might speculate that the Ranger missions were much more successful than either JPL or NASA ever would let on. They may have obtained evidence pointing to the presence of an advanced, other-worldly intelligence on the surface of the Moon. But in returning to the issue of the Mariner 1, NASA official Dr. Ed Grayzeck, in a feeble attempt to explain the failure of that probe, 52 years after its disastrous launch, explains that, “it was apparently caused by a combination of two factors. Improper operation of the Atlas airborne beacon equipment resulted in a loss of the rate signal from the vehicle for a prolonged period. The airborne beacon used for obtaining rate data was inoperative for four periods ranging from 1.5 to 61 seconds in duration. Additionally, the Mariner 1 Post Flight Review Board determined that the omission of a hyphen in coded computer instructions in the dataediting program allowed transmission of incorrect guidance signals to the spacecraft. During the periods the airborne beacon was inoperative the omission of the hyphen in the data-editing program caused the computer to incorrectly accept the sweep frequency of the ground receiver as it sought the vehicle beacon signal and combined this data with the tracking data sent to the remaining guidance computation. This caused the computer to swing automatically into 238 “Space Exploration: Voyage to the Morning Star,” Time magazine (New York), 8 March 1963 239 Ibid

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus a series of unnecessary course corrections with erroneous steering commands which finally threw the spacecraft off course.”240 NASA whistleblower, Marty Moore, who spent a lot of time at Cape Canaveral, offered an alternative explanation. While Moore noted that Mariner 1 was before his time, he declares that he was told the true story of the probe’s failure by a mathematician who had been at the cape since 1960. Moore said that, “According to him, an algorithm, written as mathematical formulae, involved a Boolean entity R. At the point of failure, the mathematician had written NOT-R, that is, ‘R’ with a bar above the character; however, the programmer implementing the algorithm overlooked the bar, and so used R when he should have used NOT-R. This explanation could subsequently have been interpreted as ‘missing hyphen’, ‘missing NOT’, or ‘data entry problem’, all of which we’ve seen in recent contributions.” Moore remains skeptical of this story. He further comments that, “I think the FORTRAN version of the story is very unlikely. Remember that the error occurred in a critical on-board computer. I consider it extremely unlikely that such a computer would have been programmed in FORTRAN in 1962, considering that the first use I saw of FORTRAN in a ground-based critical system at the Cape was not until 1978! (Of course, I wasn’t aware of every computer in use; so there may have been an earlier use of FORTRAN, but I’d be surprised if it was more than a few years earlier.) It is possible that the originator of the FORTRAN version of the story may have been aware of another error caused by the period/comma substitution, and also aware of the Mariner problem as a ‘single character’ error, and incorrectly associated the two.”241 But in this case, one must keep in mind that even the most powerful and complex computers of 1962 utilized punch card technology. Back in the halcyon days of punch cards, code would be translated to them via a programmer or operator using a keypunch. Typos, or incorrect commands, could not be caught by simply looking at what was typed on a screen, as they so easily are today. Often, in order to check that information was input correctly, it would have to be re-punched onto a second card that would then be compared to the first card utilizing a card verifier. In other words, in 1962 only a computer coder with the highest degree of national security access could program the trajectory data for the Venus probe on these most secure of punch cards. Therefore, a bug introduced through a punch card turned out to be one of the most expensive software glitches in history, leading the destruction of the Mariner 1 spacecraft before it could complete its mission of flying by Venus. Because of the bug, Mariner 1 was only minutes into its flight when an onboard guidance antenna failed. In turn, this caused the fallback to a backup radar system that should have been able to guide the spacecraft. But contemporary tech wizard Phil Johnson notes that, “there was a fatal flaw in the software of that guidance system: when the equations that would be used to process and translate tracking data into flight instructions were encoded onto punch cards, one critical symbol was left out: an overbar or overline, often confused in ensuing years with a hyphen. The lack of that overbar, essentially, caused the guidance computer to incorrectly compensate for some otherwise normal movement in the spacecraft.” President Kennedy was determined that the Americans be the first to get a spaceship up to Venus; so he called for an immediate review board report at NASA. The results of the panel’s investigation were presented in a Congressional hearing on 31 July 1962; and in testimony 240 Ed Grayzeck, “Mariner 1,” 26 August 2014, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa. gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=MARIN1 (Accessed 18 May 2014) 241 Phil Johnson, “Mariner 1’s $135 million software bug,” 17 December 2012, IT Management, http://www.itworld.com/ article/2717299/it-management/mariner-1-s--135-million-software-bug.html (Accessed 18 May 2015)

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Raymond Andrew Keller II before the House Science and Astronautics Committee, NASA’s Launch Vehicles Director Richard B. Morrison Launch testified that “an error in computer equations for the Venus probe launch of the Mariner R-1 spacecraft on 21 July led to its destruction, when it veered off course.”242 What is significant here is that the internal review was called and actually reached a conclusion just six days after the termination of the Mariner 1 mission. Doug Mink of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, noted that, “The speed with which an interagency group could be put together to solve the problem so a second launch could be made before the 45-day window expired and the lack of speed with which more recent problems (not just the Challenger, but the Titan, Atlas, and Ariane problems of 1986 says something about: 1) how risks were accepted in the 60’s, 2) growth in complexity of space-bound hardware and software, and/or 3) growth of the bureaucracy, each member of which is trying to avoid taking the blame.”243 Mink further speculated that perhaps the person who made the keypunch hyphen error was fired. However, the summary reports that he analyzed concerning the Mariner 1 mission failure indicated that the probe’s loss, expensive as it was, was accepted as part of the cost of conducting space exploration. Of course, the Soviets’ interest in Venus exploration and the strenuous efforts made by our communist competitors in this direction were not lost to President Kennedy. The Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) operatives inside the Soviet Union were reporting the launch of the Venera 2MV-1 No.1 probe, at 02:18:45 Coordinated Universal Time on 25 August 1962, from Site 1/5 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the then largest space facility in the world. It is situated on the desert steppe of the Kazakhstan Republic, approximately 200 kilometers (124miles) east of the Aral Sea. The Cosmodrome is north of the Syr Darya River, near the Tyuratam railway station, at an altitude of about 90 meters (300feet) above sea level.244 The Soviet probe was launched atop a Molniva 8K78 carrier rocket, the most powerful lift off vehicle on the planet, at that time. In the West, the Venera 2MV-1 No. 1 was also known as Sputnik 19. But due to a problem with its upper stage, the rocket failed to leave low Earth orbit, reentering the atmosphere just a few days later and disintegrating. Therefore, despite the failure of the Sputnik 19, Kennedy was advised that there was another Venera probe, the Sputnik 20, ready for launch within a few weeks time, or less, before the window for a short Venus trajectory would close. Thus Kennedy, the youthful American leader, Early Soviet Venera designed for soft feeling pressure from both the top secret CIA reports landing on the second planet. See http:// about an upcoming second Soviet Venus launch, and space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/venera-2mv-1. being assured by his science panel’s findings and htm. report to Congress on the lessons learned from the 242 A complete summary of the probe’s mishap can be found in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, Mariner Venus Final Project Report (NASA SP-59, 1965).. 243 Doug Mink, “Mariner 1 from NASA Reports,” e-mail of 8 December 1987 to Risks Digest: Forum on Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems, 13 December 1987, Vol. 5, Issue 73, http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/5.73. html#subj2.2 (Accessed 26 May 2015). 244 Christina Lindborg, “Baikonur Cosmodrome, 45.9 N, 63.3 E,” World Space Guide, Federation of American Scientists, 1997, http://fas.org/spp/guide/russia/facility/baikonur.htm (Accessed 16 July 2015)

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Mariner 1 failure, did not hesitate in giving the “green light” for the launch of the Mariner 2 spacecraft from Cape Canaveral on 27 August 1962; and some three and a half months later, on 14 December 1962, the probe successfully passed as close as 34,773 kilometers (21,607mi) to our cloud-shrouded sister planet. And while there was a back-up spacecraft (Sputnik 20), also designated for Venus exploration, that was launched by the Soviets on 1 September 1962, it too met the same dire fate. It failed to leave a low Earth orbit and burned up in the upper atmosphere in just three days time.245 The Soviet space program’s leadership, ever cognizant of American advancements at NASA and the JPL, wanted to “one-up” us by not just conducting a fly-by of our sister planet, but actually landing either one of their Venera probes on Venus, thus capturing the admiration, if not the awe, of the entire world’s space-crazed population. But getting back to the American space venture, the Mariner 2 probe, unlike its predecessor, was reinforced with a hexagonal base, 1.04 meters across and 0.36 meters thick. It contained six magnesium chassis for housing the electronics set apart for conducting the science experiments, communications, data encoding, computing, timing, attitude and power control, battery (with charger), as well as the attitude control gas bottles and the rocket engine. On top of this base was a tall pyramid-shaped mast on which the science experiments were mounted, thereby bringing the total height of the spacecraft to 3.66 meters. Also attached to either side of the base were rectangular solar panel panels. These had a total span of 5.05 meters and width of 0.76 meters; while attached by an arm to one side of the base and extending below the spacecraft was a large directional dish antenna.246 With Mariner 2 well on its way to Venus, hopes were high at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for a successful encounter with the Morning Star on the projected day of 14 December. When the fateful date finally arrived, the JPL science team, bone-weary from months of effort on the Mariner project, gathered in the lab’s parking lot early in the early morning hours in order to sneak a last peak of Venus, before everyone’s perceptions of the planet would change forever; for in just a few hours, the Mariner 2 telemetry would start pouring in. Those blearyeyed scientists and technicians mulling around their cars were literally ecstatic. Those who were there described the impromptu gathering as more like a “tailgate party” than a serious scientific convocation. Many brought beer and Champaign, opening the bottles of beer and taking big swigs, but saving the bubbly for the soon anticipated Venus flyby. Even though the small probe was 36 million miles away in space, the jubilant JPL personnel were squinting up at the twinkling planet as if they somehow felt they could actually spot the Mariner 2 with their naked eyes. The festive atmosphere continued as JPL’s New Zealand born director, physicist Dr. William Hayward Pickering, opened the doors to the Mariner 2 mission control center, with everyone piling in as if they were passing through the turn-styles at a ballpark where the Dodgers were playing in the World Series. Outside of NASA and JPL circles, some of the more prominent astronomers of the world were hoping that lovely Venus would live up to its romantic reputation and be found to be a planet teeming with exotic, and perhaps intelligent life. Among these were Harvard University’s Harlow Shapley and the director of Britain’s Jodrell Bank Radio Observatory’s Sir Bernard Lovell. 245 Gunter Krebs, “Venera (2a), (2b) (2MV-1 #1, 2),” Gunter’s Space Page, 2015, http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/ venera-2mv-1.htm (Accessed 16 July 2015) 246 “Missions to Venus and Mercury,” Planetary Society, 2015, http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/space-missions/missions-to-venus-mercury.html (Accessed 26 May 2015)

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Raymond Andrew Keller II Because of the hoopla focused on the JPL and the Mariner mission, however, President Kennedy stipulated that the first telemetry readings from Venus should be personally handdelivered to him in Washington, DC, by Pickering himself. Any revelations about an advanced civilization existing on Venus would have severe repercussions in every phase of human existence. Naturally, no matter what the Mariner 2 probe would turn up, all the scientists and technicians working on the project had to sign affidavits to the effect that, “Venus is a barren ball covered with a dull layer of dust…. It appears to be hot and dry and dead. If there is any life at all- a doubtful possibility at best- it must float dust-like microorganisms in comparatively cool clouds.” Hopefully, Kennedy and Pickering calculated that this disinformation would put a damper on the enthusiastic Venus exobiology proponents, but particularly the most vocal ones, Lovell and Shapley.247 The vast distance between the Earth and Venus meant that there would be also be a radio delay in receiving the information coming in from Mariner 2. Radio lag is a major problem with both intra-solar and interstellar communication. On Earth, radio communication is nearly instantaneous insofar as radio waves travel at the speed of light, i.e. at approximately 300,000 kilometers per second. But even as we extend communications to the nearby Moon, the radio lag in space extends to three minutes. In other words, as the Apollo astronauts on the Moon’s surface had to wait 1.5 minutes to receive a radio signal broadcast from Houston Control; and then it took another 1.5 minutes for the astronauts’ reply. Therefore, in calculating the radio delay between Earth and Venus, which is the closest planet to Earth, one simply encounters a math problem. However, the distance between these two worlds varies throughout the year of each. As Venus orbits the Sun, its position duly changes in relation to the Earth, as our world is also orbiting the Sun. At is closest approach Earth, Venus is about 38 million kilometers distant and approximately 261 million kilometers at its farthest distance. As such, radio communication is usually accomplished through a system of satellites positioned in such a way that one or more would always be in line-of-sight with both planets. And if each distance extreme were to occur with line-of-sight, the breakdown of time would be as follows: Closest: 38,000,000 km / 300,000 km/s = 126.67 seconds, or about 2.11 minutes. Farthest: 261,000,000 /300,000 km/s = 870 seconds, or about 14 minutes. Average: 149,500,000/300,000 km/s = 498.3 seconds, or about 8.3 minutes. Of course, these numbers will change depending JPL computer and radio technicians on solar conditions, the respective positions of the demonstrate stream of telemetry data from the Mariner 2 Venus probe. Radio lag and planets, and the natural degradation in the radio signal the interpretation of telemetry coding allows JPL personnel plenty of time to filter critical over long distances and through varied atmospheric conditions.248 data about life on Venus transmitted to Earth by the probe. See http://afflictor.com/ Besides the radio lag, the time allowed for the page/91/. interpretation of the data stream being transmitted 247 “Space Exploration” 248 “How long would it take for a radio wave to travel from Venus to Earth,” 29 October 2012, Enotes.com, http://www. enotes.com/homework-help/how-long-would-take-radio-wave-travel-from-venus-370152 (Accessed 4 July 2015)

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus back to the Earth by the probe is yet another factor to consider in the JPL and NASA’s cover up of crucial information concerning the Mariner 2 or any other spacecraft they might send up to probe the mysteries of the cosmos. For example, even though the Mariner flew by Venus on 14 December 1962, it wasn’t until 1 March 1963 that Pickering hand delivered, under a heavily-armed Navy escort team, the first findings of the probe to the oval office of President John F. Kennedy. In addition, the telemetry code was encrypted in such a way that even if it could be intercepted by non-space agency persons, it would be nearly impossible to decipher without the proper keying device. And to add yet another layer of security, the transmissions from Venus were exclusively line-of-sight communications, not broad spectrum; so they too would be much harder to locate and synchronize the frequency by random receiving stations here on Earth. The JPL and NASA proclamations that no life, at least as we know it, can exist on Venus, was initially met by a high degree of skepticism from the worldwide scientific community. Nevertheless, on at least one point they were in unanimous agreement; and that was admiration for the project’s science team that managed to design such an intricate package and transport it so far from Earth, and all with such singular success. According to the editors of Time magazine, the United States’ Mariner 2 probe represented the “most important accomplishment in the annals of space exploration.” The article, carrying a somewhat editorializing tone, added that the probe “is a proud first for the United States. No achievement by Russian cosmonaut or United States astronaut, no experiment made by any of the myriad other satellites that have been shot aloft has taught man nearly so much as he has learned already from the improbable voyage of Mariner 2.”249 The article also speculates that before the election of John F. Kennedy as president, it was doubtful that any meaningful voyage to Venus would have undertaken insofar as a, “Spaceship of such a high order involves the creation of clever mechanical beasts that can live and function for months in a hostile environment beyond Earth’s atmosphere.” In other words, just four years previously the United States lacked the technological know-how to accomplish the launching of an interplanetary probe and the execution of its experiments in deep space conditions. The instrumentation onboard the Mariner 2 needed to obey the commands sent to it from millions of miles across the gulf of space. This meant radio techniques of incredible delicacy were employed. And in an age lacking the micro circuits utilized in contemporary technological devices, the new fangled computers of 1962 were gigantic in comparison. In making a biological analogy to these early generation computers, the Time reporter noted that, “These strange space creatures are almost a new type of life, comparable in zoological terms to the first venturesome animals that crawled out of sea water and learned to live in air and sunlight. To breed them calls for the talents of many branches of science.”250 The Mariner 2 was built to cope, successively, with three different environments: 1. On the Earth, the probe must be isolated from contact with sundry life forms. The Time author explains that, “So careful are its guardians to keep it clean and uncontaminated, they even dress like medical men and work in an anti-septic, hospital-like atmosphere.” Nestled inside a tightly sealed airplane hangar, the spacecraft resists corrosion from water vapor and the sea-salted air of Cape Canaveral. Anxious crews of scientists and technicians were always surrounding Mariner 2, doing whatever they could to protect 249 “Space Exploration….” 250 Ibid.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II it. It also remained hook up to a constant energy feed through a bundle of wires simply referred to as an “umbilical cable.” In many ways, therefore, this sheltered period could rightly be compared to the time a baby undergoes gestation in its mother’s womb. 2. The next period the probe must successfully pass through is that of the launch. Of this time, there are a few violent minutes when the spacecraft is folded into the nose of its boost vehicle, where it must withstand a spectacular increase in gravity due to the high acceleration of the rocket engine. The Mariner 2 is literally shaken by a fierce vibration as heat sears through the very shroud designed to protect it from the racing air. Another birth analogy also applies here, in that many spacecraft have perished in this launch phase, much as many human babies die during delivery. 3. And then there is the environment of outer space. Once the Mariner 2 passes beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, it is in outer space. And once in space, the real life of the probe begins. The shroud falls away insomuch as there is no more air to do any damage. Gravity has also fallen off to zero. Therefore, the frail antennae and solar panels can be deployed, being pushed outward by the feeble springs. The solar panels are very important because the Mariner 2 literally absorbs sunlight much like a baby takes in air to breathe. The sunlight is converted into electrical energy, which then pulses through the probe’s metal circulatory system. All of this explains how the Mariner 2 became duly recognized as not only a technological marvel, which it was, but also as a new “denizen of space.” But just getting into space was the least of this new denizen’s problems. In today’s parlance, we might refer to Pickering and his JPL team as “helicopter parents” to the Mariner 2 probe, insomuch as they were constantly hovering over their control panels back at their California mission control facility, not letting a minute go by when they weren’t doggedly guiding the spacecraft along its long flight to Venus. There were certainly a lot of factors to take into consideration, a lot of things that could go wrong anywhere along the way to the cloudy sister planet. There was some concern about both materials used in space and the heat factor. Of course, materials conducive to the Earth’s atmosphere may not necessarily be counted on to behave in a similar manner in the conditions found in outer space. In fact, some metals may even prove useless once beyond our atmospheric envelope. There are some metals that, in an outer space environment, will literally turn to vapor. Therefore, they must be used with great caution. Of the heat factor, it was noted that, “Space itself has no temperature (having no matter that can be hot or cold), but each object in space assumes a temperature that depends on the balance between the radiation that it absorbs and the radiation that it emits.” What this translates to, in practical terms, is that if a dab of paint (if it stays in place) can spell the difference between cold The trajectory of the Mariner 2 probe and hot; and so can a shiny part that reflects sunlight to is detailed above. See https://commons. a light-absorbent part. In other words, keeping all the wikimedia.org/wiki/Mariner_2. parts of the probe at proper temperatures is probably 235

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus one of the most challenging of all the jobs that went into designing Mariner 2 as a viable spacecraft. Of course, the technology that went into the Mariner 2 appeared as nothing short of magic to the American populace of 1962. One might imagine that for the average United States citizen, intently waiting for the first radio signals from the far-voyaging probe to reach the JPL in California, there must have been some degree of disappointment when the transmissions finally began to trickle in. Instead of a Hollywood-quality television production, the first images to come in from Venus were probably seen more as “gibberish of meaningless letters and symbols.” But for Pickering and his JPL crew, they were ecstatic. What they were receiving and interpreting from the radio signals were the equivalent of bonanza gold. Everyone associated with the Mariner 2 voyage was on pins and needles. Both JPL and NASA personnel sweated drops of blood over every detail of the mission to Venus. However, the author of the Time article penned the following concerning this vital mission: “But all of the frantic concentration of energy as Mariner completed the longest and most complex adventure every successfully completed by any man-made object could not obscure the years of effort that stretched back to a time before Mariner was even conceived. The incredible voyage really began in 1936, when six Cal Tech students and some science students hiked up the Arroyo Seco, a dry gulch in the mountains back of Pasadena, and searched out spot from which to fire their primitive rockets.” Jet Propulsion Laboratory Until the start of World War II, there was only an aura of stubborn enthusiasm on the part of the Cal Tech rocket students that kept their ill-financed experiments alive. But with the rapid advances taking place in Nazi Germany’s missile program, the United States’ federal government’s National Academy of Sciences gave Cal Tech’s leading aerodynamicist, Theodore Von Karman, a grant in the amount of $10,000 to turn the university’s experimental rocket club into a serious jet propulsion laboratory. The Time magazine journalist, commenting on this critical period, wrote that, “Thus, almost casually, JPL was born, with Von Karman as director,” adding that, “Without it (the JPL), United States’ standing in the space race would still be a national embarrassment.” And to recognize the vast accomplishments of Von and the early JPL team, President Kennedy in February 1963 awarded the then 81-year old educator and rocket scientist the very first National Medal of Science. By December 1962, when the Mariner 2 was making its historic fly-by of Venus, the JPL had already managed to extend its facilities across the slopes of the Arroyo Seco, growing into a maze of miscellaneous structures. In the early days of the JPL, however, the extant “facilities,” if you can call them that, consisted of nothing but dilapidated trailers that may have, in our day, made for semi-suitable accommodations for a guest on the Jerry Springer television show. But by the time the Mariner 2 mission was underway, the facilities upgrade consisted of gleaming new, and massive, steel-framed architectural marvels highly adaptable for researching and tackling any problem dealing with the exploration of outer space. The most prominent of these new edifices was the glistening, tidy dome of a new astronomical observatory, the mighty lens of which was intently focused on our sister planet Venus, the mythic goddess of beauty and love. The JPL was still staffed and run by faculty and technicians garnered from Cal Tech, but they were ultimately responsible to NASA, the federal agency whence they received their 236

Raymond Andrew Keller II paychecks. So naturally, whenever a NASA administrator would ask one of their Cal Tech functionaries at the JPL to jump, the immediate response from this individual would be, “How high?” In other words, if a NASA administrator would say that the planet Venus had surface temperatures exceeding 800 degrees Fahrenheit, 93 atmospheres of surface pressure and no magnetic field to protect its surface and everything on it from the lethal bombardment of cosmic rays, then that is how any Cal Tech individual in their employ was going to present our sister world to the press and for “public consumption,” of course. The journalist from Time characterized the relationship between the JPL and NASA in a rosier context: “JPL has developed into an outstanding example of a peculiarly American administrative invention: a nonprofit scientific laboratory working for the government but operated by a first-class academic institution. The combination neatly avoids much of the bureaucracy of government and the commercialism of private industry.” But even the journalist writing this analysis must have had some sneaking suspicions that the JPL personnel were always cognizant of which side of their slice of the bread was being buttered, and by whom. Both JPL and NASA personnel were also faced with the political pressure to keep ahead of the Soviets in the race for Venus; and sometimes expediency would win out over scientific concerns. Even before the launch of Mariner 1, the Venus project was in desperate trouble because of this. Originally, the entire probe, with all its experimental packages, had a weight of 1,050 pounds, a little over half a ton. Such a hefty package was going to need a powerful delivery system, and NASA specialists concluded that the only vehicle in the American stockpile that could do the job was the new Centaur, the liquid hydrogen two-stage rocket that was to be ready and fitted by the summer of 1962, just in time to meet the Venus launch window. But as bureaucracy is always so slow and cumbersome, it did not appear that the deadline for having the Centaur ready to go would be met. And as this setback pitted the JPL probe team against the NASA launch team, a command decision was required. Therefore, President Kennedy declared that JPL reduce the weight of their probe’s experimental package in order for NASA technicians to launch it with the lighter and more fuel efficient Atlas-Agenda rocket configuration, the same formidable rocket motors that boosted the Rangers to the Moon and beyond. Therefore, the new Mariner, weighing in at only 447 pounds, less than half that of the original probe, would be able to make the voyage all the way to Venus but would have to abandon many of the ever so important Venus observation instruments and the experiments that they were designed to carry out. While getting the probe to Venus was NASA’s biggest task and primary concern, it was the JPL’s Director William Pickering who shouldered the responsibility of making sure that the remaining experiments were carried out successfully, and also keeping a lid on any unusual “discoveries” that might come to the light of day because of the Mariner spacecraft’s peering beneath the Venusian cloud decks. Also, some described Pickering as a sort of “odd duck.” For starters, he wasn’t even an American citizen. He was a New Zealander, born in Wellington on Christmas Day in 1910. And as a youngster growing up in that South Pacific island nation, Pickering was a big amateur radio fan and operator, organizing a local club at his high school. So unlike most of the others on his Venus team, with backgrounds in astronomy, Pickering’s was in electrical engineering, the subject he majored in at the University of New Zealand. It should also be noted that the brilliant young Pickering, having so excelled in all his studies, had impressed his uncle to such an extent that he offered to pay for all of his nephew’s studies at Cal Tech in Pasadena. Naturally, the eager lad took his uncle up on the generous offer, and 237

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus wasted no time in getting himself across the Pacific Ocean to study in California. So while most of his team consisted of theorists, the Kiwi proved to be the ever practical technician. One of Pickering’s favorite professors at Cal Tech was Dr. Robert Millikan, despite the heavy academic demands that he placed on the young man. Of course, that was only because Millikan realized that Pickering demonstrated a vast potential in the multiple areas of astronomy, electronics and physics. Another of his instructors at Cal Tech fondly recalled Pickering in these words: “He spoke in a thick cockney accent;” adding that, “I had trouble understanding what he was saying, but I soon found out my trouble was often caused by my vagueness about the answers to the questions he raised. There wasn’t any doubt about his confidence. He was the best in the class.” Adding to the high estimation of his abilities voiced by the aforementioned and other Cal Tech professors, Pickering quickly amassed all the degrees offered by that august institution in record time: his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. And while most graduates go on to other schools in order to gain new and varied academic perspectives, the young Pickering was hired on at Cal Tech to teach sundry classes. While instructing in the Department of Astronomy and Physics, Pickering met and married a pretty Pomona gal, Muriel Bowler, who was assisting him in the conduct of cosmic ray experiments under the tutelage of Professor Millikan. But most importantly, in the critical year of 1944, when the JPL’s missiles and rockets had become sufficiently sophisticated to require a cargo of accurate telemetry equipment, Pickering was immediately recognized as the logical choice to head the project. After all, he was the world’s authority in the electronics art of long-distance measurement and control. And thank God he was on our team, and not that of the Axis Powers. At one time, the Time journalist noted that, “After Pickering put grasshopper-light radio equipment on high-flying cosmic ray sounding balloons, making rockets tell about their troubles was simple.” One JPL pioneer, Cal Tech Aerodynamics Professor Homer Joe Stuart, elaborated on Pickering’s field of research and its importance to national security in World War II: “It is interesting to think what the Germans could have done with a Pickering. We learned after the war that they conducted 1,700 test flights with V-2 rockets. That number is unbelievable until you remember that they had no telemetry worth the name. Their severe security kept their best electronics people from coordinating with their rocket program.” This is exactly why the Nazis required a suicide pilot to fly a rocket into the Empire State Building, because without adequate telemetry all they had to launch were runaway missiles which could just as easily come right back down exploding upon their own heads. After World War II, the JPL was largely concerned with the development of a stockpile of Cold War military missiles. But by the arrival of the International Geophysical Year in 1957 and the launching of the first Cal Tech Physicist and “Mr. JPL,” Soviet Sputnik satellite, activity started to perk up at Dr. William H. Pickering (1910-2004) the JPL. President Eisenhower was demanding that See http://www.nmspacemuseum.org/ halloffame/detail.php?id=49.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II something be done, and the new JPL Director Pickering stepped up to the plate. He immediately went about to have his technicians modify a Jupiter C test rocket upon which he placed the Explorer I, the first United States satellite. It was launched on 31 January 1958, just eight months after the Sputnik, and was still in orbit when Mariner 2 was flying-by the cloudy planet Venus. The rest is history. From then on, the Soviets weren’t the only space power to be reckoned with on Earth. But of this crucial time, Pickering made the following comment which parallels many of the statements made by George Adamski, Howard Menger and many of the contactees: “It was only the beeping reality of Sputnik that suddenly made the threat of intercontinental atomic warfare with ballistic rockets more than a science fiction story.”251 “Gung-Ho for Venus” Getting the Explorer 1 up in orbit was largely due to Pickering’s efforts. Pickering’s leadership at the JPL did not go unnoticed in Washington, D.C. As the launch windows for Venus were only open for a few months during every 19-month cycle, if the powers-that-be at NASA wanted to push something through them, then they needed to count on people like Pickering to make it happen. The JPL director, in reminiscing about this crucial decision time, explained in measured tones that, “I had to establish that the project could get the necessary support from the laboratory; and that we could redesign the spacecraft down to what AtlasAgena (the rocket) could carry. We finally decided tht we could go gung-ho for Venus.” The director added that, “When all of this looked as if it were making sense, NASA said, ‘Charge!’” Astronomers consulted by NASA informed the technicians that the rocket had to be ready by the summer of 1962, when Venus would enter its next 19-month cycle. This was only nine months away from the time that NASA had given Pickering and the JPL the green light on a Mariner Venus mission. Pickering noted dryly that, “There’s an old saying that any worthwhile project takes nine months.” It was a formidable task. The Time correspondent, who had been following the progress of the Mariner mission all along, wrote it up this way: “To meet the June deadline, when the first Mariner of a series of three would have to be ready at Cape Canaveral, the lab worked furiously. The designers used the basic frame of the ill-starred Ranger, added equipment needed for the longer voyage to Venus, and used the remaining weight allowance for as many observing instruments as could be squeezed in. Tests were run on every part, arguments raged. Pickering presided calmly and quietly over the melee.” Pickering was commuting back and forth to NASA’s new Washington, D.C., headquarters on the JPL’s own plane, taking a night flight dubbed the “Red Eye.” Pickering, ever the optimist, was carrying messages of reassurance in both directions. One of Pickering’s biggest fans at NASA was the German rocket scientist, Dr. Wernher von Braun, who said of the Mariner director’s administrative style: “His most outstanding characteristic is his ability to lead that most difficult breed of men, the scientists. They can be exceptionally pigheaded. You have to give them enough rope to argue their views. If Bill tried to run a very tight show at JPL, he would risk losing some of his best people.” Of course, the Mariners themselves were about as perfect as 1962 technology could have come up with. The Time journalist was permitted to view the first of the three Mariner probes; and he described it as a “strange and beautiful object, worthy to be displayed like expensive 251 “William H. Pickering,” International Space Hall of Fame, New Mexico Museum of Space History, Alamogordo, New Mexico, 2015, http://www.nmspacemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.php?id=49 (Accessed 16 July 2015).

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus jewelry against a black velvet background.” The probe itself was contained within a featherlight tubular framework of brightly polished aluminum. Some of the internal parts were made of magnesium plated in yellow gold. Its solar panels took on a reddish-purple color. When extended, they looked like the wings of a giant butterly. The correspondent, in one of the most vivid descriptions ever applied to a space vehicle, noted that it had “gay little highlights sparkled all over its structure,” and added that, “Unseen in its golden hexagonal abdomen were electronic muscles, organs, brains and ganglia, woven together with hair-thin wire.” Of course, the delicate Mariner 1 he was describing was precisely designed for the windless and weightless conditions it would encounter in outer space. Remember, this first mission to Venus was only going to be a fly-by. However, in the anticipation of future missions where Mariners would penetrate the Venusian atmosphere and make a landing on its unknown surface, the probe could be folded up into its chrysalis position, whence it could sustain the mightiest of G-forces that would normally crush a human body. By 22 July, the planet Venus was perfectly positioned for an easy encounter and the Mariner 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral, being positioned, as it was, atop an Atlas rocket. As the rocket veered off course and snaked across the sky, however, it became apparent that it was never going to make it outside the atmosphere, and would certainly crash somewhere within a few hundred miles of the launch site. The word was given to destroy the rocket and probe while it was still out over the ocean to avoid its coming down in a feiry reign of death upon some hapless Florida residents. The safety officer pushed the destruct button. The Atlas and its cargo dissolved into a burst of orange flame and a shower of smoking shards, tumbling down through the sky and plunging into the depths of the ocean. You could not find a dry eye throughout the JPL or Cape Canaveral. While there was some disappointment that hung over the scientists and technicians like a dark cloud for about the space of a week, Pickering rallied his troops and got them to think about the Mariner 2 and making it launch ready, seizing the time and getting it through the space window before it closed up again. Dr. James Van Allen, the discoverer of the radiation belts surrounding the Earth and a long-time admirer of director Pickering, commented that despite the Mariner 1 setback, “They have a tremendous esprit at JPL. It’s almost offensive. It’s like the Marines!” UFOs and the Mariner 1 Mission Failure UFO activity in our skies reached its peak in July 1962.252 Queen Ni Nu and the Hierarchy of Light on the planet Abejar were receiving from their operatives here on Earth continual reports on military and space research developments taking place in the nations of our world, especially among the Americans and the Soviets. Some Abejans were even working inside the space agencies of both the United States and the Soviet Union. Reports came into central California newspapers, radio and television stations of a variety of strange aircraft, at exceedingly high altitudes, seen traversing the night skies during the week of 16 through 22 July. Sacramento resident John Black reported to a local reporter that, “We saw many planes, and when they had lights as large as the UFO, they were close enough to be heard, and seen, and other lights could be made out. The UFOs were flying against the wind, and in an erratic path, unlike a balloon or a satellite.” It is believed that the initial appearance of a UFO over the California capital on 16 and 17 July proved to be the inspiration for the takeoff 252 While thousands of UFO reports were filed with various investigative agencies, government and civilian, in July 1962, this section focuses only those that your author has determined have a direct relevance to the Mariner 1 mission.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II of an X-15 space plane out of Edwards Air Force Base, for the purpose of pursuing it. At least one large UFO was detected by radar, but the smaller objects could only be visually seen as dimmer lights once distinguished from normal aircraft simultaneously peppering the skies. As to the larger UFO, there was a newspaper report on 22 July of a bright object reported moving high over Sacramento on the previous night; but that as of the time that the morning edition went to the presses, the Air Force was still claiming it had no explanation for it. The UFO was reported by a goodly number of persons; and some were speculating that it was a satellite, just not one of ours. Leonard Arthurs of Davis in Yolo County headed up the Sacramento Moonwatch Team; and he speculated that perhaps it was a jet flying too high to be heard, but with its lights turned on. The control tower at the Sacramento Municpal Airport suggested that the object in question might be one of their weather balloons. One balloon is sent aloft from the airport each night at around 10 p.m. to check wind currents in the upper atmosphere. A spokesman for the airport told a reporter from the Sacramento Bee that at least one of the balloons carried a light aloft with it.253 Of course, one balloon with a light would not account for the numerous UFOs seen on multiple nights. On 17 July, just five days before the Mariner 1 was launched, an X-15 space plane was indeed dispatched from Edwards Air Force Base in California to check out radar reports of a large, cylindrical, anamolous object in a low orbit around our planet at an estimated altitude of 60 miles. This may have been the same object being reported by hundreds across California and reported in multimedia. In any event, Air Force Pilot Robert M. White pushed his rocket plane to a speed of 3,784 miles per hour, and climbed to an altitude of 58.7 miles, where he leveled off. At first, he noticed some small particles adrift in space, possibly ice flakes from the frosty underside of his craft. Peering beyond the ice crystals, however, the pilot scanned the heavens for signs of the mothership. While failing to see it in the vast darkness beyond the immediate vicinity of his ship, he did notice something unusual at an estimated 30 to 40 feet away. He spotted a small, grayish tube about the size of a rolled newspaper. “I haven’t any idea what it could be,” pilot White reported back to ground control at Edwards. White later reported that, “I paid attention to it for about five seconds; but it gradually moved away toward the rear of the plane. I couldn’t watch it much longer. I had a few other things to do (Like looking for the mothership! –R.K.).” The space pilot jestingly added that, “Even if it were the St. Louis Post Dispatch, I’m sure I couldn’t read it. I don’t know what it could be…. I simply don’t know what it was.” Naturally, an incident like this one will spark many questions. Norbert F. Gariety, editor and publisher of Saucer Phenomena and Celestial Enigma (SPACE) of Coral Gables, Florida, wrote in the August 1962 issue of his newsletter (Bulletin Number 68), that: “According to the news release, White climbed to an altitude (58 miles) at a speed of 3,784 miles per hour. The ‘paper-like object’ was seen during the three-minute leveling off period, before re-entry, which should still mean a relative speed of 2,500 to 3,000 miles per hour! Yet the object was ‘drifting’ only slightly slower than White’s plane. This means that it was certainly not moving at orbital velocity (18,000 mph), nor was it hanging motionless in space. In this case, White would have passed it at such speed, approximately 3,000 mph, that he would never have seen it.” Gariety further explained that, “White’s plane was under intelligent control, defying the laws of gravity, and the laws of satellite and planetary motion. The logical conclusion is that 253 “Object Seen in Sky is Unidentified,” Sacramento Bee (newspaper), 22 July 1962.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus the object, which was traveling through space at approximately 3,000 mph, at 58 miles, also was under ‘intelligent control.’” Under whose control then, was the small object, if not pilot White or NASA? Perhaps it was a remote scanning device dispatched from the mothership. It only makes sense that Venusians onboard their orbiting carrier would want to find out if the approaching X-15 was armed, in order to put up a proper defense, if necessary, but at the same time avoid the pilot getting too close to the electromagnetic force field surrounding their vessel. Remember what happened to Captain Mantell. The Venusians could not afford a repeat of that sad scenario. Air Force Dismisses Radar UFO Trackings In the week prior to the launch of Mariner 1, reports of UFO sightings were at an all-time high, not just in the United States but around the world. And in the West, they were receiving extensive coverage in the multi-media. In many of these UFO cases, the visual observations were confirmed by radar tracking from both civilian and military air traffic facilities, thus bestowing a high level of credibility in the reports. The public was waiting for some response from the Air Force. After all, this was the government organization responsible for running the well-known Project Blue Book investigation out of their Wright-Patterson base in Dayton, Ohio. However, Blue Book’s commanding officer since 1958, Air Force Major Robert J. Friend, had long pooh-poohed the very need for this UFO investigative body. Not believing that a study of UFOs could truly convey anything of scientific worth, he advocated that Project Blue Book be shut down, despite the hue and cry of the American public which was sure to follow such an action. Therefore, it seemed only fitting that any explanations for these radar confirmations of UFOs traversing our skies with such intensity prior to the Venus probe’s launch would have to come from a seemingly more “objective” authority. Department of Defense officials in the highest echelons of Washington, D.C. were surely aware that anything that Major Friend would utter would immediately be scorned as just another “white wash,” a continuance of the ongoing UFO cover-up. As such, it fell upon the personnel at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research’s Cambridge In 1962, Americans thought that bathers in laboratory in Bedford, Massachusetts, to come up with the year 2012 would need to check out the some plausible explanation in a news release- and water in their tubs for safe radiation counts before dipping in. They were also concerned pronto! about fluoride in our water supply, and The rocket with the Venus probe was scheduled for even our tooth paste, and the deleterious launch on 22 July, and the Air Force brass knew that effects it might have on our “precious bodily The Venusians could never quite there was a whole lot of explaining that they would fluids.” figure us out back then; and following the need to do insofar as the increasing appearance of results of the 2016 election, might still have UFOs was concerned. Putting their heads together, the their doubts. See https://www.pinterest. researchers at the Cambridge laboratory came up with com/ameliameliorate/a-picture-is-a-poemwithout-words/.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II a somewhat plausible explanation, but barely coming in under the wire with it on 21 July. An Air Force spokesman held a public news conference at their offices in Bedford, Massachusetts, and announced that, “Invisible dimples in the sky may have caused radar reports of flying saucers.” To further enlighten the press corps, the spokesman explained that the dimples may stem from the same process that creates certain types of clouds. The dimples were described as being concave and reflective. They are set in undulating layers of the atmosphere at altitudes up to 6,000 feet. “Radar beams,” declared the spokesman, “are reflected back to Earth by the turbulent air, and give the appearance on a radarscope of an object moving swiftly across the sky. This apparently was what caused the unexplained radar sightings which supporters of the flying saucer theory cited in their attempts to prove the Earth was being circled by strange spacecraft.”254 Geiger Counters Gone Wild!

“Mr. CD” (Civil Defense), as illustrated by “Lil’ Abner” cartoonist Al Capp, encourages citizens to prepare themselves for survival in the aftermath of a thermonuclear war. In 1962, Floridians were concerned about the Soviet presence in Cuba, just ninety miles off their southern shore. Many towns had Civil Defense bomb shelters, fully equipped with Geiger counters and protective clothing. See http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/ DigitalDeliToo/dd2jb-This-IsCivil-Defense.html.

Back on Venus, Queen Ni Nu and the Hierarchy of Light were still unsatisfied as to the intelligence pouring in regarding any possible weaponization of the American Mariner 1 probe. They could not take any chances. Therefore, the deployment of three swoops from the mothership Victory 1 was authorized by the Queen. The swoops, or scout ships as they are sometimes referred to, were to land in a secluded spot in Florida and then experienced Venusian operatives were to release some tiny honey bees volunteering to serve as recon drones in penetrating security at Cape Canaveral and inspecting the Mariner 1 probe close up, and even from the inside. Unfortunately, the Venusian agents were not so lucky, being spotted right away and having to abandon their mission. It was 20 July, just two days before launch of the Venus probe that the three swoops touched down in the small town of Flamingo, Florida, best known as the southernmost headquarters of Everglades National Park, in Monroe County and located at the end of the 99-mile Wilderness Waterway known as the Ten Thousand Islands. A more remote site could not be found in Florida. It seemed like the perfect spot to clandestinely land the swoops. Unfortunately for our Venusian friends, however, there were nine eyewitnesses to the landing, for three park Rangers and six picnickers came running out of the bushes to see what was going on. The Venusians could not afford to remain in the area with all of these witnesses around, and it appeared as though at least one of the Rangers was packing a hand gun. It requires some time to unwrap the bees from the fine, shiny white filament threads that enshroud and protect them through their transit in a swoop. This process

254 “’Flying Saucers’ May Be Dimples of Air, AF Says,” Herald Tribune, New York, New York, 22 July 1962.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus was slow, but required for acclimating the bees to the Earth’s environmental conditions.255 One of the Rangers back at headquarters radioed in that all of the Geiger counters in the civil defense supply closet were “going wild” and asked his comrades, “What the hell is going on out there?”256 Sadly, since the security of the probe could not be determined, it was the unanimous decision of the Queen and her council to scramble the radio guidance codes to the rocket, forcing it to plummet harmlessly into the ocean. Queen Ni Nu remarked, “That Sagan fellow was working on the probe. He’s up to something. Mark my words! What he tried to do to our Luna Base Clarion was inexcusable….” Lord Dysmas replied, “Perhaps our operatives can find out something more before the next launch window closes on the Americans. It’s such a pity that the Earth is divided into so many states, with divided loyalties between the Soviet Union and the United States. If only the peoples of these countries lived in peace one with another, we could have long Lord Dysmas regretted the inability of ago welcomed their peaceful envoys to these realms of Earth’s nations to get along with each other in peace and harmony, thus inhibiting our beauty and happiness here on Abejar.” planet’s entry into the Galactic Federation of Light. See http://sandersonicons.com/ product/st-dismus-the-good-thief/.

Moving Forward with Mariner 2 Subsequent surveillance on the part of Venusian operatives in the two weeks following the Mariner 1 failed mission, revealed no weapons on board the back-up vehicle, Mariner 2, that was scheduled for a launch to Venus on 27 August, barring the arrival of any unforeseen circumstances, of course. The diligent efforts to see the success of the Mariner 2 mission on the parts of both the JPL and NASA paid off. The Time journalist described this happy reversal of events thusly: “This time the launch went perfectly. The Agena second stage, with Mariner 2 in its nose, went smoothly into parking orbit. After 16 minutes, its engine fired again, soaring out on a curving course that would lead to Venus.” A few minutes later, and already out in space, a cluster of exploding pins popped, allowing the spacecraft to spread its wings into the brash sunlight. Telemetry began reaching the JPL’s 85-feet dish antenna in South Africa, almost immediately being relayed to ground control in Pasadena. Crescent Venus Insofar as Venus is closer to the Sun than the Earth, it moves through phases, much like those of the Moon. The first one to take notice of this celestial phenomenon was the Italian astronomer Galileo, in 1610. This observation certainly ranks as one of the most important 255 The presence of so-called “angel’s hair” in the vicinity of a UFO sighting is evidence for a Venusian swoop (nearly 55 feet in diameter bee transport vehicle) having landed in that respective area, possibly releasing the smallest of the Venusian honey bees into the environment as liaisons with Earth hives. 256 George D. Fawcett, “Flying Saucers- Worldwide 1962,” original unpublished article dated 23 January 1963, in his personal files, with copy in my Venus archives.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II made in the history of astronomy. Back in the early seventeenth century, the prevailing view of the solar system was Ptolemaic, that the Earth itself lies at the very center of everything. However, it went to reason that the discovery of phases on Venus went against the Ptolemaic view, and in favor of the theory recently posited by the Polish astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus, that all of the planets of the solar system, including the Earth, orbited around the Sun. Galileo’s observations of the phases of Venus constituted the direct evidence needed to substantiate the Copernican heliocentric theory. Keep in mind, however, that the Mariner 2, at its closest proximity to Venus, was still some 21,000 miles out. Nevertheless, if a human being were to actually see Venus from this same distance and vantage point, what they would see would actually be a spectacular sight, Venus going through its credscent phases. Naturally, however, even from a distance of up to half a million miles out, Venus would be seen as a crescent, but twice as high as the crescent moon. Apart from its high reflectivity, the Time correspondent tells us why this is so: “Even from 500,000 miles, Venus would be a crescent twive as high as the crescent Moon. Because of its high reflectivity and nearness to the Sun, it would be much brighter than any moon. As Mariner 2 swept nearer, its rider would have seen the crescent, growing and thickening, its glare blindingly bright, until it was 35 timeds the diameter of the full Moon as seen from the Earth and more than 13,000 times as brilliant.” Silicon Life Of course, the general public is well aware of Mariner 2’s purported findings that excluded any possibilities for encountering life, at least as we have come to know it, on the planet Venus. But little is known of the top secret meeting that was held in the cafeteria of the JPL almost immediately after the first results from the Mariner 1 were being tallied. Allegedly, it was director Pickering who gave a highly prophetic speech along these general lines: “One day, we at the JPL will successfully land a spacecraft softly on the surface of the Moon. That will serve as a springboard for later soft landings on the surface of Venus and Mars, where we will study or even fight off any kind of life that exists there. That life may be based on an unfamiliar chemistry, perhaps using silicon in place of carbon and some other solvent in place of water. After Mars, comes Jupiter, the monster planet that seems to be bursting with unexplained commotion. “Ranging far out into the solar system, unmanned spacecraft will feel at home in vacuum, be unbothered by radiation, take advantage of weightlessness, get their energy from sunlight as green plants do on Earth. They will perform elaborate maneuvers in response to orders built into their brains, like the instincts of insects, which lead thoroughly successful lives without a trace of reason. Sometimes they will listen with sensitive radio ears for whispers of command from millions or hundreds of millions of miles away. Some of them will send tough-skinned projectiles down into hostile atmosphere and record what they report. Some will land on distant planets and survey the landscape with sharp, electronic eyes. With Mariner’s success to prove it can be done, scientists are now sure that wherever human astronauts may venture, unmanned spacecraft, like Kilroy, will have been there before them.”257 257 “Morning Star,”Time magazine (New York), 8 March 1963.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Mystic Origins of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory But the truth be told, the foundation of the JPL itself, as well as the mystic and occult origins of its founding members, stretch all the way back to Venus herself, both the goddess and the planet named in her honor. For in approaching the midpoint of the twentieth century, some began to dream of reaching Venus via a powerful rocket ship. But there were others thinking of getting there by even more unconventional means, looking into the magic and mystic realms. One in this latter category was the founder of the JPL, the rogue rocketeer Jack Parsons (1914-1952). With World War II successfully concluded, American scientists could afford to spend both the money and time on needed investigations into various areas of the unknown. These investigations included the search for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence in space as well as finding an answer to the strange and erratic appearances of flying saucers in our skies. Naturally, many shortsighted individuals began to think of these endeavors as huge wastes of the American taxpayers’ dollars. These complainers were the persons who believed that the truly crazy ones were the people who pointed radio telescopes into deepest space and searched oh so fruitlessly for alien messages or- better still- claimed contact with the occupants of a landed flying saucer. While Parsons certainly did not dismiss these as valid possibilities and potentially beneficial areas of research, he nevertheless thought that those conducting these investigations were putting the cart before the horse; but how so? Before Parsons ever got into rocketry and the development of the advanced technology that would extend the frontiers of the United States into outer space, he had a long established interest in both science fiction and mysticism. Interestingly, when an author combines these two fields into a literary work, the synthesis is something that, in my opinion, comes across as a North American version of “magic realism.” Ever since Parsons was twelve years old, he was an avid reader of Amazing Stories pulp fiction magazine, of which Hugo Gernsback was the first editor. Gernsback was an ardent utopian socialist refugee from Luxumbourg who started the publication in 1926 with the express purpose of promoting his visions of the future. Amazing Stories was the first magazine devoted to space fantasies. Gernsback posted the magazine’s motto across its masthead: “Extravagant Fiction Today…. Cold Fact Tomorrow.” And in accordance with his philosophy, all of the stories contained in the pages of Amazing Stories would be duly classified as “scientifiction.” In the very first issue of Amazing Stories, Gernsback even took the time and space to define this new term: “By ‘scientifiction,” I mean the Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Edgar Allen Poe type of story- a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic vision.” This was totally revolutionary in the literary universe. For countless millennia, it had always been the characters or plot that occupied center stage in any story; but now Gernsback was going to shift the balance over to the landscape in which the story takes place (such as another planet or alternate dimension) as well as the technological setting (a rocket ship or time machine, perhaps). So the stories appearing in his pulp magazine were not only going to prove to be tremendously interesting to read, but also illuminating and instructive, all at the same time. The editor explained it this way: “They (the authors) supply the knowledge that we might not otherwise obtain- and they supply it in a very palpable form. For the best of these modern writers of scientification have the knack of imparting knowledge, and even inspiration, without once making us aware that we are being taught.”258 258 George Pendle, Strange Angel (Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc., 2005), 37, with quotes by Gernsback from Amazing Stories, April 1926, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, New York.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II Both Parsons and the prolific writer, L. Ron Hubbard, were members of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS). The organization recently celebrated its 82nd anniversary on 27 October 2016. It is the world’s oldest living and continuously operating science fiction club. And like any other group, the LASFS did not just form spontaneously from a vacuum. It required the support of an organized science fiction fandom. Fortunately, and thanks to the foresight of the editorial board of the pioneering science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, the apparatus was already in place to make this happen. Amazing Stories began monthly publication in April 1926. In its “Discussions” column, it was noted for the then revolutionary step of not only printing the opinions, praise and criticisms of its readers, but also their full addresses. Clearly, fantasy and science fiction rejoiced in their newfound kindred. Fred Patten, the current resident historian of the LASFS, recently wrote that, “Many early fans, most of high school and college age, began writing to each other. Within a few years, a group of two or three hundred of these pen pals around North America and Britain had formed a loose social association.Some organized more formally.A Science Correspondence Club was started during 1928, and began publishing a club magazine, The Comet, in May 1930.By the early 1930s several of the more literate fans, individually or in collaboration, started their own amateur magazines in emulation of the professional SF magazines.The prevailing attitude and sense of purpose of these early fans and fanzines was the serious advancement of science fiction.”259 The earliest known and localized science fantasy club in the United States was The Scienceers in New York City. The first public meeting of this group was convened on 11 December 1929. Basically, the Scienceers established the pattern for other science fantasy clubs that would follow. It published its own fanzine, The Planet, with the first issue coming out in July 1930. And in addition to providing an outlet for the publication of amateur fiction and popular science articles, The Planet reported on the meetings and social activities of the club, even publishing the organizational Were George Adamski’s fantastic claims agenda and minutes. Copies of The Planet were mailed fact or fiction? Did he actually take a ride in a space ship to the Moon and other to its base of subscribers in local fandom, and far planets? Some say it was just a rewrite of a beyond by way of exchange copies. A vast network previously published science fiction book. was thereby established; and it encouraged many fans The Polish born contactee shocked the American public in the early 1950s claiming to start similar clubs in their own cities. After a few to have “hard evidence” that a number of months or maybe years, these clubs would drift apart planets in our solar system harbored life and that the occupants of these worlds were as their adolescent members, overwhelmingly male, very human in appearance. According to developed other interests. Adamski, the flying saucer occupants have been visiting us at least since Biblical times.

259 Fred Patten, “LASFS History,” 2008, Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, Van Nuys, California, http://www.lasfsinc. info///index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=56&Itemid=154 (Accessed 6 September 2016).

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Nevertheless, there were always some science fantasy clubs to inspire and enlist new fans. It is out of this miasma of science fantasy that we find the roots of the early rocketeers, with researchers like Parsons in the forefront; the emergence of a powerful comic book fan base, epitomized by the likes of Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster out of Cleveland, the creators of Superman;260 as well as the leading lights of the flying saucer contactee movement, most specifically George Adamski, who before he wrote his best-selling books of authentic extraterrestrial encounters, attended meetings of the LASFS where he was inspired to take a stab at writing and publishing science fiction under the tutelage of more seasoned authors in the genre. Adamski’s claims are based upon a firsthand encounter with an extraterrestrial named Orthon in the California desert in the first half of the decade of the 1950s, as previously described in this book and his own book, Flying Saucers Have Landed (1953). Adamski actually held meetings with notables such as the Pope and the Queen of the Netherlands. In these he discussed with them his supposed flights into space long before the first Russian cosmonaut ever went aloft. In addition, the contactee provided a set of flying saucer photos taken at his home only a few scant miles away from the base of the world famous Mount Palomar Observatory. The publc, for the most part, seemed to be impressed with the photographs and sincerely felt them to be authentic. Over the years, Adamski’s legion of followers increased in size as if by magic, quite exponentially. But as with any prophet, there were doubters and scoffrers. These were the ones who decried Adamski as a fraud and his photos as fake, just crude hoaxes. These detractors even went so far as to point out that his first book was labeled as just a “science fiction novel.” It was originally published in 1949 and was entitled Pioneers in Space: A Trip to the Moon, Mars and Venus. Originals of the work are nearly impossible to discover today, but copies can be ordered through Global Communications of New Brunswick, New Jersey. This reprinted edition includes some of Adamski’s earlier metaphysical writings on Cosmic Philosophy from the Royal Order of Tibet, in addition to a reprint of a 1951 Fate magazine article with some flying saucer and mothership photographs taken from the front yard of Adamski’s Palomar Gardens, California, home with a special camera attachment to his eight-inch refracting telescope. Now Adamski’s first sightings of a UFO took place on 8 and 9 October 1946 at his ashram in Palomar Gardens, California. But this was the first of numerous sightings leading up to his 260 Choosing any random minutes, I noted that for the LASFL meeting 4092 of 14 January 2016, member David Okamura stated that, “I have evidence of Bruce Pelz and three other members of the LASFS at the 1962 convention in Chicago. The four were in costume as the Justice Society of America. He reported on this in Alter Ego #6.” And for the same minutes, “Karl Lembke recalled having seen a reference to a card for an essay on the properties of kryptonite, written by J. Olson….” Jimmy Olsen was Superman’s closest pal, a bow-tie sporting cub reporter for the Daily Planet. Jimmy makes his debut on the 15 April 1940 Adventures of Superman radio program aired over WOR in New York City. One year later, Siegel and Shuster incorporated Jimmy as a regular character in the Superman stories appearing in the pages of Action Comics. Something like this can make you wonder if the characters in the comic books were actually inspired by authentic people, i.e. a real Mr. J. Olson writes an essay about kryptonite for delivery at a meeting of the LASFS, and this is somehow overheard or passed on to the writers of the Superman radio program, who name this fictional reporter the similarly-sounding “Jimmy Olsen.” These are just two examples from one meeting of the LASFS indicative of how comicdom and sci-fi fandom both nourish and feed-off each other. A good historian, with sufficient time on her or his hands, of course, could follow up any one of those two leads and probably unearth an amazing story, or maybe even come up with a best-selling book about either one. For my own connection to the evolution of sci-fi, UFO, and comic book writer Otto Binder’s Supergirl, an account is provided in Book III of this trilogy, Cosmic Ray’s Excellent Venus Adventure. Imagine the fertile minds of rocket science, exobiology, the mystic arts, comic books, science fiction, flying saucer contactees, etc., gathering each Thursday night to share ideas at the meetings of the LASFS, or afterwards in a nearby coffee shop into the wee hours of the morning. Time to dust off the old time machine! -Cosmic Ray

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Raymond Andrew Keller II ultimate encounter with Orthon and the other space brothers and sisters. The largest number of UFOs that Adamski witnessed at any one time occurred in 1947. He claimed that he saw 184 flying saucers passing over his property in Palomar, but in a perfect formation segmented into waves of 32. One could say that Adamski’s preoccupation with everything “outer space” was multiplying exponentially at this time; and by 1949 he completes Pioneers in Space, a speculative novel on what life would be like for an individual who was in real contact with UFOs and even flew with the inhabitants of the Moon, Mars and Venus on numerous occasions in their spacecraft. However, insofar as the Venusians have telepathic abilities, it would not surprise me if they were exercising their powers of mind and channeling all the information about flying saucers, life in outer space and Venus to the eager and awaiting mind of Adamski. The space people were mentally preparing Adamski for what he was bound to experience first hand.261 Yes, the Venusians and other intelligent beings from various sectors of outer space are communicating with people on Earth through ESP and hypnotism. Dr. R. Leo Sprinkle, a retired professor of psychology at the University of Wyoming at Laramie and the author of the introduction to Venus Rising, confided that he once conducted screening tests of 82 random individuals from a wide cross section of countries and that these revealed that many of the testees thought they were actually being observed by extraterrestrials; and that these same aliens were attempting to communicate with them through mental telepathy. Sprinkle noted that most of the randomly-selected interviewees came from middle class homes and most claimed to have at least spotted aerial objects that have mystified them in the past. Even those who could not recall having seen a UFO still believed that at times they were receiving mental messages from space aliens. When Sprinkle probed deeper into the alleged contacts with extraterrestrials, asking for their initial impressions in these mental contacts, the interviewees responded that they could visualize the UFO occupants in dreams or visions, while others said they could only discern a voice, as if it were beamed directly into their head from some outside source. “Under hypnosis,” asserted Sprinkle, “subjects were often able to reveal greater details of their experiences.” The scientist added that, “One man in Denver claimed he had seen a flying saucer- with a man standing by the craft and motioning him to come up a ladder that reached to the ground. “When he repeated his story under hypnosis, he became very frightened and upset, as if he were still being told mentally that the UFO’s occupants wanted him to go with him. It was as if he were still acting under hypnotic suggestion from them.” The doctor further explained that most people reported their mental contacts simply as voices they “hear in their minds.” As early as 1974, when Sprinkle was serving on a National Enquirer Blue-Ribbon Panel on UFOs with Dr. J Allen Hynek (astronomer, Northwestern University), Dr. Frank B. Salisbury (plant physiologist, University of Utah), Dr. James Harder (engineer, University of California at Berkeley); Dr. Robert F. Creegan (philosopher, State University of New York at Albany), as well as representatives of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, the Mutual UFO Network and the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, he confided to Harold Lewin, an Enquirer observing member of the panel, that, “If there is one thing that emerges loud and clear from my research, it’s that some kind of communication is going on. My research, while not conclusive, indicates enough evidence to warrant more in-depth studies of the whole question of communication with life in 261 Keller, Venus Rising, 68.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus outer space.”262 In light of Dr. Sprinkle’s pertinent study, it makes one wonder just how much of so-called “science fiction” is actually science fact, with the writers being inspired from the genuine reception of mental telepathic messages from extraterrestrials. Lady Encara once discussed this very issue with me. While taking some time to fly me out on a tour of the weather control station in the Lamara Republic at the South Pole of Venus, she casually remarked that, “It never ceases to amaze me that our Earth brothers and sisters don’t believe in their own ability to expand their consciousness. If they did, they would soon realize that they possess the same psychic powers that most humanoids, scattered throughout the galaxy and beyond, are known to have. If they really think that aliens act as they (the humans) do and that they possess even the slightest inclination to cater to human notions of ‘high-tech communication,’ so-called, to first make contact with Earth’s scientists and their latest batch of tinker toys, then they are sadly mistaken. We would not risk compromising our presence and positions with such modes of communication, as we know there are many on Earth who would just as soon hunt us down and kill us. The majority of Venusians may simply establish contact with select and friendly individuals in that finest of receivers, the human brain, via tensor beam direct transmissions or enhanced mental telepathy across the expanse of outer space, or even close up, like Lady Orda did in her initial meeting with the great Adamski. “From time-to-time,” Lady Encara concluded that “we have jammed or overridden your primitive modes of communication, but only in cases of dire emergency or when so directed to do so by the reigning Queen, the Hierarchy of Light or the Abejan Hive Collective.” Even moreso than at UFO events, Venus Rising always sells out every copy brought to various beekeepers’ meetings and conventions. The beekeepers are well aware of the mental superiority of bees. They also recognize that what I wrote about Venus’ bees may also find its parallels with some bees on Earth. Besides bees that make their home in the superheated volcanic ash piled up on the slopes of Nicaragua’s volcanoes, a species of bumble bee that grows to the size of a large mouse has also been discovered. THE “BUZZ” ON BUFF-TAILED BUMBLE BEES Naturally, a discovery of this magnitude has caused a big buzz, heard around the world’s scientific community. Lon Strickler, in his Phantoms and Monsters blog of 21 April 2010,263 introduced his readers to the buff-tailed bumble bee: “Bumble bees as big as ‘flying mice’ have been spotted by nature lovers across the country, it was claimed yesterday…. ‘All the queen bees have come out with the fabulous weather and they’re very obvious as they fly low looking for food and a site to nest,’ said Natural History Museum entomologist Stuart Hine…. ‘Only the far larger queen bees and wasps hibernate to survive the winter, with the smaller workers and males dying in the autumn,’ he said.” 262 Harold Lewin, “Top Scientist Believes… Beings from Outer Space Are Communicating with People on Earth Through ESP,” National Enquirer, 21 December 1974, New York, New York 263 http://www.phantomsandmonsters.com/2010_04_18_archive.html (Accessed 14 January 2017).

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Raymond Andrew Keller II Strickler further explained that the buff-tailed bumble bee is a widespread and common bumble bee, with the large, conspicuous overwintered queens often among the first bumble bees to appear in spring, usually in late February/early March. Unfortunately, nectar sources are scarce at this time. Stickler reports that, “The buff-tails are black with a dull yellow band just in front of the wings, and another across the middle of the body. The abdomen of the queen is buff colored; but workers are very similar to white-tailed bumble bees. This species nests below ground.” Strickler, one of North America’s premiere crypto-zoologists, noted that, “Only the young fertilized queens survive the winter, having hibernated in a protected place such as a hole or under moss. They emerge in spring, each queen starting up her own colony or taking over an existing colony. The queen makes pots of wax and pollen into which the first eggs are laid. After about three weeks, the first infertile female workers emerge and take over the nectar and pollen gathering and cell building, while the queen concentrates on egg laying. The larvae are reared on pollen and nectar. The males appear in summer and towards the end of this season, both male and female bumble bees fly out and mate. Males are not allowed to re-enter the nest after mating and soon die. The fertilized queen will then start searching for a safe place to hibernate, but both the workers and the old queen die with the first frosts or spell of cold weather.” There are numerous types of bees and stinging insects on Venus (Abejar), so the space traveler needs to be aware of the varieties to be encountered there and the protocols to be carried out when running into them. Brief descriptions of some of the major stinging insect groups will appear in the last chapter. But now let us return to the complex and convoluted, mystic origins of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the role that science fiction afecianados and sundry occultists played in its early years. Los Angeles Science Fiction League In May 1934, however, the science fantasy magazine Wonder Stories announced the creation of the Science Fiction League (SFL), an international science fantasy club which was to be coordinated through a column in the magazine. Those members living in the same city were encouraged to get together and start their own branch of the SFL. While the first SFL chapters were on the East Coast, it should be duly noted that on Saturday, 27 October 1934, seven Los Angeles SFL members and two guests met in the garage of SFL brother E. C. Reynolds. These nine science fiction fans sent a letter to Wonder Stories requesting permission to become an official SFL chapter. And so the Los Angeles Science Fiction League (LASFL) was granted a charter dated 13 November 1934. The club had three prior charters; but these were only local in authority and scope. Of this prolific and volatile period, Patten writes: “The LASFL met irregularly during its first year. This changed when Forrest (Forry) J. Ackerman (1916-2008), a hyper-enthusiastic L.A. fan who was in college in San Francisco at the time, returned home at the beginning of 1936 and quickly became the club’s most active member. Bolstered by Forry’s efforts, LASFL began meeting regularly every other Thursday in February 1936, increasing to the first four Thursdays of the month in January 1939 and every Thursday in July 1942. He became the nucleus of a group of similarly enthusiastic young fans such as Walter Daugherty, T. Bruce Yerke, Paul Freehafer, Ray Bradbury, and Ray Harryhausen who transformed the LASFL from a tiny literary discussion club into a lively social group.They invited all SF authors visiting 251

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Most, but not all, extraterrestrials have evolved to the point where they can manifest extra-sensory perceptions, such as mental telepathy. See http://www.clareultimo.com/blog/from-texting-to-telepathy-or-saying-so-littleyou-can-finally-shut-up.html.

or living in Los Angeles to come to the LASFL. Arthur J. Burks, Robert A. Heinlein, Jack Williamson, Henry Kuttner, and other celebrities accepted the invitation.” Forry, it seems, was largely responsible for holding the LASFL together throughout the 30s and all through the 1950s. He was particularly active in helping the LASFL publish its own mimeographed fanzines. These issues were full of humorous, pun-filled reviews and parodies of current sci-f. In addition, they included discussions of the LASFL’s picnics, holiday parties and group outings to scientific lectures at Cal Tech or the local planetarium in addition to the club meetings. Parsons was the first forge these links between the club, Cal Tech, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Patten believes that, “These soon established the LASFL’s reputation throughout budding SF fandom as ‘Shangri-L.A.’; a paradise for young SF fans. This reputation helped L.A. fandom win the World Science Fiction Convention for 1942 (postponed until 1946 due to World War II).” Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS) took over when the parent Science Fiction League began to fall apart in the late 1930s. At that time, Forry aided the club to stay alive by declaring its independence on 27 March 1940. It was renamed the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS). Forry himself remained engaged in the club’s activities for the next two decades, although he seldom held a formal club office. Nevertheless, he was always there to keep things moving while others came and went. Forrest Ackerman was right on top of everything and became known as “Mr. LASFS” for thirty years. By the time he stopped participating regularly in the mid-1960s Ackerman left a firmly established club in place. 252

Raymond Andrew Keller II The LASFS went through many changes before settling in on the powerful group it has become today in the second decade of the twenty-first century. In the thirties we saw the split of science fiction fandom. For the most part, the technicians were in charge. Some say that science fiction fandon in the 1930s, on the other hand, was dominated just as much today by the fraternity bales of city campuses than women. But as we advance into the early Forties, the club almost self-destructed due to fannish politics. Cliques and factions battled, thereby attempting to impeach club officers, arguing endlessly over trivial differences of opinion, and setting up rival local science fiction clubs.At the same time, with World War II in progress and most science fiction fans over 18 in the Armed Services, the LASFS took on the atmosphere of a fannish United Service Organization. Los Angeles was a major embarkation center for soldiers and sailors shipping out into the Pacific, and LASFS members were always ready to stop fighting long enough to greet and play host to fans in uniform passing through Los Angeles to the to the front. L. Ron Hubbard Joins the Society After the war, many members of the society were taking steps toward becoming serious writers of science fiction. An aura of professionalism shined throughout the group. Many former fans were taking their first steps toward attaining recognition as emergent writers in the science fiction universe. Among these were A. E. van Vogt, Ross Rocklynne, E. Everett Evans, Paul Freehafer and L. Ron Hubbard, who would later go on to establish Dianetics and then to found the Church of Scientology. One of the major accomplishments of the LASFS in the late 1940s was the creation of the annual West Coast Science Fantasy Conference (Westercon). And with Hollywood so near, the Los Angeles area became the epicenter for science fiction activities, with the annual World Science Fiction Convention being held there for the first time in 1946. Enter the Magician In the latter half of the 1940s and early years of the 1950s, Venus was the most popular planet for runaway speculation at the science fiction club meetings being held throughout southern California. After all, it is Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor and resembles our world in so many ways. And then there is that thick atmosphere that hides from astronomical observation more than 99 percent of the Venusian surface. Just imagine what exotic forms of life the first astronauts to Venus would encounter! After World War II, with the dawn of the Atomic Age and the appearance of vast numbers of flying saucers in our intermediate skies and the huge motherships at the fringes of our atmosphere, many students of this phenomenon, congregating in the LASFS and other emergent occult, science fiction and flying saucer study groups, began to speculate that perhaps the Venusians were the ones piloting these mysterious craft. In the mid-1940s, Adamski feels impelled to write his first science fiction novel about contact with Venusians in the California desert. Besides the mental telepathic impulses of Lady Orda transmitted to Adamski’s brain, he may also have been inspired in his new writing career after hearing of L. Ron Hubbard’s alleged encounter with a real and beautiful Venusian woman out in the Mojave, a story that the prolific Hubbard never tired of repeating at the meetings of the LASFS. Fellow LASFS member and Cal Tech rocket scientist John “Jack” Whiteside Parsons (19141952) wanted to meet a Venusian, just like his friend and then roommate Hubbard allegedly 253

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus did, with all of his heart. Parsons knew that rockets would one day carry humans to the Moon, Venus and beyond, but assumed it probably would not happen in his lifetime. There had to be a quicker way, a way to summon the Venusians to Earth, especially since he couldn’t go to Venus. As it turned out, both Parsons and Hubbard came across the local branch of the British occultist Aleister Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientis, whence they joined and quickly mastered the Enochian alphabet and rose to positions of leadership within the southern California structure of the organization. There are various rites that can be performed for the summoning of Venusian and other entities, calling them forth from the etheric plane of Dimension X into our present space-time continuum, thereby contravening the physical laws of our universe. It is evident that Parsons succeeded in this endeavor, for we learn that in 1946, after successfully crafting a certain Rite of Venus based on the teachings of Crowley, he managed to invoke an aspect of Lady Venus’ elemental presence first out in the desert and second, in his life. For the reader’s own welfare, however, I provide you with the following advice from some of the masters in The Vril-yaren arrived on Venus from the the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn: “But above Aldebaran star system some 25,000,000 ago. Possessing the power to tap all, never attempt these Magic Arts if there be any years into the energy fields of dark matter resentment in the mind, anger, or any evil passion; accumulated along the orbital paths of for if you do, the more you succeed, the greater will inner planets, the Vril-yaren became a be the evil that will follow for yourself.”264 Therefore, near invincible power in our solar system for millions of years before being wiped my recommendation is akin to that of George Adamski, out from a plague induced by the meteor that being that the seeker not take any short cuts into the bombardment of the Venusian surface that churned up long buried microorganisms etheric realms without proper training and initiation. into the atmosphere for which they had no immunity. See http://www.getlinkyoutube. com/watch?v=lTXLdLJXXVk.

264 G. H. Frater, D.D.C.F., “Flying Roll XI” in Francis King, editor, Astral Projection, Ritual Magic, and Alchemy: Golden Dawn Material by S. L. MacGregor Mathers and Others (Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books, 1987), 78. In the Golden Dawn tradition, fluidity, like water, is assigned to the planet Venus (Daleth), which swims in an ocean of highly-charged energies emanating from dark matter that permeate in areas along the orbits of bodies closer to the Sun and other star bodies, sometimes referred to as the Vril force, and so named after the first human settlers on Venus from the Aldebaran star system some 25,000,000 years ago, the Vrilyaren. Aldebaran is a giant orange star in the Taurus constellation, approximately 65 light years distant from our solar system. At first, the Vril-yaren channeled and mastered this Vril energy for the benefit of all. But with the passing of time, many became corrupt, enslaving and performing genetic manipulation experiments on many of their new human neighbors arriving from yet other planetary systems, like the Norcans and the Pleidians, ones similar to themselves and fleeing the Draconian onslaught in their own natal star sectors. By the advent of the Great One, known as The Scientist, about 18,500,000 years ago, the Vril-yaren had long since disappeared in a meteor bombardment of Venus that released a deadly virus into the atmosphere to which they had no immunity. As a rather strange twist of fate, the genetic experiments performed on other species of humans ensured their survival, insomuch as the fusion of human and insect DNA (primeraly bee) permitted them to adopt to the evolution of new environmental systems on and under the Venusian (Abejan) surface, as well as in the changing composition of the Abejan atmosphere. The new Abejan race continued on in a symbiotic relationship with the sundry species of bees in the Abejan Hive Collective, reorganizing their respective societies on Abejar after the order of the bee hive. The name of the planet, which is actually Abejar, signifies the “world of bees.” The Scientist reintroduced the principles by which the Abejans could master the technology required to access the Vril, much as the Vril-yaren had once done countless eons ago. Combining Abejan bee magic with the Vril power of science and technology, the Abejans have become one of the most formidable species in our star sector of the Milky Way Galaxy.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II A Revealing Blog A blog writer who simply goes by the name of “Zak” recently published an entry entitled “Jack Parsons and the Curious Origins of the American Space Program.” Zak describes himself as a contactee with a group of extraterrestrial time travelers from our future’s timeline that identify themselves as the Hoovas. From the blog entry we learn that Zak is a young man residing in southern California who clearly relishes all aspects of his life there. Of the Golden State, Zak writes, “I’ve never been out of California much, really. But so what? It has everything--the beach, the mountains, the desert, and up north the forests.” Hey, I’m with you, bro. Gotta keep livin’ the dream, that’s what I say. Of his own background, Zak elucidates: “I am not a mystic. I’ve never cared for religion or spiritual things, at least before now. I dropped out of synagogue when I turned thirteen and refused to attend anymore. My mother was always trying to send me off on one of the summer programs to work on a kibbutz in Israel, but she couldn’t make me go. Oh, I like working. I like tinkering with real things, using my hands. I enjoy construction, and mechanical projects. But there was an abundance of summer jobs right here in Los Angeles, where I could be with my friends. I am an American. Yeah, maybe a bit alienated because I am a Jew, but not as half alienated as I feel toward my own family when they try to force me into modes I didn’t want. We never could have French wine at home. Some offense the French committed against the Jews or Israel--I forget what. She--my mother--went out of her way to buy imported Israeli wines. Awful stuff. That’s why I don’t care for wine much, I guess.” He further states that, “I am a down-to-earth kind of guy, and so are most of my friends. I didn’t suddenly become a raving lunatic just because I started talking to spaceships.” Zak, realizing that the phrase “talking to spaceships,” might be perceived as somewhat awkward and confusing, clarified his relationship with the extraterrestrial intelligence: “I didn’t ask to be contacted by the Hoova messengers. Nor do I think I am someone special to be communicating with them. The prophet Jeremiah was called from the womb, so it is said, but I doubt I would have ever become involved if I hadn’t been working on the roof that day. They told me they dwell in spaceships, which they wear like mechanical bodies, and that they come from our own future. Why would they lie? But even if they lie, who could explain their ability to keep track of my own activities, my own thoughts? If this is all a trick by some group, they must have an army of surveillance people. I don’t believe it’s possible. And if it were possible, why would they care about me? And no, I am never looking or listening when the messages appear on my answering machine. But if this is a hoax or a prank, why does the answering machine tape often erase itself, or even disappear entirely, while I am still in the room? No one has come and gone, and I have felt no chills from passing ghosts.” In my estimation, that Zak does not think he is someone special to receive such communications and that he chooses to remain somewhat anonymous adds credibility to his story. Also, the Venusians from higher dimensions have used similar words in explaining their condition while operating in Earth’s atmosphere, sundry climes and slightly higher gravitation, as taking on “spacesuits,” when referring to their fleshy coverings that allow them to appear as much as possible like ordinary, indigenous Earth humans would look.265 265 See the excellent article by Marla Baxter (wife of contactee Howard Menger), “Life Form from Outer Space,” Fantastic Universe, October 1959, New York, New York, for an outstanding description of this process and real-life examples of encounters with such transformational entities from Venus, the Saturn system and other celestial worlds. Marla’s descriptions nearly match those of Zak in that the ETs/ultradimensionals can go from a blob of light into assuming the form of a human body, a flying saucer/spaceship or any other configuration they desire! The article even provides photographic evidence to prove all of this.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus At this point, Zak needs to talk to someone about these unique experiences he is having with the extraterrestrial time travelers, if that is what they are. He has a friend, Jeff, who is a cabbalist, so perhaps this more psychically-open individual may have the answers that Zak is seeking. After all, Zak surmises that any cabbalist worth his salt isn’t going to outright dismiss the notion of space and time traveling Hoovas. Zak called Jeff and made an appointment to meet him at his apartment to discuss these matters. Here’s a summary of the dialogue that went down between Jeff and Zak, following Zak’s revelations about his Hoova encounters: Jeff: Don’t you know what happens to most people who get involved with elementals? (Jeff pauses and then answers his own question.) Their lives are usually ruined. They lose their job, their friends, their wives/husbands/lovers. Their business goes bankrupt. Often they themselves go insane, or end up in some abandoned hole where whatever is chasing them can’t find them, writing their revolutionary manuscripts that are going to overthrow current notions of science or revoke the rules of society so humans live by the same conventions the spirits live by. Zak: (He is clearly annoyed that Jeff is talking about spirits.) Look, this is science. The spaceships come from the future, and they are controlled by humans…. future humans who live inside the electronics of the spaceships themselves, flying saucers, not angels. Jeff: There are parallel realities. When something oozes through the barriers between them, when humans make contact with the other, their nervous systems are not equipped to deal with something so alien to this space-time. So they interpret the phenomena in terms familiar to them, ending up with explanations that are rife with contradictions, but which are now an embedded memory, the mind’s best attempt to impose order on chaos. Spaceships, angels and demons, fairies, elementals, strange animals--these are all flawed human interpretations. (Jeff pauses momentarily.) Look, Zak, have you ever heard of Jack Parsons? Zak: Yeah. Who in southern California doesn’t know about him? He was one of the founders of the JPL and the Aerojet Corporation. Jeff: That’s right, Zak. But there’s a lot more to the story. Parsons had been doing magic experiments in the Mojave Desert. Shortly thereafter, this was the same area where George Adamski had met a Venusian, and spaceships from Venus. And then after that Kenneth Arnold saw flying disks up in the Northwest in July 1947 and the flying saucer age began. Parsons opened a hole in the fabric of space-time and something flew in. I think you’re playing with fire, my friend. Zak: Now you’ve got me intrigued. I’m really surprised by all of this. What else can you tell me, Jeff? Jeff: Parsons had been trying to invoke a goddess named Babalon. Apparently one aspect of Babalon was Aphrodite, or Venus. And George Adamski had met a “Venusian” and even traveled on their spaceships, so it kind of fit. Zak: OK, I’m impressed so far. But what do you mean by “kind of fit?” Jeff: Well, later I read about the great “airship” wave of 1897, and I wasn’t so convinced anymore. The airship wave happened all over the western part of the U.S. It was like a UFO wave, except instead of modern spaceships there were dirigibles, and this was consistent with the technology of the time. Sometimes people would come

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Raymond Andrew Keller II out of the airships, tell people they were from Kansas, and this was an experimental aircraft, and so on, all of which would later prove out false, but sounded so reasonable to the people who were observers. But sometimes there were other, alien, creatures in the blimps, and once a farmer saw an airship trying to lift one of his cows up inside with a sort of hoisting belt. When the farmer gave pursuit, the airship dropped the cow, and the farmer later lodged a complaint with the local sheriff. Zak: So what about it? There was this UFO wave 50 years before Arnold’s sighting…. Jeff: (He takes about 30 seconds to think it over.) Yes, well there were occasional bleed-throughs between realities because of terrestrial or solar events, just like there were sometimes in ritual magic, like the kind Parsons practiced. But these holes opened and closed again. What Parsons had done was create a permanent rip. Zak: I guess this makes sense. I mean, it’s possible…. I’m still somewhat suspicious, though. But I must admit that you also made me question whether I should take Hoova at face value. Jeff: (He goes over to his bookcase.) Zak, I’m giving you this important book, Passport to Magonia, by a Frenchman named Jacque Vallee. Vallee seemed to show that Irish encounters with “fairies” had all the aspects of what modern people reported as contact with UFO occupants. Zak: Thank you for the book, Jeff. I think I’ll find it interesting. Jeff: (He flips the pages and puts his index finger down on an unspecified page.) Look, here’s a picture of “Lam,” an elemental Aleister Crowley had been in contact with, from his magical workings. Remember that Crowley was Parson’s mentor. Well, Crowley’s Lam sketch had appeared in a Greenwich Village art exhibit in 1919. Lam looked like one of the “grays” of UFO lore, with that ovalshaped head. However, since the eyes are closed in this particular portrait, you won’t be able to see the big cat eyes normally associated with the grays. Zak: I’ll have to admit that all of this has got me thinking. But I still think it is important for me to interact with Hoova. It’s hard to explain. Well, perhaps it’s like in the Tanach where there were all these stories about interactions with the gods or angels or Yahweh or whoever. But these were just old stories that were already distorted before they were written down. And then they got edited and edited again, and the Baal’s crossed out and Yahweh inserted, or vice-versa, and who knew what it all meant? Jeff: Well, Zak, I hope you know what you’re This is Aleister Crowley’s portrait of an doing. Please let me know what you think after elemental being. Although sketched in reading Vallee’s book though, OK? 1919, the entity closely resembles one of the contemporary grays reported in close encounters of the third kind UFO cases. See http://www.boudillion.com/lam/lam.htm.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Zak: Thank you, Jeff, for taking your time and seeing me. You’ve already helped me immensely. I’ll give you a book report as soon as I finish with Vallee. Zak was true to his word and zipped through the book in just two days. Despite everything his friend Jeff advised him of, Zak came to the conclusion that he was going to continue his contacts with the Hoova. In his blog, he writes that: “But here I was dealing with the source--or at least some source. If you want to call it the other, then I was in contact with the other. And the way to learn about it, it seemed to me, was to play with it. To perturb the system, as computer people might say. I’m not much into computers, so let me use another analogy. Say you wanted to learn about a cat. Some idiots would say: Let’s dissect the cat. That way we can observe its internal catness. Others will say: Show me the evidence of this cat. Give me some fur. Let me measure and do a chemical analysis of this alleged cat fur. But the way to learn what a cat is all about is to play with it: To feed it and not feed it; to watch it creep up on a bird through the grass; to watch it move to the one spot in the room where the sun is coming through the window. Interaction and observation.” So what did Zak learn from Vallee’s book, Passport to Magonia? It at least sparked his imagination enough to go on and read other works by Vallee, but most significantly the Frenchman’s Invisible College. After reading it, Zak notes that he got a “better handle on things.” Zak explained that Vallee called UFOs a “control mechanism.” Their function, as best as Zak could understand, was to “change people’s beliefs.” Vallee’s calling it a control mechanism is what gave Zak the confidence to continue his attempts at communicating with the Hoova. Zak, not wanting Jeff to think he thought himself to be some kind of holy man or latterday prophet, told his friend that, “I’m probing the mechanism as it probes me,” rationalizing it all by announcing that, “I’m trying to figure out what it’s all about.” Still not sure that Jeff was buying into it, he added that, “I’ll be cautious about doing anything I don’t want to do.”266 Jeff: Good luck with that, buddy; and God’s guidance and protection in your endeavor…. “No rocket goes as far astray as man.” —Robert Lowell John “Jack” Whiteside Parsons was born in Los Angeles, California, on 2 October 1914, coincidentally the same day that Charles Taze Russell of Jehovah’s Witnesses had predicted, four years earlier, would be the end of the world- at least as it had come to be known. When everyone woke up on 3 October 1914, to just another day, the leadership in Jehovah’s Witnesses announced that the date was still Biblically significant because it marked the beginning of an age of persecution for the true believers worldwide. They

Jack Parsons and Marjorie Cameron dressed in temple garb for Thelemic Rite of Venus. See https://kaltek. files.wordpress.com/2009/07/ parsonscameroncrowns300dpi2.jpg?w=740.

266 Zak, the Magician, “Jack Parsons and the Curious Origins of the American Space Program,” Laissez Faire City Times, Vol. 2, No. 40, 30 November 1998, https://billstclair.com/grabbe/Jpar16.htm (Accessed 15 January 2017).

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Raymond Andrew Keller II should henceforth be on guard as the forces of False Religion, represented by the great harlot known as Babylon the Great, would soon be coming down on their heads like mustard to a hot dog. Soon after his birth, the Parsons moved to Pasadena, where he was raised an only child. Young Jack had few friends growing up. He would compensate for this by burying his head in books of fantasy and science fiction, whence he dreamed of traveling in a rocket to the Moon, Venus and Mars. He was particularly fond of the writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs and his John Carter of Mars series. Carter, you may recall, was a Civil War veteran who could magically bilocate himself Jack Parsons was born on the very day to the planet Barsoom (Mars), where he became a that Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide were great warrior at the service of a beautiful princess. This expecting the end of the world to come may have been the first time that Parsons considered about through the long-expected cosmic battle of Armageddon. See http://www. metaphysical principles. For example, in Hermetic jwfacts.com/watchtower/1800s.php. Order of the Golden Dawn, the adept comes to learn that, “Believe theyself there and thou art there.” It is easy to see how this principle corresponds nicely with the bilocation adventures of John Carter, simultaneously on Earth and Barsoom. Apart from being a practitioner of the Occult Arts in the Thelemite cult of Aleister Crowley, Parsons is most well known for inventing the first rocket engine to use a castable, composite propellant and for his pioneering work in the advancement of both liquid and solid fuel rockets. Jack’s love of science fiction propelled him into amateur rocketry. Together with his one close friend Ed Forman, in 1928 they began to conduct model rocket experiments in the woods behind Jack’s home. This love of rockets would endure as Jack enrolled in sundry classes of astronomy, chemistry, engineering, physics, or anything to do with science. Due to the financial hardships imposed on nearly everyone during the Great Depression, however, Jack dropped out of both Pasadena Junior College and Stanford University in 1934, moving over to the Caltech affiliatedGuggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory (GALCIT) Rocket Research Group, then being formed and chaired by pioneer rocketeer Theodore von Karman. In just five years, the federal government realized the value of GALCIT’s cutting-edge rocket program, as evidenced by the National Academy of Sciences funding GALCIT’s development of the new Jet-Assisted TakeOff (JATO) technology. By 1942, GALCIT personnel regrouped and formed the Aerojet Corporation, to sell Marjorie Cameron painted this portrait the JATO technology to the government as part of the of Jack Parsons as the “Dark Angel.” See war effort. GALCIT went on to become the JPL in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons_ (rocket_engineer).

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus 1943, forever being linked with nearby Caltech, who would supply the laboratory with an ongoing flow of scientific experts from numerous fields. Prior to World War II, Parsons and other GALCIT members were continually in touch and corresponding with German rocketeers on a regular basis, particularly Drs. Hermann Oberth and Wernher von Braun. Unfortunately, the JPL personnel were on their own now, at least until the war would come to an end. Jack Parsons had always been disaffected by the religions of his day. For a brief spell, he studied the works of Marx and Lenin and seriously considered becoming both an atheist and a member of the American Communist Party. However, he couldn’t shake the idea of a first cause and turned his attention to Helena Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society. But even this could not satisfy Jack Parsons, who was looking for some substantial connection between his love of the Heavens and any beings that might happen to inhabit these celestial realms. With the arrival of 1941, Parsons found what he was looking for and converted to Thelema, the English occultist Aleister Crowley’s new religious movement. Together with his first wife Helen Northrup (of Northrup Aviation fame), Parsons joined the Agape Lodge, the California branch of the Thelemite Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO). Crowley, so impressed with Parson’s background and knowledge, replaced Wilfred Talbot Smith with Parsons as the lodge’s leader in 1942. Parsons then moved the Agape Lodge from Los Angeles to his mansion on Orange Grove Avenue in Pasadena. In 1944, due to security concerns by federal government officials about Parson’s allegedly nefarious activities being conducted in the Agape Lodge, Parsons was expelled from all posts he held at both the JPL and Aerojet.267 Despite his founding role in these organizations, they the boards of directors could not risk losing all government contracts should Parsons have been allowed to continue at either one in any capacity. One year later, and most likely due to the inordinate stress placed upon him by the firings, Parsons separated from Helen after having an affair with her sister Sara. And then Sara left him for his occultist associate and popular science fiction writer, L. Ron Hubbard. Nevertheless, Parsons forgave Hubbard and the two continued to conduct the Babalon Working rituals out in the desert, hoping to invoke a Venus aspect of the Thelemic goddess Babalon to the Earth. He and Hubbard continued this procedure with Marjorie Cameron, whom Parsons married in 1946. Following his marriage to Cameron, however, the situation went from bad to worse for Jack Parsons. Hubbard and Sara conned him out of his life savings. He was now so disillusioned that he resigned from the OTO and went through a series of jobs while acting as a consultant for the emerging Israeli rocket program. Remember that all of this was happening in the Cold War climate of McCarthyism, so when it was discovered that he once dabbled in Marxism as well as occultism, he was accused of espionage and left unable to get work in rocketry, the passion of his life. On 17 June 1952, Parsons died at the age of 37 in a home laboratory explosion that the Pasadena police ruled to be an accident. Many of those who knew him well, however, were not so sure. His associates suspected it was a suicide or perhaps an assassination.268 267 Another famous contactee of the era was the aircraft mechanic and Aerojet employee Daniel Fry, who claims that he took a ride in a remote controlled flying saucer from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico to New York and back in less than 30 minutes on 4 July 1949. See Ken Hudnall, Occult Connection: UFOs, Secret Societies and Ancient Gods (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Sterling House Publishers, 2011), unpaginated Google e-book. 268 For comprehensive biographies of Jack Parsons, please consult George Pendle, Strange Angel (Orlando, Florida: Harcourt, Inc., 2005) and John Carter, Sex and Rockets: Occult World of Jack Parsons, 2nd edition (Los Angeles, California: Feral House, 2004).

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Raymond Andrew Keller II Floodgates Opened to Spiritual Dimensions There is a general agreement among occultists that Crowley intentionally opened a portal of entry via magick ritual in the enactment of his Amalantrah Workings. The rites this mystic performed allowed the likes of Lamand other similar entities a passageway onto the Earth’s physical plane. The best way to describe it is that a rift “in-between the spaces of the stars” was created through the carrying out of the Amalantrah Workings. This temporarily opened a gateway through which Lam and other extra-cosmic influences could enter the known universe, and most particularly, our planet in its third dimension. However, according to occultists involved in such things, this interdimensional portal has not closed, but has since widened. Apparently, someone jammed a door stop between our framework of spacetime and that of the portal itself, thereby blocking its closure. Many students of the supernatural have now come to suspect that the “Portal,” as the interdimensional gateway came to be called, was even further enlarged by the JPL founder and rocket fuel scientist, Jack Parsons, along with Scientology and Dianetics founder, L. Ron Hubbard, in 1946. Their conduct of various rites of Venus out in the Mojave Desert served to inaugurate a monumental paradigm shift in human consciousness. This “magickal” summoning of Venusian entities to Earth was code-named Babalon Workings; and much like Crowley’s Amalantrah Workings, the rites were based and patterned on forms of “ceremonial sex magick.”269 What Hubbard and Parsons were trying to do was “incarnate a physical aspect of Babylon, the Scarlet Woman of the Book of Revelations (17:3-6).” They believed that their “Babalon” (as Parsons spelled her name) was to become the herald of the new Age of Horus, and that the Apostle John’s Book of Revelations was the understandably negative interpretation held by those of the dying Age of Osiris. Parsons desired to take the spirit of Babylon, the “Whore of Babylon,” and invest it in a human being. The idea was to create a child in the spiritual world, and then call down the spiritual baby and direct it into a human womb. When born, this child would incarnate the forces of Babylon, which they considered to be a good thing. In any event, these Venus rites were duly performed, as written by Parsons, from 4 January to 15 January 1946. While it is not known if a spiritual child was enwombed from them (most likely in Marjorie Cameron, who volunteered her body for the rite), we do know that the Magickal Portal was first created by Crowley, and this was the gateway which originally let the entity known as Lam onto the Earth plane of existence. Apparently, the gateway was reestablished and reinvigorated with considerable intensity by Parsons and Hubbard. From the diaries of the participants, however, it also became clear that they were not as adept as Crowley in the closings of portals. According to occult researcher Daniel V. Boudillion, what they seemed to have accomplished was the “drastic enlargement and ripping of an existing Magickal Portal and the subsequent non-closure of it.” Perhaps the rip created by Parsons and Hubbard was not possible to close. In any event, the modern UFO era began exactly a year and a half later on June 24th, 1947, with 269 David V. Barrett, Brief Guide to Secret Religions (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Running Press, 2011), 215. Crowley was initiated into the OTO, an esoteric group founded by the German Mason and occultist Theodor Reuss in 1906. From the Thelema rites of Memphis, Misraim and Swedenborg, Crowley developed his early teachings on sex-magick. The first formulations of sex-magick in modern times were the actual creation of Reuss’ friend, Carl Kellner of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light. Two ground-breaking articles on the connections between sex and witchcraft appeared in the 1960s: Russel Hope Robbins, Ph.D., “Sex and Witchcraft,” January 1961, Sexology (magazine), New York, New York; and Doris Milward, “Witchcraft and Sex- 1968,” May 1968, Sexology (magazine). The latter includes an inside report of secret groups with strange sex rituals practiced in England at the time of publication.

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus Kenneth Arnold’s sighting over Mt. Rainier in Washington State.270 In conclusion, what we have learned about Parsons is very revealing, not only about the man himself but the nature of the occult and interdimensionality. Apparently, Jack Parsons is duly recognized in some future time, garnering the accolades he so rightly deserved as both America’s preeminent magician and rocket pioneer during the time he physically walked among us, but never received. Of his short but tumultuous life, his biographer George Pendle writes that, “Parsons treated magic and rocketry as different sides of the same coin: both had been disparaged, both derided as impossible, but because of this both present themselves as challenges to be conquered. Rocketry postulated that we should no longer see ourselves as creatures chained to the Earth but as beings capable of exploring the universe. Similarly, magic suggested there were unseen metaphysical worlds that existed and could be explored with the right knowledge. Both rocketry and magic were rebellions against the very limits of human existence; in striving for one challenge he could not help but strive for the other.”271

Jack Parsons sought to summon a Venusian into his life, for better or worse. See https:// ac2012.com/2012/03/31/science-andreligion/jpl/.

270 Daniel V. Boudillion, “Aleister Crowley’s Lam and the Little Grey Men, a Striking Resemblence,” 2003, http://www. boudillion.com/lam/lam.htm (Accessed 15 January 2017). 271 George Pendle, Strange Angel, 173.

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Chapter IX: “Operation Paperclip”

Some German scientists may have enjoyed an earlier access to some of the secrets of Vril technology. See http:// www.theeventchronicle.com/metaphysics/galactic/vril-technology-odin-departure/.

Extraterrestrial powers do exist, and they are more powerful than previously thought. I’m not authorized to give you any more details on the issue. —Wernher von Braun, Esotera magazine interview (1973) The Mariner program could have never gotten off the launch pad if it were not for the significant contributions of Dr. Wernher von Braun and Dr. Hermann Oberth in the development of the Atlas launch vehicle. Both of these early “rocketeers,” so to speak, were two among some 1,500 German scientists brought to the United States in the closing days of World War II. In early 1945, as Allied forces were closing in on Germany, it became apparent that the new world order would consist of but two superpowers, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States of America (USA). In anticipation of the imminent fall of the Third Reich, and later Japan and the other Axis powers, both the USSR and USA were jockeying for a position of political and military leadership over planet Earth. Of particular interest to both of these aspiring nations were the myriad of German scientists specializing in sundry technological development programs in the areas of nuclear physics, aerodynamics and rocketry. To gain the superiority each nation sought, they would require access to the applied knowledge locked in the minds of these German scientists. Therefore, the rush was on to secure these great minds and, along with them, the knowledge they held to assist in the transfer of such new technologies to the political and military jurisdiction of either the USSR or the USA. For the latter, “Operation Paperclip” was the codename under which our intelligence and military services extricated these scientists from Germany, during and after the final stages of World War II. This project was originally dubbed “Operation Overcast,” but was changed to “Paperclip” insofar as the paperwork for those German scientists selected for transfer to the United States was indicated by the thoughtful placement of paperclips on their appropriate file folders in the vast array of file cabinets gracing the European Theatre of Operations’ Office of Strategic Services (OSS). As for von Braun and Oberth, the OSS was well aware that they had been responsible for the successful development and deployment of Germany’s V-1 and V-2 263

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus missiles from the Nazi’s Peenemunde rocket base, built on a remote island in the Baltic Sea.272 Of these scientists specializing in aerodynamics and rocketry, they and their families were secretly brought into the United States by executive order, even without the State Department’s review and approval. By Congressionally-enacted federal law, their service on behalf of Hitler’s Third Reich and their memberships in the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) and Waffen Shutzstaffel (SS), together with the classification of many as war criminals or security threats, would have officially disqualified them from obtaining the appropriate visas. Keep in mind that the SS began as an “armed security squadron” of the NSDAP. In the war, however, while the SS served alongside the regular German Army (Heer), its members were considered superior in authority to those of similar rank in all other German armed forces: the Army, Air Force (Luftwaffe) and Navy (Kriegsmarine). They were under the direct operational control of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. After the war, in the Nuremberg trials, many of the SS officers and units were declared as responsible for war crimes against civilians and allied servicemen; and the SS organization, in its entirety, was held to be a criminally responsible for the conduct of war crimes by the post-war German government. Of note is that while SS membership was only open to people of Germanic or “Aryan” origin,273 those who were said to be of the “Master Race” (Herrenvolk) in accordance with Nazi racial ideology; in 1940, after Germany found itself officially in a state of war, the rules were partially relaxed and some foreign nationals of “authenticated” German origin were allowed to join its ranks. Most notable among these was the rocket scientist and mentor of von Braun, Dr. Hermann Oberth, born 25 June 1894, in Sibiu, Romania. At the time of Oberth’s birth, however, this Romanian city, located in the district of Transylvania, was a German enclave known among its German-speaking inhabitants as Hermannstadt. So it should be pointed out that Oberth was not required, by any means, to join the Waffen-SS; but he did sign up on a completely volunteer basis, as did all of the other foreign volunteers. This is a fact that NASA seems to have few qualms in conveniently overlooking. In addition to siphoning off as many German scientists as they could possibly muster, another aim of the OSS was to capture as much equipment that these German scientists had been developing and working on before the advancing Soviets arrived on the scene. And for whatever equipment that could not be transported back to liberated areas under United States operational control, the US Army was under orders to destroy it rather than permit that some of the German’s advanced weapon systems, at any stage of development, should ultimately find their way into the hands of aggressive Soviet officials. Back in the United States, however, the majority of the German rocket scientists, numbering almost 500, were deployed at White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico; Fort Bliss, Texas; and Huntsville, Alabama, to work on guided missile and ballistic missile technology. Ultimately, the work they accomplished at these sites served to lay the foundations for both the United States’ intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program and NASA. It is remarkable that 70 years have passed since the transfer of these German scientists and at least some of their equipment to the United States, but that still much of the information surrounding Operation Paperclip is still classified at levels above top secret. Besides Paperclip, another even higher classified secret program being carried out was that of Operation Alsos. The purpose of this program was to capture German scientists, personnel and equipment working on nuclear 272 “Operation Paperclip,” author unstated, 2006, http://www.operationpaperclip.info/ (Accessed 28 August 2015) 273 Terry Goldsworthy, Valhalla’s Warriors: A History of the Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front 1941–1945 (Indianapolis, IN: Dog Ear Publishing, 2010), 51.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II energy and radioactive weapons development. Additionally, there was another American program gathering German experts in cryptography and yet another carried out by the United States Bureau of Mines, where seven German synthetic fuel scientists were put to work in the Fischer-Tropsch chemical plant in the town of Louisiana, Missouri, in 1946. Whether this research involved the production of new rocket fuels remains unknown to the public at large, even to this day.274

Dr. Hermann Oberth, a Romanian-born German (center-front) along with America’s rocket program architect, Dr. Wernher von Braun (second from right), who was originally one of Oberth’s students, sit together with other United States government space researchers and a high ranking military officer in this 7 July 1955 photograph. In 1923, Oberth published his first book, the Rocket into Planetary Space; and because of his writings concerning all things extraterrestrial- including life on other planets and UFOs- many rocket and space research societies sprang up around the world. In the spring of 1930, a much younger Wernher von Braun aided his mentor Oberth with his early experiments in testing sundry designs for a liquid-fueled rocket. See http:// solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display. cfm?Category=history&IM_ID=1827.

Nazi Rocket Scientists and the Extraterrestrial UFO Connection Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Oberth continued to press his considered opinion regarding the nature of the UFO phenomenon; and he was decidedly a supporter of the extraterrestrial hypothesis. In an article published in The American Weekly magazine of 24 October1954, Oberth stated, “It is my thesis that flying saucers are real, and that they are space ships from another solar system. I think that they possibly are manned by intelligent observers who are members of a race that may have been investigating our earth for centuries....” The German scientist also wrote an article in a similar vein that appeared in the second edition of the United Kingdom’s prestigious Flying Saucer Review.275 Titled “They Come from Outer Space,” the well-written piece reviewed the history of reports of “strange luminous objects in the sky.” In this landmark article, Oberth indicated that one of the earliest historical cases involving UFO sightings was that of the “shining shields” as reported by Pliny the Elder.276 Oberth even coined a new term regarding the interplanetary origin of the mysterious objects. He wrote that, “Having weighed all the pros and cons, I find the explanation of flying discs from outer space the most likely one. I call this the ‘Uraniden’ hypothesis, because from our viewpoint the hypothetical beings appear to come from the sky (Greek - ‘Uranos’).”277 In 1955, Oberth came to work for his former student, Wernher von Braun, along with other former Nazi scientists under the auspices of Operation Paperclip at the U.S. Army’s Ballistic Missile Agency at Huntsville, Alabama. It was here that he

274 “Operation Paperclip” 275 Hermann Oberth, “They Came from Outer Space,” Flying Saucer Review (bi-monthly), London, United Kingdom, Vol. 1, No. 2, pages 12-15, May-June 1955, Derek D. Dempster, editor. 276 Gaius Plinius Secundus, better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist and philosopher, as well as a military commander of both army and naval forces in the early Roman Empire. Born in 23 C.E. in Como, Italy, he died in Stabiae, Italy, in 79 C.E., and was a thought to be both a personal friend and counselor of the emperor Vespasian. 277 Frederick I. Ordway, III, Rocket Team. (Burlington, Ontario: Apogee Books Space Series 36), 36

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The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus collaborated on the study, The Development of Space Technology in the Next Ten Years. The importance of this study cannot be underestimated, for based on its recommendations the Eisenhower administration forged ahead in establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the agency that would pave the way for America’s peaceful exploration of the Final Frontier. By 1958, however, Oberth returned to his home in Feucht, a small and peaceful community to the southwest of Nuremberg, Germany. It was in this tranquil setting that he published numerous technical papers on the engineering of a “Moon car,” a “Moon catapult,” a “muffled airplane,” and a “muffled helicopter.” Interestingly, it was a version of the latter device that was employed by the famous Navy Seals Team Six in dispatching Osama bin Laden at his Pakistan lair. Nevertheless, Oberth returned to the United States in 1960, but this time as a technical consultant for the Convair Corporation during the development of the Atlas rocket, the same vehicle that would carry the Mariner 2 on its intercept course with our sister planet, Venus.

The high priority given to Venus exploration is aptly demonstrated in this photo. In the Oval Office, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director Dr. William H. Pickering (center) presents a Mariner spacecraft model to President John F. Kennedy (right); while NASA Administrator James Webb stands directly behind the model of the Venus probe and explains the intricacies of the United States’ first interplanetary mission to the president. Without the expertise of German scientists brought over in Operation Paperclip, however, the Mariner 2 probe to Venus would have never gotten off the ground. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Mariner_program.

German Secret Societies Most all of the Paperclip team reported some acquaintance with secret societies in Germany that were espousing contact with extraterrestrials. Two of the most important in this category are the Vril and Thule societies. The Vril Society began back in 1917, where three men and one woman would meet in the Schopenhauer café in Vienna, Austria, to discuss the extant information on extraterrestrial life circulating in the genres of the occult and standard scientific disciplines. The woman, Maria Orsic, was a spiritual medium, allegedly of Croatian descent. She claimed to be in contact with extraterrestrials and would channel messages from the out-worlders for the members of the group. She wanted to help them understand many of the new concepts they were studying in the existing literature. The attendees would write their questions ahead of time, before the meeting, and then ask Maria once she had gone into a seeming trance state. She told them many things about life on other planets, space travel, theosophy and more. Naturally, as a state of warfare was still engulfing Europe, the four needed to meet under a veil of secrecy. In later years, as more Germans learned of the Vril Society, the group took on an aura of mystery that probably wasn’t warranted; for in the times of peace that followed, meetings were open to the public if any would care to attend. The meetings became larger and Maria became well known throughout all of Vienna and into Bavaria as well. Maria was also a stunningly beautiful woman, so many wanted to have a photograph taken with her. Maria was a little put off by all of this attention, however, and actually preferred the quiet days in the café with the smaller group. 266

Raymond Andrew Keller II Attendees asked many questions of Maria, even in areas not specifically related to establishing communications with the extraterrestrials. She provided startling revelations about the coming New Age, the Spear of Destiny, the magical violet-black stone, and even how the average person could expand their psychic capabilities and make contact with the dearly departed, those on the other side of the veil. Maria prophecied that one day the whole world would be united in harmony and be invited to join an alliance with the peoples of thousands of other distant worlds living in peace and conditions of happiness and joy. “The extraterrestrials once were as we are now,” said Maria, adding that, “Their infinite source of power originated from the emanations of a massive black sun Maria Orsic (alt. Orsitsch), allegedly born at the center of our universe.” In this, she was referring in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, of Croatian descent to a black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, in 1895, was last reported on Earth in but hesitated to employ future scientific terminology Germany towards the end of World War II. She is believed to be a translated being. See the likes of which the listeners were not yet familiar. http://1stmuse.com/maria_orsitsch/. “There is an infinite beam of light,” Maria explained, “which, though invisible to the human eye, exists in anti-matter.” Today we understand this to be dark matter, whose properties still need to be determined. Maria did let it be known, however, that dark matter accumulates along the orbital paths of inner planets, that it exists in a dimension with frequencies beyond light (quantum fields), and can be safely harvested with the proper technology at a civilization’s disposal. She said that there were countless worlds throughout the universe whose inhabitants utilize these Vril energies. “One of them in our solar system,” said Maria, “is nearer than anyone thinks; in fact, it’s been right there on Venus, in front of our faces, for longer than anyone can possibly imagine.” So the primary Vril emblem became the Black Sun. This has been known by a few adepts on Earth throughout history, a secret philosophy thousand of years old that provided the foundation on which many ancient and powerful civilizations were built. Glyph representations of the Black Sun can be found in the ruins of many ancient temples in Assyria, Babylon and Egypt. There are other sacred symbols affixed to the Black Sun, so the seeker will have to probe these on their own. Because they are so sacred, their identification must remain a secret, for now at least. Maria also channeled information from the aliens upon which the Thule Society was created. In its initial phases, Maria was not opposed to the Thule Society’s use of information that she provided to attempt the building of various machines employing Vril technology. However, as the leadership of the Thule Society took a decidedly right-wing turn, politically speaking to the extreme and allying with Hitler’s National Socialist Party, she rued the day she tried to help. Some of the Paperclip refugees to the United States reported that an elite group of scientists from within the inner circle of the Thule Society were allegedly attempting to construct a “Vril Machine.” Supposedly, it was a bell-shaped flying saucer (similar to an Adamski scout craft), interdimensional, time-travel machine. Some older Germans still remember seeing some unusual aircraft fitting that description flying over Göppingen in 1934. I lived in Donzdorf, 267

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus about 10 kilometers to the east of Göppingen, for almost five years. Working in the Office of the Inspector General of the First Infantry Division (Forward) at the United States Army base in Göppingen, I was one day privy of being conducted into a vast maze of underground hangars and aviation workshops. Of course, by that time there was nothing down there. But I could see where the construction of such a secret and double-hardened facility would have been a priority for the militant Nazi regime that came into power in 1933. There was supposed to have been a twin-facility later built somewhere in Nazi-occupied Poland, but I have not been able to verify this. An anonymous investigator of early German flying saucer research and development wrote the following: “Thule Society members were allegedly the first group to attempt the backengineering of an extraterrestrial spacecraft. A German writer, John Von Helsing, describes the discovery of a crashed saucer in the Black Forest in 1936 and says that this technology was taken and combined with the information the Vril Society had received through channeling and was made into a further project called the Haunebu.”278 Interestingly, the eminent German aircraft historian, Henry Stevens, wrote that, “Haunebu 1 was allegedly the first large flying saucer developed in Germany. According to plans allegedly obtained from classified German SS files, the Haunebu 1 was approximately seventy-five feet in diameter and probably lifted off for the first time in August 1939, a few weeks before the outbreak of World War II.”279 If German research got this far by 1939, the Nazi’s Third Reich would today be much like Sherwin Williams paint, covering the Earth. I do not doubt that some experimental craft of an unusual bell or saucer-type design were actually built, but I doubt they exhibited the power and capabilities ascribed to them, such as would result from the full application of Vril technology. That Germans could have developed such technologies, or been well on their way to doing so, if they did not have to fight a war on two fronts, or better yet any war, I have no doubt. Rocket technology is another matter, though, because significant breakthroughs were made in this area. Frankly, nothing beats German engineering! An Esoteric Book on the Mysteries of the Vril-Yaren The Coming Race (original title),280 also reprinted as Vril: The Power of the Coming Race was originally written as a novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton and published in 1870. The Coming Race provides us with an early example of science fiction. However, even though Bulwer-Lytton maintained that it was just a novel, many of its early readers, especially those of a theosophical bent, believed and insisted that it had to be true. Basically, Bulwer-Lytton provides us with an account of a superior, subterranean master race and the dark star energyform they utilized called Vril. Willy Ley, the German rocket engineer previously mentioned who had immigrated to the United States in 1937, published an article just ten years after reaching our shores titled “Pseudoscience in Naziland” in Astounding Science Fiction magazine.281 Basically, he wrote that the high popularity of irrational convictions in Germany at that time explained how National Socialism could have fallen on such fertile ground. Among the various pseudoscientific 278 Ellie Crystal, “Vril Society,” Crystal Links: Metaphysics and Science Website, 1995, updated 2017, http://www.crystalinks.com/index.html (Accessed 16 January 2017). 279 Ibid. 280 It can be accessed at no charge through Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org. 281 Willey Ley, “Pseudoscience in Naziland,” May 1947, Astounding Science Fiction/Alpenfestung, 39 (3): 90–98.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II groups he mentions, one that really stood out was the Wahrheitsgesellschaft(Society for Truth). According to Ley, this was the group that was literally founded upon Bulwer-Lytton’s novel, Coming Race. Its members were always out and about looking for the Vril-Yaren clandestinely walking among them. While the Society for Truth actually began in Austria, the focal point of its activities had shifted to Berlin sometime during the early 1920s. Bulwer-Lytton, an English Lord, wrote of a master race in terms of advanced science and technical applications, and not in the context of any inherent racial superiority of one group above another. Nazi propagandists, however, had usurped the book’s message to imply that the Aryan race was superior to all other races extant on the Earth and therefore maintained the right to rule over all peoples. Infusing Edward Bulwer-Lytton (8 November 1831 the nineteenth century racial theory of Count Arthur - 24 November 1891), seen here at age 18, de Gobineau and the Aryan master race philosophy was the first in the modern age to write of Arthur Schopenhaeur, the Nazis invested the Vrilabout Vril energies. See http://freemasonry. bcy.ca/biography/esoterica/bulwer-lytton/ ya with a hierarchal racial context that Bulwer-Lytton lytton_er.html. never intended.And then from 1960 onwards, following some of the Paperclip scientists’ revelations about the existence of UFOs as extraterrestrial vehicles, even more have come to the realization that Bulwer-Lytton’s Coming Race is the unadulterated truth that is “out there” for all to discover.

Vril Social Club: German girls just want to have fun. See http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_flyingobjects55.htm.

In the Coming Race, cave explorers come upon the advanced Vril-ya civilization, long lost from view by the peoples of the surface world. In the book, we discover that the Vril-yaren are ruled by a matriarchy, much like the Amazons of ancient Greece; and it is the women who take 269

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus the lead in initiating sex. The last time Vril-yaren trod the surface openly in any great numbers was during the epochs of Atlantis and Lemuria. The beautiful Croatian medium, Maria Orsic, was leader of a select group of psychics that she had personally assembled from the ranks of the Vril Society, back in 1919, prior to moving the organization’s headquarters to Berlin, Germany. This special band of wonder women became known as the “Vrilerinnen,” which signifies the beautiful young ladies of the Vril Gesellschaft (Vril Social Club). To distinguish themselves from other European women of the time, that wore their hair in a short, bobbed fashion, the Vrilerinnen all wore theirs in long horse-tails. This was at the behest of their organizer and leader Maria Orsic, who maintained that their long hair acted as “cosmic antennas that helped facilitate their contact with extraterrestrials beings from beyond.”282 According to sundry legends, a fateful meeting of the German Vril Society was held in 1919 at an old hunting lodge near Berchtesgarden. At this convocation, Maria Orsic presented some telepathic messages she claimed to have received from an extraterrestrial civilization existing in the distant Aldebaran solar system, estimated to be about 65-68 light years away. The entire Aldebaran system may be as large as three light years in diameter. Aldebaran is a large orange star located in the constellation of Taurus. Also in attendance were some representatives of the Thule Society and the newly organized Black Sun Society. Of the channeled transmissions, one set was found to be in a secret German Templar script, while a second set of transmissions seemed to have been written in an ancient Eastern language. Later a copy of the second set was shown to some Babylonian scholars affiliated with the Thule Society who recognized them as being written ancient Sumerian. Written down by a process of automatic writing, the transmissions purportedly revealed instructions for the building of a circular flight machine of some sort. Since Maria Orsic was the one to channel the message, she was asked to come to Berlin to the antiquities department of a prominent university and see what she might be able to add to the translation effort. Maria insisted on bringing along one of her sisters from the Vril Social Club, Sigrun, to assist her in the endeavor. Apparently, these transmissions held the keys to unlocking at least one phase of an aerospace navigational aspect of Vril technology. Maria later reported on the existence of a “light tunnel” electro-magnetically connecting Aldebaran with certain fluxations over the poles on some of the planets in our own solar system. The most noticeable field strengths linked through electro-magnetic connection with Aldebaran were over our own poles and those of Venus. Apparently, these light tunnels are the constituent highways of an elaborate intergalactic communications and transportation system. Maria also claimed in subsequent transmissions from Aldebaran that there were two habitable planets orbiting that star and that the ancient Mesopotamian civilization of Sumeria was linked to earlier colonies of Aldebaran explorers. She also explained that the roots of Indo-European, and hence Germanic culture, could be found in ancient Sumeria. For this reason, contemporary extraterrestrials from the Aldebaran star sector and some other celestial locales283 have maintained a keen interest in 282 Jim Nichols, “Aldebaran Mystery,” undated, http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_flyingobjects55.htm (Accessed 18 January 2017 283 Peoples from the Aldebaran star system became a space-faring civilization 25 million years ago in the process of fleeing their conquerors, the Dracos. As a result, there is a plentitude of Aldebaran-colonized worlds in orbit around many of the 250 stars composing the Pleiades star sector. While the Aldebaran outpost on Venus did not survive, there still remains some genetic and cultural residue of Aledebaran culture on and under the surface of Mars as well as in and among select human bloodlines here on Earth, and under it (Hyperborians). Despite the reconquest of the Aldebaran system from Draco control by its original inhabitants, there are actually more Aldebarans in the Pleiades cluster than the two home worlds circling the great star Aldebaran. Relations with Abejans (Venusians) have slightly improved, although only the reigning Queen of Venus, who is also considered to be the Queen of Outer Space, may grant permission for an Aldebaran or Pleiadian ship to approach and land on the cloudy planet or its cloaked moon of Neith.

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Raymond Andrew Keller II the progress of the greater German nation and its volk. Many of the German nationalists that found their way into these various societies soon became disillusioned, however, when Maria and some of the other Social Club women of the Vril Society later declined to come out in full support of the Nazi Party’s designs for making Deutschland Über Alles. Maria said that, “The Vril-yaren of Aldebaran will not come to the aid of the National Socialists here in Germany as long Maria Orsic explained that the star system as they continue to foster economic disparities in Earth of Aldebaran was intimately linked with cultures. All this does is fuel perpetual conflicts and our own solar system through the magnetic even war. From time-to-time,” Maria said, “the Vrilreconnection of light tunnels that permeate the entire cosmos. See http://www. yaren may assist us through the subtle introduction of bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_ their technology to generate cheap or even free power flyingobjects55.htm. for industries, promote greater prosperity through international commerce and friendship between all peoples. We don’t mind helping Germany lead the world in the quest for peace.” Much like the Zealots in the time of Christ, who expected Jesus to come down like King David of old and smite the occupying Roman Legion, driving it from their land, this was not the message they wanted to hear. For the nationalists, making Germany great again meant that Germans would be empowered to “kick ass” all over Europe or anyplace else they deemed it to be in their national interest. Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for us, the Vril-yaren did not quite see it the same way. In trying to cheer them up from having just lost the First World War, however, Maria Orsic declared that, “The Aldebarans’ fondest wish for you is to work for building a new and utopian world based on the practical applications of alternate science for the advancement of all peoples.” Vril Inspiration in Early German Rocketry By 1926, German engineers and others, mostly clergymen, being inspired by the work of the Vril Society and interested in all things extraterrestrial, or just anything up in the heavens, felt impelled to come together and form the Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR), or Society for Space Ship Travel, at Breslau, Germany, a city that is now known as Wrocław and located in Poland. One year later, the society was chartered at Braslau and adopted the slogan, “Help create the spaceship!” This proved to be a very attractive one for the many unemployed engineers that loitered around the streets and bars of German cities and enclaves looking for jobs that never materialized. In the VfR, at least they would have something engaging and interesting to do with all the spare time on their hands. “And who knows,” an individual member must have thought, “maybe if I can build a prototype, I can actually fly away to start a new life on Venus.” Significant Developments Five years before the VfR is officially organized and chartered, however, Oberth began corresponding with the American rocketeer Robert Goddard, inquiring about his work with liquid-fueled rockets. Goddard sent the inquisitive German a copy of his 1920 monograph, A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes, from which Oberth composes his doctoral thesis on the theoretical possibility of using such rockets to launch a vehicle into outer space, Die Rakete zur Weltraumfahrt (The Rocket for Space Travel) in 1922, and mails a copy to Goddard. Oberth 271

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus actually sees greater possibilities for rockets than Goddard does. In Oberth’s Die Rakete zur Weltraumfahrt, he is the first to advance a serious proposal for circumlunar flight to explore the far side of the Moon. It is Oberth’s considered opinion that a spacecraft could rendezvous and dock in Earth orbit with a cryogenic fuel capsule. When the spacecraft reached the vicinity of the Moon, it could detach itself from the capsule and make a descent to the surface; and in departing the Moon would ascend and reestablish a connection to its fuel tanks for the return to Earth. Oberth’s mind was quite fertile in 1922, correctly imagining what the actual Apollo astronauts would be accomplishing 47 years later. Unfortunately, his dissertion committee declined to recognize the validity of his work, which he had actually accomplished with the assistance of other notable German scientists; so this forces Oberth to forget the pursuit of academic credentials and just plunge further into his rocket research, investigations and experimentation. At this point, only the members of the Thule and Vril societies are showing any enthusiasm for Oberth’s rocket theories. Everyone else thinks him somewhat eccentric, a “mad professor,” as it were. But this does not deter Oberth, who continues to build upon his rejected doctoral thesis, expanding it into the now famous book, Die Rakete su den Planetenrämen (The Rocket into Interplanetary Space), which contained the first serious proposal for a manned space station to appear in scientific literature rather than fiction. This was the book that presented to the scientific community a broad treatise on the practicability and scientific value not only of manned permanent stations in orbit above the Earth, but also space flight in general. Oberth was the first one to come up with the idea of a permanent station supplied by smaller rockets on a periodic basis and suggested rotation of the space vehicle to produce an artificial gravity for the crew. Such a station, he aptly reasoned, could serve as a base for Earth observations, as a weather forecasting satellite, as a communications satellite, and as a refueling station for extraterrestrial vehicles launched from orbit. The book is published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg of Munich, Germany, at the end of 1923. This was the book that provided the genesis for a considerable discussion of rocket propulsion not only in Germany, but throughout the world. The book would have a huge, life-changing influence on the then 11 year-old Wernher von Braun. The VfR, by the end of its first year of existence, had gone from three to over 500 registered and dues-paying members. Most of the members drifted over from the Thule and Vril societies, seeing the more pragmatic side of the VfR investigations and research. One of the greatest draws for VfR members was the ongoing project of redesigning Jules Verne’s moon gun. Rocket pioneers Max Valier and Hermann Oberth designed a gun in 1926 that would correct Verne’s perceived technical mistakes, thereby making the gun capable of firing a projectile to the Moon. By the end of its first year of official existence, the VfR has established a modest rocket test site at Breslau; but in just three years (September 1930), Rocket Launch Site Berlin (Raketenflugplatz Berlin) was up and running. Located at 52°33’ N and 13°18’ E, the test site was directly adjacent to the current site of the Airport Berlin-Tegel in an area that is now Cité Pasteur. The land and buildings the club was allowed to lease were owned by the German War Ministry. Clearly, their agents were watching developments at the facility closely. The military applications of rocket technology were enormous, plus the rocket teams were communicating with American scientists, a big no-no to whatever was left of the German High Command. The knowledge learned from the test launches of various models from this facility prompt Oberth

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Raymond Andrew Keller II to apply for a patent on his own rocket design, the Kegelduese conical rocket motor; and after receiving it, Oberth’s rocket was launched in July 1930 from Rakentenflugplatz Berlin. Spectacular Rocket Innovations The beauty of the VfR, however, was found in the sharing of valuable information between the members and even foreign rocketeers. In 1928, this cross-fertilization of ideas resulted in design improvements by Willy Ley and Baron Guido von Pirquet of Vienna to Oberth’s moon gun. To achieve the necessary muzzle velocity, Ley and von Pirquet surmised that it would be necessary to construct the gun with angled lateral chambers. But like everything else related to the society, these advanced concepts of design would eventually be put to military use. In the case of the moon gun, the angled lateral chambers design concepts found their way into the V-3 Hochdruckpumpe cannon of World War II. Also in 1928, on 23 May to be exact, Fritz von Opel personally drives his rocket-car, Opel Rak II, equipped with 24 Brander powder rockets, to 200 kph at Berlin. And on the very same day Oberth is debating with the German scientific establishment, trying to get them to overturn their antiquated belief that space flight using liquid rockets is “theoretically impossible.” The following year, 1929, proved to be just as momentous for the members of the VfR. To begin with, Oberth published Wege zur Raumschiffahrt (Path to Space Travel), in which he greatly elaborated on ideas presented in his 1923 book. Oberth has now developed several specific designs for orbital space stations, ranging from spherical living quarters for the crew to large reflective mirrors fabricated in orbit. Several innovations were presented in this work: fully-functional factories in orbit, ion drive rockets, Signs of Vril influence in the production of or propulsion by particle emission, and smaller ferry Fritz Lang’s Woman in the Moon (1929) are vehicles to permit travel in the vicinity of space almost everywhere to be found. See http:// platforms. Such platforms would serve as stations www.taoyue.com/film/frau-im-mond.html. that could be used for a variety of purposes, ranging from scientific observation sites to surveillance of an adversary’s military installations. This idea was further expanded in the period of July-September 1929, when Hermann Noordung, a pseudonym for Capt. Potocnik of the Austrian Imperial Army, provided a detailed description of an orbiting space observatory. The problems of weightlessness, space communications, maintaining a livable environment for the crew, and extravehicular activity were all seriously being considered. Among the uses of such an observatory were chemical and physical experiments in a vacuum, telescopes of great size and efficiency, detailed mapping of the Earth’s surface, weather observation, surveillance of shipping routes, and most importantly, military reconnaissance. The idea of space travel had come full circle, moving back toward its esoteric roots in the Thule and Vril societies, when on 15 October 1929, the film Frau im Mond (The Woman in the Moon) premiered in Berlin. The film was directed by Fritz Lang, with Hermann Oberth as the technical consultant. It provided a realistic portrayal of the rollout and launch of a liquidpropellant booster sending a manned expedition to the far side of the Moon. Lang provided Oberth with sufficient funding to build and launch a liquid-propellant rocket to publicize the 273

The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus film. Oberth’s rocket, it should be noted, utilized a conical combustion chamber to mix liquid oxygen and gasoline, was 1.8 m tall and was to have been launched to an altitude of 64 km over the Baltic Sea from Greifswalder Oie. Bureaucratic snafus and technical problems delayed the production of the rocket within the four-month allotted time frame, however; and this forced Oberth to turn to an 11-m tall hybrid rocket that was to burn a “to-be-determined carbon compound” with liquid oxygen. Unfortunately, this also proved impossible, so Oberth simply left everything to his apprentices on the set and left town to take care of some other pressing, but personal matters. He did return for the film’s premiere. It was Ufa studios that took ownership of the unfinished rockets. The box-office success of The Woman in the Moon sparks intense interest in rocketry throughout Germany. Members of the VfR are in huge demand for presenting lectures on The first V-2 rocket to be successfully launched from rocketry and the possibilities of using rockets to reach and Peenemünde had the Woman on traverse the regions of outer space. Military strategists are also the Moon logo painted on its base. paying attention to these developments; and on 23 July 1930, Rocketeers Willy Ley and Hermann Oberth served as a consultant on the VfR leadership is demonstrating a rocket motor to German the film. See http://www.wikiwand. government officials. The VfR fires its Kegelduese liquid com/de/Frau_im_Mond. oxygen and gasoline-fueled rocket motor in a demonstration for the Director of the Chemisch-Technische Reichsanstalt in an attempt to secure financial support. A rocket scientist from the University of Munich, Rudolph Nebel, arranged the demonstration and runs Oberth’s Kegelduese for 90 seconds. It generates 7 kgf and consumes 6 kg of liquid oxygen and 1 kg of gasoline during this brief flight. Participating were Oberth, Nebel, Walter Riedel, Willey Ley, and von Braun. It was this particular test that caught the attention of the mystic Californian, Jack Parsons, who began a lifetime correspondence and friendship with von Braun.284 After Hitler came to power in 1933, Nazi Germany banned all rocket experimentation or rocket discussion outside of the German military chain of command. The rocketeers who had populated the Raketenflugplatz Berlin had to abandon their work or continue it in the military. Hauptmann Dornberger was given the task of Happy days are here again. NASA rocket scientist Dr. Wernher von Braun (left) and recruiting the members of the disbanded VfR, many of President John F. Kennedy (right) at Cape whom joined the Army’s rocket development program Canaveral on 20 February 1962 for the 285 Sadly, for the pre-World War II launching of John Glenn’s Friendship 7 and at Kummersdorf. the Gemini mission. See www.nasa.gov. Germans at least, the days of rocketry for the sheer thrill of discovery were gone. 284 Pendle, Strange Angel, 54-55. 285 David Darling, “Verein fur Tamschiffahrt (VfR)” entry in Encyclopedia of Science, undated, http://www.daviddarling. info/encyclopedia/V/Verein_fur_Raumschiffahrt.html (Accessed 21 January 2017).

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Raymond Andrew Keller II Legacy of the Vril-Yaren

Thus it becomes apparent the influence of the Vril-yaren in the emergence of an interplanetary science in modern times on Earth, beginning in Germany. But as the Abejans tell us, the Vril-yaren perished on Venus, unable to survive a great cosmic meteor storm millions of years ago in the remote past and the atmospheric contagions it kicked up. So how do the Vril-yaren peoples still manage to play a significant role on Venus after all of that? Venusian Ambassador Omnec Onec attributes the revival of Vril science and technology on Venus to the arrival there, in the times of the antiquities, of a great scientist of German origin. He was the one who entered the subterranean caverns of the long dead Vril-yaren and unlocked their powerful secrets for the benenefit of all future Abejans. Writes the ambassador: “The Venusian village where I was born and raised is called Teutonia, which means ‘descended from Germany.’ It was named in memory of a brilliant German scientist who came to Venus and contributed to our people’s growth there. As a child, I learned the story of a man on Earth in Teutonia’s Temple of History, a place of learning that is more like a time machine than a school.”286 But don’t undo your Velcro straps and go floating around the capsule compartment just yet, for you are about to enter the eternal and supernal realms of Lady Venus in Book III of the trilogy, Cosmic Ray’s Excellent Venus Adventures, featuring yours truly as well as the woman most of you have come to know as Dolores Barrios, the “Queen of Outer Space.”

Up until the publication of this Venus trilogy, this was one of just two of the only known photos of Dolores Barrios in existence, taken outside a flying saucer convention held at the Skyline Lodge on the slopes of Mt. Palomar, California, on 8 August 1954. For the complete story, see Chapter VIII, “Gods of Aquarius,” in Venus Rising. For the other known photo of Dolores Barrios, the “Queen of Outer Space,” along with three, neverbefore seen ones, please check out Book III, Cosmic Ray’s Excellent Venus Adventures. Photo Credit: Ed Keffel, O Cruzeiro magazine, Brazil, October 1954. 286 Omnec Onec, a.k.a. Sheila Gibson, Ambassador from Venus (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Global Communications, 2008), 28.

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Acknowledgements Eskertzen Dizut (Basque/Euskara)

Many thanks are due to Ydalis Herrera, my beautiful and caring wife for her patience and understanding; Shirley Baum of the Warren Light Center in Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania; Kelly Bowman of the Gift of Light Expos; Krsanna Duran of TimeStar; Dr. Kiva Mahkete Fall, an elder of the Dogon tribe in West Africa; Dan Gorman of Karma Radio; Patrick Harman of the Paradise, California Post newspaper, David Houchin, curator of the Gray Barker Collection at the Harrison County Library in Clarksburg, West Virginia; all of my co-workers at In Touch and Concerned; Albert Jefferson of Morgantown, West Virginia, for assistance on book tours; Debbie Keri-Brown, for inspiration and help with event organizing; Michael La Riche of the Northeast Ohio Coast-to-Coast A.M. Radio Discussion Groups; Shari Lynn of Cosmic Healing Discs; Brent Raynes, editor of Alternate Perceptions magazine; Fred Saluga, the state director of the West Virginia Mutual UFO Network; Brian Seech of the Center for Unexplained Events; Ballarion Stahr of Aerial Phenomena and the Unexplained; Dr. Leo Sprinkle of the University of Wyoming at Laramie for his pioneering work with extraterrestrial and ultra-dimensional experiencers; Jennifer Stein of the Main Line Mutual UFO Network, outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Lon Strickler of Arcane Radio; Cathy Teets, president of Headline Books, along with all of the countless others on both sides of the veil too numerous to list. A special note of thanks is also extended to George Adamski, Dolores Barrios, Truman Bethurum, Daniel Fry, Howard Menger, Clayton Parker, Annalee Skarin and all of the other contactees who paved the way for further Venus research; as well as to all of my Venusian friends- bees, humans and hybrids- for without whose angelic intervention none of these books would have been possible. I must, of course, clearly state that the opinions expressed in these Venus books are entirely my own. Therefore, those kind souls who were generous enough to assist me in this publishing endeavor cannot be held responsible for them! Raymond A. Keller, II, Ph.D. 25 April 2017 Morgantown, West Virginia

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Index 99 Red Balloons A-4 14, 15 A-9/A-10 14, 15, 20 A-11 15, 16, 20 Abejan Hive Collective 220, 250, 254 Adamski, George 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46, 48, 49, 52, 54, 56, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 67, 68, 69, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 88, 92, 93, 94, 110, 111, 119, 120, 122, 139, 150, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 164, 165, 168, 176, 178, 185, 188, 189, 191, 202, 203, 211, 225, 226, 227, 228, 239, 247, 248, 249, 250, 253, 254, 256, 267, 276 Africa, see also African 6, 62, 151, 154, 173, 217, 220, 244, 276 Akatsuki (Venus probe) 23, 24 Aldebaran (star system) 254, 270, 271 Amazing Stories 31, 168, 246, 247 American Communist Party 64, 260 Arnold, Kenneth 41, 173, 174, 223, 224, 256, 257, 262 Asimov, Isaac 63, 155 Aztec, New Mexico (saucer crash site) 173, 176, 177, 178, 181, 184, 185, 188 Babalon (entity) 256, 260, 261 Barker, Gray 77, 78, 79, 82, 85, 86, 118, 154, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 185, 191, 219, 224, 276 Barrios, Dolores, a.k.a. “Queen of Outer Space” 36, 39, 215, 275, 276 Behind the Flying Saucers 176, 177, 179, 189 Bender, Albert K. 46, 169 Bernard, Raymond W. 80, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 171, 172, 173, 232 Black Sun 267, 270 Blavatsky, Helena P. 78, 135, 214, 260 Bruce, Daniel 134 Book of the Dead 153 Borderland Sciences Research Association (BSRA) 81, 214 Bowie, David 195 Braun, Wernher von 15, 16, 75, 239, 260, 263, 264, 265, 272, 274 British Imperial General Staff 13 Brius, Iakov Willimovich, a.k.a. Count Jacob or James Daniel Bruce 134 Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (journal) 268, 269 California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech) 44, 52, 110, 152, 236, 237, 238, 252, 253 Cameron, Marjorie 258, 259, 260, 261 Carnegie Institution 127 Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute, Moscow 113 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) 75, 145, 189, 231 Centaur 237 Christ, see also Jesus 8, 74, 81, 84, 85, 136, 137, 144, 271 Civilian Research, Interplanetary Flying Objects (CRIFO) Newsletter 214 Communist Party line 128

Compton electrons 132, 133 Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN) 200, 202, 207 Controversial Phenomena Bulletin 158, 159 Crowley, Aleister 195, 254, 257, 259, 260, 261, 262 Cyther Dome 54, 144, 215 Dark Horse, also dark horse phenomena 7, 8, 193, 194, 195, 197, 213 Doors, see also Morrison, Jim 196 Dysmas 141, 144, 244 Eisenhower, Dwight 28, 97, 161, 162, 166, 167, 200, 217, 238, 266 El Paso Oil Company 181 Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) 132, 133 Empire State Building 12, 13, 16, 238 Experimental Design Bureau-1 (OKB-1) 106, 118 Explorer 1 239 Fallout shelters 167 Fawcett, George D. 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 244 Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) 5, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 67, 68, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 86, 87, 226 Federation of Planets 45, 137 Feuerball 17, 18, 19 Fireflies (space phenomenon) 160 First Spaceship on Venus 30, 221, 222 FORTRAN 230 Gagarin, Yuri 11, 117 Glenn, John 93, 160, 274 Government 7, 25, 50, 53, 56, 58, 76, 185, 223, 225 Graceland University 8, 85, 213 Green, Gabriel 26, 39, 46, 199, 200, 205, 221 Gross, Loren 95, 174, 175 Guest Out of the Cosmos 90 Hale, G. E. 127, 128 Hatoyama, Miyuki 21, 22, 23, 24 Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn 254, 259 Hitler, Adolph 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 54, 55, 264, 267, 274 Hollow Earth 169, 171 Holodeck 159 Honey, Carol A. 83, 84, 85, 111, 178 Honeybee 153 Hoover, J. Edgar 49, 55, 56, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 68, 69, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 86 Hubbard, L. Ron 31, 155, 209, 247, 253, 254, 260, 261 Hynek, J. Allen 86, 87, 108, 176, 180, 181, 224, 227, 249 Inner Earth 31, 165, 168, 169, 171 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) 71, 264 International Atoms for Peace 162 International UFO Reporter 176 Invaders from Mars 47

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Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) 23, 24 Jehovah’s Witnesses, and end of world Jesus, see also Christ 83, 84, 85, 86, 136, 137, 143, 144, 194, 271 Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) 29, 44, 52, 88, 107, 109, 111, 112, 219, 229, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 244, 245, 246, 256, 252, 259, 260, 261, 266 Kazantsev, Alexandr 89, 90, 91, 92, 94, 130 Kegelduese (conical rocket motor) 273, 274 Kennedy, John F. 14, 44, 98, 104, 216, 228, 229, 230, 231, 233, 234, 236, 237, 266, 274 Kerner, Gabriele Susanne, see also Nena 218 Kozyrev, Nikolai A. 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 126 Kremlin 89, 94, 95, 120, 126, 129 Kugelblitz 17, 18, 19, 20 Lady Encara (Venusian) 39, 151, 152, 153, 197, 250 Lady Orda (Venusian) 39, 51, 250, 253 Lady Venus (goddess) 112, 124, 126, 224, 228, 254, 275 Layne, Meade 79, 81, 82, 214 Lederman, Leon M. 199, 200, 201 Leningrad State University 70, 121 Leslie, Desmond 45, 59, 60, 61, 67, 68, 79, 80, 81, 82, 160, 185, 186, 189, 198, 203, 225, 226 Ley, Willie 268, 269, 273, 274 Lina, Juri 146, 147 Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS) 247, 252 Los Angeles Science Fiction League (SFL) 251 Lunar Phenomena, see also Moon 121 Magic 4, 135, 193, 198, 254 Mal Var (Venusian) 27 Mantell, Thomas F., Capt. Mantis 179, 180, 181, 242 Mariner 2 99, 101, 106, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 124, 158, 191, 216, 219, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 239, 240, 244, 245, 266 Mars, see also Martian 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 43, 47, 90, 91, 92, 94, 96, 97, 98, 104, 105, 108, 111, 112, 113, 117, 124, 128, 139, 140, 148, 151, 152, 154, 156, 165, 168, 174, 212, 216, 219, 245, 248, 249, 259, 270 Martian 29, 111, 112, 119, 150, 182, 211 Marxist-Leninist materialist philosophy 128 Mercury 29, 91, 96, 232 Meteorites 131, 216 Mojave Desert 33, 82, 215, 256, 261 Moon, see also Lunar Phenomena 24, 26, 28, 38, 44, 59, 60, 65, 91, 93, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 104, 105, 106, 111, 114, 116, 117, 121, 122, 123, 124, 148, 149, 150, 151, 156, 160, 164, 165, 179, 191, 192, 216, 217, 219, 229, 233, 237, 244, 245, 247, 248, 249, 254, 259, 266, 272, 273, 274 Morrison, Jim, see also Doors 196, 197, 231 Moscow Aviation Institute 130 Most Bizarre Things I’ve Encountered 21, 24 Mt. Shasta 152, 153, 169, 197

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 4, 7, 12, 15, 16, 22, 25, 26, 43, 44, 55, 57, 95, 98, 99, 100, 101, 106, 109, 114, 115, 116, 122, 133, 148, 151, 152, 158, 191, 199, 216, 217, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 234, 236, 237, 239, 242, 244, 264, 266, 274 National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) 77, 105, 106, 122, 221, 222, 224, 249 National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP), also Nazis 264 Nazis 12, 13, 15, 18, 238, 269 Nena (rock star) 218 Neutrino(s) 204, 207 New York City 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 55, 62, 161, 168, 199, 208, 216, 247, 248 Nibiru 152, 153 Norman, Ernest L. 27 Oberg, James 118, 129 Oberth, Hermann 225, 260, 263, 264, 265, 266, 271, 272, 273, 274 Office of Strategic Services (OSS) 263, 264 Omni (magazine) 129 On the Beach 172, 173 Operation Aphrodite 14 Operation Hardtack Teak 132 Operation Paperclip 4, 15, 263, 264, 265, 266 Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) 209, 254, 260, 261 Orsic, Maria 266, 267, 270, 271 Orthon (Venusian) 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 51, 79, 82, 139, 202, 248, 249 Ovid 216 Oxygen 112 Palmer, Ray 31, 32, 62, 162, 163, 164 Parsons, John “Jack” Whiteside 64, 76, 246, 247, 248, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262, 274 Patent Verwertungs Gesellschaft (Patent Utilization Company, Salzburg, Austria 20 Perry, Katy 7, 8, 193, 194, 195, 197, 215 Peter the Great 134 Petrov, Georgy 113, 114, 116, 126 Phobos 119 Pickering, William Hayward 124, 228, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 245, 266 Pioneers of Space, as Soviet slogan and Adamski book 82, 117 Pleiades (star system) 270 Priroda (science magazine) 91 Project Bluebook 86, 226 Project Diana 149, 150 Project White Stork 94, 96, 227 Pyramids 148 Queen Juliana 93, 225 Queen Ni Nu 219, 220, 240, 243, 244 Radar 149, 175, 176, 242, 243 Radio lag 233 Ranger (Moon probe) 12, 229, 239 Reiss, Andy 11, 15, 16, 17

Rite of Venus 254, 258 Rocket into Interplanetary Space 272 Ruppelt, Edward J., Capt. 180, 181, 189, 190 Russian Academy of Sciences 135 Russian Orthodox 120, 144, 147 Saturn 110, 154, 255 Saucerian 77, 78, 118, 165, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 219, 224 Scully, Frank 176, 177, 178, 179, 189 Seneca Falls, New York (convention) 208 Shaman, also shamanism 212, 213 Shaver, Richard 30, 31, 32 Shute, Nevil 172 Sirens of Titan 21 Sirius (star sector) 151, 152 Skarin, Annalee 151, 169, 276 Smith, George O. 38, 155, 156, 169, 260 Sol, see also Sun 38, 152, 156 Soviet Effort to Contact Extraterrestrial Life 90, 94 Space Research Institute of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 125 Space World (magazine) 125 Spiritualist Church 207, 208, 209, 212 Star Trek 45, 159 Sternfeld, Ary 91 Strong, John 38, 110, 111, 112, 113 Sun, see also Sol 22, 23, 24, 25, 33, 35, 44, 51, 55, 91, 96, 97, 106, 110, 113, 115, 116, 139, 143, 144, 152, 156, 182, 183, 204, 208, 233, 244, 245, 254, 267, 270 Sweden (Swedish) 69, 146, 147

Venusian Intelligence Service 151 Von Karman, Theodore 236 Vonnegut, Kurt 8, 21 Vril 254, 263, 266, 267, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 275 Vril: The Power of the Coming Race 268 Vril-yaren 254, 269, 270, 271, 275 Wahrheitsgesellschaft (Society for Truth) 269 Warning from Space 210 War of the Worlds 93 Watchmen 200 Weekly World News 11, 12, 15, 16, 17 White Eagle Lodge 80, 81, 82 Williamson, George H. 36, 75, 76, 226, 252 Wizard of Oz 197, 219 Woman in the Moon 273, 274 Wonder Stories 251 X-15 241, 242 Zamora, Loni 87 Zigel, Felix 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 145 Zolotov, Alexis 119, 131

Telegraphic Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) 117 Telemetry 244 Telepathy 69 Tesla, Nikola 42, 54, 55, 56, 57, 93, 179 Tikhov, Gavril A. 96, 97, 124 Tunguska 87, 88, 90, 91, 94, 119, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134 Twilight Zone 16 Tyler, George C. 184, 185, 186, 189 UFO and Science of Life Study Group 158 UFO Universe (magazine) 139, 142, 224 United States Air Force 58, 65, 86, 90, 94, 191 United States Army 14, 60, 148, 156, 268 Universal Law(s) 84 University of Chicago 31, 100, 102, 107, 158, 199 USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) 12 V-1 13, 15, 263 V-2 13, 15, 149, 225, 238, 263, 274 V-3 273 V-7 17, 18 Valiant Thor (Venusian) 28, 30, 97, 154, 167, 217 Valor: The Magazine of Soulcraft 36 Vedas 80 Venera (Venus probe) 28, 29, 30, 99, 106, 114, 116, 125, 126, 217, 231, 232 Venus Equilateral 155, 156 Venusian Hierarchy of Light 134, 152, 153, 217, 218, 219

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About the Author Raymond Andrew Keller, a retired history professor, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and currently serves as an AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America), attached to In Touch and Concerned, a United Way agency in Monongalia County, West Virginia, where he assists persons with disabilities, seniors and veterans in securing affordable transportation options. Keller has been involved in active UFO research since 1967, when he was a reporter for the Bedford Times Register in his hometown of Bedford, Ohio, and a research associate with Earl J. Neff, the founder and director of the Cleveland Ufology Project (CUP). Keller established his own group in 1986, the Outer Space International Research and Investigations Society (OSIRIS) and was the publisher and co-editor with Ballarion Stahr of that organization’s monthly organ, The New Millennial Star. Keller has conducted numerous excursions to UFO hot spots throughout the world and has communicated directly with extraterrestrials on many occasions. The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus and The Cosmic Ray’s Excellent Venus Adventures are his third and fourth books; the first being Emergence of the Afro-Zulians in the Transatlantic World, 1722-1811 (Lewiston, NY: Mellen Press, 2013) and the second being Venus Rising: A Concise History of the Second Planet (Terra Alta, WV: Headline Books, 2015). He graduated from Bedford Senior High School in Bedford, Ohio and went on to honorably serve in both the United States Navy, where he was the feature editor of the Miramar Naval Air Station Jet Journal in San Diego, California; and in the United States Army, where he worked as a voice intercept operator in the Spanish language throughout Latin America. He received an associate degree in business from the University of Maryland and his bachelor of arts in world history from the University of Maryland, both degrees while on active duty. In 1989 he successfully completed the Multicultural Education Program at the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico, whence he went on to become the Director of English as a Second Language and Bilingual/Multicultural Education programs for secondary education at the Hilmar Unified School District in the San Joaquin Valley in California from 1990-1995. Keller was employed by VENUSA (Venezuela-United States Academy) in Mérida, Venezuela, in 2001 and 2002 as an ESL instructor and editor of the textbook division. He also was attached to La Universidad Valle del Momboy in Valera, Venezuela, from VENUSA. He returned to the United States in 2002 to accept a scholarship in foreign languages at West Virginia University (WVU), receiving his master’s degree in Spanish, with an emphasis on magic realism in Latin American literature, in May 2004. He enrolled in the doctoral program in the Department of History in the fall of 2004, and mostly taught classes on Africana Studies, with some World History and Latin America, receiving his Ph.D. in African History from WVU in 2011 with an emphasis on the diaspora of African peoples in the Sur del Lago Maracaibo region of Venezuela in the eighteenth century, and focusing on a contingent of Imbangala warriors from Angola brought over by the Basque sea captain and privateer Juan de Chourio to stem incursions of the Motilones Indians into Spanish settlements in that region. Keller is currently working on his third advanced degree as a theology student at the Community of Christ’s Graceland University Temple School in Independence, Missouri.

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Cosmic Ray and Lady Venus at the Philadelphia Metropolitan Museum of Art on 20 March 2017.

Book II of the Venus Rising Trilogy: A Concise History of the Second Planet

Raymond Andrew Keller II